Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Friday, March 26, 2010
Economic Origins of Democracy
An incomplete draft of the book by Acemoglu and Robinson can be accessed from
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/pg/modules/ec928/details/arbdist.pdf
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/pg/modules/ec928/details/arbdist.pdf
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
National Youth Day of India - 12th January 2010
A Speaker and Mr. Yogendra Sharma, the representative of youth, who organized the get-together
Narayana Rao at the beginning of the get-together
The persons present just before the start of proceedings of the get-together
Some more photos of the meet will be added and a report of the proceedings will be posted.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
January 12 - National Youth Day of India
It is Swami Vivekananda's Birth day.
Let us do something to improve some tangible things in the society and do something to improve intangible things - our behaviour and behavior of our community members.
Some details of the days celebrations are being collected in an article
http://knol.google.com/k/narayana-rao-k-v-s-s/national-youth-day-of-india-12-january/2utb2lsm2k7a/2139
Give your opinions and any details of celebrations.
Let us do something to improve some tangible things in the society and do something to improve intangible things - our behaviour and behavior of our community members.
Some details of the days celebrations are being collected in an article
http://knol.google.com/k/narayana-rao-k-v-s-s/national-youth-day-of-india-12-january/2utb2lsm2k7a/2139
Give your opinions and any details of celebrations.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
CPM's Own Men Deserted the Party in 2009 Lok Sabha Elections
Economic Times carried an interesting article on 30 May 2009 on Page 3
In West Bengal CPM claims a party membership of 3.21 lakh and a mass organization membership of 3.43 crore.
But CPM got only 33.1% of the vote share.
About 70 to 75% of the states 4.89 crore electorate cast its vote this year. This means CPM did not get votes to a large extent from its mass organization members.
Reason: I keep arguing is that party members (Of all political parties in India) are not meeting nonparty people systematically.
In Kerala, the party membership is over 3.64 lakh and mass organization membership is around 1.42 crore. Kerala's electorate is two crore. Around 60% voted and CPM got 30.48%. Once again party members could not even mobilise their mass organization members.
The combined membership of all mass organizations belonging to CPM increased to 6,17,93,166 at the time 2008 party congress. The earlier party congress figure was 4,91,54,970.
Is there a need for party members to develop intimate contact with nonparty persons. Yes it is there. People in general will welcome if political party members take interest and meet them regularly.
In West Bengal CPM claims a party membership of 3.21 lakh and a mass organization membership of 3.43 crore.
But CPM got only 33.1% of the vote share.
About 70 to 75% of the states 4.89 crore electorate cast its vote this year. This means CPM did not get votes to a large extent from its mass organization members.
Reason: I keep arguing is that party members (Of all political parties in India) are not meeting nonparty people systematically.
In Kerala, the party membership is over 3.64 lakh and mass organization membership is around 1.42 crore. Kerala's electorate is two crore. Around 60% voted and CPM got 30.48%. Once again party members could not even mobilise their mass organization members.
The combined membership of all mass organizations belonging to CPM increased to 6,17,93,166 at the time 2008 party congress. The earlier party congress figure was 4,91,54,970.
Is there a need for party members to develop intimate contact with nonparty persons. Yes it is there. People in general will welcome if political party members take interest and meet them regularly.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Members of a Political Party - What Should They Do?
Members of a political party have to take on the role of a representative of people. No doubt members of legislative assemblies are the formal representative of the people elected by the people.
But each member of a political party has voluntarily come forward to represent the people and when a political party admits him into the party, it has approved his voluntary action and gives him the right to represent the party to the people whom he wants to represent.
I advocate that each member of a political party has to be given the responsibility of contacting 50 households to carry out the task of representing people as well as that of a party member. To fulfil this responsibility, the member has to meet each of the households at least once in a year formally. In this interaction, he has to find the desires and wishes of the household in the area of social issues, public works and public policy. He has to inform them his party's current stand on various issues and his party's programmes. He has to report to the party machinery, the issues raised by the households. The inputs given by the members based on such visits will be very useful information to the party to undertake local tactical issue based activities and to develop policies and programs on large scale.
