Following the Congress climbdown on the Nuke Deal, we had cautioned that the “pausing” of the Deal be taken with a pinch of salt, since it was likely that negotiations on the Deal would continue behind the scenes and the Deal would be taken forward at a more opportune political moment. We had held that scrapping the Deal was the only way to ensure the death of the Deal, and had demanded that the Deal be put to vote in Parliament. It hasn’t taken long for those apprehensions to be vindicated. A fresh turn in the Nuke Deal drama comes with yet another somersault – this time by the CPI-CPI(M).
As late as August 18, the CPI(M) Politburo had warned that “the government should not take the next step with regard to negotiating a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency.” Then, the CPI-CPI(M) had held that they considered negotiations with IAEA on India-specific safeguards to be an irrevocable step towards operationalising the Nuke Deal; a step that would force them to withdraw support from the UPA Government. A little later, the CPI-CPI(M) had relaxed their position to state that India could go to IAEA but must not however negotiate the safeguards agreement. Now, barely three months later, the CPI-CPI(M) have taken the stance that the UPA Government can go ahead and negotiate India-specific safeguards with the IAEA.
What becomes clear from this entire turn of events is that UPA-Left Committee on the Nuke Deal is not a platform intended to stop the Nuke Deal in its tracks. If that were indeed the intention of the CPI-CPI(M), a vote in Parliament could have been a far more effective and foolproof mechanism. Rather, the Committee is a face-saving measure for the CPI-CPI(M); an ‘honourable’ retreat from their threats of withdrawal of support; while all the time the UPA Government continues to take the Deal forward. This pattern of rhetorical opposition followed by capitulation in practice is quite in keeping with the previous record of the CPI-CPI(M) throughout the UPA Government’s tenure: the Patents (Amendment) Act being a memorable instance.
The timing of this change of stance by the CPI-CPI(M) is especially significant. The inevitable conclusion is that the capitulation on the Nuke Deal is the quid pro quo extracted by the Congress in exchange for soft-pedalling by the Centre on Nandigram. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya described Operation ‘Nandigrab’ as an act of ‘pay back’: his party’s cadre were presumable paying back the peasantry for their unforgivable victory against the CPI(M) Government’s dream SEZ for the Salem Group. Now the CPI(M) is ‘paying back’ the Congress for its relative silence on Nandigram by allowing the UPA Govt to go ahead with the Nuke Deal. No doubt the Congress will suitably pay back the Left for its timely, inevitable and predictable surrender on the Nuke Deal.
The people of this country have the task, however, of paying back the UPA Government and the CPI-CPI(M) for their surrender of India’s sovereignty, for the SEZ Act and corporate land grab, for state-sponsored repression on people’s resistance and for the organized political violence on women at the forefront of the movements. The scrapping of the Indo-US Nuke Deal and justice for the peasants of Nandigram are not negotiable!
CPI(ML) Condemns growing assault on democracy in Uttar Pradesh
On the occasion of completion of six months of her new rule Mayawati gave a unique gift to the people of the state. In the name of checking organized crime, her Govt. passed a new draconian Act on the pattern of Maharashtra’s MCOCA, the UPCOCA. The administration claims, “The need for a special law to deal with the organised mafia was felt because the existing provisions of law were not strong enough to nail powerful white-collar criminals.” However the draconian intent behind this Act becomes apparent when one comes to know that this Act will expand the definition of organised crime to include even copying in examinations! It reminds one of the fascist Rajnath-Kalyan Singh regime when copying was made a cognizable offense and students, even girls, were sent to jails, hand-cuffed, and some of them even committed suicides out of humiliation and guilt. The past experience of Mayawati’s own regime is ample proof that with the sole exception of Raja Bhaiyya, POTA was used against the vulnerable sections of the society as well as to suppress the people’s movements. The Mayawati Govt.’s claim that it wants to “nail powerful white-collar criminals” with the help of UPCOCA is mocked by the fact that she fielded the son of the biggest eastern UP mafia don of yesteryears as her candidate for the bye-election in Balia parliamentary constituency!
In yet another brazenly undemocratic and cynical act of suppression of minimum civil liberties, the Mayawati administration forced people to take off whatever black clothes they happened to be wearing, including black handkerchief and socks, lest people use it as black flags to protest, when the CM recently visited the India- Pakistan cricket match in Kanpur! Why is Mayawati so paranoid about potential protest?
