DYFI KERALA STATE CONFERENCE CONCLUDES

T V Rajesh ***************** M B Rajesh

11th DYFI Kerala state conference concluded with a huge youth rally here in Thiruvananthapuram on January 11, 2010. The rally was attended by around 1 lakh young men and women from Thiruvananthapuram district alone. The concluding rally and meeting was inaugurated by Com. Pinarayi Vijayan, CPIM State secretary. DYFI All India Secretary Com. Tapas Sinha, DYFI All India President Com. P Sreeramakrishnan along with the newly elected state office bearers were present at the concluding function held at Sangumugham Beach. DYFI activists from 18 Area Committes from Trivandrum District marched under the banner of their respective unit committes. The conference earlier re-elected Com. TV Rajesh as State Secretary and Com. M B Rajesh as State President. Com V V Rameshan is elected treasurer. A 75 member state committe is also been elected. The conference discussed in detail various issues relating to the youth and common man and passed various resolutions regarding these issues.

Left parties work out plans to protest against UPA over price rise

Top Left leaders on Monday reviewed the political situation in the country and worked out modalities for a joint rally here in March to protest the UPA government’s policies which, they said, had led to price rise and unemployment.

At the meeting which lasted almost an hour, the General Secretaries of the CPI(M), the CPI and the Forward Bloc also held preliminary discussions on the Assembly elections in some States later this year and next year, Left sources said.

Assembly polls are due in some States including Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu where the Left parties have major stake.

The Left leaders — Prakash Karat, A.B. Bardhan and Debabrata Biswas — also took stock of the joint campaign conducted in the States against price rise, on problems of drought and flood and for food security.

The issues of price rise, unemployment and land acquisition for industrialisation, besides other immediate problems of the people would be highlighted in the all-India rally of the Left parties on March 12, the sources said.

The Left parties have maintained that the government has “totally failed” to curb the continuing steep rise in the prices of food items. Issues related to land and unemployment have also become acute, they said.

The rally, to be held during the Budget Session of Parliament, aims at highlighting these and other issues and give a thrust to an all-India movement by the Left parties, they said.

(Courtesy : The Hindu)

DYFI ninth Mangalore city conference

The coastal belt in the State, once known for its secular credentials, is now reeling under the grip of religious fanatics, according to the former director of Rangayana, C. Basavalingaiah.

Addressing the members of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) at its ninth Mangalore city conference here on Sunday held at commercial tax employees’ hall, Kottara Chowki here, he alleged that a majority of youths in the coastal belt were slowly becoming communalists.

He criticised the State Government for celebrating the 500th year of the coronation of Krishnadevaraya in a grand manner.

Mr. Basavalingaiah wanted to know why the State Government was not according prominence to late Tippu Sultan who had fought against the British rulers.

Youth should involve in activities that join hearts and not separating people he added.

He expressed regret that the coastal district has become a platform for the political parties that groom their party workers to divide the society in the name of community and religion. He said that most of the vibrant youth need to think of strengthening the society and see that everyone irrespective of their community or religion have the freedom to exercise fundamental rights and duties provided by the Constitution, he said. The religion and community is a very personal issue and should not be used as a tool to spread communal disturbances, he said adding that the political parties are involved in such activities, which the youth need to be aware of.

Samuel Titus, working president of welcome committee, leaders of DYFI, Dayanand Shetty, L T Suvarna and Prashanth Achar were present.

(Courtesy ; Dajjiworld, The Hindu)

Implement land reforms: AIKS

GUNTUR: Voicing concern over the agrarian crisis, leaders of All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) have made a strong pitch for the immediate implementation of land reforms in the country as the curtains came down on the All India Kisan Sabha convention which ended here on Sunday.

Addressing a public meeting held at B.R Stadium, S. R. Pillai, president of AIKS, demanded that the Centre should immediately act on recommendations made by a report by the Rural Development Ministry on land reforms and has called for a united peasant struggle. A mass movement will be held in New Delhi in March, he said.

Hitting out against the UPA government, he said that neo-liberal and capitalistic policies being implemented by the Centre led to an all encompassing agrarian crisis.

Stating that agricultural activity has become an unenviable proposition, he said that peasants have been forced to part with their cattle and lands and were being forced into debt as they take money from private money lenders.

