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Dr.BR Ambedkar

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Memories of Another day
While my Parents Pulin babu and Basanti Devi were living

Friday, May 8, 2009

UNITED RESISTANCE Wanted as They KILL Us for SPORT!


 
UNITED RESISTANCE Wanted as They KILL Us for SPORT!
 
Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 224
 
Palash Biswas
 
As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods.
They kill us for their sport.

Chapter 18, Page 254 King Lear (IV, i)
 

Govt to review security arrangements in Nalco
8 May 2009, 2039 hrs IST, Rakhi Mazumdar

The Union ministry of mines has convened a top level meeting in Delhi on Friday to review security arrangements in National Aluminium Co Ltd (Nalco) following last month's Maoist attack on its prized bauxite mines at Damanjodi.

UCO Bank posts Rs.558 crore net profit 
8 May 2009, 2024 hrs IST

City-based public sector bank UCO Bank posted a net profit of Rs.558 crore for the fiscal 2008-09 compared to Rs.412 crore last fiscal, a growth of 35.44 per cent, a top bank official said Friday.

 

News By Industry

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Economy

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International Business

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Politics/Nation

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Advani in Bengal to canvass support for party candidates
08 May, 2009 [06:31 PM]
Advani in Bengal to canvass support for party candidates BJP's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani arrived in West Bengal to canvass support for party candidates in the last phase of Lok Sabha polls at three regions including Shradhananda Bazzar in Bara Bazaar and Dumdum central jail. Advani seemed confident of winning the elections this time. While talking to the press he said that with just one round of election left to decide the fate of the parties the BJP was quite confident of making it to the Top post.
Read More
 
Hunt intensifies for post poll alliances
08 May, 2009 [12:04 PM]
The two major rivalries for India's throne - the Congress and the BJP - have now intensified their hunt for allies as the possibility of a....Read More
 
http://www.taratv.com/
 
Toddler killed

A two-year-old girl, Shania Khatoun, died of bullet wounds in Nandigram in an attack blamed on CPM activists out to punish Trinamul supporters who defied a diktat not to vote. Her mother was shot in the stomach and is in hospital.

At least seven other people died in Bengal in poll-related incid-ents.

 http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090508/jsp/frontpage/story_10934229.jsp

 
Lying in wait
Like birds of prey descending on a pile of far gone carrion, economists pounce on primary data with even marginal relevance to the phenomenon known as Indian poverty. They squabble over the definition of poverty and over methods to measure it. Learne...  | Read.. 
 

Poll protesters hurt in Kashmir teargas firing

Reuters India - ‎57 minutes ago‎
SRINAGAR (Reuters) - At least 30 people were injured when police in Srinagar fired teargas shells on Friday to disperse thousands of Muslims protesting the general election, police said.

Pakistan army says 143 militants killed in Swat

Reuters India - ‎9 minutes ago‎
By Junaid Khan MINGORA, Pakistan, May 8 (Reuters) - Pakistan's military said on Friday it had killed 143 militants over the previous 24 hours in fighting in the Islamist bastion of Swat.

Jordan queen all a-Twitter over papal visit

AFP - ‎22 minutes ago‎
AMMAN (AFP) - Jordan's Queen Rania "twittered" on the social online network about Pope Benedict XVI's first ever visit to an Arab country on Friday, as the pontiff kicked off his Holy Land tour.
The Associated Press - Telegraph.co.uk - Jerusalem Post - BBC News
 
Hindustan Times  –
  ‎ 29 minutes ago ‎
Times of India  –
  ‎ 39 minutes ago ‎
ABC Online  –
  ‎ 38 minutes ago ‎  –
BBC News  –
  ‎ 36 minutes ago ‎  – हिंदी में
Sydney Morning Herald  –
  ‎ 37 minutes ago ‎  –
Times of India  –
  ‎ 1 hour ago ‎  –
Times Online  –
  ‎ 1 hour ago ‎  – हिंदी में
 
 

Pro-poll pressure on Lalgarh leaders

Calcutta Telegraph - ‎Apr 15, 2009‎
In Calcutta, Sujato Bhadra, secretary of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights, said he had advised the committee to agree to the poll panel's ...

Tribal tremor in heart of city

Times of India - ‎Apr 24, 2009‎
At 7.30 pm, with more streets getting gridlocked, Chakraborti personally called Chaudhuri and APDR's Sujato Bhadra and assured them that the matter would be ...
 

Q&A: 'Many of us may still be pro-Left but anti-Left Front'

Times of India - ‎May 5, 2009‎
Theatre personality and writer Shaoli Mitra was among the galaxy of intellectuals who have backed the Left Front government in West Bengal for three decades ...

Is Left doing it right in Bengal? Intellectuals debate

Daily News & Analysis - ‎Apr 27, 2009‎
Echoing Mahashweta Devi, Shaoli Mitra said the fact that intellectuals in Bengal wants change is not a clandestine affair and they have expressed their
 

Troublespot Nandigram turns out in force

Times of India - ‎16 hours ago‎
Interestingly, Nandigram recorded a huge turnout of 86%. The tension in the cadre was palpable as clashes broke out and several places virtually turned into ...

Two-year-old girl a victim of post-poll violence in Nandigram

Hindu - ‎57 minutes ago‎
Tamluk (WB) (PTI) A two-year-old girl was one of the two victims of post-poll violence in Nandigram. Sania was shot dead when her mother Alia Bibi stepped ...

In Red bastion, four dead as oppn gives as good as it gets

Times of India - ‎16 hours ago‎
But the Opposition matched the Red brigade's power in parts of the Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency, including Nandigram, resulting in widespread violence ...

57% voter turnout in phase 4

Times of India - ‎8 hours ago‎
The violence in West Bengal grabbed attention as CPM cadres in parts of Nandigram were at the receiving end for a change with the party's polling agents ...

Stringent security for Nandigram

Hindu - ‎May 6, 2009‎
Nandigram (WB) (PTI): Five and a half companies of central forces, micro observers and video cameras in polling booths were part of the stringent security ...

Poll peaceful, says EC

The Statesman - ‎17 hours ago‎
He, added that three people were arrested for poll related violence in Nandigram, while two others were arrested for ransacking a booth in Asansol. ...

Horns locked over Nandigram turf

Times of India - ‎May 3, 2009‎
And never before in their three decades of rule, has the Left Front faced a stiffer resistance till Nandigram erupted two years ago. ...
Left banks on Khejuri The Statesman

PM tears into Left at rally in Kolkata

Hindustan Times - ‎May 1, 2009‎
He in turn attacked the Left Front government for the violence that accompanied its land acquisition efforts at Singur and Nandigram. ...

One dead in violence in West Bengal

Sify - ‎May 7, 2009‎
Kolkata: Trouble-torn Nandigram in West Bengal erupted on Thursday as gunfire and bombings marred the polling that began on a peaceful note. ...

Small phase but high stakes in Round IV

Economic Times - ‎May 6, 2009‎
The region includes the violence-scarred Nandigram and Singur. While Nandigram falls in the Tamluk constituency, represented in the 14th Lok Sabha by CPM ...
 

State of the Maoist state

Himal Southasian - ‎May 2, 2009‎
When it comes to statecraft, the Maoist failure is evident in not being able to reach out to the political parties, civil society, the professional classes ...
 
Eminent Human Right activist, SUJATO BHADRA, based in Kolkata quotes the Great Poet SHAKESPEAR!
 
They Kill us for Sport!
 
Mr Bhadra calls for UNITED RESISTANCE against the Marxist Hegemony ruling Bengal for THREE DECADES! Well, his Face is pasted on the Parivartan chai HOARDING all over the city.
 
He has made the SOS call in his first Page write up in Dainik STATESMAN published today.
 
Mr Bhadra also quotes Rabindra Nath Tagore to invoke MUTINY Unprecedented!
 
We all know Mr Bhdra and his Pro activism!
 
But the hardcore REALITIES in Bengal, where all Productive as well as social Forces are marginalised and every SPACE for any SOCIAL MOBILISATION is DELETED with OVERWHELMING Brahaminical Marxist Fascist Imperialist BANGLA nationality, and the GENOCIDE culture, the REGIMENTED GESTAPO may not change despite the HOARDINGS of THIRTY ODD Intelligentsia and Civil society faces crying hard FREEDOM and CHANGE!
 
 The Gas CHAMBER would NEVER VANISH nor the DEATH CHAMBER!
 
My dear friends, my WIFE SABITA is also AGITATED while I criticise the SACRED MOST Bangla Nationality Sentiment and INHERENT BRAHAMINICAL BENGALI Mindset and its unquestioned COLONIALISM.
 
 She suggests my attempt for Social Mobilisation is nothing but HATE SPEECH.
 
 My favourite Poet and writer, NABARUN BHATTACHARYA, always engaged in SUBALTERN writing and dealing the UNDER CLASSES, NEVER accepts his status as SUB ALTERN! He still believes in CLASS STRUGGLE and DESPISES AMBEDKAR IDEOLOGY as well as CASTEOLOGY!
 
Sabita herself hates MAYAWATI and feels herself above CASTE LINE!
 
I do not BLAME anyone but this is the General Mindset of Bengalies including Indigenous aboriginal and Minority Communities, SC, ST and OBC!
 
I understand that many of you may be TIRED of my CARPET BOMBING against the Manusmriti ZIONIST APARTHEID GLOBAL corporate hegemony of ILLUMINATI!
 
I have always been writing about the MOST LETHAL TRIO RULING India, the TRI IBLIS SATANIC AXIS of ADWANI BUDDHA and PRANAB!
 
The CPIM TV Channel telecasted ADWANI CAMPAIGN in Kolakta and around LIVE !
 
Why!
 
It is not just all about ELECTION Equation or VOTE BANK READJUSTMENT STRATEGIC management.
 
 It is some Thing more! We have to try to UNDERSTAND!
 
DAINIK statesman also published an EDIT page article written by the GROUP Theatre ICON, Shaoli Mitra! 
 
 Shaoli Mitra!  DI has rightly highlighted the CULTURE of TERROR and INTOLERANCE.
 
  Shaoli Mitra!  used the History of NAXAL REPRESSION in seventies and quoted incidents from BARANAGAR GENOCIDE in 1972!
 
GIRAFFE is a VEGETARIAN ANIMAL NON VIOLENT!
 
Why the Ruling Hegemony is afraid of the THIRTY ODD Giraffes while the MAJORITY SUPPORT is INTACT!
 
Bangla statesman also published an INTERVIEW of the NEPAL PRESIDENT, Dr. RAMBARAN Yadav!
 
Prominent Bangladeshi writer and human Right Activist HUMAYUN Kabir interviewed the PRESIDENT who JUSTIFIES his action to dismiss the PRACHAND action against the ARMY CHIEF!
 
We NEVER know the stance of the Bengali Intelligentsia and CIVIL SOCIETY on the events and developments in SOUTH ASIA and beyond.
 
My dear friends, for me , the CHANGE is not so LOCAL.
 
The RESISTANCE is not limited within nandigram, Singur or Lalgarh!
 
After all, what kind of CHANGE do we WANT?
 
Is this the CHANGE WANTED?
 

Kabir Suman hits the chord to make a dent in red fort

 

Abhisek Roychowdhury


KOLKATA, May 7: With the mercury level soaring, election campaign is gaining momentum at Jadavpur parliamentary constituency, which is traditionally considered a Left fortress. The sitting CPI-M MP, Mr Sujan Chakrabarty, seems quite confident as he locks horns with a political novice, but popular singer ~ Kabir Suman ~ who has set a new trend in Bengali songs.
Sociable and suave, Mr Chakrabarty has always been at the call of the electorate cutting across political affiliation. Be it a television debate or grievances of the students at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institution, Mr Chakrabarty has always been there to help sort out problems. He has been sitting with local people in some places and interacting with them. The scorching heat does not deter him from undertaking long walks to win the hearts of voters.
Last time, Mr Chakrabarty came out with flying colours by a margin of 78,193 votes. He has been emphasising on the emergence of a Third Front and industrialisation policy of the Left Front government in his campaign. Delimitation has brought about certain realignments with some new Assembly segments being included in the Jadavpur constituency.
Sonarpur, once a reserved constituency, has been bifurcated into Sonarpur north and Sonarpur south. Similarly, Baruipur, a general constituency, has been divided into Baruipur East (SC) and Baruipur West. Two Assembly constituencies Tollygunge and Bhangore have been new additions post delimitation.
Political observers feel that the Left candidate would get maximum votes from Baruipur and Sonarpur areas. As a Trinamul candidate was elected from the Bhangore Assembly seat, Kabir Suman may get a lead from here.
Suman, a new entrant in politics, is known for his Jiban Mukhi Gaan, a new variety of Bengali songs. Playing the guitar, Suman sings his popular numbers one after the other at election rallies in the sweltering heat.
He has been encouraged by the indomitable spirit of Miss Mamata Banerjee since the days of the uprising at Singur and Nandigram. He views Miss Banerjee as a symbol of resistance to oppression and injustice perpetrated by the ruling combine. He is undertaking road shows to make his point to voters.

