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Friday, October 15, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
WEST BENGAL CPI (M)'S NEW WEBSITE LAUNCHED
In a short formal observance, a new website of the Bengal state committee of the CPI (M) was launched by state secretary, Biman Basu at the Muzaffar Ahmed Bhavan on 10 September. He tapped the keyboard of a laptop computer at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan and the Bengal CPI (M) website (accessible at http://www.cpimwb.org.in/) floated into sharp focus on the big screen via video technology.
The website is done up using the matrix of the free software and is written in a language that can be accessed from every form of Gnu and non-Gnu software, including the Microsoft ‘Windows’ OS in its various avatars.
Biman Basu said on this occasion that a continuous stream of lies kept on pouring out in an orchestrated manner in the form of slanders and utter untruths about the CPI (M) and the Left Front from the entire gamut of the corporate media, and that a large chunk of it was also polluting the cyber space. The present site, like other sites run by the CPI (M), the various Left parties and by Left mass organisations, would be utilised to counter the lie campaign.
The websites are also used to provide information inputs to the present generation of youth who are active on the information highway and surf the web constantly, sending out and receiving every day prodigious numbers of electronic mail. The site would eventually be made trilingual, to feature English, Hindi, and Bengali. In attendance on the occasion was Bengal CPI (M) state secretariat member Sridip Bhattacharya.
Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org
The website is done up using the matrix of the free software and is written in a language that can be accessed from every form of Gnu and non-Gnu software, including the Microsoft ‘Windows’ OS in its various avatars.
Biman Basu said on this occasion that a continuous stream of lies kept on pouring out in an orchestrated manner in the form of slanders and utter untruths about the CPI (M) and the Left Front from the entire gamut of the corporate media, and that a large chunk of it was also polluting the cyber space. The present site, like other sites run by the CPI (M), the various Left parties and by Left mass organisations, would be utilised to counter the lie campaign.
The websites are also used to provide information inputs to the present generation of youth who are active on the information highway and surf the web constantly, sending out and receiving every day prodigious numbers of electronic mail. The site would eventually be made trilingual, to feature English, Hindi, and Bengali. In attendance on the occasion was Bengal CPI (M) state secretariat member Sridip Bhattacharya.
Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
EDITORIAL OF PEOPLE’S DEMOCRACY DATED 18-07-2010
UN-MASK THE VEIL OF ONSLAUGHTS ON PEOPLE
THE Supreme Court, this Monday, refused to entertain a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the need for political parties to declare allegiance to `socialism’ enshrined in the preamble of our constitution to get recognition from the election commission. The PIL argued that since market forces under neo-liberal economic reforms are the determining factor for over two decades, it was a dichotomy to force political parties to owe allegiance to `socialism’. It also reflected the so-called `eternality of capitalism’ and the `end of ideology’ predictions. The Supreme Court, however, rejected this on the grounds that no political party has challenged this requirement so far!
Strange as this may sound, this ruling reflects the supreme hypocrisy of our ruling classes as reflected in the present government-appointed solicitor general’s defence of the existing constitutional requirement. `Socialism’ was inserted in our constitution’s preamble by Ms Indira Gandhi during the period of internal emergency. The rise of authoritarianism and the large-scale curtailment of democratic rights and liberties under the emergency was sought to be cloaked under exhortations of `socialism’. Very chillingly reminiscent then of the way Hitler used `national socialism’ to consolidate the Nazi fascist machine.
The hypocrisy lies also in the fact that, all along, independent India pursued a trajectory of capitalist development, the very antithesis of socialism. The public sector, so erroneously and sometimes deliberately, described as `socialism’ was nothing else but the marshalling of people’s resources through the State to create the required economic infrastructure for the growth of private capitalism. The defence of the public sector today as the means to resist imperialist globalisation’s assault on our economic sovereignty, in no way, detracts from this class need for the creation of the public sector in the first place.
In a period of over two decades of neo-liberal economic reforms dominating India’s economic trajectory, this Supreme Court judgement, indeed, may sound strange. (Notwithstanding its caveat that if any political party opposes this provision then the apex court will have a relook.) This is all the more true if one looks at the unbridled loot of public resources and the country’s mineral wealth under what can be described as `crony capitalism’ at its worst under the regime of neo-liberal reforms.
