The Ambassador of Mexico in India, Mr. Jaime Nualart meeting the Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, Dr. (Smt.) D. Purandeswari, in New Delhi on February 28, 2013. (PIB)
28-February-2013
Thursday, February 28, 2013
The Ambassador of Mexico in India
The Ambassador of Mexico in India, Mr. Jaime Nualart meeting the Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, Dr. (Smt.) D. Purandeswari, in New Delhi on February 28, 2013. (PIB)
28-February-2013
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Military officials reported
Combined Force Arrests Taliban Leader in Nangarhar ProvinceFrom an International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News ReleaseKABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 25, 2013 - A combined coalition and Afghan security force arrested a senior Taliban leader in the Khugyani district of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province yesterday, military officials reported. The Taliban leader is believed to be responsible for coordinating and directing insurgents and of having maintained direct operational control of suicide bombers prepared to carry out attacks against Afghan and coalition forces, officials said. The security force also arrested three other suspected insurgents. In other Afghanistan operations yesterday: -- In Kandahar province's Arghandab district, a combined force arrested a Taliban facilitator believed to be responsible for the acquisition and distribution of lethal aid for attacks against Afghan and coalition forces and to be heavily involved in the finances of an insurgent network in the district. The security force also arrested another suspected insurgent. -- A combined force in Logar province's Pul-e Alam district arrested three insurgents during a search for a Taliban leader believed to be responsible for attacks against Afghan and coalition forces. He also has been linked to kidnapping Afghans for ransom and establishing illegal checkpoints, officials said. -- In Ghazni province's Andar district, a combined force arrested a Taliban leader believed to be responsible for procuring and distributing automatic weapons and roadside bombs to insurgents and to have personally planned and executed attacks. The security force also arrested another suspected insurgent. |
| Related Sites: NATO International Security Assistance Force |
Monday, February 25, 2013
At Freserganj-Bakkhali Beach
After inspecting the frontline Coastal Islands
The Union Home Minister, Shri Sushil Kumar Shinde and the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Kumari Mamata Banerjee arrive at Freserganj-Bakkhali Beach after inspecting the frontline Coastal Islands on Indo-Bangladesh border, at South 24 Paraganas District, in West Bengal on February 25, 2013.(PIB photo) 25-February-2013
The Prime Minister at Hyderabad
Interacting with the bomb blast victims
The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh interacting with the bomb blast victims, at Omni Hospital, in Hyderabad on February 24, 2013. (PIB photo) 24-February-2013
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Commander:
02/22/2013 07:55 AM CST Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 7:44 PM
Public, Family Support Vital to Deployed Forces
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2013 - As U.S. forces continue to draw down in Afghanistan and the December 2014 deadline for the end of combat operations there draws steadily closer, a senior commander wrapping up his year-long deployment emphasized the importance of continued support from military families and the American public.
"You may not read about it so much anymore in the news or hear it on TV, but we out here believe that America is still strongly behind us," Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Charles "Mark" Gurganus, commander of the International Security Assistance Force's Regional Command Southwest, told American Forces Press Service in a telephone interview yesterday.
Gurganus and his fellow 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Marines are scheduled to return to Camp Pendleton, Calif., during the first week of March following a deployment to Afghanistan's Helmand and Nimroz provinces. The region is among the most challenging in Afghanistan.
What sustained his forces, Gurganus said, was the bond they developed as brothers and sisters in arms, and confidence in the support of the people they left behind. That support is evident wherever they serve, he said, from encouraging emails and snail-mail letters to care packages brimming with thoughtful treats and mementos.
"The support of the American people is just huge to these Marines," Gurganus said. "They really do want to know that people care about them and about what they are doing."
The most important support of all, he said, comes from military families themselves.
Traveling around his battle space to bid goodbye to the forces serving there, Gurganus said, he asked them to make a point to extend thanks to their families from "the old gray-haired guy out here."
"I just couldn't tell the families 'thank you' enough," he said. "I would never be able to express my true gratitude to the support we have gotten from them."
It's been a major factor, not just in troops' sense of well-being, but in their ability to do their mission, Gurganus said.
"You can't account for how much the support of their loved ones goes to strengthen the guy's will to do what he is doing," he said. "If these guys out here know they've got support, and the families back there are providing that support, it really does allow them to keep their minds on what they are doing out here."
This, in turn, helps them to perform their duties better and safer -- a measure that protects them and their fellow Marines, the general explained.
Reflecting on the key role families play in mission success, Gurganus said they're the ones who pay the biggest toll during a deployment.
"We're trained for what we do," he said of military members. "We train for a long time to get ready to come here. We know pretty much what is expected of us when we get here, and we have a team, ... so we have somebody to lean on."
Not so with families -- despite what Gurganus acknowledged has grown to become an extensive support network. "Nobody is standing right next to them every day," he said. "Their world has a lot of uncertainty in it when we are gone."
Yet their continued support will remain vital, even as U.S. forces draw down, and until the last U.S. service member returns home from Afghanistan, Gurganus said.
"So I really want to thank and admire the families for continuing to provide that level of support," he added.
Public, Family Support Vital to Deployed Forces
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2013 - As U.S. forces continue to draw down in Afghanistan and the December 2014 deadline for the end of combat operations there draws steadily closer, a senior commander wrapping up his year-long deployment emphasized the importance of continued support from military families and the American public.
"You may not read about it so much anymore in the news or hear it on TV, but we out here believe that America is still strongly behind us," Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Charles "Mark" Gurganus, commander of the International Security Assistance Force's Regional Command Southwest, told American Forces Press Service in a telephone interview yesterday.
Gurganus and his fellow 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Marines are scheduled to return to Camp Pendleton, Calif., during the first week of March following a deployment to Afghanistan's Helmand and Nimroz provinces. The region is among the most challenging in Afghanistan.
What sustained his forces, Gurganus said, was the bond they developed as brothers and sisters in arms, and confidence in the support of the people they left behind. That support is evident wherever they serve, he said, from encouraging emails and snail-mail letters to care packages brimming with thoughtful treats and mementos.
"The support of the American people is just huge to these Marines," Gurganus said. "They really do want to know that people care about them and about what they are doing."
The most important support of all, he said, comes from military families themselves.
Traveling around his battle space to bid goodbye to the forces serving there, Gurganus said, he asked them to make a point to extend thanks to their families from "the old gray-haired guy out here."
"I just couldn't tell the families 'thank you' enough," he said. "I would never be able to express my true gratitude to the support we have gotten from them."
It's been a major factor, not just in troops' sense of well-being, but in their ability to do their mission, Gurganus said.
"You can't account for how much the support of their loved ones goes to strengthen the guy's will to do what he is doing," he said. "If these guys out here know they've got support, and the families back there are providing that support, it really does allow them to keep their minds on what they are doing out here."
This, in turn, helps them to perform their duties better and safer -- a measure that protects them and their fellow Marines, the general explained.
Reflecting on the key role families play in mission success, Gurganus said they're the ones who pay the biggest toll during a deployment.
"We're trained for what we do," he said of military members. "We train for a long time to get ready to come here. We know pretty much what is expected of us when we get here, and we have a team, ... so we have somebody to lean on."
Not so with families -- despite what Gurganus acknowledged has grown to become an extensive support network. "Nobody is standing right next to them every day," he said. "Their world has a lot of uncertainty in it when we are gone."
Yet their continued support will remain vital, even as U.S. forces draw down, and until the last U.S. service member returns home from Afghanistan, Gurganus said.
"So I really want to thank and admire the families for continuing to provide that level of support," he added.
| Biographies: Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Charles "Mark" Gurganus Related Sites:Related Articles:Outgoing Commander Cites Progress in Southwestern Afghanistan NATO International Security Assistance Force |
Mumbai Consultation on Police Reforms:'
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2013 10:17 PM
Better Policing-Safer City:How to make it happen
From: Dolphy D'souza
Date: Friday, 22 February, 2013
Venue: Utsav Banquet Hall, JamshedJi Tata Road ChurchGate
Press Statement on the deliberations at the above meeting:22/02/13
The COMMONWEALTH HUMAN RIGHTS INITIATIVE [ CHRI] Delhi in association
with Citizen Initiative for Peace (CIP), Praja, PCGT, M R. Pai Foundation. Akshara, Forum against Oppression of Women and Forum of Free Enterprise organized this event.
A meeting of over 80 of the leading activists representing over 30 organisations / civil society in Mumbai voiced deep concern about the state of women's safety and indeed the safety of all mumbaikars.
Attended by no less personage as Shri Julio Rebeiro, [ Former Mumbai Police Commissioner], Dr. Shri A.N Roy [Former Director General of Police, Maharashtra], Shri Shailesh Gandhi [ former Central Information Commissioner ]. Mr. Satish Sahney [Former Mumbai Police Commissioner], leading Advocates, Women and Rights Activists and concerned Citizens.
