Wednesday 30 August 2017

CPI (ML) condemns Undeclared Ban on Sacrifice of Camels on Bakr Id

Continuing with its anti-Muslim biases, an undeclared ban has been imposed on sacrifice of camels during Bakr Id in Jharkhand. Ex MLA Vinod Singh has informed that an oral directive has been issued by ministers and secretaries, hence several camels that were to be brought to Giridih in Jharkhand from Gujarat have been taken into custody by the police. The camels are also dying in the custody due to lack of fodder. 
Last year on September 10, the Madras High Court had banned the public sacrifice of camels under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, but responding to a PIL demanding the revocation of this ban, they had clarified that there was no ban on camel sacrifice. This year, the central government introduced a ban on the sale and purchase of cows, buffaloes, camel etc (not including goat or sheep) with an intention to slaughter. This was met with widespread nationwide opposition. On 31 May 2017, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court put a stay on the government ban and thereafter the Supreme Court upheld the stay of the Madurai bench. The current seizing of the camels by the Jharkhand government has no legal basis and it is only being carried out to appease the communal fascist forces. There is need to raise voice against these autocratic moves of the government. CPI(ML) condemns this and will continue to protest against this.

[ML Update | A CPI(ML) Weekly News Magazine | Vol. 20 | No. 36 | 29 Aug–4 Sep 2017]




Riots By Ram Rahim Supporters:
Khattar and Modi Are Responsible

The courage showed by two women has resulted in justice. Gurmeet Ram Rahim has been sentenced to twenty years in prison for raping two women sadhvis in the custody of his Dera. He continues to face charges of having a brother of one of the rape victims as well as a journalist who reported the rapes murdered, as well as charges of forced castration of 400 men.     
The Haryana High Court has rightly held the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister of Haryana squarely responsible for the riots that followed the conviction of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim. The High Court observed that the BJP Governments of Haryana and the Centre “surrendered before the followers of Dera Sacha Sauda for political considerations… to allure vote bank… let a city like Panchkula burn for political motives.” In an extraordinary and unprecedented manner, the Haryana High Court was forced to chastise the PM and CM, reminding them that they were expected to safeguard the interests of India and Haryana, not their own party the BJP.
The BJP Government of Haryana allowed the Dera Sacha Sauda supporters to gather in Panchkula in massive numbers; it allowed the Dera centres to stockpile weapons; one of its Ministers announced publicly that Section 144 “could not be applied to faith.” These were clear signals from the Government that the rioters had its approval. Haryana Minister, BJP’s Rohtak MLA and long-time RSS cadre Manish Grover justified the riots saying: “When there is a crowd of 50,000-1 lakh and they have devotion towards Babaji, tab unmen ek natural gussa ata hai (they have a natural anger).”
Allowing – or encouraging – mobs to run riot is a trademark of the BJP model of governance. In the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat 2002 too – each on a BJP CM’s watch – violent, armed mobs were allowed to gather and riots were then justified as a “natural” reaction before which the Government was “helpless.”   
Stung by the High Court’s chastisement, Prime Minister Modi tried to control the damage to his image in his Mann Ki Baat address by declaring that “India is the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Lord Buddha” and that “Violence is not acceptable in the nation, in any form.” Such a declaration that takes refuge in Buddha and Gandhi is so generalized that it appears to have no specific relation to the planned, organized violence that is being encouraged and justified by his own colleagues.   
Modi pointedly avoided saluting the two women who fought the rape case so courageously for 15 years. He avoided saying that supporting a convicted rapist was morally indefensible. He also avoided mentioning that he personally as well as other BJP leaders patronized, protected, and funded the rape-accused Ram Rahim in exchange for electoral support, and that a host of his colleagues are openly supporting Ram Rahim even after his conviction. RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha has even tried to imply that the BJP was justified in making a man accused of rape, forced castration and murder a brand ambassador for “Swacch Bharat” because he has millions of supporters. BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj has said that millions support Ram Rahim while just one woman has accused him of rape. BJP MP Subramanian Swamy has implied that the rape case against Ram Rahim is a conspiracy against “Sadhus” to grab their land. Such statements indicate that on the BJP’s moral scale, rape and murder charges weigh far less than the power to control the votes of “millions of supporters.”  
In spite of ML Khattar’s spectacular collusion in the riots by Ram Rahim supporters, the BJP has refused to sack him. This further proves the BJP’s approval of the riots.
Both the Congress and BJP must be held responsible for the kind of power and wealth Ram Rahim and his Dera enjoyed. These parties exchange patronage for electoral support from the man accused of heinous crimes. But even more serious and condemnable is the fact that essential welfare services such as de-addiction, healthcare, support for transgender persons and sexworkers, and so on had been outsourced by successive Governments of Punjab and Haryana to the Dera Sacha Sauda and other similar religious institutions. Hordes of poor and vulnerable people came to depend on the Deras for these services which they should have been able to expect from the State. Instead of spending Government funds on these essential services, Ministers in the Government got in the habit of “gifting” crores worth of public funds to the Dera Sacha Sauda for their supposed “social welfare work.” At least three senior BJP Ministers of Haryana for instance, recently donated public funds to the tune of more than one crore rupees to the Dera. This meant that in exchange for electoral support, the Government was using public funds to help the Dera Sacha Sauda attract the support of – and control the lives of – the poorest and most oppressed people. Thus, these Governments are responsible also for the Dera Sacha Sauda’s power to cynically sacrifice the lives of these people in the fire of riots to defend its rapist chief. 
There are several takeaways from the Ram Rahim episode. ML Khattar and other Government functionaries must be investigated and punished for their role in allowing the riots to take place. Criminal cases against fraudmen like Asaram, also accused of rape and of getting key witnesses murdered, must be expedited. Governments must be prohibited from handing over public funds to such religious institutions, and must instead be held accountable for providing welfare services directly to people. Families of those killed in the riots – including those killed in police firing – must be adequately compensated by the Government of Haryana which must take the full blame for the violence and the deaths.
from ML Update
A CPI(ML) Weekly News MagazineVol. 20 | No. 36 | 29 Aug – 4 Sep 2017

