BJP, Congress-led UDF in Kerala have same stand on right-wing policies: Vijayan

The ruling CPI(M) in Kerala has accused the BJP-ruled Centre and the Congress-led UDF Opposition in the state of having the same stand regarding the implementation of many extreme right-wing policies, like the disinvestment in public sector undertakings (PSUs).

CPI(M) and Congress are both members of the Opposition alliance INDIA.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday (October 1) contended that since the Left government in the state was opposed to the implementation of such policies, it was seen as an enemy and was being financially restrained as part of the “revenge politics” of the Centre.

On disinvestment policy

Vijayan, speaking at an event in Kannur to commemorate the first death anniversary of CPI(M) stalwart Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, alleged that both the Congress-led UDF and the BJP have always taken a stand against Kerala’s progress to take revenge on the Left regime.

He said the country was currently going through a time when the BJP-ruled Centre was trying to implement extreme right-wing policies in the country and the Left Front government in Kerala, the only Communist administration in the country, was not in favour of implementing them.

Vijayan said one such policy was the disinvestment in PSUs, which was initially implemented by the then Congress government at the Centre and, at that time, the BJP, which was in the Opposition, was in agreement. Not only now, even the previous BJP governments were in agreement with that policy, he claimed.

“During their present two terms in power, the BJP-led government has been trying to extensively implement the disinvestment policy, which is an anti-labour move. They want to destroy PSUs, while we want to protect them,” the CM contended.

Centre’s “vengeful stance”

Vijayan said since the Left front has a different stand from that of the BJP in matters of secularism, parliamentary democracy, as well as financial policies, among many others, the Centre has taken a vengeful stance against the state and the people in Kerala.

He further claimed that the BJP-ruled Centre also finds the considerable amount of time and money the state was devoting to welfare measures for the poor and disadvantaged as “amusing”.

“They find it amusing. They see it as a joke. It is because they are unable to think of such welfare measures as a Left government can,” he claimed.

(With agency inputs)