Trinamul Maoist Nexus Reconfirmed

THE rally held by the TMC – Trinamul  Maoist Combine – at Lalgarh on August 9 reconfirms, if ever such a reconfirmation was required, that the Trinamul Congress and the Maoists have, indeed, been political collaborators in creating mayhem and anarchy in certain areas of West Bengal.

The murderous assaults by this combine has already martyred 255 leaders of the CPI(M).  Most, if not all of these, belong to the poorest  of the exploited classes and tribals, whose interests, ironically, the Maoists claim to champion drawing the blind romantic adulation by some `intellectuals’ and `social activists’. 

An embarrassed and cornered Manmohan Singh-led government tried to duck, unsuccessfully, the issue of one of its cabinet members being caught red handed in the open political collaboration with the Maoists.  They took refuge behind the argument that they shall return to both the houses of parliament after having “ascertained the facts”. 

Ironically, the very next day, August 11, the minister of state for home affairs stood up in reply to a starred question in the Rajya Sabha on the involvement of Maoists in railway accidents stating: “Investigation conducted reveals that Police Santras Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee (PSBJC/PCPA), a frontal organisation of Maoists, was involved in damaging the railway track, thereby causing the accident.

The CBI has arrested 12 persons so far in this case”. It is the very same minister for railways, whose primary job, under oath of the constitution is to protect the life of passengers traveling on the Indian railways and to improve its safety standards, who is openly collaborating with the Maoists.

She has openly advocated the withdrawal of the operations of the security forces against the Maoist violence.  She, in fact, has gone to the extent of asserting that Maoist leader Azad was `murdered’ and not killed in an encounter as claimed by the security forces. 

The Trinamul-Maoist nexus became abundantly clear when, according to media reports: “Maoist politburo member Koteswar Rao alias Kishanji once again batted for Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Azad issue.

“There is no doubt that our politburo member and central committee spokesperson Charakuri Rajkumar alias Azad was treacherously killed by the members of Andhra Pradesh police special intelligence branch in a fake encounter. Mamata Banerjee spoke the truth and there is no reason behind the furore over the issue in parliament”. This comes from a Maoist leader whose party openly rejects parliamentary democracy and calls for a `people’s war’ against the Indian State! 

Unable to defend  the role of an important ally and cabinet colleague, the UPA-II government through its minister for home affairs, P Chidambaram, stated in the Rajya Sabha, “No one should support the Maoists and the government will certainly not encourage anybody who does so.”

However, the UPA-II government, in a crass display of political opportunism, requiring the numbers of TMC MPs in the Lok Sabha for the survival of this government, is tolerating such `support to the Maoists’ making a mockery of its commitment to safeguard India’s internal security. 

Indeed, there is an irreconcilable contradiction that continues to plague the UPA-II government.  The prime minister has repeatedly asserted that Maoist violence constitutes “the gravest threat to India’s internal security”.  Yet, its own cabinet colleague, under the leadership of this very prime minister, openly collaborates with Maoist violence and defends the attempted subversion of parliamentary democracy. 

The composition of the people gathered in Lalgarh clearly exposes the reasons for organising this meeting.  The overwhelming bulk of the people were brought by huge number of transportation vehicles from outside of Lalgarh.  The fact that the people of that area stayed away in large numbers shows the growing political isolation of the Trinamul Congress combine.  It is precisely in order to strike terror and browbeat the local population into supporting them that this rally was organised. 

Clearly, the Trinamul Congress has exposed itself to stooping to the lowest of levels in its quest to gain in the forthcoming assembly elections in West Bengal.  In the bargain, neither the safeguarding of innocent life nor strengthening the unity and integrity of India are of any concern.

If the UPA-II government and prime minister Manmohan Singh continue to turn a deaf ear to this threat, then India will have to pay a heavy price.  Brazen political opportunism to continue to remain in office cannot be allowed to sacrifice the interests of India’s unity, integrity and internal security.

From People's Democracy

CPI(M): Rout In Municipal Elections "Serious Matter"

Here is the Editorial from this week's People's Democracy explaining the Left Front's rout in the recent elections to 81 municipal bodies across West Bengal. The message: All is not lost; there's another 12 months to regain lost ground before the all-important Assembly election next year... 

IN the results of the elections to the 81 municipal bodies across the state of West Bengal held on May 30, 2010, the Left Front has won in only 18 municipalities. 

