Industry Closure in Bengal

Industry Closure in Bengal is much lower than other states

In this ongoing parliamentary election, the anti-left opposition has come up with various innovative allegations against the Left. It is evident that the Congress, BJP and their allies are frightened; frightened of the emergence of the Third Front in India's political scenario; frightened of the inevitable necessity of a sane alternative in the Indian Parliamentary arena.
The most important allegation which came up from this section in West Bengal is, “The Left Front Government has closed all industries in WB, and now just bluffing the public by showing a penchant for industrialization.” Very interesting, indeed. It is not unknown to people that a lot of industry was forced into closure in West Bengal after the Partition of Bengal in 1947, this is a historical fact.So many people can easily relate this accusation with past experience and think, “Yes! Lots of industries are closed! Then why is this hullaballoo of the government over industrialization? It is the government which made West Bengal barren of industry, now what is the point in proving that it is industry-friendly? This must be all fake.” They are coming to a conclusion. And this is the beauty of consent manufacturing. Consent manufacturing in West Bengal has become an art for the media barons of the Ananda Bazaar Patrika (ABP), and their friends in various areas. Let us check out the facts about this carefully manufactured consent about “huge industry closure” in West Bengal.
Let us take the case of small and cottage industry as this is the most labor intensive form of industry. Throughout the country, 8,87,000 small and cottage industry have been closed, out of which only 26,800 were in West Bengal, while in Tamilnadu the figure was 1,27,000, in Uttar Pradesh 1,22,000, Punjab 82,731, Maharashtra 54,243, Gujarat 39,159, Karnataka 46,000, Madhya Pradesh 65,000, Andhra Pradesh 38,582. All of the above-mentioned states are known as “industry-friendly”, some are “super-industry-friendly”, but West Bengal is ahead of them all in conserving its labor intensive industry. This data was presented in Parliament by the Union Ministry of Trade & Commerce.
This data is from 2007. After that, from the middle of 2008, greater economic turmoil started as the global recession intensified. This was totally ignored by the Central Government, and as a result, a significant number of industries are estimated to have closed by the end of the year all over the country.
Today the AITC (better known as TMC) is an ally of the Congress in West Bengal and the main mouthpiece of this industry closure campaign in West Bengal. They must remember the tenure of the NDA, when they were one of the allies of the BJP in the NDA. Under NDA rule, hundreds of state owned industrial units were closed in West Bengal and other states like Cycle Corporation, Tyre Corporation, MAMC, Durgapur and Haldia Fertilizers, Bengal Immunity, Bharat Ophthalmic, Smith Stanistreet, Bharat Process, Waybard, NJMC, NTC… the list goes on. NTC was closed in Mumbai and in place of that shopping malls and multiplexes have come up. Kanpur NTC, which was a huge industrial area is totally dead now. In Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, the picture is the same, but the policy never changed. The government at the center never admitted that their faulty economic policy is pushing so many companies to their deathbed.
“National Commission for Enterprise in the Unorganized Sector” has presented a report to the Prime Minister on December 2008. It was clearly mentioned in that report that the neoliberal road in policy is killing the bulk of people in the unorganized sector and the future of small scale industries are being nipped in such a way that they can never grow. According to the report, in 2008, 88 crore people were dependent on the unorganized sector in one way or the other. Though the rate of production has increased from 1993 to 2005 in an uniform manner, the life of these people remained the same, or rather has deteriorated. The commission analyzed the various ways these industrial units have been affected by liberalization and gave a detailed report. Most of the small scale units do not get bank loans. Only 2% of the total loan was available for small scale industry, recently this has decreased to 1.2%. Only 5% of the industrial units which had at least Rs 25 lakh as capital could get loans. The commission expressed its anxiety over the fact that the share of this loan has been continuously reducing from 1990 onwards. The central government's own survey highlights the fact that one of the main reasons for closures is the unavailability of working capital and this crisis of working capital is created because the banks are mostly driven by neo-liberal norms.
So, it is humbly urged that the manufacturers of consent as well as the anti-left parties go through their own central government reports on industry closure once again, before they come up with this innovative allegation. It may tell them a story which they had never thought of!

Pragoti.org

Fidel's Reflection

The Secret Summit
Fidel Castro

WHILE neither represented at nor excommunicated from the Port of Spain Summit we were able to find out what has been discussed there up until today. We were led to fully expect that the meeting would not be private, but the stage managers deprived us of that highly interesting intellectual exercise. We would be informed of the essence, but not the tone of voice, nor the eyes, nor the faces which so much reflect people’s ideas, ethics and characters. A Secret Summit is worse than the silent movies. To Obama’s left was a man whom I could not identify very well when he placed his hand on Obama’s shoulder, like an eight-year-old school student to a compañero in the first row. Beside him, standing, another member of the retinue who interrupted him to talk with the president of the United States; I could see in those persons importuning him the stamp of an oligarchy that has never experienced hunger and which, in the powerful nation of Obama, expect to have the shield to protect the system from the feared social changes.
Up to that point, there was a strange atmosphere at the Summit.
The artistic show organized by the host country really sparkled. I have only seen anything like it on a very few occasions, if ever. A good speaker, seemingly a Trinidadian, had proudly stated that it was unique.
It was a veritable extravaganza of both culture and luxury. I meditated a while. I calculated what all that would have cost and I suddenly realized that no other country in the Caribbean could give itself the luxury of presenting such a spectacle, that the venue of the Summit is immensely wealthy, a species of the United States surrounded by small poor countries. Could the Haitians with their extremely rich culture, or Jamaica, Grenada, Dominica, Guyana, Belize or any other, be the venue of such a luxurious Summit? Their beaches might be marvelous, but they are not surrounded by the towers that characterize the Trinidadian landscape and, with that non-renewable raw material, accumulate the copious resources that currently sustain that country’s wealth Almost all the other islands integrating the Caribbean community, located further to the north, are directly lashed by the hurricanes of growing intensity that scourge our beautiful Caribbean islands every year.
Might somebody at that meeting have remembered that Obama promised to invest whatever money is required in order to make the United States self-sufficient in fuel? Such a policy would directly affect many of the states meeting there who will not possess the technology and the vast investments required for an effort in that or another direction.
Something really made an impact on me on the stage of the Summit that has taken place up until today, Saturday, April 18, at 11:47, when I am writing these lines: Daniel Ortega’s speech. I have promised myself not to publish anything until Monday, April 20 in order to observe what happened in the famous Summit.
He did not speak as an economist, a scientist, an intellectual or a poet. Daniel did not select over-elaborate words in order to impress his audience. He spoke as the president of one of the five poorest countries in the hemisphere, as the revolutionary combatant, on behalf of a group of Central American and countries and the Dominican Republic that are members of the SICA (Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana).
It would suffice to be one of the hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans who learned to read and write in the initial stage of the Sandinista Revolution, during which the illiteracy rate was reduced from 60% to 12%, or when Daniel returned to power in 2007, when illiteracy had risen to 35%.
His speech lasted approximately 50 minutes, delivered in a measured and calm voice, but if it was to be reproduced in full, it would make this reflection too extensive.
I will synthesize his unique speech using his own words in each of the basic ideas that he transmitted. I won’t use dot, dot, dot and I will only use quotation marks when Daniel refers to the textual words of another person or institutions:
Nicaragua had recourse to the International Court of Justice in the Hague: it filed its case against the policy of war, the terrorist policy that President Ronald Reagan was developing on behalf of the United States.
Our crime: having liberated ourselves from the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza, imposed by the intervention of yanki troops in Nicaragua.
Central America has been shaken since the century before last by what have been expansionist policies, policies of war that led us to unite as Central Americans to defeat them.
Then came the interventions, which extended from 1912 to 1932 and left as a result the imposition of the dictatorship of the Somozas, armed, financed and defended by U.S. governors.
I had the opportunity to meet with President Reagan in full wartime; we shook hands and I asked him to end the war on Nicaragua.
I had the opportunity to meet with President Carter and when he told me that “now that the Somoza dictatorship has gone, it was time for the Nicaraguan people to change Nicaragua.” I said to him: No, Nicaragua does not have to change, it is you that have to change, Nicaragua has never invaded the United States; Nicaragua has never mined U.S. ports; Nicaragua has never thrown a single stone against the U.S. nation; Nicaragua has not imposed governments on the United States; you are the ones who have to change, not the Nicaraguans.
Nicaragua was still subjected to the war imposed by the United States; in response to the case that Nicaragua brought before the International Court of Justice in the Hague, the Court found and ruled; it said with total clarity that: “The United States should stop all military action, the mining of ports, funding the war; that it should indicate where the mines were that it had placed and refused to give that information;” it also instructed the United States to compensate Nicaragua for the economic-commercial blockade that it had imposed on it.
The struggles that we are waging in Nicaragua, in Central America and in Latin America to liberate our peoples from illiteracy are struggles that we are waging with the unconditional, generous solidarity of the sister people of Cuba, of Fidel, who was the one who promoted those cooperative literacy processes, and its President Raúl Castro, who has given continuity to these programs, open to all of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples.
Then the Bolivarian people, the people of Venezuela, with their President Hugo Chávez Frías, joined in.
Present here are a large majority of the presidents and heads of government of Latin America and the Caribbean; the president of the United States, the prime minister of Canada are participating; but here there are two major absentees: one, Cuba, whose crime has been to fight for its independence, for the sovereignty of the peoples; lending solidarity, without conditions, to our peoples, and for that it is being sanctioned, for that it is being punished, for that it is being excluded. For that reason, I do not feel comfortable at this Summit, I feel ashamed of participating in this Summit in Cuba’s absence.
Another nation is not present here because, unlike Cuba, an independent nation of solidarity, that other nation is still being subjected to colonialist policies: I am referring to the sister people of Puerto Rico.
We are working to build a great alliance, a grand unity of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples. The day will come when the people of Puerto Rico will also be here in that great alliance.
In the decade of the 50s racial discrimination was institutionalized, it was part of the American way of life: black people could not enter white restaurants, or white bars; children of black families could not go to the schools in which white children studied. In order to break down that wall of racial discrimination – and President Obama knows that better than we do – Martin Luther King said; “I have a dream.” The dream was made real and the wall of racial discrimination was brought down in the United States of America, thanks to the struggles of that people.
This meeting, this encounter is beginning precisely on the day that the invasion of Cuba was initiated in 1961. Talking with the president of Cuba, Raúl Castro, Raúl gave me some information: “Daniel, President Obama was born on August 4, 1961, he was three-and-a-half months old when the Bay of Pigs victory was won on April 19 of that year; evidently, he had no responsibility for that historic event. On April 15, the bombardments; on the 16th, socialism was proclaimed, by Fidel, at the burial of the victims; the invasion started on the 17th; the fighting continued on the 18th and the 19th, the victory, in less than 72 hours. Raúl.” (Raúl told me on his return from Cumaná, that when he wrote a note for Daniel, he made a rapid calculation and made an error on affirming that the Bays of Pigs invasion happened when Obama was three-and-a-half months old, when he should have said that he was born three-and-a-half months afterward; that he was responsible for that error).
That is history. In 2002, likewise in the month of April, on April 11, came the coup d’état with the intention of assassinating a president-elect of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; President Hugo Chávez was captured, and the order went out to assassinate him. When the puppet government emerged, the U.S. government – via its spokesman – recognized the coup leaders and gave the right to the coup leaders. We have the right to say that that is not history; barely seven years ago came those acts of violence against the institutionality of a people, of a progressive nation, in solidarity and revolutionary.
I think that the time I am taking is far less than that I had to spend – three hours – waiting at the airport inside a plane.
Freedom of expression has to be for the large and the little: Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic as an associate. The territorial area is 568, 988 square kilometers. The population adds up to a little more than 41.7 million inhabitants.
We propose that TPS (Temporary Protection Status) is given to all immigrants in the United States, but the causes of emigration lie in underdevelopment, in the poverty in which Central American peoples live.
The only way of halting the flow of emigrants toward the United States is not by raising walls, reinforcing military patrols on the borders is not the only way.
The United States needs the Central American labor force, like it needs the Mexican labor force; when that labor force reaches beyond the demands of the U.S. economy, then come the repressive policies; it is contributing funds without political conditions, without the conditioning of the International Monetary Fund.
We have the thankless task of having to look after the borders with the United States on account of drug consumption.
In Nicaragua alone, last year, the national police seized more than 360 tons of cocaine. That, at the market price in the United States, certainly adds up to more than $1 billion.
How much is the United States contributing to Nicaragua for looking after its borders? It is contributing $1.2 million.
It is not just, it is not equitable, it is not moral that it is the G-20 that keeps on making the major decisions; the hour has come for it to be the G-192; in other words, every country in the United Nations.
Those who have had negotiations with the Fund (IMF) know perfectly well what the Fund has signified, how they have sacrificed social programs, agricultural programs, productive programs, in order to pull out the resources and pay the debt, the debt imposed by the regulations established by global capitalism.
It has been no more than an instrument for establishing and developing – from the metropolises – colonial, neocolonial and imperialist policies.
In that heroic struggle that Mahatma Gandhi waged for India’s dependence from Britain, he said: “Britain has utilized one quarter of the planet’s resources to reach its present state of development. How many resources will India need to reach that same development?”
Now in the 21st century, and since the end of the 20th century, it wasn’t only Britain but all of the developed capitalist countries establishing their hegemony at the cost of the destruction of the planet and of the human species, by imposing the consumer values of their model.
The only way of saving the planet and with that the sustainable development of humanity, will be to establish the bases of a new international economic order, of a new social, political economic model, which is genuinely just, cooperative and democratic.
In the project known as PETROCARIBE and in the ALBA – virtually all the Caribbean countries are in PETROCARIBE – but some Central American countries are also in it. There are SICA countries that are in PETROCARIBE: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Panama.
“The heads of state and government of the Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela, member countries of ALBA, consider that the draft declaration of the 5th Americas Summit is insufficient and unacceptable for the following reasons:
(He immediately reads the ALBA statement on the document proposed for the Americas Summit.)
"It does not give any response to the issue of the Global Economic Crisis, despite this constituting the greatest challenge that humanity has had to confront in decades.
"It unjustifiably excludes Cuba, without mentioning the general consensus that exists in the region for condemning the blockade and the attempts at isolation to which its people and government have been incessantly subjected in a criminal manner.
"What we are experiencing is a global economic crisis of a systemic and structural nature and not just another cyclical crisis.
"Capitalism has provoked the ecological crisis by submitting the necessary conditions for life on the planet to the predominance of the market and profits."
In order to avoid this outcome it is necessary to develop an alternative model to the capitalist system. A system in harmony with our Mother Earth and not of the plunder of natural resources; a system of cultural diversity and not of the crushing of cultures and the imposition of cultural values and lifestyles that are far from the realities of our countries; a system of peace based on social justice and not on imperialist politics and wars; a system that does not reduce them to mere consumers or merchandise.
In relation to the U.S. blockade of Cuba and the exclusion of this country from the Americas Summit, the countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America reiterate the declaration that all the Latin American and Caribbean countries adopted last December 16, 2008, on the need to put an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba by the government of the United States, including the application of the so-called Helms-Burton Act, widely known to everybody.
In my country, Nicaragua, the governments that preceded me fulfilled neoliberal policies to the letter. From 1990, when the Sandinista Front left government, to January 10, 2007, when the Sandinista Front returned to government; it was applied for 16 years.
When the Revolution triumphed in Nicaragua in 1979, the dictatorships and governments imposed and sustained by U.S. governors in Nicaragua, the democrats who had called themselves democrats, left Nicaragua with 60% illiteracy.
Our first great battle was to do away with illiteracy and we began that great battle and managed to reduce illiteracy to 11.5-12%. We were unable to go any further because a policy of war was imposed on us by the Reagan administration.
We handed over government in 1990 with a 12.5% illiteracy rate in the country and received the country, in January 2007, with an illiteracy rate of 35%.
These are not figures invented by the government, they are data worked out by specialized educational and cultural agencies.
That is the result of the neoliberalism applied to Nicaragua, of the privatizations applied in Nicaragua, because public health was privatized, education was privatized, the poor were excluded; for other people the change was good, because they grew rich; the model has demonstrated that it is very successful in terms of accumulating wealth, successful in terms of expanding poverty. It is a great concentrator of wealth and a great multiplier of destitution and poverty.
It is a problem of an ethical order, a problem of a moral order on which the future rests, not only that of the most impoverished countries, like the five countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that I have mentioned here, in which we have nothing much more to lose than our chains, if there is not a change of values that allows us to be really sustainable.
It is no longer a matter of ideology, it is not a political matter; it is a matter of survival. And all of us are going there, from the G-20 to the G-5, we, the most impoverished of Latin America and the Caribbean.
I think that we have to take on this crisis that is affecting the world and which is leading to discussions, debates, the search for solutions, taking into account that the current model of development is no longer possible, is no longer sustainable.
The only way of saving all of ourselves is by changing the model.
Thank you very much.
Daniel’s phrases at the opening of the Summit resembled the pealing of a bell tolling for a politics of centuries applied up until recently to the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.
It is 19:58. I have just listened to the words of President Hugo Chávez. It would seem that Venezolana de Televisión smuggled a camera into the "Secret Summit" and transmitted some of his words. Yesterday, we saw him amiably returning Obama’s gesture of going over to where he was and greeting him, doubtless an intelligent gesture on the part of the president of the United States.
This time Chávez got up from his chair, went over to Obama’s chair at the head of a rectangular room together with Michelle Bachelet, and presented him with the well-known book by Galeano, The Open Veins of Latin America, systematically brought up to date by the author. I don’t know at which point in the day that took place, I’m simply mentioning the time when I heard it.
It was announced that the Summit is to end tomorrow at midday.
The president of the United States has been very active. According to the news he not only met with the Summit plenary, but also with all the sub-groups in the region.
His predecessor went to bed early and slept for many hours. It would seem that Obama works a lot and sleeps little.
Today, the 19th, at 11:57, I haven’t seen anything new. The CNN channel is without fresh news. I heard the 12 chimes of the clock; at that moment the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago took the Summit platform. I dedicated myself to listening to him, and noticed some rather strange things. Manning’s face was tense. After a while, Obama spoke and then responded to questions from the press; I saw him brusquer, although calm. What most caught my attention is that a press conference was organized, made up of various leaders, at which none of those who opposed the [final] documents spoke.
Manning had previously stated that the document was prepared two years ago when there was not a profound economic crisis and thus the current problems were not approached with total clarity. Undoubtedly, I thought, McCain was missing. Definitely the OAS, Leonel and the Dominican Republic recalled the surname of the military chief of the 1965 invaders and the 50,000 soldiers that occupied it to prevent the return of Juan Bosch, who was not a Marxist Leninist.
Those present at the press conference were prime minister of Canada, an openly rightist man and the only one to have been ill-mannered toward Cuba; Felipe Calderón, the president of Mexico; Martin Torrijos of Panama; and, logically, Patrick Manning. The Caribbean leader and the two Latin American ones were respectful toward Cuba. None of them attacked it and they had expressed their opposition to the blockade.
Obama spoke of the military might of the United States, which could help in the war on organized crime and the importance of the U.S. market. He likewise acknowledged that the programs being carried out by the Cuban government, such as sending medical contingents to Latin American and Caribbean countries, could be more effective than Washington’s military strength at the hour of winning influence in the region.
As Cubans, we do not do that in order to win influence; it is a tradition that began in Algeria in 1963, when it was fighting against French colonialism, and we have done so in dozens of Third World countries.
He was brusque and evasive in relation to the blockade in his interview with the press; but he was already born and will be 48 on August 4.
That same month, nine days later, I shall be 83, almost double his age, but now I have much more time to think. I wish to remind him of an elemental ethical principle related to Cuba: any injustice, any crime, in any epoch has no excuse whatsoever for lasting; the cruel blockade against the Cuban people costs lives, costs suffering; it also affects the economy on which a nation is sustained and limits its possibilities of cooperating with services in health, education, sport, energy savings and environmental protection with many poor countries of the world.
Fidel Castro RuzApril 19, 20092:32 p.m.
(Taken from CubaDebate)

Jasbir discovered the body of her father, Sukhbinder Singh, whose photo is held by her mother
Punjab suicides cast shadow on polls

By Suvojit Bagchi BBC News, Barnala, Punjab

Mandip Kaur, a 29-year-old housewife from a farming family in southern Punjab, guards her husband round the clock.
"I fear he may commit suicide," she says in broken Hindi.
Almost every village in Punjab has witnessed a suicide in their once-prosperous farming families and it is a major issue in the general election.
Ms Kaur's 35-year-old husband, Lakhbir Singh, a small farmer with a two-acre land holding, is a strong and neatly dressed man.
He shows no sign of irritation or discomfort when we meet him in the village of Boparai Khurd in Barnala, about 500km (300 miles) north of Delhi.
Each year before the harvest, the small farmers of Punjab, who make up nearly 85% of the state's farming community, borrow from local rural moneylenders at exorbitant interest rates to meet production costs, including fertilisers and electricity for irrigation.
“ Commodity prices are plummeting in the international market... and farmer suicides may increase in coming months ”
"[Lakhbir] has a loan of more than 700,000 rupees ($15,000), which he cannot repay," says Ms Kaur.
Defaulting on payment increases the rates of interest and a farmer is publicly humiliated in the local panchayat (self-governing rural body) if he fails to pay up.
"His elder brother, my father, committed suicide more than a year ago, as his loan had accumulated up to $20,000," says 15-year-old Jasbir, who discovered her father's body.
"I do not think I can ever repay the whole amount," Lakhbir confesses.
The Bhartiya Kisan Union-Ekta, (BKU-United), one of the largest farmers' unions in Punjab, is urging its members not to vote in the election if they feel that none of the parties is addressing their needs.
'Major issue'
National Crime Records Bureau statistics say close to 200,000 farmers have committed suicide in India since 1997.
The Punjab government says the state produces nearly two-thirds of the grain in India.
But the state has faced many economic crises since the the mid-1990s.
No comprehensive official figures on farmer suicides in the area are available.
But a report commissioned by the government of Punjab this week estimated that there had been "close to 3,000 suicides" among farmers and farm labourers in just two of Punjab's 20 districts in recent years, agriculture ministry sources told the BBC.
The general secretary of BKU-United, Sukhdev Singh Khokri, says: "The findings of this report will snowball into a major electoral issue."
Another government report published in 2007 suggested that "about 12% of marginal and small farmers have left farming" over the past few years.
Among the reasons is the lack of access to credit, a facility denied by banks to farmers with no property.
"Bank loans to small farmers without collateral declined sharply as India introduced neo-liberal policies in the 1990s," says Bernard D'Mello, deputy editor of Economic and Political Weekly.
Farmers had to approach rural moneylenders who charge exorbitant rates.
Amarjit Singh, another small farmer from Barnala whose father committed suicide a few years back, says: "My father could not read or write, so he could not calculate the amount of loan he had incurred.
"Once it reached a staggering sum, he was publicly threatened by the moneylender and committed suicide.
"If I am asked to pay my father's debt, I will also have to commit suicide," says Amarjit, who has also taken on loans to meet rising production costs.
Surplus
The Punjab government's website proclaims that "India has gone from a food-deficit to a food-surplus country" largely because of the Green Revolution of Punjab.
In the 1960s, it revolutionised agricultural production by introducing high-yield varieties of seeds, chemical fertilisers, insecticides and machinery.
But the 2007 report criticises the revolution and its surplus of crops.
Independent researcher and activist Ranjana Padhi says: "Since everyone had money, labourers were replaced by tractors and unemployment increased, while productivity steadily declined."
As production costs have risen, food prices have slumped.
Traditionally, the government buys grain from farmers and distributes it in the open market.
Sukhpal Singh, a senior economist at Punjab Agricultural University, feels farmers had to bear government prices that were too low and failed to take into account "risk factors like crop failure or soil maintenance".
Poor prices internationally restricted the government from a higher buying rate for farmers.
Another factor is the subsidies in place in areas such as Europe.
German non-governmental organisation Foodwatch says the European subsidies are responsible for large-scale unemployment and poverty among farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The issue is pending with the World Trade Organisation but talks on the issue have repeatedly failed.
Bernard D'Mello feels the worst is yet to come given the recent recession.
"Commodity prices are plummeting in the international market as a result of recession, which will depress the price in Indian markets as well and farmer suicides may increase in coming months," he says.
Punjab Agriculture Minister Sucha Singh Langah says the state government has increased farming subsidies to all categories in recent years.
But the Election Commission has put further projects on hold pending the polls.
Meanwhile the farmers' unions are co-ordinating a joint protest to highlight the plight of farmers.
Amarjit Singh will be one taking part. "We will stop everything in the state for two days," he says.

Land Of Five Rivers In Water Crisis And Water Chaos
Farmer Suicides in Punjab

A Punjab Agricultural Univeristy report Farmer & Agricultural Labourers Suicides due to Indebtedness in the Punjab State -- a pilot project of Sangrur and Bathinda districts, submitted to the Punjab government a few days back has sirred a political storm.
The survey report says that 2,990 farmers had committed suicide in just two districts -- 1256 in Bathinda and 1634 in Sangrur district -- between 2000 and 2008. This report, more or less like a household census, is considered to be the first authentic survey documenting the spate of suicides among farmers and agricultural workers.
This report comes within a month of the Punjab government's decision to fix a price for farmer suicides -- Rs 2 lakh to the families of those farmers who have committed suicide in the past one year.
In Sangrur district, 738 farmers who took the fatal path to escape growing indebtedness, had an average outstanding debt of Rs 3.36 lakh per farmer. For another lot of 246 farmers who committed suicide for other reasons, the average outstanding amount standing against their name was Rs 79,935. As far as farm labourers are concerned, the average debt was Rs 70,036.
In Bathinda, the average outstanding due against farmers who could not sustain the growing indebtedness, was Rs 2.94 lakh. As many as 550 farmers belonged to this category. For another lot of 223 farmers who too committed suicide but for other reasons, the average outstanding debt was Rs 85,825. For the workers, the outstanding amount against their name was Rs 47,347 on an average. The report also provides a list of such households.
Meanwhile, another report in The Independent, London, says 1,500 farmers in Chattisgarh State have committed suicide. It blames crop failure and the falling water table to be responsible for the serial death dance. If this is true, I don't see why the Punjab farmers, who are endowed with assured irrigation, have to commit suicide. That means lack of irrigation cannot be the only reason. The PAU report blames growing indebtedness for the spate of suicides. Indebtedness comes from various reasons, and somehow I find we shirk from pointing to the real causes.
Reports about suicides in Vidharba belt in Maharashtra also ascribe it to lack of irrigation and distress sale of produce. While all this may be true, but I sometimes wonder why are we all reluctant to dig it deeper and find out the real causes that triggers indebtedness.

Real Issues

Hidden hunger

HARSH MANDER

It is not just a rural phenomenon. Hunger stalks our city streets too and is much more prevalent than we think ...
It is interesting that a fifth of the homeless people we spoke to said that they prefer to stay hungry than depend on charity from religious places, relatives and friends.

It is often assumed that hunger defaces only the rural landscape; and that although cities may engender other forms of violence, its colonies, shanties and streets are free of that most terrible form of want — of food for a hungry belly. But we discovered — in a study of homeless people that we undertook over two years in the streets of Patna, Delhi, Chennai and Madurai — hunger to be rampant, and sometimes desperate, even on city streets, although obscured in the smoggy haze of city lights.

Budham Bai, a grizzly old homeless woman in the country’s capital, eats only what she gets out from the charity of temple worshippers, and saves all the cash she is given as alms to send back to her village. Many times, she has to be content with only one meal, but usually she is able to manage two half meals a day. She spends eight months a year begging and sleeping in the courtyard of Kalkaji Mandir in Delhi, to support her ailing husband in their village in Uttar Pradesh. He is too proud to beg.

Bare survival

Most of the food street children buy are at food stalls. On bad days, some eat at dargahs, gurudwaras or temples, and the younger ones forage for food in rubbish heaps. Phelena Devi, abandoned by her husband, lives alone on the platform in Patna and earns 20 to 30 rupees per day from picking rags. Every morning, she spends two rupees on tea. Only after she completes her work by late afternoon does she buy her first meal of the day from a stall. The day she has enough money, she eats from the hotel on the station. For eight rupees she eats rice, dal and vegetables, and at night, she gets herself three rotis that cost her six rupees. Later she forages in the bins for bits of biscuits and samosas, and sometimes begs at temples.

Many buy cooked food, sometimes from humble eateries on the pavements themselves. Mythili has grown up with her family on a pavement in Chennai; her mother runs a small stall on the pavement itself to serve food to other homeless people. Her overheads are so low and the fare very elementary, to make the meals affordable to homeless people. The mendicant homeless population of Madurai is fed often by charitable organisations.

