In this Issue
Asserting People’s Issues: Above the Clamour of Crorepatis, Communalists and Corporate Media
The media poll pundits have already declared that there are “no issues” in the 2009 Parliamentary polls. At the same time, the corporate media houses have launched campaigns seeking to ‘awaken’ middle and upper class voters. These media houses have been awash in self-congratulation at their success in mobilising this class of voters – the only class, they imply, which is capable of making Indian politics clean and meaningful, because it is not a ‘vote bank.’ Slumdogs, they rue, are even willing to sell their kids, so their votes are suspect – while sheer wealth places corporates and crorepatis above corruption.
The Congress made the Slumdog Crorepati’s ‘Jai Ho’ tune its election theme song; but the fact is that it’s crorepatis who constitute a considerable section of its candidates in this election. In the second phase, the Congress has highest 65 crorepati candidates followed by BJP [46], BSP [28] and SP [16]. According to declared assets (usually falsified to appear less vast than they really are), there were 193 crorepati candidates in the first phase and 288 in the second phase. In Karnataka, reportedly, one in every four candidates is a crorepati. In Maharashtra, 12% of candidates are crorepatis. In Orissa, no less than 27 candidates mock the poverty and hunger of its poor with multi-millionaire bank-books. As it is, even in times of economic crisis, it is crorepatis who can sing ‘Jai Ho’ since they continue to feature in lists of the world’s richest people.
We also have the venom of communalists to contend with. Ads for Advani-as-PM show him flexing his muscle and lifting dumbbells in a gym: a crude proclamation of his ‘strength’ and machismo of Advani, Hindutva and their promised ‘hard state’. The realities of communal pogroms are sought to be forgotten.
The media made much of Maoist violence on the first day of polls – projecting it as an attack on India’s exemplary democracy. The fact, however, is that the Maoist attacks and ‘boycott’ calls, too, were part and parcel of the mainstream of Indian parliamentary democracy: in most places, such attacks only facilitated the booth-capturing efforts of one or the other ruling class formations. Events prove, time and again, that India’s parliamentary democracy is a highly biased and unequal playing ground. Maoists have no monopoly on poll violence. The murder of a Dalit candidate in UP – after he defied threats by the BSP candidate (a notorious upper caste feudal mafia) and refused to withdraw from the contest, is one instance (the latest, incidentally, in a series of crimes and killings by BSP leaders). While Varun Gandhi gets bail and is allowed to contest and campaign in spite of threatening to chop off heads and hands of Muslims, Dr. Binayak Sen, jailed on zero evidence on the charge of abetting Maoists, continues to be denied bail inspite of his failing health. In Purnea (Bihar), Pappu Yadav, convicted for the murder of CPI(M) MLA Ajit Sarkar, has been barred from contesting. But the Congress has given his mother a ticket, and he has been released on bail to campaign for her – thereby posing a direct threat to Comrade Madhavi Sarkar who is CPI(ML)’s candidate. In Robertsganj, the nomination of CPI(ML) candidate – leader of adivasi struggles for land and forest rights, Comrade Jitendra Kol – is cancelled on the spurious and untenable ground that two of his proposers (illiterate adivasis) used thumb impressions. The CPI(ML)’s subsequent poll-boycott protest in Robertsganj was one that relied on raising the consciousness of the people and on people’s agency rather than intimidation, took the form of parallel polls in which people voted with thumb-impressions.
The challenge in this election is to make the voice of the people heard above the clamour of crorepatis, communalists and corporate media. It is gratifying that a shoe-missile succeeded in making communal violence a poll issue and forced the Congress to withdraw two candidates accused of killing Sikhs in the 1984 pogrom. Modi, murderer of Muslims in Gujarat, is reportedly worried about shoe-missiles and is addressing rallies from behind net barriers.
