[Reader-list] The Communist Conspiracy !

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear Prakash jee

You have raised certain important issues, and I would like to answer them
below:

1) We are talking about Left here, so I wont' raise arguments about
reservation, either for or against. The OBC reservation has been more linked
with VP Singh rather than the Left. I don't have issues with reservation as
a way to solve problems, though there are other issues case by case. So I
rest the case there.

As for supporting it, the VP Singh govt also ensured that the country
continued on the path to being communalized under the Rath Yatra, thanks to
its support of the BJP. Not until Lalu Yadav stopped the Yatra, did anybody
do anything about it. And the Left couldn't pressurize the govt. to do
anything about it. They should have withdrawn then itself if this was what
happening as the Yatra was going on.

I have no issues with implementing the Mandal report (though with
modifications). As for Congress, I support policies, not parties.

2) By stating the obvious, you have already said that Left has to play a
game of political opportunism to be in contention for power at the Centre.
Whatever you may point out, the AIADMK, the BSP, or the BJD are parties
which are authoritarian and undemocratic. Moreover, all have had fair share
of corruption or wrong policies of industrialization being followed at the
ground level. Till last 6 months, the Left was fighting BJD on the issue of
land being snatched away from tribals, now they are in alliance. What great
hobnobbing?

If you wish to justify this by stating this is a politically expedient move,
for me it's still wrong, though I can sympathise with the Left for it being
inevitable.

3) Alliances if made are not wrong. But alliances should not be based on
political opportunism. Otherwise there is no point in such alliances at all.
Do the BSP, AIADMK or even the BJD have a proper conception of development
and what they stand for? Do they even have an idea about the kind of
policies to be introduced, and have discussions on such issues? Do they even
have inner-party democracy? Forget all this, is there any assurance that
AIADMK or BSP would stay back with the Left post elections?

Even the Left would not have the answer to that. And if it thinks it has
answers, let me remind people here that after 2001 elections of assembly in
Tamil Nadu, where Jayalalitha was in alliance with Left and Congress, on
gaining an absolute majority of her own, she threw away all her allies and
instead supported BJP's stand in the assembly on many issues.

Whom are you fooling by creating such alliances with corrupt individuals?

4) If the Bengal govt. would have conducted a referendum in Nandigram and
Singur before giving land, among all the stakeholders involved, after
conducting proper discussions between them and the Tatas, and if then the
referendum would have approved transfer of the land, would not that have
introduced a new model of development in West Bengal and India?

I am happy you accept at least that the Left's policy was flawed. But my
issue is still not addressed completely here. Buddhadev approves FDI in
certain sectors and even said once that nuclear energy is fine. But the Left
opposed both the nuclear deal and even FDI in those same sectors Buddhadev
supports. Then which is the true Left?

5) For your point with Madani, here is the story from Outlook:

*Even with all this, the "bad flavour" of the month, by all accounts, is
Pinarayi Vijayan. His cosying up to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of
Abdul Nasser Madani, linked to the 1998 Coimbatore blasts, has embarrassed
many of his comrades. Pinarayi justifies it with the ends-justify-the-means
line, saying the PDP’s unsolicited, unconditional support could help end the
Muslim League’s sway. *

*Not many are convinced. Critic and columnist Prof Sukumar Azhikode, a
friend of Pinarayi’s, has this to say: "It’s sickening. It hurts one’s eyes
to se them—Vijayan and Madani—together." Tactically, CM V.S. Achuthanandan
disapproved of the open dalliance with the Muslim cleric, whose family is on
the terror radar. In fact, Director-General of Prosecution V.G. Govindan
Nair’s advisory to the home department has asked that serious note be taken
of the allegations against the Madani family following the high court’s
intervention.
*

*The LDF’s other constituents aren’t happy either. CPI general secretary
A.B. Bardhan has called the PDP "communal". RSP general secretary T.J.
Chandrachoodan described the party as "worse than the Muslim League". It was
left to CPI(M) politburo member S. Ramachandran Pillai to raise a technical
argument in Pinarayi’s favour, saying the party had not yet taken a stand on
the PDP unlike on the League, which "is communal".
*

What* *you are raising here is a technical argument that Madani has come and
supported the Communists. At the least, the party could have denounced him
and said they dont' require his support. Even now, they haven't said so.
What they do say is that they haven't taken a stand on the issue.

6)  For your point about the case against Pinarayi Vijayan, here is further
more from Outlook:

*As power minister in 1996-98, flouting established procedure, he presided
over the award of a Rs 390-crore contract to Canadian engineering firm SNC
Lavalin for the repair and modernisation of three hydel plants. The CAG had
slammed the contract. The CBI, which probed the deal on the HC’s orders, has
arraigned Pinarayi as the 9th accused. Its request for sanction to prosecute
him is pending with the governor, who in turn is awaiting the state
cabinet’s advice. *

The link for Outlook story is:
http://outlookindia.com/fullprint.asp?choice=2&fodname=20090427&fname=Kerala&sid=1


So what can I say? The Left is as politically opportunistic as the BJP has
been, except that the BJP knows it is focussed on the larger goal of
creating Hindu nation more than the Left in terms of improving conditions
for the people.

Regards

Rakesh