DABHOLKAR TO PANSARE: Journey of Rabid Communal Terrorism

Ashok Dhawale

The dastardly assassination of Comrade Govind Pansare, the veteran 81-year old former CPI state secretary, national council member, trade union leader, eminent lawyer and prominent Marxist intellectual and writer – exactly a year and a half after the similar assassination of renowned rationalist and socialist Dr Narendra Dabholkar - has been another black mark in the recent history of Maharashtra. It may be recalled that Dabholkar was martyred in Pune on August 20, 2013; Pansare and his wife Uma were shot in Kolhapur on February 16, 2015 and he was martyred on February 20.

The fact that the assassins of Dabholkar and their political paymasters remain untraced even after a year and a half – and also the fact that the modus operandi of the killing of Pansare was eerily similar to the killing of Dabholkar – two men on a motor-cycle shooting their targets when they were on their morning walk - these have put the state government and the law and order machinery of the state to eternal shame. Not surprisingly, there is no clue yet about the assassins of Pansare and their political paymasters either.

Thousands of people led by the Left, democratic and secular political parties and mass organisations of all hues – Marxists, Gandhiites and Ambedkarites - immediately came out on the streets from February 16 onwards to denounce the cowardly attack on the Pansares and Comrade Pansare’s death four days later. Along with the CPI, the CPI(M) was in the forefront of the protest actions in all districts and most tehsils throughout the state. Both the print and electronic media gave prominent coverage to this tragic and shocking event.

The massive funeral procession of Comrade Govind Pansare took place in Kolhapur on February 21 and it was attended by thousands of people from all walks of life. The CPI state conference was due to open in Kolhapur on February 21 with a mass rally. Hence all the state delegates had gathered there. The sad and bitter irony was that instead of the mass rally, they had to march in the funeral procession of their tallest leader in the state.

CPI general secretary Sudhakar Reddy, CPI state secretary and national council member Dr Bhalchandra Kango, CPI(M) state secretary and central committee member Dr Ashok Dhawale, central committee member Narsayya Adam, state secretariat members Udayan Sharma and Ajit Abhyankar, state committee members Dr Subhash Jadhav, Chandrakant Yadav, M H Shaikh, Sidhappa Kalshetty and Umesh Deshmukh, Kolhapur district secretary Dr Uday Narkar, Satara district secretary Manik Avghade and all CPI(M) leaders from Kolhapur district marched in the funeral procession.

Among the other leaders who paid homage to the departed leader were senior PWP leader N D Patil, PWP general secretary Jayant Patil, Milind Ranade of the Lal Nishan Party, Kishor Dhamale of the Satyashodhak Communist Party, Subhash Ware of the Aap Party, Bharat Patankar of the Shramik Mukti Dal, Arjun Dangle of the RPI, Justice B G Kolse Patil, Ulka Mahajan of NAPM and many others. Some Congress and NCP leaders also laid wreaths.  

All Left, democratic and secular parties and organisations have given a call for a massive joint march in Mumbai on March 11 to denounce the assassination of Comrade Govind Pansare and to demand the immediate arrest of, and stringent punishment to the killers.          

The fatal attacks on Dabholkar and Pansare were not merely attacks on some individuals; they were attacks on reason, tolerance, democracy, freedom of expression, secular values and on the very dream of equality and justice. They were attacks on the rich secular and progressive tradition of India which includes Charvaka, Buddha, Mahavir, Kabir, Tukaram, Shivaji, Phule, Gandhi, Shahu, Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh, Periyar and so many others.

Why are such attacks taking place in Maharashtra today? And which are the forces towards which the needle of suspicion turns?

Dr Narendra Dabholkar was the President of the Committee for the Eradication of Superstition (Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti). Till his last breath, he consistently fought for the enactment of a law against superstition. The whole array of communal and obscurantist forces were notoriously against the enactment of any such law. The BJP and the Shiv Sena had time and again opposed Dabholkar’s original draft tooth and nail both inside and outside the assembly. The so-called secular state government of the Congress and the NCP, in spite of then having a clear majority in the state legislature, still did not display the guts to enact this law during Dabholkar’s lifetime. Finally, it was only under the mass public pressure following Dabholkar’s martyrdom that the state government enacted a greatly watered-down version of the law.

As the editor of the periodical ‘Sadhana’ that was founded by the legendary socialist leader Sane Guruji, Dabholkar always strove to uphold the values of democracy, secularism and equality. The murder of Dabholkar was a violent attack on these values themselves.

Although the background of the attack on Govind Pansare was naturally different, the essence of it was the same.

Two recent programmes organised in Kolhapur with Pansare’s initiative created a stir. Readers will recall that the shocking terrorist attacks in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, killed over 160 people. The most prominent among those who were martyred was the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare and other top police personnel. Karkare had done sterling work in the investigation of the Malegaon bomb blasts and had uncovered the involvement of Hindutva extremist elements represented by Pragnya Singh Thakur, Colonel Prasad Purohit and others. The same trail later led to the Ajmer Sharif and Hyderabad Mecca Masjid blasts and the attack on the Samjhauta Express. A few weeks before his martyrdom, Karkare had indicated that the net of investigation was closing in on several important bigwigs of the Hindutva brigade.

After the Mumbai terror attacks, a retired Inspector General of Police S M Mushrif, after careful personal study and investigation, wrote a book titled ‘Who Killed Karkare?’ He drew the conclusion that Karkare’s killing was not the handiwork of Pakistani terrorists like Ajmal Kasab, but was a diabolical conspiracy of the Hindutva extremist forces. It is clear that these forces had the most to gain from the elimination of Karkare. The book became a hit, ran into several editions and was translated into several Indian languages.

