In this Issue
The Government Must Not Be Allowed to Subvert the Supreme Court Order against Wastage of Foodgrains
Recent Supreme Court orders asking the government to take urgent steps to stop foodgrains from rotting away in godowns by arranging, if necessary, free distribution of grains among the hungry have once again exposed the callous response of the state to the shame of public hunger. ‘Food security’ was a key promise of the Congress during the 2009 Lok Sabha election – but the government has been delaying any legislation on this score on the plea of lack of rains and resultant crop failure. Meanwhile food inflation has been raging at a record 12-20% for most of the year, pushing more and more people into the vortex of starvation. And precisely at this juncture we have this shocking spectacle of foodgrains rotting away in makeshift godowns and the poor going hungry in their millions.
On July 27, the Supreme Court took notice of this absurd situation and asked the Office of the Supreme Court Commissioners monitoring the implementation of various food-related government schemes to submit a report on the wastage of food grains. The Commissioners (Dr. NC Saxena and Harsh Mander) submitted their report on 10 August terming the monumental wastage a case of genocidal negligence and appealing to the Supreme Court to fix accountability on the highest levels of central and state governments and direct the Union of India to “immediately issue the foodgrains to all the poor, marginalised and food-deprived families and individuals in the country”. Against this backdrop came the recent Supreme Court orders of August 12 and 31.
The Commissioners’ report noted that the volume of foodgrains held by the state had crossed 60 million metric tonnes (MMT) in June 2010, next only to the all-time record of 64.83 MMT in 2002. Of this, more than 17.68 MMT were lying in the open – an all-time record – thanks to the FCI decision to de-hire covered storage capacity of roughly the same quantum during 2004-06. So more than extraordinary procurement, it was a case of short-sighted foodgrain management and the crisis of the FCI system of storage. And this crisis of storage finds its matching complement in the crisis of distribution, the utter failure of the so-called ‘targeted’ PDS. While the deepening agrarian crisis casts a dark shadow over the production of foodgrains, endangering food security and sovereignty, the “genocidal negligence” of the state on the procurement, storage and distribution front thus continues to push the poor into chronic hunger.
The UPA government’s first response was to term the Supreme Court ‘suggestion’ unimplementable. Now that the Court has reiterated its position, describing it as an ‘order’ and not a mere observation or suggestion, the government has promised to release additional foodgrains to the tune of 2.5 million tonnes for BPL households. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has also recommended that the government should preferably stop distributing subsidised foodgrains to the APL population. The Court would like to limit the PDS exclusively to the BPL population, but it has not shown the same degree of sensitivity and seriousness to the BPL muddle – gross underestimation of BPL population as well as serious irregularities in identification of BPL households resulting in large-scale exclusion of the poor from various BPL benefits – as it has shown in the case of rotting foodgrains.
Even a belated adoption of Tendulkar committee figures will not really resolve the BPL fiasco. The Tendulkar committee figures are only marginally higher than the ridiculously low Planning Commission estimates – in sharp contrast, the latest UNDP report has estimated 55% of Indians as BPL while three years ago the Arjun Sengupta committee found 77% Indians surviving on a daily budget of less than Rs. 20. And since then the purchasing power of Rs. 20 has been drastically eroded by the relentless onslaught of escalating prices. It is time the Supreme Court directed the government to clear the BPL muddle by automatically including all rural labourers, small peasants, artisans, unorganised and casual workers and urban toilers.
Indeed, the Supreme Court has been dealing with this ‘right to food’ case since April 2001 and scores of interim orders have been issued till date. Over these years, successive governments have launched a plethora of ‘targeted’ food-related schemes, yet the problem of chronic hunger remains as severe as ever. Out of 88 countries studied by the International Food Policy Research Institute, India is ranked 66th in the Global Hunger Index, behind countries like Sudan, Cameroon and Nigeria! The more the Supreme Court and the governments talk of ‘targeting’ the poor, the more the poor find themselves excluded, and the shadow of mass hunger gets ever longer and darker. If the Supreme Court really wants to promote the right to food, it must look beyond the narrow framework of ‘targeting’, into the deeper dimensions of mass poverty, hunger and malnutrition.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court order has evoked a whole array of elitist neo-liberal responses. Former Speaker and expelled CPI(M) leader Somnath Chatterjee has described the Court order as a case of impractical activism, a clear instance of the Court exceeding its jurisdiction. Economist Kaushik Basu, who is the government’s chief economic advisor, sees the solution in export. If the foodgrains cannot be stored in India, they should be exported now and imported later, if necessary. Indeed, the government has been following this course of action, even to the point of exporting foodgrains at rates cheaper than the PDS only to import later at inflated prices.
Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, consulting editor of The Economic Times, has come up with the most spectacularly elitist of all solutions – he says the poor should be supplied such food as will be refused by the rich. He calls it ‘self-targeting’, and as an example he suggests replacing rice with fortified flour of some coarse grain like jowar or bajra for the poor. “A right to rice is conceptually like Marie Antoinette’s right to cake,” says Aiyar, adding “If necessary, India can export rice to finance imports of twice as much coarse grain.” recommends Aiyar. The Supreme Court order has clearly inspired these ‘economic reformers’ to come up with their modern-day neo-liberal ‘Manu Samhita’ for the poor in the name of revamping the PDS.
These opinions are no aberration; they reflect the policy orientation of the ruling establishment. By all accounts, the Supreme Court order will be sought to be used as a handle to further truncate and dismantle the Public Distribution System, limit official procurement and promote speculative private trade in foodgrains, all in the name of saving foodgrains from rotting in FCI godowns. While welcoming the Supreme Court’s sensitivity against the government’s ‘genocidal negligence’, we must therefore insist on food security in a comprehensive sense – pressing for both greater production and greater procurement of foodgrains on the one hand, and subsidised supply among all food-deficient and low-income sections on the other.
AICCTU’s Press Statement
Historic strike - Working Peoples' "No-confidence Motion" against UPA-II
7 September, 2010, New Delhi- All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) congratulates and warmly greets the working class and the millions of toiling masses for making the 7th September all India General Strike a historic success. The message of this unprecedented strike, virtually turning into another Bharat Bandh, is loud and clear- the working people have totally rejected the pro-corporate, pro-globalization policies of the central govt. and have expressed their "No-confidence" against UPA-II.
Nearly 10 crore workers and employees of the country ranging from organised to unorganised sector, from most modern and skilled to contract and rural labour participated in this strike called by 8 Central Trade Unions, namely AICCTU, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, UTUC and INTUC and the federations of different categories of workers and employees against price rise, particularly food inflation; blatant violation of labour laws and attack on labour rights; disinvestment in profit making public sector; retrenchment, layoffs, closure, job losses and contractualisation, along with the demand of adequate allocation of Central fund for implementation of social security schemes for the unorganised labour in the country.
Swapan Mukherjee, General Secretary
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September 7: All India General Strike Report
JHARKHAND: Central Coalfields (CCL) area witnessed overwhelming response from workers to strike that brought production, despatch, transportation etc. to a total stop and only 20 percent attendance was registered. A group of INTUC (Dadai group) and BMS opposed the strike in Bermo CCL area but failed in forcing the workers at Jarangdih and Kathara to join duty. In Steel (Bokaro) the strike was quite successful. Many districts of Jharkhand were paralysed as non-gazetted employeed federation had called upon the employees to make strike successful. The unorganised sector workers too participated jointly and under the banner of AICCTU.
Mugma coalfield area of Eastern Coalfields (ECL) except 2 mining areas also witnessed total strike. In Dhanbad's BCCL area 10, 11 and 12 where we alone participated, strike was successful. INTUC did not participate. IN Dhanbad BCCL where mainly AICCTU and CITU participated strike was almost complete. Here JVM, JMM and BMS opposed the strike. In Bokaro INTUC and a section of HMS supported the management, however, most TUs including AICCTU, CITU, AITUC, UTUC, section of HMS participated. A section of contractual labourers also went on strike.
BIHAR: So far brief reports have come in of successful rallies and strike programmes in Patna, Gaya, Jahanabad, Vaishali, Purnia and Bhagalpur districts. The Administration in Bihar tried to prevent the rallies and strike programmes everywhere citing the coming into force of model code of conduct with the announcement of schedule for the Assembly elections in Bihar. Despite this our comrades and workers were successfule in going ahead with their declared call.
