Monday, October 29, 2012
Sunday, October 28, 2012
THE International Labour Organisation (ILO) a tripartite body of the representatives of governments, employees and employers, came into existence in Paris on April 11, 1919, under the Treaty of Versailles, as an organ of the League of Nations. However, though the League of Nations suffered demise after the outbreak of the second world war in 1939, the ILO survived. On May 10, 1944 the 26th International Labour Conference at Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, US) adopted a declaration reaffirming the major objectives of ILO and strongly underlining the universal dimension of the struggle for social justice. This declaration is termed as the first universal Charter of Fundamental Human Rights to have been adopted by an international organisation.
THE Economist in its recent issue (October 12, 2012) published a Special Report on the growing inequalities worldwide. It is indeed a reiteration of what we had been saying all these days – the world is increasingly becoming inequitable. The Report states “...within many countries income gaps have widened. More than two-thirds of the world’s people live in countries where income disparities have risen since 1980, often to a startling degree” and further “These days the inverted U has turned into something closer to an italicised N, with the final stroke pointing menacingly upwards”. Worried about the consequences, the Report calls for 'modern politics' to “come up with ways of mitigating inequality without hurting economic growth”.
THE Bihar bandh, called for by the Left parties, on October 15 evoked unprecedented response on the day. It was organised to register protest against the murder of students in Madhubani and Jaynagar, police repression at Khagaria, Gaya and other places, rapes in several places, and the anti-people policies of UPA government at the centre and NDA government in the state.
ON October 12, hundreds of activists, workers, leaders and sympathisers of the Jammu & Kashmir United School Teachers Association (JKUSTA) gathered in front of the Directorate of School Education at Jammu, where they held a demonstration and day long dharna on the day. They were led by JKUSTA president Hari Singh.
THERE are two forthcoming international events that have created a huge debate on who will control the internet in the future. These events are the 8th Internet Governance Forum (IGF), to be held in Baku from November 6 to 9, and the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) which will meet from December 3 to 14, 2012 in Dubai. While the IGF brings all the players including civil society on a common platform, it has no binding powers to make any changes to the way internet functions. The WCIT, on the other hand, is part of the International Telecom Union’s treaty making process and can --- through modifying the International Telecom Regulations (ITRs) --- change the way that the internet functions today and therefore decide who will control the internet.
Crony capitalism, defying nature, is in full bloom, as winter sets in, baring all its multiple fangs. The Congress and the BJP are busy trading charges against each other’s leaders. It is these two parties that are principally responsible for putting in place the current structure of the neo-liberal economy and reforms that have opened up hitherto unknown and inconceivable avenues for mega corruption. This neo-liberal trajectory led to the mushrooming of crony capitalism of the worst order. As a result, lakhs of crores or trillions of rupees have already been looted and continue to be looted further. During the past three years, various mega scams have come to light like the 2G spectrum, coal block allocations, Commonwealth Games scam, Adarsh Housing Society scam etc etc etc.
ON October 18, 2012, V S Achyuthanandhan, leader of opposition in Kerala assembly and a CPI(M) Central Committee member, admitted that it was wrong on his part to visit the home of slain RMP leader T P Chandrasekharan on the very day of the Neyyattinka byelection. At a press conference in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram, he said he also accepted the fault of his stand on the Koodamkulam issue. He termed his stand on this issue as a deviation from the party’s stand.
IT is precisely to target the CPI(M) that its leaders were deliberately made accused in these cases as part of the wanton political plot of the ruling political leadership in the state. Capitalising on fortuitous incidents, the UDF-media nexus launched a vigorous campaign to destabilse the CPI(M). Ridiculously, the same media is attempting to portray the UDF leadership as an icon of integrity and virtue. In order to avoid arresting the former UDF minister who was convicted by the Supreme Court for corruption, the UDF leadership had propagated that he was seriously ill and subsequently got him admitted in a five star private hospital. The UDF governments blatant bias that protected its minister P K Kunhalikkutty through a special investigation and its reluctance to file charges against K Sudhakaran MP and P K Basheer MLA were never interrogated in the media trial. Rather the media deceitfully blacked out these pertinent questions and subtly projected that the law proceeds in its own direction. When the law moves according to the vindictive direction set by the UDF leadership, the media cleverly covers it up under the rhetoric of equality before law and equal protection of law.
