Bihar Readies for Polls: Smokescreens and Ground Reality

It seems the poll schedule announced by the Election Commission for the forthcoming Assembly elections in Bihar and Jharkhand has taken evcerybody by surprise. Elections in Bihar are generally held in three phases, but the way the three phases have been spaced over a period spanning three full weeks is quite unprecedented. The Election Commission justifies the schedule in the name of free and fair polls, but if experience is any guide the measures adopted by the EC always prove inadequate and ineffective. The forces deployed are seldom utilised properly, and the observers appointed by the EC want to play it safe. The biggest challenge of ensuring the voting right of the rural poor is always accorded the least priority.

If the EC needs almost one full month to conduct elections in Bihar and Jharkhand, the elections must be monitored as closely as possible and the EC must set an example in terms of enabling the voters to vote freely and without fear. The threat of booth-capturing and other electoral malpractices is posed not just by a few criminals but most crucially by an anti-poor administrative machinery that acts hand in glove with dominant local interests. And then there are any number of criminal-turned-politicians who have turned Bihar jails into their dens, or party offices, if you will. One CBI inquiry against one Pappu Yadav will remain an exception defining this rule unless action is taken to clean up every major jail.

With the declaration of poll dates, the process of political alignment or realignment of forces is also bound to gather momentum. Predictably enough, the first announcement of continued loyalty to the RJD has been made by the CPI(M) polit bureau. In the name of holding the communal forces at bay, the CPI(M) has once again chosen to side with the thoroughly discredited and anti-people dispensation of the RJD-Congress combine. Anybody who is familiar with the current political situation in Bihar knows that the BJP is certainly not in a position to stake any claim to power in the state. The stock CPI(M) argument has nothing to do with the prevailing political reality of Bihar . It is of course a good smokescreen for the politics of opportunism and bankruptcy.

If tactics is the means for applying strategy in a given situation, no communist party can adopt the tactics of siding with a dispensation whose only claim to ‘legitimacy’ before the system is holding, not the communal forces, but the forces of revolutionary democracy at bay. By compromising with feudal-brahminical forces and extending political protection to mafia gangs, the RJD rule in Bihar has only facilitated the rise of communal forces in the state. The credit for resisting the communal forces in real life goes to the militant struggles of the rural poor and the progressive intelligentsia. The notorious RJD-Congress rule in Bihar has only sought to crush these struggles through brutal state repression and state-sponsored feudal-criminal violence.

Being the most committed and consistent party of democracy and social progress, the CPI(ML) has had to bear the brunt of this systemic violence and repression. The CPI(M) too has had to pay a price – the list of political leaders and activists who have been killed in Bihar in the last 15 years includes the popular CPI(M) MLA in Purnea, Comrade Ajit Sarkar, and the party’s agricultural labour leader Ramnath Mahato. And it is well known in Bihar that the RJD has emerged as the biggest political umbrella or sanctuary for most of the notorious political killers. The CPI(M) trivilaises this question of anti-Left violence in Bihar by issuing occasional statements against Pappu Yadav, but it has never shown the courage to take a stand against the RJD regime in the state which has been sponsoring and presiding over all these killings.

Ironically, even as the CPI(M) politbureau declared its loyal support to the RJD-Congress combine for the umpteenth time, government employees in Bihar have been compelled to go on strike to demand implementation of an agreement that the state government made with its employees five years ago. The pro-CPI(M) organisation of state government employees has also joined the strike and leaders of the CPI(M) and CITU never tire of warning the Laloo-Rabri regime that it would have to face the same fate as Jayalalitha had to suffer in the Lok Sabha lections in Tamil Nadu! While workers and employees are urged to fight against the government, party leaders remain cosily ensconced in an anti-poor anti-worker political alliance with the same government! And of course, tomorrow the same leaders will once again harangue the employees against economism and shed tears at seminars and in party journals for the growing depoliticisation of the working class movement!

Comrade VM Remembered on His Sixth Memorial Day

Memorial Seminars and Pledge-taking Meetings Held Across the Country

Entire rank and file of the CPI(ML) and thousands of supporters and well-wishers of communist movement remembered Comrade Vinod Mishra on his sixth death anniversary this year on 18 December.

