HEY DUDE! CARRY OUT OPERATION GREEN HUNT.

‘We can fight naxals and not naxalism’ this is what a DSP of a Maoist hit area told to the media. It is very important that we address the key issues of the problem called naxalism, it is a movement, and the government is taking the efforts to suppress it, in other words, naxal operations. Of course anyone who indulges in violence can be called as terrorist, but it’s important to analyze the fact that what motivates these people to fight the government against all odds. What is naxalism? It is nothing but an outcome of frustration, anger and disappointment of people over the inefficiency of the state to solve some of their basic problems which a government has the obligation to fulfill. These naxalites are none but people who once were the part of India, who have been living in remote corners of our great democracy mostly tribes who have often been neglected by the state and has always shown complacency in providing infrastructure and basic amenities to these people. This movement is led by some highly educated left ideologists and backed by tribes and other down trodden people. These people who have been neglected by the state since independence, suffering from absolute poverty, acute hunger, diseases, lack of infrastructure, sanitation, education, Isolated from the urban India. These people now, influenced by left ideologies leading a movement, called naxalism, objectives are state control, redistribution of land and wealth, so and so, the same old communist theories, though the kind of setup they try to bring in India, is very hard and next to impossible. As most of the Indians prefer Democracy and value it and may be we can never live under such rigid setup, but the naxals have succeeded over the years to make their voices reach the deaf government which has over the years never bothered about their problems. You can see everyday in newspapers about naxalism and naxalites, they either shoot dead police men or kidnap any officials or stop a train and aboard it to prove a point. They have so many districts under their control; they just kill the Zamindars after conducting a trial in the people’s court (naxals court) and distribute the land to the poor, they have intensified their activities as the government is taking some serious steps to suppress the movement.
Finally government has at least given some considerable amount of importance to the issue, which was earlier completely ignored. It is appreciable that Mr. Prime Minister has accepted that naxalism is a result of poverty. He said ‘naxalism is an outcome of poverty’ he is probably the first prime minister to accept the fact. But mere acceptance is not enough; government needs to do some thing concrete to win the confidence of those people in the region. Of course we need to curb these naxals from spreading their wings and invade our country, but at the same time we need to accept the fact that their issues are genuine, and at one side when we fight naxals, other side we need to take the benefits of the economic growth of India to those remote corners too. The government often accuses that the naxals hinder developments in those regions, but the question is, what were you doing when the movement didn’t even exist? This is just excuses government gives to cover its inabilities. These naxals are not just unorganized poor common people of these democracy, they are well organized and fight with a definite purpose, so it’s very important that when we fight them, we too fight with a definite purpose of bringing some significant developments to those people who have lost faith in democracy and not for any corporate backed ambitions. Arundhati Roy, the well-known writer, wrote a few weeks ago in an article how government is keen to get back those territories controlled by naxals as they are mineral rich lands owned by tribes, the government and the corporate India is keen to reap the benefits of those naxal hit areas. Arundhati Roy writes as follows, “the rich corporate backed army is fighting the Poor’s army to seize the only dignity left with the tribes, their lands and hand them over to big corporate sharks”. If what she writes is true, then the situation is going to worsen further, the operation against the naxals is called operation green hunt. Is the corporate India interested in those lands?, is it saying to the government ‘Hey Dude, carry out operation green hunt and wipe out those naxals over there, lets grab those lands and make some quick bugs’, if yes, then this will lead to more complications (remember lands were grabbed from poor farmers by the government in West Bengal which resulted in social unrest). If we fight naxals we should have a definite purpose of developing those areas and improve the standard of living of those people. Unless the government ensures that benefits reach these remote corners of naxal hit areas, Operation green hunt will not serve any purpose and it’s a waste of money, human resource and time.

CHINA’S DREAM OF DISINTEGRATING THE GREAT INDIAN FEDERATION

Some weeks back, there was a report in the newspapers about an article posted in the website in china, in which the writer has written how with a small effort from china the great Indian federation can be broken into many countries, like it happened with the union of soviet socialist republic of Russia (USSR). I was shocked to read, how the person who posted this article on the website (Some unconfirmed report was that the article was written by some government official and it may be the Chinese governments plan for the future) has formulated strategies to carry out this, like he says, kashmir can be liberated by supporting Pakistan, and West Bengal by giving assistance to Bangladesh and North eastern states like Assam, Manipur are facing threats from the so called liberation fronts, and disintegrating Tamil nadu by giving support to existing rebel movements. The article further indicates how India being united in spite of its different states having different culture, language and ethnicity is a big disadvantage for economic growth and thus disintegration of the great Indian federation was necessary.

