Undeterred by the defeat in the trust vote, the combative Left today declared that it would take the fight against price rise and anti-people economic policies of the Centre to the streets.
Dubbing the UPA government's victory in the confidence vote as "manipulated and pyrrhic", the leaders of the four major Left parties — CPI(M), CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP — asserted here today that the Congress' attempt to isolate them had failed with constituents of the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) and several other parties opposed to the N-deal joining hands with the Communists.
"The UPA government's economic policies are dictated by the World Bank, IMF and the US....All talk of liberalisation and globalisation is for their benefit and we in the Left will take the fight against it to the streets with the nation-wide general strike on August 20," CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said.
"The Manmohan Singh government might have won a pyrrhic victory but its efforts to isolate the Left has come to a nought with several constituents of the UNPA including TDP, and AGP, besides the BSP and RLD veering towards us as part of the exercise to cobble together an alternative to the UPA and NDA," the CPI(M) leader said.
Assailing the Congress for using "money power" to secure fresh lease of life after the Left withdrew support to the UPA government, Karat said the ruling alliance had forfeited moral authority to continue in the office.
Karat expressed surprise over the delay in convening the monsoon session of Parliament.
"They do not have a majority either in the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha. Fully aware that they will have to take recourse to money power once again to push through the insurance and banking sector reform bills, they are deferring convening a session of Parliament," Karat claimed while addressing a joint conference of the workers of the four parties on Indo-US deal and price rise today.