MADHYAMGRAM RAPE-MURDER VICTIM CASE: PROTESTS CONTINUE

 

 

MADHYAMGRAM RAPE-MURDER CASE: Protestors Hold CM Guilty of Callousness

NEW DELHI: ON January 2, several hundred people from women’s organisations, trade union organisations and student organisations demonstrated outside the Banga Bhawan in New Delhi, in order to protest against the callous and criminal attitude of the West Bengal government towards victims of sexual assault and specifically the manner in which the case of the recent 16-year old gang-rape victim was dealt with, resulting in her tragic death due to burn injuries on December 31, 2013. That the government of the Trinamul Congress (TMC), headed by a woman, makes a mockery of a crime such as rape speaks volumes about how they seek to politicise each issue in order to brush aside all opposition to their rule in an autocratic manner.

Speaker after speaker denounced the incident and demanded speedy trial in this case and steps to curb violence against women inBengal which was relatively a safer place for women before the advent of TMC rule in 2011. Brinda Karat, patron of the All India Democratic Women’s Association, said that this was not only about violence but about the attitude of TMC government towards women and violence. CITU general secretary Tapan Sen denounced the criminalisation of politics by TMC. Jagmati Sangwan, general secretary of the AIDWA, said that the people of Bengal would no longer tolerate the nexus between TMC and criminals. Jagmati also said that AIDWA would observe January 3 as ‘Akrosh Diwas’ across the country.

The speakers put forward the following demands:

1) Impartial inquiry into the case,

2) Speedy and time-bound trial in the case,

3) Punishment to the policemen who were hand-in-glove with the criminals, and

4) Safety and support to the victim’s family.

The participating organisations included, among others, the AIDWA, CITU, SFI, NFIW and Swastika Mahila Samiti.

Next day, on Akrosh Diwas on January 3, these organisations and sent an open letter to the West Bengal chief minister through the resident commissioner in Delhi. The text of the Open Letter follows.

CHIEF MINISTER’S RESPONSIBILITY

We the undersigned express our deep outrage and shock at the horrendous double gang rape and murder of the 16 years old student in Madhyamgram, in North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, and the subsequent events following her death due to burns she sustained. We are extremely disturbed that as chief minister you have not only maintained a deafening silence on the case but as home minister, the police directly under your control have acted in a manner which not only further victimised the rape victim and her family but eventually led to her murder.

We strongly believe that if your government had acted against the criminals after she was subjected to gang rape on October 24 the subsequent horrific events could have been prevented and the young woman’s life could have been saved.

The father of the girl in this case is a taxi driver from Bihar who had brought his family to Kolkata a few months back precisely because they had thought that the daughter would get better education in Kolkata. She was gang raped the first time on October 24, 2013, by a group of miscreants, some of whom are known to be close to the ruling party in the state. After she came home having lodged a complaint at the local thana, she was abducted and raped once again by the same culprits as punishment for having dared to voice her complaint.

But even then the police did not act. When leaders of women’s organisations and other concerned citizens raised their voices in protest and went to meet the victim, they were driven out by armed hooligans who were surrounding the house.

Madam, how do such criminals have the run of the place where they have the audacity to repeat their horrendous crime and then attack protesters? Is it because they have the political patronage of the ruling party?

Pressurised by public outrage, the police then arrested six of the accused persons and arranged for vigilance at the girl’s residence to protect her and her family. But very soon, this protection was withdrawn and the family fled from Madhyamgram to a rented room near Dumdum Airport to escape the constant threats they were facing.

Why was the police protection withdrawn? On whose orders? Why did the police not take action against those making threats?

On December 23, some associates of the culprits discovered even this meagre shelter and, according to the statement of the victim to the police, stormed into the room in the absence of the parents, abused and threatened the girl and set fire on her causing 90 percent burns. It is shocking that initially the police tried to cover up the case by saying that it was the outcome of a quarrel between landlord and tenant. Later two persons named in the FIR were eventually arrested and remanded to jail custody. The girl was taken to R G Kar Hospital where there is no burn unit and in spite of agitations by organisations to shift her to the burn unit at SSKM Hospital, the superintendent refused; she was only shifted to the ICU later. After fighting for her life for eight days, the girl died on January 31, without receiving even a single gesture of sympathy or concern from the government.

