Thursday, May 27, 2010

MAHARASHTRA: AIAWU HOLDS SEVENTH STATE CONFERENCE

IT was a hot day in the Partur city of Jalna district of Maharashtra district, but the spirit and confidence of the rural labour created more heat against the anti-labour policies of the Congress-NCP government of the state. Thousands of agricultural workers and poor peasants from Jalna and adjacent districts participated in the rally organised on the occasion of seventh Maharashtra state conference of the All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) on May 2. AIAWU general secretary A Vijaya Raghavan, on this occasion, attacked the anti-rural poor policies of the UPA government which is also trying to wind up the NREGA and divert funds to the hands of contractors, and also to deprive the rural poor of the PDS food supply. To fight against these injustices, the rural poor must raise the red flag and march forward for big struggles, he added. AIAWU vice president Kumar Shiralkar appealed to the rural poor to fight against the pro-rich and anti-labour policies of the Congress-NCP state government of Maharashtra. The meeting was presided over by Babasaheb Saravade.

Partur is a historic city where the communists and socialists had jointly organised the first convention of Hyderabad Mukti Sangram Parishad against the Nizam’s rule in the erstwhile principality of Hyderabad, in solidarity with the Telangana people’s armed struggle 1946-51. The venue of the seventh AIAWU conference was named after Comrade Gangadhar Appa Burande, a legendary leader of the rural poor in Marathwada region. Babasaheb Saravade hoisted the AIAWU flag while he, Indira Chavan, Dilip Shapamohan and Narayan Gaikwad comprised the presidium which the conference elected. Anna Savant, chairman of the reception committee, welcomed the participants while Vijaya Raghavan inaugurated the conference. In his speech, he explained the necessity of a strong movement of the rural labour on various issues facing the rural poor, at a time the policies of the UPA government have completely devastated agriculture and the rural economy. He appealed for an expansion of the base of the organisation and preparation for mighty struggles. Udhav Bhawalkar (CITU), Madhuri Kshirsagar (JMS), Dada Shinde (SFI) and Bhagwan Bhojane (DYFI) greeted the conference.

AIAWU state general secretary Praksah Chaudhary presented the report. Out of 160 delegates from 14 districts, 53 delegates including 11 women participated in the discussion. They contributed their experience of struggles, and also pointed out the weakness and obstacles. The conference adopted the report and also adopted resolutions on struggle for forest and government wasteland, for work and NREGA and MREGS, on PDS and food supply, sugarcane harvest workers’ struggle, against atrocities on dalits and adivasis, and for equal rights for women workers. Kirtikumar and Nathu Salve presented the credentials report.

The new state committee, with a youthful composition, has Prakash Chaudhari as president, Rajan Kshirsagar as general secretary and Babasaheb Saravade as treasurer. In his concluding speech, Kumar Shiralkar talked of the need of hard work and of strengthening of state and district centres with proper focus on village committees. Responding to the youthful voice of the conference, Vijaya Raghavan dwelt on proper organisational steps and cadre policy. While deciding on the future tasks, the conference decided to forge a state-wide agitation.

Source: People’s Democracy dated 23-05-2010

Friday, May 7, 2010

INSANE MAOIST BUTCHERS OF “BARTAMAN” SLAIN INNOCENT VILLAGER ORPHANING HIS WIFE & DAUGHTER IN THE NAME OF REVOLUTION

WIFE AND DAUGHTER BESIDE THE DEAD-BODY OF HARIPADA SINGHA ON BASANTPUR ROAD IN DAHIJURI VILLAGE OF JHARGRAM, WEST BENGAL ON 05-05-2010. HARIPADA SINGHA WAS BRUTALLY MURDERED BY THE PERVERTED AND INSANE MAOIST COMRADES OF ARUNDHATI ROY, MAHASWETA DEVI, MEDHA PATKAR, “PEOPLE’S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES” (PUCL), “PEOPLE’S UNION FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS”(PUDR), ASSOCIATION FOR PROTECTION OF DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS (APDR) AND OTHER SO-CALLED INTELLECTUALS AND HUMAN RIGHT ORGANISATIONS AND CORPORATE MEDIA

Thursday, May 6, 2010

‘CAN YOU COMBAT MAOIST MENACE WHEN A UPA ALLY PATRONISES THEM?’

