B.R.P.Bhaskar
IANS
A landslide victory in last month's local elections has heightened the United Democratic Front's (UDF) hopes of returning to power in Kerala in next year's assembly elections but the Congress, which heads the alliance, may be exulting too soon. Its position is not as rosy as it imagines.
The credit for the UDF victory belongs not so much to the Congress as to its allies who helped consolidate minority support behind the UDF after the Communist Party of India- Marxist (CPI-M), which heads the rival Left Democratic Front (LDF), antagonised Muslims and Christians.
Kerala had created history in 1957 by voting the undivided Communist Party to office. It created history again in 1959 by staging a 'liberation struggle', which provided the centre with the excuse to dismiss the Communist government while it enjoyed majority support in the assembly.
The local election vote was 'liberation' by other means. All the forces which had joined hands in 1959 to oust the Communists from power came together again to end their reign over local bodies. The only exception was the Nair Service Society, the forward Hindu community's organization, which now officially follows a policy of equidistance from the two fronts.
In the local elections of 2004, the LDF had secured control of all five city corporations, 12 of the 14 district panchayats, a large majority of the municipalities and block panchayats and two-thirds of the village panchayats. This year, for the first time, the UDF seized control of a majority of local bodies at all levels with the exception of city corporations, where the LDF was able to retain a slender 3-2 lead.
The LDF victory in the 2006 assembly poll came as a hat-trick after successive wins in the Lok Sabha and local elections. In the past three decades, people have voted the LDF and the UDF to power in the state alternately. After successive drubbings in Lok Sabha and local elections, the LDF now faces the possibility of a reverse hat-trick.
The local elections victory has boosted the image of the state Congress leadership, now firmly in the hands of Leader of Opposition Oommen Chandy and Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala.
For decades, the party had witnessed continuous infighting between an 'I' faction, named for Indira Gandhi, and an 'A' faction, named for A.K. Antony. Oommen Chandy inherited the 'A' faction when Antony moved to the centre. Ramesh Chennithala, a former protege of K. Karunakaran, gathered around him the remnants of the 'I' faction when the veteran walked out of the party, peeved with his neglect by the high command. With Sonia Gandhi backing them to the hilt, the Chandy-Chennithala 'jodi' established a condominium.
Karunakaran, 92, is back in the party but too old and weak to challenge the duo, whose clout is evident from the way they have delayed the return of his son and former state Congress president K. Muraleedharan. He had left the party with Karunakaran but did not return with him. When he finally expressed readiness to return Chandy and Chennithala reacted coolly and the high command did not want to go against their wishes.
While the Chandy-Chennithala combine is in an unassailable position within the Congress, the party's position in the UDF has weakened. The party's electoral performance under them pales into insignificance beside the strides made by its partners, the Indian Union Muslim League and the Kerala Congress (Mani).
The League is in a position to wield power on its own in many local bodies in its stronghold, the Muslim-majority Malappuram district, which happens to be the most populous one in the state. Unable to agree on the division of seats, the Congress and the League had opposed each other in some parts of the district. The League trounced the Congress in those areas. That puts the League in a commanding position.
In areas with a concentration of Christians, the Kerala Congress similarly outperformed the Congress. Its leader, K.M. Mani, had once described the party as one that "splits as it grows, and grows as it splits". He recently strengthened it by wooing back the breakaway factions led by P.J. Joseph and P.C. George, which were in the LDF during the last assembly elections and had helped it attract Christian votes.
Across the state, the UDF polled 15.65 lakh votes more than the LDF. Malappuram alone contributed a lead of more than four lakhs. Kottayam and Ernakulam districts, which have significant Christian populations, provided a lead of more than three lakhs.
The Church, which runs many schools and colleges, was annoyed with the LDF government's education policy. It reportedly played a role in the merger of the Kerala Congress factions. The CPI-M distanced itself from its former Muslim supporters since the Lok Sabha results showed that the association with some of them had cost it many votes. The bid to make up the loss of minority votes by appealing to majority sentiments did not succeed.
The change of government in the state every five years has been made possible by a swing of the pendulum in the southern districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Alappuzha. As the minority parties command little influence in the region, elections there are a direct trial of strength between the CPI-M and the Congress. The LDF's lead of about 80,000 votes over the UDF in these districts is something the Congress has to worry about.
Showing posts with label CPI (M). Show all posts
Showing posts with label CPI (M). Show all posts
Monday, November 22, 2010
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Why this Delhi business when there is plenty to do here?
VS Achuthanandan is a leader who earned goodwill by travelling to the remotest corners to take up issues of concern to the people. Departing from the practice of raising issues inside and outside the legislature and pressing the government to find solutions, he visited trouble spots and conveyed to the suffering people the message that he was with them. It was the popularity that he earned in the process that compelled the party leadership, which had tactfully kept him out of the Assembly elections, to first him the party ticket and then make him the Chief Minister. Even he may not have the feeling that he is able to discharge properly the Chief Minister’s responsibility to provide overall leadership to the administration. Not only impartial observers but the party itself has concluded that the government has not been able to rise up to the expectations of the people. At this stage, when the midpoint in the government’s five-year tenure has been reached, the Chief Minister, the party and the ruling front must be thinking about satisfying the people, who had reposed faith in them, in the remaining period.
In the past 50 years, as a player of power politics, the Communist approach has undergone a big change. While repeatedly declaring that they did not believe in bourgeois democracy, EMS Namboodiripad and his colleagues by and large respected its ways while working within its framework. They performed their functions honouring the democratic tradition of the party laying down policies and the ministers taking administrative decisions in accordance with them. Although there were complains of interference by lower level party units in the administration, the leadership checked it. But later the Communist Party of India (Marxist) departed from that tradition and enforced strict control over the functioning of the government. By deploying faithful cadres on the personal staff, the party leadership acquired the ability to keep a watch on the activities of even ministers belonging to other constituents of the ruling front and to intervene.
Today not only policy matters but even administrative matters are decided at the party level. The party decides which officer should be posted where. It even decides who should be made accused in criminal cases and who should be kept out. The Chief Minister and other ministers have become rubber stamps to be put on decisions taken in the party office. It is an irony of fate that Achuthanandan, who contributed to the development of this system during EK Nayanar’s chief ministership, is at the receiving end now.
The main reason why this government has not been able to rise up to expectations is that it is not able to work with one mind. From the beginning, the CPI (M) and the CPI, the two main constituents of the front, were at loggerheads on many issues. While disputes arose and were settled, some schemes have disappeared. The food security scheme, about which there was a furore, is an example. The official version is that it is being implemented in some form or the other. However, it is already clear that it is not going the way it was expected to go and that it may not achieve the goals.
Even greater than the fight between the CPI (M) and the CPI is the fight within the CPI (M). What reflects in the line-up in which the Chief Minister is on one side and the Party Secretary’s loyal followers on the other is the sectarianism in the party. Clearly the claim that sectarianism ended with the Kottayam conference is not true.
The present government took office creating the impression that it is a continuation of the first EMS government. The biggest achievement of that government was land reform. Today we are conscious of the weaknesses of the decisions taken then. Those who were denied benefits at that time are clamouring for justice. When the Chief Minister took a personal interest in the attempt to reclaim the lands encroached upon by various groups, including political parties, the people viewed it as an attempt to rectify past mistakes and go forward. The court, recognizing the sincerity of purpose and will of the government, placed no obstacles in its way. But the political parties intervened and defeated it. Now the Chief Minister is engaged in a bid to revive and carry forward the aborted Munnar operation. For this effort to succeed, the party leadership must give up its enthusiasm to protect vested interests. There is nothing to indicate that it is ready to do so.
One after another, decisions are emerging from AKG Bhavan for rate revision. The ruling front meets and endorses them formally. After that, the rubber stamp in the Secretariat is put on them. In two and a half years, this government has increased electricity charges, water tax, milk prices and bus fares, some of them twice or thrice. When production costs go up, the consumer will have to pay more. But all the rate revisions of the recent past cannot be justified on this basis. Rate revision has become imperative because of mismanagement by the politicians and bureaucrats who are in charge of institutions. In the last budget, the Finance Minister provided Rs. 7 billion to rescue the State Road Transport Corporation. But no steps were taken to improve its working. The same thing is happening in the case of institutions like the Electricity Board and the Water Authority. The assistance the Cooperation Minister extended to debt-ridden cooperative institutions provided only temporary relief. It has worsened the financial position of some other cooperative institutions. All this has created a big pile of failures. While that remains, the government’s image will remain poor. The effect of the good work it has done will be lost.
These are matters which deserve the urgent attention of the Chief Minister and other ministers. Their decision to go to New Delhi for a Parliament March to protest against Central neglect, when there is enough work of this kind to be done here, is irresponsible. It is also an affront to the people who entrusted them with the responsibility for governance. Central neglect is a rotten old slogan which emits a bad odour. It was possible for the Left to find justification for such a slogan when one party monopolized power at the Centre and in most States. The Left leadership is actually proclaiming its intellectual and political bankruptcy when it levels this allegation against a government which it backed for two years.
As a political party which is now fully in opposition, the CPI (M) certainly has the right to agitate against the Central government and the parties that wield power at the Centre. It is the party which must lead that agitation, not the Cabinet. The Party Secretary had led a march from Kasergode to Thiruvananthapuram before the Assembly elections. Isn’t it appropriate for him to lead the Delhi programme, which is being staged with an eye to the Lok Sabha elections? If the party wants to raise the agitation to a higher level, let General Secretary Prakash Karat lead it.
Just as the State has complaints against the Centre, the panchayats may have complaints against the State. What the CPI (M) plans to do in New Delhi is no different from a demonstration which the opposition front may organize by bringing presidents and members of panchayats under their control to Thiruvananthapuram.
Based on article written for ‘Nerkkazhcha’ column of Kerala Kaumudi edition dated October 2, 2008
In the past 50 years, as a player of power politics, the Communist approach has undergone a big change. While repeatedly declaring that they did not believe in bourgeois democracy, EMS Namboodiripad and his colleagues by and large respected its ways while working within its framework. They performed their functions honouring the democratic tradition of the party laying down policies and the ministers taking administrative decisions in accordance with them. Although there were complains of interference by lower level party units in the administration, the leadership checked it. But later the Communist Party of India (Marxist) departed from that tradition and enforced strict control over the functioning of the government. By deploying faithful cadres on the personal staff, the party leadership acquired the ability to keep a watch on the activities of even ministers belonging to other constituents of the ruling front and to intervene.
Today not only policy matters but even administrative matters are decided at the party level. The party decides which officer should be posted where. It even decides who should be made accused in criminal cases and who should be kept out. The Chief Minister and other ministers have become rubber stamps to be put on decisions taken in the party office. It is an irony of fate that Achuthanandan, who contributed to the development of this system during EK Nayanar’s chief ministership, is at the receiving end now.
The main reason why this government has not been able to rise up to expectations is that it is not able to work with one mind. From the beginning, the CPI (M) and the CPI, the two main constituents of the front, were at loggerheads on many issues. While disputes arose and were settled, some schemes have disappeared. The food security scheme, about which there was a furore, is an example. The official version is that it is being implemented in some form or the other. However, it is already clear that it is not going the way it was expected to go and that it may not achieve the goals.
Even greater than the fight between the CPI (M) and the CPI is the fight within the CPI (M). What reflects in the line-up in which the Chief Minister is on one side and the Party Secretary’s loyal followers on the other is the sectarianism in the party. Clearly the claim that sectarianism ended with the Kottayam conference is not true.
The present government took office creating the impression that it is a continuation of the first EMS government. The biggest achievement of that government was land reform. Today we are conscious of the weaknesses of the decisions taken then. Those who were denied benefits at that time are clamouring for justice. When the Chief Minister took a personal interest in the attempt to reclaim the lands encroached upon by various groups, including political parties, the people viewed it as an attempt to rectify past mistakes and go forward. The court, recognizing the sincerity of purpose and will of the government, placed no obstacles in its way. But the political parties intervened and defeated it. Now the Chief Minister is engaged in a bid to revive and carry forward the aborted Munnar operation. For this effort to succeed, the party leadership must give up its enthusiasm to protect vested interests. There is nothing to indicate that it is ready to do so.
One after another, decisions are emerging from AKG Bhavan for rate revision. The ruling front meets and endorses them formally. After that, the rubber stamp in the Secretariat is put on them. In two and a half years, this government has increased electricity charges, water tax, milk prices and bus fares, some of them twice or thrice. When production costs go up, the consumer will have to pay more. But all the rate revisions of the recent past cannot be justified on this basis. Rate revision has become imperative because of mismanagement by the politicians and bureaucrats who are in charge of institutions. In the last budget, the Finance Minister provided Rs. 7 billion to rescue the State Road Transport Corporation. But no steps were taken to improve its working. The same thing is happening in the case of institutions like the Electricity Board and the Water Authority. The assistance the Cooperation Minister extended to debt-ridden cooperative institutions provided only temporary relief. It has worsened the financial position of some other cooperative institutions. All this has created a big pile of failures. While that remains, the government’s image will remain poor. The effect of the good work it has done will be lost.
These are matters which deserve the urgent attention of the Chief Minister and other ministers. Their decision to go to New Delhi for a Parliament March to protest against Central neglect, when there is enough work of this kind to be done here, is irresponsible. It is also an affront to the people who entrusted them with the responsibility for governance. Central neglect is a rotten old slogan which emits a bad odour. It was possible for the Left to find justification for such a slogan when one party monopolized power at the Centre and in most States. The Left leadership is actually proclaiming its intellectual and political bankruptcy when it levels this allegation against a government which it backed for two years.
As a political party which is now fully in opposition, the CPI (M) certainly has the right to agitate against the Central government and the parties that wield power at the Centre. It is the party which must lead that agitation, not the Cabinet. The Party Secretary had led a march from Kasergode to Thiruvananthapuram before the Assembly elections. Isn’t it appropriate for him to lead the Delhi programme, which is being staged with an eye to the Lok Sabha elections? If the party wants to raise the agitation to a higher level, let General Secretary Prakash Karat lead it.
Just as the State has complaints against the Centre, the panchayats may have complaints against the State. What the CPI (M) plans to do in New Delhi is no different from a demonstration which the opposition front may organize by bringing presidents and members of panchayats under their control to Thiruvananthapuram.
Based on article written for ‘Nerkkazhcha’ column of Kerala Kaumudi edition dated October 2, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Chengara: Independence Day thoughts
BLOCKED: The police blocking a group of Chengara-bound human rights activists near the Chengara junction on Thursday. Photo: The Hindu
Since August 3, some persons, said to be plantation workers, have been engaged in a blockade to force several thousand landless people, most of them Dalits and Adivasis, out of the Chengara estate in Pathanamthitta district, where they have been squatting for a year demanding farm land.
While the squatters have been peaceful, the workers involved in the blockade have been violent. They have forcibly prevented social activists from meeting the squatters and damaged their vehicles. They have also abducted women squatters who came out of the estate to fetch necessities.
The police, who are present in the area, are clearly in collusion with the workers, who are under the flags of different political parties, including the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which heads the government of Kerala. They have arrested and removed activists who wanted to assert their right to enter the estate and meet the squatters.
The blockade is inhuman. It denies the squatters, who include a large number of women and children, access to food and medicine. According to media reports, the unions are taking a tough stance and the situation is getting more complex. (See report in The Hindu.)
The government of Kerala held two rounds of talks on the issue. One meeting was called by the Chief Minister and the other by the Collector of Pathanamthitta. Clearly there can be no peaceful solution of the problem so long as the blockade, organised with the tacit approval of the CPI (M) and support of the government machinery, lasts. A small incident can lead to a repetition of Muthanga (where the Kerala police broke up a similar agitation using bullets, when the United Democratic Front was in power) or Nandigram (where the West Bengal police broke up a similar agitation in a joint operation with CPI-M cadres and goons).
Let us ask the CPI (M), which, as the ruling party, has a duty to act in a responsible manner, to call off the blockade and create conditions favourable to peaceful resolution of the problem. I have sent today a message to the Chief Minister, the Collector of Pathanamthitta, the General Secretary of the CPI (M) and the State Secretary of the CPI (M) in this regard. The text of the message and the e-mail addresses of the persons concerned are given below. I appeal to all those who are in agreement with these sentiments to write to them too.
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Mr.V.S.Achuthanandan, Chief Minister of Kerala (chiefminister@kerala.gov.in)
Mr. P.C.Sanalkumar, District Collector, Pathanamthitta (dcpta@kerala.nic.in)
Mr. Prakash Karat, General Secretary, CPI-M (prakash@cpim.org)
Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan, Secretary, CPI-M, Kerala (cpmkerala@asianetindia.com)
The blockade of Chengara estate by workers, with the tacit approval of the CPI (M) and connivance of officials, has created a serious situation.
I earnestly urge the CPI (M) and the State government to use their influence and put an immediate end to the inhuman blockade, which denies several thousand squatters access to food and medicine, and resume talks with them to find a peaceful solution to their problems.
