Sunday, December 31, 2006

Maloy Krishna Dhar(Former Joint Director of the Intelligence Bureau), Quote

M. K Dhar Quote


"The Maoist movement is a symbol of the divide between rural and urban India. The movement cannot be solved by police action at all. There could be a time when they (Maoists) could overrun urban citadels,"

-- Maloy Krishna Dhar

(Former Joint Director of the Intelligence Bureau predicting that
the Maoists are all set to overrun the cities in the near future.)

'Maoist movement symbolises urban-rural divide'

'Maoist movement symbolises urban-rural divide'

The occasion was the launch of a book of fiction on the Maoist movement. But the chilly afternoon on the Press Club of India lawns was turned into a platform for the exchange of well-rounded views and facts on the movement with CPI's AB Bardhan and former IB intelligence officer MK Dhar supporting it and KPS Gill saying it is nourishing meaningless violence.

'Seeing through the Stones: A tale from the Maoist Land' by senior journalist Diptendra Raychaudhuri is a tale of the lives of a group Maoist leaders and cadres. Bardhan called the Maoist movement - which the author had done extensive research - as necessary to shake the society out of its existing slumber.

"We are only talking about the sensex, GDP, foreign exchange. These are very good figures. But they do not provide food to the vast majority. They do not provide clothing and shelter to millions. What should they do," Bardhan said, adding that the Naxals have shaken the society out of its complacency.

He said there is no reason to idealise the Maoists or the Communists. "But the movement is a symptom of the struggle in our society. The Government can not just crush them and go back," he said.

The veteran Communist leader called the Salwa Judum - apparently initiated by the Chhattisgarh government in 2005 to wean away the tribals from the Naxals - as the work of "perverted minds."

Dhar, who retired as joint director of the Intelligence Bureau, said the towns and cities maybe dazzling, but rural India is still buried under poverty. "The Maoist movement is a symbol of the divide between rural and urban India. The movement cannot be solved by police action at all. There could be a time when they (Maoists) could overrun urban citadels," Dhar said.

Link

You can buy the book here

http://www.vitastapublishing.com/seeing_stone.htm

Or Contact their offices at the below numbers and email ids.

http://www.vitastapublishing.com/distribution_networks.htm

Maoists' kin protest terror tag

Maoists' kin protest terror tag
[ 30 Dec, 2006 0143hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
RSS Feeds| SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates

VISAKHAPATNAM: High drama was witnessed at the King George Hospital (KGH) for nearly 30 minutes after relatives of the slain Maoist leaders—Vadkapur Chandramouli alias Devanna and his wife Kavitha alias Jyothakka—took serious objection when police asked them to sign on some papers in which they mentioned the deceased couple as terrorists.

Devanna's brother Niranjanachari said, "Everyone knows that Chandramouli and Kavitha were Maoist leaders and not terrorists. How can they categorise them as such?"

Earlier, the bodies of the couple were handed over to their relatives at KGH, following a direction from the High Court.

The bodies arrived at KGH for preservation after an autopsy was conducted at the Narsipatnam area hospital late on Thursday.

Meanwhile, SP J G Murali told reporters that APCLC leaders were creating a scene without knowing the facts. "We made all arrangements for the safe transportation of bodies as per the court directions", the SP added.

The bodies were sent in an ambulance along with a police escort vehicle to Vadkapur in Karimnagar, the slain naxalite's native place.

Neighbours duck joint operations against red

Neighbours duck joint operations against red
OUR CORRESPONDENT

Ranchi, Dec. 29: Bengal and Bihar were said to be non-committal in launching a joint offensive with Jharkhand against extremists at the Bhubaneswar meet convened by the Union home ministry to evolve a strategy-coordinated response to the Naxalite menace.

State director general of police (DGP) J. Mahapatra told The Telegraph that his Bengal counterpart cited the political ideology of the CPM-led Bengal government as prohibiting a joint operation against rebels.

The Bihar officers, the DGP claimed, said they do not depend on Jharkhand to contain the Naxalite menace. Claiming to be self-sufficient, the Bihar representatives said their forces had been able to successfully fight the Naxalites, Mahapatra said.

The DGP said the success of the Andhra Pradesh (AP) government in fighting the red menace could be attributed to a number of factors.

First, the AP police enjoyed more freedom. Second, the development projects were expedited to lure away people from the clutches of the extremists. Huge funds were also pumped in to ensure the successful implementation of security-related measures.

Similarly, people’s participation contained extremists in Chhattisgarh. Jharkhand depends on the police alone to fight the Naxalites, the DGP said. He added that their intelligence sharing is perfect with Orissa, while there is active cooperation from Chhattisgarh in launching a joint offensive. But the communication gap with Bengal is going to affect the anti-Naxalite operations, he said.

Link

Ultras, police exchange fire: Minor injured

Ultras, police exchange fire: Minor injured
Saturday December 30 2006 12:10 IST

MALKANGIRI: A seven-year-old girl, Basanti Madkami, sustained bullet injuries during an exchange of fire between police and Maoists in Jinelguda forest area under Motu police limits on Friday.

She has been admitted to the district headquarters hospital. On a tip-off, the cops reached the forest and raided a Maoist camp.

Around 200 rounds of fire were exchanged between police and Maoists. Later, the ultras fled the spot. Some Maoist uniforms were seized.

Link

Three Maoists gunned down in Andhra Pradesh

Three Maoists gunned down in Andhra Pradesh
Dec 31, 2006 - 6:24:02 PM

By IANS, [RxPG] Hyderabad, Dec 31 - Three Maoists were killed in a gun battle with police in the forests of Khammam district in Andhra Pradesh Sunday, taking the number of guerrillas killed in 2006 to 139.

Khammam District Superintendent of Police R.K. Meena said the Maoists opened fire on the police party engaged in combing operations in Paritala Lanka forests in Kuknoor mandal, forcing the latter to retaliate.

'After some time, police found bodies of three Maoists,' he said.

While the guerrillas were yet to be identified, police believe they belonged to the Communist Party of India-Maoist.

A .303 rifle and two spring rifles were recovered from the scene. Police suffered no casualties in the gun battle.

With these killings, the number of Maoists killed this year went up to 139.

Meanwhile, M.A. Basit Sunday assumed office as new director general of police. After taking charge from Swaranjit Sen, he said the current anti-Maoist strategy, which yielded good results, would continue.

Sen, who served as the state police chief for two years, said police had overcome the Maoist problem with people's cooperation. He said the Maoist violence had declined by 65 percent during 2006.

The number of people killed by Maoists came down to 52 this year from 211 in 2005, he said.

Police also achieved a nmajor success during the year by unearthing 53 arms dumps and recovering huge caches of arms including 875 rocket shells and launchers. Sen said 320 extremists surrendered while 717 of them had been arrested during the year.

Link

Maoists on the prowl, cops had a tough time

Maoists on the prowl, cops had a tough time
Saturday December 30 2006 12:11 IST

BHUBANESWAR: It was a year law-enforcers of the State would like to forget. Kalinga Nagar bloodshed, one among the string of tragedies, sent ominous signals for Orissa. Or was it just for Orissa Police?

If the men in khaki were in for some serious battering after the firing that claimed lives of 13 tribals in Orissa’s emerging industrial hub in Jajpur, it only got worse afterward.

Chairman of Rairakhole block Harekrushna Pradhan was shot dead when a police officer was ‘aiming’ at a wild bear in a forest. The incident led to Sambalpur bandh and the State Government had to order an RDC probe.

On the wee hours of March 24, more than 500 Left Wing extremists swooped on an OSAP camp at R Udaygiri, gunned down three policemen before freeing the inmates of a sub-jail.

While retreating, they took an SI and the jail superintendent hostage, virtually cocking a snook at anti-Naxal operations. It was not before 11 days that the two officials were set free by the extremists.

Entirely on their own terms. Little over two months later, ultras shot dead the officer-in-charge of Motu Police Station Durga Charan Mishra in a local market during the daytime.

The spate of Naxal violence prompted the State Government, so far reluctant, to impose a ban on seven outfits including the CPI (Maoist) on June 9.

But the ban, as experience showed, never stopped the Red radicals. They were on the offensive as usual. They shot dead a village headman in Malkangiri on October 13 and two days later, three locomotives were torched at Tampardihi in Sundargarh district.

However, the worst, was yet to happen. Jaswinder Singh, DIG of South Western range, was killed while on his way to a media conference on October 23.

At first, police termed it a handiwork of Maoists, but it turned out to be an ‘accidental firing’ by one of his personal security officers.

How it happened and under what circumstances is still being probed by Crime Branch Police. Seven days later, Naxals gunned down Bandhu Behera, a trader, in Malkangiri who they termed a police informer.

Similarly Baideswarpur, a small village under Tangi police limits in Cuttack, hit the headlines when a police constable allegedly killed his wife, son and a daughter. Orissa Police possibly could not have had it any worse.

But security personnel had their share of success. Deogarh Police pushed the ultras on the defensive. In two encounters, the cops gunned down at least nine cadres of the CPI (Maoist) leaving their local unit in tatters.

Link

Friday, December 29, 2006

Quote on information

Quote on information


“Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.”- Anonymous

The world is listening. Are you talking? Global: Now Spelt Blogal

The world is listening. Are you talking?


Global: Now Spelt Blogal

There’s a radical shift underway in how information is exchanged, says Shivam Vij after a recent international blogger summit

Something really big is starting to happen,” geek extraordinaire Ethan Zuckerman told a meeting of international bloggers at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society in 2004. “What I’m really curious about is whether we’ll find ourselves becoming a movement.” Two years later, that was no longer in question, as Zuckerman’s Global Voices (GV) — co-founded with former cnn correspondent Rebecca McKinnon — held its second annual summit at Delhi’s India Habitat Centre last week. The issue now, as participants agreed, was not whether blogging is a movement, but how they are to take the blogosphere’s trans-continental conversations forward, far enough to dent the mainstream media’s predominantly Western coverage of events. At one point during the conference, Bala Pitchandi from New Jersey asked via webcast what GV’s long-term goals were. “Total world domination,” replied Zuckerman, as laughter lit up the room.

The important role that bloggers could play within and without the newsroom became clear for the first time in 2003, when an architect in Iraq who called himself Salam Pax started blogging the Second Gulf War. Ever since, the international media has often turned to bloggers in conflict zones to bring local perspective to their coverage. For GV, this has been central to its project — prominent bloggers from around the globe are roped in as regional editors who would write posts linking to blogs, explaining the context they were written in, thus making local issues accessible to a global audience. “The nature of conversation in the blogosphere tends to be insular,” says Neha Viswanathan, GV’s South Asia editor. “Bloggers in a country tend to speak only to each other. We add the context to posts and offer them to a global audience.”

The aim is to provide media spaces that bypass State controls to get citizens across the world to speak for themselves
However, GV is more than a bloggers’ community. With free speech at the core of its manifesto, it aims to provide media alternatives that bypass government controls to get citizens across the world to speak for themselves. Contrasted with mainstream media practice, GV’s approach to information sharing, for instance, encourages people to ask why a particular story is not picked up by its editors. When questions were raised, at the summit in Delhi, about biases and information imbalances within GV’s coverage, Trinidadian blogger Georgia Popplewell, a GV co-managing editor, gave the example of a Cuban who wrote in to say GV wasn’t covering his country well. To correct the shortcoming, Popplewell hired that blogger as Cuba editor.

The stories GV covers come overwhelmingly from the developing world, ignoring almost all of Western Europe and North America. (GV has been anxious to not be seen as an American site — which is partly the reason for its registering in the Netherlands.) For journalists, it is a mine of contacts and story ideas; mainstream media too often turns to it for help with on-the-ground reportage. During April’s revolution in Nepal, bbc World picked up GV’s Nepal contributor, Parmendra, for a chat. Israel’s bombing of Lebanon and the Mumbai train blasts were two big events on which GV provided dedicated feeds to Reuters, one of its sponsors. Along with foundations like MacArthur and the Dutch NGO Hivos, Reuters also funds GV because it realises that the proliferation of individual voices on the Internet has influenced the way information is exchanged.

However, despite its democratic emphasis, issues of access persist — in every country, computer usage remains confined to the elite. How do we hear what farmers in India or street kids in Vietnam have to say? Further, while English is the dominant medium on the Web, it is not what most of the world talks in. GV is trying to expand its linguistic frontiers — it already has a Chinese version, and there are a handful of editors who read posts in other languages and discuss them in English. Oddly, however, when the issue came up at the conference, of all the Indians in the room, not one was willing to be a GV Hindi editor.

There was also some brainstorming during the summit on using software like tor to bypass Internet censorship and what GV could do for bloggers who find themselves under government suppression. “In Arabian blogospheres, human rights, free speech and democracy are topics of constant discussion,” says Amira Al Hussaini, Middle East and North Africa editor. “With strong media censorship, online self-publishing becomes an important outlet”.

“The world is talking,” goes GV’s tagline, “Are you listening?” For the innumerable conversations that GV fosters every day, Zuckerman could as well say: the world is listening, are you talking?

http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/

Link

Mamata breaks 25-day fast, furore continues over elderly couple’s death

Mamata breaks 25-day fast, furore continues over elderly couple’s death




Kolkata Dec 28, In a dramatic midnight development, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee ended her 25-day fast protesting the location of a Tata car project after intervention by both the president and the prime minister.

Mamata broke her fast at midnight Thursday after receiving a letter from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The letter was faxed to the office of West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi that was immediately delivered to Mamata, who was protesting the Tata project at Singur on the ground it would eat away 997 acres of fertile farmland.

'I thank all the political parties for their support,' Mamata told her supporters at Esplanade, the venue of the fast.

She will be admitted to a nursing home for a while to enable her recuperate.

Mamata's decision came on a day of dramatic developments during which President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam expressed 'serious concern' over her health and spoke to Manmohan Singh to stress the need to find a way to resolve the issue. Kalam also appealed to Mamata to end the stir as 'life is precious'.

'The President spoke to the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh and expressed his serious concern and emphasised the need to find a way to end the stalemate and to enable her to end the fast,' a press release - the second of the day - issued by Rashtrapati Bhavan said.
Link


In Singur, furore over elderly couple’s death


Singur, December 28 : The gruesome murder of an old, well-off farmer couple in Singur’s Doloigacha — about 5 km from the Tata Motors small car project site — put the area on the boil once again this afternoon, even as a compromise formula was being worked out between the government and fasting Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee.

The victims — Tinkari Dey, (56) and his wife Maya (50) — were found in a pool of blood on a ground floor room of their two-storied concrete house. Tinkari had a sharp cut on the back of his head. Both had electric wires tied around their neck, fitted to a plug-point. The bodies bore signs of strangulation and burn injuries from electric shock. “It is certainly not a case of suicide,” said Arun Gupta, IG Western Range, who visited the spot.

Link

Ultras would soon come to the negotiation table: Duggal

Ultras would soon come to the negotiation table: Duggal
Friday December 29 2006 00:00 IST

BHUBANESWAR: The Left wing ultras would soon come to the negotiation table. It’s only a matter of time, Secretary in the Union Home Ministry V K Duggal asserted on Thursday.

At the end of the two-day meeting of 22nd Co-ordination Centre on Left Wing Extremism, he said, the last one year has witnessed a drop in Naxal violence. In 2006, there were 1457 incidents as compared to 1608 in 2005. Last year, a whopping 510 police stations were hit by Naxal violence which dropped to 372 this year, he informed.

Assuring support to Naxal-hit states, he said the Centre would chip in with an additional assistance of Rs 100 crore during current fiscal for improved weapons, communication system and de-mining equipment to strengthen anti-Naxal operations.

But the aim is not to neutralise them but bring the ‘misguided youths’ back to mainstream as they are missing out on the growth opportunities, he said, but quickly added that there would be no let up in proactive action against them if they continued to indulge in violence.

Stating that 2006 has been a distinct improvement, Duggal said, inter-state coordination has improved and so has the performance of the joint task force. There were 317 encounters in 2006 as against 295 in the previous year, while as many as 236 naxal elements were neutralised during the current year which is an improvement over 199 in 2005.

In Chhattisgarh alone, one of the most-affected states, 150 encounters were held and 900 cadres surrendered. Similar was AP’s performance. The Union Home Secretary expressed satisfaction saying that recruitment by the Red radicals has shown a significant drop.

Asked if the Left extremists can be labelled terrorists, he said it will be difficult to brand them so.

Duggal, however, made it clear that there is no link between the Maoists of Nepal and those operating in India. “There is no evidence of any logistics or physical support being extended by the former to radicals in India,” the Union Home Secretary said.

However, there has been an infiltration of criminals and infiltrators in the ranks of Left extremist outfits.

Duggal called for further strengthening of the existing training centres in the states. If they need support, Centre is ready to finance, he added. He also said that urbanisation and industrialisation throw up more problems for police while incidents such as Kalinga Nagar becomes exploitable for the radicals. Duggal ruled out human rights violation by cops during anti-Naxal operation.

