Message from Maharashtra

On the face of it, the electoral outcome in Maharashtra does not show much of a change. The Congress-NCP alliance has fallen a little short of the halfway mark, but with assured support from the CPI(M) and some of the victorious rebel candidates and other independent MLAs, the alliance is back in power. A closer look however reveals a discernible shift in Maharashtra politics, which is also a reflection of the trends operating on the national level.

The outgoing government of Maharashtra had almost everything going against it. The state has been a major theatre of the prevailing agrarian crisis in the country. The spate of farmers' suicides and deaths due to malnutrition and starvation has been continuing uninterrupted. The Telgi stamp paper scam revealed a very deep rot within the system. The ruling coalition was also beset with a considerable number of rebel candidates. And on top of it, the BSP and SP had fielded any number of candidates which threatened to queer the pitch for the Congress in a big way. Indeed, even though the BSP failed to open its account, it polled more than 4% of the total vote and in the Vidarbha region the BSP is reported to have cost the Congress at least a dozen seats.

The failure of the BJP-Shiv Sena combine to strengthen its position in Maharashtra Assembly has to be viewed in this context. The BJP is clearly yet to overcome the setback it suffered in the Lok Sabha elections. In fact, despite some recovery in the Mumbai region, the BJP-Shiv Sena combine has performed worse in the rest of the state than it did in the elections to the Lok Sabha. Obviously, the BJP's campaign on economic issues suffers from a major lack of credibility. The party also appears to have been done in by a badly divided leadership and lack of a clear focus. In short, Maharashtra elections have refused to fulfil the BJP's dream of signalling an early end to its present state of dilemma and decline.

The BJP's crisis has also been reflected in the by-elections held in different states. The party has had to rest content with only one Assembly seat in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh where the ruling Samajwadi Party has consolidated its position by winning as many as seven of the twelve seats for which by-elections were held (results from one Assembly seat and the lone Lok Sabha seat are still awaited). In Karnataka, the Congress wrested the Bidar Lok Sabha seat from the BJP. In the North-East, the Congress regained its edge in Assam and Manipur and in the Assembly elections held earlier in Arunachal. Only in Gujarat did the BJP manage to wrest a couple of Assembly seats from the Congress. The BJP's coalition partners have done even worse. In Maharashtra , the Shiv Sena has been the bigger loser than the BJP. In Bihar , the JD(U) lost the Madhepura seat by a huge margin and in West Bengal , the Trinmul Congress is yet to find its feet even in the city of Kolkata where the Left Front won all the three Assembly seats for which by-elections were held.

For the Congress, Uttar Pradesh continues to be the biggest worry. There is still no sign of any perceptible Congress revival in this biggest of Indian states. The Congress has even lost the Ghaziabad seat adjacent to Delhi even as it holds on to its citadel in Delhi . In Maharashtra , the NCP has now edged past the Congress and has emerged as the bigger coalition partner. Being the leader of the ruling coalition at the Centre, the Congress may manage to retain the Chief Minister's post in Maharashtra , but it will have to cope with a powerful NCP both in Maharashtra and at the Centre.

The fact that the BJP could not derive any electoral mileage from its Hubli and Andaman campaigns is certainly a good sign for the democratic movement. As the Hindutva plank loses its appeal and edge, revolutionary democratic forces must step up their efforts to further push back the BJP and confront the Congress and its allies on the basic issues concerning the people and the country.

8th Conference of CPI(ML) Uttar Pradesh unit held in Varanasi

“U.P. won't tolerate starvation, unemployment and suicide deaths! March on for employment, social security and democracy! March on under the Left banner!!”— With these slogans on the walls the 8th state conference of CPI(ML) of UP at Com. R. N. Upadhyay Sabhagar (inauguration session in Nagar Nigam Hall and delegate session in Acharya Ramchandra Shukla Shodh Sansthan) at Rahul Sanskritayan Nagar (Varanasi) held on 9-11 October, 2004. The hall was decorated with red flags, revolutionary poems and slogans and also by a banner portrait of Comrade Nagbhushan Patnaik, to mark the 6th anniversary of his demise. The conference was inaugurated by Party General Secretary Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya who asserted that situation conducive to Left resurgence are ripening in the Hindi belt and to realise this goal all the left forces must march forward in unison. Victims of the crisis – agricultural labourers, peasants, workers and weavers, in particular are demanding an urgent resolution to this problem that is endangering their lives.

But in U.P., whereas new records of state repression were being set first by Mayawati-Rajnath governments and now by Mulayam Singh, who is bent on protecting feudal tyrants like Raja Bhaiya but not ready to relent the campaign of terror on struggling poor dalit and adivasi peasants by way of lodging false cases against the cadres under gangster act, only to placate the same feudal-mafia-criminal forces.

