by Kenneth Rapoza

January 27, 2012

Workers at the Regency Ceramics factory in India raided the home of their boss, and beat him senseless with lead pipes after a wage dispute turned ugly.

The workers were enraged enough to kill Regency’s president K. C. Chandrashekhar after their union leader, M. Murali Mohan, was killed by baton-wielding riot police on Thursday. The labor violence occurred in Yanam, a small city in Andra Pradesh state on India’s east coast. Police were called to the factory by management to quell a labor dispute. The workers had been calling for higher pay and reinstatement of previously laid off workers since October. Murali was fired a few hours after the police left the factory.

The next morning, at 06:00 on Friday, Murali went to the factory along with some workers and tried to obstruct the morning shift, local media reported. Long batons, known as lathis in India, were used by police who charged the workers, injuring at least 20 of them, including Murali. He died on the way to hospital, according to The Times of India. Hundreds of workers gathered outside the police station and demanded that officers be charged with homicide.

Curfew and other civil orders were imposed in Yanam because of the uprising that ultimately lead to the murder of the Regency president a few hours after being attacked with led pipes. Police reported that rioters also torched several vehicles outside the police station. Eight Regency Ceramics workers were injured in police firing that followed; the condition of two of them is critical. More than 100 protesters have been arrested.

India’s factory workers are the lowest paid within the big four emerging markets. Per capita income in India is under $4,000 a year, making it the poorest country in the BRICs despite its relatively booming economy.

At Regency Ceramics, workers went on strike Jan. 1 over the wage dispute. The management had reportedly decided to slap a restraining order on five workers and managed to obtain an order from a high court saying that the striking workers should not come within 220 yards, more than the size of two football fields, from the factory.

Once news of Murali’s death spread, the factory workers allegedly destroyed 50 company cars, buses and trucks and lit them on fire. They ransacked the factory. Residents joined hands with around 600 workers, while others were enroute to Chandrashekhar’s house.

courtesy : Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2012/01/27/india-factory-workers-revolt-kill-company-president/

ਅਨੁਵਾਦ : ਬੂਟਾ ਸਿੰਘ
ਫ਼ੋਨ : +9194634-74342

by Arundhati Roy

January 13,2012

Is it a house or a home? A temple to the new India, or a warehouse for its ghosts? Ever since Antilla arrived on Altamount Road in Mumbai, exuding mystery and quiet menace, things have not been the same. “Here we are,” the friend who took me there said, “pay your respects to our new ruler.”Antilla belongs to India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani. I’d read about this, the most expensive dwelling ever built, the 27 floors, three helipads, nine lifts, hanging gardens, ballrooms, weather rooms, gymnasiums, six floors of parking, and the 600 servants. Nothing had prepared me for the vertical lawn – a soaring wall of grass attached to a vast metal grid. The grass was dry in patches, bits had fallen off in neat rectangles. Clearly, “trickle down” had not worked.

But “gush-up” has. That’s why in a nation of 1.2bn, India’s 100 richest people own assets equivalent to a quarter of gross domestic product.

The word on the street (and in The New York Times) is, or at least was, that the Ambanis were not living in Antilla. Perhaps they are there now, but people still whisper about ghosts and bad luck, vastu and feng shui. I think it is Marx’s fault. Capitalism, he said “has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, it is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells.”

In India, the 300m of us who belong to the new, post-”reforms” middle class – the market – live side by side with the ghosts of 250,000 debt ridden farmers who have killed themselves, and of the 800m  who have been impoverished and dispossessed to make way for us. And who survive on less than 50 cents a day.

Mr. Ambani is personally worth more than  $20bn. He has a controlling majority stake in Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), a company with a market capitalization of Rs2.41tn($47bn) and an array of global business interests. RIL has a 95 per cent stake in Infotel, which a few weeks ago bought a major share in a media group than runs television news and entertainment channels. Infotel owns the only national 4G broadband license. He also has a cricket team.

RIL is one of a handful of corporations, some family-owned, some not, that run India. Some of the others are Tata, Jindal, Vedanta, Mittal, Infosys, Essar and the other Reliance (ADAG) owned by Mukesh’s brother Anil.Their race for growth has split across Europe, central Asia, Africa and Latin America. The Tatas, for example, run more than 100 companies in 80 countries. They are one of India’s largest private-sector power companies.

Since the cross-ownership of businesses is not restricted by the “gush-up gospel” rules, the more you have, the more you can have. Meanwhile scandal after scandal has exposed, in painful detail, how corporations buy politicians, judges, bureaucrats and media houses, hollowing out democracy, retaining only its rituals.

Huge reserves of bauxite, iron ore, oil and natural gas worth trillions of dollars were sold to corporations for a pittance, defying even the twisted logic of the free market. Cartels of corrupt politicians and corporations have colluded to underestimate the quantity of reserves, and the actual market value of public assets, leading to the siphoning off of billions of dollars of public money.

Then there’s the land grab – the forced displacement of communities, of millions of people whose lands are being appropriated by the state and handed to private enterprise. (The concept of inviolability of private property rarely applies to the property of the poor.)

Mass revolts have broken out, many of them armed. The government has indicated that it will deploy the army to quell them.

Corporations have their own sly strategy to deal with dissent. With a minuscule percentage of their profits they run hospitals, educational institutes and trusts, which in turn fund NGO’s, academics, journalists, artists, film-makers, literary festivals and even protest movements. It is a way of using charity to lure opinion-makers into their sphere of influence. Of infiltrating normality, colonizing ordinariness, so that challenging them seems as absurd (or as esoteric) as challenging “reality” itself. From here, it’s a quick, easy step to “there is no alternative”.

The Tatas run two of the largest charitable trusts in India. (They donated $50m to that needy institution the Harvard Business School. ) The Jindals, with a major stake in mining, metals and power, run the Jindal Global Law School, and will soon open the Jindal School of Government and Public Policy. Financed by the profits from the software giant Infosys, the New India Foundation gives prizes and fellowships to social scientists.

Having worked out how to manage the government, the opposition, the courts, the media and liberal opinion, what remains to be dealt with is the growing unrest, the threat of “people power”. How do you domesticate it? How do you turn protesters into pets? How do you vacuum up people’s fury and redirect it into blind alleys?

The largely middle-class, overtly nationalist anti-corruption  movement in India led by Anna Hazare is a good example. A round-the-clock, corporate sponsored media campaign proclaimed it to be “the voice of the people”. It called for a law that undermined even the remaining dregs of democracy.

Unlike the Occupy Wall Street movement, it did not breathe a word against privatization, corporate monopolies or economic “reforms”. Its principal media backers successfully turned the spotlight away from the huge corporate corruption scandals and used the public mauling of politicians to call for the further withdrawal of discretionary powers from government, for more reforms and more privatization.

After two decades of these “reforms” and of phenomenal but jobless growth, India has more malnourished children than anywhere else in the world, and more poor people in eight of its states than 26 countries of sub-Saharan Africa put together. And now the international financial crisis is closing in. The growth rate has plummeted to 6.9 per cent. Foreign investment is pulling out.

Capitalism’s real gravediggers it turns out, are not Marx’s revolutionary proletariat but its own delusional cardinals, who have turned ideology into faith. They seem to have difficulty comprehending reality or grasping the science of climate change, which says, quite simply, that capitalism (including the Chinese variety) is destroying the planet.

