India News Online » News Analysis » Indian Politics » 

UPA Government : Tough days ahead for Manmohan Singh

	February 13, 2006

The Left parties led by the CPI(M) are set to tighten the screws on the Manmohan Singh Government during the coming Budget session of Parliament beginning on Thursday, Feb. 16, though they may feel shy of bringing it down. Faced with Assembly elections in four states and a union territory, to be held within the next three months, the Left parties are planning to corner the UPA Government on issues such as the Indian stand on Iran’s nuclear programme, the Indo-US nuclear deal, privatisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports, FDI in retail and several other economic issues. They say that the Manmohan Singh Government has deviated from the Common Minimum Programme while tackling these matters.



There are reports that the Left parties are trying to build a broad consensus on these issues so that they are able to show that the Government is isolated on these matters and does not enjoy public support. The Left stand comes in the wake of a tough attitude adopted by the Manmohan Singh Government which decided to vote along with the European Union on the IAEA resolution on Iran’s nuclear issue despite the known opposition of the CPI(M) and allied parties. The Government decided to go ahead with modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports with the participation of private and foreign companies despite the Left making it clear that they think it to be a clear departure from the agreed Common Minimum Programme (CMP). The Manmohan Singh Government also chose to over-ride Left concerns on opening up the retail sector to foreign direct investment (FDI).



At the same time, the Left parties are not yet prepared to withdraw support to the UPA Government which will either make fresh elections necessary or lead to the formation of a new government with the stated or unstated support of the BJP. They realise that in the present circumstances, it may not be feasible to revive the idea of a third front, equidistant from the Congress and the BJP. This is perhaps why the CPI(M) has not agreed to support the no-confidence motion which Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has been talking about.



CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat had a meeting with SP chief and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in New Delhi on Saturday, Feb. 11. They agreed that the two parties will give a notice for a debate in Parliament on India’s vote on Iran at IAEA under Rule 193 which does not require voting. This means that though there will be scope for trenchant criticism and condemnation of what the Left parties and the Samajwadi Party call the deviation from the policy of non-alignment, there will be no danger of this leading to fall of the Government.





Karat told mediapersons after the meeting with Mulayam Singh Yadav, “There is common understanding with the Samajwadi Party on several issues including Iran.” He said the Left is against the Iran issue being referred to the UN Security Council. But Karat parried a question if the Left parties would support the no confidence motion Mulayam Singh Yadav has been talking about on the plea that he would have to discuss the matter with parliamentary colleagues before taking a decision.



Earlier, the CPI(M) had been threatening to bring the Manmohan Singh Government on its knees. Karat had said earlier that the policies of the Manmohan Singh Government were not right and the CPI(M) would strive to forge a joint platform to take on the Government in Parliament on issues like Iran and FDI in retail.



The Left parties are confident that some of the UPA constituents like the DMK, MDMK and PMK will extend them support on these issues. The leaders of the Left parties also intend giving notices for debates on the privatisation of airports and other profit-making public sector undertakings. The Left parties want to utilise the debates to demonstrate how isolated the Congress is and how out of synchronisation it is with the ground realities and public opinion.



The Left parties are planning to meet among themselves today, Feb. 13, before the UPA-Left Coordination Committee meeting also scheduled for the day. This is to adopt a coordinated approach to corner the Government on its alleged violation of the common minimum programme. Observers say that the Left is clearly hardening its stand on the UPA Government and will use the coordination committee meeting to frankly tell the Manmohan Singh Government to mend its ways if the Left is not to be compelled to think of other possibilities.



Apart from the Iran nuclear issues, the Left parties may also raise the Indo-US nuclear deal and the Left’s alternative proposals for resource mobilization and reduction in expenditure at the coordination committee meeting. Two minor partners in the Left Front, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Forward Bloc are reportedly of the view that the Manmohan Singh Government should only be accorded issue-based support.



The Forward Bloc says that some parties in the opposition are waiting in the wings to join hands with the Left to bring the UPA Government to book. It claims that the JDU, a constituent of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), is prepared to support the Left on crucial matters of national importance.



