NEW AGE

December 13-19, 2015

New Delhi

New Delhi Vol. 63

Central Organ of the Communist Party of India

No. 50

(Total Pages 16)

December 13-19, 2015

Weekly

Price: Rs.5

On Other Pages1 „ Centre

Must Send Help to TN Flood Victims................3

„ Special Status for AP Sought .............................16

Thousands Join Protest Against Price Hike, Poverty

CPI Rally to Fight Against Intolerance

CPI general secretary S. Sudhakar Reddy addressing the rally KOLKATA: Shaheed Minar Maidan, known for being the stage for most of the agitations in the city, and also with a capacity to accommodate no less than 30000 strong rallies, was literally bursting at the seams with crowd spilling over on December 6, 2015. It was the rally organized by the CPI reflecting the months long untiring efforts of the district and local committees led by state secretary Prabodh Panda and the members of the state secretariat of West Bengal. The communist Party of India issued the call to unleash struggle against

intolerance and growing deprivation as well as price hike on the day

From Dilip Chakrabarty when the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992 by the BJP and its Hindutva volunteers and other communal groups led by the RSS. It was symbolic as the day was taken to demonstrate the undeterred commitment of the communists to fight

till the end the forces of communalism. CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy and deputy general secretary Gurudas Dasgupta attacked without mincing words prime minister Narendra Modi at the centre and chief minister Mamta Banerji in the state while addressing the gathering. They

questioned Mamta Banerji about what her government had done to fight ‘intolerance’. People came from cities and towns and from the remote villages of the state at the call of CPI to raise their voice to dethrone BJP from the centre and TMC from state power since Modi’s ‘Achhe Din’ On Page 2

Comrade Bardhan is Critical But Struggling True to his nature, veteran of the Left and Communist movement of the c o u n t r y , Comrade A.B. Bardhan is struggling against the very serious brain hemorrhage and paralytic attack that he had on December 7 morning. He was immediately rushed to G B Pant Hospital where he continues to be in ICU and teams of best doctors and specialists are attending him. Comrade Bardhan had similar attack during the National Council meeting at Nagpur in January 2015. At that time it was left side that was affected. The clot in the brain got dissolved with treatment.

Though that attack was also very serious, he with his strong will and determination, overcame and after resting for two months at his daughter’s house in Ahmadabad came to Puducherry to attend the Party Congress. There he took active part in the deliberations and piloted the new Party Programme in drafting of which he had played key role. There he was elected chairman of the newly created permanent programme commission. After going for rest in Kolkata for a few days, he came back to Ajoy Bhavan, his abode for last two and a half decades. Till Monday early morning, he was perfectly all right. At 7.30 am, his attendant Kanhaiya felt that he is sleeping a bit longer and also having breathing troubles. He informed the party leadership and also Dr A A Khan who rushed to Ajoy Bhavan to take him to GB Pant Hospital. Party General Secretary S. Sudhakar Reddy, available members of the National Secretariat and other party leaders also reached. By noon,

after preliminary medical investigations, he was shifted to ICU in the same hospital that is supposed to be best in the country for such diseases. This attack is much more serious. The right side is affected and clot in the brain is much bigger and still growing. There had been stream of visitors to the Hospital from all sections of people including top leaders from almost all political parties and also queries from fraternal parties from abroad. As some sections of the Media had flashed false and mischievous reports there was lot of anxiety, not only among the party ranks and file but people in general. But Bardhan is Bardhan, a man of strong will, determination and a fighter by nature. He is still struggling and everybody wishes that like in January, he will once again overcome this serious attack. (Friday, December 11, 2015, 12.30 Noon) New Age Weekly

2

December 13-19, 2015

Whether it is the old wine in the new bottle or just a change of label, the announcement to revive the process of Composite Bilateral Dialogue between India and Pakistan that was attempted in the past under the title of Comprehensive Indo-Pak dialogue that faced many hurdles and finally was called off after the tragic terrorist attack on Mumbai will still be welcomed by all those who sincerely desire normalization of relations between the two partitioned countries. It is now duty of the Modi government to clear the atmosphere in the country and remove all the confusion that will be there in the minds of people because of the postures of the ruling party on the issue. Even the present announcement has been surprising for many. In the very recent past the leaders of the ruling party had been making noises that give the impression that Pakistan is an enemy country and the leaders of Hindutva brigade wanted to push all those to Pakistan whom they termed as ‘anti-national’ including over 15 crore Muslims. Apart from restraining such elements, it is the responsibility of the government to clear all doubts about the present initiative. People need to be taken into confidence, if this venture has to succeed After the Ufa meeting between Modi and Nawaz Sherief, it was decided that the NSAs and foreign secretaries of the two countries would meet to prepare the ground for revival of the meaningful bilateral talks, but the first meeting in Delhi itself was called off on flimsy grounds. Visiting leaders from Pakistan had been meeting Hurriyat and

Indo-Pak Dialogue other Kashmir leaders. Using that as an excuse was foolish. Government seems to be confused on the issue. It is under pressure from different quarters for dialogue but simultaneously it does not want to lose its own ranks who all these years have been fed with sentiments of enmity with Pakistan. Same is almost the situation in Pakistan. Here, a much more organized force, the armed forces want to remain the decisive factor, as far as the relations with neighbours are concerned. As Ufa declaration did not specify the role of armed forces, it was opposed.

Editorial Hence the new declaration has said that the modalities will be worked out by the foreign secretaries and others from the foreign ministries, the NSA level talks will continue simultaneously. Now Pakistan has appointed a retired army man as NSA. Let us hope the NSAs will ensure that no terrorist group, particularly in Pakistan is allowed to undertake activities that disrupt the process of dialogue. Before the visit of Sushma Swaraj to Islamabad, the National Security Advisors of the two countries clandestinely had a meeting in Bangkok. Only after four hours meeting, it was told to the Media and the world. Why such secrecy? Modi government needs to explain. Was there any third party that dictated and facilitated this meeting? The joint statement of the two foreign

Party Units Can Greet CPI on 90th Foundation Day NEW AGE is glad to introduce a column from the first issue of December 2015 to provide opportunity to Party Branches and other party units as well as individual party members/ cadres and leaders to extend greetings to the party on the occasion of the 90th Foundation Day of the CPI. Your greetings should not be more than fifty words in the following format: Greetings from Branch/any other Party Unit/ or individual. Post/ Taluk/ Dist/ State Secretary of Unit/ or individual For one insertion, you have to send Rs 1,000 either by M.O. or Draft to NEW AGE Weekly along with the matter. You can transfer money through bank account as well: NEW AGE Weekly, A/c 1033004759, Central Bank of India, Press Area, New Delhi110002. IFSC code CBINO280306. With photograph it will be Rs 1,500 per insertion. So rush your insertion with DD or MO. New Age Weekly

ministers had nothing new that was not attempted earlier. All the ten issues including terrorism and Jammu and Kashmir were taken up in the earlier phase of bilateral talks and even separate groups were formed to discuss and resolve each issue. On the issue of Gigit and Siachin, good advance was reported. During that period too we had asserted that taking up all complicated issues together may not be of much help. Rather difficulties in one segment may affect the entire process of dialogue. It will be more appropriate that concrete confidence building measures for the people of the two countries are given priority. Promoting people to people contact should get top most priority. Promoting cultural and literary contacts along with several such others also be given priority. These confidence building measures must lead to establish trade and other economic relations. Once the confidence is restored, it will pave way for talks on much more complicated and complex issues. India and China did it almost three decades back. When they decided to resume dialogue, top most priority was given to Confidence Building Measures and exchange of delegations that pave the way for taking up other issues. Today China and India have very close economic relations and have much considerable advance at the highest level talks on border dispute. They also cooperate in multinational bodies like BRICS and Shanghai Organisation. India and Pakistan could take lessons from this experiment.

CPI Rally to Fight... From Front Page were meant to help rich people to become richer and Mamta for her failure to protect women from attack against their dignity. She has not been able to contain crime especially by her own TMC musclemen. On the other hand, the TMC has let loose a reign of terror besides misrule. The leaders while addressing the gathering pointed out that the BJP has cunningly saffronised administration and c o n s t i t u t i o n a l institutions within eighteen months of its coming in power at the centre. BJP has also failed to take stern attitude against murder of rationalists during last two years by the organizations affiliated to RSS, they observed. The

massive gathering of thousands of people came out in support of the call issued by the CPI to overthrow BJP from centre and TMC in the state. TMC has become the symbol of terror and an organization of extortionists. Since the rally was organized on December 6, the leaders had given a clarion call to throw out communalism from the country. They also called to push out terror raj of TMC. S. Sudhakar Reddy, Gurudas Dasgupta, Prabodh Panda, former state secretary of CPI, Manju Kumar Mazumdar, secretariat members Swapan Banerjee, Himangshu Das and Santosh Rana asked the CPI members, sympathizers and people at large to organize and consolidate strength to

fight terror of TMC in the state and BJP’s communalism at the national level. On the eve of 90th anniversary of CPI, the rally has proved that the party is still not only alive but also able to organize the masses across the country to rise against the onslaught of the BJP as well as the TMC as both are actively trying to demolish democratic rights of people and the structure of the state. Sudhakar Reddy said that BJP has been engaged in patronizing the corporate sector and trying also to divide the country on the basis of religion, caste and creed. He said prime mnister Narendra Modi did not utter a single word when rationlists Narendra Davholkar, Com Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi On Page 12

3

December 13-19, 2015

Centre Must Send Help to TN Flood Victims “The regions of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and a part of Andhra Pradesh have been seriously affected by the heavy rainfall, and consequent floods. It occurred along with North-West monsoon. The tragedy was unprecedented,” said Communist Party of India national council secretary D Raja while speaking in a short duration discussion in the house on the damage caused due to North-West monsoon rain and floods in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Elaborating on the tragedy, he said, “The Chennai city stands isolated from the rest of the country. Airport remains closed; no train service from Chennai; no bus service from Chennai; schools, colleges remain closed; exams have been postponed and officegoers do not go to office. The dimensions of the devastation for Chennai has been massive. The districts around Chennai, like Kaddalur, Kanchipuram and Thiruvalluvar have been worst affected. Along with it, Puducherry and the whole coastal regions have been affected badly. Talking about the huge destruction of property that has left a major section of the population facing survival issues, CPI leader said, “The standing crops are totally damaged. Paddy, banana, cotton, all still the fields, got destroyed. Due to the floods, thousands of acres of standing crops got submerged. People have lost their houses and all their essential goods, even the everyday utensils to cook and eat food. They have become totally pauperized.” Cautioning the house, he said, “It is a very sad and grave situation. During the discussion itself in the house, I got SMS which says, “Anna,

