JHAKJHOR HILELE RE DUNIA, CHALE JANATA KI PALTANIA

Narmada to Nandigram:
JHAKJHOR HILELE RE DUNIA, CHALE JANATA KI PALTANIA

Palash Biswas

Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com

People`s resistance nation wide says NO to SEZ. The so called left parties such as CPIM are plyaing a viscious game of prevarification. to the extent that they share state power , they are ready to kill and maim peasants, workers for foreign capitals such as Fiat(at Singur, with Tata as collabration) or DOW chemicals (faciliated by the Salim group) at Nandigram. Where such parties are not in the government, they pretend to oppose imperialism before those that they are still able to delude.
Nandigram has unmasked and defeated them!
The people of West Bengal won`t allow a single decimal of land for SEZ. But it is not just a question related to only the people of Bengal. The people of India are rising into memorable struggles whereever SEZs are being proposed!

Kolkat Convention, No TO SEZ, therefore resolved that this is hightime to mobilise an All India mass movement that will be seemless in its unity. The convention resolved to form an All India Consultative Committe to oppose SEZ and various forms of displacements and initiate the process of an all india movement!
Just realise the Brand India Sensex India and Shining India scenerio!

Middle path, a solution to nuke issue: Pranab
A day after India and the US hit an impasse over their proposed nuclear cooperation agreement, External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said there was no `roadblocks` but certain issues needed to be resolved to seal the deal.

Indo-US N-talks: Focus now on Singh-Bush meeting
Discussions on civil nuclear deal are expected to be high on agenda of the talks that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will have with US President George W Bush in Germany this week on the sidelines of the G-8 summit.

In all, Dalits' Durban experiment witnessed a great leap forward as a large number of women participated in the campaign. As the great radical poet Gorakh Pandey said, "women are the pre-requisite for a movement's success."
– Chandra Bhan Prasad

Rasheeda B sang:

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HAKJHOR HILELE RE DUNIA
CHALE JANATA KI PALTANIA
I was once again down the memory lane.Gorakh Pandey's celebrated Bhojpuri song "Sutal rahalin sapan ek dekhlin" thrilled us once upon a time. The image of our dear poet, philospher and friend, singing in JNU campus or BHU reflected in my mind so vehemently that I could not resist myself to talk to Dipankar Bhattachary, the CPIML general secretary that Sidikullah Chowdhari has mobilised the Muslim so well that tens of thousands Muslims come forward to resist statepower. What about other sections of the Enslaved communities in Bengal. He agereed to discuss the much needed social engineering in West Bengal.Historian Ramnarayan S. Rawat, one of a number of North American-based scholars on Dalit issues considers the source of "The Problem" as the absence of Dalit perspectives in mainstream Indian public discourse and narratives.

The All India Convention on Nandigram and SEZ held on 2-3 June ,2007 at the Netaji Subhash Institute in Kolkata ,called upon all political patriotic and democratic people of India to fight for the sovereignity and survival of the country.,especially its least advanced , by opposing the neo-liberal policies imposed upon the country by the sevitors of Imperialism and Zionism! The SEZ are the most advanced and deadliest weaons of neo-liberalism because they not only create islands of cheap and sweated labour after ousting millions of peasants from their homes, livelihood and their socail and cultural milicus but create extra-territorial enclaves where the sovereignity of the country is compromised as in the eighteenth century factrories from which enmerged the colonial forces of the British, French and Dutch Imperialists.

It is a long journy of Mass movements nationwide from Narmada over to Nandigram.

