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ML Update
A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine
Vol. 13, No. 09, 23 FEB - 01 MARCH 2010
Nitish Mission of Mahadalit Mockery Versus
Bihar Poor's Struggle for Dignity and Development
W
ith Assembly elections round the corner, Nitish Kumar has pulled out all stops
to play his social engineering cards. Just a day before the inauguration of the
budget session of the Assembly, Kumar accompanied by his deputy from the BJP,
Sushil Modi, addressed a Mahadalit unity rally in Patna. The rally was convened
and conducted by none other than the Speaker of Bihar Assembly, Uday Narain
Chaudhary, who is projected by Nitish Kumar as a Mahadalit leader. Chaudhary,
on his part, thanked Kumar for making a Mahadalit the Speaker of the Assembly
and for 'looking after' the Mahadalits in the state.
The rally has been in the news on several counts. The role of the Speaker in
openly calling upon a group of people to recognize the Chief Minister as their
biggest benefactor has predictably created a major controversy. Apart from
flaunting his partisan identity, Chaudhary was also involved in an unseemly row
with another Mahadalit leader of the JD(U), former minister in RJD government,
Shyam Rajak, over the seating arrangement on the stage. Denied a front row seat
on the stage, Rajak had reportedly left the venue in a huff before being
pacified and 'rehabilitated' by Nitish Kumar. A bigger embarrassment was
reported on the evening prior to the rally when television cameras showed JD(U)
MLA from Jeeradei in Siwan district (the ancestral place of India's first
President Rajendra Prasad) participating in vulgar dances in his MLA flat
ostensibly to provide entertainment to Mahadalits from his constituency who had
come to attend the Patna rally!
The RJD-LJP combine has demanded the resignation of the Speaker for violating
the dignity and neutrality of Speaker's office. Nitish Kumar on the other hand
is happy with this allegation for this gives him the opportunity to project the
Speaker and his government as a victim of anti-Mahadalit social prejudice! They
had also cleverly organized the Mahadalit rally under the banner of a so-called
Mahadalit morcha and not formally as a JD(U) or NDA show. Instead of
questioning the propriety of the Speaker's conduct, the very content of Nitish
Kumar's 'mission Mahadalit' should be subjected to serious scrutiny.
When the move was first initiated, 18 among Bihar's 22 Dalit sub-castes were
identified as Mahadalits. In two successive revisions, all Dalit sub-castes
except Paswans were brought under the Mahadalit category and in the February 21
rally, Nitish Kumar also expressed his readiness to examine the case of
bringing Paswans under the Mahadalit umbrella. Mahadalit has thus become just
another name for Dalits and this clearly exposes the essential political
gameplan underlying the Mahadalit campaign. Nitish has also reduced the agenda
of land reforms to Mahadalit tokenism, the Land Reform Commission's
recommendation of one acre cultivable land for every landless family and 10
decimal homestead land for every homeless family has been reduced to a token
assistance of Rs. 20,000 to Mahadalit families with which they are supposed to
'buy' homestead land!
Nitish and his deputy also talked about mandatory inclusion of all Mahadalit
names in the BPL list, but the precondition for this promise is that the Centre
should first accept Bihar government's estimate of 1.40 crore BPL families in
the state Bihar! Instead of taking responsibility for the criminal exclusion of
millions of deserving Mahadalit families from Bihar's existing BPL list, Nitish
cleverly plays Centre-state political football with the rights of Mahadalits.
He should also answer what has been stopping his government from ensuring that
all Mahadalit families got jobs and proper wages under NREGA.
In yet another gem of shameless hypocrisy, Nitish Kumar asked Mahadalit women
to guard the funds provided by the government so their men-folk did not
squander it in drinking! It has been his government's signal achievement that
liquor shops have mushroomed in every panchayat even as the Excise minister has
had to face dismissal for demanding a credible probe into large-scale excise
theft by the liquor mafia!
Rejecting Nitish Kumar's false promises and political mockery, on 20 February
tens of thousands of Mahadalits and other members of rural poor demonstrated in
front of block and subdivisional offices of Bihar. Their slogans were: "Check
Prices, Give us Jobs - No Escape from Land Reforms" and "We want Land and
Housing - Not Crumbs of Deception but Guaranteed Rights." Class-conscious
Communist organizers in Bihar villages will have to assert the supremacy of the
Bihar poor's glorious legacy of struggle over Nitish Kumar's attempts to woo
Mahadalits with vulgar dance and empty rhetoric.