As you are directly holding the health ministry, could not you or on your direction any senior government official have intervened to ensure that the victim was not denied the specialised medical care she required? This could have saved her life.

It is outrageous and unprecedented that after her death, the police who had refused to provide security to the girl while she was living, suddenly became pro-active after her death forcibly took her body, without the consent of her parents, to the cremation ground and tried to cremate her by putting pressure on her father to produce the death certificate. The father however refused and on the morning of January 1, 2014, they had to hand over the body to the family who were then able to perform the last rites. Such brutal behaviour on the part of the police and the administration raises doubts as to whether the family of the victim would be able to get justice at all.

Under whose instructions did the police act in this barbarous way?

A year ago, the country was convulsed with anger and outrage after the brutal gang rape in Delhi and death of the brave young woman. The country pledged to make India safe for women, to reform the law and judicial processes, to ensure swift justice and punishment to the criminals and to also hold governments and officials accountable for any connivance in subverting the law.

Regretfully, we find that in West Bengal the official approach of your government to almost all the cases of sexual assault which include many of your own statements berating the victims, have brought despair to victims of sexual assault and those seeking justice. We therefore call upon you to take immediate steps to restore the rule of law against criminals by the following steps:

We demand that the West Bengal government hand over the investigation into the case to an impartial agency which should be court monitored.

All the culprits be arrested without delay and brought to justice speedily.

The police personnel responsible for removing the protection cover as well as those who tried to forcible takeover the girl’s body should be proceeded against without delay.

Immediate enquiry must be made into the charges of negligence against the hospital and the department of health, so that those who are guilty in this matter may be exposed.

Protection must be provided for the family of the girl.

The letter was signed by many prominent persons such as Professor C P Chandrasekhar, Professor Jayati Ghosh, Professor Archana Prasad, Professor Pravin Jha of JNU, renowned historian Professor Prem Chaudhury, DUTA president Nandita Narain, DU executive committee member Abha Dev Habib, Professor Sonya Gupta and Professor Simmi Malhotra (Jamia Millia Islamia), Professor Dinesh Abrol (CSSP), A N Damodaran (president, Jan Sanskriti), Professor Vandana Prasad (PHRN), AIDWA president Professor Malini Bhattacharya, Aruna Roy (NFIW), Jyotsna Chatterjee (JWP), Jai Bhagwan, (AICCMDMW), Rajiv Kunwar (secretary, Democratic Teachers Front, DU), Ranjana Nirula and A R Sindhu (AICCWW), Amitav Guha (FMRAI), Dr Nalini Taneja and Professor Amar Farooqui (DU), Leila Passah (YWCA), Kamla Bhasin (One Billion Rising), Kusum Sehgal (Swastika Mahila Samiti), Annie Raja (NFIW), N S Goswami (retired professor, DU), Sunand Singh (CEC of SFI), Puran Chand (general secretary, DYFI Delhi state unit), Smita Gupta of ISWSD, Dr Arathi (Council for Social Development) and renowned economist Professor Utsa Patnaik, among others.

DELEGATION MEETS NCW

ON January 7, a joint delegation of women’s organisations along with the family members of the 16 years old girl who was gang raped and murdered in Madhyamgram, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, met the chairperson of National Commission for Women (NCW) in the national capital, New Delhi.

A statement of the family members was registered with the commission and the chairperson responded to the compliant positively. She assured immediate intervention in the matter for the following:

a)     Provide support to the family and take steps for relief and rehabilitation both short and long term.

b)    Stiff action against all perpetrators would be sought.

c)     A delegation of the NCW would visit West Bengal along with women’s organisations to take cognisance of the situation there.

d)    The NCW will do all that’s possible within its powers to ensure that justice is done. 

 Protest Actions Continue

BIHAR: The heart wrenching incident of twice raped girl, who was later on burnt to death on December 31, 2013 in Madhyamgram area near Kolkata, evoked spontaneous protest all across Bihar, cutting across political affiliations. The ghastly incident which consumed the life of a 16 years old girl from Bihar and the behaviour of the police and the West Bengal government has invited all round condemnation, and people from all walks of life joined together to raise their voice in support of the family member of the victim who are going from pillar to post to get justice for their loving daughter.

