CPI(ML) HOME Vol.12, No.07 10 JAN. -16 FEB. 2009

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

L’affaire Lavalin: Questions Galore for the CPI(M) to Answer

The response of the CPI(M) and the Kerala Government led by it to the CBI charge-sheet against CPI(M) politburo member and Kerala State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan raises some serious questions. The charge-sheet relates to alleged kickbacks taken by Vijayan (then the Power Minister in the LDF-ruled State Government) to favour the Canadian company SNC-Lavalin for contracts awarded 12 years ago.

In 1996, the then Congress-led UDF Government through the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) signed an agreement with SNC-Lavalin, a Canadian power consulting company, towards replacing and modernising three major hydroelectric projects in the State. When the LDF took over the Government, Pinarayi Vijayan as Power Minister led the renegotiation of the earlier contract and also visited Canada with then CM E K Nayanar to finalise the new deal. In doing so, it is alleged that the LDF Government disregarded the recommendations of its own power reforms expert panel, headed by former CITU national president E Balanandan (who passed away earlier this month). The Balanandan panel had reportedly recommended an alternative deal with the public-sector BHEL at a far lower cost.

It is also alleged that Vijayan arranged for kickbacks from Lavalin to the tune of Rs 98 crore sum towards a super-speciality hospital at Thalassery, the home constituency of chief minister Nayanar. Eventually, this amount apparently never reached the hospital; instead Rs 9 crore from Lavalin went to a private firm in Chennai that had the contract for setting up the hospital building, and the fate of the rest of the money is unknown.

A CAG report in 2005 held that due processes had been bypassed to rush through the renegotiated deal, and that the Rs 374.50 crore spent on it was a huge public loss. The CAG also held that power generation in the three projects had, far from increasing, actually fallen since the deal with Lavalin. The CBI probe was eventually ordered at the behest of the Kerala High Court. Now, the CBI has completed its probe, named Vijayan as one of the accused, and sought permission to prosecute him (on the grounds that the Governor's permission is required to prosecute a former minister).

Vijayan is the first Left leader in the country to be charge-sheeted by the CBI. In itself, this is a serious enough cause for concern for all on the Left. The Left has hitherto enjoyed the well-deserved credibility of being free of the rampant corruption that grips most other parties. The Lavalin case marks a serious blow to that credibility and the CPI(M) now stands on the dock.

Yet, instead of answering the corruption charges and initiating disciplinary action against the accused, the CPI(M) has chosen to ‘celebrate’ it with a public campaign. The party has pressed its entire organisational machinery in Kerala to defend Vijayan and rubbish the CBI investigation as an act of political conspiracy on the part of the Congress-led Centre. But by all accounts this is not going to absolve the CPI(M) in the eyes of the people in Kerala or elsewhere. In Shoranur (in Prakash Karat's home district of Palakkad), a platform launched by CPI(M) dissidents recently swept the municipality polls. During the party's 'Nava Kerala Yatra' to defend Vijayan, the latter was apparently even pelted with slippers at one place.

It must be noted that the Lavalin case is no isolated instance of corruption that haunts the Kerala CPI(M); rather, it ought to be seen in the context of CPI(M)'s Kerala leadership dabbling in huge money-spinning enterprises like theme parks, super-speciality hospitals, shopping malls etc., and that of other accusations of graft in which party leaders and institutions are mired. Even the CPI(M)’s Malayalam organ Deshabhimani faces charges of accepting Rs.2 crore's worth of 'bonds' from a notoriously corrupt lottery tycoon; the party tried simultaneously to justify and disown this deal (claiming the deal was innocent but returning the money). In another incident, the party was forced to expel a senior functionary in the same organ when he was accused of taking a bribe of Rs.1 crore from a private financial institution in return for a promise to persuade the Government to overlook its illegal operations. Last year, the Kerala HC has ordered a fresh probe into these complaints.

Chief Minister Achuthanandan has of course distanced himself till now from the ‘defend Vijayan’ campaign; but even as VS stays away from the Vijayan-led

‘Nava Kerala Yatra’, the LDF government in Kerala has not granted permission to CBI to prosecute the latter. The matter has been referred to the Advocate General, without laying down any time frame. In effect, this is a tactic by the State Government to delay the pursuit of the case.