B.R.P.Bhaskar
Silpam, NRA C-29,
Cheruvickal,
Sreekaryam,
Thiruvananthapuram 695017
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Monday, June 16, 2008
LDF differences turn governance into spectator sport
When Justice S.Siri Jagan of the Kerala high court takes up the Golf Club case again, he will have before him two affidavits filed by different officials of the State government, making contradictory claims.
In an affidavit, filed on Friday, U. Shajimon, Under Secretary in the Law department, said Revenue Principal Secretary Nivedita P.Haran had made false statements in her affidavit, filed earlier in the week.
Obviously, both of the officials cannot be right. Justice Siri Jagan has the onerous task of distilling the truth from their sworn statements.
According to Food and Civil Supplies Minister C. Divakaran, this is a matter between two officers, and the government will not get involved in it. Actually, however, this is not a matter between two officials, but one between two departments of the government.
At the political level, it is also a matter between the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which heads the ruling Left Democratic Front, and the CPI, the second largest constituent of the coalition. Revenue Minister KP Rajendran, who belongs to the CPI, endorses the contents of the Revenue Secretary's affidavit. Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan and Law Minister M. Vijayakumar, both of whom belong to the CPI-M, support the Law official's affidavit.
The war of affidavits is the latest episode in the serial drama touched off by the administration's ham-handed attempt to take over the Trivandrum Golf Club.
The club, located on government property, was closed and sealed by the District Collector, during a weekend, acting on a directive issued by the Revenue Principal Secretary in pursuance of a cabinet decision.
The cabinet took the decision on Friday and asked the official to give effect to it within two days. Evidently, the time-frame was set with a view to completing the takeover before likely court intervention the following Monday.
The club filed a writ petition challenging the cabinet decision on Friday itself. Justice Siri Jagan instructed the Registrar of the high court to inform the Advocate General about the petition and advise the government against taking any action until the matter was taken up on Monday.
A government lawyer and the Law Secretary informed Haran of the judge's direction, but she did not recall the order issued to the Collector to take over the club.
Justice Siri Jagan took a dim view of the government action. He asked the government to return the property to the club within 24 hours. He also directed the Principal Secretary to appear in person to explain her conduct.
However, on a review petition filed by her, he exempted her from personal appearance.
In her affidavit, Nivedita P. Haran said she had consulted the Revenue Minister and he had told her to go ahead with the takeover decision since she had received no written instructions to the contrary.
This is not the first time that the LDF government has revealed itself as a divided house. From the very outset, governance has been reduced to the level of a spectator sport.
In the early days of the government, the public was treated to the spectacle of the Chief Minister and CPI-M ministers loyal to party State Secretary pulling in different directions.
The drive against encroachments in the hill resort of Munnar left both the government and the parties divided. The Chief Minister, who sent a team of officials to evict the encroachers, faced opposition from the organisational wings of both the CPI-M and the CPI.
The present situation is more complex than anything witnessed during the past two years. The LDF government now stands before the high court as one incapable of speaking with one voice.
Although the high court summoned Nivedita P. Haran in her official capacity, her review petition is a personal response. She has engaged her own lawyer instead of relying on the government's law officers to get her off the hook.
The government's top law officers also stand divided. On Saturday, the Chief Minister conceded the Revenue Minister's demand that the golf club case be taken away from CPI(M)-nominated Advocate General Sudhakar Prasad and entrusted with CPI-nominated Additional Advocate General Venganoor Chandrasekharan Nair.
However, Sudhakar Prasad will represent the government before Justice Siri Jagan during the hearing on Nivedita P. Haran's review petition.
The government will probably have a lot of egg on its face when this drama ends. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, June 16, 2008.
In an affidavit, filed on Friday, U. Shajimon, Under Secretary in the Law department, said Revenue Principal Secretary Nivedita P.Haran had made false statements in her affidavit, filed earlier in the week.
Obviously, both of the officials cannot be right. Justice Siri Jagan has the onerous task of distilling the truth from their sworn statements.
According to Food and Civil Supplies Minister C. Divakaran, this is a matter between two officers, and the government will not get involved in it. Actually, however, this is not a matter between two officials, but one between two departments of the government.
At the political level, it is also a matter between the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which heads the ruling Left Democratic Front, and the CPI, the second largest constituent of the coalition. Revenue Minister KP Rajendran, who belongs to the CPI, endorses the contents of the Revenue Secretary's affidavit. Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan and Law Minister M. Vijayakumar, both of whom belong to the CPI-M, support the Law official's affidavit.
The war of affidavits is the latest episode in the serial drama touched off by the administration's ham-handed attempt to take over the Trivandrum Golf Club.
The club, located on government property, was closed and sealed by the District Collector, during a weekend, acting on a directive issued by the Revenue Principal Secretary in pursuance of a cabinet decision.
The cabinet took the decision on Friday and asked the official to give effect to it within two days. Evidently, the time-frame was set with a view to completing the takeover before likely court intervention the following Monday.
The club filed a writ petition challenging the cabinet decision on Friday itself. Justice Siri Jagan instructed the Registrar of the high court to inform the Advocate General about the petition and advise the government against taking any action until the matter was taken up on Monday.
A government lawyer and the Law Secretary informed Haran of the judge's direction, but she did not recall the order issued to the Collector to take over the club.
Justice Siri Jagan took a dim view of the government action. He asked the government to return the property to the club within 24 hours. He also directed the Principal Secretary to appear in person to explain her conduct.
However, on a review petition filed by her, he exempted her from personal appearance.
In her affidavit, Nivedita P. Haran said she had consulted the Revenue Minister and he had told her to go ahead with the takeover decision since she had received no written instructions to the contrary.
This is not the first time that the LDF government has revealed itself as a divided house. From the very outset, governance has been reduced to the level of a spectator sport.
In the early days of the government, the public was treated to the spectacle of the Chief Minister and CPI-M ministers loyal to party State Secretary pulling in different directions.
The drive against encroachments in the hill resort of Munnar left both the government and the parties divided. The Chief Minister, who sent a team of officials to evict the encroachers, faced opposition from the organisational wings of both the CPI-M and the CPI.
The present situation is more complex than anything witnessed during the past two years. The LDF government now stands before the high court as one incapable of speaking with one voice.
Although the high court summoned Nivedita P. Haran in her official capacity, her review petition is a personal response. She has engaged her own lawyer instead of relying on the government's law officers to get her off the hook.
The government's top law officers also stand divided. On Saturday, the Chief Minister conceded the Revenue Minister's demand that the golf club case be taken away from CPI(M)-nominated Advocate General Sudhakar Prasad and entrusted with CPI-nominated Additional Advocate General Venganoor Chandrasekharan Nair.
However, Sudhakar Prasad will represent the government before Justice Siri Jagan during the hearing on Nivedita P. Haran's review petition.
The government will probably have a lot of egg on its face when this drama ends. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, June 16, 2008.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Karnataka poll results: there is cause for worry
The Bharatiya Janata Party's coming to power in Karnataka on its own has strengthened its hopes regarding the next Lok Sabha elections. This is a development which gives cause for worry not only to the Congress but also others who view the BJP’s comeback with anxiety.
Keen observers knew that the BJP would improve its position in Karnataka. But no one expected it to be in a position to form the government without relying on other political parties. Like Mayavati’s Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh, The BJP earned the eight to form a single-party government, by making a performance that exceeded everyone’s expectations. The credit for these parties’ unexpected triumph does not really belong to them. It belongs to the voters of the two States. It looks as though they had decided in advance that a hung legislature must be avoided.
Parties pick candidates and plan campaign strategy on the basis that voters are led by such factors as caste, religion and narrow, local issues. But they possess a democratic sense that enables them to rise above such factors when necessary. Their rejecting not only the Congress but also Indira Gandhi in 1977 and welcoming both back after three years prove this. In both those elections, Kerala acted differently from the rest of the country. There is a moral in this: too much enlightenment, like too much cleverness, may lead one astray.
The liberal approach of the Election Commission enables many political parties today to pose as national parties. By getting a foothold in a southern State, the BJP has truly earned the right to be called a national party. But it may not be easy for the party to replicate the Karnataka victory in the neighbouring States. This is because conditions in the other States are quite different from those of Karnataka. If any State offers scope for the BJP to grow fast, it is Kerala. The moves made by the State’s secular parties, including the CPI (M), hoping to make temporary gains, may well help realize the Sangh Parivar’s dream of a Hindu vote.
A two-party system has been in place in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for some time. The latest election results indicate that Karnataka, too, is ready to move in that direction. It needs to be noted that, like the BJP, the Congress too bettered its position in the State. While the BJP’s strength in the legislature rose from 79 to 110, the Congress’s rose from 65 to 80. Both grew at the expense of the other parties. The worst sufferer was H.D. Deva Gowda’s Janata Dal (Secular). Its strength fell from 58 to 28. No other party has representation in the new house.
The CPI (M)’s central leadership had identified Karnataka as a place where conditions are favourable for the growth of the party, whose influence is now limited to three States. It had also asked the Kerala unit to take an interest in party affairs there. A Malayali who has been active in the trade union sector in Bangalore for a long time was recently elected as the State party secretary. The beginning has not been good. The party lost even the one seat it held in the last Assembly. The poor performance of Deva Gowda’s party and the extinction of all other parties is a bigger blow to the party than the loss of that seat. When the BJP and the Congress gain strength and the other parties disappear, the CPI (M)’s hopes of a third bloc collapse.
The Lok Sabha elections are not due until next year. There was speculation some time ago that the Congress may go to the electorate sooner instead of waiting for the term of the house to expire. Recently the Election Commission disclosed that it is ready to hold the Lok Sabha elections any time after August 31. The question before the Congress is whether or not waiting for a year will do it good. If it decides to wait until the term of the present house runs out, it will have to face four Assembly elections before that. Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi are the States where Assembly elections are coming up. In all these States, the contest is essentially between the BJP and the Congress. Of the four, Delhi alone is with the Congress now. It does not have the ability to make a dramatic advance in any of the States.
The issue that frightens the Congress most is price rise. The parties in power at the Centre and the State usually blame each other on this issue. Actually this is not a problem which can be solved entirely by the Central government and the State governments, acting alone or even together. If oil prices continue to rise in the international market, commodity prices will continue to rise in the country.
An issue like price rise can upset electoral calculations. But the Congress is not able to face elections with confidence now not because of problems like this but because of its organizational weaknesses. Sonia Gandhi has been able to avoid division within the party. But she has not been able to strengthen the party. In fact, she has not even taken any fruitful step in that direction. Those around her are people who lack popular support and wide contacts. The Congress cannot get out of its present plight until it creates circumstances conducive to the emergence of able leaders at the lower levels through the democratic process.
Based on column 'Nerkkazhcha' appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated May 29, 2008
Keen observers knew that the BJP would improve its position in Karnataka. But no one expected it to be in a position to form the government without relying on other political parties. Like Mayavati’s Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh, The BJP earned the eight to form a single-party government, by making a performance that exceeded everyone’s expectations. The credit for these parties’ unexpected triumph does not really belong to them. It belongs to the voters of the two States. It looks as though they had decided in advance that a hung legislature must be avoided.
Parties pick candidates and plan campaign strategy on the basis that voters are led by such factors as caste, religion and narrow, local issues. But they possess a democratic sense that enables them to rise above such factors when necessary. Their rejecting not only the Congress but also Indira Gandhi in 1977 and welcoming both back after three years prove this. In both those elections, Kerala acted differently from the rest of the country. There is a moral in this: too much enlightenment, like too much cleverness, may lead one astray.
The liberal approach of the Election Commission enables many political parties today to pose as national parties. By getting a foothold in a southern State, the BJP has truly earned the right to be called a national party. But it may not be easy for the party to replicate the Karnataka victory in the neighbouring States. This is because conditions in the other States are quite different from those of Karnataka. If any State offers scope for the BJP to grow fast, it is Kerala. The moves made by the State’s secular parties, including the CPI (M), hoping to make temporary gains, may well help realize the Sangh Parivar’s dream of a Hindu vote.
A two-party system has been in place in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for some time. The latest election results indicate that Karnataka, too, is ready to move in that direction. It needs to be noted that, like the BJP, the Congress too bettered its position in the State. While the BJP’s strength in the legislature rose from 79 to 110, the Congress’s rose from 65 to 80. Both grew at the expense of the other parties. The worst sufferer was H.D. Deva Gowda’s Janata Dal (Secular). Its strength fell from 58 to 28. No other party has representation in the new house.
The CPI (M)’s central leadership had identified Karnataka as a place where conditions are favourable for the growth of the party, whose influence is now limited to three States. It had also asked the Kerala unit to take an interest in party affairs there. A Malayali who has been active in the trade union sector in Bangalore for a long time was recently elected as the State party secretary. The beginning has not been good. The party lost even the one seat it held in the last Assembly. The poor performance of Deva Gowda’s party and the extinction of all other parties is a bigger blow to the party than the loss of that seat. When the BJP and the Congress gain strength and the other parties disappear, the CPI (M)’s hopes of a third bloc collapse.
The Lok Sabha elections are not due until next year. There was speculation some time ago that the Congress may go to the electorate sooner instead of waiting for the term of the house to expire. Recently the Election Commission disclosed that it is ready to hold the Lok Sabha elections any time after August 31. The question before the Congress is whether or not waiting for a year will do it good. If it decides to wait until the term of the present house runs out, it will have to face four Assembly elections before that. Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi are the States where Assembly elections are coming up. In all these States, the contest is essentially between the BJP and the Congress. Of the four, Delhi alone is with the Congress now. It does not have the ability to make a dramatic advance in any of the States.
The issue that frightens the Congress most is price rise. The parties in power at the Centre and the State usually blame each other on this issue. Actually this is not a problem which can be solved entirely by the Central government and the State governments, acting alone or even together. If oil prices continue to rise in the international market, commodity prices will continue to rise in the country.
An issue like price rise can upset electoral calculations. But the Congress is not able to face elections with confidence now not because of problems like this but because of its organizational weaknesses. Sonia Gandhi has been able to avoid division within the party. But she has not been able to strengthen the party. In fact, she has not even taken any fruitful step in that direction. Those around her are people who lack popular support and wide contacts. The Congress cannot get out of its present plight until it creates circumstances conducive to the emergence of able leaders at the lower levels through the democratic process.
Based on column 'Nerkkazhcha' appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated May 29, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Calculations behind food security scheme
The main weakness of the Left Democratic Front government is its inability to take and implement decisions. This has been in evidence from its early days. Since sectarianism was raging in the Communist Party of India (Marxist) at the time everyone assumed that was what stood in the way of decision-making. The fate of the food security scheme shows that even after the State party secretary emerged stronger and the Chief Minister yielded to the party leadership, the situation has not improved.
When the State Cabinet could not take a decision on the scheme because of differences between the CPI (M), which leads the Front, and the CPI, the second largest party, the matter was referred to the LDF. The issue could not be decided even there. According to reports, there are two hurdles. One relates to mobilization of funds for the scheme. The other relates to responsibility for implementation of the scheme. The CPI (M) wants the money to be found from the budget allocations of the departments of Agriculture and Civil Supplies and the implementation to be supervised by a ministerial committee with the Chief Minister as chairman and Agriculture Minister as convener. Agriculture and Civil Supplies are both under CPI ministers. The CPI argues that separate allocation must be made for the scheme since it cannot be implemented with the budget allocations of the two departments and that the guidelines prepared by the Centre envisage supervision by the Agriculture Minister.
While the scheme remained entangled in controversy, there were reports that the CPI plans to go ahead with its own food security scheme. An English language newspaper reported the other day that a scheme to make the State self-sufficient in rice in three years by bringing at least 10 acres of land in each panchayat under paddy was remaining unimplemented because of lack of cooperation from Agriculture officials and that the panchayat authorities have been instructed to go ahead with it without the help of that department. Some pro-CPI (M) source must be behind that fable. It appears the two parties are trying to bolster their positions using the media.
The arguments of both sides are not fully rational. If the food security scheme is to be implemented with the funds of the Agriculture and Civil Supplies departments, what is the need for a committee headed by the Chief Minister? Although Kerala’s coalition politics and the CPI (M)’s power structure have rendered the Chief Minister weak, he has the power to look into the working of all ministers. If V.S. Achuthanandan is ready to use that power, it is not necessary to form a committee which includes other CPI (M) ministers too. The CPI need not view his intervention as interference in its departments.
Statements attributed to the Finance Minister in some newspaper reports suggest that the CPI (M) is using its hold on the purse to persuade the CPI to fall in line. At one place he said that the CPI alone could not find the funds needed for the scheme. At another place he said that money was no problem.
The State’s food security scheme has to be implemented on the basis of the Food Security Mission approved by the National Development Council last year. For some reason, Kerala was not included in the programme in the first year. If the ruling parties continue to quarrel over it, the State may be bypassed again. If that happens, the responsibility will rest with the Communist parties.
As far as is known, there is no dispute between the CPI (M) and the CPI on the content of the scheme. The only issue is who must be responsible for its implementation. The Centre has created a two-level set-up. There is a general council headed by the Union Agriculture Minister and an executive committee consisting of officials. The Centre envisages an executive committee with the Chief Secretary as the chairman at the State level. A committee of officials is proposed at the district level too.