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=22&theme=&usrsess=1&id=253611

 

Or we are INTERESTED in a CHANGE advocated by Desi ILLUMINATI in shaping to make India a FODDER for the KILLER Money Machine?

 

India chana futures lower on stocks

Fri May 8, 2009 2:29pm IST
 

 

[-] Text [+]

MUMBAI, May 8 (Reuters) - India chana futures were trading lower on Friday afternoon on higher output estimates and rising exchange warehouse stocks, analysts said.

Stocks at the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange warehouses have risen by 51 percent to 60,647 tonnes in the past two weeks, as per latest exchange data.

Traders are moving stocks into exchange warehouses before prices fall further on arrivals from a bumper crop.

According to the federal farm ministry estimates chana output may rise by 13.7 percent to 6.54 million tonnes in 2008/09 from 5.75 million tonnes a year ago.

"The medium term trend appears bearish," a Kotak Commodity Services Ltd analyst said.

At 2:16 p.m, June futures contract NCHM9 was down 0.98 percent at 2,319 rupees per 100 kg.

GUAR:

India guar futures were lower in afternoon trade on profit-taking after hitting strong technical resistance, analysts said.

Two analysts said June contract couldn't breach strong technical resistance at 1,855 rupees per 100 kg.  Continued...

 

 

 http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINBOM35958120090508

 

 

Protests delay construction of TVS' West Bengal unit - Corporate ...

7 Apr 2009 ... West Bengal unit, The firm has complained to the state government ... in West Midnapore district have been shelved because of resistance to ...
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    Maoist leaflets found in West Bengal secretariat
    2009-05-08 [17:25:40 hrs]
    There was a stir in the West Bengal state secretariat Friday following the discovery of Maoist leaflets demanding unconditional release of 12 of their leaders.
     
    The leaflets were found scattered in the press corner - located in the highest security zone close to the chief minister's office on the first floor of the Writers' Building - the state government secretariat.

    The leaflets, in the name of the Maoists' spokesman Gour Chakraborty, carried photographs of the 12 leaders lodged in various jails of the country and demanded they be given status of political prisoners immediately.

    Following the discovery, Chief Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty called an emergency meeting and set up a committee to probe how the leaflets made it to the high-security zone.
     
    5 killed in post poll violence in Bengal
    08 May, 2009 [04:22 PM]
    Five persons were killed in post poll violence in West Bengal which saw the highest voters turnout at 75%. ....Read More
     
    Atleast 500 elope due to post poll violence in Nandigram
    08 May, 2009 [01:02 PM]
    Atleast 500 families have fled home and taken refuge in relief camps as a result of post poll violence in Nandigram. ....Read More
     

    Blood stains Bengal as 75% vote

    Uday Basu & Anjan Chakraborty 
    KOLKATA, May 7: The battle for the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the heartland of south Bengal which will finally decide whether the Red regime is on its way out or whether it's still invincible even after the Nandigram-Singur turmoil, was a bloody one. Widespread intimidation, violence, killing and booth-capturing marked the second phase of the state's polling spread over seven districts. The trail of violence left five political activists dead ~ four murdered, including a Trinamul man whose throat was slit in the Marxist stronghold of Burdwan ~ and another due to a cardiac arrest as he tried to escape the violence in Tamluk. A one-and-a-half-year-old child was also killed and her mother critically wounded in a late night attack by CPI-M cadres on Trinamul supporters at Satengabari, also in Tamluk. Two more voters were confirmed as having died during the poll process, one of heatstroke and the second of a suspected heart attack whilst he was in a polling booth. Over 75 per cent votes, on an average, were cast in each district.
    The most sensational feature of the fierce fight for capturing new political space and retaining old terrain was that the Trinamul-led Opposition took the battle into Burdwan ~ the traditional Red bastion that has weathered many storms unscathed and proved to be the Marxists' mainstay. Indiscriminate bombing and booth capturing marred the polls in the five districts of Burdwan, Murshidabad, Midnapore (East), Howrah and Birbhum, while stray incidents were reported from the remaining two ~ Nadia and Hooghly. Unnerved by the turn of events, the CPI-M alleged ~ a first, this ~ that there was "large-scale rigging" by the Trinamul in 58 booths in Nandigram and lodged a formal complaint with the Election Commission. Even if that was a disingenous allegation, it is a fact that the violence wasn't one-sided, as both Trinamul and the CPI-M activists had a free run flexing their muscles and firepower in areas they had an edge over their rival. This explained why the two main contenders traded allegations of attacks and booth-capturing against each other. Significantly, Mr Pranab Mukherjee said if the Congress failed to muster the numbers "it would be sensible" to take support from the Left "in the interest of secularism". The most gruesome killing took place at Kanyapur in Asansol around 12.30 p.m, when a bomb injured a Trinamul supporter, Akshay Bauri (37) when he was waiting for his turn to vote in a queue outside a booth (No. 281/7). The assailants, alleged to be CPI-M activists, pounced on him as he lay on the ground and slit his throat.
    Two policemen, Mr Dilip Ganguly and Mr Kalachand Mallik, also sustained splinter injuries during the attack. A polling officer of the booth, Mr Anath Bandhu Mondal, went missing in the melee. There was a free-for-all in Burdwan as the Congress candidate, Ms Nargis Begum, was allegedly assaulted at Bhatar. 
    At Khargram in Jangipur, from where external affairs minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, is seeking reelection, Kashinath Mondal (40), whom CPI-M claimed to be their activist, was killed in a bomb attack allegedly by Congress supporters. Clashes between CPI-M and Congress supporters were reported in Naodapara and Domkal in Murshidabad where at least thirteen persons were injured.
    In Birbhum too, at least four Congress supporters were injured in a clash with CPI-M activists in Dubrajpur Rossa when CPI-M activists allegedly hurled bombs in Thupsara panchayat to capture booths. Only recently, the Trinamul had wrested this CPI-M stronghold. In Hooghly,(Continued from page 1)
    CPI-M agents were not allowed to enter six booths in Jangipara ~ a Red citadel which holds the key to the Serampore Lok Sabha seat. The CPI-M demanded re-poll in two of these six booths ~ Kamdebpur and Bahana. 
    As poll drew to a close, a 20-year-old CPI-M activist, Manoar Zamadar, was shot dead from point blank range allegedly by Trinamul-backed goons outside his house at Chadrapur in Uluberia. He was returning home after casting his vote. Mir Yasin (46), brutally beaten up by CPI-M cadres when they attacked Trinamul supporters at Satengabari this afternoon, died at Tamluk district hospital tonight. Another Trinamul worker Bapan Das who was shot at by the CPI-M workers during the attack still missing, alleged Trinamul leaders. Armed CPI-M cadres attacked Satengabari for a second time late tonight, fatally wounding a one-and-half-year old girl, Shamia Khatun. Her mother Aleya Khatun also received bullet injuries and is in critical condition. At least seven people, including two women and a child, were critically injured during clashes between CPI-M and Trinamul supporters at different places in Howrah and Uluberia constituencies. Polling in Nadia was peaceful except for a few voting machines giving trouble. A polling officer was allegedly trying to influence voters to press the button for the CPI-M candidate, Mrs Jyotirmoyee Sikdar. 
    Mr Debashis Sen, state chief electoral officer said polling was by and large peaceful barring a few stray incidents. Three people were arrested for poll-related violence in Nandigram and two others were nabbed for ransacking a booth in Asansol, he said. State home secretary, Mr Ardhendu Sen, said it was alleged that a political party couldn't engage polling agents in many booths of Nandigram in the morning. Later in the day, some polling agents did reach some of these booths. LF chairman Mr Biman Bose said the Trinamul chief's exhortation to voters to go to booths armed with cooking implements succeeded as the Trinamul rigged the elections. Miss Mamata Banerjee levelled the same charge against the CPI-M.  

    http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=1&theme=&usrsess=1&id=253534

     

    NANDISINGUR
    Age: 33
    Village: Bainchabari, 3km from Nandigram town
    Occupation: Tea seller
    Loss: Husband Rejaul Sheikh, shot dead by CPM cadres during the "recapture" of Nandigram in
    November 2007

    Sayra Bibi

    How her day started

    Sayra Bibi wakes up at 4am, offers namaaz. On election day, she prays for her husband's departed soul. Does household chores

    Was she looking forward to this day?

    Yes. "Because I want to avenge my husband's death by defeating the CPM. My husband lost his life because of the land war. I hope the CPM loses, then at least I'll get some peace"

    Another day but different too

    Around 6.30am, Sayra Bibi has muri and tea with her four children. She then opens the tea shop she runs next to her house. Makes tea for the polling personnel of her booth, 200 yards from her house

    Stepping out

    Before leaving for the booth at 7.10am, she tells her children: "Pray that I can vote peacefully so that the CPM can be defeated. At least then, your father's soul can rest in peace"

    On her way

    "I consider myself lucky to be alive and around to cast my vote," she says. "I consider it providence that my children are all alive despite the attacks of the CPM goons"

    Fellow voters

    Sayra Bibi meets a few other women from the same village on their way to the booth. They embrace each other

    The vote and after

    "A mission accomplished," she declares after voting at 7.20am. "I am so relieved that I have been able to vote for my candidate. I am happy that there has been no violence in this booth and I have been able to cast my vote in peace"

    Will her vote make a difference?

    "It will make a huge difference as the person I have voted for will definitely win," Sayra Bibi says. "This will be a fitting reply to the CPM"

    What if her candidate loses

    "I am confident that my candidate will win," she says. "There is no doubt. If for any reason he does not, I will only curse my fate"

    What now?

    "This evening, I'll pray for my candidate, hope that he wins," Sayra Bibi says. "But tomorrow will be a normal day for me. I'll wait for the results now."

    Age: 23
    Village: Gopalnagar, Singur
    Occupation: Trainee technician at Tata Motors plant in Pantnagar
    Loss: Used to work at the Nano plant in Singur. The Rs 1,700 he got a month sustained him in Singur, but tough to make ends meet in Pantnagar

    Raj Kumar Jyoti

    How his day started

    Jyoti wakes up at 6.30am, has tea, walks to nearby Sahanapara and buys a newspaper. Flipping through it, he chats with some friends. Returns home, changes and leaves again for Sahanapara, where his friends are waiting

    Was he looking forward to this day?

    Yes. "The dreams that I had been building crashed around me. This is why I have taken leave and come to Singur to vote for the CPM. I think we have been cheated by the Trinamul people. I was getting two free meals besides my salary. I was quite happy"

    Stepping out

    Jyoti catches up with friends on the situation in Singur. He asks them whether they had visited the Tata plant administrative office that is still functioning. They say there is no positive news of the Nano returning. Jyoti snacks on muri and ghugni before setting out to vote around 2pm. He walks to his booth, located in Gopalnagar

    On his way

    "The thought uppermost in my mind today is that there should be some hope that industry will come up in Singur. I see only desolation here. But I want to come back to Bengal, to my home in Singur," says Jyoti

    Fellow voters

    Jyoti runs into his uncle, Asit, on way to the booth, and Somnath Das, his batchmate at the Tata plant. "My uncle told me to vote for the CPM," Jyoti says. "I assured him that there was no need to tell me that. This time the vote is for industry in Singur"

    The vote and after

    "After I voted, my thoughts went back to the four months that I had spent in the Nano plant in Singur," Jyoti says. "There was food at home and hardly a worry"

    Will his vote make a difference?

    "I do hope that my vote will make a difference. My vote could ensure a return to the days of hope in Singur. Drops of water make a sea"

    What if his candidate loses

    "My candidate will never lose," Jyoti says. "But what I'm not certain about is if the Singur Assembly segment can give him a big lead"

    What now?

