[Reader-list] Farewell to Our Humid Weimar

[TaraPrakash]

CPIM is a sinking ship. How far their Biman can sink is a million dollar 
question. Perhaps sky is the limit.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shuddhabrata Sengupta" <shuddha at sarai.net>
To: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2008 6:28 PM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Farewell to Our Humid Weimar


> 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
> ---------------------------
>
> 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
>
>
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