It is the tendency to view power as an opportunity to dispense favours and build up party strength that prompts the CPI (M) and the CPI compete to take the scheme in their own hands. The Centre’s food security mission is a Rs. 50-billion enterprise. As with the Kudumbashree, the State government may be able to add some things to the Central scheme. Actually, implementation of the scheme is not the responsibility of any particular department. The Centre has suggested the establishment of autonomous bodies under the Societies Registration Act at the State level for the purpose. Central assistance for approved programmes will be made available to these bodies directly.
The Centre’s guidelines regarding utilization of funds also provide opportunities for dispensation of patronage. Of the funds set apart for the scheme, 33% is to be earmarked for marginalized small farmers and women farmers. The Centre has also suggested that money must be provided for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population in the district. Given our rulers’ expertise in diversion of funds from one head to another, the extent to which these allocations materialize remains to be seen. Official figures show that Kerala has not fully utilized the funds allotted for agriculture in any of the five-year Plans. The political leadership needs to correct the impression that governance is patronage dispensation.
Based on column “Nerkkazhcha” appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated May 22, 2008.
When the State Cabinet could not take a decision on the scheme because of differences between the CPI (M), which leads the Front, and the CPI, the second largest party, the matter was referred to the LDF. The issue could not be decided even there. According to reports, there are two hurdles. One relates to mobilization of funds for the scheme. The other relates to responsibility for implementation of the scheme. The CPI (M) wants the money to be found from the budget allocations of the departments of Agriculture and Civil Supplies and the implementation to be supervised by a ministerial committee with the Chief Minister as chairman and Agriculture Minister as convener. Agriculture and Civil Supplies are both under CPI ministers. The CPI argues that separate allocation must be made for the scheme since it cannot be implemented with the budget allocations of the two departments and that the guidelines prepared by the Centre envisage supervision by the Agriculture Minister.
While the scheme remained entangled in controversy, there were reports that the CPI plans to go ahead with its own food security scheme. An English language newspaper reported the other day that a scheme to make the State self-sufficient in rice in three years by bringing at least 10 acres of land in each panchayat under paddy was remaining unimplemented because of lack of cooperation from Agriculture officials and that the panchayat authorities have been instructed to go ahead with it without the help of that department. Some pro-CPI (M) source must be behind that fable. It appears the two parties are trying to bolster their positions using the media.
The arguments of both sides are not fully rational. If the food security scheme is to be implemented with the funds of the Agriculture and Civil Supplies departments, what is the need for a committee headed by the Chief Minister? Although Kerala’s coalition politics and the CPI (M)’s power structure have rendered the Chief Minister weak, he has the power to look into the working of all ministers. If V.S. Achuthanandan is ready to use that power, it is not necessary to form a committee which includes other CPI (M) ministers too. The CPI need not view his intervention as interference in its departments.
Statements attributed to the Finance Minister in some newspaper reports suggest that the CPI (M) is using its hold on the purse to persuade the CPI to fall in line. At one place he said that the CPI alone could not find the funds needed for the scheme. At another place he said that money was no problem.
The State’s food security scheme has to be implemented on the basis of the Food Security Mission approved by the National Development Council last year. For some reason, Kerala was not included in the programme in the first year. If the ruling parties continue to quarrel over it, the State may be bypassed again. If that happens, the responsibility will rest with the Communist parties.
As far as is known, there is no dispute between the CPI (M) and the CPI on the content of the scheme. The only issue is who must be responsible for its implementation. The Centre has created a two-level set-up. There is a general council headed by the Union Agriculture Minister and an executive committee consisting of officials. The Centre envisages an executive committee with the Chief Secretary as the chairman at the State level. A committee of officials is proposed at the district level too.
It is the tendency to view power as an opportunity to dispense favours and build up party strength that prompts the CPI (M) and the CPI compete to take the scheme in their own hands. The Centre’s food security mission is a Rs. 50-billion enterprise. As with the Kudumbashree, the State government may be able to add some things to the Central scheme. Actually, implementation of the scheme is not the responsibility of any particular department. The Centre has suggested the establishment of autonomous bodies under the Societies Registration Act at the State level for the purpose. Central assistance for approved programmes will be made available to these bodies directly.
The Centre’s guidelines regarding utilization of funds also provide opportunities for dispensation of patronage. Of the funds set apart for the scheme, 33% is to be earmarked for marginalized small farmers and women farmers. The Centre has also suggested that money must be provided for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population in the district. Given our rulers’ expertise in diversion of funds from one head to another, the extent to which these allocations materialize remains to be seen. Official figures show that Kerala has not fully utilized the funds allotted for agriculture in any of the five-year Plans. The political leadership needs to correct the impression that governance is patronage dispensation.
Based on column “Nerkkazhcha” appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated May 22, 2008.
Monday, May 12, 2008
LDF government completes second year on dull note
Five years ago, as the United Democratic Front government was entering its third year, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) organised a conversation between its State Secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan, and Professor Ninan Koshy, educationist and social activist. The party newspaper reproduced the dialogue under the headline "Two years of UDF misrule."
It is now the UDF's turn to return the compliment. As the Left Democratic Front government prepares to celebrate its second anniversary, which falls on Sunday next (May 18), the UDF is getting ready to observe "betrayal day".
"Since the LDF has failed to deliver, we have no option but to protest," UDF Convener PP Thankachan had said last month.
Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan described the UDF "betrayal day" as routine mourning. However, the upbeat mood that prevailed in the LDF camp as the government entered the second year is clearly lacking as it enters the third year.
The government's first year was marked by infighting in the CPI (M). Ministers belonging to the Pinarayi Vijayan faction appeared to have an agenda of their own. Emboldened by the party secretary's patronage, they even defied the Chief Minister on some occasions.
Yet the government had two major achievements to its credit: the Smart City deal with the Dubai Internet City authorities to set up an IT park and the Munnar evictions which raised hopes of putting an end to land grabbing.
On the eve of the second anniversary, the sectarianism that raged on the CPI (M) a year ago has subsided. The Central leadership has made it clear that the dominant faction cannot dislodge the Chief Minister.
However, there is no new achievement to create the kind of euphoria that was in evidence a year ago. In fact, no significant project has taken shape in the past year.
A few days ago the Chief Minister announced plans to launch or commission a number of schemes as part of the anniversary celebrations. It is difficult to feel enthused by the planned events.
Take, for instance, the foundation stone laying ceremonies. One of the institutions for which foundation stone is to be laid is the Space Research Institute. It is a project of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
The foundation stone lying ceremonies of the Indian Institute of Science and the International Convention Centre on the banks of the Akkulam Lake are premature. Work on these projects cannot be taken up immediately as the necessary formalities are incomplete.
The State can take credit for the Neriamangalam hydro-electric extension project, which is to be commissioned during the anniversary celebrations. But the LDF has to share it with the UDF. It was the UDF government that launched the project, which has raised the State's power generation capacity by a modest 25 MW.
Another anniversary scheme envisages writing off agricultural loans of up to Rs. 25,000, which will reportedly benefit 41,000 farmers of Wayanad district. Critics have pointed out that the loan waiver is under a Central scheme, not the State scheme announced earlier.
On the agricultural front, the government's record remains dismal. Differences between the CPI (M) and the CPI have stalled the food security scheme proposed by the Centre.
The draft scheme circulated by the Centre envisages the formation of a committee under the State Agriculture Minister to oversee its implementation. The CPI (M), however, wants a committee of ministers, headed by the Chief Minister, to be in charge.
Apparently the CPI (M) wants to have control over this scheme and is not willing to leave it to the CPI, which holds charge of Agriculture. The LDF could not resolve the dispute as both the parties were unrelenting.
Meanwhile there is reason to think that the LDF mandate has started running out. In a set of 24 panchayat by-elections held last week, the UDF grabbed five seats from the LDF, one from the Bharatiya Janata Party and two from independents to chalk up a total of 12 seats. The LDF got 11 seats, of which only one was previously held by the UDF. One seat went to an independent.
The UDF lead may be slender but this is the first time in two years that it has had an edge over the LDF in panchayat elections. In the by-elections held earlier, the LDF had fared better than the UDF. –Gulf Today, Sharjah, May 12, 2008
It is now the UDF's turn to return the compliment. As the Left Democratic Front government prepares to celebrate its second anniversary, which falls on Sunday next (May 18), the UDF is getting ready to observe "betrayal day".
"Since the LDF has failed to deliver, we have no option but to protest," UDF Convener PP Thankachan had said last month.
Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan described the UDF "betrayal day" as routine mourning. However, the upbeat mood that prevailed in the LDF camp as the government entered the second year is clearly lacking as it enters the third year.
The government's first year was marked by infighting in the CPI (M). Ministers belonging to the Pinarayi Vijayan faction appeared to have an agenda of their own. Emboldened by the party secretary's patronage, they even defied the Chief Minister on some occasions.
Yet the government had two major achievements to its credit: the Smart City deal with the Dubai Internet City authorities to set up an IT park and the Munnar evictions which raised hopes of putting an end to land grabbing.
On the eve of the second anniversary, the sectarianism that raged on the CPI (M) a year ago has subsided. The Central leadership has made it clear that the dominant faction cannot dislodge the Chief Minister.
However, there is no new achievement to create the kind of euphoria that was in evidence a year ago. In fact, no significant project has taken shape in the past year.
A few days ago the Chief Minister announced plans to launch or commission a number of schemes as part of the anniversary celebrations. It is difficult to feel enthused by the planned events.
Take, for instance, the foundation stone laying ceremonies. One of the institutions for which foundation stone is to be laid is the Space Research Institute. It is a project of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
The foundation stone lying ceremonies of the Indian Institute of Science and the International Convention Centre on the banks of the Akkulam Lake are premature. Work on these projects cannot be taken up immediately as the necessary formalities are incomplete.
The State can take credit for the Neriamangalam hydro-electric extension project, which is to be commissioned during the anniversary celebrations. But the LDF has to share it with the UDF. It was the UDF government that launched the project, which has raised the State's power generation capacity by a modest 25 MW.
Another anniversary scheme envisages writing off agricultural loans of up to Rs. 25,000, which will reportedly benefit 41,000 farmers of Wayanad district. Critics have pointed out that the loan waiver is under a Central scheme, not the State scheme announced earlier.
On the agricultural front, the government's record remains dismal. Differences between the CPI (M) and the CPI have stalled the food security scheme proposed by the Centre.
The draft scheme circulated by the Centre envisages the formation of a committee under the State Agriculture Minister to oversee its implementation. The CPI (M), however, wants a committee of ministers, headed by the Chief Minister, to be in charge.
Apparently the CPI (M) wants to have control over this scheme and is not willing to leave it to the CPI, which holds charge of Agriculture. The LDF could not resolve the dispute as both the parties were unrelenting.
Meanwhile there is reason to think that the LDF mandate has started running out. In a set of 24 panchayat by-elections held last week, the UDF grabbed five seats from the LDF, one from the Bharatiya Janata Party and two from independents to chalk up a total of 12 seats. The LDF got 11 seats, of which only one was previously held by the UDF. One seat went to an independent.
The UDF lead may be slender but this is the first time in two years that it has had an edge over the LDF in panchayat elections. In the by-elections held earlier, the LDF had fared better than the UDF. –Gulf Today, Sharjah, May 12, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Hartal day surrender: how did we come to this pass?
The Bharatiya Janata Party wields power in the largest number of States. In Kerala, it has not been able to win a single seat in the Assembly so far. Yet when the party called a nationwide hartal on the issue of price rise it was Kerala that responded most enthusiastically. There was no comparable response in the States known as its strongholds.
It is not possible to conclude that the hartal was a success in Kerala because all people suffering as a result of the price rise responded whole-heartedly. After the national hartal, the BJP had organized a local hartal in Thalasseri. That hartal was in protest against some Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh workers in connection with the recent violent incidents there. Thalasseri is a fortress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Yet the BJP hartal was a complete success.
Some observers are of the view that Malayalis welcome hartals as they can stay at home without going to work. It is said that liquor sales go up just before a hartal. That indicates how the people spend the hartal day. Apparently taking into account these facts a newspaper headline of May 3 proclaimed that Kerala celebrated hartal.
It can be assumed that this hartal ritual was developed by salaried middle class employees who can write a leave letter to cover the day’s absence. If there is a strong union, the leave application formality can even be dispensed with. Workers who toil to earn wages on daily basis cannot celebrate hartal in this manner. For them, hartal means loss of work or loss of wage. Yet they too observe the ritual. Thus CPI (M) men let the BJP hartal succeed. And BJP men likewise let the CPI (M) hartal succeed. That is the etiquette of hartal.
It is not political parties and trade unions alone that organize hartal here. Organizations of trade and industry also organize hartal. On such occasions the employer and the employee take a break from class war and join hands to make it a success. There have also been occasions when religious heads, in their capacity as religious heads or as teaching shop owners, called hartal. They too have been great successes.
Whatever the problem, whoever issues the call, we are ever ready to participate in hartal. Maybe such generalization is not in order. I believe some do not venture out on hartal day because of fear. Vehicle owners have to be afraid of those with stones in hand. However, one facts needs to be acknowledged. The middle class Malayali loves hartal. It is another matter whether laziness or cowardice is behind it.
How did we reach this state? Who mentally prepared us to surrender at the very mention of hartal? Why do we, who acquired strength through organization, turn into jelly in the presence of all organized forces? These are not questions that can be answered in one word. To arrive at right answers we have to sift through the history of the last five or six decades. That cannot be done within the limited framework of a newspaper column. But extensive research is not needed to understand that political parties have a clear responsibility in this matter.
Many of the problems Kerala faces today are the result of short-cuts taken by the parties to establish their supremacy. The Chief Minister drew attention to one such short-cut recently. He said the Congress’s ties with religious and casteist forces had led to the growth of communalism. His party, too, had tried to capture caste organizations and establish relations with them. This is something its own leaders have revealed. When Pinarayi Vijayan said that “nokkukooli” (wage for looking on) is extortion Oommen Chandy and K. Karunakaran ridiculed it as belated wisdom. Who does not know that Congress unions too collected “nokkukooli”, although the CPI (M) unions initiated the practice? Even after Pinarayi Vijayan’s public rebuke, CITU, INTUC and BMS unions were reported to have jointly extracted “nokkukooli” from a public sector undertaking. This means the problem will not get resolved merely because the leadership is ready to admit a mistake. Strenuous effort is needed to rectify many mistakes.
Our main problem is that there has been no significant change in the feudal character of the society. I remember reading somewhere that man does not give up anything; he only goes in for substitutes. That seems to be correct in our case. We have installed new masters in place of the old ones. The minister who orders the arrest of the driver who overtook his car and the trade union leaders who get hold of 30 acres by facilitating a 70-acre deal are part of the band of new masters. The real issue involved in the arguments between the priest and the party secretary over whether or not an unconscious man had received the sacraments is ‘who owns the slave?’. There is no salvation for the slave who loves his chain;
Based on column “Nerkkazhcha” appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated May 8, 2008.
It is not possible to conclude that the hartal was a success in Kerala because all people suffering as a result of the price rise responded whole-heartedly. After the national hartal, the BJP had organized a local hartal in Thalasseri. That hartal was in protest against some Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh workers in connection with the recent violent incidents there. Thalasseri is a fortress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Yet the BJP hartal was a complete success.
Some observers are of the view that Malayalis welcome hartals as they can stay at home without going to work. It is said that liquor sales go up just before a hartal. That indicates how the people spend the hartal day. Apparently taking into account these facts a newspaper headline of May 3 proclaimed that Kerala celebrated hartal.
It can be assumed that this hartal ritual was developed by salaried middle class employees who can write a leave letter to cover the day’s absence. If there is a strong union, the leave application formality can even be dispensed with. Workers who toil to earn wages on daily basis cannot celebrate hartal in this manner. For them, hartal means loss of work or loss of wage. Yet they too observe the ritual. Thus CPI (M) men let the BJP hartal succeed. And BJP men likewise let the CPI (M) hartal succeed. That is the etiquette of hartal.
It is not political parties and trade unions alone that organize hartal here. Organizations of trade and industry also organize hartal. On such occasions the employer and the employee take a break from class war and join hands to make it a success. There have also been occasions when religious heads, in their capacity as religious heads or as teaching shop owners, called hartal. They too have been great successes.
Whatever the problem, whoever issues the call, we are ever ready to participate in hartal. Maybe such generalization is not in order. I believe some do not venture out on hartal day because of fear. Vehicle owners have to be afraid of those with stones in hand. However, one facts needs to be acknowledged. The middle class Malayali loves hartal. It is another matter whether laziness or cowardice is behind it.
How did we reach this state? Who mentally prepared us to surrender at the very mention of hartal? Why do we, who acquired strength through organization, turn into jelly in the presence of all organized forces? These are not questions that can be answered in one word. To arrive at right answers we have to sift through the history of the last five or six decades. That cannot be done within the limited framework of a newspaper column. But extensive research is not needed to understand that political parties have a clear responsibility in this matter.