Had leaders of any other ruling party in any other state been implicated in a corruption charge, all Left forces would naturally have been at the forefront of a concerted campaign on the issue of corruption, taking the State Government to task for shielding any of its accused leaders. In the Lavalin instance too, those committed to defending the credibility of the Left must demand that the CPI(M)-led Kerala Government must stop standing in the way of the course of justice, and must allow the CBI to prosecute Pinarayi Vijayan and others accused in the matter. And activists and well-wishers of the Left in Kerala will also have to take up the larger task of rebuilding the Left and retrieving its credibility.

CPI(M)-Management Nexus Challanged

In Hooghly district of West Bengal, AISA activists rallied behind agitating employees of a beer plant. 40 bighas of fertile, multicrop agricultural land at Chaitanyabati village of Dhaniakhali block in Hooghly district was sold at a throwaway price through the CPI(M) local committee to a company called Parag Beverages Ltd. for a beer plant. The workers involved in the construction of the plant were laid off in phases. Just before the plant started operating, 15 workers directly employed by the company were sacked without notice. Permanent jobs in the factory were being sold by CPI(M) local committee leaders for around Rs10000-15000. From 31st January, the workers along with their families started an indefinite dharna at the factory gates. From 2nd February, the workers started a relay hunger strike. They formed the Sangrami Shramik Mancha. Com Sajal De, district leader of the RYA was made its joint convenor. The people of the locality also supported the cause of the workers, with villagers spontaneously participating in the gate meetings and processions and even collecting funds to support the agitation. Comrades Amit, Pratap, Chandan and other AISA activists of Dhaniakhali actively participated in the movement by writing posters, distributing leaflets, collecting signatures and taking part in the relay hunger strike. From 2nd February onwards, gate meetings have been held daily. Com. Prabir Halder, Party’s District Secretary, Com. Sajal Adhikary, State Committee member, Com. Jul Mukherjee, Jt. Secretary, AISA, and Com. Dipankar Sengupta of RYA have addressed the meetings among others. On 3rd February, a team led by Com. Halder and Com. Jul met senior functionaries of the district administration and demanded permanent employment at the plant for the 15 sacked employees and also for the land labourers affected by the setting up of the plant.

Tram Workers & Employees on Streets

On the eve of the Republic Day of 2009, the workers-employees of Calcutta Tramways Company took out a historic protest and silent procession in the streets of Kolkata on 24 January 2009. Their anger against Casualisation, Contractual recruitment, recruitment on daily wage basis brought them on streets. More than a thousand rallyists protested against the denial of PF, Gratuity and ESI-benifits, against the atrocities of the management and betrayal by the established TU leadership.

At the head of the rally was a campaign vehicle which exposed how the medieval exploitation persisted in the Tram Company under LF rule. Behind the campaign-vehicle was a huge banner on which was inscribed: "Protest rally of the workers of the Tram Company against the exploitation/deprivation by the State Transport Department." Hundreds of workers wore black ribbon, held placards in their hands and marched with the banners of CTCBDKS (Calcutta Tramways Company Bus Drivers & Karmachari Samiti) and AICCTU. The placards flashed the slogans, 'No to Capitalism, we want Democracy', 'we want regularisation', 'we are for rule of law' etc. The family members of the workers – women and children also participated in the rally.

At the end of the rally, the singers of 'Paschim Banga Gana Sanskriti Parishad sang 'Joto Hamla Karo Saab Samle Nebo, Challange tomai jodi marte paro' (we will fight against all onslaughts, we challange your threat to kill us). The singers were Nitish Roy, Debasis Mitra, Abhijit, Babuni Mazumder and Pronab Mukherjee. The singers were on a decorated matador van.

The rally covered the street – viz. Bentink St. Misson Row, Ganesh Avenue, Subodh Mallick Squre and S N Banerjee Road. The rally ended in a mass meeting at Dharmatala i.e. Esplanade area of Kolkata. Basudev Bose (State Secy. AICCTU), Harish Chandra Roy (GS. CTCBDKS), Sisir Bag (Executive President, CTCBDKS), Balaram Majhi (Vice President, CTCBDKS) addressed the meeting. The main speaker in the meeting was Dibakar Bhattacharya (President, CTCBDKS).

Condolence Meeting in Memory of Com. Shibnath Prasad

Com. Shibnath Prasad, an octogenarian communist revolutionary of Darjeeling district, passed away on 27 January 2009. A well-attended condolence meeting was held on 5 February 2009 at Ramkinkar Baiz Conference Hall at Siliguri. The meeting was presided over by the renowned trade union leader Com. Pulak Ganguly. The proceedings began by observing a minute’s silence to pay homage to the departed leader followed by a pledge resolution, placed by the district Party secretary Com. Abhijit mazumdar. Revolutionary songs were sung by Com. Ranajit Mukherjee and Com. Mira Chaturvedi.

