BJP following Congress policies: Prakash Karat

The BJP-led government has replaced the Congress-led UPA at the centre, but the economic, foreign and societal policies remained unchanged, CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat said here Thursday.

"During the 80 days of its rule, the National Democratic Alliance has demonstrated that it is only following all the policies of the United Progressive Alliance," he said.

"The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government would further strengthen and widen the new liberal economic policies of the previous UPA government," Karat said addressing a discussion on the 35th anniversary of "Daily Desher Katha", the mouthpiece of the Tripura unit of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).

Karat said efforts were on to unite all Left parties to organise a nationwide movement against the "anti-people policies" of the BJP-led government.

"After the BJP government came to power, quite a lot of communal riots occurred in as many as seven states. Mandated with Hinduism, the NDA government is trying to form a Hindu Rashtra in India," he said.

The CPI-M leader said the BJP government was being run under the control, direction and inspiration of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Speaking in Hindi, Karat said the BJP wants to change the labour laws to further weaken the position of the working class in the country.

"In the first step, the BJP government in Rajasthan has already amended the labour dispute act, making the provision to take approval from the government to retrench workers of industries with an employee strength of 300.

"Before the amendment, it was mandatory to take sanction from the government by industries whose worker strength was 100."

The CPI-M leader said that in the recent budget, the allocation for the rural jobs scheme -- under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) -- has been reduced and it would severely affect the guaranteed employment of rural people.

"The BJP government is trying to make the minority people second class citizens," he said.

Karat also said the Narendra Modi government has not yet condemned Israel's attack on Gaza. "This is a crime on the part of the Indian government."

"The BJP government is not condemning Israel's mass attacks on Gaza to initiate an arms deal with the Israeli authorities," he added.

Tripura Chief Minister and CPI-M politburo member Manik Sarkar, CPI-M Tripura unit secretary Bijon Dhar and "Daily Desher Katha" editor Gautam Das also spoke on the occasion.