Gurgaon: ‘Good Governance’ of Batons and Bullets
in Defence of MNCs

Even as PM Manmohan Singh and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi express ‘anguish’ over the police brutality over workers in Gurgaon, Home Minister Shivraj Patil has justified the savagery, saying the police was “compelled” to act as it did; and the police crackdown continues unabated against workers and protestors on the streets of Haryana. Distraught families of ‘disappeared’ workers are venting their rage on the police and District Administration, and women are at the forefront of these protests. The first day of the monsoon session of Indian Parliament was in progress on July 25; but all eyes were on the Hooda’s horror show in Gurgaon - the shocking images of thousands of workers of the Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India being beaten to a pulp inside the compound of the mini-Secretariat in Gurgaon, being forced to crawl on their knees holding their ears.

Despite the world watching, despite Opposition parties as well as Left parties demanding Hooda’s head, why hasn’t the police brutality subsided? What is at stake? Japanese MNC Honda put up a placard outside its Gurgaon factory - boasting that on the Bloody Monday when workers were savaged, the factory met its production target of 900 vehicles! Honda can make this inhuman and arrogant boast because it is confident that for the Indian ruling class, the gory tale of Gurgaon is less about Hooda and Haryana, and more about protecting the interests of foreign investors like Honda. The Japanese Ambassador has threatened that the workers’ spirited protests is tarnishing India’s ‘image’ as an investment destination, and the MEA has rushed to reassure that foreign investors need not worry; the ‘legal interests of investors’ will be safeguarded. Even as the Left forces have called a Bandh in Haryana today, Nirupam Sen, Industries Minister in LF-ruled Bengal (one of the top destinations for Japanese FDI) has praised the Japanese ‘track record in industrial relation’ and echoed the MEA’s reassurances, saying that ‘The Japanese need not worry...what has happened in Gurgaon will never happen in West Bengal.”

Gurgaon is not just a city in Haryana - it is a model laboratory of neo-liberal policies. Many editorials have hastened to point out that Monday’s incidents should not be seen as ‘televised class struggle’ - and that it was the scourge of ‘militant trade-unionism’ that was necessitated police intervention in the first place. But workers in the SEZs and secure sweatshops of Gurgaon are denied recourse to any trade unionism - militant or other wise! On June 26, (fittingly, the anniversary of Emergency), thousands of workers of Honda were locked out for daring to persist with the project of forming a Union .

Monday’s events have opened a window onto the enslaved world of workers who labour in such enclaves - a world where workers need to secure written ‘permission’ every time they answer the call of nature; where the act of registering a Union results in suspensions of leaders; where the demand for the basic civic liberty to organise and unionise is met with wholesale retrenchment of thousands of workers; and where police and Administration serve as loyal henchmen of MNCs.

Just this month, the Indian PM had proudly claimed that the British Raj, far from being a tormentor of Indian people, was in fact a mentor for the insitutions like police and bureaucracy and had ‘served India well’. Within weeks, the Congress Govt.’s police has shown its colonial DNA - reenacting Jallianwala Bagh in its eagerness to brutalise workers in order to defend MNCs! Recently, an innocent Brazilian youth was hunted down and killed by British police in a London subway. Even as the Blair Govt. claimed that such ‘unfortunate casualties’ were the inevitable ‘collateral damage’ of the War on Terror, a mirror image incident happened in Kupwara (J&K), where Indian Army killed 3 young schoolboys, ‘mistaking’ them as terrorists. Clearly, the colonial legacy is not simply a matter of long-ago history. Even today, Indian rulers are playing ‘follow the leader’ with Bush and Blair, enacting London in the theatres of Kupwara and Guantanamo in Gurgaon.

Multinational capital and its agents in the Indian ruling class alike know that the ‘hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist’ - it is to the credit of the Honda workers of Gurgaon to have forced that ‘ hidden hand’ (‘Congress ka haath’?!) to show its bloody and barbaric fist. Those workers - mostly young men fresh from ITI campuses all over the country - have shown a remarkable fighting spirit. Honda officials have complained that most of those involved in the street fights with police in Gurgaon are ‘outsiders’, not Honda workers - but that only goes to show the solidarity of the working men and women of Gurgaon with their comrades in the Honda factory. It is that solidarity that has turned Gurgaon into a theatre where repression meets with heroic resistance of working class and common people.

