Editorial

No Going Back on 33% Reservation for Women in Assemblies and Parliament

On March 8, 2010 when the whole world observed the centenary of the International Women’s Day, the UPA government tabled the Women’s Reservation Bill (WRB) in the upper house of Indian Parliament. It was a classic case of killing two birds with one stone. Only a week ago the government had presented the annual budget leaving the whole country fuming with rage over soaring prices. The budget had not only added fuel to the inflationary fire, it had refused to extend any relief to the common man while pampering the rich with all kinds of sops. At one stroke, the women’s bill shifted the spotlight away from the post-budget protests and split the emerging unity in the opposition camp down the middle. At the same time there could be no better way for the Sonia-led Congress to try and project itself as the most vocal champion of the women’s cause on the occasion of the IWD centenary!....Full text

Commentary

Women's Reservation Bill

Politics Behind the Opposition

Kavita Krishnan

After being passed in the Rajya Sabha, the Women's Reservation Bill yet again seems to have hit an impasse, with its future uncertain.
To understand the politics of the Women's Bill, it is necessary to go beyond the rhetorical postures adopted by the political camps supporting and opposing the Bill. The events following the passing of the Bill in the Rajya Sabha suggest that there is more to the politics being played with the WRB than meets the eye....Full text

Pitroda Panel :

Serving up BSNL for Private Loot

Bhuvana

In 1987, Sam Pitroda,  celebrated consultant of the corporate world, started the process of corporatisation of the Indian Telecom Sector. The formation of BSNL in 2000 too was part of the process of corporatiisation. Now Pitroda has emerged again to complete the process he began – with plans to hand over enormous wealth of BSNL to private corporate houses......Full text

Budget 2010:
Big Bounties for the Corporate Biggies,
Empty Rhetoric and Soaring Prices for the Aam Aadmi
Sukanta Mondal

[“This budget belongs to the aam aadmi,” said Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his budget speech. But what really is the UPA’s yardstick for the aam aadmi? Pranab Mukherjee has defined the aam aadmi for our benefit. The aam aadmi is not one of those 80 crore Indians living on a daily budget of less than Rs. 20, he is one with an annual taxable income of Rs. 400,000 or more. The 60% tax-payers who were handed out tax benefits in this year’s budget all belong to this bracket. In fact, the ones to get an annual tax reduction of more than Rs. 50,000 belong to the Rs. 800,000-plus club. While direct taxes fell by Rs. 26,000 crore, indirect taxes which do not distinguish between the rich and the poor, rose by Rs. 45,000 crore.....Full text

Karnataka Govt Charges AIPWA VP with 'Sedition'

In BJP-ruled Karnataka, if you criticise the Government or organise marginalised sections of people, you are liable to be accused of 'sedition.' This is what is implied by an FIR recently filed by the Karnataka police charging Dr E Rati Rao, a senior scientist and long-standing activist of the women’s rights movement of sedition. Dr. Rati Rao is Vice-President of PUCL-Karnataka and Vice President of the All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA)......Full text

Batla House ‘Encounter’:

Post Mortem Reports Underline Unanswered Questions  

Manisha Sethi

[Long-suppressed post mortem reports of Atif Ameen and Md. Sajid, killed by the police in an alleged 'encounter' in the Batla House have finally come out in the public domain. They underline the crucial unanswered questions which the various police versions beg, chiefly: what accounts for the preponderance of injuries in the back and top of the head, as well as for multiple bruises and abrasions on the bodies of the slain young men? The following is from a statement by the Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association.] ....Full text

Bihar Economic Survey 2010: Balance-Sheet of Growth Hype

DB

he mystery shrouding the 11% growth miracle claimed by the Nitish Kumar government of Bihar is getting deeper and deeper. When the government of Bihar first claimed to have averaged more than 11% annual economic growth over the period 2004-2009, observers of the Bihar economic scene had valid reasons to take the government’s claim with a pinch of salt. For one, based on figures cited in the 2008-09 Economic Survey presented by the Government of Bihar in February 2009, the average annual growth rate for the same period (at 1999-00 constant prices) stood at 7.34%. The 11% claim surpassed the 2008-09 survey figures by as much as 3.7%! The claim also exceeded Bihar government’s own 2006 vision of achieving a growth rate of 8.5% for the 11th Plan period, and that too when actual private investment inflow in Bihar remains abysmally low. .....Full text

Guest

Corporatising agriculture

K P Prabhakaran Nairi

(The following article has been reproduced from the New Indian Express of March 8, 2010. The author is a renowned agricultural scientist.)   

