Liberation August 2011

8/6/2019 Liberation August 2011

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COVERS:

NSUI Goons Beat Up AISA National President

For Asking HRD Minister a

Question! On 24 June, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal addressed a Press Conference, asserting his

governments and Ministrys commitment to privatization of higher education, and

pleading fund crunch for expanding publicly-funded colleges and universities. AISA

and RYA held a protest outside the venue of the Press Conference.

Sandeep Singh, National President of AISA and a research scholar at Jawaharlal

Nehru University (JNU), entered the Press Conference room and raised a question

about the huge drain on public funds in the shape of mega scams and black money;

funds which could otherwise be used for ensuring quality education for each youngIndian. He pointed out that the HRD Minister had defended the 2G scam publicly,

denying that any malpractice had taken place. Immediately, NSUI strongmen

manhandled him and pushed him out of the room.

After that, they physically assaulted Sandeep as well as other AISA and RYA

activists gathered in protest against Sibal. Press photographs of this assault

(accompanying this report) show how vicious this attack was.

Kapil Sibal had described the Ramlila Maidan crackdown as a lesson to

everybody. His meaning becomes clear from the Ranchi incident. The HRD Minister

is accompanied by muscle-men who physically suppress and assault any student

who dares to question the HRD Minister!This assault is reminiscent of the terror of the Sanjay brigade of the Emergency

days, and strengthens the feeling that an undeclared Emergency is in place.

On 25 June, AISA-RYA held a march to the Raj Bhavan, Ranchi, in protest against

privatization of education, the abysmal state of education in Jharkhand, and the

attack on Sandeep and AISA-RYA activists.

Such attacks have only intensified the determination of Indias students and youth

to resist corruption and defy repression.

Ali Babas Cave?

No Just Sai Babas Chambers!Kavita Krishnan

Hundreds of kilos of gold and silver ornaments. Six crowns studded with gems.

100 suitcases full of bejewelled watches, suitcases full of cameras, artefacts, wall

clocks. Pouches full of diamonds. Hundreds of shoes, entire closets dedicated to

imported perfume, hairspray, nail polish and shampoos. Necklaces, rings, gold


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bowls, a silver chair, silver plates, cups and glasses. Closets full of hundreds of silk

robes and other silk garments. Hidden vaults fitted into a huge bed. Hundreds of

envelopes, bags, suitcases full of cash.

Is this the Gringotts vault in the latest Harry Potter movie? Or the fabled wealth

of the forty thieves, discovered by Ali Baba?

Neither. Its not even the wealth accumulated by the Travancore kings in thePadmanabhaswamy temple of Tiruvanthapuram.

Its merely what was found in an initial survey of a part of the Sathya Sai Babas

personal chambers at Puttaparthi. In fact, after that survey, a car was stopped and

searched by the police as it was leaving Puttaparthi with Sathya Sai Trust

members attempting to smuggle out around $1 million in cash.

Several rooms in that chamber (styled the Yajur Mandir) are yet to be opened,

because they require biometric identification the fingerprint of the Babas

personal attendant. It is being suspected that the chambers contain false ceilings

and secret vaults with more untold wealth.

Why did a self-proclaimed man of God, an avatar, a spiritual leader have to live a

lifestyle of the crudest concealed wealth and conspicuous consumption - that puts

even Imelda Marcos and her 3000 shoes in the shade?

Even the blindest of devotees cannot persuade themselves that this secret hoard

of wealth was, after all, for public use for the hospitals and schools and so on run

by the Sathya Sai Trust. Or even that the dubious wealth can all be blamed on the

Trust members alone and not on the Sai Baba himself. Why did that staggering

hoard of gold and silver and diamonds lie in the Babas personal chamber rather

than being deposited in the Trust account and properly audited? Why was it not

being already used for charitable work? And why, anyway, would the Trust or the

charities have any use for hundreds of silk robes, shoes, necklaces, rings, imported

watches, perfumes, hairspray, and gold and silver furniture and cutlery?! Clearly,

the man who claimed to have renounced the material world for the spiritual life,

lived a secret personal life of unimaginably lavish luxury. Not only that, this

immense wealth was acquired and stored in dubious ways, without any scrutiny or

accountability.

The god business is like none other. You can mint money. But the larger

spiritual empire you command, the less keen the political powers will be to ask

you any questions about your wealth. You can play God to your devotees no

questions asked. There are a very large number of young boys, mostly sons of

staunch devotees of the Sathya Sai Baba, who accuse him of having sexually

molested them. But these accusations of paedophilia were never investigated. A

wolf in saffron clothing can prey on people far more easily than most others!

The Sathya Sai Babas claims of miracles such as producing sacred ash for

poor devotees, and imported Rolex watches for celebrities, from thin air have

been challenged by rationalists before. P C Sorcar, the famous magician, declared

that all such acts were sleights of hand and needed no divine power.


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The Prime Minister himself termed the Sathya Sai Babas death an irreparable

loss. A phalanx of Congress and BJP leaders, Union Ministers and Chief Ministers,

attended the funeral, as did cricket stars and film stars. Ratan Tata paid a personal

visit to Puttaparthi after the funeral. With all these big shots saying Om Sai Ram,

the Sai Scam is in danger of being buried deep.

Nor was the Sathya Sai Baba the only one. The ED enquiry into Baba Ramdevsassets might reek of the UPA Governments vindictiveness, but it is true that huge

proliferation of businesses run by Ramdev and his close aides has many questions

to answer. Godmen/conmen cannot enjoy impunity from scrutiny. Religious trusts

must be properly audited and taxed. The Baba businesses must be regulated and

black sheep brought to book.

The Godmen exploit a crisis-ridden world where people are desperate for some sort

of solace. Marx had, indeed, observed that Religion is the sigh of the oppressed

creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. The

sigh of the oppressed creature is one thing; but there is need to be vigilant

against the Sai who mints wealth by conning oppressed creatures!

CONTENTS

POLICY WATCH

Seed Bill .......................................2

COVER FEATURE

Supreme Court Verdicts..............4

FROM THE STATES

Sixty Days of Mamata Rule ..........12

Gorkhaland Accord....................14

Repression in Tripura, Assam....15

Land Scam in Bihar .....................16Corruption and Murder in UP.....17

Uttarakhand Struggles..............19

Letter from Jharkhand...............21

ARTICLE

Legacy of Rabindranath ...............23

INTERNATIONAL

Debt Ceiling Deadlock in US .........28

Ecuador.....................................29

SPORTS

Dope Scandal .............................31

Saving Democracy from the Corrupt, Callous and RepressiveCorporate Rule

hen Parliament meets in August, the UPA and NDA partners will once again have enough materials to

engage each other in a pot-calls-the-kettle-black contest, what with the shadow of the 2G scam getting

larger with every passing day. The scam has already claimed two ministers and one MP from Tamil Nadu. The

Congress is desperately trying to save itself by blaming it all on the DMK but any credible probe is bound to

W


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implicate the nucleus of the coalition government, the Prime Minister who defends corruption in the name of coalition

politics and advises the media to downplay the scams in national interest.

The 2G scam is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The current telecom minister Kapil Sibal who from day one

has been trying to rubbish the CAG report on the 2G scam has already added his own little chapter to the unending

saga of the great telecom robbery by exempting the Ambanis from paying a penalty of Rs. 650 crore. If Sibal has

favoured Anil Ambani, we know from the CAG how petroleum minister Murli Deora connived with Mukesh Ambani as

the latter increased the development cost of its KG Basin project from $2.4 bn in 2004 to $8.8 bn in 2006 a cleverway of concealing profit and also underpaying the necessary royalty. Deora has been silently eased out of the cabinet

in the course of the latest reshuffle.

And then there is the cash-for-vote scam UPA-II has inherited from UPA-I. The parliamentary committee formed in

July 2008 to probe the scam recommended that the probe should ideally be conducted by the CBI or the Income Tax

department, but the government did nothing of the sort. Even the Delhi Police were sitting on the probe, till pulled up

recently by the Supreme Court. And now even without completing the probe they have gone out of their way to give a

clean chit to the Congress or the Samjwadi Party even as all clues lead to the doors of people like former SP leader

Amar Singh or key Congress strategist Ahmed Patel. And let us not forget that the scam was also corroborated by

the US embassys confidential cables to Washington.

