[Marxistindia] Left Parties: Implement Measures - Otherwise Central Govt Loses Moral Authority to Continue

[news from the cpi(m)]

May 1, 2021


Press Statement


The Left parties have issued the following statement:

The Left parties extend their solidarity with the international  
working class on the occasion of May Day. Left Parties join our  
working class in the struggle to combat the pandemic and safeguard the  
rights of the working people.

India today is in the grip of the worst humanitarian health crisis  
since independence. Worse, the scourge of the pandemic continues to  
intensify. Immediate measures to combat the pandemic, protect people’s  
lives and livelihoods are needed to be undertaken by the central  
government on a war footing.

Immediately the following must be done:

Provision of oxygen to all hospitals and people needing it must be ensured.

Launch a Free Universal Vaccination programme across the country.  
Spend the budgetary allocation of Rs. 35,000 crores; release the  
monies collected in PM Cares Fund and stop construction of the Rs.  
20,000 crores Central Vista, use this money for procuring vaccines.

Invoke Compulsory Licensing to produce both vaccines and life saving  
drugs by all competent facilities.

Strictly control prices of essential drugs and oxygen. Clampdown on  
their  hoarding and black marketing.

Direct transfer of Rs. 7500/- to all families in the non-income tax  
paying bracket; free distribution of foodgrains to all needy.


The government must immediately ensure the availability of hospital  
beds, ventilators, ICU beds, particularly in the rural areas where the  
pandemic is spreading rapidly.

One whole year has been wasted by this government which did not heed  
any of our suggestions. Instead the government promoted mega super  
spreader events.

Now, India cannot afford to lose any more time.

As the least minimum government must immediately deliver on the above.  
Otherwise, the central government  completely loses its moral  
authority to continue to remain in office.

sd/-

Sitaram Yechury, General Secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist)
D Raja, General Secretary, Communist Party of India
Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary, Communist Party of India  
(Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation
Debabrata Biswas, General Secretary, All India Forward Bloc
Manoj Bhattacharya, General Secretary, Revolutionary Socialist Party