Prakash Karat accuses big corporate houses for corruption

NEW DELHI - Reflecting on the multi-billion dollar 2G telecom spectrum scam case, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) General Secretary Prakash Karat blamed big corporate and business houses for the growing upsurge in corruption cases.

Addressing a group of students and activists here on Friday, Karat slammed big business houses for promoting financial irregularities and paving way for cases such as the telecom scam.

Citing the case as an example, Karat asserted that corruption was essentially a means of gathering capital.

“In India, in our stage of development of capital, corruption is a means, an instrument for the accumulation of capital. Whether it is the 2G spectrum corruption case, or all other major corruption cases that we see in the country today, behind that you will find there is big business, big corporates, big financial banks and institutions, they are the ones which breed this corruption. They are the very basis for this corruption,” said Karat.

Meanwhile, clarifying his stand on the turmoil in Egypt, Karat maintained the spiral of protests in the Arab nation was a result of persistent and strong resistance movements by the working class over the last few decades.

Egyptians have been demonstrating against rising prices, poverty, unemployment and their authoritarian regime since the past few days, triggered by a wave of protests that began in Tunisia.

He said what he called the “revolution” in Egypt was a result of continuous struggle, which had turned into a massive upsurge of the masses.

” There have been struggles of the working people and it is these struggles, which have now reached a point, culminated in this massive popular upsurge. And, that is why you can see the tenacity of the people who are struggling. It is not just a demonstration which took place for a day,” he added. (ANI)