Left back

Should the UPA be celebrating the return of the Left to the coordination committee? Or should it now give up any attempts at proposing economic reforms and prepare, instead, to tailor all its policy initiatives — foreign or domestic — to fit the Left agenda? Since Left parties opted out of the coordination committee with such ease and came back after having successfully cowed down the Manmohan Singh government on the issue of Bhel disinvestment, they may have learnt the dividends of blackmailing the Congress. Indeed, if we are to go by the soundbites emanating from the smaller Left parties, the prospects of smooth coordination between the Left and the UPA appear remote.

There are numerous differences between the Left and the UPA: on India’s position at the WTO, on India’s foreign policy, on India’s nuclear policy and policy towards Iran, on the new pension system, on the role of the government and on the role of public sector. The most recent example of the Left’s willingness to strike and wound the UPA and its government was the nation-wide trade union strike called on September 29. In the latest issue of People’s Democracy, not only has Karat applauded the nation-wide strike, he has threatened more.

Each of the Left’s stances and biases are based on ideological certitudes and historical developments, and are unlikely to change. Therefore, for the Congress, the return of the Left may well prove to be a moment of reckoning. It must think through this relationship and assess the damage that Left intransigence is doing to its own image. It must decide whether it is prepared to bow before Prakash Karat for the rest of its term in power, or whether it will fight for the policies it holds important. If it chooses the former course, India should give up any hope of reform for the next three and a half years. A government which is threatened at every step by the Left parties will be a paralysed government, and India’s economic growth will be gravely undermined in the process. If, however, it believes in the courage of its convictions and chooses the latter course, it may find itself in stormy seas for a while, it may even have to consider going in for fresh elections, but it would have emerged far stronger as a party of governance. The Congress must make the right choice. It will then muster the capacity to draw the line vis-a-vis its difficult and demanding allies.