Party GS Com. Dipankar spoke at length on the revolutionary legacy of Com. Shibnathji and reminisced his Left intellectual acumen. While hailing his unflinching communist ideals, Com Dipankar scathingly criticized the official left for their betrayal to the cause of the toiling masses. W.B. State Secretary Com. Partha Ghosh and Politburo member Com. Kartick Pal also paid their tribute to Late Com. Shibnath Prasad. Among other left leaders from the district, Comrades Tapas Goswami (RSP), Biswanath Pal (FB), Hatisadhan Ghosh (CPI), Taramoni Rai (CPRM), Goutam Bhattacharya (SUCI), Nathuram Biswas (CPIML, Janashakti), Sreedhar Mukherjee (CPIML, New Democracy ) also spoke on the occasion among others.

Nagrakata Police Firing: Fact Finding

On 5 February 2009 a posse of police force, deployed at Nagrakata P.S. in the Dooars (Jalpaiguri District) region of North Bengal opened fire on adivasi protesters and fatally injured at least 2 persons, both leaders of the local unit of Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad (ABAVP), with metal bullets on body line from point blank range. They were shot from behind while purportedly trying to secure the protesters, caught under heavy Tear Gas shelling.

On the previous night, 4 adivasi activists of ABAVP, named in an FIR lodged by Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha (GJMM), were arrested from nearby Naya Saily Tea Estate and taken to Jalpaiguri Kotowali under cover. Since early morning the next day, 5000 strong adivasi protesters, mostly Jharkhandis, gheraoed Nagrakata Police Station and demanded immediate release of the arrested persons. The arrest was believed to be a ploy of the state police administration despite the prior caution sent forth by the Officer-in-charge of the PS in anticipation of adivasi retaliation. Against such mass outrage, the district police administration, willy-nilly, had to succumb to the pressure and agreed in freeing the accused persons. But the delay in bringing them back from Jalpaiguri Town enraged the masses and some of them started pelting stones on the thana building. A large number of young men and women got trapped in the melee. Without resorting to prior lathi charge, the police force opened fire first with rubber bullets and followed by 3 rounds of INSAS bullets. Kailash Singh, a Youngman of 28 years, was shot in his abdomen and Sanjay Kujur of the same age group lost his finger. They were later shifted to North Bengal Medical College and had to undergo surgery. A 5-member State committee team under the leadership of Com. Partha Ghosh rushed to the hospital the same night for ensuring post-operative care. Surprisingly, the police authority has been denying the use of metal bullets till date.

Following this incident of police firing, W.B. State Secretary Partha Ghosh and party Politburo member Com. Kartick Pal addressed a Press Conference at Siliguri and demanded Judicial Inquiry into the highhandedness of the police personnel. The State Govt. was also asked to summon an All Party Meeting towards bringing back peace and amity by putting a stop to the ongoing ethnic clashes between the Adivasis and the Gorkhas in the Dooars region. A strong demand to reopen the 13 closed Tea Gardens of the region was also floated.

On 8 February 2009, a CPIML investigation team under the leadership of Jalpaiguri Party Secretary Com. Subrata Chakraborty visited Nagrakata and talked to the local leadership of ABAVP, the officer-in-charge of Nagrakata PS, the local CPM leader Ashu Sarkar (this CPM strongman has already been accused of instigating communal violence in the area) and some other eye-witnesses of the incident.

During this investigation, it was undeniably revealed that the ongoing ethnic clash was primarily set off over the GJMM demand to include the entire Dooars region under their proposed Gorkha Land area. The prevailing sense of insecurity of the adivasis of the area was first manipulated by the CPM leadership by inciting their popular sentiment against the common Nepali population of the adjacent tea gardens and forest villages. Adivasi Vikas Parishad, an All India NGO network, had been taken into confidence towards perpetrating violence against the Nepalis. Of late 80 Nepali houses were burnt down to ashes only within the purview of Nagrakata PS. But recently the mass outrage had also taken to tasks the CPM leadership and on the day of the police firing Ashu sarkar's house was ransacked and rampaged and he was dragged to the police station by the enraged mob.

While the rulling party's game plan stands exposed, it seems that Congress and TMC's are gaining ground in the electorate by keeping surreptitious contacts with the ABAVP leadership. The Hills and Dooars bandh called by GJMM on 6 February had taken a toll of two lives. Sporadic backlashes are spreading like prairie fire in the entire Dooars region without much control. It may, at any moment, take a massive riot proportion to the detriment of the peace loving people of Dooars and the Hills. Emergency preparation to quell the tensions is underway to take out citizens' unity rallies in Siliguri and other troubled areas of Dooars region under the active initiatives of our party activists.

