Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Find Solution to Kashmir Issue

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) expresses its grave concern at the continued police firings in Kashmir adding to the loss of lives of young persons. The police firing on August 30 has killed one youth in Anantnag and injured five in Lal Chowk area of Srinagar. 15 persons are also reported to have been injured in Kulgam and Bandipore where police resorted to tear gasing and lathi-charge.

This continued resort to lathi-charges, firing and tear gas shells have only delayed the task of finding a settlement to the Kashmir issue.

The CPI(M) had already demanded that an all party delegation visit Kashmir without any delay and commence dialogue with all sections of people without any pre-conditions to find a solution to the problem.

The CPI(M) hopes that the government of India as well as government of Jammu & Kashmir will immediately take initiative in starting the process of dialogue with a view to find a just solution to the Kashmir issue. More delay will only aggravate the situation in the state and add to the difficulties.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Cancel the permits to private power plants: CPI(M)

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has demanded that the Andhra Pradesh government immediately revoke permissions granted to private power producers for setting up thermal plants in the State.

“The State granted permissions to private companies for setting up thermal plants to generate 30,000 MW of power though the maximum additional power requirement is only 14,000 MW,” the CPI(M) state committee pointed out.

Briefing newsmen about the deliberations at the State committee CPI(M) State secretary B V Raghavulu said the Congress government was acquiring hundreds of acres of fertile land from farmers and transferring it to the power producers, though the actual requirement was very less.

“Besides, the government itself is required to spend hundreds of crores of rupees for creating necessary infrastructure for distribution of power generated by private producers. This is highly detrimental to the State’s interests,” Mr. Raghavulu said.

The government was also grossly ignoring the environmental hazards caused by the thermal power plants, he alleged.

The CPI(M) secretary demanded that the government come out with an alternative power policy that would not only protect the interests of all stakeholders and also the environment.

“All the new power plants should be set up by the State-owned AP Genco only,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Raghavulu also wanted government to conduct polls to urban local bodies next month as per schedule.

“The government is seeking to put off the civic polls on the pretext that the BC reservations issue has not been sorted out. But the State Election Commission said it is ready to hold polls if the government decides. Hence, the government should conduct the civic polls as per schedule,” he said.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

CPI(M) will gear up for elections once dates are announced


Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s Tamil Nadu unit will gear up for elections once dates are announced, G. Ramakrishnan, state secretary, said here on Sunday. The party was, however, ready to face the polls, he said while flagging off the party's State-wide 'Meet the People' awareness campaign.

"At present CPI(M) is not in talks with any party on election, alliance or related issues. It is focusing on taking up people's issues - their suffering because of the anti-people policies of the Central and State governments," Mr. Ramakrishnan, who was reacting to Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi's comments on election, said.

The CPI(M) leader also said that the party had not suffered a set back because of the exit of Tirupur MLA C. Govindasamy or his supporters. "We are not worried. And, in this region [western part of Tamil Nadu] we are as strong as ever."

Mr. Ramakrishnan said the party, through a State-wide campaign from August 22 to 29, was highlighting the impact of price raise, failure to redress farmers' grievances, eradication of untouchability, grant of patta for 25 lakh applicants and removal of encroachment on Government lands.

It was also focusing on the "wrong economic policies" of the Central and State governments that were causing untold hardship to the people and projecting an alternative economic plan.

As a culmination of the State-wide struggle, the party would hold meetings in six places across the State and national leaders would participate in the same. Sitaram Yechury would address a rally in Salem on September 4. The next day the party would hold a meeting in Tiruchi.

Similar meetings would also be conducted in Chennai, Kovilpatti and Neyveli
(Courtesy : The Hindu)

SFI sweeps Himachal University Students Union Election


Student Federation of India (SFI) has once again swept all the four seats at the Himachal Pradesh University campus, giving a big jolt to the ABVP, which had tried to gain popularity among students in the state this time by taking on the state BJP government on the issue of private universities and commercialisation of education. 

SFI also sweeped the posts of departmental representatives where it’s candidates won on 33 seats while ABVP managed to win 11 seats.Congress backed NSUI got a drubbing in the elections when none of it’s panel candidates could muster three digit votes in the SCA elections. 

Earlier this year, the Congress national general secretary Rahul Gandhi had visited HP University campus to mobilise membership for NSUI and Youth Congress. But the NSUI could not even manage a minimum of 100 votes each for four of its candidates,

SFI CEC congratulate students on HPU poll victory
The SFI Central Executive Committee extends its revolutionary greetings to the students of Himachal Pradesh for giving the SFI a sweeping victory in the Students’ Union Elections held in the state.

In the results declared yesterday the SFI has once again emerged victorious in the prestigious HP University in Shimla. Not only has the SFI won all four posts, the victory margins have increased significantly in all four posts. The results given below clearly show the increasing support for the SFI among the students in Himachal Pradesh University.

President                Khushi Verma          Victory Margin 449 (Last Year 406)
Vice President        Vipin Mehta             Victory Margin 292 (Last Year 182)
General Sec.           Sunita Ranot           Victory Margin 330 (Last Year 210)
Joint Sec.              Ankush Mandial        Victory Margin 443 (Last Year 378)
Total Department     43                          SFI  has won 33        (Last Year 28)

The SFI has swept the elections in Shimla District in all colleges except Sanjoli College. In the R K M V Girls College, the most renowned Girls’ College in the state, the SFI has won the President’s post by a margin of over 600 votes along with all central posts. The SFI  has  got elected  in Kotshera, Theog,  Chakmoh, HPU Evening college, Sarkaghat, Bangana, DAV Kangra ,  Baijnath , Rajpura , Chamba, Chowari,  . The SFI has won the post of president in Rampur, Jogendernagar as well.

The elections results are a fitting rebuff to the BJP State Government which had unleashed massive repression against the SFI to help the ABVP win the elections. The leadership of the SFI was implicated in false cases including those under Section 307 was used to put our comrades behind bars. In Hamirpur the SFI leadership was booked under Section 307 three times within a week! 
SFI Central Executive Committee member and Himachal Pradesh state President Vikram Singh was attacked physically by ABVP goons while campaigning in Dharamshala of Kangra district.

