movement of india, june 2011

Movementof INDIA

News Magazine of National Alliance of People’s Movements

The

AFSPA: Contradicting Democratic Values

Historical March from Tarapur to Jaitapur

Nascent Anti-Nuclear Movement in Japan?

A View on India Against Corruption Campaign

Children show the way: Lying down for Justice in POSCO Land Grab

Proposed Land Acquisition Amendments & Resettlement & Rehabilitation Bill

The Commission Planning Aganist Poor?

Bin Laden: An inconsequential Death

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Vol. 6, Issue 1 June - 2011

VICTORYof Lokshahi at GOLIBAR

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The Movement of India May - June 2011

Editorial Team

S.R. DarapuriJoe Athialy

Madhuresh KumarMukta Srivastava

C. BalakrishnanClifton D’RozarioSiddharth Narrain

Rahul PandeyAdithya

Medha PatkarAruna RoySister Celia

S.G. VombatkereGabriele Dietrich

S.R. SunitiSandeep Pandey

U.R. AnanthamurthyTrilochan Sastry

Ajit SahiNeelabh Mishra

Send us your comments on the articles published and your suggestions for improving the q u a l i t y o f THE MOVEMENT OF INDIA

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Editorial

Victory of Lokshahi at Golibar

Children show the way: Lying down for Justice in POSCO Land Grab

Broken Promises: Proposed Land Acquisition Amendments & Resettlement & Rehabilitation Bill

AFSPA: Contradicting Democratic Values

Historical March from Tarapur to Jaitapur

Nascent Anti-Nuclear Movement in Japan?

A View on Indian Against Corruption Campaign

The Commission Planning Aganist Poor?

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Bin Laden: An inconsequential Death

A Tribute - Remembering Ajit Roy

Azadi Mubarak

News and Notes from the People's Movements

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Since the last issue of MoI lots has happened across the country. While the children of Dhinkia and various other villages in Odisha have kept the brute force of the Indian State at bay, leading to a temporary respite to the POSCO-affected areas, the government of Karnataka has laid out to red carpet for POSCO. The Assembly elections in some key states have thrown up revealing results. Mamata Banerjee ended the Left Front's 34-year stranglehold on West Bengal, while Jayalalitha's AIADMK wrested power with a landslide victory over the M.K. Karunanidhi's DMK. The Congress managed to retain Assam and win Kerala from the Left Front, in Pondicherry AIADMK alliance was victorious over the Congress alliance. A detailed analysis of these results is seriously warranted especially in view of the message that the people are sending out to the Left, Congress and the DMK. Hopefully, we would be able to

carry these analyses in the next issue of MoI and we invite our readers to please send in articles in this regard.There has been another interesting development that needs to be highlighted. In a PIL in the Delhi High Court filed by Banoo Bee, an activist associated with an organisation working for victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy and who challenged the prohibitory orders and continuous imposition of section 144, the government informed the Delhi High Court that the decade old Section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code (ban on unlawful assembly) is withdrawn from the areas and will be imposed only in emergency situations.We have also witnessed the fast by Baba Ramdev and his legion of followers and the unannounced brutal police action late into the night has also come in for severe criticism. However, what has clearly emerged are serious questions regarding the motive, timing and support for Baba Ramdev's 'struggle'. And of course his hundreds of crore worth of property.In a democracy the response of the state to the people's demands are necessary for its proper functioning. However, this response is moderated and influenced by several factors that need to be unveiled and understood. How is it that the State has failed to respond to the decade-long fast of Irom Sharmila over human rights abuses in Manipur and the demand for the repeal Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Perhaps, this may be a difficult comparison to draw. But then, why did the state fail to respond to the 114-day fast of Swami Nigamanananda against the stone quarries and pollution of River Ganga. Why does the State feel obliged to please Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev (till he wore out his welcome), and not Swami Nigamanananda and Irom Sharmila.Or for that matter the fast of Medha Patkar and several slum dwellers of Golibar slum in Mumbai against the builder-politician-bureaucrat nexus and loot of slum dwellers. In this issue we carry an article on this struggle and the response of the State. Latest news, however, is that the government is firm on rescinding its promises made to break the fast and a Jan Sangharsh Yatra is planned between 28th and 29th June, 2011 from Golibar to Mantralaya. We also express our support for the fearless struggle of the children of Dhinkia, Gadkujang, Govindpur and Nuagaon villages in Jagatsinghpur District in Odisha against POSCO and the State. We also carry articles on the Land Acquisition Amendments and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, a report on the historical march from Tarapur to Jaitapur in April this year and an analysis of the possible anti-nuclear movement in Japan post-Fukushima.These past few months have also seen one of the biggest jokes being played on the poor of this country. The Planning Commission has taken the position that a per capita earning of Rs. 15/day in rural areas and Rs. 20/day in urban areas suffices one to be 'above-poverty'! We are carrying the letter from the Anna Adhikar Abhiyan to the Planning Commission on its definition of Poverty Line for determining beneficiaries of Government schemes.We also carry a Tribute to Comrade Ajit Roy, editor of The Marxist Review in Kolkata, who died on 3rd June 2011, which signifies in a way the end of an era.This issue also carries a View on the India against corruption campaign the Inconsequential death of Osama Bin Laden and the revolutionary struggles in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria and the unrest further in Algeria, Jordan, Oman, and even Saudi Arabia.As the thousands of struggles against the greed and loot of corporations and the State intensify around the country, MoI hopes to mirror these struggles and provide a space for debates on these struggles. So please do write to us about the local struggles in your States so that MoI can realise its dream of becoming the alternate medium for highlighting these struggles and spreading awareness amongst others about the same.

Editorial Team

EDITORIAL

n May 28th 2011, at the Golibar slums in Othe Khar area of

Mumbai, Medha Patkar ended her indefinite fast on the 9th day at 1.45 pm by accepting a sip of lemon juice from Akanksha Bai, an 80-year old resident of Ganesh Krupa Housing Society who had herself been in jail for resisting the shun demolition. Medha had not only won a hard-fought battle for the slum- dwellers of Mumbai but also brought into sharp national focus the plight of 93 million Indians who live in the urban slums of the country— more than the combined populations of France and Australia.

According to the 2011 census, the population of Mumbai City is 12,478,447 (1.24 crore or 12.4 million). Around 60 per cent of this population lives in slums and that means that one in two Mumbaikars is a slum-dweller. A critically relevant dimension is the space these slum-dwellers together occupy—just six per cent of all land in Mumbai leading to their horrific and abysmal living

conditions.Medha's indefinite fast was

borne out of a long struggle of lakhs of Mumbai's slum-dwellers for the basic right to a house which had been subverted by corruption and a nexus between the government and builders under the garb of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA).

The SRA authorises private builders to redevelop the slum land. The slum-dwellers are moved into vertical establish-ments, and the land that is thus freed up, becomes available as a free-sale component in the property market. Privatisation also means that the government is not responsible for maintaining transparency and quality. Since the money to be made from new land sales in Mumbai is extremely high, there is a vicious competition amongst the builders to woo the slum residents.

Moreover, the SRA only authorises a house to those people who can show proof of residence until 1995. It also gives the power of go-ahead to the

builder if they can attain approval of 70 per cent of the people in a Society. These two facts are exploited by the builders to practise extortion, fraud and forgery at the ground level, and have become the common practice to lure Societies into signing a deal with them.

A date-based cut-off to the Right to a House and limited participation of a government agency have made the SRA into a pro-builder scheme.

In these days of LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation), you may well ask: but why redevelop slums? Aren't they illegal in the first place? Today 60 per cent of Mumbai's population that is, 75 lakhs or 7.5 million, live in slums. Those recognised under the SRA have paid Assessment Tax to the government. The people living here comprise a major part of the people working in the service industry and small-scale indus-tries. Slums are not a result of squatting, but the consequence of a lack of low-cost housing


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VICTORYof Lokshahi at GOLIBARSuhas Borker

options. The virtual withdrawal of the state from housing development has led to a big gap in demand and supply and the resultant profiteering by the builders has pushed the poor out of the market.

Mumbai's slum-dwellers have been fighting for their rights since 2004, when vast areas of slums were razed to the ground by the government “to convert Mumbai into Shanghai”. Like the Adarsh Housing Society scam and the Hiranandani Developers, land grab, the 'redevelopment' in Khar Golibar is an example of the extent to which a handful of powerful people can rob the 'aam admi' of his basic right to shelter.

The history of 'redevelop-ment' in Khar Golibar, as narrated by NAPM activists, makes very interesting reading. One hundred and forty acres of land—home to 46 Societies and over 26,000 families—is “literally gifted” to a single private company, Shivalik Ventures, by i n v o k i n g a s p e c i a l clause—3k—of the SRA. This clause gives a single builder complete rights to redevelop a large slum without inviting tenders.

Soon a small Society of 323 tenements in Golibar—Ganesh Krupa—becomes the flashpoint for the struggle between the SRA-builder nexus and the slum-dwellers. Ganesh Krupa slaps a case of fraud and forgery on Shivalik Ventures, the builder that forcefully undertook the rights to their development. Six forced demolition drives over the past year push the Society against the wall and they appeal to Medha Patkar and 'Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao' for help.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who takes over the reigns in the wake of the Adarsh Housing

Society scam, says, while addressing the Global BITS alumni meet of his alma mater in January 2011, that the builders, politicians and bureaucrats have formed “an unholy nexus in Mumbai to sell the city”.

Chief Minister Chavan assures Medha Patkar of an i n q u i r y i n t o t h e Golibardemolitions, and the larger issue of redevelopment of slums in Mumbai. In April 2011, along with Medha, a large 10,000-strong delegation from

different slums in Mumbai march to Azad Maidan to raise the issue of redevelopment. But nothing moves. On May 19, the police and Collector's men enter Ganesh Krupa and set the bulldozer to work razing the Society tene-ments. This continues on the next day. An indefinite fast is now the only alternative left, says Medha and she starts her fast for justice on May 20 itself.

Here, some background details on the Ganesh Krupa Society, taken from NAPM sources, should be mentioned. The Society is declared a slum in 1997. A rehabilitation scheme is approved and M/s Madhu Construction Company, to which the slum-dwellers are amenable,

is given the project. The Slum Rehabilitation Authority issues a Letter of Intent bearing No. SRAIENG/819/HE/PULOI dated October 3, 2004 in favour of Madhu Constructions; however due to financial constraints and pressure from big c o m p a n i e s , M a d h u Constructions is not able to undertake the project and subsequently enters into a joint venture agreement with Shivalik Ventures Pvt. Ltd. on March 3, 2008. This is done without the knowledge of the slum-dwellers. Shivalik Ventures now forges documents to procure the Letter o f I n t e n t b e a r i n g N o. SRA/ENG/1188/HE/ML/LOI dated August 20, 2009. The crucial resolution dated February 7, 2009 of the Society approving of and giving consent to the company to carry out the development itself is fabricated by Shivalik Ventures. However, relying on the fraudulent document and consequential actions, Shivalik succeeds in obtaining favourable orders from the Courts and begins forcible and illegal demolition of houses in the slum. Fortyeight houses are demolished in January 2011. The flashpoint is reached when 24 more houses are bulldozed on May 19 and 20.

Now what is Shivalik Ventures? The NAPM says that Unitech owns 50 per cent of the shares of Shivalik Ventures Pvt. Ltd. citing its website and Annual Report 2009-10. The Annual Report 2009-10 of Unitech further provides under the heading “Capital Commitment” that: “Investment in 10,00,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each at a premium of Rs 9990 per share aggregating of Rs 1000 crores has been made in a joint venture company, Shivalik Ventures Pvt. Ltd. An amount of Rs 442.77


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Mumbai's slum-dwellers have been fighting for their rights since 2004, when vast areas of slums were razed to the ground by the gove r n m e n t “ t o convert Mumbai into Shanghai”.

crores has been paid against the allotment of fully paid-up shares. The balance securities premium of Rs 557.23 crores will be accounted for on payment.”

Shivalik Ventures, in turn, enters into an agreement of joint venture on March 2, 2008 with M/s Madhu Construction Company to jointly develop the Ganesh Krupa slum at Golibar.

Here NAPM activists highlight the period during which Unitech e n t e r s i n t o redevelopment of slums in Mumbai since it corre-sponds to the period during which it illegally secures thou-sands of crores in the 2G scam. The Director of Unitech has been included in the charge-sheet filed by the CBI and is under arrest. Activists quote from the CAG report to buttress their point further: Unitech after availing the spectrum licence in September-October 2008 for Rs 1658 crores subsequently sold it off to Telenor company at the rate of Rs 6120 crores. According to the CBI, Unitech was alloted Unified Access Service licences in 22 circles for Rs 1658 crores, 60 per cent of which it offloaded to Norway's Telenor even before the roll-out.

NAPM activists say they are apprehensive that this illegal gratification enjoyed by the company has been diverted and invested in its 50 per cent equity at the Shivalik Ventures Pvt. Ltd. and the same is being channeled into the developmental projects of Shivalik Ventures including the slum projects in Golibar.

