<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Udayan Namboodiri sees menacing logic tucked in Prakash Karat's tirade against the media following September 29
CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat has lashed out at the media for questioning a typical Marxian shibboleth: The right of the 'working class' to strike. In these unusual times, editorials in People's Democracy are not just rambling harangue served on the revolutionary masses by a party apparatchik.
These are followed by journalists, academicians, foreign observers and think tankers with special interest because much of what is said - or left unsaid - goes towards speculating on the future of the Government that the CPI(M) and its allies purport to back.
Mr Karat has indicated that not only is he unrepentant for the chaos and disruption he caused on September 29, but is also quite aggressively poised in respect to critics who doubt his group's commitment to the UPA's continuity. He would like us to believe that the institutions of the free state are secure from Communist assault. Apologists of the Left who would rush to condemn the latter concern as plain overreaction have no idea as to what Mr Karat's followers did in Kolkata on the day of the "first general strike faced by the UPA government".
When employees of The Statesman tried to distribute their paper, CPI(M) cadre brutally assaulted them. The toady police of that 'progressive' State not only looked on with passive indifference, but also refused to register a case against the attackers. That in itself is a pointer to the deep politicisation of the administration.
It is perhaps Mr Karat's good fortune that the national media of Delhi is totally lacking in capacities to follow Left politics and interpret its policies in the light of the popular experience in the States where they wield real power. Even those experts who peruse the documents churned out by the CPI(M) or the CPI often miss the sub-text. Communist hacks tuck into their long-winding sentences dangerous - and sometimes rank seditious - remarks which escape media attention only because of the ignorance of the interpreters to the true face of the Indian reds. For instance, one of the many resolutions passed at this year's 15th party congress of the CPI(M) was the party's rejection of the two-child norm. That wasn't mere jholawallah jargon aimed at endlessly plumbing aid dollars through 'awareness building' programmes. Connect it with the demographic changes brought about by the Left's vote banking schemes and you begin to see a pattern to the madness.
Similarly, Mr Karat writes, The media and the editorials have not asked why the state government employees numbering millions went on strike in states where the Left has no influence... they did so because a Supreme Court judgement has sought to deprive them of the right to strike - a right they are not willing to give up. He packs in a threat here which must not be missed. In 2003, CPI(M)'s strongman in Bengal Biman Bose threw a gauntlet at the judiciary when traffic-paralysing demonstrations were banned by an order of Kolkata High Court. Even the intrepid judge, Justice Amitava Lala, author of that historic order, was singled out for attack. At no point in India's free history has a responsible politician - in this case the head of the province's coordination committee of ruling parties - got away with so much. The general secretary is not joking when he says that Leftist workers will not 'give up' their option to defy the Supreme Court.
The agitprop that the Communists imported into India was bred in the laboratories of totalitarianism. In all their 80 years, our Communists have failed to develop even one original tome which could go into the international reservoir of socialist thought (for whatever it is worth) as an Indian contribution. They live by aping and wrongly reading signs from the west and the east. In the late 1980s, Mr Karat, as central committee member of the CPI(M), developed his party's line of rejection of Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika. Also, he defended the Chinese Government's crackdown on peaceful demonstrators at Tiananmen Square. Today, the same man rejects the Indian citizen-consumer's aspirations for better services against taxes squeezed of him. He interprets liberalisation only from a pecuniary position. The Indian Left has no use for the vast majority of India's workers who toil in beedi, zardozi and agarbatti factories. The CPI(M)'s only interest is in fattening public sector and Government employees. This organised minority makes up the 'working class' for Mr Karat and his acolytes.
Of course, the media is afraid of this 'working class'. Look what they did to West Bengal. In 1967, the year the Communists first tasted power by riding piggyback on the Bangla Congress, they were crazed by the disappointment of being denied the Labour portfolio. But, good for them, it went to an even more lunatic group, the Socialist Unity Centre of India, with which they shared power under an ineffective chief minister called Ajoy Mukherjee. Shibdas Ghosh, the Bengali Karl Marx who wrote the original script for Bengal's industrial decimation, ensured that his understudy, Subodh Banerjee, who became the Labour Minister, encouraged militant trade unionism.