A few weeks before Pansare’s martyrdom, a talk by S M Mushrif on the topic ‘Who Killed Karkare?’ was organised in Kolhapur. The Hindutva communal elements opposed the programme tooth and nail. But Pansare put his foot down and insisted that the programme be held. There was a record turn-out for this talk by Mushrif, where he, Pansare and other speakers alleged that the killing of Karkare and Dabholkar could very well have been the handiwork of Hindutva extremist elements. After this event Pansare received anonymous post cards with a Pune post mark, threatening to make a Dabholkar of him.

Another programme took place in the Shivaji University in Kolhapur. Pansare was invited to deliver a lecture on the relevance of the thoughts of a leading social reformer Shahu Maharaj. While concluding the talk, Pansare took stock of current events and lashed out against the Hindutva communal campaign of the denigration of Mahatma Gandhi and the glorification of his assassin Nathuram Godse. Pansare declared that Godse and his associates were members of the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha. There was an argument where an ABVP whole-timer tried to challenge this last statement of Pansare. But Pansare stood firm and put forward the concrete evidence of Godse’s communal connections.

For the last two decades, a small booklet written by Pansare called ‘Who Was Shivaji?’ has sold over one lakh copies in Maharashtra. In this booklet, Pansare strongly countered the totally false communal distortion of the life and work of this warrior-king, who has always been one of the icons of Maharashtra. Pansare did this on the basis of concrete historical evidence and he showed Shivaji in his true secular colours as the king of all communities and castes and, as Mahatma Jotirao Phule correctly described him, as the king of the peasantry. This effective work by Pansare had always been a thorn in the flesh of the communal forces.

The clash of ideologies is at the heart of the democratic system and needs to be encouraged at all levels. But instead of that, the hallmark of fascist and authoritarian forces has always been to suppress antagonistic thoughts by simply eliminating those who express them.

The assassination of Mahatma Gandhi within six months of gaining independence, by Nathuram Godse and his RSS-Hindu Mahasabha accomplices who also included V D Savarkar (who had submitted an abject apology to the British rulers while he was in the Andaman Cellular Jail), was the classic instance of such fascist authoritarianism. The glorification of such condemnable elements today gives an accurate indication of the climate of our times.

Two such instances took place in Maharashtra in the early 1970s. One was the assassination of CPI MLA Krishna Desai, and the other was the slaying of Dalit Panther activist Bhagwat Jadhav. Both these heinous acts took place in Mumbai, and they were the handiwork of Shiv Sena hoodlums. The first murder was aimed at breaking the Communist hold over the working class movement of Mumbai; the second was aimed at cutting down the influence of the militant Dalit movement that was then taking shape. It is an open secret that the Shiv Sena at that time had the full backing of Big Business and the Congress state government.

In its first stint in power in the late 1990s, the Shiv Sena-BJP state government hatched a diabolical conspiracy that was aimed at rooting out the strong CPI(M) influence in the tribal areas of Thane district. On the evening of Republic Day, January 26, 1997, under instructions from the state home ministry that was then in the hands of the BJP, the police without any provocation fired on a peaceful gathering of tribals in the Kavada village of Talasari tehsil. Two young CPI(M) activists – Lakshya Beej and Babu Kharpade – were martyred on the spot.

The police then slapped false cases on over 100 top CPI(M) leaders in Thane district, arrested them and put them behind bars. Tremendous repression was let loose in the Talasari and Dahanu tehsils by special camps of the State Reserve Police (SRP). All this was meant to dislodge the CPI(M) from its tribal strongholds in the Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections that were due on March 3, 1997. Many of the CPI(M) candidates for this election had to fill their nomination forms from jail.

But the Party fought back this repression with great grit and determination and, in fact, won more seats in Thane district in these ZP/PS elections than ever before, with a record number of votes. In Talasari tehsil, both the BJP and the Congress lost their deposits in all the seats that they contested. The anti-communist game plan of the BJP was blown to smithereens.

After the 2012 ZP/PS polls, which also the CPI(M) won, BJP hoodlums attacked a dedicated CPI(M) tribal woman activist called Mathi Ozare and smashed her head with stones at night when she was going home. She died on the spot. During the election campaign, these BJP hoodlums had threatened to kill her if she continued to work for the CPI(M). Undeterred by such threats, Mathi Ozare continued to work sincerely and the Party won that seat. That is why she was killed. She became the first woman martyr of the CPI(M) among the 60 martyrs in Thane district who have laid down their lives since the famous Adivasi Revolt in 1945. 

Five months ago, Hindutva hoodlums attacked the CPI(M) office in Pune in broad daylight, and no action was taken by the police. Just after the Modi regime came to power, the same brand of hoodlums killed a young techie called Mohsin Shaikh, again in Pune. Communal incidents and tension has perceptibly grown during the last few months in the state, as also all over the country with the advent of the BJP regime at the centre and in some states.

As a reaction to this, Islamist fundamentalist forces like the MIM are spreading their influence in Maharashtra among the minority community. Inflammatory speeches are being made by MIM leaders like Owaissi, and it could win two seats in the state assembly for the first time in the elections held last October. It stood second in half a dozen more seats.

