Left rules out support to no-confidence motion

The Left parties today said they had no intention of moving or supporting a no-confidence motion against the UPA government.

At a UPA-Left coordination committee meeting, CPI(M) Politburo member Prakash Karat said UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav did not mention the no-confidence motion when he met him two days ago.

The government, on its part, agreed to the Left contention that the Iran nuclear issue should be debated in Parliament. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is learnt to have appealed to the Left not to "communalise" the issue as the government is acting in national interest. The Left parties said they would decide their course of action after the March 6 meeting of the IAEA.

However, to keep up the pressure, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat told reporters the Left would continue to work for an alternative to the Congres and the BJP, although the issue did not come up at the meeting.

Emerging from the meeting, a beaming Finance Minister P Chidambaram said, "The tension (between UPA and the Left) is more in perception than reality."

Chidambaram said the government would last its term because "we believe the UPA and the Left parties share larger concerns about welfare of India, share commitment to secularism and share commitment to growth with social justice."

At the meeting, Karat said in the past 19 months, the Left parties had submitted to the government 19 notes on different subjects, which were ignored.

Countering the charge, the government said be it the Rural Employment Guarantee Act or amendments to the patents law, the Left parties were taken seriously. The Left leaders said their support was sought only for passing legislation.

"Otherwise, when it came to policies like airport privatisation or FDI in retail, the Left parties were merely informed about the decision," CPI General Secretary AB Bardhan said.

The Left parties told the UPA that on issues where they had differences with the government, they reserved the right to team up with other secular parties.

Having got a patient hearing from the government, the Left parties agreed to the proposal for another UPA-Left coordination committee meeting before the Budget.

Raising the Congress' handling of domestic politics in the coordination panel meeting, for the first time, the Left referred to the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly, the BJP's ascendancy to power in Karnataka and communal disturbances in Madhya Pradesh.

They said the Congress should have done better to check the growth of "communal forces" in the states.

The Left parties held a separate briefing after the meeting and skipped the scheduled lunch after that