New Delhi, July 08: The Left-UPA divorce on Tuesday
capped a tumultuous relationship on several thorny issues --ranging from the Indo-US nuclear deal to the rising prices of
essential commodities and the government's inclination to open
up financial and retail sectors to foreign direct investment.
After agreeing with the UPA's Common Minimum Programme
and extending their support to the Congress-led coalition
when it came to power, the Left continued to maintain that the
government should not deviate from it.
The trouble became pronounced when Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh made his first official visit to the United
States in July 2005 and signed a joint statement with
President George Bush, which the Left said was taking India
closer to the American strategic interests.
Singh's visit had followed that of then Defence
Minister Pranab Mukherjee who had signed the Indo-US strategic
defence framework agreement, which led to increasing military
ties and joint exercises between the two defence forces.
The Left, which had been opposing the government's
"neo-liberal" economic policies, opened another front against
its foreign policy while accusing it of ignoring the CMP.
In the context of the rising inflation graph, the
outside supporters made a series of recommendations, including
banning of futures trading and slashing of taxes and duties on
oil products, but complained that their views were not
considered by the government.
The four Left parties, with a strength of 59 members
in Lok Sabha, have been fiercely opposing liberalisation of
the banking and insurance sectors.
The Left's opposition to the UPA government also
stemmed from the government's pursuance of the policies of the
erstwhile BJP-led government to allow 74 per cent FDI in the
banking sector, FDI in retail trade as well as privatisation
of major airports.
Their continued opposition led the Left parties to
organise nationwide protests on several occasions, besides
opposing many proposals inside Parliament.
The UPA-Left Coordination Committee, set up to monitor
the implementation of the CMP promises, was also disbanded as
the outside supporters felt "betrayed" that several major
issues were not being taken up.
On energy security, the four parties also wanted India
to pursue the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project without
"succumbing" to US "pressures." They also sought explanations
from the government on India's vote against Iran at the IAEA.
The comrades, however, appreciated the government's
efforts in pushing through the National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act and the Scheduled Tribes and other traditional
forest dwellers (recognition of forest rights) act.
Their continued pressure on the UPA to get the much-
delayed women's reservation bill finally bore fruit with the
government tabling it in Parliament. However, the legislation,
which is a major CMP promise, is yet to be passed.
As the Left parties went on the backfoot over the
Nandigram issue, they asked the Centre to amend the special
economic zone laws and rules to specify compensation and other
social welfare measures for those who would lose their land
for major industrial or infrastructure projects.
On badly-needed social security reforms in India, the
Left again opposed the government's move to privatise pension
funds and invest a portion of its corpus in the stock market.
The pension fund development and regulatory authority (PFRDA)
bill is thus pending before Parliament.
In August last year, the Prime Minister had dared the
Left to withdraw support to his government over the Indo-US
nuclear deal. He had said the deal in no way compromised
India's position and would rather end the country's nuclear
isolation.
The Left and the UPA then set up a joint panel headed
by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to examine the
nuclear deal but there seemed no meeting ground.
On November 16 last year, the joint panel agreed that
the government would approach the IAEA secretariat to seek
clarifications and the deliberations would be reported to the
UPA-Left Joint Committee.
"The government will proceed ahead only after the
committee submits its findings," the statement issued after
the committee meeting had said.
But the Prime Minister's statement on his way to the
G-8 summit in Japan yesterday that the government will
approach the IAEA very soon to get the safeguards agreement
ratified provoked the outside supporters who decided to pull
the rug now itself.
They felt that the Prime Minister's statement had put
both the UPA-Left Committee as well as its Chairman Pranab
Mukherjee in a "ridiculous position," with the former saying
the government had decided to go to the IAEA and the latter
asking the Left parties to hold another round of meeting on
the issue.
Bureau Report