The Sangh Must Be Stopped from Perpetrating More Crimes in the Name of Ayodhya

The July 5 terrorist incident at Ayodhya has predictably made the Sangh parivar jump with glee. When the incident took place the RSS was still busy with its four-day introspection camp in flood-ravaged Gujarat, discussing Jinnah and the deepening crisis in the parivar. The beleaguered Sangh was quick to see the Ayodhya incident as a godsend and the entire parivar is fast trying to swing from introspection to desperate action. Like the proverbial drowning man who tries to save himself by desperately clinging to a straw, the Sangh is trying to overcome its present crisis by clinging once again to Ayodhya. The Togadias and Singhals are back spewing venom against Pakistan and ‘jehadi terrorists’, and Advani too has lost no time to go public with his wish that the Ayodhya incident should evoke a ‘matching response’.

The identity of the terrorists killed at Ayodhya is yet to be established and the conspiracy underlying the incident is yet to be unearthed. But historically speaking, the roots of the July 5 incident clearly lie in the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 and the bloodshed and communal frenzy that preceded and followed this demolition. While the overwhelming majority of secular forces in India have never favoured terrorism, banking instead on a sustained political battle against the Sangh-sponsored communal campaigns and pressing for a negotiated or juridical settlement of the Ayodhya issue, it is not difficult to see that the Sangh’s communal fascistic campaign over Ayodhya has always been fraught with the possibility of inviting a terrorist backlash. No amount of Sanghi clamour against ‘jehadi terrorism’ can absolve the Sangh of the countless crimes it has committed in the name of Ram and Ayodhya.

While sections of the UPA government are busy holding the UP government responsible for lapses in security, the latter blames the former for ‘intelligence failure’ while claiming credit for foiling the terrorist attack. This Centre-state politicking is obviously music to the Sangh’s ears. True to its political character, the Congress has also begun to link the Ayodhya incident to India’s national security and national pride, thereby emboldening the Sangh to use Ayodhya as a national symbol and the present incident as an insult to and assault on the national sentiment of the Indian people. The BJP and the Sangh parivar see the July 5 incident not only as an opportunity to restore the ideological, organizational and emotional unity of the parivar by reviving the Ayodhya campaign but also to go on the offensive against Pakistan and on the UPA’s presumed ‘softness’ on terrorism and Naxalism.

It is indeed interesting to note the alacrity with which the BJP has started hitting out on the ongoing peace process between India and Pakistan. The BJP and the NDA have always sought to claim credit as the real architect of the peace process and only the other day during his Pakistan visit, Advani went to such absurd lengths to project his new avatar as an ambassador of peace and amity in the subcontinent. But faced with a severe ‘crisis of faith’ inside its own house, the Sangh has once again chosen to emphasise the fundamentals. We must never forget that there are a whole lot of vested interests in India who feel uneasy at the prospect of a durable peace between India and Pakistan and that the BJP will never miss an opportunity to vitiate the atmosphere of relative peace and revive its chauvinistic and jingoistic clamour. The BJP and the Sangh will also try every trick in the parivar’s repertoire not only to revive the Ayodhya campaign but also to link it to the Sangh’s other pet themes like ‘minority appeasement’ and ‘terrorism’.

The BJP is keenly aware that its only hope lies in its ability to eclipse the basic issues of livelihood and people’s rights by whipping up communal and chauvinistic frenzy and strengthening the instruments of state repression and terror. We must squarely challenge and frustrate this design of the BJP and the Sangh parivar. The Congress has always given in to the BJP and the RSS over the issue of Ayodhya. The July 5 incident marks the beginning of a new phase of politics over Ayodhya and the forces of militant and committed secularism must firmly oppose every sign of complicity on the part of the Congress.

CPI(ML) General Secretary's Statement on Terrorist Attack on Ayodhya

CPI(ML) Central Committee expresses serious concern over the terrorist attack on Ayodhya. Instead of trading allegations against each other, central and state governments must tell the country how such an incident could occur in the first place.

CPI(ML) also strongly condemns the highly provocative and irresponsible statements being issued by the leaders of the VHP and BJP, especially L.K. Advani’s call for a ‘matching reaction’ to the incident. We cannot forget that the Sangh has all along sought to justify the state-sponsored genocide of Muslims in Gujarat by invoking this very thesis of reaction.

Secular and democratic people of India must handle this situation with exemplary unity and determination, not allowing the Ayodhya incident to cast its shadow on the Indo-Pak peace process and certainly not allowing the crisis-ridden Sangh Parivar to derive any political mileage out of it.

