PRAGOTI

The CPI(M) will undertake a comprehensive review of the results to identify the causes which have led to the erosion of support for the Left Front and the political shift that has taken place in West Bengal. The CPI (M) will, after the critical examination of the election results, orient itself towards taking up the issues of the basic classes and fighting for the interests of the working people. The political platform of the Left which includes the fight against the neo-liberal economic policies, defending the livelihood of the people, defence of national sovereignty and secularism remains as the only alternative political platform for the country as against those of the ruling class parties like the Congress and the BJP. General Secretary of the CPI(M), Prakash Karat writes. 

 In the recent period, alongwith a number of critical discussions on the electoral set-back suffered by the CPI (M) and the Left in last Lok Sabha elections, there have been some questions raised about the practice of democratic centralism as the organizational principle of the Communist Party. Such critiques have come from persons who are intellectuals associated with the Left or the CPI (M). 

The Congress Party and the corporate media are attacking the Left for calling the All India hartal on 5th July. Such attacks will not deter the Left parties from rising against the anti-people policies of UPA to safeguard the interests of aam admi.

Prakash Karat, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), writes on the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill in light of the gross injustice that continues to pervade the Bhopal Gas Tragedy and its aftermath. Also attached is letter by former foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon to William Burns, undersecretary of state, US Department of State in September 2008, which unequivocally states the Indian government's willingness to enforce a liability regime of the US' liking before commencement of nuclear ties. Image, courtesy AP