Delhi Building Collapse: Crime Against Unorganised Workers

Not long after the CWG, the myth of Delhi as a ’world-class city’ came
tumbling down on the heads of its dispossessed in a cruel, criminal
and tragic way. Not far from the Games Village, in the crowded
locality of Lalita Park in Laxminagar, East Delhi, a building packed
with migrant workers collapsed without warning. 67 of them were
killed, buried under the debris, and some 100 were injured, many of
them severely. It emerged that the building had violated multiple
building regulations, was built on the sandy Yamuna floodplain, and
with the flooding during the monsoons, water had seeped to the
foundations. As a result, the building, a flimsy construction having
walls but no pillars, and bearing the weight of several illegal
floors, collapsed.

It has since emerged that there are countless other buildings in a
similarly unsafe condition. In a spectacular act of callousness, the
authorities have summarily evicted the residents from these buildings
and left them homeless, taking temporary shelter in MCD community
halls and open parks.

In the aftermath of this terrible event, the Delhi Government and the
Municipal Corporation of Delhi have come under the scanner for
allowing rampant illegal and unauthorised constructions in a nexus
with corrupt builders and landlords. The landlord, who owns several
similar buildings and is known to have a hand in a variety of scams,
has been arrested. The Congress-led Delhi Government has ordered a
one-man judicial enquiry into the incident and tried to point fingers
at the BJP-controlled MCD which gave permission for construction of
the doomed building in the first place and allowed it to stand
subsequently.

In the shadow-boxing between Congress and BJP over the incident, we
are apt to lose sight of the real crime. To locate who really is
responsible for this senseless death of 67 people, we need to dig
deeper beneath the debris of the collapsed building and look beyond
the petty perpetrators like the landlord and corrupt or negligent MCD
authorities (though they too need to be brought to book). We need to
see the building collapse, not as an ‘accident’ caused due to acts of
omission but as part of the violence against the unorganised sector
workers that is structured into the very process of liberalised
‘development.’

When a government spends Rs. 26,000 crore (the estimated amount spent
on infrastructure towards CWG) on flyovers, airport modernization and
metro but leaves the city’s poorest workers living in unsafe,
insanitary slums and unauthorised colonies that are no better than
death traps, it is nothing but an act of violence. The daily lives of
the people who lived in the Lalita Park building exemplify this
violence – it is only when a building collapses that the violence
comes into public cognition.

In the first place, these workers were forced to migrate from rural W
Bengal and Bihar thanks to unemployment; in Delhi they had lived in
the Yamuna Pushta slum but were evicted in 2008-09 to make way for a
flyover. In the name of CWG, nearly 400,000 people from Delhi’s slum
clusters (including the Yamuna Pushta slum) have been evicted since
2004. This was done in the name of conserving the environmentally
fragile Yamuna flood plain. But in the eyes of governments and courts,
only slum dwellers were a threat to the environment; the vast
Akshardham temple and the Games Village came up on the same space with
impunity. In 2006, when evicted slum dwellers approached court, a
Supreme Court judge held that the right to shelter did not mean that
“all will be given shelter” and told them, “If you can’t afford to
stay in Delhi, go elsewhere!”

Rendered homeless, such workers then pay much of their meagre income
as exorbitant rents to landlords for the hellish homes, of which the
building that collapsed was just one among many. Shiela Dixit was
re-elected in the last Assembly elections on the strength of her
promise of a ‘slum-free Delhi’ thanks to the JNNURM Rajiv Awas Yojana;
but while the evictions proceeded at a relentless pace, not a single
Rajiv Awas house is yet to be allocated. In the wake of the disaster,
the Delhi Government has announced that some 15,000 low-cost flats
under the Rajiv Awas Yojana will soon be allotted to slum-dwellers.
There are an estimated 10 lakh migrant workers in Delhi – can 15,000
flats (if and when they are allocated) be anything but a joke for
them, who will continue to be condemned to live in slums in danger of
being evicted or shanties in danger of being buried alive?

Those who lost their lives in the building collapse are among that
vast mass whose labour builds shining new Delhi and serves the
affluent in their gated communities; who are routinely paid less than
minimum wages and killed at construction site accidents; whose
rickshaws and vending-carts are being taken off the streets; whom the
Delhi Government sought to hide behind ’vision-cutters’ so that they
do not mar the vision of ’Incredible India’ that foreign guests came
to see at CWG. These unorganised migrant workers, as a rule, have no
ration cards and rarely voter i-cards, and therefore no access to
social security. Evicted from slums, killed at construction sites,
treated as vermin, buried under debris - why do the poor and migrant
workers have no chance of a life of dignity and security?

