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Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) MNS was drawn to it. After completing his college study in Guntur, he went to study at Benaras Hindu University where in those days, a communist cell was active and educated youth was turning to MarxismLeninism to guide its strivings for a free and democratic India. There Com. MNS matured into a Marxist-Leninist and was given membership of CPI in 1941 by Z.A. Ahmed at the end his first year of MA in Economics. He participated in the anti-colonial freedom movement and in the intial phase of Quit India movement even undertook railway and phone line disruption. Returning to Ongole after completing MA in Economics, he took the responsibility of party organization under Guntur DC of CPI. He led and participated in several struggles on land and on coolie rates, against untouchability and caste oppression in the district. Com. MNS was a participant in CPI acquiring the first broad mass base in rural area in India in coastal Andhra. He married Ms. Sulochana, daughter of communist parents. Her mother, Bullamma, was jailed in 1946 for her participation in anti-landlord struggle in Krishna district. Her father, Kadiyala Ranga Rao, was a CPI leader in Krishna district. Ms. Sulochanas other two sisters were also married to communist activists. In 1946 started the glorious chapter of Indian communist movement, Great Telangana Armed Struggle. Com. MNS organized solidarity with Telangana armed struggle and led many anti-landlord movements in Ongole (then part of Guntur district) along with Com. Kola Venkayya. When Nehru Govt. banned the Communist Party of India, Com. MNS went underground in 1948. Com. MNS participated as a delegate in the 2nd Party Congress in Kolkata in 1948. During Telangana armed struggle, in 1950, his brother M. Kotayya was killed by police along with another comrade, Madala Narsayya. Com. MNS had always been a consistent revolutionary communist. He was a strong critic of withdrawal of Telangana armed struggle by CPI

Red Salute to Com. Madala Narayan Swamy, Central Leader of CPI(ML)-New Democracy
(Central leader of CPI(ML)-New Democracy Com. Madala Narayan Swamy passed away on December 9, 2013 in a hospital at Guntur (Andhra Pradesh). We are publishing here the homage paid by the Central Committee of the Party to Com. MNS. - Editor) Nearly two months short of hundred years, veteran communist revolutionary leader and central leader of CPI(ML)-New Democracy, Com. Madala Narayan Swamy (MNS) breathed his last on December 9, 2013 in a nursing home in Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. Spanning eight decades of active communist work he took an active and leading role in two revolutionary periods, that of Great Telangana Armed Struggle and the revolutionary movements after Naxalbari peasant armed struggle. He participated in three party phases of communist movement in India that of united CPI, CPM and CPI(ML). Com. MNS remained a steadfast revolutionary in thought and action till he breathed his last, inspiring generations of communist revolutionary activists, particularly in Andhra Pradesh. Full of the richness of his revolutionary experience, vastness of his field of action and consistency of his outlook and devotion to the revolutionary cause of Indian people, life of Com. MNS served and continues to serve as a shining example of all that was and is glorious in the revolutionary movement of the country. In his long life he remained steadfastly with the revolutionary movement and even with his death, his thought and actions will continue to guide CPI(ML)-New Democracy and the communist revolutionary movement of the country. Central Committee of CPI(ML)-New Democracy is proud of his long association with the Party and indebted to his untiring guidance and revolutionary zeal in advancing the revolutionary movement and Partys influence. Born on February 13, 1914 in a landowning family in village Mynampadu in Santhanuthala mandal of Prakasam district (earlier part of Guntur district) to Shri Raghavayya and Smt. Rangamma, he was eldest of three brothers and a sister. From early student life, MNS awoke to the need not only to free the country from colonial yoke but also from feudal oppression. Inspired by the communist movement, which was taking root in the coastal districts where it went on to acquire the first large mass base in rural India, Com. January, 2014
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leadership. When struggle inside the CPI against Dange revisionism, against support to Nehru led so-called progressive section of the ruling Congress and against support to Indian Govt. in India-China war of 1962 got intensified, Com. MNS was with the left section of CPI. He was jailed in 1962 along with other leaders who later formed CPM. Com. MNS also joined CPM when it was formed in 1964. In 1952 he was elected an MLA and in 1962 an MP from Ongole constituency. Before completing his term, he resigned from Lok Sabha in support of the demand for Steel Plant at Vishakhapatnam. Spring Thunder over India, the Naxalbari peasant uprising, exposed the neo-revisionist character of CPM leadership. Armed struggles in DebraGopiballavpur, Mushaheri, Lakhimpur Kheri and Shrikakulam burst forth to challenge the semicolonial, semifeudal order. Naxalbari became a milestone in the history of communist movement as it drew a dividing line between revolutionary Marxism and revisionism of different hues. Struggle inside CPM in Andhra Pradesh also got intensified with majority of leaders and cadres supporting Naxalbari peasant armed struggle. In Palakolu plenum in 1968, Com. MNS stood with Coms. DV Rao, CP Reddy, T Nagi Reddy and Kola Venkayya in favour of revolutionary line and against neo-revisionist line of CPM leadership. In 1969, he was arrested from Chennai (then Madras) along with other leaders of APRCC, Com. DV, Com. TN and others. During this period in jail, split occurred in APRCC between jail leadership and outside PC members led by Com. CP Reddy. The policies to be adopted to develop struggle of tribals in Godavari Valley became the main political issue of this split. Com. MNS saw a ray of hope in Godavari Valley struggle and along with Com. Somachari dissociated with other leaders in Jail and sided with and joined the State Committee led by Com. CP. After his release from jail, he was again elected as a member of PC in 1973 AP state conference. Com. MNS was jailed during Emergency. After his release he took up work on legal front and became President of APRCS when it was formed in 1978. Com. MNS was re-elected to the PC in 1980 state conference and participated in October 1980 Special Congress of CPI(ML). In 1992, he was elected to the Central Committee of CPI(ML)-New Democracy in the All India Party Congress and was re-elected as CCM in 1996 in All India Party Congress. He had also presided over the All India Plenum of the Party in 1989 and again in 1997. As his health started going down, he insisted on being relieved as a CCM in All India Party Congress January, 2014
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Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) held in 2004. While accepting his wish, 2004 Party Congress, through a special resolution, made him a permanent invitee to the Central Committee. The same arrangement was continued in recently held All India Party Congress 2013. Till his end, Com. MNS remained part of the Central leadership and always made it a point to attend CC meetings and despite his deteriorating health, made immense contribution to CC work. Work among peasants was his special area of work and he led peasant struggles throughout his life. He remained President of AP Rytu Coolie Sangham till it joined with peasant organizations of other states to form All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha (AIKMS). Com. MNS was elected as founder President of AIKMS in its founding conference in Rajmundry in 2000. Earlier, in 1995 prior to formation of AIKMS, some peasant organizations set up a Coordination Committee, AICCPO. Com. MNS was chosen as its All India Convenor. Com. MNS also took keen interest in promoting friendship between people of China and India when Indian ruling classes were whipping up anti-China propaganda. Com. MNS took a leading role in the formation of India China Friendship Association (ICFA) and served as its General Secretary. Com. MNS remained a strong champion of revolutionary mass line and of combination of different types of struggles to achieve liberation of the people of the country from the yoke of imperialist exploitation and feudal oppression. He had a strong conviction that India continues to be a semicolonial semifeudal country and protracted peoples war is the only strategy for the new democratic revolution in the country. He always fought determinedly against deviations from programmatic and strategic orientation of the Party and the communist revolutionary movement. He waged a determined and consistent struggle against revisionism, right and left deviations. He had always refused to take freedom fighters pension as he believed that India had not achieved freedom. Com. MNS was a firm upholder of communist lifestyle, ideals and methods of work. He always adhered to the principles of simple life and hard work. He not only fought for these ideals inside the Party, but translated these ideals into his own life. Com. MNS was a man of action. He applied and devoted himself completely to the tasks assigned by the Party. Com. MNS represented the finest traditions of the communist movement of India. His sense of discipline and respect for the Party was immense

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and he paid a lot of respect to Party leaders much junior to him in Party life or experience in revolutionary movement. His revolutionary honesty was exemplary. He never hesitated to correct himself whenever he realized positions taken by him were not correct. With his death, Party has lost not only a firm pillar but also an affectionate guide. His death places before us the task to devote ourselves with redoubled commitment and energy to develop the revolutionary struggles and contribute to the victory of New Democratic Revolution in the country. We will convert the grief over his death into a strength to realize the goals for which he strived throughout his life. Central Committee offers its condolences to the wife, son, daughter and other members of Com. MNSs family. Red Salute to Central Leader of the Party, Com. Madala Narayan Swamy! Long Live revolutionary heritage of Com. MNS! Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought Zindabad! Path of Protracted Peoples War for New Democratic Revolution Zindabad! CPI(ML)-New Democracy Zindabad! December 9th, 2013 Central Committee, CPI(ML)-New Democracy

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML)

Muzaffarnagar Violence: Report Released by Fact Finding Team

(A team consisting of Prof. Mohan Rao, Dr. Ish Mishra, Ms. Pragya Singh and Dr. Viaks Bajpai had visited the areas of Muzaffarnagar affected by communal violence in September 2013 and some of camps where Muslims fleeing from the attacks had taken shelter. The team held a press conference where they released the report. We are here publishing the press release issued by the team members while releasing their report. - Editor)
A team of academics and a journalist carried out an inquiry into the communal violence that shook Muzaffarnagar district in UP this past September. The report is based on the findings of the team during its visit to Muzaffarnagar district on the 9 th and the 10th of November and again on the 27th November. The members of the team were Dr. Mohan Rao, Professor, Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health, JNU; Dr. Ish Misra, Professor, Department of Political Science, Hindu College, Delhi University; Ms. Pragya Singh, Journalist, Outlook and Dr. Vikas Bajpai, Ph.D. Scholar, Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health, JNU. The team also drew upon the assistance of Dr. Subhash Tyagi, Professor of Geography, Machra College, Meerut, and Praveen Raj Tyagi, Principal Greenland Public School, Duhai, Ghaziabad, in the collection of some data.

OBJECTIVES OF OUR ENQUIRY

1. To investigate the role of state agencies in either preventing or containing violence, in taking appropriate punitive actions against the guilty and also to investigate some incidents of communal violence. 2. To investigate the role of the government in providing relief and rehabilitating the displaced and the progress made in displaced people going back to their villages and homes. January, 2014
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3. To understand the economic, social and political reasons that led to the recent spate of communal violence in this area of Western Uttar Pradesh.

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) culture of the area which mars the possibilities of gradual healing.Muslims are now being ghettoized in towns and localities dominated by them. These aspects were pointed out by the team members to the district administration, The officials however denied that the government was preventing people from going back to the villages and told of an order stating that those who wanted to return to their villages were free to do so. But a copy of the said order could not be provided by the administration.

SALIENT FINDINGS Role of the agencies of the State

The fact that India is Constitutionally mandated as a Secular State makes it obligatory on the agencies of the State to uphold secular values. However, the communal incidents in Muzaffarnagar, its aftermath and the continuing tragedy of the riot affected persons have been the undoing of the Indian State in this regard. Regrettably, this has been the outcome of deliberate and calculated decisions at different levels as is evident from the findings: The affidavits riot victims were made to sign for availing monetary compensation The Uttar Pradesh (UP) government has made the riot affected Muslim families in relief camps sign affidavits that enforced following conditions on the signatories in order to avail of financial relief: That myself and members of my family have come leaving our village and home being terrorized due to violent incidents in village and we will not now return to our original village and home under any circumstances. That the lumpsum financial help being given for my family by the government will only be used by me to rehabilitate my family. By this money I will live with my family voluntarily arranging for residence at appropriate place elsewhere. That in the condition of receiving lumpsum financial help amount, myself or members of my family will not demand compensation relating to any damage to any immovable property in my village or elsewhere. The State thus sought to impose a demographic change in the riot affected villages through a legal instrument. The monetary relief being disbursed was not to rebuild the damaged property or lost means of livelihood.This has served to reinforce the terror of communal violence in the minds of affected families besides driving a schism in the composite January, 2014
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Complicity and inaction of the police in incidents of violence

The shallow credibility of the law and order machinery in Muzaffarnagar is best reflected in the statement of senior police officials that Both the Jats and the Muslims are complaining against us, so the police must have done something good. Police itself is at pains to enumerate pro-active and positive actions taken by them against the wrong doers. Establishing credibility in the eyes of minorities becomes all the more difficult when in a region with around 37 percent Muslim population, as per a senior police official of the district, the representation of Muslims in police force is less than 3 percent. The officer however maintained that This did not matter for a policeman is a policeman and religion is not a factor in the discharge of his duties. The residents at the camps however said that they did not want to go back to their villages as their tormentors were still roaming free and that the government had done little that would have them repose their faith in the law and order machinery. The frequent transfers of the senior police officials in the district have not helped matters either. In 2013 the SSP of the district has been changed five times. In Qutba village, from where the single largest number of Muslim killings have been reported (8 Muslims were killed) a picket of PAC (provincial armed police) was posted in the village at the time of riots. These policemen were having tea in the Pradhans house when mobs started attacking Muslim households. The three Muslim men who rushed to seek their help were said to have been locked up by these policemen in the Pradhans house. The second incident of killings that took place with police in the vicinity was at the Mohammedpur Raisingh village on October 30. Three Muslim youth from the neighboring Hussainpur village were abducted from the fields and killed by the Jats even as a picket of the state police was posted in

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the village. The Hussainpur villagers, on learning of the abduction of youth, repeatedly rang the SHO of BhauraKalan police station, but their calls went unanswered. It was informed that the SHO had switched off his phone. The Pradhan of Hussainpur village later said that despite their best effortsmany of those accused by name in the killings have still not been arrested and are roaming free in MohammedpurRaisingh. He further alleged that the police hasdeclared rates (ofbribe) to weaken the cases against the accused or even to let them go scot free. It appears from the sequence and the circumstances of the incidents of violence in Muzaffarnagar that had the police and the district administration acted with alacrity and a fair sense of justice in the immediate aftermath of the incidence of alleged eve teasing and related murders in Kawal village, the subsequent turn of events could have been entirely avoided.

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) Jamiat dominated committees appeared to tightly control what the people said of the arrangements at the camps. At the Bassi Kalan camp when the residents complained against the government, members of the managing committee tried to stop them. Likewise at camp no 1 at Shahpur a local Maulvi expressed his displeasure when the residents complained of the conditions.We were told by families in the relief camps that up to Rs 20,000 had been taken from them by functionaries of the Jamiat for constructing alternative accommodation. A close confidant of ours asked the leader of the Jamiat as to why they were not opposing the affidavits that displaced Muslim families were being made to sign. The reply was, there is nothing to worry about in this and all of them will finally be allowed to return to their villages.Jamiat further claimed credit for getting a handsome relief package for the displaced families. Silence of the Jamiat over the claims of the Samajwadi Party leadership that the Muslims remaining in the camps were agents of the Congress and the BJP is equally deafening. Any astute observer can note that the Samajwadi Party government of UP will now bank on the certifications of the mullahs to clean up its abominable record of a number of communal riots / disturbances in the state during its rule. In our last visit local administration was categorical in stating that there are no refugees in any relief camp and government aid has been stopped. Further insult to injury has been added by the statement of the UP Home Secretary that people do not die of cold. This only undermines the secular credentials of the state.

