Wether Red Alert and Mayawati Factor
Subservient Sefs of the British Raj substitute, the Great Americans busy to hold on State Power

Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashbiswaskl@gmail.com

The India-US civil nuclear deal has gone through in spite of the political storm brewing in both countries.The BJP, which has rejected the Indo-US civil nuclear deal with the US saying it would impact India's future atomic tests, has demanded a voting in Lok Sabha before signing the pact. Whereas CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat today expressed concern over atrocities on scheduled castes and other lower castes, especially in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan.Addressing a public rally in Agartala on the occasion of 6th State Conference of Tripura Schedule Caste Coordination Council Mr Karat said, ''The lower class people still suffering from the discrimination. The Zionist Hindu Brahminical Ruling class is too much worried as mayawati`s casteology Experiment in UP undermines their system of graded enequality and Hold on state power and omnipresent dominance in polity, socity, economy, culture, literature, life and livelihood. Thus Left as well as Right is investing so much time to seek an approprite escape route from this unprecedented crisis. Congress and BJP are set to face the heat in the Rest of India. Left is playing every possible card so that no initiative be taken for a nationwide dalit movement from Left ruled States!
Heavy rains Sunday continued to wreak havoc and misery for millions of people across four states - Assam, Bihar, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh - as the UN described the current floods in South Asia as the 'worst in living memory.The low pressure area formed over North West Bay of Bengal off Orissa-West Bengal coast concentrated into a depression and lay centered about 239 km south east of Balasore at 0530 hrs today. A special weather bulletin issued by the cyclone warning centre here said the system, likely to intensify further and move in a West North Westerly direction would cross North Orissa-West Bengal coast between Paradeep and Digha tonight.Under its influence, widespread rainfall with squatered heavy to very heavy falls and isolated extremely heavy falls were likely over Orissa during the next 48 hours.

Mraxist patriarch Jyoti Basu today accused opposition parties of trying to foment violence at Nandigram to block the Left Front Government's industrialisation drive in West Bengal.
Condemning veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu's comments on police firing in Nandigram on March 14 as ''justified,'' the CPI(ML)-Liberation today alleged that the West Bengal government was not run by the Left Front but by the CPI(M) alone.
Talking to newspersons in Kolkata, CPI(ML)-Liberation state secretary Kartick pal said both Mr Basu and CPI(M) peasants wing president Binoy Konar have described the police firing in Nandigram as justified and the people's movement as undemocratic.But the Left Front partners like Forward Bloc, RSP and the CPI were describing the police firing as unjustified and the movement as democratic, he said.
Recover lost ground in Nandigram: Biman
Statesman News Service
HALDIA, Aug 4: The Left Front chairman, Mr Biman Bose, today said steps should be taken immediately by the people to regain control over Nandigram. Mr Bose was addressing a rally to celebrate the Left Front’s victory in the Haldia municipality at Durgachowk this afternoon.
Comparing Nandigram to Kargil, Mr Bose said: “Just as the Army had to be deployed to regain control over Kargil, people have to regain control of the lost areas in Nandigram.” In the same breath, he urged the Opposition to take part in the peace talks.
He said the state government will announce whether it will set up a chemical hub in Midnapore. The Left Front will not make a statement on the matter. Mr Bose said the Centre would soon announce Haldia as the gateway of eastern India. So, industrial development in Haldia is essential. He said the environment in Haldia is ideal to set up industries dealing in pharmaceuticals.
He said it would be wrong to equate Khammam with Nandigram where the police fired after being attacked by an armed mob. In Khammam, police fired on innocent people protesting against the land reforms policy of the Andhra Pradesh government.
Mr Bose said more than Rs 30,000 crore had been invested in Haldia, auguring the area’s economic viability. Haldia has set an example to the nation, he said, criticising the Opposition for giving a wrong message to the people of other states. This may affect the state’s economic growth, he said.
The CPI-M will observe a 24-hour bandh in Nandigram Blocks I and II as well as Khejuri I and II on Monday, in protest against the death of one of their party cadres, Mr Arun Mondol said here today. Mr Mondol was injured in a clash on 29 July in Nandigram. The CPI-M activist and key accused in the Tapasi Malik murder case, Debu Malik, was remanded in judicial custody for two more weeks by the additional judicial magistrate of the Chandernagore sub-divisional magistrate court today.
A central committee member of the Norway Communist Party, Mr Peter Michel Johansen, today criticised the CPI-M, saying the Communist-led government in the state had “virtually” announced a war against the peasants in Singur. He also termed the Nandigram episode as coldblooded “mass killing”.
Mr Johansen, who looks after the international affairs of the Communist Party Red (CPR) in Norway, visited Singur this afternoon and spoke to farmers spearheading the movement against land acquisition.
He said: “The CPI-M led government in West Bengal has been acting as an agent of capitalists and the socalled Communists in the state have virtually announced a war against farmers by grabbing their land for big industrialists,” said Mr Johansen, who is also associated with the party mouthpiece, Class Struggle.
When asked about the CPI-M leader, Mr Benoy Kumar’s comment on the Nandigram episode, Mr Johansen said the CPI-M leader doesn’t have a clear idea about Communism. “If a Communist doesn’t call the Nandigram episode as mass killing, then I should say that the person doesn’t have a clear idea about Communism,” Mr Johansen said.
When farmers told Mr Johansen that the state government “grabbed” land saying that the plots in the project area is either fallow or mono-crop in nature, the communist leader asked: “If land in Singur is fallow, then what is the definition of farmland for the communist of this state?”
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=165236
From Naya Daur to Nandigram
Sidharth Bhatia
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1113650
The movie Naya Daur, when it first came out, was supposed to be about a New India, an India that was slowly shedding off its old, colonially-imposed baggage and moving on to greater horizons. From its name to its theme to even its songs, it was to showcase the robustness of new thinking, which we today call Nehruvian.
It was Jawaharlal Nehru himself who had urged the film industry (there was no Bollywood then) to go forth and make films on “nation building”. His plans for a modern India had caught the imagination of a nation barely coming out of its Partition trauma — by the time Naya Daur was released the talk was about five year plans, building dams, industrialisation and above all, self-reliance. Sahir Ludhianvi’s song, ‘Main Bambai ka Babu’, sung on screen by Johnny Walker, captures that mood well. This was Nehru’s mantra — it soon became the nation’s.
But India was a land of villages and turning that into an industrial giant was not going to be easy. Some of the paradox is visible in Naya Daur — in the plot itself and its thinking. It marries the old, traditional, Gandhian if you will, worldview of the “nobility” of India’s rural life with the forward-looking vision of Nehru.
The plot is fairly simple — a happy village, where people lead simple lives, their time spent singing, dancing and falling in love, and working for a benign factory owner. Enter owner’s yuppie son, full of new management ideas of upgrading the machinery, which will render many old-timers unemployed. He also wants to bring in a bus to improve the local transport service, till then provided by the local hero with his tonga. The villagers protest and the stage for a conflict is set — it all ends happily when, in a race, that tonga defeats the bus. The crowds cheer the hero, the villain is bested and the village goes back to its traditional ways.
"Stephen Stephenson" wrote:
This is the story of how Hindus can only butcher Christians and yet revel in being subservient sefs of the British Raj substitute, the Great Americans.
This is how Americans stuck it good to the Hindu sycophants! These impotent angry Hindus deserve it all.
This is how Indian Prime Minister sold the Indian Sovereignty! Not that there was much with Hindu Nationalists destroying it beforehand!
Read the Text and Context of US-India Agreement on Nuclear Proliferation below:
http://chellaney. spaces.live. com/Blog/ cns!4913C7C8A2EA4A30! 387.entry
The forgotten refugees who wait for justice after 60 years

