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Nothing immoral in supporting Congress, says Basu

Veteran Communist leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu has rejected the question of political morality in extending support to the Congress to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha.

''The BJP is the biggest threat to the country and to defeat the BJP we have decided to support the Congress. The question of political morality does not arise in such a situation,'' Basu said in an interview to a local cable TV network in Calcutta.

He said his party had been opposing the Congress for the past 45 years and had even taken the support of the BJP, the then Bharatiya Jana Sangh, to oust the Congress from power. ''But the situation is different now and you have to act as the situation demands,'' he pointed out.

Basu, however, said his party would support the Congress only in those states where the Left Front does not have enough strength. ''We have strong bases in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura and therefore, the question of supporting the Congress in these states does not arise,'' he observed.

Basu admitted that the ruling Left Front's vote bank had been eroded by about three per cent in the state and said the benefit had been reaped by the Trinamul Congress because of a weak Congress. He rejected the contention that the fall in the percentage of votes was due to the complaint of corruption against the state leadership by some party leaders, who had quit the party. ''These leaders have not quit the party because of Marxist ideology. Instead, they had been expelled by the party for anti-party activities. We have suspended over 11,000 party workers to maintain the party's discipline. These action had ultimately strengthened the party,'' he said.

To a question, the chief minister said though the law and order situation in the state was best in the country, the state government had asked for 250 companies of central forces for election because of the apprehension of large-scale violence by the BJP-Trinamul combine during the elections. ''We have got some central forces and we expect more from the Centre,'' he added.

Asked whether the country can afford mid-term elections frequently, the CPI-M politburo member said there was no option before the country. ''In a democracy like ours we may have to go even for mid-term elections ten times if necessary.'' He, however, said the incidence of mid-term poll would be reduced considerably with the growing consciousness among the people.

''We usually take a long time to change the scenario. We needed 300 years to drive out the Britishers from the country. We have to wait,'' he added.

Basu vehemently opposed the move to amend the Constitution by the BJP to prevent frequent mid-term polls and said, ''The people reserve the right to change any time a government if it fails to deliver goods.''

UNI

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