Left to hold mirror to UPA

The left took a dim view of the Centre’s ‘‘political handling of key issues’’ at their strategy session this evenin...

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The left took a dim view of the Centre’s ‘‘political handling of key issues’’ at their strategy session this evening.

Huddled together for more than an hour, the Left leaders decided that at their next meeting with the UPA on August 25, they would highlight the ‘‘confused political directions’’ coming from South and North Blocks. High on the list of Left’s list of ‘‘politically mismanaged’’ issues is Manipur. It feels the UPA Government not only reacted late but bungled by sending a minister of state who was new to the job. The Left is worried as the situation in Manipur is quite volatile and, at least, a senior minister should have visited the state.

Further, the Left feels ‘‘inflation is not just an economic issue’’. The government should have come up with a speedier response, as the inflationary scenario had snowballed into a major political issue.

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The same ‘‘political impact of an economic decision’’ came to the fore on EPF and how Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had the rate cut to 8.5 per cent through the Labour Ministry. ‘‘It is not just the question of 3.5 crore workers. Multiply it by five because each of these families have five members,” a leader said.

Another major decision taken today was that the Left would prepare separate papers on the FDI cap in telecom, aviation and insurance sectors. The argument was that the Left has till now put forward its views only verbally.