But even this blatant misuse of state power has not been able to stop the SFI from emerging victorious. The Comrades of SFI in Himachal and our elected representatives in Students’ Unions have shown over the past years that only the SFI is capable of fighting for the rights of Students in the state. 
These elections have also been a slap in the face of the NSUI which has been acting as a stooge of Congress. None other than Rahul Gandhi himself had gone to campaign for the NSUI in HPU Shimla. Speaking in a seminar in the university he had asked the students to support the NSUI for making “Bharat Nirman” a success. The NSUI has finished third in the elections with no NSUI candidate polling more than hundred votes. Out of the 43 Department Representatives the NSUI has failed to get even a single seat. These results should convey a clear message to the hollow politics which Mr. Rahul Gandhi and others are trying to sell in the name of “Youth Power”. The SFI Central Executive Committee congratulates the Himachal Pradesh SFI for this splendid success in the elections.  

The Himachal Pradesh Election results have come immediately after the students union election result in Rajastahan where elections were held after a gap of 6 years. SFI has got its biggest victory in the election held in Rajasthan as well.

The results of Rajasthan and Himachal indicate the growing discontent within the student community against the anti-student policies of this government and they also mark the rejection of ABVP’s bankrupt and divisive politics, which cannot provide an alternative to these attacks. 


We also feel that unless Students’ Union Elections are held in all educational institutions democratic rights of the students cannot be defended and advanced. While congratulating the comrades from Himachal and Rajasthan the SFI CEC will start a determined and militant struggle across all campuses to demand holding of Students’ Union Elections.

Sudents union elections in Rajasthan


The Central Executive Committee of the Students’ Federation of India extends its revolutionary greetings to the students of Rajasthan for giving SFI its biggest ever mandate in the history of students union elections in the state. The CEC of SFI also takes the opportunity to congratulate the Rajasthan state committee of the organisation.
SFI had contested in 156 college and university elections of the state held on 25th August, 2010. Candidates of SFI won in 224 central posts in these colleges. SFI recorded its win in the President post of 56 colleges. The most notable victory of SFI was registered in the Government Sri Kalyan College in Sikar which happens to be the biggest college in Rajasthan with student strength of over nine thousand students. SFI candidates won in all the four central posts of President, General Secretary, Vice President and Assistant Secretary in this college with a majority of more than thousand votes in all the posts. In the second largest college of the state namely Bikaner Government Dungar college SFI candidates won in the three central posts with a huge majority. SFI candidates won the President post in 56 colleges.
The students’ union elections in Rajasthan have been held after a long gap of six years. It was the SFI which fought consistently against this attack on the democratic rights of the students unleashed by the then BJP government and it’s Chief Minister Basundhara Raje Sindhia. The BJP had banned the union elections in the state.
SFI continued this struggle against the present Congress government also which was unwilling to hold the students union elections despite its earlier promises to do so. Militant programmes from the unit level was conducted and students under the leadership of SFI had gheraoed the state assembly in the demand of student union elections .the fact that the students  union  elections  were held is in itself a very big victory  of the democratic student movement of the state.
Sfi s massive victory in the election is a vindication of the politics of study and struggle which the SFI stands for.
Our comrades in Rajasthan have fought day in and day out to provide an alternative to the bankrupt policies of ABVP and NSUI.
We are confident that the advances which the SFI has made in these elections will continue to grow and SFI will emerge as the biggest organisation in the state.

Rich tributes paid to Basheerbagh martyrs


CPIM and CPI on Saturday observed the 10th anniversary of the police firing at Basheerbagh and paid tributes to those who laid down their life while protesting against the power tariff hike by the then Telugu Desam Government.
Leaders of the Left parties, while paying tributes to the martyrs, criticised that the successive governments for exploiting common people in the name of power reforms. Though the government temporarily went back on privatisation following the massive agitation against World Bank influenced electricity reforms, it still was pursuing the same policy, they said.
CPI State Secretary K. Narayana demanded that the Congress leaders, who had joined them in paying homage to the victims of police firing, should also show their solidarity with the families of those killed recently in Sompeta where police fired on those protesting against setting up of thermal power plant.
Senior CPI leader Suravaram Sudhakara Reddy said that the government was once again bowing to the dictates of globalisation policy and people should resist it. CPI (M) State secretary B. V. Raghavulu said that electricity was for people and not for contractors.

Rich tributes were paid to those killed during the agitation against the power tariff hike at Basheerbagh in Hyderabad 10 years ago, at a meeting organised by the left parties near Tenneti Viswanatham statue, Jagadamba junction in Visakhapatnam
The agitation against the World Bank policies 10 years ago received world-wide attention and because of it, domestic electricity consumers were spared from additional burden even now, said CPI (M) district secretary Ch. Narasinga Rao.
Mr. Narasinga Rao and CPI city secretary Ch. Raghavendra Rao wanted people to continue the agitation against pollution-creating power plants, mining projects and other anti-people acts of the Government by drawing inspiration from the Basheerbagh agitation.
City secretaries of CPI (M) K. Lokanadham, CPI leaders Pydi Raju and others participated.
A photo exhibition on Basheerbagh incident was held.
(Courtesy : The Hindu)

Prakash Karat on Kashmir Situation

I have visited Srinagar along with my colleague and member of the Central Committee of the CPI (M), Mohammad Salim. We have met people from various walks of life and members of the CPI (M) and the CPI to hear their views about the serious situation prevailing in Kashmir.
First of all, let me state how appalled and shocked we are at the deaths of 62 young boys and girls in the past few weeks due to firing by the central para-military and police forces. There can be no justification whatsoever for these needless deaths when the protesting youth were only resorting to throwing stones. The families of all those who died have suffered an irreparable loss. We convey our heartfelt sympathy to all the bereaved families.
There has to be an immediate end to these brutal and inhuman police firings. There has to be a strict no firing policy to face stone throwing crowds. Other measures are to be resorted to in such confrontations.
The state administration should also provide for adequate compensation to those injured in the police actions and rehabilitation measures for those who have permanent disabilities.
In order to help restore normalcy, the administration should release all juveniles who have been detained and lodged in prisons.
We appeal to people, particularly the youth to pursue their protest through peaceful means.
The Central Government should stop treating the problem in Kashmir as a law and order problem which can be resolved through administrative measures. The government should amend Armed Forces Special Powers Act to remove certain draconian provisions. Till then, the Disturbed Areas Act should be withdrawn from Srinagar and Certain other civilian areas given the significant decrease in militant activities. This will make the use of the AFSPA redundant in these areas.
The Prime Minister’s assurance about zero tolerance for human rights violations should be implemented. Action against those guilty in the Pathribal incident and the recent Machil fake encounter case should be taken.
There is urgent need to generate employment for the youth in Kashmir. This must be accompanied by the rehabilitation of the thousands of former militants who need jobs and other assistance.
Given the major economic losses suffered due to the continued curfews and hartals for the past two months, the government has to compensate and revive trade and other economic activities of different sections of the people. Similarly, the disruption of education of the children due to closure of schools and other institutions should also be addressed.
The CPI(M) has been consistently advocating the need for a sustained political dialogue with all sections in the State to eventually reach a political settlement. It is unfortunate that the UPA II government has totally failed to pursue this path.
The way forward is by recognizing the special status of the state and the need to assure the Kashmiri people of their identity. These require a new political framework in which the bedrock is maximum autonomy.
The CPI(M) will discuss in its next Central Committee meeting this issue in depth and come out with a clear-cut position.
In the meantime, the Central Government should pursue the Confidence Building Measures with Pakistan which can widen the canvas of ties and relations across the LOC.
This is the time, all democratic minded persons, organisations and groups should appeal and work for restoration of peace and normalcy so that people can express their views and maintain their rights to protest peacefully. We shall strive to get the Government of India to address the political issues without further delay.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

