Sitaram Yechury, CPI (M) leader, with Pranab Mukherjee, Indian External Affairs Minister. Photo Courtesy: AFP.
Sitaram Yechury, CPI (M) leader, with Pranab Mukherjee, Indian External Affairs Minister. Photo Courtesy: AFP.

Left turns down Manmohan’s olive branch

Sun-Oct 26, 2008

New Delhi / Press Trust of India

The Left parties on Sunday virtually rejected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's desire to work with them in future and asked him to reverse his government's economic policies.

Reacting to Singh's remarks on Saturday to accompanying journalists on his way back from China that he would like to work with Left parties for secularism and national unity, CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury said "if the concern for secularism is so sincere then all this should have been thought before rushing into surrender to the US" on the issue of civil nuclear deal.

He asked the Prime Minister to reconsider his economic policies.

CPI Secretary D Raja said unless the Prime Minister and the Congress-led UPA government reversed its politics and get out of the Indo-US nuclear deal, it would be difficult to work with them.

He said the government should reverse its economic reforms and stop pursuing strategic ties with the US.

Yechury said it was "our pressure that prevented the government from going in from a full capital account convertibility and enact laws to open up insurance and banking sectors. Had it happened we would have been ruined today".

Raja said it was due to the Left opposition that the government could not proceed with full rupee convertibility or put in pension funds into the stock market.

Both the leaders were asked to comment on Singh's statement that he hoped to find ways and means to work with Left and secular parties even though he disagreed with them on economic issues.
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