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The 14th Lok Sabha has begun its tenure under the benign gaze and guidance of India’s first ‘Marx ist’ Speaker. Mr. Somnath Chatterjee’s nomination as Speaker was supported by all major parties in Parliament leading to his uncontested election to the post. We however do not know if the CPI(M) Polit Bureau was unanimous in accepting this Congress offer. All we know is that the Polit Bureau did have a special session to deliberate on this question. While the pro-participation leaders of the CPI(M) are evidently quite elated with this ‘first step’, we do not yet know how the anti-participation majority of the Party leadership are justifying this measure.
By convention the Speaker’s post in Lok Sabha is always held by someone from the government side. The BJP’s NDA experiment saw an innovative extension of this convention when a TDP MP was elevated to the Speaker’s chair even though the TDP never formally joined the NDA. The TDP’s support to the NDA however proved much more loyal than that of many an NDA partner. The choice of Chatterjee for the chair of the Speaker of the 14th Lok Sabha makes for an obvious analogy between the TDP-NDA arrangement and the evolving relationship between the CPI(M) and the UPA.
A CPI(M) leader in the Lok Sabha described Chatterjee’s election as Speaker as a sign of the changing times and Chatterjee too went out of his way to reassure his friends in the Left that he would continue to be guided by his natural leaning to the Left! But the logic behind the choice was perhaps explained most accurately by none other than Sonia Gandhi when she described Chatterjee as a colleague whose counsel has always been sought and valued by the Congress. She also described him as “a thoroughly modern man steeped in tradition … rooted in ideology but wedded to pragmatism”. For those who might wishfully treat Chatterjee’s election as a sign of a certain Leftward shift in Indian politics, Sonia linked his election to “the best traditions of India and her diversity”.
Beyond the portals of Parliament, and the wordy world of the Common Minimum Programme, there are already hints galore in the real world about the character of the new regime. The Finance Minister has concluded a widely publicized mission to Mumbai to convey a direct message to the banks, industry and the share market about the new government’s abiding commitment to economic reforms. In Mumbai he introduced himself as the minister for investment and reduced the CMP to one single overarching objective of attaining an annual economic growth rate of 7-8%.
Meanwhile, the new minister for civil aviation has launched a full-scale ‘innovative exercise’ in privatization of the aviation sector. Even as he declared his ministry’s decision to bring down the cap on foreign investment in the airport sector from 74% to 49%, he has proposed to lease out the Delhi and Mumbai airports – the two most profitable units of the public sector Airports Authority of India – to a joint venture. This measure, he says, is meant only for modernization of the two airports and must not be confused with any kind of privatization, particularly because the lease is meant for a limited period of merely 30 years! With the Delhi and Mumbai airports leased out to a joint venture, the AAI may soon be shown to be running at a loss and hence eligible for privatization!
It is not only the economic ministries that have adopted such a proactive stance. The new External Affairs Minister has also begun to work overtime. He has already had several occasions to reiterate the new government’s commitment to deepen and broaden India’s relations with the US as also to strengthen her ties with Israel. And now he has already undertaken his first foreign trip beginning with a visit to turbulent Nepal at a time when the Himalayan kingdom wages a major battle for restoration of democracy.
Just on the eve of Natwar Singh’s visit the King of Nepal appointed Sher Bahadur Deuba as the country’s Prime Minister, the same man he had dismissed nearly two years ago even though the palace described Deuba’s return as a case of a new appointment and not reinstatement of the earlier regime. Natwar Singh’s visit at this juncture is clearly aimed at legitimizing the political intrigues of the Royal Palace and underscoring India’s overarching foreign policy objective of putting down the Maoist insurgency in Nepal.
All this has happened just within a week of the finalisation of the CMP and even before the new government could face its first Parliament session. Is this what the CMP describes as ‘maximum performance’ on the basis of a ‘minimum programme’?
CPI(ML) strongly condemns and protests the heinous massacre of 12 people including 11 dalit labourers at a brick kiln in Benor village in Nalanda district of Bihar. The massacre perpetrated by the criminals of a rival brick kiln owner occurred on 5 June.
