Why Is the BJP in Such a Big Hurry?

It is now official. An over-buoyed BJP has begun a mad scramble for early elections. Parliament has been taken for a complete ride to shower sops worth billions of rupees on the rich through a poll-eve mini-budget. While the treasury is being looted to pamper the rich, a feel-good 'fatwa' has been issued for the entire country. Vajpayee has again put on his 'man-of-peace' hat and after the Shankaracharya of Kanchi, the Dalai Lama of Tibet has been invited to broker and bless a possible deal on Ayodhya.

Why is the BJP in such a big hurry? Why is this desperation for premature elections? What lies behind this sudden about turn by a government which wanted to go down in history as the first non-Congress regime to have completed a full five-year term and which wanted to project itself as the wholesale dealer of 'political stability'?

Obviously, the BJP believes that the party stands to lose quite heavily if elections are held later at the scheduled hour. It is aware that the fundamental falsity of the much-trumpeted feel-good fantasy is liable to get exposed any moment. This is as true of the economy as of the polity. Just as one swallow does not make a summer, the Rajasthan-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh bonanza does not promise a countrywide electoral boon. Hence the mad scramble to make hay while the sun shines. Sure enough, the desperation to hold early elections is a sign of diffidence and not strength.

The feel-good fiction was stretched to an absurd poetic length by Vajpayee at the gala NRI gathering when he claimed that now was the best of times 'to be an Indian and also to be in India.' What is the basis of this absurd claim? Foreign exchange reserves hitting the $ 100 billion mark and sensex hovering above 6,000 points! What succour does it provide to the crisis-ridden peasants and retrenched workers, starving rural poor and the growing army of the unemployed?

That the feel-good music is actually meant for only elitist ears was again made clear by the tax-cuts announced in the mini-budget. Cell-phones and computers, air-travel and foreign liquor have been made cheaper. Laws have been relaxed for Indian individuals remitting abroad and firms investing in foreign markets. And the bill for this bonanza for the rich is to be footed once again by additional doses of disinvestment. While the rich has been pampered with tax-cuts and reduced rates, students burdened with fee hike and farmers reeling under agrarian crisis have only been promised cheaper credit.


The talks of peace with Pakistan and amicable resolution of Kashmir and Ayodhya are also a part of this utterly false and hypocritical feel-good fiction. A government which all along remained busy queering the pitch for bilateral diplomacy now projects itself as the champion of peace and cooperation in the region. The architect of POTA and police state now invites Kashmiri organizations for talks. The protagonists of 'hot pursuit' are now advocating mutual trust and accommodation between India and Pakistan. The peddlers of hate are now singing paeans for communal harmony. If the BJP used intimidation as a tool to win elections in Gujarat, it now wants to dupe the people with its fiction of peace and prosperity.

The job of the Left is to rip apart the BJP's mask of false and fictitious propaganda and confront the regime on the real issues of the day. The electorate must be encouraged to mete out an exemplary punishment to a regime that stands guilty in the people's court for perpetrating some of the worst crimes in Indian history against the country and the people.

Left leaders who are busy cobbling bourgeois coalitions and projecting Manmohan Singh as the most deserving candidate for the Prime Minister's post for his 'exemplary record as finance minister' (as the leader of the CPI(M) parliamentary party told the TV channel Aaj Tak on 10 January) must be asked to mind their own business. Canvassing for Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh and calling upon the working class to go on a day's strike on February 24 is height of political bankruptcy. Real forces of the Left must reject this bankrupt course with the contempt it deserves. Sharpest mass exposure of the enemy's politics and militant mobilization of the people on their own democratic agenda can be the only course of action and advance.

