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Anita Nair, Famous English Writer tells about MB Rajesh

“M. B. Rajesh the LDF candidate for the Lok Sabha from the Palakkad constituency is a vibrant youth leader. Rajesh has authored three books veering dangerously close to the polemic and is currently the DYFI state president. So I was pleased to hear that Rajesh could perhaps be the next MP from Palakkad. If I had a vote in Palakkad, I know that I wouldn't hesitate to cast it for someone like M.B. Rajesh.”

Appeal To The People By The Left Parties

The Left Parties – Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, All India Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party – have decided to present before the people of India the joint Left platform for the 15th Lok Sabha elections.

Five years ago, after the 2004 general elections, the Left Parties decided to extend support to the formation of the UPA government. We did that keeping in mind the verdict of the people, which rejected the BJP and its alliance. Though the Left Parties have some basic differences with the Congress, we decided to extend support to keep the communal forces at bay and in the expectation that the Congress-led government will abide by its National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP).

Role of the Left

During the past five years, the Left Parties have played a consistent role in defence of secularism and the economic interests of the people, to protect national sovereignty and to oppose any strategic link up with US imperialism.

In the four years that the Left supported the UPA government, it tried to ensure that the pro-people measures contained in the NCMP are implemented. Whether it be the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, or, the legislation for provision of land rights for tribal people in the forest areas, or, ensuring an effective right to information legislation – the Left endeavoured to see that these are taken up in Parliament and adopted. The Left can rightfully claim that these three pieces of legislations were improved and their scope expanded due to the Left’s intervention in Parliament and in the UPA-Left Coordination Committee.

The Left Parties were vigilant to check the policies and measures, which were formulated by the UPA government based on their neoliberal outlook. The Left Parties worked in this period to protect the public sector from moves like disinvestment of shares in the ‘navaratna’ companies like BHEL. They halted some of the disinvestment in profitable public sector units. The Left Parties pushed for revival of some of the loss-making public sector units. The Left Parties consistently advocated for increased public investment in agriculture; increasing the allocation for education and health to reach the target set in the NCMP of 6 per cent of the GDP and 2-3 per cent of the GDP respectively. The increased allocations in education and health and some of the measures taken to revive agriculture can be attributed to the constant pressure of the Left Parties.

The Left Parties were firm in resisting all such measures which would have harmed employment, livelihoods and those which would have eroded national sovereignty. One important area in this regard was the financial sector, which was sought to be further liberalized and opened up to foreign capital. The Left opposed legislations on banking and insurance, which would have given foreign capital a grip over these vital sectors. The Left stood firmly against the pension funds of government employees being privatized and invested in the stock markets. This legislation not being passed has saved the hard-earned savings and retirement benefits of lakhs of government employees. The recent financial collapse in the West has led to the wiping out of billions of dollars of pension funds, which were invested in the stock markets.

The Left stood against FDI in retail, as it would have led to the displacement of lakhs of small shopkeepers and traders. The Left opposed corporate entry in agriculture and demanded regulation of corporates in retail trade.

Increasingly, the Manmohan Singh government acted on the basis of the agenda of the Indo-US CEO Forum. This was an outcome of the strategic alliance forged with the United States when the Prime Minister visited Washington in July 2005. Pressure to change the course of independent foreign policy, the military cooperation agreement, the Indo-US nuclear deal and the US-dictated economic agenda taken together was a negation of the NCMP put out by the UPA Government on which basis the Left had supported the government.

When the Congress-led government decided to go ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal, disregarding the widespread opposition voiced by a majority in Parliament and showed no urgency in addressing the serious problems like price rise and the agrarian crisis, the Left Parties were compelled to withdraw support.

The UPA government survived the vote of confidence by shameless resort to large-scale money power being used to bribe, intimidate and purchase members of Parliament.

Subsequently, the UPA government, in the remaining months of its tenure, has shown both contempt for Parliament and sought to push ahead with neo-liberal policies.

At a time when the global economic crisis has discredited the neo-liberal model of finance-driven capitalism, the Congress-led government has sought to further open up to foreign financial flows and announced revised FDI guidelines which virtually allow backdoor entry of foreign capital in all sectors. The manner in which the government is handling the impact of the global crisis in our country displays its class bias. There are bailouts for the big corporates and financial speculators but nothing is being done for the lakhs of people who are losing their jobs. The government ignores the fact that the crisis is affecting agriculture and the peasantry.

The Left Parties have, while opposing the anti-people policies of the UPA government, never relaxed its fight against the BJP and the communal forces. The BJP, in the last five years when it has been in the opposition, has proved that its core outlook is communal and its character is defined by its link with the RSS. All across the country, there has been the disturbing spectacle of attacks on minorities, both Muslim and Christian. Kandhamal in Orissa and Mangalore in Karnataka are the manifestations of attacks on the Christian community. The series of incidents of communal violence in Vadodara, Aligarh, Gorakhpur, Mau, Indore, Jabalpur, Bangalore and Dhulia were all targeting the Muslim minority.

The BJP-run state governments protected and covered up such acts of violence by the various Hindutva outfits. The least that the UPA government could have done was to ban the Bajrang Dal, which was involved in the barbarous violence in Kandhamal and Mangalore, but firm action was not taken.

The Left Parties have consistently fought against the forces of majority communalism politically, ideologically and organisationally. It has shown determination not to allow minority communalism to succeed by feeding on the fears and alienation of the minority community.

The Left Parties are clear that all forms of terrorist violence must be firmly combated. Terrorism of domestic origin, or, with external links seeks to disrupt our society and create communal divisions and harm the democratic framework. The Left Parties have stressed that people must unitedly fight terrorism whatever is its origin. At the same time, the Left has opposed the efforts to pose the problem of terrorism from a communal angle as the BJP does.

The Left Parties have been advocating alternative policies as against the policies, which are in the interests of the big capitalists, landlords, big contractors, foreign finance capital and multinational companies.

Left Platform

The Left Parties platform consists of the following:

Defence of Secularism: Prevent communal violence and ensure justice to all riot victims; Act firmly against attacks on minorities, ban Bajrang Dal; Promote secular values in education and culture; Combat terrorism effectively; Revamp the intelligence machinery, modernize the security forces; Remove draconian provisions of anti-terror laws

Economic Policies: Increase state intervention and undertake massive public investment to generate employment in rural and urban areas and develop agriculture, social sectors and infrastructure; Mobilise resources by increasing taxes on the affluent sections and speculative capital, removing tax concessions to corporates and launching a drive to unearth black money; Scrap FRBM Act.

Agriculture: Implement land and tenancy reforms; Expand MSP coverage to more crops, ensure agricultural credit at a maximum 4% rate of interest, expand public investment in power, irrigation, seed and fertiliser; Protect biodiversity and the safeguarding of traditional knowledge rights; increase tariff protection for cash crops.

Food and PDS: Universal PDS to ensure food security; Providing all essential commodities including sugar, pulses and edible oils through the PDS; strengthening public procurement of foodgrains through FCI; curb on private procurement and prohibition of futures trading in essential commodities.

Industry: Strengthen the public sector in the core and strategic areas; Encouragement to small and medium enterprises in labour intensive sectors, protection of traditional industries such as handloom, coir, etc.; Prohibit FDI in Retail Trade, encouragement to small and unorganised retailers; Review of FDI norms in sensitive sectors; Review SEZ Act and Rules; Modernize mining companies in the public sector; Increased public investment in infrastructure

Financial Sector: Maintain predominant state control over banking and insurance sectors; strict controls on the outflow and inflow of finance capital and discourage speculative finance; No privatization or diversion of pension and provident funds to the stock market

Employment and Social Sector: Remove 100 days ceiling on the NREGA and extend it to urban areas; Increase Public expenditure on education to 6% of GDP and on health to 3% of GDP, reverse privatization and commercialization of education and healthcare; Ensure Right to Education; Universalise ICDS

Rights of Working People: Increase minimum wages for all urban and rural workers; Strict implementation of labour laws; Defend right to strike; Universal social security for unorganised sector workers; Separate social security legislation for agricultural labour; Waive farmers’ loans owed to private money-lenders; Universalisation of crop insurance; Protect the rights of fishing communities

Social Justice: Enact Women’s Reservation Bill; Comprehensive law against sexual harassment; Eradication of dowry and female feoticide; Provide reservations for SC/STs in the private sector; clear backlogs in reserved seats and posts for SC/STs; Properly implement the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006; Expand welfare measures in the tribal areas; Formulate a minority sub-plan to implement Sachar Committee recommendations; Expedite development in the sphere of employment, education and health in Muslim dominated districts; promote Urdu language and modernize madarsa education

Foreign Policy: Pursue an independent and non-aligned foreign policy; Review the 123 Agreement and Defence Framework Agreement with the US; Resist discriminatory nuclear treaties like NPT and CTBT while pursuing universal nuclear disarmament; promote multipolarity in world relations; Strengthen the UN and democratize the Security Council; Promote SAARC cooperation and coordinate efforts with South Asian countries to combat terrorism and religious extremism; Pursue Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline; Extend support to the Palestinian cause; Sever military and security ties with Israel

In the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, we appeal to the people to support the Left Parties and their alternative platform.