The discussions pointed out that despite the bitter complaints against the inefficiencies of policing in Mumbai, its bias's and violence, police performance was failing the public. Bandage remedies such as transfers or punishment postings will not do. There is a need for root and branch improvement. The constabulary have to be better equipped not with arms and ammunition but with a better value system
that ensures that there will be more responsive and less illegal policing and better all round every day performance.
The leadership must ensure that the ordinary constable has good working conditions decent wages and better hours of work. Training must be imparted to the police personnel in educating on high standards to human rights, gender sensitivity and respecting multi-religious diversity. At the same time they must take responsibility for lapses in policing and be completely accountable.
The political administration is responsible for delivering better policing that has the confidence of the public in Maharastra.
The meeting also called the State Government to implement the Police Reforms as outlined in the Supreme Court Judgement of 2006. The Supreme Court had given certain directions in view of the urgent need for preservation and strengthening of the Rule of Law. It had prescribed the setting up of three institutions in the state: A State
Security Commission, Police Establishment Board and Police Complaints Authority, in other words calling for a systemic changes into the functioning of the Police Department.
It must lay down policing policies and targets to be achieved in the year after creating a political plan. This plan must be made in consultation with local communities and be a public document against which police performance can be evaluated and judged. It is only when communities are engaged with policing that the police will gain public confidence.
The meeting called for the State Security Commission to put in place a credible planning process in which enhanced safety of women and vulnerable groups such as children, migrants and minorities is specially addressed.
The meeting also agreed to a plan of action to make this an election issue for the forthcoming 2014 elections and demand from the Political parties to not only include this in their manifesto but ensure that the Police Reforms are implemented thereafter .
Hence it becomes necessary for the incumbent Government to bring in the police reforms without any further delay during their current tenure.
The meeting agreed to work together with police and administration in creating better policing outcomes for the city and asked all Mumbaikars to join in this effort.
Issued by Dolphy D'souza, Citizens Initiative for Peace [CIP] & Ms Maja Daruwalla , Director CHRI, Organising Committee and the participants of the meeting .
Cell: 9820226227 Email: dolphydolphy13@gmail.com
Dolphy Dsouza - 9820226227
Citizens Initiative for Peace [CIP]
43, Kalina, Santacruz East,
Mumbai 400 029.
Email: dolphydolphy13@gmail.com
Better Policing-Safer City:How to make it happen
From: Dolphy D'souza
Date: Friday, 22 February, 2013
Venue: Utsav Banquet Hall, JamshedJi Tata Road ChurchGate
Press Statement on the deliberations at the above meeting:22/02/13
The COMMONWEALTH HUMAN RIGHTS INITIATIVE [ CHRI] Delhi in association
with Citizen Initiative for Peace (CIP), Praja, PCGT, M R. Pai Foundation. Akshara, Forum against Oppression of Women and Forum of Free Enterprise organized this event.
A meeting of over 80 of the leading activists representing over 30 organisations / civil society in Mumbai voiced deep concern about the state of women's safety and indeed the safety of all mumbaikars.
Attended by no less personage as Shri Julio Rebeiro, [ Former Mumbai Police Commissioner], Dr. Shri A.N Roy [Former Director General of Police, Maharashtra], Shri Shailesh Gandhi [ former Central Information Commissioner ]. Mr. Satish Sahney [Former Mumbai Police Commissioner], leading Advocates, Women and Rights Activists and concerned Citizens.
The discussions pointed out that despite the bitter complaints against the inefficiencies of policing in Mumbai, its bias's and violence, police performance was failing the public. Bandage remedies such as transfers or punishment postings will not do. There is a need for root and branch improvement. The constabulary have to be better equipped not with arms and ammunition but with a better value system
that ensures that there will be more responsive and less illegal policing and better all round every day performance.
The leadership must ensure that the ordinary constable has good working conditions decent wages and better hours of work. Training must be imparted to the police personnel in educating on high standards to human rights, gender sensitivity and respecting multi-religious diversity. At the same time they must take responsibility for lapses in policing and be completely accountable.
The political administration is responsible for delivering better policing that has the confidence of the public in Maharastra.
The meeting also called the State Government to implement the Police Reforms as outlined in the Supreme Court Judgement of 2006. The Supreme Court had given certain directions in view of the urgent need for preservation and strengthening of the Rule of Law. It had prescribed the setting up of three institutions in the state: A State
Security Commission, Police Establishment Board and Police Complaints Authority, in other words calling for a systemic changes into the functioning of the Police Department.
It must lay down policing policies and targets to be achieved in the year after creating a political plan. This plan must be made in consultation with local communities and be a public document against which police performance can be evaluated and judged. It is only when communities are engaged with policing that the police will gain public confidence.
The meeting called for the State Security Commission to put in place a credible planning process in which enhanced safety of women and vulnerable groups such as children, migrants and minorities is specially addressed.
The meeting also agreed to a plan of action to make this an election issue for the forthcoming 2014 elections and demand from the Political parties to not only include this in their manifesto but ensure that the Police Reforms are implemented thereafter .
Hence it becomes necessary for the incumbent Government to bring in the police reforms without any further delay during their current tenure.
The meeting agreed to work together with police and administration in creating better policing outcomes for the city and asked all Mumbaikars to join in this effort.
Issued by Dolphy D'souza, Citizens Initiative for Peace [CIP] & Ms Maja Daruwalla , Director CHRI, Organising Committee and the participants of the meeting .
Cell: 9820226227 Email: dolphydolphy13@gmail.com
Dolphy Dsouza - 9820226227
Citizens Initiative for Peace [CIP]
43, Kalina, Santacruz East,
Mumbai 400 029.
Email: dolphydolphy13@gmail.com
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Literature and Marginality:
Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 6:07 PM
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)
School of Humanities New Delhi
International Conference
Comparative Perspectives in African American Australian and Indian Dalit Literature
February, 20-22, 2013
CONCEPT NOTE
‘Marginality’ is generally employed to interpret and analyse socio-cultural, political and economic spheres, where disadvantaged people struggle to gain access to resources, and equal participation in social life. The superstructures of race in Africa, Australia, USA and caste in India inform, deform, and complicate the identities of the marginalized along lines of gender, class, and family structure. In the modern day debate, various facets of marginality have been discussed in scholarly circles in almost every disciplinary area including literature, history, sociology, and political science with implications for issues as diverse as justice, gender, equality and inequality. This academic exercise which engage experts from National and International arena will explore the convergences in imagination and expressions of writers like Ngugi and Achebe, Kim Scott and Alexis Wright and then Valmiki and Gaikwad.
Over the years, the traditional assumptions of disciplines have been challenged and scholars have also explored the role of the “canon” and debated on what the so called “great” (canonical) texts may be in their respective disciplines, and the more profound grounds of their canonicity. There is a great academic need to explore these comparative perspectives in African American and Australian, Indian Dalit Literature. The advent of literary and cultural theories in the literary field has brought major changes in the way of reading, interpreting and understanding literature and culture. This has empowered, in a significant way, marginalized discourses which often remained unnoticed by the hegemonic culture. This has constantly been argued that a comprehensive literary study of marginality and its epistemic role is necessary and would contribute to a better understanding of how humanistic knowledge has been created, structured and transmitted.
The proposed bilingual (Hindi and English) conference is to contextualize marginality in an Inter-disciplinary framework with reference to past and with its possible effects on life in future and also provide a comparative platform of literary study between Dalit, African, Australian and American discourses. Although the chief concern will be to review literature on marginality and figure out the points of coming together and departure in terms of marginalized writings yet scholarly contributions from every domain are also invited so that the inter-disciplinary or multi-disciplinary approaches can authenticate the main theme. The innovative, exciting, and intellectual discussion by the scholars of all domains will also help in promoting a high order research in this area.
The broad areas to be covered by the Seminar include:
Subaltern Consciousness in African Australian American and Dalit Writings.
Parallelism and Ambivalences in literature of the ‘margins’
‘Art’ and ‘Aesthetics’ of African Australian American and Dalit Writings
Literature of Marginality: African American Australian and Dalit Literature.
Art, literature and films as modes of expression and Resistance
Issues of language, form and genre
Nation and its Others
Autobiographies as layers of Identity and Resistance.
Representation of women, caste and Race.
Dynamics of Social exclusion - Issues, Trends and Prospects
The Subaltern Consciousness and the associated challenges
Politics of Empowerment and Subaltern issues.
Any other topic(s) relevant to the theme of the Conference is/are welcomed.
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)
School of Humanities New Delhi
International Conference
Comparative Perspectives in African American Australian and Indian Dalit Literature
February, 20-22, 2013
CONCEPT NOTE
‘Marginality’ is generally employed to interpret and analyse socio-cultural, political and economic spheres, where disadvantaged people struggle to gain access to resources, and equal participation in social life. The superstructures of race in Africa, Australia, USA and caste in India inform, deform, and complicate the identities of the marginalized along lines of gender, class, and family structure. In the modern day debate, various facets of marginality have been discussed in scholarly circles in almost every disciplinary area including literature, history, sociology, and political science with implications for issues as diverse as justice, gender, equality and inequality. This academic exercise which engage experts from National and International arena will explore the convergences in imagination and expressions of writers like Ngugi and Achebe, Kim Scott and Alexis Wright and then Valmiki and Gaikwad.