The ideological roots of the RSS can be easily traced to the fascist regimes of Germany and Italy in the 1930s. RSS chief M S Golwalkar in his book We or Our Nationhood Defined  had openly glorified the German Nazis under Hitler; and another RSS founder B S Munje had gone to Italy, met Mussolini and had similarly praised the Italian fascists under him.

In India, it is the Muslims and Christians who take the place of the Jews in Germany. The attacks against Communists, Socialists and all democrats are a common feature of both. The assassinations of Dr Narendra Dabholkar and Comrade Govind Pansare are clear indicators.

All Left, democratic and secular forces in Maharashtra have come together against this onslaught and have decided to organise a massive march to Mantralaya in Mumbai on March 11, 2015, to denounce the assassination of Comrade Govind Pansare and to demand that the assassins of both Dabholkar and Pansare, along with their patrons, are immediately identified and arrested and the strongest possible action is taken against them.

The importance and method of functioning of party whole-timers

(Excerpts from the resolution adopted by the CPI(M) Maharashtra state committee on March 3-5, 2012, in the light of the discussion on the Draft Resolution placed before the first state-level workshop of Party whole-timers held in Mumbai on November 3-4, 2011.) 

1.                   Party whole-timers have an extraordinary importance in the history of the Communist movement. The teaching of Lenin that a whole-timer is the backbone of the Party is well-known.

WHOLE-TIMERS: THE BACKBONE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY

2.                  “As to the structure and composition of the Party itself, Lenin considered that it should consist of two parts: a) a close circle of regular cadres of leading Party workers, chiefly professional revolutionaries, that is, Party workers free from all occupation except Party work and possessing the necessary minimum of theoretical knowledge, political experience, organizational practice and the art of combating the tsarist police and of eluding them; and b) a broad network of local Party organizations and a large number of Party members enjoying the sympathy and support of hundreds of thousands of working people.” (History of the CPSU(B), p 33).

3.                  A militant fighter against German fascism and General Secretary of the Communist International, Georgi Dimitrov, wrote, “Our best resolutions will remain scraps of paper if we lack the people who can put them into effect…In their practical work our Parties are still far from realizing that people, cadres, decide everything…Only a correct policy in regard to cadres will enable our Parties to develop and utilize all available forces to the utmost, and obtain from the enormous reservoir of the mass movement ever fresh reinforcements of new and better active workers.”

4.                  Further, while asking the question, “What should be our main criteria in selecting cadres?”, Dimitrov replied:

·                     First, absolute devotion to the cause of the working class, loyalty to the Party, tested in the face of the enemy – in battle, in prison, in court.

·                     Second, the closest possible contact with the masses. The comrades concerned must be wholly absorbed in the interests of the masses, feel the life pulse of the masses, know their sentiments and requirements.

·                     Third, ability independently to find one’s bearings and not to be afraid of assuming responsibility in making decisions. He who fears to take responsibility is not a leader. He who is unable to display initiative, who says, ‘I will do only what I am told’, is not a Bolshevik.

·                     Fourth, discipline and Bolshevik hardening in the struggle...Our leading cadres should combine the knowledge of what they must do – with Bolshevik stamina, revolutionary strength of character and the will power to carry it through.

5.                  After the formation of the CPI(M), the fundamental Central Committee document ‘Tasks on Party Organization’ adopted in 1967 had said, “We must consider the selection, training, development of our whole-timers as the main task and all other Party tasks as secondary to it. If this is not done, a big weakness will remain in the entire work of the Party and the whole progress of the movement will be affected. The state and district committees must first prepare a list of whole-timers, they must then evaluate the work of the whole-timers by checking their record, and they must then handle all other questions according to the cadre policy decided.”   

6.                  All subsequent Political-Organizational Reports of every Party Congress have underlined the importance of Party whole-timers, and several other points about their selection, training, development, nurturing and evaluation. The Central Committee meeting held from December 14-16, 2005 laid down the following guiding principles as regards Party whole-timers:

·      The selection of a Party whole-timer at any level must be done by the Party committees; even if the selection is made by a local committee, it must have the approval of the district committee. The district committee must inform the state committee about such decisions. A whole-timer must actually work for the Party the whole time. Special attention should be paid to recruiting whole-timers from the basic classes and from women, Dalits, Adivasis and minorities.

·      The whole-timer selected must be given responsibility as per the organizational plan made by the concerned Party committee.

·      The state committee must prepare guiding principles about adequate wages for whole-timers and must make the necessary arrangements to see that this wage is paid regularly.

·      The concerned Party committees must help the whole-timers in their work and must encourage them to take the initiative to implement the political-organizational policy of the Party.

·      The district and state committees must organize political study camps to increase the political-ideological level of whole-timers.

·      Party committees must make the proper arrangements to keep a check-up on the work of whole-timers, to help them to integrate their experiences, to take forward their achievements and to correct their mistakes.

·      The concerned Party committees must help whole-timers during illness and in their domestic and other difficulties.

CHARACTERISTICS OF WHOLE-TIMERS

7.                  It is certainly a matter of pride to become and remain a whole-timer of the CPI(M). In his speech paying homage to Lenin, Stalin had said these celebrated words, “There is no greater honour in the world than to be a member of the Party that was founded by Comrade Lenin.” If this is applicable to Party members, it is still more applicable to Party whole-timers.

8.                 In today’s era of globalization, consumerism and identity politics in different forms, it is even more difficult and appreciable to become and remain a Party whole-timer.

