Forming a Govt

“Despite a plea”:http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/001200405161630.htm by _intellectuals_ like Tarun Tejpal, Praful Bidwai, Shabana Azmi, Habib Tanveer,Asghar Ali Engineer, A K Hangal, Anand Patwardhan, Baba Azmi, Nandita Das, Govind Nihalani, Shabana Azmi, historian K N Pannikar, writer Namwar Singh and scientist Prof. Yashpal, the Communists have decided “not to join the Government”:http://us.rediff.com/election/2004/may/17left.htm. Is this another _historic blunder_ ? Or is it a calculated move ?
Maybe the Left knows that this Government might not last that long and soon they will be back to their home states of West Bengal and Kerala, where they will have a tough time explaining their opposition against Congress Governments. The Left Leaders are also finding it difficult to explain it to the cadres in the state.
bq. “When we disagree, we should have room to express ourselves,” said Harkishan Singh Surjeet, the 88-year-old leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), one of four Communist parties in the front. The Congress party and the Communists are pitted against one another in two key states, Kerala and West Bengal, and Congress officials said the Communists felt they could not sell a Congress-dominated alliance to party leaders in the states. [“NY Times”:http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/18/international/asia/18INDI.html?ex=1085457600&en=7ee9b96e83c828b6&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE]
In another development, “Sonia has refused to become the Prime Minister”:http://www.nirajweb.net/mt/niraj/archives/002496.html, and so “Sushma Swaraj can eat proper food”:http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEL20040518075127&Title=B+R+E+A+K+I+N+G++++N+E+W+S&Topic=304& and dress in colorful clothes. It is also helping “the gene pool”:http://in.rediff.com/election/2004/may/18cong2.htm.