Only meal of the day

Leprosy patients Bhagniman and Janak in Patna depend on stale leftovers that they are given as they beg in the day. But at night, they try to set up a makeshift stove between two bricks, and boil some hot rice. In Chennai, we saw women setting out their stoves only close to midnight after the streets were emptied of pedestrians, and they woke their sleeping children to groggily eat their only self-cooked meal for the day. This is how more than half the homeless people we spoke to in Chennai managed to eat at least one “home”-cooked meal. But cooking food is even more trying during the rainy seasons, as they cannot keep their fires burning under the pouring rain, and the wet surface hinders the lighting of a hearth even after the rain stops.

Linked to homelessness

The nature of their dwellings, if any — makeshift and open to the sky — forces homeless people to depend extensively on external sources for their food — through purchase, foraging, or receiving food in charity. The condition of being homeless in the city also typically means lacking a place to cook, or to store rations and one’s utensils (except where families are able to colonise segments of pavement for long periods like in Chennai). Purchasing food may involve greater expense; and that too for less healthy food. In Patna we observed that none of the homeless people store any food due to its perishable nature, and because they had no secured space to store anything. Besides, fuel is something that is beyond their means. Often they can be seen cooking on fires burning between bricks, the weak fire fed with bits of branches and dry twigs that the homeless people have collected, or with cakes of cow dung collected from the droppings of stray cattle. We found that few homeless people in Delhi can cook their own meals. Around half purchase their dinner, the rest eat at shrines, beg or forage for food in the railway station, eating leftovers from trains that serve food to passengers.

Not being able to cook food at home results not just in poor nutrition, but also high expenditures. We found that many homeless people spend 50 to 90 per cent of their income on food. But even this is often not enough. A woman who looks after her homeless family in Patna complained, “Our daily income is 70 rupees, so how can we get enough food from that? On top of that, we have five children to look after.”

Sacrificing everything else

If they still manage to eat nutritious food, it is to the sacrifice of almost everything else. In Patna, we met Deepak studying under a street light. He is the 10-year-old son of a rickshaw-puller, who lives with his father on the pavement. His father wanted him to become a “sahib”, and therefore brought him to study in a school in the city, instead of leaving him in his village with his mother. He is a caring father, who spends a great deal of what he earns to feed his son well. He buys for him every night a packet of biscuits for three rupees. This is his breakfast the next morning. Later the boy eats roti with vegetables bought from a roadside hotel, and a small cup of milk. Ganesh, Deepak’s father says, “Even if I don’t eat, I buy a cup of milk for my Deepak everyday.” In school, there is khichri or gruel in the State financed midday meal. Ganesh buys an egg for Deepak once in few days.

Last resort

On days when they are unable to find work, in Delhi many of the homeless seek free food from religious places, and street children also depend on friends for food. It is interesting that a fifth of the homeless people we spoke to said that they prefer to stay hungry than depend on charity from religious places, relatives and friends. In Chennai, one-fourth of the respondents borrow money from other homeless people during such lean days, and a tenth per cent are helped by their neighbours who share their food. A small portion dulls their appetite by drinking tea. In Madurai, on the other hand, they keep their hunger at bay with beedis, drugs, tea or just water, or else they beg or get food on credit. In Patna, a third of those we spoke to said they just stay hungry, a seventh solicit food from others, and others eat on credit.

A homeless man remarked bitterly in Patna, “God has two ways of looking at His people. For one segment of people, He leaves the strings loose, but for the poor He keeps a tight hold on the strings. He gives us so much pain: whereas we crave for good food, for fruits, meat and fish, they get so much to eat…”

Alternative

Non-Congress, Non-BJP Alternative

Prakash Karat

WITH the election campaign for the first phase coming to an end, it has become clear that the 15th Lok Sabha election is a three-way contest. Contrary to what the Congress and the BJP hoped would be a contest between the two parties and their respective allies, the coming together of the non-Congress, non-BJP parties are challenging both the Congress and the BJP in a number of states. This is behind the increasing attacks on the third front by the Congress and the BJP leadership.The Congress President Mrs. Sonia Gandhi has been attacking the third front in her speeches during the election campaign. She has said that forming such fronts just before elections is not good for the country. Such a front has no policy or programme and would push the country to disaster. L. K. Advani while releasing the BJP manifesto called the third front a “farcical illusion”.Thus both the Congress and the BJP are desperately trying to discredit the coming together of the non-Congress, non-BJP parties. The fact that the Left and six regional parties have entered into an electoral understanding in various states and posing a serious challenge to both the Congress and the BJP is the underlying cause for the stepped up attacks on the third front. If such a front is only an illusion or just a motley bunch of parties without a programme, why are the two parties so worried?The answer to that must be found in the new dynamic of the election scene. In the 2004 parliamentary elections, the Congress polled 26.53 per cent of the vote and the BJP 22.16 per cent. Together, this constitutes 48.67 per cent, i.e., less than fifty per cent of the vote. If the two parties fail to rally a substantial number of the non-Congress, non-BJP parties to their side, their prospects are bleak.The Congress party has now no electoral alliance with most of the UPA partners. It has only an understanding with the DMK in Tamilnadu and a partial adjustment with the JMM in Jharkhand. As far as the NCP is concerned, the Congress is allied to it only in Maharashtra and Goa. The NCP is fighting the Congress in other states. The most trusted ally of the Congress, Laloo Prasad Yadav, has joined hands with Ram Vilas Paswan in Bihar and is fighting all the seats, including the three sitting seats of the Congress. In Uttar Pradesh, another ally, the Samajwadi Party, is fighting the Congress in all the seats except those of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. As for the BJP-led NDA, it has not recovered from the blow it got when the BJD parted ways with it in Orissa. In contrast, the non-Congress, non-BJP combination has emerged with the Left parties having electoral alliances with the regional parties like the TDP and TRS in Andhra Pradesh, the AIADMK and PMK in Tamilnadu, Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka and the BJD in Orissa.Unlike the UPA which has fallen apart, there is already a pre-election alliance. This pre-election alliance will take a full-fledged shape after the Lok Sabha elections. But there is no doubt that the alliance of the third front parties is a reality. The Congress and the BJP have both released their election manifestos. They are accusing each other of “copying” their manifestoes. It is irrelevant for the people who has copied whom. But what should be noted is that they are admitting that their manifestos are similar – the same promises and the same policies.This stands out clearly when the BJP has withdrawn its opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal. The BJP had been demanding that the nuclear deal be re-negotiated. This was the stand that they took during the trust vote in Parliament in July 2008. However, in the election manifesto, the BJP has dropped this demand. Jaswant Singh, the former External Affairs Minister, has gone on record to say that governments cannot cancel international agreements arrived at. This underlines the fact that both the Congress and the BJP are one when it comes to pursuing a pro-American foreign policy.This common approach extends to other basic policies. For instance, it is striking that neither the Congress nor the BJP election manifesto has even a reference to the implementation of land reforms. This must be the first time that the Congress has dropped land reforms in a Parliament election manifesto. It shows the grip of neo-liberal policies that the two major bourgeois parties in the country do not consider it worthwhile even to make a mention of land reforms.Both parties are not for the re-introduction of the universal public distribution system. Both want the continuance of the targetted system which has excluded the bulk of the people in the name of BPL category. Both parties are against the principle of federalism. That is why their manifestos are silent about the need for restructuring Centre-state relations. It is these common policies that makes both the Congress and the BJP hostile to any effort to pose an alternative policy platform. This explains the virulent reaction to the emergence of a third front. The Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have attacked the CPI(M) and the Left in various speeches. One of their main charges is that the third front is dividing the secular vote and helping the BJP. This is patently false. In the first phase of elections, some of the states like Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Kerala are going to the polls on April 16. In these three states, the main fight is between the Congress and the parties belonging to the third front. The BJP has been effectively nullified in these states as they do not have any worthwhile ally. This has come about because of the alliance of the non-Congress, non-BJP parties. It is not the Congress party which can defeat the BJP in Orissa but the alliance of secular parties led by the BJD. So the charge that the third front is helping the BJP is baseless. Dr. Manmohan Singh, in his campaign in Kerala, has dredged up the usual anti-Communist propaganda about the role of the communists in 1942. Coming from a person who showered praise on British rule in India as marked by “good governance”, this is a bit rich. Dr. Manmohan Singh had made a speech in Oxford University in July 2005 where he spelt out the beneficial consequences of British colonial rule in India. It is significant that this speech came a few days before his visit to Washington where in a joint statement with President George Bush, a global partnership for spreading democracy was declared. Probably, the American experiment in spreading democracy to Iraq inspired the Prime Minister. Dr. Manmohan Singh knows very well that Communist leaders made great sacrifices and spent many years in jail fighting British rule. Being on the “right side of history”, that is the United States, seems to have clouded his judgement. The BJP Prime Ministerial candidate seems incapable of distinguishing between illusion and reality as far as the third front is concerned. Having seen his thesis of a bipolar polity going up in smoke, the BJP leader keeps harping on the point that no government can be formed without the Congress or the BJP. Behind this constant assertion is the tacit admission that neither the BJP nor the Congress may play a decisive role in the formation of a government. Having failed to convert the parliamentary election into a presidential style referendum, the BJP leader has taken the unusual and disturbing step of writing to one thousand religious figures. Advani has assured the religious leaders that they would be consulted in policy making. He has stated in the letter that, as Prime Minister he would seek on a regular basis the guidance of spiritual leaders “on major challenges and issues facing the nation” and for this “we shall evolve a suitable consultative mechanism”. The letter has been sent to various sadhus and religious figures associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. It has also been sent to a sprinkling of pro-BJP leaders of other religions. This letter reveals the true outlook of L. K. Advani and the BJP. Here is a brazen invitation to religious leaders to interfere in matters of State and politics. It fully conforms to the goal of Hindu Rashtra. The Congress party is also not above using religious leaders to meddle in political affairs and the elections. If in West Bengal some imams have been mobilised to appeal to the people to reject the CPI(M) and the Left Front, in Kerala, the UDF is blatantly using sections of the church to appeal to believers to vote against the atheists. Such perverse use of religious appeal will only help the BJP and the majority communalists, who seek legitimacy by pointing to the interference of minority religious leaders in the sphere of politics.Another disturbing feature is the massive amounts of money being ploughed into the elections by the Congress and the BJP. It has been reported that Rs. 10.6 crores have been seized from a single constituency – Bellary in Karnataka. Both parties have brazenly given tickets to persons who have no other qualification but the fact that they have unlimited money power.In the face of all such brazen and corrupt practices, the CPI(M) has put in its full strength and effort to bring the real issues before the people : the problem of growing loss of jobs, the distress caused by the agrarian crisis, the relentless price rise and the rampant corruption which deprives the people of the benefits of public expenditure. The Party has put forward the alternative economic policies required to tackle the situation. The threat posed by the communal forces and the resultant growth of terrorism has to be fought through uniting the people of all communities. The struggle to protect national sovereignty and the need for an independent foreign policy is being highlighted only by the CPI(M) and the Left. It is this alternative policy platform which is finding growing support among the people.

