CPI(ML) HOME Vol.10, No. 31 31 JULY 6 AUG 2007

The Weekly News Bulletin of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)(Liberation)

U-90, Shakarpur, Delhi 110092. Tel: (91)11-22521067. Fax(91)11-22518248

 
In this Issue

Message from Andhra Pradesh

The July 28 Mudigonda massacre in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh has once again drawn the country’s attention to the actual state of democracy in rural India. For the last few months, Andhra Pradesh has been witnessing the rise of a statewide popular land struggle. Instead of heeding the demands of the land movement which is led by almost the entire spectrum of Left forces from the CPI and CPI(M) to the CPI(ML), the Rajshekhar Reddy government has responded by framing and arresting activists in large numbers. On July 28 the state was having a united Left-sponsored bandh to demand the setting up of an autonomous land reforms panel and withdrawal of repressive measures unleashed by the state government. The Reddy government chose to meet the bandh with brutal repression, gunning down eight unarmed persons, including a woman, in Mudigonda village of Khammam district.

The Andhra incidents clearly tell us that land remains a central demand for the rural poor and that whenever the landless poor forcefully assert this demand the state sheds all democratic pretensions and answers with cold-blooded murder. Almost all state governments have begun to reverse in practice, if not also overtly in terms of legislation, whatever land reforms had been implemented in the early decades after Independence. While a small house site or an acre of cultivable land remains a distant dream for millions of landless agricultural labourers and poor peasants, the powers that be are busy promoting a new form of corporate landlordism in the name of developing Special Economic Zones. Andhra Pradesh is a tell-tale example of this stark contrast and the Reddy government has opened fire both on Visakhapatnam fisherfolks opposing SEZ and Khammam peasants demanding land redistribution.

The developing land struggle in Andhra has also upheld the real content of Left unity – unity in the field of struggle, unity on the basis of the interests of the toiling masses. Earlier during the TDP regime, a similar kind of unity had begun to develop in the state against the neo-liberal economic reforms. Yet instead of carrying forward the process of unity and raising it to a higher political level, the CPI(M) leadership chose to backtrack and enter into a partnership with the Congress during the elections. Once again prospects of unity are developing in Andhra Pradesh, and the CPI(M) is uncomfortable about it. When the CPI(ML) put forward a proposal for a joint demonstration in Delhi against the Mudigonda massacre, the CPI(M) leadership turned it down citing political differences. The CPI(M) can work together with the Congress in spite of massacres like Mudigonda, but it cannot join hands with the CPI(ML) in the battle for justice for the Mudigonda victims!

The CPI(M)’s sectarianism on the question of any kind of joint action with the CPI(ML) stems perhaps from its own internal dilemma and contradiction. In a state like Andhra where the CPI(M) is not in power, it takes up issues like land reforms and has to face state repression in the process. In West Bengal, where the party has been uninterruptedly in power for three decades, its government is bent upon relaxing and reversing the land ceiling legislation and has no hesitation in massacring anti-SEZ protesters in Nandigram. How does the party now reconcile Mudigonda with Nandigram? The party is perhaps also wary about the future of its relations with the Congress. Just as Nandigram is passé for the CPI(M) leadership, it would also like to treat Mudigonda as a passing aberration and not let it sour its growing partnership with the Congress.

The battle for land and democracy is however too basic and urgent to obey the CPI(M)’s narrow pragmatic calculations. All the forces of the Left who wish to advance the people’s movement and develop mutual unity and understanding on the basis of such a shared struggle on a shared agenda will surely draw inspiration and appropriate lessons from the incidents in Andhra Pradesh. Red salute to the peasant martyrs of Mudigonda and to the heroic fighters of Andhra Pradesh.

