Now, CPI-M has a borrowed agenda

After its own political programmes like industrialisation had boomeranged in the Lok Sabha polls, the Communist Party of India Marxist is trying to borrow brownie points from the second United Progressive Alliance's pro-people commitments.

It is eyeing the proposed Food Security Bill as one of the areas of pro-active involvement, even as the government is not much interested to consult the estranged comrades.

The Bill has the potential of being the biggest social sector programme of the second Manmohan Singh government, just as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act did during the first UPA regime.

And the CPI-M wants to pre-empt the government's move and showcase their concern for their poor.

The party has called a brainstorming session-a national convention-on the Food Security Bill and related issue like the public distribution system on Wednesday in Delhi.

Apart from top leaders like party general secretary Prakash Karat and politburo members like Sitaram Yechuri, Brinda Karat, Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar the party has roped in ordinary citizens and even people of the BPL category to take part in the convention. 

Prakash Karat told Business Standard, "It will not be an event where only leaders will speak and others will listen. Ordinary people will share their experience and real life problems. We will try to fine tune our approach towards the issue of food security through this interaction."

The UPA's food security Bill aims to provide 35 kgs of rice or wheat at Rs 3 per kilo to all BPL families. Union Agriculture Ministry, headed by Sharad Pawar, is currently involved in preparing the Bill. It may be tabled during the upcoming winter session of Parliament.

For four years (2004-2008), the CPI-M took interest in many pro-people programmes of the first UPA government but by its own admission, that failed to earn them the credit for these programmes in the election. This time, the party is cautious and wants to show that they are associated with all these aam aadmi initiatives, even though it is not supporting the Congress-led UPA II.

Image: Prakash Karat