The Indo-American Chopsuey

Mukul Sinha



What did Obama serve Manmohan Singh when he invited him for the great American dinner on 24th November?? American Chopsuey? Nobody knows why it is called American Chopsuey, but it is one of the most common recipes in the Chinese restaurants. It is basically a stir fry vegetables sautéed in sauce served over crispy noodles. And where did Obama learn to make American Chopsuey? From the Chinese of course, when he had visited them in early November.

That perhaps is the story of all products in the world today. Call it whatever you may; turn it around and you will always see the small print, 'Made in China.' Nay, it is not just limited to material products alone. In almost every field of human activity, the Chinese dominate including the field of sports as they have recently demonstrated in the Beijing Olympics. Yet China has to play second fiddle to America.

If we for the time being restrict our attention to the rise of three nations, we will notice they have a common period of sprouting. America, China and India changed qualitatively in the post second world war as compared to its health prior to the Second World War. America jumped into the seat of the most powerful and wealthy nation whereas China and India attained its political independence, albeit in different ways.

Led by Mao, the Chinese peasantry smashed the semi-feudal, semi colonial social structure that made China pregnant with not a socialist revolution but an aggressive capitalist mode of production. Deng Ziao Peng rightly diagnosed the nature of the embryo in 1976 and in the next one decade had delivered the fastest growing capitalist child that started running before it crawled.

India on the other hand, led by Jawaharlal Nehru, opted for the capitalist path using the public sector as the foundation and an apologetically slow land reform. Despite socialist slogans, the real intention was never to empower the people and thus after six decades of Independence , 40% of the population still languishes below the poverty line. The Globalization of nineties and thereafter has ofcourse benefited the monopoly capitalists of India who hope to gain by their close collaboration with America.

The relation between America, China and India is becoming more akin to the monkey and the two cats which were fighting over a loaf of bread. The monkey, pretending to deliver equal justice, eats away bits of the bread of both the cats but the antagonism between the cats blinds them to the treachery of the monkey. That is where Deng Ziao was wrong when he had said that, “ it does not matter whether a cat is black or white as long as it can catch the mice” . Deng was commenting against the Mao's line that the worker must learn socialist politics as much as he learns productive skills. For Deng, politics did not matter, as long as the workers gave production- the standard capitalist mantra. But Deng was wrong. The color of the cat matters. The capitalist cats can only fight and allow to be fooled by the monkey; exactly what China and India is doing in the present time. As nations, China and India should unite and cook their own Chopsuey.

Editorial

The Dividing Lines

Jana Gana Mana Adhinayak Jaya Hey
Bharat Bhagya Vidhata
Punjab Sindh Gujarat Maratha
Dravid Utkal Banga…

When Rabindranath Tagore wrote the national anthem, he was obviously dreaming about a vast united India, the India where people are not divided on the basis of narrow domestic walls. But people like Raj Thackeray and Bal Thackeray however want to revise and rewrite the national anthem altogether. Despite immense differences and diversities, India has emerged as an integrated nation-state and has survived several divisive forces; But can it now overcome the present divisive politics?

Sachin Tendulkar is not just another sports man playing in some obscure corner of the country. His domination in the field of cricket has not only made him a national icon but he may be the best in the world. Sachin has thus become the pride of every Indian and a common pride is always a powerful cementing force. Sachin was only voicing this sentiment when he declared that he was an “Indian” first and then a “Maharashtrian”. What Bal Thackeray has achieved by castigating Sachin is to destroy this very foundation of national integration. To reduce the stature of Sachin to a “Marathi Manoosh” is to shrink India to the size of Maharashtra.


Doob Doob Dubai

Dubai is known as the land of the real estate. Unlike the other six emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Dubai does not have any oil reserves and its economy flourished primarily on construction and financial investments to emerge as an international city. A city that can outsmart any of the western cities with its tall buildings, malls and seven star hotels. Out of the population of 17 lakhs, 2.5 lakhs are construction workers from outside.

With finance capital pouring in from all across the world, the barren piece of land became the pride of the Arab world but with the recession setting in, the party seems to be over. The huge constructed spaces now do not have any takers and Dubai has run up a staggering debt of over 80 billion dollars. The Dubai World, a state controlled business group alone accounts for 60 billion dollars.

The ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has however remained as reckless as he used to be. He has shifted the burden of the crisis on the shoulders of lakhs of workers, engineers and architects by rendering them jobless and sit tight hoping that the neo-rich of China , India and of course the other emirates bail him out of is not so real state!

The American Unemployment Exchange

Sriram

America has always boasted about a superior production system and claimed to be the work house of the world. But when the September results of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics came out, it showed that unemployment for the month was 10%. This was higher in 2009 than in 2008. For any economic crisis to be classified as a depression, like what happened in the US in the 1920s, the unemployment rate has to be around 20%. At the rate that unemployment rate has been rising, America appears to be heading towards one.

With finance capital given a free, de-regulated hand in the present era, crises in capitalism are emerging with greater frequency. One of the reasons for the periodic rise in unemployment in the US is because of footloose capital that shifted to low-wage production regions like Mexico and China in the cold pursuit of profit. With each crisis come the need to understand what the working-class needs to do in order to usher in more progressive change and ensure job-security.

This holds a lesson for a country like India, which still has the bulk of the market for its production within the domestic base and need not allow itself to be subjected to the fleeting nature of monopoly capital. Any industrialization process aimed at stable and long-term economic growth needs to be tied in strongly to the domestic market and a steady controllable resource base which would protect the gains of that industrialization.

How does this relate to the working-class in India? It is imperative that, in order to hold on to secure and viable work, unions across the country demand that economic production and growth not be subject to whims of monopoly capital. Apart from agitation and collective-bargaining at the site of production, it is imperative for trade unions to fight to secure production and therefore secure workers rights. This can happen if there is a broad-based coalition across unions to ensure that the economic growth of the country is not at the mercy of marauding footloose capital.

This has been exemplified by some of the struggles led by the GFTU including the most recent one against the privatization of public utility institutions like the AMTS, as well as larger federations like TUCI, which has been agitating against the hijacking of the economic integrity of India by imperialist capital. It is imperative that like-minded unions join forces in these large struggles in conjuncture with the local struggles at the factory-floor.

The Invisible Conflict

Mukul Sinha



As the paints spread across the canvas, they chart out not just visible outlines but imprint the ideas of the artist. The dialectical development of ideas finds its place on the canvas as contradictions of different hues and Pravin Mishra's abstract paintings were no exception. What set apart Pravin's work from others were the uninhibited strokes that boldly told the story of his inner mind. While most of the paintings displayed by Pravin in the Hutheesing Visual Art Centre in Ahmedabad in November were remarkable, one painting was indeed outstanding, the hands that unitedly pulled the rope from one side while the other side was invisible. That precisely is the story of all development, the story of invisible unity and the struggle.

