[L-I] [ INDIA ] ML Update Vol.6 ; No. 45 ; 5-11 November 2003

ML Update
A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine
Vol.  6 No. 45    5-11 November 2003

Editorial:
-----------

NO COSMATIC REVIEW, REPEAL POTA ALTOGETHER

Last week the Delhi High Court delivered a judgment which can indeed raise a
lot of eyebrows. Delhi University lecturer S.A.R. Geelani and Afsan Guru,
two of the several people arrested in the wake of the December 13, 2001
attack on Indian Parliament have been set free after having spent almost two
nightmarish years in prison. Of course, while acquitting the two, the High
Court played a clumsy balancing trick by enhancing the life imprisonment
sentence awarded by the POTA court on the other accused persons to death
sentences. Still what is most remarkable is the fact that the High Court has
confirmed some of the worst fears of the informed public about POTA. The
draconian legislation now stands utterly exposed as one of the most ominous
playthings in the hand of the state to silence dissent and persecute the
people.

The big bosses of Delhi police, functioning under the direct guidance of
Advani's Ministry of Home Affairs, have been left fuming with rage. Shame
would have been a more appropriate response if only they had any. The High
Court however stopped short of making any attempts to remedy the sufferings
of the 'freed' POTA victims. Had the High Court gone to the extent of
suggesting some exemplary penalty for the state, a penalty that could have
had some deterrent value in terms of protection of democratic rights from
the onslaught of the state, the judgment could have been called uniquely
historic.

The judgment acquitting Geelani will no doubt still be sought to be used by
the protagonists of the system to in a bid to salvage some credibility for a
judicial system that finds itself increasingly in the dock for a series of
highly arbitrary and authoritarian verdicts. Geelani himself has however
shown remarkable courage in maintaining a sharply critical attitude to the
system rather than praising its so-called self-correcting ability. He has
come out against the criminalized justice system, against sections of the
media which had willingly bought the police versions of false and fabricated
propaganda, and against the entire establishment which he said had targeted
him as a Kashmiri. His resolve to continue to fight against oppression and
for helping those innocent Kashmiris who have no support is equally
laudable.

More particularly, we must guard against attempts to use the judgment as a
proof of the feasibility of a reformed POTA. Since April 2002 there has
indeed been a central review committee headed by Justice Arun Saharya, a
committee which according to Justice Saharya himself lacked in even 'basic
resources'. Now an amendment has been put in place giving such otherwise
toothless review committees statutory powers to issue binding directives on
complaints of wrongful arrests under POTA. But such additional 'safeguards'
cannot make POTA any less draconian than insurance schemes can reduce the
accident-proneness of Indian roads.

During its two years of existence first as an ordinance and subsequently as
an act, POTO/POTA has already alarmingly demonstrated its draconian
potential. We have seen children and eighty-year olds being booked under
POTA in Jharkhand. In Gujarat POTA is being used exclusively against Muslims
as a post-genocide bonus or insult added to injury. And where POTA is not
exactly being used to harass innocent people, it is surely being used to
settle political scores as by Jayalalitha in Tamil Nadu and Mayawati in
Uttar Pradesh.

And now the Delhi High Court judgment has provided the most clinching
evidence against POTA. While Geelani had been awarded death sentence by the
designated court under POTA, the High Court has acquitted him on the ground
that the evidence produced against him did not "even remotely, far less
definitely" point towards his guilt! And let us not forget that for one
Geelani freed from the clutches of POTA, there are dozens more who are
condemned to languish indefinitely in jail, if not hanged to death. The only
way to uphold the notion of justice is therefore to insist on a complete
repeal of POTA. Yes, total repeal and not partial review. POTA must go.
Lock, stock and barrel.
Secular Democratic Forces in the Country Must Press for Immediate
Resignation of Narendra Modi


"Save Democracy Save India" Campaign Reports
----------------------------------------------------------

GENERAL SECRETARY'S STATEMENT

[Handout issued to the press by CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar
Bhattacharya in
Pondicherry on 3 November 2003)]

The CPI(ML) strongly condemns yesterday's renewed anti-Muslim violence in
BJP-ruled Gujarat which has taken a toll of four innocent lives and injured
many more. Coupled with the fact that the victims of both Best Bakery and
Godhra carnages have asked for trial outside Gujarat, this renewed incident
of communal violence completely calls the BJP's bluff that everything is
normal in Modi's Gujarat. Secular democratic forces in the country must
press for immediate resignation of Narendra Modi.

