[L-I] Fw: [ INDIA] ML Update - Vol. 7 No. 42 19-25 Oct 2004

ML Update
A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine
Vol.  7 No. 42    19-25 Oct 2004


Message from Maharashtra

On the face of it, the electoral outcome in Maharashtra does not show much
of a change. The Congress-NCP alliance has fallen a little short of the
halfway mark, but with assured support from the CPI(M) and some of the
victorious rebel candidates and other independent MLAs, the alliance is back
in power. A closer look however reveals a discernible shift in Maharashtra
politics, which is also a reflection of the trends operating on the national
level.
The outgoing government of Maharashtra had almost everything going against
it. The state has been  a major theatre of the prevailing agrarian crisis in
the country. The spate of farmers' suicides and deaths due to malnutrition
and starvation has been continuing uninterrupted. The Telgi stamp paper scam
revealed a very deep rot within the system. The ruling coalition was also
beset with a considerable number of rebel candidates. And on top of it, the
BSP and SP had fielded any number of candidates which threatened to queer
the pitch for the Congress in a big way. Indeed, even though the BSP failed
to open its account, it polled more than 4% of the total vote and in the
Vidarbha region the BSP is reported to have cost the Congress at least a
dozen seats.

The failure of the BJP-Shiv Sena combine to strengthen its position in
Maharashtra Assembly has to be viewed in this context. The BJP is clearly
yet to overcome the setback it suffered in the Lok Sabha elections. In fact,
despite some recovery in the Mumbai region, the BJP-Shiv Sena combine has
performed worse in the rest of the state than it did in the elections to the
Lok Sabha. Obviously, the BJP's campaign on economic issues suffers from a
major lack of credibility. The party also appears to have been done in by a
badly divided leadership and lack of a clear focus. In short, Maharashtra
elections have refused to fulfil the BJP's dream of signalling an early end
to its present state of dilemma and decline.

The BJP's crisis has also been reflected in the by-elections held in
different states. The party has had to rest content with only one Assembly
seat in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh where the ruling Samajwadi Party
has consolidated its position by winning as many as seven of the twelve
seats for which by-elections were held (results from one Assembly seat and
the lone Lok Sabha seat are still awaited). In Karnataka, the Congress
wrested the Bidar Lok Sabha seat from the BJP. In the North-East, the
Congress regained its edge in Assam and Manipur and in the Assembly
elections held earlier in Arunachal. Only in Gujarat did the BJP manage to
wrest a couple of Assembly seats from the Congress. The BJP's coalition
partners have done even worse. In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena has been the
bigger loser than the BJP. In Bihar, the JD(U) lost the Madhepura seat by a
huge margin and in West Bengal, the Trinmul Congress is yet to find its feet
even in the city of Kolkata where the Left Front won all the three Assembly
seats for which by-elections were held.
For the Congress, Uttar Pradesh continues to be the biggest worry. There is
still no sign of any perceptible Congress revival in this biggest of Indian
states. The Congress has even lost the Ghaziabad seat adjacent to Delhi even
as it holds on to its citadel in Delhi. In Maharashtra, the NCP has now
edged past the Congress and has emerged as the bigger coalition partner.
Being the leader of the ruling coalition at the Centre, the Congress may
manage to retain the Chief Minister's post in Maharashtra, but it will have
to cope with a powerful NCP both in Maharashtra and at the Centre.
The fact that the BJP could not derive any electoral mileage from its Hubli
and Andaman campaigns is certainly a good sign for the democratic movement.
As the Hindutva plank loses its appeal and edge, revolutionary democratic
forces must step up their efforts to further push back the BJP and confront
the Congress and its allies on the basic issues concerning the people and
the country.


8th Conference of CPI(ML) Uttar Pradesh unit held in Varanasi

"U.P. won't tolerate starvation, unemployment and suicide deaths! March on
for employment, social security and
democracy! March on under the Left banner!!"- With these slogans on the
walls the 8th state conference of CPI(ML) of UP at Com. R. N. Upadhyay
Sabhagar (inauguration session in Nagar Nigam Hall and delegate session in
Acharya Ramchandra Shukla Shodh Sansthan) at Rahul Sanskritayan Nagar
(Varanasi) held on 9-11 October, 2004. The hall was decorated with red
flags, revolutionary poems and slogans and also by a banner portrait of
Comrade Nagbhushan Patnaik, to mark the 6th anniversary of his demise. The
conference was inaugurated by Party General Secretary Comrade Dipankar
Bhattacharya who asserted that situation conducive to Left resurgence are
ripening in the Hindi belt and to realise this goal all the left forces must
march forward in unison. Victims of the crisis - agricultural labourers,
peasants, workers and weavers, in particular are demanding an urgent
resolution to this problem that is endangering their lives.

