Recent incidents of state oppression in China prove that West Bengal government adopted the Chinese methodology to curb the peasants' revolt against acquisition of land in Singur and Nandigram.
by Sagarika Roy
THERE IS a proverb – the Indian communists seek for an umbrella when it rains in Moscow or Beijing. China has transformed. Maoism has been shelved inside closets. Communism as a whole has been trailing behind across the world after it got a severe jolt in the Soviet Union in the early nineties.
Still, communists in India, particularly in West Bengal seem not to deviate from their big brothers’ path. The Left Front government has been in power in the state for the last 30 years. The steps being taken by it in acquiring land for industry and commercial purposes by evicting thousands of farmers from their lands, appear to have taken a cue from recent Chinese formula of evicting peasants for land acquisition. This has been well expressed in Singur and Nandigram.
In 2003, the government of Sanjiao town in Zhongshan province requisitioned a plot of land measuring more than 200 hectares of Panlong village for industrial development. Local people, though unwillingly, gave consent to the proposal. The town government provided compensation for land acquisition along with crop compensation to local villagers. The land was requisitioned in favour of a Hong Kong based business company to build factories at the price of 1,10,000 yuan per ’mu’. This was not disclosed as the villagers got compensated at a much lower rate – only a few thousands yuan per mu. Since the land was taken away, no effort for developing the land was taken. The peasants were promised employment in a proposed factory but even after three years, they did not get it because there was no response from the government or the business house for setting up the factory.
On January 10, 2006, thousands of villagers from Panlong village of Sanjiao town assembled at the office of the government. They claimed that it has cheated them in two ways . First, they have been given low compensation considering the rate at which the government sold the land to the business house. Second, they have not been provided any job as promised.
The second phase of the movement started on January 14 when they assembled at Nansan Road. A force of 2,000 policemen tried to break the blockade when some instigators threw bricks, stones and homemade bombs on police officers. Two police officers and three villagers were injured. In order to restore normal traffic and prevent the incident from escalating, the police arrested 25 suspected troublemakers. Four instigators were given a 15-day detention for disrupting traffic and the rest were discharged. The villagers claimed that police beat them at random, used weapons and a minor girl died in the attack. The government, however, refuted all allegations and said police was peaceful.
Afterwards, concerned departments of Zhongshan city and the Sanjiao town government responded actively to the reasonable demands of the petitioner villagers, meticulously persuaded and explained to them, and properly handled the problem.
Sanjiao town is an economically underdeveloped area in Zongshan, which is a commercial city in Guandong province of South China. Its proximity to Hong Kong has added advantage to its economic development, specially for the manufacturing industries. The city considers its eastern part, as a focus of development and to re-organise the fragmented industrialisation. However, the light and labour intensive industry imposes problem because of shortage of land in Zhongshan.
China’s growing economy is fuelling social tension. It is claimed that in Dongzhou, police shot a group of protestors against land seizures and 30 residents died in the shooting. The government refuted and admitted that only three died in the incident.
Recently, a wave of frequent, serious incidents linked to the problem took place in Guangdong too, only a few months before the initiation of the movement against land acquisition at Singur, followed by Nandigram in West Bengal. Both localities were under state government scanner for providing land to Tata Motors for manufacturing cars and an Indonesian Group for establishing a chemical Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
At Singur, the land requisitioned amounts to 1,000 acres where the state government tried to acquire 19,000 acres at Nandigram in East Medinipur without having any consent from local villagers. Both the areas became unstable and the government was shaken as opposition came from within the Left Front partners.
More particularly, Nandigram took the shape of a war zone as protests came from the residents of 38 villages. Several people died in police action and inter-party fights as well. The state government had to bid adieu to the proposed plots and announced that no land would be taken in Nandigram. However, at Singur, the opposition could not survive finally.
The incidents in China and in West Bengal have much resonance. The issue is same and in both places communist governments are in action. Both the governments are shifting to a new era with changed ideologies. Both the governments are sailing the same plank and their actions corroborate each other.
http://world.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=133306
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Fear still reigns in Nandigram
Biswabrata Goswami
SONACHURA, April 23: In Nandigram’s villages, people still live in fear of the CPI-M and police. Opposition candidates who have filed their nomination papers for the forthcoming panchayat poll fear they may have to cancel their candidature should the pressure become unbearable.
Mr Sheikh Alam, a Trinamul leader, said: “It is not the CPI-M that we fear but the support it enjoys from police. Most of the attacks on villagers here took place in the presence of policemen. Given the deteriorating situation, we might withdraw our candidature at the last minute. We have intimated this to the local SDO.”
An aged woman draped in a saree slammed shut the window of her mud house when this correspondent asked for a reaction on the political scene in her home ~ Sonachura village, Nandigram. Others, who were nervously peeping out of their houses, did the same. A middle-aged man came out of his house and whispered, “Please don’t stay here for long. They will beat us and torture our women if they see us talking to outsiders. Even you may be attacked.”
In the Nandigram-I block of Midnapore East, “they” are CPI-M cadres. A few days before “normalcy” returned to these villages following the CPI-M’s bloody recapture of Nandigram in early November last year, the political scene was quite different from what it is now. The entire area was a stronghold of the Bhumi Ucched Protirodh Committee (BUPC). But after re-establishing their political dominance, the CPI-M is now desperately trying to hold on to these villagers by following a three-pronged strategy.
First, they chalked out plans to win the villagers’ faith by implementing various Central development schemes. They allocated huge funds for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and various health schemes through panchayats.
Secondly, they worked insidiously to break the Opposition’s unity. Foreseeing a split in the BUPC over selection of candidates for the forthcoming panchayat poll, they filed the nomination of a Trinamul Congress leader in Nandigram I panchayat samity, Mr Ranjan Patra, as an independent candidate backed by the Left Front. The CPI-M leadership here tactfully nominated many new candidates who are mostly members of anti-Left Front families in those areas to cut a large piece out of the Opposition’s vote-bank.
Trinamul Congress chief Miss Mamata Banerjee has decided to keep both the BJP and the Congress at a distance during the panchayat polls. As most anti-Left parties are also members of the BUPC, there are rifts in the Opposition; many Opposition candidates have filed nominations as independents, which has helped the CPI-M to penetrate into Nandigram’s villages.
Thirdly, the CPI-M is unleashing “silent” terror among supporters of the Opposition. They have planned to enlist the help of local police to arrest prominent Opposition workers and leaders in connection with old cases ahead of the polls.
The CPI-M has been successfully able to unite its partners and solve seat-sharing disputes. Of 115-gram panchayat seats in Nandigram, the CPI-M has fielded 75 candidates, the CPI has fielded 33, the RSP three, the FB two and the SP has fielded two candidates. Of 27 panchayat samity seats, the CPI-M has filed nominations in 21, the CPI in five and the RSP in one, while in the two Zilla Parishad seats, the CPI-M and the CPI have fielded one candidate each.
