Beware of China

Describing President Hu Jintao8217;s visit as 8220;high on rhetoric and low on substance8221;, the Organiser8217;s editorial is sharply critical of China8217;s attitude towards India on several counts.

Describing President Hu Jintao8217;s visit as 8220;high on rhetoric and low on substance8221;, the Organiser8217;s editorial is sharply critical of China8217;s attitude towards India on several counts. On the question of civilian nuclear energy, 8220;China, like the US, wants to get unhindered access to India8217;s lucrative market but clip our independent pursuit of nuclear power.8221; Accusing the country of double standards, it points out that China is ready to supply nuclear technology to its friends but critical of India8217;s security concerns.

On the economic front, China wants India to open up but 8220;continues its support to Pakistan on Kashmir.8221; China, the editorial adds, is trying 8220;to encircle India by increasing its presence in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. It wants the Indian comrades to work as its Gestapo to further its global agenda.8221;

As for strengthening trade ties with our northern neighbour, the editorial warns that 8220;a no-holds-barred regime on Chinese imports will have devastating effects on the balance of trade, as China has the advantage of cheap, captive labour and a guided economic order of a political dictatorship. It has the potential to stifle India8217;s domestic production.8221;

8230;And of Nepal Maoists too

As in previous issues, the diatribe against Nepal8217;s Maoist leadership continues. Easwaran Nambudiri lambasts the Indian media for lionising Prachanda on his recent visit to India. The Maoist leader was 8220;not just responsible for the killing of innocent Nepalese citizens8221; but has also

8220;consistently whipped up anti-Indian sentiments in the Himalayan kingdom,8221; he insists. He also expresses concern at the 8220;ever widening Maoist corridor extending from the Nepal border. That the Maoists in Nepal have been providing financial, military and hideout aid to Indian extremists has been an open secret for so long.8221;

Asserting that Hinduism has held India and Nepal together for centuries, the writer slams the Maoists for 8220;ruthlessly8221; crushing Nepal8217;s Hindu identity by forcing the new government to proclaim Nepal as a secular country.

The ascendance of the Maoists in Nepal, the growing clout of Marxists in India, and the Chinese president8217;s visit all indicate that 8220;a Left Albatross is already around India8217;s neck8221;, rues Nambudiri.

Education not quotas

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Joining the debate unleashed by the Sachar Committee report, BJP national executive member Arif

Mohammad Khan is clear that reservations for Muslims are not the answer. Khan, who resigned from the Rajiv Gandhi cabinet in protest against the bill to overturn the Shahbano judgement, insists that 8220;those who are suggesting reservation of jobs do not realise that the remedy suggested will prove worse than the disease.8221;

Advocates of quotas also seem unaware 8220;that more than 10 Muslim communities are part of the Scheduled tribes and 83 Muslim communities are included in the list of socially and educationally backward entitled to benefits of reservation. Together they constitute more than 70 per cent of total Muslim population leaving out only the Muslim creamy layer.8221;

Saying that the Sachar data shows that owing to lack of modern education Muslims have not been able to avail of existing quotas, Khan feels the only remedy lies in 8220;compulsory universal education for every Indian child including the Muslims. Modern education alone can help in not only correcting the present imbalances but liberate Muslims from obscurantist clergy and communal politics.8221;

Kudos for Renuka

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In a fulsome tribute, Organiser columnist Sandhya Jain writes that 8220;in a regime not known for original thinking, Minister of State for Women 038; Child Development, Renuka Chowdhury, deserves to be congratulated for breaking free of the Euro-American dictated paradigms and making a case for child labour in poor families in relatively traditional economies.8221;

Praising Chowdhury for re-opening the debate on banning child labour, Jain feels the minister8217;s initiative for a 8216;learning while earning8217; policy 8220;deserves support from all right-thinking persons, and it is to be hoped that her party8217;s Italian Vicerene does not come in the way of a national rethink on what is right and good for the Indian people.8221;

8212; Compiled by Manini Chatterjee