Nine months after a settlement was forged between the workers and the management of the Maruti Suzuki plant at Manesar, Gurgaon (Haryana), violence erupted, after a scuffle broke out in the shop floor, when a supervisor allegedly made casteist remark against a Dalith worker. Two conflicting versions of the event is being circulating around the net on who was responsible for the violence.
With the Presidential elections set to occupy central space in the coming days and the most likely victory of Pranab Mukherjee (the well known Congress party leader), as expected there was the usual political bickering orchestrated by the oppositions and rivals alike. All in all, Congress seems to have managed to gain a few brownie points over the opposition for now, even while its support base nationally continues to ebb. But one of the aspects which cannot be ignored this time was the decision of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – CPI(M) to vote in favour of the Congress candidate – Pranab Mukherjee, that really defied all sense of imagination.
In the recent period, there have been lot of debates and heated exchanges in the academic as well as political circles over the issue of a cartoon of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar (well known for stewarding the drafting of the Indian constitution and one who radically articulated and fought for Dalith social and political rights) in the Standard XI NCERT political science textbook. The said cartoon which has been used in the textbook since 2006 and had largely remained unnoticed, until Thirumavalavan, leader of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (a small petty bourgeois party from Tamil Nadu) and Ramdas Athavale of the Republican Party of India (Athavale) raised the issue in the parliament, demanding its immediate ban. Almost overnight, all the political parties of every hue and colour jumped on the bandwagon to not only to ban the said cartoon on Dr. Ambedkar, but a demand for removal of all cartoons in the NCERT textbooks.
From a sheer power struggle to a non-ideological factional feud, the crisis in the Kerala state unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is bringing out all the contradictions within the party that lay dormant in the last period.
Factionalism
Not so long after the SNC Lavalin controversy{{1}}, the Kerala unit of the Communist party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), has recently witnessed a new low in their long running factional struggle after the cold blooded, political murder of the former CPI(M) party dissenter and the founder leader of Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) – T P Chandrasekharan, allegedly by CPI(M) goons.
The following short report was written by Balaji S from the May 17 Movement and also a supporter of New Socialist Alternative (CWI-India). The report is an account of the recent Conference held at Idinthakarai (epicenter of the anti-Koodankulam struggle) against nuclear energy.
Editors
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