Resolution Adopted at the Convention for People’s Unity & Against Communalism

India is a country with various religions, languages, castes and cultures. But there is an underlying unity in the diversity. A unity, which is based on the unity of the people, which makes us all Indians.

This unity of the people and the country is under threat from the communal forces. While the people of India, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians and many others fought together for independence, the communal ideology and communal organisations stayed away and instead sought to divide the people. The people rejected the communal ideology and India became a secular democratic republic.

At present, the communal forces are once again seeking to raise communal issues and create communal tensions.  In the light of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the communal campaign has been intensified. This has resulted in outbreak of communal incidents in various parts of the country. The riots in Muzaffarnagar are the most glaring example.

It is necessary for the secular and democratic forces to unitedly counter the communal forces of all varieties and maintain people’s unity.

This Convention calls upon the secular and democratic forces to strengthen their efforts amongst the people and mobilize them for rebuffing the communal forces, preserve communal amity, defend our composite culture and strengthen the unity of the people.

Convention for People’s Unity & Against Communalism

Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechuri, Janata Dal leader and former prime minister H D Devegowda, Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary A B Bardhan, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat and Janata Dal (U) leader Sharad Yadav and others join hands during the convention, "People's Unity against Communalism" in New Delhi"

Amid efforts to form a Third Front, several regional parties including Left, JD(U), AIADMK, BJD and UPA ally NCP today came together at a convention here with their leaders pitching for unity among them to defeat the "threat" from fascist and communal forces.

JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar appeared to target BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi as he said some leaders go after those who oppose their views or ideologies and talk about "cleansing" them.

Addressing the 'Convention against Communalism', he said the 17 parties assembled at the meet should forge "maximum possible unity" to defeat the threat from "fascism, communalism and terrorism" to the country.

"The question being asked is that if this convention means formation of a new front. As of today, this is not the case. But we all have to think that in the face of fascism, communalism and terrorism, democratic forces should maintain maximum possible unity on issues to combat and defeat such powers," he said.

Kumar said that in the aftermath of riots in UP's Muzaffarnagar, there has been a realisation about the need to raise voice against the threat of communalism.

The convention, organised by the Left parties, is being seen as an attempt for forge a conglomerate of non-Congress and non-BJP parties ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose party is in power in UP, said Muzaffarnagar riots were fomented by communal forces.

"At least we got together (on the same platform). If we unite, communal forces will not able to raise their head...We have crushed communal forces and we will continue to crush communal forces whenever they rear there head again," he said.

Yadav's colleague Ram Gopal Yadav said today's meeting was a "beginning" for the shape of things to come in the future.

NCP leader Praful Patel justified the party's participat on in the convention, saying "in the era of coalition politics, we have to keep our options open of working with other parties." Besides Kumar and Mulayam Singh Yadav, the convention was attended by CPI(M) leaders Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury, NCP's D P Tripathi, JD(S) leader H D Deve Gowda, AIADMK's M Thambidurai and CPI's A B Bardhan.

 Nitish Kumar said some leaders say 'chun chun kar saaf karo' (resort to cleansing). What kind of language is this? In a democracy, you win elections by defeating others. But why use phrases like cleansing others?"

Hitting out at Modi, the Bihar Chief Minister said everyone needs development but the model of development is important.

"A choice has to be made between models which favour corporate houses or inclusive models which focusses on the development of common man," the JD(U) leader said.

He said non-inclusive models which do not care for the poor and the weaker sections cannot suceed while models with emphasis on human development would have a stronger foundation.

In yet another salvo at Modi, Kumar said there are forces in the country which do not tolerate dissent.

In this context, he said there have been efforts to malign nobel laureate Amartya Sen after he had praised work done in Bihar.

Kumar, in an apparent attack on VHP, said people were taking out "untimely" religious processions and yatras in an attempt to "raise passions and create divisions".

The Bihar Chief Minister went on to caution the media also, saying it can report freely only in a democracy.

Yadav said, "I have been a victim of communal forces but in UP we have given them a befitting reply."

Referring to Muzaffarnagar riots, he said the loss of lives was regrettable but his party had tried to ensure that muslims were not demoralised.

CPI(M) seeks probe into attack on Kerala CM

The CPI(M) has demanded an inquiry into the attack on Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in Kannur on Sunday, in the light of Intelligence reports warning about the possibility of such an incident.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan alleged that the attack was designed to create public sympathy for the embattled Chief Minister who had become increasingly isolated following a series of scams.

