'Left lost trust vote, won hearts of Indians'

ON THE DEFENSIVE: CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan says he's happy to be second to Mayawati.

        

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Have the Left parties damaged their credibility by their behaviour? That's the key issue Karan Thapar raised with the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India, A B Bardhan.

Karan Thapar: Mr Bardhan, the Left parties have failed to stop the Indo-US deal going further and you have lost whatever influence you had with the UPA government. I put it to you. This is a double whammy against your party.

A B Bardhan: We might have lost our influence with the UPA government. But then we have won the hearts of the Indians. We may have lost the vote…trust vote.

Karan Thapar: Do you really believe that you have won the hearts of the Indian people?

A B Bardhan: I not only believe it, I believe it very strongly.

Karan Thapar: Alright, let me question that. I put it to you that not only have you lost the double whammy, what's even worse from your stand point is that you squandered your reputation for integrity and you have badly damaged the belief that the Left is a party that pays attention to the etiquette conventions and the quorum of Parliament. Those were two of the qualities distinguished you from other parties. Now you have been reduced by your own failure to the level of everyone else.

A B Bardhan: Ethical, is it? I think, in Parliament under Manmohan Singh, the most unethical thing that has ever happened.

Karan Thapar: That is an allegation.

A B Bardhan: That is something known to everybody in this country.

Karan Thapar: It has not been proven. That is an allegation. It's an aspersion. You have no facts and you have no figures to back it up.

A B Bardhan: You might have seen how many abstentions, how much of cross-voting. And mind you, none of these were because of the love of politics. All of that was due to the horse-trading.

Karan Thapar: Let me come back to the Left and particularly, to the CPI. The number of times that you have told me in interviews that one of the greatest qualities of the Left is their integrity. What did you do? You, yourself personally endorsed Mayawati as a potential future Prime Minister of this country—a woman against whom there are gross and deeply worrying charges of corruption.

A B Bardhan: I think that this opinion is born out of your prejudice, an elitist prejudice against a Dalit woman who has done good for her country, who has done good for herself.

Karan Thapar: Let me quote from figures given by Mayawati herself when she stood in 2004 from the Akbarpur Lok Sabha constituency. She declared her wealth as Rs 1.66 crore. Three years later when she stood for the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, her wealth had gone up, by her own admission to Rs 52 crore, an increase of over three thousand one hundred per cent. Do you believe that this is legitimate?

A B Bardhan: It is not a question of legitimacy.

Karan Thapar: Then what is it a question of?

A B Bardhan: You are talking about wealth that has been accumulated. Every single man in this bourgeoisie politics is a man of crores.

Karan Thapar: But not every single man is endorsed by Mr A B Bardhan. Mayawati was. You are endorsing a woman whose wealth went up by three thousand and one hundred per cent in three years flat.

A B Bardhan: Her people pay her. She is an icon among her people. But then, I am not discussing.

Karan Thapar: Pause a moment. Do you know the kind of explanation Mayawati gives? She says she has made her money by the five and ten rupee donations made by lakhs of her supporters. Are you telling me that you are gullible enough to believe that?