    "I'll discuss the polls with my friends in the evening."


    Unfamiliar feeling of voting against CPM

    For three decades, land had bonded the likes of Subhasini Mali, Sudhir Pradhan and Arup Samanta to the CPM, a party that had taught them to "hold our heads high".

    Today, the issue of land prompted them all to vote against the party, for the first time in a Lok Sabha election in 32 years.

    "I voted for the Trinamul Congress not because I have developed a fondness for the party but because I have developed a hatred for the CPM, which once used to be pro-land," said Samanta, 55, a farmer from Sonachura.

    Subhasini, 60, confessed to a "strange feeling", having just cast her vote for Trinamul. She had not voted in the last rural polls, which Trinamul had swept in Nandigram.

    "Today is the first time in so many years that I have not voted for the CPM. But I have no regrets. Nobody should take loyalty for granted," she said standing before her hut in Sonachura.

    Subhasini said that before the Left Front came to power in 1977, uncertainty ruled the lives of bargadars (sharecroppers), who were at the mercy of rich farmers and landlords.

    All that changed with Operation Barga, launched in the initial years of Left Front rule. Sharecroppers' right to work and their share of the produce became enshrined in law. Some, like Subhasini's family, rose to become land owners themselves.

    "We are land owners now, but in those days many in Nandigram were sharecroppers. The communist government taught us to hold our heads high," she said. "But the same party and the same government have now become land grabbers. How can we forgive this, though they may have once come to the aid of many of us here?"

    Subhasini said she had been among the protesters who blocked the entry of police on March 14, 2007, which led to firing and the death of 14 people. "I was lucky not to take a bullet hit," she said. "But I fell down in the melee and broke my arm. That was the first time I was exposed to the brutality of this government."

    Her story is repeated by many in Nandigram, an Assembly segment that had given the CPM a lead of nearly 6,000 votes in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. The CPM had polled 68,122 votes then, compared with Trinamul's 62,439.

    "It will be a different story this time," said farmer Sudhir Pradhan, 65, a resident of Gangra village. "This is because many people like me who have been die-hard CPM supporters today voted Trinamul."

    Pradhan does not have anything against industrialisation but says a "balance" has to be struck between agriculture and industry.

    "The question that needs to be asked today is why people who have traditionally voted for the CPM have suddenly, and so vehemently, turned against the party," Pradhan said, his voice rising in anger. "The CPM should have developed a consensus instead of bulldozing its way and turning land grabber."

    The other word that has become a favourite to describe the ruling party in Nandigram is "arrogant". It's this that turned Samanta, 55, from a staunch CPM supporter to a Trinamul voter.

    "The March 14 firing showed the cruelty and arrogance of the party and the government. I voted Trinamul because I want change," Samanta said.

    Ashok Guria, the CPM's East Midnapore district secretary, admitted that many traditional party supporters had voted for the Opposition today.

    "Yes, it's true," Guria said. "But this is because of a misinformation campaign against the party. We are definitely not land-grabbers. It's because of our land reforms that many sharecroppers are land owners today."

     

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            New Delhi (PTI): The possibility of installation of a Congress-NCP ministry in Meghalaya, which is currently under President's rule following dismissal of the MPA government, brightened today with both parties finalising modalities to provide a stable ...

            Show ink mark and get discount on purchase

            Daily News & Analysis - ‎2 hours ago‎
            PTI Patna: Businessmen of Patna have come out with a novel idea to create awareness about the voting rights of the people by offering gifts and discounts on purchases made by those who have cast their votes in the fourth and final phase of Lok Sabha ...

            EC to send 6 teams to look into Bihar poll complaints

            Press Trust of India - ‎1 hour ago‎
            New Delhi, May 8 (PTI) In view of several complaints about poll irregularities, the Election Commission has decided to send today six teams to Bihar to look into those complaints received during the Lok Sabha elections.

            Buffalo's gain, Bangalore's loss

            Express Buzz - ‎6 hours ago‎
            US President Barack Obama's announcement on Monday that he intended fulfilling one of his pre-election promises by increasing taxes on the profits of those companies that create jobs outside America - in Bangalore not in Buffalo - is not yet law.

            'Cong alaways ignored Dalits' interest'

            Times of India - ‎17 hours ago‎
            LUCKNOW: Launching a scathing attack on Congress at election meetings in Shahjahanpur and Lakhimpur Kheri, BSP national president chief minister Mayawati said that the Congress always ignored the interests of the Dalits.

            A little-known life behind the barrel

            Calcutta Telegraph - ‎17 hours ago‎
            Somewhere along the Manipur-Myanmar border, May 7: To any outsider it would appear like a regular army camp - complete with barracks, mess, parade ground, firing range, watchtowers and armed guards.
             

            Banks unveil cash-raising plans

            BBC News - ‎40 minutes ago‎
            US bank Wells Fargo has said it plans to raise $7.5bn (£4.9bn) from selling new shares, a day after the US Treasury said 10 banks needed to boost reserves.

            Mkts surge 4.2% this week, BSE Metal Index up 14.5%

            Moneycontrol.com - ‎2 hours ago‎
            The benchmark indices closed the week on a strong note; the Sensex and Nifty gained 4.2% each. The broader indices - Nifty Junior gained 4.2%.

            GE Shipping Jan-March net falls, outlook weak

            Reuters India - ‎22 minutes ago‎
            By Swati Pandey MUMBAI, May 8 (Reuters) - Great Eastern Shipping Co Ltd (GESC.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) posted a 16 percent drop in quarterly net profit on lower earnings from ships and loss on sale of assets and has predicted bleak quarters ahead.

            AB net profit for Q4 up by 61.94 per cent

            Economic Times - ‎2 hours ago‎
            8 May 2009, 1743 hrs IST, PTI HYDERABAD: The Andhra Bank registered a profit of Rs 201.21 crore for Q4 which is up by 61.94 per cent comparing to the same period last year.

            Sell Bharati Shipyard, target of Rs 79: Emkay

            Moneycontrol.com - ‎18 minutes ago‎
            Emkay Global Financial Services has maintained its sell rating on Bharati Shipyard with a target price of Rs 79 in its May 08, 2009 research report.

            Rupee softens two paise to end at 49.28/29 vs dollar

            Economic Times - ‎2 hours ago‎
            8 May 2009, 1758 hrs IST, PTI MUMBAI: The rupee on Friday softened by just two paise to close at 49.28/29 against the dollar due to weak local equity markets, despite heavy capital inflows.

            Inflation up to 0.70 per cent on rising food prices

            Press Trust of India - ‎4 hours ago‎
            New Delhi, May 8 (PTI) Continued rise in food prices pushed up inflation to 0.70 per cent, the increase being for the third week in a row, even as economists did not rule out the possibility of it turning negative soon.

            SBI may review interest rates on deposits by May end

            Business Standard - ‎3 hours ago‎
            State Bank of India, the country's largest bank, may review interest rates on deposits by May-end. "We we will review interest rates at the end of May .
            SBI Plans to Raise Capital Wall Street Journal

            Hyundai to shift i20 production from Chennai to Europe

            Business Standard - ‎1 hour ago‎
            Hyundai Motors India Ltd-the second largest car manufacturer in the country- is planning to shift the production of its premium hatchback i20 model for the export market from Chennai to Europe.

            DLF may face Rs 400-crore tax blow

            Economic Times - ‎4 hours ago‎
            NEW DELHI: India's largest real estate company DLF will have to pay additional tax of Rs 300-400 crore to the government for the financial year 2005-06, after the Income-Tax (IT) department in a special investigation found that the realty company's ...
            DLF ends in red, down 2% Business Standard

            Plan panel sees GDP growth at 7%-7.5%

            NDTV.com - ‎3 hours ago‎
            PTI Exuding confidence that India would continue its high-growth trajectory, Planning Commission member Kirit Parikh today said the country will clock at least 7-7.5 per cent GDP growth in the current fiscal.

            Tata Motors shed 4%

            Business Standard - ‎4 hours ago‎
            Tata Motors touched a new low of Rs 262 and ended at Rs 268, down 4%. Around 715094 shares were traded throughout the day on the BSE.

            Talks with Diageo are very much on: Vijaya Mallya

            Economic Times - ‎3 hours ago‎
            8 May 2009, 1703 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: Liquor major Vijaya Mallya on Friday reaffirmed that talks with the world's largest liquor manufacturer Diageo for selling stake in his group company United Spirits Ltd (USL) are on track.

            Indian banks can tackle asset bubble burst: Former RBI Guv

            Moneycontrol.com - ‎2 hours ago‎
            Former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) YV Reddy said he was pleased with India 's response to global financial crisis.

            Ratnagiri Gas board okays gas deal with RIL

            Business Standard - ‎33 minutes ago‎
            Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt. Ltd. (RGPPL) board approved the proposal to buy gas from Reliance Industry Ltd.'s (RIL) KG basin at $ 4.2 per Million British Thermal Unit (MBTU).

            Notice served on DLF's Bangalore project

            Economic Times - ‎16 hours ago‎
            The Bangalore city corporation, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), has issued a public notice against investing in DLF's proposed complex named Westend Heights on Bannerghatta Road.

            Premji expresses concern over US' protectionist steps

            Economic Times - ‎12 hours ago‎
            BANGALORE: The protectionist measures of the US government is a matter of concern, said Azim Premji, chairman, Wipro, India's third-largest software services exporter.

            Sugar futures up marginally

            Hindu Business Line - ‎4 hours ago‎
            NEW DELHI: Sugar futures inched up by 0.66 per cent in early trade on the National Commodity Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) on pick-up in demand in the spot markets in view of the summer season.

            No big slowdown in healthcare demand in India: GE Healthcare

            Business Standard - ‎4 hours ago‎
            PTI / Bangalore May 8, 2009, 16:15 IST Despite some pressures on the global healthcare market as a result of the economic downturn, there has not been much pressure on the Indian market, a top GE healthcare official said.

            AAI awaits Govt nod to float infra bonds to raise Rs 5000 cr

            Business Standard - ‎34 minutes ago‎
            PTI / New Delhi May 08, 2009, 19:48 IST The government is considering a proposal of the state-owned Airports Authority of India to issue infrastructure bonds to raise Rs 5000 crore from the market to fill the gap in meeting expenditure on modernisation ...

            Kashmiri female voters wait to cast their votes during the fourth phase of India's general elections in Srinagar May 7, 2009. REUTERS/Fayaz Kabli
            Election 2009

            Millions of Indians are voting in a month-long general election, a mammoth process in which 714 million people can cast their votes in the world's largest democracy.  Full Coverage 

            Photo
            Flu quarantines could violate law - U.N. rights chief 6:06pm IST 

            GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged countries on Friday not to quarantine healthy Mexican travellers on grounds of nationality, saying it was a violation of international law.  Full Article  

            Photo
            India can comfortably grow 7-8 pct - former RBI head 6:37pm IST 

            MUMBAI (Reuters) - India should emerge from its downturn ahead of developed economies, with recovery depending on an export revival as falling external demand was the main reason for slowing growth, the former head of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said.  Full Article  


            Global financial wealth sees $28 trillion erosion amid slump
             
            NEW DELHI: Ever since the credit crunch surfaced in late 2007, there has been a dramatic fall in the prices of financial assets amounting to a
            total wealth erosion of $28 trillion across the world, economic forecasting consultancy Oxford Economics has said.

            Oxford Economics estimates that the "total financial wealth has fallen some $28 trillion, or 14 per cent, from its peak. In absolute terms, this has taken wealth back to the level prevailing in third quarter of 2006."

            However, the losses this time were rapid and much larger than seen when the dotcom bubble burst in 2000-02, it added.

            In the US, financial wealth losses were huge at $8.1 trillion, thanks to the six consecutive quarters of declining financial wealth.

            Substantial losses also occurred in the Eurozone and in emerging markets. "Wealth losses in both these areas have totalled around $11 trillion, equivalent to closer to 20 per cent of total financial wealth," the Oxford Economics report said.


            Also Read
             → Watch out for the traps present in crisis
             → US center names 25 lenders blamed for financial crisis
             → IOC loses $34 million due to global economic crisis
             → EU doubles crisis fund to euro50 billion


            Though the losses in the Eurozone and emerging markets got exaggerated as the US dollar has gained grounds against the euro and many emerging market currencies. But even in local currency terms the losses have been substantial indeed.

