The Indian Express is known to be a pro-libertarian bourgeois paper. One need not find fault with this. Every paper has an agenda building role, apart from a critical-investigative and an credible-informational role, as N.Ram once wrote in an article in The Hindu .
In other words, the paper must play a truthful role even if it has a particular position to take. The Indian Express is renowed for a strong critical investigative role that it adopts as its motto of journalism. However, being a pro-bourgeois paper, it has been so dishonest and blatant in its apathy and hatred for working class agitations, working class based political parties and working class issues, that it has forgotten its credible-informational duty.
Two instances suffice to explicate this matter:
a) The most recent of this shameful agenda building at the cost of truth by the Indian Express was vis-a-vis indigenous nuclear energy generation. The Indian Express carried an article on it's front page quoting a letter from the NPCIL Chairman, SK Jain that there was a huge shortage of fuel for the indigenous power plants and they were running at a hugely reduced capacity and that the only way out of this morass was for the culmination of the Indo-US Nuclear Deal.
Thankfully the Indian Express' bluff was called by CITU leader, Tapan Sen, who wrote to Dr. S.K.Jain seeking clarifications. Here is verbatim the report from People's Democracy:
Dear Dr Jain,
Kindly refer to the leading news item appearing in the Indian Express today quoting you on the fuel shortage crippling India’s nuclear power plants which are currently running at half capacity. The news item also goes to the extent of stating that “there has been a steady decline in operating capacity of reactor over the years”.
Unfortunately, in the Annual Reports (2006-2007) of Department of Atomic Energy and NPCIL which have been placed in Parliament such critical constraint, as enumerated in the Indian Express, has not been highlighted at all. As a matter of fact in your statement in the 20th Annual General Meeting of your company on 03.08.2007 you had assured that the capacity factor of 63 per cent would improve further by September 2007. In the Annual Report of DAE, power generation till December 2006 had been shown more than targeted generation.
Will you please clarify at the earliest?
Dr S K Jain's Reply:
This has reference to your letter dated October 29, 2007, regarding the news item appeared in the Indian Express of October 29, 2007.
I would like to clarify that I have not spoken to the reporter in recent past, who has contributed to the news item appeared in the Indian Express edition of today. As such the news item quoted me is totally incorrect I have taken up the above matter of misquoting with the Editor of Indian Express.
I would like to inform you that NPCIL today has 17 reactors, two of Light Water type and 15 of pressurized Heavy Water type which are in operations. Out of these reactors two light water units and 11 pressurized heavy water units are operating the remaining three have been taken out of operation for renovation, upgradation and maintenance works, 13 units are operating at various power levels to match the current uranium production.
I would like to bring out that the country has enough resources of natural uranium to support the operation of 10,000 MWe PHWR type units.
The mining and milling of the above resources are being taken up by the Department of Atomic Energy to match the progress on nuclear power plants. Work on additional mines and mills at Jaduguda was started around 2002 and is in final stages in the meantime three units of 1080 MWe, which were under construction, got completed faster before schedule Early completion of 3 units and certain delays in completion of additional mining/milling project created a mismatch between the demand (increase) and supplies of uranium to meet the situation innovative operating strategy has been worked out in order to keep maximum stations running and getting maximum possible power output.
I am happy to inform you that the mines have been commissioned and the processing mill has started trial production which will increase the production of the uranium and is expected to take care of the mismatch in the demand and supply.
For supporting the future expansion programme works on mining at Chitrial in Andhra Pradesh and Gogi in Karnatka has been take up. For further implementation of uranium supply, action has been initiated to start minning at Lambapur in Andhra Pradesh, Domiyasath in Meghalaya.
I hope the above gives the correct situation as it exists.
