After trying to isolate him and push him into a corner on the Indo-US nuclear agreement, the Left suddenly seems to have decided to go soft on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat indicated the nuanced Left stand in an interview published in a Kolkata newspaper on Wednesday where he said the Left never doubted the Prime Minister?s ?unquestioned integrity? and that his desire to push ahead with the deal stemmed out of ?strong convictions?.
Karat?s remarks, which was promptly endorsed by other Left parties this evening, is being seen as a Left strategy to call for a temporary ceasefire on the nuclear issue. ??There are differences on the nuclear deal and these continue to remain. But there was never any disrespect or disregard towards the Prime Minister and we always hold him in high respect and high esteem,?? CPI leader D Raja told reporters on the sidelines of his party’s national council meeting here on Wednesday.
??We never made any statements against the Prime Minister. Deal is one of the many issues we have differences with the government. But at no point of time we took it to personal levels, even the government authorities did not do so,?? a senior politburo member told FE.
In his interview, Karat maintained that the Prime Minister would not have to step down if the deal did not go through and disagreed that there was any lack of trust between the Left and the Prime Minister. ??It is true that there has been a basic difference in approach between the Prime Minister and the Left on the nuclear agreement. We recognise that he has strong convictions on the soundness and utility of the agreement. Our differing view on the agreement does not mean that we do not have respect for the Prime Minister. His integrity is unquestioned??.
Left parties such as the CPI and the RSP have been saying publicly that the government taking a back-foot on the deal is a political victory for the Left. Senior CPI leaders were even claiming that after the nuclear deal they will now take up the issues such as price rise with the government. The smaller allies public statements, however, have not gone well with the CPI(M) top brass.
“This is not a win-win situation. Like on other issues, we are taking a political stand on the nuclear issue also. But as this issue is identified with the sovereignty of the country, we cannot allow the government to go forward and operationalise the deal with our support,” the politburo member added.
