PRAGOTI

Member of the Central Secretariat of the CPI(M),Nilotpal Basu shares his thoughts on the terror attack in Mumbai. Rebuffing the parochial campaign that has been launched by media and the frenzied right wing apparatchiks , Comrade.Basu highlights the need for a political solution which should include the strengthening of democratic institutions, and which should be distinct from the US directed “War on Terror”.

''To the best of one’s knowledge, the session which was summoned on July 17, 2008 primarily to enable the trust vote on July 21-22 will now end somewhere in the third or fourth week of December, if one were to believe the government. This is the longest ever session of the parliament notwithstanding the fact that it will simultaneously create a record of sorts in terms of the least number of sittings. Parliament has hardly been treated with such utter contempt ever before.''

Nilotpal Basu writes in People's Democracy

The world appears to be turning upside down. Otherwise, how could one expect such a screaming headline on manpower retrenchment? The pink slips received by 800 employees of the Jet Airways and 1,100 more on the chopping block did hog the headlines of the mainstream media. Nilotpal Basu discusses.

For the neo liberal mandarins of the North Block and the Yojona Bhawan a reading of the latest Guardian column by the Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz would be very much in order.Stiglitz has candidly observed on the refusal of the US Congress to approve the bailout package of the Bush Administration –"A sad day for Wall Street, but it may be a glorious day for democracy ".He has reasoned" In environmental economics, there is a basic concept called the polluter pays principle. It is a matter of fairness, but also of efficiency. Wall Street has polluted our economy with toxic mortgages.

Spectrum is too important to be left to India's current spectrum managers whose skills and expertise are clearly out of sync with market realities. If we can instead move to regulating spectrum transparently like an economic resource that it manifestly is, we will be surprised to see how fast the controversies disappear, says Nilotpal Basu, Central Committee Member of the CPI(M) in the Economic Times.

Despite the claims of the Prime Minister that his is not a `one issue government', it is quite clear that the postponement of the session leading to doing away with the winter session of the parliament entirely is, indeed, the result of the government's obsession with the Indo-US nuclear deal. Rajya Sabha member of the CPI(M) Nilotpal Basu writes in indiainteracts.com.

Nilotpal Basu, Rajya Sabha member of the CPI(M) writes on the crisis in Jammu & Kashmir. Article courtesy: indiainteracts.com/ cartoon courtesy The Hindu newspaper.

The trust vote is over. But the manner of securing confidence in the government has undermined the trust of the people – the government has lost its moral authority. But apart from the question of ethics, there are several important issues of governance which have come to the fore. The proceedings in the Lok Sabha has not only affected the position of the government but the principal opposition and its coalition also appears completely shaken and in a state of disarray. A fresh round of realignment of political forces are also very much on the cards.

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

We are in for challenging days ahead. The struggle has to be three-pronged-against subordination to the empire, against the effects of such policies which result in economic distress of the people like inflation and against communal attempts to divide our people. But as history has shown -- Left-- articulating those concerns--- can never be isolated.