palashbiswas

Peace Talks On North East Is Without Peace
Palash Biswas
(contact:c/o Mrs Arti Roy, Gostokanan, Sodepur, Kolkata-700110, India. Phone:033-25659551 R)

North East insurgency problem is taking a serious turn.It is said thatTop leaders of five underground groups active in the northeastern states of Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya are engaged in either formal or informal talks with the government of India. But peace seems far away.Lack of mass support, large scale illegal migration from Bangladesh and foreign support to insurgency have made the situation worst and any initiative does not get proper milage.Ulfa demands sovereignity while MSCN emphasises on greater Nagaland. Indian authorities and leaders of a front line tribal separatist group were involved in peace talks in Amsterdamrecently, aimed at ending more than 56-years of violent insurgency in northeast. The northeastern region of India covering a total area of about 2,55,000 sq km is surrounded by Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and Myanmar. Less than one percent of the external boundaries of the region are contiguous with rest of India while remaining 99 percent form international borders. There is not only geographical isolation of this region but also absence of cultural and psychological integration with the mainstream. Many ethnic groups in the region especially in the areas bordering the international boundaries have more in common with the population living across the boundary than with the rest of India. Bangladesh has been active in exploiting the situation in the Northeastern region and this has had impact on the overall security in the region.
The Government of India seems to depend on military science to crush the nationality movements in North East. Constant repression has become the limitation of democratic peace process and the people in northeast, in reaction ,isolated themselves from the mainstream of the nation. They seem to be out of history and geography. This is a very very dangerous sign.

The NSCN, fighting for an independent homeland for the Naga tribes
in Nagaland, is the oldest and the most powerful of the nearly 30-odd
rebel armies operating in the region. "We are pinning great hopes on the talks although we know we cannot expect a solution overnight," a senior NSCN leader told IRNA
by telephone from Dimapur, Nagaland`s commercial hub.
The NSCN is likely to raise its demand for integrating all Naga
tribal inhabited areas in the northeast during the Amsterdam talks,
dubbed as `very crucial` by both the sides.
The NSCN is stressing on the need for creation of a Greater
Nagaland by carving slices off the neighbouring states of Arunachal
Pradesh, Assam, and Manipur -- all of which have sizeable Naga
populations. "Without the unification of the Naga homeland (Greater Nagaland),
there can be no permanent solution," the NSCN leader said.
The demand for a Greater Nagaland is, however, not acceptable to
the other regional states in the northeast. "There would be more
turmoil than peace in the region if New Delhi tries to appease the
NSCN by agreeing for a Greater Nagaland," Manipur Chief Minister
Okram Ibobi Singh said. But amid the controversies, NSCN leaders are hopeful for a
settlement.
The Supreme Court has rather belatedly ordered the appointment of a three-man local commission to identify the boundaries of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland as unquiet borders have often been the cause of tension and death. As early as in 2001 former attorney-general Soli Sorabjee had talked of such a commission and suggested that its recommendations be made binding on the states concerned.
Manipur is undoubtedly the only State in India besieged by nearly 30 militant organizations. The power of the State administration does not run beyond a few kilometers from the capital. The situation in Manipur has become one of the most serious threats to national security today.
Over 58 years of Indian Independence, nobody in India realized that the country's integrity was so threatened until a dozen Manipuri women shed their clothes in front of an Army garrison in the heart of the Imphal and taunted the soldiers to rape them. Only then the nation woke up and asked itself what was wrong in Manipur and why these otherwise conservative Manipuri ladies had taken such a desperate and extreme step.
Greater Nagaland agitation is opposed most violently in Manipur.Although the media pays considerable attention to the Army's role in tackling militancy in the State, the Government of India's casual handling of the situation created a flutter. The revelation made by Union Defense Minister, Pranab Mukherji, during his recent visit to a Leimakhong Army base, near Imphal, that the Center had already signed ceasefire agreements with eight militant organizations, mostly Kuki militant outfits, in Manipur, has clearly proved that it wants to play safe while the State remains in a chaotic condition. State Chief Minister, O Ibobi Singh has denied that truce arrangements, which became effective on 1st August, 2005, were done with his knowledge. This shows that the State was in the dark for nearly two months about these covert truce deals with the militant groups.

Despite declaring fresh dates for cease fire the government of India failed to start the much waited peace talks with ULFA at all as it is emphasising on the precondition for peacetalks demanding written letter from the outfit to ensure compliance after the talks conclude. The ULFA leaders are not released. At this point a tea garden manager is killed and fresh letters to tea gardens are issued by Ulfa to tea gardens demanding large amounts. The centre has given green signal to the army to launch operation. At this point of time,the Ulfa-constituted People’s Consultative Group already pulled out of negotiations with Delhi in protest against its “double standards”, hammering the last nail into the peace coffin after a series of adverse developments since last weekend. “Considering the flip-flop attitude of the Centre to the extent of going back on its commitment, we in the PCG are of the view that no fruitful results can be expected from the parleys,” PCG spokesman Arup Borbora said.Formed on September 8 last year, the PCG tried to temper the sense of pessimism by saying that it would “continue to work with the people to create a conducive atmosphere for peace”. It said Delhi had undermined the decision arrived at during the third round of talks on June 22.he ULFA's main demands are: an end to or suspension of army operations in Assam; release of its top leaders and cadres from prison; information about those captured during the operation in Bhutan; third party mediation in the peace talks; holding talks in international fora like the UN; and the creation of a sovereign, independent Assam. The ULFA has, however, softened on its demands for third party mediation and talks in the UN. Besides, the ULFA has revealed that they will continue their subversive activities if the Union government does not meet its demands.
Since years the authorities have related ULFA's indulgence in violence to its sense of desperation. And such trends continue. For example, on 2 April, the outgoing GoC, 4 Corps and military commander of the Unified Command Structure, Lt Gen Anup Singh Jamwal said the people's complete lack of support to the ULFA had driven them to these acts of desperation. Similarly, speaking to the press in Shillong on 7 April, the Director General of the Assam Rifles, Lt General Bhoopinder Singh termed the ULFA as a spent force, which is showing a growing inclination for peace. Such assessments, in view of the intermittent violence, appear to be only partially true and in any case are reiterations of earlier views.

New Delhi, which has so far held three rounds of talks with the Ulfa-nominated People’s Consultative Group (PCG), has sought a written commitment from Ulfa on direct talks before releasing the five Ulfa central committee members from Guwahati jail. At the request of the PCG, the Centre agreed to unilaterally suspend Army operations against Ulfa effective from 14 August last to giv e the militant leadership time to send a “letter of commitment” to the government.
There have since been two more extensions of the unilateral truce by the Centre since Ulfa failed to deliver on its terms, putting the PCG negotiators in a helpless situation. The Ulfa, true to its tradition of prevarication – it refuses for the main to be pinned down to anything – maintains that it cannot commit for direct talks unless its central committee authorizes the move.

As the Nagas and the United Liberation Front of Asom struggle with efforts to negotiate a peace process with New Delhi, it is worth looking at how the Mizo National Front, under Laldenga, which was the second insurgency to flare in the hills of the North-east, in 1966, after the Nagas had set the trend a decade earlier, came to the negotiating table. The uncertainty looming over the tottering peace initiative to facilitate direct talks between the Government of India and the banned militant group, the United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa), is getting deeper with every passing day with either side refusing to budge from their stand vis-à-vis the issue of release of five senior Ulfa leaders from jail.The ULFA's core emphasis for a 'sovereign, independent Assam', however, stands. It had agreed to give up arms if the Union government meets this demand. The Union is unlikely to do so. The Union has agreed to talk to all insurgents/separatist/militant organisations, provided they first abjure violence and agree to solve their issues within the purview of the Constitution of India. However, the Union government has shown flexibility by discussing the contentious issue of sovereignty "within the purview of the Constitution."

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ended a three-day visit to Manipur and Assam on 22 November with a clear message that the UPA Government in New Delhi could talk peace with insurgent groups, but would not let terror hold development initiatives to ransom. The Prime Minister succeeded in demonstrating that he was a leader with a difference by refusing to describe whatever projects he has conceded or funds he has allocated to the two states as part of a 'package'.Manmohan Singh offered unconditional peace talks to all separatist groups in the northeast to bring an end to decades of insurgency in the region."I want peace to prevail and so appeal to all to shun the path of violence and hold discussions. Our doors for discussion are open to all. You have a prime minister from Assam and the northeast to solve your problems," Singh said at a press conference here after his arrival.Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha member from Assam,was on a two-day visit to campaign for his Congress party in the last state assembly elections.By not referring to rebel groups like the ULFA or the frontline Meitei outfits in Manipur even once by name during his dozen-odd public speeches and appearances, the Prime Minister sought to send out a signal that insurgency was not the only thing high on his agenda.He did succeed in this endeavour when he handed over the Kangla Fort in Imphal, the symbol of Manipuri pride and nationalism, to the people of Manipur. Ever since the British defeated the local ruler in 1891, the Kangla Fort had been under occupation, first by the British, and then by the Assam Rifles. He also reiterated his promise to see whether the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act could be replaced by a more 'humane law.' In Assam, the Prime Minister called upon the "youths of the State" to help their "own Prime Minister" in building a new and resurgent Assam and promised to look into all their "legitimate grievances".

