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Surjeet reiterates issue-based support to Congress

Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet today firmly reiterated his party's stand to extend "issue-based" support to the Congress in its all-out bid to replace the ''totally inefficient'' Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre.

Speaking to newspersons at the formal briefing on the second day of the 16th party congress in Calcutta, Surjeet dealt at length on his party's stand on the present political situation and said, ''Since the people at large do not want any fresh elections at the present juncture, we resolve to extend only issue-based support to the Congress or any other coalition for that matter.''

However, at the same time he made it clear that none of the party or coalition had approached the CPI-M so far in the matter.

Surjeet said in the wake of the dangerous growth of criminalisation in the BJP-led politics, and the government's'' utter failure ''to carry forward the momentum of the liberalisation and globalisation process, there was no alternative, but to seek an immediate replacement of the present BJP government at the Centre". "Yes, we are totally in for the ouster of Vajpayee government to avoid any further danger to the nation," Surjeet said.

The CPI-M also denounced the BJP-led government's nuclear policy, "which goes counter to the country's longstanding foreign policy of non-alignment and peace and harms relations with its neighbours".

The party, in its draft political resolution for the ongoing 15th congress, said it was only the BJP which advocated the making of nuclear weapons. To fulfil the long-cherished RSS demand that India should make the atom bomb, the Vajpayee government, itself beleaguered with difficulties within its coalition and having a precarious majority in Parliament, went ahead with conducting the nuclear tests and announced that India was weaponising.

The resolution said the tests accompanied by statements against China by the defence minister was followed up by the letter of the prime minister to US President Bill Clinton citing China as the main security threat along with Pakistan. But the BJP was "conspicuously silent" about the US military base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean which stocks nuclear weapons, it Said, adding that the disruption of the process of normalisation of relations with China, going on for the past one decade, would only help US imperialism to intervene in the region in a bigger way.

The tests, the resolution said, were followed by the ''jingoistic'' statements of the BJP-VHP-RSS leaders. Union Home Minister L K Advani's "belligerent" statement that the Kashmir problem would be solved in the light of the new situation of India being a nuclear weapons power had provided the opportunity for the Western powers to internationalise the issue.

The CPI-M said any confrontation and arms build-up between India and Pakistan would lead to diversion of priorities, the country should have in dealing with vital problems of the people concerning poverty, hunger, disease and unemployment.

UNI

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