9.                  Today, thousands of dedicated Party whole-timers in the country and over two hundred in our state are leading the struggles of the working people with determination, overcoming the adverse situation in the world and in our country. This adverse situation is seen in the fall of socialism in the Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe two decades ago from 1989 to 1991, the resultant increase of aggressiveness and pressure of world imperialism, the pro-rich neo-liberal policies being vigorously pursued by our ruling classes, the increased influence of various communal and terrorist forces and the temporary setbacks suffered by the Left forces in our country from 2009.

10.              In such a situation, the characteristics of whole-timers should be as follows:

·   For those whose profession it is to make the revolution, such activists must have unshakable faith in Marxism-Leninism and complete confidence in our Party that is committed to take forward this ideology in India. They must be ready to devote their entire lives to the Party and the mass movement. It is only if this is the case, will they remain constantly active and will develop the capacity to surmount any adverse circumstances in their personal or political life.

·   A whole-timer must have complete faith in class and mass struggles. It is the experience of the whole world that a Communist Party grows only through struggles. Only if we have live and regular contact with the people can we understand the issues that are to be taken up through struggle. For this, it is a very important duty of a whole-timer to be regularly active and to take the initiative in some mass organization. He must be in the forefront of the struggles led by the Party or mass organization, and must strive to mobilize the maximum number of people in these struggles.

·   While leading the struggles of the people, whole-timers must inculcate in themselves the ability to effectively impart political-ideological education to them. It is only through such constant education that the political consciousness of people can rise and a strong mass base of the Party can be formed. Although struggles on economic issues are extremely necessary, it is our old experience in elections that a mass base of the Party is not formed merely through economic struggles. That is why the regular reading of, and reflection on, the Party weeklies, Party literature and Marxist literature is a must for Party whole-timers.

·   A very important task for a whole-timer is to develop within himself/herself the science and the art of building the organization. We must always remember Lenin’s dictum that “In its struggle for power, the proletariat has no other weapon except organization.” Whether it is the Party or a mass front, its political influence cannot increase without a strong organization. It is extremely necessary to understand and skilfully implement the valuable guidance given in the Party Constitution and in the book published by the state committee “Fundamental Guidance about the Party Organization” (incorporating the 1967 CC Resolution ‘Tasks on Party Organization’ and the Salkia Plenum Report and Resolution on Organization).   

·   A spotless character, transparent dealings, clean behaviour, capacity for initiative, work efficiency, readiness to sacrifice and simple living – these must be the other characteristics of whole-timers of the CPI(M). If we see the lives of the ‘Navaratnas’, that is the first Polit Bureau of the CPI(M), or other old Communist leaders, we will see these characteristics in them in ample measure. Every whole-timer of the Party must keep these leaders as his ideal and must try his/her best to give such a direction to his/her own life. It is also through such individual qualities that people initially get attracted to the Party and it is these activists that gain a place of love and respect in society. 

SELECTION, FUNCTIONING AND EVALUATION OF WHOLE-TIMERS

11.               When selecting whole-timers, Party committees must keep the above criteria in mind. Our stress should be on recruiting whole-timers from the basic classes, i.e. the working class, peasantry and agricultural workers and from the socially backward sections, i. e. Adivasis, Dalits, minorities and women. Topmost priority must be given to recruiting young, educated and dedicated whole-timers from the student and youth fronts, because it is the experience all over the country and in our state as well that such comrades make a long and valuable contribution to Party advance. That is why the Party at all levels must pay the maximum attention to the healthy and rapid growth of the student and youth fronts.

12.              In Andhra Pradesh and some other states, the Party has decided upon a policy to appoint new whole-timers initially for one year on a trial or probation basis. The comrade in question is given a clear idea in advance to that effect. During that year, the Party committee concerned keeps a close watch on the work of that comrade. If he/she is found fit, then his appointment as whole-timer is confirmed. If not found fit, he/she is discontinued and is advised to take up a job elsewhere. Since he/she has been given a clear idea in advance, it does not create any problems. While appointing Party whole-timers in future in Maharashtra, we must follow this policy.

13.              As regards the method of functioning of whole-timers, it is necessary to lay down certain guiding principles. The first point relates to the very definition of whole-timers. Obviously, a whole-timer is one who devotes his whole time to the Party. Someone who is in service or who is running a profession or a business does not fit in the definition of a whole-timer. It is, of course, true that there are certain exceptional comrades who, although they are not whole-timers in this sense, nevertheless do considerable work of the Party or mass organizations.

14.              Whole-timers can be of two types – those who take wages from the Party and those who do not. Among those who do not take wages from the Party are MLAs and ex-MLAs. Actually, these comrades give a large part of what they receive as allowances and pension from the government to the Party as levy. According to the Party Constitution, the remaining part which they keep with themselves is to be considered as the wage that they get from the Party. The financial position of some comrades is good, and hence they work as whole-timers but do not take any wage from the Party by choice. There is an old tradition of such comrades in the country and also in our state. Henceforth, the concerned district committees must take a formal decision to accord such comrades the status of a whole-timer.

15.               Since a whole-timer devotes his entire time to the work of the Party and his/her mass front, it is clear that his must be a major share in the development of the Party and the mass front. It is right that the Party has such an expectation from him. In some districts, we can see that such is indeed the case. But it is a fact that in some other districts, this is not the picture. Some comrades are whole-timers for a number of years, but there is stagnation or even decline in the Party and the mass fronts in that district. Every whole-timer of the Party in Maharashtra must seriously introspect upon the results of his/her work, self-critically draw concrete conclusions and must take necessary steps for improvement. He/she must accordingly make suggestions to the concerned Party committee. The Party district leadership must also discuss with him/her and must render collective help and assistance to him/her.

