It's only a beginning, says CPI(M)

NEW DELHI:The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday cautioned that the ‘Jail Bharo' protest held across the country marks only the beginning of such popular mobilisation and protest actions against the economic policies of the Manmohan Singh government.

“April 8, 2010 will go down in history as one of the biggest protest actions organised in recent memory. Tens of lakhs of people, at the call of the Left parties, participated in civil disobedience programmes all across the country. Lakhs were arrested as they deliberately violated the law angrily and militantly to protest against the neo-liberal economic policies of the UPA-2 government that were imposing unprecedented economic burdens on the vast mass of our people,” the CPI(M) noted editorially in its latest edition of party organ Peoples' Democracy.

It said the focus of the protests was against the unbridled rise in the prices of essential commodities which was eroding their livelihood. This came on top of the problems due to the impact of global recession leading to loss of a decent livelihood for a crore of people.