            Wealth losses were concentrated mainly in the household sector as the US household financial wealth losses have reached $11.4 trillion, Oxford Economics said.
            8 May 2009, 1731 hrs IST, PTI
             

            Sensex ends below 12000 as election result nears

            8 May 2009, 1752 hrs IST, Mohammed Sabir, ET Bureau

             

             Print   EMail   Discuss  Share  Save  Comment    Single page view Text:
            MUMBAI: Going against its overseas peers, the Indian stock market ended with losses Friday after profit booking emerged ahead of the election results. Traders ignored other global markets which were in the green after the US banks stress test came out with no major surprises.

            The indices opened on a flat note mirroring the global markets and were range bound. Recovery in Asian stocks and positive European markets later was overlooked as investors were determined to book profits in an over-bought market. All the sectoral indices ended in the red with banks, metals and IT being the worst hit.

            "Bearish sentiments ahead of election results could have led long traders to book profits after the Nifty hit immediate resistance of 3700. A lot of traders were waiting for a correction as the risk-reward ratio at current levels was not suitable," said Shrikant Chouhan of Kotak Securities.

            Indian markets have witnessed a sharp rally in the recent weeks after revival in sectors like auto, cement and steel triggered hopes of an economic recovery.

            The BSE Sensex closed at 11,876.43, lower by 240.51 points or 1.98 per cent from the previous close. The 30-share index moved between high of 12180.07 and low of 11765.06 intraday.

            The Nifty ended at 3620.70, down 63.20 points or 1.72 per cent from Thursday's close. The NSE benchmark saw a high of 3711.25 and low of 3582.85 during the day.

            "In case the market (Nifty) comes to 3500, which looks likely next week, one can initiate long positions and keep a target of 3800. At higher levels, they can again go short. A market friendly government at the centre will lead to another leg of bull-run rally. Looking at international markets, we may see correction in these markets next week," Chouhan added.

            Fate of all political parties will be decided on May 16 when the people will give the verdict of who they prefer to form the central government.

            Meanwhile, the wholesale price index based inflation rose for fourth consecutive week to 0.7 per cent for week ended April 25 against 0.57 per cent previous week.

            Lalgarh Movement – Mass uprising of tribal people in West Bengal

            Pictures »
            May 3: 5000 villagers raze govt building in Salboni to keep cops out
            April 25: A Brief Report on the Adivasi Rally on April 24 at the heart of Kolkata - Koustav De

            Read this article »

            Latest Articles on Sanhati

            May 3, 2009

            Lok Sabha 2009: Electioneering through culture, rhymes - a mini-kaleidoscope: Sankar Ray's column
            Bibhash Chakraborty's open letter to intellectuals - Articles
            Understanding the Nano: small car, big responsibilites - Articles
            INFOGEN: updates on employee rights movement - News
            Over a million Bengal tea workers lost jobs, says study - News
            Children Against Dow/Carbide: Sarita Malviya spreads the word on Bhopal - Articles
            Anatomy of an Encounter in Bastar - News
            McCarthyism on US campuses - Articles

            April 25, 2009

            Jobless? What jobless! A brief tour through the Economics Wonderland - Debarshi Das. Journal.
            The Art of Not Writing - Shubhranshu Choudhary. Articles.
            Unfair Wealth and Fair Elections - Articles.
            Chinton - A magazine of Marxian enquiry - Literature.
            Binayak Sen's failing health and the Chhattisgarh police's active prevention of care - News.
            Did Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee personally order police to fire on March 14? - Articles.

            April 3, 2009

            On agriculture, opposition to land acquisition and the parliamentary elections - Shamik Sarkar. Journal
            Jindal SEZ at Salboni: A First-hand Report - Suvarup Saha and Koel Das. Journal
            The Morichjhanpi massacre: When tigers became citizens, refugees "tiger-food" - Front Page
            A photo essay on the de-industrialization of Bengal: Real estate SEZs over the ruins of factories - Articles
            "Only the idiots are committing suicide" - Articles
            HDI Oscars: slumdogs versus millionaires - Articles
            Nayachar chemical hub: Citizens' panel slams govt - News

            March 21, 2009

            Gorkhaland and Lalgarh: dialogues, parallels, and a challenge to mainstream parties - Koustav De, Sanhati. Journal
            Capitalism Beyond the Crisis - Amartya Sen's article, and a critique - Articles
            Unnayan - A discussion on the concept of Development with Dignity - Articles
            World Bank report: stop NREGA, promote migration and clustered growth - Front Page
            A psychological study of India's Partition, and some surprising results - Articles
            Who are the real enemies of Pakistan? - Rai Chaudhuri's Column
            Recent court rulings pertaining to civil liberties - News
            Reaching out to the back rows: questions on primary education - Articles
            Report on India's first airport city (Andal Airetropolis) from Adhikar - Campaign Literature
            The Infogen scam and employee rights on the IT landscape - News

            March 3, 2009

            Reflections on Language Martyrs' Day/Black Day - Dipanjan Rai Chaudhuri's column
            Tribal Peoples Committee of Purulia district hold meeting for basic rights in solidarity with Lalgarh - Campaign Literature
            The shark has pretty teeth: the State vs. Binayak Sen - Resistance News
            India makes a place for Dirty Harry - General Articles
            Sri Lanka: A Besieged Society - World Articles
            Poverty behind the tiger - General Articles
            Land reforms in reverse gear? - Resistance News

            February 24, 2009

            Working Paper: Current crisis regime and impact on class struggle in India - Articles
            Inflexibility and falsifiability in economics, and the failure of rigid worldviews - Articles
            Documentary from Canvas on monopolistic aggression in retail, Bengal - Campaign Literature
            Few jobs for Muslims in Bengal; housing and banking discrimination - Articles
            Reports on police firing in Dumka, Jharkhand: the site of a controversial power and dam project - News
            NREGA implementation countrywide: the first two years - Articles
            NREGA activists Bhukhan Singh and Niyamat Ansari arrested in Jharkhand - News

            February 9, 2009

            Factory closures and plight of workers: A comprehensive report on Bengal's industrial condition - Journal
            77 days in jail: political notes from an imprisoned worker under Left Front ruled Bengal - Journal
            A report from the Save Naihati Industrial Area Forum - Journal
            Booklet on the Bengal and Indian government's new agricultural policies - Subhendu Dasgupta. Campaign Literature.
            Government cannot arm people in Naxal-hit areas: Supreme Court - Resistance News

            January 23, 2009

            Death of small businesses in Bengal and India: a comprehensive study of retail monopoly - Journal
            Urban beautification: 5000 Dalits to be evicted from century-old community in Belgachhia, Howrah - Front Page
            North Bengal - when the cup inebriates - News
            Dankuni says goodbye to DLF - News
            900 landholders reject land acquisition at Andal Aerotropolis project - News

            For older articles, click below.

            Read this article »

            Jobless? What jobless! A brief tour through the Economics Wonderland

            By Debarshi Das, Sanhati

            What we mostly find in India is not open unemployment but underemployment. This is principally because going without jobs is a luxury in a country having non-existent unemployment benefits. Employed kith and kin cannot be of much help either if one is jobless because the wage levels are barely enough to sustain one. However a person doing a job which neither she nor others consider gainful employment should not be counted as employed . Her right to labour and dignity is yet to be realised. As pressure of global capital tightens and the organised sector shrinks, workers are made to take up more and more of such unpaying and hazardous jobs, whose remuneration stagnates as the rest of the economy surges past. All this is perhaps not much surprising. What is amusing is the eagerness with which dominant economic tradition of the day ties itself in knots.

            Read this article »

            Report of the All-India Fact-Finding Team on Lalgarh

            Fact-finding team: Amit Bhaduri, economist, Professor emeritus, JNU; Madhu Bhaduri, womens' rights activist, IFS, former ambassador to Vietnam; Vidya Das, adivasi rights activist, Agragamee, Kashipur, Orissa; Gautam Navlakha, PUDR, consulting editor, EPW; Colin Gonsalves, supreme court lawyer, Human rights law network; Aseem Srivastava, economist, writer, activist; Kaustav Banerjee, economist, CSD, Delhi; Budhaditya Das, student, DU; Manika Bora, student, JNU; Sudipta, human rights activist, Adhikar, Asansol, West Bengal

            Read this article »

            A photo essay on the de-industrialization of Bengal: Real estate SEZs over the ruins of factories

            The real story behind the much-hyped industrialization of West Bengal is one of continuous de-industrialization, land grab and conversion to real estate. This essay captures the emerging Shriram Hitec city in Hind Motors. Included is an article on industries in the Barackpur-Kanchrapara belt.

            Read this article »

            The Morichjhanpi massacre: When tigers became citizens, refugees "tiger-food"

            The massacre in Marichjhapi, which took place under CPIM rule in Bengal between January 26 and May 16, 1979, has few parallels in the history of independent India. It holds fair comparison with the Jalianwala Bag massacre perpetrated by the British. The level of police brutality was horrific. The entire island of refugees was put under economic blockade from January, after the Left had come to power the previous year promising to champion the cause of the refugees. The blockade first starved out the population, and then the killings began.

            West Bengal Policy Reversal and the Marichjhapi Massacre by Ross Mallick
            When tigers became citizens, refugees "tiger-food" by Annu Jalais

            Read this article »

            Capitalism Beyond the Crisis - Amartya Sen's article, and a critique

            Capitalism Beyond the Crisis - Amartya Sen, Feb 15 2009
            The Use and Abuse of Trust - comments on Sen's Capitalism Beyond the Crisis

            Read this article »

            World Bank report: stop NREGA, promote migration and clustered growth

            1. World Bank roots for urbanisation, migration - March 13, 2009
            2. Migration to urban areas is good, says World Bank - March 13, 2009
            3. Encourage clustered economic growth, World Bank tells India - March 13, 2009
            4. NREGA is a barrier to economic development: World Bank - March 15, 2009
            5. World Bank to clear $2.6 bn loan for India soon - March 15, 2009

            Various schemes of the Indian government like NREGA, watershed programmes and schemes for development of small and medium towns are acting as "policy barriers to internal mobility", the bank said in its 'World Development Report' 2009.

            Read this article »

            Gorkhaland and Lalgarh: dialogues, parallels, and a challenge to mainstream parties

            By Koustav De, Sanhati

            (1) The Gorkhaland movement: A short background (2) Gorkhaland leadership extends hand of solidarity for Lalgarh movement (3) Exchanging views: A challenge to vote equations (4) The State's divisive tactics (5) Looking forward

            Read this article »

            Working Paper: Current crisis regime and impact on class struggle in India

            This paper has been produced by Gurgaon Workers News, February 2009.

            1. The character of the Shining India after the crash 1991
            2. Landmarks of the current crisis in India. a) The Crisis Blow b) The state's reaction
            3. Margins of the crisis regime in India a) The Social Unrest of the Rural World b) The Energy Crunch c) The Industrial Impasse d) The political consequences for the crisis regime
            4. New frame-work and potentials for proletarian unrest

            Read this article »

            Comprehensive documentary from Canvas on monopolistic aggression in retail, Bengal

            Canvas Documentary on Big capital monopoly in retail, Bengal [Google Video, 47 mins, Bengali]

            This documentary covers the continuous conversion of industrial land into real estate, and the monopolistic assault on retail in Bengal that threatens to render countless workers jobless. Contents: (1) Interviews with small traders, analysts, and activists (2) South City Mall (3) Barrackpore Nonachandanpukur Bazaar (4) Save Park Circus Market Committee (5) Panihati retailers (6) Gariahat hawkers (7) Bolpur retailers samiti (8) Voices against Metro Cash and Carry

            Factory closures and plight of workers: A comprehensive summary of Bengal's industrial condition

            Contents:
            Section 1: Abstract
            Section 2: Voices from below
            Section 3: Sickness Profiles: National Tannery, Kolay Biscuit, Eastern Paper Mill and 14 others.
            Section 4: Regional Roundup of Industrial Belts: Eastern fringes, B.T. Road, Dum-Dum Lake Town, Jadavpur-Tollygunj, Taratala, Beleghata
            Section 5: Factsheets: Industrial policy summary, Efforts to combat sickness, Survey of 500 sick industries, Rajarhat township, "Excess" industrial land.
            Section 6: Summary

            Read this article »

            Death of small businesses in Bengal and India: a comprehensive study of retail monopoly

            By Siddhartha Mitra and Debarshi Das, Sanhati. Translated from a FAMA study

            Contents: 1. Introduction: the old versus the new market: the politics of change 2. The attempt to control small businesses 3. How the attack on small businesses has already impacted the rest of the world 4. What is the current situation of small scale retail in India 5. How this is all going to change 6. The death of small businesses and the false promise of new employment 7. Farmer suicides 8. Procuring the crops – the farmers are left out 9. Impact on the environment 10. That is why there is Nandigram, Khammam, Posco 11. Let us walk together

            Click here for Bengali documentary on this material, produced by Canvas

            Read this article »

            Urban beautification: 5000 Dalits to be evicted from century-old community in Belgachhia, Howrah

            They informed us that their predecessors have been staying in that area for more than 100 years.

