[L-I] [ INDIA ] ML Update Vol. 7 No. 31 4-10 Aug 2004

ML Update
A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine
Vol.  7 No. 31             4-10 Aug 2004



The UPA Government Keeps Exposing itself

The UPA government is yet to complete its first three months in office. Yet
there are already ample indications as to where its priorities and
sensitivities lie.

Assam and Bihar have been facing severe floods, causing unprecedented damage
and devastation. The Prime Minister did make aerial surveys of some
flood-hit areas. But the government did not declare the floods a national
calamity. Some allocations have been made from the Prime Minister's Relief
Fund, but the government has not considered it necessary to increase its
budgetary allocation for flood-control measures. Let us remember that the
allocation on this score is a meagre Rs. 30 crore.

To take another example, consider the case of Manipur where the people, led
by the brave women of the state, are waging a heroic struggle for
restoration of democracy. Manipur is one of those North-Eastern states where
the Indian Army and security forces have been enjoying extraordinary powers
under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958. In the name of maintaining
'public order' this Act authorises the security forces to search, seize,
arrest and even kill suspected insurgents with impunity. The recent protests
have been triggered by the rape and killing of Thanglam Manorama by the
Assam Rifles. The UPA government has not paid any heed so far.

Reports of farmers' suicides have been pouring in from Andhra Pradesh and
Kerala, both Congress-ruled states. It was not before the NHRC issued some
strongly worded warning that the Prime Minister visited Andhra. He did meet
some members of the hapless families, but the loans which are driving the
distressed farmers to the extreme step of taking their own lives have not
been waived. Abolition of excise duties on tractor is the only 'bold and
imaginative' step the government could contemplate to confront the agrarian
crisis.

Maharashtra, another Congress-ruled state, is witnessing chronic
malnutrition and starvation death among tribal children. The state
government first tried to hush up the report and downplay the magnitude of
the crisis. Now the veracity of the phenomenon has been established beyond
any doubt. But if you expected the state and central governments to respond
on a war-footing, you could not be more mistaken.

Certain proposals of Budget 2004 have evoked strong criticism from large
sections of the trade union movement. Trade unions have urged the government
to raise the EPF interest rate, stop NTPC disinvestment and not to increase
FDI caps in key sectors like insurance, telecommunication and civil
aviation. Left parties supporting the government have also raised these
issues. So far the government has chosen to turn a deaf ear.

Now contrast this to the only revision already announced by Chidambaram in
his budget. He had proposed a small Securities Transaction Tax in the budget
which was expected to put a little check on speculative finance while
yielding an estimated tax revenue of Rs. 7,000 crore. When Dalal Street
protested, Chidmbaram quickly promised to consider it and on July 21 he
informed Parliament of a thorough dilution of his proposals. The dilution
would reduce estimated revenue by as much as Rs. 6,000 crore.

On the foreign policy front, the biggest crisis has surfaced in Iraq where
three Indian workers are being held hostage by an Iraqi insurgent group. The
government claims to have set up a crisis-management group to secure release
of the captive Indians, but senior ministers display a complete lack of
concern. The hostage crisis is a direct outcome of the Indian government's
pro-US policy regarding Iraq, but there has been absolutely no policy
response to the crisis. It is well known that Indian mercenaries are at work
in Iraq, yet the government of India has done nothing to stop illegal Indian
migration to Iraq.

>From domestic policies to foreign policies, the UPA government has clearly
indicated which way it is headed. The point is to intensify popular
democratic struggles against the government's policies and measures and not
to ensure 'closer coordination' between the UPA and the Left. The CPI(M) PB
and CC meetings were expected to announce measures of struggle, but the most
prominent outcome so far has been Jyoti Basu calling on Sonia Gandhi!


30th Anniversary of Party Reorganisation:
National Cadre Convention Concludes in Bhubaneshwar

The CPI(ML) commemorated the 30th anniversary of its reorganisation by
organising a National Cadre Convention on July 28-29 which was held at
Nagbhushan Bhavan, Bhubaneshwar.

Thirty years ago on 28th of  July 1974, the day of anniversary of the
martyrdom of Comrade Charu Mazumdar, Party reorganised itself with a small
three-member Central Committee headed by Comrade Jahar and began its
revolutionary journey basing on a fresh upswing in peasant movement in
Bhojpur and Patna. The Party has marched through a long way forward since it
started with a handful of comrades spread in three-four states with a State
Committee in Bihar and a leading team in West Bengal. The organisation now
spreads almost all over the country with State Committees and leading teams
in more than 21 states and widespread presence of its mass organisations.
The Party always displayed its enormous potential to rise up against all
odds and carried out its revolutionary task by responding to every changed
situation by correctly grasping the dynamics and further strengthening the
revolutionary peasant struggles as the key link of our multifarious
practice.

