Marandi Cannot Save His Skin by Unleashing Terror on the People

On 22 January, the trigger-happy Jharkhand police once again went berserk and killed three people who were demonstrating against the police-criminal nexus outside the Markachcho police station in Koderma district. Not a single month has passed withot such instances of police brutality since Babulal Marandi was sworn in as the first Chief Minister of the Jharkhand state in November 2000. And till date no action has been initiated against the killers in uniform. Advani had rightly declared at the time of inception of the new state that Jharkhand would become an ideal police state.

Giridih is Marandi's home district and it is in the Giridih-Koderma region that the new governmnet is having to face the most sustained and powerful movement of the people under the leadership of the CPI(ML). Defying police repression and defeating the government's attempts to divide the people, the masses have continued to rise in their thousands against various instances of Marandi's misrule. Like every dictatorial ruler who is afraid of his own people and wants to secure his rule by unleashing more and more terror, Marandi too is trying out the worn-out strategy of terrorising the people into silence and submission.

But if the powerful Koderma Bandh of 24 January and the Rajbhavan March of 27 January is any indication, Marandi's terror tactics can only ignite a bigger popular resistance. It is just not possible for the BJP to rule Jharkhand at gunpoint.

Ironically, in neighbouring Bihar, the BJP is trying to wear the mask of democracy to mislead the popular indignation against the reigning police-criminal nexus and its patron, the Laloo-Rabri government. The activists of the pro-democracy movement in Bihar must now ask the loud-mouthed leaders of the BJP to shut up.

Both in Bihar and Jharkhand, the new year promises to be a year of powerful popular assertion for democracy. Revolutionary communists must seize the initiative and make every effort to mobilise the people in ever larger numbers and lead the agitation to newer and greater victories.

CPI(ML) Calls for Jharkhand Bandh on Jan 31 Against Killing of Innocents by Police in Koderma

The Communist Party of India (M-L) strongly condemns and protests the incident of police firing on peacefully protesting people and killing of three innocents at Markachcho PS in Koderma district of Jharkhand on Jan 22 and demands the resignation of Babulal Marandi government, arrest of all police personnel deputed at Markachcho thana at the time of firing that they be punished for committing murder and immediate suspension of DM and SP of Koderma. The CPI(ML) also condemns the police and local administration's attempts to produce a concocted and false version of the incident in order to misguide the people.

The Party held a march to Raj Bhavan in Ranchi on Jan 27 and protested the spate of atrocities being committed by police on innocent people of Jharkhand. This was attended by a huge mass who came to express their anger as well as to build up pressure on the govt. to punish the guilty of this brutality. It was led by Central Committee members Subhendu Sen and Mahendra Singh besides others. Leader of Jan Sangathan Manch Dayamani Barla also led this protest. The protesters criticised the Governor who was not present at the moment despite prior information and refused to give memorandum to his officials, instead, it was pasted over the gates of the Raj Bhavan. It was also decided to call for a Jharkhand bandh on January 31 if guilty policemen were not arrested till that day.

The Party observed the district bandh in Koderma on Jan 24 which evoked an overwhelming and spontaneous response. The bandh was also supported by CPI, CPI(M), Forward Bloc, Marxist Coordination Committee and the RSP. People blocked railway tracks and highways during bandh. Angered people also blocked Grand Trunk road in Dhanbad.

A Black-Day was observed throughout Jharkhand the next day of this incident on Jan 23. CPI(ML) supporters wore black badges on this day and effigy of Marandi was burnt at Bundu, while protest marches, mass meetings, road blockades and effigy burning were organised at Bagodar, Saria, Birni and Raj Dhanwar, Bokaro, Ramgarh, Barkakana, Argadda, Giddi, Koderma, Garhwa, Daltanganj, Barwadih, Lohardagga, Gumla, Dhanbad, Baliapur, Kumardubi and Fusro besides many other centres.

This incident was also protested at Patna on Jan 23 by holding a demonstration and burning an effigy of Jharkhand CM Babulal Marandi. Addressing the gathering on this occasion speakers said that this incident is a product of a well planned strategy of Jharkhand govt. to curb growing people's resistance against police and state repression. While in Delhi, a demonstration was held at Jantar-Mantar and a memorandum was sent to the Governor of Jharkhand through its Resident Commissioner on Jan 24.

The Party has asked the Union Home Minister and the Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission in Delhi to intervene in this matter.

To recall the whole incident, on January 22, a demonstration was being held at Markachcho PS in Koderma district of Jharkhand to protest the rising crime and police atrocities and it wanted to present a memorandum and discuss their grievances with the thana in-charge, Pavan Uraon. When peaceful demonstrators reached to the Markachcho thana and were expecting a conversation, the thana in-charge instead of giving an ear to the people ordered his policemen to start firing without any provocation. Three persons, Mahesh Singh, Ashok Yadav and Ratan Modi, died instantaneously after sustaining bullet injuries while Umesh Barnwal, Garha Singh, Kishor Singh, Baban Kumar, Ram Chandra Yadav, Sushila Devi and Rajesh Singh have sustained grievous injuries and four of them have been sent to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences at Ranchi. The condition of Umesh Barnwal is said to be critical. It has been reported that more than forty five people have been injured. The circumstantial evidences themselves prove that this was pre-planned and police was already prepared to commit such a ghastly crime as no warning was issued, no lathi-charge was ordered, not even a single shot was fired in air to scare the people if they were, as police says, getting violent. Moreover, all killed and injured people have sustained bullet injuries in upper portion of their body and thana in-charge Oraon chased and shot Ashok Yadav at point blank in a school building where he went to escape from the police brutality.

