New Democracy, December 2014

NEW DEMOCRACY
Disillusionment Setting in
against Modi Govt.
Ever since coming to power at the Centre with a clear majority in Lok
Sabha, BJP-RSS dispensation led by Narendra Modi has been blowing its
own trumpet of having restored investors confidence and kickstarted
economic growth. However, being aware of the hollowness of its claims,
Modi Govt. has been showcasing Modis foreign visits, portraying him almost
as a rockstar drawing orchestrated crowds arranged by big teams of RSSBJP cadres and govt. officials sent for the same. However, this show could
not continue for long. The dire straits of the economy has started catching
up with the party in government which had claimed that price-rise,
unemployment and corruption will pack their bags the day Modi is sworn
in. After six months in government, all indices of economic growth are
down. Rupee has fallen to over 63 per dollar and trade deficit has widened
despite steep fall in the crude oil prices in the international market by
nearly half. Index of industrial production has registered 4.2% contraction
in the month of October 2014 and a mere 0.7% growth over last six months.
Agricultural production is in stagnation. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley keeps
on making noises of spurring up growth with worn out phrases with
diminishing effect.
Narendra Modi Govt. had declared and taken to implementing economic
policies of Manmohan Singh, rather removing speed breakers and
bottlenecks in their implementation. This is the tragedy of repeating the
failed policies hoping for different results. Export led and FDI driven
neoliberal economic model pursued by Manmohan Singh Govt. had started
spluttering after world financial economic crisis had depressed western
markets and competition for the market share further intensified.
Quantitative easing and fiscal stimulus could not restore the high growth in
the face of continuing crisis. In the background of allegations of mega
scams, corporate propped up Modi to rescue the neoliberal economic
policies from the peoples anger. Modi has brought nothing new to the realm
of economic policies except to fulfil the wish list of Manmohan Singh Govt.
like cutting fiscal deficit, making anti-worker changes in labour laws and
handing over possession of mineral rich lands to MNCs and Indian corporate.
Despite getting a bonanza of lower crude prices, Modi Govt. has reduced
December, 2014
Organ of the Central Committee, CPI(ML)

funds for MNREGS and to scientific research. It has embarked on antiworker amendments in labour laws pushing changes in apprenticeship act.
It has stealthily done away with environmental norms for clearing projects
and is working to change LAAR.
Corporate, who had grown disillusioned with Manmohan Singh Govt.s
ability to carry forward these reforms, are getting impatient with Narendra
Modi Govt. too. In a close door meeting of corporate bigwigs held on
December 6 and reported by Economic Times (December 9, 2014) the
sentiment expressed was that the hope generated by Modis ascension to
power is waning.
Modis pitch for Make in India is a mindless imitation of the Chinese
experience. He has repeatedly invited foreign companies to start production
in India and has promised to remove all road blocks for them facilitating
their exploitation of cheap labour and market here. But the crucial question
that he is probably not competent to raise and his advisors are content in
not raising is make for whom? Indian share in world exports is abysmally
low and with European markets continuing to be in crisis, is not expected
to rise. Naturally Modis call is going unheeded. Reserve Bank of India
Governor Raghuram Rajan has chipped in with his remark to replace Make
in India with Make for India meaning thereby that production should be
enhanced not for foreign markets for which there is little scope but for
domestic market. But capitalists do not make for satisfying needs of the
people, but for profits. And that brings up the question of effective demand
i.e. demand backed by purchasing power. The reality is that purchasing
power of the overwhelming majority of people is going down. Then how do
you make for India?
The whole ambit of the policies of Modi govt. is in the opposite direction.
Modi Govt., going further on the course set by Manmohan Singh govt., is
just repeating the catchphrases of neoliberal economists that growth will
follow if capital, in Indian context primarily foreign capital, is allowed free
reign. To facilitate this, workers wages are being further depressed by
increasing insecurity of employment through contractualization and doing
away with enforcement of labour laws almost completely. From peasants
including tribals, land is sought to be taken away striking at their means of
livelihood. FDI in retail to facilitate entry of foreign retail giants would generate
far less jobs than it would obliterate. In short the whole policy thrust is to
impoverish the people to attract FDI launching propaganda that this would
somehow ultimately benefit the common people. This obsession with FDI
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NEW DEMOCRACY
is to please the corporate who have an umbilical linkage with imperialist
capital, through machinery and technology, capital and markets. It is failure
of Modi Govt. on this front with resultant downslide of rupee exchange rate
which is causing dismay among the corporate.
If we look at the macro-economic picture, the performance of
manufacturing industry is going down for past several years while agriculture
is stagnant. These are the two largest employers in the country. The question
of infrastructure is unaddressed as the govt. has pinned all hopes on private
sector. Many of the corporate had pledged for development of infrastructure
but few had invested. Many of them had withdrawn during UPA regime
citing bottlenecks for the delay in projects. But even with Modi govt. pledging
to take care of the bottlenecks, investments are nowhere there. Indian
compradors have not come far from Bombay Plan (Birla Tata plan) marking
infrastructure development (with huge investments and slow rate of return)
to the Govt. and now successive govts. are leaving this for private sector.
This back and forth game has left large tracts of the country enmeshed in
backwardness and appalling lack of infrastructural development.
Coming to industry, particularly manufacture, there is a huge demand
deficit. Even as Modi is beating the drum both here and in foreign countries
about 'Make in India Indian industry is working at 70% of the installed
capacity. Even capital goods sector is at 60% of where it was in 2011.
With so much unused capacity what is needed is not make in India but
consume in India where overwhelming majority of people are in crying need
of basic necessities of life. There is so much scope of expansion in India
and yet the successive govts. have been opposed to this course dictated
by the interests of classes they serve and represent.
India is home to large number of hungry and destitute, far in excess of
our share of the world population. A majority of women in child bearing age
suffer from anemia, a vast number of children suffer from malnourishment.
A large number of our people suffer and die of diseases which are easily
curable. A recent report documented that India had nearly 40% of modern
slaves (of the total of over 35 million) and our share in human trafficking is
also very high. Indian rulers can have satisfaction of having made India a
world leader in all these dubious fields. But all these do not move our
policy makers who are intent on maximizing profits of the corporate leaving
vast masses in the countryside to vagaries of nature and savagery of
landlords, who have been the most reliable ally and social prop of this
imperialist dominated march of development.
December, 2014
The economic crisis in the country is much deeper, the hardships of

the people much more unbearable and their sufferings much harsher than
revealed by the official statistics or admitted by ruling politicians. Most of
them trade in empty promises and sell dreams only to intensify their
exploitation and oppression. Modi has proved to be a good exponent of
this ruling class art, obviously aided by corporate media. Six months into
power and there is not even the beginning of any respite from unemployment,
only providing employment to RSS hordes to foment communal trouble
and to its henchmen preaching obscurantism. Though crude oil prices have
come down to nearly half with no role of Modi govt., this Govt. has not
transferred this reduction to consumers. Modi Govt. has increased excise
duty on petroleum products to mop up money from this drop in oil prices.
Prices of medicines for common ailments and for emergencies have gone
up sharply. Prices of essential commodities continue to be out of bounds
for the common people.
Is there no way out of this quagmire? The stating of the problem itself
suggests the solution. The need is to increase the purchasing power of the
people. This can only be done by improving the lot of the overwhelming
majority of the people- workers and peasants. This can be done by carrying
out land reforms by giving land to the tiller and helping development of
agriculture both by providing cheap inputs and guaranteeing remunerative
prices thereby improving the lot of the biggest work force of the country.
The lot of workers can be improved by implementing labour laws and
guaranteeing living wage to them in all branches of production. And for this
their trade union rights must be respected and their living conditions be
improved. Only on the basis of agriculture and industry, the well being of
peasants and workers, the economy can flourish. It is not that this
elementary truth is not known to the rulers. But they are bound by dictates
of imperialist capital and narrow interests of comprador big capitalists and
big landlords so they are unwilling to implement. Their development plank
is not class neutral, it embodies interests of the ruling classes. And their
media does not let show any chink in the armour, does not let any policy
alternative be projected.
With Modi Govt. unable to deliver on its promises, and patience of the
people showing signs of wearing off, it is time to intensify struggles of
different sections of people on most burning issues. These struggles will
also provide immense help to counter the RSS-BJP plan to foment communal
troubles and to communally polarize the society.
December, 2014
NEW DEMOCRACY
Bardhaman Blast-Beyond
the mainstream narrative
Amit Chakraborty
It is interesting to note that the Chief Minister of West Bengal, in a
public meeting on 24th November, stated that the Bardhaman blast which
occurred on 2nd oct 2014 in Khagragarh could be a conspiracy hatched by
Indian intelligence agency Research & Analysis Wing (RAW). This statement
created a furore among RSS-BJP leaders along with the parliamentary
opposition including mainstream Lefts. Ms. Mamata Banerjee also said
that she was in the Central Government for 23 years and she knows how
things happen!
Sarada scam has defamed Trinamool Government putting two of its
MPs into jail and at present CBI is putting pressure on Ms. Mamata Banerjee.
This must have prompted her to put forward this sort of serious allegation.
Shamik Bhattacharya, the newly elected BJP MLA from Basirhat stated
that Ms. Mamata Banerjee is the only Chief Minister of India who has
made allegations against RAW in this way and he also criticized her sense
of nationalism. Siddhartha Nath Singh, BJP leader, also criticized her.
Question may be raised why Ms. Banerjee, who claims to be very honest,
tolerated these sorts of conspiracies organized by RAW for last 23 years.
But whatever may be the intention of Ms. Banerjee, this statement needs
serious appraisal.
What Happened in Bardhaman ?

On 2nd October 2014 a bomb blast occurred in Khagragarh, a small
village in Bardhaman district. Two persons died and one was seriously
injured. Immediately after the blast, before the investigation started, all the
national media and BJP leaders started saying that this is conspiracy by
Muslim terrorists and West Bengal has become a safe haven for Muslim
terrorists. They started an anti Muslim propaganda in the name of border
infiltration by Bangladeshi Muslims.
December, 2014
Within a few days NIA & NSA came into the picture, top officers arrived
in West Bengal. They started raids in neighboring areas of Khagragarh.
News of the arrest of Jihadi Muslim terrorists, confiscation of arms and
ammunitions flooded the media. NIA chief & National Security Advisor
both of them visited West Bengal. It was like a Sherlock Holmes story!
Wherever NIA went there was breakthrough and success! Electronic and
print media of Bengal started beating the drums for NIA. BJP ministers
started blaming Trinamool Govt. for supporting Muslim terrorists and
appeasing Muslims. The NIA raid in Khagragarh used a poor Muslim teenage
boy to hunt out explosives. Only when he found something NIA heroes
entered the room with sophisticated equipments. Such was their bravery!
Media deliberately forgot to mention this. Only when Association for
Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) and some Muslim organizations
protested against this, then only it came to the limelight. NIA claimed it
had confiscated JIHADI books! Media published their photos. People thought
how efficient our NIA is! But actually those books were primer Arabic books
called Nurani Kayda which are taught in madrasas along with some books
like Mrityur Bhalo Upay a Bengali book of 124 pages quoting texts from
Koran and Hadis discussing the inevitability of death and another book
consisting of 452 pages published in 1986 by Golam Mortaza named Chepey
Rakha Itihaas (The suppressed History) which has been highly appreciated
in academic circles. After bomb blast media and NIA informed us that it
was a ploy by Bangladeshi Muslim terrorists and Khagragarh was their
den. They claimed that Bangladeshi Mujahideens (JMB) were involved in
this incident. NSA chief Ajit Doval said India and Bangladesh are working
hand in hand against the terrorists. It is very fascinating to find that neither
RSS nor BJP mentions that Bangladesh, a Muslim majority country, is
fighting against Muslim terrorists because this will expose their anti Muslim
Hindu fascist grand design. Moreover they are blaming West Bengal TMC
govt. but avoiding mentioning that the border is managed by BSF which is
under Central Govt. only.
What is beyond Bardhaman blast?

In the last Lok Sabha election Mr. Narendra Modi, in his electoral
campaign in West Bengal, raised the question of huge Muslim infiltration
from Bangladesh. In a recent article published in Economic & Political
Weekly (EPW) there is ample data which shows population increase in
West Bengal is lower than national average and also lower than Gujarat.
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The population increase in Muslim majority districts of West Bengal like
North Dinajpur, Malda is either lower or same as population growth of West
Bengal. This proves that infiltration issue was deliberately raised by Modi
to pursue communal division and hate campaign against Muslims. BJP
leaders in Bengal followed in his footsteps. After coming to power at the
Centre, BJP is eyeing the 2016 West Bengal assembly election. Now BJP
has stopped practicing countrywide communal riots and started practicing
Amit Shah-Modi tactics of fomenting local communal riots and polarizing
non Muslim and Hindu - dalit votes. In the first three months of Modis
regime Uttar Pradesh has witnessed more than 700 local communal
disturbances, Bihar about 170. With the ensuing Delhi assembly election
there also communal conflicts are being regularly manufactured by RSS
activists and BJP MLA-MPs. In West Bengal they are trying to organize a
few local communal riots. They have been successful in organizing a few
but that is not sufficient to foment sharp communal division in West Bengal.
They are organizing RSS and Goraksha Vahinis to raise communal tension
but a bomb blast creates more news and sensation. So there is a bomb
blast!
There are few interesting twists & turns in Bardhaman incident which
should be mentioned. One suspected terrorist was reported to have been
arrested from Dumdum in Kolkata. Immediately newspapers made headlines
of the arrest. National and state BJP leaders issued statements that Kolkata
is the safe haven for Muslim terrorists. Finally we came to know that the
man was arrested from Murshidabad but that never became a headline.
One Ms. Fatima has been arrested. She has been alleged to be a Jihadi.
Newspapers reported that she said that there was an Indian intelligence
spy among the five involved in Bardhaman blast and he provided information.
Now if this be so why cannot the blast be organized by intelligence team
for finally unearthing a Jihadi group of Bangladesh and BJP-RSS enjoying
the benefit of blast. We are all aware from Malegaon bomb blast how Hindu
fascist RSS nexus are operating within Indian intelligence and security
organizations. Now that BJP-RSS is in power, they will definitely help them.
In a recent article published in Outlook Magazine (8 th December 2014
issue) there are several reports contradicting the NIA claims. The suspected
terrorist, Karim, who died in the Bardhaman blast was identified by his
father Jamshed. But Jamshed denied this claim and told the Outlook
correspondent that NIA people brought a decomposed body which was far
December, 2014
beyond recognition and insisted that Jamshed identify it as his sons body.
Moreover the blast victims post mortem injury description did not
corroborate with the decomposed body which was brought to Jamshed, the
victims father as claimed by NIA. Shakeel Ahmed, another blast victim
and Mr. Hakim, another alleged Jihadi who survived the blast, were reported
to have stayed in Khagragarh house but the house owner Mr Chowdhury,
who rented out the house, was never requested to identify the person by
NIA. Mr. Parvez, a local police informer who first accompanied the state
police force to the blast site, told that the victims right eye was blown off
but Karims body did not have such an injury. One Amjad Shaikh nicknamed
Kajal was claimed to be a Bangladeshi terrorist (JMB) but was actually a
resident of Kirnahar of Birbhum district and was a SFI activist. His father
has said that he himself took his son to NIA and now NIA claims that they
have arrested Kajal from his hideout! All these contradictory reports suggest
that NIA is either trying to hide something or is manufacturing a story.
The Bardhaman blast has given impetus to BJP organization in West
Bengal. After that BJP-RSS have started aggressive campaign in favour
of Modis policies. Recently in Dumdum they blocked 60 trucks carrying
cows to Bangladesh and released them on Jessore road. The cows started
running which created huge chaos in the locality. They said that those
cows were being smuggled to Bangladesh for slaughter. The media is
tightlipped and investigative journalism by media barons on this issue is
absent. But the question is: apart from cows many important items like
oil, food products are regularly smuggled across Bangladesh border? Are
they not illegal? Basically the cow issue will lead to a communal colour
therefore BJP is interested in it.
Conspiracy? RAW-Mossad-CIA-ISI-RSS nexus?

