2 December 2007

EDITOR: P. Govindan Kutty E-mail: peoplesmarch@gmail.com peoplesmarch@indiatimes.com peoplesmarch2006@rediffmail.com

Owned, Edited, Printed & Published by P. Govindan Kutty, Peroor house, Thripunithura, N.F. Ernakulam, Kerala — 682 301,Printed at The Best Offset Printers & Publishers, 55 Chittoor road, Ayyappankavu Kochi 682 018

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Dandakaranya:Two paths ofDevelopment

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Vol : 8, No:12, December 2007, Rs. 15

Press Release

12

People’s March Articles may be reprinted and translated in various Indian & ForeignLanguages without permission, provided the source (www//:peoplesmarch.googlespages.com) is credited

Mobile No. : 99472 76692

Withdraw the Emergency;Stop all Foreign Interferencein Pakistan 7

Political Commentary

ReportsCPM-led West BengalGovernment’s social-fascistFangs Bared 9

Massive Campaign for Releaseof Political Prisoners in Bihar-Jharkhand 20

Homage

Vidarbha Suicides:Tip of the Iceberg ofthe Agrarian Crisis

Strongly Condemn the Murderof Tamilchelvan 8

Red Salutes to Com PunnaRao 32

Report From Bengal-Jharkhand-Orissa Border(BJO) Regional Committee ofCPI(Maoist)……………………26

Message to the People ofManipur from President, RPFon the occasion of the 29th

Rising Day of PLA 27

Com Rammehar was an IdealMaoist 31

International

Interview

Feature Article

Contract Farming — A NooseAround The Farmer’s/Peasant’s Neck 18

History of Naxalite movementin West Bengal seen throughthe eyes of Veteran MartyrComrade Ajayda 21

Fatah-Hamas conflict orIsrael-Palestine conflict? 23

The Arms Bazar 24

ContentsVoice of the Indian Revolution

FIIs Strangulate IndianEconomy

2 December 2007

December 2007 3

WHAT the Maoists term as theDandakarnya Special Zone is the

vast forest area situated between theborders of four states – Andhra Pradesh,Chattisgarh, Maharastra and Orissa. TheMaoists have five organizational divisions– the south, west and north Bastardivisions, the Maad and Gadchirolidivisions – covering the entire area.

Extremely PrimitiveEconomy

The adivasi economy here consistedof mainly two parts, agriculture andcollection of minor forest produce. Themode of adivasi agriculture in all thesedivisions was primitive, with littlevariations here and there. One need not saythat it was entirely monsoon dependent (tilltoday there is are no irrigation projects,except the small ones built by the Maoists).The Dandakarnya is a vast area with a deepforest cover and dotted by steep hills.Though the annual rainfall is not uniformin all the areas, normally it will be abovenormal. This area has abundant perennialwater resources like rivers and streams, withwater flowing almost throughout the year.As no government, either of the Britishcolonialists or of their compradorsuccessors, ever built any waterconservancy projects either major or minormost of the rainwater gets wasted. Irrigatingthe fields through wells and small pondsby even well to do peasants is a rarephenomenon. In fact, the overwhelmingmajority of the peasants do not even knowabout irrigation wells. They are stillcenturies away from the man who learnedto draw water from wells through suchimplements as the water wheel and whoconstructed dams and canals to irrigate thefields thousands of years ago. In one word,the adivasi peasants here lacked theexperiences of the man, who fought againstall odds for achieving a stable income andfor a fundamental change in their life bygrowing from the stage of food collectionto that of a food producer, introducing manyinnovative changes in the methods ofagriculture.

However, building of small ponds ortanks in this region appears to be an ageold practice. But, the way peasants hereuse the water in these tanks or ponds is

TWO PATHS OF DEVELOPMENTTugge

completely different from their counterpartselsewhere. The peasants here select low-lying areas where the water gets collectednaturally during the monsoon and buildbunds around it. Then they sow the cropat the edges of the stored water. Theymanually water the crop from the storage.They do not know that the stored watercan irrigate more fields if sluices are builtand water is canalized by digging canals.The water stored in the above way lasts upto January in some places and for somemore time in other areas, thus guaranteeingat least one crop. Hence this remains theirmost dependable method of irrigation andthey are reluctant to build canals forextending the area of cultivation as theyfeel that if the water is taken out to irrigatemore fields, it may not last and they maynot even get the harvest they are gettinghither to. Here their superstitious belief, thatif a second crop is harvested, the gods willget angry and harm them, compounds thissituation. However a gradual change in theirattitudes is occurring due to the impact ofthe developmental programmes beinginitiated under the Maoist leadership duringthe last two decades. Construction of tankswith canal systems and digging irrigationwells has been going on, though on a smallscale.

While this is the situation in the areasother than the Maad hills, the adivasipeople living in these hills remind one ofthe even more primitive men to a largeextent. Almost all of them still depend onslash and burn (jhum) method ofcultivation, in the main, raising a coarsevariety of food grain, Kola. Though theycultivate crops like Paddy, Mustard, Maizeetc, in small plots of land either by the sideof their villages or in plain areas in betweenthe hills, they do not know how to use aplough. They just dig the earth with a sharpedged iron rod and sow the seeds. Thoughthey posses cattle they do not know howto harness them for agricultural work.Though they started using ploughs at avery few places, where they learnt it throughinteraction with the more advancedmigrants from the plains, it remains just abeginning, confined to a few odd places.

Common sense dictates that any effortaimed at the development of the adivasieconomy and through it, their lives and

livelihoods must be based on theirtraditional economy as the starting point.That is to impart knowledge about modernmethods of agriculture among the adivasipeasant masses and to take upinfrastructural projects that directly aid themodernization of agriculture. For this,initiation of land reforms must be the basicfirst step. Secondly to take measures toensure that the adivasi masses getremunerative prices both for theiragricultural produce and the minor forestproduce they collect.

Present Ruler’s Path ofDevelopment

While this being the only way throughwhich it will be possible to improvise theadivasi economy, the comprador rulingclasses who stepped in to the shoes of theirBritish colonial masters never showed anyreal interest in the modernization of adivasiagriculture in spite of their repeatedboastful claims about the success of theirwelfare programmes for the upliftment ofthe adivasis. The age-old methods ofadivasi agriculture continue in the sameway without any fundamental changes. Asstated earlier, Dandakarnya has manyperennial rivers. There are other waterresources that have water throughout theyear. Yet, no government has everundertaken the construction of irrigationprojects, major or minor. The rulers, whonever took up any programme thatguarantees a livelihood for the adivasis andbrings about a basic change in their livesand which helps in the development of theforces of production, have howeverembarked now upon a programme that willcompletely shatter the adivasi economy.They have the audacity to implement thisprogramme of devastation in the name of‘development.’ As a result a distortedeconomy is coming into existence here. Thealready below subsistence level adivasiagriculture is getting further devastatedwith the kind of infrastructural projects therulers have taken up as a part of theirpolicies of globalization.

The governments of both Chattisgarhand Maharastra have been insisting thatthey will take up development works in thefive districts of Bastar, and in Gadchirolidistrict and are asserting that

Dandakaranya: Cover Story

4 December 2007

industrialization is the best way for thedevelopment of the local people. Let us nowsee what exactly are the developmentschemes and who are the ‘people’ that aregoing to be benefited.

Almost all the adivasi-inhabited areasin the country have vast natural resources.While rivers (and other water resources),forests and lands are assets apparent tothe eye; there is no dearth of mineralresources too. Bastar area in particular hasabundant deposits of various minerals.There are 610 million tones of Dolomitedeposits, 2340 million tones of iron oredeposits in the Bastar area. It is estimatedthat there are 3580 million tones of limestone deposits in Devarapal, Larogi, Raikotand Mangi Dogri areas. The Keskal areahas 100 million tones of Bauxite deposits.The Madhya Pradesh State MiningCorporation has been extracting Tin andCorundum in Bastar. The iron ore ofBailadilla mines are of the finest quality.Apart from this, the forest here is abode tothe finest quality Teak, Maddi and suchother costly timber yielding trees. The entireDandakarnya area has extensive tracks ofBamboo. The imperialist forces and theirIndian lackeys, the big comprador houseshave joined hands in their scramble to lootthese vast natural resources. All the socalled developmental work that wasundertaken here, and now going on withfull speed is the construction of superhighways, railway lines and such otherinfrastructural projects that will felicitate theloot of this immense wealth. The steep hillsof the Bailadilla iron ore mines, which aregetting depleted day by day for the pastthirty years are pouring in enormous profitsfor the Japanese imperialists, as the entireore is sold to the Japanese at very lowprices. Adjacent to it, construction worksfor the Nagarnar Steel Plant are going aheadat full steam. The central and stategovernments have been busily solicitingFDI for a hydroelectric plant at Bodhghaton the river Indravathi. This project willdestroy more than 13,750 hectares of forestand around 10,000 acres of adivasiagricultural lands. Adivasis from around 60villages will be displaced. As the Dalli mineswhich were supplying iron ore to the BhilaiSteel Plant are on the verge of extinction,the Bharath Mining Corporation has nowset its sites on the Raoghat mines of NorthBastar. Schemes have been readied to openiron ore mines at Chargaon and Raoghat inKanker district. If mining starts in the

Chargaon hills, a stream originating in thosehills will get polluted. This stream flowsdown and joins Paralkot and Mendkhirivers, thus they will also get pollutedaffecting thousands of adivasis living onthe banks of these rivers, depriving themof even potable water. The affected peoplehave formed a ‘Chargaon Khadan VirodhiJana Sangharsh Manch’ to fight against thisproject. The construction works for theDalli-Jagadalpur-Raoghat railway line,which was on the back burner for a longtime due to people’s opposition are aboutto start any time. The big industrial houseNicco has started and is continuing miningoperations in Lohar and Chahar area nearRaoghat under police protection. The bigconcerns, Godavari Isphat and RaipurAllied are conducting mining operations atPallemadi near Manpur. A delegation ofofficials of the Asian Development Bankvisited Pakhanjur area in 04’ and the leaderof that delegation announced that they areready to spend millions of rupees for theutilization of the vast mineral resources ofthat area. Similarly, efforts for the extractionof millions of tones of various minerals arecontinuing at a fast pace in Chamurshi, Ahiriand Soorjagarh area of Gadchiroil district.The works for the construction ofinfrastructural facilities for miningoperations of various valuable minerals aregoing on all over the Dandakaranya area.The tempo of these works increased duringthe last decade in the background of thepolicies of globalization.

Then, these are some of the so-calleddevelopment projects, which the rulersclaim will benefit the local adivasipopulation. However the truth iscompletely different. As all these works arecapital intensive with modern technology,they will not and cannot provide anyemployment to the local adivasi people,who do not even know the use of a plough.Even an UN agency’s report on thedevelopmental project had to admit thatthese projects did not benefit the localadivasi population in any way. It isinteresting to note that, this report calledon the government to initiate measures fordeveloping adivasi agriculture by takingup the construction of irrigation projects.The ‘development’ the ruling classes wentahead with brought all-round devastationto the adivasis, as thousands of them wereforcibly displaced from their villages toclear the way for these works. We will givemore details about this devastation later.

The exploitative ruling classes havebeen developing tourist resorts along withthis kind of industrialization, as a part ofthe on going process of globalization. As avast area in the Dandakaranya has a thickforest cover, a wide variety of birds andanimals still thrive here. As commercialhunting is going on with the activeconnivance of the rulers, many spices ofbirds and animals are on the verge ofextinction. Yet, many places are stillcontinuing as popular tourist centers.Many heavily populated areas have beendeclared as National Parks, Tiger ProjectAreas. Bison Parks etc and thousands ofadivasi peasants have been driven out ofthese areas. Industrialization and tourismare being jointly promoted in the currentimperialist globalization.

Industrialization and tourism, bothdemand good roads and railway lines,which are in fact their lifelines. The bigcomprador houses and the MNCs requiregood roads and railway lines fortransporting raw material from the forestand for supplying manufactured goods tothe forest dwellers. The tourism sector isalso a must for them for enjoying a luxuriouslife out of the windfall profits they extract.So, a good road has to be built so that theseprofit mongers can easily visit varioustourist centers within the forest. TheNational Highway No. 16, which virtuallybisects the Dandakarnya area and is beingbuilt under the protection of the securityforces, at a cost of crores of rupees and thering roads being built all over the interiorareas, all these are meant precisely andsolely to serve the above sectors. Theroads are also necessary for the quickdeployment of police and para-militaryforces against the revolutionaries.

Now, coming to the railway lines, theKirundul-Kothavalasa railway line was builtsolely for the purpose of transportingBailadilla iron ore to Visakhapatnam port,for onward export to Japan. The Railwaysoperate 32 goods trains daily on this routewhile only one passenger train is operateddaily even though this railway line isdecades old. Thousands of crores ofpeople’s money was spent and thousandsof poor adivasi peasants’ lands wereforcibly acquired, without anycompensation, for the construction of thisline. This is the ‘Development’ the rulersboast about. While this being so, the bigcomprador house, the ESSAR, hascompleted the laying of an under ground

December 2007 5

pipe line connecting Bailadilla withVisakhapatnam port, for transporting ironore. Though there was stiff opposition fromthe adivasi masses as this pipeline will notonly affects thousands of acres of theirfelids, but also destroy a huge tract of theforest, the ruling classes got this workcompleted under the protection of thesecurity forces, so that, their Japaneseimperialist masters can get the ore at stillcheaper transport costs.

Impact of this Path of‘Development’

Now let us see what ‘benefits’ this kindof industrialization and tourism brought tothe adivasi masses. Industrializationdestroyed their homes and fields thushitting hard their livelihoods andendangered their very existence. Theirculture and traditions got trampled upon.For the first time in the history of theseadivasi masses, prostitution has become abig business, with innocent young tribalgirls being pushed in to the flesh trade eitherthrough allurements or by force. Theadivasis, who never even heard aboutsexually transmitted deceases, are nowbecoming victims to them. Even the mostdreaded decease, AIDs too made itsappearance. As a natural corollary,lumpenisation of the youth is going on in abig way. Bailadilla stands as a testimonyfor all the evils this industrialization broughtin to the lives of the adivasi masses. Anerstwhile district Collector of Bastar and awell wisher of the adivasi masses, Mr.Brahmadev Sharma was so moved byseeing these evil consequences that hegave vent to his sorrow about the ‘ dupedlittle sisters of Bastar’, through poetry. Themining works going on in Bailadilla havepolluted the rivers Shankini and Dhakiniso much that the water has turned red.Hundreds of goats and cattle reared by theadivasis living along the banks of theserivers became sick and died after drinkingthis water Fish have almost disappearedfrom these rivers.

In addition, adivasi agriculture isgetting hard hit by the Governmentmeasures termed as development schemes.The Kakonar and Kadime areas of NorthBastar stand as fine examples of this fact.The pitiable state of the peasants of morethan 100 villages in these areas mirrors theabove fact. A socio economic surveyconducted in 04’ by the author of this articleconfirms this. We did a detailed study ofthe socio-economic conditions of more

than 300 families in 10 villages. All thesepeople cultivate their lands and also collectminor forest produce. But the surveyrevealed that the people are graduallygetting separated from both of theseeconomic activities. As the government’sindustrialization and commercialization ofthe forest went on increasing, the people’slives and livelihoods got devastated to thatextent. Hither to agriculture and collectionof minor forest produce both guaranteedthe livelihood of the people.

Some startling facts came to light whenwe looked deeply in to the conditions ofthe abovementioned families. Since the lastfew years their lives are going on entirelyat the mercy of the government/capitalists.The share of their income through thecollection of minor forest produce andagricultural production has becomenominal while that through physical laborhas increased. It is true that there is morecash in people’s hands due to this, but thefact of the matter is that the peasants havenow become laborers. This can becompared with the distortions taking placein other parts of our country’s economy.The share of agriculture in the GDP of thecountry is declining year by year and by2005-06 the share of this sector on which60% of the population depend has comedown to just 22%.

For the majority of the families, out ofthe 300 we surveyed, their traditionalincome (agricultural income and incomefrom selling forest produce) will not besufficient to feed them for more than twomonths. Let us take the information fromtwo villages, Rampur and Warkad, for moreprecise analysis. Not a single family out ofthe 40 families in these two villages couldget more than 15 Kandies ( Kandi= 15 kilos)of grain through their agriculture. We alsoobserved a basic change as regards thecollection of minor forest produce. In thepast people here used to collect variousminor forest produce, which could be eatenby the entire family, including the children.However, we observed that in the presentcircumstances, the collection is going ongiving priority to things that can be sold inthe market. But, as the traders have beenpurchasing them at very cheap prices, nota single family could earn more than Rs.300.Here, there are no employmentopportunities save the work they getthrough government ‘reform schemes.’ Theinformation provided by them reveals thattheir main income comes from labor in the

forest coops. While the income of a family,which earned the highest amount through‘Tendu’ leaf collection, was Rs.1500, itearned another Rs. 3000 through work inthe Bamboo coops. In general both theseworks last from 15 days to 35-40 days in ayear. Road construction works and othersuch works have a secondary importancehere.

That means, people here get an incomeof Rs. 4500 (those of the highest earningfamilies) per year. That means that they willhave to live the entire year with the incomethey earn during those two months. Butthe days of work availability are gettingfewer as the numbers of the unemployedgoes on increasing, swelled by destitutepeasants who were driven out of their landsas a result of ‘developmental works’.

As stated earlier the entireDandakaranya area abounds in a variety ofrich mineral deposits. A big competition isgoing on in the market among various giantMNCs and their Indian comprador agentsto grab this vast wealth. The subservientgovernments both at center and in theconcerned states have decided to auctionthese resources. These governments aregoing to great lengths to please theirimperialist masters by duping people withfalse promises and using brutal force toacquire people’s lands. For example, tocircumvent the provisions of the 73rdamendment to the Constitution, theyconducted bogus Gram Sabhas (villagemeetings) in which policemen, governmentofficials and ruling class henchmen werethe sole participants and announced thatthey have obtained the assent of thepeople for acquiring their lands. And wherethe people boldly resisted theirdisplacement the state used brutal policeforce, beating and arresting a large numberof people including women, as happenedin Nagarnar village. Wherever the miningoperations started people lost the landsthey have been cultivating for generationsand even their homes. The state justwashed its hands by paying a nominalcompensation, major part of which wasswallowed by corrupt officials and thehenchmen of the ruling parties. Manydidn’t get even this meager money, as theyhave no land deeds in their names, thoughthey have been living in those lands fromgenerations.

While this happens to be the state ofthings in the areas with mineral resources,the same problem is manifesting in a

6 December 2007

different form in the areas with extensiveBamboo plantations. There, people had togo to work in Bamboo coops leaving theiragriculture. No guarantee for the crop dueto the vagaries of the monsoon, nogovernment ever even tried to educate themabout settled agriculture as opposed totheir traditional slash-and burn methodcultivation — due to such reasons theadivasi peasants of Beenagonda,Kuvvakodi, Godepari, Podevada,Permilibatti villages on the Maad hills hadto gradually reduce their dependence onagriculture and go for other works, sellingtheir labor power. Had the people been ableto adopt better methods of agriculture andwere able to attend to other wage earningworks during the non-agricultural season,utilizing those earnings to improve theiragriculture, it would have helped to someextent in the betterment of their standardof life. But in places like this where there isno development in agriculture, the wagesearned are not sufficient to even fill theirbellies. What if the works stop for anyreason in such places? The Bambooplantations in the vast forest areas ofKamalapur, Talvada, Koruparsi etc, in theGadchiroli district, which were supplyingraw material to the Ballarsha Paper Mills ofthe house Thapars, are now on the vergeof exhaustion, and the people who used towork there are facing many hardships now.

The forests were getting depleted;supplying raw materials to the Indian bigbourgeois industries and imperialistindustries for more than a century, they arenow getting further devastated now due toever intensifying mining operations,construction of industrial plants,infrastructural facilities, gigantic dams etc,as a part of the implementation of theimperialist globalization policies. Due to thismillions of people are getting displaced andtheir lives are getting devastated. Not onlypeople, many varieties of birds and animalsare becoming extinct due to indiscriminatedestruction of the forest in the name ofdevelopment. The environment is gettingdamaged.

