[Marxism] ML Update Vol. 12 No. 17 21 - 27 APRIL 2009

[CPIML Liberation <cpimllib@xxxxxxxxx>]

 *ML** **Update***

*A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine*

Vol. 12      No. 17      21 - 27 APRIL 2009

* *

*Asserting People’s Issues:*

*Above the Clamour of Crorepatis, Communalists and Corporate Media*



The media poll pundits have already declared that there are “no issues” in
the 2009 Parliamentary polls. At the same time, the corporate media houses
have launched campaigns seeking to ‘awaken’ middle and upper class voters.
They have been awash in self-congratulation at their success in mobilising
this class of voters – the only class, they imply, which is capable of
making Indian politics clean and meaningful, because it is not a ‘vote
bank.’ Slumdogs, they rue, are even willing to sell their kids, so their
votes are suspect – while sheer wealth places corporates and crorepatis
above corruption.



The Congress made the Slumdog Crorepati’s ‘Jai Ho’ tune its election theme
song; but the fact is that it is crorepatis who constitute a considerable
section of its candidates in this election. In the second phase, the
Congress has fielded the highest number of crorepati candidates (65)
followed by BJP [46], BSP [28] and SP [16]. According to declared assets
(routinely falsified to appear less vast than they really are), there were
193 crorepati candidates in the first phase and 288 in the second phase. In
Karnataka, reportedly, one in every four candidates is a crorepati. In
Maharashtra, 12% of candidates are crorepatis. In Orissa, no less than 27
candidates mock the poverty and hunger of its poor with multi-millionaire
bank-books. As it is, even in times of economic crisis, it is crorepatis who
can sing ‘Jai Ho’ since they continue to feature in lists of the world’s
richest people.



We also have the venom of communalists to contend with. Ads for Advani-as-PM
show him flexing his muscle and lifting dumbbells in a gym: a crude
proclamation of the ‘strength’ and machismo of Advani, Hindutva and their
promised ‘hard state’. The hard realities of communal pogroms are sought to
be forgotten.



The media made much of Maoist violence on the first day of polls –
projecting it as an attack on India’s exemplary democracy. The fact,
however, is that the Maoist attacks and ‘boycott’ calls, too, were part and
parcel of the mainstream of Indian parliamentary democracy: in most places,
such attacks only facilitated the booth-capturing efforts of one or the
other ruling class formations. Events have proved, time and again, that
India’s parliamentary democracy is a highly biased and unequal playing
ground. Maoists have no monopoly on poll violence. The murder of a Dalit
candidate in UP – after he defied threats by the BSP candidate (a notorious
upper caste feudal mafia) and refused to withdraw from the contest, is one
instance (the latest, incidentally, in a series of crimes and killings by
BSP leaders). While Varun Gandhi gets bail and is allowed to contest and
campaign in spite of threatening to chop off heads and hands of Muslims, Dr.
Binayak Sen, jailed on zero evidence on the charge of abetting Maoists,
continues to be denied bail in spite of his failing health. In Purnea
(Bihar), Pappu Yadav, convicted for the murder of CPI(M) MLA Ajit Sarkar,
has been barred from contesting. But the Congress has given his wife a
ticket from Supaul while supporting his mother’s candidature in Purnea,
where he, having been released on bail, poses a direct threat to Comrade
Madhavi Sarkar who is CPI(ML)’s candidate at Purnea. In Robertsganj, the
nomination of CPI(ML) candidate – leader of adivasi struggles for land and
forest rights, Comrade Jitendra Kol – is cancelled on the spurious and
untenable ground that two of his proposers (illiterate adivasis) used thumb
impressions. The CPI(ML)’s subsequent poll-boycott protest in Robertsganj
was one that relied on raising the consciousness of the people and on
people’s agency rather than intimidation, took the form of parallel polls in
which people voted with thumb-impressions.



The challenge in this election is to make the voice of the people heard
above the clamour of crorepatis, communalists and corporate media. It is
gratifying MP a shoe-missile succeeded in making communal violence a poll
issue and forced the Congress to withdraw two candidates accused of killing
Sikhs in the 1984 pogrom. Modi, murderer of Muslims in Gujarat, is
reportedly worried about shoe-missiles and is addressing rallies from behind
net barriers.



