United Progressive Alliance is virtually dead, says Karat

Prakash addressing Cuddalore meeting

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CUDDALORE: If the Congress thinks that after the Lok Sabha elections the Left parties will support it, it is living in a fool’s paradise, said Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Comrade Karat was addressing an election meeting here on Tuesday. He said the United Progressive Alliance had practically ceased to exist. All its constituents such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Lok Jan Shakti Party, the Samajwadi Party and the Nationalist Congress Party had gone their separate ways or struck alliance with other parties at the regional level.

In such a scenario the Congress might have a fond hope of getting the support of the Left parties but it would not happen. Karat said the Left parties were not alone. They had an understanding with parties such as the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Telugu Desam, the Janata Dal (Secular), and the Biju Janata Dal. After the polls these parties would take a decision together.

Karat said both the Congress and the BJP were stating that a Third Front was an illusion and therefore there was no question of its forming a government.

However, he said, the Left parties and their allies were confident of achieving victory and forming a non-Congress secular government.

Such a government would formulate a people-friendly economic policy, fight against terrorism, follow an independent foreign policy and ensure social justice.

Prakash Karat said the Congress-led UPA government had utterly failed to tackle the problems facing the country, such as agrarian crisis, farmers’ suicide and spiralling prices of essential commodities and to strengthen the Public Distribution System.

Due to the global economic crisis the country had lost 25 lakh jobs in the last six months in the industrial, agricultural and service sectors. But neither the DMK nor the Congress had any solution to offer.

Through the civilian nuclear deal the U.S. wanted to dictate terms to India on its foreign policy and to sell nuclear reactors at an enormous cost of Rs. 1,80,000 crore. It was the Left parties and the AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa who opposed the deal.

Another reason why the Congress should be defeated was the unprecedented level of corruption such as in the spectrum deal in which the country lost Rs. 1 lakh crore. But both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram turned down the request for a probe.

Karat alleged that the Congress government was using the Central Bureau of Investigation in a partisan way against the Opposition, while it looked the other way in case its own party men were involved.

It was at the instance of the Congress the CBI had withdrawn the charges against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrochchi in the Bofors gun deal, he charged.

The bribery involved in the gun deal was only Rs. 64 crore but today the corruption had gone up over 1,000 times. He said the DMK-Congress alliance had the weapon of illegally acquired money and it was seen in play at Madurai.

He said the people should give a fitting reply to them in the election and vote for the AIADMK-led alliance candidates M.C. Sampath (AIADMK) in Cuddalore and E. Ponnuswami (PMK) at Chidambaram.

After this meeting , Prakash Karat addressed a massive public meeting at Pudhucherry Union Territory in support of PMK candidate Ramdoss.