In Patna 3 rallies were held- at Phulwarisharif, Kankarbagh- by the Building Workers' Union and in Patna city from AICCTU State Headquarters to R Block led by Comrades RN Thakur, Ranvijay and others. In Gaya AICCTU State President Com. Shyamlal Prasad and Sudama Prasad led hundreds of workers in a rally which later culminated into a public meeting. InJahanabad too hundreds of workers led by COm. Mithilesh Yadav took out a rally. In Bhagalpur Building Workers' Union held a big rally and supported by AISA comrades who also took out a rally. Rallies were also held in Biharsharif and Muzaffarpur.
KARNATAKA: AICCTU’s week-long campaign in Bangalore, preceding the all- India strike, was impressive and colourful. It began with the distribution of tens of thousands of leaflets and putting up thousands of posters all over the city. The campaign focused on two major centres of global capital – Whitefield, which houses scores of IT companies in its IT parks, and Electronic City.
In Whitefield, street corner meetings were held at 3 centres from 1st September onwards. Plus, 2 public meetings were jointly organized with CITU. On Sept. 6, a joint-bike rally was held from Krishnarajapuram to Hope Farm. The rally culminated in a public meeting at Hope Farm and was addressed by Com. Somu, District Secretary of AICCTU and Narayan Swamy, VP. On Sept. 7, hundreds of workers marched on the streets of Whitefield to enforce the strike shouting slogans against the capital and anti-worker policies of the central and state governments. Hundreds of factories that were running on the day of the strike were forced to down the shutters. The factories closed by agitating workers range from garment units to readymix concrete manufacturing companies. IT concerns were not an exception to the forced shut down. Some multinational companies declared compensatory holiday fearing the workers anger reflected in the course of campaign.
The rally to enforce the strike that began at around 7.30 AM from Garudacharpalya culminated in a Rasta Roko at Hoody Circle around 2 PM. The meeting was addressed by V Shankar, National Vice President of AICCTU, and Gopal Gowda, District President of CITU, and presided over by Muniraj, secretary of CITU. Com. Shankar called upon workers to intensify struggles in coming days and declared that the strike is only a warning to the capitalists and the powers that be at the centre and the state. He also said that the strike has once again underlined the fire-power of the proletarian class in the era of globalization and modernization that claim to replace the manpower.
Overall, AICCTU has emerged as a force to reckon with in the region of new economy industries.
At Electronic City too, a vigorous propaganda campaign was held to reach out to thousands of workers in Bangalore – Hosur Industrial belt. This assumes significance in the context of registering our presence in one of the longest industrial belts in the country, locally known as Electronic City. The propaganda meetings and the campaigns evoked good response.
On the day of strike, hundreds of workers along with AITUC members enforced strike in Veerasandra industrial estate in Electronic City and proceeded to join thousands of agitating workers of all the trade unions at Bommasandra. The public meeting held at the end of the rally was addressed by Com. Appanna, District President of AICCTU, Manjunath, CITU leader, Kotekar, AITUC leader and Shivananda of MTR industries.
The district committee of AICCTU that was formed few months ago has performed to its maximum potential. In the run-up to the campaign, an area committee of Bangalore – Hosur belt has also taken shape and has functioned independently to make the strike a success.
Gangavati: Strike notices were issued to various rice mills in Gangavati region and the militant rally on Sep 7 that criss-crossed throughout the town was well attended by hundreds of rice mill workers and unorganized workers of various sectors. The propaganda campaign was extended to nearby taluks as well.
HD Kote, Mysore: Hundreds of AICCTU workers demonstrated in front of taluk office and submitted memorandum to tahsildar on the demands of workers. The demonstration was addressed by Com. Javaraiah, State Secretary of AICCTU, Mallikarjuna and Nanjunda of our construction labour union and Kempuraj.
TAMIL NADU: AICCTU took up preparations for the all-India strike well before a month, released 4 lakh pamphlets, ensured involvement of thousands of workers in the preparations, went for a signature campaign on the issues raised for the general strike and included our specific demands too.
AICCTU participated in the All TU strike in TN in 17 centers. In Coimbatore, Tiruvallore, Tanjore and Tiruverumbur AICCTU led the protest with the largest contingent. In Tiruvottiyur, as a result of our consistent efforts also, MRF workers participated in the strike. This is the only factory which went on strike in Tiruvottiyur.
