Expose and Defeat the Politics of Compromise! Unite to Fight for JNUSU Elections as per JNUSU Constitution!

JNUSU elections have remained stayed for the last two years. The stay is conditional. If we accept the Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations (LCR), elections can be held any time. But the students of this campus (except Y4E, the defenders of LCR and loyal agent of administration) resolutely rejected these highly undemocratic, dangerous and anti-student recommendations two years back. Since then JNU’s student movement has been fighting a political and legal battle against the imposition of LCR. Lyngdoh with the pretext of curbing ‘money and muscle power in students politics’, aims to crush students’ movements which are fighting against privatisation of education. As the agent of the World Bank, it is trying to destroy students’ unions in educational institutions, which have been identified as the ‘biggest impediment in the way of privatizing education’.

In the wake of an unprecedented attack on our democratic right to unionize in the form of Lyngdoh, it is the prime responsibility of all progressive and democratic students to wage an uncompromising and protracted struggle to defeat Lyngdoh, not only in JNU but everywhere. While most of the universities of the country have been already forced to accept Lyngdoh, it is the JNU students who are still fighting against these reactionary set of rules. Though all petitions filed by students of different universities have been rejected by the Supreme Court, the petition filed by JNU’s Joint Struggle Committee has been recommended to the Constitution Bench after the Two Judge bench in the Supreme Court commented that ‘prima facie the LCR infringes on the constitutional rights of the students to hold elections’. This judgment has put a question on the entire credibility of the LCR. This indeed is a decisive step ahead in our struggle against Lyngdoh, and a result of the collective and uncompromising struggle of JNU’s student movement.

The task ahead is to intensify this struggle against Lyngdoh to reclaim JNUSU elections as per JNUSU constitutions. However, the so-called Left organisations like SFI and AISA are already showing their willingness for different shades of compromise in this struggle. True to its politics of compromise and capitulation before the neo-liberal forces, SFI is already talking about ‘bargaining and negotiating’ in order to reinstate JNUSU elections, instead of calling for an intensification of the ongoing struggle. Their propaganda is full of misinformation too, as always. Their opportunist stand suggests us to ‘explore the option of entering into negotiations with the Solicitor General’. The same Solicitor General has however argued for imposing LCR on JNU elections and right from the beginning had offered (as if on charity) ‘relaxations’ on two counts of age-limit and repetition of candidature. The JNU students had given a mandate to the Joint Struggle Committee to fight uncompromisingly against Lyngdoh in totality in JNU, and such opportunistic suggestions from the state has been rejected right at the beginning. This suggestion of compromise was rejected in the last meeting of the Joint Struggle Committee as well.

However, the SFI representative insisted on discussing the compromise with our lawyer in the last meeting with him in July. The Lawyer unambiguously rejected this proposal, pointing at its futility and hollowness, and categorically stated that attempts at this kind of compromise can defeat our case. Unlike the misinformation propaganda of SFI that ‘the final decision on our interim application is now deferred to an unspecified date’, our lawyer had also informed that there will be a hearing in August end or early September in a Three Judge Bench headed by the Chief Justice. SFI with its history of aligning with the state and market are gradually pushing for such dangerous proposals which can jeopardize the entire struggle against Lyngdoh. After all, SFI supports Lyngdoh in all other places and it is only because of the overwhelming opinion against Lyngdoh in JNU that they were forced to take a stand against it two years back.

AISA on the other hand is trying to bring LCR from the backdoor! Instead of intensifying the struggle for JNUSU elections as per JNUSU constitution they are pushing for the Academic Council/Board of Studies elections, which in their present forms are highly problematic. The student’s representation in AC/BoS is indeed an old demand of the student community and there had been continuous struggle for that. But the current model of these elections, as proposed by the administration, much like Lyngdoh, have provisions for ‘merit clause’ as eligibility criterion for candidates as well as provisions for direct administrative intervention in the election process. Contrary to their claim in their last pamphlet, that these debates have been already settled, AISA since the last four years has been criminally silent on these reactionary clauses of AC/BoS elections, forget about taking part in any debate on this! AISA has not cared to state their position publicly on these problematic clauses till date, which only shows their complicity. Can AISA justify why a student scoring less than 6 grade-points should be deprived of contesting in AC election? And Why a ‘recommendation from the center’ is compulsory for PhD students who want to fight these election? What role will the ‘VC nominated Supervisor’ play in the elections? Why should we accept these undemocratic clauses in AC/BoS elections when we are fighting the same clauses in LCR? 

AISA calculatedly is portraying this as ‘exploring all available options’! But this ‘option’ in its present form is as bad as the holding the JNUSU elections according to LCR. We would like to remind them that the stay afterall is on our elections, there is no stay on our movements and struggles. Lack of elected representatives has indeed intensified administrative assault on the students, but in last few years the setbacks suffered by the students on various issues was more due to capitulation of the spineless AISA-led acting JNUSU leadership.

