IMPHAL, March 19:A day after the Manipur Peoples’ Party called for a common candidature against the Congress in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Communist Party of India has called for a united front, “Democratic Secular Force” sans the Congress and the BJP for the upcoming 2014 Lok Sabha Election both at the national and state level.
Speaking to media persons during a press meet, the Communist Party of India, Manipur State Council secretary Dr M Nara said the CPI will form the Democratic Secular Force with other political parties and fight the Lok Sabha election both at the national level and in Manipur.
He continued the party had conducted its National Council Meeting from March 15 to 17 at its New Delhi office at Ajoy Bhavan. The state team that attended the meeting held every six months included himself; former Minister N Mangi and Sakhi Devi, he said. Further elaborating on the meeting, he said the meeting deliberated on the hardships piled up on the general public by the United Progressive Alliance-II under the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson, Sonia Gandhi.
Continuing with his criticism of the Congress and its UPA II government at the centre, he said, “The UPA II government at the centre is continuing shameless pursuance of the disastrous course of economic neo-liberalism that is obvious from the recent pronouncements through the President’s Address to the Parliament, economic survey and the Union Budget”.
“The country’s economy is in a dire state”, he lamented and added, “It is being adversely affected by the ever deepening global melt-down caused by the pursuance of the policies of globalization, liberalization and privatization dictated by the International Finance Capital and its various organs like International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and WTO”.
Directing his tirade towards the BJP, he said, “The BJP is trying to project the ultimate battle of 2014 as each of personalities and has expressed definite inclination to revert to the issues of communalism and religious fundamentalism and Congress on the other hand, is projecting Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister of India”.
Coming to the present state issues, he said the national meeting of the party had also deliberated on the issues of the state and also took a political resolution on the issues.
He elaborated on the resolution, “The imposition of the Armed Forces Powers Act, 1958 both in the hill and valley areas of Manipur has not been able to contain insurgency. On the contrary, the number of insurgency groups have only increased from hardly five in 1980 to more than 35 today”
“Around 5000 people have been killed and many severely tortured by the security forces. The indefinite hunger strike launched by Irom Chanu Sharmila against the act is now more than 12 complete years. Already Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission has recommended for repeal of this Act”, he said.
Dr M Nara added, “The National Council of CPI demands immediate withdrawal of the AFSPA from Manipur and initiate political dialogues with insurgents for durable political solution. Under the cover of this Act, some elements of the security forces have entered into Narcotic Drugs Business worth crores of rupees,”he said alluding to the recent arrest of one Col Ajay Chowdhary, PRO Defence Wing of the army with a huge bulk of narcotic drugs worth Rs 15 crores as clear proof of their involvement in the trade.
He continued that the drug menace in the state is ever increasing, making Manipur one of the front runners in regard to occurrence of HIV/AIDS cases with thousands of youths becoming victims of the menace.
He lamented the silence of the government to disclose the names of all suspects in drug trafficking cases even though several civil organizations and particularly womenfolk have been protesting against the drug issue demanding disclosure of the names of the suspects.
He also added that the national council of the CPI supports the agitations and hope that it will continue further and the party along with other like-minded political parties will take up the issue at the national level and inside the Parliament.