Purilia Arms Drop: Targetting LF Govt.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

The latest revelations on the arms drop in Purulia in West Bengal in December 1995 are further confirmation of the fact that there was a well planned conspiracy to use violence to destabilize the Left Front at that time.

Whatever has been said by Kim Davy, a prime accused in the case and Peter Bleach who was sentenced in the case show that the arms drop for the Ananda Margis was planned through an international network and the target was the Left Front government. It was known at that time that the British intelligence had alerted the Indian government about the arms drop. Yet, the Central Government failed to inform the West Bengal Government about the matter in time. Even as early as 1990, according to the Home Minister’s statement in the Lok Sabha, there were reports of the Ananda Marg arranging for arms to be brought from abroad (see statement below). Still the matter was not taken seriously.

It is imperative that the Central Government explain why it failed to act on the information given by the British intelligence? It should also explain how Kim Davy was allowed to escape from the Mumbai airport at that time. Further, the Government has shown no urgency in getting Kim Davy extradited from Denmark to stand trial. Was any Central Government agency complicit in the operation?

The Purulia arms drop was a serious assault on India’s sovereignty and a diabolical plot against an elected government and the Constitution.

The entire episode of the Purulia arms drop is a graphic example of how various anti-communist forces have been targeting the Left Front Government of West Bengal. Such moves are still on even today.

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Chidambaram: Absurd Charges

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

 

The Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram, has called West Bengal among the worst governed states in the country, during his election campaign in the state. This is a ludicrous statement coming from a person who belongs to a government which is presiding over the most corrupt regime in independent India. Mercifully, West Bengal has been saved from the style of governance that Chidambaram’s party has been practicing at the Centre. The absurdity of the statement can be gauged from the fact that on the very day when Chidambaram made the statement, West Bengal was given an award for panchayati raj programme rural development by the Central Government.

 

It is shocking that the Home Minister goes to West Bengal and does not speak a word of condemnation of the Maoist violence which has led to the death of 265 cadres and supporters of the CPI(M) and the Left Front since the last Lok Sabha elections. Instead, he has leveled the patently false charge that it is the CPI(M) which is responsible for the killings by presenting wrong figures. By covering up the Maoist violence and the Maoist-TMC collaboration, Chidambaram has betrayed the elementary duty entrusted to him as the Home Minister of the country. The egregious and partisan manner in which Chidambaram is behaving will only call into question the way he is handling the key office of Home Minister in the government.

Peasants - Youth rally against Karnataka Government's Attitude towards Landless People

  

The Karnataka State Farmers' Association (KPRS) along with  Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) held a 'DC Office Chalo' protest on Tuesday, April 26 in front of the DC office, Mangalore. The protest rally was flagged off from the taluk panchayat and culminated in front of the  DC office gate.

 

Addressing the protesters, KPRS president K R Shriyan said that over the past one year the farmers had a tough time in running from pillar to post to get their land right documents.  They had applied in the taluk panchayat, zilla panchayat and Mangalore City Corporation, but no one had listened to their plea.  It was a well-known fact that for the past 15 years, neither Congress nor the BJP governments appeared to be interested in helping the farmers to get their land rights.

Shriyan drew everyone's attention to the fact that minister Krishna J Palemar had given 34 acres of land to builders for developing, but he did not even bother to give 5 cents of land to the poor Sitamakka from Talapadi. The BJP and Congress leaders did not even bother to listen to the poor people's pleas.

Further he  said that according to a government survey, there were more than 49,000 homeless and landless families and over 18,000  people did not have proper land documents. But he said according to independent enquiries  the number could be double. He also said that Yeddyurappa had encroached upon over 500 acres of land and distributed to his family, but he did not even bother to fulfil the people's demands. During election time, the leaders tend to give false promises with an eye on votes and then they forget everything. He said that DC has promised the agitators to give justice and said that the fight would continue until justice was received. He said his supporters would go to any length to get their land rights. he added.

DYFI district president Muneer Katipalla, speaking to the protesters, said "We have been very co-operative and waiting to get farmers' rights.  According to the constitution, poor people should get the land from the government for their livelihood, whereas our farmers and poor people are running from pillar to post to get their rights, and nothing has happened over the past 2 years," said he.

He demanded that the government give housing sites to the poor and urged the district administration to take immediate action and fulfil the demands of the farmers as well as landless people.  A hunger strike would be resorted to if the demands were not met, he warned, stressing that the fight would continute until the last breath.

