• Condemn the brutal massacre of working people in Jammu!
  Statement of Communist Ghadar Party of India, July 17, 2002

• Credibility crisis of NDA government deepens

• Fascist repression in Nepal supported by Anglo-American imperialists and Indian Ruling Class

• J&K Speaker decries human rights violations by armed forces

• US plans on Kashmir confirmed by Farooq Abdullah

• On the Presidential Elections 2002:
  Symbolic of the dangerous course of the Indian big bourgeoisie

• Bhopal Gas Tragedy Victims organise hunger strike and dharna in capital:
  Highlighting the callousness of the government and its efforts to protect the guilty

Condemn the brutal massacre of working people in Jammu!
Statement of Communist Ghadar Party of India, July 17, 2002

This latest massacre, in the heart of Jammu town, just two months after the Kaluchak massacre, reveals that all the talk of the Union government of "restoring normalcy" in Jammu & Kashmir through its "war against terrorism" is nothing but hot air.

Following the massacre, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister LK Advani lost no time in declaring in parliament that the Kasimnagar Basti massacre is an act of "cross-border terrorism" and the hand of Pakistan lies behind this massacre. This is in line with the Government of India's game plan to blame every terrorist massacre on Indian soil on Pakistan. However, increasingly the Indian people are refusing to buy this propaganda. This was starkly revealed when Advani visited Jammu a day after the massacre. He was greeted by a powerful demonstration of over a thousand slum dwellers of the Kasimnagar Basti who blocked Advani’s cavalcade and raised angry slogans accusing the BJP government in Delhi and Farooq Abdullah's government in the state for the massacre. According to agency reports, the police and army were deployed to disperse the protestors.

While in Jammu, Lal Kishan Advani said he had come to survey "ground reality". Advani’s statements are like rubbing salt on raw wounds. As far as "ground reality" goes, the people of Jammu & Kashmir are living at gun-point—of the Indian Army and of numerous terrorist groups set up and controlled by the intelligence agencies of India, Pakistan, US and Britain. The government’s declaration that it will step up the "war against terrorism" is extremely diabolical and portends ill for a people who are trampled every day under the jackboots of the armed forces and have been living under the shadow of bullets and bayonets for so long.

It is widely known that the armed forces in Kashmir have been given a free hand to organise encounter killings, to target the civilian population, etc. Just the day after the Kasimnagar Basti massacre, the government has been forced to admit that the 5 people who were shot dead by the Armed Forces after the Chattisingpura massacre of March 2000 were innocent villagers. The Armed Forces had, with full knowledge that they were innocent, deliberately killed them and then declared them to be "cross border terrorists". This means, over two years after the Chattisingpura massacre, the Indian state has not bothered to investigate and identify and punish the real perpetrators of the massacre. Why is this the case, when it has been clearly established that the highest officials of the state were fully aware all along that those killed as "cross-border terrorists" were actually innocent villagers picked up from their homes and shot dead cold-bloodedly? Is it not possible that the Indian State wanted to cover up the real hand behind the massacre? It cannot be dismissed as improbable that the Chattisingpura massacre of Sikhs, timed with Clinton's visit to India, was the handiwork of the Indian state itself. What happened in Chattisingpura is certainly not an isolated incident or an aberration. On the contrary the tragedy of Kashmir is that it is more likely the rule.

The reality of Jammu & Kashmir is that India's central intelligence agencies have organised their own terrorist outfits to kill political opponents as well as to spread mayhem and terrorise the population. It is also known in political circles that for decades, apart from Pakistan, the current allies of the Indian state in its global coalition against "cross-border terrorism", namely the US and Britain, have been arming and financing various terrorist outfits and fishing in the troubled waters of Kashmir, to advance their geopolitical interests in this strategic region.

The root of terrorism is the capitalist-imperialist system and the capitalist and imperialist states. This system and these states thrive on fascist and terrorist violence against the working class and peoples of their own countries as well of other countries. State terrorism is the preferred weapon of such states to avoid political solutions to political problems. They use state terrorism to advance their diabolical aims. It would be laughable if it were not so tragic that the very same Anglo-American imperialists and the Indian and Pakistani states, which have been the chief sponsors of terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir, are shouting from the rooftops, each louder than the other, that they are the biggest fighters against terrorism. They are doing so to cover up their blood-soaked hands and to prepare for further massacres.

