CPIM Note to NIC Meeting

We are herewith releasing the note submitted by Prakash Karat, General Secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist) to the National Integration Council Meeting held in New Delhi today.

1. It is nearly three years since the last meeting of the National Integration Council was held in October 2008. At the outset it should be stated that the NIC has not been an effective body to tackle issues of national integration and the problem of communalism. Today we are once again going to discuss issues related to communalism and the steps to curb communal violence. The other issues on the agenda are discrimination against minorities, handling of civil disturbances and the radicalization of youth on the basis of religion and caste.

2. Communalism has social, political and economic dimensions. I do not think anyone here would argue that communalism has abated or has been significantly reduced. One of the main indicators of the malaise is the number of communal incidents that are taking place. In 2009, there were 791 communal incidents reported, resulting in 119 deaths and injuries to 2342 persons. In 2010, there were 658 incidents resulting in 111 deaths and injuries to 1971. These are figures provided by the Home Ministry. Between 2005 and 2009 on an average, 130 people have died and 2200 injured in communal violence each year. Though there is a slight reduction in the number of communal incidents in the last three years, there is no cause for satisfaction or complacency.

3. Continuance of communalism which erodes national unity and weakens the secular basis of the Republic is the result of communal ideology and the practice of communal politics; it is fuelled by religious fundamentalism and the social and economic grievances being given a communal colour. To combat communalism, it is necessary, therefore:

(i) To combat all forms of communal ideology and politics. The secular nature of the polity is getting eroded by resort to communal mobilisation. We saw the disastrous effects of such politics in 1992 on the Ayodhya issue. This politics which is sought to be given the garb of nationalism is nothing but majority communalism. Minority communalism also mirrors this approach and weakens secularism. Till political parties eschew all forms of communal politics, the problem of communalism will remain.

(ii) The espousal of communal ideology through the educational system and other State-supported institutions is a feature in some states. All such manifestations of anti-secular and communal ideology need to be curbed. Hate speech and demonisation of the minorities should be illegalised and action taken whenever required.

(iii) Terrorism: In India, a major source of terrorism is religious extremism and communal hatred. It is not enough to say “terrorists have no religion” when we know that religious extremism and communalism are the breeding grounds for terrorism. There is a direct link between communalism and terrorism in India.

In the recent years, we have seen religious extremism fuelling terrorist violence. This has been the motivation for some of the Muslim extremist groups. They continue to pose a threat as seen by the gruesome attacks recently like the blasts in Mumbai in July and the bomb blast at the Delhi High Court this week. It would be wrong to ascribe terrorism to any one community alone and make them a target of communal mobilisation. The investigations into the Malegaon, Mecca Masjid, Ajmer Sharief and the Samjhauta Express terrorist attacks have found them to be the handiwork of certain extreme Hindutva groups. The task of combating terrorism can be successfully taken forward only when communalism and religious extremism are firmly checked.

4. Communal Violence Bill: There is a need for legislation on communal violence which can give teeth to the administrative and legal measures that have to be taken to curb communal violence and to ensure speedy punishment for the perpetrators of such violence. The law should provide for compensation and rehabilitation of the victims of such violence. It should make the administration and the police accountable for firmly putting down incidents of violence.

While doing so, two factors need to be kept in mind. The law should focus only on “Communal Violence” and not broaden itself to other forms of conflicts and violence. Secondly, the legislation should be in keeping with the federal principle wherein the state governments have the primary responsibility for maintenance of law and order and policing.

5. Discrimination: The largest minority in India, the Muslim community, suffers from deprivation and discrimination. The Sachar Committee report has brought this out comprehensively. The status of Muslims in education, employment and access to the benefits of development lags well behind the mainstream. Most of the measures suggested by the Sachar Committee remain unimplemented including the setting up of the Equal Opportunities Commission. The CPI(M) has been advocating a sub-plan for the minorities to ensure a fair share in development and social sector expenditure.

As far as the scheduled tribes are concerned, gross injustice is being done to them. We would like to point out only one issue which poses a serious threat. It emanates from the Government’s own policy. The mining policy of the government is leading to large-scale alienation of tribal land and displacement of the tribal people. The throwing open of mining to the corporates has unleashed a ferocious onslaught on the basic rights and livelihood of the tribal people.