The above is enough to incriminate the Indian Express for not only shoddy reporting, but also for deliberate and malicious misquoting of a technocrat-official to suit its agenda. This is however, not the only instance or an exception in the game of duplicity that the Indian Express has played to follow its nefarious ends. There existed another such report, as shown below.
b) On May 6, 2005, Indian Express carried a report titled, "Dear Comrade Prakash...", ostensibly to highlight that a public official from Sewa Bank had written a sarcastic and stinging letter to Prakash Karat asking him to understand the necessity for pension reform. Only, the official, Ms. Jayshree Vyas, later confirmed to People's Democracy, that she never wrote such a letter, but had only sent a piece with her views on pension reforms to the Indian Express, which had duly added masala , distorted her views, added its own lines on Prakash Karat's supposed quotes on the pension bill, and changed the tone and tenor of the piece to suit its ill guided agenda.Subhashini Ali in the People's Democracy was stinging with her critique of the Indian Express' immoral methods of building its agenda, and rightly so.
In essence, media outlets such as the Indian Express deserve the highest opprobium for peddling falsehoods in trying to set its agenda of anti-Left polemics and politics. The vigilant readership and masses who read newspapers should be alert to such tactics of manipulation adopted by Shekhar Gupta and his cohorts at Indian Express.
35 comments:
Also note that CPI(M) mouthpieces will compete (if not better) with the indian express in the "liar" status. In kerala, Desabhimani, CPM mouthpiece, was caught lying many times!
The question to be asked is, the Indian Express is "whose" mouthpiece?
Well, indian express may have their own "masters" prompting them to write such articles. It is no news that many of indian english journalists are blindly biased. For example, when it comes to China and communists, N Ram and The Hindu are hypocrites. Here's an example where Ramachandra Guha exposes the hypocrisy of N Ram :
http://www.friendsoftibet.org/save/#nine
Arun Shourie has exposed utter lie perpetuated by the Outlook magazine and pro-left historians in the infamous "national vs rational" article!
So everybody contributes in their own way to this shady business of pen-pushing to fulfill a hidden agenda!
No one is complaining about "bias". Bias is a subjective thing, everyone is entitled to that, even Shekhar Gupta. I wish you read the article better. Eveyr media org has an objective agenda building role, but it has to substantiate this agenda with credible-information and critical investigative role.
N.Ram in his article on Tibet, is not lying about socio-economic progress made in the region under Chinese rule, that part is well known. His views against Dalai Lama might be contested, but that is his opinion and he is entitled to it. (That the Lama is a revanchist individual who preaches irrationality of "incarnation" and what not).
What the I.E. is doing on the other hand is not just agenda building but building up a heap of lies to substantiate the agenda building. There is no justification to manipulate a simple letter by a Pension board employee or a conversation with a NPCIL director to suit one's agenda.
IE is entitled to its views on whether or not India must have the nuclear deal and it can quote a 1000 biased opinions, but IT MUST NOT SAY A LIE to prove that.
I don't see your analogies of N.Ram and the Tibet story matching up with this lying exercise.
If truth is really what you are after, then please go through an article written by Sitaram Yechuri in the Hindustan Times of October 18, 2007. After that, read my detailed exposure of the most 'goebblesque' of lies you will find anywhere, in my blog, under the heading 'India Hit By Communist Flu'. It can be found here:
http://vinodksharma.blogspot.com/2007/10/lefts-bird-flu-of-deception.html
Vinodji,
With due respect to your views, I would say that most of what you have written is balderdash. Yechury points out a statement by America's own NASA, commending Sputnik for spurring the space programme in the US itself.
He later points out that the Space-war was a precursor to a propaganda-war for weapon development, which was unfortunately buttressed by visceral anti-communism of the McCarthyist kind in the US. Nowhere is he talking about ICBMs or superiority of the socialist scientific system or inferiority of the capitalist scientific system.
The boot is on the other foot. You are the one who is using Goebbelsian methods to misquote, unquote and de'quote' for your purpose of calling the Left a turncoat, no matter what. I hope you will have the honesty to admit that.
Srini,
Nowhere does Yechuri talk of ICBMs or "superiority of the socialist system in stretching the limits of human endeavor"? Read para 8 line 10 and para 1 line 5.
Yechuri also wrote that the launch of Sputnik 1 and 2 was done "for the the benefit of humanity....civilisational advance". Para 8, lines 1&2.
In paras 4, 5 and 6, he speaks about the scientific advances which "would have been impossible" but for Sputnik. I have said that, incidentally, all the advances quoted by him were by the 'inferior' capitalist system! Isn't that what Yechuri was trying to say about the capitalist system when he spoke of the "superiority of the socialist system in stretching the limits of human endeavour"?
