news from the cpi(m)
Resolution
On Forthcoming West Bengal and Kerala Assembly Elections
(Adopted at the Extended Meeting of the Central Committee on August 9,
2010 at Vijayawada)
The states of West Bengal and Kerala alongwith Tripura are the outposts of
the Left and democratic movement in the country. Prolonged political
struggles and people's movements in West Bengal and Kerala led by the
Communists, going back to the pre-independence period and during India's
struggle for freedom, have laid strong foundations for the growth and
consolidation of the Communist-led Left movements in these states.
The strong Communist movements in West Bengal and Kerala alongwith Andhra
Pradesh and others during the course of the freedom movement itself, had
brought on to the agenda of the people's struggle important issues like
land reforms, linguistic reorganization of states, reforms against various
expressions of social oppression, the defence of the rights of the working
class and the people at large including their civil liberties etc.
It was on the strength of such powerful movements that the Communist Party
won a majority in the Kerala Assembly elections in 1957. This was the
first instance of Communists winning the elections to head a state
government in a bourgeois parliamentary system anywhere in the world. The
pioneering steps of this government for land reforms; minimum wages and
welfare measures for the working people; democratization of the education
system; decentralisation of powers etc was naturally not palatable for the
ruling classes which led to its dismissal under Article 356 of the
Constitution. Again, when the CPI(M)-led front won the elections in 1967,
this government was topped in 1969.
In West Bengal, the strength of powerful popular movements led to the
formation of United Front governments in 1967 and 1969. On both
occasions, though the CPI(M) was the larger partner of the coalition,
CPI(M) had allowed others to head the government in order to maintain and
strengthen the United Front. The fillip these governments gave to the
democratic movement and to the land struggles was, again, intolerable for
the ruling classes, that saw their dismissal under Article 356. The
semi-fascist terror unleashed against the Party, with the massive rigging
of the 1972 Assembly elections, that lasted till the defeat of Emergency
in 1977, was aimed at seeking to decimate the Communist-led popular
movements in the state. Over 1,400 comrades were martyred and 22,000 Party
families had to be relocated during the successful resistance defeating
this semi-fascist terror. Contrary to the hopes and machinations of the
ruling classes, the people of West Bengal had not only reposed faith in
the CPI(M)-led Left Front in the 1977 elections but continued to repose,
in an unprecedented manner not found elsewhere in the country, such faith
in the seven consecutive elections that followed till date.
This had been possible because of the unparalleled manner in which the
Left Front government tackled the people's issues. The implementation of
land reforms is one of its most important achievements. Nearly 1.3
million acres of illegally held land was acquired and distributed among
over 3 million landless and marginal cultivator households. The
registration of over 1.5 million bargadars (share croppers) brought 1.1
million acres of land under their control through operation barga. As of
2007, West Bengal whose population is 8 per cent of the country's, having
only 3.5 per cent of our country's agricultural land, accounted for 22 per
cent of the total ceiling surplus land distributed in the country.
Contrary to all adverse and hostile propaganda that the CPI(M) is against
the peasantry, a further 16,700 acres of land were distributed to
landless families between 2007 and 2010. Agricultural productivity and
output have made remarkable strides. From a chronic rice deficit state,
West Bengal today produces the largest quantity of rice. The Left Front
government today supplies rice at Rs. 2 per kilo to 2.64 crore BPL
population.
The financial assistance provided by the Left Front government in West
Bengal to the workers of closed factories and tea gardens has now been
enhanced to Rs. 1,500. Likewise, pension for widows, the disabled,
old-age, artisans, handloom weavers, farmers and fishermen have now been
increased to Rs. 1,000. 17 lakh unorganized sector workers have enrolled
in the Provident Fund Scheme. West Bengal encourages the growth of labour
intensive micro, small and medium industries. The state has the country's
largest number of functioning small-scale units (27 lakhs) and largest
number of employment (58 lakhs).
