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
Showing posts with label Kerala Kaumudi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kerala Kaumudi. Show all posts
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Political lessons from Social Science
The Congress was heading the Kerala government until two years ago. If the State’s voters continue with their present survival strategy, it may have to take charge of the administration again after three years. The Indian Union Muslim League was in charge of the Education department until two years ago. It may be in charge of the department again three years from now. The madness these parties have been displaying in the name of the Seventh Standard textbook in Social Science shows how far removed we are from the concept of a modern democratic society.
Parties which are part of the scheme of power politics have many opportunities to voice their differences over the contents of a textbook. They certainly have the right to agitate if a solution cannot be found through constitutional means. When agitation becomes inevitable, responsible parties must conduct it directly. It is deplorable to drag youth and students organizations into the street instead. When the agitating youths resorted to violence the League leaders distanced themselves from them. No Congress leader had the courage to do the same.
The police forget the newly learnt people-friendly lessons when they saw the agitators. An MLA was among those who were injured. When a Left Democratic Front leader was asked about this in a discussion, he sought to put up a defence by drawing attention to injury suffered by an LDF MLA when the United Democratic Front was in power. That answer explains why there is continuous decline in political standards. When the UDF makes the LDF its role model and the LDF makes the UDF its, there can be no escape from going down. For, each side picks up from the other not its best traits but its worst.
Of the five lessons in the Seventh Standard textbook, the first three are the ones that have invited criticism. The opening lesson looks at the changes that have come about in the agricultural sector. The second deals with some problems relating to caste and religion. The third tells the story of the freedom struggle. Opposition parties and caste and religious organizations have raised objections to these lessons. They allege that the book has been prepared with a view to propagating Communist ideas. They see denial of religion and denunciation of God in it.
In a prefatory note, the director of the State Council of Education Research and Training says the book has been prepared to equip the new generation to intervene in issues that they face in life’s immediate surroundings. So we have to find out if it can achieve this aim. When the lessons which have attracted criticism are analyzed in this light, it would appear that the critics’ fears are misplaced.
Some documents have been included in the book to enable students to understand the changes that have taken place in the farm sector. It then asks them to find answers to some questions. When did the farmer obtain right to the land? What all changes did land ownership make in the lives of the farmer and the farm labourer? What changes occurred in Kerala society after the farmer got the land? These are the questions.
EMS Namboodiripad, who headed the first Communist government, had said that it only tried to give effect to the limited land reform proposals which the Congress had earlier approved in principle. Namboodiripad had to bow out twice without completing the task. Later the legislative process was completed with the support of the Congress and other parties which are now part of the UDF. Why is the Congress afraid of students learning all this? The table given in the book to help understand the changes that occurred as a result of land reform makes it clear that since the 1970s the area under paddy has continually declined. Shouldn’t students know this? This lesson will give them an opportunity to understand the problem of landlessness faced by farm labourers who were ignored at the time of land reform.
The book draws the students’ attention to caste discrimination by presenting a report which refers to caste supremacists killing of a Dalit youth because his sister had drawn water from a public well. Needless to say the incident occurred in some other State. The book also contains some documents which show that various kinds of discrimination were practised in Kerala, too, in the past. It then gives a short account of the social reform efforts in the State. A notable feature of the account is the absence of any reference to Ayyankali or Sree Narayana Guru.
One question raised in this lesson is whether divisions exist among followers of religions. Another is whether there is any ban or curb on mode of dressing. The book asks the students to make inquiries and prepare a note on the subject. Must this disturb religious leaders? Any suspicion of a hidden CPI (M) agenda here can be dispelled by recalling the figure of the bearded, turbaned former party general secretary.
Going by media reports, what has upset religious leaders most are the lessons relating to the son of an inter-religious couple and to Jawaharlal Nehru’s will. Where is denial of religion or denunciation of God in the parents’ decision to leave it to the son to decide his religion when he attains majority? While asking that religious rites be avoided at his funeral, Nehru wanted his ashes to be immersed in the Ganga at Allahabad and strewn over the Himalayas. This reveals his willingness to respect tradition even as he disliked religious rites. Disregarding Nehru’s wishes, Indira Gandhi had got a priest to conduct religious ceremonies. Anyone who knows all this will realize that Education Minister MA Baby’s enthusiasm for this lesson and religious leaders’ fears about it are equally misplaced.
The Congress leaders’ charge that the book gives more prominence to Communist agitations than to the freedom struggle under Gandhiji’s leadership is also not in accord with facts.