Quoting a statement of NASA official speaking at a ceremony in Russia recently clearly shows how the likes of Yechuri distort the import of such protocol statements made out of courtesy,just to suit the falsehoods they want to propagate.
Yechuri tries very hard to also falsely put all the blame on the US for the nuclear arms race that started between the two countries.To prove that, he lies and says "The world was told that the R-7 rocket that delivered the Sputnik held more significance than the foray into outer space. For this provided the Soviet Union with the capability of nuclear intercontinental missiles, which it did not possess then, unlike the US." Para 8,lines 8 to 10.
Intercontinental missiles are also called ICBMs. As I have brought out in my article, the first ICBM was launched, not by the US as Yechuri says, but by the Soviets, on August 27, 1957. Sputnik was launched two months later by the same rocket! The US launched its first ICBM only on July 19, 1958!
Vinodji,
Again you are using an ahistoric method over here. You mentioned that Nazi scientists were taken to the USSR for the development of the world's first ICBM. The facts say otherwise.
The development of the world's first ICBM was a project started by the Nazis, in order to establish world domination.
Operation Paperclip helped transfer these Nazi scientists to the US for a parallel development program of the ICBM in early 1950.
The USSR retaliated only in 1953 to commence production of its own ICBM, which was completed by 1957. The US program was delayed because of bureaucratic troubles between its multiple armed forces' sections, and the project completed in 1958.
Having said all this, Sputnik was launched by R7, and triggered the space race, which inturn brought in more advanced technology. Sputnik therefore was a revolutionary man-made invention.
The first use of nuclear weapons (and the only one) however was the US itself, and US remains the only country in history for the malignant use of nuclear weapons, a record so far unbroken (in Hiroshima and Nagasaki).
Hence, the essence of what Yechury is saying remains. He is not pointing out to inferiority or superiority of different systems, but to the fact that a socialist peasant state born out of poverty could equally become a developed nation in double quick time and could spawn historic achievements, one of which is the Sputnik.
For your information, the Indian communists (CPI(M)) particularly) are critical of the weaponisation wars that triggered the World War, as well as the bureaucratic nature of the Soviet Union (dictatorship of the party rather than the proletariat). They are equally enamoured of the successes of the Socialist states in defeating fascism and bringing in double quick economic growth and assurances of full employment, and also the help provided to several anti-colonial movements throughout the world.
I would request you to read history better to form a more concrete opinion instead of these "birdbrained" theories. Best Regards!
I did write quite clearly that the Germans had launched Project Amerika during WW 2 to develop missiles capable of hitting the US. After the War, German scientists did help the USSR in developing ICBMs.
Our communists, as far as I know, have kept completely silent about the massive weaponisation that China has undertaken, starting from their first nuclear blast in 1964. This despite what it did to India in 1962, and the clear and present danger it poses to our country.
We all read His-story! But, when we are saddled with the rigid baggage of either religion or ideology, it becomes difficult to remain unbiased.
You have a 'comrade' view, I have my own. Globally, we all know which view lies discarded. Ask the Chinese!
The only problem with your post is that you dont' acknowledge Operation Paperclip.
And yes, I affirm to be a leftist, who is appalled at weaponisation and weapon development at the cost of human emancipation and alleviation of suffering. And that is one of the reasons why I and other leftists have never supported the nuclearisation program or other birdbrained ventures into heavy weaponisation, be it by India or by the Chinese.
But the fact remains that the Americans are the biggest weapon proliferators and weapon developers in the world. Americas' total defence budget dwarfes the next 15 countries' budget combined.
And that is not ideology talking, but human angst.
Even the chinese now, under Hu Jintao are talking about harmonious and peaceful development.. and keeping their military only for defensive purposes, as opposed to the US which has spread defense bases all across the world, threatening humanity, a latest example being the nearly 7,00,000 deaths in Iraq.
In essence, I stand for a world that is devoid of nuclear weapons and is devoid of militarism to solve peoples' problems. "Your like" and others aren't. And that includes the Chinese too.
Forgot to mention..
Operation paperclip proves conclusively that Nazi scientists were frisked to the United States for weapon and WMD development, not to the USSR.
