India-Shining, UPA-Style: Paving the Way for BJP-NDA Comeback?
In May 2004, the electorate administered a stinging rebuff to the BJP-NDA and their arrogant claims of (corporate) ‘India Shining’ in cruel contrast to common man’s India starving, unemployed, suicidal, displaced and dispossessed. The UPA Government and its allies reaped a rich harvest of that popular resentment, and rode to power on a range of promises to the aam aadmi. Three years later, Assembly elections in state after state are showing a dramatic turning of the tables, with the BJP-NDA making a comeback in Uttarakhand and Punjab and seemingly set to make gains in UP as well, Shiv Sena sweeping BMC corporation polls in Mumbai and BJP, the MCD polls in Delhi. Further, back, the Congress and UPA had already lost Bihar and Karnataka to the BJP-NDA.
Only recently it seemed the BJP was at an all-time low – organisationally in disarray, lacking any attractive leadership, facing desertion in its ranks, and politically directionless. Even now its organisational troubles and its run of embarrassing exposures of its leaders in various instances of corruption continue. What accounts then for the saffron surge and its renewed trend towards ascendance?
The answer is fairly clear. With the UPA’s aam aadmi policies remaining either a mirage or on paper, with prices soaring, rural and urban joblessness unabated and rather intensified by eviction from the agrarian sector, with corporate land grab, the spate of farmers’ suicides and starvation deaths being the order of the day, people’s resentment is once again at a peak. The Congress-UPA regimes have made a virtual gift of comeback issues to the highly discredited BJP-NDA. In West Bengal too the warning bells are ringing; at least one top CPI(M) leader has had to admit that weak and discredited right-wing Opposition has managed for once to lay hands on a genuine issue of loss of land and agrarian distress.
On the one hand, we are seeing a fresh wave of resistance struggles against corporate land grab and SEZs, for the implementation of the NREGA, against the assaults on workers’ rights. From the Hind Motor Factory workers to those of the BEST bus service in Mumbai, various working class struggles are at a peak, despite facing a severe crackdown. At the same time, the Sangh Parivar and the BJP are at work again, trying to revive its communal agenda. From Bangalore to Mau to Gorakhpur, saffron forces have renewed their virulent assault on minorities. BJP’s infamous CD displays a naked intention to demonise Muslims. From Gujarat to Bhopal, the Sangh Parivar is whipping up hysteria over inter-faith marriages.
While the anti-people economic policies of the Congress, UPA as well other allies at the Centre as well as various States is helping the BJP and NDA to regain lost credibility and pose as champions of people’s anger, the attempts of the Congress and other ‘secular’ formations to ‘compete’ with the BJP is further creating ground for a saffron revival. First, the Congress-UPA played the ‘Vande Mataram’ game only to find the BJP playing it far more adroitly. Samajwadi Party’s tacit tango with the BJP in order to create a communal polarisation in UP resulted in the carnage at Mau and Gorakhpur. Then came Rahul Gandhi’s UP election roadshow. He first made a blatant bid to persuade Muslims of Congress’ secular credentials, explaining away the Babri Masjid demolition condoned by a Congress regime at the Centre, with the airy claim that ‘had a Gandhi been in power, the Babri Masjid would surely still be standing’. This claim of course flew in the face of history. It seems Rahul and the Congress hope for a benign amnesia – but how can we forget how the locks to the Masjid were broken and an idol installed in Nehru’s tenure? Or how Rajiv, right at the height of the Mandir frenzy, flagged off his election campaign at Ayodhya with the cry of ‘Ram Rajya’? Or Indira’s own cry at the VHP Ekatmata Yagna of ‘Hinduism in danger’ following the Meenakshipuram conversions?
Sure enough, Rahul lived up to the historic legacy of Congress’ pragmatic communalism with the boasting of yet another familial achievement – the ‘division of Pakistan’. It would be a mistake to see this as a faux-pas by a political novice – it is in fact a carefully calculated statement by Congress scriptwriters. This is corroborated by Manmohan Singh’s own declaration that Rahul is heir-apparent in UP, while Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s statement is even more revealing. Responding to BJP criticism of Rahul’s statement regarding Bangladesh, Singhvi pointed out that it was senior BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee who had praised former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as Goddess Durga after the 1971 war that led to the liberation of Bangladesh!