            Read this article »

            A collection of essays on the Mumbai terror attacks, 2008

            Click here to read collection [PDF, English, 62 KB] »

            (1) Introduction - Shabnam Hashmi and Ram Puniyani (2) Terror: the aftermath - Anand Patwardhan (3) As the fires die: the terror of the aftermath - Biju Mathew (4) Hotel Taj: Icon of whose India? - Gnani Sankaran (5) Why the United States got it wrong - P. Sainath (6) The Monster in the Mirror - Arundhati Roy (7) Counter: Terrorism must not kill democracy - Praful Bidwai (8) Handling queries: democratic responses. Antuley remarks and the aftermath - Ram Puniyani (9) Need for a thorough investigation - Raveena Hansa (10) Terrorism, rule of law, and humna rights - K.G.Balakrishnan (11) Acts of terror and Terrorising Act: Unfolding Indian tragedy - Sukla Sen (12) Our politicians are still not listening - Colin Gonsalves (13) India's new anti-terror laws are draconian, say activists - Praful Bidwai (14) Terrorism: are stronger laws the answer? - Prashant Bhushan

            Read this article »

            Forest Rights Act: general issues of implementation and performance of various states

            Constant updates on the Forest Rights Act are available on forestrightsact.com

            In December 2006, Parliament passed the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. This historic legislation marks the first time in India's history that a law has been passed recognising the rights of forest communities. Implementation of the Act is an unfolding political struggle.

            1. General issues in implementation across states
            2. Detailed updates from various states as of December 2008

            Read this article »

            30 years of destitution: India's largest energy hub and the people of Singrauli, U.P.

            "Singrauli will turn into Singapore," - Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, 2008

            Across the nation, up to 60,000,000 people are estimated to have been displaced by power, irrigation, mining and other development projects since independence.

            Read this article »

            Return of the terror law: Implications for peoples movements and a petition

            Sign petition to demand repeal of draconian laws

            Implications for peoples movements
            Press Release from Kolkata activists: deep anguish over laws - Dec 24, 2008
            Acts of Terror and Terrorising Act – Unfolding Indian Tragedy - Dec 19, 2008
            Double-barrel strike on terror - Dec 16, 2008

            Read this article »

            Airport cities: The new paradigm

            One of the aspects of neoliberal accumulation in India and Bengal has been the steady creation of real estate enclaves, hubs, and gated cities. A new chapter in this process is the impending concept of airport cities, with the usual promises of job creation, downstream employment, and development. An idea imported from highly developed nations, the aerotropolis, as it is called, will demand the creation of attendent SEZs and the provision of infrastructure like water and electricity by local taxpayers. A land acquisition notice for an airport city in Andal (Burdwan, West Bengal) was served in December 2008.

            Read this article »

            Notes from a ghost town: a day in the Naihati industrial region, Bengal

            By Parimal Bhattacharya, Dec 2008

            Every night, at 11 pm, Moumita Pan waits in the dark with her schoolbooks for the electric light to come on. A student of Class XI, she has to race through her studies before the light goes out again at two in the morning. Moumita is the only girl in the workers' quarters of the Jenson and Nicholson plant at Naihati, closed since 2004, who has cleared the Madhyamik and has not dropped out yet.

            Read this article »

            16,632 farmer suicides in India in 2007

            Suicides by farmers of Maharashtra crossed the 4,000-mark in 2007, for the third time in four years, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). As many as 4,238 farmers of the State took their lives that year, the latest for which data are available, accounting for a fourth of 16,632 farmer suicides in the country.

            Read this article »

            Ominous developments in Orissa: Sangh Parivar critic arrested for writing book

            Writing against Sangh Parivar and Brahmanism is 'inflamatory' or 'War agaisnt State' - The Orissa police proves it by arresting a Bhubaneswar based critic of Brahmanism and RSS. Mr.Lenin Kumar, editor, Nishan was arrested day before yesterdey for writing the book '"Dharma Naanre Kandhamalare Rakta Nadi".

            Read this article »

            Anti-mining and anti-SEZ struggles in Salem, Tamil Nadu: A summary

            Salem, in Tamil Nadu, South India, is the scene of mining operations and an impending SEZ site. Various players, from SAIL to the Jindals to the infamous Vedanta corporation, are vying for mining rights in the area. An IT SEZ is on the cards. Local struggle is developing.

            Read this article »

            The Global Economic Crisis: a five-part study

            By Dipankar Basu, Sanhati. This series will also appear parallely on Radicalnotes

            The global economic crisis currently underway is, by all accounts, the deepest economic crisis of world capitalism since the Great Depression. It is necessary for the international working class to understand various aspects of this crisis: how it developed, who were the players involved, what were the instruments used during the build-up and what are it's consequences for the working people of the world. This understanding is necessary to formulate a socialist, i.e., working class, response to these earth shaking events. In a series of posts here on Radical Notes, I will share my understanding of the on-going crisis as part of the larger collective attempt to come to grips with the current conjuncture from a socialist perspective, to understand both the problems and the possibilities that it opens up.

            Read this article »

            Dispossession of weavers in Varanasi and the need for an artisans movement

            Varanasi in North India, which employed 700,000 people in handloom a decade back, now employs only 250,000, with 47 reported cases of suicide. In the face of liberalization, silk cloth imports, indiscriminate mechanization, loose control over cheap imitations, rising price of silk, etc. weavers, like other artisans, are being dispossessed. This article discusses the inefficacy of existing government schemes, and suggests ways forward, stressing the need for an artisans' movement in the country.

            Read this article »

            Political Economy of Contemporary India: Some Comments on Partha Chatterjee's theoretical framework

            Dipankar Basu and Debarshi Das, Sanhati. Open for comments.

            Sifting through the divergent viewpoints thrown up by attempts to make sense of the recent political history of West Bengal, one is led to the conclusion that the tumultuous events have taken many, if not most, by surprise. With the benefit of hindsight one can probably say this: a combination of an insensitive state power, an arrogant ruling party, lapping-it-up corporate interests, and cheerleaders-of-corporate-sector-doubling-up-as-media orchestrated a veritable assault – a perfect storm. Yet the peasantry, initially without the guiding hand of a political party – indeed at times against the writ of the party – fought on. Through this episode Indian political economy seems to have stumbled upon the peasantry while it was looking for a short-cut to economic growth through SEZs.

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            Probing the politics of the annual destitution of 4 million in Damodar valley flooding

            By Santanu Sengupta, Sanhati. Translated from ShramikShakti Newsletter: August 2008. Open for comments.

            The lower Damodar river valley in West Bengal is the home of the Damodar Valley Corporation or DVC, the first multipurpose river valley project of independent India, whose stated aims are flood control, irrigation and generation and distribution of electricity. It is also the site of horrendous annual flooding that has brought ruin to over 4 million people for over a generation. This article probes the disparity between the stated objectives of the project and its performance, and the dangerous politics of big dams that has wreaked havoc on the lives of millions in Bengal.

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            Statement on Singur from Sanhati

            October 12, 2008

            Months of unflinching resistance by the people of Singur, especially landless labourers and marginal farmers, against the unjust and violent farm land acquisition by the West Bengal government has finally forced Tata Motors to withdraw its small car project from that area.

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            A list of exploitative companies in North India, and what they do

            This is a small but typical list of companies in the Gurgaon area of North India, which commit flagrant violations of existing labor laws and get away with impunity. Their practices are listed below, in the form of first-person reports from workers, gleaned from Gurgaon Workers News. In most cases the minimum wage for industrial helpers of Rs. 3510 is not paid. If it is paid, then the working-times are way beyond the fixed 8-hours day and 6-days week. In most cases the over-time exceeds the legal restriction – maximum 50 hours in three months - and is paid at single rate, though according to the labour law it should be paid double. Hardly any workers receive the Provident Fund (PF), nor do they get ESI, medical insurance, which they are entitled to by law.

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            Farewell to the Tatas: Costs and benefits of the Tata-Singur Project, a detailed dissection of the deal

            By Dipankar Basu, Sanhati. Open for comments

            Costs: the total cost of the Tata-Singur project incurred by the exchequer, and hence ultimately the tax payers, will be approximately be Rs. 3000 crores on a net present value basis when we add up the costs pertaining to the land subsidy, the tax holidays, the soft loan, the real estate gift and the subsidized electricity using an interest rate of 11%. This is about 58% of the total realized industrial investment in the state of West Bengal in 2007.

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            Responsible corporates? The crimes of the Tatas enumerated

            Introduction 1. Helping Killer Carbide - the Dow Chemicals nexus 2. Bypassing Democracy (a) Dictating Indian Policy (b) Holding on to Corporatocracy (c) Business with Military Junta 3. Desecrating Tribal Lands (a) Parched Earth Tactics (b) Chrome Poisoning (c) Luxury Resort in Tiger Country 4. Violence and Massacres (a) Gua Massacre (b) Kalinganagar Massacre (c) Singur Oppression 5. Toxic Dumping (a) Saline waste (b) Hell on Earth (c) Mountains of Waste, Jugsalai (d) Joda Mines (e) Coal Slurry Dumping 6. Hazardous Incidents (a) Founder's Day Fire 7. Strong Anti-Labour Policies (a) Worker Suicides (b) Sub-contracting and Fostering Insecurity (c) Lay-offs (d) Union busting (e) Killings 8. A Historical Record as Collaborators of British Imperialism (a) Drug Running (b) Empress Mills (c) Fueling British Expansionism (9) Tatas opposed by the people

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            The US financial crisis: locating the real locus of the debate with Rick Wolff

            By Rick Wolff

            In US capitalism's greatest financial crisis since the 1930s Depression, status-quo ideology swirls. The goal is to keep this crisis under control, to prevent it from challenging capitalism itself. One method is to keep public debate from raising the issue of whether and how class changes — basic economic system changes — might be the best "solution." Right, center, and even most left commentators exert that ideological control, some consciously and some not. Hence the debates where those demanding "more or better government regulation" of financial markets shout down those who still "have more confidence in private enterprise and free markets." Both sides limit the public discussion to more vs less state intervention to "save the economy." Then too we have quarrels over details of state intervention: politicians "want to help foreclosure victims too" or "want to limit financiers' pay packages" or want to "weed out bad apples in the finance industry" while spokespersons of various financial enterprises struggle to shape the details to their particular interests.

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            Who committed the real violence at Graziano Transmissioni?

            Who committed the real violence at Graziano Transmissioni? - Kavita Krishnan
            Graziano Workers Solidarity Forum formed

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            Hidden Costs of the Tata-Singur Agreement

            By Dipankar Basu, Sanhati. Open for comments.

            The Tata Group of Companies is one of the largest business conglomerates in India today with about 100 large companies in its fold. With the might of the Indian State firmly behind it, monopoly capital in India has started a move to aggressively acquire foreign assets. This short note examines the true character of agreements like the one `struck' between the TML and the West Bengal government. It is important to understand how such `agreements' look like under a neo-liberal regime.

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            The dislocation of 15 million fishworkers and environmental degradation: an introduction to ongoing changes in Coastal Zone Regulations

            By Suvarup Saha, Sanhati. Open for comments.

            Coastal Zone Regulations in India are currently being changed and manipulated. It is necessary to examine these changes closely and understand the political and economic currents that motivate them. The 8200 km long coastline of India provides livelihood to 15 million people and is one of the richest environments in the world - changes and amendments in protective regulations thus have widespread effects, effects which are being swept under the carpet by political parties, from the right to the parliamentary Left. This is an introduction to the issue.