Another burning issue which progressive forces are raising in the elections
is the Indian Government’s response to the war on Tamil people in Sri Lanka.
With the Sri Lankan military intensifying the bloodbath of Tamil civilians
in that country, there is anger and outrage in India at the cynical
manipulation and double-speak of parties and governments on this issue.
Congress is virtually justifying the massacre by referring to Rajiv Gandhi’s
assassination – but why should Sri Lankan Tamil civilians pay with their
lives for that assassination? The DMK and AIADMK are both vying to champion
the issue. But the DMK’s rhetoric is exposed by the fact that as a partner
of the UPA Government, it did nothing decisive to force the Indian
Government to intervene effectively. The CPI(M) General Secretary has
rightly said that had the UPA Government spent a fraction of the energy
wasted on the Nuke Deal in addressing the Tamil question in Sri Lanka, it
could have made a big difference. But the question is: what did the CPI(M)
do towards forcing the Government to intervene in the more than four years
in which they supported it? Today, CPI(M)’s ally Jayalalitha is sharing a
dais and shedding crocodile tears for Tamils along with MDMK leader Vaiko –
the same Vaiko whom, during her own tenure as Chief Minister, she had jailed
under POTA for his alleged support to the banned LTTE.



Media stories declaring that there are “no issues” in this election do
concede that “local issues” (which they disparage) are in abundance. The
fact is that these so-called “local” issues are usually issues of hunger and
unemployment – the twin burning issues that are to be found all over India
and are therefore the real national issues. However much ruling class
parties try to put a brave face and deny this, the fact remains that most of
them have been forced to include subsidised food-grains and expanded NREGA
as part of their manifestoes – a tacit admission of the spectres of hunger
and joblessness that haunt this election. The CPI(ML) is boldly striving to
assert these issues in the election campaign and to ensure that the voice of
opposition on the streets reverberates in the Parliament too.





Arrah Election

In Bhojpur, it was (hu)manpower battling against money and muscle power in
the district. For the Dist. Party Committee, the election was a continuation
of ongoing struggles. Movements for inclusion of all poor and agricultural
labourers in BPL list, jobs under NREGA and setting up paddy procurement
centres for farmers continued right-up-to the days of election announcement.
This is one crucial reason why the ruling class parties were not successful
in their attempt to hijack the basic issues of people and instead thrust
upon them superficial issues while campaigning for Arrah seat.

Due to delimitation of constituencies the Arrah Parliamentary seat now only
comprises of area falling under Bhojpur dist. Assembly-level committees had
been formed prior to the election which helped achieve an impressive
campaign in comparison to other parties. The late Ramakant Dwivedi Ramta was
not physically present amongst us , but his lyrics and songs sung and
presented by artists of Hirawal reverberated forcefully in nooks and corners
of towns and villages of Arrah. The CPI(ML) candidate Arun Singh received
widespread support as the only one whose purpose in contesting is not to
procure a license to loot. JD(U) had given Meena Singh, wife of ex-MP Ajit
Singh as its candidate from Arrah. After her husband’s death she had won the
Bikraganj by-election. In this election a leaflet from the people of
Bikramganj constituency came out against her addressed to the people of
Arrah constituency. Meena Singh is daughter-in-law of Tapeshwar Singh, who’s
regarded as the head of ' co-operatives mafia.' The fact that the money
being spent by her in this election is the wealth looted from the peasants
and farmers in the form of taxes of cooperatives was received with anger by
the people of Arrah. If their efforts of polarising votes along caste lines
could not succeed the fact behind this is that now even the rich farmers
after poor-middle peasantry are bearing the brunt of anti-farming economic
policies of these parties. In the hope of this kind of polarisation and
support of RJD’s social base the LJP brought Rama Singh from Hajipur and
made him candidate from Arrah. Maner, which before delimitation accounted
for one-third of RJD’s vote share has gone out this time from the Arrah
Parliamentary constituency. RJD gave this seat to LJP fearing chances of
defeat. However, as was seen during the campaign and election, neither
polarisation of upper caste peasants nor rallying of RJD’s social base
happened fully behind LJP. The Congress candidate from here has been
involved in defrauding the Food Corporation of India and has amassed huge
wealth from that. Taking its cue from the JD(U) and LJP the BSP too fielded
Rita Singh in an attempt to appeal to feudal feeling .

Arrah went to polls in the first phase (16 April). The
progressive-democratic intelligentsia and cultural activists also brought
out a leaflet appealing to the people of Arrah to ensure victory of CPI(ML)
candidate. The Left unity has been welcomed in Bihar and it was evident in
Arrah also.

