Articles by A M

A M Shankar Guha Niyogi laid stress on one apparently incidental issue which might yet turn out to be a phenomenon of major import. The battle against economic injustice and social oppression, which is at the same time the struggle for enlightenment, must have a moral basis; placing crooks and habitual boozers at the head of the procession will not do.

We have a major stake in both Kuwait and Iraq. Apart from three-quarters of our oil imports coming from these two countries, roughly four hundred thousand of bur citizens are resident there, sending, home dose to Rs 2,000 crore worth of foreign exchange every year. Our instinctive reaction should therefore have been to raise Cain in the UN arid, acting in concert with other members of the Non-Aligned Movement, apply pressure on Foggy Bottom to reverse its decision to starve the Iraqis into submission.

THE world is being made to pay a terrible price all because those in charge made a hash of things in east Europe. For some while, any outrage committed anywhere in the name of economic liberalisation and the free market will pass muster. Memories, after all, have a short life span. It is because the free market was responsible for some of the grossest im- proprieties in social relationships that the role of the state in regulating economic affairs assumed importance over time. Collec- tivist measures, such as planning, attracted attention for the same reason. In case parties who encounter one another in competitive bargaining are of unequal bargaining capabilities, the market fails to ensure equity and justice; it instead provides enormous scope for exploitation of the society's poor by the society's rich. In such circumstances, the state has to intervene.

A M The hullabaloo over the Lok Sabha election outcome from the Jadavpur constituency in Calcutta confirms the reality of the secular retreat from literacy in the state. The candidate who won from Jadavpur on the Left Front ticket represents the quintessence qf the culture Bengal was once known for. But Calcutta's newspapers could not care less. She has committed an unforgivable crime; she has defeated their candidate, their heroine, their godsister; the press, reduced to lumpendom, cannot take it, it is frothing in the mouth.

A M The cynics are still full of Tiananmen Square. One night at Tiananmen Square, however, docs not constitute history. History takes a longer view of both heroes and traitors. Consider the case of Klaus Fuchs, who died some months ago in the GDR, full of as they say, years and honours.