ML Update | No. 49 | 2014 |

ML Update

A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine

Vol.  17 | No. 49 | 6-8 DEC 2014

Ferguson and the Rationalisation of Racial Murder   

Yet again, America's racist underbelly has been exposed: the murder of an 18-year old unarmed black boy by a police officer was followed by systematic state-sponsored efforts to subvert justice and protect the police officer. Last week, a 'grand jury' in the US ruled that criminal charges would not be brought against police officer Darren Wilson who had fired 12 rounds of bullets into the body of Michael Brown, whose  only 'crime' was that he was black and unarmed in a country where racist prejudice runs deep in the police forces and in American society. From the beginning, the entire judicial process was rigged for the sole of protecting the police man. In fact, as it has been correctly pointed out by various commentators, throughout the hearings, the prosecutor's office sought to place Michael Brown, not Darren Wilson, on trial. Soon after Michael Brown's murder, 12-year old Tamir Rice was killed by a US police man while he was playing with a fake gun. Earlier in 2012, a young Black boy Trayvon Martin was shot dead by a man claiming he felt threatened because Martin was wearing a sweatshirt with a hood. Martin's killer was acquitted by a jury. Police officers and civilians alike in the US seem to enjoy a licence to murder Black children, claiming that the latter appear 'threatening'.  
The Ferguson grand jury verdict has been met with massive protests all across the US, including militant demonstrations of anger in Ferguson itself.       

Racial killings and their rationalization of course have a long history in the US. The killing of Michael Brown and Tamir Rice in 2014 brought back memories of the horrific lynching of 14-year old Emmett Till in 1955. Emmett Till was kidnapped and beaten up, his eyes were gouged out and he was shot. He was then thrown into the Tallahatchie river with a cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire – the images of this violence proclaiming the deep-rooted racial prejudices and hatred in American society. As in Michael Brown's case, Till's murderers too were acquitted. The saga continues unabated.

Clearly, the rhetoric of America having left behind its racist legacy rings hollow. The jubilation over the election of America's first Black President has evaporated, with Obama himself castigating the protestors, defending the atrocious verdict in favour of Michael's murderer, moreover preaching 'peace' and 'morality' to the protestors, and justifying the repression unleashed on protesting crowds.

The Ferguson verdict, for us in India, is a reminder that racist violence is on the rise in India too. The lynching to death of a young African student in Punjab, the recent incident where three African men were beaten by a violent mob at a metro station in the capital city Delhi, and the earlier racist mob violence on African women in Khirki in Delhi, as well as organized racist propaganda and violence against Africans in Goa, are just some of the examples of racism against Black people in India. And racist discrimination and violence against people of the North East is reaching epidemic proportions. 

Moreover, it is impossible to ignore the stark similarities between racial violence in the US and feudal casteist violence as well as communal prejudices and stereotyping in India. Just as the judicial system in the US protects police officers as well as civilians who kill Black people, we have courts in India committing judicial murder, by refusing to indict feudal violence by the Ranveer Sena. Till date, the victims of Bathe and Bathani massacres, as well as communal pogroms against Sikhs and Muslims, remain deprived of justice, even as the state colludes with the murderers to discredit unmistakable evidence and deny justice. The police in India as well as paramilitary forces and the army routinely enjoy huge immunity as far as murder and custodial torture is concerned. Massacres of adivasis in conflict areas by paramilitary forces happen routinely and go unprosecuted. This shield of protection and immunity is of course enhanced through the AFSPA in Kashmir and the north-east, and through several provisions such as UAPA. Many, many Fergusons take place in India: custodial killings like that of Ishrat Jahan, as well as massacres of adivasis in Bastar, are all justified by the claim that the victims were presumed to be a threat based on their identity. 

In the US, Blacks form the majority of jail populations – and the same is the case for the Dalits, adivasis and minorities in India – encouraged by a state machinery and society which is quick to brand them 'criminal' and 'violent'. Written into the exiting SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act is in fact an acknowledgement that false implication of Dalits in heinous crimes, leading to imposition of the death sentence against Dalits, are rife in our society.

In the US, with boasts of 'liberty', 'equality before the law' and 'equal opportunities' for all, Blacks continue to face tremendous social, economic and political discrimination. In India too, the all-permeating discrimination faced by the Dalits continues to be an ugly reality. Decades after untouchability was officially 'eradicated' from India, a recent survey which shows that at least one in four people in the country still practice untouchability. Undoubtedly, the rhetoric of being the world's 'largest democracy' sits uncomfortably with the reality that untouchability continues to be justified in the name of 'health', 'hygiene' and 'culture' – all code words in this case for deep-rooted prejudice and hatred.  

Ferguson has become a reminder that 'violence' is more than the policeman shooting down an innocent Black boy. The systematic denial of justice by the same judicial process that sends a disproportionate number of Black men to jail and death row is as stark a symptom of racist violence in the US. The same can be said of communal and casteist violence in India – where the actual massacres and pogroms and custodial killings are compounded by the judicial and political system that protects the perpetrators while sending a disproportionate segment of Dalits, minorities and adivasis to jails and death row!

The fight against the systematic racist, casteist and communal violence will continue and grow as the people's movements for justice all over the world forge solidarities with each other. 

 

Massive Chetawani rally in Ludhiana

A massive Chetawani rally (Warning Rally) was held on 28 November at Ludhiana at the call of the CPI, CPM Punjab, CPI(ML) Liberation and CPI(M).  The massive gathering of peasants and workers warned the Akali-BJP Badal government to scrap the draconian 'Prevention Of damage to Public And Private Property Bill 2014' law, and accede to a 14 point Demand Charter. The rally was addressed by CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat, veteran CPI(M) leader A B Bardhan, CPM Punjab Secretary Mangat Ram Pasla and CPI(ML) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya besides various other Left leaders. CPI(ML) PB Member Swapan Mukherjee was also present on the stage.

Addressing the rally, Comrade Prakash Karat underlined that the Modi Government had ushered in 'acche din' only for Ambanis and Adanis, while the Government was accelerating the offensive on the poor people. He hailed the Left assertion in Punjab as marking a new beginning. Comrade Bardhan called for a powerful Left assertion against the Akali-BJP Government of Punjab. Comrade Pasla spoke of the inspiring legacy of Bhagat Singh, and tasked the Left with carrying forward this legacy. He said the battles of the people could only be fought with the independent assertion of the red flag - and the huge response to the Left parties' rally showed the potential for this.          

Among the demands raised by the Rally were Rs 3000 as old age/widow pension; strengthening the Public Distribution System; Rs 15000 as minimum wage; and steps to curb the illegal activities of drug mafia and sand, gravel, transport and cable mafias. 

Below is the text of the CPI(ML) Liberation General Secretary's speech at the Chetawani Rally:

Red salute to all of you for coming here in such large numbers and demonstrating the growing unity of the Left with such great power and spirit. All of us present here are worried about the thirty-nine Indian workers lying trapped in Iraq. The government at the Centre is keeping mum about their actual conditions. We call upon the government to ensure their speedy and safe return to India.

Narendra Modi and his party had promised to bring back black money from foreign banks in 100 days. Every Indian had been promised 3 lakh rupees on account of repatriated black money. Now six months later, the whole issue has been sealed in an envelope and Modi now says he does not know how much black money is there in foreign banks. We are here to hold the govt accountable on its promise of repatriation of black money.

While the issue of black money is being sought to be given a quiet burial, black laws are being invoked on every pretext in the name of tough governance. Even as the state has armed itself to the teeth with draconian laws ranging from the AFSPA to UAPA, the Akali-BJP govt of Punjab seeks to truncate and deny the democratic right to assemble and agitate in the name of protection of public property. We have assembled here in this 'chetavani rally' to reject the autocratic fiats of the Akali-BJP govt and assert our democratic rights.

The new government is turning out to be India's most brazenly pro-corporate government. Mukesh Ambani, who described the Congress as 'apni dukaan' as we know from the Radia tapes, literally pats Modi on his back even as Modi takes Gautam Adani to Australia to secure his coal venture in Australia funded by $ 1 bn loan from India's premier public sector bank SBI. The Planning Commission has already been dumped, the coal sector is being opened up for private commercial mining, and FDI is being worshipped as the biggest god while prices continue to rise through the roof.

Meanwhile whatever limited legislations were there to protect peasants and workers, and land, livelihood and environment, are being systematically subverted to give a totally free hand to big Indian corporates and foreign MNCs to grab our resources, loot our money and exploit our labour. We must expand and strengthen the unity of workers and peasants and job-seeking young people and fight tooth and nail against this economic onslaught and save our resources and rights from the clutches of the Ambanis and Adanis and their government.

It is not just the economy and our hard won democratic rights which are under attack, the Sangh brigade is working overtime to impose its communal, patriarchal, sectarian and obscurantist agenda in the spheres of education, culture and mass media. This all-out attack on our resources and rights, on the history and harmony of the people, is being camouflaged as good governance and better days. This devious, disastrous design must be defeated.

