Karat makes fresh call for third front

BY OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI

July 14: CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat on Monday renewed his call for a third front. He said the Left parties were trying to rally other democratic and secular forces "who do not want neither the Congress nor the BJP to be the only alternative".

He iterated that the Left will vote against the trust vote in the Lok Sabha.

"We will do our utmost to defeat the trust vote," he said, adding that he expects more parties to join them against the nuclear deal.

In a speech launching a nationwide campaign ahead of a crucial trust vote next week in the Lok Sabha, Mr Karat dismissed the accusation that the Left was hobnobbing with "communal forces".

What right does the Congress have to level such an accusation, he wondered aloud, and listed occasions when the Congress party conspired with the BJP to topple the governments of Mr V.P. Singh, Mr H.D. Deve Gowda and Mr I.K. Gujral.

He said the Left has successfully prevented the BJP from getting even one candidate elected as an MLA or MP in the three states — Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura — where the Left Front is in power.

"That is our record," he said, contrasting it with Congress’s fall and a corresponding rise of BJP in Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka.

Mr Karat went on to assert that those who took sides with the Congress in support of the nuclear deal will repent later, in a veiled reference to the Samajwadi Party’s decision to support the deal and vote with the UPA on the trust vote.

Attacking the government for not taking appropriate steps to rein in inflation and the shooting prices of essential commodities, he said the nuclear deal would be used by the US to pressurise the country to allow foreign direct investment in retail, agriculture, education, banking, insurance and other sectors of economy.

"If farmers’ interests need to be protected, then the nuclear deal will have to be stopped," he said.

Taking a pot-shot at the Congress, he said the Congress’s slogan of "Congress ka haath, Aam Admi ke saath (Congress is with common man)" had become "Congress ka Haath, America ke Saath (Congress is with America)". CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan said, "We have never said that we are voting with BJP. We have talked to other parties, not to the BJP. If the other parties want to talk to us, we cannot push them out. We are voting against the UPA because of its policies." "If the BJP wants to vote against UPA, they have a right to do so. Those who voted along with BJP are now teaching us. We will continue to fight communal forces," he said. AIFB leader Debabrata Biswas and RSP general secretary T.J. Chandrachoodan also addressed the meeting.