[Reader-list] . Re: The Communist Conspiracy !

[prakash ray]

Dear all,

I am posting the opinions of some eminent scholars and artists on the role
and importance  of the Left. Nobody should accuse me of electioneering for
the Left. It is also my response to sinister anti-Left propaganda being
carried out here by certain people.

Thanks

PKR

'It was because of the efforts of the Left Parties that the ruling Congress
was unable to implement many of its projected measures designed to favour
big business at the cost of the people. The Left Parties have
uncompromisingly fought against the Congress government’s increasing
subservience to US imperialism and growing closeness to Israel. They have
also unflinchingly stood up for secularism, women’s rights, affirmative
action for minorities and protection of dalits’ interests.'
-Irfan Habib


'The formation of a modern Indian nation out of an extraordinarily disparate
population riven by millennia of caste, class, gender and other forms of
oppression is a marvel of our time. It is a legacy of our prolonged
anti-colonial struggle that was founded upon an implicit “social contract”,
whose main elements were: electoral democracy based on universal adult
franchise, secularism, civil liberties, the end of caste and gender
oppression, and the building of an egalitarian society. The BJP which
unleashes pogroms against minority communities threatens this contract and
hence the integrity of this nation. The Congress, though a secular force,
violates this contract in a different way, as its economic policies produce
some of the world’s top billionaires together with thousands of peasant
suicides. The Left alone can defend this contract and hence this nation,
because of its commitment to an anti-communal and anti-imperialist agenda.'

-Prabhat Patnaik


'Neoliberal policies were first implemented in India by a Congress
Government. The BJP-led NDA government greatly expanded those policies, with
accelerated privatisation and deregulation. After Congress returned to power
in 2004, heading the UPA, it deepened those same policies further. The
result is jobless growth and credit-fed middle-class consumption. Even as
GDP grows, wealth flies upward: more dollar billionaires at the top;
thousands of peasant suicides at the heart of society. Had the Left not
prevented it from further deregulating our financial system, we would be
facing a crisis as sharp as that of the US or UK. Victory for either of
these parties in the forthcoming elections promises more of the same — even
worse, because their policies have made us much more vulnerable to havocs of
the global recession.'

- Aijaz Ahmed


'The role of the Left, both in the pre-independence and post-independence
period, has been crucial in keeping the Indian society, polity and culture
imbued with secular values. At the present juncture any weakening of the
Left will give a great fillip to the communal and retrograde forces.'

- Saeed Mirza

'The Left in India has been in the forefront of meeting the challenge of
communal forces who have attacked the freedom of expression of artists and
scholars in the name of cultural nationalism. Whenever artists have come
under attack, the Left has unhesitatingly defended them.'

-Shamshad Husain