New Delhi, October 13
Divided Left Front today decided to return to the UPA-Left Coordination Committee to deliberate upon contentious issues with the Manmohan Singh government, with RSP expressing reservations to return to the forum at this juncture.
Despite frictions within the Left Front, in a majority decision CPM, CPI and AIFB favoured dialogue with the government on all contentious issues through the coordination committee, including IAEA-Iran vote, FDI, disinvestments, WTO, oil-price hike, tribal Bill, unemployment and labour reforms.
The next meeting of the coordination committee was likely to take place early next week around October 17, sources said.
The Communists said they considered the letter sent by Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance, in response to their June 26 communication regarding the Cabinet decision on BHEL disinvestment before deciding to participate in the coordination committee.
Ms Gandhi in her letter had conveyed that the government has decided not to proceed with the disinvestment of shares in BHEL, over which Left parties had serious objections. The Prime Minister had earlier informed that the government did not intend to sell the shares of the BHEL and other navaratna companies.
After the meeting, RSP leader Abani Roy told reporters that although he was “not convinced that all problems can be solved in the coordination committee and there will be differences on economic issues, we (RSP) decided to resume participation primarily for the sake of Left unity”.
“The decision to boycott was taken collectively and the decision to resume was a majority decision. So we decided to go with it,” Roy said in reply to a barrage of questions.
Forward Bloc’s Debabrata Biswas, however, maintained that all decisions among the Left parties were taken “collectively, like this decision too.”
Not denying differences in the approach among the Left parties, CPM Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said, “Every party has its own opinion”.
