Whipped OFF Marxism

Whipped OFF Marxism

Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 27

Palash Biswas
http://troubledgalaxydetroyeddreams.blogspot.com/



PTI reported: CPI (M) likely to send a tough message to Somnath

Exasperated by Somnath Chatterjee's refusal to resign from the Lok Sabha Speaker's post, the Central Committee of the CPI(M) is likely to send a tough message to the veteran parliamentarian during its meeting here over the weekend. As the Speaker, who was in Hyderabad today for an eye checkup, dug in his heels and refused to heed party's subtle and blatant hints, the party is said to be under pressure from its leaders for sending some strong message to him to quit.

More than a week has passed since the Left parties withdrew support to the government and virtually told him to toe the party line, the Speaker has been raising issues like the post being above partisan politics and that he cannot vote along with the 'communal' BJP.

WhiPped OFF Marxism!

Yes, it happened at last to get an Escape route for Brahminical Marxist hegemony in West Bengal!
Here you are!

An excellent synthesis of Ideology and constitution embodied in the Bolepur Don, the Speaker of Indian Parliament!

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has been left out of the whip issued by CPM to its MPs to vote against the Government in the trust vote on July 22.

Well, this is the logical result of hectic parleys in and around Indira Bhavan, salt lake , kolkata! The Bengal unit of the CPI(M) appeared to be falling behind Prakash Karat on whether Speaker Somnath Chatterjee should resign and vote against the government ahead of its state commmittee and Left Front meeting today, with transport minister Subhas Chakrabarty filing an apology for saying that he felt Chatterjee should not resign and that the CPI(M) should not vote with the BJP when the no-confidence motion was put to vote in Parliament on July 22.Chakrabarty was a protege of former chief minister and CPI(M) senior leader Jyoti Basu like Chatterjee. A section of Left leaders had interpreted his comment as reflecting the viewpoint of Basu but Basu had reportedly refused to endorse Chakrabarty's line.

The CPI(M) and state committee of the Left Front would meet in Kolkata on July 18 and 19 to discuss the July 22 vote.

The much debated issue of Somnath Chatterjee’s resignation from the post of Lok Sabha speaker finds no mention on the agenda of the two-day central committee meeting of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) beginning in Delhi from Saturday. “This issue is not on the agenda,” CPI-M central committee member Mohammad Salim told reporters here after the party’s West Bengal state secretariat meeting Friday.
Another central committee member and the state industry minister Nirupam Sen also echoed Salim.
Most amusing and entretaining part of the story is the Real life surrender of a CPIM General party who could not tame a party MP.The Kerala leadership could not repeat the experience of the Himalayan blunder while the most famous duo of opportunist alliance politics branded Ideological, comrade harkshan Surjeet, then GS and jyoti basu the prime minister candidate just failed to romp home in Power Politics in New delhi because the south Lobby with active cooperation from West Bengal pulled basu down from a climax of Rising as the first Red Star in indian destiny!


Now see the Revenge Play. No soliloquy heard but with fullest impact Basu subdued the Kerala Leadership in most humiliation!
What they planned!

THE COMMUNIST Party of India – Marxist (CPIM) would initiate action against Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee for refusing to step down, according to reliable sources. The decision to take action against the obstinate Chatterjee would be taken on July 19, when the party’s Central Committee is scheduled to meet in New Delhi. As reported earlier {vide, ‘Chatterjee embarrasses the CPI-(M)'}, Chatterjee’s name figured in the list of MPs the Left Front submitted to the President when it met the latter to convey its decision to withdraw its support to the Central government. In view of this fact, senior leaders of the party, like Prakash Karat, requested Chatterjee to quit as Speaker of the Lok Sabha. But Chatterjee did not budge. He maintained that the Speaker was above party politics. So he would not quit. Instead, he would continue to discharge his duties as Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Efforts were made to persuade him to quit by seeking the intervention of senior party leader Jyoti Basu but to no avail.

What was the Result?

Election Phobia enveloped the Bengali Brahman comrades that they had to toe the Jyoti Basu line! A quite influential section of the party leadership does not favour Chatterjee resigning the Speaker’s post. The pro-Congress elements in the party have been supporting Chatterjee’s stand.

And they Won the Game outright defeating Karat and company down to earth!

And, when asked whether there is any likelihood that the matter could be discussed in the central committee meeting, Sen said: “I don’t know whether it will be placed on the table.”

CPI-M state secretary Biman Bose said Thursday that the issue could be discussed if it was raised by any member.

Meanwhile, senior party leader and state sports and transport minister Subhas Chakraborty has given a letter to Bose admitting that he made a mistake by speaking to the media about his opposition to the party’s decision to vote against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government along with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the July 22 confidence motion.

“Yes, he has given me a letter admitting his mistake,” Bose said.

Chakraborty had Monday said in a letter to party general secretary Prakash Karat that the communists would have to answer embarrassing questions from the people if their MPs voted against the Congress.

Peeved at Chakraborty’s public pronouncements, the party’s central committee had asked the state unit to seek an explanation from the firebrand leader.

The CPI-M and three other Left parties withdrew support to the UPA government, protesting its decision to go ahead with the India-US civilian nuclear deal. The Congress-led UPA government now faces a crucial floor test in the Lok Sabha to prove its majority.

The audiences to be fortunate to witness the TIMES NOW interview of the Heroic Speaker, projected as a protagonist of Parliamentary legacy and Constitutional commitment. He did never betray anything about the ongoing strategy in the Left camp. But the Lady beside him, Mrs Chatterjee looked so cool and relaxed! You might have watched. Just remember the event and decide why the lady so familiar with Parliamentary affairs and Marxist ways all these years could be so relaxed in such a hyper Tension situation!

I just told my journalist friends that you should write a scoop that CPIM would make the Speaker OFF Whip opening the Pandora`s box full of defection and divide among all political parties. Let us see how many whips would be there and how many will be violated!

it is Irony classical as the Left has managed Two votes` difference, one minus thanks to the constitutional commitment of the speaker and an ultimate casting vote of the speaker in case of a Tie! While the saviours are divided as a meeting of Samajwadi Party MPs held in New Delhi on Friday ahead of the crucial July 22 trust vote saw only 16 of the 39 Lok Sabha members turning up. It is reported widely that the Dalit Queen in Lucknow has managed to lure at least half a dozen SP MPs!The meeting, addressed by party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and General Secretary Amar Singh, has assumed importance as the SP has become a crucial ally of the Congress-led coalition at the Centre ahead of the confidence motion.

The left led by CPIM talks so much on Anti fascism and Hindutva, RSS and communalism, but eventually it is ganging up with the RSS as it did in 1977 and 1989 coining some different Ideological ground. It constituted the UPA and accepted the office of the Lokasabha speaker and remained out of the GOI. Now it is the same Left which is more active to recall the RSS to resurrect the super Power Hindu Nation! It is not uncommon these days to hear that, for the first time since the first general elections in 1952, the Congress party would be reduced to a double-digit tally in the next Lok Sabha elections. Remember that the BJP already runs more state governments, either on its own or with allies, than the Congress. Remember, also, that the Congress has lost in as many ten assembly elections held after the last Lok Sabha elections in May 2004.

Exhausted over what it considers as Speaker's defiance, the CPI-M Central Committee which is meeting on July 19 and 20 is likely to discuss the issue and may come out with a strong denunciation of the MP from Bolpur.

Chatterjee is said to be miffed with the party leadership over his name being included in the list of Left MPs withdrawing support to the government without consulting him.


