Fate of letter writer in Left equal to fate of book writer in Right

NEW DELHI: Lobbying may be acquiring respectability among mainstream parties, but it remains a dirty practice among communists. Left parties, who take pride in the claim of being above influence of corporates, have discovered one MP with a ���deviant��� behaviour in its ranks ��� Mr Abani Roy.

Mr Roy, a Rajya Sabha backbencher, is in the eye of a storm in his party for his ���letter-writing��� skills. He has been writing letters to the prime minister and the finance minister on every corporate skirmish for the past six years. His letters got prominent displays in the media during UPA-1���s tenure as it was invariably treated as the Left���s considered opinion.

With a section of RSP expressing their displeasure over the MP���s enthusiastic participation in corporate battles, Mr Roy has conveyed to the leadership his decision to quit the primary membership of the party.

He tendered his resignation on July 15, two days after he had written a letter to the prime minister opposing the merger of Bharti Telecom and South African telecom major MTN, alleging that it was a threat to India���s security. Mr Roy had also written a letter to the prime minister on the Reliance gas row, backing the stand taken by RIL.

Roy, in his resignation letter, said that ���instead of conveying their protests through national dailies, the party should have seen the letters first from me and could have taken follow-up action, if any, including disciplinary action, against me.���

The ���resignation letter��� is expected to be discussed by the party after its general secretary T J Chandrachoodan returns to the capital on Friday. Mr Chandrachoodan, who led RSP���s campaign against the Indo-US nuclear deal, is currently vacationing in the United States.

Sources in RSP said the party general secretary was unlikely to accept the resignation. Mr Roy���s friends in the party are alleging that the controversy is being raked up by his rivals in the West Bengal unit.