Peoples’ Resistance &New Power in DK

But the people are not taking all thislying down. The people, who came to thefirm conclusion that this exploitative societyis the root cause of their distorted economy,have come forward with a firm determinationto wipe it out the past and usher in abrighter future. They have been fightingfor the last three decades to establish an

alternate system that will ensure realdevelopment and welfare of the people.Whether to compromise with thisexploitative system, loosing all their wealthand ownership rights and live on the mercyof the exploiters or to further intensify andconsolidate the newly emerging alternatesystem of people’s power and theirstruggles? The people have chosen thesecond alternative and stood firmly on thepath of armed struggle. This has hit hardall the schemes of the exploiters. So, in orderto remove this obstacle in their way andimplement their schemes of plunder theruling classes declared a war on the peopleof Dandakaranya.

The people, who were unable to achieveconsiderable improvements in their livesthrough ancient methods of agriculture,have, with a revolutionary curiousness,taken up agricultural reforms. This changewas not sudden but came about in agradual way through the pains-takingefforts of the Maoists. In fact, the Maoistsentered the Dandakarnya rallying thepeople with the slogan ‘Land to the tiller’.Agrarian revolution was and is theirimmediate programme. So, they mobilizedand organized the people for the occupationof forestlands and the lands of thelandlords. Later, as the peasant masses gotconsolidated into mass organizations, theMaoists encouraged and educated themasses to go in for modern methods ofagriculture. The Maoists allotted somecadres well versed in modern methods ofagricultures to educate the peasants. TheMaoists collected seeds from the peasantsof other areas of struggle and distributedthem among the peasants of Dandakarnya.They mobilized the people for theconstruction of irrigation facilities, thoughon a very small scale. They made specialallocations in their meager budget for this.They encouraged the people to formrevolutionary cooperatives. They havebeen educating the adivasi peasants of theMaad hills in particular about the benefitsof settled agriculture as opposed to theslash-and burn method of cultivation,which destroys vast tracts of forests. Theyhave also taken up some measures toresolve the problems concerning publichealth and education, which assumed thesame importance as agriculture has.Similarly they held talks with tradersregarding remunerative prices for collectedforest produce, asking them to lessen theirexploitation. With these and more suchmeasures unprecedented progressive

changes appeared in people’s lives. Allthese revolutionary developmentprogrammes have gained much speed afterthe people started establishing their ownorgans of political power, the JanatanaSarkars. But all this would not have beenpossible without dealing a hard blow onthe hegemony of the exploitative system atthe village level. The war unleashed by theruling classes in the name of Salwa Judumis hindering the advancement of all thesethings. As a result the adivasi masses arefully engaged in countering the rulingclass-initiated war.

The war launched by the ruling classesis going on all fronts. While mainlydepending on the brutal force of thousandsof security forces, they are also taking upreform programs in the name of development.But almost all these are nothing but schemesfor building infrastructural facilities that willhelp in the further plunder of the naturalresources and for the free movement of thepolice/para-military. The ruling classescreated the Salva Judum to give legitimacyto all these things. The people can establisha real democratic economy by intensifyingtheir multi-pronged resistance and puttingan end to the distorted ‘development’ goingon for decades.

It must be clearly understood that themuch propagated Salwa Judum and‘Naxalite menace’, etc, in Chhatisgarh is notabout ‘terrorism’, as is made out, but abouttwo paths of development. The first standsfor the huge mining and other projects bybig business (both Indian and foreign) andthe massive displacement and destructionof adivasi’s livelihood and habitat. Thesecond is for the scientific development ofagriculture basing on indigenousresources, preservation of the forests andits rich natural resources, together with anend to the varied types of loot of theadivasis by rapacious politicians,bureaucrats, traders, and the tribal elite.

The ongoing war in Chattisgarh isclearly to be seen for these two paths ofdevelopment. All must decide on which sidethey stand. To pretend neutrality, sayingthat the “innocent adivasis” are caughtbetween the violence of two evil forces(equating Naxalite violence with that of thestate), is patently false, hypocritical and inessence acts to justify state terror in theregion. The time has come for all genuinedemocrats to take a clear stand on whichside they are — for the robber barons, orfor the adivasis; for the loot of the country,or for justice for the people!!

PMPMPMPMPM

December 2007 7

ON November 3, General Musharrafdeclared a State of Emergency

(defacto Martial law) in Pakistan arrestinghundreds including the judges who wereto give a decision on his earlier election.All news channels went off the air and evencell phones stopped operating.Newspapers were strictly monitored toreport positively. The reason for theEmergency given was increased terrorattacks in Pakistan and judicial activism thathad paralysed the government. A newpliant Chief Justice was appointed whooverruled an order issued by hispredecessor, Iftikhar Chaudhry, annullingthe Emergency imposed by Musharraf.Chaudhary and the eight other judges hadalso refused to endorse the ProvisionalConstitutional Order issued by Musharrafto suspend fundamental rights and to sackor replace the judges of the Supreme Courtand the Provincial High Courts. On the nextday the demonstration by lawyers againstthe puppet judges appointed, was brutallylathi-charged and many lawyers arrested.Astonishingly on the day the Emergencywas declared Benazir Bhutto hadmysteriously gone on a ‘private visit’ toDubai and returned after the declarationdemanding the lifting of the Emergency.She of course was not touched, suspectingthat there was a private deal between herand Musharraf.

Pakistan can expect much more turmoilin the coming days, primarily due to foreign(particularly US) interference in the internalaffairs of Pakistan. The chief reason for thepresent turmoil is the US’s utilization ofPakistan in its various geo-politicalstrategies which are now beginning tobackfire. Besides, the changing USconception regarding South Asia is takingits toll on Pakistan, which has been one ofits most reliable tools for decades.

For nearly a decade the US promotedthe Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan toutilize it in its proxy war against the Sovietoccupation of Afghanistan. The US tacitlyalso supported the Islamic jehadis whowere sent to Kashmir from Pakistan. But inthe 1990s after the collapse of the SovietUnion and its retreat from Afghanistan, and

WITHDRAW THE EMERGENCY; STOP ALL FOREIGN

INTERFERENCE IN PAKISTAN

particularly after 9/11 in 2001, the Islamicforces in the world, with its centre inAfghanistan became the main threat to theUS. Now the US demanded that Pakistanuse its military to combat the Islamic forcesin Afghanistan. This turn-around has notbeen easy for those in power in Pakistanwho have nurtured the Islamists fordecades. Yet Musharraf was successful, tosome extent, in bringing about the changein return for over $ 10 billion from the US(since 2001).

Yet, Jehadi influence in the Pak armyand ISI has been very high. In additionabout 25% of the army comprises Pashtunswho are being used to fight their brethrenin the Afghan border areas. Most areunwilling as was indicated by the recent‘surrender’ of hundreds to the Talibanforces in the East. It will not be easy for theUS and Pak rulers to sustain this battle ofusing Muslims to kill Muslims.

Musharraf’s turn-around at US behesthas antagonized the Islamic forces inPakistan and so he has been the target of anumber of attacks. Particularly after hisrecent ruthless attack on Lal Masjid, killinglarge numbers, there have been a series oflethal suicide attacks on the Pakistaniforces. Musharraf is playing a highlydangerous game of balancing between thedemands of the US and keeping the Islamicforces in control.

Then enters the Benazir Bhutto factor,nursed and nurtured abroad by the US forthe last 7 to 8 years. Benazir is to fit the newUS equations in South Asia where the USis seeking to make India its prime ally in theregion and all other countries of South Asia,including Pakistan, subservient to the US-India Axis. Benazir has been groomed toplay this new role and has been giving anumber of pro-India statements. BesidesBenazir would help give the Musharrafmilitary regime a democratic façade. ButBenazir would not be able to deal with theIslamic forces with Musharraf out of thescene. So the US and Britain stronglypushed for a Benazir-Musharrafrapprochement and sharing of power as thebest possible solution under the presentcircumstances. Musharraf is needed still by

the US to balance the Islamic forces andcontinue the US’s war against the Taliban,while Benazir is needed to bring in the newUS equation in South Asia. To make areluctant Musharraf cede to the deal,continuous pressure has been mounted onhim, through tacit support to the judges totake a stand against Musharraf and supporttheir movement against him. No doubt theUS will be having another pliant militarygeneral in mind incase Musharraf turnsdifficult and needs to be replaced.

Benazir Bhutto has being playing anextremely dubious game. When thelawyer’s movement was at its peak in thesummer, she sat on the sidelines. Worse,she was making deals with Mussharaf tomake an entry into Pak politics and to haveall corruption cases against her withdrawn.The so-called National Reconciliation Orderpromulgated then by Musharraf, whilesupposedly benefiting 500 politicians andbureaucrats (Nawaz Sharief does not seemto have been included in this), was designedspecifically to withdraw the numerous casesof corruption against Bhutto. Estimatessuggest that she would have gained $1.5billion through the deal.

On this occasion too it was clear thatshe had prior knowledge of the Emergency,so she left the country and only returnedafter getting a guarantee that she would beallowed to ‘protest’. Since her return herPPP is the only party that has not beenattacked. While all others are either in jailor underground, (including Imran Khan andhis party) the PPP leadership is allowed togo around the country and stage ‘protests’.Of course the level of protests will bemonitored by the army rulers and notallowed beyond a point; but, the reality isthat Bhutto is putting forward nothing morethan the demands of the US and otherimperialist powers — i.e. for Musharraf toshed his uniform and to hold elections asearlier scheduled (in January). In the courseof these ‘protests’ as soon as she was putunder house arrest, the US immediatelyordered she be released. She was promptlyreleased.

Today Pakistan’s politics is on the edgeof a precipice; these entire new equations

8 December 2007

are extremely fragile and can blow up intheir faces as was seen by the blast on thevery day of arrival of Benazir to the countrykilling 140 and injuring hundreds more. Boththe US and Benazir were having fullknowledge before the declaration ofEmergency. Yet to some extent Musharraf,by declaring an Emergency, has upset theUS plans; so the US continues to putstrong pressure on Musharraf to give uphis uniform, release the judges, holdelections and cement the relation withBenazir and thus garner a democraticfacade— Musharraf President with Benaziras Prime Minister. The US response to theEmergency is nothing like its response inMyanmar — it is mild and the Pentagoncontinues to say it will engage withMusharraf as they cannot afford to losethis important ally in the war against theislamists in Afghanistan, which is spiralingout of control.

Yet, it must not be forgotten that theIslamic forces in Pakistan are very strong,and Pakistan has a nuclear bomb.Besides, the Army in Pakistan wieldsenormous power — not only politicallybut also financially. So the Islamic forcescannot be just pushed aside. USmeddling in the affairs of Pakistan fordecades has wrought havoc on thatcountry. There is no easy solution and itis only a matter of time before the Islamicforces begin to assert themselves morestrongly against US ploys. As we go tothe press the US publicly states thatMusharraf is a necessary ally in the waragainst terrorism giving tacit support toMusharraf and all the steps taken.Immediately Musharraf makes a furthermockery of democracy by taking a highprofile press conference and announcingJan.9th as the date for the elections; butalso categorically stating that it will be

held under the Emergency. So there willbe yet another farce.

Unfortunately right from its inceptionPakistan never had any revolutionaryforce in the country that could steer themasses away from both thefundamentalists and the so-called secularforces like Bhutto.

If Pakistan is to survive the impendingturmoil it must immediately put an end toall foreign meddling and give up its role asa front paws of the US in Afghanistan; itmust stand up to Indian hegemony that isbound to grow; it must give the right toself-determination of all the nationalities ofPakistan; and most important it mustdevelop a revolutionary and democraticmovement that can change the face ofPakistan and build a genuine democraticsystem.

ONNovember 2 the Sri Lankan armybombed a secret camp of the LTTE

killing Tamilchelvan and 5 other seniormembers of the LTTE. The 40-year oldTamilchelvan was the head of the LTTE’spolitical wing and the chief politicalnegotiator at the talks with the SriLankan government and SLMM (SriLankan Monitoring Mission). It is clearfrom this action that the Sri Lankangovernment has no intention to come toa negotiated settlement of the decades-long conflict. This will be at its own perilas the national feelings of the Tamils ofSri Lanka cannot be crushed under thethreat of guns and blood.

This retaliation is an act ofdesperation of the Sri Lankangovernment who faced a massive losswhen the LTTE bombed and destroyedmuch of its air force in an air cum groundattack at the Anuradhapura Air base onOct 22nd. The government hasacknowledged the loss of eight aircraftand 14 air force personnel besidessubstantial military equipment, whileunofficial reports put the number ofaircraft destroyed at 23.

It is now 16 months since theNorway brokered ceasefire agreement(CFA) is in shreds, ripped apart by the

STRONGLY CONDEMN THE MURDER OF TAMILCHELVANdouble-dealing of the Sri Lankangovernment that sought to utilize thetalks to isolate the LTTE and weaken itmilitarily. The LTTE broke away from thisfraud and took a military offensive. InAugust 2005 the Tigers assassinatedthe foreign minister, LakshamanKadirgamar; followed by attempts onChief army commander, Sarath Fonsekaand Defence Secretary, GothabayaRajapaksa (brother of the president andchief campaigner against the LTTE)— both of whom were seriously injured.In June 2006 the deputy chief of thearmy (who was acting as the chief dueto the injury of Fonseka) wasassassinated.

The Sri Lankan government is alsogetting substantial support from India asalso intelligence inputs. The Indian rulerswho have ruthlessly been suppressingthe nationality movements in Kashmirand the North East cannot tolerate asimilar type of movement in aneighbouring country of South Asia.India has, of late also signed a numberof trade agreements with Sri Lanka,which seeks to tie hand-and-foot the SriLankan economy to the interests ofIndian big business and TNCs. Withsuch strong control over the Sri Lankan

economy the Indian rulers, though theycannot give overt support due to seriousopposition from Tamilnadu, are giving allthe covert support possible to the SriLankan government. This has increasedof late particularly after the breakdownof the CFA.

By this latest action on the chiefpolitical negotiator it is clear that the SriLankan government was never seriouson solving the issue through negotiationsbut only through military genocide. Oflate they have launched a massiveoffensive against the north killing anunrecorded number of civilians throughaerial bombing.

We reiterate that the right of theTamil people of Sri Lanka for their ownhomeland is a just demand and nonationality can forcibly be kept as partof a country against their wishes. Westrongly condemn the murder ofTamilchelvan and demand punishmentfor the perpetrators. We demand that theIndian rulers stop interfering in theinternal affairs of Sri Lanka; that all theunequal agreements and treaties bescrapped and that an immediate stopbe put to the supply of military andintelligence support to the Sri Lankangovernment.

November 10, 2007 PMPMPMPMPM

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December 2007 9

ON all social and economic indicatorsthe CPM-ruled West Bengal is behind

some of the least developed states. Theclaims of the Left Front government arebeing laid bare by mass agitations of thepeople and also by official reports. Threedecades of duplicity are now finally beingexposed — first by the agitations at Singurand the ongoing fascist terror at Nandigram(see also earlier issues), by the ration riotssweeping six districts of West Bengal andthe people’s wrath against the CPM-big-business nexus in the Rizwanur murder case.

Ration RiotsDue to high levels of corruption in the

rationing system and the sale of rations inthe open market, APL cardholders claimthat they have not received rations for thelast year. Their patience in peaceful protestsdemanding setting right the rationingsystem finally broke into a fury towardsend September, against the nexus betweenthe ration shop owners, local CPM leaders,officials and the police. The people gavevent to their anger on this mafia, burningshops, confiscating material and attackingthis nexus violently. The CPM resorted tobrutal repression to stop this raging massmovement. The CPM led governmentresorted to lathi-charges, firing of tear-gasshells and even police firing. In the firstweek of October two villagers were killedin police firing.

In Bankura district a trader committedsuicide after a people’s court demanded thathe should pay a fine for selling the rationgrain in the black market. Trouble onceagain erupted on Oct 7th in Murshidabadand Burdwan districts when houses andgodowns of ration dealers were set on fireby mass of agitators. An office of the CPMwas ransacked and set on fire in theNababhat area of Burdwan district. Thelocal CPM MLA along with several otherparty workers was injured in the incident.The police intervened and have set up acamp in the area. There were also reportsof confiscation of property in Khargram areaof Murshidabad district where policeresorted to a lathi charge. Parts of Birbhum,Bankura and Nadia districts have witnessedsimilar scenes. So far three ration dealershave committed suicide afraid of facing the

CPM-LED WEST BENGAL GOVERNMENT’S SOCIAL-FASCISTFANGS BARED

wrath of the masses. On Oct 11th morningover 1,000 villagers of Siddhepara ofBurdwan district gheraoed the rationdealer’s house and ransacked it along withhis shop. In Murshidabad district hundredsof tribals, armed with bows and arrows,gheraoed a ration dealer’s house andransacked it.

The violent agitation first erupted onSept.16th against corrupt ration dealers inBankura district and spread to Burdwan,Birbhum, Murshidabad, Hoogly and Nadiadistricts. All the ration dealers are nothingbut the front men of the CPM governmentand their local officials. The massive fraudby the sale of APL rations in the openmarket deprived lakhs of poverty-strickenof cheap grain while giving windfall loot tothe ration-dealer-CPM-official nexus.People’s pent-up anger against thiscombine finally burst forth all over the state.

CPM/Police Big BusinessNexus

Recently, there has been muchresentment against the chief minister andtop police officers who have obviouslybeen involved in doing away with onesoftware professional, Rizwanur Rahaman,who had married the daughter of a topindustrialist and trying to pass off hismurder as a suicide. The top businessmansuspected to be the culprit, is one AshokTodi, owner of Lux Cozy brand of innergarments. The nexus between Todi, theCPM and top police officials has come outin the open quite clearly and in spite of allevidence pointing towards this truth, thepolice are still trying desperately to pass itof as a case of suicide. The people of themiddle class locality where Rahman livedand the people of Bengal are furious withthe role of the CPM and the police in thiscover up.

Rizwanaur married Todi’s daughter inspite of vehement opposition from the Todifamily. Rizanaur came from a lower middleclass Muslim family while Todi’s was a bigbusiness Hindu family. The policecommissioner of Kolkota, who was closeto the CM, was personally involved in theattempts to prevent the marriage and in thethreats meted out to the Rehman family.Even after the brutal murder the police (no

doubt with the assistance of the CPM andits chief minister) has gone out of the wayto plant stories in the media to give theimpression of suicide. Even the CBIinvestigation is being dragged on. It is clearthat the CPM government is hell-bent onbailing out the murderer, Todi and hishenchmen.

Repeat of Fascist terror inNandigram

Having been forced to retreat from itsSEZ project at Nandigram due to the massresistance of the areas- roughly 20,000population dispersed in about eightvillages- the CPM has since been involvedin fascist terror to recapture its oncestronghold. With panchayat elections duein May 2008 the CPM is desperate to regaincontrol of this area. But the people ofNandigram have been fighting back andresisting the onslaught by armed hoodlumsof the CPM, backed by the police. Thepeople of Nandigram have armedthemselves, built roadblocks and defendedtheir village from CPM terror. Over the last30 years in rural West Bengal no one dareddisobey the dictat of the local CPM bosses.They did so at their own peril. If any daredoppose them they were socially boycotted,harassed over rations and other needs, allavenues of employment were blocked andthey would be forced to capitulate; if stillnot amenable they would be thrashed andeven killed. The CPM’s mass base was alsomaintained and controlled by dispensingfavours and such tight controls. It was,what the Maoists say, a social fascist typeof rule — socialism in words and fascism indeeds.

