Citing the Samajwadi Party's electoral victory in Uttar Pradesh, the Communist Party of India Marxist on Saturday revived the idea of a Third Front, pitching for the unity of Left and democratic forces to give the people another alternative to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat said people wanted an alternative to the Congress and the BJP as both of them had been defeated in the UP elections.
First the 2009 general elections and now the assembly elections -- the Communist Party of India-Marxist seems to be rolling downhill in the political spectrum. This is reflected from the drubbing the party received in West Bengal, its bastion of over three decades, as also Kerala, another stronghold.
Amid murmurs of formation of a third front, Samajwadi Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Tuesday sought to bridge the gap between the two following their bitter parting of ways with the SP inviting top Left leaders for the swearing-in of Akhilesh Yadav as Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
A two-day meet of Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo began in New Delhi on Sunday amid attempts to bring all non-Congress, non-BJP parties on a common platform ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Noting that the WikiLeaks cables were a 'sad and revealing' commentary of where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress have landed the country in, the CPI-M has said Americans were willing to do everything to win the trust vote during the UPA government's regime so that the nuclear deal could go through.CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat said the cables show that the Americans are keen observers of the high level of corruption that exists in India's politics.
Slamming Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Congress as 'partners in corruption,' Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat on Thursday alleged that the real agenda behind the 'seat sharing drama' between the two parties was to cover up the probe into 2G spectrum allocation scam and prevent it from extending to the family of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Monday demanded that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance II government at the Centre take immediate steps to end the nexus between the Trinamool Congress and Maoists to ensure peaceful elections in West Bengal.
Here's how political leaders reacted to the government's decision to hike the price of diesel by Rs 5 and limit the number of subsidised gas cylinders to six per household per year.
In a fresh bid to end the Parliament deadlock, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar will on Friday meet leaders of the Left Front and other non-Bharatiya Janata Party opposition parties. Communist Party of India - Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat, CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechury and Janata Dal - United chief Sharad Yadav are among those who will attend the meeting.On Thursday, the Speaker met BJP leaders but failed to bridge the differences as they insisted on a JPC.
Naidu broke the fast by taking a glass of coconut water following intervention by Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan, Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav, Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh and other leaders who prevailed upon him to end the fast.
The Telugu Desam Party, along with its Left allies, will raise the "mining mafia" issue in the forthcoming session of Parliament.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Monday asked the Election Commission to convene an all-party meeting to allay their apprehensions about the reliability of electronic voting machines.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Friday demanded the resignation of Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah in view of the CBI naming him as an accused in the chargesheet filed in the alleged fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh.
With the opposition set to rake up the telephone tapping issue in Parliament, Government on Saturday said the issue was being 'examined.'
The Left parties, which severed links with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance on the issue of Indo-US nuke deal, are inclined to have a fresh understanding with secular partners in the ruling alliance, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar claimed on Wednesday.
The government has unleashed hectic behind the scene activity and is lobbying with non-Bharatiya Janata Party parties to break the logjam in Parliament and divide the Opposition ranks, in a bid to ensure there is no repetition of the winter session of Parliament where not a single item of business could be transacted.
The Communist Party of India - Marxist is in favour of mounting diplomatic pressure on Bangladesh to destroy camps of North-East based militant outfits in that country. Party general secretary Prakash Karat told a press conference that the militant camps present in Bangladesh should be destroyed and that "will be possible only by mounting diplomatic pressure." He expressedg grave concern over large-scale infiltration from neighbouring Bangladesh.
The Left parties on Friday night hit out at the government for going along with a US-sponsored resolution censuring Iran for its controversial nuclear programme saying India's stand was not surprising.
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre will have to face the electorate before operationalising the proposed civilian nuclear deal, Communist Party of India Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat claimed on Tuesday.''They will have to face the people's court before implementing the proposed deal as getting clearance from various agencies was a time consuming effort," he said during a seminar.
