CPI-M is exposed
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
Singur (Wb), June 30: The CPI-M is "trying to cover up" the Tapasi Malik murder case at Singur being investigated by CBI by "putting pressure" on the UPA government, Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee alleged today. CPI(M) Singur Zonal Committee Secretary Suhrid Baran Dutta and party activist Debu Mallik, arrested for the murder of Mallik at the site of the Tata Motors car plant on December 18 last year, were yesterday remanded to CBI custody by a Channdanagore Court.
"CPI-M has adopted pressure tactics. The party is putting pressure on the UPA government which it is supporting, to cover up the Tapasi Malik murder case," Banerjee told a public meeting here.Expressing doubt whether the people would get justice, she said the CPI(M)'s effort was "directed at either a cover up or getting the arrested party leaders freed". She claimed that Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had ordered a cid probe to "terrorise" protestors and to "botch up" the CBI investigation. She said that the people still had faith on the CBI and "we want CBI to do their job".

Indian Marxists CPI (M) finally exposed - caught red handed with Indian oligarchs, Mamata says while Comrador Worldbank colonial slave,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reverted to his pedagogical role while recently releasing a book on the new Asian power dynamics. Singh emphasised that the international system was about power relations and was not a morality play.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said that after being ''exposed'', CPI-M was trying to describe the arrest of Dutta and Malik as a conspiracy.
"CPI-M is exposed. That is why the party is trying to dub the arrest of its leader as a conspiracy," she said. She said it was unfortunate senior CPI-M leaders were trying to defend partymen against whom there were murder charges. "Does the CPI-M think it proper to defend a rapist?" she added".

The Chief Minister, she alleged, had adopted 'double standards' and had no accountability or political will to solve the Singur issue.
Banerjee claimed that immediately after Tapasi Malik's murder, the CPI-M had even tried to implicate her father. Having a dig at the Marxists which had called a Singur Bandh today demanding release of the party leaders, she asked, "why has the party called the Bandh? Only because their leaders were caught?"
Banerjee said that by taking away all the rights of the opposition, the Marxists were accusing the opposition of hatching conspiracies.
She said she would take the issue of state terrorism at Singur and Nandigram to the national level by organising an agitation in Delhi on July 3 and Thiruvanathapuram on July 7. "The victims of Singur and Nandigram will join us and they will seek justice," she said.

PCC demands inclusion of Nandigram Martyrs' names in Obit list
Kolkata: The West Bengal Congress will appeal to Speaker Hasim Abdul Halim for inclusion of the Nandigram and Singur martyrs' names in the obituary list on the opening day of the Assembly session on July 2.
''We will also appeal to the Speaker for a statement from Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee explaining the role and credibility of the CID,'' CLP leader Manas Bhuiya told newsmen here.
He said after the CBI arrested CPI(M) leader Debu Malik for the Tapashi Malik murder case, the Chief Minister and state party secretary Biman Bose said, ''Law takes its own course.'' But when party's zonal committee secretary in Hooghly district Suhrid Dutta was arrested, veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu and party's Central committee member Binoy Konar said it was a political conspiracy, Mr Bhuiya stated.He also said chargesheet was yet to be submitted against those ten, arrested by the CBI at Jananai brick kiln in Nandigram.
''We feel the ruling government will put pressure on the CBI to protect the Tapashi killers,'' he said.
Nimitz
Naval Chief rules out radiation fear from Nimitz. On the other hand, India's powerful communists protested on Tuesday against the first port call by a U.S. aircraft carrier to the country, saying Washington was using New Delhi to counter the power of China and Iran.Protestors say there is risk of radiation leak when the US ship Nimitz docks in Chennai next week, but many nuclear-powered warships have visited India in the past. India sought to calm on Wednesday opposition to the first port call by a U.S. aircraft carrier, saying firm environmental measures were in place for the visit of the nuclear-powered vessel.
In Kolkata, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Suresh Mehta today ruled out any fear of radiations from the US nuclear powered warship USS Nimitz.
"It is the government of India's job to see that the safety of the people is ensured. There are set procedures for it. These have been followed in this case and there is nothing to worry," Mehta told reporters.
Chennai: Officials of the nuclear-powered USS Nimitz have said they could 'neither confirm nor deny' whether any nuclear missiles were on board the ship that will berth here amid growing protests from political parties and environmentalists against its visit. USS Nimitz commanding officer Captain Michael C. Manazir said, 'We cannot confirm the presence or absence of nuclear weapons on board.'The USS Nimitz, about 300 km off Chennai's coast Saturday afternoon, will be in the outer harbour Sunday for a four-day goodwill visit.The US consulate here said in a statement that the ship's visit was 'part of a bilateral and multilateral framework known as the 'Malabar series' of joint Indo-US exercises'.
'We can neither confirm, nor deny the presence of weapons on board the ship,' Rear Admiral John Terence Blake, commander, Carrier Strike Group 11 of the USS Nimitz, told a select group of mediapersons who were taken on a tour of the ship Friday.

'The general US policy is that we do not routinely deploy nuclear weapons on any of our ships, attack submarines or aircraft. We do not deploy (nuclear weapons) routinely. We do not go into specifics,' he said.

'These are warships not cruise liners. But when we go out, we are required to perform a wide range of activities,' he said, adding that these could be 'offensive or defensive'.
The US government has also asserted that the nuclear safety record of US nuclear-powered warships has been outstanding and that there has been no nuclear accident in the 56-plus-year history of the programme.

However, political parties, trade unions, environmentalists and many concerned citizens of Tamil Nadu have stepped up their opposition to the arrival of the USS Nimitz.Apart from the safety concerns, political leaders are also sceptical about India reversing its past policy opposing the transit of nuclear weapons in its neighbourhood.

MDMK leader Vaiko said: '...as the Kalpakkam and Koodankulam atomic power stations are located on Tamil Nadu's coast, there is a fear that the visit of a nuclear-powered warship to the port here would endanger the country's security.'

Communist Party of India (CPI) MP D. Raja added: 'We are surprised to see a reversal of India's age-old policy of not allowing warships into its territorial waters.'

AIADMK leader J. Jayalalitha had earlier noted: 'This is a serious issue and the possible radiation hazards to the people of Chennai cannot be taken lightly.'

But defence ministry officials and the US government have rubbished the radiation aspect, pointing out that Nimitz has some 6,000 personnel on board and that any radiation leak would affect the ship's crew first before causing damage to others.

Left-led trade unions like the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), port workers federations and several groups like the All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation and the People's Union for Civil Liberties plan to stage a protest at the Chennai port July 2.

Lawyers S. Shankar and M. Vel Murugan, in their petitions before the Madras High Court Friday and returning to the court Saturday on further direction, have said the central government has been 'unresponsive' to peoples' objections to Nimitz being in Indian waters.

They have demanded a 'detailed safety study' before the vessel is permitted to enter India's territorial waters though a high-level security assessment group of the Defence Ministry had gone on board Thursday.

'Permitting the warship into Indian waters from July 1 would be inimical to the nation's safety, as well as a threat to the ecological and environment stability in the territorial jurisdiction of the nation,' Shankar's petition said, adding the ship would be a 'health hazard'.
Bardhan flays SEZ policy, supports agitating Nagpur farmers
By IANS
Saturday June 30, 09:23 PM
Nagpur, June 30 (IANS) Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary A.B. Bardhan Saturday reiterated his party's opposition to the government's Special Economic Zone (SEZ) policy, dubbing it a state-sponsored ploy to plunder the country's scarce land resource for capitalists.
'Fast track industrial development happened in India in the earlier decades even when there were no SEZs and there is no reason why it cannot happen now,' Bardhan said at a public function here.

Referring to a spate of SEZs coming up in Maharashtra, the Leftist leader whose party supports the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government from outside asked whether all the farmland in the state was meant for the Ambanis - referring to the industrialist brothers, Mukesh and Anil Ambani.

Expressing solidarity with the farmers in Shivangaon whose land is under acquisition for the MIHAN (Multi-modal International Hub Airport at Nagpur) project, Bardhan wondered why it could not be shifted some kilometres away from the city.

The cargo hub project, as MIHAN is popularly known, has been taken up in tandem with the multi-product SEZ that is being developed alongside the Sonegaon airport under expansion.

'Don't budge an inch from here unless a fair compensation is offered to you and a proper rehabilitation scheme is in place,' Bardhan exhorted the Shivangaon residents who are set to lose both their houses and agricultural land.

The moderately sized Sonegaon airport is set to metamorphose into one of the biggest in the country as a part of the ambitious MIHAN project. While 644 hectares of land in Shivangaon is under acquisition for the airport expansion, over 2,000 hectares have been acquired for the SEZ.

The proposed Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) depot of aviation giant Boeing is a part of the MIHAN-SEZ project, which its executive head R.C. Sinha claims to be the biggest ongoing project in the country.

Though the project did have its share of sporadic protests including the one led by activist Medha Patkar and litigation in its five-year run-up, the land acquisition process did not meet much resistance on ground, as much of the land was either non-agricultural or fallow.

The grumbling against the 'pittance' that the government offered as compensation - Rs.70,000 per acre for the land in the rural area and Rs.200,000-250,000 for that coming within the municipal limits - rose into a roar a couple of months back when Bombay High Court judge J.N. Patel sold his ancestral land near Shivangaon for a whopping Rs.25.5 million an acre.

