WE NEED MANY MORE PRAKASH KARATS

(9-7-08)

Vishnu.S.Jarugumilli

firstcapital@rediffmail.com

The headline may prompt you to think that I am endorsing his stand on the nuclear deal. NO. In fact I don’t really understand the intricacies of the deal and I am sure, a majority of Indians don’t either. I don’t really know if it is good for the country. Any way, major portions of the deal have not been discussed in the public domain and there may be clauses in the deal which have not been revealed by the UPA govt even to the parliament.

What I liked most about Prakash Karat in the entire episode is his clarity of conviction and his attitude to go ahead with his views, come what may.  Every single political party in this country has taken a view which is opportunistic, except for the left. And that, on as important an issue as the nuclear deal. Here is why I say that.

CONGRESS: It may be said that even the Congress and the PM in particular, had the conviction to go ahead. But till SP offered its support, the PM and the congress could not just speak up and be counted. The congress should have ideally tabled it in the parliament even before the left withdrawal and asked for a vote and should have caught the bull by its horns. Surely political compulsions have prevailed on them and they just could not muster the courage.

BJP: The BJP was only performing its role as the main “opposition party”. I don’t think they really bothered whether it was good for the country.

SP: You least expect a party like SP to take an idealistic stand and they were true to form.

Think of all other smaller parties like the TDP, the Dravidian parties. BSP, Akali dal, JD(S) and many more one MP parties. It is pure opportunism and their views on the deal are solely guided by the next alliance they are likely to strike for the coming election. I don’t think any one of them would have bothered to think even for a moment in the national interest.

In all this tsunami of politicking Prakash Karat stands tall. Early elections are actually detrimental to CPI (M)’s interests. With their strong base under threat in Bengal, and Kerala being a mixed bag as always, their tally in the next Lok Sabha could actually go down. The fact that Karat did not bow down to these considerations is indeed laudable.

We need leaders who do what they say and don’t change what they say very frequently. I am impressed with Karat on this score. Indian politics certainly need many more Karats.