People Must Overcome the Real Stalemate

It may be a record of sorts in the history of parliamentary democracy in India if the opposition continues stonewalling both houses of Parliament through the second lap of the Budget Session too. However, elections in five states have already been notified and as such, the opposition does not find it the best opportunity to put up a joint show and challenge the government on the floor of the house. On the other hand, although the BJP, true to its fascist character, would be pleased to do away with the parliamentary system at the first opportunity it gets hold of, for the present, however, it not willing to lose the sanctity conferred to it by the gossiping club that our Parliament is. Therefore, both BJP and Congress are busy only scoring minor points over each other while the stalemate goes on.

Their proclamations to take the matter to the people's court notwithstanding, both sides are no more eager to rush through this exercise with a full-throttled momentum. On the NDA side, wherever they planned to put up a bold or brazen show, the regional constituents invariably shied away, be it TDP, or DMK, or JD(U), or even the most natural ally Shiv Sena. Consequently only the Tehelka accused, the BJP and Samata were left to defend themselves in the main. So they are eager to withdraw the move at the earliest opportunity. On the other side of the fence, Sonia Gandhi too has declined to take it head on, she didn't attend the much publicised Lucknow rally and limited herself to public shows in a few safe citadels, playing palace politics instead. About People's Front, the less said the better. Despite owing its emergence to Tehelka, it has not yet found a worthy occasion to hold a sizeable show of strength on that issue, for understandably they have no intention to launch a powerful and really broad-based popular movement on the question of corruption.

Thus the main issue brought to the fore by Tehelka has been pushed to the margin by both the NDA and the opposition. After all, why our polity has stooped so low to touch the rock bottom of morality where leaders of "national" parties in power like Bangaru Laxman and Jaya Jaitley greedily accept petty grafts and then defend the same in a most brazen way? Is it not that particularly after the adoption of the new economic policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, the act of governance itself is getting so much alienated from the common people that the persons in power have nothing to look at but moneybags?

In a country like ours, since the government has chosen to retract from its public responsibilities, it's role has been reduced to that of a broker of multinationals and domestic big business. Self-dependence is being given a go by in all spheres of public life. The role of state is getting more and more limited to discipline the working class through pro-capitalist labour laws and the people at large through draconian legislations and repressive measures. The whole notion of defence in our country is aimed at keeping the people busy with concerns of security from neighbouring Pakistan and disguising the pro-imperialist economic policies now being adopted for ruining the toiling people of our country. This pretext is being utilised to step up arms race with Pakistan and not the least element of real nationalism is guiding it. Devoid of a moral background behind our national security, kickbacks on arms deals have become a rule rather than exception, as has been shamelessly admitted by many quarters.

However, on this score there is no difference of opinion between the BJP and Congress, nor has it been the bone of contention behind the present stalemate in Parliament. Therefore, sooner or later the stalemate in Parliament will get resolved in this or that way. But the real stalemate that has come to the fore in the wake of Tehelka will continue and only the political assertion of toiling people would have to resolve it. And for that the people must prepare themselves in the long run.

CPI(ML) Condemns Advani for His Statement on Ayodhya

CPI (ML) strongly condemned the statement of Union Home Minister LK Advani on Ayodhya issue and said, "Advani's statement holds a mirror to the government's fascist design on Ayodhya".

Terming Advani's statement as "a challenge to democracy and secularism in the country", the CPI (ML) said, "secular-democratic forces will give a fitting rebuff to this challenge".

Jharkhand Govt. Must Spell Out Its Policy on MCC

12 persons belonging to Village Defence Corps (VDC) were hacked to death and two burnt alive, allegedly by MCC extremists on 14 April in a village of Hazaribagh district. It is ill-boding for Babulal Marandi to witness such a ghastly massacre within less than four months of his rule, but he himself has created a record of police firing thrice on Adivasis and poor people within two months of formation of this new state. In fact MCC had in many places supported the BJP candidates in the last elections (then within Bihar Assembly) and its support to Yashwant Sinha became quite open despite its overtly boycott call. However, after coming to power Babulal Marandi government started hunting MCC extremists. Its belated announcement of a "rehabilitation package" for the "misguided youths" on April 1 was merely an eyewash and the VDCs continued to act as an arm of police in its repression campaign. In this context, Marandi owes an explanation to the people what policy his government really intends to follow in dealing with MCC extremists.

Two-Hour Strike Against Globalisation

On the call of eight central trade unions, workers and employees stopped work for two hours throughout the country on 16 April to protest against Indian government's anti-worker, anti-people policies of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation.