On June 12, a state government appointed committee headed by urban development department's Principal Secretary Ramanand Tiwari had promised the residents of Shivangaon that they would recommend a higher compensation for the land.

Communist Party of India was squeezed between the growing Sino-Soviet dispute, wandering from one position to another as its leadership, polarised between the two giants, pulled the party in different directions post-independence.
CPI was left stranded as Soviet Union not only turned warm towards Nehru but even stated in 1958 that he and not the Communists would take India towards socialism, claim the de-classfied CIA papers, with a chapter on CPI in the wake of Sino-Soviet dispute.
CPI leadership, the papers claim, stood polarised to the extent that support for CPSU (Soviet Union) over CCP threatened a split in the party.
During the 1950s, CPSU gained control over the central leadership of the CPI, leading to a strong resentment and growth of a Left wing within, opposed to USSR and closer to China. The dispute in CPI was on the path to be adopted in revolutionary struggle.
Ranadive's own methods of urban insurrection failed miserably in early 1950s and led to the ‘‘Andhra leadership'' gaining voice, demanding that it adopt the pragmatic Chinese method of two-stage revolution - of allying with anti-feudal rich peasants and anti-imperialist sections of urban bourgeoisie.
It was in the wake of Mao-Stalin face-off that the CPI drama unfolded. While Ranadive turned bitter and attacked Mao, bizarre turn of events saw even CPSU agree to a two-stage revolution, leaving the urban insurrectionists stranded. The ‘‘Andhra leadership'' not only took charge but also apologised to Mao for Ranadive's bitter attacks on him, says the CIA papers.
The CIA papers report details of the international events, with CPI swinging between the two communist regimes on the stand it should take.
As it notes, ‘‘A degree of Chinese influence was implanted and permanently legitimised within the CPI as a source of inspiration and guidance second only to CPSU.'' It says that ‘‘factionalism, blatant indiscipline and regional disregard for central authority which had grown during the struggle against Ranadive became permanent features of CPI life to a degree seen in hardly any other Communist party.
The authority of the central CPI machinery was weakened in relation to the provincial party organisations that never again did the central party leadership make a serious attempt to enforce a uniform rigid line upon the often defiant provinces.''
Early in post-1947 period, the CPI was forced to swallow its words as CPSU abruptly turned accommodating towards Nehru, doing away with its hostility towards the first prime minister of India. It “bludgeoned” the Indian Leftists into following suit.
As CPSU continued to turn warm towards Nehru, CPI had little choice. It led to growth of a dissident element in “Leftists” inclined towards China and opposed to the right turn of CPSU. The Sino-Indian border dispute led to serious problems.
While Ranadive and the other leftists in CPI were “drawn increasingly into an identification with and defence of Beijing’s position in the border dispute, while right faction leaders became increasingly inclined to conciliate Indian nationalist opinion by supporting the Nehru government's stand and condemning Beijing.”
The evolution of rape from a largely random event into a premeditated, organized act of terrorism during warfare has motivated international action to punish, and thus to hopefully prevent, such activity in the future.
Rape, class and the State
-- By Uma Chakravati
While rape may take the form of individual violence of men against women, often, as disturbingly, rape occurs as an instrument of repression, and is used as a political weapon. It then becomes a potent instrument for the intimidation of whole sections of people in which women are specifically the victims of a peculiarly brutal and dehumanizing form of violence. Violence by individual men on individual women is itself a serious violation of women's rights but in the context of civil liberties it is important to highlight the growing incidence of custodial rape by agencies of the State such as forest officials, army personnel, and especially by policemen.
http://www.pucl.org/from-archives/Gender/rape-class.htm

Peoplesmarch writes in his article,`Rape: As An Instrument Of
State Repression In Nepal’:
However, use of rape as an instrument of repression by the reactionary forces has negatively benefited the revolutionary forces. First of all, they are able to expose the sexist nature of the exploitative class-based state apparatus. Secondly, they are able to expose the hollowness of reactionary ideology whereby, they use brute physical force including the phallus as a weapon against the ideologically equipped revolutionary forces. Thirdly, they are able to channalise the fury of the raped victim, her family, community into a fighting force. Fourthly, the sense of isolation that is generated amongst the masses from the state apparatus after every such mass rape is in turn channalised into the mass-line, thus giving them security and a sense of belonging. Fifthly, such acts on women have helped in forging unity between struggling men and women to fight together against the state apparatus, thus making them more class conscious. Sixthly, such mass rape is making a mockery of ‘virgin worship’ in the form of "Kumari Puja" (the so-called living goddess) whose patron is the king, the head of Royal Nepal Army, thus undermining feudal culture. On top of this, the monolithic male structure of reactionary armed force, together with its crime on women, makes the masses gender sensitive which, in a long run has importance for the revolutionary women’s liberation movement.
http://www.countercurrents.org/hr-march130305.htm
Against Our Will : Men, Women and Rape
>> By: Susan Brownmiller

Indira Gandhi's Indian Army had successfully routed the West
Pakistanis and had abruptly concluded the war in Bangladesh when
small stories hinting at mass rape of Bengali women began to appear
in American newspapers. The first account I read, from the Los
Angeles Times syndicated service, appeared in the New York Post a
few days before Christmas, 1971. It reported that the Bangladesh
Government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in recognition of the
sufferings of Bengali women at the hands of Pakistani soldiers, had
proclaimed all raped women "heroines" of the war of independence.
Farther on in the story came this ominous sentence: "In the
traditional Bengali village society, where women lead cloistered lives, rape
victims often are ostracised."
Two days after Christmas a more explicit story, by war correspondent
Joseph Fried, appeared in the New York Daily News, datelines
Jessore. Fried described the reappearance of young Bengali women on
the city streets after an absence of nine months. Some had been
packed off to live with relatives in the countryside and others had
gone into hiding. "The precautions," he wrote, "proved wise, if not
always effective."
A stream of victims and eyewitnesses tell how truckloads of
Pakistani soldiers and their hireling razakars swooped down on villages in
the night, rounding up women by force. Some were raped on the spot. Others
were carried off to military compounds. Some women were still their when
Indian troops battled their way into Pakistani
strongholds. Weeping survivors of villages razed because they were
suspected of siding with the Mukti Bahini freedom fighters told how
wives were raped before their eyes of their bound husbands, who were
then put to death. Just how much of it was the work of Pakistani
"regulars" is not clear. Pakistani officers maintain that their men
were too disciplined "for that sort of thing".
Fearing I had missed the story in other papers, I put in a call to a
friend on the foreign desk of The New York Times. "Rape of Bengali
Women?" He laughed. "I don't think so. It doesn't sound like a Times
story." A friend at Newsweek was similarly sceptical. Both said
they'd keep a lookout for whatever copy passed their way. I got the
distinct impression that both men, good journalists, thought I was
barking up an odd tree. [NBC's Liz Trotta was one of the few
American reporters to investigate the Bangladesh rape story at this
time. She filed a TV report for the weekend news.]
In the middle of January the story gained sudden credence. An Asian
relief secretary for the World Council of Churches called a press
conference in Geneva to discuss his two-week mission to Bangladesh.
The Reverend Kentaro Buma reported that more that 200,000 Bengali
women had been raped by Pakistani soldiers during the nine-month
conflict, a figure that had been supplied to him by the Bangladesh
authorities in Dacca. Thousands of the raped women had become
pregnant, he said. And by tradition, no Moslem husband would take
back a wife who had been touched by another man, even if she had
been subdued by force. "The new authorities of Bangladesh are trying
their best to break that tradition," Buma informed the newsmen.
"They tell the husbands the women were victims and must be
considered national heroines. Some men have taken their spouses back
home , but these are very, very few."
http://www.drishtipat.org/1971/war-susan.html
Bangladesh National Party comes into power on October 1, 2001. Islamic Fundamentalists groups aligned to the new government go on a rampage. They loot, kill, and drive thousands of Hindus out of their homes. The biggest atrocities are on women - hundreds are raped. The following are just a few incidents...
October 12 - Hindu women are publicly gang-raped in Barisal district. A report in Bengali says, "The barbaric gang-raping of two teenage girls by fundamentalists will shame the entire world and challenge the very existence of civilisation."
October 14 - Fundamentalists go on a rampage on Hindu minorities in Chandshi, Bahadurpur, Barthi, Pingolkati, Ashukati, Agailzara. Again, Hindu women are publicly gang-raped.
October 21 - Indifference of the government results in an increase in cases of rape in Khulna and Barisal regions.

October 22 - Some Bangladeshi newspapers publish photos of young Hindu women who were molested when their homes were attacked by fundamentalists. Hindu women flee to distant villages and towns and to India. Rokeya Kabir, heads womens rights group - Nari Pragati Sangha - says that they have met women who were raped, but will not speak because they fear more attacks.
October 22 - Report of attack on a Hindu woman - Shefali Rani - a village council member in Barisal. Fundamentalists attack and ransack her home on October 2, 2001. They beat her up and then gang-rape her. She flees and seeks refuge in another district.
October 22- Anil Kumar Shil, a farmer, tells reporters that his teenage daughter was gang-raped by a gang of fundamentalists.
October 24 - Two girls - Supama (8 years old) and Sulekha Das (7 years old) are raped in Bhola, Barisal. Their father is forced to watch and is strangled and killed when he tries to help his daughters. Supama dies. Sulekha is still in hospital.
October 28 - Reports of women fleeing to India. 250 entered West Bengal and 370 entered Tripura. The actual numbers are expected to be much higher than the official ones. Intelligence officials in Calcutta believe that Hindu middle class families in Bangladesh have sent 3000-4000 women and girls to West Bengal.
October 28 More rape cases in Barishal district. NDTV, India, reporters spend three hours here and learn of more than 50 cases of rape and loot. Names of women who had been raped are not revealed.
November 16 In Ullapara, Poornima Sarkar, in her early twenties, is raped by fundamentalists.

