People's Democracy

TAMILNADU NEWSLETTER

‘Telecom Minister Trying to Whitewash the Crime’

S P Rajendran

NOW we understand why Kapil Sibal has been put in charge of the ministry of communications. After the exposure of the biggest scandal so far, there is a now a minister who is trying to whitewash the crime. This was what the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s general secretary, Prakash Karat, told journalists after unveiling a portrait of late CPI(M)  leader Pappa Umanath at Chennai on January 9.

Karat categorically said the people of India would not buy the minister's argument that the finding of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), that the scam caused a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the public exchequer, was “utterly erroneous and without any basis.”

He reitrated the CPI(M)'s demand for probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) into the spectrum scam, adding that “We will discuss what we have to do during the budget session.”

Earlier at the event which was held by Tamilnadu state committee of the party, Prakash Karat stated that Comrade Pappa Umanath represented a movement that was against neo-liberalism. He said, “When other bourgeois political parties talk about corruption, they hide the fact that corruption is part and parcel of the existing neo-liberal regime at the centre.”

He said corruption stemmed from the nexus among politicians, corporate houses and bureaucracy, and that this nexus was sponsored and nurtured by the neo-liberal regime.

“Unless we fight the policies of neo-liberalism that affect the lives of the working class, the peasants and other toiling masses, we cannot fight corruption, which is becoming institutionalised and invading our society,” he said.

Karat said that at a time when politics was getting degenerated and elected members were using their position for self-service and self-aggrandisement and to serve the interests of the rich people, Pappa Umanath's life stands as a striking contrast. Unlike others who learnt Marxism- Leninism through books, she was schooled in the ideology through her direct experience in the field, he added.

Veteran CPI(M) leader R Umanath, Central Control Commission chairman N Sankaraiah, Polit Bureau member K Varadharajan, CPI(M) state secretary G Ramakrishnan, Central Committee Members N Varadarajan, T K Rengarajan and U Vasuki, AIDWA general secretary Sudha Sundararaman and senior CPI leader A M Gopu were also present on the occasion.

BOOK RELEASED

On January 10, Prakash Karat participated in the Chennai Book Fair and released a book on the Marxist political economy, which is Tamil translation of essays on The Capital by Dr Venkatesh B Athreya. The book is translated by K Ilakkuvan and published by Bharathi Puthakalayam, a leading Tamil publishing house.

FIRST ELECTION

ON ANVIL IN AN SEZ

After a militant struggle, workers of the Foxconn India got a positive verdict from the Madras High Court which directed this multinational corporation (MNC) to allow an election for trade union recognition.

It was for the first time in India that a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) witnessed a massive working class struggle Foxconn India workers went on a 58 days strike. This started on September 21, 2010, demanding regularisation of work, hike in salary and right to form a union.

This SEZ is situated at Sri Perumpudur in Kanchipuram district, near Chennai.

The management of the company tried all means to crush the strike with the help of the ruling DMK government and its labour wing, the LPF. The concerned department was silenced.

While the struggle was going, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) which led the workers strike, approached the Madras High Court to direct the Foxconn management to hold an election for trade union recognition. The CITU submitted to the court a copy of the letter written by the Foxconn management to the labour department on August 24, 2010, to ascertain the majority union in the factory so that the issues could be settled with them. Even after this letter from the company, the CITU argued, the labour department and the DMK government were not prepared to accept a democratic process; later the management had also fallen in line.

With this background, the High Court ordered the company on January 4 to start the election process within six weeks.

The CITU union at Foxconn India and E Muthukumar, Kanchipuram district secretary of the CITU, welcomed the High Court directive to the management. They said this was the first verdict of its kind in the country, directing to hold trade union election in a SEZ. This is the first-step victory of the workers’ unity, they said.