19th Congress of Communist Party of Sri Lanka begins

The 19th Congress of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka began on August 27th at Shalika Hall, Narahenpita. The congress will conclude on 29th August. 

Changes in the global context have influenced both political and economic situation in Sri Lanka. These positive changes have made opportunities for left parties and progressive people in Sri Lanka said Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL) General Secretary DEW Gunasekara addressing the opening ceremony of the 19th National Congress of CPS. 

Within last ten years there were four major changes in the global set up.Poverty is increasing, Neo liberalism is in danger,West front is in trouble and Asian Economy is booming.Left front and Socialist forces should be alert for above changes and should be united, he further said. 

Since 1943 CPSL all previous conferences have made positive influence to the political and economic development in the country. In this conference CPSL were able to discuss the constitutional changes and the electoral system. 

Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena, Disaster Management Minister A H M Fowzie, Finance and Planning Deputy Minister Chandrasiri Gajadeera, Western Province Governor Alavi Mowlana, Vasudeva Nanayakkara,W H Piyadasa,Raja Kollure,China Ambassador Yang Xiuping, Cuban Ambassador Nirsia Guevara and several foreign delegates were also present.
 
Recognising the need for a political settlement of the Tamil question in Sri Lanka, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Central Committee member T.K. Rangarajan, MP, on Friday said the immediate priority should be to address the concerns of relief, resettlement and rehabilitation of the Tamil civilian population. 

Addressing the 19th National Congress of the Sri Lankan Communist Party (SLCP) in Colombo, Mr. Rangarajan said the expeditious settlement of the Tamil question should involve the devolution of powers and autonomy for the Tamil-speaking areas within the framework of a united Sri Lanka. 

“We feel that such a political solution will strengthen the unity and integrity of Sri Lanka,” he said. With the end of the prolonged war, the rehabilitation of the displaced Tamils was a major concern as reports indicate that thousands of people were still living in relief camps.

Financial crisis

The ‘Great Recession' was a systemic crisis with its impact felt across the world. Contrary to the claims by many countries, the current crisis of international financial capital was far graver than any other crisis in the history of capitalism. The social impact too was being felt everywhere with rising discontent and increasing protests. 

In India, the impact was only to a limited extent because of the role played by the CPI(M) and other Left parties. Unfortunately, the Congress-led UPA government, buoyed by the fact that it no longer depended on the Left for its survival, was implementing the very same neo-liberal policies that in the first place, had led to this crisis, Mr. Rangarajan said. 

The ruling classes were trying their best to isolate the CPI(M) by attacking it from all directions. In West Bengal, one of the strongest bastions of the CPI(M) in the country, there was a broad ranging coalition forged by all political forces from the extreme right to the extreme left, including Maoists. More than 300 CPI(M) men have been killed by the Maoists in this province emboldened by this broad alliance. “Our party is thick in the fight not only resisting all these efforts intended to isolate the party but also in defence of the rights of the toiling people,” he said.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Prakash Karat releases book on Karl Marx in Orissa


The Oriya translated book  of ‘Das capital’  by Karl Marx has been released by CPIM General Secretary  Prakash Karat at Jayaden Bhawan in Bhuwaneswar on 17th August 2010. The book contained 1293 pages. The oriya translated book has been published by Lokasikhya Pratisthan after 143 years. The book has been translated by Lambodar Naik.
Communist Party of India(Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat expressed concern over the open loot of minerals in the country. The Centre's faulty mining policy was helping companies accumulate huge capital. Citing the case of an Andhra Pradesh-based company which had since announced plans to establish a steel plant, Mr. Karat said growth of capitalism through mindless exploitation of the mineral wealth had been rampant during the past six decades.

The CPI(M) leader was releasing the Oriya translation of Karl Marx's Das Kapital Volume-I at a function organised by the Lokshikshya Pratisthan here. Karl Marx had written about the exploitation of mineral resources and growth of capitalism way back in 1867. The book had given a new direction to the labour movement across the world, Mr. Karat said. 

He thanked Lambodar Nayak, who translated Das Kapital into Oriya. He expressed satisfaction that the Oriya translation of the second volume of the three-part book was already in progress.

Economist Prabhat Patnaik said the growth of capitalism resulted in an increase in the number of the poor and in inequality, while a few were accumulating wealth by the day.
CPI(M) Orissa secretary Janardan Pati and senior party leader and former MP Sivaji Patnaik spoke.

Left Parties memorandum to the EC

We are constrained to bring to your notice on behalf of the four Left parties – CPI(M), CPI, AIFB and RSP – the very disturbing attempts in West Bengal in the run-up to the process of Summary Revision of Electoral Rolls (SRER). While forwarding the memorandum addressed to you on behalf of the Left Front Committee, West Bengal, we would like to draw your focused attention on specific facts which will bring out the humongous magnitude of these attempts which unless defeated will lead to large-scale falsification of the electoral rolls and distort the ensuing Assembly elections as a whole.

In this context, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that we had already met you on August 3, 2010 to initially acquaint you with the problem. Certain major facts have now come to our notice which further reinforces our apprehension.

The total number of Form-6 applications for addition of new names to be included in the draft electoral rolls as part of the SRER is given to be 56,19,057 (Annexure – I). The districtwise break-up of the total number of Form-6 applications shows the unusually inflated total number of applications. This is available in Annexure – II for your ready reference and perusal.

That the number of Form-6 application is unusually high can be made out from Annexure-III. The following table will give a complete picture.

