Reviving economy CPI(M)'s priority area

Massive public investment to boost the purchasing power of the people will be a key immediate objective of the Communist Party of India(Marxist) if it is able to pull up its fragile Third Front force to form the next government.

Already the top CPI(M) leadership has rejected the three stimulus packages announced by the Manmohan Singh government as “grossly inadequate”.

While CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and top party leadership continues to claim in election rallies that it would force a “renegotiation” of the Indo-US nuclear deal if a friendly government comes to power, politburo sources claim the main focus will be on steps to revive the economy as a priority area.

 

Sitaram Yechuri, politburo member and the party’s think tank on economy, has often slammed the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) for wrong stimulus packages and harped on the need of massive public investment to tackle recession. “The classic case is the reduction in aviation turbine fuel. Even as the government has made it cheaper than petrol, the airlines are yet to see any increase in passenger traffic. This is because people don’t have the money to afford the luxury of air travel. If people don’t have money to buy goods, no relief to corporate sector will work,” Yechury has argued.

Interestingly, the party initially wanted the Third Front forces to come out with a common vision statement in the run-up to the polls. According to a Left leader, copies of the manifestoes of the four Left parties were provided to Third Front leaders like H D Deve Gowda and Chandrababu Naidu.

So, the Third Front and the Left have so far not decided any common set of goals or priority tasks for the next government.

The Left parties, however, are clear that they want “specific relief packages for affected sectors like textiles and garments, gems and jewellery, leather, handicrafts, coir, cashew, marine products, software and IT, aimed mainly at the small and medium enterprises” as another priority task of the government.

In its manifesto, the CPI(M) has sought “moratorium on job cuts for workers; enhancing social security measures for workers” and “preventing wage and pay cuts for workers and employees”.