“Trickle down” failed. Now “gush-up” is in trouble  too. As early stars appear in Mumbai’s darkening sky, guards in crisp linen shirts with crackling walkie-talkies appear outside the forbidding gates of Antilla. The lights blaze on. Perhaps it is time for the ghosts to come out and play.

coutesy: Financial Times

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

सलवा जुडूम शुरू होने के बाद नक्सली होने का झूठा इलज़ाम लगा कर बड़ी संख्या में आदिवासी लड़कियों को जगदलपुर और रायपुर की जेलों में ठूंस दिया गया है ! जेल के भीतर से खबर आयी है कि जेल भेजने से पहले ऐसी सभी लड़कियों के साथ पुलिस ने यौन दुर्व्यवहार किया है ! अनेकों लडकियां बारह से चौदह साल की बच्चियां भी हैं ! इनमे से कई के स्तनों पर बिजली से जलाने के निशान हैं ! मैं पूरे होशो हवास में छत्तीसगढ़ सरकार पर ये गंभीर आरोप लगा रहा हूं ! सर्वोच्च न्यायालय मेरे इस आरोप का संज्ञान ले और इस आरोप की सत्यता के लिए स्वतंत्र महिला जांच दल का गठन करे जिसमे देश की जानी मानी पत्रकार , सामाजिक कार्यकर्त्ता , वकील व महिला डाक्टरों को शामिल करे !जो जेल में जाकर इन महिला कैदियों से मिले ! और अगर मेरा आरोप गलत पाया जाए तो मुझे जेल में डाल दिया जाय !-
हिमाँशु कुमार

In the context of revolutionary war in the Indian countryside,

While the CPI (Maoist) is busy now defending itself and its mass base of poor agricultural classesand tribals against a relentless and violent attack by the Indian state, a revival of revolutionary democratic work in the urban areas is an extremely serious issue. Once again we emphasize that a careful reorganization of the entire matrix of the working class and democratic mass movements in urban area is necessary and such a complementary movement comprising such concrete mass-political actions in the sphere of health might be one component of that.

Thanks to Joe for the intro, and for alerting us to this article. It originally appeared at Sanhati.com.

The Aftermath of the AMRI Tragedy: Some Related Thoughts on Democratic Work in Urban Areas of India

by Krishanu Mandal

January 5, 2012

This article provides a case for mass-political movements around health-care and expropriation of private health-care sector as one component of the revival of revolutionary democratic work in urban area.

The gruesome death of about 90 people, mostly critically ill and infirm patients, due to the fire at the AMRI (AdvancedMedicare and Research Institute) Hospital in Kolkata, India in the second week of December has made international news. This has been followed by a comparably gruesome death of more than 170 people by drinking poison-laced country-liquor in a region of southern West Bengal a few days later. The response of the common people to these incidents stimulates some introductory thoughts on diversification of democratic work in urban areas of India.

Let us take the AMRI fire incident first.

The background facts of the AMRI incident are quite transparent now. The hospital management did not inform the governmental fire services presumably because then it would have been officially confirmed that they have been violating fire-safety norms for long. Resident doctors were not present because the hospital seem to have been hiring junior unauthorized house-staff at some pittance for these jobs, a common practice in such private health care shops. Indeed, reading an account of the origin and development of this hospital is a masochistic exercise. The hospital is one of the first progenies, born in 1996, of the marriage between the greed of the business class and the CPIM, which had shed any veneer of communist ideology by the mid-1990s. The bonhomie was embodied at the personal level by the bond between Sravan Todi and Jyoti Basu. Todi, a pal of the patriarch, of course did not have to care a lot about legal use of land or safety norms for a public building. The Todis and the Goenkas and the Agarwals were not entirely ungrateful. In return of profitting perhaps billions, Basu and Subhash Chakraborty, two of the prime polluters of CPIM, were famously treated (and finally died) in AMRI, and not in any of the governmental hospitals of Kolkata where the actual proletarians perish due to lack of treatment, care and medicine. CPIM, of course, has mumbled protestations through `Ganashakti’, its Bengali mouthpiece, that they are not the sole thieves–that Trinamool Congress, during its tenure at the Kolkata Corporation, also had a finger in this pie.

The response from the administration and the “mainstream” political bodies so far has been along predictable lines. There have been candlelight vigils in Kolkata and formation of committees to oversee that fire-safety regulations are followed in public buildings. These committees are providing pious notifications to the errant institutions. When some rumblings rose about the Nightingale Hospital, another money-sucking machine in the posh part of Kolkata, governmental politicians soon assured that the hospital should continue its business as usual (yes, it gave a promise to take measures for fire-safety–just as AMRI did). The mighty police forces, who were so efficient in catching and then murdering Koteswara Rao (Kishenji), seem to be clueless about the whereabouts of Aditya Agarwal and Preeti Sureka, the high-flying, globe-trotting young scions of the Emami dynasty managing AMRI. Of course, it would be criminal for the police to torture the elder Goenkas and Agarwals to extract information as they did to Koteswara Rao (pictures here: http://indianvanguard.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/).

In contrast, the people in the Sangrampur-Magrahat region, where the mass-death by poisoned liquor took place, took swift action by themselves. They physically demolished the dens of manufacturing such liquors. The personnel of the local police station, famous for openly collecting cut-money from these liquor-based thugs (these thugs have a symbiotic life with CPIM and Trinamool Congress) locked the police station and fled.

The question that stands out then, is why, after the AMRI incident, did people stop merely at smashing the reception of another wing of the hospital. Why did they not invade the houses of the Todis and the Goenkas and the Agarwals, drag these big bosses out into the streets, punish them then and there and make them cough out fines of some crores of rupees–as allegedly happens in the famous “kangaroo courts” of the CPI (Maoist)–where justice for such blatant crimes are quick and immediately effective?

The private hospitals in Kolkata, and perhaps all over India, are almost literally “soulless, vampire bastards making money off human pain” (see Endnote 1). We do not know exactly the average rate of return for investments in private health-care in India, but the rapid pace of entry in this sector implies that the return must be abnormally high (see Endnote 2).

The very poor and destitute, of course, have no hope of ever being treated in such private hospitals and nursing homes–even though these were set up and are run, like AMRI, by direct assistance and munificence of the state governments. It is well known that, as a matter of course, such hospitals often decline to provide even life-saving emergency treatments to patients dying from road accidents nearby if they are not paid several thousands of rupees in advance (see, e.g.,http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20100413-210095.html). Infuriated people sometimes react, but alas, again only by breaking a few glasses and computer monitors in the hospital buildings. And these hospitals continue to run their multi-million dollar businesses unimpeded, while some “official enquiries”, promised by disingenuous ministers (see Endnote 3) get conveniently forgotten over the years.

The people, certainly, can start taking steps for themselves in this regard. We are talking of those people who cannot pay the price of more than a thousand rupees to get a couple of X-Rays done from these private clinics and who, after waiting in a long queue in the cash-starved government hospitals, finally end up with a disfigured bone. Of those people who cannot pay several thousands of rupees for expensive blood tests and thus, may have to die undiagnosed. Of those people who cannot afford expensive chemotherapy in the AMRI Cancer Centre, who sometimes charge several thousands of rupees for injecting a blood-generating hormone and die a painful death, nearly untreated, in a local public health centre (if they are fortunate enough to get a bed). Of those people who have to mortgage their residence to have a heart-surgery done.

These people get angry at such injustice, they flare up bravely, but their anger gets dissipated and nothing sustainable emerges from these sporadic outbursts of the poor people’s justified anger.

This leads us to emphasize that health is an arena around which collective revolutionary activities can be built up fruitfully in urban parts of India perhaps with relative ease. While both time-tested class-based movements (like organized movements of the wage-labourers) and mass movements (like those against price-hike, privatization etc) are extremely necessary to fight against the relentless onslaught of the big capital and its local cronies on the common people of India, we put a tentative suggestion that generating a mass movement around the democratic demands of health-care may be a relatively easier task. First, this issue of healthcare has a universal appeal among the poor, the coalition of exploited classes. Next, unlike, for example in trade unions in organized sector, no revisionist caucus is occupying space here already, nor does there exist, in this arena, a history of betrayal by a leadership calling themselves communist. And thirdly, the spontaneity of protests by the common people against exploitation in this sector provides one encouragement.

Indeed, the space of such plausible movements in the entire matrix of urban activities of the revolutionary left has to be determined carefully by the activists with grassroot experiences. Also, the exact structure, formation and modes of operations for such activities in this sector, of course, would be shaped by concrete local conditions. However, below we give one possible avowedly utopian picture deriving from the recent and ongoing experiences of resistance movements in India.