Lenin on Party Members
It is our task to safegaurd the firmness, consistency, and purity of our party. We must strive to raise the title and significance of a party member higher, higher and still higher.
We communists, (implying party members) are looked upon as a model in everything - n work and behavior. We have to live and work in such a way that the working person coud say: Yes this is a real communist...
Unaffiliated working people often judge the party by the behavior of its members. Every party member is the party's representative in any work collective, and he acts not only be explaining party policies and by proclaiming slogans, but by primarily by showing a good example in work, social and political activities, and everyday life.
In work collectives, everyone sees the communists' (party members) attitude towards their work: whether they are exacting of themselves and their party comrades, how irreconciliable they are toward, say self love, avaric, hard drinking and other infringements of discipline and the law and order and toward indifferent attitudes to people's needs and doings.
(Source: Yevgeny Bugaev, What is The Party?, Progress Publishers, Moscow,1986
But each member of a political party has voluntarily come forward to represent the people and when a political party admits him into the party, it has approved his voluntary action and gives him the right to represent the party to the people whom he wants to represent.
I advocate that each member of a political party has to be given the responsibility of contacting 50 households to carry out the task of representing people as well as that of a party member. To fulfil this responsibility, the member has to meet each of the households at least once in a year formally. In this interaction, he has to find the desires and wishes of the household in the area of social issues, public works and public policy. He has to inform them his party's current stand on various issues and his party's programmes. He has to report to the party machinery, the issues raised by the households. The inputs given by the members based on such visits will be very useful information to the party to undertake local tactical issue based activities and to develop policies and programs on large scale.
Lenin on Party Members
It is our task to safegaurd the firmness, consistency, and purity of our party. We must strive to raise the title and significance of a party member higher, higher and still higher.
We communists, (implying party members) are looked upon as a model in everything - n work and behavior. We have to live and work in such a way that the working person coud say: Yes this is a real communist...
Unaffiliated working people often judge the party by the behavior of its members. Every party member is the party's representative in any work collective, and he acts not only be explaining party policies and by proclaiming slogans, but by primarily by showing a good example in work, social and political activities, and everyday life.
In work collectives, everyone sees the communists' (party members) attitude towards their work: whether they are exacting of themselves and their party comrades, how irreconciliable they are toward, say self love, avaric, hard drinking and other infringements of discipline and the law and order and toward indifferent attitudes to people's needs and doings.
(Source: Yevgeny Bugaev, What is The Party?, Progress Publishers, Moscow,1986
About - Communist Party of India (Marxist)
The CPI(M) was formed at the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of India held in Calcutta from October 31 to November 7, 1964. The CPI(M) was born in the struggle against revisionism and sectarianism in the communist movement at the international and national level, in order to defend the scientific and revolutionary tenets of Marxism-Leninism and its appropriate application in the concrete Indian conditions.
The CPI(M) has grown to 9,76,622 in 2007. The Party has sought to independently apply Marxism-Leninism to Indian conditions and to work out the strategy and tactics for a people's democratic revolution, which can transform the lives of the Indian people. The CPI(M) is engaged in bringing about this basic transformation by carrying out a programme to end imperialist, big bourgeois and landlord exploitation.
Source: http://cpim.org/ - Introduction
The working class and its parties have to equip themselves ideologically, politically and organisationally to wage a relentless struggle against imperialism and its exploitative order. The unity of the Left, democratic and progressive forces around the world must be forged to fight against imperialism and defeat the ruling classes who seek to sustain and perpetuate the present unjust global order. As a Party based on proletarian internationalism, the CPI(M) is committed to fight against imperialist hegemony and expresses solidarity with all the forces in the world who are fighting against the imperialist-driven economic order of globalisation and for peace, democracy and socialism.
