Every BJP Manifesto boasts of “Shuchita” (probity in public life) as a fundamental principle of its party. But the Hawala scam, the Tehelka expose of corrupt defence deals by NDA Government, the sight of BJP President Bangaru Laxman caught taking bribes on camera in a defence deal, the massive scam by BJP in allotment of petrol pumps, the cash-for questions scam in which most of the MPs were from the BJP – and now a BJP MP from Gujarat being caught red-handed in human trafficking have made a mockery of those pious claims of “Shuchita”.

As BJP MP from Dahod (near Godhra) Babubhai Katara was one of prominent figures who led the attacks on Muslims in tribal areas during the Gujarat genocide. His son still faces charges of having killed several people during the 2002 pogrom. Recall that this is the same BJP whose Gujarat Government in 2003 slapped false charges of human trafficking on Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi danseuse Mallika Sarabhai in 2003, in order to harass her for becoming party to a petition filed in the Supreme Court demanding speedy justice for the 2002 genocide victims.

It appears that Katara is part of a huge human-trafficking ring of national, maybe international dimensions, and has committed the same offence before. The unfortunate woman he was smuggling is from Punjab – one of hundreds of women abandoned by their husbands who marry them, take huge dowries, and then dump them at home and go abroad. And what was the 14-year-old minor boy being taken abroad for without a guardian, on the pretext that he would be educated abroad, is anyone’s guess… Is this ‘Gujarat Gaurav’? Is this the ‘Suraksha’ that BJP promises in its manifesto? 

Katara’s crime isn’t just one of corruption – it’s a crime against humanity to exploit the desperation of such individuals to milk them for lakhs of rupees. We must demand immediate dismissal of Katara from Parliament, and a thorough probe into the links of the BJP as a party as well as other Parliamentarians in the human trafficking racket. However much the BJP and Indian Parliament dismiss Katara as a ‘bad apple’, the fact is that both the cash-for-questions scam and the human trafficking racket are signals of the ever-plummeting standards in Parliamentary practice.

Even more disturbing are the reports of the spate of fake encounters that the Gujarat police has been involved in. “Lashkar-e-taiyyeba (LeT) man involved in a plot to kill Narendra Modi – killed in encounter.” This was the Gujarat Police’s claim when Sohrabuddin Sheikh was killed in 2005. Now evidence has surfaced that three senior IPS officers – including DIG DG Vanzara who is reportedly very close to Narendra Modi – murdered Sheikh and faked his ‘encounter’, murdered his wife Kauser Bi and burnt her body, and also killed a third person, a witness – petty criminal Tulsiram Prajapati. Sheikh and his wife were abducted by police from a bus, and then killed; later the grand claim of having ‘encountered’ a deadly terrorist was concocted.

Sohrabuddin Sheikh is not Vanzara’s first victim by a long shot. Ever since he was appointed DCP Crime Branch in Ahmedabad after the 2002 genocide, he shot dead at least 10 ‘terrorists’ (not counting others like Kauser Bi or Tulsiram Prajapati, casually eliminated in order to silence the truths they might reveal). Each time, his claim was that the ‘terrorist’ was involved in a plot to kill Modi or Pravin Togadia or some other top BJP leader. Vanzara’s track record includes the incident where four persons including the 19-year-old college students Ishrat Jehan were shot dead and said to have been plotting to kill Modi.

But the encounter killings in Gujarat are just the tip of a very large iceberg – one that the entire Indian polity condones. Encounter killings (as well as custodial torture) have become a routine fact of life, resorted to on a daily basis by the Indian State as part of anti-insurgency operations in Kashmir and the North East, and anti-Naxalite operations in Andhra Pradesh or Chhattisgarh. In Delhi, a sensational ‘encounter’ took place at Ansal Plaza – but later, persistent enquiry by human rights activists revealed that the ‘encounter’ had been staged just prior to Diwali to create the bogey that shoppers were to be targets of terror attacks.

Fake encounters as well as custodial torture are not exceptions; they have become the norm and draw sustenance from the belief that most ruling parties bolster up: that human rights need not apply to ‘terrorists’. Naturally, ethnic and religious minorities, political dissenters, tribals and the poor – all are fit candidates to be branded as ‘terrorists’ and stripped of rights on the strength of their identity alone. Such practices are unfortunately not the monopoly of the Sangh or the BJP or Narandra Modi’s Gujarat: Congress-ruled Maharashtra continues to pick up a frame innocent Muslim youths for the Mumbai blasts and even the Malegaon mosque blasts, while West Bengal CM Buddhadeb announced on World Human Rights Day that ‘human rights are for ordinary citizens, not for terrorists and Naxalites’. The disturbing thought presents itself: if the State can stage ‘encounters’ so readily, is it really far-fetched to believe that it might just as easily stage fake ‘terror attacks’?