This is a time when education is being commodified and privatised, and when all kinds of movements and dissent are being heavily crushed. This is a time when we fight more intensified and uncompromising battles if we have to secure our basic democratic rights like reclaiming our JNUSU elections as per its own progressive and democratic Constitution. Our fight against Lyngdoh is not just a fight for campus democracy but for democracy at large. It is a fight against forces of privatisation, against the neo-liberal policies. There can be no shortcuts to this fight; and attempts to sabotage our fight against LCR must be resisted. We appeal to the students’ community to expose such compromises and capitulation and build a unified and uncompromising struggle to reclaim JNUSU elections as per JNUSU constitution.

Carry Forward the Struggle to Restore JNUSU Elections as per JNUSU Constitution! NO AC/BoS Elections in its Present Form!

It’s been two years now that the JNUSU elections have been stayed. The Supreme Court had imposed a stay on the JNUSU elections in 2008 on the pretext that it does not follow the Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations. However, the same Lyngdoh Committee had upheld the JNUSU model of elections as somewhat an ideal. Not only that, JNU’s democratic and progressive student politics has been a coveted model across the country. It has derived its resilience and democratic character from the collective struggles launched by the students not only for particular issues pertaining to the campus, but also the resolute way in which they have stood with the struggles of the masses outside the university. The JNUSU constitution, which is an extremely progressive and democratic document, has emerged out of such consistent struggles by the students. It consists of the rules for holding JNUSU elections and has been framed by students after long deliberations. Any change in the Constitution also has been incorporated only after being ratified in an Extra-ordinary UGBM with two-third majority support.

It has been consistently ensured by the students that everything from the constitution to the elections remained completely independent of administrative control. Criminal activity in JNU elections is relatively marginal, there is no unnecessary expenditure, no attempts to bribe or coerce voters or candidates. Reasonable amounts of money have always been spent on elections here because display of material wealth during elections is rejected by the students. This is not because of some guidelines laid down by the establishment, but because of a legacy of emphasizing content over form, progressive politics over glamour, money and muscle power.

Lyngdoh Committee came with the stated aim that it is going to curb ‘criminalization of student politics’. In reality it is one of the hidden hands of the market. As World Bank and its cronies are aggressively pushing for privatization of education; The Birla-Ambani Report on Higher Education, Knowledge Commission as well as a number of World Bank Reports on higher education have all clearly identified student politics as the primary impediment to privatization of education. The Birla Ambani report specifically recommends the banning of any kind of political activity on the campus. A politicized and militant student body is a stumbling block for neo-liberal policies. And it was in this context that Lyngdoh came knocking in various campuses, precisely to implement the larger nefarious designs of depoliticisation, facilitating privatization of education. Lyngdoh is thus a potent weapon in the hands of the ruling class to crush consciously articulated political dissent and opposition by students. In the same way the state and the state-promoted private sector have de-unionised the labour force to curtail their right to protest and demand their rights, the student community is now being targeted. Thus the report urges repeatedly that students should stick to issues of students’ welfare and not get involved in anything else. They want to turn the students into atomized self-centered individuals, who are cut-off from the other forms of resistances and movements. But this is exactly what JNU students and their movements have historically fought against. We have always stood for larger struggles against imperialism, neo-liberalism, communal fascism and all other reactionary forces that thwart the lives, livelihood and dignity of people. We have fought against the atomization of students cocooned in their own narrow self-interests.

For the last two years JNU students have refused to succumb before Lyngdoh and are fighting both legal and political battle against it. While most of the universities like HCU and others have accepted Lyngdoh, it is JNU which is still fighting against these reactionary set of rules. All other petitions by different Universities have not been entertained by the Supreme Court. Owing only to our uncompromising political… and our relentless struggle, the petition filed by Joint Struggle Committee that has been recommended to the Constitutional Bench after the Two Judge bench in the Supreme Court commented that ‘prima facie the Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations  (LCR) infringes on the constitutional rights of the students to hold elections’. This judgment has put a question on the entire credibility of the LCR. This indeed is a decisive step ahead in our struggle against Lyngdoh. When elections were stayed in JNU in 2008, in a historic UGBM, the students community, irrespective of their political affiliation (except YFE, the loyal agent of administration, state and status quo), unanimously passed the following resolution “The JNUSU Constitution expresses the democratic ethos and norms of the JNU students evolved over 37 years of collective struggle. The Supreme Court’s stay on the JNUSU Elelctions and the attempt to impose Lyngdoh Committee recommendations in JNU is against the letter and spirit of the JNUSU Constitution. This UGBM therefore resolves to reject the implementation of Lyngdoh Committee recommendations in JNU in any form”. A Joint struggle Committee was formed which had been carrying the struggle against Lyngdoh forward for the past two years. The real challenge that is lying ahead of the JNU students now is to restore JNUSU elections as per its constitution.

