Congress lacks 'coalition culture' says Bardhan

Nearly five days after the breakfast with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the CPI general secretary, A. B. Bardhan hit out at the government for scrapping all the consultative groups in the Planning Commission.

In the latest edition of the CPI mouthpiece, New Age, Bardhan described the scrapping of the 19 consultative groups by the deputy chairman, Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia as, "a typical instance of throwing the baby along with bathwater."

Bardhan also attacked some Congress leaders and ministers for "not acquiring coalition culture." Bardhan's target was the union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil and Commerce and Industry Minister, Kamal Nath.

The CPI general secretary then warned the UPA government that "it will be a Himalayan blunder to underestimate the strength of the BJP and its parivar." Reminding that the BJP and its allies have 130 seats in Lok Sabha, Bardhan observed that "BJP's potential for destruction is great."

Targeting the UPA government's decision to scrap the consultative groups, Bardhan felt that the Left parties' criticism of the government over the particular move was "justified."

The Prime Minister is the chairman of the Commission. It can be mentioned that after the meeting with Prime Minister on October 2, the Left leaders, particularly the CPM appeared "satisfied" at the government's move to dissolve all the groups, which included left economists along with the foreign experts. The CPM leader Sitaram Yech-uri had gone on record saying, "the issue was blown out of proportion."

Without naming the Home Minister and the Union Commerce Minister Bardhan stated, "many of the Congress leaders and ministers have not acquired the coalition culture." He then observed, "This leads to friction." It was learnt the while the CPI disapproved of Patil's "handling of northeast affairs, the Reds were also upset with Kamal Nath for taking unilateral decisions on the FDI issues.

- The Asian Age