– 26 years later, still poses the question -  How Indian is the Indian State?

 One by one, the blocks added on in the events after the night of 2^nd – 3^rd Dec., 1984 when MIC gas poured out from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal and wrapped the city in its lethal cocoon. The judicial verdict delivered by the CJM Bhopal on 7^th June, 2010 is actually only a derivative – but it carries the essence of the drive which has permeated the entire events related to the Gas Tragedy. The drive is of the Indian State – Central Govt., Judiciary,- and the subservient media to sellout the interests of the Indian people, of the dead and dying victims of Bhopal especially to protect and defend the interests of American MNC Union Carbide. Through 26 years this drive has been steady and unwavering. Today when the natural culmination of the drive has come in a judicial verdict giving 2 years jail to 8 officials for 35000 deaths and lakhs of living deaths, the protection is still on. Behold the farce of the daily Press convulsed over the judgment, of ex officials exposing the obvious truth and politicians of the Congress pointing fingers away from the then Rajiv Gandhi led Central  Govt. – all to preempt and subvert the anger of the people, by saying all the obvious things and of course doing nothing.

            The Bhopal Gas Tragedy – the most massive industrial disaster in the world. Involved is  an American MNC which well knew that this disaster was waiting to happen The successive Govts of India – the Central Govt. of Rajeev Gandhi which first arranges for Anderson to leave India unhampered (1984), then along with Supreme Court agrees to drop all charges against UCC for a meagre compensation  (1989), the Central Govt. of Manmohan Singh whose ministers agree to absolve Dow Chemicals of all liabilities, and 6 years of NDA Govt. which  reports state was not over anxious for justice. The Supreme Court, which brokers a deal in 1989 against the interests of the country, the Supreme Court 1996 which dilutes the charges from 304 (II) to 304 (A) IPC; the CJM in 2010 who uses the curtailed space before him to serve the UCC by allowing sentences to run concurrently over 2 years, instead of sequentially which would give 4 years in jail. And always the Govt. of India with its refusal to allow proceedings for extradition of UCC Chairman Anderson who lives openly in New York. Now Cong spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan joins American Govt. to imply that bygones should be allowed to be bygones.

            All over the country, people are showing that they have already internalized even if not fully understood the lessons of the past 63 years since 1947. Repeatedly, the Govt. of the day stands with MNCs and imperialism – it is one pole and the people the other. The Indian State is ready to sell its people and their interests and all its wings connive with each other to allow this to be so. Bhopal is but the most blatant, most horrific, most obvious example of the  subservience to imperialism of the rulers of India. And thus today the people have burst out in struggles against attempts by various Govts to seize the country’s lands, ransack its resources for the sake of MNCs and corporates. People fought for justice not only in Bhopal but also against Enron, against opening of Telecom sector, against so many examples where Govts and courts subverted the struggles. Now that the people are fighting back, the state is showing how for it can go in the service of imperialism. It has declared war against peoples’ struggles in the name of fighting Naxalism.

            Thus the question about  Bhopal too, stands forth starkly. Could there ever have been justice ? The Govt., the judiciary, the other arms of the state stand with MNCs, big corporates, imperialists against the people of Indian. This alone is the truth and Bhopal illustrates this.

FIGHT PRICE RISE!!!

RESIST STATE VIOLENCE!!!

“The first and great necessity of the present to free labour of this country from capitalist slavery is the passing of a law by which 8 hours shall be the normal working day...”. This was the resolution in the Founding Convention of the National Labour Union in the U.S in 1866, and 20 years later, in the city of Chicago on 1^st May, the great outpouring of the workers demonstrated the resolve to attain the demand. Chicago became the epicentre of the struggle and on 3^rd May 1886, the capitalist gendarme attacked a meeting of the striking workers at the McCormick Reaper Factory in which 6 workers were killed. It is against this police brutality that workers held a meeting at the Hay Market which was peaceful and about to end when the police unleashed violence again, killing 4 workers. An incident of bomb throwing took place and the leaders of the workers’ movement were implicated and tried by the jury that sent Parson, Spies, Fischer and Engel to the gallows. Three years later in 1889, the First Congress of the Second International was held in Paris that set aside 1^st May as a day upon which the workers of the world were to fight for an 8-hour working day. And this struggle is inexorably linked to the struggle to end the system of wage slavery. On the occasion of the 124^th anniversary of May Day, IFTU salutes the Chicago martyrs and reiterates its pledge to continue the tradition of struggle against exploitation by capital.

In late 2008 when the U.S economy witnessed one of the worst crises since the Great Depression, resulting in massive unemployment, tremors of that shock were felt in India too, with many of the export-oriented units  dismissing thousands of workers from employment. While one of the main concerns of the working masses continues to be unemployment, contractualisation and wage depression, the grave issue of price rise has become a major and serious concern in the last two years. Of particular adverse impact on the common and working people has been the stupendous increase of prices of essential commodities like rice, wheat, sugar and vegetables. Food prices have never been so worse than the 1970s. Food inflation stood at 16.35% in March, pulses became dearer by over 31% and milk by 18.74%. The Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee while presenting the Union Budget that was marked by a slew of tax concessions to the corporate sector admitted that there could be marginal inflation as a result of his proposals. The hike in excise duties on petro-products further fuelled the price spiral of all essentials. While this phenomenal price rise cut into the meagre earnings of the working people, it is estimated that per capita calorie consumption declined. In fact, the number of hungry people during this period increased. The overall inflation rate hovering around 9.89% in March is expected to touch the double digit.