Friends! Since my childhood, just when I was able to make sentences in Hindi, possibly in class three situation, I had been habitual to write drafts for my Social Activist father. He could not write Hindi fluently. He did not see any college door in his life and had no confidence to write the letters in English either.

But he was the man who led a refugee movement in Siliguri, West Bengal while the Ruling Hegemony did try to convert the Refugees into the status of Tea garden coolies! it was the beginning. He never stopped. He led the Dhimri Block Peasant s` Uprising in 1958. He led refugee movement in Rudrapur in 1956. he blocked Charbag RLY station for almost two days demanding rehabilitation for the 1964 riot victim refugees from east Bengal and the Bengali Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, MRs Sucheta Kriplani! since Jyoti Basu was annoyed with the man for his over activism in Kolkata and Refugee Camps, he was exported to Charbetia camp near Cuttuk in Orissa. He mobilised the refugees in Orissa and was finally thrown in the Jungles of Terai in Nainital in 1954. He organised the first All India refugee conference in Dineshpur, Nainital in 1960. he had the courage to argue with Legendary dalit leader jogendra Nath Mandal. He was arrested in a Bhasha Andolan Procession in Dhaka. Once again in 1971, he was arrested in Dhaka after the liberation of Bengal demanding unification of divided bengal to solve refugee problems. He had relations with every Prime Minister of India since Pdt. Jawaharlal nehru to Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Late refugee leader from the Terai of Nainital, Pulin kumar Biswas defied the Party whip and stood rock solid with the riot torn dalit Bengali refugees in 1960s.

He would write everyday letters to the GOI, Chief Minister, all political parties, administrators including commissioner, DM,SP and Bengali leaders countrywide. I had to write all the drafts. My home work was based on good readings of daily newspapers in Bengali, English and Hindi. i had to read all the classic literature since childhood.

Pulin babu was concerned with his people the dalit Bengali refugees scattered countrywide. But he was the unopposed leader of terai vikas sahkari sangh and represented peasant in terai from every community. He had to raise all the issues relating peasants. He had been a communist and was always busy to sort out national and international issues. He had been a very popular orator. He always preferred to talk and contact to the highest level. He addressed the President of India and the Prime minister daily. All lettres had to be registered with acknowledgement due. Our little Post Office in Dineshpur had been always busy in posting and receiving his letters. I had to get the letters typed from Rudrapur, nine mile away from our village without any link road in those days. I used my cycle so often. At the same time I had to buy all types of News papers, mags and literature from the Roadways Book and Newspapers` Stall. Only Mr Das was a good typist available in Rudrapur. Moreover, I had to post the urgent letters from the sub post office in Rudrapur. Even as a child I was responsible to hand over some very urgent letters to the officials based in Rudrapur including the Police Station. Some times, specially in the Police station, it was never a good experience. The Police men would abuse with most vulgar language with pinch of insult and I learnt very quickly to bear with it.

In 1967, after the General Elections, crossing fences came into vogue and remained for ever. my father wrote Mrs Indira Gandhi to introduce anti defection law and sent the copies to every politician whose address could be located. I drafted the letter.But no one seemed to pay any attention in those days.

In 1974, while I was a student in GIC and grown up enough to follow Marxist ways and had been guided by Tara Chandra Tripathi, Pulin babu left home for an All India tour. Despite differences in Ideology, strategies,politics, opinion and ways, despite lack of dialogue for so long, my father kept on depending on me for his drafts. even personalities like ND Tiwari and KC Pant would like my drafting and sometimes discussed some issues obliging a boy. But I never felt obliged. KC pant was the deputy minster in the department of Energy and NDTiwari was still based in Lucknow. father travelled all the Refugee colonies country wide and beyond.

I was called from Nainital to reach New Delhi , their ultimate destination of my father. i reached there with a section of Terai Leaders who would help me to locate my father.

Well! I had to draft the Report and the report was to be submitted to the Prime Minister`s Office! KC Pant ensured an appointment with Mrs Indira Gandhi.

it was my first visit to new Delhi and I became very fond of Chandni Chowk where we stayed in a Dhrmashala opposite fountain. It was very amusing for me that my father showed me all the cremation ghats. it happened even in Kolkata in 1973 where I had to accompany my father visiting Neem tolla and Keora Tolla. I had to visit any place in New delhi for the first time and it was Raj Ghat! We visited Shantivana, Vijay Gahat,Trimurti Bhawan and Gandhi Musium!

Pulin Babu had all the appointments all along the day. i would buy some books available on footpath in chandni chowk, taste the delicosu Jalebi and enjoy some film in any cinem hall around. Father cared enough to make some excurtions involving Red Fort, Ajmeri Gate,Puran Quila, Cannught place, Kutub Minar and the Zoo also. We preferred the Motorcycle innovated scooters plying from Chandni on large scale. it was also an experience in life time that we had to buy drinking water!

I read Tara Shankar for the first time. It was a Hindi translation of kavi, the Poet!

I wonder to remember all those letters and reports drafted by me. it could not be reserved as My father could not encash his relations with topmost political and administrative personalities. We had a thatched home in Basantipur and the land property also reduced with time as it was consumed by father`s commitment and activism! I am away from my home almost thirty years! The people at home could not find any justification to keep all those documents meaningless to them. Pulin Babu had a habit to write diary daily but I could not locate any of his diary when I landed my home after his demise in cancer!

PC Alexander was perhaps the man who recieved the report fro us and frisked away us with some voucher payment as conveyance grant for my father`s All India Tour. We had to leave the PMO right from the closed doors of Mrs Indira Gandhi. This was such an Insult i could not bear.It stamped my psyche and I never tried to write to any politician since the day. It was a pity that I had to write for my father.
But personally no political leader is enough fortunate to recieve any letter signed by me! neither I tried to meet any Politician!

The gist of the story is that the proposal of Anti defection Law by my father, seemed ridiculous and irrelevant to me as in I967, as a student of a primary school and often caned by my teacher Pitamber Pant, I had grown enough to understand the ongoing infinite power game!

This bloody Anti defection Law and the idea of a Whip seem to me just a lame excuse to subvert public Accountability!

Mind you, no political party representing the Brahminical hegemony is against Strategic Realliance with corporate Imperialism. Nor any comrador Politician ever resisted colonisation of India. Ruling class never fought against Imperialism and fascism! The feudal psyche of Cheating and jugglery is the main characteristic of Indian colonised Polity since the so called Mid Night Freedom. The global ruling class is ready for super power hindu Indian Nation thisitime as once upon a time the British gifted away the Power to the Brahmins! All political parties are engaged in annihilation of Indigenous communities. They are united rock solid in the parliament to use all forces of the State power to crush nationalities and communities Indigenous. All anti People laws are passed with consensus. All policies are drawn in the best interest of the Ruling Hegemony which happens to be the best interest of the United Sates of America at the same time!

The Nuke Opera is a clear cut subversion of public Accountability!

The OFF Whip speaker is the OFF whip Marxism personified!

'Don't seek IAEA nod to draft safeguards'

Press Trust of India / Mumbai July 18, 2008, 19:26 IST

Nuclear scientists opposed Indo-US civil nuclear deal today asked the government not to proceed to seek IAEA Board's approval for the current draft safeguards agreement until its implications were fully debated within the country.

There are many key safeguards-related issues of crucial importance which have not been addressed or adequately handled in the current draft, they said in an appeal to members of Parliament four days ahead of the trust vote the government faces in Lok Sabha.

"We are of the strong opinion that the government should not proceed to seek IAEA Board's approval for the current draft safeguards agreement until its implications are fully debated by a group of experts who are not party to the IAEA negotiations," said the appeal released here today.

"We, therefore, appeal to the members of the Lok Sabha to direct the government not to proceed further with the current safeguards agreement."

"The MPs should ask the Prime Minister to initiate wide-ranging and structured deliberations on the nuclear agreement both within and outside Parliament to develop a broad consensus among political parties and general public before proceeding any further," they said.
The appeal has been signed by P K Iyengar, former Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission, A Gopalakrishnan, ex- Chairman, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and A N Prasad, former Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) here.


Indian Express reported very well! Just read!
New Delhi, July 18: Trust the Left to take the moral high ground and not let facts get in the way.
A year ago, jailed RJD MPs Pappu Yadav and Mohammed Shahabuddin helped the UPA-Left nominee Pratibha Patil become the first woman President by casting their votes in a crunch situation.
Yadav and Shahabuddin also voted in favour of Hamid Ansari, the Left’s nominee for the Vice Presidential candidate later.
But now the CPM, after its separation from the UPA, is citing “political morality” to slam the ruling alliance’s attempts to bring both these jailbirds and LJP MP Suraj Bhan to take part in the crucial July 22 trust vote.
And not naming those jailbird MPs who are likely to vote on the same side as the Left.
“While legally they may get the right to attend Parliament and vote, there is a question of political morality involved,” said a CPM Politburo statement today. “The Congress leadership will be seen by the entire country as taking recourse to convicted criminals for sustaining their government.”
Yadav was convicted in the CPM MLA Ajit Sarkar murder case and Shahabuddin is jailed in a case of kidnapping with intent to murder. Both had voted in favour of both Patil and Ansari.
While Yadav represents the Madhepura Lok Sabha seat, Shahabuddin is elected from Siwan constituency.
Interestingly, the CPM Politburo’s statement today mentioned the names of only Yadav, Shahabuddin and Bhan, omitting jailbirds who are expected to vote against the UPA.
These include BSP’s Umakant Yadav, Samajwadi Party’s Afzal Ansari and expelled SP MP Atiq Ahmed who are being aggressively courted by the BSP.
So far, Ansari hasn’t switched, claim SP leaders, while Atiq Ahmed has already said he will vote against the UPA government.
Phoolpur MP Ahmed, expelled from the Samajwadi Party after his name figured in BSP MLA Raju Pal murder case, had voted in favour of Left nominee Ansari defying a party whip to vote for UNPA candidate Rashid Masood.
When asked why the Left had not opposed Yadav and Shahabuddin voting during the Presidential election, CPM Central Committee member Nilotpal Basu said, “That we will have to see, those circumstances were different and not the same as this.”

CPM leaders claim the party did not include the names of anti-UPA jailbird MPs because they were facing trial and were not convicted.
This argument rings hollow given that Shahabuddin was convicted in May, two months before he voted in the Presidential elections in July last year.
Significantly, the BSP, which has made common cause with the Left to oppose the nuclear deal, is wooing both Ansari, Ahmed, and Umakant Yadav, who was expelled from the party earlier for criminal activities.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/CPMs-high-ground-My-criminal-MP-more-moral-than-yours/337357/

The exclusion of Chatterjee is significant as the CPI(M) has so far been maintaining that he should toe the line of the party, which has decided to vote against the government.
A three-line whip was issued to 41 CPI(M) MPs asking them to reach the national capital on July 20 and be present in Lok Sabha on the next two days besides voting against the government.
CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat while maintaining that it was for the Speaker to take a decision on resigning his post, contended that a person holding this high office does not cease to have political affiliations.
"After someone ceases to be a Speaker, they resume political activities," he said in a newspaper interview giving clear signals that the party expects Chatterjee to step down before the trust vote.
Meanwhile,the Foreign Secy met IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei in Vienna ahead of a briefing for the IAEA board of governors on the India-specific safeguards agreement!Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon met IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei in Vienna on Thursday ahead of a briefing for the UN atomic watchdog's Board of Governors on the India-specific safeguards agreement. Menon had a brief meeting with the IAEA Director General, sources said. However, the details of their talks were not known. The Foreign Secretary is here to brief the 35-member IAEA Board and 19 NSG members, which are not part of the Board, on the safeguards agreement and other aspects of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

On the other hand, with small groups and independents maintaining suspense on which way they will vote, a senior Union Minister on Friday claimed "fence sitters" will side with secular parties and claimed that the government enjoyed support of 276 MPs!
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, which has five MPs in Parliament, will support the UPA Govt in next week's confidence vote, said the party's chief whip, Teklal Mahto.
Ahead of Tuesday's vote, the Congress party-led ruling coalition and Opposition parties are desperately tying up support, with analysts saying the outcome was too close to call.
Exuding confidence that the UPA government will win the vote of confidence comfortably, Finance Minister P Chidambaram rejected allegations of horse-trading and corporate money power playing a role in the trial of strength.
He also made it clear that the government would not abdicate its responsibility in managing the economy saying it would be in office till the next elections.
"It is all entirely speculative. It is a creation of the media. I don't think corporates have any role in either saving or defeating the government. I think it is an exaggerated notion of corporate power," he said in an interview.
He was replying to queries on media reports about the influence of the corporates and their money power in the ensuing vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha on July 22.
On the chances of government's survival, he said, "My colleagues in the party, especially party officials, are extremely confident that we will win the confidence vote comfortably."


India objects to US influence on proposals for WTO meet
Geneva (PTI): India on Friday strongly objected to the US proposing to limit flexibilities of the developing countries on their obligations for market opening agreement being negotiated under Doha Round of WTO.
India's concerns on agriculture and industrial goods were conveyed to Director General of World Trade Organisation Pascal Lamy by Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, ahead of the crucial mini-Ministerial meeting being convened here from July 21.
About 40 trade ministers are participating in the five-day deliberations to reach a consensus on modalities for concluding the much-delayed negotiating round launched in 2001.
"Flexibilities for developing countries have to be adequate and appropriate for addressing the sensitivities of individual members," a statement quoting Nath said.
The negotiating text on opening the market for industrial goods released on May 19 did not satisfy India which said it had caveats on flexibilities at the instance of the US.
Nath is holding a series of bilateral meetings in the run-up to the mini-Ministerial seeking support for interest of the developing countries.
The key players, he is interacting with, include Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim and Argentina's Secretary of State of Commerce and International Relations Alfredo Chiaradia.

India Inc. favours early polls
18 Jul 2008, 0627 hrs IST, K V Ramana,TNN
HYDERABAD: The mood of industrialists at Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)'s national council meeting in the city on Thursday was sombre, the matter of political uncertainty coming up informally at the morning session. And at the end of the session the feeling— at a meeting attended by 75 corporate chieftains— was that there be early polls to end this political uncertainty. “It's not a question of whether UPA comes out of the trust vote next week successfully or not. As businessmen, we want a stable policy making framework. An early poll could possibly ensure stability though nothing can be guaranteed,” said an industry chief who was part of the deliberations.
Though there were many views, most business barons felt that the nuclear deal would be good for the country. “We did discuss it in our morning sessions. Most of us feel that the country should go ahead with the nuclear deal,” the chief of a family-owned business house told TOI.
“The country should go in for an early poll now, may be in November. Even if the UPA wins the trust vote, an early election for Parliament and six Assemblies would only bring in more stability into the system. There is no point in continuing in a minority without being able to take any major decision,” he said.
“The situation that led to destabilising the government and the current phase of trust vote are all of great concern to the nation. By winning the trust vote, nothing is going to change in the political situation. The only option seems to be a fresh mandate for the government at the earliest,” another national council member concurred.
The Left's image with the industry seems to be at the nadir. Most business barons felt that the Left should be out of the power matrix in the future. Aligning with them would mean roadblocks on the path to genuine progress, they felt.
“Earlier on we had felt that being part of the ruling coalition would temper them. But this has not happened. Therefore better to keep them out,” a top business baron said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Hyderabad/India_Inc_favours_early_polls/articleshow/3247921.cms

JD(S) MPs will oppose trust vote: Veerendrakumar
Kozhikode (PTI): All the three JD(S) MPs, including H.D. Deve Gowda, will oppose the trust vote to be sought by the UPA government in the Lok Sabha on July 22, the party's Kerala unit President M P Veerendrakumar said on Friday.
"Gowda spoke to me this morning and said the JD(S) has taken a decision to oppose the confidence vote. He also wanted me to join the other two MPs in doing so and speak in Parliament as the party's Parliamentary leader", Veerendrakumar told reporters here.
Noting that he had already made his stand clear that he would not support the trust vote, Veerendrakumar said even if there was a party whip, he would defy it and vote against the government. He would speak against the nuclear deal in Parliament, he added.