Gallery: 60 years since partition
They fled the slaughter of India's partition. Now 7,000 still live in 'temporary' Coopers Camp, West Bengal
Dan McDougall
Sunday August 5, 2007
The Observer

'We first came here as refugees in 1947,' says Kajal Roy, his eyes watering from the smoke that fills his bamboo and mud home. 'We used cow dung for fuel then, as we do now. Nothing has really changed for us. When we fled from East Bengal to West Bengal 60 years ago, our land in the camp was marked out by a few pebbles: 20 square feet a head. The pebbles are still there, dug into the ground.'
As he speaks Kajal, 85, inhales heavily on a hand-rolled bedi cigarette and looks out over the marshland, mostly jute and paddy fields, stretching east towards the 2,000km Bangladesh border.
Kajal is part of a community history forgot. For the past 60 years he has lived in Coopers Camp, a place largely ignored by modern India. With a population of more than 7,000 people, each resident is a family member of those who escaped from Pakistan amid the horrors of British India's partition, out of which emerged the states of Muslim West and East Pakistan (1,600km apart) and mainly Hindu India.
'India was a dream for us when we left everything behind during partition in 1947,' says Kajal. 'I was 15. We had lands near present-day Dhaka [in East Pakistan, which after a civil war became Bangladesh in 1971]. But as Hindus, my parents were threatened unless they handed over their home to Muslims. So we escaped. We hoped for a new life, for land, for homes. But 60 years on India has given us nothing, not even a nationality. My parents, like I will, died here in the same temporary camp they fled to. I sit here before you a refugee now as I was when I crossed the Bay of Bengal.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2141834,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

Time to rewrite notions about rural India: Report

MUMBAI: Is there really something called the urban-rural divide? If a new report by Roopa Purushothaman, currently chief economist at Future Capital Holdings, is to be believed, it is time to dump that age-old notion and work towards understanding the integration between urban and rural India.
Titled Is Urban Growth Good for Rural India?, the report says "Changes in India's consumption and production patterns need a more nuanced understanding of the integration between urban and rural India, rather than falling back on traditional myths about the urban-rural divide".
It all boils down to a warped understanding of what is rural India really all about. Says Purushothaman, "There are several things about rural India that aren't true anymore. For one, we often confuse rural India as an agricultural economy. What we don't see is that the non-farm economy is driving growth in rural GDP." In 2000, the rural economy accounts for 42 per cent of total manufacturing output and 27 per cent of services.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India_Business/Time_to_rewrite_notions_about_rural_India_Report/articleshow/2242878.cms
Urban girl child more vulnerable’

Parul Sharma
NEW DELHI: The urban girl child here in the Capital is more “vulnerable” than her rural counterpart in terms of education and social status, according to a recent survey done by Delhi University’s Women’s Studies and Development Centre (WSDC).
According to the Delhi Chapter’s project report on “Attitudinal Difference towards Girl Child in Selected Districts of North India”, when asked whether they would motivate girls for education, 10.05 per cent of rural fathers said they would encourage their daughters to study as compared with 8.72 per cent of urban fathers.
Similarly, as many as 19.70 per cent of rural mothers said they would motivate their daughters for education, while in urban areas, the percentage was only 7.22 per cent.
http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/05/stories/2007080551650300.htm
Indian Muslims and media interests

Wednesday August 01 2007 14:30:41 PM BDT

Dr. Abdul Ruff, India

Now that Dr.Kalam is gone as President of India, both media and the "true" Indians must feel sigh of relief. Especially those Indians who live comfortably abroad join their Indian "compatriots" in celebrating the exit of Kalam. But the fact remains that Kalam did nothing for the Muslims in the country in any way though he was selected for the post because he is a Muslim and worse, during his tenure the Muslim women were paraded nude in Lucknow, a known cultural center of Muslims, by the anti-Islamic fanatics led by a cabinet minister of UP where a Hindu woman is the chief-minister. Indian media, true to its color, did,not even mention about the incident so as not to offend the Hindus. And Muslim President Kalam did not even take notice of the ghastly incident, let alone taking punitive measures against the UP government.
http://www.bangladesh-web.com/view.php?hidDate=2007-08-05&hidType=OPT&hidRecord=0000000000000000167349

"The Opposition is trying to create chaos and instigate violence in Nandigram to block the industrialisation initiative of the Left Front government," Basu said at a function organised by CPI(M) leading the Front to observe the 119th birthday of Muzaffar Ahmed, a pioneer of the communist movement in the country.
"Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee is not hiding anything from the people. Are we mad that we will take away land from farmers? Industrialisation will not damage agriculture," he said.
Basu's remarks came as violence resurfaced at Nandigram in East Midnapur district where Trinamool Congress-led Bhumi Uchhed Committee was locked in a battle with CPI(M) activists many of whom had fled the area.
The CPI(M) which has been claiming that a large number of its supporters were driven out of their homes here since the March 14 killing, does not have a list and was yet to submit a written complaint to the district authorities, Ashok Guria, a district Krishak Sabha leader said.
The list of 1500 CPI(M) supporters of Nandigram who were allegedly driven out was being drawn up and would be submitted to the district authorities, he said at a peace meeting convened by the administration at Chandipore near here today.
The anti-displacement Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee had demanded to know at the meeting whether the disrict administration had the list of names of those the CPI-M claimed had been driven out.