Unfortunately, even at such a juncture, the CPI-CPI(M) are reiterating their commitment to the CMP and to ‘floor coordination’ with the UPA Government in Parliament. It seems they have also decided to downplay their opposition to disinvestment of BHEL - reassured by the promise of a ‘White Paper on Public Sector Autonomy’. The UPA and the Congress have made it clear that the ‘Common Minimum Programme’ is one of batons and bullets - and their arrogance is sustained by the faith that the official Left will not overstep the boundaries of ‘CMP’ or ‘Common Minimum Protest’. On the very first day of the monsoon session of Parliament, however, the workers of Gurgaon refused to be tamed by ‘CMP’ confines and served notice to the UPA Government by challenging neo-liberal ‘discipline’ (read slavery) imposed by police batons and spilling out onto the streets - far beyond the confines of any CMP. Gurgaon’s workers’ ringing challenge rents the air – and as August draws near, their struggle seems to be telling neo-liberal policies and their Indian agents – ‘Get Ready to Quit India’!

Red Salute

to the

Legendary Revolutionary Leader and Founder of CPI (ML )

Comrade Charu Mazumdar

on the Anniversary of His Martyrdom, 28 July.

CPI(ML) Launches Countrywide Agitation to Oppose UPA Govt.'s Anti-Poor and Pro-Imperialist Policies

Greeting the monsoon session of Parliament with anger and protests, CPI(ML) launched a countrywide agitation from July 25 in protest against the UPA Govt.'s anti-poor and pro-imperialist policies. Protest demonstrations, marches and dharna were held in Delhi and several other centres of the country including Patna , Kolkata, Ranchi , Lucknow , Bhubaneshwar, Vijaywada, Chandigarh , Chennai and Ahmedabad.

CPI(ML) asked the UPA Govt. to desist from pursuing anti-poor and pro-imperialist policies, or be ready to face the wrath of the people and be doomed to meet the fate of previous NDA Govt. Party demanded that the UPA Govt. must, in this session of Parliament, enact laws for comprehensive round-the-year employment guarantee for the jobless all over the country, comprehensive central legislation for agricultural labourers, social security legislation for unorganised sector workers, debt remission and alternative agricultural policy for the distressed peasantry, and 33% reservation for women in Parliament and State Assemblies.

CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya led a massive protest rally at Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh and called upon the people to resist the UPA Govt.'s anti-poor and pro-imperialist policies and to unite and fight for livelihood, employment, democracy and national dignity.

He said, "UPA Govt.'s caring government’ mask is fast slipping – and people are fast recognising the callous face beneath. In the last one year since the UPA came to power, we have seen various sections of India ’s people hit the streets." He charged that the UPA Govt. was going ahead with NDA’s policies of close economic, strategic and military partnership with the US . In order to justify the policy of collaborating with today’s imperialist powers, the Prime Minister has also tried to whitewash history and give British colonialism a ‘human face’ too.

CPI(ML) leader said, "employment and hunger stalk the land in almost every state in India . From agrarian labour in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar to the tribals of Eastern UP, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, one can see the outrage against the non-implementation and scams in Food-for-Work schemes. All over the country, employment has become the rallying cry of youth. Anger against the dilution and mockery of the promise of ‘Employment Guarantee’ has erupted again and again."

CPI(ML) General Secretary criticized the official left parties who are supporting the UPA government for doing nothing more than pay lip service to the people’s issues. He said, "these UPA partners claim that since they do not participate in the government, they are free to champion people’s struggles. But the fact is the Common Minimum Programme, the UPA-Left Co-ordination Committee, and the various lunch and dinner meetings with Congress leaders are all ties that shackle them to the Government. These bindings, combined with the fact that their own West Bengal Government follows the self-same anti-people policies that the Government at the Centre does, have all but paralysed these parties. The spirit of class struggle has been sacrificed at the altar of class collaboration."

He said,"If people’s anger is not channelised in a united all-out struggle for an alternative, people’s sense of betrayal and helplessness could well help the BJP find the road to revival." He called upon the people to resist every attempt to erode India 's sovereignty and national dignity by tuning us into 'strategic' stooges of imperialist powers.

In Delhi , hundreds of CPI(ML) activists and supporters held a dharna at Jantar - Mantar. They also held a protest meeting. Protesters had a large number of placards, which read No Employment - No Government, Three Gifts of UPA Govt. - Poverty, Unemployment and Price Rise, British Colonialism - India 's Tormentor - Manmohan's Mentor , etc.