November 16 "In one night, nearly two hundred women were raped in Char Fashion of Bhola, and amongst them was an eight-year-old girl, a middle-aged amputee, and a seventy-year-old woman," says Daily Star News. "The women were raped in paddy fields, in the bush, on the riverbank...The village was sprinkled with the bodies of molested women, numb with pain and shock in the aftermath of nightlong abuse."

This is the tip of the iceberg. Many Hindu women who were raped refuse to reveal their identities for fear of inviting more attacks from fundamentalists...
The persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh is nothing new; indeed millions of Hindus were massacred in the fight for Bangladeshi Independence. It is ironic how a community which has sacrificed so much for their country is now the target of this, seemingly government sponsored, rampage.
Let your voice be heard, speak out against religious oppression and the destruction of Hindu Society. Join us on Saturday 15 December 2001 at 12pm outside the Bangladesh High Commission, 28 Queens Gate, South Kensington, London. Nearest tube: South Kensington and Gloucester Road (both on Piccadilly Line).
We thank you for your support. Published by Hindu Human Rights

http://www.hindu. com/2007/ 06/29/stories/ 2007062955511500 .htm

India-China relationship a big stabiliser, says Yechury
P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE: The process of improving the India-China relationship, now in “progress,” will be a “big stabiliser” on the international scene. Portraying this prospect as a new global dynamic, Sitaram Yechury, Politburo Member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said here on Wednesday that New Delhi “should not succumb, cannot afford to succumb to pressures” from the U.S.

*Mr. Yechury said India could register “a big leap” in the energy domain if its ongoing negotiations with the U.S. over a civilian nuclear deal were to succeed. For the present, though, Washington was practising “a carrot-and-stick policy” of promising this deal and asking India to “tune” itself to U.S. interests on the global stage.* (Emphasis added.)

In this evolving context, the CPI(M) was continuing to urge New Delhi to pursue “an independent foreign policy,” he said, addressing the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) here. Welcoming him, ISAS Chairman Gopinath Pillai traced the centrality of the CPI(M) to India’s politics and policies today.
Mr. Yechury, here at the invitation of Singapore Foreign Ministry, emphasised that “an important element of India’s Look-East policy” would be the “improvement of relations with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and with China.” Singapore “is the gateway” for India’s Look-East policy” and “an important concept-maker” in the development of the ASEAN region.
On the India-U.S. civil nuclear energy talks, he said “a very important element is the right of India to reprocess the spent fuel.” If the issue were to remain unresolved, India would be “saddled with nuclear waste” that could pose a problem for the entire region.
Speaking about “the future of Indian politics” as seen from the CPI(M) perspective, Mr. Yechury said “there is a very high air of optimism” despite the present and potential complexities. Presenting the CPI(M) as the thought-leader and a proactive player in seeking to bridge the gap between “the Shining India and the Suffering India,” he said “the expectation” of the people was that the party “will continuously play the watchdog role” at the Centre. The CPI(M) was “not a lapdog” of the Centre, he underlined by explaining the political equations at stake.
On India’s economic profile, Mr. Yechury said: “Why is China attracting so much more foreign direct investment (FDI) than we are? The one single fact is the lack of infrastructure [in India]. And, who built all this [in China]? The State is the most important economic player in China.”

Perfect blend
“We went to China to find out. In the telephonic service sector, all the services are provided by three companies, and all three are 100 per cent public-owned companies. There is 100 per cent FDI in the production of hardware …. We keep telling our Government that we must learn from China. … It is perfectly possible to protect your national interest and at the same time permit foreign investment to enlarge your economic activity. So, we are saying: ‘Do exactly what China is doing.’ Not that China is doing, and we are opposing in India.”

Beg to differ, Mr Basu
No sensible person will agree with the observation of the Marxist patriarch, Mr Jyoti Basu, that the alternative compensation package of the industry minister, Mr Nirupam Sen, is the best for the Singur farmers, whose fertile lands have been forcibly taken by the LF government leaving once well-to-do families in the lurch.
It is beyond anyone’s comprehension as to how a person of Mr Basu’s stature can do a political somersault at this age. And that too within a span of only several days of his calling Miss Mamata Banerjee to his house and agreeing on most of the points.
The package will neither offer jobs nor equity shares, as the Jindals had spelt out for their steel plant in Purulia. In sharp contrast, Mr Sen’s deal offers “a skills upgrade” to farmers who refuse to accept the compensation cheque and alternative job opportunities. How can the farmers, who do not have skills of working in a factory, be attracted by the stunt that they will be offered “a skills upgrade”?
The CPI-M is spreading misinformation that the opposition parties in West Bengal are against industrialisation, which is far from the truth.
Mr Basu seems to have lost his head owing to the burden of age because of which he always harps on West Bengal doing exemplary things in the country. This is why he claimed that nobody in the country had ever heard of a compensation package similar to the one the state government intended to offer to the Singur farmers.
JUGNAUTH PUNDIT,
18 June, Kolkata.
Will yield nothing
Mr Nirupam Sen’s alternative package for Singur farmers will yield nothing. It will not mollify the agitating farmers because it is a palliative and will not have far-reaching results.
Mr Sen is blowing hot and cold. First, he asserted that land already taken could not be given back because legal complications would arise and Mr Jyoti Basu supported it. Now Mr Sen says: “Although we cannot guarantee jobs for every farmer, we can help them”.
The farmers are apprehensive that they will be displaced and even if they are rehabilitated, they will not be able to adapt themselves to the new environment of their new places. Their apprehension is being fuelled by the opposition parties who are against land acquisition and are bent on provoking the disgruntled and dithering farmers.
There can be no debate regarding the need for industrialisation and all political parties, except the extreme left-wing, are unanimous in this respect. But the point at issue is how the deprived farmers would benefit because Mr Sen himself has admitted that adequate compensation cannot be given and to provide each family of farmers with at least one job is a moonshine.
The minister has admitted that land acquired cannot be given back and there is no way out from this baffling situation. So we cannot concur with Mr Jyoti Basu when he describes the industry minister’s alternative package as the best ever. At best it is a temporary respite, a palliative, not a permanent solution. We can surmise that it can never be the best ever package because the minister is going to offer a skills upgrade, nothing else.
TARAKDAS MAJUMDER,
18 June, Kolkata.
Basu, the politician
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=13&theme=&usrsess=1&id=160672
Mr Jyoti Basu is being quite unreasonable when he seconds the industry minister Mr Nirupam Sen’s alternative package for Singur farmers and calls it the best ever.
But then that’s just like him. Politics has always blinded him to the more sensible aspects of an issue, and so when he proceeds to deliberate upon an issue or gives his opinion of it, or reviews a thing, he always does so like a doctrinaire Marxist who does not consider it worth his salt to consider the other practicable and more sensible aspects of the matter. His politician’s view of an issue at the expense of its moral and humane aspects has confounded it even more. The problem with Mr Basu is that he cannot rise above his level as a politician. He can’t see that Mr Sen’s package is a false promise. But that suits him as a politician.
DEBASHIS SEN,
18 June, Kolkata.
No takers
There is is no denying that land acquisition at Singur from the beginning was a Himalayan blunder. There is no job assurance in Mr Nirupam Sen’s compensation package; it only says the government will provide vocational training to at least one member of each affected family.
Mr Jyoti Basu, to safeguard the party’s interests, always adopts a shrewd policy to run with the hare and hunt with the hound. It is unlikely that the alternative package will be acceptable to the aggrieved land losers.
GOVINDA BAKSHI,
20 June, Budge Budge.
Where is protection?
If people do not want industry, why is a “people’s government” so desperate in setting up industries? Will Mr Nirupam Sen’s package offer a good, healthy future? Can any package assure the freedom to work in one’s own land? Can any package assure a hea

Rape Repression,Marxist Aesthetics
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
West Bengal Capitalist marxist Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said the state cannot afford to miss the opportunity to have a chemical hub, even though the opposition at Nandigram has left the government looking for an alternative location! Meanwhile, Asansol is the third and latest region in West Bengal after Singur and Nandigram where villagers are resisting the government's Land Acquisition drive!Indian Maoist rebels, known as Naxalites, stepped up operations June 26-27 in their strongholds in eastern India, bringing much of the region to a standstill. As we expected, the Naxalites have seized upon the grievances of peasant farmers and tribal groups directly affected by the Indian government's push to develop special economic zones. Though Indian politicians and security officials are quick to play up their successes against the Naxalites and brag about increasing Maoist defections, India's security apparatus cannot contain the Naxalite movement, which is directly benefiting from a widespread rise in social agitation across rural India.
States get 60-day deadline to clear SEZ proposals
Economic Times, India - 26 Jun 2007
NEW DELHI: The Centre has warned state governments that if pending state approvals for proposed SEZ projects are not granted within 60 days, the proposals ...
30 Years Of Bengal Left Front Government Commemorated
People's Democracy - 9 hours ago
A PACKED Indoor Stadium in downtown Kolkata listened to addresses by senior CPI(M) and Left Front leaders as they looked back on the 30 years of pro-people ...
K’taka SEZ makes farmers uneasy
Daily News & Analysis, India - 10 hours ago
Earlier this month, the Karnataka Cabinet had approved a private multi-project SEZ on 12350 acres of land at Nandagudi hobli, 40 km from the tech city and ...
Hooghly (West Bengal), June 30: A 12-hour shutdown by the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) following the arrest of its Hooghly leader has brought work at the Tata Motors small car project in Singur to a standstill.