Meanwhile the claim of Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga of negotiating peace with five insurgent outfits operating in India`s northeast makes good news headlines. The tag of unofficial facilitator of talks seems to have stuck well on the former rebel leader. Zoramthanga appears to be in possession of remarkable skills in convincing the militants when the political efforts for peace in many of the Northeastern States have hit rock bottom. There are, however, enough reasons to term the claim as highly ambitious, as insurgency in the northeast derives its nourishment from deeply divided approaches towards counter-insurgency, often guided by political one-up-manship.

On the other hand,the much-touted peace process that the Meghalaya government has initiated with the banned Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) appears to be on track, with chief minister D.D. Lapang taking a personal interest in launching parleys with leaders of the militant outfit. For the first time since the move to bring the HNLC to the negotiating table was initiated, Lapang reached out to leaders of the outfit and held a telephonic conversation with them. The chief minister is said to have assured the HNLC leaders that the government was willing to sit down and talk peace.

In Nagaland, the situation seems to be something different. The infighting between different MSCN factions and attacks on another pose great threat to peace talks all over.In spite of the NSCN-IM general secretary Th Muivah's case for a federal relation between India and the State of Nagaland and non-insistence on independence, any prospect for a quick solution to the Naga imbroglio appears to be bleak until and unless the rebel leader modifies his position on the integration of the Naga inhabited areas.
Is this thus far and no further for the NSCN-IM? It does not appear to be so, in spite of Muivah's assertion in Dimapur that the Nagas are ready to wait for another 50 years for a solution to the problem. On 11 May, Muivah told the Nagas in Dimapur airport, "Be prepared for the worst and don't be so presumptuous," thus indicating that the talks might not fulfill all their demands. He is also on record saying that he understands the problem of the Indian government and thus could not expect a 100 percent fulfillment from them. The fact remains that unless he rethinks on the integration aspect and has the capability and willingness to convince his constituency about the difficulties of achieving such an objective, the problem would continue to defy solution.

One major success of the ongoing negotiations between the NSCN-IM and the Government of India (GOI) has been the peaceful overcoming of minor hurdles that might have become major obstacles to peace.The NSCN-IM has recently accused the GOI of playing divisive politics by promoting rivalry within the Naga insurgency. It specifically charged on 15 November that the Federal Government of Nagaland (FGN) had been supplied with "at least 80 self-loading rifles, made in the Indian Army Ordnance Factory". The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the Intelligence Bureau (I and the Military Intelligence (MI) are, according to the NSCN-IM, arming the FGN and NSCN-K, thereby encouraging factional politics among the Nagas so as to keep the NSCN-IM under pressure at the negotiating table. The GOI's interlocutor, K Padmanabhaiah, has clarified that there is "no logic or reason for the government or its agencies to support a small group like the NNC or the NSCN (K)". The charge of the NSCN-IM is significant in the background of the reported fight between the Naga insurgent outfits which claimed the lives of at least eight militants besides injuring a score of others, with the consequence that the planned visit of the NSCN-IM's leadership on 28 November to New Delhi and Nagaland remains postponed. The visit had been eagerly awaited by the Naga civil society for the opportunity to freely discuss issues involved in the peace talks. It would also have provided the leadership with broad-based inputs about the aspirations of the Nagas. The setback is huge.
The apex court order is in response to Dispur’s civil suit filed in 1988 alleging encroachment of its territory by the two states, whose adamancy, particularly Nagaland’s, precluded any mutual solution. The order should hit Nagaland most since the apex court has asserted that it is only interested with the compliance of its September 2004 order refusing to entertain the state’s objection. Kohima has persistently refused to accept the border as defined in the Nagaland Act 1962 ~ the same as that of the 1925 Notification ~ and claims some areas now in Assam actually belong to it, arguing these were separated by the British for administrative convenience.
Not only did Nagaland not cooperate with the VK Sundaram Committee, it also refused to accept its recommendations which were never made public. The restive Assam-Nagaland border witnessed clashes in the 1970s and 1980s leaving several dead. Arunachal Pradesh refuses to accept the 1951 Notification on the 704 km-common border and wants a settlement on the basis of a “historical” border. Chief minister Neiphiu Rio’s remark that Nagaland is prepared to settle the matter out of court on the basis of give-and-take sounds like an afterthought. In the context of the NSCN(IM)’s demand for a “Greater Nagaland” encompassing parts of Assam, he could not have settled for that option. Since the Centre wants disputant states to settle their differences amicably, Dispur was left with no choice but to approach the apex court for remedy.
Secret peace efforts with India went back as far as 1969, within three years of launching the armed campaign for sovereignty. He says that two MNF officials who met with Indian intelligence officers at a forest rest house in May 1969 in the presence of two senior church leaders. The “impressions” they were to take back to Laldenga were that 1. Any ‘political settlement short of independence’ could be discussed; 2. The venue for negotiations could be in a neighbouring country; and 3. In the mean time, the MNF forces should be allied with the Bengali freedom fighters (Mukti Bahini) in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). [1] But the men were captured by Assam Police on the way back to headquarters in East Pakistan and that peace bid ended there with Laldenga swiftly distancing himself from the men he had sent out. It was not until 1973 that his chief aide, Zoramthanga, the current chief minister, went to Kabul to met Indian intelligence operatives and began a dialogue that culminated in the 1976 New Delhi-MNF peace accord but which did not really get going for another 10 years under Rajiv Gandhi. It is worth looking at the pressures which forced changes because of similar factors in the Naga and Ulfa imbroglio.

In late 2005, the ULFA conceded to negotiate with the Union government; the People's Consultative Group (PCG), a team of human rights activists, writers, lawyers and journalists was selected by the ULFA for the purpose. After three rounds of negotiations, the prospects have turned futile, with both sides making the other responsible to carry the process forward. The government insists on direct communication by the ULFA; the latter expects a written assurance on sovereignty issue as an agenda of the talks.
Award-winning writer Indira Goswami's meetings with the Prime Minister on 19 November signified that the writer has been successful in attracting the attention of the government to the serious problem of insurgency in Assam. This was hailed as a path-breaking initiative by initiating talks with the proscribed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA). However, the end to this initiative came abruptly. It is now certain that encounters between the ULFA and the government will take place in the jungles and not the negotiation tables. Goswami appealed to the Prime Minister to initiate a process of dialogue on the outfit's demand of sovereignty for Assam, but the Prime Minister put to rest any such speculation, and said in Guwahati on 22 November that "If they shun violence, then I will invite them for talks but violence and talks cannot go on simultaneously." His subsequent invitation to the ULFA to join a peace process evoked little response. Responding to the Singh's categorical rejection of ULFA's sovereignty demand, on 22 November, the ULFA chief Paresh Baruah said, "The comments made by the PM was not unexpected and not different from that made by his predecessors. It is evident that the Centre's colonial policy will continue."

In 2004, Assam has witnessed 324 insurgency related deaths until October which includes 184 civilians, 21 security forces and 119 militants. ULFA was either responsible or involved in the majority of these attacks. Thus, going by the nature of attacks, a mood for peace has been difficult to locate in the psyche of the outfit's leadership, most of whom are believed to be in Bangladesh.

he release of the ULFA Vice-Chairman Pradip Gogoi, Cultural Secretary Pranati Deka, political advisor and ideologue Bhimkanta Buragohain, Publicity Secretary Mithinga Daimary and Executive Committee member Ramu Mech is being sought. Gogoi was arrested in Kolkata in 1998. Deka, released on bail in 1998, was arrested while trying to escape to Bangladesh in 2003. Buragohain, Daimary and Mech were apprehended during the Bhutanese operation in 2003. Mrinal Hazarika, commanding officer of the 28 Battalion, arrested from Siliguri in May 2006, was also added to the list. Their presence, asserts the ULFA, is essential for the Central Committee meeting, which alone can take decisions regarding the modalities of direct talks.

