Opinion View from the LEFT

The party believes that khap panchayats have flourished with the “active connivance” of the police,the administration and the elected representatives,and that political parties like the Congress and the INLD have refused to take a stand against these panchayats as they do not want to antagonise the dominant caste and their support base. “All democratic forces should demand that a separate law be adopted against honour killings and to illegalise those activities of the khap panchayats which go against the Constitution. Firm and deterrent action must be taken against the offenders whenever such incidents occur,” the lead editorial in CPM organ People’s Democracy says.

Burden of his song

It is not that the CPM has a liking for Kabir Suman. But when it can poke fun at Mamata Banerjee at his expense,why would the party miss a chance? So,People’s Democracy gladly takes note of Suman’s SMS resignation and his diatribe against the Trinamool Congress. It recalls that the singer-turned-politician once “wanted to be happy each morning only if he saw five CPM heads rolling by” and called for “death to all CPM workers”. The article talks about Suman’s charges that Trinamool is filled with people of the light-fingered brigade,not allowing him to provide direct employment to his “personal brigade of goons” and the insults he had to face from Didi’s men.

Fighting the foreign

With the government planning to introduce the Foreign Education Providers Bill in Parliament soon,the Left parties have begun the ideological campaign to counter it. Articles opposing the legislation have started appearing in their mouthpieces preparing the ground for the real opposition. An article in People’s Democracy tries to counter the government’s arguments in support of the bill. It rejects the government’s argument that the education sector would expand with the entry of foreign institutes and bring quality education providers to India. “Such an argument is infantile for the simple reason that today private institutes account for one thirds of the higher education sector of our country,and yet there seems to be not much increase in enrolment and not much improvement in quality,” it says.

Regarding quality,it argues that most of the foreign education providers seeking entry into India are substandard institutions in their own countries and will only cater to professional or vocational courses. In short,it concludes that higher education is going to be further entrapped in the web of money-minting institutions with the backing of indulgent governments.