Non BJP, non-Congress grouping has relevance in national politics" D. Raja

 CHENNAI: There is a definite place for the non-BJP and non-Congress political grouping in the nation's politics in spite of a "sinister design" by vested interests to create an impression that politics in the country is polarized between the Congress and the BJP, Communist Party of India (CPI) national council secretary D. Raja said here on Sunday.

"India cannot be represented by a few political parties. The projection that India can be ruled only by the Congress or the BJP is aimed at undermining the Left and other regional parties," Mr. Raja told The Hindu in an interview.

He said the CPI's 21st national congress in Patna between March 27 and 31 in 2012 intended to do a critical study of the political situation and provide an alternative arrangement, taking into consideration the deep crisis in which the Congress-led UPA had been caught. "In fact, by default, the UPA government is continuing in office. The so called principal opposition BJP is in disarray and trying to come back to power by default. In such a situation, an alternative in terms of socioeconomic policies can be provided only by the Left."

Mr. Raja said the country's economy was in a pathetic state, with the industrial and manufacturing sector going into decline, agriculture wallowing in chaos and the service sector seeing retrenchment of workers.

"Though it is part of the global economic crisis, India could withstand the crisis in the beginning because of its strong public sector. But the UPA government is refusing to draw any lessons and continues to pursue the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode which, in reality, is privatisation," he said.

There was no mid-term review of the economy and there was no mid-course correction. "The UPA has failed to curb inflation and rising prices. Frequent hikes in the prices of petroleum products have had a cascading effect on the prices of essential commodities. In this context, the Planning Commission's definition of below poverty line BPL is ridiculous. Does [the Plan panel vice-chairman] Montek Singh Ahluwalia think that a person in Delhi can run his life by earning Rs. 32 a day? The Planning Commission is cut off from the realities of the country."

The CPI had given a call for a nation-wide hunger strike on October 21 to highlight issues such as corruption and spiralling prices of essential commodities.

Mr. Raja also demanded that the Lokpal Bill be passed in the winter session of Parliament.

                                                                                      B. Kolappan (The Hindu, 26^th September )

D. Raja’s call for “a definite place for the non-BJP and non-Congress political grouping in the nation's politics” sounds a very hackney idea that has made rounds since 1976.  There was a need for non congress, non BJP political formation ever since India became independent.  The communist party of India was founded to do that, i.e. to build a Secular, democratic and socialist society.  I remember that at the early years soon after the formation of the first government of our country the left forces, the communists and the socialists were much stronger.  But by 1978 the national Party called CPI was reduced to something like 2 seats in the parliament.  The CPM, which split from the CPI became a bigger force as they were engaged in building mass base.  The CPI became an appendage of the Congress party right through the emergency era of Indira Gandhi.

After the collapse of Morarji Desai the non congress, non BJP sarkars came into being.   But their tenure never lasted the full term of the parliament.  Of course the most uncharismatic Deve Gowda has a fancy tag to his CV, “former prime minister”.

During the last parliament election a Third Front came into existence.  But it had to bite the dust.  Now D. Raja comes up with this idea, “There is a definite place for the non-BJP and non-Congress political grouping in the nation's politics . . .” This is not saying anything creative.  All of us know that these “non BJP non Congress” political groupings will face the same fate as it did in the last Parliament election.  Of course it could improve the chances of BJP or Congress to come to power by splitting the votes.  

If one analyses the national political spectrum it will not be difficult to understand this.  Jayalalitha has come to national political prominence through the massive victory in Tamilnadu. But Chandrababu Naidu is still lost in the political wilderness.  Biju Janatha Dal might be counted on but he faces two terms’ incumbency.  JDU is saddled with BJP and cannot afford to leave it for the sake of their glorious second inning in Bihar. Where is the role for the left?  The Left Front has no foot hold in their traditional bastion of West Bengal. The great historical and massive victory of Mamata Banergee and her peculiar hatred towards the Left front and CPM in particular she will work hard to gain most of the Parliamentary seats and gain maximum bargaining strength in the Parliament. She is in a much more advantageous position than the Left Front.  They have lost power in Kerala. The ruling UDF will leave nothing to chances to win maximum seats from Kerala to the Parliament. The left may further slide down from their present poor position in the elections to be held in 2014.

