The CPI (M) on Thursday continued to claim that the party’s opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal is not at the behest of China. It also tried to clarify its role in the 1942 Quit India movement, portrayed as questionable by detractors.

In an editorial in the forthcoming issue of party organPeople’s Democracy, the CPI(M) said a “disingenuous campaign” was on against it over the nuclear deal while seeking to demolish what it called the “1942, 1962 and 2007 syndrome”. It also tried to address the questioning of the party’s stand on the border dispute with China.

The editorial quoted former President Shankar Dayal Sharma’s midnight address to Parliament to mark India’s 50th anniversary of Independence in which he had said the Communists were “anti-British revolutionaries” while referring to their role in the Quit India movement.

On the border dispute with China, the editorial said the CPI(M) had always maintained that “it cannot be resolved through an armed conflict but only through talks”. The party then claimed that former PM Rajiv Gandhi adopted a similar position in the 1980s which led to a thaw in Sino-Indian relations. “The current UPA Government...is also carrying on efforts to further improve relations (with China),” it read.