As we go to press, there is bedlam in the Karnataka state assembly where the BJP government is facing the wrath of the entire opposition that is demanding a CBI probe into the illegal mining being done by the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC). The Reddy Brothers owning this company are both cabinet ministers in the state government. A conservative estimate alleges that between 2003 and now, over 30 million tonnes of iron ore has been illegally mined and exported from Karnataka, resulting in a scam worth anywhere beyond Rs 60,000 crores. From a turnover of around Rs 35 crore in 2003-04, the OMC legally declared over Rs 3,000 crore turnover in 2008-09.
This controversy over illegal mining has been raging both Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh for years now. The Karnataka state Lokayukta and now the state’s governor are subject matters of media reports concerning the illegal mining operations. Such is the state of control of this illegal mining body over the state and its politics that at least five lakhs of iron ore seized at the direction of Lokayukta, Justice Hegde, was stolen from the right under the government’s nose and illegally exported. The BJP state government, however, claims that the iron ore was washed away by rain! (Mail Today, June 30, 2010)
Such illegal mining, much of which takes place on land in notified tribal areas along Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border, is peppered with many allegations that link the Karnataka Reddy Brothers with the former Andhra Pradesh chief minister, YSR Reddy.
Beginning of this week also saw a bedlam in the Andhra Pradesh state assembly over the allotment of 1.37 lakh acres of iron ore rich area to a private company. The executive director of this company is the son-in-law of the former AP chief minister. The land is estimated to have reserves of 13 lakh crore tonnes of iron ore. All the land falls under notified tribal areas of Khammam district.
Such is the loot of our country’s resources and people’s wealth by this `crony capitalism’ under the dispensation of neo-liberal economic reforms. Seen in conjunction with the IPL scam, telecom spectrum scam, the paid news scam, this illegal mining scam only shows how far removed our economy and polity is from `socialism’. Further, such illegal mining is distorting our parliamentary democracy where money power alongwith associated muscle power influences the voting pattern of the people. The election expenses of candidates of major bourgeois parties, in the recent elections, make a mockery of the limits set by the election commission. Democracy is increasingly being defined not by the people’s popular choices but by the capacity of political parties to spend exorbitant amounts of money to coerce the voters.
Such loot and so massive a distortion of our democracy through the use of unbridled money power, however, requires a mask to hide behind. That is the reason why none of the political parties that embrace neo-liberal economic reforms, like Congress and its allies now or the BJP and its allies earlier, have objected to the need to show allegiance to `socialism’. Likewise, the periodic outpouring of concerns for the aam aadmi are nothing else but a mask to conceal the relentless economic onslaughts mounted on the people.
Such masks need to be torn asunder to protect our country’s wealth and people’s livelihood.
(July 14, 2010
Source: www.cpim.org
THE Supreme Court, this Monday, refused to entertain a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the need for political parties to declare allegiance to `socialism’ enshrined in the preamble of our constitution to get recognition from the election commission. The PIL argued that since market forces under neo-liberal economic reforms are the determining factor for over two decades, it was a dichotomy to force political parties to owe allegiance to `socialism’. It also reflected the so-called `eternality of capitalism’ and the `end of ideology’ predictions. The Supreme Court, however, rejected this on the grounds that no political party has challenged this requirement so far!
Strange as this may sound, this ruling reflects the supreme hypocrisy of our ruling classes as reflected in the present government-appointed solicitor general’s defence of the existing constitutional requirement. `Socialism’ was inserted in our constitution’s preamble by Ms Indira Gandhi during the period of internal emergency. The rise of authoritarianism and the large-scale curtailment of democratic rights and liberties under the emergency was sought to be cloaked under exhortations of `socialism’. Very chillingly reminiscent then of the way Hitler used `national socialism’ to consolidate the Nazi fascist machine.
The hypocrisy lies also in the fact that, all along, independent India pursued a trajectory of capitalist development, the very antithesis of socialism. The public sector, so erroneously and sometimes deliberately, described as `socialism’ was nothing else but the marshalling of people’s resources through the State to create the required economic infrastructure for the growth of private capitalism. The defence of the public sector today as the means to resist imperialist globalisation’s assault on our economic sovereignty, in no way, detracts from this class need for the creation of the public sector in the first place.