Where ever our candidate Com. Arun Singh went he was welcomed and received
warmly and with much enthusiasm. Hundreds of people accompanied him on foot
in villages and in town lanes. The political awareness campaign undertaken
by the Party during struggle march in February exposing the anti-people
policies of UPA-NDA also had its impact in this election. Just prior to the
nomination of candidates, wide support of people for us was reflected during
intensive mass contact campaign in Bhojpur by the General Secretary of our
Party.

On the election day this time the ruling class parties could not find agents
for preventing the Dalits and weaker section of people from voting. Those
booths where voting percentage used to be 80-90 after being controlled by
musclemen and locally dominant sections, this time such booths did not
record even the average voting. Arrah recorded only 38 percent voter turn
out, but notable fact is that the booths considered to be favourable to us
have averaged higher than other booths. The poor have cast their vote
everywhere. Women supporters of our Party cast their vote but those of
JD(U)-BJP or LJP-RJD were relatively lax in coming out to vote. CPI(ML)
campaigned to make victorious the voice of people defeating the forces of
loot and oppression.

New Social Polarisation Emerging in Jharkhand

Koderma Parliamentary constituency in Jharkhand had popped a surprise in the
last (2004) election and CPI(ML) candidate was the runner up polling more
than 2.5 lakh votes. That is why the ruling class parties were in a state of
anxiety this time. Babulal Marandi, ex-CM of the State who quit BJP, is the
candidate supported by mafia-contractor-money bag nexus and tried to fool
the masses by projecting himself as third front candidate. The campaign
pitch and appeal of RJD too was not impressive to arouse enthusiasm among
its social base. BJP too had its candidate here.

The rank and file of Party took the call of Central Committee very seriously
and whole heartedly to focus on this seat in Jharkhand. We were successful
in expanding our class mobilization along with bringing closer newer social
bases from Yadav, other backward communities and a large and new section of
Muslims. Party General Secretary too was present for guiding and
participating in grassroots mobilization of the newer bases which also
enthused the Party members. There was a series of dozens of public meeting
preceded by impressive mobilization. Mass contact programme were held widely
for effective propaganda. To broad support that our candidate evoked we
sought to translate it into actual votes by giving central attention to the
organizational network at the panchayat level. Highlight of the campaign was
a motorcycle rally comprising of more than 2500 motorbikes. The rally toured
the entire constituency and helped in energizing the cadres. Jan Sanskriti
Manch issued two rousing audio tapes and compact disc titled – ‘Voice of
Change’ and ‘Battle for Transformation’ which also helped stirring people’s
mood further for change. Through these and other propaganda forms we
awakened the masses for intensifying the battle against loot-repression
regime of UPA and NDA by uniting with CPI(ML) and for building a true
people’s block and voice inside the Parliament. This was received heartily
and warmly by the people.

Similarly, we contested the Chatra Parliamentary seat after a long time.
Here we undertook an impressive and aggressive campaign. In addition to the
central campaign slogan here we also raised the slogan of Strengthen CPI(ML)
Against Feudal-Communal Offensive and Loot-Plunder. Here too we have made
inroads into and gone in deeper interaction with Yadav community and other
backward communities. Also, we have been able to attract one stream of
CPI(Maoists)
and they have now joined CPI(ML). Here too an impressive motorbike rally of
400 youth touring the entire constituency energized the campaign. In
Barwadih a large rally of rural poor was taken out led by State Secretary of
the Party. Com. KD Yadav addressed public meetings in Latehar. Apart from
these there were numerous motorbike and bicycle rallies at the local levels
livening-up the campaign.

Our candidate who was earlier a senior-level activist of the People’s War
and later Maoist stream, a large social base influenced by him has come
closer to us. Even those small groups that usually boycott election
supported us in this election.

In Palamu too our campaign was impressive and reached to the masses. In
Garhwa we have been able to attract a large section of Muslims. In the first
phase our enthusiasm has got a boost by the active support of various social
bases and new forces joining us and we hope to continue the trend.

Five Tribal Youth Massacred in Latehar:

CPI(ML) Fact Finding Team Sent

Barhania village is located in jungle just away from the Barwadih-Mandal
road which is 20 km from Barwadih police station in Latehar dist. of
Jharkhand. On the morning of 15 April while the CRPF personnel were going to
mandal at 6:30 in the morning, a blast occurred at Barhania and a gun battle
with the Maoists ensued. At about 7:30, one hour later, the police went to
Barhania village and just two policemen rounded up five men and dragged them
to the road while beating them simultaneously. These were Sanjay Bodra, 21,
who was a BA student in Ranchi, two sons of Soma Bodra – Supay Bodra (18)
and Masih Bodra (16), Pitaye Munda (38) and Supai Bodra (20). The villagers
told the fact finding team that when the firing stopped two policemen came
and took away the five while beating them also. When the policemen arrived
in the village the villagers were going about their daily chores of tending
to cattles, laying earthen tiles or sending their kids to school. When the
family members of those taken away tried to go in the direction where they
were being taken, they were prevented by the policemen. People were
terrified and suddenly another round of firing sound was heard. At first
people thought that the policemen will interrogate them and then they will
be released. But till afternoon when they did not return, the villagers
marched to Barwadih through the jungle. When they enquired in the Block they
were told about some people killed in encounter. When they were finally
shown the photographs of the dead bodies they were shocked to find that
their children had been killed mercilessly. The villagers immediately lodged
complaint to the BDO that the killed persons are no naxals but five innocent
men from the village who were rounded up by the police and later shot dead.
The dead bodies were lying in Barwadih police station but the policemen did
not handover the bodies. After the post-mortem in Latehar Hospital the
police declared the bodies to be unclaimed. However, just then comrade Birju
Ram, CPI(ML) dist. secretary convinced the doctors to give the bodies to the
family members. The Administration was bent on cremating away the bodies
instead of giving it to the family members.

The fact finding team comprised of Com. Birju Ram-CPI(ML) State Committee
member, comrades Surendra Singh and Suresh Ram- Dist. Committee members,
Father Siby –priest of the Church of that area, social activist Victor
Kerketta and few others were present.

Later, the Party organised a meeting of the villagers where it was decided
to launch a protest movement. While the election campaign was going on the
Party called for a meeting of local activists from different parties to
intensify the struggle against the massacre. Hundreds of villagers marched
to the police station on 19 April and registered an FIR against the killers.
Same day Barhania bundh was called by the Party and all traders downed their
shutters on their own in protest against the massacre. Also, a march was
held by the Party on the same day in Barhania and immediate arrests of all
accused was demanded in addition to Rs. Ten lakh compensation to the kin of
those killed. A 21-member all-party committee has been formed with social
activist Victor Kerketta as its convenor and CPI(ML) leader Kanhai Singh as
co-convenor. Ayodhya Prasad is the treasurer for the committee. Party has
also decided on State-wide protest against this heinous incident. Dharna and
protest demos will be held in different sub-divisions on 21 April and
demonstrations will be held at district headquarters on 30th April. If the
demands are not met then protest will also be taken to the gates of
Governor.

Seeing a general outburst of people after this massacre many political
leaders have started shedding crocodile tears. From the local MLA to
Namdhari Singh have made visits to the Village but they also cast doubt on
those killed, which was protested by the villagers. They mean to say that if
the villagers do not have links to Naxals then the incident is condemnable
otherwise they will not protest. These politicians never speak of punitive
action against accused poliemen and Namdhari is infamous for siding with all
police officers responsible for killing innocents in the name of anti-naxal
operation. While they also pretend to sympathise with the people. This time
we are going all out to expose their true colours.

Farewell to Comrade Dilip Banerjee

Innumerable friends, comrades and close associates bade farewell to the most
loveable comrade Dilip Bandyopadhyay on Poila Baishakh (the first of
Baishakh or 15th April). A veteran Party member, comrade Banerjee died of an
undiagnosed neural ailment turned multiple complicacies including
gastro-intestinal disorder on 13th April 2009 at the SSKM Hospital, Kolkata.
He was 67. Senior doctors, friends, comrades and relatives left no stone
unturned to heal up comrade Banerjee, but in vain.

Comrade Dilip Banerjee, popularly known as Dilipda, represented a rare breed
of personality and used to act as a bridge between the Party and large
sections of democratic persons outside the Party in Kolkata. He had a rare
quality of taking affectionate care of people in distresses. In fact he was
like a responsible friend cum parent or brother to others.

Dilipda did his PhD in synthetic chemistry from the University of
Jadavpurin the turbulent 70's and got actively involved in the
revolutionary
movement. In the early 70's he was arrested and faced severe torture in
jail.

During the process of party reorganisation in the mid 70's comrade Banerjee
again came in touch with the Party. Very affectionate to junior comrades and
friends, he played a special role in developing a number of youngsters as
Party wholetimers. During underground days he shouldered a great
responsibility in providing medical facilities to Party leaders and cadres.
In the 70's he was known as Dactarbabu.