Medha ended her fast after the

government of Maharashtra issued a notification accepting all her demands. Mumbai Suburban District Collector Nirmal Deshmukh came with the notification to the fast site.

Several rounds of talks with the Suburban District Collector Nirmal Deshmukh and State Chief Secretary Ratnakar

Gaikwad and representatives of the Ganesh Krupa Society were held. NAPM sources say Aruna Roy, Member, National Advisory Council, spoke to Smt Sonia Gandhi and Chief Minster Prithviraj Chavan, on the demands of the movement and urged them to hold dialogue and resolve the situation at the earliest.

The talks reached a climactic point on Friday evening (May 27) with the intervention of Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan. In a telephonic conversation with Medha Patkar, the CM assured her of positive developments. This paved the way for decisive talks on Saturday.

As per the agreement, all the demolitions in Golibar area will be halted till the enquiry by constituted committees is complete and action is taken on the recommendations. The 3k clause will also be revoked, thus cancelling all agreements

between builders and the Slum Redevelopment Authority (SRA) for the six projects where 3k has been applied. The government accepted the proposal for 19 plus settlements post-1995 to be d e c l a r e d s l u m s u n d e r Maharashtra Slums Act, 1971 within three months. Time restrictions were also imposed on

the committees. While the joint f i v e - m e m b e r committee to l o o k i n t o irregularities of 15 Societies is to s u b m i t t h e i r report in four months, another three-member committee to l o o k i n t o irregularities in t h e G a n e s h Krupa Society is

supposed to submit its report by June 15.

The demands that have been accepted include:

1. Decision regarding declaration of settlements as slum under section 4 of Maharashtra Slum Area Act to be undertaken for improvement as per section 5.

2. A joint meeting involving representatives of Government of Maharashtra, Government of India and 'Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao' to discuss implementation of the Rajiv Awas Yojana in Mumbai.

3. Activation of the existing High Powered Committee, chaired by the State Chief Secretary, appointed by the Honourable HC in 2005 meant for reviewing the policies and recommend or suggest new policies related to slum housing to the Government of Maharashtra.

4. A four-member committee, chaired by Justice (Retd) H. Suresh and Simpreet Singh,


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Satish Gawai and K. P. Bakshi as members, to investigate and make recommendations related to Ganesh Krupa, Golibar Society by June 15 to the Government of Maharashtra.

5. A five-member committee, chaired by Justice (Retd) H. S u r e s h a n d S u d h a k a r Suradharkar (a former IPS Officer), Simpreet Singh, S S Zende and Swadhin Kshatriya as members, to investigate into 15 SRA and 3k cases of fraud and forgery, including Shivalik Ventures Project, and submit a report by September 30 to the Government of Maharashtra.

The struggle has now to be carried forward to the next level. Medha Patkar has announced a Zameen Haqq Satyagraha from October 2 in Mumbai.

On breaking her fast Medha said: “It is a victory of the lakhs of people fighting for their right to live in the financial capital of India with dignity. The real fight is about the right over land of the poor who make this city what it is. Today the land is being given or grabbed by the builders and influential people like Mukesh Ambani who has built his 27-storey building on the land of Waqf Board. A thirty-three thousand acre land, which was either encroached or is free, is

now available after the Land Ceiling Act has been revoked. After 30th September when the work of these Committees would be over, we will launch a Land Haqq Satyagraha in Mumbai to capture government land for the poor people of the city. Our CM Prithviraj Chavan has a bigger battle ahead and against a powerful lobby; if he intends to fight it we are with him, or else we are on the path of struggle and justice and dignity for poor.”

Medha Patkar's indefinite fast, with wide-spread support of civil society from all across the country, has won justice for the slum-dwellers of Golibar. It was a victory of Lokshahi—people's power. If Gandhi would have been here today, he may well have given a call to his countrymen to go on an indefinite fast against all-pervasive corruption, injustice and growing inequity.

Courtesy: MAINSTREAM, VOL XLIX, NO 24, JUNE 4, 2011

Suhas Borker is the editor of CFTV News and the Convener, Working Group on Alternative Strategies.

[email protected]


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The Maharahstra Government has given a written statement to the Mumbai High Court stating its intent to change the Government Resolution (GR) and issue a corrigendum in the matter of appointment of investigative committees, promulgated to inquire into corruption and irregularities by various builders in Mumbai. The National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) expresses its determination to challenge this on legal and constitutional grounds. The Court has not adjudicated on the matter, as yet. It has neither accepted nor rejected the petition.

Meanwhile, the Additional Government Pleader Mr. Matoos denies responsibility of the fate of structures that were rebuilt after the demolitions in January, February and May, 2011. The Government will take 2 1/2 weeks to file the Affidavit. The status quo continues on the Committees. Since no written affidavit is filed, nor an official decision taken, the legal interpretation is that the GRs issued at the end of the 9-day long fast continue to be in place. The next hearing will take place after Government puts forth its decision and files its Affidavit.

Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan strongly feels the intention of the State is tantamount to betrayal of non-violent and democratic processes, since the decision to form the committees was made after long and meaningful dialogues from December 2010 onwards, as well as during the fast, with the government including the Chief Minister, Chief Secretary, District Collector, Minister of Housing and various other gover nment of f icers. Such backtracking is unjustifiable. This betrayal is irrational and immoral and a fraud on the Constitution and We The People.

NAPM Press Release on June 17, 2011 ..

Government Intends to Cancel the Committees: NAPM to Challenge

h e p e o p l e a n d e s p e c i a l l y t h e Tchildren of Dhinkia,

Gadkujang, Govindpur and N u a g a o n v i l l a g e s i n Jagatsinghpur District in Odisha have shown the nation how people matter over governments' plans for develop-ment of business corporations at their cost. The children “illegally” lay down on the hot earth under the blazing summer heat and refused to move to allow entry to government officials to take over forest land and their villages for the POSCO mega-project. This was in the face of around 1,000 policemen armed with lathis, tear gas and rifles threatening dire conse-quences if the villages were

not vacated, making loud-speaker announcements every 15 minutes. Apprehending night or dawn attack by the police, the people have also been maintaining overnight vigils. This situation prevails not for one or two days but for two weeks, during which normal life in the villages is completely disrupted; the area is essentially

in a “state of war”. But the people have been strictly peaceful throughout and have been able to withstand the Odisha government's terror tactics that work towards the strategy of acquiring the land for POSCO in terms of the MoU signed in 2005.

What could be the reason for such strong-arm methods by government and such deter-mined and desperate resistance by the people? The Odisha state government, after clearly violating the Forest Rights Act, and receiving what is essentially an i l legal environmental clearance wrongfully accorded by the Union government, is bent upon acquiring land for the POSCO project which is in the “public interest”. Thus, the people who joined together to block government entry to acquire forest land were declared an unlawful assembly subject to dispersal by use of police force. "Govt officials who are duty bound to acquire forest land here are being prevented. This is unlawful and immoral and so we will do whatever is l a w f u l " , s a i d P o l i c e Superintendent Devdutt Singh, going so far as to comment on the morality of the resistance. This is topsy-turvy justice and law, implemented by a callous and immoral bureaucracy and police under the leadership of

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CHILDREN SHOW THE WAYLying down for JUSTICE POSCO LAND GRABin

S G Vombatkere

what development means – robbing thousands of their lands and livelihoods and threatening lakhs with water shortage and other catastrophes to suit the needs of wealthy corpora-tions?”.

The writing has been on the wall for many years and was boldly visible in Nandigram. Now the writing is redundant; the action is here. That the action is by children is not merely a call for justice and adherence to law by the law makers, it is a battle-cry that

accompanies the charge on government, which is seen as their enemy. Can anybody guarantee that today's peaceful resistance by children will remain so, as they grow up in an ambience of outright terrorism by government?

Maj Gen S G Vombatkere retired as Additional DG (Disci-pline & Vigilance) from AG's Branch, Army HQ, New Delhi. He is a member of the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) and People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).

[email protected]

corrupt politicians.The present situation is a

direct result of the environmen-tal clearance accorded by the Union gover nment. This disregards the findings of several independent expert committees appointed by the Union Environment and Forest Minis ter h imse l f , which recommended that clearances granted must be cancelled as they were obtained by fraud and in violation of various forest rights, forest protection and environmental laws and norms. Now the Minister “hope[s] that the state government will not use this clearance as a license for forcible acquisition of land”, and that the intent and purpose of the clearance was not to allow

forcible acquistion of land.The Minister and all manner

of elected and appointed gover nment of f ic ia ls are perhaps under the impression that the heroic children of D h i n k i a , G a d k u j a n g , Govindpur and Nuagaon villages are unaware of the organized fraud that govern-ments have committed to give the land to POSCO. It would surprise them to know that all details of the murky deal are known even to 6-year olds, because their future depends upon it. They would not lie in the hot sun and keep vigil at night and face armed police just because their parents required it. These future citizens of Odisha and India are asking, “Is this


“ I s t h i s w h a t development means – robbing thousands of their lands and liveli-hoods and threatening l a k h s w i t h wa t e r shortage and other catastrophes to suit the n e e d s o f we a l t h y corporations?”.

The writing has been on the wall for many years and was boldly visible in Nandigram.

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along with the recent cancella-tion of acquisition of more than 200 hectares of land as directed by the Supreme Court for Shahjahanpur Jail, this becomes the third case in which the land acquisitions, made through arbitrarily invoking the “urgency clause”, have been rejected. The SC also noted that "If public purpose can be satisfied by not rendering the common man homeless and by exploring other avenues of acquisition, the courts, before sanctioning an acquisition, must exercise its power of judicial review, focus its attention on the concept of social and economic justice."

The question of social and economic justice as enshrined in the fundamental rights and directive principles of state policy is central to the current agitations against the forced land acquisitions across the country. The practice of this archaic clause and impunity with which states across the country have used the 'eminent domain' principle is under the challenge. However, UPA Government, Ajit Singh, Rajnath Singh, Mayawati or every political party is failing to read the situation. The advocacy for a more attractive package and amending the land acquisition act and getting it passed in the parliament at the earliest is not the solution. it is the cure worst than the disease.

Extending Public Purpose to Private Purpose of Profiteering

Let us look at the proposed amendments and the key to the legislation, 'public purpose'. All acquisitions take place by referring to the 'public purpose', irrespective of whether such 'public purpose' exists in fact or not. Therefore, challenges to the acquisition notification are made on the ground that the acquisi-tion sought to be made is

I agree the question land acquisitions is a very "sensitive question, issues

related to farmers have always been sensitive we should take care of this fact. I believe that industrialization is essential for our country to solve the problems of unemployment , problems of poverty and that process has to be equitable, and one way in ensuring that the process is equitable is that land acquisition should not become an instru-ment of depriving our farmers of livelihood."

- Dr. Manmohan Singh on May 28, 2011 after the farmers protests in Greater Noida

"New industries and infra-structure cannot be built without acquiring land. This is obvious and there is no argument about it. But land acquisition must be done in a manner that it does not result into the loss of large tracts of fer t i le and productive agriculture land. In whatever we do, we must not forget that we

have a responsibility to preserve our forest and mountains, majestic rivers and all other water sources, for coming generation."

- Sonia Gandhi at the opening of a thermal power project in Dadri, UP. September 9, 2010

The two statements above by the PM and UPA Chairperson outline the priorities of the UPA government on the issue of land acquisitions. However, the proposed land acquisition act amendments and a resettlement and rehabilitation bill, first ever so, fail sort on all the counts. The need for industrialisation and sustaining 8-10 percent growth overshadows the farmers concerns in these proposed legislations. In the name of 'public purpose', 'development' and 'eradicating poverty' the fundamental principles of equity and justice are sacrificed.

Allahabad High Cour t annulled recently on two instances land acquisitions by Greater Noida Authority, and

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Proposed Land Acquisition Amendments & Resettlement & Rehabilitation BillMadhuresh Kumar

company or association or body of individuals, whether incorpo-rated or not.

70:30 – Furthering the Loot of Natural Resources

The clause of 70:30 as proposed will further ensure more easy acquisition by companies, and the state will become a real estate agent for the companies. The demand for making it 90:10 by Trinamool or 85:15 by Ajit Singh is completely erroneous and fails to read what the movements against the POSCO in Jagatsinghpur, TATAs in Ka l inganagar, Gopalpur or Singur and the anti-displacement struggles in Central India are saying, jaan denge jamin nahi denge (we will die but will not give an inch of land). The message is clear, no more forced land acquisition for private or even public corporations.

