new democracy, february 2015

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML)

February, 2015February, 2015

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RESULTS OF OBAMA’SVISIT TO INDIA

How Prime Minister Modi and his RSS-BJP Govt. bent over backwardsto please the chief of the most powerful imperialist power, the biggestaggressor against the world people, is now known to everyone. No effortwas spared to showcase personal bonhomie between US President Obamaand Indian Prime Minister only to hide the unequal nature of the relationshipbetween the two countries. It is well known how the weak take pride in theirfriendship with the strong only to cover up their weakness. However, whenthe results of the visit are analyzed it is obvious that the obvious hasprevailed. The Indian Govt. has weakly succumbed to the demands of thepowerful visitor.

The operationalization of US-India civil nuclear agreement has beenmuch talked about and has clearly shown how little Indian rulers care aboutthe law of the land and the right of the parliament to frame them. Modi, likehis predecessor Manmohan Singh, termed this deal as the cornerstone ofthe US-India strategic partnership. But it is obvious that from the beginningthis deal was, for the US, primarily an opportunity to sell its outdated anduntested nuclear reactors to India at exorbitant costs. Indian rulers arebent on serving the interests of US MNCs by proposing to buy their reactors.One would recall a letter written by Manmohan Singh about the proposal tobuy Rs. 10000 crores of such equipment when the deal came up fordiscussion in US Congress and now Modi is acting similarly. This is beingdone at a time when there is growing consensus in the world against powergenerating nuclear plants, with no fresh plants being installed and existingones being phased out. India is stepping in as the buyer for the MNCsselling nuclear power plants. Obviously the imperialist powers and alsoIndian comprador rulers have contempt for safety of people of India. Thisis happening at a time when other sources of power are much cheaper- oilprices have plummeted and costs of solar and wind power have been steadilycoming down.

US and its companies want to do away with provisions of civil nuclearliability law passed by Indian parliament in 2010. Its section 46 providesfor liability of supplier (foreign companies from imperialist countries) to the

operator (public sector Indian company) when the accident is attributableto faulty design or equipment supplied by such supplier. Indian compradorruling class parties limited such liability to a mere 1800 crores (only $ 300million) irrespective of the extent of damage caused by such an accident,irrespective of the culpability of the said supplier in causing such an accident.Compare this with nearly Rs. 1,20,000 crores of damages received by USGovt. from BP for oil spill. But MNCs from imperialist countries are notprepared to even accept such a watered down provision. They wish tototally avoid liability for damages. Modi Govt., acting against the Indianlaw passed with the support of his party, BJP, has proposed to transferthis liability from foreign supplier to Indian tax payer. The Central Govt.has set up an insurance pool with Indian public sector insurance companiescovering Rs. 1500 crore of liability thereby exonerating the supplier fromliability despite a clear legal provision to the contrary. Govt. of India andnational insurance companies will contribute Rs. 750 crores each and fullyGovt. owned General Insurance Company (GIC) has been made theadministrator of the pool. Thus Indian people will be liable for the faultydesign and defective equipment supplied by the companies from imperialistcountries! This manoeuvre only shows how far the comprador govt. is willingto go to please its imperialist masters and what scant regard they have forthe law of the land. It also demonstrates that positions taken by the rulingclass parties in India when they are in opposition do not mean anything forthem and they have little qualm in making an about turn when they are inpower without giving any explanation to the people.

The other point discussed in this connection has been the provisions ofIndia specific Hyde Act and 123 Agreement which envisage intrusiveinspection by US of the equipment supplied by them and the fissile materialprocessed by these reactors. It is being propagated that US has agreed toIAEA inspections only thereby dropping the above provision. However thefact is that India has agreed to provide all the information periodically toUS and it is not the case that IAEA inspections would be enough.

Even while Indian rulers have meekly surrendered before US imperialism,US is not satisfied with the outcome and US companies are suspicious oflegal vulnerability.

This however was not the main aspect of the visit. The main aspectand the main outcome of the visit has been further cementing of strategiccooperation with US imperialism particularly against China. The defense



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cooperation agreement has been extended for another ten years. It isparticularly significant that US-India joint declaration specifically mentionstheir joint efforts for maritime security particularly in South China Sea. Itwas during Modi’s visit to US in September last year that South China Seawas specifically mentioned in the joint communiqué of India and USA. It isthe first time such a reference to a third power has been made in a jointcommuniqué between India and US. The joint communiqué further deploresuse of force or threat of use of force by any country in South China Seawhich is a barely concealed reference to China. It is this furtherstrengthening of cooperation between India and USA particularly againstChina which has been the main aspect of their talks and joint communiquéissued thereafter. While all other agreements have been vague andsuperficial this has been concrete and clear.

US President Obama has been articulating “Pivot to Asia” to check therise of China. He has promised to shift major US forces to Asia for thepurpose. But with contradictions growing in Europe and Middle-East USimperialism has been bogged down and it is not easy to shift forces. Therehas been intensification of armed conflict in Ukraine where anti-Kiev forcesin Eastern Ukraine have gained ground in the recent past leading toincreasing calls in US to provide lethal weapons to the forces of Kiev govt.There is also increasing demand from pro-US govts. in eastern Europe forincrease in US forces in the region. On the other hand, conflict in WestAsia has become particularly acute with Saudi Arabia facing increasingchallenges both in the East and West of the country. Houthis have emergedthe biggest military force in Yemen, dictating the political developmentsthere. They have forced pro-US and pro-Saudi president Hadi to resign andare demanding installation of a Govt. dominated by them in Sa’ana. Saudishave invested a lot of time and money in fighting Houthis in Yemen andthey see it as a vehicle of Iranian influence in the region. On the easternflank, rise of Islamic State poses a grave threat to Saudi monarchyparticularly from a large part of clergy and also people favourably disposedtowards IS. With Saudi monarchy, one of the main pillars of US influencein the oil rich region, under existential threat, US is not in a position tomove forces from the Middle-East. Increasing Iranian influence in Iraq andstrengthening Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria also do not bode well for USinfluence in the region. Armed conflicts have also grown in several countriesin Africa in which US imperialism has vital stakes.

With all these conflicts, Obama Admn. is not in a position to mobilizeits forces to Asia and his “Pivot to Asia” remains only a wish. This explainsthe keenness of US Admn. to showcase Obama’s visit to India as a singularachievement to rope in India in its strategic endeavour to check the rise ofChina. The Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) with US, Japan, Australiaand India, which is ostensibly aimed at providing maritime security to checktransport of nuclear material and equipments but which is essentiallytargeted at China, is being developed further. Indian Govt. has shown itselfto be a willing accomplice in this endeavour. No wonder “highly successfulvisits” to Japan and Australia and visits of the leaders of the govts. ofthese countries preceded one by Obama.

This growing strategic partnership between US and India has seriousrepercussions for India and countries of Asia. Indian rulers are openingfurther the Indian economy for the exploitation and plunder of US companiesin the hope of attracting investments from US and its allies. This will leadto further unemployment and to robbing the country of its natural resources.Moreover, anti-China strategic tie-up will further aggravate tensions in SouthAsia. While disregarding Indian people’s anti-colonial traditions, Modi Govt.invited the chieftain of the biggest imperialist power and biggest aggressoragainst third world countries to be the chief guest at the Republic Dayparade. Now President Xi of China is going to be the chief guest at themilitary parade in Pakistan being resumed there after a hiatus of sevenyears. Russia, after several decades, has started defense cooperationwith Pakistan. This is being clothed as aiding in anti-terrorist fight there,but the message is unmistakable. While Modi Govt. pursues agenda ofclosely aligning India with US and tying India to the chariot wheel of USstrategy, other major powers are also taking appropriate steps to counterthis even while engaging with India. Modi led RSS-BJP Govt. is endangeringthe people of India and making them cannon fodder in the strategic gameof US imperialism.

While Modi has gloated over the Obama visit and is showcasing it beforeDelhi elections, the results of the visit are disastrous for the people ofIndia.



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Greece: Syriza Victoryand Struggle againstAusterity Programme

A “political earthquake” (in the language of BBC) was delivered by theGreek voters on January 25 this year in the landslide victory of Syriza inthe parliamentary elections. Austerity hit workers and common people ofEurope hailed this victory and while economic powers of Europe appearedto be shaken arguing that Greece has no other option but to follow theirdiktats whosoever might win the elections. Syriza (Greek acronym ofCoalition of the Radical Left) won 36.3 % of votes and 149 of the total 300seats in Parliament. Other left parties and anti-austerity parties too didcreditably well reducing ruling conservative party to 76 seats and theirsocialist allies (PASOK) to 13 seats, together less than a third of the total.Since this victory scenes of jubilation were seen not only in Greece butthroughout Europe particularly in South Europe. On January 31 a massiverally was held in Spain’s capital Madrid in which more than 3 lakh peopleattended. The rally was called by Pedemos (literal translation of we can)formed one year earlier to celebrate victory of Syriza in Greece. A wave ofhope and encouragement swept through the people of South Europe groaningunder the yoke of neoliberal policies of “austerity”. Obviously Syriza hadno problem in forming the Govt. but it chose a right wing anti-austerityparty- Greek Independents- as coalition partner.

Syriza Govt. immediately after taking over, announced its intention toreverse privatization drive, to reopen closed govt. departments, raiseminimum wages and annul cuts in pension. These announcementsamounted to reversing the policies which were implemented by successiveGreece Govts. on the diktats of ‘troika’ (European Union, European CentralBank and International Monetary Fund). Leader of Syriza and Prime Ministerof Greece, Tsipras, claimed that his country would not need another bailout.Immediately after the election results and even prior to it, the talk of Grexit(Greece’s exit from Euro) and its impact on Greece and Europe at largewere much talked about.

The context of the present hardships of people of Greece and otherSouth European countries is that explosion of world financial economiccrisis severely damaged economies of many countries of Europe and Japanamong the developed capitalist world. Japan had been facing stagnationeven earlier. Among the European countries, those of Southern part ofEurope, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy were badly affected. Economic crisisdeepened political crisis in these countries. The sovereign debt crisis i.e.crisis of govt.’s debts being serviced, became acute. These countriesparticularly Greece, Portugal and Spain, have been large consumers ofcapital goods from Europe’s biggest economy, Germany and owed largedebts to European investors and banks. Their Govts’ could not meet thepayment commitments on debts. Nor they could print money to try to tideover this crisis at least domestically as they had surrendered their currencyto the common currency “Euro”. Thus arose the need of bailout which wasoffered by European Union dominated by Germany and France, EuropeanCentral Bank and International Monetary Fund. In return for bailout funds,this troika imposed what are called austerity measures. These essentiallyentailed cutting down of Govt. expenditure which meant closing down govt.departments and privatization, terminating govt. programmes particularlysocial welfare programmes, cutting govt. expenditure on pension and socialsecurity measures. The policies imposed by the troika also included cuttingdown workers’ wages so as to make products of Greece more competitivein the international markets. This trimming of Govt. departments andprogrammes could and did lead to shrinkage of the economy of Greeceand consequently lower revenue collections but according to the calculationsof neo-liberal hawks manning the international financial institutions includingthose of Europe, such decline in govt. revenue would be less than thedecline in Govt. expenditure thus enabling the Govt. to pay its debts, atleast in the long term, while cutting down the need for foreign funds forsolvency in the short term.

The essence of these policies, termed as “austerity programme”, is toshift the burden of the economic crisis on to the shoulders of workingpeople. They receive less wages, their pensions are cut and their socialsecurity grossly reduced. However, the impact of these policies are severeeven for youth and students who find scourge of unemployment awaitingthem, who find expenditure on education and skill development reduced,who find their families’ incomes dwindling and therefore able to provideless support to them. The elderly are affected not only due to the cut in



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pensions but also due to closing down of govt. hospitals and trimming ofsocial security measures besides many other impacts on the life of theelderly due to cut in govt. expenditure. The number of homeless has grownas people out of job or drawing less wages or other payments are unable toafford houses. Thus a vast majority of the people are adversely affectedby these policies.

Common people are made to pay for the profligacy of the ruling eliteand big capitalists and bankers who benefitted from the easy loans fromthe big imperialist powers, who benefited from rising prices of residentialproperties, who had been a party to exploitation and plunder of theseeconomies by the big imperialist powers. They constitute the support baseof these policies which have benefited them earlier and because theirinterests are protected in the austerity programme. They also stand to gainfrom the lowering of wages and cut in liabilities to spend on social security.These sections have been creating a scare among the people that refusalto follow these policies will result in exit from Euro, collapse of their currencyand banks, and bring untold sufferings to the people. These sections andthe corporate media controlled by international big money and those ofthese countries, worked for acceptance by the people of this ‘bitter’medicine. They had been preaching that there was no alternative to acceptingthe diktats of troika. In a usual befooling of the people by bourgeois partiesbefore the elections, they would swear to oppose the provisions of bailoutbut work to rigorously implement them once in power. It is the very natureof capitalist parties that capitalists enjoy the feast and workers pay thebills.

What have been the results of implementing these policies? These havenot only worsened the conditions of the people, these have also worsenedthe economic crisis they were supposed to address. Since theimplementation of these policies for nearly five years, economy of Greecehas shrunk by a third. Unemployment for the people between the age of18 to 40 years has reached nearly 55%. Though wages and pensions havebeen cut and govt. departments closed and many privatized, Greece’sdebt has soared to 305.6 billion dollars which is 175% of its GDP. At thestart of this austerity programme, the Greek Govt.’s debt was only 110%of the GDP. In this period $ 240 billion of bailout has been given to Greece.Obviously this amount of bailout landed in the pockets of lenders andinvestors and only increased the debt of the Govt. of Greece.

Big protest programmes were organized against the effects of thepolicies dictated by the troika. Lakhs of people participated in thedemonstrations and a number of strikes took place. Workers of industriesand govt. departments took a leading role in these protest programmes.Students and youth also participated in a big way. A vast majority of peopleof Greece rose against these policies imposed by the troika. The establishedruling parties used to talk against these policies during the campaign, onlyto implement the very policies after the election. People increasingly sawthrough this game. Due to sustained anger of the people, base of establishedruling parties started cracking. In the course of this movement Syriza gainedstrength projecting itself as a consistent opponent of these policies. Itemerged as the second largest party in the parliamentary elections held inGreece in 2012. It got highest vote in the election to European parliamentheld in 2014. Due to inability of ruling coalition to get its candidate electedas President of Greece, parliamentary elections were again held in Greecein January 2015 which resulted in near majority for Syriza. Among otherleft parties, Communist Party of Greece (KKE) got 15 seats and anotherleft party got 17 seats. Victory of Syriza is a rejection of austerity policiesby the people of Greece. Syriza had gained credibility among the people ofGreece for its continuous rejection of austerity programme. People rejectedthe propaganda of the established parties that there is no alternative anddared to look ahead.

The European powers had spread the scare of Syriza victory before theelections in a blatant interference in the domestic affairs of Greece,dissuading the people from voting for Syriza. However, after the electionresults they started saying that Greece would have to honour its pastcommitments whatever the election results thereby undermining Greekpeople’s right to determine the policies of their own country. They startedblackmailing the people of Greece that they would have no recourse toEuropean funds unless their Govt. honoured the past agreements andcontinued with the earlier policies. It is worth pointing out how EuropeanUnion's big players like Germany and France had forced then PASOKPremier to cancel a referendum on the terms of bailout. For capitalistimperialist powers people's right to decide their own economic policies aresubordinate to capital's right to determine economic policies. Capitalistgreed for profits stands directly against democracy even as practised incapitalist countries.



