CPI(ML) HOME Vol.8, No.1 4-10 Jan, 2005

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

U-90, Shakarpur, Delhi 110092. Tel: (91)11-22521067. Fax(91)11-22518248


In this Issue:

Stand by the Tsunami victims in their Battle for Life and Reconstruction

The havoc wrought by the killer tsunami waves of 26 December has once again demonstrated the utter vulnerability of human life in the face of nature's fury. A week after the tragedy, the world is yet to assess the full scale of devastation in terms of human lives and material losses. In Indonesia alone, the death toll is now estimated to be around 100,000. Sri Lanka too is feared to have suffered an unprecedented loss of more than 40,000 lives. Compared to these two countries, India has probably escaped with relatively limited losses. But the official projections of human loss are widely acknowledged to be a gross underestimate. With more than 20,000 feared dead in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Andhra Pradesh, the tsunami tragedy remains the worst disaster suffered by the southern region of the country in living memory.

It is now well known that as many as three hours had elapsed between the recording of the earthquake in Indonesia and the tsunami onslaught on India shores. The bureaucratic and scientific establishment in the country could make no use of this precious time. The government was blissfully unaware of the destructive potential of a tsunami onslaught. So much for India's claims of being a 'science-and-technology superpower'! It now turns out that the institutes that received the first alarms about the quake in Indonesia forwarded the message to Murli Manohar Joshi, the former BJP minister for human resource development. Probably they were even unaware of the change of guards of in Delhi after the last Lok Sabha elections!

The same callousness continued even after those deadly seven minutes when the tsunami waves played havoc along the long southern coastline. In spite of a mammoth naval establishment in the coastal region, no effective rescue operation was undertaken in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, or Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Helicopters were pressed into service more for the purpose of ferrying ministers than saving lives. Relief campaign too suffered from a visible lack of coordination among various wings and agencies of the statements about the severity of the disaster. For all its tall claims about disaster management policies and arrangements, the government did not even consider it necessary to declare the tsunami tragedy a national calamity.

Fisher folks and other toiling sections living closest to the sea have borne the brunt of the tsunami disaster. But the rescue and relief operation of the government is guided almost entirely either by strategic considerations or by the perceived needs of tourism promotion and publicity. The toiling people who remain marginalised in life have been treated with humiliation and indignity in death as well. But field reports received from the worst affected places are replete with any number of instances of real human bravery, courage and sacrifice displayed by these toiling people who have the most intimate knowledge of the seas. It has also been proved that trees have proved to be a great saviour of lives in many areas. The intensity of the tragedy has been rendered many times higher by the mindless damage and destruction caused to the sea environment and the natural surroundings in coastal areas by the tourism industry. As life rebuilds itself and people re-emerge from the debris of disaster, we must exert every effort to hasten the pace of reconstruction. Every possible assistance must be organised and rendered on a war footing to alleviate the miseries of the suffering people. While paying our tributes to the countless humans who have been devoured by the seas, we can never forget how the misery of the people has been aggravated by the anti-people anti-nature policies of capitalist plunder and callousness of bourgeois governments. While natural disasters may be unavoidable, the human crimes that increase the intensity of destruction must not go unpunished.

AN APPEAL

The CPI(ML) shares the concern and agony with the nation on the Tidal tragedy and expresses heartfelt condolences to the families of thousands of people in India and neighbouring South and South-East Asian countries who lost their lives on Dec 26 in a sudden eruption of the violent tsunami waves triggered by an earthquake and asks the government of India to declare this devastation as national calamity. The party called upon the government to take appropriate measures for rescue, rehabilitation and relief on a war footing to the millions of people fallen victim to the tragedy. The Party also advised the govt. to extend every possible help to the affected people in neighbouring countries in this hour of need.

This immense devastation has not only claimed lives of thousands and caused innumerable casualties but also rendered millions of people homeless with every belonging of them swept away by the flooding waters. CPI(ML) calls upon all its units, members, supporters, sympathisers and all citizens to share the griefs of those who have to bear the direct impact of this calamity with every possible help. CPI(ML) units in the affected states, including Andamans, Kerala, AP, Tamil Nadu and Orissa, have rushed to the most affected areas for conducting relief operations, shoulder-to-shoulder with various benevolent organisations, groups and individuals.

