Singur To somalia

Singur To somalia

Indian Holocaust My father`s Life and Time - Seventy SEVEN

Palash Biswas


The Solitary Reaper

Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.

No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.

Will no one tell me what she sings?--
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?

Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending;--
I listened, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.

-- William Wordsworth

I see the face of the raped and burnt girl from singur, Tapasi Malik`s face when I read solitary reaper now. Once upon a time we had to read this poem to understand Romanticism. This romanticism has changed its nature in the bloodbath of Singur and Nandigram. Buddhadev is playing a Bush and targets Nandigram and singur and so on, as the original Bush destroyed bagdad and Kabul and targets Tehran, North korea and now Somalia. We see the sight of Darfur thanks to Manmohan singh, P chidambaram, kamalnath, Montek singh ahloowalia, Buddhadev, Narendra Modi, Mulayam singh Yadav, Naveen Patnaik, Hudda, desmukh, raman singh and the ruling classes in power anwhere in Asia and third world countries.South Asian region, which consists of 16-17 percent of the world's population is beset with numerous conflicts. Some of them though internal have a significant external dimension. Some are ethnic and governance related. Therefore, despite all its potential, South Asia remains under developed. It is essential to understand the nature of conflict in order to address them. A primary objective of this project has been to try and understand the causes and ways to address the peace processes within these internal conflicts in South Asia today. The globalistion is as fast as the conflicts intensify. With every conflict, war or civil war, the american and European weapon industry blooms like bamboo, meaning destruction of man and Nature.

You won`t feel Singur or Nandigram until and unless you belong to a village and have your roots somewhere in the greenfields. You may not even see the solitary reaper and hear her mysterious song full of melody.At least you must have a heart like william wordsworth, mahashweta devi, Medha Patekar or at least Mamata Bannerjee. I tell my debating urban semi urban intellectuals very vocal for industrialisation that luckily you are not a son or daughter of an Indian Peasant or you suffer from dementia. Thus my heart is not like you and my land is also not like you.

As a son of a peasants I witnessed how we lost the fragrance of different desi verities of rice and corn, cereals, oilseeds. Basmati, hansraj, tilak were replaced by IR8 and Tychoon. Jwar Bajra were no more needed as we got Barseem. Compost Khad was discarded for chemical fertiliser leading to Union Carbide gas Tragedy. We changed our food habits and in the 21st century our tongue is so habitual of soft drinks, fast and junk food that we have no memory of rustic desi dishes.
My father was a social activist but essentially a small peasant who tilled the land until death claimed him. I worked on the fields even during University days. Thus we have special meanings for weather cycle, Mansoon, darught, floods, harvesting, festivals and folk.

I am sure Buddhdev does not belong to this class nor the left leaders.

They opposed vehemently the hanging of dethroned, captive Iraqi President Saddam Hussain, and here they hang the entire agririan population in India.

Airstrikes in Somalia, Iraq and afganistan, interference in Darfur, Bangladesh situation and army action agnaist Ulfa all corelate while we talk about corporate imperialism and globalisation, the capitalist development and identity crisis faced by nationalities, languages and cultures worlwide.

In my novel america se savdhan (Be Aware of America) , which had been published all over India in scores of mags in Hindi during 1993 to 97, I portrayed both external and internal imperialism. Our own polity has become America, we have to realise. Indian army was fighting in East Bengal against Pak Army in 1971 and at the same time the Indian army was intensely engaged to annihilate naxalites. I portrayed this well in my novel.

andana Shiva writes in her article `The Suicide Economy Of Corporate Globalisation’

`The Indian peasantry, the largest body of surviving small farmers in the world, today faces a crisis of extinction.

Two thirds of India makes its living from the land. The earth is the most generous employer in this country of a billion, that has farmed this land for more than 5000 years.

However, as farming is delinked from the earth, the soil, the biodiversity, and the climate, and linked to global corporations and global markets, and the generosity of the earth is replaced by the greed of corporations, the viability of small farmers and small farms is destroyed. Farmers suicides are the most tragic and dramatic symptom of the crisis of survival faced by Indian peasants.

1997 witnessed the first emergence of farm suicides in India. A rapid increase in indebtedness, was at the root of farmers taking their lives. Debt is a reflection of a negative economy, a loosing economy. Two factors have transformed the positive economy of agriculture into a negative economy for peasants - the rising costs of production and the falling prices of farm commodities. Both these factors are rooted in the policies of trade liberalization and corporate globalisation.

