Released on = January 24, 2007, 1:47 am

Press Release Author = DMA

Industry = Government

Press Release Summary = As the United Progressive Alliance led by Congress Party and
supported by 13 other smaller but crucial parties including the four Left ones cross
over their mid term as government, very obviously the coalition honeymoon is over ad
bickering if not substantial differences are being heard in the political
environment.

Press Release Body = As the United Progressive Alliance led by Congress Party and
supported by 13 other smaller but crucial parties including the four Left ones cross
over their mid term as government, very obviously the coalition honeymoon is over ad
bickering if not substantial differences are being heard in the political
environment. The latest cause of differences between the Left parties and the
Government is the Pension Funds and Development Authority Bill.

According to government sources, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is opposed to
offering assured returns if pension funds are deployed in equity markets. The Left
however wants equity market investment only with assured returns. The UPA government
has called a meeting of Chief Ministers on January 22 to garner support on
deployment of pension funds in equity markets.

The Left leadership had instructed the Chief Ministers of the Left ruled states of
West Bengal , Kerala and Tripura to stick to the party line on the PFRDA Bill.
CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat has said. The government has been banking on
the Chief Ministers on the three Left ruled states, especially West Bengal\'s
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, to voice their support for the reforms.

In the last week of December 2006, a formula to provide assured returns on pensions
and their deployment in equity market through public sector fund managers was to
have been implemented through an executive order. This proposal also envisaged the
appointment of a regulator that would review the issue of assured returns after five
years. Although an executive order does not technically require Cabinet clearance,
the proposal was brought to the Cabinet.

It was however, withdrawn when Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee advised the Prime
Minister to hold it in abeyance because Parliament was in session at that time. The
government had proposed that it could consider assured returns if the Left agreed to
an increase in the premium employees paid. We will not accept any increase, Prakash
Karat, CPI(M) general secretary has underlined.

The Left parties\' especially CPI(M)\'s main boulder of distress in the last few
months has been its land acquisition policy for special economic zones in West
Bengal. Trinamool Congress leader Ms. Banerjee\'s 25 day long fast in Kolkata managed
to shake up the Central Government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President APJ
Abdul Kalam and they appealed to Ms. Banerjee to call off her fast unto death.

Mr. Bhattacharjee was compelled to call off the land acquisition moves at another
proposed SEZ site in Nandigram, putting a huge question mark on the entire policy.
The West Bengal Chief Minister, who has a reputation of being a \"bhadralok\" a
gentleman, a moderate among the CPI(M) had found his reputation soiled - the rural
population now think that leader and the party that has ruled West Bengal for over
22 years is out to grab their land while the urban youth think that the Chief
Minister has failed in his attempts to bring about fresh industrialization and
employment opportunities in the state.

No amount of covering up or justification from A K Gopalan Bhawan in New Delhi has
helped in white-washing the dent to CPI(M)\'s standing as a popular party. According
to some central committee members, CPI(M) units in state like Andhra Pradesh,
Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu have sought clarifications on Bengal\'s land for industry
policy. They would like to ask questions on the Bengal scenario as rivals are
accusing the CPI(M) of doublespeak on land acquisition in other states. The Andhra
unit has already referred to the Politburo the state Congress\' campaign against us,
citing Bengal to counter our opposition to its government\'s acquisition of
agricultural land there, a CPI(M) secretariat member has confessed during the
Kolkata central committee meeting.

The Party\'s critics and its partners are complaining that it is not practicing in
Bengal what it is preaching in Delhi and elsewhere against acquisition of farmland
for special economic zones and other industrial hubs. Allies like CPI, RSP and
Forward Bloc have been asking for a uniform land policy of the Left across the
country. However, Politburo member Brinda Karat has said the party did not see any
reason to take a fresh look at its land policy. CPI(M) central secretariat member
and Bengal MP Hannan Mollah has said almost the same thing - the policy on
industrialization was finalized at the time of the last party Congress in 2005. The
land acquisition drive is a corollary to that and we had articulated our policy on
it in the four Left parties notes on SEZs.

Another reality has hit the CPI(M) in the country like a thunderous slap that will
take ages to overcome. Accepting the realities of their poor political strength in
Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttranchal and Manipur, the CPI(M) Politburo and Central
committee have decided to forge an electoral alliance with like-minded parties and
other secular forces in the forthcoming Assembly elections in the states against the
BJP and the Congress (I). The party would however, continue to support the Congress
(I) led UPA government at the Centre till the Manmohan Singh government keeps the
Common Minimum Programme as the center of its attention. The Party is unhappy over
the Indo-US nuclear policies and the country\'s defence treaties with the US. The
leadership is also opposed to UPA\'s economic and political situation.

It would not be wrong to say that Left -UPA coordination is not in the pink of
health and it merely a marriage of convenience for both.

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