The Samajwadi Party has been playing a key role in bringing together non-Congress parties. Telugu Desam President and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had a meeting with Mulayam Singh Yadav in Lucknow at the weekend. He offered TDP’s support to the Samajwadi Party if it moves a no-confidence motion in the coming Parliament session. Naidu said the Manmohan Singh Government had acted against the spirit of non-alignment by voting against Iran in Vienna. He said, “India is a big and secular nation...supporting the United States’ policy under pressure is not a good omen for the country politically.”



The latest developments come in the wake of increasing strains in the relations between the Manmohan Singh Government and the Left parties. Earlier this month on Feb. 5, the Left had turned down an invitation from the Prime Minister for a co-ordination committee meeting following the government’s vote against Iran over its nuclear programme. Two days later, the Left relented after Congress president Sonia Gandhi called up CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury and repeated the request.



Mulayam, however, wants a strategy that can politically hurt the Congress. The Samajwadi Party’s relations with the Congress have been fraught with friction over the two parties’ political brinkmanship in Uttar Pradesh. The bitterness has deepened with Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh’s recent accusation that the Congress had his phones tapped.



Delhi’s vote against Iran had handed Mulayam a chance to try and get even with the Congress. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also hoped to strengthen his grip on his Muslim vote bank by showing himself a friend of the Islamic nation.



But the Left Front is refusing to play ball. Karat said the Left and the Samajwadi Party would work closely on Iran and airport privatisation.



They would work out a joint strategy to put the government on the mat when the House debates Iran. They want the debate before March 6 when the International Atomic Energy Agency is scheduled to meet.



Mulayam needs the support of 50 MPs to bring a no-confidence motion. His party has 38 and the Telugu Desam has 5. With the Janata Dal (United) offering its 8 MPs, Mulayam just about has the numbers.





CPI(M) not to withdraw support



The CPI(M) politburo which met in Kolkata last week endorsed the leadership’s stand that while the party would put the Government in the dock for its vote on Iran at Vienna and for deviating from the common minimum programme on economic issues, it would not go to the extent of threatening the UPA Government’s stability.



The CPI(M) told its Left Front ally - Forward Bloc - that there would be no boycott of the UPA-Left Coordination Committee and no withdrawal of support to the Congress-led Government at the Centre. The argument : the situation did not merit such an extreme measure as criticism of UPA’s deviation from the CMP was paying back.



Karat apparently told Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas that there would be no change of tack. “The question of withdrawing support or boycotting the coordination committee meeting does not arise. But we will continue to oppose UPA’s deviation from CMP.”



Before the CPI(M) politburo began its two-day meeting, party patriarch Jyoti Basu had already spelt out the position that while continuing to oppose the UPA policies on FDI in retail and airport privatisation and on the Iran issue, the CPI(M) will not burn bridges with the Manmohan Singh Government, let alone pull the rug. Basu said, “At least I want the Government to continue for some time despite the fact that the Congress is not paying heed to our views on many issues.” But he cautioned that the Left won’t drop its opposition to policies it was opposed to. “The Left parties should continue with negotiations at the coordination committee level. At the same time, we will express our views in Parliament and outside.”



Demand for American Ambassador’s recall



Addressing mediapersons at the end of the politburo meeting, Prakash Karat said in Kolkata on Feb. 10 that he was confident that Government would not go for a referral in the Security Council taking the Iraq route. The party was also angry with US Ambassador David Mulford’s protest letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, objecting to President Bush being described as a leader of the “most organised pack of killers.”



Karat demanded that Mulford be recalled. “The US Ambassador does not seem to know the norms. He has no business to write to Ministers. Earlier, he went out of his way to advise the Left on FDI in retail. All these are unbecoming of an envoy. He should be recalled. We want the Government’s response on this.”



Seeking to up the ante against the Congress before the Assembly polls in West Bengal and Kerala, the CPI(M) plans to take its disagreement with the Prime Minister beyond the Left-UPA coordination committee meetings and “expose” the “anti-people” policies.



