The Hindu : Karnataka News : `UPA Govt. will have to be pro-people'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 25, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

`UPA Govt. will have to be pro-people'

By Our Staff Correspondent

UDUPI, JAN. 24. The member of the Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Sitaram Yechury, on Monday said that as long as the United Progressive Alliance sticks to the Common Minimum Programme there will be no threat to the Government and it will last its term.

He was speaking at a public meeting held here as part of the 18th State conference of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Mr. Yechury said that the Left parties wanted the Congress-led UPA Government to implement pro-people policies.

The Left will withdraw support to the Government the moment it stops implementing the CMP.

The people voted the UPA because they had been disillusioned by the policies of the National Democratic Alliance. The tenure of the NDA Government saw rising unemployment and suicide by farmers. The Employment Guarantee Scheme of the UPA Government will ensure that every family gets work for a minimum of 100 days.

If they do not get it, they will be given unemployment benefit. Such a measure is being implemented for the first since Independence, he said.

The CMP has provided for rural credit, food for work, midday meals scheme, and basic facilities for the common man.

It is only the pressure from the general public and the 61 MPs of the Left that will ensure a course correction. This is because vested interests would like to scuttle the pro-people schemes, he said.

BJP attacked

The BJP is not interested in the problems affecting the common man.

The BJP, which talks about the uniform civil code, does not speak about a uniform criminal code when it comes to the Sankaracharya of Kanchi. It is busy with Tiranga Yatra, Bababudangiri etc. to polarise society on communal lines. But it is not getting any support from the people, he said.

The BJP's plan to trigger communal passions in Bihar, Jharkhand, and Haryana, where elections are to be held, has failed. Its prospects in Kerala and West Bengal, where elections will be held next year, are not good. It has no chance till 2007. This period should be used to strengthen secularism, Mr. Yechury said.

Economic policies should take care of the needs of the common man and political morality should be restored in the country.

It is only the Left that is committed to the economic independence of the country. The UPA Government should mobilise other countries against the imperial designs of the U.S., Mr. Yechury said.

The Secretary of the State unit of the CPI (M), G.N. Nagaraj, the member of the central committee, K. Varadarajan, the MLA, G.V. Sriram Reddy, and the party leaders, K.R. Sriyan, B. Madhav, Y.S. Gurushanth, S. Prasanna Kumar, David Karkada, and Neela, were present.

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