We know Punjab did not buy into this hype during the Lok Sabha elections. Punjab did not grant majority to the Akali-BJP combine. Punjab refused to elect the man who as India's finance minister is now busy spearheading the corporate raid on our resources while defending black money like our previous governments. Breaking the bipolar domination of the Akal-BJP combine and the Congress, Punjab expressed the quest of the people for a democratic alternative, giving the fledgling Aam Aadmi Party the dramatic windfall gain of as many as four seats. It is now for the Left ranks, for the heirs of Kartar Singh Sarabha and Bhagat Singh, to carry forward this quest beyond the faltering steps and retreating politics of the AAP to the clarity and bold assertion of the radical democratic aspirations and agenda of the people.

Time was when the ruling classes had proclaimed the victory of green revolution in Punjab. But the fable of agrarian prosperity soon gave way to the labyrinth of terror as Punjab was subjected to the terror spiral unleashed by the Khalistanis and the KPS Gills. When the terror spiral slowed down and came to a halt, the world found Punjab in a state of crisis, with the agrarian poor reeling under the combined burden of accumulated debt and acute social oppression. The burden has been rendered heavier by the near-epidemic proportions assumed by the hazards of cancer and drugs.

The united and determined struggle being waged by the labourers and small farmers of Punjab is the way to free Punjab from the clutches of agrarian crisis and heightened corporate plunder. Hand in hand with the agrarian struggles we have the assertion of the  workers and employees, of the youth and women. Let the united strength of the Left in Punjab take this struggle to a new height and inspire the resurgence of the fighting Left through the length and breadth of India.

Long live revolution.

Glory to Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh and all other great martyrs of Punjab.

 

Conference on Women's Freedom in Patna

AISA and AIPWA jointly held a conference under the banner of the magazine Adhi Zameen on "Women's Freedom versus Moral Policing" on 24 November at the AN Sinha Institute of Social Sciences in Patna. AIPWA National Secretary Kavita Krishnan, addressing the seminar, said that on the one hand reactionary and patriarchal forces are curbing women's freedom in the name of morality, perpetrating killings in the name of 'honour', branding inter-religious marriages 'love jehad', spreading communal passions, and persecuting boys and girls; but on the other hand women are also fighting for their freedom in every part of the country, especially after the December 2012 movement. Com. Kavita pointed out that while the current language of governance talks a lot about women's safety and protection, but does not say a word about women's freedom which is their basic right. She also pointed out that those who blame women's clothes for rape are unable to answer why women are subjected more to rape and violence inside the home rather than outside. Patriarchal and fascist forces make false propaganda of forced conversion of Hindu girls in inter-religious marriages, but even within the Hindu religion, a woman is forced to change many things, including identity and tastes, after marriage in the name of Indian culture, she pointed out.

The Director of the AN Sinha Institute stressed that the question of women's freedom is inseparably linked to the struggle for change in the entire social system. AIPWA National President Meena Tiwari said that Hindutva forces are not only curbing women's freedom, they are also openly coming out in support of rapists and perpetrators of violence against women, and students and youth must raise their voices and oppose these forces strongly. Com. Shivani Nag pointed out that those who complain about 'misuse' of women's rights laws forget that powerful people misuse every law, but that does not mean that all laws should be scrapped. Prof. Bharati Kumar, presiding over the function, said that the 'Adhi Zameen' magazine is powerful centre of thought to combat the rising right wing dominance. She said that the whole issue of moral policing is for controlling women's sexuality and maintaining the political and social domination of reactionary and patriarchal forces. JNUSU Vice President Chintu Kumari and writer Tulika Asthana, Manita Kumari, Meera Mishra, and Captain Aiman also addressed the conference. The cultural group Hirawal also presented several songs.

In the second session, presided over by journalist Nivedita and advocate Alka Verma, many women related their experiences and took part in the discussion that followed. There was unanimous agreement on the need for women to struggle for their rights inside the home and outside, individually as well as collectively. Bihar State President Saroj Choube, Secretary Shashi Yadav, Anita Sinha, Vibha Gupta, Anuradha, Madhu, Samta Rai, and several women intellectuals were present at the conference.

 

Kisan Mahasabha Demonstration in Haldwani

Hundreds of vanwasis, van gurjars, and khattawasis participated in a massive rally on 15 November organized by the All India Kisan Mahasabha, Uttarakhand, and submitted a 6-point memorandum to the District Magistrate of Haldwani after a demonstration in front of the district headquarters. The rally was led by AIKMS National Secretary Purushottam Sharma, State Council member Bahadur Singh Jangi, Ganesh Chandra Pathak, Mohammad Yamin, and Ghulam Rasool. CPI(ML) CC member Raja Bahuguna, State Secretary Kailash Pandey, and AICCTU State general secretary KK Bora also participated.

The Forest Department of Nainital district has imposed a one-year ban on sowing of pasture crop by van gurjars and khattawasis in the eastern and central forest sectors, whereas as there is no ban for non-gurjars. The demonstration was organized to protest against this discrimination. Addressing the meeting which followed the demonstration, Com. Purushottam Sharma said that the van gurjars who had played a significant role in voting the Harish Rawat government to power, were now left to suffer on the brink of starvation, deprived of the occupation which was theirs for the past so many generations. This is not only persecution, but also racial discrimination against them. Purushottam Sharma also pointed out that the Forest Department is refusing to issue grazing permits to people who separated years ago in family partitions, resulting in their being deprived of their traditional forest rights. The State government and district administration are procrastinating on the issue of registering the names of goth-khattawasis in the family register, on ensuring their basic civil rights, and their integration and rehabilitation. He warned that if these issues are not addressed, the Kisan Mahasabha would accelerate protests.

Com. Raja Bahuguna said that all governments so far had worked against the interests of farmers and workers, and for mafia forces, resulting in a rising graph of crime in the State. He called for the immediate rehabilitation of khattawasis and disaster victims. Com. Bahadur Jangi spoke on the failure to meet the demand for electricity connections, landline phones and a 3-G BSNL mobile tower in Bindukhatta as well as on demands to give Bindukhatta the status of a revenue village, and to take effective steps to end the pollution spread by the Century Paper Mills in the region. The memorandum of protest submitted to the DM elaborated all the above concerns and demands.

 

AISA Wins the Post of Vice-President in AUSU Elections

The verdict of the Allahabad University Students' Union (AUSU) elections held on 21 November has manifested the aspiration of common students for a fundamental change inside the University for democracy, equality and struggle for students' rights amidst an overall atmosphere of violence and lumpensim created by dominant casteist lobbies and ruling class political parties. Comrade Neelu Jaiswal from AISA has won the post of Vice-President and comrade Vidyotma Maurya has been elected as the PG/Research Scholar representative from Arts Faculty. Comrade Pawan Kumar from AISA gave a tough fight to the ABVP candidate for the post of Joint Secretary and polled second in the post. Other than AISA comrades, two representatives from AIDSO were also elected – comrade Ankush Dubey as Cultural Secretary and Comrade Vimsingh Chandel as UG representative from the arts faculty.

ABVP, which was trying to cash on the claimed NaMo wave, got a major setback. Even as the Left forces registered these victories, the much hyped 'saffron wave' got reduced to only one central panel post which it won by a very slender margin. The post of President and General Secretary were won by candidates of the Samajwadi Chhatra Parishad, the student wing of the SP.

Among the contesting forces in the elections, it was only AISA that made the rights of common students and deprived sections of society an agenda of the election. Along with raising issues of academic rights of the students inside the university, AISA also took up the task to expose the anti-people policies of the SP and BJP governments. When the ABVP representatives thought they could win the elections by simply naming Modi, AISA comrades made sure ABVP was held accountable by common students on the question of CSAT, scam in the SSC results, price rise, black money and communalization of academics and society.

 

Movement for campus democracy in BHU

During the past two weeks, AISA has been leading struggles in BHU for campus democracy, basic students' rights and restoration of student union elections in BHU. During a recent visit of the MHRD Minister Smriti Irani to the BHU campus, AISA activists and leaders demanded her immediate intervention to address several crucial demands of the common students of the University, including restoration of the student union elections which have been stalled since 1997. The students pointed out that a regime of repression  and denial of campus democracy continues in BHU, through administrative diktats and denial of democratic participation of students in decision-making at all levels. These demands were answered by a massive crackdown on BHU students. As a result of the crackdown, hundreds of students had to be hospitalised, and several were seriously injured.

After this brutal crackdown on BHU students, JNUSU organized a massive protest on 26 November at the MHRD against continuing assaults on campus democracy, and against the Lyngdoh committee recommendations. Elections in campuses like Allahabad or DU remain dominated by money and muscle power, while democratic models as In JNU remain scuttled by the Lyngdoh recommendations. Exposing the real motive of the Lyngdoh recommendations, which is to curb the organized student movement in the country, JNUSU as well as students representatives from BHU, Allahabad, Lucknow, Punjab, Jamia and DU participated in the protest demanding restoration of democratic elections to student unions.

 

Jute workers' strike in Kolkata

Thousands of jute workers from all over West Bengal gathered at Rani Rashmoni Road, Kolkata on 26 November after organizing a successful strike that shut down operations of the entire industry across the state. The strike call was given by 20 operating trade unions, including AICCTU, CITU,   INTUC, AITUC and BMS. A charter of demands of jute workers had been submitted to the IJMA, the association of jute mill owners as well as to the state and central government on 30 Jan 2013. However, these demands have not being met till date, leading to the huge strike of 30 November. The workers have demanding minimum wages of Rs 450 daily, a hike in DA point, introduction of grade and scale in the jute industry, payment of all statutory dues like PF, gratuity, ESI etc., mill wise manning ratio 90:20 for permanent and special badli, issue of identity card to all the workers and abolition of all sorts of  vouchers.

The TMC sponsored union opposed this strike. But despite threat and intimidation from the TMC union, workers maintained unprecedented unity. Com. Atanu Chakravarty from AICCTU, Debashish Dutta from AITUC, MD Amin and Anadi Sahoo (both former labour ministers of the Left Front government in West Bengal) and others addressed the rally.

ML Update | No. 48 | 2014

ML Update

A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine

Vol.  17 | No. 48 | 25 NOV - 1 DEC 2014

Resisting the Modimix of Corporate Plunder and Communal Venom
'Government that cares for the poor, government that lives for the poor' – this is how Narendra Modi had described his would-be government addressing newly elected party MPs in his first speech in the central hall of Parliament. That was on 20 May, 2014, six days before he was actually sworn in as Prime Minister. Six months later as Narendra Modi returns to India after completing yet another long foreign trip, the new regime has indisputably established itself as India's most openly corporate-driven government till date, government that is completely dedicated to big business, government that exists for Adani-Ambani and their ilk.
A picture is worth a thousand words, goes the adage. Two images of Modi out of the thousands that we have seen in the last six months give us a clearer idea about his government than all the broom-wielding photo-ops showcasing Modi and other BJP leaders and ministers. The first picture was Modi climbing into an Adani jet to fly from Ahmedabad to Delhi before his May 26 swearing-in. The second was when Modi went to Mumbai to inaugurate the latest Ambani hospital to provide us with that rare photo of Mukesh Ambani patting Modi on his back. If it took the Radia tapes to testify to the UPA variety of crony capitalism, Modi is brazen in displaying his intimacy with Adani and Ambani.
Indeed, the rise of Gautam Adani as India's tenth biggest dollar billionaire has been an integral part of the larger Narendra Modi saga. Adani's financial muscle grew from 765 million USD in 2002 to 8.8 billion USD in 2013. Adani virtually grabbed Kutch after the disastrous 2001 earthquake, using the exemptions and incentives granted in the name of post-quake rebuilding of Kutch to build his own economic empire. And now the central government is on the job – it has granted environmental clearance for Adani's massive SEZ project in Gujarat which was dubbed illegal by the Gujarat High Court and the SBI has sanctioned 1 billion USD (Rs 6000 crore) loan for Adani's coal mining venture in Australia. It should be noted that between March 31, 2014 and September 30, 2014, Adani group's outstanding bank loan has already shot up by Rs 7653.33 crore to reach an astronomical Rs 72,632.37 crore.
Ahead of the winter session of Parliament, the Modi government has clearly unveiled its reckless pro-corporate pro-FDI agenda. The notorious coal ordinance has already opened up the coal sector for private commercial mining, the shares of ONGC are up for sale, diesel price has been deregulated and gas pricing policy has been revised to raise domestic gas price by a third. Key sectors like defence, insurance and railways are being opened up big time for foreign investment, and the drug price control regime has been subverted to allow foreign pharmaceutical majors to make bigger profits from the Indian market. India's intellectual property laws are being subjected to US monitoring and US pharma MNC representatives are being allowed to openly lobby with Indian patent officials and judiciary.
Add to this the ongoing subversion of welfare legislations and the new government's economic agenda become as clear as daylight. Labour laws are being amended to free companies from any monitoring regarding compliance with factory laws and give them a free hand to hire and fire on their own terms without bothering about the laws of the land. The MNREGA is being sought to be restricted to select districts and degraded from its present status as an employment guarantee act to an employment generation scheme dependent on the whims of the government of the day. The land acquisition act is being sought to be amended to dilute provisions of consent and compensation for land-losing farmers and remove landless livelihood losers from the ambit of compensation and rehabilitation. The food security act is being subjected to endless dilly-dallying even as the process of capitulation to the pressure of rich countries on the issue of food subsidy has begun with the recent Indo-US deal on WTO's Bali round.
Accompanying this anti-poor economic offensive is the new regime's relentless campaign for deepening RSS control over the country's system of education and research and information and broadcasting. So six months after the BJP's ascent to power we are faced with this ominous Modimix of corporate plunder and communal venom. The new regime has accelerated the processes of concentration of wealth, centralisation of power and communalisation of society. The fighting contingents of the Indian people will have to summon all their strength to challenge and defeat this dangerous design.

Historic Strike by West Bengal Tea Garden Workers 
On 11-12 November, tea garden workers in West Bengal registered a militant protest demanding minimum wages and other workers' rights. They held a 48-hours strike in the entire tea sector of North Bengal, and a 12-hour general strike in three tea intensive districts and 2 sub-divisions.
It is a well-known fact that tea garden workers in Bengal, who produce tea which is enjoyed across the world, work under abominable conditions and are paid extremely paltry amounts for their hard labour. The fact of the matter is that the wage paid to tea workers is less than the wage given to agricultural labours under MNREGA, which is Rs 167 per day in West Bengal. As a result of the persistent denial of rights, there have been several deaths due to malnutrition and illness in the tea gardens of north Bengal.
On 11-12 November, lakhs of workers in nearly 300 tea gardens in Dooars and Darjeeling Hills of West Bengal observed a strike demanding the declaration of minimum wages of tea garden workers who still get paid a meagre wage of Rs 90 to Rs 95 per day. There was absolutely no work in 103 tea gardens in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration as the workers supported the strike.
The strike was called by a joint forum of 23 trade unions operating in the tea gardens, including AICCTU. CPI(ML) CC member Comrade Abhijit Majumdar is joint convenor of this joint forum of trade unions. All these trade unions had called this united protest against the Trinamool Congress led government in West Bengal, which has been continuously denying even basic rights to tea garden workers. While the trade unions have been insisting on the declaration of minimum wages, the Bengal government has only agreed to increase the wages by Rs 40 that too in a phased manner in three years — Rs 18, Rs 11 and Rs 11, respectively. Several rounds of negotiations had taken place between the tea garden workers and the West Bengal government; the government however refused to release a notification declaring minimum wages for workers in the tea industry.
The strike was a huge success as workers in three districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and parts of two districts Coochbehar and Uttar Dinajpur chose not to work. The Joint Forum of trade unions also called for a 12-hour general strike in the entire area, demanding rights for tea garden workers.

Working Women's Workshop in West Bengal
Close on the heels of the working women's workshop held successfully in Hooghly on 9 November, a state level workshop was held jointly by AICCTU and AIPWA on Nov. 16 in Kolkata. This workshop was also aimed at concretizing women workers' specific demands to be raised during the upcoming united workers' rally and congregation organized by AICCTU on Rani Rashmani Road on the coming 8th December. Trade Union leaders as well as working women comrades from various sectors such as Asha, Anganwari, Mid-day Meal, Domestic Work etc. took part. Some salient points that came up in the workshop paper (presented by comrade Atanu Chakravarti) and the ensuing discussions are-
1.    The demand for conducting an extensive 'labour census' of women workers in the state must be constantly raised and popularised.
2.    Rights won on the question of sexual harrasment at the workplace, along with the current legal understanding of the 'workplace' as the 'world of work' (including not just the confines of the workplace but also all spaces involving commutes and travels related to the work) must be disseminated widely through awareness programmes.
3.    Equal rights, Dignity, Equal wages, Social security are the overarching slogans for the massive contingent of women workers.
4.    Social security (including rights to health, pension, children's education) is either completely absent or grossly inadequate. While 5 types of schemes exist for organised workers, there are 9 categories of schemes for unroganized workers – but these remain mostly on paper and the budgetory allocation for 95% of India's working population (employed in the unorganised sector) is a meagre breadcrumb of 1000 crores.
5.    The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (National Health Insurance Programme) was discussed at length, and demands for extending it to women workers of all sectors (for example Mid-day meal workers who are left out of its scope) came up as an immediate demand.
6.    Three sectors where women are exclusively employed as workers – Asha, Anganwadi and Mid-day meal – were discussed at some length. It is important to note the different terminologies employed by the government in these three sectors. The Anganwadi workers are "honorary workers", the Anganwadi workers are "cook-cum-helpers" whereas Asha workers are "honorary volunteers"! These terminologies imply that the government trivialises women working in these sectors as something "less than a worker", and thus deserving less or no labour rights! A detailed assessment of the terminology and associated rights showed a direct correlation between the degree of trivialisation of terminology and rights denied! For example, for the Asha "volunteers", there are no monthly salaries but performance-based incentives! There are no holidays nor are there PF rights! For Mid-day meal workers, the rights to 'permanent work' is eternally denied so is the acknowledgement as full-fledged workers. For Anganwadi workers, official salary is replaced by monthly honorariums! There exist no rules whatsoever for increments, employment or permanence of work!
7.    The National Labour Conference has demanded women working in all the above three sectors to be acknowledged as workers by the government and to be brought under the scope of minimum wages, social security rights such as pension, gratuity, health and maternity rights.
8.    At present India has 25.7 lakh Mid-day meal workers. Our mid-day meal union has submitted a charter of demands to the Rajya Sabha standing committee, demanding among other things, an 'Employment Standing Order' to be instituted (which should specify rules of recruiting, employment conditions, and implement safeguards against arbitrary firing). This demand should be made more popular.
9.    Citing a recent MHRD Empowered Committee meeting minutes, the appalling discrepancy in the wages of Mid-day Meal workers was exposed. Whereas Kerala pays 4500-6000, Tamil Nadu 5500-7500, Puducherry 5000-9000, Lashadweep 6000, West Bengal pays its MDM workers a wage of 1500 per month! Budgetory allocations for the MDM sector over the years 2007-2014/15 was discussed to show the insensitivity of the government towards women in this sector.
10.    The Domestic Worker sector, comprising presently of 1 crore workers, and 15 lakhs being added annually – the only women-dominated sector that's recognised as workers – is also fraught with gross violation of labour rights. Starting from the non-ratification of the ILO convention, no minimum wages, no mechanisms for redressal of sexual harassment complaints (and disputes not being treated as labour disputes), and no central labour law to cover the domestic workers, no regulation of the exploitative agancies, no check on trafficking the list is long. The 2010 draft of a law resulting from the central government's own task force report is still not passed as an act.
11.    Demands in the Domestic Workers sectors must include specifying minimum wages (per hour, per day and per month) on a high priority. All Domestic workers must be covered by the RSBY health scheme. Weekly and annual leave rights must be ensured and ward-level grievance redressal mechanism for sexual harassment and labour disputes must be demanded. Here again, the examples of several states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Rajasthan, TN, Maharashtra were discussed – where minimum wages and/or social security acts for domestic workers have been put in work. But West Bengal has done neither.
12.    Several key issues regarding women workers in the construction sector and Beedi sector were also discussed and demands charted out.
Several participants of the workshop – comrades Jahanara, Chaitali, Kajal, Archana, Jayashree, Sabita, Kasturi, Mamata, Swapna and others - chipped in with their concrete experiences and suggestions. Comrade Basudab Bose conducted and comrade Meena Pal summed up the discussions.

