India: protest rally on 12th July, Dhenbad, Jharkhand

Jan Garjana Rally
On 12th July, 2004, Dhanbad, Jharkhand

No to …‘Reforms´ with or without a Human Face!
Repeal POTA, Lift ban on MCCI and CPI (ML) People´s War
Isolate and Smash Hindutva Fascism!
Save Five Peasants of Bihar Facing Death Penalty!

Dear friends!

United Progressive Alliance! Another facade to deceive people. This time around they openly declare that their agenda is …‘reforms with a human face´. All these years in various countries, people told their rulers, …‘do not deceive us with your imperialist reforms´ with a human face´. But our rulers now openly say that they came to power with a package of masquerading reforms!

Despite clear verdict of the people against the Globalisation policies, Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister, Chidambaram as Finance Minister have to come forward to symbolically promise the wild forces of global monopoly capitalist market to assure that the new Government is there to go against the verdict. There is little meaning in the word, …‘progressive´ in UPA or few policy changes in …‘Common Minimum Programme´ (CMP). The worse is that this vocabulary is supplied to masquerade the real things by the so-called left parties. The communist parties are expected by the people to expose the hidden agendas of the ruling classes. But here things are topsy-turvy. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya announces in a hurry that …‘Communists are not fools. They are not against reforms´. Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Sitaram Yechuri included …‘reforms with a human face´ in the CMP which is copycatted by Manmohan Singh (the so-called father of Indian pro-market reforms) faithfully. For this best suits for the Congress at present.

The CMP promises only some cosmetic changes in the policies pursued by the earlier BJP-led NDA Government only to pacify the enraged people temporarily before the UPA Government could consolidate the thin majority it culled out in the recent elections. Now the people could see that their resentment and a vote against the most notoriously fascist and pro-American Government could be replaced with the same type of one with a thin veil. The same Liberalisation – Privatisation - Globalisation Policies (which are designed by WB-IMF etc.) are pipe-lined through Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government! Of course this time with a human face!

We could see hardly any difference between NDA Government and UPA Government even in the question of sending troops to Iraq to assist American occupation. Natwar Singh, the Foreign Affairs Minister promised the American rulers while in Washington in the second week of June to send troops to Iraq, but quickly changed his tune on the next day when strong protests re-appeared at home. We cannot rule out the servility of UPA Government as much as NDA exhibited to the American imperialists. Natwar Singh is repeating his NDA predecessors notwithstanding the vehement rejection by people of such hostile policies followed by Vajpayee and Advani. It is time that the present Government stops bullying the South Asian countries with expansionist designs. Within a month after assuming power Natwar Singh went to Nepal with a view to interfere in Nepal´s internal affairs particularly in suppressing the Maoist revolutionaries.

Given the composition and nature of the Congress -led UPA Government, there is no doubt that they go aggressive in selling out the country for a song. UPA Government only promises to slow down the disinvest a bit. It clearly declares that it will sell out the sick PSUs. We all know that it doesn´t take much time for them to …‘make´ any unit a sick one. It is the real fight in the fields, in the streets that can save our PSUs being sold out to the big capitalists and MNCs.

The suicide deaths of farmers are continuing in thousands with the drastic reduction in agricultural subsidies and other facilities. The Public Distribution System is almost destroyed systematically. The peasants, rural and urban poor have been heavily hit by this resulting in hunger deaths and malnutrition deaths. There is no scope for creation of jobs as long as the reforms are continued with or without a human face. The miseries of the people are to grow. Even the water resources are being privatised.

The CMP promises to do a lot unceremoniously. While it is clear for every one to understand that it is not possible to serve the imperialists and the people at the same time, we should demand the UPA Government to show how it will really materialise its …‘rural development,´ …‘right to work´ and other developments projects it promises if not to hoodwink the people.

The three most notorious Chief Ministers - Chandra Babu Naidu, Narendra Modi and Jayalaitha - saw the wrath of the people against their regimes in the recent elections. These three stand for the fascist Indian state in their own ways in three different states with different backgrounds.

