Sorry, Yechury, you ain’t dais-class

The CPI(M) leader and Rajya Sabha MP, Sitaram Yechury, who is also the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture that deals with civil aviation, has been invited to the event but his name does not figure among those shortlisted to be on the dais. President Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate the facility in the presence of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and others.


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Sorry, Yechury, you ain’t dais-class

‘Translate Peoples’ Discontent into Concrete Movement’

CALL FROM CPI(M) WEST BENGAL 

KOLKATA: THE two-day extended meeting of CPI(M) West Bengal state committee, which took place during September 15-16, 2012 in Kolkata, called for more organised movement on the burning issues of the people. After extensive discussion, the meeting noted that there are discernible signs of peoples’ discontent against the state government which has to be translated into concrete movement. The extended meeting reviewed the political situation in the state and the condition of Party  organisation at different levels.

CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat in his inaugural speech spoke against the anti-people policies of the central government and said that the latest neo-liberal offensive launched by Manmohan Singh government will only add to the sorrow of the working people. The hike in the price of diesel will have cascading impact on prices of all commodities and will further hit the common people. The worst hit would be the farmers who are already reeling under the impact of rising costs of production. He added that FDI in retail sector will have a direct adverse impact on the employment of a huge chunk of the population who are engaged in small and unorganised retail trade. He also criticised the UPA government for its faulty natural resource allocation policy where precious natural resources were being allocated at throw away prices.

Karat also warned about the worsening communal situation in the country and the role of different communal and fundamentalist forces, particularly after the events in Assam.  He emphasised that the independent activities of the Party must be strengthened so as to build Left unity and move towards a Left and democratic alternative. To achieve this, the fight against liberalisation must get priority in the coming days, he underlined.

CPI(M) state secretary Biman Basu, moving the agenda for the meeting, outlined the attack on democracy and democratic institutions, the mounting burdens on the people and ever increasing crimes against women. The movement, through mobilising the people, has to be broadened in this perspective. That calls for strengthening the Party organisation, uplifting the political and ideological level of the Party,  more active role of Party members and improvement of functioning of Party committees. Basu emphasised the need for intensive work among the toiling people and particularly among the urban and rural poor. He has also stressed upon the need to mobilise younger sections and women. 

A total of 33 comrades from different districts and mass fronts deliberated on the report. While summing up on the second day, Biman Basu said that only mass struggles can change the situation. What is needed is a patient effort of the Party among the masses.

One of the major content of discussion was the panchayat elections due to be held in the coming months. Biman Basu urged to treat this election as a mass struggle and move forward with courage and determination, even in the face of attacks from TMC and other forces. Decentralisation and exercise of peoples’ rights have come under severe attack. This has to be exposed among people through intensive campaign. The meeting passed a resolution protesting these attacks and decided to fight the elections facing all odds. Though there is an apprehension that TMC will try to prevent opposition from contesting in many areas and will force bloodshed, the CPI(M) has decided to combat these attacks and an all out preparation to mobilise people would start immediately. Polit Bureau member Suryakanta Misra explained the situation in the rural areas and outlined the main tasks in this very important political battle.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, addressing the meeting, said there are perceptible positive changes in the state. We could see the positive impact of Party’s efforts in many areas. However, the balance of forces are still tilted towards the anti-Left forces. The people who left us have not returned entirely. A degree of alienation is still there. Our priority is to win over those sections of the people. We have to concentrate among the toiling people and the poorer sections. The impact of centre’s fresh reform initiatives and misrule of TMC government in the state would bring a large scope of building movements. But to respond to the situation we need more developed and cleaner Party organisation.

The extended meeting decided the following tasks before the Party: to build up powerful movement against neo-liberal attacks on people;  take up the issue of food security and mobilise poor people; take up issues of demands and social security of the unorganised sections of workers at local level;  build up movement against deteriorating public services; mobilise people against anarchy in educational institutions; mobilise democratic opinion against deterioration in law and order situation and particularly against growing attacks on women; massive campaign in villages against attack on panchayats.

The meeting also called for a widespread mass movement against the latest anti-people measures of hike in price of diesel, the cut back of subsidy on cooking gas, ushering in 51 per cent FDI in the retail sector and disinvestment of profit making PSUs. It called upon to make the general strike in West Bengal on September 20, called by Left Front a success.

The meeting also adopted a resolution extending support to nationwide strike on February 20th and 21st, 2013, called by central trade unions.

It has been decided that a mass collection will be organised on September 23 to collect money for the distressed and homeless people of Assam. 

Apart from Party’s general secretary, Polit Bureau members Sitaram Yechury and S Ramachandran Pillai also attended the meeting. Polit Bureau member Nirupam Sen presided over the two day session.

Sitaram Yechury reacts to Mamata Banerjee’s charges

Reacting to  the allegation of  Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal and TMC supremo that it was Standing Committee of  civil aviation  headed by  Sitaram Yechury  MP and  CPI(M) polit bureau member recommended 51 percent  FDI in the civil aviation   Industry,  Yechury said that allegation was totally false, untrue and falsehood.

Yechury said that I am the chairman of the Standing committee civil aviation and transport, this issue never came in front of us. This sort of decision is taken by the executive. Mamta Banejee was union minister since the time of Narshima Rao government and also under NDA and UPA 2 and she must know about this that such decision is taken by the executive.

Yechury said, I also take this opportunity to point that CPI (M) had been a consistent fighter against the FDI and privatization in the civil aviation, there are many documents and records to prove it. It is only our party which had moved a statutory resolution in the parliament which is rarely moved on an issue in this sector. I as chairman of the committee can sight various reports which have been adopted unanimously recommending the government not to take this path.

We really do not know why she does not know after remaining so many years in council of ministers this fact that these decision are taken by the executive. It shows her lack of knowledge about the function of the government.

eom

New Delhi,

19th September, 2012

On the Occasion of Golden Jubilee of Deshhitaishee

By Sitaram Yechury

(The following is the text of the speech delivered by Sitaram Yechury, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M) in Kolkata on August 16, 2012 on the occasion of Golden Jubilee of Deshhitaishee.)