Outsourcing of relief to the Muslim religious organizations by the State

It would have been best if the State machinery was seen by the riot affected Muslims as a dependable, sincere and caring source of succor and a guarantor of their safety. The State instead chose to outsource relief measures to Muslim communal organizations, principally the Jamiat-Ulema e Hind of Deoband though some other NGOs were also involved. On being quizzed why no state agency has a visible presence at the relief camps, the district administration told us that this was in accordance with the policy of the state government. The Shiv Pal Singh Yadav committee set up by the state government post riots had recommended that all relief be provided through community organizations. This reflects redoubtable wisdom.Communal community organizations cannot be expected to be credible foot soldiers for Secular ideals. The impact of this was evident in the camps. Apart from apprehensions regarding security upon return to their villages, the people also said that they would prefer to live, Amidst the security of their own people. Different reports before ours have graphically highlighted the pitiable conditions at the camps. We would only reiterate that even the least facilities like essential medical or civic amenities such as drinking water or functioning toilets have not been provided to the people in the camps despite visits by the mightiest VIPs inthe country. January, 2014
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The communal campaign and the Muzaffarnagar violence

The communal violence in Muzaffarnagar ought to be seen in the context of such violence in different parts of the country in 2013 beginning from Kishthwar (J & K), Masoori and Meerut in UP, Indore and Harda in MP, Bettiah and Nawada in Bihar and Rangpur in Cachar district of Assam. UP has witnessed a sustained campaign at communalization may it be the chaurasi kos parikrama or innovations like love jihad, ever since Amit Shah took over the reins of BJP in the state. This is pathognomic of the communal forces represented by the Sangh Parivar. The approaching Lok Sabha elections in 2014 provide the leitmotif of this campaign.

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However, equally abominable is the complicity of supposedly secular forces in facilitating this communal campaign. The track record of the Akhilesh Yadav government in dealing with communal forces, its attitude towards common Muslims and history of hob-knobbing with Muslim communal forces is a case in the point. The atmosphere in Muzaffarnagar had been vitiated over several months through sustained communal mobilization.Muslims have been the worst sufferers of communal orgy that swept Muzaffarnagar.Senior Superintendent of Police informed that a total of 52 people died in Muzaffarnagar, of which 37 were Muslims and 15 were Hindus (in all likelihood these were all Jats). Unofficial sources put the number of displaced Muslims at 100,000 while by the time of our visit government acknowledged that 50,955 displaced persons had been accommodated in 11 relief camps. 540 FIRs have been registered in riot-related incidents, against approximately 6000 people. There is an important distinction in the manner of deaths of Muslims and Jats. Almost all the Jats who were killed were those who had participated in the Mahapanchayat at NanglaMandaur village on September 7th. There were accounts of the Jats, in tractor trollies from different villages that went to take part in the Mahapanchayat, raising provocative slogans as they passed by Muslim habitations. Provocations like dogs being dressed in burqa and beaten with slippers were on display along with slogans like Musalmano ke do sthan Pakistan ya kabristan. Even theJats we talked to admitted that These youth have been taken in by the charisma of Modi and they raised slogans in his support on way to the mahapanchayat. Jats who died were killed in reaction to this deliberate provocation. Most of these deaths took place on the evening of September 7th in attacks on Jat trollies as they returned from the Mahapanchayat or were of those Jats who got injured in these attacks and died later. The only incident of a planned attack on Jats took place at Pur Baliyan on September 7th in which some Mulle Jats wanted to attack the trolley of Jats from Sohram village out of rivalry born out of a previous incident. However, in the melee of the violence the Jats in the trolley of Kakda village got killed. But none of the Jats from Pur Baliyan village itself were attacked by Muslims. The attacks on and deaths of Muslims have taken place as part of a sustained campaign in different villages. The victims were all innocent mostly poor Muslims who had no role in attacks on Jats. The handwork of the larger communal design and organization was evident in the wellJanuary, 2014
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Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) rehearsed and similar arguments which the Jats from different villages forwarded to rationalize the killings and the displacement of the Muslims. A Jat teacher in Kakda village described the communal violence in the region as Yeh hai Amit Shah ka jadoo. The Qutba village had been witness to a panchayat that was attended by the BJP president MrRajnath Singh about six months earlier. This points to the forces that have been at work in the area. The Jats in villages like Kakda and Mohammedpur Raisingh put forth ludicrous arguments like, The Muslims were willing to come back to their villages, but decided to stick to the relief camps ever since the government announced the 5 lakh relief package and that they Themselves destroyed their property to claim inflated relief. Common communal myths propagated by the Hindutva forces against Muslims They have large families and do not believe in family planning; They are anti-national and that, They will create a Kashmir like situation here as well were liberally put forth.

Character of Communal Violence ?

There were some reports that lower caste Hindus also participated in attacks on Muslims along with the Jats os specific khaps in different villages. However, the Muslims whom we interviewed in the relief camps felt that wherever the lower caste Hindus acted against them it was under the pressure of the Jats as the lower caste Hindus had little option but to follow the diktat of the Jats.Distinct caste hierarchies were observed in the villages, and also in terms of the involvement of different castes in the decision making processes. For example in the 35 biradari panchayat that was convened in Mohammadpur Raisingh on the November 10, representatives of all the upper castes were invited but none from the lower castes. It is however noteworthy that no communal violence has been reported from any of the Muslim dominated villages. Simultaneously, there were Jat dominated villages where the Jats took up the responsibility of protecting their Muslim brethren. Some of these villages were Kheda Gani, Garhi Novabad, Garhi Jaitpur and Kurawa.

THE WAY FORWARD

Despite the constitutional and formal averments of the secular character of the Indian state, the de facto reality remains that the state machinery has acted in a highly communal manner which undermines Indias secular

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pronouncements. Even as the communal poison being spread by the Hindutva forces need be countered with full force, the role played by the Samajwadi Party government in UP in connivance with the Muslim communal forces and the latest act of forcibly evicting the riot displaced families from relief camps brings into question the advisability of forming alliances with such parties to counter communalism. The stark reality is that despite the fact that Muslims constitute a much larger share of UPs population as compared to Yadavs, the propensity of filling administrative structure with a caste group is much stronger while the Muslims can at best expect their lives to be spared in the name of secularism. Indias secularism ostensibly sways between Hindu Rule of the secular parties of the ruling classes and the Hindu Rashtra of the saffron brigade. Fighting communalism is not merely an electoral issue. Communal forces can be defeated only by ground struggles built by an alliance of the minorities, the working masses, the dalits, the tribals, other oppressed castes and progressive sections of the intelligentsia. In this regard the example held out by the people of Hussainpur, Kheda Gani, Garhi Novabad, Garhi Jaitpur, Kurawa and other such villages is a ray of hope.

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML)

WTOs Ministerial Meeting at Bali

India surrenders before imperialist interests

Bhalachandra Shadangi The much awaited 9th Ministerial meeting of World Trade Organization (WTO) was held from 3rd - 6th December 2013 at Indonesias Bali Island. In the background of the stalemate going on between the developed and developing countries after the 2001 Doha round in reaching an agreement on world trade, there was an apprehension from the very beginning about the success of this conference. Even just before the conference, the Director General of WTO Roberto Azevedos statement to the media, If not this time then never was full of apprehensions and uncertainty. Indias Commerce minister Anand Sharma also contributed to this uncertainty by saying, We will not compromise on countrys food security at any cost and if necessary we will be forced to come out of the body. But towards the end of the conference this cloud of uncertainty was cleared with India taking a U turn from its earlier stand and succumbing to the pressure of America led developed countries. An agreement said to be unanimous was reached between the 159 member countries of WTO which has provided much-needed oxygen to a moribund World Trade Organisation. The WTO, founded in 1995, was fast fading into irrelevance with countries forging bilateral trade pacts and powerful regional trade agreements, especially in the developed world. In the event, the first-ever multilateral trade agreement between the member-countries could take place keeping the agenda of the Doha Round alive. In the 18 year history of WTO this agreement is said to be the biggest ever multilateral trade agreement in world trade. It is again said that the agreement is designed to simplify customs procedures and lower trade barriers between countries. The International Chamber of Commerce has estimated that the Bali deal will cut trade costs by 10-15% and will add an estimated $1 trillion to the global trade. Surprisingly the Indian media and corporate bodies like FICCI and CII have unequivocally hailed the agreement as a major victory for India saying the Indian stand had prevailed and that India had indeed bent the United

DEMANDS
The following demands acquire top most priority in our opinion under the prevailing circumstances: 1. 2. 3. 4. All the accused named in the FIRs should be arrested. Decommunalize the state apparatus. Restore all villagers back to their homes. Scrap the affidavit which was taken against five lakh compensation amount.

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States and European Union to its will. Indian Govt. and the mainstream media has said that by signing the agreement, we have not only saved the WTO but have also become instrumental in causing a phenomenal increase in the global trade. Due to this agreement the world trade will grow by $1 trillion and more than 18 million new jobs will be created in developing countries. But these tall claims of the Govt. regarding the outcome at Bali are certainly far from the truth. That is why while the union commerce minister is hailing this agreement as a historic one, organizations working for the interests of agriculture and farmers are branding it as an act of betrayal. After the GATTs Uruguay round WTO first came into existence as an international trade organization in 1995. At that time it was said that joining WTO will be a win win situation for our country. From Tokyo to California, throughout the globe our farmers can sell their fruits, vegetables and other farm produces and can earn a good profit out of that. Indias industrial goods henceforth will reach the markets of different countries and will add more dollars to our foreign exchequer. Due to free import and export opportunity there will be a flood in the flow of capital and technology to our country. Due to agreement on trade related to intellectual properties (TRIP) we can earn huge profits from foreign countries by patenting our scientific research and inventions. Under the umbrella of WTO our countrys share in world trade will increase manyfold and our economy will prosper. In this way, in the name of facilitating free trade, quantitative restrictions were lifted during the NDA rule under the leadership of Vajpayee. We were told at that time that by joining WTO there will be no adverse effect on our agriculture and industry, rather it will be beneficial to the countrys interest. But what happened in reality? The much publicized arguments put forth by the ruling class and corporate media controlled by them have proved to be hollow and baseless in the end. After signing of the WTO agreement, in the last 18 years Indian farmers' dreams of selling their fruits in the Californian markets remain a distant dream only, rather foreign products from fruits to toys have flooded our traditional markets in a big way. This could only be possible because, owing to WTO pressure, we have opened our markets by lifting quantitative restrictions. On the contrary rich countries did not allow our goods into their markets by imposing various restrictions. Now in the name of free trade they want to end whatever subsidy is given by the Govt. to our farmers and citizens in agriculture and food respectively. January, 2014
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Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) After joining the WTO and from the time our Govt. has removed the tariff and non-tariff barriers on the goods coming from overseas, it was seen that we became more dependent on imports from foreign countries. Our imports, which were 11.8% of the GDP in 2001-02, have increased to 27% in 2011-12. Though our exports also increased to some extent in this period from 9.4% to 16.8%, but our trade deficit has increased more than four times from 2.4% to 10.2%. This increasing trade deficit is one of the main reasons behind fall of Indian rupee. Here the question arises that at what cost the much acclaimed so called victory in Bali was achieved? The three main pillars of the agreement reached in Bali between the 159 trade ministers were: trade facilitation, agriculture including the G-33 (group of developing countries) proposal on public stock holding for food security purposes and a package for the least developed countries (LDCs). On trade facilitation, India and the developing world agreed to binding commitments to improve infrastructure at ports, to put in place systems to facilitate faster custom clearances and to invest in automation, computerization and homogenous documentation to facilitate faster movement of goods. The gains of this will mostly be to Western corporations and the figure of $1 trillion increase in international trade is largely fictional. It does not account for the costs that developing countries will have to incur to implement the trade facilitation deal. As for the 18 million jobs being created, the assumptions are even more flawed, since they neither factor in the loss of jobs that developing countries will incur as economies open up to international trade nor the higher unemployment that liberalization entails by tilting income distribution in favour of workers in the export sectors. The real purpose of the agreement which was given a final form in Bali in the name of trade facilitation, was to facilitate the free entry of foreign goods to developing countries like India. This will mean facilitating the entry of foreign products into the Indian market. Opening Indias market to agricultural produce has long been the goal of the large agricultural produce exporting countries, especially the US and EU. That goal is close to being realised. India had so far managed to fend off large-scale dumping of agricultural produce but that may be coming to an end. Actually, to give a new lease of life to their economy and to increase their capacity in world trade to an unlimited level, rich countries, in the