The CPI(M) took the lead in Bihar and brought out a protest demonstration in Patna on January 2. Member of the CITU, AIDWA, democratic cultural organisations and common people participated in the protest march and demanded full security to the victim’s family member who are being threatened by TMC goons of the area, aided and abetted by the police at the instance of the political bosses, under the overall guidance of Ms Mamata Banerjee.

The protestors also demanded exemplary punishment for the culprits and the guilty policemen, and full financial and emotional rehabilitation of the victim’s parents.

The CPI(M) also gave a call to organise protest all over Bihar on January 3. Till the filing of this report, protests had been organised in 21 districts of Bihar. Reports from the rest of the districts are awaited.

Samastipur, from where the girl hails, witnessed widespread protest organised by the CPI(M), mass organisations and common people. Effigies of Ms Mamata Banerjee were burnt at several places --- right from the district headquarter to the remotest corner of Samastipur. A train coming from West Bengal was stopped for hours together. Even villages in the remote areas of Samastipur erupted with anguish and sense of revulsion against the West Bengal government. Their anger knew no bounds as they heard about the inhuman treatment meted out to the grieving father of the victim who was ordered by the SP himself to leave Bengal and threatened by the TMC goons to be killed.

In Darbhanga district, effigies of Ms Banerjee were burnt at eight places. Thousands of people participated

Besides the Left parties, JD(U), RJD, LJP and other political formations also condemned this ghastly incident and demanded stringent punishment for the culprits and the policemen.

Pleaders and advocates of Patna High Court brought out a protest march and demanded justice to the victim’s family.

The AIPWA, AAP, civil society organisations, AISF and AISA also brought out protest and candle marches, and condemned the West Bengal government for its total failure in providing safety to the traumatised girl who was twice raped before she was burnt to death with the connivance of the local police and the TMC bosses. (Arun Kumar Mishra)

JHARKHAND: Protesting against the gruesome gang rape and murder of a teenager in Kolkata, members of the Ranchi unit of AIDWA organised a protest march on January 5, at Albert Ekka Chowk, the main thoroughfare in Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand. 

The protestors said this heinous incident is a landmark of the present situation prevailing in West Bengal under the misrule of Miss Mamata Banerjee, where hundreds of leaders and activists of the opposition parties have been murdered. A big rise in the number of atrocities against women and curtailment of democratic rights are the rule of the day.

The procession started from the Daily Market and walked through the main thoroughfares before it assembled at Albert Ekka Chowk.

The members of the AIDWA raised slogans against the misrule of the TMC government, for its gross failure in ensuring safety and protection of women, and suppression of the democratic rights of the people.

The AIDWA members also expressed deep concern over the increasing incidents of rape in Ranchi and other parts of the state. They demanded immediate action against the culprits. The procession was led by Bina Linda, Renu Prakash, Gouri Susarla, Basanti Oraon, Josphin Gudia, Madhurvani, Rajni Kispotta, Pushpa Kujur, Jaimani Nayak, Lakshmi Nayak, Ashomani Devi, Jira Devi, Lakhia Oraon and others.

More protest programmes are being organised in different districts of the state, including Sindri, Jharia, Dhanbad, Gomo in Dhanbad district by the AIDWA, DYFI, SFI and CITU. Life insurance employees organized a candle march at Dhanbad district headquarters. At Jamshedpur, the AIDWA organised street corner meetings at different points in the city. At Bokaro steel city, processions and street corner meetings were organised by the CITU.

Different units of the CPI(M) are also organising protest programmes in various districts.

TRANSPORT WORKERS: The All India Road Transport Workers Federation (AIRTWF) has strongly condemned the action of the West Bengal state government, and is organising protest actions against the atrocious and unprecedented incident.

One recalls that when the police tried to forcibly cremate the body of the girl victim in order to wipe out the evidence, it was the working president of the AIRTWF, Shyamal Chakraborty, who is also the CITU state president in West Bengal, who intervened to prevent the police from its misdemeanour and also led a strong protest rally with the victim’s body. 

Former CPI(M) MLA shot dead in West Bengal

KOLKATA, June 9, 2013

Dilip Sarkar, a former MLA of the CPI(M), who was overseeing the campaign for the rural polls in West Bengal, was shot dead at Kulpi in the Asansol subdivision of Bardhaman district on Sunday.

