BJP failed to fulfil promises: CPI

Party activists stage a protest at the Gandhi statue

The Modi government, which came to power at the Centre, on the promise of ending scams and corruption which were rampant during the Congress rule, is itself caught in corruption, CPI State assistant secretary J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy has alleged.

Addressing the gathering at a protest organised by the party at the Gandhi statue, near GVMC, on Monday, Mr. Murthy recalled that the BJP government had claimed to bring down the spiralling prices of essential commodities within 30 days of assuming power, bring back the ₹90 lakh crore black money, stashed away in banks abroad, increase the income of farmers and create two crore jobs. None of these promises have been realised, so far. Instead, the price of petrol, which was ₹70 a litre, when the crude oil price was $140 a barrel, has now gone up to ₹85 a litre, despite a drop in the international crude oil price to $40 a barrel.

Diesel hike

The price of diesel has increased to ₹88 a litre as never before, resulting in a cascading effect on the prices of essential commodities. He alleged that the implementation of GST has made the States go to the Centre with a begging bowl.

GST dues

The States, which had lost their revenue, should be compensated by the Centre till 2022. But, showing COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse, the Centre said the revenue collections were only ₹1.35 lakh crore as against the target of ₹3 lakh crore due to the pandemic. Describing it as an ‘Act of God’, the Centre explained its inability to compensate the States. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the Centre could help the States to secure additional loans. He said that the States, which were already in a financial crisis, would plunge into a debt trap.

The CPI leader alleged that the Union government was bent on destroying banks through mergers and privatisation apart from devising policies to help corporate groups, which were defaulting bank loans. Bad debts to the tune of ₹6.27 lakh crore were written off, he alleged.

CPI City secretary M. Pydiraju, city executive members A. Vimala, Chandrasekhar, Lakshmana Rao and Devudamma were among those who participated.