GUWAHATI, Sept 4 - Only a countrywide, determined and relentless people�s movement, not any a grand electoral alliance, has the power to root out the Hindu fanaticism preached by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and to throw the BJP out of power. The people�s movement should also direct its spearhead against the neo-liberal economic policies RSS and BJP are implementing. This movement should also provide a pro-people economic doctrine as an alternative to the economic policies of the RSS, BJP and the Congress.
This was the observation made by CPI-M Politbureau member and editor of the party journal People�s Daily Prakash Karat at a function held on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the State CPI-M�s weekly journal Ganasakti at the Kumar Bhaskar Natya Mandir here this afternoon.
He was speaking on the topic � �The fight for an alternative and the role of media in it.� He also launched the internet edition of the Ganasakti.
Since the last Lok Sabha elections held in 2014, the country has been facing a right-wing onslaught, he opined. Since then, corporate houses and the Hindu communal forces are engaged in taking offensive against their opponents. They are also implementing the neo-liberal economic policies. All these have posed a serious threat of authoritarianism to the democratic polity of the country, he stated.
Every sector of the country�s economy and every section of its society are made to undergo the process of privatization. The private companies of the country and abroad are assigned with the job of manufacturing the equipment and weapons needed by our armed forces. Thus the security of our country has been made vulnerable. There are moves to privatise every important sector like the railways, healthcare, education and during the past three years of the rule of the BJP government, the deleterious impacts of these policies on the common people have become obvious.
The demonitisation move undertaken by the government has also failed miserably to unearth black money as it had professed while launching the drive. Rather, this has adversely impacted the life of the poor, small traders and small entrepreneurs. Hundreds of small traders and entrepreneurs have been wiped out by this drive and the GDP growth of the country has now come down to a poor 5.7 per cent, said the CPI-M leader.
Quoting a Credit Suisse report, he said during the three years of the Modi government, inequalities have become sharp and only top one per cent of the country�s rich people now owns 58 per cent of the country�s wealth, which is more than the global average in this respect. Credit Suisse Group is a leading global financial services company headquartered in Zurich.
On the issue of media�s role in bringing about a massive change in the political arena, he said those who have been working for bringing about this change should also use the social media, besides the print media. �All the latest technologies are to be utilized for the purpose. We should have an alternative media. Since running electronic media is highly expensive, we should use the social media,� he said.
The function, presided over by CPI-M Central Committee member Uddhab Barman, was also addressed by senior CPI-M leader Hemen Das and Ganasakti editor Suprakash Talukdar.
