SALEM: The repeated arrests of former Union Finance and Home minister P Chidambaram by the Central investigative agencies when his regular bail was due in the ‘INX media case’ seems to be aimed at keeping him in Tihar jail as long as possible by the ruling BJP at the Centre, said CPI Tamil Nadu council secretary, R. Mutharasan.
Condemning the latest arrest of Chidambaram again, Mutharasan charged the BJP with functioning “in a dictatorial manner and having no faith in democracy.”
This was a very strange situation the country was facing, the CPI leader
said, speaking to reporters after the state committee meeting of the CPI-affiliated Tamil Nadu Agricultural Workers Association.
Expressing serious concern at the Indian economy slowing down, he said the purchasing power of the people had dropped to a new low now. The
‘wrong economic policies’ of the Central government had led to industries - from small to big- taking a big hit, he said.
Even the allocations to States under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme, also known as rural jobs scheme, have been considerably curtailed, affecting rural workforce, he said.
Urging that Chief Minister, Mr. Edappadi K Palaniswami should bring out a ‘white paper’ on the ‘Kudimaramathu’ works going on in the State, Mutharasan sought to know from the CM whether the free rice scheme for the poor would continue once the new Food Security Act came to be implemented from November.
On Seeman’s seditious speech justifying the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the CPI leader said it was totally unacceptable. Such emotionally provocative speeches (made by Seeman) would only be a hurdle to the release of the seven convict prisoners in the Rajiv Gandhi case, he stressed.
