The Centre's argument of lack of sufficient funds, former CPI national general secretary A B Bardhan pointed out, does not hold water when it was giving out tax benefits and bail-out packages to corporates to the tune of Rs five lakh crore.
"It is hard to fathom the Centre's plea that it did not have sufficient money to implement food security for all people when it has been doling out bail-out packages and tax concessions to the corporates amounting to Rs five lakh crore," Bardhan told reporters.
Saying that the Centre would have to bear an additional financial burden of Rs 40,000 crore on subsidy to ensure food security for all, he pointed out that the mobilization of resources should not be a problem if it had the political will.
The Left parties were unanimous on the need for food security, Bardhan said adding the CPI, CPI(M), Forward Block and RSP would jointly hold a sit-in at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi between July 30 and August three to press for the demand.
He also exuded confidence that a new political alternative would evolve in the run-up to the 2014 general elections, but did not elaborate.
As many as seven states would go to Assembly polls over the next two years and the new political alternative would emerge in the process, he felt and flayed the Congress and the BJP for being "bourgeois parties" with identical economic and foreign policies.