Those whose family members have been killed or injured in the building
collapse must get dignified and adequate compensation. Not only must
unsafe buildings be identified and demolished; those living in them
must be guaranteed dignified alternative accommodation. Authorities
responsible for allowing these death traps to come up and remain, as
well as unscrupulous builders and owners must be identified and
punished. But these measures, while necessary, are still inadequate.
Neither can cosmetic measures like the Rajiv Awas mirage suffice. The
building collapse should serve as a warning bell to end the skewed
urban planning policies that amount to a kind of urban apartheid,
condemning an entire class of people to suffer inhuman living and
working conditions while a small minority enjoys affluence and
‘development.’ Not until the lives and rights of unorganised workers
and migrant workers cease to be seen as cheap and dispensable; not
until the ruling class stops sacrificing the workers’ rights to a
living wage, dignified housing and workplace safety to subsidise
‘development’ can the victims of the Laxminagar collapse really get
justice.

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 Corruption: The Hydra Headed Monster

The rapid proliferation and sheer scale of scams that we are
witnessing are shameful even by Indian standards. The 2-G spectrum
scam has been dubbed the mother of all scams in India, involving as it
does a whopping Rs 1,76,000 crore lost to the Exchequer. But now we
know, about 12 times that money had been illegally siphoned off our
country to Switzerland and other tax havens. Mr Dev Kar, a former
senior economist with the International Monetary Fund and currently a
lead economist with the US-based research body Global Financial
Integrity (GFI), has estimated that between 1948 and 2008 our country
has been drained of $462 billion (over Rs.20 lakh crore) in this way.
And this is a very conservative estimate, the GFI adds.

The more interesting fact is that, growing at 11.5% a year, nearly
half of this amount exited the country after 1991 and about a third of
the outflows occurred between 2000 and 2008. What this demonstrates is
that the decline of the ‘quota-permit raj’ – yesteryears’ convenient
whipping boy for rampant corruption – did not lead to any decline in
the menace. Quite to the contrary. All- pervasive liberalization and
globalization have thrown the floodgates of corruption wider open,
bolstering the black economy and further degrading the quality of
politics in India.

Not surprisingly, Transparency International’s ’Corruption Perception
Index’ report covering the public sector in 178 countries shows that
India fell by three positions from its ranking of 84^th in 2009 to 87^th
this year in terms of corruption; even as neighbouring China improved
her position from 79^th in 2009 to 78^th place now. To be sure, China
does not seem to present an impressively better picture. But at least
the fight against economic crimes is much more resolute there and
maybe that explains the improvement, however small. Here in India, we
have a completely different scenario. Our country finds itself in the
dubious company of the likes of Saudi Arabia by refusing to ratify the
UN Convention on Corruption – the only major country to have come so.
Ours is a land where all governments and ruling parties routinely try
and save the guilty officials and leaders as long as possible and then
let them off the hook with minor ‘punishments’ like ‘resignation’ and
this is usually followed by rehabilitation in some other prized
position. Where the Supreme Court indicts the high office of Prime
Minister for passivity in fighting charges of corruption. And where,
to top it all, a tainted bureaucrat like PJ Thomas – who was charge
sheeted in the palm oil imports scandal in Kerala in 1992 and who
acted as Telecom Secretary under A Raja precisely during the period
when the 2G spectrum was being allocated illegally – is appointed as
Central Vigilance Commissioner!

In a situation as somber as this, it is necessary to connect the many
dots on the corruption canvas and see the bigger picture. It is
necessary to join the People’s campaign against the
corporate-politician-bureaucrat nexus and for a paradigms change in
the very orientation and mechanism of ‘growth’ and ‘governments’.

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 CPI(ML)’s 8^th Tripura State Conference Held

“Onward with the peoples’ movement and strengthen the Revolutionary
left”- was the main slogan in the run up to the Conference
preparation. The spirit of the slogan got fully reflected from the
very beginning to the end of the Conference. Conference was held on
20-21 November, 2010, at Agartala, capital city of Tripura. On 20^th
November, a mass rally was organized in the heart of Agartala city,
where hundreds of people from different parts of Tripura including
tribals, Muslims and women came in colourful processions.

The rally was led and addressed by Comrades Chiranjiv Chakravorty,
Partha Dey-State Committee member and AICCTU president, Subirjeet
Singha (SCM), Mrinmoy Chakravorty-State Secretary, PB member Rubul
Sarma and General Secretary of CPI(ML) Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya.

Com. Dipankar, addressing the rally said that the opportunist left in
India is in deep crisis and on the verge of collapse and in Tripura LF
Govt. is no exception. In this situation genuine left sections within
the CPI(M) has gradually opposed the official line and are coming
closer to the revolutionary left CPI(ML). In spite of the massive
protests all over the North Eastern states against Armed Forces
(Special Power) Act, the LF govt. in Tripura has imposed the act in
almost all police station areas.

