LDF's development plan for Ernakulam

LDF has come out with a development outline for Ernakulam. With a heavy focus on the Kochi city, the `Visaala Kochi Vikasana Rekha', released by the LDF election committee for the Ernakulam Lok Sabha constituency on Wednesday, takes a bird's eye view of the development needs and possibilities of the constituency and proposes a series of projects.

K. Chandran Pillai, MP and CITU leader, who released the document, told mediapersons that a lot of homework had gone into the preparation of the document and that a host of experts and ordinary people had been consulted. "It is a very pragmatic approach to Kochi's development possibilities," he said. Mr. Pillai claimed that the basic philosophy of the development perspective was that development was the right of the people and that a project should be judged by its contribution to improving the living conditions of the people.

The document has identified infrastructure development as the thrust area. "Infrastructure development is the key to removing the current stagnation and to facilitating sustainable development," the document notes. Energy, transport and port are some of the areas that the document gives special attention to. It recommends the execution of the Petronet LNG project and the 500-mw power project planned by the Kochi Refineries, on a war-footing.

The document wants the Pooyamkutty hydroelectric project -- which has been kept in the cold storage following intense resistance by environmental protection activists -- to be executed immediately as one of the solutions to power shortage. It points out that information technology and biotechnology have vast scope for development in Kochi. The fishing harbour in Kochi, one of the four major ones in the country, needs restructuring. The fishing sector needs to have linkages with the research institutions and it has to be reorganised as an industrial activity.

In order to have a useful linkage between the industries and the education sector, the LDF document calls for a reorientation of the research/degree programmes at the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat).

The document also calls for setting up an Industries Academy and an International Institute of Foreign Trade in Kochi.

The document wants the Central public-sector industries to be kept in the public sector and more governmental investment to be made in them. At the same time, the document underlines the importance of private sector investment. Chandran Pillai said that, ``we are quite aware that private investments are crucial for industrial development." Importance should be given to manufacturing industries. The industries in the public sector should be restructured by factoring in competition.

The Kochi port has been given a pride of place in the document. It should act as the nerve centre of the State's economic growth. The Vallarpadom project should be completed early and the move to privatise the port should be resisted.

The document calls for putting the conservation of Periyar river on the socio-political agenda of the region. Drinking water availability should be augmented by completing the ongoing projects early and launching new ones. Agricultural development, tourism promotion, public health, law and order are among the issues discussed in the document.

courtesy:Hindu

Former SFI statepresident Com. Sindhu Joy is the LDF candidate from the constituency. She got the upper hand with the announcement of the UDF candidate K V Thomas who is having a negative image on his pro-isreali stand.

KUDUMBA YOGAM ALIAS FAMILY MEET : THE MASTER STROKE OF LDF

With the election campaign getting flared up, the LDF has got a major upper hand despite all the odds created by the bourgeois media. The LDF has started its master stroke of the campaign, that is Kudumba yogam. Kudumba yogam can be translated as Family gettogether. Its one of the trump card campaign methods of the LDF. In this family gettogether members from atleast 10-15 families will gather together and there some of the selected orators of the LDF will present the policies of LDF in a short span of time. The involvement of a large number of women makes this form of campaign a good medium. 5-6 such gettogether will be called in a booth area. That means atleast 1000-2000 such family gettogether will be called in a constituency. And this mode of campaign is exclusively done by the LDF. With this master stroke the LDF is all set to make sweep like the last elections.

Fishy Tharoor

Among the "high profile" candidates in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, much touted and vaunted by the media is the former career diplomat, Shashi Tharoor. Tharoor, a prolific writer of fiction and commentaries, spent nearly three decades in the United Nations; infact his final "claim to fame" vis-a-vis the UN was his bid to become the secretary general of the organisation. He lost the bid to Ban Ki Moon of South Korea.

It is clear that the suave and articulate former diplomat has been fielded by the Congress [2] to present an educated and "modern" representative for the United Democratic Front in an urban constituency -the capital of India's most literate state, Kerala. It is the "modern" part that is going to come under some scrutiny in this blog write-up. Called into question would be some of Shashi Tharoor's own writing - most of which qualifies as "Indo-nostalgic [3]" - a term that I borrowed from good old Wikipedia.

About seven years ago, Tharoor wrote an article in the International Herald Tribune [4] describing his visit to two high profile places in South India - Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh and Bangalore. In the former, Tharoor visits the complex hosted by that godman, "Satya Sai Baba". In the latter, Tharoor pays a visit to the uber-modern campus of Infosys Technologies at Electronics City.