Opposing US Designs on South Asia is the Best Way to Tackle Terrorism

There is a growing clamour among US policy-makers these days for a stronger American role in South Asia in general and Pakistan in particular. The latest US National Intelligence Estimate report released in July 2007 talks of an Al Qaeda safe haven in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas. In a press conference following the release of the NIE document, Frances Townsend, homeland security adviser in the Bush administration went on to say that the US could well consider unilateral strikes against suspected Al Qaeda or Taliban targets inside Pakistan. This has also been echoed by Nicholas Burns, US Under Secretary of State: “We want to respect the sovereignty of the Pakistani government. … If we have … certainty of knowledge, then of course the US would always have the option of taking action on its own, but we prefer to work with the Pakistani forces…”

Only last year, the Rand Corporation had released a document entitled “War and Escalation in South Asia”. The study, commissioned by the US Air Force, suggested “how and where the U.S. military might play an expanded, influential role” in South Asia. It advised the US Department of Defense to create “a new combatant command for South Asia” and go in for intensified security cooperation with India and Pakistan and increased intelligence production on the region. In short, the report called for intensified involvement of Washington in the region, devoting “the resources necessary to become more influential with the governments within the region.” The study also recommended that a part of the U.S. military be shaped in a way it could “meet the potential crises emanating from South Asia, just as the United States once shaped its military presence in Western Europe for the contingencies of the Cold War.”

Along with heightened military operation, the US intelligence community is also calling for assigning a greater role for the CIA. “Bring in the CIA” ran the caption of an article published in the Times of India on July 25 – the article was originally written for the New York Times by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, two former members of the US National Security Council. They argue that the US military planning has failed to destroy Al Qaida or even prevent it from acquiring safe havens and so it was now time to bring in the CIA and develop the paramilitary capacity needed for “highly mobile, lethal counterterrorism operations.”

Whichever way the US design may exactly unfold, it clearly spells great danger for the internal security of South Asia and sovereignty of South Asian nations. The Indo-US nuclear deal can only be seen in the context of the US vision for an expanding American role in the region. Even in the limited context of the economics and politics of atomic programmes and energy generation, experts have warned against the serious adverse implications of the nuclear deal. But the main danger emanates from the larger context of India’s strategic integration with – and hence dependence on, and vulnerability to – the American geo-political agenda.

The question of terrorism too cannot be delinked from this dominant context. If the US resorts to unilateral strikes against ‘suspected targets’ in Pakistan, India could not possibly remain insulated from such strikes. The next NIE could well be talking about safe havens in India followed by threats of unilateral or joint strikes against ‘suspected targets’ in India. Already so much is being said about the so-called Indian links in the chain of international terrorism. Even as the case of Dr. Haneef has shown beyond doubt that the accusations of ‘terrorist connection’ are often based on stupid conjectures, imperialist arrogance and racist prejudices, political opinion-makers in India are loosely talking about the proliferation of terrorism in India. It seems the CPI(M) too has begun competing with the BJP and the Congress on this subject.

The July 15 issue of People’s Democracy, the CPI(M)’s weekly central organ editorially called upon the Government of India to “extend all cooperation to the British and International authorities in cracking down on terrorism.” It expressed grave concern over the fact that until recently “the country was mistakenly led to believe that India does not harbour any Al Qaeda jehadis thanks to the famous so-called introduction of prime minister Manmohan Singh by US president George Bush to his wife saying that, “He is prime minister of a country of nearly 200 million Muslims and not one is with the Al Qaeda.”.” It is indeed heartening and instructive to note that when the PD editorial was taking great pains to convince its readers how Indian doctors and engineers were turning into terrorists, many in Australia were challenging and condemning the racist treatment being meted out to Dr. Haneef by the Australian government.

The PD editorial endorsed Dr. Manmohan Singh’s call for creating an environment where terror could not possibly take root and mentioned the need to erase “oppression and associated perceptions of injustice”, but it failed to identify the biggest factor that is fuelling terrorism the world over – the US-led war on terror. Consequently instead of calling for delinking Indian foreign policy from the US-led global war, it actually called for extending all cooperation to “the British and International authorities” (what about the ‘supreme’ power among all these ‘authorities’?) to combat terrorism. It is this misguided common sense that Washington seeks to consolidate in its bid to sell its global war to the Indian public. The PD editorial displays a shocking innocence of the real international environment that is breeding terrorism on such a huge scale.

