VOICE OF PARTY

• Mumbai slum dwellers wage a bold and inspiring fight in defence of their rights

• Strongly condemn the murderous attack on peasants by the police

• Demonstration by students against atrocities on women

• Security Council Expansion and UN Reform Democratisation or elitist expansion?

• US anti-war groups plan for a sea of demonstrators to gherao the White House

LETTERS TO EDITOR

• War Criminals

• Indo-Pak peace cannot be left in the hands of rulers

• The Mumbai-Shanghai Plan
  Transforming Mumbai into a world class commercial city by destroying the homes of the toilers

People's Voice congratulates the slum dwellers who are fighting so valiantly for their rights. Their struggle is extremely just and deserves the support of all the people on the principle that an attack on one is an attack on all. Here is a report of the ongoing struggle.

Sangharsh Wadi. This is the latest settlement in the city of Mumbai. It is a settlement with a difference. We do not know whether you know its name, but we are sure that many of you know its address—Sangharsh Wadi, Azad Maidan, Mumbai! Who are these residents? What is so unique about them?

Flashback slightly. The Assembly Elections in Maharashtra. The Congress-NCP squeaks into power after making promises to slum-dwellers that their pre-2000 slums would be regularised. Hardly had the new ministers warmed their seats, when the pre-poll promises were forgotten and buried. These “servants and saviours” of the people launched a man-made tsunami in Mumbai that laid waste to 90,000 slum dwellings housing roughly 4 lakh people.

The people were caught unawares. Bulldozers were used to flatten their belongings along with their dwellings. What was left was either burned or thrown in the gutters. They were not even given time to eat the food that they had cooked. The police looted all their belongings. The police upturned the drums of water they collected for cooking, beat up the women and arrested the men folk.

If you talk to the affected people, you will hear horrendous tales. Like how the dispossessed are lathi -charged if they try to return. Like how they are lathi-charged if they settle down on roads. Like how the police merrily carried on extortion. Like how a woman in incipient labour was not assisted to come out of her hut, despite cries of her friends to stop the demolitions and how the walls fell on top of her. Like how people including small children have died due to exposure and lack of medical treatment.

Since December, these slum-dwellers have been staying in and around the demolished sites. In many places they tied to fight back and repossess their land, but they had to contend with the armed might of the state. Two months ago their peaceful demonstration outside Azad Maidan led by the National Alliance of Peoples Movements was brutally lathi-charged and many of them were injured and arrested. Every new season brings its own miseries and dangers if you have no roof over your head. After being frozen in winter and roasted in summer, these people are in danger of being drenched by the monsoon. Something had to be done, and done fast.

The affected people and various organisations decided to launch a “Do or Die” dharna in Azad Maidan from May 16. On the sun baked grounds of Azad Maidan they erected their own tents and established what they proudly refer to as “Sangharsh Wadi.” You will find them there day and night in 18 shelters. Thousands of people stay there in the night (during the day many of them have to go and earn their daily roti). People from all over Mumbai, from Ambujwadi (Malwani), Indranagar (Ghatkopar), Rafiqnagar (Govandi), Moragaon (Juhu), Mandala (Mankhurd), etc. They have a community kitchen. They contribute towards the food according to their mite, as do many other well-wishers from far and near. No big political party is involved.

One of the good things that is emerging out of the Sangharsh Wadi is that they have got to interact and form bonds with people they would have never got to know otherwise. Living together his definitely strengthening their resolve. There is a tremendous energy and optimism, there is tremendous support they draw from each other, and their determination to fight and win is almost palpable.

They are very happy to talk to anyone who expresses solidarity with their struggle. The reporters of people's Voice visited them several times, interviewed many people and expressed their support.

The Awaas Adhikar Sanyukta Kriti Samiti held a demonstration in Hutatma Chowk on 7^th June, in which they insisted that the people whose huts have been demolished should be rehabilitated in the same place and they should be compensated. They also asserted that no slums should be demolished without providing for rehabilitation.

According to the Collector of Mumbai, the leases of 386 mills are over and according to the Collector of Mumbai (Suburban), 25 leases are over. However no action has been taken against these illegal occupants. Those who are illegally occupying thousands of square metres of people’s land are merrily paying ridiculously low rents, some of them even less than one paisa per square metre per year! On the other hand, the government claims that there is not enough space in the city of Mumbai to accommodate the poor people. The poor people, who constitute more than 60% of the population of the city occupy about 6% of its land. The people are raising the demand that the state government should take over the land whose lease has expired and use it to fulfill the needs of the people.

