New Delhi, February 14
In a tactical move, Left parties have decided to keep away from the dinner hosted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the allied parties, ahead of the Budget session of Parliament beginning on February 16. The Communists keeping away from the dinner just before the Budget session, where the Left parties have decided to take on the government on different issue assumes significance.
“It is not necessary to go there,” said Mr Abani Roy of the Revolutionary Socialist Party.
He said the dinner meeting was of “broader UPA.” The Left parties have already expressed their views and in the UPA they would discuss these. CPI national secretary D Raja said senior leaders were not in the Capital, so they were not attending it.
Mr Raja said he had some prior commitment, so he could not make it and he had to prepare for the all-party meet on state funding of elections called by the Election Commission tomorrow.
However, to play down their decision to keep away from the invitation extended by Mr Manmohan Singh, Left leaders said the top leaders were not present in the Capital. They said it was not a conscious decision not to attend the dinner, but as top leaders had prior commitments and they were not in the Capital.
At the UPA-Left coordination committee meeting here yesterday, the Left parties came out harshly against the Manmohan Singh government. However, it did give some breather to the Congress-led coalition by stating that it would not support the no-confidence motion as suggested by the Samajwadi Party.
In a veiled warning, the Communists have stated that they could reconsider their stand, if the government continued to toe the US line in the Iran-IAEA nuclear issue by voting against Tehran next month when the atomic energy body
meets.
