— A.K. Sharma

Chandigarh

Karat fires a blank

• This refers to ‘CPM’s latest to UPA...’. Prakash Karat thinks it is clever to allow the government to participate in the IAEA talks and at the same time threaten to pull it down at the end of this month, if the Indo-US n-deal is allowed to proceed. If he wanted to give the Gujarat voters the impression that the government is stable, then he should have talked about pulling down the government after the voting. Or did he think that his party members were so disciplined that what was said at the party forum would not be leaked to the press? The CPM has omitted its objections to the agreement such as attaining self-sufficiency in nuclear energy without outside help, getting help from countries other than US, etc, and at present harps only on overdependence on the US. Now it is clear that no country of the NSG, including Russia, will supply nuclear fuel or facilities unless the Indo-US agreement is through. If by pulling down the UPA government and forcing an election, Karat thinks he could increase the CPM’s strength in Parliament, he is living in a fool’s paradise. Karat may not be knowing what is going on in the Kerala CPM because, although a Malayali, he doesn’t speak Malayalam and doesn’t follow the state’s politics.The Kerala CPM is riven with personality cults and corruption and is sure to lose the next election. As for West Bengal, although the CM is a moderniser, his government has got a bad name because of its defective strategies. It is unlikely therefore that the party will do as well as it did last time.

... contd.