With Congress vying to beat BJP’s anti-Pakistan jingoism, with even the CPI(M) branding democratic peasants’ resistance as “communal” and with the BJP and Sangh on a fresh offensive, it seems the dark clouds of communalism loom ahead. Only powerful mass assertions and democratic movements against neo-liberal economic policies can dispel them.
Party’s Foundation Day observed
April 22, Comrade Lenin’s Birth Anniversary and the 38th Foundation Day of CPI(ML) was observed all over the country in a variety of ways. In Bihar, programmes were held at more than five hundred places where thousands of party members participated. All district headquaters, towns and hundreds of villages witnessed the flag hoisting, public meetings and paid tributes to martyrs. Comrade Dipankar addressed the Foundation Day ceremony at a function in Ara where he called upon to make the CPI(ML) a rallying centre of all communists and progressive democratic forces. He paid tributes to the martyrs and specifically remembered comrades of Bhojpur who laid down their lives. He greeted the people of Bhojpur for being a part of the revolutionary communist movement and witness to the reorganisation of the Party after setbacks during the Naxalbari days. He said that today when all bourgeois parties have been exposed and the people are coming in direct confrontation with the state, it is the need of the hour to develop and strengthen a bigger and widespread mass movement. Comrade Ramnaresh Ram hoisted the flag and presided over the ceremony.
GB meetings were held at district and block HQs in West Bengal. It is customary for Left leaders from all parties to pay respects at Lenin’s statue at Dharmatala. At the statue, CPI(ML) comrades hung a banner with the lines:”Lenin bhumistha rakte, klibatar kache nei wrin - ganahatyar kshama nei, garjay ajuta Lenin” (Lenin lives on/is alive in our blood, we have no debt to impotence - no carnage goes unpunished, roar a million Lenin). When Buddhadeb Bhattacharya came to the statue, he was greeted by the sight of that banner, the first line of which is from a poem by the revolutionary Communist poet Sukanta Bhattacharya (whose legacy his nephew Buddhadeb is in a hurry to shed).
In Tamilnadu, the focus of the April 22 was on forming and activising branches, holding General Body meetings and expanding membership. In Coimbatore, a membership recruitment camp was held; branch conferences at Namakkal; GB meeting at Veppanapalli block in Krishnagiri District in which 60 new party recruits participated; branch conference at Sogathur in Dharmapuri district; Cadre meets at Nagai, Thanjavur, Pudukkottai, Cuddalore, and Trichy discussed the April 22 call and planned for the May 19 anti-SEZ Convention; GB meetings at Nellai, Madurai, Kanyakumari, Trivallore, and Kanchipuram; and a mass meeting at Chennai.
Party’s Foundation Day was observed in Assam including Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Nagaon, Behali, Guwahati, Barpeta and Diphu. Discussions were held mainly on foundation day call in above mentioned districts and places and decisions were taken to strengthen party organization. In Karbi Anglong district Hill districts party committee observed the historic day at Diphu, where members discussed about the tasks and challenges in the current context. Party flag was hoisted by the Committee’s Secretary Selawar Bey followed by the singing of the Communist International. Rubul Sarma, Secretary of Assam State Committee was present on this occasion. The participants pledged to carry forward the unfinished tasks of martyr Comrade Langtuk Phangcho, who has laid down his life for the cause of the Party and the people in the hill districts. Discussions weres held after reading the party’s foundation day call and it was resolved to strive hard to strengthen and consolidate the party and for building an united movement with progressive and democratic forces in the region. Jayanta Rongpi, member of the Central Committee made an assessment of the situation in the hill districts. The meeting unanimously resolved to launch a month long programme from 22 April to 25 May which included: consolidation of area committees as the key link for party building and to mobilise people on the demand of job cards under NREGA, to observe May Day under the banner of AICCTU and KANKIS, to observe the Autonomous State Movement Day on 17 May, and to go for an all out mobilisation for the 25 May Kolkata Rally to be held on the Naxalbari Day.