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After several rounds of negotiations between European powers and SyrizaGovt. a compromise has been reached. In this period European powersmade all sorts of threats against Greek people and Syriza Govt. warningthem against entertaining any idea of rolling back "reforms" done earlier. Inthis compromise the Greek Govt. led by Syriza has agreed to someprovisions against which it had taken open position during elections andwhich are contrary to the announcements made by Syriza Govt. immediatelyafter assuming power. They agreed not to reopen the closed departmentsand not to reverse already accomplished privatization. Govt. further renegedon its announcement to increase minimum wages, remaining content withright of collective bargaining. This was a climb down by Syriza in the faceof blackmail and threats by European powers. This agreement has beenwidely resented by the people of Greece and a significant section in Syrizaopposed it. In the CC meeting held after this agreement, just short of halfthe members opposed this agreement. A modification proposal condemningthe agreement between Greek Govt. and EU was narrowly defeated in theCC of Syriza. It showed the extent of opposition to Syriza leadership'sclimbdown before the EU even from within. Protests erupted against thisagreement in many cities of Greece. The Greece Govt. has only gainedupto end of June 2015 when further implementation of bailout package willbe discussed and EU will assess the efficacy of the policies proposed bythe Syriza Govt.

Syriza, as its very name makes clear, is a coalition of several leftorganizations. Though imperialist propaganda machinery terms it "extremeleft" it consists of different strands of left movement of Greece. ThoughSyriza was formed in 2004, it had its roots in the "Space for Dialogue forthe Unity and Common action of the Left" formed in 2001. This too waspreceded by several joint action initiatives between different left partiesbeginning with Eurocommunist Greek Left and Communist Party of Greece(KKE), which did not last long. Syriza was formally made a party (registeredas a single party) in 2012 adding suffix "United Social Front" to its name.The dominant section at the time of formation of Syriza was that ofEurocommunists who had embraced parliamentary democracy and rejecteddictatorship of proletariat. Later many other left organizations of differenthues joined it including revolutionary communists as those in CommunistOrganizatin of Greece (KOE). KOE which was part of the "Space" did notjoin Syriza in 2004 but did join it in 2007. KOE was formed in the course ofstruggle against revisionism inside KKE when the leadership of the latter

embraced Khruschovian modern revisionism. As people of Greece movedinto struggle against policies dictated by the troika and implemented bythe established parties, Syriza gained strength. However, it continued toharp on remaining a part of the Eurozone while not accepting the conditionsof bailout.

These apparently contradictory postures might have helped in appealingto wider sections of people electorally but had to come into conflict onceSyriza assumed power. One of the two had to gain primacy. It had todecide whether it was more committed to remaining in Eurozone or torejecting the conditions of bailout. Rejecting the conditions of bailout andcontinuing to remain in the Eurozone is not totally in the hands of the Govt.of Greece. The EU powers have to agree to extend the loans withoutadhering to the conditions, for Greece to continue in Eurozone. And thedominant EU powers are in no mood to oblige Syriza Govt. as this wouldhave repercussions beyond Greece. The ruling dispensation in other SouthEuropean countries, who have been implementing these policies, are alsoagainst giving up this conditions as these would strengthen struggle againstsuch policies in their own countries. Thus Syriza, and for that matter allother forces fighting against austerity policies, have to stand up to thepossibility of quitting the Euro. Only then they have any chance of successin their endeavours. On the other hand, if Syriza succumbs and does whatits predecessors have been doing, the organizations spearheading anti-austerity struggles and people participating in such struggles will have tointensify it in the new conditions. This coalition will not be able to survivein that condition but it would have served its purpose of bringing the peopleinto struggle and emboldening them to strive for what is termed by thepowers that be as 'unachievable'.

The deep crisis in Greece and several other South European countriescan not be mitigated within the confines of the capitalist system. The peopleand the organizations fighting against the efforts of European powers andthe capitalists of their own countries to shift the burden of the crisis on tothe people will have to break the shackles of the capitalist system itself.Though it may seem somewhat farfetched at this moment, and more sogiven the feverish propaganda by the corporate media controlled byimperialists, it is the real alternative before the people in these countries.The other alternative is quite painful for the people- years of deterioratingconditions, increasing unemployment and rising despondency.



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All-India Coal Strike

WORKERS STRIKE –UNIONS VACILLATE

V.K. Patole

More than 90% of the around 4 lakh regular workers in the public sectorcoal industry i.e. various subsidiaries of Coal India Ltd. (CIL) in Jharkhand,Bengal, Odisha, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and the SingareniColliery Company Ltd.(SCCL) in Andhra Pradesh went on strike from 6th

Jan.2015 in response to the five-day strike call initiated jointly by the 5 centraltrade unions recognized by the govt. in the coal industry (INTUC, BMS, HMS,AITUC, CITU) and supported by IFTU. The recognized union in SCCL whichis linked to the TRS party however did not support the strike and the TelenganaGovt. even resorted to repression with IFTU activists being arrested forpicketing. Similarly in Bengal the Union linked to Trinamul Congress opposedthe strike, affecting the success of the strike initially.

Coal India management officials admitted a 75% loss of production.Continuation of the strike for the full period of 5 days could have seriouslydisrupted power supplies with more than 70% of the country’s electricityproduction being coal-based. However, despite massive support of the workersand continuing success of the strike even on the second day, 7th January, the5 unions called off the strike that night following a meeting with the CoalMinister Shri Piyush Goyal and an “agreement” being reached. CITU did notsign the agreement but called off the strike.

The main demands of the strike were for stopping privatization andparticularly the provisions of the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Ordinance2014 which clears the way for large scale entry of Corporates into the coalmining sector not only for their captive use for power plants, steel plants etc.but also for direct sale of coal in the market which has hitherto been restrictedto the public sector companies. The other demands of the strike includestopping of disinvestment, stopping outsourcing and for regularization of theseand other contract workers, equal wages for equal work and application of the

National Coal Wage agreements to all workers of the coal industry, stoppinginvestment by Coal India abroad, giving budgetary support to public sectorcoal companies for expansion, etc.

These 5 unions had earlier called for a strike on 24th November on thesedemands when the Bill was pending in the Rajya Sabha. The strike call hadbeen withdrawn following vague assurances given in a meeting with Coal Indiamanagement and ministry officials. With the closing of the parliament sessionwithout passage of the Bill, the Modi Govt. got this Ordinance issued promptingthe present strike call.

The “agreement” nowhere records any clear commitment by the Govt.regarding the main demands. It records that the main issues under disputeare i) permission to private companies for commercial mining through theCoal Mines (special Provisions) Bill and Ordinance, ii) further disinvestmentin Coal India and iii) re-organization of Coal India in any form. It further recordsthat the unions demand that provisions which in any way permit privatecompanies in mining operations should be scrapped and all the 204 coal blockscancelled by the Supreme Court be given to Coal India. The actual agreementis a damp squib. A committee of representatives of unions and managementof public sector coal companies and headed by a joint secretary of the ministrywill be formed to look into the demands of the unions and will submit itsrecommendations to the Govt. and in view of the clarifications given by theMinister in the meeting the unions call off the strike. The clarifications recordedare actually a monologue by the Minister justifying the Bill and Ordinance andstating that it will give impetus to the economy, will create jobs and will makethe ‘Make in India’ programme successful, will ensure operation of pendingpower and steel projects, will free Non Performing Assets of Banks, etc.

The Minister further states that after the coming of the Modi Govt. theproduction in Coal India has increased and the Govt. wants to further strengthenCoal India. This last part is being propagated by some unions among workersto show that there is no threat to existing regular workers. This is an attemptto downgrade the struggle from one against the policies of privatization to oneof merely protection of short term interests of existing regular workers. Someunions are repeating the assertion of the Minister that there never was anydirect attack on the existing benefits and rights of these workers nor is thereany such move of the Govt. at present. Anyway, the reiteration by the ModiGovt. of its intention to go ahead with the next round of disinvestment in CoalIndia should put an end to such “wishful thinking”.



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The coal industry was nationalized in the 1970s with take-over of thehundreds of privately owned, haphazardly managed and unscientificallyoperated mines. Huge amounts of public funds were invested and productionreorganized more scientifically, new mines opened and coal output greatlyincreased from the then 70 million tonnes to over 460 million tons in 2013-14by CIL. Privately owned captive coal mines were even then exempted (mainlyTata at that time). The nationalization was very much in keeping with thewishes of the Indian comprador big bourgeois (‘Bombay Plan’) who wantedthe state to build the industries requiring large investments and giving returnsafter a long period. After the advent of the neo-liberal new economic policiesin the 1990s, the situation has changed as is well known and privatization ofpublic sector is in full swing.

Privatization of the coal industry is not beginning now. It has been underwayfrom ‘inside’ in CIL and SCCL since two decades and is continuously increasingin the form of outsourcing to private operators with only supervision by thepublic sector management (a type of contracting out of work). Outsourcinghas been facilitated by the shift from underground mining to open cast surface(pit excavation) mining. There is no big initial investment of time and money(and specialized machinery used in modern underground mining in WestEuropean countries) required in open cast mining. Just blast, dig out a pit andcarry away the coal, leaving behind vast stretches of land barren and pock-marked with craters akin to the lunar landscape. The cost of production isprojected as being much lower but this is fallacious because the environmentalcosts are never calculated and the partial restoration of land required even inthe existing law is never implemented. The workers of the private operators ofcourse get paid only 1/4th to 1/5th of the wages of the regular workers of thepublic sector company as they are excluded from the ambit of the NationalCoal Wage Agreements. Hand in hand with the increase of outsourcing hasbeen the slashing of the regular workforce through normal retirement orVoluntary Retirement Schemes. In the last 15 years the regular workforce ofCIL has almost halved from over 6 lakhs to less than 3.5 lakhs while coalproduction has more then doubled from around 200 million tons to 462 milliontons.

Secondly, privatization in the form of disinvestment of shares has alreadybegun 3 years ago with disinvestment of 10% shares and now another 10%shares are being sold. Thirdly, allocation of coal blocks to private companiesfor captive mining had been going on since 20 years although actual mining

had not been started by most of the allocatees until the cancellation by theSupreme Court. These 218 blocks are estimated to have around 50 billiontons of the total 247 billion tons of geological coal resources of the country.Now, before the re-allocation of these blocks through auction, the Modi govt.has, through the ordinance, permitted commercial mining for open sale.

The justification given for permitting commercial mining is that the publicsector is not able to fulfil the demand and the shortfall has to be made up byspending valuable foreign exchange on imports. This is false. The existinglaw already provided for private companies in the major coal-consumingsectors- power, steel, cement, fertilizer - to have captive mines for their needs.Apart from this there is already a system in place of having long term FuelSupply Agreements with the public sector coal companies which have generallynot defaulted. Import figures are also misleading. Due to limited availability inthe country of coking coal (for steel), import of this has always been there andhas shown a continuing gradual increase from 22 million tons in 2007-08 to 32million tons in 2012-13. However import of non-coking thermal coal (for powerplants, etc.) has rapidly risen from 28 million tons to 105 million tons in thesame period. In this period, due to worldwide economic recession, internationalcoal prices have decreased greatly. At the same time import duty on coal hassteadily been decreased over 20 years from 85% to 5%. Corporates chose toimport rather than mine the already allocated coal blocks or enter into purchaseagreements with the public sector companies. Whether the soon to beauctioned and re-allocated coal blocks will be actually mined in the near futureis a moot question. Simultaneously, CIL is being made to invest in coal minesabroad, in Mozambique, etc. rather than investing in expanding production inthe country.

The entire exercise of privatization, while handing over control of coalresources to the Indian and foreign corporates, is mainly aimed at cutting thecost of coal, the basic and main raw material for thermal power plants. Thisessentially means cutting the wage costs. Consequent to nationalization andunification of a vast mass of workers under a single management, the wagesof regular workers have steadily increased over the years through successiveNational Coal Wage Agreements (NCWA) and are relatively much higher thanthe average wage in the private sector. In the public sector companies wagecosts have already been decreased by cutting down the regular workforceand increasing outsourcing and employment of contract workers at very lowwages. Until 10 years ago the private Tata collieries were also part of the



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NCWA. After the earlier process of allocation of coal blocks to private companiesgot under way, the private coal producers have been taken out of the purviewof the NCWA and are free to decide their wage rates. Now, with permission toprivate companies for commercial mining for sale, there will be further pressureon public sector companies to keep the wage costs lower.

What next? The recognized unions are unlikely to voluntarily take up anysustained struggle against privatization, given that the political parties to whichthey are linked are themselves in favour of the new economic policies. Therevolutionary forces are organizationally very weak in the industry. The regularworkers with their relatively better economic status as yet do not identify withthe outsourcing and contract workers and their vision is limited to the shortterm protection of their existing status. Despite this, the overwhelming responseto the strike call, despite relatively lacklustre propaganda, shows that theycan be brought into struggle. The workers have to be made to understand thebetrayal of the strike by the recognized unions and that with continuingdisinvestment of Coal India and entry of private players their position will notremain untouched in the long term. They should be mobilized to pressurizethe recognized unions to carry forward the struggle against privatization, forapplication of uniform wage structure (NCWA) in the entire coal industry-publicsector and private-, against outsourcing and for the other demands.

A deluge of protests byBidi Workers against

Telangana GovernmentD.V. Krishna

An upsurge of protest by Bidi Workers is fast unfolding in 4 northerndistricts of Telangana (Viz: Nizamabad, Adilabad, Karimnagar and Medak)against the non-implementation of K.C.R.’s election promise of paying aspecial livelihood allowance of Rupees one thousand per month to all bidiworkers presently working and those who had stopped working after theirsuperannuation.

K.C.R and his party, Telangana Rashtra Samiti, had promised to payeach bidi worker in the state an amount of Rs. 1000/- per month as aSpecial Livelihood Allowance, if their party is elected to power. This promisewas widely propagated through half page commercial advertisements inthe daily newspapers. It was also propagated through advertisements inT.V. channels. Further, Telangana Rashtra Samiti’s Trade Union Wing(TRSKV) had published lakhs of pamphlets and distributed amongst theBidi Workers. K.C.R. and other leaders of T.R.S. had reiterated this promisein umpteen election public meetings.

This helped sway seven lakh bidi workers and their family members tovote for T.R.S. candidates. As a result, TRS got all M.P. seats in 4 districtsof Northern Telangana. It won all the Assembly seats in Nizamabad andAdilabad Districts. It won overwhelming majority seats in Karimnagar andMedak Districts also.

Even after coming to power, K.C.R. reiterated several times that he willstick to his promise and implement the livelihood allowance for bidi workers.But when state Budget was introduced in the Assembly, even a mention ofthis promise was avoided in Finance Minister’s budget speech. No allocationof funds was made for this purpose in the Budget. The TelanganaPragatisheel Bidi Workers Union, the largest union of Bidi Workers inTelangana, organized a Dharna of 2000 workers at Indira Park, Hyderabad



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on 18.11.2014, demanding immediate implementation of livelihood allowanceto Bidi Workers.

