Patna, February 12 CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya criticized the Narendra Modi government at the center on Thursday for introducing the new labor codes, replacing MNREGA with the VB G RAM G scheme, and agreeing to a trade deal with the US.
The left-wing leader spoke to PTI Video here on the sidelines of a demonstration staged by his party in support of the nationwide strike called by farmer organizations and trade unions.
The strike evoked a mixed response in the state. In the Katihar district, a stronghold of the party, trade unions, farmer organizations, and student bodies staged a demonstration on a national highway, leading to the disruption of vehicular traffic.
Traffic resumed on the NH-31, which runs through Katihar and links Bihar to UP and West Bengal, after a couple of hours.
Processions were taken out in several parts of the city by organizations affiliated with the CPI(ML) Liberation in support of the bandh.
"The opposition is rightly calling the proposed trade deal with the US a trap deal. It will jeopardize the interests of the country's farmers. So far, our farmers have been fighting Ambani and Adani, but now they will also be pitted against America," Bhattacharya alleged.
"Never before have the interests of our farmers been compromised while striking a trade deal with another country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has, in effect, given up on his earlier slogans of 'Make in India' and 'Viksit Bharat'," he alleged.
Bhattacharya claimed that the recently introduced labor codes will "force workers to become slaves of the owners of business enterprises where they offer their labour" and the VB G RAM G will "deprive the rural population of the right to livelihood that had been guaranteed through MNREGA".
He also alleged that the BJP-led NDA, which had achieved a thumping victory in the recently held Bihar assembly polls, decimating the opposition, including the CPI(ML) Liberation, "is now being felt like a burden by the people".
Bulldozer Raj, on the lines of BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, is being seen here. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar hardly seems to be in control of things, he alleged.
Bhattacharya, whose party is a constituent of the INDIA bloc, also voiced apprehensions that Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls could lead to manipulation of electoral rolls, to benefit the BJP, in West Bengal, "just as it had done in Bihar".