Left-Handed Shake For The BJP?

The Left wants to kill the deal but the CPM is split wide open over the issue of alignment with the BJP, reports SHANTANU GUHA RAY from Kolkata

Photo: Shailendra Pandey

TENSION PERMEATES the air at the imposing Writers Building in the heart of Kolkata, seat of the Left Front government. Two issues dominate: the CPM’s pressure on its member, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, to relinquish his chair and the proposed move by the CPM to align with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the July 22 trust vote.

Party veteran and West Bengal sports minister Subhas Chakravarty voiced the first protest, saying such decisions could even split the ruling CPM and its allies. “This is not a note of dissent but one of caution. In order to defeat a government which we once supported strongly, it does not augur well to support the BJP, a communal party,” Chakravarty told TEHELKA. Within 48 hours of his writing a letter to CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat, Chakravarty found many supporters in the rank and file.

Many say Chakravraty’s concern is actually one raised by Jyoti Basu, the nonagenarian leader who — in trademark behind-the-curtain style — opposed any alliance with the BJP and favoured Chatterjee’s open defiance of Karat’s diktat. Incidentally, there is a tinge of Jyoti Basu in Chatterjee’s first defiance of the party in 1999, when he criticised the Politburo for not allowing Basu (then West Bengal Chief Minister) to become Prime Minister. Party insiders claim that the two issues have also caused state Industry Minister Nirupam Sen to openly voice his concerns. “Can we get a mandate on what we want to do? The floor test is just a week away,” Sen told his aides.

Insiders say the concern stems from the recent debacle in a number of Muslim- majority areas across the state. A BJP alignment could mean further trouble. “Long ago we landed ourselves in the soup for the slogan, Yeh aazadi jhooti hai. Let us not do something for which we will draw flak forever,” says Chakravarty categorically.

His colleagues agree. “The point is not out of place. Perhaps we will have to revisit the issue and handle it with utmost caution,” muses state Urban Development Minister Kshiti Goswami. Goswami finds support from Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary D Raja who feels that while Chatterjee should not defy orders, it is important that an issue of such magnitude must be discussed across party lines and not as a CPM party affair. “When Chatterjee was chosen Speaker, it was a unanimous decision of coalition partners. It would be wrong to consider this issue from the sole perspective of a single party,” Raja told TEHELKA. Is Karat listening?