CPI-M takes a dig at SP`s Third Front call

New Delhi: In an indirect attack on the Samajwadi Party (SP), the CPI-M said on Thursday that non-Congress and non-BJP parties should not form a new front only to share "the spoils of office".

"The non-Congress, non-BJP secular parties (should) give up their political opportunism of forming a front merely for the sake of sharing the spoils of office," the CPI-M journal "People`s Democracy" said. Such a front should come up to form "a government that will implement alternative policies which will significantly improve the livelihood conditions of our people and create a ‘Better India` for all Indians". The Communist Party of India-Marxist editorial did not name any political party but it followed recent calls by SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to form a Third Front ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections. The CPI-M editorial said it was important that political struggles must be carried out to force a change in government policies. It said that people won`t get relief "merely from a non-Congress, non-BJP government. "Relief can only come through alternate policies. What the people require, therefore, is not merely an alternate government but a government that can implement an alternate pro-people policy direction." It said the reason why parties like the SP that continue to bail out the Congress-led UPA government still talk about a Third Front "is because there is pressure from the SP`s own political and social base for a change that will provide people some relief from their present miserable conditions of existence. "The economic slowdown, the relentless rise in prices of all commodities, the deepening agrarian distress - are all combining to mount unprecedented agonies on the people. "The people`s cries for relief and a better livelihood find such political expressions of a `Third Front` government." IANS