09-30-2006, 02:02 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Marxist brokers </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
<b>CPM plays PR firm of corporate China </b>
The decision by the CPI(M) leadership to take up with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the problems of Chinese business entities is a case of a fair message being defiled by an inappropriate messenger. The Chinese Government and private companies from that country have often raised the issue of genuine business visitors not getting visas from the Indian missions in Beijing and Shanghai. They have reason to be upset by the churlish protectionism that sometimes passes for "national security" in India, and which has seen legitimate avenues for investment blocked to Chinese or even to Hong Kong-based companies. A mix of a bureaucratic, policeman-type mindset that hasn't grown beyond 1962, and the clever lobbying of specific Indian companies who may find it difficult to compete with a Chinese rival is often the villain. In these times of equal market access to all trade partners, this situation is clearly untenable. From telecom to ports, a whole host of business sectors can't be selectively closed just to one nationality. The Chinese have every right to be upset, especially since they have been fairly welcome hosts to a slew of Indian business houses, and their visa department in India has been working overtime in facilitating Indian visits. As such, the Chinese Government and business forums have every right to protest to Indian authorities and lobby support from relevant groups in this country. Having made that point, the decision of the CPI(M) to get exercised over specifically Chinese FDI and thwarted business opportunities is quizzical, if not downright hypocritical.
If comrades Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury were wedded to a libertarian world-view, one that recommended the removal of all trade barriers and economic restrictions, it would be one thing. <b>For them to pretend that "business" and "profit" are not part of their universe of proletarian concerns when it comes to the rest of the world but acquire an existential urgency only when it comes to China, is to exhibit a strange extra-territorial fixation, if not loyalty. </b>It is, in a sense, the peacetime equivalent of the undivided <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>CPI's insistence that the 1962 war was India's fault and that Chairman Mao's troops were innocent invaders.</span> Even so, it is mighty unusual for a political party - even a Right-wing, pro-business one, it may be added - to lobby for individual private companies, rather than for a political philosophy or, at worst/best, a foreign Government.<b> The CPI(M), at least two of the West Bengal MPs of which have business associations with Chinese manufacturers, is certainly in a class of its own</b>. How the CPI(M) can reconcile playing broker to corporate China's global plans while simultaneously playing wrecker to India's economic reforms is a conundrum only it can sort out. For the moment, the party must consider that its open identification with Beijing's "capitalist roaders" will only detract from its credibility as a moral and upright political force, albeit an intellectually deficient one, in New Delhi. When Communists are reduced to playing lobbying agents for select companies, it is a pitiful sight. There is an impolite Hindi word for it - <span style='color:red'>dalaali. Do comrades Karat and Yechury really want their politics described thus? </span> <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The Pioneer Edit Desk
<b>CPM plays PR firm of corporate China </b>
The decision by the CPI(M) leadership to take up with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the problems of Chinese business entities is a case of a fair message being defiled by an inappropriate messenger. The Chinese Government and private companies from that country have often raised the issue of genuine business visitors not getting visas from the Indian missions in Beijing and Shanghai. They have reason to be upset by the churlish protectionism that sometimes passes for "national security" in India, and which has seen legitimate avenues for investment blocked to Chinese or even to Hong Kong-based companies. A mix of a bureaucratic, policeman-type mindset that hasn't grown beyond 1962, and the clever lobbying of specific Indian companies who may find it difficult to compete with a Chinese rival is often the villain. In these times of equal market access to all trade partners, this situation is clearly untenable. From telecom to ports, a whole host of business sectors can't be selectively closed just to one nationality. The Chinese have every right to be upset, especially since they have been fairly welcome hosts to a slew of Indian business houses, and their visa department in India has been working overtime in facilitating Indian visits. As such, the Chinese Government and business forums have every right to protest to Indian authorities and lobby support from relevant groups in this country. Having made that point, the decision of the CPI(M) to get exercised over specifically Chinese FDI and thwarted business opportunities is quizzical, if not downright hypocritical.
If comrades Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury were wedded to a libertarian world-view, one that recommended the removal of all trade barriers and economic restrictions, it would be one thing. <b>For them to pretend that "business" and "profit" are not part of their universe of proletarian concerns when it comes to the rest of the world but acquire an existential urgency only when it comes to China, is to exhibit a strange extra-territorial fixation, if not loyalty. </b>It is, in a sense, the peacetime equivalent of the undivided <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>CPI's insistence that the 1962 war was India's fault and that Chairman Mao's troops were innocent invaders.</span> Even so, it is mighty unusual for a political party - even a Right-wing, pro-business one, it may be added - to lobby for individual private companies, rather than for a political philosophy or, at worst/best, a foreign Government.<b> The CPI(M), at least two of the West Bengal MPs of which have business associations with Chinese manufacturers, is certainly in a class of its own</b>. How the CPI(M) can reconcile playing broker to corporate China's global plans while simultaneously playing wrecker to India's economic reforms is a conundrum only it can sort out. For the moment, the party must consider that its open identification with Beijing's "capitalist roaders" will only detract from its credibility as a moral and upright political force, albeit an intellectually deficient one, in New Delhi. When Communists are reduced to playing lobbying agents for select companies, it is a pitiful sight. There is an impolite Hindi word for it - <span style='color:red'>dalaali. Do comrades Karat and Yechury really want their politics described thus? </span> <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->