KOLKATA: The Left Front in West Bengal is keener on stepping up attack on prime minister Manmohan Singh for laying too much stress on the Indo-US nuclear deal while neglecting burning issues such as inflation, than taking the drastic step of pulling down the UPA government at the Centre.

The Front is almost unanimous on this as all its allies are against an early parliamentary election, especially after the recent disaster in panchayat polls where several traditional red forts were taken over by the opposition.

At a meeting here on Monday, all Left Front allies, including leader CPI(M), voted for a sustained campaign against the nuclear deal rather than inviting early Lok Sabha polls.
Front chairman and CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose said the consensus would be conveyed at the central Left coordination meet in Delhi on June 4.

Asked whether the West Bengal Left Front was ready for early elections, Bose, however, said the matter was not considered at the meeting. He said the Left parties would launch a sustained campaign against the PM.

“The insistence on the nuclear deal is to divert people’s attention from burning issues such as inflation. At the same time, the Union government is not eager enough to tackle the resurgence of communal forces in different parts of the country,” Bose said.

He accused the PM of not disclosing the whole truth about the nuclear deal. “Now, they are saying it is mandatory to go to the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) for the India-specific safeguards agreement. They did not disclose this at the UPA-Left coordination committee meetings in October and November last year.”

Bose said the CPI(M) was also holding discussions with other Left parties one by one to take a stock of the situation. “We already had a meeting with the CPI and will hold a similar meeting with the Revolutionary Socialist Party and All-India Forward Bloc,” he said.

Source : DNAIndia