OVER TO THE PEOPLE! FORWARD WITH THE "SAVE DEMOCRACY, SAVE INDIA" CAMPAIGN!

The only surprising thing about the latest no-confidence debate in Parliament was that the Congress eventually resorted to this weapon. The tremors produced by Tehelka revelations and the outrage caused by the Gujarat genocide merited no-confidence motions long ago. But the Congress had refrained from bringing in the motion probably because it was sure of the fact that the government of the day would survive it quite comfortably. This time round, the numbers were still quite solidly in the NDA's favour, but with elections round the corner the timing was just right in the post-Shimla calculations of the Congress.

In terms of numbers, the BJP indeed survived the vote on the motion with a comfortable margin of 126 votes (312 to 186). The NDA proved intact and the allies from outside, including the TDP and the BSP, did not budge an inch. Ironically, even if the no-confidence vote could not create any fissure in the power equation favouring the NDA, the 'mood of the nation' as reflected in the August 2003 findings of the poll commissioned by the country's leading weekly magazine India Today, has begone to turn quite drastically against the BJP-led 'coalition of the willing'. The opinion poll virtually showed the NDA on its way out with a projected total of 242-252 seats, down by sixty seats from its 1999 tally. Even though the debate failed to adequately mirror this changing 'mood of the nation', it nevertheless provided a damning exposure of the government. The attempt to dispel the dark shadow of the deepening industrial and agrarian crisis with figures of mobile phones, gas connections and kilometers of highway constructed and jobs created through the proliferation of TV channels clearly illustrated the elitist character of this government: a regime of the rich, by the rich, for the rich. At the end of the day, the only defence the government could fall back upon was to invoke the tradition of a 'national consensus' over foreign policy and the parliamentary culture of treating defence-related issues as a holy cow to be worshipped beyond the domain of open scrutiny and public debate.

The brazenness with which the Speaker hushed up a letter produced by an opposition MP which had been written purportedly by Vajpayee to Indira Gandhi at the time of the infamous Emergency pleading for mercy and pledging support to the 20-point programme also went on to expose the increasingly deceptive and hollow nature of parliamentary debate in India. Former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar, the self-appointed 'referee' of the ruling classes and 'conscience' of the parliamentary system gave out the secret when admonishing his fellow MPs and cautioning the Speaker he asked the house: "Can Parliament be run merely on the basis of rules and documents?"

The bourgeois parliamentary myth of a 'national consensus' on foreign policy and treating matters related to the country's defence as subjects beyond the domain of public debate has not been created overnight. It is on this basis that any dissent over India's nuclear policy is automatically termed unpatriotic and anti-national. Anybody questioning the wisdom of an exercise like 'Operation Parakram', the biggest ever peacetime mobilisation of the armed forces which left more dead than the Kargil war and nearly emptied the national exchequer, is dubbed an agent of Pakistan out to shatter the morale of the armed forces. Centrist forces and even sections of the Left, committed as they are to maintaining the sanctity of the bourgeois art of parliamentary deception, have also contributed over the years to the development of this myth. Today the BJP is using precisely this parliamentary myth to further its fascist agenda.

As the no-confidence debate clearly showed, the bourgeois parliamentary opposition to the fascist campaign of the BJP continues to subscribe to and suffer from this myth. Issues like the growing shadow of American pressure on India's defence and foreign policies, the advocacy of a strategic partnership with the US and Israel therefore remained virtually absent while the Congress tried to blame the BJP for underestimating the threat from Pakistan and for not celebrating the anniversary of India's Kargil victory. In short, the Congress once again exposed its inherent inability to offer any convincing ideological-political opposition to the BJP's fascist campaign.

The defence of democracy, secularism and national independence clearly calls for a determined and overwhelming mobilisation of the forces of the India people beyond the parliamentary consensus of the ruling classes. Over to the people. Forward with the "Save Democracy, Save India" campaign. Reports from Bihar...

CONVENTION AGAINST ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY AND MAKING A MOCKERY OF LAW IN

A mass Convention against 'Attack on Democracy and Mockery of Law in Bihar' was organised on August 16 in Patna. This was addressed by Dipankar Bhattacharya as the main speaker besides Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi of CPM, member of CPI State Secretariat U. N. Mishra and State Secretary of RSP Tarakant Prakash.

Comrade Dipankar emphasised the fact that while Bihar is ridden with the rule of criminals and mafia, it is quite encouraging to see that there is a very powerful militant movement against this sorry plight of the state. It was the pressure of mass movements that forced Laloo and state DGP Ojha to send notorious criminal Shahabuddin behind bars. Laloo-Rabri's govt. implements black laws enacted by the Central Govt. against the forces of people's movement while it is busy protecting criminals, feudal armies and mafia in the state. Intensification of the movement for strengthen democracy is the only way to forward towards a new Bihar.