Last speaker of the Rally ending the convention NBA leader and social activist Medha Patkar pledged, `Not only Nandigram, we will have to save Singur also.’ She said that this fight is not limited in Nandigram or Singur. People`s resistance returned the foreign capital and dismissed the SEZ in Nandigram. Thus, nandigram has become the symbol of peoples resistance against Globalisation and imperialism to save Man and Nature!’ Speaking about the need to be united to defeat "vulgar designs and plans" of corporates, governments and international funding agencies, she said the leadership should come from the working class.
She pledged, ` Ladbo! Jitbo!’ ( We will fight! We will Win!)
Tens of thousands replied in echoes!
Medha is going to Nandigram tomorrow. She asked how many CPIM leaders visited Nandigram after the Genocide. She declared that the resistance will go on until SEZ is scrapped and scrapped is land acquistion act! Until the killers are not arrested, tried and punished!
She once again warned that there was a trend of establishing a nexus between political leaders and contractors, which was adversly affecting the common man. The political parties are run by the MNCs!Ms Patkar pointed out that any developmental works should not cause misery on dislocation, but it should take into acciounts ecological and social aspects of human life.

Patkar alleged that a new conspiracy was being hatched by the Government to wrest natural resources from people.The idea behind "forcible eviction" of fisher folk from their traditional lands was to sell the space for commerce and tourism and establish a Special Tourism Zone. The Government was evaluating natural resources in monetary terms and looking at the profits it could reap from the land. The State, in association with corporate entities, was taking over these resources in the name of development, leading to a situation where people had to beg for their land and water. She said protests against such acts would reach their peak during the 100th year of the Satyagraha movement launched by Gandhiji. Though the Government was using force against peaceful demonstrators, the struggle would continue to stop the onslaught.


The main organiser of the Convention, Jamayate Ulema Hind leader Sidikullah Chowdhari warned the agitators that the `foriegn’ CPIM government and the Ruling front in Bengal is plotting riots! He warned that the Hindu and Muslims, the Dalits won`t allow any riot in Bengal. He said that the Gujrat Caste struggle and The hurt Sikh sentiments are cuses of our main concern as the people of India want peace and coexistance! He warned that these are the ploys of the Ruling Classes. Mind you, Sidikullah and jamayat were not invited in the much hyped All Party meeting. On the other hand, bhumi Ucched Committeee was also overlooked. In this convention, Mamata bannerjee and her party TMC, the main participants of the All Party Meeting were not invited in return!

Bhopal gas Tragedy victims sang Gorakh Pandey`s famous song Sunday Afternon in Kolkata. Singing the Bhojpuri Song Rasheed B and her team were calling to esclate Nandigram Resistance worldwide. We all know that Gorkh was found dead in JNU campus. He committed suicide. He saw Naxal bari Nad Bhojpur resistance but could not survive to see the Resistance: Narmada to Nandigram.The convention winds up on Sunday, with a rally in the city. The rally ends with JHAKJHOR HILELE...When asked to comment if there is any probability of her going for any joint “movement” in Nandigram with political factions in the Opposition, Medha Patkar said that people opposing SEZs cannot co-ordinate unless political parties themselves are a part of the movement.


As a Hindu, I have been struck by the absence of Dalit points of view within mainstream Indian historiography, and by the necessity of bringing these points of view into active dialogue with caste Hindu narratives of Indian history, society, nationalism and colonialism...