Srini, I must add that quite a few days back, I had given a link to your blog from my page, knowing fully well that our views on subjects of national interest are diametrically opposite.
I am passionately convinced about what I write. That is my only reason for writing. Still,I think it is only fair that, should my readers wish to, they are readily able to see the logic and merit of a different viewpoint, and then form their own opinions.
Vinodji,
I appreciate your opinions too. The problem I have is that everytime, a leftist opinion is handed out on a particular issue of peoples' interest, the opinion is weighed in terms of the Chinese example or a Soviet example!. It distresses me a lot. One can have a nuanced view about the experiences in Soviet Union and the China and yet be critical of the same. This sort of analysis that considers only the nation as the starting and end point of discussion is something, that I don't want to relate to.
Srini, Has the CPI(M) ever publicly criticized nuclear weapon program of China/USSR ? Has the party ever criticized chinese actions that curb the freedom-of-expression of the common man there ? e.g., China recently forced google to omit many anti-party webpages from their search results. This is one of the worst thing one can do in this info age. Has party(CPM) ever criticized such things? If yes, could you please give me references to those criticisms ? I would appreciate if you could give URLs to those criticism if they are available in the web.
@ Thisis..
The relevance to the blog topic?
Yes, it is true that the Chinese have proscribed the internet heavily. They had even blocked the Marxist Internet Archive, such is their antipathy to the dissemination of information and it's a crying shame for a nation that calls itself communist or a party that calls itself Marxist.
As far as I know, there are quite a few articles in the CPI(M) journal, The Marxist, which criticises the lack of freedom of expression and other disastrous inequality generating economic policies by the Chinese.
Personally I find it repugnant that socialist states tried to suppress freedom of expression and thought that didn't conform to the state guided policies. These are part of the weaknesses listed out by many leftist intellectuals. As far as I am concerned, the Indian Left has *thankfully* adhered to values of freedom of expression, debate and democratic freedoms in this country and have infact strengthened it. Witness the implementation of decentralisation of governance and democratic institutions at the local level in Kerala and Bengal for example.
Scholars of "old-socialism" have argued that civil society and participative civil organs were thriving in the erstwhile Soviet bloc and hence they couldn't be compared to the liberal democratic processes. These are all therefore contested areas within Marxist scholars.
Srini,
I appreciate your very well argued viewpoints as an individual. But for a political party taking part in the process of governance of the nation,the country has to be the focus. Everything else has to be secondary.
If ideology is to supersede the nation,as it sometimes appears to, then it is best to avoid being an active politician asking for votes to rule. There is plenty of room and freedom otherwise available to discuss all types of philosophies and ideologies.
You are perfectly justified in feeling and writing the way you do as a citizen of a free country.
Srini,
Not probably relevant to the blog topic. but thought you are the best person to ask.
You said : "As far as I am concerned, the Indian Left has *thankfully* adhered to values of freedom of expression, debate and democratic freedoms in this country and have infact strengthened it". But that is not really true. The example that i can quickly recollect is the screening of the movie Taurus in Kolkotta. CPM wanted to ban the screening. But (thankfully) the first screening was done before they realized it!; however they did not allow it to be screened for a second time.
see: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1244731594.cms
Similar incidents have been there in kerala too...
I wanted to add this link also:
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2001/20011119/nation.htm#9
To quote from that news :
"Mr Bhattacharyya apparently did not find anything wrong in the film, but still he ordered the cancellation of further screening of “Tauras” possibly to avoid any further controversy. He also conveyed the decision to Jyoti Basu over phone. As a result of the cancellation of the screening of the film, viewers, who had purchased tickets for the shows at New Empire, had to return disappointed."
Basically Budhadeb *banned* further screening of the film Taurus! How is it different from Shivsena banning some "anti-Hindu" "anti-Maratha" stuff or Islamic fundamentalists banning Rushdie or other such things ?
Well, such acts are indefensible, no doubt and point out to the presence of certain black marks in the otherwise impeccable record of democratic behavior of the left in the country.
Having said that, equating an off incident like this with the Shiv Sena's goon behavior and persistent trampling of public freedoms, shows a certain mentality, which has to be further deplored. To compare the stopping of a screening of an one-off foreign film in a "Film Festival" (which is a prerogative of choice for the film selectors in a festival) to the stoppage of popular cinema/ breaking down of cultural institutions, burning down of library archives, lynching of public officials, and other such nonsense is plain bunkum.
"...otherwise impeccable record of *democratic* behavior..."?!!
I can show you many many such examples of anti-democratic
behaviour of the left (especially CPI(M)) in India. In Kerala (where i was born and brought up) there have been many incidents of CPI(M) guys physically attacking journalists and academics for writing against them. CPI(M) workers have *killed* many guys for leaving the party, working for other parties and so on and so forth. Most cruel example
being the killing of a school teacher, in front of his students, while he is teaching in the school. All these have been reported
in the newspapers. Is killing a *democratic* behavior ? (remember
these are not killings in a clash. killing an unarmed person
while he is teaching in a primary school!).
http://www.hindu.com/2003/08/27/stories/2003082704550700.htm
They have also done other things like chucking out historians
from government bodies just because they don't agree with the CPI(M) version of the history (same left accuses MM Joshi!).
And many curruption examples and what not...?!
It is easy to question my mentality when i point out valid examples!
But the fact remians : CPI(M) guys have done everything that you accuse of others!
The impeccable record of communists...and how...
http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/apr
/02rajeev.htm
Thanks
Varahasimhan.
;-) Simha.. I was talking about the Indian Left.. But now that you bring in this moron named Rajeev Srinivasan, who calls the Khmer Rouge monsters communists, I have to also bring in the fact, that the force that resisted this monstrous motley group of criminals was the Vietnamese communists.. and the set of rascals who propped up this regime denying that they were engaging in mass murder, was none other than Henri Kissinger's America.
A little bit of history reading is therefore required to those who include the Phnom Penh regime under the "Black book of communism".
I repeat.. Be it decentralisation or removal of hierarchical units of power in the form of entrenched caste or communal structures, the Left has been a far better democratic grouping in India than anyone else and that for me, is close to an impeccable record.
And as for thisis's remarks on Kerala.. it is but obvious that where there is a high degree of political violence featuring elements of entrenched communalism of the RSS variety, the response of the Left can't be Gandhian. That doesn't take away the fact that mass mobilisation and sensitisation is the best way of solving a politically contentious issue and not browbeating the opposition.
Dear Srini,
What are you trying to say here ? Killing someone(even if he is an RSS person) while teaching in a school is a part of "political violence" ?! And is political violence (however brutal it may be, like the one i pointed out) OK for you ?! Extending your logic, one can simply kill anyone accused of terrorism! (because terrorists belong to the communal "variety")
I understand the following: Either you do not know the ground reality in Kerla, where CPI(M) guys have been terrorizing everyone who is opposed to their policies! Or your "political violence" argument is simply a way of pushing CPM violence under the carpet. Now please consider the following example. Where is the political violence here ?
SFI,DYFI men attack NIT-C
Who is the one to unleash *violence* here ? Hostel wardens have all the right to prevent outsiders entering the hostel. Response to that is not *violence*!
And also note the sentence appeared in your favorite newspaper: "interestingly, these incidents took place when the police were present in front of the main gate". Police forces are mere puppets under the CPM rule. This is a reality that we the people of kerala everyday experience.
Now, according to you, it may be OK not to be a Gandhian against RSS guys. But can't you be at least democratic against Medha Patkar ? Don't you think assaulting her is nothing but "browbeating the opposition" ?! Being a keralite i am not at all surprised when Medha said that Nandigram
is like a concentration camp-- a region in a CPM ruled state! Let me know if you think it was democratic not to allow Medha to enter Nandigram.
Now it is better not to say about the impeccable record of the CPM in kerala when it comes to : "removal of hierarchical units of power in the form of entrenched caste or communal structures". They have been appeasing communal forces throughout their history in kerala. Let it be the infamous "Madani=Mahatma Gandhi" theory of EMS or the recent tie ups with NDF and similar kinds.
It is easy for you to be a theoretical marxist sitting at Dehlhi/Rochester/Mumbai. But things are very different at the ground level dear. The violence unleashed by CPM in kerala/Bengal is no different from the kind of things communists have been doing in China/USSR.
