CPM is 'distant from dirty politics' - Karat

New Delhi: Brinda Karat holds the Rajya Sabha seat from West Bengal as a Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate.

More than anything, she stands out as a women activist. A couple of years ago, Brinda resigned from the central committee of the CPI-M protesting the lack of representation of women. Even today, she stands out as a prominent campaigner for gender issues.

She says, "Left Front's politics includes women's equality and emancipation. I am still very much an activist of women's issues and raise such matters in every forum which is available even in the Parliament."

Gulf News spoke to Brinda Karat on her party's concerns in the wake of Assembly Elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mizoram.

GULF NEWS: What policies and programmes is your party putting forward to the electorate for the Assembly elections and the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections?

BRINDA KARAT: Our party does not have much presence in the states where assembly elections are to be held, except in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. And we are trying to transform our mass base into votes in these two states. The economic policies and basic issues of livelihood of the people are not central to the mainstream agendas of either the Congress-led UPA or the BJP-Led NDA. So what we are trying to project is an alternative policy programme.

The issue is if you have 77 per cent of people earning just Rs.20 (Dh1.4) a day, then you certainly need a shift from the economic policy. Price rise is another important concern. The rate of inflation has come down, but the government is not ready to cut the price of petrol and diesel, which they had raised to eight times more.

Communal harmony, secularism and protection of minority rights - given the offensive of the so-called Hindutva forces, the soft approach of the Congress and their double standard in dealing with terror, are other issues we are taking up.

Congress, BJP and now the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Where is the Left Front? Even after several years it is still a regional party.

That is a challenge in front of us. Although peoples' support to us is visible in many states, it has to translate into votes. But to do that in a situation where caste, religion and now money power is concerned, it is a challenge. I admit there is unevenness in our representation.

What reason would you attribute to BSP's meteoric rise in the last few years?

It is a very skilful use of caste. But we have never used caste. We believe that the basic issues which people face have to cut across caste considerations.

Although your party has joined hands with BSP, the party's general secretary Prakash Karat has said that CPI-M will never project Mayawati as the next prime ministerial candidate. What's your take on this?

I do not think he has put it that way. Our approach is to try for an alternate platform against the BJP and the Congress-led alliances because both these parties have utterly failed the country. Now who will be a part of the alliance is extremely premature to say. But coalition politics is here to stay. In our concern, any alternative to the BJP or the Congress, the Left Front will play a major role.

Do you think if the CPI-M had supported Jagjivan Ram (a Dalit) for the premiership in 1979, the entire political scenario would have been different today? Would you consider not agreeing to support him then a historic blunder? This is because caste now is playing a major role. And it is a Dalit (Mayawati) whose rise is being talked about.

That is an absurd question. And you are asking this in 2008. At that time, a whole lot of forces were born post emergency. The situation was very different.

Having done away with the Congress, is the stage now set for the Left and AIADMK alliance?

We are discussing. Our Politburo will be meeting on November 29 and 30.

There is no point in making predictions, as certain tie-ups in the past proved that anything can happen in politics?

I absolutely agree with that. Particularly when you have the example of some parties, who had been opposing, for instance, the Indo-US nuclear deal. And then overnight some considerations came into play and they did a 180 degree U-turn.

That is considered politics. With us, there is no gap between what we say and practice. We had all along made it clear that if the Congress went ahead with the nuclear deal, we would withdraw support and that is what we did. We work on the basis of certain principles. Our party is very distant from dirty politics and that is our USP.

But you compromised those principles when you aligned with Mayawati, whom you had all along opposed and even say that she is into caste politics?

We opposed Mayawati when she was with the BJP because we said she was compromising on basic secular issues. Also, the DMK and TDP were doing the same.

Why don't you ask the same question to other political parties? Isn't the Congress playing caste politics? Why target us? Just because we represent the most marginalised section?

The manner, in which CPI-M responded to the Nandigram issue, is being seen as the beginning of the end of the Left Front rule in West Bengal.

Nandigram was an incident which occurred in the context of a campaign against the Left Front government and targeting the chief minister of West Bengal. It was completely on the basis of a false propaganda and rumour mongering. There was no question of having any project there or taking over any land without the consent of the people and it was made very clear. We challenge any party who would be so democratic.

The firing was very unfortunate and regretful and the loss of life tragic. Unfortunately, the forces that were there in Nandigram then, backed by the Maoists, created a situation that went out of control.

Will it affect the Party in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections?

It did have an impact in that area in the panchayat elections. But we believe that with the sustained campaign we will be able to convince people of our position.