If these scams provide ample ammunition for the BJP and NDA, there are also skeletons tumbling out, at regular

intervals, of the BJPs cupboards. The latest salvo has again come from Karnataka where the Lokayukt has just filed

his second report on the state-sponsored illegal mining scam in the state. The report indicts several Karnataka

ministers including Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa. Former Chief Minister and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, who

ruled the state in collaboration with the BJP in 2006-07 and Rajya Sabha Congress MP and miner Anil Lad are also

mentioned for their role in the scam which has cost the state exchequer at least Rs. 1800 crore between March 2009

and May 2010. Ironically, while the media got busy with the Lokayukts report, (leaked a day before it was officially

submitted), the Karnataka CM had left for Mauritius on a ten-day vacation!

Talking of Lokayukts, there is another Lokayukt report that has recently been in the news. The Lokayukt of Delhi,

Justice Manmohan Sarin, has held Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit guilty of making a false promise to the poor in

the 2008 Assembly elections. Dikshit had said 60,000 flats for the poor were ready for distribution and 400,000 flats

would be ready by 2012 when land for the flats had not even been acquired! Justice Sarin has set a significant

precedent by holding a Chief Minister accountable for promises made during elections. Bihar does not have a

Lokayukt yet, otherwise we could have also had a Lokayukt report holding Nitish Kumar responsible for his poll

promise of supplying subsidised foodgrains to Bihars 1.5 crore poor families.

While the CAGs and Lokayukts are having a tough time keeping pace with the diversity and volume of scams in

todays corporate-driven India, the Supreme Court too is finding it tough to reconcile todays trigger-happy and callous

governance with the good old constitutional paradigm. Whether it is foodgrains rotting in FCI godowns or black

money piling up in foreign banks, the terror of Salwa Judum in BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh or the plight of contract

sewage workers right in the national capital of late the apex court has often come out quite strongly against Indias

corrupt, callous and power-hungry rulers. The corrupt rulers are of course trying every trick to protect themselves

from what they call judicial overreach or the tyranny of civil society; and parliamentary prerogative is often the most

convenient shield they hide behind. The Lokpal Bill, likely to be tabled in the forthcoming Parliament session, is being

sought to be diluted precisely by invoking the shield of Parliaments supremacy and sovereignty.

Yet it is not difficult to see that what poses a much bigger threat to Indias constitutional democracy today is the

unaccountability and impunity with which the tainted rulers, working in cahoots with shady corporates, are holding the

people and parliament to ransom. The system of institutional checks and balances and an effective Lok Pal could

well be a useful addition in this regard can of course go some way in curbing the growing corporate tyranny, whichis why we must support the idea of a stringent anti-corruption legislation. But the real impulse to save freedom and

democracy from the clutches of corrupt and repressive corporate rule can only come from outside the four walls of

Parliament from the spring wells of peoples resistance. The battle for democracy must therefore be strengthened

by all means.

Seed Bill 2011:

Anti-Farmer, Pro-Agribusiness


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ver since the Seed Bill 2004 was introduced, it has met with severe opposition from farmers,

who recognised it as an assault on their traditional rights over seeds. As a result, it was

referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee, which did recommend several amendments in

keeping with the concerns of farmers organisations. A 2008 edition of the Bill introduced in

Parliament accepted many of these recommendations, but that Bill lapsed with the 14th Lok Sabha.

Once again in 2010, the Cabinet approved a new edition of the Bill, and the Agriculture Ministermoved several amendments in November 2010 and in February 2011. The Bill, incorporating the

latest amendments, will now be called the Seed Bill 2011.

E

Before we discuss the specific provisions of the Seed Bill, we should remember that in India,

30% of seeds sown every year in India by small and big farmers are supplied by the formal seed

trade. The remaining 70% lies in the farmer seed system. (S Bala Ravi, EPW, August 7, 2010)

Therefore, the purpose of a Seed Bill cannot be to regulate or restrict the traditional rights of

farmers in any way. Rather, it should be to protect the farmer from spurious and poor quality

seeds in the market, and to protect farmers from exploitative pricing and ensure proper supply of

seeds.

In response to outspoken protest, the Seed Bill in its latest amended shape explicitly states

that it will not restrict the right of the farmer to grow, sow, re-sow, save, use, exchange, share orsell his farm seeds or planting material, and it also specifies that the farmer is not to be included

under the ambit of producer. But it does restrict the farmer from selling such seeds or material

under a brand name.

The Bill now defines the farmer as a cultivator of crops and also as the person who conserves

or preserves, severally or jointly with any person, any traditional varieties or adds values to such

traditional varieties through selection and identification of their useful properties. These

amendments are, however, inadequate to protect the full traditional rights of farmers as

cultivators, conservers, and breeders of new seed varieties. The Seed Bill must protect the rights

of farmers to grow, breed, select, sow, re-sow, save, use, exchange, share, distribute or sell all

varieties of seeds.

The Seed Bill in its present form cannot protect farmers from exploitative pricing or hoarding ofseeds, because it has no provisions for price controls and fixing of royalty, nor for ensuring supply

of seeds. In the last few years, farmers and many state governments have been challenging

exorbitant pricing and royalty by companies like Monsanto. The AP Government had to slash the

price of Bt-cotton seed by more than half of what Monsanto had fixed. Seed companies have

gone to court challenging the right of state government to regulate prices and royalty. The Seed

Bill must provide for stringent regulation of prices and royalty, as well as supply.

The Bill provides for compulsory registration and certification for all commercially traded seeds

(barring farmer varieties). The Bill provides for registration for 10 years for annual and biennial

seeds, and 12 years for long duration perennials. It also allows for re-registration. Effectively,

therefore, it allows commercial marketing of registered seeds for 20 years for annual/biennial

varieties and 24 years for perennials. This paves the way for seed monopolies by a back doorroute. This provision for re-registration must be deleted and the registration period further

shortened.

Unlike the Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers Rights (PPVFR) Act, the Seed Bill has no

provision for pre-registration publication of the application and for pre-grant opposition, in case

members of the public know the seed to be spurious or sub-standard. Further, whereas the

PVPFRA requires the declaration of parentage and pedigree of seeds, the Seed Bill does not. This

will encourage piracy of seeds developed by famers or in the public domain. One of the most


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objectionable clauses of provisional registration for transgenic seeds - has been deleted in the

2010-11 amendments.

The Bill requires compulsory certification of seeds (except farmer varieties) by accredited

agencies owned or controlled by central or state governments. This is certainly an improvement

on the 2004 Bill which allowed for voluntary certification and truthfully labelled seeds.

In spite of great opposition, the clause allowing the Central Government to grant recognition torecognition to foreign seed certification agencies has been retained. Foreign certification is

unacceptable, simply because seeds must be tested for performance in Indian soil and climate

conditions in multiple locations before being given registration.

The Bill stipulates multi-location locations to check the seeds performance, as a crucial pre-

condition for registration. But which institution will be empowered to conduct these trials? The

Standing Committee had recommended that only accredited government/semi-

government/autonomous organisations, such as the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, State

Agricultural Universities, conduct such trials. The 2008 edition of the Bill had accepted this

amendment, but the 2010-11 version reverts to the 2004 Bills provision for private organizations

fulfilling the eligibility requirements to conduct the trials. This will undoubtedly lead to conflict of

interest, wherein the tame in-house organisations of Monsanto-type private interests may qualify toconduct the trials on the seeds marketed by the same interests!

Similarly, the Bill provides for Central and State Seed Testing Laboratories. But while the 2008

version of the Bill had, in keeping with Standing Committee recommendations, excluded

laboratories in the non-government sector, the 2010-11 version again brings back the clause

allowing seed testing laboratories in the Government or non-Government sector.

A Central Seed Committee (CSC) will be constituted to oversee implementation of the Seed Act,

and every State Government shall also establish a State Seed Committee. However, all states are

not represented on the CSC, and farmers too are inadequately represented.

In the latest version of the Bill, Seed Inspectors will have to take prior written permission from

District Magistrate to search any place where they believe the Seed Act is being violated. They will

be empowered to break open doors or containers where seed is being stored. But, as a concessionto apprehensions that these powers may be misused to harass farmers, the latest amendments

require the Seed Inspector to conduct these actions in the presence of two independent persons

from the locality.

The penalty for violating the Act, selling or importing misbranded seeds, or selling substandard

seeds, is still fixed extremely low, at between Rs 25,000 and Rs 1 lakh, while the penalty for

giving false information will be a prison term of up to 1 year and a fine of up to Rs 5 lakh. Not

only should the penalty be of a truly deterrent nature, there must be provision for blacklisting of

offending individuals and companies.

