Revolutionary Path

International Women's Day.

2009-03-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

First of all, I would like to wish everyone in Rediffiland on the International Women"s day.

International women's day was first observed by working women around the world under the leadership of Clara Zetkin on 1910. This day represents the aspiration and struggle of women around the world to break free from the clutches of capitalism, Feudalism and all sorts of patriarchial exploitation and repression.
But it is a pity to see that nowadays this day has been hijacked by the bourgeois class.
They have totally commercialised this day. The decadent bourgeois culture, which protrays women as sex objects to be traded in the market place, is being propagated in almost all types of media.
Alcoholism and demonstration of naked and half naked bodies by women are being viewed as signs of progress. It is a pity to see that this great day and it's significance is being maligned by the ruling class in this way to corrupt the population.
It is the job of every modern, progressive person ( both men and women) to fight against these reactionary designs and re-establish International Women's Day in history with it's full glory.

Lalgarh shimmering with anger

2009-02-05T09:38:00.000-08:00

LALGARH: The trust had been eroding fast, but after Monday's attack, tribals in Lalgarh have turned completely against the police. The People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) is setting up a village security force to guard from police and CPM supporters. The hostility is out in the open now, with PCPA leaders demanding that policemen leave the villages immediately.

Three villagers were shot dead at Khasjangal on Monday and villagers claimed that Lalgarh OC Susanta Rajbanshi and his team did nothing to stop the violence. The PCPA leadership has called a 48-hour strike in the three districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia from Wednesday onwards.

"The attackers opened fire in the presence of police, who did nothing to stop them. Instead they allowed safe passage to the killers. We don't need the police here anymore ," said Chhatradhar Mahato, PCPA leader. Two youths from each village will be recruited as guards. "These guards will alert us in case there is an attack by CPM-backed goons or police," added Mahato.

Blockades put up at several places along the Lalgarh-Ramgarh road remained in place through the day. Later in the evening, the road was cut off at Jhitka by the committee's members.

Till late on Tuesday night, police have not been able to identify the "unknown gunmen" who opened fire. "Investigations are on to trace the assailants. Family members of none of the victims have lodged a complaint," said Kuldiep Singh, IG (Western zone).

At Gopalnagar, the villagers were mourning the death of Rajaram Mandi and his son Lakhiram . A bullet had pierced Lakhiram's chest and another his father's abdomen. A marginal cropper, Mandi owned a five-bigha plot which was their only source of earning. "My sister-in-law Golapi is three months pregnant. We haven't broken the news to her yet," said Tusu, Lakhiram's sister.

PCPA leaders are camping at Khasjangal. With the attacks, the tribal leaders are confident of getting support from more places. "We have decided to set up two more branches at Dalilpur and Dharampur under our central committee," said Mahato.

With CPM on the back foot, the Opposition parties have quickly jumped into the fray to garner tribal support before the Lok Sabha elections.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee will visit Lalgarh on Wednesday. Her party supporters from Midnapore town visited Khasjangal on Tuesday expressing solidarity with the tribals. Not to be outdone, district Congress has called a 12-hour Jhargram strike to protest against the killings.

Press Statement by Gana Pratirodh Mancha

2008-11-15T06:49:00.000-08:00

A delegation on behalf of Gana Pratirodh Mancha( state unit of Revolutionary Democratic Front) visited Darjeeling on 11th October 2008.
It was lead by Raja Sorkhel ,state committee secretary of Gana Pratirodh Mancha(GPM). It also comprised of Prosun Chattopaddhay and Gour Chakroborty , two state committee members of Gana Pratirodh Mancha.
They met with senior leaders of Gorkha Janamukti Morcha and expressed their solidarity with the struggle being waged by the Gorkha people for a separate state of Gorkhaland. Gana Pratirodh Mancha and RDF fully supports the legitimate demand for a separate Gorkhaland state and the democratic movement being led by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha. The news of this meeting was informed to the public and the media in a open press conference held in Jalpaiguri.

But it has been noted that a part of the media including some television channels have been broadcasting news saying that the meeting was secret and it was part of a maoist pact with Gorkha Janamukti Morcha. Gana Pratirodh Mancha(GPM) is making it clear that the meeting was in no way a secret meeting and has nothing to do with any party or organisation except GPM.
GPM strongly condemns the gross distortion of facts by a part of the media . It urges them to play a more responsible role in representing the facts regarding GPM.

-Raja Sorkhel

Gour Chakroborty

Prosun Chattopaddhay

We want pro-people industrialisation

2008-08-28T05:54:00.000-07:00

India is a country with agrarian economy.
Most of the people are employed in agricultural sector.
So if we have to turn our beloved motherland into a modern progressive egalitarian state we have to embark on a mission of pro-people, labour intensive , nature friendly path of industrialisation .
We can not blindly follow the model of western capitalist states where industrialisation has taken place by setting up of large scale industries.
This experiment has failed in our country in the 50s' and 60s' even with full government backing.
We have to follow the path of Mao's china not the path of World Bank,WTO and IMF.

What is that path?

At first we need sweeping real land reforms.
Not the fake so-called reforms of West Bengal.
All the land should go to the tillers.
Like what Comrade Lenin had instructed.

In this way the feudal land relation will cease to exist.
The parasitic extra economic coercion of Feudalism will come to an end.
The share croppers will no longer be bound to give 25% or 50% of their produce to the landlord.
The agricultural workers will no longer be bound to act as bonded or semi-bonded labourers.

This will increase the surplus value generated by the peasants and the agricultural workers.
This will become surplus capital.
This surplus capital will then be either reinvested into agriculture itself or get invested into agro-based industries like manufacturing of power tillers, pump sets, fertilizers, seed, insecticides etc.
Due to increased capital in the hands of the farmers there will be a ready market for these goods. More mechanisation will come into agriculture and production will increase.
As people will have more money they will be able to arrange good education for their children and thus the whole living standard of the community and the society will be raised.
More money in the hands of peasants and other labouring people will increase the purchasing capacity of the population. This will help to create market for non agro based small and medium sized industry including consumer goods industry.

In this way we can create a people friendly humane form of industrialisation as opposed to the jobless ,ruthless, anti people imperialist industrialisation.

However it is doubtful whether the imperialist , feudal lords and the comprador bourgeoisie will allow us to accomplish our goal within this exploitative semi feudal, semi colonial society.
So, the only way forward is to establish the rule of the people by making the New Democratic Revolution victorious through the path of protracted people's war.

Survey and Campaign by FAMA

2008-08-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

Forum Against Monopoly aggression ( FAMA) is a platform of organisations and individuals fighting against the infiltration of large corporate capital in retail business.
FAMA has been carrying out campaign and consolidation activities for the past few months which included Conventions, street corner meetings, postering and leafleting.
As a part of this ongoing movement FAMA organised a survey among the shopkeepers and small businessmen in the Baghajatin area in the southern suburbs of Kolkata.
Members of several democratic mass organisations of the area took part in this survey. There was a sizable participation from students of Jadavpur University.

Recently there has been a trend of big, glossy shopping malls springing up in this neighbourhood.There are already a few malls like the Big Bazaar and food mall. There are plans of several other malls to be built in the future.
The survey included questions relating to the impact of these shopping malls on the livelihood of the common shopkeepers and small businessmen. The response was overwhelming. Several shopkeepers vented their shimmering anger against these corporate sharks who are bent on destroying their businesses. They have quite well understood the dangers that these huge trans-national corporations pose to them.
Many said that they are ready to take to the streets if any organisation stands by them and gives leadership.

FAMA will continue to carry out this survey and other campaign activities in differnet parts of the city and the suburban areas in the future. Another such survey will take place about a week from now.

Comrade Saroj Dutta will be remembered forever

2008-08-05T01:33:00.000-07:00

Today, 5th August is the martyrdom day of Comrade Saroj Dutta.He was one of the greatest leaders of the communist revolutionary movement of the 1970s', popularly known as the naxalite movement.
Comrade Saroj Dutta, commonly known as comrade SD, is an important name in the history of Indian Communist movement. He was born in 1914 in a semi-landlord family of Jessore in East Bengal.

Comrade SD joined the Amrita Bazar Patrika, after completing his post graduation in English from University of Calcutta in early forties. Later he became a political whole-timer and joined Swadhinata, the organ of the Bengal State Committee of the CPI. He was also the editor of the famous literary journal – Parichaye.

During his imprisonment in 1962, SD came in contact with Comrade Charu Majumdar. Being a staunch communist, he aired harsh criticisms against the Dangeite leadership and joined the CPI (M) after the split in 1964. When the CPI (M) leadership nakedly advocated Khrushchev’s line of class-collaboration, comrades SD, Sushital Roy Choudhuri, Asit Sen and others formed the Marxist-Leninist Institute, an anti revisionist study group. After the Naxalbari upsurge, he vehemently criticized the party leadership and was expelled.

Comrade SD was instrumental in the formation of the AICCR and the CPI (M-L). He became the editor of Deshabrati, the Bengali organ of the West Bengal State Committee of the CPI (M-L).

He relentlessly fought for the consolidation of comrade Charu Majumdar’s authority, and played an important role in intra-party debates.

From 1970 onwards, comrade SD became one of the most wanted persons in India. The police was always hunting for him like a hungry wolf. Finally, in the early hours of 5th August, 1971, he was secretly eliminated by the state machinery.

His write-ups in “Patrikar Duniyaye” in Deshabrati are treated as rare gems in the treasury of Leftist Journalism.

P. Govindan Kutty released

2008-02-26T06:46:00.000-08:00

Mr. P. Govindan Kutty , the editor of People's March magazine, who was arrested about a month back in Kerala ,was released yesterday.
It took a lot of campaigning and a long strenuous hunger strike by him to force the state to release him from his totally unfair imprisonment.
Following is a statement issued by him after his release.

I was released from prison today around noon. I thank the print and mass media in extending their support for my struggle in prison. I thank the civil and democratic rights organisations, Kerala Working Journalists Union, Advocates P.A. Pauran, Madhusudan in extending legal assistance, Arundhati Roy, Girish Karnad, Maheshwata Devi in espousing my cause. People's March publication will be resumed as early as possible.

Normally police seize only the hard disks of any computer. In My case they seized the whole C.P.U., Monitor, Key Board, Mouse, Speakers everything. I have to buy everything as the seized items will be returned only after the closure of the case by court. Normally police seize only the SIM card. In my case police seized the mobile instrument itself. That means I have to spend money for a computer and mobile. The owners of the printing press which prints People's March were threatened by police. They refuse to print People's March.

These are the problems before the People's March. Even though People's March is a Registered Newspaper registered under the Registrar of Newspapers for India.Liberal financial assistance is the need of the hour to resume People's March publication.
-P. Govindan Kutty, Editor, People's March

Appeal By Dr. Binayak Sen's Mother

2007-12-31T18:27:00.000-08:00

Friends, after a long gap of more than I months we are back in action.
Could not update the blog due to some unavoidable circumstances.
From now on I hope to continue blogging regularly.

(Following is an appeal by the mother of Dr. Binayak Sen, a tireless social worker and human rights activist, who has been arrested in Chattisgarh and has false fabricated charges against him.)

By Anasuya Sen

I am a woman in my eighties. When we were young, people were inspired by the examples of karmayogis who were patriotic, motivated by ideals of service, wise and virtuous. We considered ourselves blessed if we could follow in their footsteps.

I had so far been a silent spectator to the injustice and violence that pervades our free democracy today, but only because I was personally untouched by it. But now, as an aged mother, and outraged by the blows of injustice, I wish to break my silence. Inconsolable in my pain at the age of eighty-one years, I now wish to make a humble appeal to the people of free, democratic India.

As perhaps many of you are aware, my son Dr. Binayak Sen is today held in jail, a victim of extreme injustice. At the age of four years, he was troubled by questions of injustice: why didn’t the boy who helped us at home not eat with us? Why did he have to eat alone on the kitchen floor? Why couldn’t he join him at meal times?

When he graduated with his first medical degree with distinction at the age of twenty two from the Christian Medical College in Vellore, he refused to heed his father’s wish for him to go to England to study for the MRCP. Whatever knowledge he needed to practice medicine in his own country, he insisted, he could acquire right here. He was subsequently awarded the M.D. in paediatrics from Vellore, and then joined JNU as an assistant professor with a wish to study for a PhD in Public Health. But he could brook no further delay. He left his academic position to take up a position at the TB Research Centre and hospital run by the Friends’ Rural Centre at Hoshangabad (MP). After a couple of years there, he found an opportunity to work among the miners in Chhattisgarh. There he joined the late independent trade unionist Shankar Guha Neogi and devoted himself selflessly to serving the daily wage labourers of the Bhilai factories and the mineworkers and their families at the mines of Dalli Rajhara and Nandini, aiding and organizing the poor and the oppressed untiringly in their daily struggles to rid themselves of their many social ills. It was here, while working with Shankar Guha Neogi’s Chhattisgarh Mines Shramik Sangh, that Dr. Sen set up a health centre run for and by the workers of the area. Within a few years this grew to a 25 bed hospital. Dr. Sen then left this hospital in the care of the workers and a few other doctors who had been inspired by his example to work there, and joined his wife Dr. Ilina Sen in Raipur in starting a NGO called Rupantar. This organization worked in the areas of community health, ecologically sustainable agriculture, helping women become independent, and formal and informal education for children and adults. Work proceeded apace in all areas successfully. When a rice research centre had opened at Bhatagaon, a scientist cited Dr. Sen in one of his works as “Dr. Binayak Sen, a farmer”. Dr. Sen also opened community health centres in the villages of Dhamtari and Bastar districts, devoted to treating patients and training health workers for administering primary health care and raising awareness of their own communities in matters of health. Primary and adult education centres were opened at various villages.

Dr. Sen’s example inspired several other doctors from famous medical institutions like AIIMS to give up lucrative careers and comfortable lifestyles to open similar health centres in Bilaspur. These centres are now running very successfully.

While working with Rupantar at Raipur, Dr. Sen joined the People’s Union of Civil Liberties as an all-India Vice President and Secretary for the state of Chhattisgarh. In the course of his medical work among the poor and the oppressed, which was already occupying all his time, he became aware of the abuses of the state towards the poor adivasis of Bastar district, and protested against the state sponsored Salwa Judum movement that pitted adivasis against one other. The state did not take kindly towards his protestations on behalf of the poor.

When the brother of an aged and ailing prisoner of Raipur Central Jail asked Dr. Sen to visit and treat his brother in prison, Dr. Sen did so with the permission of the jail authorities. The fact that the prisoner was a Naxalite gave the state an opportunity to arrest and imprison Dr. Sen on May 14, 2007 under the state’s Public Security laws. The patriot who had devoted his entire professional life to the untiring service of the poor – a record acknowledged by the Paul Harrison Award bestowed on him by his alma mater – that very person was now in jail charged with being a terrorist waging war against the state.

When the Chhattisgarh High Court denied Dr. Sen his appeal for bail, his wife Dr. Ilina Sen appealed to the Supreme Court. The date for the hearing of the bail petition was fixed for Monday, December 10 2007.

A Bench consisting of a senior and a junior judge was appointed to hear the appeal for bail. The initial junior judge was subsequently replaced by another. On December 8, the Chhattisgarh government invited the senior member of this Bench to Raipur as the chief guest at the inaugural ceremony of a Legal Aid Centre, and extended its hospitality to him till December 9 when the senior judge returned to New Delhi. The very next day, the Bench dismissed Dr. Binayak Sen’s appeal for bail in just thirty-five minutes.

Here, without casting any doubts or aspersions on anyone’s integrity, I humbly wish to pose my question to all the people and revered leaders of free, democratic India: SHOULD I REGARD AS JUSTICE the refusal of bail to one who even as a child was moved by injustice, who having devoted his entire working life selflessly to providing food and health to the poor, who without coveting wealth survived for days on dal, rice and green chillies, who is accustomed to living like the poor, who dedicated his life to serving the people of his country, and who is now arraigned for breach of public security and waging war against the state?

If this is justice, where I should I seek redress against injustice? Should I remain a victim of injustice even at this age?

Does this son of mine – a selfless, wise, virtuous, humble, peace-loving karmayogi, motivated entirely by the ideals of service, and living among the poor - have to spend his days in prison?

My simple question to all compassionate readers of this appeal is: How much longer to that day when Dr. Binayak Sen will receive justice?

I ask this question not just for myself and for my son, but also on behalf of all mothers suffering from the injustice meted out to their children. Is justice so elusive in our free, democratic country?

*************************************************

On December 10, 2007, the Supreme Court rejected Dr. Sen’s bail appeal. Please visit freebinayaksen.org and savebinayak.ukaid.org for information and activist resources on Binayak Sen

Students of Kolkata protest again

2007-11-25T22:03:00.000-08:00

The following statement has been issued by USDF:-

Students in Protest again on 3rd December.....

United Students Democratic Front(a students co-ordination front comprising of
students from Jadavpur University,Presidency College,Asutosh College,Bidhan Nagar
College,Scottish Church College and many other insts.)is going to arrange a political
and cultural convention on 3rd December,2007,Monday from 11 am
to 9 pm,at"Onoshon Mancha" at Metro Channel.

The day long convention will comprise of:

1.A Panel Discussion with the following speakers:

i]Prof. Sumit Sarkar
ii]Prof. Tanika Sarkar
iii]Mr. Bibhas Chakrabarty
iv]Mr.Nabarun Bhattacharyaya
v] Mr.Arunava Ghosh
vi]Prof.Amit Bhattacharyaya
vii]Prof.Avi Datta Majumder
viii]Mr.Goutam Bhadra

Topic of Panel Discussion: Samrajyobad,Biswayon o SEZ birodhi protirodh
andoloner notun nam:Nandigram

2.A Cultural Programme with following artists:

i] Pallab Kirtonia
ii] Ganabishan
iii]Protul Mukherjee

3. Speeches on Nandigram Movement from eminent intellectuals,professors &
personalities like:

i]Ms.Medha Patekar
ii]Mr.Joy Goswami
iii]Ms.Saoli Mitra
iv]Mr.Sanatan Dinda
v]Dr.Siddhatha Gupta
vi]Prof.Sabyasachi Deb
vii]Ms.Sohini Halder
viii]Ms.Bolan Gangopadhyay
ix] Mr.Sameer Aich
x] Prof.Manas Joardar

and many others.......

4.Speeches from students of Presidency,JU,Asutosh clg,Bidhan nagar Clg,Scottish Church Clg,and many other institutions.

5.Student speakers from different organisations like:

i] PDSF
ii] AISA
iii]Chatro Andolon Prostuti
iv]DSC
v]PSU
vi]SB
vii]AISF
viii]Chatro Chatri Sanhati Mancha

6.Poster Exhibition by Srijan Sen and others.

7.Street Theatre.

8. Relief Collection in cash ,medicine,food,garments for Nandigram Victims.

PLZ COME & JOIN TO RAISE UR VOICE WITH US.....

CPM barbarism

2007-11-11T19:31:00.000-08:00

For the last few days CPM criminals armed with automatic rifles taken from the police have been creating mayhem in Nandigram. They have captured villages after villages. They have burnt hundred of houses belonging to the common people who dared to stand up against the oppressive regime of CPM.
They have not even spared the domestic animals.Either burning them or shooting them.
The pinnacle of terror came on 10th November when murderers of CPM fired upon a totally unarmed procession of about 20,000 people killing scores and injuring hundreds.
Several people are still missing. Not stopping at this they took about 500 people hostage and kept them under detention in Khejuri for the whole night.
Then next morning they used those kidnapped people as human shield and captured village after village.
This is Barbarism of CPM at its worst. Following is a newspaper report.

NANDIGRAM, Nov. 11: The day Bengal celebrated Brother’s Day when sisters wished long life to their brothers through an elaborate ritual, Dipen Mondal of Gangra village, Nandigram, had to frantically search for his elder sister in the paddy fields and then rush her to the hospital when he found her lying unconscious with bullet wounds in her leg near Maheshpur Kamarpara this morning.
Even when Dipen didn’t know whether life had already ebbed away from his sister, Kalpana, he considered himself lucky as many others in Nandigram scoured the paddy fields in vain in search of their missing relatives. For the past few days Dipen had been using the cover of darkness to look for his sister. He was so desperate this morning that he continued his search even in daylight and succeeded in tracing Kalpana in the morning. Immediately, he got hold of a cycle van and pedaled her away to Nandigram Hospital where she responded to treatment. Her condition was later stated to be stable.
After the CPI-M launched its offensive in a bid to recapture Nandigram villages, supporters of Bhumi Ucched Protirodh Committee (BUPC) began a hunt for their relatives who went missing in the aftermath of the fresh cycle of violence.
“The number of missing people is going up. A total of 350 persons can’t be traced after CPI-M cadres fired bullets at our rally near Maheshpur Bazar yesterday. Again, those who were driven out of their homes in the past four days have to go without food and shelter,” said Sheikh Sufiyan, a senior BUPC member.
He said the CPI-M allowed only 11 persons of Gokulnagar, Sonachura and Southkhali villages to return home during the day. But these villagers narrated tales of brutal torture by CPI-M cadres at a primary school near Khejuri where they had been kept.
Relatives of Mr Goutam Pradhan, a resident of Sonachura who went missing after the firing, had no idea about his whereabouts till late this evening. They fear CPI-M cadres have dumped Goutam’s body elsewhere.
Relatives of Mr Abhimanyu Patra, a BUPC supporter, ran from pillar to post today to trace him, but failed in their efforts. BUPC members informed them he was last seen at Maheshpore Bazar yesterday afternoon.
“We ran for our lives after the firing began. Abhimanyu fell to the ground after a bullet struck him in the leg. We couldn’t find him since then,” said a BUPC supporter of Sonachura.
Mrs Shibani Mondal, a housewife from Gokulnagar, said she had been abducted and later kept at Amtala primary school at Khejuri along with nearly 100 BUPC supporters who were beaten up by CPI-M men for participating in a BUPC rally.
So much for the CPI-M’s efforts to help their supporters return home and exhort them “not to take revenge through retaliatory strikes, but cohabit with their adversaries.

Observe Bharat Bandh on 3th October

2007-10-29T19:29:00.000-07:00

Scrap SEZ Act, Save the Country
Sez Hatao, Desh Bachao
Scrap all MOUs signed for large scale mining and big industrial plants.
No to Displacement, Development for People

Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan (VVJVA) appeals to one and all in the country to observe a day’s bandh (general strike) on 30th October, 2007 to strongly protest the Government’s policy displacing millions and millions of people, through the policies of SEZs and opening up vast mining projects, big dams and so-called urban renewal benefitting the MNCs and big capitalists in various parts of the country.

The call to observe bandh was given by the first ever All India Conference on 22 & 23 March, 2007 against displacement, where about a hundred of people’s organizations and a similar number of democratic individuals came together at Ranchi to raise their collective voices against all kinds of displacement including that caused by SEZs.

The people of Nandigram, Kalinganagar, Polavaram, Jagatsinghpur (where POSCO is grabbing the land for its SEZ and captive port), Raigada, Dadri and elsewhere have put up valiant resistance even risking their lives against this day-light robbery of the poor, of making people destitute through the so-called policies of development. In hundreds of places, millions of people in the country have been fighting tooth and nail to stop the SEZs, big mining, big dams, tourist projects, national parks, highways and big industrial projects that have been rendering several millions of people homeless and destitute. The misery of the people is fast developing into a surging storm, the very thought of the spectre of which has sent shudders through the ruling classes. The ruling class elite have become restive to the resisting voices of the people.

The present displacement is an outcome of Second Generation Reform phase under the cliché of development which is nothing but an all-round attack on the toiling masses. Earlier our rulers had mortgaged the country to the imperialists. Sixty years of so-called independence and the ‘democracy’ that supposedly has come of age meant all this penury to the vast majority of people. Today, the entire country, irrespective of the urban and the rural, has been transformed into a firing range where the mercenary police and paramilitary and the goondas of the ruling parties are brutally trying to crush the agitating people who want to protect their Jal, Jungal and Jameen—their sources of livelihood. On the other hand we have a Prime Minister and his smooth talking policy pundits taking their lessons from the World Bank and Washington, laying the road map for a so-called 10 percent growth rate, turning a blind eye to the burning problems of the people.

The Prime Minister of this country gives the impression that he cannot but falter when he gets vacuous about the super power that India is going to become. In these new clothes of the emperor what is being cleverly hidden is the total naked, shameless subservience to the rapacious needs of foreign capital. Beneath the smokescreen of an India Inc.—projected by a sensation driven, sycophant media—is the blood soaked face of a beastly state that satiates on the toil of the adivasis, dalits, landless agricultural labourer, the small and middle peasant, the small entrepreneur... the list is getting longer. There is no way the real anguish of the people that erupts in a Nandigram, Kashipur, Kalinganagar, Jagatsinghpur, Singur or Polavaram can be heard as a dignified, real, response of the people. The Market driven media and the policy pundits who receive their dollops from Multinational consultancy agencies such as Mckinsey or the British run DFID or their senior patrons the World Bank and the IMF are crying hoarse depicting these protests as primitive, anti-development, against civilization itself.

People are being taken into custody under the laws of sedition! As if they are an obstruction to the forward march of development of this country! Lakhs of crores of rupees worth MoUs have been signed by various state governments with various Multi National Corporations for mining of valuable resources of the people such as bauxite, coal, iron ore, diamonds, uranium, precious stones, etc. Several MoUs have been signed with monopolies to develop urban centres that will suit the needs of big capital in the process pushing out all small and medium entrepreneurs from the urban spaces as these ventures have been identified as hazardous to a clean urban environment. Wal-Mart and Reliance are aggressively displacing the local retail and small business. Huge malls have been swallowing the rest of the business. Supreme Court orders are decimating the local retail business prospects making way for MNCs and TNCs. Jawahar Rozgar Vikas Yojana has been wiping out the poor people in the urban slums. Big mining and industrial projects along with about 500 SEZs are driving the people out of their habitats.

Today, every nook and corner of the country is thrown open to the foreign capital in close collaboration with big capital at home to tear open the veins of the rich resources of this country.
Any form of resistance is met with brutal force by the state. Paramilitary and police armed to the teeth hound villagers and adivasis who are fighting for their very survival; when they refuse to let their land and livelihood being sold to the foreign capital and the local big capital for a pittance. And there is deafening silence against these unlawful, criminal acts of the state, on the part of the judiciary not to say the civil society.

The call to OBSERVE BANDH hence as become a wake up call for all those who believe in democracy, the well being of the vast sections of the masses as they too have their rightful place in our society to lead a dignified, secure life free of domination and exploitation. The people have been resisting, fighting their struggles of survival. The people of this country have to give a resounding rebuff to these anti-people policies brought in by this blood thirsty monster of the Indian state. This BANDH CALL is also a wake up call to the powers that be to look at the issues pertaining to development and displacement from the point of view of the people. And not from the diktats of the World Bank, IMF or the US.

Hence we appeal; we urge the people of this country to come forward, to surge ahead with the bandh call as these issues have become the bane of the vast sections of the people, their livelihood, their dreams and memories. These issues are no more the vested or narrow concern of this or that organisation. They have become the life and death issues of the wretched, the poor, the worker, the toiling masses, the tribals, dalits, the small entrepreneur, the small and middle peasant and the patriotic farmer. Yes this is the burning issue of the people of this country.

We once again call upon all political parties, democratic organisations, trade unions, employees’ organisations, workers and peasant organisations, youth and student organisations, adivasi and dalit organisations and the people—the masses of people to come out on to the streets, on 30th October, 2007, to say in no uncertain terms that we will not take all this blood sucking exploitative policies of the rulers and their pay masters lying low.

Let us fight it.

Let us resist it.

Let’s smash the SEZs policy.

Let us end all kinds of displacement.
Let the dead be buried. But death should not be allowed to live!

Repeal SEZ Act, 2005 along with all approved SEZs.
Scrap all MOUs signed for large scale mining and big industrial plants.
Repeal Land Acquisition Act 1894 along with all later amendments to it till date.
Rehabilitate all families so far displaced in the last sixty years.
Abrogate 123 Nuclear Agreement with US!
Stop displacement, stop imperialist sponsored development; protect and advance peoples livelihood.

Interview with VarVara Rao

2007-10-28T22:41:00.000-07:00

Poet, professor and Marxist critic, Varavara Rao has been the face of the Naxalite movement in AP for almost four decades now. In an exclusive interview to Daipayan Halder, he spoke on 'State terrorism' and the status of the Naxalite movement in Andhra Pradesh

Varavara Rao

Is the State becoming intolerant?
It is. The State has become the biggest terrorist. But in Andhra Pradesh, more than in any other state, atrocities have been the worst. If you are a Naxalite, a naxal sympathiser, an ideologue, or simply a civil rights activist, you can be put behind bars or killed in a fake encounter any time.

In 1992, for example, journalist Gulam Rasul wrote about a land scam in an Urdu daily. An additional DSP killed him in a fake encounter and branded him a Naxalite. His friend who was traveling with him in a scooter was also killed. Doctors working for the underprivileged, lawyers taking up the causes of the marginalised are being put behind bars. Civil liberties are being curbed like never before. Laxmi, a women's rights activist, was killed in a fake encounter in 2005. Since 1969, more than 2,000 people have been killed in fake encounters.

But didn't the previous Andhra Pradesh government want to negotiate with the Naxalites?
The peace talks between the government and the Naxalites broke down and the ban against them was re-imposed on August 17, 2005. This has led the cadre to look for alternative operational zones in Orissa and Chhattisgarh. The repression started in the previous Telugu Desam regime and has been continued by the Congress government in pursuance of World Bank conditions.

he police launched a crackdown on Maoists on January 6, 2005, when it became clear that there was no meeting ground between the state government and the outfit. Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy was interested in going ahead with the second round of talks, slated for November 16, 2004, with the CPI (Maoist) and the CPI-ML (Janashakti), but senior police officers advised him against it.