Work on sewerage lines of the project was reportedly disrupted after labourers abstained from work.Roads remained deserted.Market and educational institutions also remained closed due to the protest over the arrest of Party's zonal committee secretary Suhrid Dutta for his alleged involvement in the murder of an anti-land acquisition protestor Tapasi Malik.
Dutta was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and remanded to custody till July 11.
Has Singur rocked only the ministers of the state cabinet? Well, it has perhaps left a deep imprint on the minds of the state’s bureaucrats too. This was evident today when a sports organisation from Hooghly district returned empty handed after it approached the state’s commissioner general, land reforms, Mr AK Patnaik to be present as chief guest.
The commissioner general primarily refused to go to Hooghly citing the district is very troublesome these days. Mr Bimal Kumar Palit, the secretary of Hooghly District Kho Kho Association, who came to invite Mr Patnaik, for a programme of his association in Arambagh next month, said he doesn’t want to go to Hooghly right now because it has become troublesome over the past few months. Actually, we had organised a programme in Rishra and he didn’t attend the programme showing the same reason.”
However, IAS officers at Writers’ Buildings said that they were avoiding Hoogly district especially when it is not a government programme because political situation is very volatile there as Singur impasse could not be solved as yet. And they don’t want to face any kind of embarrassment by visiting the district in a vulnerable time like this. n SNS
Tata Tele to invest Rs 125 crore in Kolkata
Business Standard, India - 21 hours ago
Tata Indicom, at present, operates in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Orissa in eastern India. Bulk of its investment would be in putting up more ...
Tata Indicom plans Rs 436cr investment in east Financial Express
Indicom to invest Rs 436cr in east Calcutta Telegraph
More SEZ tax sops come under threat
Financial Express, India - 18 hours ago
This may hurt export competitiveness of many SEZ units. These services include logistics, transportation and related activities. ...
Noose around SEZs tightened Financial Express
Front partners silent as Reliance bags favours

Express News Service

Kolkata, June 29: A few rules have been relaxed for Reliance Industries Ltd, which has got the green signal from the Left Front to acquire the 76-year-old Park Circus municipal market for renovation and redevelopment.
At the June 25 meeting of the 141-member municipal House, Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya got the ambitious “public private partnership” cleared by 64 votes to 34, after securing the

support of the deal’s dissenters — the Forward Bloc, RSP and CPI.
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=243600
In the Asia-Pacific region, national statistics on rape for many countries are difficult to obtain. Table 1 highlights the extent of the problem in the respective countries which could well include a significant rise in the different kinds of rape, such as gang rape, police rape and rape of the young. In Bangladesh for example, in 1997, an estimated 753 cases of rape had been reported, out of which 255 cases were gang rapes. There has also been incidence of women in detention being raped by police personnel. In Malaysia, 55.85 per cent of rapes (1,323 cases) in the same year involved under 16-year olds. In the Philippines, it is estimated that a rape occurs every day and that half of the inmates on death row are rapists.
http://www.aworc.org/bpfa/pub/sec_d/vaw00001.html
1971 Bangladesh atrocities
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The 1971 Bangladesh atrocities refer to the widespread killings and displacement of civilians in Bangladesh (East Pakistan at the time) and widespread violations of human rights including rape carried out during the Bangladesh War of Independence of 1971 by the Pakistan Army with support from political and religious militias. In Bangladesh, the atrocities are identified as a genocide. [1][2] The actual death toll, motives, extent, and destructive impact of the actions of the Pakistani forces are disputed. Bangladeshi authorities and some independent organisations assert that between 1-3 million people were killed, while another 10 million fled the country to seek safety in India.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Bangladesh_atrocities

Women Suffer Untold Violence and Repression in U.S.-Occupied Iraq
Interview with Yifat Susskind, communications director with MADRE and author of a report on violence against Iraqi women, conducted by Melinda Tuhus
YIFAT SUSSKIND: Iraqis really have faced two inter-related crises since the U.S. invasion. One is, of course, the civil war and the sectarian cleansing that we’ve heard so much about. And another we’ve heard much less about, and that is this a very directed campaign of violence against women. The fact is that the systematic attacks on women and the sectarian cleansing are deeply intertwined. One of the things that MADRE was warning about back in 2005 when the Iraqi constitution was being drafted is that a lot of the provisions in the constitution that set the stage for sectarian conflict also inscribed what we’ve been calling gender apartheid – in other words, separate sets of laws, separate and unequal laws, for men and women on the basis of gender. All the articles of the constitution use sharia, or clerics’ interpretations of Islamic law, as the basis for national legislation in Iraq under the new constitution. It allows people who are unelected – in some cases self-appointed – religious authorities to de
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0703/S00217.htm
No.
We see no difference between Progressive Left ruled Bengal and rest of Asia Pacific region including US invaded Iraq and afganistan as far as the crime against woman is concerned. The comrador comrades of MNC RAJ and Hindu Zionist Imperialism adopt the most ancient method of Repression against Anti Land People`s popular Resistance in West Bengal!As the CBI tightened its noose on CPI-M zonal committee secretary Mr Suhrid Dutta and zeroed down on other suspects in the Tapasi Malik murder case, the party’s state leadership in Kolkata made a desperate attempt to salvage the situation.As Mr Dutta was being produced in the Chandernagore court, where an angry mob bayed for his blood and clashed with Left cadres, CPI-M state secretariat members met at Alimuddin Street to find a way out of the crisis. With Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee away in north Bengal and Mr Biman Bose on a trip to the USA, acting state secretary Mr Benoy Konar and other senior leaders decided to defend Mr Dutta and deploy a panel of five lawyers for him. They also instructed the Hooghly unit to organise rallies and processions in support of Mr Dutta.“I won’t comment on the accused because the case is lying before court. However, our party thinks this is a political conspiracy. Otherwise, why would anyone drag the victim’s body to the site of the Tata factory”, said Mr Jyoti Basu as he emerged from the meeting. It was apparent that the nonagenarian leader was not too keen to pass any judgment on the prime accused.

IT IS RAPE Repression!
Siliguri, June 30: The Opposition's hue and cry over Singur and Nandigram would not adversely affect investment prospects in West Bengal, state Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here on Saturday. Addressing a press meet after inaugurating a flyover, Bhattacharjee said despite criticism of his government by the opposition, investors believed that a positive environment had been created in West Bengal and the state was receiving investment offers and queries on a regular basis. He urged the opposition not to oppose projects meant for the development of the state and for creation of employment for the jobless.
Speaking about closed tea gardens in North Bengal, he said the government was trying to reopen two in the hills and 14 in the dooars. The government was providing relief to workers of closed gardens through different schemes and would continue to do so till they reopened.

In Kolkata, Miss Mamata Banerjee alleged that the CPI-M is pressurising the CBI to restrain them from digging into the Tapasi Malik murder case. She was addressing a rally at the Iisco Steel Plant gate at Burnpur in support of the fasting Purusottampur villagers. She said: “The CPI-M had been alleging that the Opposition was conspiring against their so called industrialisation bid by putting forward the issues like Tapasi Malik’s rape and murder. Now, with the arrest of their party leaders the actual matter has come to light.”
She said: “They are now trying to influence the CBI by blackmailing the UPA. It is their tradition. They use pressure tactics on the Election Commission by bringing false charges each time.” She said: “At Cooch Behar and at Jagacha, Howrah, the Marxist cadres have killed two more minors and we have already sent a team headed by Mrs Sonali Guha to Cooch Behar to organise a movement against the brutal murder of a minor girl there.”

“it cannot be explained otherwise how Tapasi’s body could be dumped in Tata Motors small car project area”
The CPI-M has been caught with its pants down in Singur and this time it does not even have the proverbial fig leaf to cover its shame
Mr. Basu’s CPI-M was exposed for its treason by the CIA and now in Singur it has been exposed for its Doublethink
“it cannot be explained otherwise how Tapasi’s body could be dumped in Tata Motors small car project area”
The CPI-M has been caught with its pants down in Singur and this time it does not even have the proverbial fig leaf to cover its shame
Mr. Basu’s CPI-M was exposed for its treason by the CIA and now in Singur it has been exposed for its Doublethink

