Cpm Blames United Front Government For Price Rise

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) once again expressed its displeasure with the United Front (UF) governments economic policies yesterday, saying that the ruinous policies of the Rao regime were still continuing.

Addressing newspersons after the two-day politburo meeting, party general secretary H S Surjeet said that the pursuance of these policies was leading to rising discontent among the people.

The politburo decided to support the protest call given by the platform of mass organisations against these policies, he said.

While Surjeet sought to distance his party from the UF governments economic policies, he categorically said that there was no question of dissociating from the Front.

He said that since his party was not part of the government, he had every right to criticise it for anti-people policies, but we will continue to work for strengthening the Front.

While justifying his right to criticise the government, he said that he did not understand other parties, who are part of the government, criticising it, since there were other fora like the Cabinet to express differences. This was obviously in reference to the Communist Party of Indias criticism of various policies of the government.

The politburo discussed, among other things, the functioning of the Front government, developments within the Congress, recent spurt in prices of essential commodities, the economic policies pursued by the government and the Punjab assembly elections.

The meeting did not discuss the fallout of the statements made by West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. Basu had said that the CPI(M) committed a historic blunder by turning down the offer to join the UF government. He also said that the government would have performed better if his party had joined it.

Surjeet said that there was no point in discussing the matter, as the CPI(M) decision not to take part in the government stood firm. His was mixed evaluation of the seven-month-old UF government. He lauded some of the steps, especially with regard to the Centre-state relations and the installation of an elected government in Jammu and Kashmir.

Where his party differed with the government was the economic policies, he pointed out. The issues on which the CPI(M) differed with the governments approach included moves to privatise the insurance sector, disinvestment in public sector undertakings (PSUs) and ushering in a liberalised foreign direct investment (FDI) regime, he added.

He criticised the government for recent price hike and said that his party had decided to give a call for a protest week against price hike beginning from February 1.

He also criticised the move to hike prices of petroleum products and said that the inflationary process that this will set in motion will impose further burdens on the people.