In spite of functioning under the limitations of the Constitution, the
Left-led state governments in West Bengal and Kerala have taken measures
to reduce poverty, create new welfare measures and improve living
conditions. Even the World Bank admits that the record of West Bengal in
terms of poverty reduction is the best amongst all states in India. The
infant mortality rate measured per 1,000 live births in 2006 was 38 in
West Bengal and 15 in Kerala which has the best record in the country. The
all India rate is 57. As far as life expectancy is concerned, it has
improved considerably in West Bengal to 64.5 years for males and 67.2 for
females. Kerala has life expectancy of 70.7 for males and 75 for females.
The all India average is 61 for males and 62.5 for females. As against the
all India average (7.4), the death rate in Kerala is 6.3 and West Bengal
is 6.2. West Bengal has a literacy rate of 72 per cent and Kerala 90.09
per cent. The all-India average is 63.4. In West Bengal, nearly 100 per
cent of all girls and boys of age six are enrolled in schools. In Kerala,
98 per cent of eligible boys and girls are in class X, indicating nil or
very low dropouts. It is noteworthy that such achievements are recorded
at a time when, due to the pursuit of neo-liberal policies by the ruling
classes, the livelihood conditions of the people have deteriorated in
large parts of the country.
The LDF government in Kerala has taken forward its welfare legacy
currently having the largest number of welfare schemes amongst all states
of India. The pensions to the workers in the unorganized workers have been
raised from Rs. 100 to Rs. 300. The women workers of the unorganised
sector are being offered four month's maternity leave. Half the population
of the state are being covered by Rs. 2 per kg rice scheme and free health
insurance, including for chronic diseases. Besides the PDS, a wide network
of fair price shops are set-up where the prices of 13 essential
commodities have been maintained at the same level for the last four
years. When the half a million houses proposed under the EMS housing
scheme are completed, there would be no family in Kerala without a house.
In stark contrast to the Central government's privatization offensive, the
rehabilitation of the sick Public Sector Units has resulted in reversal of
annual loss of Rs. 96 crores in 2005-06 to annual profit of 240 crores of
rupees in 2009-10. This surplus is being reinvested in the expansion of
the existing public sector and the establishment of eight new ones. In the
agriculture sector the measures adopted by the state government has been
successful in putting an end to the suicides of farmers.
Another major initiative taken by the Left-led governments in both the
states has been on the question of decentralization of power and deepening
of democracy to the grassroots through the establishment and efficient
functioning of democratic institutions of local self governments. The
three tier system of democratically elected bodies established by the Left
Front in West Bengal has achieved successes in a manner that is
unprecedented elsewhere in the country. It was a full seventeen years
after this initiative by the Left Front in West Bengal that the panchayati
raj system was adopted for the country through the 73rd and 74th
Constitutional amendments. The system of decentralization in Kerala
initiated by the 1957 government was further developed into the People's
Plan that delivered far-reaching benefits to the people. Both West Bengal
and Kerala are in the process of implementing 50 per cent reservation for
women. Both the governments of West Bengal and Kerala have extended the
central scheme of Rural Employment Guarantee to the urban poor while the
Central government refuses to do so.
The hallmark of the Left-led democratic movements and the governments in
both West Bengal and Kerala have been their steadfast defence of
secularism and communal harmony. It is often perceived that the
protection of the interests of the minorities is the litmus test of
democracy which, otherwise, is de facto majority rule. The Left Front
government in West Bengal has recently decided to implement the
recommendations of the Ranganath Mishra Commission Report to grant 10 per
cent reservations in jobs for Muslims belonging to OBCs.
The Left-led governments in West Bengal and Kerala backed by the powerful
Communist-led popular movements have been in the forefront of championing
the rights of the people and their livelihood standards from being gravely
eroded by the pursuit of neo-liberal economic policies by the Central
government. The consistent anti-imperialist positions and the interests
of the Indian people and the country taken by the CPI(M) continues to
expose the Indian ruling classes who seek a strategic partnership with
imperialism. Further, the pro-people measures undertaken by the Left-led
governments, as listed above, also expose the exploitative character of
the Indian ruling classes by demonstrating that even within the existing
system, greater relief can be provided to the people. For a combination
of all these factors, the Indian ruling classes have mounted a concerted
offensive against the CPI(M), in its strongest bastions, in order to
weaken the resistance to their unbridled loot through the neo-liberal
economic trajectory.