Rape Repression is the latest Marxist aesthetics and that is why Tapasi Malik the voice of Singur Anti Land Acquisition muhim was killed after gang rape by CPIM Gestapo of indiscriminate Urbanisation and Industrilisation in accordance with Post modern Manusmriti! This mode of sexuality is rape, but it is certainly not the only sort of rape there is. Some rape explicitly is an overt tool of terror and social control, for example the systematic and widespread rape campaigns by soldiers in the wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia or the ongoing civil wars in West Africa.As was also the case in Armenia and Nanjing, Bengali women were targeted for gender-selective atrocities and abuses, notably gang sexual assault and rape/murder, from the earliest days of the Pakistani genocide. Indeed, despite (and in part because of) the overwhelming targeting of males for mass murder, it is for the systematic brutalization of women that the "Rape of Bangladesh" is best known to western observers.
Bengal agariran Resistance is led by Women of Nandigram and singur. tapasi Malik represent them! Even the political lead is vested in another woman, the fire brand lady from Bengal, MS Mamat Bannerjee. Apolitical leadership enters the field with Medha Patkar, Arundhati roy, Shaoli Mitra, Aparna Sen, Joya Mitra, anuradha Talwar! We may understand the psyche of the crime committed against humanity and civilisation in Singur, if we have hearts to feel and minds to understand! Thus, we are learning that rape –that vilest of crimes- is being used as an instrument of political repression and torture.
An all out war seems to have broken out in Kolkata with the CPI(M) and the Trinamool Congress leaders at logger heads over the arrest of 2 CPI(M) workers in connection with the murder of an activist in Singur.
The 12 hour bandh which was called by CPI(M) ended this evening. However, during the bandh most shops and educational institutions remained closed and most vehicles remained off the road.
During the day CPM workers setup road blocks on national Highway No. 6 and disrupted traffic across the city, but apart from these roadblocks, no other untoward incidents were reported.
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee continued her tirade against the West Bengal government. She also visited the murdered activist Tapashi Mallik’s home on Friday night demanding nothing short of capital punishment for those arrested.
The West Bengal Congress accused the CPI(M) of trying to influence the investigations by CBI into the Tapasi Mallik murder case by making allegations that a conspiracy was afoot.
"It is ridiculous that the top CPI(M) leadership has spoken of an anti-government and anti-Tata project conspiracy immediately after the CBI arrested two party activists in the Tapasi Malik murder case. The party is trying to influence the investigations being carried out by the CBI," WBPCC general secretary Manas Bhuiyan told a press conference here.
CPI(M) veteran leader Jyoti Basu had yesterday said that that it was a political conspiracy to stop the Tata motors project at Singur and to malign the Left Front government.
Criticising the CPI(M) for enforcing a Bandh at Singur over the arrests which affected the work of the Tata project there during the day, Bhuiyan said, "Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee often accuses the opposition of being an impediment to the Tata project. He owes an explanation for his own party's action today."
He also pointed to the dichotomy between Bhattacharjee's statement on June 26 that the culprits in the murder case should be punished and Basu claiming that it was a political conspiracy.
Bhuiyan, who is also the leader of the state legislature party, said Congress would seek an explanation from the Chief Minister in the matter in the assembly "when the extended budget session begins on July two".
"It is unfortunate that the CM and his party leaders are speaking in two voices on the CBI arrests in the Tapasi murder case," he said.
The Congress leader said his party wanted the CBI to complete the investigations and take action in the murder case and also in the Nandigram 'genocide'.
He claimed that under the Left regime, the people had lost faith in the CID "which has been turned into an instrument to protect killers".
Citing an example, he said the CID had failed to chargesheet the 10 people arrested by the CBI after March 14 police firing and violence at Nandigram. "The CID has lost credibility." The charred body of Tapasi, who was in the fore front of the movement launched by Trinamool Congress-led 'Save Farmland Committee' against "forcible" acquisition of land for Tata motors was found on December 18 last year inside the project land. She was allegedly raped before being killed.

Thirty years of Marxist regime in West Bengal sustaining caste Hindu Rule over Bangla Nationality turns the Bengali speaking geopolitics in another Killingfield after Bangladesh, where lacs of women were raped to sustain East Pakistani Military Regime. Now, it is no wonder that ruling Marxists have adopted the method of Rape and Murder to sustain the rotten Brahminical syatem for which they divided Bangla Nationality and Indian Nation! Buddhadev declares that he is going to celebrate the birth anniversary of Dr. BC Roy while his party takes a U-Turn denying the celebration which portrays well the Bengali brahminical fascist communalism which is the real Marxist aesthetics of the Bengali speaking Marxists! The dalit Bengalies scttered all over the world may not forget the history of partition and the role of Dr BC Roy, the Ivory Icon, who along with Pdt. Jawahar Lal Nehru asserted that refugees coming from East pakistan were not at all partition victims despite Noakhali experience. It is Dr BC Roy who drove away the dalit Bengali refugees, specially the militant Namoshudras and Paundras out of Bengali geopolitics. Now, Paranb Mukherjee tries to eject them out of Indian Nation depriving them citizenship and civil human rights countrywide. They tried to make Mukherjee the next President and failed. Thus, it is no surprise that CPIM gets shelter in the capitalist wings of Dr BC Roy as the industrial policies adopted by ruling Left Fron are reminiscent of DR BC Roy! Some day, they will also celebrate the birth days of Atulya Ghosh and Prafulla Chandra Sen! No wonder.
What about severe repression? What about ruthless invaders who just keep killing people at the least hint of resistance? What can be done to stop a programme of total extermination? How can social defence possibly work against repressive regimes such as the dictatorships of Hitler and Stalin? We have not seen Hitler. We did not live the fascist experience of Europe! But we may not regret as the Left as well as the Right in India adopt the fascist ideology under desguise of post modern Manusmriti,globalisation and corporatisation of polity and politics!
Naxal Revolution: Singur Tapasi Malik(16 years) - Raped and burnt ...At around 5:00AM on 18th of December 2006, Tapasi Malik the only young daughter of Monoronjan Malik, a sharecropper went out in the field to answer nature’s ...
naxalrevolution.blogspot.com/2006/12/singur-tapasi-malik16-years-raped-and.html - 111k - Cached - Similar pages
CBI arrests CPM leader in Tapasi Malik murder case - India DailyThe CBI has arrested CPI-M leader Suhrid Dutta in the connection with the... Tapasi Malik Murder Case, CPM, AHRC, Suhrid Dutta, Singur, West Bengal.
www.indiadaily.org/entry/cbi-arrests-cpm-leader-in-tapasi-malik-murder-case/ - 70k - 29 Jun 2007 - Cached - Similar pages
tapasi malik: Blogs, Photos, Videos and more on TechnoratiSee all blog posts tagged with tapasi malik on Technorati.
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Who Killed Tapasi Malik At Singur?NEW and definitive light has been shed on the murder of a young woman named Tapasi Malik. Tapasi was done away brutally nearly five months ago one early ...
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Sify Blogs India - Your free thought space with free 10 MB image ...Who killed Tapasi Malik? Singur demands to hang the killers of Tapasi Malik. ... Tapasi Malik portrays well the anti land Rural India Mutiny. ...
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Palash Speaks - Hang the Killers of Tapasi Malik, Singur DemandsWho killed Tapasi Malik? Singur demands to hang the killers of Tapasi Malik. Peasant folks of Singur demonstrated on Monday with torches demanding capital ...
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Tara NewzDebu Malik, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) supporter arrested for allegedly killing Singur girl Tapasi Malik in December last year, ...
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Tapasi case: Killer should be punished, says CM“Tapasi Malik was killed when work for the Tata project started at Singur. The CID first started investigations into the matter. ...
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DNA - India - CPI(M) man confesses to raping Singur girl - Daily ...In December 18, 2006, the charred body of Tapasi Malik was recovered from a field adjacent to the Tata Motors' project site at Singur. ...
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OffstumpedIt is solely on Debu’s statements the CBI has built the Tapasi Malik murder case, against Suhrid, who claimed today that he was “framed”. ...
offstumped.nationalinterest.in/ - 30 Jun 2007 - Similar pages

Hitler was an expert of misinformation campaign. So is the modern day Global order of Phoenix, US Imperialism. The Comradors do represent His Master`s Voice so well! Centered around imperialism and the push to expand its system over all or most of the earth, this "energetic" ideology employs the administrative and economic centralism that is the hallmark of modern American "liberalism," and the militarism and imperialism that is the hallmark of the modern "conservative," in a perfect synthesis of "left" and "right" that satisfies everyone and leaves the dissidents in the "far left" and "far right" margins. This is how our modern fascists can, with some justification, call themselves "centrists," and even "moderates."

After all, in Bizarro World, up is down, truth is a lie, and "democracy" means rule by a self-appointed elite. A Straussian is perfectly comfortable with this universal inversion: as for the rest of us, we'll just have to get used to it.One can easily see how the concept of the "noble lie" fits neatly into the neoconservative scheme of things, and the run-up to the Iraq war is surely a textbook example of the Straussian method in action: an enlightened elite deceives the public into an action that must be taken, after all, for their own good. In this case, we were lied into invading and occupying Iraq, for reasons that had nothing to do with "weapons of mass destruction" and Saddam's alleged links to al Qaeda and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, both of which the promulgators knew to be lies, and yet reiterated ceaselessly.
Victory In Iraq?
By Adil E. Shamoo & Bonnie Bricker
24 June, 2007
Fpif.org
While the American people are seeking a way to bring the troops home from Iraq, the President and his administration are aiming to stay for much longer by redefining “victory” in Iraq once again—this time as a permanent occupier. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters on June first this year that he favors a mutual agreement with Iraq in which “some force of Americans...is present for a protracted period of time....” Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, in charge of daily military operations in Iraq, supported this idea, comparing our involvement in Iraq to our continued military presence in South Korea. This type of “victory” was not what America signed up for as Bush led the nation to war. But even worse, this victory isn’t even realistic.
http://www.countercurrents.org/shamoo240607.htm
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) and Finance Minister of West Bengal Asim Dasgupta said here on Friday that the recent “unfortunate” incidents at Nandigram had taught the Government that while land acquisition for industrialisation may not be a problem at the macro-level, it can be a sensitive issue at the micro-level.
“The total land required for the industrialisation programme of West Bengal may be less than one lakh acres and this may not be a major issue at the macro level. However, for the individual farmer, each piece of land is a sensitive issue. This is particularly true in a land-scarce State like ours. We have learnt this important lesson from the Nandigram incident,” Mr. Dasgupta said while speaking at a function organised here to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Left Front Government in West Bengal.
“We will be very careful now. We will acquire land only after thorough talks with the farmers. The West Bengal Government has expressed its regret over the police action at Nandigram. We have also made it clear that we have an open mind in exploring the possibility of further bettering the compensation package worked out for the farmers whose land would be acquired, though the present package is one of the best that has ever been worked out in the country,” he said.
Anti-Capitalism In
Five Minutes Or Less
By Robert Jensen
09 April, 2007
Countercurrents.org
We know that capitalism is not just the most sensible way to organize an economy but is now the only possible way to organize an economy. We know that dissenters to this conventional wisdom can, and should, be ignored. There’s no longer even any need to persecute such heretics; they are obviously irrelevant.
http://www.countercurrents.org/jensen090507.htm
CPI-M to return fund received for party organ

