Press Communique
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) met on July 3, 2021. It has issued the following statement:
Covid Vaccination
The second wave of the pandemic has plateaued according to pandemic administrators but there is no substantial decline in the number of infections. This is very alarming and concerning.
The only way to protect the lives of our people and contain the pandemic is through a massive free universal mass vaccination programme. The target of vaccinating all adults by the year-end requires close to 190 crore vaccination doses. The Modi government that claimed on May 13 that between August-December 2021 India will have access to 216 crore vaccine doses has substantially lowered vaccine availability in an affidavit to the Supreme Court on June 26 to 135 crore doses. This is an alarming shortfall to meet the year end target.
The Modi government must immediately procure vaccines from all globally available sources and intensify the vaccination drive. India and our people cannot afford to combat the third wave and it is imperative to prevent it through mass vaccination.
Crippling Price Rise
The near daily hikes in petroleum prices apart from crippling people’s livelihood’s directly has resulted in a surging inflationary spiral across the board. The prices of all food items are on the rise. Edible oil prices are sky rocketing. The LPG cylinder costs have been hiked by nearly Rs. 250 for a subsidised cylinder during the last seven months.
This Modi government increased the excise duties on petrol by 258 per cent and on diesel by 820 per cent. The Central Government is raking in revenues at the expense of ruining people’s lives who are already burdened with increased expenditures in combatting the pandemic.
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) demands the scrapping of these excise duties on petroleum products and effective measures to control the prices of all essential commodities.
The Modi government must immediately give a direct cash transfer of Rs. 7500 to all families outside the Income Tax paying bracket and distribute free food kits containing all essential items of daily consumption.
Rafale Deal
The French public prosecution services (PNF) has ordered an investigation by a French judge into the 2016 multi-billion dollar deal for Rafale fighter jets entered into by the Modi government. Judicial investigation was formally opened into the Inter-Governmental Agreement on June 14 following a decision by the Financial Branch of the PNF. The exposures of official papers concerning the deal by a French investigative website show that Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of the Rafale and Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group entered into an agreement on March 26, 2015 i.e. fifteen days before PM Modi’s announcement of the new deal and exclusion of HAL.
This reconfirms the apprehensions raised by the CPI(M) that PM Modi’s turnaround from the earlier purchase agreement, is mired in deep corruption and money laundering.
The Polit Bureau reiterates its demand raised in September 2018 for the constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to investigate the role of the Prime Minister and the government in this whole episode and establish the truth of the deal.
Withdraw the
Draconian Essential Defence Services Ordinance, 2021
The Polit Bureau strongly condemns the promulgation of this ordinance, which aims to prohibit the working class and employees of the ordnance factories to organise legitimate protests against the outright sale of India’s national assets to facilitate profit-maximisation of corporate cronies. The 41 ordnance factories are being converted into 7 corporations. The Modi government has announced that only 4 public sector units will remain in this strategic sector. This is unacceptable. The protests against this naked loot of our national assets will intensify.
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) demands that this ordinance be withdrawn forthwith.