CITU vows to oppose Centre’s ‘communalist-fascist agenda and anti-labour policies’
The Hindu
Anathalavattom Anandan, Elamaram Kareem re-elected State president, general secretary of CITU
The 15th State conference of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) concluded here on Monday with a call to oppose “the communalist-fascist agenda and anti-labour policies” of the Union government.
Anathalavattom Anandan and Elamaram Kareem, MP, were re-elected CITU State president and general secretary, respectively. P. Nandakumar, MLA, will continue as State treasurer. The valedictory event on the Kozhikode beach in the evening was preceded by a rally attended by around 2 lakh people carrying red flags.
Opening the event, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan claimed that while the BJP government at the Centre was reiterating there was no way other than privatisation of the economy, Kerala was showing that an alternative was possible. The Centre, however, was strangling the State government economically because it dared to implement those policies.
Mr. Vijayan said that over two lakh appointments were made in the public sector in Kerala in the last six-and-a-half years. It was greater than the number of appointments made by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) across the country. “This is an example of our alternative policies,” he pointed out.
He said though it was the Congress which started implementing the neoliberal policies, the BJP was pursuing them with more vigour. Mr. Vijayan wondered if the Congress had learnt anything from the setbacks the people suffered due to the implementation of these policies.
“Are they ready to own up their mistake? It does not look so. Just like how the BJP supported the Congress while implementing these policies, the latter is wholeheartedly supporting them when the former is going overboard with the same policies,” he alleged.