AISA however instead of intensifying this battle to hold JNUSU elections has come up with a proposal to hold the elections for the statutory bodies like Academic Council/Board of Studies and GSCASH. This move by AISA is not only calculative but dangerous. Student representatives to AC/BoS elections have always been a major demand of the students’ community. Finally a model was notified by the JNU administration in 2006. However this model had certain dangerous and problematic clauses, which according to the notification ‘were laid down by the university and agreed upon by JNUSU’. First, ‘the eligible candidates’ for these elections require a minimum grade (6.0 for AC and 5.0 for BoS), PhD students would require a certificate of good conduct from the Centre. This is clearly in tune with the bogus logic of “merit”, which is also prescribed by Lyngdoh. This clearly debars certain student with fewer grades from contesting these elections and that is clearly against basic democratic rights of students to contest elections. Further, these elections unlike JNUSU elections will be ‘supervised’ by a person nominated by the VC, which implies direct administrative interference and which once again is in the same line with Lyngdoh. When this model of election was proposed by the administration in 2006, DSU was the only organization to oppose these problematic clauses. 

SFI and AISA, both of which were in the union then, accepted these clauses without any protests. They did not even inform and try to raise a debate within the students’ community to oppose these clauses. However, they also remained silent about these elections for the past three years! They never took any initiative to hold these elections even before the JNUSU elections were stayed. Suddenly now, when the larger threat of Lyngdoh is looming large on JNUSU elections, AISA remembered these elections. By demanding the holding of AC/BoS elections in the present form with its highly dangerous merit clause etc., AISA is surreptitiously preparing the grounds for bringing in the JNUSU Elections as per the Lyngdoh Recommendations. They are clearly giving hint to the administration that the JNU students are ready to accept both ‘merit clause’ and administrative interference in Students elections. We would like to ask AISA point blank that how can they unproblematically accept such flawed models of elections proposed by the administration! Unless these clauses are changed, no progressive or democratic force can accept these elections in its present proposed model.

SFI too is now emphasizing only on holding JNUSU elections and are opportunistically silent on their position against Lyngdoh. It was the overwhelming opposition to Lyngdoh in JNU that had forced SFI to take a categorical position against it atleast on this campus. But elsewhere they support and uphold Lyngdoh. With CPM going all out in blatantly implementing privatization of education, SFI also does not have much problem against either privatization of education or against depoliticisation. By the same logic they are not against Lyngdoh at large. The absence of JNUSU for the last two years has deprived the student movement of JNU with an elected leadership, and taking advantage of the situation, the administration has come out with an all-out assault on the rights of the campus community. The JNU students have uncompromisingly fought for restoring the elections as per the JNUSU Constitution, and the point is to intensify it. Elections to AC/BoS, especially with such problematic clauses, however, will not provide any meaningful resistance to the administration. 

In the last two years the administrative assault increased mostly as a result of failure of JNUSU leadership. We should remind them that last year, against attempts of privatization, fee-hike and installing of electric meters in Koyna, the students came out in streets in large numbers and mandated the acting JNUSU to go for a militant fight in the UGBM. It was because of the spineless capitulation of the AISA-led JNUSU that the prospectus fee got hiked and the electric meters are still there in Koyna. The same AISA-led JNUSU have failed to ensure full implementation of 27% OBC Reservation. The stay for two years is only on our elections, there is NO stay on our movements and struggles. It is through renewed struggle we should fight for JNUSU elections as per JNUSU constitution. We should defeat the nefarious and dangerous Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations. There can be no short-cut, no substitute to this struggle.

Social-Fascist CPM’s Anti-Muslim Agenda Makes Communal-Fascist BJP-RSS-ABVP Proud! CPM’s Pro-Imperialist and Communal Agenda Must be Exposed and Resisted!

Ever since the transfer of power in 1947, the Indian state has been characterised by Hindu-fundamentalism and Brahminism. The oppressed sections including the Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims have been used as ‘vote banks’ by all parliamentary parties irrespective of differences in their professed ideologies or colours of their flags. Their rhetoric not withstanding, the range of parliamentary parties from Congress/ BJP to CPM have repeatedly delivered lip-services, differently worded, to the oppressed. The imperialist onslaught with unabated support from all parliamentary parties has reduced the living condition of all these sections to an inhuman level. In such a scenario, when the various oppressed sections are fighting back, the ruling class and their parliamentary representatives are engaged in an effort to suppress such militant assertions with all its might. These struggles are thus continently branded and targeted variously as ‘Counter Insurgency/ Islamic terrorism/ Maoism’. They are profiled as ‘security threats’ and ‘terrorists’. Thereafter, stringent surveillance, draconian laws and armed suppression - all becomes necessary weapons in the hands of the state to repress them. The genuine movements of the Dalits, the Muslims, the Adivasis, the oppressed nationalities have all been profiled and repressed this way. And all the parliamentary parties, including CPM, the self-proclaimed champions of secularism, play its part in such brutal repression.

