This is the comment I sent to The Hindu on the article "Case for Speaker’s disqualification” by V. Venkatesan, dated July 30, 2008. The article was written to attack Mr.Chatterjee to please someone. It is a dumb article.
I am sure, it won't be published.
The “Case for Speaker’s disqualification” by V. Venkatesan (July 30) assumes that Mr.Somnath Chatterjee had “voluntarily given up his membership” of the CPI(M). But, since Mr.Chatterjee, unlike Dr.Barbosa, did not resign from the party, the argument, it seems, is that by defying the party whip, he had voluntarily forfeited his membership. If that is true, what was the need for the CPI(M) to dismiss him from the party?
A whip is usually issued to demand voting on a certain side or abstention, but it cannot cover a Speaker as he does not normally have the right or obligation to vote. Casting vote is an extraordinary device he can use only to break a deadlock in the House.
According to PART V, CH.II, ARTICLE 94 of the Constitution, Speaker’s office will be vacated only in two contingencies: through resignation, or through removal by a resolution moved after a minimum of fourteen days’ notice and passed by a majority of the Members present in the House. Defying party whip is not one among them. It goes further to state that even when “the House of the People is dissolved, the Speaker shall not vacate his office until immediately before the first meeting of the House of the People after the dissolution”. Equating him with the other Members of the House is, therefore, incorrect.
P.P.Sudhakaran
Bangalore
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The Hindu is moving towards the Right
The WorldPress gives The Hindu's political affiliation as 'left-leaning independent', which is no more its affiliation. I sent the following suggestion to it on July 15, 2008.
http://www.worldpress.org/newspapers/ASIA/India.cfm
Hello,
I am a retired Professor of History, and a regular reader of The Hindu from about 1954 onwards. I feel that your assessment that The Hindu is a “left-leaning, independent” paper needs revision. Of late, its choice of topics for editorials and their slants, and the selective highlighting of events, political parties and personalities during the last one year are such that a reassement would be the first option. Or, it should be at least kept under observation.
A reassessment of the affinity of its readers also may be made. I feel that The Hindu is now cozying up to the Right. When the Editor-in-Chief himself chooses to interview the Right's self-anointed "Prime Minister in waiting", asking only soft questions and trying to please him with an out of context prediction that his party would come to power in the next elections, it cannot be seen as a simple courtesy.
At present, The Hindu gives prominence to the Left Parties also along with the Right, but that is not sustainable for long, because, the Left and the Right are poles apart in Indian politics. Especially in their views on religion. The Hindu, for all that one could read in its pages, has chosen to be on the Right.
Yours faithfully,
P.P.Sudhakaran
http://www.worldpress.org/newspapers/ASIA/India.cfm
Hello,
I am a retired Professor of History, and a regular reader of The Hindu from about 1954 onwards. I feel that your assessment that The Hindu is a “left-leaning, independent” paper needs revision. Of late, its choice of topics for editorials and their slants, and the selective highlighting of events, political parties and personalities during the last one year are such that a reassement would be the first option. Or, it should be at least kept under observation.
A reassessment of the affinity of its readers also may be made. I feel that The Hindu is now cozying up to the Right. When the Editor-in-Chief himself chooses to interview the Right's self-anointed "Prime Minister in waiting", asking only soft questions and trying to please him with an out of context prediction that his party would come to power in the next elections, it cannot be seen as a simple courtesy.
At present, The Hindu gives prominence to the Left Parties also along with the Right, but that is not sustainable for long, because, the Left and the Right are poles apart in Indian politics. Especially in their views on religion. The Hindu, for all that one could read in its pages, has chosen to be on the Right.
Yours faithfully,
P.P.Sudhakaran
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
India's Sovereignty and the Left's hypocrisy
The latest joint statement issued by the Left Parties has dropped some of its earlier reasons for withdrawing support to the government, like the apathy towards India-Iran gas pipeline, and mentions only three major reasons. Of those three, however, the first and the third are over one and the same concern – India losing its sovereignty. Even in voluntary international agreements, there will be mutual commitments that will inevitably impinge on sovereignty. The Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Co-operation that India signed with the Soviet Union in August 1972 is a case in point. It was between equal parties with identical mutual obligations. Even then, by signing it India forfeited its claim to non-alignment and agreed not to enter for the next twenty years into any obligation, secret or public, with other States, which was incompatible with the Treaty or might cause military damage to the Soviet Union. Was that O.K with the Left?
P.P.Sudhakaran
Bangalore.
This was sent to The Hindu. I am sure it won't be published.
P.P.Sudhakaran
Bangalore.
This was sent to The Hindu. I am sure it won't be published.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Irrelevant Left
Sir,
Please not that this is not for publication, but just to bring to your notice a letter I had sent to you for publication. You did not publish it, and I don’t complain. It was much much longer than what you would prefer, but don’t you usually trim long letters the way you want? Why I chose to write this postscript to an unpublished Letter is because I feel that the Letter was not that dumb to be dumped. But, your decision has to be right.
