[Reader-list] Farewell to Our Humid Weimar

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear all,

I rest my case.

Please read the two articles from the Indian Express - below.
When I hear the so-called 'Left' and 'Right' march in unison, I hear  
the distant thud of jackboots in the night.

cheers (?)

Shuddha
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CPM speaks what was its unspeakable: we can support BJP-led coalition  
if...
Dipankar De Sarkar
Posted online: Sunday, July 13, 2008 at 0136 hrs Print Email
It’s communal...doesn’t mean all the time BJP did mischief: Biman
http://www.indianexpress.com/sunday/story/334897.html

London, July 12:Biman Bose, CPM Politburo member and Left Front  
chairman in West Bengal, has said that the Left can consider  
supporting a BJP-led coalition if that party sheds what he called its  
“communal agenda”.

In surprising remarks made in London on Thursday, he also said the  
Left may have made “a mistake” by not withdrawing its support from  
the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government earlier  
and accused the Congress of trying to “bail out” the US Republican  
Party through the nuclear deal ahead of US elections.

Bose made his startling remarks while briefing a select group of  
British diplomats, bankers, and government and Commonwealth officials  
over dinner in London Thursday night.

IANS was the only Indian media group invited to this meeting.

The dinner was hosted by industrialist Shishir Bajoria of the Kolkata- 
based Bajoria Group. Bose, who is general secretary of the West  
Bengal CPM, was asked pointedly if there were any circumstances under  
which the Left would support a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led  
coalition in New Delhi.

“The Left never subscribed to the communal politics of the BJP. That  
does not mean the BJP all the time did only mischief. It does not  
mean that. But the BJP could not leave its communal agenda,” Bose said.

“If it happens that the BJP is opposing communal politics, then the  
real stand will be clarified. Whether the BJP is more dangerous than  
the Congress or the other way round depends on some distinct  
political twists and turns, and parties’ principles can be judged  
only in those twists and turns, not in normal conditions...So wait  
for some days — or some years — to see those twists and turns. If the  
BJP moves with the same politics with which they are moving today,  
the question (of supporting the BJP) doesn’t arise at all,” he added.

Asked if the CPM wanted the BJP to support a common minimum  
programme, Bose stressed the importance of secularism. “They are to  
cut religion and politics. They mix up religion and politics.  
Religion should remain in temples, churches and mosques or in  
gurdwaras. That should be the private belief of the person concerned.  
Religion should not be mixed up with politics,” he replied.

Earlier, speaking exclusively to IANS, Bose said that when it came to  
the post-election scenario, the Left would support a Congress-led  
coalition “if the Congress has learnt their lesson”. “They have to  
bring down inflation, and introduce a universal public distribution  
system, and universal and free health and education.”

Bose, in a dhoti in a roomful of men and women in business suits,  
hinted at a larger,global reason behind the Left’s withdrawal of  
support to the government over the India-US nuclear deal. “The  
(popularity) rating of George W Bush in the US has gone down to 28  
percent. This has never happened before in history. The lowest used  
to be 38 percent - now it is 28 percent,” he told his audience. “In  
that political scenario, the government of India is going to bail out  
George W. Bush by signing the nuclear agreement,” he said, adding  
that nuclear energy would account for only eight percent of India’s  
energy needs.

Asked why the Left had not withdrawn support earlier, Bose replied:  
“There you might blame the Left parties.”


----------------------


RSS lends Karat a shoulder to cry on
Suman K Jha
Posted online: Sunday, July 13, 2008 at 0131 hrs Print Email

New Delhi, July 12:As the CPM tries to put up a brave face battling  
contradictions within on its vote against the Congress-led Government  
over the Indo-US nuclear deal, it has found support from none other  
than the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh.


Turning a sympathetic observer, the editorial in the latest issue of  
RSS mouthpiece Organiser has put up a stout defence of Comrade  
Prakash Karat, something that would probably make even CPM organ  
People’s Democracy blush.

“The Congress has deliberately created the situation, practically  
pushing the Left to the brink...The CPM general secretary Prakash  
Karat has reasons to be fuming. He has accused the Congress of  
humiliating his party and betraying its trust. He is right. The  
Congress didn’t extend the courtesy of showing the Left the original  
draft of the deal...Clearly, the government meant to slight the  
Left...” says the editorial.

“The Left has been foolish enough in extending its support to the  
Congress in the name of keeping the BJP out to run the government,  
almost like a single party...There was a Common Minimum Programme.  
The Indo-US nuclear deal was not a party of it. For any political  
observer the Congress hara-kiri doesn’t make sense. Yet it has  
challenged Karat and declared itself a single-agenda government. Has  
the Left been so nagging for Sonia as to prefer this plight to their  
assured parliamentary security,” says the editorial.

In what appears to be an open exhortation to the Left to revisit its  
past when it shared the anti-Congress platform with the BJP-Bharatiya  
Jana Sangh, the editorial adds: “There is no meeting ground between  
the Left and the Congress but for their mutual antipathy for the BJP.  
In the fact the Left has tied itself in knots by following a policy  
of political untouchability and it was desperate to distance itself  
from the failed UPA sufficiently early to face the electorate in the  
general election.”

If one thought that the Left is in for huge reverses in the  
forthcoming elections, the RSS journal has an explanation ready: “The  
poor record of the Manmohan Singh, it is feared, is bound to have an  
impact on the electoral fortunes of the Left.” When contacted, former  
Sangh spokesperson Ram Madhav said that “the RSS would like all  
political parties to take a stand against the nuclear deal in its  
present form.” Exactly what Comrade Karat says.

_________________________

Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net