 Ever committed to communist values, comrade Banerjee always avoided
publicity and led a very simple life. Together with his fellow comrades and
likeminded friends, he founded Chitrachetana, which produced a few short
films in the early eighties based on various movements. These were: Sarkari
Santras (State Terror), Boba Yuddha (Silent battle -- based on closed and
sick industries), Ashanta Assam (Assam in turmoil). He had a special
aptitude in art and culture, particularly in drama, cinema and the fine
arts. Apart from being a member of the editorial board of Lok Samachar (the
organ of Gana Front, the precursor of IPF in West Bengal) he also wrote in
other magazines as art critic and on other topics. After the demise of
comrade Arijit Mitra he took charge of Nabanna (organ of Paschimbanga Gana
Sanskriti Parishad) as an editor and fulfilled the responsibility till
death. He also contributed to Deshabrati (organ of the Party's West Bengal
State Committee), Liberation and Nabanna on comtemporary art and culture.

 An employee in Indian Paints Association -- an offshoot of Indian Chamber
of Commerce -- comrade Banerjee was dismissed from his job on flimsy grounds
for building a trade union in his workplace. However, through legal battle
he got back his job with full compensation. He always stood by the people
and their struggles and against any kind of anti-worker, anti-peasant
activities of the ruling class. He was the vice president of General
Insurance Worker's Union till death. He was involved in civil liberty
movement in WB and built up the PUCL in the State together with late Mr
Latif, ex-MLA and eminent lawyer. In the last years of his life he worked as
assistant secretary at Indian Chemical Manufacturing Association, Kolkata.

Comrade Banerjee, a bachelor, left behind his widowed elder sister, younger
sister and so many friends and comrades. Eminent litterateur and president
of Paschimbanga Gana Sanskriti Parishad Nabarun Bhattacharya, Indranath
Bandyopadhayay (Joint Secretary, Paschimbanga Ganatantirk Lekhak
Silpisangha), Amitava Chakraborty (State Council Member, CPI), Litterateurs
Swapnamay Chakraborty, Kinnor Roy, Tarapada Acharya, Swapna Dev, Pachu Roy,
mass singer Pratul Mukherjee and Abhijit Basu, eminent personallities like
Prof. Mihir Chakraborty, Goutam Sen, Debashis Bhattacharya, Sujato Bhadra,
Mohit Roy, Saswati Ghosh, Chandan Ghosh, veteran journalists Barun Dasgupta,
Sankar Roy, Pratim Basu, Joydeep Majumder, CPI(ML) politbureau member
Kartick Pal, CCM and State Secretary Partha Ghosh, CCMs Kalyan Goswami and
Arindam Sen, Deshabrati Editor Animesh Chakraborty and many other party and
mass organisation leaders, cadres and friends offered last tributes to
commrade Banerjee in a funeral procession that started from State Party
Headquaters on 15th April 2009.

*Long live comrade Dilip Banerjee!*

*Long live his dreams!*

Iqbal Bano - *Sub-continent’s Voice of Defiance against Tyranny*

Iqbal Bano, the sub-continent’s beloved ghazal singer, born in India and
trained in the Dilli Gharana by the legendary Ustad Chand Khan, passed away
yesterday in Lahore at the age of 74.

In the hearts of all who knew and loved her music is the memory of that day:
when, in protest against the jailing of Faiz, she sang Faiz’s immortal song
‘Hum Dekhenge’ at a Lahore stadium full of 50, 000 people, wearing a black
sari in defiance of Zia’s ban on the sari. As her liquid voice reached the
crescendo – declaring ‘That day will certainly come... When these high
mountains/Of tyranny and oppression turn to fluff and evaporate/And we
oppressed/ Beneath our feet will this earth shiver, shake and beat/

And heads of rulers will be struck/With crackling lightening and thunder
roars/When crowns will be flung in the air — and thrones will be
overturned....,” people joined with slogans of ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ (Long
Live Revolution!). In future years, Faiz would be requested, “Please recite
that song of Iqbal Bano’s” – because she had made it her own. Smug Indian
commentators like to contrast the supposedly superior democratic culture of
India’s people with the supposed passivity of Pakistan’s people – but it is
Pakistan that gave us that immortal moment of democratic culture – where
thousands of people sang in defence of a jailed atheist and communist poet –
who had drawn upon progressive traditions within Islam to confront the
zealot Zia.

Iqbal Bano – As the people of the sub-continent confront the tyrannies of
their governments, of imperialism and of jingoistic hate-mongering, yours
will be the voice that will reflect their unity, their defiance, their
confidence that one day, tyranny will be defeated and the people will
triumph...

==================
________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu