TN: ‘Give Jobs,’ ‘Control Inflation’ - CPI(M) Pickets Against BJP-Led Union Govt

Condemning the Narendra Modi-led union government for not controlling inflation and not creating employment, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) held picket protests in more than 300 centres across Tamil Nadu on September 7.

The demands included making work a fundamental right, guaranteeing social security to unemployed people, providing reservations in the private sector and filling vacancies in government posts on war footing.

It further included a guarantee of 100 days of work in the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), ensuring full wages and increasing funding accordingly. It also comprised the demand to implement urban employment guarantee schemes.

Emphasising these demands, CPI(M) campaigned since September 1.

More than one lakh people participated in the picket protests, and around 50,000 people were detained by the Tamil Nadu police and released by evening.

CPI(M) M P Su Venkatesan led the protest in his constituency Madurai.

Around 1,500 people marched into the Guindy railway station in south Chennai and blocked the suburban train. CPI(M) state secretary K. Balakrishnan led the protestors.

K Balakrishnan said, “Due to the flawed economic policy of the union government, there is a toxic price rise. Food items have risen so much that we cannot afford them. Poor, simple, middle and working people are suffering.”

“Prime Minister Modi promised to give employment to two crore people every year. But after coming to power, crores of working youth have been thrown out of work. The union government is incompetent to provide employment,” he said

“Union government and ruling class are distracting people from material issues such as inflation, unemployment and corruption allegations revealed in the CAG report. They are raising controversies like ‘one country, one election’. They are creating a tense situation all over the country saying Sanatana-hatred is being spread,” he added.

K Balakrishnan leading the protest stalling the suburban train in Guindy, Chennai.

Further, he said, “People will not be deceived by such diversions. Workers will not be diverted from actual issues. This protest will turn into a massive country-wide agitation, and it will be led by the INDIA alliance.”

CPI(M) picketed at three centres in north Chennai. The police detained more than 2,000 of them. G Ramakrishnan, speaking at one of the protest sites, said, “If we want to protect the country's constitution, the law of equality, diversity, secularism, women’s rights, federal rights, and public sector institutions, then everyone, regardless of caste, religion, and politics, should come forward to overthrow the autocratic BJP regime in the coming parliamentary elections.”

In some places, police misbehaved with the protestors. The police dragged people from the road, including party leaders and women, and arrested them. In Kallakurichi, Villupuram, central Chennai, participants were injured in the tussle.