Several memorial seminars and pledge-taking meetings were held on this occasion. People remembered him as a great visionary communist revolutionary who organised, shaped and led the revolutionary communist movement in India against heavy odds. "Comrade VM was the conscience of revolutionary democracy in India . He believed that real democracy in India could only be achieved through a victorious people's revolution", the people paying homage to Com. VM recalled.

In Delhi , a seminar on "Employment, Rights of the Working People and Democracy" was organised on 18 December. It was addressed among others by CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, journalist Paranjoy Guhathakurta, economist Jean Dreze, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Rajinder Sachar and Supreme Court lawyers Indira Jaisingh and Colin Gonsalves. A number of intellectuals, activists and journalists attended the seminar.

Recalling Com. VM's biggest contribution to the cause of democracy, Com. Dipankar said Com. VM always inspired the oppressed people to unleash their full initiatives to resist the enemies of justice and democracy.

Speaking on the UPA government's continuing betrayal of Mandate 2004 which is increasing popular resentment all over the country, CPI(ML) General Secretary said that the so called human rights agenda of the UPA government had boiled down to a combination of 'humane' acts of repression and employment lottery schemes. Almost every Indian province now has its own Kalahandi. Under the impact of a deepening agrarian crisis and recurring crop failures caused by either drought or floods, vast areas of the country are now in the grip of a near-famine situation.

Opposing the government's decision to rehabilitate POTA in another name, he said that in the name of scrapping POTA, the government had not only decided to keep 'all ongoing POTA cases alive, it had also smuggled several draconian clauses of POTA in the proposed Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. He condemned the use of TADA by the Bihar government to suppress the rural poor's quest for justice and democracy. He called upon the people to prevent the central regime from rehabilitating POTA through the back door and diluting the Employment Guarantee Act to yet another employment lottery scheme.

The meeting protested the invoking of National Security Act by the Rajasthan government to suppress the just agitation of farmers for water. It also extended support to the Manipuri people's demand for repeal of the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

CPI(ML) leader and General Secretary of All India Central Council of Trade Unions Com. Swapan Mukherjee chaired the seminar and Party's Delhi State Secretary Com. Rajendra Pratholi thanked the speakers and participants.

In Bihar , CPI(ML) and thousands of people who want to see radical left movement victorious in the state remembered Com. Vinod Mishra as a tireless revolutionary who lived and struggled for social and political change. Party observed the day as Sankalp Divas throughout the state. A Sankalp Sabha (Pledge-taking meeting) was held in Patna at Shaheed Chandrasekhar Bhavan. The meeting pledged to intensify struggle to defeat the forces of crime, repression, loot and communalism.

In Jehanabad, a Party class was organised on this occasion. Addressing this class, CPI(ML) Bihar State Secretary Com. Ramjatan Sharma called upon the cadres and activists to redouble their energy to realise the dreams of Com. VM.

At Ara Party headquarter of Bhojpur district, a Party class was organised which was addressed among others by CPI(ML) Polit Bureau member Com. Ramnaresh Ram and All India Agricultural Labour Association General Secretary Com. Rameshwar Prasad. An Art exhibition was also organised at Ara.

Village and panchayat level meetings were held in Siwan district on this occasion. Darbhanga Party Committee held a memorial meeting at district Party office. Gaya party Committee held a Cadre Convention on this day. A Seminar on 'Question of Alternative and the Role of the Left' was organised at Lohia College in Muzaffarpur on this occasion.

CPI(ML) cadres and activists who are in Beur Central Jail in Patna and district jail at Ara also held Sankalp Sabha in their jails and pledged to carry forward the mission of the departed leader. Memorial meetings were held in almost all districts of Bihar .

CPI((ML) Uttar Pradesh state committee organised memorial meetings in several districts of the state. A meeting was held at Party headquarter at Lucknow . Documents of Bhubneshwar Central Cadre Convention and Party's Varanasi State Conference were collectively read and discussed on this occasion.

In Jharkhand, the day was observed as 'Rozgaar Guarantee Divas' in all districts and major cities. A convention was organised in capital Ranchi on 'right to work as fundamental right' which resolved to strengthen the struggle for (i) employment throughout the year, (ii) food-for-work scheme for every BPL family, (iii) right to work as fundamental right, (iv) to constitute Welfare Board for the unorganised sector workers and (v) to guarantee the implementation of Minimum Wages Act.