REVOLUTIONARY congratulations to the West Bengal state committee of the CPI(M) for successfully completing fifty years of publication of the Party weekly Deshhitaishee.  This golden jubilee has come facing many trials and tribulations imposed by evolving contemporary political developments that had demanded many a sacrifice of life and limb of thousands of our comrades.  Revolutionary red salute to our martyrs.  It is, indeed, a matter of immense satisfaction that we are today commemorating this golden jubilee.  

I

The importance of the Party paper can never be undervalued.  Vladimir Lenin who provided leadership for ushering in humanity’s transition from capitalism to socialism had in 1901 said in “Where to begin?”: “In our opinion, the starting-point of our activities, the first step towards creating the desired organisation, or, let us say, the main thread which, if followed, would enable us steadily to develop, deepen, and extend that organisation, should be the founding of an All-Russian political newspaper. A newspaper is what we most of all need; without it we cannot conduct that systematic, all-round propaganda and agitation, consistent in principle, which is the chief and permanent task of Social-Democracy in general and, in particular, the pressing task of the moment … Never has the need been felt so acutely as today for reinforcing dispersed agitation in the form of individual action, local leaflets, pamphlets, etc., by means of generalised and systematic agitation that can only be conducted with the aid of the periodical press… Without such a newspaper we cannot possibly fulfill our task – that of concentrating all the elements of political discontent and protest, of vitalising thereby the revolutionary movement of the proletariat.”

Further he says: “The role of a newspaper, however, is not limited solely to the dissemination of ideas, to political education, and to the enlistment of political allies. A newspaper is not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, it is also a collective organiser.”

Later in “What is to be done?”, Lenin says: “This newspaper would become part of an enormous pair of smith’s bellows that would fan every spark of the class struggle and of popular indignation into a general conflagration. Around what is in itself still a very innocuous and very small, but regular and common, effort, in the full sense of the word, a regular army of tried fighters would systematically gather and receive their training.”

II

Many, however, say that the civilisational advances of the 20th century, particularly the scientific and technological advances, have so completely transformed the situation that instantaneous communication is today possible in a manner that would be incomprehensible at the beginning of the 20th century.  The emergence of radio and television with the latest invasion of cyberspace and cell phones, some argue, has rendered the newspaper as an obsolete means of communication.  Therefore, they would ask if there is any point in recollecting Lenin’s views on the Party newspaper.

Notwithstanding these advances, the importance of the Party newspapers does not merely remain but has grown multifold to meet the current challenges. In every age and time, the ruling classes have always consolidated their class rule by exercising an ideological hegemony over contemporary society.  As Marx and Engels said, “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch, the ruling ideas: i.e., the class which is the ruling material force of society is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, consequently also controls the means of mental production so that the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are on the whole subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relations; dominant material relations, grasped as ideas: hence of the relations which made the one class the ruling one, therefore, the ideas of its dominance. The individuals composing the ruling class possess among other things, consciousness and therefore think. In so far therefore, as they rule as a class and determine the extent and compass of an historical epoch, it is self-evident that they do this in its whole range, hence among other things rule also as thinkers, as producers of ideas, and regulate the production and distribution of the ideas of their age; thus their ideas are the ruling ideas of the epoch.” (German Ideology, Moscow 1976, p. 67 emphasis added.)

It is this hegemony of the `ideas' of ruling classes that as Gramsci explains is not enforced merely by the State. The State is only the "outer ditch" behind which stands a powerful system of "fortresses and earth works", a network of cultural institutions and values which buttress the rule and domination of the ruling classes.

Under capitalism, while culture as an ideological formation bolsters the rule of capital, the forms of culture go through a process of commodification, as everything else in society. Much has been written about this process and needs no repetition. The cultural products of capitalism are aimed at achieving social control rather than expressions of social creativity. The exchange value of these products always supersede their use value. This, of course, does not hold for those cultural products that emerge from dissent and opposition to capitalism...The cultural hegemony that such a globalisation process seeks is expressed in the need to create a homogenisation of public taste. The more homogenous the taste the easier it is to develop technologies for the mechanical reproduction of `cultural products' for large masses. Commercialisation of culture is a natural corollary of such globalisation.

Viewed in terms of class hegemony, the culture of globalisation seeks to divorce people from their actual realities of day to day life. Culture here acts not as an appeal to the aesthetic, but as a distraction, diversion from pressing problems of poverty and misery. Consequently, it seeks to disrupt the energy of the people and their struggle to change and improve their miserable existence. As Michael Parenti says, "A far greater part of our culture is now aptly designated as "mass culture", "popular culture", and even "media culture", owned and operated mostly by giant corporations whose major concur is to accumulate wealth and make the world safe for their owners, the goal being exchange value rather than use value, social control rather than social creativity. Much of mass culture is organised to distract us from thinking too much about larger realities. The fluff and puffery of entertainment culture crowds out more urgent and nourishing things. By constantly appealing to the lowest common denominator, a sensationalist popular culture lowers the common denominator still further (media page 3 culture). Public tastes become still more attuned to cultural junk food, the big hype, the trashy, flashy, wildly violent, instantly stimulating, and desperately superficial offerings.

"Such fare often has real ideological content. Even if supposedly apolitical in its intent, entertainment culture (which is really the entertainment industry) is political in its impact, propagating images and values that are often downright sexist, racist, consumerist, authoritarian, militaristic, and imperialist." (Monthly Review, February 1999)

Media culture that globalisation promotes is starkly exposed by the manner in which it underrates or outrightly ignores people’s protests and their conditions of miserable existence.  For instance, the very day when team Anna was holding their hunger strike on issue of corruption, over two lakhs of workers at the call of the All India Trade Unions had marched to the parliament in Delhi protesting against price rise and corruption.  While the former hogged the headlines and dominated the electronic media, the action of the working class was largely ignored. Adding insult to injury, the Times of India, in an obscure page carried a small news item bemoaning the traffic disruption caused by the worker’s rally in the country’s capital!  Yet again, in July this year, the five-day dharna by the Left parties demanding food security for our people was again largely ignored while team Anna’s movement that finally fizzled out taking place next to the Left parties dharna, once again hogged the headlines and the electronic media attention.  

Nearly a hundred and fifty years ago, Marx in his analysis of capitalism made a very penetrating observation. "Production not only provides the material to satisfy a need, but it also provides the need for the material. When consumption emerges from its original primitive crudeness and immediacy -- and its remaining in that state would be due to the fact that production was still primitively crude – then it is itself as a desire brought about by the object.  The need felt for the object is induced by the perception of the object.  An object d'art creates a public that has artistic taste and is able to enjoy beauty – and the same can be said of any other product. Production accordingly produces not only an object for the subject, but also a subject for the object. (Karl Marx, "Introduction" to Economic Manuscripts of 1857-58) (Emphasis added.)

The billions of dollars spent annually on advertising are creating the `subjects' for the `objects' that the system churns out. Likewise in culture. The audience is first created to receive a product of mass consumption. The homogenisation of public tastes is thus created through an advertisement blitz that dullens if not erases critical faculties. It is not therefore, as though, this `culture' is catering to people's taste. Tastes and ideas are being created to accept uncritically the `culture' that is being churned out.

How does one then combat such a cultural onslaught? An onslaught that drives away truly popular people's culture. At the first instance, it is necessary to bring back on to the cultural agenda people's issues, whose obfuscation and erasure is the raison d'etre of the culture of globalisation and communalism. This is paramount to counter the cultural hegemony that they seek.

III

The current situation in which we are conducting our political activities today is dominated by imperialist globalisation.  The CPI(M) 20th Congress Ideological Resolution notes:

“The ideological war to establish the intellectual and cultural hegemony of imperialism and neo-liberalism has been on the offensive during this period. Aided by this very process of globalisation and the vastly elevated levels of technologies, there is convergence of information, communications and entertainment (ICE) technologies into mega corporations. This monopolisation of the sphere of human intellectual activity and the control over dissemination of information  through the corporate media is a salient feature of this period that seeks to continuously mount an ideological offensive against any critique or alternative to capitalism. The cultural hegemony that such a globalisation process seeks is expressed in the need to create a homogenisation of public taste. The more homogenous the taste, the easier it is to develop technologies for the mechanical reproduction of ‘cultural products’ for large masses. Commercialisation of culture is a natural corollary of such globalisation. Viewed in terms of class hegemony, the  culture of globalisation seeks to divorce people from their actual realities of day to day life. Culture here acts not as an appeal to the aesthetic, but as a distraction, diversion from pressing problems of poverty and misery.”

The development of ICE technologies and the control over them, also allows imperialism to develop and maintain sophisticated surveillance technologies. Such technologies are being increasingly used to monitor, influence and sabotage a large variety of popular movements that challenge the hegemony of imperialism.

For instance, the mega corporation Time had earlier merged with the entertainment giant Warner Bros. The information giant American Online Ltd (AOL) has now acquired Time-Warner at a cost of $ 164 million to become the largest ICE conglomerate in the world. Rupert Murdoch now commands a combined news, entertainment and internet enterprise which is valued at $ 68 billion. Likewise, Walt Disney has now acquired Marvel (of Spiderman fame). The cultural products that are universally created are bombarded across the world garnering phenomenal profits. As recently as in January 2011, Comcast Corp has completed its takeover of NBC Universal,  creating a $ 30 billion media behemoth that controls not just how television shows and  movies are made, but how they are delivered to people’s homes. Comcast, the No. 1 provider of video and residential internet service in the United States (with over 23  million video subscribers and nearly 17 million internet subscribers), acquired a 51 per  cent stake in NBC Universal from General Electric Co. The newly created joint venture is  called NBC Universal LLC and its assets include NBC broadcast stations, cable channels like Bravo, USA and E!, the Universal movie studio as well as theme parks among other  assets.

Some instances in the Indian context: Reliance Entertainment (formerly known as Reliance BIG Entertainment) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, its media and entertainment business, across content and distribution platforms. The key content initiatives are across movies, music, sports, gaming, internet and mobile portals, leading to direct opportunities in delivery across the emerging digital distribution platforms:  digital cinema, IPTV, DTH and Mobile TV. Reliance ADA Group acquired Adlabs Films Limited in 2005, one of the largest entertainment companies in India, which has interests  in film processing, production, exhibition and digital cinema. Having won 45 stations in the bidding, BIG 92.7 FM was India’s largest private FM radio network. Big Cinemas is India’s largest cinema chain with over 516 screens spread across India, US, Malaysia and Netherlands. The chain caters to over 35 million consumers. BIG Cinemas has established leadership in film exhibition in India with 253 screens and accounts for 10 to 15 per cent of box office contributions of large movies.  The company forayed into the largely untapped video rental market in India by acquiring  Big Flix and started further expansion. In April 2008, Reliance Big Entertainment acquired DTS Digital Images, a digital film restoration company based in Burbank, California. On 15 July 2009, Reliance Big Entertainment and Steven Spielberg announced a joint venture with a funding of $ 825 million. Recently, Big 92.7 FM  launched a radio station in Singapore considering 8 per cent of the population residing there is  Indian. On January 15, 2010, Reliance reportedly joined the bidding for MGM. On April 5, 2010, they acquired a 50 per cent stake in Codemasters.  Reliance had invested about 26 billion rupees in Eenadu Group's regional TV channels when it announced the deal with the TV18 group's Network18 on January 3, 2012.  Reliance holds a 100 per cent economic interest in five ETV regional news channels and five ETV general entertainment channels. It also owns a 49 per cent economic interest in  ETV Telugu and ETV Telugu News.

Such mega corporatisation of media is playing havoc with distorted dissemination of information and deliberate campaigns of disinformation.  The rise of the phenomena of `paid news’ shows the extent of commercialisation of media.  Truth and objectivity are the casualties that buttress the hegemony of the ruling classes.

