In this Issue
Varanasi Must Be Saved from Becoming another Ayodhya
The tremors caused by the twin blasts in Varanasi on March 7 have been felt all over the country. While Varanasi promptly plunged into the act of rescuing and treating the injured, the whole country was one in condemning the blasts and the resultant loss of innocent lives. The people of Varanasi have since displayed a remarkable resolve to maintain peace and uphold the city's great tradition of composite culture and communal harmony. Varanasi had stood out as a centre of peace and secular resistance in the wake of the fascist demolition of the Babri Masjid, more than a decade later the city has once again refused to be provoked into communal violence in spite of dastardly attacks on its own people. India must emulate this exemplary culture of popular unity and communal harmony in the face of similar attacks and adversities.
The post-blast peace in Varanasi has been all the more remarkable because the BJP and the Sangh brigade had lost no time to launch its familiar attempts to communalise the issue and vitiate the atmosphere. Advani and Rajnath Singh have been quick in announcing rathyatras ostensibly for the sake of promoting national integration. The BJP which has suffered serious political reverses in the state clearly sees the blasts as a great opportunity to reenergize itself and renew its vicious communal political offensive. But to their credit, the people of Varanasi have so far successfully foiled the Sangh's designs while coping resolutely with the shock and trauma of the blasts.
While most media analyses have tended to generalize the Varanasi blasts as yet another act of terror and use it as another occasion to repeat the usual anti-terrorist prescriptions, the choice of the specific venue and time obviously suggests an element of deep-rooted political conspiracy. Of late Uttar Pradesh has seen a spate of incidents of communal and mafia-criminal violence and political killings. The state is also witnessing rapid political developments leading to deepening crisis and uncertainty and sharp political competition and polarization. Clearly, the blasts cannot be viewed in isolation from this developing political context.
The choice of Varanasi , and more so the specific sites of blasts within the city, is also loaded with tremendous potential for communal political mischief. Eastern UP has emerged as the hotbed of communal and criminal operations and Varanasi is the nerve-centre of this region. It is also no secret that the Sangh identifies Kashi as one of its key strategic political targets along with Ayodhya and Mathura . At a time when UP is passing through a serious political crisis and a phase of sharp polarization, Varanasi obviously remains central to every design on the future of the power equation in Lucknow .
Let us also not miss the larger political context beyond the immediate political future of Uttar Pradesh. We have just seen huge popular mobilizations opposing the Bush visit to India . The protests have been marked by massive participation of the Muslim community, a community that has had to face heightened multi-pronged attacks in recent years. We have also seen a welcome ideological and political crisis within the BJP and a steady decline in its political appeal. The BJP-Shiv Sena brand of communal politics is fast losing its edge. In terms of issues, Ram has lost out to Roti and basic concerns like livelihood, employment, social security and human dignity have come to the forefront. It is this direction of the developing situation that poses a much bigger danger to communal political forces than any self-styled opportunist electoral combination that may call itself secular. The Varanasi blasts have the mischievous potential of derailing this process and providing fresh fodder for the communal brigade.
This is why Varanasi demands a powerful intervention and prompt response from all progressive secular forces. It is heartening to note that the CPI(ML)'s timely intervention in Varanasi facilitated a series of encouraging popular initiatives. Activists of AISA ran blood donation camp to help blast victims and of course remained vigilant against the evil designs of the Sangh outfits. Defying the blasts and the BJP's attempt to whip up communal tension, the CPI(ML)-led Rozgar Adhikar Abhiyan ended on a successful note in Varanasi on March 9-10. This provided a ready platform to the toiling masses and the secular progressive intelligentsia to demonstrate their resolve and strength, and the forces who wanted to use the blast victims to further their own sectarian and cynical political agenda were thwarted in their ugly bid.
After the Ayodhya events of December 1992, Comrade Vinod Mishra had led a march in Varanasi with the pledge never to allow Varanasi to become another Ayodhya. We must remember and redeem that pledge today like never before. Varanasi must be saved from becoming another Ayodhya, UP must be saved from being turned into a second Gujarat .
Thousands pledge to fight for employment, national unity and democracy
Rojgar Adhikar Abhiyan Concludes in UP
Communal designs of BJP-RSS given a fitting rebuff
Braving unexpected rains, thousands gathered at the Varanasi Commissioner's office to mark the culmination of the first phase of the ‘Right to Employment' campaign which began from Dhabhi block of Sonebhadra district on 23 February and after passing through Mirzapur and Chandauli districts of eastern UP, ended in a massive two day Dharna on 9-10 March. It was a challenge to organize the Dharna in view of the tense situation arising out of the Varanasi bomb blasts in the evening of 7 March. But the revolutionary zeal of the masses far outweighed the communal threats of the RSS-BJP combine and their presence in thousands on the soil of Varanasi gave a fitting reply to the communal designs of the saffron brigade.