People’s Committees at locality levels, the representative bodies of people’s power which brought about the mass rebellion against the oppressive CPIM in Bengal and which are leading death-defying struggles against multinational-imperialist aggression in various pockets in India, may be formed: People’s Committees for Health Security. Such committees can go to the various profiteering private health centres and find out how these facilities are flouting existing rules: using unauthorized structures, running commercial establishments in buildings meant for residential housing (and thus, availing cheap electricity and evading tax), dumping pollutants and hazardous substances and thus endangering the locality and so on…. Given the cheap cyber-access these days, documentation and communication of such evidences have also become easier. And then they can enforce some punishment instantly: for example, cutting illegal electricity supply will hit such private medical facilities where it hurts most as they have to switch to expensive private electricity generators. Moreover, they can also compel that the guility be fined punitively through mass agitations: thus expropriating these ruthless exploiters. The money thus collected can be spent in the local public health centres: so that these poor people themselves may reap the fruit and the functioning of these centres can also be actively monitored by such a people’s body. Quite naturally, these are steps also for establishing and asserting the genuine democratic power of the people, going beyond the periodic charades known as elections.

This sounds fanciful, utopian (and we emphasize again that the exact forms of such practices will, of course, be shaped by the relevant local conditions). Yet, the revolutionaries of the CPI (Maoist), the naxalites, have been implementing similar things for years in the more remote corners of India. Yes, such actions may require going beyond the existing legality of the Indian state: the state that kills Sidhu Soren and Azad and Kishenji, but actively arranges for Warren Anderson, whose excellent management led thousands to get killed in Bhopal in 1984, or Ottavio Quattrocchi, the noted thief of the Bofors case, to get into safety from Indian laws.

Of course we know that such assertion of power by the exploited classes will not be easy. The apparatus of the state will not sit pretty. To protect their masters, the big capital and its local allies and agents, the coercive apparatus of the state will pounce upon the poor people attempting such steps. Otherwise the Naxalites, fighting precisely for such people’s power, would not have had to take up arms and build underground organizations. The Indian state has proved that it is ready even to unleash a low-intensity civil war upon the common people to protect its interests, the interests of the exploiters. But the people can, and do, fight back.

It has been pointed out about CPI (Maoist) (and it agrees) that in very recent years this organization has been forced to sideline mass-political work, especially in urban areas. While the CPI (Maoist) is busy now defending itself and its mass base of poor agricultural classes and tribals against a relentless and violent attack by the Indian state, a revival of revolutionary democratic work in the urban areas is an extremely serious issue. Once again we emphasize that a careful reorganization of the entire matrix of the working class and democratic mass movements in urban area is necessary and such a complementary movement comprising such concrete mass-political actions in the sphere of health might be one component of that. We reiterate that launching such democratic work in a relatively virgin yet fertile territory provides another sphere where joint front among the working class, the middle classes and the students can be built up.

The Naxalites have shaken the Indian state in interior hinterlands–imported military choppers are hunting them now. Such complementary work in the urban areas would advance our revolution.

****

Endnotes:

Endnote 1: This is a telling and famous remark made by Bill Maher, the liberal American comedian, on for-profit healthcare in the context of the nationwide uproar in US over the introduction of the ‘Obamacare’ (seehttp://politicalhumor.about.com/b/2011/01/20/best-bill-maher-quotes-ever.htm).

Endnote 2: The only academically rigorous work, so far as we know, which has analyzed aspects of privately provided healthcare in recent metropolitan India is that by J. Das and J. Hammer (in 2007 in Journal of Development Economics, vol 83, pp. 1-36). It shows the prevalence of needless expenses induced by private health-practitioners in Delhi.

Endnote 3: Whatever has happened to the misdeeds of the Peerless Hospital in Kolkata cited above (http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20100413-210095.html)?

On 12th January, 2011, the West Bengal government started the yearlong celebrations of the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda with great fanfare. This is in line with the Trinamool Congress (TMC)- led state government’s policy (critics say the only policy in view so far) to impress the middle classes in Bengal by eulogizing their favourite icons. As a part of the celebrations, the chief minister Mamata Banerjee travelled to Jhargram to preside over the last day of the ongoing Jangalmahal utsav (festival). This has been organized to ostensibly show that peace has returned to Jangalmahal after the killing of Kishenji and area domination by the joint forces. Together with usual gimmicks such as the staged surrender of four so-called “Maoist sqaud members” and calling the chief bureaucrats of the state and district administration on the stage to support her claims on the various development schemes in Jangalmahal (this was purportedly to silence critics who have called into question the success, or even the intentions, of these schemes, with the understanding that the audience would be more inclined to believe the bureaucrats than a politician),she initiated a far more nefarious scheme. She gave an award of Rs 500,000, named Vivek Puraskar after Swami Vivekananda, to seven villages in Jangalmahal which according to her have “showed courage to resist the Maoists and help the government bring back peace”. She added that “I want peace to stay here and those who will help in bringing peace will be rewarded”. This is a direct attempt by the West Bengal government to encourage vigilantism of the Salwa Judum variety as these seven villages are the places where the Jana Jagaram Mancha (locally called the Bhairab bahini) organized by the TMC have established their strongest foothold. This organization that regularly terrorizes villagers by beatings, threats of false arrests and holding off access to developmental schemes, and forces them to act as informers for the security forces, has established itself in Jangalmahal with state patronage over the last eight months. Yesterday Mamata awarded the “high achievers” of this organization in the name of Swami Vivekananda. Interestingly, one of the villages in this list is Radhanagar, where the vigilante force was originally the CPI(M)’s harmad bahini, organized by the local CPI(M) leader Prasanta Das, who is one of the main accused in the Sonamukhi rapes. He is currently absconding. There have been protests from even the local TMC in Jhargram against awarding the CPI(M) harmads of this village. Remarkably, another village on the same list is Netai, where nine villagers were killed by firing from another set of the same harmads. It suggests that the TMC government has no problem in awarding both the harmads and the victims of the harmads, as long as it dovetails with the states objective of bringing back “peace” to Jangalmahal. And Mamata has declared that there will be more such awards. We should remind ourselves that Salwa Judum also meant “peace hunt”. ************ Mamata’s “tide of development” gives rise to new waves of corruption in Jangalmahal by Partho Sarathi Ray. Nov 11, 2011 The West Bengal government has openly adopted a carrot-and-stick policy to combat the struggle of the people of Jangalmahal against state repression and exploitation. On one hand, the operations of the joint forces are continuing, resulting in raids on villages, arrests of people, especially youngsters, and brutal beatings being meted out to villagers. Just last week, twelve students, belonging to the student organizations Jharkhand Student Federation (JSF), Chatrasamaj and USDF, who had been campaigning in the villages regarding a convention which they were holding in Kolkata, were picked up by the joint forces from a house where they were staying near Jhargram, and brutally beaten up. The SDPO of Jhargram himself kicked a couple of students in their abdomen. They were released only in the afternoon, once the news of their detention became public in Kolkata and protests were held. Three days back, Raju Hansda, a student belonging to the JSF from Ramgarh in Lalgarh area, was picked up from his home and charged with eighteen different murder cases. As this juggernaut of state repression rolls on, the mainstream media is rife with speculation about when the “actual” operations against the Maoists are going to begin, as if this was not enough to bring misery to the life of people in Jangalmahal. As this repression continues on one hand, on the other the government is trying to present a “human” face to win the hearts and minds of the people, with the chief minister Mamata Banerjee unleashing a “tide of development” in her words in Jangalmahal. She has declared a slew of measures in her recent meeting in Jhargram, which are aimed at bringing “development” to Jangalmahal and weaning the people away from the resistance. Although some of these measures, such as the recruitment of ten thousand youth for the post of special police constables on a no work-no pay basis, sound ominously like the formation of a Salwa Judum type of force, others such as providing fifteen kg rice at Rs 2 per kg per week to every below poverty line (BPL) family sounds quite innocuous and designed to win popular support. However, even these measures are proving to be something quite different on the ground. Reports from Jangalmahal indicate that these “development” measures are giving rise to a new wave of corrupt practices, and entrenching a new set of intermediaries in the villages, affiliated this time to the Trinamool Congress. There is indeed a great demand for the rice at Rs 2 per kg, especially as the last two years have witnessed both successive droughts and disruption in agricultural work due to the occupation by the joint forces. However, the ground reality is that numerous families in the ninety-nine village panchayat areas in West Midnapur do not have the wherewithal even to afford Rs 30 per week to lift these fifteen kilograms of rice. Many families in the dirt poor Belpahari, Pukhuria or Jamboni areas might never even have seen thirty rupees together in their lives. Under these circumstances, a new breed of intermediaries has shown up in the villages. These people, borne on motorbikes, are visiting the villages and giving the thirty rupees to the villagers who cannot afford that money. The villagers are going to the public distribution system (PDS) shops and getting the fifteen kg of rice. However, they are keeping about 5-6 kg of the rice for themselves and are handing over the rest to the people who had initially given them the thirty rupees. In this way, this subsidized rice is finding its way into the black market, and a new “rice mafia” is entrenching itself in the villages. Significantly, this system seems to be working the best in the areas where the ruling Trinamool Congress has established its power, and this mafia is working under the patronage of local Trinamool Congress leaders. No one dares to lodge a complaint with the BDOs, although Mamata has given extraordinary powers to the BDOs in a recent meeting of BDOs and SDOs in Kolkata to control corruption in the panchayats. Interestingly, the picture is quite different in the 40-odd village panchayat areas where the Maoists hold sway. Here also the poverty is stark, and the need for the rice is intense due to the failure of the crops over the last two years. The Maoists have not called for a boycott of these development measures; rather it is the Maoist squads, or various peoples’ organizations in these areas such as the PCPA or the Nari Ijjat Bachao Committee, who have taken up the task to collect the money to get the rice four times a month. The organized presence of these forces is ensuring that the rice reaches the needy, and the state seems to be inadvertently strengthening the hands of these organizations in these areas. The other source of corruption and patronization seems to be the process of enlistment of BPL people. In many gram panchayats, the poorest people are not even aware that the enlisting process is taking place and that photographs are being taken in the panchayat office for the BPL cards. Apparently, the panchayat authorities are making the announcement of the photography sessions from mobile vans late in the mornings, when most of the daily labourer families have left for the fields. Reports suggest that it is mostly the affluent who are getting photographed to get the BPL cards and there are widespread grievances about this. The general understanding is that in order to get enrolled in the BPL list, it is necessary to go to the local Trinamool office and request the party leaders. It is therefore quite apparent what a flood of corruption Mamata’s “tide of development” is bringing to Jangalmahal. Corruption in the CPI(M)-led panchayats had become one of the major issues in the Lalgarh uprising, and the people used to point out with anger how CPI(M) bosses had fattened with money from schemes such as Indira Abas Yojana or NREGA. The Trinamool Congress, which is walking the same way, is going to make itself an object of public wrath in a similar manner.

