CPI (ML) Lobs ‘Corporate Raj’ Barb at Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraj

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Left Outfit Singes Prashant Kishor Vision For Bihar

By Raisina Correspondent

New Delhi, October 13: A week after election strategist Prashant Kishor launched his political outfit, the CPI (ML) has accused him of envisioning a ‘corporate raj’.

The CPI (ML) on its portal published a piece, accusing Kishor of promoting corporate interests while also holding conservative values on women rights.

“After two years of preparation, Jan Suraj Party was announced on 2 October 2024. There were women on the stage in this foundation program of Jan Suraj, but not a single woman was given a place in the first row of this stage which claimed to have 5000 leaders,” wrote Meena Tiwari on the official portal of the CPI (ML) in an article.

She stated that “Prashant Kishore talked about changing the system. But the mantra he was giving to change the system is nothing but the mantra to gain power through corporate style management of public sentiments”.

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Tiwari stated that while the constitution of Jan Suraj linked progressive things like the right to return the public representative with the selection of candidates. Yet, land reform and profitable farming, she wrote, were used only as slogans and no ‘formula’ or ‘mantra’ was given on these two subjects.

“Prashant Kishore talked about improving school education. For this, he said that ₹5 lakh crore are needed in the next 10 years. To arrange this amount, he said that after his government is formed, liquor ban will be lifted within one hour,” wrote Tiwari.

She quoted Kishor saying that Bihar is losing ₹20,000 crore of tax every year due to liquor ban. “What is new in this announcement of Prashant Kishor? Remember when Nitish Kumar, after assuming power in 2005, in his first cabinet meeting, changed the old liquor policy and decided to promote the production and sale of liquor. The result was that in the next five years, alcohol addiction increased in every village, even among children,” she argued, calling Kishor’s idea already tested by the incumbent chief minister of Bihar.

Tiwari quoted Nitish Kumar’s answer to questions on ill-effects of liquor consumption, “if we do not sell liquor, then how will we give bicycles to girls?”

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“But later Nitish Kumar had to back down. This time while banning liquor, he reached the other extreme and made such a law which wreaked havoc on the poor. Our women’s organization demanded liquor ban but we were not at all in favor of such a repressive law in which the mafia gets a free hand and there is a provision to punish the victims,” added Tiwari in her article.

She questioned Kishor’s idea of “promotion of liquor as a condition for the betterment of education”. “It is being said that the education of children will be done from the tax received from its production and sale. That is, the more people drink liquor, the more will be the sale and the more tax will be received,” she argued.

Tiwari also scorned at Kishor purportedly mocking at mid-day meal scheme as ‘Khichdi Yojana’. “His mocking of the mid-day meal scheme is enough to understand his attitude towards the poor as well as school education. In many developed countries of the world, children are also given mid-day meals. In a backward state like Bihar, there should be talk of making the mid-day meal more nutritious,” she added.

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Tiwari also stressed that Kishor’s vision for Bihar is without serious understanding of issues. “He talked about school education for children up to 15 years of age and employment for youth above that, but kept complete silence on the question of higher education. In Bihar, children somehow acquire school education, but college education has become so expensive that a child from a poor family cannot study,” Tiwari added.

She also faulted Kishor’s lack of understanding of women’s issues. “On the question of employment for women, he said that he will arrange loans from banks at the rate of 4% annual interest. In Bihar, we are seeing that even with the loan provided by Jeevika at 1-2% interest, women are not able to get employment,” she added.

Tiwari also accused Kishor of being patriarchal in his vision for Bihar. “While announcing to give tickets to women in the assembly elections, he asked – what should be the share in exchange for Rakhi? Then, while announcing to give 40 seats, he said, ‘women should get 50% share but how much capacity does your brother have right now.’ Our Indian society is very sensitive about relationships and the leaders of political parties capitalize on these feelings in their politics,” she added.

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