CPI (M), Have You Forgot? – India is a Democracy!

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is not at all bemused with the Prime Minister over the Indo-US nuclear deal and they have told him, in unequivocal terms that they won’t allow the Government to move forward with deal without a political consensus on the issue. And the reason they put forward is the fact that India is a democracy and hence any decision that has an implication on the future of the nation can be taken only with the approval of all political parties considered to be the will of the people - Fair Enough. But in Kerala, the same political party is perhaps feigning ignorance about India being a democratic country or, that is what we ordinary people come to understand after seeing the behaviour and deeds of the members of CPI (M) and their different sister organisations, including the DYFI and the SFI.

For the delight of the opposition parties in Kerala, may it be the Congress led UDF or the BJP, there is no dearth of political controversies in the state. They are voicing their concern, anger and disgust over the issue in both violent and non-violent ways. We are taught that, in a democracy everyone has the right to protest on any issue in non violent ways. So not only the political parties, but also you and I have the right to protest any decision of the ruling government. But things are not working in that manner in Kerala when the CPI (M) led LDF is governing the state. Here, if you protest, against the government, you will be “taught a lesson” by the party cadre and the sister organisations of the party. If you dare to criticise the party, you will be tortured and tormented by the police and by the wild minions of the party. In the recent days, people ranging from activists of the opposition political parties, people from the media and the poor and weak people who were protesting against the land acquisition drive of the government, have all faced the ire of the party and its workers.

Never in the history of the state had there been an occasion where the protesting activists of a political party were confronted by the party activists of the ruling party. But we witnessed that happening in our state some days back. Of course it is natural that the police sometimes have to resort to the use of force to confront the violent protesters, but it is only ludicrous that a party has told its activists to tackle all those who criticise the party in such an uncivilised way. Media people were not spared either by the CPI (M) party activists. It would be good if the CPI (M) Polit bureau members, who recite the mantra of democracy at the centre, take due concern in knowing and stopping deeds of the state party members that are against the spirit of democracy.

Dislike for criticism seems to be in the genetic code of the Communist parties all over the world. They always follow this unique way of wiping out criticism through brute use of force, may it be in China, the undivided USSR or say in West Bengal as what we saw on March 2007 at Nandigram. The Communist parties, it seem, have not undergone the mutation to be able to prosper peacefully under a democratic set up. If you take the political environment of countries where Communism has prospered, you would find that they all have an autocratic style of Communist rule where there is less opposition for the policies that they undertake. In China, though they say there is a democracy, there is no freedom of press and no genuine freedom to criticise the policies of the government. In Russia, though there are four political parties, they all are creations of Kremlin and are working more or less under the guidance of the ruling party, United Russia. During elections, only United Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, gets the coverage from the state media and other parties are allowed to participate in the elections only for Russia to claim that they have a democratically elected government. Things are not any different in the countries like Cuba and Venezuela either.

In Kerala, this is the best time to be a CPI (M) supporter and the worse time to be a critic of the party. Party supporters can do any crime and can walk freely, unperturbed by legal actions against them. They can attack their critics, even if he or she is in the police van or in a police station, and can even give vent to their rage on any policeman and can still walk unscathed. Party critics should keep a very low profile and should never dare to voice their opinion against the party lest they will be subjected to harassment and life threatening ordeals.

It would be wise for the CPI (M) to always remember that India is a democratic country and hence we Indians have the constitutional right to resort to lawful protests against any policies that their governments take. Crushing such protests with brute force won’t augment well for the party as they have found out during the local body elections in places like Nandigram after the genocide committed by the members of the party. The CPI (M) in the state should jettison such violent attacks on the people and should understand that they are not the opposition party but is the ruling party and hence responsible for the life and property of the people. Even now it is not late for them to prove that they are capable of good governance, though I have no such hopes.

Fuel Price Hike and Beyond

The most worrying news for the Economists in India is that the inflation rate has increased to a new high of 8.24% on 6^th June. But for the common man, the reason for worry is not this mathematical figure but the trouble this figure has caused to his family budget. The cost of the food items has increased, the price of petrol and diesel has increased, the rate of cooking gas has increased and as a result his family expenditure is taking a serious pounding.

Increase in prices is not a phenomenon that is seen only in India. Prices are on the rise all over the world owing to the increase in crude oil prices and decrease in food production. While the former creates an economic problem, the latter creates a socio-economic problem. Conflicts at certain African nations as a result of food scarcity are an appalling reminder to all nations of the world that failure to contain the food shortage can lead to disastrous consequences. Supply side constraints are forcing all nations to increase the prices of all items including fuels. India, a major consumer and importer of fuels, is also feeling the heat of this cost-push inflation.

The Indian government, after days of deliberations, decided to increase the fuel price some days back. The price of petrol was raised by Rs.5 and the price of diesel was raised by Rs.3. A rise in fuel price can never be a popular decision and this time it was no different. There had been a huge hue and cry on the same and the opposition parties and the left allies of the UPA confronted the government with stiff actions. With the skyrocketing of global crude oil prices, it seems that a rise in the price of petrol and diesel is the only sensible decision the government would have taken.

The opposition BJP and the left parties are saying that they had a magic wand in their hand that could have saved the people from this fuel price hike, had the government asked for their advice and ideas. But their advice had nothing new than reducing the excise duty and sales tax on the fuels. No one put forward the idea of reducing the advertisement expenditure of oil companies to reduce their loss. It is quite irrational that petroleum companies are resorting to high ad spending for their products as there is only a very small competition from the private players in this field. This means that the major petroleum companies, who are all PSUs, are competing with other PSUs without earning anything logically substantial from it.

The central government has reduced some of the taxes on petroleum fuels and has advised the state governments to reduce some state level taxes as well. But reducing the taxes beyond a certain level is not going to be practical as there would be a lot of negative economic implications. A reduction in taxes would mean that there is an increase in the fiscal deficit of the economy and this would result in reduced economic resources with the government to continue its development works and other socio economic tasks. Such a situation would certainly end up in a reduced rate of economic growth and development of the nation which would put a lot of burden on the future generations.

The summit of the G8 nations in Japan has decided not to pile up pressure on the OPEC nations to increase production; instead the G8 countries have decided to increase domestic efficiency in fuel consumption by focussing on technology, conservation and diversification. This is certainly the best measure that can be taken for improving fuel efficiency in a long term basis. But the problem with the rising fuel prices still exists in the short term for which there is no answer available with any of these nations.

So the only option available with us is to take forward the austerity drive about which our Prime Minster is talking about, whereby we should be using less fuel, less electricity and less of other energy sources. We can also think about making use of bio fuels and other conventional energy sources like solar energy or the wind energy. It seems that these times of utter despair is the best opportunity that we have got to pursue some new habits of fuel and energy conservation and for that a concerted effort from all parties and stake holders is imperative.

I Congratulate Barack Obama on Claiming the Democratic Presidential Nomination

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has secured the Democratic Presidential nomination in the United States. I would like to congratulate him on this great achievement. But his job is only half done; now he has to compete with the Vietnam War veteran and the presumptive Republican Presidential candidate John McCain, to become the first African-American President of the United States. Let us hope that he would win and bring the “change we can believe in.”

Dogs of the World Unite; You’ve Nothing to Lose But…

If dogs were to have a political association, capable of political pressure tactics, they would have definitely resorted to agitations and protests to remove an expression from the dictionary and from the general conversations of the English speaking folks. Of course, I am referring to the expression “dog’s dinner”, which always means a “mess.”

It is only natural that dogs have such a grievance, as from time immemorial, human beings have been using this expression to mean a mess or absolute disarray. A lot of canines who are living merrily with affluent human families would definitely take a lead in such a protest since, for them, life is a very easy task, where tasty food and comfortable shelter are guaranteed and the only thing demanded in return by the master, is discipline. They are taught to stay at the home in a disciplined manner, without creating any sort of messy situations and hence any reference of their name with “mess” could obviously be annoying for them.

There is one such wealthy home in my neighbourhood where there are two big dogs with some names similar to Tommy or Jimmy (these are always the names of every second dog that you would have the occasion to know the name of in our place). Lives of those dogs are so effortless and cheerful that it made one of my acquaintances to quip that if she has another birth, she would definitely prefer to be born as a dog in the same house. They don’t have to do any arduous work to “earn their living”, other than waging their tail to their master and to follow him when they are told to do so.

One of the important advantages (or disadvantages?) of my occupation is that I have to write articles on keywords or subjects about which I am least aware of or sometimes, absolutely oblivious about. One such keyword I confronted recently was “dogs welcome pubs.” While searching on the Internet to find some more information about the subject I found, to my amusement, that there are a lot of pubs in the United Kingdom where dogs are welcomed as esteemed guests together with their masters. And now, if you are someone, like me, who have never visited a pub in your entire lifetime, then hold on; make sure that you would never come in the view of an affluent dog, lest you’ll be ridiculed.

Coming back to the agitations the dogs would have resorted to, had there been a political association of dogs, they would have been efficiently supported by the animal rights activists and the dog lover community at large. They are people, who have to be respected for their special, though not rare, disposition of loving dogs the same way (at times more than) they love human beings. There is one of my relatives, a very respectable lady, who always have interesting tales to tell us about her dogs, the same way mothers talk about the feats of their children with great degree of admiration, zeal and pride.

When such people are in abundance in this world, the day is not far when we would hear an appeal similar to this – “Dogs of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but chains of ridicule, scorn and disdain” - and then we would learn to live and talk, without using the expression “dog’s dinner.”