Many of the problems Kerala faces today are the result of short-cuts taken by the parties to establish their supremacy. The Chief Minister drew attention to one such short-cut recently. He said the Congress’s ties with religious and casteist forces had led to the growth of communalism. His party, too, had tried to capture caste organizations and establish relations with them. This is something its own leaders have revealed. When Pinarayi Vijayan said that “nokkukooli” (wage for looking on) is extortion Oommen Chandy and K. Karunakaran ridiculed it as belated wisdom. Who does not know that Congress unions too collected “nokkukooli”, although the CPI (M) unions initiated the practice? Even after Pinarayi Vijayan’s public rebuke, CITU, INTUC and BMS unions were reported to have jointly extracted “nokkukooli” from a public sector undertaking. This means the problem will not get resolved merely because the leadership is ready to admit a mistake. Strenuous effort is needed to rectify many mistakes.
Our main problem is that there has been no significant change in the feudal character of the society. I remember reading somewhere that man does not give up anything; he only goes in for substitutes. That seems to be correct in our case. We have installed new masters in place of the old ones. The minister who orders the arrest of the driver who overtook his car and the trade union leaders who get hold of 30 acres by facilitating a 70-acre deal are part of the band of new masters. The real issue involved in the arguments between the priest and the party secretary over whether or not an unconscious man had received the sacraments is ‘who owns the slave?’. There is no salvation for the slave who loves his chain;
Based on column “Nerkkazhcha” appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated May 8, 2008.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Kerala CPI (M) prepares trade unions to turn a new leaf
COMMUNIST Party of India (Marxist) State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan's public denunciation of extortionist and corrupt practices of trade unions can be seen as part of a conscious bid to turn a new leaf and put Kerala firmly on the right path.
Speaking at a seminar to mark the golden jubilee of the State Assembly on Friday, Vijayan made a pointed reference to what is generally known as nokkukooli (which literally means "wages for looking on)." Without mincing words, he said collecting wages without working was robbery. Only those who worked were entitled to wages, he added.
Like bandh (forced work stoppage) and gherao (blockade), nokkukooli came into vogue as the CPI (M)-led Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) resorted to strong-arm tactics in the 1970s.
Head-load workers, organised under CITU unions, asserted that they alone had the right to carry loads and they should get wages even if an employer engaged others for loading and unloading work. Today the practice of paying nokkukooli is prevalent in many commercial centres.
Besides CITU members, workers belonging to unions affiliated to other parties, like the Indian National Trade Union Congress and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, also collect unearned wages where they are able to do so.
Even as Pinarayi Vijayan was speaking against nokkukooli in Thiruvananthapuram, CITU and BMS workers at Thrissur were holding up road repair work because a contractor had refused to pay nokkukooli.
So long as nokkukooli was confined to industries and marketplaces, the general public was not very concerned about it. When the unions extended it to cover even ordinary citizens who took help for loading and unloading public opinion rose against it, but the people could do little.
During the Emergency, K Karunakaran, as the Home Minister, kept the militant trade unions under check using the police. When anti-Emergency sentiments swept the Congress out of power in most States, Karunakaran was able to lead it to power in Kerala in 1977. Many people attributed his electoral victory to middle class citizens' appreciation of the government's role in keeping the extortionist practices of workers in check.
The last United Democratic Front government had brought forward legislation to regulate the work of head-load workers with a view to saving ordinary citizens from exploitation. The CPI (M) vehemently opposed the measure.
In his speech, Pinarayi Vijayan also referred to the need for the Left Democratic Front and UDF to adopt a constructive approach to developmental problems. "The impression that if Oommen Chandy says something, Pinarayi Vijayan has to oppose it must go," he said.
UDF leaders' immediate response to Pinarayi Vijayan's speech was along familiar lines. Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy described it as a case of delayed wisdom. If the CPI (M) had taken this position ten years ago the State would have attracted much investment by now, he remarked.
LDF Convener Vaikom Viswan and Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac quickly joined issue with them. Oommen Chandy's thinking was a century behind, Viswan quipped.
The exchanges showed that the traditional rivals would not find it easy to change their ways. After all, habits die hard.
Pinarayi Vijayan took up another issue, too, in his speech on Friday: the problems faced by ordinary citizens in government offices. He said it reflected poorly on the administration that even a small thing would not get done unless there was high-level recommendation.
People who approach government offices for certificates of any kind often have to pay bribes. However, Pinarayi Vijayan did not make any direct reference to such corruption.
The CPI (M) is the party which commands the widest following among both the working class and government employees. A determined effort by it to fight unhealthy trends can, therefore, go a long way in putting an end to evil practices.
Pinarayi Vijayan, who convincingly demonstrated his grip over the party machinery at the recent State conference, is in a position to bring about beneficial changes in the working of the State party as well as the mass organisations under its control.
Following Pinarayi Vijayan's speech, CITU State chief KN Ravindranath said the organisation was opposed to nokkukooli. He added that it would act firmly to put an end to it. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, April 28, 2008.
Speaking at a seminar to mark the golden jubilee of the State Assembly on Friday, Vijayan made a pointed reference to what is generally known as nokkukooli (which literally means "wages for looking on)." Without mincing words, he said collecting wages without working was robbery. Only those who worked were entitled to wages, he added.
Like bandh (forced work stoppage) and gherao (blockade), nokkukooli came into vogue as the CPI (M)-led Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) resorted to strong-arm tactics in the 1970s.
Head-load workers, organised under CITU unions, asserted that they alone had the right to carry loads and they should get wages even if an employer engaged others for loading and unloading work. Today the practice of paying nokkukooli is prevalent in many commercial centres.
Besides CITU members, workers belonging to unions affiliated to other parties, like the Indian National Trade Union Congress and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, also collect unearned wages where they are able to do so.
Even as Pinarayi Vijayan was speaking against nokkukooli in Thiruvananthapuram, CITU and BMS workers at Thrissur were holding up road repair work because a contractor had refused to pay nokkukooli.
So long as nokkukooli was confined to industries and marketplaces, the general public was not very concerned about it. When the unions extended it to cover even ordinary citizens who took help for loading and unloading public opinion rose against it, but the people could do little.
During the Emergency, K Karunakaran, as the Home Minister, kept the militant trade unions under check using the police. When anti-Emergency sentiments swept the Congress out of power in most States, Karunakaran was able to lead it to power in Kerala in 1977. Many people attributed his electoral victory to middle class citizens' appreciation of the government's role in keeping the extortionist practices of workers in check.
The last United Democratic Front government had brought forward legislation to regulate the work of head-load workers with a view to saving ordinary citizens from exploitation. The CPI (M) vehemently opposed the measure.
In his speech, Pinarayi Vijayan also referred to the need for the Left Democratic Front and UDF to adopt a constructive approach to developmental problems. "The impression that if Oommen Chandy says something, Pinarayi Vijayan has to oppose it must go," he said.
UDF leaders' immediate response to Pinarayi Vijayan's speech was along familiar lines. Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy described it as a case of delayed wisdom. If the CPI (M) had taken this position ten years ago the State would have attracted much investment by now, he remarked.
LDF Convener Vaikom Viswan and Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac quickly joined issue with them. Oommen Chandy's thinking was a century behind, Viswan quipped.
The exchanges showed that the traditional rivals would not find it easy to change their ways. After all, habits die hard.
Pinarayi Vijayan took up another issue, too, in his speech on Friday: the problems faced by ordinary citizens in government offices. He said it reflected poorly on the administration that even a small thing would not get done unless there was high-level recommendation.
People who approach government offices for certificates of any kind often have to pay bribes. However, Pinarayi Vijayan did not make any direct reference to such corruption.
The CPI (M) is the party which commands the widest following among both the working class and government employees. A determined effort by it to fight unhealthy trends can, therefore, go a long way in putting an end to evil practices.
Pinarayi Vijayan, who convincingly demonstrated his grip over the party machinery at the recent State conference, is in a position to bring about beneficial changes in the working of the State party as well as the mass organisations under its control.
Following Pinarayi Vijayan's speech, CITU State chief KN Ravindranath said the organisation was opposed to nokkukooli. He added that it would act firmly to put an end to it. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, April 28, 2008.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Changing grammar of protest stumps political establishment
The wretched of the earth are standing up in Kerala and re-defining the politics of agitation. Their young middle class supporters are rewriting the grammar of protest. All this has stumped the political establishment, of which the traditional Left is now the dominant element.
It all started when CK Janu marched into Thiruvananthapuram with hundreds of her tribal followers in 2001 demanding restoration of their alienated forest lands. Breaking with the tradition of staging rallies or holding meetings, they erected makeshift hutments in front of the State Secretariat and camped there.
At first, the authorities ignored the agitation. But by the 48th day Janu was able to extract from Chief Minister AK Antony a promise to allot alternative lands to all landless Adivasis.
As the government failed to honour the commitment, Janu launched another agitation. This time the Adivasis squatted in the Muthanga forest. They were driven out in February 2003 in a police action, which resulted in the death of one Adivasi and one constable.
Despite the Muthanga brutality, squatting soon became the landless Adivasis’ favoured mode of agitation. In the biggest such agitation, more than 21,000 people have been camping in a plantation at Chengara in Pathanamthitta district for the last eight months, seeking allotment of land.
The Sadhujana Vimochana Samyuktavedi (united front for liberation of poor people), which has organized the movement, is led by Laha Gopalan, a retired government employee. All the squatters are not Adivasis or Dalit, but they are all are landless, he says.
A private firm, which claims ownership of the plantation, has obtained a court order for eviction of the squatters. The order contains an express directive to avoid bloodshed. This stands in the way of police action a la Muthanga.
Recently the government sent a police party to evict the squatters. It beat a hasty retreat when some of the agitators clambered up trees with ropes and threatened to hang themselves. The suicide threat can be seen as a measure of the despair of the landless.
Although the United Democratic Front has not taken a definite stand on the Chengara agitation, prominent Congress leaders like VM Sudheeran have made gestures of support.
Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan convened a meeting of Samyuktavedi representatives and leaders of different parties recently to discuss the Chengara issue. He asked the agitators to file applications for land individually and await the government’s decision. Laha Gopalan rejected the suggestion.
Nothing positive could have emerged from the meeting as the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had taken a strong position against the agitation. It accused the Samyuktavedi of luring landless people with false promises.
The party also alleged that extremists and non-government organisations receiving funds from abroad were behind the agitation. Detractors had made similar allegations against Janu’s agitation too.
Early last month a group of young men and women from different parts of the State gathered outside the Secretariat for a ‘night vigil’ in solidarity with the Adivasis. Late at night, as the protestors were relaxing, a television camera stealthily recorded scenes showing them chatting, smoking and frolicking.
The CPI (M)-controlled Kairali channel aired the visuals with a commentary that suggested that the youth had violated the norms of public conduct. The party newspaper Deshabhimani also took up the issue.
Apparently the voyeuristic visuals were offered to other channels also, but none of them evinced interest in them.
The CPI (M) followed up the propaganda campaign with a demonstration of its own. It deputed leaders of the State unit of the All-India Democratic Women’s Association, which is affiliated to the party, for ritual cleansing of the area dirtied by the protesting youth.
The AIDWA campaign drew a derisive response from Anitha Thampi, a well-known poet. She wrote:
Don't laugh, dance or even smile!
Life is too serious a business;
Revolution is not laughter and merry making--
Stand up with reverence for the "second coming":
Don't speak, don't smoke, don't hug, and don't laugh--
Such heresies are injurious to the health of the revolution.
Media activist CS Venkiteswaran, writing in Paadhabhedam, deplored the snooping on the protestors and said, “This moral police must not be allowed to control our agitations and determine our morality.”
On Saturday the young people whose unconventional protest had angered the ruling party gathered again in Thiruvananthapuram. At a day-long conclave, they asserted their right to reject the establishment’s code and evolve their own forms of protest.--Gulf Today, Sharjah, April 14, 2008.
It all started when CK Janu marched into Thiruvananthapuram with hundreds of her tribal followers in 2001 demanding restoration of their alienated forest lands. Breaking with the tradition of staging rallies or holding meetings, they erected makeshift hutments in front of the State Secretariat and camped there.
At first, the authorities ignored the agitation. But by the 48th day Janu was able to extract from Chief Minister AK Antony a promise to allot alternative lands to all landless Adivasis.
As the government failed to honour the commitment, Janu launched another agitation. This time the Adivasis squatted in the Muthanga forest. They were driven out in February 2003 in a police action, which resulted in the death of one Adivasi and one constable.
Despite the Muthanga brutality, squatting soon became the landless Adivasis’ favoured mode of agitation. In the biggest such agitation, more than 21,000 people have been camping in a plantation at Chengara in Pathanamthitta district for the last eight months, seeking allotment of land.
The Sadhujana Vimochana Samyuktavedi (united front for liberation of poor people), which has organized the movement, is led by Laha Gopalan, a retired government employee. All the squatters are not Adivasis or Dalit, but they are all are landless, he says.
A private firm, which claims ownership of the plantation, has obtained a court order for eviction of the squatters. The order contains an express directive to avoid bloodshed. This stands in the way of police action a la Muthanga.
Recently the government sent a police party to evict the squatters. It beat a hasty retreat when some of the agitators clambered up trees with ropes and threatened to hang themselves. The suicide threat can be seen as a measure of the despair of the landless.
Although the United Democratic Front has not taken a definite stand on the Chengara agitation, prominent Congress leaders like VM Sudheeran have made gestures of support.
Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan convened a meeting of Samyuktavedi representatives and leaders of different parties recently to discuss the Chengara issue. He asked the agitators to file applications for land individually and await the government’s decision. Laha Gopalan rejected the suggestion.
Nothing positive could have emerged from the meeting as the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had taken a strong position against the agitation. It accused the Samyuktavedi of luring landless people with false promises.
The party also alleged that extremists and non-government organisations receiving funds from abroad were behind the agitation. Detractors had made similar allegations against Janu’s agitation too.
Early last month a group of young men and women from different parts of the State gathered outside the Secretariat for a ‘night vigil’ in solidarity with the Adivasis. Late at night, as the protestors were relaxing, a television camera stealthily recorded scenes showing them chatting, smoking and frolicking.
The CPI (M)-controlled Kairali channel aired the visuals with a commentary that suggested that the youth had violated the norms of public conduct. The party newspaper Deshabhimani also took up the issue.
Apparently the voyeuristic visuals were offered to other channels also, but none of them evinced interest in them.
The CPI (M) followed up the propaganda campaign with a demonstration of its own. It deputed leaders of the State unit of the All-India Democratic Women’s Association, which is affiliated to the party, for ritual cleansing of the area dirtied by the protesting youth.
The AIDWA campaign drew a derisive response from Anitha Thampi, a well-known poet. She wrote:
Don't laugh, dance or even smile!
Life is too serious a business;
Revolution is not laughter and merry making--
Stand up with reverence for the "second coming":
Don't speak, don't smoke, don't hug, and don't laugh--
Such heresies are injurious to the health of the revolution.
Media activist CS Venkiteswaran, writing in Paadhabhedam, deplored the snooping on the protestors and said, “This moral police must not be allowed to control our agitations and determine our morality.”
On Saturday the young people whose unconventional protest had angered the ruling party gathered again in Thiruvananthapuram. At a day-long conclave, they asserted their right to reject the establishment’s code and evolve their own forms of protest.--Gulf Today, Sharjah, April 14, 2008.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Retail traders' problems vs consumers’ interests
The traders’ organizations are agitating against the entry of retail giants. There are many contradictions in the government’s approach to retail chains. There have been incidents in which CPI (M) warriors destroyed stores which were opened with the permission of civic bodies controlled by the party. While one institution is able to function without hassles in some places it faces ban in some other places. One institution which now encounters hostility has been actually functioning in the State for 80 years. To begin with, its customers were white folks and natives with high incomes. Later it attracted the upper middle class. Now it is attracting even more people and facing opposition of a kind it did not encounter earlier.
Pinarayi Vijayan outlined the policy of the State party and government while addressing traders demonstrating outside Raj Bhavan in February. He declared that no domestic or foreign giant would be allowed. He revealed that the Left Democratic Front had decided that local self-government institutions should not give them permission. The Corporation of Kochi decided later not to allow retail monopolies to open supermarkets. It did not cancel licences issued earlier. However, it decided to raise the licence fees payable by supermarkets and to impose a development surcharge on them. Since the additional expenditure on this account can be transferred to the customers, the decision is unlikely to upset the giants.
The stand of the government of Kerala, which is led from inside by two Politburo members and from outside by a third one, are not in keeping with the proposals framed by the CPI (M)’s central leadership last year. That document says the party is opposed to the entry of multinational corporations in the retail sector. It does not oppose the entry to domestic companies. However, since they may pose a danger to small traders, the party feels there must be severe restrictions on them. It outlines the kind of restrictions that are called for. Licences must be made compulsory for shops whose area exceeds a prescribed limit. The number of shops most be fixed in proportion to the population. There must be a ceiling on the number of shops a company can open in a town or in a State.
The party stipulates that municipal bodies must constitute committees with representation for street vendors and traders’ organizations to decide on grant of licences. It does not ask that consumers be given representation.
There are other contradictions, too, in the approach of the authorities. They are opposed to private companies starting hypermarkets. But the State-owned Civil Supplies Corporation has announced plans to set up hypermarkets at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kottayam with an outlay of Rs.1.40 billion. The government, which does not want foreigners to come here, is now looking for franchisees for Supplyco in the Gulf States.