The clause on penalties retains a loophole for any official of a seed companies, maintaining

that he will not be liable to any punishment if he proves that the offence was committed without

his knowledge. Again, this provision in the 2004 edition was deleted in 2008, but brought backin 2010-11! This is nothing but an escape route for guilty officials. Also, the Seed Bill has no

liability clause holding seed exporters responsible for compensation and clean-up in case of any

pest outbreak.

The latest amendments in the Seed Bill allow the Central Government to exempt from the

provisions of the Act any educational, scientific, research or extension organisation. Unless this

clause is restricted only to well-established public sector institutions, in-house research

institutions of private seed companies might seek and secure exemption!


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The Bill does not provide for any time-bound mechanism for farmers to get a hearing for their

complaints, nor does it set out any terms for compensation. Grievance redressal must be time-

bound, and compensation should be fixed to cover costs incurred by the farmer, as well as the

shortfall from the value of the expected yield and promised performance.

The Seed Bill in its present form stipulates no adequate safeguards to protect against

terminator seeds. It paves the way for GM (transgenic) seeds being researched and marketedby MNC seed monopolies, without putting in place any adequately stringent procedures for

verifying bio-safety or safety for human consumption.

The Seed Bill, including many of the latest amendments, show signs that powerful

commercial interests and seed companies are exerting pressures on the policy-makers in

the UPA Government. These pro-agribusiness features of the Bill must be resisted and the

Seed Bill must protect farmers rights, incorporate adequate safeguards against commercial

and MNC interests seeking to control the seed market, and guarantee farmers rights to

proper supply of affordable and high quality seeds.

Govt. Serves PredatoryCapitalists,

Undermines Justice, WorkersRights

ot so long ago, in 2006, Prashant Bhushan, speaking on The Judiciary Cutting edge of a predator

state, had commented on the recent role of the courts in not just failing to protect the rights of thepoor that they had themselves declared not long ago, but in fact spearheading the massive assault on the poor

since the era of economic liberalization. This is happening in case after case, whether they are of the tribal

oustees of the Narmada Dam, or the urban slum dwellers whose homes are being ruthlessly bulldozed without

notice and without rehabilitation, on the orders of the court, or the urban hawkers and rickshaw pullers of

Delhi and Mumbai who have been ordered to be removed from the streets again on the orders of the court.

Public interest litigation has been turned on its head. Instead of being used to protect the rights of the poor, it is

now being used by commercial interests and the upper middle classes to launch a massive assault in the poor in

the drive to take over urban spaces and even rural land occupied by the poor, for commercial development.

N

It is important to remind ourselves that not much has changed in the situation described above. The overall

judicial climate continues to remain hostile to the working class and the poor. In that climate, however, it is

refreshing to have a few recent Supreme Court verdicts that have given some respite to the poor and the

peasantry, and have reminded the state of its Constitutional obligations.

Interestingly, these verdicts have provoked a furious reaction in a large section of the media, and of course

in the ruling class parties both Congress and BJP. In particular, these verdicts have been excoriated for being

ideological, because a couple of them have been critical of neoliberal economic policies. The critics of the

verdict, of course, are silent on the ideological content of all those scores of verdicts which have upheld and

hailed neoliberal economic policies! In any case, these verdicts do not just expound a moral discourse on


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neoliberal economic policies; rather, they show how these policies are inconsistent with the principles and

promises enshrined in the Constitution.

When progressive verdicts are passed, the Courts for instance in the case where the Supreme Court

ordered an SIT to be set up to monitor the investigations into black money or the Delhi HC order on safety for

sewage workers are often accused of judicial overreach; i.e, of encroaching on the domain of the

executive.

We reproduce excerpts of these recent landmark verdicts, which are powerful statements on burning issues

of our times. We must demand that these judicial orders be implemented by the government without delay.

However, just as even the Constitutions lofty declarations are often blithely ignored in practice, so too,

such progressive court verdicts are all too often ignored or circumvented by governments. One of the

petitioners in the Salwa Judum case, Nandini Sundar, observed, In 2008, the court directed them

(Chhattisgarh Government) to compensate people affected by the (Salwa Judum orchestrated) violence, ensure

that people can return home, ensure that there is a list of missing people and file FIRs, but they have done

nothing. They displayed complete contempt for the court.

Salwa Judum: The Horror, The Horror

(Excerpts from the verdict ordering disarming of the Salwa Judum/SPOs/Koya Commando, passed on July

5 by a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and Surinder Singh

Nijjar. The subheadings are our own, outlining the main issues addressed by this verdict. The UPA

Government and Chhattisgarh Government have spoken of seeking a review of this verdict on the grounds that

it would hamper anti-Maoist operations. This is highly condemnable. We must demand that this verdict be

fully complied with, under suitable monitoring by the SC.)

This case represents a yawning gap between the promise of principled exercise of power

in a constitutional democracy, and the reality of the situation in Chhattisgarh, where the

Respondent, the State of Chhattisgarh, claims that it has a constitutional sanction to

perpetrate, indefinitely, a regime of gross violation of human rights in a manner....

Parallels Between Chhattisgarh Today and the

Colonial Scramble for Loot in Africa

... we could not but help be reminded of the novella, Heart of Darkness by Joseph

Conrad, who perceived darkness at three levels: (1) the darkness of the forest, representing

a struggle for life and the sublime; (ii) the darkness of colonial expansion for resources; and

finally (iii) the darkness, represented by inhumanity and evil, to which individual human

beings are capable of descending, when supreme and unaccounted force is vested,

rationalized by a warped world view that parades itself as pragmatic and inevitable, in each

individual level of command. Set against the backdrop of resource rich darkness of the

African tropical forests, the brutal ivory trade sought to be expanded by the imperialist-

capitalist expansionary policy of European powers, Joseph Conrad describes the grisly, and

the macabre states of mind and justifications advanced by men, who secure and wield force

without reason, sans humanity, and any sense of balance. The main perpetrator in the

novella, Kurtz, breathes his last with the words: The horror! The horror!1 Conrad

characterized the actual circumstances in Congo between 1890 and 1910, based on his


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personal experiences there, as the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of

human conscience. (Joseph Conrad Geography and Some Explorers, National Geographic

magazine, Vol 45, 1924)

As we heard more and more about the situation in Chhattisgarh, and the justifications

being sought to be pressed upon us by the respondents, it began to become clear to us that

the respondents were envisioning modes of state action that would seriously undermineconstitutional values. ...as a hazy picture of events and circumstances in some districts of

Chhattisgarh emerged, we could not but arrive at the conclusion that the respondents were

seeking to put us on a course of constitutional actions whereby we would also have to

exclaim, at the end of it all: the horror, the horror.

Against Branding Human Rights Activists as Maoists

...What was doubly dismaying to us was the repeated insistence, by the respondents, that

the only option for the State was to rule with an iron fist, establish a social order in which

every person is to be treated as suspect, and any one speaking for human rights of citizens

to be deemed as suspect, and a Maoist. In this bleak, and miasmic world view propounded

by the respondents in the instant case, historian Ramchandra Guha, noted academic Nandini

Sunder, civil society leader

Swami Agnivesh, and a former and well reputed bureaucrat, E.A.S. Sarma, were all to be

treated as Maoists, or supporters of Maoists. We must state that we were aghast at the

blindness to constitutional limitations of the State of Chhattisgarh, and some of its

advocates, in claiming that anyone who questions the conditions of inhumanity that are

rampant in many parts of that state ought to necessarily be treated as Maoists, or their

sympathizers, and yet in the same breath also claim that it needs the constitutional sanction,

under our Constitution, to perpetrate its policies of ruthless violence against the people of

Chhattisgarh to establish a Constitutional order.

Problem Rests with Amoral Political Economy

... The problem rests in the amoral political economy that the State endorses, and the

resultant revolutionary politics that it necessarily spawns.

... Rather than heeding such advice (i.e that of the Expert Group appointed by the

Planning Commission on Development Challenges in Extremist Affected Areas), which

echoes the wisdom of our Constitution, what we have witnessed in the instant proceedings

have been repeated assertions of inevitability of muscular and violent statecraft.

The root cause of the problem, and hence its solution, lies elsewhere. The culture of

unrestrained selfishness and greed spawned by modern neo-liberal economic ideology, and

the false promises of ever increasing spirals of consumption leading to economic growth that

will lift everyone, under-gird this socially, politically and economically unsustainable set of

circumstances in vast tracts of India in general, and Chhattisgarh in particular.

