Deal Ya No Deal, its time to teach Left a lesson

Time is just right for UPA to seriously rethink about continuing its marriage with the Left. UPA’s strategy to engage with the comrades, even though their ideologies don’t overlap by an inch, just in order keep NDA away from power, has indeed burned UPA several times. We can only hope that it has realized its mistake.

Whether nuclear deal is justified or not, is still debatable and more than half the nation probably feels that way. But the important thing is, as always the Left has managed to oppose a policy that is going to bring energy as well as economic benefit to India. The Left, comprised mainly of CPI(M) and CPI, is supposedly worried that the deal would jeopardize India's nuclear sovereignty. Since when did Left become concerned about India's nuclear sovereignty? Their acceptance of Chinese nuclear test in 1964 and their opposition to the Pokhran tests in 1998 - an episode that should bring pride to every Indian - seems to strike a contradictory note. Has the Left undergone a transformation? Indeed not. Their concerns stem from the fact that their ideology cannot permit alignment with Unites States, their ideological foe. If this deal would have been proposed by China, the comrades would have upheld it as an important deal for the progress of the nation. Succumbing to Chinese pressure wouldn't have been a problem either. After all, their criticism of Pokhran blasts emerged from their deep concerns about China-India relations. The Left doesn't even see how China is relishing the failure of Indian government to push the deal through. But that does not bother the communists, for ideological principles are above national interests, even if these principles serve other nations more than the nation they claim to be concerned about.

The hardliner Marxist, Prakash Karat, General Secretary of CPI(M) has managed to attract enough media attention with his threats to rock the UPA government. Now it’s time to act with sensibility - a term Indian communists are oblivious to. The people of India have got fed up of the constant threatening by the CPI(M)-CPI duo, to pull down a government that is trying to implement reforms. It’s indeed time to shun their support.

One can scan the recent three year record of the Left and easily understand how passionately the CPI(M) and CPI have tried to obstruct every economic reform initiated by the government. It's for a reason the Left is perceived as being anti-development. Prakash Karat and his politbureau badly lost a chance to derive advantage from golden opportunity the 2004 general elections offered them - a chance to participate in governance at national level and prove that the Left also can be progressive. Instead they have managed to convey to Indian citizens outside the bounds of West Bengal and Kerala - a message that says out loud - "Bring us to power and we promise that we will undo the economic progress India has achieved". Thanks for the offer, but we citizens definitely are not ready to see our nation turn into another West Bengal or Kerala. The miserable performance on economic front of West Bengal and 100 percent literate Kerala in last two decades speaks volumes about your abilities to govern.

Had the communists actually been a part of the government instead of externally supporting it, not a single reform would have got pushed through. Their inner voice which guided them to stay out of the government has turned out to really be a blessing in disguise for the nation and probably the only thing they we can thank the communists for - for letting UPA achieve something rather than nothing. Laloo and his likes are much more favorable allies because they at least don’t come in the way of economic reforms. Even the BJP-led opposition has supported all reforms.

There has been a clear sign of presence of factions in the communist parties, especially CPI(M), who believe that it’s high time the communists learnt to come to terms with a world the modern day people prefer. These members know that they cannot afford to ignore how West Bengal desperately needs foreign investment and America is the biggest investor in the country. The CM of W Bengal - Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee recently spoke in favor of clearing the Nuclear deal as it would bring energy - something that W.Bengal badly needs to industrialize. There were indications of the Left's treat fizzling out when another high profile CPI(M) politbureau member - Jyoti Basu made a similar statement about how Left should go for the deal and not withdraw support. But he soon made a complete U-turn and preferred to stick to, probably unwillingly, the Left's collective decision of reviving the threat.

A recently conducted survey by TOI reveals that 58 percent of respondents feel that the UPA should break ties with the Left and gear up for re-elections. Many reformist leaders in the Congress party feel the same way. Congress should realize that the deal is at stake in any case. It either has to concede to Left's demand in order to stay in power for the remainder of the term or go ahead with the deal, in which case the Left may pull down the support and stop the deal. Even if the Left is able to keep UPA away from the deal till the end of 2007, their goal would still be achieved as, 2008 being the year of US presidential elections, the US Congress would have no time for the deal.

If the deal is anyway not to go through, it’s not a significant loss to India because there are still some unresolved issues, but it probably makes lot of sense for Congress to end relationships with the Left. A survey about early polls indicated that Congress would manage to bag as many as more than 260 Lok Sabha seats. Analysts say that this is the best Congress can achieve. The survey also indicated the Left parties would suffer significantly. Even BJP would lose seats as its anti-US stand has not gone down well with the middle class which forms BJP's main support base. Sure, the country would have to go through mid-term elections which would cost the country's exchequer dearly. But citizens would reconcile themselves by looking at it as a readjustment of the 5-year election cycle. If, with this heavy cost of elections, we manage to rescue the remaining two years from Left's clutches, the money is well-spent and would be more than offset by the fast paced economic reforms that could be achieved in those two years free of Left's intervention. Moreover, the deal is not the only problem the Left has with India-US relations. It is now demanding a complete turnaround and wants India out from the strategic alliance with the US. The left leadership has a serious problem in realizing how much Indian economy benefits from alliance with the US.

UPA was in a much better shape to break ties with Left during the earlier phase of Left threats. But instead of riding on this anti-Left wave, it has hurt its prospects of winning close-to-majority seats by making a highly controversial affidavit in context to the Sethu Samudram project that questioned the existence of Lord Ram. This may help the BJP a bit, but not significantly. BJP stands to loose significantly due to anti-incumbency factor in the states it currently rules.

Its less significant whether the mid-term polls benefit the Congress or the BJP. The most significant outcome is that the nation stands out to benefit the most, as the polls would manage to rescue it from Left's stranglehold, and the time is just right for that.

Authored by: Mandar Garge