Summary of last three revisions 2006 2007 2008 2009

a) No of electors in Draft Rolls 4,80,95,009 4,78,39,290 5,04,11,682 5,16,12,655

b) Total Additions 25,80,001 20,75,343 14,00,601 13,81,575

c) Total Deletions 28,35,726 11,98,568 2,00,719 6,31,555

d) Net Addition -2,55,725 8,76,775 11,99,882 7,50,020

e) Percentage of Net Addition -0.5 1.83 2.38 1.45

Roughly 56 lakh proposed additions over the total number of electors amounting to 5,24,21,616 works out to a more than 10 per cent increase. Given the fact that the net addition in the preceding four years – 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 – are -0.5 per cent, 1.83 per cent, 2.38 per cent and 1.45 per cent respectively, clearly show abnormality of an unusual magnitude.

Together with this, the Left Front memorandum will show that there are gross attempts to bypass the well-established ECI stipulations for additions of names. The submission of affidavits, patently false methods of certification like school certificates, birth certificates from health centres etc instead of standard procedures indicate an organized effort to falsify the rolls. To be fair, we must also bring out that the Chief Electoral Officer has given a firm commitment in an all-party meeting on August 5, 2010 – “submission of bulk applications as well as affidavits and other documents inconsistent with the norms and rules of the Election Commission shall not be accepted or rejected if received anywhere, prior to enquiry.”

We have been given to understand that the commitment so given is not being strictly implemented. There have been instances of questionable role of certain observers to bring pressure on the block level election officials to turn a blind eye to these obnoxious attempts and legitimize the applications without due consideration as per the directions of the Election Commission.

The magnitude of the problem and the attempted deceit like filing of affidavits which is born – not out of ignorance – but to sidestep the due and impeccable procedures cannot be defeated without your urgent intervention.

We, therefore, forward the Left Front memorandum and the voluminous Annexures to substantiate the contentions contained therein.

We sincerely expect that with the active intervention of the EC, the sanctity and the integrity of the election process in West Bengal will be safeguarded and this will add up to the otherwise fine record of your achievements of the past.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Hindi book on Comrade P Sundarayya released

Leaders across the political spectrum on Wednesday recalled the immense contribution of veteran Marxist leader P. Sundarayya to building the Communist movement in Andhra Pradesh and the country.

Recounting the spartan life led by the Marxist leader, CPI (M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said Sundarayya contributed to ushering in democratic practices in the party structure and worked towards the development of linguistics in the State.

Releasing a book in Hindi on the life of Pucchalapalli Sundarayya, Union Minister for Urban Development S. Jaipal Reddy shared his relationship with the late leader and spoke of the immense knowledge that he brought to debates.

On his part, Bharatiya Janata Party leader M. Venkaiah Naidu lamented the changing attitude in politics and the drifting personal relations among politicians from different parties. He said that while parties had different ideologies earlier, its members used to interact on a social plane, a tradition now on the decline.

Lakshmi Prasad, a former Telugu Desam Party MP, who heads the Andhra Pradesh Hindi Academy, said that in order to highlight the contribution of leaders such as Alluri Seetaramaraju, Tanguturi Prakasam, and P.V. Narasimha Rao in national politics, the Academy would publish their translated biographies for the benefit of Hindi-speaking people.

Veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar presided over the function held here at the Andhra Pradesh Bhavan.

Centre should probe mining in Andhra Pradesh: CPI (M)

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has demanded that the Centre constitute a high-level committee to inquire into the mining activities in the State and put exploitation work on hold till the panel submits its report.

CPI (M) State secretary B.V. Raghavulu charged the Congress with adopting “double standards” on mining activities. While the party was supporting mining in the States where it was in power, it was opposing it in States where it was in the Opposition. Denial of mining permission to Vedanta in Orissa on environmental grounds while allowing bauxite mining in Visakhapatnam in spite of the pollution it was causing was ample proof of the ruling party's approach.

The Government which denied permission to set up the thermal power plant at Sompeta in Srikakulam district as it had no environmental clearances, however, ignored “violation of tribal laws like 1/70 Act” in case of mining in Bayyaram in Khammam district.

“Why is the Centre particular about enforcement of legislations in States where the Congress is not in power while it is setting aside the same in Congress-ruled States” he wondered.

(Courtesy : The Hindu)

Deshabhimani signature song released

Deshabhimani', the official organ of the CPI-M in Malayalam, released its signature song, penned by eminent poet and lyricist O N V Kurup. The song was released by CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan at a function at Thiruvananthapuram. A musical rendering of the values for which the newspaper stood over decades as the voice of the toiling masses, was sung by noted playback singers K S Chitra and Madhu Balakrishnan. The tune was rendered by top-notch film and stage music director M K Arjunan.

DMK wavering in its stand on major issues: CPI(M)

Accusing the DMK of wavering in its position on all major issues such as Nuclear Deal, trade union rights and state autonomy, the CPI(M) on Thursday said the Dravidian party, once a champion of state autonomy, had been reduced to the level of pleading the Centre with petitions.

“The Congress-led UPA government is taking away the rights of the state government and the DMK is pleading with petitions,” CPI(M) state secretary G. Ramakrishnan said, reacting to Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s remarks that the communist parties had no policy other than changing their stand frequently.

“The communists have never compromised their stand on issues such as anti-imperialism, secularism, rights of the state governments and protection of poor in the urban and rural areas,” he added.

Mr Ramakrishnan said the though the DMK had expressed concern over the hike in the price of petroleum products, the fact remained that the DMK was also a party to the cabinet decision to hike the price.

“The price of agriculture inputs has become beyond the reach of farmers. But the DMK extended its support to hike the price of fertilisers,” he said, alleging that the DMK was wavering because it had embraced liberalisation policy.

As regards the Chief Minister’s another remark that the CPI(M) was trying to suppress the achievements of the DMK government, Mr Ramakrishnan quipped, “no one can suppress achievements such as power cut, spiralling of prices of essential commodities, deterioration of law and order and denial of trade union rights in multi-national companies.”

He said though the DMK was claiming that it was the champion of social justice, suspension of IAS officer C. Umashankar and the wall to prevent the entry of Dalits in Uthapuram “tell different story.”

Mr Ramakrishnan said only a few CPI(M) men attended the meeting to admit former CPI(M) MLA C. Govindasamy into the DMK.

“Others belonged to the DMK. What is the need to organise such a big function to admit the DMK men into the DMK,” he said.

Rejecting the Chief Minister’s comments, CPI state secretary D. Pandian said, “time has come for the Chief Minister to retire from politics.”