In the pamphlet a few days back, Kairali (read SFI) reiterated how CPM postures itself as the prime champion of ‘secularism’. However, the history of CPM is only one of opportunistic mobilization of Muslims as ‘vote bank’ and latter on profiling them as ‘fundamentalists’. In the few regions of the country where CPM still survives electorally (as a movement it is dead for decades), maintaining their electoral relevance necessitates the repeated evoking of the bogey of communalism. In spite of their loud war-cries against the communal-fascists, the CPM has  neither fought the communal forces decisively, nor have worked towards the improvement of the material condition of the Muslims (as well as the other oppressed sections of the society). When Muslims in Bengal and Kerala organised themselves into their own organisations, CPM first tried to woo sections of its leadership for its own electoral benefit. But the utter failure of CPM to address the concerns of the religious minorities has led to the Muslim organisations moving away from CPM. And going by the age-old blue print of Indian parliamentary politics CPM quickly branded such Muslim organisations as ‘fundamentalists’ and ‘terrorists’. The same Jamaat-e-Islami which had been used by CPM for their electoral benefits till the last Lok Sabha polls is now being branded as ‘fundamentalist’. This is in spite of the fact that in many constituencies in North Kerala, CPM candidates were supported by the Jamaat.

PFI and Jamaat-e-Islami have been particularly singled out by CPM for attack, since both the organisations have emerged as their electoral rivals in Kerala. Reportedly both are going to contest the Zilla Parishad and panchayat elections through their frontal organizations SDPI and Janakeeya Vikasana Munnani respectively. This has become a prime concern for CPM. On 13 June this year, 50 CPM goons armed with chains and lathis went and vandalized a meeting organised by Jamaat and JVM before the panchayat elections. Abdul Hameed Vanimal, political secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami had to be hospitalized with ten others, including women. The journalists present were also targeted. This attack was perpetrated in connivance with the local police and in presence of CPM leader M. Rajendran. For CPM, till the Muslim organisations confine themselves to petitioning and continue to play second fiddle, they are projected as ‘secular’. But when they militantly fight for their rights and independently assert themselves they become ‘fundamentalists’.

This was clear when the struggle against land grab in Nandigram was termed as ‘Islamic fundamentalist’ by Bengal CPM as it was spearheaded by Muslim peasants. CPM is also consciously moving away from these organisations, in order to align itself more firmly with the dominant-caste Hindu voters. CPM leader Achuthanandan, who just before becoming the CM stated that “the Muslim youths of Mallapuram who faired well in the Medical/Engineering entrance tests have all copied in their exams”, is now armed against the Muslims with the right-wing bogey of ‘love jihad’. He blamed the Muslim organisations for ‘trying to turn Kerala into a Muslim majority state by using money and force and by luring people into conversion’! Unable to offer an explanation for such a dangerous right-wing statement, SFI (‘Kairali’) has chosen to remain completely silent about this. In the upcoming elections, especially the assembly polls scheduled next year, the Hindu votes are the prime targets of CPM as it has lost the support of the Muslims, Christians, dalits, adivasis and other oppressed sections of the state. It is therefore now enticing Hindu organisations like Nayar Service Society and Sri Narayana Dharma Paripalana for its electoral benefits. Raman Pillai, the ex-state president of BJP, has now formed his own party which is in alliance with CPM led LDF. The hindutva card which the CPM is pursuing currently in Kerala is by now an open secret. In such a scenario the branding of minority organisations fighting for their long denied rights and dignity as ‘communal fascist’/reactionary only show the political and ideological bankruptcy of SFI/CPM. After all these organisations have emerged in a political vacuum which is of CPM’s own making.

The failure of CPM to implement any improvement of the material conditions of the Muslims throughout their rule in Bengal and Kerala was exposed by the Sachar Committee Report. The most glaring cases of deprivation of Muslims in government jobs are found in the States of West Bengal and Kerala. In Kerala the Muslim representation in government jobs is 10.4 %, a figure that is short of half of their population percentage. In this respect West Bengal’s ‘performance’ is the worst in the entire country. While 25.2% of West Bengal’s population is Muslim, the state government has provided only 2.1% of government jobs to Muslims. More than 1,000 Muslim concentration villages in West Bengal do not have any educational institution. While Muslims constitute 30.7% of the poor (Below Poverty Line) in Kerala, their share under most government programmes ranges between 5% and 18%. These facts clearly reflect the failure of the CPM-led state governments. Before branding Muslim organizations that have been expressing the grievances of the Muslims as ‘communal’ and ‘fascist’, SFI (‘Kairali’) should remind themselves of these hard facts. If CPM actually has been the defender of rights and interests of the minorities, what explains growing alienation of the Muslims away from CPM?