SITARAMYECHURY IN RAJYA SABHA

The following are the excerpts from the speech made by Sitaram Yechury, CPI (M) leader in parliament on April 15, 2010 while intervening on home minister's statement on Dantewada massacre.

At the end of the statement that the home minister has made on the Dantewada massacre, he said that let us wait for the inquiry committee report to come and then we can take stock of what actually happened in this particular incident in Dantewada.

We agree with that; we shall wait for that. But the point that I would like to highlight right now is that the Dantewada incident is not an incident in isolation. This is happening as a part of a policy, as a part of developments and activities that have intensified since the UPA-II government has come. Since the general elections in 2009, according to the figures of the home ministry itself, 993 lives have been lost due to Maoist violence, of which 340 are security personnel.

Only yesterday (April 14), in West Bengal, two more of my Party's cadre were hacked to death by the Maoists, taking the total to 176 in the months since May last year. This is something which only demonstrates very, very eloquently, but chillingly, with murderous assaults and attacks that the Maoist menace is mounting. Now, taking this as a general figure, looking at it in a general way, we entirely agree with the fact that this is not an issue or menace which can be tackled by apportioning blame. If you look at the states that are involved, apart from the central government, you have West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar, all these states where this current problem is persisting are states that are run by governments led by different political parties. So, unless we have a unified approach on how to tackle this issue, we cannot succeed and that is something we must actually keep in mind and not be bothered about where the buck stops. The buck stops with India. The buck stops with the government and the buck stops with all of us here in the parliament. Are we going to break up the parliamentary democracy that we have built up so laboriously? Are we going to change it for the better for the people or not? That is where the buck should stop. Let us not pursue these bucks and let us actually try in right earnest to come down to how do we try and solve this problem.

The point that was made by the leader of the opposition, a point that I have been making and we from the Left have been making in this House for the last nine months or so, is that there is a fundamental contradiction that is feeding the growth of such Maoist violence in our country and that contradiction lies within the central government and the union cabinet of ministers itself. I have repeatedly stated that on three occasions, the prime minister has drawn the attention of the country stating, 'Maoist violence represents the gravest threat to India's internal security.' Now, having said this, how can you have members in the cabinet, the same union cabinet, who not only say things to the contrary but actually act to the opposite? How can you have union cabinet ministers -- it has been read out by the leader of the opposition and I do not wish to read out those statements again -- demanding the arrest of the elected chief minister of a state under our constitution? The chairman would have to assure us; we are the council of states. If this is the way in which members of the union cabinet deal with elected chief ministers of the states and ask for their resignation openly in the media, can the government keep quiet? Is the government not answerable to the country? How is it that on the one hand, the prime minister, the leader of the cabinet, says that this is the gravest threat to India's internal security and on the other, you have members who not only say that it is not the gravest threat but also that there are no Maoists operating in Bengal at all. They say there are no Maoists operating in Bengal at all and ask for the withdrawal of the central forces. How can you co-exist with these contradictions? If you are co-existing with these contradictions, I am sorry to say that it is the height of political opportunism. Just for numbers in the Lok Sabha, if you are going to allow the country's internal security to be compromised, then this government is doing a very big disservice to the country, just for the sake of its survival. Governments may come and governments may go. But, what is of concern is the nation; what is of concern is the country; what is of concern is this institution called parliament and parliamentary democracy. Don't play with it. Don't, for the sake of your political survival, allow such forces to feed and provide sustenance for this Maoist violence to spread. And that is my point. Why is it that 30 years after this movement came into existence, the Maoist violence has reared its head in Bengal again.

That is the point this country must understand. You have the re-entry of Maoists into Bengal behind political flags and banners of legitimate political parties operating within parliamentary democracy. Maoists are being used in order to serve petty electoral purposes and petty electoral ambitions in a particular state. Can we allow such indiscriminate use, such despicable use of methods in order to somehow wrest power in a particular state?