In Bihar, two hour stop work was observed in various factories and institutions. In Patna, workers in NTC, Bata, Patna Dairy Project and in various units of Pataliputra Industrial Area struct work for two hours and raised slogans against globalisation and cut in trade union rights. Two-hour strike was successful in Hajipur industrial area and a mass meeting was held there. Work was also stopped in NCL, Bihta and Fostner Mill, Gaya. "Oust Vajpayee, save the country, save the toilers"were the slogans raised in these places.

On this day, dharna was staged by workers and state/central govt. employees under the banner of Mazdoor Ekta Manch (Workers' Unity Forum) at Income Tax Roundabout. Workers also staged dharna at JP Roundabout near Gandhi Maidan. Workers took out a march under the joint banner of all central trade unions from Reserve Bank near Gandhi Maidan and later held a meeting near Railway Station. It was addressed by leaders of AICCTU, AITUC, CITU, TUCC, UTUC, UTUC(LS) and INTUC.

In Delhi, Karmchari Ekta Manch (Employees Unity Forum) organised a dharna at Jantar Mantar on 16 April. Here, issues of privatisation of DTC, eviction of small-scale industries, and other problems related to Delhi were also raised along with national-level issues of adverse changes in labour laws, disinvestment, Balco, budget, etc. Those who addressed the dharna include Com. Ram Kishan, Convenor of the Manch, RAP Singh, ex-Postal union leader and Mahadevayya of Postal ED Staff Association, NN Thomas of DTC Workes , Satbeer Shramik of Telecom and Dhaniram of State Govt. Health Employees Union.

Workshop on New Economic Policy at Hajipur, Bihar

A workshop was organised on "New Economic and Industrial Policy and its Adverse Impact on Indian Industry, Working Class and Indian Economy" at Hajipur in Bihar on 14-15 April. It was inaugurated by Com. Swapan Mukherjee, Gen. Secy. of AICCTU. The workshop resolved to hold fourth Bihar State Conference of AICCTU, to be held on 14-15 May, 2001at Muzaffarpur, as the broadest possible mobilisation of workers and toiling people against pro-US imperialist globalisation and cut in trade union rights.

Vajpayee Hatao Movement in Bihar

Vajpayee Hatao movement continues in Bihar even amidst the heat of Panchayat elections. On 8 April, street corner meetings were held at various places in Champaran district. The larger meetings at Mainatanr and Sikta were addressed by Com. Ramjatan Sharma, State Party Secy., Nand Kishor Prasad, Party PB member and Virendra Gupta, District Secy. of Champaran. Thousands of people attended these meetings in which demand of resignation of Vajpayee was raised along with appeals to elect CPI(ML)-supported candidates in the Panchayat elections.

Similarly, ten meetings were held in Ballia, four in Cheria-Bariyarpur, one in Chaurahi and two in Teghara areas of Begusarai district. These meetings were addressed by Party CC member Com. Saroj Chaubey.

In Nalanda, meetings were held at Islampur, Ichahaus, Khudaganj, Makarauta, berthu, Rahui, Sarmera, etc., attended by 300 to 1,500 people. These were addressed by Com. Shashi Yadav and Rajendra Patel, State Committee members and other local leaders.

In Jahanabad, similar meetings were held at Kurtha, Baiderabad, Arwal, etc. addressed by Com. Rajaram Singh, Mithilesh Yadav, Kamalesh Sharma, Mahanand, Anita, etc. In Bhabhua district, street corner meetings were held at Kudra, Mohania etc., addressed by Com. Ravishankar Ram, Phula Devi, Vijay Singh, Shakuntala Devi, etc. Similar meetings were also held in Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Sarharsa and Purnea districts.

AIPWA Procession in Delhi

Under "Vajpayee Hatao, Desh Bachao" campaign, East Delhi unit of AIPWA took out a procession on 16 April and burnt the effigy of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Laxmi Nagar crossing. They also raised slogans on the issues of CNG buses, Tehelka expose, criminalisation and increasing incidence of violence on women. The march was led by National Secy. Jita Kaur, Secy. and Jt. Secy. of East Delhi AIPWA Sumitra Sinha and Vibha Gupta.

Bihar Panchayat Elections

The CPI(ML) has expressed strong resentment on widespread violence, boot looting and murders that is going on during Panchayat elections. Around 50 persons have been killed during the two rounds of the Panchayat poll. All the so-called mainstream political parties have become totally dependent on criminals and consequently, the criminals supported by RJD and NDA are suppressing the political assertion by the poor.