BJP's Election Sops: Selling-out of PSUs in Sugar-coated Capsules

Feel-good-factors for MNCs, Corporate Houses and Legalised 'Hawala' Clients:

• Agrarian reforms left to corporate houses
  
• Employment - a by-gone commitment
  
• Commercialisation of education legalised
  

BJP is desperate for an early election. It is equally desperate for an out-of-Parliament-out-of-budget session implementation of New Economic Policies (NEP), policies of US-led globalisation, in true letter and spirit.
After the shocking break of its marriage-of-convenience with BSP in political arena, BJP has started talking aloud of "B S P" (Bijli-Sadak-Pani), privatisation of electricity, water and communication - some very important aspects of NEP - in the garb of providing better services.
Now, BJP has come up with wholesale sellout package of vital and profit-earning PSUs like ONGC, GAIL, IPCL, VSNL, IBP, etc. In the same breath it has also declared cheap loans for Rs. 50,000 crore for infrastructure in the sectors which have already been divested or proposed to be dis-invested soon like ports, airports, power and telecom projects.
Agriculture will continue to be a neglected sector while corporate houses and big industrial houses are assured of added concessions of cheap loans to the tune of Rs. 50,000 crores in agriculture sector. While the BJP government is selling-out our food-stock at below PDS prices for animal fodder abroad and not showing any interest in formulating a viable project to guarantee food and work to our at-the-brink-of-starving millions in rural and urban India. Leave alone democratic agrarian reforms, even the issues like crop insurance, minimum procurement price, and subsidies to the peasantry did not find any room even in the election sops.
Employment is now a by-gone commitment for the government. Privatisation and commercialisation of education is now the new mantra of the state. Students can go for higher education at a high market price. The govt. denies its responsibility for education but it has assured loans to the students.
As for 6% interest to our elders ('Dada-dadi bond'), if the BJP govt. can not make effective use of the hard earned money of our elders in nation building and fails to assure them a comfortable return, it is certainly making a mockery of our senior citizens. Similarly, the nation can not allow sending out its money abroad by individuals without any restrictions as permitted by the govt. for the sums upto $ 25000. Such attempts of regularisation of black-money and money plundered through scams and scandals is against our national interest.

"Chetawani Rally" in Palamu

The January 12, despite a shivering cold wave, witnessed a springing surge of rural Palamu in the streets of Daltanganj when this town was virtually under red seize with tens of thousands of men and women agricultural labourers and poor peasants thronged the streets and declared their war against "Bhay-Bhookh-Bhrashtachar and Police-raj" being perpetuated by the BJP-Samata combine ruling in Ranchi and their ministers hailing from this region who connive with land-jungle mafia, corrupt contractors, criminals and police.
The rallyists were demanding immediate arrest of the minister Madhu Singh who was behind the killing of R. N. Singh, brother of CPI(ML) leader Dr. B. N. Singh, and withdrawal of false cases imposed against Party leaders including Dr. B. N. Singh, Kalicharan Mahato, and many others and their unconditional release, suspension of the Chenari thana in-charge who indulged in criminal assault on women in the name of 'raids' and has let loose a reign of terror among the poor people. The rallyists also demanded a public declaration of the land and property held by Inder Singh Namdhari, who happens to be the speaker of the Jharkhand assembly, along with Minister Madhu Singh and RJD leader Deenanath Singh.
The Rally was attended and addressed by the CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Jharkhand State Secretary Subhendu Sen, Party MLA and CC member Mahendra Singh and others. The speakers asked the govt. in Jharkhand to act immediately and warned the local police and administration and called upon the people to carry on their just struggle for land, work and proper wages and against prominent mafia-feudal forces and to prepare themselves for more militant and massive resistances. CPI(ML) General Secretary also met Dr. B. N. Singh and other leaders who have been lodged in the jail for many months under false and concocted charges

Main Perpetrator of Bathe Massacre punished

One of the dreaded leaders of Ranvir Sena and main perpetrator of Bathe massacre, which occured in 1997 in Bathe village of Arwal where 58 poor dalits were butchered by the Ranvir Sena that shook the conscience of many in the country, Sudarshan Sharma was punished to death by the people on January 11. Sudarshan Sharma was instrumental in organising and expanding Ranvir Sena in Arwal-Jenahabad area. He was behind bars for four years after the Bathe massacre but came out on bail and continued his anti-people activities in the region.
The enormous clout and muscle power enjoyed by this man can be understood by the fact that he presided over a mass rally organised by

Shahabuddin Gang Strikes again in Gopalganj: Kills Six Innocents

Dreaded goon and MP from Siwan Shahabuddin has once again perpetrated a massacre in adjoining Gopalganj district killing six innocent people including one child and two women. His gang opened fire indiscriminately in Koerigama village near Bhore police station. Shivshankar Yadav (42), Ramashish Yadav (33), Sriram Yadav, Siraji Devi (45), Mahrajia Devi (95) and Savita (8) succumbed to Shahabuddin gang's bullets on January 13 while Munna Yadav and Bhrigurasan Yadav are struggling for their lives in seriously injured condition. Two cattle were also reported to have got bullet injuries, killing one, in this massacre.