The release of ULFA militants is critical considering the efforts invested in their arrest. ULFA's previous record does not stand as its alibi. The attempt for direct talks in 1992 failed miserably after the five ULFA rebels, released from jail for negotiations with then Prime Minister, P V Narasimha Rao, went underground. The ULFA also rejected the offer of safe passage, from 7 to 21 January 2006, calling it a political manoeuvre. The peace initiative becomes murkier with neither the ULFA relinquishing violent activities nor the government halting army operations against it. August 2006 began with four ULFA militants being killed by a joint army and police operation and suspected ULFA militants hurling grenade, killing and injuring several CRPF jawans and civilians
What differentiated Indira Goswami, who appeared to have the approval of the ULFA for her efforts, from previous initiatives was her conviction in the sovereignty formula. On a number of occasions, Goswami said that there was no harm in talking on the issue of sovereignty of Assam. Apparently, the ULFA realised that this could be their best bet to push forward their key demand. Irrespective of the support ULFA generates in civil society or common people in the State, the issue of 'sovereignty' remains a matter of bitter contention.
Indira Goswami claimed to have convinced the ULFA chief Paresh Baruah to put a halt to the ULFA's violent attacks for two weeks. However, the Prime Minister's position on the sovereignty issue provided momentum for the ULFA's attacks. On 25 November, the outfit was involved in four explosions in various districts of the State. Intelligence reports suggest that ULFA cadres have assembled in the forest areas of Arunachal Pradesh to plan and carry out attacks in the adjoining districts of upper Assam, which indicates that the move towards peace has failed again.

In Mizoram,Laldenga was keen to arrive at an early solution, but it must be one in which he would be able to call the shots in Mizoram following the settlement. This insistence was of course due to his political ambition; it could also be to ensure safety for his life as he was said to be extremely distrustful of others concerning his personal safety and position..
This consisted of the Congress (I) government at the Centre and the local administrations in Mizoram. Most of the leading ‘over ground’ political leaders of then Mizoram were deeply saddened by the tragic turn of events that the MNF movement had triggered. Mizo Union leaders such as Ch. Chhunga and his colleagues were evidently willing to make necessary sacrifices for peace, but there was nothing that they could do to initiate peace moves as the ‘MNF government’ was bent on paralyzing their authorities. In April 1971, for instance, they offered in writing to concede to the MNF 75 % of the legislative seats in the elections expected to be held upon the elevation of Mizo Hills to the status of Union Territory in early 1972. But by then Laldenga was busy sorting out his alleged detractors within the MNF leadership. Ch. Chhunga also resigned in May 1977 from the Chief Ministership, hoping this would facilitate settlement with the MNF. [4] As Brig. T. Sailo and PC Party took a principled stand and rejected the idea of making Laldenga the Chief Minister in the interim, they were accused of sabotaging the peace talks in 1982 and they were virtually “at war” with the MNF.

In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Th Muivah on 29 April 2005 argued for a special federal relation with India. Even though the contours of such a relation was not elaborated in detail, Muivah was careful enough to suggest that Nagas would neither accept the Indian Constitution nor would they come to the rescue of India in the eventuality of the latter facing an external aggression. At the same time, he appeared to suggest that such a solution would be acceptable only after Government of India effects an alteration of the territories in the Northeast, ensuring the amalgamation of the Naga-inhabited areas into a single unit.

Th Muivah appeared dismissive on the opposition of the neighbouring States like Manipur and Assam to any dismemberment of their territory. Muivah said, "We don't claim any land belonging to others but the land Nagas have been living in from time immemorial, of course they must have that. "On the questions of the uprising that took place in Manipur in June 2001 against the decision of the extending the territory of the ceasefire, Muivah was equally dismissive of the popular sentiments in that State. He said, "Well that is by the [Meiteis], and backed by the Indian government. So we are not responsible for that. You know for the Nagas, naturally we will have to claim the land belonging to us."

Two questions appear to seek answer. One, whether India is ready to abandon its position of a Nation-state and is willing enough to be a State of Nations? Secondly, whether any alteration of territory of States is justified on the ground of historical claims? As per provisions of the Indian Constitution, Nagaland can be given a special status and areas from the neighbouring States can be merged with the present State of Nagaland in recognition of the 'uniqueness of the Nagas'. However, such a decision is laced with the problem of not only affecting the existing States but also setting off a chain reaction for fulfilling a number of similar demands within the northeastern region and beyond. In addition, it will also put a seal of approval on the proposition that unless people belonging to a similar tribe live within a single State, their emotional and material needs cannot be taken care of.

It is important at this juncture to examine the routes that the peace talks have taken so far. What emerges glaringly from such an examination is that what started as a conflict between the Indian state and the Nagas has transformed into intercommunity tensions or, to put it mildly, neighbourhood politics. In the latest stage of this transformation, the quarrel within has greater chances of becoming dominant. The reversal of stated policies by the GOI as was witnessed when Manipur revolted against the extension of ceasefire between the GOI and the NSCN-IM into Manipur's territory in June 2001 and its effects on community relations are difficult to be erased. The demand for unification of Naga dominated areas into 'Nagalim' slipped under uncertainty in a clause of the Common Minimum Programme of the UPA Government of Manmohan Singh, which said there would be no change in the existing territorial structures in Northeast. Despite insistence by the Nagas that such unification is 'non-negotiable', peace talks were declared to be smoothly going on. What diplomatic understanding kept it outside the domain of conflict is not known. That also symbolises the failure of the Indian state to recognize the interconnectedness of ethno-nationalist claims characterising the region.

IAddressing the question of who 'truly' represents Naga political aspirations cannot be avoided if the Government has already accepted its legitimacy. Interest in power may multiply the number of political actors and their competing claims.

Tripura: Insurgency on the Back Foot

The announcement of the six-month long ceasefire on 15 April 2004 with two prominent factions of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), following official level negotiations at Delhi, could be the harbinger of peace in the state. There are signs that the initiation of the negotiation process is forcing the other active terrorists to rethink their strategy.Nayanbashi Jamatiya, commander-in-chief of an NLFT faction signed a ceasefire agreement following a tripartite meeting with the central and the state government representatives on 15 April in New Delhi. Prior to the agreement, the Nayanbasi faction of the NLFT was active in the Takarjala, Golaghati, Harilam and Pramodenagar areas of the state. In fact, Nayanbashi dithered for months on a possible surrender as the state government refused to accede to his demands of rehabilitation. The long wait for Nayanbashi to make up his mind finally ended as several key actors made the rebel leader see reason in a negotiated settlement to the dispute. The long wait also proved beneficial as another NLFT factional leader Montu Koloi too joined the New Delhi peace talks. Following the ceasefire agreement, Montu Koloi led 72 NLFT cadres to surrender on 6 May.

The All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), active in the Khowai, Kamalpur and parts of Sadar subdivision of the state, has also indicated its desire to join the peace bandwagon with three conditions. The move was welcomed by the Chief Minister of the state. The conditions outlined are:
· Those who had entered Tripura after 1949 and whose names did not figure in the voters list of 1952 should be declared as foreigners.
· The issue of sovereignty must figure in the negotiation process.
· A representative of the UNPO should be present during the peace talk.

These developments have the capability of restoring order in the state. This leaves two factions of the NLFT: led by Biswamohan Debbarma and Joshua Debbarma, outside the peace net and reports suggest that there have been attempts to forge a common front among them. Fissions within the insurgent outfits have been a major obstacle in the way of conflict resolution in the state. Track record of insurgency suggests that new outfits have been formed by disgruntled rebel leaders in the prospect of a mass surrender of the parent outfit. In fact, NLFT, born in the year 1989, has suffered at least three splits due to factors like personal ambitions. The NLFT, however, now faces a bleak prospect of revival as many of its top commanders including vice president Kamini Debbarma, Finance Secretary Bishnuprasad Jamatiya, Deputy Finance Secretary Dhanu Koloi, Chief of Army Binoy Debbarma and Deputy Chief of Army Sanjoy Debbarma surrendered on 6 May.

The other factor, which has been a thorn in the resolution of insurgency in Tripura, has been the role of Bangladesh. All the top leaders of the terrorist outfits live in that country and receive overt and covert assistance from various power centres in the country working at the behest of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan. Such nexus is an important factor behind the lethality of the Biswamohan faction of the NLFT, active in Kanchanpur, Kulai, Chawmanu, Raimvalley and Ampinagar areas of Tripura. Over the years, the militant outfits have achieved tremendous sophistication in the use of arms and techniques such as laying of ambushes. Tripura shares a border that is 856 kms long with Bangladesh, most of which are porous. Militants sneak into the state at will, operate for a couple of months and are then replaced by another group. The central government’s efforts to ensure that Bangladesh acted against the militants have met with no success so far.
Influx from Bangladesh is a major problem for the Northeast. There are estimated to be 15 to 18 million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in India who have spread all over in the Northeast with the bulk in Assam. Three to five million have spread ove

Buddhadev Overrides Singur Protest and Ideology
Palash Biswas
(contact : c/o Mrs Arti Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata-700110, India. Phone:033-25659551 R)

No doubt, the land in singur will be handed over the Tatas for Tata Motors. The ruling left front rode over the ideological hitch within the party and the government. The government and party machinery is well geared to crush any opposition at any level. Ms Mamta Bannerjee could not stop Salem Group to enter Bengal with her all dramatic ploys. She failed to stall land transfer in Bhangar, rajarhat and elsewhere. Media supports the capitalist progress propoganda of the communist Chief minister and ideology is well set aside.Mamata is never as per good to create public opinion at any stage of her political life. Whatever sympathy she captured is out of order with constant repeatation of her old ploys and gimmicks. she has lost the faith of people and her political credibility, too.It has been well portrayed in last loksabha and Assembelly elections.Now having sieged singur unsuccessfully to stopcheque distribution, beaten and packed to kolkata mercilessly by police she has landed in a private Nursing Home, BeleView, complaininng breathing trouble after two days of dharna, rail roko and procession all failed to create any mentionable public response. Congress supported her agitation and already retreated bowing to the compulsion of running a coaliation government at the centre supported by always threatening and dictating Left.