The campaign was launched in the backdrop of the large scale bungling of funds going on in the name of NREGA in the state and particularly in the districts of Sonebhadra, Mirzapur and Chandauli. It is well past February and no job cards have been issued to the rural poor. The Centre has already released 25 lakhs for each district in UP covered under NREGS to make free job cards. But the gram Pradhans and Secretaries are charging 10-15 rupees from the people in the name of making registrations and photographs. The above mentioned districts are facing acute water shortage as the fund allocated for deep well boring and maintenance of irrigation canals has been misappropriated by the nexus of contractors, middle men and officials in the irrigation department. People are forced to walk 4-5 km to get drinking water.
The issue of employment had come into the forefront with the recent announcement of the UP Chief Minister to give Rs. 500 as allowance to all the graduate unemployed whose names were registered in the Employment Exchange upto 31 December 2005 . This issue was taken up by the Party in its RTE campaign and it was demanded that Mulayam give this allowance to all the unemployed with a graduation degree. The so-called social justice plank of Mulayam was exposed during the campaign and it was demanded that there should be separate quota for OBCs on the basis of their population and they should not be pitted against Dalits in the latter's existing quota.
The Party intervened in the situation prevailing after the Varanasi blasts by issuing the slogan ‘Stop communal politics on the bodies of the dead', ‘ We will not let Varanasi turn into another Gujarat '. A pledge was taken by the thousands gathered in Varanasi to combat the communal menace of the RSS.
The campaign was led by Party PB member and state Secretary Akhilendra Pratap Singh. The mass meeting at the Dharna was addressed by prominent intellectuals and scientists including Dr. R.K. Mandal from BHU, Dr. V. Tiwari from Allahabad University and Pranay Krishna from Allahabad University . A memorandum was handed for the Chief Minister at the end of the Dharna. A colorful march to the railway station was taken out with the slogan ‘We will not allow UP to become another Gujarat .”
The Pledge Resolution adopted at Varanasi
1. We, the thousands of people assembled here, share the grief and shock of the victims of the Varanasi bomb blast. We express our heartfelt grief for those who have died in this incident.
2. The growing imperialist intervention in our internal affairs including nuclear energy, agriculture, trade and industry, etc. is generating powerful nationalist feelings among people from all walks of life. We are witness to a veritable national awakening. All round people's initiatives are coming up against policies of Central and State governments on questions of education, employment, democracy, agrarian problems etc. Without a doubt the Varanisi bomb Explosion is part of a deep conspiracy to jeopardize this national reawakening and to remove people's issues from politics. Pro-US forces like the BJP are trying to communalise the whole incidence. We express our deep hatred against this communal ploy of the BJP and Sangh Parivar.
3. We congratulate the people of Varanasi and the whole state for realising this conspiracy of the BJP and Sangh Parivar before it was too late. People are foiling the provocative communal initiatives of the BJP. Earlier also, attempts to spread communal hatred in Mohammadabad and other areas had been successfully combated.
4. Now the BJP leadership and the Sangh Parivar are once again trying to spread communal frenzy around the Sankat Mochan Temple incident. We express the firm belief that the progressive and democratic forces will surely foil this conspiracy on the strength of people's unity.
5. The way the BJP and Sangh Parivar are trying to communalise this incident makes it clear that the bomb explosion was an outcome of deep conspiracy. We demand a high powered Judicial enquiry into the incident and a white-paper on the whole matter on behalf of State Government.
6. Following the Gujarat pattern, the BJP and Sangh Parivar are trying to spread communal frenzy in UP. They are eyeing the Purvanchal in particular, by contrast, one pledge is that “we will not allow UP to be turned into Gujarat ” and develop Purvanchal as a centre of democratic movements.
7. Mr. Advani, who has already spread communal fire across the country by means of his in famous Rath Yatra, has now, this time along with Mr. Rajnath, once again announced another Rath Yatra in the name of national unity and integrity. We pledge that we will not allow this communal conspiracy of Advani-Rajanth clique to succeed. The CPI (ML)'s march for true national unity, democracy and secularism will surely pay put to the vile intentions of this clique.
8. We, the thousands of people assembled here, pledge that we shall foil the communal conspiracy of BJP and Sangh Parivar and further intensify our movement on issues of education, employment, democracy, nuclear energy, agrarian crisis etc. We shall forcefully resist the growing American intervention in the internal affairs of our country and rely on the rising nationalist feelings for building a pro-people nation.
