Transparency is not always the virtue it is made out to be, as the CPI(M) is finding out through its website, http://vote.cpim.org.
Transparency is not always the virtue it is made out to be, as the CPI(M) is finding out through its website, http://vote.cpim.org.
Over 150 questions have flooded the website spurred by the promise that all of them will be answered, and sure enough with an average speed of 8-10 days, most of them are, though not with the best results.
Asks Rupak, obviously a disgruntled Leftist, “Hello, we are haters of the US, why are we using their website services like YouTube and Google.” The answer from the site administrator echoes the Bible in the “hate the sin not the sinner” mode.
“While the CPI(M) steadfastly opposes US imperialism, it is not anti-American or against the use of American technology whatsoever,” comes the answer. Imagine if the cold war mavens knew this, one wouldn’t have needed Glasnost and Perestroika to end the cold war.
On the issue of corruption too, we find a more forgiving CPI(M). Anonymous asks how the CPI(M) can tie up with “corrupt parties” like the BSP and the AIADMK. The response is taken from an interview of Prakash Karat.
“You can’t make corruption an issue for deciding political programmes and the understanding between political parties, because then there will no political party which you can ally with,” is the reply. With this rosy picture of Indian polity, the administrator takes the next question.
This deals with a Bengali information technology professional, Rohit, who asks quite plaintively why there is no IT boom in Bengal, since he wants to settle in his home state.
“People have put down roots in Bangalore, Pune and other places, as a Bengali, why do we study in Kolkata and move somewhere else to work,” he says. The party’s answer is a dry enumeration of numbers which seek to convince him that there is indeed an IT boom in West Bengal.
Many visitors are however obsessed with the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala having tied up with a party like the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)-led Abdul Nazar Madani, a former accused in the Coimbatore blast case. The party has been shifty on this issue on public forums, and on the website as well.
On whether the party considered the PDP a secular party, the answer was evasive. “Over the years, the PDP has changed from its original platform. It has taken a stand on anti-imperialist issues and against terrorism. The PDP is mainly based in the Muslim community but it has in the last few years adopted a platform for addressing the issues of Dalits, backwards and other oppressed sections,” the party answers.
Senior party leader Sitaram Yechury appears unfazed by the critical questions being asked. “We ask tough questions and are prepared to answer them as well,” he says. The website administrators at the receiving are however more cautious, they say at the end of one abusive rant “criticism is welcome, abuse is not.”
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