The CPI (M) formulated its proposals after detailed studies. It says the retail sector provides employment to 40 million people in the country and contributes 10 or 11 per cent of the gross domestic product. Small unorganized traders make up 97 per cent of the total. The conclusions the party draws from the material it has gathered may not all be correct. For instance, it points out that in India there are 11 shops for 1,000 people and this is higher than in Europe and the rest of Asia. The area of 95 per cent of the shops is less than 500 square feet. According to National Sample Survey reports, between 1999-2000 and 2004-2005 there was a fall of 1.2 million in the number of self-employed urban traders. On the basis of these figures, the party concludes that if the organized retail trade is allowed to grow further the plight of the small traders will get worse.
What these figures show is that an average trader has only 91 customers. That is to say, his shop serves the needs of only about 15 families. A giant is not needed to fell one with so weak a base. He is doomed to be washed away by the tide of time. Kerala is undergoing rapid urbanization. As people move from small houses to big mansions and luxury apartments their lifestyle changes. They will seek shopping facilities in keeping with their new style. They will give up the shopkeeper who cannot meet their need. It is foolish to imagine that a shopkeeper who fails because he does not change with the times can be maintained like the ‘protected’ teacher.
It was the liberalization policy, initiated by the Centre 17 years ago, that paved the way for the entry of big players in the retail sector. How many people remember that the Kerala government had entered the sector 17 years earlier than that? The Civil Supplies Corporation, which is under the government, and the Consumer Federation, which is under its control, have been active in the retail sector since 1974. But the small traders do not view Supplyco, which has 1,200 retail outlets, or Consumerfed, which runs supermarkets in the cities, as threats. When we inquire into the reasons for this, we find that what they fear is not merely the size and financial clout of the private companies but also their higher efficiency.
Government spokesmen have indicated that there are plans to enact legislation to prevent the giants gobbling up the small traders. The government certainly has a duty to help them. What it should do is to provide them help to make the changes that the present time demands. It should not try to conserve them the way it seeks to protect species that face the threat of extinction. That will be against the interests of the consumers.
Based on column "Nerkkazhcha" appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated April 10, 2008
Pinarayi Vijayan outlined the policy of the State party and government while addressing traders demonstrating outside Raj Bhavan in February. He declared that no domestic or foreign giant would be allowed. He revealed that the Left Democratic Front had decided that local self-government institutions should not give them permission. The Corporation of Kochi decided later not to allow retail monopolies to open supermarkets. It did not cancel licences issued earlier. However, it decided to raise the licence fees payable by supermarkets and to impose a development surcharge on them. Since the additional expenditure on this account can be transferred to the customers, the decision is unlikely to upset the giants.
The stand of the government of Kerala, which is led from inside by two Politburo members and from outside by a third one, are not in keeping with the proposals framed by the CPI (M)’s central leadership last year. That document says the party is opposed to the entry of multinational corporations in the retail sector. It does not oppose the entry to domestic companies. However, since they may pose a danger to small traders, the party feels there must be severe restrictions on them. It outlines the kind of restrictions that are called for. Licences must be made compulsory for shops whose area exceeds a prescribed limit. The number of shops most be fixed in proportion to the population. There must be a ceiling on the number of shops a company can open in a town or in a State.
The party stipulates that municipal bodies must constitute committees with representation for street vendors and traders’ organizations to decide on grant of licences. It does not ask that consumers be given representation.
There are other contradictions, too, in the approach of the authorities. They are opposed to private companies starting hypermarkets. But the State-owned Civil Supplies Corporation has announced plans to set up hypermarkets at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kottayam with an outlay of Rs.1.40 billion. The government, which does not want foreigners to come here, is now looking for franchisees for Supplyco in the Gulf States.
The CPI (M) formulated its proposals after detailed studies. It says the retail sector provides employment to 40 million people in the country and contributes 10 or 11 per cent of the gross domestic product. Small unorganized traders make up 97 per cent of the total. The conclusions the party draws from the material it has gathered may not all be correct. For instance, it points out that in India there are 11 shops for 1,000 people and this is higher than in Europe and the rest of Asia. The area of 95 per cent of the shops is less than 500 square feet. According to National Sample Survey reports, between 1999-2000 and 2004-2005 there was a fall of 1.2 million in the number of self-employed urban traders. On the basis of these figures, the party concludes that if the organized retail trade is allowed to grow further the plight of the small traders will get worse.
What these figures show is that an average trader has only 91 customers. That is to say, his shop serves the needs of only about 15 families. A giant is not needed to fell one with so weak a base. He is doomed to be washed away by the tide of time. Kerala is undergoing rapid urbanization. As people move from small houses to big mansions and luxury apartments their lifestyle changes. They will seek shopping facilities in keeping with their new style. They will give up the shopkeeper who cannot meet their need. It is foolish to imagine that a shopkeeper who fails because he does not change with the times can be maintained like the ‘protected’ teacher.
It was the liberalization policy, initiated by the Centre 17 years ago, that paved the way for the entry of big players in the retail sector. How many people remember that the Kerala government had entered the sector 17 years earlier than that? The Civil Supplies Corporation, which is under the government, and the Consumer Federation, which is under its control, have been active in the retail sector since 1974. But the small traders do not view Supplyco, which has 1,200 retail outlets, or Consumerfed, which runs supermarkets in the cities, as threats. When we inquire into the reasons for this, we find that what they fear is not merely the size and financial clout of the private companies but also their higher efficiency.
Government spokesmen have indicated that there are plans to enact legislation to prevent the giants gobbling up the small traders. The government certainly has a duty to help them. What it should do is to provide them help to make the changes that the present time demands. It should not try to conserve them the way it seeks to protect species that face the threat of extinction. That will be against the interests of the consumers.
Based on column "Nerkkazhcha" appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated April 10, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
CPI (M) State leadership comes under new pressures
BARELY a month after the State leadership of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) demonstrated its grip over the party apparatus, new pressures are building up on it to mend its questionable ways.
In the elections held in advance of last week's triennial party congress at Coimbatore, State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan had firmly established control over party units at all levels, circumscribing Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan's influence within the organisation. He was able to pack the State contingent to the congress with his supporters.
The few Achuthanandan followers who were listed to speak were allotted subjects that provided little scope to air views on inner-party issues. The leadership's strategy prevented the manifestation of any signs of sectarianism at the congress.
However, the central leadership was not convinced that sectarianism had ended, as claimed by Pinarayi Vijayan.
It said efforts to eliminate sectarianism must continue. The elevation of State Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan to the Politburo, the party's highest policy-making body, can be seen as yet another step taken by the central leadership to contain sectarianism, which has been the bane of the party for several years.
Media reports had indicated that either Paloli Mohammed Kutty or MA Baby would be included in the Politburo in the vacancy created by the retirement of some elderly members.
However, the central leadership's choice fell on Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who was junior to them in the party hierarchy, as he became a Central Committee member after them.
Paloli, Baby and Kodiyeri all belong to the official faction and have stood with Pinarayi Vijayan in the sectarian war.
Observers believe the central leadership bypassed Paloli and Baby and promoted Kodiyeri since it considered him a better instrument to further its anti-sectarian initiative.
Political observers feel that the arrival of yet another Politburo member in the arena can change the equations within the State party. Should the need arise to find a new Chief Minister or State party secretary, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan will be a strong contender, thanks to his new status.
According to insiders, although a member of the Pinarayi faction, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has made conscious efforts in the recent past to create the impression that he was not a blind camp-follower.
They also claim that Kodiyeri, conscious of his responsibilities as home minister and local legislator, sought to distance himself from the vengeful approach of the party's Kannur district leadership during the recent clashes between CPI-M and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activists at Thalasseri.
Pressure is building up on the leadership from outside the party, too, to maintain peace in Kannur. The National Human Rights Commission has called for a report from the State government on the political murders in the district.
The High Court has sought a comprehensive report from the police on the progress in the investigation of the murder cases.
Last month, while referring to the Central Bureau of Investigation a murder case from Kannur, in which a CPI-M activist is the main accused, Justice V Ramkumar of the High Court referred to the recurring violence in the district and said Central forces, which were not amenable to the influence of the State government, must be deployed to restore peace. Pinarayi Vijayan immediately called a press conference to deplore the judge's remarks as unwarranted.
The Chief Minister told the State Assembly that the judge's comments were unconstitutional and most inappropriate. He also said the government would move an appeal to get them expunged.
Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the judge had made observations on matters which were not before the court. He asserted there was no need to deploy Central forces as the State police was capable of controlling the violence.
Last week, while disposing of the bail application of a murder case accused from the district, Justice R Basant directed the Director-General of Police to submit within 45 days an exhaustive report on the progress in the investigation of all murder cases involving CPI-M and RSS activists.
The judge asked that steps be taken for speedy, proper and efficient disposal of all cases. He indicated that if the government's response was not satisfactory the court might go beyond the scope of the bail application and initiate action on its own to bring all similar cases under its ambit.
Advocate General CP Sudhakar Prasad said the government would challenge the directive in a higher judicial forum. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, April 7, 2008.
In the elections held in advance of last week's triennial party congress at Coimbatore, State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan had firmly established control over party units at all levels, circumscribing Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan's influence within the organisation. He was able to pack the State contingent to the congress with his supporters.
The few Achuthanandan followers who were listed to speak were allotted subjects that provided little scope to air views on inner-party issues. The leadership's strategy prevented the manifestation of any signs of sectarianism at the congress.
However, the central leadership was not convinced that sectarianism had ended, as claimed by Pinarayi Vijayan.
It said efforts to eliminate sectarianism must continue. The elevation of State Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan to the Politburo, the party's highest policy-making body, can be seen as yet another step taken by the central leadership to contain sectarianism, which has been the bane of the party for several years.
Media reports had indicated that either Paloli Mohammed Kutty or MA Baby would be included in the Politburo in the vacancy created by the retirement of some elderly members.
However, the central leadership's choice fell on Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who was junior to them in the party hierarchy, as he became a Central Committee member after them.
Paloli, Baby and Kodiyeri all belong to the official faction and have stood with Pinarayi Vijayan in the sectarian war.
Observers believe the central leadership bypassed Paloli and Baby and promoted Kodiyeri since it considered him a better instrument to further its anti-sectarian initiative.
Political observers feel that the arrival of yet another Politburo member in the arena can change the equations within the State party. Should the need arise to find a new Chief Minister or State party secretary, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan will be a strong contender, thanks to his new status.
According to insiders, although a member of the Pinarayi faction, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has made conscious efforts in the recent past to create the impression that he was not a blind camp-follower.
They also claim that Kodiyeri, conscious of his responsibilities as home minister and local legislator, sought to distance himself from the vengeful approach of the party's Kannur district leadership during the recent clashes between CPI-M and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activists at Thalasseri.
Pressure is building up on the leadership from outside the party, too, to maintain peace in Kannur. The National Human Rights Commission has called for a report from the State government on the political murders in the district.
The High Court has sought a comprehensive report from the police on the progress in the investigation of the murder cases.
Last month, while referring to the Central Bureau of Investigation a murder case from Kannur, in which a CPI-M activist is the main accused, Justice V Ramkumar of the High Court referred to the recurring violence in the district and said Central forces, which were not amenable to the influence of the State government, must be deployed to restore peace. Pinarayi Vijayan immediately called a press conference to deplore the judge's remarks as unwarranted.
The Chief Minister told the State Assembly that the judge's comments were unconstitutional and most inappropriate. He also said the government would move an appeal to get them expunged.
Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the judge had made observations on matters which were not before the court. He asserted there was no need to deploy Central forces as the State police was capable of controlling the violence.
Last week, while disposing of the bail application of a murder case accused from the district, Justice R Basant directed the Director-General of Police to submit within 45 days an exhaustive report on the progress in the investigation of all murder cases involving CPI-M and RSS activists.
The judge asked that steps be taken for speedy, proper and efficient disposal of all cases. He indicated that if the government's response was not satisfactory the court might go beyond the scope of the bail application and initiate action on its own to bring all similar cases under its ambit.
Advocate General CP Sudhakar Prasad said the government would challenge the directive in a higher judicial forum. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, April 7, 2008.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Nature joins labour union in heaping misery on farmers
AS farmers struggled to cope with heavy losses caused by untimely rain, the ruling Left Democratic Front and the opposition United Democratic Front were involved last week in arguments over the relative roles of Nature and the trade unions in the tragedy.
Farmers of Kuttanad, endeavouring to recapture the region's glory as Kerala's granary, had brought 25,232 hectares under paddy this year, as against 22,814 hectares last year.
As harvesting began, hopes ran high with early reports putting the yield at six tonnes a hectare.
The expected triumph turned into tragedy when an unusually heavy spell of summer rain destroyed the paddy crops awaiting harvest in several parts of the State. Other crops also suffered damage.
The loss, now estimated at close to Rs1 billion, may go up as the rain was continuing unabated during the weekend.
The UDF, which raised the issue in the State Assembly, said the paddy crop in Kuttanad could have been saved if the Kerala State Karshaka Thozhilali Union, the farmers' body controlled by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), had not blocked the use of harvesting machines.
Although Kerala has the highest unemployment in the country, there is acute shortage of labour in many areas of activity, include farming, because young people are unwilling to do manual labour.
The CPI (M), which opposed mechanisation for years to prevent job losses, has now slightly modified its position on the use of machines. It has dropped its objection to farm machines but wants their use restricted in such a way that the farm labourers, who are under its flag, are not adversely affected.
The UDF leaders alleged that farmers who wanted to use machines had to apply to the union and pay a fee to obtain permission. The CPI (M) and the KSKTU denied the charge. They accused the opposition of seeking to politicise a natural calamity.
The fact is that the union leadership had decided last year to draw up an annual farm calendar and enforce it in Kuttanad this year. The party and the union did not deny press reports in this regard.
An Alappuzha-datelined report in the Indian Express of April 10, 2007, had said comrades are making sure farmers stick to the good old sickle just as their forefathers did. It added they were working on a diktat "specifying which individual farmer could sow and reap when, from next year."
Outlining the contemplated procedure, the report, under the byline of Rajeev PI, added that each farmer must apply to the local office of the Travancore Karshaka Thozhilali Union, which was a part of KSKTU, for permission to use machines.
The union will consider the applications on a case-by-case basis. It will send inspection teams to the farms to determine whether union members are really not available do the work manually.
"Any farmer who dares to use a farm machine without union sanction has to be ready for the consequences," it said.
The reporter's source was TKTU general secretary CK Bodhanandan, who was quoted as saying, "We are finalising a calendar for farmers here. From next year, they should plant and harvest at the times specified in it for each, so that enough workers are available, so that they need not come to us asking to be allowed to hire machines." Bodhanandan explained that the union had decided that farm owners should stagger their operations so as to "fit their farming with the availability of union hands to do the farm work."
The report said farmers using machines with the union's permission were required to pay the workers nokkukooli (wages for looking on). For years head-load workers' unions have been extracting nokkukooli from those who engage persons other than their members to carry loads.
Bodhanandan said his union had not authorised levy of nokkukooli and would punish members who took it. However, several instances of collection of unearned wages have been reported.
The union has not taken any action in such cases.
Father Thomas Peeliyanikkal of the Kuttanad Vikasana Samithi, a church-based farm development body, told reporter Rajeev that farm owners suggested that the union might form labour collectives to own and maintain farm machines, but the union was not interested.
Nature and the union made their own contributions to Kuttanad's present misery.
The State government, too, must share the blame for the delay in harvesting since it failed to intervene in time and promote a settlement between the farm owners and labourers. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, March 24, 2008.
Farmers of Kuttanad, endeavouring to recapture the region's glory as Kerala's granary, had brought 25,232 hectares under paddy this year, as against 22,814 hectares last year.
As harvesting began, hopes ran high with early reports putting the yield at six tonnes a hectare.
The expected triumph turned into tragedy when an unusually heavy spell of summer rain destroyed the paddy crops awaiting harvest in several parts of the State. Other crops also suffered damage.
The loss, now estimated at close to Rs1 billion, may go up as the rain was continuing unabated during the weekend.
The UDF, which raised the issue in the State Assembly, said the paddy crop in Kuttanad could have been saved if the Kerala State Karshaka Thozhilali Union, the farmers' body controlled by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), had not blocked the use of harvesting machines.
Although Kerala has the highest unemployment in the country, there is acute shortage of labour in many areas of activity, include farming, because young people are unwilling to do manual labour.
The CPI (M), which opposed mechanisation for years to prevent job losses, has now slightly modified its position on the use of machines. It has dropped its objection to farm machines but wants their use restricted in such a way that the farm labourers, who are under its flag, are not adversely affected.
The UDF leaders alleged that farmers who wanted to use machines had to apply to the union and pay a fee to obtain permission. The CPI (M) and the KSKTU denied the charge. They accused the opposition of seeking to politicise a natural calamity.
The fact is that the union leadership had decided last year to draw up an annual farm calendar and enforce it in Kuttanad this year. The party and the union did not deny press reports in this regard.
