People's Democracy

Congress Afraid JPC Probe May Bring PM

Into Ambit of Investigation: Yechury

ONE of the reasons behind the Congress party not agreeing to forming a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to probe into the 2G spectrum scam could be that it is afraid that it would bring prime minister into the ambit of investigation since the former telecom minister A Raja had stated that he had kept the PM in loop on every decision he took.

This was stated by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury while addressing an extended meeting of Party Andhra Pradesh state committee in Hyderabad on December 19, 2010.  He felt that there is every possibility of a severe political crisis emerging in the nation on this issue and referred to the unprecedented total blocking of a complete session of parliament recently. Yechury blamed the Congress and the government for this and placed the onus on them for smooth running of at least the budget session of parliament.

Tracing these scams to the pursuit of neo-liberal policies being implemented by successive governments, Yechury felt that new avenues are opening up and creative methods are being employed in these scams.  The unprecedented amounts of money from 2G spectrum scam and various other scams, including from illegal mining, are posing a serious threat to our democracy itself as was evident in Karnataka and other states in the form of money power influencing elections. Keeping this in mind, the CPI(M) Central Committee has decided to develop a nationwide movement along with non-BJP, non-Congress secular parties before the budget session of parliament.

Condemning the fifth increase of petro prices this year, Yechury charged the government of heaping greater economic burdens on people through its neo-liberal policies. With high unemployment levels both in organised and unorganised sector and an increase of general inflation rate by 20 per cent in this year alone, the CPI(M) has decided to intensify struggles against these policies. He stressed the need to bring pressure on the ruling classes to change its policies through these struggles.

Yechury said the major challenge before the Party today is to defeat the concerted efforts being made by the ruling forces to marginalise and isolate it. Because the CPI(M) and the Left Front are the only consistent force in fighting these neo-liberal policies, the ruling classes are making big efforts to target it. The violence in Bengal is an expression of these attacks and it needs to be fought politically not just by Bengal comrades alone but by the entire Party, he said. Referring to separate Telangana movement in the state, Yechury said the ruling classes also bring such divisive issues to the fore in order to isolate the Left. He counselled that this issue needs to be dealt in a careful manner.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and state secretary, B V Raghavulu, placing the political resolution in the extended meeting, charged the Congress party of playing with the future of the state by keeping the issue of separate Telangana issue simmering in an opportunistic manner. He was sceptical about the Congress finding a solution to the issue after the submission of Srikrishna Committee report by December 31. He felt the main bourgeois parties in the state want to keep this issue alive in order to divert the people's attention from real issues facing them. He reiterated the CPI(M) stand that the state would develop only if it remains integrated.

The conditions of people in the state worsened this year due to untimely rains, lack of governance due to bickering in the ruling Congress establishment, the non-implementation of welfare schemes etc. The economic development of the state has also taken a beating with the real estate sector in doldrums. Various working people of the state are agitating on their demands and it is being met with brute force from the government. Raghavulu said that the extended meeting of the Party needs to chalk out struggles on the immediate issues facing the people of the state, particularly of dalits, tribals, rural and urban poor etc. Genuine people's issues that are being sought to be pushed under the carpet need to be highlighted by the Party and it is imperative to stand by the people in their moment of crisis.