The Hindu : Kerala News : Mixed response to UPA governance: Karat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 27, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Mixed response to UPA governance: Karat

By Our Staff Reporter

ALAPPUZHA, SEPT. 26. The CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Prakash Karat, has said that the performance of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre has evoked a mixed response.

Inaugurating the EMS seminar on `UPA Government and the responsibilities of the Left' organised by the Susheela Gopalan Study and Research Centre at the P. Krishna Pillai memorial hall here today, Mr. Karat noted that while the UPA Government was able to function within the framework of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) on some issues, it failed to do so in certain other areas.

Secularism

Commenting on the Government's record of defending secularism, Mr. Karat said it had taken some steps, especially in the areas of education and research. The RSS-BJP combine had infiltrated various organs of the State and injected communal virus to all its streams. The UPA Government seemed not fully aware of the effort needed to detoxify the State from this.

On the direction of the economic policies of the UPA Government, Mr Karat said though it had made commitments not to privatise profit-making public sector units and to protect the nine public sector enterprises identified as Navaratnas, the drive for privatisation had not been halted fully.

Mr Karat welcomed the move to introduce the National Employment Guarantee Act in the coming Parliament session. This would provide the rural unemployed the right to a minimum 100 days of work every year.

Mr. Karat said the CMP provisions provided a platform for the Left for making corrections in the policies of the Government for the benefit of the working class. Some people in the Congress had misunderstood the verdict in the last Lok Sabha elections as a verdict for continuing the liberalisation policies initiated in 1991. The moves of the Government to allow foreign direct investment in the telecom sector up to 74 per cent and to allow foreign investment in the insurance sectors were results of this. The decision to allow private participation in the Mumbai and New Delhi airports was also an offshoot of the thinking. But all those proposals violated the basic structure of the CMP. The left would organise protest whenever the Government digressed from the CMP.

On the other hand, the CMP, Mr. Karat said, was not a programme of the Left parties, but it was broadly acceptable to the Left. ``But we have areas of reservations also. As it is a programme for the UPA Government we expect the Government to work within the framework of the CMP,'' Mr. Karat said.

Left has own agenda

Mr. Karat said the left had its own independent agenda which was not bound by the CMP. The Left would organise the working class and would continue to fight against violations of their rights.

Mr. Karat said the formation of the UPA Government had created a favourable atmosphere for the Left. ``We have been able to interfere in favour of the working class in a bigger way,'' he said. The left parties should use the situation to expand their influence. This would determine the future of the Left.

The CPI(M) Alappuzha district secretary, M.A. Baby, presided.

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