CPI(ML) HOME Vol.9, No.27 4 - 10 JULY , 2006

The Weekly News Bulletin of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)(Liberation)

U-90, Shakarpur, Delhi 110092. Tel: (91)11-22521067. Fax(91)11-22518248

 
In this Issue

Scrap the Anti-Nation Nuke Deal

As expected, the House of Representatives' International Relations Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have endorsed the US-India nuclear deal, with both republicans and democrats voting overwhelmingly in favour of the draft enabling bills. Behind the by-partisan support that ensured the smooth passage of the bills lay a couple of closely interrelated factors. One was intense lobbying by the Bush administration and democratic leaders led by John Kerry himself, as well as by at least three professional lobbying firms. Two of them were hired by the Government of India and the third — Patton Boggs, ranked number one in this field — by corporate giants like General Electric, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which are keen to strengthen their presence in India.

No wonder, the US Chamber of Commerce, the world's largest business federation and the US-India Business Council (USIBC), representing the largest US investors and traders with India , have very enthusiastically hailed the approval of the India-US deal by the two Congress panels. “This initiative will create lucrative opportunities for US industry, create high quality jobs for American workers, and lay the foundation for vast downstream opportunities in every sector of US business,” said the senior vice president for International Affairs at the US Chamber, who is also chairman of the Coalition for Partnership with India.

In addition to dominant business interests, the other basic reason behind the quick success of the mark-up votes was that US strategic interests, everybody knew, had been sufficiently safeguarded at the cost of its junior partner's. If this was true of the Bush-Manmohan deal itself, the bias was rendered all the more glaring by testimonies before the US Congress and hearings in the US senate Foreign Relations Committee following the deal. Thus New Delhi was crudely told it must line up behind Washington on the question of Iran 's nuclear program or else it should be prepared to “pay a heavy price.” As we all know, India shamelessly carried out the order to the full satisfaction of the hawks, and now the bill presented before the US House International Relations Committee makes a specific reference to securing India's, “full and active participation” in the US efforts to “dissuade, isolate and if necessary sanction and contain Iran” for seeking nuclear weapons. Moreover, senior Bush administration officials demanded India 's support for the multinational Proliferation Security Initiative and her help in ‘building democratic institutions worldwide'.

The arm-twisting never stopped. Even the 29 July meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee introduced two amendments before approving the presidential proposal. One of these stipulated that in the event of India conducting an atomic test, the US should not only stop all nuclear supplies but also persuade other countries to do the same. Together, the recently passed bills (scheduled to become, after some legal formalities are over, a single Act by the end of July) also require India to abide by the highly discriminatory Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty and make it obligatory for the US President to report regularly to the US Congress about different aspects of the nuclear agreement, including the uranium being mined within this country and how it was being used.

The net impact of all this is clear as daylight. The American noose around our neck is getting tighter. The UPA government is making India a US slave – “in perpetuity”. And this not only in the crucial energy sector and the nuclear domain, but in all areas of foreign policy, including international trade. This was demonstrated once again when commerce minister Kamal Nath, returning empty-handed from Geneva after the failure of WTO talks, lamented he saw “no negotiating space”. Well, it's you, your party (not to deny an equally illustrious role of the BJP) that has surrendered all negotiating space over all these decades: don't pretend now you are a wounded soldier fighting for the Indian peasantry and our national interests!

The sacrilegious surrender of our sovereignty before the rich and the powerful, rendered more unpardonable by the official lie about US legislation being not binding on India, has evoked strong and immediate reaction from concerned citizens all over the country. At a Mumbai seminar held on July 2, defence analysts and nuclear scientists including former AEC chairman PK Iyengar and top nuclear scientist Homi Sethna expressed “great concern” over the Indo-American nuclear deal. They alleged that with this deal the Americans, who have no nuclear power building business, were trying to steal Indian technology of the “closed fuel cycle” through the safeguard mechanism. Mr. Sethna opined that the emerging arrangement would be even worse than the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), because “the NPT may be discriminatory, but we will still be allowed to exit whereas in the current Indo-US deal which is under negotiation, India will remain bound in perpetuity”.

We simply cannot tolerate this. It is time the patriotic and freedom-loving people of India rose in unison with a straight demand: Uphold national independence, Scrap the N-deal!

Excerpts from CC Deliberations and Decisions

( adopted at the CC meeting held at Mansa, Punjab from 25 to 27 June, 2006 )

  1. People's Rights Campaign (August 6-18)

The CC has called upon the entire Party to run a countrywide People's Rights Campaign (Janadhikar Abhiyan) from August 6 (Hiroshima Day, which should be observed particularly to denounce US imperialism and India's strategic partnership with the US) to August 18 to give a bold voice to the people's growing resentment against the UPA government's anti-people and pro-imperialist policies and their disastrous consequences. The campaign will highlight the following 10 points:

(i) Rolling back of prices of all essential commodities

(ii) Strengthening of Public Distribution System with universal coverage for the rural and urban poor

(iii) Waiving of debt burden on small farmers and the rural poor

(iv) Halt to displacement in the name of mega projects and ‘special economic zones'