Why did the talks fail?
Mainly because the government wanted Naxalites to lay down arms, while carrying on their political programmes and their propagating ideology. The Naxalites rejected this. Following a series of encounters, in which 10 Naxalites were killed in a week, the CPI (Maoist) and CPI-ML (Janashakti) announced on January 16, 2005 that they were pulling out of the peace process.

Is it hard to get the youth interested in Naxalism?
It is only the petty, bourgeoisie youth who are taking to the market economy. The marginalised youth, i.e. the Muslims, the Dalits and the tribals, are not swayed by the market forces because they can see that inequality is rising. They are attracted to the movement. But there is no campus culture today. You can get a degree through distance education without ever walking into a university campus. In a campus, there is scope for healthy political debates. That culture is dying.

But the Centre now says that Naxalism is a developmental issue and plans to address it as such
These are academic talks. (Prime Minister) Manmohan Singh says it is a developmental issue, but he is also supporting SEZs. SEZs will displace people, take away their livelihoods. So the problems will persist. Look at what is happening at Nandigram, at Singur, at all other places.

Finally, what is the future of the Naxalite movement? Will it continue in the face of prosperity?
The movement will continue. The forces of liberalisation and globalisation have widened the gap between the haves and the have-nots. This has to be redressed.

State Women's commission condemned in Rizwanur Rahman case

2007-10-20T00:38:00.001-07:00

(We are publishing below a statement released by a number of intellectuals and concerned citizens, regarding the openly partisan role played by the West Bengal State Women's Commission in the Rizwanur Rehman case. ]

We are distressed to read the statement of the West Bengal State women's Commission after its visit to Priyanka Todi whose husband Rizwanur Rahman was found dead on the railway track after he had fixed an appointment with the APDR friends regarding his harassment at the hands of the Kolkata Police who were acting in blatant violation of all legal and civil norms at the behest of Priyanka's father Ashok Todi . Todi wanted her daughter to walk out of the marriage and had mobilized Kolkata police to terrorize Rizwan and his friend Sadiq who was witness to their marriage. The couple was called to the Lal bazaar Thana and was told by the police that Priyanka should go to her parents and they would ensure that she returned after a week. This was not to happen. She was forced to go her father but all efforts of Rizwan to talk to her after this period failed. Desperate, he contacted the APDR .

One must remember that Sadiq, who was witness to their marriage, was threatened by police . He had to go into hiding. Priyanka had gone to her parents on 8 September. Rizwan wrote a detailed account of his harassments at the hands of the Kolkata Police and gave it to the APDR. On 21 September, he talked to the APDR people and it was decided that they would meet in the afternoon. This meting was also not to take place. He was found dead on the Railway tracks. Prasun Mukherji, the Kolkata police Chief declared immediately without waiting for the customary autopsy report that it was a transparent case of suicide. He blatantly justified the illegal intervention of the police in a perfectly legal marriage between tow adults Priyanka and Rizwan, claiming that it was natural for the father of the girl to get upset over such marriage, as it was a marriage between unequals. After all, Ashok Todi is a man of more the 200 crores and Rizwan was only a Muslim of modest earning!

We know that a powerful people's campaign is on demanding the removal of the cops involved in the whole affair which has repeatedly been rejected by the CM, West Bengal . It is now a matter of public discussion that Todi is close to Prasun . The west Bengal government is putting shameless arguments in the high court opposing a CBI investigation. It is widely believed that the CID report has been manipulated to make it a case of suicide. The state government has violated all norms in constituting a Judicial Inquiry.

In these circumstances, the visit of the State Women's Commission to Ashok Todi's place to know about Priyanka's well being and the statements made by the members of the commission afterwards that Priyanka had come on her own to Todi and the Police were not harsh to her and she wanted to be left alone and to top it all, the appeal by the members of the commission to Priyanka that she should not let herself get harassed by the media make it very clear that the commission is being used to give legitimacy to the police and the government and also to Ashok Todi. Should one be surprised that the Commission did not think it fit to visit Rizwan's family and instead went to Todi's house which, as has rightly been said cannot be a neutral site ?
We are pained and shocked to see that despite eminent people like Jashodhara Bagchi heading the state commission it has failed to maintain an autonomous position on the case, succumbing to tow the official line of the police and the state government and that too on its own initiative without any visible pressure from outside. This is a reflection of manner in which Women's State Commissions have been undermined nationally and in states whether it is Rajasthan or West Bengal. Time and again the interests of women and protection of their rights are compromised for political interests or for maintaining the interests of those who are powerful.

We condemn strongly the move by the West Bengal State Women's Commission. They need to remember that these institutions were created after a long and difficult struggle and any move to make them subservient to the state would be resisted with the might of the people. The members of the Commission have lost their right to continue as they have, on this occasion and on many occasions like Singur and Nandigram failed to act in an autonomous manner.

Ram Puniyani, Academic, IIT, Mumbai
Uma Chakravarti, Historian, Delhi
Harjinder Singh, Academic, IIIT, Hyderabad
Manas Joardar
Imtiaz Ahmad , Academic, Delhi
Tamilnadu Women's Collective
Dilip Simeon, Academic, Delhi
Jiten Nandi
Kalyani Menon-Sen, Jagori, Delhi
Mukta Sinha, Charkha Samiti, Patna
Arshad Ajmal, Al Khair Society, Patna
Rabin Chakraborty, Kolkata
Satya Sivaraman, Journalist, Delhi
Teesta Setalvad ,Co-Editor, Communalism Combat
Sheba George, SAHR WARU: Women's Action and Resource Unit
Trupti Shah, Sahiyar, Vadodara
Meher Engineer, Kolkata
Arun Kumar, Delhi
Nasiruddin Haider Khan, Journalist, Lucknow
Ranjana Padhi, Delhi
Khurshid Anwar, Institue for Social Democracy, Delhi
Ujjwal Kr Singh, Academic, Delhi University
Shabnam Hashmi, Anhad
Apoorvanand, Academic, Delhi University
Aditya Nigam, Academic, CSDS, Delhi
Nivedita Menon, Academic, Delhi University
Rupesh, Koshish, Patna
Neelu, Nari Jagaran Kendra, Patna
Persis Ginwalla
Sushma Iyengar
Dhruv Narain, Daanish Books, Delhi
Sunita Narain, Daanish Books, Delhi
Asmita Collective, Secunderabad
Nagraj Adve, Delhi
Saleem Kidwai, Lucknow .
Md. Farooque, Muscat , Saudi Arabia
Kumar Rana, kolkata
Anuradha Talwar
Shramajibee Mahila Samity
Tamil Nadu Women's Forum
Tamil Nadu Dalit Women's Movement
Forum Against Oppression of Women, Bombay.
Nirantar, Delhi

Food Movement spreads all over South Bengal

2007-10-10T22:46:00.000-07:00

[This report has been copied from Sanhati.com website]

Food Riots Continue In South Bengal

October 7, 2007

A ration dealer’s house and the office of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) were set ablaze in Burdwan district of West Bengal Sunday in the continuing protests against alleged corruption in the public distribution system (PDS) and food grain hoarding that have claimed four lives.

A group of people set on fire the house of ration shopkeeper Golam Mohammed at Nawabhat in Burdwan district, about 250 km
northwest of Kolkata, and as the mob left the area it torched the CPI-M office in the vicinity.

The group clashed with police and some CPI-M supporters alleging that the ration dealers were hoarding food grains.

Burdwan superintendent of police Piyush Pande told IANS that about 25 people, including Pradip Das, the CPI-M MLA from the area, were injured during the arson and subsequent police action.

‘The situation is now under control. We have arrested eight people,’ Pande said.

Police said Mohammed was attacked after he failed to pay up money demanded by the group. His storehouse was also set on fire. There was tension in some other areas of the district like Golshi, Itaru and Shashankha.

Murshidabad district also witnessed ration riots in some areas Sunday.

Burdwan had witnessed similar attacks on Saturday as well along with Bankura and Birbhum districts.

A ration dealer from Bankura Saturday hanged himself as he could not afford to pay the Rs.400,000 fine slapped on him by a kangaroo court.

Biman Kundu, 32, was found hanging from the ceiling at his home in Borokumira village, 230 km from Kolkata.

This was the second suicide in the district since protests against alleged corruption in the food distribution system began. A ration dealer from Raipur had killed himself on Sep 28.

The kangaroo court, called by villagers, had charged Kundu with selling wheat and rice in the black market and was asked to pay up.

The villagers have been attacking the houses of the ration dealers, their stores and looting property and food grains before torching them.

‘The ration corruption allegations should be probed by the state agencies immediately. We have to activate the anti-corruption wings of our state instead of always screaming for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry,’ said state PWD Minister Kshiti Goswami.

Earlier two protesters were killed in the police firing.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has appealed to people for peace. He asked people not to take law into their own hands and said the government had requested the centre to increase rice, wheat and kerosene supplies.

Food Supplies Minister Paresh Adhikary said a show-cause notice had been issued to Bijendra Nath Malakar, the Birbhum district controller of food, and action would be taken against Madan Mohan Mandal, the Bankura district controller of food, who has recently retired.

Ranihati: Another special exploitation zone in the making

2007-09-30T23:21:00.000-07:00

The West Bengal government plans to establish a special economic zone (SEZ) in the Ranihati area of Howrah district. Hindustan Foundries, belonging to the Hyderabad-based Ramoji International corporation is going to be the developer of this SEZ. The government plans to bring the small foundries located in the Dasnagar-Tikiapara area of Howrah into this “foundry park”. Recently, the union government has also given its go-ahead. As a result, around 1000 acres of agricultural land is being acquired for setting up this SEZ, a major part of which is fertile land bearing two crops per year. Various machinations of acquiring the land from the farmers are going on. Reportedly, already 50% of the land has already changed hands from the farmers.

The central government has been flip-flopping about the mechanism to be followed to acquire lands for SEZs. After the violence in Nandigram, the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) decided that companies setting up SEZs had to acquire land on their own directly from the farmers. Later, it decided that in order to get large tracts of contiguous land, the state governments can acquire land under “special” circumstances. With this confusion going on, land sharks are on a land grabbing spree at the sites of proposed SEZs. In the Ranihati area, the local people say that numerous land sharks and middlemen have jumped into the fray, which includes members of all political parties from the left to the right, who are out to make a profit from increasing land prices. The members of the ruling CPI(M) have been threatening the farmers with the example of Singur where a strong peasant movement has been unable to prevent the forcible acquisition of land for setting up the small car factory of the Tatas. There is a rudimentary save agricultural land committee in Ranihati, but it has not yet been successful in mobilizing the peasants on a large scale against land acquisition. However, there is considerable opposition to land acquisition in the area, mostly by small farmers who are dependent on the land for their livelihood. Although the government had organized a land acquisition camp, the farmers had not attended it. On the other hand, many absentee landlords, or landowners who feel that they are not getting the proper share of the crop from the sharecroppers or bargadars, think that it is profitable to sell off the land. The situation is similar to Singur. However, because of the prevailing confusion, misinformation and the participation of local members of all political parties in the land grab process, the farmers are not yet organized into a strong movement to oppose the acquisition of land for setting up the SEZ. They are not even aware of the polluting potential and the environmental impact of the foundry industry. Ranihati is an SEZ silently in the making, dispossessing peasants of their lands and livelihoods.

Mob justice for CPM leaders

2007-09-17T05:10:00.001-07:00

Durgapur, Sept. 16: Villagers faced with a food shortage today stormed a CPM nuclear-deal protest and beat up leaders, saying they wanted rice and not mumbo-jumbo on a subject they didn’t understand.

A mob of about 1,000 from the Bankura village — a CPM stronghold — then fought police with bombs and stones, prompting firing by the force that injured a schoolboy of 16 and a 23-year-old man.

The violence, coming at a time snap polls look a possibility, may confirm the Bengal CPM’s deepest fears. The state unit, which has to fight elections, favours caution while taking a decision on toppling the UPA government over the nuclear deal in contrast to the party’s central leaders, who have never contested polls.

A dozen villagers from Radhamohanpur, 250km from Calcutta, had come to the “anti-imperialism” meeting around 10am to complain to the CPM leaders against hoarding by ration-shop owners.

They erupted when panchayat chief Pabitra Mondal — who was on the dais trying to convince a crowd of 200 daily wagers about the dangers of the 123 Agreement — tried to shoo them away.

One man jumped on the dais, snatched the microphone and began abusing the assembled CPM leaders. “We’ll teach you a lesson. You can’t give us rice and wheat, instead you talk mumbo-jumbo. We don’t understand the nuclear deal, give us food,” he screamed. “Maar shalader maar (beat them up).”

The words will worry state CPM secretary Biman Bose, who has admitted that the anti-nuclear deal line lacks the force of bread-and-butter issues and will be difficult to sell to an electorate. This afternoon, he said he hadn’t heard about the incident but would find out what happened.

The news, however, spread fast across Bankura and violent protests against ration dealers were reported from elsewhere in the district, too.

In Radhamohanpur, news of the clash at the meeting drew men and women out of their homes, armed with sticks, knives, burning torches and even brooms. The dais, party banners and festoons were soon in flames.

“I had never seen a mob so angry. They dragged me from the dais and beat me. I ran to the panchayat office but they dragged me and four others out and beat us,” Mondal said.

The police were driven out as soon as they arrived. A bigger team, together with the Rapid Action Force, later caned the mob and rescued the CPM leaders. The police said the villagers regrouped and hurled bombs and stones, injuring an officer and four others.

“We were forced to fire three rounds,” said Bishnupur subdivisional police officer Dyutiman Bhattacharjee. The villagers claimed the police fired at least 20 rounds.

A bullet pierced the left hand of Sudhamoy Kandal and entered his stomach. Another hit schoolboy Tapas Pal.

Nine other villagers, injured in the baton-charge, are in hospital. Ten have been held.

Arjun Mondal, 30, a farmer, said: “We didn’t get rice or wheat from the ration shops for nearly a year. The dealers sell in the black market with CPM backing.”

Although Sonamukhi, the area in which Radhamohanpur falls, is a known CPM stronghold, local party officials blamed the Trinamul Congress, BJP and Maoists for the violence. Trinamul leaders denied the charge.

Latest right wing assault on academia

2007-09-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070905/main2.htm

Jammu varsity prof loses headship over survey
Prabhjit Singh
Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 4
A professor of Jammu University is in trouble for conducting a survey on the Jammu and Kashmir issue, following a complaint by a political outfit which finds the scholar "anti-national". Professor and Head, Department of Political Science, Jammu University, Rekha Chowdhary, was yesterday removed from the headship on the charge of misusing her powers.

The university had received a complaint from the local unit of the Shiv Sena for action against those who had conducted the survey, vice-chancellor Amitabh Mattoo said while talking to The Tribune on the issue.

The survey "does not report the feelings of nationalist and patriotic people of Jammu". And this grudge of the Shiv Sena was mentioned in a letter, which was issued to Chowdhary by a three-member inquiry committee, constituted by the V-C, for her explanation on her "undesirable activities". She had also been asked to comment on an allegation that she was "anti-national".

Before she could reply, she was yesterday sacked from the post "in the interest of the university's administration".

"The Shiv Sena barged into my office and sought an action," Mattoo said. He said though he had not seen the raw copy of the survey report, he came to know the survey projections from news reports.

The currents in the university ran high last week following the release of the survey, which was conducted jointly by two media organisations with the help of the Political Science departments of Kashmir University and Jammu University. It said, "The valley wants azadi, but the rest of India and Pakistan does not share the sentiment".

As per the survey, 95 per cent of residents of Jammu believed that the whole of Jammu and Kashmir should be with India, while the figure on this query stood at 7 per cent in Srinagar. Significantly, Chowdhary had been assigned the task of surveying Jammu only.
Nearly 87 per cent of the residents of Srinagar responded in the affirmative to a query whether Kashmir should be an independent country, while only 3 per cent in Jammu agreed with this viewpoint.

The committee constituted by the V-C to probe into the role of the university in the survey and take "disciplinary action" against Chowdhary, also raised its reservations on senior Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq's interview conducted by her way back in 2004. The matter was published in 'Reflections', a UGC-sponsored newsletter of the university.

Sources close to the V-C said that Chowdhary was removed following her "open letter to the vice-chancellor" in which she accused him of several irregularities both at the academic administrative levels.

The Forgotten Hero

2007-08-27T18:57:00.000-07:00

Batukeshwar Dutt was an Indian revolutionary in the early 1900s. He is best known for having bombed, along with Bhagat Singh, the Punjab Legislative in the Assembly on 8 April 1929. After his arrest, he and Singh were instrumental in intiating a hunger strike protesting against the rights and state of Indian political prisoners.[1] He was a member of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, one of the first Marxist parties in India.

Batukeshwar Dutt outlived all his comrades and died in July 1965 in Delhi. After his release from prison, he participated in the Quit India movement. But in Independent India he did not receive any recognition. He was cremated near Firozpur in Punjab where the bodies of his comrades Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru and Sukh Dev were cremated many years ago.

Batukeshwar Dutt alias BK Dutta, alias Battu, alias Mohan, son of Gosta Bihari Dutta and a resident of Oari village, Khanda, Mausu, Burdwan, UP was a member of Hindustan Socialist Republic Army who was a close associate of Chandrasekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh. Working in Kanpur for the party, he knew how to make bombs. He along with Bhagat Singh had thrown a bomb in the Central Assembly on April 8, 1929 to register protest against the Trade Dispute Bill and raised the slogan Inquilab Zindabad. Tried in Central Assembly bomb case, he was sentenced in 1929 to life imprisonment by the court of Session Judge of Delhi. He was deported to the Cellular Jail. He participated in two hunger strikes in Cellular Jail during May 1933 and July 1937. BK Dutta was repatriated in 1937. He was released from Bankipur Jail in the year 1938.

Peasants clash with police in Singur

2007-08-20T04:56:00.000-07:00

"Farmers were working on the land outside the Tata factory boundary. Police baton-charged them........"

Singur (West Bengal), Aug 20: Two policemen and scores of villagers were injured in clashes, as farmers protested a proposed Tata Motors proposed car factory at Singur. The farmers said they were working peacefully on the land surrounding the Tata factory and police instigated them by launching a baton-charge.

"Farmers were working on the land outside the Tata factory boundary. Police baton-charged them, after which the farmers tried to hop over the wall to till the land there. Police fired 10 rounds of tear gas," claimed Becharam Manna, a member of the Krishi Jami Rakshya Committee. The police said the farmers attacked the factory wall, and therefore, they retaliated. "Around 200 to 300 villagers attacked the wall of the factory with shovels, saying they will not allow the work to go on. Police warned them, but when they paid no heed, we baton-charged them. While they ran, they pelted stones on policemen, and so, we were forced to fire teargas on them," said Kalyan Mukherjee, a police official.Mukherjee said a Deputy Superintendent of Police and a constable were injured in the ensuing melee. Tata Motors started to build its factory in Singur in January 2007 to make what the company claims will be the world's cheapest car for 100,000 rupees.There have been regular protests in West Bengal this year over the acquisition of agriculture land for industry.Trinamool Congress has been spearheading a campaign for better compensation for the farmers whose lands were acquired by the State Government for the project.he government says it has compensated most of the affected farmers.The proposed Special Economic Zone has since been scrapped by the government and they are looking for alternative land.

Independence-Real or Fake

2007-08-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

We are reposting an article by Suniti kumar Ghosh on the occassion, India celebrates its 60 years of " Independant day" on 15 th Augest.

August 15, 1947
The Transfer of Power: Real or Formal?

-- Suniti Kumar Ghosh*

It is held as an axiomatic truth that India became an independent, sovereign state from 15 August 1947 when the British imperialists transferred power to Indian hands. Do facts bear out what is generally supposed to be true?

At the end of World War II India stood at the crossroads. One road led to genuine independence, the overthrow of colonial rule as well as its domestic props, transformation of Indian society, destruction of all the structural barriers – foreign and domestic – to her regeneration – all the barriers that inhibit her development. Genuine decolonization means that the old order of the colonial era must yield place to a new one – political, economic, social and military. The other road led to formal transfer of power to classes that were traditional Indian allies of imperialism, continued integration into the capitalist-imperialist system and revolving around metropolitan powers as a satellite, continued existence of the development-inhibiting structural barriers that colonial rule had created and consequent 'development of underdevelopment'.

At the end of World War II, British imperialism was beset with several contradictions –with U.S imperialism (on which it depended for its post-war reconstruction), international communism, national liberation struggles in colonies, its own armed forces who mutinied in some places to realize their demand for speedy demobilization, etc. Of all the contradictions with which British imperialism was confronted, its contradiction with the Indian people was no doubt the principal one.
Two forces at work
In India there were two forces at work, besides the Raj , at the end of the war. When the war in Europe ended, Viceroy Wavell released the members of the working committee of the Congress from prison and convened a conference at Simla in June-July 1945. As V.P Menon wrote, the Congress came in for co-operation without any conditions.1 The Congress leaders were eager to join the Viceroy's Executive Council (which Wavell intended to reconstitute with representatives of Indian political parties) "on the basis that they would whole-heartedly co-operate in supporting and carrying through the war against Japan to its victorious conclusion". (The Congress leaders', including Gandhi's, faith in the creed of non-violence was remarkably flexible.) Nehru felt overjoyed and said: "We feel we must succeed at Simla …I am very hopeful."2 But the Simla Conference foundered on the rock of the League's claim to nominate all Muslim members of the reconstituted Council.

Wavell wanted the Congress leaders to "see to it that a peaceful atmosphere is preserved in the country". Wavell was afraid of a post-war upheaval in the country. So was Gandhi.3 The Congress president Abul Kalam Azad wrote to the Viceroy:

"… the contacts established between the Congress and the Government had largely allayed past bitterness and marked the beginning of a new chapter of confidence and goodwill ."4

As we shall see, it was that surge of "confidence and goodwill" for the British imperialists that continued to rise and yielded the transfer of power. Congress leaders had reasons to feel "confidence and goodwill" for the British imperialists. Close co-operation between the Raj on the one hand and the Indian big bourgeoisie and Congress leaders on the other had already started. The Raj regularly invited discussions with Congress leaders on constitutional issues, the future administrative set-up, "a scheme of army reorganization" and other matters like education, industry and planning. Nehru was being consulted on constitutional questions and army reorganization. In June 1944 Sir Ardeshir Dalal, a Tata director and an author of the Bombay Plan, so much lauded by Nehru, had been appointed a member of the Viceroy's Executive Council in charge of planning and development. During the war the British Raj and the Indian big bourgeoisie were bound with close ties of collaboration, for instance, in the Eastern Group Supply Council and on various official committees.
On the other hand, after the end of the war the people – workers, peasants, the youth, office employees, even sections of the Raj's regular armed forces and the police did not share the Congress leaders' "confidence and goodwill" for British imperialism and though not led and organized by any political party, rose throughout India to liberate themselves from imperialist fetters. Nehru appraised the revolutionary situation correctly and joined hands with the imperialists and tried by all means to dissipate the revolutionary situation. Nehru said that India was on the "Edge of a Volcano" and that "We are sitting on the top of a Volcano".5 P.J.Griffiths, the leader of the European group in the Central Legislative Assembly, also said: "India, in the opinion of many, was on the verge of revolution."6

India on the "verge of revolution"
In the winter and summer months of 1945-6 India, as all sorts of reactionaries feared, was on the "edge of a volcano" – ready to erupt at any time – as Nehru said. Almost immediately after the end of the war, on 21 to 23 November 1945, Calcutta saw the first outburst of the pent-up fury of the people who had suffered incredibly under the fascist British Raj during the war. The immediate cause of it was the police firing on a procession of students demanding the release of the Indian National Army (INA) officers who were then on trial. A student and another youth became martyrs and several were wounded. That set Calcutta and the suburbs ablaze. The city was completely paralyzed. Trains were stopped. Barricades were set up and street battles took place. All communal considerations were forgotten and the people fought with primitive weapons the heavily armed forces of the Raj. Police and military vehicles were burnt down – about 150 of them. According to official estimates, 33 persons including an American, were killed and 200 civilians, many policemen, 70 British and 37 American soldiers were wounded.7 The whole of Bengal was surcharged with bitter anti-imperialist feeling.

Describing the mood of the people, Bengal Governor Casey wrote: "Both in North and South Calcutta a feature of the disturbances … was that the crowds when fired on largely stood their ground or at most only receded a little, to return again to the attack…. Throughout the forenoon and early afternoon of the 23rd [November], Congress and some Communist propaganda cars toured the affected areas dissuading the students from further participation."8

Viceroy Wavell rushed to Calcutta. On 27 November he informed the Secretary of State: "Casey was impressed by the very strong anti-British feeling, behind the whole demonstration, and considered the whole situation still very explosive and dangerous." Significantly, Commander-in-Chief Auchinleck made an appreciation of the internal situation within India on 24 November, the very day after the uprising. The Viceroy agreed generally with the appreciation. Auchinleck wrote:

"If the Indian Forces as a whole cease to be reliable, the British Armed Forces now available are not likely to be able to control the internal situation or to protect essential communications, nor would any piecemeal reinforcement of these forces be of much avail. To regain control of the situation and to restore essential communications within the country nothing short of the organized campaign for the reconquest of India is likely to suffice."9

The lesson of the November uprising went home to the British imperialists. On 24 November itself, Auchinleck met some representatives of provincial governments about I.N.A trials. In his letter to Wavell of the same day Auchinleck wrote that the provincial representatives agreed that "the trials should be limited to those involving brutality and murder of such a nature that it could not be defended as an act committed in good faith by a combatant". He added: "The evidence reaching us now increasingly goes to show that the general opinion in the Army … is in favour of leniency." On 30 November – within a week of the uprising – the Indian Government issued a press communiqué which stated: "Until all investigations are complete, it is not possible to state the number who will be brought to trial but the total is unlikely to be as many as fifty and may be as few as twenty, and, as explained above, trials will be limited to those against whom brutality is alleged."10 The charge of 'waging war against the king' was dropped and the sentences already passed were remitted.

It may be noted that in the meantime the British had brought home as captives tens of thousands of captured I.N.A officers and men and started court-martials of them. The original plan which had received the "gratified approval" of the Congress leaders11 had been to release some, sentence many others to imprisonment and execute 40 to 50 prisoners. As we have said, the plan was changed almost immediately after the November uprising.

As stories of Subhas Bose and the I.N.A, who had founded the provisional government of Free India in Southeast Asia and planted the flag of Indian freedom in Kohima, spread, they sent a thrill from one end of the subcontinent to another. As R.P. Dutt said, the example of the I.N.A and "the subsequent trials of the I.N.A leaders kindled to white heat the flame of militant patriotism and the conception of the armed conquest of power in place of the old non-violent struggle."12 The most alarming thing to the British imperialists was the impact of the I.N.A on the British Indian armed forces.13 Nehru wrote to Commander-in-Chief Claude Auchinleck: "Within a few weeks the story of the I.N.A had percolated to the remotest villages in India and everywhere there was admiration for them and apprehension as to their possible fate … The widespread popular enthusiasm was surprising enough, but even more surprising was a similar reaction of a very large number of regular Indian army officers and men. Something had touched them deeply." 14

On 26 November 1946, Auchinleck wrote to Wavell that "there is a growing feeling of sympathy [among the men of the British Indian armed forces] for the I.N.A."15 The loyalty of the British Indian armed forces was thoroughly shaken by the I.N.A; large numbers of them transferred their allegiance to their motherland.

Gandhi rushed to Calcutta immediately after the November uprising. He had a series of interviews with Governor Casey. He assured Casey that "our future long term relations would be good", that he would do his utmost in bringing about a peaceful solution of India's constitutional problem, and that he was lulling the people into the belief that "India was going to get her freedom out all right" and asking them to "work on that assumption and no other".16 The Congress working committee met in Calcutta and reiterated its faith in non-violence "for the guidance of all concerned" and clarified that nonviolence "does not include burning of public property, …" and so on. Before and after the November upheaval, Nehru went on emphasizing "the necessity of maintaining a peaceful atmosphere…" He went on telling the people that the "British are packing up", that "in the present day world the British empire has ceased to exist" and expatiated on "the folly of disorder and violence". He advised students not "to take suddenly the reins of the nation in their own hands" and "to leave political leadership to those… qualified to lead".17 On 3 December 1945 he assured Sir Stafford Cripps, an important member of the British cabinet (and through him the entire British cabinet), that he was doing his "utmost to avoid conflict and restrain the hotheads".18 Sardar Patel advised the youth not to waste their energies in "fruitless quarrels".

Again, on 27 January 1946, Nehru wrote a long letter to Cripps, in which he stated: "Elections have somewhat held people in check but as soon as these are over, events of their own motion, will march swiftly…. What happened in Calcutta two months ago and what is happening in Bombay now are significant signs of the fires below the surface. A single spark lights them". He said that any delay on the part of the British to take the initiative "might well lead to disastrous consequences". He assured Cripps (and obviously the British cabinet) that the gulf between India and Britain, which "has never been so wide", could perhaps "be bridged even now with a great effort" and that he worked "to that end". 19

Ignoring the Congress leaders' sermons upholding law and order and the creed of non-violence, Calcutta rose again from 11 to 13 February 1946. The occasion was a protest demonstration by students against the rigorous imprisonment for seven years passed on Abdul Rashid of the I.N.A. The city's life stopped because of a general strike. For two days mills and factories in Calcutta's suburbs remained closed; trains did not run; people fought bitter street battles with the armed police and army units riding armoured cars. A marked feature, like that in November, was strong solidarity among Hindus and Muslims who together directed their attacks against Europeans. The upheaval surpassed that in November. According to official estimates, 84 persons became martyrs and 300 injured. As in November, the anti-imperialist wave in Calcutta and the suburbs sent ripples throughout Bengal. Bands of Congress, Muslim League and Communist volunteers moved along the streets of Calcutta and neighbouring areas jointly and helped in restoring order. On 13 February Swadhinata, the Bengali organ of the CPI, condemned indiscipline and disorder as the Congress president was doing.
Waves of anti-imperialist struggle rose one after another in different parts of India – from North to South, from East to West _ and lashed at the regime of the imperialists. The most spectacular and most significant among them was the uprising in Bombay which began on 18 February 1946. The ratings of the Royal Indian Navy (R.I.N.) rose in revolt first in Bombay and then in Karachi, Calcutta and Madras. The rebel navymen, who had various grievances – bad food, racial discrimination, insults meted out by British officers and so on – were inspired by the deeds of Subhas and the example of the I.N.A.20

By 22 February 1946 the rebel sailors were in control of about 22 vessels in Bombay, including the flagship of the British Vice-Admiral. A total of 78 ships of the R.I.N., 20 shore establishments and 20,000 ratings were involved in the struggle. Over a thousand men in the Royal Indian Air Force camps in Bombay came out on a sympathy strike. When ordered, Indian soldiers refused to fire on the R.I.N. ratings in Bombay as well as in Karachi. On 21 February the strike by the navymen developed into a pitched battle between them and British troops who had been called in as Indian soldiers refused to fire.21 And Bombay's workers and youth, irrespective of the community to which they belonged, stood by the heroic men of the navy, carried food to them, erected barricades and fought pitched battles with armed policemen and several British battalions equipped with armoured cars and tanks. On 22 February, Bombay observed a general strike in the teeth of the opposition from big Congress and Muslim League leaders.

Ignoring the Congress and League leaders, the entire working class of Bombay came out at the call of the Naval Central Strike Committee, which was supported by the CPI. For two days there were pitched battles on the city's streets, in which, according to official estimates, there were about 1,500 casualties including more than 200 dead. "The British tanks could clear the streets", wrote B. C. Dutt, one of the leaders of the revolt, "only after hundreds had been shot down. This was the first time in the turbulent history of India's freedom movement that the rulers were forced to use tanks to battle with unarmed and leaderless people…. February 21 had been the ratings' day. February 22 belonged to the workers of Bombay."22

In his 'Foreword' to Dutt's book, S. Natarajan wrote: "What was impressive among the ratings was their complete freedom from communal or sectarian prejudices and their staunch loyalty to each other."23 To quote Dutt, "The R.I.N. mutiny was the one conspiracy against the crown in which there was no king's witness. They tried their best. They drew blank".24

Besides Bombay, Karachi was the scene of actual fighting between navymen and British soldiers. Gurkha soldiers refused to obey orders to fire on the Hindustan, an old sloop, which put up a brave fight. The Gurkha soldiers had to be replaced by British soldiers. Not only did the Indian army units refuse to obey orders to fight the navymen, they went on strike in several places in sympathy with the rebel navymen. We have noted that one thousand men of the Indian Air Force went on sympathy strike in Bombay. So did the men of the Air Force in Poona, Calcutta, Madras and Ambala. To quote Dutt, "An R.I.A.F. squadron, which had been ordered to proceed to Bombay, was grounded at Jodhpur; every aircraft had mysteriously developed engine trouble."25 Hallett, then Governor of the U.P., informed Wavell on 19 November 1945 that soldiers of the Air Force stationed in Allahabad, Bamrauli and Cawnpore had sent their contributions to the I.N.A. Defence Fund.26 The Indian Air Force stationed in Calcutta opposed the court martial of the I.N.A. men. It sent its subscription to the I.N.A. Defence fund with the words: "for the defence of the brave and patriotic sons of India."27 Penderel Moon noted: "There was also unrest at this time in the R.I.A.F. and in some of the technical units of the Indian Army."28 Not only was there unrest in some technical units of the army but army units, as pointed out before, disobeyed orders in Bombay and Karachi. In the Jubbalpur cantonment soldiers staged a revolt in March 1946 and in Dehra Dun Gurkha soldiers went on strike. In some places the police also rose in revolt. In March 1946 the police in Allahabad and Delhi went on hunger-strike. In April 10,000 policemen struck work. In September the military police went on strike in Patna and Begusarai. There was a widespread strike by policemen in Bihar in March 1947. The wall sedulously erected by the British Raj to segregrate the armed forces from the people crumbled down. At no time since the First War of Indian Independence in 1857-8 did the regular armed forces come out to defend the cause of freedom as they did now.

The brave men of the navy refused to be cowed by any threat – not even the threat of Admiral Godfrey (who had flown in bombers) to sink the navy. They appealed to political parties to lead them, promised to hand over to them the navy which they had renamed the Indian National Navy. But no political party, not even the CPI, responded to their appeal though they could have access to the rebel men of the navy.

Jinnah's appeal to them, especially the Muslims among them, to surrender came in the early hours of 23 February when their representatives were meeting to decide their future course of action. Dutt wrote: "… the overwhelming majority were for a fight to death and not for surrender."29 The Naval Central Strike Committee ultimately took the decision to surrender, stating that they were surrendering not to the British Raj but to the Congress and the League. In their last message to the people, they said: "For the first time the blood of the men in the services and the people flowed together in a common cause. We in the services will never forget this. We also know that you, our brothers and sisters, will never forget. Long live our great people. Jai Hind."30

After the surrender the man-hunt began. More than two thousands of the rebels were arrested and kept in detention camps; about five hundred were sentenced to prison terms to serve as common criminals. The top Congress leaders, who had given the pledge that "no disciplinary action" would be taken, did little to keep their pledge.31

What role did the Congress leaders play during the historic naval revolt? Sardar Patel, Abul Kalam Azad, S.K. Patil (secretary of the Bombay Provincial Congress Committee, and later, minister of the central government), Jinnah and Chundrigar of the Muslim League openly opposed the call for a strike on 22 February issued by the Naval Central Strike Committee and advised the navymen to surrender to the British. Patil had secret confabulations with the Bombay governor and the Congress and the League placed 'volunteers' at the service of the Raj to "assist the police" and British army units to fight the people.32 Colville wrote to Wavell that on 22 February he "saw several of these volunteers… and they did useful though limited work". 33

Bombay observed a successful general strike in the teeth of the bitter opposition of the Congress and the League leaders. Workers and students of Bombay fought pitched battles in the streets with British army units and the armed police, who were assisted by Congress and League volunteers.
At a mass meeting held in Bombay with the permission of the Bombay government on 26 February, Nehru and Patel strongly condemned "the mass violence in Bombay", that is, the resistance of the navymen and workers who had dared to raise the banner of anti-imperialist revolt. Addressing the press next day, Nehru thundered: 'The R.I.N. Central Strike Committee had no business to issue such an appeal [to the city of Bombay to observe a sympathy strike]. I will not tolerate this kind of thing."34 The Nehrus alone had the right to issue calls for strikes!

Gandhi, the prophet of non-violence, condemned the rebels for their thoughtless orgy of violence – not the real orgy of violence by the Raj, of which the people were victims. To him the "combination between Hindus and Muslims and others for the purpose of violent action is unholy…" 35 He went on denouncing those who disbelieved in British professions that they would grant freedom to India.

It was a country-wide anti-imperialist revolt. Wavell noted in his diary on 7 March 1946 that the victory parade that was organized in Delhi was boycotted and crowds of men burnt down the Town Hall.36

Workers were on the march everywhere despite the opposition of Congress and League leaders. The number of workers who went on strike in 1946 was 1,961,984 and in 1947, 1,840,784. There was an unprecedented upsurge of anti-imperialist struggle throughout the country, in which workers, peasants, students, other youths, office employees, navymen and sections of the Indian army, air force and police and lower rungs of the bureaucracy took part, and armed confrontations were frequent.37

Peasant revolts took place in different parts of India. In the Thana district in Maharashtra the struggle of the Warlis broke out. In the Alleppey district of the native state of Travancore (now a part of Kerala) peasants and workers launched a united struggle. In several districts of Bengal, especially in North Bengal, the Tebhaga struggle broke out under the leadership of the Communist Party. It was a struggle of the peasantry, mainly sharecroppers (who bore the expenses of cultivation) for a two-thirds share of the produce. Peasants fought heroically. In the undivided district of Dinajpur, forty peasants became martyrs. In 1946 began the historic struggles of the peasants in Telangana districts of the native state of Hyderabad (Telangana, now a part of Andhra Pradesh) under the leadership of the Andhra State Committee of the CPI. It developed into a struggle for land and power. Large areas were liberated. The struggle continued even after the march of troops of the Indian government in 1948 to suppress it, until it was withdrawn unconditionally by the CPI leadership in 1951. In several other native states ruled by princes, puppets of the British Indian government, there were revolts of the people, especially in Travancore and Kashmir.
Imperialism unable to rule in the old way
We have noted Commander-in-Chief Claude Auchinleck's appreciation, of 24 November 1945, of the Indian situation, with which Viceroy Wavell generally agreed. On 19 February 1946, Wavell recorded in his diary that he had seen Porter, Secretary, Home Department, who was all for capitulation to the I.N.A; that he had discussed with Bewoor, Secretary, Posts and Air Department, about a postal strike; that he had talks with Carr, A.O.C-in-C, about R.I.A.F mutiny; with Griffin, Chief Commissioner of Railways and Conran Smith, Secretary, War Transport Department, about a railway strike; and "finally the C-in-C, most gloomy of all, about R.I.N. mutiny in Bombay and the I.N.A trials; What a cheerful day – prospect or reality of three mutinies and two strikes", commented Wavell.38

After referring to the "serious rioting in Bombay", "a mutiny in the R.I.N., much indiscipline in the R.I.A.F., some unrest in the Indian Army" and "threatened strikes on the Railways, and in the Post and Telegraphs", Wavell wrote to King George VI on 22 March 1946: "Perhaps the best way to look at it is that India is in the birth-pangs of a new order…"39

When in late March 1946, the Cabinet Mission with Secretary of State Pethick- Lawrence, Stafford Cripps and A.V. Alexander came to India to negotiate, mainly with Congress and League leaders, a settlement of the constitutional issues and met the Viceroy's Executive Council, Edward Benthall said on behalf of it that " the Council was unanimous that a change of Government at the Centre was imperative... It [ the Council's lack of confidence] is due to the uncertainty of Indian troops and police to whom they must look for defence and support in the future."40
The role of 'the big boys of Congress and League'
Towards the end of March 1946, Turnbull, Secretary to the Cabinet Mission, wrote: "The only hope is that the big boys of Congress and League are said to be much alarmed lest their followers break loose and of Russia." 41

The "big boys of Congress and League", particularly "of Congress", did not fail the imperialists; they acted in more than one way to save the Raj from the wrath of the rebellious people. As negotiations with the Cabinet Mission started, a bitter "war of succession" began. The seemingly endless negotiations and the brave declarations with communal demands of the leaders for a larger share of the British legacy were having an insidious effect on the people, much to the satisfaction of the Raj and the Indian reactionaries. "Amidst these 'summit talks'," wrote Michael Brecher, "the poison of communalism penetrated deeper into the body politic of India."42

It is a cruel irony that Calcutta, the city of many glorious anti-imperialist struggles which the people fought shoulder to shoulder, irrespective of faiths, and other democratic struggles, the latest being the very successful general strike in sympathy with the All India Postal strike, – the city of nightmares to the imperialists and their underlings in India – became the first scene of a communal blood-bath. The people elsewhere, too, became victims of the vicious 'war of succession' between the two rival sets of compradors in the absence of a revolutionary party which could lead and co-ordinate their struggles to win victory. The imperialists, instead of trying to extinguish the communal flames, welcomed them and their Indian henchmen spread them by their acts and rhetoric. Later, on 24 January 1947, the director of the Intelligence Bureau, Government of India, noted for the benefit of the policy-makers:

"The game so far has been well played, in that (a) both Congress and the League have been brought into the Central Government; (b) the Indian problem has been thrust into its appropriate plane of communalism; … Grave communal disorder must not disturb us into action which would reproduce anti-British agitation." 43

After the communal carnage in Calcutta, Gandhi told Wavell "that if a blood-bath was necessary, it would come about inspite of non-violence."44

On 21 July 1946 he wrote to Vallabhbhai Patel: "A great many things seem to be slipping out of the hands of the Congress. The postmen do not listen to it, nor does Ahmedabad, nor do the Harijans, nor Muslims. This is a strange situation indeed."45

Again, writing to Patel on 24 July, Gandhi lamented: "There are other strikes on top of the postal strike. All this looks significant…. The Congress position may seem strong on the surface but it appears to have lost its hold on the people. Or it may be that the Congress itself is involved in these troubles if only from a distance. This must be clarified; otherwise the battle which we are on the point of winning will be lost."46

The Mahatma released a torrent of denunciation of strikes and strikers, especially political and 'sympathetic strikes', and asked Patel to do the same.47 Nehru condemned the all-India strike of one lakh extremely low-paid postal employees as "against the interests of the common people". But the fact is, the common people went on 'sympathetic strikes' throughout India on 29 July to give the postal employees their support. Those who opposed these strikes were the imperialists and the Gandhis and Nehrus. These were not adversaries but allies and they were on the same side of the barricade and the people on the other. The waves of struggle continued to rise. The situation in India was growing alarming for the British Raj and the Congress leadership. At the end of July the India and Burma Committee of the British cabinet concluded that if "some positive action" was not taken "without delay", "the initiative might pass from His Majesty's Government. The postal strike and the threatened [all-India] railway strike were symptoms of a serious situation which might rapidly deteriorate." Wavell agreed and wired to Pethick-Lawrence on 31 July: "Widespread labour trouble exists and general situation is most unsatisfactory. The most urgent need is for a Central Government with popular support. If Congress will take responsibility they will realise that firm control of unruly elements is necessary and they may put down the Communists and try to curb their own left wing." Wavell added that he disliked "intensely the idea of having an interim Government dominated by one party [Congress] but I feel that I must try to get the Congress in as soon as possible."48

From U.P. Governor Wylie reported: "This strike business, for instance, is most unsettling…. With all this strike fever about, it would be too much to expect that the police would remain totally unaffected …"49

The director of the Intelligence Bureau, Government of India, warned: "… the labour situation is becoming increasingly dangerous…. I am satisfied that a responsible government, if one can be achieved, will deal more decisively with Labour than is at present possible."50 On 6 August Wavell again wired to the Secretary of State: "I think it is quite likely that Congress [if it joins the government at the centre] would decide to take steps fairly soon against the communists, or otherwise the labour situation will get even worse.'51

British imperialism found itself unable to rule in the old way. In an undated note Attlee wrote: "In the event of a breakdown of the administration or a general alignment of the political parties against us are we prepared to go back on our policy and seek to re-establish British rule as against the political parties and maintain it for 18 years? The answer must clearly be No." Among the reasons he cited was the lack of the necessary military force.52 In a "top secret" message to the Viceroy on 25 November 1946, the Secretary of State informed him that "We could not contemplate anything in the nature of reconquest and retention of India by force against the nationally organised opposition, and quite apart from the desirability of such a decision we do not believe that it would be practicable from a political, military or economic point of view".53 In a footnote it has been stated that "the terms of this reply [to Wavell's letters] were agreed at a meeting" between Attlee, Pethick-Lawrence, Cripps and officials of the India Office.54

When the British Raj felt unable to stem the tide of revolutionary struggles, it wanted some political party or parties of India with popular support to do it for them. The Congress leaders were lending their support from the outside but that was not enough. As the Muslim League refused to join the Congress in an interim government on Congress terms, the British imperialists decided to entrust the Congress with the task of running the state machinery for them.

When British imperialists found it unwise to take extreme measures to suppress the people, Congress leaders were entrusted to do so
The Congress leaders felt no less worried at the situation as it was developing. They were only too eager to join hands with the British imperialists to fight back the revolutionary tide and suppress the rebellious people. In August the Congress Working Committee adopted a resolution condemning the growing lack of discipline and disregard of obligations on the part of workers.55

On 5 August Wavell reported to Pethick-Lawrence that, according to an unimpeachable source, "Patel… was convinced that the Congress must enter the Government to prevent chaos spreading in the country as the result of labour unrest."56 The British cabinet had decided on 1 August that 'if the Muslim League were unwilling to come in [on Congress terms], it would be necessary to proceed with the formation of an Interim Government with Congress only".57

So Congress president Nehru was invited to form an 'interim' government with himself as vice-president under Wavell. The Congress leaders undertook to fight and suppress the rebellious, anti-imperialist people – not only from the outside but also from the inside of the imperialist state machinery – to serve as imperialism's shield and protect it from the wrath of the people. There was a preliminary round of 'transfer of power' when the 'interim' government was installed in office on 2 September 1946 – the first round of 'transfer of power' through which imperialism tried to save itself. In his letter to Mountbatten, dated 18 March 1947, appointing Mountbatten Viceroy of India, Attlee wrote: "… while the Interim Government would not have the same powers as a Dominion Government, His Majesty's Government would treat the Interim Government with the same consultation and consideration as a Dominion Government…" 58

Imperialism's hopes were more than fulfilled, its reliance on the Congress leaders to extricate it from an "increasingly dangerous" situation was more than justified. On 9 October 1946 Nehru informed Wavell that "A short while ago the [U.P. Congress] Government issued an ordinance of the kind we have been issuing here to tide over the period from 1st October…" The U.P. ordinance "provided for the maintenance of public order and essential services through preventive detention, imposition of collective fines, and the control of meetings and processions." 59

On 21 January 1947 Wavell informed Pethick-Lawrence that searches, still then incomplete, had been conducted, that "the Madras [Congress] Government appear to have taken action against communists and are contemplating a conspiracy case [conspiracy against the King–Emperor] against leading members of the party…. The Bombay [Congress] Government have also written strongly for Central action or a Central directive against the party and indicating that they propose, in the absence of either of these, themselves to take strong action for detention of Communist agitators who constitute a great threat to public tranquillity in that Province."
In this holy war against the anti-imperialist people, the Congress leaders would brook no interference even from British Parliament. Wavell's message added that Home Member Patel deprecated the idea of any discussion in British Parliament of the action taken against Communists "as it can only impede the efforts of Congress to deal with the revolutionary element in the country." 60

A discussion in Parliament would expose the fascist nature of the Congress leaders' attack on "the revolutionary element in the country".
The country-wide search of the offices of the CPI, trade unions, Kisan Sabha, Students Federation, Friends of the Soviet Union, etc., was carried out "under the direction of the Government of India", of which Patel was Home Member. But in reply to R.P. Dutt's cable, Nehru unhesitatingly wired back: "The police raids on the Communists took place without the authority or knowledge of the Ministers." A similar reply he sent to Harry Pollitt.61

Even Wavell was amused. Communicating to Pethick-Lawrence on 29 January 1947 that "the Congress Government in Bombay had decided that the only way to deal with the Communists was to resort to detention without trial", Wavell had a dig at the Labour Party minister: "it may come as a shock to you if they should resort to such 'imperialistic' methods".62

On 27 February the Bombay Governor reported to Wavell that Bombay's Congress ministry "are determined to handle the communist and other extreme Left Wing elements firmly, and are bringing forward this session a new Public Safety Measures Bill which re-enacts all our Ordinances in full…"63

The Bombay Governor also wrote on 2 April to Viceroy Mountbatten that the Congress ministers of Bombay felt that "their real opponents 64 – not the British imperialists. are the Congress Socialists and the Communists"

At its twenty–second session held in Calcutta from 13 to 19 February 1947, the All India Trade Union Congress expressed its concern at the "indiscriminate firing by the police on workers" and stated in a resolution: "Firing was resorted to in Coimbatore, Golden Rock, Kolar Gold Fields, Ratlam, Amalner and Kanpur, resulting in the death of more than 50 persons including women and children and injury to more than 400."

After referring to "the suppression of civil liberties", ban on workers' meetings, arrests and internment of trade union workers, destruction of union properties and so on, the resolution added: "In Madras alone, hundreds of labour workers are in jail, and in some places, Section 107 of the Criminal Procedure Code has been applied demanding security of good behaviour from labour leaders."

The AITUC also protested against "the recent amendments to the Bombay District Police Act and the enactment of ordinances in the provinces of Punjab, Madras, Bengal, United Provinces and the Central Provinces under which persons can be arrested, externed or detained without trial."
It also condemned the governments of Madras, Bombay and the Central Provinces [all Congress-ruled provinces] for detaining trade unionists in jail without trial and for externing some of them.65

It was an all-out war against the people who were fighting against cruel exploitation and oppression and for freedom, that the Congress leaders waged before and after their assumption of office at the Centre. At the Meerut session of the Congress presided over by Kripalani and addressed by Nehru among others, held in November 1946, Sardar Mota Singh, a delegate, "thundered that the British were using Pandit Nehru and his colleagues as 'political cows' to prevent the masses from attacking the British power, standing behind the cows."66 As we shall see, it is to these "political cows" that the British transferred power in what became the Indian Union.

The Congress leaders found that along with repression other means were necessary: they tried other means also. One of these was to try to break the workers' unity, which had withstood all communal tension. On 12 August 1946 the CWC adopted a resolution drafted by Nehru to organize the Hindustan Mazdoor Sevak Sangh on an all-India basis67 This organization had been functioning in Ahmedabad under another name on Gandhian lines as a stooge organization of Ahmedabad's textile magnates. When militant working class struggles threatened the very foundations of British imperialism and the Indian big bourgeoisie, the Nehrus took upon themselves the mission of splitting the working class.

And at its meeting in Calcutta on 7 December 1945 the CWC took disciplinary action against the communist members of the AICC and asked all subordinate committees to purge the Congress of all communists. As part of their fierce onslaught against the people, they accused the communists of having cooperated with the government in order to isolate them from the people. The irony was that when they themselves were acting as willing agents of the Raj to war against the people they accused the communists of having cooperated with the Raj after Nazi Germany's attack on the Soviet Union – which they did for ideological reasons. And what about Gandhi who pledged cooperation with British war efforts in 1944 and 1945 – and people like Rajagopalachari?

Gandhi's disciple D.G. Tendulkar observed that Gandhi "was aware of the deep hatred of the British rulers that was in the people's heart. To forestall and prevent the conflagration of the deep-seated hatred was his constant concern." 68

On 4 December 1946, Nehru said:

"There was a great urge among the masses of India for political progress. The Congress leaders had tried with some success to restrain that urge and keep it behind the Government." 69

Though essentially true, it is an understatement. Throughout the twenties and the thirties and the Second World War years and after, the Congress leaders acted as the enemy within (of all the top Congress leaders, Subhas Chandra Bose alone was a patriot and that is why he was hounded out of the Congress in 1939). The others did not hesitate to stoop to any falsehood and deception and occasional, atrocious attacks on the people (as when they held ministerial offices in eight provinces between 1937 and 1940 and again from 1946) to kill their "great urge" to become free.
Nor did the CPI emerge as a rallying point for nationalists. Its leadership strengthened the people's illusions about the Congress leaders instead of shattering them. To cite only one instance here, P.C. Joshi, then general secretary of the CPI, wrote in Congress and Communists (1944): "To us the Congress is our parent organization, its leaders our political fathers…" He described his own party men as "Communist Congressmen".70 Individual communists and groups of communists stood by the people bravely and selflessly and led many of their struggles.

But in the absence of an organized revolutionary party – the crucial subjective factor – the objectively revolutionary situation gave rise not to revolution but to counter-revolution: the most unnatural partition of India on communal lines costing enormous blood-baths and close integration of the two new states into the capitalist-imperialist system, which preserved all the structural barriers to her development. A telegram from London to Campbell-Johnson, Viceroy Mountbatten's press attaché, dated 3 June 1947, said: "A packed House of Commons listened with intense interest to Prime Minister's announcement [ of the agreement between the British Raj and the leaders of the Congress and the League to create two new states on the basis of partition of India and dominion status] this afternoon. Proposals and first reaction from India undoubtedly created profound gratification among all Parties. Sense of unity and recognition of tremendous issues and possibilities involved were comparable only with most historic moments during war.... This has been a great day for us all."71

India was regarded by the British imperialists as "the essential linchpin in the structure of the Commonwealth". 72 They devoutly wished that India would remain within the British Commonwealth. As early as 16 April 1943, when World War II raged, the Secretary of State, L. Amery, wrote to Prime Minister Winston Churchill: "To keep India within the Commonwealth during the next ten years is much thebiggest thing before us… [ and ] should be the supreme goal of the British policy." 73 He wrote to British Foreign Secretary Eden in a similar vein on 9 May 1943.74 The goal of the British imperialists was to have a self-governing India within the British Commonwealth and to enmesh her with Commonwealth ties – economic, political and military.

When "much the biggest thing before us" was achieved, with Nehru and Patel themselves seeking dominion status, 75 it was, no doubt, a "great triumph" of the British imperialists. The reaction of the U.S.imperialists was quite enthusiastic, though there was "the most appalling bloodshed and confusion" in India.

The Nehrus assured the British Raj that "in their view Hindustan would not ultimately leave the Commonwealth, once Dominion Status had been accepted". But they emphasized "the need for secrecy on this matter because if it became known that Congress leaders had privately encouraged the idea, the possibility of their being able to bring their party round to it would be serious[ly] jeopardized." 76

How independent and sovereign did India become after the transfer of power?
Did India become truly independent and sovereign with the transfer of power or in name only? Did she undergo a revolution – the overthrow of the rule of imperialism, big comprador capital and feudalism, the structural barriers to her development? Or, did imperialism make a formal withdrawal behind its flunkeys – the "political cows", as Sardar Mota Singh said – in order to blunt the edge of the national liberation struggle? Was the old order of the colonial era – the order the colonizers built in order to help them best to exploit and oppress the Indian people, after destroying the pre-colonial society – economic, social, political and military, refashioned by an independent, sovereign India which would lead to her regeneration?
The Indian economy had no independence of its own and remained an appendage of the economy of Britain during the colonial rule. British capital dominated every sector of Indian economy and sucked the life-blood of our people. We shall cite a few facts to point out that Indian economy did not become free from imperialist fetters after the transfer of power: the stranglehold of metropolitan capital was more and more tightened instead of being relaxed. Nehru assured the British capitalists in December 1946 that they would have full freedom to flourish here.77

In different official resolutions, speeches and so on, the Indian government extended a warm welcome to imperialist capital. An official memorandum of the Indian government in September 1949 declared: "The policy of the Government of India was to allow foreign capital to come in to operate freely in the industrial field…. Every attempt must be made to secure the maximum possible influx of foreign capital in the shortest possible time."78

The Birlas' Eastern Economist wrote in a leading article: "India for many years to come will need foreign capital and technical skill which must come mainly from the United States and Great Britain… it is clear from the Eastern Economist's recent calculations so far as India is concerned that without foreign investment, it is quite impossible now to maintain our standard of life [already quite abominable]… India's hunger for food this year is great but her hunger for capital – if less evident – is nearly as deep." 79

Some Indian magnates such as Tata and Birla had been negotiating with British and U.S. monopolies for the establishment of joint enterprises in India even before the 'transfer of power' and some deals were already concluded. On 2 May 1945, Manu Subedar, a small industrialist and leader of an anti-collaborationist group in the Indian Merchants' Chamber, Bombay, denounced in the Central Legislative Assembly the collaboration between foreign monopolies and Indian big capital as "illegitimate marriage".80 The joint ventures between imperialist monopolies and Indian big capital soon became the norm in India, encouraged by the Indian government. And trade followed the old colonial pattern.

For some years after the transfer of power the Indian rupee was tied to British sterling. When in September 1949, Britain was forced to devalue the pound in relation to the dollar by 30.5 per cent, India had to devalue the rupee in the same proportion. Announcing the devaluation, John Matthai, India's then Finance Minister, said that he "had to act, not on conviction born of logical necessity but, so to speak, by the compulsion of events; since sterling was devalued, there was no other course open to us." As a result, India's exports became cheaper and imports dearer and the people became poorer.
The sterling debts – between Rs 1,700 crore and Rs 1,800 crore in 1946 – tied the Indian economy to the metropolitan economy. These sterling balances, which Britain owed to India, represented the value of goods and services compulsorily taken away from India during World War II and in the months following it. Indian food, raw materials, textiles and other finished products were taken away not only for the army but for the civil population of England and other countries when the Indian people were victims of acute scarcity, steep inflation, sky-kissing prices, black markets and famine. The goods were taken by Britain at controlled or negotiated prices at which Indians could not get them. "The price paid by India", to quote Subedar, "runs into millions of lives."81 The British government refused to give any assurance that it would not scale down the debts: it even refused to enter into any negotiations about them. The Anglo-U.S. Financial Agreement of December 1945 made it mandatory on the U.K to scale down the debts. In his memorandum on Indian Sterling Balances, dated 5 August 1947, Hugh Dalton, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, wrote like a super-imperialist: "The Indians have asked for releases of £48.5 millions [out of £1,160 millions estimated by him] from the blocked account for the remainder of 1947. On my instructions the request has been rejected… No commitment for further releases after the end of 1947 has been made in the present negotiations, nor are we committed to recognize the total, without further cancellation or adjustment …. More than three quarters of them earn only one-half per cent [as interest]." 82 This was one of the swindling tricks of imperialism. The Indian ruling classes collaborated in it even after the transfer of power.

In a note on India's sterling balances, Subedar wrote: "There is no reason why assets, at least those who [which] belong to Britishers non-resident in India, should not be mobilized by the British Government with a view to reducing the outstanding balance."83 He wrote to Patel, "It is most extraordinary that three Cabinet ministers [ members of the British Cabinet Mission, who came to India in March 1946] should have come here and not a word was said to them by any Indian in regard to the sterling balances."84

On 7 July 1950, Nehru said that, "our economy is obviously tied to England and other allied powers." 85

In November 1951, G.D.Birla proposed the formation of an Indo-American Development Corporation with business magnates and officials of the two countries – a kind of "supertrust directing the future of Indian economy."86 And in January 1952, B.R.Sen, then India's Ambassador to the U.S.A, "recommended an investment company in which both American and Indian private capital would participate initially on a 70:30 per cent basis".87 Both the representative of the Indian government and an outstanding leader of the Indian big bourgeoisie were keen that the future of the Indian economy should be directed not by the Indians but chiefly by U.S. big capital. Were these the voices of an independent, sovereign India or of a client state?

