CPI(M) calls for all India protest on November 26 to support farmers and against price rise
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] has extended its “complete support for all calls of actions and protests by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha and the Central Trade Unions” to mark the anniversary of the farmers’ struggle and against the rising prices, on November 26.
The party has called upon all its units to extend active support to the protest actions. The announcement came after a three-day meeting of the Central Committee in New Delhi from October 22 to 24.
The Central Committee has strongly condemned the daily hikes in the prices of petrol and diesel that are imposing unprecedented miseries on the people. “This is accompanied by a monstrous hike in the price of cooking gas. This has triggered an overall inflationary spiral in the economy. Rising transportation costs are leading to the rise in prices of all essential items including food, vegetables, milk and other articles of daily consumption,” the CPI(M) said in a statement issued today.
The Central Committee termed as ridiculous the claim by Union Ministers that the hikes in Central excise duties on petroleum products is to finance free vaccinations and various social sector schemes being implemented by the Modi government. “If people are paying exorbitant prices, then vaccinations are not free. People are paying for it themselves,” the statement said.
The party has questioned where the allocation of Rs. 35,000 crores for vaccinations gone. The statement questioned the status budgetary allocation of nearly Rs. 4 lakh crore for various Centrally-sponsored schemes and subsidies.
Modi government is simply looting the people to generate revenues for its daily extravagant expenditures, the party charged.
The Central Committee praised the farmers for their “heroic struggle” to demand the repeal of the three farm laws and legal entitlement to Minimum Support Price (MSP).
“This is the longest sustained struggle that independent India has ever seen. Despite all provocations to try and disrupt the struggle, kisans under the leadership of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) are conducting this struggle peacefully in an exemplary manner,” the party observed.
The press statement further said that the efforts by the BJP to disrupt this struggle by unleashing violence like in Lakhimpur Kheri, a shocking incident, have also not succeeded. The CPI(M) has charged that the Modi Government’s refusal to dismiss Union Minister for State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra, is tantamount to the “complicity of the Modi Government in this barbarity”. Ajay Mishra is one of the accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri case.
“Desperate exercise is going on for all-out privatisation of all national assets/PSUs. The National Monetisation Pipeline is tantamount to sale of India through transfer of vast infrastructural assets/machineries to private corporates, virtually free. The latest is the virtually free gift of Air India to Tatas. The government is already in the advanced stage of bringing amendment bills to Bank Nationalisation Act to facilitate privatisation of public sector banks,” the statement said.
The party pointed out that agitations by trade unions are going on in different sectors against these destructive measures and that the Central Trade Unions/ Federations are taking initiative to embark on countrywide struggles on these issues.
The party flayed the Modi Government for its “gross mishandling of the COVID pandemic and bungling in vaccinations” and for holding celebrations of 100 crore vaccinations, so that the public attention is diverted from the failure to handle the COVID pandemic.
The CPI(M) pointed out that only 21 per cent of our population is fully vaccinated.
On Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), the statement said that the Union Home Minister visited J&K under massive military fortification, detaining hundreds of people. “He made preposterous claims that with the abrogation of Article 370 and dissolution of the erstwhile state of J&K, the situation has improved.
“The recent spate of targeted killings of civilians has created a situation drawing parallels to what prevailed in the 1990s. This is alarming. Unless people’s participation with the restoration of the democratic political process is established, it would be difficult to combat this rising extremist violence,” the statement added.
The Central Committee has demanded the immediate restoration of the state of Jammu & Kashmir, release of all political detenues, ending the curbs on media and stopping the indiscriminate arrests of people, particularly youth in J&K.
The Central Committee urges the Supreme Court to begin the consideration of the petitions before it, including those by CPI(M), challenging the Constitutional validity of the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution.