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Left for new alternative : CPI(M)

	July 09, 2007

CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat has said that the Left is working to create an alternative to the Congress and the BJP. In an interview with Reuters news agency, he said the Congress-led UPA coalition has failed to curb rising food prices and was not addressing agrarian crisis. He said the Manmohan Singh Government continues to follow unpopular economic policies. But Karat made it clear that the Left had no plan to withdraw support to the coalition even as it worked for a political alternative.



“We are in touch with many parties to agree to a policy platform and work with us on that basis; we can possibly see the emergence of a third alternative.”



Karat criticised the UPA Government for a food price inflation of over seven per cent and for failing to help rural people who were suffering because of unemployment and sluggish farm output. Also farmers committed suicides.



The Government had to pull its socks up and “get some thing done in the next two years.”



It needed to implement the ambitious National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme which envisages 100 days of employment for one member of a rural family each year.



Karat also called for more public investment in agriculture, which has been stagnating at around two per cent for a few years.



Public anger against the Congress over high food prices threw it out of power in two northern states this year. “That is the ground reality. The Government is unable to provide relief to the people and simultaneously they have weakened or dismantled the public distribution system in most parts of the country.”



Inflation continued to hurt the poor and middle classes, Karat said. He said the Congress and the BJP had less than 50 per cent of the national vote, fueling the CPI(M)’s efforts to present a new political alternative.



“There are many areas in which we hope to rally other forces and parties, who may not fully agree with the Left programme.”



“We are talking to a number of parties - and getting some response now,” Karat said, referring to common opposition to the Government’s plan to set up Special Economic Zones on farmland and New Delhi’s closer ties with Washington.





CPI(M) as prone to corruption as other parties



Observers say Karat’s remarks on building a new alternative come at a time when the CPI(M) is facing factional squabbles in state units and charges of corruption. In Kerala, differences on freeing public land from encroachment in Munnar between the Chief Minister and the Revenue Minister have come into the open. There are also allegations that some elements in the party may have been involved in the large scale encroachment on public land over several decades.



Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achhuthanandan’s publicised war on the Tatas for allegedly encroaching on public land has virtually set off a mutiny in the Left ranks. In a direct snub to the Chief Minister, Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran, who belongs to the CPI, told the State Assembly on July 5 that the land which was “reclaimed” under the supervision of the Chief Minister a few days back in Munnar was, in fact, forest land.



Rajendran said the 1280 acres land reclaimed on Tuesday was part of the 70,522 acres of land taken over by the Government under the Kannan Devan Hills Redemption of Land Act, 1971. The Chief Minister was away in New Delhi when the statement was made in the House.



VS, who personally oversaw the reclamation operation in Munnar on Tuesday, had said this was land encroached upon by the Tatas. However, Special Adviser to Tata Tea T Damu had denied this and said the land belonged to the forest department.



Thursday’s statement from the Revenue Minister came as a shot in the arm for the Tatas. “We have all along been saying that we have not encroached upon any land in Munnar. Today the Revenue Minister said the same thing. We are happy that the truth has come out,” T Damu said. He also criticized the CM for making a statement threatening to cancel the title deeds if Tata went to court against the reclamation. “This is denying us our fundamental right. How can a Chief Minister who has taken oath as per the Constitution say such a thing?,” he exclaimed.



On July 6, the Left Government reportedly decided to stop the demolitions. Government sources said the special task force has been asked not to demolish, but only file a case and seal a major unauthorised resort which was to go under the bulldozers. They said a decision has been taken “in principle” to make this applicable to the remaining unauthorised constructions there “so that possibilities could be explored for integrating the constructions into a master plan for the town later.”





CPI(M) to return tainted money



A media expose on the Kerala CPI(M) mouthpiece, Deshabhimani, accepting Rs 2 crore from a tainted lottery king has landed the party in its biggest financial scandal ever.



The CPI(M) State committee decided on July 1 to return the money to Santeago Martin, but the party that never misses a chance to lecture others on probity knows it has slipped off the moral high horse.



The committee, after a meeting attended by general secretary Prakash Karat, said the amount, accepted in four Rs 50-lakh bonds, would be returned immediately. It hinted at a probe against Deshabhimani general manager E.P. Jayarajan.



The issue is particularly emotive because the party newspaper was launched in the ’50s with donations from die-hard supporters such as the iconic Palora Matha, who gave away her only material possession: her goat.



The launch was of a piece with the image the CPI(M) has carefully built over the decades - that of a party of the poor and for the poor.



The Congress had always shown a grudging respect for the CPI(M) even during their bitterest brawls. Now its leaders are all over TV, taking the cue from State unit chief Ramesh Chennithala to call the Marxists a “party of thieves”.



The CPI(M) has advised the cadre to explain the “true situation” to the people, especially in the backdrop of the flip-flop by Jayarajan, who is close to State party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.



It’s the second time in just over a month that the Kerala unit has forced the party to give itself such a dubious pat on the back.



On May 26, the CPI(M) had made history by suspending Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and State secretary Vijayan from the politburo after their public feuding had spiraled out of control.



The scandals are all the more embarrassing for party boss Karat because Kerala happens to be his home state. They also come at a time the party unit in West Bengal, the CPI(M)’s other citadel, is fighting the stigma of a police firing on farmers defending their land against acquisition for industry.



The CPI(M)’s image of a pro-poor party, however, has long been wearing thin. The Kerala CPI(M) is now a financial monolith that owns three TV channels, a string of hospitals, a water theme park and the like. The joke is, the party is the biggest corporate group to have emerged in Kerala at a time the state is trying to shrug off its “anti-industry” label.





Mathrubhumi targeted



There are reports that the CPI(M) is targeting Mathrubhumi, one of Kerala’s largest and oldest newspapers and its editor K. Gopalakrishnan for the Deshabhimani expose. The party is allegedly proclaiming Mathrubhumi a yellow rag and its editor Gopalakrishan is being slandered in anonymous posters. On July 4, CPI(M) State secretary P. Vijayan addressed a public function in Kozikhode at which he lashed out at Gopalakrishan and reportedly issued veiled threats and warnings. State Home Minister K. Balakrishnan told the State Assembly on July 5 that police protection has been ordered for Gopalakrishnan. The Mathrubhumi office in Perambra was burnt down recently after it carried a report on the CPI(M)s youth wing.





Mamata demands a CBI inquiry into Nandigram police firing



On the West Bengal front also, things are not so cosy for the CPI(M). On July 3, a large number of protesters from West Bengal led by Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee held a rally at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi in protest against what they called oppressive policies adopted by the State Government in dealing with issues of land acquisition and special economic zones in Singur and Nandigram. Addressing the rally, Mamata Banerjee demanded a CBI inquiry into the police firing at Nandigram in March. The protesters demanded that the land belonging to farmers who are unwilling to part with their properties be returned unconditionally to them.



Mamata Banerjee also met Prime Minister Manmohan on July 3 and demanded abolition of the law on special economic zones.



A day earlier on July 2, Members of the Trinamul Congress and the West Bengal Krishi Jami Raksha Committee met President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to seek justice and return of the land acquired by the State Government for the Tata car project at Singur.



In a related development, relatives of teenager Tapasi Malik, who was allegedly raped and murdered by CPI(M) members in Singur, recounted what they called the terror let loose by the ruling party in West Bengal.



Mamata Banerjee was on stage when several accounts of alleged Left violence on residents of Singur and Nandigram were shared by the affected. “The West Bengal Government has become opportunistic and one with double standards. The Centre must intervene,” she said.



Meanwhile, veteran CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu has accused the CBI of what he called prejudiced handling of the Tapasi Malik murder case. He charged the central investigating agency with ‘political conspiracy’ against the CPI(M)-led State Government.





Put new SEZs on hold : Parliament panel



The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce has called for a freeze on notification of special economic zones till the SEZ Act is amended to meet the public concerns relating to land acquisition. The Committee headed by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi has made several recommendations to amend the SEZ Act.



The panel suggested that SEZs should not be allowed to come up at the cost of agriculture, which could jeopardise the country’s food security. To ensure food security, the panel has sought a ban on SEZs coming up on irrigated, double-crop land.



It also suggested a ceiling of 5000 hectares on a multi-product SEZ on fallow land. And in places where there is no alternative but to build an SEZ on cultivable land, the panel recommended that the land should be one-crop and the limit for a multi-product SEZ on it should be 2000 hectares. “It should be done with the State Government’s permission,” Joshi said.



The Committee submitted the report titled ‘The Functioning of Special Economic Zones’ to the Rajya Sabha Chairman on June 20.