For the first time the people of ruralBengal have stood up against this terror,even at the cost of a large number of lives.The CPM is panicky that if the people ofNandigram stand up it can become anexample for the rest of rural Bengal. So, theyare hell bent on re-capturing it; as theevents in November have shown. The freshround of violence, killings and rape are theresult of this desperate attempt of the CPMto take back Nandigram, and the equallydetermined villagers to resist the attack —reportedly with the assistance of theMaoists. The fact that the CPM members

10 December 2007

are responsible is clear even fromstatements by the Home Secretary and eventhe Governor of West Bengal.

The Home secretary said on November7th that the fresh violence was triggered byshots fired by CPM supporters from Khejuri.And after the continuing violence theGovernor said on Nov.9th “the manner inwhich the recapture of Nandigram villagesis being attempted is totally unlawful andunacceptable”. The CPM killing spree beganonce again in the first week of November.While the rampage continued the CPMblocked out the entire press from the areaand the police saw that the recapture planwent as per CPM dictates. But, with a visitof Medha Patkar a number of human rightsactivists the issue began to spiral out ofcontrol. Even these intellectuals were notspared by the CPM hoodlums; enroute toNandigram their vehicles were attacked, andMedha Patkar was dragged out of the carby the hair and beaten. And even after thisevent the top leadership of the CPM did notapologize on the contrary they went on anattack against her and particularly againstthe governor’s statement. They went so faras to threaten the transfer of the governor.In this they got the full backing of theCongress at the Centre. Digvijay Singh,Congress spokesperson, criticized thegovernor and top Bengal leaders like PranabMukherjee refused comment on events inhis home state.

The next day when event had reachedto such a level with Medha Patkar onhunger strike in Kolkota and a large numberof intellectuals out in the streets tocondemn the CPM violence and evenfissures within the left front,the CPMintensified the level of violence firing onpeace rallies killing four persons, raping twowomen and injuring dozens. It was nothingshort of fascist terror repeated.

According to a report: “CPM cadresfired indiscriminately at the peaceful rallynear Amgachiya, approximately 3 kmsfrom Nandigram, without any provocationfrom the 5,000 BUPC (Bhumi UchchedPratirodh Committee) members whoparticipated in it. Five bodies have beenfound while many more are lying on thefield near Khejuri. They have captured 200BUPC members and took them away toKhejuri where they are being beaten andtortured. BUPC members admitted twowomen to Tamluk hospital. The women,one from Satengabari and the other from

Sonachura, claimed that the CPM cadresrepeatedly raped them before they wererescued. The state police refused toaccompany the peace rally but wieldedbatons and fired tear gas shells on BUPCmembers when they staged a peacefuldemonstration in front of Nandigrampolice station after the CPM attack. “

Meanwhile a large number of oppositionparties have called a Bengal bandh onNov.12th. Top filmmakers Aparna Sen andRituporno Ghosh announced their decisionto boycott the 13th Kolkota Film Festival,which was inaugurated by the ChiefMinister on Nov.10th. Senior RSP leader andPWD Minister, Kshiti Goswami, threatenedto resign. Famous writer, Maheshweta Devihas been in the forefront of the protestsagainst the CPM, not withstanding her ageand poor health.

In the face of all this, CPM leaders atboth the state level and at the centre, havetaken an aggressive posture baring theirsocial fascist fangs. Pliant intellectualslinked to the CPM are either silent on theevents unfolding in West Bengal or tryingto cover up their brutal deeds.

Official Reports Expose WBGovt’s So-calledProgressive Record

Not only at the ground level is the farceof the CPM’s development of West Bengalgetting thoroughly exposed, even someofficial reports show the hoax of the so-called CPM led Left Front government’sprogressiveness.

According to a CAG ( Controller andAuditor General) report, the UPAgovernment’s (of which the CPM is themajor prop) flagship programme, SarvaShikshan Abhiyan (SSA), is lagging behindin West Bengal with 9 lakh school childrenofficially out of the school system in theState. In West Bengal 9% of the villageshave no Village Education Committees andwhere they do have, 47% are not trained torun the programme. Of the 50,225 primaryschools in the state, 20% had only oneclassroom and 40% do not have toilets. Ofthe Central outlay for the state between2001-05, of Rs.1, 685 crore for the SSA, thestate government had drawn a mere 47%,showing its clear lack of interest ineradicating illiteracy in the state.

The state of affairs was the same inother welfare programmes like the Targeted

Public Distribution System (IPDS) and theAntyodaya Anna Yojna(AAY) which aremeant to provide food grains to thosebelow the poverty line.

Between the years 2001-06, it couldachieve only 49% of the target procurementof rice for the BPL population. Also, as muchas 68% of the total allocation of the foodgrains was not lifted by the West Bengalgovernment for distribution through the fairprice shops during the same period.

Let alone all the tall claims to changethe system by the CPM, even within theexisting system its anti-poor bias is clear.

Also, according to a book recentlyreleased (Development Policy of aCommunist Government by Ross Mallick)the land reforms it introduced affected avery small elite group and was corruptedquickly over time.

The West Bengal leadership comprisesmostly upper-caste urban elite. During theMandal Commission period, the then ChiefMinister, Jyoti Basu, openly stated that“the caste system was a legacy of thefeudal system” and thus “no longerrelevant for West Bengal”. This bias isreflected in the state of the scheduledcastes and Muslims of West Bengal, whichhas one of the worst records compared toall other states. This has come out inrecently produced official reports.

Today the new Chief Minister hasbecome one of the most outspokenproponents of foreign and big businesscapital in West Bengal. He wants six privateairports in the state. He demands thepresence of mega retail chains like Wal-Mart, and is demanding funds forinfrastructural development in the privatesector. Japan and Israel, two of the US’smajor military allies, are among the state’sbiggest investors.

So what is the difference between theCPM-led West Bengal Government and theother parties whether the Congress, BJPor state level parties? No matter what one’sstated intentions are, as long as onebecomes part of the system it has to liveby the laws that govern it. The CPI/CPMhave been doing just that when in powerand all their demagogic ‘left’ talk cannotcover up the truth of what they really are.It is time that all the progressives anddemocratic people understand their truecharacter and stand up for justice and thestruggling masses of West Bengal and therest of the country.

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December 2007 11

As we go to the press reports are reaching us of the unimaginable terror let loose in Nandigram by over 5,000 armed CPMhoodlums on November 11th. The arrogance of this attack is evident from the fact that this attack took place while over hundredintellectuals were demonstrating on the issue, even the governor was voicing his dissent and even large number civil rights andother such elements were voicing their concern.

It is reported that for the last four months over 5,000 hoodlums from all over West Bengal (and also from Bihar) were beingtrained with modern weapons at neighbouring Khejuri for this attack. On this fateful day they entered the villages of Nandigramfiring indiscriminately and following it up by rape, loot, arson and burning of the villages. In a method reminiscent of medievalbarbarians, the CPM organized the attack placing 500 BUPC members, all tied up, in the forefront as human shield to preventretaliatory fire and landmine attacks. There was no confirmation of how many people were killed or injured and how many raped,as the media was barred from entering areas where most of the fighting was taking place. CPM hoodlums guarded all entry andexit points. The police stood at a distance and watched the entire massacre. In fact it has been reported that they assisted themassacre by combing the nearby areas to prevent any retreat.

News is coming in that about 2,500 people are missing and that most of the villages have been burnt to ashes after looting allthe belongings. Many reports also came in of women being raped in large numbers. It is reported that in this meticulouslyplanned operation by top leaders of the CPM and police, the CPM has captured 12 of the 17 blocks of Nandigram. Ironically, thisentire operation was completed just as the CRPF reached the area. Now the CRPF will no doubt ‘maintain the peace’ — whichmeans preventing any retaliation against the CPM. The entire operation seems to be a neatly worked out strategy by the Stateand Centre.

Simultaneous to this action the police also turned violent against the intellectuals protesting against the Nandigram massacre.More than 100 intellectuals were beaten up and arrested when they refused to disperse from a rally near the popular NandanComplex, where the 13th Kolkota Film Festival was being organized. Among the protestors were noted film directors Aparna Sen,Rituparna Ghosh and Anjan Dutta, Poet Joy Goswani, painters Subhaprassana, Sanatan Dinda and Samir Aich, theatre personalitySuman Mukherjee and singer Pallab Kirtania. A massive police force had taken over the Nanden Complex. Unable to enter, theintellectuals sat on the road shouting slogans, singing songs and reciting poetry. After senior officers failed to disperse them,police descended on them in large numbers, beating them up before arresting many of them.

Meanwhile cracks have also appeared in the Left Front with the RSP minister, Kshiti Goswami, resigning and the three alliedparties putting the blame solely on the CPM for what is happening in Nandigram.

Ironically the Congress, the main opposition party in West Bengal has defacto given a clean chit to the CPM with mildadmonishments. In fact even as the CPM was conducting its genocide the National Security Advisor, Narayanan, said he “didnot rule out the possibility of a Maoist hand in the violence”. Conveniently the CPM immediately picked up the cue and ascriticism began mounting against it, it gave the presence of Maoists as the sole reason for the massacre.

But yet the full facts are yet to come out on the level of the butchery. Full details will be carried in the next issue of themagazine. But with this action one thing is clear, the ruling classes are prepared to go to any extreme at extermination of the peoplewhen faced with a challenge to their existence. They could not even care for public opinion. For them Might is Right. Yet, thoughmany a heroic person of Nandigram may have fallen but their sacrifice would no have gone in vain; by defacto liberatingNandigram from CPM rule for three months the people of Nandigram have shown that even in a plain area if the masses are armedand well trained they can create their own self rule in their areas. Let us pay homage to the martyrs of Nandigram who gave theirlives fighting social fascism.

For the first time in the three decades of CPM rule, a West Bengal Bandh against it, on November 12th, was fully successful.The Bandh called against the genocide in Nandigram brought life in West Bengal to a total halt, in spite of the full attempts of theCPM to keep life normal. Nandigram is going to act as the graveyard of the CPM social-fascist rule in West Bengal. Its onlysaving is that there is no viable alternative in the State; and the Maoists, who alone can lead an alternative to,are yet not a majorforce in the State.

Meanwhile, on Nov.14th, as news began to filter out of Nandigram of the extent of the killings, assaults, rape and arson by theCPM, lakhs poured out onto the streets of Kolkota, in a spontaneous surge of anger. The Hindustan Times reported: “As the riverof humanity flowed through the city from College Square thousands joined spontaneously on the way to Esplanade. Kolkotacame to a standstill. People in large numbers overshadowed the Who’s Who of the Bengali intelligentsia with their spontaneity.Students, lawyers, corporate executives, teachers and others joined hands with actors, television stars, filmmakers, authors,poets and intellectuals in condemning the forcible recapture and the killings at Nandigram by CPM hoodlums. At the head ofthe mammoth procession was a vast spectrum of film personalities including Mrinal Sen. …..And at every step, hundreds ofpeople joined in, adding steam to the anger and anguish that have accumulated with news of the killings trickling in fromNandigram.”

But at Nandigram itself the rampage continued. Those who did not bow to the wishes of the CPM were being beaten. Farmershave been ordered not to touch their harvest without permission of local CPM leaders. Villagers have been slapped with a fee ofRs.10,000 to 30,000, depending on the size of the land, to take home their harvest. There are bike-riding armed cadres roaming thevillages day and night threatening all and sundry. The local police and CRPF are busy “hunting for the Maoists” turning a blindeye to the continuing CPM rampage. The Chief Minister Budhadev Bhattacharya, in Hitlerian/Modi style thundered “theopposition got the right treatment”.(Nov. 15, 2007)

CPM-Sponsored Genocide in Nandigram

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12 December 2007

THE media hype over the massive stockmarket boom has attracted the attention

of all. It is being portrayed as though it is asign of a booming economy and that Indiais now a powerful country in theinternational arena. All know that it is thehuge amounts pumped in by the FIIs thatare creating this boom. But they do not givethe reason for such money in an increasinglyglobalised financial market. In just the fivedays of Sept 22 to 27th the FII pumped intothe country a record $3.66 billion (Rs.14,638crores). In the month of October over $ 5billion came into the country. Thisspeculative money pushed the stockexchange to astronomical levels. This is thehighest ever amount of FIIs to enter India insuch a short period. FII investment in theIndian stock market is a total of $60 billion(Rs. 2½ lakh crores) since they were firstallowed in 1992. It is they who control anddominate all movements on the stockexchange. The main reason for such asudden flood of funds is that with theserious sub-prime crisis in the west and thecollapse of a lot of the loans and mortgagesas also the lowering of the US interest rates,the returns are far more in India than theywill get abroad — so the massive flood offunds. This has nothing to do with thestrength of the Indian economy.

India opened its financial markets with abig bang with the beginning of theliberalization process. The pet argumentborrowed from the World Bank, IMF wasthat if the free trade in goods was going toraise incomes then why should there not befree trade in financial instruments? Withsome dose of nationalistic jargon it was saidthat this situation will enable the Indianinvestors to borrow internationally at thecheapest rate, and that such opening willprovide liquidity to the system.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs)manage both equity related and debt relatedfunds. Besides, there are sub-accountsfunds comprising foreign firms andindividuals with high net worth managedby domestic portfolio managers registeredas FIIs. In addition, there are ParticipatoryNotes (PNs), a derivative operating as analternative to sub-accounts. The hedgefunds, among other investors, are notregulated in their mother countries and are

FIIS STRANGULATE INDIAN ECONOMYDr Gupta

poised to harvest quick returns exploitingthe route offered by sub-accounts and PNsto invest in the Indian market. The FIIsthat are allowed to register in India includeasset management companies andincorporated/institutional portfoliomanagers, and the 1992 guidelines by thegovernment allowed them to invest onbehalf of their clients registered in thecountry. These clients are the “sub-accounts” of registered FIIs. Participatorynotes (PNs) are instruments sold by FIIsregistered in the country to clients abroadthat are derivates linked to an underlyingsecurity traded in the domestic market.Such a derivative not only allows theforeign clients of the FIIs to earn hugeincomes from trading in the domesticmarket, but also to trade these notesthemselves in international markets. It islearnt from “The Report of the ExpertGroup on Encouraging FII Inflows andChecking the Vulnerability of CapitalMarkets to Speculative Flows” – anunequivocal apologia for speculativecapital – released in November 2005 bythe Govt. of India that PNs as a proportionof net FII investment (equity and debt)during the period from September 2003 toMarch 2004, averaged 26.35 per cent. Thispercentage increased to 32.69 in 2004-05.And between April 2005 and August 2005it rose further to 40.31 per cent. Today, over50% of the FII funds entering the StockExchange are through PNs, which enablethe actual investor to hide himself.

Though the Congress or NDA or thenthe CPM backed UPA government havebeen over enthusiastic to give legalsanctity to such dangerous funds, it is acruel joke that the ultimate investor of aPN is not identified with sub-accountsremaining anonymous. It is now clear thathedge funds comprise a very highpercentage of foreign equity investmentsin India. The regulatory bodies have beenproved a miserable failure and it must havebeen so as the slavish pursuant of LPGcannot act otherwise. The number of FIIsregistered in India, after the full-scaleopening of the door to India, rose from321 in end 2002-03 to 823 in December 2005.The National Common MinimumProgramme that the CPM clamors for,clearly states that “FIIs will continue to

be encouraged ……” as a part of thereforms. Similarly the above mentionedReport of the Expert Group made itabundantly clear that “…………. Anyrecommendation made today should beconsistent with the broad strategy offurther liberalization, and not look likeor be a roll back of reforms.”

We cannot forget the stock market scamof 2001 and Black Monday (May 17, 2004)in India. With the servile policy of theIndian state, speculative capital is not onlywelcomed but is also given legal status.With such huge funds dominating theIndian economy, it now stands vulnerableto onslaughts to speculative attacks againand again creating danger for the economyand the common people.

Euphoria over India’sGrowth Based onSpeculative Capital

The flow of speculative capital in Indiarose unprecedentedly in 2003-04. FIIspoured a huge sum of $ 10.9 billion into theIndia share market in Oct-Dec 2003 alone.This was not the result of the performanceof the Indian economy. The turnover of theshare market (i.e. total buying and selling)in that period soared by 265 per unit. Butthis did not stay at that level. In April 2004,the trend cooled and in May 2004 itself,saw the exit of $ 457 million of FII funds.The boom in the stock market did notproduce any benefit for the Indianeconomy as a whole. The hectic trading inshares merely redistributed money amongthe players in the market. As happened inthe past, if the companies issued freshshares to fund industrial investment thatmight have been beneficial to the industrialproduction sector. Such issues of sharesfor industrial investment turned out to be anegligible sum.

With the assumption of office by theCPM supported UPA government in themiddle of May 2004 there was immediatelysome down slide in the share markets. ThePrime Minister in one of his earlierstatements appeasingly told the sharemarket “that there was no reason for anyoneto panic”. Mr. Chidambaram flew down toMumbai to meet speculators and assuredthem many incentives in the forthcomingbudget to boost the share market. The first

December 2007 13

UPA budget that received applause fromthe CPM-led Left, provided dollops ofbenefits for the flourishing share market.Banks were allowed greater scope to fundtrading in share markets. FIIs were earliernot allowed to invest more than $ 1 billionin debt funds; that ceiling was raised to $1.75 billion. What was more significant wasthat the tax on long-term capital gains inshare trading had been scrapped altogether,and on short-term capital gains had beenreduced to 10 %. This was a great benefitfor the share markets in India and gave abig boost to FII flows to India.

The whole story of India’s growthacceleration trend presented as robusteconomic performance benefited more fromthe globalization of capital markets thanfrom the globalization of trade, writesChetan Ahya, Executive Director, MorganStanley (Economic Times, 3.9.2007).Morgan Stanley is an overseas fund housewith huge investment in stocks and fundsglobally. Mr. Ahya suggests the remedyagainst the sustained slow-down in capitalinflows in India after the sub-prime marketcrash is to enhance the risk appetite asgrowth is bound up with risky investment,the hall mark of speculative business. Inhis words: “rise in risk appetite – rise innon FDI credit inflows-lower real rates –strong credit – driven growth”.

For the whole of this financialisation ofthe economy i.e. the dominance of stockmarkets, mutual funds, hedge funds, etc.risk is the mantra. Countries like India arenow excessively reliant on external sourcesof risk capital and any turmoil in the globalchain of this risk capital impacts globally.While the imperialist countries can at leastsave themselves by state intervention tobail the economy out of crisis (as hashappened on numerous occasions), forcountries like India the coming out of thecrisis is fraught with multitudinous strainson the economy. The current sub-primecrisis is threatening to paralyze the fountainof risk capital, which was supporting riskyassets. Yet the globalised financial marketsbased on hedge funds and such othermysterious funds cannot change track. Thispresent crisis will continue for some timeas the cracks have occurred in the centreof the imperialist system; i.e. the USA. Onceagain the crisis-ridden global capitalisteconomy will take the plunge on the basisof this risky adventure, perhaps the last

straw to keep capitalism alive, not relyingbasically on production but speculation.

Instances of DangerousOperations of SpeculativeMarket

A large section of speculators buy andsell continuously without taking deliveryof the shares. Thus, if such a speculatoranticipates any rise in the price of theshares, he buys them at the present price;but even before obtaining delivery of theshares themselves, if the price rises, heimmediately sells them at a higher price togain profit. In the same way, if thespeculator foresees a fall in the price ofshares, he sells them even if he does notown the shares. When the price falls, hebuys the shares – the difference betweentheir selling price and buying price is hisprofit. Such trades without delivery ofshares are one of the ways to make a quickbuck. Some actual deliveries, however, takeplace to square up the positions of differentbrokers at the end of the day. But deliverieshappen to be much less than about onethird of the total buying and selling ofshares.

A very recent trend that is picking up inthe share market is leveraging mutual fundportfolio for bigger gains. Investors pledgetheir mutual fund portfolio (or shareportfolio) to raise a loan. Supposing thatan investor has a mutual fund portfolioworth Rs. 30 lakh, he will pledge the wholelot with an investment company, mostly anon-banking financial company, to take aloan. Most firms give 60-70% exposure onthe portfolio pledged. If the company gives70% exposure to the pledged pool, theinvestor would get about Rs. 21 lakh atabout 13.5 to 14% floating interest perannum. The investor can now increase hismarket exposure from Rs. 30 lakh to Rs. 51lakh (the pledged portfolio + the loanedamount). This type of portfolio leveragingby mutual fund investors is a growing trend.There are also lots of other routes tospeculative profits.