(v) Strict implementation of NREGA and its immediate spread to the entire country

(vi) Exemplary punishment to all those who are guilty of corporate-military corruption and compromising national security

(vii) Withdrawal of all false cases on leaders of people's struggles and attacks on democratic rights of the people

(viii) Halt to privatisation of public sector industries and privatisation and commercialisation of basic services like education and healthcare and public utilities like electricity, transport and irrigation

(ix) Halt to indiscriminate entry of MNCs into agriculture and retail trade

(x) Scrapping of Indo-US nuclear deal

The campaign should aim at reaching out to wider sections of the people in our areas of work with adequate emphasis on holding local programmes and ensuring active participation of the lower-level Party structures. The forms of campaigning may include padyatras, processions, street corner meetings, poster campaigns, effigy burning, torchlight procession etc.

  2. Developments in Nepal :

The CC has hailed the big victories achieved so far by the mighty pro-democracy people's movement in Nepal . The monarchy has been effectively relegated to the background. Neither its domestic supporters nor its international sponsors including India and the US are now in a position to talk about a return to the old days. The Nepali Maoists have taken a significant step to participate directly in the ongoing political developments in Nepal . It however remains to be seen how the Koirala-Prachanda accord is actually implemented and what kind of role is played by the Nepali army and the international powers. While welcoming the people's victories and supporting the cause of a democratic republic in Nepal we revolutionary communists in India must remain particularly watchful about India 's role and oppose any Indo-American move to intervene against the popular democratic and republican agenda in Nepal .

  3.All India Protest Day against Jharkhand Government's Campaign of Political Vendetta against CPI(ML) Leadership:

An all-India protest day will be held on July 20 in all State and District Headquarters to mobilise public opinion against the Jharkhand government's campaign of political vendetta against CPI(ML) and the growing state-led assault on the right to protest against injustice, oppression and mass displacement. While focussing on the Ranchi incident and the BJP government's repressive policies in Jharkhand, we should also mobilise opinion against the state-sponsored ‘Salwa Judum' campaign in Chhattishgarh and the mass evictions being contemplated and effected in the name of industrialisation and creation of special economic zones.

A mass campaign is already underway in several states, particularly in Jharkhand. Following a three-day mahadharna in Ranchi on 13-15 June, comrades in Jharkhand resorted to a two-hour road blockade on 26 June. In a virtual repeat of the Ranchi incident, police resorted to brutal lathi-charge on our comrades in Giridih district and then went on to book a case against Comrade Rajkumar Yadav, state committee member and popular leader of Giridih district, under section 307 of IPC.

To foil this sinister design of repression we need sustained and multifarious mass initiatives, making sure that we involve democratic and progressive forces and individuals as widely as possible. Legal initiatives are also being taken to defeat this BJP game plan. If necessary, the CC may call for bigger initiatives after July 20.

  4. Central Cadre Convention

CC has decided to hold a Central Cadre Convention in West Bengal in the middle of September.

The cadre convention will focus on four key areas of Party-building and Party practice: (i) Party membership, (ii) Primary Party structures, (iii) Party literature and Party education, (iv) Party's role in Panchayati raj institutions or other institutions of local self-government.

  Defend Democratic Rights Against Fascist Assault!

Resist Displacement in the Name of Development!

Protest Against the Jharkhand Government's False Charges against CPI (ML) General Secretary Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya and other Activists of People's Movements

  The brutal eviction of tribals and working poor – from their land in rural areas and from slums in cities – has become an abiding feature of what our rulers call ‘development'. They face bullets at Tapkara, Kalinganagar, Muthanga, and bulldozers in Mumbai and Delhi . And activists of people's movements and radical political forces who speak out against ‘development' for the rich, and bullets and bulldozers for the poor invite the wrath of the state and the dominant social and political forces.

Goons belonging to both the BJP and the Congress ‘ban' a movie because an actor chose to speak out in support of dam-displaced tribals of the Narmada Valley . Medha Patkar, while on a hunger strike at Delhi a few months ago, was charged with ‘attempted suicide'. And Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary of the CPI(ML), along with several other activists, has been charged by the Jharkhand Government with ‘attempt to murder' – for leading a March to the Assembly in 2001 in protest against police firing on a demonstration of tribals against the Koel Karo Dam at Tapkara.

In Jharkhand, the state meant to belong to the tribals, the BJP Government is committed to signing MoUs with corporates and cheating tribals out of their land. The government and ruling MLAs are hand in glove with the mafia who seek unfettered control over the state and its rich mineral and natural resources. Comrade Mahendra Singh was shot dead precisely because he fearlessly exposed and challenged this nexus.

The story is no different in Congress-ruled states. In the farmers' suicide belt of Vidarbha, it is the Congress MLA and his family who are the most deadly moneylenders, squeezing the farmers ruthlessly till they take their lives. In BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh, the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress have joined hands to form the ‘Salwa Judum' – which, in the name of checking ‘Naxalism', is actually terrorising entire tribal villages, forcing them to live in ‘relief camps' and making these tribals the fodder of a civil war in the Bastar region.

