CPI(M) stand on joining non-Left govt. unchanged

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MAY 18. Thirty six years after its inception, while the CPI(M) no longer rules out the possibility of being invited at some point to join a non-Left government at the Centre - a possibility it did not entertain earlier - it continues to fight shy of answering unambiguously the big question: how would it act in such a situation.

Would it repeat what the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr. Jyoti Basu, called the ``historic blunder'' when the party overruled his natural inclination to head the United Front Government in New Delhi in 1996? Or would it take a different view?

The draft of the party's ``updated'' programme, which was widely expected to address the issue, offers no clues and the general secretary, Mr. Harkishan Singh Surjeet, while releasing it here today stonewalled questions on the subject saying the party would debate it when the situation arose.

He advised reporters not to read too much into the draft's formulation that the party, even while working to dislodge the ``present ruling classes'', would utilise ``all the opportunities...of bringing into existence governments pledged to carry out a modest programme of providing immediate relief to the people.'' He pointed out that the old programme had exactly the same formulation, and yet in 1996 it stayed away from the United Front Government.

How would the CPI(M) react to a 1996-like situation in the future would be decided in the context of a concrete situation, he said. But one thing was clear: it would not rush into anything unless the move benefitted its long-term interests.

Mr. Surjeet, however, acknowledged that while earlier the question of the party's participation in a non-Left government was restricted to states (because of its notional presence in national politics the party never thought it would be invited to join a government at the Centre) now it extended to the Centre as well. The party was now conscious that a situation could arise when it was asked to join a government at the Centre.

Sources in the CPI(M) clarified that whether or not to participate in a government was a tactical issue, and not part of the party's programme which essentially spelt out its long-term objectives and explained them in ideological terms. They blamed the media for ``mixing up'' ideology with tactics.

The 48-page draft - the first exercise in updating the programme since the party was formed in 1964 - sticks to the basic premise of the 1964 programme. Mr. Surjeet stressed that the programme had been simply ``updated'' and ``not revised''. Besides a new introductory chapter giving an overview of the party's ``historical role'' in the freedom struggle, the draft has a section ``Socialism in the contemporary world'', focussing on the collapse of the Soviet Union and the lessons to be learnt from it.

The draft would be finalised and adopted at a special conference on October 3 after being discussed at various levels.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Front Page
Previous : India, Germany to work for U.N. reforms
Next     : Bandh hits normal life in Assam