IV

This monopolisation of media as a weapon of ideological hegemony that the ruling classes unleash needs to be combated much more aggressively.  New ideological postulates like post-modernism are aggressively propagated.  Its main thrust, as with all other anti-Communist ideological expressions of the past, is the negation of classes and, hence, of class struggle.  It seeks to compartmentalise society in terms of ethnic, regional and other micro identities and, thus, disrupt the unity of the exploited classes.  Such theories, therefore, weaken the class unity of the exploited people and, thus, buttress the class rule of the exploiters.  

The Party newspaper, along with other forms of media, today has to  rise to meet such challenges and, therefore, act as a powerful weapon in the hands of the  revolutionary forces to propagate their ideas, to organise the exploited classes and, thus, to strengthen  the struggle  for creating a society free from all forms of exploitation – socialism.

I am confident that Deshhitaishee will continue to play its role and will rise to effectively meet and combat the current challenges. 

Bengal Violence Aimed at Demobilising the Left: Yechury

Hyderabad, June 11, 2011

THE ongoing violence against the CPI(M) in West Bengal is not a routine political rivalry related violence. It is a systematic violence aimed at demobilising the Left in the state by eliminating key cadre who form the link of the party with the masses.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury stated this in Hyderabad on June 12 while releasing a CPI(M) Publications booklet titled Attack on Democratic Rights in West Bengal. He told how 12 CPI(M) cadre and leaders were killed since the assembly election results on May 13, taking the total number of killings of Left cadre to over 380 since the last Lok Sabha polls.

The present violence has a parallel with the 1970s white terror and therefore all democratic forces in the country must realise that democracy itself is in danger once again. The 1970s violence culminated in the imposition of internal emergency in the country, reminded Yechury. Today it is the Left that is under attack and tomorrow it could be all if the present authoritarian trends are allowed to flourish, felt the CPI(M) leader. “All those who cherish democracy must come together to strengthen democracy by not allowing such violence to continue,” he asserted. In this context he welcomed the INTUC’s all-India chief writing a letter to chief minister Mamata Banarjee asking her to stop the attacks on trade union offices in Bengal.

Yechury also released a book brought out by Prajasakti Book House, The People's Marx, written by Julian Borchardt. He said that in the background of current global financial crisis, Marxism has become more relevant and is being read more widely. Such books would help in understanding the inherent crises of capitalism. Yechury felt the global financial crisis is deepening as is evident from the sharp fall in employment in US.

CPI(M) state secretariat member Y Venkateshwara Rao and Prajashakti Book House director S Srinivas were present on the occasion.

Coalitions in India trying to weaken Left: Yechury

PTI

The major coalition formations in the country were trying to weaken the Left movement, which had always put forward an alternative to the Centre’s neo-liberal policies, CPI-M Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said on Monday.

Inaugurating a symposium on the `role of transitional governments’ as part of the International Congress on Kerala Studies here, Mr. Yechury said the three Left governments in India had delivered in key areas including decentralisation, the core of secular democracy.

The peoples’ democratic fronts governing these states had formed governments of transitional character within the bourgeois system to help the process of achieving peoples’ democratic revolution.

The Left governments were qualitatively different in character and had provided an alternative to the neo-liberal agenda followed by successive governments at the Centre, Mr. Yechury said.

Stating that there were broadly four categories of transitional regimes, he said socialist formations had been put in place by overthrowing capitalism, progressive governments formed through peoples’ struggles as in Latin America, and regimes built on momentous struggles as in South Africa. In India, the Left was proceeding to the path of socialism within the restraints of a bourgeois system.

The one common feature of all these governments was that their anti-imperialist conduct and attempt to transcend capitalism in its advance to socialism. “This period is one of intense class struggle at the global level,” Mr. Yechury said.

The success or failure of the transitional regimes depended on whether they would determine their economic policies or economics would determine their policies. Politics should determine the economic trajectory. Economic policies should be the means to achieve the political end, he said.

China was building capitalism in a country having proletarian dictatorship and it was a different matter whether it would succeed or not in the effort, he said.

Mr. Yechury said solidarity with countries having governments of transitional character was essential to develop a global anti-imperialist movement and humanity’s transition towards an exploitation-free society.

Carlos Azugaray Treto (Professor, Center for Hemispheric and US Studies, University of Havana), Fuad Cassim (Advisor, Ministry of Finance, South Africa), Milena Ramirez (Ambassador of Venezuela) and Prabhat Patnaik (Vice-Chairman, Kerala State Planning Board) also spoke.

THE HINDU, Thiruvananthapuram, January 3, 2011

Release Rs 1,400 cr for drought in West Bengal: CPI(M) to Centre

New Delhi:  The CPI(M) today urged the Centre to release Rs 1,400 crore to West Bengal to meet the situation arising out of severe drought in 11 districts, saying the amount was due on account of the employment guarantee scheme.

"We are not asking for charity, neither are we seeking aid from the PM's Relief Fund. We have urged the Centre to release Rs 1,400 crore which is due to the state government on account of the national rural employment guarantee scheme," CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters here.

His senior colleague Basudeb Acharia said he had met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and informed him that 11 districts of the state, which is the largest rice producer, have had deficient rainfall, ranging from 35 to 55 per cent. "Agricultural workers, who have worked under the scheme, are yet to get their wages for over 20 days as the funds have not been released by the Centre so far," he said.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this regard and also urged Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to send a central team to assess the drought situation, he said.

Asked whether the funds were not released as the state government had not submitted the utilisation certificates for the money sanctioned to it earlier, Acharia said these certificates have been "duly furnished. So there is no problem in releasing the funds. But why is the delay"?

To a question whether Trinamool Congress which was part of the UPA government was creating any obstacle in this process, Yechury said "After all, the government functions on the basis of collective functioning." "We hope that the Centre would release what is due to West Bengal," he said.

Yechury seeks better Central coordination to tackle Maoists

NEW DELHI, 30 OCT, 2009: Contesting the claim that Maoists and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) were once allies, CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury on Friday said Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram should ensure better coordination between West Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand to defeat Maoists instead of joining issues with his party.

“I don’t understand why the Home Minister has joined issues with the CPI (M). As far as the CPI (M) is concerned Central and State forces are jointly conducting operations against Maoist violence in West Bengal. On that there is no dispute at all. Our issue is that after Union Minister of State Shishir Adhikary informed the media that he had prior knowledge of the Rajdhani Express being stopped, this should be seriously investigated because he is a member of the Union Cabinet.”

