[Marxism] ML Update: Beyond the Battle of Baba vs Brinda and CPI(ML) Investigation into Killings in Orissa (text)

["CPI \(ML\) Intl Liaison Office" <cpiml_elo@xxxxxxxxx>]

ML Update
A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine
Vol.9   No. 2   10-16 JAN 2006
http://www.cpiml.org/pgs/ml_upd/vol9/9_2.htm


Beyond the Battle of Baba vs Brinda:
Issues of Privatisation Threatening Public Health

In the course of a labour struggle in Baba Ramdev?s
Divyajyoti Pharmacy, Brinda Karat announced that human
and animal bones were being used in the medicines
produced in Ramdev?s factory. This dramatic revelation
of the skeletons (literally) in Baba?s cupboard did
not have the effect of embarrassing the Baba and
showcasing the violations of labour laws and
consumer-rights regulations in his factory. Rather,
the Sangh Parivar as well as ?secular? figures like
Laloo and Mulayam entered the fray, and the issue was
posed as a classical battle between the ?Irreligious
Brinda? and the ?Indigenous Baba?, with the Baba being
portrayed as a victim of an MNC conspiracy. Baba
Ramdev himself reproduced the age-old Sangh rhetoric
of

Communists being anti-national enemies of Indian
traditions and agents of ?foreign? corporates.

In the shadowboxing between ?MNCs vs Swadeshi?, and
?Communists vs Tantriks?, genuine issues of public
health in India seem to have been forgotten. We need
to ask the Sangh, as well as Laloo and Mulayam ? why
did they not ban MNCs from profiteering from people?s
sickness, when they had the power to do so? Why did
they instead preside over the privatisation and
commercialisation of the public health sector, turning
health into a playground for private and multinational
profiteers in states where they enjoyed power? No
Government in India in the era of liberalisation has
invested to strengthen public health ? whether to
promote research in Ayurveda or to expand people?s
access to public hospitals. Instead, all have promoted
the unbridled dismantling and commercialisation of the
public health system.

The question we all need to ask is: can we allow our
Governments to withdraw from health sector and leave
people to the mercies of the MNCs on the one hand and
the Babas on the other? Alternate medical practices
like yoga, ayurveda, unani and so on have their
relevance and role ? but no honest practitioner of
these traditions would claim that they can replace the
institutions of public health. Mulayam Singh ought to
be asked: if Baba Ramdev has the answers to all
questions of health, why didn?t he rush in to save
thousands of children in UP from a terrible death and
even more terrible life of retardation due to
encephalitis?

During the British Raj, the discourse of cultural
nationalism asserted that the colonial control over
all aspects of public national life mattered little ?
as long as Indians maintained their ?spiritual?
superiority. Today, it suits those in power to promote
a similar kind of cultural nationalism, which projects
yoga, ayurveda etc? as India?s answer to globalisation
and MNCs. In other words, people are encouraged to
imagine: ?So what if the poor can no longer afford
AIIMS, so what if the Patent Amendment Act will allow
MNCs to charge astronomical costs for medicine ? we?ve
got Baba Ramdev as the panacea of all ills!?

We have resisted the attempts of Governments to allow
MNCs to use Indians as guinea pigs for dubious and
dangerous contraceptives like Norplant. Can ?faith? be
any excuse to exempt ayurveda or other indigenous
practices from the same public scrutiny and
accountability that we demand for allopathic drugs and
practices? Be it an allopathic drug or an ayurvedic
preparation ? people have the right to know what its
ingredients are, and that it has been tested and found
safe for consumption.

The RSS and its forerunners were all too happy to talk
of ?spiritual superiority? and ?cultural nationalism?
while collaborating with British colonialism and
betraying the freedom struggle. Today, their slogans
of swadeshi cannot hide the fact that they have the
worst track record of selling out national interests
to MNCs. Recall that the only achievement of
Vajpayee?s first 13-day tenure in power was to hastily
sign a shameful deal with the notorious Enron! The
?cultural nationalists? of the Sangh would do well to
remember that in contrast to their legacy of betrayal,
it is only the Communists who have inherited the
legacy of genuine anti-imperialist nationalism, and
who continue to resist imperialist economic and
political domination today. By playing poster boy for
the anti-national forces of the Sangh, and indulging
in sexist rhetoric against women leaders of the Left
while his supporters led a shameful attack on the
office of a Left party, the Baba has proven to be a
political pawn rather than a pious seer.

It is also an unavoidable fact that the CPI(M)?s own
soft-pedalling on the issues of both Hindutva and
liberalization created a favourable pitch for the
right-wing camp. In the first place, why did the
CPI(M) not target the Congress Government in
Uttaranchal for failing to implement labour laws and
consumer rights laws in the Baba?s factory? Instead,
CPI(M) chose to play to the liberal middle class Hindu
sentiment by targeting the Baba for ?hoodwinking
vegetarians? by using human and animal bones in his
medicines! This plank backfired badly, and the Baba
and his supporters proved to be far more adept at
manipulating liberal Hindu sentiment. In fact, the
dangers of playing with the ?fire ? of liberal Hindu
sentiment were most apparent in the fact that CPI(M)?s
own Bengal leader Subhash Chakravarty ended up rushing
to the defence of the Baba! In the face of the VHP
offensive, the CPI(M) chose to beat a strategic
retreat, reiterating that the issue was primarily one
of workers? rights in the Baba?s factory, and
sidestepping the virulent attack by the Sangh Parivar
on the nationalist credentials of Communists. In the
whole debate, the CPI(M) has also chosen to avoid
cornering the BJP, Laloo, and Mulayam on the question
of privatisation of the health sector and MNC
stranglehold over the drug industry. The irony is most
apparent when one sees where the protagonists of the
Baba vs Brinda battle stood in that very real battle
between MNC Patents and the Indian people. The BJP-NDA
pushed the Patent Amendment Act dictated by WTO in its
own tenure; the UPA in its tenure, supported by the
CPI(M), voted to pass it in Parliament!

