Left wants secular front to close ranks

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, DEC. 10. One implication of the CPI(M) general secretary, Mr. Harkishen Singh Surjeet recently indicating that the party's alliance with the AIADMK would continue for the coming Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, is that it confirms that the AIADMK will lead the secular front here, according to left party sources.

This would be irrespective of the arithmetics of the seat- sharing arrangement in the secular front, sources said today.

The front was already led by the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and any arrangement that did not recognise this fact would in effect mean floating a `third front', sources argued.

The left parties were not for such a `third front' sans the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, and Mr. Surjeet's remarks has made it clear that the top priority in the coming Assembly poll was to fight the `communal' BJP and its allies led by the DMK in the state, sources said.

The left parties see these implications as important, because emergence of a `strong alternative' to the DMK-BJP combine in Tamil Nadu will be crucial to capitalise on the anti- establishment mood even if the AIADMK conceded the TMC's power sharing demand, sources said.

Because of sharing power at the Centre with the BJP, the DMK's ``political compulsions'' were getting more acute by the day, the sources said, pointing to the ruling party's increasing helplessness on several issues.

Stating that the DMK, even in responding to the Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee's controversial remarks on the Ayodhya issue, had not really condemned his statements, sources said that the TDP, on the contrary, was able to be more assertive with the BJP as that party was not part of the government at the Centre.

For instance, Andhra Pradesh has been able to stall the move to privatise the Steel Authority of India Limited's (SAIL) Visakhapatnam plant, but the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu could not do such a thing with respect to SAIL's Salem plant, despite a unanimous resolution passed by the Assembly, sources pointed out. This was a fallout of the DMK sharing power at the Centre.

Sources said the grassroots level feedback got at the CPI's two district conferences at Erode and Coimbatore and the more recent joint regional conference at Thanjavur with the CPI(M), showed that people affected by the new economic policies in various sectors including agriculture, saw the DMK's acts ``more as window-dressing''.

In the last five years, unemployment has risen from 30 lakhs to 45 lakhs in the state, sources said.

Adding to the anti-incumbency factor was the Veerappan-triggered hostage crisis which has ``encouraged the separatist elements'' in the State, sources said, adding, these and other election- related issues would come up for a lengthy discussion at the CPI's central executive meeting in Chennai from January 3.

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Section  : Southern States
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