Wednesday 16 August 2017

ML Update
A CPI(ML) Weekly News MagazineVol. 20 | No. 34 | 15-21 August 2017
Gorakhpur Massacre: Yogi Must Go!
On the eve of India's 70th Independence Day, the deaths of 79 children in a Gorakhpur Government hospital offers a grim diagnosis of the state of health of our democracy and polity.
Those babies and children did not die in a 'tragedy' - their lives were literally choked off by deliberate, cold-blooded negligence by Governments both at the Centre and Uttar Pradesh.
Barely half a kilometer from the BRD Medical College where the children died starved of oxygen, Narendra Modi had declared at an election meeting that he had a 56-inch chest and that if he became Prime Minister, he would ensure an end to deaths of children from encephalitis. Three years later, that 56-inch chest appears devoid of any shame for his hollow promise.
It is a comment on the political priorities of the Yogi-led BJP Government that it is least concerned to ensure that the children of the poor have access to oxygen in Government hospitals - its energies are instead engaged in forcing children in madarsas to chant Vande Mataram. Will mothers of the babies and children who were killed also be forced to chant Vande Mataram to show loyalty to the killer Yogi Government? After all, parents of the children killed were hustled away by police in auto rickshaws and warned not to come back!
Yogi Adityanath has been MP from Gorakhpur for five consecutive terms - but he has been more concerned to unleash communal hatred and violence than worry about healthcare for the poor.
Displaying the utmost callousness, BJP President Amit Shah has sought to play down the Gorakhpur children's deaths, declaring that "such things happen in such big countries."
In the most dishonest and shameless manner Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is using the dead bodies of children as fodder for the Government's agenda of privatization of hospitals. He has said that Governments must of course provide land and infrastructure to the private players to run hospitals! Has he forgotten that oxygen cylinders too are crucial medical infrastructure - why didn't the Government provide funds for those? Private hospitals which charge exorbitant fees, kill poor patients too simply by creating a money barrier to healthcare - or they profit by bleeding the poor who are forced to expend their life savings in private hospitals.
The claim that Governments lack funds to run hospitals is a blatant lie. The budget to provide care for newborn babies and encephalitis patients in the BRD Hospital of Gorakhpur is a mere Rs 40 crore a year. Yet the Central Government failed to provide this fund in spite of requests by the Medical College principal to allocate funds under the National Health Mission. But the Modi Government has, in three years, written off loans of super rich corporates to the tune of Rs 1.54 lakh crore - nearly the same amount of the 2G scam! How come the Modi Govt can ensure an uninterrupted supply of loans to corporates without demanding repayment - but refuses to ensure that a Hospital catering to the poor in epidemic zone Gorakhpur can give uninterrupted supply of oxygen to prevent children being choked to death?
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has the blood of Gorakhpur's babies on his hands - he must resign for the unconscionable massacre of innocents.