• Severe Drought in Many States:
  A glaring indictment of the rule of the big bourgeoisie

• Colin Powell's visit to South Asia:
  Opposition to US interference in South Asia is a matter of principle!

• Fifty-fifth anniversary of declaration of formal independence:
  Deep going transformations—an absolute necessity of the times

• Jaswant Singh cannot prevent the ruination of the poor and the middle strata

• US imperialism faces increasing difficulties in building coalition to attack Iraq

• US imperialist "war against terrorism" fails to mobilise American public opinion

• US military training to Indonesian armed forces

• Voices raised in Delhi against US and Indian interference in Nepal

• Drought is big business

• Traditional Ecological Systems

• Discussion of alternative program for India

• University and college teachers protest attacks on their livelihood

Severe Drought in Many States:

A glaring indictment of the rule of the big bourgeoisie

What has been the response of the government at the centre and in the states, to this devastating situation? It took exactly two months after the scheduled arrival of the monsoon on June 1 for the Central government to announce the failure of the monsoon. While the Central government has been quibbling about the "definition" of drought, and whether the monsoon has failed or not, India’s peasantry and agricultural workers have been devastated. This is despite the fact that various state governments had been highlighting the drought situation in their areas for quite some time. This is also despite the fact that droughts, more or less severe in the sense of the extant of India’s peasant population they get in their grip, are a recurring feature in India, and several regions, like Rajasthan as well as parts of Gujarat, are facing the 5^th year of successive droughts.

The steps taken by the government are more to make a show of being concerned, rather than to actually deal with the situation or mitigate the suffering of the affected people. Meetings were held with the Central government and the ministers of the affected states, announcements were made for the benefit of the press and media that "the situation was being tackled", "the Centre would rush additional funds and relief packages", that "alternative seeds would be provided to farmers", "cooperative banks would be asked to postpone recovery of dues and interest from affected farmers", "smooth functioning of the public distribution system would be ensured", that "more tubewells would be set up for drawing underground water for irrigation" (when the underground water level is already reported to be dangerously low in some areas!), and so on.

However, for the people in the affected areas, the small, marginal and poor peasants in particular, these promises offer very little solace. In fact, as has been seen innumerable times in the past, drought relief programs like these are a well-known source of fabulous profits for the various government agencies and officials, contractors and middle men, who ruthlessly exploit the miserable condition of the affected people to make a fast buck for themselves. Every such incidence of drought also leads to concentration of land in fewer hands and increasing landlessness of the peasantry, as millions of poor peasants are forced to make distress sales of their crops and land and migrate to the towns and cities in search of a livelihood.

Just a few days ago, Union agriculture minister Ajit Singh shamelessly declared that whatever assured irrigation the state could provide "cannot be a substitute for the monsoon". In a vast country like India, where the monsoon varies widely in intensity over different parts of the country and is also extremely unpredictable, this periodically leads to the seemingly incongruous situation, where some parts of the country experience devastation due to severe floods, while other regions (sometimes within the same state) are devastated by severe drought! (See box) Official statistics are then quoted to show how "the average rainfall" all over the country has "not been affected much", thereby covering up the real extent of ruination and misery of the toiling people.

It is ironical that more than 50 years after independence, the Indian state which boasts so much of scientific and technological development, has not yet been able to sort out the problem of recurrent floods and drought. Agriculture, which forms the mainstay of the nation’s economy and the people’s livelihood, is still largely dependent on the vagaries of nature. The recurrent tragedies of drought and floods once again confirm that the ruling bourgeoisie is incapable of and disinterested in solving even the most basic problems of the toiling people, because its driving motive is ensuring the super profits of the native and foreign monopolies, and not the well being of the people.

The situation points to the need for the workers, peasants, women and youth of our country to take political power into our own hands, to become the real masters of our land and resources. Only then can we build an economy in which science and technology and all other resources will be geared towards ensuring the well-being of the toiling masses.