“Even earlier, there were reports of political patronage by the Trinamool Congress (TC) to Maoists and this sort of statement by a TC Union Minister confirms the suspicion. This is the issue we want to bring to public notice,” the CPI (M) leader pointed out.

Drawing attention to the fact that most Maoist attacks in West Bengal took place along its borders, Mr. Yechury wanted Mr. Chidambaram to ensure coordination between the West Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand governments, and through such joint efforts, overcome Maoist violence.

On the observation that the CPI (M) belatedly realised the danger of Maoism and it was once part of a joint movement with the Maoists, Mr. Yechury wanted the people making such statements to refresh their history.

Naxalites were a small section of activists who had separated from the CPI (M) in 1967 and the party was the prime target of their “mindless attacks” in the late 60s and 70s. The violence died down after the Maoists were ideologically following a campaign conducted by the CPI (M).

According to the Maoists, the CPI (M) was providing legitimacy to bourgeois democracy and must be weakened or eliminated. Though born in West Bengal, the Maoists could not sustain the movement because the Left Front government addressed the basic issues of the people.

The present lot of Maoists have been brought from outside through political patronage by the TC, Mr. Yechury alleged.

Trinamool negating UPA govt's anti-Maoist efforts: Yechury

New Delhi : Claiming that the Maoists were getting "complete support and protection" from Trinamool Congress, CPI(M) asked Congress and UPA to explain why the Mamata Banerjee's party continued to remain in the Union Cabinet despite "negating" the government's assessment of the Left extremist threat.

Apart from legitimising the brutality of Maoist violence, Trinamool Congress was "directly negating the assessments of the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister that Maoist violence constitutes the greatest threat to India's internal security", CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.

"Yet, the Trinamool Congress ministers continue to remain in the Union Cabinet. The UPA and the Congress party owe an answer to the country," he said in an editorial in the forthcoming issue of party organ 'People's Democracy'.

"The Maoist-Trinamool nexus has become so integrated that one of the Maoist leaders in an interview openly declared their desire to see Mamata Banerjee as the next Chief Minister of West Bengal," Yechury said.

"It is, therefore, little wonder that Ministers in the Union Cabinet belonging to Trinamool Congress are pressurising the Union government to withdraw the central security forces which are currently in joint operations with the state security forces against the Maoist activities," he said.

Trinamool sponsoring violence against CPI(M) cadres:Yechury

NEW DELHI: Communist Party of India (Marxist) politburo member Sitaram Yechury alleged that cabinet ministers in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) were patronising Maoist rebels in West Bengal to target his party offices and cadres.

"The prime minister says the greatest danger to our internal security is Maoist violence, and then you have cabinet ministers patronising them (the rebels)," Yechury told reporters, without naming his party's West Bengal arch rival, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee who is also the railways minister in the UPA government. A day after hundreds of villagers clashed with armed Maoist rebels in West Bengal's trouble-torn Inayatpur area of West Midnapore district, Yechury claimed that the rebels moved from the spot "only when central forces" arrived on the scene.

Confirming the late Monday night incident, West Midnapore police superintendent MK Verma said that additional police contingents had been rushed to the area. He said there was no death. Yechury alleged the CPI(M) offices were being systematically targeted by Maoists patronised by "cabinet ministers" and claimed that "more than 60 of our CPI(M) members have been killed" in the past few months.

CPI (M) objects to Railways’ advertisement

KOLKATA, 24th August: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Monday objected to an advertisement by Indian Railways announcing one of its schemes with graphics of the Trinamool Congress election symbol and demanded its withdrawal.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the CPI (M) Parliamentary Party leader Sitaram Yechury said he was aghast to see the graphics in the half-page advertisement that appeared in all major national dailies, announcing the scheme of free monthly season tickets for students.

“Surely you will agree that this is a brazen attempt at utilising government funds for promoting the political interests of a particular party which happens to be a member of the ruling coalition under your leadership,” he said. Mr. Yechury requested the Prime Minister to ensure that such advertisements were withdrawn and that he also issue necessary instructions to all government departments not to promote the partisan interests of any political party at the expense of public money.

Full text of the letter of Sitaram Yechury :

**************

Dear Shri Manmohan Singhji,

I am writing to you with reference to a half a page advertisement appearing today in all major national dailies by the Indian Railways announcing its scheme of free monthly season tickets to students. This advertisement also carries your photograph.

I was aghast to see the graphics in the advertisement that are alluding to the election symbol of the Trinamul Congress.Surely you will agree that this is a brazen effort at utilising governmental funds for promoting the political interests of a particular party which happens to be a member of the ruling coalition under your leadership.

I am requesting you to kindly ensure that such advertisements are withdrawn and necessary instructions are issued to all government departments to not promote the partisan interests of any political party at the expense of public monies.

With regards,

Yours sincerely

Sd/

(Sitaram Yechury)

Sitaram Yechury flays Rahul Gandhi’s remark on Bengal development

Press Trust of India

NEW DELHI: Taking on Mr Rahul Gandhi for his criticism of developmental activities in tribal areas of West Bengal, CPI-M leader Mr Sitaram Yechury today hit back saying tribal-dominated Bankura and Purulia districts had better socio-economic indicators than Amethi or Rae Bareli.
Observing that much was being said about the neglect of the tribal areas of the state, he said “during the election campaign, Gandhi (had) stated that many tribal areas in Bengal were more backward than the most backward regions of Orissa.“We had then shown that the areas of Bankura and Purulia, in fact, had better socio-economic indicators than Amethi or Rae Bareli. That apart, both the tribal reserved Lok Sabha seats in the state have been retained by the Left Front notwithstanding defeats elsewhere.”
In an editorial in the forthcoming issue of CPI-M mouthpiece **People's Democracy, Mr Yechury also took on the Trinamul Congress saying the ban on Maoists has put it in an “untenable” situation as they were “unable to defend or deny their collaboration with the Maoists and the fact that they had utilised the Maoist terror for their electoral advantage”.
Maintaining that there was “increasing evidence” of support extended to the extremists by the Trinamul, he said “it is now becoming increasingly clear to the common people that the Trinamul Congress had forged a grand alliance of all reactionary elements including the Maoists against the CPI-M and the Left Front in the recent elections.”
The consequence has been “unnecessary and unprecedented harassment and terrorisation of the common people,” Mr Yechury said, adding that the Trinamul had “put the people at the mercy of the Maoists for electoral gains”.
Observing that there was a “virtual exodus” of terrorised tribals from the Lalgarh area, he quoted local media reports to say that the people, especially women and children, wanted to escape from being used as human shields by the Maoists to face the police.
The CPI-M leader said it was now getting “increasingly clear that such cynical use of terror for electoral gains only jeopardises civil society mounting untoward misery on the people. It is such politics that need to be defeated while firmly meeting the challenge mounted by the Maoists and restoring normalcy and civic order.”