Massive CPI(ML) Rally in front of
State Assembly in Bhubneshwar
On March 9, CPI(ML) Orissa State Committee organised a ‘ Mahasamabesh ' of tribals, fishermen, poor peasants and dalit agricultural labourers at Bhubaneshwar in front of state assembly. In this militant rally, tribals from Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, especially the eviction victims, participated in thousands. A large number of tribals, waging land struggles in south and western Orissa, attended rally with their traditional weapons. They were raising slogans for distribution of ceiling surplus land and benami lands of the landlords among the landless and poor peasants, for reducing the land ceiling through progressive land reform legislation in a short period of time, for stopping the eviction drive at the behest of MNCs and Indian monopoly houses including Vedant, Tata, Jindal and Posco, looting the rich mineral deposits. They expressed their solidarity with Kalinganagar people.
Similarly, thousands of Chilka fishermen joined the Maharally , demanding withdrawal of anti-fishermen Chilka Bill and driving out the prawn mafia from Chilka immediately. A huge contingent of agricultural workers under the banner of AIALA, attended the rally with their own demands as well as expressing firm solidarity with Kalinganagar people. More than 10 thousand people attended the Mahasamabesh . In the mammoth protest meeting, a resolution was adopted against the Kalinganagar tribal massacre, against forcible eviction of the tribal people to protect the interest of the MNCs and the Indian monopoly houses, against the prawn mafia-raj in Chilka demanding for the withdrawal of Chilka Bill, against Indo-US deal and UPA govt.'s surrender to US on Iran issue, against the renewed communal threat of Sangh Parivar in the wake of Varanasi blasts, against the increasing police repression on democratic movements, etc. The Mahasamabesh concluded with a clarion call for a united and coordinated, powerful joint movement against all these anti-people and pro-imperialist policies of the governments. CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya was the main speaker. Among other prominent speakers were Kshitish Biswal, Orissa State Secretary, Raja Ram, Gunni Oraon and Anant Gupta from Jharkhand, Bangar Rao, CC member and AIALA National Secretary, Tirupati Gomango, tribal youth leader of Orissa, Radha Kant Sethi, ex.-MLA and Orissa state Committee member, Satyabadi Behra, President of Orissa unit of AIALA, Bidyadhar Patra, AIALA Orissa State Secretary, Sabita Baraj, AIPWA State Secretary Orissa, Meghanada Sabar, President, Chilka Matsyajeebi Mahasangh, Balram Das and Bibhuti Behra, Vice President Chilka Harijan Matsyajeebi Sangh.
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International Women's Day Observed
8 March was observed all over the country by AIPWA. In Delhi AIPWA and the CGHS Employees' Association's Women's wing jointly observed Women's Day by marching to Parliament Street and protesting against Manmohan Singh Govt.'s anti-women policies and gender insensitive budget. They also protested against the imperialist designs of the US . AIPWA activists from Narela, Mangolpuri and Kalyanpuri areas of Delhi spoke against privatisation of Electricity and Water. The demonstration was led by Kumudini Pati, Uma Gupta, Rajkumari and Rajwanti. A memorandum was submitted to the Prime Minister. Among other demands, it was also demanded that the killers of Jessica Lall be arrested and punishment be meted out to the police officials who tempered with valuable evidence in the case.
In East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, around 150 women participated in a rally in Ramakrishnapuram. The rally was led by Ratna Kumari.
In Rajasthan, 8 March was observed in Udaipur , Ajmer and Jaipur. In Udaipur , a meeting on 'Patriarchy and women's oppression' was held in which both men and women, numbering around 70 participated. The main speaker was Sudha Chaudhary. In Ajmer a mass meeting of about 300 women was held and Bhanwari Devi was the main speaker. A mass meeting was held in Jaipur, in a jhuggi basti, which was attended by Srilata Swaminathan.
In Jharkhand, 8 March was observed in a big way by organising a maha dharna in front of Vidhan Sabha. The protest against the BJP Govt. of Jharkhand was led by AIPWA leader Sunita.
In Chennai, the day was observed by organising a seminar on the problems of working women. The increasing plight of women workers and their marginalisation due to globalisation and the anti-women, anti-worker policies of the government were discussed.
In Darbhanga in Bihar , AIALA along with AIPWA held a gherao of the Collectorate on 8 March. This was a massive militant gherao by toiling women of rural folk. A militant march was also held in the town. This was led by AIPWA leader Saroj Chaube and AIALA leader Dhirendra Jha. The issue of registration of womenfolk as head of family in the NREGA was raised in this gherao. It was also demanded to immediately issue job cards and start work under this scheme. Since this is the prime time for sustainable employment in this region being a flood prone area, immediate provision for employment is the dire need of the poor people in this part of Bihar . It was also demanded to cut short the working hours for women to six. The Programme Coordinator of NREGA in the district had to come to dialogue, under pressure of the protest, with AIALA and AIPWA representatives.