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name of trade facilitation, have been wanting to impose new conditions on customs and infrastructure capacity on developing countries. By this the restrictions in customs which are still there in our ports on the entry of foreign goods, will henceforth be more liberalized. This means our imports will increase in the coming days having serious implications for our domestic market and above all on the trade deficit. Now our deficit in international trade is more than 10%. In this situation giving more opportunity for imports will aggravate our balance of payment crisis and will lead to further fall of rupee. Rich countries like US and EU have been trying for quite some years through the WTO to fix a limit to the subsidies given by the developing countries for their domestic agriculture and food security. That is because the giant food grain and dairy MNCs of the developed countries know very well that to capture the vast markets of developing countries, it is necessary to lift these subsidies given by the local Governments. So long as the Govts in these countries continue procuring foodgrains by giving their minimum support price and distributing food grains at subsidised rates, their trade will be seriously affected and they cannot get their expected profits. That is why US and other developed countries have always been wanting the developing countries to withdraw the existing subsidies given to food and agriculture. If not completely, at least they want to cut these subsidies to a minimum level. That is why they are forcing countries like India to limit their agriculture subsidies to 10% of their total agricultural production cost and that too at the 1986-88 price level. Put simply if the total production cost of our agriculture is Rs.100, than the Govt can give subsidies of not more than Rs.10. But in reality todays cost of agricultural production is many times more than the 1986-88 level i.e. of 25 years back. Basing on this old level WTO calculates that the MSP being given to Indian farmers today is 24% more than the WTO norms. But if we calculate it on the basis of present production cost, the MSP provided to our farmers is less than their real production cost. Though in the last 25 years the price of rice and wheat has increased by 300%, the cost of agricultural inputs like seed, fertilizer, pesticides and other agricultural machinery has increased by an average 480%. America and the European countries who have been trying to manage the world trade in their favour through the WTO are practising double January, 2014
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Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) standards on the issue of agriculture and food subsidy. These developed capitalist countries, which are seeking to impose such restrictions, have flexibility to retain high levels of subsidies in the form of direct transfers, food stamps and other measures. The USA and the European Union are going ahead with their domestic subsidies as well as export subsidies by conveniently shifting subsidies to the Green Box and have refused to comply with the stipulated 20 percent reduction in their Aggregate Measure of Support. In fact the USA has more than doubled its subsidy from US $ 61 billion to US $ 130 billion between 1995 and 2010 while the EU subsidies hovered around 90 to 79 billion in 2006-09. In 2012, while USA has spent US $ 100 billion for its food aid programmes, Indias food subsidy bill is expected to be less than US $20 billion. Though our population is four times that of US, our food subsidies are one fifth of what America is giving to its people. In 2010 alone the total agricultural subsidies of the whole developed world had reached 244 billion dollars. If Americas 100 bn dollar expenditure for food assistance in 2012 does not result in trade distortion then how can Indias mere 20 bn dollar expenditure to provide subsidized food grain to 830 million hungry people be an obstacle for world trade? Since America and other western countries have a small portion of their population dependent on agriculture, the 10% of production cost limit in calculation of subsidies is sufficient to make their agriculture profitable. While 3% of Americans are dependent on agriculture, their agricultural production cost was 200 bn dollar in 1986-88. Hence as per the WTO norms America can provide 10% of its agricultural production cost i.e 20 bn dollar to its less than 3 million farming population. If we calculate this subsidy as a per capita one, then every agriculture dependent person of that country will naturally get 6666 dollars as subsidy per year. Similarly as many as 10 million people in European Union are engaged in agriculture. Though agriculture comprises 240 billion dollars of their GDP, the total subsidy provided by these Govts in this field amounts to 60 billion dollars. That means the per capita subsidy provided to every farmer in Europe is nearly 6000 dollar per year. Hence the rich countries continue to provide huge subsidies to their agriculture but want to cut the subsidies of developing countries only to have supremacy in world trade. They are forcing the poor countries to cut their subsidies only in the interest of their own giant agro business companies. Since the Agreement on Agriculture of WTO is giving legitimacy to these conditions it has been a bone of contention between developed and

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developing countries. There is an imminent danger to the labour intensive agriculture of developing countries from the heavily subsidised agriculture and big agro farms of the west. That is why 33 developing countries within the WTO had formed a group called G-33 including India and had been pressurising the developed countries in the interests of their own agriculture and food security. But this time, to blunt the edge of their resistance, the rich countries have formulated a middle path. In this way a peace clause was added in the Agreement on Agriculture of WTO. This so called peace clause is only providing a relief period for restricting the rights of developing countries for providing food and agriculture subsidies to their people. It allows subsidies in only traditional staple food for a limited period only. Even the Prime Minister and Commerce minister had opposed this peace clause in the past by saying, This clause is against Indias interest but accepted it in Bali. Since India has accepted this clause in the Agreement on Agriculture in WTOs Bali conference, it was given a four year relief or peace period according to the peace clause. In this period India and other developing countries will be allowed to continue their agricultural and food subsidies and none of the member countries will file any objections in this regard in WTOs dispute redressal mechanism. Here the question arises that though the peace clause is postponing the subsidy crisis of India and other developing countries for the time being, after the completion of these four years what will happen to this crisis? Hence what is said about the peace clause as a temporary relief to continue subsidies is nothing but the consent of the developing countries to end their food and agriculture subsidies for ever. Not only that, Indian Govt has placed the countrys entire stockholding of food under external scrutiny and has lost sovereign control over decision making regarding buffer stocks. It has allowed the WTOs Committee on Agriculture (CoA) to monitor our grain stocks. As per the Bali agreement, we are bound to give detailed information of our food and agricultural subsidy programmes to WTO every year. Govt of India has to share the detailed information of its food grain production, storage, procurement, Govt subsidies, infrastructure and the agencies concerned, with the WTO and other developed countries. If necessary, WTO or any of its member country can inspect our facilities to verify the information given by us. Hence by allowing this kind of interference in our internal matter, that too in the field of food security, the UPA Govt has seriously compromised our countrys sovereignty. January, 2014
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Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) But why is our Govt so desperate to push our countrys agriculture, on which majority of our population depends, into a crisis in the interests of rich countries? Compromising with the agriculture and food security of our country means harming the interests of 65 crore farmers and 87 crore poor consumers of our country. This is not only shameless surrender to the imperialist countries but also an act of betrayal of the poor developing countries of the world. Because it was seen that India, which has been taking the lead among the G-33 developing countries to safeguard their interest in WTO, ultimately started a bilateral discussion with America instead of taking all the G-33 countries into confidence. The sudden U turn taken by India by leaving its earlier position of opposing the Agreement on Agriculture and peace clause is seen as the outcome of its bilateral talk with America. Indias changed stand in Bali under the pressure of rich countries has caused immense damage to our image at the international level particularly among developing countries. Though Indian Govt., particularly its Commerce minister, is hailing the Bali conference as successful in serving the interests of our country, but in reality it is the opposite. Whether it is today or four years later this agreement will definitely cause serious damage to our food security and farmers' interests. India will have to freeze the structure and modalities of food procurement now and will be unable to make changes without the permission of the CoA. This is not only humiliating, but has introduced the dangerous precedent of foreign interference in our food security strategies. India after Bali has lost the right to use public food reserves as a plank of its food security. After signing the agreement the Govt cannot expand its food security programme and food grain procurement programme in coming days. Except the existing food grains procured by giving MSP, the Govt cannot include any new food grain in its procurement policy. There have been demands to include pulses, edible oil, salt and other foods (other than rice, wheat or millets specified in the NFSA) in its existing food security programme. But after the Bali agreement Govts., whether Central Govt. or the State Governments, can no longer introduce these in the PDS or in its procurement programme. Recently the UPA Govt has enacted the National Food Security Act for providing food at a cheaper price to our rising hungry population. In this act there is a provision to distribute monthly 5 kilos of rice or wheat to every

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person. By this the ruling classes have restricted the food security of the poor to a mere 5 kg of food grains per month. This food security is inadequate and is a formal one and is nothing but a cruel joke on the hunger and poverty of millions of Indians. Even during the debate in the Parliament over Food Security bill, the Govt. has admitted it is inadequate and promised to increase the quantity of food grains when there will be an increase in its production in the country. But after signing the Agreement the Govt cannot increase the quantity of foodgrain even if there is an increase in the production. Even during the peace clause period of four years, the Govt. can neither increase the allocation of food grains from todays level nor can include any new crop for MSP. Since our farmers, unlike their counterparts in America or Europe, are not getting any direct cash assistance, this WTO agreement will definitely have severe and long term implications for our farmers. This will definitely devastate the lives of crores of Indian farmers and will force them to abandon farming in a big way. During the last more than two decades of neoliberal policies including the 18 years of our joining WTO, more than 3 lakh farmers have been forced to commit suicide in rural India and this trend is still continuing. In this situation the Bali agreement will not only endanger our food security but will also be the last nail in the coffin of our Indian farmers who are already reeling under adverse domestic policies and the utter neglect of the agriculture sector by our ruling classes. Food security is not only a serious issue for India alone; rather it is inevitable for the existence of the worlds four billion hungry people. Developing countries like India have a vast population of poor people. They are not in a position to import food grains from the foreign market at a higher cost to cater to their growing needs. So no sensible Govt can push the vast majority of its people to the brink of food insecurity to safeguard the interest of agro MNCs. But under the pressure of western imperialist countries, the anti people UPA Govt has signed the Bali agreement in which the food security of millions of Indians and the future of our farming community will be jeopardized.

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML)

Pharmaceutical Industry in India An introspection.

Dr. Sujan Bose

Capitalism emerged from the late Middle age and Renaissance Europe, to become the dominant economic system of the modern world. This system is driven by the stimulus of so called free competition to achieve profit, and public interest takes a back seat. Nowhere is the difference between capitalists and public interest more pronounced or more important as in the sphere of public health. As a universal concern, health and healthcare has enormous potential for profit, and unsurprisingly the pharmaceutical industry responsible for developing and producing medicines is big business which is set to rake in $1.1 trillion in world-wide revenue next year. Unfortunately, profit does not parallel maximization of health outcomes, and those who are most desperate for medical help, the third world countries, are precisely those who cannot attract private investment into solving their health problems because there are limited financial incentives to do so. Only 1% of drugs that have come into the market in the last 30 years have been developed for combating tropical diseases and tuberculosis. On the other hand, the world spends US$2 billion a year on surgical procedures for hair loss compared to US$547 million for malaria. This seems absurd when we consider the enormous impact of these diseases: WHO estimates that the so-called neglected tropical diseases impair the lives of 1 billion people, while tuberculosis kills approximately 1.4 million and malaria 660,000 annually. In the backdrop of this looming world health crisis, the present article will try to analyze the past and present character of the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry and its impact on the Indian health scenario.

1970 Indian Patent Act

An American Senate Committee (Kefauver Committee) found in the 1960s that India was among the countries with the highest priced pharmaceuticals in the world. In the early 1960s, the Indian government started to encourage the growth of drug manufacturing by Indian companies to achieve selfsufficiency in pharmaceutical production. The first step was to revamp the colonial patent legislation and abandon product patent protection for medicines. A new Patents Act in 1970 was established which allowed only process patent protection for pharmaceutical inventions. With expertise in

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reverse-engineering, Indian companies could copy an overpriced original patented molecule and introduce these generic medicines in the Indian market and abroad within a short period of time at a fraction of the originators price, thereby eliminating the monopoly of MNCs and their position of dominance in the domestic market. Further, competition was generated among Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers because, with no product patents, many companies introduced the same products in the market. Government also introduced other control measures like restricting foreign ownership under which foreign companies were not allowed to hold more than 50% of equity along with direct price control on all formulations of about 347 bulk drugs. This competition, coupled with price control on essential medicines up to the mid-1990s (a 1995 order limited the number of medicines under price control to 74), resulted in the availability of medicines at relatively lower prices. With the 1970 Patent Act in place, the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry turnover grew from a mere $0.3 billion in 1980 to about $21.73 billion in 2009-10. Today, the industry consists of more than 5,000 small, medium and large manufacturers. The domestic market is valued at $9.44 billion, while pharmaceutical exports in 2009-10 amounted to some $8.79 billion in value terms. The pharmaceutical industry in India is the worlds third-largest in terms of volume [10% of global share] and stands 14th in terms of value [1.5%]. The Indian pharmaceutical industry plays a critical role in supplying medicines to various global treatment programmes. For instance, Indian generic drugs accounts for approximately 50% of the essential medicines that the UNICEF distributes in developing countries. Besides this, 75-80% of all medicines distributed by the International Dispensary Association (IDA) to developing countries are sourced from India. Similarly, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the US Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) also source a substantial percentage of their medicine procurement from Indian manufacturers. Thus any development that impacts the generic production capabilities in India would compromise access to affordable medicines not only in India itself but also in other countries, developed and developing alike.

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) drugs [new drugs] and focused mainly on developed country markets. The high monopoly prices of patented drugs yielded high returns. But recent years have witnessed a sharp fall in the number of new drugs introduced in the market and the MNCs are increasingly finding it difficult to fill up the product gap as the patents on their blockbuster drugs are expiring or going to be off-patent in the near future. Pfizer, for example, is set to lose a US$ 10 billion a year revenue stream as the patent on its blockbuster drug Lipitor expires. The net profit of top 15 MNCs declined sharply by 20.1 per cent in 2010 with major setback for companies such as Merck, BristolMyers and GlaxoSmithKline. In addition, Indian generic companies started challenging patents on blockbusters. As a result, global generic market, especially in the regulated market, is growing rapidly. Another important problem facing the industry is that, with the global financial crisis, the developed countries have begun cutting social security spending as part of their economic austerity measures. This is expected to have implications for out-of-pocket drug expenditures as well as public procurement of drugs. On the other hand, some developing country markets are experiencing rapid growth. The seven emerging markets of China, Brazil, India, Russia, South Korea, Mexico and Turkey contributed to more than half of the growth of the pharmaceutical market of the world in 2009 compared to only 16% by the developed country markets of North America, Western Europe and Japan. The figures were respectively 7% and 79% in 2001 (Tempest 2011). Indian pharmaceutical industry itself recorded spectacular growth from 1991 till the first half of the 2000s. Not unexpectedly, the MNCs are targeting the generic industry in these emerging markets as well. But they are now facing serious threats to self-sufficiency and ability to compete in the generic medicines market. Two policy decisions by the Indian government can be identified as crucial in the emergence of the present crisis facing the industry. The first of these was the change in the governments policy on foreign investment, and the other was the radical change in the countrys intellectual property regime to comply with World Trade Organization (WTO) treaty obligations. Thus the growing control on the Indian pharmaceutical industry and market by MNCs and their ruthless exploitation and abuse of the product patent protection afforded by Indias current patent regime has set the country on the present destructive course.

