Campaign in Hanumangarh - Rajasthan

Jagjith Singh Jaggi - Sangaria

Raghuveer Verma- Hanumangarh

 Hanumangarh district of western Rajasthan,  once considered a bastion of the Left under leadership of legendary communist and Kisan leader Com. Sheopat Singh appears to be seeing a sort of revival of fortunes. For the elections slated on 1^st December, the CPI(M) is contesting all the five assembly seats in this district. This also includes the mainly urban Hanumangarh seat, held more than once by Com Sheopat Singh himself. After a break of ten years, the Party has put up young advocate and DYFI state president, Raghuveer Verma from here. CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha, Sitaram Yechury campaigning for Verma, addressed an impressive meeting at Dhan Mandi in Hanumangarh town.

Addressing large and responsive crowd including big number of poor women, Yechury terming BJP’s divisive politics, politics of Dussashan (ill-governance) and Congress’s ruling class politics, politics of Sinhasan (throne), appealed for strengthening politics of Jansashan (people’s rule) represented by the CPI(M). Predicting a hung assembly Yechury also called for sending larger number of CPI(M) members in the new assembly so that opening is created for pushing ahead decisions and policies favouring  poor and working masses. Beside candidate Raghuveer Verma and other local leaders , CPI(M) central secretariat member Hannan Mollah and CPI(M) Haryana state secretary and central committee member Inderjeet Singh also addressed the meeting.

Balwan Punia - Bhadra

Ridhrikaran - Nohar

Establishing itself as the main political force fighting for people’s interests, one of many sustained struggles CPI(M) has launched in this district is that of NREGA workers. In a district where leaders of both leading bourgeoisie parties actually want to see NREGA stalled to depress  rural wages, party has fought  for keeping it going, expanding work under it, increasing number of work days to 200 in a year and daily wage rate of Rs. 300. No surprise that poor rural women workers, largely from socially weaker section in large numbers are working actively for CPI(M) candidates. Similar is story of scheme workers. Beside various issues concerning peasantry, CPI(M) here has also taken up issues including declaring district rice belt, utilizing Ghaghar water, making toll roads more accessible to local rural people and even improving law and order situation.

Balwan Punia, contesting from Bhadara is said to have a distinct edge over his Congress and BJP rivals. A recognized Kisan leader of the area, he has led the struggle on question of water and electricity. Beside government repression for these agitations, leading the fight against liquor mafia and it’s antisocial activities, he has also faced a nearly fatal physical attack from the same mafia. Besides large number of kisan workers, students and youth in huge numbers are campaigning for CPI(M) candidate here. Last election Punia had polled more than 15 thousand votes. CPI(M) district secretary Rameshwar  Verma said that Maniram, the party candidate from Pilibanga and Jageet  Singh Jaggi, the Party candidate from Sangaria are also putting up a good fight.

Massive Rally against Dharmasthala Rapes And Unnatural Deaths Of Women

 

A huge mass rally was held on 26th November 2013 before the Deputy Commissioner's Office, Mangalore to mark the culmination of the  two padayatras which had started on 21st November from Belthangady and Sullia and covered every part of the Dakshina Kannada district.  These Jathas were organized by the CPI(M) District Committee to demand the Government of Karnataka that all the cases numbering over 450 recorded as unnatural deaths over a period of more than 3 decades in Dharmasthala and Ujire Villages be entrusted to CBI for investigation along with the one-year old case of rape and murder of Soujanya.

 

The Jatha which started from the banks of river Nethravathi in Belthangady was inaugurated by senior CPI(M) leader U. B. Lokayya and led by B. M. Bhat and K. Yadava Shetty, District Secretariat Members of CPI(M).  The other Jatha which started from Sullia was inaugurated by Shri Siddabasava Kabirananda Mahaswamy of Gulbarga Singarahalli  Marula Shankara Devara Gurupeeta and led by CPI(M) District Secretariat Members Vasantha Achari and Sunil Kumar Bajal.  The inaugural function was presided over by CPI(M) state secretariat Member K.R.Sriyan.