• The current drought is estimated to be even more devastating than the one in 1987.
• In the Thanjavur, Thiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts of Tamilnadu, the official estimate of crop losses is about Rs. 266.69 crore. In the non-delta region of Madurai, 6,000 hectares of crops have been destroyed. And 6.8 lakh coconut trees have been affected in Coimbatore district.
• About 43 % of Karnataka state is suffering from acute lack of rainfall and 150 taluks have been declared drought affected.
• The states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have been declared drought hit by the state governments. Over 80% of the rabi crop has been ruined.
• In Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan, the kharif paddy, bajra and soyabean crops have been worst hit.
• All 16 districts of Chattisgarh have been severely affected by drought.
• 33 districts of Madhya Pradesh have been declared as drought affected. Peasants in Madhya Pradesh are facing severe crop losses and food shortage.
• Large parts of interior Maharashtra are also suffering from drought.
• Simultaneously, the states of Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, UP and Maharashtra are also reported to be suffering enormous crop losses and loss of life and livelihood due to severe floods. The last 4 of these states, i.e. Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, UP and Maharashtra, ironically, are also among those states which are drought affected. Some districts of the state are devastated by floods, while other districts of the same state are struck by drought! Yet, there are no means of utilising the excess water in one region for irrigation of another region within the same state.

Colin Powell's visit to South Asia:

Opposition to US interference in South Asia is a matter of principle!

This is not the first visit of the US Secretary of State in recent times. Not only has he come before, offering advice to both India and Pakistan, but so have other political as well as military chieftains from the US and its allies. Such visits by "emissaries of peace" have been accompanied by measures to step up all-round military and intelligence collaboration between the Indian and US authorities, including joint military exercises and training of Indian forces in the US. In fact, over the past decade, ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the embracing of liberalisation and privatisation by the rulers of India, economic penetration and political interference by the US has been on the rise, along with militarisation in both India and Pakistan. It has reached a high pitch today in the context of the Indian Government’s plans to play a major role in the US-led "war against terrorism".

Following the bombardment of Afghanistan and the establishment of an imperialist sponsored government there, and the bleeding of the peoples of Palestine and Israel, US imperialism has strengthened its positions in Asia. US imperialism sees the conquest of Asia as the stepping stone to the conquest of the world.

The United States is pursuing its own imperialist aim of world domination, the creation of a "unipolar world" under its dictate. Both US diplomacy and its monstrous war machine, employed in the name of waging "war against terrorism", are instruments for achieving the aim of world domination by the US.

US involvement in South Asian affairs cannot bring peace or prosperity to any of the peoples who live here. On the contrary, it is the most dangerous threat to peace and prosperity in the region. The track record of US intervention in Vietnam, Korea, Indonesia, in the Middle East and in Afghanistan, not to speak of the countries in Africa and Latin America, shows clearly that the outcome will not and cannot be peace. The outcome will inevitably be an increase in tension, insecurity, domination and the danger of devastating wars.

In this context, the danger is even more accentuated by the stand and tendency of the Indian ruling class. Representatives of the Indian ruling bourgeoisie were arguing until yesterday that US involvement was a good thing for India because it would help put pressure on Pakistan. Members of both the ruling party and the bourgeois "opposition" in Parliament fell over one another to shake the hands of President Clinton when he visited India in early 2000. Most of them hailed the success of Pokhran and the militarisation and warmongering against Pakistan. They have been hoping, especially since September 11th, 2001, that India can gain by weakening Pakistan through active collaboration with the US in its "war against terrorism".

As far as the reactionary bourgeoisie that rules India is concerned, US interference is just fine as long as it promotes its own imperialist interests and especially if it weakens Pakistan. But the moment the US acts in a way that contradicts its own imperialist interests, the Indian bourgeoisie and its representatives in Parliament scream about "surrender of sovereignty". In other words, the Indian ruling bourgeoisie does not really consider sovereignty to be a matter of principle.

The Indian big bourgeoisie does not follow any principle in foreign policy affairs, except the pragmatic motto that anything is justified as long as it satisfies one's own narrow ambitions. In other words, the world-view of the Indian ruling class is not qualitatively different from that of the US imperialists.

As far as the working class and people of India as well as all the peace and freedom-loving peoples of South Asia are concerned, the main issue is not to weaken Pakistan. The main issue is to weaken and defeat imperialism, headed by the USA, which is the most rapacious power on earth and the biggest danger to peace and prosperity in South Asia.

Opposition to US imperialist interference in this region cannot be a temporary tactic, which is sometimes turned on and sometimes turned off, as many of the Members of Parliament seem to think. Opposition to US interference has to be a strategic political stand based on the principle of respect for the sovereignty of all the states and peoples in South Asia.