Bharat Zala and Vinod Pandya win NDTV RTI Award

There was a time when apart from the Upper castes, no other person had the right to know. In case the dalit or the lower caste ever dared to learn, they were severely punished. The Manusmriti prescribed the punishment of pouring molten lead into the ear of a dalit who heard the Gita! From those black days of our society, we have atleast come to the new horizon of knowledge. The Right of Information Act does, to some extent, empower the people as the law now permits, to a limited extent, his/her right to know.

But just the right to know alone does not benefit the poor unless the information is converted into a powerful tool of struggle. Two members of Jan Sangharsh Manch, Bharat Zala and Vinod Pandya have demonstrated the strategy of converting information received under the new law into actual benefits for the struggling masses. Bharat used the information received in relation to the flood affected farmers whereas Vinod successfully used the information received regarding the primary teachers to reach help to the cause of the farmers and primary education. As a recognition of their effort they have been chosen from Gujarat for the RTI award by NDTV which carries with it a cash award of one lakh rupees. On behalf of NSM, we congratulate our activists and urge them to continue their good work.

The Colonial Hangover: The Bhopal meet of the CPI(ML)

Mukul Sinha



The special session held by the CPI(ML) at Bhopal between 7th and 12th November, 2009 to deliberate on their ideological line was noteworthy atleast for two reasons: Firstly, the meeting was held in a very democratic manner and secondly, a sincere attempt was made to break from the past and do “concrete analysis of concrete conditions”, as was repeatedly asserted by the spokesmen of the party.

Three delegates from New Socialist Movement attended the meeting as representatives of fraternal party. Delegates from 14 states also attended the session alongwith delegates from Germany and Argentina.

While presenting the party's line on International situation, Shri Sanjay Singhvi emphasized the shift of his party's position from the past CPI(ML) position of 1970. It was declared that post second world war period ought to be described as neocolonial period and the American Imperialism has established its hegemony over the world and nations like India were merely neocolonial states devastated and looted by the American Imperialism. The status of Afghanistan and Iraq were virtually that of colonies of America.

While New Socialist Movement believed that shifting from the old CPI(ML) line of semi-feudal, semi-colonial was a welcome change, the concept of the neo-colony was not acceptable as it does not in any manner describe either the mode of production or the political economy of globalization. NSM believes that during the era of globalization, the erstwhile nation states are forming a network to safeguard the flow of capital across the world and capital itself was fast losing its “national” tag.

To maximize the extraction of surplus in the era of falling profits, the monopoly capitalists of developed and even developing nations enter into various types of agreements and contracts while at the same time compete with each other to maximize their own share. Thus the flow of surplus is no longer linear or unidirectional and therefore the idea of neo-colony with America as the fountain head is no longer a correct analysis of the present day's concrete conditions. The immense enrichment of the Indian and Chinese bourgeoisies clearly establishes that they have been able to accumulate capital and a far higher rate than before. Be that as it may, the debate initiated by CPI(ML) at Bhopal is most welcome.

Left Alignment

SEZs: New Mechanisms for Extraction of Surplus

Sriram



No scheme of the Indian government has evoked as much controversy in recent years as the creation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) for industry aimed at exports. This has resulted in the displacement of poor farm families and villagers, brutal land acquisition, and gross human rights violations by the state at the behest of private capital. Thus far, the argument in the mainstream Indian media has tended to revolve around displacement and compensation, with an unspoken sentiment that if adequate compensation was given there would be no problems with SEZs.

The crux of the argument needs to change to address whether there is economic validity in SEZs. The stated rationale is a wholly economic one and constituted, in a nutshell, economic growth led by mostly private investment capital and the promotion of exports. However, this economic rationale falls apart when examined closely. While industrialization aimed at exports might be important, it has to be diversified in order to protect it from the whims of the international market. Past Indian SEZs have made neither a particularly high contribution to exports, nor are they diverse. In 2004-05, SEZs accounted for barely 5 percent of India's exports.

Among the stated benefits of the SEZ scheme has been an increase in employment and improvement in infrastructure. There is little evidence to suggest that either will happen with the SEZ plan. Employment generations are merely a guideline and not even a mandated requirement for approval. On the contrary, large corporations have always lobbied from the state, “labor flexibility". However, due to the relative strength of unions and other formations in India, this was impossible to implement throughout the country, which is why separate zones were required. In SEZ, the rights under the labor laws are now taken away.

One of the most important impacts of investment resulting in growth is widening the tax base of the national exchequer, which can then be used for a variety of social security measures, public sector undertakings, public health systems, scientific research, public education, subsidies for farmers, further industrialization measures, and a host of other social programs. The revenue loss coming from SEZs will amount to more than $40 billion over the next 5 years, by some conservative estimates, and possibly much more. This money could feed the country's 320 million hungry people for a couple of years or provide employment to at least 2 members of every rural family for the next 5 years! It does not bode well for Indian society to take this kind of a fiscal blow to cater to private capital and convert public money into private capital.

The SEZs have likewise seen no real infrastructure development except in real estate growth and speculation. It has already been reported from different areas that such land mafia are using the SEZs to carve up huge chunks of overpriced real estate.

The final argument given by Indian policy-makers for SEZs is the supposed Chinese success. The reality is that SEZs in China have resulted in arable land loss, inequities in development, rampant real estate speculation, labor violence and abuse, increasing crime including smuggling, sex trafficking, and child labor, as well as huge resource and environmental costs.

The widespread protests resulted in the federal government announcing a suspension of all land acquisition for establishing new SEZs in February 2007 until a new rehabilitation program for displaced people was realized. This temporary retreat on the part of the government represented a significant victory of sorts for the various movements and gave particular cheer for those believing in participatory democracy and people's enfranchisement.. But it is this variety that has exemplified the popular nature of resistance against SEZs and proved that a truly people-friendly and democratic industrialization alternative should be sought.

[This article is based on a much long paper written by the author for the political journal Socialism and Democracy, which can be found at: http://www.sdonline.org/46/ananthanarayanan.htm]

The Two Indias: One declares war against the other

Mukul Sinha



For quite some time the Prime Minister has been trying to persuade the country that the “Maoist” are the greatest threat to the security of India. May we ask a humble question to our Prime Minister - which India does he have in mind? The India that has enriched itself enormously during the two decades of globalization or the India that does not get two square meals?

In the recent UNDP report, the poverty in India has once again been high lighted. Out of the human development indicator issued for 182 countries, India occupies the 134th Rank. In 2007 its rank was 126 where as in 2008 it was 128. No lesser person than Amrtyasen has stated that in the course of globalization and privatization the poor in India being pushed outside the development.

Most of the governmental projects are made keeping the middle class in mind and whatever little is adopted for the poor never reaches them due to corruption. The human development indicator is prepared based on education health and income of individual and in all these three, India is extremely backward even as compared to Bhutan and Srilanka. In area of public health 20 lakhs children die under the age of 5 every year of which 28% die due to want of potable water.