In 1998, the World Bank's structural adjustment policies forced India to open up its seed sector to global corporations like Cargill, Monsanto, and Syngenta. The global corporations changed the input economy overnight. Farm saved seeds were replaced by corporate seeds which needed fertilizers and pesticides and could not be saved.

As seed saving is prevented by patents as well as by the engineering of seeds with non-renewable traits, seed has to be bought for every planting season by poor peasants. A free resource available on farms became a commodity which farmers were forced to buy every year. This increases poverty and leads to indebtedness.

As debts increase and become unpayable, farmers are compelled to sell kidneys or even commit suicide. More than 25,000 peasants in India have taken their lives since 1997 when the practice of seed saving was transformed under globalisation pressures and multinational seed corporations started to take control of the seed supply. Seed saving gives farmers life. Seed monopolies rob farmers of life.

Bush readily acknowledged making mistakes in previous efforts to quell the near-anarchy in Baghdad. "There were not enough Iraqi and American troops to secure neighbourhoods that had been cleared of terrorists and insurgents. And there were too many restrictions on the troops we did have," said the president.He told Americans ''where mistakes have been made in Iraq, the responsibility rests with me,'' as he unveiled a new war plan that includes an infusion of more than 20,000 extra US troops.

Nearly five years after the U.S. military drove the Taliban out of Afghanistan, total victory appears as distant and remote as the long-embattled nation itself.In fact, after several years of relative calm, the Taliban and al-Qaida have staged a dramatic comeback, adopting the insurgent tactics that have been perfected with deadly efficiency in Iraq. More than 70 suicide bombings have killed scores of Afghan civilians this year, a 400 percent jump over 2005. Roadside bombs have more than doubled.NATO military officials claim at least 40 percent of the attacks are launched from Taliban camps across the border in Pakistan, where both the Taliban and al-Qaida live, train and operate with apparent impunity.The Afghan government continues to struggle to establish its credibility and spread its authority beyond Kabul. At the same time the U.S. recently cut developmental aid to Afghanistan by 30 percent and less than half of the $15 billion promised in international aid has been delivered.’

Meanwhile, opium production in Afghanistan has exploded. A United Nations report in September revealed a bumper poppy crop produced 6,100 metric tons of opium, a 50 percent increase over the previous year.

Buddhadev plays a Bush in India destroying every part of fertile land in Bengal. he attacked Singur with full force and nearly won. In Nandigram he faces stiff resistance from the united Hindu Muslim combination of peasants on the line of history of peasnts revolts in bengal. Singur is creating trouble once again. Like the original bush, the sibling also admits mistakes.

But Buddha is not changed as any change in Bush and Blair may not be expected.

He changed his strategy of Loot adjusting with Vote Bank politics adopted and defended by Left front. As I had been insisting all these days that Nandgarm demography puzzles the caste Hindu Left, it turns out to be. Left is on backfoot in defence. The most vocal supporter of Buddhadev and his capitalist development, the prominet Bengali Daily Anando bazar patrika, with a circulation thirteen lacs daily has published a front page lead story dealing with the leftist Muslim vote Bank. The writer points out that no less than eighty percent of Muslim population depends on agriculture and Nandigram has a rare Muslim concentration. Thus, the left is worried for its Muslim Vote Bank. The daily overplaying the divide and rule police highlights the communal divide which is not present anywhere in singur or nandigram, says that Muslims are mostly affected by indiscriminate land aquistion and it also says it is a communal campaign.

My dear, please do understand Buddhdev or any left leader is not worried of peasantry at all. It is worried of its Muslim vote bank in Bengal. Any change in Muslim support ratio may play havoc with Left future in Bengal.

So Nandigram wins, and Singur remains cutt off from rest of the country.

Arrested Medha on Fast

In Kolkata,Social activist Medha Patkar today filed a writ petition in the Calcutta High Court demanding penal action against police officers who arrested her yesterday as also adequate compensation, hours after her release on unconditional bail by a district court. Patkar and the Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) Convenor Sujato Bhadra filed the writ in the High Court complaining of illegal detention in a house at Salt Lake yesterday. The social activist, who went on fast last night protesting her "illegal detention" by the police, later broke it.