The people of Jammu & Kashmir have been fighting to exercise the right to self-determination ever since 1947. They have been fighting to reunite their homeland, which has been partitioned as well as annexed against their will by India and Pakistan. Anglo-American imperialism and the ruling class of India and Pakistan are opposed to fulfilling the legitimate aspirations of the people of Jammu & Kashmir. Instead, they have turned the state into a prison house and a mass graveyard for the people. Terrorism has been a favoured weapon in the hands of the Anglo-American imperialists and the rulers of India and Pakistan to prevent a political solution to the Kashmir question. People cannot expect protection from state terrorism from the sponsors of state terrorism.

The problem in Jammu & Kashmir is a political problem. Its solution can only be a political solution. This political solution is that the people of Jammu & Kashmir, on both sides of the Line of Control, become masters of their homeland and begin to chart their own destiny free from the political and military interference of India, Pakistan as well as the Anglo-American imperialists. Neither the Anglo-American imperialists, nor the rulers of India or Pakistan want this political solution. Whether they fight amongst each other to carve up the state, or unite to despoil Kashmir and its people through state terrorism, it is the people of Jammu & Kashmir who are footing the bill. The working class and peoples of India and Pakistan must take up the cause of the people of Jammu & Kashmir as their own cause. The need to extend full and unstinted support to the right of the people of Jammu & Kashmir to self-determination.

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Credibility crisis of NDA government deepens

Earlier, the very same India-Nepal People’s Solidarity Forum had organised a public meeting in Delhi on July 4, 2002 attended by numerous prominent journalists and cultural workers to condemn the killing in custody by the Nepalese Army of noted Nepalese journalist and poet Krishna Sen on June 28, 2002 as well as the mass arrests and torture of journalists, cultural workers and ordinary people going on in Nepal under the state emergency.

Around the same time, MDMK leader Vaiko was arrested under POTA by the Tamilnadu police under the full glare of the media, when he flew in into Chennai airport from abroad. government. Unlike the activists of the India-Nepal People’s Solidarity Forum, Vaiko had been given advance warning by the Jayalalitha government of his impending arrest. According to news reports, Vaiko has declared he will not appeal to the Central or state government or the courts for his release.

Vaiko has been charged with speaking in favour of the LTTE, banned under POTA, a charge he does not deny. According to POTA, Jayalalitha is perfectly justified, not only to arrest Vaiko under POTA, but also to demand that the Central government ban the MDMK, the party Vaiko leads. The MDMK is a part of the NDA and has two ministers in the Union Cabinet. Within the ranks of the NDA, apart from the MDMK, Samata Party leader George Fernandes as well as the PMK leader Ramadoss have expressed their support and admiration for the LTTE in the past. The NDA is concerned as to what to do if the Tamilnadu government demands that the Central government ban MDMK under POTA.

Now, the NDA, under the Convenorship of George Fernandes, has declared that the arrest of Vaiko under POTA is a "misuse of the law". After meeting Vaiko in jail, George Fernandes has declared Vaiko to be a "revolutionary". The NDA has been discussing the political fallout of amending POTA to "prevent misuse" in the ongoing session of parliament.

However there seems to be no one in the NDA in support of the struggle of the Nepalese people against the fascist emergency, against growing imperialist domination, against the Monarchy and for genuine democracy. This might be the reason the NDA has been silent on the daylight picking up of journalists by plainclothesmen, there locking up without any charges, the subsequent charging of four people under POTA, and their deportation to Nepal. This despite public protest in the capital against the incident, as well as the stay on deportation granted by the courts following an appeal lodged by the journalists. Obviously, the daylight illegal arrest of journalists in New Delhi and the lodging of POTA against four Nepalese journalists working in India for the "crime" of exposing the goings on in Nepal does not constitute "misuse" of POTA for the NDA.