The Left has to be strengthened:

If secularism is to be firmly defended
If national sovereignty is to be protected
If a self-reliant economic path of development that is
balanced, equitable and just is to be attained
If social justice is to be rendered for the working
people, dalits, adivasis, women, minorities and all
oppressed sections of society
If the country is to emerge with a strong and
independent foreign policy

The Left Parties are working with the non-Congress, non-BJP parties, so that after the elections, there can be an alternative secular government, that will pursue pro-people policies.

Strengthening the Left and supporting its alternative platform will ensure that the struggle for a new direction to policies will go ahead.



Strengthen the Left

For an alternative secular government

For pro-people policies

Communist Party of India (Marxist)	Communist Party of India
All India Forward Bloc	Revolutionary Socialist Party

Malpractices

some malpractices were suspected with respect of this blog.
Somehow, a pornographic blog was created in the name of the creator
of this blog. The evil minded person who tried to manipulate this
sincere attempt is hereby warned that if this kind of actions are repeated, stingent
legal action will be taken against him.

Vote For M B Rajesh: ഗാസ കൂട്ടക്കുരുതിക്കെതിരെ യുവജനപ്രതിഷേധം

Another blog of MB Rajesh

He is a fighter eternal and has participated in many of the struggles of progressive
student movement against commodification of education. Most of the occassions, he was
cruelly manhandled by Police.

MBR is a mass-pulling orator. He used to be the translator of the speaches of almost all of the non-malayali leaders visiting Palakkad.

Com MB Rajsh is a prolific reader. He is successful in analysing day to day incidents
in his own way and style. He has authored a number of books.

