Someone remind me exactly what the Left parties are standing for these days??? I thought they claimed to stand for the poor and all that. And of course, they hated the West. But these days, its difficult to understand if they have any stand on any matter at all!
Consider the petrol price hike. Now why would the Left oppose this? Petrol is consumed mostly in cars.....a mode of travel the Left considers too elitist! Some of it goes into 2-wheelers, which again is largely a metro phenomenon. A petrol price hike has a less than 1% impact on inflation. It wont increas the prices of vegetables and food grains because vegetables and food grains are transported in trucks which use diesel.
Why would the Left advocate that petrol prices should not go up? That instead, the government should cut duties so that the prices stay stable? Or that the government should absorb higher subsidies....thus eating into the funds that are meant to go to the poor?
I think the Left has been left bereft of any real issues. They realize that with their seat strength in the Lok Sabha down to some measly number, even the TV channels dont call them for interviews! Poor really-frustrated Prakash Karat and trying-to-look-intelligent Sitaram Yechuri (and of course the always-angry Mr. D. Raja!) are suffering from a loss of visibility. They need to be in the news! Arnab or Barkha or Rajdeep dont ever call them any more. This is not something they like!
So they are trying to grab attention. Even if its means forgoing their traditional pro-poor stand. Even if its means that they actually like a confused version of the BJP. I guess what they are relying on is their penchant to "always oppose everything"! That's the continuity with their own past!
They had demonstrated a similar behavior when they opposed the Nuclear deal with the US. They didnt understand the matter. A lot of the contracts are going to the Russians....their ideological friends. Their other ideological friends....the Chinese have always embarassed them. They support the Pakis and the Maoists! They have turned proper capitalists! They have both left the Left parties of India alone to fight for the poor! But the Left still continued to protest against the nuclear deal. They got a lot of TV those days.....and then they got the boot from the people!
The real truth is that the Left has outlived its usefulness. Someone should put them to sleep. I hope the people of WB do that this time in the elections!
Consider the petrol price hike. Now why would the Left oppose this? Petrol is consumed mostly in cars.....a mode of travel the Left considers too elitist! Some of it goes into 2-wheelers, which again is largely a metro phenomenon. A petrol price hike has a less than 1% impact on inflation. It wont increas the prices of vegetables and food grains because vegetables and food grains are transported in trucks which use diesel.
Why would the Left advocate that petrol prices should not go up? That instead, the government should cut duties so that the prices stay stable? Or that the government should absorb higher subsidies....thus eating into the funds that are meant to go to the poor?
I think the Left has been left bereft of any real issues. They realize that with their seat strength in the Lok Sabha down to some measly number, even the TV channels dont call them for interviews! Poor really-frustrated Prakash Karat and trying-to-look-intelligent Sitaram Yechuri (and of course the always-angry Mr. D. Raja!) are suffering from a loss of visibility. They need to be in the news! Arnab or Barkha or Rajdeep dont ever call them any more. This is not something they like!
So they are trying to grab attention. Even if its means forgoing their traditional pro-poor stand. Even if its means that they actually like a confused version of the BJP. I guess what they are relying on is their penchant to "always oppose everything"! That's the continuity with their own past!
They had demonstrated a similar behavior when they opposed the Nuclear deal with the US. They didnt understand the matter. A lot of the contracts are going to the Russians....their ideological friends. Their other ideological friends....the Chinese have always embarassed them. They support the Pakis and the Maoists! They have turned proper capitalists! They have both left the Left parties of India alone to fight for the poor! But the Left still continued to protest against the nuclear deal. They got a lot of TV those days.....and then they got the boot from the people!
The real truth is that the Left has outlived its usefulness. Someone should put them to sleep. I hope the people of WB do that this time in the elections!
The first summer of UPA 1 was horrendous. These dinosaurs would hog prime time TV news with such glee.
ReplyDeleteThe philosophy guiding communism is against principles of natural justice. Communism was bound to die sooner or later.
And this is such a no brainer - parties standing for the poor will always ensure that their political constituency is not eroded. They will perpetuate poverty and even sex it up. Unfortunately the poor are too handicapped to realize this. On this count, Mamta is competing with CPI.
The danger right now is not the communists' but the NAC under Sonia. Schemes like NREGA and the Food security bill they are now proposing are communism through the back door - and no one is allowed to knock some sense into them.