Addressing the party’s 20th national conference that was inaugurated here, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan said the deal went against the UPA government's promise to pursue an independent foreign policy.
The government’s attempts to push forward the nuclear deal was a deliberate violation of the Common Minimum Programme agreed upon by the UPA and its allies, he said.
Waiver criticised
He also criticised the government’s waiver of Rs 60,000 crore agricultural loans, pointing out that there were several problems with it especially with who the beneficiaries would be. The criteria for identifying the beneficiaries of the loan waiver would have to be reviewed, he said. The five-day conference is being attended by CPM and the Forward Bloc, besides 30 participants from as many foreign countries. The Left also reiterated its stand that it's time to evolve a viable democratic alternative to both BJP and Congress rule.
Bardhan said the time had come to evaluate a possible Third Front. CPM general secretary Prakash Karat in his address to the conference called for unity among the Left parties to counter the increasing consolidation of “communal forces”. Bardhan too voiced the need for “secular and democratic forces” to join hands to ensure that the BJP does not come to power. The “Left parties are working for a third political alternative to the Congress and BJP, he said.
Another senior CPI leader D Raja blamed UPA’s failure to contain prices which he said was being exploited by the communal forces to gain popularity. “We had supported the UPA to contain the communal forces but in recent times the BJP has gained electorally purely, by default, because the UPA government failed to control prices,” he said.
Bardhan said the BJP was behaving as if it had come to power already at the Centre and had a PM-in-waiting.
The Left parties would do whatever it would take to prevent it, he said. The CPI plans to launch a nation-wide agitation against the spiralling prices of essential commodities as it cast a huge burden on the common man.
