Singh in Beijing. (PTI)

On board PM’s aircraft, Oct. 25: In his first major overture to the CPM-led Left parties since the bitter divorce in July, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said he was “not happy to part company with our Left colleagues” and hoped that he could once again work with them especially on questions of secularism and nationalism.

In a politically astute move, he made no mention of the nuclear deal which had led to the acrimonious break-up three months ago but focused on issues which had brought the Congress and Left together in the first place — and could bring them together again after the 2009 elections.

Speaking to the media on his flight home from Beijing tonight, the Prime Minister’s pro-Left sentiments extended to Bengal too — breaking his silence on the Singur fiasco, he said the circumstances under which Ratan Tata had to pull out the Nano factory was “certainly sad.”

Asked to comment on Tata’s decision to move out of Bengal to Narendra Modi’s Gujarat, the Prime Minister said that in a democracy, entrepreneurs were free to decide the location of their plants but the decision itself was sad. “It is sad because a lot of work had been done in Bengal and there was a date fixed for the Nano’s appearance in the market….”

CPM’s Prakash Karat

Aware that the land acquisition issue could have political repercussions with elections round the corner, Singh, however, sought to strike a fine balance between the imperatives of industrialisation and the well-being of farmers — almost as though he were agreeing with both Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Mamata Banerjee.

In reply to a question, he said, “India needs to industrialise; without industrialisation we cannot find solutions to our employment or development problems... (but) industrialisation cannot be on the backs of the poor farmers.”

Pointing out that the real issue is the terms on which the land is acquired, the Prime Minister said, “There should be an increasing attempt to reward farmers appropriately, also perhaps giving them a stake in the enterprises which come into existence on the land that is acquired.”

The bill to amend the Land Acquisition Act (which is expected to guarantee better compensation to farmers) is before Parliament, Singh said and hoped that it would not create any friction and division among parties “because India must industrialise to realise its destiny”.

The Prime Minister took the same nuanced approach towards the Left as a whole — disagreeing with its economics but seeking its help in politics. On claims made by CPM leaders that India would have fared much worse in the current financial crisis if the Left had not blocked attempts to open out the banking, insurance and pension funds sectors, Singh said: “I am afraid I don’t agree. Strengthening India’s banking system, strengthening India’s insurance system has enabled us to deal with the crisis more effectively. I beg to differ (with them on this).”

But he took the opportunity to express his unhappiness at parting with the Left parties. “In my view,” the Prime Minister said, “all parties which are committed to secularism and nationalism must work together to deal with the communal and regional divide which is being sought to be created by some anti-social elements. There are issues which require all political parties which think alike to sit together, and I very much hope we can find ways and means to work with our Left colleagues.”

In contrast to his expansive comments on Left-related issues, the Prime Minister remained circumspect on other questions relating to politics. The next general election will be held “on schedule”, he said but sidestepped a query on whether he would contest a Lok Sabha seat with a non-committal “we shall see when the time comes”.

Similarly, he refrained from guessing at the outcome of the Assembly elections round the corner. “All elections are in one way or the other a test of popularity. But that’s part of the democratic process one has to go through,” he said.

Following up on his remarks at the ASEM summit in Beijing last evening in which he admitted that India’s economy was under strain because of the international financial crisis, Singh said: “It would be wrong to say that I am not worried. It is my duty as Prime Minister to worry when things don’t go as planned.” He also refused to spell out a time frame for the end of the crisis, saying that “it all depends on how long it takes the world community to restore confidence to the global financial markets.”

On the proposed G20 summit in Washington next month, the Prime Minister confirmed that President Bush had called him in Tokyo to invite him to the summit but said a decision would be taken only after consultations in Delhi.

The Prime Minister, who met Chinese President Hu Jintao earlier this evening, said they had discussed the financial crisis in detail and would take co-ordinated positions to tackle it. Singh, whose speech came in for much praise at the ASEM summit last evening, also confirmed that he had predicted the crisis well in advance. “I have been saying for the past 18 months that there are clouds on the horizon which, if not checked, would create trouble for the world economy,” he said.