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LJP, Left sharpen attack against Nitish Govt.

K. Balchand

Paswan, Bardhan lead Kranti March; party workers told to gherao block development officers for their rightful benefits

Photo: Ranjeet Kumar

ALARM BELLS FOR NITISH: The Union Steel Minister, Ram Vilas Paswan, CPI general secretary, A.B. Bardhan and Forward Block secretary Devbrat Biswas leading `Kranti March' in Patna on Wednesday.

PATNA: The Lok Janshakti Party and the Left parties on Wednesday staged the first public attack against the nine-month old Nitish Kumar Government and called upon their workers to gherao the block development officers (BDOs) for their rightful benefits.

The LJP, CPI, CPI(M), RSP and the Forward Bloc, took out a Kranti March which converted into a rally eventually highlighting the failures of the NDA government in the State. The Left parties also attacked the Central Government, while the LJP chief and Union Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan defended the UPA Government and denied that it had compromised with the country's sovereignty.

A delegation of these parties later called on the Governor R.S.Gavai and submitted a memorandum charging that 4,521 people had been murdered and 1,901 kidnapped in the past eight months and urged him to appraise the Centre with the situation prevailing in the State.

Mr. Paswan charged that the situation was no better than the previous regime on the law and order front. It had deteriorated and legislators belonging to the BJP and the Janata Dal (U) were making news more often than not.

The impressive gathering responded in the positive when Mr. Paswan sought their opinion on corruption. "It has gone up. More bribes are being demanded," the crowd yelled.

Mr. Paswan accused that the Nitish Kumar Government was being guided by feudal and money minded people and vowed to bring it down in due course. He promised to put in place a government of the poor which would work in the interest of the downtrodden.

He called upon the people to gherao the BDOs and demand job guarantee cards, houses under Indira Awas and hand pumps. Referring to the allegations levelled by some of the Left leaders, Mr. Paswan underlined that the UPA government was not under any pressure from the U.S. and that India was a sovereign country and that its independent status had not been compromised with. The Left leaders in their speeches called upon Mr. Paswan to provide leadership not only in the State but at the national level. They hoped that the present unity would gain strength in the days to come to provide an alternative in the State.

The CPI General Secretary A.B.Bardhan hoped that Mr. Paswan would convey the Left's suggestions in the meetings of the Union Cabinet on all major issues. He said that the Left understood Mr. Paswan's presence in the Union Government.

He was critical of the manner in which the Centre had allowed forward trading in pulses and other essential commodities with the result that they did not reach the government storage centres but were being stocked by the multi-national companies. The CPI would fight it from within.

Mr. Bardhan lashed out against Mr. Kumar for allocating industrial land to film director Prakash Jha at throw away prices and doing away with urban ceiling laws to benefit the likes of the Ambanis.

He wondered why no land had been earmarked for the slums in the urban centres and why land was not being distributed in the villages. The act of setting up a land commission amounted to playing a fraud on the masses with the sole intention of delaying the process.

The Forward Bloc general secretary and MP Devbrat Biswas charged that India had been gifted into the hands of the U.S. Expressing similar concern was Abani Roy, the RSP MP, who demanded that the UPA shake itself off from U.S. pressure and walk out of the WTO. Earlier in the day, the LJP, CPI and CPI(M) disrupted the proceedings of the Bihar Assembly over the law and order issue. They received the support of the CPI (ML). The Speaker had to adjourn the house for lunch midway through the question hour.

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LJP, Left sharpen attack against Nitish Govt.

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