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Congress victory tainted: Karat

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Friday accused the Congress of using “money power” to win the July 22 trust vote, saying it was a tainted victory.

“At least 16 MPs belonging to the Opposition non-Left parties were bought over, intimidated, or blackmailed into either voting for the government or abstaining. Can there be any greater shame for the Prime Minister and the Congress leadership? But the worrying thing is that there is no sense of remorse or guilt at these immoral and shady practices. Such is the degeneration of the Congress party in its lust to remain in office,” party general secretary Prakash Karat alleged.

In an article “Left will continue fight against UPA government and communal forces” in the coming issue of the party’s weekly organ People’s Democracy, Mr. Karat said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had “bettered the record” of his predecessor, P.V. Narasimha Rao for indulging in “immoral and shady practices” to remain in power.

Mr. Karat asked how long the UPA government would last, if offers of “a berth in the Union Cabinet, threats of unleashing investigating agencies against unwilling Opposition MPs and bribes running into crores of rupees have enabled it to survive.”

He said the Congress would have to go to the people in the next few months and predicted that “a just punishment awaits them.”

Alleging that the Manmohan Singh government had opened its doors to “unscrupulous bargains and pressures,” he said that “all those who extended support will extract their price.”

“Even before the trust vote, indications of the shape of things to come were revealed. Amar Singh, Samajwadi Party leader, demanded that the Prime Minister mediate between the two warring Ambani brothers,” he said.

Dismissing the Congress leadership’s thinking that the CPI(M) and the Left had been isolated after the UPA won over the Samajwadi Party, Mr. Karat said the fact was that “more forces have joined hands with the Left parties after the withdrawal of support” to oppose the Congress-led alliance.

While the government was “basking in the success of its confidence vote, it is increasingly getting isolated from the people and covered with moral opprobrium for its corrupt practices.”

Mr. Karat said the Left parties, on the other hand, were rallying the other democratic and secular forces to carry on the fight against the anti-people policies and the anti-national foreign policy of the Congress-led government.

Warning the government against pushing through various pieces of legislation such as the Pension Bill, the Banking Amendment Bill and the Foreign Education Providers Bill, the CPI(M) leader said the Left parties would “work hard to see that such legislations are defeated on the floor of the House,” besides carrying out big protest actions.

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