Monday, February 7, 2011

UDF defending the indefensible in sexracket case: Brinda Karat


Political parties should neither extend patronage to those accused in sexual harassments and scandals nor victimise the women who had fallen prey to them, Brinda Karat, Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said here on Sunday.
She was speaking after inaugurating the 20th State conference of the Kerala School Teachers' Association here on Sunday.
Flaying the United Democratic Front (UDF) leadership for its support to the Indian Union Muslim League leader P.K. Kunhalikutty in the ice-cream parlour sex-scandal case, Ms. Karat said: ‘‘It is shameful to a State like Kerala where UDF leadership openly tries to shield a senior leader of their ally who is now part of a burning controversy.”
Vain attempt
Ms. Karat alleged that the Muslim League and the leadership of the front were unashamedly wasting time and energy defending an indefensible person. There were even suspected attempts to manipulate the process of inquiry and influence even the judiciary.She said the investigations conducted into all the infamous sex-scandal cases in Kerala were losing steam owing to the unholy political patronage of the UDF. “Incidents of these kinds were alien to the State till very recently,” she said.
Ms. Karat said the Congress-led government at the Centre had also been continuing with a similar strategy of protecting the guilty and torturing innocents in several cases. If innocent Muslim youths were wrongly arrested on charge of anti-national activities, it would always be a blot on the nation. She termed the Mochana Yatra a farce, and said the leaders who were taking pride of the ‘liberation journey' were trying to cover up burning issues. The UDF leaders should divert the ‘Yatra' to New Delhi and meet the Union government authorities for the actual liberation of people
(Courtesy : The Hindu)

An Appeal for mass collection for Jyoti Basu Social Study Centre



A Social Studies Centre that would undertake the invaluable experience of contemporary and historical research on Left and Communist mass movements and social transformation to be named after the Communist Legend Jyoti Basu will soon be illustrating the political academics of the country. To commemorate such a celebrated leader “Jyoti Basu Centre for Social Studies and Research” will soon be constituted at Jyoti Basu Nagar, Newtown Rajarhat. CPI(M) state committee has made an appeal to all party workers, supporters, fellow travelers and people of the state to donate for the construction of the centre. The 10-day long mass collection has already started from 17th January, the day of the first death anniversary of Jyoti Basu.

Biman Basu, CPI(M) state secretary, while appealing for a donation for the centre said ,  Comrade Jyoti Basu’s life as a whole told the history of mass movements. His contribution stretching from the freedom struggle to the incessant fight for democracy, peoples’ rights and unity of the is widely acclaimed. It is also reverently recognized that having started from the leader of opposition in West Bengal Legislative Assembly Jyoti Basu remained the Chief Minister of the state for 23 years successively. Jyoti Basu’s life is itself signified a history of Indian Communist movements and people’s movements as well.

Basu reiterated that to pay homage to such a great people’s leader the CPI(M) West Bengal state committee decided to constitute a centre chiefly on the research of Communist movement and people’s struggle. To constitute such a centre the state committee formed an organization “Jyoti Basu Centre for Social Studies and Research”. The proposed centre would include a huge archive with all necessary documents on Jyoti Basu, an auditorium, a meeting room, a seminar room, library and a small guest house.

Basu informed that a letter seeking a plot in Rajarhat Newtown was given to the concerned authority which they approved. But huge money is required to purchase the plot and construct the centre-building. The centre would come up with people’s contribution.

On 17th January mass collection took place in different districts. Ashok Ghosh , the veteran leader of Forward Block donated Rs One Lakh on behalf of his party and Rs Ten thousand personally in the fund. Biman Basu collected fund in streets of Siuri, Birbhum. Steel workers of  Durgapur handed over the money to Prakash Karat, who was there to address a seminar.

To facilitate the noble endeavour, you can send draft or cheque in favour of “Jyoti Basu Centre for Social Studies and Research” payable at Kolkata to CPI(M), West Bengal State Committee, 31, Alimuddin Street, Kolkata – 700016.

Left Parties Memorandum to the Election Commission of India

In continuation of our representation before you dated January 21, 2011, we are presenting our specific area-wise concerns which pose a challenge for the holding of peaceful, free and fair elections for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly in some parts of the state.
 
But, at the outset, before going into these specific facts, we would like to draw your attention to certain observations from the Election Commission. That West Bengal elections have been historically violence-prone is a claim which is not borne out by facts. On the contrary, West Bengal has a very positive record of peaceful elections. Further, West Bengal’s electoral history is unique characterized by abnormally heavy voter turnout underlining the peaceful, free and fair character with massive popular participation under the strictest scrutiny of the EC. A number of times the Election Commission and its observers have put these on record. Particularly during the 2006 elections, the EC had organized it under unprecedented security arrangements. So much so, that the elections were held in five phases and both security and other election officials were largely drawn from outside the state. Unfortunately, overlooking this history and making ahistorical observations can only lead to interpretations which will help partisan interests. 
 
