CPI(ML) HOME Vol.10, No.26 26 JUNE - 2 JULY 2007

The Weekly News Bulletin of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)(Liberation)

U-90, Shakarpur, Delhi 110092. Tel: (91)11-22521067. Fax(91)11-22518248

 
In this Issue

30 Years of Left Front Rule: The CPI(M) Celebrates the Congress Mantle

On June 21, 2007 the Left Front of West Bengal celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of its uninterrupted stay in power. Even the Congress that once enjoyed a near monopoly on state power did not have such a long run in any of India’s states. And most governments these days do not last for more than one term. Even the Bengal Left Front’s Kerala cousin has never been in power for two successive terms. Nobody should therefore grudge the Left Front the right to celebrate its thirtieth power-packed anniversary.

What does one expect from a Left government on such an occasion? A self-critical evaluation of the Left Front’s performance and recollection of the promises that have not been fulfilled in all these thirty years is clearly beyond the CPI(M)’s political culture. The party will never tell us why no police official or Congress politician was ever punished for the massacres perpetrated during the Congress-led semi-fascist reign of terror in the 1970s. Nor will it let us know why the much-trumpeted Operation Barga stopped midway without ever completing the process of universal registration of all share-croppers.

But surely this could have been an appropriate occasion for highlighting the communist-led mass struggles of the 1950s and 1960s and paying homage to the leaders and martyrs who had nurtured the Left legacy in West Bengal? The CPI(M) did not do that either. One might think that the party cannot possibly have such time for history when it is faced with pressing challenges like Singur and Nandigram. But the fact is the CPI(M) is actually busy discovering new histories and embracing new traditions that it thinks would help it weather the present storm.

Remembering the history of tebhaga and food movement or highlighting the ‘achievement’ of land redistribution and Operation Barga can prove not only inconvenient and embarrassing but also counter-productive when the state government is actually spearheading a massive corporate land-grab campaign. Soon after the June 21 celebration, we therefore heard Biman Bose, state secretary of the CPI(M) and Chairman of the Left Front, make this interesting announcement that the party would next observe July 1, the birthday of Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, the first Chief Minister of West Bengal. Dr. Roy was the pioneer of industrialisation in West Bengal, and hence this tribute from the CPI(M), explained Bose.

Dr. BC Roy was Chief Minister of West Bengal till 1962. This was the period of the first two Five Year Plans that saw major investment in heavy industries in many parts of the country. West Bengal too saw the rise of Durgapur and some other industrial belts during this period. Over the years this early industrialisation however lost much of its glitter and with growing disillusionment, the Congress suffered steady erosion while communist influence in the state grew in rapid strides. As prices grew and food became scarce, the Congress government resorted increasingly to bludgeons and bullets as the real pillars of governance.

Mention BC Roy and the first date that every Left activist remembers is not July 1, but August 31. On the last day of August in 1959, communists had organised a massive march in Kolkata demanding food for the hungry millions and Bidhan Roy’s police went berserk, bludgeoning as many as eighty marchers to death. Roy later boastfully remarked that his police did not have to use a single bullet to disperse the mob! Since then communists and Leftists in Bengal, cutting across party divisions, have always observed August 31 as the martyrs’ day and that has been their way of remembering the history of the Congress in the state.

The CPI(M) now has other ideas. It is now among the closest allies of the Congress in national politics, and in Bengal it is now increasingly carrying forward the mantle of the Congress school of governance. Did we not hear the echo of the ‘Congress voice of governance’ in the statements of CPI(M) leaders who first openly threatened the people of Nandigram with dire consequences, then choreographed Operation Nandigram in collusion with the police and are now busy dismissing the whole thing as just a small and passing incident that does not deserve to be dubbed a massacre?

Indeed, over the years, the Left Front government of West Bengal has become increasingly indistinguishable from any typical government of the Congress pattern. The Congress has been away from power in West Bengal for thirty years and yet the ruling classes of India are not missing the Congress. Surely the Congress in power could not have scripted a more lucrative Singur deal for the Tatas!

The CPI(M) leadership may revel in their newly discovered ties with Bidhan Roy, but activists and supporters of the Left cannot fail to notice that the government that had come to power promising to provide a political alternative to the Congress is now surviving by increasingly falling back on the politics and tradition of the latter. They would surely draw their lessons and advance the real identity and agenda of the Left movement by fighting their way forward against this bankruptcy and degeneration.