(Courtesy : The Hindu)

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

No justification for innocent killings in Jammu Kashmir : CPIM

Terming the situation in Kashmir as ‘extremely serious,’ General Secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Prakash Karat on Monday said there can be no justification for use of bullets by government forces against stone throwing youth in the Valley which has resulted in killing of 63 Kashmiris.

Karat asked Government of India to recognize the special status of the state and treat it as “special case” to seek its political solution by resuming dialogue, without any pre-condition, with all shades of opinion. Favoring “greater autonomy” to the state, Karat who along with senior member of the Central Committee, Muhammad Salim, arrived here on Sunday, said the Congress led UPA was clueless on how to take the dialogue process forward on Kashmir.

ON KILLINGS:
“We are appalled and shocked at such a large death toll in the Valley. Sixty-two people including young boys have died in few weeks due to firing by paramilitary CRPF troops and police forces. There can be no justification whatsoever for these deaths. We know that they (youth) are out on streets protesting in form of stone pelting but to meet this with police firing is something that should not be condoned in a democratic county like India,” Karat told a press conference here.

“There has to be an immediate end to these brutal and inhuman firing. There has to be a strict no firing policy while dealing with stone throwing crowds. Other measures have to be resorted to in such confrontations,” said Karat, flanked by state secretary, MY Targami and Muhammad Salim. “Kashmir is burning, there is crisis in Manipur but Government of India’s priority is nuclear liability bill which will serve interests of America.”

ON DIALOGUE:
Karat said his party does not share the views of Government of India or major political establishments which have been in succession whether ruling India or managing affairs in JK.

“Government of India is trying to deal with Kashmir as law and order problem and administrative issue. The question of Jammu and Kashmir has to be treated as special case and the way forward is to recognize its special status and need to assure Kashmiri people of their identity and these requires a new political framework in which the bedrock is maximum autonomy,” he said. “We urge Centre to initiate political dialogue in Jammu and Kashmir. Avoiding the issue will not resolve the problem. The dialogue should be held without pre-conditions and it should be an open dialogue.”

About the preconditions by separatists that GoI should admit Kashmir as dispute for talks and the repeated statements of the New Delhi regarding settlement within the Constitution, he said, “The question of Kashmir concerns Kashmiris, India and Pakistan and the issue has other international and geo-political factors which have to be taken into consideration.”

Karat said his party would urge upon the Center to come up with a roadmap on how to go for political dialogue on Kashmir. At the same time, Karat said the dialogue with Pakistan has to be resumed and it should cover all issues. “There should be resumption and continuation of CBMs to help strengthen ties and relation.”

ON ARRESTS:
Condemning the arrest of teenagers in the Valley, Karat said “I am not able to understand how this is happening. I saw newspapers and read about cases of children less than 18 years put to jail. You cannot jail a teenager. These young people must not be kept in jail,” he said.

In order to help restore normalcy, the government should release all juveniles who have been detained and lodged in prisons, Karat suggested. I don’t subscribe to the statement made by the Home Minister earlier that protests in Kashmir are engineered. They are spontaneous,” Karat responded to a query. “We have come to convey our deep sympathy to the bereaved families and tell them that there are forces in India who condemn such action.”

ON AFSPA:
Karat said the law in its present form has “draconian” provisions. “It should be amended to remove these draconian provisions. Till then the Disturbed Area Act should be removed from certain parts of JK like Srinagar and other urban and populated areas given the significant decrease in militant activities. It can work as an interim solution.”

He urged upon government for implementation of the Prime Minister’s assurance on “zero tolerance to human rights abuses” saying that action should be taken in Pathribal and the recent Machil fake encounter cases.

Karat said his party has been consistently advocating need for a sustained political dialogue with all sections in the state to eventually reach a political settlement. On many occasion in the past, he said, they had raised with successive regimes in New Delhi the issue of greater autonomy to all three regions of the state. “Congress is hostile to autonomy and more rights to states. All it wants to do is centralize more and more powers.”

During the CPI-M’s next Central Committee meeting, Karat said they would take Kashmir as a special case, discuss it in depth and come up with its clear stand on a way forward to solve it.

Karat said there was urgent need to generate employment for youth in Kashmir and it must be accompanied by rehabilitation of former militants who need jobs and other assistance. He said given the major economic losses suffered due to the continued curfews and hartals for the past two months, the government must compensate and revive trade and other economic activities. Similarly, he said, the disruption of education of the children due to closure of schools and other institutions should be addressed.

He said government should bear the treatment cost of those injured in police and CRPF firing and it should announce rehabilitation measures for those who have been left permanently disabled. He announced that his party’s central committee would donate Rs five lakhs for the treatment of the injured.
(courtesy : www.greaterkashmir.com)

Sunday, August 22, 2010

SFI sweeps Kerala University Union office bearers election

Students Federation of India (SFI) swept the Kerala University Union office bearers elections by bagging 23 seats out of the total 27 seats.

Lenin R of Navjeevan Bethany College of Physiotherapy here was elected chairman of the University Union. Ramya Remanan of TKMM College, Nangiarkulangara, was elected general secretary.

In the 15-member executive committee, 12 candidates are from SFI. The remaining seats were won by AISF, SIO and KSU. SFI also won four seats in the five-member Accounts Committee.

In the Kerala University Senate elections, SFI won 5 seats and KSU won 4 seats. The remaining one seat was won by AISF.

FDI in retail market will affect livelihood of 8 crore traders: CPI(M)


If foreign direct investment (FDI) is allowed in retail market, it will swallow up the livelihood of 8 crore people involved in the trade, said CPI(M) State secretary G. Ramakrishnan on Saturday.

Addressing a protest organised by Chennai Maangar Siru Viyapari Sangangalin Kootamaippu, he said the previous UPA regime could not go ahead with its proposal to allow FDI in retail because the Left had a strong presence in the Parliament. Mr. Ramakrishnan said American public corporations like Walmart were keen on entering the Indian retail market because it was vast and offered great space for profit making.

“The turnover in retail trade in 2004-05 was Rs 12 lakh crore and the amount has gone up to Rs 19 lakh crore now. That is why these multi-nationals are eyeing the Indian market,” he said, rejecting the Centre's argument that retail trade had not achieved growth. “The argument is one of the many points in the note sent to political parties by the Centre to discuss the issue,” he said.

