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Left parties slam government on inflation

Vinay Kumar

Direct result of steep hike in fuel prices, says CPI(M); Manmohan, Chidambaram should quit: RSP

Government cannot escape by blaming global inflation: CPI(M)
“Left’s suggestions have been ignored”

NEW DELHI: The Left on Friday criticised the UPA government for failing to check the soaring inflation rate, which went up to 13-year-high of 11.05 per cent.

While the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said the high inflation rate was a direct result of the steep increase effected by the government in the prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram take full responsibility for the current inflationary flare-up and step down from their posts.

When journalists asked for his reaction on the rising inflation rate, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said: “Ask the government.”

“This raging double-digit inflation is going to have a disastrous effect on the living standards of people with the rampant increase in prices of all essential commodities. The Manmohan Singh government is squarely responsible for this dismal situation. It cannot escape by blaming global inflation,” the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said in a statement here.

It said the government had refused to take the measures suggested by the Left such as strengthening and universalising the public distribution system and banning forward trading in essential commodities. Nor the government was willing to do away with the iniquitous taxation structure and the import parity pricing of the petroleum products.

“Tax windfall profits”

“The government refuses to tax the windfall profits of private refineries such as the Reliance Industries, which made a profit of Rs. 10,372 crore in 2007-08. Even in the U.S., to whom our rulers look up to, the concept of taxing windfall profits is accepted,” it said.

The Polit Bureau called upon all party units to step up the agitation against price rise and mobilise the people to compel the government to take measures to curb price rise and provide immediate relief to common man.

Blaming the “wrong” economic management of the government for the double-digit inflation, the All India Forward Bloc said the government had totally ignored the suggestions made by the Left to contain inflation and price rise.

“The adamant attitude of Mr. Chidambaram against the suggestions of the Left parties has put the country into such economic turmoil. While the people are suffering due to price rise, the government is terming it a global phenomenon and asking people to wait. It is an absurd and cruel joke. The government is playing with the miseries of the common people,” Forward Bloc Secretary G. Devarajan said in a statement.

The RSP said the government had paid little heed to the woes of the people on account of price rise and its attention was focussed for the last several months on the much-less important Indo-U.S. nuclear deal.

“UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi must seek the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram since they have proved incapable of tackling a burning issue such as price rise, which would add to the miseries of the common people,” RSP general secretary T.J. Chandrachoodan said in a statement.

He said Dr. Singh was the Finance Minister when inflation hit the double-digit last time 13 years ago, proving that neo-liberal economic policies benefited only the rich and were a failure in addressing the basic concerns of the ordinary masses.

Communist Party of India national secretary and MP D. Raja said it was not surprising that the inflation rate had increased to double digit. “The Central government has failed in its fiscal and monetary policies. The recent hikes in prices of petrol and diesel too have had a cascading effect on rising prices.”

Kolkata Special Correspondent reports:

Mr. Chidambaram “should quit” in the wake of the inflation rate touching a new high, CPI leader and general secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress Gurudas Dasgupta said in Kolkata on Friday.

Mr. Chidambaram was “inflation personified” and “should quit his post in response to the call of his conscience that will give a signal to the market forces to behave,” he said.

“The inflation rate has reached a new peak in more than a decade and this will result in retail prices shooting up by nearly 15 per cent. Its effect on the livelihood of the common man will be unbearable and the government’s economic policy is responsible for this,” Mr. Dasgupta told The Hindu.

He said:

“The experiment of the Left parties backing the UPA government has also totally failed.“It is in protest against the entire gamut of economic policies of the Centre that the trade unions have called for a general strike across the country on August 20.”

The rise in inflation “cannot be attributed only to the rise in prices of petroleum products in the international market because even after the reductions announced by the government, these products are the most heavily taxed commodities.”

“It is due to the speculative forces, with the Centre pursuing a policy of total unguarded liberalisation, and the collapse of the public distribution system that have aggravated the price situation.”

Mr. Chidambaram should take the responsibility for the government’s failure to control the market. Considering the unparalleled decline in the income of the common people and the steady fall in their purchasing power he should quit, he added.

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