Thiruvananthapuram, June 30: Seeking to save the party's battered image over accepting funds from a lottery distributor, the state unit of CPI-M decided to return the Rs two crore it took for party organ `deshabhimani' from the dealer.
Under attack from opposition parties, CPI-M state committee, which met here today in the presence of party general secretary Prakash Karat, decided to return the amount received as refundable deposit for the development of its daily.
A party statement said CPI-M state secretariat had been entrusted to examine all the details regarding the four payments of Rs 50 lakh each to `Deshabhimani' about which allegations had been raised by the "party's enemies."
The funds were received as advances returnable with interest within a specific timeframe. This was done in a transparent manner. However, in view of ill-motivated attempts to tarnish the party, it has been decided to return the amount immediately, the party statement said.
Media expose of the party's daily receiving funds from the 'lottery king' had come as a big embarrassment for the party in the last few days. Opposition parties had raised the issue in the assembly and outside and demanded a CBI probe.
The party was put on the defensive as it was forced to retract its earlier statement that the fund collected was for the development bonds of `Deshabhimani.' later, the daily's general manager and CPI-M Central Committee Member E P Jayarajan said the fund was not received through bonds but as advances for carrying advertisements.
Panchayats Can Deny Permission For Field Trials Of GM crops
By Kavitha Kuruganti
21 June, 2007
Countercurrents.org

Genetically Modified (GM) or Genetically Engineered (GE) crops are trying to make their way into India across more than thirteen important crops. One such genetically modified crop – Bt Cotton – has already been allowed into the country.
The issue of GE crops is highly controversial and there is much evidence present about the adverse effects of GE crops on farming and other eco-systems, in addition to potential impacts on human health too, from across the world. The hasty thrusting of GM crops on Indian farmers, especially in the context of safer and affordable alternatives being practiced by thousands of farmers, raises questions about the need for such crops in the first instance.
Genetic Engineering is a process by which foreign genes from other living organisms are randomly inserted into the genome of a host organism (any plant or animal that the promoter wants to modify for some reason or the other, with profiteering through larger and larger markets being the common reason) with unpredictable and potentially hazardous results. Very often, only the expected benefits are hyped up and the potential problems glossed over without any sound assessment. This could lead to disastrous consequences for all life on this planet.
http://www.countercurrents.org/kuruganti210607.htm

When sex is shameful and rape victims are shamed, those victims are silenced -- and rape, by its taboo nature, becomes a problem we cannot address because we cannot talk about it sensibly. Contrariwise, in an atmosphere of sexual openness, we can talk openly of rape, and in doing so work more effectively against it. True sexual freedom includes the freedom to comfortably decline to participate in sexual activity every bit as much as it includes the freedom to participate. And as such, true sexual freedom is itself freedom from rape.
Universally rape has been used by various states as an instrument of repression directed against rebellious women; however, there is a cultural dimension to its use. In Iran during the Khomeini era, revolutionary women were raped before they were killed because according to their religious belief, virgin women if killed go to heaven. Hence, to make sure that they went to hell, they were subjected to rape before being killed. In Nepal, where virginity is worshipped in the form of Kumari Puja (the living Goddess of Nepal), virginity is valued as a symbol of purity, prestige and pride for unmarried Hindu women and hence, her family and community. Thus, the use of rape as an instrument of repression in Nepal is to make women culturally impure, frivolous, unfit for marriage, thus, shaming the whole family or community. With the influence of imperialist culture which thrives on pornography, blue films with all kinds of misogyny and sadomasochism messages, and intoxication with liquor consumption, all of which are made freely available for the reactionary armed forces, the political rape by the state has taken brutal dimensions. Thus, the very act of rape and its brutality represents how feudalism and imperialism reinforce each other to teach lessons to rebellious women.
Pl Read:
Alarming Rise Of Rape Incidents
A compilation from news reports and Dhaka based reports
http://www.hrcbm.org/NEWLOOK/Bhola_ajoy_mukto-mona.html
Quotations:
"Women are raped in Zion; virgins in the towns of Judah." Lamentations 5:11, from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament)
For I [God] will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses looted and the women raped; half the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Zechariah 14:2, from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament)
"I was playing jump-rope in front of my house when an automobile pulled over. I had never seen a car before in my village. When the driver offered me a ride, I, curious and naive, climbed in with my friend. Immediately, that car rolled on with us in it and then kept on going and going, never returning me to my village...." Ms. Kim Yoon Shim, a former "comfort woman," (sex-slave) about her abduction at the age of 14 by the Japanese military." 1
Rape during wartime:
Whenever there is an unbalance of power, the potential for rape increased.
Rape during war appears to have gone through three main stages:
In ancient times: rape was a reward to the victors: The Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) describes the rape of the women of conquered tribes as a routine act. Foreign woman were often kidnapped as spoils of war, and forced to marry their captors/rapists. This was probably typical behavior in the Middle East during that era. In ancient times, rape was considered to be a crime against the victim's father or spouse -- whoever owned her. "The ancient Greeks and Romans would rape and enslave women after they had conquered a city." 2
More m

State and Party Terrorism In Bengal

Palash Biswas

Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com

Thirty years of Left Front Rule is an undisclosed story of State and Party sponsered terrorism. Marichjhapi massacre hinted the heralding State Terrorism. Jyoti Basu managed it very well. Then , the government and dominent partner Cpim played havoc against other left partners in Kultali. Basu managed this also. Nanur, Keshpur, Chhota Angria and other cases were never solved. Jyoti basu was quite succesful to dismiss whatsoever ressistance came in the way. As he enjoyed the support of Rural Bengal thanks to land reforms and Panchayati raj.
The scenerio began to change in Singur. Then , Tapasi Malik was raped and murdered!
And Brand Buddha emerged with Capitalist Development and Eviction for Industrialisation and Urbanisation agenda.
What did you see?

Naked aggression and lawless action committed by the government agencies and the party cadres and their cohorts were utterly repulsive and abhorrent. It shook the conscience of a large number of otherwise apolitical men and women who felt the urge to protest against state terrorism unleashed on unarmed and peaceful peasants who wanted nothing more than being left alone to pursue their own avocations in their own way.

CPI-M patriarch Jyoti Basu refused to comment on the 'sub judice' matter. But asked if he would call it a political conspiracy, he said: 'Our party men think so.'CPI-M leaders said the CBI was also involved in the conspiracy to tarnish the image of the party.

Now truth come into light ,I hope more truth will come day by day and as a result all offices of CPM of all over India will close down day by day. Prof Sanjib Bhattacharya writes.

Party and government once again look for Basu who is quite expert to dilute any crisis! It is rightchice, of course! CPI-M patriarch Jyoti Basu on Friday endorsed his party's line that a "political conspiracy" has been hatched to stop the Tata Motors' small car project in Singur and to malign the West Bengal government by trying to implicate a party official in the alleged murder of a girl.The Buddhadeb Bhattacharya government in West Bengal has come under fire once again after a CPM leader was arrested for his role in the murder of an 18-year-old girl who was a voice against land acquisition in Singur.

"The matter is under judicial review. Yet it is definitely a political conspiracy as it cannot be explained otherwise how Tapasi Malik's body could be dumped in our area (the Tata Motors project site)," Basu told reporters after the CPI-M's state secretariat meeting in Kolkata.

The arrest of CPI-M leader Surhid Dutta and party worker Debu Malik has struck a sordid note to the chants of industrialisation by the communists in West Bengal.Dutta and Malik were remanded in CBI custody by the Chandannagore court of Hooghly district for their alleged role in the killing of Tapasi Malik, who along with her family was in the forefront of the anti-land acquisition movement in Singur.Her charred body was recovered Dec 18 from a rectangular grave inside the area fenced off for the upcoming Tata Motors plant in Singur, 40 km from here, in Hooghly district.

CBI insiders claimed that Suhrid had hatched the plan to eliminate Tapasi as she was gaining popularity in Singur for her campaign against the land takeover.Under his orders, Debu and four others had raped Tapasi and set her on fire, the CBI sources added. The claims have to be repeated on paper without the cover of anonymity for courts to take cognisance of them. Suhrid will be produced in court tomorrow.The CBI had sent Debu to Delhi on June 18 for a polygraph test, which he failed. A few days later, he was arrested.CBI officials said Debu had not only admitted his role in the murder but also mentioned the names of a few others, including that of his mentor Suhrid.