Narendra Modies and Uma Bhartis are continuing to spread communal venom sitting from their seats of power. The culprits in Babri Masjid Demolition case or those responsible for Gujarat Genocide are not even touched by the judiciary so far, while the victims of Hindutva have been arrested and imprisoned under POTA. Congress Party, the leader of UPA Government has been also playing soft Hindutva. How can they check the Sangh Parivar? Congress resorted to the same kind of pogrom as BJP did in Gujarat in Delhi on Sikh religious minorities. Jagadish Tytler, who led the anti-Sikh Genocide in Delhi, is now a minister in Manmohan Singh Government.

Though the CMP promises a unanimous agreement on scrapping POTA – Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002, the UPA Government took no Parliamentary steps so far to do away with this anti-people legislation. The Home Minister, Shivraj Patil has been talking about suitable amendments to be brought about in the draconian law. He also has said that there is no time-bound programme to scrape POTA in CMP. He is the same person who argued in Parliament during NDA period that no amendments could soften this dreaded law. Thousands of Adivasis from Jharkhand and Chhttisgarh, Muslims from Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir and landless peasants from Maharastra, Andhra Pradesh and elsewhere have been implicated under this law. Though BJP-led NDA time and again said that it brought this law to deal with some dreaded terrorists from out side the country, it used POTA mainly against MCCI, CPI (ML) (Peoples War), CPI (ML) Jana Shakti and Muslim minorities. This draconian law should be scrapped with a provision to withdraw its clauses on the accused and all those who are still in prisons should be immediately released.

Today five Bihar landless and poor peasants are facing death sentence confirmed by Supreme Court in a TADA case long after TADA had been done away with. They maybe hanged to death any time if the President of India doesn´t consider favourably the mercy appeal placed before him by the Delhi democrats. Krishna Mochi, Nanhelal Mochi, Bir Kuer Paswan and Dharmendra Singh, all poor and landless peasants from Gaya district of Bihar were falsely implicated in Bara incident against a landlord private army called Sun Light Sena. In another case, the Supreme Court confirmed death penalty on Shobhit Chamar, a dalit landless labourer from Bhabua district. He is also accused in the killing of an upper caste landowner. As in the case of POTA, in TADA also there was no way one could get a fair trial. The trials conducted by various courts in these cases were very faulty as it is mentioned in the minority judgement of the Supreme Court in the Bara case.

Hardly any one from the landlord armies or the culprits from landlords get such a punishment. The class biasness of the judiciary is evident from these orders of judicial executions. The only crime the above victims did was to become part of the banner of rebellion raised boldly by the most wretched of the earth from Bihar and Jharkhand. Hence we call upon the democrats, intellectuals and one and all to exert democratic pressure on the UPA government to save the lives of these five peasants immediately.

This rally of people is convened to call upon people of the country, intellectuals, students, youth, workers and peasants to continue the fight against vicious communal politics of Hindutva fascists though they are out of power at Centre, but continue to rule in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat etc. If the UPA Government along with its lapdogs…—the social democrats…—i.e. CPI , CPM etc will repeat the same policies as the NDA in one guise or the other, it will have to face the same fate as the NDA. More over there is only a very small difference between Congress and BJP in playing the communal politics. One is covert, while the other is overt. We call upon all those who wanted a secular Government in the place of rabid Hindutva fascists not to nurture any illusions about the UPA Government.

It is under the same Congress and same man Manmohan Singh that the recent phase of aggressive market-oriented reforms in the name of globalisation was initiated in our country. It is the same Left Front which is implementing globalisation policies in West Bengal and Tripura where they have been in power. Now they helped Congress to wear a …‘human face´. So it is clear for us that the self assumed …‘progressive´ character of these left parties or their UPA Government is a big lie. People´s resistance is the only option to end these pro-imperialist and anti-people´s regimes and to establish a people-oriented secular democratic society.

18th June, 2004
Struggling Forum for Peoples Resistance (SFPR)
All India Peoples Resistance Forum (AIPRF)
Forum for People´s Resistance (FPF)

Issued by Dr. Darshanpal (AIPRF), Rajkishor (SFPR), and Janaki Rami Reddy (FPR). For more details contact: aiprf@rediffmail.com or 011-27675001