President's plea for two-party system irks Left

New Delhi, May 10 (UNI) Terming President APJ Abdul Kalam's plea for a two-party system ''unwarranted and uncalled for'', the Left parties today said the President should have not made a ''sweeping'' statement on the emerging political scenario.

Addresing Parliament on the occasion of 150th anniversary of the 1857 uprising, Dr Kalam said, ''Many challenges need to be responded to: the emergence of multi-party coalitions as a regular form of government, that needs to be rapidly evolved as a stable, two-party system.....'' Calling the statement ''uncalled for, dangerous and irresponsible and non-consistant'', CPI leaders A B Bardhan and Shamim Faizi said the President had no right to comment on the emerging poltcial scenario.

''In a multi-cultural, multi-linguistic and multi-ethnic society, India is bound to have a coalition government,'' the leaders said.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member M K Pandhe said, ''We do not approve of a two-party system. The Congress and the BJP have the same policies, so there is always a need and relevance of the Third Front.

''May be, he is placating the big parties for support for the second term,'' he said.

Addressing a press conference, party floor leader in the Lok Sabha Gurudas Dasgupta said Dr Kalam should have not made a ''sweeping statement''.

Reminded about the President's similiar suggestion in the past as well, the CPI veteran said, ''It is a different matter if he had said something unofficially. But today he has said at an official function, that, too, in the Central hall of Parliament.'' The CPI leader deplored that the President by suggesting for a two-party system meant that there should remain only two parties- the BJP and the Congress.

''This is toally unwarranted, uncalled for and non-consistant and irresponsbile.'' The CPI leaders maintained that India was bound to have a coalition system.

''The two-party system is a curse of the developed, capitalist society, that is monolithic,'' the leaders added.

They claimed that India was now set in a coalition era which would last long and that it could survive a democratic society only in a multi-party system.

UNI