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Monday, May 09, 2005

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CPI(M) meeting to allot duties for party members

Special Correspondent

Left to keep up pressure on UPA to implement CMP

NEW DELHI: As the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government completes one year in office, the Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is meeting here on May 13 to discuss the latest political situation and attend to party tasks outlined by its 18th party congress.

At its first meeting since Prakash Karat was elected General Secretary last month, the primary task before the Polit Bureau would be to finalise the allocation of work among members. The party congress had discussed and determined the approach of the party and the Left towards the UPA Government.

By the third week of this month, the UPA Government completes one year in office and through the period the Left parties have found fault with it for not sticking to the agreed Common Minimum Programme (CMP) on several issues. The Left parties felt that the Government had been slow in enacting legislation that could showcase the commitment of the coalition to underprivileged sections of society. Recently, the CPI (M) demanded that the Government bring forward a Bill to protect the rights of tribal people.

In its political resolution the party asserted it was up to the UPA to ensure that its Government had a stable tenure by implementing the pro-people measures in the CMP and by maintaining its political cohesion. "The party and the Left should continue to press the UPA Government to see that the positive features in the CMP are implemented and carried forward,'' it said.

While being critical of the UPA, the CPI (M) did not spare the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Opposition for mounting a "relentless assault'' against parliamentary democracy. In an editorial in the party organ, People's Democracy, the CPI (M) said that never before in Independent India had the country seen parliamentary proceedings being disrupted for a whole year beginning with the motion of thanks to the President's address to the joint session of Parliament last year.

"These decisions to derail parliamentary democracy are being taken by the NDA parliamentary group chaired by Atal Bihari Vajpayee himself. Not long ago as the P.M. he would harangue the country through pracharak sermons on how the Opposition should behave in a responsible manner! He indeed heads a `party with a difference' — a party sans any principle or value," it said.

On the organisational front, the allocation of work assumes significance in the wake of the party's decision to expand its activities in the Hindi-speaking region as also the long-term goal of a third alternative based on agreed programmes and actions.

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