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Journalism of Courage
HYDERABAD, FEB 25: The CPM vowed today to form a Third Front in Andhra Pradesh politics to defeat both the ruling Telugu Desam as well as the Congress in the next elections to the Assembly later this year. Both the parties had failed to meet the people’s aspirations, it alleged.
Participating in the discussion on the State Budget for 1999-2000 in the State Assembly today, CPM member M A Gafoor launched a scathing attack against the TDP Government for pursuing anti-people’ and undemocratic’ policies, ignoring the welfare of the poor.
“If the previous Congress regime failed to solve the peoples’problems due to lack of vision, you (TDP Government) are promising a multi-coloured dream far removed from reality. Moreover, the four-year TDP rule has pushed the State to the brink of an economic crisis,” he said.
In his hour-long address, Gafoor carefully distanced himself from the soft approach of senior CPI leader C H Rajeswara Rao towards the TDP in the House two days ago. In fact, Rajeswara Rao invited Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu to take over the reins of the Third Front, by ditching the BJP at the Centre.
Going a step further, Gafoor alleged that the Naidu Government was doing more harm to the State than the earlier Congress regimes. If the Congress messed up things by maladministering, the TDP was mortgaging the State’s interests with the World Bank and other multinational institutions.
Accusing the Government of championing the cause of the rich and elite, he said that the Vision-2020 document was nothing but a blueprint of the World Bank’s future plans to privatise several key Government sectors in a phased manner. “Whose agents are you?” he asked the Treasury benches.
The CPM legislator’s first tirade against the Government evoked sharp protests from ministers, who frequently rose to clarify the points he raised. Surprisingly, it was Congress members who came to his rescue and urged Deputy Speaker N M D Farooq to control the ministers.
However, noisy scenes and angry exchanges were witnessed in the House, with Social Welfare Minister Kadiam Srihari clashing with Gafoor over his remarks that foreign borrowings in China were less than six per cent of its GDP. Quoting a journal, Srihari insisted that the figure was 20 per cent.
Gafoor said that there was a decline in the Gross State Domestic Produce (GSDP) of AP during the last four years, contrary to official claims. Similarly, other key sectors like agriculture and food production had also been witnessing slackness during the TDP rule, he pointed out.
Gafoor said that the external debt which was around Rs 11,000 crore when the Congress was removed from power in 1994-95, had gone up to Rs 25,000 crore by 1999. “We have been pushed into a situation where we have to borrow Rs 3,200 crore every year, just to pay interest on our loans,” he said.
The House witnessed noisy scenes when Transport Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao argued that the loans obtained from the World Bank were meant for the poor. However, the CPM member countered him, saying that only a small portion of the assistance was spent on the poor, the remaining money being spent on big projects.