Courtesy : Sanhati.com

ਕਿਸ਼ਨਜੀ ਮਹਿਜ਼ ਦਾਬੇ ਵਿਰੁੱਧ ਲੜਨ ਵਾਲਾ ਇਕ ਯੋਧਾ, ਇਕ ਬਹਾਦਰ ਅਤੇ ਦਲੇਰ ਸ਼ਖਸ ਹੀ ਨਹੀਂ ਹੈ। ਉਹ ਦੇਸ਼ ਦੀ ਟਾਕਰਾ ਲਹਿਰ ਦੇ ਇਤਿਹਾਸ ਵਿਚ ਇਕ ਵਿਲੱਖਣ ਵਰਤਾਰੇ ਦਾ ਪ੍ਰਮੁੱਖ ਆਗੂ ਸੀ—ਅਤੇ ਹੋ ਸਕਦਾ ਹੈ ਉਹ ਇਸ ਬਾਰੇ ਇੰਨਾ ਸੁਚੇਤ ਨਾ ਵੀ ਹੋਵੇ। ਉਸ ਦੀ ਅਗਵਾਈ ‘ਚ ਟਾਕਰੇ ਦੇ ਅਨੇਕ ਰੂਪਾਂ ਦਾ ਸੁਮੇਲ ਹੋ ਗਿਆ ਸੀ—ਲੋਕਾਂ ਦੀ ਹਥਿਆਰਬੰਦ ਲੜਾਕੂ ਤਾਕਤ ਦਾ ਖੁੱਲ੍ਹੀਆਂ ਰੈਲੀਆਂ, ਜਲੂਸਾਂ ਅਤੇ ਮੁਜ਼ਾਹਰਿਆਂ ਨਾਲ ਸੁਮੇਲ। ਜੇ ਕੋਈ ਸੱਚੀਓਂ ਹੀ ਜਮਹੂਰੀ ਜਨਤਕ ਉਭਾਰਾਂ ਬਾਰੇ ਗੰਭੀਰ ਹੈ ਤਾਂ ਉਹ ‘ਰਣਨੀਤੀ’, ‘ਤਾਕਤ ਦੀ ਵਰਤੋਂ’ ਜਾਂ ‘ਹਥਿਆਰਬੰਦ ਟਾਕਰੇ’ ਤੋਂ ਅੱਖਾਂ ਨਹੀਂ ਮੀਟ ਸਕਦਾ; ਕਿ ਜਨਤਕ ਘੋਲ ਨੂੰ ਜ਼ਿੰਦਗੀ ਦੇਣ ਵਾਲੀਆਂ ਰਗਾਂ ਹਥਿਆਰਬੰਦ ਟਾਕਰੇ ਤੱਕ ਪਸਰੀਆਂ ਹੋਈਆਂ ਹਨ—ਉਂਞ ਇਹ ਪੁਰਾਣੇ ਲੈਨਿਨਵਾਦੀ ਸਬਕ ਸਨ ਜੋ ਕਿਸ਼ਨਜੀ ਦੀ ਜ਼ਿੰਦਗੀ ਅਤੇ ਸਰਗਰਮੀ ਅੰਦਰ ਮੁੜ ਬਿਆਨ ਹੋਏ, ਇਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਦਾ ਦਾਅਵਾ ਮੁੜ ਜਤਾਇਆ ਗਿਆ ਅਤੇ ਇਨ੍ਹਾਂ ‘ਚ ਮੁੜ ਤਾਜ਼ਗੀ ਆਈ।
ਇਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਅਰਥਾਂ ‘ਚ ਕਿਸ਼ਨਜੀ ਨੇ ਇਕ ਤਰ੍ਹਾਂ ਨਾਲ ਖੱਬੀ ਧਿਰ ਅੰਦਰ ਜਨਤਕ ਲਹਿਰਾਂ ਅਤੇ ‘ਫ਼ੌਜੀ ਰਣਨੀਤੀ’ ਦੋਵਾਂ ਦੀ ਮਹੱਤਤਾ ਨੂੰ ਮੁੜ ਸਥਾਪਤ ਕੀਤਾ। ਅੱਜ ਖੱਬੀ ਧਿਰ ਦਾ ਝੁਕਾਅ ਹਰ ਉਸ ਚੀਜ਼ ਨੂੰ ਕਿਸੇ ਸੱਜੇਪੱਖੀ, ਫਾਸ਼ੀਵਾਦੀ ਫ਼ਤੂਰ ਵਾਂਗ ਰੱਦ ਕਰ ਦੇਣ ਦਾ ਹੈ ਜਿਸ ਦਾ ਵੀ ਜ਼ਾਬਤੇ ਅਤੇ ਫ਼ੌਜ ਨਾਲ ਕੋਈ ਲਾਗਾਦੇਗਾ ਹੈ। ਦਾਰਸ਼ਨਿਕ ਸਲਾਵੋਜ ਜ਼ਿਜ਼ੈਕ ਨੁਕਤਾ ਉਠਾਉਂਦਾ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਸਥਾਪਤੀ ਦੀ ਸੁੱਖਭੋਗੀ ਵਾਜਬੀਅਤ ਦੇ ਉਲਟ, ਖੱਬੀ ਧਿਰ ਨੂੰ ”ਜ਼ਾਬਤੇ ਅਤੇ ਕੁਰਬਾਨੀ ਦੇ ਜਜ਼ਬੇ ਨੂੰ ਮੁੜ ਵਾਜਬ ਬਣਾਉਣਾ ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਹੈ: ਇਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਕਦਰਾਂ-ਕੀਮਤਾਂ ‘ਚ ਕੁਝ ਵੀ ਵਜੂਦ ਸਮੋਇਆ ‘ਫਾਸ਼ੀਵਾਦੀ’ ਨਹੀਂ ਹੈ।” http:/www.lacan.com/੍ਰi੍ਰhollywood.htm) ਇੱਥੇ ਕਿਸ਼ਨਜੀ ਦਾ ਯੋਗਦਾਨ ਸਿਰ ਕੱਢਵਾਂ ਹੈ—ਹਾਕਮ ਜਮਾਤਾਂ ਅੰਦਰ ਭਾਰੀ ਡਰ ਅਤੇ ਧੁੜਕੂ ਪੈਦਾ ਕਰਨਾ ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੇ ਉਸ ਨੂੰ ਮਾਰ ਸੁੱਟਿਆ।
ਇਹ ਉਸ ਵਕਤ ਅਹਿਮ ਯੋਗਦਾਨ ਹੈ ਜਦੋਂ ਖੱਬੀ ਧਿਰ ‘ਰਣਨੀਤੀ ਵਿਹੂਣੀ’ ਹੈ, ਜਦੋਂ ਤਹਿਰੀਰ ਚੌਕ ਵਿਖੇ ਜਨਤਕ ਮੁਜ਼ਾਹਰੇ ਜਾਂ ਵਾਲ ਸਟਰੀਟ ‘ਤੇ ਕਬਜ਼ਾ ਕਰੋ ਅੰਦੋਲਨ ਬੰਦ ਗਲੀ ‘ਚ ਫਸ ਗਏ, ਹੰਭ ਜਹੇ ਗਏ ਲਗਦੇ ਹਨ, ਜਾਂ ਹਕੂਮਤੀ ਜਬਰ ਨਾਲ ਮੜਿੱਕਣ ਤੋਂ ਅਸਮਰੱਥ ਹਨ। ਕੁਝ ਲੋਕ ਕਹਿ ਸਕਦੇ ਹਨ ਕਿ ਜੰਗਲਮਹੱਲ ਵਿਚ ਖਾੜਕੂ ਜਨਤਕ ਮੁਜ਼ਾਹਰਿਆਂ ਦਾ ਵੀ ਜੂਨ 2009 ‘ਚ ਮਾਓਵਾਦੀਆਂ ਵਲੋਂ ‘ਕਬਜ਼ਾ ਕਰ ਲੈਣ’ ਨਾਲ ਭੋਗ ਹੀ ਤਾਂ ਪੈ ਗਿਆ ਸੀ। ਇਸ ਦੀ ਬਜਾਏ ਇਹ ‘ਕਬਜ਼ਾ’ ਜਨਤਕ ਲਹਿਰ ਲਈ ਬਹੁਤ ਹੀ ਲੋੜੀਂਦੀ ਕੰਗਰੋੜ ਤੋਂ ਬਿਨਾਂ ਹੋਰ ਕੁਝ ਨਹੀਂ ਸੀ, ਹੁਣ ਇਹ ਇਕ ਰਣਨੀਤੀ ਤਹਿਤ ਇਕ ਜਥੇਬੰਦਕ ਤਾਕਤ ਵਜੋਂ ਆਪਣਾ ਇਜ਼ਹਾਰ ਕਰਨ ਦੇ ਸਮਰੱਥ ਸੀ।
ਰਾਜ ਦੀ ਹਥਿਆਰਬੰਦ ਤਾਕਤ ਨਾਲ ਮੜਿੱਕਣ ਤੋਂ ਇਲਾਵਾ, ਇਹ ਜਮਾਤੀ ਘੋਲ ਬਾਰੇ ਸਪਸ਼ਟਤਾ ਲਿਆਉਣ, ਉਸ ਨੂੰ ਪ੍ਰੀਭਾਸ਼ਤ ਕਰਨ ਵੱਲ ਪਹਿਲਾ ਕਦਮ ਹੈ ਜਿਸਨੂੰ ਮਾਰਕਸ ਕਮਿਊਨਿਸਟ ਮੈਨੀਫੈਸਟੋ ਵਿਚ ਕੁਲਮਿਲਾਕੇ ਲਹਿਰ ਲਈ ‘ਕੂਚ ਦਾ ਰਾਹ’  ਕਹਿੰਦਾ ਹੈ। ਗੱਲ ਇਹ ਨਹੀਂ ਕਿ ਮਾਓਵਾਦੀਆਂ ਨੇ ਇੱਥੇ ਵੱਡੀਆਂ ਕਾਮਯਾਬੀਆਂ ਹਾਸਲ ਕਰ ਲਈਆਂ ਹਨ ਪਰ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੇ ਕੁਝ ਬੁਨਿਆਦੀ ਹੱਕ ਜ਼ਰੂਰ ਹਾਸਲ ਕੀਤੇ ਹਨ। ਸ਼ੁਰੂਆਤੀ ਉਭਾਰ ਤੋਂ ਬਾਅਦ ਜਨਤਕ ਸਰਗਰਮੀਆਂ ਅਤੇ ਰੈਲੀਆਂ ਦੇ ਠੁੱਸ ਹੋ ਜਾਣ ਦੀ ਆਮ ਕਹਾਣੀ ਇੱਥੇ ਨਹੀਂ ਦੁਹਰਾਈ ਗਈ। ਜਨਤਕ ਲਹਿਰ ਕਈ ਸ਼ਕਲਾਂ ‘ਚ ਜਾਰੀ ਹੈ। ਅਸਲ ਵਿਚ, ਔਰਤਾਂ ਦੀ ਇਕ ਨਵੀਂ ਜਥੇਬੰਦੀ, ਨਾਰੀ ਇੱਜ਼ਤ ਬਚਾਓ ਕਮੇਟੀ, ਉੱਭਰੀ ਹੈ। ਜਦੋਂ ਤੱਕ ਹਕੂਮਤ ਪਾਬੰਦੀ ਨਹੀਂ ਲਾਉਂਦੀ ਜਾਂ ‘ਇਜਾਜ਼ਤ ਦੇਣ ਤੋਂ ਨਾਂਹ ਨਹੀਂ ਕਰਦੀ’ ਇਹ ਅਗਸਤ 2010 ਵਰਗੀਆਂ ਵੱਡੀਆਂ ਰੈਲੀਆਂ ਕਰੀ ਜਾ ਰਹੀ ਹੈ ਜਿਸ ਵਿਚ ਮਮਤਾ ਅਤੇ ਸਵਾਮੀ ਅਗਨੀਵੇਸ਼ ਸ਼ਾਮਲ ਹੋਏ ਸਨ।
