Aiyar oils coordination wheels

Aiyar was closeted with Left leaders, including Harkishen Singh Surjeet and A.B. Bardhan. As waiting reporters badgered him to find out what transpired as soon as he stepped out, Aiyar dramatically pulled back his kurta sleeve to show his forearm. 8216;8216;I have not been bitten,8217;8217; he said. It was an oblique reference to CPIM politburo member Sitaram Yechury8217;s recent assertion that the Left can8217;t just bark but also bite.

Trying to sound accommodating towards the Left, Aiyar said suggestions of partners like the CPM and CPI were 8216;8216;constructive8217;8217; and his meeting with Left bigwigs was aimed at a better understanding of those views.

He said he used the meeting to elaborate on his government8217;s compulsions. He also communicated to the Left leaders other facts related to the recent decision to allow oil PSUs the limited freedom to hike prices of petroleum products. The Left has criticised the Petroleum Ministry8217;s decision but refrained from expressing that dislike as it did on the FDI issue.

Bardhan later told reporters that the Left was firm in its view that petroleum prices should not go up under any circumstances. He said at the meeting that there was also a discussion on alternative measures that the government could fall back upon other than going for the easy option of resorting to a price hike.

Aiyar8217;s gesture was all the more symbolic because accommodating voices within the CPM are expected to shrink further at the party8217;s Central Committee deliberations to continue till Sunday.

This is the first Central Committee meeting after the CPM decided to support the UPA government from outside. This meeting would decide the extent of hard bargaining the Left can hope to do with the Congress at the Centre.

Although no one is looking at extreme positions like threatening a rupture in relations at this stage, the CC deliberations would definitely lay down how far the party itself could go in its public posturing vis-a-vis the Congress. At the same time, the forum would also lay down the extent to which the party could expect this government to pursue reforms and, thereby, adhere to a bourgeois interpretation of the mandate.

It is not so much on the issues but on the nature of public posturing that there are differences within the CPM thinktank. The repeated assertion against reforms may go down well with the languishing trade unions and the rank and file. It may help the organisational bosses preparing for Assembly polls in West Bengal and Kerala. But for those who are part of the government, as in West Bengal, and have to deal with a broader cross-section of views, this degree of open antagonism towards reforms is obviously not helpful.