  LEADER OF SRIKAKULAM GIRIJAN ARMED STRUGGLE AND VETRRAN COMMUNIST REVOLUTIONARY COM. PYLA VASUDEV RAO PASSES AWAY

Veteran communist revolutionary of India and one of the foremost leaders of the glorious Srikakulam Armed Struggle Com. Pyla Vasudev Rao breathed his last at 10:00 AM on April 11, 2010 after fighting cancer. He was 78 years’ old at the time of his death; of these he had party life of 58 years of which the last 42 years were spent in underground.

Born in 1932 in Rittapadu village of Srikakulam dist, Com. Pyla joined the united CP in 1953 when a party unit was formed in his village. He resigned his job in 1957 and devoted himself to building party organization and peasant struggles. He was elected joint secretary of the district peasant organization. On Party’s instruction he took up teacher’s job, many of his students joined the revolutionary communist movement. He became a professional revolutionary in 1962 and also a member of the district committee of the party. He sided with CPM in the struggle against Dange revisionism.

In response to the clarion call of the Great Naxalbari Peasant Armed Struggle, the Srikakulam Girijan Armed Peasant Struggle started on 25^th November 1968 and on the decision of the party, Com. PV went underground. As a member of the Srikakulam leadership, Com. Pyla became part of the CPI(ML). He participated in the 1970 CPI(ML) Party Congress (first after Naxalbari). In Srikakulam movement he worked along side with Comrades Panchadi Krishnamurthy, Vempatapu Satyam, Adibhatta Kailasam, Subbarao Panigrahi and others.

Between 1969-’70 many important leaders of Srikakulam leaders were martyred and the movement suffered huge losses and setbacks. CPI(ML) PC was reorganized of which Com. Pyla became the secretary. Opposing line of individual annihilation, Com. resigned as PC secretary and joined with other Srikakulam comrades revived CC led by com. S.N. Singh. Since then he was a member of the Central Committee of the Party. In 1974, APRCP led by Com. CP Reddy merged with CPI(ML) led by Com. SN Singh and Srikakulam movement became part of the state movement. Com. Pyla was elected state committee secretary in 1976 when Com. P. Ramanarasaiah was killed in a fake encounter.

He was re-elected to the CC in 1980 Special Congress. For long the Party in AP was identified with his name.

Com. Pyla consistently practiced and supported the revolutionary mass line and struggled against rightism and revisionism. He resolutely opposed the interpretation equating mass line with legalism. He was an ardent votary of armed agrarian revolution and of building areas of sustained resistance. He greatly valued the role of armed squads in building resistance struggle and fought against the trends that he perceived to be opposed to this. Till the end of his life, Com. PV consistently upheld revolutionaries’ separation from neo-revisionist CPM after Naxalbari and formation of CPI(ML) in 1969 unlike some leaders who then or later criticized the formation of CPI(ML) and refused to treat it as revolutionary communist party of the country.

His died at a time when the peasants of India are rising in many parts against the decadent rule of the ruling classes, against landlord oppression and forcible displacement. Srikakulam Armed Struggle continues to inspire the revolutionaries and struggling people of the country. Srikakulam Armed Struggle which reached highest point in terms of resistance and people’s participation in all the struggles inspired by Naxalbari, continues to serve as a beacon light for the present revolutionary movement. Com. Pyla as one of the leaders of that movement continues to live in the memory of the revolutionaries and struggling people of the country.

To pay homage to this veteran communist revolutionary leader CPI(ML)-New Democracy organized memorial meetings at Hyderabad and Delhi on April 20, 2010.

Long Live Com. Paila Vasudev Rao !

(AIKMS statement issued on April 19, 2010)

Police and landlords have launched a vicious attack on the poor people of Umri and neighbouring villages over last two days registering false cases on them, posting PAC and attacking their houses and launching a completely false propaganda attack on AIKMS workers.

On 17th April sheep of some poor farmers were grazing on the pond land of Umri to which local landlords Mithilesh and Radhey Shyam took objection and attacked the poor people. Kondhiara thana police arrived and settled the matter, but late at night CO Bara, Janardan Tiwari intervened and forced registration of a completely false FIR against 7 activists under provisions of dacoity and attempt to murder. The complaints given by the poor people have been totally ignored and no FIR has been registered. Yesterday evening a copy of the complaint of the poor people was taken by the CO from village Sadwan and the moment he left the poor people were attacked again by the landlords. Even this incident has been registered as an FIR against the poor.

Yesterday evening Bara MLA Udaybhan Karwaria reached the area and sat on a road block along with a handful of upper caste landlords. He threatened to liquidate the AIKMS leaders in case police did not arrest them. Senior police personel are camping in the area and instead of addressing the grievances of the poor people they are threatening action against anyone who makes a complaint against the landlords.

These landlords of the area have occupied various Gram Sabha, pond lands and lands belonging to the poor in the area and the entire dispute is related to this. Kunj Bihari Shukla is in possession of various pond lands in Dagwan. In Umri Mithilesh and Radhey Shyam have occupied a large plot of Harijan Abadi land on which the poor people have been agitating peacefully. Workers are also agitating for increase in agricultural wages from 5 Kg wheat per day which the landlord object to. Few days ago Mithilesh had misbehaved with a girl and when the poor people objected he had threatened to attack them.

The PAC has been posted in large numbers in Umri and Jari areas and it has attacked and damaged the house of one of the accused poor person, Bhulai.

BSP administration has launched a massive disinformation campaign and attack on the dalits and poor people of the area in order to help the upper caste landord power to assert itself on the poor people. The entire police machinery is acting in tandem with the landlords. Like in Kaushambi, it is acting purely as an agency of the landlords who are involved in severe and medieval forms of exploitation of the poor. A complete police raj is prevailing and there is complete police lawlessness. An atmosphere of fear prevails in the area with the poor left wondering about safety of their rights.