'I will go to Singur again,' she said after her release. 'We are moving the court and human rights commission against the state government to seek justice for our associates who are illegally detained.'

Police took Patkar and three members of the National Alliance of People's Movement (NAPM) into preventive custody from the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass. After refusing to sign the bail bonds at the police station, Patkar was taken for a health check-up and was produced in the sub-divisional judicial magistrate's court, Alipore, in South 24-parganas district today.

SDJM Manjit Singh granted unconditional bail to Patkar and three others and they were released.

Patkar earlier submitted to the court that her constitutional right and privileges had been curtailed by the police without any reason.

Earlier in HYDERABAD on JANUARY 9, terming SEZs as ‘Special Exploitation Zones’, social activist Medha Patkar said farmers' land cannot be destroyed and such moves would prompt Nandigram like protests leading to unrest across the country. Admitting that industrialisation was a welcome sign, Patkar said, "it cannot be done by displacing farmers, fishermen and tribals to promote corporate sector."


"We will observe a day of warning on January 26 demanding withdrawal of SEZ Act and go on fast on January 30 against all division and discrimination," Patkar, leader of the National Alliance of Peoples Movement, said.

The agitation would culminate in an ‘Initiation of Action 2007’ at Delhi on March 2007 in which 150 organisations working in various fields would take part, she said.

The charter of demands of Action 2007 include repealing of SEZ Act, restitution of Urban Land Ceiling Act, redistribution of land, vacate corporate control over water, land and minerals and withdrawal of river interlinking plan.

Salim to stand by Buddhadeb despite Nandigram unrest

On July 31, the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya government signed an agreement with the Salim Group to implement various developmental projects, including the setting up of a mega chemical industrial estate that will have a chemical SEZ at Nandigram, spread across 14,500 acres. Salim Group would stand by the West Bengal government and go ahead with its plans despite the unrest over land acquisition for its industrial project, Salim's partner Prasun Mukherjee said here Wednesday.

'There is no question of pulling out. We will go ahead with all - the SEZ -, the road and the bridge,' said Mukherjee, an NRI industrialist.'It is a big project and it would take time to be implemented. India is a democracy and in a democracy this is a natural process. Even in the US there are lobbies like the greens. We have full faith in the state government,' said Mukherjee who is partnering with the Indonesian firm for the project.

'The deaths are sad and Beni Santoso - is sad too. We have faith in the government in prevention of such incidents,' Mukherjee said.'West Bengal has not seen a project of this magnitude before,' he said.

Construction of a four-lane road bridge over the Haldi River, from Haldia to Nandigram, has also been planned. The proposed bridge would provide a link between Haldia and the proposed chemicals SEZ in Nandigram.

Jindal Enters

meanwhileJSW Steel signed a pact with the West Bengal government for a 10 million-tonne steel plant at an expenditure of Rs 100 billion. The proposed steel plant will be set up at Salboni in West Midnapore district on 5,000 acres of land, report agency sources.The project would be implemented in phases, with the first phase being of 3 million-tonne capacity. The company is keen to start work on the project before the onset of monsoon and the plant would be commissioned within 36 months from the date of construction.

The company has been negotiating with the West Bengal government for nearly two years for setting up a steel plant in the state, but it could not be finalised because supply of iron ore could not be tied up. The investment will cover a steel plant, a dedicated port, a coal mine and a power project. The initiative will be spread over 10 years.If the final investment figures tally with the projection, the Jindal project will elevate Bengal to the big league of other eastern steel states like Orissa and Jharkhand.

The first phase of the steel project will need an investment of Rs 15,000 crore. It will bankroll a 3-million-tonne plant with a 600-MW captive power unit, an independent 1,000-MW plant, development of coal mines and a berth at Haldia port to facilitate exports.

The next two phases will require investments of Rs 10,000 crore each to ramp up steel output to 10 million tonnes.

The government has to arrange 4,000-5,000 acres for the steel plant, for which it has identified a stretch at Salboni near Kharagpur. The plant is expected to create 10,000 direct and indirect job opportunities.

B'desh declares state of emergency, imposes curfew

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh has declared a state of emergency and imposed a daily night-time curfew, state television said on Thursday after weeks of violence in the run-up to elections boycotted by major parties.