In Ambattur, export garment women workers of Bombay Rayons participated in the strike and this is only garment factory in this area which went on strike. Among Murugapa group of companies only TIDC workers, where we have our union, went on strike. In Tirunelveli, AICCTU enforced the strike among thousands and thousands of Beedi workers.
In Sriperubudur – Irungattukottai area, ours was the only central TU, which took up propaganda for strike and sought support for the strike.
PONDICHERRY: On the eve of the all-India general strike, all the central TUs who were part of the strike call campaigned in all urban and rural areas of Puducherry on 4th and 6th September. The Campaign was very effective in the industrial areas of Puducherry.
On 7th September rasta roko were held at nine important locations in Puducherry region, namely Puducherry town (3 places), Ariyankuppam, Villianur, Bahur, Karikalampakkam, Madagadipattu, Thirukkanur. All the affiliated unions of AICCTU went on a total strike. We led our rallies in five places. Our participation was very effective especially in rural areas. In Puducherry town rasta roko was jointly led by Com. S Balasubramanian, President and Com. S Motilal, State General Secretary of AICCTU. The state government employees, BSNL, and insurance and Bank employees went on strike.
There were many number of rallies and demonstrations conducted by State Government and Central Government employees. Generally the strike was very successful in industrial areas and the public sector employees.
UTTAR PRADESH: The UP unit of CPI(ML) and AICCTU congratulated the workers, employees and common man for successfully implementing the all-India general strike. Citing the four successive strikes in last five months (27 April, 5 July by opposition parties and 7 July Agricultural Labourers’ rural strike by AIALA & AIKS) it said that there is now a mercurial rise in people’s anger against the pro-corporate anti-people policies of the UPA as well as several state governments.
In Lucknow, Construction Workers’ Union and Scooters India Kamgar Union affiliated to AICCTU participated in the strike. A demonstration was held at DLC office by workers and construction workers. AICCTU held a Mazdoor Rally in Gorakhpur. AISA activists took out a cycle rally from BHU gate in support of the strike that culminated at Bhelupur LIC office where workers mass meeting was on. Sanitary workers’ union affiliated to AICCTU in Allahabad participated in the strike. In Kanpur unorganised sector workers too participated in the strike and activists of AICCTU and other central TUs along with rail workers held up the Lucknow-New Delhi Shatabdi train at Kanpur Central Station. In Sitapur hundreds of CPI(ML) members held a rally in support of the strike. Hundreds of CPI(ML) members and activists demonstrated in Khiri and Pilibhit districts. In Ghazipur CPI(ML) activists sat on dharna in front of the Dist. HQ.
UTTARAKHAND: In the run up to the strike new consolidation on AICCTU front was seen. A big mobilisation took place in Haldwani where state-level leadership of almost all TUs were present. Apart from the employees of bank and insurance sector, employees of few factories and TU leaders from ministerial services also were participating in the strike. Enforcing closure of many establishments the workers assembled at Buddha park. From there the rally marched to SDM Court. Apart from TU leaders Satyaprakash from CITU, SBI Union (NC Khulbe), KN Sharma of Patiala Bank, CPI(ML) State Secretary Raja Bahuguna and BS Jangi of Kisan Mahasabha also addressed the rallyists. Programme was conducted by AICCTU State in-charge KK Bora. In Udhamsingh Nagar and Pithoragarh our comrades participated in the strike.
RAJASTHAN: Rallies were held and roads blockaded in various districts of Rajasthan like Jaipur, Jhunjhunu, Udaipur, Banswada, Pratapgarh, Ajmer and Kishangarh independently by AICCTU as well as part of the joint action.
DELHI: AICCTU and its affiliated unions held several independent rallies and marches to enforce the strike in industrial zones of Delhi. Our biggest concentration was in Wazirpur Industrial Area where hundreds of workers led by AICCTU leaders Santosh Rai, Mathura Paswan, Munna Yadav, RP Singh and AISA leader Ravi Rai took out a large rally which was regularly joined by workers from where the rally passed.
