Threatening to put the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government in the dock if it insisted on continuing with its "unilateral" decisions on Iran, airport and FDI in the retail sector, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Friday decided to form a joint platform with other political parties to go for a concerted movement.
Stating that the party was "unhappy" at the way policy matters were being decided by the government, party general secretary Prakash Karat said at the end of the two-day politbureau meeting that the party would take up the contentious issues with other non-Bharatiya Janata Party parties both inside and outside Parliament.
The politbureau had decided that on issues such as Iran, FDI in retail trade and privatisation of airports, the party should actively seek the support of other political parties within and outside the UPA and forge joint platforms for a movement, Karat stated.
He said the four Left parties would also take stock of the government's approach and review their mutual relationship to formulate some opinions to be conveyed at the February 13 UPA-Left Coordination Committee meeting.
"We shall put the government in the dock if it votes against Iran. We will demand the government to make its stand clear on the issue in Parliament prior to the International Atomic Energy Agency Board meeting," he said.
The CPI(M) leadership discussed at length the strategy to be adopted by the party in the coming Assembly elections in five states.
Karat also took a serious view of US Ambassador David Mulford's letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on the latter's reported remarks about US President George W Bush.
"The West Bengal chief minister has written a protest letter to the prime minister and our party has demanded that Mulford should be recalled. We expect a response from the government," he said.
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