Madurai
The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)-led alliance is being remote-controlled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). AIADMK is being used as an instrument by the BJP, which is bad for the people of Tamil Nadu, said Communist Party of India (Marxist) polit bureau member Prakash Karat in Madurai on Saturday.
Addressing a public meeting, he charged that the prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas had risen across the country, causing severe inconvenience to the public. "Nearly 62% of the price of petrol is from taxes imposed by the government. The government is doing this to spare the Corporates, who enjoyed a major tax benefit as announced in the previous Union budgets. Although CPI (M) has been insisting to reduce the price of petrol, diesel and cooking oil, the government has failed to do so," he said.
The announcements made in the Union budget regarding the privatisation of Public Sector Enterprises, including banks, and insurance corporations, are to loot the public resources of the country.
When farm laws were announced in the Parliament, it was the CPI (M) MPs who opposed it. "But the AIADMK MPs supported the farm laws. The AIADMK is not in a position to oppose the ‘anti-farmers’ and ‘anti-people’ policies introduced by the BJP government," he said.
Mr. Karat said that the BJP government works with the slogan 'one nation, one language, one culture and one leader'. "The RSS and BJP are working against the secular fabric and democracy of the country," he charged.
Madurai MP Su. Venkatesan said that although two years had been completed since the foundation stone was laid for AIIMS in Madurai, there was not much progress with the construction of AIIMS.
"The State government delayed the transfer of land to the Centre for construction of AIIMS by two years. Both the Union and State governments show lackadaisical attitude towards setting up AIIMS in Madurai," he added.
CPI (M) State Secretary K. Balakrishnan also participated in the event.