On On Other Other Pages Pages1

February 19-25, 2017

NEW AGE

Sex Scam of Hate Politics.......page 3

New Delhi New Delhi Vol. 65

No. 08

BHOPAL: In a major breakthrough Madhya Pradesh Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) busted an international call racket used by ISI agents to spy on India’s military operations. The spy ring facilitated calls from and to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, bypassing legal channels. At least 40 ‘Simboxes’ (Chinese-made gadget that holds multiple SIM cards) and 3,000 SIM cards have been seized from eleven suspects, including a BJP leader’s brother, arrested from Bhopal, Gwalior and Satna. They have all been booked on charges of waging war against the country. Officials expect more arrests soon. The suspects were

Central Organ of the Communist Party of India

(Total Pages 16)

February 19–25, 2017

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BJP-ISI Nexus Exposed involved in espionage, money laundering and fraud, say police. MPATS chief Sanjeev Shami, who led the operation, said that more people including those working with telecom majors are on the radar and would be behind bars. Besides the crime of spying against the country, the racket also led to massive loss to the telecom department. “They were running a parallel telecom exchange, enabling cross-border handlers posing as senior Army officers to call up military personnel posted in Jammu and Kashmir and dig out details of operations, deployment and installations,” said

From Our Special Correspondent Shami. The MPATS team was working 24x7 in coordination with central agencies for the last two months. While three people were arrested from Bhopal, five were arrested from Gwalior, two from Jabalpur and one from Satna district. MPATS officials have seized several Chinese equipments, including mobile phones, laptops and data cards. Calls made via internet were sent to these SIM-boxes which redirected the illegal VoIP traffic onto mobile networks. Those involved

SC Verdict Gives Land to Tillers........page 5

bypassed the interconnect toll charging points to exploit the difference between the high interconnect rates and the low retail price for onnetwork calls, therefore avoiding payment of the official call termination fee of an Operator. ATS was helped by TERM (Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring) cell of the union telecom ministry in understanding technicalities such as call spoofing and SIM boxaided call transfers that these accused employed. These “exchanges” made lakhs by routing international calls bypassing legal gateways. They used to help callers

based in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh eavesdrop on military operations using ‘interconnect bypass fraud’. MPATS got the lead from interrogation of two persons — Satvinder Singh and Dadu who were arrested in November 2016 in RS Pura sector on the international border in Jammu and Kashmir for allegedly spying for Pakistan and sharing secret information on social networking sites. Singh and Dadu were caught while they were roaming in border area of Suchetgarh and taking pictures of the security establishments, a police officer said. On page 10

Centre’s Dilly Dally in Tamilnadu The ongoing drama in Tamil Nadu has once again confirmed the fallacy of bourgeois democracy. The split in ruling party of the state and the manipulation for grabbing the top slot in the administration is nothing new. The Tamil Nadu episode has an added feature. The ruling party at the Centre, Bharatiya Janata Party, too has got involved in the dirty game. Though its leaders at the state level are projecting as if it has nothing to do with either of the warring faction of AIADMK, it is playing its cards safely. The BJP that is facing definite rout in the ongoing elections in five states want to be on the right side of the winner in the AIADMK.

Its hope to have a new president of the Republic of its choice has dashed due to the trends emerging from the pollbound states. It has hoped that victories in these states will help it not only to have upper hand in presidential elections but also gain majority in the upper house of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. Now to compensate this possible loss, it is playing all dirty tricks to be on the side of the winner in the AIADMK. This has happened in the past as well. Split and defections from the ruling parties or fronts in states have always been manipulated by the ruling party at the Centre. The nefarious game started first in the undivided Andhra Pradesh in 1984 when N T Rama Rao

S Sudhakar Reddy was the chief minister. The episode goes like this. In 1984 chief minister N T Rama Rao confined his loyalists in hotels in Hyderabad, Delhi and Bangalore after he was sacked by then governor Ram Lal in an Independence Day coup by his cabinet colleague N Bhaskara Rao. As we all know Ram Lal was later sacked and replaced by another Congress leader Shankar Dayal Sharma. Chandrababu Naidu, who managed the camp for N T Rama Rao, later organised another such coup against N T Rama Rao in Viceroy Hotel, overthrew N T Rama Rao and himself became the chief minister. A similar incident

took place in Uttar Pradesh when BJP leader Kalyan Singh who was the chief minister was dismissed. In order to keep his followers within the party fold, the BJP kept its MLAs at a secret location in Delhi so that the Congress party could not succeed in poaching the BJP MLAs. However, in the floor test Kalyan Singh proved his majority and came back to power. The third such incident happened in 2000 in Bihar when the Congress and RJD kept their MLAs from South Bihar, which is now Jharkhand, in a Patna hotel apprehending that Samata leader Nitish Kumar may attract them to his side. Even though Nitish Kumar became the chief minister for seven days, as RJD failed to submit

its list of supporters on time, he had to finally resign as he lost in the test vote on the floor of the House. The same undemocratic way was resorted to for capturing power in 2002. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) kept its MLAs at a secret location fearing poaching by the Socialist Party which had won the most number of seats but not enough to form the government. SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav was short of about 50 MLAs in a House of 403 and was making allout efforts to break the rival party BSP. However the BSP proved better in manipulation and took the support of BJP to form the government. It was one of the most shameless opportune political drama. On page 12 New Age Weekly

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February 19-25, 2017

Exactly after a year of the students upsurge in the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, the campus is once again in turmoil. This time it is totally a creation of the administration that is bent upon implementing the Sangh Parivar’s conspiracy to destroy the historic character of the JNU. This University has always been an eyesore for the rightist forces as it traditionally has been a bison of rationalism and progressive and Left ideology. Last year when the Sangh Parivar and Modi government was suffering from the fever of pseudo nationalism, it targeted the JNU. The ABVP cadres, very few from within the campus but mostly from outside, penetrated in a function organized by a few liberal student activists. The Sanghis themselves raised very provocative and objectionable slogans. The slogan shouting was video-graphed and doctored in the studios of the ZEE TV and presented as authentic news. It was shown as if the JNU student leaders including the elected president of the JNU Students Union, Kanhaiya Kumar, an AISF activist, were raising slogans for “Azadi” of Kashmir and also in praise of Pakistan. On the basis of this doctored video report, JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested and charged with sedition. This false case and the nefarious campaign under the garb of nationalism caused upheaval, not only in JNU but all over the country. Student community came out on streets to foil the conspiracy of pseudo nationalists. The attack on rational thinking and on freedom of campuses became the main issue. Apart from JNU, similar attacks were launched in several other universities like IIT Chennai, Hyderabad Central University, Tata Institute in Mumbai and

JNU in Turmoil Again Allahabad University. Apart from imposing the rightist ideology, there was tinge of casteism as well. Rohit Vemula of Hyderabad was forced to commit suicide as the Vice Chancellor there and two central ministers took open casteist stand. This upsurge of the students and intellectuals including the teaching community was unprecedented. The sustained campaign of these liberal and progressive forces exposed the notorious design of the Modi government and Sangh Parivar to impose Hindutva ideology on educational institutions, particularly the institution of higher education.

Editorial The mass upsurge against notorious conspiracy of Modi government forced it to retreat a bit but it has not given up its plans. After its failure to file charge-sheets against Kanhaiya and other student leaders, it tried to spark another controversy by indulging in violence. Najeeb who was attacked by ABVP cadres in the University hostel is missing since last five months. Police has not been able to trace Najeeb despite repeated instructions from judiciary. The latest turmoil too is the result of the illegal and unethical actions of the JNU administration and its Vice Chancellor. The admission procedure and syllabus is decided by the self created institutions including academic council of the university. The JNU no way has to implement the directives of the University Grants Commission (UGC). The Commission in the

past has never interfered and this time the Vice Chancellor has not been able to produce any specific communication on implementing the admission norms of UGC. But the Vice Chancellor in the name of implementing the UGC guidelines has reduced the number of seats for admission and taking arbitrary actions to alter the reservation quota in admission. Last year’s upsurge too has started due to denial of scholarships to students. The actions being taken by the JNU administration is to alter the historic character of the University. Change in admission criteria is to pave way for artificially creating majority of rightist and casteist forces in the student community. The moves of the JNU administration is being opposed, not only by the students but by the entire Campus community. This week, the students, teachers and employees unitedly organized a massive march to Parliament from Janatar Mantar to protest against the conspiracy to alter and destroy the historic character of this prestigious educational institution. Students have continued their sit-in at the Administration Block. The Vice Chancellor, in place of heeding to the genuine grievances of the JNU community as a whole is threatening punitive actions. This may once again spark trouble in the already troubled campus. Though a few national political parties including the CPI have supported the struggle of the JNU community, it is not enough. Like last year, the people of the country, particularly the students, youth and teachers have to come out in support of the ongoing struggle in JNU.

Urgent Appeal for Party Election Fund Dear Comrades, Punjab and Goa elections are already over. According to preliminary reports BJP-Akali combine in Punjab will be in the third position and BJP is losing Goa also. This is good and a matter of satisfaction. The elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Manipur

Rs 1 lakh each, Coal workers Rs 50,000, besides collections form individual comrades. Odisha, Rajasthan, Delhi and other states promised funds. We appeal to state councils, individual comrades, to rush their contributions to Party centre as early as possible as time is running out. With greetings, Yours comradely,

are due. These are certainly crucial elections. Our Party along with the Left is contesting a number of seats. We are expecting to get representation in Legislative Assemblies of these states. The fight is a political one and hence need

(S. Sudhakar Reddy)

funds for fighting the elections.

General Secretary

BJP is becoming unpopular with its anti-people policies. Demonetisations of big currencies, intolerance, pro-corporate,

Note: For your ready reference we are repeating bank details of the party account.

anti-people policies are exposing them. They should pay for

Send cheques/drafts/EMOs in the name of “Communist Party

their policies which brought disaster in the economy and pau-

of India” to Party headquarters. All those who send above Rs

perisation of crores of people.