In a period of over two decades of neo-liberal economic reforms dominating India’s economic trajectory, this Supreme Court judgement, indeed, may sound strange. (Notwithstanding its caveat that if any political party opposes this provision then the apex court will have a relook.) This is all the more true if one looks at the unbridled loot of public resources and the country’s mineral wealth under what can be described as `crony capitalism’ at its worst under the regime of neo-liberal reforms.
As we go to press, there is bedlam in the Karnataka state assembly where the BJP government is facing the wrath of the entire opposition that is demanding a CBI probe into the illegal mining being done by the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC). The Reddy Brothers owning this company are both cabinet ministers in the state government. A conservative estimate alleges that between 2003 and now, over 30 million tonnes of iron ore has been illegally mined and exported from Karnataka, resulting in a scam worth anywhere beyond Rs 60,000 crores. From a turnover of around Rs 35 crore in 2003-04, the OMC legally declared over Rs 3,000 crore turnover in 2008-09.
This controversy over illegal mining has been raging both Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh for years now. The Karnataka state Lokayukta and now the state’s governor are subject matters of media reports concerning the illegal mining operations. Such is the state of control of this illegal mining body over the state and its politics that at least five lakhs of iron ore seized at the direction of Lokayukta, Justice Hegde, was stolen from the right under the government’s nose and illegally exported. The BJP state government, however, claims that the iron ore was washed away by rain! (Mail Today, June 30, 2010)
Such illegal mining, much of which takes place on land in notified tribal areas along Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border, is peppered with many allegations that link the Karnataka Reddy Brothers with the former Andhra Pradesh chief minister, YSR Reddy.
Beginning of this week also saw a bedlam in the Andhra Pradesh state assembly over the allotment of 1.37 lakh acres of iron ore rich area to a private company. The executive director of this company is the son-in-law of the former AP chief minister. The land is estimated to have reserves of 13 lakh crore tonnes of iron ore. All the land falls under notified tribal areas of Khammam district.
Such is the loot of our country’s resources and people’s wealth by this `crony capitalism’ under the dispensation of neo-liberal economic reforms. Seen in conjunction with the IPL scam, telecom spectrum scam, the paid news scam, this illegal mining scam only shows how far removed our economy and polity is from `socialism’. Further, such illegal mining is distorting our parliamentary democracy where money power alongwith associated muscle power influences the voting pattern of the people. The election expenses of candidates of major bourgeois parties, in the recent elections, make a mockery of the limits set by the election commission. Democracy is increasingly being defined not by the people’s popular choices but by the capacity of political parties to spend exorbitant amounts of money to coerce the voters.
Such loot and so massive a distortion of our democracy through the use of unbridled money power, however, requires a mask to hide behind. That is the reason why none of the political parties that embrace neo-liberal economic reforms, like Congress and its allies now or the BJP and its allies earlier, have objected to the need to show allegiance to `socialism’. Likewise, the periodic outpouring of concerns for the aam aadmi are nothing else but a mask to conceal the relentless economic onslaughts mounted on the people.
Such masks need to be torn asunder to protect our country’s wealth and people’s livelihood.
(July 14, 2010
Source: www.cpim.org
Thursday, April 29, 2010
SUCCESSFUL COUNTRYWIDE GENERAL STRIKE IN INDIA
THE CPI (M) HAS ISSUED THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT ON 27-04-2010
The call given by the thirteen parties for a countrywide hartal against price rise on April 27 has met with a big response in most parts of the country.
The thirteen parties call was joined by other parties in the states.
The success of the hartal shows the anger and discontent among the people at the failure of the Central Government to check price rise.
There was a complete hartal in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Assam, Orissa, Kerala and Tripura. In Andhra Pradesh, there was a successful bandh all over the state with the strike being partial in Hyderabad. In Tamilnadu too there was a hartal all over the state with Chennai having a partial strike.
In West Bengal, there was a total stoppage of work and movement of traffic. In Uttar Pradesh, in all cities and towns markets were closed and rail and road traffic were affected in many places. In Bihar there was a total hartal in all the districts. Rail and road traffic was disrupted due to rail and rasta roko. Markets, commercial establishments and educational institutions remained closed.
In Jharkhand, markets were closed and rail and road traffic came to a halt. Several state government offices remained closed.