There is no "sinister design" by vested interests to create an impression that politics in the country is polarised between the Congress and the BJP", as D Raja claims.  Mr. Raja told The Hindu in an interview "India cannot be represented by a few political parties. The projection that India can be ruled only by the Congress or the BJP is aimed at undermining the Left and other regional parties".  It is the misdoing of the Left that either BJP or Congress led alliances will rule the country.  In 1950ies and 1960ies BJP was nearly no existing.  CPI and the Socialists were much stronger at that time.  But today if you see the situation BJP has become very strong and the Communists have disappeared from the scene of political power.  The socialist got buried.

Instead of indulging into finding faults with others the Communists should do some introspection.  The facts are very clear.  When the Left front, and CPM in particular, enjoyed uninterrupted power in West Bengal they should have used that opportunity to build their mass base in Tamilnadu, Andhra, Karnataka, Maharastra and other parts of the country.  I mentioned these states as they did have some presence in these states.  They should have concentrated on building an unshakable base in Kerala to put an end to ‘see-sew situation’.   But what the CPM has done is to destroy their own mass base in West Bengal.  Their cadres functioned in no better way than the RSS cadres who go about injecting communal poison in the society.

The Communists theoreticians should have come out with pristine analysis of economic and political situation both nationally and internationally and put it on public domain.  If there is no midterm review of the economy done by the government, the Communists should do that.  They have a backing of enduring Marxist methodology to do this.  The cursory remarks like "The UPA has failed to curb inflation and rising prices. Frequent hikes in the prices of petroleum products have had a cascading effect on the prices of essential commodities. In this context, the Planning Commission's definition of below poverty line BPL is ridiculous. Does [the Plan panel vice-chairman] Montek Singh Ahluwalia think that a person in Delhi can run his life by earning Rs. 32 a day? The Planning Commission is cut off from the realities of the country." do not mean anything. 

Instead of talking about the regional parties and remained allied with them the Communist should speak about building their own mass base in as many states as possible.  The regional parties have some time distorted the national perspective of the policy direction of the country.  Going by the role the Communists have played in the recent past, their criticism and campaign, one gets an impression that the CPI and CPM are extension of the Bharatiya Janatha Party.  They have not distinguished themselves from other political parties through their unique creative analysis and conclusions.  Every time the BJP levels an attack on the government the CPM and CPI feel compelled to repeat the chorus set by BJP.  Here again they are contributing to the building popularity of the BJP instead of indicating their own independent stand.

Instead of allying with the regional parties they should join hands with social movements across the country.  They should ally with the rural masses, the daliths, adivasies, fisher people, women and the most excluded people in the society.  The Communist need to concentrate on the civil society to campaign for their most valued perspective for the future India.  They should learn from Anna Hazare.  With all our differences with his movement one fact that stands out is the way Anna was able to get support for his movement from across all the cities of the country. 

ARNOB GOSWAMY AGAINST MGNREGA !!!

THE RICH, THE SUPER RICH VS THE MIDDLE CLASS, THE POOR???

Yesterday (15^th September 2011) the news channel Times Now announced that they were the only people who had the first hand information on the petrol and cooking gas price hike.  Be it so.  But what is very disturbing about is the kind of stand Mr. Arnob Goswamy took during the discussion with the panellists.  It is possible that he took this position to provoke a debate. But later he kept on holding to that position which did not sustain this suspicion (the position taken only to provoke discussion).  In fact he came up with even more serious and alarming point of view, setting the middle class against the poor. 

The government has gone ahead and hiked the price of petrol by Rs. 3.14 to Rs. 3.32.  It has a proposal before it to remove the subsidy on cooking gas.  It has come up with a formula to give four cylinders per year at subsidised rate and the fifth and subsequent cylinders will be given without subsidy.  It is estimated that normally a family uses one cylinder for 45 to 60 days. Based on this calculation the government has planned to give four or five cylinders on subsidy and for the rest of the cylinders the consumer will pay the actual non subsidised price.  In Delhi subsidised price of a cylinder is Rs. 399.35 and non subsidised price is Rs. 666/-.

Mr. Arnob argued that the government is running money guzzling programmes like MGNREGA but it lays heavy burden on the middle class.  In this manner he tent to put the rural poor against the middle class in the urban and semi-urban areas.  This divide is dangerous and this might bring negative feelings in the mind of the middle class about the poor and the rural poor in particularl.  Someone in the panel did try to indicate that it is the rich who should be taxed and they are the one who enjoy most of the benefit of tax exemptions.  If you carefully go through the SEZ Act you will be shocked at the amount of tax concessions offered to the people willing to invest and start industries in the SEZ area.  The government displaces and in some cases drives the land owners to the street to create SEZs and hands over the land to the investors with tax concessions. 