Back to Table of Contents

Fifty-fifth anniversary of declaration of formal independence:

Deep going transformations—an absolute necessity of the times

The crisis of India is a result of the fact that deep-going transformations were avoided in August of 1947 as well as subsequently. The anti-colonial liberation struggle of the Indian people involved all sections of the Indian people. The working class and peasantry, the women, the youth, the tribal peoples, the people of the different nations and nationalities aspired for independence accompanied with deep-going transformations that would enable them to get rid of capitalism, the remnants of feudalism and the imperialist domination that was ruling their lives. The Indian big bourgeoisie, the most influential section of the bourgeoisie, wanted political independence from colonial rule, but was deadly opposed to deep-going transformations. It wanted colonialism to be ended while preserving the colonial legacy. The Indian big bourgeoisie established its leadership over the anti-colonial liberation movement and ensured its vision triumphed in 1947 and subsequently. In the political sphere, the colonial state and institutions were strengthened and perfected, not destroyed. Capitalism, the remnants of feudalism, the imperialist domination—all were preserved.

The striving of India’s working class and peasantry for revolutionary transformations were and continue to be crushed by fire and sword. Most importantly, they have been derailed by the fostering of illusions about the state and social system by a significant section of the Indian communist movement. Fifty five years after the declaration of formal independence from colonial rule, the urgency for carrying out deep going transformations stares the Indian society in its face. The overthrow of capitalism and the colonial legacy through the revolution and the building of a socialist society is the strategic task confronting India’s workers and peasants. The immediate program of the working class and peasantry of thoroughgoing democratic renewal of Indian society aims at opening the path to the fulfilment of the strategic task.

Back to Table of Contents

Jaswant Singh cannot prevent the ruination of the poor and the middle strata

On July 30th, Jaswant Singh announced a few income tax concessions, a new tax-free savings scheme for small savers and a "ann atyodaya scheme" that would allegedly reach food to the poorest of the poor in rural areas. These are the measures that the new Finance Minister has unveiled to match his bombastic promise of expanding the purchasing power of the masses of people.

The entire wealth of India is the product of the collective labour of crores of working people of town and countryside. However, the lion's share of the value that is produced goes into the pockets of a miniscule minority of rich exploiters, headed by the big business houses, multinationals and financial magnates. Jaswant Singh wants to hide the fact that the real commitment of his government is to serve the interests of the rich exploiters to grow richer at the most rapid possible rate, at the expense of the rest of society.

The most crucial productive force in India is her human potential. There is the main working force, those in the age group 18-60, about 50 crore, men and women put together. There is the potential working force of the future—the young ones who need to be nurtured, educated and trained, those younger than 18 years of age. And then there are the elderly—the pensioners, fathers, mothers and grandparents—who have already made their contribution to society and need to be looked after. The Indian state and society, as currently constituted, fail to ensure that the young are nurtured, or that the working age population is kept healthy and prosperous, or that the elderly are looked after. The only thing that is ensured is that big business makes maximum private profit, no matter what happens to the rest of society.

In recent times, the best paid sections of the Indian working class as well as government employees, small producers, poor and middle peasants and self-employed professionals have been hit by the repeated crashes in the stock market and decline in interest earned on their life savings. Given the increasing uncertainty and risk associated with putting one’s saving into stocks, or into mutual funds, or even into Units, the small savers have come to rely almost exclusively on bank fixed deposits and post office savings schemes.

Why has the government-administered interest rate on small savings been cut? And why have bank-administered rates on fixed deposits also been cut? Who benefits from these measures? It is the big banks in India, including central government owned banks, Indian and foreign private banks, that are the main beneficiaries of the cut in interest paid on fixed deposits. They get capital cheap from the small savers. They pass on some of this benefit to the big business houses to whom they advance this capital. In other words, sections of the working class and middle strata are being robbed in the interest of the richest minority of financial and industrial magnates.

Jaswant Singh is not proposing any change in the exploitative economic system of monopoly capitalism that exists in India. What he is proposing is merely a minor adjustment, in the form of small concessions to salaried people who fall in the income tax bracket, and to small savers, including pensioners. The value of these sops is only a small portion of what such persons are losing each year on account of inflation, market fluctuation and decline in interest rates earned by small savers.