I am watching the Rajya Sabha proceedings. Tambaram and Manimangalam area people are waiting for rescue and food.” “Tambaram is next to the airport. This outcry, this appeal, this pleading is coming from all parts of Tamil Nadu, particularly, from the coastal areas. And now what is the requirement, the short-term requirement,” he asked while looking for ways to salvage the situation. “People need food. People need safe drinking water. People need relief and people need medical care. I do not know when water is to recede, and

what the health hazards will be in the aftermath of the tragedy. I am not able to foresee it. There can be many health hazards which people would be facing. Health care becomes an imperative need and hence, an important issue. It is true that the state government and the Central Government are trying to help people out but it is not enough. There growing need for more. And the Central Government will have to extend all possible help to the state government,” he said and added that according to the minister, the Central team was there, and a part of the team is still stranded

there. Another Central team must be sent to make a fresh assessment of the damages and losses to provide adequate respite

to the people in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and in Andhra Pradesh. In Andhra Pradesh, they are saying that no Central team has reached so far, and such a team must be sent there at the earliest,” said D Raja as he asked directly, “What is preventing you? A central team can be dispatched at

any time, and it is good that you have deployed the Army, the Navy and security forces to help the people, to rescue their lives. But it is not enough. And the damages, which are of such a vast nature, need to be assessed. A

Central team should go, and on the basis of their report, the Central Government must extend all financial support, economic support, to the state governments of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh. It is also the responsibility of the state governments.” Speaking about the absence of preventive measures, he said, “We have been witnessing such disasters in many regions in the country. Earlier, there was the devastation in Bihar when the Kosi River started changing its course causing damages in the way from wherever it was flowing. Then there was the n a t u r a l calamity in Uttarakhand. We saw what happened in cloud bursts and resultant damages in Jammu and Kashmir. It keeps on happening. Some years back, we saw what happened in Odisha. Our country has started facing such natural calamities almost at regular intervals. The government at the centre must share the responsibility with respective state governments.” He asked the Union

government to be liberal and realistic to extend its financial support to the suffering state governments. Making a concrete proposal, the CPI leader said, “We met the prime minister Narendra Modi on November 27 and made a request to him stating, “We request you that the recent rain havoc in Tamil Nadu may be declared as a calamity of severe nature. This will enable MPs belonging to Tamil Nadu and also MPs from other states to contribute to the government of Tamil Nadu from their MPLADS funds. The government may also examine to relax the maximum limit of Rs.50 lakh, a sum that the MPs can allot from their funds, to Rs.1 crore, as a special case, for Tamil Nadu. These are all immediate measures that the Central government must take. As long-term measures, because South India happens to be in the tropical zone of the globe, we have to confront the impact of climate change and have to concentrate our efforts on protecting water bodies, rivers and forests.” While summing up, D Raja pointed out, “We will have to see how our National Disaster Management can be s t r e a m l i n e d , strengthened and professionalized to face such situations. It may be pointed out that there are no adequate facilities to face the challenges. The National Disaster Management Force must be strengthened more.”

New Age Weekly

4

December 13-19, 2015

‘Guns Cannot Silence Words’ “Guns cannot silence the words; because words have final answer for the intolerance of the gun,” said C N Jayadevan, leader of the Communist Party of India in the house taking part in the discussion on growing incidences of intolerance in the country. He said, “Sangh Pariwar should understand that guns cannot prevail over words. After independence, on January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead. It was since the barbaric killing of the Mahatma, the intolerance of the Sangh Pariwar has come into light. It has always tried to silence those who did not agree with them, especially ideologically. On November 30, 2015, our prime minister, while addressing the international seminar in Paris, said that it has been in the limited interest of only few people that the natural resources of the poor third world are getting exploited. It is not justified. But I would interpret this apparently noble sentiment as intolerance.

You talk about the advanced countries, exploiting the poor in the third world, but what about the rich capitalists of this very country who are exploiting the poor of our own country?” Speaking in the house, he asked, “Can we find out the caste and religion of the capitalists of this country? Our friend from Bengal here, an eminent historian, named several freedom fighters and asked us, whether they had any religion or caste. I am going to read the list of names of the capitalists in this country. Tata Birla, Goyanka, Dalmia, Aravind, Mafatlal, Godrej, Hinduja, Ambani, Adani. What is there caste or religion? We are not aware of it. But the fact remains that they are exploiting the poor of this country who constitute the majority. They are the monopoly capitalists, and do not deserve to be tolerated. At the same time intolerance should not be shown to any caste and religious groups,” the CPI leader told the gathering.

General Assembly Meeting of WFDY The 19 th general assembly meeting of WFDY was held from November 9 to 12, 2015 at Havana in Cuba which was attended by 138 delegates of 90 organisations from more than 45 countries. The general assembly is the highest body of World Federation of Democratic Youth. All China Youth Federation and some other youth organisations which are not member organisations participated

as observers in this assembly. Only the full member organisations have the right to participate in the deliberations and have the right to elect and to get elected. World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) was established in 1945. The main object of WFDY is to fight against imperialism, fascism, racism and fundamentalism and also to mobilize the youth and students all over the

Greetings on 90th Foundation Day of CPI Hardev Arshi, Ex-MLA Secretary Punjab State Council Communist Party of India

Maharashtra State Electricity Workers Federation (AITUC) Nagpur

V. Radhakrishnan 15,New Century Colony Ambattur, Chennai-600 058 (Tamil Nadu)

Rush Your Greetings w i t h Rs. 1,000 & With Photo Rs. 1,500 New Age Weekly

R Thirumalai world. More than 200 youth and student organisations belonging to various countries are the member organisations of WFDY. All India Students Federation is the founder member of WFDY. The left and democratic youth and students organisations which are fighting against imperialism and fundamentalism can become the members of WFDY. WFDY is fighting against war and for lasting world peace. In this meeting, R Thirumalai, general secretary and Girish Phonde participated on behalf of AIYF from India. The general assembly began with international anthem. The office bearers of WFDY namely the secretary general, president and other five vice-presidents were elected as presidium of the general assembly. On behalf of the leadership of WFDY, the secretary general submitted the political and organisational reports to the assembly. There were in-depth discussions on the report by the delegates. After thorough discussions and proper

amendments the political resolution was unanimously adopted. The auditing commission submitted its report on financial expenditure of WFDY. The report was also unanimously accepted by the assembly. Finally there was election for new general council members. The total number of general council is 35, seven members from each region. There are five regions which are Asia Pacific, Africa, Middle East, Europe and North America and Latin America and Caribbean. The general council of 35 members was unanimously elected. Also, five headquarters vice-presidents and five

regional vice-presidents and five regional coordinators were elected. AIYF has been elected as general council member. Finally UJC, Cuba and Cyprus were unanimously elected as World Secretary General and World President. On the final day, November 12 evening there was a concluding ceremony in which ministers of the Cuban government participated. It was also unanimously decided to host World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) in Moscow in 2017. A political declaration after deliberations was also adopted.

5

December 13-19, 2015

125th Birth Anniversary Celebrations of Dr B R Ambedkar

Indian Constitution Stands for Equality: CPI Taking part in the debate on Commitment to India’s Constitution as part of the 125th birth anniversary celebrations of Dr B R Ambedkar, CPI national council secretary D Raja said in the Rajya Sabha that history has been witnessing many twists and turns. A man who burned down Manusmriti emerged as the prime architect of Indian Constitution with tremendous contributions from a galaxy of leaders in the Constituent Assembly. Today, those who demand a ban on the book by Dr Ambedkar The Riddles of Rama and Krishna, those who agitated against the naming of the Marathwada University after Dr Ambedkar, those who appointed a commission even without a formal resolution of Parliament to review the Constitution, those who passed a resolution in their party in favour of presidential form of government are affirming their commitment to the Constitution and to Dr Ambedkar.

framework of this human habitation. They are outcastes; they are untouchables! It is claimed in the name of Manusmriti. But what does Dr Ambedkar say? Dr Ambedkar says, “I remember the days when politically minded Indians resented the expression ‘the people of India”, they preferred the expression ‘the Indian nation’. I am of the opinion that in believing that we are a nation, we are cherishing a great delusion.”

Ambedkar was very clear that any government should be a responsible one rather than a stable one.

Dr Ambedkar further says, “How can people divided into several thousands of castes be a nation? The sooner we realize that we are not as yet a nation in the social and psychological sense of the world, the better for us.” It is true the

He quoted former President of India and former chairman of Rajya Sabha KR Narayanan, who called Dr Ambedkar a compassionate rebel. Dr Ambedkar accepted Buddhism only because it is a compassionate way of living. He supported Arun Jaitley who said: “India is not a theocracy, it is a democracy.” In the same vein Dr Ambedkar had said that our government is “the government is of the people, by the people, for the people, it should be with malaise towards none but charity for all.” Raja again quoted K R Narayanan, who had said: “If Mahatma Gandhi gave moral and mass dimension to the freedom struggle, Jawaharlal Nehru gave an economic and social dimension and Dr Ambedkar gave a challenging social and democratic vision.” That means Ambedkar did not succumb to pressures of the situation which prevailed during the making of our Constitution. He wanted that India should emerge as a Democratic Republic and should not adopt presidential form of government. Even when the question was posed, whether the government should remain a stable government or responsible government,

Protecting Interests of SC/ST Dr Ambedkar was very clear and is on record saying that he went to the Constituent Assembly to protect the interests of the scheduled castes. He said: “I came to the Constituent Assembly with no greater aspiration than to safeguard the interests of the scheduled castes.” But today many people, particularly from the government side, say, “nation is our religion, constitution is the holy book, modern nation, etc” What do we understand by ‘nation’? Quoting Thiruvalluvar he said that a nation is one which is free from hunger; free from illness and which has no enemies. That is the ideal nation. People are born equal. But how come in the name of a holy book, it is claimed that one section of people is born from the head of almighty; one section is born from the shoulder of almighty; one section is born from the thighs and one section is born from the feet. The scheduled castes and scheduled tribes do not find themselves within the

Himalayas is part of India, the Indian ocean touches and kisses India at the south. There are also the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, rivers like Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Krishna and Cauvery. But this alone is not India. India is people and it matters how we treat our people, how we treat our SCs and STs. Raja demanded social justice in the name of Dr Ambedkar. It should be noted here that a young man living somewhere in Shirdi, who was having an Ambedkar tone in his mobile phone, was lynched to death. Dalit children are burnt alive. Can we call ours a civilized nation? Can we call ours a civilized society?