In our country the poverty line (BPL) is decided on the basis of consumption of calories. Those who consume between 2100-2400 calories are considered outside the BPL .By this yardstick as per the planning commission 28.5 % are within BPL but committee appointed by the Rural development ministry headed by N C Saxena has put this figure at 50% since to consume that amount of calories, a person has to spend Rs 1000/- in cities and Rs. 700/- in village instead of Rs 535 and 356 estimated by planning commission. The claim of government that globalization has reduced the percentage of poverty since 1999 is thus fully belied. The lakhs of farmers who have committed suicide in “developed “states like Maharashtra and Gujarat also expose the hollowness of government claim. On the other hand, the enormous wealth accumulated by a hand full of Indian capitalist led by Ambanis and Tatas would go to show that privatization and globalization has only helped the rich to become richer.

Keeping in mind the above facts and figures, let us examine the threat perspective posed by “Maoists” as alleged by the Government. It is said that the “Maoist” consists of around 5000 or so rag-tag militia carrying assortment of guns and explosives. Can it be believed that the mighty Indian State with millions of military, Para-military, police and other forces armed with the most sophisticated weapons can be threatened by such a rag-tag militia?

It may not be an altogether coincidence that ever since P.Chidambaram became the Home Minister of India, the war cries against the “Maoists” have become louder. It may be interesting to recall that Shri Chidambaram was previously the Board member and also the counsel of the Vedanta Group of companies which through Sterlite Company hold major interest in mining and minerals including BALCO in Chhattisgarh. It is also a geographical coincidence that mines and minerals are below the ground in remote areas inhabited by adivasis, the class of people which the “Maoists” allegedly support. It would therefore be reasonable to draw the inference, that it is not really the rag-tag “Maoist” militia that bothers the Indian State but the millions of adivasis and other poor people who live in the remotest areas of this county who are sitting on the billions worth of valuable minerals. We do not agree with the violent methods of the “Maoist” but we also do not agree with the threat perspective that is being touted by the Government. It is not a war against another army but it is a war against the poor to appropriate their share of wealth.

Editorial: Fading Out Of The Saffron

The last few elections seem to be bad for the saffron color. The Loksabha elections had already proven to be unfriendly to the saffron brigade and the results led to several convulsions including the ejection of Jaswant Singh. The elections to the Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh assemblies turned out to even more hostile. Irrespective of the party, whether BJP or the Shiv Sena, both had their common color fading away in Maharashtra. The other two states had otherwise also nothing to do with this color.

Ordinarily, one should not read too much into the results of the election since the electorate, having very little choice, keeps tossing the parties in and out every five years.

But the results of the Maharashtra elections cannot be brushed aside so lightly. With two saffron outfits, namely BJP and Shiv Sena wooing the majority committee communally as well as regionally and further with the Congress-NCP misrule for the past five years, the election results rejecting the BJP-SS combine unambiguously was indeed surprising.

The electorate in the last few elections including the elections to the Rajasthan Assembly is sending a message; the majority community cannot be fooled for all the time!

Editorial: 'Left-Wing' Communism: An Infantile Disorder

While we wholly disagree with the declaration of the Prime Minister that the CPI (Maoist) is the gravest threat to the security of the country, it is equally difficult for us to agree with the violent activities of the Maoist in the name of “revolution”. The call to boycott the recent assembly elections in areas of Maharashtra and other by-elections and trying to disrupt the same by violent means indicate a large degree of infantile disorder. Perhaps the party cadre should be referred to the classical work of Lenin himself on this issue. Lenin's last major work, addressed to the supporters of the Russian Revolution in the West, was entitled “Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder - a critique of the “left-ism” of those who wanted to imitate the Russian Revolution, without paying attention to the specific conditions of their own country. Maoists are doing the same by aping the Chinese revolution.

Marxists seek to foster and educate the left-wing to develop a more sober and scientific view of the political terrain, to learn to understand the motivation of other social layers and how to win battles, rather than just fighting valiantly. A Marxist leadership does not look for the most left-wing position on any given problem, but rather tries to find the policy which strengthens and builds the self-confidence, unity and self-consciousness of the working class as a whole. The Maoist seems to have forgotten this basic lesson of Marx and Lenin after they dropped the suffix (ML)!

JET Airways Pilots Refuse To Fly

as reported by Sanjay Singhvi


In December last year, the management of Jet Airways called upon all sections of the workmen to voluntarily accept a cut in wages and allowances. Many sections of the workers accepted. The pilots of Jet Airways were, at that time, organised into a society known as the Society for the Welfare of Indian Pilots (SWIP). SWIP communicated to the management that the pilots would be ready to accept any reasonable cut in wages if the foreign pilots were removed. Jet airways employs both Indian and international pilots. However, it pays almost double to international pilots than it pays to Indian pilots.

The management, however, refused to have anything to do with SWIP claiming that they were only a “welfare body” and not able to negotiate on behalf of the pilots. It went ahead and cut the allowances of the pilots unilaterally, resulting in a cut in allowances to the tune of up to 40% for pilots. In response, the pilots decided to form a union.

The management soon came to know of the formation of the union and on 29th July 2009 summarily dismissed the General Secretary and the Joint Secretary of the union. On 22nd August 2009 issued a strike notice to the management that a strike was called for 7th September if the management did not take back the dismissed pilots in the meantime.

On midnight of 7th September, pilots of Jet Airways, in a rare display of unity started reporting sick. The whole of the airlines operations ground to a halt. After 5 days of total strike, the pilots signed a settlement in which the four dismissed pilots (two more had been dismissed after the start of the action) were reinstated.

GFTU salutes the JET Airways pilots for their militant movement.

Meeting against Fake Encounters

A national meet was organised by the Jamia Teachers' Solidarity Group (JTSG) at the Jamia Milia University at Delhi on 1st October, 2009 against the fake encounters that were becoming a regular feature of delivering “justice” to the “terrorists” by the police administration of several States. The meeting was presided Justice Sachhar. The meeting was addressed by both human rights activists as well as leaders from political parties. The meeting was being held with the back drop of the completion of one year of the Batla House encounter where two boys and a policeman had died.

The meeting reiterated its demand for a judicial Inquiry into the Batla House encounter. Representatives of Jan Sangharsh Manch also addressed the meeting

BJP-CPM Alliance in Bengal: Turning a full circe

In the election of the president of Baxirhat Panchayat held on 12 October 2009, the BJP candidate Madhavi Pradhan won with the support of CPM members. The Congress and Trinamul Congress boycotted the election realizing that they were outnumbered by CPM- BJP combine. As the CPM gets cornered by in WB by Trinamul Congress it has adopted an unusual and unprincipled tactics of supporting the candidate of any other political party to defeat the Trinamul candidate.

In recent past election of the Mayor of Siliguri Corporation CPM backed the Congress candidate and defeated Trinamul candidate. To justify the support to the BJP candidate, Baxirhat zonal committee's president Sri Dhananjay Rabhasaid that to resist the violence unleashed by Trinamul we decided to support the BJP candidate. The party position after in the 29 seats Panchayat Committee is the CPM won 10, Trinamul 8, BJP 8, Congress 2 and Independents 2.