ਅਜਿਹਾ ਹੈ ਕਿਸ਼ਨਜੀ ਦਾ ਯੋਗਦਾਨ, ਉਸ ਦੇ ਕੁਝ ਮੌਲਿਕ ਕੰਮ—ਇਹ ਮਹਿਜ਼ ਇਕ ਹਲੀਮੀ ਵਾਲੀ ‘ਕੁਰਬਾਨੀ’ ਜਾਂ ‘ਸ਼ਹਾਦਤ’ ਨਹੀਂ ਹੈ ਜਿਸਦਾ ਮਾਓਵਾਦੀ ਖ਼ੁਦ ਅਕਸਰ ਹੀ ਬਥੇਰਾ ਗੁਣ ਗਾਇਨ ਕਰਦੇ ਹਨ। ਮਾਓਵਾਦੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਆਪਣੇ ਆਗੂਆਂ ਵਿਚ ਕੁਝ ਖ਼ਾਸ ਜਾਂ ਮੌਲਿਕ ਨਾ ਦੇਖ ਸਕਣ ਅਤੇ ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਸਾਰਿਆਂ ਨੂੰ ‘ਇਕ ਹੋਰ ਸ਼ਹੀਦ ਜਿਸਨੇ ਇਨਕਲਾਬ ਦੀ ਖ਼ਾਤਰ ਆਪਣੀ ਜ਼ਿੰਦਗੀ ਬਹਾਦਰੀ ਨਾਲ ਵਾਰ ਦਿੱਤੀ’ ਦੀ ਬਾਂਝ ਲੜੀ ਦੇ ਰੂਪ ‘ਚ ਪੇਸ਼ ਕਰਨ ਦੀ ਪਕਰੋੜ ਆਦਤ ਤੋਂ ਲਾਜ਼ਮੀ ਚੌਕਸ ਹੋਣਾ ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਹੈ। ਨਹੀਂ ਤਾਂ ਲਹਿਰ ਗਧੀਗੇੜ ‘ਚ ਫਸੀ ਰਹੇਗੀ, ਆਪਣੇ ਨਿੱਗਰ ਅਭਿਆਸ ਦੀ ਗਤੀਸ਼ੀਲਤਾ ਦੇ ਬਾਵਜੂਦ ਇਹ ਖੜੋਤ ਦਾ ਸ਼ਿਕਾਰ ਹੋ ਜਾਵੇਗੀ।
ਸ਼ਾਇਦ ਅਸੀਂ ਇੱਥੇ ਮਾਓਵਾਦੀ ਲਹਿਰ ਦੇ ‘ਜੰਗਲਮਹੱਲ ਮਾਡਲ ਜਾਂ ਰਾਹ’ ਦੀ ਨਿਸ਼ਾਨਦੇਹੀ ਕਰ ਸਕਦੇ ਹਾਂ, ਜਿਸਦੀ ਤੁਲਨਾ ‘ਛੱਤੀਸਗੜ੍ਹ ਮਾਡਲ ਜਾਂ ਰਾਹ’ ਨਾਲ ਕੀਤੀ ਜਾ ਸਕਦੀ ਹੈ। ਇੱਥੇ ‘ਮਾਡਲਾਂ’ ਦੇ ਰੂਪ ‘ਚ ਚਰਚਾ ਕਰਨ ਦੀਆਂ ਕਈ ਸਮੱਸਿਆਵਾਂ ਹਨ। ਅਤੇ ਹੁਣ ਖ਼ਾਸ ਇਲਾਕਿਆਂ ਅੰਦਰ ਲਹਿਰ ਦੀਆਂ ਵਿਸ਼ੇਸ਼ਤਾਵਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਵੀ ਲਾਜ਼ਮੀ ਆਤਮਸਾਤ ਕਰਨਾ ਹੋਵੇਗਾ ਤਾਂ ਜੋ ਅਸੀਂ ਸਾਰੇ ਤਜ਼ਰਬਿਆਂ ਅਤੇ ਰੂਪਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਇੱਕੋ ਰੱਸੇ ਨਾ ਬੰਨ੍ਹਦੇ ਰਹੀਏ। ਨਹੀਂ ਤਾਂ, ਅਸੀਂ ਕੁਝ ਨਵਾਂ ਨਹੀਂ ਸਿੱਖ ਰਹੇ ਹੋਵਾਂਗੇ, ਅਭਿਆਸ ਤੋਂ ਨਵਾਂ ਸਿੱਖਕੇ ਇਸ ਦਾ ਸੰਸਲੇਸ਼ਣ ਨਹੀਂ ਕਰ ਰਹੇ ਹੋਵਾਂਗੇ ਸਗੋਂ ਘੜੇ-ਘੜਾਏ ਗੁਰ ਦੀ ਅਨੰਤ ਘੁੰਮਣਘੇਰੀ ‘ਚ ਫਸੇ ਰਹਾਂਗੇ। ਇਸ ਪੱਖੋਂ ਕਿਸ਼ਨਜੀ ਦੀ ਸਿਰਕੱਢ ਥਾਂ ਹੈ। ਅਸੀਂ ਨਹੀਂ ਜਾਣਦੇ ਕਿ ਉਸਨੇ ਵੀ ਜੰਗਲਮਹੱਲ ਦੇ ਮਾਡਲ ਅੰਦਰ (ਹੁਨਾਨ ਰਿਪੋਰਟ ਵਾਂਗ) ਲਹਿਰ ਦੀ ਵਿਸ਼ੇਸ਼ਤਾ ਬਾਰੇ ਸੁਚੇਤ ਗੁਰਬੰਦੀਆਂ ਘੜੀਆਂ ਜਾਂ ਨਹੀਂ ਪਰ ਉਸ ਦਾ ਠੋਸ ਅਭਿਆਸ ਸ਼ਾਨਦਾਰ ਢੰਗ ਨਾਲ ਜਗਮਗਾ ਰਿਹਾ ਹੈ।
ਸਤੰਬਰ ਮਹੀਨੇ ਹੀ, ਵਰਵਰਾ ਰਾਓ, ਮੈਂ ਅਤੇ ਕਲਕੱਤੇ ਦੇ ਸਾਥੀਆਂ ਨੇ ‘ਤੱਥਾਂ ਦੀ ਜਾਂਚ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ’ (ਬਿਹਤਰ ਲਫਜ਼ ਦੀ ਅਣਹੋਂਦ ‘ਚ) ਜੰਗਲਮਹੱਲ ਦਾ ਦੌਰਾ ਕੀਤਾ ਸੀ। ਅਸੀਂ ਕਿਸ਼ਨਜੀ ਨੂੰ ਮਿਲ ਨਹੀਂ ਸਕੇ ਪਰ ਅਸੀਂ ਸੁਰੱਖਿਆ ਤਾਕਤਾਂ ਅਤੇ ਨਿੱਜੀ ਸੈਨਾਵਾਂ (ਭੈਰਵ ਵਾਹਨੀ) ਵਲੋਂ ਢਾਹੇ ਜ਼ੁਲਮ ਜ਼ਰੂਰ ਤੱਕੇ। ਮੈਨੂੰ ਝਾਰਗ੍ਰਾਮ ਕਸਬੇ ਤੋਂ ਦੂਰ ਧੁਰ ਜੰਗਲ ਦੇ ਇਕ ਪਿੰਡ ਦੇ ਇਕ ਚੜ੍ਹਦੀ ਉਮਰ ਦੇ ਆਦਿਵਾਸੀ ਸਾਥੀ ਨਾਲ ਗੱਲਬਾਤ ਕਰਨ ਦਾ ਮੌਕਾ ਮਿਲਿਆ ਜੋ ਹਥਿਆਰਬੰਦ ਦਸਤੇ ਦਾ ਮੈਂਬਰ ਸੀ। ਮੈਂ ਉਸਨੂੰ ਪੁੱਛਿਆ ਕੀ ਉਹ ਕਿਸ਼ਨਜੀ ਨੂੰ ਮਿਲਿਆ ਸੀ। ਉਸਨੇ ਹਾਂ ‘ਚ ਜਵਾਬ ਦਿੱਤਾ। ਫੇਰ ਉਸਨੇ ਕਿਹਾ ਕਿ ਕਿਸ਼ਨਜੀ ਜੋ ਮੀਟਿੰਗਾਂ ‘ਚ ਬੋਲਦਾ ਹੈ ਉਸਦੇ ਸਾਰਾ ਕੁਝ ਪੱਲੇ ਨਹੀਂ ਪੈ ਸਕਦਾ। ਫੇਰ ਮੈਂ ਉਸਨੂੰ ਪੁੱਛਿਆ ਕੀ ਉਸਨੇ ਕਿਸ਼ਨਜੀ ਤੋਂ ਮਾਰਕਸਵਾਦ ਬਾਰੇ ਵੀ ਸੁਣਿਆ (ਮੇਰੀ ਇਸ ਵਿਚ ਦਿਲਚਸਪੀ ਸੀ)। ‘ਹਾਂ ਕਿਸ਼ਨਜੀ ਮਾਰਕਸਵਾਦ ਦੀ ਗੱਲ ਕਰਦਾ ਹੈ ਪਰ ਮੈਨੂੰ ਸਮਝਣ ‘ਚ ਬਹੁਤ ਮੁਸ਼ਕਲ ਆਉਂਦੀ ਹੈ।’ ਫੇਰ ਮੈਂ ਉਸਨੂੰ ਪੁੱਛਿਆ ਉਸਨੂੰ ਮਾਰਕਸਵਾਦ ਬਾਰੇ ਕੀ ਸਮਝ ਪਿਆ? ਮੈਂ ਮਹਿਸੂਸ ਕੀਤਾ ਉਹ ਫਸ ਗਿਆ ਸੀ ਪਰ ਕੁਝ ਸੋਚਕੇ ਉਸਨੇ ਜਵਾਬ ਦਿੱਤਾ: ਇਹ ਬਹੁਤ ਵਧੀਆ ਚੀਜ਼ ਹੈ ਪਰ ਕੁਝ ਲੋਕਾਂ ਨੇ ਇਸ ਦਾ ਨਾਸ ਮਾਰ ਦਿੱਤਾ ਹੈ ਅਤੇ ਇਸਨੂੰ ਤੋੜ-ਮਰੋੜ ਦਿੱਤਾ ਹੈ। ‘ਅਸੀਂ ਛਾਪਾਮਾਰ ਅਜਿਹੇ ਲੋਕਾਂ ਨਾਲ ਲੜ ਰਹੇ ਹਾਂ।’