District secretary Dayananda Shetty, city unit president Imtiaz,  city unit secretary Santoshh Kumar,  young women's wing president Pramila, district vice president Mohammed, district vice president Ashok Shetty and KPRS district secretary Yadav Shetty were also present.

(Source : Mangalorean.com)

Left Front in Kerala calls Hartal to ban Killer Pesticide Endosulfan

Left Democratic Front (LDF) Kerala has called for a state-wide Hartal on Friday to protest the Congress Led central government’s stand not to clamp a ban on pesticide endosulphan, which is the reason for many deaths in the state.

LDF convenor Comrade Vaikom Viswan announced the front decision to call the shutdown to protest the Indian government’s stand on endosulphan at the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which began in Geneva Monday. India has decided it would not support a call for a ban on the pesticide during the April 25-29 convention.

‘The conference ends Friday and hence we decided to express our protest against the centre’s stand not to ask for a ban at the ongoing conference. It appears the centre is more concerned about the ‘health’ of multinational companies and not the real health of people of this country,’ said Viswan. ‘We request the people to cooperate with the shutdown. All essential services would be allowed to function and so would two-wheelers,’ he added. Comrade V.S. Achuthanandan staged a seven-hour fast to demand a nation-wide ban on endosulphan on Monday.

About 500 deaths since 1995 in 11 villages have been officially acknowledged as related to the spraying of endosulfan, whose use on the estates of Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK) in Kasargode district began in the early 1970s and continued till 2001. Unofficial estimates put the deaths since the late 1970s to around 4,000.

Arrest of Suresh Kalmadi

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

The arrest of Suresh Kalmadi, Congress MP, for corruption associated with the Commonwealth Games, is a welcome step, though it is much delayed. Apart from the instances of corruption indulged in by the organizing committee of the Commonwealth Games, there is the large scale misuse of funds for the games by other agencies and authorities in the Delhi Government and the Central Government. Some of these have been enquired into by the Shunglu Committee.

The CBI should forthwith take steps to lodge cases and prosecute those who were responsible for the expropriation of public funds.

Ban Endosulfan: Comrade V S Achuthanandan leads fast

Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan went on a seven-hour fast at the Martyrs' Column here on Monday demanding a ban on Endosulfan and seeking Central assistance for the victims of the pesticide.
 

About 500 people from different walks of life joined the fast, held as part of a State-wide observation of Anti-Endosulfan Day by the government. Later, they took a pledge to fight the menace of the pesticide. Food and Civil Supplies Minister C. Divakaran administered the pledge.

In districts

Ministers led protests at district headquarters, including Kasaragod, where about 5,000 people were affected by aerial spraying of the pesticide in cashew plantations of the State-owned Plantation Corporation of India. The fast coincided with a Conference of Parties to Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants that began in Geneva on Monday.

The conference will consider a global ban on the pesticide which has reportedly caused more than 150 diseases, mostly affecting the nervous, immune, and reproductive systems.

Launching the fast, the Chief Minister said the dangers of using Endosulfan were getting more acute with more cases being reported from different parts of the State and outside. In Karnataka, 96 villages were affected, he noted.

Manmohan misled

Referring to the Central government's stand that a national ban was possible only if health problems were reported from other States also, he said it was regrettable that the Centre chose to wait for more deaths. Endosulfan was a poison that should not be used anymore. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had been misled by those supporting the pesticide lobby.

When an all-party delegation from the State met the Prime Minister recently, he chose to side with his Ministers who stood for the pesticide industry. Mr. Achuthanandan said the issue should be resolved above politics, as it concerned all.

The Chief Minister took lime juice from poet Sugathakumari at 5 p.m. to end the fast. Speaking on the occasion, he said India's stand against a global ban on the pesticide was deplorable. Mr. Divakaran presided over the agitation. Minister for Public Works and Law M. Vijayakumar welcomed the gathering. State Education Minister M.A. Baby, Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union Minister of State, O. Rajagopal, film actor Suresh Gopi, Members of Parliament and Legislative Assembly, and several writers and artists were among those who joined the protest.

 

According to reports from districts, organisations such as the Democratic Youth Federation of India, the Karshaka Sanghom, the Kerala Government Medical Officers Association, service organisations, film personalities, and their organisations either associated with the government-sponsored fast or organised their own protests. These included marches, signature campaign, public meetings and burning of effigies.