AIPWA units also observed the day in various ways in other states like Assam , West Bengal , Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and many other states.
AIALA State Council Meet: Issue Job Cards Immediately under NREGA
AIALA Bihar State Council met in Patna which reviewed the ongoing process of mass registrations under the NREGA. It was felt that despite panchayat and administrative callousness, the campaign spearheaded by AIALA in Bihar received very good response and militant gherao and dharna programmes organised at more than 100 block headquarters in order to increase mass intervention, succeeded in forcing Programme officers at most of the places to accept the application forms and give receipts for the same which they were denying earlier owing to a tacit understanding with the government for issuing job cards in a very limited quantity. Earlier, panchayat and block officers denied accepting forms on the wrong pretext that only government printed forms will be taken into consideration. They were not issuing receipts for the same. But the initiative taken by AIALA gained momentum, particularly in Bhojpur, Siwan, Darbhanga, Samastipur, Muzaffarpur, Rohtas, Gaya, Nalanda, Jahanabad, and many more districts, resulting in successful submission of lakhs of applications of rural poor for registration. Although, the distribution of job cards and start of works under employment guarantee scheme is yet to take off in Bihar . This delay is, at the moment, is making a mockery of the NREGA. Many irregularities are being observed at different levels in the implementation of the Act. Even blank job cards has been reportedly been issued by the respective BDOs in some blocks which have not reached to genuine beneficiaries. These may be put on 'sale' by the respective officials or the middle men. Besides, government printed application forms are being distributed at a cost and money is being charged for the photographs for the job cards. AIALA has given a clarion call to launch more vigorous campaign to force the administration to distribute the job cards, which as per the provisions of the legislation must have been issued within fourteen days of application.
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District Party Conferences in U.P
First round of District conferences in UP concluded recently. Chandauli district conference viewed that through ‘kill four against one' campaign conducted during Raj Nath Singh`s rule as Chief Minister, massive repression on common people as well as CPI(ML) activists was let loose. The repression continued under the succesive govts. too. The Party vigorously resisted these attacks. We learned this important lesson from these movements that gherao of district HQs and hitting the weak points of the administration and the govt, is effective in combatting the state assault. Naugarh block of the district is centre of so called Maoists for the last one decade. While ruling classes, pursuing the policy of ‘Repression and Relief', and Maoists, through their policy of ‘Hit and Run away', push the issues of the rural poor to the background; our Party marched on the path of militant mass mobilisation through forcefully raising mass issues and thus exposing the anti-people face of the administration. The experiment of Communist Youth League is gaining momentum and attracting the youth. In district Panchayat election, we succeeded in retaining our old seat by defeating the ruling party candidate by bigger margin compared to the last election. AIALA membership crossed the target of 20 thousands. On various issues,ranging from land, irrigation, tendu leaf-wages, starvation deaths, BPL cards, eviction of tribals, police repression, transparency in implementation of development schemes, atrocities on women, to the issues of vendors at Mugalsarai station etc., multifarious movements were launched. Significant success was achieved in many of them. In some cases, the offensive administration was pushed back. Along with other issues, the conference resolved to conduct campaign for implementation of NREGA, launch a powerful democratic campaign with the slogan, ‘No Job, No to Govt.' and further intensify the battle for constituting ‘Land Commission'. Com. Gulab Chand was reelected as Secretary of the 17-member newly elected district committee.
As per the work report presented in Pilibhit district conference, the experiment of struggle against feudal forces relying on the unity of agricultural labourers and middle peasants was conducted which turned into a powerful movement against the moneylenders grabbing lands of Bengali-speaking settlers. This movement influenced neighbouring districts too. Agitations were launched on various issues viz. forcible eviction of the poor from their land by forest deptt., contractors and feudal forces, loan scams, land mortgage of indebted peasants, police repression and corruption in development funds. Many successes were achieved which enhanced Party‘s domain of influence. Relentless struggle is going on to save Rahul Nagar labour settlement, established by the party, against forest department's conspiracies. AIALA has achieved 20 thousand membership and efforts are on to achieve 50 thousand membership by the coming AIALA conference this year. We succeeded in winning one seat defeating a liquor mafia in district panchayat election. Boycotting the election of Panchayat President against the politics of horse trading, has enhanced our Party‘s prestige. Eleven member district conference was elected by the conference. District conference of Sonbhadra was held in Anpara. The conference concluded that Party has made impressive strides on agricultural labour and T.U. front. Party has expanded and its influence is growing but what is lacking is the organisational structure capable of taking all round initiative as per the demand of the political situation.
District conferences also took place in Balia , Gazipur , Deoria , Lakhimpur , Kanpur , Lucknow and Allahabad .
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