An Alappuzha-datelined report in the Indian Express of April 10, 2007, had said comrades are making sure farmers stick to the good old sickle just as their forefathers did. It added they were working on a diktat "specifying which individual farmer could sow and reap when, from next year."
Outlining the contemplated procedure, the report, under the byline of Rajeev PI, added that each farmer must apply to the local office of the Travancore Karshaka Thozhilali Union, which was a part of KSKTU, for permission to use machines.
The union will consider the applications on a case-by-case basis. It will send inspection teams to the farms to determine whether union members are really not available do the work manually.
"Any farmer who dares to use a farm machine without union sanction has to be ready for the consequences," it said.
The reporter's source was TKTU general secretary CK Bodhanandan, who was quoted as saying, "We are finalising a calendar for farmers here. From next year, they should plant and harvest at the times specified in it for each, so that enough workers are available, so that they need not come to us asking to be allowed to hire machines." Bodhanandan explained that the union had decided that farm owners should stagger their operations so as to "fit their farming with the availability of union hands to do the farm work."
The report said farmers using machines with the union's permission were required to pay the workers nokkukooli (wages for looking on). For years head-load workers' unions have been extracting nokkukooli from those who engage persons other than their members to carry loads.
Bodhanandan said his union had not authorised levy of nokkukooli and would punish members who took it. However, several instances of collection of unearned wages have been reported.
The union has not taken any action in such cases.
Father Thomas Peeliyanikkal of the Kuttanad Vikasana Samithi, a church-based farm development body, told reporter Rajeev that farm owners suggested that the union might form labour collectives to own and maintain farm machines, but the union was not interested.
Nature and the union made their own contributions to Kuttanad's present misery.
The State government, too, must share the blame for the delay in harvesting since it failed to intervene in time and promote a settlement between the farm owners and labourers. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, March 24, 2008.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Schemes that sprout in political heads
G. Sudhakaran has certified that Elamaram Kareem is the best Industries Minister Kerala has seen in 60 years. He has discovered something no one else who handled the Industries department could discover: industries cannot be established on the top of the coconut palm!
It takes a genius to recognize another genius. We needed Sudhakaran to recognize Kareem’s greatness. He is like the publishers of the Guinness Book of Records. If someone sets a record, they recognize it and issue a certificate. When someone’s greatness is noticed, Sudhakaran recognizes it and issues a certificate. Pinarayi Vijayan (No.1 in the party, the greatest organizer Kerala has seen), T. M. Thomas Isaac (the greatest economist), V.S. Achuthanandan (No. 1 in government), C.K. Gupthan (the greatest Devaswom Board chairman) are the lucky ones who have already received certificates from him. The greatest Home Minister, the greatest Local Self-government Minister, the greatest Education Minister, the greatest Health Minister and the greatest Electricity Minister are all awaiting their turn to get certificates. It takes time to issue certificates because ‘available’ geniuses are too many.
There are people here who have been familiar with the top of coconuts for centuries. They know what are all there and what are they good for. But they did not know that industries cannot be established there, that you need land for that. We had to wait till Kareem incarnated to know that.
Talk of the top of the coconut brings to mind an incident of my school days. The Malayalam class was in progress. There was more than the usual noise from the back, and the teacher found that the students in the last row were eating something. He asked what they were eating. Pat came the answer: “top of the coconut.” An explanation also followed. A coconut palm had been felled in the neighbourhood. A student, who got its top, brought it to class and shared it with friends. “Good,” said the teacher. “You need it. Doctors recommend soup made with lamb’s legs to give strength to the limbs. The top of the coconut will help to strengthen your top.”
Our ministers don’t have to eat the top of the coconut. Schemes are sprouting in their heads even without it. But if you look closely you will find reasons to believe that many of the schemes did not sprout there but were transplanted there. In Travancore’s history there is a Maharaja known as ‘garbhasreeman’ (the term may be conveniently rendered into English as ‘pregnant genius’). He got the title as he had earned the status of Maharaja even before he was born. By the same token, some of our ministers may also be referred to as ‘pregnancy genius’. They had qualified for ministership before they were appointed ministers. What is more, it was also decided in advance what each one should do.
The first item on the agenda of one pregnant genius was to get whatever loan he can from the Asian Development Bank. He invited the Chief Minister to play hide and seek. While the Chief Minister was looking for him, he sent an official to Delhi with the file and signed the loan agreement.
The leaders of some caste organizations recently said their policy was to help those who had helped them. This is a policy which the CPI (M) had adopted even earlier. The main task of one pregnant genius is to help those who had helped the party. Santiago Martin and Pharis Aboobaker, who had helped the party, have not complained of any lapse in the implementation of the policy.
From birth, the pregnant geniuses have been moving ahead well with diverse programmes like private self-financing, Cooperative self-financing, Pariyaram cooperation, aravana, Athirappalli. Who will not be inspired by the resoluteness of the pregnant genius who declares that neither Sugathakumari nor Sonia Gandhi can stop the Athirappalli project?
Elamaram Kareem learnt the tactics of industry from Saboo, the representative of Birla. But it is doubtful if he learnt all that could be learnt. Even as people were dying breathing air and drinking water polluted by the Mavoor factory and demanding that the plant be closed down, he had striven hard to keep it going. But Birla, who knows not only to start and run factories but also to close them down, abandoned it. Gradually the quality of the air and the water improved.
The Cyber City project helps us to understand a characteristic of schemes that grow in political heads. When 70 acres of HMT land reached the hands of a real estate company in the name of IT industry, 30 acres reached the hands of political intermediaries in the name of workers. Even before officials and legal authorities examined the records and pronounced on the validity of the transaction, the party conference, through a resolution, declared that everything was in order.
Kerala’s problem is not that the people are not investor-friendly, but that leaders who were not investor-friendly earlier are now too investor-friendly. The investors they find also have a weakness. They are too politician-friendly.
Based on “Nerkkazhcha” column appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated February 28, 2008
It takes a genius to recognize another genius. We needed Sudhakaran to recognize Kareem’s greatness. He is like the publishers of the Guinness Book of Records. If someone sets a record, they recognize it and issue a certificate. When someone’s greatness is noticed, Sudhakaran recognizes it and issues a certificate. Pinarayi Vijayan (No.1 in the party, the greatest organizer Kerala has seen), T. M. Thomas Isaac (the greatest economist), V.S. Achuthanandan (No. 1 in government), C.K. Gupthan (the greatest Devaswom Board chairman) are the lucky ones who have already received certificates from him. The greatest Home Minister, the greatest Local Self-government Minister, the greatest Education Minister, the greatest Health Minister and the greatest Electricity Minister are all awaiting their turn to get certificates. It takes time to issue certificates because ‘available’ geniuses are too many.
There are people here who have been familiar with the top of coconuts for centuries. They know what are all there and what are they good for. But they did not know that industries cannot be established there, that you need land for that. We had to wait till Kareem incarnated to know that.
Talk of the top of the coconut brings to mind an incident of my school days. The Malayalam class was in progress. There was more than the usual noise from the back, and the teacher found that the students in the last row were eating something. He asked what they were eating. Pat came the answer: “top of the coconut.” An explanation also followed. A coconut palm had been felled in the neighbourhood. A student, who got its top, brought it to class and shared it with friends. “Good,” said the teacher. “You need it. Doctors recommend soup made with lamb’s legs to give strength to the limbs. The top of the coconut will help to strengthen your top.”
Our ministers don’t have to eat the top of the coconut. Schemes are sprouting in their heads even without it. But if you look closely you will find reasons to believe that many of the schemes did not sprout there but were transplanted there. In Travancore’s history there is a Maharaja known as ‘garbhasreeman’ (the term may be conveniently rendered into English as ‘pregnant genius’). He got the title as he had earned the status of Maharaja even before he was born. By the same token, some of our ministers may also be referred to as ‘pregnancy genius’. They had qualified for ministership before they were appointed ministers. What is more, it was also decided in advance what each one should do.
The first item on the agenda of one pregnant genius was to get whatever loan he can from the Asian Development Bank. He invited the Chief Minister to play hide and seek. While the Chief Minister was looking for him, he sent an official to Delhi with the file and signed the loan agreement.
The leaders of some caste organizations recently said their policy was to help those who had helped them. This is a policy which the CPI (M) had adopted even earlier. The main task of one pregnant genius is to help those who had helped the party. Santiago Martin and Pharis Aboobaker, who had helped the party, have not complained of any lapse in the implementation of the policy.
From birth, the pregnant geniuses have been moving ahead well with diverse programmes like private self-financing, Cooperative self-financing, Pariyaram cooperation, aravana, Athirappalli. Who will not be inspired by the resoluteness of the pregnant genius who declares that neither Sugathakumari nor Sonia Gandhi can stop the Athirappalli project?
Elamaram Kareem learnt the tactics of industry from Saboo, the representative of Birla. But it is doubtful if he learnt all that could be learnt. Even as people were dying breathing air and drinking water polluted by the Mavoor factory and demanding that the plant be closed down, he had striven hard to keep it going. But Birla, who knows not only to start and run factories but also to close them down, abandoned it. Gradually the quality of the air and the water improved.
The Cyber City project helps us to understand a characteristic of schemes that grow in political heads. When 70 acres of HMT land reached the hands of a real estate company in the name of IT industry, 30 acres reached the hands of political intermediaries in the name of workers. Even before officials and legal authorities examined the records and pronounced on the validity of the transaction, the party conference, through a resolution, declared that everything was in order.
Kerala’s problem is not that the people are not investor-friendly, but that leaders who were not investor-friendly earlier are now too investor-friendly. The investors they find also have a weakness. They are too politician-friendly.
Based on “Nerkkazhcha” column appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated February 28, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Party Secretary emerges stronger but Chief Minister stays
The trial of strength in the Communist Party of India-Marxist, which heads the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), has ended in a decisive victory for state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, but he still has to live with his vanquished rival, VS Achuthanandan, as the Chief Minister.
The new State Committee, elected unanimously at the conference held at Kottayam last week, is more heavily weighted in Pinarayi Vijayan's favour than the outgoing one.
Of the 11 newly inducted members, only one belongs to the Achuthanandan faction, making it even more of a minority than before.
Immediately after his re-election as state secretary for the fourth time, Pinarayi Vijayan said it was the beginning of a new era. He added that the sectarianism that had gripped the party for several years was over. It was, in effect, a proclamation of victory.
The principle of "democratic centralism," which the CPI-M follows, enjoins upon the minority to surrender to the wishes of the majority. To drive home the point, Vijayan warned that no breach of discipline would be tolerated.
Achuthanandan listened silently as Vijayan's supporters attacked him in the delegates' session. At the public meeting that followed, he promised, as was expected of a party loyalist, that he would take into account the members' criticism. General Secretary Prakash Karat, who headed the national leaders present at the conference, endorsed Vijayan's observations about the end of sectarianism and maintenance of party discipline.
Karat also said the State party would forge ahead with Vijayan as secretary and Achuthanandan as Chief Minister.
These words signalled a message to the victorious faction that the central leadership did not favour a change of leadership at the governmental level.
Media reports interpreted Achuthanandan's reported silence at a Cabinet meeting when the controversial HMT land deal came up for consideration as evidence of his 'surrender' to the official faction.
Industries Minister Elamaram Kareem, a Pinarayi supporter, had played an active role in facilitating the sale of land by HMT to a Mumbai real estate firm.
Talking to reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Achuthanandan said that although sectarianism had ended ideological differences could surface from time to time. Pinarayi Vijayan dismissed his observation as a mere verbal exercise.
The remarks of the two leaders indicate that the media can continue to expect a bonanza of innuendoes and even public spat from them.
Karat announced at the conference that the party would draw up a set of guidelines with a view to improving co-ordination between the organisational and governmental wings.
Earlier the central leadership had constituted a five-member co-ordination committee, with equal representation for the two factions, for the same purpose. It failed as the state leadership did not give it a fair trial.
Apparently the central leadership has come up with the new formula, encouraged by its assessment that the guidelines it had provided for the conduct of the State conference had succeeded in checking sectarianism.
Whether or not sectarianism is over, the two factions will find it necessary to put aside their differences and pull together since bugle sounds for an election battle are already in the air.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who was in Kerala on Friday, accused the CPI-M-led LDF of misrule and said, "That we are together at the Centre does not mean they can do anything here." She drew pointed attention to attacks by the CPI-M on the judiciary and to its interventions in the education sphere.
On earlier visits to the State, Sonia Gandhi had avoided direct attack on the CPI-M, which is supporting the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre from outside.
The departure from this practice can be seen as part of the preparations for the inevitable confrontation between the two parties in the Lok Sabha elections, which are due next year but can come earlier.
Both Achuthanandan and Vijayan immediately joined issue with her. The Chief Minister termed her remarks "immature." The party secretary accused her of levelling false charges against his party with political motives.
It remains to be seen whether the proclaimed end of sectarianism and the truce dictated by electoral considerations will result in an improvement in the performance of the State government, which had been badly hit as the Chief Minister and ministers belonging to the opposite faction were working at cross purposes in several matters. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, February 18, 2008.
The new State Committee, elected unanimously at the conference held at Kottayam last week, is more heavily weighted in Pinarayi Vijayan's favour than the outgoing one.
Of the 11 newly inducted members, only one belongs to the Achuthanandan faction, making it even more of a minority than before.
Immediately after his re-election as state secretary for the fourth time, Pinarayi Vijayan said it was the beginning of a new era. He added that the sectarianism that had gripped the party for several years was over. It was, in effect, a proclamation of victory.
The principle of "democratic centralism," which the CPI-M follows, enjoins upon the minority to surrender to the wishes of the majority. To drive home the point, Vijayan warned that no breach of discipline would be tolerated.
Achuthanandan listened silently as Vijayan's supporters attacked him in the delegates' session. At the public meeting that followed, he promised, as was expected of a party loyalist, that he would take into account the members' criticism. General Secretary Prakash Karat, who headed the national leaders present at the conference, endorsed Vijayan's observations about the end of sectarianism and maintenance of party discipline.
Karat also said the State party would forge ahead with Vijayan as secretary and Achuthanandan as Chief Minister.
These words signalled a message to the victorious faction that the central leadership did not favour a change of leadership at the governmental level.
Media reports interpreted Achuthanandan's reported silence at a Cabinet meeting when the controversial HMT land deal came up for consideration as evidence of his 'surrender' to the official faction.
Industries Minister Elamaram Kareem, a Pinarayi supporter, had played an active role in facilitating the sale of land by HMT to a Mumbai real estate firm.
Talking to reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Achuthanandan said that although sectarianism had ended ideological differences could surface from time to time. Pinarayi Vijayan dismissed his observation as a mere verbal exercise.
The remarks of the two leaders indicate that the media can continue to expect a bonanza of innuendoes and even public spat from them.
Karat announced at the conference that the party would draw up a set of guidelines with a view to improving co-ordination between the organisational and governmental wings.
Earlier the central leadership had constituted a five-member co-ordination committee, with equal representation for the two factions, for the same purpose. It failed as the state leadership did not give it a fair trial.
Apparently the central leadership has come up with the new formula, encouraged by its assessment that the guidelines it had provided for the conduct of the State conference had succeeded in checking sectarianism.
Whether or not sectarianism is over, the two factions will find it necessary to put aside their differences and pull together since bugle sounds for an election battle are already in the air.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who was in Kerala on Friday, accused the CPI-M-led LDF of misrule and said, "That we are together at the Centre does not mean they can do anything here." She drew pointed attention to attacks by the CPI-M on the judiciary and to its interventions in the education sphere.
On earlier visits to the State, Sonia Gandhi had avoided direct attack on the CPI-M, which is supporting the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre from outside.
The departure from this practice can be seen as part of the preparations for the inevitable confrontation between the two parties in the Lok Sabha elections, which are due next year but can come earlier.
Both Achuthanandan and Vijayan immediately joined issue with her. The Chief Minister termed her remarks "immature." The party secretary accused her of levelling false charges against his party with political motives.
It remains to be seen whether the proclaimed end of sectarianism and the truce dictated by electoral considerations will result in an improvement in the performance of the State government, which had been badly hit as the Chief Minister and ministers belonging to the opposite faction were working at cross purposes in several matters. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, February 18, 2008.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Education reform proposals invite strong opposition
WITH a state-appointed committee proposing certain changes in the Kerala Education Rules, the stage has been set for a confrontation between the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government and the powerful institutions that control the bulk of the private schools.
There are more than 13,200 schools in Kerala. A little over half of them are lower primary schools, with Classes I to IV. Upper primary (Classes V to VII), secondary (Classes VIII to X) and higher secondary (Classes XI and XII) schools account for 22 per cent, 19 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.
The private sector dominates throughout. But its dominance is most pronounced at the lower levels. At the primary level, 64 per cent of the schools are privately owned and only 36 per cent are under the government.
At the secondary level, the private sector's share is 62 per cent and the government's 38 per cent. A majority of the private schools are under the control of powerful religious and caste organizations.
For more than a century Christian missions have been active in the educational field, and they constitute the largest single element. Muslims, who entered the field comparatively late, come next.
