ML Update 43 / 2013

ML Update

A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine

Vol.  16                          No. 43                                                                                                                            15 - 21 OCT 2013

Nobody Killed the 58 People
Who Died in Laxmanpur Bathe
on 1 December 1997

Predictably enough, the Patna High Court has acquitted all the 26 persons convicted by the trial court in the Laxmanpur-Bathe massacre case. This is the fourth successive instance of wholesale acquittal of convicts by the Patna High Court in cases of massacre of the oppressed rural poor in Bihar. Once again eye witness accounts have been dismissed as being not fully credible and convicts granted acquittal on 'benefit of doubt'. The judges could not however disprove the fact that 58 people had been killed and post-mortems done, and hence they asked the trial court to calculate the compensation payable to the nearest kin of the victims as per relevant provisions the Motor Vehicles Act on the basis of the minimum wage prevalent in the area at the time of the massacre. They of course did not forget to add that any ex gratia paid after the massacre should be deducted from the amount of compensation!

When the trial court verdicts had been announced in 2010, Nitish Kumar was quick to showcase them as the sure signs of justice for the oppressed poor who had experienced a series of massacres during the reign of Lalu Prasad. Never mind if he had disbanded the Amir Das commission to save the political patrons of the Ranvir Sena from being exposed and punished, at least the perpetrators were being brought to justice. And over a period of 18 months the script has been thoroughly reversed by the High Court. The myth of 'development with justice' stands brutally shattered.

The acquittals amount to nothing short of a judicial scam. How on earth can it be possible that the very evidence which the trial courts found sound enough to hand out convictions has become dubious and unreliable in the judicial lens used by the High Court? Are we to believe that trial courts in Bihar do not bother about the nature and quality of evidence? If that is so, then the judiciary has collapsed in Bihar and it is time to reinvent it. And let us not forget that the same High Court has never granted any benefit of doubt to the oppressed poor and their political representatives to annul their convictions, it is only those who have been found guilty of slaughtering the rural poor by the dozen who are being let off through the 'benefit of doubt' argument. While the perpetrators of Bathanitola and Bathe walk free, Bodhan Sada and a dozen other people belonging to the Mahadalit Musahar community languish in jail having been falsely implicated and convicted in the Amausi massacre case. 

The massacres perpetrated by the Ranveer Sena in Bihar were not isolated events, they were episodes of a bloody war that the Sena waged with complete impunity on the oppressed rural poor in Bihar to crush their fight for freedom, dignity and democracy. The Sena had openly and arrogantly declared that the communist movement had no right to exist in Bihar and that the people must not look beyond the feudal order. Yet the self-styled champions of 'social justice' or 'development with justice' always made common cause with the Sena. Despite the anti-BJP bravado of the RJD and JDU, the policy of appeasement of Ranveer Sena pursued by both Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar made sure that the BJP kept growing in Bihar. And if one ever needed a proof about the organic relationship between the Ranveer Sena and the RSS-BJP, one only needs to remember how BJP leader Giriraj Singh described the Sena supremo after his assassination: he called him the Gandhi of Bihar.

The judicial issues that have been thrown up by the Patna HC acquittals can only be resolved by the Supreme Court. President KR Narayanan had termed the Bathe massacre as a matter of national shame. What has happened now is even more shameful. There is a growing opinion that the apex court must constitute a Special Investigation Team under its own supervision and re-examine all the massacre cases in which the guilty have been let off. But the battle for justice for Bathanitola and Bathe is clearly much bigger than the question of righting a judicial wrong. It is about checking the feudal-communal marauders who have been strengthened by the politics of appeasement and impunity and now feel emboldened by such shameful judicial acquiescence. This is a battle that concerns not just the oppressed poor of Bihar but whoever cares about the future of India, a battle that we must win.

 

Protests Against Bathe Massacre Acquittal

At Patna, the CPI(ML) staged a protest march from the Gandhi Maidan to the Buddha Smriti Park on Thursday in protest against the acquittal of all the 26 people accused of massacring 58 dalits in Laxmanpur-Baathe village in 1997.

"An SIT should be set up by the Supreme Court to investigate the matter if justice has to be done to the carnage victims," said CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya who led the march, christened 'Aakrosh march', in the state capital.

Bhattacharya said President Pranab Mukherjee ought to meet the massacre victims during his visit to Bihar later this month. "We would move the apex court against the Patna high court verdict," Bhattacharya said.

Terming the chief minister Nitish Kumar's claims that his government was for 'development with justice' as a farce, Bhattacharya said Kumar would have to answer about his tall promises to deliver justice to the victims of massacres at Baathe and other places. Several members of the civil society, including N K Choudhary, Bharti S Kumar, Santosh Kumar and P N P Lal, also participated in the protest march.

As the protestors began the march demanding the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the carnage, traffic was disrupted at several places in the city. Protests were also held in district HQ towns. Protesters also disrupted traffic on the Patna-Aurangabad NH 98 and the Gaya-Patna road at Jehanabad on Thursday.

In Delhi, the CPI(ML) held a protest demonstration against the acquittal. The protesters gathered at Jantar Mantar, raising slogans against the 'massacre of justice' and the Nitish Kumar Government for its betrayal of the promise of justice for victims of the dalit massacres. Protesters burnt the effigy of Nitish Kumar and a copy of the Bihar HC verdict too.  

Addressing the protest demonstration, CPI(ML) State Secretary Sanjay Sharma asked, "On December 1, 1997, a feudal landlords' private army the Ranveer Sena massacred 58 Dalits, including 27 women and 10 children, in Laxmanpur Bathe in Arwal, Bihar. Does the HC want us to believe that 'noone killed these 58 people'? Does the HC hold that the dalit eyewitnesses can't be believed? Or do the lives of dalits have no judicial value?"

AISA's National President Sandeep Singh said that in repeated cases, the Bihar HC had overturned lower court convictions in the Bathani Tola, Nagari and Bathe massacre cases. In the Bathani case, the HC declared any true witnesses of the massacre could only be dead. But in the Bathe case, the court held that the eyewitnesses were genuine, yet chose to disbelieve their identification of the killers on the technicality that the actual names were added to the FIR a few days after the massacre. The HC, like in the Bathani case, has again held in the Bathe case that the IO and the prosecution have been biased and have weakened the case. But this bias can only be corrected by placing faith in the eyewitnesses who testified at risk to their lives. The HC has insulted the survivors by letting loose the killers – once again putting the eyewitnesses at risk.

Human rights activist Mahtab Alam deplored the Patna High Court verdict and said that struggle for justice must go on.

Aslam Khan, Vice President, Revolutionary Youth Association (RYA) said that Dalit landless poor who assserted themselves politically by supporting the CPI(ML) were massacred by Ranveer Sena in Laloo's Bihar, and now justice is being repeatedly massacred in Nitish's Bihar, exposing the cruel truth behind his claims of 'justice for mahadalits.'

