CPI talks ‘boycott’ with BJP, CPM red-faced

CPI talks ‘boycott’ with BJP, CPM red-faced

The CPM today found itself in a spot, courtesy CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta, whose proactive initiative resulted in the Left parties ending up in a huddle with the BJP and reluctantly becoming part of a common Parliament floor strategy with it.

It all began when Dasgupta approached Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj after the Lok Sabha was adjourned in the face of disruption by Treasury benches. The Congress members had not allowed Swaraj to make a statement though the Chair had permitted the same.

An agitated Dasgupta suggested to Swaraj that she convene a meeting of opposition leaders and proposed the idea of boycotting Parliament for the next three days. CPM floor managers were taken aback when they got to know about the proposal. Informally and later formally, they conveyed to the media that the party was not in favour of boycotting Parliament.

By then, the BJP leadership had decided to convene a meeting of opposition party leaders. Swaraj herself rang up senior CPM leader Sitaram Yechury. With no option left, the CPM leadership, after consultations, decided to send its chief whip Ram Chandra Dome for the meeting, with clear directions that the party’s opposition to the boycott plan be conveyed to the other leaders.

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Meanwhile, Yechury along with the party leader in the Lok Sabha, Basudev Acharia, addressed a scheduled press conference where he opposed any move to boycott Parliament saying it would only help the government have a “field day” and ease the pressure on it. A boycott, Yechury felt, would result in the government getting an opportunity to pass pending Bills without any opposition.

Dome placed the party’s view at the meeting. Later Yechury — after some persuasion by BJP leaders — too came to Swaraj’s chamber and made it clear that the CPM was not in favour of boycotting. Swaraj later told reporters that the parties did discuss the boycott proposal but there was no “consensus” on it.

The CPM’s discomfiture was evident as the party has always tried to show that it will have no floor coordination with the BJP, asserting that it would only work with “secular” parties.

The CPM Politburo, which condemned the arrest of Anna Hazare and the police refusal to allow him permission for a hunger strike, also announced nationwide protests tomorrow on the issue.