Gujarat Facing Flood Fury: RSS Busy in Debates on Jinnah in Surat

CPI(ML) has expressed deep sorrow over the loss of lives in Gujarat due to heavy floods and called upon the Central as well as the Gujarat Govt. to ensure proper relief and rehabilitation of the flood victims.

“ Gujarat is facing massive flood fury, but the RSS in its own laboratory of Gujarat, is busy at Surat in running debates on Jinnah and Jinnah’s relations with the RSS and BJP. This once again shows the real character of the RSS”, Party General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said in Delhi on 2 July.

He said that whenever the country had faced any crisis, this thoroughly communal political organisation had run away from the responsibility and betrayed the nation and its people. This is the history of this communal cabal right from the time of freedom movement.

Imrana’s Rapist Must Be Punished Immediately

Taking strong exception to the continuing governmental inaction over the rape and victimisation of Imrana, CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya has demanded speedy trial of the rape case and punishment of the guilty.

He welcomed the growing popular voice of support for Imrana and called for greater social vigilance to thwart attempts by religious fundamentalists and communal political forces of diverse hues to utilise the plight of Imrana to serve their narrow interests. He also added that the SP government of UP as well as the UPA government at the Centre cannot and must not be allowed to shirk their constitutional responsibility to guarantee Imrana her fundamental right to carry on her life without fear and any kind of persecution.

CPI(ML) Opposes Indo-US Military Agreement

Party Calls Upon Indian Govt. to come out of US-laid political-military trap

"A new military agreement known as ‘New Framework for the US-India Defence Relationship’ was announced in Washington on 28 June, 2005. it was signed by Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his American counterpart Donald Rumsfeld. The agreement speaks of hitherto ‘unimaginable’ and ‘unprecedented levels of co-operation’. It reflects the Bush administration’s design to take the existing 'co-operation' between the two countries to a qualitatively higher (read dangerous) levels in which some of the military and political tasks of unipolarity – multinational operations, disaster response, ‘peace building’, spreading ‘democracy’ worldwide can be outsourced to India. Experts say: “Pakistan may still be the United States’ major non-NATO ally in South Asia, but India is being cultivated as its lever for realising a more fundamental goal – to remain firmly embedded in Asia at a time when the continent is emerging as the world’s new centre of gravity and Beijing as Washington’s challenger."

CPI(ML) strongly opposes this Indo-US military agreement. In essence, it is an American strategic action-plan to engage India in its sinister campaign to destabilise Asia.

“At a time when the anti-US voices are getting louder in several countries, particularly in Asia and the people are perceiving the US administration as the number one enemy of world peace and stability and the heads of major countries in Asia are seriously talking about powerful Asian assertion, India should not be seen as a trusted lieutenant of the United States. Instead of entering into such anti-Asia dangerous pacts with the US, India should take a lead to unite the countries against US-led imperialist aggression, plunder and murder of democracy”, Party stated and said that the haste with which the Manmohan Singh Govt. showed its willingness of entering such a dangerous agreement is also quite revealing. The Congress Party is proving more loyal to the US than the NDA Govt., which barely an year ago it was criticizing as pro-American. Party said that this military agreement would further undermine our national interest. India has already been reeling under the US-laid imperialist economic threat and this military agreement would now throw India in the military political trap of the US. India's relations with its neighbours which were improving would again deteriorate. The agreement would expand the market for American arms sellers and defence contractors. It would fuel arms race in Asia.

The Party said that America's 'spreading democracy worldwide' is nothing but only an euphemism for launching more and more aggression, engineering genocides and installing puppet regimes in different countries as the world has seen in Afghanistan and Iraq in recent years. "This agreement would force India to be a part of any US-led military operation around the world and India would be placed in the same category as Japan, South Korea and Philippines - all traditional military allies of the US", CPI(ML) said.

Party called upon the patriotic and democratic and Left forces to disapprove this military agreement with the Bush administration and force the Indian government to come out of this US-laid political-military trap.

Jharkhand: Budget Session

Mockery of Democracy and Drainage of Public Money

The budget session of the first elected Assembly went dry for the people of the state but showered gifts in plenty for its elected representatives and top bureaucrats.

As expected, Arjun Munda govt.'s budget proposals did not address the stark realities faced by the major population of the state, viz., drinking water, food and work, agricultural facilities, revitalisation of sick and closed industries having potential, etc. Attempts were indeed made to raise these issues as well as the issues like: the BJP govt.'s open protection to Dipak Verma, SP and BJP MLA Ravindra Rai, who masterminded the murder of CPI(ML) MLA Mahendra Singh; alleged manipulations of elections using money and muscle power by Ramesh Singh Munda, a minister in the BJP Govt., besides many other issues of public interest. CPI(ML) legislature Vinod Singh, supported by some of his opposition colleagues, tried to draw attention of the House but all these were met with usual lukewarm attitude. That apart, the Govt. even turned deaf ears towards Vinod Singh and other MLAs, who rushed to the spot and came back with an SOS for the 14 trapped coal-miners in Hazaribagh who were left to die owing to criminal negligence towards life and safety of our workmen.

Ironically, the same budget session which had nothing to do with the endless tears of the common people, were full of cheers for its honourable members, the representatives of the people, as gifts were raining on them. As a report in the Hindustan Times of July1, 2005, described it as "A striking feature of the ongoing session has been the generosity various departments have shown in an apparent bid to win over the "men who matters". Each department will distribute gifts to its members on the day its annual budget is passed - never mind if it adds to the budget. Some departments have already begun the process.

"Many of the departments are giving the members Samsonite suitcases and Titan wrist watches. But there are other gifts on offer too. The water resources department is giving mixers and grinders while the health department has come up with health kits for "overstressed" legislators.

The health kit - which has generated a whole lot of interest - comprises a stethoscope, blood pressure and blood sugar monitoring equipment, a jar of Chayavanprash, a bottle of tonic, hajmola, vitamin capsules, disprin tablets, cottonwool, Savlon and antiseptic bands.

And none of the legislators are complaining, except for the CPI(ML)'s Vinod Kumar Singh that is Vinod hasn't been accepting any gifts".

Already, BJP-JD(U) Govt. in Jharkhand opted for thirty luxury cars worth Rs. 16 crores for the Chief Minister, Ministers, Governor and few top bureaucrats.

Should the starving population and the masses tolerate such cruel luxury rides in poverty ridden Jharkhand?

Cadre Convention:

Punjab to Intensify Peasant Movement

Continuing the peasants' agitation that started from Tapa mandi in the cotton belt of Punjab , a cadre convention was organised on 4 July in Mansa which demanded withdrawal of cases and unconditional release of all the CPI(ML) and BKU (Ekta) leaders.

Party General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya addressed the convention and hailed the peasants of Punjab for intensifying agitation despite brutal repression by the state that led to the arrest of thousands of peasants and their leaders. Describing present day agrarian crisis he went back to the turbulent sixties when the message of Naxalbari was spreading like a prairie fire all over the country, and Punjab was no exception to it. At the same time government started 'Green Revolution' to cover up its weakness of not going for a thorough land reforms. But this so called green revolution today stands exposed while peasants of Punjab are again rising to forge a militant unity against the repressive state. Punjab is the best example of the failure of the model of the green revolution as it witnesses more and more suicide deaths, rising debt on peasants, agri. labourers and other rural poor, increased crisis of water and electricity, and an increased pace of privatisation in agriculture with the continuation of the policies of liberalisation and globalisation.

The present agitation has opened up the possibilities for a new wave of peasant movement against the anti-peasant policies favouring WTO regime, big corporates and multinationals. He said that the strengthening of such movement will also lead to a stronger unity among left forces in this region which has a glorious history of communist movement.

The Convention demanded from the Punjab govt. to convene a special session of the State Assembly to discuss agrarian crisis and the problems of the peasants in the state. It was also decided to continue the agitation and launch a widespread propaganda campaign from 1to15 August in the whole region which will culminate into a massive Mazdoor-Kisan Panchayat on the Birth Anniversary of Bhagat Singh on 28 September.

The Convention was also addressed by CPI(ML) CC member Prabhat Kumar, Party's Punjab Secretary Rajwinder Singh Rana, Jeeta Kaur, Chandrashekhar of CITU (Punjab), Tarsem Jodha of CPM(Punjab), Ruldu Singh of BKU (Ekta) among others. The proceedings were conducted by Bhagwant Samaon.

Congress Is, As It Was ...