When opposition members raised this issue in state LegislativeAssembly and Legislative Council, Chief Minister K.C.R. explained thatlists of Bidi workers in the state are being collected and as soon as theyare received, the livelihood allowance will be implemented. Neither anyspecific period from when this will be implemented was spelt out nor wereany funds allocated in the finalized version of the Budget.

Collecting of ‘Bidi Workers lists’ is only a plea. When the TelanganaGovt. could collect the total details of the whole population in one day in asurvey, why should six months be insufficient to know the details of bidiworkers? As a matter of fact, the details of over-whelming majority of BidiWorkers are with P.F. dept. They are readily available. The details of otherscan be collected from managements and verified by village Panchayatsand Municipalities. Only because of bad intention is the Govt. evading andnothing else.

Understanding that this promise will not be implemented unless anduntil a big agitation is built up, lakhs of Bidi Workers, under the leadershipof Telangana Pragatisheel Bidi Workers union affiliated to I.F.T.U., havetaken to streets.

This movement of Bidi Workers started from Kammarpalli Mandal ofNizamabad District. Five thousand Women Bidi Workers took out a rally inKammarpalli streets on 17.11.2014. They held a Dharna before the Tehsiloffice for hours together and gave a memorandum to the Tehsildar, whichwas addressed to the Chief Minister.

Then, this movement of Bidi Workers spread like wild fire from oneMandal to another first in Armoor division and then to other RevenueDivisions of the Nizamabad District. Within a short span of one and halfmonths, more than 75 thousand Bidi Workers marched in to streets in 24mandals of the district. The move is still on. The number of workersparticipating in each Mandal is ranging from 2000 to 8000.

Inspired by the struggle of their co-workers in Nizamabad District, bidiworkers in Adilabad District, took to the streets from 15th Decemberonwards. Four thousand workers stormed the streets of Dilwarpur MandalHeadquarter. Then a rally and Dharna of 5 thousand workers was held in

Sarangapur Mandal, while 4 thousand workers took to the streets inLaxmanchanda Mandal, 3 thousand in Mamda, and 6 thousand workers inKuntala in quick succession. In all, more than 20 thousand Bidi workersparticipated in the struggle.

Then this agitation of bidi workers spread to Medak District. 6 thousandworkers from surrounding villages gathered and held a big rally and Dharnain Dubbak Mandal Headquarters on 29th December.

Then it was the turn of Karimnagar District. Near about 2 to 3 thousandworkers took out rallies and held Dharnas in Korutla and Sircilla. Bidi workersof other Mandals in Karimnagar, Adilabad and Medak are preparing to jumpinto struggle. By now, the rallies and Dharnas have been held in more than45 mandals. The number of participant workers has crossed one lakh.

The news of Bidi Workers’ agitation and their photos were first publishedin District editions of daily papers only. But now they are being printed instate pages and flashed on T.V. channels. K.C.R. and his cabinetcolleagues, their M.L.As and M.Ps, are maintaining a conspiratorial silence.If they underestimate the anger of the Bidi workers and their families, it isonly to their peril.

The Bidi workers’ agitation is unprecedented as to the number ofparticipants and its spread. It is sustained. It is certain that it will furtherintensify and draw all other Bidi Workers into the fold of struggle. It isbetter for the TRS Government to at least now announce from when itspromise to bidi workers will be implemented.

There are good and valid reasons for the serious reaction forthcomingand for the insistence on implementation of KCR’s promise. Firstly, thebidi factories are working only 3 to 4 days per a week and for rest of thedays, they are closed. That means bidi workers are getting work only 3 to4 days a week and earning only about half of their normal wage. Theirearnings are far short of their minimum necessities. TRS party mentionedthis very reason for announcing payment of special livelihood allowance.That is why the bidi workers have been awaiting the implementation of thispromise with high hopes.

Secondly, Bidi workers won minimum wage enhancement to Rs. 130/-for rolling 1000 bidis (a day’s work) in 2010, after conducting a 32 daysstrike. The Kiran Kumar Reddy Government kept this wage hike GO (GOMs



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No.41) in abeyance, under pressure from the managements. This abeyanceis continuing for the last two years, despite the strong demand from theunions to remove the abeyance. Immediately after the coming to power ofKCR Govt. the Telangana Pragatisheel Bidi Workers Union represented tothe Govt. to lift the abeyance and implement the enhanced wage rate ofRs. 130/- per 1000 bidis. While this G.O. provides for 21 paise D.A. rateper point rise in C.P.I. the managements are paying only 10 paise D.A.rate. This G.O. also provides for Rs. 100/- as time rate per day. Thatmeans, workers are entitled for Rs. 100/- per day for days on whichmanagements do not provide work. The workers are also angry with theKCR Govt. for not withdrawing the abeyance even after six months of itscoming to power.

Bidi workers are also demanding measures from the Govt. to ensurethat the managements supply sufficient quantity of tendu leaves per 1000bidis, so that the workers need not pay for the shortage of leaves fromtheir wages.

The women bidi workers are entitled to three months maternity leavewith wages, in pursuance of Maternity Benefit Act. But the KCR Govt.,which promised monetary help to all pregnant women, has not taken anystep to implement even the legislative provisions.

There are several other issues facing the bidi workers. Several of themare not paid the agreed wages also, in the name of ‘Vardhi’ system. Theyare very much prone to T.B., Cancer and other diseases. But they are nottaken care of. Contrary to high expectations of bidi workers K.C.R. Govt.did not care to ameliorate any of the problems of 7 lakh bidi workers in thestate.

All these reasons have pushed the lakhs of women bidi workers intostruggle. The non-implementation of the promise of livelihood allowancehas acted as the last straw on the camel’s back.

The bidi workers in the state are making hectic preparations for largedemonstrations at the District Head Quarters and for a mammoth rally atstate capital, Hyderabad during the coming Budget Session, so as to forcethe Govt. to implement its promise of special livelihood allowance of Rs.1000/- to all bidi workers.

Indian Science Congress 2015:Goebbels Takes Birth in Science

Mrigank

Indian Science Congress started way back in 1914 as an annual event.Later the Congress started having a theme. The Congresses had usuallynot been very significant events and of late it began to be inaugurated byPrime Ministers. But this year it hit headlines and was in discussion evenbefore it started. So much so that scientists in NASA had started a signaturecampaign pleading with the Prime Minister of India to stop the session onday one and control ‘uneducated’ ministers as it was insulting to the landof Bhaskara and Aryabhatta. They said “We as scientific community shouldbe seriously concerned about the infiltration of pseudo-science in sciencecurricula with backing of influential political parties. Giving a scientificplatform for a pseudo-science talk is worse than a systematic attack thathas been carried out by politically powerful pseudo-science propagandistsin the recent past. If we scientists remain passive, we are betraying notonly the science, but also our children.” It was initiated by Dr. Ram PrasadGandhi Raman, a scientist with the NASA’s Ames Research Centre inCalifornia and been signed by more than 200 scientists. Very appropriately,known Astrophysicist J V Narlikar said “But we shouldn’t claim things ofwhich there is no evidence or proof as it reduces the credibility of what ourscientists have achieved in the past. Even the West recognizes theknowledge of mathematics held by Indians. If we start making outlandishclaims, the scientific community of the world will not look up to us as itdoes now.”

The session being talked about was called “Ancient Sciences throughSanskrit “. In this session which was the responsibility of the SanskritDepartment of Mumbai University papers were presented which tried toprove that most of science and technology that exists today already existedin ancient Sanskrit texts. It had papers on “Ancient Indian AviationTechnology” by Captain Bodas (Retired Principal, Pilot Training Centre) &Ameya Jadhav (Lecturer, Swami Vivekanand International School and JuniorCollege), “Advances in surgery in ancient India” by Ashwin Sawant,



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“Scientific Principles of Ancient Indian Architecture and Civil Engineering”by Asawari Bapat (Visiting Faculty, Department of Sanskrit, University ofMumbai) “Scientific Principles of Ancient Indian Architecture and CivilEngineering” by Rahul V Altekar (Consultant) “Science and Spirituality” byBinny Sareen (Spiritual Counselling & PR & Media at Global Hospital).Apart from these there was a lecture by Prakash Javdekar.

The Congress was inaugurated by the Prime Minister. Although thistime he refrained from making the kind of remarks he made whileinaugurating a hospital in Mumbai, his ministers filled the void. Chief GuestPrakash Javdekar remarked that “The scientific community gathered atthe Congress should pay attention to the source material available inSanskrit and use it for betterment of humanity”. And Union Minister forScience and Technology Harshvardhan claimed “Our scientists discoveredthe Pythagoras theorem, but we ... gave credit to the Greeks. We all knowthat we knew ‘beejganit’ much before the Arabs, but very selflessly weallowed it to be called Algebra. This is the base the Indian scientificcommunity has maintained” and “Whether it is related to the solar system,medicine, chemistry or earth science, we have shared all our knowledgevery selflessly”.

Although there were a variety of papers, the paper on aviation technologyhas attracted the most attention, as it contains tall claims with a semblanceof authenticity. It claims that aircrafts were present in ancient India. Notjust that, they were far superior to what we see today. They were muchlarger, could fly backwards and sideways and were even used forinterplanetary movements by Rishis! The authors give many referencesto prove their point. Their claims are mainly based on a work by RishiBhardwaj called “Vaimânika Shâstra”. They went on claiming that thisbook describes metallurgy and called on people to use this to make alloysto make aircrafts rather than importing them. According to them this bookalso describes the diet of aeronauts, making of cells (for power generation)etc. They claim that based on this, an aircraft was built by one ShivkarBapuji Talpade and he was the one who first flew a flying machine overChowpatty in 1895, eight years before Wright brothers did so. They triedto make it look authentic by quoting extensively and citing references, butfor one major reference1 which we shall discuss a little later. This ‘nonciting’ could not have been an oversight. This is probably a furtherdevelopment of Goebbels, that is, not just lies spoken repeatedly but also

presenting things in such a way (with references etc.) that make them lookauthentic.

Let us examine these facts. First, let us examine the word Vimana. TheSanskrit word vi-mâna literally means “measuring out, traversing” or “havingbeen measured out”2. One can see that this word only later came to beused for aircraft. Its reference in ancient texts must have been to what itoriginally means. There are many such words. Say, for example aushadhmeant plants in ancient Sanskrit and only later it became synonymouswith medicine. Therefore, it must be assumed that initial reference to thisword must be to its original meaning rather than to the one attributed to it inthe course of evolution of language.

They also cite a verse in Rigveda and its interpretation by SwamiDayanand Saraswati. Although the existing Rigveda versions do not mentionVimanas, but verses RV 1.164.47-48 have been taken as evidence for theidea of “mechanical birds”:

47. k[cGáC niyânaC háraya% suparGâ / apó vásânâ dívam út patanti

tá âvav[tran sádanâd [tásyâd / íd gh[téna p[thivî vy ùdyate

48. dvâdaœa pradháyaœ cakrám ékaC / trîGi nábhyâni ká u tácciketa

tásmin sâkáC triœatâ ná œaEkávo / ‘rpitâ% cacmír ná calâcalâsa%

“Dark the descent: the birds are golden-coloured; up to the heaven theyfly robed in the waters.

Again descend they from the seat of Order, and all the earth is moistenedwith their fatness.”

“Twelve are the fellies, and the wheel is single; three are the naves.What man hath understood it?

Therein are set together spokes three hundred and sixty, which in nowisecan be loosened.”

Swami Dayanand Saraswati3 interpreted these verses to mean: “Jumpinginto space speedily with a craft using fire and water ... containing twelvestamghas (pillars), one wheel, three machines, 300 pivots, and 60instruments”, although the ‘wheel’ is most likely a metaphorical description



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of the yearly cycle, and ‘12’ and the ‘360’ are most likely its months anddays. Idea is simple. Quoting some vague portion of ancient texts andthen reinterpreting after trying to juxtapose it with what is known today.This way anything can be proved.

The presenters of this 'paper' at the Science Congress also hid the factthat in as far back as 1974, a group of inquisitive and zealous scientistsfrom Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore had taken pains to scientificallystudy the above claimi. These scientists made a detailed study of the textof Vaimânika Shâstra. It was discovered that this text was written by oneSubbarayya Shastry. They took pains to try to locate him. In the processthey succeeded in meeting his adopted son Venkatrama Sastry and GVSharma his close associate. Pandit Subbaraya Shastry was not a scholarand apparently verses just used to occur to him and he used to narratethem to GV who copied them down. This means that he did not have anytext written by Bharadwaj and he was not recounting it. Probably asand when he could formulate one shloka, he narrated it and GV Sharmacopied the same. These were kept in Baroda University Library. In 1951,Josyer held an inauguration of International Academy of Sanskrit Research.He displayed rare manuscripts including Vaimânika Shâstra. This was itsfirst public display.

IISc scientists have analyzed the language of these texts. They foundthat the shlokas are as per “anushtup*“ meter of verses. Their language ismodern. Secondly, in most of the post Vedic texts of Sanskrit, there is nomention of any aircraft. Even Mahabharata or Ramayana have notmentioned any general usage of aircrafts. Only reference is to Pushpakaand it is powered by mantras or such powers. There is absolutely no detaileddescription anywhere. From these studies they concluded that this text iswritten sometime between 1900 and 1922 by Pandit Subbaraya Shastry,and not by Rishi Bharadwaj in 5000BC.

There is no description of basic principles and theory of aircrafts in thisbook. The author straight away describes the aircraft. Although thedescription is detailed, and talks about pilots, air routes, metals and manyyantras, the principles of using them are missing. It tells of planes called“mantrik”, “tantric” and “kritak”. In last categories, four planes are describedviz. Shakuna, Sundara, Rukma and Tripura. These scientists then studiedthe design. There are some drawings and many of them have parts whichonly became known in 18th century. The author tried to describe the principles

of functionality of tail and hinged wings, which are not scientifically correct,nor does the geometry looks feasible for flying. There are inconsistenciesin the dimensions given in the drawings and in the verses. Shakuna is abird aircraft and the author does not have any idea of how things heavierthan air can float. Sundara has gas engines. There is a vague descriptionof electricity generation by a combination of friction, solar rays, heat etc.through the use of ‘jyotirmukha’ and certain other materials includingdonkey’s urine. It sucks air from the bottom and exhausts it from the top.This is just the opposite of what mechanics teaches us. It contradicts thethird law of motion. There are similar unscientific descriptions of fuels andoperation of the planes. And speed is some 8000 miles per hour, whichhas not been achieved by any aircraft so far! Rukma has similar flaws.While the first three were meant to be flown in air, Tripara was meant totraverse in air, water and on ground. There is also a mention of using anti-gravity and mental powers! Again, any details are missing.

All these planes are just concoctions far away from reality. There is noconcept of propulsion mechanism and floating in the air leave aparttraversing at high speed. The author had no idea of aeronautics, dynamicsand had just copied some modern ideas and pictures to make it lookauthentic. Their geometries are horrendous for flying, and the principles ofpropulsion described are such that will just do the opposite. Text has norelation with drawings and probably were drawn later. It was concludedthat the described machines are not practically feasible and cannot fly atall. The description is incomplete, logically inconsistent and has little todo with scientific principles.

