Marx in motion

West Bengal, he says, is not a sovereign country but a province within a capitalist-feudal state, which has not had a revolution. The state government8217;s main responsibilities are to make agriculture and industry grow to their full potential. He quotes Lenin to say that socialism is inconceivable without large-scale capitalist engineering based on the latest discoveries of modern science. Defending the Salim Group8217;s entry, despite questions about its relations with Indonesia8217;s strongman Suharto, Konar says Marx was concerned about the character of capital and not the character of capitalists 8212; if Congressmen8217;s hands were 8220;stained with the blood of our comrades8221; would it be right to bring down the UPA government and let the BJP come to power, he asks. 8220;What the Bengal government has done is just a miniscule step compared to what Lenin was forced to do, even after the revolution,8221; says Konar.

New tech, new think

Coming to foreign investment in technology as outlined in the Eleventh Plan approach paper, Prabir Purkayastha says 8212; in the second of the two articles mentioned above 8212; that MNCs do not 8220;cause diffusion8221; of advanced technology systems in other countries and such advances remain within the companies concerned. In short, catching up in technology does not automatically follow after allowing free entry to MNCs and helping them to locate their R038;D facilities. But, 8220;it is only by catching up in technology that the larger question of a more equal world can be resolved,8221; says the author.

In his view, the earlier model of indigenisation that helped India and South Korea to build a large manufacturing base will not work where technological change was rapid. The indigenisation paradigm therefore needed to be modified to give new opportunities and break the technology cycle. 8220;We need to focus on where and how we can leverage our strengths, either in terms of the market or in technical expertise and knowledge to develop future technology,8221; says Purkayastha.

For whom, this reform?

8216;Reform the reformer8217; is the heading of a front page comment that has its own view on 15 years of the reforms process. Expectedly, there are questions about what is in it for the 8216;aam aadmi8217;? Farmers, it says, could have celebrated if something had been said about land reforms on the lines of West Bengal, Kerala or Tripura. Instead, input costs had risen and farmers had been 8220;thrown to the mercy of private traders8221; rather than increasing the minimum support price.

The years of reform had led to the dismantling of the public distribution system on the one hand and the closure of more than a million small, medium and heavy industries. 8220;Reform for whom?8221; the comment asks, pointing out the entire process was being carried through by 8220;self-styled World Bank-IMF trained reformers8221;.

8226; Tailpiece: 8220;Force the government to change tack8221; is the heading of a front-page editorial on the recent UPA-Left coordination meeting, where the government responded to a note submitted in June highlighting key Left concerns and deviations from the National Common Minimum Programme. The editorial goes on to give a detailed answer on the issues raised by the Left. However, it does not mention the UPA8217;s note to the Left 8212; the UPA note had 19 pages compared to the Left8217;s nine page note 8212; where almost all concerns raised by the Left have been 8220;explained8221; 8212; actually, brushed aside.

8212; Compiled by Ananda Majumdar