Leadership change not an issue facing CPI(M) after poll debacle

New Delhi, 31st May (PTI): The issue facing CPI(M) in the wake of its worst electoral debacle is not that of leadership change but drawing "correct lessons" from it, senior party leader Sitaram Yechury said on Sunday.

 

"No, that is not the issue. Let me put it very clearly, the issue in CPI(M) is not an issue of any leadership change. The issue is to come to a proper understanding of why this defeat took place and draw the correct lessons. That is the issue," he told PTI here.

 

Asked if accountability, including of the top leadership would be fixed, Mr. Yechury responded by stating that the Central Committee meeting in Delhi from June 19 to 21 would discuss all these issues concerned and then decisions will be taken.

 

When specifically asked whether somebody would take responsibility for the defeat when the party talks of collective responsibility, he said "that we will discuss."

 

When pointed out that parties take shelter under collective responsibility so that heads did not roll and whether it applied to CPI(M) also, Mr. Yechury said "I cannot pre-empt my Central Committee's discussions. That is the problem. You will have to wait till the CC discussions."

 

The Politburo member said there will be "very serious introspection" of the issue that led to the worst performance in West Bengal and Kerala since the party came into being in 1964 and the process has already begun.

 

"All issues that are being raised will be reviewed. There will be nothing that will escape," the CPI(M) leader said when asked whether he thought party General Secretary Prakash Karat would have to quit against the backdrop of the reported feeling in West Bengal unit that he was obstinate on the issue of nuclear deal and withdrawal of support to the UPA government on the issue.

 

Mr. Yechury said that as a concept the Third Front was not doomed. "Yes, it does," he said when asked as a concept whether the Third Front has a future.

 

He said what was not credible and viable was the manner in which the Third Front was constituted before the Lok Sabha elections.

 

He said the CPI(M) believed that in the future also a non-BJP, non-Congress political alternative that can bring about a progressive shift in the country's policies, was required.

"It is not a cut-and-paste pre-electoral job. But it is something that will have to be forged through people's struggles. The CPI(M) is conscious of it that it will take time.

 

"But in the meanwhile when elections come, we will align with some secular parties, but that alternative cannot be confused with an electoral front."

 

Asked whether the CPI(M) and Karat made a miscalculation in cobbling up a Third Front, he said the issue will be discussed in the Central Committee meeting and he won't be able to comment anything before that.

 

Maintaining that he was not blaming anybody for the failure of the Third Front, Mr. Yechury said that CPI(M) brought together state-level alliances into a national projection but the process itself, "it seems did not appear viable to the people. Number two, seeing L K Advani on the other side, people did not see a credible non-Congress secular alternative."

 

He was asked about how the Left would oppose and stall measures like financial sector reforms in Parliament with Congress having a comfortable majority and whether it would join hands with BJP for floor coordination.

 

He said the BJP was actually supportive of the nuclear deal and on many other issues, whether it was strategic relationship with USA or economic reforms. "It is very hard to distinguish between the two -- Congress and BJP.

 

"But if they (BJP) are willing, for example, to say no to disinvestment, they will not allow financial sector reforms then yes... if they are willing to say this and take a position in the House. But somehow, I place this at a bare minimum," Mr. Yechury said.

 

Though anti-Congressism may crop up in view of Congress party's plans for a grand revival in major states, Mr. Yechury ruled out working with BJP against the Congress in the long run.

 

Mr. Yechury said after the elections, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has "emerged taller", but he would wait for the President's Address to the joint sitting to get first indications of the path the government would take in its policies and programmes.

 

"The crucial difference this time is in the absence of Left support, there is no Common Minimum Programme. And since there is no CMP, you don't know what is the policy direction they are going to adopt," the CPI(M) leader said.

 

"The seeds of future contradictions in the UPA and the Congress have been sown," he said, adding that while there was an emphasis on the 'aam aadmi' by Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, the Prime Minister stood for "neo-liberal reforms".

"This is where the future contradictions will lie," he said pointing out that the Planning Commission and the Prime Minister had way back in 2006 spoken about full capital account convertibility.

 

On industrialisation in Bengal, Mr. Yechury said Trinamool Congress had taken its opposition to the Left Front to "an absurd level" that it was even opposing central assistance to the state for relief to the cyclone victims.

 

"The fact is the obstacles for industrialisation in Bengal that the Trinamool Congress has created so far, they are going to be intensified with them being in the Union Cabinet. And it has reached such an absurd level that media reports that Mamata has asked the Central Government not to give assistance to Bengal for cyclone damage."

 

 

Yechury slams Mamata’s statement

New Delhi, 31st May: Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury on Saturday attacked Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee for reportedly asking the Centre not to assist West Bengal government in relief and rehabilitation of the cyclone victims.

“The fact is the obstacles for industrialisation in Bengal that the Trinamool Congress has created so far, they are going to be intensified with them being in the Union Cabinet. And it has reached such an absurd level that on Saturday the media reports that Ms. Mamata Banerjee has asked the Central government not to give assistance to West Bengal for cyclone damage,” Mr. Yechury said here.

He said the opposition to CPI(M) and the Left Front in Bengal was “leading to a situation when the Trinamool is even stopping the relief to the people devastated by Aila cyclone.