Cadre meets, seminars and various other programmes were taken up in Tripura , Assam , West Bengal , Haryana, Punjab , Chhatisgarh, Uttaranchal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry , and other states.

Statewide Protests in Bihar

Thousands of agricultural labourers and poor peasants stormed the block headquarters in all the districts of Bihar on Dec 17 to demand declaration of Bihar as famine affected and to start appropriate measures to halt growing number of starvation deaths. They also raised the issues of the striking state govt. employees and asked the state government to accept the demands and start negotiations with them. This programme was called by CPI(ML) Bihar unit to start the one-week long campaign as "Kisan-Mazdoor-Karmachari Ekta Saptah" to emphasise on these demands.

Agitating people locked the block headquarters in protest and held mass meetings on the day. State government employees, striking for last many days, also actively took part in the programme at different places. Hundreds of rural poor waving red flags reached to their respective blocks and after locking the office of the Block Development Officers held protest meetings till late evening at all the block offices.

Massive mobilisation of poor people of Bihar at all the blocks in districts like Bhojpur, Rohtas, Kaimur, Buxor, Patna, Jehanabad, Siwan, Gopalganj, Darbhanga, Samastipur, Muzaffarpur, Begusarai, Balia, Banka, Bhagalpur, Araria, Vaishali, Chhapra, Saharsa, Sugaul, Jamui, Munger and Lakhisarai was an expression of increasing resentment against Laloo-Rabri govt.'s insensitivity and neglect towards starvation deaths and famine like situation in the state.

Bihar State Committee of the Party thanked people of Bihar for making this protest call a success and said such expression of solidarity against anti-worker-anti-peasant policies of Laloo-Rabri regime is a befitting reply to Laloo's theatrical maneuvers for befooling people and this movement will certainly oust this govt. which has proved to be the biggest hurdle in the path of Bihar's development.

Hunger Strike to Protest Use of Private Feudal Army by UP Govt. in Naugarh to Suppress Rural Poor's Movement

CPI(ML) UP State Secretary and Polit Bureau member Comrade Akhilendra Pratap Singh sat on a 72 hour hunger strike, along with nearly 700 activists, on Dec 20 to protest the use of Shriram Sena, a private fascist feudal army of feudal lords, to 'combat' naxalism in Naugarh block of Chandauli district. It was demanded from the UP government to immediately restore the rule of law and guarantee the civic rights of citizens, particularly the landless and poor. CPI(ML) UP unit has declared that if Mulayam Singh govt. fails to comply with these demands then this 72 hour hunger strike would be tuned into a fast unto death.

Administration in UP is trying to usurp whatever minimum space is remaining for democratic protests and mass movements. UP administration is using the criminal feudal army along with paramilitary forces in Naugarh in the name of so called 'combating naxalism' which is meant only to repress common citizens, poor, left and democratic persons and CPI(ML) activists and supporters. Use of private armies like Shriram Sena and Ranvir Sena by the governments to solve the political issues is utterly an act of fascist reaction and this must be resisted in order to establish democratic values and norms in the society. While Bihar govt. never dared openly accept the political patronage being given to Ranvir Sena by the state, in UP, the govt. went shamelessly a step ahead. This could be understood through following lines published in the 'Hindustan Dainik' on Dec 13 which say: "members of Shriram Sena have started working with the police in the forests of Naugarh. The first armed group of 70 members from eastern parts of Bihar reached here in the night of Saturday. The Police Superintendent has already provided them full protection by police, PAC and the CRPF."

It may be recalled that police had attacked CPI(ML)'s Chandauli district Party office and took away important files, and AIALA's district President Shankar Kol was arrested on Nov 24 when he was leading a dharna at district headquarters in Mirzapur against starvation deaths and increasing unemployment. He was severely tortured and implicated in false cases by the police. One Ramchandra Kol was beaten to death under police custody in the name of investigating the attack on police truck on Nov 20 in Naugarh. Many CPI(ML) leaders and cadres in Chandauli-Sonbhadra-Mirzapur region are being harassed and terrorised by the police as a matter of routine. UP State Committee of CPI(ML) has also sent a letter of protest to the UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in this regard.

