Peoples' Truth August 2009 Bulletin No: 7

Dear friends,

Peoples' Truth bulletin No: 7 is pasted below.

P.Govindan kutty
Editor, Peoples' truth


The Lalgarh Revolt a ‘Festival of the Masses’

Cherag

What has been taking place in Lalgarh during the mid-June period was a festival of the masses. It is a festival the like of which was not seen anywhere else in our country for a long time. People who had been oppressed and humiliated for a long time have stood up with arms, with their heads held high like a mighty storm and are attacking their enemies, and destroying their property, annihilating the most hated among them. The CPI (M) leaders and cadres--the most trusted stooges of the ruling classes, the revisionists and most notorious of the reactionary elements have been rightly identified as the main enemies of the people and they are being dealt crushing blows with ferocity. Never in the wildest of dreams could these enemies of the people think that they would be reduced to such a fate in a state where they had been lording over for more than three decades with sky-kissing arrogance. The heroic people of Lalgarh have targeted those symbols of power—the most hated CPM leaders and goons, those social fascists, their party offices and property. It was a scene worth beholding.

Locals describe the CPM cadre as the government’s rampaging bull. Thirty-two years of CPM has brought about no change in their way of living they say. The dirty primary health centre is in abysmal condition, there is not even drinking water, people have to travel a long distance to get basic medical care, the public distribution system has collapsed, wages are low, there is no infrastructure and acute poverty stalks the land. The chief occupation is agriculture; but there is no irrigation. The pent up anger of the masses has now burst forth.

A Festival of the Masses

On June 14, 2009, the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities procession started from Lalgarh, covered 11 kms and took control of 48 villages including CPM party offices in Dharampur—an apparently invincible CPM citadel used by the CPM hermads (armed CPI (M) goon gangs) for launching armed attacks on the people. This was preceded by intense firing between the CPM goons and the Maoist fighters for five days in areas such as Dharampur, Jirapara, Hodhodi and Bhaudi. An unspecified number of CPM goons (around 14) have paid the last penalty for their misdeeds, many such goons left their homes from the battlefront and the Maoists, according to press reports, have seized the weapons left behind by the miscreants. Then they attacked Sijua, a CPM stronghold that would allow them easy access to the Jindal’s proposed steel plant site at Salboni. So decisive was the power shift in Dharampur that CPM zonal secretary Anuj Pandey, a resident of the village and notorious tyrant of that area, had to flee out of sheer panic.

Around midnight on 15 June, 320 policemen vacated their camps in Dharampur, Ramgarh, Belatikuti and Koima. Now thousands of villagers from Lalgarh, where the police had been unable to enter since November 2008, swept into areas known as CPM strongholds. They burnt down the police camps at Ramgarh and Kaima; one CPM party office after another was burnt down by the masses, thereby displaying the pent-up hatred the people nourished towards the CPM leaders. The first wave of attacks hit Koima police camp around 11 am ransacking it, destroying furniture and setting it on fire. PSBJC {Police Santrosh Birodhi Janasadharan Committee} activists had gheraoed the camp for the past few days, leaving policemen posted there without food and water. The police sneaked out at night. Then the PSBJC masses fanned out across 25 sq km area over the next few hours targeting administrative and CPM strongholds. One group ransacked and torched Ramgarh police camp at 2 pm. Two hours later another group attacked Dharampur CPM office and burnt documents. The next target was the palatial home of CPM zonal secretary, Anuj Pandey. The police tried to enter Dharampur on 14th night to protect the CPM forces, after the night long battle on 13th night between the CPM goons and the Maoists. But they had to retreat faced with an army of women and children.

The decision to vacate the police camps was taken at a meeting on Jun.14th night attended by the IG of police and SPs of Bankura, West Medinipur and Purulia. The District magistrate said that the reason for abandoning the camps was unease among the policemen.

One of the most hated of the despicable CPM lot was Anuj Pandey. The time he came to West Medinipur from Jharkhand, he was a person of ordinary means. But gradually through party connections, this fellow minted millions out of the toil and sweat of the people, constructed a palatial building in an area where people have been deprived of the basic necessities of life. He was protected by three bodyguards round the clock, and there was a police camp in front of his palace also. It was he who exercised total control over everything in the area, viz, distribution of pattas (land titles) among the poor in the Dharampur area, clearance of 100 days’ work under NREGS, BPL cards, application for the construction of deep tube-wells—all these and many more were controlled from the Dharampur party office. Votes were looted year after year by intimidation and application of terror. To suppress the opposition, armed hermads were sent from Dharampur by this fellow to Khejuri and Gorbeta. Whenever money came for bringing about development of the area, Anuj Pandey pocketed everything and bought arms and ammunition. In the name of giving employment, he robbed the poor of millions of rupees. The money that came through ‘Indira Awas Yojana’ could only belong to him. Many of those unfortunate ones who stood against or criticized him were killed by his hired goons. He had the last word there. Such a giant of a fellow proved to be a paper tiger, a pigmy and had to flee to save his life from people’s wrath. What happened to that palatial building? It is worth narrating, as it symbolized the destruction of reactionary authority in the area. The men in Alimuddin, we are sure, are spending sleepless nights having nightmares of those days when their party office would be reduced to dust and their leaders would meet with the same fate that the East European revisionist rulers faced after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Anuj Pandey’s palatial house was broken down by the people. This is how an English daily wrote: “The hammer rose and fell, the energy of the man behind it rising steadily as the blows gradually brought down chunks of concrete from the roof. On the first floor, three men were tearing down the fancy grills of the iron railing adorning the balcony. A huge crowd gathered below in an area now under Section 144, lustily cheering each blow that fell on the white two-story house, quite out of place in this land of deprivation under Lalgarh police station. By sundown, the hammers had chopped off the first floor, leaving behind a skeleton of what was a “posh” house in the morning’ (HT, 16 June 2009). Every punch of the hammer was greeted with the sound of the conch-shells blown by the standing women (Sanbad Protidin, 16 June 2009). To them, it was like a festival worthy of rejoicing. For what was being demolished was the symbol of power, the symbol of oppression and domination. When Mao Tse-tung wrote his Hunan Report in 1927 during the Hunan peasant uprising, he hailed the rural revolution as the ‘festival of the masses’. The adivasi women remarked that for them it was a social festival like that of Dussera when the effigy of Ravana—the villain of the Ramayana epic was burnt down. The women on that day talked about the inhuman treatment meted out to the people by that fellow and stated that their act of destruction was a spontaneous outburst emanating out of their veins. And then to climax it all, the Maoist leader, Bikash, with an AK-47 slung over his shoulder, addressed the press openly and proclaimed their leadership in this expanding festival of the masses (Ananda Bazar Patrika, 16-06-09).

On 17th some Maoists on motorcycles killed three CPM goons right in the heart of their stronghold. These three were leading members of a vigilante force, called the Maoist Resistance Force, set up by the CPM to counter the Maoists and masses. One of those killed was the secretary of the MRF, while another was the CPM branch secretary of the area. This vigilante force, as is the norm, also doubled up as police informers, and was also responsible for getting a number of PSBJC people arrested.

In response to the comments made by some that adivasis have been duped by the Maoists to do such acts of destruction, the leaders of the People’s Committee (PSBJC) replied that the mystery lay elsewhere. The ‘Marxism’ of the CPM leaders and the ‘Maoism’ of the Maoists--both are foreign. Why is it that despite being in power for 32 years, the CPM had failed to win the people over to their side, while the people could grasp Maoism with ease? In reality, the main thing is neither Marxism nor Maoism, but to remain by people’s side by sharing their weal and woe. They have robbed the people of the money meant for their development and fattened their purse by owning houses and cars, oppressing the people with the help of the police forces and ‘looting’ votes during elections; the people of Dharampur-Lalgarh have proved that such things cannot go on forever (Bikeler Protidin, 16 June 2009).

To the HT correspondent, the destruction of Anuj’s palace was carried out in a manner which ‘appeared to shake to its foundations the world’s longest surviving, elected communist government’. To him, it was also ‘a small-time rerun of the storming of the Bastille’ (14 July 1789, that signaled the beginning of the French Revolution). What the people of Jangal Mahal have been doing is something which has great historical importance. They have been able to identify their enemies correctly, deal telling blows at them like a mighty storm and have sent them to their graves. The myth of impregnability of the CPM social fascists has been broken beyond repair; the Maoists have already made their presence felt strongly in this part of the country as the only alternative force genuinely striving for the cause of the downtrodden people. Meanwhile the Lalgarh party office of the CPM was destroyed by the people on 16 June, and the People’s Committee has declared that they would extend their movement to Salboni, Goaltore and other areas as well in the near future.

With the mass movement taking on the form of a massive revolt, after seven months of keeping the administration and police out of the area, and with the elections over, the central and state governments began plans for their massive crackdown. Notwithstanding the contradictions that existed between the CPM and the central Congress ministry, they began acting in tandem to crush the rising movement. This was despite the opposition from Mamta Bannerjee, who was now a central minister, and the West Bengal Congress, both of whose single aim is to oust the CPM from power in the next assembly elections.

The Crackdown & Resistance

In the midst of this mass upsurge, by June 16th itself reports began coming in that the central government and the WB state governments are sending 5 companies of para-military forces including one notorious Cobra unit (Combat Battalion for Resolute Action) supposedly specially trained to deal with the Maoists. It is also reported on 16 June that Grey Hound units of Andhra Pradesh—notorious for torturing and killing Maoists and other fighting people in cold blood — are also coming. With this, the Lalgarh struggle began entering a new phase bloodier than the earlier ones. Mao Tse-tung remarked time and again that it is not the weapons, but people who are real motive forces of history. However powerful the enemy might appear to be, they are no more than paper tigers. The People’s Committee declared that the entry of the central forces would be actively resisted by the people. The CPM requested the centre for six companies but they were given 40 companies — including CRPF, Eastern Frontier Rifles, BSF, Greyhounds and the elite COBRA.

On June 19th the operation began with the helicopters dropping government handbills in Bengali and the local dialect, asking the villagers to fight the Maoists and support the government. The airdrop was from a height fearing being shot down by the Maoists. Simultaneously ground forces, as though in a military operation against a foreign country, began to move cautiously towards Lalgarh. The security forces unleashed a reign of terror in the region. They stripped women and girls, pointed lathis at their private parts, used the vilest language, beat and brutalized innocent men, and smashed shopkeepers and shops that refused to entertain them. Village after village were targeted by the police. In one place women attacked them as they were found urinating in a pond shared by locals for drinking water. At other places they have entered homes of sick people and dragged them out, beating women black and blue and unleashing relentless violence. Young men are being forced to look for landmines. 0theres are being detained with no evidence. Even family members of local Congress leaders or panchayat committees have been beaten up and hounded. Meanwhile, the CPM’s men, including the discredited Anuj Pandey are trying to come back and “recapture the territory” under protection of the security forces.

The imperialist stooge and Home Minister P.C. Chidambaram (once lawyer to the bankrupt company Enron and also on the Board of the mining mafia company Vedanta) banned the CPI(Maoist) and began spewing venom, calling them ‘terrorists’. He insisted on utilizing a British Act (used against the nationalists) to ban the Maoists, under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1908, which has much wider provisions than the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. He called on intellectuals not to visit the area, to hide from the world the planned rampages of the paramilitary forces on the masses. And when some intellectual went to the area, led by film star Arpana Sen, dramatist Shamili Mitra and poet Joy Goswami around June 21st, the faithful Buddhadeb clamped a case on them for supposedly breaking section 144.

After the banning of the CPI (Maoist) while the left front partners opposed the ban and the CPM did much doublespeak on it, the CPM not only immediately arrested the 60-year old open spokesperson of the CPI (Maoist), Gour Chakravati, under the ban clauses, but also roughed up his house and remanded him to 14 days police custody torturing and interrogating him. Before the ban was announced the PM and HM consulted with Buddhadeb and got his agreement. Later Sitaram Yechuri, a PBM of the CPM openly endorsed the PM’s description of Maoists as the “single most serious security threat” and complained of lack of cooperation of the centre in West Bengal.

But for all the hype the forces sent to the area were a panic-stricken force, having faced the wrath of the people since the past six months. The social boycott the faced resulted in not a single person giving water or food to them In fact the policemen at the Lalgarh police station were allowed after four months to take water from a shop in front of the station.

After just four days of the operation a newspaper report said that from day one the state forces, besides battling the Maoists and fearful of guerrilla attacks had to also battle hunger, thirst, heat and lack of sleep. The report, dated June 24th, said: that since the operation commenced six days ago, 3,000 state forces have been marching on empty stomachs. They had reached Midnapore town on Wednesday evening and started for Pirakota at dawn. After camping in the heat for seven hours they were given just a little khichri. While marching again they had to battle Maoists fire and mass resistance from the people. At the end of the first day’s operation they had to camp on the road at Pirrukhuly. They had no food that night and no breakfast the next morning. After walking 7 kms they reached the Binpur camp — where they managed to get water but there was no arrangement for food.

On June 22nd the newspaper reported that the only visible activity amongst the 600 odd policemen camping near the Lalgarh police station was the IGP’s move into the danger zone with 10 commandos — he returned quickly after getting reports of Maoist movement in the area. The state forces are in a state of total panic, but without their initiative the central forces are not familiar with the territory. One such commander said, “We do not venture out after dark, the forest is very unsafe and we do not even have torches. Let alone searchlights”. The BSF complained that they have been sitting in the same place for 48 hours after sanitizing an 8 km stretch en route to Lalgarh as the state forces are not prepared to move.

On June 19th shortly before noon a landmine went off in Kadashol village. Soon after, advancing columns of Central and State forces came under intensive firing. Many were injured and they had to turn back. As the battle of Lalgarh began an IED blast hit the Domkal SDPO’s car at Pirakota, critically injuring three police personnel. This was 2 hours after the road had supposedly been sanitized. A culvert was blown up at Nimtala and gunfire was heard near the Lalgarh police station creating even more panic amongst the security forces.

On June 20th a police contingent — heavily armed but without the protection of Central forces — was ambushed at Pingboni (16 kms from Lalgarh) — Rattled by the attack many constables have refused to carryout any operation without Central forces accompanying them. In the 2-hour long battle six were injured. The same area had supposedly been cleared by the Eastern Frontier Rifles the previous day, but they retreated out of fear. In another incident as policemen waited, a large crowd charged at them. Some police rushed forward with lathis, only to scatter as arrows were shot at them. Suddenly a deafening explosion took place as a policeman tripped on a booby trap. This was followed by a hail of bullets and arrows. One sub-inspector and three constables were injured in this surprise attack.

But in some place the police went berserk terrorizing the villagers while in many other places the tribals have all fled to the forests. On June 22nd when the police went to Dhangori village they started beating up everybody. Homes were ransacked and food and utensils thrown about. On June 22nd the newspapers reported that more and more cases of clashes between security forces and tribals are emerging as the battle for Lalgarh enters a crucial phase. On 21st when security forces arrested 3 rebel suspects, they faced a hostile crowd baying for their blood. Scores of men and women resisted these forces as they caught hold of the three. A woman, Rajari Tudu, led the village folk and attacked the BSF jawans with household knives, injuring a jawan.

With shopkeepers refusing to give anything to the police many were beaten up and shops and huts were looted by the police. Even the Panchayat Executive of Banaspahari, Tarachand Soren, was not spared — thrashed and whisked away by security forces. All this ignited further tension in the region. A large number of women came out of their huts and dared the forces on patrol near Negusila police camp.

On June 25th, starting from Goumi Chowk (6 kms from Lalgarh) the PSBJC marched down the narrow gravel path through villages with traditional weapons, beating drums and shouting slogans against the police and CPM.

By June 25th forty companies of the para-military plus the state forces were present in the area, but most were confined to the main roads, too panicky to enter the forests. Few if any of the Maoists have been arrested and neither have the leaders of the PSBJC been apprehended. No doubt the battle will be protracted but justice on the side of the oppressed masses and the Maoists leading them.

Political Equations and Lalgarh

As a fact-finding report (April 12th 2009) says: The people of Lalgarh have expressed their demands in a 13-point charter which involves restoration of dignity and deliverance of justice. There is in addition a 9-point charter which makes specific demands relating to developmental needs like 365-day employment under NREGA, provision of basic health facilities and ration cards under the BPL scheme.

The report also adds: From eye-witness accounts, victims and families of victims we heard that the police was present on several occasions when the Harmad Vahini carried out murders and inflicted injuries on people in Lalgarh. The state administration has taken no action against the perpetrators and made no effort to compensate the victims’ families for these killings and neither have any medical assistance been provided to the injured.

Maoist leaders have sacrificed the luxuries of urban life to live amongst the tribals since over a decade. They have shared the weal and woes of the tribals and rural poor and won their confidence. They have slowly built up leaders from amongst them. Now the Party and the masses are part of a homogenous whole fighting the perpetrators of exploitation and state terror. And it is within this scenario that the ruling class forces of the CPM and the TMC have lately been battling it out for supremacy.

Revolutionary Storm Awaits WB

With CPM terror not confined to the Maoists but also the opposition parties in order to guarantee their vote strength, the sweep of the TMC in the Lok Sabha elections is for the first time in over three decades, shaking the CPM fiefdom as never before. Fed up with CPM social fascist terror and domination, and with no other alternative, the TMC (in alliance with the Congress) is emerging as a strong possibility in the next assembly. In the course of this entire battle the main focus of the two parties has to keep account of the forthcoming assembly elections within the next two years. After Nandigram impact the CPM is terrified of further alienating the masses, so is being more cautious at Lalgarh; while the TMC and Mamta Bannerjee is relatively silent on the Maoists more keen to discredit the CPM and take advantage of the clashes. On June 18th even the Congress spokesperson, Manish Tiwari, called the Maoist violence a backlash against 32 years of cadre raj enforced by the Marxists, saying “when you sow the wind, you can only reap the whirlwind”. These contradictions amongst the ruling class forces and the weakened position of the CPM is no doubt an extremely favorable situation for the revolutionary forces. And this situation is likely to continue till the assembly elections.

Besides this the Singur, Nandigram and now more specifically the Lalgarh struggles have roused to democratic forces in Bengal after three decades of confusion created by the CPM. Democratic minded people have only now come to realize what the Maoists have been saying for years — i.e. the social fascist character of the CPM. Till now they did not realize the nature of CPM terror in the countryside and would only judge it by its hypocritical talk. There has been a big upsurge of support for these movements by democratic and progressive people throughout West Bengal. Many have come to help out in the health centers and other development projects in the Lalgarh area. Intellectuals like Mahashweta Devi said: “send food not forces to Lalgarh. If Chhatradhar Mahatao is arrested I’ll go and sit in a dharna outside the office of Buddhadev Bhattacharya. Whatever the state government is doing is wrong”. She added “The people of Lalgarh have organized themselves to solve their problems. It is a shame that the state government has declared war on a section of their own people. Giver the Lalgarh people BPL cards, drinking water and solar lights and see what happens”.

Unfortunately even now some sections feel that the Maoists and masses under their influence are going too far in killing the CPM leaders and chasing their activists out of the villages. Some have even gone so far as to compare the Maoists attacks as being similar to that of the CPM, ignoring the class content of these attacks. The CPM terrorized the masses in order to loot the people, and now, is still utilizing their instruments of terror (in close coordination with the police) to fight back the Maoists and aroused masses. Without crushing this force survival in the area itself would be impossible. In any revolutionary upsurge the forces of reaction must either surrender to the new people’s authority, apologize for their mistakes, return the looted monies, and stop acting as police informers — or else face wrath of the masses. That alone is justice — not equating the violence of the exploiters and fascists with the counter-violence of the masses and Maoists. Equating the two does not help the cause of the people to win justice and equality. You cannot look lovingly at a scorpion with the good intention that it won’t bite.

But most genuine democrats are firmly standing with the oppressed masses of Lalgarh. The conspiracy of silence against CPM terror has at last been shattered. There is no doubt that the revolutionary and democratic forces will once again bring to the fore the great revolutionary traditions of the Bengali people — witnessed first in the 1930s in the struggle against the British and then again in the 1960s and 1970s with the path-breaking Naxalbari uprising.

Send Food not Force to Lalgarh – Mahasweta Devi

Food and not force is the answer to solve the Lalgarh crisis. Noted writer Mahasweta Devi has asked the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government not to arrest Chhatradhar Mahato, the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities leader. “If Chhtradhar Mahato is arrested, I’ll go and sit on a dharna outside the office of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. This is not the time to send forces to Lalgarh,” she told reporters in Kolkata on Monday. “Whatever the state government is doing is wrong. People are fighting unitedly for certain demands. Respect it. The state government has snatched the rights of the people living in Jangalmahal,” she said.
Mahasweta Devi said the Lalgarh movement was another example of the Left Front government’s failure.
“This is one more reason why the government should go. It came with much fanfare but has done nothing for the tribals. The state forest department has protected contractors involved in illegal felling of the trees. This has resulted in the loss of livelihood for the forest-dwellers. There are no roads, no water, no electricity. There is no other state like Bengal where the tribals are so deprived.”
The veteran writer said, “The people of Lalgarh have organized themselves to solve their problems. It is a shame that the state government has declared war on a section of its own people. Give Lalgarh people BPL cards, drinking water, solar lights and see what happens.”
Development Work in Lalgarh

Decades of neglect by the bosses of the CPM who ran this area like their fiefdom, minting money from government schemes meant for the poor, has resulted in the outburst at Lalgarh of West Midnapore district and the neighbouring areas in Bankura and Purulia districts. Led by the PCPA (People’s Committee against Police Atrocities) the people of the area have not only risen in revolt against the CPM, administration and police, but have also taken up developmental works. They have work through shramdan (voluntary labor), to improve irrigation facilities and roads. They have even set up health centers and schools.

As the Indian Express Reported on June 3 2009:
Having mobilized the villagers to prevent the police from entering the villages in Lalgarh and boycott of the administrative machinery, the PCPA has collected Rs.40 lakhs – its budget for developmental works, it says.
Among the initiatives, stress is being given on irrigation projects like construction of embankments and digging ponds, construction of roads and setting up health centers. In certain pockets, groups of villagers are trying to turn barren or single crop areas into fertile, multi-crop land by introducing proper irrigation. Work is going on in villages like Dharampur, Kumarbandh, Banshber, Dargapara, Junglekhand in Ramgarh and Lalgarh blocks.
The PCPA is currently constructing roads in three areas. A 4.5 km stretch is being laid in Sizua in Lalgarh block, and another 8 km road is being constructed from Birkar to Patisol. A 1.5 km stretch from Dharampur to Sargapara is also being laid. It is also putting up tube wells in several villages of Lalgarh and Katapahari. In Baropelia, where many innocent villagers were allegedly assaulted after the police crackdown there, the PCPA has dug a large pond.
Two health centers have been set up at Katapahari in Lalgarh and at Chakkadoba in Belpahari. Another health centre is being run at Ranibandh in Bankura.
The PCPA has started teaching Alchiki in six schools of Lalgarh and Ramgarh, ignoring the norms of the state education department (i.e. of imposition of Bengali)
When asked about the funds, Mahato said the budget of the PCPA depends on the donations of the people and big donations from Lalgarh Andolan Samiti Mancha in Kolkota.

The Hindusthan Times Reported on June 10th 2009:
“…. a Maoist run state within a state where development for more than two lakh people is unfolding at a pace not seen in 30 years of Left rule. Apart from taking over the organs of the state, most notably the executive and the judiciary, the Maoists have built at least 50 kms of general paths, dug tubewells and tanks, rebuilt irrigation canals and are running health centers with the help of local villagers.
Today priority is to answer a desperate call for drinking water in Borapelia, said a Maoist planner. “We build a tank at least 50-60 ft deep. Otherwise the miserly earth won’t throw up water. But we are planning it to serve like a master reservoir of drinking water.” Apart from this tank many tube wells are being revived. You can see gushing tube wells in the villages of Amdanga, Khairashole, Bahadanga, Pairabila and Shyamcharandanga.

With crores at their disposal over the past decades this entire region has seen no development whatsoever with all development funds being siphoned off by the bosses of the CPM and the bureaucrats. Any dissent was ruthlessly crushed by the goonda vahini of the CPM in league with the police. For all their left talk, at the ground level the CPM was little different from any of the other ruling class parties; in fact in their ruthlessness against the masses they could teach many a lesson to the Congress and BJP.
Massive Increase in Instruments of Repression

As announced in the press on June 29th the state plans a massive increase in expenditure on the para-military — the main force in the country to suppress the masses rising in revolt. The ministry of Home Affairs has asked for a massive hike of 15-20% in budgetary allocation for the current year, which itself had risen phenomenally from Rs.21,634 crores in 2007-08 to Rs25,923 in the last budget. Even a force like the Special Protection Group, which is meant specifically for the protection of the Prime Minister increased phenomenally from Rs.117 crores in 2007-08 to Rs.170 crores in 2008-09.
Not only that, after the Chattisgarh action killing at least 50 security personnel, Chidumbrum announced a huge increase in the CRPF forces by 35,00 from the existing 2.7 lakhs.
The government and media keep talking on the need to curb expenditure on subsidies for the poor but not a word is mentioned on these gigantic wasteful expenditure which if used for the benefit of the masses could bring about a change in their lives.





CPI (Maoist) Message to the People of Lalgarh

We Hail Your Glorious Struggle!
Your Mass Upsurge Inspires Millions to Spread The Red Flame of Lalgarh to Every Corner of the Country!!

Your revolt, with arms in hands, has risen like a storm against decades of social fascist neglect, misrule and terror. You have stormed the police camps, CPM offices – the centres of state terror – and chased them out of the area. For over seven months you and your comrades from the surrounding areas have practically paralysed the whole administration in a vast region. Not only that, while exposing the hoax of so-called development of three decades of the social-fascists, you have yourselves undertaken numerous development works through shramdan, like health projects, irrigation, roads, schools, etc. It is indeed an inspiring example of new forms of struggle for all of us to learn from resulting in the Call to build thousands of Lalgarhs in every corner of the country!

Terrorised by your mass upheaval, the central and state forces, along with the Harmad bahini goonda force of the social fascists, have launched massive attacks on the entire people of your area. With wide-scale anti-propaganda the government turned your area into a war zone. Armed people, with traditional weapons, have heroically resisted the attack launched by 40 companies of central para-military forces, the special forces of the Cobras, Helicopters, along with State forces and the CPM goonda bahini.

It is known to all that there was resentment of the people against the handing over of 4,000 acres of forest land to the Jindal plant, on which it is you and you alone that have the rights. It is you, the villagers of the area, who alone have the rights over this land, and not the government. After the attack on the convoy of the Chief Minister and others while returning from the inauguration of this plant and the terror then unleashed by the police, your movement took a political shape with thousand and thousand of masses mobilised against the police and administration. Along with the heroic mass resistance against the police and para-military attacks, this mass upsurge has created a big political impact over the entire country arousing a hope and inspiration amongst the toiling masses fighting against all kinds of exploitation, repression and injustice. This has had the added political impact to thoroughly expose the social fascist face of the CPM revisionists and accelerated the process of polarisation of the forces of revolution and reaction.

The Politburo of the CPI (Maoist) hails your glorious mass uprising and strongly condemns the cruel repression unleashed on the masses in your area by the central and state forces. It calls on the whole Party and PLGA, its mass organisations and each and every section of the revolutionary masses, to come forward in support of your movement and rise against the brutal attack on the struggling and fighting people of Lalgarh. We further calls on the Party and people in the surrounding areas to take proper actions and conduct necessary activities in support of your great uprising. We vow to lend you all support in every possible way, particularly the support of the oppressed masses throughout the country.

The most significant aspects of the struggle from which we can all learn and emulate throughout the country are:
(i) Yours was a truly armed mass movement which drew into it the entire masses of the area with the ability to keep out the entire reactionary state machinery for a full seven months
(ii) Yours form of mass organisation of constituting a committee in every village comprising five men and five women was a truly new example of a real mass-based democratic organisation which can mobilise and organise the vast masses of the people
(iii) Yours was not a movement for mere economic interests but a political upsurge for your political rights and self-respect of the adivasi and non-adivasi toiling masses.
(iv) Yours movement was an example of how to truly build a united front of all forces drawing in all sections of the masses and also involving the progressive and intellectual forces of the cities as well, combining a skilful balance between reform work, political agitation and armed resistance against the state and government

Comrades,

Our entire Party will learn from this heroic experience, vow to spread Lalgarh-type movements throughout the country, propagate your movement throughout the country and lend your movement all kinds of necessary assistance

July 15 09

Extracts of Interviews with Comrade Bimal, Politburo Member of the CPI (Maoist) Taken from Newspapers


Hindustan Times: What is the future of the so-called Indian revolution you are spearheading?

Bimal: We have a considerable mass base in eight or nine states. Moreover, the capitalist economy is going through a crisis all over the world, and sooner or later, India will suffer the same fate as the West. So, the conditions are quite ripe for a revolution.

HT: You had earlier supported Islamic militancy. Do you still do so after the Mumbai attacks?
Bimal: We do not support the way they attacked the Victoria station (Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, or CST), where most of the victims were Muslims. At the same time, we feel the Islamic upsurge should not be opposed as it is basically anti-US and anti-imperialist in nature. We therefore want it to grow.
….
HT: How is your party faring in states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and Maharashtra?
Bimal: Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa will be the new storm centers in Indian politics. We have our strongest base in Chhattisgarh – particularly in Old Bastar, which stretches across five districts – and it’s totally in our control now. Our militia in the state is more than one-lakh strong.
We have the wherewithal to put up teams of 400-500 fighters, encircle hundreds of police and para-military troops, and wipe out them. We have also taken up development projects. Then, we are gaining strength in other states you mentioned.
…
HT: Your party suffered a major setback in Andhra Pradesh. What are you doing about it?
Bimal: It’s true that we faced a major setback in Andhra Pradesh (when the police drove the Naxalites out of their former strongholds across the state). But we will definitely recover because most of our leadership is alive and safe in our Dandakaranya camps. Our mass base, built up over 30 years, is still intact. But in a war, there will always be ups and downs. (Excerpts from interview given to a correspondent of the Hindustan Times, published in the June 10, 2009 edition of that paper.)

Mint: The administration alleges that you ambush people and run away – that you don’t have the courage to fight them…
Bimal: Absolute rubbish – they know we don’t run away, but say so because neither they can ignore us nor can they fight us. Even on 2 November, when Bhuddhababu’s (West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee) convoy was attacked, I was within a kilometer of where the blast took place. Huge forces were deployed, the area was combed, but I did not run away. All our comrades in (West) Bengal are sons and daughters of the soil. Where will they run away? …. We are not scared of appearing before the people. Lakhs of villagers and tribals know what I look like since I interact with them regularly. …
Mint: How do you forge ties with the locals?
Bimal: We play very diverse roles, which the people don’t get to know. Because they have lost faith in the administration, villagers approach us with their day-to-day problems. We organize camps in villages so they can voice the grievances. We deal with the villagers with lot of compassion and kindness, which is why they love and protect us. We also work for women’s liberation. There are many women who are tortured by their (parents) in-law, husbands or parents. But they can not protest because they dependent on them. We fight for the liberation of such women. Women are very important for our movement. Many oppressed women have joined us in our struggle across the country.
They have led from the front in many a battle that we have fought. However, in terms of the strength, our women cadre in (West) Bengal is slightly weaker compared with other areas such as Jharkhand, Dandakaranya and Andhra Pradesh. Where as elsewhere the ratio of men to women is 50:50 and even 60:40 in favor of women, in Bengal, the ratio is around 70:30 (in favor of men). Besides our guerilla operations, we also lead strong mass movements in many parts of West Bengal such as Lalgarh and Nandigram. A lot of women are participating in such movements, though they may not be members of the party. Exposure to such movements leads to political maturity. We need mature organizers for the party and would look to recruit women who have actively participated in these movements.
…
Mint: How do you recruit people for your movement?
Bimal: We don’t recruit from villages on our own. We have a party controlled mechanism under which we receive proposals from the locals. After obtaining the consent of the parents of applicants, we forward the proposals to one of our committees. It vets them and takes a final call on whether or not to recruit, based on the person’s antecedents, class and disposition towards others in his or her village. The responsibility of the group that I lead is to train the new recruits. Many of them are initially intimidated by the difficult life we live, but most of them eventually learn to cope with it.
… (Mint, May 29, 2009.)
Mint: How long can you hold out? The state is mobilizing more forces…
Bimal: Let them send another 500 companies (of police). We are ready. This protracted war is not going to end soon. And we have prepared for it with full understanding of the strength of our opponents. We have enough resources… but more importantly, we have the support of the locals, and the whole area is surrounded by them. Tell Buddhababu, his forces should fight us – the guerillas – and not the tribals.
Mint: So you agree that you are using the tribals as human shields…
Bimal: We have never used the tribals as human shields. They are with us voluntarily…and some of them are even leading our forces. Come to Lalgarh, and you wouldn’t take long to understand that they support us, and the support is entirely voluntary.
Mint: A lot of civilians might die in the crossfire. Wouldn’t you be morally responsible for those killed?
Bimal: In a war, there are no civilians – there are people either on your side or against you.
Mint: And moral responsibility?
Bimal: The Centre and the state should be held responsible for the bloodshed. We have repeatedly appealed to them to withdraw the forces and initiate a dialogue, but they ignored (the appeal). So, let them face the consequences. But yes, I will be hurt if the locals died in this war.
Mint: If the state government eventually agreed to your proposal for a dialogue, would you come?
Bimal: If the government agrees to discussions or debate, the people of Lalgarh will take part. The government will have to sit with the civilians and their representatives to understand what they want.
Mint: You have been saying that Mamata Banerjee (union rail minister and leader of the Trinamool Congress, West Bengal’s main opposition party) should pressure the government to withdraw central forces from Lalgarh. Are you expecting her to bail you out? Has your party joined forces with the Trinamool?
Bimal: Let me tell you that the Trnamool Congress was never with us. We were in Singur and in Nandigram on our own and we had gone there to help the locals. We fight for the people, and our only partners are people who face oppression. The Maoists consider oppressors as their worst enemy, and the tribals of Lalgarh have been facing oppression by the CPM (the Communist Party of India-Marxist) and the state administration for decades.
…… (Mint, 22 June, 2009.)

Bimal to Hindustan Times; June 18th: By defying the public mandate, they have initiated the war. Now no one should blame us for the bloodshed…….The Germans made more advances in Russia than the State and Central Government made in Lalgarh. Let everybody be patient and see how the people of Lalgarh fight the battle. The State was supposed to pay heed to the local’s grievances and solve them but they chose the way of policing. They will have to pay for acting against the people’s decision.

Our Aim is to Break CPM shackles

[ Interview given by the Zonal committee secretary of Communist Party of India (Maoist) for West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia districts, comrade Bikash to The Hindustan Times.]

What are your immediate plans?
Our aim is to break the shackle that the ruling CPM has put on the people of this area. For nearly two decades, the people have not reaped the so-called benefits of parliamentary democracy. Gradually, everything began to be controlled by CPM. Its leaders even had a say in marriages and other social and personal matters. There are many leaders against whom FIRs are pending. The police have taken no action against them. We will punish them. Those who have spent money or used political connections to avoid justice will be tried by people’s courts.
The government is preparing to strike in a major way. How will you counter this?
We have seen media reports in which government officials have spoken about bringing in central forces, COBRA or Greyhound personnel. We are prepared for any strike. PCPA is with us. In Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore districts, we have set up gram committees in over 250 villages. We shall ultimately liberate Keshpur and Garbeta. The state cannot stop us by using force.
Why have you resorted to violence?
We were forced into taking up arms by the administration. When we had guns pointing at us, one can’t expect us to respond with flower petals. Violence was started by CPM. We took up arms to counter this. Many of them are educated unemployed youths. Family members of CPM have got jobs that were meant for them.
Why do you target the police? Many of the constables belong to poor families.
We have appealed to the police a number of times, not to blindly follow the diktats of CPM. We have asked the police not to torture poor villagers. There are some who heeded our appeal. Those who we targeted worked at the behest of CPM and paid a price.
What is your ultimate goal?
We want public funds to be used by the people’s committee. They will be accountable for all development work done. We have already done a lot of development work in the villages. CPM talks a lot about land reforms. Anuj Pandey and his two brothers owned 40 bighas of land. We shall distribute such land among the poor.
[The Hindustan Times; 18 June, 2009]
We will spread this Fire

[Comrade Manoj, a prominent CPI (Maoist) leader in Lalgarh tells his story toThe Times of India.]

My name is Manoj. It’s not the name my parents gave me, but all my comrades call me ‘Manoj’. My father’s name is Dhiren Murmu. I am his second son and I am 25. I was born at Bamundanga village in Salboni. I’ve lived most of my life in this hopeless village.
Our village falls under the Kansijora gram panchayat. The left Front has been in power here for 30 years. Salboni has always been a CPM stronghold. But, in 30 years, neither the state government, nor the panchayat and Zilla Parishad took any interest at all in developing this area. We might have been living in the Stone Age.
When it rains here, the dirt tracks turn muddy and we are forced to drag ourselves and our cattle through the muck. We are not able to ride our bicycles or use carts. We don’t have clean drinking water. People are forced to drink filthy, yellow water. After sunset, we live in the dark as there is no electricity here. No jobs either. During the paddy season, we work in the fields and then sit idle for the rest of the year. Because we are tribals, no one has bothered to do anything for us.
In 2002, we got tired of being treated like rodents. So, the villagers got together and demanded development in our area. This infuriated the local CPM bosses. The police and Marxists slapped false cases on us, accusing us of working for the People’s War Group (PWG). They branded us Maoists. So we began to think we might as well join the Maoists.
Things turned nasty quickly. The former police superintendent of West Midnapore, KC Meena, lodged an FIR against the entire village. Nearly 90% of the men and teenage boys were charged with being Naxalite. We knew what was coming. We had to do something to save ourselves.
I was just 18 at the time. I was in class XII at the local school. But, I too joined in protests against the police. With in days, the police filed a case against me, my father and brother. They accused all of us for working for the PWG. Our family has always supported the Congress party. In 1988, when Mamata Banerjee formed the Trinmool Congress (TMC), we switched loyalty to her.
One day, police jeeps rolled into our villages, picked up people form their houses, bundled everyone into their vehicles and dumped all of us into the Midnapore jail. That was where I first met Maoist leader Sushil Roy [comrade Barunda]. I found the Maoist ideology very appealing. Roy asked me to join the Maoists so that I could help the poor. I liked his ideas. Then I met two PWG leaders in prison. And I realized that neither Congress nor the TMC can stop the CPM’s terror. I also realized that under CPM rule, we had lost the right to speak up. It was time to take a stand and speak up.
I joined the Maoists. They gave me a new name, a new identity and a new life. Now, I work for the Lalgarh movement. I joined this great surge of people last year. On November 5, the police arrived here looking for people who had blasted landmines at chief minister Buddhadeb Bhatacharya’s convoy at Salboni. In Lalgarh, the police rounded up innocent tribal women and began to molest and torture them. One woman lost an eye. Others were badly injured. After this incident, we decided to join the Lalgarh movement. It was our party’s decision. The Maoists always stand with the deprived. We joined them at Nandigram and Singur. Now, we have joined them in Lalgarh.
It’s been easy for us to win the people’s support. Most of them have been victims of torture by police. The people listened to us and joined the Peoples’ Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA). Opposition party workers have also supported us. Everybody is rebelling against the CPM cadre and police.
We know the government forces want to crush us. But, we plan to expand our area of influence. As soon as we are able to turn Lalgarh and Junglemahal (a forested area spanning three districts – Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore) into a Maoist-dominated area, we will apply our ideology here. We will undertake development work for the poor. We will raise money through public donations. And nobody will pay tax to the government anymore.
After victory at Lalgarh, we will expand our fight to the tribal communities of Jharkand, Bihar, Orissa and Chattisgarh. Our war has just begun.
[June 21, 2009, Sunday Times of India]
Lalgarh Ke Sholay
Manas Chakravarty
We are a non-violent people. We hate it when people resort to violence. In Lalgarh, the tribals have all along been very peaceful. True, the primary health centers in their villages didn’t have any medicines and doctors from the towns rarely visited them. So what’s new? Many people saw their sick loved ones die as they made the long trek to the district hospital from their villages over the dirt tracks that pass for roads. But there was no violence.
Finding drinking water in the summer has always been a problem in the villages. Ponds have had to be used for both drinking water and for bathing. Children have often suffered from diseases as a result. But the tribals of Lalgarh are used to their children dying early. They never complained.
Most villagers in the region are caught in a vicious poverty trap. Malnutrition is rife. Doctors from Kolkata who recently visited the place said that what the people needed was not pills but food. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen once said that hunger was “a quite violence”. He meant that if a state can’t feed its people it’s guilty of violence towards them. But he was just twisting words to suit his theory.
Indians are malnourished not just in Lalgarh, but all over the country. A recent UNICEF report said that 405 million people in South Asia suffered from chronic hunger. India’s rank in the Global Hunger Index of 88 countries is 66, below several African countries. So there’s nothing special about Lalgarh. Also, in spite of being hungry, the people were peaceful. Being peaceful is a most important thing.
Every election, the Lalgarh tribals voted the Left to power in the hope that these self-proclaimed friends of the poor would help them. But in spite of the promises, nothing happened. The money from the anti-poverty programmes never reached them, the police occupied the buildings that were supposed to be clinics and the irrigation canals dried up. They watched in silence as the local party bosses built mansions and businesses for themselves and their cronies.
For more than 60 years after independence, they patiently waited for better times. And it’s not that the country wasn’t doing well. Some of them went to the grand city of Kolkata and came back with wondrous tales of shining malls and air-conditioning and taps that never ran dry. They were right to wait. For as we all know, it’s just a matter of time. Once the Sensex goes up enough and CEOs start earning several crores a year and India becomes a world power, then money will trickle down and reach places like Lalgarh. True, generations may be destroyed before that happens. But that is not violence.
Some things do seem to suggest, at first glance, a hint of brutality. Take the routine manner in which the police pick up tribals for questioning and then torture them. But that’s required for the police to conduct their investigations. How else will they protect the people from the Maoists? True, tribals in Lalgarh lived in constant terror of the police and of the party thugs. But that is not terrorism.
Of late, though, the people of Lalgarh have been behaving very oddly. They drove the police and the party bigwigs out of the area and torched their houses. They have started digging wells, setting up schools and running health clinics, without any help from the state. They have formed a Committee against Police Atrocities which wants electricity in their villages and roads and bridges to be built. Worse, they even want the politicians to apologize! Very strangely, after all these decade, they seem to be running out of patience.
What on earth is going on? Outsiders must be inciting them to violence. We are a peace-loving people and must stop this violence at once. Don’t worry, our tribal brothers, our troops are on their way to save you.
[Courtesy, The Hindustan Times, June 21]


Lok Sabha Elections 2009:

What Democracy?
Samya

What does the recent exercise called elections mean for the families of the over one crore people who have lost their jobs in the export sector due to the global meltdown? What does the elections mean to the families of the 1,80,000 farmers who have committed suicide in the last few years? What does the elections mean for 80% of the population who live on less than Rs.20 per day and who see their limited incomes vanish due to soaring rise in the prices of food and medicine? What does it even mean for the middle classes who are getting more and more disgusted with this so called electoral process giving in return nothing but corruption, fraud, loot and harassment!!
It is no wonder this time there was a massive campaign asking people to merely cast their vote. The Election Commission undertook it, NGOs did it, TV channels did it, and newspapers did it and even industrial houses did it. Film stars, cricketers, models, etc were roped in at huge cost to conduct this campaign. In spite of this massive campaign the voters turn out was lower than ever before. In cities like Mumbai and Pune voter count was barely 40%, while in many states it barely crossed the 50% mark. According to the National Election Study 2009, 58% of the population were not interested at all in the election and only 10% were interested a “great deal”. The study also showed that 70% voters feel that the elected representatives can do little for their concerns and problems. Half the respondents felt that on issues and policies there is little difference between the political parties. Yet gigantic sums are spent on this farce (of a minimum of Rs.15,000 crores) to convince the people and the world that India is a democracy and not a dictatorial state.
But of course there are some who are very interested in these elections. They are primarily the imperialists and big business who pump in crores of money to their favorite candidates/parties; there are the feudal elements who utilize the process to give legitimacy to their autocratic feudal authority in the rural areas; there are the politicians and bureaucrats whose nexus gives them unthinkable amounts of money through serving the moneybags and milking the treasury and funds meant for the poor; and there are the large number of hangers on who get some crumbs from the electoral feast. Most important of all is the political need of the ruling class to show that this and this alone is the only method to bring change in the country and all attempts at armed struggle or militant action are ‘anti-democratic’.
Yet what has been the result of these elections? The new Lok Sabha has153 open thugs who have criminal cases (compared to 128 in the previous house) and 306 are officially declared crorepatis (double that in the previous house). Of course this does not take account of the huge black money that all politicians possess. Of these correlates half are from the ruling Congress party. So, we supposedly have criminals and correlates to serve the country, comprised primarily of the poor. To get a picture of this ‘beautiful democracy’ one does not have to read the literature of only revolutionaries but many a sensitive writer, like the article of Arundathi Roy in Outlook (July 13 2009).
Yet, let us do some analysis. There were a number of features of this election. First, the ‘sweep’ of the UPA to power allowing the unfettered control of the Congress on the Central government. Second, less enthusiasm of the masses in this election, and the more effective boycott of the elections by the Maoists in their areas of strength. And third, what this election means for the future of this country and its people.