16.              Why is it that in some places the work of whole-timers does not lead to the expected results? One important reason for this is related to the method of functioning of whole-timers. For example, some whole-timers have no short-term or long-term planning or direction to their work. Their work lacks consistency. They are not ready to take the initiative. The mentality of some of them is to just somehow finish the work that they have been given. Some whole-timers do not keep a diary of the daily work that they do. That is why they can never place what exactly they did last week or last month. Due to this manner of functioning, the question of review of their past work and planning of their future work just does not arise. This casual manner of functioning must be changed forthwith.

17.               The second important reason for this stagnation is the lack of attention to consciously build up class or mass struggles. As mentioned above, a Communist Party has never grown anywhere in the world without intense struggles. But in some districts where there are whole-timers, not many such struggles have taken place. On the burning issues of the people, we have not mobilised hundreds and thousands of people in struggles against the government, police or our class enemies. We have not tried to search out imaginative forms of struggle. We have not fought a struggle on local issues consistently until it has achieved victory. At the state level also, there have been such weaknesses in our work. Big improvements in this are necessary.

18.              Whole-timers must constantly pay attention to increasing their political-ideological level, and they must persuade other Party activists also to do the same. Reading, writing and speaking are the three effective ways not only to increase one’s political-ideological level, but also to reach out to and strike a dialogue with the people. Whole-timers must make a conscious effort to develop themselves in all these three ways. Some whole-timers certainly make efforts towards this end, and the results of this are also seen. But there are some other whole-timers who do not even read the state Party weekly ‘Jeevanmarg’ regularly, so any deeper reading than that is out of the question. That is why we find staleness and the same old points in the speeches and writing of some of them.

19.              Whole-timers must consciously make efforts to place new and creative ideas for the advance of the movement, attract the people by their own political-ideological sharpness, concretely analyse a concrete local situation and thus give a boost to the movement on that issue, write an effective leaflet or article and address a public meeting or a study-class in line with the policy of the Party.

20.             The importance of the Party organization has been underlined earlier in this resolution. This is an extremely important responsibility of a whole-timer. We are well aware of our weaknesses in even such a primary task such as completing Party renewal in time; in ensuring that every Party member is regularly active in some mass organization; in seeing that Party levy is collected as per the Central Committee rates; and in increasing the circulation of the Party weeklies in several districts. We also know the mad rush to somehow complete the membership of the mass fronts at the end of the year. We are also well aware of the unforgivable lack of attention to functioning Party branches regularly and keeping the mass front units active. It is an important duty of every whole-timer to take the initiative and pay proper attention to the above key organizational aspects. This organizational work must be carried out by developing collective functioning and eschewing individualism.

21.              In all the stronger states of our Party, one key principle which is rightly stressed is that from the movements and the work built by a whole-timer, Party funds must also be generated in one way or another. This fund may be in the form of Party fund, or Party levy, or subscriptions to Party weeklies, or mass front membership fees. This principle must be strictly laid down in every district of the Party in Maharashtra. In some districts, the Party state committee or the district committee gives wages to some whole-timers for years, but there are never much financial returns to the Party or the mass front. All whole-timers must pay conscious attention to this aspect also.

22.             Our aim is to develop a whole-timer into an effective political leader. Hence he/she should give such a direction and turn to his/her entire method of functioning. While doing so, whole-timers must stringently follow Party discipline, put an end to ‘loose talking’, be completely clear and transparent in all their financial dealings, maintain clear and regular accounts of the funds of the Party and mass front that are in their charge, stay clear of bureaucratic practices and arrogant and egoistic behaviour and generally behave with humility and in a way that will bring people closer in unity. Just as a whole-timer should not behave in a bureaucratic manner, so also the Party leadership should not treat whole-timers in a bureaucratic manner.

23.             The last point in this section is related to the evaluation of whole-timers. Since they are Party whole-timers, their responsibility must be to the Party. So far as Maharashtra is concerned, in earlier times, with the exception of Thane district led by Comrade Godavari Parulekar, there was no method of evaluation of whole-timers either at the state or district level. Last year, the Party state committee decided for the first time that all whole-timers must submit their self-evaluation reports to their respective district committees, the district committees should make their own evaluation on the basis of these reports and send their consolidated evaluation report to the state committee. The reports of whole-timers whose wages are given by the state committee reached the state committee, although some reached late. But so far as reports of the whole-timers paid by the district committees and the trade union centres were concerned, very few districts sent their evaluation reports to the state committee despite constant reminders. This must be corrected.

24.             In order that the work of whole-timers becomes more substantial and fruitful, they get regular assistance and guidance from the Party committees and their mistakes are corrected, we must take the following concrete decisions as regards evaluation:

·   Every whole-timer must compulsorily keep a daily diary of his work.

·   District committees (tehsil committees if the districts are large) must organize a separate meeting of their whole-timers every three months. In this meeting, their past work must be reviewed and their future work must be planned.

·   Every whole-timer must submit a self-critical report evaluating his own work every year by the end of December to his/her district committee without fail. The district secretariat and the district committee must discuss these reports and must send a consolidated evaluation report to the state committee every year by the end of March. On the basis of these reports, the district committee must give concrete guidance and suggestions to whole-timers for improvement in work.