Marx discovered, over one hundred and fifty years ago, that the capitalist system of production, based on private ownership of the means of social production, inevitably leads to the rich growing richer at one pole, the poor growing poorer at the other pole, and those in between facing progressive ruination and the prospect of sinking into the ranks of the propertyless majority. Lenin discovered, at the beginning of the 20th century, that capitalism has reached the stage of monopoly capitalism and imperialism, its highest and final stage. At this stage, capitalism is characterised by parasitism, permanent state of crisis and reactionary wars for the redivision of the world. It would be comic, if it were not so tragic, that the new Finance Minister Jaswant Singh pretends, at the beginning of the 21st century, that the iron laws of capitalism can be altered by a few tax sops and yet another centrally sponsored scheme.

There is indeed a way to reverse the trend of the rich growing richer while the poor and the middle strata get ruined. That way is to organise the transition from capitalism to socialism through the revolution. Mr. Jaswant Singh does not want to even mention the name of socialism or revolution. What he is interested in is not to find any real solutions to the economic problems of the poor or the middle strata. He is merely trying to deceive the people, so that the big bourgeoisie can continue to rape and plunder the land and labour of the country in collaboration with foreign exploiters.

Back to Table of Contents

US imperialism faces increasing difficulties in building coalition to attack Iraq

Internationally, the US is having difficulty in whipping up enthusiasm for a war against Iraq. On August 9, 2002, German Chancellor Shroeder made a blunt announcement that Germany would not support US in a war against Iraq. The US is already having problems with its most loyal ally, Britain, with public opinion in Britain opposed to war on Iraq. Media reports indicate that the US armed forces are using the Gulf littoral states like Quatar as bases for a possible war. USA is trying to rope in Jordan with "economic aid" and Turkey with promises of crushing the Kurdistan movement. It is also reported that the US does not trust the Saudi regime, hitherto the most loyal supporter of US imperialism in the Arab world, any longer.

Ever since President George Bush took office last year, the US administration has made no secret of its desire to overthrow the Saddam Hussain regime in Iraq and establish a puppet regime in its place. It used the September 11, 2001 terrorist strike in the US to line up the US ruling circles for war on Afghanistan and built an international coalition for its alleged "war against terrorism". Even while the bombing of Afghanistan was going on, and a puppet regime was installed in the place of the Taliban regime last November, US President George Bush made it amply clear that this was just the beginning of the "war against terrorism". In numerous speeches and statements, he has declared that Iraq would be his next target and simultaneously listed North Korea, Iran, Cuba, China and other countries as "the axis of evil", as targets for "war against terrorism". All the states in US imperialism’s hit list are states that have regimes and political systems not to the liking of US imperialism.

The US Senate recently has held hearings on the subject of invasion of Iraq, with various so-called experts testifying on the pro’s and cons of a military strike on Iraq. This follows various publicly leaked contingency plans for an invasion of Iraq. The aim has been clearly to test the waters of internal and international public opinion before launching a strike on Iraq. During the Senate hearings, the "experts opinions" revealed interesting things. For one, it revealed the utterly imperialist and chauvinist nature of US ruling circles as a whole, who one and all talked as if it was their birth right to militarily aggress on any country in the world which they decided was posing a problem to the US. When a senator raised the issue of why US cannot coexist with a nuclear Iraq when it could coexist with a nuclear Soviet Union for over 50 years, this was simply dismissed. One expert said that oil prices would hike up greatly as a result of the war and the American people must be convinced of its necessity. Of course no one spoke of the fact that the biggest profiteers in an oil price hike would be the US oil companies, which are in fact one of the major forces pushing for war on Iraq. Richard Butler, who was the notorious head of the so-called weapons inspection teams to Iraq, declared that the US should make political moves "to make clear to the world that we went the full distance to get the law obeyed and arms control restored before taking other measures." The Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Robert Biden expressed his reservations about the internal and external consequences of a war with Iraq.

The Senate hearings clearly revealed the division amongst the American ruling circles about whether to go immediately for war on Iraq or not. It is not insignificant that wider sections of the American people are questioning the entire aim of the "war against terrorism". US imperialism is having a difficult time rallying the American working class and people behind its aims.