Yet the speakers at the Science Congress claimed Talpade flew anaircraft based on these. There is no record of the adventure of Mr. Talpade.They blame British rule for destroying the evidences. This aircraft had anengine supposedly driven by mercury power. There is however only a vaguedescription of making of such engines. How did Mr. Talpade made thisbased on those texts remains an unanswered question. But cleverly thesepeople leave out the fact that in his autobiography, Sastry himselfadmits that these verses may not have practical use and Dr. Talpadetried to make many models under the guidance of Sastry but did notsucceed.4 Goebbels has taken a full incarnation.

Similarly, there was a claim by Harshvardhan that we have generouslygiven Pythagoras theorem to western world. There were papers which



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claimed that complicated surgeries were performed, how autopsies weredone, and that ancient texts even describe making of electric batteries.There was talk of many advancements in mathematics and so on. A paperon ‘Engineering applications of ancient Indian botany’ talked about howherbal paste made of seeds and roots mixed with cow’s urine, when appliedto a person’s feet, could locate underground water sources. Also, cowdung, jaggery, coconut water, egg white and green algae were used asnatural polymers. The Sushruta Samhita was the basis for a paper on“Advances in surgery in ancient India”, which described surgical instrumentsand claimed plastic and reconstruction surgeries were performed more than3500 years ago. “We are asking for due credit to be given to Shushruta tobe known worldwide as the father of surgeons,” said professor Ashok Nene.While it is true that Shushruta has described some surgical procedures,but they were primitive.

All these papers and statements have some basic commonalities. One,they all assume that there were big advancements in science and technologyin ancient India and that all this is described in scriptures as old as 5000BC.

They all presume that any description in ancient texts is correct, evenif it is neither accurate nor complete. Most of the things cited by theseVedic scientists are merely extrapolations of unclear ambiguities to whatwe know today. That is why they could never tell anything in advance.They could only reinterpret when something was known. They claim manytreatments of diseases we know today. But prior to those diseases beingidentified by modern science, they never ever even mentioned them. Sameis true for any invention. If these things were already known, why werethey 'discovered' ('invented' is more apt) in the texts only after modernscience described them? Why did the ancient texts not describe things asthey were rather than making vague narratives? If knowledge is containedin these scriptures then there is no reason not to have already found it?Knowledge and science are not static. They evolve and develop. But inthese instances, we find that instead of developing it vanishes. An Indianscientist from the US who attended the session told Times of India,“Knowledge always grows, its flow never stops. So if all this knowledgewas available in the ancient days, I need to know where it stopped. Whydid it fail to grow? Why was there no advancement? When did it stop?...”

Hindutva followers have declared that Vedas are the source of any and

every knowledge. If this were true, why have they not told us everythingthat we are going to know? Why not just read the Vedas and churn outeverything from these books? Is there any description of evolution in Vedas?What about dinosaurs, prebiotic and later evolution, beginning of universe,role of DNA and proteins …… The list can fill volumes.

Hindutva elements quite ignore the fact that many things are fantasies.In fact in this regard, all are fantasies, some of the ancient people and therest of these ‘modern’ people. Man had been fantasizing about many thingsall over the world and still does. This does not mean that all the fantasiesare real. Fantasies have limits. It has to have a basis in current knowledge.That is why initial texts only mention flying chariots (along with horses)and it was only later that they were made to imply flying machines. Thereare such concepts all over the world. That is why Mahabharata fantasizesabout many devastating weapons, but all as some modifications of existingand then conceivable bows, arrows, clubs and the like. There is absolutelyno reason to refer to a nuclear missile as an arrow.

There is development of language. Sanskrit too has developed. TheSanskrit of Rig Veda is very ancient and meanings of many words used init have changed later and many words are still a matter of interpretation.This fact is grossly misused by the presenters. Many Sanskrit and Vedicscholars have criticized the new claims saying that they are deliberatemisinterpretations. Over a thousand scientists under the banner ofBreakthrough Science Society have signed an online petititon addressedto the President of Indian Science Congress saying "Stop the attempts todilute the integrity of the scientific process in Science meets".

Secondly, any similarity is purposefully and sort of forcibly extrapolatedand interpreted. Say for example, knowledgeable Home Minister, Raj NathSingh, claimed that uncertainty principle was there in Vedas as it describessome uncertainty somewhere. This he says proves that our great rishiswere versed with Quantum Mechanics. He either forgets the fact or isignorant that Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle is valid only for canonicalvariables and so far only two such pairs have been found. It is not ageneral statement on measuring things with certainty. Maharishi Kannadahad an idea of Atom but not beyond this. And that idea too was not veryaccurate and exhaustive. He mentioned that all things are made up ofsmall particles called Anu but did not have any idea about its structure orthat there are different atoms and elements. How five basic elements



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described in Vedas fit in this too was not very clear. Yet these Hindutvaelements jumped to the conclusion that atma and sthool sharIr is exactlythe same as matter- energy dualism, obviously without even understandingthe meaning of it. The much acclaimed so called Vedic Mathematics isnothing but a collection of tricks and mnemonics.

We have found remains of ancient civilizations. There are materialevidences of the world prior to advent of modern man. But no one hasfound remains of these great inventions and discoveries. Where did theyvanish? Why was this knowledge not perpetuated? These remainunanswered questions.

There were advances in mathematical science and astronomy in India.We had Aryabhatta, Bhaskara, Sridhara, Madhava etc. They made manyadvancements and observations. They had a fair idea of mathematics ofvariation (calculus), quadratic equations, trigonometry, many aspects ofalgebra, number theory etc. It is a fact that while writing history of sciencemany of these were ignored by western history writers. But that does notmean we can invent history in overreaction. In this regard too, there aremany points to be seen. One, these were not as ancient as Vedas. Second,while there were many observations, there was not much theoreticalbacking. Say for instance, J V Narlikar said ‘Vedang Jyotish’ had a mentionof theorem similar to that of Pythagoras but there was no supportingevidence on how it was developed. That is, the proof was missing, onlyobservation was found. He further comments “… Similarly saying that‘Brahmastra’ mentioned in Mahabharata was a nuclear device or mentionof Pushpak Viman in Ramayana was proof of aviation in ancient timeswas baseless." “Indian scientists did know of ‘atom’ or ‘anu’ then but notbeyond it. A nuclear weapon at that time is out of question. Knowledge ofnuclear science requires prior knowledge of electromagnetism and there isno evidence that it existed …”. The point is certain (but only certain)observations and formulations were there, but they were not well developedand scientifically deduced. Thirdly, this knowledge was not used for anyapplied or theoretical advancement and remained in ‘closed chest’.

Linking this with national pride is another dangerous thing Hindutvaelements are indulging in. There are attempts to show that believing inthese claims is directly related to nationalism. They try to make us believethat hyping the glory of past to prove one’s greatness is an expression ofpride. This on one hand can be an overreaction against Indians not being

given credit where they deserved, but on the other hand it is an expressionof inferiority complex. That is one is lagging behind (for historical reasons),so to cover up and prove that we alone can be great, get into such pseudo-patriotism. This government has cut funds in higher education (IITs worsthit), and has no policy to develop indigenous science and technologydevelopment, so has to promote such measures to mask its actual face.National pride would be if we actually develop something new, if we ponderwhy after CV Raman we have few great scientists who have worked inIndia known for their noticeable research, why our trained scientists haveto seek greener pastures abroad, why we failed to judge likes of Har GobindKhurana and give them respectable placement in India, why our labs havebecome outpost of foreign labs and our scientists underpaid post-doctoralfellows for them, why are we struggling to find quick and reasonablediagnostic tools, preventive measures and treatment for diseases likeMalaria, tuberculosis, typhoid, etc., why we have to import the pettiesttechnology from abroad, and even if there is an alternate and good researchin India, why we fail to encourage the same.

(Endnotes)

1Mukunda, H.S.; Deshpande, S.M., Nagendra, H.R., Prabhu, A. andGovindraju, S.P. (1974). “A critical study of the work “VyamanikaShastra””. Scientific Opinion: 5–12.

2Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, version 0.1a_12

3Dayananda Saraswati, “Rig veda Bhashya Bhumika”, VydikaYantralaya, Ajmer, 1929

4G. Venkatachala Sharma, The Autobiography (in English of PanditSubbaraya Shastry), published by M. C. Krishnaswamy Iyengar, and C.Venkatachala Sharma



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Oppose BJP led Govt’s sanction for field trial of GM Seeds

GM Seeds - A plan to promotefurther MNC control over seed

marketAshish Mital

In July last year the Genetic Engineering Assessment Committee(GEAC) of the Ministry of Environment, GOI, gave permission for fieldtrials of GM seeds of 15 crops. These are rice, wheat, sugarcane, brinjal,cotton, soyabean, mustard, chicken pea, corn, groundnut, potato, mustard,arandi, gram and jawar. It justified its decision saying that there is noscientific evidence of any harmful effect of GM seeds on human and animalhealth, environment and land.

BJP had opposed the grant of such permission earlier and its electionmanifesto had taken a position opposed to GM foods. However Modi ledGovt. has shamelessly backtracked and Environment Minister, PrakashJavedkar, an RSS ranker, has granted permission for these trials. RSSorganizations Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Bhartiye Kisan Sangh hadspearheaded a campaign against GM seeds, but have now chosen to keepquiet.

This sanction has caused resentment in the scientific community,patriots and farmers’ leaders, especially those sections which had beencampaigning against it. Their objections earlier had resulted in cancellationof field trials of Mustard and Brinjal. A petition pending in the SupremeCourt, against field trials being granted in the absence of regulatorymechanisms had led to recommendation of a moratorium on the field trialstill such mechanisms are in place by the Technical Committee set up bythe court. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture too hadcalled for a ban on field trials citing lack of regulatory norms and monitoringmechanisms amongst other reasons.

What are GM Seeds?

But before going into the details and basis of the objections being raised,

let us first understand what GM seeds are, its ‘positives’ and ‘negatives’.Farmers world over have used Cross Breeding / Selective Breedingtechniques for long to grow better crops and animal species with desiredcharacteristics. Higher yield has been the main target and with this theHYV (High Yielding Variety) seeds came into prominence. Cross breedingwas possible only within closely related life forms. Subsequent to thisscientists developed the ability to cause bigger genetic transformation byadding genomes/ genes from across species to the DNA of the recipientspecies’ seeds through genetic engineering. This transplanting of geneticmaterial could be done even across animal and plant kingdoms, e.g. fishgenes in tomatoes, human genes in tobacco, bacterial genes in corn, soya,cotton, virus genes in fruits. Seeds so developed came to be known asgenetically modified or GM seeds.

Motive for Modifying Genes (Claimed beneficial effects)Genetic engineering was done for creating resistance to pathogens,

resistance to adverse environmental conditions, developing insecticidalability (poison), tolerating the chemical herbicides, for developing betternutrient profiles, developing ability to conserve soil and water, fresherappearance and longer shelf life and increased output. GM technology isbeing pushed through by the companies for various reasons, but itswidespread use is sought to be justified as the answer for feeding theentire world.

Monopoly of Seed CompaniesGM seeds began and gained acceptability in 1994 with a variety of

tomato with delayed ripening. US leads in the production of GM seeds andfour major biotech seed companies—Monsanto, DuPont/Pioneer Hi-Bred,Syngenta, and Dow AgroSciences own 80% of the US corn market and70% of the soyabean business. Monsanto is now the world’s largest seedcompany. Cotton, fruits and vegetables are the other major areas of GMoperations. With their increasing monopolization of seed market they havepushed out conventional, non-GM seeds and reduced farmers' seed choices.Genetic pollution through cross pollination of non GM seeds is also a factorin rendering them unusable as seeds. Factors that have led to industrydomination by a few players include purchase of smaller seed companiesby larger companies, weak anti-trust laws & enforcement and Courtdecisions that allowed GM crops and other plant materials to be patented.



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This monopoly market control with higher costs involved has contributedto tragedies in several countries including India. Incidentally, GM New Leafpotato seed developed on a big scale in 1990s had to be withdrawn after itssale refused to pick up due to prohibitive costs.

Solving the Food Crisis or Aggravating it ?This is probably the biggest claimed untruth about GM seeds. Firstly,

hunger is basically a class question. Even currently it is not caused by aglobal shortage of food. Millions suffer from hunger and malnutrition todaybecause they neither have money to buy it nor the land to grow it. There isabundant food surplus in the world. In fact for want of being made availableto the poor it is being diverted to animal feeds, for alcohol and bio-fuelproduction and is also being destroyed on a huge scale apart from largeamounts of grain rotting in ware houses. In fact GM seeds are actuallyaccentuating the food crises. GM seed programme is entirely a MNCprogramme, of a few companies, based mainly in US. Monsanto is thebiggest player. Their claim of increased yield is not necessarilysubstantiated by experience. In the case of Bt Cotton the output has beenthe same as the traditional seed in several studies. This is also theexperience with several other GM foods. Secondly major area of currentoperation of GM seeds is commercial crops. Any increase in acreage ofnon basic foods will hurt food security. Thirdly its seeds are extremelycostly and it is financially unviable for the farmers, most so for the smallerfarmers. Also these seeds cannot be used again and have to be purchasedevery year. Fourthly there is no govt plan in India at least, to subsidizethese seeds or to rein in the monopoly practice of high pricing by the seedcompanies. In fact the current NEP has restructured the agricultural economyto promote sale of MNC seeds. It has allowed MNCs to sell their seeds atwill without checks on prices and quality. It has created easy bank creditfacilities for farmers to ensure the purchase of these seeds. This hasindebted farmers on a very large scale, their land getting mortgaged andthey continue to commit suicides. Alienation of farmers from land isincreasing. Their independence in buying seeds and in continuing to dofarming is getting further compromised.

In addition the govts have promoted deals between private seed agentsand farmers who pledge their crop at pre determined prices and throughfuture trading, terms of which favour the trader and not the farmer Thenegative terms of MNCs seed trade are pitched worst against the smaller

farmers and share croppers who are most in need of food security. Thesecompanies invariably develop monopoly positions determining not only theprices but also what seed is made available at the time of sowing, furtherincreasing the dependence of farmers on them.

These are major reasons why peasant indebtedness and suicides haveincreased in India. The aim of MNC genetically engineered crops is to helpyield of large scale farming and to increase profits of food processingcompanies. In the long run GM crops undermine food security of the poorby increasing costs and by changing cropping pattern in vast areas ofagricultural operations from traditional food crops which formed the mainstayof consumption of the poor earlier. They also reduce food security in thelong run by decreasing biodiversity and increasing the use of ecologicallydamaging chemicals. All in all, GM seeds under present dispensation arenot only against the food security of the have-nots, by enforcing use of GMseeds they threaten to bring larger sections of the peasantry into the ambitof food insecurity.

Other Aspects of Opposition to GM:The main opposition to GM seeds has been around food security concerns

and economic factors. But their impact on health, environment, seed marketmonopolization especially with intellectual property rights are also of concern.Some other aspects are:

1. Unpredictable expression of the inserted Gene in Nature: Oncethe GM seed is introduced it is certain that this modified genetic materialwill find its way into other species in nature and the characteristicsdetermined by it will find expression. These expressions in a new organismcannot be accurately predicted. Nor can one be sure what impact thesegenes may have on other characteristics of recipient species. Splicing aforeign gene into an organism for a single desired effect may unintentionallycause unanticipated harmful effects within that organism. Someunexpected expressions have been seen when a gene for human growthhormone was introduced into mice, it produced very large mice, while inpigs it produced skinny, cross-eyed, arthritic animals. Another example isof genes for red color placed into petunia flowers that not only changed thecolor of the petals but also decreased its fertility and altered the growth ofthe roots and leaves. Similarly Salmon, genetically engineered with a growthhormone, not only grew too big too fast but also turned green.



