On reservations

The substance of the CPM’s argument on implementation of OBC reservations in centrally funded institutions of higher learning is this: Since a blueprint has been drawn up for the purpose

The substance of the CPM’s argument on implementation of OBC reservations in centrally funded institutions of higher learning is this: Since a blueprint has been drawn up for the purpose, it is now incumbent upon the government to ensure implementation of the legislation. In light of the Supreme Court’s stay on implementation of the law, a front-page editorial in People’s Democracy perceives the issue as one involving the specific roles of legislature, executive and judiciary.

Arguing that the judiciary cannot make the law, the editorial says: “Once the legislature makes the law, it is mandatory upon the executive to implement it. The Supreme Court has now stayed such implementation and allegedly cast doubts on the legislature’s competence in making the law.” The CPM weekly makes the point that if reservation in jobs is correct, then reservation in educational institutions cannot be wrong. In the scramble for jobs, it points out, the deprived sections get left behind, worsening their already poor condition. Reservation is a “necessary though not sufficient condition” to enable them to join the mainstream.

Secular alliances

With the BJP making a strong return in urban areas in the recent assembly and local polls, the secular alliance has evidently many reasons to worry — one of these is a split in its own ranks. So the message in a review of the Maharashtra local body polls is that the Left and secular forces must regroup to counter further attacks. Ashok Dhawale, the CPM’s state secretary in Maharashtra, points to the gains from such an alliance. Referring to Nagpur he says while “no statewide third alternative” could be formed in the local polls, all Left, secular and republican groups had come together to forge a “perfect seat-sharing arrangement” there. The result was that the alliance won 10 seats in the Nagpur corporation.

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According to Dhawale, the Nagpur result could be attributed to “mass pressure” following the Khairlanji killings in September last year. Besides, “considerable sections” of Muslims who were disillusioned by the Congress and the NCP, also supported the alliance. But, says Dhawale, similar efforts in Mumbai, Nashik and Solapur could not succeed due to the “vastly exaggerated demands” of all constituents barring the CPM even though there was a chance for making gains by attracting Dalits, Muslims and working people. With the Lok Sabha elections two years away, the CPM would make efforts to bring together other Left and secular forces, he says.

Missing?

Going on the offensive over Nandigram, the CPM is now pursuing stories about missing persons highlighted in the “corporate media” to show how they are, according to the party, actually false. One such story, according to People’s Democracy relates to Durgapada Maiti, who is actually a “Trinamul Congress strongman, an explosives expert” and apparently left for an “unknown destination” on March 4 after “duly informing” his family. Maiti, a report says, resurfaced later.

Training its guns on “corporate barons”, the report says such campaigns “would never justify the act of gross violation of the very ‘human rights’ they (corporate barons) shout themselves hoarse about, of close to four thousand villagers rendered homeless by the rogues and ruffians of the Trinamul Congress and the Maoists”. The weekly also quotes from a recent report in the CPM’s Bengali daily, Ganashakti to show how of the 27 missing people, “25 had been found out. And every one of them is alive”.

Compiled by Ananda Majumdar