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New Delhi: The ruling coalition's anniversary celebrations have been marred with the Left allies deciding to distance themselves from the official function.
The Left Front's decision came a day ahead of it holding a special meeting today evening to review its ties with the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government over its failure to curb soaring inflation, the contentious Indo-US nuclear deal and economic policies of the government.
The Congress-led UPA government completed four years in office yesterday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to present achievements of his government to the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi at an official function at his bungalow followed by a dinner.
While the two junior partners of the Left Front, namely the Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party announced a boycott of all functions, senior partners CPM and CPI agreed to send their two top leaders each to attend the dinner in a symbolic gesture.
Strategy
The Left's decision of distancing itself from the UPA is seen as part of its strategy in view of upcoming assembly elections in four states to be followed by the general elections next year.
"What is there to celebrate... We have decided not to participate in both the government function and the dinner," RSP leader Abani Roy said.
The celebrations this year have been far muted compared to previous years particularly in view of the government's failure to give succour to the people from spiralling prices of all essential commodities, which may further worsen with reports that the government may soon announce increase in prices of petroleum products to partially meet the cost of ever increasing crude oil prices in the international market.
Measures
Failure of the government, especially on the inflation front, was the subject of discussion even in the central office of the Congress party, which heads the UPA.
Party general secretaries, including Sonia's son Rahul Gandhi, discussed failures of the government for nearly 90 minutes. Sources said that the party was unhappy with the situation in the crucial election year and took stock of the situation.
The exercise was aimed at analysing achievements and failures of the government so that corrective measures could be initiated on an urgent basis.
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram left none in doubt that even the government is unhappy with its performance, saying the government can do better in response to question about the government's performance over the last four years.
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