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2. Health risks due to unpredictable gene expressions : Severalsuch health issues have been indicated even with the limited exposure toGM so far. These are toxic effects, allergies, even fatal allergic reactions.New England Journal of Medicine has reported that individuals allergic toBrazil nuts suffered the same allergic reaction when they consumedgenetically engineered soyabeans containing Brazil nut genes. Such‘pollution’ of genetic material will make it impossible for people to avoidfoods they are allergic to. This also highlights importance of labeling suchfoods for its genetic sources to alert the consumer about possible sourceof allergens. Genetic engineering can also alter/ reduce the nutritional qualityof certain foods while enhancing their freshness. This is important in fruitsand vegetables. Genetically engineered soyabeans contained 12 -14 %less phystoestrogens than the unmodified ones. Phystoestrogens areassociated with protection against heart disease, osteoporosis (bone loss)and breast cancer.

3. GM seeds can transfer their engineered traits to weeds creatingmore aggressive weeds or “super weeds” which may disrupt ecologicalbalances. Crops engineered to have the Bt gene which produces insecticidalproperties also kills beneficial insects like the honey bees, butterflies, etc.It may also have harmful impact on the birds that eat contaminated insects.Herbicide tolerance is one of the traits that is being engineered into cropsso that they are not affected by the herbicide spray. Such crops withstandlarger and more frequent applications of chemical herbicides. Many of theseherbicidal chemicals are known to cause birth defects or cancer in laboratoryanimals and are toxic to fish. Studies have linked herbicide ingredientGlyphosate to Non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Use of herbicide-tolerant cropswill not only increase dependence of farmers on chemicals, it will increaseuse of such chemicals, increasing their ill effects and it will also preventuse and development of other methods of de-weeding.

4. There are also some ethical issues involved, like with use of animalresources in production of particular foods, wherein vegetarians or peoplewith religious beliefs may have objections. This problem is furtheraccentuated with lack of proper and adequate labeling. One commonexample is commercially sold cheese which is a food bio technology productusing for its production an enzyme rennet extracted from the cow’s stomachlining.

The Question regarding Safety Testing, Labeling and Govt

SanctionIn the US at least 35 varieties of genetically engineered crops are

registered with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the EnvironmentalProtection Agency (EPA) and/or the United States Department of Agriculture(USDA). In most cases, the FDA does not require premarket safety testing,or even notification that a genetically engineered food has been introducedin the market. Industry essentially decides by itself whether and when toconsult the FDA. The U.S. government also does not require that geneticallyengineered foods be labelled unless they determine that it is no longer“substantially equivalent” to the unmodified version. The “substantialequivalence” principle is vague and misleading and is dependent on thegovt agency. Strictly speaking the law should require mandatory testingand mandatory labelling of GM foods.

In India the opposition to GM has been based on all the above factors -that the foreign gene once introduced cannot be reversed; that there aredoubts about increase in productivity; that MNC monopoly on the seed willcreate food security problems; GM is unsuitable and unviable for India asmost farmers have small land holdings and will not be able to afford thecostly seeds, especially while supply of other farm inputs is also notguaranteed; that high costs have led to farmers’ suicides; scientific risksdiscussed above; that the GEAC has relied on data of MNCs to approvethe trials; that there is no independent authority in India to assess fieldtrials; that there should be a corridor of at least 20% refuge area around thetrial area; that safety, security and trial norms should be laid down; andthat labelling and public awareness program on GM is very poor and peopleare likely to be misled.

India’s Seed Market and partially passed Seed LawIn India’s specific context it will be worthwhile to have an overview of

the Indian seed market and the Seed bill 2011.

Traditionally Indian farmers have been used to home grown and locallybartered seeds. However the seed market has developed over the years.In 2003-04 the private sector produced 62.8 lakh quintals of seeds perannum while the public sector produced 69.5 lakh quintals. 7 years laterthese figures were 109 and 171 lakh quintals. However the market value ofprivate sector seeds is much higher because their focus has been on hybridsand vegetables. The public sector too has developed hybrid seeds of cotton,



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maize, rice etc. However ¾ of the total hybrid seeds sold in the market arefrom private sector. In self pollinated crops like rice and wheat thedevelopment of hybrid seeds is quite costly. Here also most hybrids areproduced by private sector. With proper care these self pollinated hybridseeds can be made to last for 3 – 4 generations. Farmers generally preferto buy from the market.

At a minimum replacement ratio of 25% good quality seeds every year,Indian markets have large requirement of 36.4 lakh quintals of seeds ofcereals, 7.8 lakh quintals of pulses and 12.7 lakh quintals of fibre crops.However if the replacement ratio is increased to 33% the gap increases to112.4 lq for cereals, 17.7 lq for fibre crops. This requirement increases to587.9 lq for cereals, 102.6 lq for oil seed, 56.9 lq for jute and 1.4 lq forcotton if all seeds are to be replaced every year.

The Seed bill has been revised thrice in 2004, 2008 & 2010 and is nowpending in the Rajya Sabha for approval. With a huge market to be tappedit must be stressed that the proposed bill does not define what is a qualityseed and does not ensure price regulation. Although the bill does providefor penalty for selling spurious seeds, misinformation, misbranding etc,with the kind of law enforcement structure and seed agents attempting toearn a windfall, there are serious doubts about the enforcement of theseaspects. Also the bill is not in harmony with the Act for protection for PlantVarieties, the PPVFRA, 2001, which provides for compulsory licensing.

DiscussionMonsanto claims that GM crops have been tested by regulatory agencies

in 59 countries and have affirmed the food safety of GM crop of theproducts. All these results are based on negative conclusions, i.e. nopositive evidence of any health hazard. Interestingly several of these studieshave found the GM foods to be nutritionally equivalent to their non GMcounterparts. The argument raised by Monsanto is that as long as theintroduced gene protein is determined safe and the GM and non-GM cropsare alike in all respects, the GM crop is said to be substantially equivalent,or “equal to,” their conventional counterparts and are not expected to poseany health risks. These experts see no need and do not recommend long-term evaluation in humans, on the ecology and on the environment. USFDA does not mandate the labelling of ingredients. Monsanto argues thatonly if there is a meaningful difference in the safety, composition or nutritionof the crop from which the ingredients were derived, the FDA could require

additional information be added to the label. This is not the case for GMingredients. Recently the American Medical Association also re-affirmedthat there is no scientific justification for special labeling of foods thatcontain GM ingredients.

UPA 1 and 2 and now the NDA have used similar logic and based theiranalysis only on the data provided to them by the GM seed companies. Inany case they have none of their own, nor have they made any plan toconduct any study. They are pushing field trials of GM seeds in the nameof improving yields and food security, advanced scientific technology beingin public interest and improving farmer’s livelihood and the agricultural GDP.

The question arises that when there are so many questions about thescientific validity of results, about impact on ecology, environment, humanand animal health, why should the trials be pushed by a responsible govt.just in the name of technology? It is absolutely logical for companies andtheir agents to push for these technologies, because they stand to earn.Why should govts’ do so? For food security? Well we are already producingenough grain to feed the entire population, in fact about 25% more than theminimum requirement of the entire population. To guarantee food securitywe should first push for redistribution of land. Also with the presenttechnology our food grain and vegetable, fruit productivity is about half toone-third of major producers. With proper land distribution to landless andpoor farmers, timely irrigation management, supply of inputs and profitableand proper sale of produce easily this production can be increased 2 to 4times at least. So why are we going in for pushing MNC requirement of GMseeds rather than looking for these basics?

Providing food security by the safer and traditional technology will notonly prevent any possible disaster by these GM seeds, it will help Indianfarmers to grow and earn, it will prevent them from falling prey to MNCsponsored indebtedness, it will also permit development of more traditionaltechnologies to safeguard our crops from pests and diseases.

References:1. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS, The Council for ResponsibleGenetics Summer 2000, http://www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org

2. Monsanto | Commonly Asked Questions about the Food Safety of GMOs.

3. Editorial Economic & Political Weekly, July 26, 2014 vol XLIX 8 No 30

4. The Seeds Bill 2011, Some Reflections - Economic & Political Weekly,

http://www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org/



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Dec 17, 2011 vol XLVI No 51 EPW

Land AcquisitionOrdinance is anti farmer

Bhalachandra

In contrast to its promise of bringing “Good Days” for the people, theModi Govt has once again declared a war against the common people ofthe country, the farmers. The recently promulgated Land AcquisitionOrdinance by the Central Govt. is not only against political morality andparliamentary propriety but to also a sinister attack on the rights of thepeasants including tribals and also on the national interests. By bringingthis ordinance Modi Govt. has only tried to carry out the most importantpart of the agenda of the foreign and Indian corporate that were instrumentalin bringing his Govt. to power.

The Ordinance which is meant to amend the Land Acquisition Act, doesnot merely expand the list of projects that would be exempted fromrequirements of consent and Social Impact Assessment but also quietlymakes other provisions in the law less stringent. Apart from diluting thedefinition of ‘public purpose’ and ‘private company’ it also dilutes therequirement that unused acquired land be returned to the original owners,makes it tougher to prosecute defaulting civil servants, reduces the scopeof the retrospective clause and expands the definition of permissibleinfrastructure.

The present law, ‘The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency inLand Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act’ was enacted bythe UPA Govt in 2013. Barring TMC all political parties including BJP hadunanimously supported it in the parliament. But it was not enacted due tothe mercy of any political party or Govt. Rather the countrywide peasants’uprising against forcible displacement and attack on their land and meansof livelihood has forced the rulers to do that. It is well known that during thelast one decade or little more, militant people’s movement against this'development' induced displacement erupted in different parts of the country.Kalinganagar, Dhinkia (Anti-Posco), Niyamgiri, Singur, Nandigram, Raigarh,

Kakrapally, Dadri, Karchana, Bhatta Parsaul, Gangavaram and severalothers have become symbols of resistance against forcible land acquisitionand ‘No to displacement’ became the popular slogan of all anti displacementmovements. Taking lessons from the bitter experiences of displaced peopleof different projects, everywhere people had challenged both the centraland various state govts’ handing over their land to foreign and Indiancorporate. They gave supreme sacrifice by giving their lives but refused togive their land and resources. These struggles forced the rulers to bringchanges in the British made colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894 onto theagenda and the new law was enacted replacing the old one. Though UPAGovt. did not accede to the demand of no forcible displacement, it wasforced to make certain changes to address some of the defects of theearlier law.

The new Act was framed after consulting all the stake holders in theconflict over a period of seven years. The suggestions of ParliamentaryStanding committees of 2007 and 2009 headed by two senior BJP leaderslike Kalyan Singh and Sumitra Mahajan were taken into account. Butunfortunately Modi led BJP Govt., in its effort to appease the corporate,has made a U turn and has annulled whatever pro-people provisions arethere in the 2013 act by bringing this anti people ordinance. It is the heightof political immorality that the same BJP which was part of consensusamong ruling class parties for enactment has, after coming to power, goneback on its earlier stance thereby defrauding the people. Since coming topower, Modi Govt. has been on a spree of diluting the environmentalprovisions in sanctioning projects. And now it has launched a frontal attackon the people by snatching away their hard earned rights. Promulgation ofthis Ordinance as soon as the Parliament session concluded proves thatthe Govt. has no respect for even parliament in its moves to serve theinterests of both foreign and Indian corporate. Even the 2013 Act has notgot a fair chance of implementation so far. Most of the states still have notframed Rules necessary for its implementation. So how has it been foundto be impractical without even a trial?

The first change is the substitution of the word ‘private entity’ to ‘privatecompany’ in the Ordinance, which means that while earlier acquisitions forprivate purposes were limited to private companies registered under theCompanies Act, it can now be extended to any private entity. While theterm ‘private company’ carries some responsibility and these are registeredunder the Companies Act, ‘private entity’ has multiple meanings. Even



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religious institutions, NGO establishments and many others can come underthis private entity which may have no responsibility to the public or theGovt. Similarly the Ordinance has excluded private hospitals, privateeducational institutions from ‘private purpose’ and categorized them in publicpurpose. The Section 2 (I) (b) (i) of the 2013 Act reads as under: “Allactivities or items listed in the notification of the Government of India inthe department of economic affairs (Infrastructure Section) number 13/6/2009 INF, dated the 27th March, 2012, excluding private hospitals, privateeducational institutions and private hotels:” But in the Ordinance it is saidthat words like “Private hospitals, private educational institutions and” shallbe omitted. This means that the land under public purposes can be acquiredby the Government for private hospitals and private educational institutionsbeing set up for profiteering. This means land acquisition for privatecorporate hospitals and private educational institutions like the proposedVedanta University at Puri (10,000 acres) henceforth will not require consentfrom the affected people.

Crucially, the original law gave the government the power to take anyaction necessary to implement the law for two years after its passage,which has been extended to five years by the Ordinance, thus increasingthe period available with the government to remove difficulties inimplementing the Act.

The second change relates to the determination of opinion of affectedpeople. The Section 2 (2) (b) (i) provided that for land acquisition for privatecompanies, the prior consent of at least 80 per cent of those affectedfamilies would be necessary. For public-private partnership projects, underSection 2 (2) (b) (ii), the prior consent of at least 70 per cent of thoseaffected families shall be sought through a prescribed process. In theOrdinance, these provisions have been exempted.

The third change relates to the determination of social impact and publicpurpose. Chapter II of the Act makes it mandatory that for land acquisitionfor public purpose that the government “Shall consult the local Panchayator Municipal Corporation as the case may be and carry out Social ImpactAssessment Study in consultation with them”. The notification forconsultation and social impact assessment shall be made available in locallanguage to the Panchayat, Municipality or Municipal Corporation. But onthe contrary, the Ordinance states that these provisions will not apply forfive broad categories of projects. Thus the Ordinance does away with the

Social Impact Assessment and right of consent of the people to be displacedwhich were central to the 2013 Act. The Government’s amendment wouldmean that now social impact assessment, food security assessment andconsent of 80% (in case of private companies) and 70% (in case of PPPprojects) of land owners will not be required before acquiring land for projectslike defence, industrial corridors, rural infrastructure, affordable housingand any infrastructure including social infrastructure in PPP mode. Whilethe exemption of industrial corridor projects will bring large scale devastationto the famers, the exemption of housing projects will bring menace of realestate along with it. This will only increase the conflict in the rural hinterlandof our country because large scale forcible land acquisition for industrialcorridors will be a norm. How big will be the resulting displacement anddevastation can be imagined through the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridorproject where alone 3.9 lakh hectares of agricultural land is going be acquired.It is a known fact that Industrial Corridors, big infrastructure projects, realestate and dams cause the maximum displacement and environmentaldamage and the 2013 Act was primarily enacted to address situations arisingout of that.