"The president has declared a state of emergency and a curfew has been clamped daily from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m."State television said interim president Iajuddin Ahmad was expected to address the nation around 1600 GMT.

At least 45 people have been killed and hundreds injured in pre-election violence and police say they fear far worse to come ahead of polls that look increasingly untenable.

The interim caretaker government stood firm on Thursday in its pledge to hold the elections on Jan. 22 despite the boycott by a multi-party alliance headed by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina on grounds the ballot would not be free and impartial.More than 200 people were injured in clashes with police during a three-day nationwide transport blockade earlier this week called by Hasina try to scuttle the poll she believes is designed to favour her enemy and past prime minister, Begum Khaleda Zia.The violence has prompted the interim administration to call in the army to try to keep the peace but Hasina has continued to press for more strikes and blockades.

The United Nations said on Thursday it had suspended all technical support for the elections, while the European Commission said it had also decided to suspend its poll observation mission.

Hasina brushed off the curfew.

"We are not afraid. We will declare a new action programme after assessing the situation," she told her party leaders and activists at her Dhaka residence on Thursday evening.

"Please go home and to your villages and give a morale boost to workers and supporters," she added.

Political analysts say the bitter rivalry between Hasina and Khaleda has divided the country of 140 million and created animosities that may prove impossible to heal.

Army hunts rebels after Assam killing spree
Thu Jan 11, 2007 3:22 PM IST

By Biswajyoti Das

DINJAN, India (Reuters) - Thousands of combat troops scoured the mountains and jungles of India's restive northeast on Thursday to hunt down separatist rebels, blamed for killing dozens of migrant workers in the past week.The crackdown, which started at midnight on Wednesday, was spread across Assam and two other northeastern states, and focused on eliminating rebels of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and destroying their training camps.Four rebels were killed and about a dozen captured in early operations that included helicopters dropping troops on forested mountains, the army said.

"We are using all resources at our disposal in this operation ... we are going all out against the militants," said Major-General N.C. Marwah, a senior military commander at Dinjan, 570 km east of Guwahati, Assam's main city.

Authorities say militants belonging to the ULFA, which is fighting for the liberation of tea- and oil-rich Assam, are responsible for killing 72 people since Friday, nearly all of them Hindi-speaking migrants from eastern India.


"KILLING SPREE"

On Thursday, troops in battle fatigue moved throughout Assam as well as neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. Some moved on foot while others patrolled roads in armoured vehicles fitted with machine guns.Security officials say the ULFA has hideouts in mountainous Arunachal Pradesh and over the border in Myanmar. The army and border guards will also try to choke off ULFA's supply of arms through Meghalaya from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Army officers on the ground say that the gloves are off."If they are on the killing spree, we cannot sit idle. We also have to go on a killing spree," said a local military commander directing troops against the ULFA.

More than 20,000 people have been killed in the ULFA rebellion since 1979.

Bluff, a news paper report

Was a communication gap responsible for West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and CPM's politburo speaking in opposite voices on Nandigram? No, it was typical CPM bluff which now stands exposed, a senior non-CPM Left leader said.

The Left leader said that both CPM's central leadership and CM all along knew that notification for land acquisition had been issued by Haldia Development Authority and they also knew that this was illegal since the job of such acquisition rests with the district administration.

"Instead of clarifying the matter, both sides perpetuated falsehood in Kolkata and Delhi accusing those opposed to land acquisition as running a misinformation campaign while the truth was buried somewhere else. What hit them is criticism from well-meaning Left intellectuals like Sumit Sarkar and others. Fortunately, Sarkar cannot be discredited," the Left leader said.
Medha Patkar freed, vows to go Singur again

Result Of somalia Air Strike

NAIROBI, Kenya - A U.S. airstrike on Somalia three days ago killed up to 10 al-Qaida-affiliated "terrorists," but three of the most wanted suspects survived, a senior U.S. official said Thursday.

"We are still in pursuit (of the three). We and the Ethiopians and everyone else wants to interdict terrorists," said the official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The United States on Monday hit a village in south Somalia in an attempt to take out an al-Qaida cell accused of bombing two U.S. embassies in 1998 and an Israeli-owned hotel in 2002.
The U.S. official said between eight to 10 "al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists" were killed in Monday's attack.

