CPM explains why it is voting alongside BJP

Less than a week after it denied reports that Comrade Jyoti Basu had disagreed with the CPM voting with the BJP, the party has clarified its stand on the issue in an editorial of the forthcoming issue of People’s Democracy, the party organ, saying it does not need a certificate for its secular credentials.

The editorial titled “Stop deal, defeat trust vote” elaborates on the party’s stand made public by Prakash Karat: “We will do everything possible to stop the deal.” Karat had last Sunday driven to BSP chief Mayawati’s house and joined hands with her to defeat the July 22 trust vote.

The editorial says the Manmohan Singh government’s legitimacy depends on the trust vote and that, in turn, will pave the way for the Indo-US nuclear deal. “For precisely this reason, the government needs to be defeated in order to ensure that the India-US nuclear deal does not get this required legitimacy,” the CPM has said.

“This, naturally, raises the question whether the CPI(M) and the Left would like to be seen on the same side as the BJP and the communal forces.” It goes on to say that the “objective is not and can never be contingent upon who else is voting against this government and for what reasons…The Left is clear. It shall work to achieve its objective of preventing India from becoming a subordinate ally of US imperialism.”