I also want to comment on your claims about "decentralisation" by the left. Much has been written about the corrupt decentralisation program (known as the "people's plan") in kerala. We all now know about the large amount of money hogged by the left through various channels from abroad. The guys who made decentralization possible like Dr. M P Parameswaran and Dr. B Ekbal, and many KSSP guys, all had to leave the CPM and they criticized the party. Sudheesh and Prof. M N Vijayan, then editor of the Desabhimani(CPM party paper) have exposed the stinking "people's plan" program through their magazine "Paathom"! Then Vijayan too was chucked out by the party! It is all well known among keralites. The more we talk about it, the more it stinks!
Dear thisis,
Your arguments to show a communal-communist nexus will not hold water at all. First of all, the logic used is plain ad hoc nonsense. Let me show how. So what if EMS called Madhani a Gandhi. EMS was never enamoured of Gandhi and could have mentioned these two in the same breath to prove that both could use religion as a weapon for mobilisation. It doesn't mean that EMS held Madhani at a respectable leash.
You call SFI and DYFI indulging in violence a blot on democratic culture. It is easy for me and you to be sit on our armchairs and pass judgment. SFI in Kerala has been fighting commercialisation of education, a concept that is well entrenched among the education mafia sections. Protest, as Justice Suresh wrote the other day, is part and parcel of democratic rights. Of course, any undue "militancy" arising out of protest would and should be dealt duely through measures of law and order and ends won't justify the means. But if you don't even acknowledge the necessity of fighting commercialisation, I leave it to you.
As for Nandigram, I have just one question to ask of Medha, the Gandhian. Where was she, when 1000s of left supporters were kept away from Nandigram and blockaded and bombs were reared by the Maoists (as well as LANDMINES)? Where was her sense of conscience? Or for that matter, the civil society's? What land acquisition is going on now? The SEZ is going to be built in Nayachar, an offshore island sparsely populated and Nandigram is free of industrial activity. As The Hindu pointed out today, what is the raison d'etre for the "movement" at all? eh?
Lastly, on decentralisation of power, your quote on differences within the left on the means of decentralisation will not obviate the fact that People's Plan is a concept that hasn't been attempted anywhere else in the country and that the Panchayati Raj act of 1993 itself was inspired by the earlier successes of West Bengal and Kerala.
The point remains. At a time, when "right bourgeois" parties haven't implemented land reform, have not even played lip service to decentralisation of power, have step by step broken every covenant of social contract with the poor (by not implementing any of the directive principles of state orders), have implemented in toto the Washington Consensus, have been moored in communal acts (the Sikh pogrom in Delhi and the Gujarat Riots), have shown all inclination to usurp power at any given opportunity, the Left has provided a wider alternative:
A) it has implemented Land reforms, created higher rural productivity, and has sensitized the rural public over rights and duties without feeling subordinate to bureaucratic machinery.
B) It has implemented Panchayati Raj in areas where there is least development. And any political scientist will tell you that political contestation in institutionally and economically immature areas will always be violent, taking also in account that the institutions are being built dialectically to counter forces of feudalism.
C) It has abjured the trappings of power (Jyoti Basu was refused the PM's post by his own PB). It has perhaps the most better record of non-corruption in its ranks (a simple note of the assets and liabilities of individual MPs/ MLAs in Parliament will give you the picture [thankfully EC makes a note of the same]).
And so on.
Nitpicking and pinpointing excesses here and there will not be a scientific way of creating a case against the Left, which is of course your wont here.
Lastly, the topic was about the role of the mainstream media in taking an agenda without sufficient corroborative potential and in stead focussing on obfuscation and blatant lying to make a point. That this issue has been sidelined by yourself, shows a visceral hatred toward the political tinge of this blog. This can't be accepted.
Dear Srini,
When adrenaline gets pumped, you seem to foget your own words! You accuse Medha being biased! But a few lines above you advise Ranjith : "...Bias is a subjective thing, everyone is entitled to that...". Medha is entitled to have her own views. But the question is who are CPM to prevent her from reaching where she wants in this country ? Is that adhering to *democratic* freedom ?! I started this discussion to counter your tall claim that left in india adhere to democratic freedom! ;-)
But unfortunately, given a chance, just like other parties, they too behave like hooligans!