But in U.P., whereas new records of state repression were being set first by
Mayawati-Rajnath governments and now by Mulayam Singh, who is bent on
protecting feudal tyrants like Raja Bhaiya but not ready to relent the
campaign of terror on struggling poor dalit and adivasi peasants by way of
lodging false cases against the cadres under gangster act, only to placate
the same feudal-mafia-criminal forces.

Comrade Dipankar said that despite the defeat of communal fascist forces in
the centre, the UPA government has neither taken any viable step against
Sangh Parivar. It withdrew the case against Uma Bharati in Hubli Court and
clearly retreated in the case of exposing Savarkar. Also, this government
has continued surrendering national interests to the US bosses but stepped
up repression of people and in particular refused to bow down to the public
demand in Manipur to withdraw the notorious and barbaric Armed Forces
Special Powers Act.

Earlier, the flag hoisting ceremony was performed by veteran communist
leader Ishwar Chandra Tyagi, following which a 2-minute silence was observed
in the memory of martyrs to the people's cause.

In the opening session that followed, Comrade Prashant Shukla, Town
Committee Secretary of Party's Varanasi unit delivered the welcome address
and then, freedom fighters and veteran communists including Ishwarchandra
Tyagi, RK Shukla, Brij Bihari Lal (Mahashayji), Harivanshi Ram Master,
Vasudev Tyagi, Shambhu and Ramnaresh Singh were honoured and conference
memento was presented to them by Party General Secretary. The session was
also addressed, among others, by veteran communist Dipak Mallik, Jan
Sanskriti Manch General Secretary Ajay Singh, Party MLA from Bihar Rajaram
Singh and Party's UP State Secretary Comrade Akhilendra Pratap Singh.
The delegate session was started in the evening of 9 October in which
Comrade Akhilendra Pratap presented the draft work report on behalf of the
outgoing state committee. A live and vibrant debate followed, which was
divided in three sections to focus three parts of the report, namely,
political situation in the state, mass organisations and Party building. It
continued till the morning session of 11 October, during which altogether
117 comrades out of 265 delegates and observers expressed their opinions.
The 5- member presidium was composed of Comrades Krishna Adhikari, Lal
Bahadur Singh, Ajanta Lohit, Jaswant Singh and Shyam Bihari Singh, which
appointed a three-member technical committee headed by Comrade Ramesh Singh
Sengar.

By noon on 11 October, the report was adopted unanimously by the house
following the reply to the debate by Comrade Akhilendra. The house also
unanimously approved the panel presented by the outgoing state committee and
thus elected a 29 member state committee. The new state committee reelected
Comrade Akhilendra as its secretary.
The Conference took positive note of the small and bigger movements,
especially those in Pilibhit-Lakhimpur and eastern UP, and pledged to
further intensify and advance the struggles of rural poor, to strengthen UP
Khet Mazdoor Sabha and Kisan Sabha, and basing on these struggles,
strengthen and expand the ongoing movement on various democratic issues all
over the state to expose the government.

In the concluding session, held in the evening of 11 October, Comrade
Dipankar urged the new state committee to rise to the need of the time and
take up the challenge of making bold initiatives and expansion of our work
in this important state. He emphasised that without hard and painstaking
work among the most downtrodden of the people, agrarian and rural labourers
in particular, it was not possible to raise the level of our political
assertion in the state. He emphasised the need of raising the level of unity
on the basis of Marxist-Leninist principles and Party line to face the new
situation. He added that we must not forget for a moment the very class
character of the ruling parties instead getting misguided by their
caste-jugglary. Comrade Ramjatan Sharma, Polit Bureau member and Central
Observer of the conference also addressed this session, who congratulated
the delegates for concluding the conference successfully and urged them to
score new victories in the days to come. Lastly, Comrade Akhilendra thanked
all the comrades who were busy day and night to make all the arrangements
necessary to make the conference successful. The concluding note of thanks
was delivered by Comrade BK Singh and the conference concluded with the
singing of Internationale.