It is also evident that the Singur movement, woven around the proposed Tata Motors project, has started to lose its emotive appeal after the Opposition leaders were forced to have the protest venue shifted from Singur to Calcutta. But as the deal is finalised, the intention to launch such an unfruitful movement is surrounded by doubt. The opposition is eager to defend the peasntry, it is not proved at all. Rather every opposition icon including Mamta seems to ensure maximum media fottage. The peasants are asking while everything is finalised, why the opposition is trying to stall their payment.

Left has painted well mamta as anti development icon, thanks to widespread media coverage. Tatas has threatened to leave bengal and go to Uttaranchal with thier Motors Project. It has triggered the panic button and Mamata is isolated once again. The Cpim state secretary, however, said the front would stand united against the Opposition-sponsored bandh on October 9.
It made no significant difference at all as after five years, senior Congress leaders shared the dais with Mamata today and announced a series of protests against the police action in Singur to dislodge Trinamul Congress supporters who had laid siege to the block office against land acquisition. “Let’s make it clear, we have nothing against Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s industrialisation programme, or the Tatas’ small-car project,” Union information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi said. “Ratan Tata is an ideal industrialist. We would like to have him here,” he added. Though Congress leaders such as Somen Mitra, Subrata Mukherjee and Sudip Bandopadhyay urged the government to structure an all-party initiative and “take us (the Opposition) into confidence”.

Monday’s siege of the Singur BDO’s office by the Trinamul is the second major fiasco the government has had to contend with in the march towards industrialisation. It comes four months after the Tata Motors delegation ~ invited to the area in the heady aftermath of the electoral victory ~ was turned away by the peasantry.A sobbing Mamata Banerjee called off her sit-in and hunger strike, which shifted venue from Singur to the city past midnight 25 th Sept., following cellphone conversations with Congress leaders in Delhi and an emotional tête-à-tête with former party colleague Priya Ranjan Das Munshi.“I withdrew today’s dharna after Union home minister Shivraj Patil’s assurance that he would have the matter looked into,” Mamata said before leaving the Gandhi statue on Mayo Road under which she had been squatting since being bodily lifted out of Singur by police.

The ideolgy and the issues hang in air without any answer.

As the Buddha proclaimed like Jesus — “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”, or a variation of it — not everyone seemed to be in a merciful mood. Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant said from Pune that if Bengal could not provide the land by the end of this year, the company could look at locations elsewhere.On paper, the administration handed over the land, about 1,000 acres, to the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), the agency that, in turn, will transfer it to the Tatas. But the process can only be said to have been completed when possession is taken.Kant said the company was under tremendous pressure to meet the deadline to bring the Rs 1-lakh car to the market by 2008.He said land should have been handed over by now whereas the Bengal government expects to wrap up the acquisition after the Pujas. That is quick by any standards because the process started only about two months ago.
The threat would have struck Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee like a sharp nail at other times but, with Mamata Banerjee hitting the warpath over land acquisition in Singur where the Tata factory is to come up, it will be more like a hammer blow. When asked in Writers’ Buildings if the Mamata-led agitation suggested that the Opposition did not wish Bengal to develop, the chief minister forgave them using Jesus’s words.Addressing the concerns about farmers losing their occupation in the context of this agitation, Tata Motors promised to “do more in Bengal than anywhere else” by way of corporate social responsibility. Sonia Gandhi’s Congress today sought to project itself as a responsible Opposition party in Bengal as it rolled out the welcome mat for Ratan Tata and his proposed car project in Singur.While rallying behind Mamata Banerjee in her bid to get
Under the schemes, a two-week programme will be started for early dropouts to train them in non-skilled jobs like gardening. Tata Motors will also help set up a cooperative for women for tailoring.

It is only the Left front in West Bengal which has made serious efforts to implement a land reform programme. This has also resulted in a big boost to farm production contrary to the neo-liberalisers who say that only big farms can insure higher productivity. West Bengal is the highest producer of rice and vegetables, the second highest in potato production and the highest in the production of fish.

The central feature of land reform under the Left Front regime has been the acquisition of surplus or benami land and distributing it amongst the landless. The total land vested in West Bengal in the last 25 years is 13.37 lakh acres, out of which 10.63 lakh acres have been distributed. A large majority of the beneficiaries belong to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other oppressed castes and the landless sections among the minorities. West Bengal also holds the record in distribution of joint pattas of land in the name of both the woman and the man, with approximately 4 lakh joint pattas and another 80,000 pattas to single women.

Since the Land Reforms Act is strictly implemented by the West Bengal Government, the position of land concentration in West Bengal today is that 90 per cent of the land owners are small and marginal farmers and 75per cent of the land is with them. In other states, 65 per cent of cultivators are small and marginal farmers but they have only around 15 per cent of the land.

When the Left Government was voted to power in 1977 in West Bengal, the number of share croppers recorded was less than 5 lakhs. But, now the share-croppers recorded in West Bengal is 14 lakh 50 thousand. Almost all the sharecroppers have been registered.in West Bengal.

The experience of land reforms in West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala is the effect that it has in raising the status of the poor in other spheres. For example the panchayat system in West Bengal where over two-thirds of the seats are won by scheduled castes, tribes, oppressed sections including women is an example of how land reform by breaking land monopolies and distributing land to the landless, strengthens the democratic functioning of the panchayats and ensures the advancement of the sociakl status of the rural poor and the democratic rights of the masses.

If that embarrassing disaster underscored the extent to which the government was unprepared with the fundamental issue of compensation, the chaos over the distribution of compensation cheques makes it plain that the equally critical issue of mutation may have been ignored in numerous cases. Indeed, the Hooghly DM’s unsuccessful attempt to mollify agitators with the assurance that the problem would be sorted out suggests that the matter may not have been taken up at all. It thus comes about that those who had sold their land were issued cheques as the new owners had not completed the mutation for the land that was bought. This is a mandatory issue that governs the buying and selling of land.
All this is not to suggest that the political parties, especially those in the opposition, have no role in the implementation of the new development projects. Most of the projects would involve the use of agricultural land for new industries or even commercial enterprises. More importantly, these would lead to the displacement of large numbers of people from their land and livelihoods. Obviously, no economy can survive, let alone prosper, simply on agriculture. At the same time, economic growth makes little sense to the common people if it does not touch and change their lives.

The Central Committee of Communist Party of India (Marxist) met in New Delhi from September 24 to 26, 2006. It has issued the following statement:
Special Economic Zones
The Central Committee discussed the Special Economic Zones which are now being set up in large numbers around the country. The Act and the Rules for the Special Economic Zones provides large tracts of land to be acquired and handed over to promoter companies. This is going to lead to large-scale displacement of farmers, meagre compensation and no alternative means of livelihood. On the other hand, promoters are getting land cheaply and they are going to make their fortunes out of real estate development and speculation. Indiscriminate approvals for SEZs have serious implications for agriculture, food security, the interests of farmers and economic sovereignty.

Urgent changes are required in the SEZ Act and Rules. There has to be a cap on the amount of land to be allotted. Secondly, the stipulation of land to be used in a SEZ for industry must be increased to at least 50 per cent and 25 per cent for related infrastructure. Thirdly, tax exemption proposals must be reviewed and exemption from taxes must be drastically pruned. Adequate steps to compensate and rehabilitate the displaced people must be taken. The Land Acquisition Act has to be amended suitably for this. Apart from farmers, agricultural workers should also be covered. SEZs should be set up only with the approval of the state governments.

The Central Committee authorised the Polit Bureau to prepare a comprehensive stand on the issue and mobilise support from other political parties for amendments and changes in the Acts and Rules.

Conversion Laws in BJP States

The Central Committee expressed its serious concern at the amendments made by the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh in the laws concerning religious conversion. The amendments made to the Freedom of Religion law goes against the constitutional right which grants citizens the right to propagate and practice any religion of their choice. In Gujarat, the amendments clubs Buddhism and Jainism as branches of the Hindu faith leading to strong protests from representatives of these communities. Conversion within these “branches” will not invite government action. But if any Hindu wants to convert to Islam or Christianity, they will first have to take permission from the District Magistrate. Various objectionable clauses are there in the legislations adopted in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh.