Do relise the situation!

A leader of West Bengal's ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and a party supporter were remanded in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody Friday for the alleged rape and murder of an 18-year-old girl at the Tata Motors site in Singur.An embarrassed CPI-M has termed it a 'conspiracy' while there was jubilation in the opposition Trinamool Congress camp as party chief Mamata Banerjee rushed to Singur to express solidarity with the victim's family.Dutta, the Singur Zonal Committee secretary of the CPI-M, was arrested Thursday evening by the CBI.The main accused is Malik, who was in charge of the night guards at the Tata Motors site during the rape and murder. He was arrested in New Delhi and brought to Kolkata Wednesday night by the CBI.
While Dutta would be produced in court again on July 12, Debu Malik was given CBI custody till July 7.

'This is a conspiracy,' said CPI-M peasant leader Binoy Konar.

The arrest has come as a major setback to the Left Front government's industrialisation policy and the means adopted to pursue it. Meanwhile, the CBI is interrogating at least four others, including some CPI-M members, in connection with the case. Some more arrests are expected shortly.

Some 997 acres in Singur have been chosen by Tata Motors for its small car project. The issue has triggered a violent face-off between the government and farmers led by civil society groups and parties like the Trinamool.

The Singur arrests couldn’t have been more ill-timed for the CPM, which was planning to hardsell industry minister Nirupam Sen’s “lukewarm” rehab package for the landlosers.Moreover, the Opposition has got an emotive brush to tar industrialisation – which is already nursing a black eye from the Nandigram backlash – further.One factor that the party is hoping to drive home is that the CBI probe was ordered by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on his own. The party will contend that the central agency would not have been brought in if the government or the CPM leadership had anything to hide.In public, the CPM went on the offensive, alleging a conspiracy to derail industrialisation and describing the rape and murder as “low-level” crime.It accused the CBI of “political motivation” – a charge that will be difficult to establish as the agency’s current political masters at the Centre are at the mercy of the CPM.

“Dutta’s residence was 9km away from the place where Tapasi’s body was found. Despite that he was framed. It is clear now that the CBI arrested him out of political motivation,” said senior leader Benoy Konar, now acting as state party secretary in the absence of Biman Bose who is in the US. “It’s part of the conspiracy to derail the Tata Motors unit in Singur.”

Both Bose and Konar had dismissed Debu as “one of the party’s lakhs of voters and supporters”.

Konar today insisted that Tapasi’s murder was “not a political conspiracy but a low-level crime” and tried to add a twist to the tale.

“Debu was Tapasi’s relative. They might have fallen in love and the crime was committed on the spur of the moment. He was one of those who had voted for us. However, we are not sure whether he had maintained a secret relation also with the Krishi Jami Bachao committee,’’ he said.

Konar said he feared that another influential local CPM leader, Dibakar Das, “might be arrested” following his interrogation by the CBI.

Trinamool Congress, Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters have demanded capital punishment for the two men.

Mamata Banerjee, who visited the parents of the victim, said: 'I would not comment on the CBI probe at this juncture but we all want punishment of the culprits. An innocent girl had to pay with her life for protesting land acquisition.'

Asserting that the proposed chemical hub would not be allowed to come up even outside Nandigram, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today said she would continue to resist acquisition of land from the people.Announcing that her party would take out 'bhookha' processions in Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram respectively on July 2 and 7 to highlight the plight of farmers of Singur and Nandigram, she alleged that the Left Front Government was trying to grab land of the common people in the name of industrialisation.
Miss Banerjee Thursday accused the chief minister of lying to the people regarding selection of site for the proposed mega chemical hub. Even as the Government had to abandon the plan for setting up the hub at Nandigram following violent resistance from the local people, the Chief Minister said the project would come up elsewhere, preferably in its vicinity. He also sought opinions from different political parties for reaching a consensus on the issue.
“Its a blatant lie when Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee says that the land for the mega hub has not yet been selected. In the same breath he says the centre has cleared the project. The clearance cannot be given by Centre till the state government categorically specifies the land on which the project should come up,’’ Miss Banerjee said. She quoted from the SEZ Act 2007 to justify her point that the state government had already earmarked 25,000 acres of land for proposed chemical hub.
She said the chief minister is biding time till the Haldia municipal election. Once the election is over, the state government will once again go for land acquisition.
She also said after the arrest of Debu Malik, who was given shelter by a CPI-M leader, the chief minister said at Writers’ Buildings that offenders should be brought to book. If he is so serious then CID should have arrested Malik after Tapasi was raped and murdered in December.
“Why has the chief minister failed to take adequate steps against those who tried to destroy evidence in the Tapasi Malik case?’’ she asked. She also said four months have passed but victims of Nandigram are yet to receive justice.
“In the name of globalisation and industrialisation CPI-M is misleading people and the state government is forcefully acquiring land either for private parties or individuals. This cannot be the role of any government,’’ Trinamul Congress chief said.
Miss Banerjee also said that her party would not join the all party meeting called by the DM Burdwan regarding land acquisition at Salanpur for the proposed steel plant by an industrial group.

Statesman News Service reports:

After offering an olive branch to the Opposition by announcing that it will observe Nandigram Peace Day on Bidhan Chandra Roy’s birthday as a mark of respect to the former chief minister, the CPI-M today took a complete U-turn and exposed the divisions in its ranks on this issue.
“It’s merely a coincidence that 1 July happens to be Bidhan Roy’s birthday. Why should we observe it? The Congress shouldn’t have reason to believe we selected this day with a motive”, CPI-M peasants front leader Mr Benoy Konar said today contradicting the party’s state secretary Mr Biman Bose who is now in the USA. Mr Konar is acting as the state secretary in his absence.
“Nandigram did not happen during Roy’s tenure. He was never recognised as a man sympathetic to Left democratic movement. It’s true that he took some initiative to set up new industries in Bengal which was not done since Independence. But we never say his tenure witnessed a flood of industrial projects (the exact term Mr Bose used last week)”, Mr Konar said. Criticising Roy for not taking enough initiative to keep the industrial process going, Mr Konar said: “With the kind of personality he had, Roy could have easily contested the Centre’s decision to impose the licence raj and freight equalisation. Durgapur, Haldia and Kalyani came up during his tenure. But after that there was a lull in industry.”

PWD Minister Kshiti Goswami today said the CBI inquiry into the Tapashi Malik murder case would not affect the state's industrialisation policy.
" The law must take its own course in the Singur issue and the CPI(M)'s allegation of political conspiracy should not be ruled out, and a thorough investigation is necessary, " Mr Goswami told newsmen here.

He said the CBI was inquiring the case and if any political conspiracy was found, the conspirators should be meted out a harsh punishment.

" I think CPI(M) central committee member Binoy Konar's allegation of political conspiracy will not affect the government's industrialisation policy, " the Minister replied to a query.

Pl see these websites to understand the Marxist mechanism of repression and expertis of Jyoti Basu!

Naxalite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThe term comes from Naxalbari, a small village in West Bengal, where a section of Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) led by Charu Majumdar and Kanu ...
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Recall that the year 2006 had begun with the shooting down in cold blood by the police of twelve tribals in Kalinga Nagar, Orissa, when they resisted their land being handed over to the Tatas for mining. The year is about to end as the Marxist chief minister in neighbouring west Bengal is prepared to unleash state terror on behalf of the Tatas. The Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas or PESA Act of 1996 requires Gram Sabhas to be consulted for land acquisition. And yet, in Jharkhand, in Orissa this has either been been ignored systematically or, as a recent field report documents, the police surrounds threateningly the ordinary members in the Gram Sabha meetings , forcing them to agree to the proposals of giving up their lands at throw away prices( Down to Earth, 31 October, 2006). Land acquisition in Singur in west Bengal for the Tatas, or for Anil Ambani in Dadri in UP repeat a pattern that is becoming menacingly familiar. We are told ‘trade secrets’ about land use can not be revealed to the public under the right to information act. Yet a local TV channel reported, uncontested so far by the government, that west Bengal government gave Rs.140 crores in compensation, while the the Tatass will give only 20 crores after five years for the land according to the deal, without stamp duty and with provision of free water. The fact that public money worth 120 crore or more is handed over to a corporation must indeed remain a trade secret. Another report claims on May 31, 2006 the west Bengal state cabinet gave the nod for acquisition of 36,325 acre of land for various similar national and multinational corporate led projects. With more proposals coming in, the figure might have crossed 70,000 acres with Howrah marked for the Salem group, and Barasat also to be handed over to the same group for Barasat Raichowk Express Way.

Intellectuals protest arrival of US carrier. But they do not realise the corelation of US military and the Global order. Visit of Nimitz and Sunita`sSpace travel do have something in common with Singur and Nandigram! Market forces do represent US interests worldwide. They want to make this globe a colony for unipolar zionist US Imperialism with which the Brahminical Hindutva forces have alligned. Indo US nuclear deal making External affairs minister happens to be the best advocate of indiscriminate land acquisition in West Bengal.
And see:

New Delhi:A group of historians and intellectuals have expressed disappointment over India's decision to grant permission to the US aircraft carrier Nimitz to make a call at Chennai port for rest and recreation.In a joint statement issued Friday, the signatories, including novelist Arundhati Roy and historian Romilla Thapar, said the government's justification that the nuclear-powered ship was not known to be carrying nuclear weapons on board and did not violate India's well-established policy did not cut ice.