3.14 The working class has borne the brunt of the heavy burdens imposed by the capitalists and the government. The real wages of the workers do not rise because of the ever-increasing prices. With the crisis in the industrial sphere becoming endemic, the workers face the onslaught of closures and retrenchment. The labour laws supposed to safeguard the rights of the workers are defective and even these are not enforced; violation of laws by the employers is the norm. The recognition of trade unions by secret ballot and the right of collective bargaining are denied. The offensive of liberalisation and privatisation has rendered lakhs of workers jobless without any social security to fall back upon. The deregulation of the labour market is demanded as part of the policy of liberalisation. Benefits and rights earned by workers through prolonged struggles are sought to be curtailed. Permanent jobs are being converted to contract or casual jobs. Working women get less wages and are the first to be retrenched. Child labour has increased and working children are subjected to the worst forms of exploitation. Outside the organised sector millions of workers get no protection from the labour laws and are deprived of even the minimum wages set by the government. The plight of the labouring men and women in the huge unorganised sector is one of drudgery. They work for a pittance for long hours, often in hazardous conditions with no social security. It is the unremitting labour and the exploitation of the working class which has provided the profits for the bourgeoisie, the big contractors and the multinational corporations.
Programmes in the field Industry and Labour
Take steps to eliminate Indian and foreign monopolies in different sectors of industry, finance, trade and services through suitable measures including State take-over of their assets.
Strengthen public sector industries through modernisation, democratisation, freeing from bureaucratic controls and corruption, fixing strict accountability, ensuring workers participation in management and making it competitive so that it can occupy commanding position in the economy.
Allow foreign direct investment in selected sectors for acquiring advanced technology and upgrading productive capacities. Regulate finance capital flows in the interests of the overall economy.
Assist the small and medium industries by providing them credit, raw materials at reasonable prices and by helping them in regard to marketing facilities.
Regulate and co-ordinate various sectors of the economy and the market in order to achieve balanced and planned economic development of the country. Regulate foreign trade.
Improve radically the living standards of workers by: a) fixing a living wage, b) progressive reduction of working hours; c) social insurance against every kind of disability and unemployment; d) provision of housing for workers; e) recognition of trade unions by secret ballot and their rights of collective bargaining as well as right to strike; and f) abolition of child labour.
Provide maximum relief from taxation to workers, peasants and artisans; introduce graded tax in agriculture, industry and trade; and effectively implement a price policy in the interest of the common people.
7.13 The working class and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), while not for a moment losing sight of their basic aim of building the people's democratic front to achieve people's democratic revolution and the fact that they have to inevitably come into clash with the present Indian State led by the big bourgeoisie, do take cognisance of the contradictions and conflicts that exist between the Indian bourgeoisie including the big bourgeoisie and imperialism. Opening up the Indian economy to the unbridled and free entry of MNCs and foreign finance capital will intensify this contradiction. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), while carefully studying this phenomenon, shall strive to utilise every such difference, fissure, conflict and contradiction to isolate the imperialists and strengthen the people's struggle for democratic advance. The working class will not hesitate to lend its unstinted support to the government on all issues of world peace and anti-imperialism which are in the genuine interests of the nation, on all economic and political issues of conflict with imperialism, and on all issues which involve questions of strengthening our sovereignty and independent foreign policy.
7.14 Reactionary and counter-revolutionary trends have existed even after independence. They make use of the backwardness of the people based on the immense influence of feudal ideology. In recent decades, making use of the growing discontent against the Congress leading to its steady decline, they are making serious efforts to fill the void left by the Congress Party. The Bharatiya Janata Party is a reactionary party with a divisive and communal platform, the reactionary content of which is based on hatred against other religions, intolerance and ultra-nationalist chauvinism. The BJP is no ordinary bourgeois party as the fascistic Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh guides and dominates it. When the BJP is in power, the RSS gets access to the instruments of State power and the State machinery. The Hindutva ideology promotes revivalism and rejects the composite culture of India with the objective of establishing a Hindu rashtra. The spread of such a communal outlook leads to the growth of minority fundamentalism. This has serious consequences for the secular basis of the polity and poses a serious danger to the Left and democratic movement. Besides, a substantial section of big business and landlords, imperialism headed by the USA, is lending all-out support to the BJP.