“Mr.Chandy and his office stand accused of trying to protect the accused in several scams. No other Chief Minister has been so isolated from the public in the history of the State.”

Mr. Vijayan said the LDF stir against Mr.Chandy had remained peaceful since its launch in June. “Despite cruel assault on students, youth, and women by the police, our agitation has been peaceful.”

He sought to know what pre-emptive action the government had taken in the light of the Intelligence report that a ruling front activist might infiltrate the Opposition ranks and carry out an attack on the Chief Minister to restore his badly dented image.

“It is clear that it is the Chief Minister and not the Opposition who stands to benefit from such an attack.” He said the attack had happened far away from the four places where LDF workers had gathered to wave black flags against Mr. Chandy in Kannur.

“Immediately after the incident, Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan told reporters that LDF workers were taken into custody. That was a signal for the police to round up CPI(M) volunteers.”

Observing that even a minor assault on the Chief Minister was a cause for concern, he said the police should be able to identify the assailant easily, since Mr.Chandy was under heavy security cover during the attack.

Mr.Vijayan demanded a serious investigation to identify the people who had planned and executed the attack on the Chief Minister. He, however, warned against any attempt to launch a witch hunt against the CPI(M).

Replying to questions, he said the LDF would continue the agitation against Mr. Chandy. Mr. Vijayan said he and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had not called on Mr.Chandy as they had been advised against visiting Medical College Hospital on Monday morning.

Asked whether Sunday’s incident at Kannur had provided political mileage for the Chief Minster, he said it would boomerang on Mr.Chandy.

(source : the Hindu)

On Patna Bomb Blast

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the serial bomb blasts in Patna yesterday which led to the death of five persons and injuries to scores of others.  These cowardly attacks once again highlight the urgent need to strengthen intelligence against terror attacks.  Governments at the Centre and the state have to coordinate to ensure that the real culprits are arrested.  The Polit Bureau calls upon the people of Bihar to maintain and strengthen their unity.

Kerala LDF to seige CM's House

Left Democratic Front state committee today decided to launch indefinite massive siege of the Cliff House, the official residence of the Kerala Chief Minister from December 9 demanding the resignation solar scam tainted Oommen Chandy. The details will be finalized at the LDF meeting to be held on November 18, LDF convener Vaikom Vishwan told reporters. 

 

The siege has been planned as the Chief Minister has backtracked on his promises to appoint a sitting judge to probe the solar scam following the historic siege of the state Secretariat at Thiruvananthapuram in August 2013.

 

The meeting presided over by Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan also decided to organize two campaign jathas prior to the siege of the Cliff House. Both Jathas will begin on November 1 and conclude on 13. The northern Jatha led by deputy leader of opposition Kodiyeri Balakrishnan will start from Uppala in Kasargode. CPI state secretary Pannian Raveendran will inaugurate northern Jatha, which will cover Kasargode, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode, Malappuram and Palakkad districts and will culminate at Thrissur.

 

The Southern Jatha led by CPI legislative party leader C Divakaran will be inaugurated by Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan at Eranakulam. The Jathas will cover Idukki, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Alappuzha, kollam districts and culminate at Thiruvananthapuram.

 

 

In the meanwhile, a Kerala state plenum of the CPI(M) will be held from November 27 to 28, 2013 at Palakkad. This plenum will be an extended meeting of the state committee. A massive rally will also be held at Palakkad on the concluding day on November 28.

CPI(M) AP State Committee Demands Pro-Active Steps to End Impasse

THE CPI(M) Andhra Pradesh state committee has strongly objected to the indifferent attitude of the central and state governments to the intensifying agitations in the state. It felt the chief minister and Group of Ministers are not taking initiative to solve the problems being raised by the striking government employees.

The two-day meeting of the state committee was held in Party state headquarters MB Bhavan on October 10-11, 2013. Addressing the media in the afternoon of the first day, Party state secretary B V Raghavulu lambasted the chief minister for sleeping on his job even as the common people were suffering due to agitations, bandhs, electricity employees strike etc. 