Tharoor is impressed by both visits - about the former, he writes glowingly about the "miracles" conjured by the host baba, who "materialises" a ring from thin air for his guest. About the latter, he is impressed at the swanky structures built in Bangalore by the Infosys proprietors. He goes on to call these "facets of 21st century India", suggesting the juxtaposition of tradition and modernity, applauding the baba for his spiritual and material public service and Infosys for its efforts to bring high end technology to India.

Lets delve on the Baba story a bit. Tharoor was rightly upbraided by rationalists [5]for his glowing terms of reference to the charlatan at Puttaparthi. Tharoor's later response was to suggest that he was skeptical about the "conjuring acts" and that goes without saying within the article. I will try to give him the benefit of doubt. But a similar bit of writing elsewhere by him, makes it difficult for me to do so.

Tharoor, in his book, India - from midnight to millennium [6] ( a rather second grade book, if you ask me), writes about the "Ganesha drinking milk" "phenomenon". Diligent recent affairs followers would remember the national frenzy that this "thing" (for want of a better word) created - scores of idols of the Hindu god Ganesh "drinking milk" poured in through teaspoons by devotees. Tharoor was witness to one such "demonstration" in Houston, Texas, right about the same time when the frenzy was being whipped up in India. He notices a terra-cotta statue of Ganesh drinking milk through the capillary way and points at the devotion of those engaged in this exercise. The quotable bit is his conclusions, this: "Ganesh drank willingly from her extended spoon" - lets say he was waxing poetic here and this: "I was prepared to believe a fully rational explanation for the event, but i was equally willing to accept that a miracle might have occured, one not readily susceptible to the demystification of scientists" - uh oh.

In other words, Tharoor is willing to let obscurantism co-exist with rationalism, as hey, 'cos what harm does it do, eh (in Manhattan lingo)? Lets get back to that charlatan bit. Tharoor emphatically says that the baba should not be reduced to a "conjuror", as "he has channeled the hopes and energies of his followers into constructive directions, both spiritual and philanthropic". And then he juxtaposes the charlatan with India's new economy giant, as "emblematic of an India that somehow manages to live in several centuries at once". In other words, Tharoor is willing to accept the legerdemain of the charlatan for his side effects - his "channeling" and thus continues in the same vein as his book - the co-existence of obscurantism and rationalism (surely which brought about the birth of computers, IT and indeed, India's new economy boom).

I need not go into the gobbledygook that the charlatan baba generates. He is a cheap trickster [7], there is no doubt. But importantly one has to question this nonsensical assertion of the charlatan's piety which is brought out by the gushing praise of the public services "work" of him and his followers. It is true that the followers of the trickster have helped build hospitals and bring in drinking water to parched areas of south India. But isn't it also true that these are services that are essentially to be brought about by the state? Isn't that what Article 37 of the Constitution (the directive principles of State Policy) [8] for e.g. suggests - "The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties and, in particular, the State shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption except for medicinal purpose of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health."

The Constitution, that affirms in the preamble that India is a "secular" republic is itself an incarnation of modernity which mid-wived through enlightenment overcomes obscurantism and fosters rationalism. But that is not the main point I am driving at. The point is that by channeling the energies of citizens - guileless gullible miracle-worshippers and many guileful folks who seek an instrumental reason in association with other "high and mighty" - through obscurantist techniques and usurping the place of the state in delivering services, the charlatan is only furthering the gullibility of the people and the cause of the "high and mighty" who follow him. He ensures that these citizens who are equal partakers of the state, do not question the laxity of its custodians and consequently reduce the efficacy of its functioning as they are satisfied by the services rendered by a fake miracle-monger and ascribe the benefits of such services to divinity.

A modern secular, rational human being will in no way endorse obscurantism even if it has an instrumental value. In the case of the Baba,this instrumental value - provision of essential services - only furthers ignorance and further obscurantism, as the believers refuse to get out of their ignorance because of the benefits that they receive out of it. A sensitised public who are aware of the "domain of rights" and the "rule of law" in a democracy would assure those services through the aegis of the state and would not be subject to the whimsical bogus miracle-mongering of a con artist.

In essence, Shashi Tharoor's effusive praise of the juxtaposing of obscurantism and rationalism will only be a curse on and an impediment to the eventual filtering of rationality and modernity, two important features that translate into a greater civic consciousness.