This Convention revived the memoirs of the Party's journey through three
decades and considered the new changed situation in a similar perspective.

The Convention was inaugurated by Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya, Polit Bureau
member, where he said "we inherit  the revolutionary tradition of exemplary
sacrifice, hard struggles and service of the people with selfless devotion,
the great tradition that has been upheld and enriched by our great martyrs
and departed leaders including Comrades Charu Mazumdar, Comrade Jahar,
Comrade VM, Comrade Nagbhushan, Comrade Ravi, Comrade Jayant and Comrade
Anil Barua and hundreds of Party cadres, fighters and struggling masses.
There can be no obstacle which we cannot surmount" while welcoming the
participants.

The inaugural session was started after garlanding the statue of Comrade
Nagbhushan Patnaik and observing a two-minutes silence in memory of the
martyrs.

A keynote address was presented by Party General Secretary Dipankar
Bhattacharya on behalf of the Central Committee on "The New Situation and
our Urgent Tasks" which stressed upon the need to uphold and intensify
agrarian struggle as the core of revolutionary mass work, to intensify
political initiatives and raise the level of our political assertion, and to
develop and promote new cadres and strengthen the Party's leading role and
leadership capacity through improved collective functioning.

Attended by leading comrades from about 21 states, the participants actively
took part in discussions on the keynote address and shared their valuable
experiences during the second session. In all, 46 Comrades deliberated on
the keynote address. Later Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya summed up the
discussions in the Concluding session.
Convention was presided over by a seven-member Presidium that included
Comrades Ramnaresh Ram, Kartick Pal, Kshitish Biswal, N. Murthy, Jayant
Rongpi, Kumudini Pati and Saroj Chaube. It was ended amidst the chanting of
the Internationale.


Left Parties Convention in Orissa stressed to
jointly fight against anti-people policies of
Centre and State Governments

The CPI(ML) Orissa State Committee organised a Convention on "Changed
Political Situation and Role of the Left" on July 27 on the eve of the
Party's National Cadre Convention at Nagbhushan Bhavan in Bhubaneshwar. The
Convention was addressed by CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya,
CPM Orissa State Secretary Janardan Pati, CPI Orissa State Secretary
Nityanand Pradhan, SUCI Orissa State Committee member Raghubir Das, eminent
columnist in Orissa Bibhuti Patnaik and CPI(ML) Orissa state Secretary
Kshitish Biswal.
The speakers in the Convention while strongly condemning the anti-people
policies of last NDA govt. also criticized the present UPA govt. in the
centre for continuing them and stressed on the need to jointly organise
action programmes against these policies.

The Convention passed a resolution which states "people of India voted
against the communal fascist forces and pro-imperialist economic reforms
persued by the NDA regime but the BJP-BJD coalition govt. of Orissa still
follows the same old track while the Budget proposals of the new govt. in
the center have clearly reflected same anti-people policies. Hence the Left
have to play a vital role to fight against these jointly."



Make the

Jan Sunwai
(People's Tribunal)

Against
Imposition of TADA on
Agricultural labourers
in Bihar

Organised by AIALA

To be held on
12 August
At
Ravindra Bhavan, Patna

A Grand Success



Bandh against Massacre in Siwan and Gopalganj

CPI(ML) has strongly condemned the incident of massacre of 10 people that
took place in the midnight of July 23 at Jagadishpur village of Siwan
district. All those killed were extremely poor. Party demanded to
immediately suspend the DM and SP of Siwan and criticized the Laloo-Rabri
regime in Bihar for its politics of criminalisation and protection being
given to criminal-police-politician nexus that has added one more massacre
to its credit leaving poor, toiling masses and women much more insecure than
ever before.

CPI(ML) MLA and Bihar Pradesh Khet Mazdoor Sabha President Satyadev Ram
rushed to the spot while an investigating team led by ex-MLA Amarnath Yadav
and Siwan district Secretary Indrajit Chaurasia also released its report.
They strongly condemned the Laloo's politics of giving compensation after
each massacre but never taking steps to arrest and punish the perpetrators
of any of the massacres. They said the Chief Minister now has no moral
authority to remained stuck to power.

A bandh was organised in Siwan and Gopalganj districts on July 26 to protest
the incident and to stress the demand for the suspension of the DM and the
SP. Protest marches were held in Mairwa and Darauli on Aug 2 which were
participated by a large number of people.


Flood Situation in Assam

Flood situation in Assam has become very serious as it continues for more
than a month. Almost all the 27 districts are affected by the devastating
flood of Brahmaputra, Barak and their tributaries. Embankments of Kapili,
Kaklong, Bharali and some other tributaries are broken in many places.
Nagaon, Morigaon and Nalbari are worst affected. CPI(ML) cadres are engaged
in various relief campaigns. The government has totally failed in rescue and
relief work.