"This claim flies in the face of the US' well-reiterated policy to 'neither deny nor confirm' the presence of nuclear weapons on its warships under any circumstances, and its standing instructions to military personnel," said the statement.

"The fact that New Delhi has gratuitously granted this certificate to the US, when Washington itself does not do so, speaks poorly of our foreign and security policies."

The statement also pointed out that the decision marks a reversal of India's past policy opposing the transit of nuclear weapons in its neighbourhood and the US base at Diego Garcia and its demand for a zone of peace in the Indian Ocean.

"A visit to India of the Nimitz, one of two US aircraft carriers recently mobilised in the Persian Gulf to threaten Iran, will send out a negative international signal in the context of the destabilisation of West Asia caused by the US-led invasion of Iraq," the statement said.

"Such 'military interactions' point to an erosion of foreign policy independence and a departure from the United Progressive Alliance's promise to work for a balanced, multi-polar world free of nuclear weapons."

The signatories to the statement include historians Sumit Sarkar and Tanika Sarkar, novelist Mahashweta Devi, dramatist Habib Tanvir and economists Prabhat Patnaik, S.P. Shukla and Deepak Nayyar and former education secretary Sudeep Bannerjee.

The ship will drop anchor three km off Chennai July 1-5.

Fresh violence erupts at Nandigram

Nandigram (W: After a lull of ten days, fresh violence erupted yesterday here this evening with one person being injured in firing between a anti-land acquisition group and the state's ruling CPI(M).The firing took place at Tekhalibazar, the same area where supporters of Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (Anti Land Acquisition group) and CPI(M) had traded fire sporadically for three days from June 15.

East Midnapore district superintendent of police G A Srinivas said the firing between the two sides began at 7:00 pm and continued for an hour.He said one person was injured in the exchange of fire.He said 200 policemen were deployed in Nandigram and they intervened and brought the situation under control.

BUPC convenor Sheikh Suffian claimed the injured Nishi Kanta Pradhan was a Committee supporter.Suffian also claimed CPI(M) cadres had fired 30 rounds at Committee supporters at Tekhalibazar.

Dipankar Bhattacharya, general secretary of CPI-ML (Liberation), condemned the incident and said, “Nandigram, like Naxalbari, will be a turning point in the history of West Bengal and India. In the early 1970s, Charu Majumdar, along with several others, was killed by the CPI (M) and Siddharth Shankar Ray of the Congress to suppress the Naxalbari movement. Today the CPI (M) is killing innocent peasants in Nandigram, backed by a corporate government and multinational corporations, for land acquisition.” He also demanded that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, as chief minister of West Bengal, should take the responsibility and resign.

After her visit to Nandigram, social activist Medha Patkar roundly criticised the Left government: “State terrorism by the CPI(M) cadre and the police have to be opposed through non-violent struggle. The fight against the SEZs and forcible displacement of the people of West Bengal and others is because of neo-liberal globalisation. The prevailing situation in West Bengal is no different from the one in Gujarat where thousands of Muslims are being displaced and ghettoised by the state government. What happened is not right and the ruling party in the state is at fault. In this case, women were targeted. We never expected that the Left would behave in such a heartless manner. The police is not normalising the situation. Instead they are causing the disturbance in the area.”

Major mortality events linked to British opium-linked exploitation of India and China include the Great Bengal Famine (1769-1770; 10 million deaths), other 18th-19th century famines in India (tens of millions of victims); 25 million 19th century cholera deaths (due to cholera dissemination by British shipping, rail and canals); the 19th century China Opium Wars and the subsequent Tai Ping rebellion (20-100 million associated famine victims); extraordinary Indian population stasis between 1890 and 1930 (due to famine, malnutrition, cholera, plague and influenza); and finally the WW2 man-made Bengal Famine in WW2 British India (4 million victims; speculated in Colin Mason’s “A Short History of Asia” to have been a deliberate scorched earth policy to block Japanese invasion from Burma – and accordingly near-comprehensively deleted from British history).

Globalisation is the context in which growth is taking place.the accompanying processes of economic liberalization and privatization are tilting the balance in favour of the market against the nation state. However, the game is no longer what it used to be. Nineteenth century capitalism developed through a complex process of conflict and cooperation between the state and the market. The state furthered the interest of the market, but at times also regulated it. For instance, it regulated the hours of work, abolished child labour or legalised trade unionism at different points in time. Karl Polyani, the perceptive commentator on the nineteenth century capitalism described this as a process of “great transformation” driven by the “double movement” of the market and the state, a process in which the rules for the market were set mostly by the state. When the state fails to play this role, the result is not a freer market and more freedom, but growing desperate rage of the poor,which must engulf all sooner or later.

It has become a cliché, even a politically correct cliché these days, to say that there are two Indias: the India that shines with its fancy apartments and houses in rich neighbourhoods, corporate houses of breath taking size, glittering shopping malls, and high-tech flyovers over which flows a procession of new model cars. These are the images from a globalized India on the verge of entering the first world. And then there is the other India. India of helpless peasants committing suicides, dalits lynched regularly in not- so- distant villages, tribals dispossessed of their forest land and livelihood, and children too small to walk properly, yet begging on the streets of shining cities. Something stalks the air.The rage of the poor from this other India is palpable; it has engulfed some 120-160 out of 607 districts of this country in the so called extremist Naxalite movements. The India of glitter and privilege, it seems is bent on turning its back, and seceding fast from the other India of despair, rage and inhuman poverty. This is not just a matter of growing relative inequality between the two Indias. A more brutal process is at work, with the connivance of governments at the Central and at the state level which is not only widening this divide between the two Indias, it is deepening consciously the absolute poverty and misery of poor India.

In the post-World War II period refugee problem emerged out to be one of the biggest problems before the international community. India has also experienced it at a large scale. Factors such as rise of religious nationalism, ethnicisation of politics, state terrorism, anarchic majoritarianism and above all state’s refusal to conform to norms set by the international refugee regime, rendered the refugees stateless and subjects for inhuman treatment. On the other hand, historical forces like religious, linguistic or ethnic nationalism and regional economic disparity continue to generate refugees in the eastern and north-eastern regions of India. Faced with unfriendly state, both in the country of origin and the country of adoption, the refugees struggle to find the ways and means for a healthy living, and wherever possible they make efforts to put up an organised movement for their ‘human rights’.

The unprecedented high economic growth on which privileged India prides itself is a measure of the high speed at which India of privilege is distancing itself from the India of crushing poverty. The higher the rate of economic growth along this pattern becomes, the greater would be the underdevelopment of India. We first need to understand this paradox which counter-poses growth against development, and challenge this dangerous obsession with growth.

The state power was seen in its most oppressive form during the Emergency (1975-1977) which was a watershed in Indian politics in many ways and had a great impact on the human rights scene. It is immediately after this period that various human rights groups established and consolidated themselves

The All India Federation of Organizations for Democratic Rights (AIFOFDR) is an example of a democratic rights organization. Its Declaration states that rights abuses in India stem from the fundamental conflict between the ruling classes and the exploited masses. The state is depicted as the agent of the ruling classes, and all efforts by the state to alleviate poverty and exploitation are viewed as a form of deception. When people realize this deception and struggle for improving their lot, the state lets loose repression upon them. The Declaration holds that throughout history people have won their rights only through their own struggles and organization, and that people must be mobilized to promote, assert and defend their democratic rights. Thus the right to struggle is the most fundamental democratic right. All other rights stem from this and are secondary.7 AIFOFDR declaration makes it clear that "the right to struggle" is more important than "social peace." It supports what it calls "democratic organizations . . . of rural poor," "peasant organizations," and "legitimate peasant movement" like the Mazdoor Kisan Sangram Sangathan (MKSS) and Maoist Communist Centre (MCC). AIFOFDR and other democratic rights organizations thus do not have much faith in the constitutionally guaranteed rights or the legal system of the country.8 They believe that a "radical transformation" of the society is required to guarantee rights to everybody, but specially the underprivileged and the exploited. This ideology/outlook sets them in constant conflict with the state/government.

What we are witnessing is deliberate connivance on the part of the conventional Left in West Bengal with the interests of large corporations against the poor, perhaps in the hope that the corporations will bring about a miraculous transformation of the State, which they are incapable of doing with sate power. It is an abject surrender to the conventional wisdom of our time that There Is No Alternative to corporate led capitalism

POLITICS-INDIA: Left's Bengal Bastion Shaky After 30 Years in Power
By Praful Bidwai

NEW DELHI, Jun 29 (IPS) - India's Left parties have just set an international record by completing 30 uninterrupted years of elected power in the major state of West Bengal.

Not only is this is an unprecedented achievement in India, where 80 percent of all ruling parties have lost elections to their rivals in the past three decades, it remains unparalleled anywhere in the world. Perhaps no other political party or coalition, from across the political spectrum, has surpassed this accomplishment in any other democracy.

India's Left Front (LF) -- which mainly comprises the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Forward Bloc, and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP)-- also wields enormous power at the centre as the key allies of the federally-ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Fifty years ago, a coalition led by communists had set another pioneering record by winning power in free and fair elections in India's southern state of Kerala -- the first communists to do so in any democratic country in the post-War world. That government was dismissed two years later by the then federal government. But the LF bounced back and presently holds power in Kerala.

Impressive as the LF's record is in West Bengal, it is not without its flaws and limitations. Even the state governm