Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat on Thursday said the WikiLeaks disclosure in The Hindu of the U.S. cables about American diplomats suggesting that the Trinamool Congress be cultivated showed that Washington wants the party to win the ongoing Assembly elections in West Bengal.
“The cable shows that the United States is very clear about where they stand. As far as the elections here are concerned, they would very much like to see the Trinamool Congress in government and they would very much like to see Mamata Banerjee as Chief Minister,” Mr. Karat told journalists.
The report comes a day after Biman Bose, State secretary of the CPI(M), made similar comments and alleged that the alliance between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress was formed under U.S. pressure to ensure the defeat of the Left in these elections.
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Mr. Karat said the cable showed the U.S. diplomats felt that the Trinamool “is very much within private outreach” and must be cultivated.
“I'm in no position unfortunately to investigate and tell you what they are doing to fulfil this general direction they've given in the cable,” he said.
The report makes it clear that the U.S. has recognised its “right friend” in the Trinamool, as a defeat for the Left Front will be a gain for the U.S., all-India general secretary of the All-India Forward Bloc, Debabrata Biswas said.
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The U.S. would like to see the Left Front out of power in the State “as the Left parties have been consistently fighting against the U.S.-led market economic policies and West Bengal is a stronghold of the Left,” he added.
‘Old wine in new bottle'
“There is no difference between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress; it is old wine in a new bottle. And as such, the U.S. has definitely chosen the right friend,” Mr. Biswas said.
The report “vindicates” the arguments made by the Left that U.S. interests are at work to ensure the defeat of the Left Front, he added.
“Not surprising”
Senior CPI(M) leader and a member of the party's central committee, Shyamal Chakraborty, said the information revealed in the cable was along expected lines.
Stating that on two previous occasions the U.S. targeted the Left and intervened in the democratic process in India – the overthrowing of the E.M.S. Namboodiripad government in Kerala in 1959 and elections held in West Bengal in 1971 – Mr. Chakraborty said the information revealed in the WikiLeaks cables was “not surprising.”
Mr. Chakraborty said the CPI(M) had been receiving reports that the relationship between the U.S. diplomats and representatives of the Trinamool Congress had deepened in recent times.
He alleged that U.S. officials had extended support to the Trinamool Congress during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections as well to destroy the Left's base in West Bengal and to steamroll the opposition raised by the Left MPs in Parliament on matters of American intervention in policy.