Intellectual Chandra Bhan Prasad is the first Dalit to have a regular column in a leading English-language Indian newspaper. His "The brown man's counter-apartheid," sharply challenges the ironies of traditional forms of racism in India and Asia, perpetrated by people of color against other people of color:
Dr. Manager Pandey said that the culture of resistance must be developed in a multi-faceted way. Observing that the terror of assassination and death has been on increase among the people, and poets do share the pain, he expressed the apprehension that the pain and resistance of writers does not reach the common people. Moreover, in order to develop the culture of resistance, identification of the aggressor was the most necessary thing. This was relatively straight in the times of Gorakh, but today it is not only fascism that can be identified as the sole aggressor. Market is equally building up the prowess to affect each and every aspect of life. In this scenario it is imperative to understand the nexus of capitalism and feudalism. A specific kind of integrated vision towards life, society and history has become necessary to fulfill the task.
Pl see:
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2225656928131671963&postID=2631492184022398089
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0093-1896(199722)23%3A4%3C894%3ATPCITC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-L
From "Hille Le Jhagjhor Duniya," based on a poem written by a Bihari revolutionary poet called Gorakh Pande, which urges its audience to throw away the old order and replace it with the new, to "Ma Reva," a eulogy to the Narmada river, a tune Rahul learnt from local communities engaged in the struggle for self determination against the large, ecologically unfriendly Sardar Sarovar dam, to "Kandisa," a soul stirring 2nd century Aramaic mass that used to be sung by the Syrian Christian community in Kerala. But even though they borrow freely, Indian Ocean distance themselves from others who use copyright laws to exploit folk music. "These songs belong to everybody," they claim, "and more specifically to the people who sing them. How can anything that has been sung for hundreds of years be anybody's copyright?"
When the chair is in danger
Kurshi Khatarama Parda
Prajatantra Khatarama parchha
Kurshi Khatarama Parda
Desh Khatarama Parchha
Kurshi Khatarama Parda
Singo Sansar nai khatarama Parcha
Kursi Surakchit rahena Bhane
Bharselama nai paros prajatantra
Desh ra sansar

Transleted in english:

Democracy is in Danger
When the chair is in danger
Nation is in danger
When the chair is in danger
Whole world is in danger
If the chair is not safe
who cares about democracy
Country and the world!!!!

(written by Gorakh Pandey, Indian poet)

The convention also had writer and activist Arundhati Roy as a participant. Roy remained critical about the situation to which the people of Nandigram have been subjected to. She urged the audience to look for ways which could make the movement against the SEZs stronger in the next stage.

Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary, CPI(M-L) Liberation, said that his party will extend all its support to movements against SEZs.

Writer and social activist Arundhati Roy on Saturday described the Nandigram incident as a "carnage" rather than a "genocide". According to her, what is going on in Nandigram is systematic terror to break the backbone of the struggling people. "It is simply state-sponsored terror," she asserted.

Roy was in the city on Saturday to speak at a convention - No to SEZ - organised by the All India People's Convention on Nandigram.

"I had been to Nandigram on Friday and there the people are living in a fear psychosis and there is firing at the villagers," she said. "When I asked them if they would like to come to attend this convention, they said they cannot leave their homes as it would be occupied by CPM cadres. They asked me if the government has already decided that land would not be acquired here, why then policemen are still kept posted at the village?" the writer asked.

Speaking at the convention, Narmada Bachao Andolon leader Medha Patkar, too, criticised the Left Front government. "They are trying to make the people poorer. They want to hand over our land to foreigners."

She said the people of Singur preferred to commit suicide rather than hand over their land to the government for the Tata Motors project. "Thus, they have marked their protest," Medha stated.

Undertrials Clash With Police In Bengal Jail
Saturday 02nd of June 2007 A group of undertrials led by a Maoist leader and a Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) militant clashed with police at a prison in West Bengal Saturday over poor facilities in the jail.

Many of the inmates of Malda Correctional Home in north Bengal got injured in the clash and were admitted in the jail hospital.

The incident occurred after the group of prisoners had a heated exchange with the policemen over the lack of facilities.

Later, the war of words led to a scuffle and the situation turned grave with the police resorting to heavy baton charge to disperse the irate jailbirds.

'It was a minor skirmish between inmates and the jail officials who were demanding some facilities in jail. The situation initially became violent but later it was taken under control after the police used baton and dispersed the disgruntled prisoners,' West Bengal Minister for Social Welfare and Jail Biswanath Chowdhury told IANS.

According to Malda jail sources, tension was brewing since Friday as the inmates had been constantly demanding better facilities for them.

Jail officials said undertrial Maoist leader Animesh Chakraborty and KLO militant Malkhand Singh attacked the police which led to baton charge.