Current global crisis

The global pharmaceutical industry is undergoing unprecedented levels of transformation. Traditionally MNCs have relied for their growth on patented January, 2014
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Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) simultaneously enter into different markets on their own. On the other hand, the Indian companies gain by having access to the formidable marketing resources of the MNCs. This would also deter the Indian generic companies from entering into R&D activities which would result in the development and marketing of new drugs or the aggressive introduction of generic versions of patented drugs. The MNCs are not only taking over Indian companies. They are also consolidating their control over the Indian counterparts. Under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973, (FERA), the pharmaceutical MNCs, which were manufacturing only formulations or bulk drugs not involving high technology were required to reduce foreign equity to 40 per cent or below. With the abolition of FERA as a part of economic reforms of the 1990s, not surprisingly the MNCs have increased their equity stakes. Currently all the pharmaceutical MNCs listed in Indian stock exchanges like Cipla (5.7% market share in 2010), Sun (4.3%), Cadila Healthcare (3.9%), Mankind (3.2%), Alkem (3%), Lupin (2.9%) have majority shareholding of more than 50%. Earlier, the New Drug Policy, 1978 (revised in 1986) imposed restrictions on the FERA companies (i.e., those with more than 40% foreign equity) such that the MNCs were not allowed to market formulations unless they themselves produced the bulk drugs in specified ratios. This compelled the MNCs to undertake manufacturing investments from basic stages. In fact together with the Indian companies, the manufacturing activities of the MNCs too expanded after the 1970s. But after the mid-1990s, with the withdrawal of such restrictions, the MNCs started disinvesting in manufacturing operations which they had set up earlier under government pressure. This has led to increase in the propensity to import finished medicines for the purposes of marketing in India. One of the basic expectations propagated by the rulers behind the FDI policy is that MNCs with huge technological resources can help host countries to develop industries. But this happens only when manufacturing activities are undertaken by the MNCs. If they are more interested in selling imported drugs and/or drugs manufactured by others in India, obviously the question of technological progress does not arise. Patented drugs can be made more affordable by imposing price controls. None of the WTO agreements forbid price control. Prices of selected drugs are controlled by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority under the Drugs Price Control Order, 1995. If the current provisions of DPCO are to

[a] Foreign acquisitions and strategic alliances

In 2001 India liberalized foreign direct investment (FDI) norms for the pharmaceutical sector. As a result, 100% FDI was allowed through the automatic route (without prior permission) in pharmaceutical manufacturing (except in sectors using recombinant DNA technology). The FDI policy did not make any distinctions between Greenfield (new facilities) and Brownfield (takeover of existing facilities) investments. However, during the last 12 years MNCs did not make any major effort to undertake Greenfield investments in India, largely opting for Brownfield investments, i.e., acquisition of Indian companies. The share of the MNCs in the domestic formulations market has dramatically increased from less than 20% in March 2008 to 28% in December 2010 with the taking over of Ranbaxy by Daiichi Sankyo in June 2008; Dabur Pharma by Fresenius Kabi Oncology in August 2008; Shantha Biotechs by Sanofi-Aventis in July 2009 and the domestic formulations business of Piramal Healthcare by Abbott in May 2010. At times MNCs offered purchase prices which were many times higher than the actual sales turnover of the acquired firms. For instance, Abbott paid $3.7 billion for Piramal Healthcare, whose sales revenue was reported to be approximately $400 million. In March 2008, there was only one MNC (GSK) among the top 10 companies in India. By December 2010 the number of MNCs in top 10 went up to three (GSK, Ranbaxy and the Abbott group). The Abbott group comprising Abbott, Piramal Healthcare and Solvay Pharma is now the largest company in India with a market share of 6.2% ahead of the second largest Cipla (5.7%). Abbott was the 30th largest company in the domestic formulations market in March 2008 with a market share of only 1.1%. Thus the declining trend in the aggregate market share of the MNCs which started in the 1970s has been reversed. The same period witnessed a series of strategic alliances between MNCs and Indian pharmaceutical companies. Dr Reddys, for example will supply about 100 branded formulation to Glaxo SmithKline [GSK] for marketing in different emerging markets across Latin America, Africa, Middle-East and Asia-Pacific excluding India. In Aurobindo-Pfizer deal, Aurobindo will supply more than 100 formulations to Pfizer for the regulated markets of USA and EU and more than 50 products for about 70 non-US/EU markets. These deals enable the MNCs to get access to low cost reliable products without undergoing the lengthy process of getting regulatory approvals in different markets and without incurring any capital expenditure for setting up manufacturing plants. Experience suggests that it is not easy to January, 2014
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be strictly followed, NPPA cannot ask for the details of the imported cost of drugs. In fact an attempt by NPPA to do so has failed the concerned MNC went to the court to prevent NPPA from asking for cost data. NPPA is required to accept whatever costs the importers declare. Thus importing high priced drugs is one way of avoiding price control.

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) production even if MNCs get the patents. Under Section 11A (7) , they can continue to produce on payment of reasonable royalty. This is the case for Novartis anticancer drug, imatininb mesylate. Seven years after the introduction of product patent protection, there is ample evidence of growing control of MNCs on the Indian pharmaceutical market. Figures released by the Indian Patent Office reveal that out of 3,488 product patents issued from 2005 to March 2010, 3,079 were granted to MNCs. Today, the market share of patentable new drugs in India is still very small. But it would however not be correct to infer from here that patented drugs are not a problem in the country since companies are charging exorbitant prices for certain life-threatening diseases such as cancer. For these patients it is a question of not getting proper treatment if they cannot afford the high cost. Moreover, it is just a few years since product patent protection has been introduced in India. Considering the time lag between the time when an NCE/NBE is patented and when it is finally approved for marketing, all the post- 1995 NCEs/NBEs are not yet ready for the market. Some of the MNCs, for example GlaxoSmithKline, have revealed ambitious plans to launch a basket of patented products. They are expanding their marketing infrastructure in anticipation of the future patented market. But even in the product patent regime, price control is not forbidden under TRIPS or any other agreement of the WTO. Way back in 2001, World Trade Organization released the Doha Declaration announcing that a member Government can declare a public health emergency and start manufacturing copies of a patented drug, or take other steps to protect public health. Moreover, there is ample scope to bring down the prices of the new drugs by compulsory licensing. As per Indian Patents Act, compulsory licensing is a permission given by the government to a non-patentee to manufacture a drug without (or even against) patentees consent after three years of the grant on drugs that are not available at affordable prices. This is one of the ways in which TRIPS attempts to strike a balance between promoting access to existing drugs and promoting R&D into new drugs. If generic companies are given licenses to produce a patented drug on payment of royalty, then competition among manufacturers would drive down prices, but the royalty paid to the innovators would continue to provide funds and the incentive for R&D. The exorbitant prices being charged by the MNCs for some of the products provide a very good rationale for compulsory licensing intervention. Recently the Indian Patent Office issued a compulsory license (CL) to

[b] Product patent protection

In 2005 India reintroduced the product patent regime to comply with the obligations of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) which mandates patent protection on both products and processes for a period of 20 years. This replaced one of the important policy tools used for the development of the Indian pharmaceutical industry. The reintroduction of product patentability takes away the freedom of Indian pharmaceutical companies to introduce generic versions of new chemical entities (NCEs) in the normal course because NCEs often come with product patent protection. Though product patents have been introduced from 1st January 2005, earlier than that a mailbox facility was put in place to receive and hold product patent applications. As per the TRIPS agreement, these applications are being processed since 1 January, 2005 for grant of patents. Thus to understand the impact on the market structure and prices, we consider the period since 1995. Indian generic companies are no longer permitted to manufacture and market new drugs for which patents have been granted in India after 1st January, 1995. Thus any drug product patented abroad before 1995 can continue to be manufactured and sold in India after 1995 even though these may be under patent protection in other countries. According to Article 27(1) of TRIPS, patents are required to be provided for inventions, which are new, involve an inventive step and are capable of industrial application. The agreement however does not define these terms. This provides some flexibility. India has taken advantage of this flexibility by enacting Section 3(d) in the amended Patents Act and restricting product patents to some extent. Under Section 3(d), India is not obliged to provide protection to any secondary patents (of new formulations/ combinations/chemical derivatives) after 1995 involving NCEs developed before 1995, Unless they differ significantly in properties with regard to efficacy. Further, in cases where Indian companies were already producing and marketing before 1 January, 2005, the products for which patent applications have been made in the mailbox, they need not suspend January, 2014
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domestic drug company Natco Pharma to produce pharmaceutical MNC Bayers anti-cancer medicine Nexavar [sorafenib tosylate]. As a result, the medicine would be available to patients in India for Rs 8,800 per month, against Bayers price of Rs 280,000 per month.

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) the Indian companies from getting into the regulated markets with their low-priced generic products. At the same time, the MNCs are also devising their strategies to capture the Indian market, which, while relatively small in global terms, is one of the fastest-growing pharmaceutical markets. Fifthly, these acquisitions would result in high medicine prices. According to the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance , an assoc iation of Indian pharmaceutical companies with R&D activities, Abbott increased the prices of medicines produced by Piramal immediately after its takeover. For example, price of Haemaccel was Rs 99.02 in May 2009; by May 2011 it had gone up to Rs 215 - a 117% increase in the space of two years, while epilepsy drug Gardenal registered a price hike of 121% during the same period.

The future impact

The days of product monopolies and high prices are back in India. As expected, because of the ongoing global financial crisis, MNCs have started to target the emerging markets like India. Judging from previous takeovers, it is evident that the MNCs are mainly targeting Indian companies with a high level of technological capability. If the takeover drive is left unchecked, India would suffer severely especially in the realm of innovation. Since Indian companies would get locked into the lower end of the value chain, India would be forced to compromise on need-based R&D and become completely dependent on MNCs for meeting the countrys drug needs in the long run. Thus, a company like Cipla, for example, can no longer see a repeat of its historic announcement in 2000 of making available generic first-line HIV/AIDS medicines for just $350 per person per year against MNC prices of $10,000-12,000. Secondly, the presence of an active domestic sector with technological capabilities is needed to make use of the TRIPS flexibilities such as compulsory licensing and patent opposition. MNC acquisitions of domestic generic companies would either fully eliminate or restrict the use of flexibilities. For instance, immediately after its takeover by Daiichi, Ranbaxy withdrew all the patent challenges against Pfizers blockbuster cholesterol drug Lipitor. Thirdly, these acquisitions would result in the capture of the marketing and distribution networks of Indian generic companies. With it the MNCs would substitute low-cost medicines with higher-priced ones, including patented, versions. For example, the main objective of Abbotts acquisition of Piramal Healthcare was to acquire the latters marketing and distribution network, as Abbott acquired only one manufacturing facility from the Piramal group. With this takeover, Abbott now ranks first in market share in India. (Abbott has made it clear that there is no plan to start exporting from India.) Fourthly, the MNCs are seeking to buy and kill off the competition in a global generic market which is growing at a fast pace. MNCs want to restrict January, 2014
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Introspection
To counter the inevitable global financial crisis, World Trade Organization [W.T.O] with its free trade and open market policies has been instrumental in promoting monopoly capitalism [imperialism] with more aggressiveness. Indian Pharmaceutical Industry is a classic example of the distorted and one-sided development promoted by the W.T.O TRIPS agreement. Historically, the Indian pharma industry constituted mostly smallto-medium enterprises depending solely on reverse engineering to produce cheap generic drugs for the Indian market. Although some of the larger companies did take baby steps towards new drug innovation to compete against the MNCs, market leaders such as Ranbaxy and Dr. Reddys Laboratories spent only 510% of their revenues on R&D, lagging behind Western pharmaceuticals like Pfizer [worlds 2 nd largest pharmaceutical company], whose research budget last year was greater than the combined revenues of the entire Indian pharmaceutical industry. This historical disadvantage of capital accumulation forms the basis of current imperialist policies. In reality, the industry as a whole is mainly operated as well as controlled by dominant foreign companies having subsidiaries in India due to availability of cheap labor in India. Thus, it was only due to the 1970 Patent Act that the bleak scenario looked more deceptive till now. The current prevailing crisis in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry has once again reaffirmed the true parasitical nature of the modern day monopoly capitalism and exposed the semi-colonial character of the Indian state.

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Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) In Khammam district 4 lakhs have applied for pattas (i.e. 60 thousand families), but pattas were given for only 1 Lakh 11 thousand acres. Others who expected pattas and after that bank loan, were disappointed. They have only meagre rights under the rule of law for if they applied for 5 acres patta, they only got 5 cents patta. There are many incidents like this. Recently government has planned to take back land which tribals have been farming for decades. Forest Department is threatening tribals. In many villages department is conducting parades to threaten people. If asked they say that tribals don't have rights to this forest land while so many tribals are leading their lives dependent on this alone. Our party took the initiative and started agitation for pattas in Khammam District. On 2-09-2013 we held a dharna for which 5 thousand people gathered in Kothagudem. Leaflets were distributed and village meetings held in preparation. Participants came by autos, tatamagic, lorries from nine mandals from so many kilometres away. The Rally went through Ganesh temple, Super bazar upto R.D.O. Office. The streets of Kothagudem were filled with red flags and echoed with slogans like stop harassing tribals, those who farm the land own the land, so on and so forth. Dharna went on before R.D.O Office for several hours. Speakers in that meeting included AIKMS State Secretary Com. K. Rangaiah, CPI (ML) New Democracy Khammam District Secretary Com. P. Ranga Rao, AIKMS Khammam District Secretary Com. Jagganna, President Com. Biksham, Yellandu Ex-MLA Gummadi Narsaiah. They condemned the government attitude towards poor people. In the name of environment govenment is taking away the right to live. Right from decades the farmers are farming the land but are denied pattas while government is boasting that it has implemented the Forest Act. In the name of pattas government is planning to take the land from the poor tribals. As part of this they are harassing people. The speakers condemned the activities of government and urged it to stop these immediately. In the district the rights on land should be restored. Each tribal should be given 10 acres they demanded. There are some weak points in the Act, they added and called for giving land also to those who got only 5 to 10 cents land. District Leader Com. Chandra Aruna presided over the meeting. At the end a memorandum was given to R.D.O. Other party leaders who took part and led the Dharna included Jatoth Krishna, N. Raju, Y. Prakash, Sakru, Yetti Prasad, T. Nageshwar Rao, Savitri, Subhadra, Bose and Umar.

There is no land for tribals for agricultural purpose. They are poor as they live on daily wages. Once they ate only forest produce like fruits and gourds. Their only sources of income are gum, Ippa flowers, brooms and beedi leaves. Even after selling these goods they haven't enough money for their needs. Of them only few can grow samalu, gatakalu, korrelu, Konda maize, maizes. They eat these once a day and for the other half of the day they eat forest products like dumpas by boiling them. Only on festive days only do they eat rice or half broken rice. The don't have work to do and also have no land for agriculture. Forest officers harass tribals in many ways. The cattle of tribals graze in the forest, for which they have to pay a kind of levy (vullera). If tribals touch any stick it is a crime. Rulers say tribal welfare is their priority, they will give land to the poor, they say land reorganisation is being done by the govenment. But these issues are not at all sorted out. Explaining government's anti people activities CPI(ML)-New Democracy went to the people. Usually tribals don't mingle with others but our party succeeded in doing so. For land and employment they have to fight hard we told them and people gathered under the leadership of New Democracy. And then they were ready to fight against the Forest department. In this way people were united. They started farming the forest land. Our party supported them and stood by them in all these struggles. Forest department booked several poor tribals including women. They even foisted criminal cases against tribals and some party leaders and imprisoned them. Since past three to four decades in A.P., tribals have been farming. To them this land is the only source of livelihood. Under our leadership they fought for pattas. In 2005 Congress Government brought the Forest Rights Bill, in 2007 it was made into Act and from 2008 they started implementing it. As per the government survey in A.P., 40 lakhs acres land is under cultivation of tribals. In that 25 lakhs was identified. Govt. agreed to give pattas upto 10 lakh acres, but instead they gave pattas upto 4 lakhs acres only. January, 2014
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Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) to protect the land through agitation. In this meeting Mudda Biksham, Nupa Bhaskar, Nimmala Rambabu, Madhusudhan Reddy, Uday Raghavendar, PDSU Sharath, PYL Rama Rao have participated. Bhadrachalam : In Bhadrachalam, rally was organised for new pattas for farming land and also ST Certificates to Gutthi Koyas. 300 people took part in the rally. Memorandum was given to ITDA PO. In this rally AIKMS State Gen. Secretary K. Rangaiah, K. Kalpana, Madhusudhan Reddy and others participated. Khammam : To stop Forest department's harrasment of tribals and poor farmers, to implement Forest Act and give land to tribals and to demand that the cases on farmers be lifted, New Democracy and AIKMS Khammam division committees organised a huge rally at RDO Office. It lasted for more than 2 hours. The rally began from New Democracy office and went through NSP Camp, Saritha Clinic Centre, Kavitha College, Wyra Road, Bus Stand, Mayuri Centre and Sanjeeva Reddy Bhavan to RDO Office. In this rally women with their children also participated. The slogans were: stop harassing tribals, give pattas for farm land. Arunodaya artists, with their drums and dances, attracted the town people. Under the presidentship of Avula Venkateswarlu, P. Ranga Rao said that the Government is not acting as per the Forest Act and only giving pattas to 10% farmers. The tribals have been farming the land for decades he said. Recently Forest department is propagating that the forest should not be farmed. They are threatening the tribal farmers now and then, he said. They are also destroying the farmed land and troubling the poor tribals by registering false non-bailable cases. Government is giving land to big wigs, SEZs, industries, mines, coal mines and to other projects. By starting APFDC it is cutting trees and doing business through plantations, he criticized. While speaking, party leader Gokinepally Venkateshwarlu said that Government is not implementing land reorganization act and is also conducting raids on farmers who were farming for decades. It is also putting PD acts on tribal farmers and by doing so they are forcing farmers to go out of villages. AIKMS Dist. leaders P. Srisailam, A. Ramu, Arjun Rao also spoke in this meeting. Party district leader CY. Pullaiah, POW leader G. Lalitha, Ch. Shiromani, Jhansi, Avula Mangathai, IFTU leaders A.