It's for the Left to Clear Their Own Position

In the midst of top level deliberations between Cong. and its leftist-UPA partners on the issues of BHEL divestment and petro-price hike, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described such oppositions by left as minor 'hiccups'. This followed the "cabinet nod for a big boost to FM radio", allowing FDI for 336 radio stations in 90 cities - another giant move for privatisation at the cost of state exchequer - clearly signalling that the UPA govt is desperate to pursue disinvestment far wider on scale and speedier in pace than its predecessor BJP-led NDA. Simultaneously, Pranab Mukherjee nodded "New Strategic Indo-US Defence Relationship Agreement", allowing US a free peddling in the matters of our national defence and paving the way for India playing an appendage of US militarist strategic game-plan in Asia pacific and world over. This is something where BJP's NDA had to make a retreat but Congress' UPA succeeded!

Then, what is the rationale behind Sonia-Karat talks? Madam agreed to disagree that the Indian State , or for that matter any state, cannot run on a 'minimum programme'. She and her learned colleagues, perhaps, are trying to make their Marxist friends-in-need understand that a 'Common Minimum Programme (CMP) can and should be visualised as a 'common declaration of deception'. A state ceases to be a state if it does not pursue the maximum programme/agenda of the ruling classes. Congressmen wonder as to why the Marxists do not understand that CMP for them is a 'Common Military Ploy' (with America ) side by side with 'concern for maximum privatisatio' and that CMD (Committee of Mass Deception) is the practical implication of the 'Coordination Committee'. Anyway, the Congress seems to be rest assured that the Marxists will continue its policy to 'bark' but not 'bite'.

As for the working class and the masses in general, it is a common practice that a common minimum programme is charted for a common movement/agitations against the common enemy, i.e., the ruling classes and the state machinery through a common platform. Should the Marxists be serious on fighting for CMP and against betrayal of Congress and resist BJP's come back, it's time to rise up, join hands for a left and democratic platform for a sustained movement. Late, better than never.

Heroic Battle of Pune Transport Workers

Through a month long heroic battle - fast unto death in a scorching summer - the Pune Municipal Transport workers finally achieved a major victory. The management was forced to take back 79 suspended workers out of 93, pay an advance of Rs. 8,000 to permanent workers and Rs. 6,000 to daily wage workers against the arrears. The bus drivers and conductors in Pune strengthened their movement, kept the buses off-road, virtually paralysed the PMT Bus Service, braved police repressions, arrests and threats and betrayals by the INTUC union leaders during this agitation.

Besides, this struggling unity of the PMT workers, other workers in industrial units, Railways, Govt. Employees, Nurses, LIC, PMC, etc, also came forward in solidarity. A mass morcha of over 6000 workers, including large number of women workers, was led to the office of the police Commissioner, Pune. A Jt. Action Committee of trade unions and 'PMT Bachao Samiti' were formed to seek support from the citizens. The workers and the leaders of the movement, defying INTUC leadership, voluntarily sought direct intervention of Comrade Mukta Manohar, General Secretary of the Pune Municipal Workers' Union and leader of AICCTU, who remained in the forefront till the end.

AISA’s Two-day National Workshop at Dehradoon

A two-day long national workshop of All India Students’ Association (AISA) was held on 1-2 July at Shaheed Chandrashekhar Nagar (Dehradoon). This was followed by AISA’s National Council meeting on 3 July. 115 delegates from Punjab, Delhi, Maharashtra, U.P., Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Karbi Anglong, and Uttarakhand participated in the workshop. The subjects covered at the workshop are Imperialism since Lenin and Communist Manifesto. The last session on 2 July was devoted to sharing the AISA activists’ experiences and lessons from student movements and agitations in different states. The workshop was inaugurated by Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya who urged the students to make all issues of people an integral part of their struggle and concern. He said that it was encouraging that AISA has been making efforts to increase their theoretical understanding while at the same time taking movemental initiatives, and he urged the students to make this kind of practice more frequent.

AISA has resolved to meet the membership target of one lakh. The months of July and August would see extensive membership campaign in all states. It was decided that a national level Parliament march would be held on 8 September on the slogan No Employment – No Government!

OBITUARY

Comrade Kajal Acharya passed away in Tinsukia on June 14. She was 78. She remained active in the communist movement right from the 70s and spent most of active life at Durgapur where she also worked as a English teacher. She fearlessly worked for the Party and the people in extremely risky conditions during the days when the movement was facing a setback in face of unprecedented state terror.

She was not only very popular among party comrades but also very much revered by all in the town. She will remain a source of inspiration for the comrades of her next generation.

Red Salute to Comrade Kajal Acharya.

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