Although the CPI-M-sponsored terror in Nandigram had united the Opposition and the CPI-M lost heavily in school committee elections, the Opposition will not be able to retain their influence unless they can retain their unity in the panchayat poll.
SONACHURA, April 23: In Nandigram’s villages, people still live in fear of the CPI-M and police. Opposition candidates who have filed their nomination papers for the forthcoming panchayat poll fear they may have to cancel their candidature should the pressure become unbearable.
Mr Sheikh Alam, a Trinamul leader, said: “It is not the CPI-M that we fear but the support it enjoys from police. Most of the attacks on villagers here took place in the presence of policemen. Given the deteriorating situation, we might withdraw our candidature at the last minute. We have intimated this to the local SDO.”
An aged woman draped in a saree slammed shut the window of her mud house when this correspondent asked for a reaction on the political scene in her home ~ Sonachura village, Nandigram. Others, who were nervously peeping out of their houses, did the same. A middle-aged man came out of his house and whispered, “Please don’t stay here for long. They will beat us and torture our women if they see us talking to outsiders. Even you may be attacked.”
In the Nandigram-I block of Midnapore East, “they” are CPI-M cadres. A few days before “normalcy” returned to these villages following the CPI-M’s bloody recapture of Nandigram in early November last year, the political scene was quite different from what it is now. The entire area was a stronghold of the Bhumi Ucched Protirodh Committee (BUPC). But after re-establishing their political dominance, the CPI-M is now desperately trying to hold on to these villagers by following a three-pronged strategy.
First, they chalked out plans to win the villagers’ faith by implementing various Central development schemes. They allocated huge funds for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and various health schemes through panchayats.
Secondly, they worked insidiously to break the Opposition’s unity. Foreseeing a split in the BUPC over selection of candidates for the forthcoming panchayat poll, they filed the nomination of a Trinamul Congress leader in Nandigram I panchayat samity, Mr Ranjan Patra, as an independent candidate backed by the Left Front. The CPI-M leadership here tactfully nominated many new candidates who are mostly members of anti-Left Front families in those areas to cut a large piece out of the Opposition’s vote-bank.
Trinamul Congress chief Miss Mamata Banerjee has decided to keep both the BJP and the Congress at a distance during the panchayat polls. As most anti-Left parties are also members of the BUPC, there are rifts in the Opposition; many Opposition candidates have filed nominations as independents, which has helped the CPI-M to penetrate into Nandigram’s villages.
Thirdly, the CPI-M is unleashing “silent” terror among supporters of the Opposition. They have planned to enlist the help of local police to arrest prominent Opposition workers and leaders in connection with old cases ahead of the polls.
The CPI-M has been successfully able to unite its partners and solve seat-sharing disputes. Of 115-gram panchayat seats in Nandigram, the CPI-M has fielded 75 candidates, the CPI has fielded 33, the RSP three, the FB two and the SP has fielded two candidates. Of 27 panchayat samity seats, the CPI-M has filed nominations in 21, the CPI in five and the RSP in one, while in the two Zilla Parishad seats, the CPI-M and the CPI have fielded one candidate each.
Although the CPI-M-sponsored terror in Nandigram had united the Opposition and the CPI-M lost heavily in school committee elections, the Opposition will not be able to retain their influence unless they can retain their unity in the panchayat poll.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
CPM likely to bag 4,000 seats without contest
Express news service
Posted online: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 01:33:23
kolkata, April 22 The ruling CPM is likely to manage victory without a contest in nearly 4,000 gram panchayat seats in the first phase of panchayat elections. Like last year, the trend is being seen in Hooghly and West Midnapore districts on a large scale.
Hridesh Mohan, the election observer in Hooghly, told the State Election Commission on Tuesday that a large number of Opposition candidates have withdrawn their nominations and the trend is continuing.
S N Roychowdhury, Secretary of the SEC, said: “We are unable to get a clear picture for the number of seats where there won’t be any contest. But we expect the number to be less than last polls.”
Sources in the SEC said after the final figure comes, the number of uncontested seats would exceed 4,000. The number was 11,000 last time. The trend is seen in Goghat, Khanakul, Jangipara, Arambag in Hooghly district and in some blocks of West Midnapore. “There were no elections in these areas last time. We think the trend will continue. Because we are getting information of large-scale withdrawals from Hooghly,” said Roychowdhury.
Meanwhile, Opposition TMC alleged that the CPM is forcing its candidates to withdraw nominations at gunpoint.
“The district administration and the police are turning a deaf ear to our pleas for help,” said Partho Chatterjee, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly.
Roychowdhury said: “The Commission cannot force someone to file or withdraw nominations. Our observers talked to individual candidates who said they were withdrawing papers willingly. We have got complaints. But none of them are so specific that we can ask the police to intervene.”
Till last reports came in, a total of 1,25,118 candidates had filed their nominations for 41,513 gram panchayat seats. For 8,798 panchayat samity seats, 26,917 candidates will contest and for 748 zila parishad seats, 3,703 candidates filed their nominations.
For further protection to candidates in some parts, the SEC claimed to have made arrangements at the SDO office instead of Block offices for filing nominations in Hooghly and West Midnapore. “But this seemed to have no effect as there are so many withdrawals,” said an official of the SEC.
The SEC needs 3,25,000 personnel for the polls. This time, it will not recruit schoolteachers and women.
Posted online: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 01:33:23
kolkata, April 22 The ruling CPM is likely to manage victory without a contest in nearly 4,000 gram panchayat seats in the first phase of panchayat elections. Like last year, the trend is being seen in Hooghly and West Midnapore districts on a large scale.
Hridesh Mohan, the election observer in Hooghly, told the State Election Commission on Tuesday that a large number of Opposition candidates have withdrawn their nominations and the trend is continuing.
S N Roychowdhury, Secretary of the SEC, said: “We are unable to get a clear picture for the number of seats where there won’t be any contest. But we expect the number to be less than last polls.”
Sources in the SEC said after the final figure comes, the number of uncontested seats would exceed 4,000. The number was 11,000 last time. The trend is seen in Goghat, Khanakul, Jangipara, Arambag in Hooghly district and in some blocks of West Midnapore. “There were no elections in these areas last time. We think the trend will continue. Because we are getting information of large-scale withdrawals from Hooghly,” said Roychowdhury.
Meanwhile, Opposition TMC alleged that the CPM is forcing its candidates to withdraw nominations at gunpoint.
“The district administration and the police are turning a deaf ear to our pleas for help,” said Partho Chatterjee, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly.
Roychowdhury said: “The Commission cannot force someone to file or withdraw nominations. Our observers talked to individual candidates who said they were withdrawing papers willingly. We have got complaints. But none of them are so specific that we can ask the police to intervene.”