Stop Operation Greenhunt, Start Talks
The CPI (Maoist) has reportedly proposed a ceasefire and talks to the Central
Government. The Home Minister, by refusing to respond to this offer on the
pretext that it is 'conditional,' has made it clear that the UPA Government is
not interested in peace and is loath to call a halt to Operation Greenhunt. We
demand that the UPA Government heed the democratic opinion in the country, and
respond positively to the Maoist offer of ceasefire and talks by declaring a
ceasefire on its part and initiating dialogue. The recent reports that an
activist of the PCPA at Lalgarh has been killed in a fake encounter is
disturbing. The saga of witch-hunt, fake encounters and state repression must
end if talks are at all to be possible.
The Maoists too must desist from their dastardly attacks on the people - such
as the recent attack on Phulwaria-Korasi village in Jamui district in Bihar,
where they killed at least 12 people, including 2 women and a child and injured
at least 50 villagers, most of them adivasis. Such attacks are described by
them as 'retaliatory' - but no 'retaliation' can justify such a shameful
massacre of innocents from the most vulnerable section of the people. Such
massacres only go to prove that it is not just the state but often the people
too who are finding themselves at the receiving end of Maoist actions. The act
has justifiably earned widespread condemnation from democratic forces.
CPI(ML) Participation in Rajasthan Panchayat Polls
The CPI(ML) candidate won the seat for Panchayat Samiti member in Ward Number 5
of Bahuna Panchayat Samiti of Jhunjhunu district, Rajasthan. The Party
contested panchayat polls from three wards of the Jhunjhunu Zila Parishad, one
ward of Jhunhunu block and three wards of Bahuna block. One independent
candidate had also been supported on one ward of Bahuna block. Com. Ranchandra
Kulhari, the candidate from Ward No 5 of Bahuna block defeated the Congress
candidate by 218 votes. Com. Ramkumar Yadav lost the Ward No 28 Zila Parishad
seat by 90 votes. The independent candidate supported by the Party - Sharbati
Devi from Ward No. 20 of Bahuna block, also won. While Com. Ramesh Kulhari, the
panchayat samiti member elected from the CPI(ML), boycotted the election for
Pradhan of Bahuna block on the grounds that there were only Congress and BJP
candidates, the two independent Zila Parishad members supported by the CPI(M)
and two who had been elected on a CPI(M) symbol all supported the Congress
candidate in exchange for securing the Zila Pramukh seat.
Protest March against Price Rise in Bhind
The CPI(ML) held a protest march against price rise in Bhind from Galla Mandi
to the Collectorate, where they submitted a memorandum via the Collector to the
Governor of Madhya Pradesh. AISA, AIPWA, AIALA and the Hammal-Palledar Union
joined the procession. The procession was held to highlight the demand for 200
days of work at Rs.200 per day under NREGA and to protest against the exclusion
of the poor from the BPL lists, rampant corruption in the PDS.
The public meeting at the gate of the Collector's office was conducted by Com.
Bhagwan Das, and the meeting was addressed by many comrades including District
President and National Council member of AIPWA Surajrekha Tripathi, National
Council member of AIALA Janved Singh Kushwaha, Subhash and Bittu Singh of AISA,
Vinod Suman, President of the Hammal-Palledar Union, Mansingh Baudh of the
Building Workers' Union, Dharmendra Singh of the Vegetable Sellers' Union and
Com. Sadina Sengar. Addressing the meeting, Com. Devendra Singh Chauhan,
District Secretary of the CPI(ML) condemned the anti-people policies causing
price rise and also called for an end to state repression in the name of
fighting Naxalism.
6th Conference of Paschim Banga Krishak Samiti
The Paschim Banga Krishak Samiti (West Bengal Peasant Association) held its 6th
Conference with an open session in Barddhaman followed by a 2-day delegate
session on 15-16 February. The conference took note of the acute agrarian
crisis and resolved to impart a fresh impetus to the peasant movement in the
State. Com. Dipankar addressed the open session while Com. Rajaram Singh,
convenor of AIKSS (All India Peasant Coordination Committee) inaugurated the
conference. Com. Kartick Pal, PBM and several other leaders of the Party's West
Bengal State Committee also attended and addressed the conference.