6. Civil Disturbances: The methods to deal with civil disturbances are mired in the colonial framework. This was seen graphically in the civil unrest witnessed in the Kashmir valley in 2010. During the summer months of that year, more than 120 young people were shot dead by the police and security forces all across the valley. `Shoot to kill and maim’ was the method adopted to deal with stone-pelting youth. Tackling civil mass unrest like an insurgency is at the root of this inhumane approach. Urgent measures are required to train the police to deal with mass protests and civil unrest.

We also find increasing intolerance of mass protests and demonstrations. The right to assembly is being drastically curtailed. In city after city there are no places for people to assemble to protest and to demand their rights. These democratic rights are being curtailed by permanent bans on such assemblies in public places by the administration and often by judicial fiats. We have seen recently how in the Capital too peaceful protests against corruption were sought to be suppressed. Curtailing democratic rights and blocking avenues of peaceful protests will only fuel unrest and civil disturbances.

7. Radicalisation of Youth: Youth being radicalized would be a positive phenomenon if it results in the youth embracing a radical vision for social, economic and political change. In the absence of such a phenomenon, the radicalization of youth on religious, communal and sectarian agendas will be harmful and damage the development of a secular and harmonious society. First of all, it is necessary to understand the roots of the alienation and why there is an appeal of some extremist platforms for the youth. This stems from a system which produces glaring socio-economic inequalities and the deprivation of the basic needs of young people. Unemployment is a blight on the future of the youth. The latest National Sample Survey data (2009-10) shows a dramatic deceleration in the total employment growth from an annual rate of around 2.7 per cent during 2000-2005 to only 0.8 per cent during 2005-2010. The policy of the Central Government is to cut employment in the State sector. There are 10,81,336 vacancies lying unfilled in the central government. The government’s philosophy seems to be that `let jobs be created by the market’ and the State has no role to play in generating employment. Unemployed and deprived of social justice, some of the frustrated youth get inveigled by divisive slogans based on communalism, sectarianism, caste and regional chauvinism.

The challenge is to provide the youth of our country with a stake and commitment to social and economic transformation; to be able to give them scope for productive employment and a belief that they can lead their lives with social justice and dignity. This requires a change from the present economic order and policies which promote greed, crony capitalism, loot of national resources and corruption. The youth will definitely respond to such a change and a radical vision.

CITU demand amendment in J&K Accountability Act

The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) demanded amendment of the Jammu and Kashmir Accountability Commission Act and Rules to give more teeth to the anti-graft State Accountability Commission (SAC) to curb the menace of corruption in the state.

The state committee of the Jammu and Kashmir CITU, which met under the chairmanship of Kulgam MLA M Y Tarigami, passed four resolutions at its meeting here, which included amendment of the Accountability Commission Act, construction of hydel power projects on the Chenab river and protection of trade union rights and labour laws in the state.

In a statement issued in Jammu, the first resolution, demanded amendment of the Act and Rules governing the State Accountability Commission (SAC) to make it more effective in weeding out rampant corruption in public office. ‘’The resolutions also demanded protection of the rights of trade union workers engaged in various construction projects in the state to pursue their genuine and just demands besides strict adherence and implementation of labour laws in the state in the interest of a congenial working atmosphere at work places,’’ the statement said.

The CITU members, however, further demanded that the hydel power projects identified for construction on the Chenab river, including Kiru, Pakul Dool, Rattle and Swalakote should be taken up for execution at the earliest and local unemployed youth must be engaged in the construction of these power projects. ‘’Payment of a regular honorarium to workers of the non-profit Association for Social and Health Advancement (ASHA) and Mid-Day Meal workers was among other demands of the CITU members,’’ the statement added.

High-level of corruption a byproduct of Liberalisation : Prakash Karat

The high-level corruption in the country is because of the economic regime that has been instituted in the last 20 years in the name of liberalisation and privatisation, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said in Tiruchi (Tamil Nadu) on Monday.

Unless we break the nexus of big capitalists, ruling politicians and bureaucrats that was looting public resources, and change the policies, we cannot end high-level corruption in the country, Mr. Karat said, speaking at the Golden Rock Martyrs Day function organised in the sprawling Golden Rock railway colony in the city.