AISA Delhi President Sunny Kumar said that the first thing that Nitish Kumar did on assuming power was to abandon the Amir Das Commission set up to probe the political links with the Ranveer Sena, because it was well known that BJP and JDU leaders formed the bulk of political support for the Sena, while some RJD and Congress leaders too were known to support the Sena.

JNUSU General Secretary Sandip Saurabh reminded that when Ranveer Sena chief Brahmeshwar was killed recently, the Ranveers unleashed violence on dalit hostel students in Ara - even as Nitish's police took a leaf from Modi's book and let them 'vent their rage'.

Santosh Roy, CPI(ML) State Committee member, said that Rahul Gandhi speaks of Dalits moving ahead powered by 'Jupiter's velocity' - but he's silent on the Bathe verdict. Meanwhile Congress, earlier partner of Laloo who presided over the massacres, now cosies up to Nitish Kumar, who presides over the massacre of justice! And on Independence Day this year, the Baddi dalit atrocity took place in Bihar, reminding everyone that Bathani and Bathe are not horrors of the past, but terrors of today in Nitish-ruled Bihar.

Many concerned citizens and AISA activists also demonstrated at Bihar Bhavan on the same day. 

 

On Cyclone Phailin and Its Aftermath

Cyclone Phailin has affected the homes, property, and livelihood of large numbers of people, while also taking some lives in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. The experience of the cyclone this time showed how relatively better preparedness can contain the loss of lives in natural calamities. However, there can be no room for complacency and the self-congratulatory tones of the State and Central Governments are insulting to those affected by the calamity. The Central Government and the Governments of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh need to ensure full compensation and rehabilitation to all affected persons, ensuring homes and means of survival at the earliest. Meanwhile, efforts need to be made on a war footing to prevent the spread of diseases and epidemics. CPI(ML) Odisha and Andhra Pradesh units are engaged in relief work, and the party calls upon its units all over the country to extend every possible assistance.

Meanwhile the cyclone has also left an impact on Bihar, where the possibility of floods in the Kosi river loom large. The CPI(ML) demands that the Bihar Government take timely measures to control the flooding and to protect and evacuate those in the danger zone.

 

On Temple Stampede  

CPI(ML) extends condolences to the over 100 families who have lost loved ones in the stampede in the temple in Madhya Pradesh. The fact that the stampede was sparked off by a police lathicharge, and that the police flung children into the river, is a shocking instance of high-handedness and cruelty. There seems to be no effort at all to learn from past tragedies, and stampedes in religious places seem to have become a regular feature in the country. The police and administrative personnel responsible for the tragedy must be identified and punished.      

 

For Fee Reimbursement for Dalit Students 

Tamilnadu's Jayalalitha Government is boasting that it has enacted GO92 for reimbursement of full education fees of dalit students studying in self financed educational institutions. But it has not been implemented anywhere in TN. As part of the ongoing struggles for implementation, a well attended public meeting by Dalit youths and students were held at Kandarvakottai, constituency of scheduled caste welfare minister on 5.10.2013. The meeting was presided over by Pudukottai district organiser of RYA, Com Govindaraj and the main speakers are Com Bharathi, National secretary of RYA, Com Seetha, state secretary of AISA, Com Rameshwar Prasad, state General secretary of AISA, Com Athiyaman on behalf of Democratic advocates association. District secretary of CPI(ML) Com Asaithambi and SCM Com Valathan also spoke.

Speakers came down heavily on the non-implementations of Jaya Governments own GO and asks SC welfare minister to function in the interest of SC welfare instead of an mouth piece of  the Government.

 

Party mass education camps on Working Class Movement

About 40 powerloom workers participated in a class organised at Pallipalayam of Namakkal district.on 05.10.2013.Com Govindaraj, SCM explained on the various aspects of the document and workers enthusiastically participated in the discussions.

At another camp held at Kumarapalayam, apart from powerloom workers, Loadmen working in civil supplies corporation from Tirupur also participated numbering a total of  55 workers. Com M.Govindaraj, SCM Com K.Govindaraj, state secretary of civil supplies corporation union explained on the aspects of the CPI(ML)'s resolution on working class movement adopted at the 9th Party Congress. Com N K Natarajan , SCM co-ordinated the discussion.

Despite framing of false cases on district committee members by police, Party initiatives on people's issues continues.

Irritated by the continuous initiatives of CPI(ML) on peoples issues exposing district administration and police, false cases were booked on Com Venkatesan, district secretary and SCM of party, Comrades Kaliamurthy, Suseela and Palani, all district committee members.

More than 300 people attended in the Demonstrations condemning police action at Ulundurpet which was addressed by Com Balasundaram, state secretary of CPI(ML), Com Chandramohan, SCM, Com Thenmozhi, state president of AIPWA among other district leaders.

An education camp On 6.10.2013 on working class movement resolution was addressed by Com Balasundaram, steate secretary of the party.

On October 7, District level cadres of AIPWA met under the leadership of  Com Thenmozhi and decided to convene district conference on November 7 th with a Rally.

Newly constructed over bridge at Ulundurpet in Vilupuram district has not been opened  for quite a long time and Party announced through Pamphlets distributed among people that It will be opened by Party. Alerted district administration invited party for talks.

 

500 activists join CPI (ML)Liberation in Odisha

ON 9th October, on the occasion of the 15th memorial day of Comrade Nagbhusan Patnaik, 500 Left cadres left CPI and joined CPI (ML)Liberation. At a large rally in Kakatpur block of Puri district, 500 CPI cadres including leaders like Comrades Akhaya Swain, Bipin Jena and Sanjeev Swain joined the party. The Rally was attended by Vinod Singh, CPI(ML) MLA in the Jharkhand assembly and CC member, Comrade Khitish Biswal, Secretary of the party in Odisha, Comrade Yudhisthar Mohapatra, CC member, Comrade Radhakant Sethi, state committee member and Comrade Ashok Pradhan, state committee member.

Speakers at the rally, while castigating the Naveen Patnaik Government's anti-poor, pro-corporate policies, were critical of the CPI's approach of sacrificing the interests of people's movements at the altar of seeking a few seats through alliance with the ruling BJD. 

 

Students Lathi-charged in UP Towns

A number of students in Ghazipur were brutally lathi-charged by the police on 9 November for demanding State University status to the Ghazipur PG College. Students are continuing a movement on this demand for many days. AISA leader in Ghazipur Alok Rohit and RYA leader Manoj Kumar were injured along with many other local student activists in this attack. UP unit of AISA has expressed solidarity with students' demand for the university status and has condemned the repression let loose by SP govt. whose much hyped electoral promises of providing employment and good education to the youth have already been proved hollow.

While in Allahabad, Akhilesh govt.'s betrayal with the promise of providing employment was seen in lathi-charge on TET pass candidates who demanded filling of vacancies in various government departments. UP AISA President Sudhanshu Bajpai said that state's boastful 'youth' CM will have to receive proper lessons from the youth in the state, whom he considers mere vote bank and continues to betray from promises while using repressive tactics on democratic and just movements.