Hence, under no circum-stances must acquisition for public purposes should be used for 'profiteering' of companies. Any acquisition for companies has to be in line with the nature of welfare state and providing public services to the larger public. In addition, public

malafide and does not satisfy the requirement of acquisition being for the benefit of general public or for public purpose. The proposed amendments define 'public purpose' to include three kinds of projects: strategic defence purposes, Infrastructure (highways, airports, mining activities, sports, tourism, and housing for undisclosed income groups, most of which are currently being done on a Public Private Partnership or fully privatized basis) and 'any other purpose useful to the general public' which is to be carried out by a “person”, which essentially means companies or private individuals. These amendments virtually make everything being done by the government and to be done by private individuals and companies alone or in collaboration with the govern-ment as public purpose. The vagueness and wide sweeping powers given in the clause, 'any other purpose useful to the general public' is a key feature of the proposed amendments and also the Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill 2009 which will leave the farmers and other project affected families (PAF) completely on the mercy of the government.

A quick comparison of the definitions of public purpose in the 1894 Act and the proposed amendments leaves one to wonder about the character of the ruling class at this moment. It is ironic that the public purpose in the original Act was more specific and rooted in the government's responsibility towards the rural populace and against the acquisition of land for private companies and for purposes with profit motive than the present Bill. In the 1894 Act, the public purpose included provision of village sites, planned development or improvement of

existing village sites, provision of land for town and rural planning, specific provisions of land for residential purpose to the poor or landless, educational and housing schemes etc. These provisions have been explicitly removed by the proposed amendments.

There is nothing in the Amendment Bill to suggest that housing for rural and urban poor by the State or educational, health and other such institutions will be covered in “public purpose”. Education, health and housing have, in the 2009 version of the Bill, been included in the definition of “infrastructure”. However, all references to rural and urban poor seem to have been carefully excluded from the Bill.

Secondly, even though the words “for the companies” has been omitted from the Preamble and all references of acquisition for companies has been removed and so has been Section VIII which dealt with the acquisition for companies, it has now been included in the definition of “public purpose” where the word “person” shall include any


12

purpose has to take in account the larger land use pattern, cumulative social and environ-mental assessment of the impacts of acquisition, regulate the unmindful industrialization and protect the interest and livelihood of weaker sections of the population. Any acquisition has to be gauged against the cost, benefit and losses in the larger interest and consent of those who are going to lose their land.

R e s e t t l e m e n t a n d Rehabilitation Bill - Ignoring the Displaced

In the heat of the moment for demand of bringing amend-ments to the Land Acquisition Act, an important related legislation is not being paid attention to by all the political parties, even though people's movements have been struggling for this for a much longer period. Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) Bill 2009 – which aims to address the concerns of not only displaced persons (Dps), those forcibly displaced from their private land, but also project affected persons / families (PAPs / PAFs), since these projects also e n c r o a c h u p o n c o m m o n property resources (CPRs) in the project area. Land Acquisition Act only has provisions for compensation to those whose private land is acquired for the purpose but completely ignores the rights of workers, share croppers, tenant farmers, artisans, fisher folks, potters and other group of people dependent on the resources or inhabiting the area. R&R Bill seeks to address the needs of physical resettle-ment and economic, social and cultural needs of DPs and PAPs.

The seriousness of govern-ments across the party lines stems from the fact that there is no credible data on total number of DPs/PAPs since 1947. Estimates by Walter Fernandes,

who has been compiling the information on Development Induced Displacement persons for more than two decades suggest that close to 60 million people have been displaced between 1947 – 2000, with less than 20 percent of the people having received credible R&R benefits. If we add to this the displacement caused due to the partition in 1947 (for whom a Rehabilitation and Development Board was established), conflicts in North Eastern States and Jammu and Kashmir and due to natural calamities f loods, earthquakes, tsunami, draught

etc. then the estimated figure will reach nearly 80-100 million people. It is a collective failure of the nation that the rehabilitation figures have been so low even for those who sacrificed in the name of development, and tribals constituting nearly 40 percent of the total number, even though their share in overall population is over eight percent only.

A Bill Too Late, Offering Too Little

The current legislation has come too late and offers too little in way of credible rehabilitation. There were earlier attempts made in 1994, 1998, 2003, 2007 at

drafting a R&R policy by the Ministry of Rural Development which has been the basis for clearing most of the 'develop-ment' projects. However, there has been no sincere effort made at implementing these policies even and in absence of any par t icular Depar tment or Ministry oversight, the rehabili-tation processes have been extremely poor. Even in much controversial Narmada Dam projects the rehabilitation has been an issue and in spite of clear guidelines and authorities (Narmada Control Authority for Sardar Sarovar Project and N a r m a d a V a l l e y a n d Development Authority for other projects on Narmada).

The R&R Bill under consid-eration suffers from the same vagueness and lack of political will as faced by Land Acquisition Act (Amendments). Though minimising large scale displace-ment is a purported objective of the Bill, it has not put any mechanism in place to ensure this. While recognising the injustice of forced displacement, the draft R&R Bill effectively asserts that displacement is an inherent part of development, but trivialises and ignores the social, environmental and economic costs it entails. The provisions and requirements of O p t i o n s A s s e s s m e n t , E n v i r o n m e n t I m p a c t Assessment and Social Impact Assessment are mere formalities, since the authorities conducting these are not powerful and their reports are not crucial for the decision about implementation of the project. These are all to be done post facto, after decision about a project has already been taken. Unless these are made mandatory for all projects along with formulation of the R&R plan and a necessary precondi-tion, injustices will continue and


““

The provisions & requirements of Options A s s e s s m e n t , Environment Impact Assessment & Social Impact Assessment are mere formalities, since the authorities conduct-ing these are not power-ful & their reports are not crucial for the decision about implementation of the project.

13

status after continued fragmenta-tion of their land holdings. Unless the Land Acquisition and R&R bill are combined and a comprehensive legislation with the gram sabhas and PAFs at the centre of it is enacted, the problems of the displacement and conflicts around the land will c o n t i n u e . W e n e e d a Development Planning and Rehabilitation Act, not two s e p a r a t e c o n t r a d i c t i n g legislations inherited from colonial times and founded on the principles of eminent domain of state. Any law has to reflect the debates and interpretations of the right to livelihood and other fundamental rights achieved over six decades of independence. It is a historic opportunity not to be missed in the name of sustaining 8-10 percent growth, but to come up with a legislation restricting change of land use and protect-ing the agricultural land for future food security and use the land not viable for agriculture for industrialisation and to take the second phase of industrial revolution to the hitherto unreached places thereby sustaining the growth story far longer than envisioned and across generations.

Madhuresh Kumar is National Organiser NAPM (National Alliance of People's Movements).

[email protected]

ment over the 2007 Bill to which many groups contributed but falls short of the expectations and hides behind the clauses like "if available" and “as far as possible", leaving ambiguities and escape routes for project authorities to evade the responsi-bility of proper, alternative livelihood based rehabilitation. For example, it says, … each affected family .. whose entire land has been acquired or lost, or … been reduced to the status of a marginal farmer, shall be allotted, … agricultural land or cultivable wasteland to the extent of actual land loss by the affected family subject to a ceiling of one hectare of irrigated land or two hectares of un-irrigated land or c u l t i va b l e wa s t e l a n d , i f Government land is available in the resettlement area. Going by the past experience there is never land available for rehabilitation of people but plenty for SEZs and other infrastructure projects. The arbitrary higher benchmark for number of PAFs, 400 in plain areas and 200 in hill areas, for availing the R&R provisions under this Act, coupled with the provisions of 70:30 in LAA Amendments, will mean a large number of PAFs will remain outside the ambit of these benefits.

Way ForwardThe only way forward can be

firstly to repeal the age old British Act and grant the communities their right to plan development by empowering the local democratic institutions as also to accept or reject any proposal (from the state or investor) for the same. The need of the hour is to address the demands of the large section of the adivasis, dalits and other marginal communities and not reduce the whole problem to a matter of adequate compensa-tion to few farmers, many of whom are reduced to marginal

also plague the timeliness project implementation. The current practice of granting conditional environmental clearances are erroneous since the ministry responsible has no mechanism and capacity to monitor the implementa t ion o f those conditions, for example Indira Sagar Project was granted clearance in June 1987 and Omkareshwar Sagar Project in October 1993 but the Command Area Development Plans have only been submitted now (that too after a lot of pressure from the Narmada Bachao Andolan). There are so many other instances of such violations in different projects.

Not Mere Consultation but Prior Informed Consent Must

So, the only way to ensure minimum displacement, least social and environmental damage and effective, efficient and just distribution of benefits is to ensure that no project is implemented without prior informed consent of those to be affected and that options assessment is made a mandatory part of the planning process of projects with active participation of the communities and not mere consultation as envisaged.

Rehabilitation and resettle-ment means alternative social, economic and cultural way of life and hence can't be attained without an alternative livelihood which needs to be land based (to be allotted as private and common property) for agricul-turist populations, forest dwellers and nomadic pastoral communi-ties affected. The current Bill does not guarantee land for land rehabilitation. It does not incorporate the 'Better Off principle'.

Weak on Will, Hiding Behind Ambiguities

The Bill 2009 is an improve-

14

Going by the past Experience there is never land available for rehabilitation of people but plenty for SEZs and o ther i n f r a s t r u c t u r e projects.


he Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, T1958 (AFSPA for

short) was enacted to confer unbridled, arbitrary powers upon India's armed forces in their undeclared war upon the Nagas. Before AFSPA gained political currency or enjoyed the kind of attention it does today, Nagas had suffered and borne the brunt of its effect. Stories of widespread torture, rape, detention and killing of Nagas were juxtaposed against the Indian State's justification of addressing the “Law and Order” problem in Naga areas.

Probably, because of their ignorance and prejudice about the Naga people, Nagas faced an uphill task in convincing people in other parts of India that such violation of rights were happening, and that it was directly related to AFSPA. Individuals involved in the nascent human rights move-ment of the Nagas during the late 60s and 70s remember how, even when cases of human rights violations were high-lighted, intellectuals in Delhi

were justifying the use of AFSPA to deal with the “lawless barbaric Nagas”. What was often forgotten in such dismiss-ive justification was the fact that AFSPA had its genesis in the Armed Forces Special Powers Ordinance of 1942 enacted by the British colonial rulers to suppress the “Quit India Movement”, and which some of these intellectuals had fought against.

It was only during the Emergency that people in other parts of India were able to imagine the kind of rights violations and State repression that Nagas were facing.

When the Bill for AFSPA w a s t a b l e d b e f o r e t h e Parliament, there was strong o p p o s i t i o n f r o m s o m e Parliamentarians that the powers contained therein is a circumvention of constitutional safeguards and it would effectively result in a state of Emergency leading to gross violation of fundamental rights. Desp i te these concer ns, Pa r l i a m e n t a d o p t e d t h e legislation with retrospective

effect from 22 May 1958. It was initially applicable to Naga areas in the then existing State of Assam and Union Territory of Manipur. In 1972, it was amended and made operational in the whole of Northeast India.

Essentially, the Act empow-ers the Central or State Governments to declare an area as “Disturbed” after which instance members of the armed forces, “in aid of civil powers”, can exercise a vast modicum of powers including the power to shoot to kill on mere suspicion. Such acts are provided with legal immunity and are practi-

“

“

D e m o c r a t i c governance exists p a r t i c u l a r l y t o protect and promote the rights of the m i n o r i t i e s a n d vulnerable groups; AFSPA contradicts this value.

DEMOCRATIC DEMOCRATIC

AFSPA

CONTRADICTING CONTRADICTING

VALUESVALUES

15

Chingya Luithui

AFSPA:

cally unchallengeable. While the Act purports itself to aid civil powers, for all intends and purpose, it supplants such civil authorities since the powers conferred on members of the armed forces require no accountability; in fact it encourages independent action without reference to civil authorities.

In 1982, the Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights wrote to the Chief Justice of Supreme Court pointing out various human rights violation that had resulted from the application of AFSPA. This was converted to a writ petition. The Peoples Union for Democratic Rights also became a party to this writ. For a long time, the writ petition was kept in the cold shelf. It ga ined a t tent ion again in 1996, when the National Human Rights Commission impleaded itself as a party. In 1997, a bench headed by the then Chief Justice J. S. Verma pronounced its judgment upholding the constitutional validity of AFSPA. The judgment contains some recommenda-tions of Dos and Don'ts for the armed forces without really altering the original intent of the Act. Unfortunately, the Dos and Don'ts are not really followed by the armed forces operating in the Northeast. For instance, the judgment expressly states that members of the armed forces have to, at all times, wear their nametags in a prominent place f o r e a s y i d e n t i f i c a t i o n . However, even this simple instruction is not followed; in reverse, most of the army

personnel cover their faces while on duty. Further, instead of implementing the Dos and Don'ts, in the years following the judgment, different armed forces have filed petitions before the Supreme Court to modify these.

The Justice B. P. Jeevan Reddy Committee which was entrusted with reviewing AFS P A

had r e c o m m e n d e d that it be repealed stating “…the Act, for whatever reason, has become a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of discrimination and highhandedness. It is highly desirable and advisable to repeal this Act altogether…” Precisely six years (the Committee submitted its report on 6th June

2005) have passed but the lack of response from the govern-

ment is an exemplification of the lack of political will

to uphold the fundamen-tal rights of its citizens.

