BJP-RSS want to destroy the glorious tradition of Indian … · 2015-06-19 · Volume 48 No. 2...

Volume 48 No. 2 Organ of the SOCIALIST UNITY CENTRE OF INDIA (COMMUNIST)

September 1, 2014 Founder Editor-in-Chief : COMRADE SHIBDAS GHOSH Price : Rs. 4.00

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Comrade Provash Ghosh at the 38th memorial meeting of Comrade Shibdas Ghosh

BJP-RSS want to destroy the glorious traditionof Indian renaissance and freedom movement

SUCI(C) strongly condemns MohanBhagawat’s observation about Hindunation and Hindutva and calls uponpeople to isolate these fascist forces

Comrade Provash Ghosh, General Secretary, SUCI(C) issued thefollowing statement on 20 August, 2014 :

We strongly condemn the most atrocious statement by MohanBhagwat, the RSS chief, that “Hindustan is a Hindu nation and Hindutvais the identity of our nation.” This is a motivated observation to subverttruth and fan communal divide in the country. Neither any renaissancestalwart nor any of the leaders of our freedom movement ever spoke ofHindu nationalism. What they all fought for and advocated was Indiannationalism of all Indians irrespective of religion, caste, creed, or ethnicity.Constitution declares India to be a secular democratic state and henceclaiming India to be of a particular religious community is akin to brandingIndia as a theocratic state and hence a naked violation of theConstitution. Hindu nationalism what the RSS has been propagating allthrough is to fuel Hindu national jingoism which is absolutelycontradictory to genuine patriotism. The remarks of Mohan Bhagwatsmack of the Nazi philosophy which boasted of Aryan blood of theGermans and spewed hatred against other ethnic groups like the Jews.So, what Bhagwat has been espousing is nothing but fascist ideology.

We call upon all right-thinking people to reject such perniciousreactionary views of the vested interest, firmly uphold secular democraticprinciples as the basis of unity of the toiling Indians and isolate the archcommunal elements propagating flawed theories to buttress their ulterioragenda.

On 5th of August, we reminiscethe unique revolutionary life struggleof Comrade Shibdas Ghosh,Founder General Secretary of ourParty, the SUCI(C), our leader andteacher and one of the foremostMarxist thinkers of the era. We alsorecall his invaluable teachings,appraise and analyze the obtainingpolitical situation by applying themethodology he has handed down tous in the process of enriching anddeveloping Marxism-Leninism andelevating its understanding to a newheight while concretizing it on thissoil. Based on that analysis, wedecide our course of action. This ishow we transform our profoundgrief into revolutionary strength andcarry out our future activities.Various comrades and sympathizershave submitted to me a goodnumber of questions for beingdiscussed in this meeting. Touchingupon all the questions may not bepossible. Yet, I shall try to cover asmany as of them possible andconcentrate on the important ones.Topics I shall mainly try to focus onare, what is our approach towardselection, what is the outcome of theelection results, the BJP’s comingback to power, danger of fascism,defeat of the CPI (M) in the state,problems of left movement and howcan we develop class and massstruggles in the days to come. Thereis a possibility of rain. The subjectmatter of discussion is so vast that itwould take some time. And I wouldlike to read out to you some relevantportions from the works of ComradeShibdas Ghosh and others.

Our approach towards electionAt the outset, I would like to say

that as a Party guided by Marxism-Leninism-Shibdas Ghosh Thought,our approach towards election iscompletely different from those ofthe other parties. Great Lenin hadsaid long back that bourgeois

(This is the speech delivered in Bengali by Comrade Provash Ghosh,General Secretary, SUCI(C), at the 38th Comrade Shibdas GhoshMemorial meeting in Kolkata on 5th August, 2014. Responsibility oftranslation error or inadequate expression, if any, lies with theEditorial Board of Proletarian Era)

parliamentary election is held todecide which party, on behalf of thebourgeoisie, will rule and oppress thepeople at definite intervals of time. Inspite of that, Comrade Lenin said thatso long as people have illusion aboutparliament, so long as they do notunderstand the futility of parliamentand are not imbued withrevolutionary consciousness, therevolutionaries have to participate inthe elections with a view to exposingthe class character of the bourgeoisiein parliament. Lenin himself had totake part in the elections in the pre-revolution phase. Our great LeaderComrade Shibdas Ghosh had saidthat we the revolutionariessometimes participate in the electionshaving no other alternative. Pleasenote that he had said that we takepart in the elections having no otheralternative meaning undercompulsion. The main task of therevolutionary party is to develop theworking class struggles, organizemass movements, inspire, educateand organize the masses based onrevolutionary consciousness. Despitethat, when the election is held, beingcompelled we participate in it.Comrade Shibdas Ghosh taught usthat when we participate in theelection, our main objective is toinstill revolutionary consciousnessamong the masses, expose the otherbourgeois parties and organize themasses. If we can win seats basedon that, well and good. Even if we donot win seats, still we fight in theelection with the aforesaid objective.Like other bourgeois or socialdemocratic parties, our aim is not towin seats by any means. This waswhat Comrade Shibdas Ghosh hadsaid. He also drew our attentiontowards another aspect which is verypertinent in today’s context tounderstand the nature of elections inour country. I would like to read it outbefore you. In 1969 he said:“Election is a bourgeois politics. If the

like straw.”2 These words areimmensely important not only for ourcountry but for all the capitalistcountries in the world.

Unorganized masses get carriedaway by bourgeois propagandaas helpless lot

From 1952 onwards, in all theelections that have taken place inIndia, the bourgeois class hasselected parties of its choice andthen put some of them in power

while keeping others in opposition.For that, the bourgeoisie spendsenormous sum and through media—when Comrade Shibdas Ghoshmade the observation quoted above,there was only print media but nowTV has appeared as a powerfulmedia—brings the party of itschoice to the forefront. There is nocult of revolutionary politics amongthe masses, among the vast sectionsof the working class, poor peasants

masses do not haverevolutionary consciousness,if the working class has noclass organization and is notin class struggle, if there is nomass movement and thepeople are not united basedon political consciousness,the industrialists, the bigbusiness and thereactionaries create a waveby spending huge money andusing the media, in whichpeople are just carried away

Comrade Provash Ghosh

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Comrade Provash Ghosh’s speech

Even if CPI (M) had won the elections,leftism would not have been strengthened

and other sections of the toilingpeople. So they do not understandwhich party represents which classinterest. In absence of properpolitical understanding, the people atlarge are not organized based onrevolutionary consciousness; theyremain disunited. In suchcircumstances, they are swayed bythe bourgeois propaganda ashelpless lot. This has been thecommon feature of all the electionsheld so far. Same has happened inthe last election as well. TheCongress was in power during thelast ten years with the blessings ofthe bourgeois class. But this time thebourgeoisie, the monopolists and thecorporate sector understood that theCongress in course of serving themhad become so unpopular that it hadlost all its credibility before themasses. Secondly, the Congress wasrunning a coalition government.Though the Congress worked in theinterest of the bourgeois class, itcould not implement the variousschemes of so called reforms,liberalization and globalizationruthlessly, as desired by thecorporates, because of theobstruction by the coalition partnerregional parties. In this backdrop, thebourgeois class brought the BJP andNarendra Modi to the fore as the‘saviour’ of the country and build uppublicity in a glamorous way duringthe election. And you all know whathas been the result of the election.Before the election, the BJP saidthat it would bring ‘happy days’.What kind of happy days it hasbegotten is being witnessed by you.The BJP said on the eve of theelection that it would usher in‘achhe din’. Now, after beingsaddled in power, the BJP is sayingthat it would make people swallow‘bitter pills’ for some time forimproving their health. One afteranother ‘bitter pill’ is beingadministered making people’s lifebitterer. On the other hand, thebourgeoisie, the domestic andforeign capitalists are exultant thatthey would be able to recover withinterest even to the last farthing thebillions of rupees they have spent tobring the BJP to power. Besidesthis, I shall say later about the gravedanger posed by the RSS-BJP.

Source of strength of CPI (M)was governmental power, notleftism

I want to discuss another pointwhich is agitating the mind of thepeople particularly the left-minded

people. There is a concern in theirmind on this question. There is anapprehension about the future of leftmovement mainly centring on theelectoral defeat of the CPI (M). Atfirst, I would like to say that leftismand Marxism are not one and thesame. Those who are real Marxistsbuild up a genuine proletarianrevolutionary party based on correctrealization of Marxism and followingcorrect Marxist methodology. Thus,a revolutionary party is formed bydeducing the correct base politicalline of proletarian revolution andadopting true revolutionary culture.Our Party, the SUCI(C), has beenformed in the like manner. We areleftists. But all leftists are notMarxists. During the days offreedom movement, leftism wasequated with revolutionism. At thattime, there was of course no genuinerevolutionary Marxist party in thiscountry. The Gandhites, thecompromisers who were opposed torevolution were known as therightists. On the other hand, thosewho were in favour of armedrevolution – the line represented bySubhaschandra Bose—were calledleftists. Today, those who are notgenuine Marxists but claim to beMarxists, those who have norealization of Marxism, are notaware of the correct path ofrevolution but express urge forrevolution, the parties who claim tobe fighting for the working class—allare partners of leftist movements.Those who build up their partiesaccordingly are also leftists. Fromthis perspective, we had viewedundivided CPI and later the CPI (M)as leftists.

I want to emphasize on one pointhere. Many people think, evenexpress that leftism has beenweakened following successive polldebacles of the CPI (M). I say,assume that the CPI (M) is still inpower in West Bengal. Assume thatit has won the elections this time alsoby huge margin. Had leftism beenstrengthened in that event also? TheCPI (M) had been in power for 34long years. Then, we are to concludethe leftism was immensely powerfulduring these 34 years. Then why didthe party virtually collapse after beingousted from the government? Whatwas then the source of its strength?Was its strength based on a leftistideology, leftist struggle, leftistprinciples and leftist culture? Orsource of its strength wasgovernmental power, backing of thepolice-administration, backing of thecriminal brigade because of being in

the government and the blessings ofthe promoters-contractors-business-men-capitalists? Is it true leftism? So,its brand of leftism was dependent ongovernmental power. Its leftism ispowerful when it is in thegovernment. Once removed from thegovernment, its leftism isdispossessed of all the strength. Itcan never be the true leftism. This iswhat I want to say at the outset.Once leftism did exist in WestBengal. During the freedommovement, leftism existed centringon the leadership of SubhaschandraBose. I want to remind you that inundivided India, undivided Bengalwas the nerve centre of renaissance.On the one hand, a cultural milieuwas created centring on Vidyasagar,Saratchandra, Rabindranath, Nazrul.On the other hand, in the politicalfield, revolutionism developedcentring on Subhaschandra,Kshudiram, Bagha Jatin, Pritilata andsuch others. To the leftist mentalityso born was added the fervour ofSoviet revolution, Chinese revolutionand the current of communism whichwas created following defeat offascistic military power at the handsof great Stalin leadership in thesecond world war. All these workedbehind the strength that the undividedCPI mustered in those days. Thosewho are young do not know that theCPI (M) was then within theundivided CPI. It never dreamt thatit would be able to form governmentsomeday. In the first general electionin 1952, it was undivided CPI and notthe Congress which bagged most ofthe parliament and assembly seats inKolkata city. Kolkata used to becalled the red city. The educatedpeople of West Bengal, the teachers-doctors-lawyers-students-youthsused to vote for the leftists. TheCongress used to get votes in therural belts. There was tremendousemotion for leftism among theeducated section. Thereafter, therewas movement against one paisaincrease in the tram fare in 1953,teachers’ movement in 1954,movement against proposed mergerof Bengal and Bihar in 1956, the foodmovements of 1959 and 1966—theentire period constituted the gloriousperiod of leftist movement. OurParty was much smaller thencompared to what it is today. Wewere also in these movements withour revolutionary line. Undivided CPIwas there with its reformist line. Itwas the period of militant leftmovement. As people used to bowtheir head in respect for the freedomfighters, though not exactly so, yet

people also had profound respect forthe leftists, had faith in them,considered them as honest, believedthat they were not averse to facepolice atrocities, receive bullets ontheir chest and go to jail. Red flag isthe flag of the poor. Such was themindset of the people.

In 1964, the CPI (M) wasformed by a split in the undividedCPI. In the assembly elections of1967, the CPI (M) and CPIconstituted two separate fronts. Ourparty, CPI (M) and others were inone front while the CPI, BanglaCongress and a few other partieswere in another front. In spite ofdivision of votes, the two frontscombined defeated the Congress.The first United Front governmentwas formed. Another United Frontgovernment was formed in 1969.Despite the first United Front beingdislodged by the central government,the second United Front governmentwas constituted based on thestrength of massive movement. Wewere in both these governments.Though the CPI (M) was not likewhat it is today, yet, I want to remindyou, we had then basic ideologicaldifference and difference of outlookwith the CPI (M) on the questions ofbasic politics and political conduct.If there is any friend belonging to theCPI (M) here in this meeting, pleaseexamine this point. We then said thatwe would form the governmentalright but what should we do beingin the government? Should we runthe government just like any otherbourgeois party? Should we work inthe class interest of the capitalists,suppress the working classmovement, allow police to indulge inbaton charge and firing in the nameof maintaining law and order? Lenindid not face such situation. So he didnot provide any guideline as to howthe communists and leftists wouldrun a government in a bourgeoissystem. That guideline was providedby Comrade Shibdas Ghosh. So,under his guidance, we had said thatthe United Front government wouldspend whatever little resources ithad for the benefit of the poorpeople, provide corruption-freegovernance, not allow any kind ofmalpractices in the police-administration and firmly deal withany corrupt act on the part ofanyone. On the other hand, it wouldencourage the movements of theworkers and peasants; not allow thepolice to suppress those movementsby force. So, there should be nointerference of police in legitimate

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Trinamool Congress is doing exactly what CPI (M) had doneContd. from page 2

democratic movement. This wouldbe the correct leftist outlook.CPI(M), CPI, RSP, Forward Blocand Bangla Congress were notready to accept that. We said that inthat event, we would not be in thegovernment. Then, they were forcedto accept. Because, the CPI (M)was then not like what it is today. Ithad many honest leaders andcadres. Had it been exposed in thepress that the party was notagreeing to our proposal, theirleaders would have been in trouble.Though they agreed to abide by ourproposal in writing, they never put itin practice. As the labour ministrywas given to us during the firstUnited Front government, there wasa spurt in the workers’ and peasants’movements. So, under the pressureof the Tatas and Birlas, the labourdepartment was taken away from usin the second United Frontgovernment. In 1977, Jyoti Basumentioned in his radio speech thatthere would no more be anymovement or unrest in West Bengalbecause SUCI(C) was not withthem. Thus he assured thecapitalists. It was for this reason thatthe CPI (M) broke unity with uswell in advance. Thereafter, thegovernment the CPI (M) ran from1977 was no different from anyother bourgeois government. Itcharged batons and fired bullets onthe workers and peasants. In thename of maintaining industrial peace,it virtually banished strikes from theindustries. The CPI (M) leadersthrough their trade union wing taughthow to compromise with the ownersand surrender to the capitalists in thename of class struggle. They haveperpetrated carnage and mass-rapein Singur and Nandigram. They havefostered worst opportunism in therural areas through the panchayatsand ruined peasants’ movements.Thus, they have during the 34 longyears destroyed mass movementsand class struggles, sullied leftism.