UPA will lose trust vote, claims BJP
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Agencies
Posted online: Friday , July 18, 2008 at 07:49:36
Updated: Friday , July 18, 2008 at 07:49:36 Print Email To Editor Post Comments
Bangalore, July 18: Claiming the Congress-led UPA will lose the July 22 vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha, BJP on Friday said it is fully prepared for general elections.
“UPA government is already in minority. It has been admitted in the intensive care unit. It is in its last breath.
It’s sure to lose its vote of confidence on the 22nd (July)”, BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters in Bangalore.
“BJP would like to state categorically that we are prepared to seek a mandate to run the nation,” Rudy said.
Reiterating that the BJP is opposed to the Indo-US nuclear deal in its present form, he said in response to a question: “We (if we come to power

Countdown UPA: 4 days to go, 14 short of majority
CNN-IBN
New Delhi: Small parties have never had it as big. So who stands where in the crucial head count in the lead up to the trust vote on July 22? A check on the figures:

The UPA stands at 258, which is 14 short of the majority mark of 272.

The worry for the Government is not only to gain more MPs from smaller parties and independents but also ensure there are no frights of rebellion in its own ranks.

Left plus BJP plus BSP plus sizeable others make it an impressive 264.. This means that to cross the half-way mark of 271, the Government still needs the support of 14 more MPs.

Where will they come from?
The survival of the Government now depends on the 20 MPs who have not yet decided on their stand.

These include five MPs of Shibu Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, three Independents and three MPs from Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal.

National Conference and JD(S) with two MPs each are also in the undecided category. Giving them company are Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress, 1 MP of the Mizo National Front and 1 MP of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.

That's not all. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee is also non-committal.

In the event of a tie, his vote will decide if Manmohan Singh Government falls or survives.

Published on Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 08:30, Updated at Fri, Jul 18, 2008 in Nation section
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/countdown-upa-4-days-to-go-14-short-of-majority/69081-3.html

Deny government legitimacy for sealing deal: CPI(M)

Special Correspondent

Deal is the conduit to trap India into the U.S. imperialist web, says editorial


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Left will work to prevent India “from becoming a subordinate ally of U.S. imperialism”
BJP has its own reasons in its “restless urge to return to power”

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NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has said the Manmohan Singh government, set to take a trust vote in the Lok Sabha on July 22, required the legitimacy to go in for the India-U.S. nuclear deal which will be set on auto-pilot once the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors approved the safeguards agreement with India.
“For precisely this reason, the government needs to be defeated in order to ensure that the India-U.S. nuclear deal does not get this required legitimacy. Those of us opposing this deal on its own content and, more importantly, as it serves as the conduit to trap India into the U.S. imperialist web of global strategic designs, will have to vote in full strength to ensure this,” said an editorial in the coming issue of the party organ People’s Democracy.
“This, naturally, raises the question whether the CPI(M) and the Left would like to be seen on the same side as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the communal forces in voting against the Manmohan Singh government. Particularly since the Left’s outside support to this UPA government, based on a Common Minimum Programme, was aimed at keeping the communal forces away from the reins of State power.” “The moot question here is to protect the country from the consequences of this India-U.S. nuclear deal which imply protecting India’s sovereignty, independent foreign policy and independence in dealing with our security concerns. This requires that this government be defeated in this trust vote. The Left will, thus, discharge its responsibility in our national interest by voting against the government,” the editorial “Stop Deal, Defeat Trust Vote” said. The editorial said the Left was clear in its approach. “It shall work to achieve its objective of upholding our national interests and preventing India from becoming a subordinate ally of U.S. imperialism.”
Main grouse

“The BJP, indeed, has its own reasons for voting against the UPA government, in its restless urge to return to power. The process of strengthening the strategic relationship with U.S. imperialism was, indeed, begun by the BJP-led NDA government. Unfortunately, the UPA government carried this forward. The BJP’s main grouse may well be that such an India-U.S. nuclear deal should have been concluded under the patronage of its government and not by Manmohan Singh.
“This is obvious from the fact that during the entire tenure of the 14th Lok Sabha, the BJP, as the principal Opposition party, did not even move the customary no-confidence motion. If it was so strongly opposed to this deal, then it could very well have moved a no-confidence motion. The fact that it chose not to do so clearly shows that it does not wish to displease the U.S. Bush administration.
“By now it is clear that the Prime Minister had made serious efforts to rope in the support of the BJP for the deal. By describing the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, as the ‘Bhishma Pitamah’ of Indian politics, he negotiated and it is widely believed that he had allayed the BJP’s objections to the deal in writing,” the editorial said.
The BJP may be opposing the trust motion so as to force early elections which it may consider to its electoral advantage, the editorial said. It said that in the Left-ruled States of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, the BJP does not have a single elected MLA, leave alone a Lok Sabha MP.
The CPI(M)’s consistent and unequivocal opposition to communalism was there for all to see, it said, adding that the Left required no certificates for its secular credentials. On the contrary, during the last four years in 13 State elections, many of them being ruled by the Congress and its allies, the BJP and its allies had been able to defeat the Congress and form governments.
“The experience of the past four years has shown that the growing popular discontent due to the economic burdens imposed on the people as a result of the policies pursued by the Manmohan Singh government is presenting the communal forces a big electoral advantage,” the editorial said.
http://www.hindu.com/2008/07/18/stories/2008071861401600.htm

'It has become like a game of the mafia now'