The UPA Victory & BJP Disarray
The day after the election results were announced the Bombay Stock Exchange jumped up by as much as 17% in just one day — a jump of this magnitude has never been witnessed before in the history of the BSE. This indicated the euphoria amongst the TNCs and big business over the victory of the Congress. All clamored in unison that the days of coalition politics is over and the Congress will now have a free hand to push through economic reforms. Particularly in this period of deepening crisis of the world economy, and particularly that of the US, ‘reforms’ were essential to shift the burden of the crisis onto countries like India so that the US economy may get some breathing space. It matters little that through these ties to the imperialist economies over one crore people have already lost jobs in the export sector; what matters to our lackeys who rule the country is that they serve the US and pick up the crumbs from the royal table. Sale of nuclear equipment and other exports from the US will help keep their businesses running in the US and opening out the country for further penetration of foreign capital will facilitate even further loot of the country. Both steps have been promptly taken by the Congress-led UPA government after coming to power. Policies already on the anvil are: purchase of nuclear plants from the US, disinvestment of government stakes in PSUs, increase in FDI in insurance from 26% to 49%, allowing FDI in pension funds and organized retail, private sector in defence production, banking reforms to allow a bigger role for private capital in the banking sector and labour reforms.
The Budget too has given these imperialist and compradors massive gift of Rs.68,914 crores in the form of tax concessions to big business. The continued reduction of excises duty (reduced during the last year to bailout big business in the wake of the economic meltdown) will give business another Rs.1,28,000 crores.
Besides, a strong and stable central government was even more needed by the ruling classes in order to crush the rising discontent of the masses which would result from the worsening crisis in the economy and intensified ‘economic reforms’. Particularly they were targeting the only real force in the country that could effectively lead the oppressed masses in battle against their exploiters, the CPI (Maoist). With the growing affectivity of the Maoist in some pockets of the country and their ability to hit back at the ease against the forces of repression, there was urgent need for a strong centre to evolve a coordinated, systematic and intensified attack on the Maoists and their areas of influence. This too was promptly done by announcing a one-third increase in man-power and intelligence gathering, banning of the CPI(Maoist), and plans for massive increase in para-military operations against the Maoists. For the modernisation of the police forces in the states it has allocated another Rs.430 crores over and above the amount allocated in the interim budget. It has also increased the ‘special risk’ allowances of the para-military to that of the level of the army. Big allocation is there for building the infrastructure for the para-military. An extra Rs.2,284 has been allocated for so-called border management and Rs.2,100 crores in increase in pensions for the armed forces.
Economic reforms and increasing repression on the people are but two sides of the same coin. The first cannot go without the second, as free market fundamentalism entails ever increasing exploitation of the poor in order to enrich the big and powerful; this necessarily entails rising discontent of the masses, which has to be diverted or ruthlessly crushed. This discontent if effectively led can be lethal for the moneybags. It is therefore not surprising that the chief architect of ‘economic reforms’, Manmohan Singh, is also the principal initiator of the policy that the Maoists are the main internal threat to the country and must be crushed.
The Congress victory was partly an effective management exercise and partly a result of the deep squabbling within the major opposition party the BJP. The BJP was a house so divided that the ruling classes were not confident it would so effectively deliver the goods. There was massive infighting at the very top of the BJP leadership (which crudely came out into the open after the elections); there were big squabbles at the state level, like in Rajasthan and Uttaranchal, and finally there were even dissension between the BJP and the RSS with the latter backing many a Congress candidate (earlier too it has backed the Congress and Indira Gandhi). Though in policy matters there is little difference between the BJP and Congress, the ruling classes prefer a stable and strong government and party.
On the other hand the Congress had its election strategy ready more than a month before the elections were announced. Since the time of the 2008 budget it announced a whole lot of sops to the poor and utilized these huge funds to build its party mechanism and popularity amongst the masses. The minority affairs ministry disbursed 7 lakh scholarships to needy Muslim students giving the Congress a victory in 48 of the 121 districts with sizable Muslim population. Then in three states of Maharashtra, Tamilnadu and AP, it funded and promoted opposition parties to split the main opposition vote. In Maharashtra it propped up the MNS of Raj Thackeray which got an average of 1.4 lakh votes in 15 constituencies, which otherwise would have been lost to the BJP-Shiv Sena combine. In Tamil nadu the opposition vote of the AIDMK was split by promoting film star Vijay Kant’s DMDK who got 10.1% of the vote. And in AP it promoted Chiranjivi’s Praja Rajyam Party which got as much as 16% of the vote. In addition it attempted to build up a well-oiled organizational machinery under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, who was also much promoted as the future leader of the country.
Yet in spite of all this, the actual vote percentage of the Congress was hardly 3% more than earlier and the decline of BJP’s vote share was 2.9 per cent. Thus the Congress, with just over a hundred million votes or roughly 15 % of the total votes, has formed the government with a few other Parties all of which had a combined share of not more than 5 to 6 per cent or another 20 million votes. Actually one needs only 12% of the total vote to win a Lok Sabha seat. In fact in a state like AP the Congress vote share dropped by 2.6% over the previous elections but the number of seats it gained was much more.
No doubt in these elections money flowed like water; and those with more money had greater chances. In addition, as always casteist, communal, regional and factional issues play a significant role. Finally, it was the direct sops to the poor — Rs. 1or 2 per Kg for rice, free TVs, free power, etc etc. which most parties put forth. This is a policy of giving with one hand (for elections) and taking away with the other through price rise and other means.

Rout of the Revisionists
Prior to elections the Karat and Company were strutting all over the media with their so-called fourth front of anti-communal forces, most of whom had earlier been in alliance with the BJP (eg. TDP, ADMK, BSP, etc). All these allies have also been in the forefront of promoting US imperialist policies, which the CPI/CPM are supposedly opposed to. Nothing could be more opportunist that the rag-tag alliance put together mainly by the CPM.
The CPM and ‘Left’ were routed not only all over the country but also in their own home states of West Bengal and Kerala. In the country as a whole the Left front MPs fell from 61 in the last Lok Sabha to a mere 24 this time. In West Bengal it dropped from 35 to a mere 15. The CPM was particularly mauled. It won a mere 9 seats in West Bengal, to the TMC’s 19 and the Congress’s 6. In Kerala it won only 4 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats. The rout of the CPM is particularly revealing as in Kerala it has always been a see-saw between the Congress and the CPM. The West Bengal election particularly requires some analysis.
What has appeared to be quite remarkable to many observers is the election result in West Bengal. How could such a ‘Leviathan’ like the CPI(M) that had been serving the ruling classes more faithfully than many other political parties and ravaged this state with muscle-power and terror over more than three decades be beaten so convincingly by the ballot How could it fall from eternal grace?
First of all, the CPI(M) has been defeated in West Bengal precisely because they are totally discredited and are not in a position to serve the ruling classes any longer. For the last few decades, since the CPI(M)-led ‘left-front’ came to power in 1977, they have transformed themselves from being revisionists into social fascists and have established some sort of a party dictatorship over every corner of society. Their accumulation of massive wealth, control over all branches of society, arrogance, trampling underfoot all democratic norms, rejection of all dissident voices and applying police forces to suppress all opposition and many other things have made them the most hated elements after the notorious Siddhartha Ray-led Congress regime of the 1970s. They had served the ruling classes ten times more faithfully than many others. Unlike what they preached in the early 1990s, they, in the later period have openly unmasked themselves and adopted all the anti-people policies of the State for which precisely they have been in power.

They have taken upon themselves the task to root out the Maoists with all brutality and have always urged the central government to send central para-military forces in large numbers to root out what the prime minister has described as the ‘virus’. In fact, the Maoists/Naxalites had brought so much sorrow and pain for them, tearing off their ‘leftist’ mask, exposing them as revisionists and capitalist-roaders—something which leaders like Karat, Yechuri, Biman or Buddhadev can never digest. However, by so doing, they have branded all dissident voices as those of the Maoists or of those sympathetic to their cause and thereby got themselves totally isolated from the people.

Although they came to power by taking the oath to abide by the Constitution, they have indignantly broken all laws and been forcing people to take up arms as that is the only language they themselves understand and speak. The recent revelation of huge stockpile of arms in CPM offices and leaders houses is an indication of how they ruled the state. The episodes of Singur and Nandigram and the ferocious land-grab campaign and people’s mounting criticism and resistance to it had given the alarm signal to the ruling classes. It became clear to the ruling classes that this constitutional ‘democratic set up’ is at stake at the hands of this party; people have been losing interest in this ‘democratic’ set up in large numbers and the number is growing. The CPI (M) has already outlived its utility to the ruling classes and there is no need of it any longer. It should get out now and so the process has started. Beside, within the present international scenario where the US seeks to use India as its front paw in the region, both economically and militarily, it would prefer more pliable parties than the ‘left’. Needless to state, in the next Assembly elections to be held in not so distant future, this longest surviving government, however much it might try to regain its lost position by crying a halt to the land-grab campaign, would be reduced to a state of deep coma.

Was this ‘mandate of the people’ in favor of the TMC or against the CPI (M) and its allies? It was primarily a verdict against the CPI (M) and its front allies. The hatred and anger against Buddhadev-Biman-Binoy & Co. was strong, all-pervading and increasing. The brutality perpetrated by the CPI (M) hermads in Nandigram, genocide and mass rapes they committed, intimidation they indulged in with the full backing of the police machinery and continuous defence of these atrocities by the chief minister and the party bosses had convinced the people that they have had enough of it. Protest demonstrations, processions, public conventions, hunger strikes, movements of other types where people from all walks of life participated boded ill for the ruling parties of West Bengal. It was on the crest of these struggles that Mamata Banerjee and the TMC rode to popularity and power.

Growing people’s Disgust & Maoist Boycott

Boycott of polls has emerged as an important form of struggle in the elections held in April-May 2009. All the antics to refurbish the image of a system that had lost all credibility in the eyes of the vast majority of the Indian population and to pour new life into a rotten, stinking institution called Parliament had failed to create any interest whatsoever in the voter. The most publicized campaign by the NGOs, film actors, industrialists and eminent personalities in Mumbai saw only 43.52 per cent of the voters turning up, the lowest ever in the city.
Overall, the majority of the voters this time showed a greater awareness by staying away from the polls despite the 24-hour non-stop appeals by the media to the voters to exercise their franchise. In Chattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, MP, Orissa, and Kashmir, polling has been quite low with more than 50% of the voters rejecting the elections. In Bihar it was the lowest ever with just 42 % polling. If elections were held without the shadow of the gun, the percentage of votes polled would have been much lower everywhere. There are several cases of people being herded together and driven to the polling booths to cast their votes. In Kashmir, with a population of just over 80 lakhs and six seats to the Parliament, election was held in five phases to ensure that the security forces overwhelm the voters and thereby ensuring a greater percentage of votes.
Besides, on this occasion there were numerous calls to boycott the elections over local issues. This seemed a growing trend throughout the country. Also many organizations took big campaigns to expose the elections, taking issues of corruption, etc. But, in this the most prominent was the organized boycott by the Maoists.
The reactionary rulers had tried by every means at their disposal to foil the call for boycott of elections given by the Maoists. They made elaborate plans to counter their campaign: elections in most of the areas in the guerrilla zones and main areas of armed struggle were held in the first phase itself. Two dozen choppers were pressed into service in these areas for surveillance and to provide operational support to the security forces in countering the Maoist forces. The ruling classes made all efforts to create an atmosphere of terror among the people in these areas by deploying all available central forces for at least a month prior to the elections; staged as many fake encounters as possible in order to eliminate cadres and people justifying these in the name of maintaining a free and fair atmosphere for the voters; tried to establish area domination and achieve better coordination with the anti-Naxal commando units and special forces in various states; and enforced voting under the shadow of the gun.
In the midst of such a massive state offensive, the Maoist Party, PLGA, revolutionary organs of people’s power in the countryside, and mass organizations successfully carried out a mass political propaganda campaign across the length and breadth of the country calling upon the people to boycott the elections and to establish their own revolutionary-democratic organs of political power, besides undertaking several tactical counter-offensives against the gun-toting enemy forces who were desperately trying to coerce people to vote. The propaganda campaign was so effective that there was hardly any electioneering by the political parties in most parts of the countryside in Dandakaranya (Dantewada, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Bastar and Kanker districts, and some parts of Rajnandgaon district); in many districts of Bihar and Jharkhand where the polling percentage had come down drastically from that in 2004; in West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia voting was negligible and there was a near-total boycott in Lalgarh area in West Bengal; in Malkangiri, Koraput, Gajapathi, Ganjam, Rayagada and other districts in Orissa the boycott was extensive. Also in other places throughout the country effective campaigns were taken to educate the masses how this electoral exercise was not real democracy but an attempt to mere legitimize the growing fascist rule in the country.
The main purpose of the Maoist boycott campaign is to educate the masses of the fraud of democracy in the country and that nothing can be achieved by staying within its confines. It is to educate them that if they require real change in this country they necessarily must come out of the confines of this so-called democratic system. Where the Maoists are not strong, they take up mere propaganda on this issue; where they wield considerable strength the people respond to the campaign of the Party and boycott the elections. There is a misnomer amongst certain intellectuals that the Maoists force and impose their boycott call on the masses. This was reflected in articles like those which occurred in the Economic & Political Weekly, Issue No 18, Vol 44, dated May 2, 2009. Every one knows that the Maoist to use force against candidates who loot the masses and, where possible, prevent their campaign; but as far as the masses go it is just an opportunity to do a big propaganda/education campaign to wean them away from the electoral path and bring them to the path of protracted people’s war. Also with the rise of a genuine democratic government (no doubt in rudimentary form) in Dandakaranya in the form of the Jantana Sarkar, and the establishment of alternative organs of power in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, etc, it was an opportunity to propagate these real democratic institutions as the alternative for our country.
Yet the ruling classes are terrified not just of this boycott call but even if the masses tend to show increasing apathy to this electoral system. For example, the government unleashed massive terror and arrested most Maoist activists just for conducting a boycott campaign, which is a legal right. Just as much as all parties have the right to propagate for their vote the people and their organizations have the right to propagate boycott and call on the people not to vote. But the government treats this activity as treason whether done by the Maoist, the Kashmiris, the people of the North East, or anyone else. Why are they so terrified, by this perfectly legal activity?

Electoral Outcome & The Future
The future must have to be seen in the light of the scenario of a deepening international crisis and its repercussions on the economy and the lives of the people of our country, the growing geo-political contradictions in the region as a fall out of the crisis, the growing fascist terror in the country marketed under the signboard of the “fight against terrorism”, and the rising tide of people’s movements.
First, the economy: The last three months have seen export orders fall by over 30% each month (compared to the previous year) since March 2009, indicating a further toll on the lakhs employed (mostly unorganized) in this sector. The Budget, which was to be expected, is full of sops for big business (it is said Mukesh Ambani himself gets a gift of Rs.20,000 crore in concessions), plans to open out more sectors to foreign capital, and continuation of the economic reforms in spite of the big crisis in the imperialist economies. Such policies are going to have a major impact on the employment potential (which has already been drying up) with further devastation in the countryside. The conditions of the masses will reach levels never seen before, where already 80% live on a mere Rs.20 per day. The people will have to mobilize on a big scale to resist these attacks on their living conditions. A Lalgarh-type uprising is the call of the hour.
Second, with the deepening crisis the contradictions in the imperialist world are bound to increase as the scramble for markets and sources of raw materials becomes more desperate. With the contradictions between the US and the Russia/China axis growing and Obama shifting the theatre of war from the Middle East to Afghanistan/Pakistan, India and its servile ruling classes will be drawn into the geo-political games, used as cannon fodder for the US. Continuous hysterical articles against China, recently appearing in the media, is an indication of the atmosphere being created by the US lobby in the country. The people of the country must firmly oppose war with neighboring countries and not fall into the US imperialist trap which will be promoted as being in the “national interests”.
Third, growing fascist terror is inevitable, to suppress the rising discontent of the masses — a product of the drop in people’s living standards. Here, as being continuously mentioned by the PM and HM, the main target will be the Maoists. In the light of this onslaught organizational forms will have to be adopted that can effectively face the attacks. Any laxity in this sphere will result in the people’s forces and their leadership falling into traps laid by the government and the state/non-state forces.
Finally, with the deepening crisis and the increasing discontent of the masses the conditions open up for great revolutionary advances if correct and timely tactics are evolved — both centrally and at the state level. There will be also great opportunities to utilize as well the growing contradictions in the ruling classes, which will inevitably grow as a result of the crisis. But this will only be possible if the revolutionaries are able to first and foremost protect their forces and not fall prey to the fascist onslaught. Let the democratic and revolutionary forces unite more firmly to forge hundreds of Lalgarhs all over the country.
Masses and the PLGA Forces Repel State’s Fascist Onslaught through Series of Counter-offensives
(Reports put together from various newspaper clippings)
The state has stepped up the repression on the Maoist revolutionaries and the people in the struggle zones, carrying out arrests and murders of Maoist leaders and cadres on a large scale on the eve of the recently concluded farce of Elections to the Parliament. By terrorizing the people and disrupting the supplies of essential commodities in the guerilla zones the ruling classes day-dreamed that they can suppress the revolutionary movement and the Maoist Party that is leading it and brow beat the rebelling masses into submission. Thousands of heavily armed para-military forces and special armed police forces of various states were deployed in all the Maoist strongholds much before the election charade started and a reign of terror was let loose, with these state forces launching mopping up operations in the interior villages of the guerilla zones terrorizing the masses in these areas.
However, the PLGA forces of the Maoists and the oppressed people bravely faced these onslaughts and carried out raids and attacks on the state security forces in order to beat back these brutal attacks of the Indian state, to protect their new organs of political power and all other gains they achieved through their revolutionary struggle and in the way to equip themselves with the arms of the enemy. Deriving inspiration from the successful raid in Nayagarh, and the Chitrakonda ambush the PLGA with the active support and participation of the masses undertook counteroffensive operations on a greater scale and intensity and with better coordination and dealt heavy blows on the countrywide coordinated offensive by the Indian state. During the last six months the people’s forces wiped out over 231 security personnel and captured huge quantities of arms and ammunition including LMGs, 2” mortars, AK47 and INSAS riffles.
Unlike what the government and media make out, these actions are no terrorist acts but the defensive action of the oppressed of this country that have faced generations of state violence — both direct and indirect. The police, para-military and army routinely use violence against the oppressed and their struggles. The system regularly utilizes indirect forms of violence against the poverty stricken masses leading to lakhs of starvation deaths, suicide deaths, deaths from sickness, etc not to mention the daily, nay hourly, patriarchal and casteist violence against women and dalits!!!. It is against all this that the Maoists are leading the masses in a struggle for a just new order, and the armed actions of the people’s armed forces is part of that historic struggle for a just society.
Here are some reports from various guerilla zones.
Reports of repression and resistance from Dandakaranya
During the Assembly elections in Chattisgarh last November, people of Dandakaranya led by the CPI (Maoist) organized a massive election boycott campaign notwithstanding the deployment of a huge number of central forces that was three times the number deployed in the preceding elections. Over 50,000 police and central para-military forces were deployed in the six districts of Bastar range alone thereby transforming the entire region into a police camp. Hundreds of adivasis were abducted and tortured and dozens of them were killed in so-called encounters. By creating such an atmosphere of terror the fascist BJP’s Raman Singh government in the state dreamt that people could be coerced and intimidated into casting their votes in the election.
This terror tactic of Raman Singh, however, failed to bring the people to the polling booths. As reported in the April issue of our People’s Truth, people enthusiastically participated in the boycott campaign, and in scores of booths not a single vote was polled. There was no electioneering by any political party in several hundred villages. Cases of bogus voting by the election officials and the CRPF officials accompanying them, who did not even go to the polling centers, had become publicized and re-polling had to be ordered at several places. In one village of Gougonda re-polling was held for the third time and, in spite of the deployment of over a 1000 policeman, only 10 out of the 711 voters cast their votes (See the detailed report in our April issue). Thus Raman Singh’s BJP government in the state, backed by the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, completely failed to cow down the revolutionary masses of Dandakaranya.
After coming to power in the most-rigged election ever in Chattisgarh, Raman Singh stepped up his fascist suppression campaign, arresting, torturing and murdering adivasis suspected of being active or sympathetic to the Maoist movement. On January 8, it enacted what could perhaps be called the biggest ever fake encounter in the history of the revolutionary movement after the Naxalbari upsurge. It murdered 18 adivasis after abducting them from four villages falling under Gollapalli PS in South Bastar. The fake encounter stood thoroughly exposed before the people of the country but the Congress Home Minister at the Centre, Chidambaram, only talked of more fascist measures against the Maoists and patted the BJP government in Chattisgarh for its commendable job.
Of the 18 adivasi comrades who were murdered in the so-called encounter near Singaram village five were from Korraas Gudem: comrades Maadvi Idmaal, Maadvi Kanna, Maadvi Bheema, Yemla Admaal, Madakam Deve; eight were from Chenchem(Dantheshwari Puram): comrades Veko Bandi, Veko Joga, Maadvi Deva, Madakam Idmaal, Yemla Sukkaal, Muchchaaki Ganga, Veko Pojja, Muchchaaki Doole; four were from Singaaram: comrades Madakam Raaju, Madakam Seethe, Kaaram Lachcha and Kaaram Muththa; and one comrade named Vetti Aduma was from Mylasoor village. These four villages come under Singaram Janathana Sarkar. These villages played a historic role in defeating successive brutal attacks by the state’s mercenary forces like the STF, CRPF, AP Greyhounds etc, as well as by counter¬revolutionary gangs of Salwa Judum from mid-2005. Comrade Madakam Seethe was one of the leaders of the village RPC and played a prominent role in the movement. Most of these martyr comrades were active in the people’s struggles and bravely confronted state-sponsored terrorism of Salwa Judum. Fascist Raman Singh government mobilized a huge contingent of STF, CRPF and hundreds of Salwa Judum gangsters from 3 Tehsils i.e., from more than 10 Salwa Judum camps, and attacked these four villages, arrested around 40 people, tied their hands and took them to a rivulet near Singaram. All of them were cruelly tortured, four women were gang raped, and finally shot dead 18 of them and took away three others who were missing since then. A few managed to escape and narrated the gory details of the massacre.
Again on 24th of January police, CRPF and SPOs attacked Dondem Paara, near Thakilod village in Indravathy Area and murdered five militia comrades. Two of the martyr comrades, Yenugu Odi and Sakru Lekam, were from Dunga village; two were from Gottum village (comrades Madkaam Raaju and Podiyam Manku); and one comrade, Madkaam Neelu, was from Javu Gunda village. A day prior to this, on the 23rd of January, comrade Mallu Podiyam from Kunjam Paara, a tola of Belnar village, was murdered by the police. In North & East Bastar, police shot dead several local activists and people, caused injuries to many and are continuously intensifying their suppression campaign in the past two months. In Thoynaar of East Bastar police-SPOs-Salwa Judum gangs fired on the people’s militia in which four members were injured.
In one of the most daring attacks by PLGA guerrillas on the mercenary police forces in Maharashtra, 15 policemen including a sub-inspector were killed in the jungles of Markegaon village in Dhanora tehsil of Gadchiroli district, around 300 km from Nagpur, on the morning of February 1. After the successful ambush the Maoists retreated without any loss on their side. Markegaon is close to the Gyrapatti-Sawargaon road and around eight km from the Gyarapatti Katgul police outpost, which is along the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border. A number of cops took bullet injuries. A sources in Gadchiroli police said, ‘’The police party was heading towards Markegaon, some 45 km from Dhanora, to investigate into the January 30 arson committed by the Maoists, when the rebels attacked them. The police party was ambushed in such a manner that all the members, including head PSI Gudgekar, were killed on spot.’’
The ambush took place at around 11.15 am. When a relief party reached the area to rescue the first team, it, too, was attacked, preventing immediate reinforcement. The police party had left to investigate the arson attack and also to mop up the villagers for a Jan Jagaran Milava [public awareness meeting] – a Maharashtra variant of the notorious Salwa Judum of Chattisgarh - when they were ambushed in the dense forest. According to reports, the guerrillas had set up two ambushes for the cops. The first one at Kosmi let the unsuspecting police party pass to be engaged at Markegaon by the second ambush. The first one was activated when reinforcements were going in to help the first party thus preventing help from reaching the surrounded cops. The police, who were armed with eight AK 47s, two INSAS (Indian National Small Arms System), six self-loading rifles, one two-inch mortar and one pistol, retaliated, and the battle lasted for over an hour, in which a sub-inspector and 14 constables lost their lives. After the attack, the guerrillas seized eight self-loading and INSAS rifles, six AK-47 rifles and one two-inch mortar launcher.
The guerilla attack comes in the wake of a series of police raids on villages known to be sympathetic to the Maoist movement, arrests of several people who supported the revolutionary movement, fake encounter killings of innocent adivasis and continuous harassment of the people in Gadchiroli district. Just a week prior to the attack 15 Maoist sympathizers were arrested by the Anti-Naxal Squad in Ettapalli taluka in Gadchiroli district.
Interestingly, a camera cell phone seized from one of the dead constables in Markegaon showed the photograph of comrade Mynabai who was abducted by the police in May 2008. 52-year-old Mynabai was a popular leader from Kosimi village of Dhanora tehsil in Gadchiroli district. The district police and the Congress government in Maharashtra time and again told lies that comrade Mynabai had died of heart attack. People knew that she was taken to Gyarapatti PS and kept there for some days, gang-raped by the policemen and eventually murdered. The photograph from the cell phone of one Amar Chouse reveals that comrade Mynabai was in a pathetic condition in police custody at least on May 22 when the photograph was taken.
Soon after the ambush in Markegaon in Maharastra, Home Minister Chidambaram rushed in 3000 central forces to Gadchiroli to assist the local police and C-60 commandos in carrying out the suppression campaign christened as ‘Operation Parikram’. The goal of this operation was to create an atmosphere of terror by enacting mass rape of adivasi women and murders of youth. At least ten women have been raped by the CRPF, C-60 commandos and local police forces in the months of February-March. In Pavarvel village five policemen gang raped a woman and later threw her into jail saying she was a Maoist guerrilla. She was threatened not to open her mouth. In the first week of March an adivasi youth by name Sukku was arrested from Goddalvai in Dhanora tehsil in Gadchiroli and murdered in cold blood. These Indian offspring’s of Nazi Hitler later declared that a Maoist commander Sukku was killed in a “fierce encounter” between the police and the PLGA which lasted for over an hour and a half. Sukku was an ordinary adivasi living in his village.
In the meeting of the Chief Ministers of four states of Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, which took place in Delhi immediately following the Markegaon ambush, a plan for conducting joint operations by Maharshtra and Chattisgarh was drawn up. Under this plan thousands of police and central forces were sent to Rajnandgaon and Kanker districts of Chattisgarh. Huge contingents of police and central forces were deployed and new police camps were set up in several villages in Rajnandgaon district such as Panabaras, Vasidi, Khadgaon, Kandadi, Seethagaon etc falling under Mohalla-Manpur area, and in Kapsi village in Kanker district. These mercenary forces roam the villages, threaten people and loot chicken and food from the people, rape or behave vulgarly with women and create an atmosphere of terror.
Faced with this counter-revolutionary terrorist campaign by the reactionary ruling classes, the PLGA led by the CPI (Maoist) has carried out heroic resistance by mobilizing the revolutionary masses against the enemy forces.
• On March 24, a police force comprising of 80 men led by the ASP of Narayanpur was proceeding towards Sonepur village in Maad division with the aim of creating terror in the mela (village festival) that was taking place in that village. Brave warriors of PLGA attacked the police force near the village of Baasing killing one policeman on the spot (some reports put the dead at two). Two other policemen, including one SPO, were critically injured. Panic-struck, the police did not dare to proceed further and ran back to Narayanpur. The people were happy that the PLGA’s ambush had pushed back the police and facilitated the successful conduct of the mela in Sonepur.
• On April 3, an action team of PLGA carried out a daring attack and shot dead Channuram Karma, a criminal Congress leader and nephew of the notorious Salwa Judum leader Mahendra Karma, at a railway crossing near Katiyararas, barely 3 km from Dantewara, the district headquarter. Channuram was the sarpanch of Faraspal village and was considered to be the right hand man of Mahendra Karma. He was involved in every cruel attack carried out by the police and Salwa Judum goons on the people of West Bastar and was associated with every atrocity perpetrated by Mahendra Karma through his terrorist campaign called Salwa Judum. He was provided security with five policemen and moved very stealthily. But the PLGA, with the support of the people, tracked him down and annihilated him thus fulfilling a long-cherished aspiration of the people.
• On April 6, PLGA guerrillas carried out a daring attack on C-60 commandos near Muginer village in Dhanora tehsil of Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra. In the exchange of fire that lasted for an hour and a half, three C-60 commandos were annihilated and seven others were injured.
• On April 7, a land-mine exploded by PLGA guerrillas just 2km from Bijapur, the district HQ in West Bastar, ripped apart a bullet-proof vehicle. Two policemen were killed on the spot and four others were severely injured. The target of the guerrillas was the district SP, Ankit Garg, who was proceeding from Bijapur to Bhopalapatnam escorted by two vehicles filled with policemen. His vehicle narrowly missed the mine as the vehicle behind came under the mine and was blown up.
Two months after the ambush in Markegaon, Maoist PLGA guerrillas carried out another daring attack on a combined group of elite C-60 commandos and Special Action Group (SAG) on April 6. The exchange of fire which lasted for three hours in the hilly terrain of Mungner village in Dhanora tehsil of Gadchiroli district left three commandos dead. Several more commandos were seriously injured and were battling for their lives. The police force, which was led by Commander Munna Singh Thakur, had left Gadchiroli on April 5 on a patrolling operation. Thakur, who was involved in killing Maoist commander comrade Chikku in the Operation Parakram, was also hurt in the encounter.
Police admit Maoists had gained a psychological advantage after they had killed 15 cops in Markegaon on February 1st. Thereafter, they have kept up the tempo striking at targets dodging government security forces at various places. Until April 6, 46 attacks by Maoist guerrillas were recorded in the four Maharashtra districts this year. In 2008, the number until the end of April was just 24. The number of police inform¬ers eliminated this year was 16 which is three times more than what it was in the corresponding period last year.
Besides Markegaon, in October 2008 four policemen were killed by the guerillas at Korepalli. Police also admit Maoists have been fast gaining the support from the local villagers following the highly successful Markegaon ambush. In fact, the ambush itself could become successful due to the support from the people.
At least 11 CRPF personnel, including a Deputy Commandant and a Sub-Inspector, were killed in a major tactical offensive carried out by Maoist guerrillas on April 10 near Minta village under Chintagufa PS in Dantewada district of Chattisgarh. While nine died on the spot another two succumbed to injuries the next day. Another eleven CRPF personnel, including an Assistant Commandant, were injured and were airlifted to Raipur hospital. All the dead and injured personnel belonged to the 55th Battalion of the CRPF. The daring ambush by PLGA guerrillas took place in the afternoon at around 1 PM when the central forces accompanied by local police were returning in two batches of 50-60 members each after carrying out combing operations in the Kotampalli forest. These combing operations were a part of the terror campaign unleashed by Raman Singh-Vishwaranjan’s police in the name of Operation Area Domination. The exchange of fire went on for about two hours.
Seven policemen including an SI and jawan of CRPF were wiped out by Maoist guerillas near Vinjaram base camp in Dantewada district of Chattisgarh. Five of them were Special Police Officers (SPOs). Another three SPOs were injured in the ambush. The police batch had gone on a tractor trolley from Vinjaram base camp near Konta to Bejji PS which is 20 km away to deliver rations. After delivering the rations they were returning to Vinjaram when their tractor was hit by a landmine triggered by Maoist guerrillas 3 km before Vinjaram. Guerrillas seized five rifles and ammunition from the dead policemen. As a general rule, the CRPF and policemen avoid using vehicles in the areas of Maoist influence. On May 6 too they had walked for 15 km but as they were too tired boarded the tractor when they were just 5 km from their base camp.
On May 7, guerrillas annihilated Abdul Wahid Khan, a notorious Police Inspector of Farasgaon, some 20 km from the district HQ of Narayanpur, when he went to the weekly market. The daring attack which took place in the centre of the market and a few yards from the CRPF camp created panic among the police personnel of Farasgaon while at the same time enthusing the masses in and around the police station area.
One hour after the annihilation of the SPOs and police agents on May 9, Maoists made a daring attack on Farsegadh PS in Bijapur district. The exchange of fire took place for several hours. 16 policemen were said to have gone missing after the attack.
Maoist guerillas ambushed a police party on 21st May after luring it into the jungles of Gadchiroli district, killing 16 cops. The Maoists had called for a two-day bandh beginning 20th in Bhandara, Gondia, Gadchiroli and Dandakaranya against the reign of terror unleashed against the revolutionary masses during the recently held parliamentary elections. The bandh evoked a warm response in all these areas and as a part of the bandh the people had blocked several roads. A 16 member police party headed by inspector Aiyyar went to the hills of Hatti tola in two jeeps on getting information about the presence of PLGA guerillas. As the police party reached the spot at about 3.30 pm guerillas waiting in ambush opened fire apart from exploding land mines. A gun battle raged for about three hours. But in the end all the 16 cops including one inspector and sub-inspector were killed. The PLGA fighters then set the police jeeps on fire and seized all the weapons of the police which include AK47s and SLRs. All the PLGA fighters retreated safely.
12 CRPF jawans were killed and 12 others were severely wounded on 19th June when the PLGA forces blasted a landmine under a private truck in which 40 CRPF men were traveling. The incident occurred near Tongapal village in Dantewada district of Chattisgarh. Additional CRP forces that rushed there to rescue their colleagues and carry on combing operations have, in a brutal act of revenge picked up seven innocent villagers from the vicinity and shot them dead, claiming later that they killed seven Maoists in the exchange of fire that fallowed the blast.
Besides these major actions there have been scores of smaller actions of harassment of the security forces, injuring many, snatching their weapons, and creating much panic in these mercenaries. In all these the people and their militia have played a specifically commendable role.

Reports from Bihar-Jharkhand Zone
In the biggest strike so far this year in Bihar, Maoist guerrillas wiped out ten policemen, injured three others and seized several weapons at a village in Nawada district on February 9. Over 200 armed guerrillas of the PLGA attacked a police team comprising district armed police, Special Auxiliary Police and Bihar Military Police personnel sent to Mahuliatand village to provide security at a function organized on the occasion of Ravidas Jayanti. Four jawans each from SAP and BMP, sub-inspector of Kauakaul police station Rameshwar Ram and assistant sub-inspector I D Singh were killed on the spot in the attack. The Maoists took away 15 weapons, including five INSAS rifles, five SLRs, two AK-47s, one carbine and two revolvers of .38 bore besides 1,250 round cartridges and 45 magazines.
According to an eyewitness: “Ram was asked on the public address system to come on to the dais and garland Sant Ravidas’s portrait. No sooner did Ram come back from the dais to take his seat in the front row of audience than bombs started exploding here and there.” Eyewitnesses add that the attack was mostly carried out by unarmed women who simply surrounded the cops and pinned them down before snatching their guns and shooting them with their own weapons. The operation lasted barely ten minutes. A point worth noting is that the guerillas killed the policemen in a crowd of around 600 without a single civilian causality. Villagers asserted that it was a deliberate reaction against false government propaganda and also a revenge for police lies about the Roh incident of January 16, and the Labnimarai fake encounter of May 14, 2008 in which six Maoists were killed.
A landmine blast was triggered by PLGA guerrillas near Magra village under Dumaria police station area of Gaya district of Bihar, on February 12 when a police patrol vehicle was passing through the area in the afternoon. However all six personnel in the police vehicle, including five members of the SAP, managed to escape. The police vehicle suffered heavy damage.
As soon as news of the abduction of comrade Ashutosh, a member of the CMC and CC, CPI(Maoist), on February 25 reached the Party cadre, PLGA fighters and the people, a massive wave of protests swept the four states of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa, where comrade Ashutosh was looking after military affairs. A 24¬hour bandh was called in the four states on February 28.
Comrade Ashutosh was abducted by the Jharkhand police on February 25 when he was moving in a vehicle along with some other comrades from Rourkela. Following are reports of resistance by PLGA as part of the 24-hour bandh on Feb 28. In the early hours of February 28, the guerrillas struck at two railway stations in Sundergarh district of Orissa, blowing up the main office and signal control room of the Bhalulata station and Chandiposh station.
On 28th night the guerrillas torched Ratanpur railway station in Munger district. Soon after they blasted railway tracks at Bhalui halt between Kiul and Jhajha on the Howrah-Delhi mainline around 2 am, disrupting rail traffic badly for hours. The attacks took place towards the end of the 24-hour bandh call given by Maoists in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal to protest arrest of comrades Ashutosh, Bihari, central military instructor Sujoy and three others. Armed guerillas asked all the railway employees as well as the passengers to leave the railway station before setting it on fire. Following the attack, train services on Kiul-Bhagalpur section was badly affected.
Five CRPF jawans were wiped out and another three injured by the PLGA guerrillas in a meticulously executed ambush in Khunti on April 11. The ambush took place at around the same time when Congress president Sonia Gandhi was addressing a meeting in the same district in what was her first election rally in Jharkhand. The ambush took place inside Jalko forests of Khunti district under the Arki police station. The exchange of fire went on for three hours from around 9.30 AM to 12.30.
*** In the early hours of April 15, guerrillas struck in Barhania Ghati in the hilly tracts of Barwadih in Laterhar district. More than 80 CRPF personnel escorting on foot two buses headed for Barwadih fully laden with election material. The PLGA guerrillas who were waiting in ambush attacked the paramilitary personnel by triggering a land mine that blew off the bonnet of one of the buses. In the exchange of fire that followed, CRPF jawan Dharmendra Yadav was killed. Seven seriously-injured CRPF personnel were airlifted to Ranchi. The CRPF claimed that Maoists had lost five of their comrades and that seven more Naxalites had been injured. It turned out that there were no casualties on the side of the Maoists and the five who were said to have been Maoists were innocent villagers of Barhania who were caught and murdered by the “brave” CRPF men. *** A home guard and police personnel on poll duty were shot dead and another injured by Maoist guerrillas in Singhpur village under Banke Bazaar police station in Gaya district. Two other police personnel were missing.
*** As soon as the polling began in Jharkhand, Maoist guerrillas struck at a BSF bus in Latehar district on April 16 in which six BSF personnel and two civilians were killed. The bus ferrying the BSF personnel from Ladhup to Arah was blown by the landmine blast triggered by the Maoists at around 7.30 am in Vhadwa PS area killing six BSF personnel, one helper and the civilian driver. The total number of casualties of the BSF was later put at ten.
The incident took place near Chandwa at Hesla village. Among a dozen injured jawans, three sustained severe injuries. The BSF personnel were returning after patrolling, rescue operation. After the landmine blast, Maoists opened fire on the bus, triggering a gun battle between them and the BSF jawans.
*** A BSF jawan was killed and three others injured when guerillas detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) in Latehar district of Jharkhand on April 16.
The BSF personnel were returning to the district headquarters at Latehar, 125 kms from Ranchi, with electronic voting machines when the incident took place on April 16 evening. As the jawans reached a secluded area close to Kone village, the guerrillas triggered the explosion, killed one jawan on the spot and injured three others. The polling personnel carrying EVM machines escaped unhurt. Soon after the explosion, a pitched gun battle ensued between the guerillas and the BSF jawans, which continued for the next three hours. Later on, the guerrillas retreated deeper into the forests.
On April 15 Maoist guerillas triggered a landmine to blow up a bus carrying ration meant for central paramilitary forces on poll duty in Latehar district killing two CRPF men and at least six others. The blast occurred at 6.15am, 24 hours before the first phase of voting on April 16, as the private bus carrying luggage and ration of a CRPF company was going up a hilly terrain on the Barwadih-Mandal road passing through Barhaniya forests in Latehar, around 200 km from the state capital.
Soon after the blast, the guerrillas resorted to firing on the CRPF jawans. Eight CRPF men were injured and all were airlifted to Ranchi. Among them, Mahipal Singh, a sub-inspector, died on way.
When CRPF jawans claimed that at least five Naxalites had been killed in the encounter, DIG (Palamu) Nandu Prasad repeated it. But later, following massive protests from the people and the Maoists, Zonal IG Dumdum admitted that the dead were villagers. After this admission by IG the government was compelled to transfer DIG Nandu Prasad and file cases against the CRPF personnel for killing the villagers.
Those who were murdered by the CRPF were Sanjay Bodra (20), Supay Bodra (45), Budhan Bodra (40), Massey Bodra (16) and Pitai Mundu (35). They were peasants and laborers in the village. “CRPF personnel dragged them out of a nearby trench where they were hiding while the encounter was going on and killed them in a fit of rage,” said Supas Bodra, father of Massey.
In the second phase of polling to the Lok Sabha elections on April 23 Maoist guerrillas triggered a landmine blast in North Bihar killing five policemen, including a sub-inspector, two home guard jawans, a district armed police (DAP) constable and a civilian. The ambush took place near Karpoori Chowk in Mohabbatpur village under Deoria police station of Muzaffarpur district on 23rd evening. One civilian driver also sustained serious injuries in the blast. The place of occurrence falls under Vaishali parliamentary constituency.
The incident occurred when the police and poll personnel were returning by a jeep through the remote Naxal area to deposit EVMs and other poll related documents in the strong room of Vaishali parliamentary constituency around 7.30 pm.
The Maoists had placed landmines at the edge of a culvert knowing fully well that the polling party would return only through this route. According to police sources, the polling party was about to cross the culvert when a huge blast occurred, killing the five persons on the spot. The jeep was blown to pieces and rifles of the home guard jawans and DAP also got damaged in the blast.
On April 15, after guerrillas belonging to CPI (Maoist) triggered a landmine blast in Barhania forest in Latehar killing two CRPF personnel, the CRPF went on a killing spree. They abducted five villagers in Barhania village in Barwa Dih block in Latehar district and murdered them in cold blood. DIG of CRPF Alok Raj claimed that his men had heroically fought and killed five Maoist guerrillas in their retaliatory fire. Those killed in the firing were five tribals. Following the fake encounter the CPI (Maoist) organized massive protests throughout the state demanding a judicial enquiry and punishment to the officials involved in the murder and compensation to those killed by the police. It was as part of these protests that a passenger train bound for Mughal Sarai was held up for a few hours by more than 500 people organized by the Maoists at Hehegarha station on April 22.
A 24-hour bandh was observed in Bihar and Jharkhand on April 22. The Maoists triggered a blast at Utari-road railway station in Palamu on April 22 as part of the Jharkhand-Bihar bandh. They also bombed a block development office in Aurangabad district on April 22 and set ablaze eight trucks in neighboring Gaya during the bandh. In Palamu, Latehar and Garhwa districts the bandh was observed for three days from 22nd April.
Earlier, Inspector-general of police Rezi Dungdung, tried to rule out a fake encounter as causing the death of the five villagers in Barhania. However, he was compelled to admit that they were not Maoists but tried to describe their deaths as resulting from landmine explosions by the Maoists. “They weren’t Naxalites. Nor did they have any rebel links. The extremists forced them to accompany them at 5.30 am to trigger the landmines,” he said. He said there was no reason to doubt the post-mortem report which claimed that four of the villagers were killed in a landmine blast while one sustained bullet injuries from a distance.
The Palamu Commissioner AK Pandey along with his subordinates - a block development officer and secretary to the Commissioner began the inquiry on May 2. He recorded the statements of the family members of the five tribals who were killed by CRPF jawans after two of their colleagues were killed in a landmine blast triggered by the Maoists. AK Pandey was asked to complete the probe and submit the report within a week.
Members of the Barhania Hatya Karan Virodhi Sangarsh Morcha, an organization formed after the killing of the villagers, staged a demonstration when the Commissioner toured Barhania village. They also handed over a memorandum to the Commissioner demanding compensation and government jobs to the kin of the deceased. Villagers who met Pandey said that on April 15 at around 6.30 in the morning they heard a big explosion in nearby forest and later sounds of firing. When the firing stopped two CRPF jawans came to the village and picked up five villagers who were working in their homes. Later within five minutes the five were shot dead by the CRPF. But the dead bodies were handed over to their families only after three days.
Overall, it has been an achievement for the people’s forces since it was perhaps the first time in years that the police officials had to admit that there was an fake encounter and top officials were removed on account of fake encounter.
In the early hours of April 15, one day preceding the first phase of Lok Sabha elections, Maoist guerrillas attacked a BSF camp located in Kaimur range in Rohtas district. Guerrillas had surrounded a government school at a village in Dhansa valley where a company of BSF jawans was being put up to provide security to 30 polling booths in Chainpur and Chenari segments of Sasaram Lok Sabha constituency, where the CPI(Maoist) had called for a poll boycott.
Around 1am on April 15, the guerrillas fired grenades at the school partly razing it to the ground. The village (in which the school is located) is 20km south of Sasaram-Rohtas district headquarters and is bordered by Palamu (Jharkhand) on one side and Uttar Pradesh on the other.
Maoist rebels attacked a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp and blew up a railway station in Jharkhand a few hours before the second phase parliamentary poll began on April 23, police said.
In West Singhbhum district, Maoist rebels attacked a CRPF camp early on the 23rd. The guerrillas blew up the Chiyanki railway station in Palamu district late on Wednesday. They also bombed the outer cabin of the railway station. Police said the Maoist rebels also triggered an explosion on the road between Giridih and Dumri and cut trees to block it early on Thursday.
In first phase of polling April 16, nine people, including six Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, were killed in Maoist attacks in Jharkhand.
The general strike called by CPI (Maoist) was the principal reason for the acute shortage of power in the state according to the chairman of the Jharkhand Electricity Board, HB Lal. He said that coal could not be transported to various thermal power plants in the state due to the strikes called by Maoists. Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Limited (TVNL) had to shut down a major part of its production due to shortage of coal supply. While it was earlier producing 380 MW of power now production has come down to 160 MW due to coal shortage.
TVNL is the main source of electricity in Jharkhand. The JSEB gets electricity from the TVNL. On April 14th, the TVNL had a coal reserve of 3000 MT. The transportation of coal was affected due to the Maoist’s sponsored bandh in Jharkhand. There was production of 150 MW from single unit of TVNL as other unit was closed due to the shortage of coal. TVNL sources said that the proposed State-level bandh of the CPI- Maoists on April 16 to boycott the poll will affect the transportation of coal in the Maoist dominated districts. “So far the TVNL is able to produce 150 MW of electricity instead of 400-420 MW,” an official said.
On June 9th the PLGA forces attacked an armed police patrolling party in Aurangabad district of Bihar killing one and injuring many other cops.
Ten security personnel including two sub-inspectors of Jharkhand’s Naxal control force and an inspector of CRPF’s F7 Battalion were killed in a powerful landmine blast triggered by the PLGA forces of the CPI (Maoist) in Jharkhand’s west Singhbhum district on June 10, 2009. The incident took place in Serngda village under Golikera police station, around 200 km southwest from state capital Ranchi, when a joint team of CRPF and local police was returning in a mini truck after a two-day long range patrolling in the Maoist strong hold of Saranda forest. The police say that there was heavy exchange of fire from both sides. Two injured jawans were airlifted and rushed to a nearby hospital. The media reports indicate that the security team was traveling in a convoy of six vehicles and that the blast most impacted the second vehicle of the convoy and all occupants died.
On June 11, 2009, women guerillas of the Maoist PLGA forces in denim jeans and T-shirts led an attack on police team in a busy market in India’s coal hub of Dhanbad, in Jharkhand and then other batch of the guerillas bombed a mine-proof vehicle rushing in with reinforcements, killing 11 policemen in all. It was the second major attack by the Maoists in three days in Jharkhand.
According to media reports, acting according to a well laid out plan, at first, a 60 member Maoist team commanded by a woman stunned a police team heading out after depositing money at a State bank of India branch in the busy market of Phusro town, 130 km northeast of Ranchi, close to the Bokaro Steel Plant. They surrounded the police stabbed and gunned down two policemen and then retreated in to nearby jungles with police guns, 3 INSAS riffles and one SLR, thus setting a trap to the security forces to pursue them. Felling to the trap police reinforcements were rushed in. The guerillas waiting in ambush had already planted a land-mine under a culvert seven kms outside the town, near Sadubeda village. It was set off when an anti-mine vehicle of the state’s Special Armed Police passed by and was hurled high in the air. Nine policemen died on the spot.
Four policemen were killed and two others seriously injured when the PLGA forces ambushed them at Beherakhand in Palamu district. The security forces were on a long-range patrolling, when the guerillas attacked them near a village in Manatu area.
A day after the PLGA forces ambushed two police teams in Jharkhand blowing up a mine-proof vehicle, killing 10 policemen and injuring another 8, they detonated a landmine near Rania in Khunti district, about 80km from Ranchi on 20th June killing one and injuring 10 cops, five of them critically. The incident, third in the last four days, took place when the Jharkhand Armed Police were returning to Rania police camp.
On June 14th the PLGA guerillas ambushed a police team on long range patrolling in Palamu district killing four and injuring 8 other cops.
In just the three months from April to June 2009 the PLGA is reported to have killed over 50 security forces in the Bihar-Jharkhand region and injured an equal number.