CONCLUSION

25.              Let us conclude this Resolution on Whole-timers with the last inspiring passage from the last testament of our immortal martyr Shaheed Bhagat Singh. It is a call that is sure to touch the heart of every whole-timer of our Party. Bhagat Singh writes:

26.             “If you start the work on these lines, you shall have to be very sober...It requires neither the emotion nor the death, but the life of constant struggle, suffering and sacrifice. Crush your individuality first. Shake off the dreams of personal comfort. Then start to work. Inch by inch you shall have to proceed. It needs courage, perseverance and very strong determination. No difficulties and no hardships shall discourage you. No failure and betrayals shall dishearten you. No travails imposed upon you shall snuff out the revolutionary will in you. Through the ordeal of sufferings and sacrifice you shall come out victorious. And these individual victories shall be the valuable assets of the revolution. Long Live Revolution!”

Rejoinder to the utterly false Vichar Manch statement

Statement released by the CPI (M) Maharashtra State Committee

It has come to our notice that the so-called Godavari S. Parulekar Marxwadi Vichar Manch, based in Thane, has issued a statement responding to the charges levelled against it by the Student’s Federation of India (SFI) unit of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), dated 15th January 2013. The State Committee is forced to respond to this statement, which – like the Manch itself – reeks of utter, stark and downright falsehoods. Each of these falsehoods must be nailed down, so that the truth is known to the students of JNU.

At the outset, it was appalling that a corrupt and morally degenerate person like Parshuram Chavan was invited for a public meeting in JNU on the topic ‘Towards a People’s Democratic Alternative’. It is a sad irony that this comes at a time when we need to build real progressive, democratic alternatives to neo-liberalism and communalism, as well as fight against rampant corruption and shocking violence against women.

The response of the Manch starts with the falsehood that the “Vichar Manch was formed in the Thane District of Maharashtra on 7th June 2008 by 23 out of the 33 Thane District Committee members of the CPI (M).” The fact is that there were no more than a dozen District Committee members out of 33 who joined the Manch. Against most of them, the CPI (M) Maharashtra State Committee had already taken disciplinary action on grave charges (see details below).

More important, however, is the fact that of the then total Party membership in Thane district of 3000-odd, less than 10 per cent, i.e., less than 300, had joined the Manch. Over 90 per cent, i.e., more than 2700 Party members, firmly remained with, and continue to remain with, the CPI (M). Further, many among the 300, who were initially misled into going with the Manch, soon got disillusioned with the political opportunism and rank corruption that was indulged in by the Manch leadership comprising the ‘Gang of Four’ of Messrs Parshuram Chavan, Suhas Samant, Ramji Vartha and Rajendra Paranjape. The misled comrades soon came back to the CPI (M).

The Manch has said that “the bulk of our membership base comprises of tribal people.” The plain truth is that there is just no bulk with the Manch whatsoever, and there never was. In the state-wide Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections of March 2012, the Manch could not even save its security deposit in a single seat in Thane district. 

The biggest lie in the Manch’s statement, in classic Goebbelsian style, is the following: “The Manch formation was the culmination of a bitter inner-party struggle following the land movement of 1991 when thousands of tribals occupied forest and ceiling surplus land of landlords in the leadership of the Party. However, sections of the Party leadership started engaging in nefarious negotiations with the landlords for personal benefits. This became a cause of continuous acrimony and discontent within our district. Fed up with this approach of shielding dubious state leaders, in February 2006, the Thane District Committee of the CPI (M) passed a unanimous resolution recommending action against Com. L. B. Dhangar (CPI (M) State Committee and District Committee Member) for misappropriation of funds in a trust. This recommendation was not endorsed by the State Committee. However, after this resolution, a 5-member state level enquiry committee was finally set up by the reluctant Party leadership...”

This entire paragraph is nothing but a shameless travesty of the truth. But this is not at all surprising. In the history of the Communist movement, renegades like Parshuram Chavan, Rajendra Paranjape and Ramji Vartha have always been most notorious for making shameful travesties of the truth. The truth of the matter is as follows:

Land has been a major issue of struggle in Thane district since the time of Comrades Godavari and Shamrao Parulekar. As a result of massive and sustained struggles by the CPI (M) and the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), lakhs of acres of land in Thane district was vested in the names of the Adivasis who cultivated it. This struggle for land continued in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s under the leadership of Comrade Godavari Parulekar and Comrade L. B. Dhangar. Comrade Dhangar is one of the senior-most and widely respected leaders of the Party and was its Thane district secretary for a long period till 1988. His contribution to the growth of the Left movement in the Adivasi regions of Maharashtra is remarkable. He is today over 85 years old and, in recognition of his six decade-old service to the Party, is the Chairman of the CPI (M) State Control Commission.

However, by the mid-1990s, the new Thane district Party leadership led by the above ‘Gang of Four’ consolidated its hold over the Party in Thane. It is this leadership that, in its own words, “started engaging in nefarious negotiations with the landlords for personal benefits”, which became “a cause of continuous acrimony and discontent.” As a result, very serious written complaints against them came to the Party state committee from Adivasi comrades. A five-member enquiry committee was appointed by the state committee.

Concrete proof came to the enquiry committee in the form of a letter written on the letterhead of the Party’s Thane district committee, signed by the then district secretary Suhas Samant (later expelled and now a Manch leader), to the local Dahanu police station in favour of a rich landlord and against a poor Adivasi Party member who rightly owned his land. After this letter was written to the police station, the landlord forcibly uprooted the standing crop in the Adivasi peasant’s field and tried to capture his land. However, local comrades under the leadership of Comrade Dhangar resisted and foiled this attempt. As a result, the land is still in the occupation of the Adivasi peasant. During the enquiry, further proof came of the involvement of this ‘Gang of Four’ in shady land deals with landlords. None of them could give any credible explanation regarding their connivance with the landlord class against the poor Adivasi peasants.

Similarly, more complaints began to come in about the ‘Gang of Four’ striking corrupt deals with factory-owners against the interests of the working class in Thane district. The enquiry committee came to the conclusion that these complaints were also true. Needless to say, the deals struck by these leaders with landlords and factory-owners were not without their ‘price’!

It was precisely because Comrade Dhangar consistently opposed these class collaborationist acts of the ‘Gang of Four’ that they tried to implicate him on false charges. However, the enquiry held by the Party state committee on the Trust issue completely absolved Comrade Dhangar of all the charges.

One of the major reasons why Ramji Vartha, ex-MLA, was expelled from the CPI (M) was because it was proved that he was hand-in-glove with the local ration food grains black-marketeer and had siphoned off thousands of quintals of grains meant for the Adivasi labourers working under the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS). After an intense struggle by the CPI (M) and AIDWA, which Ramji Vartha opposed in his capacity as an MLA, the Tehsildar of Talasari was suspended and thousands of quintals of grains were distributed to poor Adivasis.

The Manch goes further in its string of lies when it says, “Meanwhile, instead of correcting their wrong practices, 4 members of the Maharashtra State Secretariat became part of a foreign funded trust for a ‘1 V 1 C’ (one village, one computer) scheme. As per the CPI (M) party’s guidelines, members of the CPI (M) cannot become part of the activities of foreign funded NGOs and can become part of other NGOs only after taking consent of their respective committees and approval of the higher committee. A complaint was sent to the same effect to the Party General Secretary against top state leaders, including the Maharashtra State Secretary.” 

The facts of the matter are as follows: One Village One Computer (1V1C) was a programme organized to take computer training to remote villages in Maharashtra.  This programme was funded by the ‘Maharashtra Foundation’, which consists of Maharashtrian people settled in the USA. The Maharashtra Foundation helps many such social causes in Maharashtra, and the annual awards that it gives in the fields of Marathi literature and culture have acquired a great deal of prestige in the State.

All the information pertaining to the 1V1C trust, its funding and its programmes were clearly placed before and were approved by the CPI (M) state secretariat. But when the above complaints came, the CPI (M) state committee itself took the decision that they should be thoroughly enquired into by the Party’s Polit Bureau (PB). This was done in 2006 and the PB gave its opinion in writing. The PB held that since the Maharashtra Foundation was an organization of Maharashtrian Indians settled in the USA, the funds that it gave the 1V1C could not be termed as foreign funding. The PB also asked the CPI (M) state committee to set up a monitoring committee to go into the 1V1C.

This was done and the monitoring committee, comprising three CPI (M) state secretariat members who had no connection whatsoever with the 1V1C project, after thoroughly going through all the accounts and other documents of the 1V1C, gave a clean chit to the project. The PB opinion and the monitoring committee report came before the CPI (M) state committee in 2006 and 2010 respectively and the state committee gave its approval.

But in spite of the PB opinion on the matter, which was clearly conveyed in writing and placed in the state committee in 2006, the handful that later formed the Manch ran a nasty campaign to malign the Party leadership – a campaign that they still continue today as seen in their statement! They stooped to such levels of factionalism that they began organising an unprecedented signature campaign against the CPI (M) state committee decisions. No Communist Party worth its name could have tolerated this deliberate violation of discipline and therefore, the handful that was indulging in it was expelled from the Party in 2007.

The Manch has categorically denied the charge of misconduct against women that has been made against Parshuram Chavan. The CPI (M) state committee has in its possession several letters and documents, as well as the proceedings of the enquiry committee, which would go to prove without any doubt whatsoever the charges against Parshuram Chavan of misbehavior with women. One of the women Party members with whom Parshuram Chavan had misbehaved got married and did not want to pursue her complaint as she was worried that it would create problems in her marital life. It was to respect her wishes that the Party did not pursue the matter to its logical conclusion. But the CPI (M) stands firm as a rock on this charge against Parshuram Chavan.

The Manch says, “It was propagated that we will join hands with the BJP, Shiv Sena, NCP and so on. But after 5 years we have continued to defend our movement in our district...We are not willing to join hands with any communal or bourgeois Party. We will continue in this path.”

To paraphrase Shakespeare, the Manch spokesmen protest too much! It is known to the whole world, and has been published in black and white in the newspapers of the day, that in the 2009 Lok Sabha election in the Palghar (ST) constituency of Thane district, when Comrade Lahanu Kom was the candidate of the CPI (M), the Manch openly supported Baliram Jadhav, the candidate of Hitendra Thakur’s ‘Bahujan Vikas Aghadi’. This Party is notorious as the Party of the land mafia, which has gone to the extent of murdering Adivasis simply because they refused to part with their land! And it is with such a Party that the Manch openly allied with! Needless to say, the leaders extracted their ‘price’!

In the 2009 Vidhan Sabha elections held six months later, in the Dahanu (ST) seat where sitting MLA of the CPI (M) Comrade Rajaram Ozare was the candidate, Ramji Vartha of the Manch filed his nomination papers and then suddenly withdrew after a secret ‘understanding’ with the NCP candidate. In the election, the Manch openly supported the NCP against the CPI (M). But the CPI (M) won this seat for the eighth consecutive time since the 1978 assembly polls by scoring over 62,000 votes against all odds, by a winning margin of over 16,000 votes!

