Caught clinging to its 18 offices of profit, Left slams EC, even President

First, it was a proactive Election Commission in West Bengal that got their goat. Then it was no less an institution than the Supreme Court which made them see red over the demolitions in Delhi.

First, it was a proactive Election Commission in West Bengal that got their goat. Then it was no less an institution than the Supreme Court which made them see red over the demolitions in Delhi. Now with at least a dozen of their MPs—and 18 posts—on a slippery slope after a Bill shielding them from disqualification was returned by President A P J Abdul Kalam yesterday, the Left is slamming the EC again—and even taking a swipe at the President.

While their ally, the Congress, has chosen to be cautious in its reaction, the Left parties today, unnerved by the disqualification shadow, threw an open challenge to the Election Commission going to the extent of accusing it of being pushed by the BJP into reopening of pending petitions against MPs.

“Yesterday (Wednesday), BJP leaders went to the Election Commission and asked it to expedite complaints against MPs holding so-called Offices of Profit. Now we find that on the basis of the BJP demand, the Election Commission says it will proceed in this matter,” CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said after a meeting of four Left parties.

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The Left leaders also made a veiled attack on the President on his questioning the propriety of bringing the law with retrospective effect. “This is the prerogative of Parliament and the state legislatures, they have the powers (to do so),” Karat said. Other Left leaders who attended the meeting were CPI’s A.B. Bardhan and D. Raja, RSP’s Abani Roy and Forward Bloc’s Debabrata Biswas. In fact, the Left’s strident posturing was evident Tuesday itself when hours after the President’s decision, CPM’s Leader in the Lok Sabha Basudeb Acharia promptly said the monsoon session should be advanced and the Bill passed again, unchanged.

Now the Left will tell the UPA that Parliament should take up the issue in the monsoon session to adopt the Bill and send it back to the President.

Included in the list are posts held by top Left leaders, among them Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, the party’s Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Mohammad Salim and senior leader Hannan Mollah.

The Left has attacked other institutions earlier when its key constituencies have been affected. Last month, following the Supreme Court’s refusal to stay demolitions of unauthorized constructions in Delhi after Parliament had passed a Bill providing for a year’s moratorium on the issue—the President had not signed the Bill till then—CPI’s Gurudas Dasgupta had said in the Lok Sabha that the Supreme Court was “hell bent on humiliating Parliament.”

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Besides the noise on the office of profit Bill, the Left leaders today threatened strikes and widespread protests if prices of petro products were raised again.

They also decided to send a note to the government on its performance over the past two years, focusing on what they call “deviations” from the National Common Minimum Programme. “We’ll give them (the government) the note in advance to consider it,” said Karat. “We will pin them down on issues and then see what to do depending on their response. The UPA-Left coordination meetings won’t be held till the note has been prepared and they are ready with their reply.”

–ananda majumdarexpressindia.com