Plague Of Suicide

No cash crunch for leaders in Vidarbha

MUMBAI: In many constituencies in Maharashtra, the word ‘drought’ depends on which side of the political landscape you’re on. Voters in Vidarbha or Solapur, for instance, have lived with deprivation for decades.

The scene changes dramatically for their political masters, who have declared property and assets worth crores in their affidavits before the Election Commission. The Bhandara-Gondia constituency in Vidarbha, for instance, is a dust bowl, plagued by extreme poverty and underdevelopment.

The candidate from here: Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel, who owns assets worth Rs 67.36 crore, bank deposits of Rs 3.2 lakh and bonds, debentures and shares worth Rs 4.61 crore. The book value of his shares is Rs 2.81 crore. He also owns 1.83 kg gold, 24 kg silver and precious stones worth Rs 6.8 lakh.

His wife Varshaben has bank deposits of Rs 3.6 lakh and owns 2.89 kg gold and 59 kg silver, worth Rs 1.33 crore. Their son Prajay has 6.78 kg gold and jewellery worth Rs 1.33 crore. Varshaben owns non-agricultural land worth Rs 2.76 crore in Anand (Gujarat), along with residential premises valued at Rs 27.94 lakh.

Next on the wealth chart from Vidarbha is Congress candidate from Wardha, Datta Meghe, who was once a close associate of NCP chief Sharad Pawar. Mr Meghe has assets worth over Rs 22 crore and owns property worth a little over the amount.

He has a flat in Worli (Mumbai) worth Rs 1.93 crore in his name and another in his wife Shalinitai’s name in the area, valued at Rs 1.01 crore. Mr Meghe also runs a chain of educational institutions—from schools to medical and engineering colleges—in Nagpur and Wardha, and owns a health club and poultry farms. But unlike Mr Patel, Mr Meghe owns a car worth Rs 3.29 lakh. His wife has 2.292 kg gold and 72.16 kg silver, together worth Rs 43.33 lakh.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar is ‘poorer’ than Praful Patel and Dutta Meghe. Mr Pawar has declared movable and immovable assets, shares and bank deposits worth Rs 8.82 crore in his and his wife Pratibha’s name. Mr Pawar has assets worth over Rs 3.92 crore in his name and Rs 3.31 crore in his wife’s name.

About Rs 1.5 crore of assets, is shown as HUF holdings. Mr Pawar has gold (808.4 gm) and silver (15,171 gm) worth over Rs 15.08 lakh. Pratibha owns jewellery worth over Rs 5.99 lakh as part of the Rs 2.69-crore movable assets shown in her name. Jewellery worth over Rs 6.25 lakh is shown as part of the HUF holdings worth over Rs 64 lakh. Mr Pawar has a 2,850 sq ft office property in Pune Camp in his name, valued at Rs 2.10 crore.

Another big gun contesting from the drought-prone Solapur is Union energy minister Sushilkumar Shinde. He has declared assets worth over Rs 8.6 crore in his and his wife Ujwala’s name. The Shindes own immovable property worth Rs 5.25 crore and movable assets of over Rs 3.34 crore.

Mr Shinde has just about Rs 21,000 cash in hand while his wife has Rs 18,000. Together, they have about Rs 3.2 crore deposits in 13 banks spread across Solapur, Mumbai and New Delhi. Unlike Mr Pawar and Praful Patel, Mr Shinde owns a vehicle, even if it just a Fiat, which, according to him, is worth Rs 7,680 and a tractor valued at Rs 2 lakh.

From Economic Times

Dress rehearsal for new Corporate Democracy

Elections, Money and Poverty

Devinder Sharma

Sometimes I wonder whether we even realise that the days of the Great Indian democracy are almost over. We are being told day in and day out to come and vote, but vote for whom? The only choice we have is between the stinkingly rich and not-so-rich. I wonder whether we even have time to pause and think, think why and how a poverty-stricken nation where 77 per cent of the population does not spend more than Rs 20 a day, cannot now elect a leader who comes from the masses, who truly represents the masses.

It is no longer the kind of democracy that you and me have lived with all these years. It wasn't perfect, I agree. But still we could elect people who were mass leaders, who worked tirelessly with people. But now, the times have changed. Not only have the configurations changed, the contours too have changed. So have the goal posts. Money is the essential qualification for an aspiring leader. If you have the money, you can think of becoming a leader, a people's representative. If you don't have money, forget it. You are only meant to vote.

Indian democracy has now become a big money game.

I see it as a dress rehearsal for a new emerging corporate democracy, call it Corpocracy. Indian Parliament is fast becoming a rich men's club. This is not only the story of the Lok Sabha, the lower House. The Rajya Sabha, the upper House, is already being corporatised. Corporate heads are getting themselves nominated (and elected) to Rajya Sabha in droves.

We are treading on a dangerous path. The architects of the Indian Constitution had failed to visualise the degeneration, the decline and fall of the electoral system in the years to come. They had failed, and failed miserably to protect Indian democracy from the greedy hawks in the system. I don't blame them, for we all are in reality short-sighted. But we can surely rectify the mistake. If we care for democracy -- a democracy of the people, by the people and for the people -- than we have little choice. We must act fast, and act in a manner that can protect the democractic norms we want to cherish.

All we need to do is to force the political parties to demand that in the candidate's list that is given to us when we go to vote, after all the names of the candidates mentioned in the list, there should be an option that says: none of these. People should have the right to say no if they feel none of the candidates deserve his/her vote.
This is the only way to protect the Great Indian democracy from going the corporate way.
Otherwise, look at how nauseating it can be to see the kind of people seeking representation from the suicide belt of Vidharbha in Maharashtra. The news report I am pasting below is from the pages of The Economic Times (April 6, 2009). And this is not only true for Vidharbha, you see the same trend all over the country. The 2009 general elections marks a watershed in the election scenario. This is the stage when the switch-over to corpocracy is taking place. The next time it will completely be a corporate game. The end of people's democracy is in sight.

Mera bharat mahaan, didn't you hear that?

A leaderless region at the polls

P Sainath

The Congress, which took a battering in Vidarbha in 2004, may fare somewhat better this time

“A curious feature of elections here,” says Dr. Raju Mishra, author of Janadesh, the definitive book on polls in Vidarbha, “is that this is a leaderless region. There is not a single leader whose stature holds region-wide.”

Here, there is no Pawar as in Western Maharashtra, no Rane as in the Konkan. Truly odd, since the State presidents of both the Congress and the BJP are from Vidarbha.

Vidarbha in Maharashtra is well over twice the size of Kerala. Of 11 districts, just six — the cotton belt — are bigger than Punjab. This traditionally pro-Congress region battered the party in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP-Sena swept 10 of the then 11 seats in the region (after delimitation, there are 10), riding a wave of farmer anger. And with the BSP cutting into its votes, the Congress could retain only the Nagpur seat.

The region’s eastern districts mostly grow paddy while the western ones mainly cotton and soybean. Issues affecting these crops matter a lot to the over 17 million voters here. The six-cotton growing districts have been hotspots of agrarian distress. An official report in 2006 declared that over two-thirds of nine million people surveyed were in distress. And there have been thousands of farmers’ suicides here in the past few years.

This time round, the Congress faces less hostility and could fare somewhat better than it did in 2004. However, that does not imply an easy ride. All its candidates face a serious threat from those of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), who could cause either the Congress-NCP or the Sena-BJP to lose seats. Meanwhile, the caste arithmetic gets more complex daily and will play a bigger role in this election than in the last one.

The lowering of the hostility level came in 2008. “No government in history has ever given out a Rs. 71,000-crore loan waiver for farmers,” asserts Datta Meghe, Congress candidate from Wardha.

Perhaps more vital was the rise in the MSP for cotton to Rs. 3,000. Many farmers missed out on the loan waiver as they owned more than five acres. But several of them gained from the Rs.20,000 write-off, for those above the cut-off point, bringing some relief, even if temporary.

