History repeat for Cong

By Venkatesh Kesari

New Delhi

July 18: History is repeating itself, with the Congress desperately depending on the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha to sail through the July 22 trust vote in the Lok Sabha after long 15 years. At that time, the P.V. Narasimha Rao government got isolated on the Babri Masjid demolition. This time, his finance minister, now heading the UPA government, Dr Manmohan Singh, is depending on the JMM and small parties to stay in power for a few months after the Left’s withdrawal of support on the nuclear deal.

At that time, Congress "managers" had helped Narasimha Rao in the trial test but this time Amar Singh, Lalu Prasad Yadav and a few others are assisting Dr Singh in mobilising the numbers. Interestingly, RLD chief Ajit Singh was a key player in July 1993 and is so this time as well.

In 1993, the saffron party and the Congress had became the main targets of the secular parties but now the Congress and its allies plan to hit the Left in the battle for survival.

With the trading of accusations and counter-accusations with the Left getting sharper ahead of the trust vote, the Congress on Friday charged them with suffering from "Stockholm syndrome". "They are suffering from Stockholm syndrome... enjoying even while they are suffering," Congress media department chief M. Veerappa Moily said, asking the Left to come out of this.

"The Left seems to have adopted a destructive role. I appeal to them to play a positive role," he said.

Referring to an editorial in the CPI(M) mouthpiece which said that the Left party would do "anything" to prevent the nuclear deal and the UPA government getting the numbers, Mr Moily said, "What do they mean by anything... Horse-trading? They are compromising the interests of the country." He said, "Even if the numbers of the NDA, Left and the Bahujan Samaj Party are combined, they are no way close to the halfway mark." Mr Moily said these parties want to "destabilise the entire politics and democracy" of the country. Accusing the BJP of following a communal agenda, he alleged that the Left has joined the bandwagon.

Attacking the Left, the Congress leader asked, "We want to know from Prakash Karat as to when did the Left join the BJP family."

Referring to the meeting between the Left leaders and BSP chief Mayawati, he said the Uttar Pradesh chief minister was facing charges before the Supreme Court. "Karat goes there and meets her. Is there no morality involved here?" asked Mr Moily.

Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party has refused to take the blame for the split in the UNPA following its decision to support the UPA government on the nuclear deal, saying the leaders left the coalition themselves.

"It (UNPA) split on its own. The leaders left it themselves," SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav told a magazine.

On choosing former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for seeking advice on the nuclear deal, he said, "It was INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala who suggested Kalam’s name for consultation on the issue."

"Since I was the UNPA president, I went to meet Kalam who said that India will lag behind in the strategic field if the deal does not get through. What is left after a scientist of Kalam’s stature agrees to the deal?" he said.

Asked how he felt after parting ways with the Left, the SP leader said that CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat and the CPI’s A.B. Bardhan were "his good old friends".