Saturday, March 26, 2011

‘Sonia more comfortable with Left than with regional allies'

In the eyes of American diplomats, Congress president Sonia Gandhi appeared more comfortable working with the Left than with the regional parties in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
In an assessment of Sonia Gandhi during the period of the first UPA government, a cable sent on April 6, 2005 (30212: confidential), under the name of Ambassador David Mulford, said: “Sonia and the Congress leadership complain about Communist obstruction, but are convinced that these parties, although ideological, are not ‘irresponsible.' In the eyes of Congress leaders, most Communists are ‘pragmatic,' projecting an image of looking after the poor and downtrodden, in order to mollify the party faithful, while not preventing government from functioning.”
Weekly meetings
According to the cable, she appeared “more comfortable working with the often high-caste and well-educated Communists than with regional satraps” of the State-based parties. “Several interlocutors claimed that the weekly meetin..............................http://www.thehindu.com/news/the-india-cables/article1574328.ece?homepage=true

Britons rally against budget cuts

Violent outbreaks in London as tens of thousands march in protest against government's austerity measures.
Demonstrators against the cuts include pubic sector workers, pensioners and students [AFP]
Tens of thousands of people have rallied in London, the British capital, in opposition to public spending cuts introduced by the country's coalition government.
There were outbreaks of violence amid Saturday's demonstration as several hundred masked protesters clashed with police and rampaged down London's main shopping district.
About 4,500 police officers were deployed ahead of the protest.
Away from the main protest, a group of black-clad protesters threw paint bombs at shops and banks on the main shopping streets of Oxford Street and New Bond Street.
Police said that some protesters also threw paint bombs and light bulbs filled with ammonia at officers during the demonstration.
Several banks were attacked and the Fortnum and Mason department store was briefly occupied.
UK Uncut, a group that campaigns against government cuts and corporate tax avoidance, claimed it was behind the occupation.
Five policemen were injured during the protests. Police arrested 157 people.
'Serious message'
But the main demonstration, billed as the "March for the Alternative", went peacefully with families and their children among the protesters.
Steel bands, choirs and dancers also joined the march, giving a carnival atmosphere to the demonstration.
Tim Friend, Al Jazeera's correspondent at the march, said: "It's all good fun for many people here but there is a serious message as well, which the government will be watching very carefully.
"There are 'unsung heroes' here, from communities across Britain who have come down to London.
"The closure of their projects [due to cuts] for their local communities might not get much publicity, but for the people who use those services it will be absolutely devastating."
Many protesters carried banners reading "Don't Break Britain", "No to Cuts" and "Defend Our Public Services", while others blew vuvuzelas, the plastic trumpets made famous during the South African football World Cup.
Organisers had claimed earlier that the demonstration could be the biggest rally in the capital since mass protests against the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Political protest
The demonstrations were called over cuts to public spending, rising unemployment, tax rises and pension reforms imposed by the government after it came to power in May.
The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has announced plans for cuts worth £81bn ($131bn) over five years in order to slash a record public deficit that the party's blames on the previous Labour administration.
The cuts involve most government departments, with the loss of 300,000 public service jobs and pay freezes for civil servants.
The Liberal Democrats have faced public criticism for supporting the austerity measures, especially the hike in university fees which it had opposed before it came to power.
Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, spoke at the rally, likening the protest to the suffragette movement in Britain and the civil rights movement in America.
"Our causes may be different but we come together to realise our voice. We stand on the shoulders of those who have marched and have struggled in the past," he told protesters gathered in London's Hyde Park.
The UK march is the latest protest against austerity measures to take place in Europe where governments are struggling to bring down record deficits following bailouts and bank nationalisations in the wake of the financial crisis.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
In a land of scams, Yeddy is in the middle of a fresh one
The Karnataka Chief Minister has granted reserve forest land to a trust run by a BJP MP
Imran Khan
Bengaluru
Photo: S Radhakrishna
In what has become a routine in Karnataka, another land scam involving a former state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president and trusted lieutenant of Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa has surfaced in the state.
This time, the Yeddyurappa government has granted 10.5 acres of reserve forest land near Sullia Mangalore to Udupi MP Sadanand Gowda’s trust violating forest laws.
The reserve forest land, which was earlier denied to a state power corporation, a community graveyard, and to the local panchayat, was immediately granted by the state forest department on the insistence of Yeddyurappa to Sadanand Gowda’s KS Gowda Education trust.
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ws250311POLITICS.asp

 

 

 

Hooda misleading Jats over reservation, alleges CPI (M)

  “Garnering political mileage by arousing caste feelings of peasantry”

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Friday alleged that Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and some other political leaders were “misleading the Jat reservationists as procedural norms laid down for reservations were being deliberately concealed to garner narrow political mileage by arousing caste feelings of the peasantry”.
“Double-talk”
Talking to media persons in Rohtak, CPI (M) Haryana unit Secretary Inderjit Singh said the Congress was “indulging in double-talk”.........

