Police for hire?

In its shrill call to probe the Gujarat government8217;s complicity in the fake encounter killings, the CPM refers to media reports that suggest that the state police could be involved in contract killings.

In its shrill call to probe the Gujarat government8217;s complicity in the fake encounter killings, the CPM refers to media reports that suggest that the state police could be involved in contract killings. 8220;The BJP8217;s complicity in contributing to such a degeneration of our law enforcing agency 8212; the police 8212; is not surprising,8221; says the editorial in the latest issue of People8217;s Democracy, adding that with its 8220;pre-occupation to communalise8221; social life, the party has used the police force to further its agenda. The aim is simple: to fulfill the objective of the Sangh Parivar and uphold the ideology of the so-called 8216;Hindu Rashtra8217;.

The fake encounters, according to the CPM, establish this point. But the Left weekly questions the arrest of D.G. Vanzara and other police officers in the Sohrabuddin case, asking whether making the Gujarat government8217;s admission before the Supreme Court on the killing of Sohrabuddin and Kauser Bi was a ploy to protect the political bigwigs. The attack on the BJP and the larger Sangh Parivar continues as the editorial mentions the involvement of three BJP governments in the case 8212; in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, apart from Gujarat. 8220;Clearly, individually and together, their complicity in violating the law of the land, with impunity, through the police needs to be investigated and culpability fixed,8221; says the editorial. The weekly8217;s response to the suggestions from the Sangh Parivar that Sohrabuddin was a criminal is that even hardened criminals have legal rights according to the law of the land.

For the farmers

The CPM refers to what it believes is an anomalous position on PDS: while the Planning Commission talks of PDS as a significant instrument of government policy, the government is 8220;wilfully weakening8221; the system by promoting private procurement. In 8216;Fight to change food policies of UPA Government8217;, party MP and politburo member Brinda Karat says that official procurement serves to support the farmer on the one hand, while on the other, it facilitates adequate foodgrain supply. However, 8220;the privatisation agenda8221; saw the interests of the farmer being pitted against the consumer. 8220;Last year, the total mismanagement of the food economy led to a situation where the government had to meet the huge gaps in procurement of wheat through expensive imports, which meant paying foreign traders more than the price paid to Indian farmers,8221; writes Karat. Now, she points out, after encouraging private procurement, the government was resorting to 8220;blackmail8221; by threatening some state governments to procure adequate wheat for their states from for the central pool in order to maintain their central supplies to the PDS. Karat8217;s charge against the ministries of agriculture and finance is that the policy of private procurement being promoted by Sharad Pawar8217;s ministry in the name of protecting farmers8217; interests 8220;meshes totally with the agenda of the finance minister8221; and deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, which is to slash food subsidy.

En route to democracy

If there are worries about Nepal8217;s continuing problems, it is natural, says party MP and politburo member, Sitaram Yechury, who was in Nepal recently. But, in 8216;Nepal: Birth Pangs Of Democracy8217;, he does stress that 8220;significant distance8221; had been travelled on the road to democracy. For instance, the Nepalese Parliament has been expanded to include the Maoists. Besides, the combatants of the Maoist People8217;s Liberation Army PLA have been registered with the United Nations and their arms have been 8220;nearly completely surrendered8221;. Yechury, who visited a Maoist camp, also held discussions with the chief of the United Nations mission in Nepal and returned with the impression that international agencies were prepared to assist Nepal in conducting programmes for providing skills and rehabilitation to the former combatants. Yet, according to the CPM MP, the important thing would be to hold elections in the country as soon as possible because the constituent assembly alone would draw up the framework for democracy in the country, which would include defining the status of the monarchy.

Compiled by Ananda Majumdar