After the rally the Conference was held in Martyr Govinda Telly
Auditorium and Virchand Harendra Manch (Women College Auditorium).
Com. Dipankar hoisted the party flag and all the leaders paid homage
to the martyrs at Saheed Bedi (martyrs’ column). Delegate session
started in the afternoon of 20^th November which was presided over by a
presidium comprising comrades Chiranjiv Bhattacharya, Subirjeet Singha
and Charaimoni Jamatia.

Inaugural speech was delivered by Central Committee’s observer Com.
Rubul Sarma, post which the State Party Secretary Com. Mrinmoy
Chakravorty placed the draft document for discussion. The discussion
continued on 21^st morning and a good number of delegates put forth
their views and suggestions. Majority of delegates opined that time
has come to intensify bolder initiatives involving the rural poor,
working class and democratic sections of the people and to expose the
anti people character of the LF Govt. led by CM Manik Sarkar. It may
be mentioned that repression is not only extreme in the North East, it
is one of the worst in Tripura. According to the State Govt.’s figure,
67 percent of the people are living below the poverty line (BPL). Like
wise the basic demands of Muslims and Tribals have not been fulfilled,
Tea workers do not get the wages and are victims of barbaric
exploitations.

In the end the Conference elected a 15-member State Committee and Com.
Mrinmoy Chakravorty was re-elected as State Secretary. Other SCMs are
comrades Chiranjiv Bhattacharya, Manik Pal, Partha Karmakar, Swapan
Banik, Tridip Banik, Aravinda Teli, Subirjeet Singha, Pritikona
Chakravorty, Gopal Ray, Lokman Hussain, Govinda Jamatia, Koushik Das,
Falguni Tripura and Joydeep Ray.

Comrade Rubul Sarma called upon the leaders and delegates to set aside
all forms of pessimism and to raise the level of mass movement by
grasping the dynamics of the society and people, particularly that the
rural poor and workers want a dynamic and cohesive leadership from our
Party. Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya made the concluding speech and
one of the things he said was to develop our struggle against the
opportunism within the Left movement. He also remembered the great
sacrifices by CPI(ML) in Tripura in upholding this tradition when in
1980’s Huruwa massacre 7 State-level comrades together paid with their
lives. We should learn from this unity and sacrifice and must prepare
to intensify the struggle and to set new examples in our movement.

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 RYA’s Fact finding team visits Deoria: BSP trying to save the killers

A fact finding team of Revolutionary Youth Association (RYA) visited
Singaheedeeh village in Deoria of eastern Uttar Pradesh on 13
November, where three young women Anita, Sarita and Neeta, were killed
on 31^st October. The team comprised of RYA’s State President Balmukund
Dhuria, Vice President Mahesh Gupta, State Executive members Bhagwat
Bind, Deoria convenor Walliullah and CPI(ML) leaders Sriram Kushwaha
and Salauddin among a few others.

The team found that the three girls disappeared from their home on
31^st October and next day their dead bodies were found buried in a
field adjacent to the village. The three girls of the Rajbhar
community were friends and neighbours. The uncles and brothers of the
three girls killed them just on suspicion that they were in love with
the boys of the adjacent village.

The team released its report in Lucknow and in a press statement
claimed that Mayawati led ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is
shielding such incidents. The height of the situation is that BSP’s
local MP Ramshankar Vidyarthi put all his might to shield the killers
and save them from the law. The fact finding team found that the
police first vacillated in their handling of the case and only after
the local leaders of All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA)
made it a public issue and increased pressure that the police
registered the case and began investigation. On 13 November the police
officer of the area in a press conference accepted it as a case of
‘honour killing’ and later arrested and jailed the uncles and brothers
of the girls.

The fact finding team also claimed that the BSP Govt. is following a
covert policy of suppressing such incidents from coming to light to
show that crime in its regime has lessened. A few issues back we had
reported in this newsletter of how the Pilibhit police itself picked
up a dalit youth Rampal for the ‘crime’ of being in love with a Muslim
girl and had beaten him to death in custody. Despite FIR being filed
against the criminal policemen none has been arrested even in three
months.

The RYA has resolved to launch an agitation against this feudal
barbarism (being shielded by the Mayawati Govt.) where young men and
women are having to pay with their lives for being in love.