Please remember, Naxalbari is a village that exists in Bengal today. It existed in Bengal always and the uprising that took place in Naxalbari in 1967, from there the term 'Naxalites' has arisen. After that uprising there in 1967, there was a big debate within the Indian Communist movement. I need to refer to this because sometimes there have been references saying that we, CPI(M), are after all cousins of Maoists or, at one point of time, we had allegedly supported them and this only can come from those people who have not really understood our history. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) was divided in 1967 by a small group of people who had argued that Naxalbari uprising was the way for revolution and emancipation of India. We had disagreed with them. We had told them that it was only through the combination of parliamentary means and extra parliamentary means that we could achieve social transformation. But with an erroneous understanding that the Indian ruling classes are comprador in the sense that they do not have their own social base and all that is required is to arm the people. They armed the people and, therefore, by arming the people the slogan of People's War emerged. The slogan of People's War was 'Arm the people' so that they can capture power. It was all easy because the ruling classes do not have a social base. That was the wrong ideological understanding and that understanding had to be combated and that was combined with the policy of individual annihilation, individual annihilation of originally class enemies and now, as it is being pointed out, individual annihilation of all those who are opposed to them. It is the combination of this which is ideological and the ideological strain which we think is completely wrong both in terms of understanding Indian reality and in the methods employed to achieve a social transformation in our country and it is an ideological battle that we, CPI(M), have been in the forefront for the last forty years. We have lost thousands of our people in this ideological battle and it is because of this ideological battle that we succeeded in isolating them in West Bengal. So, today if we think of combating Maoism without an ideological battle, it can never succeed. The question of ideological battle rests on the basic fact that social transformation in India is necessary, but what are the means that you will apply and adopt for achieving such a social transformation and what is the concrete analysis of the concrete conditions that you are living in? This ideological battle is as important as re-establishing the writ of civic administration in these areas and re-establishing of the writ of civic administration is not negotiable. On that, there is no dispute among all of us. But it has to be combined with a political battle or political offensive against this, particularly the ideology which we think is undermining the foundations of modern India. That is why whenever such problems have occurred in West Bengal, in order to resolve these problems, we have repeatedly adopted the approach where an all-party meeting is called in these affected areas. Twenty-eight all-party meetings have been called since the last general elections to tackle this Maoists' violence in these areas, but not one of them was attended by the ally of the Congress Party who is now sitting in their cabinet. The reason for not attending is not to legitimise this process but to allow or use the Maoists in order to create terror in a particular area and use the terror to browbeat people into politically supporting them.

So, this is a tactic of terror. This is politics that is being operated through terror. And it is this politics of terror that needs to be fought today. I think what is required is a combination of measures required by law and order and ideological political struggle against the Maoists and Maoism itself. Unless this combination is adopted, I don't think we can actually succeed. Therefore, I would sincerely urge the government at the centre and I sincerely urge the prime minister, the leader of the house, to please come here and explain to us how he has members in his own cabinet who think completely opposite of what he has been telling the nation as far as Maoists’ violence is concerned and do not compromise the interest of our country for the sake of continuation of your government.

You may be happy, like once Winston Churchill famously remarked during the Second World War, "Let the Communists and Fascists kill each other and then we shall enter", and he delayed the second front. If that is the thinking of the Congress Party today, I am sorry, it will only lead to a sort of devastation that the world had seen during that time. If they think that let the Maoists and the Marxists fight each other out and let them deplete themselves, and then, they will enter in order to restore the peace in that region, then they will destroy the very basis and the foundations of the parliamentary democracy in our country. So, they have to be extremely clear. In this, what is required by the central government, as I mentioned earlier, in these five states that you are talking about right now with five different governments, but unless you take on board all the political parties and that requires a complete non-partisan approach and the central government co-ordinates these activities, you cannot really solve this problem.

Mr Deputy Chairman, you come from a state that was also infamous for having bandits like Veerappan. For two decades, you could not catch him because whenever Karnataka Police moved, he would move into Tamilnadu; whenever Tamilnadu moved, he would come back into Karnataka, or go into Kerala. And, in this way, between the three states, he managed for two decades. You require a co-ordinated approach between all these states if you want to solve this problem. And, that requires a strong political will. That requires a strong political will to be able to co- ordinate between all these state governments. That is required, and my appeal would be to all other political parties also who are running governments in the states that this is not something on the basis of which, we should calculate our electoral fortunes for the future. This is a threat that needs to be met squarely. Otherwise, you will have series of actions that will continuously undermine the foundations of a modern parliamentary democracy in India.