As religious minorities, both Christians and Muslims have a constitutional right to administer educational institutions of their own. On several occasions, courts have struck down governmental efforts to regulate the affairs of schools and colleges run by them/ From the time the LDF took office in 2006, there were reports that the government proposed to take steps to rein in private managements.
Even as the committee, appointed by it under the chairmanship of CP Nair, a retired Chief Secretary to the Government, was proceeding with its work, there was intense speculation on its recommendations. Some steps, which were reportedly under consideration, like a change in the school hours, are not in the report.
Apparently the committee dropped the proposal for a change in school timings in view of the strong opposition voiced by Muslim organizations, which feared it would interfere with the working of the community's madrasas.
The Christian churches have come down heavily against two proposals of the committee. One envisages the creation of a school service commission, on the lines of the Public Service Commission (PSC), to draw up list of persons eligible for appointment as teachers. The other seeks to extend the system of reservation to cover the posts of teachers.
The Inter-Church Council for Education (ICCE), an umbrella organisation of Christian school managements, has accused the government of attempting to "politicise and appropriate" the education sector. It rejects the official claim that the changes are meant to improve the standards of education. The PSC selects teachers for government schools.
The committee had before it a proposal that since the government pays the salaries of private school teachers the PSC must be entrusted with their selection too.
It mooted the idea of a separate agency with a view to mollifying the private managements who are against giving the PSC any role in the selection process.
It is widely believed that many private managements, including the Christian missions, appoint teachers after collecting money from the candidates. Public opinion, therefore, favours placing some restrictions on them.
According to the ICCE, there is no need to interfere with the managements' right to appoint teachers since they are already under an obligation to pick only those who possess such qualifications as are prescribed by the government. It points out that even if the managements are required to choose candidates from a list prepared by an external agency, there will be room for corruption.
The stage for confrontation having been set, the million dollars question is whether the government will actually go in for a showdown or merely use the committee's recommendations as bargaining chips.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist, which heads the ruling coalition, had used its last State conference, held in the Muslim stronghold of Malappuram three years ago, as an opportunity to improve its support base among that religious group.
Ways to widen the party's base among the Christians is uppermost in the minds of its leadership as it holds its conference in their bastion of Kottayam this week. It is well aware that any confrontation with the minorities will upset its calculations.
Besides, if there is a showdown, the Christian managements can count on the support of the Nair Service Society, a powerful Hindu organisation, besides the Congress and the other constituents of the opposition United Democratic Front. –Gulf Today, Sharjah, February 11, 2008
There are more than 13,200 schools in Kerala. A little over half of them are lower primary schools, with Classes I to IV. Upper primary (Classes V to VII), secondary (Classes VIII to X) and higher secondary (Classes XI and XII) schools account for 22 per cent, 19 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.
The private sector dominates throughout. But its dominance is most pronounced at the lower levels. At the primary level, 64 per cent of the schools are privately owned and only 36 per cent are under the government.
At the secondary level, the private sector's share is 62 per cent and the government's 38 per cent. A majority of the private schools are under the control of powerful religious and caste organizations.
For more than a century Christian missions have been active in the educational field, and they constitute the largest single element. Muslims, who entered the field comparatively late, come next.
As religious minorities, both Christians and Muslims have a constitutional right to administer educational institutions of their own. On several occasions, courts have struck down governmental efforts to regulate the affairs of schools and colleges run by them/ From the time the LDF took office in 2006, there were reports that the government proposed to take steps to rein in private managements.
Even as the committee, appointed by it under the chairmanship of CP Nair, a retired Chief Secretary to the Government, was proceeding with its work, there was intense speculation on its recommendations. Some steps, which were reportedly under consideration, like a change in the school hours, are not in the report.
Apparently the committee dropped the proposal for a change in school timings in view of the strong opposition voiced by Muslim organizations, which feared it would interfere with the working of the community's madrasas.
The Christian churches have come down heavily against two proposals of the committee. One envisages the creation of a school service commission, on the lines of the Public Service Commission (PSC), to draw up list of persons eligible for appointment as teachers. The other seeks to extend the system of reservation to cover the posts of teachers.
The Inter-Church Council for Education (ICCE), an umbrella organisation of Christian school managements, has accused the government of attempting to "politicise and appropriate" the education sector. It rejects the official claim that the changes are meant to improve the standards of education. The PSC selects teachers for government schools.
The committee had before it a proposal that since the government pays the salaries of private school teachers the PSC must be entrusted with their selection too.
It mooted the idea of a separate agency with a view to mollifying the private managements who are against giving the PSC any role in the selection process.
It is widely believed that many private managements, including the Christian missions, appoint teachers after collecting money from the candidates. Public opinion, therefore, favours placing some restrictions on them.
According to the ICCE, there is no need to interfere with the managements' right to appoint teachers since they are already under an obligation to pick only those who possess such qualifications as are prescribed by the government. It points out that even if the managements are required to choose candidates from a list prepared by an external agency, there will be room for corruption.
The stage for confrontation having been set, the million dollars question is whether the government will actually go in for a showdown or merely use the committee's recommendations as bargaining chips.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist, which heads the ruling coalition, had used its last State conference, held in the Muslim stronghold of Malappuram three years ago, as an opportunity to improve its support base among that religious group.
Ways to widen the party's base among the Christians is uppermost in the minds of its leadership as it holds its conference in their bastion of Kottayam this week. It is well aware that any confrontation with the minorities will upset its calculations.
Besides, if there is a showdown, the Christian managements can count on the support of the Nair Service Society, a powerful Hindu organisation, besides the Congress and the other constituents of the opposition United Democratic Front. –Gulf Today, Sharjah, February 11, 2008
Friday, February 1, 2008
Communist party conference: the Chinese parallel
Kerala views the State conference of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), due to be held at Kottayam in the next few days, as the last item of a long process. Actually an even more important event is to follow: the all-India party congress, to be held at Coimbatore.
That event is not receiving much attention for two reasons. One is that there is no power struggle at the national level, as there is in the State. The other is that the leaders and rank and file of the party in the State have developed the mentality of a regional party.
From its birth, the CPI (M) has followed the system of democratic centralism, evolved by the world communist movement. The Kerala conferences revealed both its strength and weakness. For the first time in the party’s history, the central leadership had provided guidelines for the conduct of conferences with a view to checking the sectarianism that has been raging in the State party for a few years. Yet there was sectarian trial of strength at all levels.
CPI (M) conferences are held once in three years. The ‘democratic centralist’ style is to accept by acclamation the official panel prepared by the outgoing office-bearers in consultation with the leadership of higher councils. But members have the freedom to contest against the official panel. Both factions used this freedom. Quite naturally it did more good to the official faction than to the other one. The centre could only look on helplessly as its guidelines were violated with impunity at the lowest levels. But when such violations were repeated at the district level, it could not pretend it had not seen them. When it sought to intervene, the State leadership showed its strength. It refused to part with the district committees it had captured from the rival faction. At the same time it offered the centre a consolation prize. It agreed to reconvene the Thiruvananthapuram district conference and approve by acclamation the State conference delegates belonging to the V. S. Achuthanandan faction who had been defeated in contested elections.
State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan’s demonstration of his hold in the party through contests and compromises can be seen as a triumph of inner-party democracy (of non-centralist variety). But then the question arises how he gained the upper hand. M.V. Raghavan has said that Pinarayi Vijayan used all the tactics normally employed in a general election except impersonation of voters. Raghavan is not an impartial observer where CPI (M) is concerned. But no one else is likely to be better informed than him on what is going on in the party.
The conferences at various levels give the members the opportunity to review the party’s working during the previous three years and chalk out programmes for the coming years. There is nothing in the media reports to indicate that this happened at the lower levels. They only speak of the Pinarayi faction attacking the VS faction and vice versa. All that now remains to be seen is whether participants in the Kottayam deliberations will be able to evaluate properly the performances of the party and its government and remedy the weaknesses evident in them, without being subjugated to sectarianism. To put it differently, the question is whether the central leaders present there will be able to facilitate this. In the democratic centralist set-up, the General Secretary ought to be able to do so. But there is a snag. As Pinarayi Vijayan recently said, he is not a leader who was dropped into A. K. G. Centre through the roof. The General Secretary is a leader who was so dropped.
The activities of the past three years have brought the party assets as well as allegations. The assets have come from vested interests like fake lottery operators and the land mafia. (Let us avoid the old term bourgeoisie.) So great is their enthusiasm that when the party asks for one million they are ready to give six. Allegations have come from an assortment of people like Vinitha Kottayi of Kannur against whom the local party leader has imposed sanctions, Chithralekha of Payyannur who insists on driving autos to earn a living even after smart CITU men burnt her auto, and Jayasree of Erayamkudi, Thrissur, who will not let a brick maker whom the party favours carry on his business peaceably. Maybe the delegates must consider how the CPI (M) has become a party that commits atrocities against women. Also how the party which had taken the lead in land reforms has been reduced to a state where its ministers act as intermediaries who are obliged to remove any obstacles encountered by land grabbers.
The Communist Party of China holds its conferences once in five years. While visiting the country at conference time, I saw a lot of reports about corruption in the newspapers. All of them emanated from the official news agency. It is an organization with two Central Committee members at the top. When I had the opportunity to meet one of them I expressed appreciation of the agency’s frank coverage of corruption. “You haven’t seen everything,” he told me. “Only the Politburo sees everything that we report.”
At that time Deng’s reforms were only ten years old. According to tales that were doing the rounds, all doors will open before the entrepreneur if he deposits enough money for the local party leader’s son or daughter to study in the US for five years and hands it over the passbook to him. But the party had already started moving against corruption.
According to a report presented to China’s parliament by the president of the Supreme People’s Court in 2000, in the previous year 15,700 persons were punished for corruption-related offences. Two of them were working at the ministerial level. The deputy governor of a province was hanged for taking bribes. The Chinese National Conditions Research Centre, a unit of the Academy of Sciences, the country’s highest academic body, and Tsinghua University jointly undertook a study of corruption cases involving persons of the level of vice-minister and upwards, which were reported between 1978, the year in which the Deng reforms began, and 2002. Their report said that during 1978-1992, there were investigations against 110 persons who were working at provincial and ministerial levels. The party took severe action against some of them. Cases against 31 persons were referred to courts. All of them were punished.
Self-building of ant-corruption personnel is one of the important items on the programme for the next five years adopted by the Chinese party congress held last year. How lucky we are! Do we have any such problem?
Based on "Nerkkazhcha" column which appeared in Kerala Kaumudi dated January 31, 2008
That event is not receiving much attention for two reasons. One is that there is no power struggle at the national level, as there is in the State. The other is that the leaders and rank and file of the party in the State have developed the mentality of a regional party.
From its birth, the CPI (M) has followed the system of democratic centralism, evolved by the world communist movement. The Kerala conferences revealed both its strength and weakness. For the first time in the party’s history, the central leadership had provided guidelines for the conduct of conferences with a view to checking the sectarianism that has been raging in the State party for a few years. Yet there was sectarian trial of strength at all levels.
CPI (M) conferences are held once in three years. The ‘democratic centralist’ style is to accept by acclamation the official panel prepared by the outgoing office-bearers in consultation with the leadership of higher councils. But members have the freedom to contest against the official panel. Both factions used this freedom. Quite naturally it did more good to the official faction than to the other one. The centre could only look on helplessly as its guidelines were violated with impunity at the lowest levels. But when such violations were repeated at the district level, it could not pretend it had not seen them. When it sought to intervene, the State leadership showed its strength. It refused to part with the district committees it had captured from the rival faction. At the same time it offered the centre a consolation prize. It agreed to reconvene the Thiruvananthapuram district conference and approve by acclamation the State conference delegates belonging to the V. S. Achuthanandan faction who had been defeated in contested elections.
State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan’s demonstration of his hold in the party through contests and compromises can be seen as a triumph of inner-party democracy (of non-centralist variety). But then the question arises how he gained the upper hand. M.V. Raghavan has said that Pinarayi Vijayan used all the tactics normally employed in a general election except impersonation of voters. Raghavan is not an impartial observer where CPI (M) is concerned. But no one else is likely to be better informed than him on what is going on in the party.
The conferences at various levels give the members the opportunity to review the party’s working during the previous three years and chalk out programmes for the coming years. There is nothing in the media reports to indicate that this happened at the lower levels. They only speak of the Pinarayi faction attacking the VS faction and vice versa. All that now remains to be seen is whether participants in the Kottayam deliberations will be able to evaluate properly the performances of the party and its government and remedy the weaknesses evident in them, without being subjugated to sectarianism. To put it differently, the question is whether the central leaders present there will be able to facilitate this. In the democratic centralist set-up, the General Secretary ought to be able to do so. But there is a snag. As Pinarayi Vijayan recently said, he is not a leader who was dropped into A. K. G. Centre through the roof. The General Secretary is a leader who was so dropped.
The activities of the past three years have brought the party assets as well as allegations. The assets have come from vested interests like fake lottery operators and the land mafia. (Let us avoid the old term bourgeoisie.) So great is their enthusiasm that when the party asks for one million they are ready to give six. Allegations have come from an assortment of people like Vinitha Kottayi of Kannur against whom the local party leader has imposed sanctions, Chithralekha of Payyannur who insists on driving autos to earn a living even after smart CITU men burnt her auto, and Jayasree of Erayamkudi, Thrissur, who will not let a brick maker whom the party favours carry on his business peaceably. Maybe the delegates must consider how the CPI (M) has become a party that commits atrocities against women. Also how the party which had taken the lead in land reforms has been reduced to a state where its ministers act as intermediaries who are obliged to remove any obstacles encountered by land grabbers.
The Communist Party of China holds its conferences once in five years. While visiting the country at conference time, I saw a lot of reports about corruption in the newspapers. All of them emanated from the official news agency. It is an organization with two Central Committee members at the top. When I had the opportunity to meet one of them I expressed appreciation of the agency’s frank coverage of corruption. “You haven’t seen everything,” he told me. “Only the Politburo sees everything that we report.”
At that time Deng’s reforms were only ten years old. According to tales that were doing the rounds, all doors will open before the entrepreneur if he deposits enough money for the local party leader’s son or daughter to study in the US for five years and hands it over the passbook to him. But the party had already started moving against corruption.
According to a report presented to China’s parliament by the president of the Supreme People’s Court in 2000, in the previous year 15,700 persons were punished for corruption-related offences. Two of them were working at the ministerial level. The deputy governor of a province was hanged for taking bribes. The Chinese National Conditions Research Centre, a unit of the Academy of Sciences, the country’s highest academic body, and Tsinghua University jointly undertook a study of corruption cases involving persons of the level of vice-minister and upwards, which were reported between 1978, the year in which the Deng reforms began, and 2002. Their report said that during 1978-1992, there were investigations against 110 persons who were working at provincial and ministerial levels. The party took severe action against some of them. Cases against 31 persons were referred to courts. All of them were punished.
Self-building of ant-corruption personnel is one of the important items on the programme for the next five years adopted by the Chinese party congress held last year. How lucky we are! Do we have any such problem?
Based on "Nerkkazhcha" column which appeared in Kerala Kaumudi dated January 31, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
CPI -M silent as media discusses relevance of socialism
AS INDIA strives to find its place under the sun in the era of globalization, the media in Kerala is discussing the continued relevance of socialism. Strange as it may seem, leaders of the Communist Party of India-Marxist are not active in the debate.
The debate was touched off by CPI-M veteran Jyoti Basu's statement that the State governments led by the party are working within the capitalist system. Without mincing words, he said capitalism was the reality and socialism a distant goal.
Basu's statement came in the context of the difficulties encountered by his successor, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, in pursuing plans to set up industrial complexes with the help of domestic and foreign capital. Both national and State media suggested that the statement represented a shift in the CPI-M stand. Party general secretary Prakash Karat clarified that what Basu said had been the party's position since 2000.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the East European regimes had led to introspection by Communist parties the world over two decades ago.
At that time, the CPIM, under the guidance of EMS Namboodiripad, who was its chief ideologue, evaded the issue.
In 2000, two years after Namboodirpad's death, a party conclave at Thiruvananthapuram agreed upon changes in the party programme in the light of new realities. The party congress, held at Hyderabad in 2002, approved the changes. The shift in the party's position did not attract much attention as there was no effort to educate the rank and file on the changes.
The significance of the changes lay in that the party acknowledged that a socialist revolution was not imminent. It set the immediate goal as people's democracy, which was an intermediate stage in the march towards socialism.
The people's democracy concept is not a new one. The East European countries, which had come under Moscow's control at the end of World War II, were all designated as people's democracies. In a sense, it is thus a doomed concept.
The Basu bombshell came as the State party was holding its district conferences in a highly charged atmosphere with the two factions seeking to extend their influence.
But it did not figure in the deliberations.
The only leader of standing in the State to comment on Basu's statement was Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, who warned that advocates of the capitalist path would have to flee. His reaction surprised observers as it appeared to pit him against Basu, who has been a source of support to him at the national level. He dropped the subject quickly.
In his long perorations at the district conferences, State party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan invariably covered the whole gamut of regional, national and international issues. However, he did not dwell much on ideology.
Pinarayi Vijayan fully shares the West Bengal leadership's position, which Basu outlined.