The justification often advanced, by advocates of the neoliberal development paradigm, as

historically followed, or newly emerging, in a more rapacious form, in India, is that unless

development occurs, via rapid and vast exploitation of natural resources, the country would

not be able to either compete on the global scale, nor accumulate the wealth necessary to

tackle endemic and seemingly intractable problems of poverty, illiteracy, hunger and squalor.


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Whether such exploitation is occurring in a manner that is sustainable, by the environment

and the existing social structures, is an oft debated topic, and yet hurriedly buried. Neither

the policy makers nor the elite in India, who turn a blind eye to the gross and inhuman

suffering of the displaced and the dispossessed, provide any credible answers. Worse still,

they ignore historical evidence which indicates that a development paradigm depending

largely on the plunder and loot of the natural resources more often than not leads to failure ofthe State; and that on its way to such a fate, countless millions would have been condemned

to lives of great misery and hopelessness.

Mining and Predatory Forms of Capitalism

...Predatory forms of capitalism, supported and promoted by the State in direct

contravention of constitutional norms and values, often take deep roots around the extractive

industries. In India too, we find a great frequency of occurrence of more volatile incidents of

social unrest, historically, and in the present, in resource rich regions, which paradoxically

also suffer from low levels of human development. The argument that such a development

paradigm is necessary, and its consequences inevitable, is untenable. The Constitution itself,

in no uncertain terms, demands that the State shall strive, incessantly and consistently, to

promote fraternity amongst all citizens such that dignity of every citizen is protected,

nourished and promoted. The Directive Principles, though not justiciable, nevertheless

fundamental in the governance of the Country, direct the State to utilize the material

resources of the community for the common good of all, and not just of the rich and the

powerful without any consideration of the human suffering that extraction of such resources

impose on those who are sought to be dispossessed and disempowered. Complete justice

social, economic and political - is what our Constitution promises to each and every citizen.

Such a promise, even in its weakest form and content, cannot condone policies that turn a

blind eye to deliberate infliction of misery on large segments of our population.

Policies of rapid exploitation of resources by the private sector, without crediblecommitments to equitable distribution of benefits and costs, and environmental

sustainability, are necessarily violative of principles that are fundamental to governance,

and when such a violation occurs on a large scale, they necessarily also eviscerate the

promise of equality before law, and equal protection of the laws, promised by Article 14, and

the dignity of life assured by Article 21. Additionally, the collusion of the extractive industry,

and in some places it is also called the mining mafia, and some agents of the State,

necessarily leads to evisceration of the moral authority of the State, which further

undermines both Article 14 and Article 21. As recognized by the Expert Committee of the

Planning Commission, any steps taken by the State, within the paradigm of treating such

volatile circumstances as simple law and order problems, to perpetrate large scale violence

against the local populace, would only breed more insurgency, and ever more violent

protests.

...Instead of locating the problem in the socioeconomic matrix, and the sense of

disempowerment wrought by the false developmental paradigm without a human face, the

powers that be in India are instead propagating the view that this obsession with economic

growth is our only path, and that the costs borne by the poor and the deprived,

disproportionately, are necessary costs.


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Tax Breaks for the Rich, Guns for the Poor

...On the one hand the State subsidises the private sector, giving it tax break after tax

break, while simultaneously citing lack of revenues as the primary reason for not fulfilling its

obligations to provide adequate cover to the poor through social welfare measures. On the

other hand, the State seeks to arm the youngsters amongst the poor with guns to combat

the anger, and unrest, amongst the poor.

Tax breaks for the rich, and guns for the youngsters amongst poor, so that they keep

fighting amongst themselves, seems to be the new mantra from the mandarins of security

and high economic policy of the State.

What the mandarins of high policies forget is that a society is not a forest where one could

combat an accidental forest fire by starting a counter forest fire that is allegedly controlled.

Human beings are not individual blades of dry grass. As conscious beings, they exercise a

free will. Armed, the very same groups can turn, and often have turned, against other

citizens, and the State itself. Recent history is littered with examples of the dangers of armed

vigilante groups that operate under the veneer of State patronage or support.

Such misguided policies, albeit vehemently and muscularly asserted by some policymakers, are necessarily contrary to the vision and imperatives of our constitution... The

creation of such a miasmic environment of dehumanization of youngsters of the deprived

segments of our population, in which guns are given to them rather than books, to stand as

guards for the rapine, plunder and loot in our forests, would be to lay the road to national

destruction.

... To pursue socio-economic policies that cause vast disaffection amongst the poor,

creating conditions of violent politics is a proscribed feature of our Constitution. To arrive at

such a situation, in actuality on account of such policies, and then claim that there are not

enough resources to tackle the resulting socio-political unrest, and violence, within the

framework of constitutional values amounts to an abdication of constitutional

responsibilities.

...To pursue policies whereby guns are distributed amongst barely literate youth amongst

the poor to control the disaffection in such segments of the population would be tantamount

to sowing of suicide pills that could divide and destroy society.

Our constitution is most certainly not a pact for national suicide. (Aharon Barack, The

Judge in a Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2006). In the least, its vision does enable

us, as constitutional adjudicators to recognize, and prevent, the emergence, and the

institutionalization, of a policing paradigm, the end point of which can only mean that the

entire nation, in short order, might have to gasp: The horror! The horror!

Central Government: Equally Guilty

We must at this point also express our deepest dismay at the role of Union of India in

these matters.

The fact of the matter is, it is the financial assistance being given by the Union that is

enabling the State of Chhattisgarh to appoint barely literate tribal youth as SPOs...

...The fact that even now it (Union of India) sees its responsibilities as consisting of only

issuing of advisories to the state governments does not lead to any confidence that the


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Union of India intends to take all the necessary steps in mitigating a vile social situation that

it has, willy-nilly, played an important role in creating.

SPOs: Cannon Fodder

It is also equally clear to us that in this policy, of using local youth, jointly devised by the

Union and the States facing Maoist insurgency, as implemented in the State of Chhattisgarh,the young tribals have literally become cannon fodder in the killing fields of Dantewada and

other districts of Chhattisgarh.

...The State of Chhattisgarh has itself stated that in recruiting these tribal youths as SPOs

preference for those who have passed the fifth standard has been given. This clearly

implies that some, or many, who have been recruited as SPOs may not have even passed

the fifth standard. ...It is shocking that the State of Chhattisgarh then turns around and

states that it had expected such youngsters to learn, adequately, subjects such as IPC, CRPC,

Evidence Act, Minors Act etc. Even more shockingly the State of Chhattisgarh claims that the

same was achieved in a matter of 24 periods of instruction of one hour each. Further, the

State of Chhattisgarh also claims that in an additional 12 periods, both the concepts of

Human Rights and other provisions of Indian Constitution had been taught.

...they (SPOs) are obviously being put in volatile situations in which the distinctions

between self-defence and unwarranted firing of a firearm may be very thin and requiring a

high level of discretionary judgment. Given their educational levels it is obvious that they

simply will not have the skills to make such judgments; and further because of low

educational levels, the training being provided to them will not develop such skills.

The State of Chhattisgarh claims that in providing such employment they are creating

livelihoods, and consequently promoting the values enshrined in Article 21. We simply

cannot comprehend how involving ill equipped, barely literate youngsters in counter

insurgency activities, wherein their lives are placed in danger could be conceived under the

rubric of livelihood. Such a conception, and the acts of using such youngsters in counter-insurgency activities, is necessarily revelatory of disrespect for the lives of the tribal youth,

and defiling of their human dignity...

Black Money Linked to Neoliberal Paradigm[Verdict by SC Bench of Justices B Sudershan Reddy and Surinder Singh Nijjar on July 4]

States Violent Support for Predatory Capitalism

... Increasingly, on account of greed is good culture that has been promoted by neo-

liberal ideologues, many countries face the situation where the model of capitalism that the

State is compelled to institute, and the markets it spawns, is predatory in nature. From

mining mafias to political operators who, all too willingly, bend policies of the State to suitparticular individuals or groups in the social and economic sphere, the raison detre for

weakening the capacities and intent to enforce the laws is the lure of the lucre. Even as the

State provides violent support to those who benefit from such predatory capitalism, often

violating the human rights of its citizens, particularly its poor, the market begins to function

like a bureaucratic machine dominated by big business; and the

State begins to function like the market, where everything is available for sale at a price.