CPI (M) and not the rightistshave ruined leftism

On the other hand, there was nocult of leftist politics, leftist ideology,let alone Marxism, in their party.There was only slogan of leftism.And you know what the kind of theirrule was. Everywhere, they haveused police for petty-party interest,built up a huge criminal force. Theleaders and ministers of the partywere engaged in realty promotingand contractor business. BenoyChowdhury, a veteran honest CPI(M) leader and minister became soenraged as to call the CPI (M) rulea rule of the promoters and

contractors. Jyoti Basu told him toresign then. He was not allowed tocontest the election after that.During the entire period of theCPI(M) rule, its workerseverywhere were involved in realtybusiness and contractor jobs. TheCPI (M) leaders issued fiat thatunless one voted for the CPI (M),one would not be allowed to stay inthe locality, to take part incultivation. The CPI (M) hadorchestrated attacks any timeanywhere, even killed people. 161leaders and workers of our Partyhave been murdered by the CPI(M) for organizing movement.Former CPI (M) chief ministerBuddhadeb Bhattacharjee has said afew days back at Raidighi that theyhad not slapped false case onanyone. Comrade Prabodh Purkait,nine times MLA of our Party, wasimplicated in false case andsentenced to life term. Similarly, 49others of our Party are also servinglife term. These are the things theCPI (M) had done. Even if any CPI(M) man had committed multiplecrimes, it was not possible toregister FIR against him at thepolice station. The party used todecide who would be the teachers inschools and colleges. TheCoordination Committee of thegovernment employees controlled bythe CPI (M) used to decide whowould be promoted, who would bedemoted, who would be transferredand so forth. Today the TrinamoolCongress (TMC) is doing exactlywhat the CPI (M) had done. Whoelse but the CPI (M) has createdthis situation? Why is the CPI (M)facing such a crisis today? Why didthe people of West Bengal voteagainst it in the last parliament andassembly elections? True there hasbeen massive rigging in the recentparliament election but such largescale rigging did not take place in theearlier two parliament and assemblyelections. In the last assemblyelection also, there was no rigging.At the time of last assemblyelection, the CPI (M) was in power.But the people gave their verdictbased on the Singur-Nandigrammovements. A strong anti-CPI (M)mentality developed among thepeople. The CPI (M) leaders areblaming their workers, saying thatthe debacle has happened becauseof the arrogance and insolence ofthe workers; the workers had lostcontact with the masses. Thus, theCPI (M) leaders are passing on thebuck of their own misdeeds on theirworkers. They themselves havetaught their workers all these wrongthings. If the CPI (M) leaderscontinue to do such things, they

would never be able to convince thepeople. If they have courage andhonesty, let them admit theirmistakes before the people of WestBengal. Let them confess that whatthey have done during the 34 yearsof their rule were anti-left, anti-people. In this connection, let merecall an invaluable teaching ofComrade Lenin. He said, “Theattitude of a political party towardsits own mistakes is one of the mostimportant and surest ways of judginghow earnest the party is and how itin practice fulfils its obligationstowards its class and the toilingmasses. Frankly admitting a mistake,ascertaining the reasons for it,analyzing the conditions which led toit, and thoroughly discussing themeans of correcting it —that is theearmark of a serious party; that isthe way it should perform its duties,that is the way it should educate andtrain the class, and then themasses.”1. Only a genuinecommunist party admits its mistakeshonestly and with an open mind. Dothe CPI (M) leaders have thathonesty and courage? Certainly not.Yesterday I saw in the newspaperthat one of their leaders has saidthat one thousand workers of theirsof North 24 Parganas district did notwork in the elections out of fear.What a revolutionary party! Whatare they afraid of? We haveconducted movements while beingphysically assaulted by them. 161leaders and cadres of our Partyhave been murdered by them. In thevery venue of this meeting, there isa martyr’s column in the name ofMadhai Haldar who was shot deadby the CPI (M) government in 1990.Still we continued our struggle.What great harm has been causedto the CPI(M) by the TMC? Thenwhat type of 1000 workers theyhave in North 24 Parganas? Theirmass organizations are stated tohave lakhs of members. Where arethey? Why are they in their shelves?Because, the CPI (M) leadersthemselves have made theseworkers coward. They have nottaught their workers politics,ideology or leftism. Only thing theytold their workers were: We are abig party, we are in power, if you arewith us, you shall get these andthese privileges. Police is in ourhand; even if you commit gravest ofcrimes, you will go scot free.Nobody would dare to touch you.So, when police was under them, theCPI (M) leaders and cadres were abrave lot with the support of thecriminals and anti-socials. They havetold the students that even if they didnot pass in the examination, theywould be promoted and their results

would be good. This is how theystrengthened their party. They neverallowed other students’ organizationsto contest the union elections in thecolleges and universities. Today, theTMC is doing in the colleges whatthe CPI (M) only did earlier. Thecriminals trained by the CPI (M) arenow carrying TMC flags. The policewho once worked for the CPI (M)are now working for the TMC.

CPI (M) has paved way for BJPto raise head

Comrade Shibdas Ghosh did notsee CPI (M)’s ascendancy to powerin 1977 nor did he witness the 34years of CPI (M) rule. He only sawCPI (M) during the second unitedfront in 1970. At that time only, heobserved:. “When there wasmaximum increase of strength of theso called Marxist party CPI (M)during the last United Frontgovernment, the countrymen werescared at the thumping around of itsworkers and supporters. …it wasamong the people under its influencethat the tendency to secure unjustprivileges to satisfy personal interestby using the police andadministration had grown much.Instead of increased socialobligation, the tendency to dodgeduty went up. As against growth ofphilosophical tolerance towardspeople having different opinions, thereprehensible tendency to muzzletheir voice through cowardly attacksin congenial environment grewformidably. As a reaction to allthese, when the situation turnedadverse for them following captureof power by the Congress, it wasfound that the ‘firebrandrevolutionaries’ of the Front regimehad lost all courage to make theleast noise. If the situation turnsfavourable again, you might onceagain see them back in theirprevious form. Already, there aresymptoms towards that effect. Iftheirs would have been realrevolutionary politics, they wouldhave on the one hand receivedblessings from all sections of thewell-meaning people while on theother hand, invited severerepugnance from the oppressivebourgeoisie. But, in reality, just thereverse has happened.” 2

This is what he said by seeingthe activities of the CPI (M) duringthe second United front in 1970. Andduring the 34 years, the CPI (M)’sattack on class struggle, massmovement, workers of other partiesincreased manifold. The CPI (M)had precipitated terror, used policeto its petty interest and turned policeinto an appendage to it. So, if

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BJP’s contention is contrary to what the renaissance

anyone has caused immensedamage to leftism, it is not the TMCor any other reactionary force butthe CPI (M). So, I would like to tellthe CPI (M) leaders not tounnecessarily blame their workers.Let them look at their face in themirror. If they have honesty andcourage, they must admit this. Letthem openly declare that they haddone so many unjust things during 34years of their rule. But this wouldnot happen through deception. Seehow severely the people arecriticizing the TMC. They areturning away from the TMC. Theircomplaint is that the TMC is toeingthe line of the CPI (M). They findthat the TMC is doing what the CPI(M) had done. Why are the peoplenot able to view the CPI (M) as thealternative to the TMC? Because,during the 34 year long misrule ofthe CPI (M), the people weresuffocated. The CPI (M) itself isresponsible for that. Whateverinfluence the BJP could cast in WestBengal is due to the CPI (M)leaders. I would like to read outanother observation of ComradeShibdas Ghosh. He said this in 1969.Please see for yourself howprophetic this great Marxist thinkerwas. At that time, there was noBJP. It was Jana Sangh then.Criticizing the CPI (M), he said, “Inthis situation, the proponents ofreligious nationalism like the JanaSangh are lying in wait. They arewaiting for the right opportunity.Once the attraction towards leftmovement among the people whichstill exists will go away, they willappear in the scene. The ruling CPI(M) leaders do not understand this.Abandoning the ideology and basictenets of communism, they, almostlike the Congress, are confusingpeople with trickery of tall talks andsweet coated words. Thus, they aremaligning and tarnishing the imageof communism here.” 2 Way back in1969, Comrade Shibdas Ghoshwarned that the CPI (M) wastarnishing the image of communism,maligning leftism, and the JanaSangh was lying in wait to increaseits strength taking advantage of that.See how his words corroboratetoday’s perspective. In the last 34years, the CPI (M) has causedimmense harm to leftism andthereby paved the way for the BJPto raise its ugly head. I also want tosay this to you.

We do not have hostility towardsthe CPI (M) or any other party. Ourdifference is ideological, political, inthe interest of the proletariat. Let the

CPI (M) leaders confess theirwrongs. What is needed is not someperfunctory talks, some kind ofwhitewashing the mistakes ormerely replacing some leaders butchange of policies. Let them comeback to militant leftism. Can they doso? Honest workers and supportersof the CPI (M) should ask theirleadership this question. As agenuine Marxist party, we have beenpursuing the line of militant leftismfor long. But they maligned militantleftism. Can they admit it?Otherwise, how can people trustthem? This is where their test lies.Left movement cannot bestrengthened without honesty,sincerity, militant class or massstruggles. This cannot be done bytelling lies, by indulging in deceptionor resorting to trickery.

Moreover, their honest workersand supporters as well as the left-minded people ought to understandthat it is not that the CPI (M) partyhas just committed some mistakes.Here, the character of the mistakehas to be determined. Whatever ithas done, it has done as a socialdemocratic party as per its classcharacter. If a Marxist label in thenomenclature makes onecommunist, then the Menshevikparty of Russia would have beencommunist and there was no needfor Lenin to build up the Bolshevikparty separately nor would have theSecond International undergonerevisionist degeneration. The rolethat the united CPI and later the CPI(M) had taken in the massmovement of the 1950s and ‘60swere as social democratic partiesonly, as compromising forcebetween labour and capital.Similarly, in keeping with its socialdemocratic character, the CPI (M)on being saddled in power conducteditself like a bourgeois party in theinterest of the bourgeois class. So,those who have emotion forcommunism ought to be disillusionedabout this party and reject it. At thesame time, they must identify thecorrect Marxist party and strengthenthe same. Let you not beoverwhelmed by blind emotion orsuffer from frustration.

BJP has surrendered to themonopolists as bonded slaves

Now I shall place my views onthe BJP. I have already said thatbefore the last elections, themonopolists, foreign capitalists andcorporate sector had taken adecision to put the BJP to power asthe Congress, which acted at theirbehest so far, was found to be no

more useful for the present. So theyspent huge money on publicity forthe BJP. Narendra Modi, who wasconsidered as the architect of theGujarat pogrom in the country,whose hands are stained in innocentblood, overnight became the‘saviour’ of the country thanks tomedia publicity. This is how thebourgeoisie creates leaders. TheBJP entered into an agreement withthe bourgeoisie and corporate sectorthat after riding to power, it wouldobey whatever they would say.Exactly that is what it is doing afterascending to power. On the otherhand, the RSS, which is theideological guardian of the BJP, gotan opportunity to propagate thedoctrine of Hindutva in the field ofeducation, culture as well as in therealm of mind. At one stroke, theBJP has implemented a slew ofmeasures like FDI in defence,railways and insurance as well asmore and more privatization of thepublic sector. The Congress alsotried to introduce all these aspolitical steps but could not do all ofthese things because of obstructionscreated by its coalition partners. TheBJP also has heftily raised therailway fare and freight charges byone stroke. It is also withdrawingwhatever little subsidy was hithertobeing given towards public welfare.It is increasing the fuel prices.These are all the ‘bitter pills’. Morenumber of ‘bitter pills’ will beadministered in the future. The BJPfinance minister has invoked a newtheory —‘pro-business is pro-poor’.According to him, more swells thewealth of the rich, more the poorstand to benefit. It means that therich will only give some alms to thepoor out of compassion. Thecommon people know that the richbecome rich by depriving the poor.The capitalists make profit byexploiting the working class. On thecontrary, the BJP and its ministerare saying that more is the profit ofthe capitalists, more benefitted willbe the poor. This is the crux of the‘pro-business pro-poor’ theory. Ishall say a few more things aboutthis later.

But most sinister is thepropaganda of ultra Hindutva. Youknow that already a discussion hasbeen initiated to incorporate religiouseducation in the text books. This isnothing new. Even the Congress alsomooted such a proposal. After thesecond world war when it waswidely publicized that the defeat ofGermany and Italy signified defeat offascism, Comrade Shibdas Ghoshhad differed. He held that downfall

of Germany-Italy did not mean thatfascism had been defeated. He saidthat fascism has appeared as ageneral feature of all capitalist-imperialist countries, whetherdeveloped or under-developed. Heshowed that when capital was notconcentrated like today, notconcentrated in the hands of themonopolists, when only small capitalwas in existence and there was freecompetition, the bourgeoisie stood forliberal democracy. When monopolyappeared and concentration ofcapital took place, that liberaldemocracy ceased to exist andeconomic base of fascism wasestablished. Centralization of powerin the hands of the administration andbureaucracy is also politicalcharacteristic of fascism. ComradeShibdas Ghosh further showed thatin fascism, there would be noscientific outlook, no rational thinkingor scope for healthy debate but onlyblind religious faith. Science will beused only to manufacture machinesand arms. In the realm of mind, therewill be a fusion of spiritualism andtechnical aspects of science. This isfascist culture. This was first startedin this country by the Congress.Today, through RSS, Indiancapitalism is trying to implement thatdesign on a wider scale.

Views of Rammohan-Vidyasagar-Rabindranath-Saratchandra

Now, it is being pleaded that theGita and the Vedanta have to beincorporated in school syllabus. InGujarat and Madhya Pradesh, it hasalready been introduced. One Judgehas also advised to include the Gita,the Ramayana and the Mahabharatain the text books. But you know thatat the dawn of the Indianrenaissance, it was Raja Rammohanwho first brought the light ofknowledge in the Indian societyencumbered with age-old obsoletecreeds, obscurantism and medievaldarkness. What did he say? I shallread out from his works. He wasagainst teaching Sanskrit and theVedanta. He said: “The Sanskritsystem of education would be bestcalculated to keep this country indarkness if such had been the policyof the British Legislature. But as theimprovement of the native populationis the object of Government, it willconsequently promote a more liberaland enlightened system of instruction,embracing mathematics, naturalphilosophy, chemistry and anatomywith other useful sciences.