ਕਿਸ਼ਨਜੀ ਵਰਗੇ ਲੋਕ ਮਾਰਕਸਵਾਦ ਨੂੰ ਜਨਤਾ ‘ਚ ਲੈਕੇ ਗਏ ਹਨ ਜਦੋਂ ਤੁਰੰਤ ਅਜਿਹਾ ਕਰਨ ਦਾ ਅਰਥ ਹੈ ‘ਜਥੇਬੰਦ ਕਰਨਾ’, ਵਿਉਂਤਬੰਦੀ ਕਰਨਾ, ਰਣਨੀਤੀ ਬਣਾਉਣਾ, ਘੋਲ ਨੂੰ ਅੱਗੇ ਵਧਾਉਣਾ ਅਤੇ ਆਪਣੇ ਆਪ ਨੂੰ ਗੋਲੀਆਂ ਮੂਹਰੇ ਖੜ੍ਹਾ ਕਰਨਾ। ਕਿਸ਼ਨਜੀ ਦੀ ਦਲੇਰੀ ਉੱਤਰ-ਆਧੁਨਿਕ ਤਰਜ਼ ‘ਤੇ ‘ਸੱਤਾ ਨੂੰ ਸੱਚ ਨਾ ਸੁਣਾਉਣ’ ਵਿਚੋਂ ਨਹੀਂ ਸਗੋਂ ਸੱਤਾ ਦੀ ਹਿੰਸਾ, ਜਿਸ ਦਾ ਸ਼ਿਕਾਰ ਸਾਡੇ ਬੰਦੇ ਹੁੰਦੇ ਹਨ, ਸਮੇਤ ਇਸ ਦੇ ਝੂਠ ਅਤੇ ਕੂੜ ਦਾ ਪਾਜ ਉਘਾੜਦਿਆਂ ਇਸਦਾ ਜਮਹੂਰੀ ਬੁਰਕਾ ਲੀਰੋਲੀਰ ਕਰਨ ‘ਚੋਂ ਉੱਭਰਦੀ ਹੈ।
ਮੈਨੂੰ ਇਹ ਕੁਝ ਬੁਝਾਰ ਲਗਦੀ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਕੈਮਰੇ ਅੱਗੇ ਜਾਂਦਿਆਂ ਵੀ ਕਿਸ਼ਨਜੀ ਨੇ ਕਦੇ ਬੰਦੂਕ ਮੋਢਿਓਂ ਕਿਓਂ ਨਹੀਂ ਲਾਹੀ—ਕੋਈ ਵੀ ਇਸਨੂੰ ਉੱਘੜਵੇਂ ਰੂਪ ‘ਚ ਦੇਖ ਸਕਦਾ ਹੈ ਅਤੇ ਇਸ ਲਈ ਸਪਸ਼ਟ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਉਹ ਜਮਹੂਰੀ, ਸ਼ਾਂਤਮਈ ਵਗੈਰਾ ਹੋਣ ਦਾ ਜਮਹੂਰੀ ਪੱਤਾ ਖੇਡ੍ਹਣ ਦੀ ਪ੍ਰਵਾਹ ਨਹੀਂ ਕਰਦਾ। ਉਹ ਬੰਦੂਕ ਦੀ ਕੋਈ ਗੱਲ ਨਹੀਂ ਕਰਦਾ, ਹਿੰਸਾ ਦੇ ਗੁਣ ਨਹੀਂ ਗਾਉਂਦਾ, ਜਿਵੇਂ ਕੁਝ ਲੋਕ ਕਰੁਣਾਮਈ ਰੂਪ ‘ਚ ਆਸ ਕਰਨਗੇ। ਇਸਦੀ ਥਾਂ ਉਹ ਸੱਚੀ ਜਮਹੂਰੀਅਤ ਅਤੇ ਲੋਕਾਂ ਦੇ ਹੱਥ ਸੱਤਾ ਲਈ ਪੂਰੇ ਤਹੱਮਲ ਨਾਲ ਲੜਾਈ ਲੜਨ ਦੀ ਗੱਲ ਕਰਦਾ ਹੈ। (http:/www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/who-is-kishanji/੨੧੬੯੨੬). ਇਸ ਲਈ ਜਦੋਂ ਉਹ ਆਪਣੇ ਹੀ ਖ਼ੇਮੇ ਅੰਦਰ ਉਤਸੁਕ ਪੱਤਰਕਾਰਾਂ ‘ਚ ਘਿਰਿਆ ਹੁੰਦਾ ਹੈ, ਉਸਦੇ ਮੋਢੇ ਬੰਦੂਕ ਐਨੀ ਪ੍ਰਤੱਖ ਟੰਗੀ ਹੋਈ ਕਿਉਂ ਹੁੰਦੀ ਸੀ? ਇਸਦਾ ਭਾਵ ਸਿਰਫ਼ ਇਹ ਹੋ ਸਕਦਾ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਉਹ ਉਦਾਰਵਾਦੀ ਬੁਰਜ਼ੂਆ ਆਗੂਆਂ ਵਾਂਗ ਅਹਿੰਸਕ ਅਤੇ ਜਮਹੂਰੀ ਹੋਣ ਦਾ ਢੌਂਗ ਨਹੀਂ ਸੀ ਰਚਦਾ, ਹਾਲਾਂਕਿ ਉਹ ਵੱਡੀਆਂ ਵੱਡੀਆਂ ਫ਼ੌਜਾਂ ਦੇ ਮੁਖੀ ਹੁੰਦੇ ਹਨ ਅਤੇ ਇਸ ਤੱਥ ਨੂੰ ਉਹ ਛੁਪਾਉਂਦੇ ਹਨ।
ਇੱਥੇ ਅਸੀਂ ਸਿਰਫ਼ ਮਾਰਕਸਵਾਦ ਬਾਰੇ ਇਕ ਅਹਿਮ ਸੋਚ-ਵਿਚਾਰ ਹੀ ਕਰ ਰਹੇ ਹਾਂ—ਕਿ ਸੱਤਾ ਦਾ ਸਵਾਲ ਲਾਜ਼ਮੀ ਤੌਰ ‘ਤੇ ਸਾਹਮਣੇ ਰਹਿਣਾ ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਹੈ, ਇਸ ਕਰਕੇ ਇਹ ਚਤੁਰ ਚਲਾਕੀਆਂ ਕਰਨ ਦੀ ਕੋਈ ਵਜਾ੍ਹ ਨਹੀਂ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਸਮਾਜ ‘ਚ ਕੋਈ ਸੱਤਾ, ਕੋਈ ਜਮਾਤੀ ਸੱਤਾ, ਕੋਈ ਹਥਿਆਰਬੰਦ ਸੱਤਾ ਨਹੀਂ ਹੁੰਦੀ, ਕਿ ਇਹ ਸਿਰਫ਼ ਜਮਹੂਰੀਅਤ ਹੁੰਦੀ ਹੈ ਅਤੇ ਖੁੱਲ੍ਹਾ ਮੁਕਾਬਲਾ ਹੁੰਦਾ ਹੈ ਆਦਿ। ਇਹੀ ਕਾਰਨ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਲੈਨਿਨ ਕਹੇਗਾ ਕਿ ਸਮਾਜਵਾਦ ਇਕ ਬਿਹਤਰ ਜਾਂ ਸੱਚੀ ਰੈਡੀਕਲ ਜਮਹੂਰੀਅਤ (ਇਹ ਸਾਰਿਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਸਤਿਕਾਰਤ ਅਤੇ ਮੰਨਣਯੋਗ ਲੱਗਣਾ ਸੀ) ਨਹੀਂ ਹੈ ਸਗੋਂ ਇਹ ਪ੍ਰੋਲੇਤਾਰੀ ਦੀ ਤਾਨਾਸ਼ਾਹੀ  ਹੈ—ਇਹ ਕਹਿਣਾ ਵੱਧ ਈਮਾਨਦਾਰੀ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਇੱਥੇ ਹਰ ਕਿਸੇ ਲਈ ਜਮਹੂਰੀਅਤ ਹੁੰਦੀ ਹੈ ਹਾਲਾਂਕਿ ਇਹ ਸੱਚੀਓਂ ਜਮਾਤੀ ਤਾਨਾਸ਼ਾਹੀ ਹੈ। ਜੇ ਤੁਸੀਂ ਕਿਸ਼ਨਜੀ ਦੀ ਬੰਦੂਕ ਕਰਕੇ ਉਸਦੀ ਤਹਿ ਦਿਲੋਂ ਹਮਾਇਤ ਕਰਨ ‘ਚ ਕਿਸੇ ਤਰ੍ਹਾਂ ਦੀ ਬੇਅਰਾਮੀ ਮਹਿਸੂਸ ਕਰਦੇ ਹੋ ਤਾਂ ਤੁਸੀਂ ਮਾਰਕਸਵਾਦ ਦੀ ਅਹਿਮ ਜਾਣਕਾਰੀ ਹਾਸਲ ਕਰਨ ‘ਚ ਵੀ ਬੇਅਰਾਮ ਹੋ ਸਕਦੇ ਹੋ—ਉਹ ਸਾਡੇ ਉੱਪਰ ਇਹ ਦੂਹਰੀ ਬੰਦਸ਼ ਲਾਉਂਦਾ ਹੈ।
ਕਿਸ਼ਨਜੀ ‘ਹਵਾ ਵਿਚ ਉਡਣ ਵਾਲਾ’ ਬੰਦਾ ਨਹੀਂ ਸੀ ਸਗੋਂ ਬਾਬ ਡਿਲਨh ਦੇ ਗੀਤ ਦੇ ਕਿਰਦਾਰ ਵਰਗਾ ਸੀ। ਉਹ ‘ਉਸ ਘੜੀ ਮੌਜੂਦ’ ਬੰਦਾ ਸੀ ‘ਜਦੋਂ ਤਬਦੀਲੀ ਆਉਂਦੀ ਹੈ’, ਜਿਸਨੇ ਇਹ ਲਾਜ਼ਮੀ ਕਲਪਨਾ ਕੀਤੀ ਹੋਵੇਗੀ ਕਿ ਉਹ ਇਹ ਮਹਾਨ ਘੜੀ ਲਿਆਉਣ ਲਈ ਲੜ ਰਿਹਾ ਹੈ, ਸ਼ਾਇਦ ਜਦੋਂ ‘ਜਵਾਬ ਹਵਾ ‘ਚ ਉਡਣਾ ਨਹੀਂ ਹੋ ਸਕਦਾ’:
ਕਿਉਂਕਿ ਰਾਤ ਨੂੰ ਟੁੱਟਣਗੀਆਂ
ਸਮੁੰਦਰ ਦੀਆਂ ਜ਼ੰਜੀਰਾਂ
ਅਤੇ ਸਮੁੰਦਰ ‘ਚ ਡੂੰਘੀਆਂ ਦਫ਼ਨਾ ਦਿੱਤੀਆਂ ਜਾਣਗੀਆਂ।

