PRAGOTI

The Left Parties withdrew support from the Congress-led UPA Government on 9th July 2008. When the UPA Government had come into existence in 2004, the Left Parties had decided to provide outside support on the basis of its Common Minimum Programme. The aim was to fight the communal forces and undo the damage that they had caused to the secular polity of India during their years in office. This required a set of interlinked policies to bring relief to the people, to protect India’s integrity and to pursue an independent foreign policy. Yet rather than fulfilling the popular mandate, and addressing pressing concerns such as the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, the Manmohan Singh Government preferred to expend its energy on pushing through the Indo-US Nuclear Deal. Clearly it is more concerned about fulfilling its commitment to the Bush Administration than about meeting its commitment to the people of India.