In short, the objections raised against the book will not survive an objective scrutiny. At the same time, it has to be said that the book lacks the quality expected of a school textbook. There is reason to doubt whether those who prepared it possessed the necessary qualifications.
Based on column ‘Nerkkazhcha’ appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated June 26, 2008
Parties which are part of the scheme of power politics have many opportunities to voice their differences over the contents of a textbook. They certainly have the right to agitate if a solution cannot be found through constitutional means. When agitation becomes inevitable, responsible parties must conduct it directly. It is deplorable to drag youth and students organizations into the street instead. When the agitating youths resorted to violence the League leaders distanced themselves from them. No Congress leader had the courage to do the same.
The police forget the newly learnt people-friendly lessons when they saw the agitators. An MLA was among those who were injured. When a Left Democratic Front leader was asked about this in a discussion, he sought to put up a defence by drawing attention to injury suffered by an LDF MLA when the United Democratic Front was in power. That answer explains why there is continuous decline in political standards. When the UDF makes the LDF its role model and the LDF makes the UDF its, there can be no escape from going down. For, each side picks up from the other not its best traits but its worst.
Of the five lessons in the Seventh Standard textbook, the first three are the ones that have invited criticism. The opening lesson looks at the changes that have come about in the agricultural sector. The second deals with some problems relating to caste and religion. The third tells the story of the freedom struggle. Opposition parties and caste and religious organizations have raised objections to these lessons. They allege that the book has been prepared with a view to propagating Communist ideas. They see denial of religion and denunciation of God in it.
In a prefatory note, the director of the State Council of Education Research and Training says the book has been prepared to equip the new generation to intervene in issues that they face in life’s immediate surroundings. So we have to find out if it can achieve this aim. When the lessons which have attracted criticism are analyzed in this light, it would appear that the critics’ fears are misplaced.
Some documents have been included in the book to enable students to understand the changes that have taken place in the farm sector. It then asks them to find answers to some questions. When did the farmer obtain right to the land? What all changes did land ownership make in the lives of the farmer and the farm labourer? What changes occurred in Kerala society after the farmer got the land? These are the questions.
EMS Namboodiripad, who headed the first Communist government, had said that it only tried to give effect to the limited land reform proposals which the Congress had earlier approved in principle. Namboodiripad had to bow out twice without completing the task. Later the legislative process was completed with the support of the Congress and other parties which are now part of the UDF. Why is the Congress afraid of students learning all this? The table given in the book to help understand the changes that occurred as a result of land reform makes it clear that since the 1970s the area under paddy has continually declined. Shouldn’t students know this? This lesson will give them an opportunity to understand the problem of landlessness faced by farm labourers who were ignored at the time of land reform.
The book draws the students’ attention to caste discrimination by presenting a report which refers to caste supremacists killing of a Dalit youth because his sister had drawn water from a public well. Needless to say the incident occurred in some other State. The book also contains some documents which show that various kinds of discrimination were practised in Kerala, too, in the past. It then gives a short account of the social reform efforts in the State. A notable feature of the account is the absence of any reference to Ayyankali or Sree Narayana Guru.
One question raised in this lesson is whether divisions exist among followers of religions. Another is whether there is any ban or curb on mode of dressing. The book asks the students to make inquiries and prepare a note on the subject. Must this disturb religious leaders? Any suspicion of a hidden CPI (M) agenda here can be dispelled by recalling the figure of the bearded, turbaned former party general secretary.
Going by media reports, what has upset religious leaders most are the lessons relating to the son of an inter-religious couple and to Jawaharlal Nehru’s will. Where is denial of religion or denunciation of God in the parents’ decision to leave it to the son to decide his religion when he attains majority? While asking that religious rites be avoided at his funeral, Nehru wanted his ashes to be immersed in the Ganga at Allahabad and strewn over the Himalayas. This reveals his willingness to respect tradition even as he disliked religious rites. Disregarding Nehru’s wishes, Indira Gandhi had got a priest to conduct religious ceremonies. Anyone who knows all this will realize that Education Minister MA Baby’s enthusiasm for this lesson and religious leaders’ fears about it are equally misplaced.
The Congress leaders’ charge that the book gives more prominence to Communist agitations than to the freedom struggle under Gandhiji’s leadership is also not in accord with facts.