In Noida a ten km long rally was held by the Rickshaw Union and Street Vendors Association under the leadership of Com. Shyam Kishore. In Patparganj, it was an off day so the Industrial area was closed. However, dozens of workers led by Com. VKS Gautam took out a rally. IN Bhorgarh Industrial Area in Narela, mike campaign and leaflet distribution was done.
3 thousand workers of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) held demonstrations in which our Union DTC Workers’ Unity Centre was quite prominent and the BMS abstained from it. The DTC workers supported the all-India strike through this action.
Strike was total in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. Further reports of these states will be published in the next issue.
AISA Intervention Results in Crucial Delhi HC Verdict on OBC Reservations
In a historic judgment delivered on 7 September, a bench of the Delhi High Court comprising Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw held that the JNU's definition of 'cut-off' in implementing OBC reservation is legally untenable, and upheld the position (argued by AISA right since the first phase of implementation of OBC quota) that 'cut-off' should be defined as minimum eligibility and relaxations for OBC admission-seekers should be calculated from this minimum eligibility mark, not from the mark secured by the last-selected general category candidate as was being done by JNU. The HC, in passing this verdict, ruled that the two OBC student petitioners if found to have been denied admission due to this faulty implementation of the cut-off, must be given admission and compensated for the unjust denial of admission.
Through this deliberately faulty definition of 'cut-off', JNU had effectively scuttled the implementation of OBC reservations for the past three years, steadily denying eligible OBC candidates admission and turning the OBC seats into general seats. Since 2008, AISA had raised the matter of distorted implementation of OBC reservation painstakingly through a variety of forums, within and outside JNU, through protests and other initiatives, backing the arguments with admission data recovered through RTI. Several JNU faculty members and progressive individuals have impressed upon the JNU Administration the injustice and incorrectness inherent in their interpretation of the Supreme Court verdict on OBC reservation. The JNU Administration chose to overturn all voices of sanity and instead compromised JNU's credibility by giving legitimacy to a 'legal notice' served by an openly anti-reservation outfit, YFE. It is also telling that in the High Court, the MHRD shamefully sent its own legal representative to back up JNU's mischievous and deliberately discriminatory position in Court.
The HC verdict establishes, on firm legal ground, the fact that non-fulfillment of seats reserved for OBC candidates in JNU was not due to the absence of meritorious candidates, but due to the willful misinterpretation of the orders of the Court and the relevant directives of the MHRD by the casteist JNU Administration.
AICCTU’s Industrial Area Annual Conference in Delhi
AICCTU held its Wazirpur Industrial Area Conference on 18 August at Comrade Chandrashekhar Hall. Prior to the formal beginning of the Conference a march was also held in the industrial zone raising slogans for implementation of minimum wages, curb price rise etc. Workers and delegates stood in silence for two minutes to honour and remember the martyrs to begin the Conference.
Conference was inaugurated by AICTU’s Delhi General Secretary Com. Santosh Rai and work report was presented by Com. RP Singh. Comrades participating in the discussion following the work-report stressed on the near impossibility of implementation of minimum wages and labour laws without wider mobilization and resistance struggles of the working people.
Comrade Mathura Paswan conducted the proceedings and comrades Kavita Krishnan, Ravi Rai and NM Thomas (AICCTU’s Delhi President), Ardhendu (President, Kamgar Union) VKS Gautam and Munna Yadav addressed the Conference. About 150 delegates and guests including a significant number of women comrades were present. The Conference elected a 17-member executive and 9-member office bearers. CPI(ML) State Secretary Comrade Sanjay Sharma summed up the discussion and tasks ahead in concluding remarks.
Memorial Meeting for Girda
Jan Sanskriti Manch organised a memorial meeting at Rajendra Bhavan in New Delhi on 4 September to pay homage and remember and uphold the legacy of Girish Chandra Tiwari ‘Girda’, people’s poet from Uttarakhand. The meeting noted that his songs and poetry will always inspire the Left and progressive movement. An audio-visual collage prepared by Rohit Joshi was also displayed at the occasion. Girda’s long term comrade and social activist Shekhar Pathak reflected on his life and works. Girda also translated the works of important cultural figures like Faiz, Brecht, Nazeer Akbarabadi among others. Veteran social activist from Uttarakhand, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Vimal Prasad of Rajendra Prasad Academy and veteran human rights activist Rajendra Dhasmana also presented their views.
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