Alleging that the economic policies was helping large-scale corruption and allowing big corporates to loot scarce resources, Mr. Karat said the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government had no intention to change any policies breeding corruption in the country.

On the other hand, it planned to carry forward policies that would increase corporate loot and large-scale corruption, he said referring to the Centre's proposed move to allow industrial houses to start private banks in the country.

Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had nationalised all banks owned by industrial houses in 1969, but the Manmohan Singh government was doing a turnaround by permitting big industrial houses to start banks. This move would transfer large-scale corruption to the banking sector, Mr. Karat said.

He said the large-scale corruption in the mining sector came about after it was thrown open to the private sector in the 1990s, while calling for changing the mining policy. Mining should be allowed only by State-run and public sector companies as it was in vogue in the 1980s, he added.

Along with an effective Lok Pal to look into cases of corruption, the country needed a separate judicial legislation to check corruption in higher judiciary and electoral reforms besides change in economic policies, he observed.

The Left parties would carry on its struggle against high-level corruption and the harmful economic policies to stop the loot of public resources. It was essential to build a powerful movement of working class, women and students to fight corruption.

He said the Left parties could only claim to fight corruption in public life as nobody in the Left parties could be accused of being corrupt, Mr. Karat said. Earlier, he released a book on the life of veteran CPI (M) leader N. Sankaraiah authored by his younger brother N. Ramakrishnan.

Veteran CPI (M) leaders R. Umanath and N. Sankaraiah were honoured by the Party General Secretary on the occasion. CPI (M) State secretary G. Ramakrishnan and party's central committee member U. Vasuki spoke on the occasion.

(Courtesy : The Hindu, Gavaskar Theekathir)

DYFI protest in front of job exchanges in Kerala against government move to raise retirement age

Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) activists laid siege to employment exchanges and other government offices across the Kerala on Monday to protest against the government move to raise the retirement age of State government employees.The activists raised slogans accusing the United Democratic Front (UDF) government of denying jobs to thousands of unemployed youth in the State and warning it of grave consequences if it went ahead with the move to peg the age of superannuation higher.

In Thiruvananthapuram, the DYFI activists marched to the Secretariat and held a sit-in. The march was inaugurated by DYFI State secretariat member I.B. Satheesh. At Kattakkada in the district, DYFI central committee member K.S. Sunil Kumar inaugurated the march to the local employment exchange.

In Ernakulam, DYFI State secretary T.V. Rajesh, MLA, inaugurated the march to the Kanayannur taluk office. State joint secretary S. Sathyapalan inaugurated a march to the Payyannur employment exchange in Kannur. In Thrissur, the march was inaugurated by secretariat member T.K. Vasu, in Pathanamthitta by State vice-president N. Sajikumar, and in Malappuram by secretariat member V.P. Rajeena.

In a statement DYFI State President M.B. Rajesh, MP, and T V Rajesh called upon the government to give up the move to increase the retirement age and warned it of strong agitation if it did not do so.

Don't Allow Business Houses to Run Banks

 

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

 

The UPA government has decided to allow corporates to set-up banks. By this, the policy of bank nationalization undertaken by the Indira Gandhi government in 1969 will stand completely overturned.  In the light of the global financial crisis sparked off in 2008 by the profligacy of banks and financial speculation, this is an irrational decision.

 

The Finance Minister had made an announcement regarding new bank licenses for private players in his 2010 budget speech. Following up on that announcement the Reserve Bank of India has released Draft Guidelines for Licensing of New Banks in the Private Sector on August 29, 2011, which makes industrial and big business houses eligible for opening new banks.

Prior to bank nationalization, the big business houses of India used their control over banks to divert bulk of the bank advances to large and medium-scale industries. Bank nationalization had helped in the expansion of bank branches in the rural and semi-urban areas and ensured credit flow to the priority sectors, i.e. agriculture, small-scale industries and exports. Even when licenses to private banks were issued in the post-liberalization period (in 1993 and 2001), big business houses were prohibited from getting licenses. The UPA-II government wants to abandon this long-standing policy.

