Opinion View from the LEFT

While the article observes that Joshi’s ‘unbecoming comment’ against Mayawati obviously deserves utmost condemnation,it says the chief minister’s reaction terming it an insult to a ‘Dalit’s daughter’ was an attempt to get the sympathy from her Dalit vote bank.

“At the same time,she (Mayawati) resorted to vindictive politics and used her ruffians to get Ms Joshi’s house burnt in the very presence of the police and administration. This is a shameful act for any democratic system.”

“It is noteworthy that Mayawati had made a similar unbecoming comment two years ago against the then chief minister,Mulayam Singh Yadav,following the madrassa rape case in Allahabad. There is nothing new in it. Mayawati always gets incensed whenever she feels that someone is trying to steal into her Dalit votebank. She is beyond herself whenever Rahul Gandhi halts at a Dalit’s house for a few minutes,” it says “But the truth is that neither the Congress nor the BSP has any worthwhile plan for a basic change for the better in a Dalit’s life,” it concludes.

EUMA flopdown

Harping on the End Use Monitoring Agreement that New Delhi inked with Washington recently,the lead editorial in the issue says the recent visit by the US secretary of state,Hillary Clinton,has yielded substantial gains for US imperialism in roping in India as its subordinate ally.

“The text of the two major agreements concluded during this visit clearly shows that the new architecture is,indeed,a very wide canvas which directly impinges upon India’s political and economic sovereignty as well as its independent foreign policy. There is nothing bilateral about this architecture. It is a plain and simple unilateral imposition of an agenda by US imperialism and a willing surrender by this UPA-2 government,” it says.

It says prior to the visit,both the mainstream media in the US and senior officials had indicated that Washington expected India to sign an agreement facilitating the sale of sophisticated US arms. Commentators in the USA had said that such a deal would be a tangible accomplishment of Hillary Clinton’s first trip to India and it could prove a boon to US companies such as Lockheed Martin Corporation and Boeing Co.

“Both these defence contractors are in the running to compete for India’s plan to buy 126 multi-role fighter planes which would be one of the largest arms deals in the world today. Additionally,US officials estimate that the sale of nuclear reactors as a follow-up of the Indo-US nuclear deal will represent up to $ 10 billion in business for US companies like General Electric and Westinghouse…

In order that such lucrative deals for the USA materialise,it was required that India sign an agreement on “End Use Monitoring” of US defence and defence-related equipments. In common parlance,what this means is that the USA has the right to inspect all defence installations where equipment bought from its corporations is being used. This means that India’s strategic military installations will now be thrown open to US surveillance,seriously compromising India’s security concerns and its sovereignty.”