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Editorial

A Colossal Miscarriage
And a Battle Cry


The fiftieth year of independence which started with a lot of sponsored euphoria now closes with a national shame: the rape of the 84th amendment bill in the Parliament. While some forty-odd hooligans vehemently led the action, most others — barring the women MPs and the Left — participated in it in the sly. The BJP tactfully put the entire blame on the opposition. In the ancient art of political deception, it thus excelled the Gujral govern-ment which also had made tall promises on this score. Overall, the ugly beastly drama once again confirmed that our male-chau-vinist mainstream is not prepared to concede even a nominal half-equality between the sexes, itself a far cry from real equality.

Casting away any illusions of easy victory, women of India must therefore venture on the next phase of their long-drawn struggle for liberation. In this movement, they will find the most in-volved support from the party of revolutionary proletariat, which recognises women in their entirety as an oppressed category and demands reservation in its most sweeping form without diluting it with sub-quotas a la the Yadav Brothers, Jyoti Babu, Madam Sonia et al.

The struggle, however, is not going to be fought in isolation. Battle lines are being drawn up on all fronts, particularly the price front.

Revealing the inflationary character and the anti-poor bias of the BJP budget (which among other things made postcards dearer and cellphones cheaper, hiked indirect taxes while reducing direct ones, imposed a big burden of war-related expenses while freezing social sector expenditure and incurred a huge deficit), prices of wage goods are skyrocketing even as those of many white goods are going down. The bania-propped government lacks both the will and the capacity to discipline unscrupulous traders and hoarders. And it is totally apathetic to the people’s sufferings. The latest economic survey had categorically warned that the new fiscal year would require special efforts at supply management in order to offset probable shortfalls in the production of foodgrains and cotton; also there were clear indications that freak weather conditions would hit vegetables production in particular. But in no case did the government take any measures, and we are just beginning to witness the impact. The worst is still to come.

People’s indignation against these and other instances of non-governance is growing by the day. To give voice to that, the united Left staged an impressive rally at Delhi’s parliament street on July 14. This was followed the very next day by a militant peasant dharna organised at the same place by the radi-cal Left. Our party participated in both. It has also called a Bihar bandh on August 4 on the same issue. In different places including Delhi our comrades are staging dharnas, demonstrations etc. at local levels. And to take on the BJP at its strongest base, we have launched a campaign in UP under the slogan "Bhajpa bhagao, Mahangai hatao" (oust BJP, Chase away Price Rise)

The Bugle has been sounded, and the March is on!

Home > Liberation Main Page > Index August 1998 > ARTICLE