The CPI(ML) is conducting a nationwide "Save Democracy, Save India" campaign
to decisively mobilize public opinion against the communal fascist offensive
of the Sangh Parivar, the growing threat of Americanisation in the garb of
globalisation and the brutal domination of market forces leading to a
growing denial of livelihood and democratic rights of the working people.

The first phase of the campaign will conclude with the launching of an All
India Agricultural Labour Association with more than a million members from
different parts of the country. The AIALA will be launched at a national
conference to be held in Bihar on 14-15 November and it will press for
radical land reforms and enactment and enforcement of a comprehensive
central legislation for agricultural labourers.

On the basis of a powerful mobilization of the rural poor and the working
class, the CPI(ML) campaign seeks to increase the communists' intervention
in national politics and establish the Left as the leading core of a third
force against both the BJP and the Congress-led coalitions. In the
forthcoming Assembly elections, the CPI(ML) will put up a total of twenty
candidates in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi.
The Party welcomes the recent Delhi High Court judgement acquitting one
Delhi University Lecturer and a woman who had been wrongly implicated under
POTA in connection with the December 13 attack on Parliament. The Party has
called upon all democratic forces to press for a complete revocation, and
not partial review, of the draconian and thoroughly anti-democratic POTA.

The Party also welcomes the recent intensification of the Iraqi people's
resistance to Anglo-American occupation of Iraq. The need of the hour is a
complete reversal of the existing pro-US foreign policy of the NDA
government. India must stand by the people of Iraq and boldly call for an
immediate withdrawal of all foreign forces from the soil of Iraq.
In Pondicherry the CPI(ML) has won several significant victories in terms of
securing justice for silicosis victims, stopping a chemical giant from
putting up a polluting plant in the region, and defending the rights of the
working people to employment, education, wages and social security. The
Party is determined to unite the toiling masses and the democratic
intelligentsia of Pondicherry and unleash a powerful Left movement for
democracy and development, secularism and social justice.


CONVENTION IN PONDICHERRY

Pondicherry unit of the Party organised a convention titled "Pondicherry
Needs A Leftward Shift" as part of 'Save Democracy, Save India' campaign
being conducted by the Party. The convention was preceded by a fortnight
long intensive propaganda. Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary of the
Party, addressed the Convention. He strongly condemned the latest communal
attack on Muslims in Gujarat. He said that Fascism is a major threat to
democracy and cultural diversity. He also said that the people who never
played any role in our freedom struggle are mortgaging our country to the
foreign powers. The real slogan of the Sangh Parivar is "Jai Shri Bush" and
not Ram.

There was a time when democracy meant a rule of the people, for the people
and by the people. But, in the era of globalisation, the meaning of
democracy is reduced to 'of the market, for the market and by the market'.
He also said that the recent judgments by various courts in the country
suggest not 'judicial activism' but judicial despotism.
The convention passed resolutions demanding special assembly session to
address workers' problems, comprehensive legislation for agrarian labourers,
local body elections that were not held for more than 30 years and also
against 'Special Economic Zone' and 'Free Port' where labour laws will not
be applicable.

The convention was also addressed by Shankar, CCM along with P. Sankaran,
Jagannathan and Motilal from Pondicherry and also by Selvaraj and
Krishnamurthy from Cuddalore and Villupuram districts. The convention was
presided over by Balasubramaniam, State Secretary of the Party in
Pondicherry.


CONVENTION IN CHENNAI

"George Bush may say one day that US troops must be deployed in India to
save the country from the threat of Bin-Laden supposedly hiding here"
sarcastically remarked Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya speaking at the Save
Democracy Save India Convention held in Chennai on Nov 4, where he explained
the vision of "Save Democracy, Save India" campaign, the ongoing national
campaign of CPI(ML). Save Democracy means, he further noted, rights to the
people and assertion of people's might, expanding space for people's voices.
The strength and potential of agricultural labourers and rural poor must not
be undermined, if they come to the streets in millions no Bush, Advani,
Jayalalitha or the Supreme Court can stop them. In this regard he expressed
satisfaction and happiness in surpassing the target of organising agri.
labourers put forth by the 7th congress of the Party. He also recalled two
significant struggles of recent times in the midst of Sangh Parivar's
illusory propaganda, the resistance organised by the Party in Bihar against
the sedition charges on our comrades in Darbhanga and the rally in thousands
in UP on Oct 16.
The convention was organised on the theme - Democratic agenda and the role
of the Left - S. Kumarasami, Balasundaram, CCMs also spoke, among others and
appealed to fight back authoritarian Jayalalitha regime. C. Mahendran of CPI
and Narayanasami of SUCI expressed their note of approval that the left
forces should come close on people's issues and to combat the twin danger of
economic reforms and fascist threat. CPI(ML) Polit Bureau member D. P.
Bakshi and CCM Shankar were also present on the occassion.
People from different walks of life, especially workers, participated in the
convention. Comrades from Tiruvallore and Kanchipuram districts also
participated in the convention.