West Bengal Blast Probe
Witch-hunt by Investigative Agencies 
Ever since the Burdwan bomb blast, there has been a new phase of witch hunt of minorities in West Bengal. Corporate media houses have been running kangaroo trails based on half baked information and misleading facts.
Two men were killed in the blast – Shakil Ahmed and Sovan Mandal. The police, and later the NIA and NSG too, zeroed in on the theory that the perpetrators were associates of Shakil Ahmad, ignoring Sovan Mandal largely.
The story of two young workers, Zulfikar Ali (35) and Haider Ali (34), victims of the witch-hunt is a harrowing one. It underlines how due process and civil liberties are blithely crushed underfoot by investigative agencies.   
 After three weeks of incarceration, torture and humiliation Zulfikar Ali and Haider Ali(34) were released by the Jammu and Kashmir Police on 30th October evening. Zulfikaar and Haider were picked up by Jammu and Kashmir Police from their rented home in Kanshipura Gausia of Baramula district on 6th and 8th October respectively.
After retrieving their id cards from the police, they boarded a home bound train on 2nd November and reached on 4th November. They held a press conference on 5th November at Rampurhat. Comrade Malay Tewari and Comrade Pradyot Mukherji of CPI(ML) were present at that press conference.
For several years Haider had been going to Kashmir to work as a mason. Zulfikar joined him six months back. Rabiul, Zulfikar's elder brother has been working there for almost a decade. These three used to stay in in a rented house. On the night of 6th October on the day of Bakrid, police raided their rented house in civil dress, and picked up Rabiul and Zulfikar. They were taken to Baramulla Police Station, where they were slapped and verbally abused. They were asked whether they know how to use fire arms. Then the police released Rabiul after getting him to sign a form written in Urdu.
The next day Rabiul with the help of his colleagues Tipu and Barkat and some other friends got to know that Zulfikar was arrested because of his supposed connection with the 'West Bengal Case' (i.e. Burdwan blast). Next day while at work Rabiul got an emergency phone call from Haider and he came back to their rented house and finds it again being raided by police. A scared Rabiul spent that night at a friend's place and boarded a home bound train on the very next day. After reaching home he was informed by his friends from Baramulla that police arrested Haider.
Zulfikar and Haider live in village called Nayagram of Murari-1 Block in Birbhum.  When Rabiul with the help of local school teachers and other neighbours called the Baramulla Police Station, police told them that "they were merely assisting the IB". The Murari Police denied to lodge a formal diary entry. On 21st October, Comrade Malay, Comrade Ashoke from Birbhum District Committee and comrade Bilas visited Zulfikar's home in Nayagram. Haider's mother told that his son Haider is introvert in nature, liked by their fellow villagers because of his sweet behaviour and masonry skills with which he constructed the arched mosque of their village.
Zulfikar told the press that he was arrested on 6th October evening on the day of Bakrid. The next day, he was sent to Cargo Joint Interrogation Centre, where he was tortured for several consecutive days. He was given electric shocks in his body parts other than being beaten by lathi and belts made of tyres by 6 IB personnel. According to Zulfikar, he was repeatedly asked why he and his friends went sightseeing instead of leaving Kashmir when most of the migrant labourers were leaving because of the flood. Based on the videos in Zulfikar's mobile taken during their trip, police further arrested Haider.
On 16th October Zulfikar was sent to another makeshift jail within army barracks, where he met Haider. Haider too was heckled, manhandled and abused while in custody. Haider was arrested with Rs 11200, but while being released Police deducted a sum of Rs 3200 from Haider's money as a 'price' of their food. They were never given any arrest memo or any such documents.
On 12th October Times of India reported the arrest of these two youths without naming them, but connecting them with the Burdwan blast and ISIS in a 'bigger game plan'. But with the intervention of civil liberties activists and political activists, the facts began to emerge and the media could not continue with its witch-hunt.
According to story published in 'Indian Express' on 25th October the Jammu and Kashmir DG K Rajindra stated that NIA is conducting the entire investigation, and after thorough investigation they have concluded that the Burdwan blast has no connection with Kashmir, and nobody was arrested in this regard. He further informed that they had detained two people for interrogation, but both of them were released subsequently. Even while talking to our representatives the DG repeatedly said that they have no clue about these two people after them being released. On 28th October he finally said he will see what can be done even these two people are not found after three days. It was after all these efforts that the two men were released on 30th October.
How can the investigative agencies be allowed to abduct people (holding people without informing family of their whereabouts amounts to abduction) and torture them? Had Rabiul and various activists not pursued the case relentlessly, would it not have been all too easy for the investigators to torture the men into a 'confession'? How can the media blithely talk of 'ISIS' connections and brand people as terrorists, and not even have to apologise?  
Even failing to produce any substantial evidence after repeated police 'investigation' – i.e indiscriminate raids in the madarsas – most of the media is shamelessly spreading communal stereotypes against the minority community.

AICCTU - HAL Contract Workers Struggle Charter!
Thousands of contract workers of HAL assembled on 20 Nov. 2014 to elect their new office-bearers and to submit their Charter of Demands (C0D) to the HAL Management. Casual and Contract Workers' Association of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bangalore, affiliated to AICCTU, held its General Body Meeting on 20 Nov. 2014. Series of gate meetings addressed by Com. Balan, state president of AICCTU and V Shankar, All India Vice President, culminated in the general body meeting of contract workers of HAL.
The General Body unanimously re-elected Com. Balan as the president, reposing complete confidence in him and removed corrupt, careerist elements from the leadership. Com. Srinivas was elected General Secretary of the new team of Office Bearers.
The Charter of Demands was also passed by the general body to be submitted to the HAL management. Workers demanded abolition of contract labour system in HAL, same pay and service conditions for those engaged in same and similar kind of work, etc.
The workers decided to intensify their struggle to achieve the charter of demands in the coming period.
The General Body was addressed by Com. Balan, State President of AICCTU, Shankar V, AICCTU All India Vice President, Gandhimathi, AIPWA, Mohan Kumar, AICCTU Bangalore City Convenor among others.

Repression on Massive Student Movement in Mexico
A massive student movement is underway in Mexico against the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico, suspected of being abducted and murdered. The students had gone to protest a speech by the Mayor's wife, and it is suspected that the police captured them and handed them over to a drug cartel to have them killed.
Protesters have held President Enrique Pena Nieto responsible, and have set fire to the doors of the national palace in Mexico City. Mexico's Attorney General has told parents the students were murdered by criminals on police orders. Three gang members have apparently confessed to loading the students on to trucks, murdering them at a landfill, burning their bodies and dumping their remains in a river.
The Mexico government has responded to the protests with brutal repression. Eight men and three women among the protestors are under arrest and being held in maximum-security facilities, and they also face charges of homicidal intent and organized crime.
The disappearances and brutal killing of the students, followed by the crackdown and arrests of protestors, are compounding the anger of Mexican people against the corrupt political system and repressive police force. "#YaMeCansé" or "I'm fed up" has become one of the rallying slogans of the massive protests, along with "#LibertadPresosPoliticos", or "Freedom for Political Prisoners". 

ML Update | No. 47 | 2014

ML Update
A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine
Vol.  17 | No. 47 | 18 - 24 NOV 2014

Chhattisgarh Sterilization Massacre 

The deaths of 15 women in a sterilization camp in Chhattisgarh are an indictment of the criminal complicity of the Chhattisgarh Government in a corrupt and callous healthcare regime. They are also a wake-up call for the entire country, about the grievous violence done to women's bodies by the 'population control' policies pushed by international funding agencies and the Indian State.      

