New Delhi, May 15
In a move to maintain its distance with the UPA government, the CPM Polit Bureau today decided against participation in the Congress-led coalition government’s first anniversary celebrations on May 22. The party general secretary Prakash Karat accused the UPA government of class bias in policy formulation.
“It is their celebrations. They will celebrate…. I don’t think we can participate as there are some differences,” veteran Marxist and former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu told reporters at the end of the two-day Polit Bureau meeting.
However, to leave a room for maneuvering, he said the Left leaders would participate in the UPA-Left Coordination Committee meeting May 18, after which a final decision would be taken.
Justifying the party’s decision, Polit Bureau member M K Pandhe said the CPM had some problems in attending the anniversary celebrations as the “occasion will be used by the government to project their achievements, while CPM had reservations on the implementation of the common minimum programme (CMP).”
The message that was loud and clear was that the Left parties were not happy with the implementation of the CMP by the UPA, which was the basis for the party to extend outside support to the government, and they would not like to share the dais with the UPA and be party to the bash.
The Polit Bureau, on the contrary, has decided to step up pressure on the UPA government for the CMP’s implementation and this was likely to
grow in the coming months, with the Assembly polls in West Bengal and Kerala scheduled for next year.Indications were that it would be releasing its own report card of the performance of the UPA, which would be critical assessment of the failures of the Congress-led coalition government in implementing the pro-people policies.
The two-day meet also evaluated the performance of the UPA government and took stock of the political situation in the country. It also discussed on the allocation of work for the newly elected members of the Polit Bureau, which met for the first time since the 18th party congress.
Senior party leaders also deliberated on the modalities to expand base party’s base in the Hindi heartland and the need to activate the party cadre for the Assembly and local municipal corporation polls.
The party discussed the Pensions Bill, employment guarantee Bill and a Bill on rights of tribesmen.
The CPM felt that the UPA government had gone ahead with several legislations, which favoured the big business and international finance capital, while being tardy or negligent in protecting the interest of the working class and the working people.
“While the UPA government completes one year in office it will be advisable for the leadership of the UPA to ponder over this bias,” CPM general secretary Prakash Karat in a signed article in the latest issue of the party mouthpiece People’s Democracy said.
In a critical remark on the food-for-work programme, Karat said the UPA government should not justify scaling down such programme citing systemic corruption and siphoning off of funds, but should initiate firm action to crack down on diversion of food stocks from the PDS and the misuse of funds in the rural development employment schemes.
Meanwhile, veteran Marxist leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet was discharged from a hospital in Noida today where he was recuperating after a kidney surgery, sources said.
The 90-year-old communist leader had undergone a surgery on May 9 to remove a tumour from his kidney.
Surjeet was admitted to a hospital in Bangkok on April 29 after he fell ill due to diarrhoea on his way to Vietnam to attend a Communist Party conclave.
He was later brought back by his son and hospitalised. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had called on Surjeet on Saturday.
Elaborating on the “negative” side of the government’s performance, Mr Pandhe enlisted raising the FDI in telecom to 74 per cent while persisting with the idea of raising caps in the banking sector, added UNI.
Besides, Mr Pandhe said the other areas of conflict were the government’s move to inject FDI in the retail sector and the continuing process of disinvestment.
The politburo members were of the view that the government also failed to bring legislation for the unorganised sector, to introduce the Women’s Reservation Bill and continued with the “hire and fire” policy among other things.
However, the members expressed satisfaction with the “positive” performance pertaining to upgradation of relations with China and strengthening of friendly ties with Pakistan by continuing with the peace process and composite dialogue, Mr Pandhe added.