At Rajasthan, GB meetings were held at Jaipur, Ajmer, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jhunjhunu and Guhana. In Punjab, similar events were held at Mansa, Barnala and Ludhiana. Flag-hoisting programmes were held at the Party Office at Gwalior and also a GB meeting at Abarpura. Foundation Day call was read at Lalkuan, Radrapur and other places in Uttarakhand. Party members and supporters gathered to read the April 22 Call and hoist the flag at Rewari, Haryana.
Greetings from DSP Australia on Party Foundation Day
To Central Committee
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)
Dear Comrades,
Revolutionary greetings on the 38th anniversary of the founding of your party. It was fitting that your party was founded on the date of VI Lenin’s birthday — the lessons and legacy of Comrade Lenin clearly inspires all your work. The lessons of your own struggles in India — your ability to learn from history, to correctly assess the objective conditions, to develop Marxist theory, and apply it in practice – are being highlighted by the events of recent months.
Congratulations on the huge March 23 Inquilab Rally in Delhi. The militants rallying there from all parts of India represent the future of your country. Their role in reaching out to and organising the masses of India in the coming months and years will guarantee the further growth of your party, and the coming overthrow of the ruling class exploiters and ravagers of your country, and the defeat of imperialism on a world scale.
When I had the privilege of attending your 6th Congress 10 years ago in Varanasi, I experienced strong feelings of solidarity and identity with all the comrades I met then. Since then your efforts to provide leadership for the struggles of the workers and peasants in India, and build the revolutionary party that is so necessary for their victory, has continued to encourage us in Australia. May your 8th Congress go forward in charting the course needed to further build the party and your leadership of the people’s struggles.
Lal Salaam to all your martyrs and departed leaders!
Forward in the leadership and organisation of the workers and peasants of India!
Build the CPI ML!
Warmest comradely greetings,
John Percy
National President
DSP Australia
REPORTS
Protest Day in Bihar
A militant chakka-jam was observed in all the districts of Bihar on April 12 to protest the manipulation of BPL lists, non-implementation of NREGA, forcible implementation of PESA Act and the new draconian Police Act. The traffic remained blocked for two hours in the forenoon in all parts of the state. Thousands of people under the banner of CPI(ML) and its mass organisations took part in the programme. The NH 28 was blocked in Samastipur and Gopalganj, NH 31 was blocked in Purnea, Naugachhia and Begusarai, while NH 98 was jammed in Arwal and Obra, NH 80 in Sultanpur, NH 2 in Sonvarsha and Kudra, and also at many other places. In Barachatti and Tilauthi, many activists were arrested by the police from the GT Road but they were released immediately owing to the mass pressure. Activists were also arrested in Masurhi, Aurangabad and Biharsharif. In all more than 500 people were arrested on the day. Patna-Gaya Railway line and one at Meghauli in West Champaran were also blocked by the agitators. Many of the activists were injured at Runi-Saidpur in a brutal lathicharge by the police. This was severely condemned by the people and our Party has demanded immediate suspension of the concerned police incharge. Almost all the towns in Patna, Bhojpur, Buxor, Rohtas, Kaimur, Bhabhua, Jehanabad, Aurangabad, Gaya, etc. witnessed a complete bandh on the day while the roads were jammed in more than twenty places in North Bihar towns.
Protesting Draconian Police Act in Bihar
CPI(ML) also organised a statewide protest day on April 19 with the demand of withdrawal of the Bihar Police Act which has given immense power to the police against the common people. Protest marches were held at all the district and block headquarters and the effigies of the Police Act were burnt by the protesters on the day. A Seminar was organised in Arwal on “The political situation in Bihar and orientation of the people’s movements in the context of the New Police Act’ on this day which was addressed by CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya. He paid his tributes to the martyrs of the Arwal massacre which occurred in 1986 and said that it’s a pity that even after so many years and passage of so many governments not a penny has been delivered to the families of the victims of this massacre despite of repeated governmental announcements aand instead of punishing the responsible police officials they were rewarded for this massacre and the report of the inquiry commission which was set up to investigate this is yet to be made public. This heinous massacre had shaken the conscience of independent India which could only be compared with the Jalianwala bagh massacre and had proved that the government of the country is being run by the anti-people forces led by feudals and the rich. Democracy will be a far cry till such governments exist and recent massacres at Kalinganagar, Singur, Nandigram and at other places has once again proved this fact. He reminded of the fact that the militant wave of movements of the poor and the oppressed after the Arwal massacre had dethroned the then Congress governement in Bihar and said that the stuggles of the peasants and workers will pave the way for a people’s alternative to the rule of the oppressors.
