Basu: Bitter memories

New Delhi, April 1: To join or not to join, that’s the question.

A loud buzz has begun doing the rounds in CPM circles that the party should not shy away from joining the government or even taking a shot at the prime ministership this time around.

Although it’s early days yet to take a final call, sources said some leaders felt the CPM should not think twice about joining the government if the numbers favoured a non-Congress, non-BJP alternative after the April-May elections.

The leaders, the sources said, had been enthused by CPM veteran Jyoti Basu speaking of such a thing, despite the “historic blunder” of 1996 that denied him the Prime Minister’s chair. They listed five reasons why the party should take the plunge.

One, the CPM had been the rallying point of “third front” parties aiming to build a non-Congress secular formation and Prakash Karat its moving force since the time he looked up Mayavati after the split with the UPA.

Karat: Willing?

Given that the 2009 call was to vanquish both the Congress and the BJP as compared to defeating only the BJP in 2004, the Left should automatically take greater responsibility.

Two, the leadership of the front had not been foisted on the CPM this time, as it was in 1996. The party had itself built the regional formation block by block, so it should go the whole hog on its initiative and join the government.

Three, the “economic policy” espoused by the third front was basically the CPM’s brainchild. If the people approved of the policy — the gist is both the Congress and the BJP have been pursuing faulty economic doctrines — by voting in the front, it was only logical that the CPM should be present in the government.

Four, the party would be able to reach out to more people and strengthen itself from the grassroots if it was in the government. If some of the “positive legislations” the Left had pushed while lending outside support to the UPA — such as the forest bill — had some impact in state polls, obviously its reach would be greater if it was in the government.

Five, a participatory role by the CPM would lend a cohesiveness to the government that outside support would not. Joining the government would help the CPM “bring a change in the general policy direction”.

One of the leaders, however, said a call would be taken only after the polls. “After the 2004 elections, the late V.P. Singh had said the CPM should join the government. He reasoned that we would not have a better chance again. But we believe he would have said the same even after the 2009 elections ,” the leader said.