Red Salute to Comrade Jita KaurCom. Jita Kaur

Comrade Jita Kaur came into the ML movement through her active participation in the student’s movement in Gorakhpur. She became an activist of the PSO, Gorakhpur at a time when the entire state of Uttar Pradesh was seething with student’s protests against academic anarchy and hold of anti-socials and criminals enjoying political patronage of bourgeois political parties, in the campuses. In her early days Jita was an idealist who had seen through the sham of religious ideas and it was for the greater cause of revolution that she decided to devote herself completely. Jita’s joining a revolutionary left organization had its impact on her personal life, her father Sardar Rattan Singh being a Congress leader as well as well known religious leader in Gorakhpur. As a woman, Jita continued to fight her battle in the conservative background of her home and the feudal-patriarchal milieu in this backward district of Purvanchal. After she finished her post-graduation, Jita began to take keen interest in the women’s movement, and formed the Jagrit Mahila Parishad in the District. She was an ardent activist who began to combine the aspirations of young middle class women with those of the most downtrodden sections of society. In the process she also became associated with the Indian People’s Front in Uttar Pradesh. As a leader of the UP IPF, Jita got involved in the struggle of people being displaced from Ramgarh Tal area in Gorakhpur. The Ramgarh Tal Pariyojana was posing a grave threat to the livelihood of the local inhabitants and to ward off their fear and insecurity, Jita left her home and began to live with the affected people. In the process she began to build a new mass-base for the I P F. Jita not only became popular as a mass leader fondly called ‘didi’, she became immensely loved by the women. She had played a major role in involving several intellectuals and women of the town in support of the people of the Tal. She also contested Assembly elections in Gorakhpur on IPF banner.

Comrade Jita gradually began to organize women activists in the state and in the process also met and involved Ajanta Lohit in IPF work. She later became a state committee member of the CPI (ML). When the founding conference of AIPWA was being held in Delhi, Jita came to Delhi to assist in the preparation work. Later she became associated with AIPWA work in Delhi and also became state committee member of the Party in the State of Delhi. In Delhi Jita organized Party work in East Delhi and North-West Delhi. When the need arose she left for Punjab and began to work in Mansa. She was a state committee member of the Party there and was also entrusted with the task of organising AIPWA. She helped streamlining the State Party Office in Mansa and played an important role along with the comrades in Punjab in organising the Party. She encouraged young activists and women to work as whole-timers in the Party. She contested Parliamentary elections in Ludhiana in 1998. She was the National Secretary of the AIPWA and in this capacity she visited Uttarakhand, Punjab, MP and Bihar for AIPWA programmes. She was also very active in the joint women’s movement and became popular with women’s activists from other streams. She was an active participant in the joint women’s conferences held in Patna and Calicut.

When she was in Delhi, the Central Office of AIPWA was entirely managed by her in the most creative, living and economic way. Many women comrades who stayed here still miss the cosy ‘room of one’s own’ where women’s issues, politics, personal problems of women were discussed and resolved. Battered women, women marrying against their parents’ wish, or going for inter-religious marriages, girls thrown out of home or those fighting against patriarchal attitude of in-laws or husbands came for help and AIPWA office was a place that provided strength and succour.

It was after the Burdhawan conference that she fell sick and was diagnosed having gall bladder cancer in November 2006. She was undergoing treatment in AIIMS. After 2 cycles of Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy, she had become very weak. Doctors opined that the tumour could not be removed by operation since it had spread to the liver and was resistant to the therapy. She was also put on Alternative treatments—Tibetan and Sino-Vedic. Jita was alternately staying in Comrade Srikant’s house and in the Party Office. On 14 June she was taken to Jalandhar by her elder sister and brothers for a few days, but she passed away there on 23 June morning. Her body was brought to Mansa on the same day where a large number of Party leaders, members, supporters and representatives of various fraternal organisations came to bid her farewell.

Comrade Jita dedicated her entire life, and everything she possessed, for the cause of the people and the Party. She was a very hard-working and energetic woman activist and all those who knew her will remember for her warm, loving and caring personality, for her political uprightness and honesty as well as for her relentless struggle in the face of odds.
Red Salute to Comrade Jita Kaur!