Another burning issue which progressive forces are raising in the elections is the Indian Government’s response to the war of Tamil people in Sri Lanka. With the Sri Lankan military intensifying the bloodbath of Tamil civilians in that country, there is anger and outrage in India at the cynical manipulation and double-speak of parties and governments on this issue. Congress is virtually justifying the massacre by speaking of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination – but why should Sri Lankan Tamil civilians pay with their lives for that assassination? The DMK and AIADMK are both vying to champion the issue. But the DMK’s rhetoric is exposed by the fact that while a partner of the UPA Government, it did nothing decisive to force the Indian Government to intervene effectively. The CPI(M) General Secretary has rightly said that had the UPA Government spent a fraction of the energy wasted on the Nuke Deal in addressing the Tamil question in Sri Lanka, it could have made a big difference. But the question is: what did the CPI(M) do towards forcing the Government to intervene in the four years in which they supported it? Today, CPI(M)’s ally Jayalalitha, is sharing a dais and shedding crocodile tears for Tamils along with MDMK leader Vaiko – the same Vaiko whom, during her own tenure as Chief Minister, she had jailed under POTA for his alleged support to the banned LTTE.
Media stories declaring that there are “no issues” in this election do concede that “local issues” (which they disparage) are evident. The fact is that these so-called “local” issues are usually issues of hunger and unemployment – the twin burning issues that are universal across India. However much ruling class parties try to put a brave face and deny these issues, the fact that most of them have been forced to include subsidised food-grains and expanded NREGA as part of their manifestoes – a tacit admission of the spectres of hunger and joblessness that haunt this election. The CPI(ML)’s election campaign is boldly striving to assert these issues in the election and ensure that voice of opposition on the streets reverberates in the Parliament too.
Arrah Election
In Bhojpur, it was (hu)manpower battling against money and muscle power in the district. For the Dist. Party Committee, the election was a continuation of ongoing struggles. Movements for inclusion of all poor and agricultural labourers in BPL list, jobs under NREGA and setting up paddy procurement centres for farmers continued right-up-to the days of election announcement. This is one crucial reason why the ruling class parties were not successful in their attempt to hijack the basic issues of people and instead thrust upon them superficial issues while campaigning for Arrah seat.
Due to delimitation of constituencies the Arrah Parliamentary seat now only comprises of area falling under Bhojpur dist. Assembly-level committees had been formed prior to the election which helped achieve an impressive campaign in comparison to other parties. The late Ramakant Dwivedi Ramta was not physically present amongst us , but his lyrics and songs sung and presented by artists of Hirawal reverberated forcefully in nooks and corners of towns and villages of Arrah. The CPI(ML) candidate Arun Singh received widespread support as the only one whose purpose in contesting is not to procure a license to loot. JD(U) had given Meena Singh, wife of ex-MP Ajit Singh as its candidate from Arrah. After her husband’s death she had won the Bikraganj by-election. In this election a leaflet from the people of Bikramganj constituency came out against her addressed to the people of Arrah constituency. Meena Singh is daughter-in-law of Tapeshwar Singh, who’s regarded as the head of ' co-operatives mafia.' The fact that the money being spent by her in this election is the wealth looted from the peasants and farmers in the form of taxes of cooperatives was received with anger by the people of Arrah. If their efforts of polarising votes along caste lines could not succeed the fact behind this is that now even the rich farmers after poor-middle peasantry are bearing the brunt of anti-farming economic policies of these parties. In the hope of this kind of polarisation and support of RJD’s social base the LJP brought Rama Singh from Hajipur and made him candidate from Arrah. Maner, which before delimitation accounted for one-third of RJD’s vote share has gone out this time from the Arrah Parliamentary constituency. RJD gave this seat to LJP fearing chances of defeat. However, as was seen during the campaign and election, neither polarisation of upper caste peasants nor rallying of RJD’s social base happened fully behind LJP. The Congress candidate from here has been involved in defrauding the Food Corporation of India and has amassed huge wealth from that. Taking its cue from the JD(U) and LJP the BSP too fielded Rita Singh in an attempt to appeal to feudal feeling .
Arrah went to polls in the first phase (16 April). The progressive-democratic intelligentsia and cultural activists also brought out a leaflet appealing to the people of Arrah to ensure victory of CPI(ML) candidate. The Left unity has been welcomed in Bihar and it was evident in Arrah also.
Where ever our candidate Com. Arun Singh went he was welcomed and received warmly and with much enthusiasm. Hundreds of people accompanied him on foot in villages and in town lanes. The political awareness campaign undertaken by the Party during struggle march in February exposing the anti-people policies of UPA-NDA also had its impact in this election. Just prior to the nomination of candidates, wide support of people for us was reflected during intensive mass contact campaign in Bhojpur by the General Secretary of our Party.
