Pandhe: Widening reach

New Delhi, Nov. 27: Citu president M.K. Pandhe is busy lobbying not only within his own party but also with the Left Front partners against the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill the government is planning to pass in the ongoing winter session of Parliament.

The politburo and central committee of the CPM will meet between December 13 and 15 to take a decision on the bill.

Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee wants the bill to be passed. His party’s central leadership in Delhi has already scaled down its position from that of unqualified opposition to being willing to negotiate on amendments to the bill.

But Pandhe ? a strident critic of the bill ? is not giving up easily.

Yesterday, he spent a long time “chatting” with CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan at party headquarters Ajay Bhavan.

The Citu leader has also met the Aituc general secretary Gurudas Dasgupta and reiterated the Citu’s opposition to the pension bill.

This morning, Pandhe made an impassioned speech at the 38th session of the Aituc congress in which he said the Citu will oppose the entire range of government policies, starting with disinvestment of non-navratna profit-making PSUs to the pension bill. “We will never accept the pension bill,” said Pandhe.

Sources said the Citu president expressed his dissatisfaction with the CPM leadership, which is coming into increasing confrontation with the party’s trade union front.

After the IT controversy, the pension bill is fast becoming the next big issue of friction. But unlike in the case of IT, which was an issue of discussion solely within the CPM, the pension bill involves the three other Left Front partners.

All three say they will vote against the bill. “We will not allow the bill to be passed,” said Bardhan. The CPI left the decision on the bill to its trade union front. Dasgupta said nothing but an unqualified “no” to the bill.

The CPM may find it awkward to support the bill if 10 CPI MPs oppose it in the House. Even if the CPM politburo manages to push through Bhattacharjee’s line of support at its meeting next month, the party would not want to witness any fracture within the Left Front in Parliament.