Reports from Andhra-Orissa Border Zone
The villagers of Lingagada of G.Udaygiri block in Kandhamal district of Orissa, gheraoed the members of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp at the village and blocked the road passing through it for several hours on Friday. The villagers became furious following manhandling of a local by a CRPF jawan. The villagers demanded the removal of CRPF camp from the area charging that the CRPF personnel were involved in similar heinous activities. The villagers were pacified only after a team of police and administrative officials led by Baliguda sub-Collector, R.V. Krishnan and Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Sudha Singh, reached the spot and held discussions. The pacified villagers lifted the road blockade.
It may be noted that tension had mounted at Paburia village under Sarangagada police station in Kandhamal district on Feb. 1 when some Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans deployed in the area beat up two innocent youths.
The angry villagers got pacified when the CRPF personnel apologized for their misdeed.
On Friday 60 persons who had returned back from G.Udaygiri relief camp to their village Dakeri were not allowed to enter their village.
The tribals of the village opposed the entry of CRPF personnel into the village along with the returnees from relief camp. The villagers said they would not allow CRPF personnel camp in their village.
Thirteen jawans of Orissa’s elite Special Operation Group (SOG) were injured in a landmine blast triggered by PLGA guerrillas near Adaba in Gajapati district of south Orissa on the morning of February 16. Two seriously injured jawans were airlifted by helicopter to the MKCG Medical College in Berhampur for treatment. The incident occurred when the policemen were on their way to Katama village under Adaba police station of Mohana block. The guerillas had planted the landmine under a culvert at ‘Andhari Ghati’, about 4 km from Adaba. The commandos were traveling by a minibus on the Adaba-Paniganda road. The police force had organized a health camp at the Katama village as part of their attempt to win over the villagers, convert at least a few of them into police informers and wean the people away from the Maoist movement.
The guerrillas first allowed the bikes carrying policemen to pass through the culvert unscathed before targeting the minibus carrying the SOG jawans. But the jawans were lucky as the minibus missed the blast by a fraction of a second. But the blast was so huge that a large portion of the culvert got ripped off and fell on the roof of the minibus injuring the jawans.
Bandh call given by Maoists was observed successfully in Malkangiri district on Saturday. On the previous night one commando of the Special Operation Group (SOG) was also seriously injured in a landmine blast triggered by Maoist guerillas near MV-66 village in the district.
Maoists put up posters and banners explaining that the bandh call was given in protest against the killing of three Maoists in an ‘encounter’ with Andhra police at Paparmetla in Malkangiri district last month. The Maoists said the victims of the fake encounter were innocents.
The impact of bandh was more evident in Kalimela and Motu police station areas of the district. The vehicular traffic between Malkangiri town and Kalimela came to a standstill. No vehicles came out on roads in Kalimela and Motu police station areas. The SOG jawan injured in the landmine blast was airlifted to Visakhapatnam from Kalimela for treatment. A team of SOG jawans had faced the blast of the landmine at around 1 am while they were patrolling near the MV 66 village under Kalimela police station on Friday night. SOG Jawan Maheswar Behera was seriously injured when a splinter of the landmine hit his thigh.
The PLGA forces razed a police outpost, a government building and damaged a BSNL communication tower at Padia in Malkangiri district in the wee hours of Wednesday. The guerrillas did not use any explosives for the damage at Padia. They seized a bulldozer kept in nearby area for the work of Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and used it to pull down the police outpost. Then they set ablaze the battery room of the BSNL tower at the place.
In another development more than 1,000 members of Chasi Mulia Samity, a revolutionary mass organization, held demonstration in front of the Kalimela block office calling for the boycott of polls. They also handed over a memorandum to the Kalimela Block Development Officer (BDO) in which they also mentioned that they would boycott the polls as the government had failed to fulfill their demands. Before leaving the place, the Maoists put up posters asking people of the area to boycott the coming polls. The posters also warned the political activists to refrain from campaigning or face the consequences.
At least 11 CISF jawans died in a daring attack by Maoist guerrillas on a well-guarded armory and bauxite mine of NALCO in Orissa’s Koraput district on April 12. The bauxite mines, the biggest in Asia, are located in Damanjodi. “Eleven CISF jawans posted at hilltop mines in Damanjodi were killed and 15 others injured in the gun battle that continued for over five hours after the ultras struck last night,” Director General of Police M M Praharaj said. According to reports, over 200 guerillas, including several women cadre, formed different groups and seized the CISF armory in the mining area and took away around 16 rifles including some light machine guns and a truck load of explosives. The well planned attack took place shortly after 9.30 pm on April 12.
Nine security personnel and a civilian were killed in a landmine blast triggered by the PLGA forces in Orissa’s Koraput district on 17th June, 2009. Eight of those killed belonged to the Orissa Special Security Forces (OSSF), which has been specially created by the state government by drafting ex-servicemen, while the ninth, the driver of the jeep, was Orissa State Armed Police (OSAP) personnel. A civilian, who happened to be on the spot, also died. The troops were on their way to assist Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force personnel clear a major district road that the people blocked by felling trees. About 500metres short of the road block a powerful landmine blew up the OSSF jeep as it crossed a culvert, killing all its occupants.
Reports from Bengal-Jharkhand-Orissa Border Zone
A team of 10 armed guerillas fired at four jawans of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) at Barabhum railway station, 25 km from Purulia town in Adra division of South Eastern Railway, in the last week of February. Constables SR Majhi and Mohammed Ansari died at Bokaro hospital following the attack. Two others were injured and admitted to hospital.
The four jawans were on their way to Adra and were boarding the 3302 Tatanagar-Dhanbad Subarnarekha Express when Maoists fired at them in broad daylight at 2.20 pm. The guerrillas took away all the arms and ammunitions from the RPF personnel.
In the early hours of March 29, the PLGA guerillas blew up two forest beat houses and attacked a range office in the Simplipal reserve forest area of Mayurbhanj district. This is the first such attack on a tourist destination in Orissa, though no casualty has been reported. More than a dozen guerrillas attacked the Barahakamuda beat house around 1am and blew it up using explosives. Later, they blasted Dhudruchampa beat house, some 10km from Barahakamuda. After the twin blasts, the guerrillas gheraoed the Chahala range office, another few kilometers away. They destroyed the building and torched three forest department vehicles, including a jeep. The entire operation, according to the police, was completed in three hours.
Two jawans of the central forces were injured at Biramdih polling booth in Purulia district in West Bengal when Maoist guerrillas triggered a landmine blast during the third phase of polling for the Lok Sabha elections on April 30. The blast took place at around 7.50 in the morning when the para-military force was patrolling the area. Polling was suspended at the Biram Dih booth following the blast.
Around 25 tribals with bows and arrows snatched the firearms of four policemen and tied them up in a West Midnapore village on May 2nd. The tribals released the cops around midnight after an assurance from the police that they would not enter the area. Earlier, when a team went to rescue assistant sub-inspector Asoke Kumar Kora and three constables, they were chased away.
Priya Tudu of the Bharat Jakat Majhi Marwa said: “We are boycotting the police in the village. The police knew they should not enter the area after 5pm. We did not misbehave with them, just took away their revolvers. We also chased away a reinforcement team as the person leading it threatened to shoot at us.”
Police sources said that around 6.30pm when the four policemen reached Sirshi in Binpur block on motorcycles, the villagers surrounded them and told them they should not have come. The villagers took away the revolvers and tied the cops up with ropes. When their colleagues in Binpur police station, 15km away, came to know, a rescue team of 25 was rushed there. But the villagers, now numbering over 500, chased them away, a police officer said.
Conclusion
While going to the press we have been getting reports of a major military actions by the forces of the PLGA in the Manpur forests of Chattisgarh (will be covered in the next issue). No doubt there has been a major spurt in Maoist resistance against the massive forces pressed into service by the government. It is a slap in the face of the notorious Home Minister who has taken a personal interest in the operations against the Maoists. And as these reports come in we hear of increased contradictions within the mercenary forces — between the CRPF and state forces, between the jawans and the officers and between the forces and the politicians. Besides, with consistent attacks on these forces of terror they are themselves terrorized, not knowing from where and when they will be hit. Operating in hostile territory, hated by the masses, they are easy prey to an awakened population. The people are no longer in a mood to tolerate the decades of atrocities, loot, exploitation and oppression. They not falling prey to fake talks of peaceful protest put down violently. They are rising with arms in their hands. The latest revolt in Lalgarh is an omen of what is to come.

Tamil Eelam Struggle and its Lessons
Ravindran

On 18th May 2009, the president of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapakshe declared that the three decades of war against the LTTE has come to an end. He declared that the Sri Lankan army won a final victory against the Tigers. The Sri Lankan army and the government also claimed that the LTTE leader Prabhakaran and many of his lieutenants were killed in the battle and showed the photographs of the dead body of Prabhakaran in the electronic and print media. On 20th, the Sri Lankan government declared a national holiday to ‘celebrate’ this ‘victory’. The timing of this declaration created suspicion amongst the people who are closely watching the developments in Sri Lanka, in India and all over the world. It appears that the Sri Lankan government deliberately spread this news after the announcement of parliament election results in India. While the Sri Lankan government and the UPA government led by the Congress party celebrated this, millions of sympathizers/supporters of Tigers and Eelam struggle all over the world were shocked in disbelief that the struggle for a separate Tamil Eelam would come to such an end. Within 24 hours, the Tigers rubbished the Sri Lankan government’s claim and published that the Tiger’s chief and many leaders of the LTTE are safe and the struggle for Tamil Eelam would continue until realizing its goal of achieving a separate homeland for the Eelam people.
Tamils, all over the world held protest demonstrations and in Tamil Nadu (TN), some violent incidents also took place. Although the claim by the Sri Lankan government that they have achieved a conclusive victory over the LTTE and the armed struggle for a separate homeland for Eelam can be disputed, at least for the present, there is no doubt that the Sri Lankan army achieved a major military victory over the LTTE. How could one of the most powerful guerrilla forces, the LTTE, have faced such a defeat and how was the Sri Lankan army able to inflict such a defeat? With this defeat, whether the three and half decades of armed struggle for self-determination come to an end? Whether the Sri Lankan government will fulfill the genuine national aspirations of the Eelam people? Whether the Tamil people in Sri Lanka can live as equal citizens along with the Sinhalese? What will be the future of Tamils in Sri Lanka? These are the important questions for all those who fight for freedom, national liberation and for people’s democracy and those who genuinely support the cause of Tamil Eelam. To understand the struggle for Tamil Eelam it is necessary to look into its origin and its growth.

Origin of the demand for separate Tamil Eelam

The Sinhalese people trace their origins in the island to the arrival of Prince Vijaya from India, around 500 B.C. Before the arrival of prince Vijaya the Tamils were already living in the Island. According to Sinhala historian and Cambridge scholar, Paul Peiris “..it stands to reason that a country which was only thirty miles from India and which would have been seen by Indian fisherman every morning as they sailed out to catch their fish, would have been occupied as soon as the continent was peopled by men who understood how to sail... Long before the arrival of Prince Vijaya, there were in Sri Lanka five recognized Isvarams of Siva which claimed and received the adoration of all India. These were Tiruketeeswaram near Mahatitha; Munneswaram dominating Salawatte and the pearl fishery; Tondeswaram near Mantota; Tirkoneswaram near the great bay of Kottiyar and Nakuleswaram near Kankesanturai”. (Paul E. Pieris: Nagadipa and Buddhist Remains in Jaffna : Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch Vol.28)
By the time the Portuguese colonialists arrived in the Island in 1505 there were three kingdoms, namely one Tamil-based in Jaffna, and two Sinhalese-based in Kotte and the third at Kandy. In 1619, the Portuguese defeated the Tamil king and annexed the Jaffna kingdom. In 1656, the Dutch arrived and later in 1796, the British conquered the Island. In 1802, Ceylon becomes a Crown colony. In 1833, the whole of Ceylon for the first time was brought under a single administration by the British. Around the same period, the British started to bring the laborers from TN to work in the tea, coffee and coconut plantations.
About one fifth of the island's populations, of 17 million, are Tamils and somewhat less than three quarters are Sinhalese. The Tamils reside largely in the north and the east and on the plantations in the central hills, whilst the Sinhalese reside in the south, west and in the centre as well. The area of the Tamil homeland in the north-east is around 7,500 square miles or 19,509 sq. Kms.
In 1919, the Ceylon National Congress, comprising both Tamils and the Sinhalese, was formed under the leadership of Arunachalam Ponnambalam, a Tamil. Later, in 1921, he quit the CNC accusing that it represents only the Sinhalese. In 1947, the Soulbury Constitution was enacted which emphasized the unitary state under colonial rule. In 1948, the British left Ceylon handing over power to the Sinhala compradors. The Sinhala ruling classes regarded the island of Sri Lanka as the exclusive home of the Sinhalese and the Tamil people as `outsiders' who were to be subjugated and assimilated within the confines of a unitary Sinhala Buddhist state.
Immediately after assuming power in 1949, the Sinhalese ruling classes disenfranchised the plantation workers from TN. The passage of the Citizenship Act 1949 made more than a million Tamil plantation workers of Indian origin disenfranchised and stateless. In 1949, the Tamil Federal Party (FP) under the leadership of S. J. V. Chelvanayagam, who is regarded as the father of the Eelam nation, was formed. Its First convention was held in 1951 declaring its intention to campaign for a federal structure of governance, and for regional autonomy for Tamils living in the North and East. In 1956, Solomon Bandaranaike was elected on a wave of Sinhalese nationalism. Sinhala was proclaimed as the sole official language of Ceylon and other measures were introduced by the government to bolster Sinhalese and Buddhist chauvinism. J.R. Jayawardane, who became Sri Lanka’s President in the 1980s, openly incited Sinhala chauvinism "...The time has come for the whole Sinhala race which has existed for 2500 years, zealously safeguarding their language and religion, to fight without giving any quarter to save their birthright... I will lead the campaign..." (J.R.Jayawardene, Sinhala Opposition Leader reported in Sri Lanka Tribune: 30th August 1957)
In 1958, Bandaranaike and Tamil leader Chelvanayagam signed a pact (B-C Pact) on a federal solution, devolving wide ranging powers to Tamils in North and east of Ceylon. But, within a week after signing the pact the government under pressure from the Sinhalese and Buddhist chauvinists unilaterally abrogated it. In protest against this, a peaceful disobedience movement was launched by the FP. The government reacted by sending police and military forces to crush the movement and unleashed anti-Tamil riots in Sinhalese dominated areas. More than 200 Tamils died and thousands were displaced.
After a Buddhist monk killed Solomon Bandaranaike in 1959, his wife Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world’s first woman PM came to power. She continued the Sinhalese chauvinistic measures. In 1972, Ceylon was renamed as Sri Lanka and Buddhism given primary status as the country’s religion. These measures further antagonized and alienated the Tamils in the Island. In 1964, the Sirimavo-Sashtri pact was signed for the repatriation of stateless plantation workers to India. In 1965, the Dudley-Chelva agreement, which is a diluted version of the B-C pact, was signed. The agreement was abandoned without being implemented due to opposition from the Sinhalese chauvinists and Buddhist clergy. In protest, FP’s Tiruchelvam, Minister of Local Government, resigned from the cabinet.
In 1972 Ceylon became a Republic on May 22nd and was officially renamed the Republic of Sri Lanka. The United Front government enacted a Sinhalese-supremacist "Republican Constitution" for the country, which makes Buddhism the de facto state religion pushing Tamils, of both Eelam and plantation laborers, into second grade citizen.
Threatened by the growing state sponsored chauvinism Tamil parties formed the Tamil United Front (TUF) comprising the FP, Tamil Congress (TC) led by G. G. Ponnambalam, and Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) led by Thondaman, which was renamed as TULF in 1976. A small group of youths formed a militant organization named the Tamil New Tigers (TNT); later in 1976 the name was changed into the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Jaffna peninsula to fight for Tamils rights led by a 17-year-old Velupillai Prabhakaran.
In 1974, the Sinhalese chauvinists in collusion with the Sinhalese police attacked the attendees of the prestigious International Tamil Cultural Conference in Jaffna killing nine Tamils and injuring many. State discrimination against Tamils reached its peak with the introduction of "standardization" denying equal opportunities for Tamil students in admission to universities. This measure has not only denied higher education and employment for Tamils but also aimed at gradually eliminating the Tamils from holding posts in the state administration, police and army. In 1976 the TULF passed the "Vaddukoddai Resolution" to establish a "free, sovereign, secular, socialist State of Tamil Eelam based on the right to self-determination" to safeguard the very existence of the Tamil nation in Sri Lanka. In the 1977 general elections, TULF contested the elections with the slogan of separate a Tamil Eelam State. The Tamils overwhelmingly, more than 90%, voted for a separate Eelam. It was nothing but a referendum for the aspirations and right to self-determination of Tamils in a peaceful manner. But the Sinhalese-Buddhist chauvinists refused to recognize the rights and aspirations of Tamils; instead more state sponsored violence was unleashed to trample their genuine rights. In an attempt to crush down the Tamil identity and their history, the Jaffna Public Library, which contained many rare collection of books, over 95,000 volumes, including many irreplaceable and culturally important manuscripts in Tamil was burnt down by the Sri Lankan armed forces, under the direction of two ministers, Gamini Dissanayake and Cyril Mathew.
In the pre-liberation war period, in 1983 July, (which is called “Black July”) the anti-Tamil pogroms, which were executed in a very planned way, was the most cruel and wide-spread massacre. It took place not only in the north and east of Sri Lanka, where the Tamils are in a majority, but also throughout the country, More than 4000 people were killed and thousands rendered homeless. Their properties were either looted or destroyed, thereby wiping out their means of livelihood. Even in the jails, Tamil prisoners were brutally killed and their eyes gouged out. More than 1,50,000 people fled Sri Lanka as refugees to India and western countries. Directly inciting the riots, President Jayawardane said "I am not worried about the opinion of the Tamil people... now we cannot think of them, not about their lives or their opinion... the more you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people will be here... Really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy." (President J.R.Jayawardene, Daily Telegraph, 11th July 1983)
This incident was the turning point in the struggle for self-determination by the Tamil Eelam people. The Tamil people lost their faith in the 'parliamentary democracy' of Sri Lanka, which sought to consolidate Sinhala-Buddhist hegemony over the island, through a series of legislative and administrative acts such as disenfranchisement, state sponsored colonization of the Tamil homeland through the systematic settlement of Sinhalese in the north and east, discriminatory language and employment policies and ‘standardization’ of University admissions.
The struggle transformed from a non-violent, peaceful one into an armed struggle. Thousands of youths joined various militant organizations. They were initially trained militarily in India with the support of the Indian government as the Indian expansionists (then under the domination of Soviet social imperialism) wanted to utilize the issue to pressurize the Sri Lankan government (then under US domination) to fall in line with its expansionists demands. The people realized that the parliamentary and peaceful methods have not only eroded their dignity and rights but also their right to live a decent life. Hence, they rejected the parliamentary politicians and whole heartedly supported the armed struggle. Hiding these facts the Indian government and the media, particularly the English newspapers and TV channels, have been making a big hue and cry about the armed struggle, using their terminology ‘terrorism’, deliberately distorting and propagating lies about the history of the struggle for Tamil Eelam. From then onwards, the LTTE, within a few years, became the most prominent organization representing the struggle for separate Eelam; in the process they violently crushing the other organizations, as almost all of them had become agents of, either the Indian or the Sri Lankan governments.

The Civil War and Peace Talks

In July 1983, the LTTE launched an attack on the military in the North of the country, killing 13 soldiers. Whipping up chauvinistic sentiments the Sri Lanka government organized massacres and pogroms in Colombo and other parts of the country. About 4,000 Tamils were killed, and thousands fled Sinhalese-majority areas. This marked the beginning of the civil war or Eelam War I.
After the commencement of the civil war in 1983, till the recent defeat of the LTTE, there were four wars and four peace talks were conducted. The first peace process started under the intervention of the Indian expansionists in 1985 at Thimpu, the capital of Bhutan. The LTTE and other militant groups participated in the talks by dropping the demand for a separate sovereign state for the Tamils and put forward the demands that the Tamils must be recognized as a nationality; the north and eastern region of Sri Lanka must be considered as a single entity and the homeland of Eelam Tamil’s right to self-determination, including right to secede, must be recognized. The talks failed due to the refusal of the Sri Lankan government to meet the genuine aspirations of the Tamils.
But the Indian and Sri Lankan governments signed the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord on 29th of July 1987, without any representation or participation of the people of Eelam or the militants who were waging the national liberation war. Instead, the Indian expansionists, who allowed the militant groups to set up their bases in TN and provided them arms, ammunition and military training, imposed the accord on them. The Sri Lankan government brought forward the 13th amendment to the Constitution, providing devolution of powers to Tamils. The LTTE and the people of Eelam rejected the Accord as it had provisions only for a Provincial Council under the unitary state of the Sinhala government, which was far from meeting their genuine demand for self-determination. Moreover, to implement the Accord, the Indian government sent a 1,40,000 strong ‘peace keeping’ force to the northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka, as the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord did secure India its strategic interests. The Sri Lankan government agreed to India that “Trincomalee or any other ports in Sri Lanka will not be made available for military use by any country in a manner prejudicial to India's interests”.
The role played by the Indian government created suspicion in the minds of those who were genuinely fighting for national liberation. They felt that the Indian government betrayed and back-stabbed them. The relationship between India and the LTTE worsened further when the peace talks were still continuing. On 4th October 1988, the Sri Lankan navy captured a boat and arrested seventeen LTTE men, including top ranking leaders Pulendran and Kumarappa at Point Pedro. The LTTE asked the Indian government to intervene and get them released. Protesting against the dubious role played by India, the leader of the LTTE’s political wing, Lt. Col Thileepan began a hunger strike and subsequently died. But the Indian government tacitly supported the Sri Lankan government which began shifting the detainees to Colombo. Subsequently, all LTTE cadres in jail committed mass suicide, which sparked protests and clashes. The peace talks broke down and the civil war started again. The Sri Lankan government asked the IPKF to put down the rebellion. On 9th October 1988, the IPKF started an offensive against the LTTE code named “operation pawan”.
They expected to complete the whole operation in a few weeks. Contrary to their expectations the IPKF got bogged down in the war losing more than 1700 troops with thousands more either injured or maimed. Finally they were forced to withdraw ignominiously in March 1990.
The election to the north eastern provincial council was imposed at gun point jointly by the Indian and Sri Lankan governments. While the LTTE boycotted the elections, other militant groups like the EPRLF which became stooges of the Indian expansionists, participated in it. Even today the Indian government and its trumpeters are clamoring for a so-called political solution to the ‘ethnic conflict’ centering on the same ‘solution’ imposed by the Indian expansionists in 1987. Of course, the Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinists opposed even this nominal ‘devolution of power’ to the Tamils. Later, the Sri Lankan Supreme Court struck down the 13th Amendment as ‘unconstitutional’.
Opposition to the accord and the presence of the Indian armed forces in Sri Lanka gathered momentum among the Sinhalese also. The Premadasa government even supplied arms to their arch adversaries, the LTTE, to fight the Indian armed forces. Sensing the danger to their power, the Premadasa government asked the IPKF to withdraw. With the defeat of Rajiv Gandhi in the 1989 general elections and the pressure from TN, the V.P. Singh government ordered the withdrawal of the IPKF in March 1990. After the withdrawal of the IPKF a temporary truce was maintained between the LTTE and Colombo. But the war once again broke out in June 1990. Thus began the Eelam War II.
After the withdrawal of the IPKF, the LTTE consolidated its position in the northern and eastern areas. After Chandrika Kumaratunga’s People’s Alliance (PA) was elected to power with slogan of peace with the LTTE, a ceasefire agreement was signed in January 1995 and negotiations begun. But it too failed due to intransigent attitude of the Sri Lankan government. Eelam War III broke out in April 1995. The military onslaught by the Sri Lankan government turned more gruesome with the Lankan Air force jets bombing St. Peter's church at Navali killing 125 civilians and wounding 150 others. After seven weeks of intense fighting, the government troops succeeded in bringing Jaffna under its control for the first time in nearly a decade. As a mark of ‘victory’, Sri Lankan Defense Minister, Anirudda Ratwatte, raised the national flag inside the Jaffna Fort on December 5, 1995. The government estimated that approximately 2,500 soldiers and rebels were killed in the offensive, and an estimated 7,000 wounded.
The LTTE launched its counter-offensive in 1999 with “Operation Unceasing Waves” and 17 other attacks on the enemy recapturing all the lost territories. In that single operation, conducted for less than three days, the LTTE killed more than 1200 Sri Lankan soldiers. It was as though two nations were fighting a conventional war. It also successfully captured the Elephant Pass (Operation Frog) cutting all land and sea supply lines of the Sri Lankan armed forces in the town of Kilinochchi and surrounding areas. On April 22, 2000 the Elephant Pass military complex, which had separated the Jaffna peninsula from the Vanni mainland for 17 years, completely fell into the hands of the LTTE. About 40,000 Sri Lankan troops in Jaffna were surrounded by the LTTE and were in a dire situation, and there was no other way for them but to surrender or get annihilated. It was only through the intervention of the Indian and US governments that this was prevented. The Vajpayee government openly threatened the LTTE not to advance further, or to face serious consequences. It even sent its naval ships to save the Sri Lankan soldiers. Not ready to defy the threats from the US and the Indian governments the LTTE did not move forward.
With the inability of the Sri Lankan ruling classes to impose a military solution to the national question of the Tamil people, the Ranil Wikramasinghe’s United National Front contested and swept the 2001 elections on peace platform. With the mediation from Norway a peace process was started again in December 2001. After announcing a ceasefire for 30 days by the LTTE and reciprocated by the Sri Lankan government, a formal MoU was signed on 22nd February 2002 and a permanent ceasefire agreement, CFA, was formalized. To monitor the ceasefire an expert committee, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, was also constituted with Norway and other Nordic countries. The first peace talks were held at Phuket, Thailand on 16th September, 2002, and this was followed by many rounds of talks. The LTTE agreed for a federal solution for the Eelam question, compromising from its earlier stand for a separate Tamil Eelam and put forward its proposal for an Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA). The government also on its part, for the first time, agreed to a federal solution, beyond the minimal devolution of power to the Tamils. The Tigers proposed that the ISGA would be fully controlled by the LTTE and would wield power in the north eastern region. The Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinists in southern Sri Lanka raised a big hue and cry, saying that Wickramasinghe was handing over the north eastern region to the LTTE, and pressurized the government not to formalize the peace agreement.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga opposed the ISGA and declared a state of Emergency. The Indian expansionists and their boot lickers like The Hindu, N. Ram, Subramanya Swamy etc. hiding the facts and truth (that the LTTE was even willing to compromise) from the Indian people, shouted from the roof top that the LTTE is a ‘terrorist’ organization only interested in subversive activities and not for any negotiated settlement. This fourth estate of Indian democracy really acted as the agents of the Indian big bourgeoisie and the Sri Lankan chauvinists in molding public opinion against the genuine rights of the people of Tamil Eelam and their just armed struggle being waged by the LTTE. Despite not being able to arrive at any solution to the national problem, and though no headway was made in the peace talks, the ceasefire continued till July, 2006.
Mahinda Rajapakshe, who entered into an electoral alliance with the overtly chauvinist JVP, came to power defeating Wickramasinghe in 2004. Rajapakshe, who openly opposed the peace process planned for a big offensive against the LTTE. Taking lessons from its earlier defeats he concentrated on mustering necessary support, economic, military and political, from its friendly countries, particularly India and China, and prepared its forces for a final assault. It also unleashed a diplomatic offensive against the LTTE, particularly in the western countries, where the LTTE has strong support among the Tamil Diasporas. In addition, the government engineered a split in the LTTE and won over the traitor to the Eelam people, Karuna, to its side. This had not only weakened the LTTE in the eastern region considerably but many military secrets of the LTTE, hitherto not known to the government, also got exposed.
The Eelam War IV began with the Sri Lankan Air force launching an offensive on 26th July, 2006 on the pretext of opening the sluice gates of Mavil Aru, which had been closed by the LTTE. This was supposedly for supplying irrigation water to more than 15,000 villages in the east, under government control, The Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission persuaded the LTTE to open the gates. But the Sri Lankan government declined to stop the offensive stating that “the utilities can not be used as bargaining tools”. The SLMM condemned the attacks and observed that "it is quite obvious they (government) are not interested in water. They are interested in something else."
From 2006 onwards the government forces gradually but steadily advanced and captured areas one after the other controlled by the LTTE. First it concentrated on the east gaining total control by July 2007. After winning militarily it consolidated politically by conducting an election farce and installed the traitor Karuna’s party, the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP), in power. Then, in September 2007, it focused on the north, first capturing Mannar and then other areas leading ultimately to capturing all areas controlled by the LTTE.
After the commencement of the civil war, in the last twenty five years, the territory controlled by the LTTE has either increased or decreased in accordance with the development of the war. But, until its defeat in the recent war, it always maintained some territory under its control. Within its territory the LTTE administered a parallel government. It had structures like the judiciary, police, revenue, TV and radio stations, finance and banking, immigration, businesses, agriculture etc. Militarily, the LTTE had grown from a 30 member guerrilla force in 1983 to a conventional standing army having thousands of troops. It had infantry brigades, women’s brigades, commando units and specialized divisions for laying mines, sniping, firing mortars and artillery, resisting tanks and armored cars, etc. The Tigers also had a naval wing known as the Sea Tigers and it is the only guerrilla force in the world that had an air wing called the Air Tigers. The LTTE had many marine vessels and a limited number of small aircraft.

The role of Indian Expansionists

Since the beginning, the Indian government always intervened in Sri Lanka keeping its expansionist interests in mind. While paying lip service to the plight of Tamils the Indian government extended tacit support to the Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinist ruling classes. In 1949, after the Sinhalese ruling classes assumed power, it colluded with them in disenfranchising the plantation workers of Indian origin and agreed to promulgate the Citizenship Act 1949 that made more than a million Tamil plantation workers stateless. In 1971, when the Sirimao Bandaranaike government was in imminent threat from the JVP uprising, the Indian government provided all help to quell that rebellion because it did not want to lose its prominent status to China in Sri Lanka. Again in 1974, for the same reason, it ceded Katchattivu, a fishing island port of Tamil nadu from time immemorial, to Sri Lanka, brushing aside opposition from the people of TN and the state government. Today, as a result of this, more than four hundred fishermen from TN were killed and thousands were arrested and tortured and their fishing boats, nets and other equipments worth millions of rupees were destroyed by the Sri Lankan navy. Hundreds of protests and strikes by the Tamil fishing community and appeals from different sections of the people and all political parties to take necessary steps to protect the fishermen were simply ignored by the Indian government on the pretext that these fishermen are conduits for the LTTE.
In order to serve its expansionist interests the Indian government sought either to appease the Sri Lankan chauvinists or to pressurize them through the Tamil issue. In 1983, when anti-Tamil riots broke out in Sri Lanka, the Indian government, which was waiting for an opportunity to intervene, immediately stepped into the scene and provided arms to the LTTE and set up training camps in India. In 1985, on the pretext of opposing the bombing of Tamils in northern Sri Lanka, Indian Air Force jets entered Sri Lankan territory and dropped food and medicines violating all international law and norms.
The Indo-Sri Lanka Accord 1987 was signed between the Indian and the Sri Lankan governments not to bring a solution or give some succor to the oppressed Tamils, but to bring the whole of Sri Lanka under its influence. It literally threatened all Tamil groups to fall in line. When the LTTE and the people of Tamil Eelam opposed the Accord, it launched military operations, to crush their genuine national aspirations. Of course, it failed to impose its will on the people who were determined to endure any hardship in the struggle to achieve national liberation, and they returned after a humiliating defeat. In order to weaken the national liberation movement and convert it into an instrument in pushing its expansionist ambitions the Indian government, through its intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), conspired to split and infiltrate the LTTE. It also converted the other militant groups like EPRLF, ENDLF as its stooges, providing all protection to them while opposing the struggle for a separate Eelam. It made many attempts to assassinate the LTTE chief Prabhakaran and other top ranking leaders through its agents like Mahendraraja Mahthaiah, who was second in command in the LTTE. But all such attempts by the Indian rulers were ruthlessly crushed by the LTTE.
The Indian government actually took full part in the genocidal war against the Tamil people by providing all military help to the Sinhala government. It not only provided sophisticated weaponry, radar and other war machines to Sri Lanka but also sent its military personnel to Sri Lanka to train them, and on some occasions, provided ‘on the field training’. When people of TN and some revolutionary and nationalist organizations accused its connivance in the crime, the government tried to distort the facts. But ultimately it was forced to accept that it supplied arms, supposedly only for ‘defensive purpose’. It banned the LTTE in India on the pretext of the killing Rajiv Gandhi, thereby curbing the democratic rights of people in India, particularly in TN, to extend their support to the legitimate struggle for Tamil Eelam. It pressurized the state government to arrest those extending support to the Eelam struggle. Scores of Tamil nationalists and revolutionaries were arrested under the NSA and other draconian laws for their support to the struggle. It engaged its navy and coast guards to conduct surveillance in search for LTTE speedboats or other supply vessels. On many occasions it tipped off the Sri Lankan navy, causing enormous damage to the Eelam struggle. Fishermen from TN were arrested by the Indian coast guards on flimsy grounds, such as they were supplying beedis, lungies, battery cells etc to the LTTE. It also unleashed a slander campaign against the struggle for national liberation, particularly against the LTTE, through its embassies and also through its agents like the Brahmin cal Subramanyam Swamy and (anti) ‘national’ newspaper The Hindu.
Officially it is estimated that over 70,000 people have been listed as killed in the war since 1983. However, an independent study performed by the University of Washington and Harvard Medical School, states the estimate may be as high as 3,38,000 killed. When the genocidal war reached its peak between October 2008 and May 2009, killing more than 50,000 people and injuring double that, the Indian government did not even utter a word of condemnation against these gory killings. According to some reports the Indian government assured the LTTE Political chief Nadesan and another top ranking leader Pulidevan to lay down their arms, and asked them to surrender to the Sri Lankan army and said that it has already spoken to the Sri Lankan President who has also agreed to provide amnesty for them. Trusting the assurance given by India, they came out raising a white flag to surrender before the army, only to get shot at point blank range. The wife of Nadesan, who was a Sinhalese by origin, unarmed and resisted this dreadful crime, was also shot dead cruelly. The day when the Sri Lankan government claimed to have killed the LTTE chief Prabhakaran, it is reported that about twenty thousand civilians were killed in just two days.
It was also reported that the news of the killing of Prabhakaran was floated intentionally to divert the world’s attention from these gory killings. Outrageous atrocities like raping dead women Tigers was videotaped and circulated on the internet by the bloodthirsty Sri Lankan army together with the selling of human parts of the dead women Tigers, like meat in the market place. None of this evoked any indignation from the rulers of the so-called biggest democratic countries in the world. On the contrary, the National Security Advisor K.N Narayanan admired the Sri Lankan butcher Army Chief Sarath Fonseka as the “world’s greatest Army Chief”. In the last six months not even once did the UPA government in Delhi ask Colombo to stop the killing of civilians. All it has done was to ‘appeal’ to the neo-Nazis to ‘provide’ more ‘no fire zones’ or NFZs for the civilians to take shelter, when the mercenary army was anyhow bombing the so-called NFZs, killing thousands of women, children and the aged. It was nothing but a fraudulent act aimed at deceiving the people. The role played by the Indian government was very well acknowledged by the fascist Mahinda Rajapakshe when he said “the help and support extended by the Indian government is very much satisfactory”. After the Sri Lankan government declared that the war was over, we can find posters in Colombo hailing the Indian government for its support to crush the liberation struggle. Even after the conclusion of the genocidal war, the Indian government dispatched its military personnel to clear the mines laid by the LTTE. Disregarding the support extended to the Eelam struggle by the people of TN and their age-old ethnic/umbilical relation with the Eelam Tamils, the Indian rulers executed their expansionist designs. There is no exaggeration to say that it was a war conducted by the Sri Lankan government in collusion with the Indian government.
A decade back, in 1998, J.N. Dixit who served as Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka between 1985-89 made no secret of the Indian government’s interests in the Tamil issue in Sri Lanka when he openly declared that:
"...Tamil militancy received (India's) support as a response to (Sri Lanka's) concrete and expanded military and intelligence cooperation with the United States, Israel and Pakistan. The assessment was that these presences would pose a strategic threat to India…” Repeating the same opinion the external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee in March 2009 told the parliament “in our anxiety we should not forget the strategic importance of that island, and it is not only their security, it is closely connected with our security….. Surely, we would not like to have international players in our backyard”.
The Indian intervention in Sri Lanka is not just due to its geo-political importance. In their rapacious greed they are also interested to loot the whole of Lanka. Between 1990 to 1996 exports from India to Sri Lanka increased by 556%. In 1998 the Indo-Lanka Bilateral Free Trade Agreement (ILBFTA) was signed between India and Sri Lanka granting full tax exemption for the goods imported from India and business with Sri Lanka took a leap following this agreement. Indian compradors invested heavily in Sri Lanka. CEAT India, Asian Paints, L&T, Ashok Leyland, Taj Group Hotels, Tata Tea, ACC, Ultra-Tech & Ambuja Cements, RAMCO group of industries, Indian Oil Corporation, Mahindra & Mahindra, CADILA Drug company, Exide Batteries, TVS, Brittania, Ansal real estate company, Jet Airways, Sahara and Indian Airlines, ICICI, UTI, LIC, Arvind Mills, Airtel and many more big bourgeois houses started their business in Sri Lanka. India’s investments, which ranked 16th place in 2000 moved up to 4th place by 2005. In 2002, India thwarted Colombo’s move to bring the Chinese Petroleum giant, Sinopec, into Sri Lanka and pressurized it to handover the Trincomalee bulk petroleum storage to Indian Oil Corporation and signed an agreement to invest about $75 million for 35 years to set up more than 100 petrol bunks. In return it agreed to provide all military assistance to Lanka in its war against the LTTE. It also helped the Lankan navy in its surveillance of Sea Tigers movements in the Indian Ocean region and supply intelligence inputs.
Now, the vultures are already vying for the booty in the ‘reconstruction’ of northern and eastern Sri Lanka. A MoU will be signed soon between India and Sri Lanka for laying under sea power lines to connect the power network in the two countries at a cost of Rs. 2,292 crores.
The Tamil Eelam issue (whether ‘support’ or opposition) was only a tool for India to use it against Sri Lanka. Before 1987 it played the role of ‘helping’ the Eelam struggle against the chauvinistic Sri Lankan to increase its influence there. Once it gained control the ‘savior’ turned into its opposite helped the Sri Lankan rulers to defeat the LTTE, which was the main organization waging an uncompromising struggle for a separate homeland for the Tamils. Wiping out the LTTE not only helps to maintain ‘peace’ in Sri Lanka but also in TN as national sentiments is always inimical to India, the prison of nationalities. It is always apprehensive about the nationality movement erupting in TN. Any development of the national movement in any form, not necessarily armed struggle, necessarily faces ruthless repression from the rulers in Delhi. National movements in Kashmir, Punjab, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Gorkhaland etc. in the last fifty two years are a testimony to this.

The role played by the so-called World Community

Sri Lanka is situated in a very strategically significant location in the Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean has 47 countries and several islands around it. China and the US/ India are the countries mainly competing to gain control over this region. The US has a naval and air base in Diego Garcia. India, apart from its own areas around the Indian Ocean, also has considerable influence over the Maldives. China has a base in the Coco islands near Myanmar.
The Indian Ocean is a vital waterway in which half of the world’s containerized cargo, one thirds of bulk cargo and two thirds of oil shipments pass through. Its waters carry heavy traffic of petroleum products.
The US signed a ten year Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) with Sri Lanka on 5 March 2007 which provides, along with other things, logistics supplies and refueling facilities. The US already has Voice of America installation at Tricomalee, which can be used for surveillance.
As already mentioned, India got an assurance, as part of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord 1987, that “Sri Lanka's agreement with foreign broadcasting organizations will be reviewed to ensure that any facilities set up by them in Sri Lanka are used solely as public broadcasting facilities and not for any military or intelligence purposes” and that “Trincomalee or any other ports in Sri Lanka will not be made available for military use by any country in a manner prejudicial to India's interests.” Of course, this was a time when US-Soviet conflict was at a peak, with India on the Soviet side. Since then, international equations have changed and India is today acting as the main stooge of the US in this region.
China, which has been a net oil importer since 1993 is the world’s no 2 oil consumer after the United States. China accounts for as much as 40% of the world’s crude oil demand growth during the period 2000 to 2004. Access to energy resources is a very critical factor for continued Chinese economic growth. Hence, China has stepped up efforts to secure sea lanes and transport routes that are vital for its oil supplies. After the 2005 Tsunami disaster, China gave $4 million additional ‘aid’ to reconstruct Galle, where its arms supplier Noringo’s arms godown is situated. When it closed down this godown in 2007 it agreed to supply more advanced weapons, from Poly Technologies, at a cheaper price. Subsequently, in April 2007, Poly Technologies supplied $36.5 million arms to Sri Lanka. A $150 million contract was given to China’s Huawei, which has close links with the Chinese intelligence wing MSS, to build a country-wide infrastructure for communications. Also China finalized an agreement with Sri Lanka to build a port project at Hambantota on the island's south coast which can be used to ensure safety of its oil tankers. Recently, in June 2009, after the conclusion of Eelam War IV it signed an agreement for the $ 891 million Norochcholai Coal Power project. The Chinese companies were granted an Economic Zone and an agreement was signed for 33 years. Huichen Investments Holdings Limited is to invest $28 million in next three years in the Mirigama Zone. For the first time a specific area was given to a foreign country; that too near Colombo. China is making major inroads into Sri Lanka causing much concern in the US-India Axis.
These are the major countries which have approached the Tamil national question in Sri Lanka in accordance with their strategic geo-political and economic interests in mind. The US imperialists made a big hue and cry about killing of ‘innocents’ and a ‘humanitarian crisis’ when the Sri Lankan army was about to finish the war. It never made any affirmative action to bring the war to an end when the genocidal war was taking place from September 2008 onwards which witnessed more than 50,000 civilians being killed. It’s howling about human rights violations and shedding crocodile tears for the ‘plight’ of ‘innocents’, which is only a veiled threat that the Sri Lankan government should not do anything prejudicial to its interests — i.e keep China at bay. But with China making big inroads into Sri Lanka the US is mounting its pressure. Already an American lawyer, who once worked as an advisor to the Sri Lankan President, Mahindra Rajapakshe, (now disassociated), is preparing to file a suit of war crimes by Sri Lanka in a US court. Interestingly Mahindra Rajapakshe’s brother and Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gottebaya Rajapakshe and the army chief Sarath Fonseka are both having US citizenship. The US can, at anytime, make use of this to pressurize the Sri Lankan government, in its contention with China in Sri Lanka.
China not only supplied sophisticated weaponry and aids to the neo-Nazis but also scuttled the efforts even to pass a UN Security Council resolution condemning Sri Lanka on the killing of thousands of civilians. India also played the same role by not only opposing the resolution but also lobbied some other countries to vote against it.
The UN which has sent its observer, Vijay Nambiar, to investigate the conditions of the civilian in the NFZs, gave almost a clean chit to the Sri Lankan government. It is not out of place to point out that his brother Satish Nambiar is an advisor on defense related matters to the Sri Lankan government. One brother advises how to crush the national liberation war ruthlessly while the other brother oversees for any violation of ‘human rights’. There were also serious accusations on the UN Secretary General, who also visited Sri Lanka soon after the genocide, to ‘monitor’ the plight of civilians. He actually covered up the killing of innocents and other war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan military fascists. In fact the UN passed a resolution hailing the Sri Lankan government’s victory over the LTTE ‘terrorists’. The UN defacto sanctioned the genocide of Tamils even when millions of people, particularly the Tamils, were protesting all over the world condemning the killings and demanding an end to this genocidal war. Even after fourteen Tamils, including a Tamil from Eelam committed self-immolation in front of the UN in Geneva, they could not be bothered.
Disregarding the protests and peoples opinion all over the world, these reactionaries are united in carrying out gruesome massacres of innocent people, displaying outright contempt for all democratic norms of civilized society in crushing the struggle for freedom and for a rightful separate homeland for the Eelam people who have been undergoing a systematic ethnic cleansing programme for many decades. The same type of massacres have been committed and are being committed by these reactionaries in Iraq, Afghanistan and now in the Swat region in Pakistan which is testimony to what extent these butchers will commit heinous crimes to serve their predatory interests. Whatever differences that may be visible, it is apparently only on how to gain a strategic upper hand in the region to pursue their imperialist/expansionist interests.