In short, the objections raised against the book will not survive an objective scrutiny. At the same time, it has to be said that the book lacks the quality expected of a school textbook. There is reason to doubt whether those who prepared it possessed the necessary qualifications.
Based on column ‘Nerkkazhcha’ appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated June 26, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
Those who frighten and those who get frightened
When the Communist Party of India first came to power through the ballot box, I was working in Chennai. The people of Tamil Nadu viewed the election results with surprise. There, too, the Congress party’s influence was on the wane. But the Tamil people did not have the courage to remove it and put another party on power. They did not hide their admiration for the Malayali who hard the courage to do it. “He is a real guy,” they said. They used that paternalist phrase only to denote courage.
Today the Malayali is a coward. The way we join hartals, whoever calls them, proves this. People get frightened when there are people who frighten. Fear of power, which flows through the barrel of a gun, is universal. In Kerala, there are others, too, who can frighten. Hartals succeed because people fear the muscle power of the political parties. These days the big parties rarely send their cadres to the battlefront. Usually they deploy members of affiliated organizations.
The first Communist government commanded a majority of only two votes in the State Assembly. If the Opposition could win over one member, the majority will be wiped out. If it could win over two members, it will have two more members than the ruling party. Placing their faith in this arithmetic, some persons were moving around with sacks to capture legislators. At that time, addressing a public meeting in Thiruvananthapuram, party leader M. N. Govindan Nair said, “Whatever happens, we will maintain the two-vote majority.” He did not say we will take two legs or two lives. But those who listened to him came with the impression that even that might be done. Today leaders hold out dire threats publicly. Did not one leader say the other day that if anyone tried to demolish the party’s building his legs would be chopped off? How can one not be frightened?
Even before political parties took birth, religious establishments had the capacity to frighten people. Later caste organizations also acquired that capacity. In Kerala, some other organizations like those of traders and businessmen also possess that capacity, though not in the same measure. Film industry organizations are now trying to develop that capacity.
Sometimes there are needless attempts to fright people. The declaration of war made by Church leaders in the wake of the State Women’s Commission’s recommendation to enact legislation to prevent young girls from becoming nuns is an example. Chairperson Justice D. Sreeedevi has said the Commission also proposes to recommend that parents who force daughters to enter the nunnery must be prosecuted, the property rights of nuns must be protected and those leaving the convent must be rehabilitated.
Spokesmen of several Churches have claimed they are already following most of the regulations the Commission wants to enforce. The head of the Syro Malankara Church said in a press release that it did not allow one who has not completed 18 years to become a priest or nun. Kerala Regional Latin Catholic Council Secretary Fr. Stephen G. Kulakkayathil clarified that girls entered the convent after completing school education and no one became a nun before 18. Catholic Bishops Council of India spokesman Rev. Dr. Babu Joseph said no one became a nun before the age of 20, Orthodox Bishop Paulose Mar Milithios Bava said his Church too did not ordain nuns before the age of 18.
All Churches maintain that the girl and her parents have to give full consent before training as nun can start, that there is no compulsion to bequeath her share of the family property to the convent, that a nun can leave the order at any time and that they help in the rehabilitation of those who leave the nunnery. In other words, the Women’s Commission’s recommendations are in accord with the rules that the Churches follow or are bound to follow. What was then the need to declare war on the Commission?
There is no need to disbelieve what the spokesmen of the Churches say about the procedures they follow. At the same time we cannot forget that rules might be broken in the Churches, as elsewhere. Indeed, persons like Joseph Pulikunnel, who have been campaigning against undesirable practices in the Churches, have pointed to breach of the rules. The Women’s Commission’s mandate is to protect the rights pf women. It drew up its recommendations in the light of a study conducted after receiving a complaint.
The charge that the Commission’s recommendations constitute interference in religious affairs is absurd. As the Women’s Summit at Beijing declared, women’s rights are human rights. The Churches cannot claim the right to flout human rights in the name of religious freedom. The real issue involved in the controversy is who must have the right to frighten the people. If a law is enacted, that will become the last word. So long as it is not there, the Church has the last word. The people need fear it alone.
The way Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee President Ramesh Chennithala, who is capable of understanding all this, has jumped into the fray to make political capital is highly deplorable. The dealings the political parties have made with religious and caste organizations at the national and regional levels for temporary gains have already caused immense damage. Chennithala may make a ruckus and Pinarayi Vijayan may turn his face away, but the constitutional machinery cannot ignore human rights violations.
