New Delhi: Left parties on Thursday came down heavily on the government for deciding on a series of second-generation of reforms, saying they would fight to defeat these policy measures when they are brought in Parliament.
"The UPA government is determined to sell out the interests of the country in all sectors. We will work to defeat all these Bills in Parliament," CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said.
Terming the decisions of the Union Cabinet on the insurance sector, pension and the Forward Contract Regulation Act (Amendment) Bill and others as "very retrograde", CPI national secretary D Raja said, "It is clear that the Congress- led government is tilting drastically towards right-wing positions as far as economic policies are concerned. It is aggressively pursuing neo-liberal policies."
Regarding insurance sector, he said major foreign private insurance companies had failed in the US and Europe, and a firm like AIG had to be bailed out by the US government. "Why should these companies be allowed to loot our profitable public sector insurance companies and therefore our people."
On the proposal to invest pension funds in the stock market, Raja said, "The life-long savings of the workers are being subjected to gamble and risk to benefit fringe capitalists to make huge profits."
Castigating the government for having "no social responsibility", he said while the government was not contributing anything to the pension funds, which were self- supporting, "it has decided to let these hard-earned funds to be used by foreign capital".
While the Left parties would fight these measures in Parliament and outside, other political parties should also join this struggle, the CPI leader said.
CPI(M) Politburo member Brinda Karat said the government had "no right" to bring in any of these `anti-people` policies.
PTI
