[Marxistindia] CC Communique

[news from the cpi(m)]

January 30, 2023

 

Central Committee Communique

 

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) met in
Kolkata on January 28-29, 2023.  It has issued the following statement:

 

Allegations against Adani group

 

A high-level inquiry is essential on the allegations leveled by Hindenburg
Research against the Adani group, monitored on a day-to-day basis by the
Supreme Court. Till this enquiry is completed and the truth is known the
interests of India and our people must be protected. Around Rs. 80,000
crores of LIC are invested in Adani companies and 40 per cent of all loans
taken by the group from national banks are through the SBI. Both the LIC and
the SBI are institutions where crores of Indians park their life long
savings for their future security.  Since this report became public Adani
groups capitalization in stock market dropped by over $50 billion. This
cannot lead to the ruination of people's life long savings in these public
sector institutions.  

 

The CPI(M) will coordinate with other secular opposition parties and raise
his issue in the forthcoming budget session of the Parliament. 

 

Indian Economy

 

The Indian economy continues to falter with recessionary conditions
intensifying. Notwithstanding all propaganda and claims made by the
government on economic recovery, investments in augmenting India's
productive capacities are not growing. This means that employment generation
is stagnant, if not declining, contributing to greater poverty and miseries.


 

The obscene widening of inequality: The Oxfam report titled 'Survival of the
Richest: the India Supplement' shows that more than 40 per cent of India's
wealth owned by mere 1 per cent of its population. The total wealth of 10
richest Indians stood at Rs. 27.52 lakh crores in 2022, a 32.8 per cent rise
from 2021. The bottom 50 per cent of the population accounted for a meagre 3
per cent.

 

The total number of billionaires in India increased from 102 in 2020 to 166
in 2022. In stark contrast nearly 23 crore people - the highest in the world
- live in poverty. 

 

Noting the regressive taxation regime in India the report pointed out that
the bottom 50 per cent of our people pay 6 times more on indirect taxation
as a percentage of income as compared to the top 10 per cent. Of the total
taxes collected from food and non-food essentials 64.3 per cent was incurred
by the bottom 50 per cent. 

 

It is high time that the tax concessions for the rich that continue to be
given by the Modi government are reversed, a wealth tax and an inheritance
tax be introduced and GST on all essentials especially food items must be
abolished. 

 

Sharpening Communal Polarisation

 

The efforts to sharpen communal polarization continue to escalate in various
ways. All the BJP ruled states have announced that they shall proceed with
the implementation of a Uniform Civil Code in their state. This is
accompanied by strident comments of abolishing the Muslim Personal Law. All
the BJP state governments have already enacted laws targeting Muslim
minorities either in the form of 'love jihad' or 'cow protection' and
stipulating conditions that virtually prohibit any voluntary religious
conversions and interfaith marriages. There are growing reports of
dangerously intensified hatred against the Muslim students in educational
institutions.

 

The Uttar Pradesh BJP state government has been aggressively pursuing
incendiary communal polarization denying Muslim minorities basic
Constitutional guarantees. Recently, principal of a government school in
Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district suspended children singing a popular Urdu
prayer song. 

 

There have been large-scale attacks on the Christian community in the North
Bastar district of Chhattisgarh. The propaganda of forcible conversion used
as a pretext for such attacks is not borne out by facts. There has not been
a single case of forcible conversion reported. This is a clear case of
pursuing an agenda of targeting and attacking the Christian community and
forcing them to accept 'Ghar Vapsi' by the Bajrang Dal under the patronage
of RSS/BJP. Criminal assaults have taken place with violence unleashed,
particularly against women and children.

 

A BJP MP and the president of the Wrestling Federation of India is facing
serious allegations of sexual harassment by women wrestlers who have won
medals in international tournaments. Neither the government nor the ruling
party has taken any action against him.

