Leftists play dual role at Centre and State

There appears to be no consistency in the stand taken by the Communist parties – CPI and CPI-M – insofar as having an alliance with the Congress. A strange phenemenon is now being witnessed in their political stand at the Centre and the State.

Going by the reports from New Delhi, it is apparently not happy with the United Progressive Government at the Centre. Its national secretary A B Bardhan has been openly saying that the CPI might withdraw its support to the UPA government at any time, because the Manmohan Singh government is caring a damn for the CPI's suggestions. Therefore, Bardhan is accusing the Congress of going against the Common Minmum Programme. He is even pressurising the CPI-M to withdraw its support to the UPA government.

On the other hand, the CPI-M has been showing a soft corner towards the UPA government, inspite of the latter deviating from the CMP at times. Its national secretary Prakash Karat is dead against withdrawal of support to the UPA, as it would only help the BJP to stage a comeback.

In AP, these parties are going exactly in the opposite direction. The CPM has been colluding with the Telugu Desam to pull down Rajasekhara Reddy government, while the CPI is discreetly supporting it. If at all the TD comes back into power in 2009, then the Communists change their colours very quickly. So, that is Communism!!

Buzz: CPI keeps Naidu at bay in land stir!

Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu might have thought the land stir launched by the Communists is a blessing in disguise for him and tried to cash in on the differences between them and the Congress.

But he received a rude shock from CPI on Wednesday. The CPI State committee meeting held at Makhdoom Bhavan decided to keep Chandrababu Naidu at bay in its second phase of land struggle. What is more, the party resolved to convince the CPI-M to restrict the land stir only to the Communist parties and not to allow the TD to take advantage of the situation. "Naidu has no moral right to find for the poor. The Basheerbagh firing incident is fresh in the minds of the people and at that time, Naidu did not announce any ex gratia to the families of firing victims. Now, he is shamelessly demanding Rs 10 lakh to the Mudigonda firing victims. He cannot be believed," CPI leaders said.

Surprisingly, the same CPI and CPI-M leaders Narayana and Raghavulu gave a call to all political parties to join hands with them in their Bhoo Poratam. They invited Naidu on to the dais at their fasting programme at Indira Park and allowed him to address the people along side of Communists. They also organised all party meeting on the next day of Mudigonda incident, where the TD was in the limelight.

Perhaps, Narayana might have had soft corner towards Naidu because of the same K-factor, which brought Raghavulu also closer to him. But things changed once the national committee member Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy entered the scene. He advised the CPI leaders not to entertain the TD and allow it to hijack the movement. Hence, the change in stand!