PRAGOTI

Marx summarises the inherent dynamics of capitalism and its historical direction: “The monopoly of capital becomes a fetter upon the mode of production, which has sprung up and flourished along with, and under it. Centralisation of the means of production and socialisation of labour at last reach a point where they become incompatible with their capitalist integument. This integument is burst asunder. The knell of capitalist private property sounds. The expropriators are expropriated.” Sitaram Yechury writes in the Hindustan Times.

If diplomacy is a lot about timing, the "Malabar Exercises" have been most crudely timed. Our diplomats should have known that issues of war and peace are hanging by a thread. M. K. Bhadrakumar tells.

The Indian Left cannot be accused of deviance for its decision to withdraw its support for the UPA government on the issue of the Indo-US nuclear deal. It has for long espoused the position that given the aggressive expansionism of the US under Bush, the silence or collaboration of other major capitalist powers in response to this aggression and the end of multipolarity after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the contradiction between Imperialism led by the US and the people of developing countries like India had emerged as the principal contradiction of our times. Supporting any truck with the US would have meant both a violation of its programme and a betrayal of its cadre and the people. Unresolvable disagreement over any attempt to forge a strategic relationship with the US through the instrumentality of a specially crafted nuclear deal was inevitable,says C.P.Chandrasekhar

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi couldn't possibly have meant that the United Progressive Alliance government was deferring the monsoon session of Parliament since it didn't want to be 'distracted' from its resolve to remain focused on Jammu and Kashmir.

The soul of parliamentary democracy in India was destroyed during the past week.

Courtesy: Economic and Political Weekly

Cartoon: Courtesy The Hindu

Since the adoption of our republican Constitution and the inception of our parliamentary democracy, seldom has our political system faced such a serious question of credibility, as it has on the `trust vote’. Inducements, threats and allegations of offering bribes have indeed tainted the vote.

Cartoon: Courtesy The Hindu

In perhaps the darkest day in Indian parliamentary “democracy”, the UPA government used the maxim, “if not by hook, we will win by crook” to win a trust vote that was necessitated owing to the withdrawal of left support to the government.

"The machinations and open or covert offers of different blandishments and incentives that have been part of the build-up to the vote of confidence are no secret. While they obviously show the cynicism and self-serving nature of many of the legislators and political parties engaging in this, they certainly cannot reflect well on the government that has so clearly chosen this route to survival and to pushing through a dubious deal." Jayati Ghosh writes on the Nuclear Deal and Bush's best friend, Manmohan Singh

The country today is facing a rate of price inflation that is unprecedented in recent years. This inflation, superimposed on a prior collapse of rural incomes, of which the tragic suicides of peasants and village artisans in several states are but one manifestation, is causing great distress to the people. But while the government urges the nation to have patience with regard to inflation, it rushes impatiently to sign a nuclear deal. Keeping faith with President Bush obviously has greater priority for it than keeping faith with the people of the country.

The real issue facing India is whether or not we want this mythical extra 'energy security ' through this Deal, paying two to three times the unit capital cost of conventional power plants, with the additional burden of subjugating the freedom to pursue a foreign policy and indigenous nuclear R&D program of our own.