Big gathering with red flags in Palvancha

Six thousand people gathered demanding pattas for forest farm land. They also demanded that Forest Dept. stop damaging the crops. As per the Forest Act every family should be given 10 acres of land. They demanded to implement the Forest Act. Tribals (men and women) came to take part in the congregation. The streets were ablaze with red flags and banners. Women had come with their children with much enthusiasm. At the head of the rally were horn drum dancers and drummers. Party leaders K. Rangaiah, P. Ranga Rao, Gokinepally Venkateshwar Rao, Gummadi Narsaiah, Nupa Bhaskar, G. Prabhakar, K. Kalpana, Jatoth Krishna, G. Lalitha, Sarojini, Padma, Kishore, A. Venkanna, Laxman, Ramu, Basina Satyanarayana, Buchi Raju, Kallaiah, Gouse and others led the rally through Dammapeta Cross Road, Ambedkar Centre, Market Street, Bus stand road to RDO Office. RDO Office and streets were filled with agitated people. As the RDO was ill the leaders gave the memorandum to AO.

Land to SEZs and MNCs and oppression on tribals

In the name of environment and protection of the forest Govt. has been forcing people to leave the podu land. Those who are actually occupying forests are facilitated by the Forest department. Since their forefathers the tribals have their roots in the forest but that is being denied by the Forest department. Tribals are being alienated from the land. This is an act of brutality and should be condemned by one and all. Leaders K. Rangaiah, P. Ranga Rao, Gummadi Narsaiah said the government would face the consequences. They also demanded that Forest department must stop harassing tribals. In the RDO Office rally, leader of Palvancha division G. Venkateshwar Rao, conducted the procedings. The leaders stated that the Forest Act is not being implemented properly. In Khammam district 7 Lakh acres is under control of the tribals but Govt is ready to give only 2 to 2 1/ 2 lakh acres as land pattas. By giving 1 cent or 2 cents of land government is applauding itself, whereas under the Polavaram Project, 50,000 hectres of land, hills and forest will go under water. Govt is against the tribal people. In the name of SEZs, pro-corporate govt is giving huge acres of land to MNCs. The same government is denying land to genuine owners- the tribals. This partiality should be condemned by one and all. In Palvancha area, land under the 1/70 Act has also been given to Mullapudi Harichandra Prasad, Renuka Choudhary and to Navabharath Steel plants while fighting with tribals. Tribals see their land as their lives, so the leaders gave a call January, 2014
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Venkanna, A. Rama Rao, PYL leader K. Srinivas took part in this programme. Warangal: Rally for Podu land pattas at Narsampet Tribal people in agency areas have been cultivating podu lands for past thirty years but have no pattas. On December 12, 2013, a big rally was held in Narsampet to demand pattas for podu land. Memorandum was given to the RDO. Addressing the gathering CPI(ML)-New Democracy state committee member, R. Chandrasekhar, demanded patta allocations. Gummadi Narsaiah, ex-MLA of Yellandu, CPI(ML)-New Democracy Warangal Dist. Secretary Com. Chinni Chandram, AIKMS Dist. secretary Punnam Prabhakar, Kottapally Ravi, Penaka VenkannaJeevan, Prasad Chary, Mallesh Thirupathakka, also participated. People from Gudur, Pakala Kothagudem, Nallabelli and Kanapuram mandals took part in the rally. Mahbubabad: Demand for Podu land pattas A big rally for this demand was held on 27th December 2013 and the memorandum was given to RDO. Com. Chinni Chandram reiterated the demand in his address and said that a bigger rally will be held at the main centre. CPI(ML)-ND Division Secretary Kottapally Ravi, AIKMS Dist. President Punnam Prabhakar, Munjupally Veeranna, Alakuntla Sailu, Shirra Surry, Bhaskar Reddy, Sandu Venkanna and others spoke demanding that podu land pattas must be given to tribals. People came from Kesamudram, Nellibudar and Mahbubabad mandals to take part in the protest.

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML)

Parliamentary Elections 2014

True Face of BJP and Narendra Modi

Amit Chakraborty

The BJP has become desperate to capture power in the 2014 Parliamentary Election. Already they have started the electoral fight projecting Narendra Modi, the skilled administrator famous (!) for the Gujarat genocide, as the future Prime Minister. Recently their victory in the Assembly Elections of some provinces has emboldened them. They have embarked on the work of communal polarization of the voters in the UP election by unleashing communal violence in Muzaffarnagar. On the other hand, the anti national role of the Congress government in scams and corruption is supplying oxygen to them. Side by side, BJP is getting advantage due to the opportunist role of the parliamentary left parties and the regional parties of the so-called third front. In recent times the media has started different types of surveys keeping the BJP at the centre and different types of speculations have been started among the urban middle class. The skilled administrator, development of Gujarat, the fittest candidate - using these and many such adjectives Narendra Modi and his Party are fighting the elections. Who are fanning this BJP and Narendra Modi hype from behind the screen? What is their objective? And let us see in the light of facts- has the Narendra Modi government of Gujarat achieved any great success at all?

Who is trumpeting for Modi?

An US company, APCO Worldwide, has undertaken the responsibility of building the image of Modi from 2007 onwards. From then on this firm is campaigning for Modi and getting 25000 USD per month. APCO is the long time foreign agent of the warmonger Israel government. The primary activity of APCO is to build worldwide public opinion in favour of wars and weapons. They make contracts with the governments of different countries and manufacture public opinion in favour of wars using the media. APCO and the Kissinger Associates of Henry Kissinger operate January, 2014
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forming strategic alliance. At the time of the Iraq war they acted to build opinion in favour of George Bush in the name of war against terrorism. They used the Islam phobia of the west in their propaganda for war. On Iraq, when Tony Blair in UK faced peoples wrath after his announcement to join the war, APCO prepared and published a booklet, A Global Alliance for Global Values in which Blair declared, We must commit ourselves to a complete renaissance of our strategy to defeat those that threaten us. After the aggression of Iraq, to facilitate the loot and plunder of Iraq APCO formed a task force under the leadership of the ex-US consul Ginsberg. APCO is basically a lobbying firm, like the corporate lobby maker Neera Radia associated with the 2G scam. Manipulating the politicians, ministers and the bureaucrats of the land, they help the capitalists and the imperialists to advance their goals by drafting and advancing model legislations and regulations. Key tools include the creation of business coalitions and fake, corporate-funded grassroots groups tailored to specific issues. Smith and Bellinger were acting as the advisors for building the legal basis of aggression on Iraq by the USA. Interestingly, they were the lawyers of APCO. In the USA, when Lehman Brothers and MF Global Matters got bankrupt, their legal cells engaged APCO for manufacturing opinion. To stop the enactment of legislation against the harmful effects of tobacco, APCO, on behalf of the cigarette companies, organised a lot of fake grass root level organizations in 1995. Throughout the whole world in a number of countries this company is behind the government policy making. Criticising the role of APCO in manufacturing the image of the Malaysian state force, Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of the opposition of that country, analysed that APCO was campaigning in the Israeli Zionist way. APCO says its characteristic feature is to co-ordinate global trade, industry, financing, media, opinion building, government policy etc. Three of the fifty members of the leading organisation of APCO are from the policy making body of the infamous Israeli military organization. Like Hitler, Narendra Modi also appointed a company, in this case APCO, for building his image. It is the same APCO which was appointed to build the public images of the Nigerian autocrat Sunny Abacha and Nazarbayev, the lifelong President of Kazakhstan. This organization has worked to manufacture Brand Gujarat. For future APCO has kept watch on six important sectors of Indian industry: (i) Energy and renewable sources (ii) Food, consumable articles and retail trade (iii) Entertainment and information communication January, 2014
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Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) technology (iv) Bank, finance and insurance (v) Health services (vi) Public service. When APCO, the companion of imperialism, is trumpeting for Narendra Modi, can the band of the compradors of India remain silent? This band of big comprador bourgeoisie is operating in those sectors which have been targeted by APCO and from there they have also started trumpeting for Modi. One can hear their beating drums.

What are the band of comprador capitalists saying?

India Incorporation is the organised government and corporate sector notified by the Indian media. As per news published in Economic Times on September 14, 2013 the Indian corporate sector and the big bourgeoisie welcomed the decision of the BJP to select Narendra Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate. They are overwhelmed by the changes which occurred in Gujarat under NaMo and so they are supporting BJP. Mohandas of Manipal Global Education has said, BJP is in a privileged state. Their performance is good. The Chief Managing Director of Raymonds Limited, Goutam Singhania has said, It is a good news for the country. He has done good jobs for Gujarat. We hope that he will do the same for the whole country. Kamath, Chairman, ICCI Bank, has said, He is proud of the Gujarat model. He has expressed his annoyance on why the chief ministers of the other provinces are not following Modi? The Yes Bank Managing Director Rana Kapoor, the India Infoline Chairman Nirmal Jain, all of them are overwhelmed by NaMo. The financing companies like GNP Services are hoping that if Modi be the PM, the share market and the finance market will rise. Obviously the reader is able to understand that Modi is readily getting the result of appointing APCO. Is it not true that the media and those bosses are also getting some share from APCO? APCO had started trumpeting for Modi from 2007 onwards. The band of the big bourgeoisie also started chorus with it. In 2009, Sunil Mittal, Chairman, Bharati Airtel said, He is leading a province, but he is able to lead a nation. Anil Ambani said in January 2014, Truly Narendrabhai is the God of the people, leader of the leaders, king of the kings. And Mukesh Ambani said, He is a leader with great foresight. Ratan Tata is also fulsome in praising Modi. Recently, in a study among the CEOs of 100 companies of the country, 75 were in favour of Modi and 7 were in favour of Rahul Gandhi.

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Like the Congress, the BJP also has been getting money for their election fund from the corporate. They have received Rs. 104.12 crore in 2004-05 which has increased to Rs. 258 crore in 2009-10. Now one can easily perceive how much they can get in 2014 by the grace of APCO. Corporate like General Electoral Trust (Aditya Birla), Torrent Power Limited, Bharati Nirbachani Trust, Asianet V Holding Private Limited, The Electoral Trust and ITC Limited are in queue to give money. A number of companies among those 105 attached to the coal block allocation scam have given money to the Congress and the BJP in return for which they have managed to steal Rs. 186000 crore. Both the Congress and the BJP have received money from foreign companies. Till 2011-12 the BJP has got Rs. 1942.5 lakh. The donors areVedanta, Dow Chemicals etc. They have given money to the Congress also. So, it is clear why these parties are bound to protect their interests. The BJP has got Rs. 58 crore from the manufacturing sector, Rs. 17 crore from the oil and energy sector, Rs. 17 crore from the real estate sector. Still the identities of 75% of the donors, who have given money to the political parties, are unknown till date. Till January 8, 2014, the BJP had not submitted the list of their donors of 2012-13. Grossly the BJP has received more donation than the Congress. The BJP has received Rs. 192.47 crore from 1334 companies, while the Congress has received Rs. 172.25 crore from 418 companies. So, it is clearly understood who are standing beside Modi and Brand Gujarat. The giant plunderer companies of the world along with those of the USA and the Indian comprador corporate giants are standing beside them through the warmonger, conspirator APCO Worldwide.

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) 11.42% respectively. The growth rate in agricultural field is 6.47% in Gujarat, 7.74% in Maharashtra and 15.17% in Bihar. So, NaMo cannot secure first position anywhere except in communal violence. In fact, in the political economic scenario of India, after replacement of the energy-basis from coal to petroleum the fiscal growth rate of Gujarat and Maharashtra has always remained well. There are 40 ports in Gujarat, which deal with 20% of total Indian cargo transport. All villages except 170 were electrified before Modis coming to power. The growth rate of this state was 12.9% during 1992-1997 period. So, the progress reports of other CMs preceeding NaMo were same if not better than him! Along with the exaggeration of economic progress, let us look into another aspect. It is being said that the Gujarat Model of land acquisition for industry is a great success. From June 2013, the peasantry of Gujarats Mehsana district, where the factory of Maruti-Suzuki is proposed to be set up in Special Investment Region, has started movement against it. They have announced that they will start bigger movement if the policy of SIR is not repealed by the government. The peasantry of Bhavnagar district has also started movement against land acquisition for a nuclear project. Agitation is going on against the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Railway Hub. The example of acquisition of land in Sanand Mehsana area for TATA Ford Maruti is of no use now. According to NSS statistics the place of small and marginal farmers in rural growth is decreasing. In spite of the growth in agricultural sector employment generation has decreased in Gujarat. During 1993-1994 to 2004-2005, the rate of growth of employment generation was 2.69%, which became almost zero in 2009-2010, because the main target of the economy is making of highest profit and not the eradication of poverty or generation of employment. Naturally, neo-liberal economists like Jagadish Bhagwati are campaigning for Modi. And only for this reason, the rural poverty is higher in Gujarat than that in Maharashtra or Tamilnadu. What is the condition of the people in Modis state? Let us go through the Human Development Indices. In 2011, the number of malnourished children was 38.8%, whereas, in Maharashtra it was 23.3% and the national average was 41.1%; that is, Gujarat is not in a good position with respect to the national statistics. Child mortality rate is a measure of the status of health of a province. In Gujarat, it is 41 per 1000 children and the national average is 44, whereas, in Tamilnadu it is 22 and in Maharashtra it is 25. In

Brand Gujarat and NaMo, the cannibal

The BJP and the Sangh family are campaigning for Modis incomparable Gujarat that after so many days, Modi has done a great job. Through the Vibrant Gujarat Summits etc. various types of propaganda works are going on as per the plans and the conspiracies fabricated by APCO. Let us see the truth instead of this falsehood and exaggeration. Modi has been the Gujarat CM since 2001. In the period 2004-05 to 201112 annual average growth rate of Gujarat is 10.08%. During this period growth rates of Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, Bihar are 10.75%, 10.27% and January, 2014
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case of the sex ratio, Gujarats score is below the national average. In the NaMo state, the number of females per thousand male is 918; the national average is 940. Therefore, the Gujarat model of development is nothing but falsehood, exaggeration and hoodwinking.

