“Pursuing universal nuclear disarmament through the UN; providing parliamentary sanction for moratorium on testing; striving for a de-nuclearised environment in South Asia”, reads the manifesto under the sub-head “security concerns.”

Incidentally, the US call for de-nuclearisation in South Asia picked up after India conducted the 1998 Pokhran tests. After Pokhran, the US called for cap and rollback of the nuclear programme.

While it refers to the Government as “UPA” or “Congress-led government,” it’s on foreign policy that the CPM lets its feelings for the Prime Minister be known — mentioning him by name: “The Manmohan Singh government shamelessly lined up with the US to vote against Iran in the IAEA in order to get the nuclear deal through US Congress.”

Demanding the abrogation of the Defence Framework Agreement with the US, the manifesto says that the Indo-US nuclear deal would be “reviewed and reworked”. Interestingly, it makes no mention of the nuclear deal between India and Russia or France. It calls for improving relations with China and expanding trilateral cooperation between Russia, India and China and completing the Indo-Iran gas pipeline.

The high point of the 31-page manifesto is that it’s an all-out attack against the UPA — in sharp contrast with the 2004 manifesto that kept the BJP as a target. On virtually every page, the manifesto criticises the “Congress-led government,” devoting less than a page to the BJP calling it a “regressive force”, indicating clearly that in 2009, defeating the Congress is top on the Left’s agenda.

Meanwhile, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat today indicated the possibility of a shift in stand over participating in a government at the Centre. Asked if the CPM would join a Third Front government, Karat said: “If a situation develops, then our central committee will meet, take stock of the situation and arrive at an appropriate decision.”

The manifesto calls for amending the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act to remove “draconian provisions” like detention without bail for 180 days. It takes credit for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and the Forest Tribal Rights Act. Its charges against the Congress-led government are virtually similar to what the party had slapped against the BJP-led government in 2004.

The political call in the 2004 manifesto was to “reject the BJP and its allies” and cooperation among “all other Left and democratic secular forces” for an “alternative government”. In 2009, the CPM’s call is for a “new alternative government”.