[Reader-list] Com Karat's Interview to India Today

prakash ray pkray11 at gmail.com
Thu Dec 27 02:02:45 IST 2007


This is the actual text of the interview of Com Prakash Karat, Gen
Secretary, CPI(M), given to India Today..

P K Ray

*Actual Transcript of Question & Answers to India Today's*

*Interview with CPI(M) General Secretary, Prakash Karat *

*  *

*Q. 1: Recent discussions on the Indo-US nuclear agreement in Parliament
indicated that majority of the MPs are still opposed to the bilateral treaty
in its present form. Yet, the UPA Government is engaging with the IAEA on
India-specific safeguards. Is the Congress party being unreasonable?*

*  *

*Ans: These are two separate things. The discussion in parliament on the 123
agreement has clearly established that a majority of MPs in both houses are
opposed to the agreement in some way or the other. The second issue is about
the talks with the IAEA on the India-specific safeguards agreement. Here
there was an understanding arrived at in the UPA-Left Committee that the
government will go to the IAEA Secretariat for talks on the safeguards
agreement. After that, the outcome of the talks will be presented to the
committee for its consideration. Since this was a joint decision, we cannot
say the Congress is being unreasonable in the matter. Notwithstanding this,
it will be better for the government not to proceed with the agreement
keeping in mind the views expressed by parliament.*

*  *

*Q. 2: While the Left Front's opposition to the nuclear agreement has been
consistence, other political groups such as the NDA or the newly formed UNPA
have had their moments of inconsistencies on the subject in past few months.
However, it seemed from recent debates in Parliament that all parties
opposed to the deal had done their home work on the subject. Was there an
informal coordination between the Left and the other parties in Parliament?
*

*  *

*Ans: While the stand of the Left parties have been consistent, the NDA and
the UNPA have also raised objections to the nuclear deal. I do not think the
UNPA has been inconsistent as we had discussed the matter with them and
found that we have common views. As for coordination, we have been in
constant contact with the major parties in the UNPA on the matter.*

*  *

*Q.   3: The Centre's foreign policy tilt towards the US is problematic for
the Left. The CPI(M) and other Left parties have opposed the US' position on
Iran but the UPA Government seemed to have ignored that. Is foreign policy
an irresolvable issue between the Left and the Congress? *

*  *

*Ans: The CPI(M) and the Left parties are not for forging a strategic
alliance with the United States. We expect the government to go by the
Common Minimum Programme which talks of pursuing a "closer engagement and
relations with the USA" but not a strategic alliance. Both on the Indo-US
Defence Framework Agreement and the joint statement issued during the Prime
Minister's visit to Washington in July 2005 we have had problems.*

*  *

*On Iran we have been urging the UPA government not to go by the US
perceptions. The Bush administration raised the nuclear issue regarding Iran
just as it declared Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Now with the
National Intelligence Estimate of the US itself saying that Iran had stopped
any efforts for the weapons programme in 2003, the Indian government should
take heed and review its position. Foreign policy issues were also discussed
in the UPA-Left Committee along with the nuclear deal. We hope this will
resolve some of the problems.*

*  *

*Q. 4: The Left has been supporting the Congress-led coalition for three and
half years now and there have been numerous issues over which both sides
clashed. Was 2007 the year of greatest confrontation between the Left and
the Congress? *

*Q. 5:      How did the Left deal with an ideologically opposed partner
(Congress) for so long? *

*  *

*Ans. 4 & 5: Support to the Congress-led coalition government has been on
the basis of a joint commitment to fight communalism and the government
implementing the Common Minimum Programme. There have been differences on
economic policies, but we have sought to resolve them within the framework
of the Common Minimum Programme. It is true that the nuclear issue became a
focal point this year. Throughout this period, we have sought to engage the
government in discussions on the nuclear deal despite the media hyping it up
to be a great clash. The CPI(M) is clear that the main political and
ideological threat stems from the communal ideology and politics. It is on
that basis that the Party worked out its electoral line in the May 2004 Lok
Sabha elections. While extending support to the Congress-led government, we
have not hesitated to demarcate our position on policy matters. This is what
was decided in our last Party Congress held in April 2005.*

*  *

*Q. 6: Your party's congress comes up in Coimbatore in end March next year.
What's the broad agenda? *

*  *

*Ans:  The Party Congress works out the Party's political direction for the
next three years. The 19th Congress to be held in Coimbatore next March will
discuss the main questions facing the country and the people and the
alternative policies that we want to project. For this, our Party Central
Committee will be drafting a comprehensive political resolution for
discussion within the Party in the run-up to the Congress. We will also have
to review the work done in the last three years in a self-critical manner.
We shall also discuss the perennial question of how to broaden the base of
the Party. In this connection the strengthening of the Party organisation
will also be discussed.*

*  *

*Q. 7: Although the CPI(M) has held that coalition experiments of the third
front variety remain to succeed in India, you surely want to see a
non-Congress, non-BJP third alternative some day. Does the UNPA stand a
chance of being supported by the Left should it perform well (as one
formation) in the next general elections? *

*  *

*Ans:  The CPI(M) looks forward to the formation of a third alternative in
the country. But this cannot be seen purely as an electoral alliance. We
still strive to get a policy-based platform, which can be distinct from that
of the BJP and the Congress.*

*  *

*Q. 8: India is 128th on the Human Development Index of the UN. The
urban-rural divide has grown and 77 per cent of Indians cannot spend more
than Rs 20 a day. Why are we still in this state after 60 years of
Independence? *

*  *

*Alongwith the urban-rural divide growing, we have failed to tackle the
serious agrarian crisis. There has been a sharp increase in the social and
economic inequalities. The growth that we are experiencing is leading to a
huge concentration of wealth. India today boasts of producing the most
number of billionaires in Asia. The lesson to be learnt after sixty years of
independence is that we have to change the whole trajectory of development.*

*  *

*Q. 9: Has the CPI(M)'s image been hurt by events that unfolded in West
Bengal since early this year?*

*  *

*Ans: The incidents in Nandigram and the way they have been projected in the
media have caused some damage to our party's image. But we are confident
that when the full truth about what has happened there since January 2007
comes out, people outside West Bengal will also understand there has been a
political combination to convert the issue into a struggle against the Left
Front Government. Eventually, people will understand that Nandigram was not
a struggle for land.*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071226/2cb74f68/attachment.html 


More information about the reader-list mailing list