20,000 have also to send the PAN No. Also online transfers can

Party’s appeal for election fund is well received. Kerala con-

be sent to our bank: Name: Syndicate Bank, branch: CBSE, Rouse

tributed Rs 5 lakh, Bank unit (Tamil Nadu) Rs 2 lakh, Telangana

Avenue, New Delhi, Account number: 24171010000036,

Rs 2 lakh, Bihar Rs 1.5 lakh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal

IFSC No. SYNB0002417

New Age Weekly

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February 19-25, 2017 The wrappings over the hate politics are showing chinks as the ruling BJP and its cultural guide, the RSS, have been indulging increasingly in the crime politics throwing away the ethical values they have been so arrogantly parroting all these years. From the picturesque sea beaches of Kutchh in Gujarat, many among the leadership of BJP have been playing with new shades of morality and prime minister Narendra Modi who has been extremely active on social media responding to every so called pitfall of the opposition, is maintaining complete silence over the exposure of Nalia gang rape and Kutchh sex racket. The rackets have exposed not only its empty claims of ethical values, but also its real face, till now shrouded in communal frenzy. The Nalia sex scandal is not only the tragic story of a woman living here,

The Sex Scam of Hate Politics but also exposes an organised crime racket run by those in power. The victim has named the criminals who violated her and they include Shanti Bhai Solanki, Atul Thakkar, Ashwani Thakkar, Chetan Thakkar, Govind Parumalani, among whom are political leaders of the BJP and local business men. She accused that a collective of 65 political leaders and builders lure young girls in the name of giving jobs and then force them into prostitution. First they themselves indulge in the brutal crime and then force them into prostitution that they call an occupation. According to a report in The Hindu, these girls are supplied with identity cards that have the stamps of a training camp run in the name of Deen

Mahesh Rathi Dayal Upadhyay, with his picture along with the picture of the girl. The identity card ascertains that the girls enter the meeting places of the BJP without interruption. There have issued 60 such cards, the opposition in Gujarat has claimed. The victim has also named the organizer of this criminal gang as Atul Thakkar, a local business man aand Shanti Bhai Solanki who runs a gas agency here, and presides over the OBC cell of BJP in Abdasa, in Gujarat. The victim was employed in this gas agency only as a computer operator. According to a report in Ahmedabad Mirror, the victim was given the job in the gas agency and in the name of giv-

CPI Tripura State Council Meets AGARTALA: Tripura state council of the Communist Party India held on February 4, 2017 its meeting in the premises of Junu Das Bhavan presided by state executive member Dinesh Saha. CPI national executive member Pallab Sengupta was present in the meeting. Just before the meeting started, one minute silence was observed paying tribute in the memory of ex-CPI state secretary and national council member late com Prasanta Kapali. Addressing the meeting, Pallab Sengupta discussed the present national and international political scenario, upcoming assembly elections in five states and the role of left parties in details. The present state political scenario report was placed by CPI state sec-

Bikramjit Sengupta retary Ranjit Majumder. In the meting, the council took a unanimous resolution protesting the strike called by IPFTINPT-NCT in ADC areas against the proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill brought by the NDA government. The CPI too thinks and believes that the proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill brought by the NDA government is communal and antipeople. The Constitution of India has given the right to its citizens to practice secularism. By bringing this proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill the NDA government headed by Narendra Modi is trying to snatch away the rights of the people of India. And that is why CPI has given a country wide call for a movement to protect the Indian Constitution and

its ethics. The state council has decided to hold two state level padayatra with a slogan ‘BJP hatao, Desh Bachao’ to safeguard secularism and the constitutional ethics of our country and strengthen the Left Front to meet all the challenges. One ‘Padayata’ rally will start from Dharmanagar in North Tripura and another from Sabroom in South Tripura and later both the‘Padayatra’ will meet in Agartala and than culminate into a mass meeting. The dates and other technical preparations are under discussions. The state council also decided to inaugurate a Library on May 15, 2017 in memory of late Com Prasanta Kapal inside the premises of CPI state office on his birth anniversary.

ing her advance, asked her to his place where she was offered drink that had intoxicants. She became unconscious and three of them violated her and also made video of the entire episode and kept her blackmailing with it. Shanti Bhai Solanki also threatened her of extreme consequences if she dared to inform her brother or mother. After that she left the gas agency only to be forced to come back when a gang of ten molested her. The victim, who had filed the report on Januray 25, said that the crime was going on since August, 2015. She also gave the names of five more members of the gang who had molested her and they were Bharat Darzee, Ketan Thakkar, Baba Chauhan and Vasant. In the beginning, lo-

cal leaders of the BJP and state minister K C Patel rejected the charge and blamed the Opposition for it. But now when the entire crime has been exposed, BJP claims that those responsible would be punished. On the other hand the opposition is demanding SIT to be organized under the guidance of the high court. Shankar Singh Baghela has charged that BJP has turned the entire Kutchh region into a sex hub. BJP has claimed that the identity cards were fake and in the beginning even the police had refused to register the case. The elder brother of Baghela has claimed to have all the authentic documents about the crime. Significantly, in the entire episode, the name of Deendayal Upadhyay has been cited, which is pathetic.

CPI Demands Floor Test to Prove Majority The Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of India issued the following statement on February 14, 2017, on crisis of governance in Tamilnadu: The Supreme Court verdict on February 14, 2017 in 21-year old disproportionate asset (DA) case against late J Jayalalithaa and Ms V K Sasikala is in one way good since it has restrained the growing instability to an extent. However, unnecessary chaos could have been averted had the apex court decided the case much earlier. No doubt, the verdict may help to resolve the political crisis in Tamil Nadu. As the Supreme Court has convicted Sasikala and debarred her from contesting elections for ten years, her claim to be sworn-in as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu has lost the basic ground. Though she got elected as the leader of the AIADMK legislative group, being a non-member of legislative assembly, she cannot stake claim to chief ministership. Now that there is lack of clarity as to who the real leader of the AIADMK legislative party is it is better, in the opinion of the CPI central secretariat, that the governor arranges a floor test to prove the majority and thus discharge the constitutional obligation. New Age Weekly

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February 19-25, 2017

Tug of War in IT Companies: Where Do Workers Stand Narayan Murthy has publicly lamented the fall in corporate governance standards at Infosys since 2015. He says that the group has strayed from the path of “compassionate capitalism”, a philosophy he claims to have followed, if not founded himself! Let us examine these claims. His immediate grouse is the fat pay packages and severance packages handed out to the top honchos in Infosys including the incumbent CEO Vishal Sikka and ex-CFO Rajiv Bansal. He claims that in a poor country like India corporate leaders have to set an example by taking moderate salaries and wages. Rajiv Bansal got a severance package of about Rs.20 crores and

Vishal Sikka is rumored to command annual gross compensation of around Rs.49 crores including substantial variable pay, restricted stock options. These are extremely generous pay packages by any standards and there can be no question that such wages reflect moral bankruptcy in a country racked with extreme levels of economic disparity like India. However, the first question could be whether Narayan Murthy is the right man for asking such questions? For instance, it is a well known fact that founders and promoters of companies get a larger share of their income through dividend payouts, wages only make up a small portion of their incomes.

Satyanand So a cursory glance at the shareholding pattern of Infosys and the dividend payout clarifies this position amply. Narayan Murthy personally holds 0.38 percent of the equity and his family including wife, son and daughter hold 3.44% of the equity. Narayan Murthy earned 21.14 crore as an individual and 191.5 crore as the combined dividend for the family in dividend payouts for the year ending March 2016! Let us now examine the actions of this compassionate capitalist company over the years. This compassionate company has always paid dividends of at least 100 per cent and a maximum

What the Others Say… The conviction and after Corruption in high places is a malaise that is easy to diagnose but difficult to cure. Even in the rare cases they are arraigned before a court, top politicians often pay their way through legal battles, and spend little or no time in incarceration. The conviction of AIADMK general secretary V.K. Sasikala in the disproportionate assets case involving her close friend, former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, as the prime accused, is a significant marker in India’s legal and political history. The charges against Jayalalithaa abated following her death last December, but Ms. Sasikala had to face the full wrath of the Supreme Court, which has upheld the trial court order in toto, leaving her to spend four years in prison. As Justice Amitava Roy wrote in his concurring order, “corruption is a vice of insatiable avarice for self-aggrandisement by the unscrupulous, taking unfair advantage of their power and authority.” While there is no denying that the judgment has strengthened confidence in the justice delivery system, it is mystifying that the ruling has come more than eight months after the two-member Bench concluded hearing arguments in the case. All the more so, since the basic thrust of the judgment only endorsed the position taken by the trial court in Bengaluru, which held all the accused in the case guilty. Given that the Supreme Court had pressed the Karnataka High Court to hear the appeal expeditiously, there was no justification in such an inordinate delay. Politically, this could not have come at a worse time for Ms. Sasikala, who was making a determined bid for power, staking claim to form the government after displacing one-time loyalist O. Panneerselvam. Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao had held off inviting Ms. Sasikala to form the government despite her demonstrating the support of a majority of the members of the legislature precisely because he anticipated such a situation. Now, however, the options before him are a lot clearer. If the newly elected leader of the AIADMK Legislature Party, Edappadi Palaniswami, is able to show the support of at least 117 MLAs, he will have to be sworn in as Chief Minister. Though there are allegations that the MLAs were kept forcibly at a resort by the Sasikala camp, Mr. Panneerselvam is nowhere close to splitting the AIADMK legislature party despite the support of the rank and file. Notwithstanding the legal setback, Ms. Sasikala New Age Weekly

of 800 per cent over the past 15 years. Now let us contrast this with the fact that the entry level wages in Infosys (and in the IT services companies) have virtually stagnated at around 2.5 Lakhs to 3.5 Lakhs per annum over the same period. There are no prizes for guessing who benefits from this consistent show of compassion. This is ample testimony to the fact that the IT industry in India despite all the hype is an industry rooted in the crude economics of wage arbitrage. The compassion does not extend to workers who slog long hours beyond the eight hour working day, no IT company pays overtime wages even today. The compassion does not extend to the thousands of work-

ers who have been illegally thrown out of their jobs under the false pretext of poor performance. This compassion needs a waiver of key labour laws such as Standing Orders Act and a continued tax holiday. A company that has no respect for the rule of the law and the welfare of workers cannot talk about compassion. The very theme of compassionate capitalism is deceptive. Capitalism is the relentless pursuit of profits, accumulation of private wealth and property and cannot be termed compassionate. This talk about fall in corporate governance standards is a veil for a larger, deeper corporate boardroom drama looming ahead in Infosys.

may be able to trump Mr. Panneerselvam politically. But her success in keeping the MLAs together may depend on the Governor’s next move; whatever that is, Tamil Nadu is destined for more political churn. Courtesy: The Hindu

A change of heart The anti-Valentine narrative appears to be changing, for the better. On Valentine’s Day, the Right appears to have its heart in the right place. But do outfits such as the Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena mean what they say when they pronounce that their cadre won’t harass couples out celebrating the Festival of Love? Not so long ago, both the Bajrang Dal (the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad), the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), opposed Valentine’s Day as a western construct and decried the hype surrounding the mush-fest. It wasn’t uncommon to find MNS and Shiv Sena activists smashing display windows of shops with Valentine’s Day decorations and burning bonfires of Valentine’s Day greeting cards. A few years back, they even threatened to coerce couples into garlanding each other if they caught them indulging in displays of affection. And then there was Pramod Muthalik of the Mangalore-based Sri Ram Sene who threatened to marry off young couples found together on this day. But over the last few years, the parties seem to have softened. On Valentine’s Day last year, the MNS set up a selfie point in Mumbai and decorated it with heart-shaped balloons for lovebirds to take pictures. MNS vice president Vageesh Saraswat even released a song called ‘You are my Valentine’, said to be inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s poem Unending Love. It isn’t that outfits such as the Shiv Sena, which feasts on antipathy towards migrants and minorities, have suddenly developed a faith in the legend of St Valentine. The ‘progressive’ twist could have been brought about by a political compulsion: The Shiv Sena wants to wrest back the ground it has conceded to Raj Thackeray’s MNS in terms of young voters, particularly since elections for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation are just days away. That’s the message its youth wing head Aditya Thackeray could have been sending out when he condemned harassment of couples on Valentine’s Day last year. Being proyouth does create the right optics for today’s politicians. No wonder Akhilesh Yadav and wife Dimple posed on the Lovers Bench at the Taj on Valentine’s Day in 2015. Courtesy: The Hindustan Times

