Michael Totten has a neat distinction between Liberals and Leftists; I give below just the main points:

A liberal (…) believes in reform. And a leftist supports revolution. Liberals (.) are the left-wing of the Establishment. Leftists are radicals who seek to overthrow the Establishment (either through violence or the ballot box) and replace it with something else.

Liberals fly the American flag. Leftists burn it.

Liberals see America as the land of opportunity and freedom. Leftists see America as the bastion of Imperialism, Racism, and Oppression.

Liberals want higher taxes on the rich because it?s fairer to the middle and working classes. Leftists want to soak the rich out of class hatred.

Liberals support globalization and trade and see it as an opportunity for economic growth and also as an opportunity to boost labor and environmental standards in the Third World. Leftists hate trade because they think it?s all about the West raping the rest.

Liberals blame the September 11 attacks on religious and political extremism in the Middle East. Leftists blame the September 11 attacks on America.

Totten says a lot more; but I want to take the focus of this distinction to India. If we examine each comparison, we can unearth tens of examples of our desi Leftists’ (thankfully we don’t have the confusion whether a Leftist is also a Liberal; our desi Leftists are pure Marxist/Leninist relics) writings, speeches, and deeds.

When they’re not talking about Evil American Empire, they’re condemning its invasion of Iraq; when they’re not pontificating about the toiling masses, they condemn the Afghan retribution; when they’re not waxing eloquent about saffronizing history, they attend seminars which talk about “another world is possible.”

So you see, they qualify on almost every point Totten makes.

And when Totten concludes saying that the debate is about where to draw the line, not whether a line is required at all, I ponder as follows: do we in India, even recognize that a line exists? If we did, we wouldn’t have left the Left to play such havoc with our nation.