Defeat of the LTTE and its Lessons

The LTTE which conducted the national liberation war successfully for more than three decades was not only defeated in the Eelam War IV but also lost all its bases and thousands of its soldiers were killed, injured and arrested. It will take quite considerable time for them to recoup and continue their struggle for a separate homeland. The war led by the LTTE was an inspiration for all those who are fighting against exploitation, injustice and oppression, particularly those waging armed struggle. The defeat of the LTTE is not only a great loss for the people of Tamil Eelam but also for all those who are waging armed struggle against the oppressors. It is but natural that the defeat of such a powerful militant force may create certain amount of despair among the people who have been supporting/sympathizing with this struggle. Therefore, to understand the reasons for its defeat is very necessary to take lessons for all nationality movements worldwide and also for the forces waging armed struggle in India and South Asia.
The following could be the main points for consideration:
a) The LTTE has been a militant organization leading the national liberation war for more than three decades. Throughout this period it has faced many ups and downs and now it has lost all its bases. But it has never compromised its goal of a separate “Tamil Eelam”, even in the most trying circumstances. Nevertheless, its ideology and class basis is bourgeois in nature. Due to this, it was not able to distinguish between the friends and enemies of its cherished goal of Tamil Eelam. Its approach towards — its own people, i.e. Eelam Tamils, Muslims living in north-eastern Sri Lanka who are also part of Tamil Eelam, Tamils living in the plantations in the central part of Sri Lanka, the Sinhalese people, Tamils in India, who extended all types of support to the cause of Tamil Eelam, the bourgeois parties in TN, the Indian government and the imperialists — all these varied forces were tainted with a bourgeois outlook. It did not take the class differences between the ruling classes and the oppressed masses into consideration when it dealt with Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism and targeted even the Sinhala toiling masses. This provided ample opportunities for the Sri Lankan ruling classes, which is already thriving on chauvinism, to incite anti-Tamil pogroms and commit any type of atrocities over the Tamils in the guise of ‘protecting’ the Sinhala nation and divert the Sinhalese masses from their real problems. Although it may not be possible to win over the sympathy of the Sinhalese masses in their struggle for a separate homeland, due to the domination of chauvinistic sentiments, it should have avoided the killing of innocent people. Moreover, when organizations like the Lanka Sama Samaj Party (LSSP) upheld the Eelam people’s right of self-determination, including the right to secede, there was a possibility of waging a united struggle against the Sri Lankan ruling classes, however feeble it may be. But due its bourgeois nationalist outlook, the LTTE did not take these aspects into consideration while evolving its tactics. Even in its relations with its own people, it did not take the class differences into account. To be precise, it took the stand of supporting the bourgeoisie when there was a conflict between the working people and the bourgeoisie. Similarly, it concentrated more on getting the support of the bourgeoisie and its parties in TN than striving to get the support of the broad masses. The broad masses — workers, peasants, students, youths, petti-bourgeoisie and the intellectuals — extended their support voluntarily due to Tamil national sentiments, and upholding the just cause of a separate homeland for Tamils. The people of TN, the revolutionaries and other democratic forces, extended their unflinching support to the Eelam struggle, including the LTTE. But the LTTE even instructed its cadres strictly not to have any connections with the Maoist organizations in India. It is the same story even at the international level. The LTTE has built a strong network amongst the Tamil Diaspora all over the world. But it did not make any serious attempts either to build close relationship with the struggling people or organizations or get their support. Rather it concentrated on securing the support of the imperialist governments or of influential people in the government. It was not just a national exclusivist attitude but more than that it was a class outlook which emphasized more on the bourgeoisie than on the people.
Ideologically the LTTE was very clear that MLM is inimical to its interests. Once, it gave the slogan for a “Socialist Tamil Eelam”. But within a short period it withdrew it as it was against its class interests.
b) The LTTE started the armed struggle for national liberation as a guerrilla force with only a handful of committed activists. During the “Black July”, a large scale anti-Tamil pogrom in 1983, its strength was merely 30, and at the beginning of Eelam War IV it is estimated at between 30,000-40,000. The Sri Lankan military officially announced that about 22,000 LTTE guerrillas were killed and 10,000 more wounded, arrested and surrendered during the last phase of the war. Any organization which fights for the seizure of political power must seize territory from the enemy and establish it’s/people’s rule. Therefore the war will transform from a guerrilla war into positional warfare and the army will transform from a guerrilla army into regular/conventional army. Before the commencement of Eelam War IV in July 2006, the LTTE held 16,000 sq.kms of territory in the north and eastern Sri Lanka under its control and ran its own civil and military administration in these areas. From this, it gradually started to lose control over the territory over a period of nearly three years. After one year, by July 2007, it completely lost its control over Trincomalee in the eastern province after its defeat in Thoppigala. The government immediately conducted the election farce and installed its agent and renegade Karuna’s party in the provincial government. After capturing the eastern province the Sri Lankan army concentrated its attack in the Northern Province. From September 2007 onwards the LTTE started to lose its territories one by one to the Sri Lankan army. In this whole period the LTTE clung to the positional warfare style despite losing territory and being further weakened and more vulnerable to enemy attacks. Even then it did not change its positional warfare method back to guerrilla warfare. The principle of positional warfare is that by retaining or capturing a position the victory in the war is achieved. Once you lose that advantage it is futile to continue the same thereby providing more opportunity to the enemy to concentrate his attack on the remaining positions. Instead of expanding the area of operation and adopting guerrilla methods, when the enemy is focusing his attack, it withdrew its forces along with the people to a lesser and lesser area. This tactic was suicidal because you don’t have sufficient area for maneuver. The flexibility in changing from one form of warfare into another, in accordance with the condition and the needs of the war, was not adopted by the LTTE, despite it having developed the war from scratch to the highest level. With vast experience of waging different forms of warfare — guerrilla warfare, mobile warfare and positional warfare — why did it falter? It expected that with the growing civilian casualties the world community, say imperialists and Indian governments, would force the Sri Lankan government to stop the genocidal war. But all these reactionaries, as we have seen earlier, were interested more in achieving their own interests and none of them were really concerned about the sufferings of the people or helping them to achieve an honorable settlement against national oppression. The LTTE Chief Prabhakaran once said in 1993 that “Every country in this world advances its own interests. It is economic and trade interests that determine the order of the present world, not the moral law of justice nor the rights of people. International relations and diplomacy between countries are determined by such interests. Therefore we cannot expect an immediate recognition of the moral legitimacy of our cause by the international community. ... In reality, the success of our struggle depends on us, not on the world. Our success depends on our own efforts, on our own strength, on our own determination..." Despite having a reasonably correct understanding on the imperialist and reactionary powers, the LTTE failed to put that into practice.
c) The LTTE has been waging a national liberation struggle uncompromisingly against the Sri Lankan government for the last three decades. Although this struggle was directed against the comprador ruling classes in Sri Lanka, objectively it was also directed against imperialism. But the LTTE never had any anti-imperialist orientation or programme in this struggle for national liberation. Its programme for an independent, self-reliant Tamil Eelam was aimed at achieving a separate state from the comprador ruling classes and not from imperialist exploitation and oppression. Not only that, it considered the imperialist governments as the friends of Tamil Eelam and always tried to get their support for their struggle. Even in the recent war it expected US imperialism, the number one enemy of the world people and the leader of all counter-revolutionary ruling classes throughout the world including Sri Lanka, would come to their rescue, till the last moment. This had blunted the anti-imperialist consciousness among the people of Tamil Eelam and the guerrillas.
d) As the Eelam liberation war transformed from guerrilla warfare into positional warfare its dependence on modern and sophisticated weapons increased tremendously. It mainly depended for its supply from imperialist countries and the international arms market. Hence, it lobbied with those in the echelons of power in these countries. Realizing this, the Sri Lankan President Rajapakshe successfully used his diplomatic channels to stop the arms supplies. Similarly it also curbed the funds to the Eelam struggle from the expatriates living in Europe and North America. This dependence from imperialist countries harmed the LTTE when these countries helped the fascist Rajapakshe in the ‘war on terror’. Self-reliance, not only in economic and political affairs but also in military supplies is most important for the guerrillas fighting against the reactionary ruling classes.
e) It had a faulty approach on the question of the united front. It failed to unify all the forces that could be united against the common enemy. In fact its approach was against uniting all those forces fighting against the Sri Lankan army. In its struggle for domination and leadership position it not only eliminated other petti-bourgeois militant groups, most of them became agents of the Sri Lankan or Indian government, but also genuine forces fighting for separate Tamil Eelam. Revolutionary forces like the National Liberation Front of Tamil Eelam (NLFT), People’s Liberation Front of Tamil Eelam (PLFT), Proletarian Vanguard Organization (PrOVO) with MLM ideology and a New Democratic Programme were not allowed to function in Tamil areas. Either they were asked to stop their activities or summarily killed.
f) The regional differences between the three regions of Tamil Eelam namely, Jaffna, Wanni and the Eastern region, particularly between the north and the east, were not taken into consideration. This enabled traitors like Karuna to utilize this sentiment and turn the people of the Eastern region against the LTTE.
g) Due to the wrong handling of Muslims it antagonized the Muslim community, which is a part and parcel of Tamil Eelam. The forcible eviction of 28,000 Muslims from Jaffna, leaving all their belongings, in October 1990, seriously affected the struggle for Tamil Eelam. The ruling classes, always waiting for an opportunity to divide the people, utilized it and created a permanent cleavage between the Tamils and Muslims. The elites among the Muslims compromised with the Sri Lankan ruling classes and weaned away a considerable section of the Muslim population from the struggle.
h) The LTTE’s approach is that “Heroes create history” instead of the Maoist dictum of “People create history”. Following from this they adopted bourgeois methods of developing the war instead of the Maoist method of developing People’s War. For example, in the national liberation war against the mighty superpower, US imperialism and its puppet regime, the great Vietnamese people led by the Communist Party drowned their enemy in the “ocean of armed people”. Whereas in the Eelam liberation war the people only supported the war waged by the LTTE. In a typical bourgeois outlook the LTTE did not arm the people in the war against the Sri Lankan army despite the masses enduring the horrors of three and half decades of civil war. It failed to assimilate the historic truth and experiences of the struggling people all over the world that it is people and people alone who are the real creators of history and any struggle, however militant and protracted; deviating from this will inevitably face defeat.

Even with all these mistakes and limitations the LTTE fought uncompromisingly till now. It had sacrificed thousands of its cadres and leaders for this cause and set a glorious tradition. Undoubtedly the defeat of the LTTE in the recent war is a setback in their long struggle. But three decades of armed struggle and the genuine aspirations of people of the Tamil Eelam for a separate homeland and their sacrifices will not go in vain. Although the Sri Lankan government scored a major victory and was able to weaken the LTTE, and thereby the national liberation movement, the conditions for the growth of such movements still continues to exist even more seriously. Besides, they fought valiantly to the very end not cowing down before the enemy or surrendering to them. This will inspire a new generation of revolutionaries to pick up the gun, learning from the mistakes of the past.
Even two months after the conclusion of the war more than 3,00,000 Tamil people are still languishing in the NFZs, which are worse than Nazi concentration camps. Even today neither independent media persons nor international aid agencies are allowed to visit these camps. The news leaking from these camps narrates the horrible condition in which the Tamils are forced to suffer. Young men and women are systematically separated from their family members and become untraceable. Their repeated demand to be sent back to their homes is still not accepted. Food, water, sanitation and other basic amenities are not provided to the people. The Rajapakshe government is planning to convert Tamil areas into Sinhalese settlements, on the lines of the Zionists in Palestine. The Sri Lankan Army Chief, Sarath Fonseka, openly declared that the Tamils should be ready to live as second class citizens in Lanka.
The Tamils, learning from their mistakes, are bound to fight until they achieve their goal of liberating themselves from not only national oppression and persecution, but also from class exploitation and oppression. All progressive, democratic and revolutionary people in India and worldwide continue to support the just struggle of the Tamil people of Sri Lanka for a separate homeland.
Press Release:
Condemn the genocide of the Tamil people by the Sinhala chauvinist, neo-Nazi fascist rulers of Sri Lanka! Let us unite to fight against UPA government’s support to Rajapakse’s genocidal war on Tamil nation!!

The situation in the LTTE-controlled areas in northern Sri Lanka has become extremely delicate and dangerous with an average of almost 500 Tamils being butchered every week by the Sinhala chauvinist army since the past three months and the number increasing with every passing day. The virtual silence by the so-called International community is criminal to say the least, and its feeble calls for a pause in the fighting, a cruel joke. In fact, it is precisely based on the active support and military aid provided by the various imperialist powers as well as by the Indian government that the racist and fascist Rajapakse government had embarked upon the current all-out brutal assault on the Tamil areas in July 2006 by unilaterally breaching the 2002 cease-fire it had entered into with the LTTE.
The brutal onslaught by the Sinhala military had resulted in acute humanitarian crisis in the Tamil areas pushing hundreds of thousands of Tamil people into a state of starvation and misery. The incessant and indiscriminate bombing of entire areas had left thousands of civilians dead or wounded with no scope for medical treatment. These sadists have not permitted any independent observer into the conflict zone from outside, denied permission to UN and other international aid agencies and observers, even to Red Cross workers and media personnel. There has been a total news blackout. It is obvious that the fascist Sinhala rulers do not want their genocidal war and their crimes against humanity to be known to the outside world.
Even as they go about butchering, maiming and evicting tens of thousands of people, the neo-Nazi rulers are putting forth cynical claims that they are “freeing” the Tamil civilians from LTTE’s clutches, that their aim is to crush the LTTE and not to harm the ordinary Tamils, and that declaring cease-fire would not be of any help to the civilian population and would only help the LTTE, and so on. They shamelessly describe their genocidal war as a “rescue operation” and give out figures of those “rescued”. Having gained a series of victories over the LTTE with the active aid and guidance of various imperialist powers and the Indian expansionists, these blood-thirsty hounds do not want to give any breathing space even if that meant the decimation of a significant proportion of the Tamil population in the LTTE-held areas. The Sri Lankan army has entered the no-fire zone—a small piece of territory covering around 17 sq km—and is resorting to heavy bombardment leading to huge civilian casualties. Even those who are fleeing are shot dead by the Sinhala chauvinist soldiers in sharp contrast to the photographs aired in TV channels showing how the Sinhala soldiers are helping the Tamil civilians. The reality is that every refugee coming out from the so-called no-fire zone is treated as an enemy, as a probable LTTE “terrorist”, and is subjected to intense interrogation and even eliminated under the slightest suspicion. Tamil women are being sterilized forcibly to check the growth in Tamil population. Hospitals, orphanages and refugee shelters are bombed and the trucks carrying relief supplies are blocked by the Lankan army. The aim of the Sri Lankan rulers is to drive out the Tamil population from the area and herd them into concentration camps so that they do not again unite to wage war for a separate Tamil Eelam. It is with this crooked aim that they have been exerting continuous pressure through uninterrupted bombing of the areas held by LTTE.
The Indian ruling classes had always backed the Sri Lankan state in its war against the Tamil nation. In fact, it had even sent the Indian army in the name of peace-keeping force in 1987 but had to turn back after three years when it lost a few thousand soldiers in the hands of the LTTE. The ruling Congress party even had to pay the price by losing its leader, Rajiv Gandhi. The Indian state has been giving all sorts of aid to the Sri Lankan government in crushing the LTTE. The shifting of some of the defence personnel injured in the fighting in Tamil areas to Chennai for treatment reveals the extent of involvement of India in the war aimed at the extermination of the Tamil nation in Sri Lanka.
While these are the facts, the spokespersons for the Indian government, and the various political parties in Tamil Nadu have been claiming that they fully sympathise and stand by the Tamil people, that they support their demand for a separate Eelam, and that they are exerting pressure on the government of Sri Lanka to resolve the humanitarian crisis arising out of the war. With an eye on the impending elections in Tamil Nadu, every political party is pretending to be sympathetic to the cause of Tamil Eelam and putting up postures opposing the attacks by the Lankan army. All this is mere eye-wash. Parties like Jayalalitha’s AIADMK and Congress had all along been bitter opponents of the struggle of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Karunanidhi’s DMK has always pursued a dubious stand, on the one hand posing to be supporting the Tamil cause, while on the other, extending support to the UPA govt which has been assisting the Sri Lankan govt in the genocidal war against Tamils. Moreover, the DMK has crushed people’s protests against the Sri Lankan govt. All these parties wish to see the LTTE decimated as they know how strong is the influence of the Eelam struggle for self-determination on the people of Tamil Nadu. At the same time they know they would be isolated if they did not support the right of the Tamil nation in Sri Lanka for self-determination and condemn the war of genocide unleashed by Rajapakse’s Sinhala racist regime in Sri Lanka.
The CC, CPI (Maoist), calls upon the people of India to wage a united struggle demanding immediate halt to the aid given by the Indian government to the Sri Lanka rulers, to sever all diplomatic relations by India with the Sri Lankan government if it does not stop its war of genocide immediately, and to allow all the refugees from the war-ravaged areas into Tamil Nadu without any harassment. The people of Sri Lanka should realize that the current war against the Tamil nation is an unjust war waged by an oppressor nation over an oppressed nation. Besides, it is a ploy of the Sri Lankan rulers to divert the people’s attention from the deep crisis afflicting the country. Giving legitimacy to the war would mean lending legitimacy to the further strengthening of the Sri Lankan fascist state machine that is going to be increasingly directed against the vast toiling masses of Sri Lanka who dare to wage struggle against oppression and exploitation. It is the duty of the working class and oppressed people of Sri Lanka to unequivocally oppose the war of genocide and force the government to immediately halt its brutal crimes against the Tamil nation. The aspirations of the Tamil nation cannot be crushed through brutal fascist means. Even if the LTTE suffers a setback today, the unfulfilled aspirations of the Tamil nation will give rise to a more militant national liberation movement.
The central committee, CPI (Maoist), demands:

An immediate declaration of cease-fire by the Sri Lankan Army and end to the genocidal war it had unleashed on the Tamil nation!
An end to all aid and support by the Indian government to the terrorist regime in Colombo!
An impartial enquiry into the war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan military such as mass murder, use of cluster bombs and other chemical weapons, bombing of civilian targets etc!
Recognition of an independent, sovereign Eelam which is a legitimate inalienable right of the Tamil nation in Sri Lanka!


Azad,
Spokesperson,
Central Committee,
CPI (Maoist)
April 24, 2009
Butcher of dalits Continues Scott Free in Mumbai

Twelve years have passed since the massacre of eleven dalits at Ramabai Nagar in the heart of the most so-called modern city of the country. Not only did the dalits have to face the humiliation of the desecration of the Dr. Ambedkar’s statue, during their protest they were mowed down by the police led by the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) sub-inspector, Manohar Kadam. Though this man was found guilty by the government-appointed Gundewar Commission for being directly responsible for an unjustified police firing, Kadam has spent barely 48 hours in jail in these 12 years.
In July 1997 one morning the dalits of Ramabai Nagar in Ghatkopar found their statue of Ambedkar desecrated by chappals. In the course of the protest the police resorted to unprovoked firing killing 11, many of whom were bystanders at the spot. In protest against these killings entire Maharashtra was paralysed for over four days. Yet, till today, let alone bringing those responsible for the desecration to book, state has been harassing the protestors and has been fully complicit in allowing the perpetrators of the mass murder to go scott free.
Finally, two months earlier on May 5th 2009, the session’s court found Kadam guilty of culpable homicide and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Kadam was whisked off – not to jail, but to a hospital. There he remained until a vacation bench of the Bombay High Court granted bail despite the fact that he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Even after the Gundewar Commission Report came out the then Shiv-Sena/BJP alliance government refused to take any action on Kadam. Though a Congress-led government came to power in the state in 1998, it took no action in spite of many pre-election promises.
In 2001 as a result of two Dalit writ petitions, the Bombay High Court ordered an end to the inaction. The government filed and FIR against Kadam, but he was taken to hospital and then granted bail. Further proceedings remained stalled for many more years though the police initiated new ‘rioting’ charges against the residents of Ramabai Nagar Colony, including many who had been injured in the police firing, in an attempt to intimidate the eyewitnesses.
The dalit butcher, Kadam, still roams freely with full government protection, while the dalits of Ramabai Nagar let alone getting justice faced not only death of their loved ones but continuous harassment and arrests. It is clear that no justice can be expected through the prevailing system. Kadam and his ilk needed to be handed out a sentence proclaimed by a people’s court; while the state harassment and victimization of dalits can only be countered by a huge mass movement built by all democratic people against any and every type of caste oppression and humiliation.

PLGA Forces attack Police, Free comrade Sunirmal!

The PLGA guerillas carried out a daredevil daylight attack on a police team on a court premises in Lakhisarai district of Bihar on the afternoon of 23rd June, 2009 and freed comrade Misir Besra (Sunirmal) and 3 other jailed comrades after gunning down a policemen and hurling bombs. The ambush of the police team took place around noon when com. Besra and other comrades were being escorted out of the court. The guerillas grappled with the five-member police team escorting com. Besra, even as their comrades fired shots and hurled bombs. The guerillas also snatched away a carbine and two riffles from the police escort team.
According to media reports, the guerillas in plain clothes drove into the court complex on 10 motorcycles and the pillion riders began firing. They simultaneously attacked the court premises, the DSP office and the DDC’s (District Development Commissioner) office. The police force stationed there were unaware of what was the target of attack. As the confusion continued they took away their comrade. The police said that “Besra was hand-cuffed and held with a rope. The attack was too swift and there were lots of crowds on the court premises.” It is notable that none of the civilians were even injured in this daring and well coordinated operation even though this incident took place amidst a huge crowd of people.
Comrade Besra who is popularly known as Sunirmal was nabbed in Khunti district of Jharkhand. He was a member of the Politburo and Central Military Commission of the CPI (Maoist) at the time of his arrest.
A large number of comrades, including senior comrades, are incarcerated in the jails all over the country. The state is re-arresting them even after they are being released on bail. If they continue in this way of illegal detention the revolutionaries will find no other alternative but to free their comrades in this way.



Condemn the Brutal Murder of comrades Patel Sudhakar Reddy and Venkatayya!
On May 23 The CPI (Maoist) and the Indian revolution had suffered another major and irreparable loss. On that fateful day, at about 10.30 am, comrade Patel Sudhakar Reddy alias Suryam alias Vikas, who is a member of the central committee of the Party, and another district-level comrade Venkatayya alias Prasanna, were arrested by the SIB goons of Andhra Pradesh police, were brutally tortured and murdered in the early hours of 24th. They were arrested from Nashik city in Maharashtra. The dead bodies of the two comrades were thrown in the Lavvala forest in Tadwai mandal of Warangal district, AP, and the usual story of an encounter was concocted. The Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy who was in Delhi repeated this concocted police story without an iota of shame. The police claimed that one AK-47 rifle and a 9mm pistol were recovered from the dead along with three kit bags. To mislead the people as part of the psychological warfare waged by the state in its all-round war against the Maoist movement, a statement was issued by the APSIB in the name of the CPI (Maoist) spokesperson comrade Azad, to the effect that comrade Suryam (Vikas) had indeed gone to Warangal on some work. Later the CC of the CPI (Maoist) issued a statement disowning the statement given in the name of Azad and exposing the SIB’s psychological war.
The CC of the CPI (Maoist) issued a call to the entire Party and people to observe bharat bandh on June 12 to protest against the cold-blooded murder of these two beloved comrades. A petition was filed in the High Court by the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee for conducting a re-postmortem on the body of the martyrs, and upon the Court’s order, it was carried out on May 26 on the body of comrade Vikas while comrade Prasanna’s body was cremated earlier by his family members. The manner in which the re-postmortem was conducted was condemned by the civil rights organizations, several political parties and other democratic-minded individuals as a hoax since it was done secretly without allowing comrade Sudhakar Reddy’s brother or others inside when the autopsy was being conducted. Comrade Varavara Rao said that he would file a case against the Warangal police chief Sajjanar for contempt of court as they did not allow the family members of the deceased at the time of re-postmortem. Various political parties condemned the murder describing it as a fake encounter and demanded a judicial enquiry. Maoist prisoners in the Cherlapalli jail in Hyderabad and Warangal central jail went on a hunger strike, protesting against the encounter of Sudhakara Reddy. They demanded that fake encounters be immediately stopped.
However, neither the lawless public goonda ruling the police state of AP, YS Reddy, nor the neo-Nazi criminals hiding behind a certain degree of sophistication nor gentlemen appearance ruling at the Centre—Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram—bothered about fake encounter killings and the trampling underfoot the fundamental rights supposed to be enshrined in the Indian Constitution. All they want is the elimination of the Maoist leadership at any cost. These unconstitutional criminal acts are not carried out by some police officials at the district or even state level. They are planned and executed under the direct guidance and direction of the top political leadership—YS Reddy in AP and Manmohan Singh-Chidambaram at the Centre. Comrades Vikas and Prasanna are the first victims of the fascist repression unleashed by the newly re-elected blood-thirsty government of YS Reddy in Andhra Pradesh and the Congress-led UPA government in the Centre.
Comrade Vikas went to meet comrade Prasanna at about 10 on May 23rd morning in Nashik city. He informed another comrade with whom he was staying at that time that he would attend the appointment and return within one hour. He called up after half-an-hour and informed that none had turned up for the first contact and that he would see for the second contact at 11 am also and then return by 11.30. And that was the last that was heard of him. He, along with comrade Prasanna, were abducted from the appointment place in Nashik, airlifted to Warangal which is more than 1000 km away, tortured throughout the night, murdered in the early hours, and their bodies were thrown in Lavvala forest in Warangal district. In less than 18 hours the SIB had abducted, tortured and murdered the comrades and threw their bodies at a place more than 1000kms away. Such is the sophistication of the criminal lawless gang in AP called SIB which never had any accountability whatsoever whether under the TDP regime of Chandrababu Naidu or the Congress regime of YS Reddy. This lawless gang, along with Greyhounds, resemble in all ways the death squads in Latin America under US-backed tin-pot dictatorships during the 1960s through 80s, and have a notorious criminal record of abduction and murder of hundreds of revolutionaries such as comrades Puli Anjanna, Shyam, Mahesh, Murali, Sande Rajamouli alias Prasad, Vadkapur Chandramouli alias BK, Sathyam, Madhav, Matta Ravi Kumar, Somanna, Yadanna, Padma, and innumerable other martyrs.
Comrade Patel Sudhakar Reddy, also popularly known as Suryam in the revolutionary camp in Andhra Pradesh and as Vikas in the CC and the newly formed Party after the merger of CPI (ML) [PW] and MCCI in September 2004, has become one of the established leaders of the Indian revolution and a member of the central committee of CPI (Maoist) after a long illustrious revolutionary career. Hailing from Kurthiravula Cheruvu village in Mahboobnagar district in South Telengana, he began his revolutionary life as a student activist of Radical Students Union in the early 1980s when he was studying his bachelor’s course in Gadwal town in Mahboobnagar district. Later when he was doing his Master’s degree in Osmania University in Hyderabad he joined the movement as a full-time organizer. Ever since then he made significant contributions to the erstwhile CPI (ML) [People’s War] and the CPI (Maoist), and the Indian revolution as a whole.
Responding to the call of the Party to build a guerrilla zone of armed agrarian revolutionary struggle in North Telangana and Dandakaranya with the goal of transforming them into base areas, he went to Eturnagaram-Mahadevpur forest in North Telengana in 1983 and worked as a commander of the guerrilla squad. Later he was transferred to Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra where he worked until 1988. He was shifted to the work of purchasing arms for equipping the speedily growing armed guerrilla squads of erstwhile CPI (ML)[PW]. He played a crucial role in supplying arms to the Party but was arrested in 1992 in Bangalore based on a tip-off from an arrested person. He remained an exemplary communist leader in jail where he spent almost seven years. He was released in 1998 and was taken into the AP state committee in the state Plenum held in 1999. He served as its secretariat member from 2001 to mid-2003 when he was transferred to other work allotted by the CC. He played a prominent role in building the movement in Dandakaranya in its initial years and later in the state of Andhra Pradesh. He was taken into the CC in 2005 and as a member of the CC he made significant contribution in formulating the central policies and plans.
Martyrdom of com Vikas is an irreparable loss to the Indian revolution and to the CPI (Maoist). He was an exemplary model to be emulated by all revolutionaries. Even in the midst of severe enemy repression he maintained a calm posture and instilled immense confidence in other cadres. He had also contributed much in studying the enemy tactics. He was known for his sincerity and dedication, deep commitment to the cause of the oppressed people, creativity and solid determination to fulfill any task entrusted to him, and militant fighting nature. Even in the severest hardships comrade Suryam never showed any vacillation or tension which gave immense confidence to the cadres around him. In one incident in early 2003, for instance, when he was working in Nallamala forest region, the enemy suddenly came near the camp and there was tension inside the comrades present at the camp. But seeing com Suryam who just sat coolly others regained their cool and waited for the next step. Com Suryam sent instructions to the members of the defense team asking them to put up stiff resistance in case the enemy attacked and to continue firing until everyone else had safely retreated. No wonder, his very presence instilled great confidence and a fighting spirit among the cadres and the people. Comrade Suryam also played a prominent role in planning and executing political actions and gave guidance to the action teams which executed former Home minister of AP, Madhav Reddy, and the attack on the then Chief Minister of AP, Chandrababu Naidu in 2003. The enemy has been itching to lay his hands on comrade Suryam, who was considered the most wanted in AP, and succeeded at last in May 2009.
In the Party committee meetings, right from the district committee meetings to AP state committee meetings to the meetings of the CC, comrade Vikas played a crucial, and many a time, a decisive role, as he had a clear grasp of the situation, did his homework thoroughly before attending the meetings, lacked dogmatic approach, and hence could come up with creative and feasible solutions to problems confronting the Party and the movement. His presence in the committee meetings contributed immensely in solving many complex problems. His transfer from the work in AP to central work in the middle of 2003 had an impact on the movement in AP but the decision to shift him had to be taken by the CC due to the priority of central work.
There are many revolutionary qualities that have to be emulated from comrade Suryam: his sense of humor, frankness in criticism of the mistakes in Party line and policies, mistakes and weaknesses of other comrades as well as his own, initiative and creativity, diligent study of events and experiences of other movements and committees, alertness to changes taking place in the enemy camp, domestic and international arena so as not to lag behind events, and seriousness of purpose in every task taken up by him or entrusted to him by the party. This quality he displayed from the very moment he joined the Party 27 years ago. That is why the higher committee always reposed confidence in him and rested in ease after giving him charge of a specific department or work. At the time of his martyrdom, he was involved in a very important work that is indispensable for formulating tactics by the various party committees, particularly the CC. His martyrdom at this critical juncture of the revolutionary movement is an irrecoverable loss and will have a serious effect on the movement as a whole.
Comrade Venakatayya alias Prasanna hails from Cheryala mandal in Warangal district, AP, and was actively involved in the student movement in AP for almost a decade and served as a leader of the All India Revolutionary Student Federation in AP. He took charge of the student movement in AP after the martyrdom of comrade Bhujanga Reddy alias Praveen. He was shifted to technical work in 2004 and has been working in the technical field since then. His contribution to the collection of material regarding enemy’s policies, plans and movements was noteworthy. He was always jovial and adjustable with any comrade. He took every work given to him quite seriously and hence the higher committee entrusted him important work with complete confidence in him. In his martyrdom the CPI (Maoist) has lost a young and energetic comrade with promising leadership qualities.
The contribution of comrades Suryam and Prasanna to the Indian revolution will never be forgotten by the CPI (Maoist), the PLGA and people. They will continue the struggle for the liberation of the country with redoubled vigor and hatred for the exploiters and traitors who rule the country. The reactionary rulers of India, with the active assistance of the imperialists, vainly hope to suppress the Indian revolution by eliminating the central and state leadership of the CPI (Maoist). By this, they think they can deprive the oppressed people of leadership and suppress their struggle for land, livelihood and liberation. But this conspiracy of the reactionary rulers will remain a mere day-dream. Thousands upon thousands of worthy revolutionary successors will step into the shoes of these beloved leaders turning the dreams of the reactionary rulers into nightmares.
The Peoples' Truth pays its red revolutionary homage to comrade Sudhakar Reddy and Venkatayya and vows to fulfill their revolutionary dreams of a classless society. The people of India, particularly the people of AP, will never forget the great service these comrades had rendered to the Indian revolution. They will certainly avenge the martyrdom of these comrades by intensifying and expanding the ongoing people’s war, establishing base areas in the vast countryside of the country, transforming the PLGA into PLA and advancing the Indian revolution to its final victory.
The role of leadership is very crucial in any revolution. All successful revolutions in history had taken great care in preserving the leadership and ensuring continuity of leadership. Without such a continuity of leadership it is impossible to advance the revolutionary war and achieve final victory. Hence the Indian state also has been trying desperately by all means at its disposal to eliminate the Party leadership at all levels, particularly the central and state leadership. Enormous funds have been allotted for the purpose of eliminating the leadership and a vast intelligence network has been set up.
Let us emulate the great revolutionary qualities of comrade Suryam and Prasanna and concentrate on developing worthy successors to these immortal martyrs.

Peoples' Truth Bullettin No: 6

Dear friends,

Peoples' Truth Bullettin No: 6 articles are pasted below.

P.Govindan kutty
Editor, Peoples' Truth

As Crisis Deepens, Massive Peoples’ Outbursts Shakes the World

Arvind
On May Day, as we go to the press, the situation throughout the world is turning gloomier and gloomier. Particularly the working class and even the middle classes have been badly hit by the job lay-offs, wage cuts, forced long working hours and spiraling job insecurity. And in spite of the huge bail-outs, interest rate cuts and massive stimulus packages reports continue to come in of even more bankruptcies, economic decline and financial collapse. The latest victim being the giant automobile manufacturer, Chrysler, which has filed for bankruptcy. A few days earlier it was the even bigger automobile giant, General Motors, which was reported to be on the verge of collapse – and this is despite two bail-out packages that it has received.
In the US not only are financial institutions and giant TNCs going bust but also a number of State governments are heading for bankruptcy. The Government of US reported that 29 states face an estimated $ 48 billion budget shortfall in financial year 2009. State and local governments are at risk with $ 2.7 trillion in outstanding municipal securities and huge growing budget shortfalls.
According to economist, Stephan Lendman: Besides mortgages over $ 20 trillion in private-sector consumer and corporate debt and other $ 2.7 trillion in municipal securities. He estimates 1479 FDIC member banks with $2.4 trillion in total assets at risk failure. Another 158 S&L with $ 756 billion. A total of $ 3.2 trillion or 41 times the assets of banks on the FDIC’s watch list. He notes $ 51 trillion in interest bearing debts, over $ 12 trillion on residential mortgages. …..Commercial mortgages are also at issue and are souring. A total of $ 2.6 trillion “dispersed widely beyond the banking sector”. The mortgages are less than half the problem. Add to them credit cards, auto and student loans, and various kinds of other private-sector debt, consumer and corporate. Around $20 trillion in total plus nearly $ 15 trillion in residential and commercial mortgages. The derivatives problem is especially ominous; at extreme levels and very dangerous. An estimated $180 trillion held by commercial banks alone meaning those with most of it are technically insolvent. In addition, beyond the above figure, no estimates are available of derivative defaults. With such a fragile situation in the US and the losses so huge it is difficult to see the present stimulus packages having the desired effect. The US economy shrank by about 6% in both the last Quarter of 2008 and the first Quarter of 2009. (Indian Express Apr 30 2009) Housing foreclosures continue apace with Feb.2009 registering an increase of 30% over Feb.2008. Unemployment is skyrocketing as never before. In California unemployment has reached 22.6%.
The debt incurred by US capital has grown exponentially over the past 30 years, from about $ 4 trillion in 1978 to $ 50 trillion today. (Against a GDP of $ 13.3 trillion).This inability to pay threatens money-capital directly. The US Federal Reserve Bank estimates that the current collapse has wiped out $ 7.1 trillion in US assets worth so far more than half of the 2008 GDP; compared to $ 4.2 trillion during the dot com speculative wipe out in 2000. Globally asset losses so far total about $ 30 trillion. (Article by John Steele, Jan.11 09)
Besides, all economic indicators indicate the decline continues. In a recent report (Hindustan Times Apr.23 09) the IMF has reported that in the year 2009 the US economy will decline by 2.8%, the Euro zone by 4.2% and those of Russia and Japan by a massive 6%. This is nearly double of what was predicted earlier and the figures are huge particularly for Europe which has never seen a decline in growth rates since WWII. On Apr 22nd it was reported that (Free Press Journal) the British economy slipped into deflation for the first time since 1960 heralding a fall in wages and a freeze in pensions. In UK bankruptcies are expected to grow to a rate of 95 per day – or 35,000 firms going bankrupt in the current year. Over 1.25 lakh people will go bankrupt this year in the UK.
The situation in much of Eastern Europe is even more frightening. Take the case of Hungary. On Apr. 3 The Hindu reported: Hungary faced, in the past seven months the near default on its foreign debt, a 90% plunge in its bank’s stock price, and most recently the resignation of the country’s Prime Minister. It thought it could borrow its way through the crisis. But when its currency collapsed last year, the foreign denominated loans soared in value, making it very hard for domestic borrowers to repay their loans as the economy shrank. The economy is estimated to sink by as much as 6% this year. …..The alternative of not meeting the IMF’s conditions is bankruptcy. Economist Nouriel Roubini cites 12 or more economies in serious financial trouble; especially in East Europe, including Turkey, but also Korea, Indonesia and Pakistan. The risk contagion is worrisome as even tiny Iceland sent tremors globally.
The trade figures are even more frightening. The Hindu (March 30th 09) editorially reported : Even though the IMF and other world bodies had anticipated a fall in world trade this year as a consequences of the deteriorating global economy, few expected the decline to be as the one projected by the WTO in its latest report. World trade which grew up to 6 percent in 2007 last year is forecast to drop by as much as 9 percent in 2009. Such a sharp dip has not been seen since the Second World War. The WTO’s projection exceeds by a wide margin the 3 percent decline forecast earlier by the IMF obviously capture the particularly sharp declaration seen in recent months. According to the World Bank, this analyzed the trade data of 45 countries, exports shrank by an average of 32 percent in January over the previous yea. Exports from the rich countries are slated to fall by as much as 10 percentages. Emerging and developing countries, whose exports grew by an average of 15 percent annually between 1998 and 2008, will fare somewhat better; their exports are expected to fall by 2 to 3 percent. The current financial crisis has choked trade finance, which is the backbone of global trade, calling for urgent action by monetary authorities. Over a 10-year period beginning with 1998, trade volumes grew at a healthy 5.7 percent on an average every year, outstripping the global GDP growth rate of nearly 3 percent.
ILO fears that the number of unemployed people would increase by 5 crore in the current year. This no doubt would be a conservative estimate. It further added that jobs normally take about 2 to 3 years to recover once the economic crisis gets over. In the US jobs are being lost six lakhs a month and France expects to lose 5 lakh jobs this year.

Grim Situation in India
The tragedy of the situation is that in this entire election campaign not one Party spoke of the crisis impact on the lives of the people and the need for stringent remedial measures. Today already there is hardly a single family that is not affected by the crisis – from the rural sector, the unorganized workers, and even the organized workers and middle class employees. Except for the large contingent of government employees, who, till now live in relative job security, all others have already been badly hit. Yet, not a word is spoken on this by any of the parliamentary parties seeking votes. Quite naturally people were disgusted and the vote turn-out was low.
The situation starts with enormous and growing rural distress. According to Business & Economy (Apr3 -16) in Maharashtra alone 46 suicides are taking place every day. Statistics provided by the NCRB state that as many as 16,632 farmers committed suicide in 2007 alone. The magazine says that two years ago the RBI (on instructions of the UPA government) stopped the outlay to NABARD, which was meant to give loans to small and medium farmers, pushing them deeper into the arms of the moneylender. This cut amounted to a huge Rs.6, 000 crores. It adds, “The government found it completely ethical to form sovereign wealth funds to bail out American enterprises, while farmers in the country were relentlessly complaining about shortage of funds for loans.”
Besides, the poor are being further squeezed by the spiraling prices of necessities. The inflation rate (as on March 7 2009) for sugar, salt, pulses, cereals, milk, and spices was 22.4%, 11.1%, 11%, 10.2%,7% and 6.2% respectively. In fact sugar prices have nearly doubled in the last few months. Health conditions are also deteriorating with government expenditure being the lowest in the world at a mere 1%. Even in the sphere of education the powerful education lobby has promoted the privatization of education on a big scale and government expenditure on education is a mere 2.8% of GDP instead of the projected 6%; and of this a mere 1% is spent on private education. The government is even busy robbing the workers’ Provident Fund reducing the interest rate to a mere 8% when bank’s fixed deposit rate varies from 8.5-9%.
Job losses are now also beginning to envelop not only the unorganized sectors (see last issue) but now even the IT sector. NASSCOM has estimated that 5% or one lakh jobs will be lost in this sector. And this, it says, will comprise primarily middle and senior level employees. In the month of February alone manufacturing contracted by 1.2%, laying off large numbers of workers. In March 2009 exports dropped by a massive 33% (over the previous year) after falling 22% in February and 16% in January. The number of people who lost jobs can only be imagined.
Though the value of the stock exchange has been going up this is nowhere reflected in the economy and is yet another bubble which will burst once the big investors decide to sell and make a killing. Besides, with the LPG policies of the government, the economy is fully tied to the imperialists, particularly the US, so with the international economic crisis deepening, things are bound to get worse here. Even India’s external debt has been skyrocketing from $ 112 billion in 2004 to double that figure in 2008 at $ 221 billion. The interest payments on this are huge and with the trade gap growing $ 119 billion in 2008-09 (a 34% increase over last years gap of $ 88.5 billion) due to a big fall in exports and with overseas remittances expected to fall by as much as 5% (worldwide) this year; India is heading for yet another debt trap.
Though all reports are coming in of excruciating poverty growing in the country a few business houses and their political associates have accumulated wealth on a scale not seen even in the developed countries. In the media it was reported (April 6th) that Indians have stashed away a gigantic $ 1.5 trillion in Swiss bank accounts. This was more than twice the amount of the second largest investor, Russia. If this enormous wealth was just redistributed each Indian would get Rs.5 lakhs.
This deepening crisis is resulting in frantic new alliances, growing militarization and aggressive diplomacy and war-mongering. In South Asia too the situation is hotting up.

Growing Worldwide Tensions & Destabilization in the Subcontinent

NATO accounts for 70% of the global military budget of $ 1.473 trillion. There is frenzied military spending throughout the world, including in countries like India and China. Trade wars and diplomatic maneuvers are hotting up. Recently some US senators threatened companies doing trade with Iran saying “either you do trade with a $ 250 billion Iran or with a $ 13 trillion US”. Those being threatened are such giants as the British Oil giants Shell and BP and also India’s Reliance.
Even the US and Europe are not in agreement on how to pull the economies out of the crisis. In the weeks after November’s Washington Summit, sharp differences in the approaches of the US and the UK on the one side and the Europeans on the other had come to the fore. The US and the UK want that the London Summit to come up with declarations for commitment on specific stimulus packages and proposals for monetary easing. On the other hand, Germany and France wanted the financial mess to be set right first through tighter regulation. While the euro Zone’s recession is likely to be higher than the US it stimulus package over the next two years is expected to be 1.5% of GDP to the US’s 6% of GDP. Finally though some consensus was reached at the G-20 of building up the IMF’s reserves, China demanded more say in the IMF before giving greater funds.
Particularly, tensions are growing between the US on the one hand and the growing Russia-China axis on the other. North Koreas renewed aggressive posturing with the launching of a satellite would not have been possible without subtle backing from China. In an emergency session of the UN called by the US the aggressive posture of US/Japan was resisted by Russia, China and three other countries out of the 15 member UN Security Council. Finally a much watered down resolution was passed. What was even more provocative was that both China and Russia suggested an alternative international currency to replace the dollar. This was an outright attack against US’s worldwide domination which primarily rests on the supremacy of the dollar as the major international currency. Quite naturally there was little response to this suggestion at the G-20 where this proposal was put forward.
In the Indian subcontinent Russia has made aggressive advances into Afghanistan and China is taking serious steps into Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal.
As per the Obama plan Afghanistan is the main point of conflagration. This would be quite obvious as we witness the overactive role of Russia in the region. The Special Conference on Afghanistan, held in Moscow on March 27 2009 reflected the growing clout of Russia and the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) in the region. The conference was organized by the SCO, which comprises full six members and 4 observers (India, Pak, Iran and Mongolia). In attendance at the Conference was the UN Secretary General, the Secretary General of the Organisation of for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the US Asst Deputy Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, the NATO deputy secretary general, representatives from the G8, EU, Org for Islamic Countries and foreign ministers from 36 countries. It was for the first time that senior officials from the US and NATO were invited to an SCO meet.
The joint declarations said “the participants also noted that the SCO was one of the appropriate for a wide dialogue with participation of partners on the Afghanistan-related issues in the context of joint efforts of the international community and Afghanistan and for practical interaction between Afghanistan and its neighboring states in combating terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime”.
This marked a volte-face of the US view of the SCO as a hostile bloc and rival in Central Asia. The SCO is a subject that seems to make a lot of American’s blood boil. Russia said that the production of opium had soared 44 times since the deployment of US and NATO forces. It said Afghan narcotics killed 30,000 Russians every year, twice as many as the Soviet Union lost in the 15-year war in Afghanistan.
The SCO-Afghanistan Action Plan calls for joint operations in combating terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime; for involving Afghanistan in a phased manner in SCO-wide collaboration in fighting terrorism in the region; and to invite relevant Afghan bodies to take part in joint law enforcement exercises by the SCO. It also provides for stepping up the training of drug agencies, combating the laundering of drug money and improving border controls. These measures should help to set up anti-narcotics, anti-terrorism and anti-laundering security belts around Afghanistan. The Plan reads like a road map for bringing Afghanistan into the SCO fold.
Afghanistan joined the SAARC in 2007, and became a part of the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group established in Nov 2005 to provide a mechanism for SCO member states to jointly contribute to the reconstruction and stability in Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai has attended all SCO meetings in recent years.
The idea of Afghanistan joining the SCO would be anathema to the US and Obama’s proposal to create a NATO-dominated contact group with Afghanistan is part of his new strategy for the region and is seen as an attempt to dilute the influence of the SCO, even as he has invited the members to the new group. However, at the Moscow Conference the US envoy joined the other delegates in vowing support for the SCO-Afghanistan Action Plan. The declaration said that the participants in the Moscow Conference “expressed the intent to explore the possibility of aiding the implementation of the Action Plan”.
The US and NATO countries have already secured transit routes across Russia and the Central Asian States for non-military supplies to their forces in Afghanistan and Moscow suggested it could allow shipment of military cargo as well.
The documents adopted at the Conference declared support for the efforts of the Karzai government, which has recently fallen out of favour with the US and NATO. Russia’s deputy Foreign Minister warned against creating a power vacuum in Afghanistan in the run up to the presidential election later this year. Russia also came out against appeasing the Taliban.
The Moscow Conference was held four days after the broader UN Conference on Afghanistan in end March. If anything the Moscow Declaration came harder on Pakistan demanding that it find effective means to combat terrorism, including denying sanctuaries and dismantling the extremist and terrorist network and ideological centers.
The Moscow Conference was a diplomatic coup for Russia and the SCO. Coming just over a month after Kyrgyzstan decided to shut a major US airbase …Besides Moscow is also actively pushing for influence in the US’s own backyard.
Russia plans to use airfields in Cuba and Venezuela to station its strategic bombers on global patrol flights. Cuba has four or five airfields with 4,000 meter runways that Russian heavy bombers can use .. The Air force Commander said Venezuela had offered Russia for use “a whole island with an airfield”. This is for temporary deployment. Russia resumed global patrolling by its Tu-160 and Tu-95 bombers in 2007 after a break of 15 years. Two long-range bombers flew to Venezuela last year in a high-profile of Russia’s strategic military reach.
China is also of late making aggressive inroads into South Asia. They were the only country to lend full economic and military support to the Sri Lankan government to unleash genocide on the Tamil people. In return they have got major contracts for ports and other projects as also an expanding market for its exports. In Nepal too it has made major inroads by backing the Prachanda government and granting it a number of sops. It has traditionally deep links with the Pakistani army which has been strengthened. It is also making inroads into Bangladesh and of course continues its vice-like grip over the Myanmar Junta.
India on the other hand is deepening its ties with the US/Israeli Axis. In fact on the eve of the elections massive military deals were pushed through by the Congress government without even a whimper of protest from any of the parliamentary parties. On March 26th India has signed a massive Rs.10, 000 crore deal with an Israel company for the supply and joint development of surface to air missiles of 79 kms range. The DRDO already has the Akash missile with a range of 30 kms and has the know how for a 70 km one. And the again within just 10 day on April 7th the Centre hastily signed yet another deal with the Israel Military Industries for Rs.1, 200 crores to manufacture artillery. The Indian government was also finalizing locations for $ 150 billion worth US nuclear power reactors promised to Washington during negotiations. Referring to India’s 10,000 MW US nuclear power reactors, Saran (the US agent foreign secretary) did not expect opposition from state governments. Given the elections he requested the US to meanwhile find Indian companies as collaborators.
The biggest flashpoint of the region in fact is going to be an extension of the war in Afghanistan into Pakistan where three forces are contending – the Taliban, China and the US. This is pulling the country apart and the US is already predicting Pakistan will collapse within a month. In the coming conflicts it is clear that India will be used as cannon fodder in its geo-political strategies of destabilization in this explosive region. In end March Obama unveiled a new Afghan war strategy. He bluntly warned Pakistan that a blank cheque could not be given if it did not show a commitment to root out the Al-Qaeda. He vowed to wipe out terrorism from safe havens within Pakistan and identified Russia, China and India as countries having a stake in the security of the region. Describing the volatile Afghan-Pak region as the most dangerous place in the world, and the situation in Afghanistan as increasingly perilous, he said intelligence reports warned that Al-Qaeda planned attacks on the US from its safe havens within Pakistan. Said, he would send 4000 more troops and triple aid to Pakistan to $ 7.5 billion over three years.