Chinese have never had a proper relation with us since our independence and have been supporting Pakistan and Sri Lanka, in order to keep a check on India; it has military bases in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh surrounding India on all the sides. We have border disputes with them, where they claim parts of J&K, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. They have been continuously supplying arms to the Maoists and other rebel movements operating in parts of North Eastern India with an intention to disintegrate these states from India. Recently we can see every day in newspapers about the Chinese incursions and tensions along the LAC (Line of Actual Control). Why China is totally anti-Indian, even though we have been their peaceful neighbors (except the Indo-Chinese war). The reason being that china is desperate to take over the disputed territories in India, which they claim as Chinese territory, so the recent actions are just pressure tactics to call India to the negotiation table and settle out the long disputes, they are at a stage to get something out of such negotiations and at the same time they are preparing themselves militarily by setting up bases surrounding India , which would become very difficult for India to tackle if some military actions taken from any of the sides and another strong reason being that India and china are fast growing economies of the world and soon to become important financial centers of the world, and India is a direct competitor to china in everything from exports to foreign direct investments, though china has a better advantage than us , still they feel threatened by us, so an united India is a huge diversified market, and has the capability to attract foreign direct investments in the future and India’s economic development is unstoppable. In fact India is not a single market, due to its diversity, it is a cluster of markets which gives India the edge in attracting foreign investments and only disadvantage is the lack of infrastructure which would be provided in the years to come.

The article posted on the website shows the Chinese intentions, how by disintegrating India they can achieve two things, one, they can interrupt the economic development, they can wipe off their competitor and secondly, they can get back those territories in the north east which they claim.

But the Chinese dream of disintegrating the great Indian federation will remain a dream forever, India is a growing economy and the future for many western companies, and indirectly the western economy, so protecting India becomes their obligation, particularly the United States, Why the united states have been favoring us so much, it was particular to sign the Nuclear deal with India, wants India to be a terrorist free state, Mr.Obama calls India as its (united states’) best friend of this century’, all because of its rapid economic growth and future opportunities the Indian market provides. So India should remain as a peaceful, terrorist free state for U.S so that its companies can expand and exploit the 1 billion+ market. So, U.S will not remain a mere spectator, when china plunges into action. U.S has the obligation to protect India, in such situations, if not for the sake of friendly ties with this country, but at least for the sake of protecting its companies and their future prospects. See some of the United States big MNCs operating in India, Coke, Pepsi, Mc Donald, General Motors, Bank of America, Microsoft, and the names go on. These companies are the back bone of United State’s Strong economy; will the U.S let its precious Companies’ future ruin in Chinese hands? The Chinese dream of disintegrating the great Indian federation will remain a mere dream forever and hope china will not commit such strategic error. Instead of dreaming something unrealistic, china can make a strategic alliance with India, rather than behave as a competitor, so that both the fast growing economies of Asia can mutually benefit.

THE CHAMELEON CALLED ‘THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA’

Though the Industrial revolution started in Great Britain, today United States of America has emerged as the Global Super Power. Being the most powerful nation, it has taken control over international organizations like World Bank, UN, IMF etc. The European Union and the United States of America together have an indirect control over the whole world. They supported implemented and forced capitalism as a policy among those nations which they provided financial aides. One of the classic examples is India which was forced to become an open economy in 1991, as India faced a serious foreign currency crunch and the west backed international organizations came to help with some conditions which forced India to become an open economy from a state which have always followed socialist policies. They criticized protectionist polices of the communist countries and other nations like India which were closed economies and they also pointed out that being closed economies was the biggest disadvantage for these economies like India for being economically stagnant. These western nations strongly supported and promoted free market, market economy, Globalization, Privatization and liberalization. Finally they succeeded, most of the nations of the world including the countries which got independence from the soviet block (USSR) to accept the open economy system and most of these economies have become a part of globalization, except a few countries like Cuba, which is still under communist regime remain isolated from these global setup. This is the reason why the rise and fall of the NASDAQ index in US affect other nations too.

