‘War and Peace’ in the Sangh

The crisis that had erupted in the BJP and the entire Sangh parivar in the wake of Advani’s Pakistan visit and his subsequent resignation as the BJP chief has been temporarily resolved with a messy patch-up. The BJP has drafted a compromise resolution that describes Advani’s Pakistan visit as a path-breaking event but spews venom against Jinnah and Pakistan . On his part, Advani has not only retreated but has also assured all concerned that he has drawn his lessons from the extraordinary experiences generated by his visit. Time will tell what lessons Advani may or may not have learnt, but he has certainly enabled the country to have an interesting glimpse of the ideological, political and organisational crisis brewing in the remote-controlled recesses of the paranoid patriarchal parivar.

In recent times and especially since the decisive defeat suffered in the last Lok Sabha elections, Advani has often stressed the need for the BJP to adjust its ideology to the compulsions of governance. The formation of the NDA did mark a degree of adjustment in terms of declared programme, but it was only in the nature of opportunist doublespeak. The Gujarat genocide and its aftermath stripped the BJP of all these pragmatic pretensions, and it played a big role in shaping the BJP’s debacle in the 2004 elections. The subsequent US denial of a visa to Narendra Modi added an international dimension to the BJP’s declining political stock and dented legitimacy. The shrewd strategist in Advani could not therefore fail to see the pressing need for a course correction in the BJP. And the Pakistan visit appeared to him as a grand opportunity for initiating this campaign.

During his Pakistan visit, Advani made three calculated statements each of which he knew would raise the hackles of the RSS. He described the day the Babri Masjid was demolished as the saddest day in his life, accepted Partition as an ‘unalterable reality’ thereby distancing himself from the RSS dogma of creating an ‘akhand Bharat’ through a forcible reintegration of the subcontinent, and termed Jinnah as secular which clashed with the RSS line that demonises the founder of Pakistan and holds him exclusively responsible for all the violence and trauma of the Partition years. While revisiting the Jinnah question, Advani however by no means distanced himself from the fundamental tenets of religious or communal nationalism; rather he was only reselling the mythical marriage of a secular state and a communal nation.

It should also be noted that all these statements referred to the past and implied no departure from the current politics and policies of the BJP. As for the present period, Advani only hoped to create larger room for the BJP in the fast moving process of Indo-Pak diplomacy. In other words Advani was shedding a bit of historical baggage only to secure a liberal makeover of his anti-Muslim image and a greater leeway in the present to pursue the BJP’s own agenda. With his new image he hoped not only to win a renewed and enhanced legitimacy for the BJP among the Indian ruling classes as well as international circles and within the NDA, but also to pave the way for a new phase of political realignments by blunting the logic of anti-BJPism and stoking the old fires of anti-Congressism.

Yet as subsequent events have proved, Advani’s calculations have gone awry, at least in the short term. His aura of being the tallest leader of the Hindutva camp has been badly dented, and his fabled ability to reinvent and rejuvenate the BJP at critical junctures seems to be failing in the face of its toughest test. However much Fernandes and the NDA may have sided with him, with sections of our intelligentsia and the media even overnight dreaming of a liberal Advani at the head of a new-look BJP challenging the ideological and organisational script of the RSS, Advani stood badly isolated in his own house. A chastened Advani has now chosen to beat a retreat, probably awaiting his next opportunity to pursue his unfinished campaign. But the synthetic attempt to marry the Sangh network to a ‘modern’ version of constitutional conservatism, a ‘sober’ mix of aggressive nationalism and rabid rightwing politics as prevalent in many developed capitalist countries, has clearly come up against major historical hurdles.

Tailpiece: Meanwhile, the compromise resolution worked out by the RSS-BJP top brass has chosen to highlight the inauguration of the rebuilding of the ancient Katas Raj temple in Pakistan as the high point and greatest achievement of Advani’s visit. If anything, this was a veritable diplomatic coup pulled off by Pakistan during the Advani visit. By inviting the well-known demolisher of the Babri Masjid to inaugurate the rebuilding of an ancient temple in his country of birth, Pakistan knocked the bottom out of the RSS-VHP-BJP propaganda about the plight of Hindus in Islamic Pakistan. The world would now be interested in knowing if the BJP could ever think of reciprocating this gesture by resolving to rebuild the Babri Masjid! By claiming the biggest diplomatic victory of Pakistan as the greatest outcome of the Advani visit, the high priests of the RSS-BJP camp have only exposed that they continue to remain cocooned in their miserable world of make-believe.