Mass Upsurge & Revolts Throughout the World

In an article How the Food & Financial Crisis are Interconnected by Eric Toussant he said: In 2007-08 the standard of living of more than half the world population dropped dramatically when the price of food soared. Before the current price increase, 850 million people (13% of the world pop) were chronically hungry. Now, the World Food Programme estimates that the crisis has driven another 100 million people into hunger. There were massive demonstrations in at least 15 countries in the first half of 2008.
After the present crisis broke out in Sept 2008 and its impact on the people began to be felt throughout the world there has been a massive upsurge throughout the world. The most notable have been the uprising in Greece and the two General Strikes in France in the course of just three months. Also there has been the rise of gigantic demonstrations at all meetings of international capitalist forums. The most notable was the planned meet in Thailand on international trade which, for the first time ever, had to be cancelled and delegates airlifted out of the country to save them from the peoples’ wrath. The massive revolt in the Bangladesh para-military force was an indication of enormous discontent brewing even in the State’s own forces on which they will find it increasingly difficult to rely.
Entire Europe panicked with the uprising in Greece spreading to all corners of the country and solidarity actions throughout Europe. The trigger was the killing of a 15-year old boy by the police which developed into a mass upsurge against the government against the lay-offs, unemployment, and other policies. There were militant actions and continuous battles with the police. Police Stations and government buildings became the target of peoples’ anger.
France witnessed massive demonstrations and two general strikes – one in January and another in March. With over 75% of the population supporting the general strike, France came to a grinding halt on March 19th when about two million people demonstrated over the country. Some 215 demonstrations were planned (compared to 195 on Jan 29) in what was a repeat of the hugely successful general strike staged on Jan 29 when 2 million people struck work. The protests which bring together private and public sector workers are against closures, job cuts, the high cost of living and increased poverty and job insecurity. Large scale disruption took place in air and rail traffic and schools, post offices, parks, museums, hospitals, and other public services. Although France is not as hard hit as Spain and Italy and job losses this year are expected to reach half a million. The only sector that has remained buoyant is the luxury good sector.
In the forms of struggle another aspect has been the return of the Gherao to Europe where numerous instances have been there where workers take CEOs or top manager’s hostage and bargain against their lay-offs. On April 4th In France workers at the Caterpillar headquarters as well at the Sony and 3M plants have held senior executes, including the CEO of Sony, hostage over sudden mass layoffs. In the Visteon car plants in the UK, the workers occupied the factories after more than 80% of the staff at one of them was sacked on one day. In another case the protest has resulted in negotiations and concessions by the management.
The CEO of the international giant 3Ms was held hostage in South France when workers blocked the street with dustbins and banners. One of the world’s wealthiest men – boss of Christies, Printemps and FNAC – was freed by police after permission was given that workers could send a delegation to the board meeting. Four executives of Caterpillar were forced to spend the night in their offices when plans to cut 700 jobs were announced.
On the eve of The 60th Anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation on April 4th in Paris was marred by violent protests in the North-Eastern French city of Strasbourg, where the meeting is being held, and across the river on the German side. The NATO leaders were able to stage a “walk of unity”, crossing a bridge over the Rhine, which separates France and Germany, but later in the day another bridge, called the bridge of Europe, was taken over by masked anti-war and anti-globalisation protesters, who waged pitched battles against the police and special para-military riot police. The protestors set fire to a hotel and to a border post and the police had to repeatedly use tear-gas to control the demonstrators. Strasbourg looked like a town under siege with thousands of protestors converging on the downtown area where the talks were being held.
Similar massive demonstrations and clashes took place at the G-20 meeting in London and as already reported in Thailand. Once again the captains of capital are finding it difficult to assemble.
The March 27 issue of Frontline reported on Bangladesh revolt thus: The trouble began at the darbar hall of the BDR headquarters in Dhaka’s densely populated Pilkhana area where senior officers, numbering about 150, led by BDR Deputy Director General Major General Sakhil Ahmed and a few thousand low-ranking jawans of the paramilitary force were attending an annual conference. In the midst of a heated argument over pay a few hundred heavily armed rebels, who are said to have come from outside, surrounded the officers and fired indiscriminately killing their officers joined by most of the lower ranking soldiers at the headquarters the armed rebels quickly took control of the headquarters. The mutiny continued for 33 hours and their demands included: rampant corruption by officers, long-pending grievances over pay, welfare and benefits and the most prominent issue was the “army control” over the paramilitary force. According to the army only 33 officers out of the 150 survived. Several mass graves were excavated from the grounds of the headquarters and bodies were taken out of the sewers. Incident took place on Feb 25th. BDR troops in the districts had also sided with their comrades in Dhaka. Reports said that hundreds of BDR jawans had fled their headquarters in disguise as the police began arresting many others and handing them over to the army.
Soon after this, in the first week of April, a minor revolt was reported in the India army, when, in the first week of April hundreds Military Engineering Services (MES) personnel (5,000) went on strike. They had not yet received their pay for the time they were posted to the Indo-Pak border during Operation Parakram in 2001 in the wake of the supposed attack on Parliament. Converging from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh they raised slogans against the army authorities at the Western Command, Panchakulla (Chandigarh) alleging shabby treatment by the army establishment.

Such is the type of discontent brewing throughout the world. But while the mass movements are huge and even militant, the communist/Maoist element continues to be very weak. Without the development of the conscious element it is not possible to defeat the capitalist system and build the socialist alternative. However deep the crisis and it is likely to be as deep as in the 1930s, unless there is an organized force to fight it, it will not collapse. The time is ripe for the genuine communist forces to make major advance worldwide.


Disastrous Bid to Raise FDI Cap in Insurance Sector
Gupta

The proposed Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008, if passed, will wreak havoc with the lives of the insured millions, agents and the economy as well. This Bill aims to strengthen foreign control in the Indian private insurance companies by increasing FDI from 26% to 49%. But it is certain that this will certainly make the existing Indian promoters of joint venture insurance companies billionaires within a short period. Both the Indian promoters along with their foreign partners will find great opportunity for making a killing at a time when the entire private insurance sector in the capitalist headquarters is exasperating. It is clear from the official documents of World Bank, IMF, the Report of Strategic Partnership between India and the US, etc. that there remains a continuous pressure on the Indian government since long to remove all restrictions on FDI entry and FDI capture of the insurance sector in India. The new insurance bill will allow the foreign insurance giants, now making a desperate bid to come out of crisis, like AIG, New York Life, Allianz, Standard Life, Sun Life, AXA and ING along with Indian big capitalists like the Tatas, the Aditya Birla Group, Analjit Singhs, Sunil Millals, the Bajaj group, HDFC, etc. to make quick bucks in the insurance market in India.
Among others, we may refer to the laudatory Report of the CEO Forum titled "US India Strategic Economic Partnership" placed in 2006 long after the adoption of liberalisation policy by the Indian Government. In Appendix it dictated under the Sub-title "Financial Services" on Insurance and Pension/Asset Fund Management that “It is a matter of urgency to raise foreign ownership cap in insurance to 49% and that "Foreign investment in insurance and pension should be allowed to own their business and distribute products to all potential customers in a free market.”
Similar view is found in the World Banks crucial document “Country Strategy for India.” - World Bank” and, such other documents dictating to India on the further liberalisation of the economy.
Following the path of financial liberalisation in the 1990s, already a range of new financial instruments and new forms of financial innovation were permitted. In the insurance sector, the Insurance Bill which was passed in 1999 effectively allowed the entry of foreign financial giants into the Indian insurance market. This path under imperialist globalisation brought about a policy decision that undid the earlier restrictions in the insurance sector. On 19 January 1956, 245 insurance companies controlled by Indian and foreign players were nationalised to form Life Insurance Corporation. Large scale corruption, defalcation of people’s money and the resultant protests of insurers compelled the Indian Government to take such a step. In 1999, the then NDA government reverted that decision by allowing 26% foreign capital in the insurance sector. When the UPA government tried to pass Insurance Bill, 2008, it actually did this in order to implement basically the US diktat as referred to above. Following the same anti-national policy, the outgoing central government allowed FDI in socially and politically sensitive industries like electronic and print-media, telecommunications, banking and insurance and whole-sale trade.
The world capitalist economy is reeling under unprecedented crisis. One of the main roots of this crisis lay in the imprudent investments, where the insurance companies also invested heavily in derivatives and west bankrupt. The UPA government under Manmohan Singh introduced the Insurance Bill in the Rajya Sabha on December 22, 2008, at a time when the USA and European governments were taking control of the failed insurance and banking companies.
Another Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha, LIC (Amendment) Bill 2008, aimed to increase the equity of LIC from Rs.5 Crore to Rs.100 crore. On the face of it this seems to be a harmless amendment. But when one considers it in the context of the Malhotra Committee recommendations advising disinvestment up to 50% of LIC and GIC, that amendment was portentous as being the first step towards disinvestment of LIC in future. It is notable that LIC had the assets worth Rs.8, 04,000 crore and a liability of Rs.6, 87,000 crore. Thus in December 2008 the assets surpassed liabilities by more than a considerable sum of Rs.1, 17,000 crore. The ground reality makes it eminently clear that LIC did not need any equity increase. The proposed Rs.100 crore increases in equity was clearly a definite step towards disinvestment. And it has been time and again prescribed by World Bank, IMF, MNCs, US and other imperialist governments for looting the insurance sector.
There is a huge counter pressure from the staffers in the insurance sector and the common people against this insidious move. Considering this, UPA government resorted to a slow and step-by-step process. To put it in the right perspective, allowing the FDI control is more like an extension of the much discredited practice of in the license permit era that allowed preemption and, then, premium sale of government licenses by their private owners. This unique method of the earlier Congress regime helped many first time entrepreneurs become big business tycoons with in a very short period of time. By the 1990s, with the introduction of the liberalisation policy that license permit raj/regime was officially abolished but it was allowed to come with a big bang through the introduction of the practice of first fixing FDI caps for various industries and later by relaxing the caps for the benefit of both Indian and foreign collaborators. Privatisation of the telecommunications sector is a case in point. Initially it was started with apparently strong restrictions on foreign equity collaboration and control. However, within a short period, things began to change completely. This helped the Indian promoters of Cellular mobile telephone service such as Modi Telstra (B.K. Modi), Bharti Airtel (Sunil Mittal), Usha Telecom (B.K. Jahwar), Essar Hutchison (Ravi and Sashi Ruia) to reap astronomical profits through Stake sales. The same drama is going to be enacted in the insurance sector with the proposed enhancing of the FDI cap to the extent of 49 percent. A skewed argument is given by the government that this increase will strengthen the stock market. It is common knowledge that foreign collaborators are not poised to raise their equity stake from 26 percent to 49 percent through the market route seeking expansion of the equity capital of their joint ventures by means of initial public offering (IPO). In fact they will acquire the additional 23 percent shares from their respective Indian promoters or joint venture partners, who currently hold 74 percent, at negotiated price. Here we should keep in mind the recently changed guidelines for facilitating the FDI entry via the back door. The proposed hike in the FDI in the insurance sector has nothing to do with the stock market boost by ways of private share transaction between two joint venture partners.
To understand this anti-national move of opening insurance sector door wide, we have to keep it in mind that in the insurance business one part comprises life-insurance and the other consists of non-life insurance. The former is a big source of cheap long term funds for the promoters to earn huge returns by mostly investing in infrastructure like projects. Foreign investors now set their eyes on this type of business and the central government, World Bank, etc. have laid so much stress on such projects for the past several years. The general insurance business is somewhat tricky with more risk factors and premium rates. However, it will be naive to think that the international insurance giants would leave this part of the insurance sector.
Dark Scenario of the Insurance Sector
How reckless is the pro-globalisation lobby in opening the door open for the FDI can be gauged from the timing when the big giants in the insurance sector have already crumbled headlong. Indian economy too has been thrown in a bind with the unprecedented crisis. The life insurance sector in the country is in the red as shown by the figures released by the insurance Regulatory and Development authority in its annual report for 2007-08.
Life insurance sector in the red in 2007-08
Profits (Losses) of general insurance cos
2007-08 2006-07
New India 1401 1460
Oriental 9 497
National 163 421
United India 932 529
Royal Sundaram 5 21
Bjaj Allianz General 160 75
TATA AIG General 16 22
Reliance General -165 2
IFFCO Tokio 7 27
ICICI Lombard 103 68
Cholamadalam 7 12
HDFC Chubb -17 2
Future Generali -17 2
Universal Sompo 0 --
Total 2250 3138

Profits (Losses) of life insurance cos
2007-08 2006-07
Birla Sun Life -445 -140
ICICI Prudential -1395 -649
ING Vysya -191 -178
HDFC Standard -244 -126
Max New York Life -257 -60
Reliance Life -768 -315
Bajaj Allianz -297 -72
SBI Life 34 4
Kotak Mahindra -72 -110
Tata AIG -339 -72
Metlife 21 -12
AVIVA -202 -132
Sahara 3 -1
Shrimam Life 5 10
Bharti AXA -242 -80
LIC 845 774
Future Generali -30 -3
IDBI Fortis -26 --
Total -3600 -1162

The losses posted by the private sector life insurance companies more than doubled to Rs.4, 487 crore in 2007-08 compared with Rs.1, 934 crore in 2006-07. Only four insurers among the 17 in the fray posted some profits in 2007-08. The largest losers are ICICI - Prudential Life Insurance to the tune of Rs.1, 395 crore and Reliance Life posted at Rs.768 crore during 2007-08.
LIC, the public Sector unit, somehow managed to post a moderate growth in profits at Rs.845 Crore in 2007-08. The general insurance sector did better than the life insurance sector, although profits were down by 80 percent for the private sector players, profits for 10 private players were down to Rs.44 crore in 2007-08 compared with 228 crore in 2006-07. The biggest loss among private players as well as the industry was recorded by Reliance General Insurance at Rs.165 crore.
Even the four public sector insurance companies have seen their combined profits come down to 24 percent i.e. Rs.2, 205 crore.
Thus the entire insurance sector, particularly the private players are in a crisis stage when the government pushes for increasing FDI cap in the insurance sector. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) in its annual report for 2007-08 made it clear that the growth in life insurance business in the near future might not be as ‘robust’ as it was because of the economic crisis. The IRDA report said “Under the present position in the financial markets, it is difficult to raise funds from the capital markets and promoters may find it difficult even to divest their own investments in a bearish stock market.” The insurers underwrote a premium of Rs.14, 320 crore in the first quarter as against Rs.12, 511 crore in the comparable period last year, the report added. It said that the premium underwritten by LIC declined by 12.31 percent while that of the private insurers increased by 72.9 percent. The number of policies written at the industry level declined by 7.8 percent, led by a significant decline to the extent of 23.4 percent in the policies written off by LIC.
The Insurance Sector Crisis and Axing of Agents
The insurance industry added about 10 lakh agents, but 4.8 lakh agents were terminated in the year 2007-08. As of March 31, 2008, there were 25 lakh agents in the country, which was 26 percent higher than a year ago. Private insurers appointed 7.7 lakh agents in the year, but terminated 3.3 lakh. LIC agents in that period grew 8 percent to 11.9 lakh, according to the IRDA report. But a large number of them got sacked. Bajaj Allianz Life, ICICI Prudential Life, Kotak Life and Tata AIG Life reported a high rate of sacking of agents branding them as non-performing.
The question that naturally comes is that in whose interest the government is so much trying to push the bill. With 26% FDI cap many private players have developed joint venture companies in India. Many of them are blacklisted in their American and European headquarters. Many giant private insurance companies have now been taken over by their respective governments. In the USA, about 200 organizations including bank and insura





















nce, have been declared bankrupt in the past few months. Others have been forced to beg for bail-outs for sheer existence. In such a crisis situation the eerie bid to raise the FDI cap from 27% to 49% is ominous and spells danger for the entire insurance sector in India. Undoubtedly the new government at the center after the polls will try to push the Bill through as it is in the interest of the insurance giants of America and Europe. This must be protested and opposed as part of the movement against imperialist globalization.

Downward fall of the Rupee

Gupta

The rupee has been continuingly falling vis a vis the US dollar. The sharp depreciation of the rupee has taken its value to the extent of around Rs.50-to-a dollar in a situation when the global economic crisis still finds no way out and the Indian economy is in dire straits. The current fall in the value of the rupee can be ascribed to the global turmoil that now hits India both on the external and internal fronts. The current account deficits on India’s balance of payments are on the rise. The deficit rose from 1.5% of GDP in 2007-08 to 3.8% of GDP during April-September 2008. India’s GDP growth itself decelerated significantly from 7.6 percent (year-on-year) in Q3 to 5.3 percent in Q4. Even the UPA government lowered its earlier GDP projections from 7.1% to 6.5 – 7%. The IMF considers it around 5%.
The consequence of balance of payments deficits is recorded in the moderately increased imports and steadily decreased exports. Now it is the worst time in decades for the Indian foreign trade. While exports declined by 21.7 percent in February for the fifth straight month (sharpest in a decade), imports bill kept apace, though not like in the past. However, India’s monthly trade deficit came in at $4.9 billion for February 2009. [Business & Economy, 17-30 April, 2009]. These are tough times for Indian economy and they are to last. Merchandise trade data available till December 2008 clearly indicate that India’s aggregate merchandise exports have declined in the continuous 3 months starting from October 2008. Thus export growth became much lower than a year ago. Against this trend, merchandise imports recorded a higher growth of 30.8 percent in the period from April to December 2008, which recorded 3.2 percent more than a year ago. International oil prices forced India to bear the burden of oil imports for some time. The rupee value decline cannot be explained solely on this factor and now the pressure of petroleum prices has lessened yet the rupee value is declining. Secondly, India’s services export in the first six months of 2008-09 remained not too bad and it could neutralize part of the widening trade deficit and moderating current account deficit. It has been found that while trade deficits increased steadily, the current account deficit grew at a comparatively less speed. Thirdly, with massive job loss in the West, Indian workers are supposed to come back with accumulated savings. This could have, for the temporary period, made up for the fall in the value of ongoing remittances owing to large-scale loss of jobs.
On the whole, a widening current account deficit must have some impact on the depreciation of the rupee. Simultaneously the capital account related problems do have their role in the declining value of the rupee. The role of the capital inflows and outflows has a significance that comes prominently to the fore since with the flight of capital particularly by the FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investments) from the second half of the 2008 clearly impacted the foreign exchange reserves in India and India’s balance of payments. The FIIs had taken $13.1 billion (Rs.67, 000 crore) out of India in 2008 and another $2.3 billion (Rs.11, 800 crore) till mid March 2009. This was the consequence of the global economic recession. Here we should mention it that foreign investment flows rose steeply from $4.9 billion in 1995-96 to $29.2 billion in 2006-07 and then jumped enormously to reach $61.8 billion in 2007-08. Notable, that even when the capital inflows were generally dwindling in the so-called emerging economies India became the most covetous destination for such foreign capital with lots of concessions and relaxations undertaken by the Indian government. The global economic crisis struck India heavily in the end 2008 and the situation changed. It was then the flight of foreign capital from India taking a heavy toll on India’s foreign exchange reserves. The stock markets miserably failed, the GDP growth had fallen to 5.3 percent in the third quarter (October-December 2008), agriculture and manufacturing sectors recording growth rates of 2.2% and 0.2% respectively, export and imports declined by 15.9% and 18.2% respectively by January 2009 (in dollar terms) in comparison to January 2008. It was obvious that the Indian rulers became heavily dependent on the FIIs of mysterious origin and stock market boom. Net foreign direct investments in the crisis period somewhat diluted the adverse situation in India’s foreign exchange reserves, which stood at $292.7 billion at the beginning of February 2008 and fell to $248.6 billion in end January 2009. The RBI’s weekly statistical supplement records it that for the week ended April 10, reserves declined by $2,183 billion to stand at $252.977 billion, [Business Line, 26 April, ‘09]. This secular fall in reserves does explain the weakness of the rupee. Still this phenomenon does not provide the whole reason behind the depreciation of the rupee. The huge fall in export which was 21.7% decline in February 2009 is of significance as it adversely affects the currency reserves. Among other factors, mention may be made of huge borrowings made by Indian corporations in foreign exchange in international markets in the past in the form of bonds convertible to equity, came approaching maturity. This needs paying back in foreign currency. Net external borrowings by India paced up from $24.5 billion in 2006-07 to $41.9 billion in 2007-08. This enhanced the liabilities in the form of debt securities, trade credits and loans zooming up from $105.1 billion in end June 2006 to $175.6 billion in end September 2008. This factor has had obviously adverse impact on India’s foreign exchange reserves.
The globalization path, the harmful policy of dependence on speculative capital by India, debt services, various types of liabilities, acceptance of convertibility of foreign capital, the false dream of high level of growth at the cost of crores of people, excessive reliance on outsourced jobs to boost up particularly IT and It enabled services, millions of dollars wasted buying arms from abroad, etc, have a cumulative impact leading to the steady decline in foreign reserves, balance payments deficits and the value of the rupee. FIIs will be gradually making inroads in India for a better prospect. Indian ruling classes can not jettison the globalization policies and so the rupee might gain appreciation but with all the above factors remaining in place the turmoil will be felt again and again spelling ominous repercussions on the Indian economy and the people.

Unbridled FDI Entry and UPA Govt’s Betrayal
Gupta

Indian economy is exasperating. The unprecedented crisis of capitalism has already endangered Indian economy. The jobless growth scenario of so many years has now been further paled by both downward growth and vanishing of the existing jobs by more than hundred lakhs. Imperialist globalization policy meekly accepted by the central governments has wreaked havoc on the Indian economy and people. The UPA government with a bare majority and in a situation when Lok Sabha elections are round the corner hastily altered the existing law on the entry of foreign funds on February 10, 2009. In a brazen display of sycophancy it allowed the backdoor entry of foreign fund flows in the domestic joint ventures channeled through Indian entities. The government logic was that such a relaxation would boost foreign investments to lift the country out of the economic recession. All that the foreign investor has to do is enter into a joint venture even with minority holding with an Indian company – that is a company, which is holding majority of domestic investment and management control. This company then can set up another company in which the foreign company can make further majority holding. Yet now it will be treated as domestic investment enjoying all the rights of domestic investment.
The decision to alter the FDI policy guidelines was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). The chamchas of imperialism incorporated such dirty clause in the new guidelines:
“The foreign investment through (an) investing Indian company would not be considered for (calculating) the indirect foreign investment in (the) case of Indian companies owned and controlled by residents and Indian companies owned and controlled ultimately by residents”.
What a tricky logic in the name of encouraging steady inflow of foreign funds! Such a move effectively made FDI caps meaningless. The government logic was that equity investments routed via Indian firms would be treated as fully domestic equity. So long the norms were that if a firm with say, 40% foreign and 60% Indian equity invested Rs.100 crore in another firm, Rs.40 crore of this amount would be treated as FDI. And now under new norms it will be treated as zero FDI. To elaborate further, now a foreign company ‘A’ can form a 49:51 joint venture company with an Indian company ‘C’; with an Indian company ‘B’. The new norms will treat ‘C’ as an Indian company. Now if ‘C’ invests in another downstream company to any extent below 100%, even up to 99.99% it will qualify as an Indian company having no FDI. And since ‘D’ will be considered as having no FDI, it can now operate in any sector of the economy including retail, in which officially FDI is not allowed. When asked why such policy change regarding FDI? Pat came the reply from Mr. Chidambaram “(It) is to make (FDI policy) simple and transparent, according to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).”

Insurance, Telecom, Retail, Aviation, etc. sectors to be Swamped By FDI
The major beneficiaries of such betrayal of national interests will be companies in telecom, aviation, retail, insurance and media sectors which received all pressure so long to throw the FDI gates wide open. World Bank, IMF, MNCs had been continuously pushing the Indian government to completely jettison the policy of restricting FDI, FII. And now they welcome the new policy.
In the telecom sector Bharti Airtel and Vodafone are the major beneficiaries. In the case of Bharti Airtel, Singapore Telecom holds 15.58 per cent direct stake and another 14.4 per cent through a 32 per cent stake in the Sunil Mittal promoted holding company Bharti Telecom. Bharti Telecom owned and controlled by Indians, hold 45 percent stake in Bharti Airtel. Before the change of the earlier restrictions on the FDI entry, both the stakes held by Sing Tel were being counted while calculating the FDI level in the listed Bharti Airtel. However, under the new guidelines, the indirect stake held by Sing Tel through Bharti Telecom will not be counted as FDI. This means that Bharti Airtel can now get additional foreign investments directly into the company if it so decides. This also allows the Mittals to further dilute their stake in Bharti Telecom to a foreign investor without impacting the FDI cap in the Telecom sector, which stood at 74 percent before new norms.
Similarly, in the aviation sector, the new norms are obviously to increase FDI, particularly in the business jet aviation sector expected to grow at least by 20 percent in the next few years. The anti-national decision could also benefit some airline companies which have entered the market looking for the much needed funding. “The decision gives more room to sectors wherein indirect foreign holding was being counted to calculate FDI levels….” Said Mr. Vishal Malhotra, Partner, Ernst & Young [Business Line, 12.02.09]. Essar’s investment in Vodafone, for in stance, was so long counted as FDI since part of it came from a company registered abroad. However, now this would be treated as domestic investment.
In the retail market, such new norms shall wreak havoc. Commenting on the new FDI norms, Mr. Kishore Biyani, Group CEO, Furture’s Group, said, “From what we can comprehend, a direct implication of this means that existing foreign investors in Indian retail can increase their stake through the indirect mode.” [Business Line, 12.2.09]
The response of foreign investors to this cunning decision may not be immediately on a large scale, especially in industry in India in the context of global financial crisis. But agriculture and service sectors will still be able to attract foreign investment on this basis. The foreign companies which initially agreed to minority share holding in joint, found ways to establish their controlling position in the operation and management of these ventures. Side by side, the new norms have made room for setting up their subsidiaries in India to compete against joint ventures in similar or same lines of business.
Notable it is that after brazen surrender to the foreign capital, on February 2009 the government ruled out review of the new FDI policy when a barrage of criticisms was heaped on the UPA government. Mr. Kamal Nath, the commerce minister categorically said, “There is no question of review.” [Statesman, 21.02.09]. Actually speaking imperialist masters’ client state India had to follow their diktat obligingly to the detriment of the Indian national interests.

FDI Norms-Change and Imperialist Globalization
The Vice-President of the World Bank Group, South Asia Region remarked at World Bank, CII Conference on November 24, 2004 that for the reforms programme beginning in 1991 in India included “industrial and trade liberalization; financial deregulation; improvements to supervisory and regulatory systems; and policies more friendly to privatization and foreign direct investment…” [Update, Series 11, July 2005] (Stress ours)
The World Bank-IMF’s prescription for globalization based so-called “Structural Adjustment Programmes” (SAP) clearly mentioned, among others things, removal of restriction on foreign investment in industry and financial services. And acceptance of the SAP was not enough; India was bound to agree to the WB/IMF strictly monitoring its compliance. The actual objective of SAP makes it obligatory to the third world countries open capital flows from the developed capitalist countries. The collaborators of imperialist capital in India particularly since the 1980s allowed an upsurge in global capital inflows as FDI. Ever since acceptance of the SAP, Indian governments, be it under the Congress or the BJP at the helm, rapid steps have been taken to remove all barriers to foreign direct investment. As a result FDI inflows between 1991-92 and 1999-2000 zoomed from 129 million US dollars to 2200 million US dollars. In fact the term ‘global capital flows’ is actually MNC capital flows of just a handful of giant behemoths. It is to be remembered that the largest 100 MNCs controlled an estimated one-fifth of global foreign assets in 1998. With further concentration in the past one decade the situation has turned graver.
Free inflow of FDI has been the major objective of the liberalization regime since the 1990s. Successive governments have targeted an annual flow of such investment first at $10 billion and then even more. To this end ceilings on foreign shareholding were relaxed and raised to such a height as 100 percent in many industries. This way FDI up to 100 percent is now permitted in all manufacturing activities, with some exceptions, FDI up to 74 percent for telecom services like internet service providers with gateways, radio paging and end-to-end bandwidth and a number of initiatives in the NBFC sector. In 2001 itself, policy initiatives on the FDI front included permitting FDI up to 100 percent for development of integrated townships including housing, commercial premises, hotels, resorts, city and regional level urban infrastructure facilities in all metros. Then FDI came to be allowed up to 100 percent through the automatic route for mass rapid transport systems in all metros including associated commercial development of real estate, drugs and pharmaceuticals. Even in the defense industry up to 100 percent for Indian private sector participation with 26 percent FDI limit was permitted. This was the scenario at that stage of liberalization till 2001. Since then deregulation went in tandem with increasing dependence on the foreign capital.
The liberalization regulations relating to the inflow and terms of operation of FDI as central to the economic reform programme is justified by the imperialist globalization lobby on two grounds. First, that the FDI would supplement domestic savings, allowing the domestic investment rate to exceed the domestic savings. Second, that foreign investment in technologically advanced Greenfield projects would actually enhance India’s export effort. It is also added that the FDI inflows would increase net foreign exchange and thus shore up India’s balance of payments.
First of all we have to keep it in mind that the problems emanating from the FDI inflows are common to all the third world economies. FDI inflows have gradually replaced external loans, and foreign capital inflows are increasingly taking precedence over foreign debt inflows to finance the current account deficit. This explains the low rate of increase in foreign debts of such countries like India since the 1980s.
Like the interest paid on foreign debt, MNCs earn (according to the former RBI governor S.Venkataraman 20-22% effective return) and repatriate profits. In real terms, such huge FDI based profits are a greater drain on the Balance of Payment (BOP) in comparison to borrowings. And the rate of profits is much more than estimated by the former RBI governor. Besides that, there is transfer pricing – a method adopted by MNCs to disguise inter-country transfer of profits. This is firstly done by overpricing capital goods imports made by a subsidiary in a third world country while the parent company is located in the USA or such powerful capitalist countries.
Foreign exchange drain has been a major area of concern since the liberalization policy started working in full form. Net per-firm foreign exchange flows, which amounted to an inflow of Rs.44 lakh in 1990-91 and Rs.219 lakh in 1993-94, turned into an outflow of Rs.69 lakh in 1994-95. The outflow had risen to 1.2 crore by 1996-97. What is more, even in 1990-91, firms in sectors like engineering and chemicals, which were the ones receiving further investments in the subsequent years of liberalization of FDI regulations, were already registering large outflows. The evidence proves that FDI of the kind that India received in the liberalization decade was a factor contributing to a foreign exchange capacity, writes C.P. Chandrasekhar & Jayati Ghosh [In The Market That Failed, Leftword, 2006, p.137]
What pro-globalization economists in India conceal is the enormously increasing capital outflows on account the earlier FDI liberalization. With the current norms as altered by the UPA government such outflows will inevitably rise sharply. According to an RBI survey covering the period 1981-82 to 1985-86 (taking into account 942 collaborations out of over 3000 collaborations in the said period) it was found that net foreign exchanges outflow was a whopping Rs.2289.2 crore. This was 8 times the drain of foreign exchange in comparison to the total foreign capital inflow in India. Here we should add that the said RBI survey was quite sketchy and did not mention the total FDI companies in India. It was also the period when FDI invasion on a massive scale did not start as such. On the other hand, another feature is to be taken down from the earlier 40% to 51% and even in some cases 100% in ownership of shares of equity in the subsidiaries of MNCs in India. This allowed spreading of FDI hold over companies in India and so the outflows initially did not appear to be less than what was seen in Latin American countries. Yet, according to the Economic Survey conducted by Economic & Political Weekly as appeared in March 11, 2000 the gross remittances owing to interest and dividend payments in 1998-99 were more than twice the FDI inflows in that year only! And the net investment outflows were nearly one and a half times the FDI inflows.
India’s FDI hunger has gone up at this time of grave economic crisis. India is expecting $40 billion of foreign direct investment in the financial year 2009-10, even higher than the $ 37.5 billion for 2008-09, despite the downturn of the global economy, FDI stood at $ 27.5 billion for the financial year ended March 30, 2008 said MR. Gopal Krishna, Joint Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion at the general meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce. [Business Line, 25.04.09]. This is the front-door loot by FDI. Foreign investment flows as a whole rose sharply from $ 4.9 billion in 1995-96 to $ 29.2 billion in 2006-07 and then more than doubled to $ 61.8 billion in 2007-08. This was only possible thanks to the substantial deregulation and tax concession measures as dictated by World Bank/IMF.
The backdoor entry of FDI giving it the seal of approval as Indian capital and lifting all regulations on them has serious implications for the Indian economy. This will pave the way for furthering re-colonization of India by imperialist capital. Already India has turned into a client state of imperialist masters, the USA in particular. The unbridled entry of FDI with the direct assistance and surrender of the government shall further push the India economy into the hands metropolitan capitalism desperately needing vast investment in a country like India.



Resurgent Russia on the Prowl

Akhil


After the fall of Soviet Union; President Yeltsin implemented IMF, World Bank sponsored economic policy of “Shock Therapy” in Russia, where prices were liberalized, and state property was privatized overnight to transform the state-capitalist economy in to a market economy. This policy led to an economic crisis of unprecedented scale during the years 1992 to 1995 when Russia experienced a steep decline in GDP and per capita income, high inflation, unemployment and degradation in the living standard of the masses. The hasty privatization policy of state assets without even proper valuation only brought fortunes to a handful of Businessman who colluded with the bureaucracy and opportunist and influential Party members and associates at the cost of the large section of the masses. When Russian economy went down to a tattered state and masses of the country faced immense hardship leading their daily life, the handful of oligarchs amassed super profits in their private coffers. In a very short period, Russian society became highly polarized into super rich and very poor.
The abysmal economic condition relegated Russia virtually to nobody in international politics and in the mean time; U.S strengthened her hegemonic role and projected herself as the undisputed leader of what it perceives as the unipolar world. From 1999 onwards, along with Putin’s appointment as the president of Russia, the Russian economy recovered from the deep contraction of the previous 8-9 years. Favorable rise in the international price of Russia’s chief exports ,Oil & Gas, and gradual increase in Oil and gas production to almost to the level of Soviet Era , hugely contributed in the process of economic recovery. Though the trickle down benefits of the super profit from Oil and gas to the masses is yet to be ascertained; the super profit from Oil and gas sales surely helped Russia to curb its external debts from USD 130 billion in 1999 to less than USD 40 billion at the end of 2007. The hard currency earned was ploughed back in oil & gas and defense industry as investment to reap more profits.
The leadership of Putin implemented a policy of building a strong and powerful Russia taking support of the favorable external conditions. Putin reversed many of the Yeltsin era policies like privatization to nationalization (particularly Oil & Gas assets and Defense Sector industries) , decentralization to centralization .The role of neo rich oligarchs in Russian economy and politics were severely restricted by Putin . Exemplary legal action on Mikhail Khodorkovsky, main shareholder of Oil giant Yokos , on charges of tax evasion and his subsequent conviction and imprisonment was able to generate a fear factor among the oligarchs . A few other oligarchs fled Russia to avoid the same fate and the remaining few maintained a close tie with the Putin led Kremlin bureaucracy. Putin ,an ex KGB man, appointed many of his old aides in important government posts in Kremlin and also in various important economic and political positions emulating the Soviet era style of functioning of the bureaucracy and the party . The strong economic recovery and strong political position in the country emboldened Putin and the ruling classes of Russia to move ahead to reclaim their Soviet era glory in international economy and geopolitics. The Russian leadership in the last few years employed economic, political and militaristic policies not only to increase its sphere of influence but also to create a counter weight to the U.S who throughout the 1990s and 2000s pushed into Russian spaces. Let us examine the various economic, militaristic, and political stances taken out by Russia in world arena to stand up to the U.S challenge.

The Georgia conflict: Aftermath of expansion of NATO and US backed KOSOVO policy
In the 1990s when Russia was reeling with its internal problems U.S and U.S backed NATO steadily entered into the previous Soviet spaces .Many of the east European countries who were previously Warsaw pact members joined NATO. In 1999 Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic, three previous Warsaw pact member states, joined NATO. On March 2004 seven new states, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Rumania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia joined NATO. Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania were previously part of Soviet Union and rest of the sates or their predecessor was part of the Warsaw Pact. Ever growing expansion of NATO was assessed as a threat to Russian security. The former U.S president George W Bush also stated that NATO is open to further expansion and suggested inclusion of Georgia and Ukraine, two former soviet states, in NATO.
After the disbandment of Warsaw Pact, NATO remained in existence and has taken up new role of combating so-called terrorism all over the world. In the changed circumstances, Russia had to accept NATO’s expansion. To Russian security analysts, though the setting up of NATO bases in Rumania and Bulgaria was justified for NATO’s West Asia operations; Russia felt that the setting up of bases in Poland and Baltic states were absolutely unnecessary in the changed role of NATO and was only posing a threat to Russian internal security. The expansion of NATO is definitely pushing the Russian federation towards Eurasia as NATO is also active in forming alliances with Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine and practically encircled Russia in it’s northwestern, western and southwestern border.
On February 17 2008, Kosovo assembly, with US diplomatic support declared it’s independence from Serbia .The declaration was opposed by Russia and Russia warned that the event may set a precedence .U.S, NATO and E.U refuted the Russian objection and declared the instance as one of a kind event. The build up in Kosovo was related with breaking up of Yugoslavia into in the early 90s. The brake up of Yugoslavia along ethnic lines into countries like Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia left pockets of minority population in other ethnic majority dominated states. The minority majority conflict broke out and in Bosnia, where minority Serb population wanted to secede from Bosnia and join Serbia, a bloody ethnic conflict started. In December 1995 an accord in U.S supervision was reached which freeze any further border adjustment in the region and compelled the ethnic Serbs to live as a minority in Bosnian territory. Kosovo was an Albanian dominated province in Serbia, ethnic Albanians all over from Serbia started migrating to Kosovo and by 1997, and most of the people of Kosovo were Albanians, who demanded statehood or unification with Albania. A conflict with Serbian forces started and without U.N mandate, U.S –U.K backed NATO stepped in and bombed Kosovo and Serbian territory. A peacekeeping effort with Russia as a party stopped the conflict. Serbia and Russia objected to the double standard of U.S and NATO dealing with the issue .But U.S and NATO argued that Serbia had lost sovereignty over the region of Kosovo hence the action by NATO was justified. In the same line of logic U.S and NATO later legitimized independence of Kosovo.

On August 26th 2008 Russian president Medvedev signed decrees recognizing independence of two Georgian province of South Ossetia and Abkhazia .The declaration came after a short conflict in the region involving Georgian, South Ossetian and Russian forces in early August. Using the same logic used by U.S and NATO to declare independence of Kosovo, Russia had declared independence for the above two region stating loss of sovereignty on the region by Georgia .Armed conflict and territorial disputes between South Ossetia and Georgia dates back to 1920s when South Ossetia tried to declare independence from Georgia. At the time of Soviet era the Soviet Governments declared South Ossetia as an autonomous region within Georgia .In September 1990, South Ossetia declared independence but Georgian Government rejected the claim. An armed conflict began which was stopped after Sochi agreement for cease fire in 1992.The agreement also empowered Russia as a peace keeper in the province of South Ossetia .
Russia's bold action in Georgia is sending a signal to the world and to NATO and US that Russia is no longer to be messed with. The US is reeling in a deep recession and already involved in never ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and in no position to fight Russia over Georgia .Though it is believed that with out US backing Georgian president would not have attacked South Ossetia and challenge the Russian military might.

The Ukraine Russia Gas Dispute: A lesson to Ukraine and European States
Gaining confidence from the Georgian adventure, Russia on 1st January 09 cut gas supplies to Ukraine because of Ukraine’s non payment of Gas dues. Russia asked Ukraine to pay its outstanding gas bill of more than USD 2 billion or face gas supply cut. Moscow also demanded an upward revision of its gas supply price to Ukraine, which received gas at a lower rate than the European customers did. Firstly, Russia cut the gas for Ukraine’s domestic consumption and one week later cut the gas supplies for Europe passing through Ukraine. Russia accused that Ukraine was stealing the gas meant for Europe. The gas supply cut through Ukraine, which is also a transit country for Russian gas to almost 20 European states severely affected the energy supply to European countries as well.
On January 16th a deal was formalized. The deal broadly formulated an upward revision of gas price to be paid to Russia by Ukraine at the European rate and upward revision of gas transit tariff charged by Ukraine from Russia from 2010 onwards. It was decided that in 2009 prevailing rates to be remained fixed. Ukraine imports over 60 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia every year, which cater for around 66% of her domestic consumption, and is heavily dependent on Russia's energy. While the ongoing global financial crisis has severely hit Ukraine's economy, and the West-leaning president Viktor Yushchenko suffered a sharp decline in domestic support, Russia’s tough stance against the pro west political forces in the Ukraine will certainly help the pro Russian political forces in the coming general elections in the end of 2009 or in early 2010. Eastern European countries, who have actively supported Ukraine's entry into NATO, have also suffered from the latest gas dispute and the pressure tactics by Russia may compel them to adjust their policies toward Russia as they have more clearly realized their dependence on Russia's gas.

Russia Asserting its Geopolitical and economic Position as a Oil and Gas Giant
The above moves by Russia can be viewed as an effort to draw a new dividing line across Europe in particular and in general on the world scale between nations who are aligned with US and who are not. Russia is the second largest producer of oil after Saudi Arabia and is also the second largest exporter of oil .At the end of 2007 Russia had a proven reserve of 79.4 thousand million barrels of oil which is 6.4% of world reserve. In natural Gas, Russia is the number one natural Gas producer(20.6% of world production), number one natural Gas exporter(27% of world export) and also having the largest natural gas reserves of the world which was at the end of 2007 estimated by B.P energy survey as 44.25 Trillion Cubic meters which is 25.2% of the world reserves. Russia’s role as the leading energy supplier to Europe commends a strong economic relation with European states. European countries depend largely on Russian Gas supplies. We saw the proposal of including Georgia and Ukraine in the NATO was vetoed against by Germany and France in April 2008. After the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003 and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004, where pro US government elected to power in Georgia and Ukraine, Russia had been deeply dissatisfied with Georgia and Ukraine's enthusiastic efforts to join NATO. The U.S and U.K effort to bypass Russia for getting oil and gas from central Asia and Caspian Sea region also angered Russia. The US and UK managed to build the worlds second longest oil pipeline (1768 km) from Azerbaijan’s Baku through Georgia’s Tbilisi and finally culminating in Mediterranean port of Turkey Ceyhan; which was commissioned in 2005.A natural gas pipeline from Baku through Tiblisi to Turkey was also commissioned in 2006. Russia is also annoyed by US and EU backed and proposed Nabucco natural gas pipeline which will start from Turkey and collect the Caspian sea gas carried by this new gas pipeline and send it to Austria through Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary. Some analysts believe proposed Nabucco pipeline bypassing Russia was at the heart of the 2008 Russia-Georgia conflict. The US UK plan to rope in east Caspian sea oil and Gas from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan through a sub sea pipeline across the Caspian Sea to fed the oil and gas pipelines from Baku was jeopardized by Russia and Iran's rejection to sanction the sub sea pipeline on environmental grounds. The effort by US and some EU states to reduce dependency of Europe on Russia over energy supply is being taken very seriously by Russia. To decrease its dependency on transit countries like Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Czech Republic, and Slovakia to supply natural gas to Western Europe, Russia is planning also to lay two pipelines. One of the proposed pipelines named Nord Stream is to start from Russia and going offshore through the Baltic Sea will reach Northern Germany and then fan out onshore to Western Europe. Russia is also planning to lay a South stream natural gas pipeline which will cross the Black sea and pass through Bulgaria to supply gas to Italy. A branch of the pipeline from Bulgaria through Serbia towards Austria will also be laid. Europe is also trying to cater its energy needs by importing Liquidified Natural Gas or LNG. In 2006 Europe accounted for around 24% of world energy import .Russia which is lagging behind in producing LNG is speedily developing its LNG capacity to compete in the LNG market.
These proposed new pipe lines by Russia will further strengthen the tie between Russia, Germany and other western European countries and will empower Russia to cut Gas supplies to the present transit countries mentioned before and East European countries if they turn hostile to Russian interests, without disturbing supply to western Europe and Italy.
Central Asian Oil and Gas a Bone of Contention: Consolidation by Russia-China in SCO
Russia along with transmitting its own oil and gas to Europe also is the transit country for Central Asian oil and gas to Europe. Russia has already consolidated its relation with central Asian countries through a security and economic pact called SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation ) .The major oil producing country Kazakhstan and gas producing country Uzbekistan are members of the SCO along with Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and China. Turkmenistan, which is also a major natural gas producer on the east of Caspian Sea, had made an agreement with Kazakhstan and Russia to transmit its natural gas through Russian pipeline system via Kazakhstan. Presently Iran, Pakistan, Mongolia, India, and Afghanistan are observer countries to SCO .Iran has already applied for full membership in SCO in March 2008 while Pakistan through its long term ally China is also strongly lobbying for Full membership to SCO. While India, which is day-by-day aligning with US foreign policy has not shown any interest for full membership of SCO. The growing security and economic cooperation between Russia and China in the coming times may lead to a new polarization nascent in the form of SCO.
The central Asian oil and gas has thus become a bone of contention between Russia, US and some of the EU states and these two competing forces are trying to consolidate their position in central Asia. As of now, Russia clearly managed to outsmart US led forces in building sphere of influence in central Asia. One of the principle motif behind the Us attack of Afghanistan was central Asian oil and gas and US had a dream project for a pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India (TAPI) which till date has not been materialized due to volatile condition in Afghanistan . The renewed effort by newly elected US president Barrak Obama to intensify military operation in Afghanistan may be seen in the light of this rivalry between the two forces to control central Asian energy sources. In Feb 2009 Kyrgyzstan parliament ratified a proposal to close the last remaining US air base on its soil and central Asia, the Manas air base near its capital Bishkek, used for US and NATO’s Afghanistan operation. Kyrgyz president earlier announced the future closure of the air base after securing a Russian aid and loan package in tune of US$ 2 billion. The declining relationship between Pakistan and US over Afghanistan war and Pakistan’s internal terrorism issues may lead Pakistan to join the Russia-China led SCO with more vigor and which may totally jeopardize US's already protracted Afghan operation and will to control Central Asia .
Russia’s World Gas Strategy: A new Gas cartel
In continuation with the policy of consolidation with respect to Oil and Gas of central Asia, Russia is also consolidating on the world scale to build a gas cartel like oil cartel controlled by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). In the backdrop of dropping energy prices around the world as a result of the present Economic crisis, Russia felt that a more strong association between the Gas exporting countries is needed to control the future Natural Gas price. On October 21, 2008 in Tehran, the Gas Exporting Countries’ Forum (GECF) agreed to form a cartel. Russia, Iran, and Qatar, who control two thirds of the world gas reserve and a quarter of the present world Gas production, announced that they intend to form a group with a coordinated gas policy. The OPEC controls more than three-quarters of the world’s oil reserves and 40% of global production. Iran who is at loggerheads with US-UK over its nuclear policy has a very special political and economic relation with Russia. The officials of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) again met in Moscow in December 2008 to formalize the loose grouping of Gas producers and exporters. Representatives from Algeria, Bolivia, Brunei, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the UAE and Venezuela -- members of the GECF -- have been holding meetings since 2001. The Russia -Iran-Qatar trio is to play a leading role in the future to control GECF and Gas production and pricing. Such a cartel would likely hamper the US and UK and some EU state's effort to reduce dependency on Russian Gas because it could provide Russia with more influence with suppliers the EU hopes to use as a supplement to Russian gas. The US on the other hand will surely try to woo some members of the GECF who are aligned with her to curb the control of the 'Trio' on the world gas market.



Russia's relation with Germany
Russia's major trading partner is the EU states, which accounted for 51.5% of Russia's trade turnover in 2007. Imports from Russia are mainly energy and mineral fuels products (66%) and, chemicals and raw materials. EU exports to Russia are diversified, including machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods, food and live animals. In 2007 EU goods exports to Russia was of 89 billion euro while EU import from Russia was of 143.5 billion euro. EU states are also the most important investor in Russia, accounting for almost 75% of FDI stocks in Russia. In 2007 EU investment to Russia was of 17 billion euro. Among the EU member states Germany and Netherland hold a very strong economic relation with Russia and Germany is Russia's most important trading partner among the EU states and also a key partner in the world scale.
Table: Country wise percentage of FDI in Russia

2004 2005 2006 2007
Netherlands 36.9 54.5 28.5 46.9
Cyprus 28.5 11.7 27.7 20.9
Germany 4.5 4.2 4.6 4.2
US 4.4 2.9 2.9 2.3
UK 2.0 4.7 4.1 3.3
Others 23.7 22.0 32.2 21.0
The cumulative FDI in Russia at the end of 2007 was around 103 billion USD of which 27.8 billion flowed in 2007. From the above table (Table: Country wise percentage of FDI in Russia ) it is quiet clear that Netherlands and Cyprus account for around 60-70% of Russian FDI ,but according to analysts the FDI flowing from these two countries is basically repatriated Russian capital perked abroad in the 1990 s. It also shows that Germany has maintained a constant share in Russian FDI and the share of US has fallen from its 2004 level. In 2007 German exports to Russia increased by 20% to 28.2 billion euro while Germany depends upon Russia for one third of her energy needs. German investments in Russia also rose by 9% in 2007 to rich over 1 billion USD and reached the level of USD 5 Billion. The high Oil/Gas earnings by Russia in the past years will help Russia to modernize other parts of it's economy and may result into lucrative contracts for renowned German engineering and construction companies. Already around 4,600 German companies have offices in Russia most of them representing small and medium size businesses . German investment in Russia was mainly aimed at Russia's wholesale and retail market, transport infrastructure, food and chemical industries, as well as electronics, construction and car production. German producers have already targeted the rapidly growing markets of consumer products and automotive sector in Russia. The Russian and German economies hold a very symbiotic and complementary relationship. The German engineering and manufacturing sector combined with Russia's abundant natural resources and energy resources joined together may form a strong association in the future. In April 2008, Germany and France in NATO summit vetoed against a proposal to include Georgia and Ukraine in NATO.