July 25 protest day was observed in Tamilnadu at various district HQs including Chennai, Tiruvallore, Kanchipuram, Tirunelveli, Cuddalore, Erode, Tirupur, Karur, Dindigal, Mayoladudurai, Pudukottai, and Vaniambadi. Demonstrations and public meetings were held in these districts. In Gujarat , a protest dharna was held in Sarangpur of Ahmedabad which was participated by large number of unemployed youth, women, workers and poor people. A memorandum with above demands was handed over to the Governor of Rajasthan in Jaipur.

Uttar Pradesh witnessed similar protests in many districts including the capital Lucknow and Chandauli, Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, Varanasi , Gazipur, Ballia, Deoria, Padrauna, Maharajganj, Gorakhpur , Mau, Azamgarh, Allahabad , Raebareilly, Ambedkarnagar, Sitapur, Pilibhit, Unnao, Kanpur , Jalaun, and Moradabad . A protest dharna was held by the Haryana unit of the Party in Chandigarh . In West Bangal, protest programmes were held in many districts and block headquarters including Kolkata, Malda, Raiganj and Krishnanagar.

Bihar witnessed dharna and demonstrations at almost every district headquarter and important centres. Protest programmes were taken up at Bhojpur, Jehanabad, Arwal, Dehri-on-sone, Bhabhua, Biharsharif, Buxor, Nawada, Gaya , Aurangabad , Siwan, Darbhanga, Bhagalpur , Betia, Gopalganj, Samastipur, Hazipur, Muzaffarpur, Begusarai, and other places. In Patna , a massive dharna was organised where corruption on massive scale in food-for-work scheme was also protested.

Similar Programmes were held at many places in states like Jharkhand and Assam .

The Party will also observe 6 August , the sixtieth anniversary of the infamous Hiroshima Day (US imperialism had wiped out two Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki through targeted nuclear explosion on 6 and 9 August, 1945), against the worldwide military offensive of US imperialism and to demand scrapping of the dangerous strategic partnership agreement between the US and India which reduces India to a strategic stooge of the US. The concluding day of the month-long campaign will be observed as Sangharsh Diwas or Day of Struggle, on 24 August, and marked by mass mobilization in rasta roko/rail roko/chakka jam/jail bharo struggles all over the country.

CPI(ML) Protests Barbaric Police Repression on Workers in Gurgaon

CPI (ML) has expressed deep anguish and outrage at the barbaric police repression on workers of a Japanese multinational company, the Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), at Gurgaon in Haryana on July 25 which resulted in the death of at least one worker and injury to more than 700. Party held protests on July 26 in Delhi and several other centres of the country.

At Parliament Street in Delhi , hundreds of agitated activists held demonstration and burnt the effigy of Haryana Chief Minister. Agitators broke the police barricades. All the protesters were arrested by the police.

Effigy of Haryana CM was burnt by AICCTU in Robertsganj in UP. Hundreds of workers held a protest demonstration in Ranchi and a protest was also held at Patna . In West Bengal , protest demonstrations were held at Subodh Mallick Square in Kolkata and in Raiganj, Siliguri, Jalpaiguri, Asansole and many other places. AICCTU also held protests at Bhadreshwar Jute Mill and at few other places in the state. In Tamil Nadu, demonstration have taken place in Ambattur and Thiruvallure industrial estates under the banner of AICCTU besides protests at some other places including Namakkal and Palempet. Protests were also held at many other centres in the country.

Condemning the brutal police attack Party demanded from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi to apologize to the working class of the country and assure the Parliament of stopping the anti-worker privatisation drive.

More than a thousand workers seeking reinstatement of their suspended colleagues were holding a protest in Gurgaon when police, in hundreds, suddenly encircled them and let loose the brutal repression.

The battle between the pro-Congress management of HMSI and the workers started nearly six months ago when a senior manager of the company beat up a worker inside the factory premises. Later, when the workers were in the process of forming their union, management tried to victimise many leading to four dismissals and fifty suspensions. Protests against the management strengthened despite former's highhandedness and oppressive tactics. When the workers' peaceful procession was going to the DC office on July 25 with the demand to save the workers'' rights, the administration and police resorted to barbarity which is unprecedented in the history of this industrial township.

CPI(ML) has demanded dismissal of police and administrative officials, including the SP and DC of Gurgaon, who let loose unprecedented barbarity on the Honda factory workers agitating against retrenchment, acceptance of their demands including reinstatement of retrenched workers, unconditional release of all arrested workers, compensation to the family of deceased worker and all those injured and resignation of Chief Minister and Home Minister of Haryana.