CPM’s ‘fight against communal fascism’ is one more hoax that it has always propagated.  They supported BJP in 1989 on the pretext that they were fighting Congress. In 2004 they reverted the logic of aligning with Congress to defeat BJP! In 2009, however, in blatant display of opportunism they came in open alliance, in the name of ‘third front’, with Naveen Patnaik’s BJD, which had provided active support to Praveen Togadia in igniting the Kandhamal riots; Jayalalitha’s AIADMK, a reactionary right-wing communal force, notorious for implementing the Anti-Conversion Bill and Chandrababu Naidu’s reactionary TDP - all of which were constituents of NDA. Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was banned without an iota of concrete evidences by NDA. The UPA further extended the ban even after the single member tribunal lifted the ban for lack of evidence; the CPM maintained a criminal support to such draconian measures. In Kerala in fact a number of Muslim youths have been falsely implicated and arrested as ‘SIMI and Indian Mujahideen activists’. In fact right now, CPM is currently pursuing a similar profiling and persecution campaign against PFI in Kerala. After the attack on T. J. Joseph for setting a rabidly communal question paper, CPM squarely put the blame on PFI erasing the fact that even PFI has condemned the act and offered full cooperation in the investigation. Even before the investigations have been completed, CPM, much like the Hindu-fascists who put the blame on Muslim organisations after every terrorist attack, has been all along attacking PFI as the ‘masterminds’ behind the attack. Offices and houses of PFI activists have been raided and they are contemplating banning PFI. Past few months have witnessed a virtual witch hunt of Muslims in Kerala with indiscriminate arrests and other forms of harassment like random checks. No wonder RSS mouthpiece Organiser and students wing ABVP lauded the CPM for its efforts to curb ‘Islamic fundamentalism’! After the Batla House fake encounter, CPM mildly asked for a judicial enquiry but by and large sided with the Congress government in their ‘war against Islamic terror’. In the same tune Budhhadeb Bhattacharya blatantly proclaimed that ‘madrasas are dens of ISI’.  Kairali in its pamphlet asserted that CPM has been at the forefront of defending the right of the people to choose their life partners. Their desperate pretensions notwithstanding, people will not forget Rizwanur Rahman a Muslim youth who was murdered with complete support from the state machinery in Bengal, only because he dared to marry a Hindu girl, the daughter of Todi, the industrialist and chief financer of CPM!

CPM condemned when Babri Masjid was demolished, they condemned when Muslims were slaughtered in Bhagalpur, Meerut, Bombay, Gujarat etc. But can communal-fascism be resisted through simple verbal condemnation? Communal Fascism has to be defeated with uncompromising militant resistance, which the CPM with its warped history has always refused to do. It has shed all its earlier pretentions of shadow boxing against imperialism and is now vying with the Hindu-fascist forces to project itself as the new poster-boy of globalisation. It has openly supported neo-liberal model of development grabbing land forcefully from people to sell it to the MNCs at throw away prices, upholding SEZ, implementing capital-intensive industrialisation. It is also turning fascist in repressing people’s movement. It supports and implements the draconian AFSPA in Tripura, it has been ahead of Congress and BJP in implementing the fascist UAPA; it has enforced the prohibitory CRPC 144 in Jungalmahal for the longest time in history, and is ruthlessly suppressing people’s movements with central armed forces. A social-fascist force like CPM with its own murderous vigilante gang; which uses rape, murder and violent intimidation rampantly to gag all kinds of opposition, now talks of ‘democracy and secularism’! It is a brutal force and a running dog of imperialism and the entrenched feudal forces. Much in line with its imperialist masters, at a time when the Muslim community is facing the imperialist onslaught worldwide, CPM is also raising the bogey of ‘Islamic fundamentalism’.

The brutal onslaught of the state and the regular assault on the lives and dignity of the people has been the hallmark of the Indian state, including the CPM ruled states. We stand in solidarity with the various assertions of the oppressed sections for their livelihood and dignity that challenge the mantle of this Hindu brahminical state and its imperialist masters. There is a need to build solidarity between these fighting sections and the ongoing revolutionary movement for transforming and democratizing the society. It is only though a united, militant and resolute struggle can we build and strengthen an alternative to this system of feudal and imperialist exploitation.

Oppose the Military Occupation and Ongoing State Terror in Kashmir by the Indian State and its Armed Forces! Stand by the People of Kashmir for Their Right to Self-Determination & Azaadi !

Way back in March 14, 1950, UN Resolution 80 Concerning The India-Pakistan Question stated, “Commending the Governments of India and Pakistan for their statesman like action in reaching the agreements embodied in the United Nations Commission's Resolutions of August 13, 1948 and January 5, 1949 for a cease-fire, for the demilitarization of the State of Jammu and Kashmir and for the determination of its final disposition in accordance with the will of the people through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite”. This till date remains an international commitment yet to be fulfilled. Indian state particularly has repeatedly evaded the question of plebiscite by the Kashmiri people to determine their nationhood. Ever since the blatantly rigged polls of 1987, when elected representatives of the people were put in prison and puppets of New Delhi were put in power, Kashmir has remained the most militarized zone in the world and its people have faced most brutal state repression and long standing military occupation. Elections in this valley have rather become military exercises since then. There are more than 8 lakh army and CRPF personnel stationed in the valley. It is not an army to fight any militants; it is an army of occupation. The UN too has remained silent even after the current massive onslaught on the Kashmiri people by the Indian army.