Taking over the mantle from "people's President" APJ Abdul Kalam, President Pratibha Patil has said that she would be a "political President" instead of being a "rubber stamp".
"There are several issues on which suggestions could be passed on to the government. A President can always discuss with the government suggestions on critical issues and the government after due consideration can accept or reject those suggestions," she said in an interview to Outlook magazine.
"I am not going to be a rubber stamp. I will be a political President," she said. On taking over from Kalam, who had been hailed as a "people's President", Patil said, "accessibility should not be a problem".
Patil said she was keen on addressing problems faced by rural India and the deprived classes. "I am particularly interested in rural development, the rural economy, women's development, welfare of backward classes, education and health".Asked whether she found the bitter presidential campaign in which she was personally targeted difficult to handle, Patil said she was never upset.

Global information service provider Reuters, has started Reuters Market Light, an initiative to reach the rural community in India. The service provides information on crop prices, weather updates and other agri-related news via SMS.
The service, which was started in April 2007, is available in Maharashtra with over 7,000 registered members. Reuters Market Light MD Amit Mehra said the company is looking at extending this service to Punjab , Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, among others. Reuters is building a platform to be able sell information that would help the rural community take better decision on harvesting , selling and even sowing. Market Light has tied up with the Maharashtra State Agricultural Marketing Board to provide prices of wheat, tur dal, soyabean and onion.
karat or any other Marxist leader refrain from refering the plight of dalits in West Bengal. Marxists are busy nowadays to explain how nandigram and Khammam stand apart! Labourers in West Bengal, working under various Central government schemes, were not receiving due wages, Information and Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi alleged today.
"There were many instances in West Bengal where payment of wages to workers under schemes like Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme were far below the stipulated figure," Dasmunsi told reporters here in North Dinajpur district.
The minister said he had received complaints of such irregularities from many blocks of the district which he would visit alongwith the district magistrate and BDOs next week.
Dasmunsi represents Raigunj Lok Sabha constituency in this district.
''Except in communist party-ruled Tripura, West Bengal and Kerala, the lower class people in other states of the country are not safe from the atrocities of the upper class and the left parties have launched a fresh crusade to ensure social justice of the downtrodden masses,'' Mr Karat said.He has also stated that more than 17 crore people belonging to Schedule Caste communities do not enjoy their constitutional rights even after 60 years of India's independence. He further said that 65 per cent SC people did not have land.
Mr Karat, however, announced that the left parties would continue their movement for land for the farmers in Andhra Pradesh and they would exert pressure on the Congress party for paying compensation to the victim's families in Khamam district.
The monsoon session of Parliament beginning this week is expected to be a tumultuous affair with the opposition raising doubts over the Indo-US nuclear deal, being portrayed as the best possible pact by the Union Government.The opposition BJP has demanded the setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to examine the text of the 123 Agreement to implement the civil nuclear deal with the US. It also wants parliamentary approval before the deal is signed.
Mayawati's rising graph after her BSP's victory in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls is causing growing concern in the Congress, with the issue coming up at a meeting on preparations for the next Lok Sabha polls that was chaired by party chief Sonia Gandhi. On the other hand,Possible emergence of a UP like Dalit-Brahmin winning combination before the next Assembly elections in Rajsthan dominated the proceedings of the two-day meeting of the State BJP executive which concluded in Ajmer on Sunday.Even if BSP was able to bring some forces under its umbrella, it would not have much impact on the political scenario during the next elections, he has reportedly told the meeting.Mayawati banked on a Dalit-plus-Brahmin combination in the politically crucial state to secure an absolute majority, a development that was seen as a defining moment in national politics.
She is now wooing Muslims in a big way and attempting to attract the forward classes by advocating a quota for the economically backward among upper castes.She appears to have set a scorching pace for expanding the BSP in the north, especially in states like Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan. In some cases, she is banking on Congress dissidents to help strengthen her party. The BSP is also in touch with some BJP rebels in Gujarat, where it hardly has any base.

Gandhi's meeting with party general secretaries a couple of days ago saw some participants raising alarm over the fast pace at which the BSP chief is attempting to make inroads into Congress-dominated regions in the north and spread the party's wings in southern states. Party sources said the meeting, the first after the presidential poll, saw Gandhi asking the general secretaries to prepare a plan of action for every state that would be implemented over the next year to make the party fighting fit for the battle of the ballot in 2009. Gandhi wanted the exercise to be undertaken on a priority basis for states which will witness assembly polls before the Lok Sabha election. While Gujarat will have assembly polls by the end of this year, elections are also scheduled in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi next year.
Though the Ajmer meeting finalised many of BJP mass contact programmes, some leaders felt that it had to get ready to face a third front, which the Bahujan Samaj Party was planning to forge to give a challenge to the BJP and the Congress in the next Assembly election. They also feared that some disgruntled elements in the party might join hands with such a front.But senior leaders like former Deputy Chief Minister Harishankar Bhabhra ruled out the possibility of formation of a third front in the State as Rajasthan is one of the States where two-party system - Congress and BJP - has been prevalent.
The newly formed eight-party Third Front has already collapsed, Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury says, hinting that his party is moving closer again to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to form a "third alternative".
Saying that the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) had become "redundant" after the AIADMK broke ranks to back Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in the presidential election, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Yechury made it clear that his party stood for "a third alternative, not a Third Front".
Yechury indicated in an interview with IANS that there may not be much hindrance to the creation of a new alliance of parties genuinely opposed to both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
"I think it (UNPA) is already redundant with (AIADMK leader J.) Jayalalitha going her way in the presidential election. This also points to the fallacy of forming fronts as distinct from ideologically based alternatives," he said.
Yechury also made it evident that the CPI-M was all set to make up with the TDP, its former ally and now the main opposition party in Andhra Pradesh.
"It's not us who broke away from the TDP, it is the other way round. The TDP broke away from us on issues relating to economic reforms and communalism," said the Rajya Sabha MP and politburo member of the party. "It is they who went over to the other side."
Yechury was responding to a question: "Do you rule out any realignment with the TDP in the next general election?"
The presidential election, won by the Congress-Left-BSP candidate Pratibha Patil, also saw the Samajwadi Party, a long-time CPI-M ally, move away and join hands with the Third Front along with the TDP and others.
Yechury said the Samajwadi Party, now the main opposition party in Uttar Pradesh, was also with the Marxists on the issue of battling communalism as well as rightwing economic policies.
The police firing on CPI-M workers in Khammam in Andhra Pradesh last month, leading to the death of six communists, has sparked a war of words between the CPI-M and the Congress.
But Yechury played down any threat to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in New Delhi as a consequence.