The existence of laws such as AFSPA raises critical ques-tions on the “demo-cratic” nature of I n d i a . C o n s i d e r these: the law was e n a c t e d b y a Parliament whose members are over-whelmingly not from the place where it is

applied; and it confers unchecked powers on

armed forces whose ethos are g rounded on an

inherited imperialistic and c o l o n i a l i s t o u t l o o k .

Democratic governance exists particularly to protect and promote the rights of the minorities and vulnerable groups; AFSPA contradicts this value.

Chingya Luithui is a human rights activist and lawyer and currently the Convenor of Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) (South).

[email protected]


“

“

“ T h e A c t , f o r whatever reason, has become a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instru-ment of discrimination and highhandedness. It is highly desirable and advisable to repeal this Act altogether…”

16

AFSPA

had recommended

Historical MARCH from

Tarapur

to Jaitapur

Gabriele Dietrich

17

Gabriele Dietrich participated in the historic Anti-Nuclear March after which she wrote this piece, published by the Economic & Political Weekly in June 2011. We reproduce it here almost in full ..Gabriele Dietrich participated in the historic Anti-Nuclear March after which she wrote this piece, published by the Economic & Political Weekly in June 2011. We reproduce it here almost in full ..


19

o r e t h a n s i x decades after the Matomic bombings

of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan has been the site of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. The country therefore finds itself in a unique situation—it has experienced the catastrophic impact of nuclear technology both for peaceful means and as an instrument of war.

But whi le Japan has wi tnessed la rge - sca le protests against nuclear arms in past decades, o p p o s i t i o n t o nuclear power has remained l i m i t e d . Instead, the J a p a n e s e government h a s depended on nuclear power as one of its m a i n sources of energy, and i t r a n k s amongst the world's largest producers of nuclear electricity.

The Fukushima nuclear accident in March, meanwhile, has led to an intensification of a n t i - nu c l e a r o p p o s i t i o n worldwide. In Germany, more than 200,000 people took to the streets, dwarfing the April demonstrations in Tokyo with a n e s t i m a t e d 1 7 , 0 0 0 participants.

To many observers, the

comparatively small number of protesters in Japan appears surprising. Yet there are a number of reasons for the limited public outcry in Japan. First, in light of the catastrophic e v e n t s a n d l a r g e - s c a l e destruction caused by the earthquake and the tsunami, the Japanese peop le remain primarily concerned with rebuildi ng and

pro c e ss ing events. Right now, opposition to nuclear energy just doesn't yet appear to be a widespread key interest.

Second , un l ike many countries in Europe and North

America, Japan doesn't have a long tradition regarding anti-nuclear power movements. Instead, opposition has centred m a i n l y a r o u n d a f e w o r g a n i z a t i o n s s u c h a s Tanpoposya and the Citizen's Nuclear Information Centre, as well as local citizens protesting the construction of plants in their vicinity. In January this year, for example, a dozen protesters held a hunger strike in Yamaguchi City to contest

plans for the Kaminoseki nuclear power plant.

But such actions are similar to the

o r i g i n s o f n u c l e a r

opposition in the United S t a t e s , w h e r e plans for the f i rs t commercial nuclear p o w e r p l a n t a t B o d e g a

B a y , northwest of

S a n F r a n c i s c o ,

were heav i ly disputed. It wasn't

until the 1960s that l o c a l o p p o s i t i o n

formed into national movements in countries such

as the United States, Germany and France.

The movements gained further momentum with the accidents on Three Mile Island (1979) and in Chernobyl(1986), combined with a general increase in environmental

rae lcuN itn

A

Movemen

t

NASCENT IN JAPAN Belinda Helmke

Will the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima plant herald an anti-nuclear movement in Japan THERE ARE SIGNS IT WILL.?

awareness. To many, these incidents demonstrated that the peaceful use of nuclear technology may unintentionally

bear a risk not too dissimilar to that of arms.

The Chernobyl incident and its enduring environmental impact suggest that it may particularly be the long-term consequences of such nuclear incidents that fuel protests. In Germany, for example, the radioactive cloud of Chernobyl has left forest areas in the southern part of the country contaminated with caesium.

Wild boars, due to their preferences for truffle, as well as certain types of mushrooms, remain highly contaminated. While large quantities of these foods have to be consumed before health complications would arise, they are a constant reminder of the lasting impact of nuclear accidents.

Right now, Japan has only experienced the immediate aftermath of Fukushima. But already following the detection of relatively high levels of r a d i o a c t i v i t y i n s o m e agricultural produce, food contamination is becoming a

real concern. In addition, citing safety concerns, Prime Minister Naoto Kan also announced the closure of the Hamaoka nuclear plant, west of Tokyo. And, perhaps most surprising of all, was the statement Kan made on Tuesday that the government would drop plans for the construction of more than a dozen new reactors.

While the future has yet to be written, the incidents in Fukushima are, in the long-term, likely to lead to two core changes in Japan: first, the establishment of a wider anti-nuclear power movement and second, to a (forced) review of the country's nuclear energy policy.

This week's developments i m p l y t h a t t h e d e b a t e surrounding a shift towards alternative and renewable energy sources has already commenced. For Japan, the myth of safe nuclear power has been irreparably damaged._.___

Source: http://www.nuclearheadlines.com/nascent-anti-nuclear-movement/


“

“

P r i m e M i n i s t e r N a o t o K a n announced the closure of

the Hamaoka nuclear plant, west of Tokyo. And, perhaps most surprising of all, was the statement Kan made on T u e s d a y t h a t t h e government would drop p l a n s f o r t h e construction of more t h a n a d o z e n n e w reactors.

21

efore the advent of social media and its Bvi r tua l space a

physical place – a corner in a market or a square – was and still is one of the prerequisites of democracies. It is a place where people can ventilate themselves, shout themselves hoarse without making one bit of difference to the powers-that-be. Jantar Mantar is one such place in New Delhi where all manner of demonstrations take place round-the-clock, round-the-year. Most people pass by without batting an eyelid. But the 'India against Corruption' dharna and fast was different for many reasons.

It was the result of a build up over the last few months in which a-scam-a-day gave the UPA Government a torrid time. There seemed to be an upsurge, especially of the vocal middle

class and support seemed to swell as the fast continued, activists, youth, school children joined in, and there seemed to be a convergence – a rallying point – of various forces working towards a common outcome.

The media played the role of not just reporting what was happening but also projecting it and building it up. There was the g r e a t e r - t h a n - n o r m a l involvement of filmstars, 'gurus', 'godmen' and celebrities, the rising crescendo put the Government on the defensive.

The 90-hour fast had reverberations that had to be responded to not just by the Government but also as social-political process. It had many good elements and outcomes and exposed some very ordinary traits of our public psychology. The gains and lessons from

Jantar Mantar seem to be the following.

The mighty force of State power that is otherwise deaf and blind to common people's voice can be made to bow down, something relished by many people.

Public sentiment can be generated, people can be mobilised if there is a proper build-up (the issue of the rich and powerful going scot free in criminal cases, e.g., Jessica Lall, Priyadarshini Mattoo), a process of public sensitisation and education (climate change), or around issues that touch people's lives (corruption) – it is a process of mainstreaming of issues.

Politicians were kept away from the stage and were generally considered the villains of the piece.

Government having to bow to accepting a joint drafting c o m m i t t e e o f c i t i z e n s ' representatives and Central

22

“

“

The 90-hour fast had reverberations that had to be responded to not just by the Government but also as social-political process. I t h a d m a n y go o d elements and outcomes and exposed some very ordinary traits of our public psychology.

India Against Corruption

A View on

Campaign

Anand Mazgaonkar

ministers is like accepting a vote of no-confidence in politicians' track record.

It can set a good precedent f o r t r a n p a r e n c y a n d Government having to perform under public gaze.

Given the momentum the whole campaign gained it is quite likely that the demanded legislation will see the light of day, unlike many other Government promises.

After the mutual back-slapping and celebrations subside this would be a good opportunity to wake up to do some serious soul-searching. Hasn't the euphoria covered up the fact that our tendency to over simplify every issue? Haven't we reduced our analysis of our current malaise to one single issue, corruption, needing the one-point solution of 'Lokpal'? Even if corruption is the single biggest problem what is not being discussed is people's own complicity in the state of affairs by being apathetic consumers, willing participants in big and small instances of corruption whether it is to get a railway ticket, using influence to get a job, or avoiding taxes. Neither are we talking about corporate cor r upt ion which of ten masquerades as legitimate action for 'development'. It seemed as if the whole corporate sector was gleefully watching the Jantar Mantar drama from the sidelines. It must be realised that the most humungous levels of corruption currently involves what is deep inside the bowels of the earth (mining leases for mineral wealth where self-reliant adivasi communities live) and up above in space (spectrum allocation). And the biggest and

most respected names in the corporate world have been exposed to have been involved in both types of corruption. The next not-so-surprising thing we saw in that week was the tendency to invest all our faith, energies and responsibilities in the individual, one single i n d iv i d u a l , i nvo k e t h e comparison with Gandhi, announce the coming of the second Gandhi etc. It is indeed tempting to deify, invoke a 'deity's' name, to prostrate ourselves at his feet, and fill up the vacuum in our lives. Raising someone so high seems to subconsciously bestow on us the right to bring them down as unceremoniously in case our h y s t e r i c a l l y h y p e d u p expectations from the individual

are not fulfilled! There was also a political

sideshow taking place at the same time as the fast. While the common citizen was sending out a clear reject-all-politicians message all types of opposition politicians were trying to jump o n t h e a n t i - c o r r u p t i o n bandwagon, the ruling party first being on the defensive, then having to accede to the campaign's demands, then hitting back with stratagems of character-assassination.

The larger – perhaps unarticulated – message is that this is a process of political education whereby people will perhaps see the larger picture than just corruption and see through the game in which all political parties are allies in caring two hoots for public weal, citizens rights and try to make up for lack of performance by publicity and hype and try to cover up their insensitivity to people problems by public relations jamboorees.

Anand Mazgaonkar is a National Convener of NAPM and works with Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti in Gujarat.

[email protected]


" This is a process of pol i t ica l educat ion whereby people will perhaps see the larger p i c t u r e t h a n j u s t corruption and see through the game in which all political parties are allies in caring two hoots for public weal and citizens rights. "

23

ublic Statement against Planning

Commission engaging the World PBank to review pro-poor programs

a n d i n c o r p o r a t i n g B a n k ' s

recommendations in the 12th Plan

Paper ..The Planning Commission of Government of India commissioning the World Bank to review key anti-

poverty schemes of the government such as Public Distribution System (PDS), Mahatma Gandhi National R u r a l E m p l o y m e n t G u a r a n t e e S c h e m e (MGNREGS), Rashtriya Suraksha Bima Yojana (RSBY), Indira Awaas Yojana among others is

most shocking and unacceptable. We oppose and reject it in strongest possible terms. It is shocking to see how the UPA II government is undermining India's sovereignty. In 2004, the UPA government had tried to induct the World Bank into the decision making of the Planning Commission directly, and had to back track following the strong public outcry against the move.The World Bank report, 'Social protection for a changing India,' in two volumes, was released in May 2011.Having abundant wealth of competent economists and economic institutions in the country, who could do a better job, we are unable to understand the why the Planning Commission has appointed the Bank for this purpose.The World Bank is an undemocratic institution which has pushed many developing countries into debt trap, influenced policies of countries to the extent that democratically elected governments have been weakened, paved way for the unbridled reign of private corporations; claiming to work for a world free of poverty, but pushing the poor to further destitution; and despite proven negative impacts, it continues to push ahead the neo-liberal model of growth.This is also reflected in the findings of the report. The report strongly argues against Public Distribution System (PDS), the only support of the poor and vulnerable; recommends a cash transfer mechanism instead of PDS; finds problems with Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREG) and recommends Public Private Partnership (PPP) as a model for social protection.While there are problems with PDS and MGNREG, and there are many people's organizations engaged in making it more transparent and plugging its shortcomings, the Bank, or the Commission fail to understand that any meddling with those would drive the poor to abject poverty and cause irreversible damage to them.Implementation of cash transfer mechanism will push the agrarian communities into great difficulties as government will stop purchasing grains from them and it that could cause a rise in the farmer suicides.We found it ridiculous for the Planning Commission to take an opinion poll through its website asking “Should the Public Distribution System be Universalized again?” The poor who benefit the most from the PDS is not the one who access internet, read English and savvy enough to undertake opinion polls.However limited the scope of opinion poll is, the result so far of that poll is quite revealing. A few days back the percentage of even the ones privileged to have access to computer and internet voting FOR universalisation was surprisingly high at about 70%!Similarly, on the 12 challenges posed by the Planning Commission and subsequently opened up to selective discussion by "civil society organisations", despite a skewed and limited public debate within a selected constituency, most of the challenges offered by the Commission were themselves challenged, particularly the ones referring to GDP growth, privatisation in the form of PPPs, and promoting market inclusion.Why is then the Planning Commission listening to the World Bank (after all, it is a "bank") and not to the voices of the people, even through the limited windows it offers? Instead of the Commission seeking guidance from institutions like the World Bank, it should follow the Constitutionally mandated process of planning, through 73rd and 74th amendments.The objective of this opinion poll, as well engaging the World Bank to review the pro-poor programs indicate that the

CommissionThe

planning

against

poor

?