The Convention condemned and passed resolutions against the Kasmara (Purnea) massacre, arrests of Party leaders and activists in West Champaran, implication of CPI(ML) MLA in false charges, and conviction of Party activists under TADA in Jehanabad and demanded to shift Shahabuddin to some jail outside Siwan as well as a retrial of all cases against him outside Siwan. After Convention a march was taken out in support of the call for Bihar Bandh on August 21 which culminated into a mass meeting in front of Patna railway station.

RYA AND CPI(ML) BURN EFFIGY OF COKE AND PEPSI IN PATNA

On 12 August, RYA and CPI(ML) demanded a ban on all soft drinks produced and marketed by multinational companies throughout India in a protest march in Patna and symbolically burnt a 7-ft long effigy of Pepsi bottle. The march started from Old Jakkanpur chowk and reached Income Tax Roundabout where a meeting was held apart from burning the effigy.

MASSACRE IN PURNIA

That dawn of 11 August was the beginning of a day long barbarity for the residents of Kasmara-Jaitola, a small hamlet in Dhamdaha block of Purnea populated by hundred families of tribals. Goons of a feudal-criminal army, North Bihar Liberation Front, encircled the small hamlet in the morning at 7 and started their killing spree which continued till evening and cost more than a dozen precious lives including women and children besides a long list of those who have been injured seriously and are now struggling for their lives in district hospital Purnea.

Poor villagers were punished for their struggle to prevent powerful landlords from occupying their own lands under the banner of CPI(ML). Movement is intensifying in the area for a piece of 85 acres of land which is presently under illegal possession of local landlords Premjit Singh and Ajit Singh.

People running for their lives were brutally shot or thrown alive into flames emanating from their own houses as almost all houses of the tola were set on fire by the killers. Eye witnesses saw killers hiding at least seven dead bodies including two women who fell prey to those killers. Badly mutilated dead bodies of Savitri, who was pregnant, Maragmaya and a teenager Sanjay Murmu, which were brought to district headquarter at Purnea for postmortem were telling the nature and brutality with which this heinous crime was committed. Killers also took away with them all the cattles, ornaments, grains and other precious belongings of the poor villagerslike cycles and transister radios in tractor trollies. Moreover, the killers, who came to the village on jeeps and motor bikes in the morning, continued massacre for a whole day in the village while police in the nearby Dhamdaha police station, with full knowledge of this crime, remained passive and, on the contrary, kept itself busy in scaring and threatening a large number of people who somehow managed to go to the PS in hope that police will save them from the killers. District Magistrate was also present at that time in Dhamdaha.

The killers had assembled in the house of the mukhia of the village Buchchan alias Balbhadra Yadav day before the incident.

The fearlessness of the perpetrators of this massacre was evidently a result of protection provided to them by the police, particularly higher police officials, as well as political petronage they receive from ruling RJD through it's Minister in Rabri Devi cabinet Taslimuddin and from NDA through an ex-MP Jay Krishna Mandal.

District unit of CPI(ML) has taken up a series of protest programmes against this massacre and there will be a massive dharna on August 20. The issue will also be raised during the Bihar Bandh on August 21.

CPI(ML) CC member, ex-MP and General Secretary of All India Agricultural Labourers' Association Rameshwar Prasad also visited the spot along with an investigation team on August 15. The team has demanded action against all the killers, suspension of all police personnel present in Dhamdaha PS, arrest of the mukhia of Kasmara, complete rehabilitation of all affected villagers, compensation and jobs to the family members of those killed, to issue fresh documents of land which have been burnt by the killers and a thorough investigation of the political links of North Bihar Liberation Army.

ADVANI GREETED WITH BLACK FLAG IN DARBHANGA, BIHAR

Four student leaders in Darbhanga have been arrested and implicated under charges of sedition for showing Black Flags to Advani on August 16. AISA activists in Darbhanga opposed Dy. Prime Minister Advani's visit to the town and he was greeted by a protest with slogans like "Advani go back", "Dismiss Narendra Modi", and "We demand permanent solution to the problems of perennial floods and power failures", etc. This incident exposes Laloo-Rabri regime's real face. The peaceful democratic protest against this communal fascist leader met with brutal lathicharge. The forces launching relentless struggle against communal fascists are sent to jail on charges of sedition while it enters into friendly deals with Togadias and Giriraj Prasads and provides them return air tickets. AISA and RYA organised a statewide protest day against this incident of repression on peaceful and democratic protest by the police. A protest march was also held in Patna on the day. The arrested AISA activists are Kesri Kumar Yadav, Ranjit Ram, Santoshanand Yadav and Sonu Yadav.

