Remember Iraq
The CPM may have decided not to boycott US president Barack Obama,but the partys mouthpiece continues to dish out anti-American rhetoric,the defining plank of the Left in India. The lead editorial in the latest issue of the CPMs
The CPM wants the UPA government to raise these issues with Obama and remind him of the unanimous resolution of the Indian Parliament which disapproved of the US military invasion of Iraq. Besides,it wants New Delhi to broach the issue of David Headley in the context of revelations that America had prior knowledge about his links with the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the plot to strike Mumbai. The Obama administration must be made to come clean on this issue and give India a categorical assurance that it will demonstrate zero tolerance to terrorism in India and take action against those who plot against India from its soil. However,history has once again demonstrated that US imperialism acts only in accordance with its interests. A leopard never changes its spots, the editorial says.
Obamas facelift search
CPI(ML) monthly Liberation also focuses its attention on the forthcoming Obama visit. A lengthy article points out that he is coming to India at a time when he is experiencing a steep fall in popularity in his own country and abroad while the Manmohan Singh government too is buffeted by a host of nagging problems ranging from skyrocketing prices to the CWG scam. Both sides desperately need a facelift and they will use the trip for that purpose too. With the range of economic,diplomatic and strategic issues to be covered,it is also evident that Obamas India sojourn aims at bolstering US interests well beyond this country, it says.
The article notes that business ties are high on Obamas agenda as it was crucial both for a recession-hit and debt-burdened US and for an India betting on an outward-looking rather than domestic demand-driven strategy of growth: The two sides will therefore focus on issues such as the easing of high-tech exports to India… Firms like Boeing and Lockheed Martin expect to sell military transport aircraft,military jet engines,freight locomotives,reconnaissance aircraft and other items worth tens of billions of dollars. As for the Indian establishment,it will be only too happy to show off its commitment to national security with newly-acquired state-of-the-art defence equipment and technologies, it says. Apart from the huge profits to be made from the sale of military hardware,arming India to the teeth is important for Washington also as part of its China containment policy,it says.
The Lefts Bihar moment?
A front page article in the CPIs New Age asserts that the Left is poised to break new ground in Bihar and notes that the state is no longer polarised between Nitish Kumars JD(U)-BJP combine and the Lalu-Paswan coalition. It was true for the last several polls,but now it is a moment of transition,where the Left has its own space, it says. The article questions Kumars development claims,saying the irony of the situation is that the growth rate in the agrarian sector has been hardly one to two per cent while no industrial development has been recorded for several decades. Factories are locked up and sick,sugar mills and paper mills are yet to reopen. Nitish Kumar has been proud of his roads in the name of development. The reality is that only 15 per cent of roads are reconstructed. There is the same acute paucity of employment in the rural areas, it says.
Nuclear exploitation
New Age also discusses the Obama visit. It says US propagandists are trying to build an India-friendly image for the visiting president. But it is quite obvious that Obama and his team are more interested in roping India into the US international orbit,apart from extracting the maximum economic leverage. Already India has been forced to sign the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage to offset the impact of the much-diluted provisions in the nuclear liability bill passed in Parliament, it says. Though the Manmohan Singh government did everything possible to assure American MNCs about their liability in regard to payment of compensation,they were not satisfied. It was made clear that the American suppliers have to be totally freed from any liability and this has to be done before Obamas visit. Apart from exploitation of the Indian nuclear market,there are other economic issues on the agenda… Like his predecessor Bush,he too is going to openly hawk for opening retail trade to MNCs like Walmart, it says.
Compiled by Manoj C.G.