Left Alignment

60th Anniversary Of The Peoples Republic Of China: Celebrating The End Of Maoism

Mukul Sinha



At the time when the Government of India has banned the Communist Party (Maoist) and declared an all out war against the Maoist party, the Chinese Government had no qualms to organize one of the biggest marches on 1st October, 2009 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the revolution holding high a massive picture of Mao-Tse-Dong! The irony is that Mao still lives in India whereas in China, Mao is just a sanitized icon! To understand this great contradiction, it would necessary to trace the brief history of the “Cultural Revolution” that led to the rise of Deng Ziao Peng, the architect of the capitalist China.

It was perhaps the greatest triumph of history when the poor peasantry under the leadership of Mao overthrew the feudal rule in China and proclaimed the Peoples Republic of China on the Sept. 30, 1949. The Soviet Union was the closest ally of the new republic but with the death of Stalin and the rise of Khrushev, the Sino-Soviet relations plummeted. Khruschev was bitterly critical of Mao and his Commune programme. On July 18, 1959, Khruschev publicly attacked the Commune movement while speaking at Pozan, Poland. At the same time, the then defense Minister of China, Marshal P’eng Te-Huai also attacked the Commune programme and other Maoist policies. The simultaneous attacks of Khrushchev and P’eng Te-Huai were obviously more than a coincidence. Under such shady circumstances, CCP had no other alternative but to dismiss P'eng Te-huai in Sept. 1959. This dismissal is of great importance in the Cultural Revolution

By the end of 1964, the Chinese party had split in two camps. One led by Mao Tsetung representing the revolutionary faction and the other led by Liu Shao-chi and Deng-Ziao Ping, the pro-Soviet faction representing the bourgeois classes in China.

THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION:

The faction led by Liu Shao-chi fired their first slavo, not in the political sphere but in the cultural field. They came out with the anti-Mao play titled 'Hai Jui Dismissed from Office'. This play was written by Wu Han in the year 1959. Wu Han was a historian and a close associate of Peng Chen, the Mayor of Peking belonging to the Liu Shao-chi group. The play dealt with the arbitrary dismissal of ‘good’ ministers Hai Jui by the evil emperor. Mao Tsetung wrote in the People's Daily (29-5-1967) attacking the play:

'THE CRUX OF THE DISMISSAL OF HAI JUI LIES IN THE DISMISSAL ITSELF. EMPEROR CHIA-CHING DISMISSED HAI JUI; IN 1959 WE SACKED P'ENG THE-HUA. P'ENG THE-HUA IS HAI JUI'.

The intense struggle that ensued since 1966 raged till 1969 and though this struggle goes under the name of “Cultural revolution” in reality it was an intense struggle for capturing the State power between the two factions. At the end, the rightist forces under the leadership of Deng emerged victorious and the final curtain was drawn on the revolution with the death of Mao in 1976.

THE PRESENT:



After the rightists captured the State power, they did something that no other capitalist country had attempted. Deng did not dismantle the monolith State structure of a single party rule. On the contrary, keeping the red flag flying and a benign Mao staring down the Tiananmen Square, Deng changed all the production relations.

Till 1988 there was no law to employ more than eight workers in a non governmental organization. However many private organizations in connivance with local party leaders used to take advantage and they used to be called red-cap capitalist. During the end of nineties they started coming out in open giving up their red caps. The local and small sectors government organizations (SOE) were privatized and in most cases the managers of SOE became the new owners. Outside the agricultural sector about 50% of the production is under private ownership of this around one third are party members which includes “Siahiya” entrepreneurs who were earlier the leaders of the party. . Ofcourse one aspect is generally known some of the entrepreneurs were friends and relatives of party leaders.

Recent figures show that out of 3300 Chinese citizens, who have property worth 1.4 crores dollars, 2932 are children of some or the other highly placed party members. Many nationalized organizations are being run by powerful political families. In last few decade new political –manager class has arisen which has taken control of properties. The monopolistic political power has created especially an aggressive capitalist and corrupted system. Any international business deal between Chinese and foreign company there is always a political interference, secret deals and bribes. During the end of 2008 the richest man of China, Huang Guangui was arrested as the party leaders feared that some one had become more powerful than them.

The land market has grown so fast that promoters in connivance with local party leaders demolished the houses in the old areas by bulldozers over night. The residents wake up in the morning to find the word “Chi” written in white on their wall and this word means to demolish. There can not be any protest or any hope of compensation.

Today, unlike the Government of India, the fears of Imperialist America are the wealth of China and not Mao who has become merely a sanitized icon in his own country!

October Issue of Elaan

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COUNTLESS ENCOUNTERS: Death in Uniform

Mukul Sinha

“Aab tak Chappan” became a great hit amongst the movie goers of this country. The story was woven around the heroic but ruthless eliminations of the members of the underworld by the Mumbai police sharp shooter, Shri Daya Nayak. The name of the movie suggested the immediate count of the dead and a countless to follow…


Mumbai Encounter Specialist: Daya Nayak

Encounter has now a days become an euphemism for cold blooded killing by men in uniform Shockingly, those who do it and those who get it done, are treated with awe and respect by the common people. In a recent television talk show held by a national channel of repute, almost all the hands went up in affirmation when the audience was asked whether they approve of extra-judicial killings!

Several factors may have contributed to this convoluted perception. The long delays in law Courts to punish the culprits, the inherent violence within the capitalist society, the war- mongering between the countries, the rabid propaganda against terrorism, the underworld-politician nexus etc have led to this mindless sanction to the deaths in uniform. Little do the people know that besides a few exceptions, most of the “encounters” are premeditated custodial deaths aimed for personal or political benefits!!

Reacting to one such exposure in the Isharat Jahan case, Shri Jaynarayan Vyas, the minister-spokesman of the Gujarat Government ruefully lamented that despite the fact that in other States there were more numbers of “encounters”, Gujarat always gets singled out for adverse criticism. Statistically Shri Vyas is right but why indeed does Gujarat gets singled out??


Gujarat Police Encounter Specialist: DG Vanzara

The reason is not far to see. The burning of the S6 coach of the Sabarmati Express near Godhra railway station on 27th February, 2002 which was dubbed as an Islamic terrorist attack, the violence against the minorities that followed and the series of encounters between 2002 and 2006, all appeared as parts of a whole political plot. The two electoral victories of BJP in 2002 and 2007 led by Narendra Modi appeared to be the consequential result of the communal divide created by the violence and encounters.