Now there are a lot of self contradictory reports observed in Bardhaman
blast. Moreover few points need to be discussed further and one is the
conspiracy issue in this bomb blast. Why is the conspiracy issue being
raised here?
The conspiracy issue has not been raised for the first time in a blast
case. If we remember Hemant Karkares death in Mumbai terror attack on
26th Nov 2008, it is still a mystery who killed him and who instructed Mr.
Karkare to fight terrorists without proper bullet proof jacket. It was Mr.
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Hemant Karkare who was getting life threats because he was fighting Hindu
terrorists of Malegaon blast. He unearthed the RSS connection in Malegaon
blast. Why would he be killed by Pakistani terrorists when his investigations
would have exonerated Batla house accused and also Muslim boys arrested
from Azamgarh would have been acquitted? In an article published in The
Milli Gazette on February 2011 Mr. Amaresh Mishra, a Congress leader,
has accused RSS and notorious Israel Intelligence agency Mossad nexus
and alleged that Mr. Rakesh Maria, the Mumbai Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS)
chief, is a Mossad agent.
Shyam Chand, former Minister of Haryana and author of Saffron Fascism,
in an article Ugly hidden face of terrorism : Vigilance is the price of liberty
published in Mainstream weekly September 2008 exposed the conspiratorial
activities of saffron terrorists. He said Phone fakers were invented by the
CIA & Mossad before 9/11 which was an inside job of both of them. The
same phone fakers are used in India. Innocent people are arrested on the
basis of calls made through these phone fakers. He also said The nexus
between RSS & Mossad is worth investigation.
Urdu Journalist Aziz Burney and Amaresh Mishra, during the terrible
aftermath of 26/11 Mumbai incident, stated that the event was a CIA/
Mossad/RSS/ISI plot. They claimed that the IB knew about Headley, the
double agent of CIA. They raised the fact that the SIM cards used by the
ten 26/11 terrorists were purchased by an Intelligence Bureau (India) (IB)
informer. Till date, the investigations into the 26/11 case, which the IB was
handling, have been unable to state as to how the ten terrorists got hold of
these SIM cards. They alleged that if the chargesheet against Sadhvi Pragya
& Raj Kumar Purohit in Malegaon blast is read then there will be ample
evidence to find that Hindutva group RSS took crores of rupees from ISI
and IB was aware of it. The visit of a RSS linked intellectual to meet a
Muslim fundamentalist leader in Pakistan and prime accused in Mumbai
attack, after BJPs Lok Sabha election victory proves that the allegation
may not be baseless.
In search of 'other' voice

Post 9/11, the western world has tried to impose their anti terrorist
narrative worldwide. Their state and media constructed Islamophobia based
on circumstantial evidence avoiding directevidence. The fate of hundreds
of innocent Muslims all over the world in the course of Framed Damned
Acquitted state is an unfortunate reality. India is no exception to this.
Recently Manisha Shetty has published a book Framed, Damned,
Acquitted : Dossiers of a very special cell. In this book of 200 pages all
the innocent Muslim people who were framed by Indian state as Terrorists
related to Al-Badar, Huji, Lashker e-Taiba and finally acquitted by Indian
courts have been elaborately discussed. Late Subhadeep Chakraborty, a
documentary film maker, in his film After the Storm has shown the
miserable condition of innocent Muslims- who were framed by Indian security
and Intelligence agencies- after they are acquitted. In another film he has
shown six innocent Muslims who were killed by Indian state in a fake
encounter. Samir Khan, who was killed in 22nd Oct 2002 and finally proved
to be innocent by Gujarat High Court, was one of them. The story of Prof.
Gilani in the parliament attack case and of several Muslim youth rounded
up from Azamgarh repeats the same story. It is very unfortunate that the
parliamentary Lefts are also speaking the same narrative. CPM leader &
Ex-CM of West Bengal Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, during his tenure,
had stated that Madarsas are the birthplace of Muslim terrorists. Immediately
after Bardhaman blast, CPM West Bengal state secretary Mr. Biman Bose
reacted and issued similar statement as that of BJP. When we look at the
Bardhaman blast we should not forget all this history.
To conclude, we have to challenge the mainstream narrative of war
against terrorism with alternative logical data and other voice. RSS ploy in
Bardhaman blast appears to be part and parcel of that global conspiracy.
Every secular democratic citizen must contend against them without diluting
the fight against all forms of terrorism and fundamentalism.
In this background the JMB (Jammat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh) terrorist

involvement in Bardhaman blast may be a greater conspiracy hatched by
RAW-RSS-Mossad-CIA ISI nexus which has given pro Hindutva BJP
force an advantageous position to consolidate their organization in West
Bengal.
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Another Black Law : Consign it to

the dustbin of history
S. S. Mahil
First choice of Indian and international corporate, Narendra Modi, is at
the helm of affairs as Prime Minister of India. Modi, even before coming to
power, had clearly said that he will not only continue the policies followed
by Dr. Manmohan Singh, he will deliver where Manmohan failed to deliver.
It makes the direction of the Modi government very clear. UPA govt. signed
many memoranda of understanding with Indian and Multinational Companies
but most of those could not be put into effect because of peoples resistance
against the govt. efforts at displacing them to acquire land. Now it is more
than clear that Modi govt. is going to adopt all methods of high-handedness
and resort to brutal repression to fulfill the promises given to the corporate.
Statements rejecting any dialogue with Maoists, sending of more forces
and allotting of more funds for suppression of left wing extremism,
retrogressive and anti-worker amendments in labour laws and proposal of
anti-people amendments in land acquisition act (LARR) clearly show the
direction of Modi government. Following the footsteps of its senior partner,
Punjab government led by Prakash Singh Badal is moving in the same
direction. Punjab government brought a draconian law, named Prevention
of Damage to the Public and Private Property Act, 2014 in the last session
of Vidhan Sabha, which was summarily passed without any opposition by
Congress party, the only opposition party in the assembly. Now it is lying
on the table of the Governor.
Punjab government passed two such draconian acts in the year 2010
too. One was the Act with the same heading and the second one was
Punjab Special Forces Act, 2010. There was widespread opposition to
these two black laws then. CPI (M-L) New Democracy had held a massive
demonstration against these laws. A joint front of mass organizations was
formed despite the opposition from certain forces, like CRPC (M-L) and
CPM Punjab. Left wing parties of ruling classes and their mass
organizations remained aloof from this struggle. This front organized protests
in many forms, including a massive rally at Ludhiana and a blockade of
Chandigarh for one full day. Thus Punjab government was forced to withdraw
December, 2014
11

these two acts. Now Badal government left Punjab Special Forces Act
and certain portion of the Prevention of Damage to the Public and Private
Property Act which was branded prima facie untenable in the court of law
and got the Prevention of Damage to the Public and Private Property Act
passed. People are once again fighting against it.
There are certain changes in this Act from the same Act of 2010. First
thing is that in earlier Act there was a provision that any organization seeking
to organize a protest, demonstration, dharna or procession will have to
take prior perm ission fr om t he Police Commissioner or Deputy
Commissioner in which organizers will have to disclose the purpose, number
of participants and slogans which shall not be against the government, and
permission depended upon the sweet will of the concerned authority. Now
this provision has been dropped. But it has been made more stringent in
some other aspects. Here we will discuss some of the most anti people
features of this Act.
Sections 2 of this Act defines the forms of protests which will come
under this Act. Previously demonstration, dharna, procession were the forms
of struggle which were covered under this Act. But in the present Act not
only above mentioned forms of protests but agitation, strike, hartal, bandh,
march, rail blockade and road blockade are also included. In Punjab a
certain organization of unemployed educated youth is adopting a novel
method of protest. They climb up the water supply tanks and refuse to
come down till their demands are met. One girl, an ETT teacher, died in
this and at many places they had to face police brutality. Though this form
is not specifically mentioned in this Act but this also can be conveniently
brought under it. These new inclusions are very dangerous on two counts,
one is agitation and the other is strike. The word 'agitation' has a very
broad meaning. Any article written, any press statement or any leaflet or
pamphlet issued on the issue concerned can be said to be an agitational
material. Not only that, even an indoor meeting, discussion on the matter
concerned can be called agitation. Any activity on a particular issue of
struggle can be termed agitation. Secondly, inclusion of strike in the purview
of this act has very dangerous implications. This form of struggle is the
weapon of workers, which they have attained after long drawn struggles for
decades. Industrial workers work inside the factory, especially in the
organized sector, which is the private property of factory owner and on the
machinery provided by owner, so a worker can easily be trapped saying he
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has damaged the property. Thus this law effectively takes away the right
of the workers, without even touching the labour laws and effecting any
change in those laws. Rail and road blockade, which was a very effective
method of struggle, is also affected by this law.
Section 2 of the Act also deals with the organizations which are covered
by this Act. This includes not only the political parties but mass
organizations, class organizations, social organizations and religious
organizations also. Its fangs are not limited to the political parties and
other organizations but affect individuals and groups of individuals. Another
dangerous aspect is that not only the persons who are rounded up or are
present at the scene of occurrence are to be trapped but the leaders and
members of the organization which organizes the protest can be implicated.
Another dangerous aspect of this Act is sub section C of section 2 of
the Act, which defines the term organizer of protest. This states that not
only the unit of the organization which gives a call for protest but the whole
organization shall be held responsible and all its members and all its leaders
shall be booked under this law. Person causing damage will not be the only
person to be booked but whole assembly will be punished, this is an effort
to make the fighting toiling people leaderless. Persons who organize, incite,
advise, guide, assist, support and conspire for an act are defined as
organizers. With such wider scope of the term organizer, persons providing
place/hall, tents and sound, supplying water and providing vehicles for the
transportation of the participants can be implicated. Practically, with this
definition of organizing, any protest will be virtually made impossible. Apart
from it with this definition any person who supports such struggle, gives a
statement in support, collects fund for struggle, provides a meal to the
striking workers, writes an article justifying the cause of struggle shall be
liable for punishment under this Act. This Act effectively debars any struggle
from getting any outside support.
Police videographed protests earlier too, but it was without any legal
sanction but this Act not only provides legal sanction to such videography
rather makes it legally mandatory. Sub-section 2 of the section 3 deals
with this. Such videography shall be used as evidence in the court of law.
Earlier also this was admissible in the court but it was not taken as a
primary evidence, this has to be substantiated by some other independent
evidence. This was so because photographs or video are evidence which
can easily be tampered with, can be doctored, images can be superimposed.
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With the advancement of technique this has acquired dangerous proportions.
But according to this Act video will not only be admissible as primary
evidence but accused can be convicted solely on the basis of this evidence.
This provision of this Act is violative of the Indian Evidence Act as it is in
contravention of the Central Act.
Property in this Act is not properly defined. In the absence of a clear
cut definition, the term property can be stretched to any length. For example,
if in a crowded demonstration the cycle of a person suffers some damage,
it can easily be termed as damage to the private property. Similarly if in a
candle or mashal march any govt. hoarding catches fire it can be termed
as damage to govt. property caused by fire.
This Act treats agitators as more dangerous than hardened criminals
hence it has very stringent provisions of punishment for the so-called
violators of this Act. In case damage to some private or government
property occurs, then person can be awarded imprisonment for three years
and fine up to Rs one lakh and in case damage is caused by fire or
explosion then the punishment can be imprisonment for five years and fine
up to Rs. three lakhs. Not only punishment is stringent but the offence
under the Act is non-bailable. When the accused applies for bail then the
court will have to hear the prosecution. In case prosecution delays its
deposition bail will be delayed automatically. Thus accused can be kept
behind bars for a fairly long period even without rejecting his bail.
Those who come onto the streets are generally poor people and those
leading them are also generally economically challenged, so govt. through
this Act wants to economically hit them. It is an effort to economically
devastate the activists and the leaders of the peoples movement. The Act
has provision of heavy fines i.e. one lakh in case of damage caused
ordinarily and rupees three lakhs in case of damage with fire or explosions.
Apart from this, the Act provides for compensation of the so called damage.
The amount of the compensation is to be determined by a competent
authority, but the Act does not explain who can the authority be? What will
be the basis of its competence? How to judge the competence of the socalled authority? The Act is completely silent on all these questions. In the
absence of clarity on all these issues govt. can assume overriding and
unlimited powers in the matter. In the absence of clear cut guidelines,
Government can appoint any person or persons as competent authority;
though he may or may not be technically equipped to handle the job. For
14
December, 2014
NEW DEMOCRACY
example if in a factory, workers go on strike and the management manages
to damage some machine or any other property and get the workers booked
under this Act, government may appoint the factory owner or one of his
men as competent authority and get the result he wishes. Secondly what
will be the procedure to assess the damage? What will be the basis for
assessment of the damage? What tools are to be employed to make such
an assessment? There is nothing in this Act; there is no detailed explanation.
In this situation the socalled competent authority is given discretionary
powers - power without any checks to make the assessment of the damage.
So in the case of strike in a factory, the owner is in a position to invoke
this Act, get the person of his choice appointed as the competent authority
and get an amount fixed as compensation according to his sweet will.
Thus this Act gives license to the owner to economically ruin the workers
and their leaders.
In the ordinary cases, if some one wants to recover some amount from
some one, the normal course is that he should approach the court, contend
his case there and if court decrees his case then he can recover the money.
But this Act places the recovery of fine and compensation under the
Revenue Act. When British colonialists conquered India, their main object
was to collect revenue, so they enacted this Revenue Act and the same
Revenue Act is in vogue in India till date. Under this Revenue Act, there is
no need to go to the court. The person from whom recovery is to be made
can directly be arrested and can be put behind bars; not only that his
property can be attached and recovery be made right away. This is aimed
at economically ruining the struggling people and their leadership.
Normally, a police officer not below the rank of sub inspector can take
cognizance of the case but under this Act this right is given to the head
constable. He can arrest anybody under this Act. So the pompous freedoms
given in Article 19 of the Constitution are put at the mercy of a head
constable; these freedoms are a chained dog whose chain is in the hands
of a head constable.
CPI (M-L) ND, Punjab unit has given a call to throw away this act lockstock and barrel. Three political organizations, CPI (M-L) ND, INQUILABI
KENDRA and LOK SANGRAM MANCH have come together on a common
platform to fight it. Forty two mass organizations of peasants, rural labourers,
industrial workers, students, youth and employees have formed a joint forum
against the black law, named Kala Kanoon Virodhi Morcha. Forum of
December, 2014
15

three political organizations has held conventions at district headquarters.
Mass platform has held demonstrations at district headquarters and held
three massive rallies at Amritsar, Jalandhar and Barnala. Struggle is
continuing.
Red Salute to Com. Umadhar Singh!
Memorial Meeting in Darbhanga

A memorial meeting in memory of veteran party leader Com. Umadhar
Singh was organized by the Bihar Committee of CPI(ML)New Democracy
on 11th November 2014 in Laheriasarai, Darbhanga. More than a thousand
party activists from Darbhanga and other districts of Bihar participated in
the meeting.
Com. Y. Sambasiva Rao on behalf of the Central Committee of CPI(ML)New Democracy garlanded the photograph of Com. Umadhar Singh and
subsequently the party leaders from different states and the assembled
party activists paid their floral tributes to the departed leader. One minutes
silence was collectively observed in memory of Com. Umadhar Singh after
which the meeting began which was presided over by the spokesperson of
the Bihar State Committee of the party Com. V.K.Patole and conducted by
Com. Raj Kumar Yadav, Secretary of the Darbhanga District Committee.
Com.Y.S. Rao, while addressing the meeting, briefly described the
various aspects of Com. Umadhars political life and said that he spent 8
years in jail for his anti-feudal struggles and after being released from jail
immediately plunged into struggle and led a successful struggle of landless
for capture of landlords land. He organized the workers of Ashok paper
mill and led their struggle till his end. His commitment to struggle on the
peoples problems was exceptional and is an example for all to follow.
Com. Mrigank from IFTU, Delhi, highlighted his deep understanding of
economics and said that Com. Umadhar will remain a source of inspiration
for workers in their struggle against the pro-corporate agenda of the Modi
Govt.
16
December, 2014
NEW DEMOCRACY
Com. Darshan Singh Khatkar, party leader from Punjab, said that Com.
Umadhar was a militant communist from his student days who, being
inspired by the Naxalbari armed peasant struggle, left CPM to follow the
path of Naxalbari. Com. Khatkar said that issues of radical land reforms
and confiscation of capital of foreign and Indian corporate which were raised
by Naxalbari are still relevant today. The independence of our country is
formal and the democracy here is also formal. With the Make in India
slogan, open invitation is being given for exploitation of the labour of workers
of India and the loot of our natural resources. Various types of Black Laws
are being enacted for repression on the people and interference of paramilitary forces is increasing. Taking inspiration from the life of Com.Umadhar,
party activists must forge ahead to intensify struggles.
Com. Sushant Jha, Secretary of the West Bengal Committee of the
party said that under the leadership of Com.S.N.Singh, along with Com.
Rajkishore Singh, Com. Umadhar played an important role in building the
Mushahari struggle and directly led the revolutionary movement in
Darbhanga. In the Bihar Assembly he effectively raised the issues of the
oppressed people. The anti-imperialist and anti-feudal tasks in the country
remain incomplete and the responsibility for completing them is with us.
Comrades Rambriksh Ram (President, Bihar AIKMS), Byas Tiwari (IFTU
state General Secretary), Rudal (Muzaffarpur), Ramnath Yadav (West
Champaran), Ayodhya Ram (Sasaram), Shambhu Singh (Darbhanga) and
Lalu Ram of IFTU, Shamim Raza of Ashok Paper Kamgar Union and others
also addressed the meeting. On behalf of the Bihar State Committee of the
party Com.V.K. Patole called upon party activists to take a pledge in this
memorial meeting to dedicate ourselves with renewed vigour to achieving
the goal of New Democratic Revolution for which Com. Umadhar struggled
till the end of his life. The meeting ended with singing of the Internationale.
December, 2014
17
The Centre and State rulers