Now, after the Great Melt down that shook the whole American and European markets leading to the collapse of some great financial institutions and companies of the west. The America is keen to adopt some policies to protect its interests; the country which has always acted against those countries which resisted open economy system is now adopting protectionist policies in order save their jobs and economy. I was surprised when I read in newspapers about the policies that were to be adopted by the Obama administration like nationalization of some corporate companies and financial institutions, bail out packages, restricting outsourcing. Though America didn’t have any other options to bring back its economy from current recession, the point here is, this is a country which does not practice what it preaches and can change its ideas for its benefits and but others need to follow its rules. The country which is a center of world capitalism and a classic example of market economy and whose leadership always talked about globalization, free trade and economic cooperation among countries, is adopting protectionist policies. Another example to support my argument is the issue of war, though U.S hates when other countries go for war or create war like situations, like a situation between India and Pakistan, US has always intervened to settle the issues, whether it was kargil war or the recent Mumbai attacks. It has raised concern over the war between Israel and Palestine. But this same country can strike Iraq in the name of capturing the dictator Sadam, and bringing peace to Iraqi people, to gain control over the Oil fields, or can strike Afghanistan in the name of war on terror, in which innocent people too die, but the same is not acceptable when India talks about dismantling terror infrastructure by air strikes in Pakistani territory (Though nobody knows whether India is capable of carrying out such strikes, that’s another story), within days of such statements released from the Indian government officials, the US secretary of State would come here to settle the issue just in order to ensure that nothing of that sought happen mainly to protect Pakistan which helps them in the war against Taliban, In fact, Taliban was earlier armed and supported by America’s elite Intelligence unit CIA to fight the Communists of the Soviet Union. I remember of a debate at our college days ‘America is a threat to world peace or for political good’. The fact is, America is a capitalist country with brilliant economists and policy makers who can think about their sole interests and not about any other country. Even if it provides financial aides to some countries it does with an ultimate motive, for ex- it supports Pakistan and provides arms so that Pakistan could keep fighting the Taliban in the north western frontier, it favors India as it views India as a strong market for its companies to expand. It is like a chameleon which changes its color of the skin according to the surroundings in order to escape from its enemies , U.S can force an idea or rule on others to accept them, and when it comes to them , they can change any policies and ideas to protect their interests. They change the rules of the game as they want and act as a world dictator. The United States of America is a real chameleon which can change its stance according to its interests at the cost of other countries.

COLONISATION AND IMPERIALISM – THIS TIME IN THE NAME OF GLOBALISATION!

For Some time now, the western countries have been showing keen interest in the emerging markets of Asia, to name a few India, China, Korea etc. Corporate bodies of the west have been setting up their offices in India, China and other Asian countries. These Asian countries which were considered as third world, usually mocked by westerners as slums are gaining importance. In order to survive and grow these powerful Multinationals of the west have been expanding all over the world to survive and grow. They have been making their presence in the emerging Asian markets looking at the potential of these markets and the rapid economic developments. They know very well that these emerging economies are hidden treasures which can serve as a huge market for their goods and services. Now recently, the damn fall out of the European and American financial supremacy further intensified the process of these corporate to make their presence in these Asian countries.

All credit goes to the saturated western market; the western market has the capacity absorb any amount of production of goods and services. Because westerners have the habit of changing the goods as they become old and they also accept new technologies as soon as they arrive. So this is what makes the market keep going, but now after the collapse of the European and American financial system followed by recession, the purchasing power has come down in these western countries and the entry of these big corporations to enter into the third world markets has become inevitable. Now the point is, these big corporations are looking for markets all over the world to dump their excess production of goods and to survive in the highly competitive markets.

Now let’s have a look at the colonization period, during the industrial revolution there was an excess production of goods in the west, these western countries in order to keep their economy and big corporations alive started to explore new markets in the other parts of the world like Asia and Africa. They first entered into these third world countries as traders to sell their goods and later started to colonize these countries, finally they established their rule over these countries successfully. They dumped such goods in these markets which are not very much needed for human existence, but they created demand for these goods, like perfumes, hard drinks, clothes etc, in exchange they exported food items, costly spices, gold, diamond, rubies, emerald etc to their countries. so in this way they drained the wealth of these third countries which were not actually third world, but the people of these countries did not know how to make money out of these precious treasures hidden in their own countries, further the imperialistic greed did not end there, after almost capturing all parts of the world and colonizing them, they started to invade other colonies controlled by other powerful nations. This led to world wars. At those times colonization and imperialism took place with the help of military force.

And now we are back to the same era, this time in the name of globalization, with the help of financial might. With the help of west controlled international organizations like WTO, IMF , World Bank etc, these western countries have managed and forced many third world to become an open economy and these countries have already opened their markets for western companies in the name of creating employment and bringing prosperity. But the point is, they are companies, whose primary objective is profits, they are here to exploit the potential of this market (1.3 billion population), and not to do any social service. These companies would change their policies and strategies according to their business interests and not in any nation’s interest and they sometimes lead countries’ economies into deep trouble. For example the BPOs which have employed a huge amount of work force in our country, May any time pull out from India, as US president is completely against outsourcing and wants to bring back those jobs to America, if these thousands of BPO employees would be left jobless, this would lead to a big economic instability, how would they pay their huge home loan EMIs and personal loans (remember Sub prime market of the US). The American President recently quoted ‘He was more interested to create jobs in Buffalo, USA than in Bangalore, India.

