The Hindu : National : We are hoping good sense will prevail, says Bardhan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 10, 2007
ePaper

National

National

We are hoping good sense will prevail, says Bardhan

Santosh Patnaik

Congress cannot take Left support for granted
Mid-term poll: Time has not come yet

VISAKHAPATNAM: Communist Party of India general secretary A.B. Bardhan on Sunday scoffed at talk on possible mid-term polls, saying the time was not ripe for withdrawing support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government.

“Time has not come yet,” he said when asked about speculation over mid-term elections. They were hoping that good sense would prevail upon the UPA, and the Left would take seriously the discussions at the joint mechanism meeting.

Blaming the National Democratic Alliance for stalling a debate on nuclear agreement in Parliament, he said the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee was ‘absurd.’ He exuded confidence that the Left would garner more seats in the event of early elections.

A day after the rally held in the city by the Left parties to protest against joint naval exercises with the U.S. and other countries, he told The Hindu that the overall performance of the UPA government should be reviewed. “T he CPI is insisting on redefining the outside support,” he said and cautioned the Congress leadership that it could not take Left support for granted.

Differences

Mr. Bardhan said the CPI, the CPI (M), the Forward Bloc and the Republican Socialist Party should together review the UPA performance. “We do have differences on not only the nuclear deal but also on anti-people actions keeping in view our national interest viz., the agriculture policy, Indo-U.S. knowledge initiatives, retail trade policy and the muscling in of multinationals at the behest of the U.S. Government. It’s a sort of blackmail by the imperialist forces.”

He said the final outcome of the continuing support to the UPA would depend on the behaviour of the joint mechanism on the concerns expressed by the Left parties. He said: “They [UPA] can’t keep on talking to us and going ahead with the implementation of the nuclear deal. There is no point in that if they put it under operation.”

Merger on agenda

Mr. Bardhan said the CPI and the CPI (M) were working together and the merger of both the parties was on the CPI’s agenda. “But one has to be patient and a path can be found only through united working. We should not hurry the pace,” he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National