As regards feudal or semi-feudal relations in the vast countryside, there was no fundamental change, except that some grosser manifestations of feudalism were curbed. There was no democratic, or agrarian, revolution in India. There was no basic change in the property structure in the rural areas.

We shall confine ourselves to a few words on the changes in the political and social system in India after the transfer of power. The long-cherished aim of the alien rulers to have India within the British Commonwealth was fulfilled. The British imperialists of all hues celebrated the transfer of power on the basis of partition and dominion status as a "great triumph", as a gain not a loss.88 They were sure that those to whom they had entrusted the subcontinent would defend and preserve their long-term interests in India and in the Indian Ocean region. And this is how they resolved their bitter contradiction with the Indian people. Indian 'independence' was the new face of British imperialism in India – a manoeuvre very deceitful and very successful.

India's 'freedom' was ushered in with the playing of 'God Save the King' followed by Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka. 89 Nehru toasted the health of the British king and Mountbatten toasted the health of the Dominion government. 90 It was symbolical that Union Jack was not lowered; it flew proudly when the Indian flag was unfurled.91

The last Viceroy and Governor-General of India became the head of the new Indian state and Nehru and Patel "wanted him to stay on as long as he would".92 H.V. Hodson, a former Reforms Commissioner of India, observed: "By a strange paradox Lord Mountbatten as constitutional governor-general of independent [!] India exercised more direct executive authority in certain spheres than he had enjoyed as autocratic viceroy."93 Nehru and his colleagues sought Mountbatten's advice about the composition of the cabinet for post-colonial India, "tore up the list of cabinet" they had prepared and changed four members of the old list.94 The trust that the top Congress leaders, quite astute men, reposed in Mountbatten reflected their trust in – and their closeness to – British imperialism. Gandhi had said earlier: "The sole referee of what is or is not in the interest of India as a whole will be Mountbatten in his personal capacity."95 Leonard Mosley wrote that "from that moment on" – Nehru's first meeting with Mountbatten in India – Nehru became "Mountbatten's man".96 We shall not refer here to Patel's effusive expressions of gratitude to Mountbatten. These were the persons who, with the complementary role played by the leaders of the CPI – P.C. Joshi and his associates – left a profound influence on the course of Indian history.

Invited by the Congress leaders, Sir John Colville and Sir Archibald Nye (who became next year U.K High Commissioner in New Delhi) remained as governors of the two largest provinces – Bombay and Madras. While in 'free' India, they flew Union Jack on the bonnets of their cars. Campbell-Johnson commented that the invitation to Colville and Nye to continue as governors "gets our relations with the new India off to a start good beyond all expectations".97

As President of the Indian Constituent Assembly Rajendra Prasad requested Lord Mountbatten, the head of the new State, to convey "a message of loyal greetings from this House" to the British King. It said: "That message [ the King's message to the new dominion] will serve as an inspiration to the great work on which we launch today, and I have no doubt that we anticipate with great pleasure association with Great Britain of a different kind. I hope and trust that the interest and sympathy and the kindness which have always inspired His Majesty , will continue in favour of India and we shall be worthy of them."98

As the Congress leaders had assured the British imperialists, the Indian Union joined the British Commonwealth of Nations, which recognized the British sovereign as head of the Commonwealth, to whom all dominions had to swear allegiance. It may be noted that on 2 May 1949, almost immediately after the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference in London, Attlee declared in the House of Commons "with reference to the London agreement that no distinction should be drawn between the use of the terms 'Commonwealth', 'British Commonwealth' or 'British Empire', all of which should be regarded as interchangeable".99 Appreciating Nehru's role in the 1949 London Conference, Attlee said: "Mr. Nehru for India showed high statesmanship in accepting a new relationship whereby in respect for India the [British] monarch was recognized as Head of the Commonwealth."100

Both Nehru and Jinnah agreed that India and Pakistan would fly the Union Jack on twelve days in the year but wanted that this should not be publicized. "In fact," Mountbatten wrote, "they are worried about their extremists agitating against over-stressing the British connection although they are quite willing to retain it [ the Union Jack in the upper canton of the Indian flag, as designed by Mountbatten] themselves."101

Indian society underwent no radical change. The administrative structure built by the colonizers remained. The British-trained Indian Civil Service (I.C.S.), the steel-frame of the colonial administration, continued as before. Its successor, the Indian Administrative Service (I.A.S.), to quote Francine Frankel, "retained the structure and style of its elitist forerunner, perpetuating a national administrative system that in numbers and outlook was more suitable to carrying out the narrow colonial functions of law and order than the broad responsibilities for economic development of an independent government."102 The police and the judiciary continued with little change. The same laws prevailed with few changes, only the repressive laws were given more teeth and the coercive apparatus of the State has been strengthened with the passing of years as para-military forces have proliferated. Formally, colonialism died but the colonial spirit and structure remained.

The Indian Constitution, under which we are governed, owes much to the British. The Constituent Assembly, that framed the Constitution, was constituted on the basis of the 16 May (1946) Statement of the British Cabinet Mission and the Viceroy. The members of the Constituent Assembly were not elected on the basis of adult suffrage, which Congress leaders like Nehru had promised several times. The then existing provincial legislative assemblies of 'British India', formed under the Government of India Act of 1935 (which Nehru called a "charter of slavery"), which restricted the franchise to about 11.5 per cent of the people and provided for separate electorates for different religious communities, were asked to elect their representatives by single, transferable votes of their members (except Europeans), Muslim and non-Muslim members voting separately. And, according to an agreement between Nehru and the Chamber of Princes, on the accession of the native states to the Indian Union, about fifty per cent of the seats allotted to them in the Constituent Assembly were filled by nominees of the princes (who had been stooges of the British government) and the rest were supposed to represent the people of those states.

The first session of the Constituent Assembly was convened by Viceroy Wavell and held on 9 December 1946. Speaking at the subjects committee meeting during the Meerut session of the Congress in November 1946, Nehru declared: "when we attain freedom, we shall have another Constituent Assembly."103 Deception was the name of their game. The draft of the Constitution was prepared by members of the I.C.S., chief among whom was Sir Benegal N. Rau, the constitutional adviser to the Constituent Assembly. Campbell-Johnson pointed out that dominion status made possible the maximum administrative and constitutional continuity, on the basis of the great India Act of 1935.104 "Approximately 250 articles [out of 395 articles]," wrote Michael Brecher, "were taken either verbatim or with minor changes in phraseology from the 1935 Government of India Act, and the basic principles remained unchanged."105 G.D. Birla proudly claimed that "we have embodied large portions of the [1935] Act as finally passed, in the Constitution which we have framed ourselves and which shows that in it [the 1935 Act] was cast the pattern of our future plans".106 "The new constitution accepted the basically British compromise of 1935", observed Thomas Balogh, the Oxford economist who was for some years adviser to the British cabinet.107

As regards military arrangements, the old order continued in the main. Immediately after the transfer of power Claude Auchinleck, the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian army, became the Supreme Commander of the armed forces of India and Pakistan. The commanders of the three branches of the armed forces of India – the army, the navy and the air force – remained British. Until the late fifties the commander of the Indian navy was British. An appeal was made to British officers and other British personnel in India's armed forces to continue and a 50 per cent increase in 'India Allowance' was granted to British 'other ranks'. 49 per cent of the British officers and 94 per cent of 'other ranks' were retained in the armed forces of 'free' India.108 But there was no place in the Indian army for the officers and men of the I.N.A.(whom Nehru described in 1945 and 1946 as "the pick of the Indian Army", "a splendid lot", "a fine lot" – "brave, stout-hearted and capable and very politically minded" – whose "standard of… fighting is admittedly very high" and "It is possible they will be acceptable to the future army of free India").109 The navy men who rose against the British in February 1946 and the Indian soldiers who joined the Indonesians in their struggle against the Dutch imperialists who were trying to reconquer their country at the end of the war, were not reinstated for their revolt against imperialism.

The Joint Defence Council of India and Pakistan was composed of Mountbatten, Auchinleck, Baldev Singh and Liaquat Ali – two Britishers and one representative each of India and Pakistan – with Mountbatten as Chairman. Both Nehru and Jinnah "wholeheartedly welcomed" the British government's proposal to negotiate "overall Commonwealth defence arrangements". The Joint Defence Council was empowered to conduct negotiations on behalf of India and Pakistan. To quote from Mountbatten's message to London dated 8th August 1947:

"As I shall continue to be Chairman of the Joint Defence Council after 15th August, I shall hope to be able to regulate these discussions [with the British military delegation to decide on 'overall Commonwealth defence arrangements'] and trust that the desired objects will be achieved."110

India became a partner of the "overall Commonwealth" military arrangements. Besides, as L.Natarajan pointed out, "India signed its first military agreement with the United States under the Mutual Defence Assistance Programme in March 1951..."111 These military agreements were concluded not between equals but between giants and a pigmy, between powerful imperialist countries – one of them a superpower seeking to dominate the world – and India, an underdeveloped country teeming with "half-naked, half-starved" people. "Thus came to an end", wrote Attlee later, "the direct rule of the British in India."112 Do all these facts indicate that India became independent and sovereign with the transfer of power?

"…the fact is", writes Robin D.G.Kelley, "while colonialism in its formal sense might have been dismantled, the colonial state was not."113overt political domination to enforce its rule. 114 Instead of directly administering a dependent country, it dominates it through local agents and using the levers of capital (both direct investment and 'aid', a euphemism for loan-capital), technology, military hardware, etc. Besides, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other international institutions, set up on the initiative of U.S. imperialism, play the role of the colonial administration of enforcing the rules of the imperialist game. The essence of neo-colonialism or semi-colonialism lies in subordinating the dependent country's economy, politics and military strategy, to the economy and global strategy of imperialism. Imperialism today, as Thomas Balogh said, does not require
Though India did not become free, an important change occurred. From a colony India became a semi-colony: India's dependence on Britain yielded to dependence on several imperialist powers, chief among which is the U.S.A. A semi-colony is formally independent, but in reality, it is dependent on several imperialist powers. In this 'semi-dependent country' the domestic ruling classes enjoy political power but within the framework of basic dependence on imperialist powers. As part of the world capitalist-imperialist system, they cannot shake off this dependence, for they can survive and expand by collaborating with and serving imperialist monopoly capital as they did before – at the cost of the abysmal misery and wretchedness of the people.

Rare punishment for murderers of Dalits in Andhra Pradesh

2007-08-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

Tsunduru (Guntur), July 31: A special court on Tuesday sentenced to life 21 upper caste persons and gave one-year jail terms to 35 others in the sensational Tsunduru Dalits massacre case. The case involved the murder of eight Dalits of Tsunduru on August 6, 1991 by people belonging to Reddy and Telaga castes.

Special Judge Anis of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Court acquitted 123 persons in the case, the trial of which took 16 years to complete. Pronouncing the verdict in the packed court room, the judge said the convicted did not deserve capital punishment as the case was not the 'rarest of rare kind'.

The village had a history of communal feud and clashes between Dalits and upper caste Hindus were common, she pointed out. Public prosecutor B. Chandrasekhar had sought capital punishment for the accused by claiming that it was a rarest of the rare cases. Police had cordoned off Tsunduru village and had imposed prohibitory orders to prevent any untoward incidents after the judgment.

Dalit communities were disappointed at the judgment. At the same time, the family members of those who were awarded life sentences wept outside the court. Modugula Mallikarjuna Reddy, Gudeti Brahma Reddy, Chidipudi Srinivasa Reddy, Padyla Haribabu and C. Punnareddy were sentenced to life for killing J. Mattaiah.

Poluru Prasada Reddy and Kosana Pitchaiah got life sentences for killing Mallela Subbarao. Kosana Nageswara Rao, Kosana Prasad and Kosana Sivaiah butchered one Dalit Mandru Ramesh, whose body was found near a canal. They too got life terms. The murder of Jaaladi Isaac got convictions for Gopireddy Kotireddy and Kolli Sambireddy.

Modugula Sitarama Reddy, Kosana Edukondalu, Myla Siva Prasad and Ambati Prasad were convicted in the murder of one Angalakuduru Rajamohan. His body was found near a railway track. Gorrepati Sambireddy, Topireddy Prasada Reddy and Mani Veerareddy hacked one Devarapalli Jayaraj to death. Modugul Mallikarjuna Reddy and Ikkurthi Sivaiah murdered one Jaladi Immanuel. All of them got life sentences.

The other 35 upper caste persons got one-year terms for moving around the village with deadly weapons. They should also pay a penalty of Rs 2,000 each or undergo imprisonment for one more month. Charges were leveled against 220 persons, of which 33 died during the course of the trial. As many as 179 accused were present in the court on Tuesday. The public prosecutor said he would recommend an appeal against the verdict so that some of those acquitted were also punished.

Nandigram again set ablaze

2007-07-30T04:58:00.001-07:00

Statesman News Service
NANDIGRAM, July 29: After a lull of two months, Nandigram once again witnessed violence leaving one dead and three injured after clashes erupted between supporters of the Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Commitee and CPI-M cadres this morning. A 12-hour-long bandh has also been called in the area by BUPC after police lathicharged its members in a rally, injuring 36 people including its leader.

Police said Bapan Patra (35) was caught in the crossfire while working in his paddy field near Sherkhanchak when both CPI-M cadres and BUPC supporters started firing at each other. He died on the spot. CPI-M leaders later claimed that Patra, a resident of Pankhai village in Khejuri, was their supporter. Barun Mondal, another CPI-M supporter, and two BUPC members Adhir Khatua and Manoranjan Midda, too sustained bullet injuries in the gunfire near Talpati canal. A resident of Baratala in Khejuri block, Mondol’s condition is stated to be critical. Khatua and Midda have been admitted to Mahespur public health centre.

The area saw heavy firing and crude bombs were hurled since this morning. It continued till late in the day. In another incident at Nandigram bazar, 10 km off Sherkhanchak on Talpati canal, 36 BUPC members have been injured when CPI-M cadres allegedly hurled bombs at their rally. BUPC had brought out the procession in response to a CPI-M organised victory rally to celebrate its recent triumph in Haldia Municipal Corporation.

FIGHT AGAINST SEZ

2007-07-20T04:53:00.000-07:00

Resolution Adopted in the All India Convention on Nandigram and SEZs, held on 2-3 June, 2007 at the Netaji Subhash Institute in Kolkata

The All India Convention on Nandigram and SEZs, held on 2-3 June, 2007 at the Netaji Subhash Institute in Kolkata, calls upon all patriotic and democratic people of India to fight for the sovereignty and survival of the country, especially its least advantaged, by opposing the neo-liberal policies imposed upon the country by the servitors of imperialism and Zionism.

The SEZs are the most advanced and the deadliest weapons of neo-liberalism because they not only create islands of cheap and sweated labour after ousting millions of peasants from their homes, livelihoods and their social and cultural milieus but create extra-territorial enclaves where the sovereignty of the country is compromised as in the eighteenth century factories from which emerged the colonial forces of the British, French and the Dutch imperialists.

The present-day imperialists, especially the US-Zionists, do not always need to flex their brute force as in Afghanistan, Iraq and several other places in order to compromise our sovereignty. The Indian state and all the political parties sharing power either at the Centre or the states have become collaborators of imperialism—the palpable consequence of capitulation of Indian big capital to imperialism. Without that capitulation, there could be no access to markets or technology in a regime basically of export-led growth. The state in India is therefore willing to maim and kill to facilitate the SEZs as in Nandigram, Kalinganagar and other places.

It should be noted that women and children are the worst targets of the policies of neo-liberalism and state violence. And in the revolt of the people in Nandigram against the land grab indulged in by the state and the CPI (M) it was the women of Nandigram who were in the forefront of defying the brute force of the police and the CPI (M) cadre. This convention salutes their courage and determination in facing the wrath of the repressive state machinery and strongly believe that this has created a new precedence for the emerging resistance against all forms of displacement throughout the country.

The so-called left parties such as the CPI (M) are playing a vicious game of prevarication. To the extent that they share state power, they are ready to kill and maim peasants, workers for foreign capitalists such as Fiat (at Singur, with Tata as collaborator) or Dow Chemicals (facilitated by the Salim group) at Nandigram. Where such parties are not in government, they pretend to oppose imperialism before those that they are still able to delude.

Nandigram has unmasked them and defeated them. The people of West Bengal will not allow a single decimal of land for SEZs. But it is not a question of just the people of West Bengal. The people of India are rising into memorable struggles wherever SEZs are being proposed. This Convention, attended by delegates from all corners of India, is proof that the message of Nandigram is ringing loud and clear throughout India. The movements are converging and the political understandings are merging. The time has arrived therefore to build an all-India movement that will be seamless in its unity.

This Convention therefore resolves to form an All-India Consultative Committee to oppose SEZs and various forms of displacement and initiate the process of an all India movement. 28 members elected by this convention will act as facilitators at the beginning, before full coordination is established.

The All India People's Convention on Nandigram and SEZs affirms the demands of the call by concerned citizens and movements that convened it:

Scrap the SEZ Act, 2005 that aims to set up 'extra territorial' authorities within the country and acquire huge tracts of farm and forestlands for the corporate capitalists while endangering the lives and livelihoods of millions.
Abolish or reformulate (in consultation with the people) the colonial and draconian Land Acquisition Act of 1894 that serves as the chief instrument of land acquisition by the government.
The Chief Minister of West Bengal, who has owned up to the responsibility for the mass murders in Nandigram, must resign. Everyone who has had a hand in the Nandigram massacre, directly or indirectly, must be punished.
People's institutions at the grassroots must be allowed the autonomy to act so that a life of peace and dignity returns to Nandigram and wherever conflict has erupted over land acquisition.
The All India People's Convention on Nandigram and SEZs further resolve to unitedly and unequivocally warn the State that it has no right to deprive the people of their livelihood. This convention salutes the people's resistance struggles against all forms of displacement and dispossession taking place throughout the length and breadth of the sub-continent.

Special Economic Zones (SEZs), which are foreign enclaves where many of the laws of the land would not apply, will undermine the self-reliance and sovereignty of the people of this country. The convention also opposes the decision of the Manmohan Singh government--after seeing the anger and rebellion of the people of Nandigram--to allow private acquisition of land for the developers of SEZs. While opposing the colonial legislation of the land acquisition act of 1894 it also demands to hereby scrap all the proposed SEZs and the ones that are already sanctioned. The struggle against SEZs is decisive in resisting the policies of neo-liberalism and the imperialist-Zionist attack on our sovereignty. While this convention resolves to take up the resistance against SEZs on an emergent basis, it understands that the struggle against SEZs will not be complete and effective without fighting all other kinds of displacement like big industrial projects, mining projects, mega dams for power generation and irrigation, big infrastructural projects, super highways, malls, urban restructuring, tourism projects, national parks, sanctuaries, etc. This is evident from the ongoing struggles of Kalinganagar, anti-POSCO movement, movements against the Polavaram dam, Vedanta, Singur, Navi Mumbai, Netrahat Field firing Range in Jharkhand, Chargaon Raoghat anti- mining struggle in Lohandiguda in Chhattisgarh, etc.

The people's revolt in Nandigram has shown a way for everyone fighting against SEZs to save their land and resources. This burning need to fight against SEZs and all forms of displacement towards building a broad united struggle will have its focus on the central question of alienation of land from the people with its spirit being that of the resistance struggles for Jal, Jungle, Jameen.

The fight against all forms of displacement will also entail the necessity to evolve an alternative development model, which is in the interests of the people. This should be a people-oriented development.

This alternative will only emerge when genuine people's struggles against land acquisition and various forms of displacement are able to see through the sinister, status-quoist agenda of imperialist and government funded institutions and the so-called struggles led by the exploitative parties when out of power to hoodwink the people to gain votes so as to get back to the corridors of power.

The convention resolves that the all India movement against SEZs and other forms of displacement should unite working people and all other oppressed people's movements against displacement.

This convention further empowers the All India Consultative Committee to initiate talks with similar processes towards building a broad all India united front of organisations or platforms like the Ranchi process fighting against SEZs and various other kinds of displacement.

The time has come for a long drawn struggle to establish self-reliance.

All India Consultative Committee for initiating the process of building an All India Platform of People's Organisations Against SEZs and Displacement

Dr. Rakesh Rafiq--Yuva Bharat
GN Saibaba--Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF)
Banwari Lal Sharma--Azadi Bachao Andolan
Bhaskar Nandy-- CPI (ML) (PCC)
Medha Patkar-- Narmada Bachao Andolan
Mithilesh Dangi-- Azadi Bachao Andolan
Vara Vara Rao--Revolutionary Poet
Hemant Uchai-- Tripura Tribal Land Struggle Committee
Alok Mukherjee--All India Platform for People's Struggles
Swapan Mukherjee-- CPI (ML) (Liberation)
Kavita Krishnan-- CPI (ML) (Liberation)
Kalyan Goswami-- CPI (ML) (Liberation)
Jayanta Roy-- Janwadi Forward Block
Moulana Siddiqullah Chowdhury--Gona Unnayan-O-Jona Adhikar Sangram Samity
Krishna Gopal Sinha--Samajwadi Janata Dal
Santosh Rana-- CPI (ML) (PCC)
Sardar Amjad Ali--PDCI
Arun Majhi--National Alliance of Trade Unions
Debabrata Sharma-- Ekalavya, Assam
Mukul Sinha -- NSM, Gujarat
Asim Srivastava--Economist
Rachna Dhingra--Bhopal Campaign Group
Satinath Sarangi-- Bhopal Campaign Group
V. Srinivasan --PUCL Tamil Nadu
Kerala Anti-SEZ Movement
Representative from SUCI
Representative from SUCI
Representative from SUCI

Other Resolutions

On Police firing on Pro-reservation Movement in Rajasthan

The All India Convention on Nandigram and SEZ strongly condemns the continuous and barbaric police firing on the pro-reservation movement of the Gujjars of Rajasthan. In the police firing more than a dozen of people have been killed and hundreds of them were injured. The Rajasthan government is not only creating a reign of terror on the people of the state but also trying its best to instigate caste clashes between the Gujjar and Meena community. This discriminatory and repressive role of the BJP government of Rajasthan is nothing but to divide the people of the state on caste and communal basis in order to continue the oppression and exploitation of the toiling masses. We demand the repression on pro-reservation movement to be immediately stopped and all the police and administrative officials involved in the killing of this struggling members of the Gujjar community be punished.

Condemn the Arrest and Incarceration of Dr. Binayak Sen, Secretary PUCL, Chhattisgarh

The All India Convention on Nandigram and SEZ strongly condemns the arrest and incarceration of Dr. Binayak Sen, Secretary PUCL Chhattisgarh. Dr. Sen strongly opposed the government initiated Salwa Judum to facilitate the investment possibilities of TATA and Essar steel plants in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh. Thousands of people were forcefully displaced from the villages and were robbed off their homes, culture and livelihood and were kept in the police camps through the brutal Salwa Judum genocide. This convention demands the immediate revoking of the draconian charges filed against Dr. Sen under several acts including the Unlawful

Maoists toprotest outside big shopping malls

2007-07-13T11:16:00.000-07:00

The retail shopping malls, being set up by the multinationals and mammoth Indian companies, will be the next target of the Maoists in Kerala.

There are enough indications that the Maoists in Kerala, particularly the Porattom and the Janakeeya Vimochana Munnani (JVM), will stage some dramatic agitations against these retail giants once they set up the malls in Kerala.

The JVM is suspected to have links with the banned CPI (Maoist), which came into existence after the merger of Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and the CPI-ML (People's War).

Porattom is the frontal organisation of the CPI-ML (Naxalbari), another Maoist organisation which believes in armed struggle.

The Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and the retail sector are the two areas identified by the Maoists as the new realms of struggle against imperialism. General secretary of the CPI (Maoist) Ganapathi, in an interview, has called for "converting special economic zones into active war zones."

The Maoists were actively enagaged in the recent months in organising the people of Nandigram in West Bengal against the Tata.

Latest issue of People�s March, a magazine being published from Kochi which has leanings towards Maoist outfits, has an article on retail sector. It points out the inherent dangers of opening up of the retain sector to big sharks.

The article says the entry of firms like Walmart will shatter the Indian economy and it will result in price hike of products and unemployment. The article also cautions about its cultural impact.

The Maoist outfits in Kerala, unlike their counterparts in the guerrilla zones in other parts of the country, have not ventured for a full-scale battle with the authorities. Here the agitations were more of symbolic nature like the attack on the office of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) by the activists of Porattam. Sources said such token protest against the big shopping malls are likely to occur in the coming days.

In Maoist terminology such agitations are named as 'partial struggles' which is a part of the protracted people's war. Maoists form cover or frontal outfits to carry out the agitation. Adivasi Samara Sangham, Viplava Sthreevadi Prasthanam and Adivasi Vimochana Munnani are some of such outfits formed by the Maoists in Kerala at various points.

The theme of the agitation is selected carefully after much deliberations. The entry of MNCs in retail sector has already evoked protests from various quarters and the Maoists see this as the right moment for their intervention.

2007-07-01T22:59:00.000-07:00

Comrade Mao Tse Tung and comrade Joseph Stalin.Two of the greatest leaders

CPM unleashes White terror on USDF activists

2007-06-28T10:05:00.000-07:00

USDF is one of the fastest growing student unions in calcutta which the authorities claim is backed by maoists of various hues.

Around 5:30 p.m. on monday, the students were attacked by a group of CPI-M activists when they were seen taking measurement near the proposed thermal power super-project at Srikhand village.One of them is in a critical condition with severe head injuries

Statesman News Service
DURGAPUR, June 26: Three of the five students of United Students Democratic Front who were detained by Katwa police last evening were released after preliminary questioning. Though Lokeshweri Dasgupta, second year history student at Jadavpur University, Priyonkar Dey of JU and Supriyo Sur of Presidency College were released, Jaladhar Mahato was arrested for his suspected links with Maoists.

Police said that Jaladhar might have links with the Lalgarh squad of the Maoists in West Midnapore and his name had figured during investigations following two Maoist strikes in Belpahari in 2005. The other three students were released after police did not find any links with them and the Maoists. However, police are yet to question Ashim as his condition is not stable and is currently admitted at a local hospital with critical head injuries. All the five were taken to the Katwa police station yesterday following a squabble at a village about six km from Katwa town.

Around 5:30 p.m. yesterday, the students were attacked by a group of CPI-M activists when they were seen taking measurement near the proposed thermal power super-project at Srikhand village.One of them is in a critical condition with severe head injuriest

CPM leader confesses to murder

2007-06-24T19:56:00.000-07:00

CPM leader confesses killing Tapashi Malik
Perhaps you all remember of the gruesome murder and probable rape(before that) of Tapashi Malik in singur.
She was brutally burnt alive when she went to the fields to answer the call of nature.
Her father is an agricultural labourer and she was very active in the Krishi Jomi Raksha Committee(land protection committee) of Singur, which was and still is fighting against the forced grabbing of land by the CPM led Left Front govt. of West Bengal.
It was alleged at that time that she was brutally raped and then burnt alive by CPM goons and police inside the fenced land that was grabbed by the Govt. for the Tata motors Plant.
Lower part of her body was burnt very severely(probably to destroy the evidence of rape).

Bourgeois media in West Bengal tried to save the CPM by claiming that it was a suicide and in this way insulting the great martyr.
How ever under tremendous public pressure, the West Bengal Govbt. was forced to order a CBI inquiry .

CBI took a localCPM leader Debu Malik to Delhi for Narco analysis test yesterday.
Debu Malik , in the narco analysis test , cofessed to killing Tapashi Malik.
CBI has arrested him and a team is coming to Singur to arrest his other accomplices.

With this confession the brutal inhuman terrorist character of the Social Fascist character of the CPM has been exposed again.
Now it is the job of the great revolutionary people of West Bengal to rise to the occasion and put up a strong resistance against the bloody murderous regime of CPM in West Bengal.

Another Lie By CPM Exposed

2007-06-21T21:36:00.000-07:00

When the CPM led Left Govt. of West Bengal forcibly evicted the peasantsof Singur through brutal state repression they gave a false assurance that at least one person from each family, who have lost their land, will get a job in the Tata motors factory that is to be set up in the land that the West Bengal Govt. has forcibly grabbed from the peasants.
They even started a so-called training programme for the unemployed youth of singur in four ITIs near singur.
Although most of the peasants of Singur did not fall in this trap laid by the CPM and continued their heroic resistance against this illegal and immoral land grab.But some of young lads of Singur were carried away by the blatant lies of CPM that all landless peasants will surely get a job, and they joined the training programme.
But now , a few days back Nirupam Sen, the industry minister of West Bengal has announced a package for singur peasants where he has said that among the unemployed youth who are receiving the training,only those who "QUALIFY" will get a job.
This is an extremely ambiguous comment as he has not set any bench mark for his so-called qualification.
This is nothing but a total back track maneuver from the earlier Govt. stand that each and everybody receiving training will get a job.
Students receiving the training have come to know that only those students getting more than 90% marks at the end of the training will get a job.
I wonder that whether there is any training programme in the whole world, where the pass marks is 90%
This clearly proves that the CPM govt. at that time lied to the people of singur to mislead them and grab their land.
This is the real face of the Pseudo-leftist anti-people regime of CPM , which based on blatant Lies, utter hypocrisy and limitless terror.

But the students are not taking this lying low.
450 students taking this training have started an indefinite boycott of classes demanding that the Govt. should give them a written assurance that every person receiving this training should be guaranteed a job in the factory.
But the response from the govt. has been cold so far, to say the least.
The students of the four ITI s have threatened further intensification of their movement if the govt. does not meet their demands.

Roiting In china

2007-06-12T00:09:00.000-07:00

From 1976 , after the death of Comrade Mao-Tse-Tung, the great leader of the proletariat, the revisionist regime of Deng Jiao ping has embarked on a mission to re-establish the barbaric social order of Capitalism.