Real Estate Boom in IndiaGoing the US Way

In recent times, all major real estatecompanies have been on a fund raisingspree, mostly by going to the capitalmarkets or through Private Equity (PE) fundinfusion. India’s huge real estate businessis following the US path to doom. The

Bombay Stock Exchange has introduced anindex for it. Foreign investment of $ 10billion is expected to flow into this sectorover the next 12-18 months. Promoting thisbusiness has assumed so much importancethat several institutions have come up inIndia since 2001 to run specialized coursesin realty. SEZs are coming up in hordes forlarge-scale operations of real estates.Private equity funds and foreigninstitutional investors have flocked to theIndian shores to take advantage of thehigher returns that the residential real estatesector offered. The danger is not very farfor India.

India in Mortgage to WorldBank, MNCs, FIIs

With the neo-liberal agenda, the UPAgovernment opened up the retail trade,warehousing, mining and many othersensitive sectors to foreign capital andenhanced the FDI cap in the telecom sectorto 74 per cent. This government acceptedthe diktat of the final declaration at theHong Kong ministerial conference of theWTO to keep wide open the service sectorslike financial sectors, health and educationto the MNCs. It has accepted, in principle,capital account convertibility, a boon forthe flight of speculative capital.

In India the “growth” story is celebratedto the acclaim of the imperialist controlledagencies but it is seldom told that the mostdangerous driving force behind thiseuphoria is “finance”, not the productivesector in the economy. Since 1997, when PChidambaram, as Union Finance Ministerin the United Front government firstabolished taxation on dividends a vastnumber of incentives have been offered tofinance. Since the assumption of power bythe UPA government, existing on the CPMled ‘left’ support, the policy of the regimewas zero taxation of long-term capital gainholders of shares and zero taxation as wellof dividend income, (For holder of assets,the abolition of capital gains tax has notbeen neutralized by the introduction of theturnover tax ). All this resulted in enormousincrease in the returns on finance, theavenues for deploying finance and thescope for promoting new financialproducts. The ‘growth story’ never bothersabout the real upliftment of the crores ofIndian masses from the morass of poverty.The whole economy, in the name of growth,

14 December 2007

has been precariously tied to financialmarkets, controlled by corporate houses.Since the early 2000s, the sectors that havecontributed to this euphoria are mainly“finance, insurance, real estate andbusiness service” that have been growing.The no-holds-barred foreign institutionalinvestment (FII) has been drawn to capturethe economy, thanks to all the tax-relatedmunificence of the government. TheFII inflows, pushing the stock marketboom, also coincided with the liberalisationpursuit opening the economy totallyto the MNCs and international financeand the abolition of vital taxes in 2003.Besides that, the next outcome of thesurge in FII inflows has resulted in aliquidity explosion. It was not forinvestment directly in the manufacturingor other productive sectors, Indian banksmade an overdrive to lend money to theretail consumer and housing markets.Except cement, steel industries,construction work and production ofconsumer durables for the rich, allthe vital areas of the economy wereleft crippled with the upswing of thefinance market. The rising power of financein the name of various funds and stockmarkets, galloping waves acting asthe main pillars of rising growth exceeding9.5 per cent makes a mockery of theso-called economic growth. The fragilityof such an economic foundation isbound to bring about a suddentumble–down.

The approach paper of the PlanningCommission for the 11th 5 year plan statesthat the current account deficit of 2.8 percent “should not pose any danger,provided it is financed mostly from FDIand long-term external borrowings ratherthan short-term borrowings or portfolioflows”. The dependence on FDI is apparentbut the seeming unwillingness to acceptportfolio flows, etc. is ridiculous, sincerecent data given by the Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI) clearly shows that it is short-term investment or portfolio investment thatfar surpasses FDI. During the financial year2004-05, the net figures of FDI, portfolioinvestment and short-term borrowing cameto $ 3.24 billion, $ 8.91 billion and $ 3.79billion, respectively. For the period April-December 2005, the corresponding figureswere $ 4.73 billion, $ 8.16 billion and $ 1.70billion, respectively. For foreign investment

capital inflows of such type very soon ledto increasing outflows. So we find that theoutflow on account of payments on foreigninvestment increased from $ 2.67 billion forthe full year 2004-05 to $ 4.34 billion for thenine months of April-December 2005.[Economic & Political Weekly, August 5,2006] A semi-colonial economy pursuingfull-scale liberalization can not provide anyother picture.

The Macroeconomic and Monetarydevelopment and Review of Monetarypolicy of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)for the first quarter of 2007-08 released inend-July has expressed concern about therapid and excessive inflow of foreign capitaland the consequent accumulation offoreign exchange reserves, the massiveexpansion of credit due to excess liquidityand the risky credit to the housing andreal estate business. This brings back thebitter memories of the situation during thehuge financial crisis in South East Asia in1997. The financial regulations suggestedby the RBI are constrained by the financeministry and the corporate houses. Weshould remember that credit financedpurchases of automobiles and durables,investments in housing and real estate andthe forays into the stock market make theeconomy look apparently bright. It is a factthat if the strict regulatory measures areresorted to like squeezing liquidity andcredit or raising interest rates the currentrise in GDP growth is sure to falter, exposingthe fragility of the growth story. In our so-called shining Indian economy thedirection of credit has not been towardsindustrial units, reviving the industrial units,etc. but towards housing and real estates,raising housing and real estate loans in2006-07 itself by 25 and 70 percentrespectively. Secondly, now the banks havebeen getting more and more involved ininvestments in the mutual fund market.Thirdly, foreign direct investment (FDI)flows rose sharply to $ 17.7 billion from $7.7billion in the period from 2005-06 to 2006-07, and the cumulative net foreigninstitutional investor’s (FII) investment rosefrom $ 45.3 billion in end March 2006 to $ 52billion in March end 2007. Then add thehuge borrowing by the Indian corporatesfrom the international market, external debts,and remittances by NRI etc. All suchinflows of capital have increased theliquidity situation in the system but it has

also increased its fragility. All the abovefactors speak volumes on the extremevolatility of the economy dependent on theMNCs and foreign capital and theincreasingly greater amount of credits andinvestments in unproductive areas.

The Indian scenario is no different fromthat of other countries. The global marketshave now become significantly based onspeculation i.e., in other words,financialisation. These huge amounts ofsurplus capital going into speculationdenotes a predicament and new type ofcrisis of present day capitalism as well aspatch-up measures in an age of glut incapital but narrowed scope of rewardinginvestment in the productive fields. This isa situation of rapidly stalemating capitalformation, of mobility of capital throughreproduction as Marx visualized and Leninclearly brought out in his explanation ofimperialism.

Such overt dependence on theimperialists will create havoc with the Indianeconomy as small fluctuations will haveserious impact. For example the drop invalue of the dollar (and rise in value of therupee) has seriously impacted the profitmargins of the much hyped BPOs and exporthouses. There is talk of giving them furtherconcessions to sustain their profit margins— i.e. at the expense of people’s money.With the spread of the sub-prime crisis, thehuge FII money flowing in is likely tosuddenly flee the country — while theywill make a killing selling their stocks whenthe market is at the peek the small investorswill lose crores. This is what happened in1997 in South East Asia crisis. Once thecrash takes place they will again re-enterand buy up equity and assets at throwawayrates (that is what happened in South Koreaafter 1997). The much hyped ‘economicboom’ in India is built on this edifice offoreign capital; it neither generatesemployment nor creates wealth for thepeople, but gives gigantic profits to theimperialists and compradors. WhileMukesh Ambani has now become therichest man in the world, crores are beingpushed further into the depths of povertyand misery. Both are inter-related; thegrowing poverty of the masses is anecessary pre-requisite for the Ambani-type wealth. How much longer can thepeople of our country tolerate such extremeinjustice and inequality? PMPMPMPMPM

December 2007 15

THE agony of the peasants of Vidarbha(Eastern region of Mahrashtra) cannot

be mentioned in words; for the thousandsthat continue to take their lives lakhs offamily members survive to bear the traumaof a malnourished existence and withmoneylenders and banks breathing downtheir necks for repayment. The small fractionof those who got ‘compensation’ from thegovernment found their money grabbed bythese sharks. From the much touted PM’svisit last July and so-called monetarypackage, the number and rate of suicideshave in fact gone up. The level of destitutionfaced by the peasants of Vidarbha (and inmany other parts of the country) was lastseen during the famines of the British raj.The trauma of financial bankruptcy, whereno where else to turn, is compounded bythe horrifying health conditions of thepeople with debilitating illness reachingrecord levels. Old diseases are reviving andnew ones are growing bythe dozens.

And amidst thisagony there is ecstasy inthe textile, seed, andpharmaceutical lobbieswho are making windfallprofits through thisdance of death. Cheapcotton, expensive seeds and huge jump inthe sale of medicines are giving thesevultures the type of profits they have neverseen. And nothing could be as gruesomeas to see their agents and pimps, theministers and bureaucrats, wax eloquent onthe lives of this agonised populace.

On Sept 14th the Congress CentralTextile Minister, while addressing theCotton Broker’s association in Akola (adistrict of Vidarbha) said that farmers arekilling themselves because they are lazy.He added, “The farmers just sit around anddo not go to their farms”. What is evenworse the Chief Minister of Mahrashtra,who presides over this wanton massacre,not only agreed with what was said, butbegan cracking jokes on the impoverishedpeasantry to appease the traders sittingbefore them. So, Vilas Rao Deshmukhadded, “There is some truth in what hasbeen hinted….we have to keep it in mind”The, making fun of the farmers, he added:

Vidarbha Suicides: Tip of the Iceberg of the Agrarian CrisisArvind

“Our farmers here too are ‘innovative’.They sprinkle water on cotton, add stonesto it, to increase the weight of their yieldwhen they bring it to the market. A farmerhere is also innovative in increasing hiscotton sowing area on paper to seekgovernment aid.” It is this same CM thatreduced the prices of cotton from Rs.2,500to Rs.1,750 overnight, which is the chiefcause of the indebtedness and suicides.Yet they have the audacity to talk in thisway. They can afford to do this as thepeasants of Vidarbha are mostly silent; butif they refuse to die and fight take the battleto the real culprits of their deaths theseministers would then know how to crackjoke at their expense.

Death Stalks VidarbhaAnd as for the bureaucrats, in order to

prove the ‘success’ of the PM’s package,all they do is to deny the bulk of the cases

of suicides and say the rate has come down.Though suicides have in fact increased inthe last year, Johny Joseph, the ChiefSecretary, appointed for implementing thePM’s ‘relief’ package, says that suicideshave come down from 60 per month in 2006to 15 per month in 2007. On the day he madethis statement, July 27th (exactly one yearafter the PM’s package) nine more farmerscommitted suicide in Vidarbha — all whenthey were denied fresh bank loans. Tiwariof the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti saidthat hardly 5% of the Rs3,750 crore PM’spackage has reached the farmers. He addedthat of the 500 farmers who have committedsuicide this year (so far) only 85 were madeeligible for the government compensation.

According to the Jan Andolan Samiti47 farmers committed suicide in the first 15days of September; 84 in August and 673since January. The government ofMahrashtra has itself given the below

mentioned table of suicides andcompensation.

No doubt the government records willbe a gross understatement, but it will benoticed that even of those accepted only asmall fraction were given compensation;the figure only rose when it became anational scandal in the media, forcing eventhe prime minister to visit the region.Statistics show that the percentage ofsuicide cases “ineligible” for compensationhas increased to 85% in 2007 from 60% in2006.

Ironically Vidarbha has only 10% of itsagricultural land under irrigation. Yet withthe massive sales promotion of Bt cotton,all are rushing for this high-priced seed,even buying it in the black market. Of courseno one reads the warning on the box(written in English) “Bt cotton should notbe cultivated in light and shallow soil

without assuredirrigation”. No wonderthe cotton crop inVidarbha has been badlyhit even after thegrowing of Bt cotton.Besides costs haveskyrocketed givingmassive profits to UScompanies like

Monsanto. Even according to thegovernment of Maharashtra( Frontline,August 10th 2007) while the cost ofproduction of a quintal of cotton in 2005-06 is Rs.2,585 the price that it pays thefarmers is Rs.1,760. Since then, while pricesare going up every year the MSP rate hasbeen maintained the same.

But suicides are not restricted toVidarbha (though it is at the highest levelsin the richest state); all rural areas of thecountry are reporting suicides. The worstaffected are the cotton areas; this at a timewhen India moved up from being the thirdlargest producer of cotton to number twolast year. While the US gives its cottonfarmers huge subsidies, India is seeking tocompete in the international market bysqueezing the last paisa out of the cottongrower. A level playing field forinternational trade is no longer sought tobe achieved through cutting subsidies ofthe West but through cutting the heads of

Year Police records of Suicides No. of people given Compensation

2001 2,719 29 2002 2,638 72 2003 2,626 89 2004 2,740 250 2005 2,425 274 2006 1,448 577

16 December 2007

the Indian farmers. This is what it entails tobow to US imperialist dictates as our servileIndian rulers are doing.

Wheat fraud and KillingPDS

And now the government is all set tokill the crores of wheat growers as well andthose living below the poverty line. Thoughthis year India produced a bumper wheatcrop (74.75 million tones compared to 69 mtlast year) in September the governmentcontracted to import wheat at double therate it is paying the Indian farmer. The Centrehas contracted to import a huge 8 lakh tonesof wheat at the rate of Rs.16 per Kg ($ 380per tonne) as against Rs.8.5 a kg that it gavethe Indian farmer. The major contract wasgiven to the company Swiss Glencore AG.The international price of wheat hasdoubled in the last one year. Why could itnot purchase from the Indian farmer whowould have willingly have sold it at far lessthan the Rs.16? Obviously the Indian rulersprefer to serve the imperialist with hugeprofits (and take their cut ofcourse) ratherthan give the Indian farmers a decent pricefor their produce. With increasing costsand falling yields even wheat productionis getting unviable at the existing rates.

Today, open market wheat prices areruling at Rs.10-12 per kg. With such a stepnot only the farmers will be hit but also theIndian masses will be worst hit, as the priceof their most staple food will go up evenfurther. No, doubt on this gigantic contractof Rs.1,216 crores ($ 304 million) SharadPawar and his cronies will get a fatcommission, but what of the lives of themass of peasantry. And to add to the woesof the poorest, lately (Sept.20th) SharadPawar said that the PDS (Public DistributionScheme) purchases should be done throughthe open market. If this were to beimplemented it will be the last nail in thecoffin of the PDS, pushing lakhs more tostarvation, hunger and suicide each year.

Roots of the AgrarianCrisis

Since 2000 agricultural production in thecountry has been virtually stagnating. Totake just the example of wheat, itsproduction has come down from 74 milliontonnes in 1999-2000 to 74 mt this year.Production in the in-between years was 66mt in 2002-03; 72 mt in 2003-04; 68.6 mt in2004-05 and 69 mt in 2006-07. Meanwhile

wheat prices went up 6% in 2002-03, 11%in 2003-04, 7% in 2004-05, 17% in 2005-06and a gigantic 21% in 2006-07 (Source:Ministry of Commerce and Industry). Notonly that, yields have dropped from 2778kh/hectare in 1999-2000 to 2,617 kg/hectare thisyear.

According to an Expert Group headedby R.Radhakrishna, on Indebtedness, theroot cause for the present problems includestagnation, increasing risks in productionand marketing, collapse of extensionsystem, growing institutional vacuum andlack of alternate livelihood opportunities.The group has documented the poorperformance of the credit cooperatives andregional rural banks, the failure of thecommercial banks to meet their farm lendingtargets, and the high cost of rural banking.

It is an accepted fact it is the most severeagrarian crisis since the eve of the greenrevolution. Farm incomes have collapsed.Public investment in agriculture sank to zeroa long time back. Employment hascollapsed; non-farm employmentstagnated; and million move towards thetowns where there are no jobs — mostcomprise a destitute semi-starved floatingpopulation between their land and towns.

No doubt all these factors, the productsof imperialist globalization, haveenormously added to the woes of theIndian peasantry. These policies are gearedto taking the produce of the peasantry atthe lowest possible rates so that industryand finance can flourish; no matter if theyhave to die of hunger, starvation, diseaseand suicides.

But this is only the additional burdenon the peasantry. The rural population ofIndia was already groaning under acutedistress basically caused by the backwardrelations of production in the countrysidewith a plethora of feudal, semi-feudal formsexploitation and loot. Even before thereforms, the bottom half of the populationaccounted for only 3.5% of the total landownership. (P. Sainath article in HinduAug.9 07) Even today farms under onehectare comprise 86% of the operationalholdings in the country. (NationalCommission of Farming). The purchasingpower of the peasantry is at rock bottomand dropping continuously. The averagemonthly per capita expenditure of the Indianfarm household is Rs.503 — and this is anational average, which includes the big

landlords and rich peasants. And if Keralaand Punjab are removed (both of whichhave twice the national average) the figuresare even more dismal. 90% of thisexpenditure goes on the very basicnecessities of life, with health and medicinecosts continuing to rise.

What purchasing power can begenerated in the country with suchabysmal levels of poverty? For all the talltalk of India as a growing economic worldpowerhouse, it still ranks 126th out of 177countries in the UNDP Humandevelopment Index.

Today, there is no one who denies thatthere is a severe agrarian crisis in thecountry. The government and all the rulingclass parties have one set of solutions; theMaoists another. And it is this fundamentaldifference that results in the former seekingto exterminate the latter.

Government’s Solution tothe Crisis

The National Commission of Farmers,headed by the notorious M.S.Swaminathan (farther of the GR and anoutright US stooge), the key task is toimprove the productivity of the small farms(under 2 acres) and thereby launching “anagri-business revolution”. For this purposethe government set up in 2004 a SmallFarmers’ Agribusiness Consortium as anautonomous body to be funded by the RBI,NABARD and IDBI. Its complaint is that ithas not functioned, as it should due tobureaucratic red-tapism.

The reality is, this is nothing but aTuglakian scheme and to expect that thepoor and marginal peasants can be drawninto agri-business shows the blinkeredvision of the imperialists and their stoogeswho seek to bring even the poorest of thepoor within their ambit of exploitation andloot. None but the well-off farmers will bedrawn into agri-business as it is only theythat have the capital, irrigation facilities,marketing reach, and political power, etc andwho are not ground-down by the variedforms of semi-feudal exploitation andoppression (by the upper-caste landedinterests, traders, moneylenders, et al). Nodoubt, in the name of ‘helping the smallfarmers’ the NCF seeks to promote agri-business encompassing the alreadywealthy farmers. This is the consistenttheme of the not only the NCF, but also the

December 2007 17

Prime Minister and Agricultural Minister.The result will be nothing but further lootby the imperialists and big compradorhouses, resulting in further agrarian distressof even the better off farmers. This isalready to be witnessed the countryside.

Yet another proposal, this time by theReserve Bank of India, is even morescandalous — it calls for institutionalizingthe moneylender and tying them up withthe banking system (already going oninformally) to overcome the problem of ruralindebtedness. This is nothing but anofficial tie up of imperialist (and CBB)finance promoting the feudal system ofmoney lending and is just another exampleof how they co-exist in the present systemof backwardness.

In end August 2007 the Technical Groupto Review Legislations on money Lending(chaired by S.C. Gupta) submitted its reportto the RBI (Reserve Bank of India). Themain purport of the Report is to devise anew legislation for “incentivising goodconduct” among moneylenders so that theycan become part of solution to the crisis ofcredit in rural India. The report explores thepossibilities of linking moneylenders tobanks and concludes “Any attempt to puttoo many oversight obligations on bankswill be counterproductive as themoneylenders will not be happy”. Itsuggests removing the restrictions (eventhough they are only on paper) on the rateof interest that the moneylender cancharge. The report also rejects existing law(also only on paper) that prescribe audit ofmoneylender’s books by ChartedAccountants, because this is “impracticaland may not necessarily add value”.