On the election day this time the ruling class parties could not find agents for preventing the Dalits and weaker section of people from voting. Those booths where voting percentage used to be 80-90 after being controlled by musclemen and locally dominant sections, this time such booths did not record even the average voting. Arrah recorded only 38 percent voter turn out, but notable fact is that the booths considered to be favourable to us have averaged higher than other booths. The poor have cast their vote everywhere. Women supporters of our Party cast their vote but those of JD(U)-BJP or LJP-RJD were relatively lax in coming out to vote. CPI(ML) campaigned to make victorious the voice of people defeating the forces of loot and oppression.
New Social Polarisation Emerging in Jharkhand
Koderma Parliamentary constituency in Jharkhand had popped a surprise in the last (2004) election and CPI(ML) candidate was the runner up polling more than 2.5 lakh votes. That is why the ruling class parties were in a state of anxiety this time. Babulal Marandi, ex-CM of the State who quit BJP, is the candidate supported by mafia-contractor-money bag nexus and tried to fool the masses by projecting himself as third front candidate. The campaign pitch and appeal of RJD too was not impressive to arouse enthusiasm among its social base. BJP too had its candidate here.
The rank and file of Party took the call of Central Committee very seriously and whole heartedly to focus on this seat in Jharkhand. We were successful in expanding our class mobilization along with bringing closer newer social bases from Yadav, other backward communities and a large and new section of Muslims. Party General Secretary too was present for guiding and participating in grassroots mobilization of the newer bases which also enthused the Party members. There was a series of dozens of public meeting preceded by impressive mobilization. Mass contact programme were held widely for effective propaganda. To broad support that our candidate evoked we sought to translate it into actual votes by giving central attention to the organizational network at the panchayat level. Highlight of the campaign was a motorcycle rally comprising of more than 2500 motorbikes. The rally toured the entire constituency and helped in energizing the cadres. Jan Sanskriti Manch issued two rousing audio tapes and compact disc titled – ‘Voice of Change’ and ‘Battle for Transformation’ which also helped stirring people’s mood further for change. Through these and other propaganda forms we awakened the masses for intensifying the battle against loot-repression regime of UPA and NDA by uniting with CPI(ML) and for building a true people’s block and voice inside the Parliament. This was received heartily and warmly by the people.
Similarly, we contested the Chatra Parliamentary seat after a long time. Here we undertook an impressive and aggressive campaign. In addition to the central campaign slogan here we also raised the slogan of Strengthen CPI(ML) Against Feudal-Communal Offensive and Loot-Plunder. Here too we have made inroads into and gone in deeper interaction with Yadav community and other backward communities. Also, we have been able to attract one stream of CPI(Maoists) and they have now joined CPI(ML). Here too an impressive motorbike rally of 400 youth touring the entire constituency energized the campaign. In Barwadih a large rally of rural poor was taken out led by State Secretary of the Party. Com. KD Yadav addressed public meetings in Latehar. Apart from these there were numerous motorbike and bicycle rallies at the local levels livening-up the campaign.
Our candidate who was earlier a senior-level activist of the People’s War and later Maoist stream, a large social base influenced by him has come closer to us. Even those small groups that usually boycott election supported us in this election.
In Palamu too our campaign was impressive and reached to the masses. In Garhwa we have been able to attract a large section of Muslims. In the first phase our enthusiasm has got a boost by the active support of various social bases and new forces joining us and we hope to continue the trend.
