Opinion ITALIAN MARINES
While commenting on Italys refusal to send back two of its marines,the CPM argued that there was a larger issue involved concerning the sovereignty of the country and the capability of the Indian state to ensuring the sanctity of the sovereignty.
ITALIAN MARINES
While commenting on Italys refusal to send back two of its marines,the CPM argued that there was a larger issue involved concerning the sovereignty of the country and the capability of the Indian state to ensuring the sanctity of the sovereignty. These Italian marines had violated Indian law in Indian territory and,hence,need to be punished under our law. A matter of more serious concern is the fact that such a lapse or connivance in subverting Indias sovereignty… is not an isolated one,says an editorial in Peoples Democracy.
The editorial recalls the escape of Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson after the Bhopal gas leak,and brings up Ottavio Quattrocchis departure in 1993. All these instances cannot be construed as mere lapses or rank inefficiency of the Indian state… connivance of various levels of authority can be noticed. But more importantly,such an undermining of Indias sovereignty and rule of law,particularly with regard to foreign nationals who violate Indian law with virtual impunity,is directly connected with the neoliberal trajectory of economic reforms that India had begun pursuing since 1991, it asserts.
BIHAR SPECIAL
The CPI(ML) weekly ML Update focuses on Nitish Kumars show of strength in Delhi. It claimed that while the rally spoke of adhikar (rights),it only hinted at political deals with the Centre. It says that Kumar has replaced his earlier 2005 keywords of nyay (justice) and vikas (development). In 2010. Kumar won an emphatic victory in Bihar with the people of Bihar asking him to deliver on his promise of nyay ke saath vikas (development with justice). But as the government faces growing anger in Bihar for its failure and betrayal on this front,Kumar cleverly wants to shift the agenda to the issue of special category status posing it as the panacea for all that ails Bihar, it states.
Given Bihars reality of backwardness,the record of neglect shown by successive Central governments and the insecurity and discrimination that Bihari workers and students continue to face in different parts of India,the demand for special category status for Bihar definitely has a rational basis.. But while the slogans of nyay,vikas and adhikar are all unexceptionable,it is Kumars opportunist politics which has turned all these lofty words virtually into their opposites… it argues. The party says development in Bihar demands land redistribution and tenancy reforms,which,it claims,is conspicuously absent in Kumars paradigm of development.
BANGLADESHs EXAMPLE
An editorial in CPI journal New Age describes the movement in Bangladesh as heartening and noted that the youth have resisted the attempts of religious fundamentalist forces to rouse religious passions in the wake of a Jamaat-e-Islami leader being sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes in 1971. Shahbagh youths resistance to preserve secularism is commendable and needs to be followed in other parts of the subcontinent as the threat of religious fundamentalism and various forms of obscurantism and chauvinism is not confined to Bangladesh alone, it says. The article claims that Pakistans society is gripped by religious fundamentalism and extremists,while Sinhala chauvinism is on the rise in Sri Lanka.
Noting that clouds of fundamentalism and sectarianism are hovering over the entire region,the article warns that India cannot remain immune. We have our own brands of communal and chauvinistic forces,which in the recent period have become overactive… With the great battle of 2014 fast approaching… communal polarisation for electoral gains cannot be ruled out, it adds.
Compiled by Manoj C.G.
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