A letter to the Left
Lal Salaam Comrades!
Your tenure in government seems to have ended. How different things were four years ago! Four years ago you were faced with a unique opportunity. The "communal" BJP-led NDA had... Read The Article
I have read articles on Left front and Communism but i think this article dest defines what being "Left" is. Kudos for this article. To add to this when it comes to jobs like running a government we do not require consultants. Consultants are available plenty in market. Given the right kind of money they can do all sorts of analysis and give all kinds of recommendations. The real test is to be a part of the team running the show, if you have good ideas, execute the same, look at the kind of complexities which arise during execution of the same and try to minimize the problems / issues. But to say from outside that "Look the people of this country are facing difficulties because we suggested the government to do it this way - they did not listen to us and hence all the troubles " does not speak well of a party. As media spreads its wings to the remotest locations of the country time will in its own way bring out the facts how left parties have managed a stronghold in the states of West Bengal and Kerela. In West Bengal especially, its sheer violence, "goondaraj" which has helped Left bastions. In West Bengal is some of the locations even today it is the government which decides which newspapers are to be circulated thus amounting to excercising limitations on the freedom of expression.
( Posted: Friday , July 11, 2008 at 21:31 )
Jitender Bablani Bablani
Amazing, mindblowing, true till the last. I am of the opinion that left has done a blunder by leaving the UPA. I was not aware of few of the things you wrote about them. Anyways great write up, keep up the good work...
( Posted: Friday , July 11, 2008 at 20:22 )
raktim banerjee banerjee
So many people("PANDITs") are here abusing an ideology(marxism) without any hesitation. I dont know how many of them have any idea of that ideology.have they ever spend a minute studying this ism ?? Then how can they say marxism is rigid ,it is outdated ,it is not in national interest,not pro people and so on.
For those people who have no idea about marxism,
I just want to provide them some useful information.
1. Basis of marxism is class struggle.it never support collaboration between a corporate leader and labour leader.rather what it says is clear dominance of labour force over everything in the nation. marxism can never be implemented in parliamentary democracy.
2.marxism was alive in russia till 1953 not 1991(as everyone knows) and in china from 1949-1977.
China no longer adhers to marxism and China itself possess the most potent threat to the ideology.
3.CPI,CPIM,RSP,FORWARD BLOCK these parties have never shown loyalty to marxism.They are just like other parliamentary parties (only they sometime can quote marx lenin mao thats all) .Like other parties they are also vote centric and anti people.
So while discussing the role of india's parliamentary leftist parties if u blame marx lenin or mao then it is just ridiculous.
3. In this world today there is no country where communists are in power. But it does not mean that the ideology is dead. It is arising with great potential in it in whole south asia,latin america,africa and pacific nations.though media will never cover their real stories.
( Posted: Friday , July 11, 2008 at 18:41 )
sarath ramakris
A truly well written article, I savoured each and every moment of reading it. I always wondered how journalist got so much passion and fire in their writing when ever they write some thing about how demonic B.J.P is. But now it is evident that you are equally talented in criticizing all. But none the less , the points made are truly relevant. The LEFT was a block in the government's lungs preventing it from breathing properly. The innumberable amount of projects that could have been implemented were all shattered due to the left parties. I hope that they never ever come back to power no matter who (NDA or UPA) comes to power. Essentailly BJP and NDA share a common ideology, improving India's status globally. But the LEFT as you said is affected by a syndrome due to which it is unable to decipher what is wrong with them. Its time that the LEFT parties realise that their ideology is no longer valid and it would be better if they merge with Trinamool Congress for having at least some hold over Indian Politics in the future as they will become history within a few years due to the blunders, as you put it , by themselves.
( Posted: Friday , July 11, 2008 at 17:11 )
sidnaik76
We have seen the amount of hard work (?) put in by the Left to throw away the deal. Had this vigorous energy been utilized to protest price rise, Left would have cemented its place in history. The outcome would have been some respite. But unfortunately, Left does not understand energy and its uses. Lefty's- broaden your thinking. Think sensible!
( Posted: Friday , July 11, 2008 at 11:10 )
ashpremnath
Interesting article but i should say it is very caustic in nature. I'm not surprised - just walk on the roads of any Indian city or sub-urban town and you will know how much the people are frustrated with these commies who have been servile to the Russian's first and now to their new masters China. Their personal interest has taken over the nations interest. I see so many people (commies from Bengal, Kerala and Northeast) cussing Sagarika - Don't worry, I would say "lets wait till our next elections are over and lets see who's got the last Cuss word - the Indian public or the traitor commies" Personally for me, I just got one line for them " If U can't live for this nation then don't live here, u r free to move to China or Russia or cuba. Just let us live. We are tired of living without electricity and wats wrong in being friends with US if we could have been friends with the worst human rights violators in the world - the russians"
( Posted: Friday , July 11, 2008 at 03:06 )
srikant nanda nanda
SIlly piece. rather typical of the urban indian elite. you read one column you've read them all - vir sanghvi, anyone writing for the Indian Express this one.... All tirades based on little or no understanding of issues that are more than mere drafts or entries into agreements and ledgers and profit and loss. in an age where even senior journalists crawl when squuezed or offered Rajya Sabha seats taking a morally higher ground is "sanctimonius"!!! I thought these types of arguments were left behind in 1st year college.