A resolution adopted by the state committee on the present situation demanded that the chief minister must immediately take initiative to arrange a meeting of the striking employee leaders with central government in order to resolve the impasse. It noted that the agitation for maintaining the integrated state of Andhra Pradesh that began after the July 30 resolution of Congress Working Committee proposing division of state has intensified with the approval of cabinet note on October 3. The entire Seemandhra region came to a standstill with two-day bandh call. With electricity employees also beginning an indefinite strike, power generation and distribution was seriously affected. There was a danger of collapse of entire Southern Grid. People suffered a lot with even hospitals impacted seriously due to this strike. The state committee resolution warned that if things continued in this manner, people’s lives and economic affairs of the state would suffer irrevocably.

The resolution also requested the central government to hold discussions with the political parties in the state either individually or jointly. It also called upon the political parties to eschew electoral opportunism that would only complicate the problems further. Instead they must clearly state their position before the people and the Group of Ministers formed by the central government. The CPI(M) also wanted the central government to announce a programme for holding consultations with those agitating on this issue and also with all organisations and individuals interested in expressing their opinions on this issue.  The resolution also demanded immediate alternative measures to overcome the dire situation arising out of the indefinite strike by electricity employees with water supply affected, hospitals facing crisis and borewell irrigation severely affected.

Raghavulu said the centre must move ahead on this issue only after holding these consultations. This problem can be solved only by this method, he felt. Taking a dig at TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu who is talking of ‘justice’, Raghavulu demanded that he must first make it clear to the people and central government as to what he concretely means by ‘justice’. Also YSRCP president Jaganmohan Reddy must make clear how the state would become a desert if it is divided, as he is claiming. Similarly BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu must also tell clearly what he means by ‘equal justice’ to Seemandhra people. Raghavulu lambasted these parties for trying to fool the people in their opportunist attempt to gain political mileage.  Replying to a question, he said the CPI(M) is totally opposed to imposition of President Rule in the state. No matter how volatile the situation is, as long as elected representatives are there, this option must not be exercised, he felt.

On Coal Allocation Case

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

 

The CBI has lodged an FIR against the Chairman of the Hindalco and  the former Coal Secretary in a coal allocation case.  This is part of the ongoing investigations in the coal block allocation matter.

 

The CPI(M) has been demanding a thorough investigation in this case of allocating natural resources illegally to ensure  windfall profits to certain companies.  Since this involved the period when the Prime Minister was in charge of the Ministry of Coal, this aspect also needs investigation.

 

It is shocking that a Union Minister, Anand Sharma, has come out in defence of a big industrialist  claiming he is innocent in the case.  This is nothing but a blatant effort to influence the case and intimidate the CBI.  This stand is also to justify the covert policy of privatizing the coal industry which is the root cause for the corruption involved.

 

The Polit Bureau demands that the CBI proceed in the entire investigation and pursue the guilty without fear or favour.

Left Front to Intensify Its Campaign on the Major Issues in the Rural Belts

Brigade Rally to be Held in the Beginning of Next Year

Left Front has decided to launch a massive campaign throughout the State in favor of democracy and against violence. Movements to be launched in demand of some of the major problems being faced by the common people, right from the villages to the block, sub-division, districts and then in Kolkata and finally agitation and sit in demonstration to be staged in Delhi. In the beginning of next year Left Front will hold a rally in Brigade Parade Ground. The Left Front leaders decided this course of action in a meeting held on the 15th of October, 2013. After the meeting this was announced by Left Front Chairman and CPI(M) West Bengal State Committee Secretary Biman Basu.

He said after analyzing the present situation prevailing in the State in details, Left Front leadership has categorized some major problems of the people keeping the movement for democracy and against violence in the fore front. Amongst this is the demand for taking immediately effective measures for checking the sky rocketing of prices of the essential commodities, the Government has to interfere to stop the dismal situation of the farmers in selling their produce, through public distribution system each and every family has to be given 35 kgs of rice per month at Rs. 2 per kg, steps have to be taken to protect the dignity of women and atrocities against them, Government has to take steps in order to safe guard the interests of the workers and farmers, etc. Biman Basu said along with this the other demands will also be raised. In favor of these demands programmes will be launched right from the grass root to Kolkata and then in Delhi. He said in the days to come, the dates of the programmes will be finalized. Brigade rally to be held also, he said.

In answer to a question, Biman Basu said after Haldia Municipality, Siliguri sub-divisional Parishad, on this day the way Krishnanagar Municipality has been acquired by Trinamool forcefully, it is evident that this party does not believe in democracy. Those who do not believe in democracy are indulging in undemocratic activities in the guise of democracy. He said people’s democratic rights are under threat in this State, the way the elected organizations are being capsized either by terror or monetarily. The safety of the people of this State is at stake. One has to be vocal against all these.

