In this Issue
Resist the Neoliberal Assault on Education
The UPA Government in its second term has made it a priority to aggressively push through “reform” in education. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has announced the introduction of sweeping changes in schooling and higher education policy that are deeply disquieting and will have long term implications for India’s education system. The changes are being ushered in, in the name of ridding education of long-standing problems and are as such being hailed by the corporate media as “revolutionary.” Closer examination of the proposed changes reveals, however, that all the progressive-sounding rhetoric are only a smokescreen for policy changes which spell what the World Bank etc have been recommending for long: freeing of the government from its responsibility towards education, and institutionalizing privatization of education.
The Right to Education Bill, soon to come up for enactment by Parliament, is a typical example. While paying lip service to “right to education” and “free and compulsory education for all children below the age of 14” (which is after all a long-standing demand of educationists and the student movement), the RTE Bill actually subverts any meaningful notion of right to education. Refusing the educationists’ recommendations of a system of common neighbourhood schools to ensure free education of equitable standards for all, the RTE Bill instead institutionalises the existing system of good schools for those who can pay and substandard, informal schooling for the poor. In the name of ‘right to education,’ Sibal has announced the introduction of ‘public-private partnership’ (PPP) in government-run schools (including MCD schools in the capital) and a ‘voucher’ system for poor students. In India, the greatest hurdle to right to education for all is no doubt the fact that poor students cannot afford to pay for good schooling, and the schooling available for them is of an extremely poor quality. Right to education cannot become a reality unless it is backed by the political and financial will of the government to take full responsibility for education, and by getting rid of the writ of the private profiteers in schooling. As it is, government spending on education in India is woefully inadequate and schooling is de facto privatised; ‘PPP’ is a euphemism for further withdrawal of the government from its duty to fund education. When the powerful private players in schooling with impunity evade the current stipulations to enrol 25% poor students, there is little doubt that ‘vouchers’ for poor students in a privatised, profit-based system of schooling will meet the same fate.
The much-hyped move to make Std. 10th board exams optional is also a cosmetic and hollow measure. The move is being touted as one that will free students from excessive exam stress. Exam reforms are no doubt needed – but they cannot be divorced from wider school reforms and social changes. Students do not suffer stress only due to exams – but rather due to deeper insecurities that are created and fostered by a system that forces them to compete for shrinking space in education and employment. The UPA Government’s policies are intensifying this insecurity by the privatisation of education and the worsening of the unemployment crisis: and as such this insecurity cannot be undone by mere cosmetic moves like making 10th boards optional. Further, so long as these exams are ‘optional,’ even this limited measure will go against poorer children. The market’s demand for high marks in school exams will continue, and it is deprived students who will avail of the ‘option’ to opt out of the exam system.
In higher education, too, Sibal has proposed sweeping changes such as introducing of private and foreign universities, and replacing the UGC and other government-run regulatory bodies with a single ‘autonomous’ apex body – the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER). These changes have been recommended by the Yashpal Committee on higher education as well as by the National Knowledge Commission.
The HRD Minister has been quick to utilise major controversies over deemed universities, capitation fees, and racist attacks on Indian students in Australia, to push for the agenda of private universities and foreign universities. Deemed universities have become notorious as fraudulent enterprises cheating students to sell sub-standard education at a steep price. Sibal has claimed that such flagrant fraud in the name of education can be checked by doing away with the ‘licence raj in education’ and allowing private players to set up universities without so much ‘red tape.’ Such reasoning is self-serving and illogical. If anything, the fate of the ‘deemed’ universities ought to serve as a nightmare preview of the fate university education is bound to suffer if left to the mercies of the market.
The replacement of the UGC/AICTE etc with the NCHER as well as the withdrawal of the Government from the responsibility of the funding and functioning of higher education is being pushed in the name of ‘autonomy.’ What does ‘autonomy’ mean in these circumstances? Will it mean the autonomy to hold students union elections; the autonomy of students to conduct democratic activity; the autonomy to pursue research of one’s own choosing? The Yashpal Committee report says that the NCHER will be “an autonomous body” with a 7-member board, and that one of its 7 members would be “an eminent professional from the world of industry;” further, the NCHER will be “independent of all ministries of the Government of India.” This makes it clear that ‘autonomy’ thus defined is nothing but neoliberal shorthand for freedom for the market and the specifically the profiteers to dictate the agenda in education. This can only spell the worst un-freedom for the teachers, students and researchers, and for the spirit of university education itself.