These legislations will provide a legal licence to harass and intimidate minorities which have become the hallmark of the BJP rule in these states. The CPI(M) demands that these amendments should be withdrawn and the legislation should not get assent for being enforced as laws.

Bababudangiri Shrine
The Central Committee demanded that Karnataka government maintain the status quo position at the Bababudangiri shrine in Chikmagalur district. As in the previous year, no “shobha yatra” by the RSS outfits should be permitted which will disturb communal amity and peace.

Price Rise
The Central Committee reiterated its demand that futures trading in foodgrains and other essential commodities be stopped as they are helping speculative trading and cornering of stocks. The Central Committee demanded the immediate strengthening of the public distribution system. The BPL criteria has become an instrument for the exclusion of large number of poor people from the PDS. The Central government should adopt a proper criteria for identifying people below the poverty line and issuance of cards to all of them.

Wheat Imports
The Central Committee noted that the government has decided to import 35 lakh tonnes of wheat on its own account. This was subsequently increased to 55 lakh tonnes. The private sector was allowed to import 30 lakh tonnes. India’s entry into the wheat market has led to international prices shooting up. The latest round of wheat imports have been at the rate of 1300 per quintal. The overall policies in agriculture and food will endanger the food security, bring about dependence on food imports and increase prices of foodgrains for the people.

The Central Committee demanded immediate steps to boost up wheat production and for providing farmers with remunerative prices, so that full procurement takes place.

Jharkhand
The Central Committee welcomed the fall of the BJP-led government in Jharkhand which was formed, at the outset, through encouraging defections. The new government can only be an interim phase. It is necessary that elections be held soon so that a fresh mandate can be sought from the people.

Assembly Elections
The Central Committee discussed the forthcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttaranchal and Manipur.

As far as Uttar Pradesh elections are concerned, the UP state committee of the Party will meet in October to discuss the political situation and the line to be pursued. After that the Polit Bureau will take a final decision.

In Punjab, Akali Dal-BJP alliance, given its past record and its rank communal basis, has to be opposed. The CPI(M) will call for the defeat of the Akali Dal-BJP alliance. The record of the Congress government has been marked by policies of privatisation of public education and health sectors, handing over large tracts of land to big business to promote corporate agriculture and marred by large-scale corruption. The Party will expose the harmful policies of the Congress government and popularise the alternative pro-people policies. In the elections, the CPI(M) and the CPI will fight the elections jointly and rally some of the other secular forces around an alternative platform.

In Uttaranchal, the CPI(M) will arrive at an understanding with the CPI. As against the BJP and the Congress, the Left parties should work for an understanding with other democratic parties.

In Manipur, the CPI(M) will contest a limited number of seats and utilise the election campaign to take the message of the Party on how the worsening situation in Manipur can be tackled.

Legislation
The Central Committee demanded that the bill for one-third reservation for women in parliament and state legislatures be introduced in the forthcoming winter session of parliament, in keeping with the Prime Minister’s assurance on the matter.

The Central Committee reiterated that the Forest Tribal Bill be taken up in parliament incorporating the recommendations of the Joint Parliamentary Committee.

Organisational Review
The Central Committee conducted a mid-term review on the implementation of the tasks set forth by the 18th Congress of the Party held in April 2005. The report on organisation notes the growing importance and role of the Party in the national political situation. The support to the UPA government and the intervention in all major political issues had drawn the support from different sections of the people. The present political situation offers a big opportunity for the expansion of the Party. The Party organisation must be geared up to go amongst these sections of the people and draw them to the Party.

The review report on organisation evaluated the work done and noted that the Party had made progress in implementing the main tasks set out by the Congress – the Party Centre’s interventions in political and policy matters has been enhanced, there has been a growth in Party membership of 9 per cent since 2004 with the membership now being 9,45,486; there has been an increase in the membership of all mass organisations; more attention has been paid to the priority states and districts; more attention has been paid to Party education and Central schools have been held regularly; the circulation of People’s Democracy has increased to the highest ever level with new editions in Chennai, Agartala and Kochi; more publications of the Party have been brought out; more attention has been paid to work on the tribal front.

The report pointed out some of the weaknesses in the organisational front and stressed the importance of taking up the tasks which had not been implemented yet. The report emphasised the importance of ensuring proper recruitment of members through auxiliary groups, recruitment of more wholetime cadres and provision of a minimum wage for them, strengthening of branch functioning, ensuring Party education for all members and taking up sustained struggles on local issues for advancement of the Party’s base. The thrust should be to expand the Party’s base in states where we are weak.

The Central Committee decided that more efforts should be made to concentrate work in priority districts and areas. As per the Party Congress direction, a draft document on ideological issues must be prepared for discussion within six months time. The Central Committee also decided to prepare an updated rectification document for providing a fresh thrust to the rectification campaign.

Future Programme
The Central Committee reviewed the August national political campaign conducted by the Party. It was a successful campaign which was able to take the Party’s message to wide sections of the people. On the basis of this response, the Central Committee decided that state units should take up issues such as the Public Distribution System, BPL cards, provision of house sites, implementation of REGA, displacement of farmers, issues of social oppression and problems of tribal people for initiating local struggles.

The Central Committee decided to support the calls of countrywide jathas being organised separately by kisan, student and women organisations. The Central Committee decided to extend support to the call given by trade unions for all India general strike on December 14.

The Central Committee called upon its Party units to observe the birth centenary of Shahid Bhagat Singh which begins on September 28, in an appropriate manner.

.

To Be Or Not To Be, Taslima`s Plea For Indian Citizenship
Palash Biswas
(contact: c/o Mrs Arati Roy, Gostokanan, Sodepur, Kolkata-700110, India. Phone:033-25659551r)

Taslima is silent on minority prosecution in Bangladesh since she wrote Lajjaa. Lajja was the documentation of the circumstances in which minorities live in Bangladesh and leave it. The exodus leads to India always. The infinite refugee influx from the eastern border of India never stopped and minority prosecution happens the main cause of exodus from Bangladesh.
Self-exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin has once again sought Indian citizenship, facing death threats from hard-line Islamic groups in her homeland. News agencies quote Ms. Nasrin as saying that she says her birth country, Bangladesh, has slammed the door on her. The Indian news agency also quotes her as saying she would love to live in India's West Bengal state because that would help her in her writings. She now lives in Kolkata with a residential visa extended for one more year recently.

Government of India faced a quandary after Taslima Nasreen, the controversial Bangladeshi author, asked repeatedely for Indian citizenship. The plea was rejected in 2005. Thoughit is well known that India stands for democratic freedom, freedom for minorities, freedom from cast systems and above all freedom for women. And the Indian intellegentia stands united with Taslima.

The feminist author fled Bangladesh in 1994 when Islamic extremists threatened to kill her after she was quoted as saying the holy Koran should be changed to give women more rights. After fleeing Bangladesh in 1994, she primarily lived in Europe, collecting some awards for artistic courage but little peace of mind.

Taslima is a Bangladeshi writer, born in 1962. She has published poetry, essays, a syndicated newspaper column, and novels. She has received awards in India and Bangladesh for her work. She sprang into international consciousness when her novel, Shame, which depicts Muslim persecution of Bangladesh's Hindu minority, brought forth a death threat from Islamic militants. She had to flee Bangladesh lived in Sweden for some time, and now lives in France.
August 1999: The Bangladesh Government has banned the latest novel by feminist writer, Taslima Nasreen on the grounds that its contents might hurt the existing social system and religious sentiments of the people. All copies of the book in Bengali titled "Amar Meyebela" (My Childhood Days) published last month in Calcutta have been seized. Amar Meyebela is available online in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, for those who read Bengali.Taslims's true struggle for the freedom and adventures for the equal rights of women in Bangladesh did earn some basic dignity and respect, for herself and for the women in Bengal, in general. Ms. Nasrin has spoken out loud and clear in favor of equal rights for women and has expressed opposition to the oppression of non-Islamic minorities in Bangladesh society. She also mentioned about the oppressive socio-cultural enviornment during her earlier years. This, of course, includes the Bengali women’s bitter experience of sexual exploitation by the brute Pakistan Muslim soldiers during 1971 Pakistani Islamic Civil War in East Bengal.

Besides Lajja, her other autobiographical works, “Amar Meyebela” (My Childhood) and “Utala Hawa” (Torrid Wind) were also banned. Nasreen, whose book “Ka” described her alleged affairs with a number of prominent Bangladeshi figures, earlier said she would like to settle down in the Indian state of West Bengal which adjoins Bangladesh and shares the same Bengali language.
The Bangladesh government has claimed that herbooks contain anti-Islam sentiments and statements that could destroy the religious harmony of Bangladesh, if any such harmony really existed, except in the form of brute Islamic repression of Hindu community. Taslima Nasrin, thus, has been living in exile for more than 11 years. Recently, the West Bengal Government in India also banned the sale, distribution and collection of her book "Dwikhandito" in November 2003; (though the Communist West Bengal Government should not do exactly the same that Islamic Bangladesh Government has done!). However, the ban was soon lifted by the High Court in September 2004. Her attempt to read an anti-war poem entitled "America" to a large Bengali crowd at Madison Square Garden in NY, nevertheless, resulted in her being booed off in 2005 by an Islamic Bengladeshi crowd.

Fault OF God
Palash Biswas
(contact: Palash Biswas, Gosto kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 033-25659551(r)

The Dhanbad tragedy has once again highlighted the poor conditions in our mines and until efforts are made to improve the working environment, these accidents will continue to happen. All the miners trapped in Dhanbad coal mine have died but there are no exact figures. It is still unclear exactly how many miners were actually in the mine though the number is believed to be close to 50. Rescue workers who failed to reach the miners in time are now retrieving bodies and 43 have been pulled out so far.The miners were trapped after an explosion on Wednesday in the mine 450-500 meters underground. Three miners, who managed to escape after the explosion, have been admitted to Central Hospital in Dhanbad. Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda, who visited the site of the accident, said there was a need to improve safety standards.Not only this mine, we have to examine safety standards in all mines across the state," said Munda.

Nothing has changed. The globalisation and sophisticated technology could not change the fate of the trapped miners and the rest surviving elswhere in other mines.

I started my career as a journalist in Dhanbad back in !980. Though I was basically on the desk, The editor of the Hindi Daily Late BDS sharma used to assign me for reporting and investigating mining affairs including mines accident. I covered all major accidents during 1980 to 1084 in BCCL and ECL coalfields. I attended the classes and seminars in Indian school of Mines to know the technology. Coal India PR dept. always tried to manage the media and underplay the accidents and hazard. Hindi writer Mr Sanjeev was working on Chasnala accident for his new novel. We visited Chasnala. In all major accidents , at the time, the administrative efficiency and technical blunders were exposed badly. At that time the Dhanbad DGMS was in full swing and they claimed to ensure saftey measures in all coal mines. It was always a false claim. Following investigation and reports on the government part always proved to be a coverup game. The Mining Act, 1955 and nationalisation of coal mines by Mrs Indira Gandhi did not help to improve the circumstances in coal mines. I found that the survey report was not accurate always. Sometimes the survey was accurate , but the mining faulty. As it happened in Chasnala.
OFficers responsible for mining and management did care a little to go inside the mines. Technicaaly non professional and almost illiterate mining Sardar werefound leading in the operations.
I wrote a short story on Horladih Accident with the heading ` Ishwar Kee Galtee’ (God`s Fault). The story shows the coverup game and the escape route, the mining Act which says, despite every saftey measure ensured , accident nay occur. None is responsible for such accident. It is God`s fault. Many enquiry commissions and Court of Enquiry passed this verdict.
During that time, DGMS and BCCL, ECL and Coal India heads accepted that mining is always hazardous and all mines are unsafe. Then MP MR AK ROY and Jharkhandi leader Mr Shibu Soren had reacted violently on this disclosure. Incidentally Mr Soren is the Coal Minister of India at present.Soren orders inquiry into Dhanbad mine accident What changes he instrumented , is a mystery unknown.

Coal Minister Shibu Soren on Thursday ordered a departmental inquiry into the accident at Bhatdih mines of the Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) in Dhanbad district in which nearly 50 miners are trapped.
Coal exploration in India even today is largely being carried out by conventional methods of systematic geological mapping followed by drilling, core drilling playing a dominant role. However, in the recent times modern exploration techniques like photo-geology, remote sensing, non-coring drilling, geophysical surveys etc. are being increasingly used for detailed and precise exploration.
The miners' fate was sealed by the fact that the oxygen level inside the mine was very low while the levels of carbon dioxide and methane gas were very high.
Expressing grief at the death of coal miners in the Bhatdih Mines in Jharkhand, the CPI (M) on Friday demanded action against the coal company officials responsible for violation of safety rules that led to the mishap.
As it ishas always happened Left parties arevocal again. They will forget the mater at the very moment when the statement is published . They will seek another opportunity for another statement. No one seems to be interested to change the system.
"The management of the Bharat Coking Coal Ltd is responsible for a gross violation of safety rules. Though the mine was known to be gaseous, the local officials failed to take precautionary steps provided in the mines safety regulation", the party Polit Bureau said in a statement in New Delhi.It said the pressure of the gas became extremely high which led to the explosion and trapping of miners who died instantly.The CPI (M) demanded action against the officials responsible and strict observation of safety rules by Coal India so that such accidents do not recur.

See and investigate whether the guidelines have been followed.
From as early as the 1920’s, the various consultants, commissions and committees sat over to decide on the question of conservation and scientific exploitation of coal, working conditions in the mines and safety of the work persons, and thereby regulate and control the coal industry in India. All of them emphasised the necessity to have state ownership of the coal mines. The overall problem of coking coal in India has been studied in depth by a whole herd of prestigious committees including the Indian Coal Mining Committee (1937), the Indian Coalfields Committee (1946), the Committee on Metallurgical coal conservation (1950). The Estimates Committee of the Lok Sabha (1954-55) took notice of the evidence submitted by different agencies. The then Coal Commissioner in his evidence to the estimates committee wrote among other thins.

".............. we will be left with a number of units, which if not affected by underground fires, and other hazardous conditions, would be uneconomic to work." The architect of coal nationalisation, the late S. Mohan Kumaramangalam, the then Minister of Steel and Mines had given a vivid description of the mines of Jharia coalfield in his book "Coal Industry in India".

"Slaughter mining, lack of conservation and unscientific methods remained characteristic of large areas of the industry ....................... lack of safety & welfare measures, robbing of pillar of coal, selectives, seasonal and shallow depth mining in a haphazard manner, etc. seemed to be the guiding principles of a large number of the private collieries."

All these, led to the take-over of coking coal mines on the 16th October, 1971. Subsequently, these mines were nationalised on the 1st May, 1972 and are now operated by M/s.Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL). By Coal Mines (Taking over of Management) Ordinance 1973 the non-coking coal mines were also taken over. The mines were nationalised on the 1st May, 1973 and brought under the management of the Coal Mines Authrority Limited (CMAL). Later on the CMAL and the BCCL were merged and the holding company Coal India Limited (CIL) was formed on the 1st November, 1975.
3.0 Preventing Mine Disasters from Fire, and Effective Emergency Response

3.1 Considering the risk of fire, all coal mine companies shall rank its coalmines on a uniform scale according to its risk from fire on scientific basis. Guidlines may be framed by DGMs and circulated to all mining companies.
3.2 Recognizing the urgent need for making the emergency plan responsive, speedy and effective, each mine shall review the existing emergency plan, at a higher level keeping in view the risk from fire.

3.3 A tripartite committee may be formed to study the feasibility of establishing rescue rooms in coal mines having high risk of fire and employing more than 350 persons ordinarily employed in a shift below ground may be considered.

3.4 A tripartite committee may be formed to study the feasibility of storing oxygen type self rescuer at strategic places below ground in coal mines with risk of fire in such scale so as to cater to the needs of persons who can be affected in an emergency may be explored.

3.5 Each mining company shall formulate and implement structured training programme for development of awareness and increasing effectiveness of emergency response in case of fire amongst work persons, officials and management.

3.6 Through sustained and meaningful R&D activities, mining companies and research institution shall help in creating a better understanding of the complex geo-mining situations leading to the occurrence of fire, which in turn will help in formulating guidelines to combat the problem of fire in effective manner. Early detection of heating effect of reversal of fan and control of fire, other associated aspects may be studied.

Soren, who rushed to the accident site along with the Coal Secretary told that the inquiry committee headed by Chairman and Managing Director CMPDIL will submit its report within 15 days.

The committee will ascertain the causes of the accident besides fixing responsibility and making suggestions for avoiding recurrence of such incidents.

The Minister said stern action will be taken against officials responsible for the accident.

Soren said rescue teams are close to the site of the accident, which occurred on Wednesday night, and the official word about the fate of the trapped miners will be available soon.

He further said that as per the attendance register 50 miners were at work but some of them are reported to have come out of the mine.

Why the East Bengal Refugees are Discriminated and Hated
Palash Biswas
(contact: Palash Biswas, Gostokanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India.Phone: 033-25659551 R.)

More than twenty million East bengal refugees coming over to India in different dates and phases since 1947 partition and riots over there, awaiting citizenship and rehabilitation, reservation, right to learn mother language and even minimum human and civil rights in different states of India. Meanwhile, the original citizenship Act of 1955 has been changed by a new act called Dual citizenship Act enacted last year with the objectives: preventing grant of Indian Citizenship to illegal migrants; grant of dual citizenship to foreigners of Indian origin and compulsary registration with issue of National identity card for all citizens of India.This new Act declares the government stand to deport all illegal migrants.This anti refugee Act was passed in the parliament with general consensensus. The SC/St MPs from Bengal also supported the bill bowing to respective party whip.
. The new act has abolished the right of citizenship by birth. Any person who has crossed the border after 18th july 1948 without valid passport and visa is considered illegal migrants.
The East Bengal refugees, even rehabilated in fifties, have not been granted citizenship as have been the refugees coming from West Punjab. The Bengali leadership never demanded citizenship for the refugees. BJP leaders and CPIM leaders in bengal speak in the same language about the Bengali refugees. Thirteen lac names have been deleted in Bengal in the last assembly elections as the concerned persons could not prove their Indian nationality. The situation is very grave as it is seen in the pilot project of national identity card in Murshidabad district in West Bengal. More than ninety percent of the population could not present the required documents to prove their citizenship. Elsewhere in the country, refugees and even the indian Bengali citizens in non Bengali states staying for employment are being deported. Rehabilated in fifties, the Dandakaranya refugees in Orrissa have been served the notice to leave India. In Orrissa the registration of new born babies in the refugee families are being denied birth certificates.
East Bengal refugees have been discriminated and victimised as nintey percent of them belongs to scheduled castes . In Chhattisgargh itself twenty two of total twenty six lac Bengali refugees belong to Namashudra caste. It is the same story elsewhere ,more or less. Other prominent refugee caste is the dalit Paundra, Pods, who are considered as par as the Namashudras. We have to know the social equation of erstwhile Bengal to understand the Bengali leadership behaviour. It is well known that Indian Dalit movement is rooted in East Bengal as well well as in Maharashtra. Namoshudra leader Jogendra Nath Mandal led the Dalit movement in Bengal. Mandal was responsible to send Ambedkar,defeated in Maharashtra, to the constitution assembly. Thus Hindu Dalit amjority areas like Jassore, Faridpur, Barishal and Khulna were included in Pkistan which destroyed the Dalit movement base in India. The Dalit refugees had been scattered all over in india with an objective to annihilate the main dalit foce like Namashudra and Paundras. Specific lower castes, or 'Scheduled Castes' (as they were known in British Indian official parlance), who lived in the border areas between East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and the West Bengal state of the Union of India. They maintained since the early twentieth century their distance from high caste Hindus and their politics and, often in alliance with Muslims, opposed them actively.

The Namasudras who were earlier known as Chandals (a term derived from the Sanskrit chandala, a representative term for the untouchables) lived mainly in the Eastern districts of Bengal. According to the census of 1901, more than 75 percent of the Namasudra population lived in the districts of Bakerganj, Faridpur, Dhaka, Mymensingh, Jessore and Khulna. Moreover, it has also been pointed out in several studies that a contiguous region comprising northeastern Bakerganj, southern Faridpur and the adjoining Narail, Magura, Khulna and Bagerhat districts contained more than half of this caste population. It was the Matuya leader Harichand Thakur who led the movement to abolish the foul noun for the dalits and the British Governmet prohibited calling anyone Chandal. The Chandals became Namashudra.
But the independence with partition of Bengal which ultimately came in the midnight of 14-15 August 1947 did not help the Scheduled Caste masses, as they feared. The caste hindu ruling class captured the statepower replacing Brtish. Many prominent groups like the Namasudras and the Rajbansis lost their territorial anchorage and, contrary to their hopes and in spite of their pleas, most of the Namasudra-inhabited areas in Bakarganj, Faridpur, Jessore and Khulna, like the Rajbansi areas of Dinajpur and Rangpur, went to East Pakistan, instead of West Bengal. The post-partition violence, as F.C. Bourne, the last British Governor of East Bengal reported in 1950, left many of them with "nothing beyond their lives and the clothes they stand up in". This compelled many of them to migrate as refugees to India, where being uprooted from their traditional homeland they had to begin once again their struggle for existence. The national leaders like Jawahar Lal Nehru, Dr Rajendra Prasad , Sardar Patel and others assured the partition victims everypossible assitance and rehabilatition.

The two most important communities which dominated Scheduled Caste politics in colonial Bengal were the Namasudras and the Rajbansis. The Namasudras, earlier known as the Chandals of Bengal, lived mainly in the eastern districts of Dacca, Bakarganj, Faridpur, Mymensingh, Jessore and Khulna. When these districts were ceded to East Pakistan, the inhabitants were forced to migrate across the new international boundary to the state of West Bengal in India. At the same time, a section of the Kochs of northern Bengal, living in the districts of Rangpur, Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and the Princely state of Cooch Behar, came to be known as the Rajbansis from the late nineteenth century. Of those districts, Rangpur and parts of Dinajpur went to East Pakistan, while the rest remained in West Bengal. In other words, so far as the Namasudras and the Rajbansis were concerned, the international political boundary that came into existence in 1947 did not correspond by any means to ethnic boundaries, and resulted in the uprooting of these two groups of people from their territorial anchorage. Incidentally, according to the 1901 Census, the Rajbansis and the Namasudras were the second and third largest Hindu castes respectively in the colonial province of Bengal.Both of these two groups were considered untouchables among the Hindus of Bengal. Although untouchability per se was not as limiting a problem in this as in other parts of India, the Namasudras and the Rajbansis suffered from a number of disabilities, which created a considerable social distance between them and the high caste Bengalis who dominated Hindu society. Hence, when as a result of land reclamations in eastern and northern Bengal in the late nineteenth century, these two groups of people both experienced some amount of vertical social mobility, they proposed creating their own distinctive community identities.
As the Hindu nationalists began to invoke a glorious Hindu past as an inspiration for nation building, these people at the bottom of the social hierarchy began to look at the present as an improvement over the darker past. They regarded British rule as a good thing, seeing it as having overthrown the codes of Manu and establishing equality in an otherwise hierarchical society. The nationalist movement, therefore, appeared to them to be an attempt to put the clock back - an endeavour by the higher castes to restore their slipping grip over society. In 1906, a Namasudra resolution stated very clearly that "simply owing to the dislike and hatred of the Brahmins, the Vaidyas and the Kayasthas, this vast Namasudra community has remained backward; this community has, therefore, not the least sympathy with them and their agitation ...". In 1918 the Namasudras and the Rajbansis in a joint meeting demanded unequivocally the principle of "communal representation" to prevent "the oligarchy of a handful of limited castes". And when this was finally granted in the Communal Award of 1932, the leaders of both these communities greeted it as "a political advantage unprecedented and unparalleled in the constitutional history of India". But Gandhi, anxious to maintain the political homogeneity of the Hindu community, stood in their way. When Ambedkar finally succumbed to his moral pressure to sign the Poona Pact, the Rajbansi and Namasudra leaders condemned it as "Dr Ambedkar's political blunder"; for, by taking away the privilege of a separate electorate, it "ultimately led ... to the political death of millions of people at the hands of the so-called caste Hindus". Sometimes this alienation took the form of violent confrontation, particularly as the Namasudra peasants got involved in bazaar looting, house breaking and, in alliance with the Muslims, socially boycotting the high caste Hindus. In the case of the Rajbansis, passivity was the more dominant form of expression of their alienation, although from time to time they too participated in shop looting and no-rent campaigns against their high caste zamindars.
It should be noted that in undivided Bengal, the Zamidars belonged to Brahmin and kayasth communities whereas the peasants were muslims and dalits. Thus the dalit muslim allaince was a normal and scientific result of economic political tention in Bengal. It further resulted in the rise of Muslim League politics in Bengal as it was considerd as the best expression of revolt by Muslim peasants against caste hindu Zamindars. The dalit peasnt communities like Namashudra, Rajbanshi and Paundras saw nothing wrong in it.
Since the early years of the twentieth century both the Namasudras and the Rajbangshis sent requests to the colonial bureaucracy to bring them under the orbit of preferential treatment. Apart from extending preferential treatment to them in matters of education and employment, sympathies were also sought from the colonial bureaucracy over matters related to political participation. While the position of the Namasudra and Rajbangshi elite in the local bodies showed signs of improvement, their representation in the provincial legislature was still negligible. But more importantly, in order to gain special political privileges, the lower caste elite consciously advocated an anti-Congress and pro-British stance. At the same time, the lower caste elite, particularly the Namasudras who had actively opposed the swadeshi movement of the Congress, favoured a blatantly separatist line in the wake of the constitutional proposals of the 1910s and 1920s seeking greater devolution of power among various Indian groups. Almost immediately after the Mont-Ford proposals, the Rajbangshi and Namasudra elite pressed for greater representation for depressed communities in Bengal. As a result of these demands, the Reform Act of 1919 provided for the nomination of one representative of the depressed classes to the Bengal Legislature.

The peasants of these Bengali Dalit castes refrained from participating in Congress-led mass political agitations like the Non-Co-operation, Civil Disobedience and Quit India movements, led by Gandhi, because they were under the hegemony of the caste Hindu leaders. And then, finally, in the election of 1937 both Namasudra and Rajbansi voters rejected the Congress and the Hindu Sabha candidates and elected their own caste leaders in all the Scheduled Caste reserved constituencies. The process of alienation seemingly came to a conclusion with Dr B.R. Ambedkar forming the All India Scheduled Caste Federation in 1942 and declaring that "the Scheduled Castes are distinct and separate from the Hindus ...". The following year, its Bengal branch was started by a few enthusiastic Namasudra and Rajbansi leaders, their avowed political goal being to establish "the separate political identity" of the Scheduled Castes.
After the election of 1937, when the leaders of the Namasudra and Muslim communities were coming to a political adjustment and the first coalition ministry under Fazlul Huq had started functioning smoothly, their followers in the eastern Bengal countryside got involved in a series of violent riots in Faridpur, Mymensingh and Jessore between February and April 1938. Though rioting had been entirely due to local initiative of the peasants of the two communities over such issues as disputes over cattle or demarcation of land, the Hindu Sabha decided to take up the issues and make them items for a propaganda campaign. In an organised way rumours were spread, particularly in Jessore, that temples had been desecrated and images broken and an Assistant Secretary of the organisation was sent to the troubled area to conduct an enquiry on the spot. Religious emotions were thus fermented in a conflict which initially had nothing to do with religion

At a meeting at Agra in March 1946, Ambedkar had announced his support for the League demand, "Muslims are fighting for their legitimate rights and they are bound to achieve Pakistan". About a month later, in a press interview, he justified his demand for separate villages for the Scheduled Castes. This would not amount, he thought, to an encroachment on the rights of any other party. There were large areas of cultivable waste land lying untenanted in the country which could be set aside for the settlement of the Scheduled Castes. The echoes of this demand could be heard from distant places. In the Central Provinces some of the Scheduled Castes started talking vaguely about a 'Dalistan'; and in northern Bengal a few Rajbansis, supported by the Scheduled Caste Federation leader Jogendranath Mandal, raised the demand for 'Rajasthan' or a separate Rajbansi Kshatriya homeland. But the majority of the Scheduled Castes in Bengal, the Rajbansis included, seemed to be on the exactly opposite pole. Their responses to the partition issue clearly show that they had completely identified themselves with Hindu sentiments and apprehensions on this matter.

In Bengal Eaton shows that those from whom. Muslim converts were largely drawn—Rajbansis, Pods, Chandals, Kuchs, etc .Significantly, there was hardly any major social movement in Bengal between the tenth and the fifteenth century aimed at the elevation of the Antyaja jatis in the Hindu social scale. Only in 19th century, Harichand Thakur and Guruchand Thakur of Orakandi changed the scenerio with Matuya Dharama denying Brahminical Hindu religion.Matuya Hindu religious community, founded by Sri Sri harichand thakur of Gopalganj. The word 'matuya' means to be absorbed or remain absorbed in meditation, specifically to be absorbed in the meditation of the divine.The Matuya sect is monotheist. It is not committed to Vedic rituals, and singing hymns in praise of the deity is their way of prayer and meditation. They believe that salvation lies in faith and devotion. Their ultimate objective is to attain truth through this kind of meditation and worship. They believe that love is the only way to God.
Under the influence of certain liberal religious sects, a sense of self-respect developed among the Namasudras. In fact, these liberal as well as radical sects under the leadership of charismatic gurus like Keshab Pagal or Sahalal Pir challenged the hierarchic Hindu caste system and preached a simple gospel based on devotion (bhakti) and spiritual emotionalism (bhava). In 1872-73, the Namasudras under the leadership of Dwarkanath Mandal, tried to bolster their self-esteem by undertaking a social and economic boycott of the upper castes. The failure of this movement led to the establishment of the Matua sect - an organised religious sect under the influence of Sri Harichand Thakur and his son Sri Guru Chand Thakur.

The namashudras joined the Matuya Dharam. Which Was a social reform movement altogether. Harichand and Guruchand Thakur emphasised on education. Guruchand Thakur established thousands of eductional institutions. The Matuya have no distinctions of caste, creed, or class. They believe that everyone is a child of God. The Matuya believe that male and female are equal. They discourage early marriage. Widow remarriage is allowed. They refer to their religious teachers as 'gonsai;' both men and women can be gonsai. The community observes Wednesday as the day of communal worship. The gathering, which is called 'Hari Sabha' (the meeting of Hari), is an occasion for the Matuya to sing kirtan in praise of Hari till they almost fall senseless. musical instruments such as jaydanka, kansa, conch, shinga, accompany the kirtan. The gonsai, garlanded with karanga (coconut shell) and carrying chhota, sticks about twenty inches long, and red flags with white patches, lead the singing.

In fact, there was hardly any case of social mobility among them, and for the great majority of the population comprising essentially the lower castes, the major sources of social mobility remained inaccessible. Prolonged pursuit of a particular occupation for generations in the absence of alternative job opportunities naturally gave rise to strict social conventions, which in the traditional context were overlaid with rituals. Some details relating to the lower castes in Bengal can be highlighted. Lower Caste Movements efforts to obliterate the social backwardness of some groups or communities in the society. Bengali society throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries remained broadly divided into the Hindu and Muslim communities. In that sense, the inner divisions of the Hindu society tended to be perfunctory. Thus, the social scenario in Bengal betrayed features quite different from those in Central India and some parts of the Deccan, where the Muslim population was relatively small as a result of which the anti-Brahmin movements thrived there.

The forms of discrimination against the untouchables in Bengal differed from that in Maharastra or South India. In Bengal, caste rigidities were never strong enough to keep the untouchable population in a state of perpetual servitude. In this context, the types of discrimination faced by depressed or scheduled caste leaders like jogendranath mandal were not the same as those experienced by Ambedkar in Maharastra.

In Bengal the list of scheduled castes included not only the 'untouchables' but also several Ajalchal castes ritually ranked a step above them. The colonial bureaucracy enlisted communities under the Scheduled Caste grouping not much in accordance to their ritual status, but more in terms of their economic status. Therefore, it has been argued that since the intensity of untouchability was relatively weak in Bengal, compared to some other regions of India, movements such as those demanding right of entry to temples could never become a major plank in the movement for the removal of untouchability. Therefore lower caste protest did not always demand the complete removal of untouchability. Scholars like Masayuki Usuda have argued that these movements took the form of joint efforts in which socially backward castes too participated. The problems of untouchability and those of social ostracism were reflected in the antagonisms that prevailed between the indigent Chhotoloks (low born) and the rich Bhadraloks (men enjoying a higher status by virtue of their ritual ranking, education and other virtues) in the society. At times movements among the Bengali untouchables assumed class connotations.

However, such movements need to be analysed in two different ways. In the first place, such movements are sometimes considered as manifestations of protest against a dominant system of social organisation that sanctioned disabilities and inflicted deprivation on certain subordinate groups. On the other hand such movements, it has been argued, could be interpreted as expressions of ambitions or aspirations that sought accommodation and positional readjustments within the existing system of distribution of power and prestige. It would be worthwhile to argue that within such 'untouchable' social groups, different levels of social consciousness and different forms of political action emerged, which inevitably were incorporated within a single movement.

In Bengal, due to their socio-economic backwardness, some of the lower or 'untouchable' castes developed worldviews that were fundamentally different from that of the nationalists and this led to their alienation from mainstream politics. However within the same social movement of such ritually 'inferior' castes, there could be a convergence of different tendencies - some protestant and some accommodating. In fact, as a result of such tendencies, lower caste social protest in spite of the immense possibilities of initiating some fundamental changes in society or polity, fell far short of the cherished goals.

The Pala documents also provide some information about the untouchable castes, which were outside the frontiers of Hindu society. In the list containing the names of the beneficiaries of landgrants in the Pala copperplates, high governments officials were immediately followed by Brahmans, who in turn were followed by various peasant communities. In fact, there was no reference either to the Ksatriyas or the Vaishyas. But, beyond such social groupings there were several other groups who were referred to as Medh, Andhra and Chandalas. The Chandalas were considered to be the lowest of all the social groupings. Social commentators like Bhabadeva Bhatta have referred to them as an AntyajaJati. In several charya songs information about several other low castes such as Doms or Dombs, Chandalas, Shabaras and Kapalikas have also been found. In some medieval texts it has been pointed out that contact of Brahmans with such lower castes was forbidden.