The Chhattisgarh Government simply cannot wash off its responsibility for the deaths of the poor women who were killed. The emerging evidence shows that the immediate cause of the deaths could be either polluted drugs or due to sepsis from rusty or infected instruments used during the surgery. The drugs administered apparently showed traces of toxic substances. The State Government must answer why it continued to procure drugs from the Mahawar Pharma company even after it was charged with selling sub-standard drugs two years back? In March 2012, the Health Minister Amar Agarwal himself had informed the State Assembly that a case had been registered against this company for selling duplicate generic drugs. Seven medicines supplied by this company had been banned by the State Government at different points in time. The sterilization camps in the Health Minister's own constituency (one of them a short distance from his own home) had abysmal standards of basic hygiene. Operations were done on the floor, women were piled on to beds, rusty and infected instruments were used – all presenting a grim reality check that contrasts with the 'Clean India' hype pushed by the BJP Governments in the Centre and States. 

The doctor (since arrested) performed 83 operations in 5 hours. Though India adopts no sterilization targets nationally, states routinely adopt and push sterilization targets. In Chhattisgarh, too, the Government cannot deny that it had a policy of rewarding 'record numbers' of sterilization surgeries – on Republic Day this year, the Government had awarded a medal to the same doctor for performing 1 lakh sterilizations in his career. Target-driven and incentive-driven sterilizations lead to women being pressurized into having the surgeries, held in 'camps', thus privileging speed and volume of surgeries over safety and individual women's informed decisions. The State Government must squarely accept responsibility for the target-driven and incentive-driven approach.      

The Chhattisgarh Government and the BJP have been touting the State as a model of 'development', boasting of its forest cover and mineral wealth in order to woo investors. The fact is that the poor and the adivasis in the State have already been at the receiving end of a brutal war waged by the State in order to grab those very resources. Now, it becomes clear that the claims of 'development' mock the fact that the poor and deprived in the State have no access to basic, regular healthcare and contraception. Instead, they are given 'camp-based' healthcare – which means that time and again they are herded into camps where large numbers lost eyesight in botched cataract operations and 7000 women had uteruses illegally removed in botched and unnecessary hysterectomies in 2012, making it clear that the latest deaths are by no means an exception.

The Chhattisgarh Government's attempts to shield its Health Minister are highly condemnable. The Chief Minister himself should resign if he continues to deny the responsibility and liability of his Minister. But the problem goes beyond that of a single State alone. Facts presented in Parliament show that 707 women died between 2009 and 2012 because of botched sterilization operations in camps. This means that 15 women are dying every month in these sterilization camps – and these numbers are likely to be much higher since in many cases the health authorities distance the camps from the deaths. The sterilization massacre in Chhattisgarh has shocked the world – but the fact is that a massacre of the same scale happens routinely every month in India. If we are to stop this bloodshed of women, we need to review and reverse India's approach to contraception.

The question of people's and women's access to safe contraception needs to be prioritised, and the framework of 'population control' and 'family planning' needs to be abandoned. 'Overpopulation' in 'poor countries' as a cause for poverty and environmental damage is a racist myth that colonial and imperialist powers have historically peddled. Poverty, hunger, and pollution are caused, not by 'too many poor people' in 'poor countries', but because of the unequal distribution of the world's resources and wealth and by exploitation and plunder by the world's corporations.

International funding agencies are also implicated in the violence against women's bodies in the name of 'population control'. In the name of controlling 'overpopulation', these agencies, backed by the Governments of US and UK and powerful corporations, fund sterilization, as well as dangerous contraceptive implants, that endanger the lives and health of women in India and other target countries. The funds that flow in fuel the race to 'achieve' a high number of sterilizations, and the Indian health authorities also offer 'incentives' to women and men to get sterilized, but also to touts for herding large numbers of people for these operations. Rural health workers are rewarded for persuading larger numbers of women to come to sterilization camps, and penalised for failing to do so.   

 The Indian Government must stop accepting aid for 'population control' under any pretext. The Government must stop trying to control and regulate family size or population size. It must, in particular, end the practise of identifying 'high fertility' and 'low fertility' regions and communities. Instead, it must ensure that every Indian woman has access to a range of safe contraceptive methods. Sterilization surgery must be the last recommended contraceptive option, and hormonal implants must be disallowed entirely. Instead of these invasive methods, safe and non-invasive contraceptive methods must be made available. And women must be able to make informed, individual decisions about contraception. The camp-based approach to healthcare also must be abandoned, and replaced by public spending to ensure high-quality healthcare in the farthest corners of India, available to every Indian citizen.           

Jan Sunwai in Bihar

A massive jan sunwai was organized by the Party in Patna on 16 November, which reverberated with slogans for Left unity and a collective struggle for peoples' rights. Left leaders from various parties called for a strong joint Left struggle against the Delhi and Patna governments. The jan sunwai was attended by CPI(ML) General Secretary Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPI(M) General Secretary Com. Prakash Karat, CPI national secretarial board member Com. Atul Kumar Anjan and other Left leaders. Representatives from SUCI(C), Forward Bloc, various peoples' movements as well as journalists and intellectuals from the city attended in large numbers.

This jan sunwai was held after a 3-month long survey on the socio-economic conditions in Bihar organized by the CPI(ML). About 2 lakh rural and urban and poor and minority families had been surveyed as part of the Party's Bihar ka sach, logon ka haq campaign and an in-depth analysis of the data and information thus collected has been done. The survey documented a wide range of issues such as changes in the socio-economic and educational condition of rural and urban poor and minorities and the ground realities regarding implementation of various government projects. The survey had also identified new and emerging areas for concern for the peoples' movement. A detailed report of the results of the survey was presented at the jan sunwai on 16 November.

Addressing the jan sunwai, the CPI(ML) General Secretary pointed out that every year the government presents a 'report card' on development; however, this year the people of Bihar have decided to present their assessment and their own version of the government's 'report card' before the government could do so. This report card shows that the rights of the people have continually being impinged upon. He stressed on the need for a joint struggle on the issues which have emerged from the survey. He further called upon CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat, CPI leader Atul Kumar Anjan are other Left leaders to seriously consider the possibility of a joint Left rally in February 2015 aimed at asserting a robust and militant Left resistance to the existing ruling class regimes both in Patna as well as in Delhi.

CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat congratulated each and every person who was involved in conducting the extensive socio-economic survey of Bihar, which had brought out the truth about the state of 'development' from the point of view of the poor in Bihar. He pointed out that the land reforms agenda is pivotal to development in Bihar, but the Nitish government has effectively shelved this agenda. Incidents of violence against women and mahadalits are coming to light frequently, but the Bihar government is unable to take any action. He stated that the need of the hour was a forceful agitation for the rights of sharecroppers, the poor and the landless. He also asserted that the building of a new Bihar was possible only with Left unity. He said that the CPI(ML) report would act as a guiding principle for Left's agitations and initiatives in the future. Targeting the Modi government, he said that this government is betraying its promises to the people, and fostering an atmosphere of communal hatred in the country.

CPI leader Atul Kumar Anjan said that Left unity should be all-pervasive, from the streets to Parliament and Assemblies. He said that the Modi government is trying to inflict autocracy on the country. Much as this government boasts of development of the poor, the ground reality is that the rights of the poor are steadily being curtailed. MNREGA is being reduced, and LPG is getting costlier. He also pointed out that this crucial juncture, the survey conducted by the CPI(ML) is commendable, as it brings out the actual facts of poor people's lives and issues for future struggles.

Earlier, the jan sunwai started by paying tributes to popular leader from Jehanabad-Arwal Com. Shah Chand. One minute's silence was observed in his memory, after which the Party Bihar State Secretary presented the results of the survey. Com. Dhirendra Jha and Com. Rajaram Singh read out, respectively, the Summary of the survey and the political resolutions. Several demands were raised – including immediate release of those booked under the draconian TADA law, reinstatement of the Amir Das commission and action against all those providing political support to feudal forces such as the Ranveer Sena, immediate implementation of the recommendations of the Bandopadhyay report on land reforms in Bihar, water conservation, flood control, end to diversion of fertile land for non-agricultural purposes, implementation of a common school system, better health facilities and end to contractual labour. Former MP Com. Rameshwar Prasad and AIPWA leader Com. Meena Tiwari also addressed the jan sunwai. The programme was conducted by CCW member Com. KD Yadav. CPI State Secretary Rajendra Prasad Singh, CPI(M) State Secretary Vijaykant Thakur, SUCI State committee member Arun Kumar Singh, senior CPI(ML) leader Swadesh Bhattacharya as well as comrades Ramjatan Sharma, Nandkishore Prasad, Amar, Saroj Choube, Shashi Yadav, Mahboob Alam and other leaders also attended the jan sunwai along with several journalists and intellectuals from Patna and thousands of people from different parts of Bihar.