A bizarre situation ensued. A Government in power began to openly back gheraos and militancy on the shopfloors and yards of factories. In the nine-month term of the first United Front Government, there were 811 gheraos (roughly three-a-day) and the police was specifically instructed not to intervene. At one point, Justice Deep Narayan Sinha of Calcutta High Court took suo motu notice of the degenerating conditions, the Communist regime took a disingenuous line of defence - they claimed that since gherao was a crime unlisted under the Industrial Disputes Act or CrPC, the police could not be forced to step into the breach when management staff, along with their families, were barricaded for days on end. Yet, when they saw Justice Sinha refusing to yield, they sent their vicious cadre to the High Court to heckle the judge and shout slogans demanding the scrapping of the Constitution of India!
As responsible observers of the situation, fitted out with requisite institutional memory and the courage of conviction to expose Communist chicanery, the 'right wing media' of India will be ever vigilant against Mr Karat's working class. When he says, The reality is that the September 29 strike drew in a large section of people who are neither organised in the trade unions which gave the strike call nor are they followers of the Left parties, he actually offers patent justification for using professional agitators. The Gurgaon incident was no spontaneous outburst of workers, but the handiwork of hardened criminals who charged at the police with sticks and poles. The Haryana Police should be lauded for its show of restraint.
To Indian Communists, the war for establishing a just social order is already lost. Now, under helmsman Karat, the goal is to win a few battles against the raiding parties of globalisation and liberalisation. Most of his own comrades, including Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, have debunked Communism as 'dogma'. He is left with nothing but the liberty to have out of body experiences. His consciousness has, therefore, separated itself from the reality of national life and is floating like a discorporate form all over the UPA Government - proscribing this and prescribing that. As for votes, they have their well-oiled rigging machinery.
Yes, terrible injustices are perpetrated in the name of economic reforms. But the medicine should not be worse than the disease. Get that, comrade?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->
Gabriele Dietrich is a theology teacher, a german who claims to have become an Indian citizen. Of course, leader of the Pennurimai Iyakkam (Women's Rights Movement). Didn't Sandeep Pandey talk about gender? Gender, Gandhi, Coke (water), teaching kids about KPN through textbooks authored by the great educationist Balaji Sampath, are the stock-in-trade for the naxals.
Well, here is the collation on Ghadar, thanks to the questions raised by Radha Rajan.
Ghadar parties and China-Comintern in league with AID Inc./ASHA operatives and naxals
In 1912, Hindustani Association of the Pacific coast was formed at Portland (USA). The Hindustan Association later changed its name to the Ghadar Party. Leaders of the Ghadar Party in general were migrant Hindus and Sikhs. But the party got a great fillip in Japan through Maulvi Barkat Ullah who was a professor at the Tokyo University.
Hardial Bains: Born in India into a communist family in the Punjab, Bains became a member of the youth wing of the Communist Party of India ("CPI")⦠Bains was a leader of the anti-revisionist movement internationally and founded or helped found anti-revisionist parties around the world including the Hindustani Ghadar Party (Organisation of Indian Marxist-Leninists Abroad), the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), and the Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist) and the Communist Ghadar Party of India. http://www.mondopolitico.com/elections/can...ies/marxist.htmÂ
National Office: 1867 Amherst Street, Montreal, Quebec H2L 3L7
Tel: (514) 522-1373 or 1-800-749-9553 Fax: (514) 522-5872 http://www.cpcml.ca/ The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is registered with Elections Canada by the name "Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada"; the party takes the stand that Canada's other Communist Party is "revisionist", in the sense of not being true to Stalinism/Maoism.
The Third Congress of the Communist Ghadar Party of India on 29 January 2005 was honoured by the presence and participation of delegations of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) and the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist). Comrade Lal Singh is the General Secretary of CGPI. Comrade Prakash Rao as the Spokesperson of the Party.