July 18, 2008
Will the Congress make it past the magic number of 272 in the trust vote on July 22?
This is something that has everyone guessing as the battle for numbers rages full time. Several leaders feel the manner in which the ruling Congress is going about things is similar to the IPL auction which took place last March.
Former Rajya Sabha member and Trinamul Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi believes if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images], who is considered an honest politician, can go to any extent to win the numbers, there is no hope left for democracy.
Trivedi spoke to Special Correspondent Vicky Nanjappa about his party's stand on the trust vote, the nuclear deal, and about the levels leaders are going to to stay n in power.
Has your party taken any decision on the trust vote?
A decision is yet to be taken. We are meeting on July 20 to finalise our stand. However, let me tell you that our basic principle would be to keep equi-distance from both the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party.
All you want to know about the trust vote
What are your feelings on the trust vote and the manner in which the Congress is going up to toggle up the numbers?
It is hard to say whether the Congress will make it or not. However, the manner in which the numbers game is being played is shameful. Why is a party with a 123-year-old history stooping to such a level? The Congress should appeal to the conscience of the people and not stoop to unimaginable extent in order to win the trust vote.
There is a lot of talk about horse-trading and even MPs with criminal backgrounds being wooed into voting for the Congress.
If Dr Manmohan Singh, who is perceived to be honest, can go to any extent to save the government then there is very little hope left for democracy. The Congress has put both the British and Moghuls to shame. According to me, the real Congress left with Rajiv Gandhi. What is the Congress trying now? Now they have changed the name of an airport to keep their hopes alive. It is quite unimaginable to think what they would do next. It has become more like a game of the mafia now.
This is the time to bring in the Vohra Committee report on Crimilisation of Politics into play. Each one including Dr Singh is bargaining for himself and not for the country. Worse, all this is being done for three to four months of survival. I would also like to ask as to why Rahul Gandhi, who speaks for the youth, is keeping quiet. The hopes of the youth are being dashed with this kind of politics.
Do you think the Speaker should have acted?
If the Speaker could have suspended eight MPs without a hearing, then why is he keeping quiet now? There are stories of MPs being purchased, and this is an indication of wholesale corruption. Where is the Speaker's morality now? He spoke about morality when he suspended eight MPs. Why is this situation any different?
Do you think the nuclear deal is good for the country and should the government have gone ahead with it?
The nitty-gritty of the safeguards should be gone into in order to make any sort of a comment regarding the deal being good or not. Without doing so it is difficult to comment. Although there is no Constitutional requirement that the ratification of Parliament is needed in order to go ahead with the deal, I still do believe that the safeguards should not have been kept a secret. What is so secretive about it?
What do you think the Manmohan Singh government should have done?
I feel the government should have discussed it threadbare and gone ahead with the deal with conviction. It looks like a desperate bid to push the deal through during the government's last few days of survival. The deal should have gone through much earlier if everything was clear, according to the Congress.
How do you react to the manner in which the CPI-M has gone about things?
The hypocrisy of the CPI-M has been exposed. When the Congress wanted a vote in Parliament, they discouraged it. Moreover, (Science and Technology Minister) Kapil Sibal went on record stating that the CPI-M had told them to go ahead with the deal and had no objection. If this is not hypocrisy, then what is?
Do you think the CPI-M was being taken for a ride? A coordination committee had been set up to discuss the issue and without any final decision being taken in the committee, the Congress went ahead with the deal.
Everyone knows what transpired at the coordination committee meetings. The CPI-M was keener on bargaining on Nandigram [Images]. Both the Congress and CPI-M behaved like private limited companies on this issue. During the meetings all they had was samosas and in the bargain each one has been exposed now. No one will trust the CPI-M ever again.
http://in.rediff.com/news/2008/jul/18inter1.htm

An Uncertain Deal with India

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Jayshree Bajoria
Council on Foreign Relations
Friday, July 18, 2008; 10:58 AM
The U.S.-India agreement for civilian nuclear cooperation, touted as a significant step in strategic ties, has so far proved a difficult ride for both governments. Time is running out for both President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seal the deal before their countries go to the polls. Earlier this month, Singh finally submitted India's plan for safeguarding (PDF) its civilian nuclear facilities for review (BBC) by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). But the IAEA's approval, required before the deal can move forward, is only the first of many challenges.
The deal also requires the approval of the forty-five member Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Indian parliament, and the U.S. Congress. All member countries of the suppliers group, which includes China, will have to agree to exempt India from rules prohibiting nuclear sales to countries that do not accept full-scope safeguards agreements on all of their nuclear facilities. (India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty or the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty). Experts see irony if such an exemption were to occur, as the suppliers group was created in 1974 following India's first nuclear test to restrict the spread of nuclear technology for weapons programs. Meanwhile, before the Indian parliament can vote on the deal, the Singh government has to win a trust vote (VOA) on July 22 to stay in power. The government's Communist allies, opposed to the nuclear pact, withdrew support (Hindu) on July 8. Singh's party says it has secured support from new allies.
President Bush has his own problems persuading Congress to pass the deal before it adjourns for the year on September 26. The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, a Washington-based nonpartisan policy organization, has asked the suppliers group and Congress not to make a hasty decision on the nuclear agreement, saying it undermines global nonproliferation efforts. Both U.S. presidential candidates Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) have indicated support for the deal, but it is not clear if they would present it to Congress in its current form.
Some analysts object to the deal because it fails to restrain India's nuclear weapons program. Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, argues in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that "fueling India's civilian reactors with foreign fuel is not all that peaceful." The Bush administration has tried to convince Congress that the enabling U.S. legislation for the nuclear deal, the Hyde Act, has mechanisms to check India's nuclear weapons ambitions. However, the Indian government is indicating the opposite. To win over its parliamentary allies, the prime minister's office insists the nuclear deal overrides the Hyde Act (Hindu). A July 15 government statement says, "the agreement will in no way impinge on our [India's] strategic programme, which is entirely outside the purview of the IAEA safeguards agreement."
Plus, India is seeking a suppliers group exemption from restrictive conditions on nuclear testing, such as those laid down by the Hyde Act. Unless the suppliers group puts similar conditions on sales to India, some experts say, New Delhi will be free to buy nuclear fuel from others without having to worry about U.S. law. While some experts tout the deal as a boon to U.S. civilian nuclear business, others say its commercial impact may be limited. The deal holds little advantage for the United States beyond symbolism, argues Leonard S. Spector, a nonproliferation expert at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Russian and French firms are better positioned to reap the benefits of opening up nuclear sales to India, he says.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/18/AR2008071801269.html

The final countdown for India
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - India's ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) will face a crucial confidence vote early next week that will decide the fate not only of the government but also the India-United States civilian nuclear deal. If the government loses the vote, the country faces early elections and the nuclear deal will probably be scuttled.
The Congress-led UPA government was reduced to a minority on July 8 when the four-party left front withdrew its support to the ruling coalition. While the government's circulation of the draft safeguards agreement among the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)board members was the immediate provocation for the left's decision to pull the plug, the larger reason is its opposition to the nuclear deal itself and the undue US influence

