People's Democracy

PUNJAB

CPI(M) to Launch Campaign against Policies

WHILE reviewing the political situation in the state in its two day meeting held at Chandigarh on September 4 and 5, the Punjab state committee of the CPI(M) observed that the common people ---  industrial workers, agricultural workers, small and middle peasants, and the urban poor --- were reeling under the unbearable conditions of sky-rocketing prices of essential commodities, mounting unemployment, rampant corruption and deteriorating law and order. There is a great feeling of anguish and resentment among the common people against the Congress led UPA government at the centre and the Akali-BJP government in Punjab.

The state committee also expressed deep concern over the worsening financial crisis in the state because of which the Badal government is not in a position to pay salaries to its employees in time. What is condemnable is the fact that the chief minister and the deputy chief minister are hoodwinking the people by making phoney claims that there is no fiscal crisis and by announcing concessions and new projects one after another as if there is no dearth of money with the government. The CPI(M) state committee demanded that the chief minister should cut down unnecessary and wasteful expenditures on appointing an army of chief parliamentary secretaries etc, etc, and prune the top heavy administration and cancel the decision to purchase helicopters and luxury cars etc.

The state committee expressed sympathy with the peasants whose crops have been damaged due to flooding of the areas along the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi banks. It demanded that the Punjab government should immediately assess the losses by holding special girdawari and give adequate relief and compensation to the victims of these floods.

The state committee identified four parliamentary seats --- Anandpur Sahib, Ludhiana, Sangrur and Jalandhar (R) --- for contesting in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. It also chalked out a comprehensive programme of mass contact and propagation of the 10 point alternative policy platform adopted by the national convention of four Left parties held at Delhi on July 1, 2013. It also decided to build struggles and campaign on the burning local issues of the people. 

The state committee has decided to hold a programme at village Bundala in Jalandhar district on September 22, 2013, as a part of observance of the fifth death anniversary of Comrade Harkishan Singh Surjeet. (Bundala is the latter’s native village.) The state committee exhorted upon all the party cadres and sympathisers to reach Bundala from all over the state in large numbers.

CPI(M) Central Secretariat member Nilotpal Basu addressed the state committee meeting and also reported the decisions of the Central Committee meeting held at Delhi on August 17-18, 2013. He also condemned the American administration which is trying to create an Iraq like situation in Syria and is preparing to attack it while bypassing the UN Security Council. He congratulated the people of Turkey for launching huge protest demonstrations against the neo-liberal policies of the country’s government and its efforts to curb the democratic rights of the people under pressure from religious fundamentalist groups. Basu stated that the Congress and the BJP have no basic difference on policies; in fact they are two sides of the same coin. He stated that the CPI(M) would go into the 2014 parliamentary elections with its decided policy of defeating both the Congress and the BJP. The Left parties may have some electoral understanding with anti-BJP and anti-Congress secular parties in certain states depending upon the situation there. The main thrust of the Left would be to propagate and mobilise people on the 10 points alternative policy platform adopted by the said convention of four Left parties on July 1, 2013.