Opinion View from the LEFT

To back its view,it reels out recent instances where the RSS openly differed with the BJP. Whether it is the open praise for Rahul Gandhi’s village visits or the thumbs up given for Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s anti-Naxal operations,the RSS,it says,is seeking to assert that it has the last word on policy matters.

“Traditionally,it leaves comments of topical issues to the political wing. The new assertion,RSS oldies say,is a clear signal for the BJP leaders to constantly keep the parent body in the loop on all emerging issues,” it says concluding that if the RSS sets the policies on issues and the BJP is forced to toe the line,the latter will lose its political space as a party.

SP bonhomie

In the form of a news report,the edition surprisingly gives prominent coverage to the issues that are bound to be raised by the Samajwadi Party,which ditched the Left to join hands with the Congress in 2008,in the coming by-elections. The headline of the report itself tells the story. “Central forces be sent to UP: SP”,it read. The article talks about each and every issue which the SP,Congress and the BJP may raise,deftly listing out the failures of the Mayawati government. The BSP was the Left’s non-electoral ally in the last Lok Sabha elections.

It was only during the just-concluded Maharashtra elections that the Left gave first indications of a patch up with the SP,whose last minute switching of sides had angered the comrades not long ago. Both the Left and SP were members of the third front in Maharashtra although Left and SP leaders played down its significance.

Hostage swap

For CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat,the 26 women who were freed by the West Bengal government for securing the release of a police officer abducted by the Maoists were “ordinarily people” mobilised by the Maoists and “not important cadres”. But,the party’s mouthpiece People’s Democracy has a different version. Referring to the kidnap episode in an article,it says after taking the officer hostage,self-styled Maoist leader Kishenji appeared on television and “called for the release of all ‘Maoist’ activists held on such charges as murder and conspiracy to murder,from jail.”

This is also at variance with what West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had said justifying the deal his government had struck with Maoists. He had termed the demand put forward by the left-wing insurgents as “simple” which could be accepted.

Climate surrender

Another article in the edition criticised the contents of Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh’s note on climate change. It says the points raised by Ramesh were a significant departure from India’s basic positions on climate change. “A careful reading of his discussion note makes clear that this is not “some flexibility in India’s stance” as he has argued in his press statement on this issue,within India’s national consensus but an about turn. If the Indian government takes this position,it will not only be a complete betrayal of the people of this country but indeed of the entire developing world,” it says.

It argues that Ramesh’s arguments in effect aligned India’s position with those advocated by the US. “The minister’s proposals in their current form are only a thinly veiled proposal to barter India’s energy and developmental future for a seat at the high table courtesy the US,” it says.