Comparing Marx and Buddha Saying that there was a big debate whether Dr Ambedkar used the words ‘secular’ and ‘socialist’. Raja said that Dr Ambedkar was a great economist. Because he happened to be a great economist, he had great appreciation for another great economist, whose name is Karl Marx. He quoted Ambedkar: “I was a professor of economics. I have spent a great deal of time in studying Karl Marx, communism and all that. Having read both about Buddha and Karl Marx, I am getting interested in the ideologies of both Buddha and Karl Marx and a comparison between them just forces itself on me.” Asserting

that

Ambedkar strongly believed that compassion of Buddhism can be carried forward through Communism only, through the thoughts of Karl Marx, Raja said that had Ambedkar been alive today, both would have been fighting together in the interests of the SCs and STs. Had Dr Ambedkar been here, he would not have supported the Hindu Raj, the way it is being talked about. He had said: “If Hindu Raj does become a fact, it will, no doubt, be the greatest calamity for this country. The Hindu Maha Sabha plan is no way to unity. On the contrary, it is sure block to progress. The slogan of Hindu Maha Sabha’s President, Hindustan for

Hindus is not merely arrogant but is an errant nonsense.”

Communalists Speak Like Hitler Dr Ambekdar also attacked the Muslim communalists and warned that both Hindu communalists and Muslim communalists are speaking the language of Hitler. Referring to Arun Jaitley’s speech on 1930s history of Germany, Raja said even the present government is targeting communists. Anybody can criticize communists but nobody can question the integrity, patriotism and nationalism for which the communists sacrificed their lives. Coming back to the issue of socialism, he said that we do not discuss the economic thoughts of Dr Ambedkar who had said about states and minorities: By making socialism into the foundation of Indian Constitution, the plan has two features, one, what proposes state socialism in important fields of economic life and the second, special feature of the plan is that it does not leave establishment of state socialism to the will of the Legislature and Executive.”. He summed up by asking when we pay tributes to Dr Ambedkar, when we celebrate the Constitution Day, whether the government is ready to come out concrete legislative measures. The Congress Party had deviated from the Directive Principles of State Policy and adopted neo-liberal policies. Time has come for the government to extend the policy of reservation to private sector, which takes everything from the government and the nationalised banks. But On Page 6 New Age Weekly

6

December 13-19, 2015

Indian Constitution Stands for... From Page 5 they do not follow a nondiscriminatory recruitment policy. Now they must abide by the law of the land. The law of the land is reservation for SCs and STs. Also the atrocities against the SCs and STs are on the increase, and the law, which is pending, needs to be passed immediately. Even reservation in promotions will have to be accepted and passed. Dr. Ambedkar fought for gender equality. I don’t think it is only about women’s reservation, but women’s reservation is one of the measures for which Parliament should pass the law and it should stand by the policies and principles of Dr. Ambedkar who had said: If we continue to deny it for long, we will only be putting our democracy in peril. His message intended for the 20th century India is just as relevant for the 21st century Britain.”

Situation in Nepal Taking aprt in the discussion on the situation in Nepal and the state of indo-Nepal relations, D Raja said that he salutes the people of Nepal, who fought against

monarchy led by, particularly, the Left in Nepal and brought an end to the rule of monarchy there. Now the people of Nepal are struggling to emerge as a democracy, as a modern republic in the contemporary history. We should salute the people of Nepal for this historic change, for their heroic struggle against monarchy. As India, we have a very good relationship with Nepal. There are perceptions that India did not welcome or did not take a positive stand towards the adoption of Constitution by the Nepali people. There are perceptions that India is behind the blockade that is going on due to which the people of Nepal are not getting medicines, LPG, diesel and other essential commodities. Nepal being a land-locked country and it has age-old friendship with India, India should see that Nepal should not confront such a humanitarian crisis and they should get goods on time. The external affairs minister may India is not behind such disruptions, not behind such blockade. It is not India which is responsible for

New Age Special Number Advertisement Tariff Full Page

: Rs. 50,000

Half Page

: Rs. 25,000

Quarter Page Colour

: Rs. 15,000

First Half Page

: Rs. 50,000

Last Full Page

: Rs. 100,000

Multi-Colour

: Double Charges

Normal Full Page : Rs. 25,000 Normal Half Page : Rs. 15,000 New Age Weekly

this. But there is a perception. If that is so, the government must allow international and national media, to go to our borders and report to the world what is true, what is actually going on there on our borders; why the so-called blockade continues and why the people of Nepal have to suffer. It is true that China influences in shaping our friendship, our attitude towards Nepal. The same thing happened in the case of Sri Lanka. We were told China would come

into our theatre — Indian Ocean is our theatre — if we would not support Mr Rajapaksa. We don’t support the Government there in Sri Lanka. We are told that either China will come in or Pakistan will come in or Israel will come in. Let us not be scared of the so-called Chinese bogey. China is also a friendly country. We have border with China and border talks with China are taking place at a higher level. Our cooperation with China is improving. In the case of Sri Lanka, we let down the Tamil cause. We let them down as far as protecting the interest of Tamil people and providing justice to them. Still they are suffering. There is no justice for them. The UNHRC has said that there should be a credible enquiry into war crimes and genocide. There also the Chinese factor was used. Here also the Chinese factor is being used to shape our policy towards Nepal. India should follow and pursue an independent foreign policy. India should take a moral political position.

India is India. For everything else, we say that India is India. But when it comes to Nepal, when it comes to Sri Lanka, where is India? We should be proud of taking an independent foreign policy position towards Nepal and Sri Lanka. Lastly, Nepal has borders with our various states. They include Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. When the House passed the Indo-Bangladesh Boundary Agreement, it was passed unanimously and there was consultation with the state governments of Bengal, Assam and other North-Eastern state governments. When it comes to Nepal, the state governments bordering Nepal must also be taken into confidence. When it comes to Sri Lanka, the state government of Tamil Nadu must be taken into confidence. Then only can we say that our foreign policy is formed on the basis of national consensus. Our foreign policy should not be treated as a monopoly domain of the government of the day.

On ‘Occupy UGC’ Agitation Raising the issue of ongoing ‘occupy UGC’ agitation by students and teachers in Delhi With the permission of the chair, Raja said that the students and teachers are all conducting a united struggle outside the UGC since 21st October, 2015. This is a very serious issue. On October 7, the UGC issued a circular which communicated that nonNET scholarship, so far received by the Research Scholars, will be herewith scrapped. Ironically, this regressive decision of the UGC has been taken on the basis of a report given by a committee which was exactly asked to discuss the ways and means to enhance the scholarship.

He said that instead of enhancing the same, the UGC issued a circular taking back the non-NET fellowship. This is a very serious issue. The students are agitating. The teachers are agitating. ‘Occupy UGC’ movement has captured the imagination of students across the country and the students, while they were taking a march from Jantar Mantar towards Parliament, were beaten up. Even woman students were manhandled and were severely beaten up. Why do you attack the students? The students are asking for justice. They are asking for their rights. Instead of addressing their concerns, you unleash police attack and lathi-charge. This is atrocious. Whoever might have done that must be held responsible and accountable for this unjust attack on the student community. The students are now asking the government to restore the non-NET scholarship. The Government should increase and expand the non-NET scholarship, and there should not be any criterion which excludes the students from the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the OBCs. There is another serious issue. Now, the WTO negotiations are going on and our government is participating in the negotiations where higher education is being treated as a tradable commodity and as a service. If that is accepted by the government of India, all foreign universities will come over here and open their shops. What will happen to the quality of our higher education? What will happen to equal access to education for our students? These are all very serious issues. The government should address these concerns and should restore the non-NET scholarship.

7

December 13-19, 2015

Rallies Against Communal Offensive The seven left parties including CPI, CPI(M), AIFB, RSP, CPI-ML(Liberation), SUCI (Communist) and CGPI held a massive protest march in the national capital on December 6, 2015 against the communal offensive by RSS-BJP and its affiliated organisations. The protest march started from Mandi House. Thousands of workers, supporters, women, men, teachers, professors, students, youth and others chanted slogans against RSS-BJP communal offensive. They were also shouting slogans against demolition of Babri Masjid by RSS-BJP and its affiliated organisations. The programme in the national capital was part of a week-long (December 1-6) nationwide protest campaign at the call of the left parties. The protest march when it reached Jantar Mantar got converted into a public meeting. They were addressed by CPI, national council secretary D Raja, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, AIFB secretary G Devrajan, SUCI(C) politburo member Krishna Chakravarthy, CPIML(Liberation) politburo member Kavita Krishnan, RSP secretary, Shatrujit Singh and CGPI spokesperson Prakash Rao. Addressing the rally CPI national council secretary D Raja condemned the RSS-BJP communal offensive and said that the country is facing the biggest-ever challenge to its national integration from the communal ideology of the Sangh Parivar. This is being supported by the present BJP-NDA government at the Centre. The government which has miserably failed to solve any of the burning problems of the masses wants to divert the attention of the people from price rise, corruption, black money, unemployment, privatisation of education, etc. He said that the BJPRSS is spreading communal hatred and intolerance which are evident from the murder of Akhlaq in Dadri, murder of Dabholkar,

Pansare and Kalburgi. The CPI and other left parties have always been fighting against the RSS communal offensive and ideology. We will not allow them to break the national integration and unity of the country. Addressing the protesters CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury strongly condemned the communal hatred perpetuated by RSS-BJP. These anti-national forces are not only disturbing the peace and communal harmony of the country but also causing a serious danger to scientific temperament in the country. He said people of the country are being looted because of price hike but Modi and his government along wit

Left party leaders leading the demonstrators in Delhi the RSS are attacking the communal harmony and national integration of the country. Other Left leaders who spoke also strongly condemned the tactics of BJP-Modi government giving full patronage to not only to communal policies but also diverting people’s attention from their real problems. They demanded immediate arrest of murderers of Govind Pansare, Dabholkar and Kalburgee. Among those leading the march were CPI national executive member Binoy Viswam, secretary, Delhi state unit of the CPI, Dhrendra Sharma, assistant

secretary Prof Dinesh Varshney, secretary, CPI(M), KM Tiwari, secretary, AIFB, Dharmendra Kumar Verma and R K Sharma, secretary, SUCI (Communist).

Lucknow On the anniversary of Babri Masjid Demolition, on December 6, 2015, large number of people observed it as the day of communal harmony and tolerance, in which both the communities took part in their own way. The CPI along with other left parties brought out an Awareness March in support of communal harmony and in defence of democracy and our

Constitution. Among the other parties who joined the march were CPI(M), AIFB, SUCI, NFIW, AIDWA, AISA, Dalit Shoshan Mukta Manch and others. The march started from Ravindralaya in Charbagh and passing through Husainganj as it reached Gandhi Pratima, the march culminated into a public meeting. All the speaker attacked the BJP led government at the centre and appealed to the masses to get united against the communal, divisive forces with the slogan of communal harmony. To spread the awareness of cultural unity, IPTA performed a play at Gandhi Pratima.

All India Resistance Camp Begins

WTO Must Not Enter Education Sector: AISF DELHI: The week long all India Resistance Camp against the move of the Union government and the WTO-GATS to convert education into a tradable commodity started at Jantar Mantar here on December 7, 2015. The first day agitation was undertaken by the all India students federation. The entire camp is centered on the issue that education is a fundamental right of all. The AISF firmly believes that by making education into a tradable commodity it will be equivalent to any other service that is bought and sold in the market. This effectively will mean that only a small

Valiullah Khadri, Vishwajeet Kumar section of the elite of the society who possess the purchasing capacity will have access to education. The majority will be excluded. Such a move will lead to education and knowledge being

hegemonic by upper caste, class people. The AISF strongly condemns and rejects this irrational move by the Union Government. As protest, the AISF in solidarity with the AIFRTE conducted the protest meeting where Prof. Madhu prasad, DU, Ramesh

Patnaik, convener All India Resistance Camp, Prof Anil Sadagopal, member of the presidium, AIFRTE, Binoy Vishwam, former AISF leader and former minister in Left Front Government in Kerala, Amar Singh, DU SC-ST employees union, Vishwajeet, general secretary, AISF addressed the meeting. All the s p e a k e r s articulated the impending danger once the WTO gets entry, which is reflective of the corporate fascist n e x u s entrenched in the institutionalized structures of the state. New Age Weekly

8 Just before the fourth congress of the CPI, in 1956 the Party brought out number of “PARTY FORUMS” for discussion numbering about ten. In these “PARTY FORUMS”, almost all the party leaders either independently or in groups put forward their arguments. For example, FORUM No.2 contains (1) A critique of the political resolution of the central committee by Bhowani Sen (2) Some points on the June C.C Resolution by S.S. Yusuf, P.C. Joshi, P. Shrimali and O.P. Sangal (together) (3) An outline for a Party policy by Ravi Narayan Reddy (4) Note on C.C. Resolution and Com. Ajoy’s explanation document by P. Sundarayya, M. Basava Punnaiah and Hanumantha Rao (together). FORUM No. 3 contained (1) For a Radical Orientation in Party Policy by K S Shukla, S Das Gupta, S D Tiwari, J Rai, J B Singh and R N Singh (together) (2) C.C. Resolution and a new Tactical line by Sunil Sen (3 ) Second Five Year Plan – Baba Gurumukh Singh Ludhiana 4. On the political situation in India and tasks of the working class – some party units in Aligarh. These above mentioned materials are only few of the lot, more cannot be cited because of lack of space. In fact, in all about ten PARTY FORUM booklets were brought out. The FORUMS were brought out to facilitate the discussions within the party. In these FORUMS, there were reflected three distinct political trends inside the party at that time. Party had several differences of opinion on many issues. The inner Party controversies became sharper after the defeat in Andhra Assembly Elections of 1955. The leadership expected the CPI to emerge as a majority party and form a Communist Ministry there New Age Weekly

December 13-19, 2015

CPI Evolves Through in Andhra Pradesh. But what the Party received was a shocking defeat. This set-back of the Party strengthened the left sectarian’s arguments. In June, 1955, Central Committee meeting adopted a draft resolution for discussion and for putting in the fourth Congraess of the Party. Discussion continued at all levels of the Party for about nine months. In these Forums there emerged clear leftsectarian trends. The other section pressed for a political alliance between the CPI and the Indian National Congress.

The fourth Party Congress The fourth party congress was held at Palghat (Kerala) from April 19 to 29, 1956. There were sharp controversies, arguments and counter arguments. The left sectarians and the rightists put forward their arguments forcefully. The fourth Congress however could not bring about a change in the party programme due to the resistance from a section of the leadership. In the earlier meetings they had decided to make amendments to the Madurai Programme of the Party. In the Central Committee meeting of September 1955, amendments were finalized and adopted and got printed as document No.1, but these amendments to the programme were not taken up for placing before the 4th Congress to avoid a split or any such problem. This situation continued inside the party till the split of the party in 1964. So the Madurai programme continued for some more time. The party congress adopted detailed resolution on the linguistic reorganization

of the provinces. In this period, Party conducted mass movements all over the country. The party had a major role in the countrywide Satyagraha and agitations for the liberation of Goa and Pondicherry in the years of 1954-56. Palghat congress declared that party would oppose concessions to foreign capital, to the monopolies and their anti-democratic policies. CPI also put forward an immediate programme to defend national freedom, re-build national economy and strengthen democracy in all walks of life. The Palghat congress elected a 39- member Central Committee and they re-elected Ajoy Ghosh as a general secretary. The ninemember Polit Bureau included besides general secretary Ajoy Ghosh, S.A. Dange, C. Rajeswara Rao, EMS Namboodiripad, Bhupesh Gupta, P. S u n d a r a y y a , Ramamoorthy, H.S. Surjeet and Dr. Z.A. Ahmed. The 20th Congress of the CPSU took place just prior to the fourth congress of the CPI in 1956. This 20th Congress of the CPSU came out against the cult of personality. This congress of the CPSU helped the CPI to fight the sectarianism inside CPI.

Second General Election - 1957 In the second general elections, the CPI registered an immense success. It emerged as a second political force in the country. CPI contested in 122 seats (Lok Sabha) and won 29+1 seats. Votes polled was 1,21,66,150+3,61,661. The votes party secured was doubled in this election compared to the first general election. This time Party won some of the prestigious

seats. In Tamilnadu, Party won two prestigious seats, Madurai and Coimbatore and the candidates were K T K Thangamani and Parvathi Krishnan respectively. The prestigious Bombay parliamentary seat was won by S A Dange, where the electorate was predominantly the working class. The most outstanding results were registered in the Kerala Assembly Elections. Even before the second general elections many municipalities and the Malabar district board were under the leadership of the Communist Party, they were managing the affairs of these organizations better than before. There were two panchayats under the control of CPI that won

By P K Balakrishnan became the main opposition group in both the houses of Parliament. In the elections of the state assemblies, the CPI scored the most significant victory and the party succeeded in ousting the Indian National Congress from the government. The CPI formed a communist led government in its place. In the second general elections, communist votes increased compared to the first general elections. In Kerala, CPI won 60 seats of its own and together with independents, there were five more winning candidates whom the CPI

90th Anniversary of CPI-VIII awards from Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru administration of panchayats. These experiences in Kerala had made it clear that the communists are capable of not only uniting the people for agitation, but it can also take over and run the state administration successfully. This helped the party in the second general elections in Kerala. The results of the second general elections encouraged the comrades and the general public for further consolidation and hard work. The Party emerged as the second largest Party in the country in terms of seats and votes polled. Party

supported. Thus, the party had total control with 65 seats out of 126 assembly seats. Credit for the Kerala victory should go to M N Govindan Nair. He had started his political life as a Gandhian in the Gandhi Ashram and had contacts with Nair Service Society also. Later, he joined the CPI. The hard core of the CPI was Ezhavas. Actually the Nair community and Ezhava community helped the CPI to come power in the second general election of 1957. It has been mentioned earlier that the communist party emerged as the biggest group in the assembly and formed a new government sworn in on April 5, 1957. It was headed by veteran

9

December 13-19, 2015

Achievements, Bottlenecks communist leader Com. E M S Namboodiripad and was composed of T V Thomas, C Achutha Menon, K C George, Joseph Mundassery, Dr. A R Menon, K P Gopalan, V R Krishna Iyer, T A Majeed, P K Chathan and K R Gauri. It has to be noted that the Kerala State Government was the first communist government which came to power through ballet box in India. Earlier to this, the first instance was in South America, in Gayana, Dr. Cheddy Jagan came to power through ballet box, in 1953. This Kerala assembly election proved the theory that peaceful transition to communism is possible in India. This has helped the

struggle called “liberation struggle” against the Communist Ministry by violating all forms of parliamentary democracy.

The fifth Congress This extraordinary Congress of the Party was held at Amritsar from April 6-13, 1958. It was in this congress the present three-tier organizational structure came into existence, that is national council, central executive and the central secretariat, similarly at state level and district level also. It was in this congress that party decided to make the party, a mass party. A new constitution was drafted and presented by Dr. G. Adhikari. In this Congress Party dropped the

the perspective of the possibility of a peaceful transition to socialism in India, provided the pre conditions are built by a powerful mass movement and mass struggles. In this period in 1957 there was an international conference in Moscow, in which 12 socialist countries participated. They issued a declaration known as “twelve party declaration”. This declaration analysed the character of the situation of the world, the advance of socialism and national liberation movements and the weakening of imperialism etc. This declaration also hailed the decisions of the 20th congress of the CPSU as opening “a new stage in the world communist

ongoing processes and the fact that the CPI was ready to adapt to the new realities. This extra ordinary fifth congress of 1958 gave a call for expanding into new areas as defender of the people and for peace and national independence. For the first time, after the decision of the 3-tier system, they elected a 107- member national council, and Ajoy Ghosh was re-elected as general secretary of the Party. Party also made an important change in the Party emblem and flag. The star with its five points was removed. The flag displayed a crossed hammer and sickle in white against a red background. After the Amritsar session of the Party

Bhowani Sen

Bhupesh Gupta

Ajoy Ghosh

S A Dange

CPI to make changes in its political line. The performance of this first communist ministry headed by Namboodiripad was a big success in many fields. The state party at that period was headed M N Govindan Nair. Under his dynamic and flexible leadership, the party coordinated its mass activities and carried forward successfully.

formulation of the “dictatorship of the Proletariat” a new phrase “power of the working class” was added.

movement and pushing ahead its further development along Marxist-Leninist lines”.

certain very important developments took place inside our country as well as outside of our nation. The most important was the offensive launched by the Congress with the help of arch-reactionary communal and casteist forces of anti-communism against the legally elected Communist government of Kerala. This legally elected government was dismissed by the central government on July 31, 1959 forms one of the darkest and disgraceful chapters in the history of Indian parliamentary democracy.