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Fly in the Free Market Ointment

The paradigm of governance that has emerged, over the past three decades, prioritizes the

market, and its natural course, over any degree of control of it by the State. The role for the

State is visualized by votaries of the neoliberal paradigm as that of a night watchman; and

moreover it is also expected to take its hands out of the till of the wealth generating

machinery. ...the prevailing wisdom of the elite, and of the policy makers, is that reduction of

tax rates, thereby making tax regimes regressive, would incentivise the supposed genius of

entrepreneurial souls of individuals, actuated by pursuit of self-interest and desire to

accumulate great economic power. It was expected that this would enable the generation of

more wealth, at a more rapid pace, thereby enabling the State to generate appropriate tax

revenues even with lowered tax rates.

Further, benefits were also expected in moral terms that the lowering of tax rates would

reduce the incentives of wealth generators to hide their monies, thereby saving them from

the guilt of tax evasion.

...there is a fly in the ointment of the above story of friction free markets that would

always clear, and always work to the benefit of the society. The strength of tax collectionmachinery can, and ought to be, expected to have a direct bearing on the revenues collected

by the State. If the machinery is weak, understaffed, ideologically motivated to look the

other way, or the agents motivated by not so salubrious motives, the amount of revenue

collected by the State would decline, stagnate, or may not generate the revenue for the

State that is consonant with its responsibilities. From within the neo-liberal paradigm, also

emerged the under-girding current of thought that revenues for the State implies a big

government, and hence a strong tax collecting machinery itself would be undesirable. Where

the elite lose out in democratic politics of achieving ever decreasing tax rates, it would

appear that state machineries in the hands of the executive, all too willing to promote the

extreme versions of the neoliberal paradigm and co-opt itself in the enterprises of the elite,

may also become all too willing to not develop substantial capacities to monitor and follow

the money, collect the lawfully mandated taxes, and even look the other way. The results, as

may be expected, have been disastrous across many nations.

In addition, it would also appear that in this miasmic cultural environment in which greed

is extolled, conspicuous consumption viewed as both necessary and socially valuable, and

the wealthy viewed as demi-gods, the agents of the State may have also succumbed to the

notions of the neo-liberal paradigm that the role of the State ought to only be an enabling

one, and not exercise significant control. This attitude would have a significant impact on

exercise of discretion, especially in the context of regulating economic activities, including

keeping an account of the monies generated in various activities, both legal and illegal.

Carried away by the ideology of neo-liberalism, it is entirely possible that the agents of theState entrusted with the task of supervising the economic and social activities may err more

on the side of extreme caution, whereby signals of wrong doing may be ignored even when

they are strong. Instances of the powers that be ignoring publicly visible stock market

scams, or turning a blind eye to large scale illegal mining have become all too familiar, and

may be readily cited. That such activities are allowed to continue to occur, with weak, or

nonexistent, responses from the State may, at best, be charitably ascribed to this broader


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culture of permissibility of all manner of private activities in search of ever more lucre.

Ethical compromises, by the elite those who wield the powers of the state, and those who

fatten themselves in an ever more exploitative economic sphere can be expected to thrive

in an environment marked by such a permissive attitude, of weakened laws, and of

weakened law enforcement machineries and attitudes.

... India finds itself in a peculiar situation. Often celebrated...as an emerging economy thatis rapidly growing, and expected to be a future economic and political giant on the global

stage, it is also popularly perceived, and apparently even in some responsible and scholarly

circles, and official quarters, that some of its nationals and other legal entities have stashed

the largest quantum of unaccounted monies in foreign banks, especially in tax havens, and

in other jurisdictions with strong laws of secrecy.

Elite Citizens Disconnect

...If the politico-bureaucratic, power wielding, and business classes bear a large part of the

blame, at least some part of blame ought to be apportioned to those portions of the citizenry

that is well informed, or is expected to be informed. Much of that citizenry has disengaged

itself with the political process, and with the masses. Informed by contempt for the poor and

the downtrodden, the elite classes that have benefited the most, or expects to benefit

substantially from the neoliberal policies that would wish away the hordes, has also chosen

to forget that constitutional mandate is as much the responsibility of the citizenry, and

through their constant vigilance, of all the organs of the state, and national institutions

including political parties.

Powerful People Yet to Be Interrogated

... It also became clear to us that in fact the investigation (by the Union of India) had

completely stalled, in as much as custodial interrogation of Hassan Ali Khan had not even

been sought for, even though he was very much resident in India....during the continuing interrogation of Hassan Ali Khan and the Tapurias, undertaken for

the first time at the behest of this Court, many names of important persons, including

leaders of some corporate giants, politically powerful people, and international arms dealers

have cropped up. So far, no significant attempt has been made to investigate and verify the

same. This is a further cause for the grave concerns of this Court, and points to the need for

continued, effective and day to day monitoring by a SIT constituted by this Court, and acting

on behalf, behest and direction of this Court.

...the Union of India has been unable to answer any of the questions regarding its past

actions, and their implications, such as the slowness of the investigation, or about grant of

license to conduct retail banking by UBS, by reversing the decision taken earlier to withhold

such a license on the grounds that the said banks credentials were suspect. To this latter

query, the stance of the Union of India has been that entry of UBS would facilitate flow of

foreign investments into India. The question that arises is whether the task of bringing

foreign funds into India overrides all other constitutional concerns and obligations?

No More NandigramsIn another significant verdict, another Supreme Court Bench upheld an Allahabad High

Court verdict quashing land acquisition by the UP Government in Shahberi village of Greater


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Noida. The Bench dismissed the petitions by Greater Noida Authority (GNA) and several

private builders against the Allahabad HC verdict and fined the GNA Rs.10 lakh.

During the trial, the Supreme Court said a sinister campaign has been launched by

various state governments to take advantage of the colonial law on land acquisition to

grab prime agricultural land from farmers, paying them a mere pittance.

Do you think judges live in fools paradise? retorted the bench of Justices GS Singhvi andAK Ganguly, when senior advocate PP Rao responded to a question that the residential

complexes were being developed for the needy. You are building hotels, malls,

commercial complexes, townships where common men have no access. Does it come under

the perception of public purpose for which the land has been acquired?

The Bench questioned the fact that the Uttar Pradesh government had acquired the land

in the name of industrial use but later transferred it to real estate builders.

Earlier, a Bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and A.K. Patnaik, examining the same case, had

questioned the state governments invoking of an urgency clause that bars farmers from

raising objections, saying, We do not want more Nandigrams in all States.

We are praised when we rule for the rich, slammedwhen we uphold rights of poor

[A sewage worker employed on contract by Delhi Jal Board died of poisonous fumes while cleaning a drain.

When an NGO moved the Delhi HC for compensation, the DJB tried to claim, as usual, that his death due to lack

of safety masks and equipment was not their responsibility, but only the contractors. The HC ordered DJB to pay

compensation and ensure safety norms. The DJB filed an appeal in the SC against an HC verdict, questioning the

NGOs right to file a PIL; suggesting that the HC verdict was a case of judicial overreach; and questioning the

quantum of compensation ordered to be paid by the HC. The SC Bench of G S Singhvi and Asok Kumar Ganguly

passed a verdict strongly upholding the rights of unorganised workers. It held the HCs calculation ofcompensation to be meagre and inadequate. It maintained that the government agencies had the responsibility of

ensuring that contractors provided safety equipment and upheld other legal rights of sewage workers.]

The appeal is also illustrative of how the State apparatus is insensitive to the safety and

well being of those who are, on account of sheer poverty, compelled to work under most

unfavourable conditions and regularly face the threat of being deprived of their life.

...neither the law makers nor those who have been entrusted with the duty of

implementing the laws enacted for welfare of the unorganized workers have put in place

appropriate mechanism for protection of persons employed by or through the contractors to

whom services meant to benefit the public at large are outsourced by the State and/or its

agencies/instrumentalities like the appellant for doing works, which are inherently hazardous

and dangerous to life nor made provision for payment of reasonable compensation in the

event of death.

...(The petition seeks to) to highlight the plight of sewage workers many of whom died on

account of contemptuous apathy shown by the public authorities and contractors engaged

by them and even private individuals/enterprises in the matter of providing safety

equipments to those who are required to work under extremely odd conditions.


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...At the threshold, we deem it necessary to erase the impression and misgivings of some

people that by entertaining petitions filed by social action groups/activists/workers and NGOs

(on behalf of the poor and deprived)... the superior Courts exceed the unwritten boundaries

of their jurisdictions.

... In last 63 years, Parliament and State Legislatures have enacted several laws for

achieving the goals set out in the preamble but their implementation has been extremelyinadequate and tardy and benefit of welfare measures enshrined in those legislations has not

reached millions of poor, downtrodden and disadvantaged sections of the society...