24

12th Five Year Plan is going to be heavily loaded against the poor; that, whatever left of the welfare state is going to vanish and the people would be left at the mercy of private corporations and market forces.This is more evident in the recommendations of the report strongly resonate in the issues to the approach to 12th Five Year Plan. The one most significant common aspect is a clear bend towards the public private partnership (PPP) in social sectors like health, education etc. In the presentation of issues for the approach for 12th Plan it is clearly mention that the role of PPP in secondary and tertiary healthcare must be expanded.The study recommends an intermediate reform option, which would retain a food-based entitlement program but introduce private sector participation in grain procurement and delivery and a more fundamental overhaul of the PDS administration through use of smart cards. The issues to the approach to the 12th Plan clearly spell out reforms in the Modification of Essential commodities Act and APMC Act, which would impact the procurement system and PDS significantly.From the similarities between the issues to approach the 12th Plan and the World Bank conducted study and with likely the approach paper to be out anytime soon, it seems much of the social protection would be defined by the recommendations of the Bank study.We express our deep contempt and strong opposition to this. We demand that the Report by the Bank be rejected outright and the issues to the 12th Plan be redrafted, keeping all pro-poor programs intact, and with measure to strengthen them and not making any turns which will weaken it. Schemes like MGNREG are the result of years' long struggles and people of the country are committed to go to any extent to protect it. The objective of the 12th Plan should be democratising the governance through mechanisms to achieve greater transparency, participation and accountability.

Signed by:Medha Patkar, NAPM – Narmada Bachao Andolan; Aruna Roy, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan; Rajasthan, Shankar Singh, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Rajasthan; Nikhil Dey, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Rajasthan; Gabriele Dietrich, NAPM, Tamilnadu; Shaktiman Ghosh, National Hawkers Federation, Kolkata; Dunu Roy, Hazards Center, New Delhi; Himanshu Thakkar, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, New Delhi; Shripad Dharmadhikari, Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, Madhya Pradesh; Somaya Dutta, Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha, Delhi; Leo Saldana, Environment Support Group, Bangalore; Vijayan M.J., Delhi Forum; Madhuresh Kumar, NAPM; Pratap Kumar Sahu, AORVA,Orisha; Birendra Singh, Rajiv Gandhi Hawkers Union, Kolkata; Saberjit Duttagupta, We The Common People, Kolkata; P.T. George, Intercultural Resources, New Delhi; Shanawaj Ali Laokave, North Bengal Mission for the Weaker Section, Malda; Ahish Renjan Roat, KIRDTI, Odisha; Bharat Patel, Machimar Adhikar Sangharsh Sangathan (MASS), Kutch, Gujarat; Vimalbhai, Matu Jan Sangthan, Uttarakhand; Ashis Das, Convener, Hunger Free WB Campaign Secretary; Ravindra Nath, Rural Volunteer Centre; Chitta Goswami, Janaparishad / Sramikparisad, Kolkata; Avadesh Kumar, Srijan Lok Hit Samiti, Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh; Lalan Mondal, Kolkata Hawkers Union; Rajendra Ravi, NAPM, Delhi; Anjuna Sahio, Odisha; Chasio Paribedha Saradesho Parigol , Odisha; Amulya Kumar Nayak, Odisha; Chasa Parivesh Suraksha Parisad, Odisha; Murad Hossain, NAPM, West Bengal; Anil Tharayath Verghese, Programme for Social Action; Binod K. Shaw, Hawker Sangram Committee, Kolkata; Kalyanarun Guha Thakurta, Right to Food & Work, W.B. Network, Kolkata; Michael M., Mozda Collective, Gujarat; Gaurav Dwevedi, Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, Madhya Pradesh; Maheiya Bhattacharyya, Human Rights Law Network, West Bengal; Debasish Das, West Bengal; Amit Dass, Human Rights Organisation, West Bengal; Debjit Dutta, NAPM, West Bengal; Tapan Kumar, West Bengal; Shalenam, Hazards Centre, Delhi; Basab Paul, Hazards Centre, Delhi; Mr. B.M. Roy, Chyne, Shella Action Committee, Meghalaya; Seerat Kachlop, Bindrai Institute for Research Study & Action, Ranchi; Surendra Tirkey, Jharkhand Mines Area Coordination Committee; Benny Kuruvilla, Focus on the Global South, Delhi; Gopal Krishna, Toxics Watch Alliance, Delhi; Swathi Seshadri, Equations, Bangalore; S. Maji, Hunger Free West Bengal / (WB) WTCP; Soumyajit Sarkar, WTCP; Krishan Majumder, Hawker Sangram Committee [Manikhal]; Shreya Bhattacharyya, Human Rights Law Network, West Bengal; Sr Wasim Akhram, Nandigram Samajek Sanjivan, West Bengal; Asit Saha, Sahid Khudiram Bose, West Bengal; Krishna Kumar Chatterjee, Narikelberia Vivekananda Seva Sangh, West Bengal; Halima Bibi, Bhangore Samkhalagh Mahila; Joe Athialy, BIC-South Asia, New Delhi; Vijayasingh Ronald David,Convener, National Adivasi Alliance; Mamata Dash, National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers, New Delhi; Sumesh Mangalasseri, KABANI, Kerala; Suhas Kolhekar, Right to Food Campaign, Maharashtra; Mohan Rao, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Dhirendra Jha, National General Secretary, All India Agricultural Labour Association; Nina Dey-Gupta, New Delhi; Bijulal M.V., Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala; Sanat Mohanty, Daily South Asian, New Delhi; Prasad Chacko, Ahmedabad, Gujarat; Preeti Sampat, New Delhi; Kalyani Menon-Sen, New Delhi; Ashok Kumar Sircar, Professor of Development Action, Ajim Premji University, Bangalore; Mahtab Alam, Civil Rights' Activist; Mukta Srivastava, NAPM, Mumbai.


S c h e m e s l i k e MGNREG are the result of years' long struggles and people of the country are committed to go to any extent to protect it. The objective of the 12th P l a n s h o u l d b e d e m o c r a t i s i n g t h e gover nance through mechanisms to achieve greater transparency, p a r t i c i p a t i o n a n d accountability.

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.

udos to Dr. Manmohan singh who is galloping Kon a golden chariot in

the company of jubilant Ambanis, Birlas and ilk crossing one milestone after the other of the GDP. But the accomplished economist of world repute dare not look back lest he will be ashamed (if he has conscience) to see the gigantic percentage of people he is leaving behind ditched and crushed under the wheels of his golden chariot.

N e v e r b e f o r e i n t h e independent history of India, the gap between the haves and have-nots has widened this far. His policies have benefitted only a certain part of the corporate world which never imagined even in its wildest dreams that its ne t asse t s wi l l g row so shockingly high within the shortest time. It is like a

magician waving his magical wand. Lo and behold the slimmest person has put on immeasurable fat and is unable to stand his own weight.

The combined net asset of the Ambani brothers is 2.3% of the GDP. The elder Ambani has the audacity to construct a home with Rs. 4000 crores for which the electricity bill comes in millions for a month and the water consumed will be enough to supply a whole big colony. The brothers and ilk like them can gift jets and luxury cruises to their darling wives on their birthdays while on the other hand the system has failed to empower the poor man to buy a second sari to his wife.

T h e 6 2 y e a r s o f independence have made the rich super-rich, the poor poorer. To put it in an analogy, the super

rich are holidaying on the high altitude hill stations enjoying the cool breeze with their families, friends, relatives and cronies. The poorest of the poor are stranded at the fringes of the hill stations and thrown at the well thought out NREGS and scores of other social welfare schemes just to keep them alive lest they will spoil the holiday and fun of the super-rich.

Never before in the history of India the peasants have been subjected to this harsh treatment by the government. There is no remunerative price for their produce. The farmer has no control or freedom to move his produce where there is market for it. The government's every act is to make the productive a g r i c u l t u r e s e c t o r n o n -productive, and the farmers and the landless migrate to cities.

Another s ty l i s t union minister made a blue print to reduce the percentage of people living in the villages (where real India lives and breathes) and shift to the cities. So they have planned huge SEZ's, allied

& Dr. Jekyll

Mr. Hyde

B Ramakrishna Raju

26

Never before in the history of India the peasants have been subjected to this harsh t r e a t m e n t b y t h e government. There is no remunerative price for their produce. The farmer has no control or freedom to move his produce where there is market for i t. The government's every act is to make the productive agriculture sector non-productive, and the farmers and the landless migrate to cities.

industries and projects in the name of enhancing economic a c t i v i t y a n d c r e a t i n g employment. But in reality these have become real estate activity. The fertile lands are forcibly taken away from the marginal farmers and they are thrown out of their homes and lands.

Overnight the wheeler-dealers, corporate lobbyists and the unscrupulous bureaucrats have become millionaires. Neither significant wealth nor employment has been created for the common man. The ill conceived policies have created havoc for the rural population. They are being forced to go helter shelter, and in particular the women folk and children are fac ing the br unt of the government's industrial and anarchic land acquisition policy.

Millions of peasants who have commit ted su ic ide, millions of children who are suffering from malnutrition, millions of labourers who migrate in search of work and work in sub-human conditions for a pittance, have not melted the hearts of the hardened neo-liberal imperialists in the form of Trans-national Companies or the Modern Nazis.

India is a country famous for its weaves and weavers from time immemorial. Millions of people are employed in this sector. Instead of making this s e c t o r s e l f - r e l i a n t a n d remunerative the government did everything to make it non-remunerative. The government policy on textiles has made the mill cloth cheaper as it has very magnanimously reduced taxes on imported yarn for reasons best known to everyone. The already limping sector has no other way but to slowly close the shutters one after the other

forcing the weavers to commit suicides.

India in the last several months has witnessed perennial scams of huge proportions: (i) 2 G Spectrum of 1.70 lakh crores, (ii) Adarsh housing, Commonwealth games of 70,000 crores, (iii) S band scam of 1.20 lakh crores. The states have their own share of scams equal or more in size and proportion. These are scams which have come out from the

fringes of carpets spread by the nefarious Netas and dexterous bureaucrats to cover their misdeeds. Imagine the shock of the people if all the hidden and buried scams are unearthed someday.

The polity has slipped to this low because the people have been dormant, busy with their individual lives, forgetting their collective responsibility as citizens. Now when the actual picture is unfolding with bizarre scenes people have started realizing the mistakes for not reacting the way they should have reacted. Now they are rallying behind moral brigades like Anna Hazare, Swami Agnivesh, Medha Patkar, Aruna Roy and the like.

People's reaction has forced the government to kneel down

and accept for the joint committee with the civil society members for drafting the Jan lokpal bill. The government which has dilly dallied for 42 long years to enact an effective bill had to yield before the strength and collective union of the people.

The whole world has seen with awe the successful pro-democracy movements against dictatorship regimes in Tunisia and Egypt. The people there were fed up with the autocratic rule, and plundering of the nation by the rulers, neglecting the welfare of its citizens. They have turned to streets in millions to protest. And the mighty army and the macabre dictators could do nothing but flee their chiefdoms before the people's non violent wrath.

The democracy for which the people of Arab nations are yearning and thirsting, we have got on a platter thanks to our forefathers who sacrificed their lives. We the people have lost the wisdom to acknowledge the hardships, sacrifices and the turmoil our ancestors had to undergo to give us this freedom. We have taken the democracy for granted and allowed the s h a d y p o l i t i c i a n s a n d chameleon like bureaucrats to loot the nation with impunity, the way the dictators loot their nations.

We have the mechanism called democracy at our disposal to check the looting. Only the common man can make a difference.

B Ramakrishna Raju is a Convener of NAPM – AP Chapter.

[email protected]


We have taken the democracy for granted and allowed the shady p o l i t i c i a n s a n d c h a m e l e o n l i k e bureaucrats to loot the nation with impunity, the way the dictators loot their nations.

27

l o b a l v i o l e n c e increased apprecia-Gbly since September

11, 2001. By the lowest credible estimates, some 1.5 million Afghans and Iraqis have been killed since then as against about 3,500 persons on that day.

Afghanistan invasion was explicitly launched to flush Bin Laden out, 'alive or dead' [George Bush the second]. Of the three main official lies for invasion of Iraq, one was Saddam Hussein's tie-up with Al Qaeda and involvement in 9/11 by implication. [Other two – myth of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, and the least believable – ushering democ-racy in the Middle East.] According to the American and global mainstream version and perception Bin Laden was directly or indirectly responsible for the wars.

The total time and cost of 'the war on terror' are a decade and at least a trillion dollars.

On the second of May this year, the American president announced that Bin Laden was k i l l e d w i t h o u t a s i n g l e American casualty. 'Justice has been done'.

