Left to continue resistance to UPA's reforms

Even after its drubbing in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections, the Communist Party of India-Marxist said on Thursday that the Left parties would continue to resist any move by the United Progressive Alliance government to implement fresh economic reforms.

"Congress' pro-reforms policy is against national interest and any move to implement economic reforms by the UPA government will have to be resisted," the CPI-M said in an editorial in the party daily, Ganashakti. The party, it said, has to play a "responsible role" and Left parties will have to register protest inside and outside the Parliament "to project the common man's economic demands".

It claimed that the success of the UPA in the Lok Sabha elections was because of Left pressure for popular schemes like the NREGA, the act guaranteeing tribals' right to live in forests and social welfare. The Left Front, it said, secured not much less votes than the 2004

elections, but seats dropped substantially. "CPI-M lost 25 seats in West Bengal and Kerala this election, compared to the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. The CPI-M politburo has already called for introspection to detect reasons for such a failure," it said. The editorial said, "It is to be found out why a large chunk of people were alienated from the Leftists."

Admitting that the people had not accepted the credibility of the parties in the Third Front, the party daily said, "There was no impact of the Third Front as also its slogans in the minds of voters. People did not accept it as the real alternative." It resolved to earn the people's confidence again and rectify its mistakes as none other than the Left parties best looked after the interests of the working class. "This is quite urgent in the present political situation."