IT is precisely to target the CPI(M) that its leaders were deliberately made accused in these cases as part of the wanton political plot of the ruling political leadership in the state. Capitalising on fortuitous incidents, the UDF-media nexus launched a vigorous campaign to destabilse the CPI(M). Ridiculously, the same media is attempting to portray the UDF leadership as an icon of integrity and virtue. In order to avoid arresting the former UDF minister who was convicted by the Supreme Court for corruption, the UDF leadership had propagated that he was seriously ill and subsequently got him admitted in a five star private hospital. The UDF governments blatant bias that protected its minister P K Kunhalikkutty through a special investigation and its reluctance to file charges against K Sudhakaran MP and P K Basheer MLA were never interrogated in the media trial. Rather the media deceitfully blacked out these pertinent questions and subtly projected that the law proceeds in its own direction. When the law moves according to the vindictive direction set by the UDF leadership, the media cleverly covers it up under the rhetoric of equality before law and equal protection of law.
THE Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) had welcomed the Supreme Court’s act of granting bail to journalist Syed Mohammad Ahmad Kazmi, after he spent seven months in prison. Kazmi, a 50 years old scribe who was working for an Iranian news agency in Delhi and also for the state-run Doordarshan, was accused of providing information leading to an attack on an Israeli diplomat. He has denied the charges against him.
MEDIA experts on third world and developing countries, foreign policy media personnel, writers and members of the Delhi Union of Journalists and the Delhi Media Centre for Research & Publications Trust made a fervent plea, on October 15, for a new information order if not an alternative information order to combat trivialism and the virtual blackout of what was once known as a third world project and even called by many as the non-aligned movement.
THROUGH a statement issued by its president, A K Padmanabhan, on October 20, 2010, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has congratulates the workers and executives of the National Aluminium Company (NALCO) for their successful one day protest strike on the day against the proposed further disinvestment of 12.5 per cent of NALCO shares. More than 25000 workers and executives participated in this united strike action that was called for by the affiliates of all the trade union organisations including the CITU, INTUC, AITUC, BMS and HMS, resulting in a total strike in the plants and offices of the NALCO.
THE UPA government’s decision to hike FDI limit in insurance and allow foreign equity participation in the pension sector is meant to placate the domestic and international finance capital. The government feels this decision will fuel foreign investors’ interest in India and help revive our faltering economy. But from the past experience, it becomes clear that this move would neither benefit the Indian economy nor bring any gains to the insuring public. Despite vehement protests by the AIIEA, a number of political parties and the democratic opinion in the country, the government appears determined to bring the necessary legislation in the coming winter session of parliament and work for its approval. The finance minister has been going round the country justifying the FDI hike, exuding confidence that the Bill will pass the test with the support of BJP, the main opposition party.
A REIGN of terror prevails in Delhi University, with students, non-teaching staff and teachers being denied their right to protest. The university today has the most authoritarian regime in its 90 years history that threatens teachers and others with dire consequences and wage-cuts if they seek justice and resolution of their demands by holding dharnas, demonstrations or a day’s strike. College principals are being forced not to let their halls to teachers or non-teaching employees’ unions to even hold their general bodies. This never happened in the past. This regime humiliates, browbeats, rebukes and threatens even the college principals, departments’ heads and professors who question it. The regime is in no mood to learn from history and the recent international events about the dictators’ fates.
SOME people say that the Left does not really have an alternative to the economic policy being pursued in India in the current conjuncture. If it was only the critics of the Left who said this, then the matter could be ignored: they after all are bound to say such things. But such a view exists even among some who are otherwise sympathetic to the Left, which is why it needs to be discussed.
Through a joint missive, issued on October 16, 2012, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India, the All India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party have directed all their committees, units and cadres to hold conventions at various levels on the issue of foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail trade and mobilise public opinion against the government’s recent decision for this sector. The text follows.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
THE Communist Party of India (Marxist) will demand in the coming session of parliament that the UPA government must allow parliament to decide on the issue of entry of Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail, Prakash Karat said in Kolkata on October 17. It has to pass this “democratic test”, he said.