Nor will youths fitted to be

stalwarts and leaders of freedom movement had said

PROLETARIAN ERA SEPTEMBER 1, 2014 PAGE FIVE


Only Marxism correctly showed place of religion in historyContd. from page 4

better members of society by theVedanta doctrines which teach themto believe that all visible things haveno real existence.

We now find that Government isestablishing Sanskrit school underHindu Pundits to impart suchknowledge as is already current inIndia. The pupils will there acquirewhat was known two thousandyears ago, with the addition of vainand empty subtleties since producedby speculative men.”4 These are thewords of Raja Rammohan. Thepreachings of RSS-BJP are againstthe teachings of Raja Rammohan.Following the footprints ofRammohan came Vidyasagar.Vidyasagar went a few steps aheadto comment that, “For certainreasons …we are obliged tocontinue the teaching of the Vedantaand Sankhya in the SanskritCollege. That the Vedanta andSankhya are false systems ofphilosophy is no more a matter ofdispute.”5 See what Vidyasagar hadsaid : “the Vedas and Vedanta arefalse systems of philosophy.”Ramakrishna had rushed toVidyasagar’s house to pay hisrespect. Vivekananda had deeprespect for Vidyasagar.Vivekananda himself said that likehim, there was not a single youth inEastern India who had not beeninspired by Vidyasagar.Vivekananda knew that Vidyasagarcalled the Veda-Vedanta a falsesystem of philosophy. Ramakrishnaand Vivekananda also knew thatVidyasagar was an atheist.Vidyasagar further said, “Whilstteaching these in the Sanskritcourse, we should oppose them bysound philosophy in the Englishcourse to counteract theseinfluences…The bigotry of thelearned of India, I am ashamed tostate, is no less than that of theArabian Caliph. They believe thattheir Shastras have all emanatedfrom omniscient Rishis andtherefore, they cannot but beinfallible.”5 This is how Vidyasagarspoke against the religiousscriptures. He also said, “We wantteachers who know both the Bengaliand the English languages and at thesame time are free from religiousprejudices. “6

This is Pandit IshwarchandraVidyasagar. He himself wrote fourbooks. There has not been anydiscussion on god in these books.He did not believe in god. So headvised, “Geography, History,Biography, Arithmetic, Geometry,Natural Philosophy, MoralPhilosophy, Political Economy andPhysiology should be taught.”6 Such

were his views. You can see foryourself that these two doyens ofIndian renaissance, Rammohan andVidyasagar, had opposed religiouseducation and stressed on naturalphilosophy and study of science. TheCongress did just the reverse. Andnow the BJP-RSS are addingdimension to that.

Even being a believer,Rabindranath said, “Delusion ofreligion makes man lifeless. Itmakes his intellect enmeshed inmeaningless inert behaviourassimilated in flesh and blood.Where intellect is chained, manlinessis heavily burdened. In thatunfortunate country, all kinds ofphysical, mental and politicalmisfortune remain unexplained andstatic.”7 This is Rabindranath.Saratchandra had said, “No religiousscripture can be infallible. The Vedais also a religious scripture. So, thereis no dearth of falsehood in it…. Allreligions are false — superstitions ofthe primitive ages. There is nogreater enemy of mankind thanthis... Man is not for any specifictraditional characteristic of aparticular country. The traditionalcharacteristic is cherished becauseof man only. The moot point iswhether that tradition is beneficial tomankind at the present time. Exceptthat, everything else is blind delusion.The tradition of man is not greaterthan man himself. When we forgetthat, we lose both man and histradition.” 8 These are the words ofSaratchandra. They are the boldvoice of renaissance of those days.The Congress as well the RSS-BJPis opposing the thoughts of thesegreat renaissance personalities tocreate a fascistic mindset.

Views of SubhaschandraLet me narrate to you another

incident. Before leaving India on theeve of the second world war,Subhaschandra was under housearrest. Prior to that, he was inAlipore jail. He went for a fast untodeath inside the jail on certaindemands. He thought at the timethat the Britishers would not accepthis demands. So, he would embracemartyr’s death like Jatin Das. Hewrote two articles at that time; onewas his directive to his partyworkers and the other was aguidance to the Indian youth. I mayadd here that in early life,Subhaschandra was a believer in theVedanta and opposed to materialism.But, in later life, he gradually tiltedtowards Hegelian dialectics. I shallread out what he said at the end.“On the question of as to the natureof the world of phenomena, webetter keep an open mind while

making note of all that science hasrevealed to us so far. More light isbound to come, as science makesfurther advance. Meanwhile, weshould bear in mind that the oldconception of materialism hasbroken down completely. It hasbeen under a crossfire, beingattacked by scientific research onone side and by philosophicalreasoning and speculation on theother.”9 It shows that his lack offaith in old materialism being provedto be wrong in the light of scientificdiscoveries and logic, he emphasizedon science only to find out truth. Hewrote these lines so that the Indianyouth do not go wrong like he did inhis youth. I have been referring to allthese because what the BJP istelling or going to do is totallycontrary to what Rammohan-Vidyasagar-Rabindranath-Sarat -chandra-Subhaschandra had said.Whom should we follow? Even ifyou do not want to accept Marxism,as citizens of West Bengal or India,you have to think : should we goback to the dark days of yesteryears by disowning these greatmen? Should we revert back to thedays when the Veda-Vedanta-Manusamhita were considered to beinfallible? It was these obsoletephilosophies against whichRammohan-Vidyasagar-Rabindra-nath-Sarat-chandra-Subhaschandra-Nazrul waged their battle. Whichcourse would you adopt? This iswhat I want you to ponder over.

Who is real Hindu,Vivekananda or BJP-RSS?

The BJP-RSS display photo ofVivekananda and claim that they arefollowing his ideals. But see whatGolwalkar, an RSS leader whom theRSS considers to be its ideologue,writes, “So, foreign races inHindustan must either adopt theHindu culture and language, mustlearn to respect and hold inreverence Hindu religion, mustentertain no idea but those of theglorification of the Hindu race andculture, i.e. of the Hindu nation andmust lose their separate existence tomerge in the Hindu race, or maystay in the country, whollysubordinated to the Hindu Nation,claiming nothing, deserving noprivileges, far less any preferentialtreatment not even citizen’srights.”10 It means those who arenot Hindus will have to respectHindu religion, Hindu culture andHindu language i.e. Sanskrit.Otherwise, they shall have no rightin this country. This is the fiat ofGolwalkar, the RSS satrap. Now Ishall read out what Vivekanandahad said, “Christians need not

become Buddhists nor need theMuslims to become Hindus or theBuddhists Christians. But each ofthem will be nourished by absorbingthe essence of other religions anddevelop according to its naturemaintaining its distinct identity… Wewant to take mankind to that endwhere there is no Veda, Bible orKoran but all works will beperformed through integration of theVeda, Bible and Koran… we notonly tolerate all religions but believeall of them to be true.” 11.12 This isthe version of Vivekananda. Thenwho is a Hindu, Vivekananda or theRSS-BJP? Vivekananda had alsosaid, “If I had a son, I would nothave given him any religioustutelage except practisingconcentration, one paragraph ofprayer and chanting mantras.Thereafter, in course of growing inage and listening to various opinionsand advices, he would have beenacquainted with something which tohim would have been the truth. It isvery natural that simultaneously withfull freedom and without having anyconflict, my son could be a Buddhist,my wife a Christian and myself aMuslim.”13 Now you examine foryourself whether you would callVivekananda a Hindu or the RSS-BJP as Hindu. The RSS-BJPcontend that the Muslim kings andemperors had spread Islamic religionin this country at the point of thesword. On the other hand,Vivekananda wrote, “The conquestof India by the Muslims gave thepoor a taste of emancipation. That iswhy, one fifth of the population ofthis country became Muslim. Thisdid not happen on the strength ofarms. It is sheer insanity to thinkthat such had happened because ofpower arms and acts of destruction.The poor wanted to be free fromthe clutches of the zamindars andthe priests.”14 It means the lowercaste poor Hindus became Muslimsto get rid of the oppression of theHindu zamindars and priests. Who issaying this? None else thanVivekananda. Then, who is right?Vivekananda or the RSS? Do theRSS-BJP have any moral right tocarry Vivekananda’s photo?

The BJP leaders demolished ahistoric monument like Babri Masjidjust like the way the Talibanisdestroyed Buddha statues inAfghanistan. No one used to pray atBabri Masjid. It was an old desertedstructure. The RSS-BJP razed thatstructure into rubbles fomentingsentiment about Rama, an imaginarymythological character, solely with aview to garnering votes. We want toquestion them—a question that we

Contd. on page 6

PAGE SIX SEPTEMBER 1, 2014 PROLETARIAN ERA

Contd. on page 7


RSS-BJP’s views are against the teachings of VivekanandaContd. from page 5

raised earlier also—was Chaitanya aHindu? Was Ramakrishna a Hindu?Was Vivekananda a Hindu? Werethey not aware of Babri Masjid, itshistory? They never exhorted theHindus to demolish it and build Ramatemple in its place. Just for the sakeof vote, the RSS-BJP destroyed sucha historic memorial by telling lies andengineered communal riot. Do theyknow that Ramakrishna had himselfoffered namaz in a mosque as wellas prayed in a church? About temple,Vivekananda wrote, “Millions ofrupees are spent opening and closingthe gates of Kashi and Vrindavantemples. Once the god is changingclothes while at other time, he iseating rice or chiding at the sons ofbarren women. On the other hand,living gods are dying without foodand clothes.”15 Vivekanandacriticized that while the real poorhave no food, no clothing, the so-called worshippers wereconstructing temples, decorating theidols with gold ornaments while livinggods i.e. men are dying without food.He cried shame on this. Let meremind the BJP-RSS leaders whatVivekananda had said, “First breadand then religion …Not only theIndians, if any human being starvesanywhere, I shall not propagatereligion.” “So long as even a singledog in my country has no food, mywhole religion will be to feed them.”16

What would the RSS-BJP leaderssay about this Vivekananda? Do theyhave acquaintance with thisVivekananda? He believed in theVedanta and we believe in Marxism.Here we have a fundamentaldifference. But he was a great man.He did not practise vote politics orindulged in falsehood. He evenquestioned as to who should beconsidered as a true patriot? In hislanguage, “The people have beenliving in semi-starved condition forcenturies. Do you understand that thedark clouds of want of educationhave engulfed India? Do thesethoughts make you restive; takeaway your sleep of night? Havethese thoughts mixed with your bloodand are flowing through your veins?Are these thoughts maddening foryou? This is the first step ofbecoming patriot.” 17 Do the RSS-BJP leaders who are now saddled inpower know this Vivekananda?Vivekananda had duel personality.On the one hand, he was a spiritualist,believer in the Vedanta. On the otherhand, he was the person to rouseIndian nationalism. We respectVivekananda for his nationalism andwhatever humanist values he upheldand hold him as a great man.Tragedy was that while nationalist

Vivekananda was deeply pained andagitated by the poverty, oppressionand absence of education whichexisted in reality and raised voice ofprotest, he, on the other hand,believed in spiritual Vedanticphilosophy which preached that “theobjective world is false, the SupremeBeing i.e Brahma is the only truth”.It means everything in objectivereality is illusion, myth, having noexistence. As a corollary, woes andmisery of the people are also myth.This is the painful tragedy in the lifeof such a great man. But see howgreat one has to be to say that “Solong the crores of Indians will remainplunged in the darkness of povertyand ignorance, I shall consider thosewho are educated at the cost of thesemyriads of poor and ignorant but donot even look at them, as traitors.…So long twenty crores of Indianswill lead life of a hungry animal, Ishall call those rich who are enjoyinga grandiose life by earning moneythrough squeezing of these hapless,as sinful rascals.” 18 19 In the light ofthis observation of Vivekananda, howwould one rate the “patriotic’ ‘pro-people’ leaders of today? Though asMarxists, we have differences withthe views of the great men ofdifferent ages, we hold their dreamsin high esteem, respect whateverconcern they felt for the oppressedpeople. We not only respect that, westruggle to appraise their worth in thegiven space and time.

I want to add that we respectthe religious preachers. A wrongnotion is spread about the Marxistsin this regard. We hold that religionin its time played a progressive role.Some of the religions also playedfighting roles in social progress. Butin the dim past, there was noconcept of god in the human society.This has been conclusively shown byMarxism by analyzing history. If yougo to the Andamans, you would finda primitive tribe called Jaroa. Theydo not know how to wear clothes;they have no private property, nohome and hearth. There is no richand poor among them, no ruler.They do not believe in god, do notobserve religious rituals. This wasthe primitive age which Marxismhas shown.

Let me again read out fromVivekananda’s works. The blinddisciples of Vivekananda may be abit displeased because it isVivekananda who is putting them introuble. In 1897, Vivekananda saidin his Lahore speech that, “The firstwas in search in External nature forthe truths of the universe; it was anattempt to get the solution of theproblems of life from the materialworld.” 25 Vivekananda himself is

saying that man’s first thought wascentred around this material world.This is the greatness ofVivekananda. He gave recognitionto the truth of history.