On the Indo-US nuclear deal, once a sore point with the Left, Yechury said so far he has no grouse against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"Our position is that the bottom line is the assurance given by the prime minister on Aug 17 last year in the Rajya Sabha. I had raised nine areas of concern in which India's interests should not be compromised.
"To be fair to the prime minister, he gave an assurance," said Yechury. "The prime minister claims that all the nine points are met. He said this pointing a finger at me and reminding me of my nine points."
Bearish global indices forced a correction on local bourses, as the market settled on a weak note for the second straight week, amidst intense volatility, experts observed and pointed out that despite the market gaining in 4 out of 5 days of the week, it still settled lower for the week.
The benchmark index Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex lost 96 points, or 0.63 per cent, at 15,138.40, while the broader National Stock Exchange (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty lost 44 points, or 0.96 per cent, at 4,401.55 last week.
The BSE 30-share Sensex rose 26.34 points at 15,260.91 on Monday, with shares from banking sector and select real estate stocks gaining on speculative buying ahead of Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) monetary policy on Tuesday.
Experts are of the view that though the Indian economy continues to grow at a robust rate of around nine per cent and inflation taming within the official limit of 5 per cent, US indices would dictate the trend on domestic bourses this week.
''Domestic bourses have been closely tracking global markets for the past few days since US sub-prime worries heightened, causing global risk aversion. They will continue to track global equities in the near term. Asian markets have been rocked by fears that the fallout from the US sub-prime mortgage crisis and tighter lending conditions will ultimately hit US economy. Markets will also closely watch out of US Federal Reserve's policy meeting on Tuesday. Any soothing comments from the US central bank about the health of the world's biggest economy may support global equities,'' market pundits observed.
Tata Teleservices has said it expects its subscriber base to touch the 100-million mark by 2010.
India's top car manufacturer, Maruti Udyog Ltd, is offering discounts of up to 30,000 rupees on many of its models to push up sales that has gone on the wane due to high rate of interest which is currently floating around 13-14 per cent.The commodity futures market, considered as a platform for price discovery, seems to have rejected the prospect of good agricultural production this year as rates quoted for October-November contracts are ruling higher than the current level for most items.

According to traders, generally the rates quoted under future contracts remain lower when supply is expected to increase.But leading commodity exchanges, NCDEX and MCX, show that speculators, traders and hedgers are quoting higher prices from the current rate for most of the products to be delivered three to four months hence.Government data shows that acreage of most of the crops has increased in the ongoing kharif season, compared to the year-ago period, which means a better output provided weather conditions remain conducive.

A week after the deadly firing in Mudigonda village of Khammam district claiming seven lives, the grim details of the police brutality are continuing to come to light. Against the initial estimate of about 70 rounds of firing, now it has been confirmed that the policemen had fired 140 rounds on the crowd of about 400 people on that fateful day. This explains the presence of multiple bullet injuries on the victims of the firing.
Fuelled by growing fascination of youth towards the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and rising income levels, the FMCG market in rural and semi-urban parts is likely to grow at a faster pace in the next three years while the urban areas may register a drop in growth.

"The rural market contributes 52 per cent to the total FMCG market in India, which is expected to grow by 10 per cent by 2010, driven by 180 million young population," an Assocham statement said.The semi-urban market is expected to grow by six per cent in the next three years and contribute 21 per cent to the country's total market, up from 19 per cent.

"The Government's permission to 100 per cent FDI in FMCG will further fuel the growth in rural and semi-urban India," Assocham President VN Dhoot said.
Maharashtra’s corrupted Dalit leadership
D. SHRIKANT, SOCIOLOGY DEPT., SHIVAJI UNIVERSITY, KOLHAPUR - 416 004
The Dalit leadership of 34 organizations/parties in Maharashtra no doubt get inspiration from Shivaji, Phule, Shahu Maharaj, Babasaheb Ambedkar etc. but they are all under the control of dominant political parties controlled by the upper castes. The class character of this Dalit leadership is elitist, largely with bureaucratic background. Some of them belong to upper class. Their economic interests, especially the sustaining aspect of it, make them depend on upper castes. They do not have permanent assets. The party fund comes from upper castes. That is why they are always under upper caste obligations. Their economic background forces them to remain away from revolutionary programs of Babasaheb. Their egoistic interests are generally to gain individual benefits as victims of Brahminism.
The Dalit leadership hesitates to accept Mayawati because of their attachment to upper caste bosses. But the masses of Maharashtra who are brought up under the values of Shivaji, Phule, Shahu Maharaj and Dr. Ambedkar will follow Bahujan Samaj and become the base of the BSP.
http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/august2007/articles.htm

CPI(M) supports anti-power project hunger strikers
Gangtok, Aug. 5 (PTI): The CPI(M) today extended full supprot to the Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT)'s ongoing relay hunger strike against the half a dozen proposed hydel power projects in Lepcha reserve of Dzongu in North Sikkim.
At a function here today to mark the CPI(M) led Left Front's 30-year rule in neighbouring West Bengal, its Urban Development Minister Ashok Bhattacharya said, "We announce our full support to the hungerstrike by the ACT. We are not against development. But we are convinced that it should not be at the cost of the people".
Pl Read:
Displacing Farmers: India Will Have 400 Million Agricultural Refugees
By Devinder Sharma
22 June, 2007
STWR.net
http://www.countercurrents.org/sharma220607.htm

John Perkins
Author
The Secret History of the American Empire
Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth About Global Corruption
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In his stunning memoir, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins detailed his former role as an “economic hit man".
Now, in The Secret History of the American Empire, Perkins zeroes in on hot spots around the world, and drawing on interviews with other Hit Men, Jackals, reporters, government officials, and activists, examines the current geopolitical crisis. Instability is the norm—it’s clear that the world we’ve created is dangerous and no longer sustainable. How did we get here? Who’s responsible? What good have we done and at what cost? And what can we do to change things for the next generations? Addressing these questions and more, Perkins reveals the secret history behind the events that have defined our world.
From the U.S. military in Iraq to infrastructure development in Indonesia, from Peace Corps volunteers in Africa to Jackals in the Indian Ocean, Perkins exposes a conspiracy of corruption that has fueled instability and anti-Americanism around the globe. Alarming yet hopeful, this book provides a compassionate plan to re-imagine our world.
John Perkins is the author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, a startling expose of international corruption that spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller lists and has been published in More than thirty languages. A former economic