Mr. Meghe’s own campaign in Wardha just got a boost from Rahul Gandhi’s rally there. The Congress-NCP combine holds all six Assembly seats here. His main rival is sitting MP Suresh Waghmare of the BJP who beat Prabha Rau of the Congress by just over 3000 votes in 2004. And while Mr. Meghe exudes confidence, his main worry could come from the BSP and Congress dissidents. The BSP’s Vipin Kangale, an adivasi, could repeat his party’s 2004 feat when it grabbed over eight per cent of the vote.

In Nagpur, Vilas Muttemwar of the Congress would normally be said to have the edge. He beat his 2004 BJP rival by a nearly one-lakh margin. His main problem: three of four Congress MLAs here, including two ministers, are against him. Also, the BSP’s Manikrao Vaidya and the Ambedkar group’s Yashwant Manohar might cut into the Congress vote, helping the BJP’s Banwarilal Purohit. However, the BSP factor could hit the BJP as well amongst voters of the Teli community.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel is in trouble in Bhandara-Gondiya. In 2004, sitting MP and BJP candidate Natthu Shisupal Patle beat him by 3009 votes, with the BSP grabbing 90,000 votes. This time, Mr. Patel faces more than the BJP and BSP. Expelled Congress rebel — and MLA till just days ago — Nana Patole might dent his vote. The post-Khairlanji caste polarisation of OBC versus Buddhist could also trouble Mr. Patel. In Ramtek (Reserved SC), Mukul Wasnik of the Congress faces the Shiv Sena’s Kripal Tumhane, a Hindu Dalit. The BSP, which logged eight per cent in 2004, and another Dalit candidate, could hit the Congress’ non-Hindu Dalit vote. On the other hand, Sena activists are unhappy with Mr. Tumhane, a former Congressman who joined the Sena just months ago.

In Akola, the Congress’ Babasaheb Dhabekar could cut into the vote of the otherwise strong sitting BJP MP and candidate Sanjay Dhotre.

That could bring some gain to Prakash Ambedkar of the Baripa Bahujan Mahasanhga (BBM). In Amravati (Reserved SC), Ghadchiroli-Chimur (ST) and Chandrapur, the Congress-NCP will have a rough ride thanks to the BSP, strong caste-based independents and rebels.

The caste composition of Yavatmal-Washim constituency favours the Congress’ Haribhau Rathod, a Banjara, over Bhavana Gawali (OBC) of the Shiv Sena. However, he will have to address the disquiet of the 1.5 lakh Muslim voters over the Digras riots. And the recent violence in Pusad will also hurt him. In Buldhana, the NCP’s Rajendra Shingne might have the edge in his tough battle with the Sena’s Prataprao Jadhav.

Congress Stops

Paying Even Lip Service To Land Reforms


It was never a secret that the Congress has all along paid only lip service to the question of land reforms. This time however, even a mention of land reforms has failed to make it to its 2009 election manifesto. The disappearance of land reforms from the Congress manifesto is, however, not surprising. Given its obsession with the neoliberal economic agenda, this is natural.

The freedom movement saw the Congress utilising the slogan of land reforms to rally the rural poor. However, its compromise with landlordism scuttled any attempt to initiate any semblance of land reforms. Successive governments headed by it ignored Plan documents and even recommendations by commissions like the Mandal Commission for carrying out land reforms. Even the recommendations made by its own Agrarian Reforms Committee headed by J C Kumarappa, were set aside. The latest is the Swaminathan Commission recommendations. The hiatus between declarations and implementation is nowhere more glaring than on the question of land reforms.
Now let us look at the successive manifestos of the Congress party. In its 1998 election manifesto, it had stated:

"The Congress will continue to lay stress on land reforms to promote security of tenure to the tiller, land consolidation, distribution of surplus land and upgradation and maintenance of accurate land records. The Congress Party will take up the cause of land reforms once again, as it did before 1947 and in the early years following Independence."

In the 1999 election manifesto, the Congress stated:

"The Congress will continue to lay great stress on land reforms, particularly in those states where it has been lagging, to promote security of tenure to the tiller, land consolidation, distribution of excess vacant land over and above prescribed ceilings, registration of all tenancies through Operation Barga-type campaigns and maintenance of up-to-date land records. The Congress will make land reforms an issue for mobilisation and campaign."
However, in the 2004 manifesto it claimed:


"The 1950s needed land reforms...It is the Congress that abolished zamindari and ushered in land reforms...It will redouble its efforts to distribute surplus productive land to the landless..."

Making the dubious claim of having abolished the zamindari system and implemented land reforms, it posed as if the only remaining task was of distributing surplus land. In the 2009 election manifesto, even that task seems to have been completed. Thus the ugly gap between rhetoric and practice has finally been discontinued by totally avoiding any mention of land reforms in the manifesto.

Over the years there has been a distinct trend to reverse land reforms and undermine land ceiling laws. In fact landlessness has increased. As against the estimated 22 per cent of landless households in the NSS 40th round in 1992, the figure in 2002-03 in the NSS 59th round, had gone up to 32 per cent.
Contrast this to the record of the Left-led governments. Land reforms in Kerala broke the back of landlordism and abolished the janmi system. By 1993 it had conferred ownership rights/protection on 28 lakh tenants, and 6 lakh acres (2,42,812 ha) had accrued to tenants. The incumbent LDF government in Kerala has distributed 60,000 pattas to landless poor. About 12,000 acres of encroached land was taken over. Though West Bengal accounts for only 3.8 per cent of total agricultural land in India, more than half (54 per cent) of the total number of beneficiaries of land distribution programmes in the entire country are in West Bengal. In Tripura, land rights of the tribals have been protected. The Left Front government has ensured that no evictions of tribals take place in the name of clearing "encroachment".

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

A Rejoinder to Congress Report on West Bengal

West Bengal’s Finance Minister Ashim Dasgupta today refuted Congress leader and Union Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s allegations. He added that the allegations leveled by Mukherjee were completely bogus and were not based on credible facts but were politically motivated coming as they did just before the parliamentary elections.

Dr. Asim Dasgupta also criticized Pranab Mukherjee for depending on questionable findings of privately funded studies of small sample. He said that West Bengal fares better in the rate of reduction of poverty amongst many other states. In this regard West Bengal fares much better than the national average. In 1977 when the Left front Government formed the State Government in West Bengal for the first time, the rate of poverty in West Bengal was much more than that of the rest of India. At that time, the Congress was in power in West Bengal. Currently the percentage of people living under poverty line even if we were to accept the questionable methodology of the has decreased to 20% while about 22% people of rural India still lives under poverty line according to reports of the Planning Commission.

Answering to the allegation of Congress on the position of West Bengal as per the index of per capita income, Dr. Asim Dasgupta said that in the seventies West Bengal under the Congress rule was at the bottom of the chart. Furthermore, the freight equalization policy adopted by the Central Government in 1958-59 discriminated against the people of the state. Along with this at the time of partition there was an influx of a large number of refugees and the Central Government indifference to the their rehabilitation heavily burdened the State exchequer. At the same time it caused population explosion. But after coming to power in 1977 the West Bengal’s Left Front Government adopted many positive measures due to which this situation started to improve. According to statistical information available from the Central Government sources, in the year 2008-09 when the rate of agricultural growth in India has hovered around 2.6 per cent the corresponding rate of growth has been 4.1 % in West Bengal. In the case of industries when the rate of growth has been 4.1 percent in India the same rate in West Bengal if 5.8 %. When due to the current turmoil expert are predicting that the rate of growth of GDP is going to decrease to below 7 %, even at such a time West Bengal has maintained an average of about 7.8 % when it comes to the state domestic product. Even in the terms of the per capita income that State’s position is better than the national average.

On charges of the maximum occurrence of poverty in Murshidabad district and mentioning reports of Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) as a source he said that the ISI has not done any such work on Murshidabad district and it is not at all clear on whose basis this figure has been compiled and why the Congress is saying that Murshidabad is the poorest district of West Bengal. Though a survey conducted by the State Government has found that the incidence of poverty is there in Murshidabad still the situation is not as bad as is being projected by the Congress.

A survey conducted on behalf of the Panchayat and the Rural Development Department Government of West Bengal has pointed out that in the year 2008-09 in all the 40000 villages in the state and in 91 % of the 96265 habitats of West Bengal, West Bengal Government has been able to provide the people with access to safe drinking water.

He also said that the charges leveled by the Congress that 14 districts of West Bengal falls under the top 100 poorest districts of India are completely baseless and frivolous as the source of this is unknown. He said that the Human Development Index is 0.61 in West Bengal, which is much better than the national average.

In addition, consider the following facts:


Ø Hunger: Figures that are used for hunger are based on perception and not on scientific and objective criteria like calorie intake, under nourishment, underweight children, under five mortality. If these are taken as has been done by FAO’s hunger index then West Bengal ranks as the eighth least hunger affected State out of 17, ahead of Maharashtra, a Congress ruled State.

Ø Health: West Bengal’s Infant Mortality Rate at 37 continues to be lower than the Indian average of 55. (2007 SRS). The decline is most remarkable at an annual rate of 5.5 per cent.

Ø Maternal Mortality Rate in West Bengal is 19.4 as compared to all India average of 30.1.(NFHS 3). Reduction in MMR is far better than the all India average.

Ø The percentage of West Bengal children who are fully immunized is 64.3 per cent, which is again far above the all India average 43.5 per cent.

Ø Education: According to NSS 2004-2005 and annual State of Education report percentage of out of school children in age group 6-14 years in West Bengal is 4.8 for rural areas compared to 15 per cent eight years ago. As far as primary school dropouts is concerned, the national average is 9.36 per cent, while West Bengal is 8.56 per cent.

Ø Mid Day meal scheme: Pranab Mukherji quoted the CAG report. But the State of Education report 2007 found that mid-day meals in West Bengal were being provided in 98.3 per cent of schools in rural areas.