Marxism only showed thecorrect place of religion inhuman history

So, in the primitive society, therewas no religion. Religion marked itsadvent during the slave-mastersociety when the oppressor-oppressed, ruler-ruled relationshipcame into being. Marx has a historicobservation in this respect. He said,“Religious distress is at the sametime the expression of real distressand also the protest against realdistress. Religion is the sigh of theoppressed creature, the heart of theheartless world and the soul of thesoulless conditions.”24 In that ageappeared a band of thinkers whowere moved by the wails and woesof the oppressed slaves. They saidthat as there was a master at thehelm of the society who ruled thesociety, so there ought to be oneLord, the ruler of the universe.Everything is happening according tohis order. They held that all werechildren of that almighty god. Boththe slave and the slave master werehis children. So, the society wouldrun at the behest of the god. Inthose days, there was no scientificanswer to the questions like what ismind, what is thought, how do wethink and so forth. These answerswere provided much later byMarxism based on science. It hasshown that thought evolves throughcontradiction of human brain withthe external world. Thinking changeswith the change in the materialcondition. The thinkers of that timeused to believe that the almighty godwas making them think. Thinkingwas perceived to be thecontemplation of god. So, thethought of social welfare which wascoming in their mind was viewed asendowment of god. This was tothem the directive of god. This ishow the concept of religion came inthe world. That is why great Engelshad said about Christianity that,“Both Christianity and the workers’socialism preach forthcomingsalvation from bondage and misery;Christianity places this salvation in alife beyond, after death in heaven;socialism places it in this world, in atransformation of society.”20 Thoughhe spoke of Christianity, he meant allreligions. Comrade Shibdas Ghoshalso observed, “…since Christianitypreached equality of all, the slavemasters, by perpetrating oppressionon the slaves, were acting againstthe will of god, and so to torture the

slaves was to defile Christianity.Viewed from this angle, it is notdifficult to realize that Christianityhelped the slaves in a way toorganize struggles against theinjustice and oppression by the slavemasters and in that sense helped insocial progress at that time. Similarwas the case with the adherents ofIslam as well... You should bear inmind that it was the religion at aparticular stage of socialdevelopment that helped infurthering the concept of morals andethics, the sense of values, theconcept of right and wrong, the spiritof service to others and notdespising anyone. As a result, asense of discipline grew whichhelped to bring about consolidationand cohesion in society. From thisangle too, religion played a role insocial progress.”21 From thatrespect, we respect and honour thereligious preachers. Rather many ofyou might not know that religion firstcame under attack from thebourgeois thinkers during Europeanrenaissance in the 16th, 17th and 18th

centuries. At that time, thebourgeoisie was raising its head. Byoverthrowing feudalism, capitalismwas then a rising and progressiveforce. In feudalism, the king wasperceived to be the representative ofgod. The rule of the Bible wasbelieved to be the rule of god. Incourse of its fight against feudalismwith science as the weapon, thebourgeois humanists launched attackon religion. Thinkers like Bacon,Spinoza, Hume, Kant and Feuerbachcalled religion ‘an aberration ofhistory’. They did not correctlyevaluate the role of religion. To themreligion was a deviation, distortion ofhistory. So, their call was to abandonreligion. Marxism, on the contrary,acknowledged that religion had ahistoric role and at one point inhistory, religion had a progressiverole. But can religion solve any ofthe problems of contemporaryworld? Do the Ramayana,Mahabharata, Gita, Bible or Koranhave any discussion on the burningproblems of today’s life like pricerise, unemployment, poverty, fairwage, job creation, hike in tax, risein fare, atrocities on women,exploitation of capitalism oraggression of imperialism? There isno such discussion. Only it is writtenthat one should follow the path ofjustice and truth. But in a givenphase in history, the question of rightor wrong, truth or false ought to bedecided based on the necessity ofthat particular period. This is thelimitation of religion. We have noconflict with those who believe in

PROLETARIAN ERA SEPTEMBER 1, 2014 PAGE SEVEN


Nation or state is not created based on religionContd. from page 6religion. Let them join us in themovement against price rise,retrenchment of workers, rape,curtailment of scope of education,rampant circulation of liquor anddrug, corruption and such othermenaces. Believers in all religionscan come forward. We can fightunitedly with all of them. Where isour objection? We object when it ispropagated that rich and poor is thecreation of god, one is poor becauseof one’s wrong deeds in the previousbirth; one is starving, being raped,seeing one’s child dying in thehospital because of the sin onecommitted in the previous birth.Everything that happens is theinjunction of fate. What manproposes, god disposes i.e.everything is handiwork of destiny.So, one should not protest, shouldnot fight because it is god’s will. So,whatever may be the extent of pain,endure it as the will of god. In thatevent, one would be happy in thenext birth. Our objection is againstall such notions. Marx had pointedout to all these when he said thatreligion has been used as the opiumby the exploiting class. You see foryourself. So many hungry peopleare wandering around, so manyoppressed women are screaming.But do you find thosepropagandizing the messages ofVivekananda or Hazrat Mohammedprotesting against all these? Do youfind them waging struggle againstsuch social maladies andaberrations? Do you find any priestof any temple or church, imam ofany mosque or any religiouspreacher to fight against price spiral,corruption or atrocities againstwomen? Had Christ, Mohammed orthe exponents of Hindu religion beenalive, even if Vivekananda wouldhave been alive, would they haveacquiesced in all these? Would theyhave said that let everythingcontinue as it is as these are allordained by god and we betterconcentrate on worship and promiseoffering to the deity? So, it is clearthat religion has outlived its utility incourse of history. Religion today is aprop in the hands of the exploiters.At one point of time in history, thereligious preachers starved, facedonslaught, physical assault. Butdefying such attacks, they fought.And today, the mosques-temples-churches have properties worthmillions of rupees. The priests,clergies and imams are issuingreligious sermons by sitting on hugewealth. This is how religion has lostits utility following inexorable courseof history. We need to understandthat Great Lenin had said that

Marxism has not clutched out of thethin air. In the finest continuation ofall the great men who appeared inhistory, of all the cults of truth andknowledge in all ages, Marxism hascome with the new truth inrecognition to the necessity of thenew era. He said that “only thosewho cultivate the treasure ofknowledge acquired by mankindover the ages are communists”. Westudy the life struggle of the greatreligious preachers of the yesteryears and try to acquire from themwhat is worth acquiring. We try tolearn from the lives of all great men.This is what Comrade ShibdasGhosh had taught us.

RSS had opposed freedomstruggle

You can have an example of theevilness of the views of the RSS-BJP from their attitude towards thefreedom movement of our country.Golwalkar, their ideologue, had said,“The theories of territorialnationalism and of common danger,which formed the basis for ourconcept of nation , had deprived usof the positive and inspiring contentof our real Hindu Nationhood andmade many of the ‘freedommovements’ virtually anti-Britishmovements. Anti-Britishism wasequated with patriotism andnationalism. This reactionary viewhas had disastrous effects upon theentire course of the freedomstruggle, its leaders and the commonpeople.”10 See for yourself howdangerous these words are. Theconcept of Indian nationalism whichgrew throughout the entiregeographic area of India centring onanti-British imperialist movement isstated to be disastrous. According tohim, their concept of Hindunationalism has been disturbedbecause of emergence of theconcept of Indian nationalism. In hisopinion, the very contention that theanti-British imperialist movementwas patriotic and nationalistic wasreactionary; the leaders who talkedof nationalism while opposing theBritish imperialist rule were allguided by reactionary thoughts. TheRSS-BJP and their leaders think thatone should have raised the slogan ofHindu nation. If the concept of oneunified Indian nation which grew incourse of freedom movementagainst the British imperialistsembracing the Hindus and Muslimsalike and irrespective of all religions,castes, creeds and ethnicities iscalled reactionary, then, according tothe RSS, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan,Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala LajpatRai, Netaji Subhaschandra,Kshudiram, Bhagat Singh, Surya

Sen— all were reactionaries andtraitors because they did not talk ofHindu nation. The reality is that hadnot there been British imperialistrule, the unified Indian nationalismwould not have grown. What wasthe condition of India before Britishrule? There were some Hindu kingsand Muslim nawabs. Before theMuslim kings came, there weresome isolated Hindu kingdoms. Butthey were not unified as a nation. Ifthe Britishers had not come and theBritish rule had not established acommunication system to linkvarious places, fostered improvedtrade and commerce through animproved communication andthereby developed an integratedeconomy through which had grownnational capital, India would haveremained disintegrated into separateBengali national state, Odishanational state, Gujarat national state,Tamil national state and so forth. IfHindu is a nation based on religion,then why is Nepal a separate stateand nation? Nepal is a country ofHindu religion. Nepal is a state, nota state based on Hindu religion, butas a distinct national entity. In theentire Middle-East, in the Arabworld, there are so many states.But all are Muslims. How could somany states be established whileIslam is being professed by all? Soit is clear that nationhood does notgrow, state does not come into beingbased on religion. So, please bear inmind that the RSS, the mentor of theBJP was opposed to Indianrenaissance, opposed to anti-Britishimperialist freedom movement. Thatis why, the RSS did not join thenational freedom struggle. Whereare they leading India to with thisflawed unhistorical theory? The factis capitalism needs this distortiontoday. If the people could be carriedwith this flawed concept, they wouldnot protest, question or argue even ifthe crisis mounts in their life. Theywill remain intoxicated with thefatalistic thoughts, thoughts of havingcommitted sin in previous birth,decrees of fate and such otherbackward notions. This is fascistculture. Capitalism is trying to invokethe same in a more organized waythrough the BJP. Of course it is truethat in this country, there areobstacles before doing so. AlreadyComrade Shibdas Ghosh had pointedout that notwithstandingcentralization of monopoly capital,there is contradiction betweenregional capital and monopolycapital. Small capital exists inabundance. Also there isregionalism. These all obstructgrowth of all-out fascist nationalunity. The educated people and the

liberal democrats constitute aformidable force. They would notaccept growth of fascism so easily.They would protest and build upmovement. There will be fight. Thisis the reality. If we can correctlydevelop class and mass struggles,we can confront this danger. But asMarxist revolutionaries, as genuineleftists, we must understand that weare going to face a grave danger.(At this time, it began to raintorrentially. Comrade ProvashGhosh asked the gathering if hewould continue or end there. Thepeople who assembled there saidloudly that Comrade Provash Ghoshshould continue his speech).

The RSS is raising bogey of‘Hindu Nation’. But I want to you toremember an observation byRabindranath in this regard. He said,“it will not be enough to recognizeHindu minds only in India. Thedevelopment of literature, art,sculpture, science, etc. in variegatedopulence has made its acquaintancethrough fusion of the Hindus and theMuslims.”22 The RSS-BJP aretalking of ancient tradition. If that bethe case, then there was GoutamBuddha in this country as well.Buddha did not believe in god.Mahavira, the exponent of Jainismalso did not believe in god. In thiscountry, there were materialistphilosophies i.e. philosophy of SaintCharvak, Lokayat philosophy andsuch others. Did this country haveonly Vedantic philosophy? The RSS-BJP would not cultivate thosephilosophies in the name of traditionbecause those pose danger to theirtheory of Hindutva or Hindu nation.What they want is blind faith, blindreligionism. That only can assurecapitalism. That is what they aretrying to do. We must understandthat.

I also want to dwell on anotherpoint. In this country, there has beentoo much of vulgarization of theword secularism. The Congresshitherto explained secularism asequal encouragement to all religions.In the name of encouraging allregions, it was Hindu religion whichwas encouraged under theleadership of Gandhiji. Otherwisethe country would not have beendivided. Pakistan would not havebeen created. Gandhiji himself led alife of Hindu monk. In the freedommovement, there was dominance ofupper caste Hindus. So the so-calledlower caste people — we, ofcourse, do not consider anyone aslower caste — also did not join thefreedom movement. The uppercaste Hindus only controlled thefreedom movement. What is meant

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Secularism implies that religion would notintervene in social and political affairs

Contd. on page 9

by secularism in the truest sense ofthe term? Secularism which markedits advent in Europe duringrenaissance held that the statewould neither encourage nor opposeany religion. Religion will have noplace in politics, economics,education or culture. Religion wouldremain a private affair of theindividuals. If anyone desires, hecan follow religion. If anyone doesnot, he need not. Someone canbelieve in god, some may not. Thisis true secularism. But the reformistCongress leadership, in the interestof the compromising bourgeoisie, didnot allow this true concept ofsecularism to take root in thiscountry. Subhaschandra also saidthat religion will have no truck withpolitics. Politics will be conductedbased on science, economics,political science, etc. He said,“Religion should be totally kept outof politics. Religion should be one’spersonal matter. There should be fullliberty for an individual to professany religion he wants as a humanbeing. But politics should not beguided by religion or anysupernatural concepts. Politicsshould be guided by economic,political and scientific reasoning.”9

He also said, “Hindu Mahasabhahas sent the monks and femaleascetics to solicit votes with tridentsin hand. Every Hindu bends his headby seeing saffron cloth and trident.Hindu Mahasabha has appeared inthe scene by taking advantage ofand defiling religion…. isolate thesetraitors from the national life. Do notlisten to them. We want that allfreedom-loving men and women ofthe country serve the countryunitedly and intently.”23

Rabindranath also opposed infusionof religion in politics. Saratchandraalso told the same thing. But thistrue secularism has not beenpractised in our country. TheCPI(M), CPI also did not bring trueconcept of secularism before thepeople. Otherwise, could theirposition be so pathetic? Theworkers, supporters and voters ofthe CPI (M) are joining the BJP inlarge number. Just think what kindof revolution and leftism the CPI(M)has taught its workers andsupporters. In the last election, theHindu CPI (M) swung towards theBJP, the Muslim CPI (M) sided withthe TMC. Such is the kind ofcommunism, leftism and secularismthe CPI (M) has taught. It has onlypractised opportunism for the sakeof votes.

False promise of developmentOf late, the word ‘development’

is being uttered by all the rulingparties. Whoever contests election,talks of development. This is adeceptive slogan which people arealso often carried by. Never isasked the question, development forwhom? The society is class-divided.It is divided between labour andcapital, oppressor and theoppressed, the rich and the poor.Whose development then theelection-oriented parties are talkingabout? If it is development of theexploiters, the capitalist class thenthat is bound to entail severe crisisin the life of the workers andpeasants. Because, there isantagonistic contradiction betweenthe class interest of the capitalistsand the class interest of the workersand peasants. Development of bothcannot take place together. TheCPI(M) used to talk of‘development’. Now the TMC isalso saying that. So is the BJP. Thus,all of them are duping the people.Look at the character of thebourgeoisie today. Once during thedays of French revolution, capitalismraised the slogan of nationalism,national industry, national marketand national economy. In those days,nationalism was progressive. In ourcountry, there was slogan fornational freedom from the rule ofthe British imperialists. Thebourgeoisie itself gave slogan fornational industry, acceptance ofnational goods and boycott offoreign goods. At that time, thenational bourgeoisie wasprogressive. But today the nationalbourgeoisie has entered the stage ofmonopoly, has been exportingfinance capital abroad for exploitinglabour and raw material of foreignlands, has given birth to multi-nationals. On the one hand, it isgoing overseas to exploit foreignmarket while on the other hand,through mutual understanding, it isinviting foreign capital to exploit thedomestic market. There is nothingleft of nationalism in the bourgeoisietoday. Multi-nationals have nonation. The whole world is their landfor plunder. Now even ForeignDirect Investment is invited indefence industry, the industry ofarms manufacturing. Because, theruling national bourgeoisie needsmore foreign capital and moderntechnology for manufacturingsophisticated arms. Indian capitalismdesires to be equipped with latestammunition. Because it itself hasattained the stage of imperialism.

Just the other day, prime ministerModi went to Nepal. He would alsobe visiting Sri Lanka, Malay andBangladesh. Once Advani wasmade to resign when he praisedJinnah. But, under pressure of thecorporate house, the prime ministerof Pakistan was invited on the dayModi took oath. Why? Because, theIndian monopolists want themarkets of Nepal, Bangladesh,Pakistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.Now the Indian capitalists wantmarket for their goods. So, there isa change in the approach of theRSS-BJP. The Indian capitalistshave already invested Rs 32,426lakh crores abroad. Indian capitalistsare running industries in the Middle-East, Europe, Latin America andeven the USA. You have heard ofMittal. He is among the first top tenrich persons in the world. This iswhere the Indian bourgeoisie istoday. In order to establishdominance in the markets of othercountries particularly the countriesof south-East Asia, what is neededis both power of capital as well aspower of military. That is why allsuch things are being done. So,nothing of nationalism is left in theIndian bourgeoisie. It has noconcern for the country. What is itsattitude towards the people? Asgreat Stalin had said, to thecapitalists, human beings are nothingbut raw material, human rawmaterial. As coal is required in thefactories for being burnt into ashesin the machines, labour is alsorequired in the industries so that allits flesh and blood is squeezed to runthe wheels. It is throughappropriation of this labour powerthat the capitalists make profit. Sothey exploit people both as labour aswell as buyer of goods. Only for thisthey need people. And the country isnothing but their turf of exploitation.Capitalism has come to this stagenow. The very concept of nationand sovereignty has changed in theperiod of multinational. Thecapitalists incite national feeling onlyif there is a war centring on market.If war breaks out over capture ofmarket, the capitalists would againfoment national sentiment in theform of national jingoism.