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February 19-25, 2017 Recently, the suffering farmers of Kambirigam attained victory after three decades of long and heroic struggle for the land in their village of Palasa mandal of Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh. Tenant farmers of Kambirigam had been fighting against the injustices by the local landlords trying every form that are used against the class enemy in all such struggles, including even knocking at the doors of judiciary. The long and difficult struggle going on spell of continuous militant struggle, launched under the leadership of the Communist Party of India. The verdict of the Supreme Court stands in favor of struggling farmers which is a big relief to the suffering rural masses here. The farmers who live by their land, have achieved the right to till it also. The land has finally gone in the hands of the tiller, the famous slogan once given by Com Lenin after October revolution, in 1917. The struggle was not smooth as the land lords had tried all kinds of maneuvers to keep the land to themselves. Finally the farmers have managed to grow at least one crop here and the paddy cultivated thus has reached the homes in the village. It may be relevant to understand the context of the struggle that has made it so valuable. In Kambirigam village of Palasa mandal of Srikakulam, 122 tenant farmers were working and harvesting the crop and were handing over the paddy to the landlords. Despite the fact that they were themselves slogging and spending on the cultivation, the farmers were treated as just agricultural laborers. One of the villagers, called Padi Narayana

Years of Land Struggle Culminate in Victory

SC Verdict Gives Land to Tillers Master, could not take it any more and opposed this rural exploitation. To get help and guidance, he came to Makhdoom Bhavan, the CPI state head quarters in 1982 and met the then state secretary, Late com Giri Prasad. Com Giri Prasad immediately responded and directed Com Dasari Nagabhushana Rao to lead the Kambirigam land struggle. Dasari reached to Srikakulam and nominated a struggle committee under the leadership of Kodavatiganti Govinda Rao. The committee consisting of the then district party secretary, Paila Krishnamurthy, Chapara Chinababu,Vuppada Rama Rao, Padi Narayana. All the leaders in the committee visited the village and studied the issues deciding about the consequences and complexities in struggle that was to be launched. Even before the ball was set rolling, the landlords hit. Padi Narayana Master was murdered and the entire community of farmers was deeply shocked by the ghastly incident and decided to hit back. Preparations were started for the full fledged struggle under the leadership of Dasari Nagabhushana Rao. As part of this struggle, a public meeting was organized by all parties. It was arranged in market area of Kasibugga. There were prominent personalities attending and addressing the masses in the meeting. Stars from various parties like Majji Tulasidas, Nicherla Ramulu, Pailagopala Rajaratnam Naidu, Chapara Chinababu, Chouwdhary and Tejeshwera Rao. Dasari Nagabhushana Rao stayed for 40 days in the village called Kasibugga and inspired the

Ram Narasimha Rao farmers to fight against the injustice. Another public meeting was also held which was addressed by Chandra Rajeshwera Rao, the then general secretary of the CPI. The struggle was intensified as leader of CPI of border state Orissa, Jonna Subhash and CPI leaders of Ganjam district had also expressed their solidarity with the struggle. The then state secretary of AIKS, Chennamaneni Rajeshwera Rao, directed the AIKS units of entire district to participate in this land struggle. Meanwhile in the midst of the struggle, all the participants fighting were arrested. Landlords had by this time, approached the court taking the opportunity of these arrests. The forced absence of the prominent leaders Hence the movement was silent for some time. Subsequently the then BKMU state president Bhupathi venkata Narsaiah led the struggle. the same struggle was continued by Kolli nageshwera Rao,vice president of AIKS.The Kambirigam farmers though they got defeated in lower courts wan the cases in higher courts. Kambirigam struggle for the land to the tiller was being intensified as Dr.K.Narayana took the responsibilities of state secretaryship.On 11th November 2006 as Narayana was proceeding towards said lands the then Tahsildar Madhava Rao who had collaborated with the landlords had imposed 144 section. The anguish farmers under the leadership of Dr.Narayana ,and Kolli

nageshwera Rao have reached Tahsil office to express protest. the then CI Ramesh and sub Inspector Ramesh have a r r e s t e d Dr.Narayana,Kolli N a g e s h w e r a Rao,Kanakala Narayana R a o , C h a p a r a Sunderalal,chapara venkata Ramana Goona Simhachalam,Padi Ramanna,Polaki Babu Rao and sent to Srikakulam sub jail.This criminal case could not pass through as police failed to produce proper witness and evidence etc ,hence case was dismissed after several years. This land case was in apex court and after arguments and counter arguments the court has given a verdict stating that 126 acres of land be handed over to the struggling tenant farmers. on 15th July 2015. Tenant farmers have have legally occupied said land and have harvested and crop was taken over by the farmers. VICTORY MEETING;“kAMBIRIGAM zamindari lands should not be treated as Inamdari lands but should come under land ceiling legislation,”demanded Dr.K.Narayana,National secretary,CPI while addressing victory public meeting at Kedaripuram village on Saturday. He has also remarked that Kambirigam land struggle has occupied prominent place in the history of peasants movement of of our nation.This has been proved that peasants problems can be solved only through continuous struggles with out any kind of compromise.He has criticized that Inamdars have misguided the court by showing the referred land at various places ,actually the entire land is at one place at one stretch .Though land lords have misguided the court the govt is

conspicuously silent and watching as mere spectator. Parashuram Chowdhry has cheated the court by misguiding it,hence a cheating case be instituted against him. As Farmers could get these lands through many struggles, these lands be converted into lands under land cieling instead of as Inamdari lands.Though Zamindari system is being abolished long back,but still the land lord is feeling as if he is the same outdated system Narayana has warned that if land lord want to test the patience,they will teach an appropriate lesson. Narayana has also added that central and state govts are snatching the right to life by establishing thermal,nuclear plants and special economic zones,in order to exploit farmers and shower concessions to corporate forces. Central and state govts are also snatching fertile lands of farmers. He has made it clear that farmers community will revolt against central and state govts ,as both are busy in seizing the lands of farmers with out their consent on the name of development .Dr.Narayana has met with the families of farmers and discussed with them on their issues. Meeting was addressed byJVV S a t y a n a r a y a n a M u r t h y , A s s t secretary,CPI,AP state council, chapara venkat Ramana,district party secretary, District AIKS l e a d e r C h a p a r a Sundarlal,L.Venkat Rao,district president ,BKMU,M.Yugandhar,district secretary,AIYF
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February 19-25, 2017

“Radical changes are inevitable if the exploited and the victims of violence are united. It would provide on the strength of its unity a challenge to the unity of corporate houses and other exploiting sections that are getting together to meet their own selfish interests,” said Dr K Narayana, national council secretary of the Communist Party of India, while addressing the huge public meeting at Thummalapalli Kalakshethram Vedika, Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. The meeting was presided over by Donepudi Shankar, city convener, Platform for Social Rights. The public meeting was organized to receive the Bus Jatha that was to reach the Vijayawada city. The Jatha, led by K Rama Krishna, convener, Platform for Social Rights, has been taken out on demand for achieving the rights of dalits, tribal people, backward classes and

CPI Jatha For Rights of Dalits, Tribals, Minorities

Bus Jatha Reaches Vijayawada minorities. Jatha was started on January 26, 2017, from Itchapuram of Srikakulam district border to Odisha. Dr Narayana, while addressing, reminded that top most personalities like Chandra Rajeshwera Rao and Putchaapalli Sundaraiah sacrificed their entire lives for the upliftment of downtrodden. Prime minister Narendra Modi, he said, though he claims to have a background of backward class, has been serving the interests of corporate sharks alone, said Dr Narayana and pointed out that Modi after coming to power has showered concessions to corporate forces to the tune of seven lakh crores. Dr Narayana criticized Modi along with Urjit Patel, about whom, he said, was working as

agent of corporate company, for destroying the lives of 125 crore people of the country by declaring demonetization. But at the time of elections, Modi had made the promise to bring back black money from foreign banks and he would see to it that Rs 15 lakh will be deposited in every citizen’s bank account. Modi after making a promise to unearth black money, in stead, has managed to whiten black money of elite classes systematically. Narayana said making it clear that not even single person belonging to corporate sector has suffered due to scrapping of big notes. He reminded that both these close friends together were involved in a scam of thousands of crores of rupees while Modi was chief minister of Gujarat. He made a sharp

criticism that Sangh Parivar is polluting the political arena in the name of religion and encouraging communal thugs and also branding the persons as traitors who questioned their communal politics. He made an appeal to secular and democratic forces to resist conspiracies of RSS and Sangh Parivar under the leadership of Modi is making conspiracy in order to get political benefit in the name of Ram Mandir construction on the disputed site of Babri Maszid. He pointed out that the policies of Chandrababu Naidu and K Chandrashekara Rao both the chief ministers of Telugu states are favorable to capitalists. Chandrababu is promising reservations to Kapu community whereas

KCR is promising reservations to muslims in order to get their votes in future elections but they have conveniently forgotten that they have made promises in last elections. Both have cheated people of Telugu states. Dr Narayana pointed out that it was the commitment that matters and if they committed towards those demands they can talk to prime minister and could see that Constitution couldn be amended in order to avert any obstacles to get those reservations. Rulers are dismantling public sector companies, hence reservations in private sector has become need of the hour. This is the epoch of the united governments and no single party can come to power on its own, hence united movements have become inevitable. Strengthening of the left movement is only the way to overcome the severe political crisis in the country, Narayana emphasized.

