Terming India as “imperialist” backed by the US, CPI(Maoist) politburo member Koteswar Rao, alias Kishenji, claimed that the Central government is all set to sell off the majority of the profitable PSUs in India.
He criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for being “pro-US” and following the diktats of America.
Significantly, after a hibernation of two months, this “most wanted” Maoist leader surfaced with a string of allegations against the government, ranging from its decision to sell off 10 per cent stakes in 10 PSUs to the alleged involvement of some ministers in the IPL scam.
Apart from a call to observe Kala Saptah (Black Week) from May 10 to May 17, Maoist leader Kishenji also called for a two-day bandh (May 18 and May 19) in the states of West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and Bihar to betray his “anger and hatred” towards the government.
Further criticising the Central government’s “anti-people policies”, Kishenji said: “In the last Budget speech by Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, the message was loud and clear that private sectors would be allowed to corner as many shares of the public sector units as possible by means of disinvestments of PSU shares amounting to Rs 40,000 crores.”
Pointing out that the government earlier in May had announced its decision to sell its stake in 10 more PSUs, including Indian Oil, MMTC, Coal India Ltd, Sail, RINL and Shipping Corporation of India, Kishenji criticised the SAIL’s decision to grant up to 74 per cent equity to South Korean steel giant POSCO.
He further claimed that following the diktat of the “imperialist masters” to abide by their neo-liberal policies, large scale devastation is being carried out in name of development. “Between 1998 and 2005, on an average 21 mineral related private projects have been given go-ahead every year. In Chhattisgarh, around 18,000 hectares of forest land have been destroyed between 1980 and 2003, of which 67 per cent is for mining operations. In the past 10 years, 16 lakh people in states of Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh have been displaced from land and livelihood. Out of them, seven lakhs were victims of dams and five lakhs victims of mining projects.”
Kishenji also blamed Dr Singh and Union ministers Praful Patel and Sharad Pawar for their alleged “involvement in the IPL scam.”