In an all party meeting on floods convened by the Chief Minister of Assam on
July 22, CPI(ML) urged upon the Govt. for proper and sufficient relief and
medical services immediately and the formation of an all party relief
committee to supervise the relief work. The meeting was attended by Robin
Goswami and Naren Borah from CPI(ML). They demanded i) to declare flood
problem of Brahmaputra as a national calamity and to take up a comprehensive
plan for permanent solution, ii) to restructure Brahmaputra Board, iii) to
take other necessary immediate steps for relief for not less than six months
and to plan for alternative farming in dry season.
AIALA has also called its cadres to launch a campaign to provide relief to
the victims of floods in Bihar and Assam.

PWG Goons Kill more innocent dalits
An armed gang of People's War Group attacked dalit tola of Mirchak village
in Kalpa PS of Jehanabad in the evening of July 25 and kidnapped Devnandan
Paswan(60), his brother Sohan Paswan (45) and his grandson Sunil Paswan (22)
and shot them dead outside their village. All three were sitting in front of
their house. PW also killed Rajnandan Manjhi in Kinari Bazar in the same
evening and threw his dead body in a well in a very brutal manner.

Angered villagers protested these killings and did not allow the police to
take away the bodies for a long time. CPI(ML)'s Jehanabad-Arwal units held
protests and organised protest-day on July 28 and 29 to press for the arrest
of the killers. Pledge taking meetings were also held at many places.

Our readers may wonder why the PWG goons are targetting dalit tolas
(hamlets) and poor innocent dalits are gunned down successively? It has now
been clear to everybody in rural Bihar that PWG in Bihar enjoys tacit
support from the ruling RJD which also protects Ranvir  Sena and uses both
these outfits in its calculated strategy to terrorise and disintegrate the
poor villagers and thus counter the growing movement of rural poor under the
banner of the CPI(ML).

In many places villagers fail to demarcate between RJD, criminals, Ranvir
Sena men and PWG. They are found moving as PW squads. Only recently, one
Jitu Yadav, a notorious RJD criminal and main accused in Burmachak massacre
was chased by the villagers and punished to death. Ironically, PWG vowed to
avenge the 'murder' of its 'comrade' Jitu Yadav!


AIKSS Mahadharna in Delhi on Sep 3

The All India Kisan Sangharsh Samiti will hold a massive Mahadharna in front
of Parliament in Delhi on Sep 3 to protest the central government's failure
to provide any respite to the suffering farmers and the continuation of the
anti-peasant policies of the last regime.
In a meeting of the AIKSS held on July 28 in Bhubaneshwar the adverse
impacts of WTO which are driving farmers out of agriculture and forcing them
towards suicides and starvation were strongly criticized. The UPA's
fraudulent CMP which also enjoys the tacit support of the CPM says nothing
concrete to save the farmers, particularly the small peasants, from the
anti-people policies of liberalisation and globalisation.


AICCTU CWC Meet

The Central Working Committee of All India Central Council of Trade Unions
met in Chennai on July 24-25 where it deliberated over the changed situation
and felt that the decisions being taken during just one month of the new
govt. led by UPA are a betrayal of the mandate and that it belied the
expectations of the common people.

The CWC decided to launch a countrywide exposure campaign against CMP and
budget proposals from 9 Aug to 31 Aug which will culminate in a countrywide
court arrest programme on 2 Sept. The campaign will focus on a ten-points
charter which includes demands like a comprehensive legislation for the
workers in unorganised sector, a central legislation for the agricultural
labourers, for a meaningful and purposeful employment guarantee and against
the government's decision to enhance FDI cap in telecom, insurance and civil
aviation, etc. and for the withdrawal of hike in prices of petroleum
products and other essential commodities.

It was also decided to launch a countrywide membership campaign and to hold
AICCTU's next, i.e. Sixth, All India Conference in April-May 2005. The
meeting was presided over by comrade Yogeshwar Gope. A two-minutes silence
was observed in the beginning to condole the deaths of the children who were
killed in the fire that broke out in a school in Kumbhkonam due to gross
negligence of school administration and the government.


AIALA Condemns Increasing State Repression

All India Agricultural Labour Association resolves to intensify its
resistance to the increasing state repression on the movements of
agricultural workers all over the country. It was decided in the meeting of
AIALA National Executive held on July 26-27 in Bhubaneshwar.
The attacks on agricultural labourer's movement, particularly those for
land, wages and other class-issues, by feudal-kulak-criminal-police nexus
and the state have increased. It must be dealt with by expanding the
movement to a wider socio-political plane.
AIALA  has decided to hold Protest programmes against not withdrawing TADA
cases from 17 agricultural labourers in Arwal, arrest of Comrade Sanjay
Mandal under charges of sedition during elections in Purnea, and imposition
of Gangster Act on AIALA and CPI(ML) activists in Lakhimpur-Kheri.
It was also decided to give a bigger dimension to the intensity and range of
struggles and mass resistances of agricultural labourers.


