Statement

Amidst Pain and Misery in Covid Pandemic, Economic Survey and Budget rubbing salt on peoples wound by calling it Amrit Kal

According to Modi government's repeated past promises, 2022 was to have been the year of doubling of farm income. Budget 2022-23 is conspicuously silent about this. Agricultural investment in Budget 2022 remains stagnant and there is no direction to fulfill the core farmer demand of assured MSP for all crops.

New Delhi, 29 January 2022

The The New York Times has published a detailed story today documenting the use of Israeli software Pegasus for illegal surveillance by governments including far-right ones. It specifically confirms what the Modi regime has yet to clearly state: that on Modi’s visit to Israel, Modi and Netanyahu “had agreed on the sale of a package of sophisticated weapons and intelligence gear worth roughly $2 billion — with Pegasus and a missile system as the centerpieces.”

CPI (ML) Andhra Pradesh State Committee member D Harinath has demanded the cancellation of a 44-acre mining lease on Turkala hill in Kodavali village in Gollaprolu zone of East Godavari district. The proposed laterite mining area is very near (35 meters) to the centrally protected monument, a 2,300 year old historic Buddhist site.

The recent book by Daya Prakash Singh on Maurya Emperor Ashoka, is beyond facts and motivated by malice. After facing flak for this, much as the BJP may claim that Daya Prakash Singh is not associated with their organization, the truth is that this attack is a part of the RSS history project in which Muslim rulers were targeted earlier and now rulers from Dalit-Backward communities are being targeted.

CPIML strongly condemns the brutal repression, lathi charge and tear gas firing, cases against and arrests of candidates protesting in Patna, Prayagraj, Nalanda and many other cities against the Exam Board's autocratic diktat in the Group D exam and demanding amendments and corrections in the RRB NTPC exam results.

CPIML Bihar State Secretary Kunal said in a statement on 7 January 2022 that the Election Commission's decision to increase the expenditure limit in Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections is unjustified and will further increase the impact of money power in elections. Even as it is, the play of money power in elections has increased in recent times. Millionaires have increased their participation in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas on the strength of money power. This decision by the EC will give money power further impetus.

The CPIML condemns the instances of lynchings in Punjab at the Golden Temple and at a Gurudwara in  Kapurthala in the name of avenging attempts at “sacrilege” to the Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth Sahab. Insults to religion - any religion - can never be a valid justification for killing human beings. The failure of the Punjab police to file an FIR against the perpetrators of the lynchings, including the one that took place in their presence, is shameful.

The Cabinet proposal to raise the age of marriage for women to 21 is ill advised and should be withdrawn.

The age of marriage for all adults should be 18. Thus the age for marriage of men too should be reduced to 18.  If we hold 18-year-olds to be adults who can choose a government and decide the country’s future, we must accept that they are old enough to decide their own future, and choose if, when, or whom to marry.

The Rajasthan Loktantrik Morcha has decided to launch a Social Justice campaign in the state on the following issues:

1. Make public the data of the socio-economic census of 2011; pass a resolution in the Rajasthan Assembly for a caste-based census and send it to the Central government, as done by Bihar.

2. Full loan waiver for farmers.

3. Central government must fix MSP for all agricultural products and pass a law guaranteeing procurement at MSP.

CPIML Bihar strongly condemned a few BJP Ministers' support of the Khattar government's decision to ban Namaz in the open in Haryana and their demand for a similar ban in Bihar. He said that BJP is trying to spread communal venom in Bihar but Bihar will never tolerate this.

Comrade Kunal said in a statement that people from all communities use public spaces for religious events and prayers. That being the case, what is the meaning of targeting the Muslim community alone? What is this if not a dastardly attempt to vitiate communal harmony by spreading hatred against Muslims?