Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-New Democracy held a protest demonstration today i.e. on November 13, 2007 at Parliament Street (Delhi) from noon onwards to condemn the bloodbath, displacement, arson and violence let loose by CPM against peasantry resisting land acquisition in Nandigram. Instead of honouring the democratic rights of the peasantry against its displacement from its lands, the peasantry is facing Operation extermination and Displacement at the hands of CPM hoodlums with police, in an orgy of violence orchestrated, led and executed by CPM cadres and goondas and under tutelage of the top CPM leadership. CPI(ML)-New Democracy condemns the violence let loose on the peasantry of Nandigram by CPM, and demands resignation of CPM led West Bengal Govt. Police and armed CPM cadres must be removed from the area; the cadres and leaders guilty of violence in March ’07 and in Amgachia on 10.11.2007 must be punished. The Party demands immediate revocation of SEZ Act 2005.

Holding aloft placards and banners, activists and people present raised slogans against SEZ Act 2005 and CPM’s violence in Nandigram. Students, youth and several intellectuals participated apart from the workers and party activists in the demonstration organized by Delhi Committee of the Party. An effigy of CPM led West Bengal Govt. was burnt.

Speakers at the demonstration said that defeated in pro-MNC, pro-SEZ moves by the fighting peasantry of Nandigram organized under the banner of Bhoomi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), CPM has bared its fascist fangs and again let loose an organized blood-bath at Nandigram (West Bengal) and unleashed a reign of terror and killing on the peasantry which dared to protest forcible acquisition of its land.

Scrap US-India Nuclear Deal!

Manmohan Singh Govt. Resign!

No Strategic Partnership with US Imperialism!

Daring ‘Left’ allies of his Govt for the first time since becoming Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh displayed his deep sensitivity to the India-US Nuclear Deal. None of the calamities befalling the Indian people, most of them the making of his Govt. and the policies associated with him, had elicited outburst of this kind. It appears to be at the prospect of not being able to cap his career with the “crowning success” of tying India to the chariot wheel of the US imperialism’s global strategy.

In relation to this deal, the two documents are much in discussion- one the Hyde Act and the other US-India Agreement on peaceful uses of nuclear energy under section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act, 1954. This section enables US to reach such cooperation with other countries. To enable reaching such an Agreement with India as India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),  US Congress passed United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act, popularly known as Hyde Act. It was passed by the US House of Representatives on July 26, 2006 and by the US Senate on 16.11.2006 and was signed by US president Bush on December 18, 2006. It is this Act that enabled the US Govt. to reach the Agreement.

The other is the Agreement for Cooperation between the Govt. of India and the Govt. of the United States of America Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy whose agreed text was released on August 3, 2007 (hereinafter referred to as the Agreement). The two documents make it abundantly clear that Manmohan Singh Govt. has mortgaged the interests of the country to the United States, has permitted interference of the US Govt. in Indian Nuclear Programme, and is a part of larger strategic cooperation with US imperialism for “Asia and beyond”. The Prime Minister, Foreign Minister have uttered half-truths, even plain falsehoods, to obfuscate the issues and mislead the people. Their spin masters in the media, the intellectuals sold out to imperialists, the comprador business houses sharing the loot and plunder of the country, are all exercising their lung power and pouring their ink to get the deal through.

On the occasion of Bhagat Singh's Birth Centenary

Khatkarkala resounds with revolutionary slogans 

 Programmes were held in various parts of country on the occasion of the Birth Centenary of Bhagat Singh. Communist Revolutionary organizations took much initiative on these.  Not only throughout India, programmes were held even in Pakistan. In Pakistan, Punjab government changed the word ‘criminal’ in the FIR lodged against Bhagat Singh to ‘patriot’. But even today, in India, in Punjab ‘s Banga Police station, Bhagat Singh is still described as ‘criminal’. Even outside this subcontinent, programmes were organized in Canada, England and other countries.

            The widespread participation of common people in programmes held to mark Bhagat Singh’s Birth Centenary was all the more remarkable in context of the fact that the ruling classes of India have advanced a lot in surrender to imperialism specially US imperialism. The people of India are recognizing the pro-imperialist character of ruling classes and are coming forward in struggle against them. Bhagat Singh and other patriotic martyrs have become the symbols of the anti-imperialist aspirations of the people.

Khatkarkala Rally

‘Shaheed Bhagat Singh your task is unfulfilled; we will unite and fulfill them!’ This was the slogan raised by over 20,000 men, women and children who poured into the grounds of the CPI(ML) New Democracy’s mass meeting through the Rajguru gate at Bhagat Singh’s ancestral village of Khatkarkala on 28^th Sept. 07. The mass meeting was organized by the Punjab State Committee of the Party to mark the 100^th birth anniversary of Bhagat Singh, and the mass meeting took place next to the Shaheed memorial on the main highway passing through the village. Seated on the tractor trolleys, buses and other vehicles, holding aloft red party flags, the people arrived from various districts of Punjab.

Apart from the preponderance of the peasants and workers who came to take part in the meeting, lawyers, other professionals and other intellectuals were also present. Over 1/3 of the meeting consisted of women, many of them having brought along tiny children with themselves. A rally of over 4000 students and youth under the banner of Naujawan Bharat Sabha and Punjab Students Union walked from a close by village to Katkarkala to take part in the CPI (ML) New Democracy’s mass meeting. Holding aloft banners and raising slogans, the rally’s entry into the pandal packed it to the limit and people overflowed onto the road. The participation of girls and women in the rally was impressive.

While many of the little girl beseeched the organizers for time to present songs, only one girl, a cancer patient, could be fitted in. She presented a poem composed by her- what fun will I have when I become a neta-  which was a pun on the parliamentary parties. Many youth performers performed, including Victor Raju, who rendered the composition of Sant Ram Udasi. Sahjali and Lok Sangeet  Mandli also performed before the audience. Mukhtar Singh Jaffar and Gurpinder Singh presented Bhagat Singh’s life in form of poems.