Peasants' Agitation Continues in Punjab

Crisis ridden farmers of the 'cotton belt' of Punjab comprising Barnala, Bhatinda, Mansa and other adjoining districts faced an unprecedented display of the State's might and repression for peacefully demanding to resolve their problems, particularly exploitation by Mandi traders who actually control farmers lives and marketing of their produce through lending them money at very high rates. This has become a very common mode of exploitation in absence of any effective governmental micro-credit scheme. Decreasing governmental subsidies, rising costs of inputs and, aboveall, increasing hold of multinationals and big corporates over the agriculture have further coupled the problems of the peasants. Incidentally, this is the same region which has witnessed a number of suicide deaths by debt-trapped farmers and also the region where BKU has been launching a 'Karza Mukti Andolan' (Movement to liberate from the debt-trap) in favour of peasants.

Barnala police launched a 3-4 day long repression drive in an attempt to foil the mobilisation of peasants which was to be held on June 10 in Tapa mandi against an incident of altercation over money transaction between a farmer and a trader which led to filing a case against the farmer. Farmers and their organisations in the area wanted to resolve the matter amicably, but thanks to the highhandedness of the administration which openly favoured the traders the matter blew up resulting in an widespread expression of broader peasant unity. Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta) along with other kisan organisations called for a peaceful rally at Tapa mandi on June 10 in an effort to resolve the matter and to demand justice to the aggrieving farmers. But the administration under Amrinder Singh led government of Congress decided to foil the rally and started arresting peasant leaders and activists from Mansa, Bhatinda, Barnala and other areas.

Police arrested more than 400 peasant leaders, including AIALA National Councillor Bhagawant Samaon form Mansa, on June 8, two days ahead of Tapa rally and tried to make all efforts to prevent the farmers from Mansa and Bhatinda from reaching the protest venue by spreading terror. Farmer leaders were also arrested from Sangrur, Muktsar, Moga and other cities. Police also sealed dozens of villages and police posts were set up at district borders of Bhatinda, Mansa, Sangrur and Moga. In a brute display of force, police arrested even those farmers who had nothing to do with the rally.

On the day of the rally, determined peasants and their leaders came out in thousands to reach the Tapa mandi. They were stopped at the barricades put up at nearly 21 places by the police and arrested. Hundreds of people were arrested on the way. Police checked buses, tractor-trailers and other vehicles. People coming by trains were also arrested on stations. The administration was hell-bent to stop this peaceful peasant mobilisation and shamelessly deployed mounted police in the town, deployed 'Vajra' (riot-control-vehicle), thousands of policemen and eight duty magistrates to oversee the whole thing.

In all, more than two thousand peasants were arrested for seeking justice and to save the erring traders and middlemen of the mandi on the day and sent to judicial custody. Those prominet among arrested include CPI(ML) Punjab State Secretary Rajwinder Rana, Vice President of BKU (Ekta) Ruldu Singh, AICCTU leaders Sukhdarshan Nat and Harbhagwan, and AIPWA leader Jasbir Kaur.

In spite of this, the Punjab government failed to suppress the peasant agitation and dampen their spirit. While peasants inside the Bhatinda jail held a protest rally on June 13 and started a fast from June 14 declaring that the movement will be further intensified, the peasants held dharnas and protest meetings in front of district collectorates at Mansa, Bhatinda and Sangrur on 14-17 June. It has also been decided to hold protests at district headquarters on June 27 on the farmers' issues condemning Congress' anti-peasant policy of liberalisation and immediate resolution of agrarian crisis. The agitation will continue till all the peasants are released unconditionally and their demands are met.

CPI(ML) Central Committee member Prabhat Kumar and AISA leader Radhika Menon immediately rushed to Mansa to expressed solidarity and for an on the spot assessment of the situation. They also addressed protest meetings held at various cities during the visit.

CPI(ML) Condemns Killing of Peasants in Rajasthan; Demands Resignation of Chief Minister

CPI(ML) strongly condemns the police firing and killing of at least five villagers at Soyla in Rajasthan’s Tonk district on 13 June.

The incident is yet another act of repression by the feudal-criminal and communal BJP government on the common people of the state. The peasants from several villages from Tonk district had gathered at Soyla demanding water from the nearby Bisalpur dam. Earlier, they had also met the Irrigation Minister to demand construction of a lift canal at Todi Sagar to facilitate the supply of Bisalpur water to their area.

We demand the resignation of the Rajasthan Chief Minister, arrest and trial of all guilty police officials under the charges of murder and adequate compensation to the families of those killed as well as the injured.