Till last reports came in, a total of 1,25,118 candidates had filed their nominations for 41,513 gram panchayat seats. For 8,798 panchayat samity seats, 26,917 candidates will contest and for 748 zila parishad seats, 3,703 candidates filed their nominations.
For further protection to candidates in some parts, the SEC claimed to have made arrangements at the SDO office instead of Block offices for filing nominations in Hooghly and West Midnapore. “But this seemed to have no effect as there are so many withdrawals,” said an official of the SEC.
The SEC needs 3,25,000 personnel for the polls. This time, it will not recruit schoolteachers and women.
CIC snubs Buddha on RTI
Express news service
Posted online: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 01:44:01
Kolkata, April 22 The Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) of West Bengal, Arun Bhattacharya, criticised the state government for the latter’s dismal performance in implementing the Right To Information Act in the state.
At a seminar on ‘RTI Act: Challenges and Opportunities’ at the Merchants Chamber of Commerce in the city, Bhattacharya said: “Compared to other states like Maharashtra and Delhi, West Bengal is lagging far behind. In Maharashtra 1.53 lakh applications have been received but in West Bengal where the commission was constituted in 2006, so far only 15,000 applications have been received. Of which only 10 per cent had been disposed of. It is very unfortunate.”
He attributed this to various reasons, including lack of infrastructure and attitude problem.
Chief Information Commissioner of India, Wajahat Habibullah, who was also presented at the seminar, supported Bhattacharya’s contention.
“It is true that West Bengal is lagging behind in dissemination of information. But there is also this fact that West Bengal started late. I believe there is much scope of progress in this regard. In West Bengal panchayati raj is very strong and I have been told that lots of information lie with the panchayats. People can avail them by using the RTI. I also believe that the awareness level among the people should also be increased,” he said.
Bhattacharya also said that the deal or the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the state government and some other party cannot be dubbed a “trade secret” and it should be made public.
Incidentally, state minister for commerce and industries Nirupam Sen had earlier said that the deal between the state government and the Tatas on the Singur small car manufacturing plant cannot be revealed as it was a “trade secret”.
“If there is any formula or a design for manufacturing something you can call that a “trade secret”. There had been many moves to make that deal (the one between the Tatas and the government) public. However, the government has not yet done that,” Bhattacharya said.
Posted online: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 01:44:01
Kolkata, April 22 The Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) of West Bengal, Arun Bhattacharya, criticised the state government for the latter’s dismal performance in implementing the Right To Information Act in the state.
At a seminar on ‘RTI Act: Challenges and Opportunities’ at the Merchants Chamber of Commerce in the city, Bhattacharya said: “Compared to other states like Maharashtra and Delhi, West Bengal is lagging far behind. In Maharashtra 1.53 lakh applications have been received but in West Bengal where the commission was constituted in 2006, so far only 15,000 applications have been received. Of which only 10 per cent had been disposed of. It is very unfortunate.”
He attributed this to various reasons, including lack of infrastructure and attitude problem.
Chief Information Commissioner of India, Wajahat Habibullah, who was also presented at the seminar, supported Bhattacharya’s contention.
“It is true that West Bengal is lagging behind in dissemination of information. But there is also this fact that West Bengal started late. I believe there is much scope of progress in this regard. In West Bengal panchayati raj is very strong and I have been told that lots of information lie with the panchayats. People can avail them by using the RTI. I also believe that the awareness level among the people should also be increased,” he said.
Bhattacharya also said that the deal or the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the state government and some other party cannot be dubbed a “trade secret” and it should be made public.
Incidentally, state minister for commerce and industries Nirupam Sen had earlier said that the deal between the state government and the Tatas on the Singur small car manufacturing plant cannot be revealed as it was a “trade secret”.
“If there is any formula or a design for manufacturing something you can call that a “trade secret”. There had been many moves to make that deal (the one between the Tatas and the government) public. However, the government has not yet done that,” Bhattacharya said.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Adversary to Amity…
The recent uprising in Tibet has been able to unmask the adjudicators of the world, if not anything else. The super power that squashed Communist dictatorship for decades has conveniently turned into compatibility mode and the super saver in Geneva, the convoyer of civil rights maintained an aloof indifference towards the gentile Tibetan’s strive against Chinese supremacy. Back home, in Kolkata where violations of human rights is perhaps an everyday ritual, our ruling party members, so-called comrades of the needy and the destitute invalidated even the slightest upheaval by the Tibetan students.
Here is a report by The Statesman:
Delhi says yes to rally, state says no
Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, April 11: Members of the Tibetan government-in-exile expressed strong discontent at the action of the state government at canceling permission at the last minute to the Tibetan Solidarity rally that was to be held over three days at Mayo Road. “The state and the Centre seem to have different points of view regarding Tibet,” said Mr Dawa Tsering (Gyalrong), a member of Parliament of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Even as Tibetans in the city were stopped from staging demonstrations, thousands of Tibetans held peaceful protests yesterday in the national Capital.
Hundreds of Tibetans who have congregated in the city from all over eastern and north-eastern India today held protest demonstrations in College Square. Shouting anti-China slogans and dressed in Chinese police uniform to display the torture meted out to Tibetan demonstrators in Tibet capital Lhasa, Tibetans from Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Sikkim, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and many other parts of eastern India assembled in Mahabodhi Temple behind College Square this morning.
Expressing dismay at the state government's stance towards the Tibetan cause, Mr Tsering, who has traveled from Dharamsala to organize the Kolkata chapter of demonstrations, said: “We are very unhappy with the state government's stand. We held discussions with the city police DC Headquarters in person and agreed to the route suggested by senior officers of the Kolkata Police for our peaceful demonstration to be held for three days from yesterday. Yet, police cancelled permission at the 11th hour. They called us at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, when all the Tibetan participants had already spent a large sum to leave their homes in far-off states and had arrived here.”
Mr Tsering, who is also president of the Tibetan Solidarity Sub Committee, added that in spite of pleading with senior police officers to be allowed even to simply hold a prayer ceremony at Mayo Road, permission was not granted. “Police here are helpless, as they have to listen to orders from the state government,” Mr Tsering said. Asked for an explanation, a senior city police officer said yesterday that it was because of “government policy” that they had had to cancel permission.
Emphasising that the Tibetan government-in-exile did not want to disrupt the progress of the Olympic torch relay, Mr Tsering however, iterated that the great games should be held in a country that upholds human rights. “In that, Beijing is not a suitable venue for holding the Olympics. Even now, as the whole world has its eyes trained on China, the Chinese government is adamant on not letting up torture on Tibetans or allowing the international media into the troubled area,” said Mr Tsering.
General Secretary of the CPIM, Prakash Karat compared Tibet to separatist demands in India! The ‘Letter to the Editor’ below perhaps best explains the absurdity of his insensible comment:
Karat’s ignorance Sir, ~ CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat showed his ignorance when he compared Nagaland with Tibet. Nagaland was never independent, but Tibet was. This makes a qualitative difference between Nagaland and Tibet. This explains why, when in 1949 China suddenly set up a military camp at Clumby Valley of Tibet, near the Indian border, General Cariappa warned the Indian government with the words, “The Chinese have not come there for picnic.”