When POTO was first promulgated last year, progressive and democratic opinion in India, including the Communist Ghadar Party of India, condemned it unreservedly as a law aimed at criminalising dissent. POTO had nothing to do with "preventing terrorism" and everything to do with muzzling differing opinions—said informed public opinion. The rest is history—the NDA government amending POTO to "prevent its misuse", to finally passing it in a Joint Session of Parliament last February, following its defeat in the Rajya Sabha.

Since the promulgation of POTO, it has been consistently used by the Central and State Governments to criminalise dissent. In Gujarat, following the communal genocide of people of the Muslim faith, over 60 people, all of the Muslim faith were arrested under POTA, many of them minors. The charge—setting fire to the bogie carrying karsevaks in Godhra. After public uproar, the charges were changed. Now, a few months later, the Intelligence Agencies of the same government claims that the bogie was burnt in a conspiracy from inside! In the Kashmir valley, Farooq Abdullah has arrested various political opponents first under POTO and later under POTA. Jayalaltiha has surpassed all the rest by arresting a leader of the NDA under the same law! What is consistent in all this is criminalisation of dissent.

When the NDA talks of "misuse of POTA", its aim is to cover up that this fascist law was passed precisely to criminalise dissent. It may be helpful to recall that POTA allows the government (1) the right to declare any organisation terrorist and ban it without any justification (2) arrest any individual and lock them up in jail for 9 months without following the standard procedures of the Criminal Procedure Code, (3) A person is liable for prosecution under POTA for expressing sympathy for a banned organisation or for participating in public meetings with a person associated with a banned organisation (4) Tape recordings, video tapings, tapped phone conversations as well as confessions extracted under torture are acceptable as evidence. The Union Defence Minister George Fernandes is also liable to arrest under POTA as well as the entire Union Cabinet for associating with Vaiko. That this will not happen does not take away from the fact that under POTA, this is entirely permissible.

Today, the reactionary forces around the world including the Indian ruling class are facing increasing isolation and discredit as a result of the anti-people policies they are pursuing on the national and international plane. Organising terrorist killings, and unleashing state terrorism in the name of "waging war against terrorism" has become the war cry of these reactionary forces. The aim is to crush the opposition of the workers, peasants and middle strata to their rule. The aim is also to settle the sharpening inter-capitalist and inter-imperialist contradictions through violence. POTA is just one more weapon in the hands of the rulers to achieve these aims. However the more the ruling class uses such weapons to settle contradictions within their own ranks, the deeper their credibility crisis becomes.

The Indian big bourgeoisie and the NDA government promulgated POTO in October 2001, taking advantage of the September 11, 2001 terrorist strike in the US, to intensify the onslaught on the working class and people of this region and consolidate its discredited rule. However the sharpening struggle of the peoples, as well as the intensification of the inter-capitalist and inter-imperialist contradictions have resulted that the credibility crisis of the ruling class has deepened.

Democratic public opinion has consistently demanded the repeal of the fascist POTA. All the developments since the promulgation of POTO simply confirm the need for this Act to be repealed.

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Fascist repression in Nepal supported by Anglo-American imperialists and Indian Ruling Class

Today all power in Nepal is effectively concentrated in the hands of King Gyanendra, Army Chief Prajjawal Shamsher Rana, and the Prime Minister Sher Singh Deuba. Parliament has been dissolved. The State of Emergency declared last year has been repeatedly extended. The Nepalese Army has been given full powers to crush the insurgency as well as suppress all voices of dissent. State terrorism has reached new levels under the state of emergency. Over a hundred journalists are languishing behind bars. Everyday, innocent people are killed by the armed forces. Reports have appeared of Nepalese Armed Forces strafing entire villages from the air and setting fire to the villages in the name of combating insurgency.

