CPI(ML) HOME Vol.7, No.6 5 - 11 Feb' 2004

The Weekly News Bulletin of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)(Liberation)

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     In this Issue:

February Flashes: Kalyan's 'Reconversion' and Jaswant's Sop Opera

The advent of February found the BJP election campaign hotting up amidst a lot of fanfare and characteristic fraudulence. Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to Ranchi on February 1 to address the golden jubilee of the RSS-affiliated Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra, the return of the prodigal Kalyan Singh to the BJP family, and Jaswant Singh's continuing 'sop' opera in lieu of Budget 2004 marked the three major early February flashes.

Vajpayee's February 1 visit to Ranchi was his first since the formation of the new state three years ago. The Prime Minister was there to address a so-called Vanvasi Sammelan. Even though the BJP had to give up on its attempt to rename Jharkhand as Vananchal, it insists on terming Adivasis as Vanvasis. Adding new chapters to the BJP's litany of feel-good falsehoods, Vajpayee chose this occasion to make the utterly false claim that his government had not allowed any Indian to die of hunger and wax eloquent about his pet 'river networking' project. He was however conspicuously silent about his government's directive to evict adivasis from their homeland. While the Sangh Parivar uses the ideological loaded term 'vanvasi' for adivasis in the country, the BJP-led government describes the same 'vanvasis' as encroachers and calls for their wholesale eviction.

And of course, nobody expected Vajpayee to remember the state-sponsored slaughter of adivasis which shook Ranchi and the whole of Jharkhand in February 2001. Unarmed adivasis demanding scrapping of the Koelkaro project were gunned down by the trigger-happy Jharkhand police on February 2, 2001 and no action has been taken till date against the erring police officials.

While the mini-budget announced in January had already doled out sops worth some Rs. 20,000 crore to the rich, the vote-on-account (appropriately described as 'on account of votes' by a leading cartoonist) shorthands for the railway and general budgets added more items to the feel-good mockery. In the midst of peace talks, the government announced a Rs. 25,000 crore defence modernisation fund. Fuel subsidies have been drastically reduced and immediately after the elections there will be a hefty rise in the prices of cooking gas and kerosene. Indebted farmers have however only been offered more loans and ATM-compatible kisan credit cards. And the exponentially expanding army of the jobless remained unnoticed as ever.

Instead of addressing any of the issues thrown up by the current agrarian crisis, Jaswant Singh talked glibly about a second green revolution. If the first green revolution was supplemented by significant quantum of public investment in agriculture and a network of procurement and distribution systems, the present policy is marked by systematic withdrawal of the state. The theory and practice of the first green revolution revolved around a narrow 'betting on the strong' strategy and instead of the resultant prosperity trickling down to the labouring peasantry, the agrarian crisis has begun to hit the very sections who had once beem among major beneficiaries of the green revolution. The so-called second stage of green revolution is based on a further narrowing down of the agrarian strategy with agriculture becoming 'big business' for the kulak-trader-corporate sector nexus while relentlessly pauperising the vast majority of the agricultural population.

While Parliament was reduced to a theatre for the NDA's sop opera, the BJP also entertained the country with its political circus. Kalyan Singh who had sworn to finish off the BJP returned to the party with a vow to deliver all the votes and seats that have been eluding the BJP in fortress UP. Meanwhile, Mayawati kept everybody guessing with her next step even as the BJP keeps sending feelers to her to spoil any chance of a Congress-BSP tie-up. Denying the Congress any 'alliance advantage' and shoring up the party's own plummeting prospects by getting Kalyan Singh back on board are the twin pillars of the BJP's immediate strategy for the biggest electoral marketplace of the country. Between the Atal-Kalyan express and the Rahul-Priyanka road show, UP will continue to witness desperate attempts by the two biggest parties of India's ruling classes to regain some lost ground.

CPI(ML) Prepares for the Lok Sabha Elections in Bihar

The Party is gearing up for the forthcoming Parliamentary Elections which have been imposed by the communal fascist BJP regime prior to its scheduled time that was due in September. Preparations to the electoral battle are being taken up in the form of the strengthening of the organisation and induction of new members. A massive propaganda to expose the fascist regime and policies of liberalization and globalisation is also taken up right upto the village and panchayat level. Party structures are being reorganised in branches and booth committees and their GB meetings are being held in villages in all the districts.

Conventions will be held in Bhojpur, Jehanabad, Siwan and Kaimur in the second week of February, while Nalanda district committee held its convention on Jan 29. CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya will address 'Mazdoor-Kisan Unity Rallies' in Mujaffarpur, Nalanda and Kaimur from Feb 25-27. The preparations for these rallies are going on on a large scale. These rallies are being organised to put forth the agenda towards building a people's 'new Bihar' that can provide security and dignity to women, education and employment to the students and youth and equality to all oppressed and dalit sections.