Over the years, the traditional assumptions of disciplines have been challenged and scholars have also explored the role of the “canon” and debated on what the so called “great” (canonical) texts may be in their respective disciplines, and the more profound grounds of their canonicity. There is a great academic need to explore these comparative perspectives in African American and Australian, Indian Dalit Literature. The advent of literary and cultural theories in the literary field has brought major changes in the way of reading, interpreting and understanding literature and culture. This has empowered, in a significant way, marginalized discourses which often remained unnoticed by the hegemonic culture. This has constantly been argued that a comprehensive literary study of marginality and its epistemic role is necessary and would contribute to a better understanding of how humanistic knowledge has been created, structured and transmitted.
The proposed bilingual (Hindi and English) conference is to contextualize marginality in an Inter-disciplinary framework with reference to past and with its possible effects on life in future and also provide a comparative platform of literary study between Dalit, African, Australian and American discourses. Although the chief concern will be to review literature on marginality and figure out the points of coming together and departure in terms of marginalized writings yet scholarly contributions from every domain are also invited so that the inter-disciplinary or multi-disciplinary approaches can authenticate the main theme. The innovative, exciting, and intellectual discussion by the scholars of all domains will also help in promoting a high order research in this area.
The broad areas to be covered by the Seminar include:
Subaltern Consciousness in African Australian American and Dalit Writings.
Parallelism and Ambivalences in literature of the ‘margins’
‘Art’ and ‘Aesthetics’ of African Australian American and Dalit Writings
Literature of Marginality: African American Australian and Dalit Literature.
Art, literature and films as modes of expression and Resistance
Issues of language, form and genre
Nation and its Others
Autobiographies as layers of Identity and Resistance.
Representation of women, caste and Race.
Dynamics of Social exclusion - Issues, Trends and Prospects
The Subaltern Consciousness and the associated challenges
Politics of Empowerment and Subaltern issues.
Any other topic(s) relevant to the theme of the Conference is/are welcomed.
Nationwide strike on 2nd day at Ludhiana
Workers jammed the railway track and held a rally
The speakers said that yesterday’s strike was a complete success and it reflected the growing resentment among the working class against the anti people policies of the government. They demanded minimum wages to be fixed by the Punjab Govt. @ for unskilled workers Rs 10,000, Semi Skilled 15,000, Skilled workers 20,000 per month, end to contractual and outsourcing and filling up of all govt. and semi govt. posts on regular basis, to disband the new pension policy effective from 1.1.2004 and implement the same old pension scheme on all employees. They also demanded creation of social security fund for the workers of the unorganized sector. They cited low wages in the state as major reason for the shortage of labour in the state. They demanded all anti worker acts recently promulgated by the Punjab government to be withdrawn with immediate effect. The speakers said that the labour laws in the state are being flouted by both public and private sector with impunity. The contractual workers in both the sectors be regularized hence forth. These must be implemented in letter and spirit. They deplored that under the process of so called globalization and privatization at the diktat of the world bank and International Monetary Fund , the economic policies of both central and state governments there has been accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few, while vast majority is suffering under acute poverty and unemployment. Latest reports have indicated that 100 top rich families in India own assets to the tune of 16 lakh crores of rupees where as 70% are forced to live on meager spending of Rs. 16.60 per day. Speaking on the occasion Com. Tarsem Jodhan, Com D P Maur, Com Ram Lal, Jagdish Chand and Gurjeet Singh Jagpal, Gulzar Singh Gorea opposed FDI in banks, LIC and retail as this will hit the job situation hard for the employees and also the production in the small scale sector. They also demanded regular jobs and equal wages for ASHA, Aanganwadi and mid day meal workers. They warned that if the govt. does not change its economic policies benefitting the rich and the corporate sector, then more militant agitations are on the anvil. Others who addressed include Com Bhagirath Paliwal, Suresh Sood, Gurnam Gill, Laddoo shah, Haniuman Prasad Dubey, Samar Bahadur, Gurnam Sidhu, Kameshwar Yadav, Sarbjit Singh Sarhali, Manjeet Singh Buta, Charan Dass, Amarnath Kumkalan, S K Tiwari and Rajesh Kumar Sharma, Com Naresh Gaur, Dr Arun Mitra and Shri Gurbaksh Rai.
The protestors included large number of women, construction workers, industrial workers, Public health workers, contractual workers, Corporation workers, roadways and others sections of workers and employees.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Bank Unions hold a massive rally
In support of the 10 point Charter of Demands
On the call given by United Forum of Bank Unions, officers and employees in all the public sector banks are observing 2 days nationwide continuous general strike on 20th & 21st Feb. 2013 alongwith Central trade unions in our country to protest against the Central Government’s anti-people, anti-labour and the pro-corporate neo-liberal economic policies on the following demands:-
• In support of the 10 point Charter of Demands of Central Trade Unions.
• Control alarming price rise
• Stop anti-labour policies and Hands off trade union rights
• Stop Banking Reforms
• Stop Outsourcing
• Early wage revision
• Settle pending issues like compassionate appointment scheme
United Forum of Bank Unions hold a massive rally in front of Canara Bank, Bharat Nagar Chowk, Ludhiana. Com. Sudesh Kumar, Chairman, Punjab Bank Employees Federation, Com. Naresh Gaur, Convener, United Forum of Bank Unions, Com. Ashok Awasthy (PBEF), Com. Gulshan Chauhan, Com. Rakesh Khanna, Com. Baljinder Singh, Com. J.P.Kalra (All India Bank Officers’ Confederation), Com. D.C.Landra (NCBE), Com. K.S.Sandhu, Com. Gurbachan Singh (AIBOA) and Com. D.P.Maur General Secretary, Joint Council of Trade Unions addressed the bank employees.
While addressing the bank employees, leaders of the United Forum said that the historic unity of the trade unions on the same platform has opened up new possibility of developing resistance against the attack unleashed by Government and the corporate. The sky high inflation of food prices and stagnation of the economy are the characteristics of the crisis that has engulfed the nation. The Government has no policy to curb the price and contain the recession of the economy, mitigate poverty and job loss. In the race to implement banking reforms, there is grim all around politically and economically. The Government has no policy to face the challenge. It seeks to throw all the burden of the crisis on the common people. Turning its back to the national interest, the government is initiating steps one after another which is inflaming inflation and accentuating economic stagnation. The Government is recklessly increasing the price of all the commodities that is so urgently necessary for daily life. It is not the organized workers in the industrial sector who are grossly affected; it is the contract workers, informal and casual labour which is the worst victim. While the industrial workers who are organized are sure to be denied of the legitimate rights, increase in bonus and wages, the unorganized sector will be more rudely affected through job loss, wage cut and on payment of minimum wage and denial of statutory dues.
Banking sector is no exception. Attempts are on to reduce and dilute the Government’s equity capital in Public Sector Banks. Attempts are equally on to boost private capital in the equity of our PSBs. For public sector banks, the Government talks of mergers and consolidation to shrink the scope of social banking. But in the same breath, the Government wants to encourage and expand private sector banking. New Licenses are sought to be given to industrial houses to start their own private Banks. This is the double standard of the Government. Banking Laws are amended to convert bad loans of corporate houses as investments in the equity capital of the very same defaulters. Huge loans are being written off to favour the rich borrowers. Rural branches are sought to be closed down and rural banking is being given to private outsourced Business Correspondents. Priority Sector loan targets are not being reached by many Banks. Corporate loans are increasing. Banks are appearing to draft from the goals and objectives of bank nationalization. In one word, the clock is sought to be reversed.
Banking industry is one of the potential employment generating agencies in our country. But in the last 20 years, recruitments were virtually banned and after our struggle, some recruitments are taking place recently. But this is totally inadequate. Bank’s business has increased manifold. More and more services have been undertaken but matching recruitments are not taking place. In the next few years, large scale retirements will take place and hence further recruitment is needed. But Banks are trying to outsource the regular and permanent jobs to contract employees. This will reduce the scope for permanent jobs and affect the job security. This will also result in exploitation of unemployed youth. We oppose outsourcing of permanent jobs and demanding adequate recruitments and revival of BSRBs for recruitment of bank staff.
Various important issues raised by UFBU still remain unresolved such as issues like compassionate appointment, revised housing loan scheme to bank employees, improvements in pension scheme, proper implementation of settlement, denial of pension option to persons opted under VRS and those resigned their jobs for want of VRS, defined and regulated working hours, 5 day banking etc; which are pending for resolution for a long time.
Leaders of the United Forum further said that “Hit out those who have hit the people”. Mount counter-offensive to stall the atrocity of the Government. It is the right moment to make a mass intervention. Indignation against the government is brewing. The spontaneous outburst of anger is taking place everywhere. The people boiling in the fire of inflation came on the roads to paralyze the government and all its apparatus to demonstrate the strength of the masses opposed to the government policies. The country came to a halt. Working class people withdrew from all the work places. Banking industry came to a grinding halt. The government must be paralyzed. This is the only way to resist the aggression of the Government and win the demands for the benefit of the people. The strength of unity that provides an opportunity must be utilized to covert the crisis into a new wave of resistance.
--Naresh Gaur 2 days nationwide continuous general strike
Convener
• In support of the 10 point Charter of Demands of Central Trade Unions.
• Control alarming price rise
• Stop anti-labour policies and Hands off trade union rights
• Stop Banking Reforms
• Stop Outsourcing
• Early wage revision
• Settle pending issues like compassionate appointment scheme
United Forum of Bank Unions hold a massive rally in front of Canara Bank, Bharat Nagar Chowk, Ludhiana. Com. Sudesh Kumar, Chairman, Punjab Bank Employees Federation, Com. Naresh Gaur, Convener, United Forum of Bank Unions, Com. Ashok Awasthy (PBEF), Com. Gulshan Chauhan, Com. Rakesh Khanna, Com. Baljinder Singh, Com. J.P.Kalra (All India Bank Officers’ Confederation), Com. D.C.Landra (NCBE), Com. K.S.Sandhu, Com. Gurbachan Singh (AIBOA) and Com. D.P.Maur General Secretary, Joint Council of Trade Unions addressed the bank employees.
While addressing the bank employees, leaders of the United Forum said that the historic unity of the trade unions on the same platform has opened up new possibility of developing resistance against the attack unleashed by Government and the corporate. The sky high inflation of food prices and stagnation of the economy are the characteristics of the crisis that has engulfed the nation. The Government has no policy to curb the price and contain the recession of the economy, mitigate poverty and job loss. In the race to implement banking reforms, there is grim all around politically and economically. The Government has no policy to face the challenge. It seeks to throw all the burden of the crisis on the common people. Turning its back to the national interest, the government is initiating steps one after another which is inflaming inflation and accentuating economic stagnation. The Government is recklessly increasing the price of all the commodities that is so urgently necessary for daily life. It is not the organized workers in the industrial sector who are grossly affected; it is the contract workers, informal and casual labour which is the worst victim. While the industrial workers who are organized are sure to be denied of the legitimate rights, increase in bonus and wages, the unorganized sector will be more rudely affected through job loss, wage cut and on payment of minimum wage and denial of statutory dues.
Banking sector is no exception. Attempts are on to reduce and dilute the Government’s equity capital in Public Sector Banks. Attempts are equally on to boost private capital in the equity of our PSBs. For public sector banks, the Government talks of mergers and consolidation to shrink the scope of social banking. But in the same breath, the Government wants to encourage and expand private sector banking. New Licenses are sought to be given to industrial houses to start their own private Banks. This is the double standard of the Government. Banking Laws are amended to convert bad loans of corporate houses as investments in the equity capital of the very same defaulters. Huge loans are being written off to favour the rich borrowers. Rural branches are sought to be closed down and rural banking is being given to private outsourced Business Correspondents. Priority Sector loan targets are not being reached by many Banks. Corporate loans are increasing. Banks are appearing to draft from the goals and objectives of bank nationalization. In one word, the clock is sought to be reversed.
Banking industry is one of the potential employment generating agencies in our country. But in the last 20 years, recruitments were virtually banned and after our struggle, some recruitments are taking place recently. But this is totally inadequate. Bank’s business has increased manifold. More and more services have been undertaken but matching recruitments are not taking place. In the next few years, large scale retirements will take place and hence further recruitment is needed. But Banks are trying to outsource the regular and permanent jobs to contract employees. This will reduce the scope for permanent jobs and affect the job security. This will also result in exploitation of unemployed youth. We oppose outsourcing of permanent jobs and demanding adequate recruitments and revival of BSRBs for recruitment of bank staff.
Various important issues raised by UFBU still remain unresolved such as issues like compassionate appointment, revised housing loan scheme to bank employees, improvements in pension scheme, proper implementation of settlement, denial of pension option to persons opted under VRS and those resigned their jobs for want of VRS, defined and regulated working hours, 5 day banking etc; which are pending for resolution for a long time.
Leaders of the United Forum further said that “Hit out those who have hit the people”. Mount counter-offensive to stall the atrocity of the Government. It is the right moment to make a mass intervention. Indignation against the government is brewing. The spontaneous outburst of anger is taking place everywhere. The people boiling in the fire of inflation came on the roads to paralyze the government and all its apparatus to demonstrate the strength of the masses opposed to the government policies. The country came to a halt. Working class people withdrew from all the work places. Banking industry came to a grinding halt. The government must be paralyzed. This is the only way to resist the aggression of the Government and win the demands for the benefit of the people. The strength of unity that provides an opportunity must be utilized to covert the crisis into a new wave of resistance.
--Naresh Gaur 2 days nationwide continuous general strike
Convener
Strike call by 11 Central Trade Unions
Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 4:30 PM
The protestors included large number of women
The protestors included large number of women
 |
| Peoples power at Ludhiana.....................................Photo by Rector Kathuria |
Ludhiana(Rector Kathuria); On a call given by the 11 Central Trade Unions and various independent federations, unions and associations, the workers affiliated to the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), INTUC, BMS, CTU, TUCC and CITU observed strike today in their respective industries and other institutions. Thereafter they gathered at Bus stand and organized a massive protest rally in support of their demands. The unions of workers of Punjab Roadways and PRTC had already struck work and so there was a total Chakka Jam at the bus stand since 12.00 midnight.
The protestors included large number of women, construction workers, industrial workers, Public health workers, contractual workers, Corporation workers, University employees, private hospital employees, roadways and others sections of workers and employees. Todays’s protesat rally was presided over by Com Om Parkash Mehta - AITUC, Com Jatinder Pal Singh of CITU and Shri Swaran Singh of INTUC, Com Paramjeet Singh of CTU, Sh Nageshwar Singh of BMS, Shri Sham Narain Yadav of TUCC . Speaking on the occasion state leaders Com Bant Brar – General Secretary AITUC Punjab, Com Raghunath Singh, General Secretary of CITU Punjab, Com Paramjeet Singh of CTU, Sh. Swaran Singh- President INTUC Punjab, Hari singh Sahni-TUCC demanded minimum wages to be fixed by the Punjab Govt. @ for unskilled workers Rs 10,000, Semi Skilled 15,000, Skilled workers 20,000 per month, end to contractual and out sourcing and filling up of all govt. and semi govt. posts on regular basis, to disband the new pension policy effective from 1.1.2004 and implement the same old pension scheme on all employees. They cited low wages in the state as major reason for the shortage of labour in the state. They demanded all anti worker acts recently promulgated by the Punjab government to be withdrawn with immediate effect. The speakers said that the labour laws in the state are being flouted by both public and private sector with impunity. The contractual workers in both the sectors be regularized hence forth. These must be implemented in letter and spirit. They deplored that under the process of so called globalization and privatization at the diktat of the world bank and International Monetary Fund , the economic policies of both central and state governments there has been accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few, while vast majority is suffering under acute poverty and unemployment. Latest reports have indicated that 100 top rich families in India own assets to the tune of 16 lakh crores of rupees where as 70% are forced to live on meager spending of Rs. 16.60 per day. Speaking on the occasion Com. Tarsem Jodhan, Com D P Maur, Com Ram Lal, Jagdish Chand and Gurjeet Singh Jagpal, Gulzar Singh Gorea opposed FDI in banks, LIC and retail as this will hit the job situation hard for the employees and also the production in the small scale sector. They also demanded regular jobs and equal wages for ASHA, Aanganwadi and mid day meal workers. They warned that if the govt. does not change its economic policies benefitting the rich and the corporate sector, then more militant agitations are on the anvil. Others who addressed include Com Bhagirath Paliwal, Suresh Sood, Gurnam Gill, Laddoo shah, Haniuman Prasad Dubey, Samar Bahadur, Gurnam Sidhu, Kameshwar Yadav, Sarbjit Singh Sarhali, Manjeet Singh Buta, Charan Dass, Amarnath Kumkalan, S K Tiwari and Rajesh Kumar Sharma
The protestors included large number of women, construction workers, industrial workers, Public health workers, contractual workers, Corporation workers, University employees, private hospital employees, roadways and others sections of workers and employees. Todays’s protesat rally was presided over by Com Om Parkash Mehta - AITUC, Com Jatinder Pal Singh of CITU and Shri Swaran Singh of INTUC, Com Paramjeet Singh of CTU, Sh Nageshwar Singh of BMS, Shri Sham Narain Yadav of TUCC . Speaking on the occasion state leaders Com Bant Brar – General Secretary AITUC Punjab, Com Raghunath Singh, General Secretary of CITU Punjab, Com Paramjeet Singh of CTU, Sh. Swaran Singh- President INTUC Punjab, Hari singh Sahni-TUCC demanded minimum wages to be fixed by the Punjab Govt. @ for unskilled workers Rs 10,000, Semi Skilled 15,000, Skilled workers 20,000 per month, end to contractual and out sourcing and filling up of all govt. and semi govt. posts on regular basis, to disband the new pension policy effective from 1.1.2004 and implement the same old pension scheme on all employees. They cited low wages in the state as major reason for the shortage of labour in the state. They demanded all anti worker acts recently promulgated by the Punjab government to be withdrawn with immediate effect. The speakers said that the labour laws in the state are being flouted by both public and private sector with impunity. The contractual workers in both the sectors be regularized hence forth. These must be implemented in letter and spirit. They deplored that under the process of so called globalization and privatization at the diktat of the world bank and International Monetary Fund , the economic policies of both central and state governments there has been accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few, while vast majority is suffering under acute poverty and unemployment. Latest reports have indicated that 100 top rich families in India own assets to the tune of 16 lakh crores of rupees where as 70% are forced to live on meager spending of Rs. 16.60 per day. Speaking on the occasion Com. Tarsem Jodhan, Com D P Maur, Com Ram Lal, Jagdish Chand and Gurjeet Singh Jagpal, Gulzar Singh Gorea opposed FDI in banks, LIC and retail as this will hit the job situation hard for the employees and also the production in the small scale sector. They also demanded regular jobs and equal wages for ASHA, Aanganwadi and mid day meal workers. They warned that if the govt. does not change its economic policies benefitting the rich and the corporate sector, then more militant agitations are on the anvil. Others who addressed include Com Bhagirath Paliwal, Suresh Sood, Gurnam Gill, Laddoo shah, Haniuman Prasad Dubey, Samar Bahadur, Gurnam Sidhu, Kameshwar Yadav, Sarbjit Singh Sarhali, Manjeet Singh Buta, Charan Dass, Amarnath Kumkalan, S K Tiwari and Rajesh Kumar Sharma
Dr.Asok Samanta on illegal regime changes
Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 10:36 PM
US imperialism involved directly and indirectly
To
The President,
IDBD
(People round the world must rise up to build powerful organized well-coordinated anti-imperialist movement to stop the murderous run of world imperialism led by US imperialism)
Dear Sir,
As you know, we are passing through a time when in the absence of mighty socialist camp led by the USSR, the imperialists-capitalists headed by US imperialists, unable to come out of the insoluble crisis they are ridden with, are on a rampage, pursuing their hegemonistic aspirations, overlordism and brigandage with impunity. Alongside military invasion and illegal occupation of others’ territories, they are now conducting their loot and plunder through neo-colonial route of exporting finance capital and ruling either by installing a puppet government or by forcing the governments of the weaker nations to be pliant with and subjugated to their dictates . They are also causing economic blockade or resorting to escalated violence to circumscribe the weaker nations. For more than six decades now, US imperialism in particular has been directly and indirectly involved in all types of illegal regime changes employing assassinations, bombings, sabotage, terrorism, electoral fraud and such other black means. Whenever the US imperialists can no longer use and abuse a peripheral country, they first attempt to employ open (or white) measures (diplomatic, political, economic, military, etc.) to force a necessary change in the national political leadership of the target state. However, when they fail to attain this objective using “white” or overt actions then, they do not hesitate to initiate, conduct and pursue “black reconnaissance” actions against its perceived and identified enemy targets, or threats to its global strategic interests. Black reconnaissance actions are primarily hidden in the dark and kept from the public, secret and clandestine in nature. They are almost always illegal and violate accepted international principles and norms. Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Haiti, have all borne the brunt with variance in degree. Somalia has been victim of the US imperialism-designed “nation building process” and ‘‘kind of humanitarian mission”. The NATO air raid in Kosovo, undertaken without the authorization of the Security Council and largely by using US forces to save the victims of so called ‘ethnic cleansing’ by President Slobodan Milosevic was soon proved to be a step towards fragmenting the Balkan states and deepening imperialist strangulation.
For last three decades, the US imperialists along with their allies like Zionist Israel and British imperialismhave targeted West Asia obviously with a view to having total control of the rich oil fields. USA and its imperialist allies invaded and occupied Iraq on a completely trumped-up charge of possession of weapons of mass destruction. After the occupation of Iraq, USA has tried to keep its stranglehold on the country by installing a puppet regime on the one hand and by instigating ethnic strifes and violent conflicts between religious communities on the other. On the dark pages of human history which record the worst instances of naked aggression of big powers over smaller nations, Afghanistan has been a recent hapless inclusion. The war-monger US imperialists, the chieftain of the world capitalist- imperialist forces, have pounced upon this poor country with such venom and cruelty and have brought about such murderous devastation of human life and property, that have shocked and worried the peace –loving people of the entire world, not to speak of their inflicting unfathomable sufferings upon the Afghan people themselves.Having established control over Iraq and Afghanistan, USA is now turning its attention to other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Central to US strategy in Middle East is unqualified support to Zionist Israel and to set it up as a bulwark against the surging tide of nationalism and anti-imperialism in the Arab countries; side by side, the US is lending support to the autocratic, tyrannical and despotic rulers in the Arab countries who perpetrate the most ruthless repression on the people, but protect the US interests.For a long time, US imperialists have been using Israel in subduing the most legitimate and just demand of homeland of the Palestine people. In Libya and Syria they are fomenting troubles through agent provocateurs. They are setting up their agents to destabilize the governments through violent armed actions under the cloak of ‘fighting for democracy’. In the name of providing humanitarian aid to the people under attack from Muammar Gaddafi’s government in Libya, and giving logistic assistance to the forces fighting Gaddafi they, under NATO banner, US imperialists launched a full-scale air-war on Libya and savagely assassinated Gaddafi with the help of so called National Transitional Council (NTC), an organization propped up and backed by the agents of reaction with the blessings of US imperialism and its associates. Alongside a direct armed assault and creating ‘fifth columnists’ inside Libya, the US imperialists also pressed into action the International Criminal Court (ICC) which is increasingly being used as a tool by the Pentagon and Western imperialist powers in their bid to establish direct control over the huge natural resources of Africa and West Asia.After having demolished Libya, the US imperialists and their allies have now chosen Syria. The present turmoil of Syria was perpetrated and monitored by none other than the US imperialists, towing their allies behind them. It is revealed in the media that just like Iraq and Libya, $6 million was handed out to Syrian groups aligned with US imperialism by the Bush administration after 2006 with a view to ensuring fall of the incumbent Syrian government. Lebanon is also on the radar of the US imperialists. Just the other day, Zionist Israel bombed the territories of Syria. So is Iran who along with socialist North Korea and Cuba has been included by the US rulers in their “axis of evils”. It is reported in The New York Times that US is carrying out secret military and air strikes in Yemen. Sudan, the oil-rich mineral-rich East African country is now a prime target of the US imperialists.
This is how the imperialist web now extends over the entire globe. How could the imperialist powers particularly the US imperialists be so unbridled in their pursuit of international gangsterism and hegemonism? The answer lies in the qualitative change in the international correlation of forces following sad dismantling of mighty socialist camp due to revisionist conspiracy aided and abetted by capitalist-imperialist powers. So long the socialist camp existed, it, notwithstanding certain limitations and shortcomings, worked as a bulwark of anti-imperialism and peace. Had the bipolar world existed, the US imperialists and their allies would not have the nerve to undertake such dastardly activities with alacrity, unleash a reign of terror round the globe and openly threat the countries or political personalities not seeing eye to eye with them of dire consequences. Cowardly acts like summarily executing political opponents openly and boastfully would not have been that easy and go unchallenged. One would have observed that since collapse of the USSR and Eastern European socialist states in 1989-1991, US imperialists have launched five wars of invasion — in Iraq twice, in Yugoslavia in 1999, in Afghanistan in 2001, and now in Libya.It is pertinent to mention that Indian capitalism has also assumed imperialist character, given rise to a financial oligarchy by merger of industrial capital with banking capital and is exporting finance capital abroad to exploit cheap labour and raw material. Thus, the Indian monopolists have become junior partners of world imperialism and in order to fulfil their aspiration to become a formidable power in central and south Asia, they are increasing tilting towards the US camp, entering into nuclear treaty with them, undertaking joint military exercises and backing US design to target Iran, North Korea and other regimes opposed to US imperialism.
But the freedom-loving people of the world cannot remain a mute spectator to this overlordism, brigandage and gangsterism of the world imperialist powers headed by US imperialism nor should they be duped by the incessant imperialist propaganda. The imperialist sharks will be unbridled in their tyranny if there is no organized people’s resistance against all their felonious acts. Just as they did in Libya, the US imperialists and their allies will sneak into every country under this or that pretext, implement their nefarious designs, pit one section of the people against another fomenting divisiveness centring on religion, ethnicity or such other count to buttress their heinous agenda, overpower countries not falling in line with them by unleashing military attack and plotting killing of political opponents. One after another country would fall to such imperialist machination spelling doom to mankind.When the US imperialists and their associates are merrily indulging in all kinds of criminal acts and trying to cover them with panoply of cooked up alibis and charade of ‘restoring democracy’, the obvious question people should ask is who are they to determine what kind of rule would prevail in any other country? It is the exclusive preserve of the people of a country to decide what nature of governance they would like to have. Even if rulers of a country perpetrate genocide, it is upto the people there to develop powerful democratic movement or if the situation so warrants, a strong resistance movement to dissuade or dislodge the incumbent repressive regime. Democratic minded people of the world can also develop strong international public opinion against such crimes and extend moral support to such movement so as to create pressure on the culprit regime for stopping the ghastly activities. There are international diplomatic codes, existence of international bodies like International Court of Justice or even UNO, notwithstanding considerable dilution in their roles and their sickening obedience to the wishes of the US imperialists and their allies, to look after such matters. What is the propriety of the US imperialists and their cohorts to arrogate to themselves the power of functioning as international gendarme and nakedly meddle into the internal affairs of any country and that too by moving armed troops? If such be the case, what would be the fate of the lofty concepts of freedom, sovereignty, territorial integrity and independent state then? Is it to be assumed then that all these concepts are slated to vanish into thin air because the US imperialists have now emerged as a superlord by dint of their brute military might and hence ordained to write a new doctrine of democracy which is tantamount to meek unquestioned surrender to their sermons and fiats? If any ruler of any country does anything wrong, runs an autocratic regime, it is up to the people of that country to decide how he should be dealt with, what punishment should be meted out to him. History will judge his actions. Same is the case with Libya. Wherefrom do the US imperialists and their cohorts who in their own countries are brutally suppressing democratic movements, muffling voice of dissent and practising fascist dictatorship under the garb of parliamentary democracy, flouting and disobeying all democratic norms, codes and practices, derive the authority to militarily intervene in Libya or Iraq and engineer a regime change by murdering Gaddafi and Saddam?
We are to keep in mind that what these imperialist despots fear most is the united conscious people’s movement. People must act and act decisively. True, in the situation obtaining, people apparently seem to be having no weapon to halt the murderous run of the imperialist sharks, to thwart the sinister imperialist machination of “humanitarian intervention with daggers drawn” or “trigger-happy export of democracy”. But that weapon has to be developed in right earnest, the invincible weapon of asserting of people’s power in right form. Of late, there have been spontaneous upheavals of people against pro-imperialist regimes in Egypt and Tunisia. Undeterred by the bullets and brutality of the autocratic regime and defying the long-continuing repressions that they have dreaded so far, lakhs of oppressed Egyptians from all sections of the society including women congregated at the Tahrir Square of Cairo and other parts of the country in the last week of January, 2011 to demand an end to thirty long years of President Hosni Mubarak’s most oppressive rule, fully backed, geared and protected by the army, and restoration of democracy. This spontaneous militant people’s protest which spread like wildfire across the country and virtually assumed the character of a mass uprising was greeted throughout the world as “Arab spring’. Such people’s protest agitations ought to surge forth in other countries of West Asia and Africa where dictatorial rules are in operation, the surging people’s protests have not crystallized in that manner. Most importantly, in order to lead all these protest agitations to their logical culmination, it is essential that the toiling people overcome all hurdles and hassles to close their ranks and develop well-organized powerful movements along the right track, build their own instruments of struggle right from the grassroots level rising above all differences and divisions and give birth through struggle to appropriate revolutionary leadership to spur them on to accomplish the goal. Simultaneously, a mighty militant global people’s movement needs to be developed against imperialism, particularly US imperialism by coordinating the anti-imperialist movements in the different countries and involving all anti-imperialist forces. Any attack on any country must be considered by the people of fellow countries as an attack on all of them by the US imperialists. Hence, it should be incumbent on the anti-war peace-loving democratic minded patriotic people of all countries to rise up against any such attack, resist and repel with all might. In other words, it would just not be an expression of solidarity but beyond that--unleashing action spurned by a sense of oneness. The enemy would know that if it targets one particular country, the people of the entire region would retaliate and strike back. If such co-ordination and fraternity among the fighting people of Latin America could be developed, it would not only give fillip to the democratic movements in each country but would also enfeeble the enemy to a great extent. And it is also of immense importance to understand that unless the various anti-imperialist people’s struggles grow and develop under correct revolutionary leadership, they will not be led to their logical culmination and might either be aborted midway or end in a half-baked and truncated way and the imperialist conspirators, sly and wicked to the bone, would cunningly exploit the accumulated grievances of the people in those lands for implementing their ‘humanitarian mission” of “planting democracy” through imbedded “agents” shored up as “pro-democracy” fighters. This alone can resist the marauding acts of imperialism, and save the world from this scourge of imperialist terror and oppression. We call upon all anti-imperialist peace-loving people to come forward and shoulder the task of releasing the desired people’s movement to thwart imperialist prowl with due expediency.
With struggling greetings
Dr. Asok Samanta
Vice-President, Medical Service Centre
Member of All India Anti-Imperialist Forum
14th Feb. 2013
A letter by Dr. Asok Samanta Nationwide strike on 2nd day at Ludhiana
US imperialism involved directly and indirectly
To
The President,
IDBD
(People round the world must rise up to build powerful organized well-coordinated anti-imperialist movement to stop the murderous run of world imperialism led by US imperialism)
Dear Sir,
As you know, we are passing through a time when in the absence of mighty socialist camp led by the USSR, the imperialists-capitalists headed by US imperialists, unable to come out of the insoluble crisis they are ridden with, are on a rampage, pursuing their hegemonistic aspirations, overlordism and brigandage with impunity. Alongside military invasion and illegal occupation of others’ territories, they are now conducting their loot and plunder through neo-colonial route of exporting finance capital and ruling either by installing a puppet government or by forcing the governments of the weaker nations to be pliant with and subjugated to their dictates . They are also causing economic blockade or resorting to escalated violence to circumscribe the weaker nations. For more than six decades now, US imperialism in particular has been directly and indirectly involved in all types of illegal regime changes employing assassinations, bombings, sabotage, terrorism, electoral fraud and such other black means. Whenever the US imperialists can no longer use and abuse a peripheral country, they first attempt to employ open (or white) measures (diplomatic, political, economic, military, etc.) to force a necessary change in the national political leadership of the target state. However, when they fail to attain this objective using “white” or overt actions then, they do not hesitate to initiate, conduct and pursue “black reconnaissance” actions against its perceived and identified enemy targets, or threats to its global strategic interests. Black reconnaissance actions are primarily hidden in the dark and kept from the public, secret and clandestine in nature. They are almost always illegal and violate accepted international principles and norms. Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Haiti, have all borne the brunt with variance in degree. Somalia has been victim of the US imperialism-designed “nation building process” and ‘‘kind of humanitarian mission”. The NATO air raid in Kosovo, undertaken without the authorization of the Security Council and largely by using US forces to save the victims of so called ‘ethnic cleansing’ by President Slobodan Milosevic was soon proved to be a step towards fragmenting the Balkan states and deepening imperialist strangulation.
For last three decades, the US imperialists along with their allies like Zionist Israel and British imperialismhave targeted West Asia obviously with a view to having total control of the rich oil fields. USA and its imperialist allies invaded and occupied Iraq on a completely trumped-up charge of possession of weapons of mass destruction. After the occupation of Iraq, USA has tried to keep its stranglehold on the country by installing a puppet regime on the one hand and by instigating ethnic strifes and violent conflicts between religious communities on the other. On the dark pages of human history which record the worst instances of naked aggression of big powers over smaller nations, Afghanistan has been a recent hapless inclusion. The war-monger US imperialists, the chieftain of the world capitalist- imperialist forces, have pounced upon this poor country with such venom and cruelty and have brought about such murderous devastation of human life and property, that have shocked and worried the peace –loving people of the entire world, not to speak of their inflicting unfathomable sufferings upon the Afghan people themselves.Having established control over Iraq and Afghanistan, USA is now turning its attention to other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Central to US strategy in Middle East is unqualified support to Zionist Israel and to set it up as a bulwark against the surging tide of nationalism and anti-imperialism in the Arab countries; side by side, the US is lending support to the autocratic, tyrannical and despotic rulers in the Arab countries who perpetrate the most ruthless repression on the people, but protect the US interests.For a long time, US imperialists have been using Israel in subduing the most legitimate and just demand of homeland of the Palestine people. In Libya and Syria they are fomenting troubles through agent provocateurs. They are setting up their agents to destabilize the governments through violent armed actions under the cloak of ‘fighting for democracy’. In the name of providing humanitarian aid to the people under attack from Muammar Gaddafi’s government in Libya, and giving logistic assistance to the forces fighting Gaddafi they, under NATO banner, US imperialists launched a full-scale air-war on Libya and savagely assassinated Gaddafi with the help of so called National Transitional Council (NTC), an organization propped up and backed by the agents of reaction with the blessings of US imperialism and its associates. Alongside a direct armed assault and creating ‘fifth columnists’ inside Libya, the US imperialists also pressed into action the International Criminal Court (ICC) which is increasingly being used as a tool by the Pentagon and Western imperialist powers in their bid to establish direct control over the huge natural resources of Africa and West Asia.After having demolished Libya, the US imperialists and their allies have now chosen Syria. The present turmoil of Syria was perpetrated and monitored by none other than the US imperialists, towing their allies behind them. It is revealed in the media that just like Iraq and Libya, $6 million was handed out to Syrian groups aligned with US imperialism by the Bush administration after 2006 with a view to ensuring fall of the incumbent Syrian government. Lebanon is also on the radar of the US imperialists. Just the other day, Zionist Israel bombed the territories of Syria. So is Iran who along with socialist North Korea and Cuba has been included by the US rulers in their “axis of evils”. It is reported in The New York Times that US is carrying out secret military and air strikes in Yemen. Sudan, the oil-rich mineral-rich East African country is now a prime target of the US imperialists.
This is how the imperialist web now extends over the entire globe. How could the imperialist powers particularly the US imperialists be so unbridled in their pursuit of international gangsterism and hegemonism? The answer lies in the qualitative change in the international correlation of forces following sad dismantling of mighty socialist camp due to revisionist conspiracy aided and abetted by capitalist-imperialist powers. So long the socialist camp existed, it, notwithstanding certain limitations and shortcomings, worked as a bulwark of anti-imperialism and peace. Had the bipolar world existed, the US imperialists and their allies would not have the nerve to undertake such dastardly activities with alacrity, unleash a reign of terror round the globe and openly threat the countries or political personalities not seeing eye to eye with them of dire consequences. Cowardly acts like summarily executing political opponents openly and boastfully would not have been that easy and go unchallenged. One would have observed that since collapse of the USSR and Eastern European socialist states in 1989-1991, US imperialists have launched five wars of invasion — in Iraq twice, in Yugoslavia in 1999, in Afghanistan in 2001, and now in Libya.It is pertinent to mention that Indian capitalism has also assumed imperialist character, given rise to a financial oligarchy by merger of industrial capital with banking capital and is exporting finance capital abroad to exploit cheap labour and raw material. Thus, the Indian monopolists have become junior partners of world imperialism and in order to fulfil their aspiration to become a formidable power in central and south Asia, they are increasing tilting towards the US camp, entering into nuclear treaty with them, undertaking joint military exercises and backing US design to target Iran, North Korea and other regimes opposed to US imperialism.
But the freedom-loving people of the world cannot remain a mute spectator to this overlordism, brigandage and gangsterism of the world imperialist powers headed by US imperialism nor should they be duped by the incessant imperialist propaganda. The imperialist sharks will be unbridled in their tyranny if there is no organized people’s resistance against all their felonious acts. Just as they did in Libya, the US imperialists and their allies will sneak into every country under this or that pretext, implement their nefarious designs, pit one section of the people against another fomenting divisiveness centring on religion, ethnicity or such other count to buttress their heinous agenda, overpower countries not falling in line with them by unleashing military attack and plotting killing of political opponents. One after another country would fall to such imperialist machination spelling doom to mankind.When the US imperialists and their associates are merrily indulging in all kinds of criminal acts and trying to cover them with panoply of cooked up alibis and charade of ‘restoring democracy’, the obvious question people should ask is who are they to determine what kind of rule would prevail in any other country? It is the exclusive preserve of the people of a country to decide what nature of governance they would like to have. Even if rulers of a country perpetrate genocide, it is upto the people there to develop powerful democratic movement or if the situation so warrants, a strong resistance movement to dissuade or dislodge the incumbent repressive regime. Democratic minded people of the world can also develop strong international public opinion against such crimes and extend moral support to such movement so as to create pressure on the culprit regime for stopping the ghastly activities. There are international diplomatic codes, existence of international bodies like International Court of Justice or even UNO, notwithstanding considerable dilution in their roles and their sickening obedience to the wishes of the US imperialists and their allies, to look after such matters. What is the propriety of the US imperialists and their cohorts to arrogate to themselves the power of functioning as international gendarme and nakedly meddle into the internal affairs of any country and that too by moving armed troops? If such be the case, what would be the fate of the lofty concepts of freedom, sovereignty, territorial integrity and independent state then? Is it to be assumed then that all these concepts are slated to vanish into thin air because the US imperialists have now emerged as a superlord by dint of their brute military might and hence ordained to write a new doctrine of democracy which is tantamount to meek unquestioned surrender to their sermons and fiats? If any ruler of any country does anything wrong, runs an autocratic regime, it is up to the people of that country to decide how he should be dealt with, what punishment should be meted out to him. History will judge his actions. Same is the case with Libya. Wherefrom do the US imperialists and their cohorts who in their own countries are brutally suppressing democratic movements, muffling voice of dissent and practising fascist dictatorship under the garb of parliamentary democracy, flouting and disobeying all democratic norms, codes and practices, derive the authority to militarily intervene in Libya or Iraq and engineer a regime change by murdering Gaddafi and Saddam?
We are to keep in mind that what these imperialist despots fear most is the united conscious people’s movement. People must act and act decisively. True, in the situation obtaining, people apparently seem to be having no weapon to halt the murderous run of the imperialist sharks, to thwart the sinister imperialist machination of “humanitarian intervention with daggers drawn” or “trigger-happy export of democracy”. But that weapon has to be developed in right earnest, the invincible weapon of asserting of people’s power in right form. Of late, there have been spontaneous upheavals of people against pro-imperialist regimes in Egypt and Tunisia. Undeterred by the bullets and brutality of the autocratic regime and defying the long-continuing repressions that they have dreaded so far, lakhs of oppressed Egyptians from all sections of the society including women congregated at the Tahrir Square of Cairo and other parts of the country in the last week of January, 2011 to demand an end to thirty long years of President Hosni Mubarak’s most oppressive rule, fully backed, geared and protected by the army, and restoration of democracy. This spontaneous militant people’s protest which spread like wildfire across the country and virtually assumed the character of a mass uprising was greeted throughout the world as “Arab spring’. Such people’s protest agitations ought to surge forth in other countries of West Asia and Africa where dictatorial rules are in operation, the surging people’s protests have not crystallized in that manner. Most importantly, in order to lead all these protest agitations to their logical culmination, it is essential that the toiling people overcome all hurdles and hassles to close their ranks and develop well-organized powerful movements along the right track, build their own instruments of struggle right from the grassroots level rising above all differences and divisions and give birth through struggle to appropriate revolutionary leadership to spur them on to accomplish the goal. Simultaneously, a mighty militant global people’s movement needs to be developed against imperialism, particularly US imperialism by coordinating the anti-imperialist movements in the different countries and involving all anti-imperialist forces. Any attack on any country must be considered by the people of fellow countries as an attack on all of them by the US imperialists. Hence, it should be incumbent on the anti-war peace-loving democratic minded patriotic people of all countries to rise up against any such attack, resist and repel with all might. In other words, it would just not be an expression of solidarity but beyond that--unleashing action spurned by a sense of oneness. The enemy would know that if it targets one particular country, the people of the entire region would retaliate and strike back. If such co-ordination and fraternity among the fighting people of Latin America could be developed, it would not only give fillip to the democratic movements in each country but would also enfeeble the enemy to a great extent. And it is also of immense importance to understand that unless the various anti-imperialist people’s struggles grow and develop under correct revolutionary leadership, they will not be led to their logical culmination and might either be aborted midway or end in a half-baked and truncated way and the imperialist conspirators, sly and wicked to the bone, would cunningly exploit the accumulated grievances of the people in those lands for implementing their ‘humanitarian mission” of “planting democracy” through imbedded “agents” shored up as “pro-democracy” fighters. This alone can resist the marauding acts of imperialism, and save the world from this scourge of imperialist terror and oppression. We call upon all anti-imperialist peace-loving people to come forward and shoulder the task of releasing the desired people’s movement to thwart imperialist prowl with due expediency.
With struggling greetings
Dr. Asok Samanta
Vice-President, Medical Service Centre
Member of All India Anti-Imperialist Forum
14th Feb. 2013
Dr.Asok Samanta on illegal regime changes
A letter by Dr. Asok Samanta Nationwide strike on 2nd day at Ludhiana
In all illegal regime changes.... Bank Unions hold a massive rally
Monday, February 18, 2013
Protest against new property tax
Aam Aadmi Party staged a Dharna Rector Kathuria and SK Gogna
The Aam Aadmi party members today outside the Corporation office and met Municipal Commissioner Mr. Rakesh Verma to protest against the levying of the new property tax and have submitted an ultimatum of 5 days for removal of the tax in the district. The citizens of Ludhiana gathered in large numbers to support the Aam Aadmi party protest against
Property tax.
The Party Spokesman Dr. S. S. Butter informed that the party volunteers will be setting up awareness camps in most areas of the city to make people aware about this new tax and also launch an extensive signature campaign against it starting from tomorrow to try and force the District Administration to revoke its decision.
Imposition of Property Tax
Friday, February 15, 2013
Sequestration will force a drawdown
02/13/2013 02:16 PM CST Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 1:58 AMChairman Outlines Sequestration's Dangers
By Claudette Roulo
American Forces Press ServiceWASHINGTON, Feb. 13, 2013 - Sequestration will force a drawdown "more difficult and decidedly different" than any other in the nation's history, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the House Armed Services Committee today.
Its deep, across-the-board spending cuts, combined with a dangerous and uncertain security environment, aging equipment and rising health care costs, place the nation squarely on the verge of an unprecedented readiness crisis, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said.
In a hearing that lasted nearly four hours, Dempsey, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and the Joint Chiefs of Staff all spoke of the dangers posed to national security by sequestration and the possibility that the continuing resolution now funding the government in lieu of a budget will be extended.
Sequestration was delayed until March 1 by a bill passed in January. If implemented, it would mandate about $500 billion in across-the-board defense spending cuts over 10 years in addition to cuts mandated over that period by the 2011 Budget Control Act.
"We are facing the prolonged specter of sequestration while under a continuing resolution, while we are just beginning to absorb $487 billion worth of cuts from 2011, and while we're still fighting and resourcing a war," the chairman said.
"There is no foreseeable peace dividend," Dempsey said.
"In this context, sequestration will upend our defense strategy," he said. "It will put the nation at greater risk of coercion. And it will require us to break commitments to our men and women in uniform and their families, to our defense industrial base, and to our partners and allies."
The new defense strategy formed last year could execute and absorb $487 billion in spending cuts over the next decade Dempsey said. "I can't sit here today and guarantee you that if you take another $175 billion that that strategy remains solvent."
The Defense Department is committed to fulfilling its role in the nation's economic recovery, the chairman said. But, he added, this requires budget certainty, time to implement reductions in a responsible manner and flexibility to transfer and reprogram money.
When parts of the defense budget are deemed untouchable by Congress, Dempsey said, readiness loses. "Everything needs to be on the table," he said.
Congress must ask itself what it wants of the military, Dempsey said. "If you want it to be doing what it's doing today, then we can't give you another dollar. If you want us to do something less than that, we're all there with you, and we'll figure it out."
Failure to act to avert sequestration eventually will require the department to reduce its international security commitments, Dempsey said, and to become less proactive about protecting national interests.
"When I testified before this committee last year, I said that if we fail to step up properly on the budget, we will reduce our options, and therefore increase our risk," he said. "Our military power will be less credible, because it will be less sustainable. Now, we're only a few days away from making that risk a reality."
Biographies:
Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey
By Claudette Roulo
American Forces Press ServiceWASHINGTON, Feb. 13, 2013 - Sequestration will force a drawdown "more difficult and decidedly different" than any other in the nation's history, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the House Armed Services Committee today.
Its deep, across-the-board spending cuts, combined with a dangerous and uncertain security environment, aging equipment and rising health care costs, place the nation squarely on the verge of an unprecedented readiness crisis, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said.
In a hearing that lasted nearly four hours, Dempsey, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and the Joint Chiefs of Staff all spoke of the dangers posed to national security by sequestration and the possibility that the continuing resolution now funding the government in lieu of a budget will be extended.
Sequestration was delayed until March 1 by a bill passed in January. If implemented, it would mandate about $500 billion in across-the-board defense spending cuts over 10 years in addition to cuts mandated over that period by the 2011 Budget Control Act.
"We are facing the prolonged specter of sequestration while under a continuing resolution, while we are just beginning to absorb $487 billion worth of cuts from 2011, and while we're still fighting and resourcing a war," the chairman said.
"There is no foreseeable peace dividend," Dempsey said.
"In this context, sequestration will upend our defense strategy," he said. "It will put the nation at greater risk of coercion. And it will require us to break commitments to our men and women in uniform and their families, to our defense industrial base, and to our partners and allies."
The new defense strategy formed last year could execute and absorb $487 billion in spending cuts over the next decade Dempsey said. "I can't sit here today and guarantee you that if you take another $175 billion that that strategy remains solvent."
The Defense Department is committed to fulfilling its role in the nation's economic recovery, the chairman said. But, he added, this requires budget certainty, time to implement reductions in a responsible manner and flexibility to transfer and reprogram money.
When parts of the defense budget are deemed untouchable by Congress, Dempsey said, readiness loses. "Everything needs to be on the table," he said.
Congress must ask itself what it wants of the military, Dempsey said. "If you want it to be doing what it's doing today, then we can't give you another dollar. If you want us to do something less than that, we're all there with you, and we'll figure it out."
Failure to act to avert sequestration eventually will require the department to reduce its international security commitments, Dempsey said, and to become less proactive about protecting national interests.
"When I testified before this committee last year, I said that if we fail to step up properly on the budget, we will reduce our options, and therefore increase our risk," he said. "Our military power will be less credible, because it will be less sustainable. Now, we're only a few days away from making that risk a reality."
Biographies:
Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
A "seismic event" had taken place
02/12/2013 10:45 AM CST Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 10:19 PM
Obama Condemns North Korean Nuclear Test
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2013 - President Barack Obama today strongly condemned the latest North Korean nuclear test, saying it undermines regional stability in an important part of the world.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a statement shortly after midnight EST announcing that a "seismic event" had taken place, and later issued a second statement saying North Korea probably conducted an underground nuclear test near Punggye. The explosion yield was approximately several kilotons and the analysis of the event continues, the second statement said.
This is North Korea's third and largest nuclear test.
"This is a highly provocative act that, following its Dec. 12 ballistic missile launch, undermines regional stability, violates North Korea's obligations under numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions, contravenes its commitments under the Sept. 19, 2005, Joint Statement of the Six-Party Talks and increases the risk of proliferation," Obama said in a written statement. The Six-Party Talks include North Korea, South Korea, Russia, China, Japan and the United States.
North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs constitute a threat to U.S. national security and to international peace and security, Obama said.
"The United States remains vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations and steadfast in our defense commitments to allies in the region," he added.
North Korean exploded its first nuclear device in October 2006, and conducted its second test in 2009.
"These provocations do not make North Korea more secure," Obama said in his statement. "Far from achieving its stated goal of becoming a strong and prosperous nation, North Korea has instead increasingly isolated and impoverished its people through its ill-advised pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery."
The U.N. Security Council is conducting an emergency session in New York to consider responses. "We will strengthen close coordination with allies and partners and work with our Six-Party partners, the United Nations Security Council, and other U.N. member states to pursue firm action," Obama said.
On Capitol Hill today, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter expressed the hope that China would join in condemning the test.
"There's nothing more provocative than what the North Koreans did," Carter said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, where he's testifying on the effects of looming defense spending cuts.
"It is very dangerous," he added. "We will take action to condemn and get the rest of the international community to condemn, particularly looking to China to join in that condemnation. They have a pivotal role in influencing the future here. That is an extremely dangerous situation."
Biographies:
Ashton B. Carter
Obama Condemns North Korean Nuclear Test
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2013 - President Barack Obama today strongly condemned the latest North Korean nuclear test, saying it undermines regional stability in an important part of the world.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a statement shortly after midnight EST announcing that a "seismic event" had taken place, and later issued a second statement saying North Korea probably conducted an underground nuclear test near Punggye. The explosion yield was approximately several kilotons and the analysis of the event continues, the second statement said.
This is North Korea's third and largest nuclear test.
"This is a highly provocative act that, following its Dec. 12 ballistic missile launch, undermines regional stability, violates North Korea's obligations under numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions, contravenes its commitments under the Sept. 19, 2005, Joint Statement of the Six-Party Talks and increases the risk of proliferation," Obama said in a written statement. The Six-Party Talks include North Korea, South Korea, Russia, China, Japan and the United States.
North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs constitute a threat to U.S. national security and to international peace and security, Obama said.
"The United States remains vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations and steadfast in our defense commitments to allies in the region," he added.
North Korean exploded its first nuclear device in October 2006, and conducted its second test in 2009.
"These provocations do not make North Korea more secure," Obama said in his statement. "Far from achieving its stated goal of becoming a strong and prosperous nation, North Korea has instead increasingly isolated and impoverished its people through its ill-advised pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery."
The U.N. Security Council is conducting an emergency session in New York to consider responses. "We will strengthen close coordination with allies and partners and work with our Six-Party partners, the United Nations Security Council, and other U.N. member states to pursue firm action," Obama said.
On Capitol Hill today, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter expressed the hope that China would join in condemning the test.
"There's nothing more provocative than what the North Koreans did," Carter said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, where he's testifying on the effects of looming defense spending cuts.
"It is very dangerous," he added. "We will take action to condemn and get the rest of the international community to condemn, particularly looking to China to join in that condemnation. They have a pivotal role in influencing the future here. That is an extremely dangerous situation."
Biographies:
Ashton B. Carter
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