Opinion Against the grain

Besides,it says,the bill cuts down on allocations from a 35 kg minimum guarantee to individual-linked low quotas and raises the price of rice from Rs 2 — through state government schemes in over 10 states — to Rs 3 for BPL households and mandates an upwardly

floating price index for APL households.

The framework itself was questionable since the “Central government usurps,through various provisions in the bill,overriding powers” from numbers,criteria,responsibilities and expenditure,she says,adding that these highly centralised powers are designed to legalise and institutionalise instruments of neoliberal policies like targeting with a reduction of entitlements and cash transfers instead of guaranteed foodgrains. The ability of state governments to pursue an alternative system of food security would get circumscribed if this bill is to become law,says Karat.

Unsuitable partner

The editorial in People’s Democracy focuses on the recent India-US joint statement reaffirming their commitment to consultation,coordination and cooperation on Afghanistan and joint Indo-US initiatives in Africa and other parts of the globe. Asserting that “state terrorism sponsored by US imperialism and acts of fundamentalist terrorism feed upon each other,” it argues that such cooperation has serious implications for India’s national and internal security. “The US military occupation of Iraq,the NATO operations in Afghanistan led by the US,its latest military offensive against Libya and the continued intransigence in refusing to grant Palestinians their genuine right to a homeland are all instances that are globally perceived as examples of US imperialism’s hegemonism and efforts to impose a unilateral world order under its leadership. It is not in India’s national or security interests to become a partner of the US in such a global strategy,” it says. On bilateral defence cooperation,it observes that India’s defence orders from US companies had reached “a cumulative value of over $8 billion in the last decade”. This,it says,is the “primary objective of the US,which seeks to promote its commercial interests in the areas of defence and nuclear power generation by selling us an equivalent,if not greater,value in nuclear reactors.”

Unseal the deal

In the light of the NSG decision to restrict transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technologies to countries that have not signed the NPT,an article in CPI weekly New Age says the group’s move has virtually nullified the Indo-US nuclear deal.

“It is interesting that the US was party to this decision to impose restrictions to the supply of ENR technology and equipment to countries that are outside the NPT,but then it also tried to assure India that the new ENR restrictions would not detract from the 2008 NSG exception and that the US ‘fully supports’ the ‘clear waiver’ that was given to India by the NSG in 2008,” it says.

It argues that the US is running with the hare and hunting with the hounds and that France and Russia were also party to this new decision. The article asserts that it is high time the government revisit the Indo-US nuclear deal,and “ take recourse to get out of this deal even at this stage.”