 

In the face of Statewide protest unleashed by CPI(M) and spontaneously joined by vast sections of  the people, the State Government announced that Soujanya issue will be entrusted to the CBI. By then, more than 13 months had elapsed since the rape and murder of Soujanya and all  traceable evidence including two eye witnesses had been eliminated. One Ravi Poojary, said to be an eye witness to the Soujanya case had died under mysterious circumstances and the case was treated as suicide. Very recently, one Dinesh Gowda who was active in the protests   demanding CBI probe, was killed by dashing a vehicle   against   him and  it was treated as an accident.  A domestic servent of one of the accused persons died under suspicious circumstances.

 

 Vinaya Kumar Sorake, a Minister of the State Government openly declared in a public meeting at Dharmasthala that the Government will not allow this case to be treated as one of rape and murder. Shamelessness, thy name is Vinaya Kumar Sorake! Your  Government has already announced its decision to entrust Soujanya case to CBI! 

 

Such being the situation, the CPI(M) State Committee come to the conclusion that justice to Soujanya can be ensured only if all the cases of unnatural deaths which occurred in Dharmasthala  and Ujire Villages during the last four decades including those of Padmalatha and Vedavalli are handed over to CBI for investigation.  The cases closed by the police as unnatural deaths in these two villages during the last two decades amount to a total of more than 450 according to information collected by some organizations. Therefore the two Jathas demanded that along with the investigation into the rape and murder of Soujanya already handed over to CBI,  all the cases of  unnatural deaths of the last four decades in these two villages should be reopened and handed over to CBI.  This demand caught the imagination of the people of the district who braved all threats and welcomed the Jathas everywere in large numbers. 

 

Violation of fundamental rights is national issue – Basudev Acharya:

 

Addressing the huge protest rally before the Deputy Commissioner's Office, Basudev Acharya, Central Committee Member of CPI(M) and leader of the party in the Lok  Sabha pointed out that Right to Life is a fundamental right guaranteed under the Constitution. Unnatural deaths of more than 450 persons in Dharmasthala over the last more than three decades is nothing but a clear violation of fundamental rights.  It is therefore  not an issue confined to Dakshina Kannada District or Karnataka State.  It is definitely a national issue and he declared that he will raise it  in the Lok Sabha. 

 

Let land grab issue also be entrusted to CBI

 

There are widespread complaints of grabbing of lands belonging to poor backward and dalith families by powerful forces of Dharmasthala.  Many of the cases of unnatural deaths are alleged to be related to persons who resisted grabbing of lands enjoyed by them for generations. Basudeva Acharya demanded that all the cases of land grab in Dharmasthala also be entrusted to CBI.  

 

CPI(M) Central Committee Member and leader of AIDWA, Vasuki, said that it is strange that in the land of the great social reformer Basavanna who propagated "kalabeda, kolabeda, husia nudialubeda" (don’t steal, don’t kill, don’t tell lies)  all these vices are being perpetrated in a place called the "seat of dharma"! She said that in order to ensure un-hindered investigation, it should be done under the aegis of the Supreme Court.  She said that the police officers responsible for distorting the process of investigation should be punished.  It is strange that political parties like Congress, BJP and JDS are keeping mum on this serious issue, she pointed out.  

 

Addressing the gathering, G.V.Srirama Reddy, State Secretary of CPI(M), called upon the Chief Minister to clarify the Government's stand in the context of the Minister Vinaya Kumar Sorake openly supporting the killers of Soujanya.  He declared that the struggles will continue till the demands of the people are conceded by the Government.  

 

S.Shankarappa, eminent lawyer of Karnataka also addressed the gathering and pointed out the legal contradictions in the reports submitted by COD and CID.