I wrote it because I felt that the Left Parties, especially CPI(M) and CPI, were following a terribly incorrect political course. Among the self-righteous, self-serving utterances and actions of Indian political parties, theirs alone are somewhat sane. If they too self-destruct? They are surely carrying their Cold War obsession with the US into the much changed present world. This has vitiated even their valid objections to the 123 Agreement.
They should have remembered that as political parties, they are irrelevant in every State other than W.Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. How they will fare even in those States in the next elections is uncertain. The Third Front they are so keen on resuscitating again is still in the incubator. All its sympathisers are players with some base only in lone States. SP has now walked out on the Left. I thought Deccan Herald would have done a good service to Indian politics by articulating a caution to the Left Parties, especially after it had chosen to publish the Editorial, ‘Clear the air’.
I am giving the letter for reference only, not for publication.
Sir,
The Editorial, Clear the Air (June 27, 2008), rightly addresses the Central Government to decide the issue of signing the 123 Agreement sooner than later. But the issue is sure to simmer at least till the next general elections because of the Left parties’ inflexible opposition. They have threatened to withdraw support and precipitate early elections. They are canvassing among the parties inside and outside the UPA to block the government from winning a contingent vote of confidence, and have announced their decision to vote on the BJP side if needed. Do such extreme threats and frenetic activities bode well for the Left parties themselves? Do they believe that the signing of the agreement is a now or never event, which can be blocked permanently if they can block it now?
The fact is that the Left cannot block the agreement now or ever if the government decides to sign it and face the consequences, including the Left’s vindictiveness, as they come. The Left leaders themselves would be knowing that their larger-than-life role and bargaining power in the present dispensation are products exclusively of the 2004 elections, which may not be available after the next general elections. They would also be knowing that the BJP is currently trivializing the agreement only to appropriate it when it comes to power next. It is quite possible that India will sign the agreement if the NDA, or a UPA with no need for Left’s support, gets power next, and the US keeps the offer alive. What will the Left’s present objections come to then? Perhaps, to a big loss of face and credibility. Reality being such, a pragmatic option for the Left would be to take a long term shot at the issue and save some political grace for themselves.
P.P.Sudhakaran
Bangalore.
Prof. P.P.Sudhakaran (Retd.)
301, East Mansion,
No.2. Hutchins Road,
Cooke Town,
Bangalore 5.
Ph. 25467483.
Please not that this is not for publication, but just to bring to your notice a letter I had sent to you for publication. You did not publish it, and I don’t complain. It was much much longer than what you would prefer, but don’t you usually trim long letters the way you want? Why I chose to write this postscript to an unpublished Letter is because I feel that the Letter was not that dumb to be dumped. But, your decision has to be right.
I wrote it because I felt that the Left Parties, especially CPI(M) and CPI, were following a terribly incorrect political course. Among the self-righteous, self-serving utterances and actions of Indian political parties, theirs alone are somewhat sane. If they too self-destruct? They are surely carrying their Cold War obsession with the US into the much changed present world. This has vitiated even their valid objections to the 123 Agreement.
They should have remembered that as political parties, they are irrelevant in every State other than W.Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. How they will fare even in those States in the next elections is uncertain. The Third Front they are so keen on resuscitating again is still in the incubator. All its sympathisers are players with some base only in lone States. SP has now walked out on the Left. I thought Deccan Herald would have done a good service to Indian politics by articulating a caution to the Left Parties, especially after it had chosen to publish the Editorial, ‘Clear the air’.
I am giving the letter for reference only, not for publication.
Sir,
The Editorial, Clear the Air (June 27, 2008), rightly addresses the Central Government to decide the issue of signing the 123 Agreement sooner than later. But the issue is sure to simmer at least till the next general elections because of the Left parties’ inflexible opposition. They have threatened to withdraw support and precipitate early elections. They are canvassing among the parties inside and outside the UPA to block the government from winning a contingent vote of confidence, and have announced their decision to vote on the BJP side if needed. Do such extreme threats and frenetic activities bode well for the Left parties themselves? Do they believe that the signing of the agreement is a now or never event, which can be blocked permanently if they can block it now?
The fact is that the Left cannot block the agreement now or ever if the government decides to sign it and face the consequences, including the Left’s vindictiveness, as they come. The Left leaders themselves would be knowing that their larger-than-life role and bargaining power in the present dispensation are products exclusively of the 2004 elections, which may not be available after the next general elections. They would also be knowing that the BJP is currently trivializing the agreement only to appropriate it when it comes to power next. It is quite possible that India will sign the agreement if the NDA, or a UPA with no need for Left’s support, gets power next, and the US keeps the offer alive. What will the Left’s present objections come to then? Perhaps, to a big loss of face and credibility. Reality being such, a pragmatic option for the Left would be to take a long term shot at the issue and save some political grace for themselves.
P.P.Sudhakaran
Bangalore.
Prof. P.P.Sudhakaran (Retd.)
301, East Mansion,
No.2. Hutchins Road,
Cooke Town,
Bangalore 5.
Ph. 25467483.
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