The delegates at the Conference included those who have come to us from the
ranks of the CPI(M) in recent times. There were also signals that the rural
poor who had gone over to the TMC in reaction to the CPI(M)'s betrayal of the
peasantry, are getting fast disillusioned by the TMC's approach to the
peasants' questions. Among those who addressed the Conference was a leader of
the Singur movement, who reminded that the whole Singur struggle had centred
around the demand that 400 acres of land that had been grabbed without consent
be returned to the peasants. Now, even the TMC which had made political capital
from the struggle had shelved this demand - a demand that continued to move the
peasantry to struggle.
On the eve of the Conference, a delegation of Krishak Samiti leaders had met
State Agriculture Minister Naren De to demand fixing of the procurement price
for potato at Rs.6 per kg, to address the distress of potato farmers who were
now selling at an extremely low price even as potato prices in the market were
high.
The Conference took up the issue of the reversal of land reforms in the State,
whereby diversion of agricultural land and eviction of peasants was a
state-wide phenomenon. Delegates discussed, in particular, how sharecroppers
were being evicted in Dinajpur and in South 24 Parganas too, sharecroppers were
being evicted to make way for prawn farming. The Conference demanded security
of tenure and land ownership for sharecroppers, lowering of land ceiling as
recommended by the report of the Expert Committee on Land Reforms appointed by
the Ministry of Rural Development, as well as agricultural credit, irrigation,
fertilizer, electricity and other kinds of support for sharecroppers and small
peasants.
The Conference elected a 63-member state council and a 21-member state
executive including Com. Annada Prasad Bhattacharya (President), Com. Altaf
Hussein (Vice President), Com. Subimal Sengupta (General Secretary), as well as
five secretaries.
Implementing a call given from the Conference, the Krishak Samiti held a
state-wide road blockade demanding fixing of Rs.6/kg as procurement price for
potato and protesting the rise in prices of fertilizer.
Street Vendors in Delhi Hold Convention
The Delhi Rehri-Khokha-Patri Mahasangh held a Convention on 21 February
demanding guarantee of livelihood and licence for every street vendor under the
new National Vendor Policy. They demanded democratisation of the Town Vending
Committees through elected representation; enhanced representation of vendors
and removal of representatives of market associations and RWAs. Because
identity cards are being made a precondition for issue of licences, many poor
and migrant vendors are in danger of losing their livelihood since the Delhi
Government has made sure they get no identification.
The Convention was addressed by Shyam Kishore Yadav, President of the Delhi
Rehri-Khokha-Patri Mahasangh, Vice President Ramsevak, Secretary Md. Shakil,
treasurer Md. Shafi, Sanjay Sharma, State Secretary, CPI(ML), as well as AISA
activists from Jamia Millia Islamia and JNU. The Convention was conducted by
Uma Gupta of AIPWA. Through the Convention, the street vendors submitted a
memorandum to the Delhi CM, opposing the plans to evict them from the streets
in preparation for the Commonwealth Games, and demanding guarantee of
livelihood.
Construction Workers' Workshop in TN
Tamil Nadu Democratic Construction Labourers' Union organised a day's workshop
at Tanjore on 14th February, attended by 62 cadres from 10 districts. Workshop
was conducted by a 3-member presidium comprising comrades Murugaiyan, Ponraj
and Kuppabai. Com. S. Balasubramanian, President, AICWF, gave the inaugural
address. Four papers were presented in the workshop: (1) Construction Industry
- 21st Century Technology and 19th Century Labour Relations- presented by Com.
NK Natarajan, (2) Migrant Labourers from Other States in the Development of
Chennai - by Com. Desikan, (3) Functioning of Labour Welfare Board (with
details of Corpus available and number of beneficiaries on various Schemes with
disbursed money) and (4) Status of Various Decisions of the Union & Future
Plans - by Iraniappan
After deliberations on all four papers, workshop concluded with two main action
plans: (a) to launch a month long campaign in March and (b) forming 50 branches
with 500 members in each branch.
A press conference held later was attended by comrades Balasubramanian, NK
Natarajan, Iraniappan and Desikan. Com NK Natarajan reiterated the demand for a
white paper on the condition of 4000 migrant workers involved in the
construction of New State Assembly and Secretariat. Also we demanded doubling
of welfare benefits with increase in cess from 0.3 to 1 percent immediately.
Leaders also condemned Police' manhandling of Com. Anthony Muthu, State
Honorary President of the Construction Union, while demanding house site pattas
for the labourers in Kanyakumari dist. Workshop concluded with a resolve to
achieve 50000 membership by the end of March. Com. Asai Thambi, SCM of CPI(ML)
also spoke on the occasion.
AIPWA Foundation Day Observed In AP
AIPWA foundation day programmes were held in East Godavari, Krishna and
Ananthpur Districts. 150 AIPWA members attended the Flag hoisting at
Dharmavaram village of Prathipadu mandal in East Godavari and later took out a
rally. In Kodavali village 80 women conducted a padayatra after hoisting the
Flag. In Eleswaram town dozens of women marched in a rally after Flag hoisting.
Flag was also hoisted at Kattipudi. In krishna dist. a dharna was organised
before the mandal office at Vissannapeta town in which 40 women participated.
In Anantapur town AIPWA Flag was hoisted at Pressclub in which 150 women
participated. The programme concluded with a rally marching 2 km in the town.
AIPWA Team Meets Tribal Victims of Police Rape
In yet another incident of tribal women being raped by the security forces, the
'Greyhounds' special force personnel raped four women on 22 January in
Bhalluguda village of Munchangipattu mandal which is a remote part of Visakha
District bordering Orissa. These personnel had entered the village at midnight
on pretext of 'combing operation' for Maoists. The police also dragged the men
out of the village and destroyed property. This bloody act was blatantly denied
by the police officials, who alleged that 'Maoists' cooked up this false story.
Meanwhile women's groups, democratic organisations and some political parties
have condemned the incident and demanded a judicial enquiry. A team of AIPWA
leaders met the victims at Visakhapatnam's King George Hospital when they were
brought there for medical tests. Later, an AIPWA team comprising R.Nagamani,
T.Aruna, K.Ratnakumari, B.Vijaya, P.Sundaramma,and Appalaraju submitted a
memorandum to the Collector.
Protest against Repression by Coaching Institutes in Bihar
The All India Students' Association (AISA) took up several initiatives against
the repression unleashed on students protesting against coaching centres in
Bihar and against the loot in the name of Nitish's boasts of turning Bihar into
an 'education hub.' On 12 February protest demonstrations and burning of
Nitish's effigy took place at Ara, Darbhanga, Samastipur, Bhagalpur, SItamarhi,
Nawada and other district HQs. At Patna, students marched from the local radio
station to Dak Bangla Chauraha where they held a protest meeting and burnt the
CM's effigy. Addressing the gathering, AISA National VP Abhyuday demanded
compensation for the two students - Sachin Sharma and Krishnakant Jha who died
in the violence against protesting students, confiscation of the immense
ill-gotten wealth and weapons of those who run coaching institutes, a
pro-student coaching policy, and end to political patronage of the coaching
mafia and an end to the policies of privatisation and commercialisation of
education, of which the worst example are the coaching institutes.
On 13 February, AISA called for a state-wide bandh in universities. AISA held a
militant march and ensured success of the bandh at Lalit Narayan Mithila
University and Tilkamanjhi University, Bhagalpur. At Sitamarhi, AISA's bandh
call not only resulted in shutting down of the government colleges but also
private coaching institutes. At Patna University, classes remained fully
suspended in Darbhanga House, Patna College, Science College; university
offices remained shut and students boycotted exams. Teachers and karmacharis
also supported the bandh. The Bandh was also successful at Bihar University,
Muzaffarpur, and many colleges in Samastipur, Nawada, Jamui, Vaishali and
Jehanabad.
Through the bandh, AISA demanded that maximum fees for any course be fixed at
Rs. 1000, a cap of 60 students per batch, a high-level enquiry into the nexus
of coaching institutions with politicians, confiscation of the wealth of
coaching centre operators, compensation of a crore each to the students who
were killed, and fixing of room rent at Rs. 500 in private hostels. AISA warned
of a state-wide protest demonstration and hunger strike outside the Bihar
Assembly if the Government failed to introduce a bill to rein in the coaching
institutes on the first day of the Assembly session.
