On joining Third Front government



NEW DELHI: The CPI(M) central committee will take a decision on joining a Third Front government when the situation arises, the party reemphasised on Wednesday.

Responding to questions on the statement by veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu, Polit Bureau member and MP Sitaram Yechury said here the formation of a Third Front government was an objective the CPI(M) and a few other parties were trying to achieve.

As for joining the government, he said that after the 1996 decision by which the central committee did not accept the United Front’s offer to make Mr. Basu Prime Minister, the 1998 party congress authorised the committee to take an appropriate decision in specific conditions. Mr. Yechury disagreed that the Left parties were exercising power without responsibility. On the contrary, in the four-and-half years it supported the Manmohan Singh government the Left “exercised its responsibilities without power, which is a rare thing in Indian politics.”

On BJP candidate Varun Gandhi’s outburst against the minorities, Mr. Yechury said it was “unfiltered communal vitriolic” and welcomed the EC’s decision to take action against him. If the BJP had a “modicum of political morality,” it should withdraw Mr. Gandhi’s candidature.