WTO: Jaitley’s ‘knight’ act has Buddha gushing

What Cancun has done for Law Minister Arun Jaitley, his years in the legal-political career could never achieve. The collapse of the WTO neg...

What Cancun has done for Law Minister Arun Jaitley, his years in the legal-political career could never achieve. The collapse of the WTO negotiations have made him a hero with even the Left Front.

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya heaped praises on Jaitley for a sparkling performance at the international meet. Cutting out all political differences in a congratulatory note to Jaitley, Bhattacharya heartily thanked for his ‘‘excellent performance in the ministerial conference of WTO at Cancun’’.

Never mind the fact that Bhattacharya’s party Lok Sabha colleagues were baying for Jaitley’s blood in just the last session of Parliament, for what they called a conscious attempt to mislead the House on the dilution of the Ayodhya chargesheet.

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But proving the popular saying that in politics there is no permanent enemy, Bhattacharya went overboard in his praise for Jaitley for playing the knight for the downtrodden countries at Cancun.

The Left has been all along demanding that the Vajpayee Government re-negotiate the WTO draft proposal and not give in to US pressure.

So quite understandably, on behalf of the elated Left Front, Bhattacharya wrote in his note of approval: ‘‘We need to have a correct approach towards globalisation and liberalised trade regime so that we can move in the right direction to realise our objectives.” It is the India-Brazil-South Africa axis which reportedly spoilt the show at Cancun for the US and the EU, who were unwilling to negotiate on farm subsidies.

Jaitley played a leading role in uniting the developing nations to reject the WTO draft. The ministerial conference would not have collapsed had India and other developing nations not opposed the attempt of rich nations to take up the issues of trade and investment.