As for another argument that these companies would set up cold storage facilities in rural areas, he wanted to know why the government depended on multi-nationals instead of creating infrastructure for the farmers. He also rejected the argument that FDI in retail trade would eradicate the middleman in procuring agriculture products.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury in his message said FDI in retail affected all sections of the society. President of the Kootamaippu T.N. Nambirajan and general secretary P. Karunanidhi participated.

(Courtesy : The Hindu)

CITU wins Visakhapatnam Steel Plant Cooperative Store polls

In the election results announced for Visakhapatnam Steel Plant Cooperative Store, CITU bagged six posts of directors leaving one to INTUC. Of 14,000-odd voters, 10,957 took part in voting.
CITU Employees' Union president J. Ayothyaram thanked the employees for reposing faith in CITU.
(Courtesy : The Hindu)

Nuclear Liability Bill : Govt Protects Foreign Suppliers

The amendments to the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010 proposed by the Government not only goes against the grain of the crucial recommendations of the Standing Committee, but also seeks to further dilute the provisions of the original bill to protect the interests of the foreign suppliers of nuclear equipment and domestic private players.

The new formulation of Clause 17 (b) suggested by the Government reads as follows:

“(b) the nuclear incident has resulted as a consequence of an act of supplier or his employees, done with the intent to cause nuclear damage, and such act includes supply of equipment or material with patent or latent defects or sub-standard services;”
This makes any liability on the part of the suppliers, for supplying defective or sub-standard equipment or material, contingent upon proof that it was “consequence of an act…done with the intent to cause nuclear damage…”. With this amendment, it will become impossible to ascribe liability to the supplier. 

This goes against the Standing Committee formulation of 17 (b), which does not require any such proof:
“(b) the nuclear incident has resulted as a consequence of latent or patent defect, supply of sub-standard material, defective equipment or services or from the gross negligence on the part of the supplier of the material, equipment or services.”
Thus, in the name of removing the “and” in 17 (a), as suggested by the Standing Committee, the Government has rewritten 17 (b), effectively throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The formulation of 17 (b) proposed in the amendment is in fact worse than the provision contained in the original bill. 

The dubious intent of the Government is further exposed by the addition of Clause 7 (1) proposed as an amendment, through which it seeks to “assume full liability for a nuclear installation not operated by it” (i.e. private nuclear installations) even as the Standing Committee had categorically recommended “that there will be no private operator of nuclear installation”. This paves the way for a massive subsidization of the private players in nuclear power by the Government, as and when they are allowed to operate.
All this is clearly being done under pressure from the foreign nuclear suppliers and domestic corporate lobbies. The Left Parties call upon all political parties to unitedly oppose these amendments proposed by the Government to protect the interests of the people and the country.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

DYFI convention against Maoist killings


DYFI central committe gave an unanimous call to fight against the leftwing extremism that is creating terror in the country. The decision was taken at a convetion held in New Delhi against the Maoist atrocities. 1000 delegates from various states attended teh convention and took decision to carry out state level convention to pass on the message. Families of Martyrs who were killed by Maoists in Westbengal, Jharkand and Orrisa took part in the convention. The Convention was inaugurated by CPIM PB member Com. Sitharam Yechury.
Yechury Questioned the suggestion that railway minister Mamata Banerjee mediate between government and Maoists, CPI(M) today wondered how she could do that when she openly siding with the ultra-Left brigade. He said how can the government have a minister, who is allegedly collaborating with Maoists, to be in the Cabinet headed by a prime minister who had at least on three occasions told the nation Naxals were the "gravest" threat to internal security.

He said, "Mamata is in collaboration with Maoists. How can she mediate when she is on their side? The question of Mamata mediating does not arise as they are together.

"The ruling class bankruptcy should also be exposed as they are supporting a person who is in league with the Maoists. Maoists always supported the ruling class against the organised Left."

Yechury also took on Banerjee for her remarks that she can talk to Maoists saying that the CPI(M) leader himself had spoken to Maoists in Nepal a few years back.

"The issue is different. I spoke to them after they came to the mainstream... after shunning violence and participated in the democratic process. We will talk to the Indian Maoists when they stop violence," he said.

He also accused the Maoists of targeting the same section of economically deprived sections for whom they claim to fight for.

Suggesting a three-pronged strategy to tackle the Maoist problem, he said, "It should be treated as a law and order issue as well at political front. The government should also address the problem of exploitation of the most exploited sections of the society-- like the tribals."

"If you see, Maoists are in areas which have abundant mineral resources. Illegal mining is being carried out by others. This is depriving tribals of their resources. This has also to be changed," he said.
DYFI All India president Com. P Sreeramakrishnan presided over the meeting. General Secretary Com Tapas Sinha gave the welcome speech. Cm. Subhashini Ali, Com K N Balagopal M P participated in the meeting.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Comrade P Krishnapillai : A man and a movement

August 19 - Comrade P Krishna Pillai Memorial Day

(Reproducing an article which appeared in Frontline Magazine written by R Krishnakumar)

E.M.S. Namboodiripad and A.K. Gopalan have surely been the most celebrated faces of communism in Kerala. But brush aside the dust of the years and another figure would emerge near those icons - a man who had walked before them, an excellent organiser and selfless crusader who, along with `EMS' and `AKG', founded the communist movement in the State and built a collective leadership for it. 

Known to the masses simply as Sakhavu (comrade), P. Krishna Pillai was `Kerala's first communist', home-grown, impishly bold and acutely sensitive to injustice, a product of the very movement he had helped fashion during a short, exceptionally dedicated life of 42 years. Since the early 1930s, no other leader in Kerala had been so successful in organising the masses, in spotting talent and in moulding the cadre and their commitment. At the time of his untimely death on August 19, 1948, of snake bite, Krishna Pillai was perhaps the most familiar face in the homes of the labourers and peasants of Kerala, a leader known for his courage and dynamism, humaneness and uncompromising stand against exploitation and oppression. As EMS wrote later, if he acted as the "intellectual centre" of the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI), Krishna Pillai was the "itinerant centre" entrusted with the job of going to every nook and cranny of the State "to meet comrades individually" and to make the party "a united entity, acting as one". 

