In this Issue
Parliament in OOP Loop
The President's refusal to append his signature to the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Bill, 2006 (PPDA) has served to revive a national debate the political elite had tried to subvert through this bill.
Essentially, Dr Kalam has raised two points. He underlined the need for a comprehensive criteria which would be just, fair and reasonable, and applicable across all States and Union Territories in a clear and transparent manner. More important, the President has also objected to the retrospective effect clause, widely condemned as a move to condone and protect law-makers who, having taken the oath of protecting and upholding the Constitution of India, violated Articles 101 and 102 (1) with impunity. The matter is serious enough to merit a reexamination of certain basic issues from a wider perspective.
First, the political rationale advanced in favour of passing the bill so hurriedly and with retrospective effect. Unless this is done, warned the UPA government and its Left props, the country will be pushed into a political chaos with so many legislators cutting across party lines being thrown out at one go. In other words, stability must be preserved, if necessary by sacrificing the soul of the Constitution! Wasn't this precisely the logic the Congress used when it imposed the infamous internal emergency? Anyone who is against further erosion in the residual moral and democratic values of our constitutional framework of parliamentary democracy cannot buy this spurious logic and must oppose the move.
Second, the question of political propriety – of public conduct of elected representatives in their individual as well as collective capacities. Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan (JB) was summarily sacked because she concurrently held an office of profit (OOP) in UP; Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi who arguably held a much more high-profile OOP as the chairperson of the National Advisory Council was allowed the very ‘respectable' escape route of resignation to stage a hallowed comeback to the house. And now the very law is being selectively amended to save the law-makers who have been caught red-handed in the act of law-breaking. Is it not high time the nation demanded an end to this culture of hypocrisy and rabid political opportunism?
Third, the root cause of these unseemly developments, with some 40 parliamentarians and nearly 200 legislators facing disqualification petitions on this issue. Does it lie in legal ambiguities, as has been alleged? True, neither the Constitution of India nor any other law specifies the criteria of an OOP. The Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act merely lists the offices that do not attract disqualification for MPs holding these offices (it is this list that the amendment bill seeks to extend by adding 56 new positions). But as regards basic principles, there is absolutely no uncertainty. Guidelines issued from time to time by the joint parliamentary committee, which examines such cases whenever referred to it, and by the Supreme Court make the basic principles very clear. An MP or MLA should not be indebted to the government by accepting an office of profit under the government and thus compromise his/her independence. In other words, an office of profit signifies a position that either offers monetary profit and/or empowers the holder with some executive authority (such as powers of appointment, disbursement of funds, allotment of lands, issue of licenses, grant of scholarships, etc.).
Problem is, many eminent parliamentarians, including the Speaker himself, deliberately misconstrue OOP to mean only an office yielding pecuniary benefits and then take shelter behind this misinterpretation to go on enjoying the loaves of office — if not in the form of cash payment then in the shape of power and privilege that are easily convertible into, and often more precious than, currency notes. The utterly unhealthy practice survived undisturbed for such a long time thanks to a tacit understanding among parties not to disturb one another, and in recent years grew to scandalous proportions as lucrative positions in government and semi-government bodies came to be treated as handy compensations for aspiring legislators who could not be allotted berths in coalition ministries. It is this understanding that started breaking down particularly since the JB episode, only to be quickly rebuilt by our worthy leaders who soon realised that people who live in glass houses do not throw stones at others.
The easy passage of the PPDA bill in both houses of Parliament, with the Left cooperating directly and the BJP indirectly by staging a walkout, perfectly reflects this conspiratorial consensus.
Following the President's unusual move to return the PPDA Amendment Bill, the UPA and its Left extension have decided to send it back after some token discussion in the next session of Parliament and thus compel the President to sign it. The CPI General Secretary and the CPI(M) leader currently occupying the Speaker's chair concurrently with chairmanship of the high-power Sriniketan Santiniketan Development Authority, have launched a verbal battle against the EC to restrain the latter from performing its constitutional duty; so has the CPI(M) GS in comparatively sober terms. Other biggies who feel threatened must also be exerting pressure on the sly. Whatever happens, it will be very difficult to erase the infamy the great Indian Parliament and particularly the left MPs — whose obtuse over-activism is explained by the fact that they have as many as 10 comrades (out of 60 and odd MPs – a very high proportion compared to other parties) on the OOP hit list — have brought upon themselves by insisting on the passage of a bill that seeks to legalise and promote political corruption.
