Karat electoral line under fire at meet
The “Review Report of the Political-Tactical Line of the 19th Party Congress” of the CPI(M) being debated at the ongoing four-day extended Central Committee of the CPI(M) targeted the party general-secretary Mr Prakash Karat’s electoral line.
The section 1.21 of the review report questioned the Karat-line of trying to forge an alternative by snapping ties with the UPA before the last Lok Sabha polls.
Talking about the “Electoral Tactical Line,” the review report stated: Firstly the a non-Congress secular parties in three or four states could not be the basis for projecting a national level electoral alternative.”
It may be recalled despite objections from the Bengal unit of the party, which had foreseen the danger of snapping ties with the UPA, Mr Karat went ahead and tried forge alliances with the AIADMK, BJD and BSP. Flanked by the BSP chief, Ms Mayawati and the AIADMK supremo, Ms Jayalalitha Mr Karat had announced his vision to forge an electoral alternative. While he pledged unconditional support to both the BSP and the AIADMK, during the polls, none of these parties agreed to join hands with his outfit and fielded candidates against the CPI(M) men in both UP and Tamil Nadu.
The section also pointed out that the it was a political error to term such a formation of as an secular alternative. It stated: “We should not have called for the formation of an ‘alternative secular government’ and should have stuck instead to the call for strengthening the non-Congress, non-BJP alternative.”
It also pointed finger at Mr Karat’s so called assessment on the nuclear deal. Section 1.10 in the review report stated, “ The assessment made in the Party Congress did not prove to be correct. We have to review the events that took place and the stand taken in 2008.”
A senior CPI(M) functionary recalled that on November 9, 2007, Mr Karat and the CPI general secretary, Mr A.B. Bardhan “had luncheon meeting with the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi, where both of them gave a green signal for the government to go the IAEA.” It was claimed Mr Karat gave the signal, “without consulting either the party politburo or the central committee.” He felt that Mr Karat seemed to have “overestimated his clout in the UPA at that juncture and thought he could prevent the deal from moving forward.”
That the Left parties gave green signal was made clear in this particular section. “...the Congress leadership refused to abide by the undertaking arrived at with the Left that they will not go to the IAEA Board of Governors for approval of the agreement...”
Post new comment