In the Vikramgad (ST) seat, the Manch put up a candidate against the CPI (M). However, its candidate lost his security deposit, while the CPI (M) got over 15,000 votes! So far as the 2012 Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections are concerned, the less said the better!  

Finally, the Manch says, “On 23rd May 2009, a young tribal comrade of our Manch, Anil Shingade, was brutally murdered by CPI (M) goons. 6 CPI (M) activists were arrested for the murder and 3 have been convicted.” For the death of a poor Adivasi named Anil Shingade, some CPI (M) comrades were falsely implicated in this case by Ramji Vartha by bribing the police and conspiring with the Party’s political opponents. They were implicated because they were active in the CPI (M) and refused to join the anti-Party Manch. They are now released on bail and the CPI (M) will fight this case till the end and prove the utter falseness of the charges.

To sum up, the students of JNU need to know that the leaders of the so-called Manch were expelled from the CPI (M) for amassing enormous wealth at the expense of the poor Adivasis, usurping lakhs of rupees from Party and trade union funds and indulging in immoral, corrupt and anti-Party activities. All proper Party procedures were followed in these expulsions. The CPI (M) State Control Commission unanimously rejected their appeals. The CPI (M) PB and the Central Committee unanimously ratified these disciplinary actions.

All honest and militant comrades in Thane district are united as one behind the CPI (M) state committee and the Thane district committee to foil the disruptive activities of the Manch and consign these renegades to the dustbin of history. The CPI (M) is committed to uphold the glorious legacy of Comrades Shamrao and Godavari Parulekar in Thane district.

The Manch’s pathetic statement is a vain attempt to mislead the students of JNU with utter falsehoods. We are sure that just as the Adivasis of Thane district rejected this corrupt and degenerate outfit, the students of JNU will also reject them lock, stock and barrel - along with their equally opportunistic sponsors!

The Shiv Sena: Ace Practitioner of Reactionary Identity Politics

The CPI(M) has always had sharp political differences with the Shiv Sena (SS) and its leader the late Mr Bal Keshav Thackeray. Under his leadership, the SS always played upon the reactionary politics of identity, which diverted attention from the grave problems facing the people of Maharashtra.  

First, the CPI(M) has resolutely been opposed to the violent culture of regional chauvinism practiced by the Shiv Sena, and now also by its breakaway organisation, the MNS. Mr Thackeray began his politics by portraying the south Indian community of Mumbai as stealing the jobs of Maharashtrians, and later expanded the same logic to migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Enmity, thus, became the basis of his party's programme, which was in complete contradiction to the spirit of unity put forward by the Samyukta Maharashtra movement that was effectively led in the 1950s by the Left and secular forces, comprising the Communist Party, Praja Samajwadi Party, Peasants and Workers Party and Republican Party.

Secondly, the Shiv Sena ideology was deeply communal and the CPI(M) has consistently fought this ideology. In 1992, Mr Thackeray welcomed the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The Shiv Sena was deeply complicit in the Mumbai riots and the violence against Muslims after the Babri demolition, and this role of the Shiv Sena and Mr Thackeray was detailed with evidence by the Justice Srikrishna Commission of Enquiry. Not surprisingly, the Srikrishna Commission Report was rejected out of hand by the then SS-BJP state government.

Thirdly, the Shiv Sena's politics was deeply anti-working class and anti-communist, and in this it received the full and consistent support of successive Congress governments and of the big capitalists of Mumbai. In the late 1960s, it were the Communists who were at the receiving end of Mr Thackeray's violent political practice. Offices of the Girni Kamgar Union were regularly attacked by Shiv Sainiks and Communist leaders were brutally assaulted. In June 1970, this violence against communists reached its peak when Comrade Krishna Desai, MLA, was murdered by Shiv Sainiks. But the communist movement in Maharashtra has survived in spite of these physical attacks and constant threats.

Fourthly, the Shiv Sena's politics was deeply anti-Dalit. This was made clear in the physical attacks by Shiv Sainiks on the Dalit Panthers in the early 1970s leading to the death of Panther activist Bhagwat Jadhav; in the SS stand opposing Dr Ambedkar's 'Riddles in Hinduism'; in the action of the SS-BJP state government withdrawing all the police cases of atrocities against SCs in Marathwada region; and most of all, in the shocking police firing by the SS-BJP regime at the Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar in Mumbai, which led to the killing of 11 innocent Dalit people.

Finally, there was the Shiv Sena's opposition to democracy and support of dictatorship. This was made amply evident by Mr Thackeray's support to the Emergency; his open glorification of Hitler; and the constant SS attacks on journalists, cultural and literary figures and others who dared to be critical.

This last point has been repeated today with the arbitrary arrests of two young girls in Palghar, and the attacks on the hospital of the uncle of one of them. These young girls were arrested simply because they, on social networking sites, expressed disapproval of the bandhs of the last couple of days.

The CPI(M) Maharashtra state committee condemns the arbitrary arrests of these young girls, demands that the cases against them be dropped forthwith and further demands strict action against the police officers who instituted these cases and also against the goons who attacked the hospital. The Congress-NCP state government must take immediate action and stop pandering to the whims and fancies of the SS, as it has often done in the past.

The CPI(M) has always, and will in the future, continue to fight the chauvinist, communal, casteist and anti-working class policies of the Shiv Sena.  

Dr Ashok Dhawale
Secretary, Maharashtra State Committee,
Member, Central Committee,
Communist Party of India (Marxist) - CPI(M)