One criticism levelled by those who have come forward to oppose the Women’s Commission’s recommendations is that there is no Christian representative on it. This is not sufficient reason to reject the Commission’s recommendations. However, it needs to be acknowledged that lack of representation for a significant section of the population on such bodies exposes a grave weakness in the political arena.
Based on 'Nerkkazhcha' column appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated June 13, 2008
Today the Malayali is a coward. The way we join hartals, whoever calls them, proves this. People get frightened when there are people who frighten. Fear of power, which flows through the barrel of a gun, is universal. In Kerala, there are others, too, who can frighten. Hartals succeed because people fear the muscle power of the political parties. These days the big parties rarely send their cadres to the battlefront. Usually they deploy members of affiliated organizations.
The first Communist government commanded a majority of only two votes in the State Assembly. If the Opposition could win over one member, the majority will be wiped out. If it could win over two members, it will have two more members than the ruling party. Placing their faith in this arithmetic, some persons were moving around with sacks to capture legislators. At that time, addressing a public meeting in Thiruvananthapuram, party leader M. N. Govindan Nair said, “Whatever happens, we will maintain the two-vote majority.” He did not say we will take two legs or two lives. But those who listened to him came with the impression that even that might be done. Today leaders hold out dire threats publicly. Did not one leader say the other day that if anyone tried to demolish the party’s building his legs would be chopped off? How can one not be frightened?
Even before political parties took birth, religious establishments had the capacity to frighten people. Later caste organizations also acquired that capacity. In Kerala, some other organizations like those of traders and businessmen also possess that capacity, though not in the same measure. Film industry organizations are now trying to develop that capacity.
Sometimes there are needless attempts to fright people. The declaration of war made by Church leaders in the wake of the State Women’s Commission’s recommendation to enact legislation to prevent young girls from becoming nuns is an example. Chairperson Justice D. Sreeedevi has said the Commission also proposes to recommend that parents who force daughters to enter the nunnery must be prosecuted, the property rights of nuns must be protected and those leaving the convent must be rehabilitated.
Spokesmen of several Churches have claimed they are already following most of the regulations the Commission wants to enforce. The head of the Syro Malankara Church said in a press release that it did not allow one who has not completed 18 years to become a priest or nun. Kerala Regional Latin Catholic Council Secretary Fr. Stephen G. Kulakkayathil clarified that girls entered the convent after completing school education and no one became a nun before 18. Catholic Bishops Council of India spokesman Rev. Dr. Babu Joseph said no one became a nun before the age of 20, Orthodox Bishop Paulose Mar Milithios Bava said his Church too did not ordain nuns before the age of 18.
All Churches maintain that the girl and her parents have to give full consent before training as nun can start, that there is no compulsion to bequeath her share of the family property to the convent, that a nun can leave the order at any time and that they help in the rehabilitation of those who leave the nunnery. In other words, the Women’s Commission’s recommendations are in accord with the rules that the Churches follow or are bound to follow. What was then the need to declare war on the Commission?
There is no need to disbelieve what the spokesmen of the Churches say about the procedures they follow. At the same time we cannot forget that rules might be broken in the Churches, as elsewhere. Indeed, persons like Joseph Pulikunnel, who have been campaigning against undesirable practices in the Churches, have pointed to breach of the rules. The Women’s Commission’s mandate is to protect the rights pf women. It drew up its recommendations in the light of a study conducted after receiving a complaint.
The charge that the Commission’s recommendations constitute interference in religious affairs is absurd. As the Women’s Summit at Beijing declared, women’s rights are human rights. The Churches cannot claim the right to flout human rights in the name of religious freedom. The real issue involved in the controversy is who must have the right to frighten the people. If a law is enacted, that will become the last word. So long as it is not there, the Church has the last word. The people need fear it alone.
The way Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee President Ramesh Chennithala, who is capable of understanding all this, has jumped into the fray to make political capital is highly deplorable. The dealings the political parties have made with religious and caste organizations at the national and regional levels for temporary gains have already caused immense damage. Chennithala may make a ruckus and Pinarayi Vijayan may turn his face away, but the constitutional machinery cannot ignore human rights violations.
One criticism levelled by those who have come forward to oppose the Women’s Commission’s recommendations is that there is no Christian representative on it. This is not sufficient reason to reject the Commission’s recommendations. However, it needs to be acknowledged that lack of representation for a significant section of the population on such bodies exposes a grave weakness in the political arena.