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MARXIST) MANIFESTO FOR THE 15TH LOK SABHA ELECTIONS, 2009

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PART I
Elections to the Lok Sabha are a significant event in the political life of the
country. For the fifteenth time, the people of India are being called upon
to elect a new government.
In the sixty years of independence, the people of India have suffused life
into the democratic system by exercising their right to elect representatives
to parliament. Yet, the aspirations of the people remain unfulfilled. The
rich, urban and rural, have reaped the benefits of “development”, while
the vast majority has sunk further and further into poverty and hunger.
These elections are being held at a time of unprecedented global economic
crisis. The jobs and livelihood of millions of Indians are at stake. Economic
progress and the social well being of the people face uncertain prospects.
In the May 2004 elections, the people rejected the BJP-led NDA combine,
which had ruled the country for six years with disastrous effects. The
CPI(M) was committed to keeping the BJP and the communal forces out
of power. Accordingly, the CPI(M) and the Left parties extended support
to the Congress-led UPA coalition so that a secular government could be
formed at the Centre. This was done with the understanding that the UPA
government will implement its own Common Minimum Programme
(CMP).
The CPI(M) and the Left parties consistently worked to see that the
UPA government implemented the pro-people commitments made in the
CMP. Legislations such as the Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the
Forest Tribal Bill were adopted only due to the continuous pressure of the
Left. The CPI(M) constantly demanded increased allocations in
agriculture, education and health in keeping with the promises in the CMP;
it demanded measures to curb the communal forces and strengthen the
secular principles; it emphasized the pursuit of an independent foreign
policy.
However, the Congress-led government did not adhere to the
understanding of the CMP. It persisted in pushing through neo-liberal,
anti-people policies and violating the commitment for an independent
foreign policy.
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The results are there for all to see:
Five years of the Congress-led UPA government have widened further the
divide in society. The rich have become super-rich while the poor have
been further impoverished.
Neo-liberal economic policies have resulted in distorted growth
accompanied by agrarian crisis, rising prices, unemployment and depleting
wages.
The forces of communalism have continued their divisive and violent
activities. Parallel to this is the terrorist violence which continues to stalk
the land.
The Manmohan Singh government betrayed its own Common
Minimum Programme to forge a strategic alliance with the United States
to sign the unequal Indo-US nuclear deal, thus undermining our
independent foreign policy.
A minority government determined to push through neo-liberal policies
and a strategic alliance with the United States denigrated parliament and
displayed contempt for democratic procedures.
Tolerance of bribery and corruption and misuse of public institutions
became the hallmark of a regime hell bent on survival.
For all its supposed concern for the aam admi, the UPA government
worked overtime to pamper the super rich. The government flaunts a 8.6
per cent growth in GDP for four consecutive years till 2008. What does
this growth mean? Till 2007, India recorded the fastest growth rate of
billionaires in the world. Four out of the ten richest people in the world
are Indians.
We are a country with rich natural resources, skilled manpower and
scientific and technological prowess. Yet, predatory crony capitalism has
condemned us to be a society with some of the worst human development
indicators in the world:
• 230 million people are undernourished
• More than half of India’s women are anaemic
• 40 per cent of children under three years are underweight
• 2,19,000 habitations have no access to clean drinking water
• 39 per cent of adult population is illiterate
• 77 per cent of the population spends less than Rs. 20 a day
• The share of wages in the organised industrial sector is among the
lowest in the world
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Under the Congress-UPA dispensation:
• The agrarian crisis continues. Suicides by farmers have not abated.
• The public distribution system has been further enfeebled. The BPL
category excludes large sections of the poor. 52 per cent of the
agricultural labour households are excluded from the PDS. Allocations
for the APL category have been drastically cut.
The food policy is callous and inhuman. Three crore tonnes of foodgrains
lie in the godowns but the government refuses to undo the cut in the
allocations to the states.
PRICE RISE
The people have suffered from continuous price rise of all essential
commodities. Even though the government claims the rate of inflation has
come down below 4 per cent, the prices of food items continue to rise at
above 10 per cent. When the international prices of oil dipped to $40 a
barrel, the government reduced the prices of aviation turbine fuel eleven
times between September 2008 and February 2009 to help out the private
airlines. But the prices of petrol and diesel was reduced only twice during
this period and cooking gas only once. The inability to curb price rise and
protect the people from the ravages of inflation has been one of the biggest
failures of the Congress-led government.
The Manmohan Singh government promoted policies favouring big
business and big corporates, both Indian and foreign. SEZs were designed
to help these interests grab large tracts of land and they were given a
bonanza of tax sops. The refusal to restore capital gains tax in the stock
market and stop the massive tax evasion through the Mauritius route is
meant to help Indian and foreign speculators to reap huge profits. The
backdoor entry of FDI in retail trade is jeopardising the livelihood of
lakhs of small shopkeepers and traders.
There has been rampant privatisation of health and education systems,
thus depriving the common people of health and education facilities.
Allowing FDI in real estate and encouragement of real estate speculation
has led to land grabbing and a massive increase in land prices in and around
urban areas. It has become impossible for the poor and the middle classes
to own a decent home.
The Congress-led government has promoted public-private
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partnerships in various infrastructure projects whereby the public sector
bears all the costs and the private party reaps all the profits. The Hyderabad
Metro, now mired in the Satyam-Maytas scandal, is one such glaring
instance.
The rights of workers and employees have been curtailed. The EPF rate
of interest was reduced to 8.5 per cent. The government has promoted
contractualisation and casualisation of labour. Ignoring the
recommendations of the National Commission for Enterprises in the
Unorganised Sector and the Standing Committee on Labour, the
government passed an Act in parliament which makes a mockery of the
rights and protection for workers of the unorganised sector.
The UPA government went back on its commitment to implement onethird
reservations for women in the legislatures and parliament, as
promised in the CMP. The dependence on the Samajwadi Party after the
Left’s withdrawal of support sealed the fate of the women’s reservation
bill.
The UPA government failed to implement the main recommendations
of the Justice Sachar Committee on the status of minorities. The key
suggestion, of working out a sub-plan for the Muslim minority, was rejected
by the Government.
During the last six months of the Congress-led government, the country
has experienced the adverse impact of the global economic crisis. The
government’s response has been both inadequate and wrong. The fiscal
stimulus packages announced by the government have been grossly
inadequate and mainly aimed at providing tax concessions to bail out big
corporates. Even such concessions have not been linked to any
conditionalities to protect the workers from lay-offs and retrenchment.
No measures have been undertaken so far to protect the peasantry from
price crashes and import competition. The Centre has ignored the plight
of the overseas migrant workers and not included them in the stimulus
package. The only way to come out of the crisis is by creating demand and
new jobs. This requires massive public investment in employment
generation, rural development, agriculture, social sectors and
infrastructure. This is exactly what the government has refused to
undertake.
The neoliberal policy framework is today discredited worldwide. The
Congress-led government, however, stubbornly clings to neoliberal dogma.
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Even after the crisis unfolded, it liberalised financial flow even further by
lifting some restrictions on participatory notes and revising FDI guidelines
to facilitate backdoor entry of FDI in all sectors.
DANGER OF COMMUNALISM
The BJP-RSS combine and their many outfits have been fomenting
communal violence and targetting the minorities. In these last five years
attacks on Muslim minorities have taken place in Madhya Pradesh,
Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra
Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Kandhamal district in Orissa saw the worst
violence against Christians, with churches and houses being burnt and
large scale attacks on priests and nuns. In Karnataka, there were vicious
attacks on Christians in Mangalore, Davanagare and other places after
the BJP assumed office. Instead of taking action against the perpetrators of
the attacks, the BJP governments in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and
Karnataka often arrested the victims of the violence.
Whether it is Gujarat under Narendra Modi, or Karnataka, or any of
the other BJP-ruled states, artistes have been intimidated, cultural
performances and films attacked, and writers threatened. The assault on
young women by gangs of Hindutva thugs in Mangalore and other places
display the symptoms of a fascist mentality.
The 2004 verdict against the BJP should have been utilised to act firmly
against all forms of communalism and their regressive activities. The
Congress-led government was unable to adopt a firm and consistent stand
against the depredations of the communal forces. Minorities are being
harassed and terrorised in various parts of the country. The Centre should
have cracked down on organisations like the Bajrang Dal after the violence
in Kandhamal and elsewhere in the country. But it did not do so.
TERRORISM
During the last five years, the country experienced a spate of terrorist
attacks, starting with the October 2005 serial blasts in Delhi. The Central
Government failed to tackle the problems of terrorism adequately. It
should have revamped the intelligence system and ensured better
coordination between the intelligence and security agencies. It required
the horrific Mumbai attack to awaken the Government to the defects in
the intelligence and security systems. In the name of combatting terrorism,
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there have been innumerable instances of the police and security agencies
indiscriminately rounding up innocent Muslim youth, detaining then and
torturing them. Such targetting of a community only alienates the youth
and provides a breeding ground for extremism.
Terrorism has diverse origins in India. There is terrorist violence
involving some extremist elements from the Muslim community. In the
recent period terrorist attacks like in Malegaon and certain earlier blasts
in Maharashtra were perpetrated by extremist Hindutva elements. In the
North-East, terrorist attacks by ULFA and the other ethnic chauvinist
groups have taken place.
The CPI(M) has consistently advocated firm steps to tackle the terrorist
networks and elements irrespective of their source or origin. As for the