 

Commemorating the Centenary of Ghadar movement

Despite showers and inclement weather, hundreds of people assembled and marched from Budge Budge Railway station towards the old Budge Budge station, where stands the memorial of the martyrs of  Komagatamaru on 29 September, 2013. 99 years ago, the British police fired and killed 20 and arrested 202 passengers when the ship Komagatamaru anchored near Ganges beside the old Budge Budge Railway station. The British Govt. termed this incident as Budge Budge riot, while it is better described as 'Jallian wallah bag of Bengal'. It is to be mentioned that in protest against the racial policies of the Dominion Govt. of Canada, Rabindra Nath Tagore refused the official invitation of Canada to visit that country.

The rally was organised under the banner, 'Committee for Commemorating the Centenary of the Ghadar Movement & Remembering the Martyrs of Komagatamaru', which comprised of eminent intellectuals (Nabarun Bhattacharya, an eminent poet is the co-convenor of this committee), educationists, journalists, political personalities, leaders of different mass organisations and a section of left forces. A similar committee was formed at Budge Budge level and people from different walks of life participated. Intensive campaign was organised in and around Budge Budge area, leaflets & pamplets carrying the real story of this bygone era and its contemporary significance were circulated in large numbers. As this was the first initiative of the citizens, under active support of CPI(ML), wide response and active support came from different sections, particularly among the Sikh community

The rally was led by Binayak Sen, Sabyasachi Deb(poet), Salil Biswas(educationist),Chandrasekhar(journalist),Kartick Pal and Partha Ghosh, PBMs, Kalyan Goswami, ccm, Nitish Roy(Ganasanskriti Parisad), Amit Dasgupta(co convenor).The rally was graced with the presence of two RONPAs(walking on two long wooden shaft fixed on both the legs),which became the centre of attraction. On reaching the memorial, garlands and flowers were offered by the personalities mentioned above and one minute silence was observed in the memory of the martyrs.

After this programme, a seminar was held at Budge Budge Girls High School and was inaugurated by an inspiring song from Agneebina, har nara lalkar banega (every slogan will be a ringing challenge). Sri Ganesh Ghosh, EX Chairman of Budge Budge Municipality initiated the discussion and narrated many unheard chapters of that ghastly carnage. He is the first person who meticulously gathered all the relevant documents & published a detailed historical account of this pogrom. Other speakers were Partha Ghosh, Binayak Sen, Sabyasachi Deb,Salil Biswas  and Chandrasekhar. A memoir was published on this occasion and a poster exhibition, depicting the incident of Komagatamaru in vivid details was an attraction. The seminar hall was overwhelmingly packed and inspiring speeches of the speakers roused the audience.   

It is worth mentioning that Govt. of India, at last, succumbed before the popular demand to rename the Budge Budge station. From 1st October 2013, it has been renamed as Komagatamaru Budge Budge station. After a protracted   battle,   recognition of this movement, albeit in this form has been won.

 

AIPWA State Conference in Tripura 

The second Tripura State Conference of All India Progressive Women's Association was held in Kailashahar, from 1-2 October. The town was well decorated with AIPWA flags, posters and festoons on the occasion. The conference started with a rally which was addressed by Pratima Engheepi, central observer for the conference. She stressed on rapid increase of atrocities on women and continuation of AFSPA in Tripura which is being ruled by a left party. The rally was also addressed by AIPWA Sate Secretary Pritikana.

The conference was attended by 92 delegates and 12 observers. CPIML State Secretary Partha Karmakar and CC member Mrinmoy Chakraborty addressed the conference. The conference elected Rehana Begam as State President and Pritikana Chakraborty as State Secretary with 21-member state committee. The Conference concluded with the adoption of resolution which addressed various issues concerning women.

Edited, published and printed by S. Bhattacharya for CPI(ML) Liberation from U-90, Shakarpur, Delhi-92; printed at Bol Publication,
R-18/2, Ramesh Park, Laxmi Nagar, Delhi-92; Phone:22521067; fax: 22442790, e-mail: mlupdate@cpiml.org, website: www.cpiml.org

ML Update 42 / 2013

ML Update

A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine

Vol. 16, No. 42, 08 – 14 OCTOBER 2013

India Must Reject the Manmohan Legacy of

Shameful Subservience to US Interests

Ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Manmohan Singh had clinched the Indo-US nuclear deal with George Bush in 2008. Five years later, as India awaits the general elections of 2014, Singh was back in America to open up India's national exchequer to American companies in mega defence and nuclear purchase agreements. The joint statement issued after the third Obama-Manmohan meeting (ignoring the occasions when the two have met on the sidelines of multilateral summits) talks of enhanced defence, economic and of course foreign policy cooperation between the two countries.

The Obama-Manmohan summit produced a separate Joint Declaration on Defence Cooperation expanding on the 2005 Framework Agreement, with the US promising to treat India as one of its 'closest partners' in matters of defence technology transfer, trade, research, co-development and co-production of defence articles and services, including the most advanced and sophisticated technology. India has agreed to participate in the 2014 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval exercise in Hawaii, the world's largest multilateral maritime exercise to be hosted by the US Pacific Command, signalling a new readiness to integrate India more closely fully with America's strategic goals and operations. Ten years ago, Indo-US defence trade was worth just $100 million which has since risen to $10 billion, and the US is obviously looking gleefully at India's burgeoning defence budget.

Manmohan Singh's 'short working visit' also finalised initial agreements for India to purchase exorbitantly expensive and technologically untested nuclear reactors from the US. Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited is setting up nuclear reactors in Mithi Virdi of Gujarat and Kovvada of Andhra Pradesh in collaboration with US companies Westinghouse and General Electric-Hitachi respectively. While Manmohan Singh avoided committing to any formal and explicit dilution of the liability clause for nuclear suppliers, he had already reassured the latter that their 'profits will tell the true story'. In other words India is already 'compensating' American companies for their possible 'liability burden' by agreeing to pay much higher prices. According to an estimate, the tariff of power generated by these plants would be as high as Rs 15 per unit, which is more than double the price at which the Russian reactors at Kudankulam are expected to produce electricity.

While the Manmohan-Obama joint statement described Indo-US ties as a defining partnership for 21st Century, the degree of Indian subordination to American strategic control is becoming increasingly obvious. A glaring case in point is India's shameful silence on the issue of American surveillance on India's domestic politics and strategic and commercial interests and even on Indian diplomatic posts in America. Following Edward Snowden's sensational revelations, it is now well known that the PRISM programme of the US National Security Agency taps live communication as well as stored information related to India's geopolitical and economic interests including nuclear and space research programmes. US calls India a valued and key ally, but subjects India to intrusive surveillance and Manmohan Singh just did not have the courage to raise this crucial issue during his meeting with Barack Obama.

India's growing economic and strategic subservience to US imperialism has only deepened the country's economic and political crisis. As Finance Minister in 1991, Manmohan Singh had begun the opening up of the Indian economy for foreign and Indian corporate interests, and as Prime Minister since 2004, he has subordinated India's foreign policy to the strategic goals and priorities of US imperialism. His latest trip to Washington may well have been his last tribute as PM to his American bosses, it is now up to the Indian people to end this shameful legacy and roll back the entire gamut of pro-corporate pro-US policies pursued by UPA and NDA governments.