on Indian foreign policy that it allegedly engenders.
The UPA coalition came to power in May 2004 with the outside support of the left. Over the past four years, the UPA-left relationship has been strained, with the latter often threatening to walk out. The threatened divorce has finally happened over the nuclear deal.
Proponents of the nuclear deal argue that it will end three decades of India's nuclear isolation and will provide India with much-needed access to nuclear fuel and technology. It will enable India to engage in nuclear trade.
It has been a long, arduous journey since the agreement was signed in 2005, and several more tortuous steps remain before the agreement can be operationalized. The IAEA board has to clear the India-specific safeguards agreement. The board is scheduled to take up the issue for discussion on August 1. Then the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) has to agree to make an exception in its rules that would permit its 45 members to engage in civilian nuclear trade with India - which has a nuclear weapon - even though it is not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. After that, the US president will have to determine that India has fulfilled its part of the deal and send it to the US Congress for its assent.
But these steps lie ahead. The immediate hurdle the UPA government faces is a trust vote in parliament on July 21-22.
The UPA government has only 226 members in the 543-seat Lok Sabha, the Lower House of parliament. After the 59-member left front pulled out support, the government is 46 seats short of a simple majority. Support from the Samajwadi Party (SP), which has 39 seats, had emboldened the Congress to defy the left. With full SP support it was still seven short, but that was a number it could woo, the UPA thought.
Things have not turned out quite that easy. Now the UPA has found that the SP is not in a position to deliver all 39 votes. Two SP members parliament (MPs) have said they will vote against the UPA and another is cooling his heels in jail.
What is more, the support of even UPA constituents is in doubt. The five-MP Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) is demanding plum posts in the cabinet in return for its support.
The larger parties have shown their hand. The charge against the UPA will be led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the left and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). As of now, the NDA appears to be holding together. One of its main constituents, the right-wing Shiv Sena, had at one point said it supported the nuclear deal, raising hopes in the UPA. But such hopes were dashed when the Shiv Sena clarified that it intended voting against the government.
The UPA also hoped to win the support of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) with the emotional appeal that as a Sikh party it should not bring down a government led by a Sikh, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. After some dillydallying, the SAD has said it too will vote against the government.
The UPA is now scouting around for support from smaller parties. In what is likely to be a close contest, every single vote will count. It is reaching out to independents representing constituencies in India's geographic extremities and engaging in hectic bargaining with smaller parties. Their support will not come easy as they are demanding much in return for their valuable votes.
The two-MP Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), a former UPA constituent, wants a separate Telangana state to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh, the two-MP Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) wants cabinet berths and a seat-sharing arrangement in general elections and the two-MP Janata Dal (Secular) is still bargaining hard. Small parties these might be, but their demands are large.
Senior Congress sources told Asia Times Online on Wednesday that the party is "100% confident at this juncture of 260 votes". It is having to crawl for the remaining 12 votes.
To save one deal - the nuclear deal - the UPA is having to make several other deals. "It should not be seen as deal-making," said Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari in justifying the bargaining. "It's give and take."
Hectic efforts are on at poaching support by dangling ministerships and large sums of money. Parties like the SP are expected to keep their flock physically together to ensure that the opposition isn't able to reach them and rival BSP has promised its sitting MPs that they will be renominated for the next election.
With every vote mattering, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), a constituent of the UPA, is working hard to get its jailbird MPs over to parliament on Tuesday. Two RJD MPs are serving time for very serious crimes. Not to be left behind, a BSP leader dashed to Farukhabad jail to sound out the party's incarcerated MP about the upcoming vote.
The trust vote has triggered a dramatic re-alignment in Indian politics. For the first time ever, the left, practitioners of class politics, will join forces with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which believes in caste-based mobilization. More ironic, is that the left is joining hands with the right-wing BJP to bring down the government. As for the new camaraderie between the Congress and the SP, this is clearly a marriage of convenience. Neither is in a position to face the electorate, hence their newfound togetherness.
No party has behaved in a principled manner in the current crisis and no party is likely to come out of this confidence vote clean. If the Congress' deal-making to survive the vote is disgusting, the BJP's decision to oppose the nuclear deal is unprincipled.
It was under a BJP-led government that India tested nuclear weapons in 1998 and it was the BJP that subsequently initiated the process that has now culminated in the nuclear deal. Had this deal been offered while the BJP was in power, it would have surely accepted it. What is more, the BJP is not opposed to India's warming relations with the US either. In fact, BJP foreign minister Jaswant Singh spent months pursuing a "special relationship" with Washington. Still, the party will vote against the government on Tuesday.
As for the left, its MPs will thunder in parliament on Monday about the UPA's anti-poor policies and its romancing of the "forces of imperialism". Its claim to speak on behalf of the poor would have had some credibility had it pulled out support from the government on issues like farmers' suicides or spiraling prices.
Several left MPs are unhappy with the decision to vote with the BJP to bring down the government. Prominent among them is veteran communist leader Somnath Chatterjee, speaker of the House.
The UPA will be hoping that supporters of the nuclear deal in the NDA, and those in the left that are uneasy with voting with the BJP, will come to its aid on Tuesday by voting with the UPA or at least abstaining.
Trust votes in India's parliament are known for their drama. They are preceded by horse-trading, wheeling and dealing and no one is quite sure about the loyalty of their flock. Trust votes have often been nail-biting affairs. The vote on Tuesday will be no different. Political parties have brought out the whips to keep their flocks together. Yet they will nervously be watching for rebels among their ranks.
In 1999, the BJP government was up against a no-confidence vote. It lost by a whisker - one vote. And the government fell.
On Tuesday, it could be a couple of jailbirds that rescue the UPA government and the nuclear deal.
Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore.
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)


Another blow for 'headless' India-US deal (Feb 7, '08)
US deal with India draws more fire
(Aug 17, '07)



1. A war just waiting to happen
2. Financial collapse edges closer
3. Retirement cash put to work
4. Afghan attack resonates in Washington
5. Forget those retirement plans
6. Jaws close in on Bernanke
7. Midnight in the kindergarten
of good and evil
8. Karzai nods to US, winks to Iran
9. Syria basks in diplomatic breakthrough
10. An immigration conundrum in Japan
11. Iran-US: A study in misperceptions
12. Tilting at China's red windmills
(24 hours to 11:59 pm ET,Jul 15, 2008)

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JG17Df01.html

Cong, BJP helping each other: CPM
Statesman News Service
NEW DELHI, July 17: Answering the Congress’ charge of joining hands with the BJP on the nuclear deal, the CPI (M) today said it was in fact the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, who had “negotiated” with the BJP on the issue by calling the former PM, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Bhishma Pitamah (father-figure) of Indian politics and had allayed the BJP’s objections in writing.
In the forthcoming issue of its official journal, People’s Democracy, the CPI (M) said the Congress and the BJP were “helping” each other through their policies; and the BJP’s soft corner for the government was proved by the fact that as the main Opposition party had failed to bring in a single no-confidence motion against the government.
The Left party said the BJP was not really opposed to the deal. In fact, it was always for the deal and its only regret was that it could not seal it during its rule. The BJP was now planning to oppose the UPA’s trust vote because it wanted early elections, and gain from the government’s failure to tackle problems like price-rise and agrarian crisis.
The CPI (M) said in the Left-ruled states of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, the BJP did not have a single elected MLA, leave alone a Lok Sabha MP. This was the result of the CPI (M)’s “consistent and unequivocal opposition to communalism”.
In spite of that, winning 54 of the 61 Left MPs to the 14th Lok Sabha by defeating Congress candidates, the Left did not hesitate to support a secular UPA government from the outside led by the same Congress, the CPI (M) said, adding: “The Left, hence, requires no certificates from anybody for its secular credentials.”
On the contrary, the Congress fight against communalism was such that in the last four years, in 13 state elections, many of them ruled by the Congress and its allies, the BJP and its allies could win and form governments, the
CPI (M) said.
Cong MLAs stage walkout to protest Left stand on UPA
KOLKATA, July 17 : In a bid to differentiate the CPI-M line of Opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal from that of BJP, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, chief minister admitted in so many words in the state Assembly today that the Congress-led UPA government led its Left allies down the garden path even as it was putting the final touches to the inking of the deal. As the discussions initiated by Mr Rabindranath Mondal, a
CPI-M MLA was about to begin, the Congress MLAs walked out shouting slogans that the Left Front MPs were about to vote in Parliament with their BJP counterparts whom the former had once labelled as communal till recently.
The Opposition of the Left to long term strategic partnership with the USA was opposed in the Common Minimum Program, the chief minister said. The UPA government had assured us that it would not go ahead with the nuclear deal without our knowledge, Mr Bhattacharjee said. But despite surviving on our support, the UPA have chosen to tread the path of proximity to the USA, a dangerous trend in the foreign policy which was initiated by the NDA government. Voting against the government on this issue, the BJP and other MPs belonging to the NDA combine would be “opposing this deal merely for the sake of opposition”, he added.
The Left which had opposed the domestic policy of successive Congress governments but extended its support on foreign policy matters whether it was on Suez crisis or Bangladesh, Mr Bhattacharjee said. The stand of the then united CPI and its subsequent split over the differences over 1962 Chinese aggression found no mention in the chief minister's speech. Lambasting the IAEA, Hyde Act and other agreements with the USA as infringements on the foreign policy, Mr Bhattacharjee said that the hurry in pushing the deal through is owing to the commitment of Mr George Bush, the US president who is committed to some manufacturers of nuclear reactors. n SNS

