Modi govt helping corporates at the cost of farmers: CPI(M)

The CPI(M) today accused the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre of "helping the corporates at the cost of the farmers".
"The government has helped the corporates in a big way by waiving their loans to the tune of Rs 1.5 lakh crore," CPI(M) central committee member Nilotpal Basu said at the two-day organisational plenum of the party's Punjab unit here.
Alleging that while the Centre was "busy in helping" the corporates, hundreds of farmers were committing suicide everyday, he said the maximum number of such incidents was being reported from BJP-ruled Maharashtra.
"The killing of the innocent farmers in Madhya Pradesh, who were only demanding remunerative prices for their produce, speaks volume of the BJP's attitude towards them," said Basu.

The Left leader also came down heavily on the BJP-led government at the Centre for "polarising the people in the name of religion, caste and region".
"The issues of beef and cattle sale are nothing but to create a division among the people and target the poor farmers, especially the landless villagers.

"But, the big corporates will continue to run their big slaughterhouses and earn huge profits," he said.
Basu claimed that the Modi government had "bitterly failed" to create jobs since it came to power three years ago.
"The BJP had promised in its election manifesto that it would create two crore jobs every year, but only 1.33 lakh jobs were created," he said.

Speaking on the issue of electoral reforms, the CPI(M) leader claimed that the amendment to the Representation of the People Act, brought by the government, had "opened the gates for the corporates to pay any amount of money to the political parties", and added that the "bond system has abolished the transparency".
Asserting that the CPI(M) was against accepting donations from corporates, he demanded that a ceiling be imposed on the expenditure of political parties and said it should be included under the expenditure of the poll candidates.
On the Kashmir issue, Basu said all the political parties were in agreement that the state was an "integral part of India".

"The solution to the issue cannot be a military one. Political, social and economic steps are needed to be taken," he added.
The CPI(M) leader urged the party cadre to strengthen its organisation in order to launch a sustainable struggle against the "challenges posed by communalism and the neo-liberal policies of the Centre".
"The RSS-controlled BJP government will never succeed in its nefarious agenda of polarising the people and make India a Hindu Rashtra," he said.