This incident has proved once again that history-sheeter Shahabuddin continues to operate from inside the Siwan jail with the active connivance and support from the civic and police authorities at the instance of RJD government in Bihar.

CPI(ML) strongly condemned this heineous crime and held protest marches immediately after the incident in Siwan and Gopalganj on Jan 13 and called for a bandh next day in both the districts which received an overwhelming response expressing people's resentment against RJD govt.'s failure to contain massacres and oppression of common people by feudal forces and nexus of politician-criminal-police-bureaucracy.

Earlier an investigation team led by CPI(ML) ex-MLA and popular leader in the area comrade Amarnath Yadav from Siwan and Gopalganj District Secretary of the Party comrade Sunil Yadav reached the spot on Jan 13 to gather details of the massacre.
The Party has demanded stern punishment to the killers, compensation to the bereaved families of the victims and immediate suspension of DM and SP of Gopalganj.

AIALA District Conference in Pilibhit

The AKhil Bharatiya Khet Mazdoor Sabha (KHEMAS - AIALA) held it's first district conference in Pilibhit district on Dec 29. As this terai region of Uttar Pradesh remains an important centre of agrarian labourers and rural poor's movement, a good number of them turned up to the rally which was organised as the inaugural session of the Conference.
The conference discussed over the important issues like prevailing practice of usury in rural areas, grabbing of public land and the land allotted to rural poor by big influential farmers, nexus of corrupt revenue officials and land mafia, deaths of poor due to starvation and cold, issuance of BPL cards to all rural poor and agrarian labourers and availability of food items in PDS shops, old-age and widow pensions, etc.
The conference also passed resolutions for the implementation of land reforms and redistribution of land, provision of alternate agricultural lands and complete rehabilitation of those whose lands and crops are destroyed due to erosion of embankments, drought and flood reliefs, to waive loans in affected areas, and above all, implementation of minimum wages and equal wages to men and women.
The conference also decided to launch protracted struggle against prevailing corruption in panchayati raj institutions and demanded of the administration to put an immediate stop on corrupt practices by the trio of village pradhans, gram panchayat officials and DPRO. It also made it a point to put stiff resistance against acts of exclusion of names of rural poor from the electoral rolls and police-feudal repression of dalits, women and agrarian labour in villages.
The conference also passed resolutions for a central legislation for the agri. labourers and to end omnipotent corruption which is severely affecting the lives of the poor besides many other demands.

Party Protests harassment of it's leaders in Nicobar Isalands

The harassment of party activists in Andmans has strongly been protested to the Prime Minister, the Home Minister as well as the LG of Andmans through a fax message sent by the CPI(ML) MP Dr. Jayanta Rangpi to take appropriate measures against the authorities concerned for the same. The Party leader in Andmans Comrade NKP Nair was denied of entry into Nicobar islands and harassed by the authorities for no valid reason in order to obstruct him in his political work violating his constitutional and legal rights.

CPI(ML) Opposes Indo-US Partnership in Strategic Spheres

CPI(ML) expresses its all-out opposition to any move intending to further Indo-US partnership in strategic spheres of defence, military, high-tech trade, civilian, nuclear and space activities.
Party believes that growing US intervention in our national life will further weaken and destroy our national resources, strength and economy and endanger crucial strategic independence and national sovereignty. The overwhelming national opinion in India clearly does not favour the kind of strategic subservience as advocated by the Vajpayee govt. Moreover, any alliance with the US will mar the process of strengthening ties with the nations of South and South-East Asia which, in turn, will weaken our economic and political sovereignty vis-a-vis US. The Party stresses for an South Asian unity against US imperialism.
Vajpayee's growing strategic proximity to the US is fast reducing India to the status of a pitiable client-state of the US in Asian region. This is also intensifying our isolation from the developing world and jeopardising the prospects of peace, progress and stability in South Asia. This is also a major irritant for any meaningful talks between India and Pakistan. the talks between these two neighbours can bear fruits only when they get rid of American shadow and resist US intervention in internal affairs of their respective nations.
CPI(ML) also calls for resumption of a free and open dialogue between India and Pakistan on all outstanding issues including Kashmir. India's refusal to deal directly with Pakistan on the Kashmir question has only allowed US to deepen its intervention in the region.

