On airport issue, Buddha takes it lying down for now

No matter what the CPI(M) top brass says on the issue of modernisation of the Kolkata airport, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattarjee's silence at the Politburo meeting said it all.

He kept mum when the issue was being discussed at the two-day meeting which concluded in Kolkata on Sunday.

Everybody except Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya opposed the privatisation route. "But he kept quiet. When everybody had finished, he just said the modernisation should not be stopped," a Politburo member told Business Standard.

"Not that his opposition would have changed anything. The entire Politburo except him was unanimous in opposing the privatisation of airports. Besides, the entire context of discussions was anti-UPA. How could he have questioned the dominant view?" said Left sources.

The chief minister is reported to have offered no views as his colleagues in the Politburo opposed FDI in the retail sector.

The Politburo deliberated at length on the UPA regime's performance in the past two years and came to the conclusion that the Left parties were being taken for a ride.

"The CPI(M) and the Left parties have given 19 notes to the government in the past two years but all of them have been ignored. The Politburo concluded that the party is being treated as a pushover. It has to stand up and be counted," sources said.

The Politburo, therefore, decided to launch an agitation against the UPA government's pro-US foreign and economic policies.

"Petro price hike just happens to give us an immediate context. And, mind you, this agitation is going to be different from what you have seen so far. Our agitation will start within 24 hours of the hike being announced," said sources.

Party General Secretary Prakash Karat had announced in Kolkata on Sunday that the Left parties would try to rope in other democratic and secular parties in its agitation.

The four Left parties will meet here on Thursday to discuss their strategy. They will write to the government in the first week of June and make it clear that the Left support cannot be taken for granted, according to sources.