Nitish Kumar joined hands with BJP after ending his 2-year alliance with Lalu Prasad and Congress.
Highlights
- Editorial in CPM's journal slams Nitish Kumar for reviving BJP alliance
- Says strong anti-BJP front now unlikely, regional parties too unreliable
- PM Modi cannot be countered by aligning with the Congress either, it says
Accusing Bihar Chief Minister
Nitish Kumar of enacting an "elaborate charade" to embrace the BJP, the CPM has said any alliance of "a motley bunch of secular parties" can't be expected to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
"The political somersault by Nitish Kumar will rank as one of the biggest of its kind in India's political history which is replete with such opportunistic behaviour by bourgeois politicians," the CPM's journal "People's Democracy" said in an editorial.
Building the "widest unity" against the Modi government and the BJP "cannot be accomplished by putting together an alliance of a motley bunch of secular parties," it commented.
The CPM or Communist Party of India-Marxist, among the leading subscribers to an anti-BJP front, bleakly notes that the concept of a Grand Alliance "lies in tatters" with the "architect himself embracing the BJP camp".
After winning the Bihar election of 2015, said the editorial, Nitish Kumar had become the most prominent advocate of a grand anti-BJP alliance at the national level.
Referring to
Nitish Kumar swapping Lalu Yadav and the Congress for the BJP - a party with which he had an acrimonious split in 2013 - the editorial said: "It is now clear that Nitish Kumar had utilized the filing of an FIR on corruption charges by the CBI against Lalu Prasad's son and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav to enact this elaborate charade."
The Left party said "a grand alliance is unworkable" because of the "unreliable character of many of the regional parties", which, it said are prone to make opportunistic alliances.
"With one or two exceptions, the regional parties have shown their willingness to ally with the BJP depending on when it suits their political interests. The current episode of the defection of Nitish Kumar underlines this character of the regional parties," says the editorial.
The CPM said it had concluded "that with the regional parties as the main constituents, there can be no credible all-India alliance".
It added that fighting the Modi government cannot be accomplished by aligning with the Congress, which it said was "primarily responsible for the imposition of neo-liberal policies and continues to advocate them".
With inputs from IANS