Assam: Residence of Congress MLA Raju Sahu Surrounded

In continuation of protest programmes demanding arrest and exemplary punishment to the murderers of Comrade Gangaram Kol, CPI(ML) and its mass organizations surrounded the residence of Congress MLA Raju Sahu, an accused in the murder, on 15th September, 2013. Nearly a thousand people across Tinsukia district, gathered in Durgabari Hall at around 12 noon and started a militant procession towards Raju Sahu's house. On the way police tried to prevent the protesters by erecting barricade, but the militant protesters marched ahead by breaking police cordon. Finally protesters staged a dharna just 100 meters away from Raju Sahu's residence. In the clash with police Comrade Subhas Sen, Arup Mahanta and Jiten Tanti were slightly injured.

A protest meeting was also held there and different leaders including Party's District Secretary Subhas Sen, Secretary of Gramin Sramik Santha leader Arup Kr. Mahanta, Asom Chah Sramik Sangha's General Secretary Jiten Tanti, wife of Comrade Gangaram Kol Sakhila Munda, Rajen Bhumij, and AICCTU district leader Brajen Konwar addressed the militant protest. They reiterated the demand for immediate arrest of perpetrators of the murder including Raju Sahu. Protesters also burnt the effigy of Raju Sahu.

At last Circle Officer of Tinsukia Circle met the protesters and received a memorandum addressed to the Governor of Assam. The circle officer had to listen to the angry protesters. He had to admit the failure of the police-administration in nabbing the culprits and assured the people to clarify the causes of failure within a period of 15 days. Protesters returned to Durgabari Hall and held a meeting there.

AICCTU's 6th UP State Conference Held

All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) successfully held its 6th Uttar Pradesh State Conference on 14-15 September 2013 at Nirala Auditorium in Allahabad. AICCTU's National Councillor and veteran working class leader Comrade Anantram Vajpayee hoisted the red flag after which a two-minutes silence in the memory of martyrs was observed.

The open session of the Conference was inaugurated by CPI(ML) State Secretary Comrade Sudhakar Yadav who said in his inaugural speech that the Conference being held in the backdrop of a climate of communal violence and attacks on the workers by corporates and mafias is a challenging thing to do when you have to strengthen the fight of workers and employees and solidly stand with them in their struggles. This has been the case in the struggles right from Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Pilibhit, Allahabad and up to Deoria.

It is well known that the mining mafia has been calling the various shots in the Akhilesh Yadav Govt. There has been various attacks on pro-people leaders including a murderous attempt on CPI(ML) leader Comrade Ramesh Singh Sengar. The AIALA State Secretary addressing the open session said that the workers and employees will not be intimidated by such heinous attempts, rather they will organise themselves with their traditional arms and resist and repel every attack.

Leaders of several central trade unions also addressed the open session. AITUC leaders Comrades Ramsagar and Naseem, Comrade Harish Chandra Dwivedi of CITU, RC Bahadur of HMS, RC Kaithal from LIC. Others who spoke are National Vice President of AICCTU Comrade Premlata Pandey, AICCTU State President Comrade Hari Singh, AICCTU National Secretary Comrade Rajiv Dmiri, Jasam General Secretary Comrade Pranay Krishna, Comrade KK Pandey of Jasam and Comrade Raghunandan of AISA among others.

The Conference had 72 delegates and 24 observers from various districts of UP. A 42-member State Council and 19-member State Executive Committee was formed with Comrade Hari Singh as State President and Comrade Anil Verma as State Secretary of AICCTU.

Mathura Party Committee Warns the State Govt

Against Forces Trying to Foment Communal Tensions in Mathura

CPI(ML) district unit of Mathura in western Uttar Pradesh has cautioned and warned the State Govt and District Administration against attempts being made to foment communal tensions similar to Muzzafarnagar by communal forces in the district. Comrade Nazir Shah, District Convenor of CPI(ML) wrote to the Governor and District Administration citing recent incidents in Kosi block of Mathura where due to failure of district administration to respond on time had led to communal riots.

The Sri Krishna Janma Bhumi and Shahi Masjid are adjacent to each other and communal forces are trying to create tensions emboldened by the Muzzafarnagar designs. It is well known that Narendra Modi's aide Amit Shah is campaign incharge for Uttar Pradesh and the fascist forces are willing to plunge the State to any depth in their game-plan 2014. The memorandum has demanded immediate action to identify the communal and anti-social elements and their arrest to maintain communal harmony in the district. A CPI(ML) delegation met the DM of Mathura and handed over the memorandum asking him to send it to the Governor.

Rallies and Demos on the National Call of Central Trade Unions

On the call of Central Trade Unions for rallies and demonstration on 25th September 2013, AICCTU and its affiliated organisations participated vigorously along with workers affiliated to various CTUs in joint demonstrations on the 10-point charter of demands: (1) minimum wage of unorganized sector worker to be Rs.10,000 per month, (2) concrete steps to curb price rise, (3) all workers to be covered under social security, (4) pension for all workers and employees, (5) equal pay for equal work, contractual worker same pay as permanent worker and women worker to be paid same wage as male worker for same work, (6) concrete action for employment generation, (7) trade unions to be registered within 45 days, etc.

Jharkhand: Ranchi

A rally was taken out from Ranchi Railway Station that passed through important landmarks of the city, through main roads and reached Rajbhavan. Thousands of workers affiliated to AICCTU, CITU, AITUC, BMS, AITUC, HMS etc. participated in the march to Rajbhavan. AICCTU's Ranchi Town Committee also took out a Mazdoor-Adhikar Rally from Jaipal Singh Stadium separately comprising 500 building workers. The workers raised resounding slogans like "Better Wages-Regular Work, We Will Fight for Social Security and Dignity" throughout the distance of the rally.

The workers' rights assembly at the Jharkhand Rajbhavan was addressed by AICCTU's State Secretary Comrade Subhendu Sen among others who said that the economic policies of the UPA Govt and previously of the BJP-led NDA Govt has been dangerous for the country and is responsible for the price rise, unemployment, retrenchment and assaults on workers' rights. He called upon the workers to intervene strongly in the political order to thwart the destructive economic policies of the two hobnobbing political parties Congress and the BJP. Comrades DS Diwakar (AICCTU State President), Geeta Mandal, Sushila Tigga, Francis Minz, Munna Uraon, Ishwari Rana, Meena Lakda, Roslyn Lakda, Indu Devi, Guni Uraon led the rally from AICCTU. Bhuvaneshwar Kewat of AICCTU also addressed the meeting.

A five-member delegation on behalf of the participating CTUs met the Governor and gave him a memorandum of demands including the demand to immediately release labour leader Ramendra Kumar who has been framed under false charges.

Construction workers participated in huge numbers and despite rain the workers did not budge. The Jharkhand Construction Workers' Union affiliated to AICCTU had a prior plan to encircle the Labour Commissioner's Office against the attacks on labour rights and hence the mobilisation was thick.

