Opinion Flawed Makeover

“It is indeed ironic that Advani,with the chilling image of the rath yatra that he led,which left behind a trail of death and misery in the communal riots that followed and eventually led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid,should now be speaking in terms of upholding secularism,” the editorial in its weekly,People’s Democracy,argues.

“Such efforts by the BJP to express secular pretensions are aimed at assuming power at the Centre in order to carry forward the RSS ideological project,” it adds. The editorial also refers to Advani’s appeal to potential allies that “they have nothing to be apprehensive about partnering with the BJP”.

“That such appeals are a mere eyewash to garner support in order to have the requisite numbers to form a government at the Centre became clear when he said the situation calls for flexibility in tactics combined with firmness in principles. The tactics are to mislead the allies and the people and the principles are the core of the RSS agenda,” it posits.

Going nuclear

CPI(ML)’s journal ML Update carried a piece on the anti-nuclear plant agitation at Koodankulam,which its general secretary,Dipankar Bhattacharya,tried unsuccessfully to visit earlier this month. Bhattacharya writes about how he and his party colleagues were prevented from visiting Koodankulam and were arrested on the way. He claims that the battle of Koodankulam “is a battle as much for public safety as truth and reason.”

“The people of Koodankulam and Jaitapur are fighting not just to save their own land and lives,but for the safety of generations to come. Tamil Nadu has already suffered the enormous tragedy of a devastating tsunami; must the people be condemned now to live forever in the shadow of the fear of a nuclear tsunami?” he asks.

He claims that developed countries across the world are increasingly moving away from nuclear energy and resorting to safer,cheaper and cleaner energy options. “It is ironic that governments that are systematically sacrificing all our vital national interests at the altar of FDI and humiliating deals with imperialist powers are trying to malign and muffle the voice of truth and justice in Koodankulam by dubbing the movement as being ‘instigated by foreign agencies’… in the process the government has already begun treating Koodankulam as foreign territory where the interests of nuclear powers prevail over the basic rights of the Indian people,” he asserts.

CONFUSING TACTICS

The Left continues to criticise the government for allowing FDI in multibrand retail. “It is neither courage nor determination to do something. It is just surrender to the corporate,both local and foreign,” the editorial in CPI weekly New Age alleges.

Referring to the spate of decisions announced by the government recently,it says that the UPA has adopted the tactics of announcing such decisions at a stroke so that people get confused and the resistance to them is divided. “It just ignores the fact that people crying under the burden heaped through such economic measures have started realising the causes behind such decisions… [The so-called reforms [the government is planning are entirely aimed at meeting the demands of corporate capitalists. It has no concern for the aam aadmi in whose name it swears day in and day out,” the editorial argues.

Compiled by Manoj C.G.