Arrest of CPI(ML) Activists in Champaran

The CPI(ML) has strongly condemned the incidents of arrests and attacks and raids on it's party offices in West Champaran. The police attacked Party's Chanpatia office and arrested popular leader and Party's State Standing Committee member Comrade Birendra Gupta on August 8. In the same night police attacked Party's Narkatiaganj office and house of another Party leader Sunil Rao and arrested him along with Nazre Alam. The police also raided, ransacked and looted houses of Anirudha Rai in Rasauli and Harilal Patel and Lalan Patel in Behra and arrested both of them. Why this crack-down ?

In West Champaran in Bihar police administration is acting hand in glove with land mafia and smugglers and are targeting leaders, activists and supporters of CPI(ML) who rise in protest against them. The Party launched a powerful movement for minimum wages and against illegal occupation of land by the Estates. It also opposed RJD Minister Purnamasi Ram's involvement in BPL card scam a few months back. Police and administration came out to openly support this nexus of Minister with mafia and criminals. At that time also Birendra Gupta was arrested along with other activists and sent to jail. To nobody's surprise, Laloo-Rabri govt. did everything not only to guard its scam-tainted Minister as well as the land-mafia-smugglar-police nexus but it also let its police free for the crack-down on the poor villagers and the CPI(ML) leaders and activists who dared to rise against these evils!

Protest demonstrations were held at many places in the district and roads were blocked at Sikta and Chanpatia on August 9 in protest of these arrests. A massive dharna was also organised at Motihari and Narkatiaganj on August 11.

MARTYR'S MEMORIAL INAUGURATED

A memorial in memory of martyr Jagatpati, who fell to bullets of the British rulers while hoisting the national flag atop Patna secretariat on 11 August 1942, was inaugurated by Party's CC member K. D. Yadav on August 11 at Kharanti in Aurangabad. Reports from Jharkhand...

MASS CONVENTIONS IN JHARKHAND

August 9, August Kranti Divass,(Quit India Day) was celebrated as "Adivasi Divass"(Tribal Peoples' Day) in Jharkhand. On this occasion CPI(ML) ogranised Mass Conventions and other programmes to highlight the sorry plight of tribals in the state and attacks on basic rights of tribals in the wake of Jharkhand's BJP government's decision to amend Santhal Pargana Tenency Act as well as newer concepts being put forth in the name of 'Greater Village' to facilitate foreign multinationals in the field of agriculture. CPI(ML) has decided to broaden the movement of poor and landless peasants along with various sections of organised and unorganised workers into it.

To this end, a 'Save industry' Convention was organised in Dhanbad on the day which was participated by a large number of workers. This Convention was inaugurated by Party's Polit Bureau member and in-charge of Jharkhand Swadesh Bhattacharya. He strongly criticized BJP govt.'s anti-industry and anti-worker policies which have wrought havoc to the industrial scenario in the state and thrown the workers strarving without jobs despite a very fovourable conditions. Jharkhand, the land of "mother industries" - heavy engineering, steel, energy resources, mines and minerals - have now been transformed into a grave-yard of industries. The BJP govt. did not make any move in this newly formed state for revival of these industries and, on the contrary to people's expectations, is now talking of 'MNC-friendly Export Processing Zones'. He also criticized recent Supreme Court ruling against right to strike. The Convention unequivocally resolved that the "Save Industry" movement must be a protracted and united movement of the workers of all sectors, displaced adivasis, unemployed youth as well as all other democratic forces.

A 'Land Liberation movement' was also launched on the same day in Palamou. Protest demonstration was held before the Commissioner of Palamou rigion to demand the seizure of thousands of acres of land from illegal occupation of various powerful Estates who are getting political patronage from the ruling parties. A 11-point demand letter was handed over to the Commissioner in this regard.

In Ranchi a march to Raj Bhavan was organised to reiterate CPI(ML)'s resolve to widen the movement to defend the interests of tribals, landless and rural poor and criticized the BJP's Arjun Munda govt. for conspiring to curb the traditional rights of state's tribal population through legislations and other means. Marchers handed over a ten-point memorandum to the Governor. A Convention was also organised in Giridih on "Agrarian Crisis and Imperialism". Reports from other States...