The increasing interference of US imperialism in Nepal can be guaged from the following events. On January 18, 2002, as part of his shuttle diplomacy between India and Pakistan, US Secretary of State Colin Powell found time to visit Nepal and extend all possible support to the King and the Prime Minister in the fascist repression unleashed in that country. On February 25, the US Ambassador to Nepal Michael Maliniowski visited various regions of Nepal and made statements to the effect that there was no fundamental difference in the situation in Nepal and Afghanistan! On February 28, the US announced it would grant $200 million US Dollars to Nepal as first installment to purchase armaments. On 21st April, Prime Minister Deuba declared "US military officers are in Nepal assessing the situation. India has already given guns and two helicopters and Israel is fitting out Nepalese helicopters for night operations." On April 24, "Pentagon" revealed that around a dozen US defence officials have already landed in Nepal to assess the military requirements. On May 7, the Nepalese Prime Minister Deuba met US President George Bush to report on the fascist repression and seek further military and economic aid. On May 24, Britain's Chief of Defence Staff Admiral General Michael Boyce visited Nepal and discussed with the Nepalese Armed Forces on military aid and joint operations. In between, Indian Army Chief Padmanabhan has visited Nepal a number of times, to guide the Nepalese Armed Forces.

The Anglo-American imperialists and the Indian ruling class make a big show of being "defenders of democracy". The Nepalese people are fighting against the monarchy and the autocracy, for genuine democracy. The Anglo-American imperialists and the Indian ruling class are revealing yet again, through their actions, that they are the greatest enemies of freedom and democracy. US imperialism is utilising the crisis in Nepal to establish its stranglehold over that country as part of its strategic plan to conquer Asia. The clique of the King, Army Chief and Prime Minister ruling Nepal is extremely discredited, but it has won the backing of the imperialists and the Indian ruling class who see it as a useful pawn in their growing anti-Nepal intrigues. The role being played by the NDA government in Nepal is extremely treacherous. It is not only against the interest of the Nepalese people with whom the Indian people have a long history of close friendship. It is against all the peoples of South Asia as it is concretely assisting the imperialists in their plans against the peoples of South Asia.

The Indian working class and people and democratic public opinion must raise its powerful voice against the fascist repression in Nepal and the military and political support to this fascist repression by the US, Britain and India.

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J&K Speaker decries human rights violations by armed forces

The speaker of the J&K assembly, Abdul Ahad Vakil, is reported to have said (Hindu, July 18, 2002): "either the government should wind up the SHRC (State Human Rights Commission) or implement its directions". It is a mockery of democracy, he said, while intervening on the issue raised by Saifullah Mir, who said that in many cases of "custodial killings" and "missing in custody", the directions of the SHRC have not been honoured by the police and other security agencies.

The Chattisingpura massacres and the "encounter killings" that followed, have exercised the conscience, not only of the people of Jammu & Kashmir, but the entire spectrum of democratic public opinion in India and internationally.

It has now been conclusively proved that the armed forced picked up innocent civilians, killed them in custody, planted weapons on them, burnt their bodies, buried them and declared that they had killed the "cross-border terrorists" responsible for the horrendous massacre of Sikhs in Chattisingpura. The massive protests that followed were met with brutal firing and nearly a dozen people were killed in these firings. In a show of "investigation" the Central intelligence authorities coerced doctors to get false DNA samples and "proved" that they were terrorists. However, some of the truth has finally come out. it has been established following fresh DNA samples that indeed those killed were innocent villagers as alleged by the people.

The cold-blooded killing of innocent civilians following the Chattisingpura massacre has thrown up a number of questions. For one, people have been asking for a long time, how come, every significant political event in the sub-continent coincides with a massacre. In this case, the massacre coincided with then US President Bill Clinton’s visit to the sub-continent. Of course, the different forces involved in South Asia — US Imperialism, British Imperialism, India and Pakistan all condemn such incidents and then choose a fall guy for these massacres.

The second question is that the "encounter killings" of "cross-border terrorists" following a massacre is not something new. In the case of the Chattisingpura massacre and its aftermath, because of public outcry, including outcry of the victims of the massacre who firmly took the position that their neighbours were not to blame, the crime of the state have been exposed to a small extant.

Indian people must seriously ponder over the thought, raised by many informed people, that the Indian state might be guilty of organising terrorist massacres in J&K as part of its political strategy.