Ø Poverty: Rural poverty in West Bengal declined from 73.2% (percentage of persons below poverty line) in 1973-74 to 28.6% in 2004-05, as against the decline of poverty at the all-India level from 56.4% in 1973-74 to 28.3% in 2004-05. Urban poverty in West Bengal declined from 34.7% in 1973-74 to 14.8% in 2004-05, as against the decline of urban poverty at the all-India level from 49% in 1973-74 to 25.7% in 2004-05. Going by the Planning Commission’s estimate, West Bengal has achieved creditable success in poverty reduction, which is among the best in the country. In fact the Eleventh Plan document notes (Vol.3, Ch.4, p.80).

Ø Agricultural growth: 11th Plan document notes that between 1995 and 2005 it was 2.67 per cent in West Bengal, which was the third highest among all major States and way above national average of 1.85 per cent. In year 2008-2009 Indian agricultural growth was 2.6 per cent, which in W.Bengal is 4.1 per cent. While the acute agrarian crisis has led to farmers’ suicides in several States, especially Maharashtra, West Bengal has remained relatively immune from such acute distress. It is not surprising that the report, given its motivations, has carefully avoided any detailed discussion of agricultural performance. How can any analysis which ignores agriculture where the majority of the workforce is employed, be taken seriously?

Castro says Cuba not afraid to talk to U.S.

Feet firmly on the ground
Reflections of Fidel
WHILE the G-20 Summit was beginning and ending in London, the well-known Washington Post journalist, Karen DeYoung, wrote in that influential newspaper: "Senator Richard G. Lugar called on President Obama to appoint a special envoy to initiate direct talks with the island's communist government…
"The nearly 50-year-old economic embargo against Cuba, Lugar (R-Ind.) said in a March 30 letter to Obama, puts the United States at odds with the views of the rest of Latin America, the European Union and the United Nations, and "undermines our broader security and political interests in the Western Hemisphere."
"The April 17-19 Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago would present a "unique opportunity for you to build a more hospitable climate to advance U.S. interests in the region through a change in our position regarding Cuba policy.
"Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee," says Karen DeYoung is at the forefront of a broad movement advocating a new policy that includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups, a number of state governments and human rights groups. A bipartisan majority of Congress has repeatedly voted to ease restrictions on travel and other contact with Cuba, although the measures died after threatened presidential vetoes during the Bush administration."
"Lugar is a co-sponsor of a bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate this week that would end all restrictions on travel to Cuba except in cases of war or direct threats to health or safety."
"Lugar said the appointment of an envoy and initiation of direct talks on subjects such as migration and drug interdiction would "serve vital U.S. security interests . . . and could ultimately create the conditions for meaningful discussion of more contentious subjects."
Karen’s article makes it clear that the senator for Indiana has his feet firmly on the ground. His argument is not based on philanthropic positions. He is working, as she states, with "the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups, a number of state governments and human rights groups."
I am sure that Richard G. Lugar does not fear the stupidity of those who describe him as soft or pro-socialist.
When President Barack Obama is touring the world affirming, as he has done in his own country, that that it is necessary to invest the whatever sums are necessary in order to emerge from the financial crisis, guarantee the housing in which numerous families are living, guarantee employment for U.S. workers who are losing jobs in their millions, instigating health services and a quality education for all citizens, how can this be reconciled with blockade measures to impose his will on a country like Cuba?
Today, drugs constitute one of the most serious problems of this hemisphere and Europe. In the war on drugs and organized crime, stimulated by the enormous market of the United States, Latin American countries are losing close to 10,000 people every year, more than double those lost by the United States during the war in Iraq. Their number is growing and the problem is very far from being solved.
That phenomenon does not exist in Cuba, a close geographic neighbor of the United States. The U.S. Coast Guard and the Cubans have been cooperating for many years on the thorny subject and in combating illegal emigration. On the other hand, no U.S. citizen has died as a result of acts of terrorism emanating from our country, because such activities would not be tolerated.
The Cuban Revolution, which the blockade and dirty warfare have been unable to destroy, is based on ethical and political principles; that is why it has been capable of resisting.
I will not attempt to exhaust the theme. Far from that, I have omitted in this Reflection the damage the arrogant attitude of the United States against Cuba has inflicted on our country.
Those capable of serenely analyzing events, as is the case of the senator for Indiana, are using an irrefutable argument: the U.S. measures against Cuba, over almost half a century, constitute a total failure.
It is not necessary to emphasize what Cuba has always said: we do not fear a dialogue with the United States. Neither do we need the confrontation in order to exist, as some fools think; we exist precisely because we believe in our ideas and we have never feared dialoguing with the enemy. It is the only way of procuring friendship and peace among the peoples.

(Taken from CubaDebate) Havana. April 6, 2009



Lugar Urges Obama to Open Talks With Cuba, Ease Restrictions
By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 2, 2009
With momentum building in Congress for a change in U.S. policy toward Cuba, Sen. Richard G. Lugar called on President Obama to appoint a special envoy to initiate direct talks with the island's communist government and to end U.S. opposition to Cuba's membership in the Organization of American States.

The nearly 50-year-old economic embargo against Cuba, Lugar (R-Ind.) said in a March 30 letter to Obama, puts the United States at odds with the views of the rest of Latin America, the European Union and the United Nations, and "undermines our broader security and political interests in the Western Hemisphere."

The April 17-19 Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago would present a "unique opportunity for you to build a more hospitable climate to advance U.S. interests in the region through a change in our posture regarding Cuba policy," Lugar wrote.

Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is in the forefront of a broad movement advocating a new policy that includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups, a number of state governments and human rights groups. A bipartisan majority of Congress has repeatedly voted to ease restrictions on travel and other contact with Cuba, although the measures died after threatened presidential vetoes during the Bush administration.

Obama said during the presidential campaign that he would adopt a new strategy toward Cuba, including removing some travel restrictions, but he has said that the embargo should not be lifted until the Cuban government improves its human rights record and holds free elections. The United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba after the communist takeover in 1960 and imposed limited economic sanctions that were broadened in 1962 to cover all trade. Travel there by U.S. citizens has been prohibited in varying degrees since 1963.

Lugar is a co-sponsor of a bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate this week that would end all restrictions on travel to Cuba except in cases of war or direct threats to health or safety. Cuban Americans with relatives living on the island are currently allowed to visit once a year. A similar bill in the House has more than 120 bipartisan co-sponsors.

Lifting all restrictions -- and the trade embargo -- requires legislation, but Obama can end the travel limits for Cuban Americans by executive order. Neither the legislation nor Lugar, in his letter to Obama, proposes lifting all sanctions outright or immediately resuming diplomatic relations. Lugar said the appointment of an envoy and initiation of direct talks on subjects such as migration and drug interdiction would "serve vital U.S. security interests . . . and could ultimately create the conditions for meaningful discussion of more contentious subjects."

Countering Neoliberal Propaganda

Muslim Question in Bengal
Countering Neoliberal Propaganda

Before coming to the question of contemporary Muslim situation in Bengal and a calculated neoliberal propaganda orchestrated by bourgeois media and political parties like Congress and Trinamul, one needs to first analyse the contemporary situation of Indian Muslims as a minority group to which Bengal Muslims are only a part of that larger social group. In education, poverty, income and employment statistics—Indian Muslims are comparably more deprived than other religious communities along with Dalits and tribals as observed by Sachar Report. Arjun Sengupta Report has recently shown that Muslims along with dalits and tribals are the poorest communities in India and the poverty has increased among the Muslims during the phase of neoliberal economic reforms. 84.5% of Indian Muslim households spend not more than Rs. 20 per day and Rs. 609 per month. 13.3% of Indian Muslim households belonging to the Muslim middle income group as per the parameters set up by the above report spend only Rs. 1098 per month or Rs. 37 as daily per capita consumption expenditure (DPCE) which is not very high given the high persistence of inflation in the economy. Only 2.2% of Indian Muslims who are regarded as high income category by the report spends Rs. 2,776 or Rs. 93 per day.
Given this above mentioned statistics, which claims only a meagre 2.2% of Indian Muslims belonging to high income category; it is difficult to argue that Indian Muslims are class divided. The partition led to the migration of Muslim elites and a sizeable section of upwardly mobile Muslim middle-class to the then West and East Pakistan. Most Muslims who remained in India particularly in the bordering states like Bengal were poor and uneducated Muslims comprising a significant section of peasantry. Thus, even a cursory glance at the living conditions of Indian Muslims unravel the fact that the Muslims are the non-dominant community and a socio-economically, and educationally ‘backward community’. In terms of political marginalisation and under-representation, the Muslim political elite are almost negligible, as Muslims do not provide the economic and political leadership in the national mainstream. The gross under-representation of Muslims in various legislatures of the states and at the centre also affects the socio-economic development of the community, as the grievances of Muslim constituency are not addressed properly. Recently, the West Bengal Chief Minister said that the Minority question has to be addressed from a class perspective (Ganashakti, 6th Jan., 2008).

A survey of the data and available literature on the Indian Muslims amply state that Muslims are not only poor but also doubly marginalised. In this context of a class profile of Indian Muslims, Bengal Muslims belong more to the peasantry and the informal sector and thus constitutes a significant section of the working people. There is beyond doubt that the Muslims in Bengal like its all-India compatriots are victims of neoliberal policy regime. Today, the Muslim identity is overlapped with the identity of a poor and marginalised citizen under neoliberal dispensation. This overlap with the Muslim identity with the identity of poor and country’s labour force is an important caveat to keep in mind when we want to understand the current neoliberal propaganda of bourgeois media in connivance with bourgeois political parties like Congress and Trinamul against the Left and to accuse that nothing has happened to Muslims under Left Front regime in last 32 years and even saying that Muslim situation has worsened off in Bengal under the Left. This allegation against the Left vis-a-vis Muslims in Bengal is nothing short of a calculated strategy of the neoliberal nexus of bourgeois media and parties like Congress and the Trinamul to divide the unity of the working people—comprised of a significant section of Muslims and to malign the image of the Lefts to serve the vested interests of the ruling classes.

