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Journalism of Courage
While the Left may be moving towards resuming regular coordination committee meetings with the UPA — so far, positive indications have come from CPI(M) leaders Jyoti Basu and Sitaram Yechury — they also seem intent on reminding the Prime Minister of the rigours of coalition politics that he had spoken about in his interview to The McKinsey Quarterly.
A few days after the passage of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which the Left had been pushing for, the PM has come in for criticism for linking funding for such projects with economic growth. The latest issue of People’s Democracy, the weekly party organ, carries an editorial criticising the PM for not committing statutory funding to the job guarantee scheme. This, the editorial says, was evident from the PM’s intervention in the debate on the issue in the Rajya Sabha.
It says linking funding of the project with economic growth was dangerous. ‘‘This is a dangerous caveat. If for some reason, growth rate falls short of the target, then the scheme could well be in jeopardy. This cannot be allowed,’’ the paper says.
The PM also came in for criticism for justifying reforms and liberalisation, and making them necessary for the success of similar schemes.
The CPI has, meanwhile, objected to the PM’s The McKinsey Quarterly interview. D Raja, CPI’s national secretary said, ‘‘We don’t agree with what he has said, especially on reforms. Our position is that if reforms are for the country’s benefit and for the poor, we are for it. Otherwise we will object.’’ On the PM’s praise for West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Raja said his party would support only people-oriented policies of the state government, and oppose the rest. He said that on economic issues, the UPA government appeared to be focussing only on FDI and funding matters.
NAC focus: Rural credit
NEW DELHI: After the Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, the National Advisory Council has shifted its focus on revival of rural cooperative credit institutions. Favouring reforms in the rural credit cooperative system, the NAC, at it’s 16th meeting today, discussed the need for a bill on the rehabilitation of families affected by projects. It underscored the need to pay special attention to expanding institutional credit in the North-East, where community ownership of land is common.The meeting, chaired by UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and attended by nine members, discussed the commitment made in the CMP to double rural credit in three years and to substantially expand coverage of small and marginal farmers by institutional lenders. — ENS
