Kolkata, Aug 31 - Claiming that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is 'surrendering to the imperialists' and framing policies adversely hitting the poor, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) patriarch Jyoti Basu Monday said the Left parties will staunchly oppose such moves.

'Whatever be the impediments, the Leftists will work in the interest of the workers and the common people. We will never accept the way the central government is surrendering to (the) imperialists,' the nonagenarian Basu said in his written message at a rally organised by West Bengal's ruling Left Front to commemorate the 50th anniversary of a mass movement against food shortage.

'Due to the policies pursued by the centre, poor people are being adversely hit. Peasants are committing suicide. Food crisis is also escalating in the country,' said Basu, who was chief minister of West Bengal for 23 years from 1977. He stepped down in 2000 for health reasons.

He said prices of essentials, hoarding and black marketing are on the rise, and asserted that the Left parties had built up agitations against the maladies.