Loknayak Jai Prakash Narayan observed “Tibet Day” in Delhi when the Chinese made further infiltration.
That Tibet was a sovereign, independent state is proved by the fact that it used to issue passport and visa until it was overrun by the Chinese military. Furthermore, it was a signatory to the document of MacMahon Line, which was the international border between Tibet and India.
Mr Karat should know that his writ runs on his mindless party members, but beyond that he cuts a sorry figure for his poor knowledge of Tibetan history. The military occupation of Tibet by China, of which Mr Karat is a great protagonist, is reminiscent of Hitler’s policy of imperialistic aggrandizement during World War II. The Marxist leader amusingly raises a hue and cry over the US-India civil nuclear deal on the sham plea of India’s sovereignty being compromised.
This betrays Mr Karat’s false show of loyalty to Indian nationalism, while his attachment to communist brotherhood beyond Indian borders is palpable.
~ Yours, etc., Dipti Kumar Majumdar,
Kolkata, 2 April.
Imperium in imperio being the mood of the moment in the communist Bengal, what else can one expect but felony against sovereignty?
Somanjana, SWB
Here is a report by The Statesman:
Delhi says yes to rally, state says no
Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, April 11: Members of the Tibetan government-in-exile expressed strong discontent at the action of the state government at canceling permission at the last minute to the Tibetan Solidarity rally that was to be held over three days at Mayo Road. “The state and the Centre seem to have different points of view regarding Tibet,” said Mr Dawa Tsering (Gyalrong), a member of Parliament of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Even as Tibetans in the city were stopped from staging demonstrations, thousands of Tibetans held peaceful protests yesterday in the national Capital.
Hundreds of Tibetans who have congregated in the city from all over eastern and north-eastern India today held protest demonstrations in College Square. Shouting anti-China slogans and dressed in Chinese police uniform to display the torture meted out to Tibetan demonstrators in Tibet capital Lhasa, Tibetans from Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Sikkim, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and many other parts of eastern India assembled in Mahabodhi Temple behind College Square this morning.
Expressing dismay at the state government's stance towards the Tibetan cause, Mr Tsering, who has traveled from Dharamsala to organize the Kolkata chapter of demonstrations, said: “We are very unhappy with the state government's stand. We held discussions with the city police DC Headquarters in person and agreed to the route suggested by senior officers of the Kolkata Police for our peaceful demonstration to be held for three days from yesterday. Yet, police cancelled permission at the 11th hour. They called us at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, when all the Tibetan participants had already spent a large sum to leave their homes in far-off states and had arrived here.”
Mr Tsering, who is also president of the Tibetan Solidarity Sub Committee, added that in spite of pleading with senior police officers to be allowed even to simply hold a prayer ceremony at Mayo Road, permission was not granted. “Police here are helpless, as they have to listen to orders from the state government,” Mr Tsering said. Asked for an explanation, a senior city police officer said yesterday that it was because of “government policy” that they had had to cancel permission.
Emphasising that the Tibetan government-in-exile did not want to disrupt the progress of the Olympic torch relay, Mr Tsering however, iterated that the great games should be held in a country that upholds human rights. “In that, Beijing is not a suitable venue for holding the Olympics. Even now, as the whole world has its eyes trained on China, the Chinese government is adamant on not letting up torture on Tibetans or allowing the international media into the troubled area,” said Mr Tsering.
General Secretary of the CPIM, Prakash Karat compared Tibet to separatist demands in India! The ‘Letter to the Editor’ below perhaps best explains the absurdity of his insensible comment:
Karat’s ignorance Sir, ~ CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat showed his ignorance when he compared Nagaland with Tibet. Nagaland was never independent, but Tibet was. This makes a qualitative difference between Nagaland and Tibet. This explains why, when in 1949 China suddenly set up a military camp at Clumby Valley of Tibet, near the Indian border, General Cariappa warned the Indian government with the words, “The Chinese have not come there for picnic.”
Loknayak Jai Prakash Narayan observed “Tibet Day” in Delhi when the Chinese made further infiltration.
That Tibet was a sovereign, independent state is proved by the fact that it used to issue passport and visa until it was overrun by the Chinese military. Furthermore, it was a signatory to the document of MacMahon Line, which was the international border between Tibet and India.
Mr Karat should know that his writ runs on his mindless party members, but beyond that he cuts a sorry figure for his poor knowledge of Tibetan history. The military occupation of Tibet by China, of which Mr Karat is a great protagonist, is reminiscent of Hitler’s policy of imperialistic aggrandizement during World War II. The Marxist leader amusingly raises a hue and cry over the US-India civil nuclear deal on the sham plea of India’s sovereignty being compromised.
This betrays Mr Karat’s false show of loyalty to Indian nationalism, while his attachment to communist brotherhood beyond Indian borders is palpable.
~ Yours, etc., Dipti Kumar Majumdar,
Kolkata, 2 April.
Imperium in imperio being the mood of the moment in the communist Bengal, what else can one expect but felony against sovereignty?
Somanjana, SWB
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Prakash Karat's obsolete hardline will cost West Bengal and India dearly
"....In 1984, leftists boycotted computerization of West Bengal amidst the hypothetical fear that it would lead to loss of jobs. This resulted in unplumbed loss for West Bengal as IT industry was welcomed and groomed in the South India. Same fate will repeat with civilian nuclear deal but this time for the whole India. Even our poor neighbor Bangladesh is going for Nuclear power helped by NSG. I will not be surprised if India would be forced to borrow power from Bangladesh in 2020 to meet its industrial demand."
http://www.fosaac.tv/content/PrakashKarat.htm
Dr. Biplab Pal, Editor FOSSAC TV
Few sights were completely unmistaken in the concluded CPM 18th party congress in Coimbatore. One of the key story that dripped of very squarely from several news reports—CM of WB Buddhadeb was humbled and made obedient of hard party liners led by Karat given several gestures from his speech. Firstly, Buddha apologized before the audience that he had been instructed to speak only on the failure of Congress instead of his experience of industrialization and surviving within capitalist network. Even on last day of party Congress, he was forced to raise slogans against SEZ and aggressive capitalist policy of the center. Compare this with 17th party congress when Prakash didn't have supreme control of CPM-Buddha flawlessly asserted policy of industrialization in West Bengal. If indications are clear enough, West Bengal is about to be plunged into myriad of industrial graveyards of 70s and 80s. Worst, this time India will not be unscathed from symbolic red hammer as Prakash is wielding power in the center as well. If his obdurate and unintelligible opposition to civilian nuclear deal is any indication of what is expected out of leftist coalition, India's meteoric growth to twenty first century which has been effectuated by its hard working educated middle class, will soon be balanced off by a few antediluvian comrades who never won a popular mandate but enjoyed supremacy in ideological circle of the party.