Puducherry: A massive joint demonstration took place on 25th September 2013 at Puducherry by Central Trade Unions comprising AICCTU, AITUC, INTUC, CITU, LPF, BMS, NFTE, BSNLEU, AIIEA, AIBEA and Confederation of State Govt. The joint demonstration was presided by VS Abizhegam, State Secretary of AITUC. Leaders from AICCTU, AITUC, INTUC, CITU, LPF, BMS, NFTE, BSNLEU, AIIEA, AIBEA and Confederation of State Govt. employees Unions addressed the demonstrators. AICCTU contingent was led by Comrade S Mothilal, State Secretary. P Sankaran, State Vice President spoke among the demonstrators on behalf of AICCTU. Workers of All Central Trade Union organizations took part in the demonstration in large numbers.

Developments in Tripura

In East Tripura Parliamentary constituency in Unakoti District in Kumarghat Subdivision political work has been started recently. In North Tripura District a new area under Damcherra Block is also linked up with party work. Another recent development is in Dharmanagar North, among scheduled tribes and the religious minorities.  The second Tripura State Conference of All India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA) was held on October 1st & 2nd. They completed their membership before the conference. All the party comrades devoted all their time for the AIPWA conference. The target taken by the committee in respect of branch committee formation will be within November.

From the Circular of the Politburo:

Threat of US Military Aggression on Syria:

PB expresses satisfaction over the fact that the pressure of international public opinion has succeeded in averting the threat of an immediate US-led war on Syria. The defeat of the pro-war motion in British parliament, the retreat of the Obama Administration from seeking Congressional authorisation, and the eventual agreement between Washington and Moscow over Syria mark a major blow to the American drive for unilateral global hegemony. It is significant that the same Obama Administration which had unilaterally and arrogantly cancelled the Obama-Putin summit in the wake of the Snowden episode had to eat a humble pie and return to the negotiating table with Russia and accept the UN Security Council as the appropriate platform to decide on intervention in and resolution of any international dispute. PB of course cautions against any kind of complacency and calls for sustained vigilance against the US-led war campaign.

Muzaffarnagar Riot and the BJP's Campaign of Communal Frenzy:

The violence in Muzaffarnagar which was allowed to escalate in spite of curfew has rekindled memories of Gujarat across the country. While fighting for peace, harmony and rehabilitation, we must lay the greatest of emphases on bringing the guilty to justice and exposing and resisting the BJP's campaign of communal frenzy and politics of communal polarisation. We should also organise the people against the Indian state's pathological weakness in dealing with rabid communal forces and the politics of appeasement of communal forces and competitive communalism pursued by the Congress and many so-called 'secular' parties. The most glaring example of this politics is the dumping of the Bill to prevent communal violence even as the Congress secured the BJP's support to pass anti-people measures like land acquisition bill or the bill to allow FDI in pension fund. Our campaign against communalism is not limited to defence of secularism, it challenges all kinds of deprivation, discrimination and witch-hunt that minority communities are subjected to and thus integrates the question of secularism with the battle for democracy.

Withdrawal of the Ordinance to Protect Convicted MPs/MLAs

and the Verdict on Fodder Scam:

PB welcomes the withdrawal of the obnoxious ordinance brought by the UPA to protect convicted lawmakers from the threat of disqualification as mandated by the Supreme Court. This is a victory of the powerful anti-corruption public opinion and struggle of the people even though the Congress tried to make political capital of this compulsion by first letting Rahul Gandhi rubbish the ordinance before withdrawing it. Following the Supreme Court verdict three sitting MPs - Lalu Prasad of RJD, Jagdish Sharma of JDU and Rasheed Masood of Congress are slated to lose their membership. The fodder scam story is a great political leveller which exposes leaders of Congress and BJP, and RJD and JD(U) to be members of the same corrupt club. We have raised the issue as to why leaders like Nitish Kumar, Shivanand Tiwari and Lallan Singh who all are named as recipients of fodder scam money in the testimonies of senior officials of animal husbandry department spared by the CBI. The BJP which is now targeting Nitish Kumar on this score is clearly guilty protecting him to save the NDA rule at the Centre and later in Bihar.

The BJP and the Congress – the two parties responsible for major scams and the pro-corporate policies that have strengthened the corporate-politician nexus and facilitated unbridled corporate plunder – are shamelessly trying to utilise the latest developments to their political advantage. We must counter this conspiracy and use the present juncture to further expose and challenge the complicity and collusion of major ruling class parties and the pro-corporate policies responsible for the recent spurt in scams.

Repression on the Autonomous State Movement in Karbi Anglong:

The Congress government of Assam has virtually imposed an undeclared state of Emergency in Karbi Anglong, suspending all democratic activities and unleashing severe repression to silence the renewed popular demand for implementation of Article 244A. A student activist was killed, CPI(ML) office was raided and more than a dozen leaders and cadres of our Party, including Comrade Rabi Phangcho, CCM and Secretary of HillParty Committee, were arrested and even tortured. The administration has since gone on to slap any number of false cases on our comrades to deny them bail and detain them for as long as possible. While resisting this repression and fighting for the release of our comrades we must build on the new momentum generated in the movement and the renewed credibility of CPI(ML) established through the courage and determination with which our comrades have borne the brunt of state repression in this phase.

Unrest in Seemandhra over Telangana:

The UPA government's opportunist piecemeal approach and dilatory tactics in dealing with various statehood demands, especially on the issue of Telangana, has created massive unrest in the country. PB condemns this approach and the use of repressive measures in dealing with popular agitations on statehood issues. The demands should have been referred to a second States Reorganisation Commission for a well-considered, comprehensive and time-bound decision over statehood demands. If Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh could be formed without much friction, there is no reason why the issues of Telangana, Gorkhaland or a Hill State/Autonomous State in Assam cannot be solved in an amicable manner. We must insist on an early settlement of pending statehood demands without fomenting sectarian division and violence along linguistic/regional lines.

AISA's 7th UP State Conference

All India Students' Association (AISA) held its 7th Uttar Pradesh State Conference on 28th September, Bhagat Singh's birth anniversary, at Lucknow University campus. AISA leaders said that the State Chief Minister doesn't let go a chance to launch attack on students, youths and intellectuals while he is more than at ease to give free reins to communal hate mongers and rioters as in Muzzafarnagar incidents. Higher education is breathing its last in the State and the State Govt is making every sort of mockery of education and demand for employment. The open session was organised at the Shaheed Square of the Lucknow University where hundreds of students listened to the AISA leaders.

The Conference elected 19-member executive committee with Sudhanshu Vajpayee as State President and Sunil Maurya as State Secretary.

RYA Rally and Public meeting in TN

After campaigning on various demands of the youth in Sriperumputhur, which is an automobile manufacturing hub in Tamilnadu, RYA organised a rally and public meeting remembering the icon of revolutionary youth Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh on his 106th birth anniversary. Demands include enactment of an act to recognise trade union represented by majority workers, unemployment allowance of Rs.5000 per month, equal wages for equal work (applicable for both women workers and contract labourers doing the same kind of work as permanent workers), Presidential ascent for LA Bill 47 passed in Tamilnadu legislature with respect to trainees, abolition of contract labour system and right to employment.