In the last few years they have started selling the resources and wealth of China to the western imperialists.

The great people of china, the workers and peasants have stood up in strong resistance against these bourgeois atrocities.

People in the south-western city of Chongqing fought riot police after a flower-seller was attacked by a policeman.

The rioting took place last weekend. It is currently unclear why the policeman attacked Mr Changming, but he was apparently hospitalised after being beaten with a shovel. His wife brother-in-law and son were also injured.

Rioting broke out shortly afterwards, with angry people surrounding police cars. Violent clashes broke out between roughly 1000 people and 100 riot police. In the course of eight hours of fighting two police cars were destroyed and 10 people were injured, four seriously.

Another flower-seller was beaten by city inspectors in Zhengzhou last week, this also lead to rioting with thousands facing up to riot police. This incident has reportedly led to the disciplining of several police officers and party officials.

Chongqing is the world's fastest growing conurbation and has been the site of violence before. In November 2005, police put 20 strikers in hospital while breaking up protest against lay-offs by 10,000 workers from a state steel factory. In 2004 there was massive rioting after massive job losses were caused by the Three Gorges dam project. Entire districts of the city were closed and moved with at least 47,000 jobs lost as a direct result.

Boycott these intellectuals

2007-06-10T19:25:00.000-07:00

From the day that the ghastly massacre of Nandigram happened people from all part of the society have been condemning Buddhadev Bhattacharya and his fascist CPM regime.
But a few so called intellectuals of bengal have been licking the feets of their master Buddhadev Bhattacharya for getting different economic and administrative favours.
Following is a list of those hypocrite intellectuals.

PLEASE BOYCOTT THESE INTELLECTUALS!

These are the supporters of the Killer Buddha. Please expose and black list these hypocrite intellectuals who still support directly or indirectly the Hitler Buddha and his Left Front Government even after infernal Mass-killings in Nandigram. PLEASE BOYCOTT THESE INTELLECTUALS FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY. PLEASE WIDELY CIRCULATE THIS MESSAGE. BUT IT’S AN INCOMPLETE LIST; ALL OF YOU ARE REQUESTED TO UPDATE IT.

Writers, Poets and Journalists: 1) Debesh Roy 2) Sunil Gangopadhyaya 3) Nirendranath Chakraborty 4) Subodh Sarkar 5) Mallika Sengupta 6) Buddhadeb Guha 7) Joydeb Basu 8) Amitabha Dasgupta 9) Amitabha Choudhury 10) Prachet Gupta 11) Ajijul Haque 12) Baharuddin 13) Dibyendu Palit 14)Debabrata Raptan 15) Suchitra Bhattacharya 16) Bani Basu 17) Saiyad Mustafa Siraj 18) Mohit Chattopadhyay 19) Krishna Dhar 20) Pabitra Sarkar 21) Dr. Sanat Kumar Mitra and Dr. Kshetra Gupta (Loksamaskrtit Gabeshana)
Actors and Actresses (Film and theater) and TV personalities: 1) Soumitra Chattopadhyay 2) Sabitri Chattopadhyay 3) Dilip Roy 4) Sabyasachi Chakraborty 5) Usha Ganguly 6) Chinmoy Roy 7) Shankar Chakraborty 8) Chandan Sen (junior) 9) Nilkantha Sengupta 10) Barry O Brien (quiz master) 11) Jagannath Basu 12) Urmimala Basu 13) Lily Chakraborty 14) Dipankar Dey 15) Jit 16) Swastika Mukherjee 17) Kanchan Mallick 18) Ushasi Chakraborty 19) Gita Dey
Film makers: 1) Mrinal Sen 2) Raja Sen 3) Anindita Sarbadhikary 4) Subrata Sen 5) Soumitra Dastidar
Singers: 1) Amar Paul 2) Haimanti Shukla 3) Indranil Sen 4) Utpalendu Choudhury 5) Subhendu Maity 6) Anushila Basu 7) Bangla band – Bhoomi, Cactus and Prithibi 8) Usha Uthhup 9) Shrikanta Acharya 10) Sudhin Sarkar 11)Shibaji Chattopadhyay 12) Kaji Kamal Naser 13) Saikat Mitra 14) Swapan Basu
Sports persons: 1) P. K. Banerjee 2) Sambaran Banerjee 3) Surajit Sengupta
Scientists: Saroj Ghosh
Magician:1) P. C. Sorkar Junior

Spring thunder over India

2007-06-10T05:34:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the 40 years of Naxalbari movement, today I am publishing one important document. This article was published as an editorial in the People's Daily, organ of the central committee of the Communist Party of China on July 5, 1967.

A peal of spring thunder has crashed over the land of India. Revolutionary peasants in the Darjeeling area have risen in rebellion. Under the leadership of a revolutionary group of the Indian Communist Party, a red area of rural revolutionary armed struggle has been established in India. This is a development of tremendous significance for the Indian people’s revolutionary struggle.

In the past few months, the peasant masses in this area, led by the revolutionary group of the Indian Communist Party, have thrown off the shackles of modern revisionism and smashed the trammels that bound them. They have seized grain, land and weapons from the landlords and plantation owners, punished the local tyrants and wicked gentry, and ambushed the reactionary troops and police that went to suppress them thus demonstrating the enormous might of the peasants’ revolutionary armed struggle. All imperialists, revisionists, corrupt officials, local tyrants and wicked gentry, and reactionary army and police are nothing in the eyes of the revolutionary peasants who are determined to strike them down to the dust. The absolutely correct thing has been done by the revolutionary group of the Indian Communist Party and they have done it well. The Chinese people joyfully applaud this revolutionary storm of the Indian peasants in the Darjeeling area as do all Marxist-Leninists and revolutionary people of the whole world.

It is an inevitability that the Indian peasants will rebel and the Indian people will make revolution because the reactionary Congress rule has left them with no alternative. India under Congress rule is only nominally independent; in fact, it is nothing more than a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country. The Congress administration represents the interests of the Indian feudal princes, big landlords and bureaucrat-comprador capitalists. Internally, it oppresses the Indian people without any mercy and suck their blood, while internationally it serves the new boss, U.S. imperialism, and its number one accomplice, the Soviet revisionist ruling clique, in addition to its old suzerain British Imperialism, thus selling out the national interests of India in a big way. So imperialism, Soviet revisionism, feudalism and bureaucrat-comprador capitalism weigh like big mountains on the backs of the Indian people, especially on the toiling masses of workers and peasants.

The Congress administration has intensified its suppression and exploitation of the Indian people and pursued a policy of national betrayal during the past few years. Famine has stalked the land year after year. The fields are strewn with the bodies of those who have died of hunger and starvation. The Indian people, above all, the Indian peasants, have found life impossible for them. The revolutionary peasants in the Darjeeling area have now risen in rebellion, in violent revolution. This is the prelude to a violent revolution by the hundreds of millions of people throughout India. The Indian people will certainly cast away these big mountains off their backs and win complete emancipation. This is the general trend of Indian history which no force on earth can check or hinder.
What road is to be followed by the Indian revolution? This is a fundamental question affecting the success of the Indian revolution and the destiny of the 500 million Indian people. The Indian revolution must take the road of relying on the peasants, establishing base areas in the countryside, persisting in protracted armed struggle and using the countryside to encircle and finally capture the cities. This is Mao Tse-tung’s road, the road that has led the Chinese revolution to victory, and the only road to victory for the revolutions of all oppressed nations and peoples.

Our great leader, Chairman Mao Tse-tung, pointed out as long as 40 years ago: “In China’s central, southern and northern provinces, several hundred million peasants will rise like a mighty storm, like a hurricane, a force so swift and violent that no power, however great, will be able to hold it back. They will smash all the trammels that bind them and rush forward along the road to liberation. They will sweep all the imperialists, warlords, corrupt officials, local tyrants and evil gentry into their graves.”
Chairman Mao explicitly pointed out long ago that the peasant question occupies an extremely important place in the people’s revolution. The peasants constitute the main force in the national-democratic revolution against imperialism and its lackeys; they are most reliable and numerous allies of the proletariat. India is a vast semi-colonial and semi-feudal country with a population of 500 million, the absolute majority of which, the peasantry, once aroused, will become the invincible force of the Indian revolution. By integrating itself with peasants, the Indian proletariat will be able to bring about earth-shaking changes in the vast countryside of India and defeat any powerful enemy in a soul-stirring people’s war.

Our great leader, Chairman Mao, teaches us: “The seizure of power by armed force, the settlement of the issue by war, is the central task and the highest form of revolution. This Marxist-Leninist principle of revolution holds good universally, for China and for all other countries.”
The specific nature of the Indian revolution, like that of the Chinese revolution, is armed revolution fighting against armed counter-revolution; Armed struggle is the only correct road for the Indian revolution; there is no other road whatsoever. Such trash as “Gandhi-ism”, “parliamentary road” and the like are opium used by the Indian ruling classes to paralyse the Indian people. Only by relying on violent revolution and taking the road of armed struggle can India be saved and the Indian people achieve complete liberation. Specifically, this is to arouse the peasant masses boldly, build up and expand the revolutionary armed forces, deal blows at the armed suppression of the imperialists and reactionaries, who are temporarily stronger than the revolutionary forces, by using the whole set of the flexible strategy and tactics of people’s war personally worked out by Chairman Mao, and to persist in protracted armed struggle and seize victory of the revolution step by step.
In the light of the characteristics of the Chinese revolution, our great leader, Chairman Mao, has pointed out the importance of establishing revolutionary rural base areas. Chairman Mao teaches us: In order to persist in protracted armed struggle and defeat imperialism and its lackeys, “it is imperative for the revolutionary ranks to turn the backward villages into advanced, consolidated base areas, into great military, political, economic and cultural bastions of the revolution from which to fight their vicious enemies who are using the cities for attacks on the rural districts, and in this way gradually to achieve the complete victory of the revolution through protracted fighting.”
India is country with vast territory; its countryside, where the reactionary rule is weak, provides the broad areas in which the revolutionaries can manoeuvre freely. So long as the Indian proletarian revolutionaries adhere to the revolutionary line of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung’s Thought and rely on their great ally, the peasants, it is entirely possible for them to establish one advanced revolutionary rural base area after another in the broad backward rural areas and build a people’s army of a new type. Whatever difficulties and twists and turns the Indian revolutionaries may experience in the course of building such revolutionary base areas, they will eventually develop such areas from isolated points into a vast expanse, from small areas into extensive ones, an expansion in a series of waves. Thus, a situation in which the cities are encircled from the countryside will gradually be brought about in the Indian revolution to pave the way for the final seizure of towns and cities and winning nation-wide victory.

The Indian reactionaries are panic-stricken by the development of the rural armed struggle in Darjeeling. They have sensed imminent disaster and they wail in alarm that the peasants’ revolt in Darjeeling will “become a national disaster.” Imperialism and the Indian reactionaries are trying in a thousand and one ways to suppress this armed struggle of the Darjeeling peasants and nip it in the bud. The Dange renegade clique and revisionist chieftains of the Indian Communist Party are vigorously slandering and attacking the revolutionaries in the Indian Communist Party and the revolutionary peasants in Darjeeling for their great exploits. The so-called “non-Congress” government in West Bengal openly sides with the reactionary Indian Government in its bloody suppression of the revolutionary peasants in Darjeeling. This gives added proof that these renegades and revisionists are running dogs of U.S. imperialism and Soviet revisionism and lackeys of the big Indian landlords and bourgeoisie. What they call the “Non-Congress government” is only a tool of the landlords and bourgeoisie.
But no matter how well the imperialists, Indian reactionaries and the modern revisionists may cooperate in their sabotage and suppression, the torch of armed struggle lighted by the revolutionaries in the Indian Communist Party and the revolutionary peasants in Darjeeling will not be put out. “A single spark can start a prairie fire”.

The spark in Darjeeling will start a prairie fire and will certainly set the vast expanses of India ablaze. That a great storm of revolutionary armed struggle will eventually sweep across the length and breadth of India is certain. Although the course of the Indian revolutionary struggle will be long and tortuous, the Indian revolution, guided by great Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung’s Thought, will surely triumph.

Peoples' Tribunal on Nandigram

2007-05-30T18:55:00.000-07:00

Peoples' Tribunal on Nandigram
PRESS RELEASE

28 May, Kolkata

In its interim report, the independent People's
Tribunal on Nandigram has recommended, among other
measures, the setting up of special Human Rights
Courts to ensure speedy justice in all cases of human
rights violations in Nandigram and adjoining areas.

The Tribunal, organized by the All India Citizens
Initiative, heard depositions from victims, witnesses,
social activists, intellectuals, doctors, human rights
groups and other concerned organisations here today.
The hearings were held in both Nandigram and Kolkata
from 26-28 May and headed by Justice S.N.Bhargava,
former Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court.

Tribunal members, which included Pravash Joshi
(Editorial Advisor, Jansatta), Lalita Ramdas ( Social
Activist), John Dayal (Member, National Integration
Council) and Jyotirmoy Samajder (Psychiatrist),
visited the site of police firing and other places in
the Nandigram area relevant to understanding the
circumstances and nature of the violence.

Meanwhile Mr Anup Agarwal, the District Magistrate of
Midnapur (East) issued a letter to the organizers of
the Tribunal asking under what 'law of the land' such
a Tribunal was being organized. The All India
Citizen's Initiative in its reply said that the
Tribunal had been organized under Article 51 of the
Constitution, which calls upon every citizen of India
" to promote harmony and spirit of brotherhood amongst
all the people of India transcending religious,
linguistic, regional and social diversities". It must
be mentioned here that all concerned official agencies
were informed of the Tribunal and requested to depose
before it but none of them turned up.

Song on Nandigram

2007-05-19T05:30:00.000-07:00

The following song has been written and sung by the legendary Bengali singer, Kabir Suman.
He has been an ardent supporter of the continuing peasant's uprising going on in different parts of West Bengal province of India against the anti-people police of land grab by the incumbent social fascist regime led by CPIM.

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State Terror on PUCL

2007-05-13T05:06:00.000-07:00

Following statements were issued by Mr. Rajendra .K.Sail, the President of Chattishgarh branch of PUCL about the ongoing police atrocities on the PUCL

Dear Friends,

Greetings from the Chhattisgarh PUCL!

We are facing an unprecedented situation, where the State Government/Police is trying to falsely implicate Dr.Binayak Sen, General Secretary, Chhattisgarh PUCL, and National PUCL Vice-President in so-called "naxal activities".

On May 1, 2007, the Chhattisgarh police detained a businessman, Mr. Piyush Guha from Kolkotta, but later produced him in the Court only on 7th May, 2007, after the PUCL issued a statement about his "abduction" by the State Police. According to the State Police, Mr. Some letters and "naxal literature" ( People's March Magazine, etc.) have been recovered from him. The police is now alleging that the three letters in his possesion were handed over to him by Dr. Binayak Sen, who used to meet the Senior member of the CPI (Maoist) Mr. Narayan Sanyal lodged at Raipur Central Jail.

In this regard, the police has made a statement to the press that Dr. Binayak Sen and his family "absconded" after the arrest of Mr. Guha. While the fact is that Dr. Binayak Sen and his family had planned to go to Kolkotta for a fornight's holiday with their relatives, and the tickets were booked well in advance. The Police is attempting to search his residence by breaking the lock, after obtaining Search Warrant from the concerned Court.

Some of the PUCL members met today at Raipur, and have issued the Press Statement attached herewith.

Chhattisgarh PUCL has also planned to state a day-long peaceful Dharna on 13th May 2007 at Raipur protesting against the Fake Encounters, Fake Surrenders and Fake Arrests. More details will follow!

We are enclosing herewith two more press releases issued by the PUCL in the past week.

Looking forward to your support and solidarity.

In Solidarity,

Rajendra K Sail
President,
Chhattisgarh PUCL

PUCL statement on Binayak Sen
The People’s Union for Civil Liberties - Chhattisgarh (PUCL) has strongly condemned the attempt by the Chhattisgarh Police in implicating Human Rights Activists in Naxal activities, especially in the matter of “illegal detention” of Mr. Piyush Guha, who has been wrongfully confined in police custody for six days without even following the guidelines provided by the Supreme Court in the D K Basu Vs. State of West Bengal. PUCL plans to carry out a concerted campaign to expose the designs of the Chhattisgarh Government in discrediting the human rights organisations and movement, which has creatively contributed to the preservation and promotion of human rights in particular, and the gross violations committed by the various governments in Chhattisgarh during the past 30 years. PUCL is also contacting its national leadership to explore the possibility of legal action in this regard.

In an emergency meeting of the State Unit today at Raipur, the Chhattisgarh PUCL has also taken strong objection to the “falsehoods” and “insinuations” being spread by the Chhattisgarh Police regarding the person’s absence from his house. In fact, Dr. Binayak Sen and his family have gone to Kolkotta to be with their family during summer holidays since 1st of May 2007, which was planned long ago. However, without verifying this fact, the Chhattisgarh Police has tried to create an impression as if Dr. Sen had vanished after the incident of “illegal detention” of Mr. Piyush Guha.

In a statement issued today by Adv Rajendra K Sail, President of Chhattisgarh PUCL, it has been categorically stated that Dr. Binayak Sen is not only the General Secretary of the Chhattisgarh PUCL, but has played a prominent role in defending and promoting human rights not only in Chhattisgarh but also in the country. Dr. Binayak Sen is also presently the Vice-President of the National PUCL.

The PUCL considers this as an attempt to discredit the Human Rights Activists and Organisations in the wake of facts coming out in the open about recent fake encounters in Panjher and Santoshpur villages of Bijapur Tahsil of Dantewara District in Chhattisgarh, in which more than a dozen citizens were not only murdered in cold blood but also buried without fulfilling any legal formalities like post-mortem and decent burial with religious rites. Their bodies were recently exhumed from a mass grave at the orders of the State Human Rights Commission, and the post-mortem conducted revealed bullet injuries on their bodies.

PUCL has further stated that there is a public uproar on the growing police brutality in Chhattisgarh and deliberate destruction of democratic aspirations of the peace-loving people, which has been amply demonstrated in demands by various political parties, civil society organisations, prominent citizens, especially the adivasi and dalit leaders for a high level enquiry into these incidents of State Violence.

The PUCL would like to assert the fact that meeting and providing legal aid to the victims of human rights violations by the State was part and parcel of the stated objectives of the PUCL, and it was in fulfilling these tasks and responsibilities as an office-bearer of the PUCL that Dr. Sen had been functioning with faith and commitment. All such activities are not only Constitutional and legal, but produced the required results as the “illegalities” and “corruption” in Jails, Custodial Deaths, Fake Encounters, Fake Surrenders and Fake Arrests etc., have been made public and acted upon by various Courts in the country.

Rajendra k Sail
President

PUCL statement on fake encounters
The People’s Union for Civil Liberites - Chhattisgarh (PUCL) has demanded Enquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in all Extra-judicial killings in Chhattisgarh since 2005. The issue has acquired serious proportions in the wake of the fake encounter case at Santoshpur in Bijapur, where not less than 12 innocent citizens were killed by the State Police. Attempts to cover up such violations by the Chhattisgarh Police of human rights and legal processes enshrined in the Constitution of India now need to be thoroughly investigated by the CBI and the Judicial Enquiry Committee, as the Chhattisgarh Government has lost the moral and legal right to do so. Such an investigation must also include killings and other crimes committed by the Salwa-Judum with the active connivance of the State Police.

In a press statement issued today, Adv Rajendra K Sail, President of Chhattisgarh PCL has categorically demanded arrests of those police officials whose complicity in the Santoshpur Fake Encounters have been established.

The Chhattisgarh PUCL has also expressed concern that the guidelines issued by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in the cases of extra-judicial killings have not been followed by the Chhattisgarh Government, in spite of repeated reminders by the Chairperson of the NHRC.

The Chhattisgarh PUCL will an Intervention Application in the WRIT PETITION (CRI) NO. 14 OF 2007 ( Smt. Leda Versus UNION OF INDIA & ORS) pending before the Chhattisgarh High Court. It may be recalled that Smt. Leda, wife of a member of the Community Party of India (Maoist) name Ramesh Nagashia has alleged that her husband has been killed by the police in a fake encounter in front of her eyes and she was also raped. The Chhattisgarh High Court has issued notice to several police officials and the Central and State Governments in this matter.

Adv Rajendra K Sail, President of Chhattisgarh PUCL has categorically stated that Chhattisgarh Government has been committing crimes against humanity in the name of “curbing naxalism” for the past two years. The Chhattisgarh PUCL has, time and again, brought this gross violation of human rights through various fact finding studies. That is why, the PUCL State Convention held on 14th & 15th April, 2007 at Ambikapur had deliberated on the Theme: “FAKE ENCOUNTER, FAKE SURRENDERS AND FAKE CASES”. Chhattisgarh PUCL has always maintained that “extra-judicial killings” serve as the barometer for the state of human rights in any region or country. Going by such a barometer, the state of Human Rights is deteriorating day-by-day in Chhattisgarh with the increase in Encounter and Custodial deaths.

Rajendra K Sail
President
Chhattisgarh PUCL

Lenin denounces Trotsky-Part 1

2007-05-09T21:43:00.000-07:00

I will post a few articles one by one in the following days which will prove beyond doubt that how Comrade V.I. Lenin, the great leader of the proletariate criticised Trotsky time and again for his wrong understanding of Marxism and faulty approach towards the contradictions prevailing in the society.
The first part is being posted today.

It is very important to note that the following statements about Trotsky’s ideas, tactics, and personality were made by Lenin, not Stalin.

At the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P in 1903 Lenin said in the Third Speech in the Discussion on the Agrarian Programme,
“Therein lies the fundamental difference between us and the liberals, whose talk about changes and reforms ‘pollutes’ the minds of the people. If we were to set forth in detail all the demands for the abolition of serf-ownership, we should fill whole volumes. That is why we mention only the more important forms and varieties of serfdom, and leave it to our committees in the various localities to draw up and advance their particular demands in development of the general programme. Trotsky’s remark to the effect that we cannot concern ourselves with local demand is wrong, for the question...is not only a local one.”

At the same Congress Lenin made an extremely important and farsighted comment with respect to Trotsky’s theoretical wisdom. He stated,
“To come to the main subject, I must say that Comrade Trotsky has completely misunderstood Comrade Plekhanov’s fundamental idea, and his arguments have therefore evaded the gist of the matter. He has spoken of intellectuals and workers, of the class point of view and of the mass movement, but he has failed to notice a basic question: does my formulation narrow or expand the concept of a Party member? If he had asked himself that question, he would have easily have seen that my formulation narrows this concept, while Martov’s expands it, for (to use Martov’s own correct expression) what distinguishes his concept is its ‘elasticity.’ And in the period of Party life that we are now passing through it is just this ‘elasticity’ that undoubtedly opens the door to all elements of confusion, vacillation, and opportunism. To refute this simple and obvious conclusion it has to be proved that there are no such elements; but it has not even occurred to Comrade Trotsky to do that. Nor can that be proved, for everyone knows that such elements exist in plenty, and they are to be found in the working class too....
Comrade Trotsky completely misinterpreted the main idea of my book, What Is To Be Done? when he spoke about the Party not being a conspiratorial organization. He forgot that in my book I propose a number of various types of organizations, from the most secret and most exclusive to comparatively broad and ‘loose’ organizations. He forgot that the Party must be only the vanguard, the leader of the vast masses of the working class, the whole (or nearly the whole) of which works ‘under the control and direction’ of the Party organizations, but the whole of which does not and should not belong to a ‘party.’ Now let us see what conclusions Comrade Trotsky arrives at in consequence of his fundamental mistake. He had told us here that if rank after rank of workers were arrested, and all the workers were to declare that they did not belong to the Party, our Party would be a strange one indeed! Is it not the other way round? Is it not Comrade Trotsky’s argument that is strange? He regards as something sad that which a revolutionary with any experience at all would only rejoice at. If hundreds and thousands of workers who were arrested for taking part in strikes and demonstrations did not prove to be members of Party organizations, it would only show that we have good organizations, and that we are fulfilling our task of keeping a more or less limited circle of leaders secret and drawing the broadest possible masses into the movement.”

In an article written in 1905 entitled “Social-Democracy and the Provisional Revolutionary Government” Lenin spoke of Parvus and said,
“He openly advocated (unfortunately, together with the windbag Trotsky in a foreward to the latter’s bombastic pamphlet ‘Before the Ninth of January’) the idea of the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship, the idea that it was the duty of Social-Democrats to take part in the provisional revolutionary government after the overthrow of the autocracy.”

Later in the same article Lenin stated,
“It would be extremely harmful to entertain any illusions on this score. If that windbag Trotsky now writes (unfortunately, side by side with Parvus) that a Father Gapon could appear only once,’ that ‘there is no room for a second Gapon,’ he does so simply because he is a windbag. If there were no room in Russia for a second Gapon, there would be no room for a truly ‘great’ consummated democratic revolution.”

In a 1904 letter to Stasova, Lengnik, and others Lenin stated,
A new pamphlet by Trotsky came out recently, under the editorship of *Iskra*, as was announced. This makes it the “Credo” as it were of the new Iskra. The pamphlet is a pack of brazen lies, a distortion of the facts.... The pamphlet is a slap in the face both for the present Editorial Board of the C.O. and for all Party workers. Reading a pamphlet of this kind you can see clearly that the “Minority” has indulged in so much lying and falsehood that it will be incapable of producing anything viable....”

In a 1905 article entitled “Wrathful Impotence” Lenin stated,
‘We shall remind the reader that even Mr. Struve, who has often voiced sympathy in principle with Trotsky, Starover, Akimov, and Martynov, and with the new-Iskra trends in general and the new-Iskra Conference in particular--even Mr. Struve was in his time obliged to acknowledge that their stand is not quite a correct one, or rather quite an incorrect one.”

At the 1907 Fifth Congress of the R.S.D.L.P Lenin stated,
“A few words about Trotsky. He spoke on behalf of the ‘Centre,’ and expressed the views of the Bund. He fulminated against us for introducing our ‘unacceptable’ resolution. He threatened an outright split, the withdrawal of the Duma group, which is supposedly offended by our resolution. I emphasize these words. I urge you to reread our resolution.... When Trotsky stated: ‘Your unacceptable resolution prevents your right ideas being put into effect,’ I called out to him: ‘Give us your resolution!’ Trotsky replied: ‘No first withdraw yours.’ A fine position indeed for the ‘Centre’ to take, isn’t it? Because of our (in Trotsky’s opinion) mistake (‘tactlessness’) he punishes the whole Party.... Why did you not get your resolution passed, we shall be asked in the localities. Because the Centre (for whom Trotsky was speaking) took umbrage at it, and in a huff refused to set forth its own principles! That is a position based not on principle, but on the Centre’s lack of principle.”

Speaking at the same Congress Lenin objected to Trotsky’s amendments to the Bolshevik resolution on the attitude towards bourgeois parties by saying,
“It must be agreed that Trotsky’s amendment is not Menshevik, that it expresses the ‘very same,’ that is, bolshevik, idea. But Trotsky has expressed this idea in a way that is scarcely better (than the Menshevik--Ed.).... Trotsky’s insertion is redundant, for we are not fishing for unique cases in the resolution, but are laying down the basic line of Social-Democracy in the bourgeois Russian revolution.”

While later discussing the same issue (the attitude the party should have toward bourgeois parties) Lenin said,
“The question of the attitude of Social-Democracy towards bourgeois parties is one of those known as ‘general’ or ‘theoretical’ questions, i.e., such that are not directly connected with any definite practical task confronting the Party at a given moment. At theLondon Congress of the R.S.D.L.P, the Mensheviks and the Bundists conducted a fierce struggle against the inclusion of such questions in the agenda, and they were, unfortunately, supported in this by Trotsky, who does not belong to either side. The opportunistic wing of our Party (notice that that is the group with which Trotsky allied himself--Ed.) like that of other Social-Democratic parties, defended a ‘business-like’ or ‘practical’ agenda for the Congress. They shied away from ‘broad and general’ questions. They forgot that in the final analysis broad, principled politics are the only real, practical politics. They forgot that anybody who tackles partial problems without having previously settled general problems, will inevitably and at every step ‘come up against’ those general problems without himself realizing it. To come up against them blindly in every individual case means to doom one’s politics to the worst vacillation and lack of principle.”
And it is quite clear to which philosophy Trotsky adhered.

The ghost of Nandigram

2007-05-02T05:28:00.000-07:00

The Ghosts Of Nandigram

By Satya Sagar

01 May, 2007
Liberation

There was panic at the CPM headquarters on Calcutta's Alimuddin Street as rumours spread like wildfire of a 'special' investigative team having arrived to do some fact-finding on the gory events of 14 March 2007 in Nandigram.

The 'dream' team, spotted by party activists and corroborated by airport immigration staff, is said to have comprised of the founding fathers of the global communist movement - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels themselves. As if their presence was not enough, accompanying them in tow were a certain Vladimir Illych Lenin and Mao Tse-Tung.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing two white bearded men with prophetic looks asking for directions to get to Nandigram and expressing frustration at the fact that all official road signs in the city showed only turns to the right. Ordinary folk on the other hand were observed turning left even if this sometimes meant breaking through brick walls blocking their way.

One person with a Lenin beard sitting inside the dark-windowed car was seen taking down notes under the heading 'What is to be done?' while the Chinese gentleman, with an enigmatic countenance, was overheard saying sceptically "Comrades, getting to Nandigram is not going to be a tea-party".

This was the grim scenario the CPM top brass had been worried about for years together- the return of Marx, Engels, Lenin or Mao to West Bengal. As long as they dangled like dead corpses from party banners it was fine but now Nandigram had brought them back to life among the people and this was dangerous.

"Why are you all looking so worried" said Buddhadeb Bhattacharya looking around at the glum and sullen faces of top party leaders urgently gathered to discuss this latest crisis hitting them. "And who are these four fellows anyway? Foreign investors looking for land to purchase?" he quipped.