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APPEAL
To All Who Oppose Authoritarianism and Uphold People's Right to Protest Dear friend,
You may be aware that CPI(ML) General Secretary Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya is the latest target of the BJP Government's witch-hunt of CPI(ML) leaders in Jharkhand. Comrade Dipankar along with four others face the prospect of conviction under a range of charges including that of attempted murder. Their crime? They led a March to the Assembly of the newly formed Jharkhand State on March 1, 2001 to protest against a spate of incidents of police brutality, including the infamous and unprovoked firing on Muslim youth at Doranda and on tribals at Tapkara protesting displacement by the Koel Karo project.
This incident marks a brutal authoritarian assault on the very right to protest. 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.
So, get involved! Append your signature to the petition below, send it to the Chief Minister of Jharkhand and join the battle against authoritarianism.
To,
Sri Arjun Munda
Chief Minister, Jharkhand
Withdraw False Charges Levelled on CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya!
Stop the Witch-hunt of CPI(ML) Activists in Jharkhand!
We, the undersigned individuals and organisations, hereby demand immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the false charges framed against CPI (ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya and others in a fast-track court in Ranchi under Sections 147, 114, 148, 149, 353, 323, 324, 307, 188, 431 of the IPC and Section 17 of the CLA (a repealed act that continues to be invoked in Jharkhand!).
It may be recalled that on March 1, 2001 the CPI(ML) had organized a protest demonstration, led by Dipankar Bhattacharya, 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 police not only ill-treated and arrested him and other leaders and resorted to brutal lathicharge but also slapped a false case on them! Newspapers carried photographs of dozens of CPI(ML) activists lying bloody and battered, and of the police dragging Dipankar Bhattacharya and late Mahendra Singh (then CPI(IML)'s lone MLA in the Jharkhand Assembly) by their clothes and hair.
For the General Secretary of a recognised political party, leading a political protest to voice certain issues before a representative Assembly, to be charged with ‘abetting attempted murder', is probably unprecedented in the annals of Indian politics. For Jharkhand under BJP rule this however seems to be order of the day. The state has become notorious for wanton violation of human rights. A draconian legislation like POTA has been used most arbitrarily against innocent people in Jharkhand.
Apart from frequent incidents of police atrocity, the state has been witness to disturbing cases of state-sponsored murder including those of Prashant Sahay, a spirited public interest lawyer, and Comrade Mahendra Singh, popular CPI(ML) leader and legislator. The CBI team probing 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 your government from any punitive legal or administrative action.
We are also outraged by the double standards of your government. While all the cases pertaining to the Ram Janambhoomi campaign and the Jharkhand movement have been withdrawn, the one pertaining to the March 01, 2001 protest is being zealously pursued.
We cannot tolerate this and demand immediate withdrawal of the thoroughly fabricated and politically prejudiced charges leveled on Dipankar Bhattacharya and four others.
Yours truly,
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 Invitation for Public Meeting on
Growing Trends of Assault on ‘Right to Assembly and Protest'
Venue:
GPF, Near ITO, New Delhi .
Time : 2 P.M.
Date : June 15, 2006
CPI(ML) and LNP(L) to Work Closely Together for Communist Unity;
Call for Protest Week against Petrol Price Hike from 7 to 13 June 2006
(Statement jointly released by Madhukar Katre, President, LNP(L), and Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary, CPI(ML)(L) in a press conference held in Pune on 5 June, 2006.)