We appeal to you all to come forward with every possible help and support to our brethren facing this calamity. We also appeal to you to send monetary help, in cash or in kind, to conduct the relief operationrightou can send your local cheques/ Bank Drafts/ Money Orders in favour of 'CPI(ML)'. Please mention in your covering letter "Contribution for Relief Fund" and send your valuable contribution to our Central Office at U-90, Shakarpur, Delhi - 110092.

Polit Bureau
Communist Party of India (ML)

First List of CPI(ML) Candidates for Jharkhand Assembly Elections


1. Koderma Ramdhan Yadav
2. Bagodar Mahendra Prasad Singh
3. Rajdhanwar Rajkumar Yadav
4. Jamua (SC) Satyanarayan Das
5. Gandey Rajesh Kumar
6. Barkatta Mahendra Das
7. Panki Bishwanath Singh
8. Bhavnathpur Tahir Ansari
9. Manika (ST) J. P. Minj
10. Garhwa Jitendra Kumar

Intensify Relief and Rehabilitation Work for Tsunami Victims

Tsunami has resulted in a devastation and many parts in TN are badly affected. Nagapattinam is the worst affected district. Kanyakumari, Cuddalore and Chennai are other places which are badly hit.
A CPI(ML) team carried relief materials in a convoy of 2 cars, 3 lorries and 1 van from Chennai, which was later joined by a car from Pondicherry and a lorry full of relief materials from western region, to Thiruvottiyur, Kovalam, Pondy, Cuddalore and Sirkali (Poompuhar and Perunthottam). The materials were distributed to the affected people. More such teams are expected to distribute relief to the victims. Comrades Kumarasami and Balasundaram, CCMs visited the affected areas in Nagapattinam district on Dec 26.

In Chennai, on 27th, more than 50 workers of solidarity forum of AICCTU visited the affected areas in Tiruvottiyur. Relief activities were yet to be seriously taken up by the local administration. Workers of TIDC, apart from extending monetary assistance, distributed 500 packs of food for the victims on 29th. In Kanchipuram District 25 party activists led by Eraniappan went to the affected areas. All over the state, the party has called for immediate relief activities.

The deadly tsunamis, which were active for only seven minutes, have swept away  with the lives, livelihood, and hard earned minimum belongings of vast fisher community in the state. The CC ships which could have saved many lives if acted promptly did not appear in the scene on 26th. A number of helicopters were busy in bringing Jayalalitha, Maran and Mani Shankar to the affected areas, by the time many lost their lives for want of helicopters for rescue operations.

The Central and State Governments are now playing politics over the corpses  of predominantly fishermen and the relief operation lack  coordination from both sides.
The poor lot who always struggled for a life of respect and dignity in their lifetime and earned their living after a very hard toil, met the same fate even after their deaths. Bodies of the dead, most of them from fishermen community, were taken up in garbage lorries and thrown into large pits for mass burial with paying any respect.

AIALA activists went through the affected areas in a silent mourning procession and, Seeing authorities' inaptitude and inaction over the relief work, reached to the tehsildar office in Nagapattinam on Dec 27 to protest the inactive district administration, which was still left with no clue about the relief measures, in spite of CM’s assurances to the victims. RYA collected relief materials and distributed among the victims.

Condemning the attitude of the government, CPI(ML) appealed to the common people of Tamil Nadu to come forward for immediate relief activities and help the victims of this unprecedented calamity.

In Ranchi, and many other places, party leaders and cadres collected relief fund and materials to be sent to tsunami victims. People actively came forward to cooperate in earnest and donated money. First day, on Dec 30, Rs. 3100 were collected in Ranchi after door to door contact. CPI(ML) MLA Mahendra Prasad donated a month's salary to the relief fund. CPI(ML) called upon to all its party units to collect funds and other relevant materials for the victims.

