People's Democracy

 THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

Subhas Ray

THE first day of the winter session of parliament on December 2 was adjourned for the day after passing obituary references on the demise of union minister Murasoli Maran and other sitting and former members of parliament. On the next day, December 3, both houses began on a stormy note as the members paralysed the proceedings of the houses. Both the houses plunged into turmoil right from the time they assembled in the morning.

SPATE OF PROTEST   

On the day, a determined opposition forced an adjournment of the Rajya Sabha for the day. It was demanding suspension of the question hour and a statement from the prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on the Tehelka type video exposure of the scam involving Dilip Singh Judeo, minister of state for environment, and on the CVC’s report on the alleged pressure on central public sector undertakings by six union ministers. The CPI(M)’s Nilotpal Basu asked: if the government had received notices for suspension of the question hour on these issues, why did it not act? Why was the government not prepared and why could it not indicate a time for the PM’s statement? Amid vociferous demands of the opposition, the chairman, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, adjourned the house during the question hour. Later, when the house reassembled in the afternoon, there was no let up in the din. The chairman then adjourned the house for the day.

Lok Sabha too was adjourned for the day without transacting any business, following uproarious scenes on the issue of ethnic violence in Assam. As soon as the house assembled, irate members from Bihar demanded the suspension of question hour and an immediate discussion on the issue. As soon as the question hour began, Janata Dal (United) members and others stormed into the well of the house demanding an immediate discussion on the issue. They accused the Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi of being responsible for the violence. But the Congress members immediately contested their charges. The JD(U) members and Rajesh Ranjan Yadav then started moving menacingly towards Pawan Singh Ghatowar, a Congress member from Assam. At this stage, the CPI(M)’s leader Somnath Chatterjee and Raghuvansh Prasad Singh of the RJD prevented the situation from taking an ugly turn. Raising his voice amid the commotion, Chatterjee urged the members to restrain themselves. 

On Friday, December 5, the entire opposition staged a brief walk out in Lok Sabha after the speaker, Manohar Joshi, rejected their adjournment notices for suspension of the question hour to discuss the dropping of charges against union ministers in the Babri Masjid demolition case. On the eve of the 11th anniversary of the Babri demolition on December 6, the CPI(M)’s Somnath Chatterjee insisted on observing a black day since, he said, it was a national shame. He said one could not think of any other issue that is so much festering the nation’s body politic.

VIOLENCE IN ASSAM

On the day, Lok Sabha discussed the incidents of violence in Assam and some other parts of the country due to the recruitment policy of the Indian Railways.

Initiating the discussion, Basudeb Acharya of the CPI(M) strongly condemned the incidents of violence in Assam and Bihar in which many innocent Biharis and other Hindi-speaking people were killed in Assam. He said what has happened in Assam spoke of an unabated anti-Bihari frenzy and an escalation of violence that had rocked the state. There has been a worsening of the law and order situation in Assam. As a result, more than 60 Biharis and other Hindi-speaking people were killed. They were staying in Assam for years together. The tribals of Chhotanagpur and from many other areas were brought to Assam by the British to work in tea plantations. These people belong to the poor sections of society; they are tea garden workers, rickshaw pullers, vendors and small traders. They have become a part and parcel of the life in Assam. They do not think they are separate from the Assamese. But it is these very people who were attacked. About ten thousands of them are now languishing in 26 relief camps. The worst affected districts were Dibrugarh and Tinsukia. Thousands of their houses were gutted and burnt down. Such a heinous crime was committed by a certain group that did not have the support of the people of Assam.

Acharya said all these incidents were a sequel to an advertisement by the Indian Railways that the railways would recruit 20,000 gangmen, khalasis and other safety staff, and that the recruitment to these Group D category posts would be done through 19 Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs). Those who applied included the candidates from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Tripura. On November 9, when these youth from Bihar and Tripura went to Assam, they were prevented from appearing in the interview. Then the news spread to Bihar. During the next two days, trains coming from Assam were stopped at various stations in Bihar. A number of passengers, particularly from Assam and also from some other north eastern states, were taken out of compartments and beaten up. Such things continued for two days.

But, Acharya asked, what the 80,000 Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel were doing? Why were they not moved to protect the innocent passengers?