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML)

Corporate Patronage, Middle Class Anger and Policy Concensus Among Ruling Class Parties

The cannibal is trying to hide its sharp claws under velvet paws
The party named BJP is familiar as a Hindu chauvinist, anti-Muslim party. In the disguise of national chauvinism, this communal party has been carrying forward the fascist agenda of its mother organisation. Its leaders are stained with the blood of Babri Masjid and Godhra massacre. The role of the leaders close to Modi in the Godhra massacre has been exposed. It is also exposed that with the patronage of Modi, the administration and police played shameful roles in Godhra episode. Modi government is infamous for killing the minorities in fake encounters. Naturally, the BJP and its leader know very well that keeping the large sections of Indians who are religious minority in a agitated state, it will be very difficult to come to power. The ratio of the minority votes are very high in UP, Bihar, Goa, Assam, West Bengal and Maharashtra. So, by taking a bit softer stance regarding the Muslims they are trying to cross the threshold of election as was done by the Goa CM in relation to the Catholic Christians of Goa. But one of the General Secretaries of the BJP has uttered the truth, The party is in confusion. They want to raise the correct slogan, but dont want to put off the cloak [of Hindutva]. The slogans of Good governance and Brand Gujarat are only its temporary tactics. The cannibal and its [Sangh] family have temporarily hidden their bloody claws under their velvet paws only to attack the soft target at a suitable time to tear it off into parts; as it has recently done in Mujaffarnagar. The BJP's politics splits the unity of the toiling mass by Hindu chauvinism. Through communal violence it creates an atmosphere of communal split, disbelief and hatred among the toiling mass. It weakens the anti-feudal, anti-Govt. and anti-corporate struggle of the rural peasantry for land, water and forests. In the urban and industrial belt the unity of staff and workers against capital breaks down. So it is so important to expose the true face of BJP and Modi, its leader, tearing off the mask of good governance and development. January, 2014
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AAP and its Impact on the Political Scene

Aparna
In an exhuberant outburst, a new party Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) emerged on the political scene in 2013 and has gone on to form the Govt in the Delhi Assembly. The speed with which the Party has blazed into the political scene, the energy it has unleashed especially among the middle classes, its torpedoing into peoples consciousness away from the lacklustre ruling class parties with their rusted promises, has also given the events a sense of unreality. The promises of the new Govt. have elicited excitement and expectation from the people, not only in Delhi but also in other states. The immediate roots of AAP lie in the Anna anti-corruption movement. 2011 was witness to a powerful outburst of peoples anger especially in Delhi, against exposures of monumental corruption in scams, while people themselves were groaning under the burden of rising prices and middle classes facing stagnation and crisis in the course of the global economic crisis. Thus there was a convergence of reasons behind the huge mobilizations of middle classes, disaffected upper sections of workers and others at that time. The scams exposed in UPA IIs tenure were of mammoth proportions and there was a seemingly endless chain of them. The ruling elite stood exposed and it was clear that gangs of ruling politicians, top bureaucrats and corporate with upper echelons in the media were hand in hand, all together, shamelessly looting the countrys natural resources. The Radia tapes showed how corporate and big media not only manipulated power but also tried to dictate who should be in power. These exposures of loot and plunder while people themselves faced deteriorating conditions of life and work along with growing suppression of legitimate struggles, made these scams a target of peoples anger. This was compounded by the peoples' seeming helplessness to punish these looters or to ease their own burdens within the system in the face of a

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policy consensus of ruling class parties. The middle classes were already restless and had come out in a variety of large mobilizations. Into this situation stepped the team under the leadership of Anna Hazare. This team gave an immediate goal of a Lok Pal Bill, thus channelizing peoples anger. A section of anticorruption activists who had mobilized the groundswell of middle classes with the disaffected working masses pouring out behind them, and widely using social media for this mobilization while managing the Anna Hazare hunger strike, have over the past year, formed AAP. In Delhi and in the rest of the country it has successfully mobilized these sections. They came out to vote in the Delhi Assembly elections. In the excitement and fervour it aroused, AAP went on to form the Govt in Delhi with the help of a decimated Congress. For cadre, AAP has drawn on known NGO figures and on the vast NGO personnel and network in India. Not all NGO sections have joined it. Several, especially those associated with European funding, who had also refrained from joining the Anna movement, have chosen to remain away from AAP. AAP is not austere. The election propaganda in Delhi included edge to edge hoardings, huge banners throughout the city, vehicles, buntings. AAP itself is not reticent about money at all, ascribing it to donations pouring in and openly asking for money on every and any occasion, proudly declaring the collections , asserting it takes money from corporate but does not serve those who pay it. Middle classes, irritated with the hypocrisies of ruling class parties, do not disapprove of this. Other ruling parties, with their hiding of their corporate sources of funding, their fawning to falsely prove motives of service to poor all this is pass. The effect is of a well planned flourishing enterprise. All modern tools of communication and work which middle classes are familiar with are in routine use. Work is mapped out on computers, tasks detailed there is an American style of functioning which goes down to conducting primaries among the people for candidates etc. Most leaders of AAP state that they were doing other things but were bothered about corruption. To fight corruption one has to fight elections i.e. the system is cleansable from within, so here we are. It is all evocative of the class they have primarily galvanized- upper sections of middle classes who approve of globalization, scorn the ruling elite for overlooking these sections, want its benefits, are aggressive and quick, social media reliant and pro American. January, 2014
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Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) AAP has released new enthusiasms, new energies and this stirring up of stagnant waters is both important and welcome for the fighters for thorough- going change i.e. communist revolutionaries. There are deeper contexts for the emergence of AAP as a phenomenon and these need be discussed.

Why AAP? - Crisis of Neoliberal Policies and the World Wide Result
The context of the birth of AAP is to be seen in the context of the global economic crisis. This put the neoliberal policies touted by compradors and puppets world over as well as by imperialists, into crisis. One effect was anger and frustration in the upper middle classes whose upward march was suddenly arrested. Their wage hikes decelerated, there were pink slips, amenities slowed down. Second, they watched the Govts come out to support the higher echelons, the big bankers etc., to save them but not their sections and this created a deep seated sense of alienation. The last bore fruit also in a third aspect, which is that among intellectuals, the crisis knocked down the TINA factor (There is no Alternative) liberating the thinking process from its chains. These restless classes went into action in one country after another with the disaffected upper sections of working class following. In one country after another, the middle class poured into the streets against economic policies of rulers which were hurting it, against corruption and corrupt regimes of the despotic compradors or puppets in power. There were huge mobilizations, use of SMSs and social media, and demands for change in Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, several other countries in Middle East. The feature is that they did, no doubt, bring down dictatorial regimes but other sections of ruling classes clambered into power on their shoulders. The jasmine revolutions were quickly splattered by the blood of the protestors by the old obdurate rulers in most of such upheavals. In the same light but less widespread and less intense are middle class mobilizations in imperialist countries like the wall street movements, movements in Italy, with diffuse working class support. Around the same time there have also been massive mobilizations of working class in several European countries but much less propaganda about them though they targeted rulers for neoliberal policies attacking their wages and benefits.

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Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) recruitment based on merit. It thus can be used against reservations. It marks out active bribery of national, international or foreign public officials, passive bribery of a national public official, embezzlement of public funds. It calls for cooperation between civil society and other bodies and specifies protection for witnesses and whistleblowers. (The Lok Pal bill the AAP Govt. intends to pass for Delhi has a provision for whistleblowers.) The implementation of the UNCAC is eventually monitored by the UN Office of Drug and Crimes. In 2008, the UN Secretary General and World Bank Director said that the fight against corruption is our main work in developing countries. In 2008-09, the UN came forward with a move on Tranparency in Governance. In 2009, India Against Corruption (IAC) was floated by several NGOs in India and a number of RSS elements. They organized several programmes but did not evoke much response. The CAG exposures of t he Commonwealth Games scams and 2G scam provided fuel to the movement. Further, at this time the exposure of Neera Radia tapes, which drew attention to the role of corporate and media and implicated them, took place. With this, these sections geared into action to divert attention from themselves and also to wash their hands off the matter. In August 2011, IAC launched the fast of Anna Hazare in Delhi. Anna himself was a longtime avowed Gandhian crusader of Maharashtra with a small local level organization. Media and NGOs helped Anna and his associates in the mobilization. At this fast, political parties were not allowed to address the gathering or even come on the dias, though several functionaries of the BJP were present under different banners. After this movement, the corporate sought to divert the activism released into electoral channels. Leading corporate big wigs argued that such movements create a lot of negativity and halt governance, meaning that the Govt. hesitates to take steps desired by them and that the only way to fight corruption is to fight elections. Anna Hazare's hunger strike in Mumbai in December 2011 was declared a failure ab initio by media though it did draw a good crowd on the first day. There started a debate among NGO circles who were part of Team Anna over the formation of a new party. The AAP was born when a section of these activists formed a political party, with the section linked to BJP and some others refusing to join. In the period between the movement and the formation of AAP one of the

Imperialists focus on Corruption

Since 2003, some years after the launch of neoliberal policies and approximately six or seven years after WTO came into effect, the UN started activity centred on corruption. Why corruption? Neocolonial loot involves participation of comprador Govts, and its apparatus, and these extract their share of the loot in bribes, payoffs, and other such. The anti corruption movement under Anna Hazare offered a concrete attack against these sections in the form of the Jan Lokpal Bill. It attacked the politicians and bureaucrats who shared the loot of the corporates, while of course leaving unscathed the corporates as well as the policies which facilitate and promote this loot of the people and the country. For the common people, their experience is that these same sections which directly rule the country also rob the people and the country by looting people directly for themselves and also in facilitating the loot of corporates, for example, by privatization of services and then allowing exorbitant loot by these companies while themselves enjoying paybacks and cuts while the people groan under the burden of exorbitant bills. In 2003 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) to which India is also party. It was the first global, legally binding international anticorruption instrument. UNCAC requires that states implement several anticorruption measures which may affect their laws, institutions and practices, including criminalizing certain conduct and providing effective legal mechanism for asset recovery. Its aim was to protect sustainable development i.e. to ensure effective loot of countries while restricting the share of compradors and their machinery. While the Convention initially stressed on bribery, it has been developed in subsequent conferences to deal with other forms like trading influences, abuse of functions, various types of corruption in private sector and also has a chapter on asset recovery. This Conference established a Conference of State Parties (CoSP) and many smaller bodies including Implementation Review Committee.The UNCAC specifies transparency in financing of election campaigns and of political parties (something AAP did initially before taking off the list of donors from its website stating the donors complained of being harassed by other political parties. The alternative reason is that the list of corporate donors elicited negative reactions from some sections.) A second formulation is that state parties must ensure that their public services have January, 2014
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leaders who is now among the spokespersons of AAP, Mr. Prashant Bhushan, had clarified in a detailed article published in the Hindu that while the procorporate policies allowing loot of the country are the real source of corruption, AAP would not oppose these policies but would fight corruption. More recently, Yogender Yadav , another leader and spokesperson of AAP, clarified in an interview that AAP policies were neither left nor right but they would see what works and support it. The third feature to be noted in this context is the NGO network in the country. The NGO phenomenon is important in developing countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa. It is a phenomenon conceived by imperialists to divert the struggles of peoples movements along reformist lines to keep them within the control of imperialists. Since 1980s, when American backed NGOs came under scrutiny for their funding, began the phenomenon of money laundering with funding being channelled via Scandinavian countries like Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands. This vast NGO army in India with its tentacles well wound around middle class intellectuals have either European or American funding. World Bank is also a funding agency and often enough money is channeled through the Govt. of India itself. It is the pro American NGOs who are visible in the AAP phenomenon. Arvind Kejriwal himself is an erstwhile Magasasay awardee.

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) In India , several massive movements of people have taken place against corruption at times when the system was in crisis, the lot of the people worsening and anger boiling over onto the streets. These anticorruption struggles were led by ruling class leaders and provided an avenue to cleanse the system from within. India has seen three major anti corruption mobilizations since 1947. The JP movement was followed around fifteen years later by V.P. Singhs movement against corruption. Over two decades later came the Anna Hazare movement. However there is an important difference. The JP movement targetted the then ruling Congress which had a virtual monopoly over power and JP took the opposition parties along. The VP Singh campaign was limited to only electoral alternative to the then ruling Congress.Anna Hazare hunger strike came after two decades of implementation of new economic policies when there was policy consensus among the ruling class parties and people were despairing of an alternative. Pre elections to the assembly, there was in Delhi a notable level of pessimism and fatigue with both Congress and BJP. Disillusionment with Congress rule, loot and arrogance was complete in middle classes and also working class, slum dwellers and poor; BJP with Modi was also the corporate induction and alternative but the response was not so definitive. But the corporates, while backing these, also helped formation of a new party. It was aided by the continual propaganda for almost a year by corporate media, relied on the huge network of NGOs and social media and involved large sections of the alienated middle classes and also got the benefit of the anger of the poor and working class. It has drawn the former sections which might either have stayed away or voted NOTA (NOTA the rulers were forced to accept as a formal button by the Supreme Court, but the move was pushed by the same class) to participate enthusiastically in the electoral process. The polling percentage of Delhi in this election is higher than previous years. It seems the corporates have seen that the ruling class parties they have been backing appear jaded to the people especially the restless middle classes, and have floated this new alternative to retain the anger within electoral channels, keeping alive funding to other comprador parties as well. Thus Jindal gives funds to Congress and BJP too, but also huge donations to Anna Hazares Dharna at Delhi and also to AAP. It is equally true that cororate are not one block and different

AAP Enters The Political Scene

The economic crisis and its deepening by continuing loot by rulers and corporates led to widespread dissatisfaction among the people and anger against the policies. Sections of middle classes of India are not against globalization but restive and frustrated as failure of neoliberal policies is affecting their privileges. India is perceived by compradors to have, in international context, a large and widespread revolutionary movement. Different sections of the middle classes in Delhi have been on the move in recent years, in mobilizations for the release of Binayak Sen, for conviction in the Jessica Lal case, in the anticorruption movement of Anna Hazare and after the 16th December gangrape. Mobilizations of middle classes against sexual violence on women, though to a lesser extent, are also a feature of Calcutta and Mumbai. There was urgent need to ensure that these mobilizations were kept in electoral confines. January, 2014
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sections will back one specific ruling party or another. There is this interesting aspect. AAP openly takes massive funding from corporates and went so far as to put up the sources of its crores on its website, (they included Vedanta Chairman also) but suddenly pulled it off as murmurs began to get reflected in national media. They also have substantial foreign funding which they say is from NRIs. The aspect needing attention is that uptil now exposures of political parties taking funds from companies used to draw flak from media and public, but now it appears to matter not to intellectuals and media of course has no negative comments.