Allowing industrial houses to own banks would allow them to corner bulk of the credit for their own businesses through connected lending. It will be impossible to assess risks and regulate the banking sector in such a scenario. Moreover, it will further the concentration of financial power and political influence. It is for these reasons that many countries, including the United States, prohibit industrial houses from operating banks. South Korea prohibited industrial houses from promoting new banks following the financial crisis in 1997.

 

Banks run by big business houses will increase the scope for large-scale financial malpractices. The recent scams involving big business highlight the danger of financial swindles in such banks that will deprive the people who deposit in such banks of their hard-earned savings. 

 

The public sector banks have the best record as far as meeting priority sector lending norms and branch expansion in rural and semi-urban areas are concerned. 67 per cent of bank branches of the SBI are located in the rural and semi-urban areas. Moreover, the SBI currently has reserves amounting to nearly Rs. 65000 crore. The other public sector banks also have high reserves. This huge capital lying with the public sector banks can be used to expand bank branches and ensure financial inclusion.

The draft RBI guidelines also allow initial foreign shareholding in the new private banks upto 49 per cent, which can be increased to 74 per cent after five years. This will open the way for the entry of more foreign banks into India. Many of these foreign banks have been responsible for highly imprudent and speculative practices which led to the financial crisis in 2008. In contrast, the Indian banking sector – dominated by the public sector banks – has robustly withstood the global financial crisis. Despite this experience, the government is trying to open up the banking sector and seeking to amend the provision of the Banking Regulation Act which caps voting rights in the bank boards at 10 per cent. The CPI (M) strongly opposes these moves.

 

The UPA government should not proceed with this measure which will have incalculable harmful consequences for the economy and the country. The Polit Bureau calls upon all political parties, trade unions, mass organisations and concerned citizens to oppose this retrograde move.

Parliament March Of Left Parties Against Corruption

Asserting that enactment of the Lokpal Bill is not enought to check graft, Left leaders on September 2 said the country needs laws for poll and land reforms and tackling corruption by corporates.

Addressing a protest rally in Delhi , CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat accused the UPA government of being the "most corrupt" in independent India with "a scam is being unearthed every single day" and found fault with the economic policies pursued by it.

He said that the country needs legislations to tackle corruption in judiciary and on land and electoral reforms.

"We need a strong Lokpal. But one single Lokpal will not help us in the fight against corruption," he told protesters, a view echoed by CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, CPI leaders A B Bardhan and D Raja and Forward Bloc''s Debabrata Biswas.

Karat said the government bill does not have provision for bringing the corrupt practices of corporates under the ambit of Lokpal or bringing the whole bureaucracy under the ombudsman.

"Thousands of acres of land are being acquired by government. Lokpal alone is not helpful in tackling the issue of land acquisition. For that what we need is a strong (land acquisition) law," he said.

He said right to recall is not the main issue on electoral reforms but how to tackle the influence of money in election process. "It is not the right to recall but first, it should be ending corrupt practices in elections that should be our aim," he said.

Fight neo-liberal policies: CPI(M)

Stating that BJP-led NDA was no alternative to the UPA-led Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member K. Varadarajan exhorted the poor people to come together to fight against the UPA government's neo-liberal economic policies.

Speaking after opening the Lavu BalaGangadhar Rao Bhavan in Ongole to house CPI(M) frontal organisations, Mr Varadarajan, CPI(M) All India Kisan Sabha national general secretary, alleged that the ‘corrupt' Manmohan Singh government was indifferent when the poor people were reeling under periodic rise in fuel prices having a cascading effect on all essential commodities and peasants committing suicide in large numbers.

“The BJP, which claims itself to fight corruption at Delhi but indulge in graft in Karnataka, is no alternative to the Manmohan Singh government,'' he said.

The UPA government was all out to barter national interest to ‘imperialist forces', he said, adding Parliament had been kept in the dark on a series of Indo-US agreements signed during the recent visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Calling for collective fight for the people, of the people and by the people against the policies of liberalisation, privatisation, and globalisation of the Manmohan Singh government, he said activists of the CPI(M) and its frontal organisations were ready to sacrifice even their lives for realising pro-poor policies in the country.

