Editorial

Nuke Deal Is a Conduit to Import US Crisis into India

The UPA government has finally sealed the nuclear deal with the US. For the Congress and the coalition of Unashamed Partners of America headed by it, the nuclear deal is the supreme achievement of the government. On the eve of signing the deal, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee reiterated India’s commercial commitment to the US nuclear energy industry: “We look forward to working with US companies on the commercial steps that will follow to implement this landmark Agreement.” In a second statement issued after the Agreement’s signing he also reiterated India’s commitment to implement the Agreement in good faith even though no such reciprocal assurance was made by the US to confirm New Delhi’s claim regarding the so-called US ‘guarantee’ on uninterrupted fuel supply. ...Full text

Cover Feature

Financial Tsunami in US: Investigating the Root Causes and Broader Implications

Arindam Sen

The shocking events that prompted such comments are well-known. So are the immediate origins of the meltdown in factors like the sub prime crisis and the “greedy and irresponsible” business practices of Wall Street bankers. But there are deeper causes -- much like a tsunami arising from some huge tectonic shift -- and more fundamental implications, the full extent of which it is too early to measure.....Full text

Impact of US Meltdown on Indian Economy : A Quick Assessment

B Sivaraman

The Spreading Economic Contagion: A Reluctant Recognition

Indian economy is insulated from the crisis…The global financial crisis will not affect us much…First Chidambaram went on in this vein until both he and his boss Manmohan had to reluctantly admit that no developing economy could possibly remain immune to the global crisis. Still, it was projected primarily as a financial crisis or at best a precursor to a mild recession. But no financial crisis is ever a mere crisis of the world of high finance alone. Just as the gloom in the trading floors soon spread to the shopfloors in the factories, financial turbulence is just a symptom of the turmoil in the real economy. ....Full text

Feature

There Must Be No Free Exit for the Tatas

A key point in the corporate discourse on the ongoing economic reforms in India has been the clamour for what big capital calls an ‘exit policy’. Ratan Tata has just revealed what big corporates mean by this phrase. Paraphrasing Caesar, Tata’s exit from Singur could be described as a straightforward case of “I came, I destroyed, I left”.....Full text

PD Propaganda Can’t Wipe Out Singur Facts 

With Tata’s flight from Singur, the CPI(M) seems to be expecting facts themselves to fly out of public memory! Their leaders are back to trotting out tired fictions in the pages of PD.....Full text

Open Letter to
Ratan Tata by the Youth and Students of West Bengal

Dear Mr. Ratan Tata,

First, may we thank you for your touching concern and advice for the youth of the State, delivered in the fitting form of ads in the papers? You have asked us to decide: “Would (we) like to support the present Government of Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to build a prosperous state... Or would (we) like to see the state consumed by the destructive political environment of confrontation, agitation, violence and lawlessness? Do (we) want education and jobs in the industrial and high-tech sectors or does the future generation see its future prosperity achieved on a ‘stay as we are’ basis?”...Full text

Tata - Nano = Industrialization?

Opposition to Singur is opposition to the conflation of industrialization with neoliberalism, a scenario where the State steps up its efforts to subsidize capital and shore up its profits while capital externalizes its costs onto labour and the environment with impunity. It is this model of industrialization that we oppose....Full text

Discussion

Discussions with Amit Bhaduri regarding his concept of "Development with Dignity" led some of us to think that the alternative path of development he was trying to chart could present before the resistance movement against the current onslaught of the big corporations a current programme of action which would also be relevant to the greater task of social transformation. A draft of such a programme of action is being hereby circulated for discussion.....Full text

Update

Campaign against Communalism and Terrorism:

The desolate waterscape of flood-devastated Bihar, as far as Bihar’s two major ruling class rivals are concerned, is an arena for political one-upmanship with both Nitish Kumar and Laloo Yadav washing their hands off their own complicity in the devastation even as some 2 million victims wait for rescue and relief. ...Full text

Fact-Finding Report on Kandhamal Situation

A CPI(ML) fact-finding team visited Orissa’s Kandhamal District on 15-16 October, 2008. The team, comprising CPI(ML) CC members Rajaram and Bahadur Oraon, Orissa State Committee members Comrades Yudhistir Mahapatra and Radhakant Sethi, AICCTU National Councillor Mahendra Parida, Jharkhand State Committee member J.P. Minz, Hills Party Committee (Assam) members Samuel Ronghang and Daniel Teron, visited affected villages and relief camps, after facing interrogation by the Orissa Police and the CRPF. The team also met District Magistrate and various police officials of Kandhamal District. Below is a report by team member J P Minz....Full text