The dilution of the need for consent and for conducting of the SocialImpact Assessment for all the projects is completely uncalled for and willonly make matters worse. These two provisions are central to addressingthe issue of ‘forced land acquisition’ and ‘resulting impoverishment’ of therural communities. In the 2013 Act, the SIA has provided legal safeguardsfor Gram Sabha representation; to ensure ‘public purpose’, to estimateaffected families, land & properties, costs and alternative measures; toensure ‘absolutely bare minimum’ acquisition; that there is no otheralternative available land; social impact and livelihood loss, etc. But throughthe Ordinance, in one stroke all these safeguards were thrown out. Eventhe Environment Impact Assessment will effectively go as it is to be donein parallel with the SIA. Effectively this is a reversion to the Colonial 1894law which gave little right to the evicted.

The fourth change relates to special provision to safeguard food securityof the country. Chapter III of the Act Section 10 (I) states that “no irrigatedmulti-cropped land shall be acquired under this Act”. The amendment inthe Act through Ordinance states that the Government may, in publicinterest, by notification exempt the acquisition of irrigated multi-croppedland for various public purposes or for industrial corridors and infrastructuredevelopment including under public private partnership. In the backdrop of



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the rising population and declining food production in our country there hasbeen a continuous demand from different quarters against acquiring farmland for industries and other projects. In the last four decades the country’sagricultural land has reduced drastically by 18.5%. While the per capitafarm land was 2.63 hectare in 1960-61 it has reduced to just 0.8 hectaresby 2008. Although the 2013 act has not completely prohibited the acquisitionof farmland but it has kept some restrictions regarding the acquisition ofmulti crop land. But this Ordinance has done away with the provision againstacquiring irrigated multi-crop land thereby further endangering the foodsecurity of the country along with the livelihood of our peasants.

It has also reduced the number of beneficiaries to be compensated inany project by restricting it to land owners only. Since, other than the landowners, the livelihood of many sections of the rural people like agriculturallabourers and share croppers depends on land and they all get affectedonce that land is acquired for any project so keeping the plight of thesesections of people the 2013 Act has a provision to include these people inthe affected list along with the land owners in the process of SIA. But theOrdinance has excluded these people from getting any compensation fortheir possible loss of livelihood.

The fifth change relates to return of unutilised land. The Act under Section101 provided that, “When any land acquired under this Act remains unutilisedfor a period of five years from the date of taking over the possession, thesame shall be returned to the original owner or owners or their legal heirs”.But in the Ordinance, it has been substituted by “a period specified forsetting up of any project or for five years, whichever is later”. The ordinancerelaxes the period of time after which a piece of unutilised acquired landmust be returned to its original owner by amending Section 101.

In another change that would narrow down the scope of the retrospectiveclause and thus reduce the number of beneficiaries, the Ordinance saysthe clause will not apply in case the delay is caused due to any stay orinjunction by court. The original Act says the retrospective clause will applyin cases where the land was acquired five years or more before thecommencement of the new Act but no compensation has been paid orpossession has not been taken, even if the acquisition got stuck due tolitigation. The ordinance, however, amends Section 24 (2) in a way thattime spent under litigation will not be included in calculating the five-yearperiod if a stay order had been passed leading to the acquisition being held

up.

The Ordinance also changes the definition of ‘compensation paid’ froman amount deposited in the court — as defined by the Supreme Court — toany amount paid into any account maintained for the purpose.

The sixth change relates to the liability of the government officialscommitting offence under this Act. In the Act, Section 87, it was providedthat (i) “Wherever an offence under this Act has been committed by anydepartment of the Government, the head of the department shall be deemedguilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punishedaccordingly”. Section 87(ii) states that “Where any offence under this Acthas been committed by a Department of the Government and it is provedthat the offence has been committed with the consent or connivance of, oris attributable to any neglect on the part of any officer, other than the headof the department, such officer shall also be deemed to be guilty of thatoffence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punishedaccordingly”. This has been substituted by “Where an offence under thisAct has been committed by any person who is or was employed in theCentral Government or the state Government, as the case may be, at thetime of commission of such alleged offence, no court shall take cognisanceof such an offence except with the previous sanction of the appropriateGovernment”. Thus the Ordinance protects the officials who commit offencein land acquisition in connivance with the corporate house and rulingpoliticians also can be protected by not giving prior sanction by theGovernment to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

In another change that would narrow down the scope of the retrospectiveclause and thus reduce the number of beneficiaries, the Ordinance saysthe clause will not apply in case the delay is caused due to any stay orinjunction by the Court. The original Act says the retrospective clause willapply in cases where the land was acquired five years or more before thecommencement of the new Act but no compensation has been paid orpossession has not been taken, even if the acquisition got stuck due tolitigation. The Ordinance, however, amends Section 24 (2) in a way thattime spent under litigation will not be included in calculating the five-yearperiod if a stay order had been passed leading to the acquisition being heldup.

The Ordinance also changes the definition of ‘compensation paid’ froman amount deposited in the court — as defined by the Supreme Court — to



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any amount paid into any account maintained for the purpose.

Like the previous UPA Govts, the Modi led BJP Govt. too has usedstale cover ups like ‘raising confidence of investors’, ‘industrial growth’,‘job provision’, ‘compensation of 4 times the rate’ to push through thisdraconian Ordinance. But all previous acquisitions prove that more jobs ofthe rural poor are lost than created through this so called highly mechanizedand capital intensive industrialization. While farmers are cheated, the realgainers are the companies who get vast land at a throwaway price alongwith mineral resources like coal, iron ore, bauxite etc at a cheaper rate inthe name of industrialization.

If at all land is really needed for development of any manufacturingindustry ample barren land and land of closed industries is available in thecountry. The latest CAG Report on the SEZs of our country found thatmore than half of the total land acquired for SEZs remains unused. Inmany places it is seen that the actual quantity of land acquired for a projectwas many times the initial requirements, reflecting land grabbing by bigbusiness enterprises. But the Govt’s aim is not only to provide hugeagricultural land to the corporate but to snatch the land of tribals andfarmers, displace and ruin them to force them into cheap labour and helpthe profit growth of MNCs. These are also the announcements Mr. Modihas made in US and Australia to attract foreign capital. For this he isready to further destroy the agrarian economy, turn peasants destitute and‘develop’ India into a food crisis ridden state.

The main aim of the Ordinance is to give total access of the hugemineral resources and agricultural land of the country to the corporatesharks and building mafias to get them windfall profit. Big corporate houses,foreign investors and middlemen will be the main beneficiaries of thisordinance. They only will prosper, while the peasants and landless workerswill lose even their habitat and livelihood. Thus for all practical purposes,we are back to the draconian 1894 Act which peoples movements hadfought to change. Modi Govt.’s so called motto of “Make in India” is acamouflage while the real motto is “Sell off India”. Industrial corridors beingplanned by Modi Govt. and some state govts. are in the interest of foreignand Indian corporate, for exploitation of natural resources of India, for theconstruction Mafia and not for industrial development of the country. ThisOrdinance can only bring ‘good days’ for them at the cost of crores ofpeasants and common people of this country.

Sixth Conference of POW(Telengana) Successfully Held

The sixth Conference of Progressive Organization of Women (POW)was held in Khammam, Telengana (It was the first conference of POWTelengana) on 4th and 5th January 2015. This was preceded by a rally andmass meeting by POW on 3rd January.

More than 10,000 women mostly holding red flags of POW, marchedthrough Khammam town in a blaze of red from S.R. & B.G.N.R. Collegegrounds to Pavilion grounds in a two and a half kilometre trek on 3rd

afternoon. Preceded by Arunodaya activists who sang and danced folkdances (similar to dandiya) through the streets, they attracted the town’spopulation to come out of offices and homes to watch the procession. Therally was headed by flag and banner bearing executive committee membersof POW Telengana along with guests from sister organizations of AP,Punjab and Delhi along with other guests.

The mass meeting at Pavilion grounds was packed with scintillatingand colourful performances by Arunodaya teams of the various districts.



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Com Jhansi (President POW Telengana) conducted the proceedings. ChiefGuest Shanta Sinha (erstwhile chairperson of National Child's RightsCommittee, currently with Central University Hyderabad and also a foundermember of POW) was the first speaker. She emphasized on the need toinvolve men in the defence of women’s rights, and placed the need formore schools equipped with basic services to cater to education needs.The next speaker was Com. Aparna from IFTU who outlined the challengesbefore the women’s movement at the current juncture and highlighted thatfight against patriarchy involves solidarity with the revolutionary movementwhich will upturn the structures which sustain patriarchy. She then releaseda book of songs “ O Mahila Kadilira” complied and published by POWTelengana. Com. Aruna (General Secretary, POW Telengana) spoke aboutthe issues for which women in Telengana have been fighting, also raisingthe need for wage parity with men. Com. Rama (President, POW, AndhraPradesh) and Com. Laxmi (General Secretary, POW, Andhra Pradesh)spoke on the issues and challenges before the women’s movement. Com.P. Ranga Rao (State Committee member and Khammam Dist. Secretaryof CPI(ML)-New Democracy) spoke of the expectations of the peopleincluding women in the newly formed state of Telengana and the need forbuilding struggles. Com. R. Chandrashekhar (Telengana State Committeemember of CPI(ML)-New Democracy) addressed the nearly 15,000 strongmeeting which continued upto 10 PM.

Next morning formal Conference proceedings got off to a start atSusenna-Chinta Laxmi Nagar at Kalakshetram. The delegates to theconference were elected from nine districts of Telengana and representeda membership of 50,000. The POW flag was hoisted by Com. Jhansi topowerful songs remembering the martyrs and slogan shouting by the 500delegates.

At the inaugural session first the Chairperson of the ReceptionCommittee, Ms. Vijeyeta welcomed the delegates and the guests. Followingthis the Conference was inaugurated by the Chief Guest, Rama Malkote,erstwhile Professor at Osmania University . She pointed out that whileproduction processes fissured with globalization, this was also a periodwhen in India movements tended to be fissured into identity movements.Raising several questions, she said that united movements of variousidentity movements were necessary. After this, the Telegu translation ofthe message from Nandita Haksar, who was to have been a Guest at the

Conference but could not attend due to severe sudden illness, was readout. In her message dealing with different types of oppressions faced bywomen she observed, “We have to bring class struggle to the centre stageof political life. I myself have been involved in fights on behalf of Nagapeople and Kashmiris but I feel increasingly the ethnic, the religious andthe nationality divisions should not allow us to undermine the idea of classsolidarity or the solidarity of the poor”

Representatives of sister organizations- Com. Poonam (Gen. Sec. PMSDelhi), Com Amandeep (Gen. Sec. Stree Jagriti Manch –Punjab), Coms.Rama and Lakshmi (President and Gen. Sec. of POW Andhra Pradesh)gave solidarity messages from their organizations. Com. P Ranga Rao(Member State Committee of CPI(ML) New Democracy)also addressedthe meeting as also Com. KR (AIKMS) and representatives of PDSU,PYLand IFTU. A cartoon exhibition was also on display which was inauguratedby Com. Sandhya.

In the next session, Com. Vimla addressed the delegates on the effectson women of the new economic policies while Com. Devi (cultural activist)spoke about the cultural changes and how they are affecting women. Com.Jhansi then presented the Constitution of Telengana POW which wasapproved and passed by the Conference. Com. Aruna presented the Gen.Sec.’s report which was discussed and passed with several suggestionsof the delegates.

The Conference passed a 23 member executive and elected 21 membersleaving two posts for co-option.Com. Jhansi was elected as President,Com. Aruna as Gen. Sec., Coms. Godavari (Nizamabad), Jyoti (Adilabad)and Jyoti (Karimnagar) as Vice Presidents and Coms. Kalpana (Khammam),Padma (Karimnagar) and Jaya (Mehboobnagar) as Joint Secretaries.

The Conference gave a Call For Struggle for immediate formation ofWomen’s Commission in Telengana and for Ban on Surrogacy. It declared23rd January as a Protest Day on these issues. The Conference passedresolutions demanding regularization of women contract workers inTelengana, for Bidi workers (maximally women) to be paid Rs.1000/ permonth as per electoral promise of TRS leaders, against move to ban featurefilm PK, demanding equal opportunities in education and health for women,and reservation for women in Parliament and Assemblies.



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WORLD BANK DICTATED ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTOR GROWTH IN 21ST CENTURY

HOW ARE POOR IN INDIABENEFITED?

Dr. N. Bhattacharya

Vast majority of the people of this country sacrificed everything in thestruggle for independence and the largest section of our population arewaiting patiently through last 7 decades since 1947 to get their bareminimum needs as human beings- ‘roti, kapra aur makan’(food, clothingand shelter). Indian Constitution recognizes that some specific groups ofIndian population, viz. Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Otherbackward Classes would enjoy some specific privileges till they are at parwith the rest of Indian population both economically and socially. Indiancontinent was divided by Britishers on artificial Hindu-Muslim (religion)criteria and during last 7 decades after partition Indian politicians arecontinuously engaged in widening this artificial divide and escalating socialdisharmony. Creation of Bangladesh in 1971 based on language provedbefore the world that the British ‘theory of religion’ to divide their colonywas wrong. In 2015 a selected group of Indian politicians are still busy inParliament and outside in the streets of India to create social tensions outof religious fanaticism and communal barbarism.

An elected Govt. of India in 2015 is not taking any effective steps tostop massive spread of this ‘dangerous virus of hatred’ among Indians —‘Majority vs Minority’, ‘Hindu vs Muslim’ and so on in length and breadth ofthis country. Indian Parliament after May election in 2014 was not allowedto function by these street fighters of various groups of religious fanatics,law and order authorities allowed them to carry on communal polarisationignoring accepted norms of Indian Constitution. Without taking legal andconstitutional steps against these anti-social forces to stop acceleratingtensions in length and breadth of the country, Central Govt. is takingadvantage of such social tensions and busy enacting laws not throughdebate and discussion in Parliament but by pressurizing President of India

in the most dictatorial manner to issue orders called ‘Ordinances.’ Justbefore announcement of the date of some state election e.g, Centre isbusy promulgating an Ordinance by Transport Ministry to carry on ‘votebank’ politics! This is the ugly face of ‘Largest Democracy’ of the world in2015! Modi Govt. issued 8 ordinances in 225 days in office. One fails tounderstand if a country has to be ruled by Ordinances and not by debatesin Parliament, why so much time and national wealth of this poor countryis wasted every day to fill the seats in Parliament and State Legislatures?There are people still alive who suffered in jail or otherwise and promisednot to bring again those horrible days of Indian Democracy which prevailedduring 1975-77 — Indira Gandhi and her Emergency Raj!

II

In nineties Mr. Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister of P.V.NarasimhaRao Govt. supported by many of his close academic friends like Prof.Jagadish Bhagavati, Prof. Arvind Pangariya and others, implemented WorldBank dictated imperialist economic agenda for ‘underdeveloped economies’now termed ‘emerging economies’. In 1991 these measures were called,in short, LPG or Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation. India wasthrown into the lap of exploitative international capital. Result is beforeus—GDP grew for a limited period at much higher rate than earlier Hindurate of growth. We have today larger number of Billionaires and Millionaires—but no one bothered to count growing unemployment and ever wideninggap between rich and poor. When inflation rate was well above double digitIndia’s GDP growth rate came down to 5 to 6 percent. Poverty line wasfixed at around Rs 30 per day or some paltry amount but same PlanningCommission of Mr. Manmohan Singh as Chairman never hesitated to spendsome Rs 35 lakhs to repair 2 toilets in its office! India’s position in ‘HumanDevelopment Index’ deteriorated further in 2014. India’s position in 2014was 135 (index 0.586) out of 187 countries of the world. In recent electionsin this poor country the international capitalist groups lavishly spent billionsof US Dollars to install their representatives both in Indian Parliament andin various states legislatures. Indian politicians representing the interestsof the MNCs are busy framing economic policies to exploit the huge cheapbut technically high quality human resources of this country and hugereserve of natural resources under the pretext of ‘development’, ‘growth’etc. etc.