We Will Not Let the Killers of Comrade Manju Go Scot-free

The killers of comrade Manju still continue to roam fearlessly in the Arwal-Jehanabad region. The Bihar govt. has not yet taken any serious action against them despite a nationwide demand by many democratic and Left organisations and prominent personalities. Although people's pressure is building up against such forces of feudal repression, Ranvir Sena in particular, but the governmental inaction and political hob-nobbing has increased the morale of Ranvir Sena goons who killed Manju to the extent that they even tried to destroy the memorial built in the memory of this fighter of the people soon after her assasination.
Party condemns such acts and reiterates it's resolve to wipe out all the elements of feudal domination and repression from the society and to take revenge against those who killed Comrade Manju.
While the movement against killers of Manju intensifies in Bihar, the National Commission for Women (NCFW) has made its observations on her killing after accomplishing an investigation into the matter taking cognisance of a petition filed by the London based 'South Asia Solidarity Group'. The Commission observed that comrade Manju was a very popular leader among the landless labourers, not an extremist, and her inter-caste marriage was a pointer to the dedication of her and her husband to the cause of landless labourers.
Her activities among "landless labourers and women had panicked the Bhomihar landlords who saw her as a great threat against age-old grip on the poor and hapless agricultural labourers who completely depends on these lords for their survival". Such vested interests, therefore, made a move to eliminate her permanently. The Commission stressed that "the approach of the District Administration has not been upto the mark" and "a prompt action has not been taken by the local police in arresting the FIR named accused persons except one. Such lukewarm attitude of the District Admn. has emboldened the killers and those who harbour them." The Commission also observed that whenever local people make complaint against any any exploiters before the local police station no action is taken and on the other hand the complainants are threatened and quite often raids are conducted by the police in their houses on flimsy grounds.
The report of the Commission says that the assertion by the 'emerging grass-roots powers' has created a sense of panic among the vested interests specially the land owning classes in the rural areas and this is the reason for the local Bhumihars to eliminate Late Smt. Manju Devi'. The Commission noted 'that the authorities are not serious in firmly dealing with Ranvir Sena for multiple reasons. The commission may be constrained to explore other strategies for appropriately dealing with the resultant situation."

Condolence: 'Barda' is No More

Veteran communist leader and member of our Party Comrade Prabodh Bhattacharya died on 8 January evening at Kolkata. He was 95. Comrade Bhattacharya was a member of our Party since it's formation and remained dedicated to the cause of revolution throughout his life.
Being the eldest in the Party he inaugurated the Fourth All India Party Congress. He was also a delegate in the Fifth Party Congress. He was the publisher of the famous book "Flaming Fields of Bihar' published during the days when the Party was underground. His nephew Comrade Biplab Bhattacharya was also active in Naxalbari movement and embraced martyrdom braving police bullets in 1971. He was popularly known as 'Barda'.
In 1967 he was in the CPI(M)'s Kolkata District Committee and was also elected for the Beleghata Council. He faced imprisonment in 1962 during India-China war under the draconian Defence of India Rule (DIR). Later, he found himself deeply involved in Naxalbari Movement and CPI(ML) and had to face imprisonment again in 1969.
During the days of the reorganisation of the Party in early 70s he played an active role. Barda's deep attachment and dedication to the cause of revolution and the people earned him popularity and lot of affection not only in the Party circles but also among the common masses. He was and will remain a source of inspiration for the comrades. During his later years almost all comrades in his area used to visit and take care of him.
CPI(ML) salutes his memory and feels deeply shocked at his demise and pays sincere tributes to him.
Red Salute to Comrade Prabodh Bhattacharya !

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