In an apparent reply to Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s “two Bengals” barb against the CPI(M), party politburo member Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday said there were two Indias. “One is the Shining India of the rich and the powerful and the other India is that of the poor whose daily income is ’20,” he added.
Mr Yechury claimed that under the UPA rule, India has become divided into two. “One is the Shining India and the other is the Suffering India. One fourth of the GDP growth of the country was concentrated among 52 rich people in the country,” the CPI(M) politburo member added.
Mr Gandhi, in his first rally in the city, had remarked that there were two Bengals: “One is backward and full of poor people and the other was rich and shining that is controlled by the CPI(M) cadres.”
In retaliation, the CPI(M) mouthpiece Peoples’ Democracy said that even the most backward district of Bengal fared better than Rae Bareilly and Amethi. Mr Yechury even criticised Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee for increasing the volume of tax concessions to the rich and reducing the subsidies given to the poor, “He has given income tax concession of one lakh 24 thousand crore rupees to the rich. The government should have taken this tax, which for the poor people is just a subsidy.” Mr Yechury was addressing the students at the 40th celebration of SFI movement in Bengal. Ridiculing the economic policy adopted by the Congress government, he has asked the members of the students’ wing to choose between the IPL India where the corrupt reigns supreme and the BPL India where at least 77 per cent of the people are still poor.
Equating the present political scenario in Bengal with the ’70s, Mr Yechury said, “We had to face the menace of the rightist forces at that time but we survived. The people eventually gave their verdict in our favour and we had been in power for 33 years. We are again facing serious threats from our adversaries and we believe that people’s verdict in 2011 will again be in our favour,” he claimed.