The most unfortunate part of the scenario is that whenever one of the three constituents of

the State i.e., judiciary, has issued directions ...for implementation of the laws enacted by the

legislature for the benefit of the have-nots, a theoretical debate is started by raising the

bogey of judicial activism or judicial overreach and the orders issued for benefit of the weaker

sections of the society are invariably subjected to challenge in the higher Courts. In large

number of cases, the sole object of this litigative exercise is to tire out those who genuinely

espouse the cause of the weak and poor.

(Quoting a previous SC verdict):

The rule of law does not mean that the protection of the law must be available only to a

fortunate few...The poor too have civil and political rights and the rule of law is meant for

them also, though today it exists only on paper and not in reality. If the sugar barons and the

alcohol kings have the fundamental right to carry on their business and to fatten their purses

by exploiting the consuming public, have the [dalits] belonging to the lowest strata of society

no fundamental right to earn an honest living through their sweat and toil? The former can

approach the courts with a formidable army of distinguished lawyers paid in four or five

figures per day and if their right to exploit is upheld against the Government under the label

of fundamental right, the courts are praised for their boldness and courage and their

independence and fearlessness are applauded and acclaimed. But, if the fundamental right of

the poor and helpless victims of injustice is sought to be enforced by public interest litigation,the so-called champions of human rights frown upon it as waste of time of the highest court in

the land, which, according to them, should not engage itself in such small and trifling matters.

...civil and political rights, priceless and invaluable as they are for freedom and democracy,

simply do not exist for the vast masses of our people.

... Those who are decrying public interest litigation do not seem to realise that courts are

not meant only for the rich and the well-to-do, for the landlord and the gentry, for the

business magnate and the industrial tycoon, but they exist also for the poor and the down-

trodden, the have-nots and the handicapped and the half-hungry millions of our countrymen.

So far the courts have been used only for the purpose of vindicating the rights of the wealthy

and the affluent. It is only these privileged classes which have been able to approach thecourts for protecting their vested interests. It is only the moneyed who have so far had the

golden key to unlock the doors of justice.

... The State and its agencies/instrumentalities cannot absolve themselves of the

responsibility to put in place effective mechanism for ensuring safety of the workers

employed for maintaining and cleaning the sewage system. The human beings who are

employed for doing the work in the sewers cannot be treated as mechanical robots, who may

not be affected by poisonous gases in the manholes. The State and its


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18/44

unwilling landowners, the government has once again ignored the equally important issue

of compensating and rehabilitating the sharecroppers and landless labourers and toiling

masses who lost their livelihood in the wake of the forcible land acquisition. Nevertheless the

move to return the land forcibly acquired in Singur, if only a minor part of it, to the

landowners marks a significant victory for a crisis-ridden peasantry battling against

corporate power and a coercive state.In another welcome move, the new government has banned diversion of land

acquired/leased for industrial purposes into real estate. West Bengal has something like sixty

thousand closed and sick units and huge chunks of industrial land have already been

transformed into lucrative real estate property, not the least in former CMs own

constituency Jadavpur. There have also been several cases of companies violating the lease

agreement and diverting part of their lease-holding for real estate profiteering. A two-

member committee set up by the new government has already submitted a new land policy

document ruling out acquisition of agricultural land for industry.

While the policy-level gestures of the new government thus seem to be in favour of

agriculture and the small landowner, reports of eviction of share-croppers and pattadars

(those who got redistributed land under the previous regime) are coming in from almost all

corners of the state. The phenomenon of reversal of land reforms had started under the Left

Front government itself, but the change of the regime has certainly emboldened rural vested

interests to try and recapture at least part of the land they had to forgo under land reforms.

The record of West Bengal has been very poor in terms of implementation of the forest right

act and the new government remains as apathetic on this score as the previous regime.

The last few years of the CPI(M)s 34-year-long uninterrupted rule had earned considerable

notoriety on account of political terror, mass killings and state repression, especially the joint

paramilitary campaign in the tribal-dominated jangal-mahal region in the south-western

districts of Bengal. Restoration of democracy, including an end to the joint campaign, release

of all political prisoners and negotiated political solution to all long-standing key movementdemands in the state was naturally the biggest popular expectation from the new regime.

And if the early indications are anything to go by, it is on this score that the people seem to

be headed for the greatest disappointment.

The new government has refused to end the ongoing joint paramilitary campaign. During

her recent visit to the jangal-mahal region, Mamata Banerjee announced plans to set up a

training headquarter for the COBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) in the region.

She also declared her governments plan to recruit ten thousand local tribal youth in the

police or as volunteer force. Does it point to a Bengal version of Salwa Judum where the

government would seek to pit armed tribal youth operating as special police officers against

the agitating tribal people? On the issue of release of political prisoners, the new governmentformed a review committee packed with retired bureaucrats and police officers and a few

human rights activists. Out of some 500 plus political prisoners languishing in various jails of

the state, the committee shortlisted 78 names and Mamata Banerjee has further pruned it to

52, only about 10% of the estimated political prisoners in the state. And as with the question

of land, here too there are reports of a veritable campaign of political vendetta by TMC and

Congress forces whether on trade union or student front or in rural areas. According to

CPI(M) sources, 24 leaders and activists of the Left Front have been killed since the Assembly


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elections. Many CPI(M) and CITU offices have been shut down and the CPI(M) says many of

its cadres have had to flee in the face of sustained TMC-led assault and intimidation.

In recent past West Bengal has witnessed a series of mass revolts against loot and

corruption in the public distribution system and employment guarantee schemes and against

large-scale exclusion of the poor from the BPL list. The new government has not announced

any meaningful corrective measure to resolve these pressing problems facing the rural poor.During her visit to jangal-mahal Mamata Banerjee declared that her government would

provide the entire tribal population in the area with BPL cards, trying to pit the issue of

welfare against the popular anger against police atrocities. The issue of BPL is however not a

specific problem of the jangal-mahal it concerns the poor in the entire state. Large

numbers of starvation death cases have been reported from the tea gardens of Jalpaiguri. If

the government is really serious about resolving the problem of BPL, it must announce a new

policy of automatic inclusion of all agricultural labourers and other landless sections,

casual/contract workers and the toiling masses in the unorganised and informal sectors.

The CPI(M) remains too discredited and demoralised to provide any effective

opposition to the new regime. While the party officially said it was not opposed to

the idea of returning land to the peasants in Singur, the MLAs of Left Front staged a

walkout when the bill was placed in the Assembly, ostensibly on procedural

grounds. Large sections of the rural poor who had voted for the Left Front in the

Assembly elections are now faced with a concerted TMC offensive and in many

areas the CPI(M) is hardly able to put up any effective resistance. The CPI(ML) and

all mass organisations led by the party must intervene in this situation with wide-

ranging initiatives on the very issues that have catapulted the present regime to

power. On 12 July a demonstration of share-croppers and agricultural labourers was

held in Hooghly district demanding justice for the dispossessed landless people of

Singur. The party is also responding to cases of eviction of sharecroppers and

pattadars. After the August 9 jail bharo campaign, the state unit of the party willorganise a mass convention in Kolkata on the core agenda of land, livelihood and

democracy.

eteran CPI leader Chaturanan Mishra passed away in Delhi on 2 July. He was 86. The CPI(ML) central

committee was in session at Mysore when the sad news reached and the CC observed silence for two

minutes to pay homage to the departed leader. Comrade Chaturanan Mishra played an important role in building the

CPI in Bihar. In the early phase of his long political life, he also worked on the trade union front. As leader of the

CPI legislature group, twice he was the leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly and in 1996-97 when the CPI joined

the UF government at the Centre, he became the Union Minister for Agriculture.

V

Only a few months ago, the CPI lost another veteran leader of Bihar when Comrade Jagannath Sarkar, former

state secretary of CPI passed away in early April. He was 92. Comrade Jagannath Sarkar led the CPI during its years

of rapid growth in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Liberation pays homage to these veteran leaders of the CPI and cherishes their contribution in the history of the

communist movement in Bihar.


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The Gorkhaland Accord A New Turn in the Politics of the Hills and NorthBengal

DBven as Telangana continues to burn, the UPA government claims to have found a solution to

the Gorkhaland agitation with the signing of a tripartite agreement involving the central

government, Government of West Bengal and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. The agreement wasformalized at a public ceremony in the hills on 18 July, marking the replacement of the existing

Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council by a more powerful Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. The

formation of the GTA has triggered measured jubilation in the hills of Darjeeling while Siliguri and

Dooars region of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts have been marked by repeated bandhs called by

various organizations opposed to the existing agreement or jittery about the possibility of inclusion

of additional areas within the territory of Gorkhaland.