Telangana Armed Peasants struggle fame Mallu Swarajyam, AIKS national vice-president S Malla Reddy were among leaders from frontal organisations who graced the occasion.

(Courtesy :The Hindu)

Stand of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Lokpal

Lokpal: For An Effective Anti-Corruption Body

Introduction

Corruption has become a major public concern in the wake of successive scams unfolding over the past few years. In a country like India, where millions of people still suffer from acute poverty, hunger and lack of socio-economic opportunities, the pillage of public resources through corruption amounts to a crime of a very serious nature. Besides impeding economic development, accumulation of ill gotten wealth through corruption is widening the inequalities and ruining the moral fabric of our society.

The recent exposures in the 2G spectrum allocation case, CWG scam etc. have shown how thousands of crores worth of public resources have been illicitly cornered by a section of corporates, bureaucrats and ministers. What is worse, tainted ministers have been allowed to remain in office for months and the investigations manipulated, in order to obstruct the course of justice. While corruption in high places has been a feature of our political system for many decades, what has emerged as a dominant trend in the post-liberalization period is a thorough distortion of the policy-making process at the highest levels of the government. A nexus of big corporates, politicians and bureaucrats have matured under the neoliberal regime and is threatening to subvert our democracy. It is clear that the current economic regime has made our system more vulnerable to cronyism and criminality.

The battle against corruption, in order to be effective today, can be achieved only through a comprehensive reform of our political, legal, administrative and judicial systems and not through one-off or piece-meal measures. The establishment of an effective Lokpal institution is one such measure. This needs to be complemented by other measures. There has to be a grievance redressal set-up for citizens, based on a legislation. There has to be a National Judicial Commission to oversee the higher judiciary; there has to be electoral reforms to check the use of money power in elections which is another source of corruption. Urgent steps also need to be undertaken to reform our tax system to plug loopholes and unearth black money, much of which is stashed in offshore bank accounts and tax havens. Firm steps need to be taken to break the big business-politician-bureaucrat nexus. Only a comprehensive systemic reform can effectively curb corruption.

Lokpal Bill

The institution of Ombudsman, which exists in many countries across the world, has provided avenues to redress public grievances on corruption and abuse of public office. However, the fact that the Lokpal Bill could not be passed in the Indian parliament in four decades exposes the lack of political will to fight corruption. Several governments in the past have taken it up only to shelve it later under various pretexts. The present government has also been compelled to initiate discussion on this bill because of public outcry over successive corruption scandals. It is imperative that a Lokpal Bill which deals with corruption in high places is tabled in the forthcoming session of parliament.

In the wake of the on-going debate on what should be the scope and role of the Lokpal, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) wishes to set out its stand on the main issues concerning the constitution of a Lokpal.

1. Definition of Corruption

Corruption involves a whole range of activities from bribery, influence peddling, patronage or favour, nepotism, cronyism, electoral fraud, embezzlement, kickbacks to officials and involvement in organized crime.

The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 has defined the offences that constitute a corrupt act. This definition requires to be widened. The linkage between misuse of public power for private gain or enrichment is a highly restrictive understanding of corruption. In many cases, power is misused to benefit an entity like a private company which is not a “person” as required under the PCA 1988. Often, there may be no traceable kickbacks or embezzlement but there may be a huge loss to the public exchequer and breach of public trust for example through sale of PSUs due to a willful misuse of power.

The definition of corruption has to be widened to include “willfully giving any undue benefit to any person or entity or obtaining any undue benefit from any public servant in violation of laws or rules”.

2. Clarity on Functions

The Lokpal should essentially be a fact-finding body that receives complaints, enquires, investigates and forward cases to Special Courts where prima facie there is a case of corruption for prosecution and punishment in a time bound manner. It should have powers to recommend an enquiry and investigation suo moto. It should oversee the entire machinery related to corruption cases at the Central level. Finally, it should have the powers to recommend executive action and to approach Courts when these are not accepted.

The Lokpal should be entrusted with quasi-judicial powers and autonomy to fulfill these functions in an independent, accountable, transparent and time-bound manner.

The separation of powers between legislature, executive and judiciary is a part of the basic structure of the Constitution. The institution of Lokpal should conform to this basic structure.

