AGARTALA, Jan 29 � Strongly advocating for socialism, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat today predicted the much-hyped reforms would be disastrous for the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre.
Citing the recent uprising in the USA, Karat maintained that the economic liberalisation and reforms have failed to bring about the expected goals during the past 20 years in the country.
�The economic growth has proved beneficial to only a section of people during the UPA regime. The number of people having more than Rs 5,000 crore capital has grown from nine to 55 during the past eight years of the Manmohan Singh-led Government,� he said while addressing a rally at Astable Ground here at the commencement of the 20th State conference of the CPM.
Coming down heavily on the UPA Government, Karat said as many as 2.56 lakh farmers committed suicide due to debt burden during the UPA regime. �In West Bengal, too, 24 farmers committed suicide during the past three months,� he said.
Karat also severely criticised the UPA Government on corruption issues. �The country has not seen such a corrupt government after Independence and more worrisome is that the Government is trying to safeguard corrupt persons including ministers,� he said. Noting that the independent Lokpal is a tool to handle corruption, he said, �The CPM wants an effective Lokpal with a judge agency on its domain but the Government disagrees on this,� he said, adding that there must be a separate mechanism or legislation to prevent corruption in judiciary.
Asserting that there is need to bring about reforms in the election process to stop the use of black money, Karat blamed both the Congress and BJP for favouring the capitalist concept. Only Left parties can show the right path � socialism at a time when the country is facing tough challenges due to global slowdown, he maintained.
Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, in his speech, also strongly favoured socialism and a classless society �as the globalisation concept faces trouble in the entire world.� �Common people blocked the Wall Street for weeks to ventilate their anger over the growing unemployment and economic slowdown and the agitation reflects the bleak future of the much-hyped globalisation,� he added.