Com. Ram Naresh Ram, PB member and leader of CPI(ML) Legislature Party held Basawan Bhagat, Minister for Prisons, and Laxman Bhagat, BDO of Kudhni block in Muzaffarpur responsible for the firing at Kudhni. Revealing that Ranvir Sena men, the main culprits of Nagri massacre (11 May, 1998) in Bhojpur district have been released on the eve of Panchayat elections and a number of them are in the fray, he demanded that an inquiry by a High Court Judge be instituted into this matter.

Agitation on Water Issue in Kolkata

Protesting against severe lack of water supply, people from different walks of life blocked Alipur-Chetla Road in Calcutta on 22 March. Along with South Calcutta Citizens' Forum, women of the area gheraoed the Chairman of No. 9 Borough. The delegation meeting the Chairman included Com. Jayatu Deshmukh, Subhashis Sarkar, Ratan Roy. The Chairman promised to set up a temporary tank.

District Party Conference in Bardhaman

7th Bardhaman District Conference of CPI(ML) was held at Karanda Shaheed Smriti Manch (Maharaj Hall) in Memari on 20-21 April. After the hoisting of party flag by Com. Paresh Banerjee, State Party Secy. Com. Kartik Pal, State Observer Com. Kalyan Goswami and Bardhaman District Secy. Com. Salil Dutta paid floral tribute to the martyrs. Around 88 delegates and 12 observers attended the conference, out of which 27 delegates took part in the debate. A 14-member District Committee was elected and Com. Salil Dutta was reelected its secretary.

Drive of Saffronisation of Education Renewed

The country is now witnessing a refurbished drive of saffronisation of eduation by Sangh Parivar. The Human Resource Development Ministry of Sangh's power-weilding arm, the BJP-led NDA government, has come up with new proposals to modify the syllabi to introduce new Brahminical courses like Vedic Astrology, and attempts are there to make study of Sanskrit compulsory at the pre-university level. At the same time, however, and quite amazingly, these proponents of "Swadeshi" culture have emphasised that Indian students need to be educated with a more "balanced" account of the German history and ethos of Germany as a nation. The point they spuriously want to drive home is that Hitler and Nazism are still popular in Germany. All this is being done in the name of "condemning the secular-leftist bias in education and in institutions of higher learning and research" and "introducing nationalistic and indigenous outlook in the entire educational system".

It is really an eye-opener that on the one hand, Indian students are sought to be taught to look at the world standing on an ancient Indian perspective, an Indian tradition of globalised thinking, and on the other, they are being asked to visualise the problems of Indian society and challenges before the country and its solutions through a foreign perspective.

To accomplish this fascist feat, all educational institutions are being remodelled on Hindutwa lines. Over the last few years, there has been a systematic endeavour to usurp all the socio-cultural institutions that can serve the purpose of achieving their aims. As a consequence, now NCERT can be seen from top to bottom in a saffron attire, in its entire functioning and policy formulations. Indian Council of Historical Research is according priority to Hindutwa-related research subjects. In the meantime Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, University Grants Commission, Indira Gandhi National Centre of Arts, Indian Council of Philosophical Research and National Film Development Corporation, have all been packed with saffron elements, medicore in stature and and corrupt in character. Recently, several incidents of corruption in the Central Institute of Education and Technology, affiliated to NCERT, have also come to limelight. At the behest of the pro-RSS NCERT Director, JS Rajput, more than Rs. 50 lakhs were spent on one so-called "Jeevan Vigyan" Campaign.

Now the Vajpayee Govt. will place this brazenly saffron National Curriculum Framework for School Education before states for adoption, because the states have to agree on its implementation. In the name of value education, spiritual education and indigenous education, the proposed curriculum framework, drafted under the guidance of the HRD Minister, the saffron zealot Murli Manohar Joshi, is loaded with the same sectarian and chauvininstic orientation that was there in the curriculum prepared by Vigyan Bharati Shiksha, another clandestine wing of Sangh Parivar. That time it had to be withdrawn because of the resistance mounted against it by several state education ministers.

More alarmingly, the saffronisation drive is making fast inroads in the field of archeology. The are trying to link the Harappan civilisation with the Rigvedic Aryans and under the government instructions Archeological Survey of India as well as National Museum used the nomenclature "Indus-Saraswati Civilisation" to describe it. This nefarious attempt has rightly raised many voices in protest and eminent Indian archeologists and historians have rejected this nomenclature.

Just listen to what the University Grants Commission has to say in its circular on the notorious attempt to introduce "Vedic Astrology" in Indian universities: "There is an urgent need to rejuvenate the science of Vedic Astrology in India to allow this scientific knowledge to reach the society at large and provide opportunities to get this important science even exported to the world." If Murli Manohar really understood this while he was a teacher in Allahabad University, as he was already a khaki short man those days, why didn't he go to astrologers instead of teaching physics? And why these astrologers couldn't warn his government of tremors of Gujarat, Tehelka and stock market scam? Like all desperate reactionaries, BJP is trying to rewrite the history. But the day is not far off when they will themselves find their place only in its black chapters.