are anxious to offer the
coastal belt to the corporate
Krishnamoorty
The BJP and its (NDA) allies are making loud propaganda about implementation of Modi's model from Gujarat, trying to influence the people mainly
middle class and the youth. Modi became PM at the Centre and
Chandrababu CM in AP state. The promise of Runamaphi (writing off the
loans) of ryots also helped the victory of Chandrababu. Soon after he
assumed power, Narendra Modi announced that he has no new policies but
will implement the policies of the UPA government briskly. He also reiterated that his government would offer a red carpet to the corporate. If there
were any hurdles for their establishment he would set aside all such complications, if necessary make amendments to the Acts as it is a must to
take harsh decisions within one or two years in order to improve the economic development of the country. The previous UPA government deceived
the people and served the corporate. The Modi government came to power
with the maximum and open help of the corporate forces and is ready to
hand over the riches of the country very rapidly and obediently. Mr.
Chandrababu, following Modi, wants to implement reforms speedily by
offering everything to the corporate to get their favour in turn.
The then UPA government brought the SEZ Act in 2005 with the object
of offering fertile lands in broad coastal areas and a large part of forest
areas to the corporate for mineral extraction. Thereafter it declared INDIAN
INDUSTRIAL COASTAL CORRIDOR merging hundreds of SEZs. Both Modi
and Babu governments took a firm decision to continue the SEZs. During
the last government's reign 'coastal corridor' was declared right from
Ichapuram in Srikakulam district to Thada in Nellore district in the AP
coastal area. As a part of the establishment of Coastal Corridor, different
SEZs, Pharma Parks, IT Parks, PCPIR, Thermal, Atomic Power Projects
and projects and industries most destructive for people would be established and to attract these, Govt. would liberalize economic policies. The
present govts. are also ready to establish them. As a part of the Coastal
18
December, 2014
NEW DEMOCRACY
corridor Modi govt. announced Vishakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor. PCPIR project comes under this purview. Let us discuss briefly about
the types of industries which Modi & Babu Govts. have declared for coastal
area.
From Vishakhapatnam to Kakinada in the radius of 640 kms, with an
investment of Rs.3 Lakh crores they are going to establish Petroleum,
Chemical, Petro Chemical Investment Region (PCPIR). It spreads over an
area of 1 Lakh 50 thousand acres involving 97 villages of 10 Mandals
(revenue blocks) in Vishakhapatnam and East Godavari districts. In this
project, called VK-PCPIR, industrial institutions including petro industries, mainly chemical and of chemical based products and jute industries
would be there. Not only these, metal fabrication, machinery industries of
material producing industries would be also there at secondary level. In
addition to these, food and drink products, paper and printing, products of
non-metallic minerals, electrical related machinery, automobile related industries and their subsidiary industries would be established.
For the speedy and immediate transportation of the products produced
in the PCPIR industries not only will Govts expand a majority of the roads,
railways and airports but they will also build new infrastructure. They will
expand the national highways under PCPIR from four lanes to six lanes
and the two lanes state highways to four lanes. They will build along the
sea coast a 138 kms long, six or eight lanes express highway cum pipeline from Gangavaram port in Vishakhapatnam to Kakinada port spending
1937 crores.
As a part of Coastal corridor, Vishakha-Chennai industrial corridor area
has been declared a prestigious area by the Central Govt. Vishakha, East
Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore, Kadapa, Chittoor districts
in AP and Chennai, Thiruvallore in Tamilanadu are the areas covered. In
this corridor they are establishing five Developments Centres, each in an
area of 10 thousand acres. These Development Centres are located at
Atchyutapuram, Nakkapalli, Kakinada, Machilipatnam, Nellore and ChittorThiruvallore. Twenty Industrial Clusters are under these centres. Responsibility of supplying electricity, water, skilled employees to these established industries is with the Govt. It will develop Textile industries, Foodprocessing parks, Petro-chemical complexes. The Asian Development
Bank(ADB) will help with loan facilities for a period of first 5 years to create fundamental facilities in this corridor.
December, 2014
19

HPCL in Vishakha will be developed with GAIL partnership to its capacity from 8.3 MMTAs to 15 MMTAs with a capital amount of 15 thousand
crores. In addition to that, in between Vishakha and Kakinada, HPCL and
private partnership will establish a new major Greenfield refinery with a
capacity of 15 million tonnes. So also, with a capital amount of Rs.5 thousand crores, a major Gas storage plant will be established in Gangavaram
port in Vishakha. Gas will be imported from foreign countries, stored at this
plant and sold to the electric plants, manure industries and other industries.
Govt. has decided to establish two floating, storage & reglassification
units in Kakinada dependent on gas t erminals. One of them is
APGDC(Andhra Pradesh Gas Development Corporation)- GAIL (Gas
Authourity of India) partnership and the other has been established by private agency SHELL and Kakinada Sea Port Ltd. Govt. says that gas will
be supplied for industrial and domestic needs by APGDC constructing a
gas pipeline between Kakinada-Srikakulam. The government wants to
start a Petro-Chemical University in Rajahmundry of East Godavari district
to supply technical skilled section for petro gas industries.
Not only does Govt. plan to expand Gangavaram port of Vishakha, but
also new ports will be established. New railway lines will be installed linking these ports with important railway stations. With this idea the authorities sent a proposal to the Central Govt. to expand the Vishakha port with
Rs.100 crores. The Govt. permitted construction of another modern port
with Rs.2500 crores by GMR company at a distance of 30 kms from the
present port in Kakinada. 2100 acres of land has been alloted from Kakinada
SEZ to that Company for this purpose. So also Krishnapatnam port in Nellore
district will be linked with the Chennai-Bangalore industrial corridor. A multi
national corporation (MNC) of Japan, Internation Corporation Agency, will
extend its help to this corridor. Govts. have made up their mind to develop
the Krishnapatnam port as an Industrial Hub. It was notified in the Central
Budget that a Smart city would be established here.
Recently the State Govt. announced its IT policy. It pronounced that IT
Hubs will be established in Vishakha, Kakinada and Tirupathi. The said
two (Vishakha, Tirupathi) Information Technology Investment Regions (ITIR)
and Ten Electronic Management Clusters will be set up in the state. It has
decided to establish Electronics & IT missions with Rs.600 crores budget.
Permissions would be liberalised for IT industries. It is said that Govt. has
20
December, 2014
NEW DEMOCRACY
collected 50 lakhs sq ft. land that costs Rs.1500 crores through PPP method
for the IT Hubs in Vishakha. The State Govt. has already allotted 10 acres
to TechMahendra, 13 acres to Wave Electronics, 71/2 acres to Wipro company in Vishakha. The govt. maintains that employment opportunities will
be available by 2020 through IT industry. So also Central Finance minister
announced in his Budget speech that Kakinada will be developed as a
Elecronic Hardware Hub. The Govts. announced proposals for Metro Rail
Projects in Vijayawada, Vishakhapatnam and establishment of Cyber city
in Vishakha matching Hi-tech city in Hyderabad.
The State Govt has announced a Single Window method for the establishment of industries of corporate companies. It gave a scope to get early
permissions within four weeks of application without any hurdles. Revised
orders would be brought for removing the hurdles and for hardships due to
the Land Acquistion Act made by the UPA Govt. Environmental permissions also will be simplified. Not only that, it has declared that in the
coastal area, the CRZ rules are hurdles in the installation of industries.
They will be reviewed and if necessary rectified. As a part of infrastructure
for the establishment of industries, water, electricity etc. facilities will be
provided. One need not mention subsidies in taxes.
The products of industries to be established in coastal corridor will be
speedily transported by railways and roads which will be expanded and
new ones constructed. Central govt. is converting the Chennai-Kolkata
highway near coastal area to 10 lanes. It has decided not only to develop
road & railway lines but also to develop the inland navigation with less
expenditure. The Centre has identified mainly three navigation routes. They
are 1) Puduchery to Kakinada-767 kms through Buckingham canal, 2)
Bhadrachalam to Rajahmundry-171 kms in Godavari river, 3) Wajeerabad
in Nalgonda district to Vijaywada in the river Krishna-157 kms. It said that
along with Chennai and Kakinada ports, the newly constructed ports will
also be linked.
The Govts. are going to spend lakhs and crores of peoples money in
order to create infrastructure and develop facilities for all the above industries to be installed in coastal corridor. In the name of National Development doors are being completely opened for the corporate sector to grab
our natural and human resources. The maximum effect upto now of the
liberalized economic policies implemented by the Govt. of PV Narasimha
Rao in 1991 can be observed by the people of the country. The people of
December, 2014
21

the country have been experiencing the evil and cruel effects of these
policies. It is unfortunate that our rulers are more interested in serving the
implerialist forces rather than looking after the peoples welfare and lives.
All the industries to be established and those already established in our
coastal area are 90% anti people. They spoil the healthy lives of people.
They are all existing due to the wishes of imperialist countries as they are
releasing pollutants and the people are very angry. Many of them have only
poor technology.Govt is handing over lakhs of acres of rich crop lands in
coastal area at very cheap rate. It has ruined the lives of thousands of
farmers and fisher families and they are on the roads. As the agricultural
lands are allotted to industries, yearly production of lakhs of tonnes of
different food products would be slashed. Guarantee for food protection in
the future to the people will not be available. The required water for all the
installed industries in the PCPIR in the coastal corridor will be supplied
mainly from Polavaram Project. It is decided to supply 1848 million litres of
water daily through the left canal of this project. The present rulers are very
intent on supplying the required water to the industries and on completing
this project immediately, but not for any advantages to the farmers. It is
clear that 300 villages will be submerged and 1.90 lakh people will be
rendered homeless. Polavaram project is for the imperialists and corporate.
The Petro-chemical industries to be installed in PCPIR in coastal corridor will be a source of danger to the people. Danger always vests with the
oil refineries, gas terminals, fertilizer, chemical and drug industries. Not
only the workers there, but the people living there will be facing most dangerous situations. The accidents in HPCL in Vishakha, NACL and Aurobindo
chemical industries in Srikakulam prove this. It is very important to notice
the recent unhappy and unfortunate incident in Nagaram village in East
Godavari district. It is clear that the lives of people will be endangered. The
gas pipes maintained by central govt. organisation GAIL, leaked and burnt
so that 21 persons were dead, another19 persons were severely injured
and hanging between life and death in a govt. organised project. We can
imagine what type of dangers and accidents would happen in future.
People demanded and organised several movements stating that dangerous industries should never be established on their fertile and green
lands. People of Sompeta and Kakarapalli area in Srikakulam district
struggled and took up large movements against the establishment of Ther-
22
December, 2014
NEW DEMOCRACY
mal power plants in wet lands and at the time of the then Govts police
firing, six persons were killed. So also in the same District, farmers and
fishermen near Kovvada-Macchilesam area are struggling hard against the
establishment of a dangerous Nuclear power project. But our rulers turn a
deaf ear and do not care about these movements. Now the newly elected
Central and State govts. are very much interested in throwing away the
public's interests. During the time of firing in Sompeta and Kakarapalli,
Mr.Chandrababu Naidu being the leader of the opposition party, immediately visited the places and said the projects which the people opposed
should not be installed at all. But now he does not utter a word about it.
Prime Minister Modi announced that nuclear power should not be confined
to public sector. They are filling the country and state with danger and
dangerous industries and bringing destruction to peoples lives. As against
this many intellectuals, scientists and several organisations who work for
peoples welfare have reiterated that ours is mainly an agricultural country.
So, the rulers should primarly pay attention to develop the agricultural sector and through the resultant products, suitable industries should be established. They have also suggested the methods to save our countrys advantages rather than to serve the imperialist powers. But our rulers have
turned a deaf ear to all this and they are expecting gifts from the multinational corporations. In another way they are deceiving the people announcing that agri-based industries will also be encouraged. Chandrababu declared he would give top priority to Food Parks in the state. Recently a
multinational corporation of Thailand, CPF(India), submitted to our state
govt. that it will establish chicken processing units with Rs.1000 crores
capital, prawn processing and an export oriented plant and mills for food
products.
The policies implemented by the present Central and State govts. may
attract the youth and middle class and keep them under illusion for some
time. The main reason for this is the media. But the reality of Gujarat
model will soon be exposed. In AP state the real face of Chandrababu will
be exposed. Serving the corporate powers with high speed and the resultant bitter results will be clear before the people. Mainly the middle class
and youth will shed illusions of development and employment. Then the
anger of the people against the destructive methods of the rulers and their
struggles against these methods will move forward shoulder to shoulder
and hand in hand. That time is not far away.
December, 2014
23
Tribal leader Com. Haribandhu

Kadraka arrested on false
charges for opposing Vedantas
mining project
A strong opponent of Vedantas mining of Niyamgiri hills, tribal leader

of Rayagada district and Muniguda block president of Lok Sangram Manch
(LSM) Com. Haribandhu Kadraka was arrested on 19th October on trumped
up charges. This arrest is part of a sinister design to remove and intimidate
opponents of mining in Niyamgiri to favour Vedanta. Naveen Patnaik, whose
govt. had openly backed this project and has been the main promoter of
illegal mining in Odisha as demonstrated by MB Shah Commission report
and who is now bolstered by another supporter of Vedanta, Narendra Modi
in power at the Centre, is out to crush the movement against illegal mining.
On 19th October Com. Haribandhu Kadraka was called by inspector-incharge of local police station that the SP wants to meet him. After reaching
the police station in the afternoon he was told that SP is waiting at the
nearby Bissum Cuttack police station and police got after him to go there.
Haribandhu after reaching Bissum Cuttack did not find the SP there but
was forced to board a Bolero vehicle by armed police present there and
subsequently he was taken to the district police headquarters at Rayagada.
There were levelled false allegations against him and the SP, SDPO and
other police officers present there abused him in filthy language. The very
next day he was paraded in front of the media as a dreaded Maoist by
covering his face with a black cloth and showing some wires, Maoist banners
and live cartridges along with him. The SP told the press that a special
police party caught him while planting a land mine in the jungle. Eleven
cases related to Maoist violence under various sections including the
infamous UAPA were slapped on him. Now he is in Bissum Cuttack prison.
Haribandhu is a well-known political activist of Muniguda area and an
active member of CPI(ML)ND. As the block president of Lok Sangram Manch
he has been active on different issues of the people for the last 10 years.
He has spearheaded the land movement in Muniguda area in which
thousands of landless people, particularly the tribals and dalits of many
24
December, 2014
NEW DEMOCRACY
villages on the foothills of Niyamgiri, have captured hundreds of acres of
agricultural land from the illegal possession of landlords. The police even
arrested him twice in the past by falsely implicating him in cases related to
land movement. After the entry of Vedanta in Niyamgiri area our party
decided to stand with the Dongaria tribals in their resistance against the
proposed mining plan of Vedanta. Since then, as the leader of Lok Sangram
Manch, and CPI(ML), Haribandhu and other comrades of Muniguda area
have been in the forefront of the movement under the banner of Niyamgiri
Surakshya Samiti. He himself belongs to Dongaria tribe and his village
Rajulguda has been the entry point and centre of Niyamgiri movement.
From mobilizing people for anti Vedanta agitation to making the Supreme
Court ordered Gram Sabhas in Niyamgiri successful, his role was very
much positive. He has fearlessly stood against the onslaught of landlords
and dared to go against Vedanta facing many cases. As an activist he has
always opposed the atrocities of police in the name of attacking Maoists
but became the victim of it.
Hearing of his illegal arrest hundreds of people of his village and nearby
villages demonstrated in front of the Muniguda police station on the same
day and on 27th October a joint rally of LSM and NSS was organized in
Muniguda where more than three thousand people including a large number
of Dongaria tribals participated in the rally protesting against the illegal
arrest of Com. Haribandhu and demanding his immediate release. Under
the Chairmanship of Comrade Subash Kulusika, a public meeting was held
in front of the police station where LSM state president Comrade Kushanath
Pradhan, NSS leaders Comrade Lada Sikkaka, Comrade Bari Pidikaka,
Comrade Dadi Pusika and Samajawadi Jana Parishad secretary Linagaraj
Azad addressed and slammed the Naveen Patnaik Govt for his anti people
and repressive measures. The police and the govt. think that by arresting
Haribandhu they will suppress the voice of the people against mining and
police repression but after the successful rally of Muniguda it proved to be
day dreaming.
CPI(ML)-New Democracy appealed to people and all democratic forces
to oppose this cruel and blatant suppression of peoples movements by
imprisoning activists under false and trumped up charges.
Foil the conspiracies of Naveen Govt. in favour of mining barons!
December, 2014
25
Bhubaneshwar : Mass Dharna in front of state assembly

On 15th November, the birth anniversary of tribal hero Birsa Munda,
hundreds of tribals of Rayagada, Kalahandi, Gajapati, Kandhamal and
Ganjam district congregated in front of the state assembly at Bhubaneshwar
to protest against the illegal arrest of Com. Haribandhu Kadraka under
false and trumped up charges.
Organized jointly by AIKMS, LSM and Niyamgiri Surakshya Samiti
(NSS) the Dharna was attended by almost all 'left' and revolutionary parties,
peoples movements and human rights activists including many progressive
intellectuals. Presiding over the Dharna, Com. Bhalachandra, CEC member
of AIKMS, said that since the Modi Govt came to power at the Centre there
is a renewed all out effort to curtail the rights of tribals, farmers and workers
in the interest of corporate. Whatever rights were given in the Forest Rights
Act in the name of ending historical injustice is going to be amended to
loot our resources. Com. Haribandhu was implicated in false cases not for
any role in the activities alleged against him but for opposing the mining
plan of Vedanta in Niyamgiri hills. Vedanta is dreaming of taking away the
bauxite reserve of Niyamgiri after Modi Govt. amends the Forest Rights
Act so that there will be no right of the Gram Sabhas.
26
December, 2014
NEW DEMOCRACY
State president of LSM Com. Kushanath Pradhan also urged the people
to fight back the offensive of Modi and Naveen Govts. to crush the voice
of common people. Speaking at the Dharna, Com. Lada Sikaka, President
of NSS, also criticized the Govt for implicating innocent tribals and mass
leaders like Haribandhu under the pressure of Vedanta and its dalals.
Addressing the gathering, CPI state secretariat member Khirod
Singhdeo, CPM state committee member Sal Marandi, CPI(ML) Liberation
state secreatary Judhistir Mohapatro, CPI(ML) Red Star state committee
member Pramila Behera, CPI(ML) ND Gajapati district committee member
Karuka Sabara, Lok Sakti Abhijan state convenor Prafulla Samantara,
veteran journalist Rabi Dash, human rights activist Biswapriya Kanungoo
along with other leaders of LSM and NSS like Com. Kaduka, Com. Subash
Kulusika criticized both the Central and State Govts for their anti people
and repressive measures and demanded the release of Com. Haribandhu
immediately. At the end a memorandum was given on behalf of the
participating organizations addressed to the state Chief Minister.
Protest at Odisha Bhawan