Opposition of Hegemony is the Necessary Condition for Youth Writing

Jan Sanskriti Manch Delhi organised a seminar on "Social Concerns and Youth
Writing" in New Delhi on 19 July. Opening up the debate Ashutosh of Aligarh
Muslim University held that youth writing must oppose the hegemonic and
status-quoist ideology, and break through the process of thought
conditioning affected by this ideology. Yet the contemporary youth writing
does not reflect the process of change, though it picturises distortion of
relations. However, Krishnamohan, editor of "Parakh", held that youth
creation was valuable and whatever weaknesses witnessed in it was due to the
established theoretical foundations. Young poet Pankaj Chaturvedi opined
that farewell to ideology has caused intellectual decay and domination of
capital is destroying critical faculties. Chairing the occasion senior
critic Manager Pandey said that on the whole, neither the theoretical
foundations nor struggles have failed. Not all identity struggles are
propelled with post-modern ideology. Youth writing should take a critical
attitude and dare to speak truth. In the packed seminar room, Sanjay Kundan
and Sharoj read out stories and Nirmala Putul, Sajina, Sunder Chandra Thakur
and Mukul Saral recited poems. The programme was conducted by Bhasha Singh.
Earlier, the meeting of National Executive of Jan Sanskriti Manch held in
Delhi decided to hold its next national conference in Ranchi on 2-3 October,
which will have new resistance against commercialization as its focus. The
meeting condoled the gruesome death of children in Tamil Nadu and denounced
the government apathy towards farmers' suicide and flood victims. It also
condemned imposition of TADA on agrarian labourers in Bihar.


Join the
Convention
Demanding justice to the TADA victims  And
Withdrawal of TADA and POTA cases

organised by
Forum For Democratic Initiatives
on 6 August 2004, 4.00p.m.- 8.00p.m.
Speaker's Hall, Constitutional Club
New Delhi




OBITUARY
-------------

Hirendranath Mukherjee

CPI(ML) condoles the passing away of veteran communist and a leader of the
CPI who died in Kolkata after a protracted illness at the age of 97 on July
30. CPI(ML) General Secretary Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya along with CCMs
Kartick Pal, DP Bakshi and Partho Ghosh visited the CPI office in Kolkata on
Aug 1 to pay homage to the departed leader before his funeral procession was
started.
Comrade Hiren Mukherjee, born on November 23, 1907, returned India after
completing his Masters degree from Oxford in 1936 and soon he joined the
Communist Party of India, then banned, and actively took part in the freedom
struggle against the British colonialism.
An eminent communist parliamentarian, he represented in the Lok Sabha from
1952 to 1977 where he served first as the deputy leader since 1952 to 1964
and then from 1964 to 1967 as the leader of the CPI Parliamentary group.
Apart from being a leading figure in political arena, he contributed many
things to the cultural life of the country. An orator par excellence, he
authored many books in Bengali and English.
Hiren Mukherjee always stood firmly in defence of socialism, democracy and
human rights and after the Soviet collapse in 1980s he came up resolutely in
defence of principles of Socialism and Marxism. A legendary figure in
communist movement Mukherjee was involved in trade union movement,
particularly with postal, insurance and bank employees unions.
He was among those who first came up to strongly condemn the heinous Karanda
massacre of agricultural labourers that took place in Burdman district of
West Bengal in 1993 perpetrated by the goons associated with CPM.
CPI(ML) also condoles the passing away of veteran leader of the CPI Comrade
Phani Bora in Assam who died recently.


Yogesh Pandey

CPI(ML) condoles the sudden and untimely demise of Comrade Yogesh Pandey,
whose vibrant and energetic leadership and hardwork led AISA in Uttarakhand
to many campus victories from 1999 to 2002. At the prime of his youth, at
30, he succumbed to viral encephalitis (brain fever) which was  detected
only at a very late stage. He breathed his last at the Apollo Hospitals in
Delhi on July 28.
He was a member of Uttarakhand leading team of the CPI(ML) and State
President of AISA  till 2003. His contributions and services to the people
are always remembered as exemplary. He became a whole time party worker as
soon as he joined college in Shrinagar in Garhwal University in mid-nineties
and since then he relentlessly worked for the Party. Besides leading various
students struggles at different places in Uttarakhand, he had also assisted
in party's work among peasantry in the state.
As the news of his sudden death reached Bhubneshwar, all those present on
the occasion of Party's National Cadre Convention observed a two-minutes
silence. Party's Uttarakhand unit has organised a memorial meeting on Aug 5
in Shrinagar.
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