India News Online » News Analysis » Indian Politics » 

Left to scale down support to UPA

	August 06, 2007

There are reports that the Left parties are considering scaling down their support to the United Progressive Alliance. At their meeting in New Delhi tomorrow, August 7, the four Left parties would be working out the strategy to distance the Left from the Manmohan Singh Government. The meeting, which is ex¬pected to send a shape-up message to the Government, will suggest the winding up of the UPA-Left coordination panel which has not been functioning during the past ten months.



Local considerations, reports say, have played a role in the Left’s reported decision. With the Congress trying to stage a come back in Kerala and also coordinating with the Trinamul Congress in West Bengal, the two parties do not want to be seen as close, as it would not pay political dividends.



The CPI(M) has been of the view that the Left has no real political option outside the current arrangement at the Centre where it keeps the Manmohan Singh Government in power. That is why the CPI(M) has rejected suggestions from the other Left parties for reviewing ties with the Congress. At the same time, there is unease in the Left that its views on economic and for¬eign policy issues do not get the Government’s attention.



In the immediate run, however, the Left may not pull the rug from under the feet of the Manmohan Singh Government. This may be seen in its keeping opposition to issues such as the Indo-US nuclear deal within politically permissible limits. At the same time, the Left parties have been highlighting their anti-US posi¬tion by holding rallies against joint naval exercises with the United States, Japan and Australia, scheduled for next month.







Karat most powerful man in India : Karan Singh





Former Union Minister Karan Singh who was not selected as UPA’s nominee for the Presidency, reportedly because of Left misgivings about his Hindutva leanings, has said : “Prakash Karat clearly is the most powerful man in India today. He can dictate the Presidency and Vice-Presidency.” And then, after a pause and a twinkle, “Remember I said most important man, I didn’t say woman.”



Speaking at an interaction with the editorial team of The Indian Express on August 3, Karan Singh, Congressman, self-pro¬fessed cultural diplomat, environmentalist, philosopher on an inner spiritual quest, and the Man Who Knows Too Much on J&K, was candid about why he is also the Man Who Still Isn’t President.



The list of names had narrowed to two names - Karan Singh and Shivraj Patil. DMK leader M. Karunanidhi had indicated his preference for him. I was the last man standing, before the women took over...”



And then the Left used its veto. It ruled him out, says Singh quoting CPI leader A B Bardhan because he was the son of a maharaja. Weren’t Ashoka, Rama and Buddha sons of maharajahs too? he asks and then adds: I am the son of a Maharajah whose signature is the reason that Jammu and Kashmir is a part of India.



But it is the second reason the Left gave for ruling him out of the race that he is the founder of the Virat Hindu Sammelan that clearly rankles more. In India, secularism has come to mean something quite different from what it means in Europe, says Singh. The Left looks at it in an absolutist way, you are either pro-religion or anti-religion.



(Ours) is a secular country. But that doesn’t mean that anybody who believes in Lord Shiva or wears an “om namah Shivai” bracelet (pointing to the one he wears on his wrist) becomes communal. That is ridiculous.





Left parties to meet Sonia Gandhi on AP land issue



The Left parties, which have been agitating in Andhra Pra¬desh on the land issue, have decided to take up the matter with Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The land issue flared up last month with police firing on July 27 that resulted in the killing of seven persons. The Left parties have been demanding distribu¬tion of surplus land among the landless and small farmers as promised by the Congress during the election campaign for the State Assembly.



The Left had demanded the resignation of Congress Chief Minister Y.S. Rajsekhara Ready for calling the police firing, but the Congress rejected the demand. The Congress said that the state government is already trying to apply the healing touch to calm down passions. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had spoken to the Chief Minister to review the situation arising out of the police firing. He conveyed his sympathies for the next of kin of those who died in the police action. The Prime Minister also reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to redistribute surplus land and fulfil its commitment to the rural poor, especially the landless.



At their meeting with Sonia Gandhi early this week, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan, reports say, would convey the set of demands on which their parties have been conducting the land agitation. They want the setting up of an independent Commission to implement the recommendations of the Koneru Ranga Rao committee. The Left parties say that they will embark on the second phase of the agitation with greater intensity in case the Government fails to accept their demands.



In the meantime, Chief Minister Rajsekhara Reddy has hit back at the Left parties for demanding his resignation for the Khammam police firing, highlighting the Left Front’s own track record over he Nandigram police firing in Wet Bengal. Speaking in New Delhi on August 3, he said while the Andhra Pradesh gov¬ernment had ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident and announced relief for the victims, no such judicial inquiry was instituted in Nandigram, nor was ex-gratia paid.



During the Prime Minister’s day-long visit to Hyderabad to review Andhra Pradesh performance in key sectors like agricul¬ture, irrigation, infrastructure and industrial development, the Left parties and the Opposition TDP organised protests against the visit.



The BJP has also joined the Left parties and the TDP in demanding the Chief Minister’s resignation.





Shadow boxing continues in CPI(M)’s Kerala Unit



With no sign of an end to the ‘civil war’ in CPI(M)’s Kerala unit, the party politburo threw itself into the salvage job on Friday, August 3. This followed Chief Minister V.S. Achhuthanan¬dan accusing party owned TV channel, Kairali, of conspiring to slander him. The channel telecast an interview with a controver¬sial businessman, Faris Abubakker, claiming that V.S. Achhutha¬nandan had approached him through a Bishop for personal favours.



The Chief Minister hit back at the party-controlled tele¬vision channel for carrying the interview with the businessman. Rejecting the claim made by the businessman, Achhuthanandan said in a statement that he had never contacted him either directly or through any other person. “The remarks made about me in the interview are blatant lies. The interview with a hated person is part of a conspiracy”, the Chief Minister said.



The businessman’s links with the CPI(M) have been the sub¬ject of a raging controversy n the state. The Chief Minister has been maintaining that “indecent liaisons” with controversial businessmen like Abubakker have been the cause of the party cadre’s moral decadence. The Chief Minister’s attack followed a revelation that the businessman gifted lakhs to a party offshoot in northern Kerala.



A worried CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat summoned A. Vijayaraghavan, the CPI(M) MP on the Kairali board and reportedly obtained a detailed explanation about the channel airing a two-part interview with a businessman of dubious repute considered close to party state secretary Vijayan, in which he attempted to claim that VS was in touch with him too.



Party sources said the politburo sought the transcripts of the two-hour long interview to study before taking a stance. The fire-fighting followed the VS camp shooting off a detailed missive to the national leadership questioning the party chan¬nel’s motives.