The Hindu : Grant greater autonomy to States: Basu

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 28, 2002

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Grant greater autonomy to States: Basu

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE MAY 27. The CPI (M) veteran, Jyoti Basu, does not foresee mid-term elections to the Lok Sabha and expects the NDA Government to last its full term.

Participating in a meet-the-press programme organised by the Press Club of Bangalore, Mr. Basu said that it was the Congress which was expecting the Government to collapse. If the Congress were to form a government at the Centre, his party would not join it.

Acknowledging the weakness of the People's Front, Mr. Basu said it could not provide a viable alternative to the BJP and the Congress. The Congress was gaining strength and shedding its isolation. A Congress spokesman had stated the obvious when he said that they were working towards forming a coalition. However, he added that though not a communal party, the Congress was wont to join hands with communal forces. To a question, he said he found that the AICC president, Sonia Gandhi "has picked up politics and is doing well as a leader''.

He wondered how his name had cropped up in the context of the next President of the country. Mr. Basu himself raised the question "a Marxist as the President of India?''. That office had limited powers and the incumbent, K.R. Narayanan, had done well despite the limitations. Asked about the "historic blunder'' committed by the CPI (M) in 1996 when it did not permit him to become the prime minister, the octogenarian leader said it was "history''.

About Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Basu said a solution lay in granting greater autonomy. In fact, all the States needed autonomy. Jammu and Kashmir should be autonomous except in the fields of defence, foreign policy, and economic policy. The people of that State had been alienated from the rest of the country.

Mr. Basu said war was not an alternative and it had become difficult to understand the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee's handling of the relations with Pakistan as he was saying "different things at different places." India's foreign policy was no longer based on non-alignment and was tilting towards the U.S. Today the U.S. needed Pakistan because of Afghanistan. The CPI (M) was against the entry of Americans in the defence sector. The country should not be caught offguard as happened in 1999 when the Pakistanis invaded the Kargil heights. There was a complete failure of intelligence then and hoped that the country was better prepared today.

When it was pointed out that communist China itself had brought about economic reforms, Mr. Basu said that one could not say that Karl Marx understood everything that would occur in the future. He felt that China continued to be "socialism in practice'' and its policy was based on marxism. The Left Front Government in West Bengal had done well despite the capitalist system in which it had to function and the limited powers given to the States.

Mr. Basu clarified that the CPI (M) central committee resolution on extending reservation to the private sector applied only to those public sector undertakings which had been privatised. It did not apply to the other private undertakings.

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