Against Corruption in PDS in WB
On 20 April CPI(ML) activists with hundreds of poor people raided ration shops at panchanandpur of Malda district in WB after a prolonged campaign and forced six dealers to issue cash memo and full amount of foodgrains (1 Kg. 750 grams). At one place hanchmen of a dealer tried to threaten the activists but they could not succeed. The agitation was widely applauded by the poor people in the area and sent a warning signal to the scamsters of PDS.
Governmental Apathy to Kalazar Victims
The spread of Kalazar is a perennial phonomena in epidemic proportions in the districts of North Bihar. One of the reasons behind may be the acute poverty but governmental apathy. corruption and slackness are the major hurdles in overcoming this epidemic which victimises thousands of people in Bihar every year. The medicine being very costly (with nearly Rs. 500 per day expenses) is supposed to be provided by the government. But the poor patients have to run from piller to post and wait for their due indefinitely. Recently CPI(ML) in Darbhanga conducted a campaign, organised such patients and gheraoed the concerned authorities till they accepted the demand to make the medicines available with in three days. This was led by CPI(ML) District Committee member Abhishek Kumar and AISA leader Kesari Kumar. The agitation generated hopes among hapless patients and the party office was later crowded by large number of patients for help. The party then announced to gherao the Civil Surgeon on 20 April again. Seeing the mass pressure building up the administration started to distribute the medicine.
March against Oppression
CPI(ML) organised a march in Sevarai villages of Jamania constituency on March 15 against the continuing attacks on backward community by the upper caste feudals. This is the native village of UP Cabinet Minister Omprakash Singh who represents Rajput power lobby in Mulayam Cabinet. The march, led by CPI(ML) UP State Secretary Akhilendra Pratap Singh, was held in spite of the ban imposed on holding the march under the pressure of the Minister. The march was held in the backdrop of the continuing attacks on backward community after an elected member of Zila Panchayat from this community got sanctioned development work for a kuccha road in the village. When some domineering caste henchmen of the minister were refused to give ‘goonda tax’ from the development money, they started attacks and on the Holi day many backward caste persons were injured in a firing incident by these goons. The march has boosted the morale of the poor and sent a clear message to the feudal forces that a befitting resistance will be put up against every act of oppression.
While in Duddhi constituency in Sonbhadra district, one more sitting MLA of the ruling Samajwadi Party, is trying to intimidate our activists in the wake of the ensuing elections. His henchmen threatened the Party incharge of Duddhi comrade Shambhunath Kaushik of loosing his life. The police refused to lodge an FIR against the MLA and openly defended the attackers. The same MLA had also engineered an attack on our dharna at Myorpur block office in December last. The police had not taken any action that time too. These attacks are meant to intimidate our supporters. CPI(ML) has resolved to put up stiff mass resistance against the feudal goons and has also demanded from the state government to take immediate action against the goons as well as the police officials patronised by this MLA.
Lock out at Ganges Jute Mills
The Left Front police greeted the striking workers of Ganges Jute Mills, Bansberia, Hooghly with ruthless lathi chare of the morning of Bengali New Year’s day, it 15 April. Birendra Das a fighting worker of Ganges Jute Mills and Krishna Pal, a worker of Dunlop Factory, owing allegiance to M-L politics were severely injured and admitted to the hospital.
Next day, on investigation team of AICCTU Hooghly District Committee, led by Com. Prabir Haldar, Batakrishna Das and Sudarshan Prasad Singh visited the spot, and met the workers.