Members of the CPI(M)'s student and youth wings, Students Federation of India (SFI) and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), staged a protest throughout the state demanding a ban on Endosulfan. They also burnt an effigy of Dr. Singh. 

( Courtesy : The Hindu)

Comrade V S Achuthanandan to observe fast against non-banning of Endosulfan by Central Government

On April 25, when delegates from across the world will meet in Geneva to discuss the Stockholm convention on Persistent Organic Polllutants (POPs), Kerala will observe a black day and Comrade V S Achuthanandan will lead the protest by fasting on that day.

Ever since the first day of assuming office, VS has taken a soft approach to the hundreds of victims of the deadly pesticide which had contaminated a large area in Kasargod district. A solatium of `50,000 was given to the families of all those who died following diseases caused by Endosulfan. It happened within weeks of VS assuming office. The next step was to give a monthly pension of `300 to all living victims of Endosulfan. It was hailed as a major step by environmentalists as victims of Bhopal tragedy had been battling for compensation even then. The pension was increased to `700 and an additional amount of `300 was sanctioned as pension for the caretaker of the victim. In the final year of the LDF rule, these pensions were respectively enhanced to `1400 and `600. The government also took initiatives to provide adequate treatment for Endosulfan victims in Kasargod. Facilities in the primary health centres in the affected areas were increased and mobile clinics were set up. In all the 11 affected panchayats, vehicles and Ashraya workers were arranged to transport Endosulfan victims to hospital and back. In addition, all victims were given identity cards that would ensure them free treatment in all state government hospitals.When the cry for Endosulfan ban again reached its climax this month, VS decided to act stern.

UPA govt favouring pesticide lobby: VS Achuthanandan

Stepping up the attack on the Centre over the issue of banning Endosulfan, Kerala chief minister VS Achuthanandan today accused the UPA government of favouring the pesticide lobby.

Achuthanandan also termed as "deplorable" Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's stand that a further detailed study was needed before considering a nationwide ban on it.

He said Singh should not repeat the arguments of agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh, who, he alleged, were out to help the pesticide lobby while turning a blind eye to the sufferings of the poor.

"This stand (of Singh) is deplorable. He should immediately take steps to convene the Cabinet to discuss the issue raised by the delegation. He should use his good offices to deal with the issue, affecting many citizens of our country, in a more responsible manner." He said though the Indian Council of Medical Research's report of 2002 was with the Centre, Singh had still told an all-party delegation from Kerala, which met him yesterday, that a further study by ICMR is needed to take a decision.

The Prime Minister should not "helplessly" watch the situation worsen, but instead take urgent steps to ban it, he said a day after he lashed out at Ramesh, ridiculing his environmental concerns as "sheer hypocrisy".

Achuthanandan said hundreds of citizens in Kerala and Karnataka had lost their lives and many were suffering from deformities due to ill-effects of spraying the pesticide.

Ramesh, who claimed to be a person having concern for the environment, had already proved he was not only "anti-environment, but anti-people," Achuthanandan charged.

He wanted to know why six ministers in the Union Ministry from Kerala were keeping silent on the issue. These ministers were also not concerned about getting central aid to implement rehabilitation package for Endosulfan victims, he said.

The Centre had also not bothered to implement the recommendation of the national human rights commission to provide an assistance package to endosulfan victims, he said.

He said the notion so far had been that only Sharad Pawar and his Ministry were supporting endosulfan. With the Prime Minister and Jairam Ramesh speaking in the same language, it had become clear that the Congress and UPA government were also favouring the pesticide lobby, he said.

Achuthanandan said people in 11 panchayats in northern Kerala and 96 villages of southern Karnataka were affected by the pesticide. "The Centre should come out to help the people and not the pesticide lobby," he said.

(Courtesy : DNA)

Prosecute Narendra Modi

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

The affidavit filed by a senior Gujarat police official in the Supreme Court has provided direct evidence of the role of the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, in the 2002 pogroms against the minority community. In the affidavit, the police official has stated that the Chief Minister instructed senior police officials in a meeting not to act to protect Muslims from violence.

This testimony of the police officer, Sanjeev Bhatt, confirms the culpability of the Chief Minister in the pogroms. There should be no further delay in the investigations into the role of Narendra Modi and initiating steps to prosecute him.