It is obvious that despite the fact that Mayawati, today in her new ‘sarvajan’ avatar, is the darling of the corporate world as well as the dominant social elite and enjoys an absolute majority in the State Assembly, she is rightly scared, anticipating mass fury against her anti-poor, pro-rich policies, sooner or later. Hence she is trying to silence all potential sources of protest, be it by imposing ban on the student unions or withdrawing temporarily, if political expediency so demands, plans of contract farming etc., while at the same time arming herself with all sorts of draconian laws.
Cadre Convention in Jharkhand
A state level cadre convention was held in Ranchi on 11 November. This was addressed by Party General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya. He called upon the members to work hard for expanding the Party work to newer areas, induct new members and organize them in various party structures to fulfil the people’s aspirations for an alternative to the anti-people pro-imperialist policies of the present regime. He criticized the CPI(M) for perpetrating atrocities on the people in Nandigram and called for a genuine left-democratic alternative. The manifestations of the policies of neo-liberalisation are quite visible now in the people’s lives in the form of devastating impact on the livelihood of millions of toiling masses and also in the phenomena of peasants’ suicides, starvation deaths and massive unemployment. At the same time people’s resentment is brewing against corporatisation of agriculture, SEZs, MOUs, etc. He said that the ongoing preparations for the forthcoming 8th Party Congress to be held in December in Kolkata are centred around the major task of bringing the CPI(ML) to the forefront of the left movement in the country and called upon the party members to accept this challenge and march ahead for a new people’s India.
The proceedings of the convention were conducted by Party’s Jharkhand State Secretary Subhendu Sen. The district committee secretaries and in-charges of various departments presented their reports. The convention concluded with the resolve to make 8th Congress of the CPI(ML) a great success, and to conduct a massive political campaign for this end. Nearly one thousand cadres participated in the Convention.
All India Convention of Contract Workers
The Sponsoring Committee of Trade Unions organised an All India Convention against Contract system in Delhi on Nov. 19. This was attended by the leaders and representatives of various left and democratic TU centres, all India federations and unions. The convention criticized the utter violations of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970 and demanded from the government its proper implementation as well as some amendments in order to make it favourable for the workers. It was particularly emphasised to make the principal employer primarily accountable under the Act. AICCTU leader Santosh Roy addressed the convention where he vehemently opposed the UPA Govt. for deliberately neglecting the rights of the contract workers only to favour the private sector. He also criticized the judiciary for its role in promoting the anti-worker contract system and snatching the rights of the workers.
This first ever national level convention of this kind has called for an all India demand day to be observed on 8 January 2008.
Protest against Nandigram Incidents
A protest demonstration and effigy burning of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya was organised in Patna to condemn the state sponsored violence in Nandigram in West Bengal on Nov. 20. The protesters demanded the resignation of Buddhadev Bhattacharya and immediate end to the violence in Nandigram by CPM cadres and police. This was addressed by RN Thakur, Kamlesh Sharma, Shashi Yadav, Mithilesh Yadav and others. A protest and effigy burning was also held at Bhagat Singh Chowk in Patna on the same day by Patna City Committee which was led by Umesh Singh and others.
In Shrinagar of Uttarakhand, CPI(ML) and AISA organised a protest and burnt the effigy on Nov. 14. Kailash Pandey, Garhwal incharge of the Party, addressed the gathering and said that the communist parties all over the world are known as the vanguards of the toiling peasants and workers but the CPI(M) has brought disgrace to this glorious legacy of the communists, it has rather chosen to tag itself with the anti-poor policies of the ruling classes. Grabbing lands of the peasants for Special Economic Zones in the interest of the rich, whether it was in the NDA ruled Kalinganagar in Orissa or the CPI(M) ruled West Bengal, are unacceptable. Indresh Maikhuri, National President of AISA said that both SEZ's and Indo-U.S. Nuke Deal are assaults on the independence, sovereignty and the right to livelihood of the people. The ruling classes' attempts to grab the land of the peasants in different states is going on in the name of SEZ's whereas in Uttrakhand people are being displaced of their land for various hydro-power projects. M.M.Chamoli, National Councillor of JSM, Malti Haldar, State Co-convener of AISA, and Ashish Kandpal also addressed the meeting.
Deepening Agrarian Crisis
On average, one Indian farmer committed suicide every 32 minutes between 1997 and 2005. Since 2002, that has become one suicide every 30 minutes. In Maharashtra alone, that was one suicide every three hours before 2001 and it became even worse afterwards: one suicide every two and a quarter hours. Although National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data confirm an appalling 1.5 lakh farm suicides between 1997 and 2005, the figure is probably much higher. In the years from 1997 to 2001, there were 78737 farmers' suicides recorded in the country; on average around 15747 each year. But in just the next four years 2002-05, there were 70507, or a yearly average of 17627 suicides. Thus farmer suicides shot up after 2001 with the deepening of the agrarian crisis.