Protest
----------

CPI(ML) Opposes Move to Restrict Rallies in WB

The West Bengal state unit of the Party has strongly criticized Left front
govt. in the state for bringing in proposals to ban or restrict rallies and
demonstrations in Kolkata and has termed it a ploy to satisfy the big
business houses in the name of considering popular sentiments. In an all
party meeting convened by the West Bengal CM on this issue, CPI(ML)
representatives demanded to call an all party meeting, instead, to discuss
on issues like closure of jute industries and other sick mills,
deteriorating health services, and for enacting law to ensure rights of the
agricultural labourers, etc.


Appeal
----------

RELEASE COMRADE KARU BIND

Comrade Karu Bind is behind bars for last 11 years. He is sixty. Now his
eyesight is weakened. Captivated in Hilsa Jail of Nalanda, Bihar, he is
facing seven cases framed under false charges by feudals of the area. None
of the cases has yet been 'disposed off' even after eleven years. Karu Bind
was immensely popular among poor and oppressed of Hilsa region. Thousands of
people followed him when he organised struggles under the banner of CPI(ML)
to counter feudal domination in the area during 1982-1990. He organised a
resistance squad for the same purpose and is also known for the 'anti-theft
movement' he led against thieves who stole cattle and other belongings of
poor peasants. The Bihar Pradesh Kisan Sabha has appealed to various Human
Rights and other organisations and individuals to come forward for the
release of this hero of the people.


National Initiatives
-------------------------

MANIFESTO OF ALL INDIA AGRICULTURE LABOUR ASSOCIATION( AIALA)

[Draft proposed for the First National Conference of AIALA to be held on Nov
14-15 in Arrah, Bhojpur]

1. An acute systemic crisis has engulfed agrarian India. The symptoms of the
crisis can be seen most graphically and tragically in the surge of
starvation deaths and farmers' suicides taking place not just in backward
regions but even in the most advanced pockets of the much-trumpeted green
revolution.  While farmers suffer from distress sale, mounting debt burden
and frequent crop failures, agricultural labourers reel under the burden of
growing unemployment and falling real wages. We, agrarian labourers who have
to bear the brunt of this agrarian crisis have no other way but to fight
back with all the strength and determination at our command. Through our
organised and united resistance we can and must not only defeat the attacks
on our own lives, and win and secure our inalienable rights but also lead
the nation out of the current impasse.

2. If the proximate cause of the crisis is to be located in the WTO-dictated
trade liberalisation package, on a more fundamental level it stems from the
stupid strategy, pursued since independence, of trying to promote capitalist
farming without first clearing the soil of the deeply entrenched survivals
of feudalism. For all the tall talk of "zamindari abolition" and land
redistribution, not even 2 per cent of the total cultivable land in the
country has been redistributed till date. While 60 per cent rural households
still have access to only 15 per cent of the agriculturally operated land,
the top 20 per cent layer of the rural society continue to control more than
two-thirds of the total land under cultivation. Rather than providing land
to the tiller, which proved to be the key to democracy and development in
socialist as well as developed capitalist countries, successive governments
at the centre and the states assigned the task of rural development to the
reactionary forces of landlords and kulaks, providing them with all kinds of
support. The "green revolution" was precisely such a strategy of "betting on
the strong" and now the whole thing has started backfiring.

3. The official remedy prescribed to solve these problems - the new
agricultural policy wedded to liberalisation (removal of quantitative
restrictions on imports, withdrawal of subsidies, etc.) and corporatisation
(direct or contract farming by Indian or foreign monopoly houses coupled
with large-scale entry of agribusiness corporations) and, of course, the
removal of ceiling restrictions to pave the way for all this - has proved
worse than the disease. The enhanced and unscrupulous dependence on imported
biotechnological products is fraught with dangerous consequences, while the
encouragement of reckless switch-over from food crops to cash crops has
already destroyed the nation's food security and exposed our farmers to the
vagaries of international market. While mountains of foodgrains rot in FCI
godowns and starvation deaths stalk large parts of the country, farmers are
condemned to resort to distress sale in the absence of assured government
procurement at a minimum support price. Huge reduction in public investment
in infrastructure development, notably in the field of small irrigation
projects, and criminal negligence in protecting our biodiversity from greedy
patent-seekers from abroad, have irreparably weakened the fundamentals of
Indian agriculture.

