Left to name economy, foreign policy in letter

The Left parties on Friday said they are in the process of finalising a comprehensive statement containing the reasons and grounds for their withdrawal of support to the United Progressive Alliance government and will meet in New Delhi on Tuesday to discuss the entire gamut of political developments.

While confirming the meeting on Tuesday evening, the statement, being characterised as a chargesheet, will not centre around only the nuclear issue. Instead it will give a detailed account of the government's failure to curb double digit inflation, mismanagement of economy and crisis in agriculture among the other things.

Talking to UNI, the Left leaders said, "The timing of the withdrawal will depend on the nature of the Congress reply to our clarifications when the government is approaching the International Atomic Energy Agency." In a joint meeting in Delhi on Friday, the Left had set Monday's deadline to respond to their query.

The statement will also spell out how the government deviated from country's independent foreign policy and tilted towards the United States, and how it voted against Iran in the IAEA and entered into an understanding with Israel with whom it carried out one billion dollar trade during 2006.

Communist Party of India leaders A B Bardhan and Shamim Faizi said the Left naturally will raise all the issues concerning the economy and foreign policy while preparing its statement for withdrawal of support.

Basically it will be a critical review of deviation from the Common Minimum Programme as well as other economic and social issues.

The Communist Party of India leaders, without naming Defence Minister AK Antony who has rejected the Left's charge that the UPA was compromising India's foreign policy, said the traditional foreign policy enunciated by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had been given a go-by. It was based on not joining any bloc. The emphasis of the country's foreign policy was on the Non Aligned Movement, with the focus on anti-imperalism and close relations with the developing countries, now "all these are being rejected by the present leadership of the Congress party."

On a media report that Communist Party of India-Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu had asked party general secretary Prakash Karat to go slow over the pullout in view of party's likely big loss in West Bengal and Kerala in elections, a party senior functionary replied in the negative.

"The decision of withdrawal has been taken in the party's highest decision-making bodies: the politburo and the central committee, which have representatives from West Bengal and Kerala," a CPI-M leader added.

On Antony's statement, Forward Bloc national secretary G Devrajan said, "There is no use as the government has already been trapped by the US. It is so visible now." On the statement, he said it will also contain various violations of the CMP.