Basing on a comprehensive analysis of the official data, Professor Nagaraj of Madras Institute of Development Studies explains some of the reasons why the actual numbers and farm suicide rate could be far higher. The NCRB data seem to underestimate the number of farm suicides, as the criteria adopted for identifying a farm suicide at the State level are quite stringent. For instance, shockingly, women and tenant farmers tend to get excluded from lists of farmers’ suicides! In those lists, only those with a title to land tend to be counted as farmers.
Instead of viewing these tragic suicides in the broader context of inherent structural causes and the neo-liberal policy regime further accentuating the agrarian crisis, attempts have been made to project them as isolated cases borne out of indebtedness etc. in certain areas of capital intensive cropping.
However a recent report of UPA Govt.’s own Expert Group on Agricultural Indebtedness, headed by Prof. Radhakrishna, had to admit that the root cause of the agricultural crisis - its most obvious manifestation being the large number of suicides by farmers in different parts of the country - is not the indebtedness alone, and that suicides are only a symptom. According to the report, stagnation in agriculture, increasing production and marketing risks, collapse of the extension system and a growing institutional vacuum, and lack of livelihood opportunities are found to be the primary causes.
This data only serves to confirm what we have always maintained: that farmers’ suicides cannot be contained by some packaged panaceas and damage control measures; they require a thoroughgoing and fundamental changes in rural social and economic relations and a complete reversal of neo-liberal policies of liberalization and globalization. (Based on media reports)
Peasants against Black-marketing of Fertilizers and other Agri. Inputs
While the peasants of the country, and all rural population in general, have to bear the brunt of liberalisation in agriculture in the form of a severe agrarian crisis, this is being further compounded by the ever existing presence of hoarders and black-marketeers who appropriate whatever miniscule proportion of the profit from the crops remains with the peasant.
As the wheat season is progressing, hundreds of peasants in Darbhanga organised protest against the hoarding and blackmarketing of fertilizers on Nov. 12 under the banner of CPI(ML) and AIKSS. The peasants in Bihar are unable to procure fertilizers at recommended prices (even that price is too high for them to afford) and they are left to the mercy of the blackmarketeers. Besides, sale of adulterated fertilizer is also on the rise. The administration was forced to call a meeting of agricultural officials and fertilizer vendors under the pressure of the protest, it is yet to be seen how much serious are the officials. The AIKSS has decided to organise pickets on the corrupt vendors if they fail to provide fertilizers at the recommended prices.
Obituary
Comrade Rambachan Pal
Comrade Rambachan Pal passed away on 7 November 2007 at his village Bahuara in Sahar block of Bhojpur. He was 73 and suffering from a prolonged illness due to diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney failure. He was admitted to a hospital in Patna but could not be saved as multiple complications led to a brain haemorrhage which proved fatal. Comrade Pal became active in Kisan Sabha during the days when the historic battle of Bahuara was fought in his village, an encounter that continued for 96 hours. He took up the task of developing mass organizations, as decided by the Party in 1979 and became a full-time activist in 1980. He played an active role in the process of organizing Janwadi Deshbhakta Morcha in those years, and also led many struggles against heavy police repression in Sahar in those years. He was always very sensitive to people’s problems. Whether it was some incident of police repression or of feudal oppression, he courageously developed and led mass struggles against anti-people forces. The death of Comrade Rambachan Pal is an irreparable loss for the Party and the people and we all must pledge to work hard to accomplish his unfinished task.
A large number of people accompanied him in his last journey. Bhojpur District Committee of CPI(ML) organized a memorial meeting which was addressed by Comrade Amar, District Secretary of Bhojpur and member of the Central Committee. CPI(ML) sends its condolences to his bereaved family and to the people of Sahar.
Red Salute to Comrade Rambachan Pal!
Comrade Bigu Chaudhary
Comrade Bigu Chaudhary Passed away on 29 September 2007 at Ara. He played an important role in expanding the Party work in Ara. His never ending concern for Party expansion and commitment for people's cause will be a source of inspiration for all of us. He hailed from an urban poor background and was deprived of any formal education, but he was well aware of the importance of education and in the party he was always instrumental in making new members for the Samkalin Lokyudh. He left CPI(M) after conducting a struggle against its reformist line and joined the Party in 1970. The Ara Town Committee organised a memorial meeting for Comrade Bigu Chaudhary which was addressed by CC member and AIALA President Rameshwar Prasad and Bihar State Committee member Sudama Prasad. The speakers described him a committed worker and firm defender of Party line and people's interests.
Red Salute to Comrade Bigu Chaudhary!
