Chennai, Apr 12 CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat today claimed Congress was poised for its worst ever defeat in Lok Sabha polls due to its ‘corrupt’ regime and wrong economic policies, but said BJP would be worse than the UPA in implementing “neo liberal” economic policies.
UPA was the “most corrupt” regime since independence and people had already decided to vote it out. “A severe punishment is awaiting Congress in the polls,” Karat told an election rally here, campaigning for party candidate Vasuki in North Chennai Parliamentary constituency.
Lashing out at UPA for the various scams, including the 2G spectrum one, and the economic policies, he said such policies, including deregulation of fuel prices, led to steep increase in the prices of all essential commodities.
Assailing the tax concessions to industry which, he claimed, were to the tune of 21 lakh crore rupees in the past five years, he alleged Congress policies enriched the rich corporates to make “super profits” even while it cut down subsidy on food and fertilisers.
Hitting out at BJP and Narendra Modi for harping on the Gujarat development model, he said such a model only served to be a “laboratory for Hindutva which led to relegation of minorities to second class citizens”.
Another aspect of this model was giving tax concessions and free land and power to corporates to enable them make super profits, he charged.
“If Narendra Modi comes to power, a much worse situation will emerge where super exploitation and looting of the country by the corporates will take place. The BJP is worse than the Congress in implementing neo liberal policies,” Karat said.
Only the Left parties offered an alternative policy as there was no difference between the BJP and the Congress in their economic policies, he said.
Stronlgy criticising the DMK for extending an olive branch to the Congress, he said the “DMK is not going to a new direction..It is in no way breaking with its past and it is fully discredited due to its role in graft in the UPA”.
Pointing out that both DMK and AIADMK had aligned with either the BJP and the Congress to serve their “narrow interests”, he asked why Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was silent about Modi and the BJP.