Informing that border fencing is going on in full swing, he said, the second phase work would be over by March 2007. “Apart from illegal immigrants, the Jehadi elements are taking to sea routes and as a preventive step, 70 police stations are being set up under the Coastal Security Scheme for 7000 km long coastline.

In Orissa, five such police stations will come up and Duggal said, he held talks with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to acquire land for these projects.

Link

HC orders report on maoist Chandramouli’s couple killing.

HC orders report on maoist Chandramouli’s couple killing.

Hyderabad: A division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court comprising Chief Justice G S Singhvi and Justice C V Nagarjuna Reddy on Thursday directed the Visakhapatnam police to produce the entire report relating to the Wednesday night’s encounter killing of senior Maoist leader V Chandramouli and his wife Kavitha, by 12.30 p.m. on Friday.

The bench was hearing a writ petition filed by APCLC district secretary V V Balakrishna alleging that the State Government had carried out the killing of the couple in a cold blooded manner.

The petitioner further contended that the couple were arrested in Orissa and were handed over to Andhra Pradesh police a fortnight back. They were killed last night by the police who claimed that they died in an encounter.

Meanwhile, balladeer Gadar met Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy at Secretariat and submitted a memorandum demanding judicial probe into the encounter and registering a case of murder against the police officials responsible for the incident.

Speaking to reporters later, Gadar said that he suggested to the Chief Minister that the panel, headed by a sitting judge of Supreme Court, should work on the lines of Justice Bhargava Commission to probe the encounters. The Chief Minister assured Gadar that he would ask Director General of Police Swaranjit Sen to issue a statement on the incident.

Dismissing the claims of police that Chandramouli and his wife were killed in an exchange of fire, Gadar alleged that the couple were arrested in Orissa based on the information given by a CPI (Maoist) activist Gopal, who was arrested in that state. They were handed over to Andhra Pradesh police who brought and killed them in Visakhapatnam, Gaddar said.

At Visakhapatnam Rural SP J G Murali said that the couple came to Panasapalli to commit a ‘sensational offence’ to avenge the killing of their top leaders.
He said that the police intensified search operations near Panasapalli following information that Maoist leaders like Jagadish, Nandu, M Bhaskar, Chandramouli were holding a meeting. “The naxalites opened fire at the police and the latter returned the same in self defence killing them,” he said.

The firing lasted for about 20 minutes and when it stopped, the police found two bodies besides an SLR, two SBBL guns, four claymore mines, two grenades, a service revolver, twelve cartridges and an electrical wire bundle, he said.

The bodies were kept in Narsipatnam area hospital where autopsy would be done after the arrival of the relatives. The police continued to be on a high alert following the incident. They intensified combing along the Andhra-Orissa border to prevent the Maoists from entering the state.

Link

Encounter proves Coast's role in Naxalism

Encounter proves Coast's role in Naxalism

Mangalore Dec 28: The encounter in which a naxalite was killed near Kigga near Sringeri on Monday night though may not have been considered a major feat of the police, it has proved that coastal district is actively involved in naxal activities.

Dinakar, who was killed in the encounter on Monday night, was the first naxalite from the DK district to be killed in an encounter. Though two activists each were killed in two separate encounters in the Udupi district including Edu at Karkala and Devarabalu in Kundapur taluk in the past, until now, no person hailing from the coastal district of DK was killed.

Though the police had information regarding the people from DK district being involved in naxal activities, the death of Dinakar has proved that people of this region are active in the movement.

Dinakar is not an important leader in the movement as it was thought earlier. Earlier he was suspected to be Vikram Gowda of Hebri, Udupi, who is the leader of Netravathi Dala. Netravathi Dala is an active team of naxalites in the stretch of Malnad-Western Ghat section and comprises about 12 to 16 active members, police sources said.

The police earlier had information regarding three members of DK involved actively in the naxal movement from Venur region. The three were identified as Dinakar, his wife Sundari and his brother-in-law(Sundari's brother) Vasanth. Dinakar said to have taken up Naxal activities following the declaration of the Kudremukh park as a national park.

Police sources, who had kept a strict vigil on the movement of Dinakar, say that Dinakar and his wife Sundari were always together during their campaign and also in their operations. Thus, it is believed that Sundari nust have been with Dinakar when the exchange of fire took place between the naxal team and the police.

According to reliable sources, those who have joined the movement from DK are not active in the region. They are active in other districts and those who are form Sringeri and other region are active in Udupi and Belthangady region. Thus, Dinakar must have been in one such operation when he was killed near Kigga.

The police had known about Dinakar's active participation in the movement even earlier and had also got some information from one of the members of the movement, Kavitha, who was arrested by the police about a year ago.

Dinakar who hails from Bharadwaja near Kutlur in Belthangady taluk belongs to a tribal community and was missing.

Inspector General of Police(Western Range) H N Satyanarayan Rao opined that the police knew that the people from DK are active in the movement. However, Dinakar was accidentally caught in fire and killed and was found to be form DK, he said.
The naxal movement, however, is more active in Belthangady taluk of Dakshina Kannada.

Link

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Prachanda Quote

Prachanda Quote
“Since we belong to a communist party, our maximum goals are socialism and communism … Given the international power balance and the overall economic, political and social realities of the country, we can’t attain those goals at the moment.” - Prachanda In Kathmandu Post, February 7, 2006

Video shows a major confrontation between the People's Liberation Army and the Royal Nepalese Army.

I found this Video on google video it shows a major confrontation between the People's Liberation Army and the Royal Nepalese Army.Date unknown.

I hope this video will dispel any wrong notions that some of may be harbouring
about People's War, the bullets are real the deaths are real.

And every time you read about an encounter death in the news you can imagine
that what took place would be very similar to what is shown in this video only on a smaller scale.

Watch it on Google Video Website

Profiles of members of the Karnataka State committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist)

This information is more than a year old and there could have been many
changes in the meantime.
Profiles of members of the Karnataka State committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist)

C M Noor Zulfikar
alias Sridhar heads the committee in Karnataka in place of Saket Rajan alias Prem, who fell to the bullets of police in Chikmagalur.
While Rajan led a six-member team, the present committee has seven members.

Zulfikar, the new secretary, is from Chitradurga and is in his mid-thirties. He is an engineering dropout. Police, however, are yet to gather personal details of Zulfikar.

The team includes a lady member,

Asha. Aged 25, this Sikh lady has studied in Shimoga for many years. She was reportedly linked to the Mahila Jagruthi Vedike, according to sources in the Home Department.

Incidentally, Asha’s husband Nanda Kumar alias Rangappa is also on the new committee. This 35-year-old is a native of Koppa in Chikmagalur district.
Another, member of the team is Vishnu alias Devendrappa. He hails from Soraba and had a miraculous escape in the Idu encounter between the Naxals and the police in Udupi district last year.

The other three members of the committee are Veeramani alias Murugan who regularly issues press statements under the nom de guerre Gangadhar, Kuppuswamy alias D Murthy and Ujani Gowda who is lodged in Bellary jail.Zulfikar, Murthy and Gowda were members of the Saket team too.

Cherkuri Rajkumar,
a member of the central committee of the Maoist party, continues to be in-charge of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. He frequently visits Bangalore, official sources said.

Highly secular

Another feature of the new panel, according to an officer, is that it is ‘highly secular’ in nature, meaning all major communities have been ‘represented’. While Zulfikar is a Muslim, Murugan, a native of Madurai, belongs to a backward community. Asha is a Sikh and her husband Nanda Kumar is a Nair. Devendrappa is an Idiga, Murthy a Scheduled Caste and Ujjani Gowda a Vokkaliga, the sources said.

It is learnt that the police have procured photographs of all the seven members of the committee, who are all underground operators. Despite having sufficient information, the sources said, it was a tough task to nab them.

However, officials pointed out that the Naxals now do not have a ‘meticulous and intelligent’ planner they had had in Saket Rajan.

Source of income

The official sources also said that of the estimated nearly 500 Naxalites in the State, 160 could be termed as ‘underground operatives’. According to printed material and diaries seized from several Naxals over the last few years, taxation is the main source of income.

Forest contractors, PWD contractors, rich landlords and petty forest officials are taxed. There are four Naxal squads in the State and each squad generates not less than Rs one lakh a month. Besides, the central committee too financially supports the State team, the documents have revealed.

Each squad has 10 to 12 women and women constitute at least one-third of the underground cadre, the sources said.

