CPI-M bid to form third front
by Peter Alex Todd

     Guwahati: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) today said that it was making best efforts to form a third front as an alternative to the Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Without mentioning any party, CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat, while addressing a public rally here, said that proposals have been sent to democratic and secular forces in the United Progressive Alliance in this regard. Karat, however, said that the CPI (M) would continue supporting the UPA government until the third front was formed.

   Coming down heavily on the Centre's foreign policy, Karat said that the UPA government was "obliging very shamefully" and was even willing to "change the country's foreign policy at the US behest". "This only shows that Congress is still a party for the capitalists against which CPI-M will strongly oppose", the CPM General Secretary added. "The US wants to make India a colonial state and that is why it is meddling in our internal affairs which the CPI-M will never allow", CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat told a public meeting here adding that Mulford "has no right to do so". Terming his party's support from outside to the UPA government as the "need of the hour," saying the Left parties wanted a secular party at the Centre. He went on to add that their (Left parties) effort would always be to defeat the BJP as that "party with the help of religion was destroying the secular values". Karat's announcement comes a day after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, met Karat and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader N.Chandrababu Naidu. After his the meeting with Yadav, Karat had said that there was a common understanding with Samajwadi Party on several issues, including Iran. CPI-M had earlier threatened that it would bring the UPA Government "on its knees" and put it in the dock in Parliament if it insisted on referring the Iran nuke issue to the UN Security Council. Keeping his tirade against the Manmohan Singh Government up, Karat has been saying that the main issue is Iran and on other issues like FDI in retail he is looking forward to forming a joint platform in the Parliament to take on the UPA. The Left like the SP has extended its support to the UPA government from outside, but their relations with the Congress have always been jittery. The Left-UPA Coordination Committee will be meeting tomorrow to discuss the proposals of the Left for this year's budget.

Mulayam's n-trust initiative catches CPI (M) on wrong foot
by Gautam Ghosh

     Kolkata: The Samajwadi Party's bid to bring a "No Confidence" motion against the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre on the Iran issue has caught the Communist Party of India- Marxist (CPI-M) on the wrong foot. The SP, which expects other "secular parties" to support its move, has found a ready ally in Janata Dal (United), a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partner. The Marxists and other Left Front constituents like the CPI, RSP and the Forward Bloc, which are extremely unhappy over the UPA government's decision to vote against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the nuclear issue, have kept mum over Samajwadi party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's recent announcement about bringing a "No Confidence" motion against the Centre in the Parliament's budget session, but are unlikely to support it. According to informed sources, the SP move came in for an informal discussion among some politburo members of the CPI (M) during its two-day meeting here.

   The party, however, has not taken any formal decision on the issue and intends to review the situation once the SP officially moves the motion in the Lok Sabha. The CPI (M) wants to exert pressure on the Centre to modify its stand regarding the Iran issue, but has no intention to withdraw its support from the UPA government even if the latter refuses to accept its plea. What has actually queered the pitch for the Marxists is the adverse impact the Centre's Iran policy is likely to have on the minority community on the eve of Assembly polls in five states including West Bengal and Kerala. The CPI (M) will find it difficult to oppose the proposed "No Confidence" motion since it is perfectly in keeping with its stand regarding Iran's nuclear issue. Political observers believe that the Marxists may feel free to oppose the SP's motion only if the Bharatiya Janata Party decides to support it. The CPI (M) politburo, which discussed the Iran issue threadbare at its two-day meeting, has threatened to put the government "on the dock" if it insists on voting for a referral of Iran's nuclear issue to the UN Security Council. The matter is expected to be taken up at the Left parties' meeting with the UPA coordination committee in New Delhi tomorrow. The Marxists' primary concern at the moment, sources said, is to ensure the party's return to power in Bengal and Kerala following the Assembly elections. The CPI(M), therefore, does not intend to rub the Centre the wrong way even over the UPA's economic agenda. The Marxists are already quite upset over the Election Commission's pro-active role in Bengal over irregularities in the voters' list. The poll panel has already taken a serious view of the Left Front government's "non-cooperation" regarding its "Operation Clean Roll." The CPI (M) feels any further hardening in the Election Commission's attitude may stand in the way of its victory in the coming polls. Aware of the Iran issue's emotive appeal among the Muslims, the CPI (M) has decided to project itself as a hardcore anti-United States outfit.

    The party has already strongly opposed President George W. Bush's proposed visit to India in March and decided to organize country-wide protest demonstrations against it. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharee even went to the extent of describing Bush as "the leader of the most organized gang of killers," prompting US ambassador in India David Mulford to shoot off a protest letter. The principal Left Front partner, however, is also worried on another count. Some Front partners like the RSP and the Forward Bloc are not happy over the CPI (M)'s "tendency to surrender to the UPA government's dictate on almost every contentious issue." The two Left parties feel it is high time for the Left Front to review its stand vis-`-vis the Congress-led Centre and consider offering it only issue-based support.

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