“As a Cabinet Minister, she is saying do not give money to West Bengal for relief and rehabilitation. So this is the level to which it has reached. This is something we have to as a political party fight,” Mr. Yechury said.

The reports said that Ms. Banerjee wanted the Centre not to accept Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s demand for Rs.1,000-crore Central assistance to help the State repair the damage caused by the cyclone, alleging shoddy utilisation of funds. — PTI

THIRD FRONT’S WIN IS A CERTAINTY: SITARAM YECHURY

KOLKATA: Addressing a face-to-face session at the Kolkata press club in the afternoon of 4 May, CPI (M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was again talking of the Left support because after three phases of the nationwide polls, he was resigned to the fact that the UPA was not coming back to office.

The speaker said that pressure from the neo-liberal economic policy and the worldwide economic depression has made the common people suffer the most. The central government should have spent much more than it did on development so that employment opportunities grew. This would have accelerated the stagnant economy. Neither of the two political formations led by the Congress and BJP thought about the mass of the people. This had been proved during the tenure of the governments they successively ran.

Sitaram Yechury referred to history while answering questions on the uncertainty that faced the Third Front in terms of nomination of a Prime Minister. In 1996, the United Front was set up post-elections and H D Deve Gowda became the PM. In addition, at a different end of the political spectrum, A B Vajpayee became PM following the completion of the electoral process in 1998 when the NDA was established. It can even be said that Dr Manmohan Singh did not know that he would be chosen the prime Minister by the Congress in the wake of the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. Again, the UPA was set up post-poll.

Strongly refuting the charge that the setting up of the Third Front would benefit the BJP, Sitaram Yechury said that it was the Congress that was responsible for the rise of the BJP. Had not the Congress withdrawn support from the UF government in 1998, there was no way the BJP would have come to office. He iterated that of the 61 Left MPs who won their way to the Lok Sabha in 2004, 54 defeated the Congress. Yet, to keep the communal forces away from office, the Left chose to support a Congress-led UPA government based on a CMP. The Left is most committed of all political formations against communalism and they have carried out consistent struggle against the BJP-RSS combine in a continuous manner throughout the country.

Sitaram Yechury also spoke on the malafide Congress campaign against the Left Front government in Bengal, he ruled out the possibility of the Left supporting the Congress to form a government in Delhi, and he called upon all the socialists and former socialists to augment the Left forces nationwide.

Rahul's call for change an insult to people of WB: Yechuri

Kolkata, May 03: The CPI(M), a key constituent of the ruling Left Front in West Bengal, on Sunday termed as "insult" the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's call for a "change" in the state, which is ruled by the communists for nearly 31 years. "The Congress is saying that the Left Front had done nothing for the state in 31 years. Then why are the people voting it. Are they fools that they cannot choose any other party? This is an insult to the people," CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechuri said at a seminar here.

Recalling that about 25 years ago, Rajiv Gandhi had describeds Kolkata as a 'dying city', Yechuri said, "the people did not take kindly to it and had continued voting for the Left. If this same insulting statement continues, the Left will remain in power for another 25 years." Yechuri, also a Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal accused the Congress of lacking an alternative development plan for the state.

"For last three days that I'm campaigning in the state, I have not heard of any alternative development plan from them. There is only negative criticism," he said. The AICC member Rahul Gandhi during a recent rally, had appealed people to "vote for change" in the state as the communist government was not receptive to the needs of the poor.

Yechuri said that rapid industrialisation was the only way to consolidate the benefits of successful implementation of the land reform movement and decentralisation through panchayati raj in West Bengal.

"In Singur, 12,000 families took compensation for about 1,000 acre of acquired land which means 12 persons were surviving on an acre of land. What is the reality? Obviously many of such families were engaged in low-end livelihoods. To improve the quality of life of such persons, there is no alternative to rapid industrialisation," he added.

(ZEENEWS.COM)

THE LEFT POSSESSES THE HIGHEST ACCOUNTABILITY ON THE ISSUE OF SECULARISM

MURSHIDABAD,2nd MAY: The last Lok Sabha elections of 2004 saw 54 of the 61 Left MPs win their seats by defeating Congress candidates. Yet, to keep away from office the communal BJP, the Left chose to provide support to the Congress-led UPA government from outside based on a Common Minimum Programme. Sitaram Yechury, Polit Bureau member of the CPI (M) said this on 2 May at Beldanga in Murshidabad.

CRITICAL
Critical of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had said earlier that the left had put up a Third Front to facilitate the chances of the BJP, Sitaram Yechury said that it had always been the left that had consistently fought the BJP-RSS combine throughout the country. That the Left supported the UPA government is a strong proof of the left’s secular credentials.

Sitaram Yechury said that the Left has pressurised the UPA government into declaring as a policy the 100 days’ work project. The Left had also compelled the UPA government to pass a legislation securing the rights of the adivasis. The Congress had not taken these steps for the 50 years they had been in the union government. This is an example of the kind of political perspective the Congress possesses.

LEFT PRESSURE
In fact, the Congress has never initiated any steps that would benefit the masses, the poorest of the poor. The amount of pro-people measures that the Congress would undertake during the time the UPA was in office was solely due to pressure from the Left. The Congress subsequently entered into a nuclear treaty with the US despite the Left having warned against such steps. By toying with the sovereignty of the nation the Congress had affronted the masse who would surely reject Congress through the electoral process throughout the country.

SITARAM YECHURY CALLS FOR CHANGE AT THE CENTRE IN FAVOUR OF THE THIRD FRONT

RANIGANJ (BURDWAN): ‘We need new governance for a new India,’ said CPI (M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury at Ranigunj right amidst the coal belt of Bengal. He was addressing a mass rally in the afternoon of 1st May.

REJECT ‘GADDI HASIL’ POLITICS
The entire country is now poised to throw out the ‘gaddi hasil’ brand of politics in favour of popular governance. The new government shall have people’s welfare as the locus of its policies. The certainty of the Third Front assuming control in Delhi, post election, was becoming clearer every day.