Implications of this death may be worth assessing. Not necessarily because the man was larger- than-life evil in the league of Hitler or Pol Pot [or Stalin or Mao depending on where you stand] but mainly because of his larger-than-life projection. First of all, Bin Laden did not offer any constructive programme. And the act of killing him does not address, much less redress, the underly-ing causes behind his emer-gence. The causes include despotic regimes ruling the Arab World for decades on oil and/or western support, their corruption, regional backward-

ness, unemployment of the youth [almost 50% of the population], suppression of civil liberties, Palestine issue, and so on The immediate reactions

New York and Washington saw ordinary Americans pour onto streets to 'celebrate' as soon he was declared dead, a sickening déjà vu of post-September 11th jubilation in the Palestinian territories. The low of collective human behaviour seems to be universal.

Now the moral i ty of 'targeted killing' is being debated. We may never know if the raid was to capture Bin Laden or to kill him. If it was to kill him, no international law condones the act. That neither could Sept 11th be called legitimate is no argument. The US proclaims to abide by the rule of law - 'innocent until proved guilty'. That is why the outrage about Abu Ghraib,

Guantanamo Bay or drone k i l l i n g s i n Afghanistan/Pakistan.

As a presidential candidate, Obama had pleaded for prisoners' human rights. The change in position comes in conjunction with simultaneous acts of bombing in Yemen for Al Qaeda suspects and the attack on Libya. These interventions blur the ideological line between this administration and the last one.

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The morality of 'targeted killing' is being debated. We may never know if the raid was to capture Bin Laden or to kill him. If it was to kill him, no international law condones the act. That neither could Sept 11th be called legitimate is no argument.

An Inconsequential Bin Laden

Death

C K Purandare

The PlayersThe US: At least three

domestic reasons might explain the timing of the raid. Obama's perceived indecisiveness in domestic policy and ascent of the Republicans, the fragile state of the American economy and the forthcoming presidential elections. Patriotism /national-ism came handy as usual. Plus Bin Laden had become more a personal and symbolic than an ideological enemy. For example, authoritarian regimes like Saudi Arabia survive because of the American support. America could not contest this ideologi-cal position of Bin Laden.

Now with Bin Laden gone some senators have started questioning the very raison d'être of America's expensive presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan's worth as an 'ally'. Its nuclear capability may necessi-tate American involvement though.

Afghanistan: It may be noted that there were clear signals in the early days of the invasion that Taleban wanted western help to get rid of Bin Laden. These fell on deaf ears probably because there had to be a spectacular retaliatory action befitting the spite of the US in the wake of 9/11. Reminiscent of that Taleban position, Karzai government responded with 'we told you so' when Bin Laden was found in Pakistan. Now sections of Taleban have started disowning Bin Laden, with an eye to the American withdrawal and return to power. Though ideologically desirable, the withdrawal is thus fraught with problems. Once Americans clear out, the nearby countries will step in, each for different reasons. China for natural

resources; Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan [all ex-Soviet Union Muslim countries] and Russia for checking probable cross-border spill over of militant Islam through ethnic ties; Iran for increasing its reach and Pakistan for having a manageable neighbour.

Pakistan: Elected govern-ment is weak in Pakistan. Military-ISI [the spy agency] and Islamic fundamentalists are the main actors. The latter are making their displeasure known by taking to streets in protest against America [though anti-

America feelings are not confined to these groups alone] and continuing at-times-suicide attacks against paramilitary, shias, ahmedias, christians etc. almost on a daily basis. American raid has humiliated the military-ISI combine. So far the corrupt business empire of the military was overlooked by people as it has been the only stable institution to hold Pakistan together and to counter India. Now it has been exposed to be inefficient and partially compromised as well. More than the Bin Laden affair, there is a sudden realisation in

popular mind that their national pride - the nuclear installations - may not be in safe hands. Military was oblivious [or claims to be oblivious] about Bin Laden being in their establishment town for years. He had scant personal security implying reliance on local elements to protect him. This distrust is in addition to the continuing distrust of US-India.

Estrangement from the US has pushed Pakistan closer to China for supply of new nuclear and military hardware, con-struction of ports, a rail-line t h r o u g h P a k - O c c u p i e d Kashmir, etc. Rather than reassessing the pre-raid domes-tic policy [training jihadis, protecting the Haqqani network that promotes Taleban] and foreign policy [meddling in Afghanistan, India] Pakistan is working on the same paranoid assumptions. How far China will entertain Pakistan's strategy to contain India or counter America is uncertain. All said and done, Pakistan is over-whelmingly dependent on American aid, not Chinese t rade. Nei ther Pakis tan-America nor Pakistan-China partnership bodes particularly well for India. America, China and India have different ideas about a 'stable' Pakistan. Nor does India have much clout.

The Arab World: Bin Laden came from this region, so too funding and recruits for the 'cause'. The west got an alibi to support dictators to check his influence. Now that rationale has gone, for one. Secondly, it may be difficult for a successor of Bin Laden's stature to take over the enterprise. Al Qaeda has now called upon mujaheds to devise individual tactics


Now with Bin Laden gone some senators have started questioning the very raison d'être of America's expensive presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan's worth as an 'ally'. Its nuclear capability may necessi-tate American involve-ment though.

29

suspicious of all the Muslims.Geo-political realities show

Muslims have cultural differ-ences and are at different levels of consciousness to negotiate w i t h m a r k e t e c o n o m i e s depending upon location. Arabs, Persian Shia, Turks, Kurds, Muslims from India to Indonesia have hardly anything in common. If and when they are exploited, mechanisms of exploitation are different and may not have much to do with the West or they may be within Islam. This reality voids his pan-I s lamic message o f the Caliphate. His world-view was necessarily limited to the geography he came from and the grouse against judaism-christianiy manifest in the Palestinian cause.

That is why his death may not change much in world politics. Local grievances will continue to erupt, sometimes violently, sometimes in his name as long as social condi-tions do not improve.

However, the path of atomised violence under the name of pure Islam enunciated

by him did not, does not and can not have mass appeal. The emotional and otherwise costs involved are too high for ordinary people and the ideology itself is bogus. This is seen both in the successful overthrows of the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and in the on-going struggles in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Morocco, Algeria – all Muslim countries. Violent or not, fundamentalism has hardly been an issue towards reconstruction of these societ-ies.

To conclude, there is really not much qualitative difference in the West's manipulation of the Muslim world and Bin Laden's. Both distort[ed] it with contempt, as colonies to be exploited - former for money, latter for faith.

C K Purandare is from India and lives in Britain. He is a self-taught political artist and a social

commentator.h t t p : / / w w w . a r t - n o n -

deco.com/[email protected]

indicating a lack of central leadership. 'Franchising' of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula [Yemen], Mesopotamia [Iraq], etc. may not mean much. Additionally, all the states in the region are now shaken up by internal dissent probably drying up the funding.

Conclusion'Legacy' of Bin Laden may

be that he stood up to America on its own violent terms, at best a transitory euphoria for some in the third world. He re-invented the trans-national appeal of Islam. Nation-state can be and needs be challenged but on entirely different premises than obsolete reli-gions. Main point however is t h a t o t h e r t h a n a n t i -Americanism he did not offer any vision for a better society. His egalitarian Islam would not recognise women's equality, it gave license to his followers to kill Muslims of other sects as apostates, alienating a large section. Muslim deaths in the name of jihad far outnumber infidels' who in turn became


30

There is really not m u c h q u a l i t a t i v e difference in the West's manipulation of the Muslim world and Bin Laden's. Both distort[ed] it with contempt, as colonies to be exploited - former for money, latter for faith.

he message that comrade Ajit Roy, Teditor of The Marxist

Review in Kolkata, died on 3rd June 2011 , signifies in a way the end of an era. Though he was ailing and retired from public life, the thought that he was still around in the little flat in Salt Lake, faithfully cared for by his wife Chuni and his daughter Nandini, had a comforting quality. He was passionately working for left unity and upheld an incorruptible analysis of current events. The disintegra-tion of Eastern Europe and the absorption of China into the

neo-liberal world market did not shake his deep commitment to the class struggle of the toiling masses. Though the Marxist Review had stopped circulation in 2004, he still wrote occasional comments in the EPW.

Ajit Roy was born in erstwhile East Bengal in November 1920 in Dhaka District . His father was a widely respected schoolteacher and his mother brought up two daugh-ters and two sons with an unusually secular and modern outlook. This liberal family atmosphere made Ajit Roy more open minded later in life

regarding the critique of patriarchy and the willingness to share in household chores, while his wife was holding down a modest government job.

Ajit Roy did his school and college education in Dhaka District and graduated in economics at Dhaka University. He also did his post graduation in Economics, but did not appear for the final M.A. exams. He had joined the Communist Party in 1940 and became a full-fledged member in 1941. He was Vice President of the Provincial Students Federation during 1945. He became a party journalist, first as reporter and then as a member of the editorial board of the Bengali party organ, Swadhinata. Together with another comrade, he was sent to Pune in 1946 by the then General Secretary of the CPI, P.C. Joshi. This was to take the interview of M K Gandhi.

In 1949, Ajit Roy opposed the Left sectarian line under leadership of B T Ranadive and was expelled from the party. He was later re-admitted when the party-line changed. He was elected as Calcutta District Committee member of the CPI in 1955. During the fifties, he also did some work with the Statistical Institute. When the party split in 1965 under impact of conflict with China and the CPI-M came into being, he quit the party and decided to work for Left Unity from outside. With a small group of comrades he started publishing The Marxist Review, which carried on up to 2004, was run on subscriptions and meager donations of dedicated readers, who also did not know how to make ends meet. The donations were always acknowledged in the Journal.

I remember Ajit Roy from

Remembering Ajit Roy

31

Gabriele Dietrich

A Tribute

the early seventies onwards. He participated in some of the seminars organized by the Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society in Bangalore under the leadership of Dr. M M Thomas. He also interacted with groups at the Ecumenical Christian Center (ECC) in Whitefield and made inputs in workshops of the Indian Social Institute, as well as in training programs for social activists, organized by Action Groups in Tamil Nadu. This was a period of intense hope that “non-party political forma-tions” would be able to make a difference in the political life of the country. Ajit Roy was free from illusions as far as transfor-mation of society was con-cerned. Though intensely critical of the established left parties, including the M-L, he did not ever encourage the lofty dreams of self -appointed activists. He believed in thor-ough organizational processes of the working classes. He was deeply concerned about the dis-connect between organized and unorganized workers. He contributed substantially to the political formation of a young generation of that period in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and other parts, including Jharkhand.

Ajit Roy had a sharp critique of the Garibi Hatao slogans of Indira Gandhi, but also saw the limitations of JP's “total revolution”. He sharply saw the danger of rising communalism. When the Emergency was declared, he became a fierce critic and advocate of re-establishing constitutional democracy. Ajit Roy had become a good friend of Dr.MM Thomas by that time. MMT wrote his cyclostyled circular letters, expressing scathing

critique of the “Taj Mahal policies” of the autocratic regime. These were later published in the classical booklet Response to Tyranny. The other communication we eagerly awaited was The Marxist Review. Both authors expected to be arrested any time, but this never happened. Their fierce opposition to the Twenty Point Programme and the realisation that it only streamlined capital-ism but was far from aiming at real transformation, helped many young people of that period to form a lasting class perspective.

Ajit Roy made it a point in the mid seventies to travel to Europe and to get into dialogue with people who had resisted fascism under Hitler. He went to Berlin and East Germany and to the Netherlands and made broad contacts. He also made friends in the Ecumenical Center Hendrik Kraemer House in Berlin, where Be Ruys had worked for the recognition of the GDR as a socialist state and for wider dialogue with the countries of Eastern Europe. He also came into contact with the Christian Peace Conference. In the eighties, Ajit Roy was a member of the jury of the Rome-based permanent People's Tribunal, a successor organiza-tion of the Bertrand Russel Tribunal. He was in touch with the Communist Parties in Italy, France, the Netherlands, East Ger many, Denmark and Sweden. He also knew many neo-Marxists without party affiliation. He wrote innumera-ble articles and around ten books, mostly in English and also in Bengali.

I attended many of the workshops in which he made inputs in the second half of the

seventies. He inspired many youngsters. He was very hard working and demanded very serious application of the mind. He went on discussing till late in the night, when most people around him were caving in. He hated getting up early, but did it anyway when unavoidable. He adjusted to very rudimentary living conditions, but he expected discipline and atten-tion to detail.

His international contacts widened his exposure and he took on board questions of ecology and participatory democracy more seriously than most other Marxists. He was very critical of nuclear energy and saw the connection with the arms race very clearly. He suffered serious health set-backs in recent years. Nalini Nayak and I used to visit him and his family, when we came through Kolkata on our way to or from Nagaland. He had become very patient and listened to music a lot.