"We hope to break pattern in Kerala and maintain it in West Bengal"

 

The Communist Party of India(Marxist) on Friday said the Kerala and West Bengal Assembly elections were significant as the Left was the strongest in these States.
“We hope to break the pattern in Kerala and maintain it in West Bengal,” CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat said at an interaction at the Press Club of India here.
Referring to Kerala, he said empirical evidence suggested that there had been a change of government every five years and the party was concentrating on breaking this pattern. Asked about West Bengal, where the Left Front had won successive elections since 1977, he said: “We hope to maintain it.” 

 

Hindu nationalism is opportunistic, said Jaitley


Is Hindu nationalism the raison d'être of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), or just another vote-catching device? In a private conversation with American diplomats in May 2005, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley articulated the view that Hindu nationalism was an opportunistic issue for the party.
Mr. Jaitley, who is now the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, met with Robert Blake, the Charge at the U.S. Embassy, on May 6, 2005, and provided him and the Political Counsel an insightful exposition on the politics of Hindutva. “Pressed on the question of Hindutva, Jaitley argued that Hindu nationalism ‘will always be a talking point' for the BJP. However, he characterized this as an opportunistic issue,” the Charge wrote in a cable dated May 10, 2005 (32279: confidential)............

(This article is a part of the series "The India Cables" based on the US diplomatic cables accessed by The Hindu via Wikileaks.)

http://www.thehindu.com/news/the-india-cables/article1572119.ece?homepage=true

Sunday, March 20, 2011

लीबिया पर नाटो हमला बर्बरतापूर्ण, आपराधिक और अस्वीकार्य है !

एक बार फिर UN प्रस्ताव का बहाना लेकर नाटो सेनाओं ने एक छोटे देश पर हमलावर कार्यवाही की है. यह हमला किसी भी लिहाज से स्वीकार्य नही हो सकता है , और UN प्रस्ताव का दुरूपयोग है. जैसे, १. जब नाटो सेनाओं ने लीबिया पर 'नो फ्लाई ज़ोन' लागु करने के नाम पर हमला किया उस समय गद्दाफी युद्ध विराम की घोषणा कर चुके थे और उसकी सेनाओं का कोई भी विमान आसमान पर नहीं था . 
२.  ग्द्धाफी के UN प्रस्ताव स्वीकार कर लेने और युद्ध विराम की घोषणा के बाद भी नाटो देशों का यह कहना की हमला जरुर होगा उनके असली मकसद को समझने के लिए काफी है.
३.  नाटो सेनाओं के हमले में राजधानी त्रिपोली के नागरिक ठिकाने शामिल हैं और उन ठिकानों में कर्नल गद्धाफी का घर भी शामिल है.
४.  फ़्रांस,ब्रिटेन और अमेरिका ने स्पष्ट रूप से कहा है की गद्धाफी के हटने तक हमले जारी रहेंगे, इसका मतलब है की छोटे देशों को अपनी सरकार अमेरिका की पसंद के हिसाब से बनानी होगी.
५.  लीबिया में हथियार बंद विद्रोह है और नागरिक आन्दोलन केवल एक बहाना है. विद्रोहियों ने शावेज के बातचीत और मध्यस्था के प्रस्ताव को अस्वीकार कर दिया था जो इस बात को साबित करता है की यह लीबिया में लोकतंत्र की मांग से आगे कुछ विदेशी शाजिश है.
६.  संयुक्त रास्ट्र एक बार जिम्मेदारी पूर्ण भूमिका निभाने में असफल रहा है और अमेरिका और पश्चिमी देशों के हाथ का खिलौना साबित हुआ है.
७. हमलों के बाद दुःख जताने वाले बड़े देश जैसे रूस, चीन,भारत और ब्राजील अपनी जिम्मेदारी निभाने में नाकामयाब रहे हैं और उन्हें अपने व्यापारिक हितों को ध्यान में रखकर कम किया है.
                   इसलिए अब ये अवाम की जिम्मेदारी है की वो अपनी अपनी सरकारों की भूमिका से अलग हटकर इन हमलों का विरोध करे. विश्व समुदाय एक बार फिर लीबिया की जनता को बचाने के नाम पर लीबिया की जनता के विदेशी सेनाओं के द्वारा किये जाने वाले कत्लेआम का मूक गवाह है, एक बार फिर तीसरी दुनिया के एक छोटे देश की सम्प्रभुता को बड़ी ताकतें अपने पैरों के नीचे कुचल रही हैं.
                             इसका विरोध करो.