ਵੈਰੀਆਂ ਦੀ ਜਾਗ ਖੁੱਲ੍ਹ ਜਾਵੇਗੀ
ਅੱਖਾਂ ਉਨੀਂਦਰੇ ਦੀਆਂ ਭੰਨੀਆਂ ਹੋਣਗੀਆਂ
ਤੇ ਉਹ ਬਿਸਤਰਿਆਂ ‘ਚੋਂ ਛਾਲਾਂ ਮਾਰਕੇ ਭੱਜ ਉੱਠਣਗੇ
ਤੇ ਸੋਚਦੇ ਹੋਣਗੇ ਕਿ ਸ਼ਾਇਦ ਉਹ ਖ਼ਵਾਬ ਦੇਖ ਰਹੇ ਹਨ
ਪਰ ਉਹ ਆਪਣੇ ਚੂੰਢੀਆਂ ਵੱਢਕੇ ਦੇਖਣਗੇ ਅਤੇ ਚੀਕਾਂ ਮਾਰਨਗੇ
ਅਤੇ ਜਾਣ ਜਾਣਗੇ ਕਿ ਇਹ ਸੱਚ ਹੈ
ਜਦੋਂ ਤਬਦੀਲੀ ਦੀ ਘੜੀ ਆਉਂਦੀ ਹੈ