An issue to be considered regarding the functions of a Lokpal is whether it will deal with corruption or will it also perform functions of grievance redressal. The CPI(M) favours separation of these functions. There must be a separate mechanism for grievance redressal. This should be set up by a separate legislation. The grievances of citizens about the citizens charter etc should be brought under this set up.

3. Selection & Composition of Lokpal

The Lokpal Act should lay down an objective and transparent criteria such as competence, experience, qualification etc for the selection of candidates for appointment to the Lokpal. The selection committee should be broad-based consisting of members of the executive, leaders of parliament, members of the higher judiciary, jurists and academicians. The search committee constituted by the selection committee should also be broad-based.

Composition: Apart from the chairperson, there should be 10 members in the Lokpal. Out of these four shall be judicial members, three can be persons with administrative and civil service backgrounds and the other three should be drawn from fields such as law, academics and social service. There should be no member drawn from commerce and industries just as there can be no politician.

4. Jurisdiction

While corruption in high places has to be tackled on a priority basis, for the ordinary citizen, it is the corruption faced by them in daily life and in dealings with public authorities that also needs to be urgently taken up. Much of this sphere of corruption falls in dealings with authorities at the states-level. The Lok Ayuktas set up on the lines of the Lokpal should bring all state government employees, local bodies and the state corporations under their purview. Further, a citizen’s grievances redressal machinery that we have proposed be set up separately, should address all grievances regarding delivery of basic services and entitlements for citizens.

a) Prime Minister: The Prime Minister should be brought under the purview of the Lokpal with adequate safeguards. The office of Prime Minister along with all public servants was brought under the purview of Lokpal by the V.P. Singh Government in 1989 and in all subsequent draft legislations, the Prime Minister has been placed under the Lokpal. In fact a Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by Shri Pranab Mukherjee had made precisely this point while examining the 2001 Lokpal Bill. For the first time since 1989, this government presiding over a large number of scams, is unwilling to ensure accountability of the highest executive office. Clearly, all public servants of the Union Government within the definition in the Prevention of Corruption Act, which includes the Prime Minister, must fall within the purview of the Lokpal.

b) Judiciary: The judiciary too needs to be brought under scrutiny and made more accountable, and the stringent requirement of prior permission and sanction from the Chief Justice to file FIRs and investigate corruption charges has resulted in a de facto immunity to them. But the proposals to bring them under Lokpal encroach upon the constitutionally guaranteed independence of the Supreme Court. If a mere allegation of mala fide is enough for the Lokpal to start an inquiry into the actions of judges, it may not allow judges to act without fear.

Complaints about corruption against the judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts should be handled by a separate body, the National Judicial Commission. This Commission should take care of the appointments in the higher judiciary and oversee their conduct and enquire into the complaints of corruption. For this, necessary legislation will have to be passed. The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010 is woefully inadequate for this purpose.

c) Members of Parliament: At present, the scrutiny of the conduct of Members of Parliament with regard to any corrupt practice is weak and unsatisfactory. For Members of Parliament, Article 105 of the Constitution provides protection with regard to freedom of speech and voting. The real issue is how to ensure that this freedom and protection does not extend to acts of corruption by Members of Parliament.

This can be done through an amendment to Article 105, on the lines recommended by the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution”.

Alternatively, if feasible, there can be legislation that if any Member of Parliament indulges in any act of corruption that motivates his or her action in Parliament (voting, speaking etc.), then this act falls within the purview of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the IPC.

5. Lok Ayuktas

In the states, Lok Ayuktas should be set up on the model of the Central Lokpal.

6. Protection of Whistleblowers

Whistleblowers must be protected in order to combat corruption. Monitoring and ensuring protection of whistleblowers can be a part of the mandate of Lokpal, but this needs a comprehensive statutory backing. The provisions of the Public Interest Disclosure (Protection of Information) Bill, 2010 needs to be strengthened and the bill enacted expeditiously.