Increased Russian activity with anti US states:

Russia already has a strong relation with Iran .In addition to that, Russia has initiated military and economic relationship with countries in Middle and Latin America who are loggerheads with US governments. An economic cooperation agreement with Venezuela and Joint military and naval exercise by Russian Fleet with Venezuelan Navy in the end of 2008 and visit by Russian navy to Cuba in December 2008 is widely perceived as a response by Russia to the US advances in Georgia and Ukraine. Venezuela has already deal with Russia to buy weapons worth US$ 4 billion. Nicaragua, where Daniel Ortega, Ex Sandinista revolutionary, is now the elected president, was the first country to recognize independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In December 2008 Russia had also gifted Lebanon with its state of the art Mig-29 fighters to strengthen week Lebanese air defense .Lebanon for a long time were seeking for American f-16 jets to defend herself any Israeli attack and US by virtue of it's close relation with Israel was denying Lebanon.

Conclusion
The aspiration of Russian ruling classes to regain importance in world arena and to create counterbalance to hegemonic presence of the U.S is conspicuous from Russian Economic, Political and Defense activities. The development of a central Asian Security and Economic organization SCO in collaboration with China and strong economic relation with Germany and some EU states may lead to a future economic /political power conglomerate comprising Germany-Russia-China to challenge the dominance of U.S. The Russian effort to evolve a Natural gas cartel in the line of OPEC will also have great impact on future energy politics. In the internal Russian economy, the overdependence on Oil and Gas and defense sector has led to negligence in other sector of economy like Agriculture, Engineering, Consumer Goods and Transport and Infrastructure. The close economic tie of Russia with Germany and China may feel the internal void in the above industries. The complementary nature of Russian economy with Germany and China in industrial sector may pave a way to a new collaboration between them and in turn a strong economic group may be formed.
However, the Growing economic strength of the Russian Bourgeoisie must result into well being for the people of Russia; otherwise, internal descents will cripple the aspiration of the Russian elites. In contrast to the thin affluent section of the population, the condition of the 12-15% of the population who live below subsistence level and the 8% unemployed is worsening day by day. Facing severe protests from pensioners in September 2007, Putin ordered a revision of pension all over the country and sacked several ministers to increase the efficiency of the state machinery. The current financial crisis will also affect Russia and will trigger job losses as well .This may further aggravate the internal social tensions in Russia.
It will be interesting to see how the Russian Bourgeoisie manage to control the internal turmoil and advance further their international aspiration.



Revolt Spreads Across the Globe as “Crisis” Continues to Unfold
By Nathan Coe, GNN

“They say that the fires of revolt will spread everywhere, and we see acts like damage to bank branches or state buildings and claims of solidarity with the Greek rioters.”

After numerous European governments expressed fear that the unrest in Greece would spread to neighbouring countries and perhaps around the world, the spreading global revolt has taken on another tone: that of confronting the elite for their manipulation of the economic “crisis” (which is really a systemic collapse) in order to consolidate yet even more wealth as the masses of the world suffer the brunt of the former’s greed. The spirit of the Greek revolt has not been forgotten, however, for it is clear whose interests the police serve and protect (as America was recently reminded in Oakland).
As Iceland became the first country to fall due to popular revolt against the economic elite, and then proceeded to elect their first female PM, who is also openly gay, things are heating up around the globe. Recently, over 1,000 protesters assembled illegally to protest the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, and while the protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, fear of unrest prompted the police to systematically target and arrest known and identified militants and revolutionaries.
As GNN’s Grady reports, in China “2,000 workers and farmers held wage protests for twelve days outside of Shanghai” in December 2008, “striking workers and security guards clash in a textile factory in Dongguan” on January 15th, and on January 16th, “100 police officers stage a rally in Shenzhen after being sacked from their jobs.” The Times Online also reports that in the southern province of Guangdong, “three jobless men detonated a bomb in a business travellers’ hotel in the commercial city of Foshan to extort money from the management.” In the 12 days of mass demonstrations last December, the Times reports:

…angry workers besieged labour offices and government buildings after dozens of factories closed their doors without paying wages and their owners went back to Hong Kong, Taiwan or South Korea. In southern China, hundreds of workers blocked a highway to protest against pay cuts imposed by managers. At several factories, there were scenes of chaos as police were called to stop creditors breaking in to seize equipment in lieu of debts.

In France, an estimated 2.5 million people hit the streets in a national general strike in response to the global economic collapse, and in disdain of the handling of the so-called “crisis” by their country’s ruling-class economic elite. The Telegraph reported that “the streets filled with flag-waving protesters and in Paris protesters clashed with police, throwing bottles, overturning cars and starting a fire in the street. After a day of peaceful protests, violence erupted on the fringes of the Paris protest. Dozens of young men wearing scarves across their face were charged down by riot police after throwing stones and bottles, tearing up manhole covers and lighting fires in the Opera district.”
On 19 March 2009 an estimated three million French workers went on a strike to protest President Nicholas Sarkozy’s handling of the global financial crisis in France. The workers are demanding that the government “hike the minimum wage, increase taxes on the rich and scrap plans to cut public sector jobs.” A recent poll found that 78 percent of the French population is supporting the strike. According to French media reports, the victorious six week strike of workers on Guadeloupe has boosted the confidence of the French workers. On the Caribbean island, workers fought valiantly for big wage increases, extension of social benefits, job preservation and advanced the fight for independence. Despite the menacing presence of a thousand men strong special police force ferried to that island by Paris to suppress the movement, the workers held out. Finally the government had to bow before the organized might of the workers and agree to settle their demands.
Demonstrations have paralysed or led to the fall of governments in Iceland, Latvia and Estonia. Protests have spread across Europe (France, Italy, and Spain), Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, and Philippines), Latin America (Argentina, Peru) and in the US. (People’s Weekly World)

The Beeb reports:

Across Europe, victims of the economic slump who are losing their jobs in their tens of thousands are furious that public money is being doled out to the banks. In some countries, they are more willing to vent their anger. As huge crowds took to the streets across France this week, in a national day of protests and strikes, the far left points to a boost in the number of its supporters in times of financial gloom.

Certainly, ministers in Paris are wary of some form of insurrection. Recent intelligence reports talk about an “elevated threat” from an “international European network… with a strong presence in France” and a “new generation of activists”, possibly a “re-birth of the violent extreme left”. A spokesman for the interior ministry, Gerard Gachet, told the BBC that the threat was real. “The term ‘ultra-left’ was used by the interior minister to set this group apart from the extreme left who turn up for elections and keep within the parameters of democratic debate,” he says. But talking of more radical groups, he points to recent pamphlets and books published anonymously, but sometimes with a circulation of about 20,000, with titles such as “How to Start a Civil War and The Insurrection That is Coming”. “They say that the fires of revolt will spread everywhere,” he says, “and we see acts like damage to bank branches or state buildings and claims of solidarity with the Greek rioters.”

The Guardian reported that “the French government fears a wave of extreme left-wing terrorism this year with the possible sabotage of key infrastructure, kidnappings of major business figures or even bomb attacks. Last week hundreds of fly-posters around Paris called on young people ‘forced to work for a world that poisons us’ to follow the example of their Greek counterparts. ‘The insurrection goes on. If it takes hold everywhere, no one can stop it,’ the posters said.”
In another article entitled “Governments across Europe tremble as angry people take to the streets,” The Guardian reported: “France paralysed by a wave of strike action, the boulevards of Paris resembling a debris-strewn battlefield. The Hungarian currency sinks to its lowest level ever against the euro, as the unemployment figure rises. Greek farmers block the road into Bulgaria in protest at low prices for their produce. New figures from the biggest bank in the Baltic show that the three post-Soviet states there face the biggest recessions in Europe.”
Across Russia, thousands of protesters demonstrated against their government’s economic policies and response to the global economic crisis, echoing the grievances of others around the globe. Al Jazeera reports that “Russian police forcefully broke up many of the anti-government protests on Saturday, arresting dozens of demonstrators.”
In Mexico City, the BBC reports, thousands of people “protested against what they say is the inadequate response by the government to growing economic problems in Mexico.”
As the global economic collapse continues to unfold, the spirit of revolt and resistance is being rekindled within the hearts of the masses, and the people of the world are rising up. Resistance is spreading from Athens, Riga, Paris, Budapest, Kiev, Reykjavik, China, Mexico, and elsewhere.
Chris Hedges recently wrote that “the daily bleeding of thousands of jobs will soon turn our economic crisis into a political crisis. The street protests, strikes and riots that have rattled France, Turkey, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Iceland will descend on us. It is only a matter of time. And not much time.” He continues:

At no period in American history has our democracy been in such peril or has the possibility of totalitarianism been as real. Our way of life is over. Our profligate consumption is finished. Our children will never have the standard of living we had. And poverty and despair will sweep across the landscape like a plague. This is the bleak future. There is nothing President Obama can do to stop it. It has been decades in the making. It cannot be undone with a trillion or two trillion dollars in bailout money. Our empire is dying. Our economy has collapsed. How will we cope with our decline? Will we cling to the absurd dreams of a superpower and a glorious tomorrow or will we responsibly face our stark new limitations? Will we heed those who are sober and rational, those who speak of a new simplicity and humility, or will we follow the demagogues and charlatans who rise up out of the slime in moments of crisis to offer fantastic visions? Will we radically transform our system to one that protects the ordinary citizen and fosters the common good, that defies the corporate state, or will we employ the brutality and technology of our internal security and surveillance apparatus to crush all dissent? We won’t have to wait long to find out.

Joshua Holland, in a recent piece on AlterNet entitled “The Whole World Is Rioting as the Economic Crisis Worsens — Why Aren’t We?” reported that “explosive anger is spilling out onto the streets of Europe. The meltdown of the global economy is igniting massive social unrest in a region that has long been a symbol of political stability and social cohesion. It’s not a new trend: A wave of upheaval is spreading from the poorer countries on the periphery of the global economy to the prosperous core.” He continues:

Over the past few years, a series of riots spread across what is patronizingly known as the Third World. Furious mobs have raged against skyrocketing food and energy prices, stagnating wages and unemployment in India, Senegal, Yemen, Indonesia, Morocco, Cameroon, Brazil, Panama, the Philippines, Egypt, Mexico and elsewhere. For the most part, those living in wealthier countries took little notice. But now, with the global economy crashing down around us, people in even the wealthiest nations are mad as hell and reacting violently to what they view as an inadequate response to their tumbling economies. At least in Western Europe, cries of “burn the shit down!” are being heard in countries with some of the highest standards of living in the world — states with adequate social safety nets; countries where all citizens have access to decent health care and heavily subsidized educations. Places where minimum wages are also living wages, and a dignified retirement is in large part guaranteed. The far ends of the ideological spectrum appear to be gaining currency as the crisis develops, and people grow increasingly hostile toward the politics of the status quo.

How will the people of America respond to the systematic consolidation of wealth within their own country, coupled with environmental degradation and the unfolding police state? At what threshold will the people of America have had enough? At what point will we stand up and resist our own destruction? The choice is ours.

“You shouldn’t be so timid—you are not alone. There are millions of us waiting for you to make yourself known, ready to love you and laugh with you and fight at your side for a better world. Follow your heart to the places we will meet. Please don’t be too late.” — Fighting For Our Lives


[Source: mikeely.wordpress.com

Posted by one hundred flowers on February 21, 2009]



Bangladesh
The trouble began at the darbar hall of the BDR headquarters in Dhaka’s densely populated Pilkhana area where senior officers, numbering about 150, led by BDR Deputy Director General Major General Sakhil Ahmed and a few thousand low-ranking jawans of the paramilitary force were attending an annual conference. In the midst of a heated argument over pay a few hundred heavily armed rebels, who are said to have come from outside, surrounded the officers and fired indiscriminately killing their officers joined by most of the lower ranking soldiers at the headquarters the armed rebels quickly took control of the headquarters. The mutiny continued for 33 hours and their demands included: rampant corruption by officers, long-pending grievances over pay, welfare and benefits and the most prominent issue was the “army control” over the paramilitary force. According to the army of the officers only 33 of the 150 survived. Several mass graves were excavated from the grounds of the headquarters and bodies were taken out of the sewers. Incident took place on Feb 25th. BDR troops in the districts had also sided with their comrades in Dhaka. Reports said that hundreds of BDR jawans had fled their headquarters in disguise as the police began arresting many others and handing them over to the army.
Frontline, March 27, ‘09


In France workers at the Caterpillar has as well at the Sony and #M plants have held senior executes, including the CEO of Sony, hostage over sudden mass layoffs. In three separate Visteon car plants in the UK, the workers occupied the factories after more than 80% of the staff at one of them was sacked on one day. In another case the protest has resulted in negotiations and concessions by the management.

The Hindu April 4th, ‘09

France/NATO

The 60th Anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation on April 4th in Paris was marred by violent protests in the North-Eastern French city of Strasbourg, where the meeting is being held, and across the river on the German side.
The NATO leaders were able to stage a “walk of unity”, crossing a bridge over the Rhine, which separates France and Germany, but later in the day another bridge, called the bridge of Europe, was taken over by masked anti-war and anti-globalisation protesters, who waged pitched battles against the police and special para-military riot police.
The protestors set fire to a hotel and to a border post and the police had to repeatedly use tear-gas to control the demonstrators. Strasbourg looked like a town under siege with thousands of protestors converging on the downtown area where the talks were being held.

The Hindu April 5th 200

May Day Demonstrations in France

Workers across Europe marked May Day with massive demonstrations that demanded jobs, better wages and pensions.
For the first time since the Second World War workers forced all the major trade unions of France to take the path of struggle. At the head of a mammoth cortege of an estimated 1,60,000 people, workers from companies such as Caterpillar or Continental Tyres which have decided to shut down their plants in France shouted out their despair and anger.
Labour unrest is on the rise in France, as seen with “boss-nappings,” where workers hold company executives hostage in order to force negotiations on job cuts and plant closures.
Anti-globalisation protesters, women and the homeless demonstrated side by side with doctors, lawyers, students, teachers, workers.
Elsewhere in Europe, protests took place in Berlin, Athens and Istanbul. In Russia, thousands demonstrated against a backdrop of rising unemployment and economic gloom.
The Hindu, 2 May, 2009





Commemorating the Centenary Year of International Women’s Day

From March 8th 2009 the entire world is celebrating the Centenary Year of International Women’s Day. This centenary has come midst the worst ever economic crisis since World War II. IWD has always been commemorated as a day of struggle of women the world over for their emancipation and liberation from oppression and exploitation. Quite naturally this centenary year will be commemorated by the women’s struggle against the horrifying impact that the present crisis of imperialism will have on women. It's with the intention of helping focus the forthcoming celebrations we are reproducing below and article from the internet which throws some light of the impact of the crisis on women worldwide. Of course in backward countries like India women face the added burden of the worst forms of feudal patriarchal oppression like the so-called dowry deaths, female infanticide, wife-beating, confinement of women to their homes, purdha and burkha, etc. Women in India will no doubt continue their focus on these issues as well.

The Financial Crisis: How It is Affecting Women Worldwide
(Downloaded from the internet)

From World Bank President Robert Zoellick to heads of state at the recent UN General Assembly meeting in New York, many leaders have sounded the alarm in recent weeks about the impact the financial crisis is likely to have on the developing world. As the overall global economy contracts, the effects are most likely to be felt by the poorest worldwide.
One angle that’s often missed: the hardest hit by definition are likely to be women, who form the vast majority of the poor, who are the key investment to ending poverty and who have been making unprecedented economic gains in the past decade. Here’s how the crisis is likely to affect women:
Economic contraction in the developed world means fewer jobs in manufacturing in the developing world: which affects women.
Africa's exports have jumped by about $240 billion since 2002 -- eight times the $28 billion Africa received in development aid, humanitarian assistance, and debt relief from wealthy countries last year, and 15 times the annual remittances from the 16 million Africans working abroad in Europe, the Persian Gulf, and the United States. Falling orders from retailers this Christmas season means these exports will start to fall. While it’s still early, there’s already some evidence that this has started to happen. Exports from the Asia, for example, have begun to fall in the last two to three months.
Many jobs in the developing world were created for women to take advantage of cheap labor, making these jobs particularly insecure. The example of the African textile industry illustrates this – the sector has provided for a great deal of new jobs for women in Africa - over 100,000 new jobs in the export apparel sector, including 45,000 jobs in Swaziland, 26,000 jobs in Lesotho, and 30,000 jobs in Kenya – 75 to 90% of these jobs have gone to women living in the most dire poverty. These jobs are by no means sustainable in a crisis. During the Asian Financial Crisis, for example, the bulk of women worked in industries like textiles, food processing, and electronics – industries that are sensitive to the export market and were easily undercut by the economic crisis.
Women are mostly likely to have jobs in the informal sectors of the economy with virtually no job security: and are the first to get laid off. Even when they have jobs within the formal sector, women are disproportionately affected by global financial problems. They are more likely to be unskilled in comparison to their male counterparts in factories and are then more likely to be made redundant first.

Access to Credit and Finance
Micro-credit in the last decade has made huge inroads in allowing the poorest women to have access to small loans, and several major banks had begun to provide these services also. It is too early to tell what the impact of the global credit freeze will be on the industry, but it’s safe to assume that small unsecured loans will be under as much threat as other credit, if not more. Unlike other borrowers, women have few other sources of financing.
Remittances from country nationals who are immigrants in developed nations is a major source of household income in many developing countries, especially in Latin America and Africa. One of the most likely indirect effects of the crisis on developing countries is the likely decline in remittances to African countries as unemployment rises in North America, Europe and other places. Remittances to Latin America have already slowed this year, according to the Inter American Development Bank. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/30/AR2008093002579.html). This means women will have less money to run their households than before.
Exacerbating the Food Crisis
Most developing countries this year are still battling high inflation and high prices for basic foods, a story that was in the news earlier this year when there were food riots in some countries. Women, as the major producers of food and as providers for the household, are at the epicentre of this crisis. The economic slowdown will exacerbate this, and some experts worry it could delay large-scale agriculture and infrastructure projects which are needed as part of the long term solution to the problem. The crisis could also impact food aid, along with other forms of aid (see below).
"I think this global financial challenge could impact our ability to deal with the food crisis ... and whether we can put measures in place to alleviate the current suffering," said Abdoulie Janneh, executive secretary of the U.N.’s Economic Commission for Africa. The typical African farmer is a woman - in sub-Saharan Africa, women produce up to 80% of basic foodstuffs both for household consumption and for sale.
This will have a huge impact as, according to the World Bank, “70 percent of all Africans – and nearly 90 percent of their poor – work primarily in agriculture.
Effect on Governments and Donor Agencies
As developed governments set aside huge budgets to cover their billion-dollar rescue packages, there is an assumption they will slow or cut their reduce foreign aid programs. Private humanitarian groups, facing a drop in donations, might have to do the same.

According to the World Bank, the United States ranks relatively low as a foreign-aid donor relative to GDP, but very high for private and charitable donations. As of 2005, U.S. aid programs accounted for about a quarter of rich-world aid, but private American charities provided $8.6 billion of the rich world's total $14.7 billion in private donations.
Some experts worry that the crisis could delay large-scale agriculture and infrastructure projects and could even threaten social programs to improve health, education and sanitation.
At last week’s World Bank-IMF Annual meeting, World Bank President Robert Zoellick's and IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn noted that impoverished countries, through no fault of their own, were in danger of being penalized doubly by the crisis as they find it harder to get foreign funding, while their exports lose value as highly strapped world demand for their goods continues to plummet due to the global decline.



Forward Block’s West Bengal Secretary Unmasks Buddhadeb, the Villain

Dropping a virtual bombshell just before the Loksabha elections Mr.Ashok Ghosh, the secretary of West Bengal unit of the Forward Block, unwittingly disclosed at a meet-the-press programme on 20 April ’09 that it was none but the Chief Minister cum Polit Bureau member of the CPI (M) ordered the police to fire on Nandigram villagers on 14th March, killing at least 14 people. Nandigram has become the buzzword for heroic resistance against forcible occupation of a vast stretch of land for the construction of a Chemical Hub. Mr.Ghosh said that he has asked in a Left Front meeting the day after the massacre “at whose orders the police had fired and the Chief Minister had stood up to say that it was at his express orders that triggers had been pulled.” [The Statesman, 21 April, ‘09]. This disclosure once again gives the lie to what the CM and the CPI (M) have so long been denying. Mr.Buddhadeb had taken refuge under falsehood soon after the Nandigram massacre and the mass-scale protests saying that “had I known that they (police) would open fire, I wouldn’t have sent them at all”. But soon after Mr.Prasad Roy, the Home Secretary, who had been in the eye of political storm that the firing kicked up, was on record saying “the firing wasn’t without the Chief Minister’s knowledge.” This was soon paid by Mr.Roy as Allimuddin Street Mandarins got him transferred elsewhere. The CPI (M) Chief Minister not only resorted to the fascist way of killing people, many of them were women, burning hundreds of huts and setting the mercenary lumpen force against the protesters, he later justified the ‘capture’ of Nandigram by the CPI (M) goon hordes aided by the police saying on record “They have paid them in their own coin”. A pathological lair, Mr.Buddhadeb Bhattachrjee time and again denied what he had committed to implement World Bank/IMF dictated reforms. On this occasion too a rattled Buddhadeb soon after the Ghosh disclosure told the media that he was ignorant of the firing orders. The CPI (M) supreme in West Bengal Mr.Biman Bose forced Mr.Ashok Ghosh to do the necessary damage control and the same Mr. Ghosh buckled under pressure to go on record on 23 April, ‘09that “some of his remarks were distorted”. Curiously enough he did not specify the remarks that were distorted. [The Statesman, 24 April, ‘09}.
The Ghosh disclosure contains nothing new as the world knows it too well that without the orders of the Home minister (Buddhadeb holds that portfolio too) such deliberate killing could not take place when the struggle was on in Nandigram. In Naxalbari too, the then same CPI (M) Home Minister Mr.Jyoti Basu ordered the killing in May 1967 and then tried to wash his bloody hands in public in the same manner as Buddhadeb now does. A party in power in a rotten system, with a Marxist sign board cannot act otherwise as the system wants such a party to get to act in this way.


‘Crores on Propaganda shows rulers desperate’

Comrade Azad, spokesperson, central committee, CPI (Maoist), talks about why his party has called for an election boycott, how it plans to implement it, why a left-led Third Front government is out of question. Azad spares no one, whether it is BJP, Congress, Mayawati or Prakash Karat, calling them opportunists.
This is one of the biggest elections with about a billion voters participating. Don’t you see it as people’s growing faith in parliamentary democracy?
Certainly not. Every day media, governments and all contesting parties are dinning into the ears of people to exercise their vote. This shows the desperation of the ruling classes. Crores are being spent on propaganda alone. They are so scared that they cannot imagine allowing voters the minimum democratic right to reject parties and candidate contesting the elections.
You have called for poll boycott. But involvement of people in polls seems to be growing.
There is neither any interest nor involvement of people in the election. Even the narrow base of some parties has taken a beating this time. Contrary to images you see on TV, the involvement of people has declined compared to earlier elections. Hence, the desperate attempt by rulers to rope in film stars cricketers etc into publicity campaigns.
Left parties are trying for a non-BJP, non-Congress alternative. What is your view?
The Third Front forged by CPI-CPM as a secular front is a congregation of self-seeking discredited opportunists, all of whom have proved to be hypocrites. Who needs to be told about the infamous history of a Chandrababu Naidu, a Jayalalitha, a Mayawati, a Deve Gowda, a Naveen Patnaik? They, who had, at one time or other, shared power with the Hindu chauvinist BJP, are being given secular-democratic image by the Left.
The Karats, Yechuris and other power brokers of so-called Left had churned out the slogan of anti-communalism to justify their alignment with the most loyal agent of imperialists, Congress, in 2004. Now, these opportunists see anti-communalism in TDP, BSP, AIADMK, JD (U) and BJD, all of whom had never really demarcated themselves from communal BJP.
Why do you say that?
Just see. They found secularism, and-imperialism and democratic moorings among parties like TDP, which under Naidu was first to transform a state into a laboratory of the World Bank and is responsible for the murder of over 2000 Maoist revolutionaries. Jayalalitha’s AIADMK was infamous for the scale of corruption, abuse of power; BJD sold the state to imperialists and massacred adivasis in Kalinga Nagar, POSCO, etc, besides protecting saffron hoodlums in persecuting Christians. JD (S) shared power with BJP and broke with it only when the latter wanted a greater share of power. Mayawati will do any thing to grab power whether it be power-sharing with BJP, or striking an alliance with Brahmins and subordinating Dalits to upper-caste Hindus.
How will you take your boycott campaign to the people?
Our stand was made clear to people through circulars, press statements, interviews, leaflets, posters and wall writings. Cultural teams stage performances among the people. It includes questioning candidates and party members, gheraoing them, making them confess their misdeeds before people. Then there is active boycott. We prevent candidates from campaigning in our areas. We warn them, when they do not heed, we beat them up if they are notorious elements, conduct people’s courts where possible and make them confess to their misdeeds. They are let off after they agree not to return.
[The Times of India, May 2, 2009]



We want a Sustainable Development Path and Inclusive Growth Trajectory that won’t Divest the poor from the Fruits of their Labor
[Interview given by comrade Bimal, Politburo member of the CPI (Maoist) to correspondents from the daily, The Times of India.]
You are one of the most wanted persons of the country. Even Left Front Chairman Biman Bose announced months ago that you have entered Bangal from Jharkhand. What made you come here?
(Smiles) I am not new to this terrain. I first came to Bengal from Dandakaranya in 1995. I have been to the villages in Lalgarh in West Midnapore in 1998. The Bengal-Jharkhand-Orissa (BJO) border zone, as well as North Bengal, has been our priority. North Bengal — which would give us access to the North-East, Bangladesh and Bhutan. But we chose the BJO because that is part of a contiguous forest cover spread over Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bengal and Bihar. I joined politics in my student days in Karimnagar College, North Telengans, from where I did my graduation in mathematics. Kondapelli Sitaramaiah was our political guru. We took military training from the LTTE in 1981. Today our party has an uninterrupted presence in this 800-km corridor up to Bangriposi in Orissa, except of short patch of 30 km.
West Bengal has been a traditional Left bastion for decades. What made you concentrate on this state?
Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore are three of the most backward districts of the state. Our organizers have been working in these areas since long. We have some organizers in Mayurbhanj and East Singhbhum as well. What I find unique in Bengal is the hegemony of political parties. True, there are no big landlords here as in Andhra Pradesh. But here political leaders have turned oppressors. Earlier, it was the Congress, and now it is the CPM. Power-hungry CPM leaders – some of them even coming from Dalit or poverty-stricken families – are now disowning their roots. They have become lackeys of the state machinery and are controlling everything from business to social institutions. They are social fascists. Asim Mondal, who was killed in Bhulabheda, was a CPM leader-cum-timber trader. He used to decide prices of kendu leaf and was also raising a force against us. It’s the same with others. The villages and villagers’ lives are under their control. We warn them to mend their ways and only after extreme provocation do we pull the trigger. Unfortunately, their daily misdeeds and acts of repression are not reported by the media. It is only when they are killed that the news get highlighted. CPM leaders such as Dipak Sarkar (West Midnapore CPM district secretary), Lakshman Seth, MP from Tamluk and Anuj Pandey, CPM zonal secretary have turned tormentors. They want to have the area under their control. People are scared of them. Men like these and their henchmen are our targets. Worse, they have lost the political courage to win hearts. Instead, they come with the police and torture the villagers in the dead of the night. They have recently formed a Ganatantra Suraksha Samiti, and police distribute their posters. How else do you expect us to challenge CPM leaders who are armed to the teeth? They are a counter-revolutionary force and have to be politically exposed.
While creating your bases in these areas, your party had come to the aid of the CPM in 2000 and then went with the Opposition. How do you reconcile this role reversal?
Yes, we joined the CPM ranks to fight the Trinamool-BJP offensive in Keshpur. That was in May 2000, when the Trinamool chief announced that Keshpur would be CPM’s graveyard. Armed men were setting the huts of the poor villagers on fire. We sided with the poor. I distinctly remember that I collected 5, 000 cartridges from the CPM party office. CPM leader and Minister Susanta Ghosh would have been nowhere today, had we not been with them. But the CPM atrocities in Suchpur, Nanoor in Birbhum and Chhoto Angaria and Garbeta in West Midnapore did not lose our sight. We started working among the poor, voiced against corruption in the panchayats and started mobilizing the poor on social issues. We did not kill any CPM activist till 2000. It was only when CPM came to grips with the situation in 2001 and began targeting our men that we struck back. Finally, when Nandigram villagers rose against the State’s land grab move, we took on the CPM’s armed brigade. This time, Trinamool supplied us the ammunition. We kept up with the resistance along with Trinamool ranks for months after the Nandigram carnage. During the final assault in November, we ran out of stocks and had to beat a retreat. The CPM men captured 300 of the local militia, and literally treated them as slaves like war prisoners with their hands tied behind.
Even if one were to accept your logic of summary punishment, how do you justify the killings of low-rung party men who come from the poor families?
In most cases, killings have happened after all means of persuasion and reasoning failed. What may appear to you as a simple low-rung CPM leader is actually his mask that outsiders get to see. But believe me; we check many times in our committees, trying to gauge the people’s pulse before taking any such final action. But yes, there have been mistakes. In 20% of the cases, there could have been more persuasive attempts. In 50% cases, we could have campaigned better, politically. The blast that killed the medical team was clearly a mistake. A rectification process is currently on in the party and we hope to emerge as an outfit that takes more judicious decisions.
What about the landmine blast that targeted the CPM’s convoy in November?
Till the Nandigram carnage, Budhadeb Bhattacharjee was not on our hit list. The villagers of Nandigram were fighting CPM politically when the massacre was ordered by the CM. That changed everything. Now, he is our target. So are CPM strongman and MP Lakshman Seth, West Midnapor district secretary Dipak Sarkar, zonal party leader Anuj Pandey…
The Maoists are also seen as anti- industry. The perception about the outfit, particularly in cities, is that it will not allow industrialization. How can class struggle happen sans the working class?
We are not against industry. But we are opposed to the neo-liberal policies pursued by the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government. The neo-liberal bubble has burst. The deviated Marxists (CPM) are only giving lip service to it and at the same time are looking at options to come to post-poll adjustment with the Congress. The CPM government is pursuing the industrial projects dumped by advanced capitalist countries. People all over the world are rising against the most polluting sponge iron units, construction of big dams, chemical hubs that affect the environment. Even the proposed car factory in Singur is to create an assembly line and has low direct employment potential. Tell me, how do these projects help the sons of the soil? These are projects advocated by the IMF and the World Bank and the CPM government is trying to implement them. We will oppose Nayachar because a chemical hub will destroy the livelihood of 2.5 lakh fishermen. No developed country sets up chemical hubs now. Why should we? We will oppose Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s dream project in Nayachar, the steel project in Salboni. As for Singur, industry will not happen there. The land was forcibly acquired form farmers. We will take over the acquired land, if the locals want it and return it to the tillers. But if the government chooses to usurp the rights of the poor and forest dwellers, we can’t but resist the move. We are waiting for the response from the Opposition — Trinamool and Congress. Instead, we want a sustainable development path and inclusive growth trajectory that won’t divest the poor from their fruits of labour.
But how can you distribute government-acquired land when the law says to the contrary?
I don’t care what the law says. Has the law come of any help in booking the culprits who burnt men alive in Chhoto Angaria? Let law take its course, we will have our own if people want it.
There are allegation that you party has been extorting businessmen and salaried persons and terrorizing villagers.
This is far from truth. Our leaders lead a simple life. On the contrary, we have been resisting efforts by contractors to plunder the forest wealth. Why should we fleece common people? If we need money, we will loot banks and collect the arms from the state armory. This is no secret. Our party has a written resolution on this. At times, some of the government officers have tried to lure some of our supporters with contracts. In such cases, we have pointed it out to them in presence of their guardians, who are also our supporters and asked them to fall in line.
{The Times of India, April 27, 2009}


Communist Party of Greece (marxist-leninist) statement for the Anti-Imperialist Conference in Thessaloniki, 21-22/3/2009

A significant step towards the joint anti-imperialist struggle in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean Region!

The International Anti-Imperialist Conference was held with success, on 21-22/3/2009 in Thessaloniki on the occasion of the tenth anniversary since the NATO/imperialist intervention in the former Yugoslavia, organized by the Communist Party of Greece (marxist-leninist). In this conference, communist parties and organizations from the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean region were invited and participated with their delegations: New Communist Party of Romania, magazine “Partisan” from Turkey, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Bulgarian Workers-Peasant Party, Bulgarian Workers' Party (Communists), Bulgarian Workers Union' Association, Bulgarian Workers Marxist movement and the Socialist Party of Cyprus. The Italian philosopher Constanzo Preve also participated. The conference was supported by the International League of Peoples Struggle (ILPS). Manolis Arkolakis, ILPS vice chair and responsible for external affairs participated and greeted the conference on behalf of ILPS. The delegations or the Left Radical of Afghanistan and the Committees to Support Resistance - for Communism (CARC) from Italy, due to technical problems and despite their will, did not attend but they have sent their contributions which were distributed to the participants-delegates of the conference.
During the open debate that took place in the Polytechnic Campus of Thessaloniki, on Saturday 21/3/2009 besides the participant delegations, conveyed their messages of solidarity the delegations of: Committee Against Foreign Bases and Dependence from Chania-Crete, the Anti-War, Anti-imperialist Committee of Karditsa, the Militant Movements of Students, Greece. The Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist), the Revolutionary-Communist Youth League from Austria, ATIK and New Democratic Youth from Turkey also conveyed their messages of solidarity to the conference. The main contribution in the open debate on behalf of CPG (m-l) was made by the General Secretary com. Vasilis Samaras.
In the multilateral and bilateral meetings of the delegations that took place during the two days of the meeting there was an exchange of views on the international situation, the imperialists’ policies across the world and more particularly in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean Region and they examined ways and political aspects to consolidate the coordination and the joint anti-imperialist struggle and solidarity. More particularly they discussed and exchanged their views on the situation in the occupied Palestine and the heroic resistance of the Palestinian People in Gaza Strip and the West Bank and they stressed the need to consolidate the international solidarity to resistance.
The situation in Cyprus was also discussed particularly and there was a thorough exchange of experience and views for the situation in the Balkan countries and the level of the anti-war and anti-imperialist struggle. All delegates noted the important absence of delegates from the countries of former Yugoslavia and stressed the need to increase the effort to expand contacts and meetings towards a more multilateral cooperation and coordination.
There were also suggestions on multilateral initiatives of joint talks and activities, in a period of increased danger for peace in the region due to the imperialist aggression. This aggression is expressed by the rapid increase of the military presence of NATO/US military forces and bases in the Balkans. The significance of such and similar joint meetings was also stressed as well as the need to continue in the future. The delegates saluted the mass anti-NATO initiatives and demonstrations that take place these days in Europe for the summit of this criminal, warlike alliance. They also denounced the plans of the NATO Eastern expansion. There was also a proposal for a joint resolution that will be published after the necessary elaboration soon. All contributions have been published in http://www.kkeml.gr/english/int_meeting/index_10th.html

Revolutionary Greetings
Athens 31/3/2009
Communist Party of Greece
International Bureau


Announcement of the Communist Party of Greece (marxist-leninist)

International Bureau

The brutal murder of the 15-year-old Alexis Gregoropoulos, on Saturday December 6, in the centre of Athens by a policeman who cold-bloodedly shot him, was the fatal result of the Greek governments’ policy that in the last years has strengthened state terror against the people’s, working and youth movement (high school students, university students and unemployed young people) as well as against immigrants. The absolute responsibility belongs to the current right-wing government and the previous social democratic, that both encouraged the murderous police troops and riot police forces to shoot, beat and arrest demonstrators, strikers, young people and immigrants while they made a callus legislative frame of terror laws and orders, and at the same time left the killers in previous similar cases go unpunished.
The uprising of the Greek youth and a large part of the workers and the Greek people, the mass protest of thousands of people that erupted across the country, the taking-over of high schools and universities that are in progress, the attacks against government buildings and police stations are the justified demonstration of rage that exists in broad parts of society and youth due to the tough economic policy which is in favor of multinationals, big capital, bankers and the European Union. The murder of young Alexis was the spark that started the fire and the materials of this fire that doesn’t end are unemployment, indigence and despair that large parts of the workers and youth are facing. The results of the capitalist economic crisis and the government and EU policies are the real reasons for the eruption of the Greek youth and people.
Once again the stance of both official parties of the formal reformist Left was at least problematic. The so called KKE [CPG] tried to appease and slander the youth’s struggle, SYN-SYRIZA [Left Alliance] tried to manipulate and channel the demostrations for its own ambitions (future collaboration in government with the social-democrats), while the leaderships of both parties hurried to meet the prime minister when he invited them to his office. Both parties are trying to incorporate the popular rage within the parliamentary electoral process and defuse the movement that erupted.
Communist Party of Greece (marxist-leninist) [KKE(m-l)] as well as other left organizations, the Militant Movement of Students and other front organizations participated actively from the very start in the protest that took place in numerous Greek cities, in the taking-over of universities and the mobilization of high school students. We fight for the continuance and escalation of the struggle and the success of its goals against the government and its policy.

LONG LIVE THE UPRISING OF THE GREEK YOUTH!
DOWN WITH THE KILLERS AND THE POLICY OF POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT!
LONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY!

Athens 12/12/08
http://www.kkeml.gr/english/english.htm
http://cpgml-news.blogspot.com

e-mail: cpgml@kkeml.gr


Respectful Homage to Veteran Maoist Comrade Niranjan Bose!

Comrade Niranjan Bose, the oldest in the Maoist ranks in West Bengal, died at the age of 92 years on 26th April ’09 in Kolkata. Till his last breath he held high the banner of revolutionary Marxism and had consistently engaged himself in a significant way to further the cause of Indian revolution. This nonagenarian revolutionary started his political career in the early 1940s, at first as a Congress activist and then courted Marxism and became a member of the United CPI of the then undivided Bengal. Comrade Bose played a significant role in bringing out the CPI’s Bengali daily Swadhinata in the 50s. He was sent to prison on several occasions. When the CPI split in 1963 he sided with the left leaning comrades and joined the CPI (M). In the West Bengal unit of the CPI (M) comrades Niranjan Bose, Saroj Dutta, Shusital Roychowdhry et al had a pioneering role in bringing out the Bengali weekly named Deshhitaisee. All of them, the followers of Maoist leadership against Khruscevite revisionism, revolted against the CPI (M)’s neo-revisionist leadership. When West Bengal’s United Front government went on a massacre spree in Naxalbari, killing mostly tribal fighters, not even sparing women and children, comrade Niranjan Bose, a dedicated communist, took upon himself the important responsibilities with regard to the publication of Deshabrati (Bengali) and Liberation. After the raid on the Deshabrati office in Kolkata and arrest of important comrades of the CPI (ML) publication team by police, comrade Niranjan Bose went underground. He played a stellar role in bringing out the CPI (ML) journals from underground in the early 1970s. Even after comrade Charu Majumdar’s arrest on 16 July and then martyrdom on 28th July 1972, comrade Bose continued his political activities from underground in a state of acute political crisis when the Congress-led fascist forces aided by the police machinery broke loose hell in West Bengal. Comrade Bose was among the very few revolutionary communist leaders who could successfully outwit the police department hotly chasing to capture him dead or alive. After 1977, comrade Bose came in to the open and started hectic activities to reunite the Party. When the erstwhile CPI (ML) [PW] started organizing the revolutionary masses in Bengal in early 1990s, comrade Niranjan Bose immediately joined the rising armed struggle. Old age, frail health and hostile fascist atmosphere created by his erstwhile colleagues in the CPI and the CPI (M) in the name of ‘Left Front Rule’ could not deter this veteran communist fighter to be a part of the on-going struggle facing brutal repression. Four years back, police forces fell on his house, arrested him and within days set him free when roars of massive protest unnerved the ‘Left Front’ leaders. Comrade Bose dreamt a revolutionary dream and worked day and night to fulfill all the responsibilities bestowed on him by his beloved party, the CPI (Maoist) till he breathed his last. We pay our respectful to the memory of this great Maoist revolutionary who worked for more than six decades in the service of the oppressed masses of the country and who fought valiantly all throughout his life to achieve his beloved cause, the emancipation of the oppressed masses of the country


‘Elections’ Show Disgust for the Bourgeoisie Politicians and the so-called Democracy

As the third phase of polling gets over the main news is the lack of interest in voting and the disgust displayed by the masses for the political system. In Mumbai as much as 59% stayed away from voting. In UP barely 45% voted. In Kashmir the voter turnout was a mere 20%. In the earlier phases the voter turnout was not much different. In the first phase which was held in most of the naxalite areas the boycott of the elections by the Maoists made major news and was even more widely covered than the elections itself. Not only the people in the Maoist area but reports came in from almost all corners of the country of people of whole areas boycotting the polls over their local demands or going to the booth and registering their non- voting. Not even all the lure of money, muscle power, caste and religious equations could get people to the ballot box. The high percentages polling shown to have taken place in some Maoist areas were due to pre-planned rigging. In Mumbai, slum-dwellers reported that the one month before the elections was a boon for them – Rs.100 to attend a political rally, Rs.100 a day to sit at a pandal, Rs.500 to oversee an election booth, etc. Never can ordinary slum-dweller earn so much, yet Dharavi (reportedly the biggest slum in Asia) recorded barely 38% voting.
What was astounding was that such a low voter turnout happened in spite of a massive propaganda blitz calling on people to vote. Such a high profile campaign was never conducted on this scale roping in NGOs, business houses, media barons, film stars and cricketers. In fact on the date of the third round of voting the Times of India and other leading daily carried a front page letter by the editor in bold to call on the people to vote. Also on voting day the parties provided free auto rides and numerous other incentives to vote for them. Even religious bodies, especially of the minorities were roped in to issue edicts to their followers to vote. The Darul Uloom Deoband issued a fatwa directing the Muslims to vote and apex bodies of various Christian churches also called upon their followers to vote. Yet in spite of all this there was a miserable turn-out.
This enraged most of the parties and the Shiv Sena and BJP riled against the people of the country for staying away and demanded in fascist style that voting be made compulsory. Instead of looking at themselves and their false promises and corrupt means they put the blame on the masses. This will anger the masses even more.
The fact of the matter is that none of the parliamentary parties had any agenda for the people. What in the campaign did they have for the rural populace that has been facing excruciating poverty with suicides increasing by the day? What do they have for the lakhs and lakhs being thrown out of jobs due to the present crisis? What do they have for the middle classes that are facing more and more insecurities? All parties have no other actual policy but only promote the money bags and further open the doors for imperialist loot. The very cause of the crisis and the massive job losses is because they have tied the Indian economy more and more to the chariot wheels of the imperialists, particularly the US. And now the crisis in those countries is only deepening affecting the people of India. But in this situation while the people suffer through job losses big business continues with its increasing profits as indicated by the last quarter results.
Besides, today it has become very clear as candidates from all the parties even in their declared assets (forget the huge black money they all have) are crorepatis (billionaires) who have made their wealth through milking the state and serving big-business in Satyam style. And people are no fools, they knew well that all these billionaire contestants are in the race only to further enrich themselves and the people’s will not change by voting one or the other. Their apathy for this system is growing day by day resulting in the continual decrease in the percentage of votes polled. As and when the people at large gain more knowledge about the alternate people’s democracy emerging in the Dandakaranya- Bihar – Jharkhand areas they are sure to take that path – The path of a true participatory people’s democracy.
The entire media went out of its way to propagate that the Maoists are threatening the people to impose their poll boycott call. This is the same old vilification campaign the media has been running at the behest of the ruling classes at every election time for decades. Strange as it may seem to any honest citizen, the media all over these years could not present a single person who was punished by the Maoists solely for voting in the elections! The purpose of the boycott call given by the Maoists is to make people understand that what is taking place is not a real democracy but a fake democracy. And that what they need to do is to fight for a real democracy – a new democratic society- a government structure of the type that exists in embryonic form in Dandakaranya. Besides the people in most parts of the country do not require much convincing as they can see the criminals who stand for elections with their pockets full of black money.
In the Dandakaranya area the people themselves run their own affairs practicing the truest form of people’s democracy and the Janatana Sarkars (organs of people’s political power) elected at gram sabhas(village general body meeting) . This is the real democracy that all in the country should support and help build. The people of the country have two choices – either the ‘democracy’ of the money bags and for the moneybags (of course in the name of the people) or genuine democracy for the people and by the people. The choice is yours!!!

May 1st 2009

Note: A detailed account of the boycott campaign will be published in the next issue of the magazine.


Statement on the incidents in Madhupur village on 11th April, 2009 by members of the fact-finding team who had visited the village
Five members of the All-India Fact Finding team were present in Madhupur village of Salboni I Block on 11th April 2009 from around 10 am to 12 noon. On reaching the village, the members found the villagers anxious and agitated. A group of 25-30 police personnel carrying firearms had tried to enter the village ten minutes ago. From accounts, when the women of the village resisted and refused them entry, the police threatened to beat up the women. The villagers then gathered in full strength and forced the police to leave the village.
In the presence of the fact finding team members, the villagers prepared for a procession to warn nearby villages against possible further entries by the police and the Harmad Vahini. People from other villages who had been informed soon joined the procession. Women participated in large numbers. They were completely peaceful, not carrying any fire-arms, and not in a mood for any confrontation. Members of the fact finding team left as the procession was beginning. We later came to know from the villagers that the procession had been fired upon by the Harmad Vahini near Memul, a village adjacent to Madhupur. Members of the procession were forced to flee, and women in Memul had to lock themselves up in their houses. It appears that the Harmad Vahini also destroyed some of the houses in Memul, and tried to break do doors.
Given the past experience of the villagers, it appears that the attempted entry of the police in the morning is linked to the attack by the Harmad Vahini, subsequently, which seems to lend credence to the fears and distrust of police by the people of Lalgarh.
12th April, 2009
Madhupur fact-finding team:
Vidya Das, adivasi rights activist, Agragamee, Kashipur, Orissa
Gautam Navlakha, PUDR, consulting editor, EPW
Cohn Gonsalves, supreme court lawyer, Human rights law network
Budhaditya Das, student, DU
Manika Bora, student, JNU



Lalgarh Revolt and the Hoax of Development& Democracy

Ayesha



How the Mass Anger Exploded

Indian history is now a witness to a heroic mass upsurge that has been going on as a basically adivasi mass uprising in the Lalgarh area in West Midnapur district of West Bengal. Ever since the landmine explosion conducted on November 2 reportedly as a protest against the SEZ bid of West Bengal’s ruling party, on the entourage of Bengal’s Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and the Union Minister steel, chemical & fertilizer Mr. Ramvilas Paswan while returning from the highly state publicized inauguration ceremony of the Jindal Steel Works (A Special Economic Zone) at Salboni in West Midnapore.Police went on rampaging the tribal villages, torturing the tribals and other exploited in the dead of nights in the name of search for Maoists
Initially the centuries-old oppressed tribals united under the organisational banner of Bharat Jakat Majhi Madwa Juan Gaonta. The revolt that started from a spark of police atrocities on the women added fuel to the fire unlocking the heaps of grievances accumulated over years and the revolt spilt the boundaries of Lalgarh and spread like wildfire to newer areas and subdivisions. The adivasis of adjacent tribal dominated districts like Bankura, Purulia, Burdwan, and Birbhum also rose in revolt. Everywhere thousands of adivasis men and women held rallies and meetings on the same issue. The upsurge had its full impact even on the areas of the CPI (M)’s strongholds. Lakhs of people from these areas have come together to form a huge resistance movement called Police Santrosh Birodhi Janasadharan Committee or the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCAPA). A 13- point charter of demands was handed over to the administration. The demands included some of the long-standing demands of the adivasis and other low-caste oppressed to stop police raids in the villages at night, removal of police and CRPF camps from the villages, occupying the school buildings, hospitals, etc., release of tribals and other arrested since1998 on mere suspicion of being Maoists and charged with cases of waging war against the State, punishment of the policemen guilty of the recent brutal attacks, and adequate compensation money to the injured locals in police brutalities etc. The people gained a significant victory by forcing the administration to agree to 10 of their 13 demands apart from the removal of some police camps. (A detailed report was published in our April ’09 issue.) Having won this initial victory the people of this area are forging ahead under the leadership of the committee to continue the struggle to change their lives and living conditions for a better tomorrow.

