CPIML Liberation

Press Release

Ara MP Sudama Prasad Returns Expensive Gifts Received from Railways

20 November 2024

Ara MP from CPI(ML) Liberation, Sudama Prasad, has returned the expensive gifts received from RITES and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited during the study tour of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways, conducted between 31 October and 7 November 2024. The tour covered Bangalore, Tirupati, and Hyderabad. The gifts included a 1-gram gold coin and a 100-gram silver block.

In a letter addressed to the Chairperson of the Railway Standing Committee, CM Ramesh, the MP remarked that traditionally, guests are presented with shawls, paintings, flowers, or other mementos. However, he strongly criticised the Indian Railways for giving unethical gifts such as a gold coin and a silver block.

Highlighting his concern, Sudama Prasad stated that when passengers are grappling with issues such as inadequate safety measures, fare hikes, lack of amenities, and disrespectful treatment by Indian Railways, gifting such expensive items to members of the Standing Committee is deeply unethical. He termed it a sinister attempt to silence MPs from raising public interest issues.

He further noted that railway employees are denied even minimum wages, forced to work on contracts, and subjected to exploitation by contractors. At the same time, common passengers are deprived of dignified travel conditions in general and sleeper-class compartments. Instead of introducing new trains for the poor and middle classes, the government has focused on premium trains like the Vande Bharat Express. This reflects the Modi regime’s attempt to deny railway services to ordinary citizens, he added.

As a Member of Parliament, Sudama Prasad expressed his indignation and disappointment over such gifts and has returned them as a mark of protest. He urged the government to prioritise addressing critical issues plaguing Indian Railways over indulging in such practices.

CPIML Strongly Condemns RSS Hooliganism at Udaipur Film Festival

November 17, 2024

The CPIML unequivocally condemns the cowardly disruption by RSS goons of the screening of Had Anhad at the Udaipur Film Festival. This brazen attack on democratic spaces and progressive art reflects the growing attack on freedom of speech under the fascist regime, which seeks to stifle any voices critical of exploitation and injustice.

The Udaipur Film Society organised this 3-day festival (15-17 November) as part of the Cinema of Resistance initiative to promote critical and socially important cinema. This year's festival, dedicated to the memory of thousands of Palestinian children brutally murdered by settler-colonial Israel, and to Professor G.N. Saibaba, a tireless advocate for people's rights, was disrupted on its second day. The RSS thugs demanded the removal of these dedications, spewed vile abuse against Palestinians and Professor Saibaba, and unlawfully halted the screening of Had Anhad.

Despite the organisers securing all necessary permissions, the administration failed to stop this undemocratic and unlawful act of RSS. Even the intervention of the District Collector proved ineffective in curbing the RSS’s hooliganism.

The CPIML stands in firm solidarity with the Udaipur Film Society in its brave stand against fascist intimidation. The refusal of the organisers to remove their dedication to Palestinian children and Professor Saibaba is a courageous assertion of democratic rights.

The Sangh Parivar’s fear of progressive cinema like Had Anhad, which exposes the politics of religion through Kabir’s poetry, underscores their broader fear of a growing popular consciousness. Art, especially people-centric cinema, challenges the exploitative status quo and inspires resistance against injustice.

We call upon all justice-loving individuals to condemn this attack on freedom of expression and stand united against the attacks on democratic spaces. CPIML reiterates its unwavering support for pro-people cinema and the Cinema of Resistance against the silencing of dissent.

In the middle of Jharkhand elections, today we celebrate the 149th birth anniversary of the great anti-colonial fighter Birsa Munda and the 24th anniversary of the foundation of Jharkhand. Birsa's clarion call 'Abua Disum, Abua Raj' (our land, our rule) and the Ulgulan (the great tumult) he led to liberate indigenous people from the clutches of colonialism landlordism and usury not only energised the anti-colonial freedom movement but also inspired the movement for a separate state of Jharkhand within free India.

After decades of heroic struggle Jharkhand was eventually formed on 15 November 2000. The Jharkhand movement was not just a movement for the formation of a separate state, it was driven by the Adivasi quest for rights over Jharkhand's rich biodiversity and resources and the movement for rights, recognition and security of Jharkhand's working people. Along with Shibu Soren and Binod Bihari Mahato, Marxist leader Comrade AK Roy played a pioneering role in orienting the Jharkhand movement.

In an ironic quirk of history, the separate state of Jharkhand has however been ruled mostly by BJP-led governments which have invoked the names of Jharkhand's legendary icons like Birsa Munda, Sidho-Kanho and Nilamber Pitamber only to crush their dreams and appropriate power to turn Jharkhand into a laboratory of corporate loot and communal hate. For the Sangh brigade, Abua Raj is nothing but Adani Raj.

Today let us rededicate ourselves to the mission to carry forward the radical legacy of Birsa Munda and realise the dreams of the Jharkhand movement. In this election season, every vote must be used to foil the BJP scheme of Adanification of Jharkhand's resources and bulldozing of the values and principles of Ambedkar's Constitution, adopted seventy-five years ago in this very month of November. Johar Birsa, Johar Jharkhand!

- Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPIML GS

#birsamunda

On SC Judgement on 'Bulldozer Justice'

- Dipankar Bhattacharya, GS, CPIML

The Supreme Court judgement calling out the paradigm of 'bulldozer justice' as an assault on the very foundation of rule of law is a timely reminder to the people of India of the grave threat to the Constitution. The detailed judgement along with elaborate guidelines to enforce accountability of the state in cases of bulldozer demolition has the potential to provide a judicial bulwark against the BJP's bulldozer model of governance.