Mr. Sarkar was gunned down by persons riding a motorcycle at 6.45 a.m. while out on his morning walk. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead, a senior official of the Asansol Durgapur Police Commissionerate said.

“The politics of murder” was being perpetrated by the Trinamool Congress, State Secretary of the CPI(M) Biman Bose alleged, strongly condemning the killing.

“So far 95 activists of the CPI(M) have been killed since the Trinamool Congress government came to power in the State,” he said.

Accusing the Trinamool Congress of indulging in the “politics of vengeance,” he said the murder of Mr. Sarkar, a secretariat member of the Bardhaman district committee and the district secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions — the labour arm of the party — has made clear the intentions of the ruling party.

“The CPI(M) will organise rallies across the State to protest against the murder and has also called a 12-hour bandh in the Asansol subdivision on Monday,” he said, adding that so far 13 CPI(M) workers have been killed in Bardhaman district alone, since the Trinamool Congress government came to power.

Massive Strike in West Bengal

KOLKATA: WEST Bengal came to a halt on February 20th. It was the rejoinder by the people of this state on the most debated and opposed general strike of recent times. Dictatorial ultimatums of the state government found no shore on the day except popular denunciation. Every sounds and even silence of the people of the people proclaimed popular rejection of the anti-people, anti-labour agenda of the UPA-II government as they along with millions of others across the country participated in the first day of the Two-Day Nationwide General Strike on February 20th and 21st .

The West Bengal state committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), extending its full support to the two-day long nationwide strike call of 11 central trade unions, had appealed to the people of this state to observe all out strike. Various peasant organizations have also supported the strike which is aimed at betterment of lives of the working people. By not overlooking the historic importance of International Mother Language Day and showing confidence to the popular sentiments, the CPI(M) had asked the trade unions to allow partial discharge on the second day of strike in this state. And the trade unions responded positively to that appeal. Along with the popular rejection to the ruling strata’s intimidation, this strike marked a vivid instance of successful cooperation and understanding of the Party with the trade unions.

CONSTANT INTIMIDATION AND ATTACKS

West Bengal witnessed a massive participation of people in the strike refuting incessant intimidation from the TMC-led government. The government had taken multiple measures to attack the strike in various ways:

i. Police used opposing the strike: The government unprecedentedly used its police administration to propagate against strike. The police was engaged in mike campaign in different localities for the last two days.

ii. Ministers’ threats: The chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her council of special two-three ministers applied every measure to intimidate people just to oppose the strike.

iii.    Punitive Order: The West Bengal government issued a brutal order from the finance department where the state government employees were threatened to join the office on both days to avoid punitive measures like service break and salary-cut. The order even violates the Right to Strike.

iv.   Direct attacks: A series of attacks had been perpetrated in different localities for the last two weeks particularly in areas where people and left workers were campaigning for the strike.

But West Bengal, upholding its tradition of protest against all tyrannical measures against the common people, has made the strike a great success. From North to extreme South Bengal, the scenario of the state remained ‘stand still’ when the state private transport, factories, agricultural fields, shops across localities, shopping centres were completely disrupted due to not having enough commuters and workers.

The private transport workers rendered full support to the strike. Out of more than 5000 mini buses, just less than even 120 were plying on the streets; out of total 37,000 private buses, less than 1500 appeared on roads; most Tea Estates of North Bengal remained closed.

Industrial regions of the state witnessed a complete seize of work. Barrakpore Industrial belt was no less than a no man’s land where most of the labour and working people observed all out strike. Taratalla Industrial region observed strike in decisive manner with most of the industries and factories shut down. Coal mine areas and Durgapore Industrial region observed the first day of strike withstanding numerous threats and attacks from the authorities and the ruling party. Kalyani Industrial region was partially in action as the government and authority nexus had the workers forcefully locked in the factories overnight. Hoogly and Haldia Industrial belt observed strike in best possible way as they are in constant threat from ruling party goons and job insecurity.

GOVT-SPONSORED EVENTS OF ATTACKS

(i) Hazra, Minister Instigates: The state transport minister Madan Mitra overtly instigated the police to start a rampant lathicharge on February 20 on the innocent strike campaigners at Hajra Crossing. The police did not even spare senior citizens and women while arresting them.