4. We, agricultural labourers, are made to bear the brunt of this man-made,
state-sponsored crisis. We are sought to be crushed under the combined
pressure of the new onslaughts and the old modes of oppression. While the
age old structure of economic exploitation, extra-economic coercion, usury,
and caste, gender and ethnic oppression is sought to be reinforced by
systematic application of feudal-kulak violence and state repression
including brutal massacres, the new policies are leading to growing land
alienation, declining employment and real wages, systematic eviction of
adivasis and denial of their traditional rights over land, forests and hill
tracts, and revival of a state of semi-bondage especially for migrant
workers. And then there is this ubiquitous 'development mafia', the corrupt
politician-bureaucrat-contractor nexus, which siphons off the lion's share
of funds sanctioned in the name of employment generation and rural
development schemes and disbursed through the panchayati raj institutions
and other channels. As for our economic plight, even the most recent
National Labour Commission conceded that "Agricultural workers get
employment for less than 6 months in a year, there [is] acute indebtedness
amongst the rural and agricultural workers . approximately 40% of
agricultural workers are migrants  . [working] 12 hours a day and getting no
weekly rest, they are hardly provided any housing and their payments are
delayed and defaulted. The most severely affected migrant workers are women
and children. . The enforcement of minimum wages is a real problem. We have
neglected the agricultural sector during the last 50 years although it has
been the backbone of our society and economy."

5. The Commission did in a way mention the need to put in place an
"effective framework of laws and social security" for agricultural workers,
but the demand for a comprehensive central legislation for agricultural
labourers continues to be denied by government after government at the
Centre. The government now talks about an umbrella legislation for the
unorganised sector as a whole, once again bypassing the insistent demand for
a separate legislation for agricultural labourers and ignoring the fact we,
agricultural labourers, constitute the overwhelming majority of unorganised
workers in the country. All talks of empowerment of working women are bound
to remain empty till the government could enact and enforce a legislation
for agricultural labourers guaranteeing equal wage for equal work and
adequate maternity and childcare benefits to the more than 50 million-strong
contingent of women agricultural workers, who, in turn, are the biggest
segment of working women in the country. Ironically, with the sole exception
of Kerala, all other state governments including those donning the
progressive mantle have refused to enact any legislation for agricultural
labourers. The Left government of Tripura has put its own legislation in
cold storage while the CPI(M) in West Bengal refuses to recognise the
existence of agricultural labourers as a class, refusing to open a branch of
its agricultural labour wing in the state even though the founding
conference of the organisation was held in West Bengal itself.

6. The attitude of the propertied classes and their representatives in state
power becomes crystal clear as soon as we raise our democratic demands.
When, as producers of food and cloth for the whole people we claim ownership
of the lands we till, they invoke the sacred "fundamental right" to property
enshrined in the Constitution, making a laughing stock of the "directive
principles" which require the state to secure to all of us "work, a living
wage. a decent standard of life" and so on. When we ask for even a small
rise in wage, let alone demanding the statutory minimum wage, the sky seems
to come crashing on the heads of kulaks, landlords and rich peasants. They
do not refuse to pay when the prices of fertilisers, insecticides and diesel
go up, or when electricity and irrigation costs escalate, but the moment we
seek even a meagre increase in wages, they begin to talk of enhanced costs
of cultivation. If we press further, they try to displace us by hiring
machines and cheaper labour from outside. When these tricks do not work,
they let loose their goons and the administration and the police rush in
their favour. Clearly, their view is that the entire burden of the crisis
must be borne by the direct producers, while they enjoy the sunny side of
economic reforms.

7. We straightaway reject this logic of the rich. We are for a comprehensive
and constructive resolution of the crisis based on radical land reform. To
this end, we the rural proletariat and semi-proletariat, in close alliance
with poor and middle peasants, are locked in a mortal combat with the old
and new landlords, the agrarian bourgeoisie or kulaks and the upwardly
mobile, reactionary sections of rich peasants.  No amount of violence can
deter us from the path of struggle. We must prepare and organise ourselves
to wage a determined resistance in every form necessary and defeat the
anti-poor anti-worker design of the rich and the powerful at all costs.