Crushing of industrial development for the sake of blind anti-Americanism is nothing new to comrade Prakash. When Boeing and Disneyland almost settled on investing in West Bengal in 2001, this Malayali man having no sympathy or feeling for people of West Bengal who suffered a complete draught of industrialization starting from leftist rule of 1977 to 1996 till Buddha was acceded to power, axed the investment deal for his love of anti-Americanism. Result? Boeing fled to Pune and Disneyland considered Hyderabad as hotter destination. Thousands of prospective jobs were lost in West Bengal-of course it does not matter to Prakash Karat because he does not belong to soil of Bengal—but it did matter to Buddha along with any resident of West Bengal.
Fortunately in 2001, he was not powerful enough to strangle the prospect of India-this time he is and well into the action with opposition of Civilian nuclear deal. Neat result? India will lag behind in industrialization in a matter of another two decades. Because Uranium as a fuel is very cheap compared to coal (besides it is environmentally clean) and generation 5th nuclear reactor will be a far more efficient source compared to Hydel or Wind power, insatiable need for industrial power in the future will constrain the industrial growth of India. If somebody has any doubt that the deal is against the interest of India and is not otherwise, I will suggest them to read the actual draft of the agreement online --(http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?tab=summary&bill=s109-3709) . When I read about Prakash's heated statement of imperialistic design in this act, I must say this man is insane-completely anti-American maniacal. But as a Bengali, I am familiar with this kind of historical insanity of the left. In 1984, leftists boycotted computerization of West Bengal amidst the hypothetical fear that it would lead to loss of jobs. This resulted in unplumbed loss for West Bengal as IT industry was welcomed and groomed in the South India. Same fate will repeat with civilian nuclear deal but this time for the whole India. Even our poor neighbor Bangladesh is going for Nuclear power helped by NSG. I will not be surprised if India would be forced to borrow power from Bangladesh in 2020 to meet its industrial demand.
India is the largest democracy with greatest media power in the world. If this act imposes anything against the interest of India, it will not avoid media scrutiny-no power in the center will embrace that risk. In reality, 123 agreement did fair justice to both India and USA in safeguarding their military interest. Besides, if history is not forgotten, there is no way one can impose international laws on India (for that matter any large democracy). So the fear-psychotic of imperialism created around the deal is completely ersatz and ploy for political game of haywire leftists. But, we, the common Indians, aspirant of twenty first century residents in the world, are continuing to suffer at the hand of a few leftists ideologues. In the past, it was only Bengal—now the whole India will be hammered in the same way West Bengal suffered its drowning fate.
http://www.fosaac.tv/content/PrakashKarat.htm
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Bengali Intellectuals decry Taslima’s departure
Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, April 3, 2008:
Considering Ms Taslima Nasreen's departure from the country as a severe blow to the fundamental principles of secularism, democracy and freedom of speech, city intellectuals felt the Union government should immediately ask her to return and assure her of a safe and secured life in India.
In a statement issued on 1 April, city intellectuals comprising of Aparna Sen, Bibhash Chakravarty, Mahasweta Devi, Suvaprasanna, Mr IK Gujral, among others criticised the state and Union government for their stand in the case of Ms Nasreen.
In the wake of the situation when Ms Nasreen had to break free from leading an isolated life by leaving the country, city intellectuals said the Centre should approach her to return as soon as her health condition improves. Further, the Central government must assure that no obstacles would prevent her from leading a normal life and provide her with adequate security.
Claiming the author's departure has tarnished the country's image before the world, intellectuals expressed concern over the highhandedness of religious extremists who have been encouraged to spread terror, disruption and violence in the country. The intellectuals have thus urged the state and the Union government to discourage extremist elements among religious groups.
They also added her decision to leave the country has caused immense frustration to all intellectuals who had been trying to defend her rights and secure justice for her. They even warned that if this policy of suppressing an author's right to speech is pursued it would pose a threat to the security, peace and stability in the country.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=197846
KOLKATA, April 3, 2008:
Considering Ms Taslima Nasreen's departure from the country as a severe blow to the fundamental principles of secularism, democracy and freedom of speech, city intellectuals felt the Union government should immediately ask her to return and assure her of a safe and secured life in India.
In a statement issued on 1 April, city intellectuals comprising of Aparna Sen, Bibhash Chakravarty, Mahasweta Devi, Suvaprasanna, Mr IK Gujral, among others criticised the state and Union government for their stand in the case of Ms Nasreen.
In the wake of the situation when Ms Nasreen had to break free from leading an isolated life by leaving the country, city intellectuals said the Centre should approach her to return as soon as her health condition improves. Further, the Central government must assure that no obstacles would prevent her from leading a normal life and provide her with adequate security.
Claiming the author's departure has tarnished the country's image before the world, intellectuals expressed concern over the highhandedness of religious extremists who have been encouraged to spread terror, disruption and violence in the country. The intellectuals have thus urged the state and the Union government to discourage extremist elements among religious groups.
They also added her decision to leave the country has caused immense frustration to all intellectuals who had been trying to defend her rights and secure justice for her. They even warned that if this policy of suppressing an author's right to speech is pursued it would pose a threat to the security, peace and stability in the country.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=197846
WISH & FULFILMENT --- West Bengal Budget Analysis
Dr Dasgupta’s Well-Intentioned Prescription For An Indeterminate Group
“My budget is aimed at the poorest of the poor. So it won’t be proper to label me Kalpataru.”
~ Dr Asim Dasgupta after presenting the West Bengal budget on 17 March 2008
=========================
By ARINDAM GHOSH-DASTIDAR
A critical, if scarcely noted, feature of Bengal’s social development has been the near-total disappearance of able-bodied beggars, a fairly common sight till not so long ago. Even the percentage of the lame and the halt among those seeking alms has dwindled considerably over the years. Far from projecting such positives as an index of a state on the roll, Dr Asim Dasgupta’s budget for 2008-09 has promised cooked food to the poorest section, including beggars. A tidy sum of Rs 100 crores has been earmarked for an indeterminate group and the proposal is arguably in response to the overwhelming disaster of the two icons of welfare economics ~ the Public Distribution System and the National Rural Employment Generation Scheme. We are tempted to enter a caveat that should the cooked food distribution system be handled by the village mafia in the manner of rationing, it is doomed to a similar fate.
Two months before the panchayat election, the budget seeks to benefit a wide cross-section of the dispossessed. The statewide canvas of the cooked food scheme is much too vast. However well-intentioned, it may not exactly serve the purpose of poverty alleviation if it gets diffused. If poverty alleviation is indeed the objective, the package ought to have focused primarily on the basket case of Purulia, Bankura and Midnapore. This is the perennially arid and impoverished belt where, by the Chief Minister’s own admission in November 2005, all alleviation schemes have floundered, notably also the ones that ought to have benefited from the prime-pumping by Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID).