What is the condition of theworld because of fierce capitalistoppression and exploitation? Thewealth owned by only 85 persons isequivalent to the wealth at thedisposal of 350 crores of people.See for yourself how wealth hasbeen concentrated in the hands of afew. 300 crore people in the world

earn Rs 155 per day. Rs 77 is thedaily income of 120 crore people.This is the daily income of 420crores (4.2 billion) of people. This iswhat constitutes the world capitalistmarket. Then what is the conditionof that market? Just the other day,the Indian President said in a speechthat 66 crore out of 120 croreIndians have no job. If 66 crorepeople are unemployed, what is thecondition of the capitalist market inthis country? We are of the opinionthat the actual figure ofunemployment is over 80 crore and85% people live below poverty line.There is acute market crisis roundthe globe. When a tiger eats a deer,the cub in the womb of the deer isalso consumed. So, deer virtuallybecome extinct causing shortage offood for the tiger. Similarly, thosewho are herbivorous eat away eventhe roots of the grass. So, there is nograss left for eating in future.Capitalism is like that; it squeezespeople so much that it cannotprotect even its own market forexploitation. Today, capitalism isenmeshed in insoluble market crisis,what is called to be over head andears. The capitalists have coined anew word, quasi-permanentrecession. It means almostpermanent recession. This is what isgoing on in the world. Sometimesproduction increases by 2%, only tofall by 3% after two or threemonths. Really, world capitalism isnow over head and ears. All thegovernments are running on debts.Foreign debt of our country is Rs 2,41, 56, 000 crores. Fiscal deficit ofthis year is 61% of the total budgetincome. Most of the earnings of thegovernment are spent on repaymentof debt. As a result of this, priceswill soar further. Taxes willincrease. There will be printing ofhuge quantum of currency noteswhich will push up inflation.Whatever little subsidy is providedtowards food and fertilizer would bewithdrawn. And the multi-nationalsand corporate sector would intensifytheir exploitation. Unemployment,closure, retrenchment, appointmentof contract labour in place ofpermanent labour will increase moreand more. How is it that thiscapitalism will exist and yet therewill be development? Even thealmighty god who is worshipped bythe believers cannot rescue capita-lism from this crisis. Long back,great Marx had said that capitalismwhich brought industrial revolutionwould itself destroy the industries.

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Capitalism is only destroyingindustry today

Present day capitalism is adangerous enemy of the mankind.In its parliamentary democracy,there is ‘parliament’ but no‘democracy’. Nowhere there isdemocracy. The slogan of thebourgeoisie during the days of itsrising had been of equality-fraternity-liberty. Where is thatequality? On the one side, there arethe oppressors while on the other,there are the oppressed. There isacute discrimination, no equality.Two world wars have destroyedpeople of many countries. Where isfraternity? The imperialists aregenerating war among the countries,perpetrating murderous attacks.Israel is razing Palestine intorubbles, indiscriminately killing thePalestinians. You are shaken bythese news everyday. By wavingthe flag of parliamentary democracy,the US imperialists have destroyedIraq, Libya, Afghanistan. Gone arethe earlier days. Fraternity has cometo such a pass now. Liberty todaymeans liberty of the exploiting classto loot and oppress with alacrity,liberty to chain the people. This hasbeen the import of the slogan ofequality-fraternity-liberty of thebourgeoisie today. The bourgeoisleaders today are hypocrites, cheats.During the freedom movement, ourleaders were the guardians of thenation. The youth used to learn fromSubhaschandra, Deshbandhu,Rabindranath, Saratchandra. Youthswere roused by Vidyasagar—Vivekananda. What will the boys

and girls learn from today’s leaders?Capitalism is destroying humanfaculties and values. There is nodearth of cult of religion. So manytemples, mosques and churches arethere. So many religious festivals,fairs are organized. There is somuch shout in triumph ofdemocracy. Alongside all these,there is a competition over addictionto liquor, drug, gambling and satta,ugly remarks centring on woman’sphysique and rape. An old man israping a child. A teenager is rapinga woman of his mother’s age. Didanyone witness such things earlier?This is the ‘development’ story ofIndia. This is the kind of ‘progress’the country has registered. ComradeShibdas Ghosh had said long backthat fascism is destroying the veryprocess of man-making, isdestroying values. Neither religiousvalues nor the humanist values offreedom movement are workingtoday. Revolutionary proletarianvalues have not yet reached thelarger section of the masses. So,there is a vacuum. Human essencedevelops centring on certainideology and value. Once religionprovided values. Thousands of yearsback, great characters appearedbased on religion. Later, Europeanrenaissance and democraticmovement, freedom movement ofour country provided values. Stillhigher values evolved based on theproletarian revolution in Russia,China and Vietnam. Today, thosevalues are absent.

There is a terrible vacuum in therealm of values. There is no peacein any family. Too much of unrest,separation and bitterness are

devouring the families. The childrendo not take responsibility of oldparents, drive them away fromhome. This is the kind of civilizationcapitalism has developed. Will it beallowed to continue? Either spurt inunemployment, poverty,retrenchment, starvation deaths,deaths in absence of medicaltreatment, rape of women, drinkingof liquor, proliferation of gamblingand satta and destruction of familylife and rule of the Congress-BJP-CPI (M)-TMC should continue orthere should be a chang? Realchange can come by only throughoverthrow of capitalism byrevolution. That is the path shown byComrade Shibdas Ghosh. SUCI(C)is the Party to lead that revolution.

Yes it is true that socialism hasbeen dismantled in Soviet Union andChina. Subhaschandra,Rabindranath, Saratchandra, Nazrul,Premchand, Subramania Bharati,Romaine Rolland, Bernard Shaw,Einstein would have shed tears inpain if they saw this dismantling ofsocialism. None of them was acommunist. Yet they all had highregard for socialism, held socialistSoviet Union led by great Stalin inhigh esteem. They made lot ofobservations in this regard.Rabindranath had said that SovietUnion had been the biggestpilgrimage of his life. WhenSubhaschandra was losing the battleof INA, he exuded confidence bysaying that Stalin was alive and hewould show the path to the mankind.This very Soviet Union wasdismantled by the imperialists-capitalists-revisionists. But, there isno scope of despair for that. We are

immensely pained but we are notdepressed. Because we know thatno great movement can achievevictory at one stroke. Buddhism,Christianity, Islam as well asHinduism had to fight for hundredsof years to achieve victory.Repeatedly, they faced defeats. Thereligious preachers used to claimthat they had divine power. But stillthey had to fight for hundreds ofyears. It has taken over 350 yearsfor bourgeois democratic revolutionto score victory in Europe. In ourcountry also, the freedom movementcontinued for so many years. Asagainst that, the first exploitation-free socialist society in the worldexisted for only 70 years in SovietUnion. Slave society, monarchy andcapitalism constitute together anexploitative system that has been invogue for thousands of years.Compared to these thousands ofyears of exploitative orders, 70 yearsare virtually nothing. Socialism wasfacing danger from both inside andoutside. We must take lessons aboutthe cause of dismantling of socialismand raise our heads again. Marxismdid not come because Marx wantedit. Likewise the religious preachersand the bourgeois humanists did notappear because they so desired.Every ideology is born out of ahistoric necessity. Marxism has alsoemerged in recognition to socialnecessity. It is the urge for anti-capitalist socialist revolution whichgave birth to Marxism. Marxism isthe only philosophy which is basedon the experimentally verifiedscientific truth. The variousdisciplines of science like Physics,


When monopoly appeared and concentration of capitaltook place, economic base of fascism was established

little Andaman on 5th August. 15local people garlanded the portrait ofComrade Shibdas Ghosh. ComradeBalaram Manna who was the mainspeaker dwelt on the various burningproblems of people’s life andcriticized the various anti-peoplepolicies of the central government.Alipore Central Jail, Kolkata

SUCI(C) workers and leaderswho are serving life term after beingimplicated in false cases organized amemorial meeting on 5th Augustinside the Alipore central jail. It waspresided over by ComradeBansinath Gayen, veteran memberof the Party. Comrades JanardanPal, Anirudha Haldar, SrikantaHaldar, Harisadhan Malik and otherworkers, supporters, sympathizersoffered floral tribute to ComradeShibdas Ghosh. Comrades BansinathGayen, Janardan Pal and AnirudhhaHaldar spoke on the occasion.

Guwahati, AssamOn 5th August 2014, the Assam

State Committee held a massmeeting at the Lakshmiram BaruaSadan in Guwahati incommemoration of the 38thanniversary of demise of ComradeShibdas Ghosh, one of the fore-ranking Marxist philosophers of thepresent era and the founder GeneralSecretary of our PartySUCI(Communist). Comrade AsitBhattacharyya, Polit BureauMember of the Party was the mainspeaker. Comrade ChandralekhaDas, Assam State Secretary wasthe president of the meeting She inher presidential address highlightedthe essence of the teachings of

Comrade Shibdas Ghosh,elaborating at the same time on thecomplex and difficult situationprevailing in Assam. Comrade AsitBhattacharyya’s speech is publishedseparately. Ghatsila, Jharkhand

The memorial meeting was heldon 5th August at the Study Centre ofMarxism-Leninism-Shibdas GhoshThought in Ghatsila. The meetingwas presided over by ComradeRabin Samajpati, Jharkhand StateSecretary while Comrade RanjitDhar, veteran member of PolitBureau, SUCI(C) was the mainspeaker. Before the meeting,Comrade Dhar hoisted the red flagand placed wreath at the full bust

statue of Comrade Shibdas Ghosh.Speech of Comrade Ranjit Dhar willbe published later.Cuttack, Odisha

Memorial meeting was held atShaheed Bhawan hall, Cuttack, on8th August. Comrade Dhuryati Das,Odisha State Secretary presidedover. Here also, Comrade RanjitDhar, was the main speaker.Lucknow , UP

Memorial meeting was held on5th August at GangaprasadMemorial Hall. The meeting waspresided over by Comrade JagdishChandra Asthana, member of theUP State Secretariat while ComradeDhurjati Das, Odisha StateSecretary, SUCI(C) was the mainspeaker.Andamans

In observance of the MemorialDay, a discussion was organized at

Observance of 38th Comrade Shibdas Ghosh Memorial Day(In our last issue, we published the news of observance of 38th

Memorial Day of Comrade Shibdas Ghosh in various states. We herebypublish some more news of the observance.)

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Marxism is the only philosophy based onexperimentally verified scientific truth

Contd. on page 11

Chemistry, Physiology, Botany etc.work in different domains of nature.Each of these disciplines discoversthe laws governing the particulardomain. Marxism dialecticallycoordinated, co-related andgeneralized these particular lawsand discovered the generalprinciples, as a system of disciplinegoverning all movements in nature.Marx also discovered the particularlaws of social transformation anddevelopment. The capitalists usescience for development oftechnology for their industry,defence and agriculture, for the needof medical treatment, for exploringthe space, for manufacturingtransport vehicles and for meetingsuch other necessities of theirs. Butthey have tremendous opposition toapplying science in the realm ofphilosophy or in the sphere of socialdevelopment. They do not wantscience to govern evaluation ofideology and society, examination ofsocial problems. They are afraid toapply scientific philosophy in thesespheres. Because, in that event, thevery existence of capitalism will bethreatened. But we want science,scientific methodology in examiningeach of the domains andphenomena. The inexorable lawgoverning transition from primitivesociety to slave society, slavesociety to feudalism and feudalism tocapitalism also governs the transitionof capitalism to socialism andsocialism to communism. This is thecourse of history. This is theteaching of Marxism. This is whatComrade Shibdas Ghosh taught usand built up the Party to lead therevolutionary transformation.

CPI, CPI (M) never followedMarxism

He saw that the dream of thepioneers of Indian renaissance andleaders and martyrs of freedomstruggle did not materialize in thetransfer of power. The desiredliberation did not come by. Trueliberation means establishment of asociety free from exploitation. Sincethere was no real communist partyon this soil, he built up the SUCI (C)as the genuine communist party tofulfil the necessity of freeing thesociety from exploitation. The partycarrying the name communist partyof India from which was formed theCPI (M) by split never grew as atrue communist party. What is itshistory? You will be surprised toknow that in 1925, great Stalin hadsaid that the big national bourgeoisie

was compromising with the Britishimperialists while the smallbourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisrevolutionaries were fighting theBritish rulers. He advised that thecommunists should forge unity withthis petty-bourgeoisie and isolate thecompromising bourgeoisie from thefreedom movement. But when theGandhites cornered uncompromisingfighter Subhaschandra andcompelled him to resign from thepost of Congress President and thensuspended him, these so calledcommunists stood by the Gandhitesand did not support Subhaschandra.This is the history of the so calledcommunist party. Otherwise, thevery character of our freedommovement would have beendifferent. In China, great MaoZedong had formed unity with Dr.Sun Yat-sen, a nationalistrevolutionary like Subhaschandra, toprepare the ground for successfulaccomplishment of proletarianrevolution. Similar role could havebeen played by supportingSubhaschandra. Subhaschandrahimself wanted that. On the eve ofRamgarh left consolidationconference, he exhorted the CPI tojoin so that the base of communismcould be created in India. The socalled communists did not attendthat conference because they werebusy arriving at a compromise withthe Gandhites. This so calledcommunist party of India did not jointhe August movement of 1942.When the whole country was inferment, this so called communistparty took side of the Britishimperialism. Great Stalin hadreprimanded them by expressingdisgust at their shameful support toBritish imperialism. This was therole of the party named communistparty of India. Subhaschandra hadformed INA. INA had a tacticalunity with Japan. Whether thistactics was correct or not is a matterof debate. But, there cannot be anyquestion about Subhaschandra’spatriotism. But the communist partyjoined Nehru in callingSubhaschandra a stooge of Japan.This is the history.