terrorist attacks emanating from Pakistan, India should mobilise
international opinion to mount pressure on the Pakistan government to
crack down on the terrorist and extremist outfits there.
MAOIST VIOLENCE
The self-styled Maoists are indulging in indiscriminate violence in certain
states, which they claim is revolutionary activity. Devoid of any political
platform except the use of the gun, the Maoists are resorting to killings of
their political opponents. While it is necessary to curb such terrorist
violence, it is equally important to implement a programme of socioeconomic
development in the backward and remote areas where these
groups operate so that these anarchist elements are isolated.
CURB REGIONAL CHAUVINISM
The growth of regional chauvinism and the attacks on people from other
states by parties like the MNS in Mumbai required a firm response.
However, neither the Congress-led state government, nor the Central
government displayed the political will to check the violence and bring the
culprits to justice. The CPI(M) strongly opposes all forms of regional and
ethnic chauvinism which targets people of other regions or communities.
VIOLATION OF FEDERALISM
The Congress-led government has been insensitive to the rights of states
and failed to implement steps to devolve more powers and resources to
them. Despite the CMP commitment, the debts of states were not
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substantially reduced nor was the share of the states in the divisible pool of
taxes enhanced.
The Inter-State Council was not activated, nor were Centrally sponsored
schemes transferred to states. The UPA government violated the CMP in
framing the terms of reference for the 13th Finance Commission and the
Commission on Centre-State relations.
The Congress-led government has sought to use Governors for its
partisan purposes. The attempt to dismiss the Uttar Pradesh state
government in December 2006 was a reminder that misuse of Article 356
by the Congress party at the Centre is not a thing of the past.
Neither the Congress nor the BJP can promote the federal principle
which needs to be strengthened to democratise our system.
CORRUPTION
The ruling alliance vitiated the parliamentary democratic system by large
scale use of money, bribery and intimidation to purchase and encourage
defections from the opposition to win the vote of confidence in July 2008.
Earlier, in 1993, faced with a no-confidence motion, the Narasimha Rao
government had bribed opposition members of Parliament. The Congressled
government, however, took this to new and sordid heights.
The government displayed complete contempt for Parliament by
extending the July 2008 special session till the end of December, and doing
away with the winter session altogether. Thus, the number of Parliament
sittings in 2008 were reduced to a mere 46. Misuse of public institutions
and investigative agencies was also the norm under this government.
The UPA government has presided over a massive telecom scam. It first
sold 2G licences to favoured companies. The companies then divested their
shares at huge profits. In the process, the exchequer lost at least one lakh
crore rupees. The government has refused to order a probe into this massive
scam.
The Satyam-Maytas scandal is a shocking example of how crony
capitalism is leading to institutionalised corruption. The patronage given
to the Satyam-Maytas combine by the Congress government in Andhra
Pradesh involves lucrative contracts and transfer of thousands of acres of
land. Special Economic Zones have become the instruments for large scale
transfer of land to corporates depriving the farmers and the rural poor of
their meagre landed assets.
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STRATEGIC ALLIANCE WITH THE UNITED STATES
The biggest betrayal by the Manmohan Singh government was to forge a
strategic alliance with the United States of America and to resile from the
commitment to pursue an independent foreign policy.
• The Congress-led government signed a ten-year Defence Framework
Agreement with the US for military collaboration. This was done
secretly without any discussion or information given to the country.
• The Manmohan Singh government shamelessly lined up with the
United States to vote against Iran in the IAEA in order to get the
nuclear deal through the US Congress.
• In place of the CMP, the agenda of the Indo-US CEO Forum, which
recommended FDI in retail trade, insurance, banking, education, etc.,
became the guiding light of the Manmohan Singh government.
• The Manmohan Singh government has pursued the US-Israel-India
axis, an idea mooted by the BJP-led government. It has entered into
deep security and military collaboration with Israel. Israel has become
the biggest supplier of weapons to India and the billions of dollars
spent by India helps Israel suppress the Palestinian people.
NUCLEAR DEAL
The Congress-led government signed the nuclear deal with the US with
conditions no self-respecting government should accept. The Hyde Act
passed by the United States Congress directed India to adopt a certain
course in foreign policy and set conditions for nuclear cooperation which
dovetailed India into security and military collaboration with the US.
The UPA government misleadingly raised the issue of shortage of uranium,
a lie nailed down by the recent report of the CAG. The Congress is
propagating that the nuclear deal will result in electricity being provided
to all villages and homes. This is a cruel joke when the cost of electricity
from an imported nuclear plant will be Rs. 8 per unit – far out of the reach
of the common people.
BREAK WITH UPA GOVERNMENT
The Left parties withdrew support from the UPA government on July 9,
2008 after the government decided to go ahead with the Indo-US nuclear
deal as part of its ongoing quest for a strategic alliance with the United
States. In December 2007, when the matter was debated in parliament, it
9
became clear that a majority of Members of Parliament were not for the
deal. The Manmohan Singh government concentrated its entire energy to
pursue the deal without caring for the people’s suffering due to galloping
price rise and the growing rural distress. The CPI(M) and the left parties
could not support a government which was so intent on acting at the
behest of the US agenda for India to the detriment of an independent
foreign policy and strategic autonomy.
ROLE OF CPI(M) AND LEFT VIS-À-VIS UPA GOVERNMENT
The CPI(M) and the Left acted as sentinels of the people’s interests vis-àvis
the UPA government. At least two major legislations – the NREGA
and the Forest Tribal Rights Act – would not have come about in the
present form without the CPI(M)’s intervention.
The Left parties made crucial interventions in NREGA legislation which
have proved to be of great benefit to the people. These include: (1) the
deletion of a clause which gave Government the right to terminate the
programme if it so wanted; (2) to ensure that it be made a universal right
for anyone who was willing to do manual work and not limited to BPL
families alone as suggested by the Government; (3) a special provision to
ensure that at least one-third of the beneficiaries are women; and (4) to
ensure more flexibility in the type of projects that may be taken up through
the introduction of a clause that gives State Governments the scope to
make suitable project proposals.
It was the sustained intervention by the Left and particularly the CPI(M)
that led to the enactment of the Scheduled Tribes and other Forest Dwellers
(Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. Here again without the Party’s
intervention, the Act in the present form would not have been possible.
The interventions by the CPI(M) and the Left resulted in (1) change in the
cut-off year from 1980 to December 2005; (2) inclusion of other traditional
forest dwelling communities as beneficiaries; (3) increase of land ceiling
from 2.5 hectares to 4 hectares; (4) inclusion of expanded rights to minor
forest produce; (5) expanded role of gram sabhas and panchayats; (6)
right to development projects in forest areas within a limited area; and (7)
securing equal rights of women.
Similarly, the CPI(M) intervened to modify the Patents Amendments
Act of 2005 to protect the interests of the country with regard to the
provision of less expensive generic drugs for the people. The Left did not
1 0
allow dilution of the Right to Information legislation. It is due to the
continuous pressure of the CPI(M) and the Left that there was increased
allocation for education even though it did not attain the 6 per cent of
GDP mark promised in the CMP.
The role played by the CPI(M) and the Left in the past five years led to
the protection of financial sector from the ravages of speculative finance
capital.
• The Left protected the banking sector by not allowing the Banking
Regulation (Amendment) Act which would have facilitated the
takeover of Indian private banks by foreign banks.
• The Left defended the insurance sector by preventing any legislation
to increase FDI in the insurance sector from 26 to 49 per cent.
• Pensions of lakhs of government employees were protected by the
Left’s decision to oppose the Pension Fund Regulatory Act which would
have led to pension funds of government employees being privatized
and put in the stock market.
The CPI(M) and the Left firmly defended the public sector and national
sovereignty.
• The integrity of the ‘navaratna’ PSUs was protected by the Left which
did not agree to the disinvestment of shares in BHEL.
• To protect the interests of lakhs of small shopkeepers and traders,
and workers employed by them, the Left opposed the opening up of
the retail trade to MNCs and prevented their full-fledged entry.
• To protect the farmers’ interests, the Left did not support the Seed
Bill which could not be passed in the Parliament.
• To protect the integrity of the educational sector, the Left stopped
the passage of the Bill to allow foreign educational institutions and
universities to be set up in India.
• To protect the interests of the working class, the Left prevented the
introduction of anti-labour laws.
All through the four years when the CPI(M) and the Left supported the
government, the CPI(M) worked assiduously to protect national
sovereignty and to prevent implementation of some of the worst aspects of
the neo-liberal policies which would have harmed the people’s economic
interests and livelihood.
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BJP: A REGRESSIVE FORCE
The BJP seeks to pass off majority communalism as “nationalism”. It extols
the RSS vision of Hindu rashtra and passes it off as “cultural nationalism”.
The politics and practice of the BJP represents distilled communalism that
can only weaken national unity. The BJP has come out against any efforts
to ameliorate the conditions of the 150 million Muslims in the country as
recommended in the Justice Sachar Report by branding it as “minority
appeasement”.
The BJP has provided political cover to the depredations of the Bajrang
Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad against the Muslim and Christian
minorities whether in the Kandhamal district of Orissa or attacks in
Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajashtan and Chhattisgarh.
The BJP stand on terrorism is equally pernicious. It has no compunction
in ascribing all terrorist activities to the Muslim community. It refuses to
accept that terrorism has diverse sources. It has sought to protect the
accused in the Malegaon blasts case who are Hindutva extremists by
branding the ATS investigation as prosecution of “Hindu religious figures”.
The BJP’s double standards on terrorism stands fully exposed.
Throughout the five year period when it was in the opposition, the BJP
had nothing to offer except communalisation of the serious issue of
terrorism and minority baiting. The BJP harps on building the temple at
the site where the Babri Masjid stood in flagrant violation of the law and
the constitution.
The records of the BJP-run state governments makes it amply clear that