More than 300 young workers, both permanent and contract from Asian Paints, Hyundai, Fenner, C&S, C&H, Teneco and TI Diamond chain took part. The programme was conducted by Comrade Rajaguru, Kanjipuram District President of RYA. It was addressed by Comrade Bharathi, National Vice President of RYA, Comrade Seetha of AISA and Comrade Iraniappan, State Committee member of CPI(ML).

Reports from Chhattisgarh

The Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha held a rally on 28th September, Comrade Shankar Guha Niyogi's martyrdom day and incidentally also Bhagat Singh's birth anniversary, in Raipur. The rally reached Gandhi Maidan and culminated into a public meeting. About one and half thousand workers from Durg, Raipur, Bilaspur, Rajnandgaon and Kardha participated.

A workers convention was held on 29th September by Centre of Steel Workers (affiliated to AICCTU). Comrade Subhendu Sen was the chief guest and a 41-member executive committee was elected.

 

Edited, published and printed by S. Bhattacharya for CPI(ML) Liberation from U-90, Shakarpur, Delhi-92; printed at Bol Publication, R-18/2, Ramesh Park, Laxmi Nagar, Delhi-92; Phone:22521067; fax: 22442790, e-mail: mlupdate@cpiml.org, website: www.cpiml.org

 

Fwd: ML Update 41/ 2013

ML Update

A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine

Vol. 16, No. 41, 01 – 07 OCTOBER 2013

The Fodder Scam Verdict: Lessons and Challenges

The conviction of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Jagannath Mishra and Jagdish Sharma in the Rs 950-crore fodder scam by a special CBI court in Ranchi is now likely to result in the first case of disqualification in the wake of the Supreme Court's July 10 verdict that calls for automatic and immediate post-conviction disqualification of any member of state legislature or Parliament. The government had in fact brought an ordinance to counter the Supreme Court judgement and abort the threat of such disqualification. However much Rahul Gandhi may now dismiss the ordinance as 'complete nonsense' and the BJP may oppose and ridicule it in public, the fact remains that the ordinance was mulled by none other than Rahul's own government and endorsed by all parties including the BJP!

The scam-ridden Indian polity will surely now try to use the fodder scam example to seek some legitimacy and paper over the current crop of 21st century scams that are immensely bigger than the Bofors scam of the 1980s or the fodder scam of the 1990s. This is where the people of India will have to intervene and insist on matching punishment for the architects and managers of scams like the 2G and coalgate ones which have caused far bigger loss to the national exchequer. If Jagannath Mishra and Lalu Prasad are held responsible for having presided over the fodder scam, there is no way Manmohan Singh can escape his culpability for the mega scams that have become the trademarks of his government.

While Lalu Prasad and his party RJD are most centrally identified with the fodder scam, a closer look at the anatomy and trajectory of the scam reveals a whole range of accomplices cutting across social and political divisions. The BJP and many anti-Mandal ideologues would like us to believe that politics was 'cleaner' in the pre-Mandal days of elitist and upper-caste domination in politics and that the proliferation of scams is a post-Mandal phenomenon with SC/ST/OBC leaders and ministers showing a greater proclivity for corruption. The fodder scam clearly refutes this notion and exposes how the baton of corrupt governance actually passed hands from the days of Jagannath Mishra to the era of Lalu Prasad.

If corruption has acquired alarming proportions in the last two decades, it is clearly a fall-out of the neoliberal policy package of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, and the closer nexus between corporate houses, ministers and top bureaucrats that characterises governance in this neoliberal era.

The fodder scam narrative is also a great political leveller where leaders of RJD and JD(U) and Congress and BJP are all exposed as members of the same corrupt club. The CBI of course will have to explain why it spared leaders like Nitish Kumar, Shivanand Tiwari and Lallan Singh who all are mentioned as recipients of fodder scam cash in the testimonies of senior officials of the animal husbandry department. Is it because during the crucial early years of the CBI probe the NDA was in power with Advani as the Union Home Minister and all these leaders were in the same coalition? And incidentally, by the time we got the current verdict Nitish Kumar has switched over from his protracted alliance with the BJP to growing political bonhomie with the Congress!

It remains to be seen how the RJD faces the current blow. In the late 1990s when Lalu Prasad had to go to jail, he chose Rabri Devi as his successor. Today he has no chief ministership to protect, what is at stake is the party presidency. When the RJD was in power the party had fallen in line and accepted the family-centric succession. Today the RJD is in a much weaker shape – Lalu Prasad himself has been reduced to a faded shadow of his former self and his politics of survival with the blessing of the Congress in Delhi and the feudal forces in Bihar has reached a dead end. It therefore remains to be seen how the socio-political constellation that passes in the name of the party called RJD responds to the present juncture, especially if Lalu Prasad once again falls back on the family line.

Rabri Devi has reportedly compared the present juncture of the RJD to the Congress being run by Sonia and her son. But if the culture of dynastic succession is no longer able to arrest the decline of the Congress, the RJD should obviously think again!

To conclude, the law catching up with a few corruption cases is of course a welcome development, not because it will automatically serve as a deterrent but because it will serve as an inspiration for the ongoing people's struggle against corruption, corporate plunder and the corporate-politician nexus that increasingly characterises contemporary bourgeois politics and governance. But nobody will miss the contrast that while a few leaders are being convicted in an old corruption case, those convicted in cases of massacres of Bihar's rural poor are being acquitted by the dozen and the masterminds of communal carnages and fake encounters are bidding for power at the Centre and whipping up communal frenzy with impunity. And to buy the BJP's support for pro-corporate pro-FDI legislations, the Congress simply dumped the Bill against Communal Violence.

The fodder scam verdict should therefore galvanise the people in a more vigorous and determined campaign not only against corrupt politicians and bureaucrats but also against the perpetrators and masterminds of communal and caste violence. The law must deal equally sternly with the looters of national exchequer and enemies of the rights of minority communities, oppressed castes and women.

Withdraw the UPA Ordinance to Protect Criminals

It was the Congress-led UPA government that brought in the latest ordinance which sought to negate a Supreme Court order summarily disqualifying MPs and MLAs convicted for serious crimes. The ordinance cleared by the UPA Cabinet and endorsed by an all-party meeting needs to be viewed in the context of the shameful credentials of our elected representatives.

The deadly combination of money power and muscle power has led to a veritable explosion of criminality in the Parliament and State Assemblies. According to their own affidavits, about 58% of our 543 elected members of Parliament are crorepatis. Nearly 30% of them – 162 to be precise – have a total of more than 400 criminal charges pending against them. About 14% or 76 MPs have serious pending criminal charges against them. In the elections to the Lok Sabha and various State Assemblies since 2008, of the 4807 elected members (MPs and MLAs) 1460 (30%) have declared criminal cases against them, while 688 (14%) have declared serious criminal cases.