And, that is why, when Dr Keshava Rao, was talking about the method employed in Andhra Pradesh and he was talking about negotiations or talks as the way in which the problem was solved, please remember, the biggest thing that was undertaken by the Andhra government then was Operation Grey Hound. Therefore, it is a combination that will have to be done. In fact, we have to learn from our own states which have actually tackled extremism in a very successful way, and one of those states from which we have to learn is the tiny state in the North-East called Tripura. In Tripura, they have tackled it by a combination of a political approach, a political will using the law and order measures and addressing the most important issue of development. And, addressing that issue of development can only be with a combination of this that you could actually control the growth of these extremist activities. And, the development issue is the third arm of this tripod. You require a tripod approach, and in that tripod approach, one leg is the law and order; the second leg is the political will and the political battle; and the third leg is to address the developmental concerns. Look at the area where all these activities are taking place. This is one of the richest areas in terms of mineral resources in our country. You have, through the years, successively in the government, privatised mining. And, all of us know what havoc private mines have been playing in other parts of the country. But, here, privatisation of mining activities in the areas which are predominantly inhabited by tribal people has only added to the woes of the people there. The private mafias that come with the private mines and their activities, had only caused further miseries to the tribal population there who already could not have the benefits of development reach them. Therefore, what is required is to also look into the policies, re-look into the policies, and, at least, try and understand why we oppose the privatisation of these mines. You are creating situations of over-exploitation and extra burden being imposed on the people there. That is also adding to the backwardness of the people there apart from the traditional backwardness of the tribal areas. Therefore, what is required if you really, sincerely want to tackle this problem is a combination of this tripod. You will have to address all the three - law and order, a political will and a political battle against them, and address the developmental issues of the concerned population there. Unless this holistic approach is undertaken, we cannot really tackle this problem. The home minister, in his statement, said that there are two pillars of the policies that the central government has adopted. One is that of calibrated police action, and the other is that of development.

And, then, he goes on to say, the state governments, therefore, have a primary responsibility. I find it completely contradictory. Now, you are saying that the state governments have a primary responsibility. Yes; law and order is a state subject, and, the state governments have a primary responsibility. There is no doubt about it. But when a law and order problem spreads beyond the borders of a particular state and goes into the borders of other states, then, of course, the concerned state governments have that responsibility, but the task of the centre in coordinating these actions of the state governments becomes important.

I hope that instead of the central government standing ready and willing to assist the state governments, and, to coordinate the inter-state operations -- I am quoting it from the statement of the home minister -- this coordination of inter-state operations and willingness to assist the state governments, should come in right earnest. There is no political scoring of points. The home minister is not here; perhaps he has gone to the other House. It is very, very ironic that he said to the chief minister of West Bengal, "the buck stops with you", and, then, within 48 hours, he had to say to the country, "the buck stops with me", after the Dantewada incident took place. Today, you may try and score a political point saying that the buck stops with him. Tomorrow, the developments will tell you that the buck stops with you. Finally, as was said in the beginning, the buck stops with the country, buck stops with the nation, and the buck stops with the government, which, at the moment, is given the responsibility to run the country.

I would also want to just touch upon one point, which, in this ideological battle against these forces, we also have to understand. We have made one appeal to the naxalites since they started and formed their party in 1969. They started work in 1967; splintered into various groups; got regrouped, and, in 2004, they came together and formed this party, the Communist Party of India (Maoists), and, since then, there is this growth in violence. Since then, we have always been saying, if you have a difference of opinion, come forward and put that difference before the people; let the people decide whether we are right or you are right. That is the approach, which we will have to adopt even now; and, in that ideological battle, we have to say this very clearly.

Unfortunately, -- I wish; I don't believe in such things -- but if there is a grave and if there is a Mao, then he would be turning upside down in his grave because his name is being grossly misused by these forces, I mean, when they call themselves as Maoists. Poor Mao was the man who said, no communist can survive unless he mingles with the people like a fish takes to water. It was Mao, who said, let a hundred flower bloom, let a thousand thoughts contend, and, it is only then that you know what truth is. You have to seek the truth from the facts, and, that is what Mao taught us. They misused the name of Mao; anyway, that is their democratic right, and, we can take on them ideologically. But, we have to realise that in this battle, we will have to be united in taking on them, on the basis of this tripod understanding. Finally, I would like to recollect, with some degree of anguish, the warning that Dr Ambedkar gave to all of us and the country when he presented the final draft of the Indian constitution to the Constituent Assembly for consideration and adoption.