In the latest spate of attacks by the Indian armed forces, more than 45 civilians have been killed , which mainly include youngsters. More than two hundred people have been critically injured. But state- repression is nothing new to the Kashmiris. More than 70,000 people have been killed by the police and the CRPF so far . Thousands of women have been raped by the security forces. The mass graves where 30,000 bodies of the ones who have ‘disappeared’ were buried were recently exposed. Draconian laws like AFSPA , UAPA and PESA have not only vested unlimited power to the army but also provide complete impunity to these killers. The daily harassment which every Kashmiri is forced to go through, the impossibility of normal mobility across the valley, the regular attacks by the CRPF and the parading of people in the names of ‘checks and raids’, the ‘disappearances’ of people, the fake encounters, the suspicion with which any common Kashmiri is treated anywhere in India reflects how the people of the valley have always been treated as colonial subjects by the Indian mainstream. Almost the entire civil administration in the valley is now in the hands of CRPF and even the judgments of the civil courts are not binding upon the army or the police. In the latest spate of attacks teenagers, women and children were indiscriminately fired on. The mass mobilization of people across the valley was termed ‘agitational terrorism’ by the army to justify these latest brutalities by the security forces. And the incorrigible Chidambaram commended his troops for ‘showing restraint in firing’. The CRPF can not be booked for firing at unarmed masses including children, women and old people because after all they were maintaining law and order! This is how they have always protected ‘law’ and maintained ‘order’ in the valley, by sheer brutal force.

The Kashmiri people were never given a chance to formally express what they want. Historically and systematically right from the transfer of power, their right to plebiscite and self-determination has been denied to the people of Kashmir. The compromises of the ruling class in Kashmir with that in India has always perpetuated the Indian occupation of Kashmir. These compromises of the entrenched ruling agents of Kashmir can never be equated with the aspirations of common Kashmiri people. The mass protests of the Kashmiris, especially in the recent past, be it the current ongoing protest, or the last anti-Amarnath shrine land transfer movement two years back, has always brought out anti-India and pro-azaadi  slogans, which all parliamentary parties in India have ignored. Whether the Kashmiri people want to remain with India or want to secede from the Indian Union will be decided by the Kashmiri people themselves and not by anyone else.   

The genuine anger of the Kashmiris against the forceful occupation by India is once again evident in their current massive mobilization. Their unequivocal aspirations for azaadi, their courage to fight the armed forces even without arms always look ‘foreign funded’ to the Indian ruling class ranging from the communal fascist BJP and Congress to the social fascist CPM. This only shows their latent and mortal fear to accept that the masses of Kashmir do have a political will determined by their objective and subjective experiences of the harsh realities of persistent state repression and denial of basic rights. That the people of Kashmir have kept their aspirations for independence alive and have been fighting for decades relentlessly and refusing to surrender despite the most brutal state repression is a cause of concern to all ruling parties in India. They justify the occupation of Kashmir by demonizing the genuine struggle of the Kashmiris for freedom as ‘Islamic and fundamentalist’ while remaining criminally quiet about the innumerable crimes of the Indian state. They justify attack on Kashmiris on the pretext of ‘tackling armed insurgency’ but remain completely silent on how the Kashmiris were constantly betrayed for over four decades before the armed uprising erupted. The armed struggle was only a result of the suppression of the rights of the Kashmiris and brutal policies of the Indian state which choked all voices of dissent by banning democratic mass organisations and protest and repeatedly fired upon peaceful processions. Even now, it has not thought twice before turning on the army against unarmed protesters.

The people of Kashmir currently in thousands are defying the curfew and the shoot-at-sight orders. Like the Palestinian Intifada they are facing the mighty Indian military with nothing but their courage and stones. These brave men and women also inspire the democratic people in India with their immense courage to fight on and not to surrender in front of brute forces, till they get their independence.

JOIN PROTEST MARCH
from GANGA DHABA 6th August 2010, 9.30pm 
&
NIGHT VIGIL at Jantar Mantar,
7th August, from 5.30 pm

Public Meeting: Indian State's Fascist Repression and Heroic Resistance by the People

 Indian State's Fascist Repression and 

Heroic Resistance by the People

 

Speaker: Varavara Rao, Revolutionary Poet

9.30pm | 5th August 2010 | Tapti Mess, JNU

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The sham of Indian ‘democracy’ stands fully exposed today. The ruling class of the country is forced to show their real character with the global financial slump down heavily affecting their imperialist masters. The economic crisis which started in the early years of this decade in all the developed countries with a mere GDP growth of 1.7% has reached a phenomenal proportion in recent years from which imperialist economies like US has no escape in coming future. Thus the imperialist capital has no way but to look for resources and market in the underdeveloped third world. The wars of Afghanistan, the invasion of Iraq etc are one of those dying effort by the imperialist capital to salvage its inevitable fall. However all these wars are being fought in the name of ‘democracy and development’. And so is Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram’s Operation Greenhunt! It is a full on war waged against country’s most impoverished section once again in the name of ‘development’. This war is declared to crush genuine people’s resistance by terming them as ‘the threat to democracy and internal security’. The country’s most deprived, poor section living in almost utter destitution and who have been subject to genocidal poverty in the areas like Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal after-all live on the most mineral rich region of the country. Thus they are indeed a ‘threat’ to unbridled mining by cent percent export oriented countries, to the loot of natural resources, to land grab, to all the upcoming SEZs, to all the MoUs and therefore this Green hunt!
   
