No move to withdraw support to UPA, says Left

New Delhi, Jul 9: Rubbishing the argument that its crediblity was on the wane and the UPA partners like the DMK were asserting themselves as they did in the disinvestment issue, the Left parties today made it clear that they would not take the ''irresponsible step'' to withdraw support to the Manmohan Singh government.

The leaders of the CPI(M), CPI and RSP also emphasised that they would not change their political course or strategy and continue to press for implementation of the pro-poor agenda of the CMP.

Talking to sources, the Left leaders said even Mr Karunanidhi had to change his stand, which he expressed in letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Sunday to consider giving shares to NLC employees on preferential basis. The resistance from his party and the united might of the workers' unions forced him to change his stand, they said.

The leaders also dismissed the perception that the Left position had been weakened, as the government chose to give in to the DMK threat and not support the Left parties, who had been agitating on the issue for the last two years.

''The government gets panicky when a partner in the UPA threatens to quit. This is exactly what has happened in Karunanidhi case. As far as the Left is concerned it will continue to adopt a holistic view of the performance of the Manmohan Singh government,'' CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said.

The Left would re-think about the basis of its support not on a single issue, Mr Bardhan noted.

CPI National Secretary Shamim Faizi said they were willing to wait for even one month for the government's response to the Left's nine page letter on its two years of performance.

'' We want concrete answers on several points raised. We will consider some other issue in relation with the support to the government only after we receive the response,'' Mr Faizi said.

CPI(M) senior leader Nilotpal Basu, on the ''decreasing'' Left crediblity said: '' No it is absolutely not the case. On the other hand it has been consistent. It is all the more good that the other parties, the workers and the people as a whole are coming in the forefront to oppose the anti-economic policies of the Congress-led government.'' On Mr Karunanidhi taking to the 'threat course', Mr Basu said: ''Only two days earlier the DMK chief had talked about the workers holding shares. He had to change his stand following resistance from trade unions.'' ''In any case the role of Mr Karunanidhi in the whole episode is praise worthy,'' he noted.

The CPI(M) leader said there was no need for the Left to change its political course or strategy as 'Left is right in insisting on implementing the CMP'.

Mr Basu, however, termed the UPA-Left Coordination mechanism ''inadequate and imperfect.'' The platform set up for better coordination and understanding must enable discussion on policy issues, he added.

Even the Congress ally in the UPA, the Nationalist Congress party (NCP) has raised the issue and asked for broad-based coordination mechanism in the coalition itself to discuss policy matters.

CPI(M) veteran and Polit Bureau member M K Pandhe maintained that the government accepted Mr Karunanidhi's demand fearing that the instability at the Centre could be 'encashed' by the BJP.

'' We will review the over-all political situation at our forthcoming Polit Bureau meeting at the end of this month. We may also consider whether we should remain in the UPA-Left Coordination Panel or not,'' he added.

The joint pressure, the DMK from within and the Left from outside worked in stalling the disinvesting exercise, he noted.

From the very beginning, the Left had been agitating on several issues and mobilised public opinion on economic and foreign policy matters, he said. When US president Georege Bush visited India in March, the Left led country-wide protests and on the BHEL disinvestment issue, the government had to retract after it boycotted the UPA-Left Coordination meetings, he noted.

The Left leaders claimed that it was the Left which got certain concessions for workers, The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Right to Information Act, Prevention of Domestic Violence against Women Act among others.

UNI