Then, on November 17, the AASU, Assam Jatiyatavadi Yuva Chhatra Union and also the ULFA called a bandh and started attacking the Biharis.  An atmosphere of naked provincial chauvinism was created in Assam. In Bihar, on the other hand, there was no such problem.  Lakhs of Biharis are working in West Bengal. There is no ill will between the Biharis and Bengalis. Many Bengalis are staying in Bihar. There is no ill will for them in Bihar either.

CRUX OF THE PROBLEM

The question is: why is this happening today? The crux of the problem is that unemployment is growing by leaps and bounds due to the central government’s and also because of several state governments’ policies. The number of registered unemployed youth in Assam stands at more than 17 lakhs; in Bihar it is 20 lakhs. Industries are being closed in droves and no new industries are coming up. Bihar has heavily lost after the bifurcation. Most of the industries --- coal, mica, iron ore, copper, many others --- have gone to Jharkhand. Most of the industries left in Bihar stand closed. The Barauni fertiliser unit is closed. Two wagon making units are virtually closed; not a single wagon is now being manufactured today. For the last six months, workers of these wagon making units have not received their wages. Misery is growing fast in the state.

A similar situation exists in Assam. The share of the north east in Group C and Group D posts is only 26 per cent. When the reason was sought, the government’s reply was that there was no infrastructure and, as a result, industries were not coming up in the north eastern region. Because of the wrong policies of the central governments, certain states and certain areas in some other states continue to remain backward. There is no industrialisation there and unemployment continues to grow.

This is the background of the demand that employment should be given to the “sons of the soil.” Except the Left, all parties are supporting the demand that all posts should be reserved for the local youth. As a result, fissiparous tendencies like provincialism and chauvinism are growing in the country.

In Maharashtra, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray threatened to throw the “Biharis” out and demanded that only Maharashtrians should get the jobs in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena then started violence in the state. In fact, its politics has been thriving on the basis of communalism, provincialism and chauvinism. It came into being in the sixties on the slogan that Malayalis should be driven out of Maharasthra.

Acharya asked: do we have or not have a constitution in this country?  Today, a fundamental right of the citizens is being taken away in Maharashtra. The Biharis cannot go to either Maharashtra or Assam. Now, the Assamese cannot go to Bihar. If this continues to happen, he asked, what we would have of India’s unity? 

THE GOVT’S CULPABILITY

The immediate cause of all this violence was that the ministry of railways suddenly woke up from its sleep after about two decades to recruit about 20,000 railway safety staff. However, earlier, recruitment used to be done by the DRM and through local employment exchanges for the Group D posts. Why this system was changed, remains unexplained. The earlier system was working well and there was no complaint about it except that of large-scale corruption. Then the ministry also displayed utter lack of wisdom in fixing the examination dates and in other matters. All this contributed to the genesis and spread of the violence. Therefore, Acharya suggested that the earlier system be restored and the names of candidates be sponsored by the local employment exchanges.

The minister in-charge of the development of north eastern region, C P Thakur, and the minister of state for home affairs, Chinmayanand Swami, visited Assam on November 22 and 23, much after the most serious incidents had taken place there on November 17. Why did they visit the state after a lapse of five or six days? Acharya asked. The central ministers always see a foreign hand behind such type of incidents. In this case also, the union home minister cum deputy prime minister saw nothing less than the hands of Bangladesh and of Pakistan’s ISI. The RSS sarsanghchalak K S Sudharshan also made certain observations about this incident on November 24. He said what was going on in Assam was a part of the Islamisation strategy. Acharya asked: what has Islamisation got to do with what happened in Assam? Shiv Sainiks ransacked the Railway Recruitment Board’s office in Maharashtra and manhandled its chairman. Did Pakistan advise Shiv Sena to do these things? Media reports say the central minister belonging to Assam, Bijoya Chakravarty, went to the extent of questioning the recruitment of some Biharis in Assam Police and openly incited the AASU leaders to attack the North Frontier Railways headquarters. She has not contradicted these reports, nor has even the railway minister condemned them.

In the course of his intervention, Acharya reminded that there are a large number of Biharis in Bengal Police. The Bengalis are peacefully living with non-Bengalis in West Bengal. They have banished provincialism, chauvinism and communalism from the state. The CPI(M) member concluded by emphasising the need to ensure balanced development of all the states and of the backward states in particular.