Basu’s vision

CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu spells out the need for the party to look beyond the three states of Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. He writes that “the party has to be strengthened as an all-India force if a third alternative is to emerge and the way opened to build the Left and democratic front. We are trying with all sincerity to make a breakthrough. I believe that within the present bourgeois-landlord structure, we have to take whatever little opportunity is available in this system. Our aim is to build up a classless, non-exploitative society, and we have to continue our fight for achieving this goal.”

UPA’s choice

People’s Democracy also has a report on Prakash Karat’s public programme in Andhra Pradesh where he hit out against the government for its pro-US stance. “He criticised the conduct of joint naval exercises with the US in the Bay of Bengal from September 4. He said that not only foreign policy, but also economic policies were being dictated by the IMF-World Bank-WTO combine and the Congress government was following the same. Within the coming few weeks, the Manmohan Singh government would have to decide whether it would go with the US imperialism or remain with the people of the country,” it says.

Compiled by Jayanth Jacob