Nuclear Thread - 3

[acharya]

<b>
Congress is a sinking ship, says Karat</b>

Special Correspondent

Appeals to ‘friends in UPA’ to jump off the ship and join the Left endeavour

— Photo: R. Ragu

For realignment: CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, CPI leader D. Raja, and Forward Bloc leader Debabrata Biswas at a public meeting in Chennai on Wednesday.

CHENNAI: Describing the Congress as a “sinking ship,” CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat on Wednesday advised the “friends in the UPA” to jump off the ship as soon as possible and join the endeavour of the Left to unite all democratic forces.

“We will bring about a realignment of political forces in the country,” he said at a public meeting organised by the Left parties here to explain why they withdrew support to the Congress-led UPA government. Those who think that the future of the country was the Congress and the BJP would be proved wrong, he said.

Rejecting criticism that by withdrawing support to the Congress the Left would end up helping the BJP, he said while the Left was able to fight communalism, the BJP was able to come to power in many Congress-ruled States using the failures and the misrule of the Congress. The policies of the Congress had failed to isolate the BJP. But the Left had a proven record of isolating the BJP in all the three States where it was in power, the CPI(M) leader said.

The Congress would not be able to fight the communal forces by joining hands with the U.S. because the BJP was the most important pro-American and imperialist party. “You cannot defeat the communal forces by sitting on the lap of George Bush.” The Congress was trying to tie the country to the apron strings of the U.S. The UPA, he said, was no longer capable of fighting communal forces.

The UPA had not only failed to fulfil the Common Minimum Programme, but it had actually gone back on the CMP, Mr. Karat said. In one year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh substituted the CMP with President Bush.

Accusing the Congress of constantly trying to deceive the Left, he said that just a day after it said that it would not go to the IAEA before winning the confidence vote, the Congress-led government went to the IAEA. “We will not forgive the betrayal of the Congress.” In the next election, the Congress would have to pay a heavy price and would be punished by the people for this.

The Left would not be worried even if the UPA government won the vote of confidence. “Whether they win or lose, we will continue the struggle to get the nuclear deal scrapped,” he said. The Congress had credibility so long as it had the support of the Left. Now its credibility was at stake because of some opportunistic elements.

CPI national secretary D. Raja pointed out that it was the Congress that joined hands with the BJP to pull down the National Front government led by V.P. Singh and the United Front governments led by Deve Gowda and I.K. Gujral. The Prime Minister’s Office had become a corporate office, he said.

Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas wondered how the country, which faced high rates of poverty and unemployment, could become a great power merely by signing the nuclear deal.