[L-I] [ INDIA ] L Update, Vol. 5; No.26; June 26 - July 2, 2002

ML Update
A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine
Vol.-5; No.-26; 26 June-2 July 2002



THE AGENDA AND THE AYODYA-GUJARAT-KASHMIR TRIDENT

Ayodhya, Gujarat and Kashmir constitute a veritable trident in the hands of
the saffron brigade. It is with this trident that outfits of the Sangh are
threatening to launch bigger assaults on Indian democracy and the Indian
people in the coming days. Events of the last week provided a glimpse of the
Sangh's new action plan with this trident.

The VHP leadership held yet another conclave of self-styled sadhus at
Haridwar. After Vajpayee's Goa gospel against alleged "Islamic intolerance"
and Advani's remark that Gujarat reminded him of Partition, it was Ashok
Singhal's turn to fire the next salvo. He accused Muslims of harbouring a
conspiracy to divide the country and threatened to reduce Muslims everywhere
to the status of refugees seeking shelter in makeshift relief camps as in
Gujarat. Meanwhile, the killer Modi government in Gujarat has begun
preparations for early elections. Relief camps are being closed down even as
Muslim survivors are being forcibly and systematically prevented from
returning to places that were till recently their homes. Monster Modi, on
the other hand, is busy plotting yet another mercenary mission in the form
of rath yatra.

On Ayodhya, the VHP has once again gone back on its earlier assurance to
abide by the Supreme Court's verdict even if it went against the saffron
brigade. The conclave has reiterated the Sangh's original claim that Ayodhya
is a question of faith and as such it is outside the purview of any court.
Is the Supreme Court, which sentenced Arundhati Roy to a day's imprisonment
for alleged 'contempt of court', listening? The Kanchi Shankaracharya too
has once again expressed his readiness to mediate on the Ayodhya issue.
Meanwhile, Faizabad MP and former Bajrang Dal chief Vinay Katiyar has been
made the President of the UP unit of BJP. The stage is thus set for yet
another round of murky behind-the-scene negotiations as well as some
rabble-rousing road shows.

The VHP did not however confine itself to Ayodhya or Gujarat. It also
demanded the carving of Jammu and Kashmir into four parts including a
special Union Territory for Kashmiri Pandits. Singhal and his men have also
threatened to organize a Hindu Mahasammelan in Jammu in July. The cat is
finally out of the bag! The Sangh has long been known to be toying with the
idea of completing the partition of Kashmir. The migration of Kashmiri
Pandits was to a large extent engineered by Jag Mohan when he was sent to
Jammu and Kashmir as the Governor of the state in 1990 and now the VHP plans
to 'rehabilitate' them in a truncated Union Territory! In Modi's Gujarat,
the RSS has already moved the 'Indo-Pak border' back from Kuchh to
Ahmedabad, and now the VHP clamours for a 'smaller and purer' Kashmir. The
Sangh's dream of 'Akhand Bharat' is exposing itself to be nothing but a
sinister ploy for a few more rounds of nightmarish partition resulting in a
smaller Bharat and bigger Pakistan.

While the Sangh Parivar articulates the American vision of a communally
fragmented Jammu and Kashmir, the Abdullahs have revived their call for
greater autonomy. But inside Kashmir, the people are getting tired of the
National Conference leadership's empty rhetoric and opportunist politics of
running with the hare and hunting with the hound. While the Abdullahs rend
the Srinagar air with cries of autonomy, in Delhi the NC continues to do
'business' with the sworn enemies of Article 370 and any notion of
Kashmiriyat or Kashmiri identity.

While the Sangh Parivar brandishes the trident, we must strengthen our
shield of anti-imperialist national unity and secular-democratic resolve. No
trident, however sharp, can manage to pierce a powerful iron shield. Chances
are that the trident itself will get blunted and broken. All the three
battlefields of Gujarat, Ayodhya and Kashmir may then be known by one common
name for the saffron brigade. Waterloo.


CPI(ML) CaALLED CONVENTION ANNOUNCES
ACTION-PLAN OF COUNTRY-WIDE PROTESTS ON AUGUST 9.

The CPI(ML) called 'National Convention against Communal Fascism and
Imperialist Intervention' held at Mavalankar Auditorium in New Delhi on June
26 resolved to launch a nationwide 'Save Democracy, Save Independence'
Campaign. The Convention announced a series of anti-fascist-anti-imperialist
action-programmes which will culminate in a nationwide 'Rasta roko/ Rail
roko/ Jail bharo' agitation on August 9.