it is a party fully wedded to rightwing economic policies of privatisation
and a free market economy. Its governments have been steeped in
corruption. When in government at the Centre, the BJP took several steps
to cement a strategic alliance with the United States. Today, there is no
difference in the foreign policy postures of the BJP and the Congress.
The people of India cannot accept this regressive, backward-looking
party based on an obscurantist ideology to run the Central government.
SUPPORT CPI(M)
The CPI(M)’s role in the past five years speaks for itself. It has intervened
consistently in Parliament and elsewhere to defend the interests and the
livelihoods of the people, protect national sovereignty, curb
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communalism, ensure social justice and fight against growing imperialist
penetration.
Scores of members and supporters of the CPI(M) became martyrs by
laying down their lives for the cause of the working people, fighting
communal and divisive forces and in police firing.
The three Left-led governments of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura
have shown that alternative policies can be implemented despite the
constraints of having a Central government pursuing neoliberal policies.
Over the years, West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura have implemented land
reforms and broken up large scale landlordism. They have institutionalised
and ensured the democratic functioning of the three-tier panchayat system.
Despite the limited resources and the constraints that state governments
work under, the Left-led governments have protected the interests of the
peasants and agricultural workers by ensuring agricultural development
and taken steps to promote industrial development. The public
distribution system which is under attack by the Centre has not been
dismantled. The rights of the working class and other working sections are
protected. All the three states have an exemplary record in maintaining
communal amity and upholding secular values.
The CPI(M) sets out the alternative path for the country. This platform
is based on the following major components: (i) defence of secularism and
national unity; (ii) for a democratic transformation of agrarian relations
and land reforms; (iii) for a self-reliant economic system and path of
development which will develop the productive forces, maximise
employment and reduce economic and social disparities; (iv) for a
democratic and federal political system with necessary Constitutional
changes; (v) defence of the rights of the working people, their livelihoods
and social security; (vi) social justice, end to caste discrimination and
protection of rights of women, dalits, minorities and tribal people; and
(vii) for an anti-imperialist, independent foreign policy.
FOR A NEW ALTERNATIVE
Five years of the Congress-led government have been a major
disappointment for the people and a let down of the mandate of the 2004
Lok Sabha elections. The Congress party is committed to the policies of
liberalisation and privatisation, which are today discredited in the entire
world. These policies have proved inimical to the interests of the workers,
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peasants, agricultural workers, artisans, small entrepreneurs, women,
students and youth. A party which sees the future of India tied to the
coattails of the United States does not deserve to run the government of
our sovereign democratic republic.
The BJP represents the most reactionary force in the country. The sixyear
rule from 1998 to 2004 was marked by the pursuit of pro-rich and
communal policies. BJP’s ideology is inimical to the concept of a secular
state. It wants to use the NDA as a cover for its Hindutva politics. Through
these five years, all it did as the major opposition party was to raise various
issues, including terrorism, from a communal standpoint.
It is necessary that both the Congress and the BJP are defeated by the
people in the forthcoming elections.
The country requires alternative policies. Pro-people economic policies;
provision of social equity; consistent secularism; genuine federalism; and
an independent foreign policy. The CPI(M) appeals to all democratic and
secular forces to support such alternative policies.
For this, an alternative political platform is required. The CPI(M) will
work for the creation of a non-Congress, non-BJP government which will
strengthen democracy, ensure equitable economic development and social
justice.
VOTE FOR THE CPI(M)
STRENGTHEN LEFT AND DEMOCRATIC FORCES
FOR AN ALTERNATIVE SECULAR GOVERNMENT
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PART II
Promote Secular Values
The CPI (M) stands for the separation of religion and politics and necessary
legislative measures to firm up this separation. Communal violence should
be dealt with firmly. Secular values should be promoted by the State in all
spheres. The CPI (M) will work towards:
• Enacting a comprehensive law against communal violence; ensuring
speedy justice and adequate compensation to the victims of communal
violence like the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 and for the implementation
of the Justice Sri Krishna Commission report
• Ensuring exemplary punishment for perpetrators of communal
violence regardless of their public or official position
• Purging all school textbooks of content reflecting communal bias
and prejudices
• Reining in organisations and institutions involved in spreading
communal hate and attacking minorities through appropriate legal
measures
• Enforcing the Protection of Places of Worship Act to prevent raising
of disputes on religious places
FOR ALTERNATIVE ECONOMIC POLICIES
Enhanced State Intervention
In the light of the global economic crisis and its adverse impact on India
the CPI (M) stands for:
• Increasing annual Plan Expenditure amounting to 10% of India’s
current GDP (currently it is below 5%)
• Aggressive expansion by CPSUs utilizing their vast cash reserves
• Scrapping the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act
and raising borrowing limits of State Governments to enable higher
public expenditure; Comprehensive debt relief for the State
Governments
Immediate Relief Measures
• Specific relief packages for affected sectors like textiles and garments,
gems and jewellery, leather, handicrafts, coir, cashew, marine products,
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software and IT etc., aimed mainly at the small and medium enterprises
• Moratorium on job cuts for workers; Labour laws to be duly invoked
to prevent retrenchments and lay offs; Enhancing social security
measures for workers
• Preventing wage and pay cuts for workers and employees; burden of
cost cutting to be borne by profit earners
• Extending the employment guarantee to urban areas
• Income tax relief for salaried employees, pensioners and senior citizens
• Massive increase in public investment in agriculture and irrigation;
Protection against price crashes of crops through price support and
increased import tariffs
Resource Mobilisation
In order to mobilise resources to undertake the massive public spending
plans, the CPI (M) proposes steps to:
• Effectively tax speculative capital gains by restoring Long-Term
Capital Gains Tax and increasing Securities Transaction Tax
• Halt further tax concessions to corporates; Launch a drive to unearth
black money, especially those stashed in Swiss Banks and other offshore
tax havens
• Increase wealth tax for the super rich; introduce inheritance tax
• Plug the Mauritius route; Review Double Taxation Avoidance
Agreement with Mauritius and other countries
Financial Sector Regulation
In order to ensure strong regulation of the financial sector, maintain
predominant state control over finance and revival of development finance,
the CPI (M) stands for:
• Reversing moves towards Full Capital Account Convertibility
(Tarapore Committee recommendations); reimposing strict controls
on the outflow and inflow of finance capital
• Prohibiting Participatory Notes used by the Foreign Institutional
Ivestors (FIIs); discourage speculative finance
• Halting any further dilution of Government equity in public sector
banks; strengthening the public sector in banking and insurance and
ensuring strict adherence to priority sector lending norms
• Scrapping the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill; preventing
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takeover of Indian banks by foreign banks
• Scrapping the proposed legislation to increase FDI cap in the insurance
sector
• No privatisation of pension funds; No diversion of pension and
provident funds to stock market
Revival of Agriculture
In order to reverse the agrarian crisis, make agriculture remunerative and
ensure enhanced incomes of the peasantry, the CPI (M) proposes steps to:
• Implement the pro-farmer recommendations of the National
Commission on Farmers
• Expand MSP coverage to more crops, including oil seeds, other cash
crops and traditional staples; Revive commodity boards to set floor
prices for commercial crops
• Ensure institutional credit to the agricultural sector at a maximum
4% rate of interest
• Expand public investment in power supply in rural areas and stop
privatization of electricity; Ensure uninterrupted supply of power to
agriculture; Expand irrigation facilities
• Ensure provision of high quality inputs at affordable prices to all
cultivators through public production and marketing; repeal the Seed
Bill and introduce farmer-friendly seed legislation
• Repeal the model APMC Act which advocates contract farming; bring
farmer-friendly reforms in agricultural markets
• Scrap the Indo-US Knowledge Initiative in Agriculture and make
public all its records; Increase public investment and expand public
institutions for agricultural research and extension
• Reverse changes in the intellectual property regime that favour big
business; Ensure strict regulation of private agricultural research with
regard to protection of biodiversity
Food Security and Public Distribution System
To ensure food security the CPI (M) advocates:
• Reintroduction of the universal PDS and abandoning the targeted
PDS based on flawed poverty estimates; Provision of foodgrains at
subsidized rates in the PDS
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• Expansion of the Antodaya scheme to cover wider sections of the
rural and urban poor; Special measures to include tribal communities
in Antodaya coverage
• Supplying 14 essential commodities including sugar, pulses and edible
oils under the PDS
• Reversing the cut in food grain allocations to the States under the
PDS and giving States their full quota of grain
• Strengthening the FCI and expanding of FCI godowns, particularly
in the Eastern and North Eastern regions; Curbing procurement of
foodgrains by private corporates and MNCs
Checking Price Rise of Essential Commodities
The CPI (M) considers the following steps as essential to check price rise:
• Reduction of retail prices of petrol and diesel by cutting the customs
and excise duties on oil
• Banning futures trading in all agricultural commodities as per the
recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee
• Taking stringent action against hoarding of essential commodities;
Strengthening the provisions of the Essential Commodities Act to deal
with hoarding and black-marketing
• Strengthening disclosure norms for private stocks of foodgrains held
in godowns and warehouses
Land Issues
The single most important step for rural transformation is the
implementation of land reforms. The CPI (M) stands for:
• Reversing the current thrust to dilute land-ceiling laws; Speedy and
comprehensive steps for implementing land reforms
• Takeover and distribution of all surplus land above ceiling and
handing over of cultivable wasteland to landless and poor peasant
households free of cost, with priority to SCs and STs; Joint pattas to be
distributed including equal right of women to the land
• Recording of tenancy and protection of the rights of tenants in all
States where this has not been done