The commemoration of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the historic Naxalbari rebellion began with the flagging off of the Krishak Jagaran Yatra at the martyrs' memorial in Naxalbari on May Day. The yatra is to be concluded in a massive rally at Kolkata on the Naxalbari day, the May 25. Thousands of people gathered at the memorial where 11 people, including 7 women and 2 children were brutally gunned down by the police on 25 May 1967, and where now stands a plaque with the names of all these martyrs along with the statues of Marx, Engels and Charu Mazumdar. After paying tributes to the martyrs a procession was taken out across the Naxalbari town. This was led by CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, WB State Secretary Kartik Pal, MLA from Bihar and peasant leader Amar Yadav and Basudeb Bose. The procession culminated into a mass meeting at Subrati Sangh Maidan where homage was paid to the peasants killed in Nandigram and Singur during last few months while protesting the SEZ policy and forcible evictions by the WB Govt.

The meeting was addressed by Abhijit Mazumdar, Secretary of Darjeeling district CPI(ML), Amar Yadav, Kartik Pal and Dipankar Bhattacharya. Comrade Dipankar called upon for a left revolutionary alternative in West Bengal and said that the people are rising up against the oppressive policies and the situation is ripe for taking the movement to a much wider scale and we must go to the peasants, workers and other toiling masses for bigger mobilisations. He also called upon to mobilise various democratic and progressive forces under the banner of the revolutionary left.

The Krishak Jagaran Yatra was flagged off by Comrade Dipankar. A number of students and youth and cultural activists will march through various districts of West Bengal along with a tableau depicting the adverse impact of policies like SEZ. The marchers will organise mass meetings in the villages and towns along the way. The Yatra will culminate in Nandigram and from there the marchers will move on to join the massive rally to held in Kolkata on the Naxalbari Day.

Workers celebrated the International Workers' Day and expressed their solidarity with the struggles of the working class all over the globe. They organised rallies and protests and pledged to strengthen the movement against the regressive policies of liberalisation and privatisation all over. The All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) organised mobilisations, independently as well as jointly with other left and democratic trade unions, in various state capitals and important centres. The imposition of SEZs and forcible eviction of peasants was also vehemently opposed by the workers who demanded to withdraw the SEZ Act 2005.
A rally was held in Delhi jointly by all trade unions. Workers marched from Ramlila Maidan to Town Hall where speakers remembered May Day martyrs and condemned the US-led imperialism and policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation which are affecting the lives of millions of workers, peasants and other sections of the society. The issues of the workers' social security, rights of the unorganised sector workers, downsizing, unemployment, starvation and suicide deaths, entry of monopoly capitalists in retail sector, etc. were raised in the meeting. AICCTU Vice President NM Thomas spoke in the meeting where he called upon all workers' organisation to oppose the SEZ policy and to condemn the Nandigram and Singur incidents.

Coal workers affiliated to AICCTU in Dhanbad districts in Jharkhand hoisted flags in their respective collieries and then joined a massive worker-peasant resistance march held in Dhanbad. They paid floral tributes at the martyrs' memorial and held a mass meeting which was addressed by AICCTU General Secretary Swapan Mukherjee and others. In Bokaro, Jharkhand Mazdoor Union along with AICCTU and UTUC(LS) organised steel workers in a mass meeting. Marches, mass meetings and other programmes were organised by CPI(ML), AICCTU and AIALA at various centres in Jharkhand including Deoghar, Giridih, Manika, Chainpur, Majhiaon, Palamu, gumla, Dumka, Koderma, Hazaribagh, Jamshedpur, Ranchi, etc. A seminar was organised in Giridih on 'The movement of the proletariat and the challenges ahead'. The Coal Mine workers' Union organised programmes in the coal belt. A convention was also held in Ghaghra. Various AIALA units organised programmes and raised the issue of NREGA, minimum wages and the BPL Cards. A large number of construction workers and women took part in a march in Ranchi.

AICCTU organised various programmes in towns of Bihar while the AIALA started its week-long campaign from May 1-7 to press for the implementation of NREGA, BPL Cards, and proper employment and wages for the agricultural workers.

Tea workers in Assam held a massive rally in Tinsukia in Assam under the auspices of AICCTU. Programmes were organised in towns in Assam and Bengal including the state capitals. In Rajasthan, Rajasthan Gramin Mazdoor Sangathan organised a rally in front of the Collectorate in Jhunjhunu and forwarded a memorandum to the President demanding to include Jhunjhunu in the NREGA list and to include every agricultural worker into the BPL list.

