Opinion POLICY DISAGREEMENT

“The powerful pan-union strike reflected a growing unity and assertion of the Indian working class… The strike has sent a message of warning from the people to the country’s rulers. The people have made it clear they want the government to act fast and show results,and not deliver empty rhetoric,” ML Update said in an editorial. “The aam aadmi wants prices to be checked and all essential goods and services made adequately available and affordable to the common people,” it adds.

People’s Democracy does not see much change in government policy. On the Union budget,it says,“in the name of fiscal discipline,the government has already indicated that there will be a monthly hike in the prices of petroleum products and a large-scale reduction in the subsidies meant for the poor. Given its pro-rich bias,the government has not given any indication whatsoever on the issue of the massive tax concessions that it has been continuously giving to the rich and India Inc,” it alleges.

CHOPPER SCANDAL

An editorial in CPI weekly New Age talks about the chopper scam,arguing that the government response has tried to hush up the whole issue. It demands an enquiry by a special investigating team

under the supervision of the Supreme Court.

It also claims that there are apprehensions that both the UPA and the BJP-led NDA may not agree to an independent,objective probe as these deals have leaders from both sides on the suspect list. “Change in the specification of helicopters for VVIPs provided avenues for the bribe-giving company and was initiated by Brajesh Mishra,the closest aide of Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he was prime minister. The deal was struck finally in 2010 when UPA 2 was in power,” it adds.

PROTEST COVERAGE

An article by Teesta Setalvad in People’s Democracy analyses the way the media covered the police crackdown on the anti-gangrape protests in Delhi and the police firing in Maharashtra’s Dhule. She argues that the images of the Delhi Police firing teargas and water cannons at protesters at India Gate are embedded in the nation’s psyche “largely courtesy of our omnipresent 24×7 news networks,sharpened further by the ever-prescient discussions on the 9 pm” shows.

She contrasts this with the police firing in Dhule in which six Muslims were killed and a similar police action in Gujarat,where three Dalits were killed. “Both tragedies at Thangadh and Dhule,though they cost precious lives,were reduced to a media sideshow,albeit the print editions of English language national dailies did temporally highlight the incidents and issues. Despite the availability of sensationally thrilling clips from Dhule that should have pleased and fed the avaricious eye of the TV camera,these clips lay buried in afternoon bulletins or showed in midnight hour shifts,cleverly bypassing the noisy news hour,” she says.

“The power of the news story and television image is legendary but the selective use of this power bears some searching questions. Is criminally deviant police behaviour spotlighted only when it happens in Delhi,possibly Mumbai,but slips past the camera lenses if Dalits or Muslims are involved?” she asks.

Compiled by Manoj C.G.