Yesterday (April 14) was his 120th birth anniversary. When he commended the Constituent Assembly to accept it, in his speech, he said, 'but this constitution that we so laboriously have constructed, and, this structure that we so laboriously want to build, is beset with contradictions." And, he defined the contradictions, I think, very, very well. I can't find a better way of defining it. It is that the constitution provides one man with one vote, and, one vote with one value. But our social conditions have not created one man with one value, and, as long as you have this contradiction that one man does not have one value, but you have one man having one vote, and, a vote having the same value.

So, unless you create a society where all men are equal, he warned that, and I quote, "What we have so labouriously built will be blown asunder by the very people who are suffering from this contradiction". And, if you really want to tackle the problem of extremism, the problem of anarchy, you will have to have a very serious re-look on the trajectory of this neo-liberal economic reforms that we are adopting because that is generating this sort of a situation where it is easy for an unemployed, insecured youth to take to arms and take to militancy because that is the only security life offers. Therefore, finally in conclusion, while waiting for the inquiry report on this specific Dantewada massacre, we will urge upon the government to immediately inform us what is their decision with the people within their union cabinet who are providing both protection and patronage to the Maoists. Unless you take a firm, decisive step in that direction, we cannot succeed in combating this menace.

Courtesy: People’s Democracy dated 25-04-2010

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

ON TO NATIONAL SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN WITH WEST BENGAL PEOPLE - M K Pandhe

ONE of the crucial decisions of the 13th CITU conference held at Chandigarh was about organising a one week solidarity campaign all over India from April 18 to 24. During the week, all unions affiliated to the CITU will organise various forms of actions, culminating in rallies all over India on April 24 to condemn the Trinamul-Maoist combine’s heinous attacks on the cadres of the Left and democratic movement in West Bengal.

Speaking fervently at the conference, delegates from West Bengal vividly described the murderous attacks on innocent activists of the Left parties and mass organisations in the state. Delegates from all over the country applauded when West Bengal delegates pointed out how heroically the working class and the people there are resisting the offensive.

Most of those brutally murdered came from the downtrodden sections of society, and were involved in struggles to protect the common people’s interests from the UPA government’s anti-people policies. Assassinating the cadre fighting for the toiling people’s legitimate rights has only emboldened the capitalist sharks in the country to intensify their wicked attacks on the masses. Though the Trinamul and so-called Maoists talk in the name of the people, in practice they have been hitting the basic interests of the people. People in West Bengal are realising the game behind these atrocities but the people of other states must know about the true character of the game Ms Mamata Banerjee and these pseudo-revolutionaries playing. The purpose of the CITU’s campaign is to make the working class and other people of India understand the nature of the cruel alliance built against the Left Front in West Bengal. Its sole purpose is to overthrow the Left Front government and establish an anarchic rule on behalf of the ruling classes.

AN OUTPOST OF DEMOCRACY

West Bengal is the frontline outpost of democratic movement in India. Here the Left Front is running the administration for 33 years, which has become eyesore to our capitalists. Foreign powers too are keen about destabilising the Left Front government since it is implementing alternative policies not suitable to their depredations in India. Imperialist agencies in India are clandestinely helping the anti-Left forces to strengthen their machinations against the Left Front government. Moral and material help from imperialist agencies to our electronic and print media as well as the anti-Left political forces has been a big factor in their campaign against the Left Front government in West Bengal.

If the attacks on the Left Front government here by the reactionary forces inside and outside succeed, it will only embolden them to engineer an all round attack against the Left and democratic movement all over India. Thus the proposed solidarity campaign is a campaign to protect the future of our movement not only in West Bengal but in the whole country. The working people need to continually keep in mind this important aspect of the struggle.

In its last general council meeting, the CITU had decided to observe a day in October 2009 to express solidarity with the toiling millions of West Bengal and expose before the people of India the vile nature of their war on the Left Front government. CITU state committees successfully carried out the action, with the workers and other people responding well to it.

The CITU conference urgently felt the need to continue the campaign because the conspiracy against the Left Front government has intensified and murderous attacks against the Left cadre increased as Ms Banerjee has become desperate to occupy the CM’s chair in Writers Building. With her one point programme against the Left Front, she is making all out attempts to align with any one who is prepared to support her unprincipled design and personal ambition. Her concept of mahajot is nothing but an opportunist alliance for her aggrandisement.