• New Land Acquisition Act to protect the interests of land owners and
others dependent on land; Ensuring informed consent of those affected;
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Prohibit land grab for real estate speculation; Enact Rehabilitation
and Resettlement Act to ensure adequate compensation and
rehabilitation for all affected
Industrial Development
Balanced growth of industry and agriculture is vital for employment
generation and economic development. For the Planned development of
industry, the CPI (M) stands for:
• Strengthening and expansion of the public sector in the core and
strategic areas by injecting fresh capital and technology; promoting
autonomy and efficiency in the public sector
• Complete halt to disinvestment and privatisation of profit-making
and potentially viable PSUs
• Encouragement to small and medium enterprises in labour intensive
sectors with adequate incentives, infrastructure support and sufficient
credit from banks
• Protection of traditional industries such as handloom, coir, etc.;
yarn to be provided at controlled rates for the weavers and adequate
facilities for the marketing of their goods
• Protection of domestic industry from indiscriminate lowering of
import duties and takeover of existing Indian companies by foreign
companies; Encouragement to the private sector to invest in
manufacturing and services sectors; Incentives to the private sector to
be linked to job creation and R&D efforts
• Prohibition of FDI in Retail Trade; Regulation of domestic corporate
retailers through a licensing policy
• Reverse FDI guidelines to prevent backdoor entry of FDI; Foreign
capital to be channelled in areas based on need to build productive
capacities and acquire new technology
• Amending SEZ Act and Rules to do away with myriad tax concessions
and regulate land-use; Ensuring strict implementation of labour laws
in all SEZs
• Halting further liberalization and privatization of the mineral sector;
Prohibiting export of iron ore; Increasing royalty rates on coal and
other minerals
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Infrastructure
• Increasing public investment in infrastructure; Adequate Plan outlays
for power, communications, railways, roads, ports and airports
• Reviewing energy and telecom policies in tune with the interests of
self-reliant national development; Review the Electricity Act 2003
• Reviewing of privatisation of infrastructure through PPP
• Emphasis on rural infrastructure; Increased outlays on rural roads,
electrification etc.
WTO and Trade Issues
The CPI (M) stands for:
• Protecting Indian interests and that of the developing countries in
the ongoing Doha Round of WTO; no further tariff cuts in agriculture
and industrial goods
• Restore measures to protect small and marginal peasants, including
quantitative restrictions
• Keep sectors like health, education, water resources, banking and
financial services out of GATS; Press for review of the TRIPS agreement
• Review existing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs); Make public India’s
negotiating positions in the FTA negotiations with EU and EFTA
Strengthening Federalism
For a thorough restructuring of Centre-State relations the CPI (M) stands
for:
• Amending Articles 355 and 356 to prevent their misuse
• Governors to be appointed by the President from a list of three
eminent persons suggested by the Chief Minister of a State
• Devolving 50% of the total pool of collection of Central taxes to the
States; Raising States’ share of market borrowing to 50%
• Conditionalities imposed upon the States like the passage of FRBM
Act to be withdrawn; States to have a say in the composition and
terms of reference of the Finance Commissions
• Transferring Centrally Sponsored Schemes under the State subject
with funds to the States
• Constitutional amendment to make the decisions of the Inter-State
Council binding on the Union Government; National Development
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Council to be granted Constitutional status; Planning Commission
to act as an executive wing of the NDC
• Setting a target minimum level of Local Self-Government expenditure
to GDP; funds devolved to the local bodies to be routed through the
State Governments
Jammu & Kashmir
• A political solution to the Kashmir problem based on maximum
autonomy for the State based on the full scope of Article 370 of the
Constitution; autonomous set-up to be created with the regions of
Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh being given regional autonomy
• Strong steps to be taken to prevent excesses by security forces against
innocent people
• Ensure economic development of the State, focusing particularly on
generating employment for the youth and reconstructing the damaged
infrastructure
North-East
• The North East to be declared a priority region for development;
Developing physical infrastructure and special employment schemes
for the youth; Border fencing to be completed expeditiously
• Protecting and expanding the administrative and financial powers
under the Sixth Schedule; protection of the identity of the various
ethnic groups and nationalities
Against Terrorism
The CPI (M) stands for:
• Revamping the intelligence machinery and enhanced coordination
between security and intelligence agencies
• The Federal Investigating Agency functioning without violating the
federal structure and ensuring association of State Governments for
investigation within a particular State
• Modernisation of the Police forces
• Strengthening of the coastal security system
• Amending the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act to remove
draconian provisions like detention without bail for 180 days, three
years imprisonment for withholding information, etc.
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TOWARDS AN INDEPENDENT FOREIGN POLICY
Foreign Policy
CPI (M) will work for:
• An independent and non-aligned foreign policy, which defends India
from imperialist pressures; Initiatives for South-South cooperation
and reviving the Non-Aligned Movement on a new basis
• Promoting multipolarity in international relations; strengthen
BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) cooperation,
improve relations with China and expand trilateral cooperation
between Russia, India and China
• Opposing US military interventions; distancing from US-sponsored
“war on terror”
• Strengthening multilateral forums like the UN to deal with all disputes
between countries; democratizing the Security Council and the UN
structure
• Amending the Constitution to make legislative sanction mandatory
for any international treaty
• Promoting people to people relations between India and Pakistan;
Resuming Indo-Pak dialogue at a suitable time
• Diplomatic and political efforts to protect the lives of Tamil people
in the war zone in Sri Lanka; Working for an immediate political
settlement based on autonomy for the Tamil speaking areas within
the framework of a united Sri Lanka
• Giving special attention to promote SAARC cooperation and
improving relations with all neighbouring countries in South Asia;
coordinate efforts with South Asian countries to combat terrorism
and religious extremism
• Building close ties with West Asian countries; pursue Iran-Pakistan-
India gas pipeline resisting US pressure
• Extending support to the Palestinian cause; severing military and
security ties with Israel
• Pursuing the Look East policy; strengthen economic cooperation
with South East and East Asian countries
Security Matters
• Reviewing and reworking the 123 Agreement with the US for civil
2 2
nuclear cooperation to remove the harmful clauses; Pursuing selfreliance
in civilian nuclear energy based on domestic uranium and
thorium reserves
• Pursuing universal nuclear disarmament through the UN; Providing
parliamentary sanction for moratorium on testing; Striving for a denuclearised
environment in South Asia; Seeking removal of nuclear
weapons from the US military base in Diego Garcia in the Indian
Ocean.
• Abrogating the Defence Framework Agreement with the US and
cessation of Indo-US joint military exercises
• Promoting the policy of no foreign military bases in South Asia
• Creating a national security apparatus, which will work within the
framework of the parliamentary democratic system
FOR PEOPLES’ RIGHTS, SECURITY OF LIVELIHOODS
AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Working Class
• Revising the minimum wage rate for workers based on the 15th ILC
norms; Revising the price indices
• Ensuring strictest implementation of all labour laws including the
law on inter state migrant workers; discouraging contractualisation
and casualisation of work
• Improving the legislation on Unorganized Sector Workers and
implement the recommendations of the Standing Committee on
Labour in this regard; Special social security measures for migrant
workers and plantation workers
• Ensuring recognition of trade unions through secret ballot and
protection of trade union rights; Adopting an effective scheme for
workers’ participation in management in both public and private
sector
• Ensuring equal remuneration for women workers in all areas of work;
adopting social security measures for working women including
maternity benefits, pension and health insurance for women workers
in the unorganized sector including home based workers
• Adopting steps to prevent sexual harassment of women workers at
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work place and enacting legislation based on the Vishakha judgement
• Providing job and social security for anganwadi workers, rural health
workers and mid-day meal workers by recognizing them as
Government employees
• Setting up special welfare board for fish workers and providing them
identity cards and social security schemes; Banning foreign trawlers
and destructive fishing practices by big trawlers; Scrapping the draft
Coastal Management Zone notification
Right to Strike
• Safeguarding the right to organize, collective bargaining and the
right to strike for all workers, including government employees;
Enacting legislation to annul the Supreme Court judgment
prohibiting strikes
• Ratifying the ILO Convention 151, which accords government
employees the rights, which other citizens enjoy, subject to their
administrative responsibilities
Peasantry
• Ensuring stable and remunerative crop prices
• Protecting the peasantry from falling world prices by increasing
import tariffs
• Ensuring comprehensive loan waiver for distressed peasants covering
both institutional and private debt owed to money-lenders
• Providing comprehensive insurance to all farmers for crop and cattle,
with subsidies for small and marginal farmers
• Promoting and strengthening co-operatives for water use, input
purchase, crop storage, output marketing and dairy
Agricultural Workers
• Increasing minimum wages for agricultural workers; Ensuring equal
wages for women agricultural workers
• Enacting a separate and comprehensive legislation for agricultural
workers to ensure minimum wages, the right to bargain collectively
and measures of social security such as pensions, accident
compensation etc. with central funding
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• Redistributing land to agricultural workers, free of cost; Providing
homestead land to all rural households; Constructing rural dwellings
for all rural workers
Women
• Enacting the Women’s Reservation Bill to ensure one-third
reservation for women in the legislatures
• Enacting a comprehensive law against sexual violence including
against children; Legally recognize joint rights in matrimonial
property; Separate law against honour killings; Law against acid attacks
and special measures to ensure help for acid attack victims
• Reversing the dilution of clauses in crimes against women made
through recent amendments to the Cr pc
• Providing credit at 4% interest rate to Self-Help Groups; Providing
training and assistance to SHGs to market their products
• Ensuring equal rights for women of all communities; Making
registration of marriages compulsory
• Undertaking as a National Mission the eradication of dowry and
