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The Message from Bihar:
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RYA National Convention To Be Held in LucknowRevolutionary Youth Association will organise a national convention "Against saffron offensive and price rise, for employment and national dignity" on March 31--April 1 at Lucknow. This was decided at a meeting of National Executive of RYA held at Patna on Feb.21-22. The meeting decided to organised a "Youth March" on March 31, the day of martyrdom of Com. Chandrashekhar. The RYA has also decided to participate in the "March to Parliament" on 9 March. The meeting called upon its units all over India to organise protests, torchlight processions and burning of the effigies of Clinton and Vajpayee along with Holika Dahan (Holi), on the eve of Clinton's visit. It will observe March 23, the day of martyrdom of Bhagat Singh as "Clinton bhagao, Azadi bachao" day. On March 1, all-India protest day will be organised against the anti-people budget. March to Parliament by AISA on 17 AprilStudents and youth from various states will march to Parliament on 17 April "to oppose saffronisation of education and culture and for national sovereignty and democracy". Dharnas, demonstrations, seminars are being held by AISA units against privatisation and saffronisation of education in various places in the course of preparation of this march. AISA has already taken initiatives in Delhi against the saffron conspiracies of imposing a ban on shooting of Water in Varanasi, imposition of Vande Mataram in Azamgarh and withdrawal by Indian Council of Historical Research of KN Panikkar and Sumit Sarkar's Towards Freedom. AISA has decided to organise burning of Clinton's effigy at various places on 19 March, along with Holi. It has also decided to organise various programmes observing Bhagat Singh's Martyrdom Day on 23 March and Com. Chandrashekhar's Martyrdom Day on 31 March. AISA will publish a booklet on saffronisation of education, culture and history and the fascist designs of Sangh Parivar. Spinning Mill Workers' Dharna in LucknowHundreds of workers belonging to spinning mills of Banda, Jhansi, Raebareilly, Sandila (Hardoi), Kashipur (Udham Singh Nagar) brought out a procession under the banner of UP Katai Mill Mazdoor Mahasangh on 26 February in Lucknow. The procession started from Charbagh and went up to GPO crossing and turned into a dharna at GPO Park. A memorandum was submitted to the Chief Minister, in which they demanded resumption of the closed spinning mills, and repeal of the order to close down the spinning mill in Banda. The memorandum demanded arrears of wages and bonus be paid and scams involving crores of rupees by the mill managers be probed and culprits punished and wages must be revised through tripartite talks and privatisation of mills must be stopped. If these demands were not met, the Mahasangh leaders warned to the UP State Government, spinning mill workers will gherao Legislative Assembly in its forthcoming budget session. The workers assembled at the dharna were addressed by CPI(ML) leader Com. Ambarish Rai, state AICCTU president Com. RN Upadhyay and Ramesh Singh Sengar, acting president Com. Hari Singh, convenor of Mahasangh Com. Bachcha Singh, convenor of NTC Bachao Morcha Com. Babulal and others. It was conducted by Com. Ramji Lal, leader of Sandila Katai Mill. Lawyers Against ReformsLawyers belonging to Dugdhi Bar Association in Sonebhadra district launched agitation against the proposed amendments in Civil Procedure Code and Advocates Act. Supporting their movement on behalf of the Party and AICCTU, Com. Dinkar Kapoor addressed the agitating lawyers on 25 February at Dugdhi. March Against Withdrawal of Towards FreedomVarious Left and democratic organisations and intellectuals marched under a common banner from Mandi House to Parliament on 25 February protesting withdrawal of Towards Freedom edited by KN Panikkar and Sumit Sarkar, at the behest of saffron Ministry of Human Resource Development. MCC Extremists Attack in BarachattiExtremists belonging to the banned outfit MCC attacked the house of Com. Baleshwar Manjhi, CPI(ML) candidate from Barachatti constituency in Gaya district of Bihar on 21 February. The assailents shot at the son of Com. Manjhi and seriously injured him. They also looted his house. According to the sources, the attack was instigated by the RJD and the police and administration only helped them. It is to be noted that only a couple of weeks ago MCC had abducted 7 ML activists in Manika, killing two of them later. RJD Goons on RampageSoon as the third leg of poll to the Legislative Assembly in Bihar had completed, RJD goons went on rampage in the rural areas of Darbhanga district. On 22 February, RJD supporter criminals