In this Issue
Polit Bureau Communique
(CPI(ML) Polit Bureau met at Patna on May 17-18 to review the latest situation. We are reproducing here some excerpts from the main points which were discussed and decided in this meeting in lieu of Editorial. - Ed.)
Assembly Election Results:
The results have been on more or less expected lines except that the scale of victory of the Left Front in West Bengal and the DMK-led DPA alliance in Tamil Nadu has come as a pleasant surprise even to LF/DPA supporters.
The grand scale of the Left's victory in West Bengal is attributable partly to the confused, divided and discredited state of the Congress/Trinamool led right opposition in West Bengal and more importantly to significant shifts among urban middle and affluent segments and the rural rich and well-to-do sections in favour of the Left Front. While the growing pro-rich pro-private thrust of the Left Front's policies is jubilantly welcomed by the corporate sector and the mainstream media, elections results have also shown that sections of the rural poor have also started moving away from the Left Front. In Kerala, the CPI(M) managed to improve its performance by rehabilitating the Achyutanandan faction that had earlier been marginalized in the party and by successfully making inroads in traditional Muslim League strongholds.
In Assam , the Congress has managed to return to power despite considerable popular anger against its misrule and acute alienation from its traditional Muslim voters. The party obviously benefited from divisions in the AGP and the erstwhile AGP-BJP alliance and the Gogoi government's shrewd handling of most tribal organizations and extremist outfits operating in the state. In Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK did significantly improve its position compared to the total rout it had suffered in the Lok Sabha elections two years ago, but the DMK led alliance won an emphatic victory with an attractive package of pro-poor poll promises.
Contrary to the Congress claims about the results vindicating the UPA and its policies, the election results indicate a growing popular disillusionment with the UPA's pro-imperialist economic and foreign policies. Even in West Bengal , one can discern a growing restlessness and resentment among large sections of the working people, especially amidst the rural poor, over the Left Front government's growing policy shift towards a pro-rich pro-private pattern of development.
On its part, the CPI(M) has promised increased intervention in national politics without in any way rocking the UPA boat. With the BJP facing a continuing organizational crisis and ideological-political confusion, conditions are of course becoming more and more favourable for a powerful assertion of the Left. The CPI(M)-led Left Front cannot however foot the bill remain increasingly preoccupied with a faster and more comprehensive implementation of the UPA agenda of liberalization, privatization and globalisation in West Bengal and Kerala. While strengthening our oppositional role in the specific contexts of different states, we will have to make the best use of the developing situation to intensify mass struggles against the UPA's pro-rich pro-imperialist policies.
On the Victory of the Democracy Movement in Nepal :
Polit Bureau has congratulated the people of Nepal and the communist and other Left and democratic forces who led the people for winning major victories in the recent pro-democracy movement in Nepal . The mass upsurge on the streets of Kathmandu and in many other parts of Nepal that forced the US-backed autocratic monarch to beat a retreat and reconvene the very Parliament he had arrogantly dismissed holds inspiring lessons for popular revolutionary movements in many parts of the world and especially for us in India and South Asia . The parliamentary proclamation stripping the king of most of his existing powers derives its strength from the vigorous and vigilant assertion of people's power on the streets of Kathamandu.
By all means Nepal is poised for a democratic leap forward, and we will continue to extend our full support to the communists and progressive democratic forces of Nepal as they advance the cause of people's democracy through the present juncture of bourgeois-democratic reform. The Indian Government's pro-monarchy stand was widely criticized in Nepal and the government has subsequently adjusted its policy in keeping with the changing situation in Nepal . While supporting the popular struggle for a democratic republic in Nepal we must remain watchful about the US imperialist design on Nepal and any possible Indo-US partnership in this regard. The traditional people-to-people ties between India and Nepal must be strengthened further on the common basis of a shared anti-imperialist commitment and quest for genuine democracy and social transformation in both India and Nepal .
On the Issue of Reservation in Institutions of Higher Education:
The proposal of reservation for students of backward castes in medical colleges and some other institutions of higher and specialized education has evoked strong sentiments among medical students. While rejecting all arrogant elitist arguments that oppose any move to increase opportunities for students from socially and educationally backward sections in the name of respect for merit, the PB demands that the government supplement its proposal for reservation with creation of more seats at affordable fees.