7.18 The Communist Party of India (Marxist) strives to achieve the establishment of people's democracy and socialist transformation through peaceful means. By developing a powerful mass revolutionary movement, by combining parliamentary and extra parliamentary forms of struggle, the working class and its allies will try their utmost to overcome the resistance of the forces of reaction and to bring about these transformations through peaceful means. However, it needs always to be borne in mind that the ruling classes never relinquish their power voluntarily. They seek to defy the will of the people and seek to reverse it by lawlessness and violence. It is, therefore, necessary for the revolutionary forces to be vigilant and so orient their work that they can face up to all contingencies, to any twist and turn in the political life of the country.
Source: http://cpim.org/ Programme
The sites given in the references was accessed on 22.5.2009
My Comments
CPI(M) has around 10,00,000 members. According to me each member should be in touch with 50 households, which means at least 100 voters. This would mean 10 crore voters. But is CPI(M) getting 10 crores votes. It is not getting. Why? because its members are not going and meeting people on a planned basis.
In my 35 years of adult life, so far no CPI(M) party member contacted me. Even though I am an employee all my life that to an employee of government or public sector, the CPI(M) party members have not shown an interest in meeting me. Not only me, even many of the friends I know were never met by the party members. Of course, the blame is not on CPI(M) alone. It is the same with all political parties. Political parties have not given priority to contacting people on a regular basis.
http://kvssnrao-pss.blogspot.com/2009/05/members-of-political-party-what-should.html
The CPI(M) has grown to 9,76,622 in 2007. The Party has sought to independently apply Marxism-Leninism to Indian conditions and to work out the strategy and tactics for a people's democratic revolution, which can transform the lives of the Indian people. The CPI(M) is engaged in bringing about this basic transformation by carrying out a programme to end imperialist, big bourgeois and landlord exploitation.
Source: http://cpim.org/ - Introduction
The working class and its parties have to equip themselves ideologically, politically and organisationally to wage a relentless struggle against imperialism and its exploitative order. The unity of the Left, democratic and progressive forces around the world must be forged to fight against imperialism and defeat the ruling classes who seek to sustain and perpetuate the present unjust global order. As a Party based on proletarian internationalism, the CPI(M) is committed to fight against imperialist hegemony and expresses solidarity with all the forces in the world who are fighting against the imperialist-driven economic order of globalisation and for peace, democracy and socialism.
3.14 The working class has borne the brunt of the heavy burdens imposed by the capitalists and the government. The real wages of the workers do not rise because of the ever-increasing prices. With the crisis in the industrial sphere becoming endemic, the workers face the onslaught of closures and retrenchment. The labour laws supposed to safeguard the rights of the workers are defective and even these are not enforced; violation of laws by the employers is the norm. The recognition of trade unions by secret ballot and the right of collective bargaining are denied. The offensive of liberalisation and privatisation has rendered lakhs of workers jobless without any social security to fall back upon. The deregulation of the labour market is demanded as part of the policy of liberalisation. Benefits and rights earned by workers through prolonged struggles are sought to be curtailed. Permanent jobs are being converted to contract or casual jobs. Working women get less wages and are the first to be retrenched. Child labour has increased and working children are subjected to the worst forms of exploitation. Outside the organised sector millions of workers get no protection from the labour laws and are deprived of even the minimum wages set by the government. The plight of the labouring men and women in the huge unorganised sector is one of drudgery. They work for a pittance for long hours, often in hazardous conditions with no social security. It is the unremitting labour and the exploitation of the working class which has provided the profits for the bourgeoisie, the big contractors and the multinational corporations.
Programmes in the field Industry and Labour
Take steps to eliminate Indian and foreign monopolies in different sectors of industry, finance, trade and services through suitable measures including State take-over of their assets.
Strengthen public sector industries through modernisation, democratisation, freeing from bureaucratic controls and corruption, fixing strict accountability, ensuring workers participation in management and making it competitive so that it can occupy commanding position in the economy.
Allow foreign direct investment in selected sectors for acquiring advanced technology and upgrading productive capacities. Regulate finance capital flows in the interests of the overall economy.