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US plans on Kashmir confirmed by Farooq Abdullah

Attacking New Delhi, Dr. Farooq Abdullah said, "They do not trust us". Dr Abdullah spoke about the "deep-rooted conspiracy to destabilise India by dividing the state on communal lines". For resolving the Kashmir issue, "India shall have to sit with Pakistan, if not the US would force you to do that."

Whatever may be the compulsions for Dr. Abdullah to make these statements, India’s working class and people need to pay serious attention to them. They confirm what our party and democratic and patriotic public opinion in India has long been voicing. Ever since the early nineties, the top political leadership of India has turned a deliberate blind eye to the long term US strategy towards Kashmir in particular and South Asia in general. Anglo-American imperialists’ role in Kashmir has been deliberately ignored as something of the past. The government, the monopoly media, as well as foreign policy pundits have been guilty of deliberately misleading the Indian people that allegedly the US has abandoned its old plans.

The truth is that British imperialism not only deliberately organised the partition of Kashmir and South Asia to retain its control over the region; this policy has been continued by the Anglo-American imperialists to date. It includes the setting up of India and Pakistan against each other, with the imperialists playing the role of "peace-brokers".

Anglo-American imperialism has always viewed Kashmir as a strategic region at the nodal point between South Asia, Central Asia and China. They have played India and Pakistan against each other in order to strengthen their grip over Kashmir as well as South Asia. They do not want a solution to the Kashmir problem either in the interests of the people of Kashmir, or of the people of India and Pakistan.

It is important that the working class and people of South Asia exercise greatest vigilance about the plans of US imperialism in the region. The peoples of this region must force the governments of India and Pakistan to solve the Kashmir problem in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people. It is only in this way that we will put a roadblock to the US imperialist plans in the region.

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On the Presidential Elections 2002:

Symbolic of the dangerous course of the Indian big bourgeoisie

Statement of Communist Ghadar Party of India, July 16, 2002

These developments raise two important questions. First, what do the hectic negotiations among the main parliamentary parties, finally concluding in the selection of Kalam as the consensus candidate of both BJP and the Congress Party, show? Second, who benefits from the line being advocated by the CPI(M) and its allies on this issue? In order to address these questions, there is a need to first understand the significance of the office of the President in the political system in India today.

Role and powers of the President

Under the parliamentary form of governance that exists in India today, copied from the British Westminster model, the President is the formal "Head of State". However, the power of decision making in all matters of state policy is vested solely in the office of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. The Constitution gives the President virtually no powers that he or she can exercise without or against the "advice" of the council of ministers headed by the Prime Minister.

The President cannot stop the disastrous anti-people anti-national economic program of the big bourgeoisie. He or she cannot oppose the open war mongering and aggressive course being pursued by the Indian ruling class. Why then has the question of who should be the 11th President become such a major issue in the Indian political scene today?

There are two reasons why the choice of President can become an important issue. First, the image of the President is of importance to the ruling class. In the early years of the Indian Republic, the choice of President was usually one with a reputation of being a "freedom fighter" or as a scholar who is "above politics". In the early 1980s, when Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister, Giani Zail Singh was selected as the President prior to launching "Operation Bluestar" or assault by the central armed forces against the Golden Temple of the Sikh faith. This was designed to create the impression that the Central Government is not communal but only against terrorism.

The second reason is that while being largely symbolic, the role of the President assumes special significance when votes are divided and there is what is called a "hung Parliament". Under such circumstances, the President has been vested with discretionary powers to invite the party that has to form the government. His or her role is that of the guardian of the central state when no elected government is in place. This is a source of potential conflict and contention between rival parties in Parliament, each trying to push for "their man".

From January 26, 1950 to May 1967, every President of India was elected unopposed, reflecting the absolute majority that the Congress Party commanded in those days. However, the mid 1960s saw the deepening of class contradictions in India, with mass protests among the workers peasants and youth leading to the intensification of internal contradictions in the ruling bourgeoisie. This was reflected in acute infighting within the Congress Party, leading to its first major split. The death of the serving President, Zakir Husain, in May 1969 led to a bitter struggle within the Congress Party over the choice of his successor. Indira Gandhi used the Presidential Election as the main instrument for establishing her supremacy over her rivals.

