"We have urged the Centre to take five-six steps to contain the price rise. Otherwise, we will decide what our future course of action will be," CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat told reporters after the party's Politburo meeting here.
Asked whether his party would pull the rug from the under the UPA government on the issue, Karat said, "Whatever needs to be done to force the government to change its policies will be done. If they don't change, we will see what is to be done."
The CPI(M) will launch a nationwide agitation from May 15 to protest the economic policies of the UPA government that have led to inflation and rising prices in the country, Karat said.
Accusing the government of being wedded to the interests of multinational foods companies, he said the government did not have the interests of the common man in mind when formulating or implementing its policies.
Karat's comments mark a further escalation in the war of words between the government and its Left allies.
The CPI(M) agitation programme would exclude West Bengal, where panchayat elections are scheduled for mid-May, and Karnataka, where state legislature elections are due.
Meanwhile, CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu today rapped Congress President Sonia Gandhi sharply on the knuckles for her criticism of law and order in West Bengal and her references to the suffering of people at Nandigram.
"I read in newspapers that she came to the state to campaign for panchayat elections. She knows nothing about West Bengal. There is no need to give any importance to her utterances," Basu told reporters.