In West Bengal, an alliance of all reactionary forces led by the Trinamul
Congress is sought to be forged to defeat the Left Front in the coming
Assembly elections in May 2011. All rightwing forces, including the
communal and fundamentalist elements, foreign funded NGOs and corporate
media have joined the Maoist-backed TMC in this effort. Since the 15th Lok
Sabha election, 247 members of the CPI(M) and eight members of other Left
parties have been killed by the TMC-Maoist gangs. The Maoists primarily
target the poorest of the poor amongst the peasantry and the tribals. Yet,
sections of so-called intelligentsia continue to express sympathy. The
unleashing of such large-scale violence, killings and arson by this
reactionary combination is to seek the defeat of the Left Front through
the most anti-democratic fascistic methods. The success of these forces
seeks to completely negate the advances made by the democratic movement
that we have noted above and pave the way for the restoration of the
earlier forms of exploitative order. Already there are reports of former
landlords attempting, in some areas, to recapture their formerly illegally
held land that was acquired and distributed to the landless. In the name
of `change', what is being offered is patently anti-democratic and
anti-development. Communalism that has been kept at bay by the Left
movement will be enabled to stage a come back harming the interests of the
minorities. The TMC had, on earlier occasions, openly aligned and shared
power with BJP at the Centre.
In Kerala, the Congress-led UDF is trying to consolidate all the communal
and caste forces around it. Sections of the Church are openly interfering
in political affairs by conducting an anti-Communist campaign. Muslim and
Hindu extremist forces are bracing themselves to disturb communal harmony
in order to create political polarization. The campaigns launched by the
CPI(M) and the LDF against such activities are being met by a vilification
campaign launched by a section of the media. Despite the nefarious
activities of the extremists and communal forces, the state continues to
maintain its excellent record of communal harmony.
These reactionary offensives against the CPI(M) and the powerful Left and
democratic movements in West Bengal and Kerala will have to be met
squarely in order to defend the rights of the people and to improve their
livelihood. There have been occasions in the past when semi-fascist
terror was unleashed against the CPI(M) in West Bengal. That challenge
was met and won. In the following seven consecutive elections, no effort
was spared by the reactionary forces to defeat the Left Front. The
present challenge will also be met like the earlier ones have been. The
Left Front is determined to reforge links with the people who have moved
away due to certain shortcomings that have been identified and are in the
process of being corrected.
The CPI(M) as a whole, across the country, will redouble its efforts to
fight back this concerted anti-Communist and anti-Left offensive. Today
the Indian people need deliverance from the groaning burdens being mounted
by the neo-liberal economic policies. The Indian people today need to
strengthen our secular democratic foundations to ensure that the energies
of our country are not wasted in communal and fratricidal conflicts. The
Indian people require an alternative policy trajectory that can allow
India to realize its potential which it is being denied by neo-liberalism
and communalism. All efforts of spreading violence and anarchy against
the Left movement like the Maoists are today indulging in, essentially
only strengthens the reactionary forces in their efforts to prevent the
Indian people from being liberated from their growing miseries.
The assembly elections in May 2011 in West Bengal and Kerala will be a
major battle between the forces representing the interests of the working
people, social justice, secularism and our country's sovereignty and the
forces which are representing the interest of the big capitalists,
landlords, the rich and the vested interests that seek a strategic
alliance with imperialism and who use communalism, ultra-Left anarchy and
divisive politics to achieve their objectives.
The CPI(M) calls upon all progressive sections of the people to join this
battle and ensure the success of the Left Front in West Bengal and the LDF
in Kerala and, thus, advance further the efforts to create a better India
for its people.
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