CPI-M manifesto seeks Rs 10,000 per month minimum wage

There is something tragic and ironical about the CPI-M. The party stands unflinchingly even as the world passes it by, and in spite of knowing that the party's showing in the election will not make it a major player except in a crisis, it sticks to its ideas.

Releasing the party's manifesto, secretary-general Prakash Karat said that the election to the 16th Lok Sabha is being projected "as a battle between certain leaders and parties, devoid of issues and policies".

Criticising the "record misrule of the Congress-led government" and its failure to control price rise and create jobs, Karat was clear that the "BJP does not have a different set of policies." He said that "the BJP was not an alternative" and that it was a "retrograde and reactionary alternative".

Karat pointed out that it was the Left and the CPI-M that had opposed "deregulation of petroleum prices" and that the "BJP did not oppose the doubling of the price of natural gas". He stated his party's old orthodoxies without any sense of being out of step with the spirit of the times. He said that his party would bring back administered price mechanism (APM) for petroleum prices, and it would reduce the taxes on petrol. He was emphatic that the party would now allow futures trading in essential commodities and food products. The party also favoured devolution of 50 per cent of taxes to the states.

In the manifesto, the party has mooted Right to Work as a fundamental right. Karat said that there were six lakh government posts lying vacant. It also wants a statutory minimum wage of Rs 10,000 per month.

Reflecting the CPI-M's unhappiness over the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, Karat said that the party wanted Article 3 of the Constitution, which would require that the consent of the state legislature as a prerequisite for dividing a state. He also wanted a constitutional amendment that would require that all international agreements and treaties will have to be approved by the Parliament.

The party manifesto also wants to abolish the death penalty and seeks to decriminilise Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code with regards to consensual sex between same sex adults.

The party leader said that the Lokpal Act does not include cases of corruption involving corporations dealing with government. He said that the 2G spectrum scam was an example of government-corporations misdeeds.

The party manifesto also demands that following the Sachar panel recommendations, there should be a sub-plan component for religious minorities in Plan allocations as in the case of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The party supported reservations for the economically and socially backward sections of the minorities.

The CPI-M also wants to restore the country's "independent and non-aligned foreign policy" and strengthen the BRICS (the association of Brazil, India, China and South Africa). "Unlike the BJP, which would like to spoil relations with all our neighbours, we argue for settling disputes," said Karat.