Source

Mamata's health deteriorates ,Ratan Tata determined to build factory over her dead body

Mamata's health deteriorates ,Ratan Tata determined to build factory over her dead body
Take care of Mamata, orders PM
CAUSE OF CONCERN: The PM has instructed the Central authorities to extend all medical care for Mamata Bannerjee.
New Delhi:
After having taken over Mahatma Gandhi as far as resisting hunger is concerned, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Bannerjee’s worsening health has drawn the attention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Dr Singh, on Wednesday, instructed the Central authorities to extend all medical care for Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Bannerjee in view of deterioration in her health.

Doctors had put Mamata on oxygen support after she developed breathing problems on Tuesday.

Mamata has been on a hunger strike for the past 24 days, protesting against West Bengal government's acquisition of farmland for the TATA Motors project in Singur. Her party has been demanding relocation of the project out of the fertile agricultural land to some other site within the state.

The Eastern Command Hospital has been instructed to offer whatever medical assistance is requried by Banerjee, PM's media adviser Sanjaya Baru said in Delhi.

"Because of the deterioration in Mamata Banerjee's health and her refusal to accept state government's help for medical care, the Prime Minister has instructed Central authorities to extend all medical care required," news agency PTI quoted Baru as saying.

Mamata says she would not end her fast till the state government accepts her demand that the land at Singur, which had been taken "forcibly", be returned.

Mamata had termed the CPM-led state government's move to acquire of 954 acres of farmland to set up the Tata Motors project in Singur as "anti-farmer and anti-poor".

Link


Rivals fuelling fire, says Tata - Determined to set up plant in Singur


Dec. 27: Ratan Tata today accused “some of our competitors” of stirring the Singur controversy, adding a stunning new dimension of corporate intrigue to what has been a political issue so far.

In an interview to NDTV, he also expressed determination to see through the project that will turn out cars costing Rs 100,000 at the site some 40 km from Calcutta.

“Let me just say it is not just political, because I happen to know that some of our competitors are also fuelling some of this fire… they would be very happy if the project got delayed,” he said.

Mamata Banerjee has been fasting for 24 days now against what she calls “forcible” land acquisition in Singur.

While competitors expressed surprise at the charge voiced by a corporate leader of impeccable credentials, Mamata’s Trinamul Congress threatened to take the Tata group chairman to court.

“We will file a defamation case against Ratan Tata. His statement will prove to be an obstacle to any respectable solution to the Singur issue. His statement is an echo of what Biman Bose had said earlier and is in bad taste,” said Trinamul general secretary Mukul Roy.

Bose, the CPM boss in Bengal, had said about two weeks ago that Tata Motors’ competitors were encouraging the agitation over Singur.

Efforts continued to get her to call off the fast, but without success.

Tata said: “We regret what has happened and (I) ask myself have we been caught in a political quagmire where political issues have tended to try and overcome even the issues they are supposed to espouse?”

He was clear Tata Motors would not pull out because of the controversy. “The Bengal government has been very steadfast in its support and I think it would be wrong for us to say that we will pull out and go.

“I am unfortunately a person that has often said ‘you put a gun to my head and pull the trigger or take the gun away, I won’t move my head’.”

Tata was laudatory about Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. “Why did we go to Bengal”, he said, “because we believe in the leadership that the present government has provided.”

Tata’s accusation set the business beehive buzzing. Maruti and Hyundai, both of which make small cars and are the country’s two other big automobile companies, declined comment.

The country’s biggest car maker, Maruti, has four small models — the 800, Alto, Zen Estillo and Wagon R. Hyundai has the Santro. Several others are planning small cars.


Link

Confusion Over Identity: 'Naxalite' killed in encounter identified as Dinakar of Naravi

Sringeri Dec 27: A suspected Naxalite gunned down in an encounter by Sringeri police, in association with the anti-naxal force (ANF), at Kigga near Sringeri Chikamagalur district on Monday night, has now been identified as Dinakara Malekudia son of Koraga Malekudia of Kandlur Naravi, Belthangadi Taluk.


Dinakar's residence in Naravi

Initially the police had identified the person as certain Vikram Gowda of Hebri near Karkala. However, they retracted their statement after the parents of Vikram Gowda revealed that the body was not their son's. Even ADGP Shanker Bidri in his address to the media persons earlier said that the deceased was identified as Vikram Gowda.


Dinakar's parents reading the local news paper

But today Dinakar's brother Yashavanth and his close relatives went to Chikamagalur and identified Dinakar's body.

It is learnt that, Dinakar was missing since past 3 years and he had joined the Naxals.

The police upon receiving the information that naxalites had organised a meeting at the house of certain Yogappa at Kesumudi in Sringeri on Christmas night, swiftly surrounded the house of Yogappa at around 10.20 p.m. However, by then the naxalites had left Yogappa's house. A group of armed naxals after learning that they were surrounded, fired at the police. The police returned the fire in which one person was killed. On Tuesday morning, the police found the body of a man at the spot of the encounter.

This is the second encounter killing in Chikmagalur district, the first being the death of naxalite kingpin Saketh Rajan and his associate on February 6, 2005, at Menasinahadya. Senior police officers including IGP Satyanarayan and Mr. Vipul Kumar are camping in Sringeri. The police have intensified their search for naxalites in the region.

Link

Related Posts

Naxalite gunned down in Sringeri,Karnataka


‘No negotiation unless the Left ultras lay down arms’

‘No negotiation unless the Left ultras lay down arms’
Thursday December 28 2006 00:00 IST

Union home cecretary V.K. Duggal addresses the conference of Naxalite-affected states in Bhubaneswar.






BHUBANESWAR: Union Home Secretary V K Duggal on Wednesday said there can be no negotiation with Left wing ultra outfits unless they lay down arms and come forward for talks.

At the two-day coordination committee meeting of the Naxal affected states, which got underway here, he said, negotiation can only be peaceful and Nepal example shows it.

Going by the Andhra Pradesh experience in 2004-05, the signs definitely are not positive and the Union Home Secretary reiterated that. “Arms have to be given up and surrendered first. There can only be peaceful negotiation,” he said adding, Government of India has a policy in place and anybody who wants to surrender is most welcome.

Duggal met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and discussed about issues related to Orissa.

The two-day meet, attended by Chief Secretaries and the Director General of Police of 13 Naxal-affected states, will discuss two different issues.

On Wednesday, Intelligence Bureau (IB) delivered a detailed presentation on the entire Naxal scenario. “The winds of change has been good. The last six months have been a lot better than the previous six months,” Duggal said.

The coordination committee discussed development-related issues on day one. Top officials of Union Panchayati Raj, Home and Rural Development Departments were present. Implementation of development programmes, by Centre as well as state governments, were reviewed.

On Thursday, policing-related issues would be discussed. The Home Secretary said, matters like proposal for setting up a jungle warfare training institute in Orissa, on the lines of Greyhound Institute of Andhra Pradesh, are on the agenda.

Achievements and problems of each state would be reviewed on Thursday. Raising of India Reserve Battalions, progress, requirement of support would also be discussed.

Link

Salwa Judum divides Congress in Chhattisgarh

Salwa Judum divides Congress in Chhattisgarh

Ejaz Kaiser

Raipur, December 26, 2006

The observations made by the National Commission for Women (NCW) on Salwa Judum has intensified the infighting within the Congress leadership in Chhattisgarh.

Now it seems that the report of NCW added ‘fire to the fuel’ and the already existing difference has become more apparent within the Congress Party on the Salwa Judum, a self-motivated tribal movement against Maoist violence.

After its visit to Bastar region, the Commission has expressed concern over the state of tribal women and girls in the government run relief camps in Dantewada district.

Former chief minister and Lok Sabha member Ajit Jogi has strongly opposed Salwa Judum campaign since its inception citing that the operation itself being poorly planned got derailed in which hundreds of innocent tribals are brutally killed either by the naxals or by pro-Salwa Judum activists, besides resulting into their large-scale displacement. Now the NCW’s concern at the increase in atrocities on tribals who are caught in intensified conflict between the naxals and Salwa Judum campaign has given fillip to his advocacy against the movement.

Reiterating his demand to call-off such movement, Jogi lashed out at the Raman Singh government for allegedly showing no concern over the plight of poor tribals.

However the leader of opposition Mahendra Karma has called the NCW report as farce and devoid of truth. It may be noted that Karma, a senior Congress leader, is leading the movement since it’s beginning. He is critical of Jogi’s observation on Salwa Judum also. "Jogi should better visit Bastar to find out the existing reality instead of disapproving the Campaign", said Karma.

PCC President Charandas Mahant outrightly rejected the NCW report stating that since the beginning of the anti-naxal movement the women are relatively safer in the region. "Earlier naxalites exploited and badly treated women and girls but now Maoists are not able to draw enough courage to repeat such misdeeds", asserted Mahant.

As things emerged out, it is now advantage for state BJP government in securing political benefit with two key office bearers from main opposition camp rejecting the NCW findings.

