CPM warned the government that if urgent 'pro people' measures are not taken, communal forces cannot be prevented from exploiting the "popular discontent" over issues like price rise and unemployment.
The rich-poor divide would continue to rise if the government does not take urgent steps to improve the living condition of the masses, CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said in an editorial in the forthcoming issue of 'People's Democracy' titled 'Growth for Whom?'.
On the stock market boom, he said "not a single paisa of tax is paid by those who are earning huge unprecedented profits due to this boom."
"While this may increase the number of Indian billionaires, the billions required to improve the lot of the common Indian are being denied through such tax concessions," he said, reiterating the CPI-M demand that the coming Budget must consider introduction of a long-term capital gains tax. Regarding the "growing divide" between rich and the poor, he said this was "not only because of the inefficiency of the distributive aspects in our economy that prevent an inclusive growth. It is also not because the government of the day is insensitive to this growing divide".