Kerala legislators busy with trust vote speculation
July 18th, 2008 - 9:41 pm ICT by IANS - Email This Post
Thiruvananthapuram, July 18 (IANS) As Delhi witnesses hectic political activity ahead of the confidence vote for the Manmohan Singh government, down south in Kerala, the precincts of the state assembly Friday were also abuzz with speculation on the outcome. The state assembly is currently holding its session which would end a day after the July 22 confidence vote, but legislators fortifying themselves over a meal at the canteen Friday were leaving no possibility unexplored as they deliberated on the possible vote result.
Kerala has 140 legislators of which 98 belong to the ruling Left Democratic Front, led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). The remaining belong to the Congress-led United Democratic Front.
The latest news doing the rounds is that the lone Kerala Congress (Joseph) Lok Sabha member Francis George is likely to vote for the confidence motion.
“Will that happen, I don’t think so, because his party is an ally of the ruling LDF here,” two-time Revolutionary Socialist Party legislator Kovoor Kunjumon intervened while having his meal.
“Didn’t you see today’s New Indian Express, where it is mentioned that George will vote for the confidence motion,” quipped a journalist.
“If that be the case, then their party’s Minister for Public Works Mons Joseph will have to step down,” said CPI-M legislator Saju Paul.
“Didn’t you hear that crores (millions) are being offered to parliament members belonging to small parties to vote for the Manmohan Singh government. Sad, if it is true, the levels to which democracy has stooped,” said CPI-M legislator M.K. Purushothaman.
But former Ernakulam Lok Sabha member and senior Congress legislator K.V. Thomas has no doubts about the outcome.
“Our government will sail smoothly and there is no need for any concern at all,” said a confident Thomas to IANS.
Possibilities for new ramification
The Panchayat poll this time around has gave such a devastating blow to the CPI (M) that their brave new world of shopping malls, flyovers, dubious industrial projects and fraudulent
special economic zones has come crashing down,
writes Parag Biswas
The stunning defeat the Marxists suffered in the panchayat elections in half of rural Bengal has brought home to them the truth that they have been living in a make-believe world where only the Tatas, the Salims, the Premjis and Dhoots exist, while the nameless, faceless millions of rural poor have melted into thin air.
We need to move beyond the cliché of recent months when politicians and their ilk in different sections argued that the results of the elections to the local bodies in West Bengal would be the ultimate twist for what would accrue in the coming years. Any particular event in politics is only partly true at any given point of time, and like any half-truth, it often turns out to be dubious. But its relevance, nonetheless, remains indisputable.
A host of factors has come to light. First, the Congress and Trinamul Congress not only retain their popular appeal among the people, they are also gaining new ground to re-establish themselves. They are positioning themselves to exploit their adversaries’ follies and foibles, and that is what politics is all about. Electoral success works like an aphrodisiac in pushing to the background — even if temporarily — the two partys’ ideological confusion and the manifest disarray of transition in their leadership abilities.
Second, the Congress and TMC have vastly exaggerated their capacity to regenerate popular appeal. The results of the elections to the local bodies show that despite the internal squabbles in the two parties, at best they could say their decline in recent years has somewhat slowed down. But that is a far cry from claiming that their are reversing the decline.
Third, the trend continues to run in favour of Left wing political parties. There is no doubt that the CPI (M) is no longer the darling of the rural masses in the state, but it still continues to be the fountainhead of Bengali nationalism in spite of its deplorable performance in many quarters; it was and stays in power.
Considering that North Bengal is an important bastion of traditional support for the CPI (M)’s tally in the legislative assembly, uncertainties arise in many districts, which will be having a greater impact in the state election.
But there are wider implications of the results of the elections to the local bodies. What lies ahead? For the Trinamul Congress, the local bodies’ election results come as a tremendous booster of political gravitas. Even its worst detractors will have to admit that much. The party is definitely on the comeback trail in state politics. We can no longer be dismissive of the party’s expectations of capturing power in the next assembly elections as a sheer flight of fancy. The TMC can look forward to projecting itself in coming months as a credible alternative to the present dispensation at the state level.
For the CPI(M), the results of the elections to the local bodies came as a litmus test of its popular appeal after being in power in West Bengal for 31 years. The party’s national leadership campaigned actively. It cannot credibly argue at this stage that the results of the elections to the local bodies are a flash in the pan stemming from capitalist reactions.
The party should have strong reason to estimate that the lacklustre performance of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya government, the image of the CPI(M) having pursued elitist economic policies, the forceful acquisition of fertile lands for industrial purposes, the dithering on the economic and educational fronts at several points over the last 25 years, the inherent self-contradictions within the Left Front, the simmering discontent among the people in Darjeeling on the failure of the ruling Left Front and its alleged stooge, the Gorkha National Liberation Front, to mitigate the sufferings and to redress the grievances of the people in the hills, and the growing economic hardships of the common man — all these are combining to pose a formidable political challenge.
It’s unfortunate that the CPI(M) has hardly anything to offer that catches the imagination of the electorate. And there are serious limits to enchasing populist measures in the run-up to elections at the time of elections. The Bengali electorate is simply getting savvier day by day.
The CPI(M) has important decisions to make. The inflation index, which is actually in double digits in real terms already for the Indian consumer, is poised to go up further. Life for the common man is going to be even harsher in the coming months as the price hike of consumer products will be inevitable.
The CPI(M) inherits the political legacy of the hard times lying ahead. There is no reason to believe that the political ground can be significantly retrieved in the months ahead. On the other hand, further erosion of the party’s popularity becomes a real possibility.

Second, the loss of local bodies to the TMC and Congress makes it imperative for the CPI(M) to reverse the tables in the forthcoming elections to the local bodies in north Bengal. Yet, nothing is certain in politics. If the CPI(M) doesn’t capture power in at least one of the opposition-held local bodies in Siliguri subdivision, which has been its traditional stronghold, and retain its power, that would create another political legacy of grave negative proportions that could turn out to be overwhelming as it edges closer to the state election.
Incidentally, the TMC and the Congress party’s virtual certainty to capture new political ground lies in the districts of north Bengal, where it hopes to make inroads into the Left parties’ tallies in the coming assembly election. In political terms, the TMC and Congress party’s ability to hurt the electoral prospects of the Left parties has increased following the elections to the local bodies.
Again, by drawing the Trinamul Congress to its side in its agitation on the issue of admission to all those who had applied for admission to the under-graduate courses in the colleges of Siliguri subdivision, the Congress is certainly mulling an alignment with the TMC, at least in North Bengal, which will significantly diminish the capacity of the Left parties to achieve a simple majority in the assembly. For the first time in recent memory, top leaders of the two parties openly led a joint agitation against the ruling Left Front after the 15 July violence at the Shiemangal Singh High School campus of the newly-opened Munshi Premchand Mahavidyalaya at Haiderpara in Siliguri.
It is an interesting thought for the Left parties, which mastered coalition politics far ahead of any other party, whether the Darjeeling district TMC and Congress leadership actually worked towards this end or things simply took a momentum of their own.
The Congress and the TMC are bouncing back with gusto into mainstream party politics in the state after the years of drift and alienation, while the CPI (M) is in the process of revitalising its Left Front alliance.
As conceivably, the state, whose inhabitants still shudder to recall the days of political instability during the mid-70s, are heading for a hung assembly, as neither the Congress, nor the TMC, and nor the CPI (M)-led Left Front can hope to achieve an absolute majority in the next general elections.
The results of the elections to the local bodies may, therefore, hold an important message for the electorate in West Bengal: Should it give the Left Front yet another chance to rectify its “historical blunders,” or should it vote a new party to power?
Farmers know their land will give income for generations and they won’t have to retire as workers have to. The Marxists pretend
not to know these simple truths. The dilemma facing the electorate will be acute. But the decision would have to be ultimately taken
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=31&theme=&usrsess=1&id=214324
From The Sunday Times, London
July 13, 2008

