Advani's Statement on Jinnah and his Resignation puts Question Mark on Relevance and Existence of BJP Itself

The tribute that BJP President L.K. Advani paid to his ideological-historical predecessor Jinnah in Pakistan has trapped him in a controversy and now that controversy coupled with his resignation puts a big question mark on the relevance and existence of BJP itself.

This incident reaffirms the common knowledge that BJP is nothing more than a puppet organisation of the RSS. The pretensions of a political Party independent from RSS have been thoroughly exposed.

Along with the exposure of the farce of BJP, those allies also stand stripped who as part of the NDA always considered BJP as different from RSS and legitimised its every crime.

The repeated brain storming sessions of the RSS and BJP have finally resulted in a storm that threatens to uproot the very structure of the BJP.

- Dipankar Bhattacharya
General Secretary

Rozgar Adhikar Yatra Lathicharged: Repression Guaranteed If You Demand Employment!

On June 4, a team of citizens on a Rozgar Adhikar Yatra organised by the People’s Ac-tion for Em-ployment Guarantee reached Ambikapur in Sarguja, Chhattisgarh. Among them was one of the key organisers of the Yatra, economist and activist Jean Dréze. As they had done in several other villages and towns in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, since the Yatra began in Delhi on 13 May, they prepared to address a mass gathering of the local tribal people. However, the venue was surrounded by the police, who informed them that they did not have ‘permission’ for the meeting. When they pointed out that addressing such mass meetings should not require ‘permission’, the police resorted to a lathicharge. A section of the media (presumably on information by local authorities) announced that the police had mistaken Dréze for a ‘Naxalite’ and therefore taken action against him.

If this was the arrogant and high-handed treatment meted out to the likes of the citizens on the Yatra, it is not hard to imagine how the police is in the habit of dealing with any stirrings of protest by the local Adivasi poor themselves. The Yatra was part of a long campaign for a full-fledged Employment Guarantee Act – an Act that would guarantee employment for every adult in the whole of India; that no Government would have the power to withdraw; that would place no limit on the number of days of work; that would ensure payment of the statutory minimum wage; and that would ensure equal wages and equal participation of women. A draft for such an Act had emerged from this campaign – but right from the word go, the UPA Government had systematically diluted and delayed the very notion of Employment Guarantee. Having hedged the Bill around with so many restrictive conditionalities as to make it a mockery, and having made it contingent on the success of a Food For Work Programme in a mere 150 districts, the UPA now shows all signs of indefinitely shelving the EGA. In this situation, the Yatra was launched with the intention of building a mass campaign for an Employment Guarantee Act.

The lathicharge at Sarguja has a message for public-spirited citizens and activists. Raising basic issues is taboo, but it can be tolerated if you confine yourselves to well-modulated seminars, press conferences and some formal gestures of protest. But the slightest attempt to go to the people, to mobilise the masses on such questions will mark you as ‘dangerous’ in the eyes of the State. All such attempts will be branded as ‘naxalism’, ‘terrorism’ and so on. We’ve seen how a ‘dead’ TADA is being used to ‘punish’ the protests of Dalit landless in Bihar. How young activists and even journalists in Lakhimpur Kheri who exposed land scams and PDS scams were picked up, threatened with ‘encounters’ and booked under every available draconian section including the Goonda Act, the Gangster Act and the Wildlife Act! How POTA may have been withdrawn, but its victims – the bulk of whom are landless tribals, be they from Jharkhand or Eastern UP – continue to languish in jails. And of course how POTA’s successor ULAPA is already being used against the same landless and tribal poor.

The same phenomenon holds for issues like secularism as well. Speak of secularism in formal Parliamentary confines, or at most in cultural events for an already convinced audience – and it may just be acceptable. But if you go to Gujarat to work painstakingly for justice for the victims of genocide, if you take up the cause of the POTA victims in Godhra, you will be attacked. And this situation is not confined to Modi-ruled Gujarat - when students showed black flags to Advani in Bihar two years back, they were jailed on charges of sedition!

Advani’s Pakistan Visit: A Great Hoax

Advani’s Pakistan Visit has roused lot of noises and controversies. The internal bickering and crisis of BJP and its Sangh Parivar is bound to surface in thousand and one ways; on any and every opportune moment and pretext, and this time it has ended with resignation drama of Advani. This is understandable without affording much pain.

Advani’s visit to Pakistan as the leader of opposition cannot be questioned if it was intended to provide added momentum to the process of improving friendship and cooperation between the two neighbouring countries. But the visit does not throw any noticeable light on this score. Rather, it definitely sowed some poisonous seeds.

President Musharraf did not miss the opportunity to give Advani his due recognition as a leader of “Hindutva” and mastermind of “temple politics” (dragging religion into politics) and invited Advani to Pakistan “to inaugurate the rebuilding of the ancient Katas Raj temple”. Advani was quite happy on that. Listen to him, “I realised that this was the first time any Indian leader has been asked to inaugurate reconstruction of a Hindu temple since 1947”. “ Temple visit caused change of heart”, he added. And this led Advani to recognise that the military dictator President Musharraf is a bird with the same feather. “That made me realise that Pakistan under the present dispensation has begun to change”.

