The Communist Party of India (Marxist) leadership, which met here last week to review party's performance in Lok Sabha elections, has lashed out at Congress for its economic policy.

"Where is the difference between the Congress and the BJP on economic issues" asked CPM general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet, explaining that on most economic issues the two parties were working in tandem.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi's speech at a recent FICCI meeting is proof that the Congress is pushing for further liberalisation and privatisation of the economy.

Describing the Congress as a "willing accomplice" of the BJP-led government, the CPM said the Congress party refuses to learn any lessons from its alienation from the people following the economic policies it has pursued so far.

The drifting apart of the CPM and the Congress, does not come as a surprise. The papering over of irreconcilable differences over economic policy before the polls, had been largely unconvincing.

In any event, in the Left-ruled states like Kerala and West Bengal, where Congress is viewed as the main enemy, the CPM had not been able to convince its cadres to throw aside their loathing for the Congress and work together to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies.

The economic agenda of liberalisation and dismantling of public sector, first crafted by Congress, but pursued with vigour by BJP-led government held enormous danger for the country, the CPM leadership has warned.

Briefing mediapersons on the three-day Central Committee meeting of the party, Surjeet said the party has decided to initiate a nationwide mass movement to protest against the economic policies which he cautioned would result in India becoming a "junior partner" of the United States.

The protest against the economic and fiscal policies being followed by the government would form the bedrock of a renewed Third Front, posing an alternative to the BJP and the Congress, said Surjeet. He was unwilling to reveal who would be part of the Front.

"The unhappiness over the economic policies of the BJP will bring a number of forces to the Front", he said.

Within days of assuming office, the Vajpayee Government has launched large-scale disinvestment of profitable public sector units, selling off GAIL shares at a "ridiculously low throw-away price".

With the Insurance Regulatory Bill and the recommendations of the Verma Committee on privatisation of the nationalised banking sector, the Vajpayee Government would be handing over the vital financial sector to speculative foreign capital, Surjeet warned.