West Bengal Tea Garden Workers on Strike

On 11 November, tea garden workers in West Bengal registered a militant protest demanding minimum wages and other workers' rights. It is a well-known fact that tea garden workers in Bengal, who produce tea which is enjoyed across the world, work under abominable conditions and are paid extremely paltry amounts for their hard labour. The fact of the matter is that the wage paid to tea workers is less than the wage given to agricultural labours under MNREGA, which is Rs 167 per day in West Bengal. As a result of the persistent denial of rights, there have been several deaths due to malnutrition and illness in the tea gardens of north Bengal. On 11 November, lakhs of workers in nearly 300 tea gardens in Dooars and Darjeeling Hills of West Bengal observed a strike demanding the declaration of minimum wages of tea garden workers who still get paid a meagre wage of Rs 90 to Rs 95 per day. There was absolutely no work in 103 tea gardens in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration as the workers supported the strike.

The strike was called by a joint forum of 23 trade unions operating in the tea gardens, including AICCTU. CPI(ML) CC member Comrade Abhijit Majumdar is joint convenor of this joint forum of trade unions. All these trade unions had called this united protest against the Trinamool Congress led government in West Bengal, which has been continuously denying even basic rights to tea garden workers. While the trade unions have been insisting on the declaration of minimum wages, the Bengal government has only agreed to increase the wages by Rs 40 that too in a phased manner in three years — Rs 18, Rs 11 and Rs 11, respectively. Several rounds of negotiations had taken place between the tea garden workers and the West Bengal government; the government however refused to release a notification declaring minimum wages for workers in the tea industry.

The strike was a huge success as workers in three districts of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and parts of two districts Coochbehar and Uttar Dinajpur chose not to work. The Joint Forum of trade unions also called for a 12-hour general strike in the entire area, demanding rights for tea garden workers.

State-level Cadre Meeting in Rajasthan

A State-level cadre meeting of CPI(ML) was held at the Kisan Bhavan in Udaipur, Rajasthan, on 2 November 2014. The meeting was organized to review the campaign which was conducted in July in Rajasthan to expand and strengthen the Party organization in order to effectively meet the challenge posed in the context of the increasing corporate-communal dangers following BJP's coming to power at the Centre.

Addressing the meeting, PB member Com. Swadesh Bhattacharya said that the campaign conducted in July was not just a matter of Party expansion; rather, it is to do with an effective strategy to establish an effective network of the Party among the people to give a fitting reply to the increasing attacks on the poor and the workers by corporate ad communal forces who have become stronger after the BJP's coming to power at the Centre and now in States like Maharashtra and Haryana. To do this, the Party and peoples' organizations should be expanded through new memberships; also, Party branches and active cadre groups should be formed, Party publications should be distributed widely, funds should be generated, and close rapport should be established with people through initiating issues of interest to them.

Addressing the meeting, AICCTU National secretary Com. Rajiv Dimri pointed out the need to counter the Vasundhara Raje government's corporate-friendly policies and its assaults on the working class. Party State Secretary Mahendra Chowdhury presented an analysis of the July campaign and said that although the Party has taken initiatives in Jhunjhunu, Pratapgarh, and Udaipur districts, CPI(ML) needs to move forward quickly and take steps regarding membership renewal, expansion, and strengthening of branches. Com. Phool Chand Dhewa pointed out the laxity of the State leading team in the matter of increasing Party activity, and made suggestions for improvement and expansion. Several concrete proposals regarding membership and expansion were discussed and agreed upon.

Reports from Udaipur, Jhunjhunu, and Pratapgarh were presented and discussed. Comrades Ramchandra Kulhari, Gautam Lal Meena, Raju Lohar, Gotam Dhawda, Chandradev Ola, Om Prakash Jharoda, Shambhu and Raziya also expressed their views.  After inducting some new names into the State leading team, the meeting concluded by paying tribute to Com Shah Chand Mukhiya. 

Lucknow: Meeting Against 'Love Jihad' Myth Disrupted by ABVP

On 15 November, the ABVP in Lucknow University disrupted AISA's public meeting against the communal 'love jihad' campaign, which was to be addressed by AIPWA national secretary Kavita Krishnan. Prior permission had been taken by AISA – with the Lucknow University Proctor board clearly stating that they had "no objection" to the meeting. AISA had been running a spirited campaign against ABVP's communal hate, violence and riot mongering, specifically exposing the communal bogey of the 'love jihad campaign' in UP and elsewhere. This campaign had been receiving a good response from common students of Lucknow University. The ABVP, angered by AISA's spirited campaign, stated on the day before the proposed public meeting that they would not allow the meeting, going to the extent of threatening and intimidating AISA activists. They also put pressure on the LU proctorical board to cancel permission for the meeting. AISA however decided to go ahead with the meeting.

What followed was an open display of patriarchal violence, lumpenism and fascist assaults on freedom of expression. Goons affiliated to ABVP stormed into the venue of the public meeting, tore AISA banners and flags, disrupted the talk, and told the AISA activists present that they would not allow 'wrong' and 'immoral' speakers like Comrade Kavita to express their opinion. They also claimed that any meeting against love jihad would not be allowed, because it was "against Indian culture". ABVP continued to threaten and intimidate the women activists present, even as several girl students stated ABVP creates fear among women. ABVP raised threatening slogans saying, "Desh hai pukarta, pukarti hai Bharati; Khoon se tilak karo, goliyon se aarti". There was a not a single woman student with them, and one of them declared, as they attacked AISA, that 'khap panchayats hamara seena garva se ooncha karti hain, aap unke khilaf bol nahin sakte' (khap panchayats make us swell with pride, we won't let you speak against them). ABVP activists also tried to manhandle AISA leaders and Comrade Kavita.

After the meeting was disrupted, AISA led a protest march across the University against this fascist disruption and violence. Several common women students supported the protest, pointing out that recently at a dance competition organised by Lucknow University, girls who were performing dances had male students throwing coins and flowers at them. While ABVP was fine with that disgusting display of patriarchal 'culture', they were disrupting a peaceful talk, several women pointed out.

State-wide Agitation by Uttarakhand ASHA Workers' Union

Uttarakhand Asha Health Workers' Union affiliated to AICCTU organized a state-wide agitation against the repeated betrayals of the Uttarakhand government and demanding rights for the Asha workers in the State. Even though Asha workers are the backbone of the health department, the government is not even providing them a minimum honorarium.

In 2011, after a sustained agitation of Asha workers, the Uttarakhand Chief Minister had announced an annual incentive of Rs 5000. Three years after this announcement, even this small amount has not been paid to their accounts. The Asha workers' union had organized a huge demonstration in the capital Dehradun (called the "Jawab do-Hisab do" rally) on 15 September, to demand answers from the government for this betrayal. After this protest, the government was forced to promise payment of the incentive amount while also making assurances of action on other demands. However, till date, neither has the payment been made, and nor has action on any other matter been taken. The state-wide agitation was thus undertaken.

After demonstrations and effigy burnings across the State, the workers submitted memorandums to the Chief Minister through various authorized officials, and warned that the struggle would continue till their demands were met. The memorandum submitted several demands such as regularization of Asha workers with government employee status, Rs 15000 minimum monthly wage and Rs 5000 annual incentive with immediate payment along with arrears, Diwali bonus, free treatment for Asha workers in government hospitals and issue of health cards, accident insurance, end of PPP model in the health department, and guarantee of pension. Protests were held in Haldwani, Nainital, Ramnagar, Garampani, Betalghat, Dhari, Bindukhatta, Rudrapur, Kashipur, Bhikiyasain, Kapkot, Bageshwar, Dwarhat, Jaspur, Bajpur, Khatima, Sitarganj, Tanakpur, Lohaghat, Didihat, Dharchula, Ranikhet, and Almora.

Protests Against Rape and Feudal Violence in Patna

A protest was held in Patna on 7 November against the police inaction in a case of gang rape and murder of a minor girl in Mahua Bagh, Bihar. The young girl had gone to listen to a 'mata jagaran' at the local Shiva temple on 1 November – and had been gang raped. A delegation consisting of Gurudev Das, Jayprakash Paswan, Gopal Ravidas, Sharifa Manjhi and Nirmala Devi met the thana incharge at Parsa bazaar police station and demanded a speedy and proper enquiry into the matter, compensation of Rs 10 lakhs and a job for a family member, as well as action against the ongoing intimidation of the victim's family.

On 8 November, various women's organisations in Patna held a joint protest at Kargil chowk demanding justice for the Kurmuri gang rape victims as well as the Parsa Bazaar victim. AIPWA, Bihar Mahila Samaj, Kamkaji Mahila Association, Dalit Adhikar Manch, Women's Network and other women's groups, activists and intellectuals joined this protest. The protestors pointed out that despite growing instances of sexual, patriarchal and feudal violence in the State, the ruling government seemed determined not to take any strong action. Moreover, the opposition BJP forces choose to conveniently support the perpetrators in cases of feudal violence such as the Kurmuri gang rape case. The protestors pointed out the need to fight all instances of sexual violence, irrespective of considerations of caste and religion. The protest was conducted by Com. Anita Sinha. AIPWA general secretary Meena Tiwari, AIPWA state president Saroj Choubey, Sushila Sahay, Dr. Shanti Ojha, Shivani, Nivedita and Rampari amongst others addressed the protest. Vibha Gupta, Anuradha, Manju Yadav, Janki Devi and others participated in the protest.

ML Update | No. 46 | 2014

ML Update

A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine

Vol.  17 | No. 46 | 11 - 17 NOV 2014

 

Modi's Cabinet:

Green Signal to Crime, Corruption, and Communal Hate-Speech 

Narendra Modi's latest expansion of his Cabinet brings the total strength of Ministers to 66. The compulsions of accommodating leaders from a variety of states, castes and allied parties triumphed over the initial claims of 'minimum government, maximum governance'.