NCW Chairperson Girija Vyas admitted that the report has shown apprehension for the safety and security of women living in camps in future. "We are examining the recommendations and conclusions given by the members and accordingly will advice the State and Central governments with our own suggestions", said Vyas.

The Commission has urged the Chhattisgarh Government not to pressurise villagers to join the ‘Campaign’ for fighting naxalites in the state.

Antagonised on stern opposition of the campaign by Jogi, who has emerged stronger in state Congress Party after the victory in Kota by-election, several state BJP leaders have stated that those opposing Salwa Judum are anti-national.

Link

Encounter with Maoists, high alert sounded

Encounter with Maoists, high alert sounded
Wednesday December 27 2006 11:44 IST

BARIPADA: Police on Tuesday sounded a “high alert” in areas of Mayurbhanj district bordering Jharkhand and West Bengal after an encounter with Maoists on Monday.

Police said the Special Operations Group (SOG), engaged in combing operation, had an hour-long encounter with five Maoist rebels at Ghatiduba in Sarisapal gram panchayat, about 55 km from here.

The SOG team, especially trained in anti-Naxal strategies, launched the combing operation after receiving a tip-off that the Maoist rebels, in their uniforms, were moving in and around the village.

Mayurbhanj SP Ravi Kant said the Maoist activists fired first at the force which fired back. He said at least two Maoist rebels had been injured in the encounter.

The Maoists, however, taking advantage of darkness disappeared into the dense cover, taking the two injured companions with them.

The SP said the combing operations had been intensified and the Central Reserve Police Force, Armed Police Reserve and the Orissa State Armed Police had joined the SOG in the operations.

Kant, who rushed to the spot, said some incriminating documents had been seized by the force from the place of encounter. These included a container of explosives, kit bags containing Maoist literatures in Hindi and Bengali, VHF wireless mode equipment and magnetic compass.

Meanwhile, wildlife lovers have expressed apprehensions that the Maoists might sneak into the Simlipal Tiger Reserve (STR) and make it their hub.

Link

Hyderabad Naxal leader killed in encounter

Hyd Naxal leader killed in encounter
CLOSE ENCOUNTER: Hyderabad Naxal leader Chandramauli killed on Wednesday night.
CLOSE ENCOUNTER: Hyderabad Naxal leader Chandramauli killed on Wednesday night.


New Delhi: In a late night encounter on Wednesday, Naxal leader Chandramauli has been killed by the police in Vishakhapatnam district.

Chandramauli led the Naxal movement in the Andhra-Orissa region. The attack comes as a victory for the police. The police have been trying to catch him for a long time. After four months they have succeeded.

Chandramauli is a very strong person who has been commanding the Naxal activities in the Andhra-Orissa border for a long time.

After this attack there will be lot of changes in the Naxal movement in Andhra.


Link

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Chairman Mao quote on Arduous Struggle

Chairman Mao quote on Arduous Struggle

There is an ancient Chinese fable called "The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains". It tells of an old man who lived in northern China long, long ago and was known as the Foolish Old Man of North Mountain. His house faced south and beyond his doorway stood the two great peaks, Taihang and Wangwu, obstructing the way.With great determination, he led his sons in digging up these mountains hoe in hand.

Another graybeard, known as the Wise Old Man, saw them and said derisively, "How silly of you to do this! It is quite impossible for you few to dig up these two huge mountains." The Foolish Old Man replied, "When I die, my sons will carry on; when they die, there will be my grandsons, and then their sons and grandsons, and so on to infinity. High as they are, the mountains cannot grow any higher and with every bit we dig, they will be that much lower. Why can't we clear them away?"

Having refuted the Wise Old Man's wrong view, he went on digging every day, unshaken in his conviction. This moved God, and he sent down two angels, who carried the mountains away on their backs. Today, two big mountains lie like a dead weight on the Chinese people. One is imperialism and the other is feudalism. The Chinese Communist Party has long made up its mind to dig them up. We must persevere and work unceasingly, and we, too, will touch God's heart. Our God is none other than the masses of the Chinese people. If they stand up and dig together with us, why can't these two mountains be cleared away? - Chairman Mao

"The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains" (June 11, 1945), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 322. *

Achievements of Mao Tse Tung and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

26th December is the day Chairman Mao was born
On this occasion I would like to post an article
by Comrade Harsh Thakor
a research scholar based in Mumbai

Achievements of Mao Tse Tung


1.INTRODUCTION

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution that was launched in China on May 16th 1966 wrote a historical epoch in the history of mankind. This was initiated by Comrade Mao Tse Tung to defeat the revisionists and create a ground for the ultimate triumph for Socialism. Mao discovered that even in a Socialist State there were capitalist elements who intended to turn the country to the capitalist road. From the example of the U.S.S R he learnt that a Socialist State can turn into a Social-Imperialist or Revisionist state and there can be a restoration of Capitalism. Stalin saved the Socialist State but he hardly made an effective attempt to democratize the Socialist State and initiate broad based mass movements.

True there were great achievements for workers but Stalin hardly gave attention to the superstructure and even violated Democratic Centralism to a great extent. Mao called for a revolt within his own party against the capitalist roaders Liu Shao Chi and Deng Xiaoping who opposed Mao’s line and felt that it was better to be ‘expert’ than ‘red.’ They advocated that profit from production should be the chief goal and opposed communization of land ,professing that peasants should get a private plot. What Sparked of the Cultural revolution was a play called “Hai Jui removed from office’ which defended Peng Te Huai who was removed from the Chinese Army for supporting ranks ,modernization against Communistic policies,and supporting the U.S S R. On 16th May 1966 Mao drafted a circular issued by the Central Committee alerting cadres against the revisionistsMao introduced a 16 points programme and finally gave a call to his followers the ‘Red Guards’ to ‘Bombard the Headquarters.

These were encompassing a broad-based revolutionary democratic programme explaining the masses to be daring above everything else and boldly arouse the masses,let the masses educate themselves in the movement through making the biggest use of big character posters and great debates to argue matters out so that masses can clarify theright and wrong views.It also stressed on applying the classs line of the party,correctly handling the contradictions amongst the people,be on guard against counter-revolutionaries discriminate cadres between good cadres ,those who have made serious mistakes and those who are anti-party or anti-Socialist.It was stressed that the anti-party rightists must be fully exposed, refuted or overthrown but at the same time be given the chance to turn over a new leaf.The programme went on to stress the importance of Cultural Revolutionary Group, committees and Congress’s. Another Important point stressed was educational reform where the old system of education would be completely transformed.

The other points were the question of criticizing by name in the press, policies towards Scientists, technicians and ordinary members of working staffs, question of arrangements of integration with the Socialist Education System and Countryside, stimulating production from a revolutionary perpective,revolutionizing the armed forces and finally establishing Mao Tse Tung Thought as the guide to action in the Cultural Revolution.

On May 25th at the Peking University a big poster was pasted up at Peking University which was the first big ‘Marxist LeninistIt attacked 2 corrupt university officials. Who negated the Cultural Revolution buy curbing mass initiative. The big character poster lit a flame in the hearts of the masses. Character Poster.’

2. ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION


1. A de-centralized medical system creating Barefoot doctors. The Medical field made the most innovative changes. A worker’s fingers being replaced occurred, something unheard of even in Developed countries. Applying Mao’s line the broken bones were attached Etc.In no third world country before did medicine serve the poor peasantry to that extent.

2.Stopping examinations in schools and colleges and making students learn from the peasants and workers as well as participating in productive labour. Now it was the peasants and workers who taught the students. Factories were attached to schools so that students would learn science from production. In the villages students would learn about agriculture and peasants would explain them their problems and about production.

3.Enabling workers to be masters of Marxist Leninist philosophy through study in factory school which enabled workers to build their own machines and run their own factories.

4..Revolutionary committees launched where the workers and peasants democratic rights were represented. There were 3 in one committees. These were far more effective than the committees in factories in Western Style Democracies. Workers and peasants.

5.The Army served the people doing work like construction, building canals and rotated the jobs of Workers and peasants. They were politically enlightened and trained about the role of revolution and history and politics in connection to Marxism Leninism. The Army defended and protected the mass movements unlike bourgeois states. Ranks were abolished in the military.

6 revolutionizing the Agricultural Communes through mass movements and introducing piecemeal wage system.Tachai is the best Example as well as Shanghai.

7.There were mass rallies where the broad masses could print big character posters. The C.P.C. was never afraid of disorder. “Great Debates’ and anti-Rightist campaigns were held. The masses could voice their demands to punish corrupt officials, oppose bureaucraticsm, fight for press freedom and for democratic Rights. They had the four great ‘freedoms ‘of speaking out Freely, airing views folly, holding great debates, and writing big character posters.

