Will the real Marxists please stand up?

The ‘Left’ in India is probably facing its greatest identity crisis ever. So who are the real ‘Leftwallahs’? Is it the ‘Karat’ and stick brigade….the kind that vehemently oppose any trace of development at the centre or the Buddha-Bhadralok brigade that does to Kolkata what they would not have the government do to the rest of India. So is this a case of double standards on the part of the third largest political group in the world’s largest democracy or just ideals and ideology gone berserk?

On the one hand, Mr. Karat goes on record to say that the government should not privatize airports and on the other his colleague on Alimuddin Street promptly congratulates Praful Patel on the Mumbai and Delhi airport modernization and urges him to do the same for Kolkata…..so is the left playing its cards real crooked or is it suffering from multiple power centers (something that the central government is often accused of)

Obviously, one faction of the left has to be wrong….because both these factions have completely contrary visions for the country. One of them clearly wants the country to go to the dogs…..what with their constant attempts at sabotaging every reformist move that the liberal face of the government tries to make. Someone please tell Mr. Karat that the Jurassic Park ideologies that he advocates today have been abandoned by the very countries that formulated them in the first place.

Everywhere in the world, communists are converting…..in China they are the biggest propagators of free market policies and reformist ideologies in the world today……There is nothing communist about the communists in China today…except of course their name. These people have long realized that in the best interests of their people, they must make their country and their governance and their markets competent enough to survive in the world today.

In the sixty odd years of our country’s democracy, the left has done nothing but retard growth in every step of the way. These are the people that caused the biggest stock market crash in Indian History a few by demanding that stock brokers be taxed. Even on the matter of reservation….they had nothing to say on the main issue….only that ‘creamy layers should be kept away from the quotas’ ……In the name of the Lord, what do these people have against the rich? If Communism is to be believed then it does not matter if you work eight hours a day and are a PhD from Harvard or if you work eight hours a year and are nothing from nowhere. Because to them everybody should have the same amount of prosperity/poverty.

Someone rightly said that communism is a means of redistributing poverty…not redistributing wealth. These people will definitely make sure that everyone becomes equally poor.

The Left has a habit of choosing for itself the most convenient position in every situation….this is just why they are maneuvering the UPA government from the outside. They do not want to participate in the government because that would make them accountable to the people of their country.

And now, after so many years, we suddenly get to see a face of the Left (read Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee) that is just so……well…..Right! So is the ‘common man’ not justified to ask: “Will the real Left Front please stand up?”.

The death of promise....

This week the nation watched with baited breath as a man held back death...fought for his life incessantly as a warrior thrown into a losing battle. Pramod Mahajan died this week and with him another bright star of the country's future passed into oblivion.
Inspite of the many allegations and controversies that the man was neck-deep in, one could hardly miss the fact that this was one of the most progressive and confident faces of a dying institution....the Indian political system. Here was a man who came closest to representing the dreams and aspirations of the youth of the nation.

I still remember the first time I saw the words flash across the screen of my television set: "India Shining". They said it was a bogus claim...that India was never shining, but groaning under the burdens of poverty and destitution....Mr. Mahajan was accused of hurting the sentiments of the languishing millions by claiming that India was shining.

Well I do not know what the facts on the ground were at that point in time, but I can certainly speak for myself....I know what India Shining did to me......
India Shining instilled in me confidence and pride of living in a nation that was on the move...I knew there were people left behind, but I also knew that they would be taken along subsequently;we had embarked ont the journey of a thousand miles...we had moved forward on the path of progress confidently and with belief in the abilities of a great nation that would decide its destiny by making a tryst with technology.

But apparently there were people who felt otherwise...there were people who felt that India should take a step back and go back to its old self where there was no disparity.....because everybody was conveniently poor. Well, in the end it was these people that had their way....it was they that decided that India was not shining.....but they kept missing the woods for the trees, thinking there was no fire because there were only sparks that flew around...no flames. So they doused whatever sparks had been there.
For me, Mr.Mahajan was a hero....he was a man with promise....promise for a better future....a future which envisioned a developed India, a technologically advanced and confident India or as he said....a shining India.