ਫਿਰ ਉਹ ਆਪਣੇ ਹੱਥ ਖੜ੍ਹੇ ਕਰ ਲੈਣਗੇ
ਤੇ ਕਹਿਣਗੇ ਅਸੀਂ ਤੁਹਾਡੀਆਂ ਸਾਰੀਆਂ ਮੰਗਾਂ ਮੰਨ ਲਵਾਂਗੇ
ਪਰ ਅਸੀਂ ਧਨੁਸ਼ ਦੇ ਪਿੱਛਿਓਂ ਲਲਕਾਰਾਂਗੇ ‘ਤੁਹਾਡੇ ਦਿਨ ਪੁੱਗ ਚੁੱਕੇ ਹਨ’।

* ਸਰੋਜ ਗਿਰੀ ਦਿੱਲੀ ਯੂਨੀਵਰਸਿਟੀ ‘ਚ ਰਾਜਨੀਤੀ ਵਿਗਿਆਨ ਦੇ ਪ੍ਰੋਫੈਸਰ ਹਨ

ਤਰਜਮਾ : ਬੂਟਾ ਸਿੰਘ, ਸੰਪਰਕ : +9194634-74342

Dec 15: Jharkhand High Court today acquitted four main convicts of Chilkari massacre who were awarded the death sentence by a court in Giridih on June 23. A divison bench, comprising Justice R K Merathia and Justice D N Upadhaya, acquitted Jiten Marandi, Chhatrapati Mandal, Manoj Rajwar and Anil Ram due to lack of evidence. Earlier on June 23, Additional District and Sessions Judge(First) I D Mishra had ordered that all the four accused be hanged till death for perpetrating the massacre. The Giridih court had, however, acquitted Hafiz Ahmed, Tutlal Yadav, Kishan Rajwar, Ram Sahay Das, Sitaram Turi and Mangru Kisku for want of evidence. On October 26, 2007 an armed squad of CPI(Maoists) fired indiscriminately at villagers watching a a cultural programme at Chilkhari village under Deori police station area in Giridih district. Anup Marandi, son of former chief minister Babu Lal Marandi was among the 20 people killed in the incident. (UNI)