CPI(ML) has termed this barbaric repression as yet another incident that betrays the anti-worker and autocratic character of the Congress government, wanting to implement its policy of privatisation and retrenchments. At a time when multi-national companies and big capitalists have launched attacks on the rights of the workers, the government has come to defend the oppressors by using bullets and batons on the workers who stand to demand their constitutional rights.

The All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) has taken up agitational programmes all over the country against this incident. A team of AICCTU led by its National Vice President NM Thomas and Secretary Santosh Rai reached Gurgaon to express solidarity with the agitating workers. The Party and the AICCTU have supported the 28 July Haryana Bandh call. A team of All India Students Association (AISA) and Forum For Democratic Initiatives (FDI) reached Gurgaon and met the injured workers and their families. FDI also handed over a memorandum to the National Human Rights Commission demanding latter's intervention.

CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya's Statement on Manmohan Singh's US Visit

New Delhi, 20 July.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's US visit marks a qualitative increase in India's overall dependence on the US. The so called US recognition of India as a nuclear power and promises of transfer of nuclear technology will make India's nuclear programmes vulnerable to greater American intervention and control. The patently unequal nature of India's strategic partnership with the US has been exposed once again by America's refusal to support India's plea for a seat in the UN Security Council even as Manmohan Singh extended uncritical support to the unbridled military offensive of US imperialism and reassured the US Congress about the 'irreversibility' of India's economic reforms. The proposed second generation Indo-US collaboration in the field of agriculture has come as an added insult on top of the injuries already been suffered by India's rural poor and small farmers in the era of WTO-dictated policies.

CPI(ML) Condemns Brutal Killing of an Innocent by British Police and Demands Apology from British PM

New Delhi, 24 July.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) has strongly condemned the brutal killing of an innocent by the British police in London and sought an apology from the British Prime Minister.

The Party said "this latest incident has exposed the racist attitudes - legacy of colonialism - deeply embedded in the British police and other institutions. It is a shame that on his visit to Britain, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had expressed gratitude and admiration for these British institutions and their colonial roots."

Party also expressed serious concern over the intensified racist attacks on immigrant and minority communities and more state-led assaults on citizens' rights and liberties in Britain.

While condemning the terrorist strikes mounted in London on 7 July and in Egypt on 23 July which only confuse, divide and weaken the real anti-imperialist movement of the world people, CPI(ML) expressed solidarity with worldwide people's voice against racism and imperialist war.

Statewide Protests in Bihar

CPI(ML) and CPI jointly held statewide protests in Bihar on July 14 to demand withdrawal of the hike in petroleum prices, CBI inquiry into flood relief scam, repeal of the Indo-US Defence Agreement, and stop on starvation deaths, increasing crime, corruption and police atrocities. Protesters also demanded a universalised and corruption-free food-for-work shceme, inclusion of all poor in the voters list and issuing voter's ID Card to everyone and separate polling booths for the poor and the weaker sections. The protests were held in hundreds of Block headquarters in almost all the districts including Patna, Bhojpur, Kaimur, Buxor, Rohtas, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Siwan, Gopalganj, W. Champaran, Purnea, Katihar, Bhagalpur, Begusarai, Sitamarhi, Vaishali, Jehanabad, Arwal, Nalanda, Gaya and other districts. More than one lakh people all over the state participated in these programmes.

Main Culprit of Arwal Massacre Joins Congress

Bihar unit of CPI(ML) has strongly condemned the Congress for inducting CR Kaswan, the main perpetrator of Arwal massacre where 25 dalits were killed fifteen years ago, in the party. He led the killers and himself killed many innocent dalits. Party has said that this has once again exposed the anit-dalit and anti-poor face of the Congress. Lalu-Rabri regime took no action against this enemy of the people. CPI(ML) has reiterated its demand to release the report of the inquiry committee set up after the massacre.

RJD Will Pay Heavy Price for Shielding Notorious Gangster Shahabuddin

CPI(ML) has strongly protested the statment made by RJD leaders on the Shahabuddin episode and said that the RJD would pay a heavy price for shielding and saving this notorious historysheeter. The Party charged the RJD leadership with obstructing the judicial process and trying to give it a communal colour. In one recent case, a non-bailable warrant has been issued against Shahabuddin. This has perturbed the RJD leadership and they are describing it as an attack on Muslim community.

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