Zionist Hindu Rate of Growth and hunger for natural Resources

Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
With Indo US Nuclear deal final and strategic regrouping in Indian Ocean with US lead complete, not only south Asia has become a free military and War zone, it has become an infinite hunting ground for MNCs as the United Kingdom on Saturday asked for more access to the Indian market for its financial institutions, saying it would strengthen the domestic sector. US interests have been well expressed by its migty hands like world Bank, WTO, GATT and ADA with so many zionist controlled MNCs. UE is not far behind. Long before we have opened the doors for Japanese Economic Imperialism and China has also got the much aspired breakthrough in Indian domestic market.
It is essentially a Zionist Hindu Growth Rate propelled in Indian sky which has no relevance to the day to day life and livelihood of Eighty Five percent enslaved indigenous people. This idiot Economy is balooned by the broadsheet toilet media and electronic channels with a projection of twenty to fifty years in future. India is celebrating the 60th anniversary of Independence and now suffering from dimentia we have forgot the recent past, the holocaust and mindblowing changes in the character of the divide geopolitics. It seems to me that we have not learnty anything from Soviet disintegration Experience. This Zionist Hindu Growth story has to do nothing with national unity and integrity and the masses in common. While biotic sustenance of the eighty five percent citizens threatened with endangered life and livlihood, while we have not cared to adress nationality problems with Kashmir, Khalistan, LITTE and ULFA experiences, while we fail to manage natural resources and the environment is destroyed, while Untouchability sustains and the Brahminical graded inherent inequality is translated in post modern zionist hindu Galaxy order, this satastical jugglery of Grow Rate Projection seems a quite Snobbing of Elite!
Hunger of Natural Resources is no more only a US imperilist storyline as well depicted in Middle East stan OFF, Indian MNCs are also in the que! Reliance has got supremacy over ONGC with oil and natural gas ownership rivalry all along with Indian coast line!Ultimately rural people and communities are the stewards of the land and resources. Their decisions and actions will, to a large extent, determine whether poverty reduction supported through sustainable land management will become a reality. Enhancing their productive and economic roles, enabling them to increase their agricultural productivity and access to markets and thereby their incomes, and helping them to responsibly manage land and other natural resources are the keys to poverty reduction and sustainable rural development.
Anil Dhirubai Ambani Group (ADAG) today demanded that gas to power projects be supplied in the price range of $1.5-2.8 per million British thermal unit (mBtu), while questioning the exorbitant returns the producers of such fuel get.
"While there is a defined return of 14% for power generation and 12% for fertiliser producers, why shouldn't there be no regulation on exploration and production of oil and gas?" J P Chalsani, director, Reliance Energy said.
Quoting various reports of analysts, he said, returns for gas producer (RIL) could be as high as 225% on capital expenditure and arbitrary fixation of prices by the producers of the fuel would hurt power and fertiliser producers.
ADAG seeks gas pricing & allocation policy
Questioning Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries' (RIL) price formula for its gas from the Krishna Godavari basin, younger brother Anil Ambani's group, ADAG, today asked the government to come out with a pricing and allocation policy saying that arbitrary high prices will hurt power and fertiliser producers.
"When the users are subjected to regulation, how can the single gas supplier (RIL) is not regulated -- the production sharing contract between the gas producers and the government stipulates that pricing and utilisation policy should be in place, but there is none," J P Chalsani, director, Reliance Energy told PTI here.
Contrary to other regulated sectors, where capital expenditure and tariff are defined, how RIL's capital expenditure was approved in a non-transparent manner, Chalsani wondered and said that high capital cost would only lead to lower returns for the government and high prices for the end users.
Chelsani's comments coincide with the on-going exercise in the government for fixing the price of natural gas and formula by RIL, which seeks to sell gas at up to $4.58 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) at the landfall point at Kakinara in Andhra Pradesh.
After detailed discussions, the Committee of Secretaries has sent its recommendations to the Petroleum Ministry, amid reports of inter-ministerial differences on the issue, for further action and a decision is expected to be announced soon.
The Central Government will start the seventh round of auctions of oil and gas blocks under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) from November, Director-General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) V. K. Sibal said here on Saturday.
“In all, 80-85 blocks will be auctioned under the NELP-VII,” Mr. Sibal told reporters on the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) seminar.
The Director General of Hydrocarbons, a nodal body to ensure proper utilisation of the country’s oil and gas reserves, would offer for auction blocks located in Jammu and Kashmir for the first time.

Bosania has got the highest growth. Is it the Super power? Japan and United states Of America lag behind with lesser growth rate than some developing economies. does it mean that their supremacy worldwide is violated any way?
What is this growth rate, technically?
Pl see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India
For most of its post-independence history, India adhered to a quasi-socialist approach with strict government control over private sector participation, foreign trade, and foreign direct investment. However, since 1991, India has gradually opened up its markets through economic reforms and reduced government controls on foreign trade and investment. Foreign exchange reserves have risen from US$5.8 billion in March 1991 to US$208 billion in June 2007,[39] while federal and state budget deficits have reduced.[40] Privatisation of publicly-owned companies and the opening of certain sectors to private and foreign participation has continued amid political debate.[41] With a GDP growth rate of 9.4% in 2006-07, the Indian economy is among the fastest growing in the world.[42] India's GDP in terms of USD exchange-rate is US$1,103 billion, which makes it the twelfth largest economy in the world.[43] When measured in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), India has the world's fourth largest GDP at US$4.156 trillion.[6] India's per capita income (nominal) is $979, ranked 128th in the world, while its per capita (PPP) of US$3,700 is ranked 118th.
The Indian economy has grown steadily over the last two decades; however, its growth has been uneven when comparing different social groups, economic groups, geographic regions, and rural and urban areas.[44] Although income inequality in India is relatively small (Gini coefficient: 32.5 in year 1999- 2000)[7] it has been increasing of late. Despite significant economic progress, a quarter of the nation's population earns less than the government-specified poverty threshold of $0.40/day. In addition, India has a higher rate of malnutrition among children under the age of three (46% in year 2007) than any other country in the world.[44][45]
India has a labour force of 509.3 million, 60% of which is employed in agriculture and related industries; 28% in services and related industries; and 12% in industry.[6] Major agricultural crops include rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, and potatoes. The agricultural sector accounts for 28% of GDP; the service and industrial sectors make up 54% and 18% respectively. Major industries include automobiles, cement, chemicals, consumer electronics, food processing, machinery, mining, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, steel, transportation equipment, and textiles.