Then the leaders of undividedCPI said that Hindus and Muslimsare two different nations. The RSSleaders would be delighted to knowthis version of the then undividedCPI. The CPI leaders supportedthe demand for Pakistan. This istheir past. What is the theory of theCPI and CPI (M) even today?According to their theory, Indianbourgeoisie is progressive. Their

thesis talks of people’s democraticrevolution. In characterizing Indianstate, the CPI (M) says that it is abourgeois landlord state headed bythe big bourgeoisie. Who is this bigbourgeoisie? It is the monopolists.Who can deny that monopoly hasappeared in India? Lenin hadshown that monopoly is the laststage of capitalism. But, the CPI(M) says it would fight againstfeudalism and imperialism and thenational bourgeoisie is its ally. Inkeeping with this theory the CPIand later CPI (M) had called IndiraGandhi as progressive and MorarjiDesai reactionary. They objectivelysupported emergency by supportingthe 20-point programme of IndiraGandhi. They did not participate inthe movement spearheaded byJayprakash Narayan. CPI hadopenly supported Indira Gandhiwhile the CPI (M) did it covertly.Taking advantage of that andexploiting the movement, the JanaSangh increased its strength. Hadthe CPI and CPI (M) joined themovement of Jayprakash Narayan,the BJP could not have come tothis position today. We alone triedto resist. But our strength waslimited. These very CPI (M)leaders had united with the JanataParty which had within its fold theRSS and the Jana Sangh. This theydid to gain in the 1977 election.They had come to power in thestate of West Bengal with thebacking of the Janata Party. Thisvery CPI (M) had joined handswith the BJP to support the V PSingh government. At Kolkatamaidan, Jyoti Basu had addressedjoint meeting alongwith Atal BehariVajpayee. Once with the support ofthe BJP, the CPI (M) ran theKolkata Corporation. These are allinstances of worst opportunism.

How SUCI(C) was formedthrough hard struggle

Comrade Shibdas Ghosh couldunderstand the character of this socalled communist party while hewas in the jail. He realized that thesaid party did not grow followingcorrect Marxist methodology. Theirleaders could be honest but they didnot adopt Marxism as the philosophyof life. They could not concretizeMarxism in India. So, he felt theneed of a real revolutionary party.He started his struggle with sixrevolutionary compatriots. Nobodyknew Comrade Shibdas Ghosh atthat time. There was no office ofthe Party, no place to stay, noavailability of food. Comrade Ghosh

had spent nights at Railway Station,at the parks of the city. So manydays he had spent without food or inhalf-starved condition. I have seenComrade Shibdas Ghosh goingwithout food in my school days.Today, there is so much ofarrangement for us. The Party hasgrown today substantially. But wecannot forget even for a momentthe days Comrade Shibdas Ghoshhad to live without food. UndividedCPI was a very big party at thattime. RSP formed from AnushilanSamity was a big party. So wasForward Bloc founded by NetajiSubhaschandra. They used to tauntus saying that if SUCI(C) were aparty, then bats were to be regardedas birds. They used to say thatSUCI(C) was not party but a club.But, Comrade Shibdas Ghosh careda fig. He moved with a firmdetermination. Some people told him:‘You will not succeed. You havehardly any follower. You have nopress publicity. You have no moneyeither. Your whole life will bedoomed.’ But Comrade ShibdasGhosh replied: ‘I shall die fightingand fight while dying. If there istruth in my ideology, history will givevalue to that one day. I might dieunder a tree. But I shall lay at leastone foundation stone of revolution.’Today our Party is growing andexpanding, spread to almost all thestates. Our growth has not beenbased on the number of MLAs orMPs like CPSU led by Lenin andCPC led by Mao Zedong. Has ourparty shown any sign of breakingup? Before last election, we had anMP, but this MP was not electedbased on our singular strength. Weat that time had a unity with theTMC based on Singur-Nandigrammovement. This time we foughtalone. We knew we had hardly anychance of winning. We, as arevolutionary party, fought theelection. We had people’s support.But we could not defeat moneypower-muscle power-media powerand the rigging machinery. But hasany of our members or workers leftthe Party? We have insteadincreased our strength. Guided byComrade Shibdas Ghosh Thought,our Party comrades are firmlycommitted to revolutionary ideology.We have got many new contactsduring the last election. Thesecontacts have been from the CPI(M) as well as other parties andfrom among the masses. We run ourParty by raising funds through saleof coupons in the streets and

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PROLETARIAN ERA SEPTEMBER 1, 2014 PAGE ELEVEN

Contd. from page 10


Guided by Comrade Shibdas Ghosh Thought, our Partycomrades are firmly committed to revolutionary ideology

collecting subscriptions by knockingdoor to door. There are hundreds ofour workers who are whole timers,who do not lead ordinary family lifeand are ready to give everything forthe Party and revolutionary struggle.

Comrade Shibdas Ghoshshowed way to move with headhigh

A new struggle is developingacross the country based onMarxism-Leninism-Shibdas GhoshThought. Comrade Shibdas Ghoshtaught us to respect the greatpersonalities and luminaries of thepast, learn from their life and struggleand apply Marxism-Leninism in ourown life. He has taught us that thekernel of revolutionary politics lies inthe higher standard of character, nottall talks or quotation mongering;what is needed is higher characterand human essence, winning othersby our behaviour, by affection anddecent conduct, nothing great can beachieved through falsehood. Hetaught us that every person would dieone day; but so long one would live,one must live raising his head high,even at the time of death, one’s headought to remain high; one ought notto bend before any injustice orfalsehood; one must protest each andevery injustice one comes across life,boldly and manly; here lies the realjoy of life. Remember, no one hasattained greatness based on thequantum of wealth amassed. In theworld, no one has become great onthe basis of his bank balance orproperty. Many of the great men hadstarved, had no shelter and had tobear with immense repression. Butthey are ever alive in our mindbecause of their human qualities,human essence. This is whatComrade Shibdas Ghosh has taughtus. Thousands of our workers areimbued with this teaching. We havebeen organizing working classstruggles on various demands both inthis state and other states in thecountry. We have been buildingstruggles over the demands of theworkers and poor peasants,agricultural labourers and ruralworkers. We are developingmovement against atrocities onwomen. We are fighting for thelegitimate demands of the studentsand youths. We are protestingagainst harrowing price rise. We shallcontinue to develop movementsagainst the anti-people policies of thecentral and state governments. Butwhat is the object of our movement?Our object is not just realizing the

demands but to educate the peoplewith the teachings of Marxism-Leninism-Comrade Shibdas GhoshThought, arm them withrevolutionary consciousness andculture, teach them how to conductstruggle, how to die while fightingagainst injustice, how to be unitedbased on ideology. We want unitedstruggle, innumerable people’scommittees to organize movement.Build up public committees andvolunteer corps in every locality. Allthe people who have assembled herein this vast gathering stretched uptoChowringhee do not belong to ourParty. But we tell all of them thatthey have been deceived for long.Now, stand up and resist. At whoseorder do the print and electronicmedia function? Who own themedia? The media is owned by thecapitalist class. Who provide thecrores of rupees spent in theelections? It is the capitalist classwhich provides that. Repeatedly, youhave been duped. You will be dupedagain. You must be united. Pleaseunderstand politics. Do not turn awayfrom politics by thinking that thecobbler must stick to his last. Thenwicked politics, nasty politics willreign and the country will be infurther peril. Please apply yourintelligence to evaluate the parties.Please be led by correct leadership.Please do not form opinion about aparty merely looking at itsorganizational strength. Examinewhether its ideology, principles,culture and character are higher ornot. Please build up the character ofthe students and youth. The youthand the students are being undone.This Bengal once gave birth toKshudiram, Pritilata, Bagha Jatin,Rammohan, Vidyasagar, Rabindra-nath, Saratchandra, Nazrul, andSubhaschandra? Can that Bengal befound today? First the CPI (M) andthen the TMC have ruined this state.Can these parties be accepted by thepeople of Bengal? That is why myappeal to you is to rouse the studentsand youth, set an example. Myappeal to the teachers is: Do not bendyour head before any party for thesake of job or promotion. You wouldnot die starving. Is it graceful for thecollege principals, university vice-chancellors or professors to oncerally behind the CPI (M) and thenchange colour overnight and tilttowards the TMC? Are the artistesand intellectuals who are selling theirconscience for getting some awardor title from the government, doingthe right thing? I shall tell the policepersonnel that for getting promotion

or avoiding transfer to a remoteplace, you had once worked for theCPI (M) and are now working for theTMC. By that, you are only invitinghate from the public. What will thechildren of your families learn fromyou? It is known to all that the lawsare promulgated not for the peoplebut for the sake of the bourgeoisie.Yet, when the industrialists, rulingparty leaders and workers violate lawto buttress their own interest, you areunable to protect law. Is law takingits own course? Law takes the coursewhich the capitalists and thereservitors delineate. How are youbeing used? They are enjoyingministry, pelf and power, becomingwho is who’s and getting all the nastyjobs done by you. And you are hatedby the common people. Pleaseponder over these questions. I shallagain call upon the people to build upvolunteer corps in the towns andvillages. 11th August, the day ofmartyrdom of Kshudiram, is drawingnearer. Observe that day in everyhome. Next, in September, there willbe birth anniversaries of twoluminaries, Saratchandra on 17th andVidyasagar on 26th. Observe theseanniversaries with due solemnity.Carry their messages to allhouseholds.

Save the children for the sakeof civilization

I shall tell another thing to youall. I have said this to my Partyworkers also. Now, I am suggestingthe same thing to the responsiblecitizens like you. On the holidays,at least in the morning, organizesports and games for the children,encourage them to take part inrecitation, in debates, in othercultural and social activities. Pleaseacquaint them with Vidyasagar,Rabindranath, Saratchandra, Nazrul,Subhaschandra, Bhagat Singh,Chandrasekhar Azad and suchother great men. Under the vileinfluence of blue films, cellphonesand dirty cinemas, the children ofyour families are getting polluted.Please save these children. Nomatter if they are not associatedwith our Party. But pleaseundertake this responsibility ofsaving these children for the sakeof civilization.

Civilization is yearning foremancipation—only Marxism-Leninism-Shibdas Ghosh Thoughtcan provide the path

The entire civilization is underthreat today. Human civilization didnot face such a big crisis earlier.Civilization is in tears, restive in

pain and suffering, yearning foremancipation. This emancipationcan only be brought about by therevolutionary teachings of Marxism-Leninism-Comrade Shibdas GhoshThought. Adopt these revolutionarythoughts and strengthen SUCI (C).More strengthened is SUCI(C),more will advance revolutionarystruggle and mass movement. Iconclude today with the hope thatyou will come forward tostrengthen the Party.

Source of Quotations1. Left wing communism, an infantile

disorder2. Free translation from Bengali

speech3. Free translation from Bengali

speech4. Letter to Ballantyne, Vidyasagar

Rachana Sangraha5. Letter to F. J. Mouat, Vidyasagar

Rachana Sangraha6. Karunasagar Vidyasagar—Indra

Mitra7. Letters written to Hemantabala

Debi and her son, daughter, son-in-law, brother and grandson

8. Quoted from the novels,Charitrahin, Pather Dabi and SeshPrashna

9. Crossroads — Subhas ChandraBose.

10. We or our nationhood – Golwalker11. Swami Vivekananda—Bani O

Rachana, Udbodhan, 1st Edition,1st Volume and 3rd Volume)

12. 12 (Letter to Mohammed Sarafrajof Nainital, Swami Vivekananda—Messages and Works,Udbodhan,(Compiled)

13. Bani O Rachana, 3rd Vol. 5thEdition — Swami Vivekananda

14. Future of India, SwamiVivekananda — Bani O Rachana,Bengali, Udbodhan, 1st Edition,5th Volume

15. Bani O rachana Sangraha, 7thVolume Ibid.

16. My Life and Mission17. Aamar Samarniti (My war

principles) Swami Vivekananda ——Collected Works, Bengali, 5thVolume

18. Swami Vivekananda — Bani ORachana , Bengalli, Udbodhan, 1stEdition, 2nd Volume

19. Swami Vivekananda CollectedWorks, Bengali, Volume 5

20. On the History of earlyChristianity

21. Some aspects of Marxism andDialectical Materialism, SW, IIVol. p.122

22. Essays, Vishwa Bharati23. Ananda Bazar Patrika, 14-05-1940

24. Critique of Hegel’s philosophy ofright

25. Adwaitya Vedanta, the scientificreligion

PAGE TWELVE SEPTEMBER 1, 2014 PROLETARIAN ERA

Extremely complex and difficult international-nationalsituation today urgently calls for elevated

understanding and development of true Marxistideology and its rapid spread : Comrade Asit Bhattacharyya

Contd. on page 13

In his address Comrade AsitBhattacharyya submitted at theoutset: Owing to medical adviceconcerning my illness I might not beable to duly perform the imminenttask of presenting the relevantissues in my speech with requiredadequate importance, as you mayexpect me to do on this day. So Iwill try my best to present a fewvery urgent points instead.

While paying his tribute toComrade Shibdas Ghosh, ComradeBhattacharyya said : It is fifthAugust today, this year marking thethirty-eighth death anniversary ofComrade Shibdas Ghosh, ourteacher and guide and the greatproletarian leader and one of thegreatest Marxist philosophers of thepresent era. Comrade ShibdasGhosh rose to the height of a rareunique character leaving the imprintof bold strides on the course ofhistory. Till his last breath, this greatthinker spent all his efforts towardsinstilling the noble ideology ofMarxism-Leninism firmly in us. Thathas given us a new life, has broughtus a new light in life. The day of hisdemise overwhelmed us andremains to overwhelm us with sucha profound grief, that I do not findany difference between the 5thAugust of 1976 and the 5th Augusttoday in 2014. At the same time Irecall Lenin’s teaching: Turn yourgrief into determination. I recall thesimilar clarion call of the greatleader of the proletariat ComradeShibdas Ghosh that the moreprofound the grief is in arevolutionary the more profound isthe sense of duty that it awakens inhim. Thus, the more intense is thesense of loss, the greater should bethe realization — what it impels usto take up, uphold and carry out ourtasks most courageously. And thismakes the Day we lost him, the 5thAugust, the saddest day in our partylife and it will ever remain so. Nolonger he is living with us as is thecase with other giant Marxistleaders like Marx, Engels, Lenin,Stalin and Mao Zedong. But despitethat, the way the thoughts of thesegreat leaders indubitably andunceasingly exist as the onlyweapon in the hands ofdowntrodden, oppressed andexploited people of the world, in the

same way the thoughts of ComradeShibdas Ghosh are not just illuminingthe desired path to the downtroddenexploited people of India, those areacting as the guideline to theexploited oppressed people of thewhole world as well. The ideologythe great leader Marx hadpropounded emerged before theworld as the most powerful weaponto the working class for theiremancipation from exploitation. Incourse of time through its constantand correct practice, most

of the highest understanding ofMarxism- Leninism that ComradeShibdas Ghosh has bequeathed to usand to translate it into reality withutmost sincerity and therebytransform the unbearable pathos,pain and grief at the loss of such agreat personality into the unflinchingsense of responsibility.