Today, we have probably come somewhat closer to his ideal of Left Unity, as alliance building is trying to find new ways. At the same time, people's struggles are facing increasing repression. Both these features can at present be observed in the anti-POSCO struggle. The question how to form an e f f e c t i ve o r g a n i z a t i o n a l structure for transformation remains acutely relevant. We will keep in mind the motto of the Marxist Review:” The philosophers have only inter-preted the world differently, the point is to change it”. (Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach)

Gabriele Dietrich is a Convener, NAPM, and a scholar and activist based in [email protected]


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police brutality seems to have h a d a s i m i l a r e f f e c t , precipitating the formation of protest groups that would eventually play a major role in the toppling of Hosni Mubarak on 11 February 2011. Neither of these men were political activists: indeed it was their very non-involvement in politics that seems to have driven home the ominous truth that no one was safe from the arbitrary violence of the state in these countries. Unable to speak while alive, the deaths of these subaltern figures sent shockwaves through the region, unseating the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt, setting off a civil war in Libya, destabilising the governments of Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria, and encouraging unrest further afield in Algeria, Jordan, Oman, and even Saudi Arabia.

But how do we get from the self-immolation of a street vendor in tiny Tunisia to events of world historical importance? What are the lines connecting

these developments? Fuelling the extraordinary anger of p e o p l e a g a i n s t t h e i r governments in the Middle East and North Africa is a cauldron of social discontents including widening income gaps, rising food prices, lack of housing and unemployment and above all the contradiction between y o u t h f u l , e d u c a t e d , m o d e r n i s i n g s o c i e t i e s confronting authoritarian, corrupt and sclerotic states. Cowed down for decades by the gigantic security apparatuses of these s ta tes, which had ruthlessly crushed all potential centres of opposition, in the 2011 protests, Arab societies seem to have demonstrated to one another that the open and largely non-violent expression of dissent was nonetheless possible and necessary if things were ever to change.

In trying to understand this process by which fear was conquered, the phrase 'pan-Arabism' comes to mind, but it must necessarily be invoked with many caveats. Pan-A r a b i s m i n i t s o f f i c i a l manifestations as Nasserism and Baa th i sm has been thoroughly discredited on account of the ideological cover it is seen to have provided for particular dictatorships. Yet n o t w i t h s t a n d i n g t h e discrediting of this official pan-Arabism, a more popular pan-Arabism exists based on commonalities of language, faith (as cultural practice, even if not belief), and historical experience.

What is extraordinary about the contemporary moment is that this popular pan-Arabism has for the first time found political expression in the form of grassroots movements that are articulating analogous

n 14 January 2011, w h e n Z i n e E l A b i d i n e B e n O

Ali—the erstwhile dictator of Tunisia—was deposed by the revolution in that country, a Palestinian friend texted me saying '1 down, 20 to go'. She was referring to all the other autocratic rulers in the Arab world, but she could not have known in those early days how prophetic her words might turn out to be. Less than four weeks before the overthrow of Ben Ali, an unemployed graduate named Mohamed Bouazizi who made a living by selling fruits and vegetables illegally, set himself alight in protest against the confiscation of his wares and humiliation at the hands of a municipal official. His actions were a lightning rod for discontent in Tunisia, sparking off massive protests against unemployment and political repression. In Egypt, the death of a young man named Khaled Said in June 2010 as a result of

Azadi Azadi MubarakMubarak

Rahul Rao

d e m a n d s a g a i n s t t h e i r governments. This is a pan-Arabism that seems more powerful, first, because unlike official pan-Arabism—at the heart of which lay the issue of Palestine—it is not founded on what can seem to many to be a distant and abstract cause, but emerges out of everyday grievances that all Arabs hold in common. The 'problem' of Palestine has of course been all t o o r e a l f o r t h e Palestinians—both in the Occupied Territories and outside—but the Palestinian cause has always provided an unstable foundation for pan-Arabism. As the history of the P a l e s t i n e L i b e r a t i o n Organisation's reception in states such as Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia has shown, the Palestinians have often been seen by other Arabs as guests who have overstayed their welcome. This does not mean that the struggle for Palestine will no longer figure in the now emerging popular pan-Arabism, but it does suggest that it will take its place alongside a host of other issues of concern to the Arab world as a whole. A second reason this popular pan-Arabism seems more powerful is that unlike official pan-Arabism, it is not a vehicle for the ambitions of a leader or political party, making it less likely that it will be used as a mask for regional hegemonic ambition.

Yet the lack of leaders and parties throws up interesting questions about how the revolutions were organised and difficult ones about where they will go. In an insightful interview in the New Left Review (March-April 2011) about the revolution in Egypt, Hazem Kandil mentions six

34

groups that propelled the movement. Two of these—'We are all Khaled Said' and the A p r i l 6 Y o u t h Movement—were organised through Facebook, the first to commemorate and protest against the death of Khaled Said, and the second to r e m e m b e r t h e b r u t a l suppression of a strike that took place on that day in 2008. The third important constituency was a group of younger members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who had become disillusioned with an older generation's complicity with the reg ime. A four th g roup

comprised younger leftists, who were similarly disillusioned with an older generation of leaders of the Communist movement, who were also seen t o h ave a c c o m m o d a t e d themselves to the regime—but this time on the understanding that Islamism posed a greater t h r e a t t o f r e e d o m t h a n Mubarak's neoliberal autocracy. A fifth, rather heterogeneous group, composed of individuals of widely differing political persuasions including liberals, l e f t i s t s a n d I s l a m i s t s , congregated around the figure of Mohamed El-Baradei, the f o r m e r h e a d o f t h e

International Atomic Energy Agency, who for a time preferred to function as an inspirational figurehead for the movement rather than an active leader as such. The sixth group was made up of human rights activists working for a number of organisations, both Egyptian and international, who had been documenting and agitating against the abuses of the regime for a number of years.

If these were the people who gathered in Maidan al-Tahrir, Cairo's Liberation Square, a n u m b e r o f t h i n g s a r e immediately worthy of note. First, there were no major institutions—political parties, established social movements or other organisations—behind the demonstrations. This lack of institutions coupled with the dramatic speed with which the protests in Tunisia and Egypt gathered force, meant that they had no opportunity to build parallel organs of authority that were capable of taking control of the state, but were left demanding reforms in and through existing institutions of the state—notably, the military. The sociologist Asef Bayat has memorably described these movements as a halfway house b e t w e e n r e f o r m a n d revolution—'refolution'—suggesting that in being so, they have succeeded in bringing about o r d e r ly c h a n ge w i t h o u t revolutionary excess and terror, but warning that for the very same reason they remain vulnerable to the forces of counter-revolution.

A second implication of the social composition of the Egyptian refolution was that the range of ideologies represented in the Maidan meant that the demonstrators shared only a very basic but nonetheless

This does not mean that the struggle for Palestine will no longer f i g u r e i n t h e n ow emerging popular pan-Arabism, but it does suggest that it will take its place alongside a host of other issues of concern to the Arab world as a whole.


i m p o r t a n t c o m m o n d e n o m i n a t o r : t h e removal of Mubarak a n d a n e n d t o dictatorship.

Differences between the groups began to emerge in the earliest days after Mubarak's ouster around virtually all other ques t ions—the speed o f transition, the place of Islam in the constitution, the social content and demands of the protests. In describing the heady days of the occupation of the Maidan, the Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif remarked on how the struggle seemed to bring out the best in people as they rediscovered themselves and one another. For one brief shining moment, a civic space had been created in which people made real the republican ideal of solidarity amongst s t rangers—offer ing food, clearing rubbish, protecting worshippers of other faiths, and respecting the autonomy of women. Above all, Tahrir Square demonstrated that another politics was possible, as people of different political persuasions (and perhaps no defined persuasion at all) who might never have encountered one another in their quotidian interactions, learned how to w o r k t o g e t h e r d e s p i t e difference, and perhaps learned also that their differences were not as insurmountable as they might have imagined. The task a h e a d i s n o t f o r t h e

35

revolutionaries of Tahrir Square to p r o p o s e

s o l u t i o n s o n w h i c h e v e r y o n e

agrees, but for Egypt to b e m a d e a

macrocosm of T a h r i r ,

through

the creation of a

wider public sphere open to all, i n w h i c h n o n - v i o l e n t disagreement will be possible.

The early euphoria that greeted the movements in Tunisia and Egypt has darkened considerably as the civil war in Libya seems to have entered a phase of stalemate. If in Egypt, a n o n - i n s t i t u t i o n a l i s e d resistance confronts a deeply institutionalised state, the situation in Libya is exactly the opposite. Rather than building a s ta te, Gaddaf i used the enormous oil wealth of the country to befriend dictators abroad and to construct an elaborate personality cult at home through which he maintained authority. Control was maintained through a variety of mechanisms, none of which have left any lasting institutional legacies. In 1977, Gaddafi claimed to cede his power to the people, holding no official position from that date onwards. So anti-institutional is this state, that rather than maintaining control through regular armed forces, Gaddafi m a d e u s e o f f o r e i g n mercenaries and militias which were reportedly also pressed into service to deal with the present unrest.

Facing off against this anti-institutional state, is a resistance

that has organised itself into what it calls the National Transitional Council (NTC), a 31 member body headed by a former Minister of Justice and including a number of lawyers, academics and political and human rights activists (only some of whom have been named). Headquartered in the eastern city of Benghazi, the NTC has declared itself to be the true representative of the Libyan people and has been officially recognised as such by six states. Although it seems clear at the time of writing that the fate of the Libyan revolution will be decided militarily—and early indications of the rebels' lack of military skill, training a n d c o o r d i n a t i o n , n o t w i t h s t a n d i n g t h e i r tremendous courage, give much cause for worry—if Bayat is right about the conditions for successful revolution, a military stalemate during which the rebels have time to build and strengthen representat ive institutions could put them in a better position to transform (rather than simply tinker with) the government of Libya, should the balance of forces eventually tip in their favour.

Meanwhile the left in the West, and perhaps more widely, seems deeply split over the legitimacy of the ongoing NATO-led military intervention in Libya. Many progressives have argued strongly in favour o f t h e i n t e r v e n t i o n notwithstanding their general unease with the history of Western imperial intervention in the region. Juan Cole points to the reasons for legitimacy of the intervention—demanded by a popular movement, endorsed by the Arab League, authorised by the UN Security Council, it is a multilateral response to an


ongoing massacre and not a venture spearheaded by the US on false pretexts.

On the other side of the argument, questions have been raised about the representativity of the rebel leadership and the motivations of the intervening countries. These are alleged to revolve mostly around the stabilisation of the oil market and the prevention of refugee flows from Libya into southern Europe (this latter suggestion seems corroborated by the fact that France and Italy—two of the countries that have been m o s t g u n g - h o a b o u t i n t e r v e n t i o n , h a v e simultaneously called for deportation agreements with the countries of North Africa to r e p a t r i a t e u n w a n t e d i m m i g r a n t s ) . A n t i -interventionists are particularly incensed by the hypocrisy inherent in Western and Arab calls for intervention, noting that the very same countries of the Arab League and Gulf Cooperation Council that have called for intervention in support of the revolution in L i b ya , h ave i n t e r ve n e d militarily (led by Saudi Arabia) to prop up the forces of counter-revolution in Bahrain, and have done little to support the protesters in Syria, Yemen and e l s e w h e r e . T h e p r o -interventionists retort that compromised, partial and hypocritical as the intervention may seem, it is the only thing that has averted a massacre of the rebels, and that the left needs to overcome its knee-jerk s u s p i c i o n o f We s t e r n intervention.

The US has of course claimed to be in favour of democracy in the region for several decades, but 'democracy' in US State Department-speak

36

h a s t e n d e d t o m e a n 'pliancy'—interpreted as a regular supply of cheap oil, and non-intervention in the Israel-Palestine dispute. Even the most cursory glance at the history of US intervention in the Middle East cannot fail to note both its c o s y r e l a t i o n s w i t h authoritarian governments and i t s d e s t a b i l i s a t i o n o f democratically elected ones. Democratic regimes, in the plain sense of governments that are responsive to their people, may not in fact be conducive to US interests as these are currently construed. Such regimes may also adopt a more

independent line on foreign policy issues—witness the Egyptian rul ing mil i tary council's decision to allow two Iranian naval ships to travel through the Suez Canal, the first such passage since the Iranian revolution and Egypt's pro-US stance in 1979. If US practice as c h e e r l e a d e r f o r g l o b a l capitalism in the rest of the Third World is anything to go by, most likely it will work hard to put in place a form of low intensity democracy featuring a rotation of pliant elites who will give business as usual a new democratic veneer. It is this sort of superficial 'change we can

believe in' that the revolutions will need to remain vigilant against.