Earlier, on June 6, a seminar was organized in Sangharsh Nagar and thousands of people attended. The Seminar was inaugurated by Medha Patkar, the leader of the National Alliance of People’s Movements. The mood of the people was tremendous. A large majority of those present were women. Each speaker was applauded before he or she spoke and welcomed to the Sangharsh Wadi with slogans: “ Apka Sangharsh Wadi me swagat hai!”, “Ghar hamara aap ka, na kisi ke baap ka!”, Hum hamare hakk mangte, na kisi se bheekh mangte!”, “Ladenge, jeetenge!”, “Vikas chahiye, vinash nahi!”, “Mahila shakti aayee hai, nayi roshani layi hai!” “Hum sab ek hain!”

Trade Union leaders, leaders of hawkers and fishermen, activists who work among the dalits and adivasis, social scientists, architects, etc. addressed the gathering and denounced the Congress government and declared that true development means development and well-being of all the toilers.

Kaushalya, a representative of the affected people gave a very militant speech and challenged the ministers, saying that if we are illegal, so are you who have got elected with our votes! Everyone present agreed that the illegal encroachment of the rich and powerful should be demolished, that the government should take responsibility for affordable housing for the  poor and that the centre point of progress should be human beings.

The people expressed their resolve to carry forward the struggle to make  the government fulfil its duty to ensure proper homes and living conditions for all the toilers.

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Strongly condemn the murderous attack on peasants by the police

On 13 June, armed police forces opened fire on peasants agitating for water in Rajasthan’s Tonk district. Five peasants including a pregnant woman were killed and twenty-two people injured in the firing. People’s Voice strongly condemns this murderous attack on the peasants by the police.

Peasants from many villages of Tonk district have been demanding water from the Bisalpur Dam. The villagers in the recent past had protested in front of the District Headquarters and submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister demanding a solution to this problem.  Thousands of peasants came out of their villages and protested on the Jaipur-Deoli highway against the government’s inaction. As a result the Jaipur-Kota national highway also got blocked.

Protesting against the attack on the peasants the people from neighbouring villages laid siege to the Chirana police station and drove away the policemen.

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Protesting against the increasing incidence of rape and violence against women, especially women students, in the city, a large number of students   staged a demonstration outside the Delhi Police headquarters in ITO on 9 June.

The students collected at the ITO at about 5 pm and marched to the Police Headquarters under the leadership of Manipuri Students Association, Delhi (MSAD). Protestors were mainly from the Delhi University Students Union, Progressive Women’s Association and Lok Raj Sangathan. Infuriated by the indifference and inaction of the Delhi Police with regard to the increasing cases of rape of college students the protesters wanted to lodge their complaints with the Police Commissioner. Raising slogans against the atrocities on women, especially from the North-eastern part of the country, the protestors blocked the roads bringing the traffic to a virtual halt.  The police attacked the protesting students and started beating them up violently. The students bravely faced the police attack. All the demonstrating students were taken to the IP Estate police station where they were released after some time.

A delegation consisting of students’ representatives later submitted a memorandum expressing grave concern over the increasing incidents of rape and violence against women in Delhi and particularly against the women students coming from the north-eastern states. They demanded from the police that the culprits be given severest punishment and security of women students be ensured. MSAD also distributed a leaflet expressing anger over existence of laws such as AFSPA, which allows the armed forces to commit atrocities on women in the north-eastern states (Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, etc.). On the top of this wrong preconceived racist notions are spread against the women students coming from north-east to study in Delhi. The crimes committed on these women are later justified on the basis of these notions.

MSAD appealed to all the fighting students and all progressive forces to put up a brave fight against the attacks on the students. They further appealed to all progressive forces to continue their struggle to punish the guilty, to strongly condemn the wrong racist notions being spread against the north-eastern students and raise their voices against the crimes being committed on women and girls.

The day’s activity concluded with a meeting in front of the Police Headquarters, which was addressed by the Manipuri students and activists and students representing other organizations. Representative from the Lok Raj Sangathan also addressed the meeting expressing complete solidarity with the struggle.

