Opinion Neither IMF nor US
It says that it is difficult to believe that the issue of SDRs would offer a solution to the problem that the US does not have the requisite economic strength to warrant the dollars status as the worlds reserve currency
Neither IMF nor US
In the week after the BRICS summit,an article in CPMs Peoples Democracy takes a look at the debate about promoting IMF special drawing rights (SDRs) as an alternative reserve to the US dollar. It says that it is difficult to believe that the issue of SDRs would offer a solution to the problem that the US does not have the requisite economic strength to warrant the dollars status as the worlds reserve currency.
It argues there are several immediate and obvious obstacles to SDRs. First,the $317 billion worth of SDRs currently available are distributed across countries and are a small proportion of global reserve holdings… the fraction of this $317 billion that would be available for trade against actual currencies would be small,implying that even with recent increases in allocations the SDR can only be a supplementary reserve… Thus,the idea of a wholly new currency serving as a unit of account,a medium of exchange and a store of value at the international level does appear a bit far-fetched, it concludes.
The lies about Modi
The editorial in the CPIs New Age notes that Hazares certificate to Modi has irked civil society,particularly in Gujarat. While rightly pointing out that the Gandhian has ignored the massacre of minorities in Gujarat in 2002 masterminded by Modi and executed by Sangh Parivar gangs,the activists of civil society have also exposed the claims of Modi on development of Gujarat, it points out. The editorial also says that as supporters of Hazare,mostly the products of media hype as well as support extended by corporate houses were celebrating his victory,fissures started appearing among them.
It further says the claims made by the Modi government on rural development were hollow. During the past one decade,the cultivated area in the state has shrunk dramatically as the Modi government has forcefully acquired agricultural land,it says. This has also resulted in large scale displacement of people. It quotes a report on development-induced displacement that says over four lakh households have been dislocated and uprooted in Gujarat. Real unemployment ratio in rural Gujarat,it adds,is higher than the national average,giving rise to evils like drug addiction; the per capita consumption of liquor in the state where total prohibition is in place is higher than in neighbouring Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
Karat and VS,friends
With the polling for the Kerala assembly elections over,CPM general secretary Prakash Karat mentions Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandans crusade against corruption in an article titled on the election trail in Peoples Democracy,virtually accepting the fact that his fight boosted the partys image. Besides rising prices,he says high-level corruption had a special resonance in Kerala and cites the case of a minister in an earlier Congress-led government,R. Balakrishna Pillai,who was sent to jail thanks to a petition filed by VS. That his punishment for corruption came about due to a petition filed by the then opposition leader V.S. Achuthanandan,underlined the firm stand of the LDF government on corruption, he says.
The popular outrage against high level corruption and the strong urge for a corruption-free government has definitely worked in favour of the LDF. The big crowds at V.S. Achuthanandans meetings were a recognition of this, he adds. The Kerala CPM had initially decided to deny a ticket to VS at a meeting attended by Karat.
Karat also mentions Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs barb that the Left pursue programmes which are not relevant to the needs of the common man. Under the Centres neo-liberal approach,he says,the revival of PSUs that the Kerala goverment had undertaken would have been anathema. The various social welfare measures extended to all sections of the working people,the push for universalisation of PDS,the measures taken to alleviate the indebtedness of farmers,the ensuring of minimum wages,pensions and other social security benefits are precisely the programmes which the prime minister decries as not relevant to the needs of the common man but which have ensured that there are no anti-incumbency trends, he says.
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