The comparison between the poor and the middle class is a dangerous stand. 

Raising the petrol price will affect the middle class, particularly those who drive motor cycles and mopeds.  These people cannot be lumped with the so called middle class who own cars.  These are mostly working class who take their motor cycles to work.  They are badly affected and they are part of the conglomeration of the people who are disadvantaged and suffer like the poor.  Employment guarantee for the rural poor does not put the rural people above this class.

Now a days the rich and very rich people buy luxury diesel cars and benefit from the subsidy given on diesel.  Why should the government not bring about a system that will give diesel to such people without subsidy?  The brilliant people and the planners in the government can devise such a system. Should the government not restrict the rise in the number cars, big cars and SUVs coming on the roads which are already crowded beyond imaginations and polluting our cities?  Should the government not introduce more public transport vehicles on the road to reduce the dependence on the private vehicles?  I had stood for several hours on the busy roads in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore to observe how many cars carry more than two people.  I considered two persons to include a driver.  I came to know that 90% and more cars, particularly big cars did not have more than one and in some cases two people travelling.  More than 60% of these cars are run on diesel.  This is an abnormal level of luxury, stealing the subsidies.

Should Arnob not be sensitive to this fact?  The gap is not between the middle class and the poor but between the rich/super rich and the poor/middle class.

I had not expected this stand from Arnob who had been full time covering Anna Hazare’s agitation against corruption and for JAN LOK PAL BILL.  He had given the strongest support to this movement.  I had admired him. But I am sad to say that he did not show any consistency in his support.  Instead of counter posing the middle class against the poor and discrediting the MGNREGA he should have demanded the black money to come out; he should have demanded the money in Swiss banks to be brought to India.  Some emails have been making rounds stating if that money is brought back to India we would not need to pay taxes or something like this.  Should Arnob not demand the bribes given for 2G spectrum be recovered fast to meet this crisis that forces the government to tax the citizens?

I am particularly worried about Arnob’s stand because the media is considered creator of public opinion.  Definitely media played a bing role in expanding and broad basing Anna’s agitation.  Such powerful media should also be responsible.  It should not risk dividing the poor from the middle class.  They are alias in the struggle for just, democratic and secular country.

There is definitely another way to look at the situation risen from the Rupee being losing its exchange value with $ and the rising crude oil prices.  This relates to policies regarding finance, pricing etc. and unfettered/unregulated market.  We shall come to this subject in our next post.

The Bomb Blast Near the Delhi High Court.

YET ANOTHER BOMB BLAST and that too near the seat of justice! What is the response!  Yes, before they condemn the blast they were condemning the police department, intelligence, the home minister, the UPA government.  BJP launched a faster and stronger attack on the UPA.  The earlier practice of standing together against the blasts has given way to condemnation, fault finding and a blame game.

TV debate is as usual useless.  They are searching for people who should be blamed.  Their first question is whose heads should be rolled.  They point out that there were no CCTVs installed, metal detectors not working, intelligence failure or no actionable intelligence etc, etc.  There were also some inputs from city planners, though good suggestions.  The role of the police came in for strong criticism.  Maxwel Pereira, a good officer, had to do defending of the police force with valid reasons.  Unimplemented Police reform also came in for discussion.  Arnob Goswamy’s favourite subject of Pakistan connection, Karachi project etc. came in for review.  By the way, would it be too much to expect from the media to expose the places which are susceptible for terrorist attack and are without CCTV or where metal detectors are not working.  The media, particularly the news papers do expose bad roads with pot holes, food grains rotting and places where disasters waiting to happen.

Some made the whole issue broad based to include fascist right wing people who could have also been involved in the terrorist attack.  Some even demanded that Afzal Guru should be hanged within a month to send a strong message to the terrorists. We forget that the terrorists are sending strongest message to us and we are not willing to listen to it.  What message the terrorist would like to learn if Afzal guru is hanged? Terrorists are not bothered about their fellow terrorists’ lives.  They involve in terrorist activities with full belief that they would come out dead after the action! Kasab was a suicide operator who never dreamt that he would remain alive.  His payment for giving his life has been made to his family by the handlers of the operation.