Thus, while the role of the President is mainly symbolic and his or her powers extremely limited, history shows that in periods of political crisis, when the ruling class is caught up in deep internal contradictions within its ranks, the election for the post of President can become a contentious issue and serve as a test of political strength.

Today, when coalition governments have become the norm and there are frequent governmental crises at the centre and in the states, an acute struggle was to be expected over the choice for the eleventh President. One political journalist has observed that "This is the first time the country is electing its President when the ruling combination and the forces opposed to it are roughly balanced, with the NDA having a slight edge in the Electoral College". (Inder Malhotra, The Hindu Magazine, June 30, 2002).

As soon as the search for a suitable candidate began, divisions were visible within the BJP. While Prime Minister Vajpayee conveyed to the Congress(I) that Vice President Krishna Kant could be a "consensus" candidate, his opponents within the BJP forced him to withdraw this proposal and instead pushed for their man, P. C. Alexander, inviting a contest with the Congress Party, which they were confident of winning. However, when the NDA ally Chandrababu Naidu conveyed his opposition to this idea, this proposal too had to be dropped.

Meanwhile, Harkishen Singh Surjeet of CPI(M) was actively trying to reach an understanding with the Congress(I) and other opposition parties in Parliament to use the occasion of the Presidential elections to mount a united struggle against the BJP and its allies. Their choice for an opposition sponsored candidate was the incumbent K. R. Narayanan.

In the midst of the confusion, contention and behind the scenes maneuvering, the name of Abdul Kalam propped up, reportedly neither from the ranks of the BJP nor the Congress(I), but from the Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav. With the BJP announcing Kalam's candidature and the Congress(I) supporting the same, the attempts of the CPI(M) leaders to come up with a common opposition candidate fell apart.

In Abdul Kalam, the Indian big bourgeoisie has found the ideal symbolic Head of State who will lend credibility to its warmongering and aggressive plans in the name of fighting Islamic terrorism.

Following the recent state-organised communal violence in Gujarat, the ruling BJP became extremely discredited by its openly communal stance. This had repercussions both within India and internationally. The Confederation of Indian Industry made it a point to invite the leader of the opposition, Sonia Gandhi, to its annual meeting in March, to send the signal to the ruling BJP that it had better rectify its image or face the prospect of being replaced by the Congress(I). In this context, the choice of Kalam as President serves the purpose of emphasizing that the NDA Government is not against Muslims in general, but only against "Islamic terrorism".

The choice of Kalam for President is also a signal that the Indian big bourgeoisie remains committed to its ambition of becoming an imperial power in its own right, a source of terror for the peoples of this region, a power that cannot be ignored by the US and other big powers of the world. It is a confirmation of the direction that the Indian rulers are embarking on. Open warmongering and aggression abroad, in collusion and contention with other imperialist powers, naked fascistic repression and communal violence at home as adjuncts of its drive towards the globalisation of capital and production through "second generation reforms" -- this is what the big bourgeoisie has in store.

The consensus achieved between the BJP and the Congress Party on this choice shows that in spite of their acute rivalry, these two parties stand for the same program and course for India. Their rivalry is over which of them is best suited to champion this dangerous course set by the big bourgeoisie.

Communist Response

The unveiling of the dangerous course of the big bourgeoisie calls on all Indian communists to redouble their energies to build the broadest possible political unity of the working class and all the oppressed, around an alternative course and program for the renewal of India.

Instead of exposing the plans of the ruling class and mobilising the masses of people against this plan and around a revolutionary alternative, the CPI(M) and its allies claim that the main danger comes from the communal fascist forces of BJP and the 'sangh parivaar'. They claim that the "most important task of the hour is to safeguard the office of the President from the clutches of such forces".

This line of thinking and action advocated by the CPI(M) and its allies to the working class and people serves to keep them chained to the concept that the Indian state is a 'trustee' of the people, their protector, with the President being the ultimate guardian of this popular institution. This theory of trusteeship is what the British colonialists used to justify their conquest and rule of India by brute force.