Left Front has also raised its protest against abnormal price hike in Metro Rail tickets. Biman Basu said all of a sudden the price of tickets of Metro Rail has been raised abnormally. We raise our protest against this. After the holidays, when offices will reopen, we will stage our protest.

Discussions have taken place in the Left Front meeting regarding the elections to the municipalities on the 22nd of November, said Biman Basu. Elections to five Municipalities in four districts will be held on that day. Elections will be held in Howrah Municipal Corporation, Berhampur, Krishnanagar, Midnapur and Jhargram Municipality in overall 145 wards. Along with by-elections will be held in 29 wards in 23 Municipality in 12 districts of the State including ward number 1 and 24 ward of Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Districts Committees have been asked to take necessary preparation in this regard by the Left Front.

Brinda Karat meets victims of Rewa firing

CPI(M) Politburo member Brinda Karat addressed six meetings around the Jaypee Cement factory in Rewa district on Thursday where four persons suffered gunshot wounds after allegedly being fired upon by Jaypee Cement personnel in Baijnath village last week. One of the alleged assailants have been taken into custody.

Ms. Karat congratulated the villagers on their resistance to Jaypee’s alleged attempts to grab their land. “ JP [Gaur — the founder of the Jaypee group] and his thugs dared to beat up a pregnant woman so badly that she had to be hospitalised. The local BJP MLA (Abhay Mishra) is behind them. This aim of this criminalisation of politics is to grab the land of the poor,” she told the people of Baijnath.

Geeta Kushwaha, a pregnant woman, was in hospital after being assaulted by security guards of Jaypee Cement on October 3. She told this paper that her home on ancestral lands claimed by Jaypee was destroyed and her belongings seized by the company. “They continued to hit me and fired at us even after we had fallen down,” she said.

Ms. Karat urged voters to vote for the CPI(M), which before delimitation used to represent the Sirmour assembly constituency. The area now falls under the Semariya constituency, from where the party's state committee member Rohit Tiwari is contesting. “(Chief Ministers) Shivraj (Chouhan) and (Narendra) Modi wear glasses with which they can only see Jaypee and Adani and not the poor. Shivraj’s politics have been defined by land grab. The dreams they see are nightmares for the people,” she said.

The area around the Jaypee Plant has periodic tremors due to explosions in the limestone quarries that dot the area. Though a large number of the peasants have grown prosperous by switching from cereals and pulses to vegetables, they live under the constant fear of reprisals by Jaypee Cement with whom they have several land disputes.

In 2007, a youth named Raghavendra Patel was killed when Jaypee guards opened fire on a demonstration for work in the factory. Another youth named Abhishek Mishra, also involved in the movement against land grab, was found dead in July this year after being picked up by the police. The deceased youth have earned the titles of martyrs and two panchayats in the area are now ruled by the CPI(M).

In the martyr villages of Garhwa and Vihari, Ms. Karat met families of the deceased. “Jaypee behaves like a feudal lord,” she told this paper. “While continuing to serve the corporate interests, Shivraj gives little other than propaganda. This is no different from Modi who keeps saying that he was a chaiwallah. If he was one, then he has betrayed his class.”

Ms. Karat added that it was premature to talk of a third front now. "It will depend on the performance of the secular non Congress parties in next year's Lok Sabha polls," she opined. In MP, the CPI(M) has allied with the Samajwadi Party, CPI and, the Rashtriya Samanta Dal. (Courtesy : The Hindu, Photo: Ashutosh Singh)

Unacceptable Judgment in Laxmanpur Bathe case

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

 

The acquittal of all the accused in the Laxmanpur Bathe case by a division bench of the Patna High Court is an unacceptable judgment. The lower court had sentenced sixteen of the accused to death and given life sentence to ten others. To now give them the “benefit of doubt” when there is no doubt that fifty eight dalits were massacred in the village raises questions about the verdict.

 

Is it just a coincidence that in other such cases also where dalits have been killed by upper caste private armies the accused have been acquitted?

 

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) demands that the Bihar State Government appeal without delay against this flawed judgment.

 

It also reiterates its earlier demand to appeal against the judgment of the Patna High Court which had acquitted Pappu Yadav in the murder of CPI(M) MLA, Ajit Sarkar, even though he was found guilty by the lower court.