While north India celebrated Holi and Parliament witnessed much turmoil on account of the price rise of essential food items, two things happened quietly with most of the Indians not really gripping the seriousness of the issues. First was the drafting of the draconian Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill (BRAI) which will be tabled in Parliament soon. The second was the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Washington and New Delhi which will make the American presence in the Indian farm sector very strong. The visit of Hillary Clinton to New Delhi in October was a presage to this. Most recently, the reciprocal visit of Manmohan Singh to Washington in November, where the ‘Knowledge Initiative In Agriculture’ was signed. The budget, which professes to be ‘pro-farmer’, is, indeed, pro ‘corporate farmer’. All the three put together, will take India on the corporate road, leaving the poor small farmer in the wilderness......Full text

Call

The Call of April 22

Raise the Level of Mass Assertion;

This April 22, as we observe the 41st foundation day of the CPI(ML), let us pay attention to some key areas of our mass practice and find out ways to raise the level of mass assertion and expand the realm of Party initiatives. ....Full text

Updates

International Women's Day Centenary Events

On the occasion of the centenary of International Women's Day on 8th March 2010, AIPWA held demonstrations in various states and districts across the country, raising the slogan - 'Salute 100 years of Women's Liberation Struggles! Onwards to Achieve Liberty, Equality and Dignity!' Women participating in these events protested against price rise, growing violence on women and state repression, and also against the shameful display of patriarchal disruption of the Rajya Sabha on the tabling of the Women's Bill. ....Full text

Draconian Laws against CPI(ML) Activists in Ghazipur

Activists who organise the rural poor are being branded 'gangsters' and goondas' and booked under the draconian 'Gangster Act' and 'Goonda Act' in Mayawati's UP.
On 15 February 2010, some criminals attacked the Bhadaura Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Gahmar PS of Ghazipur district. Some ASHA workers were then at the PHC, and a local resident Firozeshah who had come with his wife when she was to deliver a child was killed by the attackers to prevent him from identifying them. Sanjay Singh who is a son of a doctor Surendra Singh who had retired from the PHC and who is notorious as a local criminal and who has several criminal cases against him, was the main accused in this incident. But the police came under pressure of powerful forces and released Sanjay Singh, and instead falsely implicated and jailed poor tribals for this incident....Full text

Bareilly Riots:

CPI(ML) Fact-finding Report

(On 2 March, communal riots broke out in Bareilly, centre of Rohilkhand and known for communal harmony. A 5-member CPI(ML) team comprising CC Member Krishna Adhikari, State Standing Committee member Afroz Alam, State Committee member Rohitas Rajput, People's Union for Human Rights (PUHR) member and advocate Kishan Lal, and the party in-charge for Bareilly Atri Kumar Rishi visited Bareilly on 16 March where they spent two days visiting the riot-affected areas, speaking to local people and seeking out the facts in the midst of the political and media propaganda. Below is their report. – Ed/-)  ....Full text

Construction Workers' March to Parliament

On 15 March 2010, under the banner of the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU)-affiliated All India Construction Workers’ Federation (AICWF), hundreds of construction workers from different states held a March to Parliament against hike in fuel rates, price rise and to demand implementation of the Central Construction Workers’ Act 1996 throughout the country.....Full text

Srijanotsav:

Festival of Creativity, Resistance and People's Struggles

All around us we see the attempt to suppress and render invisible people struggles under the weight of aggressive advertising by companies and governments dressing up loot as 'development'. At such a time, Jan Sanskriti Manch organised 'Srijanotsav' (festival of creativity) dedicated to the memory of people's poet Nagarjun from 12-14 March. Inaugurating the festival, JSM General Secretary Pranay Krishna said that it was a step in the direction of trying to bring the daily struggles, movements and creative forms in a variety of languages and dialects on to one platform. Before the inaugural address, cultural activist and icon of dalit resistance Bant Singh sang an inspiring song celebrating the spirit of daughters fighting for justice.....Full text

Internatonal

Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine - 

Occupation is a Crime!

(The 7th anniversary of the war on Iraq was marked by huge protests all over the US against war and occupation. Shashwat Sinha, who participated in the San Francisco anti-war rally, reports.) 

Hey hey, ho ho…the occupation got to go! This was one of the many spirited slogans chanted by people in the anti-war rally in San Francisco held on March 20. The rally was part of a coordinated protest all over the United States to mark the 7th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. More than 5,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of downtown San Francisco calling for an immediate end to the occupations of Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. .....Full text

Greek Tragedy:

Act Three, Scene One
Srilata Swaminathan

The crisis in Greece is rapidly escalating as all sections of workers and peasants came out on the streets in three large rallies in one month to protest against their government’s decisions to curb inflation and manage the debt crisis by hard austerity measures. In January the government announced a Euro 4.8 billion austerity package which includes pension freezes, consumer tax hikes and cuts to civil servants pay. The cost of fuel and all consumer goods and services has gone up due to a hike in sales tax. The brunt of these measures fall on the working class, peasantry and poorer sections of Greek society......Full text

Cover

'Crisis' for the Poor - Bonanza for the Rich

India's poor are being pushed out of the official poverty lists  but more and more India's CEOs are making it to the lists of the world's richest people. 23 Indians made it to the Forbes list of the world's billionaires in 2009. .....Full text