Prakash Karat slams neo-liberal policy of Congress

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 8 (ANI): Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Prakash Karat has slammed the neo-liberal economic policies of the Congress party and said that only Left parties alone can protect the general public's interests.

Addressing the '20th CPI-M Kerala conference' on Tuesday, Karat said that the policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are similar to that of the Congress party.

"The BJP is not different from that of the Congress. We see its record when it was in government during the period of the NDA government. How it pursued the same neo-liberal policies. We see the government in Karnataka and the other governments in places like Madhya Pradesh, which have become notorious for corruption, for its links with the mining mafia. So the BJP cannot provide any alternative to the Congress today. Only the CPI-M and the left parties are consistent fighters against the neo-liberal policies," said Karat.

Karat also said the CPI-M is the only political party that has offered a corruption free government wherever it has been in power.

"Only the CPI-M and the Left can claim to have a corruption free record. Whenever we have been in government in the states, and in our public life and activities," he added.

On the being criticised by Christian religious leaders for hanging a photograph of Jesus Christ in their party office, Karat said: " "I would like to draw the attention of the religious leaders of the Catholic Church here to what Fidel Castro said way back in 1971, when he was addressing a Catholic priest in a meeting in Cuba. He said, and I quote, 'I tell you that there are ten thousand times more coincidences of Christianity with Communism than there might be with capitalism,' unquote."

"It is with this understanding that we deal with believers in the Christian community. It is with this understanding that we look at the figure of Jesus Christ which has become a matter of discussion in Kerala in the recent days," Karat added.

The Catholic Church and the Congress Party in Kerala had taken strong objection to the display of the Jesus portrait at the party exhibition terming it a 'blasphemous act' intended to make narrow political gain. (ANI)