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            Perspectives on the U.S. financial crisis

            The U.S. financial crisis: some views from Monthly Review
            The Greed Fallacy: By Arthur MacEwan, Dollars and Sense
            Hard Truths About the Bailout
            Free market ideology is far from finished: By Naomi Klein
            Crisis of Capitalism and the Left: By Emir Sader

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            Understanding the demand for Gorkhaland : An introductory note

            Open for comments

            Voices for a separate state of Gorkhaland are once again echoing in the hills of Darjeeling and the surrounding areas. These developments are certainly disturbing for the uninformed Bengalis – they fail to understand why such a picturesque and otherwise "peaceful" place would like to secede from their province. They also feel sad at the thought of losing something so beautiful, something to be proud of. Sometimes, there is the knee-jerk reaction among some of them – a refusal to part with the region. With the state government and the mainstream media purposely continuing to feed on this ignorance and pride, it becomes important to put together a historical account of the developments in Darjeeling and thereby address questions regarding the right to self-determination of the people staying in this region. The hope is that such an introductory account of the evolving situation in Darjeeling would help the democratic-minded people to come to a rational decision.

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            Tales from the Gorkha region: crimes, oppression, and the fading memory of Baburam Dewan

            By Siddhartha Mitra, Sanhati. Translated from ShramikShakti, June 2008

            "Son, do not feel ashamed about my death; instead, feel proud of it, because this self-sacrifice of mine is for the greater good of the 6000 workers of the Chongtong tea-estate. We are still able to provide ourselves with two meals a day; but the thought of the frightening situation of the others in the tea-garden is making me unbearably anxious

            – these were the words the Baburam Dewan wrote to his son in a letter just before he took his own life.

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            The ongoing Singur siege: populist, social democratic, and horizontal responses to neo-liberalism

            By Kuver Sinha, Sanhati. Open for comments

            There is an ongoing siege in Singur, West Bengal, the site of the Tata Nano project. The Trinamul Congress, led by Mamata Banerjee, has demanded that of all the land acquired by the State Government using the colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894, 400 acres be returned to farmers who had been unwilling to sell. The Krishi Jomi Jibon Raksha Committee or KJJRC (Save Farmland Committee) is the broad umbrella organization carrying out the struggle. Various civil society groups have rallied behind this call, as have landed farmers, landless labourers, and sharecroppers of the area.

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            Public health privatisation in Bengal

            By Indira Chakravarthy, Guest Contributor.

            As a complement to Dipankar Basu's piece on the "achievements" of the CPM government in West Bengal on the economic and social fronts (http://sanhati.com/front-page/857/), I would like to share a few facts/concerns about the health status of common people in W Bengal. Using publicly available data, Dipankar had demonstrated that West Bengal's growth story was rather unspectacular when compared to other Indian states. Now, I would like to raise a related but different question: has even this below-average "economic growth" translated into improvements in the social sector for the common people?

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            A history of the brutal Rajarhat land acquisition, Bengal's new IT hub

            By Santanu Sengupta, Sanhati. Translated from Rajarhaat - Uponogorir Ontorale Arto Manuher Kanna

            Rajarhaat, near Kolkata, is Bengal's new IT hub and a hotspot for real estate investment. Within no time Rajarhat has become the hotbed of real estate investments with companies like DLF, Keppel Land, Unitech group, Singapore-based Ascendas, Vedic Realty, etc. coming in. Land prices have soared. The first phase of DLF's Rs 280 crore (Rs 2.80 billion) IT project has been operational since 2005 and a second IT park is on the cards. Wipro, Infosys, IBM - all the major IT houses are in operation here, on subsidized lands. A wireless hub is in the offing. Contrasting with Singur-Nandigram, official state versions have given the picture that Rajarhat's land acquisition from the mid 1990's onwards has been peaceful. This is an acount of the immense bloodshed that lay behind this acquisition, in a decade when the civil society and media wasn't interested.

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            'Testing' Time for a 'Civil' Nuclear Deal: Reflections ahead of the NSG meet

            By P.K. Sundaram, Guest Contributor. August 20, 2008. Open for comments.

            India's desperate diplomacy prior to the NSG meet on August 21-22, 2008 reveals the not-so-hidden truth about the deal – at a time when there is a need for renewed focus on disarmament, India rehabilitates nuclear energy corporates in order to circumvent nonproliferation regime and secure its right to conduct nuclear tests. And it finds supports from the Bush nuclear strategy bent on reducing nonproliferation into counterproliferation.

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            We have no value - sharecroppers and labourers in the ongoing Singur crisis

            Reporting from Singur – Shamik Sarkar, Sanhati. 19th August, 2008. Comments enabled.

            It has been over a year and a half that 997 acres have been sealed off by Tata's fences here. But many landowning farmers have not accepted compensation. In the last week of July, 2008, the Krishi Jomi Jibon Jibika Raksha Committee (Committee for saving farmland, life, and livelihood) gave the call to "outsiders working in Tata's plant" to leave Singur, "to protect the rights of unwilling farmers, Bargadars, and agricultural workers". After that, Trinamul leader Mamata Banerjee declared that there would be a continuous blockade of the project from August 24th. The pressure of the movement forced workers who had been coming to the site from outside to stop.

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            What is the state of workers in the new industrial zones of Tamil Nadu?

            This conversation with a worker from Tamil Nadu, appeared in Shramik Istahar, May 2008. It has been translated by Koel Das, Sanhati.

            I was conversing with Sudhakarda. Sudhakar Raut, originally from Orissa, used to work in a reputed private engineering factory in West Bengal. He lost his job after being victimized in a lock-out while fighting against the injustice of the factory owner. I met him a couple of days back when he talked about his experiences over the last one year.

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            Flashpoint Chengara - landless Dalits, the Left Democratic Front, and terror

            A historic land struggle has been unfolding at Chengara in Pathanamthitta district, Kerala, involving about 7500 families, which includes all sections of landless people, the majority of them being Dalits and Adivasis. Landless people have claimed land in the Chengara estate, a rubber plantation, which had been leased to the Harrison Malayalam Plantation by the government of Kerala. At present, the lease is invalid and the property has lapsed back to the government. The landless people who have flocked there from all parts of Kerala demand that this government land be redistributed to them. These marginalised people have thereby demanded a say in what must be done with government land in Kerala: given the present political and economic climate, the likelihood is that this land will be taken over by the state only to be assigned unconditionally, or with minimum conditions, to the multi-nationals.

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            Dynamics of rural proletariat: labour shortage in agriculture, NREGA, aspirations, and the nouveau riche

            Introduction: rural proletariat in Haryana and Punjab
            Aspirations within misery: labour shortage in agriculture
            The NREGA and the control of rural proletariat
            The teenage guns of the nouveau riche

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            Is tenant eviction at the heart of the Bengal government's new agrarian thinking?

            By Shubhendu Dasgupta. Translated by Debarshi Das, Sanhati

            One of the many aspects of the land reform programme was security for tenants. Those land owners who would not cultivate the land themselves, would lease out the same to the tenants. This is called tenancy cultivation – or "barga" cultivation in Bengal. Those who would lease in the land on barga cultivation would be called "bargadars".

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            Aspects of Nuclear Power

            1. Nuclear Reactor Hazards : Ongoing dangers of operating nuclear technology in the 21st century
            2. Nuclear Power: no solution to climate change
            3. Pros and cons of nuclear power
            4. The nuclear 'solution' to climate change
            5. The Nuclear crisis in France

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            Nuclear Deal, 'National Interest' and the Indian Left

            By P.K. Sundaram, Guest Contributor. Open for comments.

            It is the Indian Left's concurrence, rather than its disagreement, with the idea of a nuclear future (including nuclear weapons) that has made its case weak and inaudible to the larger masses.

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            Fighting Neoliberalism: Does West Bengal Show the Way?

            By Dipankar Basu, Sanhati. Open for comments.

            Mindless economic growth through unfettered operations of the "free" market, that is often portrayed in the mainstream media as a panacea for all of India's economic problems, has now been shown to be seriously flawed as a sensible strategy for economic development. Active, pro-people state intervention through sound policies is essential for making any meaningful dent on the problems facing our country today; and this includes, if historical experience is anything to go by, even the achievement of sustainable, broad-based economic growth. In every known case of successful industrialization and economic development, be it England or Continental Europe or USA or Japan or the East Asian tigers, the State has played a pro-active role in directing investments, mobilizing resources to finance that investment, protecting fledgling industries from undue competition from abroad, and so on; it is, therefore, inconceivable that any state, or the country for that matter, can make that transition without State intervention through effective policies for agriculture and industry. State governments subscribing to this viewpoint would claim to have put this political philosophy into practice, especially the one in West Bengal.

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            Behind the IAEA Safeguards Agreement: What the Nuclear Deal Entails

            By M.V. Ramana, Guest Contributor.

            With the submission of the safeguards agreement to the IAEA and the challenge to the government from the left parties, there is now renewed widespread debate about the nuclear agreement with United States. Much of the debate on the deal has been between what can be broadly called the nuclear hawks and the nuclear nationalists. The nuclear hawks believe India's nuclear programme is a great success and more than able to take care of itself. They see the deal as imposing unnecessary constraints on the programme and making more difficult the creation of the large nuclear arsenal, including thermonuclear weapons (hydrogen bombs), that they believe is essential for India to be a 'great power.'

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            The Indo-US Nuclear Pact and the Hoax of Nuclear Power

            The Indo-US Nuclear Pact and the Hoax of Nuclear Power - By Dipanjan Rai Chaudhuri
            India's Nuclear History: A Brief Outline
            Choosing the Wrong Future: The U.S.-India Nuclear Deal - By Andrew Lichterman and M.V. Ramana
            Wrong Ends, Means, and Needs: Behind the U.S. Nuclear Deal With India - By Zia Mian and M. V. Ramana

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            Class Struggle and Resistance in Zimbabwe

            1. Revolutionaries, resistance and crisis in Zimbabwe – Munyaradzi Gwisai
            2. His Excellency Comrade Robert: How Mugabe's ZANU clique rose to power – Stephen O'Brien
            3. No to a government of national unity! Only united mass action will defeat Mugabe! – International Socialist Organisation of Zimbabwe

            Click here to read Class Struggle & Resistance in Zimbabwe [PDF, 400 KB] »

            Liberalism Betrayed? The Maoist Electoral Victory in Nepal

            By Saroj Giri, Sanhati. Open for comments.

            The workers chanted "Allende, the people are defending you: hit the reactionaries hard." The mood of the masses was militant. They were waiting for a lead that never came. - Tariq Ali, Allende's Chile

            Is the Maoist victory in the Constituent Assembly elections in Nepal a challenge to the liberal consensus and hegemony or is it its expansion, or worse, its intensification, co-opting the Maoists in the process? It could be either, mostly depending on which way events unfold in the coming days. The 'meaning' of the Maoist victory calls for a critical examination even as it promises an interesting and politically salient expose of the intricacies and dangers of trying to beat liberal democracy in its own game. Liberals, both left-wing and right-wing ones, have welcomed the Maoist victory though with caution and sometimes clenching their teeth, as a victory of the ballot over the bullet and a step forward for democracy and peace in Nepal. Those on the revolutionary left have however hardly allowed their pleasant surprise at the results to underestimate the enormous risks of 'right-wing deviation' and capitulation that the present path entails for the Maoists.

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            The May 2008 Pogroms: xenophobia, evictions, liberalism, and democratic grassroots militancy in South Africa

            By Richard Pithouse, Guest Contributor. Durban, 16 June 2008.

