By Nitya Chakraborty
The national executive of the Communist Party of India which met at New Delhi on June 3 and 4, 2018, in party’s central headquarters Ajoy Bhavan expressed serious concern at the deteriorating economic and political situation, unbridled hikes in the prices of all petroleum products resulting in the rise of prices of food grains, vegetables, and other essential commodities. Adding fuel to the fire, unemployment is growing alarmingly, causing server unrest among the people.
The RSS led BJP government of Narendra Modi is deliberately trying to divert the attention of the people by all means. The continuous defeat of BJP candidates in the bye-elections in various states, including Uttar Pradesh and the BJP’s failure to cobble up a government through manipulations in Karnataka with the help of the Sangh Parivar and Modi government have unnerved the BJP leaders.
They are trying all kinds of permutations and combinations as well as new mantras to somehow retain power in the states which will be going to polls soon as well as at the Centre in 2019. They can degrade themselves to any level to capture power. Hence, the CPI National Executive appealed to the people to be vigilant and defeat the communalists’ game. Dr. Girish Sharma secretary of the party’s Uttar Pradesh state council presided over the meeting.
Party general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy presented the report on economic and political developments since the 23rd Party Congress held at Kollam in April. Addressing the first meeting of the newly elected national executive he said: “The recent election results have clearly sounded the beginning of the fall of Modi government. If the forces committed to fight the RSS ideology will come together the RSS-BJP could be ousted from power in 2019. These results give a new impetus to the struggle against fascism. People in various parts of the country are giving blows to the RSS-BJP and their socio-economic policies.”
It is matter of immense satisfaction that the initiative taken by the CPI to form a united platform of all secular, democratic, left forces to defeat BJP, its neo-liberal policies and the governmens led by it has been accepted today by all opposition parties as their avowed aim, he said.
Notwithstanding Narendra Modi’s rhetoric of ‘Sab ka Saath, Sab ka Vikas’ India stands at 100th position in Global Hunger Index. It was 95th when he came to power in 2014 and in Human Development Index India stands at 130. In practice, Modi Sarkar’s ‘Sab ka Saath, Sab ka Vikas’ has turned out to be “Corporates’ Ka Saath, Amir ka Vikas’. Also in the last four years the country went through stagnation in investment, manufacturing production and employment. During this period Indian export performance was very poor and import was on the increase. Naturally, it affected foreign trade in negative.
The massive jump in excise duty on petrol and high speed diesel helped the government mop up nearly 40 per cent of its indirect tax kitty from the two auto fuels in 2015-16, compared to 34 per cent in the previous financial year. The National Executive gaive a call to observe a Protest Day on June 20 against price hike of fuels demanding rolling back of all hikes of excise duty. Since Modi came to power, the duty has been hiked nine times and the massive jump in excise duty on petrol and high speed diesel alone helped the government to mop up nearly 40 per cent.
Further, all party units to the lowest level of branches must complete the Reporting on 23rd Party Congress decisions by August end. The National Executive called upon all party units to carry out an awareness campaign exposing fully the misdeeds of four-years of Modi government during the first fortnight of August. Units must ensure that public meetings, brochures, booklets, handouts etc, are printed and distributed in this regard.
The CPI has also decided to hold four jathas from four corners of the country under the slogan ‘Save the Constitution, Save the Nation’. There will also be sub-jathas in the states. The jathas will start from the middle of September and culminate in the first week of October. Leaders of the party and mass organisations will lead the jathas. The meeting wanted the state party units to identify the possible Lok Sabha constituencies and to prepare for the 2019 elections. (IPA Service)
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