Advani Before Liberhan Commission

After evading his appearance before the Liberhan Commission for long, Advani, the top accused in Babri Masjid demolition case, finally chose to present himself when Tehelka expose have put his own Party and NDA in bad light. He must have felt it was the time to blow hot and cold on Ayodhya while refreshing his Rathyatra days.

Imitating Vajpayee, Advani in his first day deposition before Liberhan claimed that he felt "dejected" on demolition which was a "painful and unfortunate incident", though in the same breath he also justified the demolition saying that the anger of kar sevaks in not being allowed to kar seva on the site adjacent to the disputed structure "swelled and exploded". Advani the Goebbles kept on parroting the RSS theme that no Namaz was offered at Babri Masjid since 1936. He forgot that in 1985-86 judiciary in Faizabad had refused to permit construction of a temple at the outer portion of the mosque on the very ground that since a mosque was situated on the western side of the Ram Chabutara, and that Azaan was offered every day, there was likelihood of communal tension. He also forgot that in 1994, a 5-member bench of Supreme Court had observed "The mosque was demolished by miscreants and they were not representatives of Hindus, but criminals." Revealing his fascist self Advani audaciously claimed that "from 1950 to 2001, what stands there is a temple"; and now "it is a de facto as well a de jure temple". Advani's statement even goes against the statement filed by Faizabad administration on behalf of the state govt. in the court in 1950-51 admitting that the building had remained a mosque and never a temple. Later in 1990, when the BJP state govt. moved to change the stand, it was rejected.

Taking the cue, the RSS hawk Sudarshan has again asked the BJP-led govt at the centre to remove the obstacles in the path of temple construction at the disputed site by 12 March 2002. Another accused Uma Bharati and RSS chief Sudarshan are one in saying that Babri Masjid "was a symbol of slavery and insult to the nation".

At a time when Tehelka fallout indicate that the unity among NDA partners is going to prove short-lived, Advani thinks it is time to revive BJP's old agenda. However, unlike the late 80s, when aggressive Hindutwa plank paid in the wake of Bofors and Mandal, this time it is his Party that is on defensive. In all probability Advani's fascists dreams will turn this time into a veritable nightmare.

Exim Policy for Deindustrialisation

Dismantling of QRs on 715 commodities has started taking its toll. Even before the govt finds a way out to tackle the flooding of dairy products into Indian market, large amouts of varieties of steel products are being dumped at rock bottom prices by foreign steel mills. These countries with devalued currencies are underpricing their products. Domestic steelmakers recall that during the time of global steel recession in the 1990s, India suffered most due to dumping. No remedy is visible except resorting to competing devaluation and the rupee has slided to a record low.

The brunt of exim policy is being borne by the small sector, now facing threat of extinction. Duties on most of the finalised consumer goods are less than 35%, which do not offset the high input costs incurred in domestic manufacturing. However, Indian manufacturers are not fighting against free import because chunks of the upper crust are no manufacturers at all, they are traders who have nothing to loose from the shift of production base and no productive investment to protect. Those who own brand name are not the manufacturers and those who really produce in small scale sector have no brand names or marketing network. Today these traders are turning east for their supplies abandoning Indian small-scale producers. It is these manufacturers who employ 75% of the industrial workers in the country.

Now the greatest threat looms large over textile sector, the largest job provider. 60% of powerlooms remain silent in Bhiwandi, driving lakhs to starvation. First the onslaught of cheap powerloom products had ruined the handloom, now the blow has fallen on the powerloom itself. In Sircila Half of the 12,000 units have already closed down. The remaining are on the verge of closure. In 5 years, weavers' income has fallen down from Rs.5000 to mere Rs.600 per month. According to unofficial estimates, this cruel drama of market forces has driven 400 weavers to commit suicides in the last 15 months in Sircila of Andhra alone. Adding fuel to fire, the budget imposed 16% excise duty on textile SSIs, as demanded by the big business houses. The recent textile policy has removed investment ceiling on garments industries. Most of the brand owners are outsourcing from domestic small-scale sector. Reliance, Birla, Mafatlal, American Du Pont etc. have started making investment in the name of modernising their suppliers of garments and powerloom units. Thus the outsourcing alliances between few big producers and brand label owners controlling wider market network is aimed at capturing the whole textile production chain. Result is unemployment, pauperisation of both workers and small-scale sector enterpreneur, and destruction of huge productive forces.