Tags:
Journalism of Courage
int(3)
CPI(M) General secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet has come out in open support of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent initiatives in J-K and the North-East. This praise is significant, as the Left had been particularly critical of the Home Ministry’s handling of these two trouble spots in one of the previous UPA-Left coordination meetings.
And though Surjeet has words of praise for the PM, he makes no reference to the Home Ministry, even though solution to the Kashmir or the North-East problem is the principal responsibility of the North Block.
It is as if the Left is still ignoring Home Minister Shivraj Patil. In the UPA-Left meeting, the Left leaders were quite aggressive and specifically targeted Patil. So, the PM might have received all the accolades but it is not a very healthy sign that the Left continues to ignore his Home Minister.
Surjeet’s article appears in the latest People’s Democracy where he writes, ‘‘The recent initiatives taken by the Prime Minister.. in case of Jammu and Kashmir on the one hand and the North-East on the other are quite appreciable, though the fact remains that these were long overdue.’’
What the CPI(M) veteran lauds is that Singh has tried to address the problems at their roots. He acknowledges that Singh is trying to alleviate poverty. The Left insists they have been harping for a long time that militants take advantage of the economic backwardness in the region.
Surjeet’s article welcomes the PM’s gesture of troop reduction and says it ‘‘is an issue which was agitating the people of the state.’’ He also hails the PM’s pledge that the distinct culture of the region would be protected.
The extent of Surjeet’s praise for the Kashmir tour can be gauged from the following lines: ‘‘The impact of the Prime Minister’s visit to J-K may be gauged from one simple fact. The day he reached Srinagar, markets and shops were found closed in the wake of an extremist threat. But not only had these markets and shops opened by early afternoon, people too began to come out and the crowd that came to listen to the PM was not small in view of the situation prevailing in the state.’’
The veteran CPI(M) leader continues in this congratulatory tone even when he writes about the PM’s subsequent trip to the North-East.
The article is significant as the CPI(M) was insistent that the process of dialogue with Kashmiri groups and those from the North-East should be pursued with greater vigour. It also comes at a time when the PM himself has voiced reservations about the Left’s way of opposing every economic policy of the government.