On 28th Novem ber
2014, Delhi Committee of
CPI(ML)-New Democracy
organized a protest at
Odisha Bhawan, demanding withdrawal of all false
cas es against Com.
Haribandhu, especially
black law UAPA. The
police refused permission
for the programme; despite
that activists gathered at
the gate with big placards,
raising slogans against proVedanta anti-people CM.
The demonstrators were adressed by Delhi party secretary Com. Aparna and
other speakers. The Additional Resident Commissioner met the Party's
delegation and promised to convey the memorandum to the CM office.
December, 2014
27
AP: Struggle of Aurobindo

Pharma Workers
P. Prasad
A struggle is on in Aurobindo Pharma Company of Srikakulam Dist of
AP. These employees fought for the right of formation of union last year.
They had resorted to 83 days strike from 7 -7-2013 to 1-10-2013. Arrests,
false cases, kidnappings, suspensions dismissals etc. frequently took place
then. However finally they got victory, with support of solidarity movement.
Union registration was done. IFTU union is functioning for last one year, in
successful manner. Union also strengthened with increase of 450
membership of chemists. With this new strength, our union gave a charter
of demands for wage revision to the management on 2-04-2014. In this
background, ongoing struggle began.
In erstwhile regime of Chandra Babu, i.e. in between 1995 2004, many
new industries as extensions of old units were established in North Andhra
coastal region. Industrialists and corporate companies were encouraged
by then Chandra Babu Govt. with tax concessions etc. One declared reason
was to avoid pollution in Jeedimetla, Patancheru, Nacharam, Bala Nagar
etc. industrial areas surrounding Hyderabad City. Aurobindo Pharma Unit
was also established in Srikakulam District 13 years ago.
Then Chandra Babu Govt established mainly four industrial belts in this
coastal region, Pydi Bhimavaram, Chilaka Palem, Pusapati Gega and
Thagarapuvalasu. Mainly Pharma units like Aurobindo, Reddy labs, Mylan,
Andhra Organic Ltd. are in above area. Fertilizer units, Aqua units, Battery
Making units, Chemical units are also there. Aurobindo unit is in
Pydibhimavaram Industrial Area.
One rivulet, Kandivalasa gadda, is dividing two Districts- Vijainagaram
and Srikakulam (SKL) at Pydibhimavaram. South side of the rivulet is in
Vijainagaram dist and North side is in SKL Dist. Industries were established
in Pydibhimavaram Village i.e. only on the north side. At Pydibhimavaram,
Aurobindo, Reddy labs Andhra Organic Ltd. etc. big Pharma units were
established. Nearly 20 thousand workers are working (Total work force in
28
December, 2014
NEW DEMOCRACY
above said four Industrial Centres is about 50 Thousand).
Nearly 50% of Pydibhimavaram work force is belonging to Vijainagaram
Dist. & 30% of it belongs to SKL Dist. Remaining 20% are from
Vishakhapatnam and Godavari Dists. Historically Vijainagaram dist is
educationally advanced due to Gajapathi Rajas rule in British Colonial period.
Requirement of workforce for pharma units are skilled, mainly chemists.
Aurobindo Pharma was established in 1970s at Hyderabad, with only
900 workmen, including chemists, but it extended to a total of 11 units. Old
and medium size ten units are located in four Dists, i.e. Hyderabad, Ranga
Reddy, Medak and Mahabub Nagar. All these units have nearly 10 thousand
work force, but the 11th unit which is located in Pydibhimavaram has six
thousand work force.
These big corporate units were established in North coastal area at the
cost of peasants and fishermen mainly. Thousands of acres of lands of
poor peasants were taken by then Chandrababu Govt, by either fraud or
forcibly, with very low compensation. By pollution of these industries,
fisherfolk community are losing their livelihood. Common people got heavy
losses due to these industries, but village elders, contractors, politicians
were benefitted more and more by managements. In some other forms
common people were also established in other new professions and works
which were emerging, mainly in service sector. Local people are following
ruling parties, so they could not understand that they are main losers by
these industries. Moreover major section of rural people there, having
illusions that these industries will give them some type of livelihood in the
form of shops, business, petty trades, contracts and also workmen etc.,
one aristocratic political section (which is creamy layer) has emerged in
the rural area of industrial areas, having command on people. They are
dictat ing to com mon people there. All police s tations and Govt
Administrative officers (MRO etc.) and labour dept. are in hands of big
corporate companies. No independent law implementers are there. This is
the ground situation.
Without Nellimarla, there was no IFTU union in Aurobindo. More than
100 chemists of Aurobindo are from Nellimarla workers villages. And nearly
500 chemists are from villages of Nellimarla, Vijainagram and Gurla mandals
who know about Nellimarla struggle. (100 belong to Jute workers families
directly, 500 belong to Nellimarla struggle impacted areas). Thus they came
December, 2014
29

to form union affiliated to IFTU in March 2013. And also considerable
number of chemists are from villages of Aruna Jute Mill, East Coast Jute
Mill, Bobbili Jute Mill, all of who know IFTU.
Prior to formation of IFTU Union in Aurobindo, CITU & TNTUC affiliated
Unions were formed in some units in above said industrial areas. Though
those unions belonged to revisionist, reformist politics, they were also
crushed by the state due to insistence of corporate. In some units CITU
sustained after protracted repressive acts but after that they colluded or
adjusted with managements. But when IFTU entered in Aurobindo, all
corporate companies of these industrial areas were united in making
attempts to foil it.
After 83 days protracted strike in 2013 (July to Sep), an agreement was
arrived at between both parties in Aurobindo, with three months transfer of
nine union leaders to Hyderabad & RR Dist units. This was part of
victimization, but then we were forced to agree in view of broad interest of
livelihood of 2000 families. As our unity continued and became more stable,
management was forced to honour that clause of Agreement resulting in
nine union leaders returning to the original unit, which created more
confidence in our members.
Management had agreed to recognize our union in the unavoidable
situation then, but planned to destabilize our union. Repeated attempts
were made by them in last one year. Soon after we succeeded, management
offered promotions and increments to some of our unions activists to buy
them off but failed. Some of our core members were offered promotions as
managers, asst. managers also but consciously our comrades refused and
stood with union. Some were offered monetary benefits also.
When we conducted General body (GB) meeting on 14-12-2013 to elect
new executive body in place of temporary Adhoc Committee, management
made attempts to resort to divide and rule tactics. Most of our union
leadership belongs to Vijainagaram dist, because of their abilities and
initiative in formation and functioning of union and also role in struggle.
Management indirectly encouraged SKL employees to take over the main
leadership of the union in the GB, but failed. At that juncture, our members
belonging to SKL Dist understood managements conspiracy. This regional
chauvinism was defeated by unity of employees. Actually, now some of
activists belonging to SKL Dist. have emerged into core leadership of union.
30
December, 2014
NEW DEMOCRACY
At the end of year 2013 and beginning of year 2014, management
changed their tactics towards our union. They frequently held talks with
our executive body at plant level on occasion of some local disputes and
talked very positively. Management made attempts repeatedly to manage
our body in a cordial way. But our body was alert in light of our direction.
Finally management stated that the outside leader i.e. K. Sanyasi Rao,
President (IFTU state ECM) should not be permitted into talks; they wanted
to negotiate with only employees. But our body unanimously rejected this.
Many more tactics and tricks were played by management in this period
but failed as a result of consciousness of our members. So management
finally came to conclusion to crush our union on occasion of wage
agreement.
Though we gave demand notice on 2-4-14, Labour Dept. did not take
interest to organize joint meetings upto nearly 2 months. In 1st round of
talks management objected to participation of outside leader, i.e. Sanyasi
Rao. In 2nd round of talks this continued. In 3rd round of talks, on request of
Joint labour commissioner, management on paper objected but practically
allowed.
In 4th and 5th and 6th round of talks the Union president participated in
talks officially. It was a major victory for our union. Management was forced
to recognize our outside leader in negotiation process. After it, management
has started new tactics. They objected to discuss wage increase to
executives who are members of our union and also objected to agree to
them as workmen. Their argument was that executives are not entitled to
be members of a trade union.
In this Aurobindo unit there are 1800 chemists, 300 executives, 3700
contract workmen. Chemists and executives are commonly called
employees. Here the word executives is not equal to executives of corporate
language. They are also workers in broad meaning. In neighbouring pharma
units also, CITU, TNTUC etc. formed unions with executives and chemists.
We showed some judgments that executives, supervisors etc. are also to
be treated as workmen as they have no administrative powers e.g. to
sanction leave, but management did not agree. JCL agreed in words, but in
practice sided with management in the name of practical solution. We
refused to disassociate with executives.
December, 2014
31

At the time of last 83 days strike, our membership was only 1100
including executives. At the end of strike it come down to around 800, but
we could get victory as our work force is mainly of core productive wings.
But during this last year, our membership increased to 1600, including 130
executives. We could consolidate our base. Then our struggle was for only
right to formation of union but now our struggle is for wage increase. So,
we are in advantageous position now, relative to the previous strike.
After we have given strike notice, management and Labour Minister
joined and planned to crush our union All of a sudden, when negotiations
are going on, the state Additional Labour Commissioner wrote a failure
report and referred to Labour Court, Vizag, for adjudication. So strike is
prohibited. If we went on strike, they planned to dissolve our union, in the
name of illegal strike. We were in defensive position.
Management resorted to vindictive and repressive acts with help of
police. For petty reasons they started suspensions and illegal intertransfers. Frequently police rushed into the factory and terrorized workers
in last part of Sep. and Oct. On occasion of Hudhud cyclone, our 300
chemists fulfilled their duties continuously for 3 days (Oct 12, 13, 14) to
avoid chemical blasts. Those who could not attend as transport facilities
were paralyzed, have to be treated as on duty, as per practice and also
law, but management did not agree for it. Our union protested on 25th October.
As counter action, management stopped 21 activists from entering for duties
on 26th Oct. Naturally, our employees reacted and came out.
Now Management version is that we are on illegal strike for wage revision
which is in labour court adjudication. Our argument is that we are not on
strike, instead, our employees were thrown out by management. With
insistence of Labour Minister, the JCL also issued notice to us to give our
reply to management's letter. He sent the letter of management to us, with
his covering letter.
AP Labour Minister K. Acham Naidu, who is the brother of Late Yerram
Naidu (Ex TDP Lok Sabha leader) belongs to SKL Dist. and is subservient
to corporate. Now he dealt Labour, Revenue, Police departments to save
the Aurobindo management. After being thrown on the roads, our employees
were not allowed to hold protest programmes in front of the factory. In 83
days strike period, we maintained protest tent there, but this time there is
32
December, 2014
NEW DEMOCRACY
no choice.
also. This is the law of Labour Minister and CM of AP.
Soon after Chandra Babu took oath as CM on 8-06-2014, the big corporate
heads of north coastal region (VVS) met at a five star hotel in
Vishakhapatnam, and discussed two things. One is to represent to new
CM for Tax concessions and the other to crush TU activities and maintain
indust rial peace. T heir
delegation met CM in July.
These developments show the
AP Govt.s attitude towards
working class.
Previously we led heroic struggles in Jute Industry and we have lot of

experiences. But now we are getting very new bitter experiences. The
servility of law to corporate is more blatant. Aurobindo employees are
young and highly educated and are staunchly with us. They are learning
trade union lessons more speedily and keenly than Jute working class.
Modi-Chandra Babu rule of law of corporate is suppressing workers.
Aurobindo is young working class. This working class is fighting bravely
and fearlessly.
In 8th Oct. talks, the Add.

Labour Commissioner openly
told our union delegation (in
f ront
of
managem ent
representatives) that Chandra
Babu has taken this issue and
is dealing directly. He advised us not to have hopes for solution. He said
that even Labour Minister cannot interfere in this dispute to settle it, though
he belongs to SKL Dist. Labour Minister also told his inner political circles
that he is not able to intervene in this dispute.
This year, Aurobindo has achieved more profits and is the 54th richest
firm in India and 3rd richest company in newly formed AP State. Only due
to services of employees and workers have they got such profits.
Now, management is getting false cases foisted on our activists. Police
imposed prohibitory orders in Pydi Bhimawaram Industrial area. Our union
held GB meeting in Vijainagaram town on 30-10-2014, and decided to hold
a rally and meeting on 4-11-2014. But police refused permission. We
bargained continuously. Finally they agreed to a silent rally just an hour
before rally time. Nearly 1500 employees with their Aurobindo uniforms
gathered; this gathering shocked the management, Labour Minister, police
etc. So just prior to beginning of our rally, police in large number rushed to
the rally point and stopped it. They argued that we remove our flags and
banners as in their definition a silent rally means this. Time passed and
Public meeting time began operating. Taking into consideration all factors
we agreed. As protest, we wore black badges. But when we started again
even without flags and banners, police cancelled their earlier permission
December, 2014
33
AIKMS Protest Dharna at Hyderabad
Dont make it Telangana

of suicides
Since the formation of Telangana state and the Government of TRS,
during the last 4 to 5 months more than 319 peasants have committed
suicide. The agriculture in Telangana is mainly dependent on rain water
and bore wells. There is a huge deficit in rainfall leading to the drying up of
the fields and loss of crops. In addition to this, there are huge electricity
power cuts. This has further put the farmers at a loss. Ultimately credits
taken by farmers have increased. All these have demoralized poor and
middle peasants and driven them to commit suicides.
The Government of Telangana is not timely in responding to the needs
of the peasants. It is not taking actions which provide succor to the peasant
community. Even as the rate of peasant suicides has reached around 5 to
6 per day, the government has not taken action to help peasant. TRS had
promised to waive the peasant loans during their election campaign but
has not taken any decision on those lines after they came to power. Rather,
it has taken a u-turn on this after its promise of waiver. No decision
supporting the peasants' needs has yet been taken.
With the demands of taking action to stop the suicides of peasants,
demanding the stopping of power cuts, providing 9 hours power supply to
the peasants for agricultural usage, giving support prices for all the crops,
34
December, 2014
NEW DEMOCRACY
compensating the lost crops and other issues, All India Kisan Mazdoor
Sabha (AIKMS) , Telangana State Executive conducted a Dharna at Indira
Park, Hyderabad on 30.10.2014. More than 1000 peasants participated in
t his Dharna. This Dharna
continued from 11:00 AM to 3.00
PM.
T he s t at e Pres ident V.
Koteswara Rao presided over
t his Dhar na. Vemulapalli
Venkataramaiah [CPI(ML) ND],
Pr of . Kodandaram, Pr of .
K. R. Chowdary, Sajay a, B.
Chandra Reddy, CPM Rythu
Sangham, Pagya Padma, CPI
Rythu Sangham, AIKMS leaders Gummadi Narsaiah, Ketchela Rangaiah,
K.G. Ramchander, V. Prabhakar, G. Venkateswara Rao and others
participated in this Dharna.
The speakers expressed that the corporate has taken agriculture into
their iron grip and trying to run it under their control, with the policies which
are favouring the MNCs. These are forcing the agriculture sector into deep
losses. The policies of State and Central governments are the main reason
for the present situation. The speakers said that the India is occupying
the prime position in terms of number of peasants committing suicides,
and in India, Vidarbha is occupying the first position and Telangana is in
the second position.
The speakers felt TRS is claiming to convert Telangana into Golden
Telangana but at least it is its duty not to make it a burial ground and
Telangana of suicides. They requested the peasants to not lose their
confidence and appealed to them to fight against the corporate policies of
State and Central governments. They strongly criticized the TRS
government for having forgotten all its election promises, more particularly
the loan waiver that it had announced for the peasants.
It was strongly felt that a united struggle is necessary for preventing
the suicides of peasants.
The artists of Arunodaya gave cultural performances at the Dharna.
December, 2014
35
Rape in Uber Cab in Delhi
The MNC and the Comprador vs.