The Left parties will greet visiting US President Barack Obama on Monday with protests but their MPs, barring the Forward Bloc (which has two MPs in the Lok Sabha and one in the Rajya Sabha), will listen to him when he addresses Parliament.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has again displayed a mercurial mind. Months after keeping the University of Cambridge, UK, waiting for an answer to its invitation to deliver a lecture and then saying she'd come, she's decided not to go.
Left parties on Sunday decided to suspend participation in the United Progressive Alliance-Left coordination committee\nmeetings to protest against the government's decision to go ahead with disinvestment .
Trouble appears to be brewing for the beleaguered Mulayam Singh Yadav government with the Centre reportedly considering the option of imposing President's Rule in Uttar Pradesh.
Emerging from the Rashtrapati Bhavan after submitting the letter withdrawing support from the government, CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat told media persons that the draft of the IAEA safeguards agreement must be made public. Claiming that the Manmohan Singh government had not been transparent on the nuclear deal, Karat said the deal will not be acceptable to the Left parties till all the issues raised by them were clarified.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday afternoon soon after a meeting to decide on the modalities of withdrawal of support, Community Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat said with the prime minister announcing his decision to approach the International Atomic Energy Agency over the nuclear deal, no useful purpose will be served by continuing to support the government. The Left will be releasing documents to show that the government has lied to people.
Leaders of Left parties, who have strongly opposed the implementation of the Indo-US nuclear deal, have started receiving "death threat" mails.
The government had earlier this week briefed top BJP leadership on the same foreign policy issues.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Tuesday categorically ruled out forging an alliance or a united front with the Congress in future.
In a scathing attack on the United Progressive Alliance government, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said that the government had failed in all its economic policies and that is why the aam aadmi in the country is suffering. Exceprts from his speech:
Kerala Chief Minister and senior Communist Party of India - Marxist leader V S Achuthanandan will be removed from the party's politburo and the central committee, said sources in New Delhi. The octogenarian leader, who is currently in New Delhi, will leave for Kerala early on Sunday morning, said sources.Though some leaders from West Bengal had voiced their support for Achuthanandan, CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat remained firm on taking action against the Kerala CM.
Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo member Biman Bose on Monday rubbished Somnath Chatterjee's scathing comments on party general secretary Prakash Karat and criticised the former Lok Sabha Speaker for dragging Jyoti Basu's name into the controversy. "I feel that these are rubbish. If somebody wants to malign the party, that is in bad taste and is sad," said Bose, the state party secretary.
Notwithstanding the bitter ties between Left parties and the Congress, the RJD today claimed that the CPI(M) would be "compelled" to join ranks with UPA to keep communal forces at bay.
The fourth meeting of the United Progressive Alliance and Left Front's joint committee to resolve concerns about the Indo-US nuclear deal ended on a lukewarm note on Tuesday. The committee is scheduled to meet again on October 22. "The fourth meeting of the UPA-Left Committee on the India-United States civil nuclear cooperation was held today. All members of the committee took part in the meeting, which was held in a cordial atmosphere," Pranab Mukherjee said.
Perhaps sensing mid-term polls, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has reinstated Kerala Chief Minister V S Achutanandhan and the party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in the politburo
Pledging to fight American imperialism, Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat and Communist Part of India national secretary D Raja flagged off a protest jatha from Chennai to Vishakapattanam.
These are interesting times in New Delhi.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday night said the government was confident of addressing the Left concerns on issues of national interest, including the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
To a question on continuing support to the government, Karat said he has just talked to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and it depends on what they decide.
Earlier this month, a fresh round of fratricidal firings started after an interview was carried by the party-controlled TV channel 'Kairali' with a businessman, said to be close to Vijayan, who Achuthanandan had called "a hated person."
In a veiled attack on the United Progressive Alliance government, Communist Party of India-Marxist on Monday alleged people in power want to make India act as a "junior partner" of the United States.
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