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Events of recent years have brought home the need to reform the United Nations Organisation set up in 1945. The question of expansion of the permanent membership of the UN Security Council is also very much a part of this issue. The reactions provoked in various quarters to the moves of the ‘group of four’ seeking this permanent membership–Brazil, Germany, India and Japan have also shown that this is a serious question for all countries round the world.

The UN was created in 1945, in the aftermath of the long-drawn world war in which millions of people lost their lives, and humanity had just managed to stave off one of the greatest threats to its very existence. Its mandate was precisely to forestall the recurrence of such catastrophes in future, by preventing wars of aggression and taking all necessary steps to preserve peace. There have been many changes in the world since the time it was formed. At the time of its creation in 1945, the UN had 51 member states, and over the years, this number has grown to 191. Many countries like Brazil and India have started emerging as powers, seeking recognition and authority. Others, like Germany and Japan wish to come out of the shadows in which they had been cast after the Second World War, with restrictions on their armed forces and their role in world politics; they want to enjoy their “rightful place” in the world. Yet, the essential structures of the UN remain those of the immediate post second world war period with a concentration of power in the hands of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council. This has led to marginalisation of the other member states, particularly the countries threatened by imperialist domination and aggression. There have thus been calls for reforms from various quarters, including the UN headquarters itself.

In his speech to the UN General Assembly in March 2004, Secretary General Kofi Annan talked of an urgent need for the Security Council to regain the confidence of states and of world public opinion. It ought to do this, he said, both by demonstrating its ability to deal effectively with the most difficult issues and by becoming more “broadly representative of the international community as a whole, as well as the geopolitical realities of today”. As for the composition of the Council, he said that the matter has “been on the agenda of this assembly for over a decade, virtually all member states agree that the Council should be enlarged, but there is no agreement on the details”.

While there are calls for reform in terms of democratisation from many quarters, there are also moves by the US imperialists to garner more support for their own policies and actions. The recent nomination of John Bolton, a well-known critic of the UN as the US envoy to that body, is such a signal. The US imperialists are supporting Japan in its bid for permanent membership of the Security Council. With characteristic candour, they admit that they are doing so to bolster support for themselves within the Council and also check China and her growing clout in world affairs.

It is a fact that the real power in the UN is in fact concentrated in the hands of the Security Council, and in particular in the hands of the veto-wielding permanent members headed by the United States. The demand from the majority of states and peoples is that power must vest in the General Assembly and not in the Security Council. It is a demand for an end to the privileged position of the US and other veto-wielding permanent members, who are at present able to overrule the majority opinion of the General Assembly with impunity. The demand of states like Germany, India, Japan and Brazil for expansion of permanent membership runs counter to the demand for democratisation of the UN.

Will expansion of the Security Council, and in particular of the number of permanent members, be in the interests of peace and justice in the world? Would this ensure more equity and fairness for all nations, especially the smaller and oppressed countries? From the Suez aggression of the British and the French in the early sixties to the aggression on Iraq in 2003, there have been numerous occasions when one or more of the veto-wielding members of the Security Council have themselves unleashed wars of aggression. They have then used their veto power to paralyse the UN Organisation and prevent it from taking action to stop the aggression, thus defeating the very purpose for which the UN Organisation was set up in the first place. The big powers have also ensured that the UN General Assembly remains a powerless body, and used their own power within the Security Council to shape policies and actions of the UN to suit their own strategic and geopolitical interests. While these big powers cannot openly deny the need to expand the Security Council and make it more representative, they are certainly not going to give up their privileges or even share them easily. The Russians and the Americans as well as others have indicated this.

There have been reservations expressed in many quarters about the candidates for permanent membership on the one hand. The anti–Japan protests in various cities of China in April 2005 have been widely reported. China has indicated that Japan’s role in the Second World War renders its candidature for membership of the Security Council untenable. Many countries that have groaned under the yoke of German imperialism in the twentieth century have expressed serious reservations about the suitability of Germany as a permanent member of the Security Council. Similarly, many countries of South Asia are wary of India’s proverbial ‘big brother’ nature getting an unseemly boost with permanent membership of the Security Council. The enthusiastic participation of Brazil as a member of the UN “peacekeeping force” suppressing popular dissent after the coup in Haiti last year has also drawn sharp criticism from other Latin American and Caribbean countries. In many ways, these reservations, while being based on different grounds, have a common thread—that the proposed expansion would increase the membership of the world's ‘elite’, but be of little use to the vast majority of countries of the world.

