Irrelevant Left

Sir,
Please not that this is not for publication, but just to bring to your notice a letter I had sent to you for publication. You did not publish it, and I don’t complain. It was much much longer than what you would prefer, but don’t you usually trim long letters the way you want? Why I chose to write this postscript to an unpublished Letter is because I feel that the Letter was not that dumb to be dumped. But, your decision has to be right.
I wrote it because I felt that the Left Parties, especially CPI(M) and CPI, were following a terribly incorrect political course. Among the self-righteous, self-serving utterances and actions of Indian political parties, theirs alone are somewhat sane. If they too self-destruct? They are surely carrying their Cold War obsession with the US into the much changed present world. This has vitiated even their valid objections to the 123 Agreement.
They should have remembered that as political parties, they are irrelevant in every State other than W.Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. How they will fare even in those States in the next elections is uncertain. The Third Front they are so keen on resuscitating again is still in the incubator. All its sympathisers are players with some base only in lone States. SP has now walked out on the Left. I thought Deccan Herald would have done a good service to Indian politics by articulating a caution to the Left Parties, especially after it had chosen to publish the Editorial, ‘Clear the air’.
I am giving the letter for reference only, not for publication.

Sir,
The Editorial, Clear the Air (June 27, 2008), rightly addresses the Central Government to decide the issue of signing the 123 Agreement sooner than later. But the issue is sure to simmer at least till the next general elections because of the Left parties’ inflexible opposition. They have threatened to withdraw support and precipitate early elections. They are canvassing among the parties inside and outside the UPA to block the government from winning a contingent vote of confidence, and have announced their decision to vote on the BJP side if needed. Do such extreme threats and frenetic activities bode well for the Left parties themselves? Do they believe that the signing of the agreement is a now or never event, which can be blocked permanently if they can block it now?

The fact is that the Left cannot block the agreement now or ever if the government decides to sign it and face the consequences, including the Left’s vindictiveness, as they come. The Left leaders themselves would be knowing that their larger-than-life role and bargaining power in the present dispensation are products exclusively of the 2004 elections, which may not be available after the next general elections. They would also be knowing that the BJP is currently trivializing the agreement only to appropriate it when it comes to power next. It is quite possible that India will sign the agreement if the NDA, or a UPA with no need for Left’s support, gets power next, and the US keeps the offer alive. What will the Left’s present objections come to then? Perhaps, to a big loss of face and credibility. Reality being such, a pragmatic option for the Left would be to take a long term shot at the issue and save some political grace for themselves.
P.P.Sudhakaran
Bangalore.

Prof. P.P.Sudhakaran (Retd.)
301, East Mansion,
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Ph. 25467483.