The Global Opinion Trends Survey 2002-2007 released recently gives us an interesting insight into the threat perceptions of the South Asian people. It showed that while three-quarters of Indians express concerns about Pakistan, 64 percent of the Pakistani public views the US as the greatest threat. 46 percent Indians on the other hand appeared to look to the US as the most dependable ally – the highest rating for the US among all the 47 countries covered in the survey. The more India walks into the strategic trap laid by the US, the greater will be the distrust between India and Pakistan. Contrarily, the more India and Pakistan are able to delink their domestic and foreign policies from American interests and calculations, the closer they can move towards bilateral and regional cooperation and that can indeed be the best antidote against terrorism in the whole of South Asia.

CPI(ML) Holds Nationwide Protests Against Mudigonda Massacre

The Communist Party of India (ML) organized protests in all parts of the country on July 30 to condemn the incident of police firing on agitating peasants and agrarian workers at Mudigonda in Khammam district of AP occurred on 28 July and condemned the brutal massacre of rural poor and Left activists in Congress ruled Andhra Pradesh.

In the national capital, Delhi, a protest demonstration was held out from Mandi House to Andhra Bhavan. This was led by Party General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya. On reaching AP Bhavan, angry protestors demanded to submit a memorandum but police, in the most shameful manner, started water cannons without warning and arrested the General Secretary along with hundreds of activists. The protestors arrested include GS Dipankar Bhattacharya, CCMs Rajendra Pratholi, Prabhat Kumar, AISA GS Ravi Rai, AIPWA leader Uma Gupta, AICCTU Secretary Rajiv Dimri and others. A memorandum of protest has also been sent to the Governor of Andhra Pradesh Shri Rameshwar Thakur. AIPWA General Secretary Kumudini Pati was also present in the protest.

Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya addressed the protesters and said that this wanton killing of eight innocents, including one woman, is a reflection of the growing intolerance of the state and poses a serious threat to any notion of democracy.

In Andhra Pradesh, dozens of Party activists were arrested in Kakinada while burning the effigy of YSR during the protest march on July 30. Demonstrations were also held at Anantpur, Visannapeta, Kuttukudi, Jagadampeta, NS Puram, and many other places. The CPI(ML) has called for the week-long protests in Andhra Pradesh and will further intensify the movement if adequate action was not taken by the govt. in the state.

Party's UP unit observed the statewide protest day on July 29. A protest was organised in front of the State Assembly in Lucknow. Demonstrations were held in Varanasi, Allahabad, Mirzapur, Chandauli, Gazipur, Moradabad, Mau, Ambedkarnagar, Jalaun, Sitapur, Sonbhadra, and many other places. Party activists burnt the effigy of YSR Govt. at all places and demanded the Chief Minister's resignation.

In Jharkhand, Protests were held at almost all the district headquarters in the state and resignation of Rajshekhar Reddy was demanded. A demonstration was held out in Ranchi jointly by CPI(ML) and RYA and an effigy of Andhra CM was burnt at Albert Ekka Chowk. Protests were held at different places in other districts including Dhanbad, Bokaro, Latehar, etc.

Protests were organised in Rajasthan at places including Jaipur, Udaypur and Jhunjhunu. The demonstrators burnt the effigies and sent memorandum of protest to the Governor of AP.

The memorandum of protest were also sent from Gurgaon in Haryana and Diphu in Karbi Anglong of Assam. Protests were also held in other parts of Assam. In  Tripura, protests were held in Agartala, Udaipur and some other towns.

Demonstrations were organised in all parts of Bihar, including the capital Patna. Similar protests were organised in West Bengal. While in Orissa, many towns including Rayagada, Gunupur and Bhubaneshwar witnessed such protests. The effigy burning was also observed in Gwalior of Madhya Pradesh.

In Tamil Nadu, Party activists held protest demonstrations at various places. AICCTU, AIALA, RYA, and AIPWA leaders and activists participated in these demonstrations. In Kanyakumari demonstration was held at Nagarcoil in front of the Collectorate. CPI(ML) and AICCTU activists including a considerable number of women participated in this protest. Demonstrations were also held in Erode, Kumbakonam, Sirkazhi, Dindgul, Virudhachalam, and Tirunelveli. In Erode more than 500 participated. After submitting the mass memorandum with the demand of the resignation of the AP Chief Minister, they also met the DC on the issue of house-site pattas for themselves. Protest memoranda were also sent to the Andhra Pradesh Governor from other places.