The Convention witnessed broad based participation of Left and democratic
organizations including CPI(ML), CPI, SUCI, Forward Block, RSP, the
break-away Punjab unit of CPI(M), ML groups like 'Red Flag' and 'Unity
Initiative' as well as Narmada Bachao Andolan and several other groups. A
large number of intellectuals, social activists, and journalists also joined
the Convention.

Nearly a thousand people form working class to youth and students mainly
from Delhi, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and some centers of
Uttar Pradesh took part in the convention. A contingent of Left activists
from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal also joined it. CPI(ML) held meetings
and conventions at several centers in Bihar, UP, West Bengal, Assam, Orissa,
Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to mark the beginning of the
campaign.
At the beginning of the Convention, a two minute silence was observed in the
memory of those killed in state-sponsored genocide in Gujarat.

Addressing the convention, the CPI(ML) General Secretary outlined the
perspective of the Convention and presented a twelve-point Charter of
Resolutions. He said, "twenty-seven years ago, Indira Gandhi had sought to
curb democracy in India by imposing a state of Emergency. In less than two
years, the Emergency was overthrown by the people of India. Today, democracy
faces a still more serious threat as the BJP tries to divide the country on
communal lines and mortgage its hard-earned independence and national
dignity to the US imperialists."

"We cannot let this happen. India is not a piece of real estate for the
Sangh Parivar to play with. It is the common land of a billion people who
celebrate their unity in diversity and democracy. It is the shared legacy of
our great martyrs who laid down their precious lives for the country and the
people. We must save and reclaim India. And to do this we need a massive
democratic resurgence of the people. We need a shared resolve, a new vision,
and a powerful, united resistance", Mr. Bhattacharya said.

Coming down heavily on what he called 'disastrous saffron governance and
politics', the CPI(ML) General Secretary said the divisive politics of
communal polarisation, denial of political liberty and subversion of
democracy which the country is witnessing in Ayodhya, Gujarat, Kashmir,
Bihar, Jharkhand and the entire North-East is a serious danger to our
national unity, secularism and democracy. Only a broad-based movemental
unity of all Left and democratic forces can resist this danger.
"The illusion of containing and resisting communal fascism within the
confines of Parliament has been thoroughly shattered and the country has to
be saved by a powerful anti-fascist-anti-imperialist mobilisation of the
people", he said.
Condemning the government for conniving with the VHP and Bajarang Dal on
Ayodhya and Gujarat issue, Mr. Bhattacharya demanded dismissal of the
Narendra Modi government, arrest and public trial of the saffron rioters and
police officials involved in the killings and ban on the VHP and Bajarang
Dal. He said, "there should be no early elections to the Gujarat State
Assembly in the communally surcharged atmosphere. Relief camps must not be
closed and relief and rehabilitation work must be stepped up". He condemned
and rejected the idea of fragmentation of Jammu and Kashmir on communal
lines recently echoed by the VHP.

Expressing serious concern on the prevailing situation in Kashmir and
calling for immediate restoration of peace, normalcy and complete political
liberty in the state, CPI(ML) General Secretary warned the Vajpayee
government against playing with the Kashmiri people's aspirations for
effective autonomy. He also accused the ruling National Conference in the
state of paying mere lip service to the cause of autonomy and said that
unless the National Conference showed the courage to dissociate itself
completely from the NDA, its renewed clamour for autonomy was liable to be
construed as a mere pre-poll rhetoric.
He called upon the people to vigorously oppose the increasing imperialist
intervention in South Asia and called for immediate demobilization of
troops, complete restoration of all diplomatic ties and resumption of
unconditional bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan.

CPI leader Atul Anjan, RSP leader and MP Abani Roy, SUCI leader Ashutosh
Banerjee, Forward Bloc leader  Ram Charan Gaur, leader of the break-away
Punjab unit of CPI(M) Chandra Sekhar, Red Flag leader K N Ramchandran, Unity
Initiative leader P K Murthy and several other prominent people including
noted social activist Medha Patkar, senior journalist Prabhash Joshi,
Ahmedabad based writer Achyut Yagnik, senior journalists Kuldip Nayar, Javed
Naqbi and Seema Mustafa, Ex-Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Rajender
Sachar and socialist leader and former MP Surendra Mohan also attended and
addressed the Convention. They congratulated the CPI(ML) for taking this
timely initiative and underlined the need of building up a powerful
resistance against the saffron offensive. They described globalisation and
communal fascism as two faces of a growing rightist offensive. The Left
sponsored Presidential candidate and veteran freedom fighter Laxmi Sehgal
also  attended and addressed the Convention.

