Modi's first year in power a disaster for country: CPM

Mumbai: Dubbing the Narendra Modi Government's performance in its first year as a "disaster", CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday said the NDA dispensation at the Centre will be better known for bypassing parliamentary procedures.

"We are seeing a very dangerous and disastrous trend emerging after the BJP came to power an year ago. We are confronting a three-faced problem of neo-liberal economic policies, bypassing of parliamentary procedures and the rise of communal forces," Yechury said.

He was talking to reporters after addressing an 'Adivasi' rally here.

Taking a dig at Modi who has visited 18 countries in a single year, Yechury said the sole record his government has set is of going on an unprecedented number of foreign trips, which is difficult to keep track of.

Questioning the BJP's claim of achieving growth in different sectors, the CPI-M leader said, "Did inflation go down as promised? As a matter of fact, area of cultivated land in absolute terms has come down. Inspite of all this we have a PM who is more interested in dishonouring the opposition on foreign soil."

Yechury said that the government has found a new way of bypassing Rajya Sabha where it is in a minority by declaring most of legislative measures as "money bills".

"Now, most bills that have a chance of being blocked by Rajya Sabha are being declared as money bills. If you don't refer these bills to the Upper House and the Parliamentary Standing Committee, what work will the RS MPs will be left with?" he questioned.

Pricking the Government's claim of boosting the morale of NRIs since Modi came to power, Yechuri said, "The Prime Minister says that NRIs are now filled with pride with the working style of this government. But what about our own people?"

Criticising the amendment to the Child Labour Prohibition Act, which now permits children under 14 to work in "family enterprises", the CPI(M) leader said the only way of abolishing the child labour is by prohibiting family labour.

Conceding that his party has seen a "uniform erosion" in West Bengal, Yechury said the party needs to deal with "politics of terror" to reinvent itself in the state.

"We have identified the problems plaguing us. First we have to arrest our decline and then retrieve our lost ground. Our votebank has constantly gone down since 2009. But, for the first time in the West Bengal municipal elections (held recently), the vote share of the Left Front has gone up by about 1 per cent. We have successfully arrested our decline," he said.

"Then there are other retrieval problems too in West Bengal. There, politics of terror has been institutionalised." he said.