Left withdrawal of support to UPA was ''totally wrong'':Pranab

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Kolkata, Apr 12 : Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the Left''s decision to withdraw support from the UPA government on the nuclear issue in July, 2008 was ''totally wrong'' and accused the communists of being "idelogically bankrupt".
''''It was a completely wrong decision and there was no reason at all to withdraw support,'''' Mukherjee said adding even if the government had fallen, that does not mean the country would not have gone ahead with the civil nuclear co-operation agreement.
''''Had our government collapsed at that time, Prakash Karat (CPI-M general secretary) would not have come to power and BJP would have done it (implementing the nuclear deal) anyway. This has already come out in the Wikileaks. Yes, Advani had given that assurance,'''' Mukherjee told a Bengali TV channel aired today.
It proved that on the question of ideology the communists were bankrupt and they did not learn, he said.
Taking a dig at the Left''s inability to spread its influence beyond
West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, he said, ''''I think they should have learnt a lesson and pondered with closed eyes why 91 years after organised communist movement started in India in 1920, they could not spread their influence beyond these three states.''''
In sharp contrast, he referred to BJP''s (formerly Jana Sangha) growth and said the party, which was formed by Dr Shyamaprasad Mukherjee after 1950 by opposing the Nehru-Liyakat agreement and resigning from the government, had been able to come to power at the Centre in 1998 by capturing 180 Lok Sabha seats before the party completed 50 years of its birth.