"Idiot! In all these years how many times have I told you to memorise their names and remember what they look like? And yet every time you open your mouth to say 'Marx' out comes the word 'Market'" barked a voice across the table.

"The photos, hanging in party offices all over the country - of Marx, Engels, Lenin - you have not observed them even once in all your life- have you Buddha?" the voice continued. "You just see your own reflection in the glass frame, adjust your kurta, comb your hair and wear that silly grin you got from the last corporate orgy you attended".

It was Buddha's turn now to look glum and sullen for nothing he did these days seemed to please Jyoti Basu anymore. And imagine, to be scolded like this in public when he was only following in his mentor's footsteps and taking forward his legacy.

"Yes, the photos. What will we do with them now? If these blokes, Marx, Engels, whoever…. write a report critical of our land grab operations in Nandigram, we will have to throw away all those expensive portraits? They cost a damn lot of money to make, and will all go waste now" whined Biman Bose.

"Give them to the CPI" whispered someone (with a sense of humour) in the room.
No one laughed of course and instead an ice-cold Brinda Karat, adjusting her red bindi, said "We give nothing to the CPI from now on, not even leftovers. The bloody backstabbers, bad-mouthing us in public!"

The damp Calcutta air inside the party meeting room froze. Only someone with such cold-blooded clarity could induce this sudden drop in temperature so effortlessly (a clue to tackling global warming!). The mood among those gathered also changed abruptly now.

"Ok, enough of lamenting the fact that these stalwarts of global communism are here to check out what really happened at Nandigram. The question is how do we get out of this mess now, for given their reputation they will surely get to the truth?" said Prakash Karat, grateful to Brinda for giving him a chance to break into the conversation.

"Easy enough. Just discredit them thoroughly and make sure no one believes them at all," said Biman Bose. "After all that is what we have been doing to anyone criticizing us, even if it is those who have been with our own party all these years".

"Brilliant! Biman da! You can start with the simple fact that all four of them - Marx, Engels, Lenin, Mao - are outsiders in Bengal. Obviously they are here to incite the peasants, join hands with Mamata and bring down the Left Front government" said Sitaram Yechuri, excitedly jumping from his seat and almost leaping onto the table like in the good old SFI days at some JNU canteen.

"Not just that, they are all foreigners anyway so they must be surely foreign funded too otherwise how did they get here all the way to Calcutta? Who bought their plane tickets?" said Biman, warming up to his old passion for throwing mud and making it stick- anywhere - even on Marx or Engels.

"They may have come by the sea-route, all subversives these days do that" said Brinda.
"Foreigners causing trouble in Bengal? That sounds like the Salim group or Dow Chemicals" said someone at the back of the room in a soft voice. The time for hearing soft voices had however long passed and the discussion now was at a frenzied pitch.

"I like your logic Biman da. Now that I remember, from all the reading I have done - all four of them can be shown to be anti-communist in general and anti-CPM in particular" said Prakash Karat trying to give a pretty theoretical cover to the ugly stuff flying around.

"To begin with, Marx himself said at some point 'I am not a Marxist', which can only mean he was anti-Marxist and automatically an enemy of ours. Engels' father owned a textile mill, so he was a bourgeois masquerading as a revolutionary. On top of this both of them have long beards like the Hindu or Muslim communalists. Lenin too came from an aristocratic background and Mao Tse-Tung is of course the biggest Naxalite in all of modern history" continued Prakash, leaning over to Brinda to see if she was taking notes to send to N Ram of The Hindu.

"Bravo General Secretary! You have finally clinched the logic, now it is time for us to prevent these guys from reaching Nandigram and stopping West Bengal from becoming a global capitalist power. Call Laxman urgently to get the boys ready for action," shouted Biman.

"Did anybody say action? I know what we should do - get our women cadre to show their backsides to this 'special' fact-finding team!" said an excited Benoy Konar, who despite his age still had the spring of a street urchin about him. He was famous for blowing hammer and sickle rings with his beedi smoke- a cool comrade at 75.

"I run the women's wing, you get Laxman's goons to do whatever they want" hissed Brinda, the bindi now a fiery red. She didn't like this old fogy stepping on her turf.

"Laxman's men had better watch out around Chairman Mao comrades! He still wears his spiked boots from the Long March", piped up someone in the room.

At this point Buddhadeb woke up with a jolt on his bed. The mobile phone was ringing loudly. He was sweating all over. Phew! What a nightmare it had been! From Marx to Mao in Nandigram indeed!
Buddha picked up the phone, "Salim, is that you?"

"What's wrong with you babu moshai? You have been seeing the ghosts of Nandigram in your sleep again?' said the voice from Jakarta with a laugh. "I told you many times, we killed a million communists in Indonesia long ago and you are still spooked by a few dozen dead in your little province?"

"Yes, I saw them again" said Buddha, wiping his brow. "Here I am looking for German, Russian and Chinese investors and all I get are Marx, Engels, Lenin and Mao giving me sleepless nights. Oh! Why on Earth do we still call ourselves a communist party and pretend to be Marxists?"

"Good question, Buddha. Welcome to the Salim and Suharto neo-liberal fraternity"

For the first time in an entire month Buddha Smiled.

Truth behind the compensation package of West Bengal Government

2007-04-29T22:59:00.000-07:00

There is propaganda that WB government acquires land with a reasonable rate. This becomes the logic to defend the ongoing land acquisition programme in WB. In reality, WB government or other government agencies acquire land and then hand over to different companies. Sometimes they give subsidies, for instance to TATA in Singur and sometimes make huge profit. In Haldia, near Nandigram, East Medinipur, Haldia Development Authority (HDA) acquired land (and it gave the circular for the land acquisition in Nandigram as well). They started land acquisition to ‘develop’ Haldia. Here we will see how HDA made huge profit from the land of poor peasantry.

Couple of days before, Buddha came Haldia to lay the foundation stone of a bio diesel factory of Imamy group. HDA gave 30 acres of land to Imamy with a rate of Rs 7 lakh/acre whereas when it acquired the land from farmers, it spent Rs 75 thousand to 1 lakh/acre. In the same way, HDA gave 25 acres and 3.5 acres to S T V Technologies at Bargashipur for IT park and housing complex respectively. In its 87th board meeting, HDA decided the rate Rs 14 lakh/acre for 25 acres land. The rate for 3.5 acres was Rs 20 lakh/acre. Interestingly when HDA acquired the same land it paid only Rs 1.15 lakh/acre at the most. Similarly, it gave 50 acres of land in Chakdwip and 10 acres more in three other places to R D B Industries for a proposed track terminal. For this land HDA asked the rate of 15 lakh/acre (and additional Rs 1000/acre as annual rent). This land was also acquired with a rate of Rs 1.15 lakh/acre from the farmers.

This is how WB government serves the interest of poor peasants.

On the other hand, in Singur, it continues to subsidize TATA. It decided to spend Rs 18 lakh for the dredging of Julkia canal and overall improvement of the drainage system near the proposed TATA factory in Singur. Interestingly, we have been listening from Buddha and other CPM leaders that TATA will spend money for the infrastructure development in Singur. In reality government is doing that in favour of TATA with our money. Interestingly, people of Singur demanded the dredging so many times in past years; it was turned down because of insufficient funding.

We would like to ask, from where this fund comes now?
Doesn’t it show that the sole job of the government is to lick the boots of big companies?

Crackdown In Jammu And Kashmir: Humiliation At Its Worst

2007-04-29T20:14:00.000-07:00

Crackdown In Jammu And Kashmir: Humiliation At Its Worst

By Syed Junaid Hashmi

24 April, 2007
Countercurrents.org

Although people in Jammu and Kashmir have learnt a number of obnoxious terms in the last seventeen years yet the term which has dominated the discourse is "Crackdown". Legal experts describe the term as "illegitimate, high-handed and atrocious" and opine that such operations in the present atmosphere are uncalled for.

Oxford dictionary defines the term "Crackdown" as "An act or example of forceful regulation, repression, or restraint" while Cambridge explains it as "crushing, quelling, stifling, suppression, forceful prevention; putting down by power or authority. The dictionary adds that it is the oppression of heresy; the quelling of the rebellion and the stifling of all dissent".

In Jammu and Kashmir, especially in those areas where violence continues in some form, crackdown is a cordon-and-search operation in which security forces surround neighbourhoods or villages and compel all male adults and teenaged boys to assemble for identification.

Those who have faced this say that informer, whose face generally remain covered, working alongside security forces point out to "alleged militants" or militant sympathizers or relatives of the militants, adding that those pointed out are detained without any warrant of arrest memo.

Legal experts say that although the security forces enjoy special powers under various laws but nowhere has anything like crackdown been mentioned in these laws. They add that legal provisions do grant powers to security forces to arrest, search and detain without warrant but carrying out a search operation where threat to the lives of the common man increases cannot be justified.

They add that directions have been passed by various courts including the highest court of law i.e. Supreme Court of India have stressed that security forces should not be allowed to arrest or carry out any procedure on suspicion alone. These directions maintain that all their actions should have an objective basis so that they are judicially reviewable which would also assist those who file suit against the security forces.

Those who have faced the crackdowns say that those detained are often tortured and in some cases, those detained died in the custody of security forces. Human rights organizations Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and even the state human rights commission (SHRC) have documented cases where people have been detained during the "crackdowns" only to be killed later on in custody.

Further, some analysts say that search operations like "crackdown" have alienated masses in Kashmir and those who may not have been in favour of secession in the past, have become so. "By allowing the security forces to carry out search operations like "crackdown", alienation has increased because people perceive it as government's persistent sanctioning of grave human rights violations by the security forces in the state," said a human rights activist.

He added that it is a common practice for security forces to conduct round ups. "Even today, houses are combed without reserve and inhabitants savagely beaten and threatened; old people were outraged. In general, a common man in any part of Jammu and Kashmir undergoes an experience of deep humiliation when he is caught in a search operation like crackdown, thus adding to the alienation and making the task of winning hearts stiffer," said a senior leader of a prominent political party requesting anonymity.

Researchers from Kashmir University maintain that a lot of women are crying for the fate of their husbands and sons who either went missing or were killed in custody after being arrested during a "crackdown" where they were identified by informers working alongside army and paramilitary forces.

Experts say that in-view of the emerging consensus on addressing the alienation of masses in Jammu and Kashmir; the term should have lost significance during the last ten years but they add that what "democratically" elected governments after 1996 should have taken care of was abandoned. They add that "Crackdown" is the worst form of abuse of special powers which security forces have been enjoying and an important factor in increasing alienation among the masses towards the democratic values.

When contacted, a senior police officer who was previously part of the Special Operation Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir recently said that "crackdown" is worst form of human rights violation which should be stopped immediately. "People work alongside if you win their hearts, I have practically experienced this and it is amply important in the present circumstances that search operations like "Crackdown" are stopped once and for all," said the senior police officer.

He added that crackdown increases the hatred among the people towards the security forces and takes them further away from the road of peace and prosperity. Senior People's Democratic Party Leader Nizamuddin Bhat said that Crackdown is an obnoxious term.

"These types of operations go against the spirit of human values. Keeping people out in the chill of winter or blistering heat of summer do amounts to committing human rights violations, hence these type of operations should be stopped once and for all," added Bhat.

He stressed that PDP has always desired to create an atmosphere where peace is restored in the state with dignity. "For restoring peace with dignity, every such operation which can alienate people should be stopped, there are various other ways of conducting search operations," added the PDP Leader.

President Kashmir Bar Association Mian Abdul Qayoom said that this is the worst form of human rights violation. He stressed that "crackdown" is a punishment given to those people who rise against oppression and tyranny. "There are number of terms which have no legal justification but due to the prevailing uncertainty in the state, security forces hardly take care of legality and illegality while carrying out such operations," added Qayoom.

Writer is a journalist, presently associated with jammu and kashmir's oldest and widely circulated newspaper "The Kashmir Times". He can be reached at syedjunaidhashmi@gmail.com

Nandigram effect on Raigard project

2007-04-26T21:57:00.000-07:00

CM stays land acquisitions for Raigad SEZ
Deshmukh Has Issued Instructions To The District
Collector To Halt All Deals Immediately
Prafulla Marpakwar | TNN

Mumbai: After a delay of more than a month, chief
minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Wednesday stayed all
land acquisitions for the Mukesh Ambani-led multicrore
SEZ project in the Uran-Pen-Panvel belt in coastal
Raigad district.

Though Deshmukh was not available for comment, a
senior Congress minister confirmed that the chief
minister had issued instructions to the Raigad
collector, saying pending the centre's decision on
size of the SEZs and procedure for land acquisition,
the ongoing land acquisition process should be
immediately stopped. "We are awaiting instructions
from the centre,'' the Congress minister told TOI.

On March 23, Deshmukh had assured the legislative
council that there would be no forcible acquisition of
land for the SEZ. A day later, the chief minister had
declared that even if the land acquisition was in
progress, the district collector would not pass the
final award for transfer of land from the farmer to
the SEZ.

On April 5, a high-level empowered group of
ministers (EGoM) decided that at no stage would the
government intervene in acquisition of land. They also
fixed a cap of 5,000 hectares for a SEZ.

Significantly, Deshmukh's assurance, followed by
the decision of the EGoM, prompted Raigad collector D
S Zagde to write to the forest secretary. In his
letter dated April 11, Zagde submitted that the
assurance given on the floor of the House and the
decision of the EGoM had led to confusion at the
ground level as there were no clear instructions.

Simultaneously, an MPCC committee led by senior
Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam too had cautioned
against making any hasty move in view of the
discontent among the local farmers. The farmers had
made it clear that they were against the project
irrespective of the compensation package.

Deshmukh's decision to stay the land acquisition
proceedings and the recommendation of the EGoM are
being viewed as a major setback to the Reliance SEZ
project, which had planned to acquire 9,103 hectares
of land in 45 villages of Raigad district.

Presently, the land acquisition process is in
different stages and, as per the provisions of the
Land Acquisition Act, if a notification under section
6 (intention to acquire land) is not issued before May
30, 2007, then the entire process will be declared
null and void. If that happens, the whole process will
have to be launched afresh.

Industries department officials say it's a piquant
situation. "Reliance has proposed to acquire more than
9,000 hectares. Will they agree to the proposal if
they are now asked to scale it down to 5,000?.
Further, if the government refuses to acquire the
land, who will undertake that work? Without government
support, it will not be possible to acquire land from
private parties,'' the official added.

In addition, even if the centre amends rules, it
remains to be seen if it will have retrospective
effect.

FIELDING FOR FARMERS

March 23: Deshmukh assures legislative council
that there will be no forcible acquisition of land for
the SEZ

April 5: High-level group empowered group of
ministers decides that at no stage will the government
intervene in the land deals. They also fix a cap of
5,000 hectares for a SEZ. Mukesh Ambani-led SEZ
project had proposed to acquire 9,103 hectares

Simultaneously, MPCC committee led by Sanjay
Nirupam cautions against any hasty move in view of the
discontent among local farmers

Fall of the Tatas

2007-04-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

[The following informative article was published in Comrade Anoop saha's Blog. I have just cross pasted it]

NDTV is running a poll for the “Person of the year”, urging its viewers to vote for the most influential Indian for the year 2006. The list has famous achievers from all sections of the society, and there is nothing wrong with the list. Except the glitch that the list starts with the name of Ratan Tata, head of Tata group of Companies.

Not only is the inclusion of Ratan Tata’s name in the person of the year nominees a slap on the face of all free and right-minded individuals, it is actually a sacrilege considering his involvement in rapes, murders and mass murders in past one year. There was a time, till the times of JRD Tata, when the Tata group was considered as one of the most honest and upright enterprises in India. The name of Tata inspired awe from free-marketers and socialists alike, for their fair approach to business. That was the time when the top management of Tata boasted of names like Moolgaonkar, Russi Mody, Palkhivala and many more strong individuals. That time is gone, Ratan Tata succeeded JRD as the chairman of Tata group, and under him the company has become more like an organized crime syndicate. This was even more glaring in 2006 than ever in the past.
The year started with the massacre of 12 tribals in Kalinganagar, Orissa. On 2nd January, as a new year gift to them, 12 tribals were showered with police bullets in Orissa. They were protesting against acquisition of their land for a Tata steel plant. On the appointed day, the foundation stone was to be laid for the steel plant. The tribals, outraged at the whole process of land acquisition, laid siege of the site. The state government, in its servility to the tatas, and to show the adivasis their proper place, mindlessly fired at the crowd. The sequence of events vary depending on whether you are asking the people involved or the government, but this report by a fact finding team tries to present the truth in its undiluted form. Not only were the adivasis killed, their bodies were badly mutilated afterwards. The arrogance of the state was all too much visible. The tatas have excused themselves of any blame, and have since then continued their steel-making enterprise with even more vigour.

Something similar happenned in Lohandiguda near Jagdalpur in the tribal heartland of Chhattisgarh. Lohandiguda was the theater of tribal unrest in mid-1960s, when led by their ex-ruler Pravir Chandra Bhanj Deo, the tribals revolted against the policies of the central government of India. Their demands were simple, cheaper rice and relief from famine. Just for asking that, the state forces open-fired on the protesters, who were assembled in the maharaja’s palace, and killed the raja along with “thirteen” tribals. (Although official records say that only 13 adivasis were killed, eyewitnesses claim that thousands were murdered.) This marvellous part of Bastar’s history demands a separate post, or a new book.

Coming back to Lohandiguda, the Chhattisgarh government sanctioned land for the tatas to build a steel plant there. The MoU signed with the tatas have not yet been made public. On the other hand, blatant force was used(link: pdf) to force the adivasis living there to surrender their land at paltry sums. The village elders were arrested on the eve of gram sabha, section 144 was imposed, and they were forced to sign on the documents. The details can be read here (Go to the section, “What Essar can do, the Tatas can too”). A group of 20 farmers, who were forcefully displaced from their land were in New Delhi in September 2006. They wanted to do a press conference in Delhi, describing their plight. However none of the media houses were interested in covering those protests, as they had no support from any politician. One particular magazine editor told them blatantly, “If we publish your story, first the tatas will stop their advertisements. Next they will file a defamation suit, and it will entail considerable expense on our part.”. So much for the fairness of the media.
By the yearend, the Singur imbroglio has reached its zenith. Both in terms of protests, and state repression. Protests at Singur symbolizes the poor man’s fight against the mighty state and its agents in the private houses (Or Private houses and their agents in the government). Ratan Tata, who is NOT an engineer, who has never been involved closely with the working of Telco has designed a car. According to him, a fundamental change in suspension, a plastic body, and in-house-parts will decrease the cost of a car. The state of West Bengal, is all too accommodating in catering to the whims of Ratan Tata. His personal choice of prime agricultural land was acquired forcefully, because raw materials will be cheaply available. How can the state be so subversive to the personal whims of a crook?

On 18th december, even when Ratan Tata was one his way to be NDTV’s person of the year, a 19 year old woman activist Tapasi Mallick was raped, burnt and murdered in the fields of Singur by the goons hired by the Tatas. The land where her body was found was inside the zone where boundary was been put and protesting villagers were not allowed. The state first dismissed the reports of rape, and the media chose to ignore it at first. The outrage that followed, compelled the WB state to order a CBI inquiry. Why was the woman raped? Just because she does not want to part with her land. Just because she had the courage of standing up to the personal whims of a crook? It is entirely possible that her rape was planned in the Tata office, inside Ratan Tata’s room, to send a signal to the protesting farmers? And then the man had the audacity of claiming that his competitors are fuelling the fire in Singur. Sick, I say. Buddhadeb thinks otherwise.
What’s common to all these events. What’s common to Kalinganagar, Lohandiguda and Singur. Tatas were involved in all of these projects. There are countless others in all oarts of India. It is shameful that the business house, that was once regarded as the fairest of them all, the one that was believed as it could never bribe its way to the top, has become such a nasty syndicate under the current leadership. It is indeed sad that the man who employed all kind of fraudulent means to defame his own colleagues, who were some of the best brains of India, the man who cheated his own employees and brutally crushed the trade unions, that man is media’s poster boy of 2006. He is going to be crowned as India’s Person of the Year. In the year when his organization was involved in rapes, cheating and mass-murders.
I Object.

Sick educational system of West Bengal

2007-04-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

Inspite of the big claims made by the pseudo-leftist Left front govt. of West Bengal, it has been proved in a recent survey that the elementary educational system of Bengal is one of the worst in India.
Government of India (MHRD, Department of School Education and Literacy) and National University for Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) er educational development index er basis e report :

1. The five “worst ranking” states on a composite primary and upper primary (together known as elementary) are Bihar (35), Jharkhand (34), Assam (33), Uttar Pradesh (32), Arunachal Pradesh (31) and West Bengal (30).

2. The situation in Rajasthan (51.74), Jharkhand (59.38), West Bengal (58.26) and Uttarakhand (52.31) are alarming with less than 60 percent children completing the primary cycle

3. The net enrolement ratio at the primary level is 82.76 - with almost 17% children in the 6-11 age group not enrolled in school!

4. In 17 of the districts enrolment in classes 1 to 5 declines over the last year.

5. Only 46.14 percent of boys and 44.70 per cent of girls passes the class 4 examination with more than 60 percent marks.

6. In the academic year 2003-04, 79 percent of the children who completed class 4 were able to enrol in class 5 (upper primary school).

7. Only 33.11 per cent of teachers reported that they got any in-service training.

Amnesty International statement on state force built up in Jagatsinghpur,Orissa

2007-04-15T20:06:00.000-07:00

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Public Statement
AI Index: ASA 20/009/2007 (Public)
News Service No: 069
11 April 2007

India: Orissa should avoid forced evictions in Jagatsinghpur, instead consult farmers protesting against displacement

Amnesty International is deeply concerned at reports that farmers in Jagatsinghpur in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, protesting against their proposed displacement by the state government for a new industrial project, currently fear forced evictions at the hands of the state police force.

Tension has been high in Jagatsinghpur district after 1,000 officers of the state police force encircled Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gadakujang panchayats, apparently preparing to enter the area. Several villages in the area have been the scene of protests by farmers for the last 14 months against their displacement due to an integrated steel plant to be set up by the South Korean firm, POSCO.

Amnesty International urges that lessons should be learnt from the unfortunate episodes of violence which recently unfurled themselves in Kalingar Nagar (in Orissa) and Nandigram (in neighbouring West Bengal). The use of police force – in a context where consultations have not been held with protesting local communities – resulted in 13 deaths in Kalinga Nagar and at least 14 deaths in Nandigram, apart from serious injuries.

Amnesty International wishes to remind the Government of Orissa of Principle 9 of the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, which says that “law enforcement officials shall not use firearms against persons except in self-defence or defence of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury, to prevent the perpetration of a particular serious crime involving great threat to life, to arrest a person presenting such a danger and resisting their authority or to prevent his or her escape, and only when less extreme means are insufficient to achieve these objectives.” Any action by the police must be in proportionate response to the action by demonstrators and should avoid unnecessary injuries to civilians.

Amnesty International believes that full consultations about the human rights impact of economic decisions with those to be affected are vital means through which human rights are safeguarded in the context of development.

Amnesty International seeks to remind governments of their obligations to find ways of balancing respect for human rights with attempts to achieve
economic growth. Amnesty International reiterates that sustainable development cannot be measured solely in terms of economic indicators: it is a holistic process that embraces the development of civil society, the strengthening of the rule of law and the fulfilment of individuals’ and groups’ aspirations in the civil and political, social and cultural as well as economic spheres.

In this respect, the organisation reiterates its demand that the Government of Orissa should:

avoid forced evictions;

announce and implement a consistent policy of full consultation with local populations before any development which could affect their livelihood can
take place;

and ensure that, where it is proposed to resettle populations, there is just, adequate and culturally-sensitive rehabilitation, resettlement and reparation for those affected.

Background

Since June 2005, Jagatsinghpur district has witnessed frequent protests against possible displacement following the Government of Orissa’s decision to enter into an agreement with POSCO to enable the latter to set up its integrated steel plant. Since February 2006, protestors have erected barricades in the area where the plant is to come up and prevented officials from entering several villages. The area witnessed violence in February 2007 when elections were held to local bodies in Orissa.

Another Nandigram

2007-04-12T21:33:00.000-07:00

The Orissa Govt. has been trying to grab land of poor fishermen and peasants at Paradip in Orissa and give it to steel giant POSCO to set up their Steel plant. The heroic people of the region have been carrying out mass movement to protest this inhuman land grab. But the reactionary govt. of Orissa led by Naveen Pattanaik, the trusted henchman of the Imperialists has not given any importance to the cry of the people and has been proceeding in his evil path.
Now his govt. has sent several platoons of police in the area to crush the resistance built up by the residents of the area.
Is it another Kalinganagar or Nandigram in the making?
Following is a news report on the recent events in Orissa:-

TENSION levels have shot up in and around the Posco project site with heavy police bandobast, even as the Orissa government is under immense pressure to pave the way for the ground-breaking ceremony of the 12 million tonne steel plant project at Paradip. It has deployed 16 platoons of armed police forces in and around Paradip with the public hearing on environmental issues scheduled to be held at Kujang, barely 15 km from the project site.

More police forces are being rushed to Kujang, police sources said, adding that the district authority is determined to hold panchayat polls in villages where the polling could not take place in February.

This is the first major step the state government has taken ever since villagers under various banners have been blocking the entry of government and Posco officials into the villages identified for the project site for the past two years.

The public hearing will be conducted on Sunday by the district collector in the presence of Orissa Pollution Control Board, union ministry for environment and forest representatives, villagers and company officials.

Protesters see the build up of police force for the panchayat polls as an alibi to enter villages that will be displaced. In fact, in a memorandum to the district collector, protesting organisations have demanded that the public hearing be conducted in the villages.

With the Kalinganagar episode still fresh in people's mind, the police have been asked to avoid direct confrontation. "We are sending armed police forces to Kujanga to clear roadblocks illegally created by some local people. As the first step, we will hold discussions and persuade them to remove all road blockades. If anybody tries to create trouble or indulges in illegal activities , we would certainly take action against them as per law," said Jagatsinghpur superintendent of police Yashwant Kumar Jethwa.

The standoff between reluctant villagers and the state government has of late worsened further after the violence at Nandigram and Kalinganagar.

Violent clashes between supporters and opponents of the Posco project were reported last week. Last month, some 50 people were injured in the clashes. Angry farmers have erected several blockades at the entrance to some villages under the Posco project area near Paradip to keep both government officials and Posco executives away. Government officials have not been able to enter the area ever since the country's biggest FDI project was announced.

Of late, the state government has decided to use force to clear the blockades, apparently to hold the panchayat election not held in villages that are protesting against the project. Later, it could plan to acquire the land from villagers in a subtle manner.

Anti-Posco activists led Abhaya Sahoo of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti have already declared that they would not allow the government to acquire an inch of cultivable or homestead land in Dhinkia, Gadakujanga and Nuagaoan panchayats, where the plant is supposed to come up.

Meanwhile, Tamil Pradhan, working president of Posco Jana Sampark Parishad, a pro-Posco organisation said his organisation would render all sorts of peaceful cooperation to the district administration for peaceful settlement of the land acquisition problem. He, however, criticised the state government for its "inept" handling of land acquisition.

SFI strike unsuccessful

2007-04-09T20:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday SFI called a student's strike in all universities of West Bengal and all colleges of Kolkata to regain the ground that they lost during the events of Nandigram. They tried all their dirty tricks of terror and intimidation to achieve their aims. But the democratic students foiled their plans and the strike was a total failure. Here is a newspaper report.

Strike fizzles out on JU campus

- SFI at Writers’ with assault complaints, pledged drastic steps

A STAFF REPORTER

(Top): Professor Supriya Chaudhuri takes a class in her office at Jadavpur University. (Above): An SFI activist drums up support for the strike on Monday. Pictures by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Jadavpur University (JU) defied the students’ strike on Monday, called by the SFI to protest vandalism on the campus on the night of April 5. Elsewhere in the city, classes were to some extent disrupted on campuses where the SFI controls the students’ union.

SFI supporters at JU could not prevent classes from being held, despite attempts at convincing students to join the protest. The bandh-supporters even tried to form a barricade at one of the gates, but police deployed outside the campus were quick to disperse them.

Members of the SFI state committee met chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers’ Buildings in the afternoon and sought his intervention in restoring normalcy at JU, on the boil since We the Independents (WTI) swept the science faculty election.

In their memorandum to the chief minister, the leaders alleged that two supporters were beaten up at JU and five at Jogesh Chandra College. “The chief minister promised drastic steps to restore a democratic atmosphere at JU,” said Apurba Chatterjee, SFI state secretary.

At Medical College and Hospital, SFI supporters tried to close a classroom but were outnumbered by students wanting to attend class.

At Presidency College, 10-odd SFI supporters put up posters and shouted slogans, but classes were held as usual.

Members of the JU Karmachari Sansad, observing an indefinite ceasework demanding arrest of those who had ransacked their office on April 5, refused to unlock the classrooms. But that had little effect, as teachers opted to take classes in their offices.

By 11 am, the 100-odd SFI supporters trying to enforce the bandh seemed to have lost steam, as representatives of the students’ unions of all three faculties arranged for the classrooms to be opened.

The Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association organised a sit-in on the campus in support of two of their colleagues accused of beating up WTI members, but only 100 of the 1,000-plus teachers could be seen at the venue.

The SFI supporters quit the university gates by noon, but announced in the evening that they would hold a rally on the campus on Tuesday.

Students, teachers and non-teaching staff members of other institutions have been invited to the meeting. Students expressed fear that outsiders are being brought in only to assault anti-SFI students.

That Night In Nandigram

2007-04-06T19:51:00.000-07:00

Source: Soumitra Basu, Editor, Anyaswar. March 16th, 2007

Last night CPM called a local 12 hours Bandh in Nandigram. For the first time a bandh is called in the evening hours in such a remote place where as it is people do keep indoors. Why is that called then?