In Tamil Nadu, the strike in Pricol in Coimbatore has entered into 60th day on May 1. In this background a May Day Rally was held in Ciombatore in which over 8400 workers, including 1000 women, participated. Majority of the participants were from Pricol. The rally was held in an atmosphere where the TN govt is compelled to pass orders in favor of the striking workers, revising its earlier order, which was stayed by the HC. S.Kumarasami, President of AICCTU, addressed the gathering. He warned the TN Govt that if there are no orders from the Govt. before May 5, the workers will take their own action to prevent any activity inside the factory. He also called for the workers to get ready for anything and the gathering answered in the affirmative. He also called the workers to organise the unorganised in the textile industry in and around Coimbatore. Balasundaram, Tamil Nadu State Secretary of the CPI(ML) also addressed the gathering.

A May Day rally and public meeting was held in Bangalore. Workers from construction sector and Readymix industry participated in this. Programmes were also held in Orissa, Andhra, Pondicherry, Tripura and other states.

Hundreds of peasants organized themselves against a forcible land acquisition bid by the Govt. of Bihar in Madhubani district. The Nitish Govt. has sent eviction notices to a large number of small land holders in order to acquire around 300 acres of land for a sugar factory owned by one Rajshree Production Ltd. The govt. did not even bothered to ask the actual owners of the land whether they are willing to give away their only means of subsistence to a rich mill owner? After receiving the eviction notices angry peasants organized themselves and when a team of the mill managers and revenue officials came to the spot they faced their ire and had to run away. When an investigation team of CPI(ML) and AIALA reached the affected villages in Andharathari block they were welcomed by the villagers and immediately a protest meeting was held where it was unanimously decided that this decision of Bihar Govt. will be resisted and bigger mobilization will be held. A mass meeting is planned on May 6 and a 48-hour dharna and fast will be organized by AIALA from 17 May onwards.

Though assured of justice in the Chief Minister’s ‘Janta Darbar’, the poor dalit woman Ranju Devi of Ahiyari village in Darbhanga district was subjected to the worst kind of oppression and humiliation by her tormentors who still are roaming scot-free. She wanted justice and punishment to the criminals who attempted to rape her when she went to the fields for cutting fodder for the cattle. Criminals were even arrested under the pressure of the agitation and later when she went to the Janta Darbar, the CM himself gave an assurance that action will be taken against the concerned thana in-charge who is protecting the criminals. But the worst was yet to come. She was kidnapped and taken to Amritsar and gang-raped for a month. A charitable organisation later found her lying unconscious on a roadside. When the volunteers brought her to the same thana the police officials instead of taking any action declared her mentally unstable and advised to take her back home. It was only after strong protests by the CPI(ML) activists that she was sent to the hospital and a case was registered. Even then the culprits are still roaming freely enjoying the patronage of the local MLA who belongs to the RJD. This is only the tip of the iceberg that expresses the reality behind the good governance of Nitish Kumar and the social justice of Rabri-Laloo brand.
AIPWA along with the victim held a press conference in Patna and announced that statewide protest will be held on May 15 if the culprits were not arrested, including the police officials who are protecting the criminals.

A protest march by AIPWA’s Patna branch organized outside Dhanarua police station on 23 April against the gangrape of a dalit woman in the Badhni Bazar village under Dhanrua police station, met with brutal lathicharge by the police and the SAF. Many women protesters were seriously injured while two activists were arrested.  A district level protest was held against this repression on 24 April at all the police stations of the Patna district and the effigies of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Dhanarua police chief were burnt. AIPWA has demanded immediate arrest of the rapists, punishment to the police officials and withdrawal of cases framed against the protesting women activists. Criminals cases have been framed on 11 AIPWA activists.

A Party cadre convention was organised in Daltonganj in view of the ensuing Assembly by-election in this constituency. The convention was addressed by CPI(ML) Polit Bureau member Swadesh Bhattacharya. He said that those involved in the power politics of today are merely the representatives of the feudal-mafia forces whose only aim is to exploit the toiling poor and loot the development funds. CPI(ML) is the only party that struggles against such forces and many of our comrades have been implicated in false criminal cases for this only reason. We are the inheritors of the legacy of the martyrs like Mahendra Singh and our election campaign should raise the issues of the masses by simultaneously exposing the betrayal of the Madhu Koda Govt. and strengthening the campaign against the anti-people policies.

A citizens' march to Raj Bhavan was organised by Ranchi unit of CPI(ML) on April 24 to protest the increasing crimes and insecurity of common citizens. A number of intellectuals, cultural personalities, and activists took part in the march and handed over a memorandum to the Governor after holding a meeting in front of his office. The marchers also condemned the incidents of police repression on people agitating against various criminal incidents in the city.