Held at the large Sihrasole grounds, the rally saw participation in their thousands of both coal mine workers and workers in the unorganised sectors, in particular. There was also a large number of adivasis who came in their traditional dressage and raised a storm of kettle drum beats.

TWO INDIAS
Sitaram Yechury said that at present a ‘Chamakta hua Bharat’ was confronted by a ‘tadapta hua Bharat.’ In the former, ‘shining,’ India, a few people and families concentrated in their hands of massive amount of wealth. More billionaires exist in that India than even in the rich and developed nation of Japan.

In the suffering India, 75% of Indians cannot have Rs 20 per day as income. Every day, 1000 children die. 755 of the mothers are the victims of anaemia. One crore of Indians have been thrown out of employment as a consequence of the big depression worldwide. The jobs of five crore more are under serious threat. In Surat in Gujarat 71 workers have taken their own lives. The textile workers sell their kidneys to survive. ‘We want a change of this India,’ said the speaker.

NEW FORMATIONS
Sitaram Yechury said that the secular formations were coming together in a new way. On the eastern coast of the country, the alliance partners have left the BJP. Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ram Bilas Paswan have created a separate morcha. The Third force will become stronger after the elections are over. Sitaram Yechury recalled to the mind of the politically conscious Bengali the words of Gopal Krishna Gokhale: what Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow.

LF TO SHOW THE WAY
The Left Front government is established in Bengal after winning seven consecutive elections. Bengal shows the way to the future for the rest of the country. Sitaram Yechury called for a massive electoral triumph of the LF-nominated CPI (M) candidate from the constituency, and a sitting MP, Bangsa Gopal Chaudhuri. Other who addressed the rally besides Bangsa Gopal was CPI leader and MP, R C Singh.

Rahul remarks an insult to West Bengal’

People continue to repose faith in the Left: Yechury

NEW DELHI: Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury on Saturday said Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of the Left Front government in West Bengal amounted to “insulting the people of Bengal.”

“Rajiv Gandhi had once said Kolkata was a dying city. And you remember what happened after that. Now, his son is echoing similar things about Bengal,” Mr. Yechury told journalists when asked to respond to Mr. Gandhi’s charge that the situation in West Bengal was worse than what was in Uttar Pradesh. “Why are the people continuing to repose faith in the Left? If you say they are doing so for the wrong reasons, then it is tantamount to insulting the people of Bengal,” he added.

The CPI(M) leader drew attention to a study, commissioned under Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, which ranked West Bengal among the top three States. The World Bank too had reported a decline in the below-the-poverty line-level population in the State.

“You too won’t agree that Ahluwalia is a Left spokesman or the World Bank a Left body,” he observed while warning that the Left parties too could reveal worse social indicators in Congress-ruled states.

Conceding that anyone could voice his opinion and Mr. Gandhi was no exception, Mr. Yechury pointed out that the fact that the people of West Bengal had elected the Left Front seven times in a row “merits a re-thinking” among those criticising the government.

The Election Commission had in the past conceded the demand of the Opposition parties by inducting security forces in large numbers from outside the State and staggering the elections in five phases but the result was the same.

“I had then told the Election Commission jokingly that so long as you don’t bring in voters from outside, you can’t fight the Left in Bengal,” he said while pointing out that the Left Front had then won two-thirds of the seats.

On Mr. Gandhi’s remark that West Bengal had failed to properly implement the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in some districts, Mr. Yechury blamed the Centre for not responding to the Left Front government’s plea to effect some changes in the utilisation of funds due to the State’s unique climatic conditions. The senior CPI(M) leader said the Bharatiya Janata Party leader L. K. Advani’s political standing would be at stake if he accepted the clean chit given by the former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief, K. S. Sudarshan, regarding his role in Babri Masjid demolition. Mr. Yechury felt it was inconceivable that people would believe in the clean chit given by Mr. Sudarshan or accepted by Mr. Advani.

Memo Given to the Election Commission on the Situation in Darjeeling

April 25, 2009
TO

Shri Navin B. Chawla

Chief Election Commissioner

Election Commission of India

Nirvachan Sadan

Ashoka Road,

New Delhi

Dear Shri Navin Chawla,

I was recently in Darjeeling to address an election meeting of the CPI(M) candidate on April 21, 2009. Such a meeting could be held after some years due to the fact that the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha spearheading the movement for a separate `Gorkhaland' had created an atmosphere of fear and terror threatening any one opposing them of grave consequences if they held any political rallies in the hills.

I wish to complement the CEC also for creating an atmosphere which has permitted the possibility of holding such meetings.

You will recall that I had met you and your colleague Shri Quraishi on April 7, 2009 and handed over a memorandum requesting the CEC to take certain measures to ensure a free and fair election in these hills. I had also submitted a CD recording an inflammatory speech of Shri Bimal Gurung.

During the course of my visit, various sections of the people had brought to my notice many instances of terror that may prevent the conduct of a free and fair election. I am summarising some of the major suggestions that I had received.

I would be grateful if the EC could give a serious consideration to the following.

1.The EC must immediately launch a more intense campaign with wider reach to assure the people that their votes would remain secret. This is imperative to dispel fears that the voters could be identified subsequently and harassed/attacked etc.

2.CRPF should be deployed as early as possible in the hill areas and flag marches undertaken to restore voters' confidence

3.The Gorkha Land Personnel (GLP) camp at Gorubathan must be immediately dismantled and proceedings drawn up as per the law of the land against all the personnel involved in the camp, as trainers, trainees and administrative. Please ensure that no civilians are allowed to wear/use Army fatigues.

4.The CRPF should be maintained beyond the date of the election, April 30, 2009, to prevent post-poll violence that we apprehend, and to keep pre-poll peace that the people desire.

While complementing the EC for the conduct of election so far, I am sure that these suggestions would be seriously consider to further improve the conduct of free and fair elections.

With regards,
Yours sincerely

(Sitaram Yechury)

Copy to:

1)Shri S. Y. Quraishi, Election Commissioner, Election Commission of India, New Delhi

2)Shri V. S. Sampath, Election Commissioner, Election Commission of India, New Delhi