The People's Union for Civil Liberty and AIPRF have also condemned this incident.

BJP's Police State

Police barbarism has surpassed all heights during the tenure of BJP-led Government of Jharkhand. CPI(ML) MLA in Jharkhand Assembly Com. Mahendra Singh said in a statement that since the police firing on the day of Eid in Doranda nearly two years ago, the fact sheet of police excesses itself reveals that the guardians of the law have been resorting to indiscriminate firing on innocents once every 47 days. People are not allowed to enjoy even basic human and civil rights under the Babulal Marandi government. There have been at least a dozen cases of firing on innocent villagers since the formation of Jharkhand. And people of Jharkhand can never forget some of them, like police firing in Tapkara, then in Doranda, Semi Banjari, Bagodar and Bokaro. These are yet to be probed and guilty policemen are yet to be punished, because it is the government that patronises them to serve its own vested political interests.This fact is quite explicit in state BJP spokesman Umashankar Kedia's statement which was issued after Markachcho firing shamelessly defending police action and terming this incident, which claimed three lives and rendered as many as 45 injured, a "chhoti si baat" (a trivial issue).

With increasing democratic resistance by the masses this kind of police repression is becoming the order of the day. As CPI(ML)'s movement is fast spreading in Jharkhand involving lakhs of poor peasants and tribals, police and BJP government's repressive measures are earning more and more notoriety. For the last two years CPI(ML)-led movement continues to march ahead braving state repression and police brutalities. On March 1, 2001 Party General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya was arrested at the behest of Marandi government on false criminal charges when he was leading a big protest march against police atrocities in Ranchi and Party legislator Mahendra Singh was confined to jail in April last year and same was the case with Party State Committee member Raj Kumar Yadav and many others. This incident has once again exposed police brutality in suppressing common people who dare to rise for their democratic rights. And in Markaccho too, where the police unprovokedly opened fire, people had been protesting police's high-handedness and rising incidents of crime in a peaceful and democratic manner.

CPI(ML) Launches "Naya Bihar Banaao" Campaign

The CPI(ML) has launched a statewide "Naya Bihar Banaao" (Build a New Bihar) campaign on Jan 23 in a successful Cadre Convention held in Patna and attended by around a thousand Party activists from all over the state. The main speaker of the Convention was Party General Secretary Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya who reiterated the need to oppose anti-people twin targets, the Laloo-Rabri regime on the one hand and the BJP on the other, in order to build a massive movement to ensure Bihar's development, turn it inot a New Bihar. He said that Bihar needs a '74 like movement in terms of scale and intensity, but at the same time it must be a positive negation of that movement, because that spirit can now be revoked only by overthrowing the renegades of 1974, like Laloo Prasad in Bihar and Narendra Modi in Gujarat. He further added that the 1974 movement failed to provide any model even in terms of government, its only product being a meek and submissive Morarji govt. as an alternative to the Congress. Therefore, in retrospec, re-evaluation of the whole phenomena and basic premises of that movement is definitely needed. Current situation has entrusted us a greater responsibility to build a movement on wider scale by uniting diverse social forces and this can only be achieved under the banner of the Communist Party and the Red Flag. To this end we have to guarantee ideological correctness along with vibrant leadership and good mobilising capacity.

The participant activists came to attend the Convention from almost all 36 districts of Bihar. Bihar State Secretary Ramjatan Sharma opened the Convention with his introductory address and Polit Bureau member and Bihar Legislative Party group leader Ram Naresh Ram presided over it.

The Convention also passed several political resolutions that included a strong condemnation of Markachcho police firing, welcoming people's aggressive mood against Rabri govt. which has patronised police atrocities and crime. It announced to hold a mass convention on 23 Feb in Patna and programmes to protest BJP's attempts to spread communal violence through various outfits of Sangh Parivar and appealed to the people to hold high the glorious democratic traditions and give a befitting reply to its fascist maneuverings. It condemned repression of agrarian labourers of West Champaran; resolved to carry forward the legacy of people's struggles till the dream of a total change is realised; and expressed anguish and concern over rising violence by Ranvir Sena and other feudal and criminal forces, who are working in nexus with the state machinery, particularly in north Bihar and appealed to the people to rise up for bigger resistance movements.