The reactionaries inside the Congress could not accept or digest the popularity and growth of the party. So the Congress leadership joined hands with the reactionary, communal and casteist forces on a platform of anticommunism and started their anti-communist

As usual in this Congress also there were both left sectarian and right reformist political trends. Each attacked the main draft resolution from their separate political angles. The left sectarian trend dismissed the danger of right reaction as a “phoney” danger and said that the Congress government was the only, and the main enemy. The rightist trend posed right reaction as the main enemy, relegating the fight against the Congress government. It is in this congress, Party accepted

Our Congress of Amritsar unanimously adopted a resolution welcoming this twelve Party declaration. The most important point that the party brought out in this session was that a right reactionary trend was emerging as powerful force and was operating inside the ruling party. Even outside the party, it was an independent force. Besides the usual formulations to the party documents, this congress presented several fresh concepts reflecting the

The democratic forces of our country rallied in support of the CPI and condemned the dismissal

unequivocally. Our party, CPI, launched an effective nation-wide campaign on this issue. This campaign had a profound long term impact on the Indian political scene. On August 3, 1959, very big protest rallies and demonstrations were held all over India. The biggest demonstration was in Calcutta. A large section in the Congress itself was resentful on this dismissal action of the central government. In the Congress parliamentary meeting, some members openly voiced their opposition. S. A. Dange, leader of the Communist group in Parliament exposed and denounced the government on this issue in the Parliament.

Achievements of the Party led Govt in Kerala Despite all the obstructions and destructions by the vested interests, the Communist led ministry had c o m m e n d a b l e achievements for its credits in terms of fulfillment of electoral promises made by the party to the public. Despite all the limitations under the Constitution the Communist ministry in the course of 28 months of its existence, carried out or introduced a number of measures to improve the conditions of the working people of the state. The anti-eviction Act, the Debt Relief Act, the Education Bill, the Land Reform Bill, the increase in the salary of teachers, village officials and NGO’s, these are but some of the examples of the progressive measures the ministry had taken. The fixation of wages for the industrial workers and agricultural workers brought a far reaching relief to the working class. The result has been that On Page 12 New Age Weekly

10

December 13-19, 2015

Urgent Tasks for World Environment Meet

Chennai Echoes in Paris Conference The recent Chennai disaster due to rains and floods has found strong echoes in the world environment conference being held in Paris. The French foreign minister Laurent Fabius acknowledged that Chennai is yet another reminder to act decisively and immediately on world climate. Indian representative environment minister Prakash Javdekar at first refused to admit that the world climate had anything to do with Chennai disaster. But under pressure from Indian and world opinion, he had to admit the role of world climate in it, in addition to the local factors. Videos of Chennai floods were shown at the conference venue underlined the grimness of situation. The ‘local’ and ‘world’ factors actually reflect a tussle between the developed and the developing countries. Stressing on local factors leads to holding the concerned country responsible, but if world factors are accepted as the cause or among the causes, then the developed countries of the west are to shoulder the main blame. They consequently have to agree to compensate the losses. This struggle at finer level is not normally perceived by people.

World Climate Worsening Fast What is new in the climate change that should be disturbing to us? The Chennai devastation is the most destructive in the past century. More such disasters are waiting to happen. Much of it is due to the indiscriminate and unplanned construction in and around the city. And that is the story of almost all the cities and areas. No outlet for escape has been left there and elsewhere, leading to drowning of residential areas. Something similar happened during the New Age Weekly

‘tsunami’ a few years ago. We can avoid much of the damage if we protect natural barriers to natural disasters. At the same time, the world environment is rapidly deteriorating. Even if proper protections are created, one can not avoid, for example, storms and such other phenomena, which are growing in numbers and intensity. According to the Centre of Science and Environment (CSE), the floods in Chennai are the results of the climate change across the Indian subcontinent, ultimately relating with world climate. Unusual and the most unexpected weather changes are happening in the least expected places and times. Frequent floodings in Uttarakhand and Mandi (HP), repeated storms and floods in the coastal Andhra and other regions, increasing frequency of cloud-burst, landslides in the Western ghats, flooding in the Kashmir Valley, etc are only a few of other examples. Council for Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) has pointed out that in the last 14 years, India suffered 131 major flooding, 51 instances of storms, and major events of heat and cold waves and drought etc. According to ‘Germanwatch’, an environmental thinktank, India is among the 10 countries most affected by global rise in temperatures. In 2014 extreme environmental events led to a loss of 0.5 percent of the GDP. The events of man-

Anil Rajimwale made natural disasters are to be witnessed even in the advanced industrial countries. The British town of Carlisle suffered its own ‘Chennai’ almost simultaneously: it is under deep water. Many towns in Germany, France, Britain, Norway, Russia, Ukraine and other countries have recently been flooded. Europe and America were covered by deep snows in the recent times. Europe suffered waves of unusually dry spell and high temperatures this very year, resulting in many deaths. The number and frequency of storms and hurricanes has increased perceptibly in the US and Canada. Many towns and cities have been devastated, including New Orleans, Florida, San Francisco in both wet and dry spells.

Issues in Climate Conference The world leaders are yet again discussing the growing deterioration of world environment and climate change. United Nations Climate Change Conference 2015 (or UNCCC) is taking place in Paris from November 30 to December 11, this year. It is also known as CoP 21 or conference of parties, because it is the 21 st yearly meeting or conference of parties to the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is also known as CMP 11 or the 11th session of the Climate Meeting of Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The conference is being held in Paris as France is virtually the only country to decarbonise electricity production. It produces almost 90 percent of its electricity without

resorting to carbon sources. It is world’s second greatest nuclear power producer, after the US, producing 75 percent of its power from fission electric power stations. It has 59 nuclear power reactors. Among the issues at the centre of ecological debate is the effort to limit the rise in temperatures to 1.5 to 2 degrees C above the pre-industrial levels. The developing countries want 1.5 degree limit, while the developed countries generally favour the limit of two. An acrimonious issue is that of ‘loss and damage’, which scares the developed countries stiff. ‘Loss’ means losses of lives, species, seas gobbling up lands, loss of agriculture and so on. ‘Damage’ means destruction of the buildings, roads, infrastructure and so on. Many low-lying countries are actually disappearing under rising sea levels.

BASIC Countries at Loggerheads with West Brazil, South Africa, India and China (the ‘BASIC’ countries) have committed themselves to a comprehensive and balanced agreement at Paris. They insist that Paris conference must not deviate from differentiation principles, which are part and parcel of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). ‘Differentiation’ means differing responsibilities for of countries such as, for example, the developing and developed countries. The developing countries are being asked to undertake low carbonemission strategies. Without the developed countries doing their part,

this becomes almost impossible. There are serious differences with the developed countries on the questions of adaptation, damage, loss, and support actions. For example, if Chennai and Uttarakhand floods are related to world climate change, then countries like India must be compensated. The developed countries are not ready to listen. The BASIC countries have opposed the financial claims made by the OECD countries. In a press conference on 9 December, the Chinese representative rejected the OECD claim that 62 billion dollars were raised in 2014. India had already rejected the claim earlier. India opines that the new addition is only 2.2 billion dollars. India supported by other BASIC countries called for adaptation and finance along with ‘mitigation’. Mitigation means reduction of carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. ‘Adaptation’ means preparing for future climate changes through suitable steps such as proper drainage and/or adopting sturdier crops etc. The BASIC countries have demanded that the developed countries should progressively increase their contribution for the next five years and beyond, while the developing countries should make voluntary contributions. India has presented INDC or Intended Nationally Determined Contribution to the conference. It promises to reduce emission intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35% by 2030, compared with 2005. This is slightly higher than the US target On Page 14

11

December 13-19, 2015

Food Inflation to Remain High in 2016 The BJP-led Narendra Modi government is least bothered about the problems of general masses, who are reeling under high inflation. Its concern since it came to power has been the corporate houses and foreign institutional investors. The Modi government and its finance minister Arun Jaitley have been passing on all kinds of concessions, tax relief and dilution of norms to boost the kitties of the corporate houses. Every day one can find such procorporate reports in the media assuring the general public that good days are coming soon. But the reality is that the miseries of the masses are on the rise. A report in The Times of India (December 8, 2015) makes it clear how the food inflation will be in the New Year. Though it speaks about only the scarcity of arhar dal and the likelihood of this scarcity hurting the masses in 2016 also, it indicates the way the commodity prices will rise and how the profit-mongering traders will behave. In the name of tiding over another year of shortage in availability of pulses, particularly arhar dal, that triggered a crisis, private importers have informed the government of their intention to import nearly 5.5 million tonnes of pulses next year in comparison to about 4.5 million tonnes in 2015. The report further says that the government will also increase the import besides carrying out direct procurement from farmers to create a stock. Sources said private importers shared their preparedness with government at a meeting held in commerce ministry. Traders have been maintaining that the crisis was more acute this year, particularly in the case of arhar, as the availability in international market was also less and there was hardly any hoarding. However, officials did not buy this since prices of all pulses increased significantly including of chana dal and masoor. “The prices started shooting simultaneously. So, to prevent such a situation again, we have to import to create some stock and fix the stock limits,” said a top government official. Sources said that government has to prepare for shortage of arhar considering the fact that India produces 80 per cent of arhar globally. While the demand was about 35 lakh tonnes in 2015, domestic production was only 20 lakh tonnes and around 3.5 lakh tonnes was imported by private players. Next year the domestic production is likely to increase marginally to 21 lakh tonnes and import would be around 4.5 lakh tonnes against this year’s 3.5 lakh tonnes. According to industry projects there will still be about 9.5 lakh tonnes shortage. In that case government may have to reach out to people, inform them and also impress upon them to shift to other pulses rather than consume more arhar.

Fast Shrinking Indian Exports

Serious Climate Change Threat to India

India’s 350-billion dollar export market is fast shrinking. The export downtrend continued for 11 months in a row till October. There is no immediate sign of improvement. Making in India does not seem to make much sense at least for Indian exporters at this moment. With export orders shrunk and prices falling in the global market, India’s export manufacturers are in a quandary. The loss of exports during this financial year could be close to 80-90 billion dollars. The export earnings could at best reach 270 billion dollars. This could mean a massive loss of production and jobs in the export sector. The country would be lucky if it ends 2015-16 with a 20 per cent loss of export earnings compared to the last year, says a IPA report.

India’s carbon emissions constitute only a minuscule portion of the world total but the country will still face adverse effects of climate change, showed government data released recently. According to statistics on climate change released by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, India emits 1,146 million tonnes of carbon dioxide or 3.96 per cent of global emissions, but it faces significant changes to its weather pattern due to climate change. (Business Standard, November 28, 2015)

Unfortunately, around 45 per cent of India’s exports are from medium and small industries. The export woes may have already cost at least 200,000 people their jobs. India’s traditional export market in Europe and the US have set series of restrictions on imports

from India — from commodities, carpets and garments to petro-products and pharmaceuticals. India’s exports of goods shrank by nearly a quarter in September from a year ago. Although Indian economy is mostly driven by domestic demand, exports play an important role to cover about 70-75 per cent of its import cost. “We see no signs of revival in exports in the near future,” said Ajay Sahai, director general of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations. “We will be lucky if exports could even touch 265-270 billion dollars for the whole year.” For reasons best known to them policy makers don’t seem to be much concerned about the export decline since, thanks to massive drop in the global prices of crude oil — India’s largest item of import — the trade deficit has narrowed this year. Exports of India’s 20 major commodities showed a big drop. The country’s merchandise exports fell a steep 17.5 per cent annually to 21.35 billion dollars in October. Exporters want the government intervention immediately to salvage the situation. However, the government does not seem to be quite ready to intervene as it may not be quite sure about how to intervene within the WTO restrictions. Ironically, the government is also not doing what it could do more easily or subtly to restrict import dumping. It could at least curb the gold import immediately which is pumping out the precious foreign exchange to please the rich. Gold import is unnecessarily widening the trade deficit. Only a small portion of gold goes into the production of jewellery for export.

The report, which was made public days before the climate change meet in Paris, highlights the impact of climate change on India’s agricultural sector. It says rising temperature has a direct impact on rabi crops and every one degree celsius rise in temperature will reduce wheat production by four to five million tonnes. The data for drought, collected every five years, showed that in the past 130 years, the percentage area affected has shown a rising trend. The percentage was 46 per cent of the total area of the country in 2009. The report said regional variations in monsoon rains showed a 10-12 per cent increase along the west coast, northern Andhra Pradesh and north-western India during the past century. However, a decreasing trend of six to eight per cent was observed over eastern Madhya Pradesh, North-Eastern India and some parts of Gujarat and Kerala. An increase in surface air temperature was observed in the past century, while a warming trend dominated along the west coast, central India and interior parts of the southern peninsula. Temperatures have risen in the north-western and southern parts of the country. On the rise in sea levels, the report says coral reefs in the Indian ocean and the fragile mangrove ecosystem in West Bengal are particularly at risk. Kavaratti, administrative capital of the Lakshadweep Islands, is at risk since it lies only two to five metres above the sea level. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated a mean sea level rise of one to two millimetres per year globally. This directly threatens 10 per cent of the world population - 634 million people who live on the land below 10 metres of elevation. The report also notes a burgeoning population has resulted in myriad issues, which need to be addressed expediently. The total municipal solid waste generation in 59 major cities across the country stood at 50,000 tonnes a day in 2010-11. Will the government at least now accept that the neo-liberal policies with wrong priorities and with least concern for the people are causing such harmful developments? New Age Weekly

12

December 13-19, 2015

Police Attack on ‘Occupy UGC Movement’ NEW DELHI: Brutal lathi charge by Delhi Police on AISF cadres leaving them seriously injured. Police used water canons and tear gas as the students were moving towards ministry of human resource development with their demands of “No to stopping of No Net Fellowship!”. These students were detained at Parliament Street police station. The injured are admitted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

CPI Rally to Fight Against... From Page 2 were murdered mercilessly. Modi had kept quiet even when RSS started commanding people even on what to eat and also to lynch those who had been consuming beef. CPI general secretary said, “US helped Talibans and helped grow terrorism to overthrow communist government of Afghanistan. US has also helped terrorists in Iraq, West Asia and other countries. Narendra Modi is helping to increase involvement of FDI for country’s development which will be proved as futile endeavour as capitalists invest for profit not for development of the country. The general secretary said Modi and Jaitley are giving enormous amount of subsidy to rich

people in general and corporate in particular. Modi promised to bring back black money during election campaign in 2014 but failed to do so. BJP has been defeated in elections of Delhi, Bihar, Panchayat election of Gujarat and bye-election of Madhya Pradesh. He gave a clarion call to strengthen CPI through mass movements to fight procapitalist forces. Gurudas Dasgupta said, the country is facing intolerance. Out spoken persons like Dabholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi have been murdered for their writings against myths and superstitions. Akhlaque of Dadri was killed simply because he opted for certain food item. In West Bengal, elections have become a tool for the ruling

CPI Evolves Through... From Page 9 from all over the country, labour, whether agricultural or casual, keep flowing in the state. The reason being the highest wages the workers get in Kerala, they keep coming from Assam, Bengal, Bihar and Tamilnadu.

party to hoodwink people and forcefully grab seats and to drive out left parties from the locality. Looting of votes in West Bengal by ruling party’s musclemen has been a common event in any of the elections be it for school committee, panchayat, assembly or Parliament. Gurudas said that in this situation the police force has become a spectator or volunteer of the ruling party. Cultivators are deprived of getting right price to compensate their expenses. On the contrary dal and other vegetables are beyond the reach of poor farmers and labourers. In this situation lock out and closure have become common. Tea garden workers are dying of poverty and malnutrition. He said, so far three 3 lakh cultivators had to commit suicide. Prabodh Panda, in his speech, said the chief minister and her cabinet

members besides the leaders of TMC have raised their voice to kick out left parties and their supporters from the state. TMC goons are either grabbig party offices of Left or burning and looting local committee offices. During TMC rule maximum number of agricultural workers and cultivators which is about 150 have chosen to suicide because of their poverty and inability to sell their products in the markets. Prabodh said though the chief minister of the state is a woman, it is true that rape, humiliation and murder of women are increasing. Humiliation and beating of teachers and professors for any reason has become common in the society. TMC government is allegedly pampering goons and musclemen. Ministers are involved in cheat fund scam and looting of iron scrap. Mamta Banerji is telling that the government has been suffering from short of fund for which

development is delayed, but she is distributing money for non-productive purposes. TMC supremo Mamta is now been known as the leader of a party which is involved in the scam of Saradha etc. besides for being a party of extortionists and goons. He gave a clarion call to organize party from branch level to district level to fight TMC. Presiding over the meeting, Manju Kumar Mazumdar said that to establish close relations with the poor and down trodden, at this moment it is necessary to organize party members, sympathizers and common people to fight against reign of terror unleashed by the TMC and to fight for democratic rights. Mazumdar said, the fight against onslaught of the exploiters will pave the path for tomorrow to fight against capitalists.

Even though the communist led ministry survived only for a short period, its contribution towards the human society is very big. Because of the movements launched in Kerala by the communists, casteism, communal intolerance etc had no place in the state. Even today the northern India could not achieve any such thing. This is a big contribution of the communist movement for India. Party used the dismissal of the Kerala Ministry well by organizing protest meetings and by taking the former chief Minister, Namboodiripad to every nook and corner of the country to make speeches and explain the situations and the achievements of the Kerala ministry. This way CPI’s popularity increased and E.M.S. also became a very known all India public figure and a mass leader of the Party. This also helped the Party’s growth in other states. New Age Weekly

Tribal women in the Kolkata rally

13

December 13-19, 2015

Trump Suffers from Islamophobia Whether the Americans belong to Democratic or Republic, they are antiMuslims. It has become evidential with the recent statement of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call to bar “Muslims from entering the US”. The statement is ridiculous. This has triggered sharp criticism from the people all over the world. It has also angered the Muslims. Fight against terrorism is may be acceptable to all despite reservations because the US imperialistic policies were responsible for the growing global terrorism. But how can one take the whole notion that somehow one need to say no more Muslims and just ban a whole religion goes against the everything we stand for and believe in the coexistence of the humanity with harmony and peace. By making such controversial comments Trump wants to consolidate his position among the right-wing Republican vote base through his anti-immigrant, antiMuslim positions. It should be take note that the statement he made did nothing to challenge his poll position. Trump’s popularity among the Republican voters rose after Paris terror attack in which 130 people were killed. His statement comes close on the heels of the San Bernadino attack where a couple, apparently inspired by the Islamic State terror group, killed 14 people. This is happening in that country, which claims to be the best democratic country, though the Bill of Rights has respect for the freedom of religion. If this is the policy proposal of Trump, then it is no use to neither Americans nor for the global people. It is just non serious. The demagogues like Trump have always tried to divide the people based on race, gender, and sexual orientation or on the country of origin. Trump made his most extreme pledge yet in a statement throughout his campaign. This is not the first time he made such a controversial and hate comment. He termed Mexicans as rapists who crossed illegally into the US. He mocked at a journalist for being disabled and once implied that he received hostile questioning. The current president Barack Obama says on fighting IS terror; it is must for profiling Muslims. Trump too is backing this movement saying if they are Muslims, they are Muslims. While Republicans Party generally take tough postures against radical Islamisation and are supportive of wars abroad, at least who are in the election fray has not gone this far to suggest the Muslims be profiled or be banned from entering the country.