The most stunning part of the report isits rejection of key recommendations of theJohl Working Group on Distressed farmersset up by the RBI. The Johl Group felt thatone residential house and agricultural landup to five acres must not be attached underany circumstances and should not be takenas collateral. But the Gupta report rejectsthe Johl Group suggestion because “it mayresult in the denial of credit by themoneylenders to the small farmers”.

The Report concludes with an outlineof a “model legislation” called the MoneyLenders & Accredited Loan Providers’ Bill,2007which seeks to formalize the relationof banks and moneylenders “to takeadvantage of their dominant presence,

knowledge base, informality and easyaccess”. Moneylenders will now betransformed into Accredited Loanproviders. Banks would facilitate them toset up business by providing requiredfunds for on lending. What is even worse,these will be treated as part of themandatory priority sector lending bybanks.

Banking and government officials arealready beginning to speak in the same toneas the Gupta Report. What the financialworld seeks to do (and is already doing,though informally) is to tap the huge ruralcredit market and share the spoils with therapacious moneylender. For example, if thebanks lend to the moneylender at theirmarket rate of interest (or even higher) andthe moneylender then lends to thepeasants at their exorbitant rates of interestboth stand to enhance their loot. The banksget a vast credit market with assured returns(primary lending sees large number ofdefaults), while the moneylender is able toextend and intensify his operations withthe full backing of the establishment. Thesufferers ,victims of this grandiose plan willbe none other the peasantry who wil l loosetheir present limited recourse toinstitutional credit.

Part of the promotion of agri-businessin the country is the massive entry of retailchains into agriculture through contractfarming. Contract farming does not in anyway touch the existing production relationsbut only brings changes in the marketingsystem. In the process it will tie the peasantto the retail chain company and thusentrapped, can extract the produce at rock-bottom prices; it will destroy the lakhs ofmiddlemen and also petty retailers; and inits place will provide a few thousand jobsto its highly mechanized stores. All this willonly add to the floating population ofunemployed destitutes by the millions;while themselves grabbing a huge retailmarket from which they will make windfallprofits.

Such then are the proposed schemesof the government, which are nothing butdestroying the peasantry even further;intensifying the agrarian crisis; proppingup and extending semi-feudal forms ofexploitation like money lending; and vastlyextending the market for big business inthe sphere of agricultural produce,agricultural inputs and even financial

instruments/credit. It is nothing but aprescription for disaster of untoldmagnitude.

The Real AlternativeAgriculture is unviable is the continuous

refrain of the establishment. The euphoria isall about IT, BPOs, ICE industries, etc. Butthese are hi-tech industries, which displacemore people than they give new recruitment.Where can the lakhs and lakhs displacedfrom ‘unviable’ agriculture (and also nowmassive projects like mining dams, SEZs, etc)be absorbed? There is no answer; so let themdie as they are of no significance to themarket economy that drives the system.Suicides, starvation deaths, malnutrition,death through disease, etc, are of no concernto them unless of course they act as thebreeding ground for the Maoists. Then,there is no approach to reverse the policies,but to throw a few crumbs to those gettinginfluenced and ruthlessly crush the Maoists.

In reality the unviability of agricultureis a creation of the existing system. Theroots lie in the semi-feudal forms ofexploitation and loot of the peasantry andlandless laborers, on top of which is addedthe new forms of loot created by themassive entry of the market system at thebehest of the imperialists. The skewed landrelations, money lending, varied forms ofbondage in the production process, extra-economic forms of coercion and loot asthrough caste oppression and cruel semi-feudal authority (asserted through acombination of the landed interests, statemachinery and trader/mafia/politiciancombine), etc — are all a part of the formersemi-feudal system. This continues invaried forms and is the basis for agrarianpoverty. On this structure has beenimposed the market economy to further theloot by the imperialists and their agentswithin the country. This increased loot thenprecipitates the agrarian crisis as seentoday with the massive offensive of theimperialist in the name of globalization. Andas their crisis deepens their loot will getmore desperate as can been seen with theWTO regulations, bilateral tradeagreements and the policies of thegovernment as reported above.

The answer then lies in makingagriculture a viable proposition for the vast

Continued on page 31

18 December 2007

The process of surrendering more andmore to the imperialist forces is

continuing. In spite of their different tacticsto lure the countrymen, the government ofIndia and all state governments are movingin the same direction. They are now busyto satiate imperialist greed for ruthlessexploitation of farmers/ peasants,introducing the contract forming systemand agro-food processing industries.

These governments already concededtheir other demands which are necessaryfor the purpose. Those are – enactment ofa seed bill and acceptance of Bt/GM seeds,participation of MNCs and big compradorhouses in Retail trade with the provisionof developing retail chains, reform of theAgri-product marketing system obligingthe MNCs to purchase food crops directlyfrom the peasants, dismantling the PDS,etc, etc. Yet some more demands are thereto be fulfilled. Most pressing one amongthem is to create “enabling environment”which simply means to concede MNCsfreedom of ruthless exploitation andplunder. A considerable progress in thisrespect has already been made and thathas been appreciated by the imperialists.The ruling classes, their governments andsycophants of the ruling classes — someeconomists, agro-scientists andintellectuals – are trying their level best tocover this heinous plot of imperialistplunder and are propagating these policiesas dynamic steps for the upliftment of thecountry’s economy and the well-being ofthe countrymen. The very ruling classes— the comprador big bourgeoisie and biglandlords — cronies of the imperialist,welcomed Globalization-Liberalization andthe Structural Adjustment Programmeswhich resulted in more and more imperialistcontrol and exploitation. Now the countryis facing another plot of imperialist plunderas a natural consequence of this processi.e. introduction of contract farming, agro-product industry.

The essence of globalization is toensure free flow of goods, services, capital,and technology throughout the world,

CONTRACT FARMING — A NOOSE AROUND THE

FARMER’S/PEASANT’S NECKAjay

(This was the last article written by Martyred Com Ajayda , CCM, whose incomplete manuscript was sent to the office of ourmagazine. Given it significance and in his memory we print it as it was received….. Editor)

having no international boundaries. Theimperialist forces have achieved successin implementing this programme despitepeople’s opposition. The consequences ofthis programme are now very muchconspicuous. This process has alreadycaused miserable plight to millions ofpeople worldwide and in every passing dayit becomes more and more devastating. Itfavors giant corporates to go ahead inhectic strides rendering aggressiveexpansion of trade and more concentrationand centralization of imperialist capital.

The volume of trade, more particularlyagro-foods trade has increased. Tradeliberalization and mobility of capital flowsresulted in increasing internationalizationand integration of global markets throughtrade mechanisms. And this boosted agro-food business and industries throughoutthe world. Moreover, according to the needsof imperialist capital for maximizing itsprofits, the composition of agro-foodexports has been altered. In 1970 the shareof processed agro-products was 24.7%, bythe end of the 90’s it increased to 58.2%.The relative importance of the traditionalexport commodities like Cocoa, Coffee andSugar have reduced, whereas,, trade infruits, vegetables and dairy products, alarge portion of which in processed form,increased. Ever increasing exposure ofinternational market for processed agro-foods and stiff competition among the giantMNCs to capture larger shares of themarket necessitate the reduction of productcost as far as possible to usurp maximumsurplus value. This competition leads tomore and more concentration andcentralization through vertical integrationof agro-sector for the purpose of agro-industries. Moreover, for reducing productcosts it has become a pressing need and acontinuing process to improvetechnological efficiency in producing,processing and distribution. The giantMNCs also put compelling pressure ongovernments, particularly of underdeveloped countries to create are“enabling environment” which includes

various regulations providing maximumscope to MNCs for their recklessoperations. Their dictates should befollowed to ensure coordinated verticalchain transactions across firms locally andacross borders. They move in this directionaggressively smashing all resistance,resorting to economic political measuresand in some cases even military one. Inmany of the underdeveloped countries theyneed not take pains as the governments ofindigenous ruling classes, nurtured bythem, dance to their tunes.

At present the most powerful driver ofglobalization is foreign direct investmentin the food and agriculture sector.Multinational activity is an ever increasingphenomenon in the agro-food industries.Data from the UNCTAD indicates that thefood industry has the highest “trans-nationality index” of all industries. Theindex measures the degree to which acompany is internationalized by comparingforeign numbers to home country numbersfor assets, sales and employment. Between1990 and 1999, the index increased from 59%to 79% (Carlos Arthur B De Silva/ FAO,Rome, July 05). Same trends are also markedin the retail sector. Ahold, Carefour andWall-Mart are in a frenzied movementcapturing market shares in the food retailbusiness, particularly, in Asia and LatinAmerica. The spurt in concentration in theseed business, aggressive efforts tointegrate the agrarian sector institutingcontract based forming and developingvertically coordinated retail chains — allthese are the integrated parts of the agro-food industries, incorporated by giantMNCs.

Contract farming is an instrument forthe development of agro-industries. It isincreasingly adopted by the governmentsof under developed countries. After theimplementation of the StructuralAdjustment programme followingglobalization, the public sector of thesecountries had no capacity to provide muchneeded agro-inputs, credit, farmtechnology, information and access to

December 2007 19

markets. The FAO has been waiting for thisvery economic situation to play its assignedrole and the MNCs have madeadvancements with assurance to provideagro-inputs, credit, farm-technology,information and assured market introducingagro-product industries, based on contractfarming.

The FAO, the international body ofglobal corporate houses, has beencontinuously pressurizing thegovernments which fail to improve theiragrarian sectors, to adapt to the strategyof contract farming based agro- productindustries. This strategy is being putforward as a solution to agrarian problems.The theoretical justification has beenprovided by Charles Eaton and Andrew W.Shepard in one of the publications of theFAO “Contract Forming — Partnershipsfor Growth”. It has been defined by them“as an agreement between farmers andprocessing and/or marketing firms for theproduction and supply of agro-productsunder forward agreements atpredetermined prices.” This clearly revealsthat a farmer, after entering into a contract,is deprived of his sovereign right to take adecision on what, how and for whom toproduce. In this respect he has to followthe decision of the corporate house. Thecorporate houses also control the price andthe markets. This is a new form of ‘forcedcommercialization’ of the old colonial periodrendering farmers in a deplorable condition.Neil E Hart, professor in Agriculture andprofessor of Economics, Iowa StateUniversity, states that “dramatic increasesin concentration in the seed business,coupled with aggressive efforts tovertically integrate the agriculture sectorand to institute contract based productionof commodities, have raised questionsabout the economic position of theproducers.” He also expressed his concernabout farmers – “Basically, the concern isa tilt in market power with a possible shiftin the bargaining power as input suppliersand output processors (and first purchaserotherwise) gain greater economic power,undoubtedly at the expense of producers.”

Professors and other economists,political personalities and anti-imperialistorganizations worldwide may express theirconcern about the people but the MNCsand their international body do not haveany concern about the people. Their only

concern is to achieve their goal – maximizingtheir plunder. The only goal of thesecorporate houses is maximization of profit.Promises, that they commit, are nothing butdeception. To entice the people they commitpromises. And unabashedly they dowhatever necessary to maximize theirprofits. In spite of their promises of creatingmore provisions for employment, they driveout small and marginal peasants. Even thisFAO publication admits “in many countriessuch farmers (i.e., small scale farmers) couldbecome marginalized as large farmsbecome increasingly necessary for aprofitable operation. A consequence ofthis will be a continuation of the drift ofpopulation to urban areas.”

This leads to a large scale exodus offarmers to urban areas in search of jobs.Consequently, the population of slumdwellers and informal sectors continue toswell. Not withstanding this grim reality theruling classes of under developed countriesshamelessly advocate in favor of contractfarming.

Another objective of contract farmingis to have integration with supply and tosecure availability of needed quality andquantity of material within a scheduled timedirectly. Consequently, it is possible for thecorporate houses to oust the numerousmiddlemen and reduce the procurementcost entailing less cost of production andmore surplus value. Thus this move ofcorporate houses for maximization of profitnot only the small and marginal farmers,but also a large number of middlemen haveto loose their livelihood.

Corporate houses introduce contractfarming to intensify their exploitation andfurther distortion of the economy in such away that it becomes more dependent onthem. Utilizing this system they can alsosecure advantageous position. Globalexperiences in general, indicate thefallowing advantages enjoyed by them.

They ensure greater regularity of agro-produce supplies. Deliveries can bescheduled in such a way as to optimallyutilize the processing capacity ordistribution infrastructure. Contract farmingfacilitates them to have access to land. Thegovernments too, through enactment ofnecessary legislations, to allow them largeland areas for the purpose. Even in absenceof such legislations the corporate housesovercome the problem through contract-

agreement deceiving farmers/ peasants.Large quantities of farm inputs help the

corporate houses reduce input cost perunit, practicing economics of scale inpurchasing — such as the greaterbargaining power of the firms, the reducedcost of transportation etc, and maximizingtheir profits. This prompts them to preferbig farmers/ rich peasants and to havecontrol over large farm lands deprivingsmall farmers/peasants.

As, in general, governments promotecontract farming in their agro-industrialpolicy, they include provisions for variousincentives and subsidies like tax breaks,foreign exchange quota, profit repatriationflexibility, tariff reduction for importedinputs etc. This results in less revenueearnings and less government expenditurefor public welfare. Thus governments servethe corporate houses depriving thecountrymen, especially poor people.

Corporate houses do not manage thelabor force in the contract farming system.So it is not necessary for them to followlabor laws of the particular country, whichin general include wages, social benefits,medical facilities, training etc. Other thanthe big farmers/rich peasants, the farmer/peasant in general, uses family member’slabor. Even if they employ labor they willnot follow the labor laws. This renders lowercost of labor which constitutes significantpart of production costs entailing lower costof production. As a consequence corporatehouses enhance their profit squeezing thelabor of the farmer/ peasant.

Exerting their strong position due tofinancial power, monopoly over seeds,agro-inputs and developed technology, thecorporate houses can manipulate farmers/peasants in various ways and usurpmaximum surplus value.

Being lured by the propaganda of thegovernments and the sycophants of globalgiant MNCs farmers/peasants enter intocontract farming with the expectations ofbetter livelihood. Within a short period theycan realize that those are nothing butillusions and the stark reality shatters thoseillusions. They find themselves that theyare far inferior to the agro-industry firms,the global giant MNCs. This desperateposition has its cunning reflection in thedefinition of the terms of transactions. Dueto this uneven relationship betweenindividual farmer and the corporate houses,

20 December 2007

farmers are deprived in many ways.Moreover, contract farming inflicts majordistortions on the agrarian economy. Theexperiences of practicing contract farmingin different countries of the world clearlyindicate that it leads to graveconsequences. Some of these are :

The agro-industry houses always shiftthe negative effects of their business on tothe shoulders of the farmers. When thecorporate houses find that the market pricesof the products are lower than theirexpectations, they either forcerenegotiations or reject products under thepretext of non-conformity to qualityregulations.

The agro-industry houses make farmerscompletely dependent on their prescribedtechnology package. They use this packageas an indirect, sophisticated means tocontrol payment to farmers, manipulatingoutput and productivity.

They fix delivery-time schedules in sucha way as to pay the minimum price tofarmers and earn maximum market price ofthe product. Moreover when prices arechanging rapidly, the corporate housesadjust delivery schedules according to theiradvantage. This results in losses to farmers.

Generally, agro-business firms introducecomplex formulas to measure quantity andquality. The vast majority of farmers/peasants cannot understand thoseformulas. The agro-industry firms utilizethis scope and deceive them.

Farmers, in this system, loose theirflexibility as they have to produce a specific

crop or livestock enterprise. They cannotavail market opportunities to enhance theirincome.

Entering in to a contractual relationshipthe farmers have to loose their formerrelationships with intermediaries, lendersand input suppliers. It is very difficult forthem to revive former relationship. In thissituation they have to continue contractualrelationships, even if they want to breakthe relation with the agro-industry firm, withwhich they are virtually tied up.

Being contract farmers they abandonthe traditional methods of cultivation andage old cropping pattern that hasdeveloped in the course of long practice inresponse to the local environment andculture. As agro-business housesintroduce specific sets of inputs and croppattern, which cater to the needs of thefood processing industries, farmers haveto give up traditional ones. Consequentlyagricultural operations – cropping patternsto methods of cultivation – becomedependent on agro-industry firms.

Agro-industry firms introduce mono-culture practice, increasing risks associatedwith this practice. Intensified productionof single agro-crops very much prone todiseases, the corporate houses introducediverse control inputs, which not onlyadversely affect soil and human health butalso distort environmental conditions.

In contract farming the biggestcausality is employment generation. Theaim of MNCs is to usurp maximum surplusvalue by minimizing cost of production.

Instead of creating provisions foremployment they try to minimize numberof workers as far as possible.

In the process of expansion of contractfarming corporate houses gobble a goodportion of land, which used to producestaple crop like rice and wheat. Instead ofstaple crop they utilize the land to producecrops necessary for overseas market.Export of agricultural crops increaseendangering country’s food security.Corporate houses adopt this policy to fulfillthe export obligation for which variousbenefits and subsidies they receive fromthe government.

In short, in the contract farming systemthe farmer’s participation is limited toprovide labor and land. The farmers are‘price takers’ and contracting firm ‘makesthe price’ having control over the market.Farmers loose their sovereign rights overwhat to grow, how to grow and for what togrow. Within a few years small and marginalfarmers/poor peasants are uprooted beingdeprived of their livelihood without anyalternative provisions. Of course, the firminvests more capital, modern inputs andtechnologies for ruthless plunder of labor,land and country’s resources. The healthof the soil is degraded within a short period.Natural seeds are going to be lost. Theagrarian economy of the country isdistorted. The entire economy of thecountry becomes dis-balanced and moreand more dependent on MNCs – imperialistforces.

On October 1st a simultaneous hungerstrike in the jails of Bihar and Jharkhandwas accompanied by mass mobilizationoutside. The movement was organized bythe Political Prisoner’s Release Committeewhose main leaders were: ex-MLARamdhar Singh, RSPI leader BabanChoubhe, senior worker’s leader N.Pandit,and left leader Tridip Ghosh. For thewhole of Sept.. large-scale propagandawas conducted in and outside the jails.On Oct.1st the government sealed all theroads to Ranchi, where a mass rally hadbeen planned. Besides at other places they

MASSIVE CAMPAIGN FOR RELEASE OF POLITICAL

PRISONERS IN BIHAR-JHARKHAND(Based on reports in the local media)

stopped 5 busloads of people on their wayto the rally on the Tata-Ranchi road. In spiteof this 5,000 people (newspaper reports)gathered at Ranchi.

They demanded the release of allNaxalites, progressives, social activists whohave been jailed in false cases. Theyspecifically focused on the plight of agedComrade Sunil Roy who was re-arrested atthe prison gates after getting bail. This isin spite of the fact that he is nearly 70 yearsof age; he cannot see in one eye and theother eye is also failing; and he fracturedhis hipbone while in jail. Yet the government

was not willing to release him implicatinghim in false cases after his release. Thesame was the case with com Sheiladi whowas also re-arrested at the prison gates.

The processionists handed over a listof 14 demands which included: givingpolitical prisoner status to all activists andleaders arrested, stopping all atrocities andcorruption in the jails, provide all basicneeds to all prisoners, give propertreatment to all prisoners who fall ill, stoptransferring prisoners arbitrarily from onejail to another, etc.

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December 2007 21

I was studying in the 9th standard inKolkata. My teacher was a CPI member

and my two maternal uncles were veryactive in the CPI. It was then, at that youngage that I was introduced to Marxism; I readEmile burns ‘What is Marxism’. The reportsof the Tebhaga movement inspired memuch. In those days communism was verypopular amongst the workers and petit-bourgeoisie. That was the years 1957 to1960. Any communist was treated withmuch respect. In 1957 a batch of studentspropagated for the CPI candidate NarayanRai who was implicated in the Aliporeconspiracy case. I was part of that group.My mother very much encouraged me. Shewas involved in the agitation in Kolkota insupport of the Tebhaga movement that wasfired upon. I have been active since 1957.