Five Tribal Youth Massacred in Latehar: Height of Police Barbarity
CPI(ML) Fact Finding Team Sent
Barhania village is located in jungle just away from the Barwadih-Mandal road which is 20 km from Barwadih police station in Latehar dist. of Jharkhand. On the morning of 15 April while the CRPF personnel were going to mandal at 6:30 in the morning, a blast occurred at Barhania and a gun battle with the Maoists ensued. At about 7:30, one hour later, the police went to Barhania village and just two policemen rounded up five men and dragged them to the road while beating them simultaneously. These were Sanjay Bodra, 21, who was a BA student in Ranchi, two sons of Soma Bodra – Supay Bodra (18) and Masih Bodra (16), Pitaye Munda (38) and Supai Bodra (20). The villagers told the fact finding team that when the firing stopped two policemen came and took away the five while beating them also. When the policemen arrived in the village the villagers were going about their daily chores of tending to cattles, laying earthen tiles or sending their kids to school. When the family members of those taken away tried to go in the direction where they were being taken, they were prevented by the policemen. People were terrified and suddenly another round of firing sound was heard. At first people thought that the policemen will interrogate them and then they will be released. But till afternoon when they did not return, the villagers marched to Barwadih through the jungle. When they enquired in the Block they were told about some people killed in encounter. When they were finally shown the photographs of the dead bodies they were shocked to find that their children had been killed mercilessly. The villagers immediately lodged complaint to the BDO that the killed persons are no naxals but five innocent men from the village who were rounded up by the police and later shot dead. The dead bodies were lying in Barwadih police station but the policemen did not handover the bodies. After the post-mortem in Latehar Hospital the police declared the bodies to be unclaimed. However, just then comrade Birju Ram, CPI(ML) dist. secretary convinced the doctors to give the bodies to the family members. The Administration was bent on cremating away the bodies instead of giving it to the family members.
The fact finding team comprised of Com. Birju Ram-CPI(ML) State Committee member, comrades Surendra Singh and Suresh Ram- Dist. Committee members, Father Siby –priest of the Church of that area, social activist Victor Kerketta and few others were present.
Later, the Party organised a meeting of the villagers where it was decided to launch a protest movement. While the election campaign was going on the Party called for a meeting of local activists from different parties to intensify the struggle against the massacre. Hundreds of villagers marched to the police station on 19 April and registered an FIR against the killers. Same day Barhania bundh was called by the Party and all traders downed their shutters on their own in protest against the massacre. Also, a march was held by the Party on the same day in Barhania and immediate arrests of all accused was demanded in addition to Rs. Ten lakh compensation to the kin of those killed. A 21-member all-party committee has been formed with social activist Victor Kerketta as its convenor and CPI(ML) leader Kanhai Singh as co-convenor. Ayodhya Prasad is the treasurer for the committee. Party has also decided on State-wide protest against this heinous incident. Dharna and protest demos will be held in different sub-divisions on 21 April and demonstrations will be held at district headquarters on 30th April. If the demands are not met then protest will also be taken to the gates of Governor.
Seeing a general outburst of people after this massacre many political leaders have started shedding crocodile tears. From the local MLA to Namdhari Singh have made visits to the Village but they also cast doubt on those killed, which was protested by the villagers. They mean to say that if the villagers do not have links to Naxals then the incident is condemnable otherwise they will not protest. These politicians never speak of punitive action against accused poliemen and Namdhari is infamous for siding with all police officers responsible for killing innocents in the name of anti-naxal operation. While they also pretend to sympathise with the people. This time we are going all out to expose their true colours.
Farewell to Comrade Dilip Banerjee
Innumerable friends, comrades and close associates bade farewell to the most loveable comrade Dilip Bandyopadhyay on Poila Baishakh (the first of Baishakh or 15th April). A veteran Party member, comrade Banerjee died of an undiagnosed neural ailment turned multiple complicacies including gastro-intestinal disorder on 13th April 2009 at the SSKM Hospital, Kolkata. He was 67. Senior doctors, friends, comrades and relatives left no stone unturned to heal up comrade Banerjee, but in vain.
Comrade Dilip Banerjee, popularly known as Dilipda, represented a rare breed of personality and used to act as a bridge between the Party and large sections of democratic persons outside the Party in Kolkata. He had a rare quality of taking affectionate care of people in distresses. In fact he was like a responsible friend cum parent or brother to others.
Dilipda did his PhD in synthetic chemistry from the University of Jadavpur in the turbulent 70's and got actively involved in the revolutionary movement. In the early 70's he was arrested and faced severe torture in jail.
During the process of party reorganisation in the mid 70's comrade Banerjee again came in touch with the Party. Very affectionate to junior comrades and friends, he played a special role in developing a number of youngsters as Party wholetimers. During underground days he shouldered a great responsibility in providing medical facilities to Party leaders and cadres. In the 70's he was known as Dactarbabu.