Red Salute to the Great Martyr Comrade Leelavathi

APRIL 23 : COM. LEELAVATHI MEMORIAL DAY

Comrade K Leelavathi, the fighter who laid down her life for the cause of the people. April 23 is her Martyrdom Day. People of Madurai still holds her near to their heart. This time around her martyrdom day coincided with the election campaign in Tamil Nadu. This time Madurai is going to see a straight fight between the Culprits of Leelavathi's murder DMK and the Party for which she laid down her life CPIM.

Com Leelavathi was a political activist, fighter for social causes and an active participant in the women's movement, She was an active worker of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and was the member of its Maduri District Committe. She was elected to the Madurai Corporation Council from Ward 59 (Villapuram) in September 1996 in the first ever elections held with one-third of the seats reserved for women. She was One of her election promises was to supply piped water to the people of her ward, most residents of which are economically backward people. For long, they had been buying water supplied by water tankers actually supplied by the coporation but was hijacked by a mafia and was supplied at abnormal prices and had been literally at the mercy of the lorry operators for their daily requirements of water. During times of acute scarcity, they found it difficult to get even a potful of water.

Leelavathi intervened on behalf of these people. She tried to regulate the supply in a fair manner and fought against the fleecing of the poor by the tanker mafia. When she was named a candidate of the CPI(M) for the corporation election, she promised the people that she would put an end to this unfair system. From the moment she assumed charge as councillor, her one-point mission was to bring tap water to her ward. She had to pursue her efforts both inside and outside the Council. She insisted that water supply be given priority over other development works and, in six months' time, triumphed in her mission. The entire city saw her as a crusader.

The pipeline was laid and even a trial supply of water was also undertaken. But a day or two before the supply was to have been formally inaugurated, Leelavathi was done to death by a group of six persons while she was returning from a shop. The wrath of the water tanker mafia as well as political rivalry was seen as the reason for the crime. The city of Madurai plunged into grief. Protest rallies were held in several parts of Tamil Nadu.

Even after her election to the Corporation Council at the age of 40, Leelavathi, a weaver by profession, and her husband Kuppusamy, a vendor of stainless steel utensils, continued to live in a single-room house, along with their three grown-up daughters. Her loom occupied most of the space in the house. A table fan and a black-and-white television set were the only other valuables in the house. Simple and unassuming, Leelavathi endeared herself to almost all sections of the people in her ward. She attended to their complaints with utmost sincerity. In the process, she had to confront several anti-social elements in the area. When the CPI(M) launched a demonstration against these elements, she was in the forefront. She gave her whole time to public service and party work. She became an enemy of these anti socials who actually had the supporting of DMK and its top leaders.
On 23 April 1998 while Com Leelavathi was going to shop to buy household things she was attacked brutally killed by a group led by DMK Ward secretary.

At the time of her death, one of the State vice-presidents of the Handloom Workers Union and a State committee member of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA).
You have shown us our way forward and you have been leading us as torchbearer in our journey forward. We remember You Comrade. We dip our Red Flag in our great memory. Lalsalam Com. Leelavathi.. Long Live Your memories..

CPI(M) seeks action against pondicherry governor Iqbal Singh

CPI(M) demanded that the President intervene and take action against Puducherry Lt Governor Iqbal Singh, who is embroiled in a controversy over alleged links with suspected money launderer Hasan Ali Khan.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) conducted a protest outside the Raj Nivas, when its members sought the immediate recall of Mr. Singh by the President. CPIM Tamil Nadu State committee member T. Murugan said that the Lieutenant Governor had “misused his powers” and took decisions that favoured the Trust in which his sons were members.

He said that the argument of Mr. Singh that he was not aware of the credentials of tax evader Hasan Ali when he recommended expeditious issuance of passport for him could not be accepted. “The truth in this issue would come out only if the investigations are carried out after removing him from his post,” he said. He came down on the ''inefficient'' Congress government for allegedly issuing a No Objection Certificate to a medical college to be set up at Karaikal by a trust, which reportedly has his relatives in it. "Even Chief Secretary R Chandramohan's clarification later on the essentiality certificate issued to the trust to start the college were inspid," he alleged. Further, starting on Friday, the party would show black flags to Mr. Singh whenever he stepped out of Raj Nivas, he said.