 

The meeting was presided over by CPI(M) district secretary B.Madhava and participated among others, by  State Secretariat Members K.R.Sriyan and K.Shankar, State Committee Members J.Balakrishna Shetty, Vasantha Achary and Udupi Balakrishna Shetty and District Secretariat Members Yadava Shetty, U.B.Lokayya, B.M.Bhat, Krishnappa Salian, Sunil Kumar Bajal and writer  Athrady Amritha Shetty. The parents of Soujanya, Chandappa Gowda and Kusumavathi  were also present on the dias.

 

At the outset, B.M.Bhat and Vasanth Achary, leaders of the two Jathas spoke and narrated their experiences of the jathas.

CPIM Kerala State Pleenum

 

CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said that CPI(M) and the Left alone can conduct a credible struggle against the Neo Liberal policies of Congress and the communal polarisation agenda of the BJP. While inaugurating the three day state plenum of CPI (M) Kerala state committee on 27th November at Palakkad, he said that people are fed up with the policies of Congress led UPA government which caused unprecedented price rise and inflation. The Congress has lost the confidence to challenge the threat posed by the BJP.  

 

“We have seen massive high level corruption in public space and government. The outbreak of such corruption is not accidental but an inevitable outcome of Neo liberal regime. The reign of UPA for the last nine and a half years is associated with high price rise, growing unemployment, massive corruption. People are looking for an alternate to the bankrupt policies of Congress” he said.  

 

In the run up to the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP is projecting itself  as the alternative. The class nature of BJP is no different from that of the Congress. In every area of economic policy BJP supports Congress, including in the reforms in banking sector. BJP helped and supported the UPA government to privatise pension funds. The BJP did not oppose the UPA government decision to double the price of gas favouring Reliance.

 

The  BJP led by Narendra Modi was getting unprecedented support from big corporates and business houses as it had given clear signals that it would serve their interests better than the Congress-led UPA if voted to power. This signals that the BJP would be a better servitor of the corporate than Congress.  

 

Another danger posed by the Modi-led BJP was that it stood for implementing communal agenda. We have seen for the last one year all over the country a systematic communal polarisation for the electoral gain for BJP and Narendra Modi, he said.

 

 Prior to the inauguration, Opposition leader and central committee member V S  Achuthanandan hoisted the red flag in EMS Nagar. Politburo member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan who presided over the inaugural session presented the martyr resolution and condolence resolution. State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan presented the organisational report.

 

After the inaugural ceremony the organisational report was presented by Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in the party plenum. It insists on Communist value systems for all party members by following the Marxian ideology of dialectical materialism.

The report bars the party members from working in religious and caste organisations. “They should not become the office-bearers of religious institutions and worship places,” it says. 

Briefing presspersons on the report presented in the plenum here on Wednesday, party Polit Bureau member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the party members holding positions in religious and caste organisations should quit them if they wanted to continue in the party. The members should fight against superstitions and other unscientific customs and practices, he said.

The report aims at a qualitative change in the membership of the party in the State. “Party leaders and members are now convinced that the era of factionalism has ended in the party. Now, everyone has to follow the party decisions and implement them. All those who left the party in the name of factionalism and difference of opinion will have to be brought back if they have not already become the enemies of the party,” Mr. Balakrishnan said.

He said the organisational report chalked out a plan of action to bring more members of minorities into the party fold. The party would take up issues affecting the religious minorities. Despite Malappuram district having four Ministers in the State government, the district continued to be very backward. 

The party, Mr. Balakrishnan said, would strive to bring more members from the fishermen community, the Scheduled Castes, and the Scheduled Tribes into the party.

The report said the party members should follow the high standards of Communist values and become examples for society. They should also have high moral values. The report said a small section of party members were found to be in the habit of drinking. They should stop if they wanted to continue as members as drinking had become a major social disease in the State. He said the party leaders and members should not maintain any links with people in the real estate business, the blade mafia, and other types of business that bring a bad reputation to the party and its members. The party members should give details of their assets to the party every year.