Moving on to more Tharoorism. Tharoor is widely acclaimed for his "precocious" work as a diplomat, who became one at a fairly early age and after a quick PhD at Tufts School of Diplomacy. The case for having an accomplished diplomat in parliament is obvious, especially in a context, where diplomatic skills are a premium in these days of attacks of terrorism such as the Mumbai incidents on 26th November, 2008. It is therefore apt to study what our diplomat-candidate had to offer during those days of public discourse on the response to the incidents from India. Lets have a look at what Tharoor wrote in the Haaretz in the aftermath of the incidents. Tharoor uses false equivalence, comparing the attacks on Mumbai by terrorists originating from Pakistan with rocket attacks from the Hamas based in Gaza (note Tharoor never mentions the "beleaguered" Hamas and the "blockaded Gaza). He suggests that the Indian establishment (and I suspect himself) is envious of the abilities of the Isrealis to take punitive action against its adversaries, while it is not able to do so. And in making that argument, Tharoor blissfully ignores the contours of the conflict in Palestine, the history of Israeli aggression, the torment faced by the Palestinians and the continuing illegal occupation of Palestinian territories. In effect, as journalist focusing on West Asia, Marian Houk argues in his blogpost [9],

"One of Shashi Tharoor’s main flaws is that he never understood what is going on in the Middle East, particularly in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And he saw it to his advantage, in the interest of his career advancement, to pander to one side, the one with the most power and influence … and that is a classic, though profoundly immoral, way to behave."

How about Tharoor's other credentials? Tharoor, is an advisor to the Coca Cola India Foundation Yatn, a corporate social responsibility project of the Coca Cola company. Yes, the very same Coca Cola company whose plant in Plachimada in Kerala is currently shut down because the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB ) has refused [10]to issue the "Consent to Operate" to the company, owing to the high levels of polluting content (cadmium) in Coca Cola's sludge and in the groundwater in and around the water plant. An argument can be made that Tharoor is not to be blamed for the company itself, as his associations are only to the effect of advising on social responsibility projects by the company. But interestingly, Tharoor responding to critics [11] who questioned this association, went on to whitewash the charges against the Plachimada plant by suggesting that he is "unable to understand the scientific basis for your continued charges against the company, and can only conclude that they are politically-motivated". Funnily, he quotes the reports on Plachimada by KSPCB which has indeed shut down the plant because of its findings. As this rather dubious letter by Tharoor suggests, he is willing to juxtapose corporate pollution of natural resources with corporate generated employment.

We surely don't want a obscurantist who clothes himself in modernity, do we? We surely don't want a diplomat in the legislature who is a careerist pandering to the influential, do we? We don't want an apologist for corporate damage to natural resources, do we?

Shashi Tharoor might see reason in juxtaposing obscurantism with modernity or Israel with India or corporate environmental pillage with corporate generated employment. This writer sees no reason in juxtaposing a former diplomat with mediocre views and a tendency to "pander to the influential", with the image of a member of parliament in India's most literate state.

Links:
[1] http://www.pragoti.org/node/3302
[2] http://www.shashitharoor.in/home?setLanguage=english
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-nostalgic#Indo-Nostalgic_writing
[4] http://www.iht.com/articles/2002/12/03/edtharoor_ed3_.php?page=1
[5] http://indianrationalists.blogspot.com/2006/10/rationalists-welcome-tharoor-pulling.html
[6] http://books.google.co.in/books?id=fRSC_uTGhZ8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Shashi Tharoor#PPA64,M1
[7] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwOecpMkHH0
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_Rights,_Directive_Principles_and_Fundamental_Duties_of_India
[9] http://un-truth.com/israel/for-fans-of-shashi-tharoor-he-says-that-india-envies-israel-for-its-gaza-operation
[10] http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn04162005.html
[11] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shashi-tharoor/an-open-response-to-an-op_b_170172.html

courtesy: pragoti.org

Why Mandi Parliamentary seat requires a third alternative?

The Mandi parliamentary segment (Himachal Pradesh) is the largest constituency in the country with respect to the area dimensions. It has 17 Assembly seats, one from Shimla district, the lone Kinnaur Assembly seat, all four Assembly segments from Kullu, all but one (Dharampur) from Mandi district, Bharmaur in Chamba district and the entire district of Lahaul and Spiti that contains only one Assembly segment. So geographically this Parliamentary seat covers almost half of the entire state. In the present Vidhan Sabha, this Parliamentary segment has a wide majority of BJP legislators with all the three tribal constituencies with them. The social composition of the area is also quite varying. The entire tribal belt from Pangi – Kilar to Kinnaur falls in this constituency. The Kullu has semi tribal relations and a strong presence of caste differentiation. The district of Mandi has a predominantly feudal relationship prevalent in almost all the regions.