CPI Letter to EC for Free and Fair Elections Atul Kumar Anjaan, national council secretary of the Communist Party of India has written a letter to Dr Nasim Zaidi, Chief Election Commissioner, Election Commission of India, on February 14, 2017, to ascertain free and fair election in all the five states: “I wish to draw your attention and that of the Election Commission to the happenings in the five states where assembly elections are taking place and to the broadcasted and published reports in both the electronic and print media. The Election Commission since India’s independence has been doing a commendable job and ensuring free and fair elections. In the changed socio, economic and political situation in the modern world the Commission did successfully conduct free and fair election in our country, the largest democracy with a high New Age Weekly

density of population. The Commission while conducting the elections has to keep in mind and strictly follow the general sentiments, norms and directions as reflected and stipulated in the Constitution of India. The masses in our country are looking at the Commission from the angle that it will not only ensure free and fair elections but will also ensure that the democratic process of elections are held in an atmosphere upholding our traditional values of culture and national integrity. The Commission also must safeguard the electoral process from being vitiated by any political party, media, front, group, individual, organisation, religious group, finance capital, industrial capital and or corporate house and thereby conduct free and fair elections. On behalf of our party, the Communist Party of India, I have always

whenever I got a chance to attend the meeting of representatives of various political parties convened by the Commission, drawn the Commission’s attention towards the above mentioned observations. Presently, during the ongoing assembly elections in five states and even after the code of conduct coming into force from January 4, 2017, many political parties and individuals have been openly violating the guidelines issued by the Commission. They have been appealing to the religious and casteist sentiments of the voters from public forums and shamelessly trying their best to influence the voters with such nefarious aims. Such violations of the code and EC guidelines are being done by higher ups in the political and religious organisations as well as by leaders from other fields.

While urging the Commission to follow the norms adopted by it and the national political parties, one has to give credit to the Election Commission for ensuring a level-playing field for all in the fray. In this context let me recall here that in 2009 I had drawn the attention of all including that of the Commission towards paid news. On my request Jansatta’s founding editor Prabhash Joshi and other seniour journalists wrote detailed articles on the subject and drew the attention of the Press Council and the Election Commission. In this context, the Commission had worked out norms and given some directions. Today after January 4, 2017 some resourceful parties have successfully managed to directly telecast their public meetings and press conferences in full. This facility has not been extended evenly to all

political parties and the level-playing has been badly affected. Is it not a new avatar of paid news? Through this letter, I appeal to the Chief Election Commissioner and other learned members of the Commission to ensure level-playing field to all political parties in general and national political parties in particular. Besides this, I would request the Commission to take stringent action against all those who openly appeal to the voters in the name of religion and caste. It may be recalled here that the Supreme Court of India had shown the way by taking action against Siva Sena leader Bal Thackeray. Hope that the CEC and the Commission will take up the suggestions made here and hold a thorough discussion on them.

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February 19-25, 2017

NFIW Call for National Campaign on Women’s Rights India is a multi-lingual, multi-religious, multi-cultural country with a written Constitution. The character of the Constitution is socialist, secular and democratic and inclusive with right to dissent and freedom of expression. Ever since the BJP-led NDA assumed power at the Centre, the RSS has become more visible and came in the forefront. They supported all those actions and activities of the extreme right fascist forces, including the MPs and leaders of different Hindutva groups like the Sanatan Sanghatan for achieving their goal of transforming India into a Hindu Rashtra. Sushma Swaraj, the external affairs minister started saying that the Holy Book of Hindus, ’Gita’ be announced as the national text of our country. It was followed by Mahesh Sharma, Union minister of state for culture with a statement that ‘Bible and Quran are not central to Indian ethos’. The statements of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat that for the first time after independence a Hindu rule has come and characterising Modi‘s coming to power as the ‘return of Hindu India’ by VHP leader Ashok Singhal speak for themselves. Sadvi Niranjan Jothi, Yogi Adityanath, Sakshi Maharaj, all BJP MPs, intensify hatred among different communities with their public speeches. Glorifying RSS as a national organisation by central ministers Rajnath Singh and Venkaiah Naidu reveals the real intention of the BJP government. The glorification of Godse, the killer of the Father of our Nation Mahatma Gandhi and demanding placing of his statue are nothing but the vigorous effort of the Hindutva forces to establish Hindu Rashtra. In the name of Nation-

alism Hindu fundamentalist forces are trying to impose manuvadi fascism and thereby dismantling our all-inclusive Constitution. As Dr Ambedkar said ‘militant Hinduism is masquerading as Indian Nationalism’. It is evident in the fact that whenever and wherever the people whether working class, students, youth, kisan, women or any section of the society raise their voice in defence of their legitimate rights or demand or disagree or criticise the actions and decisions of the government they call it anti-nationalist and questions the patriotism of all those who are part of these mobilisations. Unprecedented rise of Hindutva outfits and the spread of hate culture, fear, vigilantism, violence among the minorities and marginalised sections points to the fact that BJP and RSS are trying to establish Hindu Rashtra that too a ‘Brahmanical’ one. The RSS succeeded in capturing all institutions of national importance and appointed people with strong RSS ideology at the top of all of them. Some of the recent orders by the Supreme Court of India show that the tentacle of RSS has reached there too. Even though SC does not begin its daily business with National Anthem, it ordered that just before film shows National Anthem should be played. It is to be noted here that the SC did not intervene when one of the culprits of the Akhlaq murder case died in jail and when his body was brought home and the BJP and RSS ensured that the body was covered by the national flag, a rear honour for people who scarifies / gave their life to the country. Since BJP-led NDA government came to power, the anti-national force, RSS and other ‘fringe elements’ unleashed continuous

Annie Raja attack on minorities and democratic and secular forces. The silence of Prime Minister Modi acted as consent to these entire so called ‘fringe’ elements. Actually it all began with Narendra Modi. When he was campaigning for the general election he first referred to ‘pink revolution’ that

incident the entire Dalit community refuted to continue with this work and demanded five acres of land for each Dalit family. For this also they were attacked by the upper caste goons. The politics of beef ban is nothing but snatching away of the livelihood of lakhs and lakhs of people belonging to minority and marginalised sections and thereby forcing

especially in Kashmir. More than 30 people lost their lives in different attacks there. During this period the country witnessed unprecedented assertion and mobilisation of Dalits and other marginalised sections of our society. The students of this country, particularly Dalit students began this historic dissent and resistance.

A view of NFIW meeting at Nagpur is, slaughtering cows illegally and immorally and mixing the meat with buffalo meat for export. It started with attacks on churches, ghar vapsi, attacks in the name of gau raksha, attacks for beef ban, etc. Mhd Aqlaq of UP and the two farmers, who had taken their bull to the market for sale in Jharkhand, became the victims of the fascist attack. They did not spare the women who earn a living by selling buffalo meat in MP. Railway passengers were attacked by the fascist goons in the pretext of searching whether they carry cow meat. These attacks reached its peak when they attacked four Dalit youth who used to remove the skin of dead animals at Una in Gujarat. The entire country vehemently protested against this barbaric torture. The Dalit community used to take away the dead animals and dropped it in a place outside the village so that the village people do not suffer of the decomposed dead body. After the Una

them to fall in line for Hindu Rashtra. Ghar Vapsi, Akhlaq murder, Rohit Vemula’s institutional murder, Kanhaiya’s arrest and sedition charges against students and political party leaders, burning and killing of two young Dalit children at Haryana, mishandling with a hidden agenda, of Kashmir uprising after the killing of Burhan Wani, of the children and youth, etc, brought strong criticism against the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre from inside and outside the country. On top of it the Pakistani attack at Army camps at Uri and Pathankot and killing of 19 Indian jawans provoked Modi to strike back at Pakistan. The result was ‘surgical strike’. Modi government claimed that it was a big success and many countries supported and appreciated India’s efforts against terrorists. In spite of all these claims and provocative statements by ministers including the defence minister, Pakistan continued its attack

The students of Chennai IIT, of IIFT Pune showed exemplary courage to insist their right to association and resist the appointment of an RSS man as the head of the institution. The ‘occupy UGC’ struggle by the JNU students, who sat on dharna for three months in front of the UGC, united the students from all over the country. Rohit Vemula’s suicide worked as a catalyst. These student upsurge reached the peak and become international with the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar the leader of AISF and then President of JNUSU. The country particularly Delhi witnessed widespread attacks on students, youth and advocates by the fascist forces inside and outside the court rooms including the Supreme Court. One of the NFIW young women leader and AISF JNU unit President Aparajitha Raja was also under attack even by the BJP local MP. On page 10 New Age Weekly

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February 19-25, 2017

A 20-member delegation of the leaders of the South Asian left parties visited China from November 20 to December 1, 2016 at the invitation of the Asian Bureau, International Department of Communist Party of China (IDCPC) and CPC Centre for International Exchanges, to have the glimpses of development as well as to participate in workshops and seminar at various places on theoretical and practical aspects of building of socialism in the era of globalization. The Indian delegation consisted of six members, two each from the CPI, CPI(M) and AIFB. The Indian delegation left on November 20 at 3 p.m. Indira Gandhi International Airport by Shandong Airlines and arrived at Kunming Changsui International Airport at 6.45 p.m. and was put up with other South Asian delegates at Yuehang hotel. It was a stopover till the next morning, when the entire delegation had to leave together for Zunyi in Guizhou province of China on the first day of their sojourn. On the second day (November 21), the delegation after checking in at Zunyi hotel visited the Long March Hans and Mao’s house as part of the pre-lunch programme. In the afternoon, the team visited the party school of CPC Zunyi municipal committee where committee’s vice-president Cxi spoke at length on

Delegation from South

Thrills of Learning, Rambabu Kumar ‘Sankritya’

R B Kumar taking notes in seminar in Beijing the history of Long March under Mao’s leadership. He informed us that the average age of sapiens and generals were 18 years and 25 years respectively and more than 200 generals were later appointed as the generals in People’s Army. The third day (November 22) began with a visit to the site of the Zunyi conference, where Mao emerged as the key leader of the CPC. Following this, we left for Zhengan County for a luncheon meeting with the officials at its administrative centre and checked in at Jin Hong hotel. While on the way to Zhengan Economic Development Zone (EDZ), we were informed on board the bus that as per the US standards China has 1.5 million BPL families. However they conduct their own surveys to calculate the number of BPL families from time to time to judge the progress of the pov-

erty alleviation policy of the government. Only the policies liked by the people are called good policies, and the one not liked by them is abandoned instantly. Those getting employed in urban areas are required to support their families in village, thus the family bond is being respected. All business concerns in towns have to engage in poverty alleviation programme. Cash crops are encouraged to improve their plight. Skill development helps them to migrate to townships for securing better life. Each civil servant has to

Our afternoon visit to Zhengan EDZ provided us an opportunity to witness the growing agro-based industrial sector having units to produce oil, rice, glasses, musical instruments, etc, with machineries improving both the productivity and output. Having dinner at the administration centre, we were back to Jin Hong hotel. On November 23, we left for Wuchuan Coun-

A sectional view of talks with chinese leaders personally involve himself in poverty alleviation of one village. Healthcare insurance cover is provided to villagers and they have to pay a premium of 50 yuan per year for 12 years. Against the premium of one yuan, medicare cover is for 1000 yuans. A basic pension scheme is provided for which

A view of bilateral talks at Tongrencits New Age Weekly

reimbursement rates are 90 per cent at the grass roots level, 80 per cent at local and 70 per cent at municipal levels.

