Leave that LEFT!

Raghuram Rajan & Brian Barry says: 

• “Many on the left nowadays seem especially confused about the advantages of competition, and many progressives’ approach to education is an excellent example of this.” 

On the similar tone Surjit Bhalla said: 

• Hints of this forthcoming doom are contained in the Communist manifesto, sorry, the CPM Election Manifesto for the 2011 state elections. Of the three main objectives stated in the manifesto, number one is the following, and it bears quotation in full: “Our main objective is to improve (the) living standard of families below the poverty line and to create opportunities of employment” (emphasis added). Further, if the poor are the base of support for the CPM, then they have lots to worry about. By their own admission, poverty is down to only 20-odd per cent according to the old official poverty line. Which means there are less and less supporters for those whose only slogan is “for the benefit of the poor”. This is a key point and suggests that the CPM has been caught in a time warp of its own making. 

• The manifesto starts off with how capitalism is dying under the burden of the great 2008 recession — remember, we are in 2011, but never fear. These are the opening lines: “The... election is being held against the backdrop of an unprecedented worldwide economic crisis... the hegemonistic western capitalist countries led by US imperialists have been shifting the onus of the crisis onto the Indian people.”