Based on 'Nerkkazhcha' column appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated June 13, 2008
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Behind the club-centred class war
In the none-too-distant past it was easy to identify the bourgeois in Kerala. They travelled by car. They alone did. The proletariat relied on their legs. Sometimes they also used the bicycle or the bus. But neither they nor their leaders used automobiles. The class enemy could, therefore, be recognized without much difficulty. That made class war easy. If the car hit a pedestrian, the driver could be pulled out immediately and beaten up. What if he is not a bourgeois? Isn’t he an agent of bourgeois?
When leaders of the working class started using motor cycles and cars, the situation changed. Today even the guy in an air-conditioned car need not be a bourgeois. So there is no class war on the national highways. In the circumstances, it is necessary to find other ways to distinguish the bourgeois from the adopted sons of the proletariat who travel by car. Here lies the relevance of golf.
Marx, Lenin, Mao and Ho did not play golf. One can’t be too sure of Jyoti Basu. After all, he studied in England. Although he ruled West Bengal for 30 years without the help of any Congressman, he did not close down the gold course in Kolkata. The China Line may have influenced him. In the 20 years since Deng opened China to foreign investors, 200 golf courses were built there. In the whole of Asia there are only about 500 of them.
Just as Krishna needs Kamsa and Bhima needs Keechaka to kill, the proletariat needs the bourgeois to exterminate. By and large, Kerala is a middle class society. The middle class cannot take the place of the bourgeois. Especially so when the proletariat looks to it for adopted sons. A recent study by the Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad revealed that a new rich class is emerging here. How can this section, which contributes liberally for the success of all enterprises from party channel and newspapers to football competitions, be put in the enemy camp?
Whatever may be the situation in West Bengal and China, it is possible to divide the classes on the basis of golf in Kerala. EMS and AKG did not play golf. Pinarayi Vijayan and Veliyam Bhargavan do not play golf. Research by Dr. TM Thomas Isaac or G. Sudharakan can be expected to establish that cricket and golf were introduced by Imperialism to destroy our traditional games. Cricket has been able to produce a brilliant player like Shreesant and earn the support of some cultural personalities like Sukumar Azhikode. Golf has no such achievements to its credit. So the party can certainly decide that businessmen and bureaucrats who play golf are the new reactionaries. But it cannot be said that such ideological calculations are behind the government takeover of the Golf Club at Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.
The legal validity of the government action is under the consideration of the High Court. Let us not go onto that issue here. Even if the action was valid, the question whether it was necessary is relevant. That the land belongs to the government is not in dispute. The government says the lease amount is in arrears. The club claims it is holding the land not on lease but under a licence. In either case, if the club owes the government money, the proper course is to collect the dues. There is no need for the club to lock up the place and take the keys away. The government has also alleged that the place given to the club for playing golf is being used for other purposes. The basis of the allegation is that a bar functioned there. In a State where bar licences are granted most liberally, it is ridiculous to treat the running of a bar in a club as a crime.
Former club secretary EM Najeeb was heard saying in channel discussions that six officers from the Chief Secretary downwards are on the 11-member executive committee of the club. If this is correct, the government can easily correct the club when it does something wrong. The Chief Minister has said facilities for playing golf will be provided.
But he has not said facilities will be provided at the same place. In the circumstances, one may infer that the government proposes to turn out the club and use the premises for some other purpose. It certainly has the right to do so. But it must act in a transparent manner.
Land is needed urgently for developmental purposes and to meet the needs of weaker sections like Dalits and Adivasis. But what Kerala, which has placed hopes in tourism, needs is not development which will turn the land into a concrete jungle. The State is witnessing large-scale urbanization. We must take particular care to retain open spaces which can serve as lungs of the cities. Leaders who have set their eyes on the land held by clubs must understand this.
Golf is a sport with economic significance. Scotland’s 550 golf courses attract a lot of foreign tourists. China, too, has built golf courses as tourist attractions. But there have been allegations that the huge building complexes have been built under cover of golf. There have been agitations in the United States against the building of new golf courses because of the environmental problems they pose. It is the excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers and exploitation of water resources that create problems. The experience of the US, which has about 18,000 golf courses, need not scare us, but we must learn appropriate lessons from it. New methods permit the creation of golf courses without causing much damage to the environment.
How is it that the eyes of the rulers who are looking all around for land that can be seized have not caught the Mavoor property in the hands of the Birlas? Industries Minister Elamaram Karim recently said that the Birlas have submitted to the government a proposal which envisages employment of about 100,000 people. It is a real estate project similar to that of the Mumbai firm which got some land with Karin’s help. All this creates doubts about the government’s intentions.