The combination of state-patronized mob lynching and the weaponisation of bulldozer as a tool of state terror targeting primarily the Muslim community has emerged as a signature of fascism in India in the Modi-Shah-Yogi era. This has expanded the fascist repertoire of terror and violence along with the already entrenched pattern of communal carnages, draconian laws and other modes of extra-judicial violence like encounter killings.

It is now for the people of India to reject the BJP's bulldozer politics lock, stock and barrel. Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have so far been the biggest laboratories of bulldozer raj. If the BJP comes to power in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, we will see two new laboratories. Let the people of Maharashtra and Jharkhand heed the Supreme Court warning and say a loud NO to bulldozer raj.

Various high-ranking politicians and officials have visited the site and condemned the unlawfulness of the Babusapalya building. But while the builders, Andhra-based Muniraju Reddy and his son Bhuvan Reddy, have been arrested for flouting regulations and constructing illegally on kharab-B land, it is not clear that any of the revenue officials, city officials, or elected representatives have been held to account.

AICCTU demands the following:

Expeditious processing of worker compensation:* BBMP and the labour department have promised Rs. 5 lakh compensation for the families of the deceased and payment of hospital expenses for the injured. This must be enhanced to atleast Rs. 10 lakhs and dispensed at the earliest without bureaucratic delays.

Action against erring officials: Action has to be taken against the erring officials in the BBMP, labour and other departments, who have turned a blind eye, or worse still facilitated this illegal construction. Corruption kills. AICCTU demands that various nodes along the chain of flouted construction permissions, regulations, and authorisations as also the violation of labour laws, are held to account.

A comprehensive review of the living and working conditions of migrant labourers: The labour department must review the conditions of migrant labourers employed in the city and produce an official report of their housing, wages, working and other conditions. In particular, the labour department must ascertain ways to strengthen the implementation of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979.

Ensuring workplace safety an protections: An audit of all building construction sites across the city with regard to the compliance with the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment. And Conditions of Service) Act, 1996, must be undertaken by the Karnataka Building and other Construction Workers Welfare Board. In particular what needs to be focused on is the registration of construction workers and the compliance with provisions relating to the living and working conditions of construction workers and provision of safety and health measures.

No life is disposable! All life is precious! It is on the backs of migrant, daily-wagers, manual labourers and the working class, after all that the city is built, maintained, and cleaned.

AICCTU DEMANDS JUSTICE FOR WORKERS CRUSHED TO DEATH BY COLLAPSED ILLEGAL BULDING IN BENGALURU

Amid heavy rains on the afternoon of Tuesday, 22nd October, 2024, eight migrant workers and one sub-contractor were crushed to death when a seven-story building under construction collapsed in Babusapalya, Horamavu, in the Hennur police station jurisdiction, Bengaluru. The eight deceased workers have been identified as: Shri. Mahmed Arman, Shri. Mahmed Arshad, Shri. Tirupali, Shri. Solo Pashwan, Shri. Pulchand Yadav, Shri. Tulasi Reddy, Shri. Gajendra and Shri. Manikanthan Satya Raju. The sub-contractor, Shri. Elumalai from Tamil Nadu, is also among those who perished. A total of 22 people were identified at the site that day. Of the rescued workers, six were seriously injured.

While the immediate cause of the tragedy appears to be sub-standard building materials and unauthorised construction of extra floors—all of which were further weakened by incessant monsoon rains—AICCTU demands a thorough investigation into the incident. The tragedy points to the glaring lack of accountability and protection for migrant construction workers in Bengaluru.

On the Babusapalya construction site, migrant workers from four different states had been employed: Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. In recent years, migrant workers from northern and eastern India, in addition to those from within Karnataka and the neighboring states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, have been coming to Bengaluru to work in grueling, unorganised sector jobs. These jobs include construction, brick making, security, domestic work, scrap recycling, etc.

Rural and urban crises are interlinked. Migrants leave their villages amidst agrarian distress, landlessness or unviable landholdings, crippling debt, unreliable rains, and widespread unemployment, only to find themselves in precarious and dangerous work conditions in Bengaluru. It is the socially and economically deprived communities from the most impoverished rural districts across the country who are migrating. Agrarian crisis and rural unemployment and distress have been worsened by the Modi government’s flawed agricultural policies and budgetary cuts to and added bureaucratic hurdles and payment delays surrounding the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA) and the Aadhar-linked payment scheme. It is shameful that the notified minimum wages by the Modi government for MGNREGA is a paltry Rs. 259/- per day. People are, in effect, being pushed out of rural areas, to migrate to cities and form part of a surplus labour that can be exploited.

Once in Bengaluru, such migrant workers, who are caste, class, and/or religiously marginalised, are housed in inhuman conditions, deprived of any labour law protection, denied minimum and overtime wages, insurance or any other benefits, and find themselves beholden to the thekedar (contractor or sub-contractor) who is notorious for withholding pay and meting out other forms of abuse. The lived reality of migrant workers makes a mockery of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 that provides for strict regulation and safeguards of the working conditions of interstate migrant workers including registration of migrant workers, mandatory licences for contactors, wages and working conditions of migrant workers, nature of residential accommodation to migrant workers, etc. This and other labour law protection are violated with impunity.

Real estate corruption, together with sudden and intense monsoon deluges, is a lethal combination, one that is likely to become more common as we see the worsening effects of climate change (which is also driving people out of rural areas and whose manifestations - heatwaves, unseasonal incessant rains, floods, etc. – have diabolical impact on migrant workers and other sections of the working class in cities). AICCTU demands a full investigation into the real estate nexus that enabled this shoddy, death-dealing construction.