People Paid Tributes to Comrade Jita Kaur

The last journey of Comrade Jita Kaur started from Party office in Mansa, Baba Bhuja Singh Bhavan at 12 noon on 24 June. People from rural areas of Mansa, Sangrur, Barnala, Moga, Bhatinda and Ludhiana started arriving to the Party office since the morning. A number of comrades from Delhi also reached Mansa to attend her cremation. Comrade Jita's body, wrapped in the red flag and covered with wreaths and flower petals, was kept in the lawns of the office. A people paid floral tributes to the departed leader. On behalf of the Party Central Committee Comrades Swadesh Bhattacharya, Swapan Mukherjee, Krishna Adhikary, Rajendra Pratholi and Prabhat Chaudhary offered the floral tributes. Comrade Mangat Ram Pasla of CPI(M)(Punjab) offered tribute of behalf of their Party. Representatives of Lok Sangram Manch, Democratic Teachers' Front, Democratic State Govt. Employees' Federation, Punjab Kisan Union, AISA, AIPWA, Mazdoor Mukti Morcha, Brick Kiln Workers' Union, AICCTU, Radical People's Forum, etc. also paid homage to Comrade Jita. Many leaders addressed the gathering and pledged to fulfill the unfinished task of the departed comrade. The whole ground was filled with the chants of revolutionary slogans remembering Comrade Jita.

After this brief ceremony the body of Comrade Jita was placed atop an open van and a large procession followed her to the cremetion ground. A large number of women were present in the funeral procession. Comrade Jita's family members also joined her last journey and paid their tributes. At 1.30 PM the body of Jita Kaur was consigned to flames in presence of hundreds of comrades.

A meeting in the memory of comrade Jita Kaur was held on June 25 in Patna. After paying floral tributes Comrade Shashi addressed the gathering and remembered the life and struggles of Comrade Jita. Editor of Lokyudh Bruj Bihari Pandey, AIPWA National Secretary Mina Tiwary, RYA General Secretary Kamlesh Sharma, and CPI(ML) State Secretary Nand Kishore Prasad addressed the gathering. Comrade Saroj Chaube conducted the meeting.

A memorial meeting was held at Party's Uttarakhand state office in Haldwani which was addressed by Raja Bahuguna. Meetings were also held in her memory in Gangolihat and Shrinagar.

AIPWA Holds State-level Women’s Conference at Patna -- Against Women’s Oppression, For Women’s Employment

AIPWA held a Women’s Conference against Oppression and For Employment at Vidyapati Bhavan, Patna, in which over 1000 women from 22 districts of Bihar took part. Apart from AIPWA activists, health workers belonging to ASHA and Anganbadi workers also took part.

AIALA leader Kunti Devi said at the Conference that the Nitish Government’s claims about women’s empowerment stood exposed by the fact that the widespread corruption in funds for the ASHA scheme and agricultural labourers. NREGA funds are being looted through false muster rolls. ASHA workers Veena Devi from Samastipur said that the honorarium amount is not fixed for midwives – though the work is such that workers have to be ready 24 hours a day. Ministers announce crores of money for this scheme but we haven’t seen even a small fraction of it – where has the money gone? AIPWA was organizing struggles to demand a minimum honorarium amount of Rs. 3000 in such schemes. 

AIPWA’s Bhojpur Secretary Indu Devi and State Secretary Shashi Yadav spoke of AIPWA’s struggles for employment and minimum wages for women. AIALA General Secretary Dhirendra Jha said that the massive participation of rural poor women accounted for the successes of most movements for implementation of NREGA. He said that AIALA’s struggles had ensured that the Government’s condition of digging 110 cubic feet  of soil was changed to 80 for men and 68 for women; the struggle to get rid of this soil-digging condition entirely continues.

AIPWA National Secretary Meena Tiwari said that NREGA in Bihar had managed to generate a mere 17 days of work for women as opposed to the promised 100. AIPWA General Secretary Kumudini Pati called upon women to join the Women’s Parliament called by AIPWA during the Parliament Session in Delhi to demand employment guarantee for women, scrapping of SEZ Act, and 33% reservation in Parliament.

REPORTS

Feudal Lord Kills Agri. Worker for not Working in His Fields

Radhamohan Ram was killed by a local landlord Jitan Singh of Badem village in Nabinagar block of Aurangabad district on May 1. He refused to work in the fields of this goon on April 29 because he had to go to some relative's place. He was killed on May 1, the day when the working class all over the world was pledging to work for the victory of the proletariat. He was forcibly taken on the motor-cycle in the centre of the village and brutally beaten up in public view to teach him a lesson. He succumb to his injuries next day in the hospital. The Nitish Kumar's police, as usual, did not register a case and defended the murderers. Four days later, an FIR was lodged only when CPI(ML) and AIALA organised protests and a delegation met with the DDC. Another protest was held on May 18 to press for the arrest of the murderers. Administration has given only assurances the killers are yet to be arrested.