So these Asian countries have already taken staggering amount of loans and aides from these west backed international organization like WTO, World bank etc, which cannot be repaid in the near future, this means these countries are already in the clutches of these western countries which indirectly control these Asian economies with their financial might and these western corporations have already colonized these Asian and African countries in the name of globalization. Though it has benefited some people at the top of the pyramid, nothing has changed in the life of a common people of these countries. Even the bull drive in our Sensex is not a real one, which has been supported by these FDIs and FIIs, the sensex would crash like hell once these FDIs and FIIs pull out from our country, as it happened a few months ago. The state of our stock market became pathetic once the meltdown shook the western financial system. We are back to the age of Imperialism and Colonization, this time in the name of Globalization. Once this gets out of control, a third world war may become inevitable. Thanks to capitalism and its supporters.

DANCE OF THE DEMOCRACY! THIRD FRONT JOINS THE PARTY.

As the elections are coming near, the left is trying to draw support from the regional parties to form the so called Third front, the third force which is anti-congress and anti-BJP. I was a bit happy to know that third front is arising to give tough competition to the other two major parties and here comes an end to the bi-party system in India and the voters have another option, as neither the rule of BJP nor Congress could bring an impact to the bottom of the pyramid – the poorest of this country after 62 years of Independence.

But the question is: Can this Third Front survive?

This remains a matter of doubt, Firstly the Left which has undoubtedly some great thinkers and intellectuals to take leadership and their policies may bring some effective changes in the corrupt and rotten system, has a different ideology from all other regional parties with which it wants to get associated with. Can this party with a totally different ideology keep alliance with those regional parties which have their own agenda?
Secondly, Third front does not have a common agenda and it is not well coordinated and it’s at a pre-mature stage of formation. Thirdly, who would be the prime ministerial candidate for the Third front? Any disagreement regarding this decision would lead to disintegration. The options are Mayawati, Prakash Karat or Jayalalitha. Prakash Karat is the only national level leader in this series and the other two are regional party leaders. Do they have the Caliber to handle the prestigious prime minister’s job which requires ability to develop a social vision and future oriented thinking and people oriented policies and decisions.

Recently, Jyoti Basu said; Third front is very difficult to take shape and function. Well, it’s all now in the left leaders hands, how they handle this situation and take this Third front to the people of India. Third Front – Jai Ho!

RISE OF THE PSUs! THANKS TO GLOBALISATION AND FREE MARKET.

PSUs of India, the so called poor counterparts of the private sector have risen like phoenix from the dead ashes, during this serious global meltdown. Once these PSUs were blamed as loss making units, and government was blamed for its inefficient operations and corporate world criticized the government for running such loss making units and wasting tax payer’s money. Taking this as an excuse, so many PSUs were sold to private hands, and believe me, so many were sold out at undervalue. Now the time has come for these PSUs, they have made a great come back after decades of criticisms. Firstly, the railways, the credit goes to Mr.lalu Prasad and his team who changed the rules of the game, changed all the traditional ways of functioning and now Indian railways case study is being studied in IIMs and Harvard. The point is that, we can but we don't. Bold innovative decisions at the higher order changed the fate of the railways. The problem with us including our government is we normally do not seek a change from the grass root level which is very important; instead of this we make changes just to bring temporary solutions. We need to start addressing key issues, from the grass root level. Change should start from the root of the problem and it should be brought in a macro level and that’s what happened with the railways. Now a big boost for the PSUs again the sixth pay commission, which changed the whole scenario, now PSUs have started attracting bright talents of this country, which were earlier attracted and retained by only the private companies and MN Cs. Even some PSUs recruited people from the IIMs this year. It’s all happening as the change is being brought up from the grass root level. The Pay hikes, Modernization of PSUs, change at managerial and operational level, all these efforts have benefited the Government sector. Recently I could see profits shown in the balance sheets and financial results of these PSUs published in Newspapers, all because of the Change in the approach. Government Banks have done a fantastic job by floating them profitably in this time of serious financial crisis. well, when their private counterparts are reeling under losses these Government banks are making profits, recently I read about Infosys transferring crores of money from private banks to Government banks. General Public too reacting to the Global meltdown by transferring their savings accounts from private to Government banks. The recent Success of these PSUs are not just because of the Change in the approach and pay hikes, Thanks to Globalisation and free market which were always advocated by the corporate sector as growth drivers. The concepts originated in USA and now so called globalisation backfired on them, so many losing jobs, reeling under serious financial crisis. Great American institutions were shocked by the meltdown. I'm not against globalisation or free market, privatization should be encouraged, industrialisation should be promoted, FDIs should be welcomed, of course these are real growth drivers of an economy, but these efforts should be backed by proper government control and regulations, which the private sector often hate, they advocate about Laizze faire-free market, which went terribly wrong for the Americans as well as the economies all over the world and now these same private sector which criticizes about government interventions in corporate affairs begs for bail out packages from the government, which is tax payers money. As the prosperity flows to Asian countries, this is the time that our policy makers should be aware of the opportunity. Private and Government sector should go hand in hand towards development, while the Government sector should maintain its current trend and should continuously improve at the same time private sector which should have proper government regulation and should continue to be a part of the India's growth.