Left parties kick soff anti-corruption campaign in Manipur

The state units of several Left parties have launched a week-long democratic movement against corruption and other social ills in Manipur. The stir will be carried out in a phased manner at all district headquarters of the state.

On Friday, activists of the CPI, CPI (M), Forward Bloc and RSP kicked off the first phase of the movement at Aribam Mandhop in the Singjamei area of Imphal. During the campaign, the parties will call for adoption of an effective Lokpal Bill legislation, a national judicial commission to curb corruption in the judiciary and action against corruption by big businessmen in connivance with politicians.

L Thoiren Singh, the assistant secretary of Manipur state council of CPI , said the campaign will seek implementation of electoral reforms, checking use of money in elections, unearthing of black money and bringing back illegal money stashed abroad.

CPI(M), CPC to promote stronger India-China relations

Anantha Krishnan (The Hindu)

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of China have agreed to strengthen exchanges and to work together to promote the development of India-China relations, officials from both parties have said.

Sitaram Yechury, member of the Polit Bureau of the CPI(M), held talks with senior CPC officials, including China's top diplomat and State Councilor Dai Bingguo here on Thursday.

Mr. Dai told Mr. Yechury China wanted to increase mutual trust with India and take forward bilateral ties “from a long-term strategic standpoint”, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Bilateral relationship had maintained “a good momentum of development and faces unprecedented advancement opportunities,” added Mr. Dai, who is also a member of the CPC's Central Committee and is China's highest-ranked official on foreign policy issues.

The Chinese diplomat said as the “two biggest emerging and developing countries”, India and China needed to strengthen communication and cooperation and help promote “the overall competitiveness and influence of developing countries”.

In recent years, the CPC has pushed forward party-to-party exchanges with Indian political parties from across the political spectrum, inviting officials from the Congress and more recently, hosting BJP president Nitin Gadkari in January.

The CPC, however, has particularly close historical ties with the CPI(M). Mr. Yechury said the CPI(M) “valued its traditional friendship with the CPC” and was ready to expand exchanges “to promote a sound and stable development of India-China relations”.

“The Communist Party of India hopes to play a positive role in maintaining the good development of bilateral relations and help further ties between the two sides,” Xinhua quoted Mr. Yechury as saying.

Left to campaign against Corruption in Haryana

CPI(M) and CPI will undertake a weeklong special drive against corruption all over Haryana from July 15, 2011. In a joint press release CPI(M) state secretary Inderjit Singh and his CPI counterpart Raghubir Chaudhary have announced that corruption scandals of the UPA-2 as well as those flourishing under Congress government in Haryana will be highlighted with the demand to its effective curb through tough measures including enactment of an effective Lok Pal legislation.

Units of both Left parties have already chalked out the campaign mode involving distribution of handbills and pamphlets, street corner meetings, picketing government offices etc. exposing the unholy alliance of ruling class politicians, corporate sector and the bureaucracy which was working overtime to facilitate the loot of public money and natural resources.

Left leaders have stated that the neo-liberal policies in vogue since early 90s have proved to be fountainhead of corruption as evident in the scale and amount of loot in the mega-corruption scandals exposed during recent years. They have alleged that corruption was rampant in Haryana from top to bottom though land acquisition for builders, arbitrary system for change of land use, lavish misuse of Red Cross funds ,MGNREGS ,bribes in jobs etc. The policy of public- private-partnership was being made a conduit to transfer public resources in the private hands. The recent episode of unceremonious ousting of a Haryana Minister and a Chief Parliamentary Secretary following allegations of bribes for government jobs followed by the sensational murder of two complaining cousins was mere the tip of an iceberg of corruption in the state, the Left leaders allege.

Haroa is still bleeding

Haroa in North 24 parganas is bleeding. In a bid to drive away poor farmers from their land and prevent them from cultivation organized attacks have been resorted to by landlords with the help of Trinamool land-grabbers and police. While the situation in Haroa is explosive the trend is similar everywhere in rural Bengal with landlords engaging Trinamool goons against bargadars or sharecroppers who achieved immense benefit through land reforms programme during the three decades of Left Front government. The bargadars were recorded getting hereditary right to cultivate land of landowners and among pattadars khas or government land were distributed for cultivation.

Now, emboldened by the installation of the Trinamool government organized attacks are being mounted on them by landlords with the help of Trinamool goons under the protection of police. Massive eviction of poor peasants is taking place everywhere in rural Bengal.

Most heinous attack has taken place at Haroa in North 24-parganas. A wide area is virtually under siege after Assembly elections. In the first week of July a massive eviction drive took place in which 7063 bighas ( one bigha is nearly one-third of an acre) of land have been snatched away from nearly 10,ooo peasants, mostly bargadars and patta-holders.

On July 9, when evicted peasants assembled at a place called Gazitala in Haroa to resist forcible eviction Trinamool land-grabbers armed with deadly weapons attacked them from different direction. Thereafter, they swooped down upon nearby villages, forced peasants to stop work in fields, posted Trinamool flags , destroyed cultivation and burnt makeshift shelters of peasants, locally known as ‘ala ghar.’ In Tentulia, nearly 12,00 bighas were taken over. In the face of stiff resistance, police arrived in the spot and opened fire injuring six peasants.

Aided by the police Trinamool land-grabbers has already in organized armed operations evicted more than 20,000 poor peasants, mostly bargadars and patta-holders in different districts of West Bengal. While in Haroa at Barasat in north 24-parganas alone recorded an eviction figure of more than 10,000,in West Midnapore and Birbhum the number of sharecroppers and patta-holders evicted are more than 3000 each. The reports of eviction are also available from Bankura and Hooghly.The Trinamool activists have been in many places engaged by Jotedars and Zamindars whose lands are used be cultivated by bargadars. Now with the help of Trinamool goons they are trying to evict the bargadars or sharecroppers.

CPI(M) will make a turnaround: Buddhadeb

Former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today said his party, the CPI(M) will make a turnaround. "We must bring change in state politics. We are prepared to fight against all odds. It will be absolutely wrong, if the new government thinks it will be able to dominate us. We will make a turnaround," Bhattacharjee said.

He said that the party was keeping watch on developments in the Darjeeling hills and junglemahal and other areas and would react at an appropriate time. Thousands of party workers were rendered homeless after the declaration of election results following violence by the ruling Trinamool Congress, he alleged at a rally to protest violence against party workers and the hike in price of diesel, kerosene and LPG.

He blamed the Mamata Banerjee government for failure to contain the violence against party workers despite repeated requests. Demanding that party offices 'captured' by Trinamool Congress be returned, he alleged, "Trinamool Congress workers are doing this in connivance with the police.

"Even share-croppers and patta-holders are not allowed to cultivate their land by ruling party workers." Criticising the increase in prices of petroleum products, Bhattacharjee said that this had resulted in hike in prices of all essential commodities.

"Despite our protests, the Centre remains indifferent and no steps have been taken," he said.

CPIM General Secretary Prakash Karat visit Jaitapur

On Tuesday, Prakash Karat, general secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist), and D. Raja, MP and CPI national secretary, visited Jaitapur, the site of the proposed nuclear power plant, along with activist Vaishali Patil and others. The delegation of Left parties met the family of Tabrez Sayekar, who was killed in the police firing in April.

“It was a courtesy visit to express condolences. There was a meeting at Nate village and another one at Ratnagiri. The two leaders also met Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited officials who took them on a tour of the site,” Vivek Monteiro, member, Maharashtra State Committee of the CPI (M) said.

“In Mithgavane village, they met the local people and leaders. The people said the Jaitapur issue was significant for the whole country. They said the struggle would be expanded to other parts of Maharashtra and the country,” Mr. Monteiro said.

Perils of Railway Passengers

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) expresses its deep shock and grief at the horrific accident involving the Howrah-Kalka Mail in Fatehpur district in Uttar Pradesh. 65 bodies have been recovered and the death toll is rising; more than 200 have been injured. This accident comes just three days after the Mathura-Chaapra Express hit a bus at an unmanned railway crossing at Adhurpur which left 38 bus passengers dead.

Suspected sabotage on the same day as the Kalka Mail accident has led to the derailment of the Guwahati-Puri Express injuring many. All these highlight the perils faced by passengers on the railways.