8.A Revolutionary Democratic Army that always stood by the peoples Movements. The Army represented the heart and the soul of the broad masses being based from the basic classes. Once the Cultural Revolution started in earnest, the Army was not allowed to intervene in what emerged as a civil war between the various factions of Red Guards and Red Rebels. The PLA was ordered by Mao to "support the left" by standing aside, even when their arsenals were looted by the civilian combatants.

When the chaos reached its climax, when the Party was in disarray and the economy had come to a virtual standstill, the Army appeared to be the only functioning organization left, and Mao turned to the PLA to restore order. As a result, the PLA emerged from the chaos with greatly increased position and power: senior Army men headed the newly-formed revolutionary committees responsible for local administration; almost half of the Central Committee members elected in 1969 were soldiers; and half of the State Council members in 1971 belonged to the PLA. Ranks were abolished in the Peoples Liberation Army. The Army had to participate in the production in factories and help the peasants in production. They were involved in digging the Countryside, transporting grain and all kinds of furniture on carts, leading Children in drills a school.

All forms of hierarchy and paternalism were removed. A soldier recognized his commanding officer just like a revolutionary committee obeyed it’s leader. Inspite of that the Peoples Liberation Army was recognized as the most disciplined. The Army was indoctrinated with Mao’s thought and taught to support the liberation Struggles of the masses all over the world. The virtues of the Chinese Revolution were explained and nation chauvinism was totally opposed in the teachings. In the Cultural Revolution upheavals the Army always stood by the Revolutionary Committees Army controlled instances when Red Guard Group rivalry took place or civilians were attacked.

Only when factional non –revolutionary tendencies take place did the Army intervene. (An Ultra –left trend took place caused by a certain Red Guard faction) Army in the world. Another feature of the Cultural Revolution was the emphasis on studying Marxist Philosophy. (Taken from Daily life in Revolutionary China Once Lin Biao fell from grace in 1971 and his supporters were purged, the PLA's model function as the "great school of Mao Thought" ceased to be stressed. Instead, the close relations between the Army and the people were propagated once more ("as close as fish and water"). Foreigners were taken to a unit of the P.L.A to learn about the study of the Thought of Mao Tse Tung.The soldiers worked on farms to feed themselves and helped commune members when they needed help.

9.Great Innovations in the field of Art and literature representing the proletariat.
Below are a compilation or collection of notes compiled from a book ‘Daily Life in Revolutionary China’ by a member of the Italian Communist Party Maria Macciocci who visited Socialist China in the heyday of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution which elaborate the points I discussed.

To read the complete article
click on the link below

Rest of the article

CPM waiting for the slightest oppurtunity to unleash fascist terror on organisations protesting singur

CPM waiting for the slighest oppurtunity to unleash fascist terror on
organisations protesting against the land acquisition in singur.
The Calcutta gestapo police is on high alert and the minute they
get the green signal they plan to put their elaborate plan into action.



Cracks in Trinamool over Singur plan of action,

Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri

KOLKATA: The Singur Krishijami Raksha Committee (Save Singur Farmland Committee), a joint movement forum of the Trinamool Congress, Naxals and Suci, is gradually showing signs of disintegration.

The split comes after a confusion in the possible line of attack.While a section of the committee is in favour of solving the problem through dialogues, another group led by Naxalites and Maoists, wants direct attack against the state administration for lack of cooperation.

Though Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee’s hunger strike doesn’t seem to ruffle any feather in the state administration, Mamata does not seem to be in a mood to budge from her stand. She has already thwarted union broadcasting minister, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi’s plea, who met her on Sunday on behalf of of Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh.

“I will not call of my fast, unless the state government gives back land to unwilling farmers. Now, If anything happens to me, the state government will be responsible for it,” Mamata said.

Having waited for so many days, the Naxalites and Maoists are now looking to take up extreme measures like mass disobedience to stall the project and bring justice to the Singur farmers. The discontent among a section of party workers was evident when Mamata decided to call off the 48-hour West Bengal bandh on December 21 and 22.

The Naxalites, in the movement, strongly denounced Mamata’s decision and their leader, Dipankar Bhattacharjee, even said that calling off the strike would be demoralising the agitators and sending a wrong signal to farmers at Singur.

While it is still not clear when Mamta would call off her hunger strike, the Naxalites are gearing up to take control over the movement at least in Singur.

According to a state government intelligence report, hardly any Trinamool supporters are spearheading the agitation there and Naxalite outsiders, which include students of Calcutta and Jadavpur University, are frequenting Singur on a daily basis. Even the Suci is in favour of the extremist movement planned by the Naxalites.


According to a senior political analyst, the violence would give chief minister Budhadeb Bhattacharjee a free hand to curb the Singur issue and the state government can then nail it completely.

Link

The Indian Mainstream Media - "They crawl when they had only been asked to bend."

Rama has a post on the mainstream media

Astounding!



I read with astonishment yesterday an editorial in The Telegraph on the subject of forcible land acquisition in Singur by the CPI(M)-led West Bengal state govt, for handover to the Tatas for their small car project.

In a nutshell:

"The govt of West Bengal must do what it thinks is best for the economy. It is not obliged to obtain consent."

Ironically, even that hideously oppressive relic of British colonialism, the Land Acquisition Act, of 1894, gives allowance for natural justice by requiring hearing prior to acquisition. But evidently justice is very far from the concerns and desires of India's elite. If our precious democracy depends on this media and on this class - God help us!

I was immediately reminded of the words used to describe the behaviour of the Indian media during Indira Gandhi's Emergency (1975-77):

"They crawled when they had only been asked to bend."

In his book Being Indian, Pavan Varma writes:

"A concern for democracy was, in any case, conspicuously absent in most educated Indians when she imposed the Emergency. There was not even a semblance of credible protest anywhere in the country when almost the entire opposition was put in jail. The bureaucracy quietly accepted the new regimen. The corporate world welcomed it. The most spectacular capitulation was among the so-called guardians of the right of free dissent and free expression — the media. They crawled when they had only been asked to bend, with many top editors assuming the 'traditional Indian posture of respectful subservience (in which) they remained —not looking particularly dignified until the Emergency was over'. A dominant image of that time was a much publicised triptych in oils of Mrs. Gandhi by the colourful artist M.F. Husain, representing her as the goddess Durga triumphantly vanquishing her foes. The poor bore the brunt of the excesses of the Emergency, and ultimately, when elections were called, it was their hostility that defeated Indira. But the significant thing is the extent to which most Indians — poor and rich alike — were willing to quietly acquiesce in the abuse of power when in the first instance it seemed undefeatable ..."

If ever an example was needed to prove the utter ignorance, bankruptcy, and self-centred character of the Indian mainstream media and India's privileged classes - then yesterday's editorial in The Telegraph is it.

Land acquisition evokes violent protests

Land acquisition evokes violent protests

When 12 tribal men lost their lives in police firing while protesting against the takeover of their lands in a backward village in Orissa, it represented, in many ways, the first major struggle in the battle for land.

Similar protests started all across Orissa.

All the mega projects, such as those proposed by Posco, Tata Steel, Vedanta, Utkal Alumina, are today facing opposition from locals during acquisition of land.

Posco had initially asked for 5,000 acre for its project, displacing 2,000 families. But to minimise local resistance, it brought down land requirement to 4,000 acre, comprising 3,500 acre of government land and the rest private land.

However, it failed to cool tempers and local resistance has continued.

The proposed Posco site today leaves out thickly populated villages, with the number of families to be displaced now at 450.

But, it is still facing maximum opposition from the villagers of Dhinkia, who have raised a roadblock preventing the entry of the company and the government officials for socio-economic and land survey required for payment of compensation.

Though the Orissa government had issued 4/1 notification for land acquisition in May 2006, no private land has been acquired yet.

The project has been delayed by six months due to local resistance.

The 2,000 acre Tata Steel site at Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district for a 6 million tonne steel plant incorporates the Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex set up in the early 1990s. But the local people here too are agitating for more compensation.

About 700 families, who had sold land to the government in the 1990s, continue to live in Kalinga Nagar in the absence of land utilisation. Demanding higher compensation for the land sold in the 1990s, they opposed the construction of a boundary wall by Tata Steel, leading to a violent clash between the protesters and the police force on January 2, 2006, which killed 12 agitators and saw one policeman being hacked to death.

Utkal Alumina’s 1 million tonne alumina refinery project worth Rs 4,000 crore, a Hindalco venture, has similarly been stalled by local opposition.

