CPI(M) slams PM's I-Day speech

"Making the current economic slow down as the excuse, the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister are busy in pushing through a series of measures to help foreign and Indian capital and corporates and to help them circumvent taxes," senior party leader Sitaram Yechury said.

Quoting Singh as saying that an environment for rapid economic growth was not being created due to "a lack of political consensus", he said "this is a deceptive statement. The Prime Minister and his government have been trying to push through neo-liberal measures by hook or crook."

In an editorial in the forthcoming issue of CPI(M) organ 'People's Democracy', he said crucial issues like checking price rise, passage of Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation or the Food Security Bills had found no mention in the speech.

Taking on the Prime Minister for his statement on corruption and saying "good progress" had been achieved, he said while "massive corruption has become the hallmark of the UPA regime", government "tried its best to get an ineffective Lokpal legislation adopted in Parliament" and Singh was "being disingenuous" in saying he was happy with the progress.

In the Rajya Sabha, "the amendments proposed to make the Lokpal more effective were sought to be scuttled. The Congress leadership has shown remarkable consistency in trying to protect those guilty of high level corruption," Yechury said.

He referred to Comptroller and Auditor General report on coal block allocations which estimated that a loss of Rs 1.8 lakh crore was incurred in awarding these contracts.