WB CM:Govt reluctant to implement CMP

SPOT
KOLKATA: CPIM politburo member and former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu came down heavily on the UPA government on Friday but lavished praise on prime minister Manmohan Singh.

“The Prime minister is a very good person. But his government is reluctant to implement the promises it made in the Common Minimum Pro-gramme (CMP) drafted in consultation with the four Left parties. We are providing support to his government on the basis the CMP,” Mr Basu said after attending the meeting of CPIM’s state secretariat here.

Mr Basu was critical about the UPA government’s “soft” attitude towards the US. “The UPA is very soft towards US and the Manmohan Singh gov-ernment’s foreign policy is influenced by it,” said Mr Basu, adding that the CPIM politburo would mount pressure to usher in an independent foreign policy.

“The four Left parties providing support to the UPA government, will soon get together to examine how the Congress-led government has been flouting the CMP,” the veteran politburo member said.

Besides the UPA government’s foreign policy, there are several issues which the Leftists feel are in step with the CMP. For instance, they have voiced reservations about the Pension Bill and the Centre’s move to pri-vatise profit-making Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs).

Earlier, they had also deplored the UPA government for increasing the price of petrol and diesel and other essential commodities. “The Centre often says the rise in price of petrol and diesel depends on oil producing countries. We had given specific proposals to on how to keep petrol and diesel prices in check without getting influenced by decisions taken by the oil producing countries. Our government has not bothered to go through our suggestions,” said Dipankar Mukherjee, former CPIM Rajya Sabha member, who had prepared this report.