Hung Parliaments and indecisive verdicts have offered the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leadership a crucial role in national politics. The Left had helped V.P. Singh in 1989 and then Deve Gowda and I.K. Gujral in 1996-1998 to become Prime Ministers. Manmohan Singh would not have become Prime Minister without the CPI (M)-led Left Front’s support in 2004.
Marxist party general secretary Prakash Karat is confident that his party will play a crucial role again in the formation of the next government, though this time around there seems to be no scope for a third alternative before the polls.
There are a number of non-Congress, non-BJP parties and in the present political situation we expect them to do well in the forthcoming Parliament elections.
But we do not expect any national-level electoral alliance or alternative to emerge. What we foresee is a post-electoral combination or an arrangement.
Left usually is the focal point for the convergence of the non-Congress, non-BJP parties. So, is that convergence happening before the elections?
Not in terms of the elections, but on issues we are still trying to forge a common platform. For example we are holding this convention against communalism.
We mean some of the secular non-Congress parties and some prominent intellectuals and artists have come together to hold this convention.
This is because we see the rising threat of the communal forces. There have been a number of incidents of communal violence. So, we are able to get all the forces together, to that extent, yes, the left is able to take some initiative.
Do you blame the Samajwadi Party government for what happened in Muzaffarnagar or is this a pre-poll ploy by communal forces?
You see, for the past one year we have been getting reports of the activities of the RSS and the Hindutva outfits in western UP. They have been systematically working to raise issues which can cause communal tension. First, there has been a campaign on the issue of cow slaughter. So, the Muzaffarnagar violence has come in the background of this sustained effort.
There has been a failure on the part of the State government and the administration in intervening to prevent the situation from going out of control. But the main cause is the planned communal activity.
What is your prognosis on the 2014 Parliamentary polls?
All we can say is that neither the Congress-led UPA nor the BJP-led NDA can come anywhere close to winning a majority. In fact, the UPA is going to fare worse.
The NDA doesn’t exist in about 150 of the total 543 Parliamentary seats. Do you expect Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK, Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSR Congress, Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal or Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress to join the NDA after the elections?
That’s something I cannot predict. But I am sure that many of the major non-Congress secular parties such as the SP, the BJD and the JDU are not going to have any truck with the NDA. And even the YSR Congress.
Will you take Chandrababu Naidu as a partner in Andhra Pradesh when he has already shown signs of his preference for the NDA?
It is necessary for the TDP leader to clarify where he stands vis-a-vis the BJP.
Will you again support a Congress-led government to keep the BJP out?
Our effort is to see that there is a non-Congress, non-BJP government at the Centre.
Has the situation in Bengal improved for the party? Will you improve your tally?
The recent panchayat elections were marred by large-scale violence and rigging. If such attacks had not taken place, the Left Front would have fared much better.
We hope that in the Parliament elections there will be a fair and peaceful poll. If that happens, the Left Front will do better than in the 2009 elections.
Do you see a Narendra Modi wave in these assembly polls?
I don’t think Modi is the key factor. The polls are being held in States where the BJP has been traditionally strong. If the BJP does well it cannot be attributed to Modi.
Do you expect Modi's Prime Ministerial candidature to be the dominant theme for the national polls?
Modi has unprecedented support among the corporates and big business.
This is reflected also in the coverage given to him in the corporate media but despite this and the touting of the Gujarat model the reality of Modi as a fanatical Hindutva proponent and his blatant bias towards the corporates and big business in Gujarat will be seen through by the people.
Do you see a larger role for Naveen Patnaik in the next elections?
There are some able political leaders and competent chief ministers such as Naveen Patnaik and J Jayalalithaa. Given their contribution I see no reason why they can’t be playing a bigger role at the national level. Their record in governance is better than Modi’s.
Has the Prime Minister failed on the economy front?
The obvious national issues in these elections are the economic ones: rising prices, agrarian distress, unemployment and loss of jobs. Apart from that, corruption is a major issue.
People will remember this government as the most corrupt government since Independence and the Prime Minister’s record has been dismal, particularly on the economy.
At the same time people want communal amity and peace. So, they will look up to parties that assure this.