UNPRINCIPLED ALLIANCE

The CITU conference clearly noted that the Trinamul supremo had no coherent policy or principle, and has aligned with all types of parties. She had no compunction to allow BJP to grow in West Bengal and carry forward its communal agenda. She was/is happy as a minister in the NDA as well as UPA government. She once characterised the Congress as the CPI(M)’s B Team but subsequently forged an alliance with the same party. In Nandigram agitation she joined hands with all forces opposing the Left. She continued her agitation even after the Left Front government announced that the Nandigram chemical hub would not be developed if the people did not want it.

Her alliance with the so called Maoists is another example of her opportunist politics. She kept mum as the railway minister when they blew up rail tracks. She took no time to condemn the CPI (M) for the sabotage though it later transpired that it was the handiwork of her Maoist cohorts. She prefers to keep mum when arrested Maoist leaders admit that Trinamul supplied them arms and logistic support. From extreme left to extreme right, Trinamul supremo can make any force her ally provided it opposes the Left Front government. She shamelessly supported the divisive Darjeeling agitation for a separate Gorkhaland and had no qualm to encourage Kamatapuri agitation simply because it was against the Left Front government. She had never condemned the killing of the Left cadre whose number is swelling everyday. She, however, demanded withdrawal of the central security forces sent to West Bengal to deal with the Maoist depredations in parts of the state.

People saw her quixotic style of functioning when she expressed her desire to remove red colour from the Indian Railways network. Even her supporters ridiculed the idea.

As railway minister, Ms Banerjee’s performance is much below the mark. The largest number of rail accidents has occurred since she took charge of the ministry. Her attendance in the ministry is minimal; most of the time she is found in West Bengal, leading agitations against the Left Front government.

While Ms Banerjee approved the women’s reservation bill in the cabinet meeting, she opposed it in parliament, which has exposed her duplicity in the country. As a cabinet minister, she should have honoured the government’s decision to oppose the murderous Maoist politics, but she is openly supporting their depredations. That the UPA government tolerates her utter duplicity in policy matters, exposes its hollowness. Several railway officials privately talk against her handling of the ministry, but the Manmohan Singh government is allowing her maverick behaviour due to its own opportunism.

EXPOSING THE DANGEROUS GAME

The CITU’s solidarity campaign will explain to the people the dangerous game the Congress-Trinamul-SUCI-Maoist gang-up is playing against the Left Front government. The killing of the Left cadre only exposes their desperation to somehow or other topple the state government.

The Left Front campaign is continuing cautiously but effectively. With the alternative policy framework of the Left, it is in effect a struggle against an unprincipled opportunist alliance, the policies of globalisation and the imperialist penetration in India.

With the solidarity actions by the toiling masses all over India, the Left Front and all those supporting it will successfully foil the reactionary attempts to unseat the Left Front from the Writers Building at Kolkata. The CITU’s April 18-24 campaign will be a humble contribution to the heroic struggle of the West Bengal people to defend the glorious traditions of their state. The West Bengal state committee of the CITU is to publish a documented booklet to help all CITU unions in this nationwide campaign.

With no concrete policy to serve the people of West Bengal, the Trinamul and its allies cannot have a grip on the people’s psyche. Dissention within the party has cropped up due to Ms Banerjee’s authoritarian style of running the party apparatus. Many sections who supported Trinamul have now started speaking against her reckless moves. Despite the offer of two cabinet posts, she chose to take only one as no partyman can be equal to her. Demagogic speeches cannot heal the wounds this has created in the minds of the affected persons.

Several Congressmen have in private expressed opposition to the alliance with Trinamul due to the humiliation the Trinamul supremo imposed on the Congress. Many of them have not taken the murder of a Congress leader by Trinamul goons kindly. Nor are they appreciative of the Trinamul’s opposition to every development project in West Bengal. The opportunist alliance is on a shaky ground and the Left would expose its real character.