The concrete realities of Muslims in Bengal reflect to the fact that the identity and security of the community is guaranteed in the state under the Left Front regime. It is a well accepted fact that Muslims are more secure in Bengal than any other place in India without any communal riots and the Leftwing success of marginalising communal politics of BJP in the state. Furthermore, the identity of Muslim community as a distinct religio-cultural group with freedom of practising faith, establishing and running institutions of learning like the madrasas are also well acknowledged by both inside and outside the Muslim community in Bengal. Now, in terms of the question of equity, the Bengal government has addressed the issue in the past and initiated some important measures in the present for the overall socio-economic development of Muslims in the state. A summary of the relevant data, statistics and information regarding Bengal Muslims and the approach of the Left are of the following:

1.The success of land reforms under the Left has significantly benefited the Muslims. 30.9% of the rural households in West Bengal are Muslim households having access to 25.6% of the total cultivated land in the state (second only to Jammu and Kashmir with 30.3%). During 1992-94, landless Muslim peasants were 40% and currently reduced to 20%.

2.Bengal government has already put in place a 15% state level budgetary sub-plan for the advancement of minorities in the state since 2007. This step will ensure a targeted spending for Muslim minorities in all aspects of governmental expenditure. In all welfare schemes, specific attention for minority communities has paid dividends, eg. Among all self-help groups with access to institutional credit, 21.8% are groups with Muslim members (formed on the basis of same residential area). Among 17,512 ICDS projects in the State, 6,431 are working in Muslim areas employing anganwadi workers and assistants from the minority community.

3.The role of the state government in taking development initiative for the minority community has also been praised by the National Minorities Commission. Out of the 36 new colleges that have started in the state, 26 are situated in minority dominated areas. Out of 1600 new upper-primary schools, 800 would be set up in minority concentrated areas with 282 already given approval. For minority girls, 18 residential schools are being built. Within Kasturba Gandhi girl’s project, already 15 schools are built. In 2008-09 financial year, 23 more schools would be built for minority girls. To balance the teacher-student ratio, 4800 new teaching posts have been created with 2400 posts allotted for minority concentrated areas.

4.Till last year, when the Budget of the entire Central government for the development of minorities was at Rs. 1000 crores, West State Budget provided about Rs. 400 crores towards this department. All the 7-8 departments concerned with the development of the minorities have a special cell aimed towards efforts for the upliftment of the minorities. If we segregate the planned and unplanned expenditure that has been incurred by the Bengal government in the current financial year, then out of Rs. 100 crores are allocated in this regard and has already been overspent by the government amounting to Rs. 111.35 crores. Out of the Central grant to Bengal of Rs 68 crores, Rs. 3.27 crores are yet to be disbursed by the Centre. The unplanned expenditure of the state government in this regard has been a whooping Rs. 476 crores, whereas no other state government has allocated so much on the minorities’ development. Bengal CM has already approved Rs. 52 crores for educational development of Muslims.

5.In 12 districts, where Muslim population is relatively high, special offices have been opened to facilitate the development of the minorities in these regions. West Bengal is also the first state to plan in such a manner.

6.West Bengal has also started a new university named as Alia University aimed at providing quality education to the minorities with already 28 faculties being fully operational. In 2006, Alia Madrasa with a prolonged colonial history and its unique heritage has been transformed into a College status and an additional Rs. 30 crores have been spent for developing infrastructural facilities. In Bhangor (South 24 Parganas), a full fledged modern campus for this university would be built on 50 acres of land. Notably, this initiative in the recent past was also opposed by the Trinamul and created road block for this land acquisition process.


7.To increase vocational skills among minority students, the government has also given more than Rs. 5 crores. Over 1 lakh students hailing from the minorities’ community has also got scholarship from the state government as incentive to continue their education.

8.A scheme has been taken by the state government where Rs. 20-40 thousand will be given to women hailing from minority community to start commercial ventures. No guarantors will be required to avail these loans. About Rs. 20 crores have been provided by the state as capital to continue this scheme. Another Rs. 10 crores will be extended in the next financial year.

10. 10 Muslim girl’s hostels have been already built and 4 more are going to be finished soon in the state. For maintenance of these Muslim girls’s hostels, Rs. 4 crores have been allotted. In Kolkata, Rs. 2 crores have been sanctioned for building a working hostel for Muslim women. Both in Kolkata and Birbhum, the work for Muslim girl’s hostels have started and new buildings for Baker and Carmichael Hostels (meant for Muslim boys students) along with maintenance work of old hostels have started.

11. In the recent past, merit and need-based scholarships for Muslim students have been given through Chief Minister’s development fund amounting to Rs. 4.49 crores for 6197 students at pre-matric stage and Rs. 5.03 crores for 2223 students at post-matric stage. In 2008-09, 8500 Muslim students would be given scholarships of total Rs. 6 crores. For studying medical and engineering courses, 429 Muslim students have been given interest free loans amounting to Rs. 2.10 crores in 2007. In 2008, it has been increased to Rs. 3 crores for 500 Muslim students. Rs. 1.40 crores have been given to Techinacal Training and Cottage Industry Corporation to train Muslim students.

12.In the sphere of madrasah education, West Bengal has a unique system of running its 506 madrasas, affiliated with West Bengal Madrasa Board. Already, Rs. 6 crores have been spent for the second administrative building of Madrasa Board in Salt Lake. The curriculum of these madrasas combine subjects of English, Modern Indian languages, social studies, sciences, maths, Islamic history and Arabic. 110 junior madrasahs has been uplifted to the status of senior madrasahs in the state in the last financial year. In the current financial year, steps have been taken to set up 66 new madrasas, upgrade 110 junior high madrasahs to high madrasas and 89 high madrasas to senior madrasahs. More than 3200 posts have already been created to facilitate this development effort. West Bengal government bears the salaries of the Madrasa teachers of the state, a step which is unheard in many states. West Bengal has also constituted Madrasa Service Commission to impart quality and trained teachers at the Madrasas of the state. More than 52% teachers in Muslim dominated Murshidabad district are from the minority community.

13.In Urdu speaking areas, 200 nursery schools and 300 madrasas would be given approval shortly. 32 Alim madrasas have been upgraded to Fazil stage. In 125 higher secondary madrasas, librarians have been appointed. Rs. 50 lakhs have been allotted for libraries in these madrasas. Recently, in 100 madrasas, laboratories are made. With 300 new set-ups and 400 junior-high madrasas have been given approval to transform into high madrasas in the near future.

14.The Bengal government is also concerned for the promotion of Urdu language and for this purpose, Rs. 2.70 crores have been allotted for Urdu academy in the last financial year.

15.Rs. 4 crores have been approved for setting up boundary walls for graveyards meant for the Muslim community.

16.Rs. 2 crores additional grant with a total grant of Rs. 7.60 crores have been given to the Wakf Board. This grant can be increased in future if necessary. In Bengal, Wakf property reclamation, registration and survey work is going on.


17.Rs. 35.74 crores have been disbursed by the West Bengal Minority Development Corporation as loans to the people belonging from minority community. The state is also the first to create a minority development and welfare fund to cater to the minority community. West Bengal is also the first among the country in terms of success of giving loans to Minority community through the West Bengal Minority Development Corporation. The entire Rs 22 crores allocated in this fund have been spent for developmental purposes of the minority community.

18.In the state budget plan outlay for the Department of Minorities Affairs and Madrasa Education, an increase from Rs. 110 crores in the current year to Rs. 121 crores in the next year has been proposed. Since the entire responsibility of teachers connected with madrasah education has been taken by the State Government, the total budget of this department will be raised to the level of Rs. 524.11 crores in the next year. No other government has allocated so much money for the minority development in its state budget. An additional sum of Rs. 20 crores have been allocated by the State Government for this Corporation by way of assistance for training to further employment generation (already included in the programme for combating recession).

19. A second Hajj house namely Hajj Tower cum Empowerment Centre has been built near Kolkata airport. For Hajj pilgrimage facilities, an additional grant of Rs. 20 lakhs has been spent by the government. In 1977, only 600 people from the state went for Hajj pilgrim, while last year, 7996 people have enlisted themselves for the Hajj, and bulk of them is from the rural background. This increase is a result of the empowerment of rural masses due to the pro-poor policies of the state government. West Bengal is also the first state in the country to publish a guide book in the regional language for the benefit of the Hajj pilgrims hailing from the state. The state also started a website for the Hajj pilgrims and free SMS service to facilitate the Hajj pilgrims. In the field of housing, special emphasis has been given to allocate houses to the minority community.


All these combined efforts of the various departments have resulted in paving the way for all round development of the minority community in the state. This is not to say that there is no scope for further improvement of the Muslim community in Bengal. However, the CPI(M) led Left front government is determined to continuously work for the development of minorities and address the daily livelihood questions and better the socio-economic conditions of Muslims in Bengal. Furthermore, it is also determined to carry forward its political agenda in opposing imperialism and communalism. This consistency of fighting against both communalism and imperialism have been correctly noticed by a number of Muslim groups who have decided to support the Left and other non-Congress secular parties top form an alternative non-Congress and non-BJP government at the centre. Thus, it is the urgent necessity of our time that the unity of the working people and marginalised groups like Muslims under the leadership of the Left needs to fight both communalism and imperialism in order to form an alternative to the neoliberal policy regime.