The Communist Watchdog has threatened to bark again. Left threatens mass movement (ed: sic) against UPA.

Expressing unhappiness over the Centre “not listening” to Left views, veteran CPI-M Politburo member Jyoti Basu today warned a mass movement against the recent fuel price hike…

Jyoti Basu, one of the last towering relics of the Left, in the same breath also has admitted the foregone failure of the “mass movement.”

Responding to persistent queries from reporters whether the Left parties would review support to the UPA government on the issue, Basu said, “we are supporting them from outside and there is no other alternative.”

Ha! The said “mass movement” is then, really a show of how much the Red is seething but is unable to do anything about it. This may certainly be another case of posturing the Left is increasingly resorting to. But let’s set that aside and assume that their concern is real.

To his credit, the official Family Retainer of the Nehrus/Gandhis Mani Shankar Aiyar has done a sensible thing.

Earlier this week the Union Cabinet raised retail petrol (Rs.2 per litre) and diesel prices (Rs.2.50 per litre) by about seven percent in some areas, its first rise since November, to bring them more in line with soaring crude prices and stem losses at state-run oil firms. [...] but the government, faced with a combined federal and state deficit of more than nine percent of gross domestic product, needs the revenues to bridge the fiscal gap.

That the Oil scene the world over is in deep turmoil hardly bothers our brothers at the Left.

Crude oil advanced for a second day to a record $60 a barrel in New York as surging demand forces producers and refiners to operate at full capacity.

Ideology over reality. In his infinite wisdom, Jyoti Basu it seems, had whispered in an extortionist’s manner on the more “positive methods” to collect money from the people.

We have given our positive suggestions about how to collect money. If they do not listen what can we do…

Of course, you can take to the streets, play with sticks and stones, and indulge in merry fireworks. Like you routinely do in West Bengal and Kerala. The NDA/BJP should actually relax. The Left is the UPA’s enemy within, doing all the hard work an Opposition is supposed to.

By the way, the same Jyoti Basu had angrily proclaimed a few years ago that if the BJP ever came to power, West Bengal would secede from India. The link is palpable. The Left’s threats mirror its ideology: hollow and empty.