Left to come out with note on UPA govt performance

The four Left parties will submit a note on the performance of the UPA government in the past two years at the UPA-Left Coordination Committee meeting, which is likely to take place on June 15.

It will be the first meeting of the coordination committee after the recent Assembly elections.

Coming as it does in the backdrop of straining relations between the two sides on a host of issues, the latest being the oil price hike, the meeting is set to be stormy.

While the government plans to take the reforms process forward by pushing through FDI in retail, airport modernisation through privatisation and pension Bill, the Left parties have maintained their opposition to all these proposals and have launched an aggressive campaign against the government's policies, starting with the June 13 'All India Protest Day' on oil price hike.

"We will only submit a note on two years of UPA regime at the next coordination committee meeting. Other things can be discussed at some later stage," CPI National Secretary D Raja told Business Standard.

The broad outline of the note to be submitted at the UPA-Left coordination committee meeting will emerge after the CPI(M) Central Committee meeting ending in Hyderabad on Saturday.

The Left parties are likely to convey their strong disapproval of what they perceive as pro-US foreign policies. The government's economic policies will also come under flak in the note.

In the first two days of the CC meeting, there have been aggressive pronouncements from the Left leaders. While demanding a total rollback of the oil price hike, the CPI(M) leaders have warned the UPA regime against pursuing "neo liberal" economic policies, adding that it could not take the Left support for granted.

On Friday, it asked the government to bring a Bill to empower state governments to regulate admissions and fees in all private higher educational institutions.

Provisions should also be made to allocate seats to poorer sections of those outside the reserved categories, it said.

The CC said the benefits of reservation for the OBCs should go to the needy sections, excluding the 'creamy layer'.

The Left party also asked the government to condemn the blocking of funds by Israel and the US to the Palestinian Authority. The CC authorised the Politburo to finalise with other Left parties a parliamentary delegation to be sent to Palestine to study the situation and express solidarity with the people there.

Meanwhile, CPI(M)-affiliated trade union CITU today opposed the government's decision to modernise 35 non-metro airports through private participation.

Condemning the decision to "transfer 35 non-metro airports into private hands," the CITU said in a statement that it was being done despite the Airports Authority of India's repeated assertions that it could modernise them on its own.