In fact, since the party regained power in 2006, his faction has been pushing schemes in keeping with that line. Yet he chose to soft-pedal the issue in his speeches.
There are two explanations for Vijayan's silence on ideology. One is that he realises that open repudiation of the idea of imminent revolution may not go down well with the cadres, who had been fed for long on revolutionary slogans. The other is that as a practical politician he knows that factional loyalties are determined by mundane factors, not by ideology.
P. Govinda Pillai, once billed as the chief ideologue after Namboodiripad, has been silent on the role of socialism in today's context. KEN Kunhahammad, who has lately been projected as the authoritative spokesman on ideology, has also not made any worthwhile contribution to the debate.
The participants in the debate generally fall in two categories: one consists of persons who were associated with the Naxalite movement in its heyday and the other of persons whose sympathies lie with its successors. Both groups regard the CPI-M as essentially a social democratic party with a Marxist label.
Civic Chandran, Naxalite turned social critic, probably voiced the feelings of both groups when he recently wrote: "What right do our Communist parties and party comrades now have on the red flag? Let them kindly put it down."
Away from public gaze, intellectuals with Left leanings are known to be exploring the possibility of an alternative to predatory capitalism and authoritarian socialism. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, January 21, 2008
The debate was touched off by CPI-M veteran Jyoti Basu's statement that the State governments led by the party are working within the capitalist system. Without mincing words, he said capitalism was the reality and socialism a distant goal.
Basu's statement came in the context of the difficulties encountered by his successor, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, in pursuing plans to set up industrial complexes with the help of domestic and foreign capital. Both national and State media suggested that the statement represented a shift in the CPI-M stand. Party general secretary Prakash Karat clarified that what Basu said had been the party's position since 2000.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the East European regimes had led to introspection by Communist parties the world over two decades ago.
At that time, the CPIM, under the guidance of EMS Namboodiripad, who was its chief ideologue, evaded the issue.
In 2000, two years after Namboodirpad's death, a party conclave at Thiruvananthapuram agreed upon changes in the party programme in the light of new realities. The party congress, held at Hyderabad in 2002, approved the changes. The shift in the party's position did not attract much attention as there was no effort to educate the rank and file on the changes.
The significance of the changes lay in that the party acknowledged that a socialist revolution was not imminent. It set the immediate goal as people's democracy, which was an intermediate stage in the march towards socialism.
The people's democracy concept is not a new one. The East European countries, which had come under Moscow's control at the end of World War II, were all designated as people's democracies. In a sense, it is thus a doomed concept.
The Basu bombshell came as the State party was holding its district conferences in a highly charged atmosphere with the two factions seeking to extend their influence.
But it did not figure in the deliberations.
The only leader of standing in the State to comment on Basu's statement was Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, who warned that advocates of the capitalist path would have to flee. His reaction surprised observers as it appeared to pit him against Basu, who has been a source of support to him at the national level. He dropped the subject quickly.
In his long perorations at the district conferences, State party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan invariably covered the whole gamut of regional, national and international issues. However, he did not dwell much on ideology.
Pinarayi Vijayan fully shares the West Bengal leadership's position, which Basu outlined.
In fact, since the party regained power in 2006, his faction has been pushing schemes in keeping with that line. Yet he chose to soft-pedal the issue in his speeches.
There are two explanations for Vijayan's silence on ideology. One is that he realises that open repudiation of the idea of imminent revolution may not go down well with the cadres, who had been fed for long on revolutionary slogans. The other is that as a practical politician he knows that factional loyalties are determined by mundane factors, not by ideology.
P. Govinda Pillai, once billed as the chief ideologue after Namboodiripad, has been silent on the role of socialism in today's context. KEN Kunhahammad, who has lately been projected as the authoritative spokesman on ideology, has also not made any worthwhile contribution to the debate.
The participants in the debate generally fall in two categories: one consists of persons who were associated with the Naxalite movement in its heyday and the other of persons whose sympathies lie with its successors. Both groups regard the CPI-M as essentially a social democratic party with a Marxist label.
Civic Chandran, Naxalite turned social critic, probably voiced the feelings of both groups when he recently wrote: "What right do our Communist parties and party comrades now have on the red flag? Let them kindly put it down."
Away from public gaze, intellectuals with Left leanings are known to be exploring the possibility of an alternative to predatory capitalism and authoritarian socialism. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, January 21, 2008
Monday, December 3, 2007
CPI-M poll process makes progress despite sectarianism
AS the election process in the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) moves to the final phase, it is clear that the central leadership's effort to contain sectarianism in the Kerala unit has not succeeded fully. However, the faction feud caused disruption only at a few places.
The Kerala party, which had 341,006 members last year, is the CPI-M's largest unit. The West Bengal party, which has been in power continuously from 1977, had only 290,164 members at the time. Bengal's population is two and a half times that of Kerala.
The conferences held at various levels in advance of the triennial party congress provide CPI-M members the opportunity to express their views on the organisation's working and elect new office-bearers.
As the party's 26,000 units decorated their localities with red banners and festoons for the meetings, Kerala had a festive air. Last week district-level conferences began, raising the noise level. The State conference will be held at Kottayam in February.
The party has been in the grip of sectarianism for several years. Last May, the Politburo suspended both State party Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, who lead the rival factions, for feuding in public. Before going into conference mode, the Politburo revoked their suspension. It also issued a set of election guidelines to contain sectarianism. They provided for immediate intervention to deal with any manifestation of factionalism. CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat said the Politburo would intervene if the guidelines were not followed.
The media took keen interest in the electoral process. By all accounts, the leadership of the organisational and governmental wings came up for severe criticism from supporters of the rival faction at the lower level conferences.
Thanks to the party's tradition of democratic centralism, delegates usually accept officially circulated lists of office-bearers. However, contested elections are not unknown. This time there were contests at many places. There have been reports that the factions either captured or retained control of committees at different levels. However, there is nothing to indicate whether there has been a change in their relative strength.
The district level conferences are spread over a long period. When all 14 district meets are over, the stage will be set for the State conference. The final line-up will be available only then.
Pinarayi Vijayan said last week that the guidelines had helped contain factionalism. But the spate of complaints that flowed to the central leadership shows that members divided on factional lines even at the lowest levels. Charges levelled by each side against the other include abduction of delegates, use of money power and resort to blackmail tactics.
The reasons why the guidelines have not been very effective are not difficult to fathom. When the higher body, which is required to supervise the proceedings, is affected by factionalism, it cannot be expected to act decisively against sectarianism at the lower level.
There are definite limits to the Politburo's ability to intervene promptly at the lower levels. Now that the process has reached the district level, the State committee is directly in the picture as the sole supervisory body. Also, it is possible for the Politburo to keep a close watch on developments and step in if the guidelines are not followed scrupulously.
Aware of this, the leaders of the two factions, which fought bitterly at the lower levels, are reportedly demonstrating willingness to avoid direct conflicts, and accommodate each other instead. Pinarayi Vijayan, who was present at the Kottayam district conference, strove hard to promote unanimous election. Some observers, however, thought he did so to prevent the rival faction taking advantage of the differences between two of his local supporters.
The two factions had gone to the last State conference, held at Malappuram, determined to fight it out. Prakash Karat appealed to them to elect the State committee without a contest, but they ignored his plea. In the contest that followed, the Pinarayi Vijayan faction emerged victorious.
This time, too, the electoral process began amid indications that the two factions are determined to fight it out. However, the way Karat has handled the sectarian issue in recent times suggests that, unlike last time, he may now be willing to assert the authority of the central leadership and prevent a fight to the finish. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, December 3, 2007.
The Kerala party, which had 341,006 members last year, is the CPI-M's largest unit. The West Bengal party, which has been in power continuously from 1977, had only 290,164 members at the time. Bengal's population is two and a half times that of Kerala.
The conferences held at various levels in advance of the triennial party congress provide CPI-M members the opportunity to express their views on the organisation's working and elect new office-bearers.
As the party's 26,000 units decorated their localities with red banners and festoons for the meetings, Kerala had a festive air. Last week district-level conferences began, raising the noise level. The State conference will be held at Kottayam in February.
The party has been in the grip of sectarianism for several years. Last May, the Politburo suspended both State party Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, who lead the rival factions, for feuding in public. Before going into conference mode, the Politburo revoked their suspension. It also issued a set of election guidelines to contain sectarianism. They provided for immediate intervention to deal with any manifestation of factionalism. CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat said the Politburo would intervene if the guidelines were not followed.
The media took keen interest in the electoral process. By all accounts, the leadership of the organisational and governmental wings came up for severe criticism from supporters of the rival faction at the lower level conferences.
Thanks to the party's tradition of democratic centralism, delegates usually accept officially circulated lists of office-bearers. However, contested elections are not unknown. This time there were contests at many places. There have been reports that the factions either captured or retained control of committees at different levels. However, there is nothing to indicate whether there has been a change in their relative strength.
The district level conferences are spread over a long period. When all 14 district meets are over, the stage will be set for the State conference. The final line-up will be available only then.
Pinarayi Vijayan said last week that the guidelines had helped contain factionalism. But the spate of complaints that flowed to the central leadership shows that members divided on factional lines even at the lowest levels. Charges levelled by each side against the other include abduction of delegates, use of money power and resort to blackmail tactics.
The reasons why the guidelines have not been very effective are not difficult to fathom. When the higher body, which is required to supervise the proceedings, is affected by factionalism, it cannot be expected to act decisively against sectarianism at the lower level.
There are definite limits to the Politburo's ability to intervene promptly at the lower levels. Now that the process has reached the district level, the State committee is directly in the picture as the sole supervisory body. Also, it is possible for the Politburo to keep a close watch on developments and step in if the guidelines are not followed scrupulously.
Aware of this, the leaders of the two factions, which fought bitterly at the lower levels, are reportedly demonstrating willingness to avoid direct conflicts, and accommodate each other instead. Pinarayi Vijayan, who was present at the Kottayam district conference, strove hard to promote unanimous election. Some observers, however, thought he did so to prevent the rival faction taking advantage of the differences between two of his local supporters.
The two factions had gone to the last State conference, held at Malappuram, determined to fight it out. Prakash Karat appealed to them to elect the State committee without a contest, but they ignored his plea. In the contest that followed, the Pinarayi Vijayan faction emerged victorious.
This time, too, the electoral process began amid indications that the two factions are determined to fight it out. However, the way Karat has handled the sectarian issue in recent times suggests that, unlike last time, he may now be willing to assert the authority of the central leadership and prevent a fight to the finish. --Gulf Today, Sharjah, December 3, 2007.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Parties find their way around court ban on strike
Photo on the right, published by The Hindu,
shows two CPI (M) ministers, Kodiyeri
Balakrishnan and A. K. Balan, walking
to the party office on a hartal day in 2006.
Photo: S. Gopakumar
WHEN the courts held 'bandh' and 'hartal' illegal and declared that those who organised such work stoppages could be held to account, there arose a faint hope that such protest action might become a thing of the past. That hope did not materialise. Work stoppages are on the rise again.
Hartal and bandh are terms that signify shutdown. The first gained currency after Gandhi called for a day's gnereal strike in 1919 to protest against the shooting down of unarmed people on the orders of a British officer at Jalianwala Bagh in Punjab. The second was popularised by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the 1970s. Gandhi envisaged hartal as peaceful and voluntary abstention from work. The Left developed bandh as forcible closure.
In the 1990s, signs of opposition to strikes that disrupted normal life appeared in Kerala. While reporting bandhs, some newspapers highlighted the hardship they caused to the public. They played up stories of the sick dying because they could not reach the hospital in time. At a discussion organised by Kerala Watch, a civil society organisation, writer Paul Zacharia said bandh involved violation of human rights. Congress leader MM Hassan observed a 24-hour fast demanding an end to bandh.
The Kerala High Court, which heard a petition on the subject, declared bandh unconstitutional on the ground that it curtailed the citizens' fundamental rights. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) approached the Supreme Court, claiming bandh was a legitimate form of protest. The apex court rejected the CPI-M argument and upheld the High Court verdict. Since its decisions become part of the law of the land, bandh became illegal.
Thereafter political parties started calling for hartal, instead of bandh. The High Court, holding that hartal, like bandh, involved use of force or threat of force, banned it too. After that the political parties observed restraint for some time. The CPI-M, instead of calling for bandh or hartal, organised 'uparodham' (blockade), which also caused hardship to the people.
Lately, the parties have abandoned the restraint of the past few years and started calling for hartal again. Last week there was one State-wide hartal and there were several at regional or district level. In some areas, three working days were lost during the week.
The State hartal on Thursday was called by the Bharatiya Janata Party to coincide with the inauguration of a railway division with headquarters at Salem in Tamil Nadu. Brushing aside Kerala's protests, the Railway Board had transferred to the new division more than half the rail network under the Palakkad division. The BJP turned down appeals by Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan and poet ONV Kurup to drop or defer the hartal as the State was celebrating its 51st anniversary on that day and President Pratibha Patil was to be in the State capital on an official visit. The President's visit went off smoothly despite the hartal, thanks to the arrangements made by the State government to ensure attendance at her functions, which included a public reception.
The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) organised a hartal in the Malabar region to protest against the alleged neglect of Kozhikode airport, which caters to the needs of a large section of Keralites working in the Gulf States. The airport is under the Centre and IUML leader E. Ahmed is a minister in the Central government.
Palakkad and Kottayam districts witnessed local hartals, called by various parties including the CPI-M, the BJP and the Congress to protest against some violent incidents.
The Kerala chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industries said on Friday that the spate of strikes and hartals was adversely affecting the State's economy. It estimated that the daily production loss due to work stoppages at Rs 6.50 to 7 billion.
The judicial verdicts have been of little avail because the machinery which should enforce them remains in the hands of the political parties. When the BJP called for hartal, the High Court asked the government what it proposed to do. By way of reply, the government furnished a copy of a circular the Director General of Police had sent to his force.
The only remedy open to a citizens who have suffered as a result of bandh or hartal is to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the party which called such a protest.
Considering the high cost and cumbersome nature of legal action, this will mean inviting more hardship on oneself. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, November 5, 2007
Hartal and bandh are terms that signify shutdown. The first gained currency after Gandhi called for a day's gnereal strike in 1919 to protest against the shooting down of unarmed people on the orders of a British officer at Jalianwala Bagh in Punjab. The second was popularised by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the 1970s. Gandhi envisaged hartal as peaceful and voluntary abstention from work. The Left developed bandh as forcible closure.
In the 1990s, signs of opposition to strikes that disrupted normal life appeared in Kerala. While reporting bandhs, some newspapers highlighted the hardship they caused to the public. They played up stories of the sick dying because they could not reach the hospital in time. At a discussion organised by Kerala Watch, a civil society organisation, writer Paul Zacharia said bandh involved violation of human rights. Congress leader MM Hassan observed a 24-hour fast demanding an end to bandh.
The Kerala High Court, which heard a petition on the subject, declared bandh unconstitutional on the ground that it curtailed the citizens' fundamental rights. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) approached the Supreme Court, claiming bandh was a legitimate form of protest. The apex court rejected the CPI-M argument and upheld the High Court verdict. Since its decisions become part of the law of the land, bandh became illegal.
Thereafter political parties started calling for hartal, instead of bandh. The High Court, holding that hartal, like bandh, involved use of force or threat of force, banned it too. After that the political parties observed restraint for some time. The CPI-M, instead of calling for bandh or hartal, organised 'uparodham' (blockade), which also caused hardship to the people.
Lately, the parties have abandoned the restraint of the past few years and started calling for hartal again. Last week there was one State-wide hartal and there were several at regional or district level. In some areas, three working days were lost during the week.
The State hartal on Thursday was called by the Bharatiya Janata Party to coincide with the inauguration of a railway division with headquarters at Salem in Tamil Nadu. Brushing aside Kerala's protests, the Railway Board had transferred to the new division more than half the rail network under the Palakkad division. The BJP turned down appeals by Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan and poet ONV Kurup to drop or defer the hartal as the State was celebrating its 51st anniversary on that day and President Pratibha Patil was to be in the State capital on an official visit. The President's visit went off smoothly despite the hartal, thanks to the arrangements made by the State government to ensure attendance at her functions, which included a public reception.
The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) organised a hartal in the Malabar region to protest against the alleged neglect of Kozhikode airport, which caters to the needs of a large section of Keralites working in the Gulf States. The airport is under the Centre and IUML leader E. Ahmed is a minister in the Central government.
Palakkad and Kottayam districts witnessed local hartals, called by various parties including the CPI-M, the BJP and the Congress to protest against some violent incidents.
The Kerala chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industries said on Friday that the spate of strikes and hartals was adversely affecting the State's economy. It estimated that the daily production loss due to work stoppages at Rs 6.50 to 7 billion.
The judicial verdicts have been of little avail because the machinery which should enforce them remains in the hands of the political parties. When the BJP called for hartal, the High Court asked the government what it proposed to do. By way of reply, the government furnished a copy of a circular the Director General of Police had sent to his force.
The only remedy open to a citizens who have suffered as a result of bandh or hartal is to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the party which called such a protest.
Considering the high cost and cumbersome nature of legal action, this will mean inviting more hardship on oneself. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, November 5, 2007
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