DU Students Defy Diktats of Moral Police
AISA and AIPWA held a public meeting on 'Love in Our Times' (Hamaare Samay me
Prem) on February 15 in Delhi University, in which students, poets, writers,
singers and intellectuals raised their voice against the attempts by Sangh
Parivar outfits and 'khaap panchayats' to attack people who love and marry by
choice. Hundreds of students participated in the meeting to assert their
freedom of expression and speech. The public meeting was organised at
Vivekananda Statue (Arts Faculty) - the entire area around the statue was
decorated with posters made by students. Women students had taken the
initiative to organize the event. On the previous day (February 14), students
under the banner of AISA had held a March in the Kamala Nagar market area near
DU, to protest threats and attacks by Sangh Parivar outfits on people
celebrating Valentine's Day.
At the public meeting, Rukmini Bhaya Nair (English poet and professor, IIT) and
Anamika (Hindi poet) read their poetry. Rukmini Bhaya Nair also spoke about the
need to resist communal forces that try to dictate terms about 'culture' and
'way of life.' Anamika spoke about how patriarchy affects relations between men
and women. Noor Zaheer (writer and activist) spoke of the need to challenge
those who force women to marry young and called for young people to assert
their right to live and love in freedom. Pankaj Bisht (editor, Samayantar)
talked about how capitalism distorts 'love.' Arbind Jain (Supreme Court
advocate and author of 'Aurat Hone ki Saza') spoke about the anti-woman nature
of the Indian laws relating to family, marriage and property, as well as rape
and crimes against women. Nandini Chandra, (Department of English, DU) said
that 'love' and sexuality was often alienated and commercialised by the market;
yet in spite of that, there continues to be something about love that presents
a threat to the social order - resulting in attacks by khaap panchayats etc.
Kavita Krishnan, Secretary, AIPWA read from the writings of Periyar and Engels
and stressed that the struggle to defend the freedom to love can only be part
of the struggle for a society free from oppression in the name of caste, gender
and class. Revolutionary people's poet Ramashankar 'Vidrohi' recited several of
his own poems which powerfully attacked patriarchy.
Many students of DU spontaneously participated in the event, singing songs and
reciting their own poems. Some read out selections from the writings of
Margaret Atwood, Jeannette Winterson, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Alok Dhanwa, Kishwar
Naheed, Habib Jalib, Lehar Zaidi and many others.
The large number of students who participated in the public meeting is
testimony to the fact that young people are outraged by and determined to
reject and resist the diktats of moral police brigades.
Panchayat Gherao at Tripura
The CPI(ML) and AIALA held protest gheraos of five panchayats in Udaipur, South
Tripura - on 29 January at Salgara, 2 February at Amtali, 8 February at
Murapara, 10 February at Khilpara, and 17 February at Dakshin Maharani ADC
village. The main demands raised included implementation of 100 days work under
NREGA, implementation of the Tripura Agricultural Workers Act 1986, and
legislation for registration of names of bargadars (sharecroppers) in
panchayats. Protestors participating in the gherao were detained and released
later. The South Tripura District Secretary Partha Karmakar, AIALA State VP and
CPI(ML) State Committee member Gopal Roy, and RYA leader Badal participated in
all the gheraos. On 25 February, the 30th anniversary of the Hurua Martyrs
(marking the day in 1980 when the first LF Government unleashed police
repression and killed 7 leaders of the agricultural poor including Com. Gobind
Teli.)
Building Workers' Union Conference in Lucknow
On 22 February, the Building Workers' Union held its 11th annual conference at
Gomti Nagar, defying attempts by the police to create difficulties. AICCTU
State President, addressing the Conference, said the Mayawati Government was
trying to crush the workers' movement. The law for building workers had been
kept in cold storage.
The Conference was inaugurated by AIPWA VP Tahira Hasan. A 15-member executive
was elected from the Conference, with Raghunath Prasad as President, Baburam
Kushwaha and Naumilal as VPs, Balmukund Dhuria as Secretary and Surendra Prasad
and Santosh Kushwaha as Joint Secretaries.
; Phone:22521067; fax: 22518248, e-mail: [email protected], website:
www.cpiml.org
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