attacked Pachhaura, Kamalpur and Chaparar villages and put the houses belonging to Yadavs, Paswans and Tatamas on fire. Their cattle as well as belongings were looted. So much for social justice. The attack was launched under the instigation of one Ramakant Yadav, Chairman of Darbhanga Degional Development Authority. The crime of these backward and dalit people was that they had voted for CPI(ML). Party has condemned the incident and demanded proper compensation to the victims, proper security measures for them as well as their rehabilitation. His Master's VoiceMr. George, once a firebrand socialist, rose on his legs on the floor to defend Vajpayee, even as the entire opposition was demanding adjournment motion on the question of Gujarat BJP Govt. lifting the ban on its employees joining the RSS. Of course with a nod from the PM. One wonders how far this defence minister can go in defence of Sangh Parivar. It's a Danger SignalThe way lathi-wielding police pounded upon the protesting lawyers in Delhi bears evil portents to the right of assembly and right to dissent. Lawyers were protesting the Govt. move to open the courts for foreign lawyers. Time to rise against Govt's barbarity along with its desperate policy of sell out. Mahangai ki Fascist SarkarThe BJP-led NDA has already earned the title of "Mahangai ki Sarkar". But now it is behaving like a government without a Parliament. The budget session has already turned into farce when a hike in petroleum prices or doubling the milk price could all be accomplished before the session starts. It is Mahangai ki fascist sarkar(Government of Price Rise). CPI(ML) Demonstration at Jaipur AssemblyHundreds of activists belonging to CPI(ML), AIPWA and Rajasthan Construction Workers Union took out a resistance march against police repression and then staged a demonstration before the Assembly in Jaipur on 21 February to protest police havoc in Bhanwra village in Sawai Madhopur district of Rajasthan. They demanded immediate arrest and removal of the police personnel who have participated in the brutal assault on the village folk on 10 February, full compensation for the loss of property and crops to the villagers and instituting an independent judicial enquiry into the incident. It was addressed by Com. Harkesh Bugalia, district Party secretary, AIPWA leader Mewa Bharati and Brajmohan Bairwa, president of Rajasthan Construction Workers Union. Earlier, a Party investigation team comprising Comrades Harkesh Bugalia, Mewa Bharati and Mohanlal Parik visited the village Bhanwra and found that a minor incident of clash had taken place between villagers and police on 4 February, the panchayat poll day, because police were involved in booth capturing for the BJP candidate. On 10 Feb., a contingent of 300 policemen ransacked the village, destroyed property and crops and beat old people and brutally molested women, and arrested three above-70-year-old persons and a child. Seminar by JSMThe rural unit of Jan Samskriti Manch, Utai in Durg district of Madhya Pradesh organised a seminar on 20 February at the local Utai College on "Pain of the departed century and challenges of the 21st Century". It was presided over by Indu Shankar Manu, president of Bhilai unit of JSM. Main speaker was Dr. Sudhir Gangeya. Other speakers at the seminar included Prof. Siyaram Sharma, Vijay Vartman, Vinod Mishra and Brijendra Tiwari. They regarded neocolonialism, communal fascism, poverty and unemployment as the main challenges before us. The seminar was conducted by Chandrika Bhadaria. The seminar also criticised the BJP govt. for creating hurdles in the way of shooting of Water and for withdrawal of Towards Freedom. Participants decided to open a library in the village. Politics Behind Review of the ConstitutionForum for Democratic Initiatives organised a seminar on "Politics behind review of the Constitution" at Gandhi Peace Foundation in New Delhi on 28 February. It was chaired by Prof. Neera Chandok. Speakers included noted intellectuals Prabhash Joshi, Seema Mustafa, Justice Rajendra Sachar and Brij Bihari Pandey. Speakers said though BJP does not have sufficient majority in Parliament to amend the Constitution, it is however trying to throw up the saffron issue in order to create public opinion in its favour. Prabhash Joshi pointed out that the RSS had neither taken part in freedom struggle nor did it ever accept the Constitution, because it wanted a constitution of Hindu rashtra. BB Pandey underlined the necessity to identify people's issues and mobilise them to fight against this saffron agenda.
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Edited, published and printed by S. Bhattacharya
for CPI(ML) from
U-90, Shakarpur, Delhi: 110 092; Phone: 222 1067, Fax: 2218248, email: cpimllib@bol.net.in |