Though governments in the centre and in the affected states are tirelessly claiming that every help will be provided and funds crunch will not be an obstacle, cruel reality remains that government officials have not yet reached to many of the affected areas and wherever relief has been sent there is no proper mechanism for distribution. Moreover, the proper planning for rehabilitation task, which must be taken up on an immense scale, is nowhere visible. A more important fact is that after such tragedies the most severely affected and the largest section of the population, the poor and downtrodden, remains almost untouched from actual relief and rehabilitation work. We must come forward to provide real help to the lakhs of suffering countrymen and help them start a new life afresh. No matter what governmental tall claims tell us, we must put in our sincere efforts in relief and rehabilitation work and, also, pressurise the govt. to reach to every victimised person.

Ten days after the tsunami catastrophe, Indian governments at the states and in the centre have yet to establish relief operations in a number of areas. This slow and inadequate response is now threatening thousands more lives as epidemics have begin to emerge. A total of 2,260 km of India’s southern coastline were affected. Nagapattinam district was the worst affected Other affected districts are Kanyakumari, Cuddalore, Kancheepuram, Villupuram, Thiruvallur, Thanjavur, Chennai city coastal districts, Tiruvarur, Pudukottai, Tuticorin, Ramanathapuram and Tirunelveli.

In total, nearly five lakh people have been left homeless in Tamil Nadu alone. Hundreds of children have been orphaned. Poor fishing families, who are still in shock over the loss of loved ones and their fishing boats and equipments, have not yet been provided proper shelter, food, clothing and other basic facilities. On January 1, fishing families from a Marina Beach foreshore estate in Chennai blocked the road to demand immediate relief measures from state authorities.

Having survived the tsunami, tens of thousands of displaced and starving villagers in Tamil Nadu’s other coastal districts are now confronted with another disaster—the spread of diarrhea and other serious diseases which could further increase the death toll. There are serious shortages of medicine, disinfectant and other basic medical supplies.
[Source: world socialist web site: January 4, 2005 ]

Police Continues attacks on villagers in Chandauli

CPI(ML)'s agitation against use of criminal feudal army Shriram Sena by UP police to suppress the left movement, particularly of agricultural labourers and adivasis, met a befitting reply in the form of mass agitation that culminated into fast unto death by the UP State Secretary of the Party and subsequent talks with the administration where latter agreed to disband the feudal army besides accepting other demands. But it took only two days to expose the political intentions of Mulayam Singh's administration as police launched one more attack on a village of our party supporters and took away ten party members and sympathisers to 'teach' them a lesson for participating in the agitation.

On Dec 28, two days after the fast unto death was broken, police reached to Naudihawan under Naugarh PS and carried out brutal beatings of all villagers telling them that this is the punishment for taking part in the protest and arrested ten villagers. When this attack was on, even DIG was informed immediately by Party comrades but he did not relent. Arrested persons also faced severe torture in police lock-up. Later, party activists sat on a protest dharna on Dec 29 at tehsil headquarter in Chakia to demand release of all ten persons, stop on police atrocities and action against responsible police personnels.

Protest Day in UP

UP unit of CPI(ML) observed protest day on Dec 27 to demand repeal of all black laws, constitution of Land Commission in UP and CBI inquiry into the food-grain scam. It was also demanded to withdraw false cases under Gangster Act imposed on party leaders in Lakhimpur-Kheri besides other demands concerning rural poor and agri. labourers. A dharna was held in front of State Assembly in Lucknow while protest demonstrations were held at Pilibhit, Kheri, Muradabad, Kanpur, Gonda, Sitapur, Ambedkarnagar, Allahabad, Varanasi, Sonbhadra, Gazipur, Balia, Deoria, Gorakhpur, Urai and other places.

Protest Day by AICCTU

AICCTU UP unit organised protest day on Jan 1 to oppose adverse impact of policies of liberalisation which have rendered lakhs of unorganised sector workers like weavers of Varanasi silk industry, workers in brick-kiln industry, agricultural workers and similar highly unorganised sectors. Drastic policy level changes like entry of multinationals and foreign capital in construction sector have left them to the brink of starvation.

AICCTU activists organised a dharna before the State Assembly and memoranda were sent through protest demonstrations at Varanasi, Allahabad, Kanpur, Robertsganj, and Urai. Recent attacks on CPI(ML) activists by police in Mirzapur-Chandauli-Sonbhadra belt were also condemned.

