| The CPI(M) yesterday wondered why the Congress was soft-peddling Aiyar's brave and dogged defence of himself. It was important for the Congress, it said, to stop equivocating and stand solidly behind party members who were unabashed in their anti-fundamentalist postures. |
| Yesterday, CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat had said Aiyar's view on Savarkar was right. |
| On reports that West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya and former Chief Minister Jyoti Basu were considering wielding a baton at the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for its performance, CPI(M) Politburo member S Ramachandran Pillai said: "They (Congress) have no alternative other than us, and we have none other than them." |
| The view from Kolkata might be different, but in Delhi the CPI(M) appeared to be more comfortable making the Congress an ally in the fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). |
| "One has to be reasonable in politics," said a top CPI(M) leader, citing arguments like Aiyar's as the reason why the Congress and the Left must work together. "The BJP is currently going through one of it's darkest phases. What could be better time than now to capitalise on it?" Pillai asked. |
| The issue at stake for the Left, he said was the lack of political will that the Congress had swaddled itself in, in the face of a "campaign" by the BJP to return to its hard-line roots. |
| The Left parties say the BJP is countering the government on every issue at the national level. How will the government respond, it wants to know. When Jyoti Basu comes to Delhi this week along with his delegation he is expected to ask questions in a similar vein. |
| However, sources in the party in Delhi says sabre rattling makes for good sound effects but it is the common aim of nailing the BJP, that will make music with the Congress. |
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