Mamata announces new anti-farmland acquisition measures

Singur (WB), June 03: In her bid to rev up the slackening agitation against acquisition of farmland for industries in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday announced a series of programmes including a statewide 'chakka jam' on June nine.

In an attempt to spread the agitation beyond Bengal's borders, Mamata also announced that the farmers of Singur and Nandigram would rally in Chennai, Delhi and Jamshedpur apart from Kolkata between the third week of this month and the second week of July.

The dates and places of the rallies would be decided in a meeting on June 8, she said.

Mamata warned the government that that her party would be forced to abandon the peaceful nature of the stir if it failed to yield the desired result of keeping the government's hands off agricultural land for setting up industry.

Asserting that her party would not allow the Tata Motors small car factory to come up, she told a public meeting at Singur, where the factory is to be set up, "the chief minister is saying everywhere that the Tata factory will come up at Singur, but I am telling you it will not."

Alleging that the government had tricked her into giving up her hunger strike, Mamata said she would write a book exposing what had happened.
Buddha woos Infosys with prime plot

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, JUNE 03, 2007 01:12:29 AM]


West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government is going all out to woo Infosys. It has just offered a prime 100 acres plot to Infosys Technologies at rock bottom Rs 15-20 lakh per acre at Kalyani — some 60 km from Kolkata.

The plot, which belongs to the state government, has been offered for setting up Infosys software campus. But “Infosys is yet to respond to the state government’s latest land of-fer,” sources in the state IT department said.

The state government’s latest overtures follows West Bengal Industrial Development Corpora-tion’s failure to acquire land in the Vedic Village area (on Kolkata’s eastern fringes), which was to be the original site of the Infosys soft-ware campus.

A senior bureaucrat at Writers Buildings close to nego-tiations with Infosys said, “Senior Infosys officials were recently in Kalyani to check out the 100-acre plot offered by the West Bengal government. Infosys is yet to respond officially to the government’s offer of Rs 15 lakh per acre.”
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Magazines/The_Sunday_ET/Buddha_woos_Infosys_with_prime_plot/articleshow/2094795.cms


Medha Patkar to visit Assam!
GUWAHATI, June 1 – The Narmada Bachao Andolan-fame social activist Medha Patkar will come to the State on June 17 on a two-day visit. During the trip, she will also address a national level seminar on the issues connected with land settlement and displacement, proposed seismic survey on the Brahmaputra and the big dam projects proposed in the region.

According to Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, which has invited Patkar along with her colleagues Himangshu Thakkar and Dr Dinesh Kumar Mishra to discuss the above issues concerning sustainable development, the news of Patkar’s visit has been received by the activists of the democratic and environment movements of the region with great enthusiasm.

While Thakkar is known for his knowledge of the dams, Mishra is known as an expert on the rivers.

A 51- member reception committee with a three-member presidium comprising Professor Uddayaditya Bharali, writers Indibar Deouri and Nitya Bora was formed at a meeting held at the Guwahati Press Club here today. Akhil Gogoi of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti and Dr Akhil Ranjan Dutta of Gauhati University have been appointed secretaries of the committee, said the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti in a press release here.

The meeting conducted by noted writer Nalinidhar Bhattacharyya, was attended by the representatives of the Sownasiri Brahmaputra Upatakya Gana Sangram Samiti, Rahmaria Ban Pratirodh Sangram Mancha, Chah Janagosthi Suraksha Parishad, Snatak Nibanua Parishad, Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti, Asam Chatra Yuba Sangathan, All Mising Students’ Union, Ganashakti, NEEDS, North East Dialogue Forum, STEP, North East Social Research Centre and Anwesha, among others, besides the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti.



Bengal govt to repeal Urban LandCeiling Act this fiscal:Ramchandran

Kolkata, June 2: In the backdrop of land acquisition row in Nandigram and Singur over the last few months, West Bengal government has decided to repeal the Urban Land Ceiling Act through the official procedure within this fiscal.