The problem with the UN is precisely this, that power is concentrated in the hands of the elite, who use their veto power to ride roughshod over the will of the majority of the members. The most recent case is the aggression of Iraq in 2003, when the Anglo-American imperialists did not even think it necessary to seek a mandate from the UN or its Security Council to aggress.

How would the situation in the UN change for the vast majority of the world’s countries if the number of veto– wielding permanent members of the Security Council is expanded from the present five to eleven as proposed by the “group of four” ? How would it ensure an end to the rampant injustice prevalent today in the affairs of the UN, where a handful of countries use their privileged position in the Security Council to steam roll over the wishes of the majority? This expansion would do nothing to empower the vast majority of the world’s countries. Instead, it would merely increase the number of the elite who wields power in the UN.

What is really required to make the UN an effective instrument for peace and security in the world is not to accommodate some more emerging powers in the UN Security Council as permanent members with or without veto powers. What is required is a wholesale overhaul of the very structure and doing away with privileges of the elite in the UN. Rather than expanding the number of veto–wielding members, what is required is the very repeal of the veto power itself. What is required is empowering the General Assembly, on the basis of one- country-one-vote, and making the UN really democratic.

The peoples of the world have fought valiantly to defeat fascism in the Second World War and thereafter, sacrificing the lives of millions of their best sons and daughters all over the world. It is once again up to the world’s people to mobilize themselves and to put a block on the drive to war, aggression and to organise to eliminate their source. Strengthening the unity of the peoples and nations, which are exploited by Anglo – American and other imperialist powers, is the way forward to ensure that the sources of poverty, war and underdevelopment are eliminated. Merely recasting the UN as an instrument in the hands of Anglo- American democracy, while expanding the Security Council to accommodate some of the emerging powers, is definitely not the way ahead.

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On June 1, a diverse group of anti-war, civil rights, religious and community leaders held a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC to announce plans for the September 24, 2005, Mass March in Washington DC announced on May 12 by the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition. They vowed to surround the White during coordinated protests scheduled to take place in Washington, as well as Los Angeles and San Francisco on September 24.

The ANSWER Coalition expects more than 100,000 people, from families of US soldiers to trade unions and diverse religious groups, to take part in the demonstrations against the war in Iraq.

This “will be the largest anti-war demonstration to take place since the second election, or selection, of George W. Bush in November", Brian Becker, ANSWER’s national coordinator, said at a news conference.

“This will be representative of a changed mood inside the United States,” Becker said. “At this point we believe the majority sentiment in the country not only disapproves to George Bush’s handling of the White House but has turned decisively against the war in Iraq.”

“We will, on September 24, surround the White House with a sea of anti-war demonstrators,” he said.

“And this will be a graphic demonstration ... that the White House is surrounded by opposition all around the country and this opposition grows day in and day out.”

The demonstrators will also demand an end to US “threats” against North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba and an end to the “colonial-style occupation in Palestine and in Haiti,” the group said.

ANSWER is a Washington-based coalition, having more than 500 anti-war groups as members. He said the public is growing weary of the war.

“It seems as if there is no light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

Becker pointed to opinion polls showing growing dissatisfaction with the war and with President Bush. An Associated Press-Ipsos poll released last month had Bush’s job approval at 47 percent, with support on areas such as his handling of Iraq, the economy and assorted domestic issues in the low 40s.

The Bush administration has not set a timetable for withdrawing US troops,

although Vice President Dick Cheney predicted last weekend that fighting in Iraq will end before the Bush administration leaves office in 2009.

Becker wants the troops home much sooner, even at the risk of further destabilizing the Iraqi government.

“I think the Iraqi government will collapse anyway,” he said. “Any Iraqi political entity has to be able to stand on its own to have any legitimacy in Iraq.”

ANSWER is reaching out to churches, mosques, youth and student organizations and others, providing them with logistical information on the demonstrations. It will hold teach-ins this summer that aim to bring together organizers, religious and academic leaders, and elected officials to discuss US foreign policy in the Middle East.

