Opinion Stable equations
The lead editorial in the latest issue of CPM organ Peoples Democracy says that the churning being witnessed in both.....
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The lead editorial in the latest issue of CPM organ Peoples Democracy says that the churning being witnessed in both the NDA and the UPA was because of the pressure felt by many regional parties from their support base,for a shift in policy direction. The rumblings in both the UPA and the NDA,superficially ascribed to political opportunism,is due,mainly to the popular pressure being mounted by the mass support of many regional parties on their leadership for a shift in policy direction that will provide relief to them. This is what explains why many longstanding allies of both the BJP and the Congress have chosen to part ways, it says. The editorial also rejects the Congress argument that governments of the alternative front are inherently unstable and says the earlier alternative governments including the ones headed by V P Singh and Chandrasekhar were pulled down either by the Congress or the BJP. Thus,the past experience of instability of the non-Congress,non-BJP governments had been caused invariably by the outside support provided by either of these parties. The solution against such possibilities in 2009 lies in ensuring that the alternative secular front has a majority of its own. This is not a far cry,as some make it out to be,considering the fact that when the 14th Lok Sabha ended its term,the number of Congress and BJP MPs put together was less than the majority, it says.
Take that,neo-liberals
An article by Marxist economist Prabhat Patnaik argues that neo-liberalism is on the brink of failure as its three main components trade liberalisation,financial liberalisation,and enforcement of sound finance through the avoidance of significant fiscal deficits are being negated everywhere. While he points out that US President Obama exhorting his countrymen to buy American and wanting to penalise companies resorting to business outsourcing are the first steps towards protectionism,state control over large chunks of the financial sector in the US and the UK reverses the trend towards financial liberalisation. Increases in fiscal deficits through various stimulus packages are much in vogue. Neo-liberalism at present is clearly passé, the article says. The real issue however is whether this represents only a passing phase until the crisis has blown over and things have returned to normal,or the end of the road for neo-liberalism. The adherents of neo-liberalism believe this retreat to be temporary…They expect the financial sector,once normalcy has returned,to be re-privatised; they expect that Obamas protectionist rhetoric will remain only rhetoric; and they expect fiscal deficits to narrow once the economies are out of recession….What the crisis has done is to demonstrate to everyone that the unfettered functioning of markets can bring disaster; hence even after the crisis is over,whenever it is,there will be much greater regulation of financial markets.
A dream deferred
Another article titled centuries of unfulfilled dreams says successive governments at the centre in the last 60 years had not given any consideration to providing right to education and have pathetically failed in providing public education in India. The right to education demand is alive still now in spite of every step taken to ignore it. The judiciary,bureaucrats,and media have timely raised their voice over its necessity. It has become possible only due to sustained progressive struggles of people of India on this question and the judgment given by the Supreme Court directing the government to ensure that all the citizens of our country are provided this right, it says. It says the UPA government,which came out with the draft education bill in 2005,managed to introduce the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Bill in Rajya Sabha only in 2008 and that too because of sustained pressure from students and peoples movements. It says the current Right to Free and Compulsory Education Bill has many lacunae like the age limit and the common school system.
Compiled by Manoj C.G
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