It is because of this that there has been a widespread movement in the past, called the ‘Mujaara’ movement. The Communist Party was the forefront leader of this movement. It is because of it that this region had several elected representatives of the Left in the state Assembly. The regions of Balh, Jogendernagar and such other places had quite a strong movement. As a result of this movement, land was distributed in this area after the 70s and Dalits were the beneficiaries. The Congress was able to maneuver the people instead of the Communist Party, which in fact led the struggle, and thus became a champion of land distribution, etc., despite the fact that it also helped the landlords through the leakage in ceilings and privy purses and so on. The Congress in a nutshell was able to befool the people.

The welfare state concept continued till the 80s and when the switchover to capitalism happened, led by the Congress, the hard gains made by the working people and the peasantry through their innumerable struggles also became target. The people were made bereft of their rights. The whole concept of welfare state was hit. The philosophy that the market would govern everything, ruled the roost. The IMF-World Bank dictated policies and asked the governments to cut down their developmental budgets and bring down the fiscal deficit to 2%, which both the Congress and BJP vehemently and merrily agreed.

Effect of fallout
1 Agriculture became the most thrashed out or severely-hit sector. Whatever subsidies were being provided were cut substantially. The government’s intervention in the market support system also was withdrawn. This led to such a situation where the cost of production increased enormously and the prices fell drastically. It is because of this reason that half the number of peasants has been coerced to such a situation where if they are offered some other option, other than agriculture, they are prepared to accept. Not a big surprise that primarily because of this reason one suicide takes place in half an hour and the total number of suicides has almost reached 2 lakh in the country. Price fluctuation has also severely affected the peasantry in the hortiticulture-growing regions.

2 The other important sector being affected is the social services sector. This sector mainly comprising education and health has virtually being converted into a commercial enterprising area. Not only rampant privatization of the educational institutions was allowed, even the government-run educational institutions like the degree colleges, medical colleges, universities, etc were being targeted for resource mobilization, and under this garb, generating money from a category called non–subsidized seats became the easiest way of mobilization. Apart from this, an increase of more than 600% in respective fees structure has also taken place . This has eventually led to a situation where the pocket of the general people is robbed in a clandestine manner.Similarly, the health sector in the previous years, especially under the BJP rule, has become the most profitable money generating enterprise. Initially the government-run health centers were turned into ‘Rogi Kalian Samitis’ and then through these Samitis fleecing the poor patients became the methodology. Now such Samitis would work at all the health centres. Continuingly the drive, the government has abdicated from the responsibility of providing health services to the people and instead has flooded the state with private medical institutions and centres. Under the guise of Greenfield projects, the government has even planned to attach government hospitals with private medical colleges.

3 Employment generation is amongst the biggest fears of neo-liberalism! Unemployment is soaring in the state. Because of these policies, the registered figure of unemployed people has reached 9 lakh. Talking into account marginal workers and those who do not get work round-the-year, the figure soars to nearly 15 lakhs. This is 25% of the population and nearly 45% of the workforce. This means that every second person in the age group of working population is unemployed. The government has virtually declared a complete moratorium over the services. More than 35,000 posts were scrapped up in one stroke by the government. The private sector also does not provide employment for the people of the state as major industries are situated in the periphery where people from neighboring states get employment.

4 The mystery of missing people from the offices! A new mystery, it seems, has gripped government schools and hospitals. This mystery is about the missing employees. Especially in the tribal and backward areas, there are innumerable schools and colleges where there are no employees or just one teacher manning a school and just one para-med or even a Group D employee taking care of the entire health centre. Systematically, this has been done by successive governments. The vacancies in both these sectors are not being filled up. The employment being provided is on contract basis. Both the Congress and the BJP have blatantly supported contractual form of employment.

5 Diminishing land and restricted rights! Over 70% of the state’s population is dependent on agriculture and other related activities. More than 90% live in rural areas. The land holdings have increased to over 12 lakhs (12,21,589),in the state. This has further put pressure and burden on the existing land structure. To add to the woes, more than 66% area is forest land in the state. Plus the total land that can be used for agricultural purposes is just 6 lakh hectare, of which nearly 1 lakh hectare has either submerged in dams or used for cement plants and other industrial purposes. It is in this background that when the then Dhumal government in 2002 asked the peasantry to file their claims for encroachments done on either government or forest land, nearly 1 lakh turned up exhibiting their encroachments. Then came the Congress government in 2003, and the Virbhadra Singh ministry asked for eviction of encroachers. A strong drive was carried out in Nirmand, Arsu, Anni in Kullu district, Bhaturi, Sapni in Kinnaur district and at several other places in Shimla district. It was, however, stopped because of the powerful resistance laid out by the peasants under the banner of Himachal Kisan Sabha. Now, after the Forest Tribal and Forest Dwellers Act 2006, the same encroachments can be regularized and hence it becomes a foremost issue of the tribal and other contiguous regions. Both the Congress and the BJP are trying to evade this question.