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Sir,

I wish to bring to the attention of the readers of People's Voice the case of US Marine Corps Lt. Ilario Pantanto, who was recently tried for one of the worst known atrocities in the US led war against Iraq.

It is reported that on April 15, 2004, Pantano shot dead two unarmed Iraqi civilians who had been detained by the company he was leading.  He is said to have fired dozens of rounds into them and then to have posed with the corpses with a sign above them saying ‘no better friend, no worse enemy’.  He has not denied the events, claiming that his actions were in self-defence as the victims had disobeyed his instructions and were supposedly moving menacingly. The trial however came to a rapid close and the charge of premeditated murder were dropped for various reasons including the possibility of conflict with Government policy.  It may be noted that Pantano who had already served his term with the Marine Corps had been working on Wall Street and had decided to rejoin the armed forces after the events of 9/11/2001, since he felt that his services were required for the defence of his country.

It is not a coincidence that these events have taken place at a time of extreme aggressive posture of the US towards the rest of the world and its expanded military activities.  The Voice of Revolution, the organ of the US Marxist Leninist Organisation, has recently reported on the release of the Pentagon document known as the “National Defence Strategy” which among other things highlights aspects of the strategy including “pre-emptive war, long-term occupations, military dictate at home, as well as militarisation and US control of space and international waters and airspace.”  It is also mentioned that the tasks involved required interalia “the cooperation and participation of friends and allies and the support of the American people”.

The (mis)trial of Pantano has to be seen in this light.  By manufacturing opinion, race hate and prejudice, US wishes to draw larger numbers of its population into its militaristic adventures for world domination. It needs to also ensure that once the military is engaged in its reprehensible activities, the men and women who transgress the bounds of what does and does not constitute individual war crime, are guaranteed impunity.  Any illusion that the people of the world may have of the US military’s capability to prevent atrocities will be once again destroyed by the Pantano case.

All progressive forces fighting the US led military occupation of Iraq, need to press on all fronts, including the legal front, to expose the nature of the supreme war crime, which is that of war against peace.

Sincerely, S. Grover,
New York

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Sir,

There has been significant media coverage of the visit of  Prime Minsiter Dr. Manmohan Singh to the Siachen glacier.  His visit comes at a time where the peoples of India and of Pakistan have been breathing the fresh air of peace initiatives.  However, his visit did not give any great fillip to the expectation that there would be a deescalation of military presence at what has come to have the dubious distinction of being the ‘highest battlefield in the world’.  Conservative estimates show that the mere cost of maintaining troops at this battle field costs each side millions of dollars a day, and the human cost in deaths due to the extreme weather conditions belies common sense.

It is now widely accepted by experts in the field that it was the brinksmanship of the Indian side in the mid 1980’s that has led to this pass in the context of the Siachen glacier.  After the loss of the control over territory in the Aksai Chin region to China in 1962, and faced with the near impossibility of regaining that control, India seems to have calculated that military control in formerly undemarcated zones in the Himalayan heights would assist it in consolidating its strategic strength.  Therefore, it seems impossible that India would give up the territory that it now controls through military means in the region, however inhospitable it may be.  Nonetheless, the fact that there are no clear lines demarcating international boundaries is something that will not go away. 

Progressive forces in India and in Pakistan must take note of the fact that the ruling circles in each of these countries, despite all their pretence of being peace loving, are hawkish and extremely militarist in their thinking.  They should not be allowed to be lulled into thinking that the people of these countries have anything to gain by handing over the hard earned constituency of earning peace to the ruling circles. It must be constantly emphasized that all the outstanding issues between the countries be resolved only through peaceable means.  Progressive forces in India must demand of their Government that it respect international law in all matters of dispute and not resort to military means. 

Sincerely, A. Narayan
Bangalore

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The Mumbai-Shanghai Plan

The bugle of the Mumbai-Shanghai Plan was first sounded by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in October 2004 as a build-up to the Maharashtra state elections. “When we talk of a resurgent Asia, people think of the great changes that have come about in Shanghai. I share this aspiration to transform Mumbai in the next five years in such a manner that people would forget about Shanghai and Mumbai will become a talking point,” the Prime Minister said. “I have a dream that we can do it. I believe we can become number one through modernisation, expansion and development and make Mumbai the number one city in our country,” he added.