This simply stastical Jugglery which has no ground in reality. Per capita Income and per capita production in India happen to be so low that any fluctuation makes a sea difference in statics. It may be understood with Sensex reality. Indian Economy is explained with enlisted thirty company shares! Incomparison, the changes in economies of the Developed countries including US and Japanese, they are so much so developed that even major cahnges do hardly reflect merely in so called growth or production rate!
At the Millennium Summit in 2000, the international community committed to reducing by half the proportion of the world’s people who live in extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. Investments in agriculture can transform economies and pay high dividends in terms of quality of life and dignity for poor rural people.Many of those left behind are rural people – the small farmers, landless workers, herders, fisherfolk and artisans who depend on agriculture and related activities to survive. Seventy-five per cent of the world’s extremely poor people live in the rural areas of developing countries – over 800 million women, children and men. One-quarter have no secure access to land. In many areas, indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities make up a disproportionate number of the rural poor, and in all areas women are the most vulnerable and marginalised.Unfortunately, overall investment in agriculture remains far below the level required to achieve the MDGs. In fact, aid for agriculture from all donors fell between 1995 and 2002. There are some signs that governments and development partners recognise the need to give higher priority to agriculture.
India has come a long way from what some economists dubbed as the 'Hindu rate of growth' to a sustained growth of 8 per cent plus, Union minister of State for Law and Justice K Venkatapathy said on Saturday in Koimbtoor. Delivering the convocation address of SNMV College of Arts and Science on the city outskirts, Venkatapathy said the country was one of the fastest growing economies of the World and "you can feel proud of the fact that increasingly the World is run by the Indian brain power."
The Indian economy will likely grow 9 percent this fiscal year ending in March 2008, down slightly from a year earlier, the prime minister's economic advisory body said Monday.But infrastructure hurdles and a sluggish farm sector threaten longer-term prospects, the group said in an economic outlook report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.It also warned a surge in foreign capital into India posed a serious challenge, as it endangered the stability of the country's exchange rate system.
The projected economic growth rate for this fiscal year is slightly below the 9.4 percent expansion in the year ended this past March. this projection ,however fails to note that Enormous inequity in wealth and power relations can make poor rural people with tradable land title more vulnerable to losing their rights and to indebtedness.
The report predicted industrial output to grow 10.6 percent, while the services sector expands 10.4 percent. But the farm sector, which remains a drag on the broader economy, is expected to grow just 2.5 percent, the report said.
The panel asked the government to expedite work on infrastructure projects, especially in the power sector.
Paradoxically, this time around the excess capital inflows were found to be having a debilitating impact on the Thai economy as an appreciating Bhat was found to have a debilitating impact on the Thai economy.
In fact this is exactly the problem that India is facing for the past few months. When the Reserve Bank of India [Get Quote] allowed the Rupee to appreciate approximately by 10% in the recent months, Indian exporters are reported to have lost exports markets to their competitors significantly.
At the root of the current conundrum is the fact that post Asian currency crisis many countries found virtues in a weak currency resulting in 'competitive devaluation.' Under this scenario, many countries adopted a mercantilist policy to maintain their competitiveness with their central banks intervening in the currency markets by buying forex reserves, against their own currency.