To pose the issue as that of yoga/ayurveda vs
allopathy is to create a smokescreen for the real
issue at hand. National interest can only mean
informed and universal accessibility of people to the
best of medical care, both allopathic and indigenous.
Any attempt to reduce nationalism to obscurantist
rhetoric against the Left must be resisted tooth and
nail.

_______________

CPI(ML) Investigation into Kalinganagar Killings in
Orissa

Party Observes Bandhs in Orissa and Jharkhand in
Protest

As if a 'New Year Gift' to the TATAs, the Orissa
police at the behest of TISCO mercilessly butchered 14
tribals and injured many in Kalinganagar industrial
area of Jajpur district on January 2. One of the
biggest police massacres of recent times, the incident
is symptomatic of the developmental 'model' of the era
of the liberalisation-privatisation-globalisation
policies.

A joint investigation team of CPI(ML) led by Comrades
Kshitish Biswal and Subhendu Sen, the Party State
Secretaries of Orissa and Jharkhand respectively, and
Rajaram, member of the Central Committee, along with
Orissa State Committee member Radhakant Sethi, Human
Rights activist Diwakar Behuria and Mahendra Parida,
visited Kalinganagar on January 4.

Expressing solidarity with the tribal people, CPI(ML)
joined Orissa Bandh on Jan. 7, called by left parties
and Adivasi Adhikar Morcha. Also, CPI(ML) units
organised protests in various parts of the country
including New Delhi, Jharkhand, Bihar, and many other
states.

As per the findings of the investigation, Tata Company
started construction on the site on January 2 without
payment of compensation and assurance of providing
jobs to the affected people. No prior information was
given to the tribals about the commencement of the
work. So tribals started gathering there, to inquire
about it. It seems Tata personnel, in collusion with
the administration had already hatched a conspiracy to
suppress the tribals. A dozen platoons of police force
were already deployed there. Even the landmines were
planted near the construction site. As the tribals
approached the venue, many of them were injured in
blasts.

Soon the police started tear gas shelling, which was
resisted by the frightened people with their
traditional weapons. In the ensuing police firing 12
tribals were killed on the spot and later 2 others
succumbed to injuries in a hospital in Cuttack.

Many people are still missing and some are lying in
hospitals. Out of those killed, hands of 6 persons
were chopped off. According to the tribals, it was
done by police after killing them, in order to create
terror and panic among the protesters. The bullet
marks on head, belly and other upper parts of the body
was clear indicator that firing was aimed at killing
the people and not just stopping them, as claimed by
the government.

If we go into the background, Navin Patnaik govt.
acquired 5000 acres of land covering the tribal
inhabitated Jajpur district under Industrial
Development Organisation (IDO). Some 15 companies
including Tata and Jindal groups are to be established
there. The land acquired is much more than what
actually needed by these companies. When tribals
opposed the acquisition of their lands, Govt. promised
them jobs and huge amounts of compensation. But later
though some of them were given very little
compensation a majority got nothing, and as far as
jobs were concerned they were asked to wait till the
plants are commissioned. Since there has been no land
survey in the area after 1966, many of the tribals
don't have any documentary evidence to prove their
ownership over the lands.

Obviously, there was a series of protests by the
adivasis. Much before January 2 incident there was a
massive protest against the construction of
'Maharashtra Seamless' on July 18, '05.

After this brutal repression the police had also
arrested some 30 tribal people including 20 women.
Though the compensation amount was raised to Rs. 52
thousand per acre from Rs. 35 thousand per acre after
the protest, but tribal population was unable to get
compensation due to lack of papers for their land.
Actual cost of the land can be judged by the fact that
the Banks are providing loans to the companies by
mortgaging same land at the rate of 20 lakhs per acre.

In October 2005, Ravi Jarika, leader of
anti-eviction/displacement Morcha was arrested in
Bhubaneshwar when went their to attend an
anti-eviction convention. He is still in jail. Thus it
is obvious that Jan 2 massacre was part of a well
orchestrated design of Patnaik Govt. to suppress this
movement.

It was also found that land was given to companies at
the rate of Rs. 3,36000 per acre while tribals were
offered only Rs. 52 thousands as compensation.

In New Delhi, a citizens' protest was held on Jan 6 in
front of Orissa Bhavan where a memorandum was
submitted through the resident commissioner which
demanded resignation of Navin Patnaik from Chief
Ministership, criminal proceedings against
administrative and district officials involved in
firing, immediate restitution of tribals lands and
compensation to the families of those killed and
injured. Over 27 organisations including Forum for
Democratic Initiative, AISA, AICCTU, PUDR, IFTU, etc.
participated in this protest.

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