( Posted: Friday , July 11, 2008 at 01:38 )
abhishekkar
It is indeed sad that general election is imposed on our poor country by Leftist ideology and Manmohan Singh's desparate bid for legacy. A simple technical trade agreement ridiculously became "stooage of Imperialism or beacon of energy security." The deal per say is not bad for India, but niether is it that significant to topple government.Power sector reforms is far more relevant and useful towards cheaper and more power in medium term. The loss in transmission and distribution is 40%. We can reduce that through GOOD GOVERNANCE. But alas, the ONE ISSUE government gets a more glamourous and easy way out through photo op and deal with Bush. The eternal easy way out like "RESERVATION" instead of massive overhaul of existing primary education and health infrastructure. For India's power woes positive outcome from research on Renewables is the only long term solution.Left and its dead ideology has no place in today's India.
Left always hated the poor and strived towards equitable(if u work hard or don't work at all, same benefits!) wealth DISTRIBUTION without making efforts towards wealth CREATION. So it is not about ideaology but GOVERNANCE which sadly is not glamourous, quick and easy task!!But an advisory to some "globalized urban youth": Life is not that easy as we have faced.OUR life with competition, tension cannot be compared to the vastly outnumbered THEIR life riddled with discrimination and hunger. Hence concern(about how poor is becoming poorer) is equally important as 40% wealth depriciation in Sensex and increased cost of Wills Lifestyle shirts!
( Posted: Thursday , July 10, 2008 at 23:51 )
Subharnab Majumdar Majumdar
Well ... I guess thru the comments we can see how ill-informed the people of our country are..
Sagarika, I really liked the write up and completely agree with you ... Actually I think your treatment of the Left was more civil than they deserve.
I agree with others who say that other parties are also corrupt ... well find me a party that isnt. Can we live without them? I wish we could ... but that being the case what is the best people of India can do? I guess supporting the right purposes.
With the nuclear deal the congress is doing a good thing for the country ... Alternate power and energy sources are required in India to fight the decreasing fossil fuels in the world, and we need nuclear power and raw materials which we can get only by complying with the IAEA rules and being a part of the NSG. I dont see how not doing this can help.
Anyways, I wish I knew how to make all the 1.14 billion people see the reality and be practical.
( Posted: Thursday , July 10, 2008 at 22:25 )
Arjunan Rethinasamy Rethinasamy
The stand taken by left can not be blamed as you wrote. The people who runs the Govt. are lunatics. Without left all along these period the cong. is minority. The left promised to support them on the basis of common minimum programme. On variouss occasions these left parties continued to support the cong. govt. provided they stic to CMP. Let us take a hypothetical view. Change positions of cong. and left. Will the congress wait for 4 long years. It is a well knwon fact that under the cong rule only no. of state govt. were desolved when the ruling party enjoyed majority. With just 60 MPs ruling India is not possible and it will be a mockery. Left will be rediculed for such and ambition. Remember at one time BJP posses only 2 MPs in the parliment. If any one suggest that BJP will one day form govt. at that time the result will be LOL. Left parties knew their limitations. Hence they are not willing to be a part of corrupt people. They believe that one day by their own self will be able to form govt. And they are preparing their political stand towards that end. When Left tried to form third front the cong. criticised left for having contact with people like Amar Singh and now they are courting with him. People in power are always short-sighted and worse part of the present situation is, as I wrote in the very beginning that cong. affair are handled by lunatics. They know very well that they are minority and some MPs in the UPA partners are going to desert one day prior to the confidence vote and naturally like Azad, Manmohan is going to resign with out facing confidence motion. Mark my words. Already seeds for this action has been planted by MK. Even in these adverse conditions people in helm of affairs want to reap bumper crop. The date of the confidence motion will be fixed towards that end. If you are wise and an investor go short and you can also reap a pumper crop.
Do not be rude to other users/authors or disrupt an ongoing conversation/debate. Do not use ethnic slurs, engage in personal insults or use objectionable language. Criticism, when constructive and non-disruptive is always welcome. Comments with links in them won't be published other than in cases of rare exceptions. Comments that include personal details such as postal addresses and telephone numbers will not be published. Keep the comments relevant to the topic as much as possible. Do not impersonate another reader or a public figure. Do try to use English to write your comments.
Please enable javascript in your browser to use this form.
Disclaimer
All the content posted under the 'Comments' category are made by the readers of CNN-IBN, unless specified otherwise. CNN-IBN is not responsible for the opinions of the readers and the content posted by the readers are not representative of the views and opinions of CNN-IBN.
Do not be rude to other users/authors or disrupt an ongoing conversation/debate.