After the state elections, a Congress-led government was formed under the leadership of Vitasrao Deshmukh, and in keeping with their electoral promise, the Maharashtra government unveiled a US$6.5 billion (Rs 31,000 crore) plan to refurbish Mumbai into an international city like Shanghai. The central government offered $2 billion (Rs 9,000 crore) over the next five years to transform the city. The transformation plans included a Mumbai Metro project – an underground and elevated rail system, the trans-harbour link connecting the mainland and the island city, the linking of the eastern and western expressways through roads and flyovers under the Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project, Wadala truck terminus project, removal of encroachments, beautification of the international airport at Mumbai and the upgradation of the King Edward Memorial Hospital.

The dream projected that by 2013 Mumbai will be a slick city with wide roads, modern highways and more comfortable trains and buses, beautiful sea face promenades and gardens and playgrounds. There will be no shortage of public utilities such as water, electricity and sanitation.

Deshmukh’s Shanghai rhetoric began before the elections with his promise of regularising slums built before 2000. After the elections, he made a dramatic turnaround. He changed the cut-off date for slum regularisation to 1995 and declared, “Every chief minister wants to be remembered for something. I want to be remembered for changing Mumbai. The prime minister has encouraged us to concentrate on the development of Mumbai and I will be a fool not to take this opportunity.”

Deshmukh further said, “It is going to be difficult to house all the people if post-1995 slum-dwellers are to be given housing. We will have to think of options outside Mumbai. Free housing for all is absolutely impossible.” Encouraged by the finance minister’s Rs 5,000-crore urban renewal proposal for metros, Deshmukh said that Chidambaram insists on exploiting Mumbai’s strategic location between London and Tokyo.

Once the cut-off date was shifted to 1995, massive slum demolition was taken up in and around the city of Mumbai. (See Box)

Within a month of coming into power, Deshmukh set up a Task Force, headed by Sanjay Ubale, Secretary, Special Projects. A Citizens’ Action Group was also constituted, comprising 30 eminent citizens from south Mumbai including Anand Mahindra, Gerson Da Cunha, Alyque Padamsee, a host of CEOs, bureaucrats and intellectuals. “The idea is to raise the money through various means. We do not want to burden the State’s treasury any more than necessary,” said Sanjay Ubale. To begin with, the State plans to start a Mumbai Development Fund and hopes to raise a substantial amount through it. Besides, most of the projects will be constructed on a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis with private sector participation. For the gap in availability of funds, the State government has appealed to the Central government. “There is a Central government scheme that provides funds for such development projects to the extent of 20 per cent of the total estimated cost,” said Ubale, and “we hope to tap into it”. He hoped to get about
Rs.9, 000 crores from the Centre.

The planning for reshaping Mumbai started as far back as in November 2001, when encouraged by the government, Bombay First, an NGO with representatives from the corporate world, commissioned global consulting firm Mckinsey and Company (a US multi-national which is a strong advocate of the policy of globalisation through privatisation and liberalisation) to prepare a comprehensive plan for the city. Mckinsey presented a blueprint in September 2003 for the overall development of the city over the next decade. This plan, coupled with the government’s strategies, came to be called the “Vision Mumbai” project. A task force created to strategise and execute the project stated that Mumbai could be turned into a “world class city” by 2013 at an estimated cost of Rs.200,000 crores.

Essentially, Mckinsey focussed on six key areas: economic growth, transportation, housing, other infrastructure (to ensure safe water, sanitation, health facilities and reduce pollution), financing of projects and governance. The Mckinsey report said that to revamp Mumbai, an 8-10 per cent economic growth, up from the current 2.4 per cent, was essential. This would involve creating almost 0.5 million jobs. With regard to housing, land availability would have to increase by 50-70 per cent, besides an increase in the floor space index and relaxation of the coastal zonal regulations. Furthermore, the controversial Rent Control Act, and Urban Land Ceiling Act would need to be tackled.

The Vision Mumbai report is complete with “quick wins” that include beautification of the Marine Drive, a smooth drive to the international airport and refurbishing the Gateway of India. Construction of 45 more flyovers and radio-operated, air-conditioned taxis will ensure that those who have, will have it better. Lack of employment generation, inadequate healthcare and sanitation (which led to a Hepatitis epidemic recently), soaring rents and unaffordable housing — issues that beg for attention find space in the report’s footnotes. The litany of Sanjay Ubale, head of the Task Force, Vision Mumbai 2020, continues to be: “You need to create wealth to distribute wealth. Otherwise you’ll only distribute poverty.”