The encounters in Gujarat thus appear to have a direct nexus with the peculiar communal politics of the state unlike the encounters of Maharashtra, U.P., Bihar etc which are primarily directed at pecuniary gains. The killing of Sadik Jamal on 13th January, 2003 near the Galaxy Cinema, Naroda at Ahmedabad and dubbed as a terrorist attempt at the life of Narendra Modi is an eye opener in this regard. Ketan Tirodkar, the person who had profiled Sadik as a terrorist, has confessed before the MCOCA Court in Mumai in his own application MCOC Case No. 4 of 2003 as under:

7. “In first week of January, 2003, Accused No.1 (Daya Nayak) told me that he wanted to oblige a big politician in Gujarat by giving an ISI agent or some similar militant for an encounter killing. … I had met one Sadiq Mehtar aged about 18 years in Dubai, who was a house-help of Said Tariq Parveen. This Sadiq had lost some of his dear ones and his house in the Gujarat Ethnic riots. … Accused No.1 saw him and thought him to be the only easy target available after some drafting to build his profile as a militant. So Accused No.1 and myself made a profile of Sadiq about his being in Dubai in the company of “D” gang members Salim Chiplun and others and had come to India on the contract of LeT for eliminating Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

8. Then on 11.1.2003, as planned by Accused No.1 I asked Sadiq to come to the Traffic Police Post on the Andheri Flyover where Accused No.1 had kept the Gujarat Police in wait. Said came there and we both boarded the vehicle and came towards National Park. Two persons and a lady were standing there, at the gate of National Park dressed like journalists, carrying shoulder bags. I introduced them to Sadiq and alighted from the vehicle and they went away towards Gujarat. Two days thereafter I read in newspapers that Sadiq was killed in police encounter in Gujarat.

The above confession made by Ketan Tirodkar, a one time right hand man of Daya Nayak, clearly establishes the fact that people like Sadiq, Isharat, Kausarbi, Sohrabuddin etc who have died are not merely statistics but innocent citizens of this country who have met their death in uniform at the alter of communal politics. That is what sets the encounters of Gujarat apart from all others.

EDITORIAL: REDISCOVERING THE HINDU

While Jaswant Singh was rediscovering the virtues of Jinnah, the RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat was busy rediscovering the “Hindu”. During his mid-September visit to Ahmedabad, he put forward an inclusive definition of the “Hindu”. Though not very original, he said that the word “Hindu” would include all those who lived in India including members of all other communities like Muslims, Christians etc!

Perhaps Bhagwatji has forgotten his guru's teachings in the confusion of vote politics. This is what Guru Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar had said in his book “We or Our Nationhood Defined”:

“German Race pride has now become the topic of the day. To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by purging the country of the Semitic Races-the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for Races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by”.

“….. There are only two courses open to the foreign elements, either to merge themselves in the national race and adopt its culture, or to live at its mercy so long as the national race may allow them to do so and to quit the country at the sweet will of the national race. That is the only sound view on the minorities' problem. That is the only logical and correct solution. That alone keeps the national life healthy and undisturbed. That alone keeps the nation safe from the danger of a cancer developing into its body politic of the creation of a state within a state. From this stand point, sanctioned by the experience of shrewd old nations, the foreign races in Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, i.e., of the Hindu nation and must lose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment not even citizen's rights. There is, at least should be, no other course for them to adopt…”

The failure of the BJP led NDA to come anywhere near the half way of the total parliamentary seats has perhaps led the RSS Chief to redefine the word Hindu to reach out to the minorities but alas, Our Nationhood Defined by Guru Golwalkar has only one status for the minorities, their subordination to the majority. Has Bhagwatji worked out any formula by which so much of minority votes can be equated with so much of majority votes so as to conform to the Golwalkar's thesis??

EDITORIAL: THE INHUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

Whenever the Gujarat Government or its policemen gets exposed either in a law court or in the media regarding the atrocities on the minorities, their spokesmen invariably curse the persons who exposes them as anti-Gujarat human rights activists! Reacting to the “Tamang report” holding that the Isharat Jahan encounter case was a fake one, Shri Jaynarauan Vyas, the minister-spokeman of the Gujarat Government went so far as to accuse the lawyers of Ishrat to be allegedly inhuman as they did not sympathize with those who were the victims of the bomb blasts! He also asserted that Gujarat State has had lesser number of “encounters” than other states yet the events in Gujarat alone get focused. We kill less than you do- that seems to be the logic!

In the last seven years, many of the stories floated by the Gujarat Government to profile Narendra Modi as the “Hindu Hero” hunting down the “wicked Islamic terrorists” have come off the hinge. After the intervention of the Supreme Court, the investigation into the Sohrabuddin encounter case has not only revealed that the encounter was totally fake but now the same Government of Gujarat has now offered Rs.10 lakhs to compensate for the custodial death of Sohrabuddin! The SIT appointed by the Supreme Court in the nine important 2002 riot cases has also exposed and arrested important VHP and BJP leaders like Jaideep Patel and Mayaben Kodnani (who was a minister in Modi Government) proving that till now the investigators were protecting them.

The common masses of Gujarat must therefore take lessons from these exposures and refuse to succumb to the emotional communal propaganda since by doing so, they legitimize the most illegal and heinous acts of their leaders!

INDIA DURING THE THREE PHASES OF GLOBALISATION

Mukul Sinha

In the first phase, i.e. from 1600 to 1947, the Indian subcontinent has been either under the Mogul rule or the British rule. The last hundred year of the British rule completely ruined the economic development of the country as it was used the Indian resources and labour for its own capitalist development. At the end of their rule, the Britishers left India with GDP consisting of just about 5.8% industrial income and around 70 to 75% of agricultural income; the rest came from small scale and cottage industry. India was but a very poor under developed semi-feudal country.

The second phase saw India adopting a secular democratic polity accompanied by a “mixed economic” policy, experimenting with the public sector undertakings with the help of Soviet union to build the infra structural industries. In the domain of foreign policy, India adopted the non-aligned policy sending a confused message that it was going to chart out a path independent of the on going process of globalization.
In the third phase however, starting from about 1990, alongwith the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Indian ruling classes integrated itself within the global capitalist network. Strangely, it did gain in the bargain for a peculiar reason. The use of the computer in every possible sector increased the demand for the trained and computer skilled labour and the Indians with their good back ground in mathematics and English, did extremely well in adopting the computer. Thus started rise of the service sector with the Indian companies leading the pack. Today, we have still 25-30% income coming from the traditional industrial sector but over 62% of the income coming from the service sector; the rest come from the agricultural sector (17 to 18%).

While on one hand, the IT companies started contributing to the national GDP by 1990s, the existing major players also gained from the access to the global market. Reliance, Tatas, Adanis etc enriched themselves from the new equation. But all the enrichment took place at the cost of the Indian working people.

Be that as it may, the Indian economy seems to have gathered some momentum and the ruling classes are losing no time to sing paeans for Globalization. A little scrutiny would show that the claim of the Indian ruling class regarding the advantage of its integration with the global capitalism is totally hollow. The Indian economy does not contribute the value addition (except in a few sectors) but is actually helping the global players to substitute higher wage labor by the Indian lower wage labor. Outsourcing is being done to cut down the cost of production and increase the profit levels of the multinationals. The Agricultural production has in fact become stagnant at the year 2000 level. To enrich the Indian monopoly Capitalist class, Special ecomomic zones, Special Investment Zones etc have been created, where the Industrial houses are exempted labour laws and payment of taxes; where the land for such purpose is forcefully acquired at the cost of the peasantry.