In Orissa, all central government offices, central public sector undertakings, banks, railways were paralysed. State government offices in many districts were also closed. Road and railway traffic was paralysed.
In Kerala, all shops and commercial establishments remained closed. Road and rail traffic were paralysed. In major cities and towns LDF workers held demonstrations in support of the hartal.
In Tripura, there was a complete strike with all offices, markets and educational institutions being closed. All vehicular traffic also came to a halt.
In Maharashtra, all the districts observed rasta roko and rail roko for various periods. In Karnataka, more than 50,000 people protested against price rise in Bangaluru and the strike was a success in other districts. In Madhya Pradesh, there was hartal in Gwalior, Morena, Shivni, Bind, Rewa, Singroli and Indore.
In Himachal Pradesh, markets remained closed in Shimla and rasta roko was observed in various parts of the state.
In Chattisgarh, there was hartal in the state capital Raipur. Shops, commercial establishments, hotels and the main markets remained closed. In many parts of the state rasta roko and rail roko was also observed.
In Punjab, there was rasta roko in twenty places in the state. In Haryana, in all towns, there was hartal with markets remaining closed.
In Delhi, there was a strike in many industrial areas by the workers. There was rasta roko and picketing in 25 spots in the city, Ghaziabad, and Noida.
Source: www.cpim.org
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL KEEPS MUM ON MAOIST BRUTALITIES IN WEST BENGAL BUT IT WAS VERY VOCAL DURING NANDIGRAM EPISODE
BANESWAR MURMU OF SARENGA, BANKURA BRUTALLY MURDERED ON 07-09-2009 BY PERVERTED MAOIST BUTCHERS, RAPISTS AND EXTORTIONISTSSaturday, January 9, 2010
INDIAN TRIBALS THROW ROTTEN TOMATOES ON MEDHA PATKAR FOR HER SYMPATHY FOR MAOIST BUTCHERS
TIMES OF INDIA: 08-01-2010
Suchandana Gupta/TNN
Bhopal: Tribals angry with activists fighting for human rights of Naxalites, while ignoring poor adivasis – threw rotten eggs and tomatoes at Magsaysay award winner Medha Patkar and Sandeep Pandey as they reached Dantewada town in Chattisgarh on Wednesday.
While Patkar, being a woman, did not face much humiliation, her companion Pandey was pulled down from a motorcycle and given a hiding. He was pushed around and asked why activists had done nothing for the tribals, but found cause to support Maoists.
Patkar, who leads the Narmada Bachao Andolan, and Pandey, who founded Asha for education, were on their way to participate in a jan sunwai (people’s court) in the Naxalite-hit areas on Thursday.
Patkar and Pandey were on a bike when the tribals carrying banners of “Maa Danteswari Adivasi Swabhiman Manch” surrounded them asking them to go back.
Shouting slogans like “Wapas jao, wapas jao (Go back), the tribals said NGOs “support Maoists under the pretext of human rights”.
Police resorted to lathicharge to rescue Patkar and Pandey. Dantewada SP Ambreesh Mishra, however, said the two should have been more careful…………..
Suchandana Gupta/TNN
Bhopal: Tribals angry with activists fighting for human rights of Naxalites, while ignoring poor adivasis – threw rotten eggs and tomatoes at Magsaysay award winner Medha Patkar and Sandeep Pandey as they reached Dantewada town in Chattisgarh on Wednesday.
While Patkar, being a woman, did not face much humiliation, her companion Pandey was pulled down from a motorcycle and given a hiding. He was pushed around and asked why activists had done nothing for the tribals, but found cause to support Maoists.
Patkar, who leads the Narmada Bachao Andolan, and Pandey, who founded Asha for education, were on their way to participate in a jan sunwai (people’s court) in the Naxalite-hit areas on Thursday.
Patkar and Pandey were on a bike when the tribals carrying banners of “Maa Danteswari Adivasi Swabhiman Manch” surrounded them asking them to go back.
Shouting slogans like “Wapas jao, wapas jao (Go back), the tribals said NGOs “support Maoists under the pretext of human rights”.
Police resorted to lathicharge to rescue Patkar and Pandey. Dantewada SP Ambreesh Mishra, however, said the two should have been more careful…………..
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