Socio-Economic Profiles of Jangalmahal

Despite the presence of a huge population of adivasis, thanks to the forest department’s criminal nexus with the CPI (M), police, timber mafias and administration to loot the forests and the flawed path of development, the centuries old dependence of adivasis on forests was endangered.
A forced situation of migration continues to persist since the British rule. Clusters of adivasi villages nestled in the forests got increasingly removed from forests as such with the speed of deforestation and fake development. It is notable that in the three contiguous districts, namely Bankura, West Midnapur and Purulia is predominantly the adivasis in most cases followed by Dalits and OBCs who inhabit the region. According to the census 2001 in West Bengal out of 341 blocks, the percentage of this population in 36 blocks hovers between 40 and 59.99 percent. Jhargram subdivision has 8 blocks including Lalgarh, Binpur, Jhargram, Jamboni, Gopiballavpur—1, Gopiballavpur—2, Sankrail and Nayagram. Interestingly, socio-economic and cultural chateristics in Jhargram Subdivision, Purulia and adjoining districts of Jharkhand are more or less same. In Jhargram Sub-division itself 30 percent of the population is Scheduled Tribes (Santhal, Munda, Lodha, Mahali, Kora, Bhumij, etc.) and 18 percent Scheduled Castes who include Bagdi, Dom, Kaibarta, Mal, etc. Besides them the other major population comprises the Other Backward Classes like Kurmi Mahato, Kumbhar, Tanti, Teli, Raju, etc. Those three categories of population comprise more than 90 percent of population in Jhargram and its adjoining areas. According to the last census the Adivasi population increasingly became Khetmajoors (agricultural laborers) between 1971 and 2001.
The above picture makes it abundantly clear that on the one hand West Bengal’s adivasis far surpass others as Khetmajoors (agricultural laborers) and on the other hand it is this section of population that is rapidly getting displaced from agricultural activities particularly under the CPI(M) led ‘Left’ front rule. In other respects too like in education, use of mother tongue as medium of education, etc., they are the most exploited. The wages of Khetmajoors too are very low, and despite so much talk of uplift, a big chunk of the adivasis goes to Namal (low lands) as migrant labourers every year. Not only are the Adivasis, but also the so-called low castes all suffers in this exploitative system. In the Lalgarh revolt the Mahatos, now recognised as OBCs, have participated in mass-scale, showing their anger at their deprivation at every stage and the prevalence of state terror on all the exploited and deprived. The bond of unity has spread to all adivasis and non-adivasi poor for the perpetual exploitation, backwardness, cultural deprivation and most of all the reign of terror let loose by the state.

Maoists have officially supported this mass revolt but the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities is a mass based committee with live demands of the cross section of repressed people in Jangalmahal. It is true Jangalmahal is the region where the Maoists have been fighting for the cause of poor tribals, non-tribals and other common people for their rights, their development, their livelihood, and so on. From their principled stand Maoists are the only party upholding the people’s grievances over years. Adivasis and other downtrodden have high respect for the Maoists. And the Maoists ranks too are comprised basically of the adivasis. But the Committee is not controlled by the Maoist party. The villagers are the decision makers, and the committee has been set up by them. On their 10-member committee in every village, 5 are men and the rest 5 women. Two persons, a man and a woman, from every village committee are part of the central coordinating committee. Every decision is being ratified by these committees. One great contribution of the Lalgarh struggle is the emergence and crystallisation of a new democratic set-up for participatory democracy. With every passing day the committee went on to gain more strength. The fire of the unabated movement spread to the adjoining tribal populated districts. Many new organizations of the tribals were floated and in their thousands they rallied, protested, put forward their own demands, and are showing solidarity with the people of Lalgarh. They protested against police atrocities in Lalgarh. In Bankura Mr. Ranjit Hembram, former panchayat samiti sabhapati and two zonal leaders, Mr. Ramu Duley and Mr. Tulu Hembram were struck with arrows when they were accompanying a police contingent to Nakhrapahari, to douse the flame of agitating adivasis. Migrant tribal workers in other districts came out in support and joined in the struggle of the Lalgarh people. Protests flourished in the CPI (M) strongholds too. In Kharagpur near Changuyal, a large section of CPI(M) tribal members and supporters of the youth wing DYFI participated in the road block programme on the national highway claiming “they are adivasis first then CPI(M)”. The student wing of the Kurmis, Chhatra Kurmi Sangram Committee made a common cause against police atrocities, brought out a motorbike procession of 100 persons to build the confidence of the villagers against the ruling CPI(M)’s notorious motorbike brigade .Terrified by the intensity of the movement reaching out to newer zones and even making inroads into the strongholds of their party, Mr. Biman Bose, the state secretary of the CPI(M) branded the movement as a secessionist flare-up to separate the tribal-belt of West Bengal and merge it with the neighbouring state of Jharkhand.
The ruthless ruling CPI (M) resorted to barbaric violence similar to that of Nandigram and unleashed a reign of terror in a vain bid to tame the tide of adivasi uprising. It let loose its armed goons hailing from other places, to ensure its lost ground with the help of police in the revolting Jangalmahal area. Over the last few months, West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura districts have seen the emergence of local and imported CPI (M) vigilante groups called harmad bahini. Mostly in civilian clothes, sometimes in army gear, the harmad drive around in cars and trucks sporting CPI (M) flags, use firearms freely. On 4 December the Chief Minister of West Bengal Buddhadeb Bhattacharya held out a threat in the state legislative assembly: “It is the foremost political task right at this moment to isolate the Maoists from the Adivasi people”. (Ganasakti, 5.12.08). And in a desperate bid to severe the bond between the exploited adivasis and other sections of downtrodden masses and the Maoists, the CPI (M) could not keep its faith solely on the CRPF, STRACO, para-military and the state police forces. 50 truck-loads of hired CPI (M) goons and police informers – harmad gangs- were brought to Jangalmahal from Gorbeta, Cheruah, Jamtala, etc. in disguise of common villagers. The gun toting ruffians swung into action along with the marauding motorbike brigade to terrorise the people of Jangalmahal. They forcibly went on to clear off the road blockades holding out threats to the people, so as to crush their just democratic movement against state repression. After the Singur and Nandigram incidents the CPI (M) party’s gangsterism is widely known to the citizens of Bengal and India as well. The ‘Left’ Bengal government has taken up the lines of the notorious and despicable ‘Salwa Judum’ of Chhattisgarh by trying to pit a section of tribals against the vast majority of struggling tribals. The CPI(M) formed ‘Pratirodh Bahini’ in tribal inhabited villages by floating and working under the apparently innocuous banner of ‘Ganapratirodh Committee’ (People’s Resistance Committee) and Adivasi o An-Adivasi Aikya Committee (Adivasi and non-Adivasi Unity Committee ) with the help of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. (Incidentally only a few weeks back the chief of which, Mr. Sibu Soren, was blamed by Bengal’s CPI (M) state secretary Mr. Biman Bose as having alliance with the tribal movement and that he was instigating the flare-up). The CPI (M) put up a few pro-CPI (M) tribal figures at the forefront to show that the whole armed onslaught on the resistance movement as a tribal retaliation. The CPI(M)’s notorious leaders like Dipak Sarkar ,Bijay Pal, Satyen Maity and others remained the masterminds of the whole operation to crush the struggling people. After the victory in the non-adivasi dominated Jhargram municipal polls, the emboldened CPI (M) got its machinery geared up to get a toehold in Jangalmahal. The CPI (M) hatched up a well-calculated conspiracy sitting in its Allimudin Street headquarters, and roped in “Disham Majhi” of Majhi Madwa Juan Gaonta organisation by hoodwinking the Majhis and Madwas to wield their social power in order to stem the tide of tribal insurgency. They arranged a big gathering at Bhulabheda roping in people of different places on December 8, 2008 and tried to put it up as a spontaneous outpouring on the part of the Lalgarh people against the ongoing struggle. Ridiculously enough, the CPI(M)’s weekly mouthpiece People’s Democracy’s Mr. B Prashant, in his piece of writing, as a vainglorious attempt unwittingly acknowledged that it was a CPI(M)- led meeting “Thousands upon thousands of adivasis……….all united under the CPI(M)……..”. But the tribals and the non-tribals of Jangalmahal could realize the evil design of the CPI (M) and showed their backs on the much-hyped next meeting on 18 December at Chakadoba. But the fascist CPI (M)’s move to capture Jangalmahal with the help of police forces working hand in hand with the CPI (M) armed goons is being resisted defiantly by the people all over Jangalmahal. Wherever the road blockades were cleared, those were again put up. The CPI (M) party office in Belatikuri village in Lalgarh was burnt down by the agitating adivasis in retaliation to the attempts of the CPI (M) to clear up barricaded roads. On February 2, 2009, a PCPA meeting was held at Khas jungle attended by hundreds of people. When the police tried to enter, the people resisted. Within five minutes the harmad drove up in six jeeps and opened fire on the people, killing three. The people retaliated and burnt three of the jeeps of the goon gangs. After all these incidents CPI(M) armed gangs are regularly organizing attacks on the villages of Jangalmahal in a desperate bid to gain control over the area before the Loksabha elections. On 26 February, 2009 The Madhupur village of Salboni was attacked by 150 CPI (M) miscreants. Villages under the Lalgarh area are under unremitting armed attacks by CPI (M) goons, but the brave resistance put up by the tribals makes it difficult for them to destroy their unity. The movement of tribals and non-tribals under the banner of People’s Committee is continuing uninterruptedly in face of this onslaught. The ongoing horror of the murderous harmad gangs launching attacks on the people in tandem with the police forces and the people’s heroic resistance was well captured and graphically detailed in an eye witness account by a correspondent of the national weekly, Tehelka in a report published in its 25 April, 2009 issue.
“The moon was red on the night of April 10 in Lalgarh, filtered through the cloud of red soil thrown up in the air a few hours earlier. An angry mob of 6,000 adivasi men and women had marched barefoot that afternoon, drawn by the rousing, urgent sounds of dhaks – local drums – signaling red alert. As the beats rang out, man, woman and child dropped what they were doing and reached for a weapon, clutching bows in one hand sickles, axes, hacks in the other. Bamboo casks full of arrows rode on their backs, their colorful tails made of feathers from jungle birds fluttering wind. Inside sheaths, the sharp glistening triangle of steel waited in readiness. The air echoed with frenzied slogan: ‘we cannot be stopped. Not this time.’
“Section 144 has been clamped in the area, there were strong restraining orders. A 500-strong police force has arrived with AK 47s and SLRs to take control. But the adivasis –angry, inexorable – were determined to violate the order and cross over to neighboring Bankura. They were protesting months of police atrocities. The men in uniform facing them were only an added inflammation. Both parties negotiated through their respective loud speakers – one seated on the roof of jeep, the other peddled on a cycle rickshaw. Unprepared for this organized show of strength, the police watched, shouted – and watched. The adivasis crossed over. They wanted the release of three community members arrested that morning. If they weren’t released, they said, they would ‘create trouble again’ the fallowing day. All the three were released. …
“On 11 April, the day after the stand off at Lalgarh, in the village of Madhupur, a few kilometers away, adivasi men and women armed with traditional weapons are lying in trenches, hiding in jungles, standing at points of vantage – guarding territory. The night of the red moon had been long. Now as the police try to enter a village again, another face off is triggered. By noon, as the police retreat, the villagers spot the harmad coming. They position themselves around the village in a one-kilometer radius from the huts and start firing. At 6 pm, while the firing is still on, SP Verma speaks to TEHELKA on phone and says, ‘Yes, the CPI (M) cadres are firing, but there has also been firing from the adivasi side, So far, no one is injured. Our police forces are there to help control the situation.’ …
“The afternoon after the firing, a group of men are resting on the borders of Madhupur. It’s has been another long night. One of them has fallen asleep resting his head on his rubber chappals, his palm clutching a cask of arrows, ready to wage war even in his sleep. Who knows when they will be back next? Ask them what they will do if the harmad keeps getting closure, and they smile and say, ‘They have weapons, we have people. We will show them what our strength is.’”

Women as Leaders and Active Participants
If the Singur forced the door open for the mass participation of women along with men to save land and livelihoods, the Nandigram struggle added greater dimension to the militant participation of women. Like in the Bengal-wise Tebhaga movement in 1946—47, in Nandigram too women came forward to resist attacks by police and mercenaries. In both places many women were martyred. In Lalgarh or in Jangalmahal as such women’s role assumed extra-dimension by virtue of their coming up to the leadership level. Ever since the Maoist-led struggles spread to the three districts of West Bengal police camps were set up in large numbers; night raids, incidents of rape, indiscriminate arrests, cruel torture in police custody, etc. became the order of the day. For so many years now myriad times small- scale protests were seen against police atrocities with women in the forefront. Lalgarh struggle radically unlocked the leadership potentials of women, somewhat rousing the long lost matriarchal elements of direct intervention in matters encompassing the whole society. It is a fact that adivasis, dalits and other socio-economically exploited women equally participate in the productive process along with their men folk. But patriarchy did not allow their leadership role in political affairs. Media reports have regularly highlighted the Maoist propaganda meetings for political education of the wretched of the earth. More than that, the joining of local tribal and other women belonging to the bottom of the caste-class category, arrests from within their ranks and even killing of women activists from them have had a significant impact in these areas on the women as a whole. Lalgarh struggle has pitch forked to the limelight scores of women representatives in more than 158 villages. The village committees have turned upside down the conventional, parliamentary party-oriented and administrative structures of leadership paying lip service to women’s empowerment under conspicuous male domination. It is the novel feature that in each and every village at least 50% of women’s representatives have been ensured through active participation of women against police terror. This is a new phenomenon in the history of political movements in India, Bengal in particular. Through this participation, community heads who mostly became tools of the CPI (M)-led administration lost their earlier authority. This is neither the so-called mainstream politics nor the pure sub-alter consciousness of the past. Elements of class struggle are pronouncedly present cutting across all tribal and dalit and other communities centering on the demands against police- CPI (M) - administration led atrocities and for the end of exploitation and for real development. On the occasion of the International Women’s Day, 8 March, People’s Committee against Police Atrocities floated its women’s unit. In presence of more than 5000 women, this women’s committee was formed with the name: Women’s Unit of People’s Committee against Police Atrocities with Sraboni Soren as the convener of the unit at Narcha in Lalgarh
People once again force the state to remove police camp using the weapon of Social-Boycott
The attempts of coercion and intimidation of the CPI (M) and administration could not make Jangalmahal people retreat in fear. The movement made the administration bow down and the promises were made by the administration to remove the police camps and consider all their demands. People’s Committee against Police Atrocities removed its first two demands on the basis of the Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s apology in the legislative assembly. But on the same day of 7 December, 2008 after an agreement was reached through negotiation, the CRPF raided the same Chhotopeliya village at night soon after the road blockades were withdrawn. The CRPF was besieged by hundreds of villagers and were freed only after the officer of the CRPF team publicly held his ears, apologized and saved his soul with the intervention of the leaders of people’s committee. True to its bamboozling character, the state going against the agreement between administration and the people’s committee, re-deployed police and CRPF in the Ramgarh police camp and seven other police camps which were vacated. This betrayal on the part of government led to simmering discontent in the whole region of volcanic Jangalmahal. With the redeployment of police and CRPF, People’s Committee against Police Atrocities gave a call to the people of Kalaimuri, Madhupur, Nadaria and surrounding areas of Salboni for non-cooperation, for social boycott of the police and for not selling the essential items to them. Heeding to the call shops refused to sell food and other daily needs to the police jawans. As a result the jawans of the second Battalion State Armed Police camp in Kalimuri faced shortage of cooking materials and were virtually on the verge of starvation. As such the administration had no go but to vacate that camp which was in existence for the last two years. Not only that the people have been maintaining a 24 hour vigil to prevent the entry of policemen in to that area. The people caught hold of some EFR jawans who tried to sneak in to that area, confined them for a couple of hours and released them only after they wrote a bond admitting their fault and declare they would not venture further in that area.

Government’s Vain Attempts to Dowse the Raging Fire of People’s Discontent

The discontent and unrest that is unfolding again among the adivasis and non adivasis has forced the state government to announce a slew of ‘development’ measures for the so called uplift of tribal community. After decades of criminal neglect the ‘left ’ruled state government, has woken up suddenly to the miseries and deprivation of perennially oppressed and exploited population of Jangalmahal. The CPI (M) is running 32 years of its rule, but the tribals and other backward classes are still rooted in endemic poverty. The CPI (M) state government has miserably failed to ensure food, clothing and shelter-- the bare necessities for existence to the people. How come they can expect this government to ensure potable water, health service, education, electricity and better road facilities for a better living for the tribals and other low castes people perpetually living in penury? They are not provided with the necessary items in ration shops, whereas those are sold in open markets at high prices by ration dealers with the help of the political mafias. Though almost all of them fall under the category of below poverty line they are not even granted their BPL (Below Poverty Line) ration cards. Strangely enough, a department of Development Council of Eastern Region is in place. The infamous Sushanta Ghosh of Keshpur massacre has been made an in-charge of this department, ostensibly for the development of the scheduled tribes. And the result? Crores of rupees are sanctioned, regularly, expenditure reports too are also put in the assembly, but the paltry amount of even 0.3% doesn’t reach out to the adivasis and the backward classes. Eastern Region development Council was allocated with funds of 30 to 80 corers for 2007—2008 fiscal year and 42.49 crores for 2008—2009 fiscal year by the West Bengal government. 30 to 40 crores per year for one crore of people living in 12,500 villages in 78 blocks! Which means government allocation (Eastern Region) is only rupees 30 to 40 per head, per annum. Thanks to starvation and half-starved stomachs, 83% adivasi women of that region suffer from malnutrition and anemia. Further, a central representative team, after a survey of West Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia districts gave out a horrible report: the eight panchayat samitis of Jhargram subdivision were allotted 1 crore 21 lakhs 41 thousand rupees from the Central Backward Region Grant Fund for 2008—2009 financial year, only 36 lakh and 50 thousand rupees has been put into use and the rest 70% has to be returned by the state government. So, it is well understandable what the actual situation is. The developmental funds earmarked for the tribals in those districts either remain shelved or are pocketed by the corrupt CPI (M) leaders and panchayat members in connivance with the local administrators. The pathetic scenes of Amlasholes are the actual picture of the ‘left’ ruled state government’s criminal apathy.
A relevant point that is worth mentioning is that the CPI(M)-led state government of Bengal with profound pride focused in its mouthpiece (Ganasakti, 5 March, 2009) that West Bengal has come second in a nationwide evaluation on the basis of various types of work of panchayats. But the ground picture tells a completely reverse tale of the corrupt functioning of panchayats of Jhargram subdivision that unmasks the state government’s farcically woven myth of ‘development’: Under the one-hundred day National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), in the two months, i.e., in September and October at Binpur – 1, Lalgarh village panchayat, not a single farthing had been expended despite the money being earmarked for it. The administration failed to provide jobs for a single family at Baita and Dharampur village panchayat areas under these blocks in the months from September to December 2008. It is learnt from the government website that at Binpur—1 block, in 10 village panchayat areas in a 7-month period on an average among the people who obtained job cards secured jobs on application only for 20 days. The picture is no different in other blocks. According to the above source, in West Midnapur 7 lakh 545 job cards were issued and 2 lakh 15 thousand and 582 persons applied for jobs. In areas dominated by scheduled tribes under that programme only 10.13 percent got jobs. And in the whole of West Midnapur a mere 9.2 percent women got jobs. To repeat, in the 100 day-job programme in the tribal dominated Binpur-1, Binpur-2, Salboni and Jhargram block the miserable job guarantee is on an average 20,9,12 and 15 days respectively. As a whole in the seven months ending in December 08, in Lalgarh NREGA could provide only 7 days’ job out of 100 days! With the Lalgarh revolt the CPI (M) led administration suddenly started giving ‘patta’ (land title) to some people after so many years of its rule. With election round the corner, BPL cards are now being distributed in the name of rectifications. Such overdrive was never seen in the past three decades. The “Status of Rural Electrification in West Medinipur” published on 31 January 2009 exposes the tall claims of the ‘Left’ Front government on development in backward areas in more than three decades of its rule. It shows that out of 2,953 muza in Jhrgam sub-division electricity reached only 953 mawza.

The high voltage ‘development’ bid of ‘left’ ruled state government it is only to dispossess the marginalized tribals and other low castes people of Jangalmahal of their resources, their water, forests and land (containing mineral wealth ) and hand it over to big corporate houses to serve their interests. Now the very survival of people of this region is at stake – the proposed steel plant at Salboni is a case in point. As such they have decided to organize themselves and fight to build a brighter future by relying on their own strength.
The Spirit of Lalgarh Struggle Lives On

Now, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the CPI (M)-ruled state government to make the tribal mass to swallow these bitter pills of ‘development’ down their throat. The People’s Committee against Police Atrocities, apart from its 13-point demand, is also coming up with the question of the people’s age-old exploitation and deprivation. So their democratic way of mass movement is taking up much larger shape and raising pertinent questions regarding the ‘development’paradigm, dispossession and their survival. The people’s Committee has undertaken the real development measures which the government has failed to deliver. The Committee has started one hospital and taken up measures to sink tube wells and develop alternative irrigation system. The People’s committee has set to work at Barpetia, Bhardanga, Katapahari, Krishnakumari to sink tube wells. It is also taking up the responsibility to desilt Barpelia canal, which will require Rs.8 lakh. The Committee is collecting donations from people for such developmental work. This has become a cause of extreme worry for the state government. India claims to be the largest democracy. But whenever a mass uprising happens with its just and democratic demands, it is labeled as Law and Order problem and is crushed down barbarically with arms, revealing the most undemocratic nature of the State and governments. But the people of Junglmahal are determined to continue their struggle come what may.
So, every day is a new day coming up with new hopes for the tribals and non-tribals of Jangalmahal fighting for their democratic demands. They are determined to boycott the coming elections to the Parliament. As they have realized that it won’t change anything in their lives. This belief among the people is clearly reflected in the words of a villager who spoke to Tehelka presenting the people’s upsurge in a new light thus; “It is not just about police atrocities. We are tired of waiting for development. We have no water, electricity, NREEGS, BPL cards or even a hospital nearby. So don’t blame us for being enraged. What is the point of these elections if it isn’t going to change any thing in our life?” Their undeterred movement will continue till they come out victorious. Inspired by the Lalgarh resistance other tribal and non-tribal poor people dominated areas are on the ferment. Recently, in 4 blocks of Parulia district 1 lakh 50 thousand adivasis formed a similar committee. The name of the organization is Adivasi Mulbasi Janaganer Committee. Over the last few months, the movement has also spread roots in to CPI (M) strongholds like Raipur, Shimlipal and Saringa blocks of Bankura district, the Borolampur sub-division of Purulia district and parts of Birbhum district. These are not areas where police atrocities have taken place, but the movement has struck a chord as a way for adivasis to assert their political identity – changing the face of the resistance movement.
This translated piece is to be placed in a box.
Stand by People’s Movement in Lalgarh! If Necessary ‘Sarjam Girou’ Shall Remain Firmly in Place
Get Organised, Spread Far and Wide the Fire of This Santhal Rebellion!

[This is an appeal calling on the people to extend support to the Lalgarh movement]
Dear friends,

Ever since the colonial reign of the British, plunder, exploitation, torture, deprivation have continued relentlessly down to this historical period of time on the Adivasis and people of Janglekhand. No perceptibly overall change has been brought about to snap that legacy despite 62 years of independence passed into history. For the adivasis and the Janglekhand people falling victims to perennial deprivation and torture lingers on unabated. In any parts of India, whenever any movement by the adivasis or Aam Janata are built up invariably the despicable and severe measures are being taken recourse to crush them. Living examples – The movements of Manipur, Assam, Chattisgarh, the struggle of the Kamtapuris and for Gorkhaland. Besides that, the glaring examples of repressions by the rulers by means of murders with bullets, rape, loot and burning have been set up in Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal. Here, whenever the adivasis and repressed people burst into roars of protests to establish their rights, out comes the repression in the similar fashion. In this free country India itself, from the very onset of launching movements for water, jungle, land and rights to language and culture of the soil i.e., for the Jharkhand movement it is the police-CPI(M) nexus that went so far as to set the villages on fire. Even now we feel shivers up and down our spine whenever the recollections of the firing incidents in Rajkharsawa, Guduria and Gua come crowding our memories. The CPI(M)led left government has resorted to ghoulishly brutal ways of repression whenever the masses of people have built up struggles for agricultural land, irrigation, better wages, against corruption in rations and with the demand for development.
Ever since the year 1998, the MCCI, CPI(ML)(PW) and later the CPI Maoist organizations have been escalating their influence in three districts viz. West Midnapur, Bankura and Purulia, police and the CPI(M) have kept up unleashing torture and repression on an increasingly intensive scale on the adivasis and innocent people. Could one imagine such specimens of torture like the rape of Behula Mahato of Laljol in Belpahari, by police; lifting the shirts up and digging into the skirts of the school going girl students in the name of checking or beating to death the old lady at Tesabandh in Lalgarh?
What kinds of torture are they when police resort to the third degree method by pouring petrol into the rectum of the arrested persons, tugging at the chord tied to penis or letting free lizards into the pants? The unending incidents of using batons, firing or transporting to jail, picking up from a field or from any place or arrests without warrant shall baffle the computer memory. Fie! On the plea of mine blast triggered to Buddhadeb’s tail, at some place, search operation came to be launched in Lalgarh, in Binpur. They were not mere searches, they meant kidnapping and thrashing (battering) adivasis and innocent people at night. In the perfect style and method of kidnappers, three students were picked up on their way home while coming back from listening baul songs at Kantapahari. Awful was it that even the pregnant woman was not spared, shoving her down to the ground her husband Deepak Pratihar was hurled into the police van.
Buddhadeb government’s police gave a sound beating to women adivasis like the hired goons at Chhotopeliya village under Lalgarh on November 5, at the crack of dawn at 4:30 a.m. Someone lost eye, some got their skulls cracked, some had their hands broken --------- then who will ensure punishment to those brute policemen? Should he not get the punishment commensurate with his crimes? Is it any disproportionate punishment to demand apology holding ears and rubbing nose on the ground? The movement has wheeled forward at the speed of a wheezing arrow centering basically on the issues of unleashing tortures on the women. The actual origin of this fire of resistance is rooted in deprivation, exploitation, repressive rule and torture meted out to the adivasis and the people of Junglekhand, that have been continuing since long past. Come forward students, youths, artists, intellectuals and democracy-loving people and stand by this movement. We the off-spring of Sidu- Kanu-Birsa Munda have never bowed down our heads and shall never do, come forward and let us consolidate the fire of resistance and hold aloft our demands.
{Historically, the Santhal people have never taken oppression mutely. At Madhupur, a village near Lalgarh, there is a statue of two Santhal leaders who mobilized a 10,000 strong warriors to rebel against the British on June 30, 1855 – now famously known as Sajjam Giro.]

Box
People of Jungalmahal Boycott Elections.

In West Bengal’s Jungalmahal area the people’s message was loud and clear. We don’t believe in the system. And it echoed throughout the Maoist strongholds in that region on April 30, when 14 constituencies across nine districts went to polls. Media reports indicate that an unprecedented election boycott was observed in the tribal-dominated areas of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura as well as the Dooars region of North Bengal. Eight booths of Lalgarh saw no voters; in Belpahari 13 booths stood empty and in the other areas of the state 96 booths registered no polling. Of the 30,000 voters in Lalgarh not more than 100 voted. The media reports that even the CRPF personnel on poll duty were surprised. An Assistant Commandant of the CRPF told the media: “We have experience working in Maoist troubled zones. We have not seen such type of low voting in other states”


This article could not be included in the PRINT COPY

Open Protest Letter from the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan

To
The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
(With Copies to the Participating Parties and Organizations of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement)

The Nepalese Armed Lackeys, a Contingent of Occupying Forces in Afghanistan

The presence of Nepalese armed lackeys was seen in Afghanistan almost simultaneously when the American private security companies appeared in Afghanistan. Since then the issue has been reported in Shola Jawaid, central organ of our party, several times. The new government of Nepal that is lead by the Communist Party of Nepal (M) was expected to pay serious attention; take decisive measures in deploying Nepalese armed lackeys out from Afghanistan. Unfortunately, despite abolishing the Monarchy no measure is taken so far - in fact, the presence of Nepalese armed lackeys is more vividly spreading. The number of these forces stationed only at an important airport of country (Shindand Airport in Herat Province) was estimated to be 700. Groups of armed Nepalese now are seen at Kandahar Airport in Kandahar Province; at PRT (1) headquarter in Ghazni Province and some areas that are critical from security point of view in Kabul and other places. The number of Nepalese armed lackeys is estimated 1500 - 2000.

We recently learned - from other sources in RIM, not from the CPN (M) - that the new government of Nepal has agreed to contribute armed contingents to the “peacekeeping missions” of the UN. It is not known yet if the increase of Nepalese armed lackeys in Afghanistan is the outcome of this agreement. However, two issues are obvious:

1- The new government of Nepal and all its constituents – including its leading body the CPN (M) –not only have not opposed the presence of Nepalese armed lackeys in Afghanistan, but they have tolerated further expansion of these forces and practically have allowed it to happen.


2- Under the previous government of Nepal, Nepalese armed forces in Afghanistan worked only with the American private security companies. Now, in Shindand Airport they are under the direct command of the US “Special Forces”. In Kandahar, they “work” with Canadian forces, at PRT headquarter in Ghazni they are associated with Polish forces, in Kabul and other regions they are linked with the American private security companies. They are not stationed in a specific location for a specific “mission”; rather they are moved from place to place, hired to render various “tasks”.

Our Party as a participant of the 6th Conference of CCOMPOSA(2) – see the report in Shola Jawid No. 18, January 2007 – in addition to raising other issues in the Conference, emanated the presence of Nepalese armed forces in Afghanistan as a serious issue. We demanded the CPN (M) to pay close attention to deployment of Nepalese forces out from Afghanistan. The CPN (M) promised to launch serious efforts for taking action.

Almost one year after the “6th Conference of CCOMPOSA”, the CPN (M) declared the "COMMITMENT PAPER… FOR THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY ELECTION". During that one year no measure - neither in word nor in deed - was taken by the CPN (M) to deliver what was promised in the Conference. So declaration of the “COMMITMENT PAPERS …” did not help stop “breaking promises”.

Before reviewing the “COMMITMENT PAPER … FOR THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY ELECTION", it was incomprehensible for us why a communist Maoist party, seriously committed to proletarian internationalism, would agree the citizens of its country participate in imperialist occupation and practically execute the plans led by the US imperialism.

Several weeks after the Election, when we read the content of the "COMMITMENT PAPER … FOR THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY ELECTION", we were surprised to see what was promised in the 6th Conference has been completely ignored. In part four of the “COMMITMENT PAPER…" the GorKha recruitment has been mentioned only in passing - without clearly discussing or opposing the presence of Nepalese armed lackeys in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The passage reads: "3. Gorkha Recruitment Centre: The shameful tradition like Gorkha recruitment centre, in which Nepali citizens are recruited in foreign army, should be ended and, reverent and productive employment should be arranged for them within the country. On this, creating public opinion and helpful environment, necessary steps will be taken up. "

This topic is discussed under a major title “Vision of CPN (Maoist): Establishment of Prosperous New Republican Nepal", subtitled under “Question of Nationalism and International Relation". In other words, “COMMITMENT PAPER…" approaches the issue of GorKha recruitment from a narrow nationalist perspective. By reading the sentence carefully one can clearly see that the tradition of Nepalese recruitment by foreign armies is discussed in the context of Nepalese “national pride" and this type of "employment" is called dishonourable. Certainly that is right!

But paying attention only to the dishonourable aspect of the "employment" is only one obvious aspect of the tradition – the remark fails to offer an in-depth explanation how shameful this tradition really is. The true disgrace of this tradition can be described only if it is explained in the context of proletarian internationalism, not merely from the perspective of narrow nationalism.


Furthermore, the CPN (M) position in the “COMMITMENT PAPER …” - calling the Gorkha recruitment centre overall as “shameful” - does not clearly and specifically put finger on the presence of Nepalese armed lackeys in Afghanistan and Iraq; neither it deciphers how it serves the imperialist campaign led by the US occupying forces.

The “shameful tradition of Gorkha recruitment centre” is an ancient one that dates back to the British colonialism in the Indian Continent. After independence of India, the Nepalese paid-soldiers not only continued to provide service to Britain, but India also started to hire the Gorkha soldiers. In fact, one of the first infamous Indian army units was the “Gorkha Regiment”. Refugees migrating from northern India to Pakistan, during formation of Pakistan, have bitter memories of brutality of the “Regiment”. These units still exist in India.


Although the “shameful tradition” is a tradition of the past, in the context of present situation, it is quite brand new. What makes it “new” is the seal specifically put on it by the UN, approving it to be used in Afghanistan.

We had no illusion or expectation in the past, nor we would have in the future, that feudal-comprador constituents of the new government of Nepal – forces like Nepalese Congress, the revisionist United Marxist-Leninist who served the Royal Nepal Army and the US imperialists – deploy forces out of Afghanistan. However, the CPN (M) a participant of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, a signatory of two important documents of 1993 (On the International Situation) and 2000 the “Millennium Resolution”, and as an important host and organizer of the 6th Conference of CCOMPOSA who promised to launch a vigorous campaign for deployment of Nepalese armed lackeys from Afghanistan - has no right to agree with and/or practically serve the imperialist occupiers.

Currently, the Chairman of the CPN (M) is the Prime Minister of Nepal. The Ministry of Defense belongs to a leader of the CPN (M). The Ministry of Finance and other critical positions in the cabinet belong to the CPN (M). In short, the coalition government is under the leadership of the CPN (M). However, the citizens of this government is a part and parcel of occupying forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq – a party that led Peoples War for ten years in Nepal - now shamefully agrees with the occupation forces and implements their plans!

Our party in its internal debates, when launching campaign in defence of revolution in Nepal, indicated that this issue will not be debated internally after the election of the Constituent Assembly in Nepal. Some debates are already surfacing openly in the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement. Still we may need to discuss some ideological and political issues internally. However, agreement of the CPN (M) on Nepalese citizens to serve along with imperialist contingency forces in Afghanistan and Iraq must be vigorously and openly contested and exposed.

The CPN (M) is in a position – if she desires so – to end the shameful situation of presence of Nepalese citizens along with the occupying forces in Afghanistan and Iraq immediately once and for all. We believe no preparation is needed for creating public opinion around this issue, nor more time is needed for creating respectable employment inside Nepal for deployment of its citizen from Afghanistan and Iraq. This issue has an immediate solution, should the CPN (M) take immediate measures to this end.

We are of the opinion all participants of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, including the CPN (M), pay immediate attention to this urgent issue. The current embarrassing situation has raised questions around the international alignment of CPN (M) in its entirety, especially on its connection with the aggressive campaign of occupation forces under the leadership of US imperialists. If this disgrace continues on, and a serious struggle for ending the situation is not decisively launched, the present silence makes all participants of RIM - first and foremost our Party and the CPN (M) - responsible for atrocities that imperialists are committing against people. We must launch a fierce struggle on this issue as an integral part of line struggle against the current CPN (M) line, whose hideous ugliness is now openly reflected in the presence of Nepalese armed lackeys in Afghanistan along the imperialist occupying forces.

We especially ask members of the CPN (M), the Communist Youth League, the warriors of PLA, all guerrilla forces and mass organizations under the leadership of the CPN(M), to bear pressure on the leadership of this Party and the government under its leadership to end this shameful situation. Otherwise, Nepalese lackey armed forces, just as they are spilling the blood of masses in Afghanistan in the interest of imperialist invaders, soon they will spill the blood of the members of the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan, along with the blood of all masses related to our Party.

The Central Committee of the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan

MARCH 2009

(1) PRT stands for Provincial Reconstruction Team – a coalition of US-NATO vigilantes stationed in the villages and countryside of Afghanistan for spying rather than reconstruction.

(2) CCOMPSA – Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organization of South Asia.



A reply from phil_jenkins@yahoo.co.uk
Re: Open Protest Letter from the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan to Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)

Afghanistan Maoists Comrades,

though i agree with most of this 'protest letter' from your party, i think we need to dig deeper prior to a public protest letter to our Nepalese Comrades. First we should look further into the current situation of events within Nepal itself. Our Nepalese Comrades share the political power in government, this we are aware. Our Comrades of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) do not yet hold the state power. If this was the case then yes the pillar of the proletarian state, the people's army of course would not participate in the imperialist occupation of Afghanistan. It is in fact noted that it is not the P.L.A. which participates, but the discredited Nepal Army, the army of the old state, still to be smashed in its entirety, which occupies your country!

Of course the U CPN(M) should condemn, criticise the reactionaries in Nepal from assisting US imperialism in order to weaken them, isolate them as part of the overall exposure of the Nepalese ruling class. This would indeed assist the struggle for proletarian state power, an issue which Comrade Joseph Ball pointed out clearly in his previous article on state power and the contradictions surrounding it.

The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) should acquire state power as soon as is possible, first to propel the Nepalese Revolution forward and also to assist the Afghan Revolution!

In the meantime, the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan should start the peoples war them selves!

Comradely

Peoples' Truth Bulletin No:5

Dear friends,

Peoples's truth Bulletin No:5 is pasted below.

p.Govindan kutty
editor, Peoples' Truth



As Worldwide Crisis Deepens
India faces Devastation
Arvind

The crisis in all economies of the world has intensified at a rate unexpected by all economic forecasts. The figures rolling out are frightening – whether it is in the US, Europe, or even in China and Russia. And this is in spite of the massive bail-outs, stimulus packages, interest rate cuts, etc. None of these measures seem to have any significant effect. In fact, the figures of the losses in the financial institutions are mind-boggling, and the bail-out packages, much of it swallowed by the very titans who are the cause of the crisis, are not likely to save the crumbling economies.
And in India, for all the tall-talk of the media and government that our fundamentals are sound, its impact has already been devastating, with not lakhs, but crores thrown out of jobs, and with lakhs more facing wage/salary cuts and in the line of fire. Here too, a series of stimulus packages and massive liquidity infusions have had little effect. Sales continue to drop and jobs continue to be lost. And the government, instead of seeking to shield itself from the impact of the meltdown in the imperialist countries (which is at the roots of the problem), has taken a slew of policy decisions pushing the country deeper into the grip of the imperialist octopus. Over and above the earlier decisions the Commerce Ministry has recently taken a decision to allow the unrestricted flow of FDI (without any caps) into any industry in any sector. [See Box] Not a single party in all their election propaganda is addressing this most serious problem facing the country. They talk abstractly of aam admi but not concretely on what measures can be taken to insulate the people from the effects of the turmoil in the imperialist countries.
By year end the world is likely to face a horrifying situation with all countries stepping up their military expenditure, both, to boost sagging demand and to prepare for possible conflagrations.
In this article we shall take the latest update (since our last article) on the world situation and also in India. We shall then look at its implications and the rise of peoples’ movements.

Update on the International Economy

After the earlier bail-outs and stimulus packages of the beleaguered Republican government of the US, Obama, amidst huge fanfare, introduced yet another stimulus package of $800 billion to one trillion. This was accompanied by further cuts in interest rates, which now hover around zero per cent
Yet, this all seems to be to no avail. All figures coming in for January and February of this year have been even more depressing than those earlier. In fact, on March 8th the World Bank, in a report, predicted shrinkage in the world economy this year – the first time since World War II, which is likely to be five percentage points below potential. It said world trade in 2009 is set to record the largest decline in 80 years i.e. since the 1929 stock market crash. Its forecasts also show that global industrial production by the middle of 2009 could be as much as 15% lower than levels in 2008.
The report also said that many of the underdeveloped countries “were being devastated by plunging exports, falling commodity prices, declining foreign investment and vanishing credit”. It adds that, “lower commodity prices have caused havoc in the economies of Africa and Latin America. East Asian countries are facing plunging global trade. Central European countries, like Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, are hurting from diminished exports to Western Europe. They are also reeling from a severe credit crisis among major European Banks, which have taken huge losses on American mortgages and mortgage-backed securities.”
In another report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) it said that the global financial crisis slashed the value of financial assets by a gigantic $ 50 trillion in 2008, and among the backward countries the worst hit was the Asian market. The latter’s losses on financial assets last year totaled $ 9.6 trillion, or just over one year’s worth of GDP. The ADB has measured the losses in the equity and bond markets, including those backed by mortgages.
In the last week of February the Dow Jones Industrial Index dropped 6.1% and the S & P index dropped 7% — both are at a 12-year low. In early March it was reported that the two major giants striding the industrial and financial world – General Motors and Citigroup – were both again on the brink of bankruptcy. This is in spite of the fact that both had received massive bail-outs just a few months back. It was being predicted that the collapse of GM, for many years the biggest company in the world, would result in a loss of 4% of the US GDP and trigger a massive round of lay-offs. The stock price of the Dow component of Citigroup, once the world’s most valuable bank, fell under $ 1 for the first time, re-igniting anxiety over the bank’s health and that of the entire banking sector. Citigroup has lost over $ 20 billion in the last five quarters.
In January 2009 the US lost a massive 6 lakh jobs (highest in 34 years). Since Dec. 2007 (beginning of the recession) 3.6 million jobs have been lost. The official rate of the unemployed is 7.6% while that for teenagers, at 20.4%, was three times the then national average (in Oct 08). But these unemployment data are much understated as the Clinton regime changed the very basis of computation excluding vast categories from the unemployed. Using pre-Clinton methodologies for calculation the figure would be around 16-18% today. As we go to the press, figures for February indicate a further 6 lakh job losses in the US. The downslide continues unabated.
Obama inherited a federal (budget) deficit of $ 1.2 trillion; his spending will raise this to $ 3 trillion. The IMF estimates that the bank losses are now $ 2.2 trillion, which is unlikely to be covered by the bail-outs by the government. This means some big banks will inevitably crash having a domino affect on other financial bodies. The Congress Budget Office predicts that over the next three years there will be a $ 2.9 trillion gap between what the economy could produce and what it would actually produce. The stimulus package to boost demand will not be sufficient to bridge the chasm. Together with greater military expenditure it may try!!!
Yet, in this acute crisis the titans of industry and finance continue their big pay packets and lavish life-styles; it is only the poor and middle-classes who suffer. So, for example, Merrill Lynch’s top executives made millions in bonuses even in 2008, though the company had a loss of $ 27 billion last year. The top four bonus recipients got $ 121 million each; 20 got $ 8 million in bonuses each and 53 got over $ 5 million in bonuses each. The Merrill Lynch new CEO spent $ 1.2 million in re-doing his office and Citigroup decided to spend $ 50 million on a corporate jet – both in 2008, amidst heavy bail-out packages. The unscrupulousness of these giants of finance can be seen from the fact that the top bosses of New York’s financial institutions paid themselves $ 18 billion in bonuses in 2008.
On the other hand millions now face unemployment in the US and millions more face severe wage/salary cuts. With the mortgage crisis intensifying six million more could lose their homes in the next two years. And the latest bubble to burst in the US is the looming credit card crisis, with 30% of borrowers being categorized as ‘risky’. No doubt, it is the Blacks that would be the worst affected and a Black President would be ideal to diffuse their discontent!!!
With the US as the largest economy in the world, and with most economies in some way tied up with its growth, such a severe spiraling crisis will have serious implications to all economies around the world. But, the other imperialist economies are not in a much better condition.
Japan continues with its deep-rooted stagflation. The largest economy of Europe – Germany – is the most severely hit, facing its worst recession since 1949. In the last quarter of 2008 its GDP declined by 2.1% compared to Italy’s 1.8% and France’s 1.2%.
If the Eurozone and Europe ended 2008 on a fearful note, 2009 is shaping up to confirm the worst nightmare of the EU’s 500 million citizens. Analysts forecast an economic contraction of 3% in 2009 even with the European Central Bank cutting interest rates to zero. Unemployment is likely to grow by one million by 2010 in Germany alone. Eurozone governments have committed $ 1 trillion to bail out banks and guarantee liabilities.
In China thousands of industries have closed down and an estimated 4 crores have already been thrown out of jobs. The crash in oil prices has hit Russia’s economy severely and its banks too stand to lose about $ 100 billion due to their exposure to western mortgage funds.
Regarding the underdeveloped countries the World Bank estimates that $ 1 trillion in corporate debt and about $ 3 trillion in the total debt will mature in 2009. Most of this will have to be paid in foreign exchange. They estimate that in 2009, 104 of the 129 underdeveloped countries will have current account (trade) surpluses smaller than the private debt coming due. For these countries, total financing needs were expected to amount to more than $ 1.4 trillion during the year. Over and above this, the World Bank estimates that these backward countries will need $ 300 to $ 700 billion in bail-out packages. In other words the bulk of the underdeveloped countries have once again been pushed into the debt trap as happened in the 1980s with the Third World Debt. Then, the weakened economies were forced to prise open their economies further through the Structural Adjustment Programmes and later the WTO. Now, with the imperialist economies in an even more severe crisis than in the early 1980s, they will even more ruthlessly seek to push the burden of the crisis on to the backs of the backward countries of the world. The measures taken by the servile Indian government are an example.