A report of the National Sample Survey has revealed that more than 50 per cent of peasantry is willing to give up farming, if provided an alternative.

The Government should increase credit facilities, remunerative prices, provide water, power and increase in subsidies, he said.

White paper

He also demanded that the Government should bring out a white paper on the experiences of the last 15 years that the country has faced after signing the WTO agreement in the year 1995. Even now the government is willing to sign new agreements with Asian countries, which would have disastrous effects on the farmers, he said.

Another peasant leader V. Srinivasa Rao lashed out at Chief Minister K. Rosaiah and said he is keen on following the pro-capitalistic policies of former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

CPM central committee member and AIKS vice-president Benoy Konar, P.M. Kutty, Kerala Home Minister, AIKS general secretary K. Varadha Rajan, vice-president S. Malla Reddy and Madan Ghosh spoke.

Organising secretary of AIKS D. Narasimha Rao and district CPM committee general secretary D. Rama Devi came in for special appreciation from the delegates for organizing the event without a glitch.

Office Bearers

S.R. Ramachandran Pillai and K. Varadharajan were unanimously re-elected as president and general secretary respectively as the 32nd All India Conference of All Indian Kisan Sabha (AIKS) came to an end on Sunday.

The other newly elected office-bearers included, Benoy Konar, P.M. Kutty, Madan Ghosh, S. Malla Reddy and Amra Ram (vice-presidents), N.K. Shukla, Suryakant Mishra, L.S. Taggar, Babu Ban Riyan and Vijoo Krishan (joint secretaries) and Noorul Hooda (finance secretary).

A Central Kisan Committee consisting of 138 representatives from all States in the country have also been elected.

725 delegates attend

The conference was attended by 725 delegates all over the country and included seven Cabinet Ministers representing West Bengal and Kerala. Brinda Karat, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member and vice-president of the All India Democratic Women Association, was present.

Giving details of the various themes and resolutions passed at the conference, vice-president of AIKS S. Malla Reddy said deliberations centred on injustice being meted out to peasants, drastic rise in food prices, concerns over BT seeds and erratic crop insurance policy being followed by the governments.

Draft resolution

The conference has passed a draft resolution to launch a nation-wide struggle to save peasants from the menace of wild animals.

It said that enactments of acts such as Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, The Wild Life Protection Act 1972 and Biodiversity Act-2002 have resulted in small and marginal farmers living on edge of forests to become “ecological refugees,” and they were being forced to migrate from their villages.

The conference also resolved to take up the cause of gender equality and supported 33 per cent reservation for women in legislatures.

It demanded that Centre the improve the working of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme by enhancing the daily wages to Rs.100 and ensuring every family got work for 100 days, increase in farm subsidy and came out strongly against the proposed Indo-Indonesian agreement which, it said, would prove detrimental to the interests of the farmers cultivating commercial crops.

Action plan

The conference has also chalked out an action plan for the coming months which would include a massive peasant rally at Delhi in March.

UPA out to destroy Left movement: Brinda

GUNTUR: Hitting out at against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, Brinda Karat, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member and Rajya Sabha MP, has said that the Centre is bent on hitting at the ‘heart of the Left movement’ in the country.

“Their immediate target is the Left Front government in West Bengal, but the real target are the Left parties which have taken up the cause of peasants, dalits, students and other democratic forces in the country,” Ms. Karat said while addressing a well-attended public meeting at B.R. Stadium marking the end of the 32nd All India Conference of All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) here on Sunday.

AIKS call

Ms. Karat said that the AIKS has given a call to defend West Bengal and called for launching of a mass struggle against Centre’s oppression. She pointed out that the Left cadre in Bengal had shown indomitable courage in the face of the violence unleashed by the Trinamool Congress and the Maoists. “Though our cadre are being killed and our properties destroyed, we will remain undaunted by the challenges.” Rooting for a ‘Maha’ Andhra Pradesh, she said that the fundamental duties of peasants in all the regions of the State were being ignored by forces of separatism which had hatched a conspiracy to divide the State on cultural lines. Accusing the UPA government of trying to break the ‘backbone’ of the country, she said that the neo-liberal policies of the Centre had led to destitution, debts and inequalities in India.