Press Statements

CPI(ML) Extends Support

to Anna Hazare's Struggle

for an Effective Jan Lokpal Legislation

To Hold Solidarity Fast

in Patna on 8 April

New Delhi,
April 6, 2011

The CPI(ML) Liberation, extending support to Anna Hazare's struggle, announced that several of its leaders - including Comrades Rameshwar Prasad, President of the All India Agricultural Labourers' Association (AIALA), Rajaram Singh, General Secretary of the All India Kisan Mahasabha (AIKM), Comrade Saroj Chaubey, Vice President of the All India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA), Comrades Satyadev Ram, Arun Singh and Kamlesh Sharma - will observe a solidarity fast on 8 April at Patna. On 8 April, students and workers under the banner of All India Students' Association (AISA) and All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) will also join the fast and protest in Delhi in large numbers.

The CPI(ML) Liberation said that corruption today is certainly no aberration, rather it is a hallmark of governance in the corporate era. There is scarcely any institution - be it the government, bureaucracy, media, army or judiciary - that is untouched by the cancer of corruption. The Radia tapes and the Wikileaks have revealed that the ruling Congress and the main Opposition, BJP, are equally committed to subverting democracy to serve the interests of corrupt corporates and imperialist forces. The latest CAG Report on Bihar's finances has come up with even more revealing reports implicating the Nitish-led NDA Government in corruption with public money. With the main ruling formations thus mired in corruption, there is certainly a need for democratic forces and people's struggles to unite in a powerful campaign to challenge corruption in high places and break the growing corporate plunder of India's resources and corporate and imperialist stranglehold on Indian policies.

The corrupt, especially the corrupt in high places, tend to enjoy impunity because of the inherent hollowness of the existing anti-corruption mechanisms in our country. Any meaningful and consistent campaign against corruption must therefore have two prongs. It should challenge the policy regime and political environment in which corruption is thriving. At the same time it should also fight for an effective anti-corruption mechanism so the corrupt can be brought to justice.

A Lok Pal Bill drafted by a committee that includes eminent members of civil society with experience of fighting corruption would certainly carry more credibility than one drafted solely by the very same Ministers who are busy denying and defending the massive scams.

Prabhat Kumar,
For CPI(ML) Central Committee



Communist Party of India (ML) Liberation
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