CPI to protest against centre on July 16

Faizee said the waiver of the licence fee and the replacement of the licence system with a revenue sharing system smacked of kickbacks.

He alleged that Communications Minister Jagmohan was shifted to the Urban Development Ministry under pressure of private telecom operators.

About the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, he stated that the main objective of his party was to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies in collaboration with the regional and state level political parties with a view to defending the secular democratic character of the nation. He also expressed the need of projecting a strong Third Force to defeat the conspiracy to impose a bipolar polity on the country.

He said that his party would not enter any kind of electoral alliance with the Congress, but would extend its full cooperation to it in elections wherever there was a direct fight between the Congress and the BJP. In Gujarat, CPI and CPI(M) would together work out electoral tactics, he stated.

Speaking about the on-going Kargil clashes, CPI leader said the Vajpayee government seemed to have entered into some kind of secret “deal” with Pakistan because of “the Vajpayee government secretly receiving Pakistan emissaries Niaz Naik and Mubasshir Hussain and prime minister himself holding talks with them”.

Faizee wanted that the caretaker government should tell the truth to the nation about parleys between Pakistani emissaries and prime minister by calling a special session of the Rajya Sabha.

He said that the nation should be cautious of the Washington Accord signed between Nawaz Sharif and Bill Clinton because it talked of “personal interest” to be taken by the US president for “early resumption and intensification” of bilateral talks on Kashmir and this smacked of third party intervention.