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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Karat overcomes NGO allergy by JP Yadav

Karat overcomes NGO allergy by JP Yadav

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published Published on Jul 24, 2011   modified Modified on Jul 24, 2011

Prakash Karat has decided to share a dais with civil society activists Prashant Bhushan and Aruna Roy, stirring debate in the CPM which largely considers NGOs and their members “anti-Left” and accuses them of furthering the “imperialist strategy”.

Some in the CPM believe the general secretary’s presence at the public meeting against corruption will amount to extending legitimacy to the “action groups”, the party’s name for voluntary organisations.

Others, though, see Karat as engaging in prudent politics after the Bengal and Kerala defeats and addressing the need to reconnect with the middle class, for whom corruption is perceived as a hot-button issue.

On Wednesday, Karat and CPI leader A.B. Bardhan will speak at the meeting along with Bhushan and Roy.

Lawyer Bhushan is a key member of the Anna Hazare group whose method of pushing for a strong Lokpal bill has met with CPM disapproval. Roy is a member of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council and has her own voluntary organisation.

Although the CPM is not known to have picked issues with Roy specifically, it believes that “action groups” by and large end up playing into the hands of imperialists.

So, even though the topic for Wednesday’s meeting —“Against corruption and corporate loot” — is close to the Left’s heart, Karat’s decision to be there has led to murmurs in the CPM.

The meeting itself is being organised by a voluntary body, the Delhi-based Centre for Policy Analysis, which has retired bureaucrats in its governing body.

Karat has long been a staunch critic of the “anti-Left” approach of many NGOs. According to CPM sources, Karat has been instrumental in highlighting the party line on voluntary organisations and is not known to have changed his views.

In 1984, Karat had written a 31-page article in party journal Marxist under the headline: “Action groups/voluntary organisations — a factor in the imperialist strategy”.

“There should be no liberal approach which tends to view all these groups uncritically as allies in a common struggle,” he had argued. “The party should treat all action groups as political entities…. Mass organisations led by our cadres should exercise vigilance to ensure that the activists of these groups do not join our organisations.”

A CPM leader said: “Karat seems to have forgotten his own approach.” Another, however, said: “Karat is not transgressing the party line.... The issue of corruption and corporate loot is important.”

The Telegraph, 18 July, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110718/jsp/frontpage/story_14253176.jsp


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