Opinion View from the LEFT

Karat cited several interventions made by the Left parties in recent times on issues ranging from food security to PDS and NREGS,to the impact of WTO rules on agriculture and farmers and land rights to tribals,to need for greater allocation for health and education,to debunk Sen’s observations as “simply not true”.

The two major pieces of legislation adopted during UPA I — the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the Scheduled Tribes and other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act — bear the hallmarks of the intervention by the Left in the changes brought about in their texts and the clauses that were amended,he said.

“It is not any “gut anti-Americanism” or any exaggerated fear of the power of the US that influences the Left. It is a recognition that the neo-liberal policies pursued by the Indian ruling classes get their greatest sustenance from the strategic link with the United States. This link not only affects foreign policy but the domestic economic agenda as well,” he argues.

While Karat admits that Sen was right in pointing out that the Left government of West Bengal needs to do more in the spheres of primary education,literacy and health and the Left in general needs to do much more to bring the issues of hunger,malnutrition and illiteracy at the national level,he says “it is not very helpful to counter-pose the struggle for a better life for the people to the fight against imperialist domination” as the two have to go together.

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An article on the launch of India’s first nuclear-powered and nuclear weapons-capable submarine says INS Arihant will be entering the service during a period of substantial expansion and modernisation by the Indian Navy,for long the neglected arm of the defence forces.

It talks about the Navy’s plans to acquire several battleships,three aircraft carriers and additional submarines to beef up the fleet and to replace badly depleted submarine strength due to ageing and degradation and points out that “overall,this would be a nascent blue-water navy capable of defensive deployment or even some power projection in the wider Indian Ocean from the eastern African coast to beyond the Malacca Straits.”

But even within this framework,there are several questions surrounding the capability of the Arihant and sister SSBNs now being built or planned. “The 700 km range of the K-15 missile or the 1000 km being spoken for an updated version means that the SSBN must get pretty close to its target landmass,increasing the risk of detection.

“Even the 2500 km range of the SLBM version of the Agni-III currently being developed or the extended range of 3500 km of the K-5 pale in comparison with the 5,000 — 12,000 km range of missiles on comparable SSBMs operated by the US,Russia,UK or China which operates three SSBN and 6 SSNs in a fleet of 62 submarines.

“The reactor too is quite small at under 90 MW while comparable SSN/SSBNs in other countries not only have more power but also have lifetime fuel supply of over 30 years whereas the BARC reactor has only 10 years’ supply of nuclear fuel,with refueling entailing major costly and time-consuming work,” it says. “The military significance of the Arihant therefore should not be overrated especially in the contemporary global and regional security environment. It should be seen,rather,as a demonstrator of the potential strengths and depth of the Indian scientific-technical and industrial capability. It would be better for India if it applied these strengths to a strategic vision and security policy characterised by robustness rather than hubris,” it concludes.