The growing commercialization of higher education – the exorbitant hikes in fees and provision of admission in private colleges and institutes by payment of huge capitation fees – is already excluding many meritorious students from all castes. In other words, the present system perpetuates social injustice and inequality and rewards money and influence and not merit as is wrongly argued by anti-reservation ideologues. The answer therefore lies in reservation and other measures of affirmative action for all underprivileged and disadvantaged sections, including immediate creation of more affordable opportunities to accommodate aspiring students from all backgrounds.
The PB strongly condemns incidents of brutal police crackdown on agitating students – whether for or against reservation, in Mumbai, Delhi and Patna . Instead of making piecemeal announcements according to political convenience the government must come up with a holistic policy and comprehensive package in consultation with all concerned sections.
On the Prevention of Disqualification (Amendment) Bill:
The UPA government has come up with an amendment to the Act under which Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan had recently lost her Rajya Sabha membership for simultaneously holding an office of profit. The proposed amendment retrospectively exempts a large number of posts from being treated as offices of profit for the purpose of the Act, thereby saving all the MPs across the political spectrum who had been charged with violating the existing Act. While Parliament has every right to make and amend laws, such retrospective legislation aimed at saving lawmakers charged with violation of existing laws sets a dangerous precedent and makes a mockery of the whole notion of legal equality. The PB therefore expresses strong objection to this opportunist piece of legislation.
On Supreme Court Verdicts on Narmada and Slum Demolition in Delhi :
The PB has described recent Supreme Court verdicts on the Narmada rehabilitation and Delhi slum demolition issues as two major blows at people's right to livelihood and human dignity. By allowing dam construction work to proceed even as government's own reports testified to near absence of rehabilitation for the people already displaced by the project, the apex court has gone back on its earlier insistence on providing rehabilitation before causing any further displacement. The SC verdict would clearly embolden governments to go-ahead with large-scale displacement campaigns without bothering about any kind of rehabilitation. In the eyes of the apex court, the displaced people have now been reduced to a dispensable lot. Similarly, in another obnoxious verdict, the SC has described slum-dwellers as illegal encroachers who need to be thrown out by all means. The democratic opinion in the country must challenge such verdicts that run counter to the basic parameters of natural and social justice and the inalienable right to livelihood and human dignity.
On Reinstatement of Justice Amir Das Commission:
The PB has strongly condemned the Nitish Kumar government's decision to abandon the Amir Das Commission set up in the wake of the infamous Laxmanpur-Bathe massacre (December 1997) to probe the political links of the feudal private army Ranvir Sena. The commission had served notice to several top leaders of the BJP, JD(U), RJD and Congress. While Nitish Kumar has sought to dismiss the demand for restoration of the Commission as an emotive issue for the CPI(ML), Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Modi has described the formation of the Commission as a politically motivated and flawed move. The PB appeals to democratic forces in Bihar and all over the country to mount pressure on the Nitish Kumar government to restore the Commission and ensure an early publication of the Commission's report.
Resisting Jharkhand Government's Witch-hunt against CPI(ML) Leaders:
In March 2001 the Jharkhand Committee of the CPI(ML) had organized a protest demonstration before the newly formed Jharkhand Assembly demanding action against guilty police officials who had killed eight tribal protesters opposing the NDA government's move to resume the controversial Koel Karo project. The protest demonstration was led by Party General Secretary Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya. Jharkhand police not only ill-treated and arrested Comrade Dipankar and other leaders and resorted to brutal lathicharge to disperse the protesters but also slapped a false case on six persons including Comrade Dipankar leveling a host of criminal charges including charges of attempted murder!
In spite of countrywide protests, the case has not been dropped even as the NDA government has withdrawn all cases pertaining to the Ram Janambhoomi campaign and the Jharkhand movement. And now the case has been transferred to a fast track court in Ranchi and charges have been framed under several sections including Section 307 and Section 17 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act.
