Guwahati, Feb 4 (IANS) Tripura Chief Minister and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Manik Sarkar Saturday condemned the two-decade-old “neo-liberal” economic policy of the central government, saying the country had lost more than gaining from it.
“The so-called neo-liberal economic policy opened the doors for foreign direct investment and free flow of capital beyond borders for profit maximization,” he said, adding it is implemented more in the interest of certain capitalist groups rather than the interest of the common people of the country.
He was taking part in a seminar organized as part of the CPI-M’s three-day Assam state convention here. The seminar was organised on the topic: “Two Decades of Neo Liberal Economy – Northeast India and Search for an Alternatives.”
“The government has been continuously giving in to the pressure by these capitalist groups for their interest of profit maximisation and in the process, the common people are suffering. As fallout of the neo-liberal economic policies, the PSUs are first hit in India. PSUs like the ONGC, GAIL are all pushed to corner and handicapped while now these groups are entering power sector in a big way,” said Sarkar.
“This is the reason why our party has been opposing these policies since beginning,” he said.
“The government terms it as comprehensive development. But it is the high time we must ask is it the comprehensive development? We live in a country where a total of over 44 percent of our total children suffer from malnutrition even after so many years of Independence,” he said.
The state convention of the party is likely to see threadbare deliberations on a variety of issues ranging from global economic crisis to the debacle in the past elections.
The state convention is also expected to be a precursor to the party congress in Kerala from April 4, where CPI-M will assess its failures and chalk out ways to make Left parties an alternative to Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The party had failed to win even a single seat in the last assembly election in Assam, compelling the state party leaders to introspect on why the party’s base is on the decline.
CPI-M leaders in Assam pointed out the necessity of reaching out to the “greater Assamese society” to expand the party’s base.