How can India help MNCs? Our new Prime Minister after taking over



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office in May 2014 visited all the developed countries and saw how most ofthem are in utter distress. Growth, development etc. are now used in schooltext books! Mr. Modi visited Japan and it went into recession within a shortperiod after he left Japan. In European Union only Germany is solvent andrest members are in utter distress. Greece may leave European Unionbecause people are fed up with inhuman austerity measures. Spain, Portugaland Italy are yet to recover. As per purchasing power parity GDP of Chinais higher than that of USA. However, Chinese economy is declining due tofailure of its ‘export led growth policy’. The only developed country whichrecovered from deep recession since 2008-09, growth rate of USA isincreasing at a comfortable percentage per annum and rate of unemploymentcame down to 5.6 percent from around 10 percent. Russia is also in badshape due to continuous fall in oil price and various economic sanctionsimposed by NATO countries. However, in this ‘oil price fall’ drama, bothChina and Russia are trading oil in Chinese currency and not in US $!

What will India do in this most ‘uncertain economic environment’? Wheninternational oil price was above $100 per barrel, our current account deficitwas abnormally high and US$ was priced around 53-55 INR, but now oilprice is around $50 per barrel and may go below $ 50 per barrel but exchangeprice of US$ is around 62 or 63 INR. India is spending more and more US$ to import gold without any obligation to increase export of gold jewellry!So our politicians following World Bank’s dictated policies of ‘free tradeand complete privatization’ have to explain to the people of this countrywhat benefit accrued to vast section of Indian population during last 25years of following world bank dictated devastating economic policies blindly!

III

Land Acquisition Law of 1894, 2013 And Ordinance of 2014

(a)Tribals1894 Land Acquisition Act was replaced by a new Act in 2013. 2011

Census shows that out of 640 districts of the country 40 percent or 257districts are habitats of Tribals of India. 90 percent of our coal reserve,more than 50 percent of our minerals and most prospective dam sites arein Tribal districts of India. Forest Right Act 2006 gave some specific Rightsto Adivasis, but MNCs like Posco, Vedanta and others are allowed to setup their plants in these adivasi villages by politicians totally ignoring the

Rights of Life and Livelihood of our Adivasi population. Adivasi land cannotbe owned by non adivasis; let the Govt. publish ownership pattern of landin the adivasi areas of this country. No Govt. is willing to do it becausethat will create disaster among our professional politicians and theircorporate financiers. Thus public postures that country’s economicdevelopment is not possible without ‘throwing away’ adivasis from theirancestral habitations is completely wrong. Adivasis of India have sacrificedeverything, they have lost their identity as adivasi during last 7 decades ofdevelopment. One rough estimate says that out of 60 million peopledisplaced due to implementation of various ‘national projects’ during last60 years 40 percent were adivasis and 20 percent were dalits. Forest RightAct 2006 and Land Acquisition Act of 2013 conferred some rights to theseeconomically and socially backward communities, but greedy MNCs areno longer willing to wait, they are interested only in their Balance Sheets!It hardly matters to them whether some lakhs are displaced and permanentlymade destitutes, it is the obligation of the State to protect the interest andwellbeing of its citizen. However, Vedanta’s venture in Nyamgiri Hills ofOrissa was discussed in Europe, where they are registered and manyinstitutional investors sold their holdings in Vedanta and left the organizationfor its anti tribal stand. In 2015, one can approach the rest of the world forprotection of ‘human right and dignity’. Gone are the days of East IndiaCompany!

(b) Indian Agriculture

It is wrong to say that Indian Rural Population accounting for 72.18percent of total population in 2011 Census is engaged in full timeAgricultural occupations. 15 percent of GDP is generated by agriculture(2012-13, July to June). The recent Report of NSSO for 2012-13 statesthat:

1) 57.8 percent of Rural Households or 9.02 crores RHH out of total15.61 crores RHH are in agriculture, meaning atleast one member of eachfamily is engaged in farming as main source of income. Out of these 9.02crores RHH only 68.3 percent of these HH reported ‘farming’ as main sourceof income. Thus a mere 39.5 percent of RH were dependent onagriculture in 2012 July to 2013 June.

2) Net receipts from cultivation and rearing of animals accountedfor just 59.8 percent of average monthly income of agricultural HH.



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Thus remaining 40 percent of income depends on uncertain sources.

This scenario of Indian Agriculture clearly states that Indian RuralHouseholds are in the midst of utter distress and this is reflected fromincreasing ‘starvation death’ and high rate of indebtedness in the ruralsector. One still remembers the promises given during independencestruggle that land would be given to tillers of soil, and now it is only inhistory books! Land belonging to adivasis were appropriated by outsiders‘for development’ and those displaced adivasi families are now homelessand destitute. In the same manner small and marginal cultivators are stillthrown out of their land and migrating to various parts of the country insearch of livelihood and many of them die sleeping on the pavements incold winter nights of Delhi, Capital of India.

Delhi’s LG spent crores in costly advertisement asking people to donatewarm clothing, blankets etc. items for Delhi citizens who recently electedso many members of Parliament but unfortunately many of these honourablevoters are forced to sleep in the open in cold winter nights. This clearlyindicates failure of Indian society to take care of country’s increasing numberof homeless due to destructive economic policies followed during last 7decades and it is still proposed to carry these forward for the well being ofsome selected economically well do families of this country. It is high timesuch anti people and destructive economic policies should be scrapped.

Indian Labour

A. Unorganised rural labour and wage rate.

As reported the All India average rural daily wage across 23 agriculturaland non agricultural occupations worked out to Rs 266.3 in November 2014,representing a 3.8 percent increase over the same month previous year.This growth was the lowest in nearly a decade. Three states Gujarat, M.Pand Assam, had lower than all India average daily wage rate but their growthrate varied between 13 percent to 19 percent due to low base rate. On theother hand growth rates in wages was negative in Orissa, W. Bengal andKarataka. Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan had higherwage rates than national average of Rs. 266.3. During better days in 2003-04 to 2011-12 Gujarat and Maharastra attracted labour from outside, causinghigher wage rates in states from where they came and reducing the wagerates where they landed. Now, in economic slowdown, wage rate fell

drastically in states of Eastern India. This is shown in TABLE 1

TABLE 1

AGRICULTURAL WAGE RATE

States Wage Rates in Rs(a) %age Change(b)

Gujarat 218.6 19.2

M.P. 174.1 15.6

Assam 255.8 13.4

Tamil Nadu 408.8 9.8

Haryana 378.3 9.3

Uttar Pradesh 237.1 9.0

Rajasthan 324.1 8.3

A.P 242.6 5.7

Maharastra 243.8 3.8

Punjab 346.7 3.0

H.P 366.6 2.3

Bihar 229.1 1.2

Kerala 670.2 1.1

Orissa 213.9 - 0.3

W. Bengal 250.4 - 2.0

Karnataka 250.1 - 2.2

All India 266.3 3.8

(a) Average daily wage (Indian Express, January 8, 2015) Rates inNovember 2014

(b) Percentage over Nov. 2013

B. Organised labourThere is widespread and deep rooted campaign by organised trade and



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industry that Indian labour is indisciplined and costly. In the new environment,labour laws will be thrown in waste paper basket and MNCs have demandedtotal ban on Indian Trade Unions. In USA a diplomat of a foreign countrywas dragged to court because that person was not following the labourlaws of USA. The person claimed diplomatic immunity but USA courtdeclined to accept that plea. People of W. Bengal did not allow Tatas toencroach double crop land at Singur in W. Bengal for their small car project,but their Nano project got special VIP treatment in Gujarat. In the samemanner though Congress rulers made life of workers of Maruti- Suzuki inGurgaon complete hell but Gujarat Govt. welcomed this particular anti workerMNC. There is some controversy in press about sanction of loan by a PSUbank to a particular corporate well known to be very close to a former ChiefMinister.

Financial Institutions are bleeding due to unprecedented loot of theseorganisations by big business houses supported by mainstream politicalparties. Trade Unions have failed to discharge their social responsibilitiesby not disclosing these well known manipulators and anti social elementswho were lent huge amount but they never paid back. What is theresponsibility of concerned Ministers for this piling up of Non PerformingAssets. Why are they not held responsible for such horrible state of affairs

in financial institutions.

However, Indian coal mine workers expressed their solidarity and wenton five days' strike from 06.01.2015 and their main agenda was ‘anti-privatization’ specifically mentioned in the Promulgated Ordinance on CoalMining. However, after Govt. promised that Coal India would not bedenationalized, miners’ trade unions withdrew the strike on 8th January.This is a challenge by common people of this country to anti people policiesof NDA Govt. One must understand that Coal Mines were nationalized onlywhen private sector openly refused to provide security to miners working indangerous conditions. In the same manner contract workers employed bytrade and industry should be brought under specific labour legislation andtheir exploitation should stop forthwith. Indian labour, both organized andunorganized, should be given full protection as per law of the country andILO Conventions.

In the last General election people voted to power the present Govt. aspromised during election by Prime Minister to give people friendly‘governance’ and gainful jobs to millions of unemployed. During last seven

and half months life of ordinary people has deteriorated and job market ispermanently closed. People in rural India are thrown out of fields, alternativeviable jobs are not created. Small, medium and big industries have unutilizedcapacities, there is no demand for goods and services either from internalmarket or from outside the country. Export market is virtually in recession.Only alternative is to inject purchasing power among the people of thiscountry, create more viable jobs and build up India by Indians (not byMNCs) and for Indians. In the short term FDI, FII may not travel to Indiabecause US economy is recovering and money will flow to USA and not torisky emerging countries. People of India expect from their Govt. gainfulemployment and goods and services at competitive prices and not at doubledigit inflation rate. Govt. has utterly failed to give proper direction, onesection of party in power is engaged in creating social disharmony and theother section is engaged in following discarded economic agenda ofyesteryears.

Tribal Convention held atParvatipuram successfully

On 30th January 2015, nearly fifteen hundred tribals from variousdistricts of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha border congregated in a rally andConvention at Parvatipuram to assert their rights over land, forest andnatural resources. Under the banner of All India Kishan Mazdoor Sabha(AIKMS) and Lok Sangram Manch (LSM) the rally was started from theoutskirts of the town and culminated at the convention hall, covering themain road of Parvatipuram enroute. Led by leaders of both the organizations,people marched raising slogans like ‘Give right over land’, ‘Repeal the antitribal Land Acquisition Ordinance’, ‘Stop diluting Forest Rights Act tofacilitate corporate loot of forest and its resources’, ‘Stop forcibledisplacement of tribals in the name of Polavaram and bauxite mining’,‘Resist the corporate driven attack on tribals’ rights by the Modi Govt’ etc.

The Convention began at 12 noon at the Rotary Hall where a Presidiumconsisting of Com. D. Suresh and Com. Kushnath Pradhan conducted theprogramme. After Com. Y. Sambasiva Rao, CCM of CPI(ML) New



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Democracy inaugurated the programme, one minute silence in the memoryof martyrs of different tribal and peasant struggles was observed. In hisinaugural speech Com. YSR said that revolutionary struggles of Naxalbariand Srikakulam had forced the Govt. to address the issues of tribals. ForestRights Act 2006 recognized some of the rights of tribals and other forestdwellers, but the same has not been implemented in different states andland is being given to corporate. He called for intensification of struggle oftribals for their rights.

Addressing as the chief speaker, eminent intellectual and editor ofintellectual Odia magazine Samadrusti, Sudhir Pattanaik said that thedevelopment model carried out by the ruling class has no use for tribals ofour country. He urged the tribals to carry on continuous struggle to restoretheir rights over land, forest and other resources.

Another guest, expert on Fifth Schedule, B. K. Manish, said that ourconstitution has denied the tribal people their rights to exercise their right

over land, forest and resources. Tribal people have been betrayed by ourruling elite all these years. Modi Govt’s offensive against tribals is thecontinuation of corporate driven policies of all previous Govts.

Com. Gummadi Narsaih, Ex MLA of CPI(ML)ND in his speech describedthe pathetic situation of the tribals during the tenures of different Govt ofdifferent ruling class parties. He urged the tribal people of all the states towage struggles for land and forest and resist the onslaught of both Centraland State Govts.

Com. Bhalachandra, CEC member of AIKMS, said that though tribalsconsist of 8% of our population they are the worst sufferers of thisdevelopment model. While the ruling classes were unable to provide rightsover land and forest in the last six decades they are now trying to snatchwhatever rights were given to the tribal people in the name of development.While Modi Govt is serving the interest of corporate by waging war againstthe rights of tribal people and trying to hand over the resources rich tribalareas to them, RSS and its organizations are creating a communal divideamong the common masses by raising Hindutva agenda.

CEC member of AIKMS and President of Telengana state unit, Com.K. Rangaiah, in his speech said that since 1947 tribal people have beenthe worst victims of development carried out by the country’s ruling class.The proposed Polavaram dam of both Central and state Govts. will bedisastrous for lakhs of tribals by displacing them from their land, forestand livelihood.

CEC member and A.P. State secretary of AIKMS, Com. P. Durga Prasad,in his address urged the tribal people to wage militant struggle to protecttheir rights over land and forest.

POW AP state president Com. P. Laxmi and AIKMS leader Com. T.Prakash also addressed the Convention.

Cultural activists of Arunodaya led by Comrade Rama Rao performeddances and sang revolutionary songs in the course of the programme.

In the end 13 resolutions opposing Land Acquisition Ordinance, proposedamendments in the Forest Right Act, proposed Polavaram dam and bauxitemining etc were passed.Samdrushti Editor Sudhir Patnaik addressing the Convention; Seated (from

left) G. Narsaiah, Y.S. Rao, Kusunath Pradhan, D. Suresh & Bhalachandra



NEW DEMOCRACYAAP's Victory in Delhi Assembly Elections

Reinvention of 'HumanFace' of Reforms

Aparna

Aam Admi Party (AAP) won the Delhi Assembly polls in a resoundingvictory taking 67 of the 70 seats, with 54.1% of the vote in an electionwhere 67% of those enrolled voted. This victory is directly the result of amassive turning away from Modi Govt. in an election where the Congresswas already a non entity. Around nine months earlier a majority in LokSabha was handed to Modi on the corporate sponsored slogan of‘development’. That mandate to Modi was possible due to the wholesalecollapse of the Congress as their voters turned their backs on a Govt.perceived to be synonymous with their problems. In the subsequent fewmonths, people realized that ‘development’ did not mean an end to theirproblems and the perception of anti-poor, anti-farmer, pro-corporate gotrapidly stuck to Modi from around the end of 2014. Thus it is clear thatessentially people of India are giving electoral mandates to the bestpackaged alternatives but are actually now restless and impatient in theirsearch for an alternative. While they are rapidly disillusioned with the rulingclass parties, they, under the concrete conditions of class struggle, arestill largely looking for an alternative within the system.

