Having realised that the Indo-US nuclear deal is not aam admi enough as a vote-catching issue, the CPI(M) appears set to switch gears.
Because it doesn't want to be left behind in the coming elections, discovers DNA’s Kay Benedict
Having realised that the Indo-US nuclear deal is not aam admi enough as a vote-catching issue, the CPI(M) appears set to switch gears. It plans to take economic issues in general and spiralling prices in particular to a new pitch. This change of tack by the Left is prompted by a strategy to distance itself from the Congress-led UPA government (which it supports) so that it does not suffer anti-incumbency at the time of general elections.
Some analysts are of the view that the CPI(M), when and if it makes a case for withdrawal of support to the government, would do so on economic issues rather than the nuclear deal. So it hardly came as a surprise when the CPI(M) blasted finance minister P Chidambaram on Sunday for his anti-Left utterances on Saturday.
Chidambaram made it amply clear whom he was referring to when he said in Madurai on Saturday that "some 60 members of parliament" criticised everything done by prime minister Manmohan Singh and he himself. "What do they want us to do……distribute poverty in the country?
Stung by this, CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury and senior leader Brinda Karat reacted sharply saying that the FM was "misleading" people.
Speaking to DNA, Brinda said, "He (Chidambaram) misses the point. We had said it is not statistical state of growth but the pattern of growth which matters. Growth for who? Who benefits, that's the crucial question. In the neo-liberal framework of growth, benefits have not reached the people while inequality has highly intensified."
"Chidambaram is attempting to mislead the general public in terms of what the Left stands," Yechury added. "The finance minister should be more concerned about inclusive growth and not the growth of a small group. We are not against growth per se, but against growth that benefits a small minority."
In his harangue against the Left, Chidamabaram said that those who claim that growth only helps the rich are the "worst enemies of the poor."
The CPI(M)'s new focus on economic issues began to be clear on March 18 when the party's MPs walked out of the Lok Sabha protesting the government's lack of response to the issue of price rise. The same day, CPI(M) leaders Prakash Karat, his wife Brinda and Yechury among others sat on a dharna at Jantar Mantar lambasting the UPA government for its "failure" to check price rise. A party delegation also submitted a memorandum to the prime minister on the subject.
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