Comrade Dipankar said that despite the defeat of communal fascist forces in the centre, the UPA government has neither taken any viable step against Sangh Parivar. It withdrew the case against Uma Bharati in Hubli Court and clearly retreated in the case of exposing Savarkar. Also, this government has continued surrendering national interests to the US bosses but stepped up repression of people and in particular refused to bow down to the public demand in Manipur to withdraw the notorious and barbaric Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

Earlier, the flag hoisting ceremony was performed by veteran communist leader Ishwar Chandra Tyagi, following which a 2-minute silence was observed in the memory of martyrs to the people's cause.

In the opening session that followed, Comrade Prashant Shukla, Town Committee Secretary of Party's Varanasi unit delivered the welcome address and then, freedom fighters and veteran communists including Ishwarchandra Tyagi, RK Shukla, Brij Bihari Lal (Mahashayji), Harivanshi Ram Master, Vasudev Tyagi, Shambhu and Ramnaresh Singh were honoured and conference memento was presented to them by Party General Secretary. The session was also addressed, among others, by veteran communist Dipak Mallik, Jan Sanskriti Manch General Secretary Ajay Singh, Party MLA from Bihar Rajaram Singh and Party's UP State Secretary Comrade Akhilendra Pratap Singh.

The delegate session was started in the evening of 9 October in which Comrade Akhilendra Pratap presented the draft work report on behalf of the outgoing state committee. A live and vibrant debate followed, which was divided in three sections to focus three parts of the report, namely, political situation in the state, mass organisations and Party building. It continued till the morning session of 11 October, during which altogether 117 comrades out of 265 delegates and observers expressed their opinions. The 5- member presidium was composed of Comrades Krishna Adhikari, Lal Bahadur Singh, Ajanta Lohit, Jaswant Singh and Shyam Bihari Singh, which appointed a three-member technical committee headed by Comrade Ramesh Singh Sengar.

By noon on 11 October, the report was adopted unanimously by the house following the reply to the debate by Comrade Akhilendra. The house also unanimously approved the panel presented by the outgoing state committee and thus elected a 29 member state committee. The new state committee reelected Comrade Akhilendra as its secretary.

The Conference took positive note of the small and bigger movements, especially those in Pilibhit-Lakhimpur and eastern UP, and pledged to further intensify and advance the struggles of rural poor, to strengthen UP Khet Mazdoor Sabha and Kisan Sabha, and basing on these struggles, strengthen and expand the ongoing movement on various democratic issues all over the state to expose the government.

In the concluding session, held in the evening of 11 October, Comrade Dipankar urged the new state committee to rise to the need of the time and take up the challenge of making bold initiatives and expansion of our work in this important state. He emphasised that without hard and painstaking work among the most downtrodden of the people, agrarian and rural labourers in particular, it was not possible to raise the level of our political assertion in the state. He emphasised the need of raising the level of unity on the basis of Marxist-Leninist principles and Party line to face the new situation. He added that we must not forget for a moment the very class character of the ruling parties instead getting misguided by their caste-jugglary. Comrade Ramjatan Sharma, Polit Bureau member and Central Observer of the conference also addressed this session, who congratulated the delegates for concluding the conference successfully and urged them to score new victories in the days to come. Lastly, Comrade Akhilendra thanked all the comrades who were busy day and night to make all the arrangements necessary to make the conference successful. The concluding note of thanks was delivered by Comrade BK Singh and the conference concluded with the singing of Internationale .

6th Death Anniversary of Comrade Nagbhushan : Impressive Rally at Gunupur

Orissa State Committee of CPI(ML) organised an impressive rally on October 9 at Gunupur to pay homage to great revolutionary leader Comrade Nagbhushan Patnaik on his 6th Death Anniversary. More than 2000 people participated in a procession that passed through the main avenues of the town. The procession turned into a mass meeting in front of the statue of Com. Nagbhushan. After paying homage to the legendary revolutionary leader the meeting was addressed by comrades Kshitish Biswal, Malleshwar Rao and Tirupati Gomango among others. Speakers reiterated their resolve to strengthen and expand the revolutionary peasant struggle initiated in the districts like Rayagada, Gajapati and Kalahandi under the guidance of the great leader.

After the conclusion of the rally a workshop on "Land Question" was also organised on the day. This was participated by nearly 150 activists, most of them came from deep interiors of rural pockets. This was coordinated by Polit Bureau member DP Buxi. After a detailed discussion on study of agriculture in Orissa, topics like impacts of land legislation, class analysis, composition of rural society and our approach towards land struggles were discussed in an interactive session through participants' experiences of land struggles.

This two-day workshop concluded on Oct 10 with the presentation of a policy outline on land struggles at present juncture.