And better not to say about SFI and fighting "commercialisation of education"! Most of the sons/daughters of the CPM leaders go and study in the commercialized educational institutions in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka while poor kids are asked to "fight" commercialization in kerala! This is hypocrisy at work! Even the son of Achuthanandan studied MCA in a Self-Financing College in TN! (I personally know many CPM leaders whose son/daughter study in self-financing colleges in coimbatore, happily away from all the hassles of strike and other nonsense!) While kids of the cpm leaders study in TN and Karnataka, poor kids here are forced to "play" SFI, never attend classes and eventually fail in the exams (all my friends in college who had SFI resposibilies failed in their exams! Now some of them do CITU and the rest are in gulf!)This is the sad reality in kerala. SFI is a mean for making CITU goondas. When they play SFI they get into police cases and the party never allows them to get out of those! They eventually become CITU goondas! If not, they go to Dubai -- where there is no"commercialisation" !!
(And yes, they go to Dubai! not to Cuba or China!) This is not arm chair gyan. I studied in one of the govt colleges in Calicut and i personally know SFI-turned-CITU goondas and their sad state!
By the way, how is this attack on NIT is related to SFI fighting commercialization ?
When the party and party-buddies get crores of rupees as bribes from abroad, "decentrlisation" will be a nice thing to do!
http://www.hindu.com/2007/09/29/stories/2007092961040400.htm
Dear "Thisis"
You are back to being in form: i.e. opposition to "nothing substantive". The question is whether commercialisation of education should be opposed or not and not whether some CPI(M) members here and there send their children to self financed colleges. Even if that is the case, what is to prevent them from joining those courses and protesting the commercialisation? I don't get your logic. It is pretty much clear that your agenda is only to poke at the Left and its organisations but say nothing about the agendas on which the protest is taking place.
As for Medha Patkar, who at all is preventing her from venting her opinion ? Is the CPI(M) doing that? I dont think so. If Medha has an opinion, so does others in the Left as well as the people of West Bengal. It is only to impress upon the fact that Medha Patkar is wrong in her formulations that the Maoists are doing the correct thing and the CPI(M), the wrong thing in West Bengal.
The point remains: As compared to the other right bourgeois outfits, the Left has been committed to freedoms of expression PLUS the emphasis on pro-poor issues, which you are very much silent on and perhaps have no or antagonistic opinions on the same.
I would love to elicit your opinion on decentralisation, land reforms and commercialisation of education and see where you stand in variance with the theorizing on the same by the organisations of the mainstream Left. We can debate that substantively.
Oh ya! there is nothing wrong in kids of CPM leaders joining self-financed colleges in TN and elsewhere paying large sum as capitation fee! You won't get the logic! That is precisely my point. CPM guys do not understand that they have to practice what they preach.
We can have discussions about decentralisation, land reforms, pro-poor issues, democratic freedom, and commercialisation of education.
But while we discuss land reforms, left leaders(including CPM leaders) in Kerala are grabbing lands unlawfully, in Munnar and elsewhere(can you deny that cpm leaders grabbed land in munnar ? thanks to Idukki collector
Narayanaswamy and some brave officers, these things are exposed now! and cpm is penalising them now!)
When we discuss pro-poor policies CPM leaders in kerala are receiving bribes from anti-poor criminals like lottery king martin and Faris (Can you deny that Desabhimani (CPM mouthpiece) received rupees two crores from Martin? Thanks to mathrubhumi for exposing this!) And better not to speak about Pinarayi vijayan and his buddies (Faris aboobecker; you must have read all of that!
http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/207519.html)
when we discuss democratic freedom, Medha patkar is being assaulted by the CPM-men in Bengal, Institutions of higher educations(like NIT) are being attacked in kerala.
Can you deny any of the above ?
So what is the point in having a "theoretical" discussion here?! When it comes to *practice* you can see in front of your eyes that CPM is *no different* from "other right bourgeois outfits"! Sorry man, i have to believe what i see in front of my eyes. Unlike you, i am not a blind follower of some utopian, impractical, fanciful theories! I must believe what i see.