Amlasole village in West Midnapore reported five starvation deaths in 2004 though it was politically diagnosed as malnutrition by the party office in Kolkata. Mercifully, there was no such semantic quibbling when Kuna Shabar died of starvation in the same district on 29 December last year. Misgivings that the reality of hunger and death in the three districts may find its echo in the panchayat elections in May are not wholly unfounded. Hence this contrived revival of the socialist baggage, however disillusioned Mr Jyoti Basu and Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee may be with the political philosophy.
Likewise, the Provident Fund scheme for the unorganised sector, including maid servants, may appear to be a benevolent move on the face of it; but here again the target group is an indeterminate quantity and the burden on the exchequer remains to be worked out. The record of both the national and state governments across the country doesn't inspire optimism. The Government of India’s standing assurance of a monthly allowance for the unorganised worker is yet to materialise as neither the Centre nor the states have been able to agree on the contributory ratio.
Touching, if fatally belated, is the concern for the peasant. A Rs 100-crore special assistance fund is to be set up for landlosers. This compensation package has been proposed two years after the government suffered a jolt in Singur and after enough died and more suffered cruel and barbarous reprisal in Nandigram. The Centre’s loan-waiver has been matched by the state with a Rs 6,175-crore target as bank loan for agriculture. To what extent this will be feasible must remain an open question given the rapid privatisation of the banking sector. As in large parts of the country, the farmer in Bengal is still dependent on the mahajan and money-lender, an affluent section of the rural populace. And rather presumptuous is the demand for universal banking in Bengal during the 11th Plan given the corruption that has led to the closure of at least one cooperative bank, a major source of rural agricultural funding.
Dr Dasgupta has matched the government’s overkill on industrialisation with a profound faith in the data yielded by Farm Management Studies. “Both employment generation and production per acre are highest in the case of small and marginal farmers. The high priority on land reforms will remain firmly in place”. Indeed, industry gets a relatively minor rating in the budget. Electoral compulsions may have convinced the government that the patta ~ the icon of agrarian reforms since the era of the Great Mughals ~ still means more to the rural voter than such totems of post-modern industrialisation as a Special Economic Zone.
While the anxiety to address the increasing disenchantment in the rural areas is perceptible, the budget offers little or nothing in relation to the primary indices of welfare ~ basic health, education and employment generation. The one-time tax on new cars and the tax on foreign liquor are targeted at those in the level of affluent subsistence, whose number is legion in Kolkata and its eastern fringe. With Singur set to roll out the people’s car this year, the Nano effect can be expected to net a fair amount to the kitty, now contending with a Rs 2-crore deficit budget.
From the permanently poor to the noveau riche the budget takes care of the market preferences of a wide cross-section. To symbolise the progress from Sutanati to shopping malls, the state’s finance minister proposes to set up food malls under a new market corporation, a move that is concordant with the fantasy of a Shining Bengal. The government's retail outlet chain will sell the produce procured directly from farmers by self-help groups.
The consumer may be able to avoid the flotsam and the jetsam of the para bazar, but there is no mistaking that the government's compulsion is more political than plainly economic. There is little doubt that the state-sponsored procurement-to-retail set-up has been studiously thought up to counter the Forward Bloc’s opposition to the entry of corporate private enterprise in the retail sector. The junior partner’s violent methods have provoked Reliance to down its shutters for now.
Overall, there is more of tinkering than assertion in the exercise. Whether the focus is on Parliament or the panchayat, whether the budget is the handiwork of a Harvard-educated lawyer or an MIT-trained economist, the electoral compulsions are equally compelling. The poor may be overawed at the munificence just as the corporate world may feel a mite let down because there isn’t much that a reformist government has to offer in this budget. In the manner of Palaniappan Chidambaram, Asim Dasgupta has been able to reflect the flavour of the season. And that is enough.
The writer is Assistant Editor, The Statesman
“My budget is aimed at the poorest of the poor. So it won’t be proper to label me Kalpataru.”
~ Dr Asim Dasgupta after presenting the West Bengal budget on 17 March 2008
=========================
By ARINDAM GHOSH-DASTIDAR
A critical, if scarcely noted, feature of Bengal’s social development has been the near-total disappearance of able-bodied beggars, a fairly common sight till not so long ago. Even the percentage of the lame and the halt among those seeking alms has dwindled considerably over the years. Far from projecting such positives as an index of a state on the roll, Dr Asim Dasgupta’s budget for 2008-09 has promised cooked food to the poorest section, including beggars. A tidy sum of Rs 100 crores has been earmarked for an indeterminate group and the proposal is arguably in response to the overwhelming disaster of the two icons of welfare economics ~ the Public Distribution System and the National Rural Employment Generation Scheme. We are tempted to enter a caveat that should the cooked food distribution system be handled by the village mafia in the manner of rationing, it is doomed to a similar fate.
Two months before the panchayat election, the budget seeks to benefit a wide cross-section of the dispossessed. The statewide canvas of the cooked food scheme is much too vast. However well-intentioned, it may not exactly serve the purpose of poverty alleviation if it gets diffused. If poverty alleviation is indeed the objective, the package ought to have focused primarily on the basket case of Purulia, Bankura and Midnapore. This is the perennially arid and impoverished belt where, by the Chief Minister’s own admission in November 2005, all alleviation schemes have floundered, notably also the ones that ought to have benefited from the prime-pumping by Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID).
Amlasole village in West Midnapore reported five starvation deaths in 2004 though it was politically diagnosed as malnutrition by the party office in Kolkata. Mercifully, there was no such semantic quibbling when Kuna Shabar died of starvation in the same district on 29 December last year. Misgivings that the reality of hunger and death in the three districts may find its echo in the panchayat elections in May are not wholly unfounded. Hence this contrived revival of the socialist baggage, however disillusioned Mr Jyoti Basu and Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee may be with the political philosophy.
Likewise, the Provident Fund scheme for the unorganised sector, including maid servants, may appear to be a benevolent move on the face of it; but here again the target group is an indeterminate quantity and the burden on the exchequer remains to be worked out. The record of both the national and state governments across the country doesn't inspire optimism. The Government of India’s standing assurance of a monthly allowance for the unorganised worker is yet to materialise as neither the Centre nor the states have been able to agree on the contributory ratio.
Touching, if fatally belated, is the concern for the peasant. A Rs 100-crore special assistance fund is to be set up for landlosers. This compensation package has been proposed two years after the government suffered a jolt in Singur and after enough died and more suffered cruel and barbarous reprisal in Nandigram. The Centre’s loan-waiver has been matched by the state with a Rs 6,175-crore target as bank loan for agriculture. To what extent this will be feasible must remain an open question given the rapid privatisation of the banking sector. As in large parts of the country, the farmer in Bengal is still dependent on the mahajan and money-lender, an affluent section of the rural populace. And rather presumptuous is the demand for universal banking in Bengal during the 11th Plan given the corruption that has led to the closure of at least one cooperative bank, a major source of rural agricultural funding.
