Centre should implement CMP: Jyoti Basu

Kolkata, Aug 5 (UNI) Veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu today said the Left parties would create pressure on the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre for implementing the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) Agenda.

Speaking at the Muzaffar Ahmed Memorial awards ceremony here, ''We are supporting the UPA government from outside to stop the BJP from coming to power. The Congress has their own policies but the Left parties are supporting them on the basis of CMP. Therefore it should be implemented thoroughly,'' Mr Basu said.

He alleged the UPA government at the Centre was not having independent foreign policy and becoming pro-American.

Mr Basu also said, ''Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee had come to my house few days back and I told them not to follow pro-American policies. Mr Singh assured me that ''we are not the pro-American.'' ''We want both the Centre and Left Coordination to sit together regularly and solve problems,'' he said.

Later, veteran CPI (M) leader Samar Mukherjee conferred award to noted historian Irfan Habib for his book ''Indian Economy'' and Jitendra Nath Roy for Bengali book ''Bengal's factory and his Technical Education''.

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose were also present on the occasion.

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