Central Committee Meet Opens

Muralidharan

THE Central Committee of the CPI(M), meeting, for the first time since its inception, in Orissa, opened a crucial session in Bhubaneswar on July 20, veteran Party leader Jyoti Basu presiding. Before it was the agenda, formalised the day previously by the Polit Bureau - to finalise the tactics to be adopted by the Party in the forthcoming elections to the assemblies of West Bengal, Kerala, Tamilnadu and Assam..

In the opening session, General Secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet introduced the report on political developments. In the afternoon, leading comrades from the four states going to the polls, viz., West Bengal, Kerala, Tamilnadu and Assam, were to elaborate on the political situation in their respective states, after which other members would participate.

After the morning session, Prakash Karat, member Polit Bureau, briefed the press on the major national and international developments analysed in the general secretary's report, that had taken place since the Special Conference of the Party, held October 20-23, 2000, at Thiruvananthapuram, for updating the Party's Programme.

The report firstly highlighted the serious crisis which has developed in the agrarian sector owning to the disastrous policies being pursued by the BJP-led central government. He pointed out that ever since quantitative restrictions on the import of 714 items had been removed in April last year, prices of agricultural commodities had fallen sharply. This, Prakash emphasized, was on account of the opening up to imports of agricultural goods. Already the prices of cotton, groundnut, coconut, rubber, etc., were going down steeply. This trend will be further accentuated once the remaining restrictions on imports are lifted by April this year.

Pointing to the depth of the crisis, Karat said that during the last three years no less than 800 farmers had committed suicide. This, he stressed, was not a one-time specific phenomenon arising from a crop failure or sudden price-fall, but came specifically out of the free import of agricultural commodities. The Vajpayee government, he charged, had been turning a deaf ear to the warnings given by the Left and democratic forces. The CPI(M) has consequently demanded that the BJP-led government come out explaining its stand about the review of the terms of WTO on agriculture. "It should come out publicly and tell us of the steps it will take" to see that the unjust terms are reviewed.

The plight of the farmers, Prakash added, was made even more alarming because the FCI is holding back procuring the current crop of rice and wheat, on the grounds that there is a shortage of storage space in its godown!

In the five states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgrah and Orissa, drought has further aggravated these already miserable conditions of the rural people, especially the agricultural labour and poor peasants.

To protest against these conditions and the government's inaction in the matter, kisan and agricultural labour organizations have given a joint call for a nation-wide three-day mass picketing before central government offices on February 5,6, and 7.

The Central Committee while extending its full support to this action, has also demanded that

• the issue price of rice and wheat distributed through the public distribution system be reduced by half, and
• food-for-work programmes be initiated to generate employment.

Pointing out the scandalous fact that a parliamentary committee had actually recommended dumping the foodgrains into the sea, Prakash said that currently, while foodgrains are being denied to the people by hiking the prices of commodities distributed through the PDS beyond their reach, the government is contemplating exporting the same foodgrains at subsidized prices. In other words, while refusing to give subsidy to the people of the country, the government finds nothing wrong in giving it to foreigners.

While the foreign policy of the BJP-led government came in for scathing attack in the report, Prakash particularly singled out the struggle of the Palestinian people. Unfortunately, he observed, when international attention is focused on the struggle of the Palestinian people, and Israel is adopting a very obstinate stand by refusing to accept the UN resolutions, the Vajpayee government is compromising India’s long-standing position by remaining a mute spectator. India’s voice is no more heard in international fora, Prakash lamented. Even after the peace process initiated by the USA had reached a dead-end, and more than 350 Palestinian people have been shot dead in the last four months, the BJP government has chosen to remain silent.