Left is not a 'veto' on everything, says Karat

New Delhi, Sep 16: Terming the role of Left forces in national politics as that of an ''opposition to policies'', top Marxist leader Prakash Karat has said they wouldn't function as a ''veto on everything'' to pull down the government.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary, however, made it clear that though there was no better alternative to a Congress-led government at the moment, his party was working towards creating a ''third alternative'' in the long-term.

''We don't intend to function as a veto on everything and pull down the government,'' Mr Karat told the CNN-IBN's 'Devil's Advocate' programme to be telecast tomorrow night.

On a Third Front, he said it was an alternative his party wants but was not ''do-able or see-able'' in the near future.

''So we will work for the third alternative but that is a much more long-term process,'' he said.

Mr Karat said his party would not like a hastily-formed Third Front as it would be ''premature'' and would not last.

''So we want to build a more stable alternative which will take more time. We are working towards it,'' he said adding it would be created on the basis of common policies rather than simply bringing parties together.

Taking credit for reversing some of the government's decisions like disinvestment in profit-making public sector undertakings (PSUs), he said the Left influence was limited outside Parliament where the Centre acts by cabinet or executive decision.

He warned that further opening up of domestic retail industry for foreign investment would be impossible for the government without a wider political consensus.

''We play a role of opposition to policies. Today the situation in the country is any disinvestment in profitable PSUs will not take place because there is widespread political opposition and that's not confined to the Left and we have created that climate,'' Mr Karat said.

Claiming that a strong Left has shifted the ''whole terrain of political debate'' in the country, he said the role of the Left was to act as the ''sentinel of people's interests''.

However, he was candid in accepting that the Left had been ignored by the government on issues ranging from the EPF interest rate hike to modernisation of airports to Women's Reservation Bill.

''The government functions in its own way,'' he reasoned.

On the Women's Reservation Bill, he said the government would need to introduce it in the next session of Parliament and differences among UPA partners should be sorted out internally.

''There is no (other) way,'' Mr Karat said.

He said he was looking forward to a ''very detailed response'' at an exclusive UPA-Left meeting to the nine-page critical assesment of the two years of UPA government presented three months ago.

He, however, described the UPA-Left Coordination Committee as a ''valuable mechanism'' saying he hoped to improve its functioning.

Mr Karat rubbished senior BJP leader L K Advani's observation that the Left should not have any say in foreign policy and security matters. ''But we are intervening in foreign policy matters,'' he said in an apparent reference to the Left stance on the Indo-US nuclear deal and Iran and Nepal issues.

UNI