The Hindu : National : Centre implemented Bush’s CMP: Acharia

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Wednesday, Jul 23, 2008
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Centre implemented Bush’s CMP: Acharia

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Criticising the Congress-led government for not going by the national common minimum programme (NCMP) as was agreed upon by it when the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was formed with the outside support of the Left parties, Basudeb Acharia of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Tuesday accused it of implementing the Bush administration’s common minimum programme.

Speaking during the debate on the government’s confidence motion in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Acharia said the Left parties could not compromise on the sovereignty of the country.

“We had agreed to support the government to fight communal forces and the economic policies of the National Democratic Alliance but this cannot be done by compromising on the sovereignty of the country,” he said.

Referring to the Union Finance Minister’s speech earlier in the day, Mr. Acharia said he had spoken of agricultural growth, and industrial productivity but not a word on the condition of the poor people in the country.

He said the government’s own report had said that 77 per cent of the people lived on Rs. 20 per day while there were 46 billionaires in India – a number that grew from 26 in one year.

Expressing concern over the inflation rate that had crossed the 12 per cent mark, Mr. Acharia said the prices of essential commodities had gone up markedly pushing the poor people further into the clutches of poverty.

He said they had made several suggestions to the government on controlling inflation, particularly against hiking the petroleum prices. This was ignored.

According to Mr. Acharia, the Left had wanted “nothing” from the government and had not even joined it.

He said when the nuclear deal was conceived, and the draft of the Hyde Act prepared, the government had assured the Left that all their concerns would be addressed through a joint committee.

However, the Prime Minister ‘betrayed’ the Left parties and the nation by going to the International Atomic Energy Agency before the committee arrived at any conclusion.

Ananth Kumar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the government of keeping everyone in the dark, while it negotiated the nuclear deal with the IAEA. “It has mortgaged India’ nuclear options with the United States,” he said.

He said the Congress had failed to learn lessons from the Bofors deal in 1989 after which the party had lost the general elections.

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