The financial meltdown
Then came the financial meltdown in the world. The pillars or the outposts of financial liberalization started melting down. The main purpose of the philosophy of neo-liberalism today stands defeated. They are on the defensive. It is here that the Left, and particularly the CPIM, has to play an offensive role in the contemporary politics. Despite the fact that the neo-liberal order, or simply speaking the outlook that the market would decide everything or privatization is the panacea for all the ills, stands on the back foot and grounded. Still the BJP government is pursuing this neo-liberal agenda with crony capitalism. No surprise one of the main crony is JayPee industries. From a mere contract of Rs 10 crore for example, in the Swan channelisation to mega projects like the Wangtoo Karcham hydel projects, Bagha cement plant, further extending to the opening of medical colleges, universities, even medical trusts, JP as it is called, is the prime beneficiary. The Congress is no different than the BJP on this front. No surprise that it was the Congress government headed by Virbhadra Singh that fired at the tribals in the Wangtoo Karcham agitation.

It is with this background that a strong force that can provide an alternate to the ongoing policies must be developed and it can be none other than Dr Onkar Shad, the Left candidate from Mandi Parliamentary segment.

Courtesy :Pragoti.org

Profile of candidate

Dr Onkar Shad was born on 21st May, 1959. He hails from Village Shagagi in Anni Tehsil of Kullu district and is a well known public and political figure of Himachal Pradesh. He does not need any introduction as he is most often seen by the people at the public rallies, mass demonstrations and various agitations of the working people. He is always with the masses as he organizes and agitates on various issues confronting the mass of the people, and always leads from the front.

Even so, we thought it prudent to showcase his personality in a sketchy manner just to remind the people that he is the candidate who qualifies to have their support.

Academic Life
Dr. Shad did his schooling from Dalash and Khun Schools, and later graduated with B. Sc.-Medical in 1980 from Government College, Rampur. Thereafter he did MSc (in Botany), MPhil and PhD from Himachal Pradesh University. For his outstanding academic performance he was awarded a gold medal in MPhil and fellowships for MPhil and PhD. He was selected as lecturer through the HPPSC in 1989. Dr. Onkar made huge sacrifice by declining the offer. He preferred to make it to the public life to organize the deprived section of the toiling masses and build communist party in the State.

Political Life
Contribution in Students, Youth and Popular Science Movements
In 1979 he became the first elected President of the Students Central Association of Government College, Rampur Bushahr. He was elected as Sate Secretary of SFI from 1983 to 1989. It was under his leadership that a long drawn movement was launched in 1988 throughout the State to seek direct elections to the Students Central Association; a hard earned democratic right of the students’ community. Later he organized the youth of the State and was elected State Secretary of DYFI Himachal Pradesh unit. He led a delegation of youth and students to Korea in the World Festival of Youth and Students in 1989. He was on the Central Committee of the SFI and DYFI for all the years he was active in the students’ and youth movement. He contributed his knowledge of science education and research in spreading the scientific temper and popularization of science amidst the massed along with the dissemination of knowledge on alternate technologies for fruit and vegetable production and harvesting. He also actively participated in many Peoples’ Science Movement at State and all India levels.

Architects of Kisan Movements
He was a pioneer of the apples support price movement. He was the President of the Anni Unit and State Joint Secretary of the Himachal Pradesh Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association that spearheaded the agitation for the support price for apples in 1987 and 1990-1991. Several times, he was brutally lathi-charged, jailed and dozens of cases were registered against him. He organized the peasants and formed Himachal Kisan Sabha (HKS) the state unit of the All India Kisan Sabha. Through the HKS he led many struggles of the peasantry which include the successful movement for the compensation, employment and rehabilitation of the peasants affected by the Nathpa Jhakri Hydel Project, including an award of Rs 5 crores. He has been the leading activist in the struggle for the enhancement of support price of milk that was launched in Nirmand, Ani, Banjar, Rampur and other contiguous areas of the State. He led the peasants to stop the eviction process form the land occupied by the marginal and poor peasants under the garb of encroachment. Dr. Onkar and his fellow comrades stood with the peasants to stop the felling of apple trees in orchards in Ani, Kinnaur and elsewhere. He organized peasants for the restoration of TD rights and for the safety of crops from wild animals under the banner of’ ‘Kheti Bachao Sangarsh Samiti’ of which he is the State General Secretary.