The worst feature of the third phase is the complete reversal of the constitutional goals. Despite adopting the capitalist mode of production as the fundamentals in 1949, our constitution did envisage a secular, egalitarian and an equitable society. By making the equal treatment under law as a fundamental right and the Directive principles to guide the making of statutory law, the founding fathers had perhaps hoped for welfare state where the rights of the weaker sections, minorities and marginalized would be protected. But alas! Globalization trampled all such fond hopes. Instead, a violent communal politics gripped the country ever since mid-eighties.

SHOULD WE ALLOW AMTS TO BE CLOSED DOWN?

There was a time when the citizens of Ahmedabad use to be proud of the AMTS. 750 good buses, over 6000 experienced staff and wide transport network made AMTS one of the finest public transport service of the country, punctual and people oriented.
CAN WE BE PROUD OF AMTS TODAY?

Since the last five years the administrators of AMTS have systematically down graded the transport service to benefit private operators. Today we have around 450 private contract buses and only 350 AMTS buses. Permanent staff have been reduced only 3300. Breakdown of buses, accidents and total indifference to peoples need have become the rule in AMTS. Over and above the destructive privatisation (many political leaders have become the contractors) the government has spent around RS. 600/- crores for BRTS. Which will benefit only a very small fraction of the citizen, with the amount of money, the entire AMTS could have been converted in to a high class public transport service.

STOP PRIVATISATION AND MAINTAIN PUBLIC SERVICE

It is the duty of the Municipal Corporation to provide public transport to the citizens of Ahmedabad and the tax payer money should be used for public purpose.
WE THEREFORE DEMAND A COMPLITE IMPROVEMENT OF AMTS AND UTILISATATION Of PUBLIC FUND FOR PUBLIC SERVICE.

The commuters and AMTS workers have been holding a series of demonstration to oppose the privatisation of AMTS

LEFT ALLIGNMENT

JSM TO CHALLENGE THE NANAVATI ORDER

NANAVATI COMMISSION DIRECTS OFFICERS OF CHIEF MINISTER'S OFFICE TO FILE AFFIDAVIT STATING THEIR TELEPHONIC TALKS BUT DECLINES TO ISSUE SUMMONS TO CHIEF MINISTER

After about two years of Jan Sangharsh Manch making application requesting the Commission to issue summons to seven persons including the Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi for the purpose if enquiring into the role and conduct of the Chief Minister and/or any other minister in his council of ministers, police officers and political and non-political organizations in the Godhra and Post-Godhra incidents which took place between 27-2-2002 and 31-5-2002, the Enquiry Commission headed by Mr. Justice G.T. Nanavati passed order on 18-9-2009 as under:

1. Shri Omprakash Singh, who was the then PA to the Chief Minister to submit an affidavit to the Commission stating therein whether he had any telephonic talk with Shri Ashok Bhatt or Shri Gordhan Zadafia on 27-2-2002 and if he had a talk with either of them, what was the nature of that talk.

2. Shri Tanmay Mehta, who was the then PA to the Chief Minister to submit an affidavit to the Commission stating therein whether he had any telephonic talk with Shri Jaydeep Patel on 28-2-2002 and 1-3-2002 and if he had a talk with him, what was the nature of that talk.

3. Shri Sanjay Bhavsar, who was then the PA to the Chief Minister to submit an affidavit to this Commission stating therein whether he had any telephonic talk with Shri Jaydeep Patel on 27-2-2002, 28-2-2002 and 1-3-2002 and if he had a talk with him, what was the nature of that talk.

The above orders amongst others was passed by the Commission while declining to issue summons to the Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi as well as to Shri Ashok Bhatt, the then Health Minister, Shri Gordhan Zadafia, the then Home Minister, Shri R.J. Sawani, the then D.C.P, Zone V of Ahmedabad.

The Jan Sangharsh Manch has decided to challenge the order of the Commission before the High court of Gujarat to the extent where the commission had declined to issue summons to the Chief Minister.

Download Aug and Sept 2009 issues (English and Gujarati)

Please download the August and September 2009 versions of Elaan by clicking on the links below:

August 2009 Issue of Elaan

September 2009 Issue of Elaan

Crisis to Crisis: Eighty Years of Globalization

ARTICLE (Vol. 1, Issue 2, September 2009)

The financial crisis of 2007–09, began in July 2007 when a loss of confidence by investors in the value of securitized mortgages in the United States resulted in a crisis of liquidity (i.e. the free-flow of money/capital). The perceived credit risk in the general economy rose alarmingly in July 2007, reaching a peak on October 10, 2008. In September 2008 stock markets worldwide crashed and entered a period of large-scale downward trend, and a considerable number of banks, mortgage lenders and insurance companies failed in the following weeks. Although America's housing collapse is often cited as having caused the crisis, the financial system was vulnerable because of monetary policies in the US and Europe that made the cost of credit negligible therefore encouraging such high levels of unrealistic non-payable loans/debts.

The apparent cause of the financial crisis is the collapse of the $8 trillion investment in the US housing market. In September 2002, some economists had predicted that the collapse of the housing sector would jeopardize the survival of numerous financial institutions engaged in the housing sector. It was commonly claimed during the first weeks of the financial crisis that the problem was simply caused by reckless, sub-prime lending. However, the sub-prime mortgages were only part of a far more extensive problem affecting the entire $20 trillion US housing market: the sub-prime sector was simply the first place that the collapse affecting the housing market showed up.

People who had increased their wealth substantially with the extraordinary run-up of stock prices were spending based on this “increased” (paper) wealth. This led to the consumption boom, with the savings rate out of disposable income falling from 5% in the mid-90s to 2% by 2000. The stock-wealth induced consumption boom led people to buy bigger and/or better homes and other commodities beyond their means, since they sought to spend some of their new stock wealth on housing etc. This high-consumption low-savings bubble began to burst in 2007, as the building boom led to so much over-supply that prices could no longer be supported. Prices nationwide began to fall rapidly, with this process accelerating through the fall of 2007 and into 2008. As mortgage payment became impossible to fulfil, more homeowners faced foreclosure. Voluntary foreclosures took place when people realized that they owe more than the value of their home, and decided that paying off their mortgage is in effect a bad deal. In cases where a home was valued far lower than the amount of the outstanding mortgage, homeowners were able to effectively pocket thousands of dollars by simply walking away from their mortgage. This destroyed the Fannie Mays and Freddie Macs and the domino effect took the rest of the world under.

The root cause of the current crisis is the same as the great depression of 1929 – the surplus values locked in commodities could not be extracted and circulated. The Great Depression was a worldwide economic devastation starting in 1929 and ending in the early 1940s for different countries. It was the largest and most important economic devastation in modern history of the capitalist system.

Marxist descriptions of political economy emphasizes the tendency of capitalism to create unbalanced accumulations of wealth, leading to over accumulations of capital and a repeating cycle of devaluations through economic crises. Marxism holds that recession and depression as unavoidable under free-market capitalism as there are no restrictions on accumulation of capital other than the market itself. The end of the depression in the U.S is associated with the onset of the war economy of World War II, beginning around 1939.