Bombay First CEO Vijay Mahajan recently said, “Mumbai contributes
Rs 50,000 crore to the Centre and the city is not getting anything in return. Politicians’ vested interests have ruined the city. Cities like Shanghai and Bangkok have grown because of certain disciplinary measures and if Mumbai has to grow, it has no choice but to resort to aggressive measures. The first view of Mumbai from an airplane is that of slums and debris. In Bangkok or Singapore, you see golf courses and greenery.”

About 60 per cent of Mumbai’s population of 12 million is classified as urban poor living in slums. The “Vision Mumbai” plan is a pro-rich, pro-privatisation and pro-builder plan. Even the viability of some of the larger projects is debatable, particularly since many of the past projects have not been as successful as they were made out to be. Navi Mumbai and the Mumbai-Pune expressway are the most obvious examples of such projects.

Mumbai developed as an industrial centre, that was crucial to India’s economy, when the British made land available in central Mumbai, at hugely concessional rates, to entrepreneurs willing to set up textile mills. In 1854 the first textile mill was established. Thus grew the textile heartland or Girangaon, as it is still known. At one stage, in 1961, these mills employed almost two and a half lakh workers. Today, there are 58 mills employing fewer than 20,000 people. Of these, 32 are privately owned, 25 are owned by the National Textile Corporation and one by the State. Twenty-nine of the privately owned mills are already closed after going through various stages of industrial “sickness”.

Within the compound of these mills as well as around them were hundreds of buildings with one-room tenements where the workers lived. The entire area was until quite recently an almost exclusively working class enclave. The history of the way the land on which these mills stood has been surreptitiously diverted, with the collusion of governments, is a story that speaks of not just an absence of vision for the city but a complete disdain for the needs of the working class and the poor.

It is important for people in other cities to be aware of these developments because they illustrate how governments change policies to benefit the rich and the powerful even as they speak in the name of the poor. And textile mill lands waiting to be developed exist in many cities, including Delhi, Bangalore, Kanpur, Allahabad, Kolkata and Coimbatore.

In 1991, in response to the plea of mill owners that they be allowed to sell some of their land to generate revenues to pay off debts and workers dues, the Maharashtra Government introduced Section 58 in the Development Control Rules that permitted mill owners to sell or redevelop one third of the land they owned. However, one-third had to be given to the municipal corporation for open spaces or other public facilities. And one-third was designated for public housing.

The formula remained on paper and only very few of the private mills actually sold their land to pay the workers their dues. The stories of mill workers still waiting for their dues, committing suicide because they saw no hope in the future, and having to fight for each installment of what had been agreed upon, are a legion. In any case, what was due to the workers constituted barely 10 per cent of what mill owners would have gained by selling their land.

The Government stepped in again on behalf of mill owners. In 2001, Mr. Deshmukh, in his earlier tenure as Chief Minister, passed an amendment to Section 58 of the Development Control Rules. Instead of all the land occupied by the mills being divided up, the new rule laid down that only land that was vacant, that is, with no built-up structure, would be so divided. In other words, the mill owners got to keep most of the land on which their closed mills stood and the city and workers got less than six per cent between them.

It is evident now that this change was not done inadvertently. The amendment was passed without discussion. In recent years, there has been a spurt of new construction on the mill lands. None of it is public housing. Most of it consists of luxury housing and shopping malls.

When a lot of concern was raised about the Corporation being deprived of its share of land out of mill land development, Mr. Deshmukh appointed a nine-member committee of bureaucrats and CEOs to decide the future of the defunct mill lands — an area of the size of eight Nariman Points. The HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh heads the committee and Charles Correa is the lone city planner. Parekh’s company has already lent a few hundred crores to high-end apartments and malls. Following criticism from within the coalition, the government added urban planner Vidyadhar Phatak and city historian Sharda Dwivedi. After this induction, Mahindra and Mahindra Chairman Keshub Mahindra declined to participate, admitting to a “perceived conflict of interest”. Dwivedi said: “We have received a set of questions from those representing the interest of the mill workers and the committee is going to look into all those issues. One of my biggest concerns is to push the interest of mill workers. We have three months to come up with a viable solution to the mill land crisis.” Parekh maintained, “Slums have to go. The ones near the airport are dangerous. But at the same time, new houses must be built quickly for those who are displaced.” The committee is to examine the controversial Section 58 of the Development Control Rules.