Dr Dasgupta has matched the government’s overkill on industrialisation with a profound faith in the data yielded by Farm Management Studies. “Both employment generation and production per acre are highest in the case of small and marginal farmers. The high priority on land reforms will remain firmly in place”. Indeed, industry gets a relatively minor rating in the budget. Electoral compulsions may have convinced the government that the patta ~ the icon of agrarian reforms since the era of the Great Mughals ~ still means more to the rural voter than such totems of post-modern industrialisation as a Special Economic Zone.
While the anxiety to address the increasing disenchantment in the rural areas is perceptible, the budget offers little or nothing in relation to the primary indices of welfare ~ basic health, education and employment generation. The one-time tax on new cars and the tax on foreign liquor are targeted at those in the level of affluent subsistence, whose number is legion in Kolkata and its eastern fringe. With Singur set to roll out the people’s car this year, the Nano effect can be expected to net a fair amount to the kitty, now contending with a Rs 2-crore deficit budget.
From the permanently poor to the noveau riche the budget takes care of the market preferences of a wide cross-section. To symbolise the progress from Sutanati to shopping malls, the state’s finance minister proposes to set up food malls under a new market corporation, a move that is concordant with the fantasy of a Shining Bengal. The government's retail outlet chain will sell the produce procured directly from farmers by self-help groups.
The consumer may be able to avoid the flotsam and the jetsam of the para bazar, but there is no mistaking that the government's compulsion is more political than plainly economic. There is little doubt that the state-sponsored procurement-to-retail set-up has been studiously thought up to counter the Forward Bloc’s opposition to the entry of corporate private enterprise in the retail sector. The junior partner’s violent methods have provoked Reliance to down its shutters for now.
Overall, there is more of tinkering than assertion in the exercise. Whether the focus is on Parliament or the panchayat, whether the budget is the handiwork of a Harvard-educated lawyer or an MIT-trained economist, the electoral compulsions are equally compelling. The poor may be overawed at the munificence just as the corporate world may feel a mite let down because there isn’t much that a reformist government has to offer in this budget. In the manner of Palaniappan Chidambaram, Asim Dasgupta has been able to reflect the flavour of the season. And that is enough.
The writer is Assistant Editor, The Statesman
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Congress and CPM - sparring, but partners
Kolkata calling: Shikha Mukerjee
As history will testify, it has always been acrimonious. It has always been rife with suspicion. But at some point, the Congress and the Communists, currently the dominant Communist Party of India (Marxists) have had to get along. Anti-Congressism is as much a part of Communist ideology as Marxism and therein lies the rub.
Debating comrades collectively find it difficult to reconcile themselves, in principle, to the possibility of working with the Congress. In reality, debating comrades know that if they are at all serious about keeping the Bharatiya Janata Party at bay, consolidating the position that opportunity thrust them into in 2004, broaching the idea of strengthening their footprints outside their particular enclaves, then partnering the Congress is politically necessary.
Debating comrades are also aware that partnering the Congress is not sufficient, as it would make them far too vulnerable to pressure and so unable to return the pressure with interest as they have been doing since 2004. In other words, flirting with the idea of the Third Front is as seriously necessary as leaving just that much political room in which to manoeuvre over a deal with the Congress, should circumstances require it.
As the 19th party Congress of the CPI(M) draws to a close, the verdict on partnerships will be ambivalent. On its part, the Congress seems to be making the sort of gestures that can be interpreted as heeding the warnings of the CPI(M). Within hours of the announcement of the deadline for taking concrete steps to bring down prices issued from Coimbatore, the Centre seems to have unveiled a plan to do so.
If the import duty cutbacks on all edible oils and maize, plus, the ban on exports of non-basmati rice is coincidence, or merely accidental, it is nevertheless fortuitous, for the CPI(M). The jump in wholesale prices of food grains pushing inflation up to almost seven per cent is as much politically as in terms of the economy destabilising. To provide relief, the Government has acted, but it also serves the CPI(M)'s purpose, of affirming its role as the conscience keeper of the Congress and vigilante, for the poor.
On the nuclear deal, the CPI(M) and the Congress seem to be locked into irreconcilable positions and that could be more difficult to sort out. While the Congress has bought some time after the visit of the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to Washington, it has not given up hopes of signing the deal before it calls the elections, due in 2009. How that particular knot can be cut is for the CPI(M) to decide, because it has staked its idealism on opposing the deal.
For West Bengal, the 19th party Congress has brought relief, as comrades have been informed of the imperative to race along the same route that the rest of India has taken to deliver a spectacular economic growth rate. The uneasiness within the CPI(M) over Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's enthusiasm for promoting capitalism may remain, but with the imprimatur of the 19th party Congress, comrades will no longer choke over it.
What remains for the comrades to do is to figure out how the party can grow bigger not merely stronger in its three enclaves. The mismatch between status and size, influence and numbers is embarrassing. In the States where the CPI(M) is entrenched, the comrades are far too preoccupied with sustaining the party. In the States where the CPI(M) is virtually a signboard, there are not enough comrades to organise and implement any plan of action.
If the CPI(M) ends up repeating a set of platitudes, as it has been doing since the 1980s, the party will go nowhere. If the CPI(M) has a strategy that it can pursue, the general secretary Prakash Karat, will have to accept its success or failure as a personal challenge.
Without the back up of Harkishen Singh Surjeet and Jyoti Basu can the CPI(M) adopt a definite target for growth? To do so would require guts, because it would mean taking initiatives in those states where the CPI(M) has wooed regional parties as partners.
For any comments, queries or feedback, kindly mail us at pioneerletters@yahoo.co.in
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=STATES&file_name=state12%2Etxt&counter_img=12
As history will testify, it has always been acrimonious. It has always been rife with suspicion. But at some point, the Congress and the Communists, currently the dominant Communist Party of India (Marxists) have had to get along. Anti-Congressism is as much a part of Communist ideology as Marxism and therein lies the rub.
Debating comrades collectively find it difficult to reconcile themselves, in principle, to the possibility of working with the Congress. In reality, debating comrades know that if they are at all serious about keeping the Bharatiya Janata Party at bay, consolidating the position that opportunity thrust them into in 2004, broaching the idea of strengthening their footprints outside their particular enclaves, then partnering the Congress is politically necessary.
Debating comrades are also aware that partnering the Congress is not sufficient, as it would make them far too vulnerable to pressure and so unable to return the pressure with interest as they have been doing since 2004. In other words, flirting with the idea of the Third Front is as seriously necessary as leaving just that much political room in which to manoeuvre over a deal with the Congress, should circumstances require it.