Ever committed to communist values, comrade Banerjee always avoided publicity and led a very simple life. Together with his fellow comrades and likeminded friends, he founded Chitrachetana, which produced a few short films in the early eighties based on various movements. These were: Sarkari Santras (State Terror), Boba Yuddha (Silent battle -- based on closed and sick industries), Ashanta Assam (Assam in turmoil). He had a special aptitude in art and culture, particularly in drama, cinema and the fine arts. Apart from being a member of the editorial board of Lok Samachar (the organ of Gana Front, the precursor of IPF in West Bengal) he also wrote in other magazines as art critic and on other topics. After the demise of comrade Arijit Mitra he took charge of Nabanna (organ of Paschimbanga Gana Sanskriti Parishad) as an editor and fulfilled the responsibility till death. He also contributed to Deshabrati (organ of the Party's West Bengal State Committee), Liberation and Nabanna on comtemporary art and culture.
An employee in Indian Paints Association -- an offshoot of Indian Chamber of Commerce -- comrade Banerjee was dismissed from his job on flimsy grounds for building a trade union in his workplace. However, through legal battle he got back his job with full compensation. He always stood by the people and their struggles and against any kind of anti-worker, anti-peasant activities of the ruling class. He was the vice president of General Insurance Worker's Union till death. He was involved in civil liberty movement in WB and built up the PUCL in the State together with late Mr Latif, ex-MLA and eminent lawyer. In the last years of his life he worked as assistant secretary at Indian Chemical Manufacturing Association, Kolkata.
Comrade Banerjee, a bachelor, left behind his widowed elder sister, younger sister and so many friends and comrades. Eminent litterateur and president of Paschimbanga Gana Sanskriti Parishad Nabarun Bhattacharya, Indranath Bandyopadhayay (Joint Secretary, Paschimbanga Ganatantirk Lekhak Silpisangha), Amitava Chakraborty (State Council Member, CPI), Litterateurs Swapnamay Chakraborty, Kinnor Roy, Tarapada Acharya, Swapna Dev, Pachu Roy, mass singer Pratul Mukherjee and Abhijit Basu, eminent personallities like Prof. Mihir Chakraborty, Goutam Sen, Debashis Bhattacharya, Sujato Bhadra, Mohit Roy, Saswati Ghosh, Chandan Ghosh, veteran journalists Barun Dasgupta, Sankar Roy, Pratim Basu, Joydeep Majumder, CPI(ML) politbureau member Kartick Pal, CCM and State Secretary Partha Ghosh, CCMs Kalyan Goswami and Arindam Sen, Deshabrati Editor Animesh Chakraborty and many other party and mass organisation leaders, cadres and friends offered last tributes to commrade Banerjee in a funeral procession that started from State Party Headquaters on 15th April 2009.
Long live comrade Dilip Banerjee!
Long live his dreams!
Obituary :
Iqbal Bano – Sub-continent’s Voice of Defiance against Tyranny
Iqbal Bano, the sub-continent’s beloved ghazal singer, born in India and trained in the Dilli Gharana by the legendary Ustad Chand Khan, passed away yesterday in Lahore at the age of 74.
In the hearts of all who knew and loved her music is the memory of that day: when, in protest against the jailing of Faiz, she sang Faiz’s immortal song ‘Hum Dekhenge’ at a Lahore stadium full of 50, 000 people, wearing a black sari in defiance of Zia’s ban on the sari. As her liquid voice reached the crescendo – declaring ‘That day will certainly come... When these high mountains/Of tyranny and oppression turn to fluff and evaporate/And we oppressed/ Beneath our feet will this earth shiver, shake and beat/
And heads of rulers will be struck/With crackling lightening and thunder roars/When crowns will be flung in the air — and thrones will be overturned....,” people joined with slogans of ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ (Long Live Revolution!). In future years, Faiz would be requested, “Please recite that song of Iqbal Bano’s” – because she had made it her own. Smug Indian commentators like to contrast the supposedly superior democratic culture of India’s people with the supposed passivity of Pakistan’s people – but it is Pakistan that gave us that immortal moment of democratic culture – where thousands of people sang in defence of a jailed atheist and communist poet – who had drawn upon progressive traditions within Islam to confront the zealot Zia.
Iqbal Bano – As the people of the sub-continent confront the tyrannies of their governments, of imperialism and of jingoistic hate-mongering, yours will be the voice that will reflect their unity, their defiance, their confidence that one day, tyranny will be defeated and the people will triumph...
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