Like the other founders of the Left movement, Krishna Pillai began his career in the Indian National Congress - first as a Gandhian and then as a Congress Socialist. In the early 1930s, when he began his political activity, Krishna Pillai was exposed to the radical politics challenging the British in various parts of north India. Later, he was among the first to be recruited to the "illegal" CPI, along with EMS, by P. Sundarayya, the legendary communist leader and Telengana armed struggle veteran, and became a life-long adherent to the cause of communism.
His first revolutionary act of defiance shot him into the limelight when a group of Congress leaders defied the salt law on the beaches of feudal Malabar. Krishna Pillai, then in his early 20s, braved the punishing blows of the British police to hold afloat the tricolour in true Gandhian style. In September 1931, no sooner had he been released from jail, than he became the first non-Brahmin to ring the sacred bell at the Guruvayoor temple ignoring the Zamorin's Nair guards. He was then a volunteer in the Congress agitation demanding entry for four-fifths of the Hindu community into the temple who were being denied admission. Eyewitness accounts state that as blows rained on him, Krishna Pillai continued to ring the bell and shout: "Let the bold Nair ring the bell and let the timid Nair living on crumbs beat on his back." 

Such incidents were the early sparks of a radical movement that was soon to engulf the whole of Kerala, unleashing the democratic impulses of the people, altering the complex, exploitative system of agrarian relations, opposing the most obnoxious forms of caste oppression, and eventually uniting people from all parts and walks of life in the struggle for Independence. 

KRISHNA PILLAI was born in 1906 in a lower middle class Nair family of Vaikom in the princely state of Travancore (now south Kerala) and schooled at the great university of life because of poverty and the early death of his parents. After trying his hand at a few odd jobs, he travelled extensively throughout India. Eventually, he decided to learn Hindi and obtained a degree in it. He spent two years in Allahabad in the late 1920s, at a time when leaders of militant trade unions, communists and revolutionary terrorists, inspired by the October Revolution in Russia and the first open conference of the CPI in India (Kanpur, 1925), were in the news and searching for alternatives to fight the British. 

By the time he returned home he had become a good orator and prolific writer in Hindi and had acquired a working knowledge of English. Krishna Pillai resigned the Rs.30-a-month job as a Hindi pracharak and enrolled himself as a volunteer in the `Salt Satyagraha March' taken out from Kozhikode to Payyannur (in today's Kannur district) as a part of the first Civil Disobedience Movement. Soon he became the beloved leader of hundreds of young volunteers and was soon leading the early communist organisers in Malabar. 

However, the Civil Disobedience Movement did not elicit much enthusiasm among the peasants and labourers of Malabar and got little support from the lower castes. It offered little for them, the Congress being still a body of the elite. But Kerala then, especially the British-ruled Malabar region, was a den of oppressive caste, class and agrarian divisions, and illiteracy and poverty made worse by the impact of the Great Depression. While he was in the Kannur jail for the `crime' of taking part in the Salt Satyagraha, Krishna Pillai regularly took part in discussions with other inmates on the strategies that would attract the common people into the freedom movement. In a postcard from prison sent in 1931 to an inmate just released from the jail, Krishna Pillai was already asking him to distinguish between a "Congress of the poor" and a "Congress of the rich" and to work for the peasants if he belonged to the former group. 

By September 1931, when the Congress decided to picket the Guruvayoor temple, Krishna Pillai had already become "the famous man from southern Travancore", a courageous leader cast in a different mould, tackling the hated British head-on, consoling victims of atrocities at the risk of his life, and ridiculing satyagrahis chanting Gandhian mantras for freedom. Such intrepidity was rare in landlord-ruled Malabar and provided a much-needed fillip to the struggle, which, however, Gandhiji withdrew when it was at its peak. 

Given his growing disenchantment with Gandhian methods, Krishna Pillai was by then convinced that freedom cannot be won without including the aspirations of the majority of the downtrodden people of Kerala in the objectives of the struggle. Thus while a section of Congress leaders began to restrict their activities to the uplift of `Harijans' (Dalits), Krishna Pillai and his fellow militants began to travel the length and breadth of Kerala holding clandestine political meetings, demonstrations and youth conferences, and organising trade unions and peasant organisations. Between 1934 and 1939, nearly 80 local trade unions were organised industry-wise in almost all the urban centres of Kerala. In addition, two central trade unions, one each in Kozhikode and Kannur, and an all-Kerala trade union committee also came into being. The dynamic leader that he was, Krishna Pillai also took the initiative to organise factory committees in every company and to include even the most backward among the labourers to bargain collectively for their rights. As EMS wrote, Krishna Pillai was instrumental in dismantling the elitism ingrained in Kerala politics until then, and paved the way for its replacement by a collective leadership, especially of the working class and the peasants. 

A decade before the Punnapra-Vayalar armed struggle by workers and peasants that heralded responsible government in Travancore, Krishna Pillai was sowing the seeds for such struggles in northern Malabar, orchestrating a movement against the local landlords and making it possible, through skilful and studied leadership, for the peasants to defeat the conspiracies of their tormentors. Simultaneously, he and his fellows took upon themselves the arduous task of enlisting fulltime cadre for the Congress movement. 

In all such activities, Krishna Pillai and his Left-leaning party colleagues had important objectives. It was their rationale that mass demonstrations of peasants would convert the whole question of landlessness, indebtedness and caste oppression into popular action and that, to an extent, the spontaneous display of brotherhood and comradeship in the mass demonstrations would help break down the barriers of caste and class. Moreover, such struggles were the perfect training ground for future leaders of the cause. Almost all the trade union leaders who later joined the CPI had their initial training in these struggles. It was Krishna Pillai who nurtured their leadership skills and groomed them to be good communists, though he himself never claimed a sophisticated knowledge of Marxism. 

THANKS to the efforts of the Left-leaning Congress workers, by 1935, Congress committees were established in almost all the villages of Malabar, with a disciplined core of volunteers and organisations of peasants and trade unions complementing this main political organisation. Reading rooms and libraries cropped up at an amazing speed in almost all the villages, where "local activists taught illiterates to read socialist books and pamphlets and conducted study classes". The live-wire organiser that he was, Krishna Pillai with his tireless leadership contributed to the phenomenal growth of Congress membership from a mere 800 in 1930 to 70,000 by 1937-38. 

When the all-India conference of Congress Socialist workers (Bombay, 1934) decided to form the Congress Socialist Party (CSP), EMS was appointed one of its general secretaries and Krishna Pillai the secretary of the CSP unit in Kerala. In the following years, the CSP became a dominant force within the Congress organisation in the State, having won six out of nine places on the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) and five out of eight Kerala seats on the All India Congress Committee (AICC). At the KPCC meeting in October 1934 the Krishna Pillai-led CSP pushed through a series of Left-leaning resolutions, including the explicit rejection of Gandhian methods. 

