The Hindu : National : CPI(M) to work for third front

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Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005

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National

CPI(M) to work for third front

By Our Special Correspondent

MALAPPURAM, FEB. 22. The CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Prakash Karat, has said that the party would soon revive its efforts to forge a third front that would be an alternative to the Congress-led UPA and the BJP-led NDA.

Inaugurating a massive public rally marking the conclusion of the 18th State conference of the CPI(M) here this evening, Mr. Karat said the 18th party congress being held in Delhi in April would take up the issue in all its seriousness. The Third Front led by Left and democratic parties would fight against policies of globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation, he added.

He accused the former NDA Government of having tried to make India a `junior partner' of the United States and pointed out that the UPA Government was also doing the same. ``We have been trying to impress upon the UPA Government that it cannot strengthen the nation by going into a strategic alliance with the U.S.''

Mr. Karat also came down heavily on the move for purchase of arms from Israel and raise the FDI cap in the banking sector. The CPI(M) and the other Left parties, he said, would fight the policies of the UPA Government even while offering outside support to it. ``Don't take our support for granted. It is not the Left's duty to protect the Government,'' he said and added that the CPI(M) would soon launchan agitation to force the Government to correct its policies.

The CPI(M) valued national sovereignty. ``If the Congress does not want to protect national sovereignty, the people of this country will teach the Congress a lesson as it had done in the case of the BJP and its allies.'' Mr. Karat debunked media reports of factionalism in the Kerala unit of the party and said the successful conclusion of the conference would prove that the CPI(M) in Kerala was united.

``This party is not the property of one person or the other. Nobody can divide our party. The CPI(M) is the party of the people of Kerala and it will remain so till the time you, the people of Kerala decide otherwise,'' he said.

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