In the current situation, the commodities have been sold due to the easy and cheap credit which could not be paid back. Now the financial institutes have the possession of commodities (like houses, cars etc) through mortgage foreclosures which they cannot sell, instead of shops and factories having unsold commodities during the great depression. That is why the first to collapse are the financial institutions bringing down the stock markets with a delayed collapse of the production system leading to increasing unemployment (in the USA it is approaching 8%). The current crisis will lead to another great depression if the production system collapses – a convenient yardstick is the unemployment percentage (loss of jobs). If it crosses 20%, President Obama of the USA will have no option but to admit that the current recession is indeed another great depression! This is the true picture of great, stable, reliable, benevolent, beautiful, and free-for-all Capitalism.

BJP's Fatal Obsession With Jinnah

EDITORIAL (Vol. 1, Issue 2, September 2009)

Researching on Jinnah appears to have become a fatal obsession for leaders of the BJP. The spectre of Jinnah has claimed yet another victim, Jaswant Singh, a senior leader of the BJP. In 2005, L.K. Advani had almost dug his own grave when he spoke in glowing terms about Mohammad Ali Jinnah at his mausoleum in Pakistan and described him as a rare secular man! What therefore draws these right-wing leaders towards Jinnah like fire-flies towards the proverbial fire?

The partition between India and Pakistan has always been the source of the divisive communal politics of BJP. To make Jinnah the villain of the partition suited BJP (as well as the Congress) since that pitted one community against the other. The communal contradiction covered up all other contradictions that in fact gave rise to the two nation theory. Unfortunately however, blaming Jinnah alone would not result in political dividend forever for BJP. Somewhere down the line, a realization dawned inside BJP that unless Congress and, more particularly, Nehru could be shown as equally responsible for the partition, the anti-congress Hindu votes couldn’t be attracted. The problem however lay in balancing the acts of Congress leaders like Nehru, Sardar Patel, Gandhiji with that of Jinnah.

In 2005, Advani made the first attempt under the guise of paying tributes to Jinnah, got his act all mixed up and ended up losing his hold over the party. Jaswant Singh’s attempt is even more pathetic. He did attack Nehru but committed the blasphemy of attacking Sardar Patel as well who undoubtedly is an icon in Gujarat. Jaswant Singh did not have a chance to last after making that gross blunder. Who will be the next to try the fine tuning?

The real history of the division of course lies in understanding the socio-economic development of the Indian sub-continent. Though it was not the objective of the Britishers to usher capitalism in India, colonization over a period 150 years had sown the seeds of capitalism in the semi-feudal soil. Analysing the conflict in the nascent capitalism at the time of Independence, we had in August 2002, written the following in the manifesto of the New Socialist Movement:

“The pre-independence contradiction between the Muslim league represented by Jinnah and the Congress led by Gandhi, Nehru and Patel reflected the quest of the “Muslim Capital” to carve out for itself a separate nation state in order to safeguard its existence, growth and development from the suppression by the “Hindu Capital” of the majority community in case of an undivided India. The partition of the country, instead of resolving this contradiction, accentuated the same manifolds leading to the consolidation of the communal forces in both the countries. The suspicion of each others motive egged on by the fundamentalist elements of both the countries, never brought peace amongst these unnatural twins having centuries of common lifestyle and culture.”

The Muslim league, which he headed, did make attempts to remain in an united federated India and M.A Jinnah presented his famous fourteen points on March 28, 1929 to the Muslim League Council at their session in Delhi. Primarily, the fourteen points dealt with the safe-guarding of the political power of the minorities within the Indian federation more particularly in the Central legislature. Jinnah wanted atleast 1/3^rd seats to be reserved for the Muslims. The proposal of Jinnah was of course rejected by Congress.

Nation-states in the era of capitalism have their own dynamics and growth as did the births of India and Pakistan. No amount of rewriting history can change this reality. What should concern us is not what took place sixty two years back but where India and Pakistan are today and where we would go from here.

A Step Forward In The Fight Against Globalization

LABOUR NEWS (Vol. 1, Issue 2, September 2009)



Numerous trade unions and progressive people’s movements came under the banner of the Trade Union Centre of India (TUCI) on August 13th in an all-India struggle against globalization through the demands for just and egalitarian labour laws. Rallies were held in the capital cities of over a dozen states in the country.

In Ahmedabad, over a thousand workers and other activists gathered for a meeting at Juna Vadaj, were addressed by leaders of the Gujarat Federation of Trade Unions, New Socialist Movement and Jan Sangarsh Manch. Amrish Patel, General Secretary of the GFTU outlined the demands raised by the TUCI with the central government on an all-India basis. Following the meeting the workers and activists held a rally from Vadaj to the Collector’s office to hand over a memorandum addressed to the Labour Minister of the Government of India. The memorandum called for numerous demands to nullify pro-globalization and anti-labour legislation, including – (1) Amendments to existing industrial and labour law to make permanency the statutory right of workers who have completed 240 days or more of service; (2) Prohibition of contract labour in perennial economic sectors; (3) Payment of back wages as a statutory right of workers in illegal terminations; (4) Immediate enactment of social security and urban housing legislation for the working poor and; (5) Immediate implementation of the Construction and Other Building Workers Act.

A cause for much hope in terms of the future of the broader struggle was the large-scale participation of non-industrial, non-unionized labour, especially large numbers of informal workers, both men and women, in the rally. In addition there was the active engagement by movements fighting for civic and human rights. This bodes well in the larger fight for protective legislation and organizing of workers in the informal sector, who form the overwhelming majority of India’s workforce. The oppression and exploitation of the working-class is one of the biggest, most virulent fallouts of globalization and the increasing penetration of monopoly capital. But the onslaught by the money-bags and powers that be can be fought back if labour unions and people’s movements remain united in treading a progressive and revolutionary path in fighting for the emancipation of those toiling masses facing the brute-end of globalization. The all-India rally held by TUCI on August 13th, 2009 was one such step in this direction.

Will Ishrat Jahan Get Justice?

OPINION (Vol. 1, Issue 2, September 2009)

Sriram Ananth


On June 15th 2004, a 19-year old Mumbai student, Ishrat Jahan, was killed in an “encounter” by the Gujarat police along with three others, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. The Gujarat state government and police claimed that she was part of a team of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba operatives who were planning to assassinate Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other senior BJP leaders for their role in the state-led, anti-Muslim violence of 2002. According to the FIR filed by the police after the killings, they had received intelligence that terrorists were planning to come by car from Mumbai directly to Gandhinagar to conduct their assassinations and were killed in an alleged gun-battle with the police near Ahmedabad.