The situation, as we had stated on January 21, is, indeed, serious in certain areas. This is largely due to the nexus between the Maoists and the Trinamul Congress. More developments have taken place since which bring out the brazenness of this complicit relationship. Now, this nexus is not operating covertly but quite in the open. A meeting was held in Lalgarh jointly sponsored by the Trinamul Congress and the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) on January 30. This was addressed, amongst others, by Shri Shishir Adhikari and Shri Mukul Roy – both Ministers of State in the Union Government and front-ranking TMC leaders. Both the print and the electronic media have reported banners, festoons and flags alongwith the actual presence of PCPA in the meeting. Incidentally, PCPA has been described by the Home Minister as a frontal organisation of the Maoists – on the floor of the Rajya Sabha itself. The CBI chargesheet in the Gyaneswari Express tragedy has established the involvement of the PCPA in the gruesome incidents where deliberate sabotage had led to the death of 150 innocent people. On January 31, two Maoists were apprehended from the so-called relief camp run by the TMC in the Congress-TMC led Midnapur municipality’s Guest House. Communications with the top Maoist leadership, including Kishanji, was recovered from these arrested Maoists. Media has also reported that questioning of these two have led to the recovery of firearms and ammunition which were hidden under the ground. 
 
The open involvement of a major political force which is a part of the UPA coalition at the Centre with the Maoists may adversely affect the coming election process. This will create difficulties for the maintenance of a peaceful atmosphere, despite the state administration’s best efforts. Efforts by the administration have led to recovery of a large cache of firearms and other lethal weapons. The joint security operations has also been able to largely restore normalcy in large part of the affected districts. However, the new feature, as stated above, is the open complicity between the TMC and Maoists that makes the task of the security forces more difficult as seen in the resistance to arrest of two Maoists from the TMC relief camp and the subsequent insinuations by the TMC against the police administration.
 
We would like to further inform the Election Commission that the joint forces have conducted a thorough search for the so-called `armed camps’ on the basis of a list submitted by the opposition before the Hon’ble High Court. The Commandant of the CRPF has publicly gone on record that the operations did not establish the existence of `armed camps’. But people evicted by violence were found to be living in those camps and that their names were being listed systematically by the security forces. Arrangements must be made by the EC to ensure that such displaced voters in areas like Nandigram, Khejuri and other parts of East Midnapur are allowed to exercise their franchise. However, the improvement of the situation has not been able to stop `individual annihilation’ of CPI(M) and Left cadre which continue to take place.  In fact, since the noise over `armed camps’ reached a crescendo more than a dozen Left activists have been killed by the Maoists. One cannot escape an uncomfortable conclusion that such propaganda of disinformation has only emboldened the TMC-Maoist to mount greater terror. On this 4th of February, a CPI(M) sympathizer, Baidyanath Jana, an employee of a school was shot dead by the TMC-Maoist nexus in Nayagram, in the Jangal Mahal area of West Midnapur district. 
 
Given this, the first specific concern arises from the geographic features of the state with its long borders with Jharkhand and Orissa. In fact, these borders are in many cases under forest cover. Therefore, it is that much easier   for the Maoists to cross over and conduct operations. The Ayodhya hills and its adjoining blocks of Purulia district like Bandwan, Balrampur, Arsha, Baghmundi, Jhalda-I and II and Jaipur are particularly vulnerable from the security point of view. Similarly, Khairasol, Rajnagar, Mohd Bazar, Rampurhat, Nalhati of Birbhum district have borders with Jharkhand. Of late, as the situation improved in Jangalmahal, increased operations by Maoists have been noticed in Birbhum, Murshidabad and Nadia districts. It is necessary for the EC to address this question of vulnerability in the border areas from a security point of view and may be consider the sealing of the state borders from the time of announcement of elections.
 
Further, we would like to draw the attention of the EC to specific assembly segments, villages and gram panchayats where terror has been let loose with an arms build up.   We are attaching as annexure detailed district-wise information. 
 
Unfortunately, the visit of the set of observers to study law and order exclusively on the basis of allegations by the opposition has created some doubts in the minds of the people. During the visit of the observers, there are complaints that even after specific efforts were made, the representatives of Left parties could not meet these observers. This was most particularly evident in Purba Midnapur district. 
 
We hope that the Election Commission will initiate appropriate steps to address these concerns to instill the required sense of confidence.