“We want to make it quite clear that we are not UPA partners. We are supporting the Government from outside. We expect them to take our objections seriously,” Karat said, adding that the Government should not take the Left support for granted.





CPI to follow CPI(M)



The CPI has said that despite the UPA government “violating” the common minimum programme in respect of foreign and economic policies, the Left parties would let the Congress-led coalition complete its five-year term. Party General Secretary A.B. Bardhan said on Feb. 12 that a mid-term poll was not a solution.



In an interview, Bardhan said both in matters of foreign and economic policies, the Left parties felt that the UPA government had violated the CMP. Asked if the Left parties felt that the Congress takes their support for granted, he said: “It’s true. Because people have a feeling that we (Left parties) oppose, we protest, we also make statements, ask them to stop what they are doing. But they (Congress) go ahead. They do not listen (to us)”. He said the Left parties would put pressure on the government to follow the CMP in letter and spirit. “We want the pressure to be sufficiently powerful”.



Bardhan said the Left would let the Government continue its full term. “We will keep it under pressure whenever it does something wrong, according to us, not in the interest of people or the country at large.... Whenever it violates the CMP”. When it was pointed out that the Congress was not listening to the Left parties and the latter, therefore, had a limit to what they could do, Bardhan observed: “That’s the way democracies are run. Otherwise, you can everyday pull it down. What’s the point. Any government that does not have a majority on its own can be pulled down at any time. But that is not the way we want to play the game”.





Congress accused of tacit understanding with communal forces



The CPI(M) politburo accused the Congress of willingness to enter into a covert understanding with the communal forces in the states where Assembly elections are to be held this year. Karat said, the CPI(M) is out to expose such covert, unofficial understandings of the Congress with the BJP. In West Bengal, there is talk of the Congress having unofficial adjustments with the Trinamul Congress-BJP alliance, Karat said. In the case of Kerala, all the communal forces including the BJP-RSS are sought to be mobilised in support of the United Democratic Front (UDF). The party is ready to counter any such move for an anti-Left combination whether overt or covert. “Here we are confident that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) will win the election though it is not just a question of winning, but securing a decisive victory and a comprehensive defeat of the UDF,” Karat said.



Left does not have veto on Foreign Policy : Congress



Earlier last week, the Congress took a tough stand on the Iran nuclear issue, telling to the Left parties bluntly that no single group or party in a coalition could or should think that it has a veto of any kind, especially over the issue of the country’s foreign policy. The Congress backed the Government’s vote against Iran as a “holistic, balanced approach guided only by supreme national interest” and rejected the Left charge that the decision might have been taken under US pressure for the sake of the Indo-US nuclear deal.



In a virtual snub to the Left position, AICC spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said : “While the Government takes note of all points of view, it has to take its own final decision based on national interest in accordance with a foreign policy of representing continuity and change, no responsible party should seek to undermine it.”



The Congress also sought to give a reality-check to its Left allies. “The Left should consider these matters in the current context, they should depart from stereotypical paradigms while distancing themselves from immediate political considerations (coming Assembly polls),” said Singhvi. He underlined the Congress “commitment to coalition dharma and dialogue,” acknowledging the partners’ right to “put forward their dissenting views and expect them to be considered.”





Iran vote in India’s self interest : PMO



Official sources in New Delhi say that India voted in favour of referring Iran to the UN Security Council “entirely” on the basis of its “national interest” and concerns about proliferation in the region, particularly the A.Q. Khan network.



PMO sources said that suggestions that the vote was guided by pressure from one country or concerns that the civilian nuclear deal with the United States would be jeopardised are “entirely specious.”



The debate on Iran’s nuclear programme at the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency “changed” and became more consensual once China and Russia decided to back the US and European Union move to “report” Iran to the UN Security Council. The Government took a “considered and conscious decision” to go with the five permanent members of the UNSC and the “vast majority” of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-member governing board.