7. Big Business-Public Servant Nexus

It is necessary to recognise that an important source of corruption since liberalisation stems from the corrupt nexus between big business and public servants. It is necessary for the Lokpal to have investigations in cases which involve business entities to recommend cancellation of licences, contracts, lease or agreements if it was obtained by corrupt means. The Lokpal should also have the power to recommend blacklisting companies from getting government contracts and licences. Similarly, if the beneficiary of an offence is a business entity, the Lokpal should have the power to recommend concrete steps to recover the loss caused to the public exchequer. The government should normally accept these recommendations and act upon it.

Conclusion

The CPI(M) holds that along with a law for setting up an independent Lokpal, simultaneous measures to strengthen the legal and administrative framework against corruption are required. These include:

(1) Setting up of a National Judicial Commission to bring the conduct of judiciary under its purview

(2) Law to protect citizens charter for redressal of public grievances

(3) Amendment of Article 105 of the Constitution to bring MPs under anti-corruption scrutiny

(4) Electoral reforms to check money power in elections

(5) Setting up of Lok Ayuktas in the states to cover all public servants at the state-level

(6) Steps to unearth black money and confiscate the funds illegally stashed away in tax havens.

Valuable books about General Vo Nguyen Giap published

On the occasion of General Vo Nguyen Giap’s 100^th birthday (25/8/1911 – 25/8/2011), many publishers have introduced valuable insights into the General’s life to readers.

The Youth Publishing House has launched a biography titled “Vo Nguyen Giap – the 100-year spirit”, while the Kim Dong Publishing House has launched the pictorial book, “General Vo Nguyen Giap, one century - two long marches”. The Truth-National Political Publishing House, in conjunction with the Society of Sciences Association, has also published "General, Commander-in-chief Vo Nguyen Giap with Vietnamese history”.

By guiding the reader through multiple layers of legal literature, the book ‘Vo Nguyen Giap – the 100–year spirit” by historian and researcher Tran Khai Binh captures the revolutionary life of the hero known as ‘the person who transited the flow of history in the 20th century."

The book “General Vo Nguyen Giap, one century - two long marches”, compiled by Anh Chi, includes nearly 300 pictures. They are sorted by time and concentrate on the historic sites where the General’s talented strategy was evident. The book titled “General, Commander-in-chief Vo Nguyen Giap with Vietnamese history” is a meaningful gift that the Party, State, Army and people cheered, showing their respect to General Vo Nguyen Giap, a talented military officer, and a character who has become legendary, not only for Vietnam, but also for the wider world on the occasion of his 100^th birthday.

The 420-page book is divided into two parts:

Part 1 contains articles about the General, and a collection of several of his articles and memoirs published in the “Ancient and Now” Magazine.

Part 2 contains a collection of articles by domestic and foreign scientists and researchers writing about the General’s life and career, detailing their good memories, admiration and respect for the great man.

Brinda asks State to take steps for implementing Scheduled Tribes Act

The Government of Tamil Nadu should initiate steps forthwith to implement the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, said Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat on Thursday.

Leading a dharna organised jointly by the CPI (M), All India Kisan Sabha and the Tamil Nadu Tribals Association to draw the attention of the government to the problems confronting the people of Gudalur and Pandhalur in Tamil Nadu, she regretted that a stay on implementation of the Act was obtained from court.

Urging the government to regularise the occupation of lands near forests by the tribals, she said that their right to collect minor forest produce and cultivate crops should be recognised. The district administration should not evict or displace tribals or small farmers.

Pointing out that the DMK lost in the recent elections on account of corruption, she said, “Now the people want to see changes in policies of the government.”

Forest laws should not be used to remove poor people from lands, which they have been occupying for a long time. The provisions of the Tamil Nadu Preservation of Private Forests (TNPPF) Act should be used only against big farmers.

Lamenting that the authorities are using the Act to threaten small farmers, she declared, “We will not tolerate it.” There was a clause in the law which stated that small farmers can be exempted.

Adverting to the inconveniences caused to the poor farmers and tribals by the elephant corridor project near Gudalur, she said that rules relating to it were being violated only by the real estate mafia in collusion with government officials and resourceful persons.

Action should be taken against the resorts, hotels and big buildings in the corridor instead of targeting the small farmers. Ms. Karat claimed that big corporate houses are eyeing the Nilgiris because it was rich in platinum. She submitted a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister to the district administration.

(Courtesy : The Hindu)