Ganges Jute Mill is glaring example where all the laws stipulated in the Labour Act are violated to the hilt, again exposing the mockery of LF industrialization policy. Nearly 4000 workers are working in Ganges Jute Mills as ‘apprentice’ for years together, getting a stipend of Rs. 73 per head per day, sans all statutory benefit and are employed in perennial nature of work allotted to the permanent workers. It is worth mentioning that an agreement was signed by the management and three trade unions, viz CITU, INTUC and BMS, that after completion of their trainee period, all such workers name shall be enrolled in the muster roll and shall get Rs. 100 daily. But the management has thrown that bipartite agreement into the waste-paper basket after colluding with the signatory above mentioned trade unions.
The aggrieved workers started strike, and continued for 5 months. They are demanding, permanency to all apprentice workers Rs. 100 daily and DA as per tripartite agreement, withdraw of all the false charges framed by police and charge sheet, termination of the agitating workers.
The police and CITU hoodlums, unable to break the strike, resorted to indiscriminate lathi-charge on 15th April. In protest against such dastardly act in support of the just cause, Bengal Chatkal Mazdoor Federation observed ‘Black-day’ on 17 April. Jute workers of BCMF wore black badges, hold protest meeting on that day, and a 12 hr. Banshberia bandh has been called on 13rd April by the CPI(ML) Liberation and AICCTU Hooghly District Committee.
AICCTU in Support of Striking Hind-Motor Workers
The ongoing Strike of the workers of the Hind Motor Factory is a sign of the state of workers’ rights in the automobile industry in W. Bengal. AICCTU organised a militant civil disobedience programme on 20 April in support of the striking Hindustan Motors Workers demanding immediate withdrawal of charge-sheet, suspention on the striking workers, disbursement of DA since September 2001, promoting 243 casual workers to permanent status. The demand to lift the totally illegal suspension of work declared at Ganges Jute Mills, Banshberia in Hooghly district was also raised. A procession started from Subodh Mallick Square, Kolkata, and the rallyist courted arrest in front of the Metro Cinema, Esplanade. Earlier, on 12 April, AICCTU organised a demonstration in front of the Birla Building, the Head office of Hindustan Motors and handed over a deputation to the management.
The strike of Hind Motor workers has continued since 13 March. Failing to break the strike, and the fighting morale of the striking workers, CITU connived with the management and the later declared suspension of work on 11 April, the day after (i.e. on 10/4) Hind Motor workers witnessed a massive police-cadre crackdown. The management has declared that unless the strike is called off, they would not start negotiating with the Trade Unions. Rather, the management has sent show cause letters to around 40 workers owing allegiance to the Sangrami Yukta Manch (a broad based platform of the striking workers barring CITU) asking why they should not be terminated for their ‘gross illegal act’. Meanwhile, the Kolkata High Court has show caused 10 union leaders for not allowing finished goods to go out side the factory, and warned that administration should take firm steps if the orders are not carried out properly. Earlier, the Sangrami Yukta Manch held a Uttarpara Bandh on 12 April, which was supported actively by the Hooghly District Committee of AICCTU.
AICCTU in Solidarity with Striking BEST Workers in Mumbai
In protest against non-payment of interim dearness allowances and refusal to revise pay scales, BEST transport workers went on a 72-hour strike, that was eventually called off following assurances that the demands would be considered. The AICCTU and the DTC Workers’ Unity Centre had issued a statement in solidarity with the BEST struggle, when it was facing a severe crackdown, strongly condemning the repressive measures being meted out to striking workers by the Maharashtra Government and the BEST management. The statement said that it is shocking that without initiating any dialogue with the workers, 35000 BEST workers were served termination notices on the very first day of the Strike and notices to begin fresh recruitments were issued. This step of the Maharashtra Government brings to mind the action of the Jayalalitha regime in Tamil Nadu a few years back. AICCTU holds that insensitivity to workers’ basic demands is a key feature common to Governments of all hues that are implementing policies of liberalisation. The repressive measures being invoked are an attempt to force the workers’ movement into a defensive position. Workers’ movements face a tough challenge, and there is no alternative but to intensify the struggle to reverse the policies of liberalization and fight to safeguard and expand workers’ rights.