Peasants Protest Land Grab in Bihar

Nitish Kumar says he won’t allow any SEZ in Bihar, but his government is acquiring lands on a large scale for projects of various corporate houses. Lands are also being acquired for private hospitals and private educational institutions. People are also facing forcible displacement in the name of many development schemes with the government turning a blind eye towards the rehabilitation and livelihood of the affected people. The process of land acquisition for nearly 85 industrial, commercial and other establishments is going on in Bihar while people are opposing these moves at many places through spontaneous as well as organized protests.

One of such projects is for a sugar mill to be established in Marukia village in Andharthari block of Madhubani district for which nearly 305 acres are being acquired from small and marginal peasants for Rajshree Productions Ltd., which is primarily based in south India. This mill is expected to produce more liquor than sugar. More than a thousand families will be displaced. They bought these lands in recent years from the mahant of Marukia by money earned through selling milk or toiling in the far-off fields in states like Punjab and Haryana. More than 80 percent families are agrarian workers in possession of less than a bigha of land. Some of them own up to two-three acres. Now their lands as well as livelihood will be snatched away.

This is highly fertile land with three crops a year irrigated with the waters from the Kosi canal. This is also free from the menace of flood which is a recurrent phenomenon in many parts of Bihar. Narendra Singh, a local peasant, says it’s an ideal place for sugarcane production but is not able to understand why the government is acquiring his land for a new sugar mill while there are no efforts made to open three already closed sugar mills in the district which used to absorb almost all sugarcane produced in the area. And why the peasants were not taken into confidence before handing them over the acquisition notices. Now the peasants, workers and poor are resisting the acquisition and forced the officials to flee from their village who came to survey the lands. People have also decided to block the entry of mill managers in their area and will not give up their lands even at the cost of their lives.

On June 6, the Bihar Pradesh Kisan Sabha held a dharna before the Bihar Chief Minister at ITO Circle, Patna against the ongoing land grab. Around 2000 peasants took part in the dharna. The Dharna demanded an immediate stop to grabbing of fertile land, freeing of bhoodan land from illegal occupants and redistribution among the poor, action against those guilty of atrocities against dalits and steps to prevent the same, and enquiry and stern action against those responsible for the Below Poverty Line scam. The dharna was addressed by Comrade Rajaram Singh, President, BPKS, Arun Singh, deputy leader of the CPI(ML) Legislator’s team in the Bihar Assembly, Dhirendra Jha, General Secretary of the All India Agricultural Labour Association (AIALA), CPI(ML) CC member K D Yadav and others.

Seminars on Sachar Committee Findings

At Darbhanga a Convention was held in the Town Hall on June 17 on ‘The Condition and Direction of Indian Muslims and Democracy – in the Mirror of Sachar Committee Report’. It was inaugurated by the National Convener of the Inquilabi Muslim Conference Comrade Ibnul Hasan Basru, who said that the recommendations of the Sachar Committee must certainly be implemented but Indian democracy must also seek an answer to the shameful crimes of the Babri Masjid demolition, Gujarat genocide, Malegaon blasts, and the spate of extra-judicial and custodial killings and witch-hunt of Muslims. Noted Advocate of the Darbhanga Court Anwar Imam Hashmi, Inquilabi Muslim Conference leader Javed Baig, as well as a range of educationists, peasant leaders and others also addressed the Convention. The key speaker at the Convention was CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya. He said that the Sachar Committee had highlighted the social and economic backwardness and neglect of the Muslim community, but had avoided locating the political process responsible for this condition. The neglect of Indian Muslims is intimately linked to the politics of Congress-BJP and other so-called secular parties, all of which have embraced a pro-US position and implement anti-people policies at US behest. We need to link the struggle for Muslim empowerment with broader struggles against imperialism and for people’s democratic rights. 

Edited, published and printed by S. Bhattacharya for CPI(ML) Liberation from U-90, Shakarpur, Delhi-92; printed at Bol Publication, R-18/2, Ramesh Park, Laxmi Nagar, Delhi-92; Phone:22521067; fax: 22518248, e-mail: mlupdate@cpiml.org, website: www.cpiml.org

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