The Maoist collaborators of Trinamul Congress are misusing the name of great Mao Ze Dong who led the historic Chinese revolution. Mao never advocated individual killing of poor and innocent persons. He led millions of peasants in a revolutionary struggle against the domination of imperialists and their Chinese collaborators. He never asked his cadre to extort money from the people. But the forces working here in Mao’s sacred name are resorting to extortion and individual annihilation, helping the ruling classes against the Left forces in India who are fighting the UPA government’s anti-people, pro-US policies. The Maoists’ opportunist support to Trinamul Congress against the Left in West Bengal proves their ideological bankruptcy; it was also seen in their open support to Shibu Soren in the last elections. This “infantile disorder” only helps the ruling classes and hits at Lhe left and democratic movement which is fighting for the establishment of a socialist society in India.

MAOIST BANKRUPTCY

The CITU has decided to explain in its campaign the ideological bankruptcy of the Maoists and their unprincipled alliance with Trinamul Congress, thus helping the Indian and foreign reactionaries’ attacks on the Left and democratic movement here. It is necessary to expose how right reactionaries and left extremists are making a common cause against the genuine Left in the country.

One must note that some left extremists have already expressed their opposition to the policy of individual annihilation and the killing of persons from the poorest strata of society. One has to grasp the importance of a struggle against the erroneous and infantile ideology of the so called Maoists who are helping the Trinamul, though in the long run they are bound to fail.

The Maoist attacks on CITU activists are not confined to West Bengal. In the Kalta iron ore mine in Orissa, they kidnapped a CITU leader, Thomas Munda, on January 25, brutally murdered him, and threw his body five km away. To the contractors’ glee, Maoists are threatening the CITU members to leave the union in the Orissa iron ore mining belt.

In Chhattisgarh too, the Maoists murdered Shakti Dey in Bastar area on October 9, 2009. He was mercilessly killed in presence of his family members.

Killing of persons having no arms to defend themselves is a sign of cowardice. The self-proclaimed human rights activists do not say a word about the human rights of such unarmed persons who these armed thugs are brutally murdering!

The Left Front and its supporters in West Bengal are fighting a grim battle against heavy odds. The task of winning over the people who did not vote the Left Front in the last parliamentary polls, is no doubt a difficult task. But the cadre are determined to launch a powerful campaign to explain the pro-people policies of the Left Front and convince the people about their crucial role in keeping the Left Front government in saddle in West Bengal.

The CPI (M) has heroically faced semi-fascist terror in West Bengal during 1972-77 and lost over a thousand of its activists; several thousands of its cadre were evicted from their places of residence. But the people of West Bengal rallied behind the Left Front, brought it to the government and maintained that government for about 33 years. Since independence, no other party or combination has run a state’s administration for so long a time.

The CPI (M) has self-critically examined the reasons for the setback in the last parliamentary polls and decided to take corrective measures to improve the administrative apparatus to serve the people more effectively despite the limitations imposed by the present bourgeois system.

Undaunted by the heinous attacks by the Trinamul-Maoist combine, the West Bengal Left Front has carried out a powerful campaign to explain its pro-people policies and expose the nefarious reactionary machinations backed by imperialism. To these forces, the Left Front governments in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura are an impediment to the policies of globalisation dictated by the World Bank and IMF.

During the CITU conference, delegates wholeheartedly cheered when they heard about the SFI’s successes in Jadavpur University (West Bengal) and the CITU’s success in Farrakka NTPC elections. The Left Front is rightly confident that it would win over the people who went away from it during the last parliamentary elections and nip in the bud the Trinamul’s fond hopes of entering the Writers Building by hook or by crook. The glorious historical traditions of West Bengal are bound to inspire the people to rise to the occasion and defeat the conspiracies to unseat the Left Front in the coming period.

Source: People's Democracy dated 18-04-2010

Saturday, May 1, 2010

CHIDAMBARAM BERATES CM - HOME MINISTER'S VISIT: KOLKATA-LALGARH-KOLKATA - B Prasant

WORD is a powerful weapon. Misused, it is self deprecating and contrarian. Malused, it is self-destructive. When home minister Chidambaram, smiling, informed the media with the words, “I have told [the] chief minister that the buck stops with you,” he was transgressing limits of decency, factually misleading, and adding insult to injury, for, it is known to everybody concerned, with a modicum of knowledge of the Indian Constitution, that law-and-order is a state subject and that the state government is headed by the chief minister.