ON behalf of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), a leading women’s organisation of the country, we have come here to express our anguish and anger at the spate of horrific incidents of violence against women and young girls that have occurred in your State. Many of the victims are Dalits and all of them belong to the poorest and weakest sections. We are also here to express our severe condemnation of the way in which certain organisations have been running so-called Protection Homes as places of intimidation and sexual exploitation of their inmates.
Malala Yousafzai is a 14 year old girl, studying in the Swat Valley of Pakistan. Just like many of us in our younger days, and like our children now, she too is a school-going child. And that was not a small crime. And even more bigger crime that she committed was encouraging her fellow girls to study. Crimes don’t go unpunished. Particularly in those lands where fanatics tread. Punished she was. Shot. Along with her, two more girls were injured. But she was the target. And she is struggling for her life.
IN the ensuing Himachal Pradesh Assembly Elections, CPI(M) has fielded candidates in 15 constituencies out of the total 68. The Party has arrived at an electoral understanding with the Himachal Lokhit Party and the CPI. Under the banner of Himachal Lokhit Morcha, these three parties have come to an understanding in most of the seats. In three seats, CPI(M) candidates would have to fight the other constituents of the Morcha too. The following is the list of the CPI(M) candidates.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
SUPREME COURT CONCERNED OVER ‘DEVASTATING’ INCREASE IN RAPE CASES
Even as growing incidents of rape in Haryana
have sparked a public outrage against the state government’s apathy, the
Supreme Court on Friday asked the subordinate courts not to leave a rape
accused scot-free on flimsy grounds.
A bench headed by Justice P Sathasivam
reversed a Uttar Pradesh high court order acquitting a man of raping and
murdering an 11-year-old girl and said courts must be cautious in appreciating
evidence in rape cases. The accused was let-off due to variance in the
witnesses’ statement given to the police and then later to the court. Observing
that the “primary concern at national and international level was about the
devastating increase in rape cases”, the bench said the accused should not get
relief on mere technical grounds.
“Although the statutory provisions provide
strict penal action against such offenders, it is for the courts to ultimately
decide whether such incident has occurred or not….In the instant case, the
accused had committed rape, which repels against moral conscience as he chose a
girl of 11 years to satisfy his lust and subsequently murdered her,” the bench
said, sentencing him to life imprisonment.
It held the HC’s analysis and conclusion was
contrary to the acceptable material placed by the prosecution. But the SC
refrained from sending the accused to gallows on the ground the incident was a
decade old.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Probe Needed into Vadra’s Business
Probe Needed into Vadra’s Business
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India
A NUMBER of charges have been levelled regarding the business dealings of the companies promoted by Shri Robert Vadra. There have not been any clear answers to the questions which have been raised regarding the finances of these companies and their activities in the real estate sector.
The CPI(M) is of the opinion that these business dealings and the affairs of these companies should be investigated by the relevant authorities. Only such a probe can bring out the truth.
Chavez Congratulated
On October 8, 2012, Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), sent the following letter to President Hugo Chavez Frias, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
ESTEEMED Comrade Hugo Chavez,
I warmly congratulate you on the brilliant victory in the presidential election. The people of Venezuela
We rejoice at this historic victory. On behalf of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), I wish you all success in your democratic endeavour to take Venezuela
With warm greetings,
Yours sincerely
(Prakash Karat)
General Secretary
CPI(M) Opposes FDI In Pension, Insurance The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) issued the following statement on October 5, 2012. THE UPA government has decided to raise the cap for foreign direction investment in the insurance sector from the current 26 per cent to 49 per cent. The cabinet has also decided to allow 49 per cent FDI in pension funds. These measures announced by the union cabinet will make India’s finance sector more vulnerable to speculative finance capital. The decision to allow FDI in pension funds will jeopardise the savings of millions of employees in the country. The Polit Bureau appeals to the people to oppose these anti-people measures. The Polit Bureau also appeals to political parties to defeat these measures when they are brought before parliament.
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