Man of the Masses and a Political Visionary
Dr. Onkar has deep concern for the deprived sections of the society. He has been raising issues related to the livelihood of the people with utmost sincerity over the last three decades of his active political life. He has clear vision on the problems that country and its people are facing, and knows how to resolve these. He also has clear vision about the problems affecting the State of Himachal Pradesh those include financial indebtedness, agrarian crisis, food security, problems created by the execution of hydroelectric projects, unemployment and tribals and peasants rights over forests. He has clear vision about the resolution of the developmental problems and issues affecting people.

http://vote4dronkarshad.org

FOREIGN POLICY AND SECURITY ISSUES: MAKING INDIA A JUNIOR PARTNER OF THE US

1. The NCMP had stated, "The UPA government will pursue an
independent foreign policy keeping in mind its past traditions.
This policy will seek to promote multi-polarity in world
relations and oppose all attempts at unilateralism…Even as it
pursues closer engagement and relations with the USA, the UPA
government will maintain the independence of India's foreign
policy position on all regional and global issues."

2. The Congress-led Government betrayed this and India is now
increasingly becoming a junior partner to the US. The growing
ties with Israel show how far India has moved from its support
to the Palestinian people against the brutal occupation by
Israel. Notably, this vision of allying India with the US and
Israel is a part of the Jana Sangh/RSS strategic thinking.

3. The Manmohan Singh-Bush Agreement in July 2005 was not just
another energy deal as the Congress-led government claimed. It
was the centrepiece of the strategy to draw India into the US
camp. It was followed immediately by India's two votes against
Iran in the IAEA, making India party to an anti-Iran gang-up.
The Congress-led government was willing to give up cheap gas
from Iran for the benefit of much more expensive nuclear power
from US-made nuclear reactors.

4. The Hyde Act, which was the basis of India-US Nuclear Deal made
clear that India's foreign policy must henceforth be "congruent"
to that of the US. It also imposed the condition that India must
align with the US on Iran's nuclear programme. India's record on
both these counts show the impact of the Hyde Act and the
Nuclear Deal on Indian foreign policy.

5. The public justification given for the deal was that it was
necessary to address India's need for energy. It is clear that
nuclear energy is not going to meet more than 5-6% of India's
energy needs. This is also what the Planning Commission has
projected in its Integrated Energy Plan. The CAG report has made
clear that the shortage of uranium – cited as a justification
for the deal – was entirely created by the government and not
due to a lack of uranium reserves in the country.


6. The CPI(M) and the Left not only brought out the complete
one-sided agreement that India was entering into with the US, it
also pointed out that the cost of power from imported nuclear
plants would be 3-4 times that from coal fired plants, or even
Indian nuclear plants. There is no fuel supply guarantee, the
agreement can be terminated at will by the US, thus holding
India to ransom, and imposes stringent terms on nuclear supplies
made to India. It also does not lift the sanctions on the high
technology sector in India.

PRICE RISE, HUNGER AND MALNUTRITION

ONE of the most striking failures of the Congress-led government has been the inability to check the persistent rise in prices of food and other essential commodities and ensure food security for our people. Shamefully, the UPA government is now claiming great success in controlling inflation, at a time when the entire global economy is spiraling rapidly into recession. Inflation in prices of food articles are 8 per cent and foodgrains are 11per cent higher than a year ago, respectively. At the retail level in Delhi between March 2008 and March 2009 sugar went up by 47 per cent, tur by 31 per cent and onions by a whopping 111 per cent. All this makes the slogan of Jai Ho sound hollow.

Endemic hunger continues to afflict a large proportion of the Indian population. The International Food Policy Research Institute ranks India 66 out of the 88 developing countries. This is not surprising, since latest NSS data show that 76 per cent of the total population has inadequate calorie and food consumption. More than half of India’s women and three-quarters of children are anaemic and one in every three adult Indian has chronic energy deficiency.

The obvious strategy to tackle hunger and malnutrition was to universalise and strengthen the Public Distribution System, expand the Anna Antodaya Yojana, act firmly against hoarders and black-marketers, ban futures trading in essential items and food, etc. But the UPA government did the exact opposite through its ill-conceived neo-liberal food policy, which favoured agribusiness and private traders, belying its promises to the aam aadmi.

1. It is shameful that today, even as the government’s granaries are overflowing with a surplus stockholding 84 per cent above buffer norms, kitchens of vast sections of our people remain empty.

2. The government cut allocations of food grains to the states by 325 lakh tones or by 73.4 per cent between 2006 and 2008, mainly under the APL category.