The credit crunch is bringing Marxism back into fashion
Cosmo Landesman
Recently, at a celebrity-studded publishing party, I met a beautiful busty blonde who looked as though she had just stepped off the cover of Playboy magazine. "Are you a model?" I asked. "No," she purred, "I'm a Marxist."
Later that evening she said: "Would you like to come up to my place and see my collection of Marxist literature?" I thought she was joking – until, back at her flat, she took me by the hand, led me to her bedroom and showed me her secret passion: 40 volumes of the collected works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It was when she began to explain the intricacies of dialectical materialism that I made my excuses and left.
I was telling a friend about my strange Marxist encounter when he told me his. In May he had attended a private meeting of about 50 British academics at King's College, Cambridge to discuss the events of May 1968. (King's had been a hotbed of Marxist agitation and student radicalism in 1968.) My friend was shocked to find among the group a collection of hardcore, unrepentant believers whom he dubbed "the time-warp Trots". "'They were all old, but still had that scruffy student dress sense and scraggily beards, just like in '68," he said. "One poor bloke was banging on about the revolution as if it was still actually happening."
I was surprised to hear this, for I was under the impression that Marxists were the lost tribe of British politics. Once a proud and mighty people, they had been wiped out by the virus of neo-liberalism in the 1980s.
But the marginalised and melancholic Marxists of yesterday are feeling very upbeat today. Why? It's the economy, stupid – or should that be the stupid economy of capitalism? The credit crunch, the decline in the housing market, the Northern Rock crisis, the rising cost of fuel and food, the spectre of recession, inflation and high unemployment have highlighted crucial flaws – to their eyes – in the free market.
Even among sections of the conservative-minded middle class one hears the kind of language and anticapitalist sentiments once found only in Marxist circles. At dinner parties there is resentful talk about City "fat cats", the "ridiculous" sums earned by venture capitalists and the growing inequalities of wealth.
Could it be that the Marxists are ready to make a comeback? This may sound like an absurd suggestion, but there was a time in the 1950s when the free-market philosophers – Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek et al – were considered to be a spent force. Then the postwar consensus with its belief in welfare capitalism collapsed in 1979 and the winter of discontent and those thinkers made a dramatic return in the 1980s.
A good place to see the current state of British Marxism is the annual Marxist "festival of resistance" that takes place in London. It has become the radical left's very own Glastonbury, a place where Marxists can plan revolution and let their hair down. Organised by the Socialist Workers party (SWP), it's a five-day think fest featuring 200 debates and events. You can discuss everything from Marx's theory of capitalist accumulation to "queer theory".
I went to the very first Marxist festival back in 1977, more out of curiosity than any real conviction. At that time lefties seemed to be the chosen people; Vanessa Redgrave was the poster girl of revolutionary politics. I was an idealist looking for a Big Idea and Marxism seemed to offer that. So I was curious to see how things had changed in more than 30 years: back then Marxism was in its heyday, at least among a generation of young intellectuals and academics. It was the era when sociology ruled the humanities and pot, radical politics and sexual promiscuity were all the rage – or so Malcolm Bradbury's 1975 novel The History Man suggested.
Set in a fictitious university in 1972, Bradbury's novel tells the story of the trendy and faddish Marxist sociologist Howard Kirk – self-appointed champion of the oppressed and the campus lothario. To many on the right, Bradbury's novel was proof that Marxist academics were subverting the minds of the young.
But the power and prestige of Marxism quickly faded as the Kirk generation grew older and gave up dreams of revolution for careers in academia. Then came the fall of the Soviet bloc in 1989 and the Soviet Union itself in 1991. Marxism was officially dead and Francis Fukuyama, in his book The End of History and the Last Man, claimed that liberal capitalism had won the great ideological battle. So when I arrived at the opening session of the Marxism 2008 festival I expected to find only a dozen ancient Marxists raising arthritic fists as speakers denounced the evils of capitalism.
But no. The opening rally – at the central hall of the Friends Meeting House – was packed with more than 2,000 people. The audience was a mix of young and old; mature Marxist puritans from the public sector unions and punky and pierced antiglobal protester types. From all over the country they came, clutching sleeping bags, babies and their programmes to hear the likes of Tony Benn and Tariq Ali denounce capitalism.
Across walls and balconies were colour-ful banners bearing such slogans as "People, not profits" and "Renationalise now". At one point the crowd broke out into a loud and spontaneous chant of "The workers, united, will never be defeated!" It was like stepping back in time and hearing the true believers of a forgotten faith.
The mood of the festival this year was optimistic. After all, there's nothing like a crisis of capitalism to gladden the heart of a heartless Marxist who has been waiting for the return of class war since the winter of discontent. Tony – a lifelong trade union activist – was an old-fashioned Trot "and bloody proud of it" he told me with a smile. He was rejoicing that the Marxists' moment had come. "The present crisis is a vindication of what we've been telling people for decades – capitalism is unfair and it doesn't bloody work."
Were all the young people I saw part of a new generation of Marxists? Not really. With the exception of younger members of the SWP, it was hard to find any young person who would call themselves a Marxist. They have a much more pick'n'mix attitude to politics than we did – a bit of green, a touch of Marx and a dash of antiglobalism is more their style.
The nearest I got to a young Marxist was John, a 20-year-old student from Essex University wearing a Lenin badge, who described himself as a "critical Marxist". John explained his position: "I don't accept everything Marx said. You have to take the bits that are still relevant.'"
So much for the young – what about that generation of '68, what has happened to them? According to Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at Kent University and a former Marxist himself: "You rarely bump into a Marxist on campus these days." According to Furedi, what you have now is a kind of "Marxism lite . . . a very simplistic view of the world that blames capitalism for all evils".
Alex Callinicos, a leading Marxist theo-retician, a member of the SWP and professor at King's College London, disagrees: "In the English-speaking world there's been a significant revival of Marxism in the academy over the past few years. I've noticed a growing number of PhD students and young academics interested in Marxism."
Hugo Radice is a lecturer in international political economy at Leeds University and, unlike so many academics I spoke to, is happy to admit that he is a Marxist. Does he feel a bit of a dodo? "No, not at all. There are fewer Marxists around, but Marxism as an academic discipline is very much alive in the field of international politics and economy. Also in business studies you will find plenty of active Marxists."
Curiously, the place where Marxism seems to flourish is the United States. "If you go to college campuses in America, you are much more likely to bump into people who call themselves Marxist than in Britain," says Furedi. "But it's much more of a radical lifestyle thing – students wearing Che T-shirts. A Marxist has become a term for anyone who doesn't like capitalism."
I doubt if Marxism will ever regain the position it once had. You have only to look around to see that when the older generation of academic Marxist superstars – Terry Eagleton and Eric Hobsbawm – pass away there won't be anyone to take their place. History may not have ended as Fukuyama claimed, but the History Men have.

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Vidya Bhushan Rawat
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