What is most striking about the Cabinet expansion is the unashamed accommodation of leaders tainted by serious crimes and corruption: the very question on which Modi Sarkar had promised to mark a break from the UPA Cabinet. Seven of the new Ministers have serious criminal charges against them, including those of murder, rioting and rape. In all, a study has shown that 20 (31%) out of entire strength of 64 Ministers, have serious criminal charges against them. Modi apologists have tried to label the charges as 'flimsy' – but such defences do not hold much water.

Moreover, one of the new Ministers, JP Nadda, is implicated in getting whistleblower Sanjeev Chaturvedi removed from his post as AIIMS CVO. Allegedly, Nadda pressurised the then Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to remove Chaturvedi, who was investigating an officer close to Nadda for corrupt deals to the tune of crores of rupees. 

Then, there is the case of the Suresh Prabhu, who shifted allegiance from Shiv Sena to BJP on the eve of his induction into the Cabinet. Prabhu, former Environment Minister in the Vajpayee Government, ironically has a flat in the Adarsh Society in Maharashtra, notorious for violating a host of environmental laws and regulations. Prabhu's flat is also larger that the area to which he is legally entitled. The Adarsh Society scam was a serious black mark on the Congress-NCP Government in the State, but Opposition political leaders including Prabhu are alleged to be beneficiaries of the scam. With Prabhu finding a berth in Modi's Cabinet, the issue of corruption has come full circle – showing the essential continuity between the UPA and NDA regimes on this issue.

The inclusion of Jayant Sinha (son of BJP leader Yashwant Sinha) in the Cabinet is also noteworthy – pointing to the close overlapping of corporate and government interests, and the consequent conflict of these interests with those of the country and its citizens. Jayant Sinha is a former head of the Omidyar Network in India – known to be run by the eBay billionaire Pierre Omidyar. Sinha quit Omidyar to join Modi's election campaign as an advisor. Soon after, Modi publicly endorsed the opening of India's e-commerce market to FDI – a move that would massively benefit Omidyar who represents one of the foremost global corporate interests in e-commerce.

Cabinet apart, Modi's chosen Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian, too has a record of being a blatant advocate of US corporate interests. As late as March 2013, he had advised US Congress on the "challenges" posed by India's domestic "protectionism" to US business interests. Why is Modi's hand-picked Economic Advisor a man with an IMF background, who believes India should stop protecting the interests of its people in order to benefit US businesses?   

The inclusion of Giriraj Singh – the BJP MP from Nawada in Bihar – is yet another instance of Modi's wink to corruption. A few months ago, a huge stash of cash – Rs 1.14 crore - was recovered from a thief who had stolen the amount from Singh's house. Singh had only reported a theft of Rs 50,000. A red-faced Singh had offered the truly flimsy explanation that the cash belonged to his 'cousin' – a real estate builder with interests in Nagpur. But Giriraj Singh's inclusion as Modi's Cabinet Minister is significant for other reasons too. The BJP has, till now, claimed to distance the party and the Prime Minister from the poisonous communal and casteist utterances of various figures associated with the Sangh Parivar and BJP. While the 'love jehad' lie was a central vehicle of the BJP campaign in Uttar Pradesh, with MP Adityanath making especially vile speeches provoking violence on this pretext, the BJP claimed that Adityanath did not have the party's and Modi's approval. But Giriraj Singh's elevation to Cabinet Minister gives the lie to BJP's claims.

Giriraj Singh had, during the Lok Sabha election campaign counselled Modi's critics, especially Muslims, to 'go to Pakistan'. His statement openly mocked at democratic norms of the space for dissent, and displayed his vision of Modi's rule as an authoritarian Hindu Nation with no room for minorities and dissenters. Giriraj Singh also openly defended Adityanath's hate-speech and amplified it, endorsing the 'love jehad' lie quite openly. And Giriraj Singh is also notorious for having equated the Ranvir Sena chief Brahmeshwar Singh, who had the blood of massacres of dalit landless poor on his hands, with Gandhi. If Singh's inclusion in Modi's cabinet shows the communal-casteist-undemocratic face behind the 'development' mask, the inclusion of Nadda, Prabhu and Jayant Sinha reveal that 'development' in the Modi regime, as in the UPA regime that it replaced, will continue to mean corporate plunder, corruption and flagrant disregard for the environment and the country's precious resources.                 

 

All India Kisan Mahasabha's Bihar State Conference Held

Over the past month, district-level conferences of All India Kisan Mahasabha had been held in several districts of Bihar – and the 7^th Bihar State Conference of the Kisan Mahasabha was held on 1-2 Nov 2014 in Vaishali district of Bihar. The conference began by paying tributes to all martyred comrades and flag hoisting at the Shaheed Smarak by Com. Ramashish Singh. Inaugurating the conference, Kisan Mahasabha General Secretary Com. Rajaram Singh critiqued the Modi government's policies related to land and the agricultural sector – the concessions to foreign corporate companies investing in India, the field trials of GM seeds which will gravely endanger food crops, the proposed pro-corporate and anti-farmer reforms in the land acquisition Bill and the dilution of environmental standards. He pointed out that the phenomenon of sharecropping is on the rise in Bihar, but instead of helping the smaller sharecropper by encouraging public investment, the central and state governments are making all sorts of cuts in farmer subsidies. As a result of the government's policies in the agricultural sector, farming outlays are getting costlier through privatisation of farming material, even as the government refuses to give sharecroppers the status of "farmer" and the benefits which go with it. 

Kisan Mahasabha National President Com. Ruldu Singh also highlighted the deteriorating socio-economic conditions of farmers due to the rising cost of farming inputs. He pointed out that farmers in the so-called rich agricultural belt of Punjab were inveigled and trapped in the debt syndrome and weighed down by loans to the tune of thousands of crores. More than half of the debts were owed to private moneylenders and usurers, leading small farmers to commit suicides in large numbers. National secretary Purushottam Sharma from Uttarakhand said that the uncontrolled industrialization and indiscriminate tourism development in that State was destroying the villages of poor farmers. CPI(ML) leader Com. Rajaram Singh said that recently the Party had conducted a survey of 2 lakh farmers in Bihar, especially sharecroppers, and studied their problems. In the coming days the Party would be taking up steps to organize poor farmers and sharecroppers and initiate struggles.

Focusing on the need to raise sharecroppers' issues effectively, Bihar State secretary Birendra Gupta pointed out that as a good portion of farm labour is engaged in sharecropping, there are increased possibilities for a united struggle. Vice President of the Bihar State Kisan Sabha (affiliated to the CPI) Com. Ramchandra Mahto and State secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha (affiliated to the CPI(M)) Com. Awadhesh underlined the need to develop a united farmers' struggle to combat the impact of neoliberal policies. Com. Surendra Singh and Com. Rambali Prasad also spoke of the devastation caused by neoliberal policies, stating that not only were farmers being deprived of economic rights, their right to organized struggle was also in jeopardy.

Samkaleen joint editor Pradeep Jha pointed out that agriculture was gradually moving from a feudal sharecropping system to a corporate sharecropping system, even as the farmer has not been able to get ownership rights to his crop. He stressed the need to find new ways to strengthen small farmers and to fight the ruling class attempts to wedge a divide between farmers and sharecroppers in Bihar. He appealed for widespread dissemination of the D. Bandopadhyay commission recommendations relating to sharecroppers and for a concerted effort to build an effective farmers' and sharecroppers' movement.

The delegate session was held in the evening of 1 November. Reports of the earlier work of the mahasabha were presented, in which issues such as the dilapidated condition of canals, ahars, and government hand pumps, black marketing of seeds and fertilizers, corruption in PACS (primary agricultural cooperative societies) elections and crop purchase centres, shelving of the D Bandopadhyay recommendations, and forceful land acquisition were discussed. In particular, the denial of sharecroppers' rights was highlighted. Struggles of the Kisan Mahasabha in the last 4-5 years for sharecroppers' rights and crop purchase, and for sugar cane farmers' issues were detailed. The intervention of the Mahasabha in farmers' protest against land acquisition was also discussed. A 17-point list of responsibilities was presented, for widening the organizational strength of the Mahasabha.

32 representatives participated in the discussion. They discussed issues such as the economic oppression of workers in dairy farms, water logging problems in several districts, false electricity bills and extreme shortage of electricity, problems of fruit and vegetable growers due to lack of local mandis, common farmers being deprived of PACS membership, the need to fix the sugar cane purchase price before the sugar mills start working and to include representation of sugar cane farmers in the process of price fixing, failure of the government to buy the crops at the appropriate time, extreme delay in payment, and lack of proper compensation for destroyed crops.