The Trinamul Congress has won 26, the Congress 7, the anti-Left alliance 4, while 23 are hung, 3 have resulted in a tie.  In whose favour these would be resolved will only be known in the future. 

In the finest traditions of democratic practice, the Left Front led by the CPI(M) has accepted the people’s verdict. The Left Front in West Bengal has declared that it shall make a proper assessment and review of these results to draw correct lessons for the future. 

There has been a massive media hype that these elections are a `semi-final’ for the so-called `final’ assembly elections in May, 2011. The politically conscious electorate in Bengal is discerning in the sense that it treats every election on the basis of its objective.

The Lok Sabha elections were to determine the government at the centre. The elections to the state assembly are to determine the government in the state. Likewise, the municipal and panchayat elections have their own objectives. Each election is, therefore, a different ballgame.

The Trinamul Congress has mounted a shrill campaign for the dismissal of the duly-elected state government and the holding of early elections.  This is not only patently undemocratic but completely irrational.

The total number of people eligible to vote in these municipal elections was 85,33,000 out of a total electorate in the state of 5,24,32,000, i.e., only 17 per cent of the total electorate. This makes up for less than 40 seats in an assembly of 294.

The rest of the 83 per cent constitutes the rural Bengal electorate or more than 250 assembly seats, which has predominantly determined the character of the government in the state in the past. Hence, it will be fallacious to conclude that the results of these municipal elections are a reflection of the state’s electorate as a whole. 

Nevertheless, it is a reflection of urban Bengal. To that extent, the Left Front is committed to undertake a serious introspection of these results. During the Lok Sabha polls in 2009, which saw a serious erosion in the Left vote, the Left Front had a lead in 525 of the 1766 municipal wards in the state or 29.73 per cent.

In these elections, the Left Front has won 603 out of 1791 municipal wards or 33.67 per cent.  Hence, the situation now shows, at best, a marginal improvement in the performance of the Left Front. 

Clearly, therefore, the setback suffered in the Lok Sabha elections has not been reversed but the downslide appears to have been partially arrested.

In the 2005 elections to the municipal bodies, the Left Front had won an unprecedented victory bagging 50 out of the 81 municipal bodies. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, however, it had led in only 19.  In these elections, it has won in only 18.

However, as noted earlier, the leadership of 26 municipal bodies will only be decided later.  The main reverses to the Left Front have come from Kolkata and its adjoining urban areas. North 24 Parganas district has 21 municipal bodies while Hooghly district has 12.

In 2005, the Left Front had won 26 of these 33 municipalities. This time Left Front has won only in 4 with a tie in 2 municipalities. This is a serious matter that needs to be properly reviewed in order to draw the correct lessons and apply the needed correctives. 

The CPI(M) and the Left Front are committed to undertake this task in right earnest. 

Mamata's Rail Budget 2010: Gimmicks Galore

The Railway Budget presented by Mamata Banerjee in Parliament today (February 24) exposes a sharp deterioration in the performance of the Indian Railways.

Far from containing any vision for the future of the Indian Railways, Mamata's Budget speech sought to conceal gross failures through misleading announcements and gimmicks aimed at next year's Assembly elections in West Bengal.

Over 120 railway accidents have taken place so far during this financial year. In this backdrop it is inexplicable how the allocations for the Railway Safety Fund has been cut by Rs. 579 crore from last year.

Moreover, Mamata has strangely tried to shift the blame for railway accidents on to rail rokos and natural disasters! This shows the Minister’s distorted perspective on the crucial aspect of railway safety.

According to the Railway Ministry’s own estimates, over 1.7 lakhs Railway posts were lying vacant in 2009, out of which nearly 90,000 were posts related to railway safety. Mamata has kept completely silent on filling up these vacancies, which can provide job opportunities to unemployed youth.

The Railway’s operating ratio (the ratio of total working expenses to the earnings – a higher ratio implies deterioration), which was 90.5% in 2008-09 has risen to 94.7% in 2009-10. Such a sharp deterioration in just one year reflects the gross mismanagement of Railway affairs by Mamata who has spent more time in Kolkata plotting against the Left Front government in cahoots with the Maoists than in Rail Bhawan in New Delhi.

Gross Traffic Receipts in 2009-10 have fallen short of the budgeted estimate by Rs. 63 crore. Moreover, plan investment in Railways also fell short of the budgeted target of 2009-10 by Rs. 497 crore.