Protesting the massacre the CPI(ML) has launched a series of agitational programmes. Hundreds of Party supporters sat on a day long dharna at Income Tax roundabout, just a kilometer away from the Bihar Assembly, on 7 June in Patna and demanded immediate arrest of the killers who are said to be associated with one Bipin Chaudhary gang along with their political patronisers sitting in Patna and Delhi. Agitators also demanded a stern action against the SP of Nalanda and the policemen of the Benor police station who assisted the killers. Protesters also demanded a compensation of Rs. 5 lakhs each to the families of the deceased and Rs. one lakh to those of injured.
CPI(ML) legislators raised these demands in the State Assembly which is currently in session.
A delegation led by Party MLAs Mahboob Alam and Satyadev Ram, along with Surendra Ram and Kumar Anil, rushed to the spot and gathered the details of the massacre. They met the survivors and family members of those killed.
The delegation reported that when criminals stormed the brick kiln and lined up all the people present at the site before shooting them down. Few of the labourers escaped and rushed to the police station which is merely one kilometer away and asked for help, but police deliberately stayed back. Many eye witnesses told the CPI(ML) team that police was actually cooperating with the killers.
The Bihar govt. has miserably failed to provide safety and security to the people, especially the weaker sections. The government has surrounded before the criminals and mafia. In Nalanda, and also in many other districts, police-administration are hand-in-glove with the criminals. CPI(ML) delegation demanded resignation of the Bihar Chief Minister for failing to provide a crime-free administration and governance.
The agitation is being intensified in Bihar against Telpa (Arwal-Jehanabad) police firing incident and imposition of false cases on CPI(ML)-AIPWA leader Kunti Devi.
A protest was held at Patna on 7 June which was participated by hundreds of people. Party had also called for Bandh in Jehanabad and Arwal on 31 May.
In a bid to cover up the incident of police firing and to suppress the agitation being launched by the CPI(ML) on this issue, the police has registered several false cases against nearly one thousand people and has targeted several leaders of CPI(ML) and its associated mass organisations. Comrade Kunti Devi, very popular among masses in the region, has been implicated in more than a dozen false cases.
The CPI(ML) has demanded that all the policemen, including the DSP of Arwal, who were involved in the firing incident, be charged and arrested for murders they have committed and all cases lodged against Kunti Devi and others must be withdrawn.
CPI(ML) has also protested the deliberate delay on the part of the government and the district police administration in arresting the criminals of the banned Ranvir Sena who had killed AIPWA leader Com. Manju on 10 Nov last year. Even after a lapse of six months, the killers of Com. Manju have not been arrested. Moreover, the police has excluded the names of six Ranvir Sena criminals from the FIR which was lodged by the villagers after the killing.
Meanwhile, AIPWA has again raised this issue. It has called upon the National Women's Commission to follow-up its own investigation into Com. Manju's killing and also intervene into the cases of threats being issued by Ranvir Sena for Kunti Devi's life.
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Addressing the joint session of both houses of Parliament, the President outlined the programme of the UPA govt. for the next five years. CMP itself have two components, viz. i) Common Minimum Promises, and ii) Common Maximum Performances. The first component suffered with drastic trimmings and significant additions for limitations and blockages which together constitute the potential elements of its dilution. While the second component was kept intact, rather it really got strengthened, as there seems to be lot of mixing up of the diversions and blockages in the first one.
Look at the Economic agenda as outlined in the President’s address which places the whole CMP hanging on uncertainty. How and when the promises will be fulfilled is to be determined by the ‘availability of resources’ and the ‘improvement of the absorbing capacity of various sectors’. In this connection it has been promised that 'our efforts’ ‘to move forward on the twin roads of efficiency and equity while maintaining a high degree of fiscal and financial discipline.’ This might lead to ample austerity measures and cuts in govt. expenditure. Employment guarantee scheme alone, if implemented, will cost Rs. 20,000 crores per year. How the govt. would address the problem of resource mobilisation and what would be the priority for an orderly solution instead of filling with vogue statements generating a thousand interpretations but no results?