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) use more than the stipulated amount will pay for the entire water use (not just excess) at the hiked rates. Also, Jal Board is already installing meters which Kejriwal had earlier demonstrated would record units even if air was blown into it, but the point is that AAP Govt. is not stopping Jal Board from replacing old meters with these meters in colonies, so the units shown used will surely be inflated. AAP maintains it is not forcing consumers to change meters! There is a more serious catch. Piped water is available to only 65% of Delhis residents. The rest depend on Jal Board pumps (operated by mafia), on tankers directly sent by Jal board or brought through politicians often under fixed charges. Many jhuggi areas have pipes laid, but no water flows through them, tankers come once a day, sometimes once in two days and give nothing like 666 liters per person. To give water to Delhi at 666 liters per head per day, the water mafia must be tackled, tankers sent with relevant amounts and water must be available in the pipe lines laid out.

Slogans of AAP
AAP charmed the people of Delhi with a manifesto in which the bills of electricity would be cut and 700 litres of water per person per day would be delivered free to the consumer. There is a background to these issues. Post privatization of electricity distribution in Delhi, an authority the DERC (Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission) was set up to decide tariff rate. Initially corporates went slow to make privatization acceptable, and then began demanding high tariffs. Matters came to a head when DERC Chairman, Brijender Singh, recommended a 30% tariff cut instead of the hike sought by corporates, showing how the companies were falsely showing revenue losses. Shiela Dixit changed the Chairman overnight, and the tariff hike went through. RWAs (Resident Welfare Associations) of many middle class colonies have been agitating against the hikes, against inflated bills, and the ex DERC Chairman is now in AAP. This tariff cut in Delhi is entirely possible as the sources of profiteering and their devious methods to expand expenses are both in public knowledge; the issue is how far AAP will disturb these corporates by pushing through public audit of their accounts. Kejriwal has announced a subsidy to those drawing less then 400 units; it has disappointed many of his corporate followers, as also some sections of middle classes who are antisubsidy and is seen by his opposers as buying time. Regarding water, the sale of water by mafia linked to Jal Board and ruling politicians; corruption of Jal Board officials down the line and a movement against privatization of water (by NGOs, by RWAs) was already in existence in Delhi. The way AAP Govt has implemented this slogan is by announcing 666 litres per day per person free, for those with metered piped water. However, it has also hiked water tariff by 10%, and those who January, 2014
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AAPs Political Programme?

Does AAP have a political programme? Its top leadership awovs not. They sometimes say they are evolving a common thinking from their disparate backgrounds, sometimes they call themselves anarchists, at other times agents of change. And some other times, the inherent political positions of the partys leaders peeps through. Kejriwal himself was earlier one of the leaders of Parivartan, an NGO drawing a number of IITians and which was an important component in caste based anti reservation agitations. Yet Yogendra Yadav, another top leader, stated that reservations based on gender and for sections socially discriminated against were supported by AAP. He later quickly clarified he was misquoted the vote base of AAP and also base of many of it leaders, are pro-globalization, middle class, upper caste, who violently oppose caste based reservations, ostensibly to defend merit. In Uttar Pradesh, AAP has opposed reservations in the state civil service exams, but said they were not against reservation but against the particular notification. Yogendra Yadav is from CSDS (the Centre for Studies of Developing Societies) which is long known as one of the foremost receivers of laundered money. Projected for either Parliament or the Haryana leadership, Yadav has repeatedly stated that he will approach the khaps in Haryana directly, for electoral support. In later interviews he tried to blame translations of his words for this impression. Later, Arvind

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Kejriwal explained in detail that khaps are only a collection of people and in India people have a right to assemble. If khaps take an illegal decision that can be opposed. This is an important revelation. Khaps are organizations of powerful landlords of dominant castes, with the biggest landlords as leaders, and they are certainly not democratic organizations even within a caste. They work through decrees to preserve the status quo, are partriarchal, antidalit and anti women. In its manifesto AAP writes that it wants to change the relation between people and governance and bring about a change. Immediately after taking oath at Ramlila Maidan, Manish Shishodia, a central AAP leader and Minister in Delhi Govt, stated that AAP has brought about a revolution without weapons. But AAP is corporate backed and goes to landlords for electoral purposes. What it reaps there is not the issue. The parties of the big bourgeoisie big landlords in India, are ruling class parties. Corporates are flocking to AAP. Apart from donations, one of the Owners Association of IMT ( Manesar Industrial Area) issued a press release that they were all joining AAP(TOI 5thJan 2014). Manisha Lal Gupta (ex Vice President of Axis Bank) and Meera Sanyal ,ex CEO and Chair Person of Royal Bank of Scotland have left their jobs, joined AAP and are slated to be candidates for parliamentary elections. Ms Sanyal had earlier contested elections in Mumbai as an Independent and lost. Mr. Gopinath ( Chairman Deccan Airlines) continues to remain a member though he opposed Delhi Govt.s decision to ban FDI in retail. Not only does AAP receive funds from Anil Aggarwal, Jindals and other corporates, Kejriwal has openly praised TATAs. These are among the corporates involved in the loot of mineral resources in various parts of the country as is clear from various reports on Odisha, Chhatisgarh, Goa, Karnataka etc. In several of these states there have been militant fightbacks by tribals and peasants against this loot of their land and livelihood, these protests being supported or led by communist revolutionaries. AAP leaders disapprove of these fightbacks is clear from their repeated pronounements against "violence" by protesters, for 'peaceful' change, even while state remains armed to the teeth and trigger happy against the people. On the issues of FDI in retail, the Congress with its allies including SP and BSP had pushed through this proposal in Parliament. It stated that January, 2014
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Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) state govts would be allowed to decide whether to allow FDI in retail. Delhi govt had promptly agreed. BJPs promise to the considerable section of trader class in Delhi was revocation of this decision. In an obvious attempt to attract this base AAP has withdrawn this permission with Kejriwal qualifying that AAP is not against FDI per se, but is not for FDI in retail in Delhi because it would result in rise in unemployment in Delhi. Yet among the members and also friends of AAP, there was a marked change of temperature following this announcement, with several corporates, who are members of AAP, speaking out against this decision. One explained that this meant protecting the market for domestic corporates. For the first time, place is being given in corporate media to reflect these criticisms. In answer, AAP has announced a seven member committee to formulate its economic perspective of these several are corporates, which makes quite clear that the perspective of AAP is not in doubt. As for all ruling class parties of India, who throw a convenient veil over history as it took place, for AAP too, Kashmir is an integral part of India. Prashant Bhushan earlier faced physical attacks by right wing vigilantes for siding with the democratic movement upholding the Kashmiri peoples right to self determination. Now again, post AAP Govts formation, he stated that referendum should be held in Kashmir to find out if people want the army to maintain internal security. As usual, there was a tumult about antinationalism and the army chief stated that the army was not going to leave Kashmir. But the point of interest is that Kejriwal immediately washed his hands off the statement, saying it was Prashant Bhushans personal opinion. That the tumult extended into AAP was clear with Prashant Bhushan stating the same evening that in his view Kashmir was an integral part of India; something he had not said despite physical attacks earlier. Then came an eventual statement from the AAP leader that they would only speak the positions of their party. It is clear that AAPs position is that of ruling class parties of India. Later, in order perhaps to remain in the framework for the democratic movement, Mr. Bhushan called for referendum in central India on whether para military should be stationed there. This time the media underplayed it and there was scarcely any response except some scathing remark from the BJP. Meanwhile, no doubt Mr. Bhushan has realized that the ruling classes draw clear lines which their representatives are just not allowed to transgress; at the first whiff of power

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he has immediately abandoned the position which he had reiterated in the past despite physical attacks by rightist forces. It is pertinent that by and large pro American sections of NGOs have integrated into AAP while others have either remained silent or only extended some support or even criticized the move. It is also clear that with the strengthening of intra imperialist contradictions, there are groupings among the corporates on these lines on with ruling class formations to back.

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) urine samples in public. The next morning the Nigerian representative to India, gave a heartrending statement saying that he felt that he himself 'had been violated'. In the entire incident the racist response of some sections of Delhiites against Africans (as also faced by Indians from the North Eastern states who reside in Delhi) came to the fore. The CMs defence of the Law Minister in this chauvinist action is edifying as also his defense of the same in an older case where the latter had tried to influence a witness in a corruption case in the district court. The same Minister, a lawyer by profession, had named the Danish victim of rape in a mistake. In the case of one Ugandan woman, the Delhi Govt. justified the Ministers action saying that the woman was involved in a prostitution racket. Will this righteous anger and the vigilante method extend to the customers? It is also remarkable that while Kejriwal is so righteous about his Ministers action, he found it necessary to meet the diplomatic representatives of African countries over dinner and assure them that Delhi welcomes their people and that such actions would not be repeated. That the leaders of AAP genuinely do not disagree with their Minister is clear from the fact that he continues to be among their leaders. AAP has also not apologized to the women of Delhi for naming the rape vicim. This entire narrative on womens issues has to be seen against AAP going to Khaps of Haryana patriarchal bodies which impose sanctions against women and ensure execution of same; who defend, bail out and save their youth guilty of gang rapes of landless Dalit girls of the area. This shows up AAPs real character, and what women may expect from it. The womans question is a good filter through which to view grand claims.

Responses on Womens issues

Over the past year or so, issues of women and sexual violence have been burning issues in Delhi. After formation of their party, AAP leaders joined the people of Mongolpuri who were protesting against the rape of a minor and in the scuffle with the police some cases were made and an ACP slapped an AAP activist. In their election manifesto for Delhi, they promised a force for womens security to be raised from among ex Army men. What one more force was going to do is anyones guess as women seek freedom to be secure in society not to be tied up in chains by security forces. Also with the Armys record of sexual violence on women in AFSPA areas this proposed force was hardly an endearing option. Even now AAP has announced no comprehensive policy on womens issues and seems to have spoken up against street violence and rapes then as they were issues at hand in which middle classes were involved in a big way. However entirely new aspects of their opinion on this issue have come forward once the AAP formed the Govt in Delhi.. First, a Danish woman was gang raped in the heart of Delhi in a VIP area teaming with police. CM Kejriwal's reaction, as also that of Amethi candidate Mr. Vishwas ,was that Delhi police is not under the CM. This had been Shiela Dixits response too in earlier cases, but AAP has gone to town against it and correctly. Not only this. The AAP Govt made public the name of the victim despite the several lawyers and scholars among their leaders. Within a few days, the Law Minister of Delhi led a mob in Khirki Village ( South Delhi ) in a vigilante action late at night and forced open the doors to the house of some Ugandan and Nigerian women staying on rent there. The Minister called the police which refused to undertake a search in the absence of women police and on the basis of oral complaints. The mob however forced the women to accompany them to the hospital where apparently they were forced to give January, 2014
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AAP and the Minorities

In the AAPs electoral campaign, Arvind Kejriwal delivered an assurance at a mass meeting in Okhla village that if AAP formed the Govt in Delhi an Enquiry would be conducted into the Jamia encounter. When AAP did form the Govt it used the opportunity of a hamhanded defence of Congress by Rahul Gandhi to announce that the Delhi Govt would demand a SIT enquiry into the 1984 anti sikh violence. Posters of Kejriwal declaiming that Sikhs would now get justice sprouted up in the city without explaining how this enquiry was going to be different from others and why a SIT enquiry still did not give justice to Zakia Jaffery. Anyway, at this time several sections raised the logical demand of an enquiry into the Jamia

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encounters.But the AAP backed out.The CM said the 1984 violence was on the agenda of the party but not the Jamia encounter.When questioned that one of the AAP leaders had fought the case for a judicial enquiry,Kejriwal first said that this was Bhushans opinion , but later stated that though Prashant had fought the case, once the demand was rejected by the Supreme Court the issue was over and Prashant Bhushan had not spoken further on the issue. The context is the Jamia encounter where there was widespread scepticism about the police version and a strong opinion among many democratic sections who took up the issue, that a movement should be launched for a judicial enquiry and that the matter should not be taken to court as a policeman had been killed so the courts were unlikely to interfere or even listen to the version apart from that of the state. However options ended as Prashant Bhushan, who was earlier member of an Enquiry team which had appropriately demanded a judicial enquiry pointing out the many fallacies in the police and Govt versions, went to court. Currently, after Kejriwals position, Prashant Bhushan has not spoken a word- no doubt this is one more decision to alter ones views but not to cross the line drawn by the ruling classes. AAP leaders had not spoken out against the Muzzafarnagar violence despite it continuing for many months. Even while condemning Modi generally or while condemning communalism, they have not spoken on this. May be the involvement of the jat khaps prompted their silence or may be they had not then formulated their electoral strategy for UP. However, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal met Muslim religious leaders as part of the Parliamentary electoral campaign. He also met Muslim intellectuals in Delhi as part of the same which seems to have so overwhelmed them that no questions were raised about AAPs silence on Muzzafarnagar and backtracking on Jamia. On these issues, only communist revolutionaries are consistently speaking up and working.

Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) Contract labour does not mean merely those employed in few establishments of Delhi Govt. It entails contract teachers in govt schools and private schools, nurses, doctors and a vast army of contract workers in private hospitals and other institutions as also the industrial areas of Delhi. To regularize contract labour involves treading on corporate and industrialists toes. A large number of contract workers sat on dharna outside the secretariat with the Delhi CM refusing to meet them, decreeing decisions on their jobs as a matter of policy. This of course it is. As the guest teachers and the DTC contract employees emphasized in their dharnas, this question was to be considered before making promises. Eventually the AAP Govt. on the one hand delivered an ultimatum to rejoin or contract will be terminated, on the other it gave a verbal assurance to the DTC workers and a written one to the teachers to regularize them in one monththe carrot and the stick. The strikes have ended for now. However it is clear- for AAPs corporate backers, contract labour is a way to extract more profits. This issue is of class choice for AAP. In the days to come this will be one issue on which they will be forced to expose their position. After forming the Govt, the Labour Minister shifted the focus to include construction workers also. Another huge section, to await the benefits under the Boards promises as he aims to do, entails tightening up the labour implementation machinery which has been consistently whittled down under liberalization. The industrialists are not going to take that lying down. Class issues do not allow keeping a leg each in two boats. AAP after coming to power has taken several populist steps in full media glare like discarding beacons, official homes, police security and other measures. This brought it much approval from a city sick of arrogant governance and pompous looters However there are several other chief ministers and central ministers who do the same. The more serious issue is that six homeless people have died of cold in one night in Delhi; and 160 in all. After assuming office AAP talked of installing 44 porta cabins at chowks where the homeless sleep, but only 5 old buses were made available. It is common knowledge that there are strong vested interests alive in existing night shelters over both space and blankets. The CM brushed aside suggestions that the discarded big accommodations meant for ministers in Delhi be used for the homeless.