Back to Table of Contents

US imperialist "war against terrorism" fails to mobilise American public opinion

• 52 % of Americans are disillusioned in various ways, by the US administration’s "war against terrorism".
• 47 % feel that it would not help much in preventing future attacks on them.
• Only 34 % expressed confidence in the federal government as a whole, while only 29 % expressed confidence in the American Congress.
• Corporations and the finance industry enjoyed very little confidence of the public, on account of the wildly fluctuating stock market and a series of corruption scandals that have rocked many of the large corporations.
• Only 9 % of Americans said they had confidence in stock brokers ( equivalent to the 10% who said they confidence in car dealers and well below the 27 % who said they confidence in the news media, which generally comes in for severe criticism in national surveys ).
• Large corporations commanded the confidence of only 12 %, while the financial industry as a whole, of only 15 %.

What is clear from the above opinion poll is that US imperialism is in a severe crisis. Its capitalist economy is in a crisis and the American people are rapidly losing faith in it. Through "war against terrorism", US imperialism is trying to strengthen itself inside US as well as achieve its dreams of a "uni-polar world" under its overlordship. However, it is facing increasing opposition from the working class and people of USA, from the oppressed peoples and nations of the whole world. The contradictions amongst the imperialist powers are also sharpening. In addition, the attempt of US imperialism to sort out the inter-monopoly contradiction within US, revealed so starkly in the Presidential campaign, are not succeeding.

"Opinion polls" conducted in capitalist-imperialist countries by the big bourgeoisie are not "innocent" or "non-partisan". Their very method is aimed at influencing the public opinion as well as the ruling circles. The MSNBC polls are no different. Given this important fact, what they reveal is the crisis of credibility of US imperialism.

Back to Table of Contents

US military training to Indonesian armed forces

The US imperialist plans to forge closer links with the Philippines military have been opposed by the masses of people. Several people were injured battling the police in militant demonstrations against US imperialism near the US embassy in Manila on August 3, 2002, the day when Powell visited Manilla.

U S imperialism has had strong links with the repressive regimes it has supported in countries of the region, such as the notorious Marcos regime in the Philippines and the fascist Suharto regime of Indonesia. As a result of mass popular upsurges, these regimes were overthrown. However the present regimes in Indonesia and Philippines, despite a democratic façade, have close links with US imperialism. The armed forces, which were the main stay of the former repressive regimes and which had close links with the US military, have remained virtually untouched. Now, using the "war against terrorism" as a fig leaf, the reactionary forces in these countries are launching a counter-offensive on the people in alliance with US imperialism.

While they themselves are the greatest terrorists known to mankind, "fighting terrorism" has given a convenient handle to the US imperialists, and indeed all repressive regimes to step up attacks against all those who dare oppose their plans. Secretary Powell said that US was "very satisfied and pleased with what Indonesia has been doing," to fight "militant groups".

These plans of the US imperialists are full of danger for all the peoples of Asia and need to be thoroughly opposed.

Back to Table of Contents

Voices raised in Delhi against US and Indian interference in Nepal

Convenor of the Forum, journalist Anand Swaroop Verma, pointed to the dangerous consequences of growing military interference and collaboration between the US, India and the Nepalese Monarchy in crushing the democratic resistance movement. He pointed out that certain forces, notably US imperialism, was interested in the continued destabilisation of Nepal, to advance their own interests in that country and in the region. They were encouraging the reactionary ruling clique of Nepal consisting of the Monarch, the Prime Minister and the Army Chief, to pursue an adventurous course and crush all voices of dissent. In this entire course, the Indian government was collaborating with the Nepalese ruling clique and US imperialism against the Nepalese people.

The Conference was addressed by Chittaranjan Singh, Secretary of PUCL (Uttar Pradesh), Avni Rai of the Revolutionary Socialist Party, D. Raja of the Communist Party of India, Devrajan of All India Forward Bloc, Swapan Mukherji of CPIML Liberation, Raghu Thakur of Samajwadi Party, journalist Pankaj Singh, noted poet Kamleshwar, Lakshman Pant of the Nepali Janadhikar Suraksha Samiti and many others. Leaders and activists of various communist parties and groups active in the capital participated in the Conference as a sign of solidarity with the fraternal Nepalese people in their difficult struggle against the forces of imperialism and reaction.

CPI leader Raja pointed out that all the countries of South Asia faced common problems. There was need for unity of the communists and workers of the countries of South Asia to address the common problems, while there was need to appreciate that each country would determine its own road to socialism. He said that the Indian government must think a hundred times before sending its armed forces into Nepal. It must remember the result of the IPKF operation in Sri Lanka. He declared that India’s communists and workers will never allow Indian forces to be deployed in Nepal. He declared that if the Indian Armed Forces were sent to Nepal, it will suffer a resounding defeat at the hands of the Nepalese people.