The experience of health care is warning enough that private for-profit players cannot serve the needs of the mass of poor Indians. Their steep prices put them out of reach of the poor, who remain dependent on the shrinking public healthcare; their claims of superior ‘quality’ are suspect, with rampant cases of neglect and corruption; and they have largely relied for prestige and ‘quality’ on the best medical practitioners imported from the public hospitals, thereby weakening the institutions on which the poor rely. Private universities will be no different. Foreign universities which will open shop in India, too, are not likely to be the ‘top’ universities unless the government is willing to subsidise them; they will instead be mediocre institutions seeking to shore up their financial crises by reaching out to India’s vast market.
Sibal has promised to implement the Yashpal Committee’s recommendations within 100 days. While in such a hurry to implement the recommendations of the Yashpal Committee and the National Knowledge Commission, it is telling that no government, in the last four decades, implemented the Kothari Commission’s recommendation that 6% of GDP be spent on education!
Sibal, it is apparent, is not so much throwing out the baby of education with the bathwater of deemed universities, capitation fees, etc..., he is throwing out the baby, with a sleight of hand, while pretending to throw out the bathwater. It is urgent that we expose these ‘revolutionary’ moves for what they are – moves to privatise and commercialise education – and resist them with all our might, while demanding that the UPA Government instead meet the long-pending demands for at least 6% of the GDP to be spent on education.
Bihar Police Brands as ‘Extremist’
legendary Bhojpur MLA Comrade Ram Naresh Ram and other CPI(ML) leaders, CJM Issues Non-bailable warrant
The Bihar police has decided to target and brand as ‘extremist’, octogenarian CPI(ML) MLA and legendary icon of Bhojpur’s struggling poor, Comrade Ram Naresh Ram and other CPI(ML) leaders. It has issued non-bailable warrants against these leaders in a nearly decade-old case pertaining to a protest against police firing which had claimed the lives of four CPI(ML) supporters who were participating in a protest demonstration against the killing of a CPI(ML) leader in a fake encounter.
On 20 August 2000, a massive protest demonstration was held at the Arrah Collectorate against the fake encounter in which popular CPI(ML) leader Vishwanath Ram was killed. The police opened fire on the demonstrators and four of them, including a 16 year old student Anand Kumar, were killed. The other three martyrs are – Vishram Pandey, Harey Ram Mushahar and Dharmendra Kumar. The CPI(ML) filed a case against police firing, and that the case is still pending trial. The police had also filed a case against CPI(ML) leaders (No. 237/2000) in the Ara/Nawada Police Station. In the latter case, the Investigating Officer, a police inspector, recently wrote to the CJM, asking that non-bailable warrants be issued against Comrades Ram Naresh Ram, as well as former MLA and AIALA National President Comrade Rameshwar Prasad and 8 other leaders, invoking various IPC Sections (147, 148, 149, 323, 324, 253, 332, 333, 337, 307, 188) as well as the Arms Act and Explosives Act. The IO’s letter claimed that “sufficient evidence” had been obtained against these leaders, who “are always taking the law into their own hands and, hiding secretively, and at the first sign of any carelessness, take up arms and lay siege to the police” (hamesha kanoon ko apne hi haath me liye rahte hain aur luk chipkar thodi hi asavdhani hone par hathiyar liye pulis par dhava bol dete hain). The CJM has reportedly issued NBWs against the CPI(ML) leaders in question.
The IO’s letter is preposterous to say the least. CPI(ML) leaders like Comrade Ram Naresh Ram are popular mass leaders, icons for the socially and economically downtrodden and exploited. The open mass protests led by them, including the 20 August 2000 demonstration, are not conducted “hiding secretively.” The only weapons in evidence on 20 August 2000 was the massive presence of people and the force of their demand for justice. The IO’s letter itself reference to ‘carelessness’ by the police is an oblique reference to the fake encounters, human rights violations and high-handedness by the police, often in collusion with upper caste landlords’ private armies and ruling parties. The whole thing is a calculated move to try and humiliate the revolutionary working masses of Bhojpur, by slandering their leaders and issuing NBWs against them, branding them as common criminals and ‘extremists.’
On 29 June, CPI(ML) MLAs protested vigorously in the Bihar Assembly and demanded that the Chief Minister take a stand on this mischievous act of political targeting of the leaders representing the rural poor. Nitish Kumar was forced to promise to “look into it.” The next day again, the Bihar Assembly witnessed vocal protests, asking the Chief Minister to clarify his stance. CPI(ML) has declared a statewide protest day on 1 July.
The episode exposes the Nitish Government’s tall claims of justice and good governance, revealing in Nitish’s rule, too, representatives of the oppressed will be targeted and harassed. It is also a fresh instance of the discourse of ‘extremism’ being deployed against popular forces by struggle – by Governments of all hues from Orissa to Punjab to West Bengal and now Bihar and all over the country. For the CPI(ML), such targeting is nothing new. In Bihar itself, in Congress rule, the CPI(ML) faced severe state repression; in Laloo-Rabri rule, popular elected leaders like Shah Chand were convicted under the lapsed draconian law TADA; and in Nitish rule now, again, the same pattern continues. In Punjab, too, the CPI(ML) is facing the same kind of repression.
