No Future Left For Left After Congress 'Betrayal'!

The Left is now crying foul.What a bright idea! For four years you misused the mandate extended to you by people from Kerala and West Bengal to support a Congress-led government at the Centre. And you did that by holding strikes almost every week in those states, derailing the life of the common people. And now the Congress having outsmarted you, you cry foul!
I wonder if Karat and co have any moral authority left to point fingers at the Congress. You had four years to keep this government under control and you did nothing. All you did was make life hell for the very same people who elected you.
Compare that with what a regional politician like Karunanidhi did. He could manage to make the UPA government change its policies in his favor even though he did not have the same number of MPs in the Lok Sabha as the Left parties combine did.
If the Left had pulled the rug from under the government the last time it kicked up a furore over the 123 nuclear deal with the US, they would still have had some credibility left. Now all they can do is bawl over the 'betrayal' of the Congress.
I am sure if the country goes to the polls today the Left will end up with less than one third of the number of seats in Parliament as it does now. That is because the misrule in its two main bastions - Kerala and West Bengal - has reached it peak. People in those two states may not care about the nuclear deal, but they do care about how governance has suffered as the party mandarins go about their own agendas.
So keep crying, Mr Karat and co. No one has any sympathy left for you. You were given a chance to help save the country from the American stooges in the Congress and you bungled. Period.

Back to the podium!

I am back to updating this blog. Sorry for the interruption.
Plenty of interesting things have happened from the time I made my last post. But it would be impossible for me to start from where I ended. Forward H!
The comrades are back to their favorite game at the Center, threatening to pull down the government if the nuke deal is signed with the US and at the same time saying there is no threat to the government.
They are also facing a roiled polity in the two main states in which they wield power - Kerala and West Bengal.
Funny thing is they haven't learnt anything all these years!
If elections are called today, I am sure the Leftists will lose power everywhere. They are trying hard to make their relevance felt with talks about a Third Front but all that is bull shit that is going to go nowhere. Let us face it comrades: the UPA has only benefitted the Congress!

Ahcumama, A Hero? My Foot!

So the Left has pulled back from the brink and Manmohan Singh can sigh in relief. But then, there is nothing new in the Left's decision to keep supporting the UPA government. Power is too sweet to let go!
My question is did we gain anything by all this tough talk, or did the Left gain anything? The Indo-US nuclear deal remains as it was.
From a personal viewpoint, though, I am happy the Left did not resort to its ancient tactic of calling strikes in Kerala and West Bengal against a central government that it supports. From Keralites and Bengalis: a huge "Thank You", Mr. Karat!
One reader tells me in his comment that I am full of Hindutva garbage. Wrong and right. Because I favor the Hindutva ideology, though it is not any of the particular flavors now afloat in India. My Hindutva leanings (though I don't think it would fit the connotations of that word) are a logical culmination of my thought that in a country with a 80 per cent Hindu population, you cannot avoid Hindu politics. Beyond that I don't think I am a Hindutva supporter.
The same reader tells me Pinarayi and Achumama are the true heroes of Kerala. I doubt if we can apply the word 'heroes' to either of the leaders, and I think definitely not to Achumama.
Achumama knows only wanton destruction, as I mentioned in an earlier post. And if his faction is being ousted (or cut down) from CPM committees in Kerala, he is just reaping what he sowed. I would like to repeat: this man single-handedly has sown the seeds of destruction in Kerala CPM and watched over those plants. He, along with cronies such as MM Lawerence, kicked out and ruined the political future of many earnest party workers. If he is getting paid back for some of those deeds, why cry about it now?
And in this new world I think it is Pinarayi's brand of Communism that will find more takers. Anyone who thinks Achu can be their savior is just living in a fool's paradise. The man is just living for fame, something that is never rightfully his, but which a media syndicate comprising of Veeran and others is trying to hand over to him.
But as I said, stay tuned for my post on Pinarayi and Achu. And, yes, more such stinging comments are welcome!

On Taslima And The Left

I am waiting to know how the Left Front government in West Bengal will react to the proclamation of an Imam from the state that he will reward anyone killing Bengladeshi woman writer Tasleema Nasrin. Well, I doubt the fundamentalist Imam will be jailed - the Left likes to cultivate the radical Islamists against Hindu vote politics. But how can you allow a weirdo to take the law of the land into his hands and issue death threats? As always, the Left would have two rules in this case too, I guess!

