Karat

Chennai, Sept. 21: Prakash Karat today made light of BJP attempts to drum up the Ram setu row, saying the party was mistaken if it thought that could be used to conjure up snap polls.

“If the BJP thinks they can benefit from the present (political) situation with things like the Ramar setu issue, they are mistaken,” the CPM general secretary said after an informal meeting of politburo members from the south.

He said the CPM “had no worries on that count” as it was well known how the BJP had come a cropper after whipping up the Ram temple issue in Uttar Pradesh.

Yesterday, BJP leader L.K. Advani had demanded that Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi apologise for his “derogatory” remarks on Ram. The row was sparked by a now-withdrawn ASI affidavit that said there was no “incontrovertible” proof of his existence.

Karat said his party wanted the Centre to go ahead with the Sethusamudram ship canal project as scheduled. “There is no question of delay. We do not consider the issue of Adams Bridge an obstacle to the project.”

He, however, declined to join issue with Karunanidhi, saying all were free to express their opinion in a democracy. “Beyond that, I cannot say.”

But he waved off Advani’s statement that after the Left, Karunanidhi’s DMK was the “second destabiliser” of the UPA. “The DMK is very much part of the UPA. I don’t see how they can destabilise the government.”

Although Karat did not fan the setu row, the talks, attended by Sitaram Yechury among others, raised eyebrows in the context of the CPM politburo meeting due in Calcutta next week.

Karat clarified that the meeting was just an informal “exchange of views” between Left members who had been touring the south at the same time. “This is not a politburo meeting.”

He said the members had not touched on the nuclear deal at all. “We stand by what we have said.”

On reports that the Centre was planning to wind up talks on India-specific safeguards with the IAEA by October, he said: “I don’t know. The government has not told us anything.”