Assist the small and medium industries by providing them credit, raw materials at reasonable prices and by helping them in regard to marketing facilities.
Regulate and co-ordinate various sectors of the economy and the market in order to achieve balanced and planned economic development of the country. Regulate foreign trade.
Improve radically the living standards of workers by: a) fixing a living wage, b) progressive reduction of working hours; c) social insurance against every kind of disability and unemployment; d) provision of housing for workers; e) recognition of trade unions by secret ballot and their rights of collective bargaining as well as right to strike; and f) abolition of child labour.
Provide maximum relief from taxation to workers, peasants and artisans; introduce graded tax in agriculture, industry and trade; and effectively implement a price policy in the interest of the common people.
7.13 The working class and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), while not for a moment losing sight of their basic aim of building the people's democratic front to achieve people's democratic revolution and the fact that they have to inevitably come into clash with the present Indian State led by the big bourgeoisie, do take cognisance of the contradictions and conflicts that exist between the Indian bourgeoisie including the big bourgeoisie and imperialism. Opening up the Indian economy to the unbridled and free entry of MNCs and foreign finance capital will intensify this contradiction. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), while carefully studying this phenomenon, shall strive to utilise every such difference, fissure, conflict and contradiction to isolate the imperialists and strengthen the people's struggle for democratic advance. The working class will not hesitate to lend its unstinted support to the government on all issues of world peace and anti-imperialism which are in the genuine interests of the nation, on all economic and political issues of conflict with imperialism, and on all issues which involve questions of strengthening our sovereignty and independent foreign policy.
7.14 Reactionary and counter-revolutionary trends have existed even after independence. They make use of the backwardness of the people based on the immense influence of feudal ideology. In recent decades, making use of the growing discontent against the Congress leading to its steady decline, they are making serious efforts to fill the void left by the Congress Party. The Bharatiya Janata Party is a reactionary party with a divisive and communal platform, the reactionary content of which is based on hatred against other religions, intolerance and ultra-nationalist chauvinism. The BJP is no ordinary bourgeois party as the fascistic Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh guides and dominates it. When the BJP is in power, the RSS gets access to the instruments of State power and the State machinery. The Hindutva ideology promotes revivalism and rejects the composite culture of India with the objective of establishing a Hindu rashtra. The spread of such a communal outlook leads to the growth of minority fundamentalism. This has serious consequences for the secular basis of the polity and poses a serious danger to the Left and democratic movement. Besides, a substantial section of big business and landlords, imperialism headed by the USA, is lending all-out support to the BJP.
7.18 The Communist Party of India (Marxist) strives to achieve the establishment of people's democracy and socialist transformation through peaceful means. By developing a powerful mass revolutionary movement, by combining parliamentary and extra parliamentary forms of struggle, the working class and its allies will try their utmost to overcome the resistance of the forces of reaction and to bring about these transformations through peaceful means. However, it needs always to be borne in mind that the ruling classes never relinquish their power voluntarily. They seek to defy the will of the people and seek to reverse it by lawlessness and violence. It is, therefore, necessary for the revolutionary forces to be vigilant and so orient their work that they can face up to all contingencies, to any twist and turn in the political life of the country.
Source: http://cpim.org/ Programme
The sites given in the references was accessed on 22.5.2009
My Comments
CPI(M) has around 10,00,000 members. According to me each member should be in touch with 50 households, which means at least 100 voters. This would mean 10 crore voters. But is CPI(M) getting 10 crores votes. It is not getting. Why? because its members are not going and meeting people on a planned basis.
In my 35 years of adult life, so far no CPI(M) party member contacted me. Even though I am an employee all my life that to an employee of government or public sector, the CPI(M) party members have not shown an interest in meeting me. Not only me, even many of the friends I know were never met by the party members. Of course, the blame is not on CPI(M) alone. It is the same with all political parties. Political parties have not given priority to contacting people on a regular basis.
http://kvssnrao-pss.blogspot.com/2009/05/members-of-political-party-what-should.html
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