 

Soon after the remission of life sentences of the guilty in the Bilkis Bano
case, all 21 persons accused of rioting and in the cold-blooded murder of
Mohsin Shaikh case in Pune in June 2014 have been acquitted and welcomed by
a large contingent of Hindutva outfits. The police and the administration
have so far not moved to contest this in  a higher court. 

 

Undermining Judicial Independence 

 

Seeking to have a `tame' judiciary, the government has been interfering in
the appointment of judges to the High Courts and the Supreme Court by
delaying or refusing to clear various names recommended by the Supreme Court
and the High Court collegiums.

 

The Modi government's aim is to subordinate the higher judiciary to the
executive.  The erosion of judicial independence, as per the Constitutional
scheme, would spell the complete domination of authoritarianism.

 

Role of Governors 

 

Intensifying the assault on federalism, the Governors and Lieutenant
Governors in non-BJP ruled states and Union Territories continue to advance
the political objectives of the ruling party brazenly violating the
Constitutional position. Governors in Kerala, Telangana, Maharashtra and now
Tamilnadu and the Lieutenant Governors in Union Territories of Delhi,
Lakshadweep, Andaman and Puducherry grossly misuse their Constitutional
positions. 

 

The Governor of Tamilnadu refused to read portion of the address to the
Assembly prepared by the state government. The Governor of Kerala continues
to sit on bills adopted by the elected state assembly.

 

Governor's office is used as an instrument to undermine the Constitutional
role of the state governments and smacks of an anti-federal tendency and
penchant for centralization of powers.

 

Tripura Assembly Elections 

 

The CPI(M) is seeking the cooperation of all secular democratic forces in
Tripura to ensure that the BJP state government that has unleashed a
politics of terror and violence undermining democracy and the rule of law is
removed from the office.  

 

The pattern of violence is clearly aimed at creating an atmosphere of terror
and fear which will clearly affect the conduct of free and fair polls. The
ECI must undertake emergency measures and proactively intervene to ensure
free and fair polls.   

 

Democracy and democratic rights must be restored in Tripura fully if there
has to be a free and fair election.

 

C.C Calls

 

1. Solidarity with the people and secular democratic forces in Tripura to
restore democracy and democratic rights as a pre-condition for holding free
and fair polls. 

 

The CPI(M) will organize programmes all across the country expressing
solidarity.

 

2. A nationwide call for protest action in the last week of February from
22nd to 28th against the continuing assaults on the peoples' livelihood with
growing unemployment, poverty and inequalities.

 

Along with issues that will arise in the 2023-24 Union Budget, this
campaigns of protest actions will highlight the following demands:

 

*        Hike public investments in job creating infrastructure projects.

*        Restore 5 kg of subsidized foodgrains along with 5 kg free
foodgrains.

*        Vastly increase allocation for MGNREGS with a higher wage.

*        Impose a wealth and inheritance tax 

*        Withdraw tax concessions to the rich and impose a tax on the
super-rich

*        Withdraw GST on food and essentials commodities including
medicines.  

 

3. The CPI(M) extends its full support to the call of the Mazdur-Kisan rally
to the Parliament on April 5, 2023.

 

During the course of the month of March the CPI(M) will organize political
campaigns and activities on the following issues all across the country:

 

(i)               With growing attacks on federalism, protest against BJP's
policies against elected state governments, particularly non-BJP state
governments and opposing the efforts to impose a unitary state structure
destroying the federal structure.

(ii)        Campaigns denouncing the BJP government's efforts to undermine
the independence of the judiciary. All democratic forces must be mobilized
to defend the Constitutional role of the judiciary against the Modi
government's efforts to subordinate higher judiciary to the government. 

(iii)      For democratic and level playing field in electoral reforms to
ensure a free and fair election. The 23rd Congress of the CPI(M) in its
political resolution highlighted the set of electoral forms that must be
urgently introduced. 

(iv)       To organize solidarity  campaigns with the Palestinian people and
against the repression by the right-wing Israeli government.

 

 

 

 

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