of the game is – what else? – Divide and Rule. Turkey sent to Iraqi Kurdistan – which is part of the state of Iraq - no less than a 400-strong battalion supported by 25 M-60A3 tanks. Now the Turkish boots on the ground at Bashiqa camp, northeast of Mosul, have reportedly reached a total of around 600. The short breakdown: this is not a ”training camp”- as Ankara is spinning. It’s a full-blown, perhaps permanent, military base. The dodgy deal was struck between the ultra-corrupt Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and then-Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu in Erbil last month. Torrents of Turkish spin swear this is only about ”training” Peshmergas to fight ISIS/ ISIL/Daesh. Absolute nonsense. The crucial fact is that Ankara is terrified of the ”4+1" alliance fighting Islamic State, which unites Iran, Iraqi Shiites and the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), as well as Hezbollah, with Russia. In Syria, Ankara is virtually paralyzed, after the ”stab in the back” downing of the Su-24; the Russian revelations of complicity between Turkey’s first family and stolen Syrian oil (Bilal Erdogan, a.k.a. Erdogan ‘Mini Me’, denies everything); and the Russian Air Force relentless pounding of Turkey’s fifth

column Turkmen. Not to mention the deployment of S-400s and even a thirdgeneration submarine complete with Kalibr cruise missiles. So Ankara now switches the attention to Iraq with a ”counter-alliance”, made up of Turkey; the KRG (which – illegally – sells oil to Turkey); and Sunnis in northern Iraq under the supposed leadership of the sprawling Nuceyfi tribe in Mosul. This is textbook neo-Ottomanism in action. We should never forget that for the AKP in power in Ankara, northern Syria and northern Iraq are nothing but former Ottoman Empire provinces, an eastward extension of Turkey’s Hatay province. ‘Sultan’ Erdogan’s (unstated) wet dream is to annex the whole lot. Meanwhile, Daesh still controls Mosul. But Iraqi Sunnis – as well as the Iraqi Army - are slowly setting up an offensive.

Crippled in Syria, Turkey goes for Iraq

So what Ankara wants with this military base close to Mosul is to be part of the game, coupled with two ”invisible” agendas; protect their fifth-column Turkmen, wherever they are, and having more boots on the ground to fight – what else – PKK Kurds taking refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Turkey’s “incursion” into Iraq is a cold, calculated move. And once again, the name

‘Sultan’ Erdogan’s whole rationale is that Baghdad does not rule northern Iraq

The neoconservative intellectuals within the GOP have reacted sharply to Trump’s comment. Even after so much of criticism his comment he remains to be defiant to withdraw his statement.

anymore (he’s got a point). But the problem, for Ankara, is that the real powers in the region may turn out to be Shiites and the PKK (that’s far-fetched; but that’s Erdogan thinking.) ‘Sultan’ Erdogan has extremely close business deals with the KRG’s ‘Mobster-inChief’, Massoud Barzani – as in the oil exporting deal which, illegally, bypasses Baghdad. Barzani, predictably, has no problems with Turkish military designs; after all “his” oil is paid for by the Turks. As for the clincher, follow geopolitical ace Mick Jagger: it’s a gas, gas, gas. Ankara’s move plays straight into the ultimate ‘Pipelineistan’ war; the clash between two competing gas pipelines, Qatar-Saudi Arabia-Jordan-Syria-Turkey, or Iran-Iraq-Syria, at the heart of the Syrian tragedy. Erdogan’s paranoia that Russia may cut off gas supplies to Turkey after the downing of the Su-24 – something that Gazprom simply won’t do – has led Ankara, in desperation, to force Baghdad, mob-style, to ”accept” a Qatar gas pipeline crossing Iraqi, not Syrian territory. Needless to add this far-fetched scheme is an absolute no-go for Baghdad, which is part of the “4+1” alliance. Moreover, expect Iran – and Russia – to go no holds barred exploiting divisions among the notoriously divisive Kurds to bomb Erdogan’s elaborate plans. Erdogan’s bottom line is quite something; he is aiming for no less than an Iraqi ‘Sunnistan’ – jointly managed by the ultracorrupt KRG and assorted Sunnis, but under Turkish security arrangements. As if Washington and Tel-Aviv would let him get away with that. The fact is that at least for the moment, while his game in Syria may be going down the drain, Erdogan has decided to change the subject and turbo-charge his strategy for breaking up Iraq. And that brings up the question, once again, of how Daesh was able last year to conquer Mosul – the second city in Iraq without a fight. And this after their notorious convoy of gleaming white Toyotas crossing the desert from Syria to Iraq managed to evade detection by the most sophisticated satellite surveillance system in the history of the Universe. Regarding the mystery, persistent intel rumblings across the Middle East and among the “4+1” coalition are bound to turn into a volcano. According to the rumblings, the official - Pentagon - narrative that the Iraqi Army supposed to fight Islamic State in Mosul last year got scared and simply ran away is a myth. As we know, the Iraqi Army, trained by the Pentagon, left behind a wealth of tanks and heavy weapons duly captured by IS. And IS couldn’t be luckier in collecting this almighty ‘gift’. New Age Weekly

14

December 13-19, 2015

Chennai Echoes ... From Page 10 of 26 to 28 percent and half of the Chinese target of 60 to 65 percent. The developed countries, in particular the US, are postponing the solution of the problems by shifting the blame for pollution to India, China and other developing countries. India is lower in per capita emission and global cumulative emissions compared to both US and China. There is speculation as to why India is setting these targets despite the fact that its per capita emission is presently 2.44 tons, almost at the bottom. It is suggested that this is being done in order to invite more global funds for technology transfer and capacity building support. espite such targets India and other countries are nowhere near the required targets. There is a need to cut emissions by the world by 70 percent below the 2010 level by 2050 in order to restrict the rise in world temperatures. The developed countries have entered into a sum game to polarize the world environment dialogue. Worldwide, coal provides 40 percent of electricity, with China emitting one-third from this source. India is second as the consumer of coal after China. This problem will continue to create problems for India, as expansion of other sources will lead to destruction of environment. So a comprehensive approach has to be undertaken. The ‘per capita’ approach has to be combined with social and environmental approaches. Among the major questions is whether we should adopt ‘low carbon’ lifestyle, because solution of socioeconomic problems of the teeming millions cannot be overlooked. In the meantime, India, China and Brazil have come out in favour of different requirements for the developing and the developed countries. They argue that the developing countries will not be able to meet the requirements for ‘information transparency mechanism’. They want the continuation of the 2010 Cancun mechanism to stay, which put different requirements for the two sets of countries. The US wants a legally binding transparency mechanism. It is actually difficult for the developing countries to meet it because it includes three major technical parts: inventories of greenhouse gas emissions, reports on action taken to curb emissions, and review. The stark reality is that the world’s richest, residing mainly in the west, release 50 percent of global CO2, with each person in the richest half emitting 17.6 tons of it, while in the poorest half the per capita figure is only 1.57 tons. The ‘C-footprint’ of the richest 10%, mostly in the developed countries, is 60 times larger than the poorest 10% of the world, mostly in the developing countries. Per person C-emission in the US is around 17 tons while for India the figure is below 1 ton. It is clear who should bear the main responsibility of cleaning world environment. In the meantime the seesaw battle continues, with the developed countries, US in particular, trying their best to shift the blame of the deteriorating world climate on the developing nations, and thus trying to postpone solution of the problems. New Age Weekly

PPH PUBLICATIONS 1. Foreign Policy of India: Indira Gandhi Years Rs. 160 (PB) Prof. P C Jain Rs. 300 (HB) 2. Beyond the Sky, Efficiency Redefined Rs. 225 (PB) 3. Family, Friends and Country Rs. 250 (PB) Nguyen Thi Binh Rs. 350 (HB) 4. Selected Works Vol. I Rs. 250 (HB) Karl Marx and F. Engels 5. Selected Works Vol. 2 Rs. 250 (HB) Karl Marx and F. Engels 6. Selected Works Vol. 3 Rs. 250 HB) Karl Marx and F. Engels 7. Gandhiji—A Study Rs. 120 (PB) Hiren Mukerjee Rs. 200 (HB) 8. Singaravelu – First Communist in South India Rs. 35 (HB) K. Murugesan & C S Subramanyam 9. Russian-English-Hindi Dictionary of Proverbs and Idioms Rs. 200 (PB) Shyama Joshi 10. Rabindra Nath Tagore—Himself A True Poem Rs. 100 (PB) Hiren Mukerjee 11. Life is A Struggle Rs. 25 (PB) Moni Singh 12. History will Absolve Me Rs. 75 (PB) Fidel Castro Rs. 160 (HB) 13. Subhash Chandra Bose andIndian Communist Movement Rs. 25 (PB) Gautam Chattopadhyaya 14. Big Changes in Three Continents Rs. 150 (HB) Pyotr. I. Polshivkov 15. Emerging Capitalism in Indian Agriculture Rs. 150 (HB) Ambica Ghosh 16. Agrarian Problems of Permanent Settlement Rs. 45 (HB) Girish Mishra 17. Consumption in Socialist Economy Rs. 50 (HB) Arvind Vyas 18. A Public Facility, Its Management &The Workers Rs. 45 (PB) Sisir Mitra 19. A contribution to the Critique of Political Economy Rs. 90 (PB) Karl Marx 20. Crisis of Corporate Capitalism Rs. 25 (PB) A B Bardhan 21. The Holy Family or Critique of Critical Criticism Rs. 100 (PB) Marx-Engels 22. A Brief History of the CPI Rs. 85 (PB) Anil Rajimwale 23. Ramayana: Myth or Reality Rs. 50 (PB) H D Sankalia 24. The Moplah Rebellion and Its Genesis Rs. 85 (PB) Conrad Wood 25. Grammatical Commentary and Russian-English Dictionary Rs. 500 (PB) V G Budai, J Raghuvanshi, Shyama Joshi 26. Russian From ABC Rs. 500 (PB) J Raghuvanshi, Shyama Joshi 27. A Comprehensive History of India Rs. 550 (HB) R S Sharma (Ed.), Vol. IV, Part-1 28. A Comprehensive History of India Rs. 500 (PB) Mohammad Habib, Khaliq Ahmad Nizami (Ed.)Vol. 5, Part-1 29. A Comprehensive History of India Rs. 350 (PB) Mohammad Habib, Khaliq Ahmad Nizami (Ed.)Vol. 5, Part-2 30. Documents of the History of the Communist Party of India Rs. 100 (HB) Dr G Adhikari (Ed.), Vol. 2 31. The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal 1902-1908 Rs. 225 (HB) Sumit Sarkar 32. India Today Rs. 250 (PB) Rajani Palme Dutt 33. Communists in Indian Women’s Movement Rs. 150 (PB) Renu Chakravarthy 34. A Short History of Women’s Movement Rs. 12 (PB) Vimla Farooqui 35. What is Marxism Rs. 45 (PB) Emile Burns 36. Emergence of a Slave Caste Rs. 45 (HB) K Saradamoni 37. Lokayata Rs. 350 (PB) Debi Prasad Chattopadhyaya Rs. 500 (HB) 38. Charting A New PathEarly Years of National Federation of Indian Women Rs. 300 (PB) Gargi Chakravarthy, Supriya Chotani Rs. 450 (HB) 39. Communalism and the Writing of Indian History Rs. 30 (PB) Romila Thapar, Harbans Mukhia, Bipan Chandra 40. The Crisis in Physics Rs. 150 (PB) Christopher Caudwell 41. Crime and Punishment Rs. 250 (PB) Fyodor Dostoyevsky Rs. 375 (HB) Please send your order to: People’s Publishing House (Pvt) Ltd, 5-E, Rani Jhansi Road, New Delhi-110 055 e-mails: [email protected] Web: www.peoplespublishinghouse.in