(ii) Nimta, Left workers attacked and injured: A CPI(M) local committee secretary Ashok Sarkar was attacked and injured by Trinamool hooligans at Nimta; a primary school teacher was beaten brutally by the Trinamool hooligans in Halishshar, North 24 Parganas.

(iii) Asansol, Henious attempt to oppose the strike: Numerous events of attacks on the strike observers took place throughout Asansol along with two massive attacks by the ruling party goons, one at the Asansol Bazar and another at the BNR more. The hooliganism of the ruling party led to complete shutdown of all facilities in Asansol town.

(iv) West Midnapore, CPI(M) office vandalised: TMC workers unleashed massive attack at Narayangar and vandalised the CPI(M) local committee office situated there. Another event of attacking the strike observers and area Party office of CPI(M) occurred at Dantan.

TRADE UNIONS CONGRATULATE PEOPLE

At the end of the first day strike, the trade unions in a joint statement congratulated the working class in organised and unorganised sectors for making the strike successful, inspite of the threats given by the state chief minister. They condemned the death of AITUC leader Narendra Singh in Ambala, who was murdered by being crushed under the wheels. The organisers have called for all out rallies in the state in protest.

While confronting the various statements made to foil the two day general strike call, CITU West Bengal state president Shyamal Chakrabarty said at a press conference that despite the state government holding repeated talks to ply transport on the days of the strike, the working class rebuffed her attempts. Responding to her call to Election Commission to ban political parties that called for strike, Chakraborthy advised her to at least now read the Constitution and see what the Article on fundamental rights states.

Shyamal Chakrabarty has also spoken of dragging to the court those who have gone beyond their constitutional powers and have issued circulars to the emloyees compelling them to join duties to make the strike unsuccessful against their wish.

February 24, 2013

WEST BENGAL CITU Calls for Vigorous Struggle

HOWRAH, 12^th November: THE 10th state conference of CITU West Bengal committee has vowed to launch a vigorous struggle to defend the rights of the workers in the state. A programme to mobilise wider sections of workers in defense of the gains that are being attacked now in the state has been formulated from the conference.

The state conference was held at Comrade Jyoti Basu Nagar (Howrah) and Comrade M K Pandhe Manch (Sarat Sadan) during November 8 - 11, 2012.  The conference was  inaugurated by A K Padmanabhan, president of CITU, after hoisting the Red flag and offering floral tributes to the martyrs.

In his inaugural speech, Padmanabhan said the CITU would, jointly with other trade unions, resist the onslaught on the people launched by the UPA-II government in the name of economic reforms. Referring to the severe attacks against the workers in West Bengal in the changed political situation, the CITU leader expressed confidence that the workers of West Bengal will play their historical role in the present situation like in the earlier days.

Padmanabhan said the Indian economic policy regime has undergone a right wing shift since the introduction of neo-liberal economic policies. The union government is acting under the dictates of the Word Bank and the chambers of commerce in order to make the labour laws of the country flexible. He warned that the trade unions would strongly resist such an attempt. Already the multinational companies are not implementing the existing labour laws. They are brazenly restricting the workers from participating in the trade unions. Even the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the people are being undermined by the big corporate and MNCs. The union government is a mere spectator to these violations. In such a scenario if the labour laws are further diluted, the workers will be subject to maximum exploitation.

Padmanabhan emphasised the necessity of protection of the trade union rights along with ensuring of the social security, control of price hike and universal public distribution system. He said that CITU has always been in favour of the united workers movement from its class outlook. After travelling a long path, all the central trade unions have called for a 48-hour countrywide general strike on the 20th and 21st February 2013. This has happened for the first time in the history of independent India. The trade unions will launch a vigorous campaign to make the general strike successful and informed that a march to parliament will be held on 20th December to highlight the demands of the working class.

Kali Ghosh, secretary of CITU West Bengal state committee placed the report in the conference. While placing the report he said that the workers movement of the state is facing various attacks during the tenure of the Trinamool Congress government. He said the situation is so bad that the chief minister refused to meet their delegation that sought to submit a memorandum about the growing attacks on trade unions in West Bengal.

Tapan Sen, general secretary of CITU, in his speech exposed the anti-people nature of the neo-liberal policies being implemented by the union government and emphasised the need for a united struggle against these policies.

In the context of growing number of unorganised sector workers and contractual workers, the 10th state conference emphasised on their problems and issues in detail and outlined the path of future programmes. Special discussions were held on these two aspects.

The delegates in the conference discussed the issue of the contractual labour in detail, especially the growing attack on the labour laws of the country in the name of labour market flexibility. How the neo liberal globalisation policies are impacting the working class people of West Bengal was also discussed in particular. The organisation has decided to observe 12th December 2012 as the demand day for the contractual workers. The workers shall unitedly hold their protest in front of the offices of the department of labour in all the districts. The delegates also pointed out the lethargy of the state government in implementing the social security and welfare programmes initiated by the earlier Left Front government. The delegates exchanged their experiences of the struggle against the terror attacks against the trade union movement by the Trinamool backed hooligans. The delegates expressed confidence of taking on this challenge in the wake of the historic success in the state of the 28th February all India general strike called by the central trade unions. The delegates underlined the importance of consolidating various streams of worker movements in order to achieve the political goals.

The 10th state conference elected the new CITU West Bengal state committee. Shaymal Chakraborty has been re-elected as the president and Dipak Dasgupta has been elected as the secretary.

MASSIVE RALLY

On the concluding day of the conference, on 11th November, the  rally was held at Dumurjala in Howrah. The rally turned out to be a mammoth one. Addressing the rally, former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said a desperate situation is prevailing in the state in which farmers are unable to sell produce and industrialists are shying away from investing in the state. “The government failed to attract a single fresh investment. IT majors Wipro and Infosys, who came here during the Left rule, are now thinking of leaving the state,” said Bhattacharjee.

Slamming the government for taking the state towards an industrial disaster in absence of a clear policy, Bhattacharjee referred to how Singur has now become a desert. “Had the car manufacturing factory come up there, about 5000 to 6000 people would have got jobs. Hooghly’s profile would have been different by now, if our plan to bring industry to Singur was not thwarted. At Haldia, one cargo-handling agency was driven out to give way to a company run by a Trinamool Congress MP. This state is gradually moving towards industrial doomsday.”

Bhattacharjee said that the transport workers and the whole transport sector of the state are in a deplorable condition. Most private transport vehicles are lying idle as the agencies are becoming incapable of managing the cost of the business. Transport workers are not getting salaries, pensions, and are compelled to resort to suicides. This is the crude reality of the state where the salaries of ministers in the TMC-led government had gone up from Rs 7000 during the Left Front rule to Rs 27,000 now. And the government is acting as a sleeping beauty, he criticised.

Bhattacharjee also highlighted the farmers’ misery saying they are finding it difficult to sell their crop as the “price they are getting is uneconomical”. Explaining the current labour scenario of the country. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee sharply criticised the Manmohan Singh government for incessantly taking anti-people decisions that have severely affected the working population of the country.

YET ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL LEFT-LED STRIKE IN BENGAL

KOLKATA, 7th Sept. (INN): The 24-hour industrial strike that took the shape, character, and more importantly size of a general strike was another successful working people’s action throughout Bengal on 7 September.

VAST AMBIT OF SUCCESS

 

From the tea gardens in north Bengal (for once after a while, the GJM-GNLF call for non-participation in the Left-called strike was ignored courageously by the largest bulk of the chia kaman mazdoor, along the dooars and terai, down the Ganges amongst the bidi mazdoors, right over onto the west to the khadan (mining, chiefly coal) area of the rocky hinterland of the swift-moving Damodar river, across to the east in the heartland of industrial south Bengal crossing Nadia, the two 24 Parganas, and Howrah plus the factory-dotted suburbia of the sprawling Kolkata metropolitan area covering the fast-urbanising eastern by-pass area up to Dumdum airport, up in to the agricultural belt (chiefly sprawling potato patches ranging around the silent sentinels of the air-conditioned, concrete-and-fibre glass-cold storage facilities, onto our beloved forestry area of the red clay earth zone, down again to the dock-and-port area of east Midnapore, there was a hum of activities – of the striking workers taking to the streets, roads, gullies, by-passes, village meadows, alleyways, and the docks, the airports, and the river traffic points of departure and arrival of barges.

Why were the strikes such an enormous success in Bengal, in seriatim, one after the other? Why the success was exclusively achieved whenever the Left had called for such an action, with issues deeply touching the lives and livelihoods of billions of people, especially the poor and the downtrodden? The answer calls for a three-step exercise in thought and action.

LESSONS LEARNT

The lessons that we ourselves learnt especially during a short stint in the 190s, of an intense decade worth of working, time-to-time, in one of the powerful state units of what is surely the most fearlessly militant and popular TU in the country-- the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).

First, the issues concerning the pièce de résistance around which the emergent need for the working class action is to be woven are carefully sifted around and then finally fixed and decided upon by the national leadership of the TU organisations and the powerful ranks of the workers’-employees’ federations.

Once the issues are firmed up, the highly extensive and intensive, that is the beauty of a dialectical approach, as Lenin had shown during the initial, hesitant, yet bloody years of the past century in what was yet then Tsar-ruled, Cheka-terrorised, imperial Russia, campaign work starts. There are smaller rallies, local level approaches to households, and factory level meetings, indoor and outdoor, hundreds of thousands of them in the space-and-time of two-to-three months.

CAMPAIGN WORK

Then follows the campaign work on a larger, macro, if you like, scale with the TUs and left political parties, with the CPI (M) to the fore, organise bigger rallies going up from the district town, district HQs, and finally onto the Shahid Minar maidan or the Indoor Stadium in Kolkata, depending chiefly on the adversity or otherwise of the weather. All throughout these months, the Ganashakti runs a daily column on the need for the general strike to be a success detailing out every possibly response that the people might well like of us in a corporate ambience where any working class action is regarded as an action non grata.

On the day-night in the case of a 24-hour strike, the streets, the bylanes and the gullies, the fields and the mines, the docks and the tea gardens are active with marches, smaller rallies, street-corner, factory gate meetings, and the Red flag is aflutter very visibly across the state. This year, especial attention was given to the month of fasting (ramaz’an) of the minority community-- and the shops-and-establishments of every kind were seen to open and function as normal in the minority populated areas and zones, so that no inconvenience was to be created anywhere for anyone.

A GLORIOUS SUCCESS

 

Thus when the CITU leadership congratulated at the end of the day the people and the toiling masses for making the 7 September strike action a glorious success, they were iterating the deep and wide base that the people have built up over the decades in their hearts-and-minds for the CPI (M) and the CITU as the vanguard weapons of struggle, of campaign, of movements. Expectedly, nothing untoward, nothing unpleasant has occurred as we file this report despite attempts to the contrary. (B. PRASANT)

SUCCESSFUL ALL-BENGAL STRIKE OF CONTRACT(THIKA) WORKERS

KOLKATA, 12th February, 2010: The Bengal-wide one-day strike of casual and thika workers has been a grand success. The strike was a CITU workers’ action on a big scale. Months back preparations had started in the way of propaganda and campaign among the unorganised workers who comprise close to 90% of the total work force.

CITU Bengal general secretary Kali Ghosh clearly stated during the campaign that both the state sector (in the guise of central government institutions) and the private sector, especially the MNCs routinely continued to flout the contract labour act which stated inter alia that marks out the advantages of continuing employment of contractual work force, especially at the time of renewal of contract.

The entire informal sector struck work in Bengal. The bourgeois media propaganda notwithstanding a successful strike was seen in the IT sector, the BSNL, the VSNL. Mobile tower employment sector, banks, ATMs, petrochemical, power, steel, coal, and in the myriads of state and central government departments and branches, both in the urban areas and in the mufussil struck work during the hours as applicable.

The principal demand of the CITU is that perennial employment must be ensured for jobs of a perennial nature. Until such permanence is set in, the casual workers must be provided with employment benefits due to permanent workers. Another demand of course is the long-standing on of equal pay for equal work.

Kali Ghosh has assured that if the management fails to implement the contract labour act properly, the CITU will go in for bigger movements and struggles in the days to come.

Bengal snake charmers stage a protest

KOLKATA, 17th February: More than a thousands snake charmers from all over West Bengal took to the streets of Calcutta protesting against a law that has made snake charming illegal under the banner of Bedia federation of India.

Laws came to force in India in 1991 banning shows featuring cobras and other snakes but the snake charmers say that the laws have deprived them of their livelihood. However, despite the laws, many snake charmers continue to perform. Head of the snake charmers organisation, Raktim Das has told mediapersons: "We are being consistently harassed by the police for keeping snakes, which are snatched away without paying us compensation."