Many commentators have reached for historical analogies as a way of interpreting the significance of what is currently unfolding, pointing to several ' w a v e s ' o f d e m o c r a t i c revolutions that have swept the world in the past—the Latin American wars of liberation from 1810-25, the European revolutions of 1848-9, the great wave of decolonisations from the 1940s onwards, and most recently the collapse of East European authoritarian regimes in 1989-91. It is not clear what these analogies really tell us—each wave seems to have represented a historically and g e o g r a p h i c a l l y s p e c i f i c development. But one insight we can glean from these moments is that revolutions are better protected from the forces of counter-revolution when they occur collectively. An isolated revolution is always vulnerable to intervention from surrounding hostile neighbours. Moreover, as the history of the Soviet Union demonstrates, revolutions in a single state tend to breed a dangerous sort of paranoia: the constant fear of c o u n t e r - r e v o l u t i o n a r y subversion subordinates the interests of the revolution to the interests of the state, in the name of which external adventurism and internal pogroms are legitimated. It is for these reasons that the transnational nature of popular pan-Arabism may turn out to be the single g r e a t e s t a s s e t o f t h e s e revolutions.

Rahul Rao is a lecturer in international relations at the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. [email protected]

The US has of course claimed to be in favour of democracy in the region for several decades, but 'democracy' in US State Department-speak has t e n d e d t o m e a n 'pliancy'—interpreted as a regular supply of cheap oil, and non-intervention in the Israel-Palestine dispute.


Azadi Mubarak

Rashtriya Gharelu Kamgar Union and others demonstrate in front of Jharkhand Bhawan to protest against the evictions carried out by the Jharkhand Government in the name of removing encroachment and not providing relief to the evictees.

May 12, Bhopal: Bhopal Gas Survivors Organisations call it another Black day for justice in reaction to the Supreme Court's order rejecting the curative petition filed by the CBI. They further said, “further to the dismissal of the appeal filed by three Bhopal organisations against Justice Ahmadi's controversial 1996 order, the Supreme Court today has heaped yet more injustice on the Bhopal victims”.

May 11, Greater Noida: NAPM Members Medha Patkar, Bhupendera Singh Rawat, Madhuresh Kumar along with farrmers of Kanjhawala dodge security personnel and sneak into Bhatta village in Greater Noida, where farmers clashed with police on May 7 leaving two each from both sides dead and several others, including the local DM and the SSP, seriously injured. They stayed in the village, which has been the epicentre of the farmer agitation against the state's land acquisition policies since January 17, for a good three hours and visited several households and met women, elderly and children.

May 8, New Delhi: A public meeting is called by Medha Patkar, Swami Agnivesh, Arvind Kejariwal to discuss the future course of action of the anti-corruption movement in the country.

May 7-8, New Delhi: People's Union for Civil Liberties organises a seminar on 'Attack by the State on the Life and Personal liberty of its people in Democratic India: Examining the Law on Sedition, other Draconian Laws and Human Rights Violations of Citizens under Ordinary Laws' at the Gandhi Peace Foundation.

May 7, Bhatta: Farmers clash with police in Bhatta village in Greater Noida, leaving two each from both sides dead and several others, including the local DM and the SSP seriously injured. The village has been the epicentre of farmer agitation against Uttar Pradesh Government's land acquisition policies since 17 January 2011.

May 7, Mumbai: The Mumbai Sarvoday Mandal organises a meeting to garner public support for the movement for land rights for the poor.

May 6, New Delhi: NAPM organises a national consultation on the draft guidelines for development planning, land use alterations, no enforced displace-ment and a just resettlement and rehabilitation bill.

May 2, Ranchi: Medha Patkar visits Islamnagar where hundreds of houses were demolished during the state-wide drive against illegal buildings last

May 28, Mumbai: On the 9th day of her indefi-nite hunger strike, after arriving an agreement with the Maharashtra Government Medha Patkar withdraws her hunger fast. Government agrees to constitute two committees under the chairmanship of Justice H Suresh to investigate in to the irregularities of the Slum Rehabilitation Scheme and other related matters.

May 22, Chindwara: Dr. Sunilam, Advocate Aradhana Bhargava and other activists of Kisan Sangharsh Samiti are attacked by the goons of Adani power plant while campaigning for a padyatra in the region against setting up of the power plant and Pench Water Diversion project, which will affect nearly 145 villages in the region.

May 19-21, Mumbai: A people's tribunal on the safety, viability and cost efficiency of nuclear energy record depositions of experts, scientists, doctors and project affected persons from Konkan and other regions of the country demanding scrapping of the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project.

May 20, New Delhi: Campaign for Survival and Dignity organises a mass rally demanding the implementation of Forest Rights Act.

May 20, Mumbai: Medha Patkar starts indefinite fast in Golibar demanding justice for millions of slum dwellers in Mumbai. That day itself eminent citizens and social movements from across the country write to Shri Prithviraj Chavan demanding immediate halt to slum demolitions and action against Shivalik Ventures.

May 19, New Delhi: NAPM and Bhumi Adhigrahan Pratirodh Andolan – a forum of Noida farmers hold a press conference demanding justice for victims of police violence in Greater Noida and seek repeal of Land Acquisition Act and demand a development planning act.

May 19, Delhi: NAPM, SUCI Delhi, National Hawker Federation, AISA, AICCTU, DSG, INSAF, Jan Sangharsh Vahini, Shahri Mahila Kamgar Union,


37

NAPM, Asha Parivar, Mahila Chetna Kendra, Aman-uday and Mata Sita Rani Sewa Sansthan.

April 25, Udaipur: More than 3000 people participate in a dharna called by the Sanyukt Jan Sangharsh Manch, an alliance of the Jangal Jameen Jan Andolan (the State federation of the Campaign in Rajasthan), the CPI, the CPI(M) and the Janata Dal (Secular). The dharna participants protest against the Rajasthan Government's wilful flouting of the Forest Rights Act and the NREGA. The protest is preceded by three days of negotiations with the State govern-ment to force some kind of an agreement, which eventually leads to a written commitment from the State government to address the demands of the protest. With regard to the Forest Rights Act, a review of rejected claims and better implementation of community rights is promised.

April 25, New Delhi: Indian Social Action Forum, Janhastakshep, PUCL, All-India Students Association and other citizens' groups jointly stage a protest demonstration near Maharashtra Sadan condemning the detention and harassment of yatris taking part in the anti-nuclear yatra in Maharashtra. In a memorandum to the Resident Commissioner of Maharashtra, the protesters demand that there be no interruption in the route of the yatra and also an end to harassment by the police and the State of those participating in the yatra.

April 25, Thiruvananthpuram: Kerala Chief

Minister VS Achuthanandan goes on a seven-hour fast at the Martyrs' Column, demanding a ban on Endosulfan and seeking Central assistance for the victims of the pesticide. About 500 people from different sections of the society join the fast, held as part of a State-wide observation of Anri-Endosulfan Day by the government.

April 23, New Delhi: Residents of Okhla start a fast-unto-death to draw attention to their demand for scrapping a waste-to-energy incinerator at Okhla.

April 23, Tarapur: The National Anti-Nuclear Yatra, Tarapur to Jaitapur, 23-25 April 2011 starts at Tarapur in Maharashtra. Participants of this yatra include 150 eminent scientists, academicians, intellectuals and activists from all over India. Anti-Nuclear activists from existing and proposed nuclear plant areas and Uranium mining areas also participate in the yatra. After a sabha in Tarapur, the police illegally detain almost 100 yatris for seven hours.

April 23, Caurem: 100 women and 150 men of Caurem in Goa court arrest. Since 21 April 2011 locals were agitating against the illegal transportation of ore in the area. The police resort to lathi charge on a

month. She lays the foundation for a make-shift house for Devki Devi, a displaced woman, at a place where illegal houses were demolished under the state high court directive. A state-wide shutdown is also called by Left parties protesting the demolition drive same day.

May 2, New Delhi: Union Ministry of Environment and Forests gives the final forest clearance to the POSCO project.

May 1, New Delhi: Supporters of Anna Hazare take out a march from Jantar Mantar to India Gate to extend their support to civil society members of the Lokpal Bill drafting committee.

May 1, Delhi: Thousands of workers participate in the joint May Day Rally in Delhi from Ramleela Maidan to Town Hall.

May 1, Araria: Jan Jagran Abhiyan (NAPM member) organises Mazdoor Mela celebrating May Day in Araria, Bihar. Sandeep Pandey, NAPM National Convener, along with many others also attend the Mela.

MKSS celebrates its completion of 21 years at Bhim in Rajasthan. Celebration of Labour Day are held along with the first ever meeting of its NREGA workers.

May 1, Ranchi: Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantric) chief Babulal Marandi stages a hunger strike to demand that the demolition drive that has displaced more than 1 lakh people be stopped immediately.

April 29, New Delhi: Coalition of Democratic Movements organises a public convention against corruption at the Constitution Club.

April 26, Pune: Medha Patkar threatens to launch a massive agitation in Satara and Pune districts if the problems of Marathwadi Dam affected people are not resolved soon.

April 26, Bangalore: On the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, People's Solidarity Concerns protest at Town Hall condemning the secrecy of the nuclear establishment, the undemo-cratic functioning of the Department of Atomic Energy and the illegal detention and harassment of 134 activists protesting peacefully against the Jaitapur power plant. The protestors demand an immediate halt of existing and proposed nuclear power projects, an independent enquiry into the already existing health effects created by the numclear power projects, proper relief, medical care and compensation for those affected with health problems due to operational nuclear power plants and a complete review of the Indian Official Secrets Act.

April 25-26, Panipat: Second National Save Girl Child Summit is organised in Panipat, Haryana by


38

Samara, Garment and Textile Workers Union (GATWU), People's Democratic Front(PDF), Bengaluru Slum Janara Kriya Vedike, Hasru Usiru, Sadhana Mahila Sangha, Association for Promoting Social Action (APSA) and PUCL (Bangalore).

April 6, Mumbai: A delegation consisting of representatives of slum dwellers, dam affected and other development displaced sections, met Shri Ratnakar Gaikwad, Chief Secretary of Maharashtra. Responding positively to the issues and demands of the delegation, Mr Gaikwad assures speedy action on the issues of rehabilitation of Sardar Sarovar and Tata Dam affected people, Lavasa irregularities and housing for the slum dwellers of Mumbai.

April 5, Mumbai: After a 5,000 strong demonstra-tion at Azad Maidan, delegation along with Medha Patkar meets Maharashtra's Chief Minister, Prithvi Raj Chauhan to discuss various issues of slum dwellers. Although the Chief Minister gives a considerate hearing, no concrete action is taken.

April 5, New Delhi: Anna Hazare starts a fast unto death to exert pressure on the government to enact the Jan Lokpal Bill. Hazare's fast leads to nationwide protests in his support.

April 3, Bhilai: Contract workers of ACC-Holcim in Bhilai in Chhattisgarh start an indefinite dharna for implementation of High Court Order directing their regularisation.

April 1, New Delhi: PUDR, PUCL, Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression, DSG and NAPM organise a protest demonstration at Chhattisgarh Bhawan to protest against state terror-ism in Chhattisgarh.

[Compilation by Ankita Agarwaal and Madhuresh Kumar]

peaceful demonstration. Three busloads of riot police are used to terrorise the locals. In the attack, many are seriously injured, including a senior citizen and four women are physically assaulted by male cops. One woman's sari is completely ripped off.

April 21, Caurem: Villagers of Caurem in Goa stage a peaceful protest to oppose the illegal transpor-tation of ore in the area, forcing the Regional Transportation Office to send a team to take action against vehicles violating transport norms such as overloading, use of extra wooden planks to increase the capacity of the truck, transportation after preset operation time and reckless driving.

April 21, New Delhi: Anti-nuclear Struggles' Solidarity Forum organises protest demonstration at Jantar Mantar against the police firing in Jaitapur, Maharashtra.

April 18, Ratnagiri: The Shiv Sena gives the till-now peaceful agitation against the Jaitapur nuclear power plant a violent turn and tries to stop work at the project site; thereby sparking protests at Sakhri Nate village. One person is killed and several others are injured in the police firing.

April 15, Raipur: Human Rights activist and paediatrician Binayak Sen is granted bail by the Supreme Court. Binayak Sen was convicted for sedition and sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment by a Chhattisgarh court on 24 December 2010.

April 9, New Delhi: Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace organises a seminar on 'Learning from the Fukushima Disaster: Building An Anti-Nuclear Power Movement In India' at the Constitution Club.

April 9, New Delhi: The government agrees to all of Anna Hazare's demands and issues a gazette notification on the formation of a joint committee of government and civil society representatives to draft an effective Lokpal Bill. Anna Hazare ends his fast.

April 8, Bangalore: Protesting street vendors call off the agitation after BBMP Commissioner S Siddhaiah promises to look into their demands. He assures the vendors that the BBMP is committed to protecting their. It is decided that the Andolana would submit a proposal for the putting the evicted street vendors in Shivajinagar back into business.

April 7, Bangalore: More than 400 street vendors from all parts of Bangalore city, under the banner Beedhi Vyapparigala Hakkotaya Andolana, begin an indefinite sit-in at the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) Head Office to demand their rights to continue their livelihoods. Participating organisations include Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (Ambedkar Vada), NASVI, NAPM, Bridge network, Maraa, Sangama, NAPM


39

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