In the last two years, the railways have been on a disastrous path under the stewardship of former Railway Minister, Mamata Banerjee. It has suffered acute neglect and was used for the political ends of the Minister in West Bengal. As a result, more than one lakh safety related jobs in the railways are lying vacant.

In the UPA government, no one is held accountable for this dereliction of duty. The Prime Minister should explain how this shocking state of affairs was allowed to go on. There can be no compulsions of coalition politics when the lives of the people are at stake.

It is not enough to have an enquiry conducted by the railways into the Kalka accident. The Polit Bureau demands the constitution of a high level enquiry into the spate of railway accidents and immediate steps to strengthen the safety measures in the railways.

Jyoti Basu Remembered on his 98th Birth anniversary

Communist Patriarch and former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu’s 98th birth anniversary was celebrated across the state on Saturday. Among those who paid floral tributes in the Assembly were Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay, Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee, the former Speaker H.A. Halim, and Sitaram Yechury, member of the Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

A non-governmental organisation Pather Panchali, which held annual celebrations on this day at Basu’s residence Indira Bhavan when he was alive, organised a small function at the venue. Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Forward Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh, other political leaders and a large number of schoolchildren took part. Chatterjee demanded that Indira Bhavan, where Basu spent the last two decades of his life, be turned into a museum in his memory.

Born July 8, 1914, in Kolkata to a wealthy family, Basu took to communism in London. On his return to India, he joined the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI) and plunged into the Left movement.  Basu made his debut in electoral politics in 1946. He was elected to the state assembly 11 times, losing only once – in the hugely controversial 1972 elections.
After the CPI split in 1964, he joined the CPI(M) and was elected to its first central committee and politburo.  He was West Bengal chief minister from 1977 until he retired in late 2000 due to ill health.

Sitaram Yechury files papers for RS polls in West Bengal

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury on Friday filed nomination as the lone Left Front candidate for Rajya Sabha elections in West Bengal.

The Rajya Sabha terms of four Left Front leaders -- Yechury, Brinda Karat, Mohammad Amin of CPI(M) and Abani Roy of RSP, besides Trinamool Congress’ Swapan Sadhan Bose -- will end on August 18.  The remaining sixth seat has been lying vacant since the death of Independent Arjun Sengupta, who was backed by the Left and Congress in September 2010.
The election will be held on July 22.

Our struggle has not ended with the defeat in the elections: Prakash Karat

The Left Parties on Thursday lashed out at the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, saying that as many as 24 of its workers and supporters had been killed since the Mamata Banerjee-led government took power in that State. In a joint resolution, they strongly condemned the “dastardly attacks being unleashed on Left Front activists in West Bengal” and demanded an immediate halt to them. 

Addressing a public meeting in Delhi as part of the national campaign of the Left Parties against Trinamool Atrocities in West Bengal , CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, while referring to the achievements of the former Left Front government in West Bengal in land reforms, establishing communal harmony and transformation of the rural areas, said this was clearly not to the liking of some people. Giving details of the attacks on Left workers since the coming to power of the Trinamool in West Bengal, he stressed, “Our struggle has not ended with the defeat in these elections. We are committed to battle for people's rights.” He also pointed out that people should not forget that two crore people had voted for the Left Front even in these elections, and it would not be easy to crush their spirits or continuing struggle. “If anyone believes that Communism can be ended through physical attacks,” Mr Karat said,” they are wrong.” 

Later, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan pointed out that Ms. Banerjee could not escape responsibility for the hike in the prices of petroleum products and rising prices as her party was one of the Congress's biggest partners in the UPA government at the Centre, while taking credit for slashing some of the taxes on these items in the State. “It isn't as though there are two Mamata Banerjees — one in Delhi and another in Kolkata,” he said. The meeting was also addressed by Debabrata Biswas of the Forward Bloc and Abani Roy of the Revolutionary Socialist Party. Present on the dais were other Left leaders, including CPI(M) MPs Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat. 

The resolution blamed the “goondas” of the Trinamool, the Maoists and the Congress for the attacks on Left workers and demanded that the West Bengal government immediately intervene and end the “barbaric attacks.”