Table the Liberhan Report Without Delay
Punish the Perpetrators of the Babri Masjid Demolition
After a delay of 17 long years, the Commission of Enquiry headed by Justice Liberhan has submitted its report to the Prime Minister. The Liberhan Commission was set up to enquire into the fascist act of demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992. Acts of communal violence – be it the Hashimpura-Meerut riots of 1989, the Bombay riot of 1992, the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, or the Gujarat genocide of 2002, have notoriously evaded justice. The inordinate delay in the process of enquiry of the Liberhan Commission – over the course of governments led by the BJP as well as by self-proclaimed ‘secular’ coalitions – is further indication of the immense lack of political will to prosecute communal politicians for their crimes.
6 December 1992 is indeed a mark of shame for our democracy: when in full view of the nation, communal mobs, pre-armed with implements, and egged on by triumphant and gleefully grinning BJP leaders, laid siege to the historical Mughal-era monument, the Babri Masjid. The Congress Government at the Centre, notoriously, turned a blind eye to the full-blown preparations for the demolition and allowed the saffron mobs to gather at Masjid, thus facilitating the demolition. The demolition of the Masjid was preceded and followed by bloody communal violence that claimed the lives of innocent Muslims. Denial of justice in communal riots, and the impunity to communal Hindutva leaders even in the face of overwhelming evidence against them, is the single biggest factor that has deepened the alienation of Muslim minorities in India.
Even today, while the BJP in its response to the submission of the Liberhan report has denied involvement of its leaders in the demolition, the RSS which runs the ‘parivar’ to which BJP belongs has defended the demolition as a result of ‘pent-up anger’ for which BJP leaders cannot be held responsible. Meanwhile Uma Bharti, who as a BJP leader danced on the shoulders of Murli Manohar Joshi as the mosque came down, and has now deserted the BJP, declared that she had wanted the mosque to be demolished and was not about to apologise for the demolition.
17 years is enough delay: the Congress-led UPA government must immediately table the Liberhan Report in Parliament and allow the nation to know its findings. The vacillation and prevarication on matters of majoritarian communal violence that the Congress has perfected led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The failure of no just Shiv Sena but even Congress Governments in Maharashtra to implement the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission on the 1992 Bombay riots is also part of Congress’ shameful track-record on tackling communal violence. The same must not be repeated now: the perpetrators of the Babri Masjid demolition must be brought to book. Justice for 6 December 1992 is a crucial test for Indian democracy.
Various Protests in West Bengal against the Lalgarh Operation
On 23rd June All India Students’ Association (AISA) and Revolutionary Youth Association (RYA) activists held a militant demonstration in front of the State Secretariat (known as Writers’ Building) in Kolkata in protest against the operation against the tribal people of Lalgarh by an Indian version of the "Coalition of the Willing" - comprising of state police force and central paramilitary battalions. Later, 43 activists courted arrest. At the police lock-up at Lalbazar, the arrested activists held a political meeting and the walls of the lock-up echoed with songs and speeches condemning the police action. The demonstration was led by Com. Shouvik Ghoshal, State President of RYA and Com. Debolina Ghosh, State President of AISA.
On 27th June, the CPI(ML), Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) and Mazdoor Kranti Parishad (MKP) jointly held protest meetings in Belgharia. At Chuchura, a hundred RYA and All India Progressive women’s Association (AIPWA) activists held a demonstration and blocked roads. The police resorted to lathicharge during which an AIPWA activist was injured. On 29th June, Nagarik Samanyay Manch held a protest meeting at Hazra More in Kolkata which was attended by many progressive and democratic activists.
On 29th June, AIPWA and RYA, Hoogly dist. committee jointly organised a protest rally at Chinsura, demanding withdrawal of State and Central joint forces from Lalgarh, West Bengal. The rally was militant enough. After the rally the police suddenly started lathi-charging the protestors and did not spare even the women. Some activists got injured. This is yet another incident that demonstrates the West Bengal State machinery’s intolerance to any protest. Even after the lathi charge protest march moved forward signifying people’s readiness to face all the brutality for restoring the democratic space.
On 28th June RYA Belghoria local committee and CPIML- Belghoria Party committee jointly held a protest march on the same issue.
AISA’s Tamil Nadu Assembly Gherao to Demand Free & Quality Education for All!