Paying tributes to deceased leaders of the visiting country comes under the established protocol. And evaluation of partition of the country, or for that matter Jinnah or Gandhiji or Advani’s predecessors, is long overdue for many. But this is immaterial in the given context of Indo-Pak relations today. Yet, Advani indulged in acrobats to justify his own concept of secularism, i.e., Hindu Rashtra, in the name of Jinnah. However, the pertinent question is of dragging the “temple politics” in State to State relations which marks a danger of communalising the political process. Advani did not miss the opportunity to play his well-versed communal politics using this visit too. This is unpardonable and must be opposed.

Reconstruction of an ancient temple is purely a business of the concerned people. There are no less examples of mutual cooperation between Hindus and Muslims in building/reconstructing and maintaining temples and mazars. Similarly, there is no dearth of religious leaders in Pakistan to inaugurate the “rebuilding”. Not any Indian leader of the ilk of Advani was needed for that. Thus the UPA also cannot escape from its responsibility for having allowed clandestinely this route of religion in political affairs.

The democratic people of both Pakistan and India unequivocally stand for a free and frank dialogue, instead of hypocrisy by the leaders of both the countries, for a better relation and wider cooperation between the two neighbouring people and countries, for mutual benefit, independence and for strengthening resistances against imperialist intervention

Rajya Sabha Election in Jharkhand: UPA's Clean Chit to BJP

Despite CPM’s acrobatics to unite UPA, the recent elections for Rajya Sabha has once again showed that be it RJD, JMM or Congress, all are in real life, non-serious in offering any resistance to the BJP in Jharkhand. Pre and post-Assembly election doings and undoings of these parties helped BJP revitalize itself from deathbed. And, now, during the election for the Rajya Sabha seat both RJD and JMM unilaterally fielded their respective candidate. There was no efforts to attain unity among UPA itself, what to speak of democratic consultations with other committed anti-BJP forces and of sincere efforts to find some democratic personality suitable for the house of elders and to seek common ground for strengthening anti-BJP move. Whatever CPM leaders may wish, this is the true face of the UPA partners which has been exposed once again. If they have failed to draw a clear line of demarcation with NDA in Delhi where they head the central Govt., in Ranchi also, for obvious reasons, they cannot build any viable opposition to BJP-rule. Congress is a known age-old party of the ruling classes. RJD in Jharkhand is no different from Bihar in gathering the forces of darkness who stand as target of the people’s democratic movement. ‘Guruji’ (Shibu Soren) is Guru in digesting both Cong and BJP; its a matter of opportune moment. In this opportune moment of Rajya Sabha election too, many of his erstwhile associates also believe that “Guruji” has gone soft to BJP.

As a party of the revolutionary left, the CPI(ML) refused to support either of them and preferred to abstain. The party is committed to, and is devoting its entire energy to build people’s democratic opposition and resistance to BJP. Will the CPM leaders join hands in this process and prefer to pursue its left ally CPI and come along instead of negotiating for RJD

By-election Results

True, there remains so much scope to read in the results of the recently concluded by-elections because various local factors do play their part. Yet, a cursory look into the results of recently held by-elections in one Lok Sabha and sixteen Assembly seats give a clear indication that despite all fan-fare of bi-polar polity, both BJP and Congress are successively being pushed to the back-seats. Losses and Gains in Goa for BJP and Congress, or Congress riding over “sympathy” votes in Haryana may not be significant. But, the virtual ouster of the BJP in UP is an indicator of a doomed future for BJP in national polity. As for Congress, it not only failed to gain grounds in UP, but also met blows in Andhra, Kerala, Karnataka – all Congress ruled states. The Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka has gone to SP, a new entrant in the State. All the four Assembly seats in UP have gone to SP and RLD. While two Kerala seats have gone to CPM/LDF and TDP managed to retain its seat in Andhra.

This instability and crisis of the Parties of the ruling classes, BJP and Congress in particular, is bound to continue. Left and democratic forces must make full use of the situation for their advancement.

President’s Rule in Bihar Adding More Misery to Poor People’s Life

CPI(ML) Leader in Bhojpur Arrested at the Behest of RJD Leaders

CPI(ML) has strongly protested the arrest of its senior leader Suresh Paswan in Bhojpur. He was arrested in the morning of 6 June and sent to the Arrah Jail slapped with several false cases. This incident is yet another proof of Laloo’s machinations against the CPI(ML) leaders. The CPI(ML) has described the arrest as an outrageous act done by the police at the behest of those RJD leaders who always conspire to suppress the ongoing movement of the rural poor and restrict the movement of CPI(ML) leaders by putting them in jail. This incident shows that the police and administration under President’s rule in Bihar continues to be manipulated by RJD against people’s leaders and instead of any relief for the poor masses, their miseries are being further compounded.

