Putting to rest speculation about formation of a third front after the Assembly elections, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat has said the party is in no haste. | |
| He also put a question mark on the viability of the "third alternative" comprising the SP, the TDP, the AGP, the AIADMK and the National Conference, announced by SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu recently. |
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| "Can this be considered to be the launch of a third alternative? These five parties have not set out any programme or made any policy announcement...It can be asked how the Assembly elections in some states can determine the national alternative to be set up," Karat said. |
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| With the exception of the SP, all other parties were previously associated with the BJP and the NDA. |
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| "What do these parties have to say about the BJP and the communal danger now? That all these parties are willing to fight the Congress is clear, but are they equally clear that going with the BJP is something which destroys the essence of a third alternative?" Karat has written in the latest issue of the CPI(M) mouthpiece, People's Democracy. |
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| Elaborating on the "checkered history" of efforts to form a third front, including the National Front, the United Front and the People's Front, Karat stressed the need for a change in the outlook of political parties, which he said did not have any problem in tying up with either the BJP or the Congress. |
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| "Some of the regional parties which are secular avidly pursue policies of liberalisation and privatisation when they run state governments. This was the experience in Andhra Pradesh when the TDP government vigorously pushed through World Bank-dictated policies," Karat said. |
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| "The regional parties must clarify where they stand on all-India economic policies if they are to become part of a national alternative," he added. |
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| Karat said there were a range of issues like independent foreign policy, farmers' demands, FDI in retail, privatisation of profitable public sector enterprises, employment, price rise, and BJP's communal agenda, on which the Left and other secular parties could launch movements through which a third alternative could be shaped. |
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| Till then, it may be possible to work out common electoral tactics, whenever required, but hasty announcements will prove to be premature, according to Karat. |
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