Womens Security
Aparna
On the evening of 5th December 2014, a young lady executive of an
MNC in Gurgaon attended a party with her friends in a nearby area and was
dropped by a friend to South Delhi around 10pm. From here she took an
Uber cab for Inderlok. Taking advantage of the fact that the girl slept off in
the cab, the driver switched off his phone and thereby the GPS or tracking
device on it, activated the baby lock system so that the girl could not open
the car doors to escape and raped her. He silenced her by threatening her
with a rod and himself citing the fate of the 2012 victim of 16th December.
He then threatened her against telling the police and dropped her home.
However she photographed the registration plate of the cab with her mobile
and reached the police the same night (1.30am). The outcry in Delhi forced
the Central Govts Home Minister to act fast to deflect attention from the
role of the police. He made a statement in Parliament assuring justice,
banning Uber in Delhi until it gets a license to operate and calling on all
states to impose such a ban.
Subsequently, a wealth of information surfaced revealing much about
the various aspects involved. There also emerged opposers of the ban led
by none other than the Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkhari. His logic
is that if there is a rape on a bus or a train (i.e. on a public transport) will
the train be banned? The point is, it is not that taxi but MNC Uber which
provides the private transport that has been banned just as the Govt. would
surely be targeted in the case of the train and could even be forced to
resign if the movement on the issue was widespread enough.
As information accumulates, it becomes clear that this is a case where
the willing Govt. has let loose an unregulated service provider onto the
people while itself withdrawing from providing adequate services. Secondly,
there are the rash of MNCs who couldnt care less about the people of
India, but only want to exploit its numerically vast market as fast as
possible. The two are hand in glove.
36
December, 2014
NEW DEMOCRACY
Taxi Aggregation Services

The taxi industry has changed in the past few years. First came radio
taxi operators, with companies owning taxis (now all supposed to be fitted
with tracking or GPS services) and employing drivers, with a call centre
which takes the bookings.
Uber is however a web based taxi aggregation service; it is A technology
platform that links drivers and users. Simply put, it means a middle man
(though sophisticated) having contact with taxis on the one hand and
customers on the other and taking a commission for putting them in contact.
Uber has contact with a string of cabs on one hand and customers on the
other who approach it through its app. These taxis, in Delhi, belong to
some owners with licensed tourist taxis or even to the drivers some of
whom Uber itself finances to purchase their own taxis. Any owner can opt
to put his vehicles under Uber. These drivers usually have an all India
tourist license and a character certificate from the police.
Each driver is given a smart phone (now Samsung) on which is
downloaded the Uber app, which also has the tracking device (a GPS). In
Delhi, GPS is mandatory on autos and taxis on the vehicle. When the
driver switches of the phone he is untracable. Many newspaper reports
substantiate that drivers simply have to go to the Uber office, submit their
licence and character certificates, are given phones and some training for
an hour or two chiefly on how to use the app.
Customers who desire to use Ubers services must download its app on
their mobiles. When they type in their requirements, the nearest driver will
usually reach the customer within a few minutes. It is a quick service, it is
also relatively cheap for customers while the drivers have expressed
satisfaction that they are given adequate work and fairly. All this spells
certain efficiency and makes it popular among clients including women
who actually presume the safety aspect. The company prides itself on
having no verbal communication with the customer; the customer speaks
to no one, simply sends in his or her requirements and is quickly given a
cab. This very aspect backfires on the customer. The company runs no
call centre; simply taking the commissions with no responsibilities once it
has made the contact; in distress the customer cannot immediately contact
the company. That is how it cuts costs to a minimum. In a telling example,
in Germany two women named themselves Uber before this company
December, 2014
37

entered the scene there and they registered their phone no. in this name.
They virtually became the call centre of the taxi service, getting calls from
irritated customers, from customers who accidentally left behind their
purses, keys and cell phones in the cabs and didnt know how to get to
Ubers operatives urgently.
There are three major taxi aggregate service providers in the country.
Taxi for Sure is backed by Accel (venture capital fund) and Ola (the largest)
is backed by Japans Soft Bank which recently gave it a 210 million dollar
funding.
Uber was born in San Francisco (US) in 2010. Its short history brings
out the problems. In the US, its driver assaulted a passenger in New York
while another committed sexual assault. It was banned in Berlin and Hamburg
in Germany where it now operates an ordinary taxi service. In the first two
weeks of this December it has been banned in Spain, in Netherlands, in
Thailand for noncompliance with rules and in Vietnam. The point is Uber is
not answerable for passenger safety from the drivers.
Ubers attitude to its customers? There are two experiences in Delhi
itself where Uber entered only last year (It first came to Bengalaru). On 26 th
November 2014 a young NRI on a visit to Delhi complained to Uber against
the lecherous behavior of this very driver. She was given a so-called generic
response which means a noncommittal we will look into the matter and
nothing was done as is obvious in the next incident on 5th Dec. The NRI girl
has since spoken out publicly, regretting that she did not actively follow up
her own complaint.
The second of course, is Ubers response to the current incident. Eric
Alexander, President of Uber Business Asia, gave the official comment on
the 8th of Dec. post the ban. We will compensate the victim financially, we
will obey the rules and we will remain in Delhi. All in one sentence and all
accorded the same priority it seems. So the question seems to arise that
what are the protests about when, even though the company was alerted
about the driver earlier, it is willing to give money to the victim. It is brash,
it is business and it is all about the market if the customer complains the
company compensates. It is the arrogance of an MNC who knows it is not
disposable to the ruling dispensation which has sworn to be business friendly
and in whose view a womans right to personal security and to be not
bodily infringed against her will is something to be offset by cash.
38
December, 2014
NEW DEMOCRACY
Uber is not going from Delhi; Rajnaths statement only implies it has to
seek a license. He has played for time till the issue cools off. Mr. Alexander
also said that India is one of the top markets of Asia for Uber, neck to neck
with China and after the US. The rape incident came one day after Uber
raised a billion dollars in funding for Asia and also snagged an evaluation
of 40 billion dollars. It is used to dealing with criticism. In the US one of
Ubers executives, Emil Michael, suggested at a dinner gathering that the
company should allocate a million dollars to dig up dirt on the reporters
critical of it. A top Uber executive has been mired in allegations of
threatening Sarah Lacy, an influential Silicon Valley blogger.
Where Does Governance Stand?

One of the facts to immediately come to light was that the guilty driver
possessed a character certificate from the Delhi police. How did he manage
that, when he is a serial sexual offender, unconvicted no doubt. He is now
32 years of age and the first complaint of sexual assault was lodged against
him in his native district in UP when he was 21 years old. Three cases
have been lodged against him under the Goonda Act. Three years ago
(2012) he raped a passenger who hired the radio taxi cab he was driving
from Gurgaon to Vasant Kunj. The case was closed this year for want of
evidence, though the judge castigated the police for shoddy investigation.
The police did not represent the earlier cases, which would not have allowed
him to go scot free.
How did he get the current character certificate from the police-just few
months earlier? Knowing the police, scarcely anyone is asking this question.
Police Commissioner, Delhi, says the certificate is forged. It is signed by
a DCP who was transferred from the concerned district in Feb.2014 whereas
the certificate was issued in June. Why does the PC not say the signature
is forged? Hundreds of drivers have been telling why. In the police stations
are agents who get them character certificates for a mere eight thousand
rupees. That apparently is how all drivers having all India tourist licenses
get their character certificates at least in Delhi.
When the police received the victims complaint they said that they had
no idea that there was such a service operating in Delhi. Over to Delhi
Transport Department who now discovered that Uber is an unlicensed
service and has not obtained a no objection certificate to ply in Delhi.
Considering that Uber has 500 taxis openly plying in the city since last
December, 2014
39

year, whose fault should this be? In August this year the company was
hauled up by RBI for flouting its directives. The Transport department also
says that taxis with all India permits cannot be involved in point to point
drops in a city. Why werent they stopped, why werent they detected?
Failure of Public Transport Provision

There is a desperate shortage of adequate and safe public transport
services, that too not only in Delhi. In Delhi, as the 16th Dec. 2012 incident
highlighted, DTC buses are unavailable even in late evening and that remains
the case till date. Buses are overcrowded and inadequate and women face
gender harassment commonly. Reacting has more chance of swinging
public opinion towards the offender. Autorickshaws and taxi services
registered under the transport services over charge outrageously, are not
always found, do not always agree to ferry passengers and are considered
unsafe due to the behavior of the drivers. That is why those who can afford
to do so avoid these buses and this also involves a numerically very large
section of working women who work late hours (in malls, in bars, as junior
executives in companies, as journalists, in call centres) and also others
who want easily accessible, not over expensive transport. They go for
these private service providers like radio taxi operators (Meru etc.) and
services like Uber. They presume the safety aspect. Radio taxi operators
are not always able to provide taxis when they promise, involve the user in
talking to the driver etc. Besides, their norms for safety like a GPS on the
vehicle were imposed after this very same driver, while operating a radio
taxi, raped a woman three years earlier. Not only does Uber cater to this
section, it offers cars of choice (BMWs) to those who can afford its higher
services. The former group has a sympathetic backing in students of various
universities of Delhi many of whom do part time jobs to stay alive in the
city, and also those students undergoing coaching in Delhi for various
examinations. They too often work in call centres in night shift. This entire
section is vocal and is active in social media.
There are several discordant notes. The section which uses Uber is not
at all against private services but it wants answerability from it, whereas
gender safe services are not the priority of businesses. Then there is the
polity in which all parliamentary parties quite agree that privatization of
services and withdrawal of public expenditure and involvement in these is
the answer and there is no serious policy any of them have to improve
40
December, 2014
NEW DEMOCRACY
Hundreds of Miles
Backwards
public transport with a view to common peoples needs. The test case is
actually Delhi where, despite the massive upsurge two years earlier when
the UPA Govt. held power at the Centre and Congress in Delhi and no
policy came forth, to the 49 day old AAP state Govt. which announced no
policy in this regard, to the Modi Govt. dealing Delhi for the past six months.
Not bothering in the least about providing adequate public transport really
involves contempt towards the basic need of people at large who must
commute for work and cannot afford private transport.
The Congress criticized the rationale of banning a service for one rape,
and wants exemplary action against the accused. What is that- unless
surety of punishment is considered rare enough to be exemplary? Their
opinion before Verma Commission for chemical castration was as much
disliked as their rule. The AAP took to the streets to demand a ban on
such services and when the conditional ban came, criticized it for being
knee jerk. There are interests of entire ruling class against ban on MNCs
however conditional the ban.
The situation calls for women to demand that Govts. must provide for
safe, efficient, adequate gender sensitive public transport services, for
action against the police officer who issued a spurious character certificate
and also against policies which involve withdrawal of govts. from providing
basic services to the people.
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December, 2014
Mrigank
Inauguration of Modis friends Reliance hospital in Mumbai was done
by none other than the Prime Minister himself. While delivering his speech
he took a leaf out of the book of Dinanath Batra and started preaching.
According to him this book contained references to history of ancient India,
and it tells about the great heights of medical sciences that was reached
by those people. Let us quote him Hum Ganeshji ki pooja karte hain. Koi
to plastic surgeon hoga us zamaane mein jisne manushya ke shareer par
haathi ka sar rakh karke plastic surgery ka prarambh kiya hoga. & Medical
science ki duniya mein hum garv kar sakte hain ki hamara desh kisi samay
mein kya tha. Mahabharat mein Karna ki katha, hum sab Karna ke vishay
mein Mahabharat mein padhte hain. Lekin kabhi hum thoda sa aur sochna
shuru karen to dhyaan mein aayega ki Mahabharat ka kehna hai ki Karna
maa ki god se paida nahi hua tha. Iska matlab ye hua ki us samay genetic
science maujood tha.Tabhi to Karna, maa ki god ke bina, uska janma hua
hoga.
These utterances are not in isolation but in continuation of the attempts
of this Government to change the definitions and perspective of history,
science, symbols and reasoning. This is a glimpse of the efforts being
made by this Government to fulfill the long term agenda of RSS i.e. to
establish that Hindus or Aryans were most superior and this has to be
restored. And this is done not by raising the level of competence but by
intimidating others and terrorizing them to either succumb or flee and
secondly by corrupting and changing the mindset. It is the second aspect
which is the main subject we shall deal here.
There is an all-round attack to making myths history and history myth,
making science look obscure and project obscurantism as science,
changing either the symbols or ascribing new values to them. This is a
very dangerous practice. Dangerous because it is going to corrupt the minds
42
41
December, 2014
NEW DEMOCRACY
of young ones, dangerous because it will curb the reasoning and scientific
temper (as much as is prevalent), dangerous because it will change the
meaning and content and thus interpretation of history, dangerous because
it will establish treacherous people as national heroes and will throw real
heroes to the dustbin.
The rise of one Mr. Dinanath Batra to the level of a person advising
about content of education, rise of Mr. YS Rao as the chief of Indian Council
of Historical Research, are not accidental. Though latter claimed to be not
a member of RSS, but these claims do not hide the obvious. Batra, a
former headmaster of a school at Dera Bassi (border town in Punjab) and
then in Haryana, has a long track record of pushing his views into the
system. He has been main functionary of RSS education wing Vidya Bharati.
When one sees his views, they are not only shocking but outrightly
derogatory to other civilizations, and many of them are so imprudent that
one fails to find words to react. His texts are already being taught in Gujarat
and they bears a foreword from then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra
Modi. His book makes references to ancient Hindu texts and cites the
incidents, events etc. as true and then goes on to interpreting the writings
as proven facts.
There are many examples. Let us have a look at a few of them. He
cites that royal couple were blessed with children after they worshiped
cows, therefore taking care and respecting cows can be the cure for
infertility. As there is reference to Lord Ram flying an aircraft called Pushpak
Vimana in Ramayana, it is enough proof that ancient Indians were well
versed in aeronautics. There are references to two kinds of raths (chariots)
-ashva raths and anashva raths. Former was pulled by horses and the
latter had to be a motor car. How else can it move without horses! He does
not bother to ponder about the fuel that might be needed to propel such
machines. Fossil fuel was not available at that time and the only
inflammable thing that was commonly used was ghee. He does not even
tell as to why there is no description of details of their designs in any of the
texts. Why have we failed to find any remains of those anywhere?
Harishankar Parsai, a noted Hindi satirist, once commented that it was
good that they had made airplanes, but why not a bicycle? Mr. Batra forgets
the fact that man has been fantasizing and this continued till flying devices
were actually made. And this was not done just in India or by Hindus but all
over the world. Leonardo da Vinci attempted to give real colour to this
December, 2014
43

fantasy by making a flying machine and failed miserably. But it was a
scientific effort. There is no such report of such attempts earlier.
Citing again from Mahabharata he tells that there must have been welldeveloped stem cell research. There are references to births outside the
mothers womb, like the birth of Kauravas and that of Karna. Lord Shiva
implanted the head of an elephant onto Ganesh. This is enough to prove
that plastic surgery existed at that time. And much more. There are gods
in Greek mythology having body of horse and a man's head, so should not
we infer that such advancements were existent even there? Interestingly,
they had plastic surgery but not hip bone repair/replacement surgery
otherwise poor Duryodhana would not have died. They had television as
evidenced by Sanjay incident but it probably was exclusive, otherwise
Guru Dronacharya could see the reality of Ashwathama's death. Pushpak
existed but still a bridge was required to go to Lanka. Why not air attacks?
In fact these planes must have been more advanced than any of them we
see today as they did not even need a run way, had no propellers or jet
propulsion mechanism.
This is one aspect. Second is he denounces anything foreign. He even
goes on ridiculing Africans referring with n word (use of negro is banned
as it is associated with slavery and subjugation) and saying that they speak
like the sound of buffalos. He refers to it many times and derogates them.
He tells us that god was making chapattis: first one could not be cooked
properly and Britons originated from there. Second one was burnt and
Africans originated from there. Third one was properly cooked and Indians
came from it.
He like others of his ilk also wants to restore Akhand Bharat
encompassing Myanmar, Tibet, and Afghanistan. Only they know at which
time in history there was such a huge land under one rule called Bharata.
He has been a sort of crusader for his cause. He was instrumental in
making Penguin pulp its publication The Hindus: An Alternative History
by Wendy Doniger, getting Ramanunjans book on comprehensive account
on different Ramayans removed from Delhi University syllabus. He had
been filing law suits against NCERT, giving legal notices like he gave to
The Frontline Editor N Ram for using the term Hindutva Terrorism, albeit
not very successfully. It is Gujarat where he started tasting success and
then ensured banning or pulping of books. And now he is far too emboldened.
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The other gentleman in discussion is YS Rao. He has been appointed
as Chairman ICHR. He has very amusing views on history and methods of
historical research. Needless to say that they are not at all scientific or
rational. He is a firm believer in Caste system and thinks it had played a
great role in olden days and has nothing to do with exploitation. He attributes
all negative practices to Muslim rule in north India. He also believes
Ramayana and Mahabharata to be works of history and has started a project
to establish their dates. His logic for this is as amusing as his other logics
are. He says that man had not started writing fiction by then. So it cannot
be fictional. He challenges method of basing on material evidences and
rationale as western influence. Collective memory of people is more
important in case of continuing civilization like ours is one of his method to
establish historical truth. No prizes for guessing his views on Babri Masjid
and Ram Janmabhumi. He wishes to correct the wrongs of past 60 years
during his tenure as ICHR Chief.
The list is very long. Let us make a few points. These attempts are
obviously to corrupt the minds of people particularly of young ones. Such
attempts were also made during previous NDA government. MM Joshi pushed
JS Rajput to NCERT and even started a department of Tantrik Healing. But
that government was not this bold and could only debate and made some
subtle changes. It is also not that Congress or any other government has
very progressive perspective. History taught has been communal and
education unscientific. That was not justified. But this government,
emboldened by majority seats, is not only justifying this also glorifying
these absurdities.
They are attacking the development of ability to think critically. Rather
one must assume something to be true as it has been believed to be so for
years. Can we expect to produce any good scientists, economists, historians
or other academicians with such training? In fact they do not want to. They
just want people to be obedient servants of the system. Now medical
science will be directed towards achieving the heights of ancient India.
Disregarding current research, a rational approach, one will be submersed
in vayu, kaff and pitta. The empirical observations and remedies will take
precedence over scientific methods. Interestingly, when the yoga guru
Ramdev ran disguised in feminine attire after his hunger strike, he went to
the ICU of an allopathic hospital. It clearly shows that what they preach is
not what they believe. By doing this, people will remain intoxicated with
December, 2014
45