President’s address focused on public-private participation in the physical infrastructure such as roads, ports, air ports, power, railways, water supply and sanitation. Private participation in these sectors is not a part of the final text of CMP. However, a change of minds might have occured during the course of discussions before the final text of CMP has been resurrected through the President's speech.
Trimmed employment guarantee scheme limits the beneficiaries to the rural areas. Implementation of the act in a 'phased manner' (newly imported into CMP) could veto the very principle of guaranteed employment by citing the above quoted resource constraint and absorbing capacity. A significant omission in the president’s address was the massive ‘food for work’ programme as an interim measure promised by CMP. Likewise the national cooked meal scheme would be implemented only in a ‘phased manner’. That means may be or may not be.
A drastic dilution was in the rural credit. CMP promised ‘doubling' over the ‘next three years’ of the flow of the rural credit for the hard pressed bulk of the rural population. But the president’s address came up with a vague statement that the government will 'ensure that the flow of agricultural credit will be significantly stepped up'. What was the compulsion for a time bound specific programme over a burning national question of the moment got reduced into a very vague statement?
Enactment of a legislation for protection of agricultural labour promised by the CMP was conveniently omitted in the President’s address.
In the present balance of class power and the govt. operating within the parameters of the worst kind of neo-liberal economic reforms, the two faces of the CMP could be distorted in actual life as, in words, Common Minimum Promises (CMP), and in deeds as Collective Maximum Performance (CMP). It could be used by the ruling class as a twisting weapon, holding the fetish CMP to enforce exploitation by pushing the other CMP. That would be resisted by the masses, workers and peasants, by raising their vigilance through their own experiences and through analysing the words and deeds of the rulers and also by united and sustained movement for the pro-people alternative economic policy.
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A so called Social Security Scheme for the unorganized and informal sector workers, main contributory to the total working population of country comprising more than 92 percent, was announced just before the last general elections. On 14 June 2003 the Central Trade Unions sent suggestions and amendments to incorporate in the revised draft of unorganized sector workers bill, 2003. Now the ball is in the court of new Congress-led UPA government. While in opposition, almost all of its constituents were opposing the scheme as insufficient and a mere eye-wash.
Some of the important demands of this sector which are being raised from time to time are: a comprehensive legislation for the workers in unorganized sector that can cover some basic aspects like regulation of employment, service conditions, provisions for safety at workplaces, health and social security, etc.; Provisions for stringent action against the defaulting employers who fail to deposit their contributions to the prescribed authority; Percent of the GDP must be allotted for the welfare purpose for the unorganized sector; Uniform national level of minimum wage must be raised to Rs. 4500; Constitution of a tripartite Board representing the workers, the employers and the government; Social Security and welfare measures i.e., protection of employment, protection against gender and other kinds of discrimination, protection of wages and payment there of and redressal of grievances, right to organize and form unions and right to collective bargaining, etc; and For the agricultural labour, a separate comprehensive legislation because of their specific working conditions, and which can also address the problems related to incidents of social oppression and discrimination.
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Vajpayee-led government deliberately scaled down the poverty ratio and downsized the number of people who fall under the below poverty line (BPL) category. There was a well-planned downscaling of those who fitted the BPL criterion, particularly in rural India. Over 500 lakh poor who should have been on the list were excluded and thus denied access to subsidised rations and development schemes.
Trimming the number of people eligible for BPL benefits began immediately after the NDA government announced in 2000 that national poverty levels had declined significantly—from 37 per cent in 1993-94 to 27 per cent by 1999-2000. This estimate was based on a Planning Commission report, which in turn relied on a National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) survey. Once the government made this statistic official, the rural development ministry sent a set of recommendations to state governments on how to draw up a new BPL list which would take into account the ‘drop’ in poverty levels. With poverty levels 'fixed' by the Centre with predetermined figures, the survey conducted by the states was to be a farcical formality. For all practical purposes, the survey pushed the poverty line down to include only those with a monthly income of less than Rs 350. If one took the 1979 criteria of consumption of 2,400 calories a day as the minimum requirement, then 77 per cent of the country’s population would be below the poverty line. Even if one took it to be 1,800 calories, 40 per cent of population would be below the poverty line.