Organization:Â Â Alternatives, reseau d'action et de communication pour le developpement
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Ghadar is a publication of the Forum of Inquilabi Leftists (FOIL) In April 2005 issue Biju Mathew gives an insider's account of the mobilization against Narendra Modi. Simultaneously shedding light on the multi-dimensional nature of US imperialism, his article powerfully endorses the power of desi progressive movements. http://ghadar.insaf.net/
Inquilabi and Ghadar
Prior to 2004, FOIL was called Forum of Indian Leftists. The FOIL has graduated to Inquilabi Leftists. Inquilabi Zindabad (Sounds familiar? It is the salute on Communist Ghadar Party of India
(cgpi). Ghadar means 'revolution'. http://www.proxsa.org/activities/index.html
The PROXSA site [ PROXSA / YSS members: http://www.proxsa.org/yss/org.html]describes YSS (Youth Solidarity Summer â radical education for a new generation of South Asian activists).<b> The slogan of YSS is "Inquilab Zindabad!" </b>
Why Ghadar? Ghadar party in Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu means 'party of revolt'. "The name resonates with the historical, revolutionary, anti-imperialist Hindustan Ghadar Party (of the 1920s), that existed in India as well on this continent. Today, however, Ghadar has no relation whatsoever with the Canada
based HGP." http://www.proxsa.org/resources/ghadar/v1n1/edit.html
CGPI is also listed at: http://www.broadleft.org/antirevi.htm Since Ghadar Party has early association with Sikhs, it is no wonder that Biju Mathew takes up the cause of taxi drivers in New York
. Thanks to the links with Communist Ghadar Party of Canada
, the Alternatives.ca helps set up the website of cpiml.org (Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist), a legacy of the Peoples' War group (which is kept on terror watch list by US State Dept.)
In April 2002, a conference funded by Oberlin-Shansi Foundation was titled 'Siting Secularism in India'. Prof. Anuradha Needham of the English Department, the organizer and contact point for the conference, was also a Trustee of the Oberlin-Shansi Foundation. "the Oberlin Declaration of April 21, 2002. Coming within weeks of the Gujarat riots triggered by the Godhra atrocity of February 27, the 45 signatories declared the Indian government guilty of genocide, etc. etc. The signatories came from the US, India, UK and France. "Professor"(?) Biju Mathew of Rider University, "Professor"(?) Raza Mir of Monmouth college and Harsh Kapoor of the South Asia. "Press Statement regarding Gujarat" By madurai collective 15/05/2002 At 08:32 issued by the participants at the 'Siting Secularism Conference', 21 April 2002 , Oberlin College , Oberlin , Ohio , USA .
Proxsa is a proxy of FOIL with the same people participating in both..
Oberlin College is an ancient institution, reputed for its liberal admission policies and inclusive environment. It was also thus favored by "leftist" (some would say "Communist") academics, from the days of the Russian Revolution, through the horrors of the McCarthy era. " Shansi" used to be "Shanxi", a city and province in China. In the 19th century, Christian missionaries from the US opened a mission there. During the Boxer Rebellion, the missionaries were killed and dumped in ditches. After the rebellion was suppressed, their remains were exhumed and moved to a proper graveyard. The Mission's sponsors evolved into an academic institution, fostering China-US exchanges. They also expanded into India , particularly South India, bringing Chinese studies there, and Indians to the US . The thrust was still to spread Chinese culture. In the 1950s, all contact with the People's Republic was cut off, and the Foundation focused more on India . Then, circa 1998 (coincidentally, about when the FOIL found resources to start "Ghadar") the Shansi Foundation found favor with the Beijing regime again. Now there are excellent contacts with Shansi University â presumably with official blessings from the Communist Party of the People's Republic of China. "Ghadar reappeared suddenly29 after a two-year absence, and with evident hurry â on February 21, 2002."Â
By 1997-98,
China had re-established links to the Oberlin Shansi Foundation. This coincided with the appearance of Ghadar magazine.
Comintern is dead after the collapse of the USSR
. It is now replaced by Ghadar, the China-Comintern. The operatives are Communist Ghadar Party of India
, Proxsa/FOIL and their charity-collection arms: AID Inc./ASHA.
