Muddied contest

The editorial in the latest issue of People8217;s Democracy slams the BJP for its campaign against Pratibha Patel. 8220;To the dismay of t...

The editorial in the latest issue of People8217;s Democracy slams the BJP for its campaign against Pratibha Patel. 8220;To the dismay of the whole nation, the scurrilous campaign unleashed by the BJP against the UPA candidate has stooped to a low level that we thought the BJP was incapable of.8221;

The editorial continues, 8220;Sushma Swaraj8217;s defence of Shekhawat, thus, seems to be diabolically endorsing the RSS8217;s role during the freedom struggle. Swaraj also reminds the country that upon becoming the chief minister of Rajasthan in 1977, Shekhawat had withdrawn cases against various people for participating in the struggle against the Emergency including two against himself8230; the BJP is, in fact, contributing to create unseemly controversies for their own candidate and the incumbent vice president of India. Such is the political bankruptcy of the BJP.8221;

Money and party

The party is on the backfoot in Kerala after reports that those who are running its mouthpiece Deshabimani have taken money from local bigwigs. Party general secretary Prakash Karat writes in Peoples Democracy, 8220;that the CPM is drawing proper lessons from the two incidents can be seen from the decision of the state committee to ask the secretariat to ascertain the facts and the circumstances of these two affairs. The party will take whatever corrective measures are necessary8221;.

View from Palestine

Party politburo member Sitaram Yechury has written an emotional piece after visiting the Palestinian territories. He says, 8220;I must confess that only when we visited these areas, did one understand the gravity of the situation and felt the depth of anger, anguish and pathos8230; The fact that CPM had independently run a nation-wide solidarity campaign and collected a substantial amount of money for the Palesinans is widely appreciated. However, such efforts need to intensify further,8221; he writes.

Centre and state

Senior party leader Nilotpal Basu has written an article on Centre-state relationship, titled 8216;Centre-state relations: Three decades of struggle 8212; new contexts and new challenges8217;. He says, 8220;The party had made it explicit before the Sarkaria commission that the process of restructuring can be an end in itself8230; To achieve solutions for the basic problems of people, fundamental social transformation is necessary.8221;

Compiled by Jayanth Jacob