It is also intended to highlight important people's issues like land and wages, housing and basic amenities, social security and dignity, profitable and viable agriculture for the poor peasants by decreasing input costs vis-a-vis WTO and LPG, Sangh Parivar's attempts to broaden communal divide and poisoning Indian polity, and above all, Jangle raj of Laloo-Rabri regime in Bihar, etc. and bring them to the forefront of the agenda of the coming elections through these rallies and massive and continued propaganda and relentless mass-work.

Jan Sansad in Ranchi Condemns Onslaught of Fascist Forces

A massive People's Parliament (Jan Sansad) was organised by the CPI(ML) on January 31 in Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand, and vehemently condemned the attacks on democratic institutions including Parliament and State Assemblies by the BJP-led fascist bandwagon. The Jan Sansad concluded that the highest representative institutions are more and more ineffective while the BJP and Sangh Parivar attacking democratic polity by undermining decisions of legislative bodies on the one hand and regressively effecting changes in important policy matters of the state on the other.

The severest of dangers to democracy comes from deliberate neglect of the issues and most basic requirements of the weakest and most neglected social groups and the importance being given to unimportant issues pertaining to the small numbers of the richest and most privileged sections. Passiveness and lack of commitment towards poor and toiling masses is explicit through actions of the government when national resources are being 'seized' through 'civilised and peaceful means' and the people and their representatives who raise issues like hunger, poverty, illiteracy, employment and equality are being subjected to face feudal barbarity and state repression.

This is quite saddening that our democratic polity and institutions are being made instruments in the hands of the forces of social oppression directly attacking rule of the law and the democracy. The Jan Sansad resolved to fight against such forces and also to make the legislative bodies accountable toward the people and the nation. It also raised the question of democratising the basic institutions through a comprehensive restructuring of polity to achieve a real people's democracy. It appealed to all progressive sections of the society to come to the fore to achieve this yet unfulfilled agenda.

The Jan Sansad appealed to defeat the anti-people and fascist BJP and NDA in the coming Parliamentary elections by bringing to the fore the issues like hunger, corruption and police repression on the electoral agenda and by uniting all struggling forces. It was resolved to strengthen the revolutionary flag of the Left to ensure political rights for the advasis, dalits and backwards, and for the rights of the peasants and workers towards building a new Jharkhand.

Jan Sansad also condemned the protection provided by the state to the murder policemen of Tapkara incident and decided to observe Feb 2 as Black Day in protest.

Jan Sansad sent a memorandum to the Prime Minister and demanded to cancel the Central Environment Ministry's circular that displaces adivasis from their own lands occupied after 1980, inclusion of Sarna tribals in voter list under their own religion and not as 'hindus', declaration of a National Rehabilitation policy, an inquiry against former CM Arjun Munda, to revoke the decision of closure of Sindri Fertilizer Plant, to hold panchayat elections in the state, to give more rights to village panchayats in Scheduled Areas, to stop implementation of anti-tribal CNT and SPT Acts and to scrap POTA in view of its widespread misuse in Jharkhand.

CPI(ML) Statement on the Interim Budget

The interim budget of the NDA govt. is the confirmation of its anti-people-pro-foreign capital economic policies. The Budget exposed the govt.'s nonserious approach towards the ongoing peace process as it allocates Rs. 25 thousand crores for the defence modernisation, whereas completely fails to address the issues of more than two crores unemployed youth, starving rural poor, large number of workers of the closed industries and the unorganised sector.

The govt. gave total tax exemption to the BPO companies which is the continuation of NDA govt.'s policies of surrendering to the US. The so-called agricultural credit cards and low interest agricultural loan always benefit the creamy layer of the rural population.

We also strongly condemns the NDA govt.'s nefarious designs to use the constitutional bodies like the Parliament for narrow electoral interests.

Massacre Attempt by PWG Foiled in Patna District

The armed goons of People's War Group killed Tribhuvan Bind, a Party sympathiser, near Poawan village in Masaurhi block of Patna on Feb 2 evening. After the killing PW goons planned to attack the Poawan village with clear cut intentions of perpetrating a massacre. But thanks to the people's initiative in the village which led to retreat of all goons and thus saved many lives.

People are relentlessly struggling against PWG's reign of terror in this cluster of villages where it receives political support from the RJD and other ruling combines against the Party. The Poawan village mukhiya is a leading activist of the Party and he is continuously facing attacks by PW. His house has also been damaged. PW also severely beaten up two old people in Soniawa village out of frustration few day ago.
After the killing of Tribhuvan Bind people gheraoed DSP and thana in-charge in protest and condemned them for giving protection to such criminals. The road was also blockaded for many hours. .

