Rift Within Left Over Poll Debacles

Kolkata: Heaping fresh blame on the CPI(M) for taking “unilateral” decisions, a senior CPI leader and West Bengal minister Thursday said being the largest constituent it has to share major responsibility for election debacles.

Instead of taking decisions unanimously in the Front, some decisions were taken by the CPI(M) unilaterally, the outcome of which was bad,” Srikumar Mukherjee, CPI leader and the minister of state for Home (Civil Defence) said.

Asked which decisions the CPI(M) had taken unilaterally, Mukherjee said, “This relates to some cabinet decisions. We could have differed with CPI(M) had these decisions been taken collectively.”

Toeing the line of party general secretary A B Bardhan who has blamed the CPI(M) and the state government for the plunge in the Left’s fortunes, the minister said, “I am not saying that partners have no responsibility. But, being the largest constituent, CPI(M) has to share major responsibility.”

The ruling Left Front had issued a gag order on Front partners not to publicly air contradictory views on its policies after some allies repeatedly embarrassed the CPI(M) leadership demanding early assembly elections in the state because of repeated drubbing in elections.

Assembly election in the state is due in 2011.

West Bengal Socialist Party leader and Fisheries minister Kiranmoy Nanda had publicly demanded that the government call it quits and call snap polls. A CPI(M) minister Rezzak Mollah had also voiced similar views after the bye-election drubbing.

Left Can’t Roul Out for PM: CPI

New Delhi: Key Left Front constituent, CPI does not rule out the possibility of a Communist heading a Third Front government, if voted to power.

The party also says such a non-Congress, non-BJP government would put “on hold” the Indo-US nuclear deal, an issue on which it withdrew support to the UPA government along with other Left parties last year.

“No, no, let us not rule out anything, absolutely. But right now we are not looking at that way. Time may come, when we look at that point. We don’t want to add ourselves to the list at this point of time,” CPI general secretary AB Bardhan said when asked whether a Leftist would head the government after the Lok Sabha poll.

The 83-year-old Communist veteran said right now the Left was not putting forth any candidate for the prime ministership as its main priority is to install a non-Congress and non-BJP government at the Centre.

“I don’t think that is what Left is looking at today. Today, that is not the pre-occupation. The pre-occupation is to see that a non-BJP and a non-Congress government can come into existence through maximum consensus,” he said in an interview.

Bardhan said there were many capable and experienced leaders in the Third Front to head any future government.

“We have a number of persons who are very experienced in administration and have been chief ministers not once but on a number of occasions. After the election, we can sit together and arrive at a consensus on the Prime Minister. This is what has been said not only by us but by Jayalalithaa and Mayawati too,” he said.

Asked whether the Left parties would rework the Indo-US nuclear deal if a Third Front government comes into power, Bardhan said it was absolutely necessary.

“It is very essential to review the nuclear deal, to rework it. And if worst comes to the worst, putting it on hold,” he said about the issue on which the Left Front parted ways with the UPA government.

The CPI leader also demanded that all future international treaties involving India should be debated and ratified by the Parliament before it is signed.

“I do not know if there is any scope for cancelling it (the nuke deal) because it is an international agreement that has been signed whether we like it or not. That is one reason, why we have been insisting that in future, treaties and international agreements be fully debated and ratified by the Parliament,” he said.

Left, Key Regional Parties Launch Third Front

Umkur : Launching the ‘third force’, the Left and major regional parties on Thursday joined hands to take on the Congress and the BJP in the upcoming general elections, saying both of them had failed to address people’s grievances.
Addressing a massive rally here, leaders of these parties announced that they had come together to provide a “new alternative” to the voters ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

“This is a historic get together of all democratic, secular and Left parties in the country to declare that we are all coming together to constitute a third force in this country,” CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said.

He said the third force stood for the interests of the vast masses for the firm defence of secularism against communal forces. The platform, he said, would fight for social justice for the oppressed sections.

Joined by CPI leader A B Bardhan, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and former Prime Minister and JD(S) chief H D Deve Gowda among others, Karat said, “Today we have come together because the country needs a new alternative.”

Recalling the formation of the United Front government headed by Gowda 13 years ago, Karat said people came to know in 1996 that “the future of this country does not lie either with Congress or the BJP.”

He said the UF then comprised all secular, democratic and regional parties, along with the Left to provide an alternative to the Congress and BJP.

He said even after 60 years of independence, both the major parties had “failed to fulfil the aspirations of the people.”

Rebutting Congress claims of a nine per cent economic growth rate, Karat asked as to what it meant for the common people and said the country still witnessed the “shameful spectacle” of farmers committing suicide and people facing the brunt of high unemployment and rising prices.

“Life is unbearable for the ordinary people,” the CPI(M) leader said, adding that on top of this, the global economic crisis had led to loss of millions of jobs and the crash of the world financial system and banks.

Though the chiefs of AIADMK and BSP, J Jayalalithaa and Mayawati, skipped the function, their representatives V Maitreyan and Satish Chandra Mishra were present.