New Delhi, July 14
The Left parties have called for a nationwide Bharat bandh on August 20, to protest the anti-people policies of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, particularly the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.
CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan asked party cadres here on Monday to make preparations for Bharat bandh. He was speaking at an impressive rally organised by four Left parties jointly here. The Left declared their intent to fight the government they were supporting till the other day “inside and out of Parliament.”
A fully charged CPM general secretary Prakash Karat told a responsive audience, “They contested the last elections on the slogan of ‘Congress ka haath Aam Aadmi ke saath,’ this time their slogan will be ‘Congress ka haath America ke
saath’.”
Referring to his recent meetings with BSP chief Mayawati and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders he also announced that “In the coming days more forces will join us.”
Karat recalled, “We supported this government on the Common Minimum Programme (CMP),” and complained that the present government had made “India a junior partner of America.” “Our stand has been consistent for last three years. If you compromise with the US, it will be a violation of the CMP and we shall withdraw support.”
“The popularity of President George W. Bush in the US is 20-25 per cent. He is the President of a minority. We have a Prime Minister, who is heading a minority government. A minority President and minority Prime Minister are trying to hook this country to US hegemony,” the senior CPM leader said.
Karat dismissed Congress allegations of the Left joining forces with the BJP to topple the UPA government and said, “The Congress has no right to accuse us when it toppled the V.P.Singh government, then Deve Gowda government and then I.K. Gujral government joining forces with the BJP.”
Claiming that the government and the Congress want to fulfil their promise to Bush, he said, “It is their primary aim and not tackling inflation or price rise...The deal and the price rise were the issues on which we withdrew support.” “We were tolerating them (UPA) because we did not want the BJP and other communal forces to come to power,” he said.
Other Left leaders like Forward Bloc leader Debabrat Biswas were even more strident in their criticism when he said, “This government has nothing to do with the people of India. It is run by Washington.”
He announced, “We are all united behind Karat and determined to pull down this government.”