While analyzing briefly thepresent economic-political-socialsituations in international andnational fields in the light of thethoughts of Comrade Shibdas Ghosh,Comrade Bhattacharyya said: Thisyear 5th August is being observedunder very difficult international and

latter there were wars betweenstates, and the entire world gotentangled into those wars, is notalways to be found in the warstaking place these days. Most of thepresent wars or war-like conflictsare turning out to be deadly clashesbetween peoples. A section ofpeople are falling into the traps ofcapitalist-imperialist powers andtheir subservient political parties;they are becoming victims of theircunning instigations andprovocations. Thus people of onegroup are pouncing upon people ofanother group; are bringing aboutcruel ghastly massacres. Neither dothese clashes show any signs ofending. Not only that. Provoked andfanned by imperialist designs thoseare spreading out with time. At thesame time on critical ultimateanalysis one can note that thesepainful events are not without forcesconducting these as operators frombehind; rather everywhere it is thecapitalists and their subservientpolitical forces and parties which areacting as the triggers and movers ofthese fratricidal clashes and killings.Losing everything from the all-outexploitation of capitalism and itssubservient forces and therebyjoining the ranks of proletariat,common people, in course of theirfrantic efforts for survival, are alsolosing their sense of rationality andjudgment. From all this, it can beeasily surmised that it is theeconomic factor which is acting asthe root factor behind emergence ofthis dangerous situation. Obviously,these wars are not fixing capitalism-imperialism as the main enemy andare not being directed towards thegoal of emancipation from theirexploitation. Rather, in consequenceof these, roots of capitalism-imperialism are driving deeper andmore firmly into one country afteranother. These hapless warringpeople do not even have beforethem the ideology which can helpthem correctly understand theheinous designs of the capitalistclass and make themselves freefrom clutches of these designs. As aresult, on one hand suicidal wars andclashes and on the other all-pervasive exploitation of thecapitalists are causing people to diepointlessly in millions. There isvirtually no single country wherepeople are being able to live free

(This is the speech of Comrade Asit Bhattacharyya delivered at the 38th

Memorial meeting of Comrade Shibdas Ghosh in Guwahati on 5th

August, 2014)

historical res-ponsibility. You musthave noted that the entire world isnow in the tight grip of capitalism.Barring the two states, North Koreaand Cuba, the entire world grippedunder capitalism is being ravaged byit. This capitalism is no longer in itsage of development; it has nowbecome totally decadent capitalism,which everywhere on the earth hasassumed the shape of the worstpossible imperialism. At the sametime, it has done away with all kindsof democratic values and hasassumed the character of fascism.Long back Comrade Shibdas Ghoshlucidly and elaborately illustrated allthis to us.

You are aware of the first andthe second world wars. There hasnot yet been any third world war, soto say. But the happenings all overthe world make no less than a thirdworld war. Almost every countryover the globe has turned into abattlefield. Whichever continent youmay look at, Asia, Africa, Europe orAmerica, everywhere some kind ofwar is continuing. Some of thesemay be military or economic warsbetween two states; but there is anotable fundamental differencebetween these wars and the first orsecond world wars. The way in the

continuation of the philoso-phicalstruggle which the forbearers hadlaunched, we find furtherdevelopment of its understandingmaking it more precise, morepenetrating, in the hands of one ofthe great Marxist thinkers of this eraComrade Shibdas Ghosh. Thisempowered the revolutionaries ofthe working class with higherconsciousness and a fighting zeal,showing clearly their path ofemancipation in the changedinternational situation. True, on thisvery particular day we dwell afreshupon different facets of histeachings. But Comrade ShibdasGhosh’s thoughts and teachingsmake such a weapon, such aninstrument that we try everyday topresent it to toiling people, so thattheir struggle for emancipation isaccelerated and the revolutionarymovement in India advances fasteralong the correct path. Historywould not pardon us if we do notaccomplish this task consciously andin the right manner. It needs nopointing out that observing the 5thAugust is no ritual. It is on this Daythat we, the leaders, the cadres andthe masses stand united to takepledge once more to equipourselves further with the realization

i m p o r t a n t l ythrough ther e l e n t l e s sefforts of giantMarxist leadersof later period,that ideologyattained newerheights, itsunderstandingreached newd i m e ns i o n s .Following thesame process in

n a t i o n a lcircumstances.We mustcorrectly assessthat, becausewithout ap r o p e runderstandingof internationaland nationalsituations wewould not beable to correctlydetermine our

Comrade Asit Bhattacharyya

PROLETARIAN ERA SEPTEMBER 1, 2014 PAGE THIRTEEN

Contd. from page 12

Comrade Asit Bhattacharyya on 5 August

Even successful mass uprisings need correct ideology andleadership to protect them from bourgeois counter-onslaughts

from these onslaughts. So you seefor yourself, this war-laden situationall over the world has its roots incapitalism and capitalist economy.All this is once more making it clearthat economy is what determineseverything else.

The national situation is nodifferent. In India, too, the samescenario is repeating itself, the samepeople versus people war. What doyou see in Assam? Contradictionsbetween Assamese and non-Assamese, between Boro and non-Boro, between Rava and non- Rava:all these giving way to endlessbloodbath. This has become a timewhen a poor Rava wouldunhesitatingly kill a poor Muslimfellow or the reverse, one act givingway to the other in reaction, thoughboth the killer himself and the killedbelong to the exploited class, bothare oppressed. Such communityclashes with fratricidal bloodshedare coming up glaringly all over thecountry. The capitalist class are hellbent today upon ensuring that theydo not have to face any situation ofthe sort of armed revolution likethose of Russian or Chineserevolutions. So they are takingrecourse to thousand and onedeceptions and designs, are framingnewer and newer means andmethods of pushing people into thevortex of self-annihilation. So it isclear that these conspiracies, thesetactics of the capitalist class must berepulsed and shattered. There is nosecond road to confront thesituation. It is also an infallible truthat the same time that people dopossess the necessary power toaccomplish this task. If the exploitedpeople can stand up united and thusstrong, in the right sense of the term,in no country on this earth can thecapitalists-imperialists holdthemselves in power for evenminutes together. You must have

noted that in the last few years indifferent Asian and Africancountries, people through their massuprising, albeit transient, couldoverthrow their oppressive rulers atfair ease. But it is equally true thathaving done this without beingorganized on the edifice of correctideology they could not reach theirdesired goals. Rather, thesubservient forces of capitalistsadopted newer tactics to come backto power with newer cloaks on.

The moot question is, whowould provide people with thispower, this required ideologicalunderstanding. Here the word ‘who’does not mean any individual; itstands for the ideology. Marxism-Leninism, dialectical materialismfounded upon science is that avowedideology of the present days.Marxism is an invincible ideologicalweapon in the hands of exploited,downtrodden people of the world.The historic necessity arising in thepresent difficult situation is to stepup and intensify the struggle forcorrectly comprehending andeffectively conveying to the massesthis weapon of Marxism which hasbeen further enriched by all thegreat leaders like Engels, Lenin,Stalin, Mao Zedong and ComradeShibdas Ghosh. This process cannotmove ahead, and hence revolutioncannot be brought in until and unlessone can correctly and properly carryout the struggle for developing thedesired comprehension andrealization of Marxism within one’sself. Revolution connotes afundamental radical change of anexisting condition and system. If wecannot combat the present situationon the strength of Marxism-Leninism- Comrade Shibdas GhoshThoughts, it will become still moredevastating. Then you see,revolution depends upon correctrealization of its proper ideology. Incontinuity of Marx, Lenin

pronounced that revolution isinvincible and inevitable in thecourse of history. Today, theconcrete condition for revolution totake place has matured. What isneeded is the midwife. Who is to actas that midwife? It is therevolutionary political party imbuedand invigorated with Marxism-Leninism- Comrade Shibdas GhoshThoughts. Each and everyrevolutionary must engage him- orherself in the struggle to becomeglowing icon of this ideology ofMarxism- Leninism, so much so thathe or she acquires the power toattract downtrodden, exploitedmasses like a magnet. Through thisstruggle of acquiring the correctrealization of Marxism- Leninismwill be born a revolutionary, that firstrevolutionary will give birth to asecond and so on and on. This waythere will emerge unending numbersof revolutionaries through whom theidea “Life is for revolution” will bemanifested glowingly. For that, first,these revolutionaries will have towipe out all meanness, all traces ofself-centredness from withinthemselves and thus cleanthemselves relentlessly, will have tofree themselves from the sense ofprivate property and uproot allvestiges of individualism from withinthemselves and, thus prepared, willhave to go to the masses, organizethem, to immerse themselves in thetask of building up people’s class andmass struggles on the correct pathmaking if clear that in their own lifethey have no other existence thanrevolution, its ideology and struggle.Revolution will be ushered in only incourse of such struggles. The

second requirement is therevolutionary party. RepeatedlyLenin brought it to attention thatrevolution cannot take place inabsence of a revolutionary party andsuch a party cannot come into beingwithout a correct revolutionarytheory. So it is needed that a genuinerevolutionary party must be foundedon the edifice of correct realizationof correct invincible revolutionarytheory struggle must be stepped upto higher and higher stages on thebasis of that theory in which everysingle revolutionary shall equiphimself to carry out the struggle toits logical end and therebydeveloping himself or herself intoworthiest revolutionary and in thisprocess of acquiring higherideological and organizationalstandard to emerge as immenselypowerful , invincible revolutionaries.Building up oneself in this manneramounts to strengthening arevolutionary party. Failure toconduct this struggle in the post-revolution days brought aboutproblems in Soviet Union and China.The leaders and cadres who weresupposed to bear the brunt of therevolutionary responsibility in theSoviet Union after Lenin and Stalinor in China after Mao Zedong, couldnot perform the correct historicalrole they were bestowed with. Theirthoughts and consciousness sliddown instead of rising higher; as itsinevitable consequence many ofthem became victims of capitalistthinking, knowingly or not. Asinevitable outcome of this, theunique beautiful creations of Lenin,Stalin or Mao which had astounded

Contd. on page 14

AIDSO organised a massive students demonstration in Bangalore on 19 Augustaganist delay in distribution of text books at Bangalore University

Eminent intellectuals protesting growing atrocities on womenat a Convention in Kolkata on 23 August organised by

Nari-Nigraha Birodhi Nagarik Committee

Peasants and women against land grab in Jaunpur U.P. on 1 August

PAGE FOURTEEN SEPTEMBER 1, 2014 PROLETARIAN ERA

Contd. from page 13

the world and overwhelmed it, brokedown in no time. The entire universeis subject to laws, is governed bylaws. Violation of those laws andmethodologies can only bring aboutdisastrous ends: the debacles simplyproved it once more.

On this background it is ofparamount importance that therevolutionary party of any countrymust be zealously guarded from anykind of erosion, deviation, distortionor any kind of decline stemmingfrom lowering of level of communistconsciousness. These points need tobe taken into account at the verybeginning while considering thequestions of preserving andprotecting the Party that ComradeShibdas Ghosh had founded andthereupon, of advancing the Indianrevolution towards its achievement.I wish to add firmly andemphatically that repulsing all thosebourgeois attacks and keeping ourparty correctly on the revolutionaryline equates also with defending theworld communist movement. It isbecause without correctly realizingthe latest and most illuminatingunderstanding of Marxism-Leninismthat Comrade Shibdas Ghosh hasbequeathed to us, we will not be ableto bring about any advancement atall of the communist movement inIndia or rather the world. It is also

Comrade Asit Bhattacharyya on 5 August

Thwart clandestine infiltration of bourgeois thoughts relentlesslywith revolutionary thoughts and developed ideological standards

absolutely essential for everybodywho aspires for revolution tocorrectly realize the more enrichedand elaborate understanding of thehistorical role of individual thatComrade Shibdas Ghosh hasenunciated. The situation arisingtoday in the entire world, the heinoustactics the capitalist class is adoptingto befool and distract people andthereby, trying to make it virtuallyimpossible to build up revolution: toresist and thwart all these we mustraise our understanding of Marxism-Leninism to much higher and higherstage. Through that not only theworld communist movement will becleared of its maladies, it willbecome stronger and speedier. Inthis struggle it is unquestionablyessential that we take up correctcult of acquiring Comrade ShibdasGhosh Thoughts and applying thosecorrectly in our personal life andconduction of revolutionarymovement as well. How fast wecan wipe out all the filth from withinourselves, can make our knowledgeand realization of ideology sharperwith every passing day, canrespond to this call of historicnecessity and engage ourselves inthe struggle covering all aspects oflife for building up communistcharacter, upon all these will dependthe growth and strengthening of theParty, SUCI (Communist). And this

is the course along which the road toIndian revolution will be madesmoother and wider; it will advancethe struggle for world revolution aswell. On these questions, that is, onthe question of strengthening theworld communist movement afreshwith new vigour and of advancingthe Indian revolution fast, on thequestion of speedy growth andadvancement of SUCI (Communist),we must recall every moment theunique struggle that ComradeShibdas Ghosh had carried out witha view to freeing every cadre fromall the ideas, thoughts and activitiesdetrimental to revolution. It is nottrue that because capitalism hasproved itself exhausted, it cannotcast anymore its harmful influenceson the cadres of revolutionarymovements. Rather the truth is thatit still holds the power to lead manyof the revolutionary cadres astray incase of absence of adequaterevolutionary consciousness in them.It is because of this, without fail, wemust remain ever-vigilant uponwhether any non- revolutionarytraits and tendencies are sprouting,may be subtly, in the Partyworkers. Each and every Partyworker must keep him- or herselfrelentlessly engaged in self-introspection. The leaders must alsotake it as one of their main tasks todestroy outright in the bud any

clandestine infiltration of bourgeoisideas and thoughts whenever theyfind it and to adopt every meansand methods to help the victimworkers to free themselves fromthese problems. We must alwayskeep in mind that capitalism is anever-flowing stream of deadly toxicair. Nobody can escape from it untiland unless he or she relentlesslywashes him- or herself clean withthe revolutionary thoughtsdeveloping the ideological standardevery moment. Be it leaders orcadres, capitalism would not spareanybody, in case there is notadequate resistance power. Todayon 5th August, the date on which welost this great thinker, we must takepledge united that in continuity ofand imbued with his life-longstruggle, we would not allowourselves to be lead astray from ourgoal by anything surreptitiouslyacting from behind the cloak ofreasons. We will thwart this heinousdesign by conducting all-out strugglerelentlessly and guided by histeachings. We must uproot privateproperty and the sense of privateproperty, individualism and even thelast vestiges, the last tips of theroots of most subtle self-centredthoughts. We, ourselves must be ourever-watchful sentinels. I end mydiscourse with this appeal to you all.

Long live revolution!Long live SUCI(C)!

Red Salute toComrade Shibdas Ghosh,

the great leader of the proletariat!