In Jharkhand today, there has been a tremendous popular protest against the false charges slapped on the CPI(ML)'s topmost leadership. Far from heeding the popular democratic voice, the BJP Government is only shamelessly displaying its vindictiveness. On June 26, police brutally lathicharged a protest march at Giridih demanding withdrawal of the charges, beat up CPI(ML) leader Rajkumar Yadav, and then slapped charges of ‘attempted murder' (Section 307) against Comrade Rajkumar. The message is clear – the Jharkhand Government and its police are defiantly challenging us – ‘Speak out against repression – and face more repression!'

Our right to raise our voice against injustice, our right to demand justice and democracy is under attack. There is an attempt to throttle the most consistent voices of democracy – the people's movements and political forces representing the poor and deprived. Those who speak out against the killer policies of Governments are being branded as criminals and killers, and being made the targets of a witch-hunt.

It is time we rose to the challenge, and united to resist the anti-poor, anti-people policies of pro-corporate development; it is time we refused to accept displacement in the name of development; and it is time we defeated the efforts to politically victimise the leaders of powerful people's struggles against these killer policies.

AIALA National Executive Committee Meeting: A Summary

[The NEC meeting of the AIALA concluded on the 29 th of June 2006 at Mansa in Punjab- Excerpts]

In Bihar and Jharkhand, a continuous and wide-spread militant mass movement was initiated on the issue of registration of job cards. Owing to the active involvement and participation of people in the movement, the administration was forced to issue job cards in large numbers. In several districts of Uttar Pradesh, the movement for issuing job cards, labour cards and ration cards was intensified but at the level of the Panchayats and Blocks, the struggle to fill the application forms and the issuing of job cards has to be organized in a more focussed and centralized manner. In Assam , in the districts of Karbi Anglong and North Kachhar , owing to the intensity of the movement, more than one lakh families were registered under the NREGA but the Congress-led state government and administration is creating unnecessary bottlenecks for the issuing of job cards to them. It is strongly felt that on this question at the local level a ‘Bhandaphor Abhiyan' (‘Exposure Campaign') against the Congress-led state and central government must be waged to sharpen the offensive edge of the on-going movement. In Orissa commendable efforts were made to wage a wide-spread campaign and in the process, the pressure was mounted for public accountability of Panchayat employees and BDOs. Campaign initiatives were taken in Nagapattanam and several other districts of Tamil Nadu but the efforts there have to be further strengthened. In the districts of Malda and Bankura of West Bengal and the Dholai district of Tripura, similar mass initiatives for active intervention were taken. On the basis of the reports gathered from the different states, one can conclude that the piece rate system, the terms that bind the job of digging soil and transporting it (100 cubic feet in a particular area) has adversely affected women as it has excluded them from such work, the problem of reimbursement of fair wages commensurate to the nature of work done, problems in the issuing of unemployment doles and exclusion of the role of village assemblies would emerge as central issues in the experience of the forth-coming movement. At this stage, we must intensify the land movement too and develop it in terms of the political context from which it naturally emanates.

In Tripura, commendable efforts were made to organize the brick kiln workers. In the tea gardens of Assam , the issues of the tea-tribe workers were raised strongly. At the Panchayat level, demands for implementation of special schemes for these workers were made. In Punjab , the popular protest movement organized against the barbaric atrocities committed on Comrade Bant Singh was successful in persuading the Punjab government to guarantee compensation to the victim and take action against the perpetrators of the crime. The achievement of the movement has inspired workers from all sections.

Reports on movements waged against the selling of agricultural lands to the corporate houses, the growing incidence of displacement of Dalits and tribals from their ancestral land in the name of development, the issue of limiting and in some places, scrapping off the public distribution system has taken a national dimension.

Decisions taken in the meeting:

1. At a time when the Congress-led UPA govt.'s policies at the centre are becoming increasingly opposed to the interests of the common people and the nation,, AIALA needs to extend its political role. The NREGA should be brought forward as a political agenda as this alone can strengthen the initiative to challenge both the central and the state governments.

2. AIALA has strongly condemned the state repression on leaders and activists of popular movements..

3. AIALA has given a call for a national convention in Delhi on the 17 th of August 2006 and a parliament march on the 18 th of August 2006 to protest against the apathetic nature of the state governments in implementing the NREGA, political discrimination of the beneficiaries of the employment schemes, increasing corruption, relentless price hike and constricting employment opportunities.

Rally in Solidarity with NLC Workers indefinite Strike !

NLC employees have unanimously rejected the PM's proposal of offering sufficient amount of shares to employees from the proposed 10% disinvestment of NLC and they are going on indefinite strike from 4th July night. The strike is being led by 18 unions of NLC employees (including AICCTU's affiliated union) . Around 50,000 employees are participating in the strike. In the meanwhile, more than 5,000 employees participated in a day long hunger strike just before going for their strike struggle.

Central TUs have called for nationwide protest on 5th of July in support of the struggle of NLC & NALCO employees .

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

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