AISA Flags-off its February 5-20 Countrywide Campaign

All India Students’ Association (AISA) launched its "Countrywide Campaign For Student Rights" in the national capital on 5th February with hundreds of students from JNU, Jamia, DU and IIMC taking to the streets of Delhi on bicycles, registering their protest against the anti-student policies of the UPA government. Carrying colourful red flags and placards with slogans against privatization of higher education, rising unemployment, increasing commercialization and witch-hunting of minority youth, students first cycled all over their campuses and then cycled through Delhi to finally collect for a demonstration and effigy burning of UPA’s anti-student policies at Jantar Mantar. Student leaders from various campuses in Delhi addressed the rally. JNUSU President Sandeep Singh, AISA Delhi State Secretary Rajan Pandey, State Vice President Aslam, AISA DU leader Pooja Bhardwaj, Sucheta De among others addressed the gathering.

This programme flagged off AISA’s two-week long ‘Countrywide Campaign for Student Rights’ from 5-20 February. This programme has been planned with the Lok Sabha elections approaching, and coinciding with the budget session, against the all-out attack on students and youth across the country. In different campuses across the country, students will be uniting against the conspiracy of the ruling governments to commercialize education and cut employment, to crush protests, students unions and campus democracy.

AISA is organizing massive student awareness and mobilization campaigns throughout this period (Feb 5-20 2009) in campuses across the country exposing the anti-student policies of the government. These will include protest demonstration against the Right to Education bill in its present form and the proposal to do away with SC/ST reservations in appointments to faculty positions in ‘premier’ educational institutions in the country.

Uttarakhand: 5 February the students from three districts of Uttarakhand gathered in capital Dehradoon to sit on a massive dharna (sit in protest). The youth of this State too are badly impacted by price-rise, unemployment and terrorism. During the current BJP rule the police has gone berserk and has lathi-charged parateachers, professors, B.Ed.-B.P.Ed trainees and other educational professionals and even sent them to jails. The dharna was addressed by AISA President Indresh Maikhuri whoc said that the indiscriminate attacks on unemployed people by the police points towards fascistisation of the State. The dharna was also addressed by Comrades Kailash Pandey, Pawan Nautiyal, Deepak Verma, Deepak Bisht, Sunita, Gulshan among others.

Massive Response to Bihar Bundh Called by 3 Left Parties

Bihar bundh of 4th February called by the CPI(ML), CPI and CPI(M) received a overwhelming response from the people of the State making the bundh a complete success. More than five thousand bundh supporters across the State were arrested and dozens of CPI(ML) leaders including State Secretary Nand Kishore Prasad, Ramjatan Sharma, Rameshwar Prasad, Krishnadeo Yadav, Saroj Chaubey, Dhirendra Jha, R.N. Thakur, Kamlesh Sharma, Pradip Jha, Murtaza Ali, Anita Sinha, Tota Chaudhary and others too were arrested in Patna while leading rallies. Huge rallies were held in all the Dist. headquarters of Bihar. The bundh in Patna too was completely successful.

The bundh was called against the anti-people, pro-feudal and dictatorial Nitish Kumar Government and in support of the striking State employees. During the bundh huge rallies were held in Patna and major cities of Bihar led by senior CPI(ML) leaders, rail and road traffic were obstructed leading to arrests. At Sasaram and in Nalanda district the police lathi-charged bundh supporters injuring dozens of people. In Patna atleast four different rallies was taken out from different points traveling through different routes. Each of these processions comprised of hundreds of people was led by various leaders of the Party and its mass organizations.

In Siwan more than 2000 bundh supporters were arrested when they had stopped all traffic on rail lines. Here the bundh was led by Party MLA Com. Satyadev Ram. Reports of arrests are also from Panchrukhi in Siwan, Dinara and Sasaram in Rohtash Dist., Bhagalpur, Purnia, Rupauli, Chandi in Nalanda, Biharsharif, Maner, Naubatpur, Nawada and Gopalgunj where people ranging from 50-500 were arrested while taking out marches.

It is noteworthy that just a day before the bundh, huts of hundred Dalit families was raged in Lagma village of Ghashyampur block of Darbhanga Dist. The CPI(ML) State Secretary Com. Nandkishore Prasad strongly condemned the incident and has described it as an example of Nitish Govt.’s development model

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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