Demonstration by Railway Artisan Staff

Railway Artisan Staff, under the banner of "Indian Railway Artisan Staff Union", demonstrated at Kancharapara and Jamalpur workshops on 27 January and 30 January respectively. A good number of artisan staff took part in the demonstrations and raised the demands against the anti-worker clause in the "Cadre Restructuring Order" issued by Railway Board which pertains to surrender of thousands of posts in the name of matching savings and provision of Trade-Test for artisan cadre only.

A memorandum, addressed to the Chairman, Railway Board (New Delhi) submitted through Chief Works Managers in Kanchanapara and Jamalpur.

Hunger Strike Against Dalit Repression in Jalone

Poor dalits in Parasam village of Jalone district of UP bore the brunt of upper cast feudal ire and had to face severe beatings and attack on their households. In protest of this incident of repression CPI(ML) State Committee member Ramesh Singh Senger along with a group of party activists sat on a 30-hour-hunger strike at the district headquarter in Urai on 28 January to demand immediate arrest of upper caste feudal goons who committed this crime. Although the representatives of police and administration have came to dharna to collect the memorandum and assured of arrest of the accused, the district administration is consciously trying to underplay the incident and the police has not even registered an FIR, the Party has decided to go for the movement on a wider scale.

India Shining: Arrest Warrant to the President!

The episode of issuance of the arrest warrants to the President and other top constitutional authorities has once again reminded the resemblance of the Vajpayee-led NDA government with the jackal of the age old story in which he somehow got painted his body in colour and declared himself the king of the jungle. But colour coating could not hide his realbeing and he failed to resist his urge to hawl after hearing the sound of his fellow jackals.

With the mammoth exercise undertaken by BJP of voluminous manufacturing of mass consciousness and the propaganda of "feel good" and "India shining", NDA government is embarking upon the trail of stealing peoples mandate. But the jackals are jackals, afterall, and can not hide stark social realities of Indian society surfacing more prominently than ever.

Recent drama in Gujarat is one such case. One journalist paid Rs 40000 to bribe a Judge and obtained an arrest warrant against A P J Abdul Kalam, President of India and V N Khare, Chief Justice of India! Chief Justice of India comments (in desperation) that the country is at the mercy of God! Certainly not. It is the people of this country who will be decisive. And who will send the present govt. and the Sangh Parivar to the dustbin.

In fact, this is only a glimpse of the face of the contemporary Indian reality - the hallmark of Vajpayee government -- which is institutionalising corruption and attacking apex institutions of the country. And this may be the reason for Vajpayee government and the divisive fascist regressive forces whose India, they feel, is shining, to feel good! But not for the people who toil and starve. Should this regime be tolerated any more?

Protests by AISA in UP

AISA organised protest dharnas at different campuses in UP including Lucknow University on 27 January demanding implementation of promises made by Mulayam Singh for academic fee reduction and unemployment allowance, filling the vacancies and various facilities to students in campuses.

Movement against Cooperative Mafia and Arrest of Kisan Sabha and AISA Leaders in Nainital

     Terai-Bhabar Kisan Sabha (TBKS) is leading a movement of poor peasants who supply milk to the milk producers' cooperative federation, Lalkuan in district Nainital of Uttaranchal for more than a month. In spite of good public support and genuine demands, the leader of TBKS Bahadur Singh Jangi, AISA State President Indresh Maikhury alongwith Devendra Rautela, President AISA unit in Nainital, Pankaj Vidrohi, and Gajendra Sah, a TBKS activist have been arrested by the administration on fake charges and sent to jail while dozens of Party leaders are now facing arrest warrants against them.

The struggle started after an intensive campaign to get rid of corruption in the co-operative dairy federation and to provide appropriate prices of milk being sold by peasants to the cooperative and other demands on a 12-point charter. After a series of protest programmes the federation's elected management was forced to come to the negotiation table but it did not agree to the demands, many of which bear importance at policy level as far as the development of the newly constituted state is concerned. Now the administration and Congress led govt. has adopted a repressive attitude to suppress the the agitating people.

TBKS activists are sitting on an indefinite hunger strike in Lalkuan since Jan 18 and till now three batches of hunger strikers have been removed by the police after arrest and forced feeding. Every time police forcibly take away a batch of hunger-strikers, a new one immediately comes in place of the former. On Jan 24 agitators held a chakka-jam in Lalkuan for more than two hours on the national highway and gheraoed the elected Chairman of the Uttaranchal Cooperative Dairy Federation when hundreds of angered people forcibly entered inside his lush offices. On Jan 28 morning, Comrade Jangi was forcibly taken away by the police from the site of the hunger-strike and severely beaten up on the way to jail inside the police car. Later he was implicated under the 7 Criminal Amendment Act along with many other criminal sections of the IPC.

