Date:18/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/18/stories/2008091856121200.htm

National

Left, BSP to intensify protest on session

Atiq Khan

LUCKNOW: The Left and the Bahujan Samaj Party, along with other like-minded parties, will intensify their protest against the Parliament session not being convened by the United Progressive Alliance government and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the United States on September 25 to finalise the nuclear deal.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said here on Wednesday that a joint announcement in this regard would be made by the Left, the BSP, the Telugu Desam Party, the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Jharkhand Vikas Party in Delhi on Friday.

Mr. Karat, who was here to attend a two-day State council meeting of the party’s U.P. unit, said he was in touch with the leaders of other parties. He had a telephonic talk with Chief Minister Mayawati on this issue on Wednesday.

While denying any discussion on seat-sharing in the State with Ms. Mayawati for the coming Lok Sabha election, he said talks were on between the parties on how to face the election.

“The CPI(M) is trying for an alliance with certain non-Congress and non-BJP parties, but there will be no truck with the parties aligned with the Congress and the BJP.”

Critical of the Centre’s failure to adopt a pro-active role in containing the communal violence in Orissa and Mangalore, Mr. Karat said the Centre should have done more to aid and advice the Orissa government.

As for Mangalore, he said a more forthright approach was needed.

Mr. Karat slammed the RSS, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal for their efforts to create communal tension, which seemed to be their “overall design keeping in mind the Lok Sabha election.”

Intelligence failure

On containing terrorism, Mr. Karat said a draconian law was not the real issue. Since the October 2005 bomb blasts in Delhi, there have been successive intelligence failures, with the agencies unable to uncover the terror plots. Rather than laws it was the failure of the intelligence and security systems. The BJP’s demand for a law like POTA was an attempt to score a point with the government.