a sacred one, a place of pilgrimage here, in the lap of natural beauty and beautiful gigantic constructions. Hong Kong based non-resident Chinese have constructed a world class school alongside the senior secondary government school, which is a replica of the best school situated at Beijing. We also visited the village site having two-three storied cottages in the exquisite and picturesque surroundings of mountains, a specialty of almost all Chinese villages, unique of their kind. After dining at Lotus Park hotel famous for its hospitality, we were back to Wu Chuan hotel.

ty by bus. On the way a wonderful lady guide joined us, entertained us with local ethnic songs and comedies in a family style and led us to Jianfeng ecological farm and Bocun township. We visited Taofu agriculture and tourism site, a splendid sheep farm where the villagers have got employment and are able to earn 3000 yuan per month, while staying in their own houses and feel economically better off. After checking at Wu Chuan hotel and having lunch, we left Juitian Mushi Square to have the glimpses of ethnic minority culture, visited ex-king’s museum palace, having huge collection of ethnic cultural creations of extraordinary varieties. This place is considered

November 24, from counties to villages of Wu Chuan journey now started for Tongren city. On the way we arrived at Sinan county, dined at Bailezhou hotel and left for Mount Fanjing 2,500 metres above the sea level in chilling cold, devastating wind flow, snowing climate, first on cable carts and then through the wooden stairs numbering around 2000 steps on a zig-zag pathway. Almost freezing, sneering and trembling reached the botanical garden hotel, also known as Qixi hotel, had our dinner in Youlan hall, Gongtoing hall and Lengshan hall of the hotel. Thereafter we have a late nigh seminar to discuss preliminary issues to be discussed in the forthcoming theoretical workshops and the sem-

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February 19-25, 2017

Asian Left Parties Visits China

and Exchange of Ideas inar at Beijing. CPC document was introduced to us and our opinions were sought. On the fifth day of November 25, having breakfast provided by CPC Tongren municipal committee at the hotel, left for Zhaisha village of Dong ethnic people, had talks with village, town and county-level committees and then proceeded for the Tongren city proper where we were put up in a gigantic grand metro park hotel, a skyscraper of class, had our lunch and rest for a while. Thereafter we gathered in the meeting room of People’s Hall for a round table conference with the

On November 26, we left for Wanshan district to visit Jiufeng agriculture base. Beating the climatic condition farming is done here under roof by maintaining the required temperature. This farm is a typical example, where we tasted many varieties of fruits and vegetables. This farm has all the modern amenities of life — guest houses, suites and recreation halls of class, alluring visitors and tourists to have a break. Back to the hotel, packing up our baggages, putting them in the

committee by a renowned professor from the CPC central party school. We were acquainted fully with the

bus we departed for Tongren polytechnic college. While visiting the faculties, interacting with the technocrats, teachers as well as students, we got the sad news of the demise of legendary leader of all the revolutionary fighters and mankind as such, Comrade Fidel Castro. We stopped, paid our silent tributes then and there and putting off everything we started for Fenghuang airport to take our flight to Beijing, next and find abode of our scheduled visit. Around 10 pm we arrived at Beijing airport and left for the Wanshou hotels at midnight. With the hectic, thrilling and

A group photo ited the forbidden city memorial and museum on the other side of this famous square. This is also known as the palace museum as well as Gu Gong in Chinese. It had once served as the im-

Discussion held at Tongren Municipal Committee of CPC municipal party committee leaders. Here we were asked to come in formal dresses, signaling the beginning of the serious business thence. In the end dinner was hosted by the municipal party committee.

star (Polaris) was in the centre of heavens and heavenly emperor lived in the purple palace. Thus this came to be

momentous part of our sojourn coming to a halt, the stage was set for the preparations of the serious deliberations awaiting us. On November 27, we were put up together in Wanshou Hotels in Beijing, owned and managed by the CPC providing world class hospitality to guests, who are generally invited by the party. However, other select guests are also allowed in its three blocks constructed in 1966. This is a symbol of China’s growth matching international standards. We began our journey here by paying tributes to chairman Mao laid in his mausoleum at Tiananmen Square, which attracted worldwide attention, acclaim and publicity during 1980s. Followed by this we vis-

perial palace for 24 emperors during the Mig and Qing dynasties between 1368 and 1911, first built in over 14 years during the reign of emperor Chengzu of the Ming dynasty (13681644). Ancient astronomers believed that the purple

of South Asian Left Parties’ delegation known as the purple city. ‘four comprehensives’ to It was forbidden for en- build ‘socialism with trance without the Chinese characteristics’. This envisages pursuing special permission of the modernization of the soemperor. Hence its name! ciety and the party, In the afternoon, after pursuing economic relunch we visited the forms and opening up of the economy more vigorGreat Wall of China, one ously to cater to the among the eight wonders requirements of globalof the world accredited ization, ensuring rule of as heritage site by the UN. law and strict governance of the party, from It was a Herculean top to bottom, with ‘Comtask to climb the stairs rade Xi Jin Ping in the of the great wall which core’. The delegates from is on a zigzag, uphill jourSouth Asian left parties ney atop the mountains. — CPI, CPI(M), AIFB, It is said to be erected to Communist Party of Neevade the invasions by pal (Maoist Center), Normads from Magnolia Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist and elsewhere in an- Leninist), Communist cient times. The uphill Party of Nepal (Maoist), journey was enough to Workers’ Party of BangCommunist get one tired and breath- ladesh, Party of Bangladesh and less so much so that we JVP and MEP of Sri Lanhad to have rest after dinka — also shared their ing at the hotel. experiences and exNovember 28, this was pressed their a day marked for workapprehensions, sceptishops. In the morning cism as well as session we were briefed expectations about the on the deliberations of new CPC strategy. the sixth plenary session On page 12... of the 18th CPC central

A view of the farewell function in Beijing New Age Weekly

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February 19-25, 2017

Budget Crushes the Hopes of Common Masses “Initially, though prominently, it gets clear from the very outset that the present budget has once again put down the hopes of the common masses, especially those vulnerable among them, like the senior citizens, tribals, Dalits and women. Moreover, the budget is very much in line with the neoliberal outlook of the present government, as there are concessions for the corporate houses, at the cost of the needs of the middle class community,” said Communist Party of India leader C N Jayadevan while taking part in the discussion in the House on the General Budget, on February 9, 2017-18. “Considering the agricultural sector and the farmer community, the loan limit for the farmers have been raised to 10 lakhs, but no measures are in place for solving the increasing suicides of the farmers and the drought conditions prevailing in different parts of the country. When there is a boom in the agricultural production, the farmers are in doom due to the crash in the prices of their produce. Among the alternate employment schemes, highest amount till date of Rs 48,000 crore has been allotted to MGNREGA, as per the finance minister, though he has left it unexplained that 14,000 crore rupees is backlog from the previous year for the payment of wages,” said C N Jayadevan. “For the industrial sector, a tax rate of 25 percent has been fixed for medium and small sectors, as they were badly hurt by demonetization. But the budget has nothing to restore the jobs to 60 percent of the workers who have become unemployed due to barbaric demonetization. Also, not to New Age Weekly

mention the case of the Public spending on edworst unemployment ucation is a must for rates in the past two making it available for all years that has given and in better quality. huge disappointment to There are also highly the demographic divi- ambitious targets for dend that India boasts of,” eliminating diseases like said CPI leader. measles, Tuberculosis, “Basic facilities like etc but all these initiaeducation and health are tives need even higher also not given the due consideration. The allocation of six percent of GDP to education as recommended by Kothari Commission, is still a far LOK SABHA dream. Spending on education as a share of the central gov- allocations and mission ernment’s total budgeted mode working. The proexpenditure has been posal to increase the falling for the past three medical PG seats at the years; from 4.57 per cent rate of 5000 post graduin 2013-14 to 4.14 per ate seats per year, does cent in 2014-15, the first not mention anything of year of this government AYUSH streams of medto 3.71 per cent in the icine. In this context, it 2017-18 budget. This as would be helpful if the a share of GDP it has concerned minister alcome down from 0.63 per locates a fair percentage cent of the GDP in 2013- of these 5000 seats to AY14 to 0.55 per cent in USH system of medicine particularly 2014-15 to 0.47 per cent also, in the present budget. Ayurveda, which has

great potential for earning foreign exchange,” said C N Jayadevan while speaking in the House. “The railway budget has been merged with the general budget, but the move to list the Railway related PSUs in Stock Exchange is a move to fasten the privatization of the largest public sector of the country. At least two years are needed to make the railways accident free, which is a long time as far as the loss of lives of innocent passengers are concerned. It is alleged that various enquiry reports including reports of the parliamentary panels on railway accidents are there, but no action has been taken to improve the safety standards of the Indian railways,” C N Jayadevan told the House and added, “On political funding, the reduction of limit of donations in cash to Rs 2000, is not a sufficient move to reduce

CPI IN PARLIAMENT

black money. Electoral reforms and greater transparency by bringing the political parties under the Right to Information Act is the need of the hour.” He said, “The one clear thing that was admitted in the budget was that demonetisation had crippled the economy and it will take years to revive. Like the Economic survey, the government too failed to give the figures of deposits in the banks after demonetization. There is no assessment of the black money and the fake currency that supposedly was the main target of demonetization.” “Overall, the Union budget reflects the casual approach the present government has taken on the crisis ridden economy of the country. Even the chief economic advisor is of the opinion the demonetization, which can be termed as a carpet bombing, can be assessed only after the term of the present government,” concluded C N Jayadevan.

NFIW Call for National Campaign... From page 7... Violence against women continues to increase in new avatars and with more brutality. Blame the victim or survivor including by leaders of political parties, continues with impunity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi praises the African nations for having substantial number of women in their respective Parliaments. But there is no public announcement from the PM on passing the Women’s Reservation Bill which is passed in Rajya Sabha many years back shows not only the lack of political will and social commitment of his government’s but also the patriarchal manuwadi attitude of BJP on the question of gender equality. The women as paid or unpaid workers are the

worst victims of the ruthless decision demonetisation of the NDA government at Centre. The immediate impact of demonetisation was loss of daily wage work to cores of workers including domestic workers, agricultural workers, migrant workers, etc, closing down of small and medium scale enterprises which is not only contributing 45 per cent of the GDP but employs 85 per cent of the work force, is a cash-based sector. Considering the fact that 96 per cent of the total women work force is in the unorganised sector, with fewer wages compared to men, the impact is so huge and critical. Not only the small savings of women which serve as a shock absorber for any eventuality in the family become ‘black money’ but

they also become thieves for their male family members. The proposed labour law reforms push more and more women out of employment or into unorganised sector subjecting them to all sorts of human right violations and exploitations. The intensive pushing of neo-liberal economic policy renders more people especially women landless, homeless and making service like health and education inaccessible to them. In this process torture and violence are used. Country’s natural resources are surrendered to the corporate and public sector banks are operated for them. To make the path of corporate smooth and to deny the basic constitutional rights, amendments to the existing laws are brought, new rules and regula-

tions like the new UGC rules are made by the Modi government. Considering such socio, political and economic situation in the country, the National Council of the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), which met at Nagpur from February 10-12, 2017 gave a national call of ‘Abki Baar Hamara Adhikaar’ to expose the UPA-led BJP government’s agenda of changing the ‘socialist, secular and democratic character of our Constitution, denying equal rights to the citizens and converting India as a Brahmanical Manuwadi majoritarian Hindu Rashtra. The grass-root campaign will begin From March 8, 2017 and on May 26, 2017 a massive women’s rally and public meeting will be held at the state capitals.

