Opinion Muscle Power

“How far the criminalisation of politics has reached is evident from the recent gruesome murder of the Kunda Circle Officer and Dy SP Ziaul Haq in the wake of the planned murder of the Gram Pradhan Nanhey Singh Yadav and his brother Suresh due to a land dispute,” CPI mouthpiece New Age says,accusing bourgeois political parties of patronising criminals who have joined politics.

“Money-muscle power has almost distorted the entire electoral system of the country. The political process in the country… has got vitiated to the extent that it is hard to believe that our people will ever get a chance to see their will and wishes reflected in Parliament and legislatures,” it says. The editorial talks about the trend of billionaires and criminals getting elected to state legislatures and offers statistics that one-third of elected representatives face charges of murder,rape,abduction and economic offences.

VIVA CHAVEZ

The mouthpieces of the CPM and CPI(ML) pay glowing tributes to Hugo Chavez and exhort their readers to carry forward his legacy by strengthening struggles.

“He showed in practice that an alternative to neo-liberalism and its trajectory of economic policies was possible within the capitalist system itself. He showed this in the backyard of US imperialism and,thus,challenged its hegemonic drive both ideologically and economically. Of particular significance is his passionate pursuit of the vision of socialism which he confidently believed would be realised through the pursuit of the pro-people and anti-imperialist policies that he had put in place,” the editorial in People’s Democracy says.

The CPI(ML)’s weekly organ ML Update recalls that Chavez was probably the most important leader in the past quarter-century to have “reclaimed and re-popularised the vision of socialism,reinterpreting it as a new collective life in which equality,freedom,and real and deep democracy reign,and in which the common people plays the role of protagonist.” While noting that Chavez radically changed the course of history,particularly of the Latin American continent during the last decades,the Left mouthpieces also talk about the post-Chavez challenge. The real challenge,ML Update says,will be to defeat the US design of regime change and continue the journey initiated.

Compiled by Manoj C.G.