At a time when the political system and state inherited from colonial times, and the theory of trusteeship on which it is based, are facing an acute crisis of credibility, the CPI(M) is glorifying this colonial legacy. Such glorification of the state and its President as guardians of the people serves the interest of the ruling class to hide the reality that the Indian state is nothing but an instrument and arrangement for the rule of an exploiting minority over the vast majority. The line of the CPI(M) serves to hide this basic fact and fundamental conclusion of Marxism on the State.

At a time when things and phenomena are revealing the common class content of what BJP and the Congress Party stand for, the CPI(M) has chosen to highlight only their difference and absolutise this difference. Instead of campaigning for a radical alternative to the course of globalisation of capital, of fascisation and reactionary war, the leadership of CPI(M) have chosen to confine their campaign to merely opposing the BJP and its allies, showing that they are not opposed to the rule of the big bourgeoisie but only to one of the parties or factions of the bourgeoisie.

While the question of who should be President, the symbolic head of the Indian state, is an issue for the big bourgeois class, the line of CPI(M) is creating the false impression that this is a matter of life and death for the working class and people. This serves to depoliticise the working class and people, making them place their faith in the state of the exploiters.

The line advocated by the CPI(M) and its allies does not serve to build the fighting unity of the working class and all the oppressed against the big bourgeoisie and its dangerous plans. On the contrary, it serves to tone down the class struggle by fostering harmful illusions about the bourgeois state as the guarantor of the people's interests. This line constitutes the main roadblock today to building the unity of Indian communists, and the broad political unity of the working class, peasantry and all the oppressed against the anti-social offensive of the bourgeoisie and around the alternative program for the democratic renewal of India.

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Bhopal Gas Tragedy Victims organise hunger strike and dharna in capital:

Highlighting the callousness of the government and its efforts to protect the guilty

The full extent of the Bhopal tragedy was not gauged either at the time of the tragedy or even in subsequent years. To date, over 20,000 people have died and 150,000 are suffering the ill effects of the gas poisoning. Even today, one person is dying every day because of long term effects of chemical exposure. The CBI had found that the Union Carbide Corporation and its Chairman, Warren Anderson, were responsible for the tragedy. In December 1987, the CBI charged Union Carbide, Warren Anderson, and 12 others with criminal charges in the Bhopal District Court.

The survivors of the tragedy have been struggling for prosecution of the guilty as well as a better deal for the survivors. Until today, 90% of the victims have received a paltry sum of Rs. 15,000 for illnesses they will suffer all their lives.

Successive governments at the Centre have been colluding with the Union Carbide, which has high links in the US administration. In 1992, a non-bailable arrest warrant was issued on Warren Anderson, however, no serious effort has been made by any of the successive governments to get Warren Anderson extradited to India to face trial. In the meantime, Union Carbide merged with another chemical company, Dow Chemical Company, which has now become the biggest producer of chemicals in the world. Dow Chemicals has a long history of producing war chemicals. Dow Chemicals inherits the liabilities of Union Carbide, including its responsibility towards Bhopal Gas Tragedy victims, yet it denies its responsibility.

On May 24, 2002, the CBI filed an application in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bhopal, asking that the charge of "Culpable homicide" against the absconder Warren Anderson be reduced to "rash and negligent act". It is a clear case of the Central governments collusion with the US multinational, for once, the case becomes a "rash and negligent act", and it is not an extraditable offence. Warren Anderson will be completely let off the hook if the Bhopal court accepts the CBI application.

To add insult to injury, on June 7^th, 2002, the group of ministers on Bhopal took the scandalous decision to distribute the remaining compensation money to other parts of Bhopal Constituency not affected by the tragedy, even while the victims have not got their dues. The balance of the compensation fund is the rightful claim of the victims, who as earlier mentioned have received barely Rs. 15,000 for lifelong disabilities. This amounts to outright robbery of the victims. Following the agitation, it is reported that the Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers, SS Dhindsa, has agreed that the compensation monies rightfully belonged to the victims and would not be squandered elsewhere.

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