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February 19-25, 2017

Wholesale Inflation At 30-Month High in January Demonetisation blues are there to continue for long. Experts and even those who supported the move in the beginning with lot of expectations too are now totally disenchanted with the outcome and are now convinced that it is nothing but a loot of the masses in favour of the rich and business class, the normal custodians of all kinds of money — black, white, unaccounted, benami and so on. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation rose to a two-and-a-half-year high of 5.2 per cent in January, widening the divergence with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers. The rising prices of commodities, including petrol and diesel, led to a rise in WPI inflation, which was 3.4 per cent in December, showed official data released on February 14, 2017. However, the data released a day before showed that CPI inflation fell to a series low of 3.2 per cent in January from 3.4 per cent in the previous month, confirming the intensity of demonetisation blues that have robbed the common consumers of the hard-earned money meant for daily necessaries including food and other edible items. The experts feel that the distress sale at the local retail mandis causing a wedge between WPI and CPI inflation in January 2017, is likely to persist for long and will finally result in a scarcity that will push up the prices soon to unheard heights even at the retail markets. A report in Business Standard (February 15, 2017) says the fall in CPI inflation and rise in WPI inflation also had to do with the way basket in each index is composed of. While both the indices showed sharp reduction in food inflation due to cash crunch after demonetisation, it was much more pronounced in headline CPI numbers, as food items have over 45 per cent weightage in the retail price index and just over 14 per cent in WPI. In fact, food prices fell for the second continuous month in January in WPI terms. The decline though moderated to 0.56 per cent in January, from 0.70 per cent in December. The decrease in food prices was due to a plunge in vegetable prices for the fifth month in a row. The prices declined over 30 per cent in January and December. However, inflation in fruits, and protein-based items such as egg, meat, fish and milk rose. Pulses also saw sharp reduction in inflation to 6.21 per cent in January, from 12.21 per cent in the previous month. Commodities such as oil and diesel fuelled up WPI inflation. While petrol turned dearer by 15.66 per cent in January, against 8.22 per cent in December, diesel was costlier by 31.10 per cent against 20.25 per cent. Oil prices have been on rise since the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), in early December, de-

cided to cut output for the first time in eight years. Spot LNG prices have also risen from 5.25 dollars to about nine per MMBTU on winter heating requirements. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is used for power generation.

Stop Playing a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing Industrial Output Slips 0.4 Per Cent in December: Industrial production contracted in December 2016 due to a sharp decline in production of consumer goods, confirming a demonetisation-led contraction in demand. Index of Industrial Production (IIP) was 0.4 per cent lower in December 2016 from the same period a year ago, data released on February 10 showed. Prime Minister Narendra must tell the truth both in Parliament and outside and take into confidence the nation rather than trying to run away from the reality and bitter truth. The very fact that he has stopped referring to his bold move and glorifying the demonetisation as an act of courage at the cost of his life itself proves that he is realising the move was foolish.

The number was well below the 5.7 per cent growth in November and consensus expectation of around one per cent growth in December, says a report in The Economic Times (February 11, 2017) says. The cumulative IIP growth for April-December is 0.3 per cent against 3.2 per cent for the same period in 2015. The Purchasing Managers’ Index had suggested subdued manufacturing sentiment both in December 2016 and January 2017. The decline is largely due to consumer goods driven two per cent contraction in manufacturing, the largest component of the IIP. Electricity generation was up 6.3 per cent while mining output rose 5.2 per cent. Lack of cash seems to have dented demand for consumer goods, which spilled over to 6.8 per cent decline in production. Within consumer goods, production of durable goods fell 10.3 per cent from a year ago in December 2016 while that of nondurables or the FMCG goods was down five per cent. “The sectors where the impact of demonetisation was expected to be more pronounced were consumer durables and non-durables,” said an expert. He said the numbers deflate the government’s claim that “demonetisation has not been as disruptive as it has been made out to be.” Capital goods were lower by three per cent in December 2016, confirming subdued investment sentiment. As many as 17 out of 22 manufacturing sub-sectors reported contraction in December 2016 with office, accounting & computing ma-

chinery leading with a 23.9 per cent contraction. The data provide evidence of a softer second half following demonetisation on November 8, 2016. The Reserve Bank of India expects gross value added growth in the current fiscal at 6.9 per cent compared with seven per cent estimated by the Central Statistics Office without factoring in the impact of demonetisation. The central bank has said demonetisation will have a “transient” impact on the economy. The RBI on February 8 decided not to cut rates citing upside risk to inflation, disappointing markets that had penciled in a 0.25 percentage points cut.

Demonetisation’s Net Impact on Tax Revenue Little Whatever the government or its detractors say, the demonetisation move announced on November 8 has had little impact either way on the Centre’s tax revenue in the current fiscal year. Neither has the two income disclosure schemes (IDS and PMGKY) unveiled during the year affected revenue much. Direct taxes (corporate tax and personal income tax) grew at slightly above the budget estimates before the note swap and after it. The growth has picked up a bit further in November on the strength of personal income tax (advance tax payments using old notes could be a part-reason for this) but has since gradually slowed down, still keeping a slightly higher pace than before the note swap, at least until January. But it is excise and service tax that have consistently outperformed official estimates by wide margins — these taxes seem to even better the substantially scaled up revised estimates (REs) announced in the recent Budget. The extremely robust increase in excise collections and the solid growth in service tax in the year have almost entirely to do with rate hikes (2016-17 saw the full impact of incremental duty hikes on petroleum products and the increases in the rate at which services are taxed since 2015-16 Budget), rather than buoyancy. Unlike in the case of direct taxes, if at all there is any impact of the note swap on excise and service tax, it could be negative. It is pertinent to mention that the government has kept the RE for corporate tax unchanged from the corresponding BE in the latest Budget and revised the personal income tax revenue only marginally from Rs 3.46 lakh crore (BE) to Rs 3.53 lakh crore (RE). The reason could be lack of clarity on nominal GDP growth for 201617 and, therefore, for the next year. The Centre has accounted for a robust 25 per cent increase in personal income tax for 2017-18, hinging on additional tax revenue to be generated by income disclosures.Wholesale Inflation At 30Month High in January New Age Weekly

12

February 19-25, 2017

Centre’s Dilly Dally in TN... From front page... In 2005 such moves to split the legislators to cook up a majority were engineered in Bihar and Jharkhand. In Bihar the parties involved were LJP, Samata, BJP and RJD while in Jharkhand the parties to such a game were BJP, Congress and RJD. In 2007, the same technique was used in Arunachal Pradesh and again in 2016 to topple the democraticallyelected governments. Last year that is in 2016 in Karnataka and Uttarakhand such dramas were enacted in the name of democracy only to capture power. Coming back to the latest happening in Tamil Nadu it was an open secret that the ruling party at the Centre, BJP, after it lost its power in Karnataka was trying its best to make a foothold in Tamil Nadu. It did have a love and hate relationship with J Jayalalithaa government

when she was alive. Now that she is no more, the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah took special pains to attract O Paneerselvam and company towards them. As it did not fully materialise and the AIADMK got split in the meanwhile, BJP resolved to dilly-dallying tactics in ending the constitutional crisis in Tamil Nadu. BJP was trying to get some foothold, from the time Jayalalithaa was in hospital. Venkaiah Naidu, Governor Vidyasagar Rao and other leaders were regular visitors to the hospital. After the death of J Jayalalithaa the prime minister along with others paid tribute and personally attended the funeral. This looks normal. But when Pannerselvam resigned as the chief minister, knowing that he is resigning to pave way for Sasikala, the governor accepted his

Thrills of Learning... From page 9... However, the CPC spokesperson from the party school and the experts very categorically asserted that they are for institution building based on their experiences, especially since 1980 new guidelines and opined that creating people-centric efficiency is imperative for building ‘socialism with Chinese characteristic’, and hence it should not be misconstrued as being ‘Red capitalism’, because in capitalism more freedom is enjoyed by erring players of socio-economic life. The post-luncheon session was devoted to the issue of corruption wherein another group of professors and experts of CPC central commission for discipline inspection described the anti-corruption measures of the CPC as being top priority area. Paying heed to the fact that this New Age Weekly

is a global phenomenon, hence it is imperative to state: do not, cannot, will not to erring officials and individuals intending or practicing corruption. The idea behind the new regulations and institution building is to improve openness and transparency in all dealings. Since the class struggle is still continuing as different classes still exist in this primary stage of building socialism, taking clue from the Soviet collapse, CPC is all set to strictly implement the safeguards with ‘core leadership’ in command, said Wang Zheng. Delegates from South Asian left parties also shared their views with the experts and narrated their own experiences. ‘Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’, goes the saying hence the need to be vigilant at every step and for this

resignation and refused to invite Sasikala thus creating a vacuum and confusion in the state. They expected bigger split and wanted to impose Rastrapati rule and then to manipulate one group or the other. They created a political vacuum and planned for horse trading. Sasikala or Pannerselvam may be worthy or not worthy to be the chief minister, that is another matter. But there are constitutional obligations to be fulfilled by the governor, which he ignored consciously. The role of Subramanian Swamy, a political litigant in many cases, is interesting. It is Swamy who filed the case against Jayalalithaa and Sasikala in which they are punished now. Swamy issued a statement that Sasikala should be made the chief minister, otherwise he will file a case against the governor. After the judgment, he welcomed it, expressed happiness that Sasikala is punished. None can predict his next move. necessary institutional guarantee has to be built upon is the motto of the CPC strategy to say no to corruption. After the second session of the workshop was over we went to enjoy acrobatics show in one of the famous opera of Beijing. It was a thrilling experience to watch eight motor cycles simultaneously playing within the circular iron case, adding to the heart beat of the spectators. Indeed it was a thrilling evening after mind blowing theoretical discussions. Finally came November 29, the day of the culmination of our stay in China, as we started our journey back. The delegation from India included Sankritya Rambabu Kumar and Parameswaran Nair Prasad of CPI, Jogendra Sharma and Surajit Das of CPI(M), and Jyoti Ranjan Mohapatra and Shyamal Roy of All India Forward Bloc.