Speaking at a press conference today, of Urban Development Secretary M Ramchandran said, ''The state government has informed us that they will repeal the Act within this year.'' Most of the state governments in India has repealed this particular law.

Repealing this law would enable Bengal to allow investors to acquire more land without imposing a particular ceiling. Various forums have been lobbying the government to remove the ceiling on urban land.

Elaborating about West Bengal's progress in terms of project approval, Mr Ramchandran said 18 projects from Bengal has already been approved while 26 projecrts are pending. Under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM) programme, the state gets 30 to 90 per cent grant, he added.

''West Bengal has made good progress in terms of state level reforms. The local bodies should come up with more e-governance projects,'' he said after review of the JNURM programme.

CPI comrades off to China to learn about SEZs

Press Trust of India
New Delhi, June 2: After crossing swords with big brother CPI-M on Nandigram issue, the Communists are now off to China to learn the method of land acquisition and to study the concept of Special Economic Zones.
A delegation of CPI leaders will visit the Communist nation China for a nine-day visit beginning tomorrow to study its success in agricultural productivity and method of acquisition of land for industrial and other developmental projects.
The team will visit agricultural farms, special economic and export zones and interact with government officials, Communist party representatives and leaders of the farming community.
The ten-member delegation, led by All India Kisan Sabha general secretary and senior party leader Mr Atul Kumar Anjaan, will visit China’s industrial hub Shanghai, Beijing, Xiamen in Fujian province and Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province.
Besides Mr Anjaan, other members of the team include CPI national executive member Mr Nagendra Nath Ojha, parliamentarian Mr Prabodh Panda, former MLAs Mr Satyan Mokeri and Mr K Ramkrishna and Mr Kolli Nageswara Rao and Mr Ram Pratap Tripathi.
The CPI had opposed acquisition of land in Nandigram in West Bengal for a private car project against the wishes of the farmers and had entered into slinging match with CPI-M after around 14 people were killed in a police firing.

Peace initiative gets a jolt
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=1&theme=&usrsess=1&id=158079

Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, June 2: The all-party initiative aimed at restoring peace in Nandigram suffered a blow this morning when Forward Bloc state secretary Mr Ashok Ghosh told the Left Front leadership that he would no longer act as the mediator between the Trinamul Congress and the Left.
Though at the meeting Mr Ghosh cited adverse media reports and cartoons making a mockery of him as the reason behind his sudden decision, it was learnt that the octogenarian was peeved at the CPI-M for not taking the peace initiative seriously.
Bloc sources said that Mr Ghosh felt dejected when, despite his repeated requests, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Mr Biman Bose and Mr Jyoti Basu did not attend the first all-party meeting on 24 May but sent leaders like Mr Subhas Chakraborty and Mr Shyamal Chakraborty.
Mr Ghosh feels that Miss Banerjee wouldn’t have walked out halfway through the meeting had CPI-M’s senior most leaders and decision makers been present. The Bloc leader also feels that keeping parties that are unrepresented in the Assembly out of the peace process defeated the whole purpose. After today’s Front meeting, it became apparent that the CPI-M would go back to its old policy of keeping the Nandigram issue restricted to East Midnapore.
“No decision has been taken with regard to a second state-level dialogue. But the peace initiative will continue. We appeal to all Left Front partners and the Opposition to take part in talks at the district and block level. We can’t start a political process in Nandigram if the Opposition sits for talks in Kolkata and boycotts district-level meetings”, Mr Bose said, refusing to accept that his party was dragging its feet. Mr Bose made no mention of the fact that Mr Ghosh had relinquished the role of a proactive mediator and asked him to take over. Asked whether Mr Ghosh would continue to shoulder the responsibility, Mr Bose said : “The Left Front authorised him to conduct the peace talks. He did his job. He will do that in future”.
“This morning I submitted my report on the first all-party meeting. Thereafter I told the Left Front chairman that now he should take over the responsibility of doing the homework for the next meeting and act as the coordinator in the ongoing peace process”, Mr Ghosh said this afternoon.
When pointed out that Miss Mamata Banerjee has made it quite clear that she will sit for talks only if the invitation comes from Mr Ghosh, the veteran Marxist said: “In that case the Left Front has to consider it. I am acquainted with Miss Banerjee’s attitude and the nature of her politics. But we have to restore normalcy in the area. The world is watching us. If we fail, people will only blame the Communists. That will send a wrong message”.
“I won’t reveal everything to the media. All I can say is that I did not do enough homework before the first all-party meeting. A lot of us should have been more active. If the Front asks me to talk to Miss Banerjee I will certainly do that”, Mr Ghosh said. Incidentally, a fresh state-level peace initiative appeared unfeasible as things stood today. Mr Bose refused to accept the 14 March incident as “genocide” ~ the principal demand of Miss Banerjee. “Genocide means extermination of a race which is not the case here”. Asked whether he will be present if at all another meeting takes place in Kolkata, Mr Bose said, “that depends on my schedule...”