the glory of the past, while our entire research and development will become
further and totally dependent on outside world.
Likewise, there is a tendency of saying everything was there already in
Vedas. Or artificially giving scientific justifications to various customs and
traditions. This on one hand establishes the superiority of scientific methods
as that is what is used (though erroneously) to justify (science never uses
religious texts or customs to justify) its claims. This again is going to
jeopardize scientific development as all we need to do is read these texts
properly and there is nothing beyond it. The message is that all we need to
do is to read and teach Ayurveda and Vedas. Everything is there. One
should stop schools of medicine, science and technology and thus save
lots of money and time in "rediscovering"!
All this does not mean that there were no achievements in past. But
definitely not that far away in history. Indians have good work in mathematics
and astronomy. Now they are even mixing all this. True, Aryabhata had
made many observations, but he was not of Vedic era. In fact he contradicts
many ancient beliefs. There is his famous debate with the then religious
leaders when he declared that earth is in space (shunya) and not held on
the horns of Nandi. Bhaskara, who gave many mathematical concepts,
was also not of that era. Their achievements cannot be clubbed with these
epics and then used to testify myths. Secondly, India was not alone. Many
eastern countries had thinkers of great competence and there had been
interaction among them. So many of these achievements were common
and it is difficult to ascribe it to someone in particular. Like the concept of
zero- whether it was Babylonian or Indian has always been a subject of
debate.
A little on symbols too. They are trying to change or adopt the symbols
of the nation. Like, for example their sudden love for Sardar Patel, Gandhi,
and Bhagat Singh etc. The reasons are simple. One- RSS does not have
any figure which is in the consciousness of people of this country. Simply
naming roads and buildings after Golwalakars and Hedgewars does not
help. They cannot name a single name who has fought against British. The
only name is of Savarkar, but he too, after apologizing to British, has lost
his value. There is also the fact that they do not consider British Raj as
foreign rule. They date it to 700 years back when Muslim rulers ruled India,
and hail British for removing them. But the common man in the country
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cannot take this- therefore the need of new heroes. Their most popular
face and possible nominee for Bharat Ratna, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has a
dubious history of being a police witness during 1942 movement. They are
stealing Congress symbols like Gandhi and Nehru. Worst is stealing Bhagat
Singh. Release of his Jail Notebook by Modi was like hanging him again.
Without even knowing or reading Bhagat Singh, they are assigning new
values to him. This is disregarding the fact that he not only did not choose
to join Hindu Maha Sabha or RSS but opposed such views. His debates
with Lala Lajpat Rai etc. are well documented. But they will simply demean
him and will make him some super hero who only fought against British raj.
They are doing this cleverly, not only without giving the true views of the
person, but gradually adopting him and ascribing their values to him.
After reducing science to obscurantism, they are talking big on
technology. Modis idea of digital India, talking of Android One in Kashmir,
smart city, bullet trains etc. are just a few examples of the same. Even his
predecessors rode hi-tech hydraulic lift enabled Toyota vehicles and called
them Raths, and used them to spread communal hatred. How do we perceive
the connection between the two? By reducing science to nonsense they
are achieving a few things. One, of course they are trying to prove the
concept of Aryan superiority. It is so dear to them. They want to prove that
anything of foreign origin is wrong and whatever was Indian is not just right
but greatest. Nothing of any merit could have been developed outside.
That is why they are most vehement to oppose the historical theories of
Aryan invasion, for if this invasion is a historical truth then Aryan and
Vedic culture has come from outside and thus things from outside can be
good. By doing this they also find a way to justify hatred for other religions.
They also curb critical and rational thinking by making people believe in
whatever has been stated in the scriptures as truth, by believing fantasies
to be fact, and then extolling these. Research will be directed towards
finding out or establishing the fictitious work. Up to now we have been able
to criticize the nonsense irrational interpretation of history. But with the
likes of YS Rao at the helm, the methods of arriving at conclusions too is
going to be irrationality. Thus the ability to challenge will be curbed and all
nonsense will go unchallenged.
By doing away with scientific methods, they will curb the development
of science particularly that of basic science without bothering that it is
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47

basic science which can be the basis of any technological development
later. Thus, technological development too will be hampered and our
dependence will continue to increase. As it is they are not against this
dependence. Not just science but doing away with critical thinking and
changing entire education to some skill development programme to produce
skilled man power to cater to the demands and needs of MNCs will also
ensure that we do not have social leaders. We will not have intellectual
leaders capable of independent thinking. There will not be good economists,
educationists, philosophers, poets, thinkers who could guide and lead
society and of course there will not be good scientists.
This reminds one of what happened in Pakistan after General Zia ul
Haq took over and forced scientific research to be Islamic research.
Scientists started researching Jins (genie) and such concepts. Noted
Pakistani nuclear physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy observed- The traditional
ulema are indeed a problem, but they are not the biggest one; the biggest
problem is Islamism, a radical and often militant interpretation of Islam
that spills over from the theological domain into national and international
politics. Whenever and wherever religious fundamentalism dominates, blind
faith clouds objective and rational thinking. If such forces take hold in a
society, they create a mindset unfavourable for critical inquiry, including
scientific inquiry, with its need to question received wisdom."
It is not being asserted that the system prior to this was very scientific
and rational. Governments, right from the beginning, were not interested in
people being too capable of thinking. But it was not so overt. Vide provision
of Constitution, which says that scientific temper should be developed,
means at least in theory government was not in opposition to scientific
temper. So there was some following of this and at least people trying to
establish this had some acceptability. Even earlier we had Saraswati pujas,
breaking of coconut etc. before every official function and inauguration, so
much so that many scientific projects (including Mangalyan and
Chandrayan) were preceded with coconut breaking. But now it is brazen,
intense and comes with justification. Irrationality and figment of fictions
are going to be the order. Many of the critics, including an article in organ
of CPM's Peoples Democracy, have asserted the need to go back to
Nehruvian era. That era was not golden era. History had a communal flavor
and role of Congress leaders was over glorified. Education system was not
scientific and pro-people. Yes, there was some scope for willing people.
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Nor were earlier economic policies pro people. In fact current policies are a
continuation of the same. But as there is greater crisis of imperialism,
need for such retrograde policies are need of the hour. It is not accidental
that RSS is being allowed to pursue this.
They want to keep people busy in reading Ramayana, Mahabharata
etc. and at the same time government will increase the plunder of people.
They are shamelessly succumbing to the dictates of capitalists and bowing
to imperialist powers, inviting them to exploit our cheap labour and natural
resources. And people should remain busy in reading scriptures, taking
pride in the glory of the past and remain drunk with chauvinism and not
look at this. For them patriotism will be fighting for Gita, Saraswati Puja,
attacking critics of irrationality, attacking minorities etc. They are not averse
to foreign capital (all development programs are to be done by FDI),
kowtowing to foreign finance (MNCs, imperialist powers and institutions).
In fact the PM himself is going around inviting companies to come and
exploit. Their national pride is not hurt in being dependent on these things
(including Bullet train, Andriod One) of foreign origin. They will be happy in
getting the country looted by these MNCs and letting the large majority of
people (majority of whom are Hindus) be pushed back to further desolation.
They are the same brand who lick the boots of Michael Jackson while
opposing Ghulam Ali. Their rhetoric is for public consumption and action
for serving imperialism and its lackeys.
Glaring is the silence of scientific community and academicia in general.
With the exception of one or two, no one from the scientific fraternity has
raised any voice. They seem to be either carried away with so called Modi
wave or, thinking of individual careers, are too scared to speak. This silence
will be very dangerous, for they may save their career but will spoil that of
future generations and the future of the country. Powerful stirring to challenge
irrationality is the need of the hour.
Intensifying Contradictions
and Increasing Conflicts
Intensification of the contradictions among imperialist powers in the

situation of decline of uni-polar and rise of multi-polar world has given rise
to a number of wars and conflicts in the world. Continents of Asia, Africa,
Latin America and Europe have a number of trouble spots and the
contradictions of the imperialist system are bursting forth with renewed
vigour. Rise in peoples struggles against imperialist domination and loot
in the backdrop of continuing world financial economic crisis and failure of
the wars of aggression launched by US imperialism, has led to a world
where peoples struggles are rising and the reactionary ruling classes are
turning to their machinations against these struggles ranging from brutal
suppression to deepening sectarian divides. Strange combinations are being
forged, foes are turning into friends and vice versa. Nothing is certain except
uncertainty while erstwhile hegemon is refusing to decline peacefully.
Conflict over Ukraine, over its forceful assimilation into western bloc by
western imperialist powers and Russian resistance against it and at any
rate its drive to carve out its own sphere of control in that situation, has
plunged this country into civil war. Russian imperialism has declared halt
to its retreat and is willing to confront US imperialism and its allies. The
situation is being called a renewal of cold war. Over four thousand have
died and over a million have been displaced in this war so far as ceasefire
lingers amidst rising flames of war. Western imperialist powers have imposed
economic sanctions against Russia hoping to bring the Putin regime to its
knees. Russia is facing economic difficulties due to these sanctions and
is fighting its way out by attempts to keep intact its old alliances and by
forging new ones. Uncertain of the western market for its petroleum
products, Russia has reached a huge deal with China, has struck a number
of agreements with Turkey. Putin was in India to test waters amidst Indian
Govt.s bonhomie with USA and its allies. Russia has also reached a
defense framework agreement with Pakistan recently in view of changing
situation in the region and beyond and growing proximity of Indian rulers
with US imperialism and its allies.
European countries, beset with economic crisis or stagnation, are being
December, 2014
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led to escalation of conflicts. The economic crisis is leading to rise of
workers movements on the one hand and rightward shift in ruling class
politics on the other. Huge countrywide strikes have been held in Greece,
Spain, Italy, France and Belgium against the efforts of the ruling classes
to shift the burden of the crisis onto the shoulders of working masses.
Main ruling class parties are in decline in a number of countries as the
people reject austerity programmes being imposed on them. On the other
hand rightist, anti-immigrant and neo-Nazi parties are rising in a number of
countries. Centre is not holding as the social contract is being discarded.
Europe is once again entering an era of great disorder and upheavals.
Middle-East, the region with most of the worlds petroleum resources,
is bursting with contradictions. Contradiction between Western imperialist
powers and other imperialist powers on the one hand and the contradiction
in the camp of western imperialist powers on the other has led to swift
changes in the political landscape. Swift rise and even more swift overthrow
of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt demonstrates the changing alliances among
the ruling classes in these countries and the imperialist powers. Upswing
of the peoples struggles for greater democratic rights against the proimperialist dictators has been drowned in the blood of sectarian clashes
and military suppression. The pillars of US influence in the region, Israel
and Saudi Arabia, are facing increasing challenges from different quarters.
While Palestinians struggle for their national aspirations is gaining world
wide support with peoples pressure building in a number of West European
countries to recognize Palestine, aggressive Zionist rulers of Israel are
getting increasing isolated. On the other hand, Saudi monarchy is facing
unprecedented challenges even as it is fighting for retaining its influence in
the Arab world and its share in the international oil market. Saudi rulers are
being increasingly confronted by the rise of armed militias in a number of
Arab countries. Rise of Islamic State, which is a conglomeration of Salafists,
Muslim Brotherhood and Bathists, has gained control over sizable territory
in Iraq and Syria. In a recent message, IS chief has called upon people of
Saudi Arabia to overthrow the monarchy comparing it to a snake. Large
proportion of the people of Saudi Arabia are opposed to the rule of Saud
family and anti-monarchy feelings run high.
Equally alarming for the Saudi rulers is the rise of Houthi fighters in
Yemen. Houthi forces, which had been waging a war against Central Govt.
in capital Saana from their stronghold of Northern Yemen bordering Saudi
December, 2014
51

Arabia, had withstood air strikes from Saudi Arabia. They have recently
advanced to control capital Saana ousting rival militias with some covert
help from the armed forces of Yemen whose many officers remain loyal to
ousted dictator Al Saleh. Houthi forces have been able to impose a Govt.
acceptable to them in the capital and have extended their control in Central
Yemen. They have clashed with local tribal chiefs, many of them aligned
to Al Qaeda. Houthis are Shias and Saudi rulers are hostile to them sensing
in them spread of Iranian influence. But Saudi rulers are not able to stem
the spread of Houthi control over Yemen, particularly capital Saana. Rise
of Houthis has increased difficulties of Saudi monarchy which is also
apprehensive of the struggle of Shias in Baharin for democracy. Shias
constitute overwhelming majority of the population of Baharin. Saudi rulers
had militarily intervened to crush the peoples struggle in that country.
Saudi rulers are also worried about the unrest among the Shias in Saudi
Arabia who constitute majority in the South eastern region which is home
to most of the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Saudi rulers fears about increase
in Iranian influence stem from all these factors.
However, rise of IS to the east and Houthis to the west has forced
Saudi rulers to acquiesce in the extension of talks between Iran and Security
Council members and Germany on Irans nuclear programme. Influential
sections in Irans ruling hierarchy also want to reach a deal with Saudi
rulers apprehensive of its replacement by more aggressive Salafists in
power. Extension of these talks served US Admn. too who could not afford
to reach an agreement with Iranian Govt. fearful of backlash from ruling
elite at home and its middle-east allies particularly Israel and Saudi Arabia
while extension of talks gives scope to co-ordinate its efforts against Islamic
State.
The rise of Muslim Brotherhood in the wake of upsurge of peoples
struggles in Arab countries against corrupt dictatorial regimes supported
by imperialists, had sharply divided the US allies in the region. Rulers of
Turkey belonging to Muslim Brotherhood saw in this an opportunity to reclaim
the glory of Ottaman days, spreading its influence in Arab lands and targeted
Syria for their military adventures. Turkey's rulers projected themselves
i.e. Islamists in power through elections, as the model for Arab countries.
They opened their borders to the flow of fighters, arms and money to the
war against Assad regime in Syria. Saudi and other monarchies of the Gulf
with the exception of Qatar grew apprehensive of the growing strength of
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Muslim Brotherhood which is opposed to these monarchies. They
encouraged and financed coup in Egypt by Egyptian Army against President
Morsi. US imperialism, which had also built bridges with MB, ultimately
sided with Saudi monarchy. This led to rupture in pro-US camp in the middleeast with Turkey and Qatar ranged against Saudi and other monarchies as
also military rulers of Egypt. Though all of them were intent on ouster of
Assad regime of Syria, they sponsored their favourites among the rebel
forces leading to clashes among them. Failure of rebels to oust Assad and
backing down of US Admn. from launching air strikes against Syrian Govt.
led to deepening the cleavages in the pro-US camp in the region. With the
rise of Islamic State and its quick capture of vast swathes of territories,
Kurds emerged as the key actors in combatting IS. This new turn alarmed
Turkish rulers who treat Kurds struggle for their national aspirations as a
cause for alarm. Battlelines were further drawn when US Admn. launched
air strikes against IS in Iraq and Syria. Rulers of Turkey could not now
openly support IS nor could abandon them. In this they were supported by
French imperialists who too eyed to increase their influence in Levante. In
this cleavage stepped in Russia striking economic agreements with Turkey.
On the other hand, Saudi rulers are trying to bridge their differences
with Qatar monarchy. Recent Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in
Doha was an attempt to bring all Gulf monarchies on a common platform to
confront challenges facing them. Obviously US imperialism has played an
important role in this immediate thaw in the relations among Gulf
monarchies, thereby further weakening Turkey and Muslim Brotherhood in
the region.
All these developments denote sharpening of contradictions among
imperialist powers with new forces emerging to challenge the existing powers
and the borders carved out by imperialists after defeat of Turkey in First
World War. However, these forces utilize the flag of Islam essentially to
maintain the social status quo only becoming new actors in the political
arena challenging the existing rulers but not existing social relations. Rather
they stand for further reinforcing them.
Continent of Africa is enmeshed in a number of wars where western
imperialist powers are militarily intervening directly or through their proxies.
A number of imperialist powers are engaged in scramble for Africa eying
its vast natural resources- oil, timber, mineral resources, diamonds and
December, 2014
53