On 2 November, the presiding board declared the inclusion of the issues raised by the representatives in the agenda of the Kisan Mahasabha. Com. Shivsagar Sharma and Com. Krishna Dev Yadav stressed the need for strong intervention on farmers' issues, especially sharecroppers' issues. The report was then passed unanimously. In the final organizational session, National Secretary Com. Ishwari Prasad Kushwaha oversaw the election of new office bearers. 76 comrades were elected to the 81-member council, while 5 places remain vacant. A 33-member executive was elected from among the council members. Com. Vishveshwar Prasad was elected State President and Com. Sudama Prasad State secretary. 8 Vice Presidents and 8 joint secretaries were also elected. Finally, a 12-point political resolution was passed. It was resolved to observe the week from 28 November to 4 December as a state-wide "Demand Week" to demand sharecroppers' rights through organized dharnas in all blocks. The conference ended by paying tributes to Com. Shah Chand, news of whose sad demise reached just as the conference was coming to an end. Prior to this state conference, at the district-level conferences of the Bihar Kisan Mahasabha had been held in Bhojpur, Rohtas, Siwan, Gopalganj, Muzaffarpur, Jamui and Begusarai.

 

Movement for Peoples' Rights in Ramgarh

During the past month, CPI(ML) has been leading several struggles in Ramgarh, Jharkhand. 17-year old Kamlesh Munda died of hunger in September, and since then CPI(ML) has been demanding justice for his family. After his death, an 8-member enquiry team led by Com. Devki Nandan Bediya and Vigendra Thakur visited Kamlesh Munda's village, Betul Khurd. The team met the villagers as well as the victim's brother Sunil Munda and enquired into the incident. The villagers informed the CPI(ML) team that Kamlesh Munda's father died of hunger in 2003, when Kamlesh and his brother Sunil were just 6 and 5 years old respectively. At that time, the State government had undertaken to pay for the care and education of both the children and had admitted them to the Adivasi school in Mandu. Last year, both boys failed the Matric exam and returned to the village to live with their grandfather in a dilapidated 2-room Indira Awas home. Kamlesh Munda, already suffering from epilepsy, could no longer get medicine due to lack of money. Without money to buy food on the ration card, Sunil started working at the Kaku hotel in Hemantpur. Sometimes they had money for rations, and sometimes the villagers helped them. The BDO was kept informed about this situation. Panchayat sewak Ramji Mahto sometimes visited the village on behalf of the government, but he could not render any help to Kamlesh. Finally the 17-year old Kamlesh died on 25 September. The villagers informed the BDO, who in turn sent the panchayat sewak to the village. The BDO and SDO visited the village in the evening, gave 10,000 as compensation, and suspended the panchayat sewak in an attempt to absolve the government from accountability. CPI(ML) organized a dharna and nukkad sabha to protest against Kamlesh's death and to demand a high level enquiry, action against the guilty as well as and proper care, medical and educational expenses for Sunil Munda.

On 14-15 October, a CPI(ML) team led by Com. Devki Nandan Bediya visited the areas in Gola block of Ramgarh district affected by the Hudhud cyclone.  The DC, SP, BDO, CO and other officials visited only 2 of the affected villages and of all the hundreds of affected homes, gave 2.5 to 5 kg rice, 1.5 kg chiwda, 1.5 kg jiggery, 2 bottles of water, some biscuits, and some assurances in just 35 homes. CPI(ML) organized a rally of over 300 people and a public meeting in Gola block on 17 October to demand compensation for the affected villages and to raise other peoples' issues. Comrades Devki Nandan Bediya, Bigendra Thakur, Tejpal Mahto, Gobind Kushwaha, Shankar Munda, Aloki Devi as well as Akli Devi, condemned the government's gross neglect. The villagers described their problems, and submitted a 19-point charter of demands.

A rally was organized in Mandu block on 17 October to protest looting of land by the land mafia, destruction of crops by poisonous emissions from sponge iron factories, and to demand minimum wages for workers. A rally was also organized in Patratu block to protest against removal of 400 names of poor people from the BPL list, against bribery and corruption in ration distribution and in issuing land deeds for farmers, against the gair-majruwa land scam and land acquisition by the Jindal corporate house. A memorandum was submitted on these issues. A dharna was also held in Dulmi block to demand subsidies in seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides for farmers, and to protest against the scams in construction of toilets in rural areas and corruption in the Indira Awas schemes. A memorandum on these issues was submitted.

'Vishwasghat Virodhi' March In Ranchi

A 'Vishwasghat Virodhi' march was held in Ranchi on 20 October, to protest against the steady betrayals of peoples' aspirations by the Hemant Soren government in Jharkhand and the Modi government at the Centre. This rally, called by the Ranchi town committee, began from the Party State office in Ranchi, and culminated in a protest gathering at the Albert Ekka chowk. The march was led by CPI(ML)'s central control commission board member Com. Sukhdev Prasad, Ranchi district secretary Bhuvaneshwar Kevat and Sudama Khalko. Speakers at the rally pointed out that the JMM and BJP had held power in Jharkhand for the longest period, and therefore need to be held responsible for the corporate loot, corruption, forced migration and human trafficking in Jharkhand. The rally was addressed by Pratap Choudhary, Bhim Sahu, Maqsood Alam, Tulsi Singh, Shanti Sen, Meena Lakra, Inamul Haque and others.

Left Parties Press Release

A meeting of six Left parties – Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Revolutionary Socialist Party, All India Forward Bloc, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation and Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) was held on 3 November at New Delhi. They have issued the following statement:

With the advent of the Modi government in power there is a concerted rightwing offensive fueled by the corporate-Hindutva forces. There is a growing onslaught on the people through the imposition of neo-liberal policies which is going to adversely impact the livelihood of the people. There is no respite for the people from price rise, unemployment and corruption.

The Hindutva forces are resorting to aggressive communal activities. The Modi government's patronage of the RSS and its outfits is aimed at communalising the educational, social and cultural institutions. There is rise in communal tensions in different parts of the country.

The Left parties decided to conduct a week long protest campaign between December 8 to 14, 2014 on the following issues:

(i)      Against steps to curtail and dilute the MNREGA

(ii)    Curb price rise; control exorbitant price of medicines and drugs

(iii)    No increased FDI in insurance.

(iv)   Take firm action to unearth black money

(v)              Stop infiltration of the RSS and Hindutva ideology in education, public broadcasting media and  other institutions of the State.

(vi)   Stop the "love jihad" hate campaign and other forms of communal propaganda

(vii)  Stop attacks on minorities and their rights

(viii)                       Fight violence against women and all forms of gender oppression

(ix)  Fight against atrocities on dalits and caste oppression

Those who attended the meeting were: Debabrata Biswas (AIFB); Kshiti Goswami & Manoj Bhattacharya (RSP); Swapan Mukherjee & Kavita Krishnan (CPI(ML)-Liberation); Manik Mukherjee & Ranjit Dhar (SUCI(C)), A.B. Bardhan & D Raja (CPI) and Prakash Karat & S Ramachandran Pillai (CPI(M)).

Workshop for Working Women in Bengal

An encouraging workshop of working women was organised by AIPWA and AICCTU on 9 November at Chinsura, Hooghly. More than 100 working class women from different sectors participated, expressed their trials and tribulations and shared their experiences with others. Women workers of Asha, anganwadi and midday meal schemes as well as domestic workers and even agricultural labourers actively took part in the discussion.  Chaitali Sen (Secretary AIPWA, West
Bengal) initiated the discussion and explained the necessity of the workshop. Atanu Chakravarty, President, AICCTU, West Bengal gave an introductory speech, stressing particularly on sexual harassment of women at workplaces, and mentioning some crucial points from the existing Act against sexual violence and harassment. He explained that workplace also means 'world of
work', which ILO uses to include the broader place of economic activity, i.e., on public transportation going to work, or returning back home after a night shift or selling products in the street. The concept of 'world of work' helps capture paid productive work that does not take place within the traditional "public sphere" such as a factory or office. He also mentioned that the 45th session of Indian Labour Conference held in May 2013 concluded that all women working in Asha, MDM and Anganwadi schemes should be treated as workers – they should be paid minimum wage and should get all social security benefits such as pension, gratuity, and maternity benefits. It was also mentioned that domestic workers are explicitly included in the Unorganized workers (social security) Act, 2008 and have come under the coverage of Rashtriya Swasth Bima Yogana.

Representatives and leaders from different sectors expressed their experiences and humiliation which they face from employers and even from government officials such as school authorities and health personnel. Com. Chaitali summed up the discussion and informed the gathering that a similar workshop would take place on 16 Nov at a state level. Prabir Haldar, President AICCTU Hooghly district committee, assured the participants of all active help and cooperation and reiterated the need to break the narrow confines of various sectors in order to assert as a fighting class against all forms of patriarchy and class oppression. Com. Sobha Banerjee, President AIPWA Hoogly, presided over the proceedings.

Obituary

A Tribute to Minakshi Sen, progressive litterateur

Noted progressive littérateur and academician Minskshi Sen passed away on 24 October 2014 in Agartala. Always deeply sympathetic to the revolutionary communist movement, she had been associated with a variety of peoples' movements, starting with her involvement in the 1970s when she was a college student at City College Kolkata. She joined the Naxalite movement and was arrested in the year 1973 and subsequently released from jail in the year 1977. Her experiences in jail found a reflection in her legendry works such as "jeler bhetor jel". She worked extensively to build the academic discourse around media, gender, conflict and reconciliation, language, music and literature of the North Eastern region. After completion of her post graduation, she came to Tripura and started her profession as a college teacher. Within very short period, she became a popular teacher. Till her death, she maintained a good relation with CPI(ML). Not long before her demise, when the party's state leaders met her, she gave her consent to join the All India Peoples' Forum. Her passing is an immeasurable loss for revolutionary literature and the progressive democratic movement.