Stability, security, permanence - these seem boring and staid words in the present Indian order. With the economy opening up and throwing new jobs into the pipeline, you don't have to be an NRI to make a career shift or work in NGOs seeking a prosperous rural India.Now, tech wizards, investors, IT and medical professionals are all turning dreamers and visionaries. They are willing to discard the cushioned path to pursue their passions and are even making a radical career switch.
Sixty years after independence, India is beginning to deliver on its promise, "unleashing a torrent of growth and wealth creation that is transforming the lives of millions", says Time magazine in a special cover issue.
"India's economic clout is beginning to make itself felt on the international stage, as the nation retakes the place it held as a global-trade giant long before colonial powers ever arrived there," says the US magazine's Aug 13 issue.
The special issue on "A Young Giant Awakes" has articles looking at the country's middle class, religion, politics and the transformation of its economy, besides a write-up profiling the conflicts, trends and turning points that shaped modern India.
"Twenty years ago the rest of the world saw India as a pauper. Now it is just as famous for its software engineers, Bollywood movie stars, literary giants and steel magnates," notes Time.
"It is worth remembering this as India aspires to superpower status, economic futurologists all agree that China and India during the 21st century will come to dominate the global economy," says William Dalrymple, author of "The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857".
"Various intelligence agencies estimate that China will overtake the US between 2030 and 2040 and India will overtake the US by roughly 2050, as measured in dollar terms. Measured by purchasing-power parity, India is already on the verge of overtaking Japan to become the third largest economy in the world," he says.
"Today, things are slowly returning to historical norms. Last year the richest man in the UK was for the first time an ethnic Indian, Lakshmi Mittal, and Britain's largest steel manufacturer, Corus, has been bought by an Indian company, Tata.
"Extraordinary as it is, the rise of India and China is nothing more than a return to the ancient equilibrium of world trade, with Europeans no longer appearing as gun-toting, gunboat-riding colonial masters but instead reverting to their traditional role - that of eager consumers of the much celebrated manufactures, luxuries and services of the East," says Dalrymple.
Another article notes how real estate prices have skyrocketed in India. A 2006 study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and professional-services firm Ernst & Young found that total revenue from sales of commercial and residential property throughout India had grown 30 percent a year for the previous three years.
Land prices in some areas have tripled in value since 2004, while office rents in Mumbai and New Delhi are now more expensive than those in Paris, Hong Kong or midtown Manhattan, Time says citing a 2007 survey by real estate consultant CB Richard Ellis.
Farmers are being forced to become domestic servants of urban rich who only have benefited from the eight to nine per cent growth in the Indian economy, Ramon Magsaysay award winner P Sainath has said.
"Up to last three decades, a farmer would run to city and take up a job in a factory. He became a factory labourer and now when the economy is growing at eight to nine per cent, he is being reduced to a domestic servant," the noted agriculture and rural affairs journalist said in an interview.
Sainath who has won the winner for the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award 2007 for Journalism, Literature and Communication Arts said, while 65 per cent of Indians live on agriculture, the government policies remained focused on industry.
"In Delhi alone, two lakh tribal girls from natural resource-rich Jharkhand work as domestic servants. It is a cruel joke with them because tribals never want to leave their land," he said.
Crisis in agriculture is a result of wrong policies -- from bank loan to fertiliser, electricity to water distribution, said Sainath. Even the the policy of minimum support price worked against the farmer, author of the famous book 'Everybody Loves A Good Drought' said.
"Interest on loan for a Mercedes Benz is charged at six to eight per cent while it is 12 to 15 per cent on a tractor loan. This means the credit system is meant for the goodies of high, middle and lower middle class and not for poor farmers who are being driven to commit suicides," he said.
Commenting on the new policy of the government, which claims it is committed itself to protecting interest of agriculture, Sainath said, "in India agriculture is way to death."
He said over 100,000 farmers have committed suicides in the past few years.
According to the government data, 40 per cent of farmers want to shift to other means of livelihood.
"I have remained attached to villages and my experience shows that over 80 per cent of them want to do anything but agriculture."
According to the Approach Paper to the 11th Five Year Plan, crisis in the rural economy erupted in the middle of the nineties. But Sainath said the trouble is as old as 40 years.
"The crisis is not an outcome of natural calamities but is a result of following anti-farmer policies," he said.
Commenting on India becoming among the fastest growing economies in the world, he said it was all job-less. "While corporate profit is on a rise, employment figure is on a decline."
Sainath did not seem impressed with the increase in the credit growth for the farm sector. On the contrary, over 3,000 rural banks have downed their shutters in the last decade. Between 1991 and 2003, the coverage of banks in the rural areas has come down from 58 per cent to 48 per cent.
Those responsible for creating a mammoth Rs 1,10,000 crore non-performing assets for the government-owned banks are being given the benefit of macro credit policies. "Poor farmers are trapped in the commercial cycle of micro credit," he said.
But, the time was not yet ripe for jubilation as we were still far away from our destiny and were yet to address the basic and pressing problems adequately, he said. The results of development experience have not reached everyone equally. It would be a surprise to know that more than half the population has never made a phone call in this 21st century, Venkatapathy said.
Exhorting the younger generation to work for inclusive development, he said the focus has to be on meeting the needs of the weak and the marginalized. Technology must move from the portals of universities to the streets and water reservoirs of the villages, fields of the farmers and factories of the small entrepreneurs.
"It will be a shame on us, if we are unable to provide access to the basic needs to everyone at least within the next decade," Venkatapathy said.