Now, it is clear why Sandeep Pandey is associated with naxals and gets funded from charities operating in USA
(charities such as AID Inc./ASHA). Naxals are part of the China-Comintern, an international brotherhood of comrades. Inquilab Zindabad. The headquarter is operating from Communist Ghadar Party of Canada, which explains why CPI-ML gets its website set up by Alternatives.ca (ca means Canada).
China, by re-establishing the links to Oberlin Shansi Foundation, is operating from the US soil to further revolution everywhere. It will be interesting to see how Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez became a communist owing allegiance to the China-Comintern. A recent visitor to Venezuela for a meeting with Hugo Chavez was Prakash Karat, who is now General Secretary of CPI-M.Â
CPI, CPI-M, CPI-ML, CGPI why so many communist outfits? They are all in it together now. The last pow-wow and orchestrated get together was during the socialist summit held in Mumbai. This was called 'World Social Forum 2004' Mumbai. Anti-imperialism grows worldwide proclaimed a website. http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2004/01/22wsfb.html
Some groups try to achieve revolution-by-stealth, by infiltrating the Congress, for example. Some try to work through Science Foundations such as Tamilnadu Science Foundation with a jeevan saathi named Balaji Sampath receiving regular project charity disbursements from AID Inc. The recent tsunami in Tamilnadu helped AID Inc. gather about $2 million. Balaji Sampath who wrote thoughtful reports about what should be done, is yet to report on what exactly was done with the moneys and account for the money trails to income-tax authorities and to Ministry of Home Affairs who should get a report on the use of foreign funds.
In the Indian political system, to survive as a political party, certain basic characteristics are needed to be followed. These qualities are all the same for each and every political party.Therefore, it is incorrect to presume that the Communists or the Socialists are going to create some revolution in India. They all operate in the same line of caste politics, muscle power etc.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Change your User-ID according to forum rule, Please send New User-ID to Admin.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->.Therefore, it is incorrect to presume that the Communists or the Socialists are going to create some revolution in India<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
We are not presuming here, we are seeing continuous violence against innocent people by Maoist and PWG, continuous strikes to destabilize country, scientific rigging of election to destroy India's democracy. They are trying to destroy Indic culture by fake interpretation of History and list goes on.....
One cannot see such brainwashed public ever in the world
<b>Politburo grapples with strikes vs investment</b>
Kay Benedict
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 00:53 IST
NEW DELHI: Torn between working class and desire for investment, the CPI(M) politburo meeting at New Delhi on Tuesday grappled with the issue of whether or not to allow strikes in the IT sector, and whether it qualified as an essential service.
In the rapidly changing world scenario and economic dynamics, the party appears to be working to find a "middle path".<i>
They want to create problems for the middle class but are afraid of the blowback from the middle class. They are working on a long term divide in the soceity as the middle class is increasing in the country. They do not want to look at the economic potential of the country</i>
Even as differences cropped between supporters of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and hardliners led by CITU president M K Pandhe and general secretary Chittabrata Majumdar, both of whom are politburo members, the meeting discussed various options to tread a middle path.
A predominant view was a slight shift in approach towards trade unionism. It was suggested that instead of "strike", the stress should be on "struggle".
One suggestion was to induct a union representative in the management to keep a tab on decision-making on matters affecting employees. Another suggestion was to exempt a "core sector" within the IT industry from strikes, as in the steel industry, where even when TUs resort to strike, production was not hit. So, even in the event of IT being declared an essential service in future, services will not be hit when workers resort to agitation.
After nearly four hours of discussion, party general secretary Prakash Karat said the "discussion is over, debate is going on." He said, "Wait for tomorrow, there is no differences in the party."
Earlier in the day, asked if the meeting agreed with his views on the IT sector, Buddhadeb, with an air of dejection, said: "This is the Communist Party⦠who can say anything? The debate is going on." Asked if he was marginalised at the meeting, Pandhe, said: "In the end, there are no division." Sources, however, said Bhattacharjee's suggestion of exempting the IT sector from conventional trade unionism met with resistance from hardliners led by Pandhe and Majumdar. Both of them are understood to have said that the party should not compromise on the right of workers to strike.
