Stern Karat

Prakash Karat has written a strongly worded article in People8217;s Democracy titled 8216;Left is Firm: No Passage for Nuclear Deal8217;.

Prakash Karat has written a strongly worded article in People8217;s Democracy titled 8216;Left is Firm: No Passage for Nuclear Deal8217;. He urges the government to recognise the opposition to the 123 agreement. 8220;Till all the doubts are clarified and the implications of the Hyde Act evaluated, the government should not take the next steps with regard to negotiating the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA safeguards8221;, he writes. He is also concerned that the government has begun to tune its foreign policy to the strategic alliance with the US 8212; India has voted twice against Iran in IAEA. The Left has been watching this volte face, he writes.

Moreover, it is of concern that India is taking steps to interlock its armed forces with the US. 8220;The framework agreement is leading to various steps like the Logistics Support Agreement and the Maritime Cooperation Pact,8221; he writes.

Transforming India

The editorial in People8217;s Democracy calls for transforming India on the occasion of the 60th year of its independence. It believes that it will be possible to meet this challenge by 8220;the provision of adequate measures to compensate those sections, who due to centuries of social oppression and discrimination, remained unequal in competing for the available opportunities. Modern India seeks to ensure this through the provision of reservations8221;, it says.

However, as the system is distorted through the use of money and muscle power, 8220;the struggle to strengthen our democratic system, thus, must continue with redoubled resolve8221;, it adds.

Wages of polarisation

To mark the 60th anniversary of Indian independence, CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu writes that the ruling Congress party has not complied with the directive principles provided in the Constitution. He writes, 8220;Articles like 356 have been used many a time to oust elected governments. Even emergency, which abolished all rights of the people including the right to life, was declared under the provisions of the Constitution8230; The rich-poor gap is increasing day by day and the concentration of wealth has taken an alarming shape. Consequently, class polarisation became accentuated.8221;

Devolution is all

Asim K. Dasgupta, West Bengal Finance Minister, reflects on the Centre-state relationship. The devolution of power is 8220;intrinsically connected to the fulfilment of other pledges regarding the common people8217;s greater access to employment, livelihood, education, health care and other amenities8230; decentralisation of powers from the Centre to the states, moreover, must not stop at the state headquarters, but go down to the level of village panchayats and urban municipalities in the districts, and through them to the vast majority of people.8221;

Compiled by Jayanth Jacob