What has really happened in the name of ‘development’ in all these years? In post-liberalized India ‘development’ has stood for destitution, destruction, dispossession and death. Recent reports show that while in 2004-05 about 77% of the population thrives on less than Rs. 20 per day in consumption expenditure; the millionaire population grew in 2007 by 22.6% from the year 2006 --- higher than any country in the world! In this oppressive circumstance, the ‘largest democracy’ has no other way but to expose itself as one of the greatest fascist force to repress the struggle of the people for lives and livelihood. Therefore the deployment of around one lakh heavily armed security forces, in central and eastern India including the notorious Rashtriya Rifles, Indo-Tibet Border Police, CRPF, IRB, STF. The draconian laws like UAPA are used randomly to silence any voices of dissent or protest which are being raised against this war. Thousands of people have been imprisoned so far, hundreds have been killed brutally; many leaders of the movement have been summarily executed in blatant fake encounters.  The government of India is working as a loyal agent of imperialist forces and corporate mafias. The Prime Minister on 18th June, 2006 stated in the parliament that “the environment for foreign investment is going to be severely affected if the Left-wing extremism continues to grow and expand like this in the mineral rich areas of the country”. The FICCI ahs also recently issued a strong statement urging the government to expedite its process of ‘removing’ the extremists from the mineral rich areas so that mining projects can take off. Manmohan Singh, the ex-World Bank employee or Chidambaram the ex-member of the Board of Director in Vedanta Pvt. Ltd. have thus serious reasons to worry. If the people continue to fight back like this with clear political agenda and a vision to not only stop the mining mafias, big corporate and entrenched feudal powers, but also to implement alternative development, then their dream for a ‘corporate India’ is bound to get challenged and subsequently defeated.

The government much like its Nazi predecessors is taking recourse to all sorts of duplicity, double-speak and malicious propaganda. It refuses to produce white paper on the MOUs signed, it is grabbing land extensively by flouting the constitutional provisions like the Fifth schedule and PESA. In tandem with the judiciary it has ensured the flouting of even the basic rights guaranteed in the constitution of the oppressed masses especially the adivasis. And over that the war on people is being intensified more every day. After pressure from the civil society the government postured as if it is interested in “peace talks” with the CPI (Maoist) which is spearheading the fight of the people for their land, lives and livelihood. Chidambaram repeatedly urged the Maoists to come for “peace talks” and negotiate on their demands. As soon as the Maoists responded, and a process was initiated with the mediation of the civil society, Chidambaram’s trusted mercenary the notorious Andhra Police tracked the Maoists involved in the process. They killed Cherkuri Rajkumar alias Azad, spokesperson of CPI (Maoist) who was initiating the dialogue with the government in cold blooded fake encounter, along with a journalist Hem Chandra Pandey. It once again made the real intention of the government to crush the movement of the people and their duplicity on ‘peace’ naked

The people who have been subjected to structural violence and state terror for past six decades no longer want abstract ‘peace’. They are fighting for peace with justice and they will win it.  Even in the face of this massive repression people in Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Jungal Mahal, Orissa, Maharashtra are fighting back heroically. The security forces which have the most sophisticated arms, the material support from Israel and US, the satellite assistance from NASA, the help from air-force still lack what the impoverished fighters of the masses posses. The masses have ideology and courage. They are fighting to destroy the century old oppressive system and bring a new democratic society. They are also implementing alternative development which is inclusive, democratic and socially just. They are not only safeguarding the land from corporate hawks but also distributing land among the landless. They are fighting against all the oppressive structures of caste, race and patriarchy which have sustained this regressive Indian state and society all along. These fighting masses are destroying the history of oppression and death. To create history of equality, dignity and life!

Expose and Defeat Social-Fascist CPI(M)’s Anti-Muslim Agenda!

“Mohammad: Padachone, Padachone (a colloquial way of addressing Allah in Malayalam).
God: What, you son-of-a bitch?
Mohammad: How many pieces a Mackerel should be cut into?
God: How many times should I tell you it’s 3 times, you dog!”

These are the exact wordings of the shocking and communal ‘question’ set by T J Joseph, a Malayalam teacher also in-charge of ‘value education’ in Newman College at Thodpuzha, Kerala, for an examination on 23rd March. The understandable sense of hurt, insult and outrage among the Muslim community it provoked can be gauged from the response of a student who answered this question. He wrote, “It is very difficult and insulting to my religion, so I am changing it to a conversation between an elder and younger brother”. After widespread protests, Joseph was arrested on 1st April but was soon released on bail. The condition of the bail forbade him from entering the town. But on 4th July he came to attend a religious ceremony and was attacked and injured. The Kerala police immediately put the blame on Popular Front of India (PFI) without any evidence. PFI not only denied involvement of any of its activists in the attack but also condemned it, and offered full co-operation in the investigation. The sangh giroh immediately plunged into their communally charged tirade against ‘Islamic Fundamentalism’ ever since. Imagine their reaction if the same question was set on Rama or some other hindu god! Kerala would have been turned by these communal-fascists into another Gujarat or Kandhamal by now.

