 |
||
|
||
|
||
Interview of Sitaram Yechury, Communist Party of India (Marxist)
politburo member.
How secure do you think Is the Prime Minister Deve Gowda?
As secure as he ever was. We met in the steering committee and
decided unanimously that there is no question of any change in the
leadership.
How would you term Congress's decision: unfortunate or
irresponsible?
It is very unfortunate that the Congress has decided to withdraw
their support because we think that the reasons they have used for
this decision are neither tenable nor justifiable. And further,
the step has been taken at a time when some very important
developments were taking place in the country, particularly in the
international arena - you have the NAM foreign minister's
conference on the anvil, you have the Indo-Pak talks that are going
on.
So I think that unfortunately the Congress has not taken into
account the overall interest of the country. We hope we can
overcome this.
Are you categorically ruling out any sort of an alliance with the
Congress?
Absolutely. We are very clear on two points. One that the United
Front would remain united under the present existing leadership.
And two, there is no question of any coalition or alliance with the
Congress in forming the Government as far as we are concerned.
Your party has been blowing hot and cold over a number of issues,
the latest being the budget. Under the circumstances, would you
still support the cut motion?
Our intention was never to pull the government down. Our intention
was to make the government see reason and make some changes in the
Union Budget.
We have been critical and we will continue to be critical on those
issues which we think are not in the interest of the country and in
the interest of the people. So our whole attitude to the United
Front is that yes we have made a commitment to the people.
There is something called the Common Minimum Programme and that is
something we have promised to the people of the country. And these
promises have to be implemented. Anything that deviates from that
or goes against the interest of the people of the country we will
oppose with the intention to correct it.
Our intention is not to pull down the government. We want the
government to correct its orientation.
The Congress has been talking of harassment in terms of a host of
cases against its members. How would you react to this?
None of these are politically motivated. These are cases which
have been there. All the charges are relating to the investigating
agencies. This is something that no one can engineer. They have
done something and now you are facing the consequences. This
cannot at all be called being harassed. They are now reaping the
fruits of whatever they have done.
Aren't you rigid and inflexible...
Not at all. On the contrary, it's been extremely flexible, but
based on certain fundamental parameters which are non-negotiable.
And these parameters are the interest of the people and the
interest of the country. These two parameters are nonnegotiable.
And if you think that these ought to be negotiable, then of course
you can say that we are rigid. This is something which we think
any well-meaning patriot should uphold.
How strong do you think is the coalition?
If anybody thinks that the coalition is going to break, then they
are in for the greatest of surprises. This coalition is going to
stand together.
Whatever may be our differences, all of them are aimed at improving
the functioning of the government and not at pulling it down. This
coalition has come up on the basis of some very fundamental
understanding about the Indian reality. We believe that social
plurality should find its expression in political plurality, These
are the fundamental commitments that each of these parties have
made and it would be very difficult to disrupt this unity. And I
think that it is in crisis like this that they show their strength
and this unity would get strengthened further. This crisis has been
brought about by the Congress itself. The logical conclusion of
this is mid-term elections and it is upto them if they want to
impose a mid-term elections on the people of this country.
We don't want it and I don't think that the country can afford one
right now. But if the Congress chooses, after all it has been one
of the strongest political forces in the country since
Independence, then there is nothing that anybody can do anything
about it. The ball is in their court.
In the event of mid-term polls, what do you think are your party's
chances?
I think they are much better. And we would like the United Front
to go about it unitedly to face this elections which was not done
last time. The Front was formed after the elections and that in
itself would give it a great advantage. The people's respect for
our unity would grow and they are now suddenly realising that this
coalition also meant business.
We had such tremendous successes in the foreign policy. This
coalition has effected so many pathbreaking initiatives. Everybody
thought that we would end up in a disaster. In the last ten months
we have shown that our kind of coalition is also possible. We have
proved that the Indian reality can find a proper expression in its
politics.
What do you foresee in the next couple of days time?
If this government goes, it is not because of the United Front or
because of any of its constituents. If it goes, it is because of
the Congress choosing to bring it down all of a sudden without any
justifiable reason or provocation.
The events in the last couple of days have shown that nobody can
really bank on division within the United Front constituents. I
just hope that the Congress would see reason that by imposing
elections now they would be causing great harm to the country. In
the national interest many things have to be done and there are
enough Congressmen who have this in mind.
|
||
|
||
|
||