Opinion Unhitch our wagon
The latest issue of CPM mouthpiece Peoples Democracy carries an article by general secretary Prakash Karat on the growing India-US ties...
The latest issue of CPM mouthpiece Peoples Democracy carries an article by general secretary Prakash Karat on the growing India-US ties. He says that in the first two months of the second edition of the UPA government,there are clear signs that the strategic alliance with the US will be widened and deepened.
He states the CPMs opposition to the End Use Monitoring Agreement India signed with the US and argues that the agreement will enable Washington to conduct intrusive inspections to monitor not only the equipment it supplies but also collect data on related Indian equipment and its technological capabilities. Contesting External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishnas statement that India had signed such agreements with other countries,Karat argues that Russia and earlier the Soviet Union,which has been the biggest supplier of weaponry to India has not ever asked for any end use agreement. Neither have the French,or other countries.
Karat also comments on the India-Pakistan joint statement,noting that the issue is not the need for dialogue with Pakistan,but the suspicion that the UPA government takes positions which are a result of advice from Washington. What is required is an independent approach both to Pakistan and Afghanistan. The subordinate relationship to the United States which has been established by the Congress-led government has wide repercussions…The Indo-US strategic alliance is influencing not only our foreign policy but all other spheres in our domestic policy making. The joint statement of the Hillary Clinton visit promises more such interventions in the economic and political spheres, he concludes.
Vaporous claims
An article by CITU leader Dipankar Mukherjee contests the central governments claim that it got to know about the memorandum of understanding entered into between the Ambani brothers on sale of KG basin gas only when the relevant portion of the MoU was placed before the Mumbai High Court last year.
Dubbing the Petroleum Ministrys claim as absolutely untrue,he says RIL had approached the ministry seeking approval of sale of gas to RNRL at 2.34 dollar/mmbtu in 2006 itself. RNRL had also sent a letter on the same subject to the government in May 2006.
In between,on May 04,2006 the then CPM MP, late Chittabrata Majumdar had also sought the intervention of the minister of petroleum and natural gas in the matter,he says.
The government was therefore never in dark when the KG basin gas became all of a sudden a family affair. In fact,the government has both overtly and covertly encouraged a settlement between the squabbling siblings at the cost of surrendering its ownership right on the natural gas.
Otherwise,it would have intervened on behalf of NTPC,the government-owned power generation company whose 2700 MW gas based thermal projects (Kawas and Gandhar) are kept on hold because of RILs refusal to supply them the required gas. That is another part of the hide and seek game being indulged by the UPA government, he says.
The government of India so far has been more concerned about the pricing of gas than about asserting its ownership rights on the same. Why? Because,gas pricing of 2.32 dollar/mmbtu in the June 2005 MoU,signed between the two siblings,was based on the gas price offered by RIL and accepted by NTPC in June 2004, he claims.
Food first
The lead editorial deals with price rise,saying the UPA-2 has not taken any decisive action. It slams the government for abolishing the commodities transaction tax while claiming that the unprecedented price rise is primarily due to the fact that large-scale encouragement is being provided to speculative trading in the commodity exchanges through future trading in essential commodities.
If the trend of relentless price rise in essential commodities is to be contained and the livelihood of the aam aadmi protected,then the UPA government must ban all futures and speculative trading in essential commodities, it says.
Besides,it says,the immediate requirement was universalisation of the public distribution system and distribution of all essential commodities through this network. The current thinking of the government,as reflected in the budget,however appears to be to the contrary. In the name of targeting,the definition of the BPL is being so manipulated that crores of people will be left out from receiving foodgrains and other essential commodities.
Compiled by Manoj C.G
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