Hyderabad, Nov. 25: The Left parties often have a holier-than-thou attitude, but when it comes to brass tacks they are as good (or as bad) as any "bourgeois" or "right wing" party. Take for instance the corporate-style building near Narayanaguda flyover which is stylish enough to attract the attention of any passersby.
Many shoppers must have gone into the building to buy confectionaries from the famous Agrawala Sweets located in the ground floor. The premises are owned not by any profit-seeking builder but by the All-India Trade Union Congress, an affiliate of the Communist Party of India (CPI). And sources said that the owners charge a hefty Rs 1.23 lakh per month as rent from the Agrawalas and Rs 38,000 from an insurance company, which occupies the first floor.
Of course, this is not the first time that the Left parties have put their properties to commercial use. But many are surprised by their clever adaptability to trends which they criticise as decadent from public stages. "This is the problem with the Left parties," said a Congress minister.
"They also try to derive maximum benefit out of a move — be it investment or politics — but are quick to blame others for doing the same," he says. Similarly, though the Left smirks at the very mention of caste politics, leaders of other parties see a caste angle in their decision to break bread with the Telugu Desam.
The housing minister, Mr Botsa Satyanarayana, said the alliance between the CPI, the CPI (M) and the Telugu Desam is like "birds coming back to the same nest after going out in different directions for food." "They are birds of the same feather," he said, subtly hinting that the heads of these three parties belong to the same caste.
The TRS chief, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, had also blamed the CPI(M) state secretary, Mr B.V. Raghavulu, for moving closer to Mr Chandrababu Naidu as both belonged to the same caste. Of course, the Left parties themselves have a more "progressive" explanation for all this.
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