It appears that the police are expected to live perpetually expecting a bomb blast.  The home minister should organize the police force to catch the culprits before a bomb explodes.  May be one more department in home affairs will come up, “Security against Bomb attacks”!  The society should live as if bombs are place even in their pockets.  Is there a place for people to live a normal, fearless life?  Do they not have right to that?

In all this no one mentioned the unresolved problem of Kashmir. I believe that is the root cause of majority of the terrorist activities. Pakistan wants Kashmir to be the first agenda in all talks with India.  We have been always trying to scuttle this issue with the hackney phrase called “composite dialogue”.   If Pakistan wants Kashmir issue to be the first on the agenda then we should take their point of view seriously.  Gwneral Musharaf had already told Arnob Goswami that in 1971 the East Pakistan was dismembered from Pakistan and India was the sole supporter for this.  They even accuse India that their national integrity was destroyed by India in 1971.   The Indian army moved in the East Pakistan and defeated the Pakistan army and handed over East Pakistan to, what Pakistan would call “the secessionists”.  We have gained little or nothing from Bangladesh. Our friendship treaty with Bangladesh went sour.   Some time I feel we have created one more enemy in our lap.

We know that Pakistan is ruled mainly by the military generals.  Whenever we have seen civilian rule in Pakistan it is highly militarized civilian rule.  The chiefs of the army have been calling the shots in the governing of Pakistan.  In Pakistan the army is politicised or politics is militarized.  The army mostly is comprised of Taliban sympathisers and they have not forgiven India for our role in the creation of Bangladesh (to put it in Pakistani language, dismembering the East Pakistan from their nation state).  Now Pakistan has Kashmir as an issue through which they want to settle score with India.  This is the main focus of the foreign policy of Pak towards India. 

We have waged two wars with Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir.  Kargil war is fresh in our memory and it has shown our younger generation how Pak would like to relate to us. How many terrorist attacks we have suffered?   We should also look at what is prevailing in Kashmir -- the separatists, the permanent presence of army, a regular shooting of so called terrorists, scores of missing people, and the unmarked graves.  All these issues are staring at us. We wake up only when there are crisis in Kashmir.  After the recent stone pelting the four interlocutors are suppose to draw up plan for further action.  How long will it take them to come up with this plan?

Should we not also think about the amount of money we are spending on the security in Kashmir and repercussion of it for the rest of India?

No matter how many heads we would like to see rolled; there may be even change of many governments. But all this will not solve the problem of terrorism.  However creative a home minister might be; no matter how intelligent our intelligence service might be, no matter how tight security we might put in place, as long as the root cause of terrorism is not resolved we will always be at risk.

We as a nation need to have introspection.  What has happened in the country that has put our national security at risk?  Lal Krishna Advani took the famous rath Yatra for Rama Mandir in Ayodhya.  He raised the passion of the Hindu fundamentalists.  Under his eyes and with his tacit approval the Babri Mashjid was raised to the ground.  Subsequently there were Gujarath riots and killing of Muslims.  No doubt the BJP has come out as a strong party.  It has become the second strongest party after the Indian National Congress Party.  But we have paid the price of destroying the social fabric our nation.  Our society stands divided.  The Muslim fundamentalists have joined the force with Pakistan.  The fragile social harmony has been destroyed.  People have lost trust in the different communities and groups of our society.  The locals have started supporting the external enemies.  The high values like social harmony, national integrity have been sacrificed on the altar of narrow communal and party political interests.

We need to relook at the Kashmir issue.  BJP’s stand needs to be completely reviewed.  All the political forces of different colour and ideology should join hands together to protect our peace, security and national integrity. We should stop deriving political mileage from Kashmir issue.  We should recognise that Kashmir is a national issue. We have to live in peace with our biggest neighbour, who was part of our family, sharing common destiny, common wealth and meals together.  Till 1947 Pakistani people fought together shoulder to shoulder with us for freedom from the British rule.  Even Advani proclaimed that Jinnah was a secular man and the partition between India and Pakistan was a costly accident of history.  I keep telling everyone that we cannot draw the map of India without drawing the map of Bangladesh at the same time.  Who knows if we solve the problem of Kashmir we all three, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India may come together to the table to share meals on a regular basis.  Once again we will discover our common origin and common destiny.  Our friendship will make all three of us the strongest.