Left parties spoil UPA's birthday party

Shadow of the stock market crash looms large on Tuesday's UPA-Left meeting, even though all top Left leaders including CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat and Politburo member Sitaram Yechury chose to keep mum on this issue today.

Meanwhile, the Planning Commission has come under fire from the Left parties, which held it responsible for what they called the UPA's US-backed neo-liberal policies, including liberalisation of financial sector, demand for privatisation of basic services and infrastructure development, and energy policy.

"The Planning Commission has become the hub for initiation and pushing of such policies, contrary to the spirit of the Common Minimum Programme. The Left parties will focus on these areas in the coming days," they said in a joint statement on the completion of two years of the UPA regime.

The UPA allies were critical of the government's efforts in most of the areas, choosing to give it credit only for the abolition of Pota and the Right to Information Act and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. They underlined their opposition to the government's stance on many issues, including privatisation of airports, FDI in retail sector, and agrarian crisis, among others.

As for their stance on the stock market crash, the top CPI(M) leadership today went into a shell after demanding the re-introduction of long-term capital gains tax and the review of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with Mauritius. CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury, who had first raised these demands, has refused to talk to the media on this issue since then, avoiding even the routine press briefings in Parliament.

Asked by reporters about his reaction to the continuing crisis in the stock market and Finance Minister P Chidambaram's firm rejection of the Left demands, Yechury snapped, "Ask the FM about it." He also refused to talk to mediapersons at the party headquarters. Karat, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today on the issue of OBC reservation, refused to comment when asked about the stock market developments.

CPI General Secretary AB Bardhan was equally reluctant to discuss it. Asked if the issue will figure in tomorrow's UPA-Left meeting, he remained non-committal: "We will see what happens there. There is no agenda for discussion."

The joint statement issued by the Left parties, however, said, "The recent crash in the stock market and volatility of the market underline the danger of going for full capital account convertibility."