E

The GTA will have 50 members 45 elected and 5 nominated as opposed to the 42-member

DGHC which used to have only 28 elected members and as many as 14 nominated members. Apart

from substantially increasing the number of elected members, the agreement also confers

considerably enhanced powers on the GTA 59 departments including school and college

education as opposed to the DGHC jurisdiction which covered only 19 departments. This of coursemeans the GTA will have much more funds at its disposal and will also enjoy powers to sanction a

larger pool of posts and recruit a bigger contingent of employees. Additionally, the inclusion of the

term Gorkhaland in the name of the new administrative arrangement too goes some way to honour

the sentiment of the movement. The contentious issue of territorial jurisdiction has however been

referred to a committee.

It may however take quite some time for the new arrangement to come into force. The existing

DGHC Act will have to be repealed and a new GTA Act will have to be passed. The creation of 45

constituencies will also require fresh delimitation, and the Morcha quite understandably would not

like this to happen till the issue of territorial jurisdiction is resolved in a satisfactory manner. At the

time of formation of DGHC in the late 1980s, there was an understanding that apart from the three

hill segments of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong, several other adjoining areas with sizableNepali-speaking population would be brought under the DGHCs jurisdiction. But that never

happened then and now it will surely be much more difficult given the emergence of several

identity-based organizations and movements in Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar and the plain areas of

Darjeeling.

The reasons behind the rapid formalization of the GTA deal are not difficult to understand. Within

the hills the GJM is obviously keen to consolidate its position. The GJM leader Bimal Gurung was

once a lieutenant of the GNLF leader Subash Ghisingh, but over the last few years the GJM has

successfully marginalized the GNLF. Rival Gorkha leader Madan Tamang, President of Akhil

Bharatiya Gorkha League was also brutally killed allegedly by GJM activists on 21 May, 2011. With

little contention within the hills, the GJM swept the recent Assembly elections in the hills winning

not only the three hill segments but also the adjoining seat of Kalchini. Mamata Banerjee toowanted a quick deal to score yet another point for her new government. And to top it all, the

beleaguered UPA government battling a powerful Telangana agitation in Andhra Pradesh, wanted

to use Gorkhaland as a counterpoint. It is another matter that Telangana is unlikely to be pacified

with an autonomy offer of the GTA type, and once the Centre concedes Telangana, it will be

difficult to stop the Gorkhaland movement from escalating once again.

It is ironical that communists were the first to raise the Gorkhaland demand way back in the

1940s, but when the movement gathered momentum in the 1980s, the CPI(M)-led government


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sought to crush it by force. In the process, the CPI(M) also stoked the fires of Bengali chauvinism,

virtually forcing the hill wing of the party to rebel and regroup as a separate communist

organization called CPRM (Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists). The failure of the CPI(M) to

meet the democratic aspirations of the Gorkha people and a section of CPI(M) leaderships

opportunist indulgence in chauvinistic political discourse to stall the Gorkhaland demand has

thoroughly discredited the CPI(M) in the hills and made it easier for Mamata Banerjee to strike adeal with GJM even as she continues to rule out any potential division of Bengal as a state.

With the emergence of the GTA and the transformation of the GJM as the new ruling party in

the hills, politics in the hills will surely enter a new phase. The CPI(ML) will extend every

assistance to the CPRM and other progressive forces in the hills to carry forward the

democratic movement in the region in the changed circumstances. The people of Darjeeling

had been disillusioned with the GNLF and the DGHC it now remains to be seen how far the

GTA arrangement can fulfill the democratic aspirations of the Gorkha people and other

communities living in the hills. Meanwhile, all statehood and autonomy agitations in the

country will surely draw inspiration from the GTA accord to press for the fulfillment of the

pending statehood and autonomy demands.

Repression in Tripura: Is the Tripura CPI(M) Going theWest Bengal Way?

n 10-11 July, students and common people in Agartala, the capital of Tripura, were

subjected to severe police repression in the wake of an agitation against a new admission

system in Tripura Medical College which undermines the states reservation policy. Tripura Police

and Tripura State Rifles beat up common people, pedestrians, journalists and photo journalists. On

11 July police firing claimed the life of a young newspaper vendor Papai Saha.

O

Whereas the Tripura state reservation policy with provisions for Tripura-domicile students is

supposed to apply in 85 seats barring the 15 central government seats, the Tripura Medical

College introduced a new policy whereby the state policy will apply only in 55 seats out of 85, and

the central government policy will prevail in the remaining 30 seats.

Except the ruling CPI(M)s student wing SFI, all student organisations including AISA opposed

this policy. The Tripura Medical College also hiked fees exorbitantly.

On 10 July, the date of the Entrance Examination of the Medical College, the Congress called a

protest rally against this admission test. The Government declared 144 CRPC in the area. When

the Congress procession approached the examination centres, the police, without any

provocation, started a lathi charge, injuring many. Pedestrians, journalists, students who were

passing by, and auto passengers were all severely assaulted by the police. 12 journalists and

photo journalists were seriously injured.

On 11 July, the Congress called another protest procession. When it reached the Agartala Police

station, someone threw stones at the Police station. The police then started another lathi charge,

and the trigger-happy TSR men began firing indiscriminately. Six persons sustained bullet injuries,

and hundreds of the general public were injured. One Papai Saha, a young newspaper vendor was

shot in the head and died on the spot.

The CPI(M) State Secretary, in a press meet, did not apologise for the incident; rather he used

abusive language against the journalists.

CPI(ML) held protest meetings at several places protesting the police firing, defying the police

which tried to prevent the meetings. The party demanded a judicial enquiry into the incident as

well as exemplary punishment for the police personnel responsible for the incident.


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The party will organize a convention against the Tripura Governments authoritarian and

repressive behaviour in Agartala on 28 July.

Firing on Tribals in Guwahati:

Growing Authoritarianismmboldened by its victorious return to power in the recent Assembly polls, the Congress

Government in Assam has begun to show its authoritarian face, with forced eviction of the

poor settlers and tribals from hill areas and wetlands around Guwahati, brutal firing on the

demonstration against eviction, and the arrest of popular peasant leader Akhil Gogoi.

EOn July 22, thousands of adivasis and other poor people facing eviction held a large protest

rally in the state capital, Guwahati. The police lobbed tear gas shells and lathi charged the

protestors, who resisted this high-handedness. The police then indulged in firing which claimed

three lives including that of a nine year-old child. The government, (and incidentally the

mainstream media too) branded the protestors as rioters. And soon after, the leader of the rally,

a popular young peasant leader Akhil Gogoi, who heads the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti

(KMSS), was arrested on charges of rioting and destruction of public property.

The Governments eviction drive is being conducted in the name of clearing encroachments

from forest areas. However, a large section of the protestors were adivasis who are demanding

their rights under the Forest Rights Act. Distinction too must be made between encroachments

fuelled by need as opposed to that from greed. The poor working migrant population of Assam

that has settled in the forest areas near the capital must be rehabilitated and resettled

satisfactorily for any clearing of the land to be initiated. The protestors apprehend that they are

being evicted in the name of protecting the environment, only to make way for the real estate

business.

Following widespread outrage over the firing, the Government has indirectly acknowledged the

legitimacy of the protestors demands. However, they are trying to isolate the leadership of the

agitation by declaring that they will talk directly to the indigenous people on the issue of land

rights, but will not involve any organisation. It is strange that this Government, which owes its re-

election to peace talks with militant groups, is now refusing to negotiate with mass movement

leaders on the grounds that they are professional agitators!

Gogoi was granted bail by the Guwahati HC. But the government has been trying to brand him

as having Maoist links.

Elsewhere in Assam too, this pattern of repressive measures and witch-hunt of activists is

apparent. In Cachar district, for instance, AICCTU leader Hyder Husain Choudhury has been

arrested.

The Tarun Gogoi Government seems to be treading on the same repressive path as the Congress

government at the Centre. Land and democracy are emerging as key issues of popular struggle,

here as elsewhere in the country.

Land Scam Calls Nitish Kumars Anti-Corruption BluffBihar CM Nitish Kumar has been making appearances with Anna Hazare and promising a

Lokayukta in the state, in order to boost his anti-corruption image. After being elected CM, one of

his foremost promises was to act against the corrupt. But allegations of a Yeddyurappa-style land

scandal have called his bluff.