After the first bout of Police action in the daylight when the news came that around 60 were killed, the second phase and the most horrendous phase that was planned in Writers’ building with our beloved Chief Minister, Health Minister, Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary, needed to be executed.

Subrata and Gourango of TARATV are in the field. This is the horrendous story that they have to say. Before that let us listen to his version of self-imposed censorship that he follows… “I have stopped telling the media the story that I saw and ought to have told them, there is no chance people and our viewers would believe. There is a limit to human belief. They will take me as a mad babbler! I myself am not convinced of what I saw, heard and went through.. it was like a nightmare and how I wish all that I saw and heard was simply a delirium” As a matter of fact they threw up several times in the hotel they stayed, not because of the threats by the CPM goons but because what they saw and heard and the language of threats by the CPM goons who besieged them in CPM party office in Nandigram.

Bands of CPM goons aided by platoons of Eastern Frontier Rifles and Commando forces are entering every village and paras [mohollas]. They bring out the men folk, they take no prisoners, no witnesses, they shoot them, bayonet them, rip apart their stomachs and then lay them down the canal to the sea and confluence. They then bring out the young girls, gather them in open spaces, open gang rape them multiple times till the girls collapse, they then literally TEAR their limbs, in some cases cut them to pieces and let them down the Haldi river and/or Talpati canal.

No witnesses and they know that this incident cannot leak out because the young girls in traditional Medinipur will never come out to say what really happened and who will believe? on top of it who will corroborate and those who will come out will be killed and tortured again. CPM and police then wrapped the entire village with their Red Banners (sic!) showing that the area is secured and simply their writ will run. Those who fled the villages were mostly apprehended on the outskirts or on the boundaries and no one knows what happened to those poor souls.

We could hear this stories only from those who could crawl the whole way out through fields and forests. Even that is difficult now as the fields are all dried up and the crops are already reaped. Anyone can see people coming out. Rapes are innumerable, officially the rape figure could be obtained as 6 because these are the ones who survived to tell their tales and they are around middle aged, so they somehow could not be butchered and minced to pieces.

Village after village this process is going on and to our utter astonishment the process is continuing even this morning. All the correspondents are removed. Sukumar Mitra the most coveted journalist from Dainik Statesman ran his way out amidst flurries of bullets. He was specifically hunted and somehow could manage to sneak out. The ferocity of this attack is so grizzly that the residents of that area simply do not believe that anyone will open their mouth. Fear is made a weapon and the highest fear is made the weapon for a social-censorship.

Haripur is a nearby subdivision. That area is earmarked for nuclear power plant. People of that region have also come up in protest. Most of them are fishermen. They have stopped going to the confluence and the sea because of two reasons. One they feel that human bodies are everywhere in the confluence and the worst is that the crocs and gharials and sharks are now rushing towards that spot from far away Sunderbans. These animals rush for fresh blood, the fishes will be eaten away by these reptiles and there is a high possibility of these getting netted instead of fishes. Haripur will be out of livelihood for at least a week or so, and this was premeditated by the CPM administration to teach Haripur a lesson.

Haripur is the place that shooed out even Central teams and even bigger police forces. This was a lesson to teach both Nandigram and Haripur together. No sign of any dead bodies will ever be found, no proof of rape would be there. They are not making the mistake of killing openly, like the Tapasi Malik murder in Singur. They have this model now. The real death figure can only be revealed at least 3 months after, and that too if there is one, peace comes into stay, and if the residents could come back and then count the missing. But After CPM has “secured” and “liberated” those areas those who were evicted will not be allowed to come back and these properties will be given to the CPM goons from Keshpur and Garbeta and neighbouring places. The permanency of mopping up strategy is how CPM will ensure that Nandigram and Haripur will be secured for electoral battles in the future.”‘
 This is more horrendous than partition story. Journalists all know this but they cannot come out with these stories. CPM will ensure that these journalists are hunted down and wiped out of existence. They have already started to threaten all journalists and intellectuals who have gone against them.  Let us not draw parallels from the history! I do not know who will believe how much, but I have mentioned the sources and you all are welcome to verify them through the references I have provided.

Medical convention against Nandigram massacre

2007-04-05T23:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday there was a protest convention by Doctors, nurses and medical students in Moulali juba kendra(Youth centre) in kolkata.
Several distinguished guests form medical fraternity spoke against the fascist aggression against the people by the CPM lumpens and police.
A CD was shown where graphic details of the atrocities were filmed.
A 12 to 13 yrs. girl told that how she was raped by CPM men.
A mother of two , was raped in front of her children and husband by CPM goons. They threatened to kill her two children if she resisted the rape.

It was alleged that small children were hacked by choppers and their body parts were either burnt in brick field furnace or were taken to the sea and put into fishing nets filled with stones and thrown into the water.

IN A NUT SHELL THE TERROR IN NANDIGRAM WAS BARBARISM AT IT'S WORST FORM.

CPM terror after loosing

2007-04-05T21:47:00.000-07:00

It seems that SFI, the student's wing of the social fascist CPM is on a never ending loosing spree.
Yesterday they were decisively defeated in the elections to the Engineering faculty(FETSU) and Science faculty(SFSU) elections.
In Science faculty an organisation named WTI(We the Independents) won all the four portfolio seats trampling SFI.
In Engineering and technology faculty SFI was defeated for the consecutive 31st year by DSF(Democratic Student's Front) in all the five portfolio seats.

SFI was visibly shaken by this defeated and they resorted to their predictable behavior of intimidation and violence.This time they called their elder brothers in CPM to unleash the fascist terror.
About 90 criminals belonging to the co-ordination committee(the govt. employee's wing of CPM) came with iron rods and chains and attacked the victory procession of WTI.4 to 5 students were injured. There were also allegations of molestation by CPM cadres on the female students.
However the students put up a valiant resistance and the criminals were forced to retreat.

Following is newspaper report on yesterday's events published in a leading Kolkata daily:-

KOLKATA April 5: Seven students were injured in a clash between students, teachers and non teaching staff following the victory of an anti-SFI students organisation in the science faculty students’ union elections at Jadavpur University this afternoon. In engineering faculty too the Democratic Students Federation (DSF) defeated SFI.
Students belonging to “We The Independent” (WTI), who won the elections in Jadavpur University’s science faculty, alleged that they were attacked by the members of Karmachari Sansad and two teachers, namely Prof Deepak Kesh of Mathematics department and Prof Arghya Deb of Physics department.
Among the injured students who were admitted in MR Bangur hospital were Surajit Sarkar, Someswar Chandra, Sourav Guha, Sourav Mitra, Suman Mazumdar and Proto Banerjee.
Prof Subrato Pal, dean of science faculty said it was difficult to identify the students and teachers amidst the chaos that took place in the University premises.
At a meeting attended by dean of science and engineering, heads of Physics and Chemistry departments, Prof Keshab Bhattacharya, secretary of Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) and Prof Deepak Kesh, the accused teacher, it was recommended that the students should submit a written complaint to the vice chancellor. Prof Swadesh Ranjan Roy Chowdhury, HOD (chemistry) said this meeting was necessary to safeguard the reputation of the University which has gained the status of a five-star institute. Another teacher on conditions of anonymity said: “There’s a certain political party who use outsiders and their political power to gain victory in the students’ poll and thus ruin the reputation of the institution.” Mr Swapan Ghosh, vice president of Karmachari Sansad said: “The students first attacked the science club and then vandalised the Sansad office. We were not involved in any clashes.”nSNS

SP admits to rape by policemen

2007-04-04T08:08:00.000-07:00

KOLKATA: West Bengal police have confirmed that two of their men raped a woman protester at Nandigram — an admission that is sure to compound matters for the CPM leadership and the state government already reeling under the disastrous fallout of cop and cadre excesses at the proposed SEZ site last month.

The rape "confession" came from East Midnapore police superintendent Anil Srinivas and is part of a report that chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb has forwarded to the West Bengal Human Rights Commission, which is probing charges of rape and molestation on March 14, when Nandigram witnessed large-scale violence.

According to sources, the police chief of East Midnapore acknowledged that the claim of one of the two women who had accused policemen of raping them is true. "The brief fact of...Nandigram PS case number 44/07 is that on 14.03.07 at about 12 pm, the two police personnel caught Sona and raped her. The complainant fell unconscious and was taken to the Nandigram BPHC for treatment. Later (she was) referred to Purba (East) Midnapore district hospital on 16.03.07 and discharged on 25.03.07 after necessary treatment," the report states. The Times of India

Final Medical Report on Nandigram

2007-04-03T20:49:00.000-07:00

Final Medical Report from Nandigram
Here is the report of the injuries as documented by three medical teams.
The data were analysed and the report is prepared by Dr. Sumita Das and Shubhashis Mukherjee.
Circulate the report widely.

After the incident of firing by the police at Bhangabera, Nandigram on 14.3.2007, report of large-scale ailment arising out of and as a consequence of the said incident had reached the media. Some doctors and health workers decided to visit the affected area to render the very urgent medical help to the people affected by the incident.

A team of doctors (Medical Service Centre, Kolkata) visited several affected areas of Nandigram on 17.3.2007 and came out with a report which was reported in the press.

On 18.3.2007, a team comprising of 6 physicians including 2 female physicians, 3 junior doctors, 3 sisters, medical students and health-workers, organanised by three public-spirited organizations working on health, i.e., SRAMAJIBI SWASTHA UDYOG, PEOPLES’ HEALTH and JANASWASTHA SWADIKAR MANCHA visited some of the affected areas of Nandigram to render medical help to the affected people.

They found that the severely injured persons were already taken to the hospital and persons who were critically injured had already been transferred to Tomluk and SSKM/ RG Kar MCH of Kolkata. But they found that a large population, predominantly women were suffering from blunt trauma, very often multiple, had not received any medical help. The same is true also for a very large number of people, suffering from eye-problems ( watering, photophobia, burning sensation, redness in eyes etc.) even 4 days after the tear-gas exposure ( on 14.3.2007). People were also suffering from mental trauma, though unfortunately the medical team did not have a psychiatrist or a psychologist who could have professionally assess the actual extent of the trauma.

The medical team treated 129 patients and had the opportunity to talk to about 300 victims, who described the unprovoked and brutal attack on unarmed assembly of villagers, including a large number of women and children which continued even after people had dispersed and was trying to flee from the scene. The women also described with horrid details of sexual assaults on them. Attackers, they said included a large number of persons with police uniform but with chappals. The Medical Team had also found that return to their home and resume their normal activities. Camps were organized by the local people to provide food for these affected people. These camps were suffering from an acute shortage of provisions required to run the kitchen ( the medical team provided a day’s provision to one camp).

The next visit took place on 21.3.2007. It was a general relief cum medical relief team consisting of two physicians and 4 health workers. There was plan for documenting the trauma of the victims, though due to shortage of time, addition burden of general relief work, the number of patients treated and documented was limited to 30 in three different places. We provided general relief and provisions to four different relief camps in the affected areas worth Rs 15, 790.

The third visit was on 24-25th March, 2007 . from the experience of two previous visits by the medical team, it was decided that the team should stay in the affected areas for overnight to render more intensive and extensive medical assistance, and that it would concentrate on medical relief only. This time the team comprised of eight doctors, including two female doctors and one orthopedic surgeon, one sister and seven health workers. They organized 4 medical camps, in Southkhali ( 24.3.2007), Sonachura High School (25.3.2007), Kalicharanpur Primary School ( 25.3.2007) and Dakshin Jalpai, Bhangabera (25.3.2007).
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS:

It was seen from the T.V. clips that many persons were shot at the chest, abdomen and even in their heads, though when dispersing a mob, the police is to “use as little force and do as little injury to person and property as may be consistent with dispersing the assembly, arresting and detaining such persons”. ( Section 130, CrPc).
The medical team also saw bullet injuries (grazing) at the face level.
The number of victims was found to be very large and included a large number of women and children also.
The lathi charge was extensive, it was inflicted even on women who had already fled from the place of assembly and was hiding in nearby houses and bushes in and around the place. This lathi charge was severe, producing multiple blunt injuries with bruises which was evident on medical examination even on 4/7/11 and 12 days after the event. These injuries included fracture, spine injury, chest injury etc. Injury marks were mostly found on abdomen upwards. It may be mentioned here that when the medical team reached the scene, the people with major injuries had already been taken to various hospitals.
Many people suffered from the musculo-skeletal injuries including fall etc., as they were trying to escape the scene and police was persistently chasing them.
Many persons were injured due to beating by the police while they were trying to rescue the injured persons and the children.
Many women complained of sexual assault. They were also found to bear injury marks on their breasts, abdomen and private part. However, lack of privacy and other infrastructure prevented the medical team from proper physical examination and even thorough history taking.
A very large number of affected people, predominantly women, were found to be suffering from eye problems (burning sensation, watering, phototophobia, foreign body sensation, dimness in vision, headache etc), persisting even 11 days after the exposure to tear gas.
So much so that every camp attended to about 70-80 percent of patients suffering from eye problems related to tear gas exposure. Some persons also had injury from tear gas shell explosion, burning injury from contact of tear gas shell, history of breathlessness from close and prolonged exposure to tear gas etc. It may be mentioned that almost all the persons affected by the tear gas rinsed their eyes continuously with water for quite some time.
Thus it appears to the medical team that the gas used against the people may not be the usual tear gas ordinarily used to disperse the mob, but something unusual having more permanent and serious effects. The medical team urges a serious investigation into this matter.
It was found that although most of the severely wounded people were transferred to hospitals, a few seriously wounded persons, including a nine years old boy suffering from supracondylar fracture of arm, a case of spinal injury etc., practically received no medical attention. Also, many people, who attended Nandigram Hospital , did not receive medicines due to shortage of required medicine and many patients could not be investigated properly due to lack of infrastructure there. Patients suffering from eye problems specifically did not receive any medical treatment. It may be noted here that Nadigram Hospital (BPHC) may be called a glorified primary health center and not equipped to deal with so many serious injury and other cases. It was also learnt that Nandigram Hospital did not receive much additional support even after the incident.
An interesting observation was that very few patients came to the medical camp for ailments unrelated to the incidence of 14.3.2007 and those who came for injuries etc also mainly reported the injuries only and generally had no other medical complain.

Many patients were found to be suffering from mental trauma with symptoms of sleeplessness, anorexia, anxiety and fear. They were in fear of repeat of attack, anxiety for the safety of near and dear ones, and particularly about sexual assault of young daughters. But unfortunately the medical team did have trained human resource to properly assess situation, so the number of patients suffering from mental trauma mentioned here would be an understatement of the actual state of affairs. However, a team of psychiatrists and other mental health workers has already organized a camp in Sonachura on 31.3.2007. Their reports will be published soon.
Members of the March 24-25 medical team trained about 20 activists regarding cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, control of bleeding, management of fractures and transport of the injured. The trainees included two quack doctors. They were provided with first aid kits. The aim of the training was to prepare activists in handling injuries in further attacks.

News report of SFI loss

2007-03-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

Following is a news report on the loss of SFI in Jadavpur University AFSU(Arts Faculty Student's Union) elections published in a leading kolkata newspaper.

Forum for Arts Students (FAS) has swept the students’ union elections of the Jadavpur University arts faculty, traditionally a bastion of the Students Federation of India (SFI).

FAS won three seats, while All India Democratic Students’ Organisation (Aidso) bagged the remaining seat.

The elections were held on Tuesday. Counting of votes began at 11 am on Wednesday. The results were declared at 4 pm.

The new vice-chairperson of the union Mahadyuti Adhikary won by a margin of 428 votes. General secretary Sourish won by 454 votes.

The assistant general secretary (day), Souro, and assistant general secretary (night) won by 401 votes and 52 votes, respectively.

More than 1,800 students of the day section cast their vote. From the night section, about 180 students voted.

The students voted for the posts of the day or night assistant general secretary, vice-chairperson and general secretary. In addition, the students also voted for their class representatives.

FAS, which is not affiliated to any political party, was formed in the aftermath of police intervention to break a hunger strike by the university students in June 2005 to protest the expulsion of three students.

The SFI, the students’ wing of the CPM, controlled the students’ union for the past 11 years. Last year, FAS had wrested the vice-chairperson’s seat from the SFI.

The Nandigram issue was a major campaign plank against the party this year.

“We will work on student-related issues without interference from any outside body,” said vice-chairperson Adhikary on Wednesday. “For instance, we have been mobilising support for a movement demanding better placements.”

“Even a few years back, there was a feeling that the SFI could not be beaten without political backing. Last year’s results showed it could be achieved. This year’s results reflect a change in the mindset of the students,” added Adhikary.

SFI leaders said the verdict was “not unexpected”, but the margin of defeat came as a surprise.

The expected margin of defeat was about 200 votes, but FAS won by more than double the figure.

SFI,Wiped out in college polls

2007-03-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

Today SFI, the student's wing of CPM, a social fascist, terrorist party in west bengal province of India was decisively defeated in the election to the Arts Faculty student's union(AFSU) in Jadavpur University in kolkata. They lost all the four portfolio seats to FAS(Forum for Arts Students) a newly formed organisation.
Jadavpur University is one of the most prominent and prestigious universities in India. Not only because of it's academic excellence but also the history of glorious student's struggle right from the 50's and 60's. It was the storm centre of the naxalite movement of the 70's.
However SFI, a criminal organisation dominated by lumpens and thugs have been holding the arts faculty union for the past 8 years by using different fair and unfair tactics. But the students have now made it quite clear that they will not tolerate this tactics of intimidation to continue anymore. They will not allow their beloved university and its honour be trampled by the pseudo-leftist,criminals.
This election mandate also reflects the growing disdain that is prevailing among the students and youth of west bengal about the bourgeois policy of the West Bengal government to grab the land of poor peasants and give it to the profit monger MNCs to satisfy their ugly hunger.
SFI had made this so-called pseudo-industrialisation an issue and has got a slap from the student community. The students of Jadavpur University have categorically rejected the anti-people economic policy of the CPM(Left front) govt. and their politics of terrorism , mass murder and mass rape.

List of CPM goons

2007-03-27T00:18:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from the report of APDR team who visited Nandigram aftar the brutal mass murder and mass rape took place in Nandigram perpetrated by CPM lumpens and goons.

According to the villagers and wounded people, there were many goons and leaders of the CPI (M) party with the police during the police violence. They have also identified some of them. The names of the identified goons and leaders are as follows:
From Khejuri :
1. Bijon Roy
2. Rabiul Khan
3. Himangshu Das
4. Swadhin Pramanik
5. Kebal Das s/o Haripada Das

Nandigram :
1. Ashok Guria , President District Committee AIKS
2. Naba Samanta, Brother of Shankar Samanta, Sonachura
3. Joydeb Paik, (LCS) Sonachura
4. Badal Mondal, Sonachura
5. Anup Mondal, Panchyat Member of Sonachura
6. Bapi Bhuiya, President of Krishak Sabha
7. Sukesh Shanki, Member of Panchayat Samity
8. Lakshman Mondal, Pradhan, 10 No. Sonachura Gram Panchayat
9. Chandan Hajra, Party Member
10. Rabin Bera, ( LCM of Saud khali)
11. Arjun Maity,
12. Iasin Khan, Pradhan, 9 No.Anchal
13. Satadal Das

Anup Mondal, Panchayat member, during the incident on 14th was reported to be using a hand mike to tell people to allow police to do its job.
One of the patients clearly identified the CPM goons present. His testimony is given below.

Subodh Das, S/o Gangadhar Das, Age: 50, Residence: Gangra; Occupation: Van driver
I identified 8 of those who fired bullets; they are CPI (M) goons. They are :-
◊ Lakhman Mondal. Gangra
◊ Badal Mondal, Sonachura
◊ Joydeb Paik, Sonachura
◊ Anup Mondal, Sonachura
◊ Sukesh Sanki, Sonachura (South)
◊ Bapi Bhuiya, Sonachura (South)
◊ Kebol Das, Kunjapur (Khejuri)
◊ Parusaram Mondal, Sonachura

According to the witnesses we met, police officials under whom Wednesday's firing took place were as follows :-

1) IG Western Range Arun Gupta
2) DIG N. Ramesh Babu
3) S.P. East Midnapore Anil G Srininvasan
4) OC Khejuri PS Amit Hati
5) SDPO Swapan Sinha

It was also reported that the CPM had hidden large stocks of arms in the following places :-
1) Party Office in Kunjapur
2) ICDS building in Ranichawk
3) Janani Brickfield in Sherkhanchawk- where a new bathroom has been made, there is a septic tank which is unused.
4) Bijon Roy's house in Khejuri

Maoist hold huge rally in Ranchi

2007-03-26T07:27:00.000-07:00

RANCHI: The state police remained on high alert on Friday in a bid to prevent Naxal outfits participating in a rally organised at the Morhabadi Ground to mark the anti-imperialist day.

The rally organised by various democratic-socio-cultural organisations of Naxals was also attended by several frontal organisations of extremists hailing from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Orissa.

Talking to TOI, DGP JB Mahapatra said the police had information about Naxal outfits sponsoring the rally and it was maintaining a strict vigil.

"We did everything except restricting the rally," he said. Police also prevented some of the vehicles entering the capital from the Ranchi-Lohardagga route and even the rally was escorted by police force while it moved on the thoroughfares of the city.

Prior to this, the congregation of different democratic fronts held a preliminary meeting and declared a charter of Ranchi convention.

Announcing the formation of a nine-member steering committee under the chairmanship of Bramhadeo Sharma of Bharat Jan Andolan, convener of the meeting and noted social worker of Andhra Pradesh GN SaiBaba said, "They have rejected the present model of development and chalked out an annual programme to be adopted at the national-level"
Beginning with mass rally in Chattisgarh, Orissa and Polabaram in AP the newly-formed steering committee has decided to gherao the Parliament in October in which artists and intelligentsia will participate in a large number.

The forum has also given a call for an all India bandh in October but the date is yet to be finalised. Sharma said the forum is against the concept of state-owned resources and will make all efforts to reinstate people's right over natural resources.

The government is only the custodian of resources and transfers ownership to multinational companies at its own wish setting aside the concern of poor and downtrodden and this will no longer be tolerated, he said.

Working on distinct platforms in different states against oppressive moves of state government, the forum was seen as a major development in which the participants vowed to cooperate each other during upheavals.

Literature on different extremist movements and success stories of comrades was available during the two-day programme which concluded here with the rally.

Elaborate discussions werealso held prior to the rally on people's resistance in Singur and Dandyakarni and elimination of villagers by forcing them into armed rebellion like Salwa Judum of Chhattisgarh.

Are we living in a civilised world

2007-03-24T02:40:00.000-07:00

CPM rapist admits his crime

2007-03-21T20:30:00.001-07:00

The Statesman (Wednesday, 21 March 2007 )
Nandigram rape: CPM man owns up

Joydeep Thakur
NANDIGRAM, March 20: Villagers have been looking for some people who came in on 14 March disguised as policemen to rape and murder women. They chanced upon Sahadev Pramanick (30), who had raped at least two women. The CPI-M activist from Gangra, Sonachura, left the village after the first spell of violence in January and sought refuge in a party camp at Khejuri. Last evening, whilst trying to sneak into Sonachura along with four accomplices, he found himself captured. Pramanick admitted to two rapes, including that of a 13-year-old girl. "At least 17 girls were raped inside a deserted house near Bhangabera on 14 March when police opened fire near a bridge. The victims were dragged into the house of Shankar Samanta by CPI-M cadres," Pramanick said. Samanta had been burnt alive by villagers on 7 January and his dwelling since then lay vacant.
CBI officials have visited it, collecting pieces of torn cloth, bangles and undergarments. It was also stained with blood. Villagers had heard women forced into the house cry out in agony but there were CPI-M goons guarding it. Haldia’s sub-divisional police officer, Mr Swapan Saha, said if the CBI wanted Pramanick for interrogation, he would be handed over to it.

The fear lingers in Nandigram

2007-03-21T20:26:00.000-07:00

The people of Nandigram are still living under the shadow of CPM terror.
The are apprehending a new attack by the fascist CPM goons at any moment.
Following is an account published in a leading Kolkata newspaper.

Cops depart but trauma remains

NANDIGRAM, March 20: Simmering tensions and anxiety engulfed people from trouble-torn areas in Nandigram although the state government officially declared that no land will be acquired here for industrialisation. Many people are still missing and many others are homeless.
As lives limped back to a semblance of normalcy, police moved out today from two camps, to the relief of villagers. Police camps at Sonachura and Gokulnagar were removed to Bhangbhera and Tekhali in Khejuri on the other side of Talpati canal. About 1,000 policemen were deployed at Sonachura and Gokulnagar camps after the mayhem on 14 March. Thanks to CBI scare, CPI-M cadres left Sonachura and Gokulnagar and the villagers could return back to their homes in these areas.
Since then policemen had to bear the brunt of curses and abuses of villagers. Mrs Suhasini Mondal, mother of late Pushpendu who died in the 14 March carnage, said: “The protectors of law have turned into murderers. Don’t police have children at their homes?”
Trinamul leader Mr Shubendu Adhikari addressed meetings at Maheshpur and Sonachura today. He said: “I feel sorry for the victims of the carnage on 14 March but our movement does not end at a declaration of state government only. The CPI-M cadres and policemen who committed this heinous crime must be punished.”
Leaders of Bhumi Uchhed Protirodh Committee are now preparing a list of missing people who are feared dead already. As per the list, 25 people from Sonachura and 37 from Gokulnagar area are missing while similar reports of other villagers in the trouble-torn areas are yet to be completed. Many people were seen searching from their relatives and asking leaders if they know their whereabouts. Mrs Shankari Das thanked God when she found her 11-year-old daughter Deepa, who ran six miles to escape killers’ clutches, safe. Others may not have been as lucky, villagers said.
The other side of Talpati canal, Khejuri, has been deserted by CPI-M cadres following the raid of CBI at Majanani brick kiln to arrest 10 people with arms who were allegedly CPI-M cadres. However, protesters of Nandigram believes that once the CBI team completes its job here and leaves the area, the CPI-M would certainly inflict a fresh round of attacks. The Bharat Sevashram Sangha has been offering meals to 1,000 homeless and penniless villagers at Sonachura relief camp over the last three days.
The officer-in-charge of Nandigram police station, Mr Sekhar Roy, was today replaced by the district police administration and Mr Partha Sanyal, the officer-in-charge of Mahishadal police station, was appointed in his place. Mr Sanyal will take charge tomorrow. According to a senior district police officer, Mr Roy had applied for leave to go on a training. “He wanted to go for training for higher ranks and the leave was granted today,” said the officer. Meanwhile, state women commission chairperson, Ms Jasodhara Bagchi visited the Tamluk Sadar Hospital and Nandigram Block Hospital today and spoke with the injured victims of the violence that took place at Nandigram on 14 March. She, however, declined to comment saying it would be improper as a CBI probe was on.

Account of CPIM terror in Nandigram

2007-03-16T20:06:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile the number game gave rise to enough confusion. Dainik Statesman - the Bengali Statesman puts the number to 31. The TV channels [private] put it to 18, The sole BBC correspondent Amit Bhattashali openly put the number as 32 and then openly declared that as per the instruction from the government to BBC they are bound to quote only the government version and therefore he is putting the number as 11. The TARATV correspondent Gourango, who was apprehended by the police, handed over to CPM goons and then on live TV thrashed and foul-mouthed by CPM, puts it off-the record as 100+ and on-the-record "could not count". The TARATV correspondent Subrata who is accompanying Mamata in her tour, puts it as "uncounted" as he explains no one can say and know the exact figure. The great state government and Mr. VORA - the spokesperson goes back to the number of 6 and then says that is what he is informed and he will inform the press some time later!

  Subrata and Gourango of TARATV are in the field. This is the horrendous story that they have to say. Before that let us listen to his version of self-imposed censorship that he follows... "I have stopped telling the media the story that I saw and ought to have told them, there is no chance people and our viewers would believe. There is a limit to human belief. They will take me as a mad babbler! I myself am not convinced of what I saw, heard and went through.. it was like a nightmare and how I wish all that I saw and heard was simply a delirium" As a matter of fact they threw up several times in the hotel they stayed, not because of the threats by the CPM goons but because what they saw and heard and the language of threats by the CPM goons who besieged them in CPM party office in Nandigram.

  "Bands of CPM goons aided by platoons of Eastern Frontier Rifles and Commando forces are entering every village and paras [mohollas]. They bring out the men folk, they take no prisoners, no witnesses, they shoot them, bayonet them, rip apart their stomachs and then lay them down the canal to the sea and confluence. They then bring out the young girls, gather them in open spaces, open gang rape them multiple times till the girls collapse, they then literally TEAR their limbs, in some cases cut them to pieces and let them down the Haldi river and/or Talpati canal.

No witnesses and they know that this incident cannot leak out because the young girls in traditional Medinipur will never come out to say what really happened and who will believe? on top of it who will corroborate and those who will come out will be killed and tortured again. CPM and police then wrapped the entire village with their Red Banners (sic!) showing that the area is secured and simply their writ will run. Those who fled the villages were mostly apprehended on the outskirts or on the boundaries and no one knows what happened to those poor souls.

We could hear this stories only from those who could crawl the whole way out through fields and forests. Even that is difficult now as the fields are all dried up and the crops are already reaped. Anyone can see people coming out. Rapes are innumerable, officially the rape figure could be obtained as 6 because these are the ones who survived to tell their tales and they are around middle aged, so they somehow could not be butchered and minced to pieces.

Village after village this process is going on and to our utter astonishment the process is continuing even this morning. All the correspondents are removed. Sukumar Mitra the most coveted journalist from Dainik Statesman ran his way out amidst flurries of bullets. He was specifically hunted and somehow could manage to sneak out. The ferocity of this attack is so grizzly that the residents of that area simply do not believe that anyone will open their mouth. Fear is made a weapon and the highest fear is made the weapon for a social-censorship.