Rubbing and nonsensically, something in, in public, was never in good taste. Addressing the media in the afternoon of April 5, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee stated in his usual low-pitched mild tone, ‘mind your language, please.’ Buddhadeb went on to answer a barrage of questions from the media and narrated the facts of the situation concerning what the home minister said, what he did, and what he left with as an impression, as communicated to the media itself.

Buddhadeb started by reminding the home minister that he should mind his own business and look to the law-and-order situation in the country as a whole and consult with chief ministers as he considered necessary, rather than luxuriating in ‘stopping the buck’ kind of mind set, perhaps. Buddhadeb said that he had prevailed upon the home minister to make the opposition in Bengal realise the situation that had evolved. It was always difficult to maintain law-and-order without cooperation from the opposition, underlined the chief minister quite emphatically.

Buddhadeb noted that during the one-on-one meeting with Chidambaram, he has placed his observations and the union minister had placed his point(s) of view and, as the minister later was to say to the media at Lalgarh, ‘there was considerable difference of opinion cropping up with the chief minister in this.’

This was not unexpected, we hold, for the two functionaries represented two opposing streams of political synergy. Nonetheless, that should never have warranted the home minister indulging in a show of ‘strength’ and telling the media how he had told off the chief minister where the ‘buck stops,’ or not. What about what have been taking place in e.g., Andhra Pradesh, in Chhattisgarh, and in Jharkhand where hundreds of heavily armed police personnel and paramilitaries are done to death even as we file this report? Where does the ‘buck stops,’ then, home minister?

Elsewhere, and earlier in the day, central committee member of the CPI(M) Md Salim told the media at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan that Chidambaram should know that a cabinet colleague of his had been the consistent supporter of the ‘Maoists,’ and that she and her outfit had been raising violent slogans and that the goons in the pay and protection of her outfit had been on the rampage against the CPI(M) leaders and workers as well as Party supporters. Salim recalled that prior to Chidambaram’s visit to Lalgarh, the 'Maoists' and the Trinamulis had jointly organised a procession. Are there any words on that from the home minister?

VISIT TO LALGARH

The home minister then helicoptered off next day, a long convoy of police and para-military escorts preceding and following him on ground, to Lalgarh in Midnapore west. The journey was uneventful. A special helipad had to be built at Lalgarh for the bump-free landing of the home minister, at some considerable cost to the cash-strapped state government; well, one takes such VVIP visits in unfazed stride—and merely tightens one’s belt.

What did the home minister do there, once he arrived at Lalgarh? Well, he got out of the helicopter, he cuddled a few babies in the best style of US presidential candidates on the campaign trail, had one or two good words of greetings to say to the villagers, even as temperatures soared, and as the dust arose and the swirl of wind added to the great discomfiture of the people who had gathered around more out of curiosity than anything else, had a smile on his face even when he listened to the villagers talking grimly on the torture tactics, arson, mayhem, kangaroos courts, and killing by sharp weapons of CPI(M) leaders as well as workers, and then he told the rural masses ‘not to romanticise the ‘Maoists.’’ Has that been a fact, home minister?

Chidambaram, we have little doubt, had a political agenda to go through and in order to do that he had to go through also motions of concordance, sympathy, and display a penchant for orderliness in the law enforcement agencies, perhaps letting it slip that most of the joint forces operating in eastern India including Bengal belong to the central divisions of the paras. By coming to Bengal and Lalgarh, he certainly satisfied and reassured the depleting leadership and cadreship ranks of the Pradesh Congress.
We were interested to note that despite having called for a ‘boycott’ of the visitation, by the ‘Maoists,’ the latter made no efforts to cause any discomfort or mental agony to the home minister. Unlike Buddhadeb’s visit to Salboni last year, no mines were blown, no IED’s were exploded, no protest marches ordered. Is the message clear politically or what? However the people came out and they would not be deterred by the ‘Maoist’ call for boycott. They came out not to support the Congress leader but to berate him publicly about the ‘Maoists.’ Let the wounded ‘Kishanji,’ nursing his wounds, physical and psychological, in cowardly hiding, ponder over this -- if he dares do so.

In the meanwhile, the killing spree goes on, and the latest victim of the ‘Maoists’ has been SFI leader comrade Partha Biswas at Belpahari who was killed on the same day home minister had gone to Lalgarh.

Source: People’s Democracy dated 11-04-2010