15

December 13-19, 2015

Agartala Local Bodies Polls The election campaign for the Communist Party of India and other left front candidates in the upcoming Agartala Municipal Corporation¸ Municipalities and Nagar Panchayets election had been conducted in full swing. The CPI is contesting in three wards of the Agartala Municipal Corporation (Ward No. 3, 21, 48) and in two wards of Belonia

Municipal Council and in one ward of Santirbazar Municipal Council. The campaign for the CPI candidates was held with huge support and enthusiasm. The candidate of Ward no. 3 of Agartala Municipal Corporation Nikhil Deb is getting huge response from the people of the area and is determined to win this ward defeating the sitting

Demands Special Status ... From Last Page leader T Subbarami Reddy MP, CPI(M) leaders Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy and Y Subbareddy MP, Aam Admi Party leaders YV Rao and Sreenivas Rao attended the rally and addressed those sitting on dharna. All the leaders assured the party volunteers sitting on dharna that they would take up the issue at all appropriate forums including Parliament. They were all in unison to declare that special category status is the right of the people of Andhra Pradesh.

On Record... This is the story about India’s missing toilets. And there are about 250 lakh of them, built from public funds but possibly, only on paper. Government officials have been inflating the number of toilets built from public funds across the country in rural homes and possibly siphoning off money and winning awards too for their extraordinary performance, the Comptroller & Auditor General of India has indicated in its report submitted to Parliament. The audit report - that refers to the previous UPA government’s tenure - comes at a time the NDA is giving its Swacch Bharat campaign a hard push. The CAG report cited the Census 2011 report to put the number of rural households with a toilet in the premises at 515 lakh. But according to the government’s records, it had funded construction of 768 lakh toilets under various schemes up to 2011. So Uttar Pradesh, according to the census, had 5545881 rural households with toilets in 2011. But according to the ministry of drinking water and sanitation, the state had built 15107255 toilets in rural homes under its schemes. As against UP’s 172% excess toilets built over the census numbers, Jharkhand stood at a whopping 326%, Madhya Pradesh at 277%,

Balaram Reang Passes away

From Bikramjit Sengupta Congress Councilor. Campaigns for the other CPI Candidates in the Corporation and the Municipality were also completed with popular support. CPI workers along with other left front workers are in the battle ground with full strength. The left front is strongly determined to retain the Agartala Municipal Corporation, the municipalities and Nagar Panchayets with huge majority again. The elections for the c o r p o r a t i o n , municipality, Nagar Panchayets have taken place on December 9, 2015. Results will be declared on December 12, 2015.

Ex-CPI leader and Jail Minister of Tripura state government Balaram Reang passed away on December 8, 2015 at 11 pm in his native village Satya Prasad Choudhury para at Kalma, Santirbazar, South Tripura after prolong illness. He was a famous kokborok teacher. In 2001, he contested in the by-election of Santirbazar (ST) constituency as a CPI candidate after the death of veteran CPI leader, Ganamukti Paridhad and mass literacy movement leader, the then jail minister Durbajoy Reang. Com Balaram Reang won the by-election and took oath as a cabinet minister in charge of jail department. Hearing the news of his death CPI leader and minister Manindra Reang, CPI leader and ADC executive member Dhirendra Reang and other local leaders of the party visited his home and paid their last tributes to him. Several Villagers came to pay their last respect to Balaram Reang. He left behind his wife, one son and one daughter. The CPI unit of Tripura state council mourn his death and express deep condolence to the family of Balaram Reang.

Chhattisgarh at 183%, Odisha at 199%, Tamil Nadu at 190% and Gujarat stood at 81%. – The Hindustan Times, December 9. *** The proposed ceremony of “ shuddhikaran “ (purification) of Bishahra village in Dadri to “atone for the killing of a cow” which did not take place because of the last minute intervention of a section of villagers, was actually the idea of local BJP leaders like H.N. Sharma and Sanjay Rana. According to the villagers, who prevented the ceremony by approaching the District Magistrate N.P. Singh, the BJP leaders wanted to create further tension in the village because Sanjay Rana’s aides have been named in the fresh testimony given by both Shaista and Danish, the daughter and son who witnessed the lynching of their father, Mohammad Akhlaq. – The Hindu, December 8. *** Hundreds of Christians have come together to write a letter to PM Modi complaining that attacks against Christians, “sometimes veiled, sometimes not”, have gone up in the past few months. In the letter, given to the DM, they said a graveyard belonging to them was

forcefully taken over by the Hindu community”, a Bible torn in June and a priest beaten up recently.” The administration hasn’t helped, they said. – The Times of India, December 8. *** Experts call it the single biggest blunder by the Tamil Nadu government, which is battling the Chennai floods. Much of the 1.15 lakh strong police force remained largely idle over the past fortnight as the government did not follow the procedures to mobilize police for rescue and relief operation. While the 28.000 odd cops in Chennai were engaged in regular law and order, crowd control and CIP duty, more than 65 per cent of the state force based in districts unaffected by rains was retired police officer, who has handled such situations. – Times of India, December 8. — Compiled by C Adhikesavan New Age Weekly

16 Page 16 New Age, December 13-19, 2015

December 13-19, 2015 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 & Saturday Date of Publication: 11/12/2015

Massive CPI Dharna at Jantar Mantar

Special Status for AP Sought The Andhra Pradesh state council of the Communist Party of India held a massive dharna at Jantar Mantar in the national capital on December 7, 2015 protesting against the inordinate delay in granting special category status to the state. It may be recalled here that prime minister Narendra Modi had repeatedly made promises to people of Andhra Pradesh during elections that the state would be given special category status. But after assuming power at the Centre, he conveniently forgot to keep his word. Even state chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu had promised during election campaigns that he would get special category status for the state from the BJPled NDA coalition

government of which Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is a partner. After taking over the reins of the divided Andhra Pradesh as its chief minister he also failed to do anything towards achieving that.

Committee fell on the deaf ears of both the governments. Parties got agitated over such gross negligence and decided to jointly and independently fight for the cause.

Repeated warnings of the Special Status Sadana

The CPI state council went on organising protest

rallies in the state starting from local levels. The party had even organised a state level bandh. It was the culmination of such protests that took place at the national capital on December 7. Police arrested several party leaders to prevent them

from going Parliament.

towards

CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy, national council secretary D Raja MP, Congress leader Dr KVP Ramachandra Rao MP, YSR Congress Party On Page 15

It Is a Matter of Shame for Delhi! It’s a shame that in the capital city of the Republic of India, more than 50,000 children are begging on almost all the roundabouts of the city under the very nose of the chief minister of Delhi and the central government. Recently, the chief minister said that his administration will take steps to eliminate this shame, but as usual the politician in him forgot this human issue, where the budding citizens of the nation are taught beggary and are left neglected. The future of the largest democracy is in peril as lakhs are denied their basic rights guaranteed under the Constitution of the country. Stalwarts of the ruling party and the opposition see the plight of these unfortunate youngsters, but they just ignore as they have other issues and stall Parliament for days together. The prime minister has visited more than 35 countries in a short span of 19 months and met with world dignitaries to unfold his grand designs of the emerging India. He invited countries and big firms to invest in the biggest market of the world after China. Public money was spent like water to boost his image. Photo sessions, big press

By S K Mittal meets and gatherings of NRIs were arranged to give an impression that a new leadership has come to power which will change the destiny of the country. Unprecedented blitzkrieg of publicity was made in the foreign shores, but the prevailing ‘intolerance’ in the country arrested the inflow of investment. The efforts of the ruling dispensation fell flat. Has the prime minister seen the plight of the children in our country? Everywhere in the world — big or small countries — the ‘young’ are treated as the most privileged class and all facilities are provided to the mother and child at the time of birth. In Germany, the city council sends a cheque for opening an account for the new born child. A gesture of welcome to the new citizen, but in our country, it is simply a burden. The ‘fringe’ gave a call to the faithful to increase the birth-rate, but they did nothing to help the poor children or orphans of the country; despite their big empires of hundreds of crore. With the ill-gotten wealth, they are increasing their hold in politics and

the tragedy of the prime minister is that they are beyond his control. An atmosphere of violence and threats, even murders, have tarnished the image of the nation amongst the world community. The Indian voters have not given the mandate to RSS or this fringe, which is terrorising the nation. It is a shame that capital’s tiny tots are begging till late hours of night with sleepy eyes and barely able to stand, but the mafia is making sure that they remain at the odd hours on the streets so that the citizens can pity them and give money. Hundreds of foreigners, tourists and dignitaries visit the country and took with them the impression of a ‘begging country’. Where is the pride of the saffron parivar, which talk of so much ‘Hindutva’? Is this the future or democracy? The political leadership must answer. Youth power is rising and if they could change the earlier regime, they could change even the present one. It’s a warning written on the wall. No more sermons. Give the young their due. They are not interested in your tamasha.

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-mails: [email protected] & [email protected]*web:www.newageweekly.com Layout: JANARDANAN. R New Age Weekly