Earlier too, the Nitish Government had been implicated in corruption by the CAG revelations of a

treasury scam. The Nitish Government blocked a CBI enquiry into that scam.


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Now, the CM and his Government stand implicated of allotting Bihar Industrial Area Development

Authority (BIADA) plots to sons, daughters and close relatives of ministers, MPs and MLAs of the

ruling NDA alliance, at throwaway prices, circumventing the procedure of inviting tenders.

The Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority, a government body, allots land for industrial

units as per rules and tenders. The BIADA website shows that Bihar Human Resources

Development Minister P K Shahis daughter Urvashi Shahi has been allotted 87,120 sq ft, while JD-U

MLA Jagdish Sharmas son Rahul Sharma has been allotted 15,500 sq ft. Similarly, Rehmat Fatima,

daughter of Social Welfare Minister Perveen Amanullah and senior Indian Administrative Service

officer Afzal Amanullah has also been allotted 87,120 sq ft.

BJP MLAs sons and daughters have also been allotted BIADA land. Among the beneficiaries from

BJP is former MLA Awdhesh Narayan Singhs son, who has been allotted 2,17,800 sq ft. Another BJP

member of legislative council Ashok Agarwals son Saurabh was also allotted large BIADA plots. All

these allotments were made without inviting tenders.

It must be remembered that the Forbesganj police atrocity and firing happened when villagers

protested when BJP legislative councillor, Ashok Aggarwal, following allotment of land by BIADA for

his sons private factory, tried to encroach on a public road with the collusion of BIADA and other

authorities. Not only is the Nitish Government using political power to gift away government land to

their own leaders and their kin, they are unleashing brutal repression on people who exposeillegalities and resist land grab.

Under pressure, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said that Bihar Chief Secretary will conduct an

inquiry on the issue. But such a probe cannot carry much credibility.

The CPI(ML) held a protest dharna in Patna on 19 July against the Forbesganj firing, demanding

arrest and prosecution of the BJP MLC, Araria DM and SP and police personnel involved in the killing

and atrocities. The CPI(ML) held the governments judicial enquiry to be a sham, and also

demanded an enquiry into the emerging land-allotment scam, which was also at the root of the

Forbesganj firing. Slogans were raised Land to the favoured and bullets for the poor Nitish Govt

must answer for this!

The dharna was addressed by former MLA and AIKM General Secretary Rajaram Singh, AIPWA

National Vice President Saroj Chaubey, AIKM Bihar President K D Yadav, former MLA and CPI(ML)

State standing committee member Arun Singh, AIPWA General Secretary Meena Tiwari, and many

other CPI(ML) activists. The dharna was conducted by Murtaza Ali and presided over by former MLA

Mahbub Alam.

CPI(ML) Leader Arrested in Odisha

Comrade Tirupati Gamango, CPI(ML) Liberation Odisha state committee member, was arrested

by a special squad of Odisha police for addressing a mass meeting in Kashipur block of Rayagada

district. Comrade Tirupati had raised the issue of police atrocities and harassment of common tribal

people in the name of anti-Maoist operations in the district. The Odisha police said this amounted to

supporting Maoist activities and demoralising the police force, and arrested him.

On 18 July, a state-level protest was held at Bhubaneshwar to demand the immediate release of

Com. Tirupati Gamango. The protest was led by state committee member Com. YudhistirMohapatra, AICCTU State Secretary Com. Mahendra Parida, and AIALA State Secretary Com.

Satyabadi Behera.

The march culminated in a public meeting in front of the Odisha Assembly. CPI(ML) leaders at

the meeting said the arrest was a part of the witch-hunt of political activists and crackdown on

democratic activities in the name of anti-Maoist operations. Ordinary tribal people are being

branded as Maoist and arrested or killed in encounters, and democratic political activists were


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being targeted as well. The CPI(ML) said that if Com. Tirupati were not released, a state-wide

agitation would be launched for his release.

AIALA , AICCTU, AIKM Leaders Visit Anti-POSCO Struggle

A team of AIALA, AICCTU AND AIKM leaders visited the site of the anti-POSCO struggle on 6 July

to extend their solidarity. The team comprised Com. Rameshwar Prasad, National President, AIALA,

Com. Dhirendra Jha, General Secretary, AIALA, Com. Khitish Biswal, Odisha Secretary, CPI (ML)

Liberation, and Comrades Satyabadi Behera (AIALA Odisha Secretary) and Mahendra Parida

(AICCTU Odisha Secretary).

The leaders visited Govindpur and Nuagaon villages where villagers are on a dharna resisting

land grab. They joined the dharna led by women at Nuagaon and then joined the human

barricades at Govindpur.

Comrade Abhaya Sahoo, leader of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) welcomed the

representatives of the mass organizations. Children participating in the dharna sang revolutionary

songs and raised slogans against POSCO.

Com. Rameshwar addressed the protestors, extending solidarity on behalf of the AIALA to the

brave struggle which was holding out against the joint moves by the BJD Government of Odisha

and the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre to allow MNCs like POSCO to plunder the

resources and grab the land and livelihood of the people.Comrades Dhirendra Jha, Khitish Biswal, Satyabadi Behera and Mahendra Parida and Ashok Parida

addressed the protestors.

Mayawati Govt:

Mired in Land Grab, Corruption,Murder

n the heels of the custodial rape, killing of a minor girl at Nighasan, and the subsequent

cover-up came the death of Deputy CMO YS Sachan right inside Lucknow jail.

OSachan was the main accused and a key witness cases of the murders of two CMOs. TheMayawati Government tried to pass off the death as a suicide, claiming he hanged himself in the

jail toilet with his belt. But a post-mortem report has put paid to that defence, because it shows

that the cause of death was bleeding from nine injury marks on different parts of the body. Sachan

was dead before he was hanged. Just like in the Nighasan case, the hanging was a crude attempt

to pass murder off as suicide.

The murder of two persons Dr. B P Singh and Dr. Vinod Kumar Arya who held the post of CMO

(Family Welfare) and of Sachan (Deputy CMO, Family Welfare) has blown the lid off a multi-crore

scam in the implementation of the NRHM (National Rural Health Mission) in the state.

It has emerged that in 2010, the Mayawati Government violated norms to bring the NRHM under

the ambit of the Family Welfare Ministry (then under Babu Singh Kushwaha, considered close to

Mayawati) rather than the Health Ministry. Separate CMO posts were created under the Family

Welfare Ministry to handle the huge funds that flowed into the NRHM. The Ministry avoided creating

any Central Medicine Supply Depot (CMCD) or other stipulated mechanisms to ensure

transparency. There was a scramble for the CMO posts and several senior doctors apparently paid

big sums to secure the post.

Dr B P Singh, as General Secretary of Uttar Pradesh Provincial Medical Service Association

(UPPMSA), had filed a petition in 2010 in the High Court on behalf of the UPPMSA asking for the


25/44

post of CMO (Family Welfare) to be scrapped. He was subsequently appointed CMO (Family

Welfare) himself! Apparently he was pressurised to withdraw the petition but he refused. It seems

that this refusal might be behind his murder in broad daylight.

Vinod Arya, appointed CMO next, was also shot dead. Y S Sachan was made the fall guy by the

UP Government, which claimed that Sachan was responsible for both murders.

A guideline was circulated to health officials, mentioning how much each of the 54departments, which received NRHM funds, were supposed to save. According to this guideline,

CMOs were supposed to save between 5% to even 100% of the NRHM funds flowing into their

department. The money saved (read siphoned off) would then reach higher-ups. There was also

major leakage, with funds being falsely shown to have been spent for minor repairs and

maintenance, for buying fuel for generators, local purchase of emergency drugs when in short

supply, providing shelter to patients and attendants, etc.

The NRHM is a scheme meant to provide rural health, in a situation where most rural people,

especially women and children, have very little access to quality healthcare. This shameful loot of

NRHM funds also meant that UPs rural poor were being robbed of their basic rights.

In the wake of the CMO murders and the unravelling scam, Babu Singh Kushwaha resigned. After

the Sachan murder and the failed cover-up attempt, Mayawati has desperately tried to salvage herimage by ordering a CAG probe into the NRHM funds, though she continues to deny any scam.

Meanwhile the Allahabad High Court and Supreme Court verdicts cancelling land deals in Greater

Noida have revealed that the UP Government grabbed farmers land at throwaway prices in the

name of

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