In recent days Mint is into a five-part series 'that documents the changing aspirations of young Indians, the risks they are taking and the many dreams they are chasing.' Full page reports with pix of a Muslim trying to be an IAS officer, a Dalit becoming a Rs.1 crore turnover corporate and today Ashwaq Masoodi writes of a a 15-year old New Delhi slum girl braving to be literate with the help of an NGO, Protsahan headed by Sonal Kapoor. Masoodi ends: 'Despite being burdened with a combination of domestic chores before and after school, Anju is happy that at least she can continue going to school. She doesn't want to become a doctor or an engineer or an officer, but a teacher for the children on the streets, whose dreams, she says, need to be given wings.' When me graduated, me wanted a job, any job. In The Indian Express, Dipankar Ghose puts down the story: An 87 year old shapes a sports revolution in Bastar's Naxal backyard.' Dharampal Saini, a Vinobha Bhavite, helps girls to run, jump and throw. A young India is in a total disconnect with the concerns of an aged and corrupt ruling political and corporate class; their dreams are nightmares for the ruling few; rulers are upset over their living, raze slums in New Delhi on cold nights; will not give them quarter of a chance; none in this class would have cared to read these pieces and get to know the young; worse, none in the young has been helped by the Left. Possibly, the Left is worse than the Right. Terms and conditions in India today are primed for the Left to flourish. But is there any Left? My friend Ashok Reddy asks: Is Sitaram Yechuri Left? Sure the Left will violently object like the Right. They love bullets as much as the Right. Was there a Left movement in India: they did not go with the Independence movement; scorned Datta Samant when he convinced textile millworkers in Bombay to strike; the Left did not support the millworkers; where was the Left when socialist George Fernandes headed the Great Railway strike: or the JP movement; and the Left was absent when Medha Patkar fronted the Narmada Bachao Andolan? Possibly, the lone exception is the Naxal movement which today is into killing government forces with the poor roasted by both. In a few months, Kerala and West Bengal will go into elections? Will the Left come back? Activists heading NGOs today seem to have filled the wide blanks left by the Left; they may not be Marxists; but familiar they are with Marx and Engels; they have also earned the confidence of the poor and hatred of the political and business class. Environment, education, health, child abuse ... activists are proving to be a genuine nuisance, asking questions and most importantly leading an alert poor. It is the job of the Leftists, Leftists have not even attempted. The Supreme Court has disqualified people without toilets and education from holding panchayat posts. Should not Sitaram Yechuri move a bigger bench of the Supreme Court challenging its earlier diktat? Where is the Left? Is there a Left?
Sunday, December 20, 2015
Where is the Left?
In recent days Mint is into a five-part series 'that documents the changing aspirations of young Indians, the risks they are taking and the many dreams they are chasing.' Full page reports with pix of a Muslim trying to be an IAS officer, a Dalit becoming a Rs.1 crore turnover corporate and today Ashwaq Masoodi writes of a a 15-year old New Delhi slum girl braving to be literate with the help of an NGO, Protsahan headed by Sonal Kapoor. Masoodi ends: 'Despite being burdened with a combination of domestic chores before and after school, Anju is happy that at least she can continue going to school. She doesn't want to become a doctor or an engineer or an officer, but a teacher for the children on the streets, whose dreams, she says, need to be given wings.' When me graduated, me wanted a job, any job. In The Indian Express, Dipankar Ghose puts down the story: An 87 year old shapes a sports revolution in Bastar's Naxal backyard.' Dharampal Saini, a Vinobha Bhavite, helps girls to run, jump and throw. A young India is in a total disconnect with the concerns of an aged and corrupt ruling political and corporate class; their dreams are nightmares for the ruling few; rulers are upset over their living, raze slums in New Delhi on cold nights; will not give them quarter of a chance; none in this class would have cared to read these pieces and get to know the young; worse, none in the young has been helped by the Left. Possibly, the Left is worse than the Right. Terms and conditions in India today are primed for the Left to flourish. But is there any Left? My friend Ashok Reddy asks: Is Sitaram Yechuri Left? Sure the Left will violently object like the Right. They love bullets as much as the Right. Was there a Left movement in India: they did not go with the Independence movement; scorned Datta Samant when he convinced textile millworkers in Bombay to strike; the Left did not support the millworkers; where was the Left when socialist George Fernandes headed the Great Railway strike: or the JP movement; and the Left was absent when Medha Patkar fronted the Narmada Bachao Andolan? Possibly, the lone exception is the Naxal movement which today is into killing government forces with the poor roasted by both. In a few months, Kerala and West Bengal will go into elections? Will the Left come back? Activists heading NGOs today seem to have filled the wide blanks left by the Left; they may not be Marxists; but familiar they are with Marx and Engels; they have also earned the confidence of the poor and hatred of the political and business class. Environment, education, health, child abuse ... activists are proving to be a genuine nuisance, asking questions and most importantly leading an alert poor. It is the job of the Leftists, Leftists have not even attempted. The Supreme Court has disqualified people without toilets and education from holding panchayat posts. Should not Sitaram Yechuri move a bigger bench of the Supreme Court challenging its earlier diktat? Where is the Left? Is there a Left?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment