When the CPM announced a mass agitation against the government on Wednesday — its first street campaign after the defeat in the Lok Sabha elections — the familiar anti-government rhetoric over the growing India-US ties was missing and instead the focus was on ‘bread and butter’ issues like price rise and food security. Not surprising, since the party itself had admitted after the election rout that its high-profile campaign against the Indo-US nuclear deal did not strike a chord with the masses. Moreover, a section of the CPM in West Bengal had attacked the top leadership for making nuclear deal the focal point of Left-UPA ties and the subsequent separation.

The argument, put forth by Left leaders like A B Bardhan and some in the CPM, was that the Left should have broken up with the UPA on issues of livelihood. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen had also recently criticised the Left for neglecting issues of social justice and focusing more on nuclear deal and national sovereignty.

The CPM will launch its first campaign against UPA II from October opposing the proposed National Food Security Act and highlighting the government’s ‘failure’ to contain rising prices of essential commodities. “We will oppose the Food Security Act inside and outside Parliament,” CPM top boss Prakash Karat said after a day-long convention organised by the party on the twin issues here.

The importance the party attaches to these issues could be gauged from the fact that the convention was attended by the entire top leadership of the party — from Karat to Politburo members Sitaram Yechury, Brinda Karat, Manik Sarkar, M K Pandhe, S Ramachandran Pillai, besides Thomas Issac and Asim Dasgupta, finance ministers of Kerala and West Bengal, respectively.

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