The Convention was chaired by veteran communist revolutionary and trade
union leader P K Murthy and conducted by CPI(ML) Central Committee member
Swapan Mukherjee. Among others who attended and addressed the convention
include CPI(ML) leaders Akhilendra Pratap Singh, P V Srinivas, Kumudini
Pati, Srilata Swaminathan, Raja Bahuguna, Prem Singh Gahlawat, Rajendra
Pratholi and Ranjit Abhigyan.
(The Convention was still in session at the time of writing this report.--
Ed.)


Resolutions for Discussion and Adoption at the
NATIONAL CONVETION AGAINST COMMUNAL FASCISM AND IMPERIALIST INTERVENTION
(Mavalankar Auditorium, New Delhi, 26 June, 2002)

1.       This convention demands that the killer government headed by
Narendra Modi in Gujarat be dismissed forthwith and Narendra Modi and all
his cohorts from the Sangh Parivar as well as police officials involved in
the killings be arrested and put on public trial. The VHP and Bajrang Dal
must be banned for their role in the state-sponsored genocide in Gujarat.
The convention also calls for drastic augmentation of relief and
rehabilitation efforts in Gujarat, early reconstruction of all damaged and
destroyed tombs and religious sites in the state and an effective ban on the
proposed rathyatra programme of the Sangh Parivar. There should also be no
early elections to the Gujarat State Assembly in the communally surcharged
atmosphere with large sections of the electorate living in utter terror and
insecurity. This convention condemns the heinous attacks by Saffron forces
on journalists and peace campaigners like Medha Patkar, lauds the efforts
already made by various organizations and individuals for restoration of
peace and sanity in Gujarat and calls for intensification of countrywide
initiatives to secure justice for the genocide-affected people of Gujarat.

2.       This convention calls for immediate and total demobilisation of
troops to peacetime levels, complete restoration of full-scale diplomatic
ties and resumption of direct and unconditional bilateral dialogue between
India and Pakistan. The peace-loving people all over the country should be
vigilant against the Vajpayee government undertaking only token measures to
play to the international gallery and build up sufficient popular pressure
for peace to force the government to withdraw from the present path of
planned escalation of tension and sustained war hysteria.

3.       This convention strongly denounces the Bush-Blair alliance for
trying to fish in the troubled South Asian waters in the name of
"facilitating a dialogue" between India and Pakistan and patrolling the LoC
even as the two imperialist powers promote a disastrous arms race between
India and Pakistan by selling arms to the two neighbours. This convention
also condemns the Indian and Pakistani rulers for their shameless and
competitive surrender to imperialism even while escalating hostility against
each other and rejects the Indian foreign and defence policy of growing
strategic subservience to the US imperialists.

4.       This convention hails the nascent anti-war campaign in India and
Pakistan and protests by the sub-continental diasporic communities across
the world and calls for further intensification of the same. The convention
notes with satisfaction that the synchronized protests in India and Pakistan
by left parties and other democratic forces on June 13 mark a positive
beginning and calls for all-out efforts to promote peace and friendship
between India and Pakistan.

5.       This convention expresses serious concern about the prevailing
situation in Kashmir and calls for immediate restoration of peace, normalcy
and complete political liberty in the state. Elections to the J&K Assembly
under conditions of complete denial of political liberty would only make a
mockery of the democratic process. The vicious cycle of state repression and
terrorism is steadily spiraling up in the state. An atmosphere characterized
by political killings, indiscriminate arrest and detention of senior
Hurriyat leaders, and continued state terror against the people of Kashmir,
especially the youth, to crush their democratic aspirations is hardly
conducive for the people to fearlessly exercise their choice. This
convention rejects the sinister idea of fragmentation of Jammu and Kashmir
on communal lines echoed most recently by the VHP. It demands general
amnesty for all political prisoners, restoration of political liberty,
revoking of all black acts and withdrawal of Army and other central
paramilitary forces from the state before the elections.

6.       This convention strongly condemns the crackdown at Faizabad on
activists who had gathered there to observe Shaheed Mela as a mark of
tribute to the legacy of the great martyrs of the 1857 First War of India's
Independence on May 10-11. It calls upon the people and the Supreme Court of
India to take serious note of the VHP's latest threat of not abiding by the
court verdict on the issue of Ayodhya. Organisations and individuals making
such irresponsible and provocative utterances must be duly punished and
prevented from further vitiating the atmosphere.

7.       This convention calls for an immediate repeal of the draconian POTA
and demands quick release of all detained under it. The recent spate of
arrests in Kashmir and the threat of its use in Gujarat and elsewhere
against members of minority communities and democratic activists have only
confirmed the widespread apprehensions on POTA. All the assurances advanced
by the government against its misuse have turned out to be patently false
and hence there is no justification for this black act to remain in the
statute books.

