Hollow Success
An editorial in the CPM weekly Peoples Democracy weighs in on the reforms. It says when India embarked on neoliberal reforms in 1991,critics argued opening the economy to the free flow of goods,services and capital would make the living standards of millions vulnerable to the whims and caprices of a group of international speculators.
The then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh and other proponents of neoliberalism had pooh-poohed this argument,calling the critics habitual prophets of doom,arguing that opening up the economy would make it so strong,efficient and internationally competitive that it would emerge as a successful exporter and a favourite destination for international capital.
Manmohan Singhs television address to the nation on September 21,the editorial contends,amounted to a clear admission that the critics had been right. He drew an explicit parallel between the 1991 crisis and now, it says,wondering how a 1991-type crisis could visit the economy in 2012 when the earlier inward-looking strategy had been buried.
It claims that notwithstanding talk of Indias export success and the hullabaloo about India emerging as an economic superpower,it remains vulnerable to a sudden loss in speculator confidence,which can bring it to its knees overnight.
WRONGFUL ARRESTS
In the light of the Supreme Courts recent observation that no innocent person should be branded a terrorist simply because he belongs to a minority community,the CPI journal New Age alleges such judicial pronouncements have further confirmed intelligence agencies and police are working with a definite anti-minority mindset.
This judicial comment from the apex court points to the reality that since long our intelligence agencies and [the police are working under the influence of the theory propounded by NDA Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee that all Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims. To prove this basically erroneous dictum,our police and intelligence agencies have been cooking up stories to target the Muslim youth, the editorial claims.
The significant observation in the book is that most of the acquittals are not just due to lack of evidence. The courts have found that in most cases the so-called evidence provided by the police and the prosecution were tampered and fabricated, it says.
ADHIKAR YATRA
An editorial in the CPI(ML) journal ML Update focuses on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumars Adhikar Yatra. It claims the CMs convoy was met with protesting people throughout its route and alleges these protests were repressed.
The Adhikar Yatra has become an all-out crackdown on the rights of the people of Bihar,and a naked display of high-handedness and arrogance on part of the CM, it says,and refers to an incident involving party leader Ranvir Yadav,who reportedly brandished a gun at protesters.
What was worse was,that when the CM addressed the public meeting,he began by praising Poonam Yadav and Ranvir Yadav warmly for making it possible for him to reach the dais and reprimanded the protestors! No case was filed against Ranvir Yadav in spite of the videotaped evidence [against him. Instead,cases were slapped wholesale on hundreds of protestors, it says.
The Nitish Kumar government showed its true colours giving a free hand to the Ranvir Sena,which indulged in violence and intimidation after the killing of Brahmeshwar Singh. Now,by praising and defending Ranvir Yadav and punishing the protestors,Nitish Kumar and his NDA government have proved that they can never defend or champion the adhikar of the people of Bihar. It is the protesting and struggling people of Bihar who alone can champion the struggle for their own rights,defying repression, it concludes.
Compiled by Manoj C.G.
