Centre protecting corporate houses, says Pinarayi Vijayan

The Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre stood for protecting the interests of big corporate houses in the country, CPI (M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said Tuesday. Inaugurating a national seminar on Assault Against Women organized by the Party Kozhikode North and South Area Committees, he said this was evident from shifting Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy in the recent cabinet rejig by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Stating it was not an appropriate political step, he said Reddy was divested off Petroleum portfolio on behest of a major industrial house in the country.

On the ill-treatment meted out to Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Sashi Tharoor at a reception accorded to the latter yesterday, he said it reflected the culture of the Congress Party. The police, responsible to protect her, remained a mute spectator to the incident in Thiruvananthapuram yesterday, he said. Launching a scathing attack on communal forces, he said these forces had grown to the extent of even dictating on the attire of women in the state. Congress-led UDF government in the state took a lenient attitude towards misdeeds of these forces, he alleged. Accusing the communal forces for denying social freedom to women, he said efforts should be made to alienate them and their design by the society. These forces had also attempted to deny education to women to meet their agenda, he said. Calling upon the class movement to take up the issues relating to women aimed at their empowerment, he said shrinking responsibilities by them would denigrate the movement.