CPI(ML)(Liberation) and Lal Nishan Party (Leninist) have resolved to observe a countrywide protest week from 7 to 13 June 2006 against the UPA government's decision to hike petrol and diesel prices and the proposed increase in PDS prices and reduction in quantum of essential commodities supplied through PDS. This was decided at a joint meeting held yesterday at Pune between the central leadership of LNP(L) and visiting CPI(ML) leaders. With Assembly elections over, the Congress-led UPA government has declared a war on the livelihood of the aam aadmi by hiking prices and stepping up the implementation of its pro-rich pro-imperialist economic policies. Accordingly, the CPI(ML) and LNP(L) have decided to intensify the movement of the working class and the rural poor demanding a rollback of the government policies.
The CPI(ML) central delegation, comprising the party General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya and AICCTU General Secretary Swapan Mukherjee, held a daylong discussion with the LNP(L) central leadership on 5 June, 2006 on a number of other burning issues facing the working people and the democratic movement in the country. The two parties took a serious view of the raging agrarian crisis in the country and condemned the UPA government's callous indifference to the plight of the peasantry. The UPA government has done nothing to stop farmers' suicides and the states of Maharashtra , Andhra Pradesh and Punjab , once claimed as leaders in green revolution, have been reduced to graveyards for the rural poor as well as many prosperous peasants of yesteryears. The two parties have also taken note of the many violations and irregularities taking place in terms of implementation of the much-advertised National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The agricultural labour and peasant wings of the two parties will work together to intensify popular resistance in the countryside against the deepening agrarian crisis.
The leaders of CPI(ML) and LNP(L) have also strongly condemned the UPA government's move to selectively amend the prevention of disqualification legislation for Members of Parliament to save MPs accused of violating the Constitution by simultaneously holding offices of profit. The government's decision to go ahead with the bill in spite of strong public objections and the President resorting to his discretionary power to return the bill to Parliament for reconsideration has exposed the scant regard that the parties of the ruling classes have for the values and principles of parliamentary democracy and constitutional rule.
The CPI(ML) and LNP(L), which share a history of close bilateral cooperation for over a decade, have resolved to further strengthen their mutual ties and work in tandem for bringing about a powerful resurgence of the communist movement in the country.
Stop any Move to Hike Prices and Cut Down in Qouta of Food-grains in PDS
All India Agricultural Labour Association has asked the UPA Govt. to stop any move of price-hike and cut down of quota in PDS. It another direct onslaught on the very life and livelihood as well as of food security of the vast population already driven under starvation or semi-starvation and unemployment or underemployment.
The government's proposal to increase the prices of food-grains and decrease quota in PDS is a preconceived move to facilitate the strengthening hold of private sector and multinational companies on country's agriculture in general and on wheat and other food grain business in particular. This decision will affect the food security of the millions of extremely poor in a very adverse manner while at the same time it is in full accordance with the UPA government's stark anti-people orientation that paves the way for the corporatisation of Indian agriculture and cut in food subsidy, thus forcing peasants and rural poor at the brink of starvation and suicides.
CPI(ML) Polit Bureau Member and AIALA's National Vice President Swadesh Bhattacharya has said in a statement that at the first place the government has deliberately allowed private corporations to gain an upper hand in wheat procurement by keeping the MSP at a level much below than the market prices, and now it is purchasing wheat from the multinational corporations at a much higher price to fill up the wheat reserves which fell short by seven million tonnes of the target set for the year. If a fraction of this additional cost which is being given to the multinational corporations was given to the Indian farmer, there would have been no shortage of grains under PDS. In view of the fact that there was no considerable decrease in overall wheat production in the country the shortage created is an artificial one to marginalise country's peasants and poor and to favour the big corporations.
He also pointed out that the plea being given by the Union Agriculture Minister that no prices have been raised for the last six years is the same old rotten logic in favour of liberalisation which was put forth few months back when the government decreased quota of Antyodaya and other schemes. Now, as the assembly elections in four states are over, the Govt.'s proposal is betraying the popular opinion of Indian masses, agrarian laborers and rural poor in particular. He said that such decisions will further deepen the crisis already engulfing rural India .
