Left to discuss Manipur today

Coinciding with the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil's visit to the North-east, the CPI(M) had sent a two-member team to Manipur to assess the situation there.

The team in its report, according to sources, has asked for a review of the Armed Forces Special Act.

The CPI(M) has been maintaining that the Armed Forces Special Act cannot be fully withdrawn from the state and the Assam Rifles need to be shifted out of the state completely.

These views are likely to be expressed at the tomorrow's Left parties' co-ordination meeting, first after the Budget session.

The Left parties would discuss the government's responses to their demands, including the foreign direct investment limit issue in the telecom sector, sources said.

But the focus of the meeting is likely to be issues of political importance rather than economic and fiscal matters. The BJP campaign to disrupt the working of the government and to create trouble for the ruling coalition would also be taken up, sources said.

Manipur is an issue on which the CPI(M) is keen to make itself heard, not having attended a UPA meeting where the CPI put forth it's views on the situation in the state.

The CPI wants that the Armed Forces Special Act should be withdrawn from the state.

The party has been dissatisfied with the central government's response to the situation and with the Manipur chief minister's order recalling the Act from parts of Imphal and the Greater Imphal. The party which has 5 MLAs in the state also wants the Assam Rifles to be removed from the state.

The CPM on the other hand has been saying that the Assam Rifles were most experienced in handling the insurgents in the region and hence their recall from Manipur would prove disastrous.

The Home Minister's visit to the region and the subsequent talk of rotating battalions of the Assam Rifles between Nagaland , Mizoram, Tripura and Assam in measure to ensure the forces don't develop vested interests in the region is unlikely go down well with either of the Left majors.

The BJP's campaign against the Government which started with their boycott of parliament, and then gained momentum with the arrest of Uma Bharati has been condemned by the Left time and again.

A discussion on the issue will most likely see a reiteration of HS Surjeet's statement that the first 100 days of the government was wasted by the BJP.

The Left had recently addressed the press on the Government's plan to go ahead with hiking the FDI cap in the Telecom sector.

The government's delay in announcing the roll back of the decision on the PF interest rates and forthcoming polls in Maharashtra are also likely to be brought up at the meeting.