Naked Assault by Left Front Government on Student Movement in Jadavpur University :

Hunger Strikers Tortured in Hospital and Women Students Molested By Police in Custody!

AISA in the Forefront of Massive Student Movement in Kolkata

In September, 2003, the students of Engineering Faculty of Jadavpur University, Kolkata organised a movement in demand for a change in examination system. Now, twenty months later, the University authority has suspended five students for their involvement in this movement. Against this illegal act on the part of the University authority, students started movement under the banner of Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students Union (FETSU). They sat on hunger-strike which followed an indefinite class and exam boycott as well as several huge rallies and demonstrations. Two National Executive Members of AISA – Naba Kumar Biswas and Moloy Tiwari (students of the Arts Faculty of Jadavpur) had joined the hunger strike.  But the authorities refused to listen to the demands and resorted to an unprecented brutal use of the police forces to break the strike.

10-11June: Night of Terror:

A huge battalion of police and RAF troops surrounded the strike site. For nearly two hours, a 1000 students formed a human barricade and kept off the police. Finally at 2 am, the lathicharge began. Students were beaten with iron rods and lathis. The police wrenched out the electric connections from the standing fans and electrocuted the steel gate of the university; students were then chased towards the steel gate, where they were flung away by the electric current. More than 700 students were injured, bloody and bashed up.

Women students were threatened:

‘We’ll see how you get married; we’ll show you what happens to girls out late at night!’. One girl student of philosophy, also a National Council Member of AISA, Chandrasmita Choudhury, was held by two policewomen, while male police publicly beat her and jeeringly prodded at her private parts.

Hospital or Concentration Camp?  

Then, four hunger strikers were taken to hospital, on pretext of breaking the hunger strike by force-feeding. But in the hospital, these four – all prominent student leaders - were locked in a separate room and severely beaten and subjected to third degree torture. Patients in the hospital pleaded and protested but the torture continued.

Meanwhile, Chandrasmita was separated from the others, and taken to Jadavpur Police Station, where police officers threatened her with gang rape and subjected her to hours of sexual abuse and mental torture. Later she was also taken to hospital. Police women told her that “good girls” never went out at night; those who did deserved rape. When Chandrasmita bravely asked what the policewomen were doing there at night, she was beaten again – by male officers!

Doctors, under instructions from the Govt and ruling party, did not even allow family members or teachers to visit the students. Teachers and students of Jadavpur gheraoed the hospital, fearing that the hunger strikers would be killed. AISA leader Moloy as well as one of the FETSU leaders Jayabrata were bleeding profusely and hardly conscious. It was only due to the determination of students, teachers and mediapersons (all of whom were beaten up), that the detained students were finally released from hospital.

The Movement Reaches New Heights:

In next two days, students from Jadavpur, joined by those from Presidency College and other institutions, took out massive processions of 3500 students. Street corners are taking place in almost every neighbourhood – with teachers, prominent cultural figures and intellectuals participating. Former JU students – including those working in some IT firms and mediapersons joined the protest. Writers like Mahasweta Devi, playwrights Rudraprasad Sengupta and Bibhas Chakravarty, and filmmakers like Ashok Vishwanathan were among those who marched in protest against the incident. Jadavpur students are boycotting classes and exams indefinitely.

Students all over West Bengal are demanding the resignation of the Education Minister, VC of JU, as well as unconditional withdrawal of the suspension of the Engineering Faculty students. SFI has made a token condemnation of the lathicharge. However, it has refused to participate in the agitation. This organisation, which in Delhi talks of ‘Study and Struggle’, has said in Kolkata that “What the students of Jadavpur have done in the name of student movement is an insult to the student movement of Bengal”. But the SFI is totally isolated. Most members of JU’s Arts Faculty Students Association came out openly against their SFI leadership and joined the rally of Science Students and Engineering Students and are participating in the boycott in defiance of SFI’s diktats.

Radical students organizations, including AISA, RSF, PDSF, AIPSF have called for an all-Bengal Students’ Strike on may 14.

Students also marched to Writers Building to give memorandum to the Chief Minister, Buddhadev Bhattacharya. Students from many of the SFI strongholds responded to the strike call of June 14 and came on streets defying their leaders. AISA demanded Judicial Enquiry into the incident and punishment to the police personnel and withdrawal of suspension of 5 students. The student leaders have said that the movement will continue until the demands are met.