This is not only a continuation of the Jharkhand government's sinister witch-hunt against the CPI(ML) and its leadership, but it marks a brutal authoritarian assault on the very right to protest. The CBI team probing Comrade Mahendra Singh's assassination has found the police guilty of violating all standard norms after the assassination even as Dipak Varma, the erstwhile Giridih SP and one of the prime accused in the murder case, continues to be protected by the Jharkhand government from any punitive legal or administrative action. Now if the Jharkhand government and its police are allowed to get away with this fascistic experiment of framing leaders and activists of the democratic movement, there will be no democratic means left to oppose even police brutalities like the Topkara and Kalinganagar massacres. The PB calls upon the entire Party and all progressive democratic organizations and individuals to rise in protest against this vindictive and autocratic attitude of the BJP-led Jharkhand government and demand immediate and unconditional withdrawal of this false case.
Call for Funds for Treatment of Comrade Ajanta Lohit:
Comrade Ajanta Lohit, member of the Party's Uttar Pradesh State Committee and senior leader of the All India Progressive Women's Association has been diagnosed with cancer is undergoing chemotherapy in Lucknow . The PB appeals to all Party organizations and well-wishers to contribute funds for her treatment. MO/demand draft/cheques earmarked for this purpose may please be drawn in favour of CPI(ML) and sent to the Party Central Office address (Prabhat Chaudhry, Central Office Secretary, CPI(ML) Central Office, U-90 Shakarpur, Delhi 110 092) as soon as possible.
Revolutionary Nepal :
Big Achievements, Bigger Challenges Ahead
The sustained high tide in mass movement which followed last November's SPA-Maoist 12-point agreement and which compelled the pig-headed Gyanendra restore the Parliament in April 2006, has now forced the present dispensation make a proclamation more radical than normally expected of a Nepali Congress-led government.
Nepal 's revived Parliament stripped the King of his title as the Supreme Commander of the Royal Nepal Army, brought his private property and earnings into the tax net, and declared that his decisions can henceforth be debated in Parliament as well as challenged in a court of law. The resolution also declared, to the chagrin of fundamentalists in Nepal and India , that the world's only Hindu Kingdom will now be a “secular state”. It also dissolved the controversial Raj Parishad, the King's advisory council, and assumed all powers to make legislation on the issue of royal succession. Royal household expenditure and other facilities including security arrangements for the Royal family will also be decided by Parliament. His Majesty's Government will henceforth be called Nepal Government while The Royal Nepal Army will be called the Nepali Sena, its chief appointed by the cabinet which will be the repository of all executive powers of the state. The civil administration and police forces will also be accountable to Parliament alone.
So powerful was the people's pressure on Parliament that all members, including those belonging to royalist parties which had refused to support Janandolan -II, voted in favour of the promulgation. Naturally, the people of Nepal celebrated their victory throughout the country and on this occasion we in the CPI (ML) once again congratulate them and their communist and other left and democratic vanguards.
No less remarkable than these announcements is the fact that the king and the military top brass had been taken into confidence and they silently accepted the drastic changes. So did New Delhi . Washington, so far the staunchest supporter of King Gyanendra, greeted the proclamation almost as soon as it was made, and the EU followed suit. Conveying the US stand, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard A. Boucher said in Washington that he had traveled to Nepal earlier this month and that a US team in that country is now working out areas of assistance such as constitutional reform, strengthening the political parties, expanding rural projects, etc.
Does the recent move then signify a shrewd manoeuvre by the forces of compromise to save the monarchy by clipping its wings in a situation that was rapidly developing towards total abolition of that rotten institution, as often happens with high-ranking criminals who are “taken into custody” to protect them from public wrath? Is it a parliamentary coup against the popular forces fighting on the streets? Or is it a new achievement of the movement, a new stride forward in the long march towards a people's democratic republic? Both aspects, both trends, are inherent in the present juncture of bourgeois democratic reform; struggle alone — struggle between forces of status quo and those working for radical change, a struggle which will be going on both in the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary arenas — will decide which side wins. At the moment, for crafty, greedy politicians and the exploiting classes (as well as sections of the upwardly mobile middle classes) the motto must be: thus far and no further; divert all attention now to ‘peace' (read disarming the Maoists) and economic development. For the basic masses and all progressive and revolutionary forces the slogan has to be: grasp the partial victories to carry the democratic revolution further and deeper.