            This essay examines the issues of xenophobia in present-day South Africa, in the light of the riots of May 2008. It starts by looking at eviction in the Harry Gwala settlement and the role of various poor people's movements like Abahlali baseMjondolo, Anti-Eviction Campaign, and the Landless People's Movement. It then looks at the riots, making the point that most areas under the control of militant organisations of the poor that have been in serious conflict with the state had no violence. The essay evaluates the ideas of Michael Neocosmos in theorizing xenophobia, coming to the conclusion that "For Neocosmos xenophobia and authoritarianism are a continuation of apartheid oppression that are, in the end, a product of liberalism. He proposes, against the state centric politics of liberalism, a recovery of popular emancipatory politics…[it] is the practical politics that was able to defend and shelter people targeted in the May pogroms, and has previously, although covertly, offered the same protection from the state…"

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            A man-made famine - India and the world in the Great Hunger of 2008

            1. India's Emerging Food Security Crisis: The Consequences of the Neoliberal Assault on the Public Distribution System - Analytical Monthly Review
            2. A man-made famine - Raj Patel, The Guardian
            3. The World Food Crisis: Sources and Solutions - Fred Magdoff, Monthly Review
            4. Manufacturing a Food Crisis - Walden Bellow, The Nation
            5. Global food crisis: 'The greatest demonstration of the historical failure of the capitalist model' - Ian Angus, Socialist Voice
            6. Soaring prices are causing hunger around the world - Washington Post Editorial
            7. The World's Growing Food-Price Crisis - Time magazine

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            Corporate encroachment and the Panchayat elections: A rural montage

            By Shamik Sarkar, Sanhati. Open for comments.

            I. Beliya village, Haruda, and promises of development
            II. Singur, its sharecroppers and laborers, and the Opposition
            III. Corporate hands in rural Bengal

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            Human Rights Organization Masum under attack for coordinating People's Tribunal on Torture

            June 12, 2008

            Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) had organised a People's Tribunal on Torture (PTT) on 9-10 June. The police have started a case against MASUM claiming the tribunal to be illegal. On June 12 a huge police force raided MASUM's office (26 Guitendal Lane, Howrah 711101). To protest against this, a meeting has been planned at MASUM's office, today, on 13 June at 4pm. Please come and send this news to all.

            Detailed report on incident from The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders.

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            A brief overview of the Indian poverty debate

            By Alita Nandi, Sanhati. Open for comments.

            Click here to read the technical version of this article [PDF, English, 120KB] »

            In the early 1990s various liberalisation policies had been introduced in India and India had started to experience higher growth rates (compared to pre-liberalisation period). The official poverty estimates published by the Planning Commission showed a decline in absolute poverty levels from 36% in 1993-94 to 26% in 1999-00. The question that became important at this juncture was, "Did the advantages of this high economic growth reach all echelons of society, in particular the 'poor'?" And so the official reports at this time showing a reduction in absolute poverty levels created a stir. Some old issues about poverty measurement and some new ones were brought into the foreground and heavily debated and discussed. Here I attempt to trace out the key issues of this debate.

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            Disadvantaged Social Classes in the Panchayat system: Social Democratic Half-truths

            By Dipankar Basu, Sanhati. Open for Comments.

            In a recent article in Macroscan, Jayati Ghosh (JG hereafter) has argued that West Bengal is a "pioneering state" with regard to panchayati raj institutions and other measures aimed at decentralization of state power in India. The author shows that when one uses the correct index in the analysis, these conclusions vanish into thin air - of the states studied, Maharashtra, for example, outperforms West Bengal in participation of disadvantaged classes in Panchayats, even though it has never had the benefit of a progressive, left-wing government. The author suggests that this may be due to a vibrant culture of grassroots social and political activism, nurtured and led in no small measure by the radical left.

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            Talk To Naxals; Focus On Development, Land Reform

            By Suhit Sen, The Statesman

            A team of experts constituted by the Planning Commission has cottoned on to something the Prime Minister doesn't seem to comprehend. It has pointed out that Left-wing extremism is not just - we could go further and say not at all - a law-and-order problem. It is a phenomenon that arises from a complete lack of development, desperate poverty and the dehumanisation that arises from it, and injustice and inequality. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh does not agree, of course - not long ago he had characterised extremism as the most virulent disease that afflicted India's body politic and Naxals as the Public Enemy Number 1. He should take time off his admittedly onerous duties to pore over the report.

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            On the Naxalite Movement: A Report with a Difference

            An EPW commentary by Sumanta Banerjee on the recent Planning Commission Report, "which while meticulously arranging the latest facts and figures, rigorously examines the causes of the continuing economic exploitation and social discrimination in the adivasi and dalit-inhabited areas even after 60 years of independence. It is significant that this particular expert group was set up by the government in May 2006, in the background of increasing Naxalite activities in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa."

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            Tumi Maharaj Sadhu hole Aaj! - Real estate land-acquisition in HindMotors

            Leaflet from Gana Udyog

            B.L.R.O. Srirampore: I won't commit this to paper. However, there is one set of rules for common people, another for the Birlas. I can't do much from my chair. We are servants who obey government directives. Decisions come from much higher up.

            (1) Land-acquisition in HindMotors for real-estate: A Timeline
            (2) Background

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            Panchayat Election 2008 results and the future of the CPIM

            By Pinaki Mitra, Sanhati. Open for comments.

            This article analyses the reactions of the CPIM leadership to the recent election reversals, gleaning from the reactions certain classic maladies of the Party itself. It then looks back at the CPIM's history of compromises, ending with the dilemmas it now confronts.

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            People strike back at CPIM's neoliberal policies: Tremor after tremor at the Panchayat Elections

            Panchayat Elections 2008 Final Tally:
            Panchayat Samiti: Total - 329. LF - 189, Opposition - 131, No Result - 9.
            Gram Panchayat: Total - 3220. LF - 1585, Opposition - 1498, No Result - 137.
            Brutalized Singur and Nandigram vote out CPIM's anti-people policies

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            Enemies of the State - Women and men who choose the margins

            Enemies of the State: Women and men who choose the margins - By Ashok Mitra
            Mumbai's Rebels: Those Who Couldn't Remain Unmoved. Profiles of Anuradha Ghandy, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Shridhar Shrinivasan - By Bernard D'Mello

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            Nandigram from May 5-11, 2008 - APDR report

            Factsheet on incidents regarding Nandigram from May 5 to 11, 2008 - APDR report
            Government vs. CRPF: Lakshman Seth and his arm-twisting - May 12, 2008

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            Nandigram on the eve of the Panchayet Elections - A MASUM report

            May 10, 2008. Click here for a cartoon of today's Nandigram!

            On getting information of the continuing disturbances and police inaction in Nandigram, our fact finding team reached violence-torn Nandigram today and has gathered shocking information from the villagers. Since last night musclemen and goons alleged to be supporters of the largest ruling party CPI(M) flaunting red flags resorted to bloody violence in the area. These miscreants snatched away voter identity cards of many villagers and beat them mercilessly even on the mere suspicion of not being supporters of the ruling party.

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            They insist your show must be cancelled! - cultural coercion in a post-Nandigram Bengal

            By Tapas Sinha. Translated by Suvarup Saha, Sanhati

            The phonecall came on the 10th of April. One of the organizers of the Champdanga Theatre Festival was on the line. On the receiving end was thespian Koushik Sen, who has been active in the civil society movement of Nandigram.

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            Mahamichhil for Nandigram and reflections on the people's movement

            Kolkata witnessed another Mahamichhil on May 9, 2008. To (a) protest against the reign of terror unleashed by the CPI(M) on the eve of the panchayat elections, aimed at cowing down voters all over the state, and (b) especially to condemn the atrocities being perpetrated by CPI(M) workers in collusion with the state police in Nandigram.

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            Who is Ajay TG? Political arrests and the tightening noose

            Update May 12, 2008: PUDR condemnation statement, Petition of solidarity

            The People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) strongly condemns the arrest of Ajay TG, widely recognized film maker, journalist and human rights activist by the Chhattisgarh police in Raipur on 4 May 2008 and calls for his immediate release.

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            Bondimukti Committee members arrested for protesting political arrests

            Bondimukti Committee members protesting against political arrests were attacked by police and have been fasting at College Square, Kolkata, from May 6 2008 in protest.

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            No choice for forgotten Santhals in Bengal

            By Shyam Sundar Roy

            About 500 voters, belonging to over 160 Santhal families living under Shiromoni gram panchayat in Midnapore Sadar block, do not know which party to vote for in the ensuing panchayat elections, as they say none of them are ready to help them.

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            From Chhattisgargh to Manipur: The many faces of Salwa Judum

            Manipur will arm its civilians to fight militants: A Salwa Judum in the making? - May 3, 2008
            Chhattisgargh's purification hunt - By Shubhranshu Choudhary
            4 farmers commit suicide everyday in Chhattisgarh - the highest in the country - By Shubhranshu Choudhary

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            The Panchayat elections and self-empowerment of the rural poor

            This is a translated version of a leaflet from the Krishak Committee (KC), written and distributed at the advent of Panchayat elections in West Bengal. The Sharamik Sangram Committee (SSC), a small fraternal organisation of the Krishak Commitee, leads the union at Hindustan Lever.

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            My Name is Radharani Ari and This is How My Consciousness Was Raised.

            Honourable Chief Minister, I am the same Radharani Ari of Nandigram. How many more times will your cadres rape me?

            Yes, I am the same person. The same Radharani Ari, resident of Nandigram Block, village – Gokulpur. Whether or not you remember me, I am not too sure, although by now the entire state of West Bengal has heard about me. I did not catch the limelight due to some creditable act of mine but on account of my misfortunes. I am a housewife of, by now infamous, Nandigram.

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            Looking back at Khejuri: Our men, their men – the straw men

            This eyewitness account appeared in November 2007, and presents an alternative first-hand view of the highly publicised Khejuri camps. It has been translated by Atreyi Dasgupta, Sanhati.

            …One of the little ones, when asked his name, immediately parroted, "We need industry, or else how can we have development". He was ten years old. His sister was just beside him, and she said, "We don't know how long we have to stay in this condition. If we ask these people, they say, everything will go back to normal in a few days. But where is that happening? You know didi, our friends in Nandigram told us that they have resumed their studies. What will we do?"

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            Will the "Great Indian Middle Class" show up, please?

            By Partho Sarathi Ray, Sanhati. Comments enabled

            Where is the "Great Indian Middle Class"? Where are those conspicuously-consuming, frequently-flying, gizmo-toting, big car-driving, globalized offsprings of our jet-setting "new economy"? Don't we see them all around us: living in highrises with blue-tiled swimming pools, with people living a few miles away getting water once in three days, shopping in glittering malls built on the land of evicted slums, driving around in Toyotas and Chevrolets on roads choked with traffic? From all accounts, and appearances, we have reached the heady days when the Indian middle class has finally arrived. They are the ones who supposedly constitute one of the biggest markets in the world, for whom multinational corporations are falling over one another to invest in India, for whom our governments' policies are directed, for whom roads and airports are built, for they ARE the "people" of India. This great middle class is our hope, the engine of growth for our economy. So - where is it?

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            Does Land Still Matter?

            By D. Bandyopadhyay

            The national economy is growing at double digit rates but neither industry nor non-agricultural activities in rural India provide livelihood for millions of rural workers. The annual growth of agricultural output decelerated from 3.08 per cent pa during 1980-81 to 1991-92 to 2.38 per cent pa during 1992-93 to 2003-04. It is this failure that underlies the spurt in rural violence that has highlighted once again the issue of the poors' access to land, water, and forests. It is gradually being recognised that further deterioration of economic, social, and political conditions of the rural poor can neither be arrested nor reversed without a significant policy shift towards a comprehensive land reform program.

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            Predatory Growth

            By Amit Bhaduri

            Over the last two decades or so, the two most populous, large countries in the world, China and India, have been growing at rates considerably higher than the world average. In recent years the growth rate of national product of China has been about three times, and that of India approximately two times that of the world average. This has led to a clever defence of globalisation by a former chief economist of IMF (Fisher, 2003). Although China and India feature as only two among some 150 countries for which data are available, he reminded us that together they account for the majority of the poor in the world. This means that, even if the rich and the poor countries of the world are not converging in terms of per capita income, the well above the average world rate of growth rate of these two large countries implies that the current phase of globalisation is reducing global inequality and poverty at a rate as never before.

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            Sibpur BESU - Coercion to join the SFI - Terror and the administration-police-criminal nexus

            The political landscape in colleges across West Bengal is barren - the SFI wins mainly uncontested almost everywhere, through an intricate mechanism of nepotism, selection and campus terror.

            The students of Sibpur BESU are facing an assault of the college administration- local goons-police. The Vice-chancellor Nikhil Ranjan Banerjea is orchestrating the assault, the aim of which is to terrorize students into joining or supporting the students' wing of the major ruling party. It is not an accident that all those who are being arrested by the police are distinguished by their non-allegiance to this students' organisation.