Speakers lambasted the US and India governments for interfering in the internal affairs of Nepal. In the name of war against terrorism, US was trying to establish its hegemony over South Asia and Nepal was one of the countries where it pushing for the same, in collaboration with the India. All the speakers unanimously denounced US as the biggest terrorist state in the world. It was US imperialism, which was selling arms to various countries, illegally occupying territories and attacking various countries militarily. They called on the peoples and democratic forces in all countries to fight the US sponsored terrorism and save the world from imperialist forces.

Back to Table of Contents

Drought is big business

Political commentators are pointing out that the drought is actually a "blessing in disguise" for the government and grain traders. There are 60 million tonnes of foodgrains in buffer stock which are rotting because the poor do not have the purchasing power to buy them. The drought will deplete the stock by 8-10 million tonnes and exert an upward pressure on prices of foodgrains in the market.

But even more horrendous is the fact that the bourgeoisie’s eyes are screwed on the huge kitty of Rs 16,000 crore that has accumulated in the national "calamity funds". The Indian state has reserve funds, collected from the blood and sweat of the working people, for natural calamities called the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) and the National Calamity Contingent Fund (NCCF). According to NCAER, the total size of the CRF for the years 2000-2005 is Rs 11,000 crore and the corpus for the NCCF is Rs 500 crores. In addition, there are hundreds of crores of funds in "food for work" programs and other such programs. The central government of the bourgeoisie can transfer the money to the state governments as part of a privilege distribution system where those states in the ruling alliance can get more money than those controlled by the "opposition". States vie with each other to get a bigger share of the cake, MP’s vie with each other for declaring their districts drought-affected to get a part of the cake. And so do ministers at the central and state levels. The drought funds have become a perennial source of aggrandisement for these agents of calamities. Hundreds of media reports have proved that calamity funds find their way into the pockets of the rich and only a miniscule portion trickles down to the intended beneficiaries.

Drought relief is considered not as the right of farmers and working people to be demanded from the state but as a privilege, which the state of the capitalists bestows on those whom it considers a good bet for getting votes in the coming elections. The colonial legacy of sucking dry the peasants round the year in the form of taxes and differential prices of industrial products, and then offering them token concessions during calamities continued till today. Once drought is declared in a district, revenue collection is suspended, interest on loans for that period waived, loan recovery is stalled, food for work programs started, cash relief initiated, etc. Thousands of touts of the bourgeoisie are spawned in this process and the peasant is even more harassed and oppressed than he was in normal times.

Back to Table of Contents

Traditional Ecological Systems

Far from rejuvenating these traditional community-based systems, the colonialists brutally dismantled the self-dependent village economy system. What was installed in their place was the unrestrained exploitation of people, land, water, fisheries and forests for short-term gains of the capitalists. This is what continues today in India 55 years after formal independence. The rapid loss of forest cover in recent times has been particularly detrimental. It has been a major contributor to the expansion of drought prone areas and even the reduction of rainfall.

Green revolution technologies only exacerbated the problem. These technologies served only the propertied and the rich, turned agricultural products into commodities for sale and tied the producer hand and foot to the dictates of the capitalist market. Although they raised agricultural productivity in some areas, they also led to the concentration of land holdings, increased rural unemployment, depleted natural soil fertility, and encouraged mining of ground water. The poor were deprived of land, employment and even drinking water.

All these factors together have produced a continuing expansion in India's drought prone areas. Drought is no longer a natural disaster. It is a direct consequence of capitalism. The resulting human suffering is enormous and growing.

The response of the ruling class has been to initiate reforms that avoid hitting at the root of the problem. Rather, these reforms are aimed at preserving and strengthening the present system. There has been no effort to address the central problem of irrigation. There has been no effort to desilt the rivers and connect the natural irrigation systems to prevent flooding. Neither has there been any effort to preserve the ecological balance by preventing the rape of forests by the contractors and middle men, or the rapid depletion of ground water resources, or the destruction of the existing water protection systems.

There is a pressing need to rebuild India's land, water and forestry resources and re-establish the ecological balance, while at the same time providing for the basic needs of India's working people. This entirely depends on how far Indian people have control over these resources and how soon ownership and distribution of assets is resolved in favour of the producers of wealth.

