NEW DELHI: The dissident Congress leader. Arjun Singh’s persistent efforts to win the sympathy of the Leht, for his confrontation with the Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, has not been successful, so far.
Ever since his resignation from the Rao Cabinet Singh has assiduously tried to have a favorable Left reaction traditionally for winning the struggle within traditionally, regarded as a preconditioned Congress. Indira Gandhi in 1969 and VP. Singh in 1987 succeeded in convincing the Left that they were representing the progressive section of the Congress.
Keeping the historical perspective in mind the former Human Resource Development Minister has begun to make overtures to the Left.
He visited Calcutta for the second time in less than 10 days and is scheduled to go, again, on January 28. Despite these efforts and Singh’s consistent anti-BJP position, there has been no significant response from the Left leadership.
A meeting with the Marxist patriarchand West Bengal Chief Minister. Jyoti Basu, a yardstick used to assess the acceptability of a Center leader to the Left, has not yet materialized for Singh. Recently, when Singh was in Calcutta Basa was busy with his program.
In fact, no senior CPI-M leader has had any meeting with the rebel Congress leader despite the partys appreciation of his strong stand on the Ayodhya issue.
This is in sharp contrast to the open Left support for V.P. Singh, in 1987. when the then CPI-M General Secretary E.M.S. Namboodiripad, gave a call to the Congressmen to revolt.
The Left reservations, regarding Arjun Singh, stem from two major considerations: the latter’s defence of the Rajiv Gandhi family in the Bofors kickback scandal and an anxiety not to rock the Rao boat, lest it bring back the BJP to center-stage.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 27, 1995
