- News>
- States
People`s Front threatens countrywide stir in August
People`s Front, on Sunday, threatened a countrywide agitation from next month against government`s economic policies, which its leaders said had led to the UTI crash and forced many farmers to commit suicide.
People's Front, on Sunday, threatened a countrywide agitation from next month against government's economic policies, which its leaders said had led to the UTI crash and forced many farmers to commit suicide.
While farmers are committing suicide due to indebtedness and people dying because of poverty, grains are rotting in government godowns. “We will be constrained to ask the people to force open these godowns if corrective measures are not taken immediately,” Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav told reporters after a 90-minute meeting of the Front.
Announcing that the first phase of the agitation would begin on August 9, Yadav and veteran Marxist and Front chairman Jyoti Basu said besides demanding resignation of finance minister Yashwant Sinha for the UTI crash, the PF would ask the government to protect over two crore investors. On the Agra summit, the Front, comprising Left parties, Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal (Secular), castigated the government for not making pre-summit preparations leading to its failure.
Basu said that Yadav would hold a meeting of MPs of the Front constituents to raise these and other issues in Parliament during the Monsoon Session beginning on Monday. “We hope Congress and other parties would also raise their voice on these issues.” The meeting also blamed the government for the crisis in Manipur following extension of ceasefire with NSCN (I-M) beyond Nagaland.
Besides Basu and Yadav, the meeting was attended by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda (JD-S), Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), A B Bardhan (CPI), Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc), Abani Roy (RSP) and Amar Singh (SP).
Basu said the Front also extended its solidarity with the nationwide strike called by government employees saying their issues were absolutely just.
He said further unity would be established only through such people's struggles and not just through discussions between the leaders. Demanding that the government should rescind its decision on sale of Air India, Yadav said it was a matter of serious concern that the premier airline was being sold at a throwaway price opening up possibilities for foreign companies to enter Air India in a clandestine manner.
Stating that unprecedented burden was being imposed on the common man, the leaders said the stockpiling of a food mountain of more than 60 million tonnes in the godowns is inhuman.
Government must immediately implement a nationwide food-for-work programme which would provide much-needed employment to the rural youth, they added.
Bureau Report
Announcing that the first phase of the agitation would begin on August 9, Yadav and veteran Marxist and Front chairman Jyoti Basu said besides demanding resignation of finance minister Yashwant Sinha for the UTI crash, the PF would ask the government to protect over two crore investors. On the Agra summit, the Front, comprising Left parties, Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal (Secular), castigated the government for not making pre-summit preparations leading to its failure.
Basu said that Yadav would hold a meeting of MPs of the Front constituents to raise these and other issues in Parliament during the Monsoon Session beginning on Monday. “We hope Congress and other parties would also raise their voice on these issues.” The meeting also blamed the government for the crisis in Manipur following extension of ceasefire with NSCN (I-M) beyond Nagaland.
Besides Basu and Yadav, the meeting was attended by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda (JD-S), Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), A B Bardhan (CPI), Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc), Abani Roy (RSP) and Amar Singh (SP).
Basu said the Front also extended its solidarity with the nationwide strike called by government employees saying their issues were absolutely just.
He said further unity would be established only through such people's struggles and not just through discussions between the leaders. Demanding that the government should rescind its decision on sale of Air India, Yadav said it was a matter of serious concern that the premier airline was being sold at a throwaway price opening up possibilities for foreign companies to enter Air India in a clandestine manner.
Stating that unprecedented burden was being imposed on the common man, the leaders said the stockpiling of a food mountain of more than 60 million tonnes in the godowns is inhuman.
Government must immediately implement a nationwide food-for-work programme which would provide much-needed employment to the rural youth, they added.
Bureau Report