The Hindu : Sonia's foreign origin a non-issue: CPI

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Saturday, Aug 02, 2003

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Sonia's foreign origin a non-issue: CPI

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI AUG. 1. The Communist Party of India today termed as "non-issue", the Bharatiya Janata Party raking up the foreign origin of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi.

The party criticised the BJP for trying to divert the attention of people and disagreed with the party's move to project the next general elections as an "Atal Behari Vajpayee versus Sonia Gandhi contest".

"This is a strange argument, the BJP is making. Indians vote for a candidate and political party and not for a Bush or Al Gore. The party which enjoys majority gets to form a government," the CPI general secretary, A.B. Bardhan, told presspersons at the end of its two-day national executive.

Referring to the next round of Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Delhi, Mr. Bardhan said the party had decided to contest these. The objective was to strive for the representation of the CPI and the Left in these Assemblies and support secular parties and forces to ensure the defeat of the BJP.

He said while the CPI and the Left would contest seats in areas of their influence, elsewhere the party would support candidates of secular parties against the BJP.

In Chhattisgarh, the CPI was holding talks with other Left parties and the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha for a poll understanding.

With regard to the Congress stand on coalitions, Mr. Bardhan said while it was good that the party had realised that it could not bounce back to power on its own, there was no movement on the ground.

The two-day national executive, which ended on Friday, felt that election considerations were influencing various moves by the BJP-led Government and pronouncements of its leaders. "There are occasional conciliatory moves and populist measures. But they in no way dilute either its communal agenda or its policies, whether in economic, educational or cultural field," the party said.

On the other hand, the CPI(M) said it could lend outside support for the formation of a secular government, including one led by the Congress, after the next Lok Sabha polls. The CPI(M) Parliamentary Party leader, Somnath Chatterjee, articulated the stand in response to a question whether the party would support Sonia Gandhi as Prime Minister.

Ruling out any alliance or front with the Congress in the next general elections, he said if a situation so arose when a secular government could be formed and the party could help from the outside, it may support such a formation.

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