The distance between theory and political will to implement the recommendations of Parekh committee was evident as the 130-year-old Morarjee Goculdas Mills was being demolished, even as the panel headed by Parekh deliberated on its future. Another cluster of apartments and offices are replacing these structures. South Mumbai MP Milind Deora said, “If there is no freeze on development, the whole point of forming a committee is pointless. It will be a politically correct gesture, without being serious about what it has to offer.” India Bulls, a Rs 550-crore financial services firm, bought Jupiter Mills, one of NTC‘s seven mills, for Rs 276 crore. India Bulls founder-chairman Sameer Gehlot says a corporate office, a residential complex and a hotel will come up here. Though the Bombay Environmental Action Group filed a public interest litigation seeking a stay on the sale, the court rejected the plea and permitted NTC to open the bids and to take an initial deposit of Rs 15 crore from the highest bidder.

But even as the committee, which does not have any representative from the workers, deliberates, the municipal corporation is clearing plans to redevelop hundreds of acres of mill lands. What use will this report be when it comes out and if and when it is ever implemented? Once again, one has to question the intent of the Government. Surely these choices are not innocent.

Who owns the mill lands?

Successive governments have been colluding with the mill owners in hiding the fact that the mill owners are not the owners of the mill lands. This land was given to them on lease – with the express purpose of putting up and running mills on it. The provision was that the lessees could not change the purpose for which the land was leased to them. This was done in the time of the British Raj, and the rates of lease are ridiculously low—the rent that mill owners pay for their land is probably less than what a worker pays for his one room tenement!

So if the mill owners do not own the land, how can they sell it? But under the rule of big capitalists anything is possible. The machinery of the state is at their disposal. By a stroke of the pen, a crime of selling public property can be made legal, and that is what was done by the governed!

Who is behind the grand plan of reshaping Mumbai into Shanghai?

The answer to the question becomes evident when we examine the Mumbai-Shanghai plan of Manmohan Singh and Deshmukh along with their other political and economic policies. The imperialist ambitions of the Indian big bourgeoisie are steadily growing with the support of the policy of globalisation through privatisation and liberalisation of central and state governments. The Indian big bourgeoisie anticipates that this century will see emergence of a tri-polar world of US, China and India as the three superpowers. India cannot be a superpower without being a financial power and without having a visible financial power centre. While China is developing Shanghai, the US already has New York as its financial power centre. So the big Indian capitalists want Mumbai city to be developed as the Indian financial power centre. They want to make Mumbai the financial hub of Asia and then maybe of the world. The idea of developing Mumbai as Shanghai is a part of this grand plan.

The reason why slums exist is because of the uneven development under capitalism, because of capitalist agriculture, leading to shrinking employment in rural areas and overcrowding of urban areas. Capitalism does not care how the workers are housed and what amenities are accessible to them, as long as they come back to work the next day, and as long as they do not threaten the security and plans of the capitalist class. In fact, the slums are useful to the bourgeois political parties as vote banks. However, there comes a time, when the slums pose an obstacle to logistics necessary to support further expansion of capitalism, the needs of finance capital (need to attract investors, have smooth and rapid flow of traffic, etc) and therefore, they need to be gotten rid of. They are demolished, and the residents sent miles away where their jhuggis will not interfere with the grand plans of capital. The workers—industrial, domestic, etc., will continue to work as before, traveling great distances and incurring unaffordable costs; but they do not have a choice, they are dependant on their wages and have little chance of obtaining any other source of livelihood. 

The working class and people must fight against this atrocity, this crime against the working people. They must resist the moves of the state to displace the labourers to the edge of the city, far away from their work-site and to areas where there is an absolute dearth of amenities. The struggle is long but must be fought to the end. The final solution lies in ending this man-eating capitalist system and establishing an alternative society where rights to livelihood, housing, education, health and all-round development of every person are guaranteed by the state in practice.

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