Farming out solutions

Shortly before Parliament’s winter session, the CPI (M) held a ‘kisan rally’ on November 20.

Shortly before Parliament’s winter session, the CPI (M) held a ‘kisan rally’ on November 20. It was the culmination of a countrywide campaign through ‘jathas’ and provided the blueprint for Left’s agrarian agenda in Parliament, with the party’s top leadership present. The latest issue of People’s Democracy quotes the All India Kisan Sabha president S.R. Pillai saying “increasing ruination of the peasantry because of declining prices of their produce” was matched by rising costs of agricultural inputs like water, power, and seeds over the last decade. And that 73 per cent farmers are still being “fleeced by usurers”, have no access to institutional credit, and that public investment in agriculture and rural development was constantly slashed. Meanwhile, due to the “liberalisation drive”, quantitative restrictions had been withdrawn on import of agricultural produce and the government was also withdrawing from the support price mechanism.

Hu’s our friend

Despite India’s measured response to President Hu Jintao’s recent visit, the CPI (M) believes it was a “successful visit”. An editorial in the party’s weekly says the aim to increase bilateral trade to $40 billion by 2010 would upgrade India-China relations to a qualitatively new level, “by releasing huge amounts of resources that are today engaged in defence preparedness pending the resolution of the border issue.” This view is against the backdrop of the CPI(M)’s position that the border dispute shouldn’t be an impediment to greater economic ties between the two countries; in fact the two countries can play a role on the world stage together.

Women on right track

In the light of questions raised over the CPI(M)’s poor representation of women in the politburo and Parliament, the convener’s report at the convention of All India Coordination Committee of Working Women takes note of the increasing women’s membership in CITU at the national level and also in many states. “At the all-India level as per the latest available annual returns, women’s membership in CITU has increased to 30 per cent,” says the report. However, it also says that the growth in membership is not reflected by the presence of women in decision-making bodies. The report in People’s Democracy noted, in earlier conventions most of the participants were “middle class employees like those from insurance, bank… government departments”, but this time women workers from the unorganised sector constituted the majority. The convener’s report also suggested that the Coordination Committee of Working Women should identify sectors where women were working in large numbers and find ways to organise them better.

—Compiled by Ananda Majumdar