Catch point : Working Class and AAP

The India Against Corruption Movement is Delhi saw participation of auto rickshaw drivers in a big way, harassed as they were by police demands for bribes to get their license numbers, etc. This same support was carried over to the AAP party. Further, in the 18 point charter as well as in its 5 immediate tasks, the party kept the issue of regularization of contract labour in Delhi. January, 2014
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Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML)

New Energies, New Tasks.

Some intellectuals associated with the jaded official 'left' have moved to join AAP. Youth, students and corporates continue to volunteer with it. The CPI (ML) Liberation has offered electoral alliance in Bihar to AAP, while the CPM has announced grandly that the AAP is implementing its proramme. Where does that leave the CPM? However it is true that the context of AAPs rise,the high media publicity and the promises of AAP have aroused tremendous expectations among common people and some conviction that AAP will deliver. This is especially true of contractual workers. Workers should be organized to initially repeatedly remind the Govt of concrete promises and eventually to push the Govt to act. All steps against corruption, if actually taken and especially against the corrupt Delhi police ,will give tremendous relief to the people. It is only by remaining within the masses that we can carry them forward once the ruling class character of this formation asserts itself . The situation calls for energetic and creative response from revolutionaries to channelize the energies and movement of workers towards positive movements. The intellectuals have been seduced by NGOs over decades; yet a section does stand with Marxism and revolutionary movements and can be lead to expand its numbers. The entire situation makes it clear that India is in turmoil. Rulers themselves are clear that they are unable to rule in the old way. Dynastic Congress is talking about holding primaries. The people are restless, change is the watchword and the battle is on to shape the change. Communist Revolutionaries must step up their efforts for revolutionary change.

For the Rights of Construction Workers

IFTU National Committee Calls for Delhi March on 13th March

In India construction industry is said to be the third largest in terms of the number of people employed. It is estimated that about 45 million people are engaged in different types of works. Labour from rural areas work in this sector in a big way. In the last thirty years this sector has grown enormously what with the real estate business, construction of malls, high rise buildings, corporate offices and IT companies, roads etc. As per a current report of the Planning Commission in the coming ten years the workforce in this sector will reach nine to ten crores. There are forty three categories of workers in this sector ranging from the mason, carpenter to plumber, bar-bender. There are two modes of employment in this sector, those hired to work in various projects and those who go to the innumerable addas for being taken to workplaces for construction work. Labour in the construction industry face innumerable serious problems that warrant serious attention. The ILO has categorized the work in this sector as the most risky. Workers work for long hours and get meagre wages. They are mostly uneducated and migrant who sweat it out in places without any facilities and safety equipment. Frequent accidents snuff out the lives of these workers or cause serious injuries to their bodies. Though many of the labour legislations like the Minimum Wages Act, WC Act, CL Act, Migrant Workmens Act are applicable to the workers in the construction industry, they were never enforced and till 1995 there was no specific law providing rights and protection to the workers of this sector. After a lot of dithering, the rulers brought in the present laws in 1996. They are, the Building and other Construction Workers (Regulation and Employment) Act and Welfare Cess Act. Like the many other labour laws that have remained on paper these two laws, ostensibly meant to protect the construction workers, have remained unenforced by and large though it is almost seventeen years since they came into existence. Way back in November 2011, the Supreme Court made serious comments on the state of implementation. It said, All states and union territories had failed to honour the Apex Court's orders for full implementation of the BOC Act 1996 and BOC Cess Welfare Act. It further said, We direct them to show

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cause why contempt proceedings be not initiated against the concerned officers. Again in February 2012, the Supreme Court pronounced, We make it clear that in the event of any default committed by any officer\official\authority we will be compelled to take action..without further notice. In many states, governments have collected 1-2% cess on construction work running into crores of rupees. It is a matter of fact that the monies collected thus have not been used for the welfare of the construction workers and there is no serious attempt on the part of the administration to properly channel the money for the purpose it is actually meant. Under the conditions it is necessary that the construction workers are organized in a struggle to get the benefits of the legislations implemented and to expand their rights in order to live a better life. As part of launching such a struggle the national committee of IFTU is organizing a Rally in New Delhi on 13th March, 2014. Demands: 1. Registration of every construction worker and the responsibility lies with the owner/contractor under whom the work is done. 2. Remove all fees other than registration fee. 3. Every construction worker should be given a bicycle. 4. Announce openly the amount collected and spent for the welfare of construction workers under the Welfare Cess Act. 5. Build night shelters with proper amenities for migrant labour and create designated labour shelters. 6. All workers should be provided PF and ESI facilities. 7. Retirement benefit of pension amounting to not less than minimum wage should be provided. 8. In cases of accidents all expenses should be borne by the Board. 9. Safety kit should be supplied by the Board to all construction workers. 10. An insurance cover of Rs. 5 lakh to all registered workers . (Abridged version of the Call issued by National Committee of IFTU) January, 2014
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Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML)

Comment

Parliamentary Elections and People's Issues

Electoral battle for next parliament has been going on in earnest. Main contenders for power are positioning themselves to obtain or retain power. Contenders and pretenders are enthusing their supporters and trying to convince the gullible of their calculations of how they and they alone can come to power. Promises galore are being thrown as freebies, knowing full well that the people have no way to force that they are honoured. There is so much noise from the top i.e. Election Commission downwards that people should vote that it belies peoples ignorance or disinterest to rule by themselves. Five yearly festival is round the corner and people are being cajoled and coaxed into participating in it, to give mandate to a select bunch to rule over them till next festival, to exploit and crush them in their own name, to heap burdens on them for their own good and of their own asking. Through these elections the state will wear new clothes, will renew itself to continue the old game. It is the irony of bourgeois parliamentary democracy that only a fraction, that too a small and superficial fraction, is elected while the main state machinery continues unelected and partakes the peoples choice colour by association with the fraction thus elected. The officials which run administration, the police which control illegality and disorder, judges who administer justice, and organs of the state who ensure that the present state of affairs continues, are unelected and unaccountable directly to the people who are said to be the ultimate arbiters of power. Backed by money, media and muscle power (3 Ms), candidates are paraded before the people in electoral swayamwar to choose from. The choice is limited by the control over three Ms. Disgust of the people was threatening to boil over. Came forward the highest court with None of the Above (NOTA), emasculated of any relevance or significance luring the people to come to booths to renew the contract of rulers. Larger attendance is cited as a proof of the popularity of performance, and projected as a proof of peoples acquiescence with their misdeeds and acts against the very people and as a proof of the vitality of the present system.

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Thousands of crores are being spent to make the people aware of the blissful lives they are leading under the present rule, to hear the cacophony of what who would do if elected or re-elected to power. One estimate put it above Rs. 30,000 crores. Who knows? Carefully choreographed moves of the contenders or actors, one liners played thousand times to effect. Cynical moves to divide the people on parochial lines are part of the game. Symbols sans substance, slogans sans content and claims sans performance circulate freely. And yet in these elections main contenders for power, products and beneficiaries of this system, are projecting themselves as outsiders. Narendra Modi who demolished BJP's field of PM aspirants with the help of RSS, projects himself as the challenger to Delhi Sultanate, the regional chieftain marching with his army to take central power and set things right there with the help of the party bureaucrats willing to comply. In every meeting he never forgets to project himself as the outsider needed to cleanse things up as all insiders have neither the will nor energy to do the same, but cleansed it must be. He brings with him his model of development, a heady mix of all out service to corporate and Hindutva, that communal polarization to ward off all evils of unity of oppressed classes against the rule at Delhi. He sells his ware as better than those of the incumbent who prides himself not for service to the people of this country but for forging close relations with the dominant world power, who did everything he could to further open Indian economy to loot and plunder of foreign capital claiming credit for contribution to ameliorating economic financial crisis in developed capitalist countries. What price after all is bigger for saving the countries he is proud of associating with. His satisfactions and regrets do not relate to what he could or could not do for the people of this country. Here comes Modi, not to correct these priorities, but to show how much was not done and how much more can be done not for this country but for the foreign powers. After all, to him, that is the only way to develop the country. He prides himself for making his state gateway to India for entry of foreign companies, and now he is coming to follow it up with giving them free reins of Indian economy. It will, according to him, benefit the Indian people, like the oats fed to horses some of which make their way to sparrows. He is blaming the incumbent not for doing what he did, but for not being able to do more. The other claimant, scion of Nehru family, Rahul Gandhi, is also positioning himself as an outsider to the present power. He claims to be January, 2014
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Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) unhappy with so many things in the present state of affairs that it belies common sense, his being heir of the ruling family of the Party in power, an MP from Amethi for a decade and a top functionary of the ruling party since 2007. He claims his sight is fixed on empowering youth and women, without answering as to who and what stopped him from pursuing these objectives over the past ten years when his Party was in power. He is projecting this vision only to deflect accountability of the present. Increasing unemployment is depriving an increasing number of youth of their role in the socio-economic life of the country while they are being made victims of lumpenization and drugs whose rackets are being run under the patronage of ruling politicians. Women are daily subjected to harassment and violence besides facing inequality, discrimination and oppression at home and outside. He is trying to evade responsibility of the present while enjoying privileges of power. Projected PM candidates of both major parties vying for power are claiming themselves to be outsiders. Then there are the perennial ones of the regional parties who are positioning themselves to storm Delhi, and now there is a new entrant to this outsider club, leader of AAP, the ultimate outsider in the ruling class sense. The question naturally arises why every claimant is so positioning himself/herself as an outsider. 'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark'. And that is not far to seek. People are braving the brunt of the economic policies being implemented by the Central Govt. Economic crisis is deepening with slowing growth rate particularly affecting manufacturing. Agr icult ural production r emains st agnant . Unemployment and underemployment is increasing sharply. Per capita food grain availabiltiy is declining while children and women are increasingly suffering from malnutrition and anaemia. Prices of essential commodities are rising sharply with Govt. taxes contributing much to this price rise. Corruption has remained all pervading. External and internal debt has risen sharply with debt repayment consuming large part of the Govt. revenue. While there is need of increasing Govt. expenditure on welfare schemes and building productive capacity, Govt. is under pressure from corporates to cut down Govt. spending particularly targeting subsidies on fuel, food and fertilizer. Govt. is doing symbolic acts for relief to the poor while distributing largesse to big business. Its recently enacted Food Security Act is a case in point where the Govt. has reduced entitlement while increasing coverage with very little increase in overall outlay. MGNREGS has long run out of steam

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with its low coverage, even lower wages and high corruption and now the Govt. has even reduced allocation for the Scheme. Govt. has embarked on facilitating FDI in all possible ways even jeopardizing employment and people's livelihood. Sector after sector has been opened for foreign investments. Indian ruling classes have pursued FDI led growth model and its crisis is all too glaring. Ruling classes and their Govts. are embarking on this failed model, blaming their failure on incomplete implementation and prescribing speeding up on the same path. This in fact is the road to ruin. They have no clue nor any willingness to address the problems faced by agriculture which employs three fifth of the workforce of the country or by the industry. They address neither the problems of the backward areas where agriculture continues to be largely rainfed and carried on largely by backward means nor of the areas of Green Revolution where exploitaiton of soil and water with maximum use of chemicals- fertilizers and pesticides- has gone beyond the sustainable limits and growth rates and productivity are falling. They have no will to address the problem of indebtedness of peasantry nor provide any help to small peasants who can not afford implements of their own. Ruling classes have virtually given up on land reforms even formally, while reversing them in some states. Even whatever land distribution occurred earlier, the problem of possession dogs the allottees. Courts including higher judiciary has been most biased in cases of land disputes and have been against landless poor peasants in their conflicts with landlords. This semidfeudal agrarian structure continues to be the main social base of the ruling classes in the country. Landless poor peasants have no hope from the Govt. and land owning peasantry has no relief from them. Industry is suffering from low demand and high linkage to foreign capital stunting production. Govt. is unwilling to tackle the question of increasing purchasing power of the common people which can fuel demand. With prices of agricultural produce not keeping pace with rising cost of inputs and vast working class in unorganized sector deprived of the statutory minimum wages and rights, the purchasing capacity of the overwhelming majority of the population continues to be low. But these and the like, issues of the people, are not the issues of ongoing campaign. Corporate media has kept the agenda of election within narrow confines. Media, which has always been influencing public opinion, has come a long way. Its reach has increased and electronic media has January, 2014
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Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML) sharply risen over the last two decades with corporate ownership. Its role has changed from favouring an alternative to fashioning an alternative. It is not allowing the issues of the people to come to the fore. Sensationalizing the events it wants to focus on, triviallzing the issues of the people and marginalizing the forces fighting for the people have been the watchwords of the present day corporate media. Its open support to neoliberal economic policies and deriding even minor divergence from these keeps the main claimants to power within a narrow confine on the question of economic policy. It used to always favour some select ruling class politicians but now it resurrects them from the scratch and like its reach quite rapidly. In the current elections, corporate media is projecting development and corruption as the potent issues. It is projecting Narendra Modi as a man of development and Kejriwal as the man of the moment. One totally sidelining issue of corruption with his bombardment of development and the other with his Jan Lokpal Bill as panacea for curing the ill of corruption, both agreeing with corporate supported new economic policies. For one corruption is a non-issue, for other it is not linked to the policies underlying it. Corporate media with its diverse interests and diverse source of funding, yet wants to keep the whole debate within this narrow compass. Drilling this message day in and day out, they wish to decisively influence the outcome of the coming elections. They have much to defend. A rule is stable only when the ruling classes control not only those in govt. but also those in opposition. And as the opposition gets wider, they spread their net wider to bring additional personnel into their service. These elections are in a way important. Ruling classes fear the increasing fragmentation of ruling class politics and growing political instability. While they are trying to keep this fragmentation within manageable limits they are arming the state with draconian laws to meet the challenge of rising people's struggles which inevitably intensify in periods of instability as people's conditions are any way serious. People are groaning under the burden of economic hardships but their issues are not the issues of ruling class parties or the corporate media trying to shape the agenda. People are being given the long rope while immediate benefits are cornered by the ruling clases. Change is being pre-empted and a virtual change is being dished out. It is for the people to bring forth the agenda of real change and they can do so only by intensifying their struggles. And for this they must come out of the quagmire of this virtuality to move onto reality.

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