8. Our struggle is not confined to the issues of land, wages and employment
alone. As producers and workers, we have every right to secure a decent
standard of living and an improved quality of life. But our children are
still held in social and cultural bondage, they have to bear the burden of
illiteracy and malnutrition, educational backwardness and all sorts of
discrimination. We know that it is not possible to bring about any
significant and durable improvement in our lives without changing the
existing order based on exploitation and oppression of the working majority.
And political power holds the key to any major socio-economic and cultural
transformation. This is why the ruling classes and their state, all the old
and new forces of domination are filled with horror when they see us rising
and marching with the red flag.

9. We are confident of victory in this protracted war because we know our
strength. We are the largest contingent of the Indian working class. And we
are a growing army: the proportion of landless households to total rural
households increased from 35 per cent in 1987 to 41 per cent in 2000. We are
not alone, we encompass and have close ties with the vast majority of
toilers and so-called weaker sections of society - dalits and other
oppressed backward castes, adivasis, women, national and religious
minorities - whose multiple movements together are contributing to a mighty
awakening and assertion of the Indian people for democracy, development,
social justice and genuine independence. Together with the industrial
workers and the labouring peasantry we constitute a formidable force, the
biggest and strongest bulwark for freedom, democracy and people's unity.

10. We are the inheritors of a glorious legacy of heroic peasant rebellions
and militant people's struggles. Our predecessors have shed their precious
blood to free this country from the yoke of British colonialism and
thousands of our brothers and sisters are still waging valiant struggles for
a better tomorrow, for a real people's democracy and socialism. We have to
build on this great heritage to chart a new course of advance. In the course
of our fight for land and liberty, dignity and democracy, we have been
putting up a bold resistance to imperialist domination and the forces of
feudal reaction and communal fascist violence. Now we have reached a stage
where we must be able to make our presence felt as a class, not just at the
grassroots and in the rural society, but on the national plane and in the
country as a whole. Under the leadership of the Communist Party, the
revolutionary party of the proletariat and in close solidarity with the
toiling, struggling millions, we shall eradicate feudalism, and defeat the
emerging reactionary kulak power to march ahead to a new India, a people's
democratic India, a socialist India.


Elecation
-------------

CPI(ML)  COMMENTS ON ELECTION COMMISSION RECOMENDATIONS

(Presented to the All Party Meeting Convened by the Govt.)

1. We categorically reject the Election Commission's recommendation to
increase the security deposit for candidates contesting elections to State
Assemblies and Parliament. The existing amounts are already quite high and
any further increase is completely unwarranted. The argument that increased
deposits would render elections a more 'serious exercise' is completely
misplaced and flawed. It would only increase the role of big money in
elections and shrink the space available to the poor and the working people
and parties representing them to participate in the democratic process.

2. We also oppose the hike in the ceiling limits on poll expenditure by
individual candidates. The encouragement being provided to corporate funding
and increased poll expenditure would make the electoral battles more and
more unequal and effectively debar the poor from intervening in electoral
battles. We call for restoration of the earlier expenditure ceilings.

3. To encourage greater participation of women in elections, we would
suggest that the reduced security deposit rates that currently apply for
SC/ST candidates should also be extended to women candidates. In other
words, women candidates should be required to pay a security deposit of Rs.
2,500 for Assembly elections and Rs. 5,000 for Lok Sabha elections.

4. We would also like to take this opportunity to draw the attention of the
EC through this meeting to the irregularities being committed in the guise
of the ongoing rationalisation and reorganisation of polling booths.
Contrary to EC norms, booths are being relocated away from the hamlets of
dalits and other sections of the oppressed rural poor and closer to, if not
within, the areas of domination of powerful forces of the rural society.
This would mean a reversal of the poor's hard-won right to vote and would
embolden powerful feudal forces and criminal gangs in their campaign to
disenfranchise the rural poor. The basis for any rationalisation and
reorgaisation should be the removal of hurdles in the way of exercising the
right to franchise, particularly by the oppressed sections of the society
and not the opposite The EC should issue a clear directive banning any
relocation of booths that are relatively easily accessible to the rural poor
and for providing booths in the hamlets of dalits and other oppressed
sections of the rural areas.

--------------------------------------------------------
[email protected]

[email protected]

website: www.cpiml.org
------------------------------------------------------


_______________________________________________
Leninist-International mailing list
[email protected]
To change your options or unsubscribe go to:
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international