The protest demonstrations were also observed in various other states where effigy burnings were carried out and memoranda were sent to the Governor of AP.

MEMORANDUM OF PROTEST AGAINST MUDIGONDA MASSACRE

To
Hon’ble Sri Rameshwar Thakur
Governor,
Andhra Pradesh 

Sir,
We strongly condemn the incident of police firing on agitating peasants and agrarian workers at Mudigonda in Khammam district of AP on 28 July. This wanton killing of eight unarmed persons, including one woman, who were staging a demonstration demanding implementation of land reforms and protesting the framing and incarceration of peasant activists and leaders of the ongoing land struggle, is a reflection of the growing intolerance of the state and poses a serious threat to any notion of democracy. We urge you to convey to the government of Andhra Pradesh our strong resentment and the popular feeling of outrage over the Modigonda massacre and see that adequate action is taken at the earliest to punish the guilty.
In particular we would like to draw your attention to the following specific demands: 

1.       The Chief Minister must own moral and political responsibility for the massacre and tender his resignation;

2.       The State Government must set up an autonomous Land Reforms Commission in the state and ensure immediate implementation of all pending land reforms measures;

3.       The DM and SP of Khammam must be suspended forthwith and cases filed against them for the unprovoked firing that killed 8 people and injured many;

4.       False cases lodged against the protesting people must be withdrawn and all activists and peasants arrested in connection with the land struggle released unconditionally and immediately.

5.       Rs. 10 lakh must be paid as compensation to the family of every person killed and Rs. 2 lakh to the family of every injured.

We hope you will appreciate the popular outrage caused by the Modigonda massacre and do all you can to ensure that justice and democracy are not allowed to be murdered in Andhra Pradesh by the wanton exercise of state power by the YSR government.

REPORTS

AICCTU Conference in Andaman

4th State Conference of AICCTU was held at Port Blair on 29 July.  The conference began after the flag hoisting by comrade N Gopal and paying of floral tributes to the martyrs. The delegate session was held in the forenoon and an open session was organized in the afternoon. The Conference elected a 64-member State Council with M Sadasivan as President and NKP Nair as State General Secretary. The conference passed a resolution demanding Legislative Assembly for the A & N Islands. The demands of stopping privatization and down sizing and ban on the contract system in jobs of regular nature were also raised in other resolutions, besides many other demands.

Seminar on SEZ in Gwalior

The local unit of Revolutionary Youth Association organised a seminar in Gwalior on July 28. The seminar was titled 'SEZ: Development or Destruction?'. CPI(ML) CC member Prabhat Kumar addressed at as the main speaker while JNUSU General Secretary Sandip Singh spoke as the guest. The speakers criticized the SEZ policy as an attempt of forcibly handing over of people's assets to the big corporates and said that such a policy must be opposed by all means. They said that after the militant protests in Nandigram in West Bengal and at many other places in various other states the government was forced to make some cosmetic amendments in the SEZ policy but they are merely an eyewash and we must go for much bigger and co-ordinated movements throughout the country to force the government to withdraw the SEZ Act 2005. Seminar was conducted by RYA's MP State Convener Dhirendra Bharati and presided over by CPI(ML) leader Gurudatt Sharma.

Local Conference in Narela

Party's Narela Punarvas Basti unit in Delhi held its conference on 22 July at Sector-6 in Narela. The conference decided to intensify the struggles for basic amenities, corruption in PDS and for rights of the poor. it was also decided to work hard to make the AIPWA's forthcoming Jan Adalat to be held in Delhi on 8 August a success. The conference was inaugurated by Party's District Secretary Amarnath Tiwary. The conference elected a 7-member local committee with comrade Raju Gupta as its Secretary.

Edited, published and printed by S. Bhattacharya for CPI(ML) Liberation from U-90, Shakarpur, Delhi-92; printed at Bol Publication, R-18/2, Ramesh Park, Laxmi Nagar, Delhi-92; Phone:22521067; fax: 22518248, e-mail: mlupdate@cpiml.org, website: www.cpiml.org

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