<b>
"The IT sector, the BPOs, they are playing havoc. They are money-making machines and cannot be treated as essential services,</b>" Pandhe said. The two-day meet, which began on Tuesday, discussed the UPA's electoral prospects in Bihar, organisational matters and party policies and programmes.
The other contentious issue, FDI in retail, in the light of Wal Mart officials' meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, will come up for discussion on Wednesday.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"The IT sector, the BPOs, they are playing havoc. They are money-making machines and cannot be treated as essential services,"<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Now they want to collect hafta from MNC.
It will be difficult to unionize IT industry. They can exploit unskilled factory workers. Congress had given them free hand, so chances are they can screw more states e.g. AP and Karnataka.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Maoists have made us refugees in our own land'
Shivanand Shukla / Dantewara (Chhattisgarh)
More than 450 tribals have taken shelter to escape the wrath of the Maoists at a Chhattisgarh Government-run relief camp in Krishi Upaj Mandi near Aram Chowk in Dantewara district, 400 km from Raipur. The group comprises men, women and children from ten villages of the district.  Â
Most camp residents returned from a salwa judum (peace march) meeting at Bhairmagarh. It was addressed by Governor KM Seth, Home Minister Ram Vichar Netam, Leader of Opposition Mahendra Karma and other leaders. The Governor congratulated them for rising against the Maoists and assured security to them.
The same night, on Saturday, more than two dozen Maoists raided village Gumra, a few kilometers from where the meeting was held in the district. The Maoists killed a former Sarpanch Manguram.
'The killing was a clear message to those people who had dared to go against them and had joined the salwa judum,' a senior police official pointed out.
'We were expecting a Maoist attack in our villages and even in the refugee camps,' said 25-year-old Lakshman of village Pulewaya. Sanaru Karma of Niram village agrees with him. But, they along with several other young men at the camp are determined. 'We are not going to surrender the Maoist's bullets. We will set our village free from their terror.'
They alleged that Maoists had for a long time threatened them, killed people, demanded grains and land produce, had forced them to close the market, had not allowed them to collect tendu leaves (a major source of their earning) if they ever protested against them. People at the relief camp had several such complaints.
For a large number of people, who came armed with traditional bow and arrow to listen to the Governor's speech, the problem was entirely different; only few understood what the Governor said in his speech.
'We understand only Gondi,' Jagu of Porsan village said.
More curiously, while most of the men at the relief camp could not interact with this reporter owing to the language problem, the ones who understood Hindi were ill-informed. While most of them did not know who Raman Singh or Ajit Jogi were, the ones who knew that Raman Singh is Chief Minister of the State, did not know anything more than this.
At another relief camp, Channu of Palnar village or Mangu of Irauli knew nothing about how they came to the camp. More than 10,000 people have been living in such relief camps to evade Maoists bullets. Many of them were brought from remote areas.
The camp provides food, shelter and even arranges other programmes like Angan Bari. Women are taught about child care and children are educated at these camps. Ratte Singh Kunjam, one of the teachers at these relief camps, says, 'People are not educated and do not understand Hindi.'
In fact, on a drive from Barsur valley to Gidam, one finds nothing but poverty. People here are still deprived of the basic necessities.
People here seem to be in a time warp owing to the neglect by successive governments. But what adds to their torment is being constant targets of the Maoists. More than 50 people have been killed so far after the beginning of salwa judum in June this year.
Despite all this several people have come to relief camps leaving behind their family. But they are hardly at peace here. They often worry about their family and their land.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->We will crush your rebels: China tells India
[ Wednesday, October 26, 2005 11:20:58 amIANS ]
NEW DELHI: In a significant announcement, China's top envoy has declared that his country is ready to help India to crush its nagging Maoist insurgency that it once actively supported.
Chinese Ambassador Sun Yuxi said at an interaction here that Beijing did not even know why the Maoist guerrillas in India called themselves followers of the man who led the communists to victory in China in 1949.
"If there is any help (you expect) from us to India to get rid of them, we will try to do our best," the top diplomat said candidly.
<b>"We are also wondering why they call themselves Maoists. We don't like that. We don't like that at home. We don't have any connection with them at home.</b> <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Umberto Eco leaves JNU priests squirming </b>
The JNU high priests must have cursed the moment they decided to invite
Umberto Eco to speak.
Celebrated Italian author Umberto Eco left many academics and students at Jawaharlal Nehru University squirming with embarrassed ignorance on Monday.
The reason for ignorance is explained in the same report. Delivering a lecture on " Rasa and Taste", Eco spoke with great scholarly confidence and even greater scholarly tentativeness about Bharata's Natyashastra, Anandavardhana and Avinavagupta, which he had read in translation but few in his audience seemed to be acquainted with.
Few? I dare say<b> that almost none in the "red" audience would've read *about*these Masters leave alone their works. For it is taboo in the Citadel of Indian Marxism. They're banned there for their feudal, backward-looking ideas. Eco heaped further agony on the crowd:</b>
As he constantly struggled, *with a spirit of genuine inquiry, to understand the rasa theories in relation to Western philosophers - St Augustine, David Hume, Kant and Aristotle* - many in Delhi's academia looked as if they were completely at sea.
<b>"You would know, according to Abinavagupta, the ninth rasa is peace and tranquility?" He looked up to find mostly blank faces staring at him in the audience.</b> <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
If Prof Eco had only begun on Marx and Engels. No wonder no major newspaper has given his visit extensive coverage. Contrast this with for example, Vikram Seth's recent visit. Google searches of various keyword combinations pointed me to just two papers: the Statesmanand Pioneer (from where I've quoted).
<b>Says Eco:</b>
<b>Research is not about shedding all your background books. It's about throwing away the embarrassing ones. Of course, the JNU luminaries would quickly infer this to mean that they were right in their zealous pursuit of obscuring, misinterpreting and destroying everything Indian for Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta are embarrassing.</b> But, says Eco:
<b>*Are we trying to shed the baggage of all our background books without even bothering to read them?* Or is it that as a nation we are always already so plural, that there is no one intellectual tradition?</b> <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
The background books that Professor Eco mentions are not needed-therefore no question of bothering to read them-because they come in the way of imposing the JNU ideology aka Marxism.
Anyway, let's leave the Marxist relics to their writhing and read about Umberto Eco . Quite an accomplished man, I should say. For some related reading:
Ever since the United Progressive Alliance government came to power riding on the shoulders of the Communists, a frequently asked question is: what is their appeal, why do people still get taken in by them?
It turns out that Indians are not the only ones to be thus puzzled. Two Harvard economists -- one of them, the redoubtable Alberto Alesina -- were struck by the same question. So they decided to find out.
In a recent paper*, he and Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln have studied the case of Germany. Specifically, they tested the proposition that economic regimes have a feedback effect on individual preferences.
That is, the political rhetoric you have been subjected to and the economic policies under which you have lived will affect your preferences in respect of policies.
They have examined Germany between 1945 and 1990, when East Germany was Communist, with heavy state intervention and extensive redistribution. They find that "after German reunification, East Germans are more in favor of redistribution and state intervention than West Germans, even after controlling for economic incentives.... We find that East Germans are much more pro-state than West Germans."
What's more, this is even more of the older East Germans, who lived for a longer time under Communism. They also found that in spite of this, there was a convergence of opinion taking place between the East and West Germans.
"We calculate that it will take one to two generations for preferences to converge completely. According to our results, it will take 20 to 40 years for an average East German to have the same views on state intervention as an average West German."
Why is this so? Because, they say, people simply become used to certain things such as "an intrusive public sector". Pavlov called it conditioning.
But their second explanation is even more striking. "A second, indirect effect of Communism is that by making former East Germany poorer than West Germany, it has made the former more dependent on redistribution and therefore more favorable to it."
Now we know what the Indian Communists (and even the Congress) are up to when they try and keep everyone poor. It serves to increase the appeal of the redistributive policies that they espouse.
The authors are aware that survey answers do not always reveal what people actually believe.
But, they say, they are convinced of their results because "first, the basic correlations of the answers with variables like income, wealth, and labor force status are consistent with obvious individual cost/benefit analyses. Second, evidence on voting behavior in East and West over the observation period is consistent with the picture emerging from this survey."
They have a table that shows vote shares have differed across East and West Germany. It shows the Eastern vote shares of the socialists being consistently higher than the Western. But it also begins to converge over time.
They say, "We provide evidence that individuals' preferences are rather deeply shaped by the political regime in which they live."
If we extend this it means that, say, American and British preferences will be different from French and German ones. The latter have a higher revealed preference for re-distributive policies compared to the former.
In terms of preferences, there is no reason to believe that this is not true of India as well. The 2004 elections stand testimony to the fact, as do the election outcomes in West Bengal and Kerala.
But there is one important issue that the authors have not tackled. This is that while in democracies like India there is a political pressure to redistribute, no such pressure exists in Communist dictatorships, for instance, China.
So why then did the USSR and its eastern European satellites choose redistribution over growth? <b>The answer is blind faith in ideology, presumably.
It dragged them down. It will drag us down, too.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
In present day India, there is an acute shortage of political leaders of national standing. The Congress since the time of Smt Indira Gandhi has ensured that no leader from any State can gain importance, so that he can challenge the leadership. In the process, Congress today does not have any national leader of great respect. This is the reason that Mrs. Sonia Gandhi has been asked by the Congressmen to lead the party. As a symbolic head of the Nehru family, she can keep the flock together. No other Congress leader of today commands the minimum following that is required in the party to lead it. This makes it necessary for the Congress to take support from the regional parties to somehow put up a Government at the Centre. In the process, it has become dependent of the 60 odd Left members of the Lok Sabha for ensuring the survival of the Government. There is no powerful opposition, as the BJP lead coalition is in total confusion because of inherent fight within the BJP itself.
In these circumstances, the Government is unable to take any drastic economic measures due to continuous pressure from the Left parties.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> The Congress since the time of Smt Indira Gandhi has ensured that no leader from any State can gain importance, so that he can challenge the leadership. In the process, Congress today does not have any national leader of great respect. This is the reason that Mrs. Sonia Gandhi has been asked by the Congressmen to lead the party. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It all about who will control purse. Gandhi family are sitting on purse and other politicians are completly dependent on purse. So no hope.
There are several other problems in the Party many are known from outside and many are unknown to the outsiders.The so called top leaders of the party do not have any mass following in their own State. They are so old that they cannot organise the party organisation at the grass root level- So they are trying to pass time with the help of whatever is left of the past glory of the Congress Party.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=81465
<b>Bengal flood victims also pressed into CPMâs anti-US service </b>
SUBRATA NAGCHOUDHURY
Posted online: Sunday, November 06, 2005 at 0146 hours IST
KHARAGPUR, NOVEMBER 5: <b>When a 150,000-strong Left mob demonstrates outside the Kalaikunda airbase here for a planned four hours on Monday, many thousands of participants will be victims of Midnaporeâs devastating floods a fortnight ago.
For them, the journey from shattered hutments and devastated paddy fields to a protest against George W. Bushâs foreign policy will be a party-dictated compulsion.</b>
<b>District CPI(M) leaders have issued instructions that not only must people turn up, they must pay Rs 10 each for expenses. âThis is a policy of the improved Left,ââ says Madan Mohan Karan, gram panchayat member, âearlier we used to take them for free, provide food ... When it pinches them, it adds worth to such participation.ââ</b>
Said Dipak Sarkar, district secretary of West Midnapore, who is coordinating the protest: <b>âWest Midnapore has been given a target of 1 lakh supporters and East Midnapore has been given a target of 35,000.â </b>
<b>East Midnapore is where the floods were the worst. A visit to villages two days before the rally shows that even those hit by floods in late October were not spared the ââmobilisation targetââ.</b>
No less than 35,000 demonstrators are required from the flood-hit areas of East Midnapore â Egra, Contai, Bhagabanpur, Heria and Tamluk. In neighbouring West Midnapore, inundated areas like Ghatal, Sabong and Pingla are not exempt from anti-America duty.
Sabong, 45 km from Kalaikunda, is a case in point. A CPI(M) zonal committee member, Amalesh Basu, admitted rather reluctantly that the partyâs district leadership had set him a target of 1,000.
In Basuâs words, 11 of 13 anchals (clusters of villages) covered by the Sabong zonal office were hit by floods on October 19, destroying 5,000 houses and affecting 160,000 people.
<b>ââBut sending 1,000 people from these areas is not difficult,ââ says Basu, ââthe zonal committee is sure to exceed the target and send not less than 3,000 ... because of the positive response against US imperialism and the joint military exercise.ââ </b>
Behind the big words is a sad story. In Ruinan village, for instance, flood waters have not receded yet. Acres and acres of standing paddy has been damaged. Watermarks on the mud houses are still fresh. In the midst of this misery, has come the call to rally against Washington, says Gourhari Manna, a CPI(M) member in the village.
<b>"For many,ââ points out Manna, "Rs 10 is a precious amount. How can one demand this from the flood afflicted? But itâs a party decision, and we will have to send not less than 50 from our village.ââ </b> <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Gourhari didnât have to leave his house during the floods. He was luckier than Indramohan Ghorai, a Dalit forced to take shelter in a school. Ghorai returned to his damaged hut only two days ago. Now heâs got the summons.
ââThere is hardly any way to ignore the partyâs call,ââ says Ghorai, ââI will have to go, come what may.ââ The landless, hapless man, a BPL (below poverty line) card holder will postpone rebuilding his life to take on Uncle Sam.
So will Madan Mohan Guchait and Ashok Pal and others from the 400 odd families in Ruinan. Madan Mohan Karan, local gram panchayat member, assures them itâs necessary to fight off the ââbigger threat of US imperialismââ<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Loot flood victim, great policy of Commies.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Social control of education needed: Brinda Karat
Staff Reporter
Left parties will exert pressure to bring in legislation
# Supreme Court has become "an advocate of neo-liberal policies"
# Students must continue battle to save education for the masses
# Exposing education sector to the FDI will be disastrous
Brinda Karat
KANNUR: Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat said here on Friday that there was a need to put pressure on the United Progressive Alliance Government to bring in legislation to ensure that higher education came under social control.
Ms. Karat, who was inaugurating the State conference of the Students Federation of India (SFI), said the Left parties would exert pressure on the Government to bring in legislation to ensure proper admission policies that would "reverse" the Supreme Court judgment that abolished quotas in unaided professional colleges. For social control of education a Constitutional amendment could be introduced
Ms. Karat said the apex court had become an advocate of the neo-liberal policies that sought removal of social controls and reservation. "The Supreme Court judgment has to be challenged because it is against the Constitutional spirit of affirmative action for bringing social justice to the marginalised people."
<b>While saying that retreat of the state from social sectors was one of the basic principles of neo-liberal policies, she called on students to continue their battle to save education for the masses from the assault of the neo-liberal policies and to assert their democratic rights.</b>
The process of capitalism in the education sector had increased inequality. "Today there are two worlds with huge differences and contrasts." The best facilities could be availed only by those who had money even in developed countries. It was this reality of the two worlds in India that forced so many young people to commit suicide. Neo-liberalism was based on the needs of the market and there should be a concerted struggle against privatisation and commoditisation of education, she said.
The entire service sector is going to be discussed at the coming World Trade Organisation meet in Hong Kong. "Education is also on the hit list. This will open up the entire education sector to foreign direct investment," she said. This would be disastrous for the country.
Ms. Karat said the Kerala Government had been trying to supress the students who were fighting for democratic rights. The countdown for Chief Minister Oommen Chandy's exit had begun, she said adding that the United Democratic Front Government had implemented the worst educational policies in the State. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<img src='http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/12/images/2005111202891301.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
rakash Rao
anjay_cpiml@yahoo.com
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->