Kerala MPs Deserve A Clap On Salem Division Issue!

Could not update this blog as much as I wanted as I got busy, but the last few days have been interesting.
For one, I think for the first time in my memory, the MPs from Kerala flexed their collective muscle. Yeah, guys it wasn't the MPs from Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh, for a change. I remember the Narasimha Rao government, packed with MPs from Kerala and K Karunakaran in the kingmaker role. Yet, Kerala continued to get the step-motherly treatment that it always got. Frankly, when the Left supported the UPA at the Center, despite all the headlines, I did not believe Kerala would benefit in any way. History was heavily loaded against our poor state. And the CPM is more concerned with West Bengal, at least the Commissars at the top of the party are.
But this time Kerala MPs showed we can expect pleasant surprises from them. And their combined show of force on the creation of the Salem Division by the Railways came after Oommen Chandy going to press saying Sonia Gandhi attending that function is not wrong. I guess Chandy has swallowed his words.
That one Kerala MP was sent out of the House by the Speaker shows how strong the protest was. Till now the state's only voice at the Center was a bureaucrat - TKA Nair in the PMO. It is good to know our MPs are finally taking their job seriously instead of playing a game of duplicity with the people who have sent them to Delhi. Hope we can see this camaraderie in more issues concerning the state, such as Mullaperiyar.
Dear MPs, we the people of Kerala, are extending you a heartfelt clap. Keep up the good work!
Okay, but the show of force notwithstanding, the political scene is a bit roiled. Will the UPA express derail over the Indo-US nuclear deal? From the Left's record, I can easily say it won't. But maybe, yes there is a very slim maybe here, Manmohan's throne is a bit shaky this time.
I have got angry responses from Achumama's supporters among my friends to this blog, accusing me of supporting the Pinarayi faction. Let me tell you that is far from the truth, even though I don't like Achumama one bit. But I will soon be making a post comparing Pinarayi with Achumama. Keep tuned for that!

Mr Karat, Stop Biting The Hand That Feeds You!

CPM general secretary Prakash Karat's warning to the UPA government about the Indo-US nuclear deal is a step in the right direction. But I doubt if the CPM or the Left will go the whole way to stick to their stand, and let the government fall if they try to push through the deal in Parliament.
For long the Left has been acting like a toothless tiger, pushing the government on various issues and meekly giving way when the Congress pushed back. They did that in the name of not allowing the BJP to come to power. And then they resort to organizing strikes in Kerala and West Bengal against the central government that they support! The only ones who have suffered from this political joke have been the very people who elected the Left to power. The people in Delhi or elsewhere in the country have gone through their day's work without even knowing life had been brought to a standstill in Kerala and West Bengal. What a farce!
I hoped the Left will stop this game when Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu showed how to get what he wanted without any of the theatrics. I don't specifically remember the issue (it was about the trade unions in Neyveli Lignite Corporation, I think) but when the central government moved against his political interests Karunanidhi just sent word to the Prime Minister through one of his ministers that he is going to withdraw support. No noise, no nonsense. And no strikes in your state against a central government that depends on you for survival! It did the trick - the Center caved in! And the people of Tamil Nadu did not have to suffer any loss of business from a strike.
Newspapers across the country carried cartoons calling the Left's bluff the next day - comparing Karunanidhi with the Left. I really hoped the Left had learned its lesson then. I mean, when the central government is dependent on you for survival why put the very people who voted you to power through difficulties. The Tamil strongman showed what you can do if you did not know already that you could do it!
Still - this is the most unbelievable part of this tragedy - the Left has continued with the farce. They have continued their bluff, calling nationwide strikes against the Center that affect only Kerala and West Bengal. Plus regular statewide, disctrict-wide and even panchayat-level protests in the Kerala and West Bengal! If this isn't punishing the very people who gave you a voice at the national level, what is it?!
Okay, coming back to the point we started with, will the Left finally be able to show that it can bite and not just bark? I hope it will, but I don't think the old goats in the Politburo will go the whole hog. I strongly suspect it will be the same old story again. Power is too sweet to let go once you taste it, even if you are a Leftist! And it will be the unfortunate people in Kerala and West Bengal who will lose business - for the crime of voting for the Left. The Left's history shows it can bite only the hand that feeds it!