the like. Imperialist intervention is intensifying internal contradictions in
these countries with different imperialist powers supporting different
claimants to power. Tribal and religious differences are being utilized and
divisions deepened by imperialist powers in their drive to keep or bring
more and more areas under their control. USA, France, UK and other west
European powers remain the main players from earlier times while China is
gaining influence in a large number of countries. Russia is trying to refurbish
its old ties in the region while striking new ones as well. African continent
is witnessing a number of conflicts and even open wars. Conflicts in northern,
western and eastern regions of Africa are becoming particularly sharp.
People of African countries are falling prey to machinations of imperialist
powers who are robbing their natural resources in the name of maintaining
order and in the name of their war against terrorism.
Latin America is continuing to be a front against US imperialism and its
MNCs which have been robbing these countries since long. People of a
number of these countries have rejected the parties kowtowing to US
imperialism and brought parties to power which are opposing US hegemony
in Latin America. They are forging regional blocs keeping US out of them,
developing regional cooperation and forging trade and defense ties with
European countries, China and Russia. China is emerging a leading trade
partner and importer of raw materials from a number of these countries. US
imperialism is getting increasingly isolated in Latin America. Latin American
countries are questioning US blockade of Cuba continuing for over a half
century. Even Govts. of Latin American countries supported by US
imperialism are not able to resist the anti-US mood in the region. They are
also compelled to become part of the regional blocs. In this situation of
increasing isolation and the need to restore its influence in the region, US
imperialism has, after a gap of over five decades, restored diplomatic
relations with Cuba. This is a clear admission that days of enforcing Munroe
doctrine by force are over and US imperialism is forced to change its tactics.
This is aimed at reducing the hostility of people of Latin American countries
towards US imperialism.
One of the effects of intensifying contradictions of the imperialist system
has been sharp reduction of prices of crude oil in the international market.
It is trading at just over $60 per barrel down from over $120 per barrel in
June 2014. While downturn in the growth of world economy and projection
of further slowing of growth in the coming year is the main reason behind it,
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there are some immediate precipitating causes also behind this
development. At the time of slow growth in the demand in the international
market due to slow growth as well as to production of shale oil in US, oil
producing countries have decided not to reduce their production of oil. OPEC
in a recent meeting decided against production cuts. Saudi Arabia has
been the main force behind this decision. Saudi rulers have declared that
they would do everything to protect their share in world market. The sharp
decline in the crude oil prices has increased economic burden on a number
of oil exporting countries in whose economy oil exports are a major part of
Govt. revenue. Russia, Iran and Venezuela are among the countries affected
by this drop in oil prices. Iranian President Rouhani has termed this drop in
oil prices as politically motivated, pointing a finger at Saudi rulers.
Venezuelan economy is also suffering from this drop and increasing oil
production to increase revenue is not the option at the moment. This
reduction has aggravated the impact of western sanctions on Russian
economy. Another effect of this drop in oil prices is also stated to be on
shale oil extraction in the US which would be uneconomic at these rates.
On the other hand, short term impact on Gulf economies ruled by monarchies
and having small population would be minimal. However, long term effect
would be equally disastrous for them. Regarding oil prices, it is well to
remember that in their determination, speculative capital plays a very
important role and growth rate projections of future demand is very important
for speculation. This drop in oil prices would be helpful to mainly oil importing
countries like India but these countries too would suffer from depression in
demand due to further slowing down of world economy as they are dependent
on exports for their economic growth. However, it would also give an
opportunity to oil producing countries to diversify their economies.
The intensifying contradictions among imperialist powers have led to
numerous wars as imperialist countries contend with one another to increase
their areas of influence and market share in the situation of multipolar world.
This situation, coupled with continuing of world financial economic crisis,
its deepening in several countries and slow down in the growth of 'emerging
economies' is creating increasingly favourable conditions for the growth of
revolutionary movement, workers' struggle in developed capitalist countries
and national liberation movements in oppressed countries.
December, 2014
55
ON CHINESE FASCISM,
THE NEW AUTOCRACY
Zhou Enlai
August 16, 1943
(Selected Works, Volume I, pp. 160-176)
I. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Ever since the formation of the Anti-Japanese National United Front
and the beginning of the War of Resistance, there has been a lack of
understanding both inside and outside the Party, both at home and abroad,
of the essential nature of the rule of Chiang Kai-sheks Kuomintang, that
is, the rule of the big landlords and big bourgeoisie. It was Comrade Mao
Zedong who pointed out before the War of Resistance that Chiang Kaisheks Kuomintang was wavering and passive and who stated in the early
stage of the war that it was conciliationist and two-faced. Today he has
gone further and pointed out that it is fascist. All these insights have been
historical clarifications of epochal significance. Therefore, I would now like
to discuss Chinese fascism.
I must take up a few queries first.
Someone may ask : Why didnt we say earlier that Chiang Kai-sheks
Kuomintang was fascist, rather than wait until now? Our answer is that
before the War of Resistance our policy was focused on winning the
Kuomintang over to the resistance, so we emphasized that it could change
and that it had a revolutionary aspect. At that time it was enough to point
out that it was wavering and passive. In the early stage of the anti-Japanese
war, our policy was focused on persuading it to join in a protracted war of
resistance and total resistance, so we stressed protracted war, unity and
progress and opposed capitulation, splitting and retrogression. This required
a deep understanding of the conciliationist and dual character of Chiangs
Kuomintang. Now it is playing a smaller and smaller role in the resistance
and a greater and greater reactionary role. Furthermore, Chiang has written
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the book entitled 'Chinas Destiny'. If this is allowed to go on, it is bound to
lead to defeat in the War of Resistance and the rekindling of civil war.
Therefore, we must publicly reveal the fascist essence of the Kuomintang
today. We did not lay so much stress on this in the past because it hadnt
gone so far as it has now, and not because there were no fascists in it.
Another may ask: Since Chiang Kai-sheks Kuomintang is fascist, how
is it that it can put up resistance to Japan ? Our answer is: Comrade Mao
Zedong tells us that Chiangs is a comprador - feudal fascism. Because of
its comprador aspect, when the Japanese imperialists invaded China, the
Kuomintang could rely on other imperialists in resisting the aggressors,
and it played a revolutionary role, riding the wave of popular concern for
national salvation. But at the same time it has a feudal aspect, so now that
the Allied countries are gradually coming to pay more attention to the War
of Resistance waged by the Chinese nation, it relapses into its former
mode of thinking. It wishes to restore the ancient ways and opposes
everything foreign, thus playing a reactionary role. It is precisely because
it represents the big landlords and the big bourgeiose that it always opposes,
fears and oppresses the people, and its resistance can never be
thoroughgoing. The proletariat and its political party must win and consolidate
leadership in the national, democratic revolution and must never tail behind
the big bourgeoisie. Comrade Mao Zedong warned us on this point at a
Party conference of the Soviet areas before the anti-Japanese war.
Then still another may ask: Since fascism means national aggression
and since Chiang Kai-sheks Kuomintang is resisting the Japanese
aggressors, why do we call it fascist? Our answer is that this is exactly
why Comrade Mao Zedong calls it Chinese fascism. National aggression
is one of the characteristics of fascism, but not the only one. Chinese
fascism has all the characteristics of fascism pointed out by Georgi Dimitrov
in his report except that of national aggression. Both in the past and at
present, Chiang Kai-sheks Kuomintang has launched ruthless attacks on
the people, on the working masses. It has even unleashed civil war to
suppress the revolution and introduced rampant reaction and counterrevolution. It has thus become the arch-enemy of the whole Chinese people.
It is only because China finds itself in the position of a colony or a semicolony that the Chinese big landlords and big bourgeoisie are powerless to
invade other countries. Isnt their treatment of Chinas own minority
nationalities based on the sense of superiority inherent in Han chauvinism
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and on the traditional notion of a vassal nations policy. Even in foreign
affairs, are there not people in the Kuomintang who advocate a greater
Chinese federation which would include Annam, Thailand, Burma, Korea
and even the Malay Archipelago? Georgi Dimitrov once said: The
development of fascism and fascist dictatorship itself assumes different
forms in different countries, according to historical, social and economic
conditions and owing to the national peculiarities or the international position
of given country. Stalin also said long ago that the emergence of German
fascism must be regarded as a symptom of the weakness of the
bourgeoisie, of the fact that the bourgeoisie is already unable to rule by the
old methods of parliamentarism and bourgeois democracy, and, as a
consequence, is compelled in its home policy to resort to terroristic methods
of rule. In a certain sense we can also apply this to the rule of Chinas big
landlords and big bourgeoisie. We may say that Chinese fascism is the
open terrorist rule of Chinas big landlords and big bourgeoisie, that is, rule
by Chiang Kai-sheks Kuomintang and bureaucrat-capital through special
agents.
Then again someone may ask: This being the case, why oppose only
the reactionaries inside the Kuomintang and not the Kuomintang as a whole?
Why call only for the abolition of fascism and not for the liquidation of the
fascist chieftains? Our answer is: Because the pro-British and pro-American
big landlords and big bourgeoisie represented by Chiang Kai-sheks
Kuomintang still have a dual character, and they have not yet reached the
point of being purely reactionary. Since their banner of resistance has not
yet been furled, the Kuomintang can still exert influence on certain persons,
though their number is daily diminishing. Nor has it yet dared to call for
fascism openly. (It has not yet dared to acknowledge its true nature publicly,
not only because the War of Resistance is still going on, but also because
Chinas big landlords and big bourgeoisie are too weak to assert their
independence). Therefore, we oppose only the reactionaries inside the
Kuomintang, and not those Kuomintang members who are willing to resist
the Japanese and who favour democracy. Moreover, we hope they will join
us in opposing these reactionaries. Therefore, we advocate liquidating only
fascism and hope these Kuomintang members will get rid of fascism of
their own accord and truly put into practice the revolutionary Three Peoples
Principles and advocated by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. And we call for the disbanding
of the fascist secret police only and not of the Kuomintang organization as
such. Since the big landlords and big bourgeoisie are becoming more openly
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fascist every day and have even published the book, Chinas Destiny,
advocating the extremely reactionary view that the Communist Party should
be liquidated, we must draw attention to the nature of Chinese fascism and
emphasize the danger it presents. This will be not only a warning and an
education for the Chinese people, and first and foremost for the Party, but
also a most practical ideological lesson helping to rid the Party of any
tendency to capitulate to the big bourgeoisie.
Yet again, someone else may ask: Since this is how things stand, does
the fascism of Chiang Kai-sheks Kuomintang have an ideology, historical
roots, a programme, tactics, an organization and activities? Our answer is:
yes, it has. We are going to take them up now under separate headings.
II. THE IDEOLOGY OF CHINESE FASCISM

Waving the banner of the War of Resistance and the Three Peoples
Principles, Chinese fascism nevertheless has its own ideology.
Chiang Kai-sheks philosophical thought is characterized by extreme
idealism. He is very fond of quoting the old saying, The mind of man is
restless, prone to err; its affinity to what is right is small. Be discriminating,
be single-minded in the pursuit of what is right, that you may sincerely hold
fast to the Mean. At the same time, he emphasizes the role played by the
mind and gives an extremely idealist interpretation of Dr. Sun Yat-sens
remark: If I believe something to be feasible, I may one day bring it to
pass, although it may be as difficult as removing a mountain or drying up a
sea. If I believe something to be unfeasible, I will never achieve it, although
it may be as easy as turning my hand over or breaking a twig. Chiang
wanted to eliminate the Communist Party, so he posed as if he believed
that without sincerity nothing would be achieved, and stated with a heavy
heart that if he could not resolve the problem of the Chinese Communist
Party, he would not be able to close his eyes even in death. In fact, this is
something he can never achieve because he is lacking in the virtue of
sincerity. Although he had acknowledged the legal status of the Border
Region in his Lushan interview and despite the fact that it had been approved
by the 333rd session of the Executive Yuan, in reality he wanted to eliminate
it and revoked the approval on his own authority. This is an example of his
insincerity as long as he can achieve what he wants, he does not even
bother with sincerity.
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Chiang Kai-shek advocates a philosophy of action first. Its core is
having the people blindly obey him and carry out his orders without knowing
what they mean. When Chiang was following a policy of non-resistance, he
demanded that the people accept his internal pacification policy rather than
resist Japanese aggression. In the early period of the War of Resistance,
he wanted the people to blindly follow his policy of partial resistance. Now
he wants the people to blindly follow his passie resistance to Japanese
aggression but active opposition to the Communists. In fact, as early as
the civil war period, it was his boast that if he failed in the suppression of
the Communists, he would commit suicide to make atonement to his fellowcountrymen, but he has never been true to his word. When he failed, he
was going to punish everyone who was even remotely connected with the
enterprise, but he himself was never punished. Before the War of Resistance,
he also boasted that, provided he had upwards of 600,000 genuinely
revolutionary troops who would strictly obey his orders and operate under
unified command, there could be no doubt that with his brilliant tactics he
could defeat these little Japanese bandits. But when the Japanese attacked
Shanghai on August 13, 1937, although the troops who were strictly obeying
his orders numbered more than 600,000, we never saw any sign of his
brilliant tactics for defeating the Japanese. Now that the number of his own
troops those who strictly obey his orders is considerably greater than
600,000 he stands ready to collaborate with Japan. It is apparent that his
philosophy of action first is not only an idealist philosophy for keeping the
people in ignorance, but also a braggarts philosophy, a gangsters
philosophy, no different from Hitlers.
To build morale, Chiang Kai-shek emphasizes independence and selfreliance. In fact, because of the comprador aspect of his nature, he relies
on foreign power, and he is anything but independent; the feudal aspect of
his nature sometimes leads to xenophobia, but that is not the same thing
as national self-reliance. He stresses sincerity, but he is totally insincere.
From the earliest Kuomintang-Communist cooperation to the present cooperation in the fight against Japan, he has been insincere with regard to
the Soviet Union, the Communist Party and the people, that is, to the
revolution and the War of Resistance. When he talks about sincerity, he
means that others should follow him with blind devotion, while he hasnt a
shred of sincerity in his dealings with others.
In his ethical teachings Chiang emphasizes an abstract morality based
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upon the Four Principles and Eight Virtues. But as soon as we get down to
realities, we find that he and the ruling group under him have completely
abandoned the Four Principles of propriety, righteousness, honesty
and honour. They deprived Madame Sun Yat-sen of the freedom of
residence; they deprived Lin Sen, Chairman of the National Government,
of the right to convalesce; they are anti-Soviet and anti-Communist although
they have had assistance from both the Soviet Union and the Communist
Party; and they oppress the people although the people supported them.
The whole government indulges in hoarding and speculation and is riddled
with corruption, yet no one is punished. Those who work with the enemy
and betray the country or who trade in contraband and pocket the soldiers
pay likewise go unpunished. What sense does it make to talk about national
loyalty and filial piety when you are cowardly in resisting Japan but take
the lead in waging a civil war? How can you talk of benevolence and love
when people are driven to the battlefield by your officials and are forced to
rise in revolt? How can you utter a word about faithfulness and justice
when the War of Resistance has been going on for six years and youre
still collaborating with the Japanese aggressors, and when war has been
declared against Germany and couriers are still being exchanged with that
country? How can you talk about peace and harmony when you incite Japan
to attack the Soviet Union and your planes are bombing civilians in revolt?
Obviously, these idealist moral principles of his are all hypocritical. But he
tries to use them to befuddle people and get them to practice the virtues of
loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, love, faithfulness, justice, peace and
harmony towards his Koumintang, so that he can oppress and attack the
masses more freely.
Chiang Kai-sheks conception of history is a rag-bag of feudal ideology
centring on a return to the ancients; it reflects the traditional, all-pervasive
ideology of the exploiting class. In his Chinas Destiny, Chiang writes, On
the basis of Confucius teachings, Mencius arose to draw a distinction
between justice and utility and between rule by power and rule through
virtue.......... He refuted the teachings of Yang Zhu and Mo Di and rectified
the hearts of the people. He thereby laid the foundation for the orthodox
school of thought which has enjoyed an unbroken line of development in
China over the past thirty centuries. That is why he made much of the
study of Collected Essays on Government Affairs of the Empire and Chen
Hongmous Five Treatises on Moral and Educational Subjects.
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Chiang Kai-sheks conception of the nationalities is Han chauvinism,
pure and simple. He calls the Mongolian, Hui, Tibeta and Miao nationalities
merely frontier inhabitants and refuses to recognize them as nationalities.
So far as his actions are concerned, he practices racial discrimination and
oppression.
Chiang Kai-sheks conception of the state is a one-party dictatorship of
the big landlords and big bourgeoisie or, more precisely, a new one-man
dictatorship-a fascist rule by secret police- under the facade of a national
state and a government by the entire people. The reason for this is that the
more he senses the weakness of the big landlords and big bourgeoisie, the
less he dares adopt bourgeois democratic methods, or even one-party rule,
and the more he resorts to terrorism, the rule of secret agents and oneman dictatorship.
Chiang Kai-sheks conception of war is that armed strength decides
everything. It is a combination of the warlord ideology common in modern
China (the traditional ideology of the Hunan and Anhui warlords, Zeng
Guofan, Hu Linyi, Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang) and Napoleons thesis
of unification by force of arms. This is why we call it the new warlordism,
or new autocracy. Because he attaches importance to military power alone,
he thinks it impossible to mount resistance to Japanese aggression
independently and looks to foreign aid. He openly declares: [Japan] can
take all of Chinas coastal areas and all regions contiguous to inland
waterways not within ten days, but within three days, regardless of where
they are in the west, not just Chongqing, but even Chengdu; in the south,
not just Guangdong, but Wuzhou and Yongning. If they [meaning the
Japanese] issue the order, it will actually take them only three days to
capture all of Chinas vital regions and subjugate our county. And again:
What have we got to fight them with? We have neither weapons nor the
conditions for war operations: our economy, education, politics is any
one of them up to operations against a modern country? Therefore, his
national policy concerning the War of Resistance has long been based on
the assumption that the Soviet Union is the target of [Japans] army and
Great Britain and the United States are the targets of its navy. If Japan
wants to swallow China, it must conquer Russia, gobble up the United
States and defeat Britain. But now that Japan, having neither conquered
Russia nor gobbled up the United States, has thrown its might against
China, he has become worried, passively resisting while preserving his
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strength for a civil war on the one hand and standing ready to collaborate
with Japan on the other. As he places great stock in military strength, he
sticks to the idea of internal unification by force of arms and stand for rule
by the military. During the eighteen years of his rule, from the Incident of
March 20, 1926, to the present, hardly a single year has gone by when he
was not fighting a war of some sort, and not a single hour when he was not
planning civil war. First there was the incident of March 20 before the
Northern Expedition, and after the expedition there was the split between
the rival governments in Nanjing and Wuhan and then cooperation between
the two. During the civil war there were wars both inside and outside the
Kuomintang. During the War of Resistance, there have been military
operations against the Communist Party and against other forces not his
own.
Chiang Kai-sheks conception of political parties is to have all the parties
and groupings in the country dissolved into his Kuomintang and Three
Peoples Principles Youth League. He openly states: The Kuomintang is
the artery of our nation and the members of the Three Peoples Principles
Youth League may be likened to new blood corpuscles. And again: The
Chinese nation is able to exist only so long as the Kuomintang exists.
Without the Kuomintang, there would be no China today....... In a word,
Chinas destiny hinges entirely on the Kuomintang. Hence, he says, all
adults should join the Kuomintang and all youths the Three Peoples
Principles Youth League. What a blatant exposure of the idea of one
doctrine, one party, and one leader! Yet he still has the effrontery to declare:
As for the different ideologies and organizations in the country, not only
do I have no intention of obstructing them, but I even hope they will grow
and succeed, so long as they dont set up separate regimes, oppose the
revolution, organize armed forces or undermine the resistance, and so
long as they really work in the interests of the state and nation and
revolutionary reconstruction. I will not speak of the Chinese Communist
Party and the armed force and Border Region under its leadership, for they
are carrying on the resistance and are a revolutionary organization, armed
force and political regime. But why is it that other political parties, which
possess neither armed forces nor political power, do not enjoy an iota of
freedom and, far from growing and succeeding, are subjected to
oppression everywhere? Isnt it true that even some groupings inside the
Kuomintang, in particular that of Madame Sun Yat-sen, which sincerely
follows Dr. Sun Yat-sens Three Peoples Principles, enjoy no freedom
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either but are subjected to oppression? Both the Kuomintang and the Three
Peoples Principles Youth League belong to Chiang and have long since
ceased to be the Kuomintang reorganized by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, or the
Kuomintang under which there was freedom of thought and various political
groupings coexisted.
Chiang Kai-sheks view of the people is that they are just beasts of
burden. That is why he stresses Confucius remark, The people may be
made to follow a course of action, but they should not be brought to
understand it. He wants the people to obey his words and abide by his law
so that he can exploit and rule them at will. So for all his talk of democracy,
the Kuomintangs power reigns supreme and democracy has long since
ceased to exist. The consultative councils at the various levels, the new
county system, etc. are all just showpieces designed to deceive people.
To go one step further, it is not even party power that is supreme, but
military power, the power of the secret agents.
Finally, Chiang Kai-sheks economic thought is also that of the semifeudal and semi-colonial landlord and comprador classes. On the one hand,
he prates about a planned economy aimed at industrialization, while on the
other, he is longing for the utopian great harmony described in the Book
of Rites. Under the guise of the Principle of Peoples Livelihood, in effect
he preserves the most backward and reactionary feudal and comprador
economic thinking, that is, the concept of an agricultural China and
industrialized foreign countries. Not only is this thinking incapable of solving
the economic problems of the people, it is bound to bankrupt Chinas
economy even further; the peoples life will become still harder, and it will
become still more difficult for the Chinese nation to extricate itself from its
colonial and semi-colonial economic status.
In Chiang Kai-sheks ideology as outlined here, we can discern only
Chinese fascism, and no trace of the revolutionary Three Peoples Principles
set forth by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. The idealist views and negative elements in
Dr. Sun Yat-sens thought have been developed by Chiang and have become
his own ideology. But Dr. Suns thinking also included some rational
elements and quite a few revolutionary views, especially in his later years
when he drew close to the Communist Party, adopted a number of measures
from the Russian revolution and turned his Three Peoples Principles into
the revolutionary Three Peoples Principles. Chiang Kai-sheks doctrine is
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of quite another order and is nothing but Chinas brand of fascism.
III. THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF CHINESE FASCISM