8.       This convention is highly apprehensive and critical of the "holy
consensus" that has developed around the NDA-sponsored candidature of Dr.
APJ Abdul Kalam who symbolizes India's growing military-industrial complex
and dangerous nuclear-missile ambitions. It denounces the BJP's devious and
desperate design to use the Presidential election to whitewash its crime in
Gujarat and promote its agenda of aggressive militarisation.

9.       This convention denounces, and calls for resistance against,
incessant attempts by Sangh Parivar forces to saffronise the curriculum,
their takeover of the academic institutions and trampling of their autonomy





only to promote their Saffron agenda, their denial of artistic freedom and
highhanded censorship of documentary films like "War and Peace", and their
browbeating of artistes and, worse still, their attempt at communalising the
administration and police as witnessed in Gujarat.

10.     This convention demands scrapping of the divestment of VSNL to
Tatas, IPCL to Ambanis and Maruti to Suzuki & Co and sacking of
Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie for pushing through such murky deals. It
also demands withdrawal of proposed labour law reforms that seek to truncate
and even deny the basic trade union rights of the Indian working class. It
calls for enactment of a comprehensive welfare legislation to safeguard the
basic interests of agricultural labourers who constitute the biggest
contingent of the working people of India.

11.     This convention demands that the Indian government immediately
abrogate the WTO dictated Agreement on Agriculture in view of the massive
subsidies envisaged under the US Farm Bill, protect our farmers from unequal
trade, and roll back hikes in prices of diesel and electricity. It
unequivocally condemns the police firing on protesting farmers in Haryana
led by the Bhartiya Kisan Union and the crackdown on Maan Dam oustees in
Bhopal led by the Narmada Bachao Andolan.

12.  This convention appeals to all patriotic, democratic and secular forces
to conduct a nationwide "Save Democracy, Save Independence" campaign from
June 26 to August 9. It underlines the need for greater unity in action
among the left, democratic and patriotic forces. The convention calls for
massive countrywide protests all over the country, in the form of militant
rasta roko/rail roko/jail bharo agitation on August 9, and appeals to all
those concerned to undertake diverse programmes to prepare for this in the
intervening campaign period.


FIRST JHARKHAND STATE CONFERENCE OF CPI(ML) IN GIRIDIH

The CPI(ML)'s first Jharkhand State Conference began at Giridih Town Hall
christened as "Shaheed Laldhan Mahato Hall" in "Com. Vinod Mishra Nagar" in
Giridih on June 23. The conference being attended by more than 300 delegates
and observers will end on June 25. Inaugurating the conference on June 23,
the CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya called upon the ranks of
the Party as well as the people in the state to march ahead with much more
strength and energy to defeat the communal fascist forces. He said, "braving
all police terror we have resisted several attacks of the Marandi government
on the people in Jharkhand and their democratic aspirations. Situation has
come when we should redouble our strength and energy and go for a decisive
offensive against the anti-dalit, anti-adivasi and anti-minority Marandi
government."

Speaking on national situation, the CPI(ML) General Secretary said that the
RSS led Vajpayee govt. has become a deadweight for the country. The Sangh
Parivar and its affiliates are dividing the country on communal lines and
mortgaging the sovereignty and independence of the country to the US
imperialists. From Jharkhand to Assam and from Gujarat to Kashmir, the govt.
is playing havoc with national unity and democracy. He said, "We are
determined to take all-out initiatives for broader mobilization to resist
these devious designs of the Sangh Parivar and BJP".

CPI(ML) General Secretary called for demobilization of troops from Indo-Pak
border, complete restoration of all diplomatic ties and immediate resumption
of direct bilateral dialogue with Pakistan. "By refusing to return to the
negotiating table with Pakistan, the Vajpayee govt. is inviting more and
more American intervention", he said. Speaking on 'Missile Man' APJ Abdul
Kalam's Presidential candidature, he called upon the people to be vigilant
against BJP's aggressive militarisation. He said the symbolism, meaning and
the message, which the candidature of Dr. Kalam carries with it, is very
dangerous. He demanded ban on the VHP and Bajarang Dal for its role on
Ayodhya issue as well as in the genocide in Gujarat.
CPI(ML) legislator in Jharkhand assembly Mahendra Singh and veteran
communist leader Md. Bashruddin, who has quit CPI recently along with more
than six hundred workers and joined the CPI(ML), also addressed the
inaugural session of the Conference. Party Polit Bureau Members Swadesh
Bhattacharya and DP Bakshi were among those present in the session. Com.
Subhendu Sen, state secretary of the Party in Jharkhand conducted the
session. The organisational session of the conference began next day on 24
June.

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