Wednesday, December 1, 2010

National Forum in Defence of Education - March to Parliament on December 2, 2010

A massive rally will be organized on 2 December 2010 in front of Parliament in which several thousand students, teachers, non-teaching employees and officers of schools, colleges & universities, youths, parents and activists of people’s science movements from all over the country will participate. They will first assemble at Ramlila ground and then march to Parliament.
The rally will be to protest against the anti-people policies of UPA II Government and its neo-liberal ‘reform’ agenda in the field of education and to force the Central Government to accept our demands. These policies are aimed at pushing centralisation, privatisation and commercialisation of the education sector in the country. Such policies will undermine the goal of expansion, excellence and equity in education which can only be achieved through increased public spending based on a democratic education policy.
The call for this rally was given by ‘National Forum In Defence Of Education’ which was formed in a Convention of fifteen organizations of students, teachers, non-teaching employees and officers of schools, colleges & universities, youth, parents, people’s science movement held on 13th August at New Delhi.

Charter of Demands

  •  Allocate 6% of GDP for Education as committed in the CMP of the UPA-1 Government.   
  • Include pre-primary to senior Secondary education under the purview of the Right to Education
  • Central Government should bear all the expenditure for implementing the Right to Education. Increase the number of schools along with strong social monitoring mechanism involving local stake holders. Delete the provision, Section 35 of the Act, requiring prior permission for any prosecution. The 86th Constitution Amendment (2002) should be revisited to make the right to education inclusive of common school and neighborhood school.
  •  Recruit quality teachers on a permanent basis. Remove the freeze on appointments and cuts in teaching and non-teaching positions. The para-teachers/ contract teachers  and employees should be absorbed on permanent basis.
  • Oppose handing over of public educational institutions’ infrastructure and management to the private sector in the name of Public Private Partnerships.
  • Reject fee hike. Fully subsidize students from economically backward and disadvantaged backgrounds. 
  • Enact a central legislation to bring all private self-financing institutions under strict social control.    
  • Implement constitutionally mandated SC/ST/OBC reservations in all educational institutions.
  • Fight all attempts to undermine the democratic control of the Parliament, State Assemblies and statutory structures of Universities and colleges (including through instruments like NCHER). Fight against centralization of education.
  • Oppose FDI in Education.
  • Scrap the FEI Bill and amend the other recently introduced bills to make them democratic.
  • Scrap private universities and deemed university status to private institutions.
  • Stop bringing education under GATS (WTO).
  • Use Information Technology for Distance Education to provide universal lifelong quality education. 
  • Do not commercialize distance education
  • Undertake Assessment for improvement not Accreditation or Funding. Evolve a democratic and transparent mechanism for Assessment
  • Uphold democratic rights in the sphere of education. Hold elections for Students’ Unions, Teaching and Non-Teaching Associations. Provide elected representation in all decision making bodies.

SFI Condems Rahul Gandhi's comparison of Mao with Narendra Modi

Press Release - Students Federation of India                                                  28-11-2010
 In a statement made yesterday Mr. Rahul Gandhi has equated Narendra Modi with Mao Zedong.
Mao Zedong, who led the revolutionary transformation of China in the 20th century, is one of the greatest leaders and political thinkers of the world.  The Chinese revolution is one of the most significant events in world history, where the world’s most populous country ushered in a new era after a long drawn struggle against feudal and colonial exploitation. To compare such a personality with Narendra Modi, whose regime aided genocide against Muslim minorities in Gujarat in 2002, is an affront to the struggle of toiling masses throughout the history of humankind. Such an understanding can only arise from one’s inability to differentiate between the struggle against injustice and exploitation, and attempts to flare up fascistic hatred against religious minorities.
 The statement reveals Mr. Rahul Gandhi’s erroneous and preposterous understanding of politics and world history.

Left Front Week long sit in protest concludes




Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday questioned the Trinamool Congress's silence on the development, A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation filed the charge-sheet against 23 activists of the Maoist-backed Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee in connection with the May 28 Jnaneswari Express derailment case, as the party had held the Communist Party of India (Marxist) responsible for the incident.

Mr. Bhattacharjee said that just ahead of the May 30 civic elections the Trinamool Congress had launched a “vicious campaign” claiming that the CPI(M) was responsible for the incident. But the party is silent now that the CBI investigation has revealed otherwise.

“Why did you lie to the people? It was not an insignificant lie; it was uttered after the death of 150 persons. And today you are silent,” Mr. Bhattacharjee asked.

He was addressing a rally on the concluding day of the week-long programme organised by the State Left Front Committee, which was observed as the North-Bengal-Jangalmahal-Sunderbans day.

Mr. Bhattacharjee, who has earlier described the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as a “practised liar,” said “it has been proven today that you were lying.”

The CBI inquiry was ordered upon the insistence of the Opposition, but once the findings have been revealed there is no word from the Trinamool Congress, he said.

“Why are we speaking about the Maoist threat in every district? It is because we want to limit them to the areas in Bankura, Purulia and Paschim Medinipur,” the Chief Minister said.

Describing the Communist Party of India (Maoist) as a “party of cowards,” he said that the people of the Maoist-affected region had staged a turnaround.

Biman Bose, Chairman of the State Left Front Committee, said that the movement in the Maoist-affected areas is often described as “a struggle of the adivasis” or a “Santhal resistance”, but of the 212 people who have been killed in the Maoist-affected Jangal Mahal area, 115 of them are adivasis themselves.

(Source ; The Hindu)