Withdrawing support to UPA on Indo-US nuclear deal was a mistake,Says Comrade GS CPIM
Does CPIM seek fresh honeymoon dates with Congress?
Palash Biswas
We have been discussing Yechury phenomenon since he has been elevated as the comrade General Secretary.Only last Day,Amalendu wrote a piece and on the day one I was afraid that he would try to readjust vote bank equation afresh skipping the challenge to lead Indian people.
I am sorry to say Comrade GS has no ambition to expand Party organization beyond Bengal as he defeated Karat to become GS with the support of Bengali comrades and now,he is adamant to get Left back in rule in Bengal while Mamata Banerjee seems not to allow space whatsoever and she is well supported by RSS Hindutva Brigade.
Media reports that Seven years after the Left parties withdrew support to the Manmohan Singh government on the issue of the Indo-US nuclear deal, the CPI(M) on Sunday acknowledged the bad timing of the step and its failure to make the deal an election issue.
The party's new General SecretarySitaram Yechury said that in retrospect, the Left parties should have linked the withdrawal of support to the government with people's issues such as price rise. Yechury had told a news agency in a recent interview that the Left should not have withdrawn support to the government on the issue of nuclear deal but clarified today that there was no option but to withdraw support on the issue. However, he acknowledged that the Left parties could not make it an election issue.
Communists realize the blunders very very late and history might not be rewritten again and again.
Thus,Yechury maintained during the interview that the party's decision to oppose the nuclear deal was correct. "We said that this was not the issue (to withdraw support). We reviewed it later. In hindsight, we have said we could not make it a people's issue (in the elections). It should have been a people's issue like price rise and the UPA abandoning the 'aam aadmi' perspective," Yechury said. "And it was also the timing (of withdrawal) for which we also self-criticised. But the issue of (opposing) the nuclear deal, we have no regrets and we think is correct." By going ahead with the nuclear deal, it was a signal that the UPA wanted to jettison the Left, he said.
The nuclear deal was not part of the UPA's Common Minimum Programme, he says but there was "tremendous pressure on India to be a subordinate ally of the US strategic interests in the world. We have been vindicated on this". Yechury was replying to a question on the decline of the Left forces including CPI(M) after the 2009 elections and whether snapping ties with UPA on the Indo-US nuclear deal was a mistake.
While the Left got 64 seats in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, its numbers fell to 24 in 2009 and 10 in the 2014 polls. In 2009, the CPI(M) Central Committee had said in its poll review: "The decision to withdraw support to the (UPA-I) government when it decided to go ahead to operationalise the nuclear deal was correct.
"It was based on our understanding that the Party cannot support a government which is entering into a comprehensive strategic tie-up with US imperialism in which the nuclear deal was ... 'the cementing factor'. However, we could not mobilise people on the nuclear issue and rally them during the election."
ভুল, মানলেন ইয়েচুরি
পরমাণু চুক্তি ইস্যুতে ইউপিএ সরকারের উপর থেকে সমর্থন তুলে নেওয়ার সিদ্ধান্ত ভুল ছিল, মানলেন সিপিএমের নতুন সাধারণ সম্পাদক সীতারাম ইয়েচুরি৷ মেনে নিলেন, ভুল ইস্যুতে লড়াই করার জন্যই একের পর এক নির্বাচনে বামেদের ভরাডুবি হয়েছে৷ ইয়েচুরি বলেন, পরমাণু নীতির বদলে যদি মূল্যবৃদ্ধির ইস্যুতে সমর্থন তুলে নেওয়া হত, তা হলে সাধারণ মানুষ সেটা বুঝতে পারতেন, সমর্থন করতেন৷ কিন্তু পরমাণু শক্তির বিষয়টির সঙ্গে মানুষের কোনও সরাসরি সংযোগ নেই৷ বামেরাও জনগণকে বিষয়টির গুরুত্ব বোঝাতে ব্যর্থ হয়েছিল, স্বীকার করেছেন ইয়েচুরি৷ তিনি জানিয়েছেন, নির্বাচনে ধারাবাহিক হারের পর দল একাধিকবার এই বিষয়টি নিয়ে আত্মসমালোচনা করেলেও ততক্ষনে দেরি হয়ে গিয়েছিল৷ যার ফলস্বরূপ ২০০৯ সালে লোকসভা ভোটেই বামেদের ক্ষমতা অনেকখানি কমে যায়৷ এরপর ২০১১ সালের পশ্চিমবঙ্গের বিধানসভা ভোটে ৩৪ বছরের বাম জমানার অবসান ঘটে৷ তখনই তাঁরা বুঝেছিলেন, রোজকার দরকারি জিনিস, চাল, ডাল, আলু, পিঁয়াজের দাম বৃদ্ধি নিয়ে সরব হলে মানুষ বামেদের পাশেই থাকত৷