To sum up, repeated resorting to fishing in troubled waters after creating a constitutional crisis seems to be like a part of bourgeois democracy. In effect it really is undermining the democratic system itself. Weakening of any one of the pillars of democracy namely Parliament, Executive and Judiciary will not only upset the balance but will destroy the basic foundation of democracy itself. The crisis in Tamil Nadu is not over yet. The vacu-

um created by the sudden death of Jayalalithaa who did not allow any second rank leader to grow will continue. BJP will continue to play the political tricks to create further confusion. The CPI has always been in favour of floor test to prove the majority of a ruling party or front and will continue to do so in the best interests of our nation. Let us hope some stability will be restored in Tamil Nadu after the floor test.

BJP-ISI Nexus...

From front page... During interrogation both allegedly revealed that they were collecting secret information regarding locations of Army and other security forces, and sharing it with Pakistan through social media. During further investigations, it was found that Satvinder was getting money from Satna-based Balram, who is now in MPATS custody. All of them were produced before a district court which remanded Balram to five days police custody. The rest — Kush Pandit, Jitendra Thakur of Jhansi Road Gwalior, Ritesh Khullar of Kampu, Gwalior, Jitendra Singh Yadav of Janak Ganj, Gwalior, Trilok Singh of Gwalior — were sent to police remand till February 12. MPATS officials said they are looking for three more key players. In all MPATS has arrested eleven ISI agents among whom are at least two with links to the ruling BJP. As one of them, Dhruv Saxena, is district coordinator for the IT cell of the BJP, and was seen, clad in saffron, attending an event that was addressed by the chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the other is a relative of a sitting BJP corporator. Though the BJP has ignored the protest staged by the Congress and has denied allegations officially to have links with the ISI, or with the arrested operatives, unofficially, some of the party leaders have expressed concern over the ISI’s possible infiltration into its ranks. “Denying association with those arrested in public is one thing but the real problem can be gauged from the fact that one of them was holding a post in the party’s IT cell and he had access to so much data and information,” a visibly disturbed senior party leader said, on the condition of anonymity According State Congress chief Arun Yadav, one of the arrested is Jitendra and he is the elder brother of the husband of sitting BJP corporator from ward number 58 Vandana Satish Yadav. He is also closely associated with Union Minister Narendra Tomar and MP minister Maya Singh. “The action has been taken by the MP ATS, which is an agency of the state government. The ATS should be congratulated for this operation,” state BJP spokesman Deepak Vijaywargia said. Skeletons have started tumbling out. Despite their proclaimed aversion to anything other than Hindutva, and the unitary character of state as against federalism, proclaiming “One Country, One Legislature, One Executive”, Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh has always loved to have underhand links with foreign espionage agencies like CIA and earlier than that with the Nazi Germany and also with Fascist power of Mussolini, as the records themselves show. Meanwhile, there are chinks in the darkness, splitting wide open. ISI links of BJP are no more in layers of secrecy and people want to know the TRUTH.

13

February 19-25, 2017

Trump’s Presidency in Doldrums Setback after setbacks for US president Donald Trump. Struggling to gain a firm footing in its first month in office, the fledgling Trump administration was rocked by the resignation of its National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, whose unauthorized contacts with Russian officials was seen to have the potential to compromise US security. The immediate cited reason for Flynn’s resignation was that he misled vice-president Mike Pence, who apparently took the NSA’s word that he did not discuss the sanctions issue with the Russian ambassador to US during Trump administration’s transition phase, just before it took office. Pence batted for Flynn on television shows based on his assurance, but it transpired that the embattled NSA, already at sea in the tumultuous early days of the administration, had erred. Flynn had inadvertently briefed the Vice President-elect and others with incomplete information regarding his phone calls with the Russian ambassador. He had sincerely apologized to the President and the Vice President, and they have accepted his apology. Flynn wrote in a contrite resignation letter. He will go down in history as the NSA with the shortest stint — just 24 days — in a job whose average tenure is two and half years. Another retired general, Keith Kellogg, was designated the interim national security adviser, and he along with two other former military brass, Gen David Petraeus and former former Vice Admiral Bob Harward, are said to be in a shortlist as potential replacements for Flynn. The sudden resignation, which in effect was a firing, is emblematic of a turbulent start to the Trump presidency. Voted into office largely by a Middle American constituency with a mandate to challenge established norms and change the status quo, the Trump team is struggling to find its feet in a US capital beset with traditional thinking and entrenched interests. A deep distrust of Russia stretching some seven decades is part of this. Not just Flynn, but even President Trump is under the gun for being soft on Russia, with feverish speculation about their motives and compulsions. Some analysts see the Flynn scalp as the old establishment’s first strike against the Trump dispensation, which has been disdainful of the old thinking on Russia. It now transpires that the Justice Department, based on monitoring of phone calls between Flynn and the Russian ambassador to US (an interception that was described as routine and barely invoked the kind of outrage that the alleged Russian hacking did) had warned the White House last month that the NSA had not

been fully forthright about his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. In the conversations, he purportedly discussed, albeit indirectly, the possibility of rolling back the sanctions imposed by the Obama administration in its final days for Moscow’s alleged hacking and other infractions. Consequently, the Justice Department feared that the NSA could be vulnerable to blackmail by Moscow if he did not deliver on his assurance. The person who conveyed this to the White House was Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, described as an Obama administration layover subsequently fired by President Trump, who himself is seen in both liberal and conservative quarters as being too cozy with Moscow. In fact, late night comedy shows have been merciless in spoofing this aspect of the Trump presidency with skits showing him intimate with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, Moscow rushed to defend Flynn and deny any transgressions in the hours leading to his resignation, which was itself filled with suspense. Flynn’s eventual scalping strengthens the hand of vice-president Mike Pence, arguably the most experienced adminis-

trator in the Trump cabinet, particularly given the US President’s own tempestuous record, and the Washington establishment’s suspicion over his lack of pathology towards Russia. The Flynn flame-out comes amid almost non-stop criticism of Trump and his close advisors for their perceived inexperience in domestic governance, foreign policy engagement, and in elementary matters of protocol. Over the weekend, the U.S President was skewered by the media for conducting an emergency national security meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a public setting at his Mara-Lago club, where aides helped the two leaders read documents in cell phone lights (because of dim lighting), following the crisis arising from North Korea’s missile tests.

Venezuela Communists slam new rule to publish party membership The communists in Venezuela have condemned new electoral rules requiring political parties to publish their membership lists. The new rules from the National Electoral Council (CNE) are aimed at smaller parties, which fail to garner more than 1 per cent in each of the country’s 12 states.

The intention of the law passed last year was to expose opposition parties whose funds are disproportionate to their small membership. They face being deregistered if they do not submit a list of members for publication on the CNE website. But the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) — which was outlawed under military dictatorships from 1931 to 1941 and 1948 to 1958 and during its insurgency in the 1960s — has refused to do so, according to the PCV general secretary Oscar Figuera. PCV politburo member Carlos Aquino confirmed that the party would not participate in the process under “aberrant rules.” He said: “The greatest implications are not that the PCV, for the fourth time in its history, does not have the legal status to stand candidates but of the national and international connotations that it signifies.” The Homeland For All party, a member of the governing Great Patriotic Pole coalition, also objected to the new requirement.

CPB selects new leader in the Chamber of Deputies The Communist Party of Brazil (Partido Comunista do Brasil) has selected Alice Portugal, a four term member of the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the Brazilian Congress) to be the head of their caucus in that body. The choice of Portugal took place on February 7, in the middle of a national struggle against rightwing policies Brazilian President Michel Temer, who replaced the elected president, Dilma Rousseff, in a parliamentary coup this past summer. The Brazilian Congress, with a right-wing majority, has been supporting Temer’s programme of drastic cuts to social welfare for the poor and labor rights for workers. Alice Portugal has been a member of the Communist Party of Brazil for 39 years, and is a pharmacist by training.

Communists make advances in Austria Not for the first time, the Communist Party of Australia (Kommunistische Partei Österreichs) has registered electoral gains in the city of Graz, in the province of Styria (in German, Steiermark). The Communists added another city council seat in the elections held on February 5, for a total of two in the seven person municipal council. The rival Socialist Party lost its only seat to the communist candidate. Party spokesperson Mirko Messner called the victory a cause for rejoicing: ”The stronger presence of the Communist Party in the city government has also brought with it the strengthening of the fight against privatization and austerity policies”. New Age Weekly

14

February 19-25, 2017

‘This is my country’, ‘Nowhere else to go’, ‘Will fight for our rights’ — this is the thinking of Muslim youth across the land of the sugarcane, the yellow fields of mustard, the hub of handicrafts and mango orchards of western UP. The skyline is changing fast, a new awakening! A silent revolution is on. Crisscrossing the region from Saharanpur to Barielly, where the Muslims have a population from 26 per cent to 47 per cent and the two phases of assembly elections have been completed so far, the Muslims are not a vote bank. They are a living community whose members have developed their economic resources

themselves by their hard work not on the doles of the regimes, who controlled them by spreading fear for the last 70 years. The young are restless and creating their own future, with the spread of education, although it is not as wide-spread as other communities’. But it has touched the life of the community. Young girls are going for higher education and the family equations are changing fast. The economic boom has changed their life style. A vast change has come-up. And in this assembly elections — the old guard — the politicians will learn a new

Verdict Will be a Shock for Netas in UP S K Mittal lesson and it will be a shocker for them when the results come in on March 11. The Muslims have not behaved like a vote bank. The young voters, who have become eligible after 2014 are in a rebellious mood and have voted to their choices, defying the dictates of the ‘dons’, the mafia and the irrelevant clergy of both the Ahia and Sunni communities. This does imply that the iron grip of the caste system has not played a role in the present polls. All along it was a caste

war amongst the three warriors — the BJP, the BSP and the CongressSP alliance. From ticket distribution to the actual fight, the horses were changed in the mid on the basis of the caste and communities. It was a caste war and nobody talked of the ideology which has taken a back seat. All the warriors have no ideology. This was a power game and even the most articulate face the young CM Akhilesh Yadav never uttered a word about his Samajwad. His election was run on the theme of kam bolta hai but what kam. After five years of his

rule the state of UP is the most backward state in the country. No development, no river front, no infrastructure for the development of the industry. The basic power is not available for the growth. What to say of the Congress. It is decimated in the state. The BJP is fighting a losing battle and is playing the dirty game in its arsenal of dividing people and the last the Mandir game. But the magic of the 2014 is no more working. It is working on post-poll alliance and is much targeting the BSP.

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February 19-25, 2017 BHUBANESWAR: Central TUs organized a massive and mass demonstration here against the Demonetization of five hundred and one thousand rupee notes and its unbearable effects on the working class, peasantry and the toiling masses. Thousands of workers and employees participated in the mass demonstration led by AITUC, INTUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, AICCTU central Trade Union leaders. The demonstration was held before the Odisha Legislative Assembly on January 28, 2017.

pecially those working outside their states lost their jobs. The emigrated workers working in construction sectors, garment making, weaving, jewelry, leather industries, sports material producing units and brik kiln units lost their jobs and bread earning. Within 34 days of demonetization, 35 percent reduction of work forces in the sectors of small and medium entrepreneurs and industries and loss of 50 percent income reports all India construction organization survey.

