Opinion View from the left: In Japan
Modi thundered that in his first 100 days as the PM, he has virtually performed miracles, says the editorial.
IN JAPAN
The CPM’s People’s Democracy alleges that the methodology of propaganda advanced by Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels — telling a big enough lie frequently enough for it to be accepted as the truth — seems to have become the “mainstay of this Modi government and the accompanying communally incendiary issues being raised by the RSS and its various tentacles”.
“Now finally (having postponed the earlier enthusiastically announced schedule) in his visit to Japan as the head of government, Modi thundered that in his first 100 days as the PM, he has virtually performed miracles,” says the editorial. “Going by the euphoria generated by India Inc and the corporate media, who together continue to act as Modi’s team of cheerleaders, the country was sought to be led to believe that before this visit, no other Indian head of… state or government has ever visited a foreign country with so much success,” it adds.
“Undoubtedly, the economic problems created by the neoliberal policies of the UPA 2 government, which imposed unprecedented hardships on the aam aadmi, vastly benefited the BJP in achieving its electoral victory. However, to thunder that the initial glimpses of some feeble recovery that are being seen is due to ‘Modi magic’ is simply preposterous,” it emphasises.
PAKISTAN TURMOIL
Focusing on the prevailing crisis in Pakistan, the CPI’s NewAge says that “much damage has been done to the democratic process in the country, half of whose history is marred by the direct rule of the military.” In its editorial, NewAge says Pakistan is in “deep political and economic crisis”.
“Growing ethnic and sectarian conflicts have crippled economic activity. Extremist and terrorist groups that were once upon a time propped by the military regime as a tool of foreign policy to interfere in the internal affairs of neighbours like Afghanistan and India have become a menace for the very existence of the country,” it says.
“Though the Nawaz Sharif government… handed over the federal capital to [the] army a month before the agitation started, during the two weeks of turmoil, the army remained a mute spectator and encouraged elements, including the leadership of the protesters, to demand ‘active intervention’ by the army, meaning the scuttling of the democratic process itself,” it adds.
The editorial goes on to say that while India may not have a direct role in Pakistan, it cannot ignore the developments there either. “India has to side with the democratic forces in that country. A stable democratic system in Pakistan is in the interest of normalising… relation[s] between the two estranged neighbours. The cancellation of foreign secretaries’ level talks just on the pretext that the Pakistani high commissioner in New Delhi invited the extremists from Kashmir was not in good taste,” it concludes.
Compiled by Ruhi Tewari
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