Twice shy

: In an editorial in ‘People’s Democracy’, the CPM accuses the Congress leadership of ‘double betrayal’ and alleges that the ruling party is committed to a strategic collaboration with the US regardless of whether it is in the national interest or not.

It says the Congress betrayed its commitment to the Left twice on presenting the outcome of the talks with the IAEA before the UPA-Left committee on the nuclear deal and taking into account the findings of the committee before deciding to proceed further. ‘This is the manner in which the Congress conducted affairs when it was leading a minority coalition government’, it notes.

Fight to finish

He also had a veiled warning to parties who have come out in support of the Congress-led coalition. “One must not forget that Congress and UPA are losing ground among the people. This is the political reality. Our recent Party Congress has made this assessment. If anybody wants to hitch their fortunes with Congress, that is their business,” he says.

Atmospheric pressure

An article titled ‘G8 + O5 + MEM16 + climate change = 0’ reviews the recently-held G8 summit and says those who expected the conclave to take any meaningful steps forward on one of its main agendas, climate change, must have been disappointed.

It accuses the US of stage-managing the whole show resulting in the G8 agreeing with its position that growing economies like India and China should take part in the emission reductions.

The article also questions the role played by India dubbing it as ‘obscure’. Getting the G8 to agree with this US position, dramatically shifting the terms of the global negotiations in the lead-up to Copenhagen 2009 when the new Treaty is to be finalised, represents ‘a clear victory for the US’, it says.

It says there was no official statement made or released to the international press by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or by the Indian delegation though there were some reports in...