CPI, RSP to abstain from voting in Prez poll

The Communist Party of India and the Revolutionary Socialist Party have decided to abstain from voting in the Presidential poll as the economic policies of the Congress-led UPA-II government were allegedly anti-people.

Stating that both the CPI and RSP would not vote, CPI general secretary Sudhakar Reddy asserted, "the author of the economic policies was Pranab Mukherjee. The wide chasm created between the rich and poor is the handiwork of Mukherjee as a finance minister". 

"Moreover, allowing FDI in the retail and Banking sectors was a step meant only to benefit the multinational corporations and the corporate sector", claimed Reddy, adding, "the poor man was nowhere on the agenda of this finance minister. The economic growth has slowed down and the poor man is completely marginalised".

The CPI general secretary, who was in Ludhiana to inaugurate the three-day conference of the state unit of the CPI also alleged that exorbitant price rise of essential commodities, including petrol and diesel, was adding to the common man's miseries.

Expressing his satisfaction at the enquiry ordered by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram into the alleged killing of 19 'naxalities' in Chhattisgarh in an encounter with the CRPF a few days ago, Reddy wanted the probe to be conducted by a sitting judge of a high court.

Several innocent tribals are said to have been massacred in this alleged encounter, he added.