Congress will pay

It is no secret that price rise is a potent political issue and will play a part in the assembly polls this year.

It is no secret that price rise is a potent political issue and will play a part in the assembly polls this year. The CPM recognises this, saying that the price rise factor will have an 8220;adverse effect on the fortunes of the Congress party8221; in the Punjab and Uttarakhand elections. The lead editorial in the latest issue of People8217;s Democracy charts out a long list of what the government should do. Its suggestions: Bring down fuel prices to pre-June 2006 levels and revise the ad valorem duty structure on petroleum products, crack down on hoarding, address 8216;supply8217; constraints, and revise agricultural policy with emphasis on food security and the public distribution system. 8220;A major reason for the rising prices is the UPA government8217;s refusal to reverse the steps taken by the BJP-led government in 2003 to lift all restrictions on futures trading in agricultural commodities,8221; the editorial says. The party refers to what it believes are the changing positions of the government to explain price rise 8212; that it was seasonal, that inflation was a natural consequence of rapid economic growth and, more recently, that there were supply constraints. Contending that the UPA8217;s incorrect policies were responsible for price rise, the editorial says even though China had registered rapid growth for three decades, inflation was below 2 per cent.

Buddha8217;s word

After telling party cadres that the success of the state8217;s plans for industrialisation would depend on the manner in which people were persuaded to believe in them, the CPM is now systematically pursuing this line. This is evident from a report on West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee8217;s recent rally at Khejuri near Nandigram. 8220;Pointing at Haldia as a flagship example of economic turnaround, Buddhadeb narrated briefly how a fishing village grew to house more than a hundred large factories and employ 40,000 people. Would Nandigram, this side of the murmuring Haldi River, remain in the backwater of economy?8221; the report says. The chief minister was careful to say that agriculture would not be sacrificed for industrial growth, but pursued alongwith his focus on industrialisation: that the pressure on land from increasing population has made it difficult for families to survive on land alone, while education saw the young seeking employment opportunities elsewhere. 8220;Would we turn our faces away from the will of the young and force them to remain cultivators?8221; the West Bengal chief minister is quoted as asking.

Courting trouble

The Kerala High Court verdict on self-financing colleges in the state has elicited a long response in People8217;s Democracy from AIFUCTO president Thomas Joseph, who starts by saying the court had 8220;taken away the authority of the state to provide for a centralised single window admission,8221; determine fee structure and provide reservation, and 8220;freeship to 50 per cent of the admitted students on merit cum means basis8221;. He also says that by striking down section 7 of the Kerala Professional Colleges Act, the high court had 8220;struck down the educational aspirations of the poor and their prospects for a better life8221;. According to him, the verdict had 8220;little appreciation for the social philosophy of taxation and its implications on public finance and public welfare. This is not an apolitical view8230; it is a neoliberal, capitalist view. It is opposed to the socialist ethos of our constitution.8221;

Compiled by Ananda Majumdar