Opinion View from the LEFT

In the latest issue of CPI mouthpiece New Age,Annie Raja,the head of the delegation,has written that although China achieved tremendous growth and development in the last 20 years,the Communist leadership has now realised that it has widened the gap between the rich and the poor.

“Since 1997,Chinese farmer’s income remained low. According to a statistics,the urban-rural income ratio was 2.2:1 in 1990 which went up to 3.3:1 last year,” the article says. While her party opposed special economic zones in India,the article talks about SEZs of China,with special praise for the ones in Guangxi province.

“In 2003,the Chinese government cleared all procedures to set up economic development zones in this province. The industries and companies that are operating here are among the world’s first class give hundred companies…Guangxi is now characterised by stable economic growth,harmonious and peaceful co-existence between all ethnic groups,” she says.

The article titled “China marches ahead with confidence,” says that Chinese leaders openly agree that environmental issues,energy insecurity,corruption,widening gap between the rich and the poor are some of the challenges they are facing today. It talks in detail about Sinoisation of Marxism — in other words moulding Marxism to meet the needs of China — and socialist market economy experiment carried out by Beijing.

BJP’s mofussil core

Why the RSS chose Nitin Gadkari to head the BJP is being debated hotly in political circles. The CPI believes that although the “mofussil” man’s elevation as BJP chief is a bit strange,there may be a method behind this “curious conduct” of the Sangh fountainhead.

An article in New Age claims that the RSS always wanted a small town man to steer the BJP. The reason — the city engenders a sense of cosmopolitanism as well as sophistication,which does not gel with the traditional lower middle class base of the BJP,mainly comprising traders with their greater proficiency in vernacular languages rather than in English.

“The fear of the RSS apparently is that such a person will consider an emphasis on issues like the Ram Temple,uniform civil code,Article 370,Akhand Bharat,cow slaughter,conversions by Christian missionaries,St Valentine’s Day,women in pubs etc too shrill,as (Arun) Jaitley said while explaining the BJP’s defeat in two successive general elections,” the article said. Since these issues constitute the core of the saffron brotherhood’s Hindu agenda,it is the Rajnath Singhs and the Nitin Gadkaris who are the natural choices of the RSS,it goes on to add.

Counting the poor

With the Suresh Tendulkar Committee finding out that over 37 per cent of Indians live in poverty as compared with the existing officially estimated 27.5 per cent,the lead editorial in CPM mouthpiece People’s Democracy argues that the UPA government’s aam aadmi slogan is a “deception” It says the Tendulkar committee’s estimate converges with the fact that many a state government has challenged the central government’s estimations of those living below the poverty line (BPL).

“This has become significant since the budgetary allocations for rural development programmes and the supply of foodgrains to the states from the centre are determined by these estimations. The UPA government’s commitment to the aam aadmi turned out to be more of a deception in the wake of gross underestimation of the BPL population,” it says.

At the same time,the quality of livelihood of the aam aadmi has sharply declined due to rising food prices,which the article blames on speculative and futures trading in essential commodities. It says given their inherent character,the Indian ruling classes refuse to ban the forward and futures trading and strengthen the PDS. “Greater avenues for profit maximisation are created at the expense of imposing further burdens on the people. This once again confirms the fact that the concern for the aam aadmi is nothing but a deception,” it says.