female foeticide
• Increasing allocation of resources for women in central budget; Special
employment schemes and pensions for widows; Priority in
Government schemes for female headed families
Children
• Universalizing the ICDS to cover all children in the 0 to 6 years age
group; stopping privatization of the ICDS
• Providing nutritious meals to children in the anganwadis; Ensuring
universal immunization
• Implementing the Child Labour Prohibition Act effectively; Ensuring
rehabilitation of rescued child labourers
Dalits
• Ensuring stringent action against untouchability and atrocities
against Scheduled Castes
• Increasing allocations under the Special component Plan; Launching
a comprehensive National Programme of Minor Irrigation for all unirrigated
lands of dalits and adivasis
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• Extending reservation to dalit Christians and dalit Muslims
• Enacting legislation to provide reservation in the private sector
• Filling all the backlogs in reserved seats and posts and in promotions
for SCs with special recruitment drive; Scrapping the Scheduled Castes
(Reservation in Posts and Services) Amendment Bill
• Initiating special measures, like increasing scholarships and hostel
facilities, to curb the school dropout rate among SCs
• Ensuring total liberation and full rehabilitation for scavengers (safai
karamcharis) and bonded labourers; Regularisation of contract
labour in safai services
Adivasis
• Filling all vacancies for ST reserved posts in all Government services;
Extending reservation in the private sector
• Protecting land rights of adivasis and restoring land illegally alienated
from them
• Implementing the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest
Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006, in full; Amending
the Act to include traditional forest dwellers on a more reasonable
definition
• Providing autonomy for tribal compact areas wherever necessary by
coverage under the Fifth or Sixth Schedule; Extending the democratic
panchayat system to the fifth and sixth schedule areas
• Ensuring recognition and development of tribal languages and
scripts; Kokbarak to be included in the eighth schedule of the
Constitution
• Expanding PDS, drinking water facilities, health centres, schools and
hostels in the tribal areas
OBCs
• Ensuring proper implementation of 27% OBC reservation in Central
educational institutions; Extending OBC reservation to all private
educational institutions
• Strengthening the National Commission for Backward Classes
• Simplifying procedures for issuing OBC certificates
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Minorities
• Forming an Equal Opportunity Commission with adequate powers
to redress discrimination against minorities
• Formulating a sub-plan for the Muslim minorities on the lines of the
tribal sub-plan in order to implement Sachar Committee
recommendations; Special initiatives in the sphere of employment,
education and health to be undertaken targeting districts where the
Muslim population is concentrated
• Making public the Ranganath Mishra Commission report and ensure
full public debate; As an immediate measure all OBC Muslims which
form the vast majority of the Muslim community to be included in the
OBC quota with specific State wise allocations
• Earmarking 15% of priority sector lending by banks for the Muslims;
subsidised credit to be ensured for the self-employed Muslim youth
• Special emphasis to be laid on the education of Muslim girls;
scholarships and hostel facilities should be substantially increased for
Muslim girl students
• Promoting the teaching of Urdu in schools; Publishing good quality
textbooks in Urdu and filling vacancies of Urdu teaching posts
Senior Citizens
• Upgrading pensions of all categories of pensioners in consonance
with the cost of living; one-rank one-pension for ex-servicemen
• Building a network of old-age homes/day care centres with State
support
• Introducing differential and higher interest rate for senior citizens in
all deposits and savings schemes
Differently Abled People
• Strengthening of the Persons with Disabilities Act
• Properly implementing reservations provided for persons with
disabilities in public sector employment, poverty alleviation
programmes and education
• All buildings, public places, transport, information and other
avenues to be fully accessible and barrier free to people with disabilities
• Ensuring free provision of aids and equipments for differently abled
people by the Government
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Youth
• A national youth policy to be adopted which comprehensively deals
with issues of special concern to youth
• Providing a network of sports and cultural facilities for youth in all
parts of the country
• Restructuring the Nehru Yuva Kendra to promote India’s cultural
diversity and national unity
FOR PEOPLES’ WELFARE
Employment Guarantee
• The employment guarantee to be extended to cover all adults and for
as many days as demanded; Employment guarantee to be extended to
the urban areas through the enactment of legislation
• The list of permissible works under the NREGA to be expanded to
include all activities that improve the quality of life in rural areas
• Minimum wages should be ensured through fair and objective
Schedule of Rates; Part of wages to be paid in subsidised foodgrains
Education
• Public expenditure on education to be 6% of GDP
• Enacting the Right to Education Bill; Central Government to assume
the major part of the financial commitment for its implementation
• Expanding secondary education to arrest dropouts; Improve quality
of education and infrastructure in SSA schools
• Enacting legislation to regulate fees, admissions and curricula in
private educational institutions
• No FDI in higher education; Scrapping the Foreign Education
Providers’ Bill
• Formulating progressive and democratic curriculum and syllabi at
all levels of education that recognizes India’s social and cultural
diversity
• Revising pay scales for elementary school teachers; Regularizing
informal employment in teaching
• Ensuring democratic rights of students, teachers and non-teaching
staff in all educational institutions; Students’ union elections to be
made mandatory in all higher educational institutions
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Health
• Public expenditure on health to be raised to 5% of GDP
• Strengthening and expanding the public health system to guarantee
the delivery of all basic health services; Reversing the trend of
privatization of healthcare through PPPs
• Ensuring regular supply of all essential medicines through the public
health system; All essential drugs to be brought under price control;
Hazardous formulations of medicines to be weeded out from the
market
• Reviving the public sector in the production of essential drugs and
vaccines
• Prohibiting indiscriminate clinical trials by big pharma companies;
Strict control and regulations for clinical trials
Urban Issues
• Promoting planned urbanization; increasing public investment in
urban infrastructure; Ensuring modern and affordable public
transport and Mass Transit Systems
• Ensuring affordable basic services like drinking water, sanitation,
transportation, ration shops, health facilities, schools, etc., for the
urban poor
• Halting demolition of slums; Ensuring in situ development of slums
with facilities
• Expanding public provisioning of housing, especially for the socioeconomically
weaker sections; Curbing unbridled real estate
development catering to the affluent classes
Environment
• Making the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) process
transparent, accountable and independent of vested interests;
Reviewing the EIA Notification, 2009
• Undertaking steps to control emission of greenhouse gases through
energy efficient technologies and effective regulation; Promoting solar
and other non-conventional energy sources
• Increasing central allocations for Natural Calamity Relief Fund; States
to have more powers in tackling natural calamities and disasters
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• Checking pollution of rivers and other water bodies through effective
regulation
• Implementing the Coastal Zone Regulation Act and the Wetlands
Regulatory Authority in ways as to promote long-term interests of
the people and of the environment
Water Resources
• A National Water Policy to be formulated to enhance water
availability for domestic use, irrigation and industry; Provision of
potable drinking water to all habitations to be accorded priority
• Curbing privatization and commercialization of water resources;
Tackling depletion of ground water through greater regulation
Science and Technology
• Enhancing public funding of indigenous research in science and
technology to promote self-reliance; Decentralization in funding for
R&D; Fundamental research in the sciences to be accorded priority
• Promoting free software and other such new technologies, which are
free from monopoly ownership through copyrights or patents;
“knowledge commons” should be promoted across disciplines, like
biotechnology and drug discovery
• Scrapping the Public Funded R&D Bill, that seeks to allow patenting
of products that are developed through public funded laboratories
• Revamping the functioning of the Patent offices to ensure strict
adherence to the Indian Patent Act; Stop training and orientation of
Indian Patent office personnel by the US and European Patent offices
Culture and Media
• All national languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the
Constitution to be equally encouraged and developed
• Promoting secular, progressive and democratic culture; attacks on
cultural personalities and productions by the communal forces to be
firmly dealt with
• Curbing glorification of violence and commodification of women
and sex
• Strengthening the Prasar Bharati Corporation to make it a genuine
public broadcasting service for TV and radio; States to have a say in
3 0
the programmes aired by the public broadcasting service
• Prohibiting cross-media ownership to prevent monopolies; Reversing
the entry of FDI in the print and electronic media
• Setting up of a Media Council which can act as an independent
regulatory authority for the media
FOR INSTITUTIONAL REFORMS
Fighting Corruption
• Enacting the Lok Pal Bill to stop corruption at high places including
the Prime Minister, Members of Parliament and the Judiciary
• Suitable legislative changes to be brought to empower regulators
and investigating agencies to thoroughly probe corporate crimes
• Strengthen the Right to Information Act
Judicial Reforms
• A National Judicial Commission to be constituted as an independent
Constitutional body comprising of representatives from judiciary,
executive, legislature and bar for appointment, transfer and dismissal
of judges and to ensure judicial accountability
• Reforming the judicial system to provide speedy relief at affordable
cost to the common people; Filling up vacancies in the judiciary
• Suitable amendment in the definition of criminal contempt to be
made in order to prevent its misuse in suppressing dissent
• Public declaration of their assets by the Judges to be made mandatory
Reform of the Election Commission
• Members of the EC to be appointed by the President on the advice of
a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the
Opposition and Chief Justice of Supreme Court
• The Election Commissioners must be legally debarred from enjoying
any office after their retirement either under the Government or as a
Governor or MP
• The Representation of the People Act needs to be amended to specify
the jurisdiction of election observers
• Constitutional amendment to specify EC’s jurisdiction vis-à-vis law
and order in order to avoid conflict with elected State Governments
Electoral Reforms
• Proportional representation with partial list system
• Effective steps to prohibit persons with criminal background from
contesting elections
• State funding in the form of material for recognized political parties
• Prohibition of corporate funding to political parties

