A 24-Karat affair

When the Politburo of the CPI(M) met here on July 8 to take the all-important decision of withdrawing support to the UPA Government, it was more or less a family affair. Only three members attended the meeting — the party’s first couple Prakash and Brinda Karat, and CITU leader M K Pandhe, who is lying low these days after the party boxed him in for his comments that Muslims are opposed to the nuclear deal. While Sitaram Yechury was abroad, S Ramachandran Pillai was in Chennai to pay homage to senior comrade P Ramachandran, who had died a day earlier.