A state-level preparatory body of AIALA was also constituted and assigned the task of organising first AIALA state conference in May 05 after accomplishing a target of 50,000 membership. It was also decided to hold a militant Assembly gherao during forthcoming session of the Orissa Assembly to press for the demand of holding a 'special session of Assembly' on the land question.

Starvation Deaths in Deoghar District

Satar village, in Deoghar of Jharkhand, is only seven kilometers away from the city. the road and electricity reached here comparatively very early, in 60s. It has also been provided with a school and a primary health center. In spite of so many symbols of 'development' this village, inhabited by merely 300 families majority of them being dalits and backward castes, has recently witnessed a starvation death exposing the real face of developmental of this region, which is not much different from the rest of India. Barring a small privileged section, almost all in the village have reached to the brink of starvation facing unemployment in this third year of continuous drought. Most of them are agricultural labourers and fishermen living below poverty line, occasionally going to the city in search of work as daily wage labour.

Dukhni's was the second starvation death on Sep 22 in dalit tola of this village. Earlier, Panwa Devi had met the same fate on 2 October, when the nation was commemorating Gandhi's Birth Anniversary. Some District officials visited the village but did not order for postmortem of the deceased.

A CPI(ML) investigation team found that still many people, like Anchhi Devi, Jaishankar Raut and Bonga Kapri, are suffering from severe malnutrition and food and medical facilities quite inaccessible to them, with no money in hands. Though few of the inhabitants were able to get work under the forest department but their wages are still to be paid even after a month.

CPI(ML) team has demanded for providing immediate provide food and medicines to the affected people and to suspend the DM and other irresponsible officials. Party also demanded to start the Food for Work programme in the village and to pay all unpaid dues. Seeing the imminent danger of famine-like situation also in other parts of the district, Party demanded to start relief work soon and, most importantly, government must take responsibility for each starvation death and remove the DM of concerned district in case of any such event.

B R I E F R E P O R T S

Protest March against Massacre

Thousands of people took part in a protest rally on Oct 1 at Satgama where one Sunil Yadav, an erstwhile MCC activist, and his gang massacred four people in a very brutal manner on Sep 25 demanding immediate arrests of the criminals. A march was also taken out from Koderma to Satgawan by the CPI(ML) before the Rally. A high-level inquiry and compensation to the victims was also demanded by the protesters.

While lakhs of people in Jharkhand are facing famine and starvation deaths and Arjun Munda govt. has failed to take measures to deal with the situation, even it shamelessly denies the occurrence of any starvation death, people and their leaders protesting such a sorry state are being subjected to state sponsored repression on the one hand while the terror reign of criminal-mafia-politician nexus still rules the roost. The Party also condemned death of 21 persons, mostly children, claimed to be due to 'Malaria' in Satgama. It organised mass protests against government's criminal negligence towards the poor villagers.

AIPWA Protest in Deoghar

AIPWA activists held a protest and gheraoed BDO and CO of Mohanpur in Deoghar district to demand the arrest of a rapist. A memorandum was submitted to the officials which also included demands like equal wages, to change the governmental policies which are making the women deprived of their traditional professions in the name of development, institution of a State Women's Commission and for separate police stations at every district for women. The rampant corruption in the schemes like PDS, old age pension, red card, Indira Awas, maternity benefits, etc. was also condemned by the agitating women-folk.

Strike by Rural Workers in Dispur

All Assam Gramin Shramik Santha (AAGSS - All Assam Rural Workers' Union ) staged a Relay Hunger Strike on 13-16 Oct against rampant corruption and increase in price of rice given against wages of rural workers. The govt. of Assam had raised the price of rice under central scheme from Rs. 6 to Rs. 8, which created a wave of resentment among the rural poor. While the government has been pretending to implement different schemes of the people belonging to below poverty line, it has not prepared the BPL list yet. AAGSS has demanded the immediate declaration of BPL list and to pay the pending wages of rural workers in different panchayat areas. The demands like distribution of 25 Kg. rice to each BPL family, guarantee of minimum 100 working days, to declare floods in Assam a national calamity and compensation to flood victims, etc. were also raised through this strike action.

Rural workers from Sonitpur, Barpeta, Dibrugarh, Nagaon and Guwahati took part in this programme. The relay strike was suspended temporarily considering the situation arose out of devastating floods and death of hundreds of people in Goalpara district on Oct 16 with a resolve to further intensify rural poor's struggle against the government.

Protests against Corruption

CPI(ML) district unit of N. Dinajpur held protest demonstrations at various places including Raiganj, Goalpukur, Karamdighi, Kaliaganj and Itahar on Oct 4 against prevalent corruption and police atrocities. Memoranda were sent on these issues to the state government.