Commerce Ministry to conduct micro analysis of sectors

Chennai, Jun 3: The Ministry of Commerce has chalked out new programme to conduct a micro analysis of sectors and identify sub sectors, which might need some help from the Ministry in view of the appreciation of rupee.

"We will be doing a micro analysis and see which of the sectors are getting affected. Unless we do this, we will not know how much help they need," Commerce Secretary G K Pillai told reporters on the sidelines of an award function of the Madras Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) last night.

He said the study would be done in June through the Export Promotion Council.

The Ministry had set a target of USD 160 billion for exports this year. "The role of the government would be to provide you assistance to achieve your target,'' he added.

"A lot of misinformation has come about SEZ's. The actual investments made for the SEZs in the past 15 months is about Rs 35,000 crore. We have over 35,000 persons employed in the SEZ's.

This number will go upto one lakh by December 2007 and two lakh by 2008," he said.

Mr Pillai informed India's first sugar SEZ of EID Parry would come up in Andhra Pradesh soon.

26,100 acres for DLF`s SEZs
http://www.business-standard.com/compindustry/storypage.php?leftnm=1&subLeft=1&chklogin=N&autono=286386&tab=r

Ashutosh Joshi & Raghavendra Kamath / Mumbai June 2, 2007



India’s biggest realty firm, DLF is betting on special economic zones (SEZs). The zones will cover an area of 26,100 acres and the company expects to take control of the land in the next two years.

DLF, which is floating a public issue of Rs 9,625 crore, has big plans for its newer businesses such as SEZs, hospitality, infrastructure and multiplexes.

The SEZ plan consists of a 20,000 acre multi-product SEZ in Gurgaon and a 3,000 acre multi-product SEZ at Ambala, among other smaller infotech zones.

“We will be leasing out the infrastructure in all our SEZs. By the next two years, we will acquire all the land. The IT SEZs will be completed by 2009 and the big multi-product zones will be ready in 5-7 years,” a top DLF executive said.

However, the official maintained that the volatile SEZ policies could impact future projections. The company has already acquired land for the IT SEZs and is in the process of finalizing land for the multi-product SEZs.

“SEZs are long-term infrastructure projects and the norms related to processing and non-processing areas could have a significant impact on future revenues as well as project sizes,” the official said.

The company has already entered into JVs for infrastructure with Laing O’Rourke, multiplex cinemas with DT Cinemas and hotel business with Hilton. It is also shaping up plans for airport management, financial services, asset management, leisure entertainment and wind energy and could tie up with foreign partners.

Analysts say most of the third-party SEZ developers will lease out the infrastructure created in these zones as they continue to remain bullish on the real estate sector and expect the prices to move northwards in the years to come.

