Rising prices of petroleum products is having a crippling effect on the livelihood of crores of Indians, the Left parties said on Thursday, while calling an all-India protest on Monday.
In a joint statement, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) and Revolutionary Socialist Party alleged that the Modi government was levying unprecedented economic burdens on the people.
"The farmers, already groaning under mounting agrarian distress, see their production costs further escalated. This price rise has a cascading all-round inflationary impact. This is contributing to a further economic slowdown, reducing existing employment, leave alone creating any new opportunities," the statement said.
They alleged that the unprecedented fall in the value of rupee reflected the deep economic crisis created by the government. Such economic attacks on the people come on top of the "vicious communal-authoritarian onslaughts" mounted by this Modi government, it said.
"Humongous amounts of loans taken from our banks by the corporates and the consequent NPAs has bled our banking system. Such crony capitalism is also evident in the various deals, like the Rafael fighter aircraft purchase scam, that is fast unfolding," the statement said, adding that the government's efforts to sway people's attention away from these "monumental" failures would not succeed.
In protest against this situation, the Left parties have decided to call for a nationwide hartal on September 10, it added. "Left parties call upon the people to join this protest in a big way to demonstrate people's rejection of the Modi government and its policies."