Movement for Implementation of NREGA : Experiences from Jhakhand
After the inception of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, since February this year, the recalcitrant Jharkhand administration was forced to act through massive protests at every level that helped lakhs of rural poor to register themselves under the Act. Although there remains a lot of space for further expansion and intensification for our campaign, our initiatives have been remarkable in many districts resulting in an increased enthusiasm as well as the assertion of the rural poor on the question of employment. While some of the districts witnessed a very intense campaign for employment, our initiatives in many districts compelled the authorities to issue job cards which were initially denied on many wrong pretexts.
So far Jharkhand Mazdoor Kisan Samiti has organised block level big mobilisations in nearly 69 blocks of 14 districts and preparations are on for such mobilisations in rest of the districts. These campaigns were organised in 28 blocks in five districts of North Chhotanagpur region, 21 blocks in all three districts of Palamu region, 12 blocks in three districts of Santhal Pargana and 8 blocks in three districts of South Chhotanagpur region. Many areas saw a very impressive campaign and in many blocks the strength of our campaign forced the administration to retreat from its noncommittal attitude and we successfully achieved our goal of job cards distribution to the applicants in those areas.
Various movemental activities have been taken up during last three months in Garhwa, Latehar, Palamu, Giridih, Ranchi , Hazaribagh, Bokaro, Dumka and many other districts. The administration is trying to limit the distribution of job cards to around 150 per panchayat irrespective of high number of applicants. It has been reported from Bagodar that 16000 applications were ‘lost' from the block office, which is being considered as a deliberate ploy by the administration to favour some ruling party politicians in the district. Many attempts of Panchayat Sevaks of distributing cards through middlemen were also foiled due to the militant protests. Officials were forced to come to the public to explain the delay in job cards distribution in a jan-adalat (people's court) held on May 20 in Barwadih.
Memorandum to the Jharkhand Government
Jharkhand Mazdoor Kisan Samiti has handed over a memorandum on May 31 to the Rural Development Secretary, Jharkhand, asking the government to start the allocation of works to the applicants under the NREGA. It has been demanded to provide daily allowance in case the government fails to allocate works to the needy. The state government has also been advised to take stringent action against those officials who tried to distribute job cards through middlemen or are making a deliberate delay in this process. Another point raised in the memorandum is the finalisation of the work plan without taking gram sabhas into confidence or this was done by surpassing the gram sabhas, which is against the Act.
The memorandum explains governmental callousness and highlights many points like delay in the issue of job cards, use of middlemen, or the less number of cards issued. The districts like Devghar and West Singbhum were included under NREGA by the state government but the scheme is yet to take off here. Aministrative attempts are also on to suppress the people's activism by implicating activists under false charges and by protecting those officials who are making deliberate delay in the implementation process. Cases have been framed on hundreds of JMKS leaders and supporters in Garhwa, Palamu, Latehar, Bokaro and Giridih districts. It was government's responsibility to allocate works by April to those who got registered in the month of February or March, but the people are still struggling for the jobs. The delegation was comprised of AIALA National Secretary and JMKS General Secretary Janardan Prasad, JMKS Secretary Anant Prasad Gupta and CPI(ML) State Secretary Subhendu Sen.
Obituary
Comrade Charan Singh breathed his last on 24 May 2006 at the age of 86 years. He joined communist movement in 1962 and remained associated till his last. He had joined our Party in 1990 after conducting an intra-party debate within the CPI, where he had spent a long span of his political life. Since then he remained active in his area of work. He also served as the Secretary of Patparganj Area Committee in Delhi . Defying his age, he used to be at the forefront during various programmes of the party. He also played an important role in organising Nagrik Sabha, women's organisation and youth organisation in his area. Comrade Charan Singh was the founder and current President of Delhi Building Workers' Union and a founder leader of Delhi Co-operative Societies Housekeeping Workers' Union . We will always remember him for his age defying fighting spirit, commitment for the people, jolly nature and simplicity and for his deep commitment towards Marxism and the revolution. A memorial meeting was organised for him on 27 May in Delhi which was also addressed by Party's CC member Kumudini Pati and Delhi State Secretary Rajendra Pratholi among others.
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