But only 24 of them, i.e., only 0.5%, have declared in their affidavits that they have been convicted at some point in a court of law. In addition to the general problem of very slow court proceedings, what is responsible for this extremely low rate of conviction is obviously the political clout these powerful people enjoy. So the need of the hour is not only to disqualify convicted MPs and MLAs but also to debar people, against whom charges have been framed in serious criminal cases, especially related to communal, caste and gender violence, from contesting elections till their names are cleared. This is what the election commission also recommended, and so did the Justice Verma Committee with regard to rapists.

The CPI(ML) denounces the content of the proposed ordinance and demands its immediate withdrawal. It also warns the government against any further attempt to lend a hand to criminals in the fray and in Legislatures.

On the "Right to Reject"

The recent Supreme Court order granting voters the right to record a "none-of-the-above" (NOTA) option in the voting machine itself, i.e., to reject all candidates in the fray and make the voter's rejection counted, is a small step in the right direction. That a NOTA vote should enjoy the same sanctity as a vote in favour of a particular candidate has indeed been a long-standing democratic demand.

It is clear that even with a substantial number of such votes there will still be winners in our first-past-the-post system. But if in any given constituency NOTA votes exceed the number of votes secured by the winning candidate, should not a repoll be ordered? And should not voters also have the option of recalling non-performing legislators who betray the trust of the electors? Indeed, the right to reject must go together with the right to recall.

Such issues – and there are many of them – should be widely discussed and debated within Parliament and without. On that basis we must move forward with a comprehensive electoral reform that puts in place a system of proportional representation, debars parties from luring voters with freebies and false promises, ensures genuinely fair elections that are free from the macabre dance of money and muscle power and communal machinations and guarantees transparency in the funding of political parties. Only as part of such thoroughgoing reform can the recently announced partial correctives become truly meaningful.

All India Kisan Mahasabha Holds Dharna at Parliament St

AIKM held a protest dharna at Parliament Street in the National Capital on 30 September to highlight various demands of peasants, particularly protection of farmers' lands and addressing agrarian crisis. It demanded withdrawal of anti-peasant policies and to enact a land protection legislation, replacing recently passed land acquisition act. A memorandum was sent to the Prime Minister through this dharna.

The AIKM also demanded to intensify relief operations in devastated areas of Uttarakhand and to rehabilitate around 1000 villages to safe places in that state, to stop efforts for eviction of the rehabilitated farmers of Bhakhra-Nangal Dam from Gujarat and Haryana where they were resettled years ago; to resettle all displaced farmers from various projects including DVC and to guarantee their livelihoods; to give proper compensation, employment and rehabilitation for the affected farmers in Bareilly; to stop privatisation of electricity and water, to increase public funding in agriculture, increase subsidy in diesel, fertilizers and agricultural appliances; and relief to drought and flood affected farmers all over the country.

The land acquisition act passed by the last session of Parliament actually talks about compensation, rehabilitation, resettlement and transparency, but amidst jugglery of words this paves the way for the land grab already going on, on a massive scale in the country. First of all it is silent on the private acquisitioning of lands by corporates with the help of local middlemen by hook or crook. Then, the public purpose is defined in such a way that ongoing corporate land grab can be justified as public cause. In the name of 'consent' it only says that private and PPP acquisitions have to be decided after 70 and 80 percent consent; while governmental acquisitions will not require such binding. Moreover, social or environmental impact assessments and recommendations of expert groups will not be mandatory for the government to comply. And to top it all, provision of 'urgency' will overrule all the clauses.

The new legislation talks about 'food security', but instead of taking any concrete steps lands being snatched away in the name of 'corridors' and 'expressways' will continue and without specifying any limit the 'public purpose' remains with the decision and discretion of concerned state governments and district administrations. This is utter hypocrisy that same parliament session that passed the Land Acquisition Act has also passed the Bill on Food Security. But to ensure whatever has been promised the country will need to increase food production and increase effective area under cultivation. Yet the state is paving the way for the steady decline for availability of agricultural lands. It is clear that in the name of increasing yield, the government wants to force the farmers towards dubious and dangerous GM crops and growing corporatisation of agriculture in India.

Rajaram Singh, General Secretary of AIKM said that UPA-II's economic liberalisation has intensified attacks on livelihood and democratic rights of peasants-workers and students-youth. The acquisition of land and natural resources on a massive scale and continuing agrarian crisis has rendered peasants into paupers forcing them towards suicide. This is happening at a time when country is facing severe economic and monetary crisis.

AIKM leaders Prem Singh Gehlawat from Haryana, Purushottam Sharma and Indresh Maikhury from Uttarakhand, Afroz Alam from UP, Gurmeet Singh from Punjab and RYA's Aslam Khan also addressed the dharna.

Convention against Politics of Communalism and Minority Witch-hunt

A convention against politics of communalism and minority witch-hunt was held in New Delhi on 25 September. This was addressed by CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, many relatives of victims of minority witch-hunt, senior journalist Syed Muhammad Kazmi, Akhlaq from the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), CPI(ML) CC member Mohd. Salim, and representatives of the JNU Students' Union.

Comrade Dipankar said that at a time when Muslims are being framed in the name of fighting terror, when we are seeing a witch-hunt of people's movements in the name of fighting Maoism, there has to be a concerted struggle against the US scripted neo-liberal policies, against communal witch-hunting and orchestrated communal violence, and against the pro-corporate policies that both the UPA and NDA are deeply committed to. He also mentioned that in Bihar, where Narendra Modi's 'Hunkar' rally has been announced by the BJP with much fanfare, CPI(ML) and the poor and deprived sections of the state would be organising a 'Khabardar' rally in defence of democracy and secularism.

Addressing the convention, CPI(ML) Central Committee member Mohd. Salim talked of the US's carefully scripted global campaign of Islamophobia which is playing itself out in India in the form of framed cases, custodial torture and killings, and fake encounters that have become common phenomena in many states. In the few landmark cases where court proceedings have exonerated the falsely accused youth, there has been no acknowledgement of wrongdoing on part of the police and anti-terror squads, no apology, and no compensation or rehabilitation for those who suffered jail and torture on the strength of baseless charges. "With the Congress, SP, and UPA desperate to obediently follow the US path of Islamophobia, such cases have increased alarmingly," he added.

Akhlaq from the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) talked of the roots of communalism in India, of the policies to divide and rule and the manner in which minorities are being denied their basic rights. "Our fight is not only to free innocent Muslims who have been framed, tortured and thrown in jails. Our fight is also to ensure that those really responsible for the bomb blasts and terror attacks, those who receive training for terror attacks even in military schools, are actually prosecuted," he said. Niaz Ahmed from Darbhanga talked of how the innocents in Samastipur and Darbhanga are being framed, "So-called secular forces such as JD(U) and Congress remain silent and never ensure justice for victims of communalism and witch-hunt." Anwar from Kunda in Pratapgarh and Sher Ali from Rampur shared their experiences of how their relatives were falsely framed. JNUSU Joint Secretary Sarfaraz Hamid and Vice President Anubhuti who had been part of fact-finding teams to Malegaon and Muzaffarnagar respectively addressed the convention and spoke of how innocent Muslims were framed in Malegaon and jailed for years together and how the Muzaffarnagar riots were cynically orchestrated.