In Chhattisgarh, land acquisition is similarly stalled because of protests by villagers at all major investment sites. Tata Steel’s proposed 5 mtpa Rs 10,000 crore steel plant in Bastar district is facing stiff resistance from the residents of 10 villages in Lohandiguda block.

The Bastar district administration had earlier reported that villagers had passed a resolution in the Gram Sabha, mandatory under the Panchayati Raj Act, for land acquisition, but the process has collapsed after people alleged the vote was falsely obtained and refused to hand over their land.

Interestingly, the Left leaders support them, though they are pushing through land acquisition in Singur and elsewhere in West Bengal.

The Chhattisgarh villagers have submitted 13 demands. “The demands are complicated and cannot be fulfilled,” said a senior state government official. One demand is land for land and has been rejected by the government.

Essar Steel sought 1,500 acre in two tribal villages — Dhuli and Bhansi – in the Maoist-hit Dantewada district for its 3.2 mtpa, Rs 7,000 crore unit. But, people of both the villages protested and refused to even turn up at the Gram Sabha convened two months ago to pass a resolution for handing over the land.

“We will soon convene another Gram Sabha,” Dantewada Collector K R Pishda said.

IFFCO’s Rs 6,500, 1,300 mw power plant proposal for Sarguja district is facing land acquisition problems too, from five villages near Premnagar, as residents have opposed the proposal, Sarguja Collector Manoj Pingua admitted.

In Jharkhand, discontent has erupted in the form of road blockades, non-cooperation and agitation by farmers against acquisition of cultivable land for proposed units.

Top state officials admitted that the success of the farmers’ movement in embarrassing the West Bengal state government over the land takeover in Singur has led to intensification of protests by landholders against land acquisition.

Investors in Jharkhand are seeking land for plants close to iron ore and coal mines in the East and the West Singhbhum districts. The banned ultra-outfit CPI Maoist in Jharkhand recently started an agitation against the probable move of the UPA-supported coalition government led by Madhu Koda for acquisition of land.

Till recently, Maoist activity was limited to poster campaigns and warnings to industrial houses.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) has a strong base in the mineral-rich districts and after joining Koda’s ministry, it was opposing land acquisition inside the state Cabinet.

In the days of the NDA government in Jharkhand, the tribals of the mineral-rich Kolhan area had formed a council to fight against the transfer of mines of Chiria, Ghutkuri, Noamundi, Kiriburu and Gua in Kolhan to non-tribals and companies. However, the council had not yet started any agitation against the mining lease issue.

Local sources warned that the Kolhan council was waiting for the government’s revised compensation policy for those losing land and for tribal lands for which mining leases were being granted to outsiders. The Kolhan council agitation would begin then.

The situation in West bengal has reached a flash-point, with the 997 acre taken over for the Tata Motors’ project providing the trigger.

While locals, including women, strongly opposed the process in Singur, they were firmly removed and many arrested. The land is today acquired and fenced off, but the problem has now affected all of Bengal.

The farmers are being escorted by opposition parties, such as Trinamool Congress and SUCI, to farmers’ public meetings all over the state. The result: 2-3 hour road blockades all over the state on a daily basis, with more than a dozen locations being hit daily.

Passions are at such a high that land being fenced for a different purpose in Bangar, south of Kolkata, 80 km away from Singur, led to a huge local riot and arson.

The attack on a Tata Motors showroom in Kolkata has now evolved to repeated calls by opposition parties to boycott Tata products.

The difference in Bengal is that political parties are as active as the local communities in opposing land takeovers.

Link

Naxalite gunned down in an encounter near Sringeri,Karnataka

VIKRAM GOWDA KILLED IN POLICE ENCOUNTER


Vikaram Gowda aged about 26 years belonging to Nadpal village of Hebri Police Station limits, who was leading a team of Naxals in the Shringeri, Hebri, Karkala areas was killed yesterday in a police encounter in Shringeri PS limits of Chickmagalore District. Further details are awaited.

Link


Naxalite killed in shootout


Chikmagalur, Dec. 26 (PTI): A Naxalite was killed in a shootout in Kesuvadi village in Karnataka's Chikmagalur district, the state police chief said today.

The shootout occurred at around 2100-2200 hours last night between a group of rebels and the Anti-Naxalite Force, Director General of Police B S Sial told PTI.

A 303 rifle, bullets, grenades and some pamphlets on Maoism were found from the dead Naxalite, he said.

"Since it was pitch dark, only two women and a man could be seen. While the man was killed in the encounter, the women escaped under the cover of darkness," Sial said.

Though the dead Naxalite called himself Dinesh, his face resembled that of rebel leader Vikram Gowda. The man's actual identity is being verified, he said.

The ANF has launched a hunt for the other Naxals, Sial said.
Link

Maoists form crack teams to counter manpower shortage

Maoists form crack teams to counter manpower shortage
[ 25 Dec, 2006 0032hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

HYDERABAD: After suffering a series of setbacks in the past few months, the CPI (Maoist) reportedly is concentrating on small action teams with two or three members to implement their plans instead of the usual big dalams.

Sources in the police department say that the Maoist party is facing manpower shortage to continue with its conventional dalams, which usually have 5 to 8 members, particularly after it had lost more than 90 Naxalites in various encounters this year.

In the past 11 months Maoist party's AP state committee secretary Madhav, state committee member Obulesu alias Raghavulu alias Zaheer, Nallamala forest division committee secretary Sudarshan alias Samala Venkatesham were among the four killed in encounters.

Of the total 90 Naxalites killed in the state, about 60 were in the AP State Committee area which has jurisdiction over districts like Prakasam, Guntur, Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Kurnool, Anantapur, Kadapa and Chittoor.

Maoists form action teams when there is special task or big action or there is manpower problem. The special task action team has top leaders and experts with more than five members while the small action teams have two to three members.

There are instances where the Maoists have clubbed some dalams due to fewer number of members in a dalam, police sources said.

A few months back, the police sounded high alert after they got a message that a special action team with eight members under the leadership of Ashanna had entered the city to attack VIPs.

ABVP protests pro-naxalite stand of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP) president Dr Chandrashekhar Patil

ABVP protests pro-naxalite stand of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP) president Dr Chandrashekhar Patil
Sunday December 24 2006 14:01 IST

DHARWAD: Protesting the pro-naxalite stand of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP) president Dr Chandrashekhar Patil, the Dharwad unit members of the Akhila Bharathiya Vidyarthi Parishat (ABVP) took out a rally here on Friday. The protestors formed a human chain at the Jubilee Circle and raised slogans against Champa.

ABVP organising secretary Prakash Kattimani alleged that Champa converted the recently concluded Kannada Sahitya Sammelana in Shimoga into a naxalite convention and had insulted the Kannadigas by providing opportunities to Gauri Lankesh and Vittal Hegde.

Santosh Devaraddi, Sagar Nidvani, Sharanu Angadi, Shivanand Deshnur and Shivasomanna Nittur led the agitation.

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Cops destroy Naxal camp in Orissa

Cops destroy Naxal camp
Monday December 25 2006 11:24 IST

MALKANGIRI: A Special Operation Group (SOG) team destroyed a Maoist camp in Puluguda reserve forest under Kalimela police limits on Sunday afternoon. The security personnel seized huge amount of detonators, transistor systems and Maoist literature from the camp, about 18 km from Kalimela.

A team led by Malkangiri SP Himanshu Lall detected the camp and an exchange of fire ensued. While the ultras fired 50 rounds, police fired 200 rounds in retaliation.

There was no report of any injury or casualty. Lall said, a VHF set too was recovered from the camp. This is the second such camp to be destroyed.

A couple of days back, police had gunned down two ultras at Tendimetla and nabbed two other Naxal cadres.

CPI-ML New Democracy sympathiser shot dead ,allegedly by activists of CPI-ML Janasakthi

CPI-ML New Democracy sympathiser shot dead
Monday December 18 2006 09:40 IST

KHAMMAM: Eesam Narayana, a sympathiser of CPI- ML New Democracy and resident of Nagaaram village in Gundala mandal, was shot dead allegedly by activists of CPI-ML Janasakthi dalam in his village last night.

According to police, a six-member group of persons came to the house of Narayana around 10 pm on Saturday, took him by force to a distance of 6 km and fired two bullets at him. Consequently, Narayana died on the spot.

The killers, in a letter left near the body, stated they were resorting to this act because Narayana was responsible for the death of two local persons caused by consumption of spurious toddy. A dispute with the deceased arising out of his interference in the execution of some village development works, in spite of continued warnings from the extremists, was also stated to be another reason for the shoot-out, the letter added.

