Advani cleared the Ram Sethu project: Left

NEW DELHI: Left parties on Sunday took the BJP to task for 'misusing' the Ram Sethu issue to retrieve its lost political ground and pointed out that the Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project was the saffron party's own creation.
  
The CPI( M), CPI and the Forward Bloc said the project was prepared by the Vajpayee government and order for its clearance was given by Mr L K Advani, the then Home Minister.
  
They denied that the Left and the DMK are the two major factors that have created a situation of uncertainty for the 40-month Manmohan Singh government.
  
The Left parties remark came a day after Mr Advani said the Left was strongly opposing the Indo-US nuclear deal while the DMK was trying to create 'unrest by making all-out efforts to demolish Ram
Sethu,' thereby compounding the situation for the Congress-led coalition.
  
On Mr Advani's attempts to revive the Ram Temple wave by way of the new found Ram Sethu issue, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member M K Pandhe said, "Ironically the Sethusamudram Ship canal project was cleared when Mr Advani was the Home Minister."
  
The Left parties denied that there are inherent contradications between the UPA and the Left, saying they had extended an outside support to the Congress-led coalition based on the Common Minimum
Programme and wanted the Centre not to deviate from the CMP on  economic and foreign policy matters.
   
The top Left leaders, however, refused to be drawn on the speculation of pre-poning of the elections to the Lok Sabha saying it is not on their agenda at the moment.
   
The Left leaders' remarks assume significance as government chief negotiator and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said he 'is hopeful' of resolution of the  impasse on the nuclear deal at the UPA-Left political panel meeting on October five while the Left interlocutor Sitaram Yechury has hinted that he wants Congress-led UPA coalition  to wait even beyond six months-till the new administration  assumes office in the US in 16 months.
  
CPI leaders A B Bardhan and Shamim Faizi said the UPA-Left Political Committee discussions on the issue will continue for quite some time as the Left parties have raised additional queries as well.
 
Devrajan, however, accused the Centre of 'mishandling' the Ram Sethu issue. He also put the government in the dock for its failure to give a 'new political direction' to the country during the last 40 months rule and termed the Left outside support to it as 'political adventurism.'
  
To the repeated observation of Mr Advani and NCP boss and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar pertaining to 'inner contradictions' and 'uncertainty inherent in coalition set up,' the CPI leaders said the Left is not part of the same.

"We are supporting the UPA coalition from outside, Left only want that the UPA adhere to the CMP and take the midterm correctives. If it continues to deviate from the CMP, it wil be inviting trouble for the coalition."
  
They said the Left have a clear perception about the policies to be pursued and future political set up at the Centre. "We want to build a Left and democratic alternative based on well defined programmes and policies." 
 
Mr Bardhan and Mr Faizi said the country is in a transitory phase and they expected many more such transitory phases before arriving at the real alternative.
  
To Mr Advani's accusation that the Left and the DMK had created uncertainty for the Congress-led coalition, Mr Faizi said Mr Advani should recall the tantrums of Trinamool Congress chief Mamta Banerjee which kept the NDA entire tenure in an unstabilised condition during its six-year rule.
  
Besides, Telegu Desam party chief Chandrababu Naidu, who was always an outside supporter, issued threats to gain favours for his state- Andhra Pradesh.
  
"Who does not know how Mr George Fernades went and came in the Cabinet showing the instability of the NDA government?" the CPI leaders said.
   
On Mr Mukherjee's reference to the resolution of the issue on October 5, Mr Pandhe said, "the solution is possible only when the government freezes the deal. We have already made it clear that wewill not allow the deal to be operationalised," Mr Pandhe, the CITU chief, said.

"We are firm on it... this is why this is not even on the agenda of our party Polit Bureau and Central Committee deliberations in Kolkata beginning September 28. For us it is nomore a topic of discussion. The masses' instinctive response to our nationwide campaign against the deal makes it more clear."
  
On the 'inevitability of the mid term or pre poning of the LokSabha polls,' the CPI(M) leader refused to speculate saying, "Let us first see the outcome of the UPA-Left Panel meet. At the moment we are not discussing the polls."
  
Mr Devrajan said his party is also hopeful that the October 5 meeting would pave the wave for an amicable solution to the deadlock over the Pact.

"This is why we never demanded that the deal be scrapped. We want the government to seriously study the impact of the Hyde Act on the 123 Agreement for which we have provided written notes."