The fascism of Chiang Kai-shek and his ruling clique has its own
historical sources. Chiang always prides himself on being a disciple and
student of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, but he has long since departed from the right
course. He turned traitor once, and now he has again betrayed Dr. Suns
revolutionary Three Peoples Principles.
Comrade Mao Zedong has pointed out that Chinas fascism is a
comprador and feudal fascism. To be specific, it is a combination of
bureaucrat-capital (that is, the capital, land, and tools of production are
concentrated in the hands of a handful of bureaucrats and financial
magnates) and secret police system. In Chiang Kai-shek we have a mixture
of warlord, stockbroker and underworld boss. His thinking is an
agglomeration of all forms of reaction past and present, domestic and
foreign.
Let us take a look at Chiang Kai-shek and his ruling clique. Chiang
himself comes from a feudal family. When the Revolution of I9II broke out,
he started as a platoon leader under the warlord Zhang Zongchang, and on
orders from Chen Qimei he arranged the assassination of Tao Chengzhang,
a revolutionary political party leader in Zhejiang, and thus stole the fruits in
the recovery of Zhejiang by the revolutionary forces. Dr. Sun was successful
because he had been able to bring together his revolutionary party, the
New Army and the various secret societies. But by their gangster acts,
Chen Qimei and Chiang Kai-shek created a split in the revolutionary party
at its very inception. At the same time they laid the foundation for the
gangster politics which they have dealt in ever since the I9II Revolution
and which grew out of the alliance of the big landlords and big bourgeoisie
with the underworld gangs of Shanghai, all under the protection of the
imperialists.
From 1917 to 1920, Chiang Kai-shek, Dai Jitao and Chen Guofu joined
forces in stock market speculation. Later this tradition was carries on by
H.H. Kung, T.V. Soong and others. Then this comprador clique gradually
became the nucleus of the group that has ruled China for the last twenty
years. It is true that when he was in Guang-dong, Chiang Kai-shek opposed
the Guangdong compradors who served British interests. But right from
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the beginning, Dai Jitao and Chen Guofu, who stayed behind in Shanghai,
opposed Dr. Sun Yat-sens Three Great Policies of alliance with Russia,
the Communist Party and the workers and peasants. And no sooner had
Chiang arrived at the lower reaches of the Changjiang River than he threw
himself into the embrace of the big bourgeoisie of Jiangsu and Zhejiang
Provinces and took the lead in calling for opposition to the Soviet Union,
the Communist Party and the workers and peasants. So Chiang has never
really recognized or carried out the three Great Policies set forth by Dr.
Sun Yat-sen.
Although Chiang Kai-shek organized the Whampoa Military Academy
and directed the Northern Expedition, he retained his warlord mentality and
his love of speculation after he joined the revolutionary ranks. Even in
the course of his study tour in the Soviet Union, what he really admired
was not the Russian revolution but Napoleans Russian expedition. In the
early days of the Whampoa Military Academy, he opposed the Soviet
advisor. When he got arms from the Soviet Union, he began to shout that
the Third International62 was the nerve-centre of world revolution and that
China should follow its instructions. But not long afterwards, on March 20,
he gave orders to surround and attack the residence of the Soviet advisor
in Dongshan, Guangzhou. To educate the cadets at the academy, he did
not teach them revolutionary strategy and tactics, but first of all Zeng
Guofans and Hu Linyis Quotations on Military Affairs and The Life of
Napoleon. He led troops in the Eastern Campaign and was soon competing
with Xu Chongzhi for control of territory. His expulsion of Wang Jingwei
was a further instance of warlordism. He led the troops on the Northern
Expendition but expelled people outside his own circle in the various armies
and created his own private troops. Thus, even before the split between
Nanjing and Wuhan he was already thinking and acting like a new warlord.
Nonetheless, so long as he was in the revolutionary ranks, he still had to
wave the revolutionary banner in order to exploit the strength of the people
and expand his own forces and influence. But as soon as he went over to
counter-revolution, he became a butcher of the people. And the clique he
was leading followed his every step.
The ten years of civil was showed us this warlord, stock broker and
underworld boss in action. Whether he was dealing with struggles and wars
inside the Kuomintang or with the suppression of Communists, he
employed the same methods. Whats more, he learned new fascist tricks
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from Germany, Italy and Japan. Over the past ten years he has sent a
number of Whampoa students to study there and has invited the German
general Von Seeckt, the Berlin police commissioner Blomberg and other
German secret agents to teach.
From the Xian Incident to the sixth year of the resistance he has given
a really marvellous conjuring performance. While we must not forget the
revolutionary side of the dual character of the big landlords and big
bourgeoisie in a semi-colonial country as represented by Chiang Kai-shek,
still less should we forget their other side, the reactionary side. And he is
becoming more and more experienced in playing his reactionary role. With
the experience of a decade of civil war behind him, he has been brazen
enough to wage a partial civil war in the present Was of Resistance. At the
same time, when he was sure which way the wind was blowing, he could
also deliberately make a show of restraint. But we should not be taken in
by him. There is nothing profound about him once we strip off his disguise.
The best way to counter his action is to follow Comrade Mao Zedongs
revolutionary dual policy; adhere to the principle of waging struggles on
just grounds, to our advantage and with restraint; and adopt the method of
tit-for-tat struggle.

2. Betray Dr. Sun Yat-sens Three Peoples Principles, embrace
German-Italian-Japanese fascism, oppose Soviet Socialism and reject
British and U.S. liberalism;
3. Work in collusion with the enemy and oppose the Communists in
order to sabotage the War of Resistance; make use of foreign aid to fight a
civil war;
4. Clamp down on the activities of the minor political parties, bully and
humiliate the minority nationalities, ignore the difficulties of Chinese
nationals abroad and turn a blind eye to the sufferings of victims of natural
disasters at home;
5. Rely on military power, get rid of people outside ones own circle,
build up the secret police and usurp the power of the Koumintang;
6. Trample on rights of the people, deprive them of their freedoms,
make use of the bao-jia [mutual-surveillance] system and impose
dictatorship;
7. Rely on bureaucrat-capital to monopolize the economy, encourage
commercial speculation and disrupt industrial production;
IV. THE POLITICAL PROGRAMME AND TACTICS OF

CHINESE FASCISM
8. Issue unlimited amounts of paper currency, raise prices of

commodities, monopolize the peoples means of livelihood and exploit labour
power;
Although Chiang Kai-shek loudly propagated the Three Peoples

Principles, he never sincerely carried out the Three Great Policies in the
period of the Great Revolution, and he ignored them completely in the period
of civil war. At the beginning of the War of Resistance, when he advertised
a programme of armed resistance and national reconstruction, he was simply
deceiving people. He interpreted the articles of the programme as opposing
total resistance, opposing communism and opposing democracy and
implemented them in that way. As a result, he produced not a programme
for resistance and national reconstruction in accordance with the Three
Peoples Principles, but a programme of fascism.
9. Concentrate the ownership of land at the expense of the peoples

food supply and press-gang able-bodied men for military service at the
expense of the labour force;
We may sum up Chiangs programme in the following twelve points :

1. Carry out passive resistance, while preparing for a compromise with
Japan;
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10. Allow corruption to go unchecked, increase taxes and levies, wink

at trade in contraband and carry out arbitrary searches;
11. Ban books and persecute scholars, corrupt young people, threaten
and cajole, destroy moral integrity; and
12. Violate law and discipline, debase the national morality, wreck the
culture and ruin the nation.
Of course this programme of Chinese fascism is not openly proclaimed
and will never even be publicly admitted. Yet it is being carried out
nonetheless, article by article, item by item and, if anything, goes further
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than these 12 points. This duplicity reveals the weakness of Chinese fascism
as well as its shamelessness and cowardice. How can Chiang Kai-sheks
Kuomintang lead the War of Resistance to victory when carrying out a
programme like this? Without a doubt, it will lead China to splits,
disintegration, chaos and collapse. It will lead the War of Resistance to
defeat.
We Communists uphold resistance, unity, democracy and progress.
We will never allow the War of Resistance to fail. As Comrade Mao Zedong
has pointed out, we must strive for leadership. We must first expand and
strengthen our own forces before we can give strong leadership to others,
prevent the middle-of-the-roaders from wavering, isolate the die-hards and
firmly press ahead with our anti-Japanese Ten-Point Programme and our
administrative programme embodying the three third system.
So far as the tactics of Chinese fascism are concerned, they are applied
flexibly, according to the general orientation of its programme and the dual
character of that section of the big landlords and big bourgeoisie represented
by Chiang Kai-sheks Kuomintang.
Towards Japan the fascists pursue a policy of alternating fighting with
cajoling in the hope of entering into an advantageous compromise.
Towards Britain and the United States they alternately coax and threaten
them in the hope of getting their aid with which to pursue the civil war.
Towards the Soviet Union, they blow hot and cold, hoping that the
U.S.S.R. will contain Japan, thus making it easier for them to resolve
domestic strife in their favour.
In dealing with local forces and the minor political parties, they combine
threats and inducements in an attempt to sow dissension, isolate us and
thus destroy their opponents one by one.
They treat national capitalists, enlightened landlords and senior members
of the Kuomintang now well and now badly in order to determine whether or
not these persons are loyal towards the ruling group.
They publicly suppress and privately seduce progressive men of
letters, intellectuals and students, so as to alienate them from us and
make them oppose us.
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They keep a close watch on the toiling masses of workers and peasants
and obstruct all their relations with us.
Finally, as for their attitude towards us, everything is aimed at eliminating
us, though their tactics may vary from soft to tough. But the soft tactics
are only a temporary expedient and never mean a change for the better; at
the very same time they are preparing the next tough move. At times when
toughness doesnt work, they can temporarily soften up a bit. Now take the
different periods. In the civil war period, Chiang Kai-shek took a hard line,
imposing war on us, arresting our people and killing without mercy. Around
the time of the incident of September 18, 1931, however, he supplemented
this hard line with certain soft tactics, such as the policies of inducing our
people to recant and planting agents inside our ranks. Since the start of
the War of Resistance, he has ostensibly turned to unity, but he engaged
first in veiled strife, then in open struggle. Chiang Kai-sheks Kuomintang
has changed its tactics from restricting and corroding the Communist Party
to attempting to liquidate us. Its policy of using secret agents is well adapted
to the different tactics adopted in these three periods. It we fail to recognize
the consistency with which Chiang Kai-sheks Kuomintang has opposed
the Communist Party, we will not be able to maintain keen vigilance and
carry on appropriate struggles against it. At the same time, if we fail to
recognize the changes in its anti-Communist policy, we will not be able to
analyse and understand it correctly and deal with it according to differing
circumstances.
V. THE ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITIES OF CHINESE

FASCISM
Chinese fascism is organized. The fascist organization was nurtured
inside the Kuomintang and then usurped control of the party; it was nurtured
inside the Three Peoples Principles Youth League and then gained control
of the League; It was nurtured inside the army and then began to rule the
army. It is an organization of secret agents.
It consists of three branches :
The first branch the CC Clique is inside the Kuomintang. It existed
in embryonic form in 1926 and after the defeat of the Great Revolution in
1927 it was formally established with the Bureau of Investigation and
Statistics of the Kuomintang Central Headquarters as its core and seat of
70
December, 2014
NEW DEMOCRACY
power. There are bureaus and offices of investigation and statistics from
the central to the local levels. The power of the CC Clique, that is, the
power of the secret agents, envelops the whole party, reaching into the
countrys administrative and educational systems, into some of the
construction and communications institutions, certain financial and tax
offices and banks (e.g., the Bank of Communications and certain privately
owned banks) and into relief organizations, overseas Chinese associations
and womens organizations. It has a grip on the cultural and propaganda
institutions, including the publishing industry, and the top priority of its
propaganda policy is to combat the Communist Party. The budgetary party
expenditure of the Kuomintang for fiscal year 1943 is 284 million yuan, the
bulk of which will be spent on party activities by the secret agents. And
this figure does not include special expenses.
The second branch is inside the Three Peoples Principles Youth league.
Its predecessor was the Fu Xing Society which has become the organization
of secret agents inside the League. The Fu Xing Society existed in
embryonic form in the Society for the Study of Dr. Sun Yat-sens Doctrines
and the Alumni Society of the Whampoa Military Academy. It was founded
as the Li Xing Society after the Incident of September 18, 1931 and later
took the name Fu Xing. It was incorporated into the Three Peoples
Principles Youth League at the beginning of the War of Resistance. The
special task force and the special training course under the leadership of
Kan Ze were added, and it became the core of the secret agent unit inside
the league.
The third branch is inside the military system, in the Political Training
Section and the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics of the Military
Council. There are a number of military secret agents in the Political Training
Section under He Zhonghan, and even the officers hate them. The Bureau
of Investigation and Statistics of the Military Council was founded by Dai
Li in 1932. In the early period, it was secret agent group of the Fu Xing
Society under him; now it has become a full-fledged branch on its own. It is
enormous, and it has many employees and a very large budget. The bureau
itself is divided into departments, under which there are district offices,
stations, groups and squads. Its tentacles reach far and wide. Under its
control it has the intelligence officer at the various levels, who are directly
under the second office of the Military Command Department of the army;
the commissioners of investigation and statistics in the military organs;
December, 2014
71

the supervision and instruction group in the border region; the Peace
Preservation Department, from its head and the chief of its third section
down to intelligence personnel at the grass-roots level; and the civilian and
military police throughout the country (except for a few provinces). The
entire tax collection system of the country is supervised by its anticontraband units and inspection departments. The communications
institutions are controlled by its supervisory departments and supervisory
centres. The intelligence agents among diplomatic personnel both at home
and abroad, including military attaches, are all under its administration and
are sent out on its recommendations. It has customs officials and secret
agents throughout the national economic structure. Work in the enemy
occupied and puppet areas is under its control. It is also responsible for
planning military actions and intelligence work to disrupt our army and the
areas under our control. These last activities are carried out in parallel to
those of the CC Clique.
From all this it can be seen that China under the Kuomintang has become
a country ruled by secret agents. Moreover, the Kuomintang secret agents
have ties with the special agents of Japan and of the puppet governments.
Both in their organization and in their activities, they are utterly reactionary,
evil, and ruthless.
But, after all, the world is changing. World fascism is moving to its
doom and Chinese fascism is no exception. Chinas resistance will be
victorious in the end; the Chinese people have their own path to liberation.
For all the efforts of Chiang Kai-sheks Kuomintang to keep China on the
road to fascism, the Chinese people will get to know the Chinese Communist
Party and accept its leadership and education, shake off the influence of
Chinese fascism, avoid its traps and take the road to a bright future.
China will never succumb to fascism!
China will become a New Democracy!
72
December, 2014

New Democracy, December 2014

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