'Parivartan Rally' in Sonitpur

CPI(ML) Sonitpur district committee in Assam organised a massive 'Parivartan Rally' at Bargang on 9 June in protest of the misdeeds and betrayal by the Tarun Gogoi government. Nearly five thousand people joined the rally and voiced their protest against the anti-poor-anti-tea worker Congress govt. The rally was addressed by CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Party State Secretary Rubul Sarma, Bibek Das and Sonitpur district Secretary Liladhar Sarma and others.

Comrade Dipankar attacked the UPA govt. at the centre and Congress govt. in Assam for being insensitive and callous towards the poor peasantry, the working class and the unemployed youth. He called upon the people to join the CPI(ML) movement for a radical change. Comrade Rubul Sarma slammed the state government for not attending to the problems of poor peasants and tea-garden workers and transforming the Panchayat raj into a raj of corruption and crime. Other speakers protested against the rampant corruption at Panchayat levels. They condemned the government for launching anti-CPI(ML) tirade in tea-gardens and other areas of party's influence. This rally was the biggest ever mobilisation in Sonitpur district.

CPI(ML) Calls for Statewide Agitation in Assam

Party's Assam State Committee meeting held at Nagaon on 10-11 June has called for a statewide agitation in Assam against the betrayal of the UPA government and the Congress government of Assam with the common people, especially the rural poor and the unemployed youth. Meeting also decided to release a charge-sheet against the government on 26 June. Just after the release of the chargesheet, a mass agitation will be launched in the state.

38 Day Dharna on Tribals’ Demands in Sonebhadra

Thousands participated in 38-day long dharna and hunger strike at Duddhi Tehsil HQ on the issues seriously affecting the tribal people including stopping of false encounter killings of left activists, employment, minimum wages, BPL cards, food-for-work scheme, rights over forest and land and to give benefits of reservation to the tribals.

On the concluding day of the dharna on 10 June, CPI(ML) State Secretary Akhilendra Pratap Singh addressed the assembled people and said that the Mulayam Govt. is following the same path as that of previous BSP-BJP govt. by killing the tribal people and suppressing the democratic movement in Sonebhadra- Mirzapur-Chandauli in the name of tackling Naxalism. He said that CPI(ML) will remain at the forefront of the struggle of the tribal poor.

IIMS Workshop at Mysore

IIMS Karnataka chapter organized a workshop at Mysore on 12 June. The theme of the workshop was ‘The basics of Marxism and the political situation in Karnataka'. It was attended by 45 participants.

District Conference in Hazaribagh

The Hazaribagh Distt. Party Conference, participated by 139 delegates and 14 observers was held at Shahid Mahendra Singh Hall (Officers’ Club) Bhurkunda. The Conference was inaugurated by Swadesh Bhattacharya, in charge of Jharkhand and Polit Bureau member. Emphasising the importance of the labour movement of Hazaribagh, he called upon the entire Party members of Hazaribagh to lead the resistance movement of people with renewed vigour and increased initiatives as NDA and UPA both were facing crisis in Jharkhand. State Secretary Suvendu Sen and Central Committee member Rajaram were also present. A 13 member Distt. Committee was elected with Devki Nandan Bedia as District Secretary.

Maha Dharna by Left Parties at Ranchi

CPI(ML), CPI, CPM and MCC came together in Jharkhand in a mahadharna at Ranchi against the failure of BJP-led Arjun Munda Govt. of the State. Addressing the mahadharna, CPI(ML) State Secretary Suvendu Sen said that the Arjun Munda Govt. is an imposed regime. The people of Jharkhand were cheated by making a complete mockery of all democratic norms in government formation. He charged that this Govt. is a nexus of criminals, mafia and corrupt police officials and said only a meaningful left unity can give an alternative to the people of Jharkhand. Among others, the mahadharna was addressed by state secretaries of CPM and CPI Gyan Shankar Mazumdar and Bhuvneshwar Mehta respectively.

Later, a delegation of the Left Parties met Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari and gave a memorandum to him demanding immediate elections to Panchayat, Nagar Nigam and Nagar Palika, and strengthening of the PDS system.

Mass Campaign against Delhi Government

CPI(ML) Narela unit in Delhi along with All India General Kamgar Union and Nagarik Vikas Panchayat has launched a mass campaign in the area against the the betrayal of Delhi govt. from its promises made regarding various civic amenities, electricity, water, minimum wages, corruption in PDS system, etc. During the campaign, a successful protest was held before the PDS officers which led to an agreement giving assurance for the availability of wheat, rice and sugar at PDS prices and to curb the corruption in the department.

Protest in Rewari

CPI(ML) held a protest demonstration in Rewari of Haryana to press upon various demands of agrarian labourers and poor peasants. A memorandum was sent to the Prime Minister through the DC.

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