Patna

CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya on Thursday criticised the Narendra Modi government at the Centre for bringing in the new labour codes, replacing MNREGA with VB G RAM G scheme and agreeing to a trade deal with the US.

The Left leader spoke to PTI Video here on the sidelines of a demonstration staged by his party in support of the nationwide strike called by farmers' organisations and trade unions.

The strike evoked a mixed response in the state. In Katihar district, a stronghold of the party, trade unions, farmers' organisations and student bodies staged a demonstration on a national highway, leading to the disruption of vehicular traffic.

Traffic resumed on the NH-31, which runs through Katihar and links Bihar to UP and West Bengal, after a couple of hours.

Processions were taken out in several parts of the city by organisations affiliated to the CPI(ML) Liberation in support of the bandh.

"The opposition is rightly calling the proposed trade deal with the US a trap deal. It will jeopardise the interests of the country's farmers. So far, our farmers have been fighting Ambani and Adani, but now they will also be pitted against America," Bhattacharya alleged.

"Never before have the interests of our farmers been compromised while striking a trade deal with another country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has, in effect, given up on his earlier slogans of 'Make in India' and 'Viksit Bharat'," he alleged.

Bhattacharya claimed that the recently introduced labour codes will "force workers to become slaves of the owners of business enterprises where they offer their labour" and the VB G RAM G will "deprive the rural population of the right to livelihood that had been guaranteed through MNREGA".

He also alleged that the BJP-led NDA, which had achieved a thumping victory in the recently held Bihar assembly polls, decimating the opposition, including the CPI(ML) Liberation, "is now being felt like a burden by the people".

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Bulldozer Raj, on the lines of BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, is being seen here. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar hardly seems to be in control of things, he alleged.

Bhattacharya, whose party is a constituent of the INDIA bloc, also voiced apprehensions that Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls could lead to manipulation of electoral rolls, to benefit the BJP, in West Bengal, "just as it had done in Bihar".