Left parties want probe into missile deal with Israel

THRISSUR: CPI(M) on Thursday said the Left parties wanted the UPA government to probe the missile deal with Israel.

'CPI(M) had not made any allegations against Defence Minister A K Antony.But what the Left front wanted was an inquiry into the missile deal in the light of the allegations', party General Secretary Prakash Karat told a meet-the-press programme,organised by the Thrissur Press Club here.

Urging the UPA government to review and re-examine its economic policies, he said Congress should learn lessons from the current global meltdown caused by ''neo liberal economic policies'' pursued by the US and other developed western nations.

Referring to Congress President Sonia Gandhi's election rally in Kerala yesterday in which she had severely criticised the CPI(M) saying it was a 'prisoner of outdated mindset', Karat said it was the policy of state intervention in major sectors of the economy which had helped India withstand the meltdown to a great extent.

He alleged that the neo-liberal economic policies of the Congress-led Governments in the country had widened the gap between the haves and the have-nots. It had also created 'economic and social inequalities', he added.