That the communal-fascists have used the occasion to further its politics of hate against the muslims is nothing new. But with it was combined CPI(M)’s immediate profiling of PFI as a ‘fundamentalist and potential terrorist’ organization by using the media, branding the organisation to be the perpetrators even before any investigation. The highly communal question paper of the examination and the complicity of the college authorities were willfully erased from public debate, as was PFI’s condemnation of the incident. Kerala Chief Minister V S Achutyanandan tried to outdo the Sangh’s cacophony by blaming the PFI and other muslim organizations for attempting what the sangh had termed as ‘Love Jihad’. He proclaimed that these organizations are ‘luring people into conversion’, are trying to ‘Islamise’ and turn Kerala into a muslim majority state in twenty years’! “For achieving that goal, the outfit is pumping money to attract youth and give them weapons. They also try to convert youth from other communities and persuade them to marry muslim girls”, the CM alleged. The eternally squabbling Acuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan are now one in criminalising and communally profiling an organisation and a minority community, for once forgetting all their differences. In the same vain, the CPI(M)’s LDF partner All India Forward Block and the Sri Ram Sene have demanded the ban on PFI on the basis of this incident. Even the proposed “Freedom Rally’ called by the PFI on 15th August in Aluva has been banned by the administration and they are considering an extension of this ban in entire Kerala. The state headquarters of PFI was raided by the Kerala police, while 23 activists of PFI were arrested for taking out a protest march in Kalamassery on 13th July. Incidents of muslim families being frequently harassed through raids and seizures in the guise of ‘investigations into the case’ by the police has also been reported. In response to the complaints, the NHRC has recently been forced to serve a notice to the chief of Kerala Police.

What has led to the incident? All these communally-motivated efforts by CPI(M) even before the investigations and the judicial process are completed, are calculatedly carried out towards branding PFI’s members and the muslims in general as ‘criminals’, ‘fanatics’ and ‘terrorists’. The same CPI(M) is however nurturing the real criminals in camps in Kannur and other districts with its own armed party cadres, in line with their harmads in Bengal. At the same time, RSS and its various affiliated organs are allowed to freely propagate its politics of communal terror in Kerala. Many organisations including AISA in our campus have jumped the bandwagon of condemning the attack on the teacher, without even trying to analyse its causes and their implications. Joseph was mildly reprimanded with a token suspension, and no action was taken against the college authorities. The utter failure of the administration to ensure punishment to the teacher guilty of stoking communal fire and to inculcate communal and anti-muslim prejudice among the students was responsible for generating a feeling of injustice among the minority community.

This has once again exposed the communal character of CPI(M), the self-proclaimed champions of secularism and the self-appointed crusaders against the sangh giroh. When the muslims can no longer be used as ‘vote banks’, they are quickly branded as ‘fundamentalists and terrorists’. In the context of the upcoming local body elections late this year and the state assembly elections scheduled next year, the CPI(M) is trying to engineer a communal polarization in the state. The Ruling LDF spearheaded by CPI(M) has lost its legitimacy and support among the muslims, dalits, christians and other oppressed communities. Therefore, the votes of the majority hindu community is perceived by the CPI(M) to be its only saviour to retain power in Kerala. Thus they are speaking in the brazen communal language that echoes the politics and rhetoric of the sangh. No wonder ex-BJP state president Raman Pillai who came out of BJP and formed his own party is currently in alliance with CPI(M) in Kerala! In Kerala recently CPM vandalized a Jamat-e-Islami meeting and their profiling of PFI is in the same tune. One has not forgotten how in West Bengal CPM tried to brand the entire anti-land grab struggle in Nandigram as ‘communal and fundamentalist’ because it was being spearheaded by muslim peasants; or how Buddhadeb Bhattacharya termed the Madrasas as ‘dens of ISI agents’. In both Bengal and Kerala it has repeatedly used the insecurity and oppressed condition of the muslims and their organisations to play its parliamentary politics. As a result, both in Kerala and West Bengal Muslim organisations have withdrawn their support from the ‘Left Front’.

This recent tirade and targeting of the muslim community and their organisations by the ruling class follows a by-now familiar pattern of minority witch-hunt and persecution being carried out all over the country, irrespective of the party in power. Justice still awaits those who are responsible for the demolition of Babri Masjid. The main culprits of the Gujarat genocide are still roaming free, and continue to enjoy political power. Though the recent investigations into the Mecca-Masjid, Ajmer Dargah, Malegaon and other bomb blasts expose the involvement of the sangh giroh, muslim youths who had been falsely framed and arrested in these cases are still languishing in jail. SIMI has been banned without an iota of evidence to implicate it as a ‘terrorist’ organisation, and its activists persecuted. Implementing the imperialist ‘war against terror’ in India, the state and the ruling parties have intensified its attack on the muslims, turning them into one of the most persecuted and vulnerable minority communities. Only a resolute struggle of the oppressed sections of the society including the muslims united with the ongoing revolutionary movement in India can defeat the combined assault of communal-fascism and social-fascism, and democratize the present oppressive society.