CPI(ML)’s Nation-wide Protest Against Sangh Attacks on Christians

On October 3, CPI(ML) held nation-wide protests demanding prosecution of Chief Ministers of Orissa and Karnataka for allowing saffron mobs to indulge in an anti-Christian pogrom; demanding a ban on the Sangh outfits guilty of communal violence and protesting against the UPA Government’s refusal to take stern action against the communal killers. A memorandum to the President of India was submitted from all over the country....Full text

Challenging Witch-hunt of Minorities

AISA-RYA Dharna at Azamgarh

Student and youth activists of RYA, AISA and PUHR held a protest dharna on October 4 at the District Collector’s office at Azamgarh, against the witch-hunt of Muslim youth and students in the name of fighting ‘terrorism’. ...Full text

Reports

Land Grab for Liquor Factory in Tamil Nadu

The party is conducting an agitation in Kallakottai, a panchayat in Gandarvakottai block of Pudukottai district in Tamil Nadu, against a liquor factory which is coming up on fertile land at the cost of livelihood of over 30,000 poor peasants and agricultural labourers in over 30 villages....Full text

Convention of Rural Poor in Karnataka

A convention of agrarian labourers and small peasants (Raitha – Karmika Samavesha) was organized at Harapanahalli in Karnataka on 16 October against communal fascism, politics of opportunism and against imperialism and for secular democracy, better standard of living and for the right to land, house and employment.....Full text

Symposium at Kottayam, Kerala

The Kerala unit of CPI(ML) organised a symposium at Kottayam on 11 October 2008 on 'Revitalising the Left Movement in India'. CPI(ML) General Secretary Comrade Dipankar addressed the symposium in which many social activists, dalit leaders, representatives of democratic forces and Left party activists participated in the discussion.....Full text

Tamilnadu Party State Conference

The 8th TN State Conference of the Party was held on October 9-10 at Pudukottai, where the party is waging a militant struggle against land grab for a liquor factory. Comrade Ramasami, Central Control Commission member, hoisted the red flag. Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary, CPI(ML), addressed the open session, holding the UPA Government responsible for inviting the  US crisis onto Indian soil; failing to check communal violence and terrorism; and witch-hunting minorities in the name of anti-terror laws. Comrade Balasundaram, CCM also addressed the open session. Comrades D P Bakshi, S Kumarasami, PBMs and Comrade Malleswar Rao, CCM and Central Observer for the conference, and Comrade Balasubramaniam were also present in the meeting.....Full text

Panchayat elections in Uttarakhand

The three tier Panchayat elections in Uttarakhand were held at a time when most of the MLAs and Ministers of the ruling BJP were demanding ouster of Chief Minister B C Khanduri.  Ruling party MLAs want a bigger share in the loot of people’s money, but the people in the state have their own reasons for expressing their no confidence in this government as they see it as corrupt and callous as the earlier ND Tiwary regime. While the BJP received a setback in the panchayat elections, the Congress was also not spared. The people expressed their anguish against the corrupt practices of elected representatives of last panchayats and refused to re-elect them.....Full text

Cadre Convention in Uttarakhand

The party held a Cadre Convention in Dehradun, Uttarakhand on 13-14 October, in which party activists from Pithoragarh, Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Nainital, Almoda, Udhamsingh Nagar, Pauri and Dehradun districts discussed issues and agendas of struggle in the state and building of party and mass organisations. The State Leading Team of the party placed a proposal which was critically discussed. This proposal was placed for discussion by CPI(ML) CCM Comrade Rajendra Pratholi.....Full text

Another Rural Activist Killed in Jharkhand

After Lalit Mehta and Kameshwar Yadav, now yet another rural CPI(ML) activist Rajeshwar Das of Deoghar, Jharkhand has been killed. Comrade Rajeshwar of Baghmari village, Mohanpur Block of Deoghar, was an agricultural labourer, and had been a party member since 2005.....Full text

Ban the MNS and Shiv Sena!

The hooliganism and violence unleashed by the MNS and Shiv Sena on North Indian candidates in railway recruitment exams in Maharashtra, which cost the life of one young man, is a grievous assault on our democracy.....Full text

CC Statement

Stop the War!

The Tamil National Question in Sri Lanka Demands a Political Solution!

he Sri Lankan government’s ongoing military campaign to corner and crush the LTTE has led to a terrible humanitarian crisis in the country. Reports emanating from the island indicate that the Sri Lankan state is on the verge of wresting military control over large parts of LTTE territory including the administrative headquarters in Killinochi. While the number of people killed so far in the crossfire between the advancing Sri Lankan armed forces is anybody’s guess, some 500,000 people are estimated to have been displaced and rendered homeless in their own land. With the Sri Lankan government not allowing any relief to reach the people in refugee camps, international humanitarian organisations have been forced to leave the battle zones and recently even UN food convoys have had to return, leaving a vast population in the battle zones on the brink of starvation.....Full text