This clearly shows that Mamata Banerjee has not been able to implement the tall promises she made in the last Budget. In this context the grandiose announcements of projects ranging from hospitals and diagnostic centres, sports academies and musuems ring a trifle hollow.

By Mamata's own admission, many of her project announcements were made without the sanction of the Planning Commission. Their implementation therefore is highly suspect. This is further borne out by the fact that for 2010-11, plan investment in Railways is budgeted to increase by only Rs. 1142 crore, which amounts to a drastic fall in plan investment in real terms.

While the Railway Minister has made tall claims on laying 1000 km of new railway lines, it is shocking that the actual plan allocations for gauge conversion, doubling of railway lines and new rolling stock like wagons and carriages have been cut in nominal terms.

This squeeze in public investment in the Railways is accompanied by an unprecedented thrust towards privatisation in all areas in the name of PPP: from modernisation of railway stations, new railway lines, freight and passenger corridors, locomotive, wagon and container manufacturing, rail axle factory, parking complexes and bottling plants.

This wholesale privatisation programme for the Railways and thus opening up the entire sector for private profiteering will be inimical to the national interest. It appears as if the entire decision-making in the Railway Ministry has been handed over to the corporate sector.

But then, given Manmohan Singh's privatisation agenda, Mamata Banerjee's Budget is of a piece.

Indian Railways' Surplus Evaporates; Where Has The Money Gone?

Spending five days in a week in Kolkata to fight the Left Front government rather than behind her desk in Rail Bhawan in New Delhi, Mamata Banerjee certainly did not have any time to prepare the Railway Budget, which she presented in Parliament today. Not surprisingly, her Budget does not bear her imprimatur but that of the technocrats running Indian Railways.

So once again, as in other branches of the new government, neo-liberal thinking dominated the Budget-making exercise. This will include not only developing “50 world class” railway stations but go down the line, as it were, to cover even developing Railway medical colleges along with rail hospitals on public-private partnership (PPP) basis. Besides, there is the par for course tokenism like availability of 'Janata Khana', in which national and regional cuisines will figure on the menu.

Alarmingly, Mamata's first Railway Budget reflects a marked deterioration in the financial position of the Indian Railways. Lalu Prasad's Railway Budget of 2008-09 had reported a cash surplus of around Rs 23,000 crore. However, this surplus came down to Rs. 13,532 crore in this year's interim Railway Budget (February 2009) presented just before the Lok Sabha elections.

Now, in a short span of six months the surplus has come down further to just Rs 8,631 crore in the current Budget. Where has the money gone? Mamata owes an explanation for this serious deterioration of performance. Why has the cash surpluses of the Railways depleted so rapidly in such a short span of time?

To be fair, it seems the economic slowdown has adversely affected Railway revenues, especially from freight traffic. Estimates for Receipts have been revised downwards from the targets set by the interim Railway Budget presented by Lalu Prasad earlier this year, which Mamata Banerjee termed “unrealistically high” in her speech.

However, Mamata has failed to come up with any fresh ideas in tackling the situation and turnaround the declining revenue situation. Rather she has chosen to take recourse to the same flawed route of privatisation through PPP projects in a host of areas. Indeed, privatisation and outsourcing in the Railways has received a major thrust in this year’s Budget. Is this the beginning of the privatisation of Indian Railways?

Mamata's reliance on several PPP projects, from development of 50 “world class stations”, new freight and coach terminals, logistics parks, special purpose rolling stocks, perishable cargo centres etc., seems completely misplaced at a time of economic recession when private investment is hardly forthcoming.

Mamata admitted in her speech that out of Rs 3400 crore earmarked in the Annual Plan for 2009-10, for resource mobilization through PPP, “Rs 3300 crore would just not materialise”. The allocations for crucial areas like railway modernisation, safety, electrification etc are also inadequate.

Thankfully, there are some positive measures in the Railway Budget 2009-10 like no hike in passenger fares, Rs 25 monthly ticket for people earning less than Rs. 1500 per month or a special recruitment drive to fill up vacancies in railway posts for SC/STs, physically challenged, minorities and women.

We can only hope Mamata devotes more time to Indian Railways in the larger national interest and not limit herself to West Bengal politics. If the latter is more important to her, she must relinquish charge and let someone else take over. Indian Railways is too important to be left to the technocrats on the Railway Board.

Roger And Out