Signs of this struggle are already to be seen. Soon after the parliamentary proclamation, Prime Minister Koirala said, “Let the King remain like the one in Scandinavia —a civilian King—who commands people's respect.” This stands in stark contrast with the Maoist preference, shared by the overwhelming majority of politically active sections of the people, for complete abolition of monarchy. While generally welcoming the proclamation, CPN (M) general secretary Prachanda took exception to this and the silence on the 12 point agreement. Two days later he said in an interview that the interim government should have immediately begun negotiations with the CPN (M), dissolved the old Parliament, and assembled a new national body that would in turn organise elections for the drafting of a new constitution. “Now they want to marginalise us, to bypass us,” Prachanda said of the parliamentary parties. He added that his party was hopeful about a peaceful resolution of the pending problems, but if betrayed as in the past, it would have to fall back on armed struggle again. However, leaders of CPN(UML), the second largest party in the ruling coalition, has repeatedly stressed the need for carrying the Maoists along. Meanwhile, industrial strife at Birgunj is being branded simply as a case of Maoist extortions, with the government doing little to address workers' genuine grievances.
Where does Nepal go from here? A road map consistent with the 12-point understanding needs to be worked out. Official talks between the Koirala government and the Maoists are in the offing, and much will depend on its progress and outcome. Politically, two questions are most sensitive and demand delicate handling. One is the manner of conducting constituent assembly (CA) elections and the delimitation of the constituencies for real representation, so that the new constitution may contain mechanisms for socio-economic transformation and guarantee of political and civil rights to all sections of people. The other is the question of arms and armies. Prachanda has rejected the notion that his troops will disarm before elections. He demanded instead that his troops be sequestered and kept under international supervision, provided the Royal Nepalese Army agreed to the same treatment. Enlightened opinion in Nepal holds that it is not impossible to absorb the PLA into a restructured national army of Nepal , as Maoists have proposed, but that is bound to be vehemently opposed by reactionary forces within Nepal and without.
In addition to these, there are other time taking and difficult tasks ahead. Without thoroughgoing land reform, the recent changes in state form will remain largely cosmetic. But a radical reform will mean a death blow to the Ranas and other feudal forces who have ruled the land till the other day, and this cannot be accomplished simply by legal measures without revolutionary struggle at grassroots. In a country with seven out of ten persons living below poverty line, employment and development are other priorities, but then it is equally necessary to resist political interference by those who are a bit too eager to offer liberal aid packages — the US, the EU and of course, India. Then there are sensitive problems involving caste, gender and nationality. In a word, the more difficult part of a long and tortuous journey has just begun.
Eternal vigilance, it has been said, is the price of liberty. After 1990, the people of Nepal failed to pay up this price adequately enough and forfeited much of what they had gained in course of Janandolan -I. But they have learned their lessons well. In April this year, they not only forced the King to initiate the process of transfer of power to people's representatives, but directly supervised that process by means of a series of rallies, mass meetings and political activism in various other forms. Thus more than a lakh of people assembled at Ratna Park in Kathmandu on 28 April even as the restored parliament sat for the first day. “Take your oaths here, not at the Palace” roared the restive masses, “Don't stop halfway, and don't betray us”. Leaders of almost all parties appeared there to interact with the masses: some were greeted with cheers, others booed off the stage. There was no let up in popular pressure even after the Koirala government took office. To take another typical example, speakers at a function organised by the Confederation of Nepalese Professionals (CONEP) to mark the May Day underscored the need to continue the movement. “This is not the time to celebrate victory on the street,” said one speaker, “It is high time that we, from the streets, cautioned leaders to go for constituent assembly election.”
Mass political surveillance of this magnitude, intensification of class struggle at the grassroots and a matching leadership role on the part of communist vanguards, we believe, will foil the attempts of vested interests to hijack the great achievements of the illustrious mass movement and usher in a thoroughly consistent democratic republic in Nepal . And that will definitely give a big boost to people's struggles in this part of the world.
Long live revolutionary Nepal !
Long live Indo -Nepal People's Solidarity!
[The commentary was written on 21 May, 2006]
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