Journalist Ajoy Ashirwad, who has reported extensively on the Muzaffarnagar violence pointed out the use of patriarchal protection in orchestrating communal violence: "in Mangalore (Karnataka), in Gujarat, and now in Muzaffarnagar, we have seen how false stories of Muslims trapping Hindu women, of the alleged 'love jihaad' are an integral part of the communal programme". He also talked of the demographic transformation of villages in the wake of communal violence, where there are deliberate attempts to destroy the homes and livelihoods of Muslims, to destroy mosques and spread hatred. Noted journalist Syed Mohammad Kazmi, who is himself battling a protracted legal struggle after being falsely framed in a terror case, said "after the communal violence during partition, during the razing of the Babri Masjid on 6th December, communal fascist forces are now trying to ride to power by literally walking over the dead bodies of Muslims". At the end of the convention, several resolutions against minority witch-hunting, orchestrated communal violence, and demanding justice for victims of communal violence were passed.

Aslam Khan from the Revolutionary Youth Association (RYA) pointed out that the convention was being held in the backdrop of a deliberate communal offensive spearheaded by the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, and unfortunately condoned by various governments of all hues.

RESOLUTIONS PASSED AT CONVENTION

That the proposed anti-communal violence Bill ¼Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparation) Bill, 2011½, not even presented in Parliament under pressure from the BJP, has now been laid in cold storage for so long is the biggest proof of how superficially the UPA government views the important issue of communalism. This Convention demands that this pending Bill should be strengthened, presented immediately in Parliament and passed.

1.      At such a time when the Muzaffarnagar riots have once again brought to the fore the communal brutalism and unholy nexus of the opportunistic political parties and the way in which the contextual meeting of the National Integration Council concluded without any concrete work plan, it is clear that achieving political gains rather than a safe and secure atmosphere for the minorities is the priority of the Congress. This Convention strongly condemns this attitude of the Central government and demands that a concrete policy against communal violence should be put in place with provision for stern action against Parties or representatives of Parties who indulge in communal or casteist violence.

2.      This Convention demands that an immediate end should be put to witch hunting of innocent Muslim young men in the name of terrorism and spreading of canards by the government and security agencies about certain areas in the country being terrorist hubs. It has been seen that Muslim youths have been arrested without proof and later pronounced innocent and released by the courts. There is no accountability for this injustice against them and the government has taken no steps for their rehabilitation. This Convention demands that such unjust actions be immediately stopped and the responsible officials be punished, and that legal provision be made to guarantee compensation and rehabilitation by the government in cases where such false charges of terrorism are slapped.

3.      This Convention demands the release and rehabilitation by the government of the number of innocent Muslim youths in various parts of the country who are under prolonged arrest on false charges.

4.      This Convention demands the implementation of the Nimesh Commission in Uttar Pradesh.

5.      This Convention demands action against the officials responsible in the recent cases of custodial death of a Muslim youth Khalid Mohammed in Uttar Pradesh and the murder of Kateel Siddiqui in Yerwada jail in Maharashtra.

6.      Anti-minority attitudes can be observed from time to time in the actions of security agencies including the IB, which aggravates the communal common sense already prevalent in society. This is made clear by the role played by these agencies in the case against Pilibhit MP Varun Gandhi during the last general elections. This Convention demands strict action against agencies or other bodies indulging in such prejudicial behavior.

7.      This Convention reiterates the demand for a judicial enquiry into the Batla House "encounter" and further demands that a National tribunal be constituted to enquire into all cases of witch hunting and harassment of minorities.

8.      This Convention considers the BJP primarily accountable for the recent riots in Muzaffarnagar. It is only the well planned attacks and false propaganda by communal and casteist forces which could blow up a common quarrel into the gigantic proportions of a riot. That the ruling Samajwadi Party government took no effective steps despite prolonged mischievous propaganda by communal forces shows that their objective also was to score political points out of the riots. The CPI-ML demands that all parties involved in the riot be probed by an independent agency and the guilty be given stern punishment.

9.      This Convention demands that MPs, MLAs and members of local bodies accused in cases of communal or casteist violence or violence against women should be expelled from such institutions and be banned from contesting in elections in future.

10.     This Convention demands a concrete plan for compensation and rehabilitation for the families of those killed as well as for all those affected in the Muzaffarnagar riots. It further demands strict action against communal and casteist forces and the creation of a safe and secure atmosphere so that the displaced families can go back safely to their homes.

11.     This Convention demands that all persons arrested in Kashmir without a trial or chargesheet under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (wherein a person can be put in jail without any proof, merely on the basis of suspicion), should be released without delay and draconian laws in various States of the country such as Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the North Eastrn States and other similar Acts should be immediately repealed.

March to Rajbhawan on Karbi Anglong Issue

About 500 people at the call of CPI(ML), KSA and KNCA, condemning attack on democracy in Karbi Anglong and demanding release of all CPI(ML) and KSA leaders, marched to the Rajbhavan on 16th September. Protesters strongly condemned the act of arresting and jailing of CPI(ML) and KSA leaders in false cases. Congress Govt. has virtually imposed a state of emergency in the hill district and no political dissent is being allowed. Karbi Anglong is virtually turned into police raj and no leaders and activists in the jail get justice, on the contrary instead of granting bail, additional non-bailable sections are imposed on arrested leaders.

The protesters shouted slogans like "no autonomous state no rest", "release all CPIML and KSA leaders', "hold talk on autonomous state issue with sincerity and political will". The procession reached Rajbhawan and submitted a memorandum to the Governor of Assam. The memorandum demanded: (1) unconditional release of arrested leaders, (2) restore democracy in Karbi Anglong and democratic voice of the people be allowed, stop state terrorism in the hill district, (3) Constitute CBI enquiry into the police firing on 31 July 2013 at Diphu as there are instances of Human rights violation by the Assam police personnel, and (4) Provide Rs. 50 lakhs as compensation to the family of Martyr Rahul Singnar who was shot dead by police from behind.

Leaders of CPI(ML) Hill Party Committee, KSA, KNCA, AISA, AIPWA, KANKIS, RYA including CC member Com. Pratima Inghipi, Selawar Bey, Sem killing, Kharsing Singnar, ex EM L N Subba and Politburo member Rubul Sarma, secy. of Assam State Committee Bibek Das participated in the protest programme. CPI(ML) leaders declared that they will continue the movement until and unless release of the jailed leaders.

Edited, published and printed by S. Bhattacharya for CPI(ML) Liberation from U-90, Shakarpur, Delhi-92; printed at Bol Publication, R-18/2, Ramesh Park, Laxmi Nagar, Delhi-92; Phone:22521067; fax: 22442790, e-mail: mlupdate@cpiml.org, website: www.cpiml.org