As the 19th party Congress of the CPI(M) draws to a close, the verdict on partnerships will be ambivalent. On its part, the Congress seems to be making the sort of gestures that can be interpreted as heeding the warnings of the CPI(M). Within hours of the announcement of the deadline for taking concrete steps to bring down prices issued from Coimbatore, the Centre seems to have unveiled a plan to do so.
If the import duty cutbacks on all edible oils and maize, plus, the ban on exports of non-basmati rice is coincidence, or merely accidental, it is nevertheless fortuitous, for the CPI(M). The jump in wholesale prices of food grains pushing inflation up to almost seven per cent is as much politically as in terms of the economy destabilising. To provide relief, the Government has acted, but it also serves the CPI(M)'s purpose, of affirming its role as the conscience keeper of the Congress and vigilante, for the poor.
On the nuclear deal, the CPI(M) and the Congress seem to be locked into irreconcilable positions and that could be more difficult to sort out. While the Congress has bought some time after the visit of the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to Washington, it has not given up hopes of signing the deal before it calls the elections, due in 2009. How that particular knot can be cut is for the CPI(M) to decide, because it has staked its idealism on opposing the deal.
For West Bengal, the 19th party Congress has brought relief, as comrades have been informed of the imperative to race along the same route that the rest of India has taken to deliver a spectacular economic growth rate. The uneasiness within the CPI(M) over Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's enthusiasm for promoting capitalism may remain, but with the imprimatur of the 19th party Congress, comrades will no longer choke over it.
What remains for the comrades to do is to figure out how the party can grow bigger not merely stronger in its three enclaves. The mismatch between status and size, influence and numbers is embarrassing. In the States where the CPI(M) is entrenched, the comrades are far too preoccupied with sustaining the party. In the States where the CPI(M) is virtually a signboard, there are not enough comrades to organise and implement any plan of action.
If the CPI(M) ends up repeating a set of platitudes, as it has been doing since the 1980s, the party will go nowhere. If the CPI(M) has a strategy that it can pursue, the general secretary Prakash Karat, will have to accept its success or failure as a personal challenge.
Without the back up of Harkishen Singh Surjeet and Jyoti Basu can the CPI(M) adopt a definite target for growth? To do so would require guts, because it would mean taking initiatives in those states where the CPI(M) has wooed regional parties as partners.
For any comments, queries or feedback, kindly mail us at pioneerletters@yahoo.co.in
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=STATES&file_name=state12%2Etxt&counter_img=12
CPM worries mount as Muslims look for greener pastures in red bastions
1 Apr, 2008, 0242 hrs IST,Amita Shah, TNN
COIMBATORE: The Sachar committee report, just like others in the “secular” side, was seen by the CPM as a powerful weapon for its Muslim outreach.
It went to the extent of claiming the authorship of many of its recommendations. But if the statistics on the party’s support among the Muslims are anything to go by, its powerful advocacy of the report has not brought any political dividend for the party.
In West Bengal, the Muslim membership in CPM has dropped from 14.9% to 14.67%. In its other stronghold, Kerala, the party has only made marginal gains — from 9.44% to 10.35%. Nationally, only one out of 10 members of the party is from the Muslim community.
This piece of statistics must be worrying for the party. The recent agitations in Nandigram saw the hardline Muslim organisations throwing their weight behind the anti-CPM forces in West Bengal. Although chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee came down heavily on the Jamiat-e-Islami after the Nandigram episode, the CPM demonstrated its powerlessness to act against hardline opinion when Muslim organisations took to streets in Kolkata against controversial Bangladeshi writer, Taslima Nasreen. Bowing to pressure from the section, the CPM bundled Taslima out of Kolkata.
The drop in the party membership clearly suggests that the CPM is no longer an attractive political option for the minority community. The community members are finding nesting grounds other than the communist tents in the state.
The slow growth in Kerala, too, can be attributed to the growing clout of community leaders like Abdul Nassar Madani. A section of the CPM concede that the support that it extended to Madani will not help the party in the long run. This assessment is not off the mark as Madani’s PDP has made it clear that its political preferences will be dictated by the political circumstances during the polls. In other words, there is no guarantee of the PDP supporting the Left Front in the next polls.
The CPM has only itself to blame as Madani’s victimhood project was lapped up by the party. This earned him pockets of influence in southern and central Kerala. Many in the party admit that Madani will be in a position to swing elections in constituencies with significant Muslim presence.
That the growing clout of the hardline community leadership is a cause of worry is being conceded in the organisational report of the CPM. “Muslim fundamentalists have stepped up their attack on us. In coming days, while defending rights of minorities, it is necessary to strongly counter the false propaganda of fundamentalists against us,” the report said.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/PoliticsNation/CPM_worries_mount_as_Muslims_look_for_greener_pastures_in_red_bastions/articleshow/2915521.cms
COIMBATORE: The Sachar committee report, just like others in the “secular” side, was seen by the CPM as a powerful weapon for its Muslim outreach.
It went to the extent of claiming the authorship of many of its recommendations. But if the statistics on the party’s support among the Muslims are anything to go by, its powerful advocacy of the report has not brought any political dividend for the party.
In West Bengal, the Muslim membership in CPM has dropped from 14.9% to 14.67%. In its other stronghold, Kerala, the party has only made marginal gains — from 9.44% to 10.35%. Nationally, only one out of 10 members of the party is from the Muslim community.
This piece of statistics must be worrying for the party. The recent agitations in Nandigram saw the hardline Muslim organisations throwing their weight behind the anti-CPM forces in West Bengal. Although chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee came down heavily on the Jamiat-e-Islami after the Nandigram episode, the CPM demonstrated its powerlessness to act against hardline opinion when Muslim organisations took to streets in Kolkata against controversial Bangladeshi writer, Taslima Nasreen. Bowing to pressure from the section, the CPM bundled Taslima out of Kolkata.
The drop in the party membership clearly suggests that the CPM is no longer an attractive political option for the minority community. The community members are finding nesting grounds other than the communist tents in the state.
The slow growth in Kerala, too, can be attributed to the growing clout of community leaders like Abdul Nassar Madani. A section of the CPM concede that the support that it extended to Madani will not help the party in the long run. This assessment is not off the mark as Madani’s PDP has made it clear that its political preferences will be dictated by the political circumstances during the polls. In other words, there is no guarantee of the PDP supporting the Left Front in the next polls.
The CPM has only itself to blame as Madani’s victimhood project was lapped up by the party. This earned him pockets of influence in southern and central Kerala. Many in the party admit that Madani will be in a position to swing elections in constituencies with significant Muslim presence.
That the growing clout of the hardline community leadership is a cause of worry is being conceded in the organisational report of the CPM. “Muslim fundamentalists have stepped up their attack on us. In coming days, while defending rights of minorities, it is necessary to strongly counter the false propaganda of fundamentalists against us,” the report said.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/PoliticsNation/CPM_worries_mount_as_Muslims_look_for_greener_pastures_in_red_bastions/articleshow/2915521.cms
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)