Karat has reasons to fume, says RSS

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July 12, 2008 19:23 IST

Giving an indication of thawing of ice between two bitter ideological rivals, the RSS on Saturday empathised with CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat by saying he had "reasons for fuming" at the Congress for humiliating his party in handling the Indo-US nuclear deal.

The RSS mouthpiece Organiser, in its editorial, blamed the Manmohan Singh government at the Centre for deliberately creating a situation and practically pushing the Left to withdraw its support to the four-year coalition.

 Karat has accused the Congress of humiliating the party and betraying its trust.

"'He is right; the Congress did not extend the courtesy of showing the Left the original draft of deal. It is a public document since July 9 and every member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board was privy to the document," the RSS mouthpiece said.

The RSS mouthpiece said the Congress at first told the CPI(M) that it was a secret document and that the original could be shown only in the cabinet. Then, it said it will approach the IAEA only after securing the approval of Parliament.

In less than 24 hours, contradicting the reiteration of the External Affairs Minister, the Government had gone to the IAEA and the document got circulated within the member countries.

''Clearly, the government meant to slight the Left. But why? Is the Congress so fed up with the Left shenanigans'' the RSS asked.

The RSS also wondered if pressure from ''unknown quarters''was the reason why the Congress acted with the Left to push through the deal without caring for the consequences. The Left had been foolish enough to extend support to the Congress in the name of keeping the BJP out of the run for the government -- almost like a single party although it had only 142 members in the 543-member House, the RSS mouthpiece observed.

The Indo-US nuclear deal was not a part of the Common Minimum Programme and it worked cozy for the Congress with too many portfolios and spoils of power to distribute among a few members.

Why did the Congress upset its applecart? Was again inexplicable and the record of the UPA government in office was not even average that it could discard the ladder, the paper felt.

If the Prime Minister felt that the deal was a must why did he wait so long with the time-frame at his disposal, it was not certain that the deal will finally come through.

There were at least three more hurdles before the US could put its stamp of approval before it went to presidential polls.

Commenting on the plight of UPA government, the paper observed that first the government had to show its majority in Lok Sabha and a minority government sustained by unpredictable parties like Samajwadi Party, RJD, Janata Dal (Secular) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha with an assortment of independents can only inspire ridicule, not confidence. However, one good reason for accepting their support was that these parties were afraid of facing elections.

The Government had reduced its status to 'single item government' at a time when the nation was hit hard by back breaking price rise, inflation, scarcity and mismanagement and the economy was down the hill with the experts predicting stagflation.

Stating that the opportunistic alliance of the Left and the Congress had come after a long acrimonious debate, the RSS observed that the CPI(M) had issued 300-odd press statements in the last four years, majority of them criticising the government and 50 others concerning the nuclear deal.

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