People's Democracy

POLIT BUREAU CALL

Prepare For Countrywide Movement On

Food, Land & Employment Issues

THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) has called upon all units of the Party to prepare for the countrywide campaign and movements in August-September on issues connected with land, food and employment. It has also extended its full support to the one-day general strike on September 29 called by the Sponsoring Committee of Trade Unions.

This was announced by Party general secretary Prakash Karat at a media conference at AKG Bhavan on July 31. He briefed the media on the deliberations of the Polit Bureau meeting held on July 29-30 in New Delhi.

Expressing deep concern at the situation in Maharashtra where hundreds have lost their lives due to torrential rains, Karat criticised the state government for not being able to provide relief to the people even after so many days. Asking the government to take note of the suffering of the people, particularly those living in slums and poor neighbourhoods, he demanded immediate steps by the administration to provide relief. He also asked the central government to provide aid to the state.

On the Indo-US agreements, Karat outlined the basic objections of the Party and said the prime minister’s visit shows the continuation of the trend of India being accomodated as an ally of the US. Emphasising that nuclear issue cannot be seen in isolation – which the media is currently doing – Karat announced that the PB decided to conduct seminars and meetings across the country to highlight the danger of these agreements. He dismissed questions of whether this meant a “hard line” vis a vis the UPA government as nebulous interpretations of 24-hour news channels in their effort to fill the slots.

Referring to the situation in Nepal, Karat said that even four months after the so-called road map to democracy promised by the King to prime minister Manmohan Singh, there is a reign of State terror in the country. Referring to various instances of continued political repression, Karat said the people of Nepal have come to the conclusion that King and Democracy cannot go together. He demanded the UPA government to reconsider its stand of resuming military supplies to Nepal and called upon all democratic forces to rally in support of the struggle for restoration of democracy in Nepal.

On the crisis in BJP, Karat said now that it is amply clear that the RSS runs the BJP show, the so-called secular allies cannot continue to pretend that they are not part of a combination whose major party obeys the RSS dictates. Karat asked them to explain to the people this contradiction.

On the coming elections to Bihar state assembly, Karat stated that the PB discussed the situation and decided to work for a broad unity of the democratic and secular forces to ensure the defeat of the JD(U)-BJP combine. In this regard, he said as the larger secular party the RJD must take initiative to ensure this unity.

On the issue of SNC-Lavlin deal, he said the Party has already replied to all allegations in this regard both inside the Kerala state assembly and outside. “We will continue to defend our positions”, he asserted. Saying that this issue was not discussed in the Polit Bureau meeting, Karat reminded the media how a similar campaign was launched in Bengal three years ago regarding a “treasury scam”, the investigation into which found nothing. He said in the Lavlin deal issue, it was only preliminary queries raised by the state accountant general and not any finding of the CAG.

Answering questions, Karat asserted that the stand of the CPI(M) remains the same on the issue of BHEL disinvestment and that the Left continued to remain out of the UPA coordination committee due to this. Regarding the organisational issues in Kerala unit, he said the PB discussed the report submitted by the Kerala state committee on the Mallapuram state conference. He said the state committee would be informed of the measures decided by the PB to tackle the organisational issues which had arisen. (INN)