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Tuesday, Jul 22, 2008
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Breach of trust by PM: Left

New Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Monday accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of breach of trust. Opening his intervention in the Lok Sabha on the trust vote, party leader Mohammad Salim said: “The Prime Minister wants support for his betrayal. It is not a question of trust, but breaking the trust of supporters.”

According to Mr. Salim, it was not the Left parties which betrayed the government but the other way round. Referring to the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP), he pointed out that there was no mention of the India-U.S. nuclear deal in it.

Noting that the NCMP committed the government to pursuing an independent foreign policy, keeping in mind its past traditions, the CPI(M) member said the Left parties had hoped this dispensation would continue with the Congress tradition in matters of foreign policy.

The Left, he pointed out, was not bound by anything that was not in the NCMP. In fact, he said, like in sports events when performing sportspersons were made to undergo a dope test, the government, too, should be subjected to a similar scrutiny to find out why it went into overdrive on the deal while dragging its feet on issues such as price rise, the Sachar Committee Report and welfare of unorganised sector workers.

As for the government’s refusal to share with political parties the draft of the India-specific safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mr. Salim’s view was that only things that were wrong and needed to be hidden were shrouded in secrecy.

Opposing the trust motion, Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) accused Dr. Singh of “colossal failure” in managing the economy in which the interests of farmers, workers, and the middle-class were ignored.

“What we have seen over the past few years is pampering of corporates and pauperisation of the people.”

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