As the CPM tries to put up a brave face battling contradictions within on its vote against the Congress-led Government over the Indo-US nuclear deal, it has found support from none other than the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh. Turning a sympathetic observer, the editorial in the latest issue of RSS mouthpiece Organiser has put up a stout defence of Comrade Prakash Karat, something that would probably make even CPM organ People’s Democracy blush.“The Congress has deliberately created the situation, practically pushing the Left to the brink.The CPM general secretary Prakash Karat has reasons to be fuming. He has accused the Congress of humiliating his party and betraying its trust. He is right. The Congress didn’t extend the courtesy of showing the Left the original draft of the deal.Clearly, the government meant to slight the Left.” says the editorial. “The Left has been foolish enough in extending its support to the Congress in the name of keeping the BJP out to run the government, almost like a single party.There was a Common Minimum Programme. The Indo-US nuclear deal was not a party of it. For any political observer the Congress hara-kiri doesn’t make sense. Yet it has challenged Karat and declared itself a single-agenda government. Has the Left been so nagging for Sonia as to prefer this plight to their assured parliamentary security,” says the editorial.In what appears to be an open exhortation to the Left to revisit its past when it shared the anti-Congress platform with the BJP-Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the editorial adds: “There is no meeting ground between the Left and the Congress but for their mutual antipathy for the BJP. In the fact the Left has tied itself in knots by following a policy of political untouchability and it was desperate to distance itself from the failed UPA sufficiently early to face the electorate in the general election.”If one thought that the Left is in for huge reverses in the forthcoming elections, the RSS journal has an explanation ready: “The poor record of the Manmohan Singh, it is feared, is bound to have an impact on the electoral fortunes of the Left.” When contacted, former Sangh spokesperson Ram Madhav said that “the RSS would like all political parties to take a stand against the nuclear deal in its present form.” Exactly what Comrade Karat says.