AISA-RYA's Student-Youth March in Bihar

Following a fortnight-long 'Rabri Hataao - Naya Bihar Banaao' (Oust Rabri Govt. - For a New Bihar) statewide campaign in Bihar, the AISA and RYA held an impressive 'Student-Youth March' in Patna on Jan 22 and called for a students' strike on 11 February and a series of other programmes for the coming month. While addressing the march CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya appealed the student-youth to oust the corrupt state govt. through a militant movement that will also wipe out the communal fascist forces in the state. He said that people give their mandates not only through elections but also through mass movements against oppressive regimes, which are more stable than electoral mandates. Presently the situation is ripe to march forward for a more broad-based, militant movement by associating it with aspirations of wide range of people, from rural poor and dalits to urban proletariat to intelligentsia and middle class. Such a movement can bring to the fore forces of change who can build a new, 'People's Bihar'. He emphasised the need for unity of all Left and democratic forces against both RJD-Congress and BJP. He said Laloo is providing the opportunity to communal fascists by hobnobing with the Congress as latter's tainted record in giving grounds to BJP in UP and Gujarat is known to everybody. He added that the movement in Bihar will not only change the face of the state, it will also set an orientation for the struggles for a genuine democracy and Secularism throughout the country.

This march was led and addressed also by CPI(ML) MLA Raja Ram Singh, RYA President Mithilesh Yadav, AISA State Convenor Suraj Kumar and Kamlesh Sharma among others, AISF leader Jitendra Kumar, who expressed solidarity with the movement and appealed for unity of all Left and democratic forces.

Rally Against War On Iraq in Mysore

On 20th January, a rally and public meeting was held against the impending American war on Iraq under the banner of 'Forum against the War on Iraq' at Mysore. The Forum comprised of CPI(M), CPI, PUCL, KRRS (Puttannaiah) and CPI(ML) (Liberation) along with many other democratic forces. The rally was addressed by G.N.Nagaraju, State Secretary of CPI(M), Venkatramu, DCS of CPI, K.R.Basavaraju of KRRS, Major General Vombadkare (Rtd), Prof.Ramdas and Javaraiah from CPI(ML) along with others.

US Strengthens military ties with Nepal

The US administration has, in the course of the last two years, been quietly securing close military and political ties with Nepal. The Bush administration has agreed to provide $17 million in military equipment to the Nepali Army. The first consignment of 3,000 M-16 rifles was delivered earlier this month and another 2,000 are due to follow. A US military team from the Pacific Command is currently in Nepal for a month-long joint training exercise with the country's military. With this kind of US military aid in the name of quelling insurgency the US wants to fortify its presence in the strategic country of Nepal so as to utilise it as a base against its declared strategic enemy China and also to set up an observation post for the whole south Asia. The government of India has maintained silence over this development, which further exposes its subservience to American global interests. We express grave concern over and condemn the US-UK intervention in the internal affairs of our close neighbouring country.

Writers flay Sangh Parivar's 'campaign' in Kerala

Several prominent writers in Kerala have condemned the Sangh Parivar's campaign against the Kendra Sahithya Akademi Secretary, K. Sachidanandan, and the writer, Zachariah. It has been alleged that the campaign is a continuation of the attack on Kamala Surayya, who had won this year's Ezhuthachan Puraskaram. The writers and cultural activists said that it was a struggle for survival against communal fascism and emphasised the need to forge an unity against attempts to impose the wishes of the communal forces on society.

World Social Forum Meet in Porto Alegre

Though a planned mass demonstration against war on Iraq and globalization, which was due to be held near the World Economic Forum (WEF) meet in Davos, was foiled by the police after cracking down on some 1,500 people and preventing them from joining the march, it failed to dampen the mood of people resisting US war efforts and Globalisation worldwide and the capital Bern in Switzerland witnessed a protest demonstration few hours later the same day. The WEF meet in Davos is being attended by nearly 200 business and government leaders of the world amidst high security.

As a fitting rebuff to this event, in Brazilian city of Porto Alegre around 100,000 people, activists and leaders from various streams opposing War and Globalisation from all over the world, converged to discuss and share their experiences through 17,000 workshops and Seminars in a six-day World Social Forum (WSF) meet which started on January 22.

Brazil's recently elected president Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva delivered a speech to this annual WSF gathering of anti-globalisation activists which was initiated three years ago in direct opposition to the Davos meeting of world bankers and heads of states. Lula said in his speech that his newly elected govt. will continue to oppose the International Monetary Fund and world finance capital which is still dictating the limits of Brazil's possibilities. Though he flew to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum meet, his party quelled all criticisms claiming that he is going to the meeting of the financial elite to make a case for a global campaign against poverty and hunger.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez also addressed the WSF meet and harshly criticised the American-style capitalism and lashed out at Venezuelan opposition leaders saying our struggle against the terrorists and fascists has further strengthened the will of the Venezuelan people.

Activists here discussed on topics ranging from corporate misdeeds to Third World debt.

The Cuban delegation discussed Washington's criminal blockade against the island and US legislation known as the Cuban Adjustment Act, which encourages illegal immigration. It was also emphasised that Cuba will strongly denounce the Free Trade Area of the Americas and expressed solidarity with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.