A veteran Indian Communist Party (Marxist) leader Sunday slammed the policy of the government for causing poverty, unemployment and hunger in the country.

"The government at the center has only one policy - to make the rich richer and ignore the poor," former West Bengal state chief minister and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told a youth rally.

"The country has been divided in two parts: one for the rich and the other for the poor," he said at the Democratic Youth Federation of India rally in Bankura near Kolkata.

"We have the most poor, hungry and unemployed people. China, in spite of being populous and bigger than us, is better off because of its policies. Things will change only when we all will fight against the policies of the government," he said.

He said that agricultural productivity of the country has gradually come down because of the faulty policies of the government as farmers were finding it difficult to cope with the rising cost of farming.

He also attacked the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal for the deteriorating law and order in the state.

"Not a single day goes when you don't hear about rapes, murders, dacoity and robbery. Under this government anti-social elements feel free to do anything as they know no action will be taken against them," he said.

The CPI-M was the ruling party in West Bengal for more than three decades before stepping down last year.