This was widely protested in many places and on Jan 30 a much bigger protest and road blockade was held at Lalkuan which jammed the highway for the whole day.
Later on Feb 3, three above-mentioned AISA leaders and Gajendra Sah were picked up by the police from the dharna site and sent to jail. This was done a day before the Chief Minister ND Tiwary had to address a gathering organised by Congress for the coming elections in Haldwani, clearly to avoid any protest in front of him. As the movement is gaining momentum and a large number of women, who play a significant role in Uttarakhand's agriculture, are taking part in this movement, it seems that the administration has adopted the tactics of selectively picking up all leading figures in this struggle.

This profit making cooperative, established in 1948, is one of the oldest in the country and markets milk and milk-products with brand name 'Anchal'. It has a membership-base of more than 18000 members spread throughout the district and almost every peasant household with small land holding of terai region in Nainital owes a part of his livelihood through this cooperative.

Peasants have been demanding a Rs. 3 per litre hike in milk procurement prices (which vary with the fat contents of the milk and currently is in the range of Rs. 6-10 per litre) and scrapping of a joint venture agreement with the Mother Dairy of Delhi by which this cooperative has virtually been handed over to the Mother Dairy. The latter is being viewed as the move equivalent to privatisation and an attack on the basic concept of cooperative movement and self-reliance. The Terai-Bhabar Kisan Sabha is also demanding a scientific reevaluation of the price-fixing criterion which has now become decades old. The joint venture agreement is also being opposed by the employees' union of the cooperative.

Now a protest is being organised to be held at the district headquarters in Nainital on Feb 5 to demand the immediate release of Bahadur Singh Jangi and other leaders and to take back all cases framed against them and to force the administration to come to an agreement on the demand charter.

AIALA Convention in Udham Singh Nagar

A Convention on the "Land Redistribution and the Wage Question" was organised in Rudrapur on Feb 2. This widely attended convention raised various important and specific issues pertaining to this district which is seen as one of the most agriculturally developed areas in the country and has a large number of ethnic minorities and migrant labour as well as some so called best 'examples' of the large scale capitalist farming. The main speaker of the Convention was AIALA Vice-President Krishna Adhikari.

Besides raising the demands for a central legislation to agri. workers, minimum and equal wages, BPL cards to all agri. workers, etc., the convention demanded to implement Ceiling Act and land reforms, occupation on land which were allotted to the migrant Bengali and local tribal population decades back but is now being tilled by the big farmers who also hold a powerful political clout in the state. It was also demanded to scrap the farms being run in the name of cooperatives and owned by big capitalists and redistribute those lands to the landless and agri. workers. This demand was being raised by the CPI(ML) for nearly two decades.

Being an area of developed agriculture, the agrarian crisis of present day India is seen in its complete severity here. The real wages have fallen by 30-40 percent as compared to the wages a decade back. Moreover, number of working days for agri labourers have decreased to nearly half and most of the rural population is been forced to migrate in search for the employment in lean days. This district also witness one of the highest number of migrant workers. Kulak-farmer lobby enjoys support from all bourgeois parties mainly Congress, BJP and SP. There is a history of militant agri. workers' struggles in the district which met severe repression by the kulaks and the governments.

The Convention strongly condemned the arrest of Bahadur Singh Jangi and other leaders and demanded their immediate release. Convention was addressed by CPI(ML) Uttarakhand Incharge Raja Bahuguna, AIALA Secretary Sanjay Sharma, AISA State President Indresh Maikhury and AIALA National Councillors KK Bora and Achinto Mandal and leaders of many Left organisations working in the district.

CPISolidarity Greetings to MLPD, Germany

The CPI(ML) extended its good wishes and revolutionary greetings to the Central Committee of the Marxist Leninist Party of Deutschland (MLPD) on the occasion of its Seventh Party Congress. In a communique sent by the CC, CPI(ML), Party called for an enhanced unity and cooperation between two parties saying that "the internationally coordinated anti-war movement against US aggression of Afghanistan and Iraq has been a major development of our times, which has brought to the fore the fact that no corner of the world is safe for globalising imperialism. The unprecedented participation of workers in broad fronts in Germany and other imperialist countries including the USA against the enemy number one of the world people, the US superpower, is a welcome development."

The era of imperialism continues to remain the era of proletarian revolution and the advance of revolution, which can be the best contribution to the global peace movement on our part.

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