3. Furthermore, there has been a cut in household quota for APL from 35 kg per family per month to 20 kg.

4. It continued the policy of dividing and excluding the poor through targeting: The Targeted PDS scheme in a predominantly poor country like India means demarcating not between the rich and the poor, but between different categories of the poor at ridiculous destitution levels of Rs 11.80 per person per day for rural and Rs 17.80 per person per day.

5. Tardy expansion in Anna Antodaya Yojana beneficiaries by an average of just 10 lakhs a year

6. Concerted attempt to increase prices of foodgrain in the public distribution system, prevented by the CPI(M)

7. Despite production not declining in this period, the government jeopardised self-reliance in food security by its import of 5.5 million tonnes of poor quality contaminated wheat from big agri-business and traders in 2006 and 2007 at twice the price it was prepared to pay to Indian farmers.

8. Pandering to the speculation and hoarding by big traders and global and national agri-business, parliamentary committee’s recommendation to ban future trading in agricultural commodities.

9. There was a cut down on food subsidies when a big increase was required. During the UPA regime (2004-2009) the average share for food security allocation on all programmes has stayed below 1 per cent of GDP (current prices), at a time when 16 countries increased their subsidies from near zero to up to 2.7 per cent of GDP as a response to higher food prices.

AGRICULTURE - MYTH AND REALITY

What is the reality behind the tall claims being made by the Congress leadership on UPA policies on Agriculture?

1. Claims of “High Growth” rate of 10 per cent while growth rate in agriculture is only around 2.4 per cent. The situation is so bad that the quarter ending in December 2008 shows negative growth of -2.2 per cent of agricultural GDP for the Rabi season.

2. In the first four years of the UPA regime 69, 064 farmers have committed suicide i.e., one farmer committed suicide every 30 minutes.

3. The Congress claims that under the Loan Waiver Scheme, 36 million farm households benefited. This does not even account for 50 per cent of the total indebted.

4. The UPA government refused to implement crucial proposals of the M S Swaminathan led National Commission of Farmers to reduce the interest rates to 4 per cent and for the universalisation of the Crop Insurance Scheme under the National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS).

5. The rhetoric on increasing public investment in agriculture is not matched by outlays. The prime minister announced an additional budgetary support of Rs 25,000 crore for agriculture under the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, which implies additional funds of only approximately only Rs10 crore per year for the 600 odd districts in the country over the next five years.

6. Concerted efforts by the Congress-led government to dilute and subvert the NREGA were prevented by the CPI (M) and the Left parties. But for our efforts, the government proposals would have made NREGA useless.

7. Against the interests of farmers, the UPA government has struck a deal with global agribusinesses and has gone for the Indo-US Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture Research and Education which has Monsanto and Wal-Mart representatives as its board members.

8. Farmers are not getting remunerative prices for their produce. Not a single support price meets the cost of cultivation. All crops are being cultivated at a loss to the cultivators varying from 38 per cent at the minimum to 50 per cent at the maximum. The exception is sugarcane where the loss is minimised at 12 per cent.

9. UPA tried to pass the Land Acquisition Act Amendment bill and the Rehabilitation and Resettlement bill on the last day of the parliament clandestinely. This would undermine the state and people’s right to determine land use policies, the right to fair compensation, resettlement and rehabilitation. It was spirited opposition by the CPI (M) and other Left parties that stalled the passage of the bill.

10. Jobs in agriculture are decreasing sharply. According to the Economic Survey, farm work was available merely for 57 days in a year in this decade. According to latest NSSO surveys, 80.6 crores live on a per capita expenditure of Rs 20 per day, of whom 23.9 crore live on a per capita expenditure of only Rs 9 per day. Most of them are agricultural labourers.

DEFEAT THE COMMUNAL FORCES, UNITE AGAINST TERRORISM

1. The experience over the last five years has been that the communal BJP-RSS combine still poses a grave threat to the secular fabric of India. Even though the Congress-led government came to power on a mandate against the communal forces, it refused to take stringent action against them. Moreover, the pursuance of neoliberal policies by the UPA has had an adverse impact on the livelihood and the living conditions of the people and this is bound to generate discontent and becomes fertile breeding grounds for their communal politics.

2. In recent years there has been an intensified threat to the security of the country and its citizens by various terrorist forces and groups. It is essential to mobilise the Indian people and strengthen their unity as a political counter to these forces, apart from the administrative and other measures to be taken. The CPI(M) holds that the fight against communalism and terrorism are interlinked.