Suresh Paswan is a State Committee Member of CPI(ML) in Bihar. As a senior Party leader he is also the Secretary of Party’s Sahar-Agiaon Bloc Committee. He was arrested while going to attend a meeting of agricultural labourers who are currently on an agitational path in the entire State. Party State Committee meeting will take place in Bhojpur on 19-20 June.

Uttarakhand: Agitation for Development of Water Resources

Crisis of extreme water scarcity comes to the fore every summer in many parts of India. Most parts of terai region in Nainital and Udhamsingh Nagar in Uttaranchal and the neighbouring districts of UP are hit by a similar crisis in blazing summers. In 1975, a project to build a small dam (Jamrani dam project) had begun to solve the problem of drinking water and irrigation. Crores were spent, people were displaced, basic construction work like canals, roads, barrage colonies were also accomplished, but thirty years on, this dam is not only far from any signs of completion, but it has become a living symbol of governmental callousness and criminal carelessness. In 1975, the cost had been estimated at Rs.61.25 crores which inflated to Rs.702.86 crores in 2003, with the formation of new State people of the region were hoping that the project would be completed. However, despite all Parties agreeing to it in principle, the N.D. Tiwari Govt. of Uttaranchal continues to ignore the urgent needs of the people. On the other hand, due to urbanisation the level of underground water is dangerously falling.

Lending a deaf ear to this popular demand of the water starved people of the region, the Congress and BJP have always sided with the sand-gravel mafia. In such a situation a pressure from people’s movement is the only alternative left. The CPI(ML) and Terai Kisan Sabha jointly launched a people’s movement from 28 April. The second phase saw a seventy-two hours long dharna and presenting this demand to the President of India with one lakh signatures.

Against Privatisation in West Bengal

The West Bengal Party Unit has been carrying on a mass agitation against the rightist economic policies of the so-called Left Front Govt., particularly the policy of privatisation of several state undertakings, including public utilities like public transport system. On June 1, a protest demonstration was held in Coochbehar town in front of the headquarters of North Bengal State Transport Corporation, which is going to be an early victim of the privatisation policy. On June 3, processions and demonstrations were organised in Siliguri and Kolkata. In Kolkata, hundreds of comrades marched from Subodh Mullik Square to Esplanade and held a mass meeting there. The Party has demanded publication of a white paper on the contentious policy issues and has declared its resolve to continue the agitation.

Party School at Diphu in Assam

A Party School was held at Diphu in Karbi Anglong of Assam on 5-6 June. Nearly 200 activists from Karbi Anglong and North Cachhar Hill Districts participated in it. Classes were held on two major topics of “Indian Communist Movement and the CPI(ML)” and “Emergence and Development of CPI(ML) in Karbi Anglong”. CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Party’s Assam State Secretary Rubul Sarma and Central Committee Member Jayanta Rongpi addressed the School.

Protest March to Warn Feudal Goons

Few day back, in Bagodar constituency, a Dalit basti under Manzhladih was attacked by feudal goons to terrorise and subjugate the Dalits of the area. The people’s anger burst out against this act of oppression and on June 6 thousands of people armed with their traditional arms took out a protest march in Saria town sending a strong warning to such anti-poor, anti-people oppressive feudal forces.

Uttar Pradesh: Agitation against the death of a Striking Worker in Unnao

Owners of Rahman Export Factory, producing shoes, in Akrampur industrial area, close to Distt. HQ, Unnao, suddenly threw thirty labourers out of job on 25 May. Almost 2000 labourers including hundred women work in this factory. Aslam, a factory worker, was sitting on hunger strike along with other co-workers to protest against the sudden expulsion. On 31 May, Aslam, on hunger strike since a week, fell victim to the criminal attitudes of the factory management.

On hearing the news a joint investigation team of CPI(ML) and AICCTU reached the Dharna site led by Vidya Rajwar and met the workers. On 2 June, leaders of CPI(ML) and AICCTU from Kanpur reached Unnao and expressed solidarity with the agitating labourers. The workers whole heartedly welcomed the initiative by AICCTU who despite having no earlier links with the factory workers in Unnaon joined their struggle. Later, the workers asked the AICCTU to lead the struggle.

On 2 June, when the Distt. Administration forcibly evacuated the Dharna place in front of the Factory Gate, the workers replied with fixing their foot at DM office in the form of another dharna. The local Member of Parliament who is from BSP revealed his anti-worker attitude when he came asking the workers to end their dharna and later tried to pressurise them. The workers rebuffed his intentions firmly. Bowing to the pressure of the agitation the DM appointed the Joint Labour Commissioner next day to hold a trilateral talks, but due to the pro-owner bias of the latter the talks yielded no result. The labourers are demanding that first of all the retrenchment must be revoked. So far the just demands have fallen on deaf years and five hundred workers led by AICCTU are continuing their dharna at the DM office.

Edited, published and printed by S. Bhattacharya for CPI(ML) Liberation from U-90, Shakarpur, Delhi-92; printed at Bol Publication, R-18/2, Ramesh Park, Laxmi Nagar, Delhi-92; Phone:22521067; fax: 22518248, e-mail: mlupdate@cpiml.org, website: www.cpiml.org