All India Students’ Association (AISA) gheraoed (encircled) the TN Assembly on 30 June demanding free and quality education for all and against the collection of excess fees in schools and colleges across Tamil Nadu. In TN, the problem of excess fee has been on the rise for quite some time and reflected in the State Assembly too. But, there was no voice inside the Assembly to echo the concerns of students at large. Even the CPI and CPIM members did not come forward with the demand of putting an end to commercialisation of education and instead were suggesting corrective measures to curb excess fee collection.
Outside the assembly dozens of student-activists of AISA raised the demand for putting an end to the commercialisation of education and tried to gherao the assembly. The police was taken aback by the sudden gherao, lost its cool and tore away AISA’s banner and the memorandum given by the agitaitng students. They snatched away the flags too. This incident attracted significant media coverage as only AISA has highlighted the issue of excess fee collection in TN. The agitating students were arrested but released in the evening. Com. Bharathi, State organiser of AISA led the agitation.
Dharna against Today’s Growing Undeclared Emergency!
To Protest State Repression on People’s Movement!!
The CPI(ML) Delhi State Committee organised a dharna at the Parliament Street in New Delhi on 26 June, 2009, which marked the 34th anniversary of the infamous Emergency, in which the Central Government headed by the Congress Party had muzzled all dissent, jailed all opposition, banned all forms of protest and criticism of the government’s policies – all in the name of ‘stable government.’
Behind the soothing rhetoric of ‘democracy,’ ‘development,’ and ‘good governance,’ we are very much hearing the footfalls of an undeclared Emergency even today. The dharna cited the paramilitary terror in WB as the state’s answer to the Lalgarh adivasis’ demand for justice against police atrocities, and the Home Minister telling the civil society not to visit the area – so that the repression remains shielded from public scrutiny; Punjab- the Dalit agricultural labourers who were protesting Govt.’s betrayal of its promise of house-plots for poor households, are jailed in thousands; in Shopian, Kashmir, women protesting against the rape and murder of two young women by security forces are being fired upon or jailed, are a few of other such incidents being perpetrated.
The dharna was attended and addressed by CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, many distinguished citizens of Delhi, Human Rights’ Activists, teachers/professors and students apart from Party’s leaders- comrades Prabhat Kumar, AICCTU General Secretary Sapan Mukherjee and Delhi’s Party Secretary Sanjay Sharma among others.
Condemning the paramilitary forces’ offensive and terror against the tribal of Lalgarh who were demanding justice, Com. Dipankar said that the Central Govt.’s and Home Minister Mr. Chidambaram’s ‘zero tolerance approach’ is in reality a borrowed idea and phrase from the American lexicon of ‘war on terror’ and it essentially seeks legitimacy for all sorts of infringement and assault on democracy and human rights, whether directly by the state or through some Salwa Judum kind of public-private partnership. Criticising the recent amendments to AFSPA, Chhatisgarh Public Security Act and the UAPA he said that these have been legislated more for attacking and suppressing the people’s movements for democracy. He strongly condemned the Govt.’s justification of gruesome repressive tactics like the Salwa Judum. He also criticised the Delhi’s Congress Govt. for its extreme reluctance in conducting a magisterial enquiry into the Batla House encounter despite the directions from the High Court and the Human Rights’ Commission.
Main demands voiced through the dharna are: (1) end to the paramilitary operations at Lalgarh, (2) peaceful political solution, based on meeting of adivasis’ demand for justice against police atrocities, (3) release of jailed CPI(ML) leaders in Punjab, (4) Stop fake encounters, scrap draconian laws! and (5) No to war on civil liberties in the name of war on terror!
NREGA Workers Receive Police Beating against Pending Wages
In Chheta panchayat that comes under Barwadih block of Latehar district in Jharkhand, the NREGA workers facing several injustice and mal-treatment, decided to publicly convey their woes to the higher officials of the Administration at the 18th June ‘Development Festival cum Health Camp’ organised by the Administration. The assembled NREGA workers gheraoed the BDO and asked him to clear their pending wages. It is noteworthy that the Administration did not ensure the due entry of daily work record and dates in the job card of many labourers. Neither was there any arrangement of very basic conditions necessary for continuance of physical labour, like drinking water, first aid, resting tent etc., whereas these facilities were shown to be provided on paper and vouchers made and claimed for the same. The workers demanded action against the officials responsible for the illegal withdrawing of funds and also demanded implementation of the agreements reached at, at the Lok Adalat held in 2007-08. When the BDO tried to flee instead of taking note of the serious injustice meted out to these workers, he was surrounded by them and slogans were raised against him and the Administration. At this point the police present there emboldened by more police reinforcements that just then arrived started to attack these innocent labourers and severely lathi-charged them. Half a dozen women were also injured. Incensed by all this hundreds of workers marched in protest at Barwadih in the evening. This was followed by protests all over Jharkhand on June 20.
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