"There were a number of terrorist targets that were killed in that operation," he added. "It was directed at significant al-Qaida individuals."
It was the first overt military action by the United States in Somalia since it led a U.N. force that intervened in the 1990s in an effort to fight famine. The mission led to clashes between U.N. forces and Somali warlords, including the battle, chronicled in the book and movie “Black Hawk Down,” that killed 18 U.S. soldiers.
As NBC News reported Tuesday, American officials continue to believe that al-Sudani, who was Mohammed's superior, was killed in the weekend assault by U.S. gunships, and that a local Somali al-Qaida leader, Aden Hashi Ayro, was at least severely wounded, if not killed.

Bush to send more troops to Iraq

Thursday, January 11, 2007 (Washington):

Unswayed by anti-war passions, President George W Bush said he will send 21,500 additional US forces to Iraq to break the cycle of violence.The new troop buildup will push the American presence in Iraq toward its highest level and put Bush on a collision course with the new Democratic Congress.A USA Today/Gallup poll said Americans oppose the idea of increasing troop levels in Iraq by 61 percent to 36 percent. The opposition Democrats who control the US Congress are firmly opposed to the President's new strategy.

"Our bill will say that no additional troops can be sent and no additional dollars can be spent on such an escalation unless and until Congress approves the President's plan," Senator Ted Kennedy said.

President Bush said that Iraq must meet its responsibilities too. However, he put no deadlines on Baghdad to do so."America's commitment is not open-ended," he said. "If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people and it will lose the support of the Iraqi people," he added.

He said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had promised that US forces would have a free hand and that "political or sectarian interference will not be tolerated."

Democrats unhappy

The new Democratic leaders of Congress met with Bush and complained afterward that their opposition to a buildup had been ignored. "This is the third time we are going down this path. Two times this has not worked. Why are they doing this now? That question remains." said House leader Nancy Pelosi.Senate and House Democrats are arranging votes urging the president not to send more troops.While lacking the force of law, the measures would compel Republicans to go on record as either bucking the president or supporting an escalation.

More dangerous phase of war may be coming, U.S. military officials warn

U.S. soldiers secure a road in Baghdad on Nov. 5. President Bush has OK'd the deployment to Iraq of about 21,500 more troops, most of whom will be sent to Baghdad. After admitting in his Wednesday night address that he made mistakes in Iraq, President Bush laid out his plan for increasing U.S. troops. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports.

President Bush's plan to send tens of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi reinforcements to Baghdad to jointly confront Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias is likely to touch off a more dangerous phase of the war, featuring months of fighting in the streets of the Iraqi capital, current and former military officials warned."The terrorists and insurgents in Iraq are without conscience, and they will make the year ahead bloody and violent," the president said last night in explaining his revised approach. "Even if our new strategy works exactly as planned, deadly acts of violence will continue -- and we must expect more Iraqi and American casualties."

US deploying Stealth fighters in S Korea

Amid speculation that North Korea may be ready to test a second nuclear device, the United States is deploying a squadron of Stealth fighters to South Korea.A US military release said that about 15 to 20 Nighthawk fighters are being sent to South Korea. Earlier, the US had earlier deployed about 250 to 300 airmen in South Korea.North Korea had criticized these deployments as preparations by the US for invasion and nuclear war.


Bill to implement 9/11 panel proposals

Democrats in the House of Representatives has moved to implement some of the unfulfilled recommendations of the September 11 commission.The move is the first in a string of bills over the next two weeks aimed at asserting their new control over Congress.

The bill would redirect homeland security funds to more urban areas based on their likelihood of becoming a target of terrorists and eventually require that all cargo containers bound for the United States be scanned for nuclear materials and explosives.

US introduces UN resolution on Myanmar

The United States introduced a UN resolution on Tuesday calling the deteriorating situation in Myanmar a serious risk to regional peace.The resolution urged the country's military government to release all political prisoners and take speedy steps toward democracy.Washington faces an uphill struggle in winning Security Council approval of the draft because of opposition from China and Russia, both veto-wielding council members. The council decided to put Myanmar on its agenda on September 15 over objections from Beijing and Moscow.

Indonesia and South Africa - both new Security Council members - voiced similar objections.