Students launch militant movement in Patna BiharStudents of Patna University

have been agitating all these yearsagainst the Vice Chancellor’s orderto strike off the names and cancelthe degrees of students againstwhom FIR had been filed forparticipating in movements between2007 and 2014. On June 5, AIDSOhad demonstrated at Patna andburned the effigy of the Chancellor.As the authorities of the PatnaUniversity closed down differentstudents hostels, students protestedwith indefinite dharna, masssignature campaign on streets and

other means . Instead of attending tothe problems of students, theauthorities however declared thatthere should not be any sort ofdemonstrations etc. on part ofstudents, teachers or the employees.When the students marched to theGovernor’s House in protest, thepolice lathicharged them. Aconvention was then organized inPatna College thereafter on July 16followed by students’ agitation thenext day when the police againlathicharged. From July 19, studentsset on strike; college and university

both remained totally closed. Thenfollowed one after anotherundemocratic decisions of theuniversity. It declared that studentswould be charged a fine of Rs.50per day for absence from class andin case of absence for fiveconsecutive days, given TCs andexpelled. Aggrieved, the studentsthen marched to the Assembly onlyto be ruthlessly beaten by thepolice— several sustaining seriousinjury. The girl students were evenmanhandled. AIDSO DistrictSecretary Comrade Saroj KumarSuman, Pushpa Kumari, SumanlataMourya,Sadhna Kumari, ShimlaMourya, Dipika Kumari were amongthose arrested. On July 25, all overBihar, Black Day was observed,demonstrations and blockades wereheld. This determined struggle led bythe AIDSO against theundemocratic steps and attempts atprivatization followed by theuniversity has drawn activesupports from other student unionsand organizations like AISA, AISFetc. towards the cause and themovement.

ProtestDemonstration

in HaryanaThe AIKKMS, Haryana unit

organized a peasants-workersprotest demonstration on 18 Augustat Tosham, Bhiwani in whichseveral vital demands were raisedand the effigy of the PrimeMinister was burned. In his briefaddress, District Secretary of theorganization Comrade Jile Singhbrought attention to the increasedonslaught from the BJP governmentled by Narendra Modi even duringthis short period it had come topower. As against that theAIKKMS was continuingmovement with demands ofdeclaring the state as drought area,restart of long-pending schemes,stopping land grabbing and eviction,withdrawl of rampant hike of pricesof diesel, fertilizers and pesticideetc., and other essential items.

PROLETARIAN ERA SEPTEMBER 1, 2014 PAGE FIFTEEN

On 30 July 2014 early morning,amidst heavy rain continuing fromprevious day, a massive flow ofmud and boulders came crashingdown on Malin village of Ambegaontaluka of Maharashtra in theWestern Ghats mountains ofwestern India. As the reports go, theentire village of Malin, barring theschool building, was washed away.Hundreds of villagers were trappedunder the rubble, scores of bodieswere recovered along with a fewsurvivors.

In this part of the countrylandslides are common in theWestern Ghats hills during themonsoon season. Two nearbyvillages were hit by landslides in2006-07 and the villagers are stillfighting with authorities forrelocation. Yet vulnerability oflandslides seems to have increasedmanifold in recent years withoutcausing any perturbation in thegovernment or local authorities. TheMalin tragedy was devastating,casualties and losses were evident,but there were still sadder parts ofthe incident that needed to bebrought out to gauge its gravity.

Since long people therepracticed terrace method ofcultivation on the hill slopes, calledPadkai system, carried outmanually on gradual slopes (notgreater than 50 degrees steep),cutting trees only where it wasessential and creating waterchannels for drainage . For the lastfew years, private money in disguiseof NGOs and then the AgricultureDepartment of the stategovernment came into the scene andpushed for improved terracingprojects. However, without caringto properly survey the land, theystarted using heavy machinery forquick large scale excavation,deforestation and flattening of landparticularly on steep hill slopes thatwere intrinsically unstable. They leftno water channels in fields to helpdrainage; on the contrary, theydumped excavated soil on the slopeswithout reinforcements or walls tohold it in place. Uprooting of treesand excavation loosened soil;deforestation on steep slopes addedgreater danger; dumping ofexcavated loose material createdmore of loose soil; machine-madepits or tranches held rain water forlonger than desired; all theseallowed rain water to get easilyabsorbed in the soil, loosen it furtherand act as lubricant. Thus use ofheavy machines over the past 3-4years has made the area extremelylandslide prone.

To add fuel to the fire, a

windmill project on Indo- Germancollaboration with huge corporatemoney invested has been givensanction, without any regulation ormonitoring, on the plea ofintroducing environmental friendlywind-energy. The project –workofficially felled 28,000 trees;unofficial reports place the figure ataround 3 Lakh. Roads with steepgradients were built from the baseof the hill to the top.

On these observations, the 2011report of the Western GhatsEcology Expert Panel headed by DrMadhav Gadgil, the internationally-acclaimed ecologist, predictedlandslides in the area triggered bylarge-scale deforestation coming inassociation with the said Indo-German windmill project. The Panelalso held that environmental damagetaking place along the WesternGhats can only be controlled if localpeople are fully involved in planningfor and monitoring the developmentwithout relying on the governmentmachinery. The local forest rangeofficer also had recorded that thearea belonged to the tracts of highrainfall and biodiversity-richevergreen forest, contiguous withthat in the Bhimashankar WildlifeSanctuary, and home toMaharashtra’s state animal, theMalabar Giant Squirrel. On these, hehad recommended that the windmillproject should not be sanctioned.The government first tried tosuppress Dr Gadgil’s report. Failingthat, they, as good as, buried thereport. They even came out withanother set of dubious findingsdiluting Gadgil’s recommendations;the range officer was overruled byhis superiors who cleared the projectby patently misrepresenting facts.Afterwards there were furtherwarnings on landslide. Last year theKasturirangan Committee in itsreport on the Western Ghats markedMalin along with two other villagesin the region as high-risk“Ecologically Sensitive Areas”.Even immediately before thetragedy took place, on 29 July at 6pm NASA released landslidepotential map, highlighting Malin,rather the entire Bhimashankarregion extending till Gujarat, as“strongly landslide prone”. TheSouth Asian Network for Dams,Rivers and People (SANDRP) hadalso posted an alert on its Facebookpage on the night of July 29.

But all these were simplyignored, or overlooked, with usualblame game starting now after thedebacle to fix the responsibility. Thepresent tragedy is a natural outcomeof all such gross negligence and

least concern for maintainingecological balance, however loudmay the authority cry to makepeople believe otherwise holdingheavy rain as the culprit. The handof man played foul on the nature tocause the latter bounce back in fury.The Malin landslide in an area whichshould have existed as a lush greenlocality of the evergreen forest ofthe Western Ghats is the latestexample of that fury of nature. Itcalls upon mankind to check theirrelentless unwise moves againstnature. Short of it, debacles similarto the Malin tragedy will recur nowand then only to take toll of humanlife and property, only to add to thesufferings of common poor peoplewho are already bend hard from thepressure of ruthless capitalistexploitation, from thousand and oneproblems of life and livelihoodplaguing their life.

In our write up in ProletarianEra on the Uttarakhand calamity lastyear, we pointed out in conclusionthat “Capitalism is facing acute crisisand recession, yet hankers formaximum profit and franticallystrives for keeping the system on.The capitalists are not leaving anysocial, activity or field of life,economy, politics, science,education, games, and others freefrom their octopus-grip of profit-

hunting.” We reiterate those wordsin characterizing this Malin landslide,an incident in nature brought aboutcriminally negligently by the people-in-power. And as in all such cases,here again it is amply demonstratedthat the governments which rise topower riding on the so-calleddemocratic processes and onslogans like augury of achchey din(good days) or development andsuch others, discharge their dutiessimply in service of the corporate,the rich, the moneyed, be it of landor abroad. Not only people cannotexpect them any more to stand fortheir life and livelihood; at every stepthey are going to find thesegovernments act ruthlessly cruel tothe people to make way for thecorporates. This is where capitalismhas come down to today. To ensuresafety, security, certainty, realprosperity and not the horriblyskewed development in favour ofthe rich, people will have to realizethat so long as capitalism continuesto exist, it will exist to torment andsqueeze people to the last drop oftheir blood. There is no escaperoute for people, including those ofMalin; on face of danger, it will befutile to search for a better abode;the only course that remains is tomake correctly-led determinedorganized struggle to overthrow thecapitalist system from its seat ofpower. The sad plight of Malinpeople is the latest eye-opener tothis end.

Oil companies are makingfabulous profit

The government has been systematically raising retail fuel prices onthe plea of rescuing loss making Oil Marketing companies. In January2013, the government had authorized the OMCs to increase retail pricesof diesel by Re0.50 every month to close the gap on their under-recoveries. While petrol prices have been fully deregulated, OMCs claimtheir under-recoveries for 2014-15 for subsidized LPG, kerosene anddiesel may cross Rs 1.07 lakh crore. In our earlier articles, we hadcategorically shown that this very contention of ‘loss making’ is a hoaxas the oil companies are trying to pose so called “under recovery’ as loss.In fact, they are all making profit.

Now that is corroborated by the findings of the Comptroller andAuditor General (CAG) in its latest report on pricing of petroleumproducts. CAG’s report summarized that the public sector oil companies–Indian Oil, HPCL and BPCL are making profits by selling oil andpetroleum products to consumers, contrary to the perception that they areselling oil at a loss. The gain, which could easily have been passed on toretail consumers, has been estimated to be around Rs 50,000 crore in fiveyears between 2007 and 2012. On the contrary, the OMCs have beenreporting ‘under recoveries’ to the tune of over Rs 1.10 lakh crore everyyear. The government auditor has observed that all these projected lossesare notional due to flawed petroleum pricing. The CAG report is believedto have detailed how state-owned oil companies adopted a pricingformula that resulted in windfall gains to them and even some privaterefiners. The federal auditor has disputed the under-recovery stories ofthese public sector OMCs and explained in detail how these could havebeen avoided to give relief to the consumers. The findings are based ona thorough scrutiny of accounts of IOC, HPCL and BPCL. (Source:—Times of India—02-07-14)

Malin landslide in Maharashtrareveals once more the cruel face of capitalism

RNI No. 13932/67P. R. No. KOL / RMS / /145 / 2013-2015

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF : PROVASH GHOSH

Edited & Published by Asit Bhattacharyya from 48 Lenin Sarani, Kolkata 700013 and printed by him at Ganadabi Printers and Publishers Private Limited,52B, Indian Mirror Street, Kolkata 700013. Phone : 2249-1828, 2265-3234 E-mail : [email protected], [email protected], Website : www.sucic.in

Please note change of address of our website :

Our website address is www.sucic.in

AIMSS strongly condemns ArunJaitley’s derogatory remark on the

ghastly Nirbhaya rape caseDr.H.G.Jayalakshmi, General Secretary, All India Committee of

AIMSS, issued the following statement on 25th August, 2014:The All India Committee of AIMSS severely condemns the

statement of the Union Finance and Defence Minister, Mr, Arun Jaitely, referring to the painful Nirbhaya rape and murder incident in Delhiwhich shook the conscience of the entire nation, as a small incident.He has said that the incident advertised world over was enough to costIndia billions of dollars in terms of global tourism. His clarificationsnotwithstanding his statement deserve severe condemnation. Not onlyit reflects his attitude of considering the rape a small crime but also hisconcern for business interests than the dignity, safety and security ofwomen.

It is still fresh in the memory of the people the irresponsibleremarks of leaders of different political parties like Mulayam Singh orTapas Paul on a serious issue like rape, which are diluting the crimeand emboldening the criminals. As suggested by Justice VermaCommission, time has come to enact a law providing for the subsequentdisqualification of elected representatives for making derogatorystatements for reinforcing gender bias contrary to the Constitutionalmandate.

Martyrs Day Observed inAndaman and Tripura

On August 11 in the morning,nearly 5 thousand students of LittleAndaman participated inprogrammes including a drawingcompetition organized in memory ofthe great martyr Khudiram Bose.Bijan Mondal , Secretary ofEducational and CulturalOrganisation addressed thegathering held on the same evening,with the Organisation PresidentMohan Mistry in conduction. Tocommemorate the occasion ofAugust Revolution of 1942 onAugust 9 Dr. TK Palit ChiefMedical Officer of the island andeducationist Dr. N Nehruaddressed a meeting held atNetajinagar in Little Andaman. Atthe meeting 9 of those early settlers

Significant victory ofAIDSO in Chhattisgarh

collegesIn the recent student union

elections in Durg district inChhattisgarh AIDSO has registereda number of significant wins. InScience College, Durg NishaDeshalhare has won the post of theAssistant Secretary in addition toAIDSO winning a classrepresentative. In KalyanMahavidyalaya Bhilai AIDSO haswon eight class representatives and

The Uttar Pradesh BhoomiAdhigrahan Birodhi Morcha( UttarPradesh Platform to Oppose LandAcquisition) has been carrying on amovement since long to opposeforcible acquisition of arable land forthe construction of NationalHighway from Lucknow toVaranasi. Also the authorities have aplan to build 17 by-pass roads. Ofthese, in Jaunpur alone 6 such roadswill be built over an area of 64 kms.In the process arable lands, shops,animal husbandry, trees and overand above earning of peasantswould suffer onslaught.

On August 1, a dharnaprogramme was held wherethousands of peasant women tookout a rally to the DistrictMagistrate’s office. At the dharnameeting, Parasnam Singh presided

over with Ravishankar Mourya inconduction. Speaking on theoccasion, District Secretary of theplatform and others criticized boththe state as well as the centralgovernments for their plans andprojects at the cost of people’sinterest. They exposed thegovernment policy of landacquisition saying 65% arable landwould be seized causing thepeasants serious damage. Thespeakers laid emphasis on thenecessity of strengthening themovement. A petition wassubmitted to the UP Chief Ministerthrough the District Magistrate. Aprogramme of setting up HumanChains was proposed to be held onAugust 24 against the land-acquisition policies of theGovernment.

UP Movement against Land Acquisition

who had initiated habitation in theAndamans were felicitated.

In a programme at Delhi GroundN.R.Rath, Principal, MayabazarCollege spoke. Another programmeof discussion was also organized atRamkrishna Bazar. In the differentschools of Andaman, the studentswore Khudiram memorial badgesand the teachers dealt on the life-struggle of the great martyr.

At Agartala, Tripura, the 107t h

martyr’s day was observed onAugust 11, with 107 candles being litat the outset and badge-wearingcontinuing for the whole day. Thisprogramme initiated by the AIMSS ,AIDYO and AIDSO hadComrades Sanjoy Chowdhury andMridul Sarkar as the speakers.

in Pankhajur College it has won thepost of the Secretary.

UP College studentslaunch movement atJaunpur

At Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh,students of Purbanchal Universityorganized a protest demonstration on7 August 2014 at the TD College,Jaunpur, against delay in bringing outexamination results and incompleteat that, against exorbitant fees-hikeetc. The programme includedburning of the effigy of Kulpati.

In Patna, on August 4, Comrade Krishna chakraborty, member, Polit BureauSUCI(C), discussing on ‘‘Difference among left and democratic forces and the

present situation.

On August 20, a huge rally was taken out by SUCI(C) Delhi State Committeeagainst privatization of potable water and electricity,

price-hike, atrocities on women etc.

At Agartala, Tripura, 107th Mertyrs’ Day Rally by AIMSS, AIDYO and AIDSO

BJP-RSS want to destroy the glorious tradition of Indian … · 2015-06-19 · Volume 48 No. 2...

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