The demonstrators expressed great concern over the anti-working class, anti-people and autocratic policies pursued by the Central government and declared their determination to fight united against it.

According to the reports by 2017 March ending, there will be 55 percent reduction of revenue. The emigrants are returning to their villages empty handed. There is acute shortage of employment in the rural areas resulting unbearable hunger and acute social economical hazards. More than 100 persons have died due to stress and shock while standing on the line to

Due to demonetization during last two months thousands of small and medium enterprises were closed and lakhs of workers es-

Mass Demonstration of Central TUs against Demonetization and its effects change 500 and 1000 rupee notes. There is no remedy to the unending plight of the people due to demonetization and shortage of money. This has increased the economic disparities only and helped the finance capital to capitalize the distress. The declared aim of the government to unearth black money, to check corruption, to curtail fake currencies and terrorist activities through the demonetization could not be fulfilled as this declaration proved to be hoax to harass the public and true tax payers only, they said. Central government has failed in every sphere. Black money could not be unearthed. People used to keep one thousand rupee notes now can keep the new two thousand rupee note and hoarding of notes can continue unabated. People’s confidence on

RBI has lost the autonomy enjoyed by it as it has been reduced to a mere government department. It is most unfortunate that the huge money deposited in the banks will be given to the corporate houses and capitalists at reduced interest rates, where as the depositors are not allowed to withdraw their deposits as required for their exigencies to meet the expenses for treatment and education of their family members. Control over people’s own deposits in bank is an attack on the fundamental right of the citizens of the country. The government instead of mitigating the difficulties and bringing any solace or relief to the people, is accusing those who oppose demonetization as traitors, and supporters of black money holders and corrupt ones. This attitude of the

government is strongly condemned by the trade unions and demand has been made by them for employment to those who have lost their jobs, wages and incomes during the last two months and adequate compensation to the families who have lost their bread earners during demonetization drive of the government. The mass demonstration was led by Kishore Jena, Madan Mohan Dhal, Akshaya Kumar Dhal and Pranati Mishra from INTUC; Dr. S B Kar, Ramakrushna Panda, Sura Jena from AITUC; Jogendra Tripathy and Sanjukta Mahal from HMS; Lamodar Nayak, Sivajee Pattanaik and Nabakishore Mohanty from CITU; Purna Chandra Behera and Jayasen Meher from AIUTUC and Mahendra Parida, Radhakanata Sethi from AICCTU and others.

On Record... The last bullet fired from this pistol had killed British officer John Saunders on December 17, 1928. Almost 90 years later, and half a century of being forgotten in a storeroom, Bhagat Singh’s pistol has been found. The .32 mm Colt automatic was on public display -for the first time ever -at BSF’s Reoti firing range here on Tuesday. It was on this day, in 1931, that the final mercy petition filed by then Congress president Madan Mohan Malviya was rejected by Viceroy Lord Irwin. Most people didn’t know that the historic gun was on display . Their eyes grew big and jaws dropped when they saw the legend on the glass case that holds the pistol. – The Times of India, February 15. *** The Supreme Court clarified people needn’t stand when the National Anthem is played as part of a film or documentary in cinema halls. It said moviegoers do not have to sing along while the Anthem was being played. The clarification came from a Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra on a petition filed by a film society that questioned the court’s order mandating playing of the National Anthem in all cinemas halls before the start of a movie. The petitioner wanted the court to recall its order. The order required viewers to stand up to show respect to the National Anthem. People, the court clarified, did not have to sing along. – The Tribune, February 15. *** The Supreme Court appealed for a “collective, committed and courageous turnaround” to throttle the “insatiable vice” of corruption that has led to escalation of the divide between the haves and the have-nots. Writing a separate order while restoring AIADMK general secretary V K Sasikala’s conviction and a four-year

jail term for her, Justice Amitava Roy highlighted the menace of corruption in public life and said it evolves from “moral debasement” of people. The judge said, “Corruption is a vice of insatiable avarice for self-aggrandisement by the unscrupulous, taking unfair advantage of their power and authority, and those in public office also, in breach of the institutional norms, mostly backed by minatory loyalists. Both the corrupt and the corrupter are indictable and answerable to the society and the country as a whole.” – The Indian Express, February 15. *** In the year that whistleblower Indian Forest Service officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi was conferred the Ramon Magsaysay Award for battling corruption, the Centre gave him an effective “zero” in his annual appraisal report. The appraisal was for the 2015-16 financial year when Chaturvedi was serving as Deputy Secretary at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. It was the period when he had been stripped of his responsibilities and left “without work”, forcing him to move the Supreme Court. The court has already issued a notice to the Centre on his plea. – The Indian Express, February 14. — Compiled by C Adhikesavan New Age Weekly

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16 New Age,

February 19–25, 2017

The 35-point election manifesto of the Manipur state council of the Communist Party of India for the 11 th Manipur legislative assembly was released in the evening of February 11, 2017, at Haoreibi Makha Leikai in Langthabal assembly segment of the rural area of Imphal West. The election manifesto was released by CPI national council secretary D Raja, MP, at the workers meeting in the large courtyard of the residence of CPI candidate Nonthombam Singhajit. The CPI leader lambasted the Congress and BJP while releasing the manifesto, and charged both the parties for their misrule and anti-people policies. The INC rule in Manipur and BJP dispensation in Delhi, both have utterly failed to serve the people here. In stead of alleviating the people’s sufferings, they have been pushing them down into even worse socio-economic political crisis. He said the Congress and the BJP both would not be able to do any good for people in this north eastern state. Chief m i n i s t e r Okram indulges in the rampant corrupt practices, has accumulated huge amount of wealth during the 15 years of Congress rule in the state. He is known as only 10 percent chief minister of this troubled state of Manipur. There are reports that at least 10 percent gets siphoned for every bill for contractor while issuing cash-drawn sanction. The smell of this strange and shameful act has reached each and every household of the state. The communist parl i a m e n t a r i a n emphatically called to the people of the state to oust the anti-people and most corrupt Congress rule led Okram Ibobi and deputy chief minister Gaikhangam and check

Delhi Postal Regd. No.DL(C)-01/1274/2015-17 Licenced to Post without Pre-payment No.U-(C)-47/2015-2017 (R.N.I.No.539/57) Posted in NDPSO, Friday &19-25, Saturday February 2017 Date of Publication: 17/02/2017

CPI Releases Election Manifesto in Manipur

Left and Democratic Front Set to Bring Change the political and electoral influence of the more dangerous divisive BJP that is posing as alternative to the despotic Congress rule. CPI leader said that the real alternative should be the Left and Democratic Front which consists of six left, secular-democratic forces with a sound and practical social, political and economic policy and programmes. The people friendly political front is a need of the hour. It can fight the hill-valley divide politics and game plan of INC and BJP and bring back the more flourished Manipuri nationalism and protect the historically evolved political entity of Manipur and indigenous population. The CPI leader pointed out that Prakash Javedkar, Union HRD minister, who is looking after the electioneering of BJP in Manipur has made promises to get such reforms that could never be implemented. He indulges in blame game too against Congress rule. The BJP ministers talk tall all along. Rhetorical speeches are their bounden duties assigned by autocratic Narendra Modi. D Raja urged people to analyse the turbulent political situation which the state has been witnessing and to elect the right person who can govern smoothly and safeguards the people and territorial integrity of Manipur which has its own unique identity, tradition and culture. Calling BJP led Modi government a dictatorship, CPI leader accused Modi for trying to impose the monolithic social structure emanating from the reactionary Hindutva philosophy ignoring the diversity in culture, social plurality and different political

Kh Surchand streams leading to disrupt people’s harmony. The CPI leader termed the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes a blunder and futile exercise. It has caused tremendous economic crisis, hampered the growth of country, lost over 100 precious lives while in the queue. The demonetisation could

deputy state secretary, Leishangthem Thoiren, secretariat member Kh Surchand and Nupi Marup leaders M. Sakhi and L. Sumati also atteneded. Dr Nara and Sotinkumar attacked the BJP and INC and sought the support for the Left and Democratic Front. Addressing huge gathering at the one day election campaign meeting at the residence of Md. Abdul Samad, MNDF

frastructure and planning. The highly politically motivated blanket decision was taken at the end of December last only. For the sake of making them popular, they dare to play Meetei and Kuki cards. It shows their opportunism and misadventurism only that sets aflame people’s emotions. In the Manifesto, the party has earnestly ap-

National Council secretary D. Raja releases election manifesto not contain either the black money, or the fake currency while the insurgents and terrorists keep growing with abundance of resources. D. Raja spoke in Khurai A/C, Wangjing-Tentha, Wabgai and Kakching A/C, campaigning for the LDF sponsored CPI candidates. He addressed the flag hoisting function of CPI candidate R K Amusana of Khurai constituency and CPI c a n d i d a t e Haobam Robindro of Wangjing-Tentha constituency and massive public meeting at Sora muslim village organised by CPI candidate Naorem Achouba of Kakching constituency. In the meeting in which CPI manifesto was released, CPI state secretary Dr. Nara Singh, deputy state secretary Laishram Sotinkumar,

Candidate (LDF Constituent), Raja blamed the Congress and BJP for destructing the Manipur state politically as well as economically, and asking the two reactionary parties to stop blame game and take up proactive action to resolve amicably the impasse of the indefinite economic blockade along the two national highways. The United Naga Council (UNC) has been imposing the undemocratic agitation in the lifeline of state, ImphalDimapur and ImphalJiri highway since November 1, of the last year. The Naga Civil Society is the outfit of the NSCN (IM), they are stiffly opposing the hurdle created by seven new revenue districts. The unpopular Congress regime took the decision of district re-organisation without having any in-

pealed to the people that the upcoming Assembly election is very crucial for the problemridden state. Therefore, it is imperative for Manipur electorate to exercise their franchise carefully as they carry the essence of democracy. Subsequently, upcoming election could pave the radical way for bringing a democratic and pro-people rule. The election manifesto pointed out that it was the right political juncture to stop the outdated ideas of handing the responsibility of state governance to the two rightist parties, Congress and BJP alternatively. The people should extend support to the Left and Democratic Front which has firm determination to bring a pro-people and redical rule in the state.

Printed & Published by Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy on behalf of the Communist Party of India at BFL Infotech Ltd (Media Division), C-9, Sector-3, Noida, Dist. Gautam Budh Nagar, UP. & Published from Ajoy Bhavan, 15-Com.Indrajit Gupta Marg, New Delhi-110 002. Ph: 011-2323 0762. EDITOR: SHAMEEM FAIZEE *E-mail: [email protected] Layout: Janardanan. R New Age Weekly