Based on column ‘Nerkkazhcha’ appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated June 5, 2008.
When leaders of the working class started using motor cycles and cars, the situation changed. Today even the guy in an air-conditioned car need not be a bourgeois. So there is no class war on the national highways. In the circumstances, it is necessary to find other ways to distinguish the bourgeois from the adopted sons of the proletariat who travel by car. Here lies the relevance of golf.
Marx, Lenin, Mao and Ho did not play golf. One can’t be too sure of Jyoti Basu. After all, he studied in England. Although he ruled West Bengal for 30 years without the help of any Congressman, he did not close down the gold course in Kolkata. The China Line may have influenced him. In the 20 years since Deng opened China to foreign investors, 200 golf courses were built there. In the whole of Asia there are only about 500 of them.
Just as Krishna needs Kamsa and Bhima needs Keechaka to kill, the proletariat needs the bourgeois to exterminate. By and large, Kerala is a middle class society. The middle class cannot take the place of the bourgeois. Especially so when the proletariat looks to it for adopted sons. A recent study by the Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad revealed that a new rich class is emerging here. How can this section, which contributes liberally for the success of all enterprises from party channel and newspapers to football competitions, be put in the enemy camp?
Whatever may be the situation in West Bengal and China, it is possible to divide the classes on the basis of golf in Kerala. EMS and AKG did not play golf. Pinarayi Vijayan and Veliyam Bhargavan do not play golf. Research by Dr. TM Thomas Isaac or G. Sudharakan can be expected to establish that cricket and golf were introduced by Imperialism to destroy our traditional games. Cricket has been able to produce a brilliant player like Shreesant and earn the support of some cultural personalities like Sukumar Azhikode. Golf has no such achievements to its credit. So the party can certainly decide that businessmen and bureaucrats who play golf are the new reactionaries. But it cannot be said that such ideological calculations are behind the government takeover of the Golf Club at Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.
The legal validity of the government action is under the consideration of the High Court. Let us not go onto that issue here. Even if the action was valid, the question whether it was necessary is relevant. That the land belongs to the government is not in dispute. The government says the lease amount is in arrears. The club claims it is holding the land not on lease but under a licence. In either case, if the club owes the government money, the proper course is to collect the dues. There is no need for the club to lock up the place and take the keys away. The government has also alleged that the place given to the club for playing golf is being used for other purposes. The basis of the allegation is that a bar functioned there. In a State where bar licences are granted most liberally, it is ridiculous to treat the running of a bar in a club as a crime.
Former club secretary EM Najeeb was heard saying in channel discussions that six officers from the Chief Secretary downwards are on the 11-member executive committee of the club. If this is correct, the government can easily correct the club when it does something wrong. The Chief Minister has said facilities for playing golf will be provided.
But he has not said facilities will be provided at the same place. In the circumstances, one may infer that the government proposes to turn out the club and use the premises for some other purpose. It certainly has the right to do so. But it must act in a transparent manner.
Land is needed urgently for developmental purposes and to meet the needs of weaker sections like Dalits and Adivasis. But what Kerala, which has placed hopes in tourism, needs is not development which will turn the land into a concrete jungle. The State is witnessing large-scale urbanization. We must take particular care to retain open spaces which can serve as lungs of the cities. Leaders who have set their eyes on the land held by clubs must understand this.
Golf is a sport with economic significance. Scotland’s 550 golf courses attract a lot of foreign tourists. China, too, has built golf courses as tourist attractions. But there have been allegations that the huge building complexes have been built under cover of golf. There have been agitations in the United States against the building of new golf courses because of the environmental problems they pose. It is the excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers and exploitation of water resources that create problems. The experience of the US, which has about 18,000 golf courses, need not scare us, but we must learn appropriate lessons from it. New methods permit the creation of golf courses without causing much damage to the environment.
How is it that the eyes of the rulers who are looking all around for land that can be seized have not caught the Mavoor property in the hands of the Birlas? Industries Minister Elamaram Karim recently said that the Birlas have submitted to the government a proposal which envisages employment of about 100,000 people. It is a real estate project similar to that of the Mumbai firm which got some land with Karin’s help. All this creates doubts about the government’s intentions.
Based on column ‘Nerkkazhcha’ appearing in Kerala Kaumudi dated June 5, 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.
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
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