6th Death Anniversary of Comrade Nagbhushan
Impressive Rally at Gunupur

Orissa State Committee of CPI(ML) organised an impressive rally on October 9
at Gunupur to pay homage to great revolutionary leader Comrade Nagbhushan
Patnaik on his 6th Death Anniversary. More than 2000  people participated in
a procession that passed through the main avenues of the town. The
procession turned into a mass meeting in front of the statue of Com.
Nagbhushan. After paying homage to the legendary revolutionary leader the
meeting was addressed by comrades Kshitish Biswal, Malleshwar Rao and
Tirupati Gomango among others. Speakers reiterated their resolve to
strengthen and expand the revolutionary peasant struggle initiated in the
districts like Rayagada, Gajapati and Kalahandi under the guidance of the
great leader.

After the conclusion of the rally a workshop on "Land Question" was also
organised on the day. This was participated by nearly 150 activists, most of
them came from deep interiors of rural pockets. This was coordinated by
Polit Bureau member DP Buxi. After a detailed discussion on study of
agriculture in Orissa, topics like impacts of land legislation, class
analysis, composition of rural society and our approach towards land
struggles were discussed in an interactive session through participants'
experiences of land struggles.
This two-day workshop concluded on Oct 10 with the presentation of a policy
outline on land struggles at present juncture.

A state-level preparatory body of AIALA was also constituted and assigned
the task of organising first AIALA state conference in May 05 after
accomplishing a target of 50,000 membership. It was also decided to hold a
militant Assembly gherao during forthcoming session of the Orissa Assembly
to press for the demand of holding a 'special session of Assembly' on the
land question.


Starvation Deaths in Deoghar District

Satar village, in Deoghar of Jharkhand, is only seven kilometers away from
the city. the road and electricity reached here comparatively very early, in
60s. It has also been provided with a school and a primary health center. In
spite of so many symbols of 'development' this village, inhabited by merely
300 families majority of them being dalits and backward castes, has recently
witnessed a starvation death exposing the real face of developmental of this
region, which is not much different from the rest of India. Barring a small
privileged section, almost all in the village have reached to the brink of
starvation facing unemployment in this third year of continuous drought.
Most of them are agricultural labourers and fishermen living below poverty
line, occasionally going to the city in search of work as daily wage labour.
Dukhni's was the second starvation death on Sep 22 in dalit tola of this
village. Earlier, Panwa Devi had met the same fate on 2 October, when the
nation was commemorating Gandhi's Birth Anniversary. Some District officials
visited the village but did not order for postmortem of the deceased.

A CPI(ML) investigation team found that still many people, like Anchhi Devi,
Jaishankar Raut and Bonga Kapri, are suffering from severe malnutrition and
food and medical facilities quite inaccessible, with no money in hands.
Though few of the inhabitants were able to get work under the forest
department but their wages are still to be paid even after a month.

CPI(ML) team has demanded for providing immediate provide food and medicines
to the affected people and to suspend the DM and other irresponsible
officials. Party also demanded to start the Food for Work programme in the
village and to pay all unpaid dues. Seeing the imminent danger of
famine-like situation also in other parts of the district, Party demanded to
start relief work soon and, most importantly, government must take
responsibility for each starvation death and remove the DM of concerned
district in case of any such event.


Protest March against Massacre

Thousands of people took part in a protest rally on Oct 1 at Satgama where
one Sunil Yadav, an erstwhile MCC activist, and his gang massacred four
people in a very brutal manner on Sep 25 demanding immediate arrests of the
criminals. A march was also taken out from Koderma to Satgawan by the
CPI(ML) before the Rally. A high-level inquiry and compensation to the
victims was also demanded by the protesters.
While lakhs of people in Jharkhand are facing famine and starvation deaths
and Arjun Munda govt. has failed to take measures to deal with the
situation, even it shamelessly denies the occurrence of any starvation
death, people and their leaders protesting such a sorry state are being
subjected to state sponsored repression on the one hand while the terror
reign of criminal-mafia-politician nexus still rules the roost. The Party
also condemned death of 21 persons, mostly children, claimed to be due to
'Malaria' in Satgama. It organised mass protests against government's
criminal negligence towards the poor villagers.


