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People in Himachal are being confused: CPI(M)

SHIMLA: CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury on Monday said the BJP and the Congress were diverting the people’s attention from the real issues of corruption, price rise and unemployment, and confusing them with the pointless outcome of a hard disk or CD expose in the hill State.

Mr. Yechury, campaigning for the party candidate in the capital, said both parties were jointly targeting the Left. The hard disk data, he said, exposed how people close to the CPI(M) were denied jobs by the BJP. But the Congress did nothing on the issue for five years and released the data only on the eve of the present elections to draw political mileage.

Mr. Yechury also criticised the BJP’s comparison of the Nandigram incidents to what happened in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, where troops opened fire on pro-democracy protesters in 1989.

The party also opposed the statements of BJP leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani, “who was bent on making Himachal another Gujarat.” The nation knew what happened in Gujarat; let Himachal be Himachal and a peaceful State, Mr. Yechury said.

Mr. Yechury took exception to some news reports that the CPI(M) was “extorting” money from industrialists in the Baddi-Nalagarh area of Himachal. While promising to take up the issue with the editor of the regional daily concerned, the CPI(M) also returned a cheque for Rs. 16 lakh to the Tatas, which gave money to all parties for elections. The CPI(M) was against political donations and corporate funding of elections since these bred corruption later, he added.

On the role of the CPI(M) at the Centre and the survival of the UPA government, he said, it was because of the Left that a number of pro-poor decisions — such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, forest rights to tribals and not allowing FDI in the retail sector — had been made in the past three years.

The survival of the UPA government depended on its attitude to the India-U.S. nuclear deal. Let it present the outcome of the second round of talks before the UPA-Left coordination committee, he said.

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