Haripur is a nearby subdivision. That area is earmarked for nuclear power plant. People of that region have also come up in protest. Most of them are fishermen. They have stopped going to the confluence and the sea because of two reasons. One they feel that human bodies are everywhere in the confluence and the worst is that the crocs and gharials and sharks are now rushing towards that spot from far away Sunderbans. These animals rush for fresh blood, the fishes will be eaten away by these reptiles and there is a high possibility of these getting netted instead of fishes. Haripur will be out of livelihood for at least a week or so, and this was premeditated by the CPM administration to teach Haripur a lesson.

Haripur is the place that shooed out even Central teams and even bigger police forces. This was a lesson to teach both Nandigram and Haripur together. No sign of any dead bodies will ever be found, no proof of rape would be there. They are not making the mistake of killing openly, like the Tapasi Malik murder in Singur. They have this model now. The real death figure can only be revealed at least 3 months after, and that too if there is one, peace comes into stay, and if the residents could come back and then count the missing. But After CPM has "secured" and "liberated" those areas those who were evicted will not be allowed to come back and these properties will be given to the CPM goons from Keshpur and Garbeta and neighbouring places. The permanency of mopping up strategy is how CPM will ensure that Nandigram and Haripur will be secured for electoral battles in the future."'

  This is more horrendous than partition story. Journalists all know this but they cannot come out with these stories. CPM will ensure that these journalists are hunted down and wiped out of existence. They have already started to threaten all journalists and intellectuals who have gone against them.

  Let us not draw parallels from the history! I do not know who will believe how much, but I have mentioned the sources and you all are welcome to verify them through the references I have provided.

We salute the martyrs

2007-03-16T06:36:00.000-07:00

We condemn the mass killing by the armed forces of the fascist West Bengal
government in Nandigram.

The fascist chief minister, the left front chairman and all high profile CPM leaders justified the murder as Nandigram has been out of reach to the armed forces. We would like to ask these pets of big companies why it became necessary for the armed forces to reach Nandigram?

Why the people of Nandigram shouldn't have the right to determine what will be the best for them? Who gave the authority to these running dogs of imperialism to decide what will be the best for the people of Nandigram? These shameless fascists always claim that whatever they are doing is for the betterment of the people. Now, what sort of betterment they are aiming for? What sort of development they are achieving by the murder of at least 50 people?

Their hands are stained with the blood of people.

They have been dedicated themselves to serve the interest of the imperialiam-comprador capitalists; it has been proved by their activities for the last couple of decades. So, we cannot expect anything else than killing of people, detention of democratic-progressive-revoluti onary people in this fascist regime.

We just hate this brutality.
We don't find appropriate words to express our hatred.

We believe that this mass killing will determine us to extend our support in every possible way to the people's resistance of Nandigram and all other parts of India.

Red salute to the martyrs of Nandigram.

Red salute to the mothers of Nandigram who gave birth of these heroes of people's resistance.

pictures of sheer barbarism

2007-03-15T23:27:00.000-07:00

VICTIMS OF THE BEASTLY TERROR UNLEASHED BY THE TERRORISTS OF CPIM

Shameless Buddhadev

2007-03-15T23:22:00.001-07:00

After staining his hands with the blood of the people of Nandigram, the fascist chief minister, Buddha doesn’t even feel sorry. To him it is just an unfortunate event and police was forced to fire in self-defense. He also dared to say, “No government could accept absence of rule of law in any part of a state.”

We would like to ask these trusted agents of big companies what does rule of law mean to them? They killed at least 25 people (it could be even 50 or more) when their brutal armed forces entered Nandigram. If it is what they call as law and order, then we have to say that it would have been far better of not having law and order in all part of the country.

Buddha also said that for two and half months, the administration couldn’t function at Nandigram. We strongly feel that such an administration whose sole orientation is to repress and kill people to serve the interest of MNCs and comprador capitalists, better not to function. Why people should tolerate this repression? They must have every right to rebel against repression and displacement.

Buddha has been saying that there will be no SEZ in Nandigram if people don’t want. What does it mean? In the last two and half months didn’t the people of Nandigram make it very clear that they prefer to live on their own land rather than being displaced for SEZ? Then why didn’t they postpone the plan of SEZ? If they postponed, then there would not have been any bloodbath in Nandigram.

Essentially, this bunch of fascists is determined to acquire the land for the Salim group. They don’t care what people prefer and this is what they call as democracy. As people resist, they have sent their brutal armed forces to terrorize people, to kill people and to rape our mothers, sisters and daughters. And, this is the establishment of law and orders.

We are fully aware that, in West Bengal, the companies didn’t pay Rs 400 crores in employees provident fund. It includes the contribution from the workers as well. It simply means that they have taken the money form the workers but didn’t deposit to the provident fund. It is a severe violation of the existing labour law. These running dogs of imperialism and comprador capitalists, who are talking about the establishment of law and orders, what step have taken against this violation of labour law? How many companies of armed forces they sent to arrest these capitalists?

Not a single one.

All these incidences prove once again the correctness of the Marxist conception of STATE, which is nothing but machinery in the hand of a particular class to oppress others. This state machinery has three major components, (i) armed forces, (ii) laws and (iii) administration. Its sole orientation is to serve the class interests. Now we see how Buddha-government uses these three components as the trusted agent of imperialism-comprador capitalism-semi feudalism. In the name of the establishment of law and order, it uses administration and sends armed forces to unleash repression on the people to acquire land for the Salim and displace people. Whereas, when workers are being exploited, when people are under the brutal semi feudal exploitation, it doesn’t feel as a problem of law and order.

This is what we can only expect from this system.
No question of justice.
No democracy.
Only brutal repression.

How long will we let it to continue?

Terrorist Genocide in Nandigram

2007-03-15T22:49:00.001-07:00

Friends, by now all of you must have come to know that the social fascist regime of CPM and its bloody CM Buddhadev Bhattacharya has committed a brutal barbaric genocide in Nandigram area of East Medinipur district of West Bengal on 14th March,2007.
This is a black day in the history of Bengal and India.
More than 100 people have been murdered by State police and armed cadres of CPIM party.The death count may still rise as many bodies have been thrown in canals and rivers.
Bullets were showered like hailstorm on hapless people , most of whom were peasants.

Most of those killed include women and children.

Massive cover up launched by CPM and calcutta gestapo police.

Dead bodies are being forcibly taken from relatives and are

being dumped in the river or buried secretly.

A massive cover up is under way...

The fascist government of west bengal is still not revealing the true figures... As of now the media says its 11 which is a gross underestimate.

Savage State Terror

At least 11 are killed and many injured in Nandigram as protests mount against "police firing as a mass killing led by the government who stands only in support of capitalists and its own selfish interests"

Sudipta Moitra, National Hawker Federation

A situation of terror has been created by the ruling CPI (M) government and party in Nandigram over the past few days. The matter reached a head as a huge contingent of 4000-5000 comprising the Police Force along with Para-Military, Rapid Action Force and Combat Commando Force attacked Nandigram in the name of "Operation Nandigram". This has come as a repressive measure in the face of protest and local movement (Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee — Committee to Prevent Farmland Eviction) by the people of Nandigram against the forceful land acquisition for proposed SEZs (Salim Group, Indonesia) in the area.

This is the second instance of violence in the area, the first being in early January when 6 people were killed. The last instance was provoked in the wake of the local administration serving notices for land acquisition. After country wide criticism and protests against the state government, the Chief Minister had issued a statement that no land would be acquired in Nandigram if the people are not willing. Despite this statement government has continued to maintain pressure in the area through deployment of armed forces. This clearly shows on whose side the Fascist West Bengal government is.

Today, on Wednesday morning the armed forces broke fire on the people as a result of which 20 people have been killed and over 200 injured. The state government and West Bengal police are still not declaring the numbers dead and injured. A huge protest movement has spread across West Bengal. In every district, rallies, demonstrations, road-blockages are being organised. National Hawker Federation and Hawker Sangram Committee is also strongly condemning this barbaric fascist action of West Bengal government and organizing rallies all over Kolkata. Reporters from all the major media institutions are also being forcefully stopped from covering and reporting the reality. Two reporters of Tara Bangla News were threatened by CPM party cadres and are now missing.

We appeal to all those who believe in democracy to condemn this fascist move by the government to pressure local communities to give up their only sources of livelihoods. We see this Nandigram police firing as a mass killing led by the government who stands only in support of capitalists and its own selfish interests.

Mass struggle in China

2007-03-13T05:53:00.000-07:00

Perhaps most of you know that after the death of Comrade Mao-Tse-Tung in 1976 the communist party of China was captured by revisionists like Deng Jiao ping who destroyed the achievements of the great chinese people under the leadership of Com. Mao and took the country to a capitalist path. As a result the common people(workers and peasants) started suffering and a handful of bourgeois started their ugly accumulation of wealthy created by the working people.
But the great revolutionary people of China are no longer tolerating this revisionist rule and their bourgeois policies.
People have started protesting and resisting.
Following is a report on such a large scale protest by workers and peasants.

Hunan city, Yongzhou, central China; around 20,000 farmers and laid off workers have rioted and clashed with 1,000 police armed with guns and electric cattle prods.

The rioters were reported to be protesting against government corruption and rising transport costs. The unrest was eventually suppressed with scores of arrests and some injuries, none serious, on both sides.

This is the latest in a long series of what the government calls "mass incidents" in China - a term including protests, petitions and demonstrations. It was estimated that approx. 23,000 such incidents occurred last year. Figures for earlier years; 2005, 87,000 incidents, 74,000 in 2004, 58,000 in 2003. The recent decline may be due to a change in definition so as to play down the level of unrest.

The first official use of the term 'mass incident' was apparently by Minister of Public Security Zhou Youkang, published in Ta Kung Pao on June 5, 2005:

In speaking about mass incidents arising from conflict among the people, Zhou Yongkang said that mass incidents are an outstanding problem affecting social stability, with five features that require attention.

1. The number has obviously increased and the scope has expanded. From the 10,000+ mass incidents in 1994 to the 74,000+ mass incidents in 2004, the increase has been more than sixfold. The number of participants has increased from the 730,000 persons in 1994 to the 3,760,000 persons in 2004, for more than a fourfold increase;

2. The scope has expanded. Mass incidents occur in cities, rural villages, enterprises, governments, schools and various domains and sectors and they occur in all the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities;

3. The main participants in mass incidents are more diversified, and include dismissed workers, farmers, urban dwellers, enterprise owners, teachers and people from various social strata;

4. The methods are extreme, including laying siege and attacking party and government offices, blockading public roads, stopping trains and other situations;

5. The tendency is towards greater organizing. There are sometimes even spontaneously rising organizations with certain leaders.

Murdurous Industrialisation claims another life

2007-03-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

After Tapashi Malik(who was raped and burnt alive) and Rajkumar Bhol, Singur saw the third victim of the terrorist campaign that Buddhadev Bhattacharya and his fascist regime has unleashed in Singur. A peasant opposing the forcible land acquisation in Singur for the Tata Motor factory committed suicide out of dispair last night.

Following is a news paper report of the incident:-

A farmer, whose land was acquired by the West Bengal government for setting up the Tata Motors' small car project, allegedly committed suicide by consuming pesticide on Monday.

Police said Haradhan Bag (62) was found dead by his family members at his house at Beraberi Purbapara area of Singur.

The farmer, whose one-acre land had been fenced off for the small car plant, had refused money as compensation for his agricultural land.

A strong supporter of 'Krishi Jami Raksha' (save farmland) committee, Haradhan had also undertaken hungerstrike to protest the acquisition of agricultural land for setting up industries.

He had 18 cottahs of land left with him after a major chunk was fenced off for the Tata Motors' car factory.

A spokesman of the 'Save Farmland Committee' said many farmers who lost their land during the acquisition drive were suffering from depression and Haradhan was one of them.

Police claimed that Haradhan's death was a fallout of family dispute and it had no link with land acquisition.

Haradhan is survived by wife and two sons.

International Women's Day

2007-03-07T21:36:00.000-08:00

Friends, Today is 8th March,2007.
The International women's day is being celebrated today all across the world.
But it is distressing to see that the day which was to be a day for all of us to vow to intensify our struggle against patriarchal values and male domination has been transformed into a day of spreading decadent bourgeois culture by the capitalists and the corporations that they own .
This day is used to lure the women to reactionary events like beauty pageants and modeling, which use women as a sex object rather than a free self sufficient human being.
The time has come for all the progressive revolutionary people of the world to stand up against this gross capitalist and feudal exploitation of women and fight against the ongoing trivialization
of the International Women's day.

Following is an excerpt from a article written by Comrade Mao-Tse-Tung on feudal exploitation and oppression of women in China during the early 20th century.

A man in China is usually subjected to the domination of three systems of authority (political authority, clan authority and religious authority). As for women, in addition to being dominated by these three systems of authority, they are also dominated by the men (the authority of the husband). These four authorities -- political, clan, religious and n\masculine -- are the embodiment of the whole feudal-patriarchal ideology and system, and are the four thick ropes binding the Chinese people, particularly the peasants. The political authority of the landlords is the backbone of all other systems of authority. With that overturned, the clan authority, the religious authority and the authority of the husband all begin to totter. As to the authority of the husband, this has always been weaker among the poor peasants because, out of necessity, their womenfolk have to do more manual labor than the women of the richer classes and therefore have more say and greater power of decision in family matters. With the increasing bankruptcy of the rural economy in recent years the basis of men's domination over women has been undermined. With the rise of the peasant movement, the women in may parts have now begun to organize rural women's associations; the opportunity has come for them to lift their heads, and the authority of the husband is getting shakier every day. In a word, the whole feudal-patriarchal ideology and system is tottering with the growth of the peasant power.

Protect the interests of the youth, women and children -- provide assistance to young student refugees, help the youth and women to organize in order to participate in an equal foot in all work useful to the war effort and to social progress, ensure freedom of marriage and equality as between men and women, and give young people and children a useful education.

In agricultural production our fundamental task is to adjust the use of labor power in an organized way to encourage women to do farm work.

In order to build a great socialist society, it is of the utmost importance to arouse the broad masses of women to join in productive activity. Men and women must receive equal pay for equal work in production. Genuine equality between the sexes can only be realized in the process of the socialist transformation of society as a whole.

What is Maoism?

2007-03-06T03:03:00.000-08:00

For a long time debate has been going on in Leftist circle about the significance of Maosim. Or whether there is anything called Maoism that really exists in the realm of Marxist ideology.
Following is a part of a statement by RIM(Revolutionary International Movement) about their view on Maosim, which they propagate.
However many organisations and individuals disagree with their views about Maoism inspite of themselves believing in Maoism.

Mao Tsetung developed Marxism-Leninism to a new and higher stage in the course of his many decades of leading the Chinese Revolution, the world-wide struggle against modern revisionism and, most importantly, in finding in theory and practice the method of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat to prevent the restoration of capitalism and continue the advance toward communism. Mao Tsetung greatly developed all three component parts of Marxism - philosophy, political economy and scientific socialism.

Mao said, -Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.- Mao Tsetung comprehensively developed the military science of the proletariat through his theory and practice of People-s War. Mao taught that people, not weapons, are decisive in waging war. He pointed out that each class has its own specific forms of war with its specific character, goals and means. He remarked that all military logic can be boiled down to the principle -you fight your way, I-ll fight my way-, and that the proletariat must forge military strategy and tactics which can bring into play its particular advantages, by unleashing and relying upon the initiative and enthusiasm of the revolutionary masses.

Mao established that the policy of winning base areas and systematically establishing political power was key to unleashing the masses and developing the armed strength of the people and the wavelike expansion of their political power. He insisted on the need to lead the masses in carrying out revolutionary transformations in base areas and to develop these politically, economically and culturally in the service of advancing revolutionary warfare.

Mao taught that the Party should control the gun and the gun must never be allowed to control the Party. The Party must be built as a vehicle capable of initiating and leading revolutionary warfare. He emphasised that the central task of revolution is the seizure of political power by revolutionary violence. Mao Tsetung-s theory of People-s War is universally applicable in all countries, although this must be applied to the concrete conditions in each country and, in particular, take into account the revolutionary paths in the two general types of countries - imperialist countries and oppressed countries - that exist in the world today.

Mao solved the problem of how to make revolution in a country dominated by imperialism. The basic path he charted for the revolution in China represents an inestimable contribution to the theory and practice of revolution and is the guide for achieving liberation in the countries oppressed by imperialism. This means protracted People-s War, surrounding the cities from the countryside, with armed struggle as the main form of struggle and the army led by the Party as the main form of organisation of the masses, mobilising the peasantry, principally the poor peasants, carrying out the agrarian revolution, building a united front under the leadership of the Communist Party to carry out the New Democratic Revolution against imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism and establishing the joint dictatorship of the revolutionary classes led by the proletariat as the necessary prelude to the socialist revolution which must immediately follow the victory of the first stage of the revolution. Mao put forward the thesis of the -three magic weapons- - the Party, the Army and the United Front - the indispensable instruments for making revolution in every country in accordance with its specific conditions and path of revolution.

Mao Tsetung greatly developed the proletarian philosophy, dialectical materialism. In particular, he stressed that the law of contradiction, the unity and struggle of opposites, is the fundamental law governing nature and society. He pointed out that the unity and identity of all things is temporary and relative, while the struggle between opposites is ceaseless and absolute, and this gives rise to radical ruptures and revolutionary leaps. He masterfully applied this understanding to the analysis of the relationship between theory and practice, stressing that practice is both the sole source and ultimate criterion of the truth and emphasising the leap from theory to revolutionary practice. In so doing Mao further developed the proletarian theory of knowledge. He led in taking philosophy to the masses in their millions, popularising, for example, that -one divides into two- in opposition to the revisionist thesis that -two combines into one-.
Mao Tsetung further developed the understanding that the -people and the people alone are the motive force in the making of world history-. He developed the understanding of the mass line: -take the ideas of the masses (scattered and unsystematic ideas) and concentrate them (through study turn them into concentrated and systematic ideas), then go to the masses and propagate and explain these ideas until the masses embrace them as their own, hold fast to them and translate them into action, and test the correctness of these ideas in such action-. Mao stressed the profound truth that matter can be transformed into consciousness and consciousness into matter, further developing the understanding of the conscious dynamic role of man in every field of human endeavour.

Mao Tsetung led the international struggle against modern revisionism led by the Khrushchevite revisionists. He defended the communist ideological and political line against the modern revisionists and called upon the genuine proletarian revolutionaries to break with them and forge parties based on Marxist-Leninist-Maoist principles.

Mao Tsetung undertook a penetrating analysis of the lessons of the restoration of capitalism in the USSR and the shortcomings as well as the positive achievements of the construction of socialism in that country. While Mao defended the great contributions of Stalin, he also summed up Stalin-s errors. He summed up the experience of the socialist revolution in China and the repeated two-line struggles against revisionist headquarters within the Communist Party of China. He masterfully applied materialist dialectics to the analysis of the contradictions of socialist society.

Mao taught that the Party must play the vanguard role - before, during and after the seizure of power - in leading the proletariat in the historic struggle for communism. He developed the understanding of how to preserve the proletarian revolutionary character of the Party through waging an active ideological struggle against bourgeois and petit bourgeois influences in its ranks, the ideological remoulding of the Party members, criticism and self-criticism and waging two-line struggle against opportunist and revisionist lines in the Party. Mao taught that once the proletariat seizes power and the Party becomes the leading force within the socialist state, the contradiction between the Party and the masses becomes a concentrated expression of the contradictions marking socialist society as a transition between capitalism and communism.

Mao Tsetung developed the proletariat-s understanding of political economy, of the contradictory and dynamic role of production itself and of its interrelationship with the political and ideological superstructure of society. Mao taught that the system of ownership is decisive in the relations of production but that, under socialism, attention must be paid that public ownership is socialist in content as well as in form. He stressed the interaction between the system of socialist ownership and the other two aspects of the relations of production, the relations between people in production and the system of distribution. Mao developed the Leninist thesis that politics is the concentrated expression of economics, showing that under socialist society the correctness of the ideological and political line determines whether the proletariat actually owns the means of production. Conversely, he pointed out that the rise of revisionism means the rise of the bourgeoisie, that given the contradictory nature of the socialist economic base it would be easy for capitalist roaders to rig up the capitalist system if they come to power.

He profoundly criticised the revisionist theory of the productive forces and concluded that the superstructure, consciousness, can transform the base and with political power develop the productive forces. All this took expression in Mao's slogan, -Grasp Revolution, Promote Production.-

Mao Tsetung initiated and led the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution which represented a great leap forward in the experience of exercising the dictatorship of the proletariat. Hundreds of millions of people rose up to overthrow the capitalist roaders who had emerged from within the socialist society and who were especially concentrated in the leadership of the Party itself (such as Liu Shao-chi, Lin Piao and Deng Xiao-ping). Mao led the proletariat and masses in challenging the capitalist roaders and imposing the interests, outlook and will of the great majority in every sphere that, even in socialist society, had remained the private reserve of the exploiting classes and their way of thinking.

The great victories won in the Cultural Revolution prevented the capitalist restoration in China for a decade and led to great socialist transformations in the economic base as well as in education, literature and art, scientific research and other parts of the superstructure. Under Mao-s leadership the masses dug away at the soil which engenders capitalism - such as bourgeois right and the three great differences between town and country, between worker and peasant, and between mental and manual labour.

In the course of fierce ideological and political struggle, millions of workers and other revolutionary masses greatly deepened their class consciousness and mastery of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and strengthened their capacity to wield political power. The Cultural Revolution was waged as part of the international struggle of the proletariat and was a training ground in proletarian internationalism.

Mao grasped the dialectical relationship between the necessity of revolutionary leadership and the need to arouse and rely on the revolutionary masses from below to implement proletarian dictatorship. In this way, the strengthening of the proletarian dictatorship was also the most extensive and deepest exercise in proletarian democracy yet achieved in the world, and heroic revolutionary leaders came forward such as Chiang Ching and Chang Chun-chiao who stood alongside the masses and led them into battle against the revisionists and who continued to hold high the banner of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in the face of bitter defeat.

Lenin said, "Only he is a Marxist who extends the recognition of the class struggle to the recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat." In the light of the invaluable lessons and advances achieved through the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution led by Mao Tsetung, this dividing line has been further sharpened. Now it can be stated that only he is a Marxist who extends the recognition of class struggle to the recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat and to the recognition of the objective existence of classes, of antagonistic class contradictions, of the bourgeoisie in the Party and of the continuation of the class struggle under the dictatorship of the proletariat throughout the whole period of socialism until communism. As Mao so powerfully stated, "Lack of clarity on this question will lead to revisionism."

The capitalist restoration following the 1976 counter-revolutionary coup d-etat led by Hua Kuo-feng and Deng Xiao-ping in no way negates Maoism or the world-historic achievements and tremendous lessons of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution; rather this defeat confirms Mao-s theses on the nature of socialist society and the need to continue the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Clearly, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution represents a world-historic epic of revolution, a victorious high point for the world-s communists and revolutionaries, an imperishable achievement. Although we have a whole process ahead of us, that revolution left us great lessons we are already applying, such as, for example, the point that ideological transformation is fundamental in order for our class to seize power.

Attack on MP

2007-03-04T20:47:00.000-08:00

A MP of JMM (jharkhand Mukti Morcha was shot dead today in Jharkhand state of India by suspected Maoist.
Following is a report published by a local kolkata newspaper.
The author of this blog does not necessarily subscribe to the views and terminologies used in the article.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MP from Jamshedpur Mr Sunil Mahato was among five gunned down by suspected Maoists at Kishanpur-Bakuria near Galudih, close to Ghatshila, this afternoon.
The four others who also died are local JMM leader Prabhakar Mahato, an unidentified villager and two Jharkhand Armed Police personnel, Sahadeb Chhetri and Debraj Rai, who were the MP’s bodyguards. Five others, who were also injured in the attack, have been admitted to the Tata Main Hospital in Jamshedpur.
The JMM has called a day-long bandh in Jharkhand tomorrow to protest against the MP’s murder, The bandh call has been supported by the Congress, Left parties, the RJD as well as the BJP and the JD-U.
Mahato, one of the four JMM members in the Lok Sabha, was a first timer in the Lower House. He had been associated with the party for over two decades.
He is survived by his wife and a daughter. ‘’The career of an upcoming political leader has been cut short by the frustrated elements. But the perpetrators will not succeed in their violence,’’ JMM general secretary Mr Prashant Mandal said.
Police sources said preliminary investigation revealed that women cadres of a Maoist outfit were behind the pre-planned attacks. Mr Pankaj Darad, superintendent of police, Jamshedpur, said: “The MP, Sunil Mahato, and his two bodyguards were brought dead to Tata Main Hospital after they sustained bullet injuries.”
Police said that Mahato had gone to attend a Holi Milan Sabha in a remote village, Kishanpur-Bakuria, about 8 km from Galudih and located along the West Bengal-Jharkhand border. He was invited to a prize distribution ceremony at a local football match there.
The MP was watching the football match when the attack took place. Police said that he was surrounded by commandos but the extremists attacked him from behind. The suspected Maoists suddenly fired on Mahato from close range. When the MP’s bodyguards tried to resist, they were also shot at.
When other security personnel rushed to his rescue, the MP and his two bodyguards were found lying in a pool of blood. Soon after the attack, the MP’s vehicle was set on fire by the extremists. The attackers escaped amid the commotion.
The chief minister, Mr Madhu Koda, tonight said after a high-level meeting that he would ask the CBI to conduct an inquiry into the killings.
The Centre has sought a report from the Jharkhand government by tomorrow and assured it of all assistance to deal with the situation. The Governor has summoned the chief minister to Raj Bhavan tomorrow.
Today’s killing is the second major Maoist attack in the state over the past two weeks. About two weeks ago, Ashok Kumar Gupta, personal secretary of Chatra’s RJD MP Dhirendra Agarwal, was also shot dead allegedly by Maoists near Satbaroa.

Pseudo leftists loose in college polls

2007-02-27T21:31:00.000-08:00

SFI(Student's Federation of India), the student's wing of the pseudo-leftist revisionist party, CPIM(Communist party of India-Marxist) has been defeated in the Student's union elections of Presidency College, Kolkata, which is one of the most prestigious college in India.
SFI was defeated by an organisation named IC(Indipendent's consolidation) which is fighting for democracy against the tyrannical terror unleashed by SFI backed by their Social Fascist bosses of CPIM who are in power in West Bengal province of which Kolkata is the capital.
However after being defeated SFI is crying foul and is alleging fraud although the college authority who held the elections are supposed to be hand in gloves with the state govt. and the ruling party CPIM, and SFI is a front organisation of that CPIM.

For the last year CPIM has been engaged in grabbing land of poor and marginal peasants and giving those lands to Big Comprador and Imperialist bourgeoisie at a very low price.
This unmasks the pseudo-marxist reactionary nature of CPIM.
Discontent has been high among the people regarding this anti-people measure.

In the following paragraphs a report by a local newspaper about the elections is being cited.

SFI defeated at Presidency election

KOLKATA, Feb. 27: The pro-industrialisation campaign run by Students Federation of India (SFI ) during the run-up to the Presidency College elections at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels apparently went against them.
With the maximum number of seats going in favour of Independent Consolidation (IC) candidates, SFI alleged false votes were cast by external supporters of IC. Mr Koustav Chatterjee, SFI Kolkata district secretary, said: “Our slogans were in favour of industrialisation and we demanded a repoll in the two seats as IC used false voters.”
Out of 73 seats, 38 seats went in favour of IC candidates and 33 seats in favour of SFI candidates and two seats still remain at a tie. Prof. Harendranath Bhattacharya, head of the Geology department at the college, said: “In these two seats, re-polling will take place tomorrow. SFI will also have to prove their allegation against IC before the tribunal.”However, Dibyajyoti Konar of IC said the pro-industrialisation publicity of the SFI had backfired and IC’s victory proved students were against the state government’s land acquisition policy.

Red Flag

2007-02-25T03:06:00.000-08:00

Red flag by Jim Connel
This is a famous song written by Jim connel.
It has become the most famous song of the working class after the International.

The people's flag is deepest red,
It shrouded oft our martyred dead,
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,
Their hearts blood dyed its every fold.

Then raise the scarlet standard high. (chorus)
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

Look round, the Frenchman loves its blaze,
The sturdy German chants its praise,
In Moscow's vaults its hymns are sung
Chicago swells the surging throng.

It waved above our infant might,
When all ahead seemed dark as night;
It witnessed many a deed and vow,
We must not change its colour now.

It well recalls the triumphs past,
It gives the hope of peace at last;
The banner bright, the symbol plain,
Of human right and human gain.

It suits today the weak and base,
Whose minds are fixed on pelf and place
To cringe before the rich man's frown,
And haul the sacred emblem down.

With heads uncovered swear we all
To bear it onward till we fall;
Come dungeons dark or gallows grim,
This song shall be our parting hymn.

Political Line of Che

2007-02-24T22:24:00.000-08:00

Che Guevara did not believe in the basic leninist principle that -
There can not be any revolution with out a revolutionary theory.

So he can not be considered as a marxist-leninist.
Not only that he even praised the revisionist regime of Kruschev in Soviet Union.

He can at best be considered as an anarchist humanist revolutionary.
Not a Marxist communist.
But it is strange to see that the so called Marxist students(SFI) and youth(DYFI) use Che in their Propaganda efforts.
Do they have any idea about the non-marxist nature of Che or are they an ignorant bunch of revisionists(typical of CPM).

Not only that they even don't subscribe to the anarchist politics of Che and as we all know that CPM strives to sustain the status quo in every manner.

[My post is not intended to insult Che as I was also a great admirer of this man myself.His bravery and humanist attributes can be an example

for every revolutionary.This is just an attempt to shed some light on the political line propagated by Che which is quite unknown to most of his admirers and pseudo-admirers.]

Reference- http://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1960/10/08.htm
Please read the first paragraph.