CPI(M) defends decision to vote along with BJP
The CPI(M) has defended the Left's decision to vote against the UPA Government during the July 22 motion along with "communal" BJP.
Amid mounting criticism from various political parties, the CPI(M) has defended the Left's decision to vote against the UPA Government during the July 22 confidence motion along with "communal" BJP, saying one cannot choose one's co-passengers during a journey.
The party also dismissed reports that veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu has opposed the Left's move noting that if he had any reservations he would have raised them before the Polit Bureau.
"When you travel in a train, you can't choose your co-passenger. What can I do? I want to reach my destination. And my position is against the nuclear deal," senior CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said
"We are opposing it (deal). Whoever else is opposing, let them take their own decision," he told Karan Thapar in CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate programme.
Defending his party's position on the Government, he said if the BJP was keen on actually stopping the nuclear deal, they would have brought in a no-confidence motion.
"They want to connect with the US on one hand and on the other with the opposition to the deal. Let them do what they want to," he said.
"The survival of the Government is an issue which will be dependent on all other parties on what positions they will take...That will determine whether the Government stays or not," the senior Left leader said.
On Basu, Yechury said the veteran leader would have conveyed his opposition, if he had any, to the Polit Bureau. "Knowing Basu, if he has any (reservation), he will make it to the Polit Bureau. Not a single suggestion to this effect was made. He never talked about it. I don't think so," he said.