Opinion View from the left: Unscientific Mind
CPM said that “what happened at the 102nd Indian Science Congress held at Mumbai... surpasses even the surreal".
Claiming that the “Hindutva brigade” is not allowing a scientific temper to develop, the CPM’s People’s Democracy states that “what happened at the 102nd Indian Science Congress held at Mumbai… surpasses even the surreal”. “Various claims were made glorifying Indian science in the ancient past… That the Indian Science Congress, which annually discusses the achievements of Indian science so far, ways to overcome the shortcomings and define the future direction, should be the platform to propagate such ‘unscientific temper’ is obnoxious,” an editorial says.
“The amazing statements made since this Modi government assumed office, calling for the rewriting of our history and glorifying our ancient past… emboldened such bizarre claims… Little wonder that pseudo-science is elevated to the level where mythology substitutes for both history of science and history in general,” it claims, while emphasising that there were indeed “many landmark scientific achievements in Indian history”.
“Often the Hindutva brigade accuses Marxist historians (apart from the colonial and liberal scholars) of discounting or debunking the ‘glory of the ancient Hindu civilisation’, which it wants to restore. We, in these columns, are habituated at debunking such ‘history’ that is fabricated by the Hindutva brigade,” it adds. “These are the dangers facing the nation today. Rewriting history… requires that the modern secular democratic republic of India be transformed into the RSS project of a rabidly intolerant fascistic ‘Hindu Rashtra’. The realisation of this project has to resisted and defeated if India, as we know today, has to be preserved,” it concludes.
Mass action
The CPI’s New Age says the five-day strike by about five lakh coal miners from January 5 to January 7 was “an unprecedented show of class unity and first mass action challenging the economic policies of the Narendra Modi government”. It claims that: “State governments, particularly in Jharkhand and Maharashtra, used dirty tricks to break the strike. Striking workers were brutally lathi-charged and scores of trade union activists were arrested. But the workers stood firm and united, which forced the coal ministry to negotiate with the trade unions,” the latest editorial says.
“The Modi government should realise that it cannot hoodwink the masses by playing the game of political emotionalism or emotional politics,” it argues. “With the coal strike, the issue of auctioning national and natural resources should be brought to the focus of public discourse,” the editorial suggests.
Double Standards
“As India approaches Republic Day, the corporate-communal shadows over the Indian republic and Indian democracy become darker,” the CPI(ML)’s ML Update has asserted. “The Modi government, even as it dilutes protections for India’s workers, farmers and citizens to woo US corporations and other MNCs, is branding protesting farmers and activists as ‘foreign agents’ to jail them and prevent them from travelling,” it states.
“During the Vibrant Gujarat summit, Gujarat’s farmers were detained to prevent them from protesting against the land acquisition ordinance. A Greenpeace activist was prevented from boarding a plane — on the pretext that the Intelligence Bureau had recommended a ban on her travel. The government itself has as yet been unable to provide any reason for a ban on the activist’s travel, except some shadowy IB recommendation,” the editorial claims.
Compiled by Ruhi Tewari
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