Indian economy is likely to grow at eight per cent next year but the government needs to invest heavily to upgrade the country's infrastructure to sustain the momentum, Deutsche Bank Chief Economist Norbert Walter said.
"Favourable population growth, a large pool of highly skilled workers, greater integration with the world economy and increasing domestic and foreign investment suggest that this growth momentum will be sustained in the next 15 years as well," he said while delivering a lecture here.
There has been a high economic growth and inflationary pressures are expected to subside, he said, adding inflation is likely to be around 5 per cent next year.
India economy is looking good and increasingly attracting the world's interest as a result of impressive economic performance, brought about by liberalisation process in the past two decades, he said.
Fiscal consolidation was gaining ground and total public debt was narrowing. Total external debt was low and forex reserves have soared, he added.
India has turned in sparkling growth of 6 per cent per annum in the past twelve years. Besides India, China and Malaysia are going to be the growth star for next 15 years.
Talking about challenges for India, Walter said it needs to increases investment in infrastructure is way below the level and expedite the reform process.
Both central as well as state governments need to invest heavily in the infrastructure sector, he said.
KHAMMAM: It is not proper on the part of CPM to take political mileage from the victims who fell to police bullets in Mudigonda, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhara Rao has said.He was at Bhadrachalam on Thursday as part of his campaign for the Singareni union elections slated for August 9.Terming the Mudigonda incident most unfortunate, he said the Left parties would lean on the shoulders of any party which is power and take up agitations only to make their presence felt.
Their agitations would go waste as long as they depend on the parties at the helm. The TRS chief said when lakhs of Girijans were affected by the Polavaram project, the CPM continues to support the UPA government.
It was ridiculous on the part of CPM in differing with the State Government while it supports the Congress at the Centre, he said and advised CPM to desist from resorting to cheap tactics.
The Congress government was showing step-motherly treatment towards Telangana, he said citing the example of the government?s anxiety to complete Polavaram project on a war-footing, which benefits Andhra, while ignoring Yellampalli, SRSP and Devadula projects which benefit Telangana.He demanded that the government come clear on the Telangana share of Krishna and Godavari waters. He alleged that the government was not sincere in implementing 610 GO.
BJP government initiated the process of strategic regrouping. They are the flag bearers of Zionist Hindu Combination and dalit muslim Hatred. They initiated the process of Nuke Deal. now they happen to be in the opposition and how their stand has changed, see!
BJP strongly criticised the 123 Agreement, demanding that it be put on hold until it's implications were examined by a joint parliamentary committee as the party felt that India's strategic interests had been curbed while government had committed itself to an intrusive-inspection regime.
Contesting government's claim that the 123 pact confirmed India's status as a weapons state, BJP said that the privileges extended to the five nuclear powers had not been extended to India. In fact, obligations of states outside the charmed circle of P-5 nations under NPT are now substantially applicable to India, the party maintained. BJP said that if the government insisted on implementing the 123 Agreement, the Opposition party was committed to reviewing it if it came to power at the Centre in the future. It said the 123 pact was an assault on India's nuclear sovereignty and foreign policy options.
Addressing the media, former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie said that the claim that the deal will make way for "full" civilian nuclear cooperation was incomplete as critical aspects relating to uranium enrichment, reprocessing and heavy water were outside the treaty. "It is clear that as these elements can be connected to weapons programme, technology will not be transferred," said Shourie pointing out that these transfer were subject to future amendments in US law.
Sinha pointed out the pact spoke of "certain aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle" and that it was unclear how soon, if at all, India would be able to access dual-use technologies. He also said that since government has said that the pact would be guided by national laws of both India and US, there were serious implications for India's right to test.
The clauses in the pact which call for consultation in event of India testing make it evident that US will have to assess whether cooperation will continue or not. "How can an assessment on what is required for our strategic security be dependent on the view taken by a US president," said Sinha. It was further argued by Shourie that it was difficult to see US persuading other NSG nations to make good supplies it was withdrawing.
Right in, Left out
Even while the Left in Latin America flies on the wings of new radicalism, the official Left, especially the CPM, devoid of any coherent ideology, is rapidly sinking in a statist quagmire of crony capitalism
Rajat Roy Kolkata
In mid-June this year, the remnants of erstwhile East Germany's Communist Party (PDS) and the disillusioned section of the Social Democrat Party of former West Germany got together in Berlin to form a new party, 'Die Linke' (The Left). The declaration in the founding Congress stated that its new ideology will be based on the trinity of 'socialism, democracy and freedom'. More importantly, to distance themselves from the age-old Stalinist model of ideology, they stressed the exclusion of 'State Socialism' from their party framework. Expectedly, the delegates mentioned Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Rosa Luxemburg, but, significantly, ignored Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. Indeed, when entire Europe is moving towards the Right (witness the recent French presidential election), Germany's Leftists managed to achieve what eluded them even in the time of Adolf Hitler's rise to power. The new party boasts a membership of about 72,000, with 55 MPs in Bundestag (Germany's Parliament); obviously, it seems to be a sizeable leftist force in German politics and in Europe.
In recent times, while winds of change have started blowing in the 'radical world' in Europe, the Left in Latin America has turned it into a whirlwind. Fidel Castro's Cuba was always there as a great symbol of resistance in the backyard of the US, but it was only after Hugo Chavez's charismatic rise to power in Venezuela (and popularity across the world) that progressive currents started moving. Countries, one after another, are moving towards the Left. Often, it's not the party but the trade unions that are at the forefront of the movement. They have been successful in attracting broader sections of the society, the peasantry, tribals, marginalised ethnic communities, to form a wide political platform in the fight against US-led globalisation. Riding on the wave of this popular movement, the Leftists in Latin America are repeatedly winning the battle of the ballot. The recent victory of the Left in Bolivia is a case in point—a coalition of several small parties and mass organisations defeated the oligarchy.
Two dimensions of the Left movement in contemporary Latin America make them distinctly different from the past traditions of communists world-over (Cuba included). One, there is no single-party hegemony over the movement; second, they are not following the classic concept of armed struggle, nor the Che Guevara style of guerrilla warfare, though, Che, undoubtedly, remains a legendary revolutionary icon for progressives in South America and rest of the world. Crucially, changes are coming through parliamentary means and democratic movements. Orthodox Marxists are now becoming a rare species in Latin America.
While the Left in Latin America are trying to mobilise larger alliances to gain electoral majority, in India, the mainstream Left is hamstrung by orthodoxy. Established under the direct influence of Moscow, the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI) started toeing the 'Moscow line' from the beginning, resulting in a series of historical blunders. The 1960s saw a serious rift between Soviet Union and China, vertically dividing the international communist movement. As an immediate fall-out, the Indian Left got divided into pro-Moscow and pro-Peking (now Beijing) groups. This, later, led to the split in the CPI and the formation of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in 1964. In 1969, the CPI-M was divided after the Naxalbari movement into the CPI-ML (Marxist-Leninist), which further split into various new 'ML' and Maoist formations.
The long tradition of following either Moscow or Beijing left an indelible mark on the mindset of the mainline Left. The Left's intellectual shortcomings reflected in their inability to grasp the essence of the Indian social/political reality—the caste, religious and ethnicity factors. Instead, they obsessively applied their dogmatic 'class theory', leading to marginalisation. After the Congress, the communists are the second oldest organised political force in India. Yet, today, in a Parliament of 544 members, the combined Left has 60 seats, and this is their highest tally since Independence. Indeed, compare this with the rise of the Hindutva Right!
Though both the CPI and CPM have been seriously pursuing the parliamentary path since 1952, they still look terribly lost. The contradiction became transparent after the 1996 general election when Jyoti Basu, a CPM veteran, was offered the prime ministerial post of the coalition government. But his party rejected the proposal. Why? Because, unless the party has overwhelming strength to influence policy, it will not join the government! Basu later called it a 'historic blunder'. Ten years later, in 2004, yet another general election saw the CPM change its tactics. The CPM had no hesitation in backing the UPA regime led by its traditional political enemy, the Congress.
Not long ago, the CPM punished and eventually forced Saifuddin Choudhury (one of their popular parliamentarians) out of the party, for insisting on joining hands with the Congress to thwart the growing threat of communal forces led by the BJP. Now, despite the UPA stonewalling Left demands and brazenly following the neo-liberal, pro-India Shining line, the Left has unequivocally declared that to stave off the BJP threat they would continue to support the UPA. So how is it influencing policy in the current regime?
http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/portal/2007/08/1083

Displacing Farmers: India Will Have 400 Million Agricultural Refugees
By Devinder Sharma
22 June, 2007
STWR.net

It was on the cards. With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announcing the formation of a new rehabilitation policy for farmers displaced from land acquisitions, it is now official -- farmers have to quit agriculture.
Ever since the Congress-led UPA Coalition assumed power after an angry rural protest vote threw out the erstwhile BJP-led NDA combination in May 2004, the Prime Minister had initiated a plethora of new policies for the spread of industrialization. After having laid the policy framework that allows private control over community resources – water, biodiversity, forests, seeds, agriculture markets, and mineral resources -- the UPA government finally looked at the possibility of divesting the poor people of their only economic security – a meagre piece of land holding.
“Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is an idea whose time has come,” the Prime Minister had said at an award ceremony in Mumbai sometimes back. Supported by all political parties, including the Left Front, he has actually officiated a nationwide campaign to displace farmers. Almost 500 special economic zones are being carved out (see The New Maharajas of India). What is however less known is that successive government’s are actually following a policy prescription that had been laid out by the World Bank as early as in 1995.
A former vice-president of the World Bank and a former chairman of Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a body that governs the 16 international agricultural research centers, Dr Ismail Serageldin, had forewarned a number of years ago. At a conference organised by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai a few years back, he quoted the World Bank to say that the number of people estimated to migrate from rural to urban India by the year 2015 is expected to be equal to twice the combined population of UK, France and Germany.
The combined population of UK, France and Germany is 200 million. The World Ban