3. The BJP and its RSS cohorts made every effort to utilise the levers of state power to push forward sectarian policies, often backed by violence that targets minorities, as in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, or where it was a coalition partner in the government such as in Orissa. The communal violence was targeted at the minorities, both Christian and Muslim.

4. The communal poison which continues to be fed to students in highly toxic textbooks in the BJP states is another case in point. Academic institutions, writers and artistes have been a special target of attack. Women and dalits are also targets of the communal forces.

5. Even as the violence in Orissa and Karnataka continued unabated, the central government did not have the political will or initiative to uphold the rights of minorities, refusing to use the constitutional provisions available to it and direct the state government to take action against the guilty individual and organisations like the Bajrang Dal despite ample evidence.

6. Despite a Supreme Court directive to hold CBI enquiry into the communal violence in Gujarat in 2002, the UPA has failed to initiate concrete steps in this regard.

7. Be it the question of implementing the Sri Krishna Commission Report or taking decisive action against the Bajrang Dal, the Congress-led government has displayed a distinct lack of political resolve against communalists.

8. The Hindutva brigade also practiced the worst form of reactionary obscurantist vigilantism and moral policing in the country. The anti-woman face of the Hindutva brigade was exposed in the attack on young women in a pub in Mangalore by the Sri Ram Sene (SRS) where women were brutally beaten up in the full glare of the media and the BJP government in Karnataka remains a mute spectator.

9. The BJP tried to incite communal passions on the Setu Samudram project. While it was the BJP which first gave the green signal to the project, it did an about turn as it suddenly realized that the setu issue could fuel its communal agenda. Shamefully the Congress-led government vacillated on the issue helping the BJP keep the issue alive.

10. The series of terrorist attacks in the country shows that the Congress-led government has failed to revitalise the intelligence agencies and the security set-up to track down the terror networks.

11. Instead of strengthening these basic requirements, the government went for the option of strengthening the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Shamefully, the Congress-led government has brought back draconian and widely misused POTA provisions like detention without bail for 180 days, three years imprisonment for withholding information, etc., within the UAPA. The CPI(M) and Left parties were the only parties in parliament to oppose such measures.

12. The double standards of the BJP on terrorism stand fully exposed. While it has no compunction in ascribing all terrorist activities to the Muslim community, it protects the Hindutva extremists accused in the Malegaon blasts case by branding the ATS investigation as prosecution of “Hindu religious figures”.

13. The CPI(M) argues that there is a need to create an atmosphere in our country where communalism cannot feed terrorism and terrorism cannot be used as an instrument for communal polarisation.

CPI(M) candidate from Dakshin Kannada (Karnataka) Files Nomination

CPI(M) candidate from Dakshin Kannada Constituency in Karnataka Com. B Madhava today filed nomination with the District collecter. He is the common candidate of the Third front in the state which includes Janata Dal Secular, CPI and the CPI(M). According to the seat sharing deal CPI(M) was alloted the Dakshin Kannada Seat and the CPI was alloted Udupi seat. The people of Karnataka, especially the southern districts have seen much of the Sangh Parivar moral policing and is in a mood to vote against communalisation drive of the State government. The left parties are confident of opening their account this time in Karnataka.

Orissa : CPI(M) Election Manifesto released for Assembly elections

CPI (M) released it’s election manifesto on Sunday.
The manifesto speaks the party’s emphasis on agriculture ,water resource and people’s habitation should be protected.Similarly ,while emphasizing on land reforms,it argued that the land Acquisition Act should be suitably amended to protect the peoples interest.It also highlighted the need for a new Industrial policy to focus on consumer ,small scale ,cottage and medium level industries and opposed privatization of Public sector units.The manifesto also highlighted the policies and programmes on different issues like development of infrastructure ,education ,health care ,poverty alleviation,generation of employment,welfare programmes for tribal and minorities .
Courtesy : Orissadiary.com

CPI(M) to contest 3 Seats in Tamil Nadu

Communist Party of India Marxist reached a settlement with the AIDMK in Tamil Nadu regarding seat sharing in the Lok Sabha election. After a delay both parties today reached the agreement. According to the agreement CPI(M) will contest from 3 seats viz Kanniyakumari, Madurai and Coimbatore. Kanniyakumari and Madurai are the sitting seats of CPI(M). This time CPI(M) is in alliance with AIDMK led front which includes PMK, MDMK and CPI. The alliance is all set to sweep the polls. On the other hand the DMK led front is facing a daunting task. The anti -caste movements, anti-imperialist movements and the movements against price hikes have given CPI(M) much credibility among the voters in tamil nadu. The increased support of CPI(M) was seen when the party held its 19th party congress in coimbatore last year.