;-)..
Here is someone who criticises corruption in CPI(M) ranks and points out that the CPI(M) doesn't practise what it preaches and thus what it preaches is Wrong!!!
What fallacy.
So, are you telling me that because of some cases of corruptioin in Deshabhimani (which were rightly subject to punitive measures by the party), it could be condoned that Suitcases will be exchanged between senior leaders of the BJP and the Congress and crony industrialists, scams will continue to pilfer Public money and the rapacious goal of eating at people's money will be undertaken by bourgeois party without recourse to criticism?
Sorry, I refuse to buy your fallacious attitude as well as logic.
The fact remains, that the Left is much more committed to people's interest and to probity in public life in comparison to the bourgeois parties. The very fact that people like Vijayan remained a leftist despite criticising the Left is enough for me to uphold the ideology and its fellow travellers and to wish and work for breaking down the little hillocks of revisionism and improbity that has set in in sections of the Left.
Unlike you, who sits in his armchair to try to emphasise that there is nothing to differentiate between the Left and the Right and who considers any debate on the structural conditions of inequality and inequity in Indian society as futile and "utopian", I would like to take the option of getting into the muddied waters, with the conviction of freedom, probity and morality that Marxism teaches me intact.
The cases of Munnar (where land grabbing was exposed by the CPI(M) only or else it would never be in the public discourse), Nandigram (if not for the theories of neoliberalism as explained by a Prabhat Patnaik, the corporate plunder of land would continue unabated), tell me that that the vantage point of the Left is required to highlight and address problems, not resignation to the overweening Right and its endorsement of such plunder and pilferage.. as the Indian Express Op-Ed pages show and as my blog goes on to elucidate.
:) :) :) :) I feel like I'm reading Pravda from the 1950s.... :) :) :) :) If there's one thing that history teaches us, it's that there will always be people who want to repeat the mistakes of others, for the nth time. :) :) :) :) Human nature. Thankfully, all this is moot. India is slowly but surely being poked and prodded along the right path as we speak -- by the, um -- what's the correct ideological term? -- oh yes, the "right bourgeois" parties. ;)
Sarcasm apart; the poking and prodding is moot as long as misery is not worked upon. The "Trickle down theory" is a miserable failure and atleast Keynesianism needs to be the agenda for the government here. No "right bourgeois" party is unfortunately talking about this.!
Srini, from our JNU days, We have never agreed on Kerala issues, and I always have been inviting you to make a trip to Kerala as an Objective observer,
and then put forward your views!!.
as for avrage Malayali, CPI[M] and RSS goons do not make much difference. both are cold blooded, and have been commiting horrible crimes on one another
and leaving terrible mark on the very history of 'god's own country'. SFI criminalism in Kerala campuses is nothing new, and even leftist organizations
like AISF can't work freely in Kerala. ask any of your AISF friends who know Kerala.
in the political war fields of Kannoor, CPI[M] has not even hesitated to rig elections, and during the last LS elections, the Kerala HC had remarked that
Kerala is going the Bihar way.
I know You won't agree to even one thing I said, however make up your mind, and make an objective trip to Kerala, and see things for yourself.
CPI[M]? Freedom of Expression? the last thing the party is associated with!!!!. the left throught the world are not really known for supporting this basic right of the individual, in fact, it has been the other way round, and the case has not been different as far as CPM is concerned. remember when SFI lost all 4 seats in JNU in 1989, the main issue was the unconditional support extended to the 'mass murder in China'!!.
what about Pinarayi Vijayan sending his son to England for higher studies, that too in a very expensive institution? Vijayan, who do not have any known sorces of incom, how is he managing the huge expensive education? who is paying for him?
http://www.geocities.com/sficet/HOME.htm
This is for all who complain about the "highandedness" of SFI in Kerala.
Go to the Martyrs section of this site to see the 27 Comrades who were murdered in cold blood.
Can anyone even allege any criminal track record on any of them?Can anyone prove the political murder of students belonging to any hostile student organization by the activists of SFI?
If you can't,there is no point in blabbering too much about politcal violence in Kerala's campuses,in which victims always belonged to SFI.
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