During the first tenure of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), while they were providing the crucial cushion to the government, the Left parties had also assumed the position of the real Opposition. Now, the Left finds itself left alone, losing the leadership and position of strength.
On the issue of price rise, the Left parties couldn’t manage to muster the entire Opposition with them. Last Thursday, the Left had planned to hold a demonstration outside the Parliament main gate. According to sources, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat had given instructions to his comrades in Parliament to rope in Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) and Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in their protest. Calls were made to the two Yadav leaders to ensure their presence at 10:45 am near the Parliament gate. The Yadav leaders had indeed come, but only at 10 am to lodge their own protests separately.
With the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Left is publicly maintaining a “no cooperation” policy. The two had simultaneously called for a nationwide strike on July 5, and its success actually made the Left nervous about getting clubbed with the ‘saffron brigade’. “There is no truck between the Left and the BJP,” claims Basudeb Acharia, the CPI(M) leader in the Lok Sabha.
In fact, after stalling Parliament for two days last week, the Left had resigned to its fate and didn’t join the SP and other parties on Thursday and Friday to protest against price rise in the Lok Sabha.
Congress party’s troubleshooter, Pranab Mukherjee, has called for a breakfast meeting with some Opposition leaders tomorrow to end the logjam. But Congress sources suggest it is essentially to appease parties like the SP and RJD, the agitated outside supporters.
This was clearly not the scene even in the previous Budget session. During that session, Acharia and CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta had actually gone and met the Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj at her office.
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When the two communists were discussing with Swaraj strategies to counter the Trinamool Congress, the Congress’ largest ally in the second UPA, veteran BJP leader L K Advani stepped in.
According to witnesses, Dasgupta immediately stood up and quipped, “Advaniji, today we (the communists) are in a forbidden territory.” The BJP leaders, however, were not in a mood to lose this opportunity. Swaraj promptly said, “Gurudas da, it’s your office as well. The office of the Leader of Opposition is also the office of all opposition leaders.”