Pre-occupied with global issues, Modi leaves common man in the lurch, says Congress

Chinta Mohan calls for an alliance between the Congress and Left parties ahead of the 2024 elections

Narendra Modi is too busy discussing world problems with leaders of G20 nations to be concerned about the plight of the common man, Congress leader Chinta Mohan said on Friday, referring to the Prime Minister’s recent visit to Visakhapatnam where important issues concerning the State found no mention in his public address.

Mr. Chinta Mohan, who is a special invitee to the Congress Working Committee, also called for an alliance between the Congress and Left parties to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2024 elections.

Addressing the media here on Friday, the former Union Minister said that the situation at the grassroots-level in the country was worsening day by day with the common people suffering from poverty, hunger, unemployment and price rise. People are finding it hard to lead a life of dignity, he said after touring the industrial belt of Krishnapatnam, where industrial pollution has reportedly reached high levels.

‘’In the present situation, there is a need for the Congress and Left parties to come together to end the misrule of the BJP-led Government at the Centre’‘, he emphasised, adding that this had also been the views of Communist stalwarts Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Jyoti Basu.

Referring to the Prime Minister’s recent visit to Visakhapatnam, he lamented that neither did the Prime Minister address serious issues concerning the State nor did Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy articulate the unfulfilled assurances at the time of bifurcation of the State, including Special Category Status (SCS). ‘‘Both the BJP and the YSRCP are hand-in-glove with each other,” he charged.

“People in the industrial cluster who had parted with their precious land for the establishment of a port, power plant and other industrial projects were in an unenviable position now,” he observed after interacting with the displaced people in and around Muthukur. “A job for each displaced family has remained elusive as also an annual grant of ₹75,000. They are silently suffering without medical treatment for lung and other infections. The educational standards were also far from satisfactory in the villages that I visited,” he said.