Left cynical about UPA's second innings with them

New Delhi, Oct 26 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's indication that he was ready to shake hands with the Left parties to fight the communal forces has not found favour with the latter, which is sceptical of his commitment to keep his words.

''His government's flip-flop on the Indo-US nuclear deal, the weak fight against communalism and anti-people economic reforms are questionable, leaders of the Communist parties told UNI today.

Left's lukewarm response to Dr Singh's readiness for second innings with them, comes a day after he said, ''I am not very happy to part company with our Left colleagues. There are issues which require parties that think alike to sit together and I very much hope that we can find ways and means to work with our Left colleagues.'' CPI leaders S Sudhakar Reddy and Shamim Faizi said, ''Our position is very clear. We parted company with the government on its shift to the right, on both economic and foreign policy issues.'' The UPA government despite having no majority in Parliament has gone ahead with the conclusion of the Indo-US deal, they said adding that besides, it is not ready to realise that ''if our economy is insulated to some extent from the global meltdown, it is because of the Left's resistance to the government's policy of so called reforms in financial sector.'' As far as fighting communal and divisive forces is concerned, they said, Dr Singh should first look into his Home Ministry which was reluctant to rein in the communal forces.

CPI(M) senior leader Mohammad Salim said ''the government flip-flopped on the Indo-US nuclear deal particularly vis-a-via the Left's firm stand, so the question of trust worthiness comes first if the Left has to deal with some one, secondly the question is of convicion and principle and thirldy the question of safeguarding the interest of man on the streets.'' The Communist leaders said the Manmohan Singh government never thought of the poor man , farmers and the downtrodden but only about how the economic reforms contribute to creating billionaires.

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