Lessons of 2005

A year that dawned on the ravages wrought by the December 26 tsunami is drawing to a close in the midst of a political tsunami that comes in smaller waves but seems bent on washing away whatever was left of the dignity and moral authority of the Indian Parliament. While the BJP, ‘the party with a difference’ credited with the highest number of ‘photographed MPs’, has shamelessly opposed the Bansal Committee’s recommendation.Full text

6 December 2005 : Old Lessons, New Challenges

6 December is remembered as a black day in contemporary Indian history. A reminder of that traumatic hour when modern India was held hostage by the savage forces of barbarism, when the 'secular' Indian state revealed the depth of its bankruptcy and impotence to facilitate the frenzied demolition of a medieval mosque by the goon squads of the Sangh brigade. Full text

Bihar Elections and After:

A fter fifteen long years, the Laloo-Rabri raj has finally come to an end in Bihar . The writing on the wall had become clear enough in February itself when the NDA had overtaken the RJD-Congress combine in the race of numbers. But the kind of majority that the NDA eventually won in November 2005 was clearly beyond the expectations of most political observers and even many NDA supporters. Only one of the several opinion and exit polls that went to town with their series of predictions could really come anywhere near the final tally. Full text

Investigation into Police Repression on Dalits in Jehanabad

In yet another indication of the new regime’s future course, the Jehanabad police let loose a reign of terror on the helpless dalit agrarian labourers in Shivnagar of Jehanabad, killing one person, injuring many thousands, molesting women and looting the dlit tola of their meagre possessions.. Full text

Chilraon Massacre in East Champaran

Even as the celebrations of the formation of the Nitish-led NDA Government were not yet over, (or maybe as part of the celebrations?), feudal lords perpetrated a heinous massacre on December 12 in Chilraon village of East Champaran district, killing 5 Muslim peasants.

A CPI(ML) investigation team, comprising of.. Full text

Uttar Pradesh:

Towards A New Social-Political Churning

Mulayam Singh seems to be heading for a fate similar to his former counterpart in Bihar . The popular opposition to the Mulayam Government is gaining momentum and a shifting of power groups was reflected first in district council elections and then in the two by-elections held recently, one in the eastern and other in the western part of UP, thus indicating a definite trend.Full text

The Lynching of Khushboo:

Challenging the Conservative Culture-Police

Melodramatic, flamboyant and cinematic public events are fairly common in Tamilnadu – but the recent controversy over Khushboo is bizarre even by Tamilnadu’s standards. Some time back, a popular actress of Tamil films, Khushboo, remarked in an interview that in her view, there was nothing wrong with premarital sex, but one should take necessary precautions against AIDS; she added that men ought not to insist on virgin brides. These casual and fairly commonplace remarks were construed as an assault on ‘Tamil Full text

BPOs: Outsourcing Violence?

In October this year, the Call Centre Association of India (CCAI) bitterly opposed the suggestion that call centres should form trade unions – the CCAI stating that the concept of unionism goes against the norms of international business. Its President, Sam Chopra, went on to say that unionism would hamper India ’s image as one of the most favoured IT (Information Technology) and ITES (IT Enabled Services) investment destinations. Full text

Floods, Rains and an Apathetic Administration  

Has December come to mean devastation for Tamil Nadu? Last year it was the killer waves of tsunami, this year it is the latest blow of rains and floods that have been lashing the state for more than two months. In both cases, nature’s fury followed by administrative apathy made matters horrifying. Post-tsunami relief operations were delayed, inadequate and messy (not to speak of the rampant corruption); the current calamities have been accompanied by all these and, worse still, by pathetic stampede deaths. Full text

Towards AIALA National Conference

The All India Agrarian Labourers Association (AIALA)’s founding Conference was held on 14 November 2003 at Ara, Bhojpur. Its Second National Conference is due to be held on January 30-31 at Rajahmundhry, Andhra Pradesh. In the backdrop of the Conference, we would like to trace the broad contours of the crisis in Indian Agriculture, a crisis of which agrarian labour bears the worst brunt. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act passed recently by the UPA Government is yet to be brought into effect. However, past experience of similar schemes warns us that such an Act should be taken as a spur to sharpen agrarian struggles rather than an actual ‘guarantee’ of rural employment. We carry short reports of the experience of the NREGA’s predecessor in Maharashtra , and of a recent struggle in Sitapur, UP, which can teach some lessons on how to struggle for transparency and democracy in employment guarantee programmes. We also trace the theoretical and historical underpinnings of the evolution of our Agrarian Programme. ...Full text

How did our Agrarian Programme Evolve?

The general programme adopted at the time of party foundation did contain a clear enough programmatic guideline for the agrarian front. Yet the need for “a comprehensive agrarian programme” was felt since the early 1980s “given the complexity of class relations in the countryside and the impending peasant upsurge”, as the Third All India Party Congress (December 1982) put it. ...Full text

WTO: Poor Nations Knocked Out in Sixth Round

The rulers of the world heaved a huge collective sigh of relief as the suspense ended with the finalised draft of the sixth Ministerial conference of the WTO being accepted through a ‘consensus’ at the very last minute. Now that in itself is a pointer for what is in store for the peoples of the world. If the ‘haves’ are happy – and the G8, Kamal Nath, CCI et al certainly are – then it is sure to be bad news for us ‘have-nots’! ...Full text

Kong Yee Sai Mau! Junk WTO!!

Hong Kong , the venue for the 6 th Ministerial meeting of WTO, also witnessed congregation of thousands of protestors from across the globe. When rulers of the world met in the Convention and Exhibition Centre to decide upon the modalities of “free trade”, a few meters from them across the harbour thousands of protestors were determined to derail any agreement which would push millions in the developing world towards extinction. Farmers, workers, women, students, youth, indigeneous people all were united in their protest against US and EU dictated terms of globalization....Full text

POSCO: Ecological Disaster in Coastal Orissa

A 12-million tonne steel plant at the port town, Paradeep, will result in an ecological disaster in the East Coast of Orissa. The MoU signed by the Orissa Government with the South Korean Pohang Steel Company (POSCO) is the largest ever single foreign direct investment in the country. According the MoU signed on 22 June 2005 , the South Korean Company is permitted to export ore with high alumina content from the State. The proposed mega steel plant is estimated to cost around 51,000 crores and to reach full capacity by 2016. Full text