DSP V. Veerareddi, however, told this paper that it was not clear which group of Naxals had resorted to the killing of Narayana.

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New Democracy demands funds for Dummugudem

New Democracy demands funds for Dummugudem
Monday December 25 2006 16:47 IST

KHAMMAM: CPI-ML (New Democracy) today launched Praja Jathas in several places in the district demanding allocation of funds for Dummugudem project, which would irrigate 4 lakh acre when completed.

Speaking at the launch of the Praja Jatha organised at Settipalli village of Gundala mandal today, Yellandu MLA Gummadi Narasiah today lambasted the government for the delay in the grounding of the project works even one year after the laying of foundation stone.

Party district secretary K Ranga Rao demanded that the government allocate adequate funds to ground nine project works meant for addressing the fluorosis problems.

The programme would be organised till December 29 and the party activists would mob the collectorate on December 30, Ranga Rao said.

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Saturday, December 23, 2006

Two Important Announcements

For International Comrades living in and around Toronto,Canada

Comrade Brownfist
is trying to set up a solidarity committee in Toronto for people's movements in India.Please contact him on his blog if you wish to be part of this committee.


For Comrades living in and around Kolkata

A seminar will be held on 26th Dec at Kolkata on the life and teachings of Comrade Mao Tse Tung on his birthday.

Place- Student's hall near College square.
Time- 12 noon
Date-26/12/2006(Tuesday)
Organised by --Comrade Saroj Dutta Memorial Committee.
All members living in or near kolkata are cordially invited.

Chairman Mao quote on women

Chairman Mao quote on women



A man in China is usually subjected to the domination of three systems of authority [political authority, family authority and religious authority].... As for women, in addition to being dominated by these three systems of authority, they are also dominated by the men (the authority of the husband). These four authorities - political, family, religious and masculine - are the embodiment of the whole feudal-patriarchal ideology and system, and are the four thick ropes binding the Chinese people, particularly the peasants.
- Chariman Mao
"Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan" (March 1927), Selected Works, Vol. I, pp. 44-46.

India Has Killed 10 Million Girls in 20 Years

India Has Killed 10 Million Girls in 20 Years

By PALASH KUMAR

Dec. 15, 2006 — Ten million girls have been killed by their parents in India in the past 20 years, either before they were born or immediately after, a government minister said on Thursday, describing it as a "national crisis".

A UNICEF report released this week said 7,000 fewer girls are born in the country every day than the global average would suggest, largely because female foetuses are aborted after sex determination tests but also through murder of new borns.

"It's shocking figures and we are in a national crisis if you ask me," Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury told Reuters.

Girls are seen as liabilities by many Indians, especially because of the banned but rampant practice of dowry, where the bride's parents pay cash and goods to the groom's family.

Men are also seen as bread-winners while social prejudices deny women opportunities for education and jobs.

"Today, we have the odd distinction of having lost 10 million girl children in the past 20 years," Chowdhury told a seminar in Delhi University.

"Who has killed these girl children? Their own parents." In some states, the minister said, newborn girls have been killed by pouring sand or tobacco juice into their nostrils.

"The minute the child is born and she opens her mouth to cry, they put sand into her mouth and her nostrils so she chokes and dies," Chowdhury said, referring to cases in the western desert state of Rajasthan.

"They bury infants into pots alive and bury the pots. They put tobacco into her mouth. They hang them upside down like a bunch of flowers to dry," she said.

"We have more passion for tigers of this country. We have people fighting for stray dogs on the road. But you have a whole society that ruthlessly hunts down girl children."


According to the 2001 census, the national sex ratio was 933 girls to 1,000 boys, while in the worst-affected northern state of Punjab, it was 798 girls to 1,000 boys.

The ratio has fallen since 1991, due to the availability of ultrasound sex-determination tests.

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Singur row: Trinamool Cong to meet PM

Singur row: Trinamool Cong to meet PM

Saturday, December 23, 2006 (Kolkata):

The Trinamool Congress is planning to seek an audience with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his visit to Kolkata over the Singur issue.

Party leader Mamata Bangerjee has been on hunger strike over the issue, which entered the 20th day.

The party members are likely to apprise the PM of the current at Raj Bhawan where he's staying for the night.

Later in the afternoon, the party plans a novel demonstration where women from Singur will take to the streets of Kolkata with utensils in which they normally cook their daily meal as a mark of protest.

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Letters from two mothers of Dantewada to the President of India

Letters from two mothers of Dantewada to the president of India

Honourable President , Sir,

I , Mrs Bhime, w/o Mr Chhannoo Ram of Village Dorguda ,Bhairamgarh Block, District South Bastar Dantewada, Chhatisgarh, am a tribal woman. My family has suffered grievous harm at the hands of Salwa Judum , the anti Naxal movement that has started in the area. My son Mr Mooda was killed as a Naxal supporter, in September 2005. My brother in law Mr Jaggoo and his daughter Phoolmati have been thrown in the Jail.

My son, my brother in law and his daughter did not want to leave the home and shift to the ( Government ) relief camps. That is why whenever they saw the members of Salwa Judum approaching them, they would leave their home, and run off into the forest. One day in September 2006, the security forces, Special Police officers, and members of the Salwa Judum surrounded our house, and killed my son. My brother in law and his daughter were put into jail.

Honourable sir, only a mother might be able to share the grief of an old woman whose son has been murdered in front of her own eyes. Who else can understand the sense of helplessness in such a situation.

The law is being flagrantly flaunted by the very custodians of law. These breakers of law and order have the declared support of the Government.

My daughter in law has been widowed in her youth and the two children are now fatherless. My husband and I are old, and our future was dependent on our son. How will we now manage our lives without him?

Honourable President, Sir, Please help me to get justice for my family members, and punishment for the members of Salwa Judum who murdered my son.

I am afraid that after I submit this application to you, there will be repressive action taken against me and my family. Or I might be kidnapped or framed in some false charges. If something like this does happen, the police and the administration shall be responsible for the harm that is done to me or to any member of my family.

With Thanks
Applicant
Mrs Bhime, w/o mr Chhannoo Ram, Village Dorguda ,Bhairamgarh Block, District South Bastar Dantewada, Chhatisgarh,




Honourable President

I Mrs Sanaki, w/o Mr Mangooram Bhogami, Village Dorguda, Bhairamgarh Block, District South Bastar Dantewada, Chhatisgarh, am a tribal woman. I am deeply anguished by the torment meted out by the security personnel and Special Police Officers appointed by the Government in support of the Salwa Judum.

When the Salwa Judum activity started, my son Jairam Bhogami and my daughter in law Ramo Bhogami left our Dorguda home and shifted to our old ancestral home in Faraspal village . The Salwa Judum members were forcing all the people in our village to join the movement and shift to the ( Government ) relief camps.

We knew the problems of leaving our own home and shifting into the camps. The arrangements for stay in the camps were inadequate, and we would loose our livelihood if we left our homes and went away.

Considering our options, I decided to stay back in Dorguda and asked my son and daughter in law to shift to our ancestral home and take care of our farm land there.

On 24.11.06 I called my son and daughter in law as the rice had been harvested and I needed their help to store it safely. On my invitation they came over and we began our work.

At that time, the members of Salwa Judum, Special Police Officers and other security personnel came to our home and caught my son. They tied him up and started beating him. They said he had been missing for a long time and so he was a Naxal supporter. He told them that he was away in our ancestral village and home and was cultivating the land there. He also assured them that he was anyway planning to come down to meet them in the camps in a couple of days, but they tied his hands behind his back and brutally kicked him and beat him with sticks. When my daughter in law tried to stop them, she was also beaten up very badly.

After this they dragged my son to the police station in Mirtur village and beat him up there also. I am afraid the beating has caused him many internal injuries and breaking of bones because even after 2 weeks he is unable to move around at all. At present also he is locked up in the police station.

I was also beaten up and my chest and ribs are still in severe pain .

Honourable President Sir, my family has been harassed without any reason, and my son is still in police custody. This is a very frightening situation where there is no support available for the help of poor people like us, while the Salwa Judum movement is in action. I am sending this application to you with the hope of finding some justice. Please help my family members to find justice.

I am afraid that after I submit this application to you, there will be repressive action taken against me and my family. Or I might be kidnapped or framed in some false charges. If something like this does happen, the police and the administration shall be responsible for the harm that is done to me or to any member of my family.

Thanking you,

Mrs Sanaki, w/o Mr Mangooram Bhogami, Village Dorguda ,Bhairamgarh Block, District South Bastar Dantewada, Chhatisgarh

(Photocopy of original affidavit in Hindi available with Chhattisgarh Net)


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