The Hindu : Front Page : Left to review ties with UPA tomorrow

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Monday, Aug 06, 2007
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Left to review ties with UPA tomorrow

K.V. Prasad

The mechanism has been practically non-functional
UPA’s economic policies against CMP: CPI

NEW DELHI: The four Left parties, which support the United Progressive Alliance Government, are expected to take a fresh look at the relations with the ruling coalition at a meeting on Tuesday.

In the past few months, three of the four Left parties — the Communist Party of India, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the All India Forward Bloc — have been suggesting that it is time to keep a distance from the alliance.

The CPI had even suggested that the Left parties review their relations with the UPA on the grounds that the ruling coalition was pursuing economic policies that went against the Common Minimum Programme (CMP). The RSP and the AIFB have been shriller in demanding that the nature of relationship between the Left and the Congress-led UPA be re-defined.

At its last meeting, the CPI(M) Central Committee said that after the Presidential election, the four Left parties would discuss the issue.

The Tuesday’s meeting also comes in the backdrop of the fact that the formal mechanism between the Left and the UPA has been practically non-functional.

No eagerness

The UPA-Left Coordination Committee has not met since November last and there is no eagerness on either side to set the mechanism in motion to sort out differences.

Technically, though, the committee met recently for a limited purpose — to select candidates for the Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections. In fact, the RSP and the AIFB have, on several occasions, questioned the committee’s efficacy.

The earlier enthusiasm to have a structured meeting where issues are discussed and sorted out has waned. It is only during Parliament session that the Left parties’ representatives meet the UPA leaders and negotiate on important bills and other business.

The Tuesday’s meeting is expected to determine the nature of engagement between the UPA and the Left parties. Significantly, the Left parties did not review the performance of the UPA Government on completion of three years in office as it had done earlier. From now on, the Left will prefer to focus on thrust areas and step up pressure to implement the promises made in the CMP.

The Left parties will also take a stand on the 123 agreement between India and the United States juxtaposing it against the growing nature of relations between the two countries.

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