CLICK TO ENLARGEThursday, December 30, 2010
P. CHIDAMBRAM PLAYS INTO THE HANDS OF MAMATA BANERJEE TO APPEASE THE MAOIST BUTCHERS
D.O. No. 119-CM
December 28, 2010
Dear Shri Chidambram,
Kindly refer to your secret letter dated 21/22 December, 2010 which had been published in the media before it reached my office on 27.12.2010 at 11 A.M.
Your assessment of the situation in the State of West Bengal is surprising and is far from an impartial overview of the situation. Maoists have spread from across the bordering states and with the help of small section of local people are creating problems mostly in 28 police stations in three districts of West Bengal. They are trying to create their own areas of dominance. They are indiscriminately killing political opponents and even innocent people. They are attacking police stations, police camps and looting arms. They are also engaged in large scale extortions and other unlawful activities.
You are fully aware of these activities of the Maoists. The greatest challenge is how to contain the Maoists and defeat them finally both administratively and politically.
In recent times State and Central Police through their joint efforts have achieved major successes. Peace and normalcy have been restored in vast areas. People who were evicted earlier are going back to their homes. Govt/Panchayat office are functioning normally and so are the schools, markets and shops. Life is gradually coming back to normalcy in these areas but still we have problem in the areas bordering our state. Trinamool Congress which was earlier maintaining secret contacts with Maoist leaders and outfits are now openly organising meetings with them.
CPI (M) and it allies are trying their best to resist the Maoists by mobilizing people against them and in the process have lost more than 170 of their workers and leaders. Unfortunately, you are now blaming them for the present state of affairs. I am afraid it will divert the attention of all concerned who are struggling against Maoists, the greatest threat to our internal security.
As regards political clashes mentioned in your letter I would like to correct your figures. 32 Trinamool Congress supporters have been killed and 601 have suffered injuries while CPI (M) have lost 69 of their cadres and another 723 have been injured. Indian National Congress has lost one of their supporters and 111 have been injured during the period mentioned in your letter. I, however, agree that it is not a happy situation and I am doing my best to stop these senseless killings. I have repeatedly appealed to all the opposition parties to cooperate. All the parties except Trinamool Congress have come forward to cooperate. Trinamool Congress has refused to talk to administration. I am trying to disarm and demoblise all armed groups engaged in violence in some pockets of the state.
I strongly object to your using the word “Harmed” to mean the CPI (M) party workers without knowing the actual meaning of this nasty word coined by Trinamool Congress leaders.
More when we meet.
With regards,
Yours sincerely,
Sd/-
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
Shri P. Chidambram
Union Home Minister
New Delhi-110 001
Monday, December 27, 2010
ANDHRA PRADESH: CROP LOSSES: OVER 130 FARMERS COMMIT SUICIDE IN AP
THE unseasonly rains in December have brought total misery to an already shattered farmers and peasants in Andhra Pradesh. Crops that were on the verge of being harvested, particularly paddy, have been damaged in the incessant rains. Farmers, particularly the tenant farmers, who borrowed heavily for these crops, are devastated with the loss. With the state and central governments not moving swiftly in assuring any help to the affected farmers, many of them are resorting to tragic suicides to escape the tragic losses. Some others are dying of heart attacks. At the time of writing this, more than 130 such farmers have lost their lives in the last few days.
Despite the leader of opposition and Telugu Desam president Chandrababu Naidu’s indefinite hunger strike entering the seventh day and the Left parties and TDP agitation intensifying on this issue, the state government led by the new chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is hardly bothering to concede the demand for higher compensation to the affected farmers, He had announced in the state assembly an amount of Rs 2400 per acre for the affected farmers while the opposition is demanding at least Rs 10,000 per acre. The government is not even willing to discuss earnestly on the amount. On the contrary, the chief minister’s brazen comments about the fasting leader of opposition regarding achieving his aim of being shown as ‘farmer-friendly’ have sparked off severe reaction not only from TDP but other sections also. At a time when there is real threat of Naidu’s condition becoming critical, the insensitivity of the government has shocked the people. The protest actions have intensified and the programme of blockading national and state highways was a success.
Meanwhile, the recently expelled Congress leader Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s mass hunger strike on the banks of Krishna river in Vijayawada on the same issue has shaken the new chief minister. Around 20 MLAs of Congress party and two MLAs of Praja Rajyam party have gone to the hunger strike camp and expressed solidarity with Jagan. It is reported that a desperate CM spoke to other MLAs to prevent them from going to Jagan’s hunger strike camp. The high command is in no position to act against the brazen defiance by the MLAs.
The announcement of Rs 400 crore by prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh has been tom tommed by the state government but in reality that amount is only an advance from the Disaster Management funds that AP is entitled to in the next year. As the CPI (M) state committee has charged, the chief minister and the Congress are looking at this issue from a political point of view instead of seeing it from the farmers point of view. With the tenant farmers suffering the most, the government has not come out with any assurance regarding them. Unlike in Bengal, there is no recording of tenants in the patta books nor are identity cards issued for them. They thus risk losing whatever compensation the government might give now. Although the state farmers organizations claim that there are around 40 lakh tenant farmers in the state, the state government estimates the figure at around 25 lakh. Most of the tenant farmers are small and marginal peasants who come from dalit and other backward sections of the society. With no land rights, they are cut off from whatever meager institutional lending is available and thus forced to borrow at usury rates from private money lenders. Therefore these crop losses are a huge burden on them. The TDP and Left parties are trying to give confidence to the affected farmers through struggles for higher compensation.
(INN)
Source: www.pd.cpim.org/
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY: STUDENTS’ AGITATION FOR DEFENDING THEIR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS. SFI CONDEMNS AUTHORITIES’ CALLOUSNESS
THROUGH a statement issued from New Delhi on November 25, the central executive committee (CEC) of the Students Federation of India (SFI) has expressed concern over the callous attitude of authorities in the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) where for the past several weeks students have been agitating for defending their democratic rights. Despite the intensive agitation by the students, the AMU administration has refused to have student union elections, which has been suspended for the past four years. The hunger strike and various protest measures launched by students could not bring any change in the callous attitude of the administration which is violating with impunity the right of students to organise themselves. The attempt of the university authorities is to crush the democratic rights of the students and to depoliticise the campus, leading to anarchy and violence. The past experiences of the AMU campus are indicative of the damage which the absence of a vibrant student politics can cause.
The SFI CEC has also criticised the HRD ministry and the UPA government that have shown no sensitivity despite the repeated demands of the students to intervene to safeguard their constitutional right. It comes as no surprise as the track record of the UPA with regard to the protection of student rights all over India, is no better.
Condemning the undemocratic and authoritarian attitude of the AMU administration, the SFI has demanded immediate holding of the student union elections and protection of the democratic rights of AMU students. It has extended its whole-hearted support to the struggle of the AMU students to uphold and exercise their democratic rights.
Source: People’s Democracy
Friday, December 10, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
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