UPA Govt’s Contempt For Parliament

THE last few months of the UPA regime were marked by undemocratic methods and a blatant display of its contempt for parliament. Given the dubious methods utilised by the ruling alliance to establish its majority in the Lok Sabha following withdrawal of support of the Left parties, its reluctance to face parliament was perhaps not unexpected. But the lengths to which it went to push forward its agenda without parliamentary approval was record breaking. It is striking that those who have been proactive in berating members of parliament with harsh and often unwarranted accusations of degrading parliament have maintained a conspicuous silence about the role of the government in this regard.

Firstly, the number of days on which parliament was in session was drastically cut. During 2005, the first full year of the UPA regime, there were 85 days when parliament was in session. However in 2008 the last year of the UPA regime the number came down to just 46 days. The monsoon session, usually between three weeks to a month was dispensed with altogether. This was done to avoid facing another no-confidence motion. Technically only one confidence/no-confidence motion can be taken up in a single session. So the UPA government in an unprecedented move extended the budget session till December! This was a first in India’s parliamentary history.

The second aspect of its disregard for democratic procedure was its bypassing of important recommendations made by the standing committees studying the various reports of different ministries. At present there are 24 department related standing committees, 16 of which are chaired by members of the Lok Sabha and 8 of which are chaired by Rajya Sabha members. The standing committee system was introduced in April 1993 on the understanding that the work of the ministries could be better scrutinised including the demands for grants in the budget, by smaller dedicated committees comprising of members of all parties and from both houses of parliament. Although the schedule of meetings of these committees may differ with some meeting more regularly than others, by and large the committees produce detailed reports of the functioning of ministries with strong recommendations. Concerned standing committees also go through proposed legislations with detailed comments and recommendations. Although the recommendations are not binding on the government, since these are all party committees, the government is expected to consider the recommendations with some seriousness and make appropriate changes in the proposed draft legislations.

When the Left parties were supporting the government, it was Left pressure which forced the government to accept many of the recommendations of the standing committees on crucial legislations, in addition to the Left parties own suggestions. For example on the NREGA Act the draft legislation of the government did not incorporate many important recommendations of the standing committee. Similarly on the tribal Forest Rights Act the government wanted to ignore crucial recommendations of the select committee. On the Right to Information Act, ignoring the recommendations of the standing committee the government wanted to bring certain amendments to dilute the Act. On all these issues it was the Left parties which prevented the government from diluting the recommendations of the committees.

However following the withdrawal of support the situation changed and the government led by the Congress went back to its old authoritarian style. The first victim was the Unorganised Sector Workers legislation. In spite of the proposals of the Sengupta commission and the unanimous recommendations of the standing committee for labour, the government pushed through a legislation which greatly diluted the recommendations and denied unorganised sector workers their legitimate rights. But the contempt for standing committees was taken even further.

On some crucial bills, the government brought the bills to parliament without even referring it to the standing committees. This is a deliberate breach of procedure to find convenient shortcuts for legislations which cannot stand the scrutiny of the standing committee. Thus the notorious anti-dalit, anti-tribal SC/ST Reservation in Posts and Services bill was not referred to the standing committee at all but brought straight to parliament. Other such bills include one which utterly dilutes the Prevention of Corruption Act by bringing objectionable amendments and another which encroaches on the rights of state governments to be consulted on the setting up of Minority Educational Institutes in the respective States.

Compounding this, the government pushed through these legislations which had not gone through the standing committees or by ignoring the recommendations of the standing committees, without any discussion in parliament. On the last day of the “budget” session, December 23, the government utilised the commotion in the House over the introduction of the Insurance Bill to enhance FDI to 49 per cent, to push through a record number of bills. In the Lok Sabha with the cooperation of the chair, the government put 8 bills to vote and got them passed without any discussion. In the Rajya Sabha it pushed through two such legislations.

Since this was done on the last day of the session, there was no scope for protest. However since a bill passed in one House has to get the approval of the other House before it is enacted as law, the opportunity came in the 2009 budget session scheduled in February for just 10 days. Most of the bills passed in the Lok Sabha were included in the business list for the Rajya Sabha

Among them was the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill. This is a piece of legislation which was strongly opposed by the standing committee. It referred to the bill as a bill to commercialise the forest and not to protect it. This bill gave the right to corporates to take over forest land, cut trees , the only condition being that they had to pay a monetary compensation. The entire fund would be taken over by the central government by-passing the states. But the government ignored all objections and forced the bill through the Lok Sabha. In the Rajya Sabha the entire opposition demanded the setting up of a select committee of the House to go into the bill. Ultimately the government had to retract and the bill was withdrawn from the agenda.

Yet another bill passed by the Lok Sabha without discussion was the amendments on corruption which would have turned the Prevention of Corruption Act into the Protection of Corruption Act. By three amendments the government wanted to protect bureaucrats by changing the definitions in the present Act to allow gaping loopholes, including doing away with the present clause to report the income of government officials. With the initiative of the CPI(M) strong opposition to the amendments were expressed during meetings with the chair. Ultimately the government was forced to change its plan. In the Lok Sabha, Left MPs along with Scheduled Caste MPs of other parties strongly protested against the bill which had been passed in the Rajya Sabha without any discussion. Here also the government had to bow to pressure. Since the term of parliament has ended the government as a face saving device has referred the bill to the SC commission.

On an extremely important piece of legislation namely the amendments to the Land Acquisition Act and for Relief and Rehabilitation, the government waited till the last few days to bring it to parliament and that too without including crucial amendments to these legislations made by the standing committee. The inclusion of these amendments would have made private parties/corporates acquiring land accountable to certain basic norms and guarantees. The CPI(M) moved the relevant amendments in the Lok Sabha which however were not accepted. In the Rajya Sabha without adequate notice which would have permitted parties to move amendments, the government tried to push through the bills on the very last day of parliament. Once again it was the intervention of the CPI(M) which prevented this mockery of parliamentary norms.

A recent survey by the PRS Legislative research organization has shown that it was the CPI(M) which was the most active in parliament. In terms of attendance of its MPs it was highest with a 79 per cent attendance compared to “others” at 68 per cent or less. Equally important in terms of its participation in debates, during question hour, in demanding accountability from the government and other parliament related responsibilities of members each and every MP of the CPI(M) had participated compared to a high of 11 to 13 per cent of MPs of other parties who did not participate at all. Further, on an average, the CPI(M) MP participated in 47 debates compared to just 30 to 33 debates for other parties.

Clearly in the 14th Lok Sabha, the role of the CPI(M) MPs and other Left MPs in upholding the interests of the people were significant. This is in contrast to the Congress led UPA government’s efforts more so in the last year of its government to bulldoze parliament and parliamentary norms in the service of agendas of corporates and elite interests.