Never have the divisions between the Left and the Congress on economic issues been so stark as in the acrimonious debates in the Parliament where Left parties battled to prevent the tabling of the patents and insurance bills.

If a few weeks ago, the CPI(M) was talking in terms of extending its support to the Congress in the eventuality of it forming a government, the compliant role played by the Congress in facilitating matters for the BJP, has served as an eye-opener. There is a perceptive hardening of attitudes on the part of the Left. According to party insiders now even ``issue-based'' support appears a distant possibility.

The CPI's two-day Central Committee meeting which met here, earlier this week, has resolved to rally together all Left, democratic and secular forces and``reforge'' the third alternative. Buoyed partly by the resurgence of support indicated by the success of the strike called on December 11, and by the unified front put up by the democratic and secular parties in Parliament, the left is optimistic that it can rope all these forces together in a viable alternative.

The CPI(M) has identified three principal factors around which it hopes to bring its allies together. Foremost among these would be the fight to defend the country's secular fabric at risk with rising communal forces unleashed by the BJP and the Sangh parivar in different parts of the country.

According to the CPI(M), the BJP instead of taking corrective measures to halt the economic decline, had decided to brazen it out and go ahead with policies to appease international finance institutions and multinational corporations. ``All talk of Swadeshi has been abandoned,'' the CPI(M) said.

In this situation the ``wrong attitude'' adopted by the Congress in acting as a facilitator for the insuranceand patents amendment Bill, had further discredited the party.

The verdict of the recent polls was clearly against the BJP government and its ideology, the CPIM) said. The BJP government's economic mismanagement resulted in severe price rise of essential commodities and immense hardship for the people. Ideologically, the intolerant pursuit of the Hindutva agenda, marked by efforts to communalise the educational system, attacks on Christian minorities and efforts to foment tension about places of worship have alienated large sections of the people, the party feels.

Among the immediate tasks the CPI(M)'s Central Committee has set for the party are the stepping up of mass actions and joint movements against the BJP's economic policies, especially attacks on the public sector. The party plans to fight the BJP-RSS-Shiv Sena attacks on minorities and to put a halt to the RSS infiltration of educational and cultural institutions.

It will mobilise popular opinion against the US pressures to sign theComprehensive Test ban Treaty (CTBT) and take up issues concerning women and the rights of dalits.