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Monday, May 12, 2008
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We need to take some hard decisions, says Bardhan

Sandeep Joshi

Left meet to take up government’s failure on price front

NEW DELHI: The Left parties will meet on May 23 to discuss the issue of the “failure” of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to contain price rise and its insistence to go ahead with the India-U.S. nuclear deal, said Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary A.B. Bardhan here on Sunday.

“Several sections of people and the Left followers have been asking us whether it is worthwhile to support a government which opposes the views of its supporters. This sentiment will be brought to the notice of other Left parties at the joint meeting scheduled for May 23. We need to take some hard decisions,” Mr. Bardhan told journalists on the conclusion of the CPI’s two-day national executive meeting.

Asserting that the measures taken by the Centre to check inflation were not enough, Mr. Bardhan asked the Centre to ban futures trading on all 25 essential items and bar big retail firms and corporates from buying foodgrains.

Strengthen PDS

He also demanded amendment to the Essential Commodities Act to pave way for de-hoarding from the private traders, decrease in duties on fuel, strengthen public distribution system and restore the cuts in State quotas of foodgrains.

“Statistics given by the government on inflation control are not important, as even the slightest increase in inflation deepens the misery of people,” he added.

Petition to Somnath

Flanked by CPI deputy general secretary S. Sudhakar Reddy and national secretary D. Raja, Mr. Bardhan said their agitation against price rise would continue.

“We will be submitting a petition, containing over 1 crore signatures collected from across the country against price rise, to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Monday. We will continue to pressurise the Centre to accept our demands to control inflation and check price rise,” he announced.

Referring to the nuclear deal, Mr. Bardhan said there was no change in the stand of the Left parties, who were totally opposed to it.

When asked about former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s recent statement favouring the deal and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking the opponents of the deal to hear his (Dr. Kalam’s) “words of wisdom,” Mr. Bardhan said: “We have great respect for Dr. Kalam and his wisdom. Just as he has his words of wisdom, there are others whose words of wisdom do not favour the deal.”

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