Animal rights groups say that the laws should be kept in force to prevent snakes from being abused. Generally, snake charmers rip out the snakes’ fangs and feed them milk which means when they are returned to their natural habitat they are unable to catch prey and die. Snake performers usually release the snakes after six months of performance.

Charm offensive: Why India’s snake men (and their serpents) are taking to the streets

A 1,000-year-old tradition is at risk as police start to take the law seriously and animal welfare activists want the music to stop. Andrew Buncombe reports from Delhi
Thursday, 19 February 2009, The Independent

For many people who close their eyes and dream romantic thoughts of India, amid the imagined scenes of desert palaces and colourful chaos is that of the snake charmer – a man playing his flute while a dancing cobra rises and twists from its wicker basket.

In truth, there are fewer charmers than one might imagine. Government legislation dating back almost 35 years gives police the right to apprehend (or more likely, in many cases, take a bribe from) anyone using a wild animal for such entertainment purposes. The charmers that do operate in tourist centres and large cities, live a largely furtive existence, bothering a few coins out of passers-by whom they confront with their anguine companions.

But now the snake-charmers are fighting back. A newly created union for the men and their snakes has been established to demand that the legislation banning them from their “birth right” be overturned and that alternative employment for the snake charmers be provided.

In a sign of strength, around 5,000 snake charmers from the Indian state of West Bengal this week took to the streets of Calcutta demanding action and claiming that their generations-old profession is on the brink of death. Many were carrying their snakes with them as they marched.

“It’s our birth right to charm snakes. No can deprive us of that,” said 35-year-old Langra Bede, one of the charmers. “Our forefathers charmed snakes. We grew up with this. It’s basically all we know.”

Snake charmers have been part of India’s landscape for many hundreds of years. Traditionally the charmers were called on by villagers to help gather and remove poisonous snakes that represented a danger to them. Because snakes are considered sacred in Hinduism, people would not kill snakes but would rather call on these men and their special skills – traditionally handed down from father to son – to remove them.

The charmers would then keep the reptiles and “train them” for performances. (While snakes are deaf, it is believed that their “dancing” movement is a self-defence response to vibrations they perceive as threatening.) In more recent years tourists have been charged a small fee to be photographed with the exotic creatures.

But the 1972 Wildlife Protection Act made it an offence to use wild animals for such commercial purposes or to keep them as pets. Activists pointed out that in order to remove the threat from the snakes, which have the potential to be fatal to humans, the charmers usually rip out the creatures’ fangs rather than regularly draining them of the poison. They then feed the snakes milk. But within a year most charmers release their animals, which, without fangs, are unable to feed themselves. Since the late 1990s, the authorities have markedly increased efforts to enforce the law. Yet campaigners for the estimated 800,000 snake charmers say they are being persecuted.

The majority of India’s snake charmers belong to the nomadic “Bedia” tribe or clan, which speaks Bengali. Many of them live in West Bengal. Raktim Das, a founder of the Bedia Federation of India and an organiser of this week’s march, said the Bedia people, whose tradition dates back more than 1,000 years, had long been persecuted by the authorities and the police. He said that more than 100,000 Bedia families were suffering intense economic hardship as a result of the increased enforcement of the 1972 act.

If the government is unwilling to overturn the legislation, he said, it should establish official snake farms specialising in venom and snake skins which could provide employment to the Bedia people. “This has happened in other countries such as China and Vietnam,” said Mr Das. “This would not harm the snake population and it would provide a sustainable source of income.”

Mr Das claimed that a snake venom “mafia” operated in India and was behind government efforts to clamp down on the Bedia. He said that in a single strike a snake can release about 12g of venom, and that venom could fetch £130. A venomous snake could live up to eight years, which would be highly profitable, and private companies still pay snake charmers for any venom they can collect. The companies sell on venom to drug companies, harvesting significant profit margins.

He added: “In addition, we don’t think that snakes are really wild animals. They only exist where there are rats and rats live in places close to human civilisation. Also, if there are no snakes in an area it will increase the number of rats.”

Yet animal rights activists are adamant that the law is vital to protect all wildlife – not just snakes but bears and other animals – from exploitation. “Even now there are still snake charmers … The problem has been to find alternative livelihoods,” said Shakti Banerjee, director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India. “The dancing bears have largely been gotten rid of but not the charmers.”