AIPWA Protest in Deoghar

AIPWA activists held a protest and gheraoed BDO and CO of Mohanpur in
Deoghar district to demand the arrest of a rapist. A memorandum was
submitted to the officials which also included demands like equal wages, to
change the governmental policies which are making the women deprived of
their traditional professions in the name of development, institution of a
State Women's Commission and for separate police stations at every district
for women. The rampant corruption in the schemes like PDS, old age pension,
red card, Indira Awas, maternity benefits, etc. was also condemned by the
agitating women-folk.


Impact of Liberalisation in Rural India: Some Hard Realities

While  more than 70 per cent of India's population still live in villages,
the policies of liberalisation in agriculture are more and more being
characterised with features like inadequate irrigation cover;  improper
adoption of technology; unbalanced use of inputs; decline in public
investment; and weakness in credit delivery system by Banks.  Here are some
hard facts reflecting adverse impacts of these policies (irrespective of
governmental tall claims based on statistical manoeuvers) :
.     Actual GDP growth remains more or less unchanged.
.     Share of agriculture in GDP declined from 3.4 per cent in the 1980s to
3 per cent in the 1990s. In the post-liberalisation period it declined from
4.7 per cent in the Eighth Plan period to 1.8 per cent in the Ninth Plan
period.
.     Public sector investment declined significantly from 10.0 per cent in
the 1980s to 7.8 per cent in the 1990s.
.     Employment in non-agricultural sectors in rural India grew from 22 per
cent in 1983 to 25 per cent in 1987-88, but no further growth was observed
in the 1990s.
.     A large number of very poor people still continue to remain outside
the fold of the formal banking system.
.     The rate of decline in poverty was more in the 1980s than in the
1990s.
.     The share of the self-employed people in agriculture declined among
rural poor.
.     Tribals and dalits have become more vulnerable economically than the
upper castes.
.     Regional disparities have increased. Now 54 per cent of India's rural
poor live in three states, viz, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
.     The growth rate of real agricultural wages declined from about 5 per
cent per annum in the 1980s to 2.5 per cent per annum in the 1990s.
.     The ratio for rural poor at all-India level increased from 6.8 per
cent in 1993-94 to 8.8 per cent in 1999-2000.
.     PDS remains elusive giving no respite to the rural poor and
agricultural labourers living below poverty line.
.     Enormous increase in farmers' suicides and starvation deaths in rural
areas all over the country.
.     Some studies have also shown an increase in number of urban poor
during the 1990s. (In contrast to official estimates, which showed a decline
in urban poor by 11 million.)
.              Last decade witnessed an overall decline in socio-economic
profile of rural population in general.



Strike by Rural Workers in Dispur

All Assam Gramin Shramik Santha (AAGSS - All Assam Rural Workers' Union)
staged a Relay Hunger Strike on 13-16 Oct against rampant corruption and
increase in price of rice given against wages of rural workers. The govt. of
Assam had raised the price of rice under central scheme from Rs. 6 to Rs. 8,
which created a wave of resentment among the rural poor. While the
government has been pretending to implement different schemes of the people
belonging to below poverty line, it has not prepared the BPL list yet. AAGSS
has demanded the immediate declaration of BPL list and to pay the pending
wages of rural workers in different panchayat areas. The demands like
distribution of 25 Kg. rice to each BPL family, guarantee of minimum 100
working days, to declare floods in Assam a national calamity and
compensation to flood victims, etc. were also raised through this strike
action.
Rural workers from Sonitpur, Barpeta, Dibrugarh, Nagaon and Guwahati took
part in this programme. The relay strike was suspended temporarily
considering the situation arose out of devastating floods and death of
hundreds of people in Goalpara district on Oct 16 with a resolve to further
intensify rural poor's struggle against the government.


Protests against Corruption

CPI(ML) district unit of N. Dinajpur held protest demonstrations at various
places including Raiganj, Goalpukur, Karamdighi, Kaliaganj and Itahar on Oct
4 against prevalent corruption and police atrocities. Memoranda were sent on
these issues to the state government.


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