Raising Iran pitch, CPM warns UPA: will put you in dock if you press ahead

General secretary Prakash Karat said CPI(M) will try to get support from other political parties on these issues.

‘‘The government will be put in the dock in Parliament if it insists on voting for a referral to the Security Council… Left parties have formulated some opinion on this. We will convey it to the government. If the government still goes ahead with it, we are free to take steps to bring the government to its knees,’’ he said.

‘‘The Manmohan Singh government has refused to heed public opinion (on the Iran issue) and the Left parties have decided to demand a debate in the House ahead of the March-6 IAEA board meeting,’’ Karat said.

‘‘We have assessed the over-all performance of the UPA government. And we express our unhappiness over the performance of the Central government. The Left parties submitted a note in November last year to the UPA-Left coordination committee on the issue of FDI in retail. But the government did not give any response whereas the Cabinet okayed 51 per cent FDI in retail for single brands,’’ Karat said, adding that the party will garner support from other political parties, traders and merchants organisations to put up an effective resistance against the opening up of the retail sector.

Sources in the CPI(M) said that the party have held talks with the DMK, RJD and Samajwadi Party for gathering their support against such policies.

On US Ambassador David Mulford’s letter to Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Karat said Mulford ‘‘should not be here anymore.’’ Karat said ‘‘this letter reaffirms our demand that Mulford should be called back.’’

He told the reporters that Bhattacharjee has written to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pointing out the anomaly in the US ambassdor writing directly to a chief minister. ‘‘The Chief Minister of West Bengal strongly condemned Mulford’s letter in his missive to the Prime Minister. The ambassador has breached certain norms by writing such a letter,’’ Karat said. ‘‘Mulford had no business writing such a letter directly to the Chief Minister,’’ he added. The Left had earlier demanded Mulford’s recall over his comment on India’s Iran vote. Bhattacharjee who was busy locking an investment deal by Anil Ambani today, however, remained silent on the issue.

The politburo meeting was centred on the forthcoming Assembly elections in five states including West Bengal and Kerala. The issue of tying up with K Karunakaran’s Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) remains unsettled. ‘‘This issue will be finalised after having consultations with the Kerala state unit of the party,’’ Karat said.

Karat will be in Kerala for holding discussions with the state unit on February 16. Regarding West Bengal, Karat said that party has finalised the list of candidates.

IT’s now official: Ambani institute

KOLKATA: The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group on Friday sealed a deal with the West Bengal government to build a world-class institute on information technology near Kolkata. Ambani, who met Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said the Rs 100-crore project, to be named after his late father Dhirubhai Ambani, would come up in 18 months. ‘‘Our current outlay would be roughly Rs 100 crore,’’ he said.