Devastation of India
In spite of two stimulus packages by the government, growth in industrial production declined by 2% in December 2008 (compared to a growth of 8% in Dec. 2007) and manufacturing declined by 2.5%.
On Jan 2 2009 the government export body reported that by March/April 2009 upto one crore jobs will be lost in the export sector. Already this is visible in most export-related sectors like garments, leather, diamonds etc.
The garments sector employs 4 crore people and it is the next highest employer in the country after agriculture. More than 7 lakhs have lost their jobs since 2007 and another 5 lakhs will be out by March 2009. [Hard News Feb. 2009] Ludhiana, for example, has been devastated, with exports down 30% and most units operating at a mere 40% capacity. In Tamilnadu garment exports have dropped from Rs.11,000 crores in 2007 to Rs.10,000 crores in 2008. In Tirupur region at least 1.5 lakh workers have been thrown out of jobs and another 2.5 lakhs have been affected. In Delhi business is down 20 to 30% and employment in the garments industry there is expected to have dropped by 25%.
If we turn to the leather industry we see a similar situation. The legendry footwear industry of Agra is in deep crisis. Recession has hit it hard with most of the small-scale units shutting down or on the brink of closure. Working from sweatshops in horrible conditions, they provide about 70% of the shoes in India. Traditional manufacturers, employing 10 to 15 workers, are collapsing, with the larger units shifting from exports to the domestic market. There are three lakh workers employed in Agra’s footwear industry and not only are thousands being thrown out of jobs, hundreds of small manufacturers also lie devastated.
If we now turn to the diamond industry, the situation is even more pathetic with at least 35 workers committing suicide (official). Surat, in Gujarat does 90% of the world’s polishing of diamonds. There are 3,000 factories employing 5 lakh workers. With exports crashing, about 2,000 factories have closed and about 2 lakh workers have been thrown out of jobs. Those who continue have seen their wage rates cut as also their hours of work. Most workers are Gujaratis belonging to the Patel community. Of course the icon of the big business houses and self-proclaimed mascot of Gujarat’s development, Modi, could not care for these workers.
Yet another export earner is the glass industry. Firozabad, in UP is the home to about 1,000 glass workshops, factories and industries, employing 4 lakh workers. Since the last six months the drop in exports has hit the industry hard with many closing down and others function at a loss. In addition, the domestic market has been swamped by cheaper Chinese goods. For these industries, the government has no bail-out nor does it seek to stop the imports. Earlier, most units were in exports now they are trying for the domestic market. Glass sales from Firozabad dropped 70% with over one lakh thrown out of their jobs. Worst hit are the daily-wage workers who are returning to their villages in and around Firozabad and Agra.
If we turn to some other sectors, we see a similar situation. With car sales down and construction industry in a slump, the sale of iron ore and steel has been badly affected.
In December 2008 sales of automobiles declined by 18.2%. According to SIAM (Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers) sales of commercial vehicles declined by 58.3% from 2007 to 2008. Sale of passenger cars fell by 7%, of heavy and medium vehicles by 71% and of light vehicles by 15.4%.
According to the Construction Worker’s Federation of India around one-third of Tamilnadu’s 30 lakh construction workers, belonging to 68 categories were badly hit by the slowdown. DLF’s net staff strength dropped by 10% in the quarter ending Oct 2008. With home loan interest rates having raised from 6% to 14% the purchase of houses has dropped drastically.
An example of what the slump in the iron and steel sector has done to the small scale units is to be seen in Mandi Gobindgarh — the steel hub of Punjab. Thousands of migrants would flock to this town for work; but today they wait in a half starved state for work that never comes their way. With the price of scrap having halved, over 100 scrap shops have closed down. Here, 90% of the firms are small and medium and with the slump in steel, most units are functioning at 20-40% capacity.
In Tamilnadu the 30,000 small and medium enterprises business is down by 40-50% and an estimate 25% (of 7 lakhs) have already lost their jobs.
But even if we turn to the much-hyped service sector the situation is not much better. In Kerala, tourism is down by 30% and real estate development which employed 25 lakh people has come to a halt. What is also devastating for the Kerala economy is the massive slum in jobs in the Gulf countries. According to the Kerala Migration Survey of its 1.85 million migrants 89% were employed in the Gulf and Kerala provided a huge percentage of the total NRI remittances from abroad. But, in the last six months, recruitment in the Gulf countries dropped by 70-80% and it is expected that 2 lakh people would return to Kerala by June 2009. (Frontline, March 13 2009)
Then if we turn to the IT and ITeS (IT enabled services), this too is heavily dependent on exports. According to NASSCOM in the financial year 2008/09 $ 47 billion was earned through exports and $ 13 billion through the domestic market. In 2005/06 this sector employed 1.3 million people. In Bangalore alone in the last quarter of 2008 10,000 jobs were lost and another 50,000 are expected to be lost by June 2009. In Hyderabad 25,000 or 10% of the total workforce lost their jobs in the last three months. Team lease Services said that there was a net decrease of 44% in recruitment in IT and 34% in ITeS in the current quarter. The net business in the IT sector is set to drop 61% and of the ITeS sector 22%. In addition to job losses, job uncertainty, reduced salaries and longer working hours has become the norm in this sector. (Frontline, March 13 2009)
With such huge displacement of the labour force of our country and no other source of employment, lakhs and lakhs of people, who are already leading a hand-to-mouth existence, will be pushed to starvation and death. Most will have to turn back to the land from where they had migrated in the first place, due to lack of opportunity to survive in their rural habitat. This will result in an explosive situation and no amount of shouting at them as being ‘terrorists’ can stop a conflagration.
Geopolitical Repercussions
In periods of such crisis, the entire world will be thrown into much turmoil; wars will loom in all corners and trade ties will consolidate into political and military alliances. America, which is at the very centre of the crisis, and which will seek desperately to save its markets and sources of raw materials, will be the main source of wars (whether direct or proxy), while the other imperialist powers will seek to gain from the US’s economic/financial weaknesses. But, as yet no imperialist power can even remotely match the us military might of the US; this will embolden the US towards military adventurism to make gains in the sphere in which it is strong. Besides, war and heavy militarization create a demand, which helps economic revival.
It is therefore not surprising that the latest reports have indicated a massive hike in military budgets of most major countries — even India and China. Though geopolitical alignments are still in flux, the Russia/SCO’s growing alliance with Germany is developing into a substantial challenge to the US, making Obama shift the theatre of war from the Middle East to Afghanistan (which borders both Russia’s CIS and China). This alliance becomes all the more lethal if it can rope in much of Europe. Already France’s honeymoon with Britain appears souring, and it is once again making overtures to Germany.
However, this shift in the theatre of war can have frightful consequences for the people of India and the rest of South Asia. That the US intends to push the war agenda in this region is obvious from the fact that it has sent the most notorious Holbrooke to the region [See Box]. With India acting as the front paw of the US in the region, and Pakistan ruling classes in relative disarray (being pulled in many directions by the US, by China and by the Islamic fundamentalists), the Afghan turmoil is likely to spread eastwards. The US Chief of Staff, Mike Mullen, has already stated that they intend to see the Afghan problem as a “regional’ issue involving the three South Asian countries and views India as the chief US protagonist in its wars in the region. The Mumbai terror attacks have conveniently (for the US) pushed the war agenda in the region.
The people of South Asia need to be highly vigilant against the war manipulations of the US and their stooges in the region. After all, with both India and Pakistan equipped with nuclear weapons, a conflagration can turn into a frightening holocaust. The people of both countries must oppose the war hysteria of their respective governments, and, in fact, intensify the civil wars in their own countries against their brutal rulers and their imperialist sponsors.

Peoples’ Upsurge & Revolutionary Transformation
What we see today is just the beginning of the impact of the crisis; by year-end conditions will deteriorate substantially. On this occasion, not only will the people of the backward countries be badly hit, but so will the people of the developed countries. Hunger, misery and excruciating poverty will stalk the world, on a scale rarely seen before. With genuine communist (Maoist) forces weak there is likely to be spontaneous outbursts all over the world, which cannot sustain in face of an increasingly terroristic state. Fascism, war and revolutions are inevitable characteristics of such periods.
The sparks of revolt are already to be seen. Militant demonstrations have spread across Europe from Athens to Kiev. But it is the uprising in Greece and the mutiny of lower level army men of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) which shows to what extent the suppressed anger of the people can burst forth. Both began with relatively minor events, but soon spread into major conflagrations. The former began with the beating to death of a 15-year schoolboy by the police and then spread throughout Greece; the latter began with the demand for higher wages and spread to engulf the entire BDR lower ranks in the country.
In Greece thousands and thousands fought pitched battles with the police for nearly one month. The flare up in Athens soon spread to all the main towns of the country. It turned into a veritable uprising, which threatened to topple the government. What is particularly notable in this uprising was a massive participation of the youth focused primarily against unemployment and police brutality. In Greece, there being a Maoist presence, it will help to take such a movement forward.
In Bangladesh, what happened seems unbelievable. The mutineers of the BDR killed over 100 senior officers in their own army headquarters. The operation was planned with so much precision that the government was not even aware of the massacre until mass graves revealed the extent of the revolt. And this did not occur in some backward rural region but in the very heart of the capital city of the country, in Dacca. The mutiny spread to many sections of the BDR in other parts of the country. Most escaped from the scene and went underground. Since then the Bangladesh government and their Indian backers have blacked out all further news. Unfortunately, the Maoists of Bangladesh, who have a glorious tradition, have been much weakened by the brutal murder of most of the top leaders one of the most important Maoist parities; or else the mutineers could have joined forces with the Maoists to become an explosive mix.
Besides these two major events, there have been strong movements, particularly all over Europe. In France, up to two-and-a-half million people came out recently in nationwide protests against the direction in which the conservative government of Sarkozy is taking their society. Even in stable, quiet, Scandinavian Iceland, police have used tear gas against citizens for the first time in 60 years, the neoliberal government has collapsed, and a left-green alliance is focusing public resentment against capitalism. One analyst says the protests are more serious than those of the iconic May 1968 Paris uprising.
Elsewhere in Europe, Greek farmers have blocked Bulgarian roads over the poor prices paid for Greek farm exports. The Hungarian government, penniless and watching the economy implode, has imposed more tax rises and spending cuts on a population already in trouble. Parts of the Latvian and Lithuanian capitals, Riga and Vilnius, have been wrecked in running battles between protesters and police, and their governments are as impoverished as many other East European states.
Such mini-revolts are brewing in all corners of the earth, including India, and are only bound to intensify as the crisis deepens. However, as long as there is no revolutionary Marxist force to lead it forward, these movements are easily suppressed by an increasingly fascist state, or diverted through racist and communal carnage or diffused through symptomatic changes like changes in the government. The need of the hour is genuine Maoist forces to re-group and build deep links with the struggling masses around the world so that they can lead these revolts in a direction towards the total transformation of society — towards socialism, which alone can solve the problems caused by the capitalist system.
The economists and politicians try to make out that it is a problem caused by the certain wrong policies, or one Allan Greenspan, or excessive liberalization of the financial sector, or merely some greedy unscrupulous elements at the top. All these may no doubt be a fact, but it is only a part truth, as root cause for the problem lies in the very capitalist system itself. Here, due to continued stagnation since the mid-1970s, accumulated surplus generated by the capitalists could not find an outlet in the productive (real) economy and therefore got invested in debt and speculation. This is an inevitable aspect of capitalism in its imperialist age, pointed out by Lenin over 90 years back, describing this type of capitalism parasitic, moribund and reactionary. Only in the 1990s and the present century, the speculative economy reached gigantic proportions. Without any strong base and much hot air, the bubbles generated were bound to burst. This inherent contradiction of capitalism, entailing the crisis of overproduction, has no solution in capitalism itself; the only answer is socialism.
That the earlier socialist experiments have been reversed certainly raises doubts on its viability. The lacunae in those systems must be no doubt be looked into, but socialism is the only scientific course for the development of society. The future will definite prove this.

March 12 2009

BOX


Free Hand for FDIs in India

According to the new norms, if foreign equity investments are made inn the wholly owned group subsidiaries of an India parent company (a company which has an Indian majority ownership) the investment would not be treated as a foreign investment but as a domestic equity investment. “this would indirectly open up all sectors for foreign investment; and foreign companies can route their money in the Indian group companies without any hassle in any sector” explains Navinder Wadhwa (MDSKI Capital Services Ltd) “This would open a Pandora’s box as global entities would gate crash into any sector as they please”, says Jainani (or research & Marketing, Khandwala Securities Ltd) He adds “the growing Indian sectors….. which had restricted foreign investment through caps would now witness a flurry of capital inflows”.
Business & Economy 20 Feb. – March 5 2009

Besides this, FDI norms had been earlier eased in insurance, housing and retail in spite of the scarcity of the crisis FDI in 2009 is expected to jump to $ 30 billion, from $ 16 billion in the previous year.



BOX

The Holbrooke Affect

Holbrooke was assigned to the Afghanistan/Pakistan region, in what the US regards as “the most problematic region on earth”, with unstable governments, insurgencies, nuclear weapons, monumental corruption, a thriving narcotics trade, resentment of US power, and a resurgent Taliban. Holbrooke “is the diplomatic equivalent of a hydrogen bomb”, former Deputy Secretary, Strobe Talbot recently told the New York Times. Holbrooke was chosen, says the paper, “because of his ability to twist arms as well as hold hands, work closely with the military and improvise inventive solutions to what others write off as insoluble problems. But no one yet knows how his often pyrotechnical style – he whispers, but also pesters, bluffs, threatens, stages fits and publicises – will work.”
His return to the State Department has “rattled colleagues who remember him as someone who cultivates the powerful and tramples those with less to offer….
The image derives from Holbrooke’s role in negotiating the Dayton Accord in November 1995, which ended the war in former Yugoslavia. This role was extremely controversial and involved the use of force, bluster, deception and outright fabrication. Holbrooke used military power to orchestrate what has been called “imperial intervention” to support operations of a despicably brutal nature.
Holbrooke’s most important decision was to encourage the Croatian army to launch a bloody surprise against the Serbs in August 1995, which turned out to be the Balkans’ worst act of ethnic cleansing over 2,500 people were killed, and 2 lakh displaced. But Holbrooke had no remorse. He infamously said “we hired these guys to be our junkyard dogs because we were desperate. We need to try and control them. But it is no time to be squeamish”.
Equally important was his long-standing advocacy of “direct use of force against the Serbs”, which materialized in 1995. NATO’s bombing of Bosnian Serbs targets established it as the greatest player in the conflict….
Frontline March 13 2009

With this notorious record, one can just imagine what the US administration has in store for the people of South Asia.


Dismal Industrial Scenario and Downward Growth
Gupta

The stock market boom, massive presence of speculative capital, foreign institutional investments (FIIs), in a word, basically the foreign finance in an extremely unequal global economy led to glittering growth of sorts for the past ten years. Even when agriculture languished, the sub-sectors of “trade, hotel, transport and communication” and “financing, insurance, real estate and business services” along with some sub-sectors of the manufacturing sector (machinery and equipment including transport equipment and parts and basic metal and alloy industries) were supposed to be lifting India to an astounding growth akin to the countries of the East Asian “miracle” The imperialist globalization lobby went in to a booze for the unprecedented growth of exports of IT and IT enabled services etc. Like the headquarters of the capitalist economy, the US that banked on a booming financialization, Indian stock markets, Participatory Notes, FIIs and multiple types of financial instruments pumped the “shining” Indian growth for some years past has nose dived like the Western masters.
The shopping malls, real estate boom along with the surge in manufacturing sector were propelled by various types of private investment and private elite consumption, both buttressed by the easily availability of credit at lower interest rates. With reduced scope of real productive investment banks were flush with money. Secondly, the unprecedented inflows of capital that had boosted India’s foreign currency assets from $71.9 billion on March 31, 2003 to $253.3 billion in October 2007 to soar far higher in 2008.
Now the world capitalist economy has tumbled down thrusting it into a state of coma. Now the US Congress with the new President Barack Obama at the lead approved on 13 February 2009 a $789 billion stimulus bill that aims to rush emergency government spending and tax cuts to a nation in the grip of a severe recession. Indian economy that has been strongly tied up with the speculation based centers of crony capitalism has been severely impacted by the unprecedented crisis of capitalism. Fallowing in the foot steps of imperialist countries of the world, Indian government has announced multiple stimulus packages to the tune of Rs.15, 000 crore till January ’09. The IT sector, IT-enabled services, the entire export sector, automobile sector and all that had been showcased as engine of growth have fallen miserably. A veritably speculative forecast has taken the center stage. The central Statistical Organization’s advance estimate of 7.1% growth in gross domestic product fro 2008-09 (Rs.33, 51, 653 crore at 1990-00 prices) appears to be an elevated estimate when compared with the IMF’s estimate of 6% growth in Indian economy in the current fiscal. On the other hand, Reserve Bank’s ‘Survey of Professional Forecasters’, which takes 21 assessments into account, says that “forecasters have revised their real GDP growth rate downwards to 6.8% in 2008-09 from 7.7% in the last survey”. [Business Line, 15.2.09]. Obviously, Indian common people have had enough of the growth story and whatever is the growth (definitely downwards), the toiling masses will be hardly touched as before.
On the corporate activity, the Center for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE) in its January 2009 review made such dismal comment on the industrial scenario: “companies have been keen to clear inventories that were created with expensive raw materials… as there is a fear that final product prices would also fall. (They) would rather cut production and reduce running costs and costly inventories than keep the production cycle running… Companies have fine-tuned their… acceptable level of inventories in the light of the new uncertainties but this does not imply that demand has dried.” [Business Line; ibid]. The general assessment runs like this: a downturn in manufacturing will impact services more than in earlier episodes of economic shock. And the 7.1% growth rate in GDP for 2008-09 according to the Center’s ‘advance estimate’ is clearly contradicted by the latest Index of Industrial Production released by the Central Statistical Organization (CSO) on 12th February, ’09:

Average industrial growth rates in 2009 (2008?)

Table for Electricity Data (For Which Year?)

Quarter (Of Which Year ?) Manufacturing (79.358) Mining (10.169) Electricity (10.169) General (100.00)
April-June 5.76 3.98 1.98 5.33
July-Sep. 4.91 3.79 3.19 4.69
Oct.-Dec. -0.68 1.51 2.88 -0.25


Note: Figures in brackets are sectoral weights in General IIP (Index of Industrial Production)
[Source: Business Line, 13-2-09]

Industrial Recession in India Even Before Global Crisis

It is factually incorrect and deliberate distortion of the realty that the industrial sector in India had been running smoothly before the hell broke loose on the capitalist system as a whole. The economic commentators of bourgeoisie persuasion would have us believe that it was the recession in the US, Europe, Japan, etc, all on a sudden held in check industrial strides in India. There is no question of refusing to accept the global impact of the crisis with no signs of easing up but this crisis actually accentuated the already built up hurdles in the industrial sector. The structural constraints were never unlocked for the real growth of the economy. The expenditures on clothing, food, bedding, soaps, utensils, household implements, bicycles, etc, have perpetually remained very low. 70 percent of the rural population lives below the level that can afford these essentials for a healthy existence. The NDA, UPA like governments made strenuous efforts to gain foreign markets for Indian goods. And for this they assisted exporters with various open and hidden subsidies. The SEZ policy was taken up under the World Bank diktat to promote exports as the supposed engine of economic growth. The vast potential of developing the home market based on domestic demand of mass of the people was simply evaded to prioritize native and foreign corporates.
Even before the explosion of the global crisis the runaway inflation hit food and other items of essential consumption. The rising oil prices worsened the situation. There were defiantly signs of decelerating growth, particularly in the industrial sector. If we consider the index of Industrial production accepting the base year 1993-94 it was a clear sign of falling sharply of the general index in 2008 after initial rise in March to scale down to the lower level. This pattern was essentially reflective of the behavior of the manufacturing index, which accounted for about 80% of the weight of the general index. This diminishing trend was tried to be played down by the standard way of presenting the industrial growth data of year0on-year monthly rates. The most dismal performance was shown by the electricity production, which had hardly shown any rise and rather tended to record a flat trend from April 2007 to September 2008. Electricity shortage and production downfall to that extent immensely aggravated industrial production. Mining, manufacturing, electricity and general industrial production as a whole showed signs of a down trend in 2007-08 towards stagnation. The production of capital goods shows much greater volatility leading to decline after a temporary rise in March 2008.
Besides that, consumer goods were directly affected by the slowing demand in domestic and export market. It should be emphatically stated that more than 80% consumer durables that had shown a peak demand in early 2008 and then declined gradually benefited from a credit-financed boom which was mimicry of the American way of pumping demand. And the decline in India in respect of slide in demand for consumer durables almost went hand in hand with that of the USA. According to P.Balakrishnan and M.Parameswaran (Economic and Political Weekly, 14, July,2007) India’s trajectory of manufacturing shows the sign that some segments of the services sector, such as communications and “BFI” (Business, Financial Services and Insurance) have benefited from the reforms and these have grown fast. However, these are not the fastest growing of the services sectors, which are “Trade, Hotels and Restaurants”. And though “Financing, Insurance, Real Estate and business Services” has grown fast after 1991 alright, its contribution to overall growth has actually slowed compared to the 1980s. This was observed in 2007. However, this type of temporary upswing was based mainly on the demand from the privileged classes that benefited substantially from reforms under globalization when some 75 percent of Indians with a daily per capita purchasing power of less than Rs.20 have had virtually no place in this corporated economy as consumers.
A few words are in order to focus here on the industrial policy in the liberalization period. The first was the removal of capacity controls by “de-reserving” and “de-licensing” industries or abolition of the license requirements to create new capacity or to substantially expand the existing capacity. As a consequence the de-reservation of areas earlier reserved for public sector and the subsequent de-licensing of industries, only nine industries for which entry by private investors was regulated at the end of 1997-98. This led to free investment by private corporates in capacity and production in a wide range of industries which were regulated earlier, including heavy industries, automobiles and other sectors. The second area of industrial reform was related to the dilution of provisions of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act to facilitate the expansion and diversification of large firms and firms belonging to big business groups.
Industrial Recession in India
The third type of liberalization in industry involved foreign investment regulations like the grant of automatic approval, or exemption from case by case approval, for equity investment up to 51% and for foreign technology agreements in identified high priority industries. Subsequently, the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act was modified so that companies with foreign equity exceeding 40% of the total were to be treated on par with Indian companies. Then by creating Foreign Investment Promotion Board the government liberally approved proposals and providing a high equity share to foreign investors going up to 100 percent in many cases. Subsequently, automatic approval was allowed for foreign equity in excess of 51% in certain sectors, for example 100 percent in the pharmaceutical industry.
Thus native and foreign behemoths became the deciding factors in India’s industrial trajectory that could never be pro-people and was not meant for the uplift of the mass of the people or ensure sustainable industrial development. It is worthwhile to refer here to only a few relevant points from the document captioned “US-India: A New Vision for Economic Partnership”, originally titled “US-India Strategic Economic Partnership” endorse during US President George Bush’s visit to India in March, 2006. The section on “Physical Infrastructural Development” stated “Public-private partnership must be encouraged and the Indian government must play a lead role in fostering speed, efficiency and transparency in the bidding process for infrastructural contracts to attract more US companies.” “Set up a $5 billion plus private sector Infrastructure Fund (with minority government participation) drawing on the resources and expertise World Bank/ADB/IFC and other financial institutions….”; “set up large scale Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in India, designed to serve both domestic and export markets, that comprise world class infrastructure with integrated real estate, power and transportation facilities….”. Under section “Trade and Industry Promotion” it read “Reduce restrictions on foreign investment, especially: Expedite the decision to allow FDI in the Indian Retail Sector….Under the section “Manufacturing” it said “the government could encourage states to set up ‘investment regions’ with the primary focus of attracting FDI and local investment designed to serve both domestic and export markets (i.e. not just SEZs). The Investment Regions would also be a model for world class infrastructure. # Flexible, internationally-competitive labor laws. #Single-window clearance – one stop approval and administrative process.” Etc, etc. [Update 15].
The above very limited quotes make it amply clear the slavish position of India to ensure imperialist globalization. And the industrial policy discussed above perfectly fits the demands of the imperialist master’s objectives.
The discussion of the changed industrial policy and the diktats to the junior partner in the period of neo-liberal regime help us unravel the distorted industrial programme which is anti-common people and destined to fail in a country like India.
Industrial Trajectory under Neo-liberal Programme
With the new industrial policy in place and India’s slavish partnership with the US legalized, the industrial sector with a definitive target to about 15-20 percent population and reaping windfall profits however did not produce the expected high boom. For more than ten years since early1980s, the record appeared far from satisfactory. The trend rate of growth of the index of industrial production, which stood at 7.8% between 1980-81 and 1989-90, fell to 6.6% between 1993-94 and 2002-03. In the case of manufacturing sector, the deceleration was of a much smaller order, with rate of growth of manufacturing output falling from 7..6 to 6.8 percent between these two periods.. In some years, there was some better performance but this can be indisputably stated that in the 1980s the performance was still better than what was recorded in the whole of the reformist 1990s. However, between 2000 and 2003, the manufacturing index increased by only 4.5% per year. Over and above, in the 1990s, a boom in industrial growth during the 3- year period i.e. 1993-94 to 1995-96 was fallowed by a downturn from which growth did not recover by the turn of the decade. It should be kept in mind that the short-lived boom of 1993-95, economic analysis opine, was the result of a combination of several once-for-all influences, in particular the release of the pent-up demand for a host of import-intensive goods, which (because of liberalization) could be served through domestic assembly of production using imported inputs and components. Once the demand had been satisfied, further growth had to be based on an expansion of domestic market or a surge in exports. Since neither of these conditions was realized, industrial sector gradually slowed down. And the most important point that must not be missed is that reforms programme under globalization like the US diktats as cited above cannot usher in an independent domestic market based industrial boom confirmable to the basic needs of the mass of India’s population.

Sector Sep.08 April-Sep. 08
Food products 5.2 - 1.4
Beverages, tobacco ,and related products 11.7 23.3
Cotton textiles - 9.3 - 0.5
Wool, silk and man-made fiber textiles 1.4 -0.2
Jute and other vegetable fiber textiles (except cotton) - 0.4 - 5.5
Textile products (including wearing apparel) 1.9 3.8
Wood and wood products; furniture and fixtures - 9.7 - 10.4
Paper, paper products, printing, publishing allied industries 8.3 3.0
Leather and leather and fur products - 8.6 - 0.3
Basic chemicals and chemical products (except products of petroleum and coal) - 3.6 6.1
Rubber, plastic, petroleum and coal products - 3.4 - 4.2
Non-metallic mineral products - 0.6 0.6
Basic metal and alloy industries 5.6 6.2
Metal products and parts, except machinery and equipment) 12.8 1.3
Machinery and equipment other than transport equipment 16.1 9.8
Transport equipment and parts 16.8 12.8
Other manufacturing industries 10.5 – 1.1



This section of the write-up started with the scenario of deceleration in different manufacturing sectors even before the outbreak of the global economic crisis. To explain the phenomenon we referred to various aspects of declining industrial growth at the beginning. Immediately before the global crisis one visible trend was found in the movement of imports and exports in 2007-08 period. In fact exports had been growing in this period. So a fall in exports demand due to global crisis had adverse effect but for the industrial deceleration this factor cannot be over emphasized. We forget the fact that in this period there had been an explosion in imports, suggesting that import competition defiantly affected domestic production of many manufactured goods. Oil import obviously took a heavy toll on the foreign exchange with its steep price in early 2008’ non-oil imports also increased, thanks to the liberalized trade and also by the appropriation of the rupee in 2007. Certain sectors (as seen in Table 2) recorded an increase in import values much more than that of oil. This suggests greater amount of import penetration in a wide range of manufactured sectors. The reforms policy spurred the government to rush for foreign capital into India in the form of portfolio investment or by encouraging Indian corporates to take on more external commercial loans. This also led to upward pressure on the rupee and all this combined with the trade liberalization allowed more import penetration, positively decelerating the industrial activities and employment of Indian producers, small and medium sectors in particular. So, all such above discussed factors must be considered with a macro-economic view to study Industrial recession in India. Global recession in such an internally adverse situation launched crucial attacks that plunged the industrial sector into a quagmire difficult to wriggle out of in the near future.
The Current Scenario of Gloom
The reckless liberalization policy, corporate industrialization bid, export oriented economy – all such macro-economic measures unabashedly toeing US imperialist masters have brought about devastation for the country.. Industrial scenario in 2009 is dismal with the vast toiling people thrown out of jobs or expecting to be axed. India’s fiscal deficit as on 30 January, ’09 has shown that pushed it to Rs.218, 262 crore, one and half times more than what was estimated in the earlier budget for the whole year. This huge dent on the fiscal deficit was caused by pro-corporate recovery stimulus. The Central government will resort to an additional borrowing of Rs.46, 000 crore between February 20 and March 20 to support the economy, a reminiscent of American government’s borrowing spree. The overall borrowing including the above Rs.46, 000 crore, is likely to touch Rs.251, 000 crore. Indian industry had recorded a dismal minus per cent growth in December ’08, with employment-intensive sectors such as textiles, leather, wood products and transport equipment bearing the brunt of the output decline. According to Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data released in the second week of February ’09, the overall growth in December, at minus 2%, stood way below the 8% year-on-year increase in the same month of 2007-08. While the manufacturing index declined 2.5% year-on-year against a growth of 8.6% in December 2007, the growth rates were lower for mining (one percent versus 5 percent) and electricity (1.6% versus 3.8%) as well. The cumulative annual growth rate for April-December amounted to 3.2%. According to the ‘Use-based’ classification of IIP, consumer durables have taken the maximum hit during December ’09 (minus 12.8% against 2.8% for the same month of 2007) followed by intermediate goods (minus 8.5% versus 7.6%), consumer non-durables (minus 0.1% versus10.3%) and basic goods (1.7% versus 3.4%). Major industries that registered the biggest year-on year production declines in December ’09 included cotton textiles (minus 6.1%), wood and wood products (minus 20%), jute and other non-cotton vegetable fiber textiles (minus66.4%), leather (minus11.4%), food products (minus8.7%), basic chemicals and chemical products (minus 7.2%), rubber, plastic, petroleum and coal products (minus4.6%), transport equipment and parts (minus 17.9%) and other machinery and equipment (minus4.1%). [Business Line; 13-2-09]





Year-on-year for April-May 2008 Percent
Total imports 38.51
POL imports 73.61
Non-oil imports 23.51
Textile products, including garments 19.28
Chemical products 56.53
Medical and pharma products 37.77
Artificial resins and plastics 47.54
Metal goods 89.44
Machine tools 83.41
Non-electrical machinery 47.54
Electrical machinery 58.02
Electronic machinery 19.65
Transport equipment 25.62
Professional equipment 57.05
Other miscellaneous imports 28.95



The gloomy scenario speaks volumes on the disastrous policies and their crumbling effects on the entire industrial scenario. The UPA government declared two huge stimulus packages by that time to revamp the declining industrial sector but even after that the industrial production, as measured by the IIP figures released on 12 February, ’09 showed a shrinking to a negative growth of 2.5% by the overwhelming industrial sector. [Statesman; 13-2 09]. IT and ITES on which India’s raising corporates reposed enormous faith for windfall profits are now limping. Infosys, India’s second largest IT service company finds a 15% decline that is half of the growth. [Business Line; 5-12-08]. Unitech Ltd. Declared on 31 January ’09 a decline in consolidated net profit at Rs.136.05 crore for the quarter ended December 31, ’08, “because of a significant slow down in demand for commercial property.” [Telegraph; 1-2-09]. Industrial behemoth, the Tata Group’s chairman Ratan Tata has already warned his employees of 98 firms to prepare themselves for “hard decisions”. No industry can show an optimistic picture in the period of worst crisis of world’s capitalist economy. Even India’s virtual master Barack Obama has drawn a negative picture for the future. Infrastructural growth that received all importance dipped to 2.3% in December ’09. State Bank of India has now lowered interest rates on home loans “to stimulate demand…and spur the real estate and allied sectors such as cement, steel and other construction materials. [Business line; 1-2-09].
Similarly the center has urged states “to expedite the handing over the Pattas (land titles) to the low income groups so as to give fillip to housing activity in the country, especially in the rural areas. The ‘noble effort’ tinged with the desperate motive as stated by the principle secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr.T.K.A. Nairat the chief secretaries meeting, was to “generate demand for cement and steel in the country. Both these sectors have been hit on account of the slowdown in the economy…” [Business Line; 1-2-09]. Extraordinary benevolence for the poor to save the industrial tycoons!

Sector Amount
(Rs. crore) Variations (%) Amount (Rs. crore) Variations
Agriculture 38,139 19.3 53,612 22.7
Industry 1,56, 192 24.9 2,36,064 30.2
Real estate 13,621 35.8 24,825 48.1
Housing 31, 780 14.6 21,989 8.8
NBFCs 22, 953 59.6 24,668 40.1
Overall credit 3, 54, 802 21.8 4,90.199 24.8



Almost all the basic sectors now show a declining trend but the sycophants of liberalization like the CPI (M) Chief Minister of West Bengal Mr.Buddadeb Bhattacharjee cry hoarse that ‘Reform or perish’, ‘There is no going back on reforms’. Mass scale job cuts have now become the order of the day. Exports for January 2009 has nose dived 22% and economists’ projections indicate that up to one crore persons could lose jobs in 2009. Based on order books, industry inputs predict a crore of job losses, FICCI found that faced with a slump and piled up inventories, industries like textiles, garments, chemicals and gems and jewelry had cut production by 10 to 15%. Automobile industries, steel and cement industries show a clear downturn. The one crore job loss figure has been compiled by the Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) which says it has carried out an intensive survey. [Times of India, 4-2-09]. One cannot fathom the depth of actual job losses in the vast unorganized sector. On 27 February, the Central Statistical Organization has declared that the GDP growth has actually fallen to 5.3% for the third quarter of the current fiscal, the lowest since 2003. This nails the UPA government’s false optimism. There has been 2.3% decline in farm output and 0.2% drop in manufacturing. The construction sector posted much lower growth of 6.7% in the third quarter. [The Statesman, 28-2-09]. The tall talk of 8-9% growth and that too based on native and foreign corporates, particularly riding on the FIIs and stock market boom have been silenced by hard facts. While past three doses of thousands of crores of rupees of stimulus were to salvage the declining corporate houses, for the job losers and the gigantic mass of unemployed the government policy can do little for clinging to the imperialist globalization policy. The 2009 interim Budget echoed the same. More than 65% op Indian population is dependent on agriculture, generating an income of only 18% of India’s national income. This sector is in a miserable condition. The 59th round of National Survey shows that 40% of them are in perennial poverty. The avalanche in the industrial sector has had its adverse impact on this sector too.
To remedy this situation the system needs a thorough overhaul with the necessary focus on human beings and natural environment. Capitalism, dependence on imperialist masters, pro-rich policies, environment-unfriendly policies, etc must have to be attended lock stock and barrel for ultimately auguring in a social economy in India.


The Recent Draconian Acts are a desperate attempt at saving the State from Impending Doom
Samya




In December 2008, only one month after the Mumbai blasts the Indian Parliament passed two bills, one on the creation of a National Investigation Agency and the other on an amended version of a previous act known as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amended Bill 2008 or Bill No.76 of 2008. The first is the proposal to set up a national investigation agency throughout the country to coordinate the activities of different intelligence agencies and the second is the measure to exercise more ruthless control over the rights and body of the citizens by making a mockery of democracy in this ‘land of the largest democracy’ of the world. The second bill incorporated provisions borrowed from previous ‘anti-terrorist laws’, which were discredited due to their misuse by the police and their draconian anti-right measures. Both the bills were passed in the Parliament without any opposition. There was no opposition from the so-called ‘left’ parties including CPI (M)--the self-professed champion of people’s rights.

What are the provisions of this Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amended Act of 2008?
This act has revised the provisions of the CrPC.—one of the main codes prevalent in India. According to existing law, anybody charged with being a “terrorist” can be kept under police custody (Section 43D) for 15 days together; in the new law, the period is extendable to 30 days initially. According to the existing law again, if the prisoner is not given the charge-sheet within 90 days, then he or she will naturally get bail on the 91st day. In the revised act, it is stated that even if the police fails to give the charge-sheet within 90 days, the prisoner can be kept in prison for a period of 180 days. It implies clearly that the evidence to be furnished by the State would be ghost and fictitious, and such evidences would be prepared by the newly-formed National Investigation Agency and the details of those ghost witnesses would not be disclosed to the prisoners vide section 17(2) of the NIA. Side by side, the police would be able to take prisoners into custody from jails, in the name of investigation, even after keeping them in police stations for 30 days together for an unspecified number of times for a further period of 150 days. Needless to say, they would be subjected to third degree torture and harassment and humiliation of all types.
Under this law, the prisoner would have no right to secure bail. Even after being kept in prison for 180 days, the court would not grant him/her bail—a measure that is totally against the existing law. The granting of bail is totally dependent on the sweet will of the government. When a person is denied the right to get released on bail, the meaning is crystal clear. It necessarily implies that when the police have arrested anyone on the charge of being a “terrorist” or having links with them, then he or she is a criminal beyond doubt; so the onus of proving his innocence lies with him, and, in such a situation, for a prisoner this is next to impossible. This law thus is meant to deprive the individual of his right to freedom.
In the Indian Constitution and section 22 of the Cr.PC., it is clearly stated that the detained person would have to be produced before the court within 24 hours of arrest. In section 43B(2) of the amended act, the clause 24 hours was relaxed by deliberate omission and thereby encouraged and also extended illegal detention legally.
Under the amended law again, if any bureaucrat of the rank of joint-secretary thinks it fit, then he can raid the residence of any citizen, seize articles and even arrest him. This provision (No.43) is a clear infringement upon the privacy of the citizen and it does away with all safeguards against arbitrary arrests.
There is a clear discriminatory attitude towards foreigners. Under the act, “foreign” “suspected terrorists” would not get release on bail except under very exceptional circumstances. Such clause is a complete violation of section 14 of the ICCPR, where it is clearly stated that there should be no discriminatory attitude on grounds of nationality. Further, it is also a violation of another inalienable right—the right to recognition as an individual under the law.
This act is also an infringement on the right of fair trial in the court of law. Under section 42-E(which was included in TADA and POTA also), if any arms or explosives are found in the possession of the accused, then it has to be taken granted that he or she was connected with some terrorist activities. As we have seen it many a time, weapons can be implanted and declared by the policemen themselves to be in the possession of a person whom they wish to implicate. And in such cases, the onus of proving one’s innocence would lie with the accused. Thus it is a clear departure from the normal rule that it is for the police to prove that the accused person is guilty.
Under this act, the time of making an appeal against a judgment has been reduced to 30 days at a time when it needs at least 60 days time.
Under the act again, the citizens are asked to supply information about “terrorist activities” compulsorily to investigation officers. This implies that citizens would be forced to act as police informers, and if they refuse to be so, then they can be arrested and incarcerated for a period of three years.
Under this draconian law, as under the POTA of 2004(section 46), the government agents will be empowered to tap the phone calls and other mediums of communication and that can be used against the citizens.
In respect of terms of punishment, the period is extended in all cases, without any consideration of the specific nature of each case, to a minimum of 5 years and a maximum of life imprisonment.
Under this law, the oppressive policemen will get immunity from arbitrary arrests, torture, foisting false cases, not to speak of subjecting the prisoners to all forms of humiliation and harassment. It is clearly stated that what the investigation officers had done was done in “good faith” and so no legal steps can be taken against them.

These acts—which are complementary to each other—are meant to curb people’s inalienable rights and their resistance sans any pretence to abide by democratic norms. That there would be a serious miscarriage of justice under such laws is evident from the experience of people detained under the TADA and the POTA. According to the government’s own admission, of the 67,000 persons arrested under the TADA, about 60,000 proved to have not committed any ‘offence’ at all, while of the 1,500 persons detained under the POTA, 1,006 proved to be ‘innocent’ in the eyes of the same law as charges could not be proved, needless to say, despite utmost efforts by the state forces. However, these new laws—‘unlawful’ in the eyes of the same Constitution that the same Indian ruling classes had framed—are only the logical culmination of a series of ‘unlawful laws’ enacted by the central government over the last few decades since 1948. The reality is that the ‘Fundamental Rights’ of the people propagated with so much fanfare by the ruling classes and their political representatives are meant hardly for the basic masses and the struggling people. What experience do the people of India have about the rights they are supposed to enjoy over the last few decades? Let us have a look at history.

Draconian laws

Before the ‘transfer of power’ the Bombay Public Security Act empowered the police “to arrest without trial any person acting in a manner prejudicial to public peace of the province”. In 1948, the newly-formed Congress ministry amended it to include within its scope “any person liable to act…” Such an amendment was no doubt the portent of things to come. Article 19 Clause (1) and some articles following these speak of some ‘fundamental rights’ for its citizens. However, the pertinent point is that the clauses that follow each of these articles empower the State to impose some restrictions on those very rights, thereby nullifying the whole exercise. Thus the acknowledgement of ‘fundamental rights’ and protection against arbitrary arrest and detention has its anti-thesis in the constitution itself.

In February 1950, just after the inauguration of the constitution of the “Sovereign, Democratic Republic” of India, Nehru-led government enacted the Preventive Detention act to imprison thousands without trial. It was applicable to the whole of the country. During the first few years after the new government took over, fifty thousand political opponents were picked up and sent to prison, and thirteen thousand persons were killed or wounded, according to official accounts. In jail, they were compelled to languish under inhuman conditions. Preventive detention itself makes a mockery of democracy, as people are imprisoned not because of any ‘offence’ they had committed, but because they were suspected of thinking of doing so and so they needed to be prevented from doing so by State intervention. All the Press Acts and Security Acts of the colonial days remain unchanged under the new Constitution. The old repressive machinery of the colonial state with the Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, the Police Act of 1861, Defence of India Rules, Prevention Detention Acts and others were perfected over the years by the Indian ruling classes and thereby made newer and newer attacks on the rights and liberty of the people possible. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958) was enforced first in Nagaland and then extended to other parts of the north-east and Kashmir. It empowered the armed forces to liquidate anybody with impunity on mere suspicion as a preemptive strike—a term the US imperialists have been extensively using in regions like Iraq. These laws, needless to say, were passed to curb the growing resistance of the people. The Preventive Detention Act was replaced in 1971 by the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) fewer than tens of thousands of people were imprisoned between 1970 and 1973 in West Bengal alone, of which the overwhelming majority comprised the Naxalites. During and before Emergency (1975-77), thousands of people—mostly Naxalites—were shot down in fake encounters or made to disappear.

In fact, there was no end to the enactment of such black acts which had both regional and national application. The West Bengal Prevention of Violent Activities Act, Punjab Disturbed Areas Ordinance, the National Security Act (1980), the Terrorist Affected Areas (Special Courts) Ordinance (1984), TADA (1985), POTA and many other acts and ordinances were passed. In reality, every succeeding “lawless law” is a greater attack on people’s liberty than the previous one. S.Sahay of The Statesman commented: “The gay abandon with which the Central government has been accumulation extraordinary powers makes one wonder whether in the not to distant future anything will be left of the normal law of the land.” The “sweep of the Ordinance is really breathtaking:, he wrote (Cited in PUCL, Black Laws 1984-85, Delhi, 1985, p.34).

“Fundamental Rights’ for the People?

Are there any ‘fundamental rights’ at all for the basic masses in this ‘sovereign democratic republic’? for the overwhelming majority of the basic masses comprising the dalits, adivasis and other sections of the people irrespective of any community, any talk about all these things are simply illusory. It is the normal practice of the police to pick up innocent people on mere suspicion or on the basis of complaints from the higher-ups, to torture them in police custody in order to extract “confessions” or merely for the fun of it. Several human rights organizations reported gory details of torture, rape and custodial deaths in the police lock, while the perpetrators of cruelty are seldom brought to book. And when it comes to deal with the Maoist revolutionaries, or the Kashmiri Azadists or Manipuri rebels, the prisoners are being subjected to the most brutal form of torture, rape and subsequent deaths in fake encounters. These facts are well known and well-documented.

The question that comes up is: if there are so many “lawless laws”, then why these two acts should be enacted at all? The reason is the crisis with which the Indian ruling classes are afflicted in the recent period. It was not without reason that the Indian prime minister identified the Maoist movement as the ‘greatest threat to the internal security of the country since independence’ and a ‘virus’ to be weeded out at all costs. The global crisis of capitalism, regarded as greater than the crisis of the late 1920s and early 1930s by many, has only exacerbated the all-round socio-economic and political conflicts in India and elsewhere. The plunder of the country’s natural resources—forest, mineral, water resources—the aggressive land grab movement carried out by the foreign imperialist agencies with the backing of their domestic stooges and the people’s opposition and resistance in various forms against them have been intensifying the crisis of this man-eating system. What has become imperative for the State is to go for more and more centralization, more repressive power to deal with people’s resistance.

Apparently, the object of the recent acts is to deal with ‘terrorists’ who are financed and dispatched by the Pakistani government and has nothing to do with the internal rebellions and revolutionary movements within the country. But who are the ‘terrorists’ in the eyes of the Indian ruling classes? The Maoists, members of various real or imaginary Muslim organizations, people fighting for the right of self-determination and, as time goes on, it would also include all those who are critics or opponents of the anti-people policies of the Indian ruling classes such as civil rights activists, members of democratic organizations and others. As it is well-known, the both the central and state governments have been trying to extract a social sanction to do whatever they like to the Maoists and the Muslims.

However, it is one thing to dream the wildest dreams; but it is another thing to realize them. The wild dreams of the Indian ruling classes and their political representatives of all hues—Tatas to Ambanis and Jindals, from Manmohan Singh to Advani and from Reddy to Buddhadev—are destined to vanish into thin air. A long time ago, the person who led the revolution in China summed up the experience of just struggles in the following words: “Where there is oppression, there is resistance”. The oppression perpetrated by the Indian ruling classes is destined to fail. The revolutionary struggle of the Indian people under the leadership of the CPI(Maoist) would certainly overcome all hurdles through immense sacrifices, send all reactionaries, revisionists and their foreign masters to their graves and usher in a society where human beings will be able to realize their full potential and where people will be truly free and, as Marx said, “real history will then really begin”.


Satyam Scam:

Corporate Fraud & Political Swindle Endemic to the Existing System

Dr. Gupta

Ramalinga Raju, the poster boy of the stellar show of the India’s so-called giant strides in the Rs.2, 000 billion IT industries is now a disgraced icon. The Satyam scam, a product of economic liberalisaton, has exposed the hideous underbelly of big business that has been now facing avalanches worldwide. Just a few months back, Raju’s Satyam Computer Services received a Golden Peacock Global Award from a group of Indian directors for excellence in corporate governance under the Risk Management and compliance Issues segment. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) gave him the Golden Peacock Award for corporate governance. Prestigious awards were heaped on Ramalinga Raju, the founder owner of Satyam Computer Services. In 2000, Ramalinga Raju was showcased by the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N. Chandrababu Naidu, to the then U.S President, Bill Clinton, as the first generation entrepreneur and the glowing face of India’s IT power, when the President visited Hyderabad.
Ramalinga Raju (RR) is now arrested but the legacy of corporate frauds, particularly under the current ‘reforms’ age shall not die.
When a petty thief robs out of hunger and poverty he is treated as an ‘anti-social’, thoroughly beaten in the police lock-up and jailed. But if you rob thousands of crores, as did the business magnate RR, in league with the top politicians of Congress and the opposition, then you are treated like a VIP, even in jail. In fact, the mafia style operations of a Ramalinga Raju could match those of a Dawood Ibrahim in their scale of operations and level of ruthlessness. Mafia style land deals, insider trading on the Stock Exchange, robbing of staff’s salary, manipulation of employee’s Provident Funds, fictitious Fixed Deposits, indulging in data theft at the World Bank and bribing WB staff for favors, forgery and breach of contract of British mobile solution firm Upaid, massive frauds in projects granted not only by successive AP governments but also those of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Taminadu, etc, and even defrauding the pubic through a huge health welfare scheme …….. Are but some of the underworld-style operations indulged in by the RR family.
The only real difference between a Ramalinga Raju and a Dawood Ibrahim or Chotta Rajan is that the former loots ‘legally’ the latter ‘illegally’. But what they have in common is their nexuses with top politicians and bureaucrats, who share in the spoils from both operators.

Magnitude of the Fraud
On January 7th RR issues his so-called confession of fraud and then disappears, only to appear on 9th night at 1