The government exported a record 17 mt of foodgrains last year, which was the worst drought year in two decades. This was courtesy large-scale diversion of grains which were sold in the open market, the exclusion of the real poor and denial of ration cards even to many of those included in the BPL list. Less than 10 mt was sold in 2000-01 through the PDS, compared to the 21 mt in 1991.
(Based on a report published in the 'Outlook' magazine)
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As the endless flow of body bags of American soldiers continues to come in from Iraq, resentment against Bush's brutal aggression is growing as 57% of Americans are now in opposition to this war. 814 have been killed in the 14 months of War till May 31. The toll is increasing with US forces facing an average of 50 attacks per day amidst escalating resistance by the Iraqi people. The US Imperialism’s desperate attempts to install a puppet regime under a CIA chosen premier to ensure US imperial interests, despite growing global disgrace, US and Britain are now trying to do the same through an UN resolution. Though the question of this barbaric aggression in Iraq is being avoided by major contestants for the coming US Presidential elections, the American people demonstrated in several cities and expressed their opposition once again demanding withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. While Rumsfeld and Bush left home to Asia and Europe in search of supporters but only to face massive protests against the dirty colonial war.
On June 5, demonstrators participating in protests in several cities including Washington, San Francisco and Los Angeles and criticized the war policy of the White House and demanded the end of the occupation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Haiti. Protesters demanded that the US government should invest in education, housing, health care and employment instead of wars.
On the same day, thousands of Bangladeshis protested in Dhaka when US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited the capital town. They burnt American flags and chanted “Rumsfeld is a war criminal” and “Killer go home”. Police tried to fence them in but despite tear gas shelling many broke through the barriers and marched in the streets. Angry protesters also threw stones on the police.
Bush's arrival in Paris on June 5 witnessed demonstration by thousands of people. Also there were demonstrations in many cities of France against Bush’s visit organised by trade unions and other organisations who are also opposing French government’s attacks on the public health services and medical benefits. As is traditionally the case, the Paris component of that protest was the most important. According to the sources some 250,000 people were mobilised in both the demonstrations
President Bush met France’s Jacques Chirac ahead of ceremonies commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Allied D-Day landings in June 1944 in Normandy. Police sealed off many streets close to the march, a colorful crowd of students, housewives and office workers marched through central Paris. A delegation of U.S. citizens also joined the march carrying U.S. flags emblazoned with the words “Honor in 1944. Shame in 2004. I weep for my country” and “I love my country. I hate my president”. Paradoxically, the entire French political establishment has been playing on the myth that American intervention in the Second World War was a selfless act of liberation from Nazism, undermining latter's imperialist intentions to establish as a world power, which were held back only by the USSR.
A day before on June 4, thousands filled Rome’s streets to protest Bush’s visit and their own country’s involvement in the Iraq war. Police deployed some 10,000 officers around Rome as an estimated 500,000 protested Bush’s arrival and Italy’s active support of the U.S. war in Iraq, as reported by Washington Post Italians greeted American soldiers as liberators when they marched into Rome 60 years ago in June 1944 but President Bush faced deep anger on his visit on 4 June 2004 over the actions of a new generation of U.S. soldiers in Iraq under the neo conservative regime of Bush.
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The Israel's Sharon government has approved a plan implying the pulling out of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip in four stages, beginning next springtime, has received widespread condemnation from many Palastine groups including Hamas. Sharon aims to take the Palestine and Arab people to a “Sharon-made trap” attempting to end with the Intifada and the resistance, thus turning this conflict into a Palestine-Arab one, said Hamas. Whose leaders have expressed fear that Israel could escalate violent operations against the Palestine as the first step of this Israeli unilateral project.
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