Two CPI(ML) State Committee members are still facing false cases under Gangster Act for leading mass movement against the local land mafia in Lakhimpur-Kheri district few months back. Party has demanded to repeal all draconian laws, lift cases against all its leaders and activists, action against police officials who arrested Comrade Shankar Kol and judicial inquiry into the custodial death of Ramchandra Kol.

All Party units in UP will also hold protest programmes from Dec 20-23 in support of hunger strike and above demands. The following demands will also be raised during these protests: constitution of a Land Commission in the state; guarantee of traditional rights of adivasis over forests and land; distribution of land of Bairath Farm, which is under illegal occupation of erstwhile Raja of Banaras, to the landless; inclusion of Kol, Panika and other adivasis into the list Scheduled tribes and Bangla speaking Namoshudra and other castes into the list of Scheduled Castes in UP; to take measures to stop starvation deaths and farmers' suicides; red cards to all BPL persons and implementation of food-for-work scheme; waiver of all loans to the poor; effective measures for drought relief; high level inquiry into the food-grains scam; proper remuneration to the sugarcane producers; to punish administrative officials in case of occurrence of starvation deaths; implementation of Minimum Wages Act and payment of remaining wages of tendu patta workers; civic amenities in adivasi areas including Naugarhn region; and guarantee of employment, education and health care to all.

Bangla Speaking Minorities Rally at Jantar-Mantar

Hundreds of Bangla speaking people who were rehabilitated in parts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal decades ago after a pact between governments of erstwhile Eastern Pakistan and India, rallied at Jantar-Mantar on Dec 16 with their specific demands and submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister. The rally was jointly organised by CPI(ML) affiliated Bangali Shoshit Samaj Sangrami Manch, active in Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh, and Bangali Dalit Varg Sangharsh Samiti of Udham Singh Nagar, Uttaranchal.

People from Udham Singh Nagar in Uttaranchal and Pilibhit in UP held a dharna and courted arrest to press upon the demands of inclusion of Bangla dalit castes into the Scheduled Castes' list of the respective states, occupation over the lands allotted to them, to stop the nasty politics of repeatedly removing their names from the voters' lists and providing domicile certificates to all. After more than four decades of their rehabilitation most of them still languish in poverty and are deprived of even basic constitutional rights. They have generally been exploited by ruling parties, particularly BJP and Congress, as mere vote bank after spreading fear of their eviction and then assuring them of fulfilling their demands just before the elections. Many of them work as agri. labourers on the lands allotted to them years ago as these lands were forcibly occupied by big farmers who constitute the very reactionary kulak lobby that owes allegiance to the ruling parties.

This protest was jointly led by Krishna Adhikari, Convener of the Sangrami Manch, Raja Bahuguna, CPI(ML) Incharge of Uttaranchal, local MLAs from Udham Singh Nagar and Biman Bose, Chairman of Left Front in West Bengal. All speakers reiterated their support to this struggle and assured them of intensifying the agitation

Struggle for Ceiling Surplus Land in AP

More than 200 people led by CPI(ML) and AIALA successfully launched a seizure campaign and captured nearly 12 acres of ceiling surplus land which was under the control of an absentee landlord at Marribandam village of Chatrai Mandal of Krishna Districton 12 Dec. In Mallela village of Thiruvuru Mandal people held a dharna at Thiruvuru on 12 December and submitted a memorandum to M.R.O. demanding hand over of the housesites for which the pattas were already given by the Government but the land was not identified by the officials. MRO assured the people of providing house-sites. D. Haranath led this protest.

The struggle for land is also being fought at other places in West Godavari, Krishna and Kakinada regions of Andhra Pradesh under the banner of CPI(ML) and AIALA.

Crackdown on Students’ Protest in Patna University

On December 15, hundreds of students led by AISA gheraoed a meeting of the Senate of Patna University demanding Central University Status for Patna University, Students’ Union Elections as well as an end to criminalisation of the campus.

The crackdown faced by these protesting students was remarkable because not only did the police indulge in indiscriminate arrests and lathi charge, they also actively encouraged notorious RJD-sponsored lumpens of the campus to attack the students. As a result, several students were severely injured and admitted to the Patna Medical College Hospital.

In protest against this assault, AISA organised a bandh of the Patna University the next day; in the course of this bandh, students responded enthusiastically but clashes between RJD-sponsored goons and AISA activists and common students continued. AISA is planning to involve other student groups in taking the struggle forward.