At that time my family economicconditions were not good, so whilestudying, I had to also support the family.In college, I was a member of the SFI. Whenthe leadership came back after meetingStalin they put forward a Strategy andTactical Line which was basicallysupported by the CPI(M). An alternativegroup of cadres (supported by as sectionof the leadership) circulated a documentclandestinely in the party that gave morestress to agrarian revolution. Today thereare still groups that distribute thisalternative line. It was even distributed atthe 30-year Naxalbari celebrations.

There was a debate on Tehbhagamovement; the general view was that thestruggle was economist and merely raisedthe demand for the peasants to get two-thirds share of the produce. But in thecourse of the struggle the landlesspeasants raised the slogan of seizure ofpower, particularly in North Bengal. TheSuderbands was a major centre of theTehbhaga movement and a doctor was theleader who became a legendary figure.

With the China conflict, a fierce two-line struggle began in the party fallowingthe debate between China and the USSR inthe International Communist Movement.Some supported Khrushchev revisionismand some opposed. During the India-Chinawar all CPM cadre were arrested; CPI cadre

HISTORY OF NAXALITE MOVEMENT IN WEST BENGAL SEEN THROUGH

THE EYES OF VETERAN MARTYR COMRADE AJAYDA(Interview Taken in 2001 while Sitting on the banks of the Indravati river)

were also arrested but then released. Terrorwas unleashed against the communists andhysteria whipped up against China.Nationalism was whipped up with theslogan: counter China, counterCommunism. We introduced the debate thata socialist country does not attack anothercountry.

But, by Oct.1966 a big food crisis hitthe country and there was no keroseneavailable to cook food. We organized thestudents and launched a struggle for foodand kerosene; this we started from thesuburbs of Kolkata, from the Barasath area.Police opened fire and one student waskilled. But the movement spread. Then,there was a massive upsurge against thegovernment and the goons were thrashed.There was firing and tear gas attacks onthe people on a large scale in Kolkata andall suburban areas. There were regularpitched battles with the police. The militarywas called in and they too began operationsagainst the movement. It was like a hugeurban uprising with massive people’ssupport; people came out of their housesoffering water to the agitating people.Finally the government accepted all thedemands and also released all the politicalprisoners.

In 1966 the CPM leaders came out ofjail said there was no need for violence andwe will force the government to holdelections. Elections were held in 1967 andthe United Front government came topower. The CPM said, if voted to power itwill bring a Bill that will give land to thetiller and factories to the workers.

By then I joined a government job in1967 and was part of a worker’s cell of theparty. From 1967, for about three years therewas a massive worker’ s movement and the‘Gherao’ form of struggle became theirmost effective weapon. The CPM opposedthe worker’s militancy

It was amidst this general peoplesupsurge that in May 1967 the NaxalbariUpraising broke out. This became a turningpoint. Many comrades form the CPI andCPM supported the movement; but muchof the leadership said it was anarchy,putschism. Pramode Das Gupta said Charu

Majumdar was mad and someone mustrestrain him. After Naxalbari, the two-linestruggle came to the forefront. Then theNaxalbari Krishak Sangram Samiti wasformed and all revolutionaries joined it. Allthe youth, particularly the working classresponded enthusiastically. Studentsjoined in huge numbers. The flames ofNaxalbari spread all over the country. Thenthe AICCCR was formed. In this there wasa big debate on whether to form massorganizations. Lot of small journalsparticipated in the debate. The Asit Sen andParimal Das Gupta lines were defeated.

I was with the Lal Jhanda Group, whichhad comrades like Phani Bagchi as leaders.There was massive support and money wasnever a problem. In 1969 there was amassive land movement. Crop seizureswere taking place on a gigantic scale andthe CPM could not oppose it in its bid tobefool the people. During this period mostof the wasteland and ceiling land wasseized.

At this juncture, there was a verypowerful legal trade union movement but itwas not oriented towards the rural area orarmed struggle. The youth were goingenmass for the armed struggle. But therewas no concrete plan for it. The cardinalquestion was how to reorient all thesemovements for the armed struggle. TheAICCCR call to go to the rural areas resultedin thousands of youth from every districtgoing to the rural areas.

Everywhere there was debate chiefly onwhat stand to take in the Great Debate andthe GPCR. There were huge processionsevery day in Kolkota against the war inVietnam. When the President of the WorldBank, Robert McNamara, visited Kolkotahe had to be taken form the airport in ahelicopter.

During the Bidhan Roy government andthe severe food crisis, the CPI had formedan anti-famine committee. To press thegovernment for food there was a massiverally in Kolkota. The CRPF was deployedto stop people from entering; yet lakhscame. There was a lathi-charge, tear gasand police firing — 81 died on the spot andhundreds were wounded. It was like

22 December 2007

Jallianwalla bagh. Charu Mazumdar hadlater said it was wrong to have mobilized ruralpeople to Kolkota. It was important to mobilizepeople for struggles in their own areas. Therewas talk of developing squad actions againstjotedars, but a real plan was given on how tobuild the struggle for the seizure of powerand develop the peoples’ army.

Meanwhile the armed strugglesdeveloped and there was need to leadthem. The AICCCR was insufficient. Theneed for forming a party was felt. Withinthe AICCCR most did not even know that aparty was to be formed. It was suddenlyannounced at a rally May 1st 1969. EvenAsit Sen who was leading the rally was notaware that the party formation would beannounced.

Many workers supported the movementand some also went to the rural areas. TheGherao movement continued. Many cameout of the revisionist trade unions andformed groups within the factories insupport of Naxalbari and the CPI (ML). Partycells were also formed. But there was notmuch consolidations as attention was notgiven to organizational forms. Higher levelparty committees were formed but nothingbelow (what we call ACs today).

The students went to the rural areas inlarge numbers in all districts of West Bengaland made investigations and found out thejotedars. They formed squads to annihilatethem. In the first stage they tried to integratewith the people. But later the line developedfor squad action directly. It was thoughtthat this would automatically lead to theformation of the PLA. It was thought thatthis was the only revolutionary form in therural areas. It was not thought as we thinktoday. These youth dared to do anything;the political commitment was immense.They even went outside the state. Fromthe students many leaders developed. It

had a positive impact on the rural peopleas they took revolutionary politics to them.

But many felt that the declaration of theformation of the PLA was premature. Somecame out of the party, but without alternativeactivities; and some came out and formednew groups. We also opposed this line inthe party. But then most were arrested.

There was the July 20th Vietnam rallyand after com. CM’s martyrdom, a one-pageissue of Deshbrati was printed and widelydistributed. Deshabrati, the Bengali organof the party was brought out clandestinely.Initially 35,000 copies were brought out;but later the mechanism broke down.

In Kolkota the idol smashing programmestarted spontaneously. It was com SarojDutta who theorized it. The massacres thatfollowed were helped by the CPM. One sideof the lane would be blocked by the CPMand the Congress goons and police wouldunleash the brutal killings. In the initialphase the women would go to the policestation and get the youth released. Therewas a big participation of women —relatives of male comrades. Many went tothe villages, were in the squads; many werein tech work doing couriering work. Therewere one or two women who rose to districtlevel leadership.

By the time of the Bangladesh war themovement was already in decline. After comCM’s death I was with the Liberation groupled by Madhav Mukherjee in Bengal untilmy arrest in end 1973. The person who wasto meet me was arrested the previous night.I was in the custody of the IntelligenceBureau for three months. Five conspiracycases were clamped on me. In the IB lockup we were 15-16 comrades. We faced threemonths of severe torture. But here we metothers arrested from various places. About80% of those arrested surrendered to thepolice. We began to re-think the wrong

policies; but it was difficult to holddiscussions with the comrades who hadsurrendered.

Once in jail we formed the commune andthere were good discussions. And it wasthrough this process that we developed ourline. In the jail we studied, read poetry andgave slogans. I was in three jails at differenttimes. In the Bardhwan jail there were 25 inthe commune; in the Hoogly jail 50 in thecommune; and in the Presidency jail therewere 1,000 Naxalites. Here each ward had acommune.

In the jail there were two views. Oneview was for staying with the commonprisoners; the other view to avail of theclass status of being educated comradesand get that status. The first line was veryhelpful” for jail breaks, couriering, gettingbooks, etc. On April 19th there was an alarmto beat every one of us. I was kicked until Ibecame unconscious. This happened twicein Presidency jail. In Hoogly jail we were ill-treated by the comrades as we opposedthe annihilation line and were isolated fromthe commune.

We then developed relations withothers. When we came out of jail in July1977 we tried to join the COC of SunitiKumar Ghosh for nine months. But we werenot successful. We were 12 comrades, tenof whom were form jail, who formed the CPI(ML) (Party Unity). We decided that withoutactivity no unity could be achieved. Of the12, some went to Bihar; I went to Nadiadistrict of Bengal. And so the PU grew andthe rest of the history is known.

{As this interview was taken in 2001,this was before the formation of the CPI(Maoist). Com Ajayda went on to be a CCmember when the merged CPI (ML)(PW)was formed and again when theCPI(Maoist) was formed, until hismartyrdom…… Editor}

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December 2007 23

ON 19 September 2007, Israel brandedGaza a “hostile entity” clearing the

way for shutting off basic supplies to theHamas-run territory. Israel said that it wouldlimit the supply of electricity to Gaza, curbtransfer of fuel and restrict the movementof people and goods across establishedcrossing points. U.S. Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice, who visited the regionin her latest ‘peace mission’ affirmed thisand said that Hamas was “indeed a hostileentity. It is a hostile entity to the U.S. aswell.”

It should be noted that Hamas took fullcontrol of the Gaza Strip following bloodyclashes with rival Palestinian faction Fatahin June 2007. The Fatah-Hamas conflictbegan in 2006 and has continued, in oneform or another, into 2007. The occupiedterritories have now been effectively splitinto two separate entities with Hamas incharge of Gaza and Fatah controlling theWest Bank.

Hamas won the Palestinian elections inJanuary 2006. Subsequently, Israel, theUnited States, the European Union, severalWestern states and the Arab statesimposed sanctions suspending all foreignaid, upon which Palestinians depend.(They have promised to resume aid ifHamas recognizes Israel and acceptsagreements made by the defeated Fatahregime and denounces violence.) Thesesame powers clamour day-and-night aboutdemocracy and when Hamas won theelections this is not being recognised. Thedefeated Fatah party maintained control ofmost of the Palestinian security apparatus.

The Palestinian Authority PresidentMahmoud Abbas then announced thedismissal of the Hamas-led government anddeclared a state of emergency. Abbas saidhe would now rule by presidential decreeuntil the conditions were right for earlyelections. U.S. Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice gave her backing toMahmoud Abbas, saying he had exercisedhis “lawful authority.” United NationsSecretary General Ban Ki-moon heldpreliminary talks on the idea of sending aninternational force to Gaza, but Hamasrejected the move, saying it would treatforeign troops as occupation forces.

Fatah-Hamas conflict or Israel-Palestine conflict?Rashmi

The period from March to December2006 was marked by tensions and severalleaders of the Hamas or Fatah group wereassassinated. Tensions grew additionallybetween the two Palestinian factions afterthey failed to reach a deal to sharegovernment power. On 15 December, Abbascalled for Palestinian general elections.Hamas challenged the legality of holdingan early election maintaining their right tohold the full term of their democraticallyelected offices. Hamas characterized thisas an attempted coup by Abbas, usingundemocratic means to overthrow theresults of a democratically electedgovernment. According to one Palestinianrights group, more than 600 Palestinianswere killed in infighting from Jan. 2006 toMay 2007.

According to informed reports, theUnited States has supplied guns,ammunition and training to PalestinianFatah groups. A large number of Fatah menhave been trained at two West Bank camps.The Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretzreported that the U.S. has designatedUS$86.4 million for the Palestinian‘President’ Mahmoud Abbas’ security. AliAbunimah, cofounder of onlinepublication, Electronic Intifada says, “Whatwe’ve seen is really a direct result of theBush doctrine. Since January 2006 whenHamas won the legislative election fairand square, the United States refused theelection result and it has been armingseveral Palestinian militias, particularlythose controlled by the Gaza warlord,Mohammed Declan. This is a repeatstrategy of the contras. These arePalestinian contras...the Israeli policy ofcutting Gaza off from the West Bank islongstanding. It’s been for more than adecade that Palestinians in Gaza and theWest Bank can’t travel from one place tothe other. What I think we are seeing is thecollapse of the two-state solution.” Lailael-Haddad, a Palestinian journalistcommented, “Many people (are) sayingGaza and the West Bank has split now twodifferent authorities. It’s always been thecase for over a decade now that Israel haseffectively separated Gaza from the WestBank and in the recent two yearshermetically sealed the Gaza Strip,opening the crossing less than a quarter

of a time, the only passage for a millionand a half people. So to me I see this aspart of the sort of larger plan...”

It is quite evident that the presentsituation has not developed on its own butis part of a longer strategic plan of Israel-U.S. To understand it better, one needs tolook at the history of Israel-Palestineconflict.

History of Israel Palestineconflict1

The state of Israel was founded in 1948following a war which the Israelis call theWar of Independence, and the Palestinianscall the Nakba — the catastrophe. Duringthis war, more than half of the Palestinianpopulation at the time—1,380,000 people— were driven off their homeland by theIsraeli army. Historically, the land ofPalestine was inhabited by PalestinianArabs — in 1850 this comprised of 80percent Muslim people, 15 percentChristian and only 5 percent Jews. In thelate 1800’s Zionists from Europe started tocolonise this land. The indigenouspopulation began to protest against theplans of the Zionists to create an exclusivelyJewish state. The United Nationsintervened in 1947 and decided to give 55percent of Palestine to a Jewish state —despite the fact that this group representedonly 30 percent of the population andowned fewer than 7 percent of the land. Bythe end of the 1948 war, the Jewish statehad conquered 78 percent of Palestine!Thus, the Israeli land was obtained throughethnic cleansing of the indigenousPalestinian inhabitants.

Israel did not stop there. In 1967, Israelconquered and occupied further 22 percentof the Palestinian land. Following a six-daywar with three neighbouring Arabcountries, Israel conquered and occupiedthe West Bank (from Jordan), the Gaza Stripand the Sinai Peninsula (from Egypt), andthe Golan Heights (from Syria). The SinaiPeninsula was eventually returned to Egyptby 1982. U.S.-Israeli relations improved afterIsrael’s military victory in 1967. A new waveof Palestinian refugees escaped from theWest Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The first Palestinian uprising or theIntifada started in 1987 and went up to 1993.

24 December 2007

On the Palestinian side, there was an explicitrecognition of Israel’s right to exist in itspre-1967 borders. Infact, the Intifadameeting of Palestine National Council in1988, called for the partition of the historicPalestine into two independent states.

In September 1993, the Oslo Accordswere signed (at a ceremony in the WhiteHouse), which many believed, wouldresolve the conflict and usher an era ofreconciliation. The local military units ofPLO — the PLO returned their arms andPalestine was ready for the enormousconcession of giving up 80 percent of theirland (West Bank and Gaza Strip only makeup 22 percent of the historical Palestine).

However, the hopes of the people werebelied. Seven years after the OsloAccords—by 2000, the situation was worsethan it had ever been. Oslo Accordscontained all the ingredients of whatbecame an integral part of the Israel-Palestine conflict—deception andhypocrisy of Israel backed by the U.S. andsurrender of the Palestinian leadershipsymbolised by Yasser Arafat. During theOslo negotiations, Israel insisted that itwould not dismantle any settlements inGaza, at least during the five-year “interimperiod”. The Palestinian negotiators agreedto this. A month after the Oslo negotiations,Israel presented its actual maps for Gaza,which left more than the settlements underfull Israeli control. Israel insisted that thesettlements would be grouped in threeblocks that would also include the landbetween the individual settlements. Thisamounted to over one-third of the land inGaza Strip. (The situation in Gaza was thatsix thousand Israeli settlers occupied aboutone-third of the area and one millionPalestinians were squeezed into the othertwo-thirds.) On November 18, 1993,Palestinian negotiators accepted all theIsraeli demands signaling the first sweepingsurrender by the leader of the nationalliberation movement of Palestine. SinceOslo, Palestinian Gaza residents werestopped from even visiting their relativesin the West Bank and their standards ofliving are among the worst in the world.The Palestinian residents were imprisonedin their own land. Whenever the prisonersrebelled, internal roads were blocked andthe area was divided into smaller prisonunits, each surrounded by Israeli tanks. The

Palestinian prisoners could be bombardedfrom air, with nowhere to escape to; theirfood supply, electricity, fuel was allcontrolled by Israel. They could eitheraccept prison life or perish. The samearrangements was later extended to theWest Bank and by September 2000, thePalestinians’ areas were already split intofour isolated enclaves—surrounded byIsraeli settlements, military posts, andbypass roads.

In July 2000, new Israeli prime minister—Ehud Barak—again led the world to believethat finally the conflict would be resolved.According to Israeli propaganda about theCamp David Summit of July 2000, Barakoffered to return 90 percent of the occupiedWest Bank and all of the Gaza Strip to thePalestinians. This version of the story evensaid that he was willing to divide the holycity of Jerusalem and recognise part of it asthe capital of the future Palestinian state.This version of history adopted by the U.S.and reinforced by the Western media claimsthat Palestinian negotiators rejected thesegenerous proposals thereby legitimisingIsrael’s new war of ‘defence’ againstPalestine. But the reality is that Barak’sproposal was a worsened version of theshameless Beilin-Abu Mazen Plan. On theface of it, this plan talks of giving Palestine‘sovereignty’ to over 90 to 95 percent ofthe West Bank but actually, inside thePalestinian ‘sovereign areas’ fifty Israelisettlements were to remain intact and Israeliforces were to remain in the Jordan valley.Again regarding the capital of Palestine,the document said that Israel wouldrecognise that the area defined as ‘Al-Quds’ prior to the six days war as the capital.However this amounted to a remote villagecalled Abu-Dis! It is noteworthy that thisplan had already been approved by Arafatat the time of its conception. In concretematters of land and resources, Barak offerednothing at Camp David except thepreservation of the existing state of affairsand demanded that either Palestiniansaccept the agreement and declare an “endof conflict” or be prepared for a “bloodyconfrontation”. Regarding the return ofPalestinians to Israel, Barak demanded tokeep this issue to the “sole discretion” ofIsrael. As reported by Ha’aretz, at no stageof negotiations, did Israel agree to take inmore than 10,000 refugees. It is thus

obvious that Camp David did not genuinelywant conciliation, any more than Oslo.

The second and the present Intifada(uprising) began in September 2000. Theimmediate provocation was the visit byIsraeli opposition leader, Ariel Sharon toHaram al Sharif / Temple Mount in Jerusalemaccompanied by hundreds of soldiers. Thisis one of the most sensitive areas in theMiddle East and hosts shrines sacred toboth Muslims and Jews. The situationescalated very fast and the ground for itwas laid much before October. Even beforePalestinian attacks had begun (the firstsuch attack inside Israel, during the currentuprising, was on November 2 2000), theIsraeli army had been bracing itself for aconflict. In June itself, Barak had informedthe Israeli media that there was “danger ofPalestinian unrest”. In fact right from thestart of the uprising, the full military arsenalof Israel was used. Palestinian use of armsescalated in response to Israel’s armedoppression.

Today, Israel describes its handling ofthe conflict as the war of defence, as a waragainst terror but the truth remains that itcan neither be explained as self-defence,nor as a spontaneous reaction to terror. Itis an act of ethnic cleansing where thePalestinians are being given only twooptions—perish or flee.

