Amar Singh does everything in style, even if it is for the aam aadmi and his friends and comrades Prakash Karat and A B Bardhan may squirm.
NEW DELHI: Amar Singh does everything in style, even if it is for the aam aadmi and his friends and comrades Prakash Karat and A B Bardhan may squirm.
The Samajwadi Party gen sec hired a high-profile NGO event manager to organise a national conference on price and inflation aimed at taking on the Congress and the UPA government.
While the Communists may not mind the event manager, what ought to have made them see red is that the NGO - Open Forum - has Anupam Kher on its board of advisers, someone the Marxists love to hate. Kher was sacked as film censor board chairman at the behest of CPI(M) veteran Harkishan Surjeet for filing a defamation suit against him in a Mumbai court. Surjeet said Kher was one of many RSS sympathisers holding key positions.
While Kher didn’t attend the convention — “Inflation in India: Issues & Challenges” — motivation guru Shiv Khera was among the speakers rubbing shoulders with Karat, Bardhan, Sitaram Yechury and a host of others. Khera has been a fierce critic of the OBC quota terming it “atrocious and anti-national”.
“The UNPA is organising the conference and we are associated with it because the price rise issue is dear to us,” said a senior Left leader.
Open Forum send e-mails asking those who registered to provide details such as designation, profession, organisation, postal address as well as other categories including NGOs, corporate, academics, institutions, hospitals, international agencies and others.
Former RBI governor Bimal Jalan, Left-leaning economist Jayati Ghosh were also among the speakers. Noted economist and Rajya Sabha member Arjun Sengupta, declined the invitation as he is a Congress supporter. Other attendees included Mulayam Singh Yadav, TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu, Indian National Lok Dal chief Om Prakash Chautala, National Conference boss Farooq Abdullah, all former chief ministers, and leaders of RSP and Forward Bloc.
After the conference ended, they marched to South Bloc to submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister without seeking an appointment, and courted arrest at Parliament street. They were later released.
Later, Karat said “the third front will take shape from this”. He said “an explosive situation will emerge if food prices are not controlled. The government does not seem to be bothered by the serious threat of inflation.”
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