Once ownership of productive resources and distribution of wealth in society is resolved in favour of the working people appropriate technologies can be adapted to the conditions of specific localities. Action can be initiated on a massive scale to tackle calamities. Many of the land and water management practices that have fallen into disuse, including the construction and maintenance of terraces, forest areas, ponds and tanks to provide sustained water harvesting can be re-established. Cropping patterns appropriate to drought prone areas can be introduced.

Back to Table of Contents

Discussion of alternative program for India

Addressing the conference, the convenor of Lok Raj Sangathan, Prakash Rao, highlighted the growing struggles of the workers, peasants, women, youth and all other sections against the attacks on their lives and livelihood. He pointed to the dangerous course that the rulers in India are pursuing, through the economic program of globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation, through state organised communal violence, through fascist laws such as POTA, through whipping up of chauvinism and war hysteria and through the increasing collaboration with the Anglo American imperialists in their "war against terrorism". He also pointed to the growing contradictions within the ranks of the ruling class and the imperialists, the crisis of credibility of their rule and their attempts to resolve the crisis by proceeding further on this dangerous course.

To defeat this anti-social offensive, the unity of the fighting forces is essential. What are the roadblocks to this unity? Prakash Rao criticised those trends in the movement that blame only one party or type of policy, hiding the fact that the source of the problem lies in the alliance of the imperialists and the Indian monopoly houses, and in the Indian state, the political system and political process which are archaic and anachronistic.

In the name of "maximum mobilisation" on a "minimum common program", or in the name of "addressing the immediate problem", some within the movement advocate that only "communal forces" be targeted at this time, as if the different components of the anti-social offensive can be opposed in a piecemeal manner, without targeting the common source of all these attacks.

Imperialism and the biggest monopolies who control the Indian state are the ones who benefit from organising communal violence, from the policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, from war. To stifle the people’s opposition to the anti social offensive and to sort out their own internal contradictions, they need fascist laws like POTA.

Outlining the basic principles of the people’s alternative to the anti social offensive, Prakash Rao said that it is essential to build the united front of workers, peasants, women and youth of all nations, nationalities and tribal peoples around a program that

• reorganises the economy to provide for all the people—food security, security of livelihood, education and health care for all (renewal of economy)
• punishes the perpetrators of crimes against the people, suppresses with an iron hand the forces that organise communal and fascist violence, and reorganises the polity to ensure rights for all
• resolutely opposes all imperialist economic, political and military intervention in the region and the collaboration of the Indian state with imperialists
• Fights for political power in the hands of the people and for renewal of the political process.

A large number of speakers spoke on the necessity for the people’s alternative as well as the roadblocks to the alternative being realised. Prof. Manoranjan Mohanty pointed out that narrowness of outlook was afflicting the different strands of the movement of the working class and people and created hurdles in forging an alternative. A senior journalist pointed out that there was a concerted effort to justify the depriving of rights of one section of the people by pointing out to the depriving of rights of other sections of the people, whereas the reality was that the Indian state does not guarantee rights for any section of the toiling and oppressed people. For instance, various forces point to the plight of Kashmiri migrants to justify the genocide in Gujarat, whereas the fact was that the victims of the communal massacres in Gujarat and the Kashmiri pandits who were forced to flee the Valley have both been deprived of their rights.

Several speakers pointed out that the source of all the problems facing the Indian people is the Indian state, the colonial legacy and the imperialist domination, and there is pressing need for the thoroughgoing democratic renewal of India in order to open the path to solutions for the outstanding problems facing her people. The Conference concluded in a spirit of optimism and confidence that the Indian people would certainly rally around the people’s alternative to the offensive of the bourgeoisie and imperialism.

Back to Table of Contents

University and college teachers protest attacks on their livelihood

The teachers have condemned this move of the UGC. On August 5, more than 1000 teachers of Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Milia Islamia staged a dharna at the UGC Headquarters, to demonstrate their opposition to this move. The agitation was supported by teachers of all central universities. Further actions are planned in the month of August, during the course of which other issues of concern, such as promotion to professors in colleges, third promotions, implementation of all promotional benefits, as well as recent changes in promotion procedure from reader to professor, will also be raised.

Back to Table of Contents