A State Congress came into being in Travancore within four years of the establishment of the CSP. Krishna Pillai and the CSP played an active role in the struggle for responsible government there. As part of this struggle, the famous general strike in Alappuzha was organised. Krishna Pillai was the main organiser of the four-week-long strike during which the Dewan unleashed a reign of terror on the defiant workers. But in the end it won the working class of Travancore the right to organise and bargain. Krishna Pillai emerged out of the struggle as a true leader of the masses and the agitation proved to be the inspiration and the strength behind the Punnapra-Vayalar armed struggle, eight years later, which signalled the end of princely rule in Travancore and the coming of Independence. 

In the five years between the birth of the CSP in 1934 and its transformation into the CPI in 1939, the KPCC was in the hands of the Leftists and leaders like Krishna Pillai could wield considerable influence in shaping mass struggles in Travancore, Cochin and Malabar. The period saw the sprouting of independent class organisations of peasants and workers and those representing teachers, students, youth and women, and the launching of organised struggles against capitalism and the landed gentry. The unity of the working class assumed a new meaning in Kerala and its leaders could successfully link all these struggles to their cause and the freedom movement. In his autobiography, EMS states that it was Sundarayya who encouraged him and Krishna Pillai to move from Congress Socialism to Communism. 

As early as 1934, Krishna Pillai and the workers of the small Communist League from Thiruvananthapuram were regularly in contact to coordinate their activities. But his admiration for Marxism was not yet pronounced. In 1935, Krishna Pillai was distributing clandestine communist literature at the Lucknow session of the Congress. In 1937, soon after communist literature was seized from EMS' home, Krishna Pillai hoisted the communist flag at the All India Labour Conference held in Thrissur. It was in 1937, however, that the CPI unit was formed in Kerala. But, facing a ban as it was, the party decided that Krishna Pillai and EMS should continue to be members of the CSP as well as the Congress, and then recruit cadres for the CPI clandestinely. At the opportune moment they were to convene a meeting of the cadre and announce the formation of the party unit. 

In his autobiography, EMS describes Krishna Pillai as a man who was more emotionally attached to communism than he was. According to him, while his own relationship with communism was more of an intellectual nature, Krishna Pillai had the advantage of having an emotional bond "with the spirit of the communist movement". Moreover, Krishna Pillai could understand the hopes and aspirations of the working class much better, coming as he did from a poor family and having left his home early in search of a job. The exposure that Krishna Pillai had to revolutionaries in north India (not all of them communists) too had made it easy for him "to understand, early enough, that Gandhi and Nehru were different versions of the bourgeois leadership". Even within the State Congress, unlike him, Krishna Pillai was in constant tussle with the rightist Congress leaders and was always on the side of the ordinary workers. Therefore, Krishna Pillai's tryst with communism was comparatively a smooth affair, while he himself had a rougher ride, EMS wrote. 

WHEN the Second World War began the CPI took a stand against it. The CSP confined its protest to sending postcards to the government opposing the war. It was in this context that the 1939 semi-legal conference of 90 prominent CSP activists at Pinarayi, a village near Thallassery in Malabar, on (or about) October 13, 1939 that decided to transform the Kerala unit of the CSP into the CPI. Three months later, on January 26, 1940, the party announced its existence "with tarred slogans on the walls, culverts and government offices". Krishna Pillai's role in the transformation of the CSP into the CPI in Kerala was decisive. He wrote: "When the war broke out in 1939 and the CSP leadership [at the national level] went over wholesale to the side of Gandhi's, the Kerala unit of the party joined the communists, because that was the only effective path to choose in order to carry out one's duty to socialism and revolution." Soon Krishna Pillai went into hiding, to organise the party in secret, a job in which he already had considerable experience. One day, in December 1940, when he strayed into his native Vaikom, the police were waiting for him. He was arrested and hurriedly transferred to the Edalakudi sub-jail in Kanyakumari district (near Sucheendram in Tamil Nadu). 

And there began a rather quaint love story. While in jail, Krishna Pillai befriended a guard and sought his help to get some books (in Hindi) to read, from a schoolgirl who used to pass by the prison every day. Always, when the books were returned, there would be pieces of paper concealed within its covers. The scribbled notes began by asking in Hindi (an unfamiliar tongue to the general population) `What is your name?' And no sooner had the frightened girl replied, `Thankamma', than Krishna Pillai began sending her a string of such notes, not on love, but on politics. Thankamma was bewildered, but the intention was clear: she was to be a new recruit for the party. 

The relationship blossomed further when Thankamma began translating Krishna Pillai's secret messages from Hindi into Malayalam and delivering it clandestinely to CPI members, risking the wrath of the Dewan's secret police. Soon she would even find a job as a tutor to schoolchildren to find the money to pay the jail guard. She eventually met her mystery man when he was being taken outside the jail premises for a bath. It was only then that Krishna Pillai proposed to her with a warning: "Life with me will be difficult, different. My wife should stand by me, the party and its cause. Then alone will she be happy." They got married when he was released soon after the ban on the party was lifted in July 1942. From then on, Thankamma became Krishna Pillai's only true affection, after the party..

Soon afterwards, during the first all-Kerala conference of the CPI held in Kozhikode, Krishna Pillai was elected the State secretary. He was to lead the party during a period of extreme complexity, marked by not only ideological debates in the CPI at the national level but particular local difficulties, including a crisis relating to organisational issues. Krishna Pillai, as party secretary, unilaterally dissolved the State committee. The decision was overruled by the CPI central committee. 

With the CPI accepting the `Calcutta Thesis', which, among other things, called for an armed struggle against the Indian state, as its new policy in its second congress held in March 1948, party workers like Krishna Pillai, who had struggled so hard for Independence, were forced to go into hiding once again. In a way, he became a martyr in free India when he was once again forced to go underground and run the party clandestinely.
On August 19, 1948, while Krishna Pillai was staying incognito in a coir worker's hut at Kannarkat (Muhamma) in Alappuzha district, he was bitten by a snake. Despite the best efforts of those who gave him shelter and the party workers who were responsible for his safety, Krishna Pillai died within half an hour of the incident. With the police in constant vigil for his arrest, the best of medical treatment was hard to come by. Stunned followers later travelled with his body for hours, on foot and in a hired `lorry', first to Alappuzha town, then to Kollam, several hours away. 

It was when Krishna Pillai was lying on the floor and preparing a speech to be read out at the CPI State committee that the snake bit him. He had started writing on a piece of paper, as if addressing the party: "There is criticism, but no self-criticism... " Then, just before he died, he scribbled on the same sheet of paper: "My eyes are getting dark. I feel weak and tired. I know what will happen. Comrades, Forward! Salutations."