“They (SEZ developers) are likely to lease out and avoid selling the core infrastructure. They could also look for JVs and outside investments in these projects, as this would bring down the project costs,” Shailesh Kanani, an analyst with Angel Broking said.
Pl See:
UPA Rule and Labour-
http://www.nagalandpost.com/Opiniondesc.asp?sectionid=40158
UPA Rule and Labour-

Recent observations made by the country's top policy-makers about the corporate sector's "indecent greed" for super-profits, lack of a sense of social responsibility and the cancerous spread of corruption have taken observers and trade union watchers by surprise. Does it indicate the policy-makers' disillusionment with the behaviour of the corporates which have been pampered by the Government during the three-years of UPA rule? Few would vouch for it. However, some well-disposed critics hold such observations to be "too little and too late" to have any impact on corporates' all-out drive for profits; some others give credit to the Government leaders for having at least shown realisation of the corporate sector's wrongdoings and therefore prefer to treat it as "better late than never", provided their criticism shows results. This will be closely watched henceforth.

One can take note of the occasions Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chose to make his critical observations. He was addressing the annual session of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on May 24, 2007 where, he cautioned the corporates against cartelisation. He asked them to show "self-restraint" while making efforts to maximise profits. He also "reminded the corporate sector of its social responsibility" towards the common man. At the same time, he "hailed" the industry for sustaining high growth rate. The Prime Minister said industry must have "healthy" respect for workers and invest in their welfare because "a national consensus" in favour of more flexible labour laws aimed at ensuring that our firms remain globally competitive "could never be reached unless workers felt they were cared for".

A day before, on May 23, inaugurating a conference on rural roads in Delhi, the PM voiced concern over corruption "spreading like cancer" in road construction projects. He referred to the massive expansion of the National Highway Development Programme with an investment of Rs 2,20,000 crore. He wanted rural road construction to be labour-intensive, pointing to a possibility synergy between Bharat Nirman and NREGA.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram too cared to "appeal" to the corporates at the CII session "not to exercise pricing power arbitrarily." He said industry was working with near full capacity. "Pricing power has returned to industry," he alluded and said that this power was even being exercised by industry. Hence his appeal to industry not to misuse the mismatch between supply and demand in essential food items such as wheat and pulses, an obvious reference to hoarders.

Realisation of the growing malaise in the economy that hurts the people is certainly a precondition for any corrective action. But will mere advice and appeals to greedy profiteers and hoarders have any effect? One doubts. The Government's employment generation programmes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), Sampoorn Grameen Rozgar Yojna (SGRY), Swarna Jayanti Swarozgar Yojna, Shahari Rozgar Yojna or for that matter the housing programme for the rural poor, etc too have been in operation. Most of them, except the NREGA and the Food-for-Work Programme, have been in operation since the NDA regime. The Government keeps circulating statistics about money allocated, money released, money spent, employment generated or mandays work given and never bothered to dispassionately check up the growing reality. Many observers have pointed to corruption in these programmes but the Government has hardly bothered to respond to criticism. Why? Simply because these programmes cater to the urban and rural poor as well as large number of migrants having no organisation and therefore no voice and little impact on administration.

A few surveys have proved that even a legally-backed programme like the NREGA needs regular audit at state and district levels to ensure its effective implementation. The Prime Minister, who has so strongly spoken about the "cancer of corruption" in the road building programme, spreading across the country, should be able to understand the fate of employment generation programmes, too. This has not happened. Irrespective of the ground reality, dishing out statistics about money allocated, money released, households recorded, households demanding jobs, household provided jobs is considered enough. It is never given out how many people, who demanded employment were not given employment and how many of them were given unemployment allowance, etc.

Trade unions often say that the UPA Government has been long on promises and short on implementation when it comes to 400 million organised and unorganised labour is concerned. The organised labour movement, inheriting a century-old struggles for improvement in living and working conditions of workers, had to resist attacks made on their rights on the pretext of bringing flexibility in labour laws to ensure that Indian firms were able to competed in global market.