The draft resolution would express the council's "grave concern that the overall situation in Myanmar has deteriorated and poses serious risks to peace and security in the region."

It would also support appeals by Undersecretary-General Ibrahim Gambari to the government last year to release all political prisoners, open its political process to all political parties, stop hostilities against ethnic minorities and allow unhindered humanitarian access.Myanmar's junta took power in 1988 after crushing the democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi. In 1990, it refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, won a landslide election victory. Since then, Suu Kyi has been in and out of detention, kept in near-solitary confinement at her home.



Conflicted Commies
The force that could determine India's capitalist future is one of the world's strongest communist parties.
By Jason Overdorf
Newsweek International
Oct. 10, 2005 issue - As its name implies, the Communist Party of India-Marxist still employs the dated rhetoric of the left, down to calling its ruling body the Politburo, in old Soviet style. So it came as a surprise this summer when the national leadership endorsed "all the actions" of its maverick chief minister for West Bengal, a state of 100 million people and long a bastion of communist power. That came shortly after Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee wooed foreign investors in Singapore by saying Indian communists had to "reform or perish," and invited these capitalists to help build new infrastructure in West Bengal. The moment cemented Bhattacharjee's reputation as the Deng Xiaoping of India: a pragmatic communist reformer.

That doesn't mean, however, that India's communists have gone the way of comrades from Russia and China, tilting toward robber-baron capitalism. Just last Thursday the party's traditional allies in India's left-wing trade unions brought the country to a standstill with a daylong national strike that shut down railroads, airports and banks. In New Delhi, where the communists are critical partners in the coalition government, they have diluted free-market reforms and are hotly debating their proper role in a capitalist economy. The outcome of that debate is crucial: it could help determine whether India accelerates to China-style growth rates or stumbles yet again.

The Indian communists have more influence than all but one kindred party in a capitalist democracy, behind President Hugo Chavez's Movement for a Fifth Republic in Venezuela. (Third on the list: Portugal, where communists hold 12 of 230 seats in Parliament.) The CPM and two much smaller communist parties together control 60 of India's 545 parliamentary seats. Since the United Progressive Alliance led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress party is 51 seats short of a majority, it depends on communists to stay in power. The CPM has used that clout to block or temper policies from the sale of state-owned companies to the liberalization of labor laws in special economic zones.

In Western Europe, the leading communists for much of the cold-war period were found in Italy, where their focus was internal: their big idea was worker ownership of factories in an otherwise capitalist market. Given the vast expansion in international trade since then, the Indian communists' focus is more global. Indeed, the country's population and growing economy make the party one of the world's most influential opponents of excessive globalization. Experts debate whether India's communists are emulating Chinese reformers or European social democrats. Bhattacharjee says neither: "We are debating among ourselves. What is reform? Reform means what? For whom?" Sitaram Yechury, a member of the CPM Politburo, says the party's overriding ambition is to shift the goal of market reform from promoting corporate profit to people's welfare.

The differences with China are stark. The Indians still cling to socialist ideals like worker protection and land reform, while China's leveling impulses seem to have been spent during the land reforms of the Mao era, when the rural bourgeoisie was all but destroyed. India, meanwhile, never made good on post-independence promises to wipe out a feudal caste system. That said, the Indian communists' ideas about economic sovereignty take a page from China's book, and mirror the Congress Party view of the early 1990s.

The CPM sets three rules for foreign investors: they must increase India's production capacity—build factories, rather than simply buying assets—help upgrade Indian technology, and create jobs. While Congress is now inclined to open doors further, the communists are more wary. Where Congress leaders praise a domestic automaker like Tata for rising to the challenge of foreign competition, the communists decry how Japanese giant Suzuki ultimately gained control of its Indian joint venture, Maruti Udyog. "It would be wrong for anybody to characterize us and say we have been opponents of capital flows into India," says Yechury. "We qualify those flows, rather than opposing them."

The Newyork Times blog,January 11, 2007, 8:38 am
The War at Home: The Morning After
By Sarah Wheaton

In the lead up to the president’s speech, there had been a lot of debate about the distinctions between “surge” and “escalation,” with opponents of President Bush’s expected troop increase arguing that “surge” misleadingly implied a short-term infusion. But when Mr. Bush spoke last night, he did not imply that the over 20,000 additional troops going to Iraq would be there briefly.