Movement in Jhunjhunu against Toll Tax and Privatisation of Highway

District of Jhunjhunu came to a virtual halt on Jan 3 as the bandh called by the joint struggle committee against imposition of toll tax on the national highway between Sikar and Loharu, a distance of about 122 km where at least six toll posts have been created, met a massive success and not even a single vehicle plied in the district and all business establishments remained closed. This is an old road, constructed from the public money long ago, but was handed over to the HPCL under an BOT (build-operate-transfer) agreement. This company reportedly invested Rs. 49 crores only on repairs and now amassing huge sums from this busy road which is an important segment for the intra-district traffic for the local people.

CPI(ML) and its affiliated mass organisations are playing an important role in this movement which is otherwise being run by a joint committee representing various organisations of motor owners, traders, autorickshaw drivers, and other parties. Success of this bandh has forced the state PWD Minister to come to negotiations. Now it is being planned to hold a massive rally on the issue soon to further pressurise the govt. While people are already paying at least three types of taxes, viz., special road tax, road tax and diesel tax, handing over of an already built highway segment to a private operator to amass huge amounts in toll taxes clearly indicate the anti-people orientation of the economic liberalisation. We must welcome such incidents of popular opposition to these policies and must strengthen such movement.

Anand District Party Office Inaugurated

CPI(ML)'s Anand district Party office was inaugurated on Dec 26 at Petlad. Agricultural workers, poor and middle peasants, students and intellectuals participated in the ceremony. The new party office was decorated with banners and red flags for the occasion. A discussion was also organised on "The Crisis of rural poor and its solution". This was addressed by Party's Gujarat incharge Ranjan Ganguly and Ahmedabad Secretary Laxmanbhai Patanwadia besides many others. Speakers discussed the adverse impacts of globalisation on agriculture in detail and condemned the UPA as well as NDA who are advocating opening up agriculture sector to the imperialist powers. They also condemned rural employment guarantee bill and demanded for a separate legislation for agri. workers. The discussion was concluded with the resolve to expand party work up to deep rural interiors of the district.

Rally in Sabarkantha

CPI(ML) Sabarkantha unit in Gujarat held a rally at Himmatnagar on Jan 3 to press upon the demands to provide Narmada water to the tribal areas of the district, free electricity to the adivasis, employment allowance and special employment generation programmes for the women, dalits and adivasis and proper rehabilitation of all displaced persons. They also protested the evacuation of tribals from their traditional lands. Hundreds of people participated in the rally which was led by Sabarkantha party incharge Dasrath Sinhali, Laxmanbhai Patnawadia, Baburao Yadav, Shyambabu Sharma, Jiwaji Damor, and Ramesh Katara. The rally declared to intensify the movement on these issues.

Protest in Udham Singh Nagar

CPI(ML) held a protest demonstration on Dec 27 against police inaction over an incident of attack on party activists by the goons. This was an outcome of the agitation against sale of illegal liquor which forced one such vendor to shut his shop. Besides, Party and AIALA are conducting the movement against the local moneylenders who extort huge amounts as interest from the agricultural labourers and the poor. Now it is being planned to intensify the agitation against the nexus of administration with liquor mafia and moneylenders.

Parliament March to Protest Amendment in Patents Act

The All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) and All India Students' Association (AISA) took part in the Parliament March on Jan 5 to oppose the introduction of the ordinance to amend the Patents Act 1970. This was held under the auspices of Joint Action Council comprising various left organisations and NGOs. The amended Act would not only increase the prices of essential drugs as well as agricultural and traditional products in India, but also would impact on the country’s sovereignty, and would only help multinational corporations.

The government was condemned for adopting the ordinance route, to avoid parliamentary debates on the issue, to bring in changes in the Patent Act. Despite widespread opposition, UPA govt. preferred to satisfy multinational corporations and imperialist powers at the cost of the health and livelihood of the common people of the country. This submission by the govt. to the WTO must be opposed and, indeed, on a much bigger scale. Now India will no more be able to produce cheaper drugs and other materials for its people. It is almost certain that after this amendment the grip of multinational corporations over important sectors like medicine and agriculture will become more firm and the prices of many generic drugs, which are available at comparatively cheaper rates, will go beyond the affordable limits of the common people.

 

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