The version of the police had numerous loopholes to begin with as argued in the court by advocate Mukul Sinha, First, it is curious that the Gujarat police upon receiving this supposed tip-off, didn’t inform Maharashtra police to intercept the car and arrest those inside it or even why they didn’t intercept the car right at the border of the state, instead waiting for them to come all the way to Ahmedabad. Second, in the encounter the police said that one of the occupants took position with an AK-47 and started firing, yet there were no injuries to police nor signs of any gun-battle, while all four occupants were killed (this, of course is the standard line parroted in Indian police reports of staged encounter-killings). In the present case, the complainant is from the crime branch, the person who recorded the statement is also from the crime branch, the encounter was carried out by the crime branch and the investigation was also carried out by the crime branch. Therefore, one cannot expect fair investigation from the same agency

Finally, the so-called encounter was led by none other than the notorious “encounter specialist” and a trigger-happy police officer of Modi, DG Vanzara. Vanzara and his team who are now in Sabarmati prison charged for the killings of Saurabuddin Sheikh and Kauser Bi. Their involvement in the encounter of Tulsi prajapati (another witness in the same case) is being investigated under the order of Supreme Court. State government has agreed to deposit Rs. ten lakhs as compensation in Supreme Court.

Ishrat might well have been just another statistic in the long litany of human rights violations perpetrated upon the people by the state of Gujarat.

In a brave stand taken by Ishrat’s mother, Shamima Kausar filed a petition for a CBI probes into the killings. She disputed the investigation led by the local crime branch, saying it was a fabricated case, that her daughter was not involved in any terrorist organization, and demanded a fair probe into the killings. Waging a legal battle with the support of Jan Sangarsh Manch’s lawyer and activist, Mukul Sinha, Shamima has now dealt a small, symbolic blow to Modi’s fascist state with the Gujarat High Court setting up a Special Investigation Team to probe the incident. This was announced by Justice KS Zhaveri in early August, with the court declining the request for a CBI probe but set up a three-member team comprising senior police officers of the state to investigate the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. The team, consisting of additional DGP Pramod Kumar(convener), IG Mohan Jha and DIG JK Bhatt, has been asked to submit its report within three months.

Gujarat HC rejects petition of Helios Pharmaceuticals

LABOUR NEWS (Vol. 1, Issue 2, September 2009)

Amrish Patel

Hon'ble Mr. Justice S. R. Brahmbhatt of Gujarat High Court has rejected petition being SCA no 7710 of 2009 filed by Helios Pharmaceuticals challenging order of Industrial Tribunal, Ahmedabad rejecting approval applications seeking approval of their action of termination of services of ten workmen.

The brief facts of the case are that the concerned workmen with other workmen had organized themselves against company's action of indulging in to the unfair labour practice and also action of non compliance of the statutory provisions. in retaliation M/s Helios Pharmaceuticals had on 12th May 2007 issued a show cause notice to the concerned workmen and demanded explanation about their alleged misconduct of remaining absent from 9.5.2007 to 15.5.2007. The concerned workmen with the help of Gujarat Mazdoor Sabha had raised demand challenging legality and validity of show cause notice. The dispute came to be referred before the Ld. Industrial Tribunal as being Reference No.158 of 2007. The company thereafter abruptly terminated the services of the concerned workmen on 24.12.2007.

The company had filed the application seeking approval of action of termination before the Ld. Industrial Tribunal. The union Gujarat Mazdoor Sabha and the concerned workmen objected the applications raising preliminary objection to the effect that the company was required to seek permission and not the approval application as it was not maintainable in law. Considering the preliminary objection, the Ld. Industrial Tribunal after hearing the parties and after considering the fact situation as also settled legal position and Act provision held that approval applications filed were not maintainable and M/S Helios Pharmaceuticals ought to have filed permission application seeking permission by following prescribed procedure.

That being aggrieved, Company preferred above referred Special Civil Application No.7710 of 2009 before the Hon'ble High Court of Gujarat which was contested by the concerned workmen through Shri Rajesh Mankad, advocate and the Hon'ble High Court vide order dated 29.7.2009 dismissed the petition and confirmed the order of Ld. Industrial Tribunal.

The Great Chintan Baithak

LEFT ALIGNMENT (Vol. 1, Issue 2, September 2009)

Pravin Mishra

The Gift of Globalization

LEFT ALIGNMENT (Vol. 1, Issue 1, August 2009)

Pravin Mishra

Elaan is born!

EDITORIAL (Vol. 1, Issue 1, August 2009)

While launching “elaan”, the clarion call of the New Socialist Movement, one cannot but recall the opening lines of the “Manifesto of the Communist party” written by Marx-Engels way back in 1848:

"A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies…”

Yes, a spectre, though young and embryonic, has indeed come into existence to become the beacon for the struggling masses of Gujarat and ofcourse, the spectre to fear, hate and to be exorcised by exploiters of all hue! Ever since the middle of the nineteenth century, the capitalist world has been fondly waiting for the spectre of communism to vanish and they really believed that it had happened with the fall of Soviet Union in 1990s; the old communist parties that carried out the gigantic historical tasks of transforming the Soviet Union and China from backward semi feudal stage to the post second world war advanced societies, were perhaps not equipped to lead the peoples struggle in the post colonial period after the second world war. Dialectics, however, do not cease to operate. Like the fresh new leaves after the grey autumn, new ideas bloom. New parties are born. Some struggle to break away from the past whereas some are born free.

The soil of Gujarat however, has never been fertile for any communist movement to take roots; the working class movement under the Majoor Mahajan Sangh, influenced as it was by Gandhiji’s ideas of trusteeship, not only destroyed the working class militancy but stifled the growth of any progressive or revolutionary ideas. This void allowed the BJP led forces to capture the centre stage and create a formidable rightist state machinery by 2000. All political opposition was subdued including the weak CPI(M) and CPI. Under these fascistic conditions, the dialectical opposite was born. The New Socialist Movement (NSM) which was functioning as a quasi-political organization ever since 1989 alongwith its two sister organizations, the Gujarat Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) and the Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM), decided to shed its ambiguity and declare itself as a political party in 2002.

The birth of NSM was a direct consequence of the situation created after bloody massacre of the Muslims who were systematically butchered with the help of the State machinery in 2002. NSM firmly stood by the side of the minorities and led a militant anti-communal struggle in every possible front including in the legal battles. In the specific conditions of Gujarat on and after 2002, the party adopted an anti-communal, pro-democracy mass-line within a broad anti-globalization coalition. Different struggles of different marginalized sections were brought under a common banner and the communal division was combated through joint struggles.

Elaan will be initially published in English and Gujarati language and will share with the readers its experiences of the past seven years both in the sphere of practice as well as theory.

The happenings in West Bengal are ofcourse of foremost interest to all communists since the events of Nandigram, Singur and now Lalgarh reflects the deep malaise of the left forces in India. We deal with that event as well as the latest development in the Nanavati Commission at the other end of the country. The consolidation of the trade union struggles under the banner of the Trade Union Centre of India at the national level would perhaps create the genuine revolutionary mass organization that the left movement desperately needs today. We are proud that the first issue of Elaan starts with the clarion call to the working class to participate in the national protest day on 13^th August, 2009.

Elaan is not just the declaration of the struggle of the New Socialist Movement but is a determination to be the voice of the new left!