The BJP had taken 33% of the vote in the 2013 Assembly polls inDelhi, over 46% of the votes in Delhi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and havecrashed to 32.3% of the votes in the 2015 Assembly polls. This representsessentially a whole sale shift of sections of middle class voters. TheCongress went from 24% of the vote in 2013 Assembly polls to 15% in theLok Sabha polls to 9.7% in 2015 Assembly polls. Its votes among poor,jhuggi jhopri dwellers and Muslims all shifted to AAP. The fact is AAP gotthe votes of the poor and sections of middle classes, particularly lowermiddle class of Delhi cutting across caste and religious divides, so seriousis the quest of the masses for solution to their terrible problems. With thepromise of subsidized electricity bills and 20,000 litres free water tohouseholds (subsidized to an extent by payment of total bills at a higher

rate by those who cross this limit), the limited history of doing the same in2013 for two months (jal Board raised the rates of water in the same period),and with a total of 70 promises for different sections, people of Delhi wentout to give it a chance.

That AAP would win was not so clear till few weeks before the polls. Infact the BJP had its best chance of getting a majority in Delhi Assemblyhad elections been held immediately after the Lok Sabha polls, as Modi’sslate had only promises on it then. The dithering then was primarily becauseit found that AAP had improved its vote percentage in Delhi in Lok Sabhapolls though it had not won any seat in Delhi. Thus this chance went bywhile BJP waited for other state elections to impact Delhi and may be forsignificant section of AAP MLAs to change sides and join the BJP. As thelatest controversy in AAP confirms, AAP was busy trying to persuade theCongress MLAs to prop up its Govt. once again. Polls were expected to beheld in Delhi in mid February to meet February end deadline. They werepulled forward by a BJP Govt. hopeful of encashing on the Obama visit towoo votes from the middle class.

But the BJP had lost the script by then. An internal meeting of India’scorporate held on 6th December 2014 concluded that the BJP Govt. wasnot delivering. This led to a spew of Ordinances on LARR, on privatizationof coal blocks, on mining etc. The people any way had found that the‘development’ slogan wasn’t decreasing their problems and now an anti-poor, anti-farmer image of Modi was added on. The ‘Modi suit’ was theproverbial last straw; it was exposed by the corporate media which wasearlier so tolerant of Modi’s sartorial quirks- Corporate had decided to shakeup its product. The Obama visit also had foreign dogs and foreign policesetting up the hackles of the people; Obama’s final admonishment was tothe point- not ‘friend” Modi or Hindu Rashtra but one which delivered toimperialism.

By the time the polls were announced, the writing on the wall was clearto many including the RSS. Every state election had been projected as aModi referendum, and that was now in danger of outright rejection. KiranBedi was brought in to cover Modi; towards the end however, Modi re-emerged in a desperate but futile attempt to tilt the balance.

AAP’s victory is being ascribed to many things- they won because theycommunicated with the people, they won because they started the

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NEW DEMOCRACYcampaigning first, their ‘positive’ campaign drew the people. All the aspectsare among the ‘also’ there. The real fact is that the poor and lower middleclass voted for it because they felt it would give them succor.

What really is Different about AAP?Post globalization, the axe of cutting down Govt. expenditure on welfare

measures is falling hard on common people world wide, more so with worldfinancial economic crisis. In India, during the first phase of new economicpolicies (first generation reforms) there was talk of ‘reforms with a humanface' i.e. the need to buffer the extreme poor from debilitating effects ofthese policies. The WTO agreement, in essence, had envisaged that thesesections should be discarded from the ambit of the ‘globalized’ world andbe provided services by NGOs. However, electoral needs led to governmentsbeing forced to offer them sops. MGNREGA was also in part such a buffer,which was supposed to also help to take the real solution of land to thetiller off the agenda. Ruling classes have been clear of who their enemiesactually are, especially with the starting of second generation reforms inwhich mineral resources and land were to be handed over to corporate. Notonly do corporate need land for real estate and for resource exploitationbut land as land is a safe financial investment for the future.

Along with the second generation reforms in India also came theworldwide economic crisis. As rulers everywhere pushed increased burdenson the people while buffering the elite, people everywhere protested. Workersin Europe marched in massive numbers against pension cuts and cuts inother welfare measures. The 'jasmine revolutions' of Middle East broke outagainst austerity measures and corrupt dictatorial comprador regimes andwas soon dyed in blood. ‘Occupy Wall Street’ hit America. In India too,movement erupted against corruption as people perceived politiciansfattening themselves on the loot while the people grappled with rising prices.At the same time especially the world economic crisis and its effect on ourexport based production as well as the need to keep on facilitating imperialistloot, forced the discarding of ‘human face’ for ‘harsh and tough’ measuresfor ‘reform’ i.e. increased loot, in India. There was an extensive fight backby peasantry which fanned struggles of other sectors as well. All this gavebirth to the slogan of ‘development’; an invention of the ruling classes todistract the people from the ‘hard and tough’ content and in whose guise toimplement the new economic policies.

The ruling classes world over as in India too, attempted to contain the

rising anger of people in various forms. In different countrie parties, groupsand organizations arose to restore the concept of ‘buffering ’the peoplefrom the effects of increased loot especially as anger gathered when banksand elite were rescued by government funded bailouts financed by people’smoney. Though this was the common aim, the forms were many to offersome ‘buffers’ to the people.

The same situation was also utilized by forces including revolutionaryleft forces in various parts to present an alternative to the people, forinstance the massive anti-austerity struggles of the people saw the rise ofthe Syriza which also included revolutionary forces, which remained in theforefront of the struggles and there is the chance that if the genuine forcesare able to pursue their agenda, they will lead the people to the only realalternative i.e. socialism.

However, in many countries, old governments are offering sops to thepeople and also new formations of ruling classes have arisen to containthe anger of the people, often using new and innovative methods. Here inIndia, such a setup is AAP.

In the name of ‘only pragmatic governance’ and no ideology, AAP castscover over the fact that its policies are very much part of the pro imperialistpolicies on which there is consensus among the ruling classes of India.Thus they did, in the initial days, opine that while the pro corporate policiesof the government lead to the loot of the country, they intend to oppose thecorruptions in the deals, not the policies themselves (see ND January 2013).They keep their distance from the left, even tending to the right wing. Theiropposing of corruption does offer succor to the common people. Similarly,opposing police loot of common people does the same –thousands andthousands of petty hawkers, self employed including auto rickshaw drivers,can operate without greasing police palms regularly. They promise freewater (to those using piped water less than 20000 litres per month also bypayment of full amount by those using more, and not by bringing down orre-examining the jalboard’s rates), subsidized electricity below monthlyusage of 400 units i .e. relief to the common people from the high rates .

They had in their first stint in power in Delhi, implemented both thesteps for a short period. Common people remember that relief but fail torealize that AAP had anyway planned to abandon the government withintwo months- they had not presented any budget for the subsidies beyond

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NEW DEMOCRACYthat period. Delhi government depends mostly on the central layout for it.This time AAP will have to grapple with the problem in its entirety. Alreadyit has started harping on the need of statehood; if central largesse doesnot come, it remains to be seen how AAP will tackle the situation ofmaintaining these subsidies.

On LARR ordinance, AAP initially said that farmers in outer Delhi willbe given much higher compensation; later it said that their land will not beacquired- no doubt after sensing that the countrywide anger has nothing todo with compensation amounts. They do not take a position opposingprivatization of coal and mineral resources. Not for nothing did they keepsilence on Muzaffarnagar- even their ‘ideologically inclined ’; not for nothingdo they say Khaps are social organizations; not for nothing did AAP MLAsand AAP leaders keep mum on anti-Muslim police violence in Delhi thoughthey speak out loud against Delhi police on other issues. However, it is onclass issues that AAP can be more clearly identified. In the run up to the2013 assembly polls, in October 2012, several workers died in an industrialaccident near Shadipur depot (West Delhi). AAP, which spoke abouteverything in Delhi, had nothing, absolutely nothing, to say on this. AAPleaders did not give any statment to oppose the anti-worker changes inlabour laws brought by Modi government nor has Delhi Govt. said thesechanges will not be implemented in Delhi. They do not seek to regulatefees in private schools in Delhi (admissions and loot of parents is on rightnow), to go for neighbourhood schools, but promise 500 new governmentschools though the old ones do not work. Its 70 point manifesto hassomething for all sections but not for the industrial working class- no labourlaw enforcements of minimum wage, no comment on preventing industrialaccidents usually caused by the callousness of the owners in adhering tosafety norms, no announcement that adequate number of factory inspectionswill be carried out to enforce safety norms. Corporate are their donors,some even their members.

The forms employed by AAP- dominated by ex-NGO leaders- are of‘going to the people’. It has been spoken of as a form similar to the USmethod of selecting candidates through primaries. AAP employed this in2013 for selection of candidates but avoided it this time. Rather it used the‘consultation of people’ for formulating demands (but asked only certainsections, for instance not industrial workers about their workplace) andspeaks now of mohalla sabhas to decide development priorities. This willbe their ’swaraj’. The irony of the situation also is that initially it was in the

Soviet Union that, in the formulation of its initial five year plans, proposalsfor the whole country were centrally formulated, sent down throughcommittees to the lowest level committees at village levels where peoplediscussed not only the total proposals but also outlined what should be thetasks in their own areas. In this way proposal travelled back to the higherfora, where they were finalized. However of course, the vast differencebetween this and the use of this form by imperialist countries is in thecontent. Be that as it may, the fact is that AAP has been using a methodof ‘people’s consultation’ and this form has been given a lot of propagandaby corporate media as something invented by AAP. For the people nodoubt this form is a welcome attraction from only being ordered to ‘tightenyour belts’ even though the consultation is being selectively done.

It is worth recording that AAP’s people’s sabhas and consultations (andeven internal lokpal) have not questioned allowing candidates from otherruling parties to contest who defected just before electionsand also thosefound pedalling liquor just like candidates of other ruling class parties.

AAP’s position on women’s issues

AAP had issued a 70 point manifesto and its CM and ministers haverepeatedly stressed that there cannot be immediate implementation andthat people should not be impatient. They have embarked on subsidizedelectricity and relief to people using less than 20,000 litres of piped water.With the police vary of the new government, self employed rickshaw andauto rickshaw drivers and petty hawkers will also get relief. AAP Govt. hasordered that contractual workers under Delhi Govt. should not be dismisseduntil the Govt. decides it future policy. This has put in cold storage a potentialburning issue and it remains to be seen how this Govt. is going to move onthis issue. In its first stint it had set up a board to investigate the issue;‘contract labour’ including the contractual employees under directemployment of the Delhi Govt. and its various departments is a huge andrising number. This does not take into account other contract employeesof Delhi in private employment nor at all of the workers in industrial areaswhose job security is always under threat.

The situation will develop in the coming days as the other points on theagenda emerge and it has to be seen how much scope not moving out ofthe policy framework can give for fulfilling people’s demands. Some agendais going to play out soon. The Delhi Budget is dependent to a large extent

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NEW DEMOCRACYon the Central grants, which have not provided for the sort of subsidiesthat the water-power bills’ write-offs will need. It is sure that this will bedirected towards an anti-Centre issue by AAP saying that nothing further ispossible unless Delhi becomes a full state thus directing rancour againstthe Centre if the subsidies were to be curtailed. The real issue can emergeif AAP actually exposes how the private discom companies in the powersector are looting the people of Delhi and what it will do about it. Much alsodepends on how long people will wait before pressing for regularization ofcontractual jobs, for the facilities in schools, for implementation of labourlaws and other such issues they expect the Govt. to ensure.

One more example of how the perspective of AAP does not move outbeyond the ruling class framework comes from its attitude to women’sissues. It goes without saying that despite several competent women visiblein its ranks, AAP did not experiment with making them ministers but didnot mind experimenting with the male first timers- this is the situation inany party and any institution, so why deduce issues from this about AAP?It is its dealing with issues of women that provide clarity. On the issue ofsecurity of women- a burning issue of Delhi and parroted by all withoutactually explaining what they mean- AAP has promised ‘marshals’ or anew security force. How far can more policing for women ensure securityto them? If one moves forward in the direction of more policing, one endsup with family policing or even keeping women safe by keeping themconfined. The concept of women being secure to be free is the one alien toruling class parties because it is not part of patriarchal values. AAP hasspoken of 15000 CCTVs being installed for protecting women– just as manywere taken on rent by the Central Govt for the Obama visit and the HighCourt had said that these should be retained for security of the people ofDelhi. But the AAP has not spoken of effective public transport beingavailable at all times, of well lighted roads, of ensuring that all privatemanagements in Delhi arrange for safe transport to homes of womenworkers of all levels who work into late hours; of ensuring minimum wagesfor working women; of ensuring PF to women, which empowers them asthey have their own money to fall back on in need; ESI card to all workingwomen allowed this facility by law, of ensuring that GPS system on publicvehicles will be linked to police stations in a given period or even fosteringnew cultural values regarding women in its own employees, its serviceproviders like auto rickshaw drivers, hospitals etc. As mentioned, AAP didnot condemn even once the Delhi police- against which it has always been

ready to agitate- for its beating up of Muslim women of all ages in Trilokpuriduring anti-Muslim violence in that locality. The local MLA belonged toAAP, these women victims were not helped by this party to lodge FIRs, toget treatment and no issue was made that guilty police officials should bepunished. AAP, a party of Delhi, did not speak out against the recent honourkilling of a young Delhi graduate (of Venkateshwara College of DU) by herfamily for marrying out of her caste, though both families reside in Delhi.When asked to comment on the controversy on banning the airing of thedocumentary ‘India’s Daughter’, a senior AAP leader stated that he couldnot comment until the party decided its policy. AAP leaders and also theCM tweet on everything but on this issue they are silent though it concernsDelhi and its struggle post 16th Dec. 2012, in which struggle AAP activistssay they also participated. In the context of 8th March 2015, AAP made theDeputy Speaker of the Assembly its voice (and not its state leaders) forannouncing measures for women- no doubt for them as for other rulingclass parties- women’s issues are the concerns of women and not of themain leaders of the Delhi govt. Anyway, she promised security, CCTVs,regulations for Delhi to implement the Sexual Harassment at WorkplaceAct and “Implementation of Verma Commission’s Recommendations”. TheSexual Harassment Act violates the recommendation of Verma Commission& is pro-corporate. Just because it was passed unanimously by allparliamentary parties in both the houses does not make it pro-workingwomen. To say ‘Will implement the Verma Commission’s recommendations’is to play safe but also an admission of having no idea at all about whatthey are. Their ambit is wide, they cover separately a number of issuesconcerning women; some have become laws, some have been discardedin the making of these laws- so what does the Delhi govt specifically planto do? This was just a token announcement to be correct politically.

AAP faces the challenge of addressing the expectations of the peopleof Delhi, especially the poor, working and lower middle class. The eagernessof the people must be channelized into raising concrete demands forimplementation of the promises made to them and for pressing for themsystematically. Ruling class parties of India have no real solution to theproblems of Indian people; at best some problems can be ameliorated for aperiod, but they were inevitably crop up again in full force. People must beprepared for this,. so that instead of despondency and repeated going aroundin circles, they turn towards a revolutionary transformation of society withoutwhich India’s problems and also Delhi's cannot be solved.

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new democracy, february 2015

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