U.S. RoleRight from the start, U.S. has regarded

Israel as a strategic ally and extended to itall possible support. From the OsloAccords to Camp David proposals, theU.S. was always present, backing Israel.The U.S. gave full backing to Israel’saggression against Palestine. If the U.S.ever wanted to halt Israel even temporarily,it could have done so by cutting offmilitary aid. Instead, even when the mediawas announcing that Bush and Powellwere losing patience with Israel, the U.S.Senate approved $2.76 billion inassistance for Israel (October 24 2001),more money than it gives any other countryin the world. Out of this sum, $2.04 billionwas earmarked for special military aid. TheBush administration allowed Sharon toorder Israel’s most massive offensiveagainst West Bank—Operation DefensiveShield. As always, this was preceded byloud claims about the “peace initiative”launched by the U.S. in March 2002. The

December 2007 25

imposition of sanctions today are aproduct of its long-term strategic plan.

Fatah-Hamas standoffIt is in this historical context that one

needs to locate the present Fatah-Hamasstandoff in Palestine. Fatah is the largestorganization in the Palesine LiberationOrganisation — a multiparty confederation.It became a dominant force in Palestinianpolitics after the 1967 war. Led by YasserArafat, it developed into the largestPalestinian political faction and, afterrecognising Israel’s right to exist, led effortstowards a two-state solution with Israelunder the Oslo Accords. Fatah membersformed the backbone of the Oslo-inspiredadministration, the Palestinian Authority(PA). At present, the Palestinian Authority’s(PA) President Mahmoud Abbas advocatesrestarting the peace process and is a strongcritic of armed “resistance” and attacks onIsrael. Since its creation, the PA hasgarnered more international aid than anyentity in modern history, even more, percapita, than the European states got underthe Marshall Plan. This is utilised to usePalestinians to kill Palestinians. To useMahmoud Abbas to do Israel’s dirty work.The lion’s share of this fortune has beensiphoned into private accounts of Fatahleaders or used to pay off commanders of

some 16 semi-autonomous militias. The PAmaintains an estimated 60,000 uniformedgunmen on its payroll, giving the WestBank the world’s highest ratio of policemen-to-population. The Palestinian people,meanwhile, languish in poverty andunemployment. The Party lost power in the2006 parliamentary elections to Hamas.

Hamas, the main Islamist movement inthe Palestinian territories, was born soonafter the previous intifada erupted in 1987.The organisation opposes the Oslo peaceprocess and its short-term aim is a completeIsraeli withdrawal from the Palestinianterritories. It believes that the Oslo accordswas a deal between the PA, Israel and theU.S. Hamas does not recognise the right ofIsrael to exist. Its long-term aim is toestablish an Islamic state on land originallymandated as Palestine — most of whichhas been contained within Israel’s borderssince its creation in 1948. Since its formationin 1987, Hamas has pursued a dual function:social welfare and what it calls armedresistance. It was designated a terroristorganisation by Israel, the US and theEuropean Union. Its 2006 landslide winthrust on Hamas the responsibility of powerand international scrutiny for the first time,but the government was not recognised byIsrael or the main international mediators.The Palestinian Authority President and

Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas dismissedthe Hamas-led government in June 2007, atthe behest of the Western powers.

ConclusionThe so called civil war in Palesine

should not be construed as infightingamong the Palestinians but is a directproduct of U.S. backed Israeli aggressionon the people of Palestine and the abjectsurrender of Mahmoud Abbas. It is evidentthat Israel is not even willing to consider atwo-state solution, leave alone recognisingthe historic state of Palestine. It is usingevery possible means to crush thePalestinian resistance, from military meansto deception and co-option of a section ofthe resistance forces. Only the unwaveringstruggle by the Palestinian people againstIsrael and the U.S. can show the wayforward for establishing a truly independentstate of Palestine. While the governmentsof most countries are playing to the US/Israel tune it is the people of the world,including India, who strongly demand anindependent Palestine and for stringentaction against Zionist Israel.

(Footnotes)

1.Israel-Palestine: How to end the War of1948 by Tanya Reinhart

In the 2006 not only was theUS by far the largest spenderon defence it was also thelargest seller of armamentsaround the world. It also hadthe largest stockpile of nuclearweapons. Quite naturally itwas the most vociferouspromoters of war across theglobe. The following chartgives a picture of militaryexpenditure of the top 10countries:

Total international arms saleswas $ 40 billion. Americanweapon sales accounted for42% of the global market,amounting to $ 17 billion (up $3.4 billion over the previousyear). Pakistan, India and SaudiArabia were the biggestbuyers. Russia is the secondbiggest dealer with sales of $8.7 billion in 2006, nearly 22%of the market. Britain was thirdwith $3.1 billion in sales.

The Arms Bazar

Rank Country Spending in $ billions 1 United States 528.7 2 UK 59.2 3 France 53.1 4 China 49.5 5 Japan 43.7 6 Germany 37 7 Russia 34.7 8 Italy 29 9 Saudi Arabia 29 10 India 23.9

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26 December 2007

ON 6th September 2007 under theleadership of the CPI (Maoist) the

PLGA forcea and revolutionary peoplecarried out an armed resistance againstpolice agents and local reactionaries ofEdelbera and Digha villages of Ghatshilapolice station under the Edelbera Panchayat.The notorious Nimai and Badal were givendeath sentences according to the people’sverdict as a part of this resistance. Alongwith this the houses of other reactionaries;viz Sailen Pramanik, Azit Patra and LaxmanSoren were raided and burnt. The ruling classparty leaders, ministers like Munda, Koda,Sibu and others are projecting andpropagating the incidents as an attack onthe common people in order to terrorize andconfuse the people and they try to set themagainst us. But in these villages we did notharm even a single common family and nordid the revolutionaries ever cause harm toany innocent person.

Actually in these areas for some daysunder the leadership of the Maoistspeople’s struggle has been built up invarious ways centering round the long-lasting burning problems. Particularly forthe rise in price for kendu-sal leaves,increase in wages of canals digging, toemploy workers in loading of sands in thetrucks from the Subarnarekha jungles,against superstitions and blind faith, etc.struggles have been built up. Throughthese struggles the common people of thearea take part in revolutionary activities.Maoists have been successful in handlingthe contradiction among the peoplethrough correct procedures with politics incommand. People’s protests also could leadto the withdrawal of some old cases in thesevillages. Since 2004 two-three reactionarypersons of Digha and Edelbera villages incahoots with the Nagarik Surkha Samity(NSS) were trying to carry on anti-revolutionary activities. Currently as therevolutionary struggle got strongerpeoples’ courts started trying these fellows.Throughout the month of June 2007 beforethe people’s courts of several villages localreactionaries confessed their wrongful actsin front of the revolutionary people andpromised to sever all ties with the police.Particularly Saben, Biswanth of Digha; AjitPatra of Edelbera confessed their misdeeds.

REPORT FROM BENGAL-JHARKHAND-ORISSA BORDER (BJO)REGIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE CPI(MAOIST)..........

Sensing that most of the people of the areaare with us Gourang Parmanik, SailenPramanik, Badal Pramanik and Nimaitemporarily stepped back. But secretly theywent on with their anti-people and anti-revolutionary activities in various ways.

In the Digha and Edelbera villages theystarted keeping night vigil with swords,choppers and if anybody happened to passthrough the village at night they would tryout plans to get the person sendra done.Common people were threatened orderingthem not to come to the village. Villagerswere called through village Pradhan to gettheir signatures against the Maoists andmeetings were held everyday with thereactionaries and plans were chalked outto get the Maoists uprooted form the areas.On 2nd September Sailen, Badal, Nimai,Saren, Biswanath and their group fromDigha village caught one Chadrai ofChataslanga while passing through theirvillage and kept him tied. He was beatenthroughout the night and they evenhatched a conspiracy to hand him over tothe police. As a result of this, the policecame to Bhawakacha, vandalized some ofthe villagers’ houses and beat them up andarrested two of them along with Chandrai.Naming some of the villagers theythreatened them to surrender at the policestation. Along with this they assured thereactionaries of the Digha village to assistthem in everyway. Thus the police and thereactionaries were hatching conspiratorialplans of carrying out sendra on therevolutionary people supporting theMaoists. Hence the common people of thearea passed their days in a terrified statewithout their work of cultivation andevacuating their houses.

To crush revolutionary struggle in theDampara area the reactionaries of Digha,Edelbera established relationships withNagarik Surkha Samiti (NSS) celebrating7th August as Lango Day this year. In endAugust an effort was taken to make Nimai,the leader of the reactionary forces to seereasons so that he kept himself, away fromhis anti-people activities. Instead ofchanging himself he got more and moreinvolved in his anti-people activities.

On 6th September seeing the Maoistsquad near the field of Digha, Nimai went

back to his village and held a meetingagainst the Maoists with his associates andarmed themselves for attack on theMaoists. While they both were returningfrom the meeting they were caught. In thevillage Sailen’s wife attacked womencomrades, to stop her from doing so shewas beaten a little. As a part of socialmovement efforts are being taken tostrengthen the anti alcohol struggle startingfrom Dalma to Dampara to Gurabanda.Moreover programmes are taken to holdmeetings with the women to make themaware of the social atrocities.

The administration and several partiesare carrying out various false propagandaagainst the Maoists related to this Dighaincident. Not only that, new police picketsare being set up, police forces are beingsent on a large scale, a terrifyingatmosphere is being built in the villagesin the name of police patrolling. They arepreparing informers and those who wouldnot pay heed to police are being arrested,common villagers are implicated in falsecases, the persons not leaving the villageare being beaten and threatened of seizureof their property, persons seen in thejungle are forcibly taken for identifying thejungle path, reactionary forces are madeto wear police uniform and are taken foridentifying the Maoists hideouts and girlsare being called for joining the policeservice.

Now 166 persons have been accused,given false cases and put behind bars.Recently in the name of development work inthe village, health, electricity and other ‘reform’works have been started. But the questionarises why did not the administration tried tosolve the common problems of the people tillnow? Today leaders, ministers, the ChiefMinister and others are rushing to Digha justto paper over their own crisis. It is the demandof the people that this drama of the leadersshould be stopped. We Maoists have to tacklethe menacing force which is making thesituation dangerous by retaliating the policeand the NSS. The common people who fledtheir villages had later come back and areensuring active participation in therevolutionary struggles to defeat thereactionary force and the administration.

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December 2007 27

IT has been now 58 years since Manipurhas been under the colonial domination

of India. But India has so far refused torecognize and admit that Manipur had beenan Independent country that was forciblyannexed to her fold. Instead, democracy hasbeen used as a powerful and effectiveweapon for drawing the people of Manipurin the Election process in an attempt toshow that Manipur is a part of India. Thispowerful and effective weapon ofdemocracy has dragged Manipur step bystep towards India as an inseparable part.

However, Indian democracy and itselection cannot be the real democracy andreal election for Manipur. This is done onlyto force Indian democracy in Manipur. Thereal democracy for Manipur can be thereonly when Manipur becomes anIndependent country. Accordingly thosewho are presently wielding power inManipur through the Indian electionprocess should never forget that they areruling over the people of Manipur as arepresentative of the Indian State. They alsoshould not forget that the people ofManipur suffer various inhuman atrocitiesunder the Indian State just because theyremain as a prop up of the Indian State.Hence they should take total responsibilityfor all these.

Right now, those wielding power inManipur is using the plank of developmentas enticement to the people forstrengthening the Indian Rule. Yet India,which itself is the home of more than fortypercent of the world’s poor, can never makeManipur fully developed with her money.We can never believe that a country likeIndia, which cannot develop herself andhas tens of millions of her people starving,will be able to bring progress to Manipur. Itcan even be said that the little amount ofmoney, which is being sanctioned toManipur presently, is because of theRevolutionary activities. This will be clearonce we look into the amount of moneyearmarked for Manipur in the period whenthere was not much revolutionary activity.

MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE FROM IRENGBAM CHAOREN, PRESIDENT,RPF ON THE OCCASION OF THE 29TH RISING DAY OF PLA.

My dear Countrymen,First of all, I bow my head in veneration and respect to all my beloved fellow countrymen.

Also, I offer revolutionary salute to all the martyrs who led the revolution from the front and sacrificed their lives for therevolution.

For this reason, to shape the future ofManipur through development achievedby our own efforts as an owner sheddingthe outdated idea of Manipur not being ableto survive without depending on India, weshould make Manipur an Independentcountry. Then only Manipur will be able tocome up at International level and makeconsiderable progress. To achieve this timehas come for the people of Manipur to workunited with the revolutionaries.

Revolutionary struggle can never beended in Manipur unless the presentIndian Colonial regime departs Manipur onits own will or is forced to depart. As thepresent turmoil in Manipur is related to this,it is not possible for the revolutionaries tobring a solution with India other than this.If India wants peace in Manipur as well asa long lasting relationship, then they shouldbring their colonial regime in Manipur to aclose. India should take this seriously orelse there cannot be any peacefulunderstanding other than a bloody war.

While pronouncement is for peacefulnegotiations with the revolutionariesthrough dialogue, India adopts violence inaction with its army in the forefront. Fromthe increasing number of revolutionariesarrested or martyred in the hands of theIndian Army as a result of this tactics, it ispresumed that the revolutionary strugglein Manipur can be finished off easily solelythrough the strength of their army. Butwhat India should understand is that thereis no sign of falling the number ofrevolutionaries compared to the pastalthough there is an increase in the numberof arrests or martyred. And so, as long astheir colonial rule remains in existence inManipur, the number of revolutionaries willbe increased day by day even if morenumber of revolutionaries are arrested ormartyred at the hands of the Indian Army.

Leading the life of a civilian by manyrevolutionaries after leaving or retiring fromthe party is taken by the Indian Army as aconclusion for the mistakes and misdeedsof the Revolutionary Parties. This is their

wrong observation. The mobilization of theyouth by the RPF inculcating them withrevolutionary thoughts besides giving themarmed training is in a long-term perspective.Looking at the number of Party cadres whoare now leading a civilian life after gettingarmed training by the PLA, they should notjudge it as a decrease in strength of RPF.The aim of training by RPF is to providearmed training to a maximum number ofgrown up youth so as to prepare them foran imminent war in future. As such RPFnever considers those who are retired fromthe party and leading a civilian life assomeone who has distanced completelyfrom the revolutionary struggle. One dayor other they will definitely join therevolutionary struggle is our firm belief.

The Indian Army must not perceive RPFin the same light as they perceive otherrevolutionaries. The mere outward aspectthey see cannot decide the real characterof the RPF. The RPF has been built with thecharacter of a true Revolutionary Party. Thefact of building the Party without anydivision into factions in its more than 28years of revolutionary history is the clearexample of the ideal discipline and themutual trust amongst the cadres of the RPFand it’s army PLA. Because of this onenessand trust in the Party by the cadres whiledischarging their various tasks, RPF hasnow grown into one of the unassailablerevolutionary Parties of Manipur. As such,the Indian Army should not undertake aflawed analysis.

The RPF desires that the RevolutionaryParties in Manipur may come under oneplatform and work in unison. However, wecannot take it for granted that therevolutionary work in Manipur can beundertaken once a few parties with the samevision come together in one platform. Wehad examples for this over and over againin the past. Consequently, it is convincedthat we must first of all endeavor to explorea path for the Revolutionary Parties, evenwith different ideologies and visions, forundertaking the revolutionary work

28 December 2007

together under a common platform. Yet it isnot easy to bring up the issue of unity in thepresent different state of affairs prevailingwithin the revolutionary parties. Still we mustcontemplate on this problem, and effort mustbe first made to bring unity to the variousfactions of some revolutionaryorganizations. A big help or encouragementfrom other parties will not be enough to bringa long lasting unity unless they come to anagreement amongst themselves on their ownwill. For this reason it will be more rewardingthat these organizations beset withfactionalism be allowed to search the pathfor their unification on their own and thus inthe process learning to discharge theirduties responsibly.

There is no question of RPF recognizingor working jointly at present with thevarious factions of the revolutionaryparties beset with factionalism. Becausethis will incense more bitterness and anywork undertaken jointly will invite morequarrels amongst them. This has been alesson for us from many experiences in thepast. For this reason time has come thatour people should stop supporting andhelping the different factions and insteadput more pressure so that the factions cometogether. Alternatively if one continues tosupport and take sides with the variousfactions then, there will be no end to thefactionalism amongst the revolutionaryparties of Manipur.

Besides the problem of having a largenumber of revolutionary organizationswhat is desired urgent attention is the worksof various revolutionary organizations ofManipur trying to build themselves into apowerful revolutionary party. It is now timethat we should analyze the direction of ourrevolutionary work in the light of the wholepeople of the world undertaking a newunited movement against the terrorists. Ifwe do not take this issue gravely, we mayfall prey to the propaganda of our enemyIndia attempting to portray theindependence movement as terroristactivities and thus the revolutionarymovement of Manipur may become one notsupported by the international community.And so it is once more appealed to all therevolutionary organizations to desist fromusing tactics of terrorists while trying tobuild the strength of their organizations.

The present step by the Indian Armycarrying out covert understanding with the

rebel groups of the various communities ofManipur in the name of negotiation is akind of destabilizing act by putting a wedgebetween the various communities inManipur. Unless the step of exploiting themusing as a weapon to contain therevolutionary organizations throughseparate dealing and giving tacticalsupport to their activities in the name ofpeace talk is taken back immediately, acommunal war is certainly bound to happenin Manipur. We have witnessed thecommunal clash between the Nagas andthe Kukis as well as the Kukis and the Paitesin the past as an outcome of the instigationof the Indian Army. The recent fatal clashbetween the Naga rebel group and Kukirebel group in Hundung is also an example.Therefore, on behalf of the RPF, it isappealed to all the revolutionaryorganizations of various communitiesliving together in Manipur to come togetherand work unitedly for Manipur with a newideology and vision instead of workinghaving faith in the poisonous evil policiesof the Colonial India.

Here our brethren working in the mediamay put effort to publish and broadcastonly the truth while covering the news andevents related to revolutionary activitiesin order not to put people into confusion.At present, the biggest dispute about themedia internationally is regarding thebiasness of the news and reporting. In thepresent confused situation of Manipur ourJournalists must try to lead the people inthe right direction by abandoning thispredisposition of biasness in the media.Only then, those unwanted incidentshappening at present in the media could beprevented. In the meantime, it is alsoappealed to persons of all sides not tointimidate and inconvenience theJournalists by interfering unnecessarilywith the freedom of the media.

I want also to propose some task thatmust necessarily be taken up by the peopleof Manipur in the midst of the revolutionarystruggle. A small country like Manipur maycontribute very little to the global weatherchange or in the restoration of the globalecological imbalance. But then doingnothing about the ever-depleting forestsand receding hills will be a great loss forthe future of Manipur. So we must take upsome measures in our capacity in order toprotect, however little it may be, the future

generation from the inconveniences comingfrom global change of weather andecological imbalance.

In China where the percentage ofdeforestation is quite high, it is the policyof the Chinese government that all personswithin the ages of eleven to sixty yearsplants five saplings each every year.According to the report of the ChineseGovernment, a minimum of a billion treeshave been planted every year since 1982.But it will be worth monitoring how thedepartments of Manipur Government aregoing ahead with planting of trees forforestation. Accordingly we have to makea concerted effort identifying our role tointervene at the areas where thegovernment departments have failed. If weremain doing nothing saying that it is theGovernment departments that are notimplementing, the loss will be for Manipur.And we all will have to share in this loss.Therefore let us make it a duty for us tolook out and execute works that thegovernment has not implemented or is notexpected to implement.

Right now, discussing thedevelopmental programs of China and Indiais becoming an international topic. Whatour people of Manipur can involve in thisdebate of China forging ahead is to discussfocusing on the scientists and issues relatedto them. It is witnessed by one and all thatbecause of the Research and Developmentworks taken up by the numerous scientists,China is ahead of India in development. Itis also estimated that India will take morethan one hundred and fifty (150) years toreach the approximate one hundred andsixty thousand (160,000) scientists of China.One important reason for this is the workingof most of the Indian scientists outsidelooking more for their own future andbenefit.

