She faults Centre’s handling of COVID-19 crisis and its decision to sell Vizag steel plant
CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat has said that the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused the greatest humanitarian crisis in history, has also shown how socialist and capitalist nations handled it.
She was speaking at a public meeting on ‘Oppose BJP polices, Save Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, Save Nation’, organised by the party at the Convocation Hall of Andhra University here on Thursday.
Ms. Brinda Karat said, while the socialist countries handled the crisis in a better way, America, a capitalist nation, had registered 26% of the world’s COVID-19 deaths.
“China, which consists of 18% of the world’s population, has reported only 6% deaths,” she claimed.
Referring to the situation in India, she said it was a shame that Delhi had run out of oxygen supply during the pandemic surge. Migrant workers had been forced to walk thousands of km due to the “callous attitude” of the Union government, Ms. Brinda Karat alleged.
She ridiculed the Union government for spending crores of rupees on hoardings with a picture of the Prime Minister on them boasting of free COVID-19 vaccine for all after 4.43 lakh people succumbed to the virus.
‘Historic agitation’
Describing the agitation of the workers of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant(VSP) as historic, Ms. Brinda Karat said it was symbolic of the struggle of the people of India to defend the “self-reliance” of the nation by saving the PSUs, which were national assets.
Recalling the statements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on ‘self-reliance’ and ‘Make in India’, she likened the policies of the Centre to “termites eating into the core values of the Constitution.”
“The PSUs are being sold to corporates,” she alleged.
Quoting the findings of a survey conducted by AIDWA, Ms. Karat said women, who bore the brunt of the economic policies, had to sell, or mortgage their gold chains to support their families as men lost their jobs. “The steep hike in excise duty on petrol and diesel is triggering the price rise,” she observed.
Dig at Jagan
Lashing out at the Centre for “failing” to implement the assurances given in the AP State Reorganisation Act, 2014, such as granting Special Category Status, Ms. Karat also found fault with Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for “failing” to question the Centre on it.
The Union government also failed to operationalise the Visakhapatnam headquartered South Coast Railway Zone so far, she said.
Ms. Karat urged people to make the Bharat bandh called on September 27 to protest against the “anti-people policies of the BJP” a huge success.
CPI(M) State secretariat member Ch. Narasinga Rao, CPI State assistant secretary J.V.S.N. Murthy, CPI-ML (New Democracy) leader Kondayya, CPI(M) city secretary Ganga Rao and district secretary K. Lokanadham were among those who spoke.
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