Dharna Against Corruption in PDS in Delhi

Delhi State Committee of CPI(ML) held a protest dharna in front of Delhi Secretariat against prevalent corruption in PDS system and providing food items on BPL cards at higher prices. Speakers condemned the nexus of dealers, administration and FSO which siphons almost all materials meant for BPL card holders to the market at higher prices and gave an ultimatum to the Delhi Government to stop this corruption. It was also announced to hold a bigger mass programme on Sep 26 if the demands were not met. Dharna was led by Sunita,Gautam, Santosh Rai, N. M. Thomas and others.

Also in Delhi, the local branch of the CGHSEA Women's Wing held it's 2nd State Conferense on 7 Aug.

Seminar on Agrarian Labourers in Mysore

A seminar was organised on the occasion of the inauguration of the district office of Karnataka Rajya Krushi Karmikara Sangha and Karnataka Rajya Cooliekarara Sangha in Mysore on August 10. Speakers at the Seminar pointed out the fact that agricultural labourers in Karnataka are the neglected lot in spite of a strong dalit and farmers' movement and poor and marginal peasants have become alien to their own land in the wake of globalisation policies. Recent Supreme Court verdict on strikes and legal fallacies of land reform acts in Karnataka were also criticized.

In another programme, "Committee For Human Rights Protection and Against Environmental Pollution" organised a rally at Nanjangud, Mysore, on the day of independence as a critique of the sorry state of our freedom. The rally condemned the anti-people attitude of the government and the pollution control administration and decided to carry forward the struggle in various fora. National Initiatives...

Workers Demonstrate Against SC Ruling

On the call of Central Trade Unions thousands of workers and employees from various sectors staged a protest demonstration in front of Supreme Court against its recent ruling on Right to Strike on August 18.

Representing AICCTU, Comrade Swapan Mukherjee addressed the rally and said that undeclared emergency is knocking at the doors and this has been amply demonstrated by Supreme Court's recent anti-democratic ruling coming close on the heels of Jayalalitha government's draconian steps against striking employees of Tamil Nadu which were later extended to the derecognition of all unions except AIADMK's union.

CONVENTION AGAINST WTO IN DELHI

The WTO-Virodhi Bharatiya Jan Abhiyan (IPCAWTO), a forum participated in by the representatives of Left parties and socialists as well as new social movement groups, held a two-day convention on 7-8 August at Constitution Club, New Delhi against the WTO mid-term Ministerial Meeting going to be held at Cancun in Mexico on 10-14 September. In this meeting, it is apprehended that a new round will be initiated to bring in "New Issues" such as Investment, Competition policy, Government Procurement and Trade facilitation under the purview of WTO. Convenor of IPCAWTO Mr SP Shukla presented an overview of the issues coming up before the Cancun meeting of WTO and their implications. He showed in detail how once "new issues" are brought under WTO regime, the hands of our future governments will be tied and we will lose our sovereignty to decide in public interest. It was demanded that a full-fledged discussion in Parliament and State legislatures must take place and their approval must be obtained before any move is made by Government with regard to sectors of education and health. Issues like implications of services in the WTO negotiations, further opening of Indian markets for foreign goods and the ongoing de-industrialization, implication of TRIPS for health, agriculture & technology development, and "New Issues" were taken up for discussion. The Convention underlined the strong and mutually reinforcing link between the evil forces of communalism and the pro-imperialist forces supporting and furthering the WTO-IMF-World Bank policies. The Convention resolved to fight the twin-danger with the force at their command. A large number of porminent political and acadamic personalities attended and addressed the Convention including CPI(ML) Polit Bureau member Akhilendra Pratap Singh. A statement of IPCAWTO against the Cancun Meet was adopted in the Convention. It also issued a call to make successful the forthcoming march and rally on 26 August in New Delhi to warn the Govt. of India against implications of surrender to WTO in Cancun meet. The march will be taken out from Mandi House to reach Jantar Mantar where a rally will be held. It was also decided to launch a massive people's movement with the co-operation and participation of all political parties and people's movements that are constituents of the IPCAWTO and those who have participated in the Convention. The AICCTU, All India Kisan Sangharsh Samiti and All India Agricultural Labourers' Association have also decided to jointly hold a rally in New Delhi on Sep 13 and to observe a protest day throughout country on the same issue.

In our last issue, some inadvertent errors have appeared under the caption 'Convention on Agrarian Crisis and W.T.O. in Patna' while reporting on what Mr. SP Shukla spoke there. The correct version is: "He told that the GATT was a result of long negotiations between US and Britain during 1941-46 when they multilateralised negotiations to bring in other countries. For long 49 years, till 1995, both US and UK reserved their right for quantitative restrictions to serve their own interests. Moreover, the subsidy to agriculture sector in OECD countries exceeds 360 billion dollars which is many times more than India's total agricultural produce." The error is regretted. - Ed.