Today, there is little to choose between the policies and programmes of the LDF and the UDF in Kerala (“A non-state view of Kerala”, May 5). Liberalisation imposed serious limitations on the Communist parties in charting out a qualitatively different trajectory as they did in the 1950s.
The fall of the Soviet Union shook their ideological confidence. Instead of rethinking their approach to make themselves relevant, they too joined the bandwagon of ‘there is no alternative’ and started following neoliberal policies notwithstanding the occasional noises made against imperialism and finance capital.
Manohar Alembath,
Kannur, Kerala
The two milestones in Kerala’s 60-year history that had a profound impact on the social and economic milieu were the revolutionary land reforms through the Kerala Agrarian Relations Bill and the Gulf boom.
Land reforms were at best a half-baked legislation where ownership of land was not passed to agricultural labourers but from landlords to middle-level landholders creating a set of small-time landlords. The Gulf boom alienated the common man from agriculture for want of adequate manual labourers.
Ayyasseri Raveendran,
Aranmula, Kerala
