Communist Party of India general secretary A B Bardhan expressed his surprise at the reported statement given by Nationalist Congress Party leader and former speaker of Lok Sabha P A Sangma that Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party should join hands to rule the country.
"Sangma is a member of the NCP and its leadership should take note of the statement and take action against him," Bardhan said while replying to a question asked by this rediff.com correspondent at a hurriedly called press conference at Ajay Bhavan in New Delhi.
Bardhan lambasted Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram for claiming that 0.04 per cent rise in the inflation amounted to nothing.
"If he had achieved the same result and the inflation had come down he would have claimed credit. The government of India on Chidambaram's recommendation has decided to disinvest between 5-10 per cent of shares of profit by public sector undertakings. This was not a part of the common minimum programme," he said.
The Left parties are meeting Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Monday to give him one crore signatures against rise in prices.
Bardhan said though the Left parties would like 24 items under forward trading to bring down prices, for the time being they would be happy if the Cabinet could undo what was done under the National Democratic Alliance regime and distribute food items through the public distribution system.
According to Bardhan, there was no change in the stand of the Left parties over the nuclear deal with the US in its present form.
"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that 'we should' respect words of wisdom. We respect former president Dr A P J Abdul Kalam and his words of wisdom, but the words of wisdom are coming from other parts as well. That too should be respected," he said.
He appealed to trade unions to oppose tooth and nail if Chidambaram goes ahead with limited disinvement of public sector undertakings.
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