However, most of the scientists ofChina work inside China, giving benefit oftheir work to China herself. This is becausethe students have been educated in China,a sense of Patriotism being inculcated andpreparing them to dedicate themselves tothe development of China. In contrast,many students in India take their educationoutside India and also the sense ofpatriotism cannot be inculcated to themthrough education in India. Accordingly,they don’t find it difficult to distancethemselves from their motherland once they

December 2007 29

become matured completing their studies.As their profession and knowledge isconsidered to be merely their personalproperty, many a good scientists left Indiafor other countries.

Therefore like China while bringing upour children, we must inculcate the senseof patriotism and the ideology to dedicatetheir profession for their motherland whileeducating them in Manipur itself. For thiswe must not only have facilities of goodschools and create a right academicenvironment but also make arrangementsfor methods of teaching, which couldinculcate a sense of patriotism to ourstudents. For a small and ever degeneratingcountry like Manipur, where the people areeven becoming indolent to pursue thefootsteps of their forefathers, it will be adisaster for the future of Manipur to sendindiscriminately students, who will be the

pillars of the future society, outside Manipurfor studies. As such we must makepreparations from now onwards so that thefully developed students on completion oftheir studies will dedicate their work for thelove of their motherland. Most importantly,discussing the specific issues in theclassrooms, instead of dragging theschools with budding and young studentsin the ever going strikes and bands ofManipur, will be more fruitful and morerewarding. So it is appealed to our peopleto create in Manipur an appropriateacademic atmosphere by bringing out theirown ideas that will be helpful in moldingour students.

Lastly, I want to remind our people that,living together in the middle of arevolutionary war, we do all exist as a partof this war. This condition will remain aslong as the present Indian Colonial rule

continues in Manipur. It would not bepossible for anyone of us to remainisolated dividing into someone who hasjoined the war or someone who has notjoined the war. One day or the other we allwill be getting our due share of therevolutionary war. This has beenwitnessed in the various revolutionarystruggles around the world. For thisreason we must have various pre plans sothat the revolutionary war is not put ingreat danger. Even in the face of such adanger it should not result in disaster. Letall of us prepare for this eventuality joininghands together and working as one.

Date: 25 September 2007Irengbam ChaorenPresident,Revolutionary Peoples Front (RPF)

Democratic Movement (PDM) of AndhraPradesh as an executive member andas one of the conveners of A.P. Stateand as an all India co-coordinator ofPDFI.

During all these years, when PunnaRao actively worked for various people’sorganizations, in Andhra Pradesh,brutalities of the state increased to newheights year after year. All massorganizations including those whicharose temporarily on issue-basis weresubjected to severe repression. Hundredof social activists were subjected tohumiliation, torture, and murder eitherdirectly by the state forces or throughillegal and criminal gangs that werecreated by the state like ‘cobras’,‘tigers,’ etc. For all mass and civil rightsorganizations faced the state brutalities,the issue of state repression was alwaysat the top priority. Punna Rao took upseveral rounds of anti-repressioncampaigns along with a number ofpeople’s organizations in all theseyears. Among the prominent campaignsagainst state repression were, in Gunturin 2001, all India campaign against staterepression in 1999, campaign againstencounter killings, campaign against‘cobras’, ‘tigers’ and other privatecriminal gangs sponsored by theGovernment. The Y.S. RajasekharReddy Government surpassed

Chandrababu Government in itsbrutalities perpetuated against thepeople and their organizations,particularly after it discontinuedunceremoniously the ‘talks’ it initiatedwith the CPI (Maoist). The AP statebecame a cauldron of state brutalitiesas state repression went on increasingafter the 9/11 and 13/12. After YSRstarted cold-blooded murders bydiscontinuing ‘talks’ Punna Rao workedhard to raise collective voice of thepeople against the state repression. Aspart of his efforts, the StruggleCommittee Against State Repressionwas formed with a huge number ofpeople’s organizations. He used to meetthe family members of the arrested massactivists and used to convince them tocome out into the streets to protest. ThePrivate murderous gangs were effectivelycountered by the Struggle Committee,Punna Rao actively working with it.When the murderous gangs of theGovernment of Andhra Pradesh like‘cobras’ killed Kanakachari, aGovernment schoolteacher and activist-leader of PDM, Mannam Prasad inPrakasham district and Kilinga Rao inKarimnagar, Punna Rao propelled theStruggle Committee into action andeffectively exposed the state. As a resultof the active campaigns, the stategovernment was forced to review itspolicy of murdering the mass activists.

Continued from page 32 He played a crucial role in invitingan all India fact-finding team consistingof Gautam Navalakha, representativesof IAPL and RDF and others toinvestigate into the brutal staterepression in Andhra Pradesh. Manyobstacles were created by the policeand the vigilante groups of murderers,that they reared, with a view to stop theteam’s visit to the areas of repression.Punna Rao took an active part ineffectively countering the police tacticsand made it possible for theteam to visit and study the situationproperly.

Punna Rao was a militant massagitator. He always stood in the frontrow in exposing the state or in effectivelycountering the state repression. He hasbeen recognized as a powerful speakerof the masses. His identity as the leaderof the anti-imperialist movement in thestate is clear and loud. He led militantagitations of several kinds. He wasarrested several times and imprisoned.He was implicated in serious cases ofsedition and conspiracy. The police eventhreatened his old and bed-ridden fatherand mother who lived in a hut inMachavaram with plan to cow downPunna Rao.

To pay a true tribute to Punna Rao,we have to take up the anti-imperialistand anti-feudal struggles of the massesahead and in a more militant way. PMPMPMPMPM

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30 December 2007

Index for the year 2007Jan

Gruesome Massacre of Dalits:Dalit Fury

Scorches Maharashtra

Repression — Exracts from the CivilLiberties Fact Finding Report

Press Statement Of the CPI(Maoist):

on Khairlanji Dalit Killings-on Farmers Deaths.....

Global Trends, Challenges andOpportunities after 9-11

Salwa Judum Falters!Retaliation takes aReal People’s War Character!!

Memorandum to the President: Subject:State Terror against Tribal people in Bastar,Chhattisgarh, under the Garb of salwaJudum

Remembering 1857

Latin America – a Volcano about to Explode

Demand Unconditional Release of Maoistleader com. Narendra (alias Chintan)

In Commemoration of Martyr ComradeKamrul Islam

Open Letter From Com Sushil Roy to Mr.Buddhadeb Bhattacharya Hon’ble ChiefMinister of West Bengal

GE Technology: Further StrengthensImperialist-Strangle Hold on IndianAgriculture

The Conflict in Darfur: Sudan on USImperialist firing Line

APCLC Fact Finding Report on EncounterKillings of Madhav and Seven Maoists inNallamala Forest – Andhra Pradesh

Latin America: A Boiling Cauldron

Women’s Genuine RevolutionaryEmpowerment

The Relevance of Bhagat Singh’s Ideas inthe Times of Globalization

Central Call of the Unity Congress-9th

Congress of the CPI (Maoist)

Call of March 8th : Join the Countrywide People’s Struggleagainst Displacement ......

Rajitha - A Symbol of Determination

Press statement: We Stand by Singur Peasants

US-India Nuclear Deal......

The Looming Menace of Capital AccountConvertibility

A Tribute to Com. BK

No Genocide can Kill the Rebellious Spiritof the People of Nandigram

Singur People resist CPM’s Social-FasicistTerrorMay Day 2007 Call:

International Proletariat Arise ......Update: Dandakaranya

Mass Rallies and Armed Resistance toDefeat and Smash Salwa Judum or SarkariJulum!Growing Informalisation of Labour Amidsta Supposedly Thriving EconomySEZs—a Shameless Attempt to SnatchAway Rights of Working ClassRed homage to comrade RaghavuluIn Memory of Com. Chandrasekhara RaoYSR’s “Indiramma” or Emergency Raj in AP

Commemorate Martyr’s Week on a WideScale

Displacement Under the Plea ofDevelopment:

CPI(Maoist) Unity Congress-9th CongressStand on Caste Question in India

Press Release: on Gujarat Encounter KillingsExcerpts of Interview with com. Ganapathy,General Secretary, CPI (Maoist)

Retail Business in India and the DangersAhead

Commemoration of March 8th byRevolutionary Women’s Organizations

G8 Summit-the Annual Theatre ofHypocrisy

Pulse Polio Immunization – a Big Fraud

Excerpts from an Interview of KABIRSUMANMartyr’s Day of the PLA in Manipurcommemorated on April 13, 2007Special supplement: On the advancementof People’s War in DK

May

Feb

April

July

SeptemberUS Stooge Manamohan Further Ties

India to US Shoe Strings

Muslims to Hang, Hindu Fascists Promoted,for Similar Crimes

Sachar Committee Report

Govt. Facilitates Reliance Interests atPeople’s Cost

Janatana Sarkars:Trend Setters For The AllRound Development Of The People

Reply to KMSK: Opportunists Never UnderstandDialectics Of Revolution!

Ccomposa Calls On People’s Of SouthAsia.......

Joint Statement of Indo-Naga People’sSolidarity Meet

Martyrs:Hail the Martyrdom of comrade Settiraju

Papaiah (Somanna)Red Salutes to Comrade Raja Mouli,

CCM and KNSCS of CPI (Maoist)!October

NovemberDeepening World Economic Crisis; WarClouds & Growing State Terror

Sub-prime Crisis in America, A Crisis of Neo-Liberal Agenda

Indo China Border Conflict: Ails andAilments

River Indravathi & Its Children

Indian Expansionists Stop Meddling inNepal !

Condemn State Terror on Maoists andDemocrats!

Declaration To Reaffirm The SignificanceAnd Relevance Of The Anti-revisionistStruggle And The GPCR

Hydrabad Blasts Provide An Alibi forAdding more Teeth to a Fascist State

Gohana And Casteist Bias Of The IndianState

Maoists Attack Mass Murderer AndFormer Chief Minister Janardhan Reddy

The FairyTale of CPM’s Industrializationand Development

Press Release:Hail the Martyrdom of Comrade

Ajayda!

Scrap the Indo-US Nuclear Deal!

Rape of 11 Tribal women by the MercenaryGreyhounds........

Voices from the PLGA:- A Talk with Company Comrades.........

How the Maoists are Running AcademicMobile and Political Schools in DK

Strongly Condemn Raids on NDFP LeaderCom. Sison In The Netherlands

Martyrs:Long Live Comrade Ajoy (Parimal Sen)

AugustSpecial issue on Women Martyrs

December 2007 31

ON APRIL 5th 2007 Com Rammehar(alias Pritam) was martyred due to anattack of cerebral malaria at the youngage of 25. Com Pritam at the young ageof 25 had grown to be a pillar of therevolutionary movement of Haryana. Hisloss was a severe blow to the movementin the state.

Com Rammehar was born in aworker’s family in Kurad village in Kaithaldistrict. Due to poverty the entire familysettled in Fatehabad. He was good at hisstudies and finished his B. Ed. Facinghunger and poverty from his childhoodhe always sought the reasons forpoverty in society.

In his search for answers he came intouch with the Rationalist Associationin the area. By being part of this heunderstood the irrationality ofsuperstitions. He became a very activemember of the RA. He exposed many aSadhu and held programmes all over thedistrict, recruiting a large number ofmembers. He soon became the secretaryof the Haryana unit of the RA.

But, though he came to understandsuperstition, he still could not get theanswers for the reasons for poverty. Inthe process he revolutionary studentorganization in the area. He activelyparticipated in its activities in Narwanacity and colleges. In the process hestudied Marxism-Leninism-Maoism andunderstood the root causes of povertyand the solution. He then joined the

Maoist Party as a professionalrevolutionary.

Later he took responsibility for theworker’s movement in the city. Havingworked for many years amongst thestudents taking responsibility for theworker’s movement was a difficult step. Buthe immersed into this work with fulldedication. He lived night and day amongstthe workers and deeply integrated with theirfamilies. In the daytime he took meetingsof the women and children and in theevening of the men-folk. In this way notonly built the KMKU but also the firstchildren’s organisation in Narwana. He ledmany struggles that led to lathi charge andarrests. But he carried on undaunted.

Meanwhile he actively participated inthe raging debate on the mode ofproduction in Haryana and was of thepioneers in initiating the revolutionary ruralmovement in Haryana. Here too he won thelove of the masses due to his integrationdeeply with their lives and problems of themasses. He was therefore very effective inbuilding their organization. It was he wholaid the embryonic form of armed strugglein the plains of Haryana.

In fact the Sept.25 2005 Ghosa strugglewas a turning point in the revolutionarymovement in Haryana. The goons of thelandlord had prevented the organizationmembers walking along the main road ofGhosa village. In spit of this the organizationtool out a torchlight procession on that dayto mark the first anniversary of the Party

formation. This procession was violentlyattacked by the goons of the landlordfrom the back. One comrade wasseriously injured. It was then that comPritam fired some shots from his country-made gun into the landlord goons creatingpanic amongst them. This incident ofdalits being able to resist the age-oldoppression of the upper-caste landlordsspread like wild fire and greatly enthusedthe dalits from the entire region. But thegovernment also took this incident veryseriously and began a massiveclampdown arresting about 50 from allover Haryana. But even amidst this terrorcom Pritam continued organizing thepeasants moving in an underground wayat nights. The police were unable to catchhim. Also his deep integration with themasses, it was the people who protectedhim from the enemy.

He was within the rural masses whenhe contracted falciperum. Due to the lackof availability of quick treatment it killedhim within five days. Till the last he stoodas a rock with the revolutionary movement.In fact in his pocket there was a letter tohis loved one saying that he cannot marryanyone who is not totally with themovement. He was telling her that hewould sacrifice his love in order to keepthe interests of the masses as primary.

Comrade Rammehar was an idealcommunist from which many can learnmuch. Red salutes to comradeRammehar.

rural populace. This requires putting an endto all forms of semi-feudal exploitation andloot, whose starting point is changing theskewed land relations and distributing landon the basis of land to the tiller. But thisalone is not sufficient as unless the semi-feudal authority is smashed, it is notpossible to pull the rural economy out ofbackwardness and end all forms feudalexploitation (whether money lending, lootby traders and the govt., extra economicforms of coercion, etc).

The next step requires the reversal of thedestructive impact of the market economy —as in the terms of trade between agriculturalproduce and cost of industrial inputs,increasing yields through scientific farming

and rejuvenation of the soil, introduction ofextensive irrigation, forestry and properwatershed management, and slowly movingtowards cooperative forms of farming of thesmall plots of land distributed to the landlessand poor peasants.

As the first step through landdistribution, stopping all forms of loot,and coming out of the octopus grip ofthe imperialist-directed markets, the smallplots of land can be made sustainablefor the peasantry. They can at least havetheir two meals a day, though they maynot produce any surplus and wouldstill be living in poverty. In the next stepas productivity increases with the helpof institutional support of a genuinenew democratic power, (initially in the

Base Areas and then throughout thecountry) surplus will be generated andthe home market will be created foressential commodities. This will then actas the engine for industrialization andgenerating employment and furtherenhancing the purchasing power of therural populace.

And so, in this way, the country and itspeople will grow and develop. Developmentwill not be at the cost of the people, but forthem. This then is the only realistic solutionto the on-coming holocaust that is going togrip our country and its people. The Maoistsare moving in this direction; the rulingclasses are hell bent on preventing it, evenif it means mass murder!!

Continued from page 17

PMPMPMPMPM

COM. RAMMEHAR WAS AN IDEAL MAOIST

PMPMPMPMPM

31 December 2007

32 December 2007

Regd. with the RNI No: KER ENG/2000/2051 Postal Regn. No. KL/EKM/614/2007- 09

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COMRADE Punna Rao passedaway owing to ill health on 21

June, 2007 at Nizam Institute of MedicalSciences in Hydrabad. He worked inthe revolutionary mass movement formore than 15 years. Only a few knewthat he was suffering from chronicdiseases, though he was popularlyknown all over Andhra Pradesh.

Punna Rao was born in a poor washerpeople’s family from Machavaram, asmall village in Ponnur block of Gunturdistrict. He studied up to 10th standardin the same village and later he passedintermediate and degree in science fromPonnur town. He became a politicalactivist turning against unbearableoppression by the kamma landlords inthe region. He joined the ongoing dalitmovement in the district in his college-days led by Akurathi Muralikrishna. Heorganized the students of the collegeagainst corrupt officials who used torelease scholarships only after theywere paid bribes. Since the days of hiscollege agitations, he traveled a longway in the people’s movement in the last15 years and became a popular statelevel leader of the mass movement.

The intense moments of his forwardmarch in the people’s movement fallunder two phases. The first phaseranges from his struggles on studentissues and struggles against uppercaste oppression in the background ofKaramchedu and Chunduru dalitmassacres, which changed the face ofdalit movement in Andhra Pradesh. Thesecond phase started with his initiationinto anti-imperialist and anti feudalstruggles after he joined All Indiapeople’s Resistance Forum (AIPRF) in1995.

In the first phase he worked activelyin Balaheena Vargala Samakhya(Federation of Weaker Sections) till1995. He was also associated withAndhra Pradesh B.C. Students Forum.These two organizations intenselyworked against the social oppression inthis region in 1990’s. He actively involvedin the campaign on the suicide andhunger deaths of handloom workers.Among other social movements in which

RED SALUTES TO COM PUNNA RAOhe worked actively were the resistancemovements of dalits and other weakersections against brahmanical uppercaste attacks on dalits and OBCsections in Guntur and Prakashamdistricts. When upper caste kammabrahmanical landlords’ attacked yadavacaste people in Pedanandipadu, thesubsequent polarization and themovement against the attack gainedsignificance when dalits and OBCsmoved together in the region. Punna Raoactively participated in it. In this wayPunna Rao started his school andcollege life as an agitator, social activistand leader.

In 1996 he worked in the postal

department for sustenance, butcontinued to actively participate in allsocial and political movements in Gunturand neighbouring districts. He joined asa bus conductor in Andhra Pradesh RoadTransport Corporation in 1998 to supporthis ailing and aged parents. During thistime, as a district committee memberof AIPRF, he organized the peasants inPalnadu area (Guntur district) againstthe pollution created by the cementfactories. The cement factories in thisarea didn’t install the anti-pollution plantsand freely exploited the naturalresources like limestone, which isabundantly available in this area. Thehuge dust clouds these cementfactories spewed created disastrousconsequences for scores of villagesaround. The peasants suffered both in

terms of loss of crops and their health.Punna Rao acted as a key organizer inbringing together the peasants in thearea and a militant struggle was waged.Ultimately the cement factories had tofollow the norms and install the anti-pollution plants apart from payingcompensation to the farmers due to themilitant struggle. One such examplewhere Punna Rao was active was theAmbuja cement factory struggle inGurajala area.

AIPRF took up a massive all Indiacampaign against state repressionagainst theAndhra-Bihar-DandakaranyaRevolutionary movement in 1999.Hundreds of rallies, public meetings andother mass programmes of action wereconducted in more than 12 statesduring this year. Punna Rao organizedthe meetings and rallies in Gunturdistrict as part of the all India campaignand in the process, a qualitative changeoccurred in him. After this campaign hedecided to work fulltime for the people’smovement.

Since 2000, Punna Rao startedworking more systematically andorganized ways till his last moments inJune 2007. During these 7 years, he wasinvolved in various united activities withdozens of mass movements againstimperialism and state repression atstate level. He worked as one of thestate conveners in FAIG and MumbaiResistance 2004 and later on in PDFI.

Punna Rao also played a leading rolein organizing ‘People’s Assemblies’during the time when the Governmentof Andhra Pradesh held ‘talks’ with theCPI (Maoist) leaders, in order to bringthe attention of the Government tovarious people’s problems. He alsoacted as the key organizer in manymovements of the people, campaignsand protests. He worked in the stateexecutive of AIPRF for a long time. Hebecame the secretary of A.P. StateCommittee of AIPRF in 2001 andcontinued till the organization mergedin a newly formed RevolutionaryDemocratic Front (RDF) at all India level.Later, he worked in the Patriotic and

Continued on page 29

32 December 2007