In the light of the rebellion in the Karnataka BJP waged by the mining barons of Bellary, CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat talks about the larger issue of the invasion of business into the sphere of politics and the need for checking the trend, in the latest issue of party mouthpiece People’s Democracy.

He says that representatives of big business houses, their liaison men and contractors are getting elected to legislatures and Parliament while business tycoons sit in parliamentary committees that decide on policies. What’s more, there are ministers in the Union cabinet and state cabinets who are actual businessmen by profession.

“Politics as business and business through politics is becoming the norm. This assault on democracy needs to be checked. Money power cannot be allowed to subvert the democratic system. There have to be fresh norms and rules to be enforced,” he says.

Karat also tries to score a political point over his rivals by referring to the “brazen nexus” between politics and big business that the BJP has forged in Karnataka, the increasing business interests of Jaganmohan Reddy in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and the support given to tainted former Chief Minister Madhu Koda by the Congress in Jharkhand.

Which Wall?

For the CPM, the euphoric celebrations that marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall was a ploy by the capitalist world to divert attention from the global financial crisis. The argument is that the celebrations will seek to obfuscate the anti-people manner (the bailout packages amounting to trillions of dollars given to those very institutions who have been the chief instruments leading to the present crisis) in which imperialism is seeking to emerge from the economic crisis.

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