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            Stages of Revolution in the International Working Class Movement

            By Dipankar Basu, Sanhati (Open for comments)

            This article attempts to throw some light on the following two questions: (1) How does the classical Marxist tradition conceptualize the relationship between the two stages of revolution: democratic and the socialist? (2) Does the democratic revolution lead to deepening and widening capitalism? Is capitalism necessary to develop the productive capacity of a society? The answer to the first question emerges from the idea of the "revolution of permanence" proposed by Marx in 1850, accepted, extended and enriched by Lenin as "uninterrupted revolution" and simultaneously developed by Trotsky as "permanent revolution". This theoretical development was brilliantly put into practice by Lenin between the February and October revolutions in Russia in 1917. The answer to the second question emerges clearly from the debates on the national and colonial question in the Second Congress of the Third International in 1920. From this debate what emerges is the idea of the democratic revolution led by the proletariat as the start of the process of non-capitalist path of the development of the productive capacity of society, moving towards the future socialist revolution. Rather than deepening and widening capitalism, the democratic revolution under the proletariat leads society in the opposite direction, in a socialist, i.e., proletarian direction. Promoting capitalism is not necessary for the development of the productive capacity of a country.

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            Civil Liberties under Attack: The "Maoist" Scare and Mithu Ghosh

            Today we are witnessing the sharpest assault on democratic rights since Emergency. And as before, the reason is an upsurge from below, in the current case in resistance to the imposition of neoliberal policies. A most ominous event is the recent arrest, by the police of CPI(M)-led left front government, of Mithu Ghosh, an activist of Sharamik Sangram Committee (SSC) and Krishak Committee (KC), along with a senior leader of Nandigram movement and his son on 12th February, 2008 from Sonachuda, Nandigram West Bengal. An allegation of Maoist link under section 120B, 121, 121A and 153 of IPC was charged.

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            You see, we do back calculations here - Rural employment and Panchayet realities in Bengal

            By Swati Bhattacharya. Translated by Debarshi Das, Sanhati

            We want work, work, work, work and work. - Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Chief Minister, West Bengal

            Anukul Das was from Sonaga village, Gosaba Gram Panchayat (South 24 Parganas District, the Sunderban region). He demanded the right to work for minimum hundred days from Panchayat. Presently he is in the Andamans seeking work. His wife Shikha Das says, he got only nine days of work in two years. So, he went to submit the application for unemployment dole with some other villagers. Panchayat did not want to accept to application, hence they forcibly submitted it. A few days later, works started in the area, and they did not find any. They were allotted works in Rangabelia, about four kilometres away. Cost of travelling to and fro is twenty two rupees per day. One hour by boat, one more on foot. It was absurd to accept such a proposal. Panchayat members had told them openly: you complained about us, we will provide no work to you.

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            On the CPIM's draft political resolution

            Capitalistic socialism: New Oxymoron - By Sankar Ray
            Irony of recent history - A critique of the CPIM's draft political resolution - By Sankar Ray

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            Citizens' Report on Nandigram with specific stress on gender violence

            As a result of an initiative by women's groups, organizations and individuals, an 11-member team of citizens from Kolkata comprising teachers, social activists, researchers and students visited Nandigram on November 24, 2007. Concerned about the repeated disruption of peace in the region, the team decided to go to the affected areas and talk to the local people with the objectives of expressing solidarity with the survivors of violence, documenting people's needs in the current circumstances, and drawing up recommendations. One of the chief aims was also to investigate the nature and range of sexual violence and its use as a political weapon, towards pre-empting further such occurrences of violence against women.

            Click here to read Independent Citizens' Report on Nandigram [.doc, English 330KB] »

            Nude mentally challenged patients - Bengal's public healthcare at a time of private bonanza

            It has been argued that big capital investment in West Bengal "creates a wonderful opportunity to make much larger investments in public education, healthcare, public transport, environmental protection, and other public goods." (Amartya Sen). On the other hand, the argument has been made that a government with a neo-liberal mindset does not care about people who, because of their purchasing power, are outside the market. If the government has money, it will make malls and flyovers, at the cost of public health. The problem is not one of intention but definition.

            The situation in a state mental hospital, a mere 6 km from the seat of government at Writers Building in Kolkata, displays the typically dysfunctional nature of public healthcare, amidst all the rhetoric of development.

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            Singur brutalizer gets medal, cadres get Nandigram land, cash incentives for officials: Laissez-faire in action

            Friedmanite neo-liberalism advocates minimization of the involvement of the state. In reality, neo-liberal policies are imposed and facilitated by the state - from nepotism and incentives to disappearances and massacres.

            1. Singur: IPS officer accused of torture awarded Seva medal by Chief Minister - March 3, 2008
            2. Bengal govt to distribute vested Nandigram land to party supporters - February 27, 2008
            3. Cash Incentives for Officials Who Take Initiative for Land Acquisition - February 2, 2008

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            Economic Growth: A Meaningless Obsession?

            By Amit Bhaduri, B.N. Ganguly Memorial Lecture; CSDS, Delhi, November 2006.

            We are living in India at a time when the media is continuously transmitting confusing, even conflicting, economic signals. If we restrict ourselves to the English language print as well as electronic media, our comfort level is likely to be high. The economy is growing at a high rate, the stock market is booming, our foreign reserve is at a comfortably high level, and freer trade is bringing to our doors a variety of goods and services simply unimaginable even a couple of decades ago as a mark of the benefits of globalization. What is more, we are daily reminded that India is poised economically and politically as an emergent world power.

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            Dankuni - Resistance to Massive Land Acquisition for Real Estate

            The "development" process in West Bengal is taking place in a two stage mechanism - conversion of agricultural land into industrial land, and conversion of industrial land into real estate. Land acquisition in Dankuni clearly demonstrates how the aim of the "development" process is really the extraction of maximum profits by private enities from resources, in this case, land. Real estate provides the maximum profit, therefore functioning factories in Dankuni are being shut down to acquire land for a housing project by the powerful DLF group.

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            Agro-Science Fair in Bolagarh, West Bengal

            The 'Agricultural Science Fair 2008' was organized by Bolagarh Gana-Bijnan Samiti on 25-26 January, 2008 at the Jeerat Colony High School in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, India. Extensive discussions and programs were carried out on the role of multinationals like Monsanto in promoting genetically modified seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers. Alternative bio-friendly methods of agriculture were discussed.

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            Anti-POSCO rally and program in Kolkata

            February 13, 2008. Kolkata: A rally from College Square to Utkal Bhavan (an office of the Orissa govornment) took place and was followed by a mass-deputation in Utkal Bhavan against the proposed POSCO project in Jagatsingpur district, Orissa. The program was organised by 18 organizations. After a demonstration in front of Utkal Bhavan the protesters conveyed their solidarity to the POSCO movement in the form of a memorandum to the government of Orissa. The authorities at Utkal Bhavan received the memorandum on behalf of the government of Orissa. Afterwards, anti-POSCO activists including Biswajit Roy shared their experiences with political organisations and human rights activists at the Indian Radical Humanist Associations Hall in a discussion called Posco Ebong Tar Protirodh. Activists involved in the protest movement against illegal and extensive stone quarrying in Asansol and Birbhum were also present to express their solidarity to the people of Orissa and speak about the conditions in the regions where they work.

            The 18 organisations which organised the program were: APDR, Chhatra-Chhatri Sanhati Mancha, Little Magazine Samannay Mancha, Lok Seba Sangh, Nandigram Ganahatya Birodhi Prochar Udyog, Sahanagarikder Jukta Mancha, Hawker Sangram Committee, TASAM, USDF, NAPM, Sanhati Udyog, PaschimBanga Khetmazoor Samiti, Ganamukti Parishad, Janasangharsha Samiti, West Bengal Gandhi Peace Foundation, Bondi Mukti Committee, West Bengal Government Employees Union, and National Fishworkers Federation.

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            Malnutrition death in Singur and the Nano-flyover syndrome

            1. February 10, 2008 : Kalipada Majhi, a sharecropper rendered jobless in Singur after land acquisition, died from malnutrition.
            2. In an article called The Nano-flyover Syndrome, Sunita Narain examines what subsidises the cheap Nano, and who actually pays.

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            Tall Claims: Employment generated by Haldia Petrochemicals

            By Dipanjan Rai Chaudhuri and Purnendu Chakraborty

            These articles calculate the actual employment figure in downstream units of HPL for 2005 to be less than 19,301. We are being asked to believe that, in 2 years, the figure has increased from less than 19,301 to 50,000+89,900, an increase of more than 7-fold. The figure of 89,900 is also suspiciously close to 89,895, which is the employment figure for ALL new projects implemented in the state between 1991-2002 (Source: Frontline). It seems that either 89,000 is a favourite number, or that all employment in the state has come from HPL.

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            Burma's Freedom Fighters: From Port Blair to a Kolkata Jail

            February 4th, 2008, marks the tenth anniversary of the illegal detention of 34 Burmese freedom fighters in Bengal. The Solidarity Committee for Burma's Freedom Fighters, whose members include Ashok Mitra, Lakshmi Sehgal, and others, carried out a Dharna in protest.

            Personal accounts of prisoners and press release of the protest are included.

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            Neoliberalism, the U.S. economic crisis, and the phases of capitalism

            Neoliberal Globalization Is Not the Problem - By Rick Wolff
            2008: The Demise of Neoliberal Globalization - By Immanuel Wallerstein
            Putting the U.S. Economic Crisis in Perspective - By Leo Panitch

            Read this article »

            Some critiques of CPI(M)'s 19th Congress and stance on capitalism

            On Jyoti Basu's Embrace of Capitalism as the Only Road to Industrialisation - By P.J. James
            CPI(M)'s 19th Congress: The Social Democrats Stand Further Exposed - By K.N. Ramachandran

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            Study on Closed and Re-opened Tea Gardens in North Bengal

            By Anuradha Talwar, Debashish Chakraborty, Sarmishtha Biswas

            This study, dated September 2005, was conducted in the wake of the crisis in the tea industry in the Doars between 2002-2004.

            Contents: (1) Conditions in re-opened gardens - wages, ration, hours of work, occupational health and safety, drinking water, electricity, housing, transport for school-children, medical facilities, creches, maternity benefits, fringe benefits, latrines and urinals (2) Conditions in closed and abandoned gardens (3) Workers' dues - tabled by tea estates, categorized under provident fund, gratuity, salary, and total dues (4) Opening agreements (5) Likely non-viability of plantations (6) Role of unions - CITU, UTUC, INTUC, WBTGEA (7) Role of government (8) Plantations Labour Act, 1951

            Click here to read study on closed and re-opened ta gardens in North Bengal [PDF, English, 400 KB] »

            ShramikShakti Newsletter - January-February 2008

            Contents: (1) SEZs stopped in Goa (2) CPI(M) exults over the Nano (3) BJP in power in Gujrat and Himachal - effects on state and national politics (4) Dankuni - huge land acquisition plans (5) Civil society, Karl Marx, and the CPI(M) (6) Economic development and employment generation - a debate (part 2) (7) Vote-based front or unity of struggle? (8) Pollution of drinking water - in search of the source (9) Singur and the High Court verdict (10) Ganashakti's hypocrisy (11) GM crops - agricultural science meet in Bolagarh (12) Bolagarh - lessons from the polls (13) Movement in Kandi - protests against corruption in public distribution system and cal for permanent flood resistance measures (14) Benazir's death and contemporary Pakistan (15) HindMotors and the recent elections

            Click here to read ShramikShakti January-February 2008 [PDF, Bengali, 612 KB] »

            Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda

            Click here to watch documentary: Buddha weeps in Jadugoda [Youtube video, six parts]
            Click here for photos of affected children

            Ragi Kana Ko Bonga Buru (Buddha weeps in Jadugoda) documents the devastating effects of uranium mining by Uranium Corporation of India Limited at Jadugoda, in Jharkhand. For the last thirty years, radioactive waste has been dumped into the rice fields of Adivasis. The complete disregard of the authorities to radioactive waste management rules wreaks havoc on the daily lives of villagers and children, with genetic deformities becoming quite common.

            About director Shriprakash Prakash: Shriprakash has directed and produced many documentary films during the last 15 years. He is also the chief co-ordinator of Kritika, a group working in the Jharkhand region since 1990 in the areas of culture and communication. With his films he has attempted to capture the struggles and aspirations of indigenous local communities in Bihar and Jharkhand, and to give them a voice.

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