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Party’s Education Camp in Uttarakhand

The State Party Unit organised 2^nd three-day long education camp at
Srinagar in Garhwal region of the Uttarakhand from 16-18 November. A
month back the Party had organised 1^st camp in Haldwani for Kumaon
region comrade-students. Com. Rajendra Pratholi inaugurated the
education camp and in his address emphasized on imparting
left-orientation to the ongoing political discourse in the State. The
subjects and study papers were almost same as in the Haldwani school
that we reported earlier. Comrades Indresh and Kailash Pandey also
presented papers on Green Hunt and Maoism, women’s movement and
agrarian crisis.

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Convention of motorboat workers held in Orissa

Annual convention of Maa Kalijayee Motorboat Workers, affiliated to
AICCTU, was held in Badakul where 200 workers joined in a rally to
demand from State Tourism Dept. their basic rights. The demands are to
open ticket counter, stop Chilka lake black bill, land rights for
fishing community and fixing of wages as unorganised labour, also fix
minimum price by tourist department for boat workers to carry tourists
to Chilika, provide vocational training to local youth and establish
unorganised workers board in the State and PDS for all workers Comrade
Khitish Biswal, CPI(ML) State Secretary was the main speaker and
expressed solidarity for the movement against the atrocities of local
police on boat workers and called upon to sustain the movement against
the local mafias and State agencies.

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 ROM EUROPE TO THE US STUDENTS ERUPTS AGAINST NEOLIBERAL CUT OF EDUCATION SPENDING

LONDON: In early November, students— more than 50,000—from across
Britain converged in the streets of the British capital protesting the
new proposals for massive cuts in Higher education, which will spiral
the cost of a college and university degree. The current coalition
government in the United Kingdom, comprising strange bedfellows in the
form of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, is pushing for a
formula—known as Lord Browne’s proposals—which will reduce spending on
higher education from the current £7.1 billion (about 51,000 crores in
INR) to £4.2 billion—a huge 40 per cent cut by 2014-15. The cap on
tuition fees will be lifted and universities will charge up to £9,000
(about 6.5 lakh INR) per year for tuition alone; of course
universities with an established brand, such as Oxford and Cambridge,
will be free to extort whatever they deem fit. Institutions will be
forced to reduce costs by sacking staff and cutting the quality of
education and some will close as public institutions altogether.
Already, the University of Middlesex has seen the closure of its
history and philosophy departments, and the sociology course at the
University of Birmingham and Politics at Liverpool John Moores have
fallen to fund cuts. These proposals will turn British public
universities the most expensive in all of Europe, and it is estimated
that students will leave university with a staggering student finance
debt of £30,000-£50,000 (about Rs. 35 lakh) which they will be
burdened with for decades!

Transformed already into a commodity by the previous New Labour
regime, the privatization and marketization of education will be
complete with these proposals, making affordable education a relic of
history. So-called “transferable skills” will assume priority over
critical learning and pedagogy, curricula will be determined by
businesses, and those students—consumers actually—who can afford to
will select from an assortment of service providers in the new free
market of education.

This attempt by the new coalition, lampooned as CON-DEM (for
conservatives and dems), to erect a high wall around the institutions
of higher education was responded by a humungous barricade of students
(and lecturers). Earlier this year, students at Sussex University
occupied administration buildings in protest against course closures
and job cuts; students at King’s College, London, went on a strike; At
Middlesex University philosophy students occupied Trent Park campus
for 21 days; The day the Browne review was announced students at
London South Bank University brought traffic to a halt, hundreds at
Leeds protested. This was only a sign of the increasing anxiety and
despair among students, as also of what was to come on November 10. On
this day, the students poured out in a seamless wave carrying
placards, raising slogans, singing, blocking traffic, lighting
bonfires and sending out fireworks in the air. Over 5,000 gathered at
the Millbank Tower, central office of the Conservative Party,
occupying it for hours. When some 50 students got to the roof—there
was thunderous cheers from the protesters below. The message to the
government was clear and unequivocal: we refuse to give in to your
attacks. We will fight back with all our worth.

While the alternate media networks showed that an overwhelming
majority of the demonstrators were first-timers, moved by the ferocity
of the attack on their right to education, the mainstream media went
into an overdrive, hyping the few broken windows at Millbank Tower and
some skirmishes with baton-wielding police as ‘eruption of violence’,
‘infantile’ and the work of mindless anarchists. Denunciations were
quick to come in and David Cameron warned that ‘rioters’ would be
hunted down and prosecuted with the ‘full force of law’. (Fifty-eight
students have been arrested so far). None of this however has managed
to discredit the students’ movement—seen increasingly as the vanguard
of the anti-cuts resistance. A large number of the readers of the most
Right-wing newspaper, Daily Mail, endorsed the protests while 54 per
cent of Daily Star readers said that the students were justified in
rioting!

But its not simply education which is facing slashing of funds, the
entire edifice of British welfarism is choking and
collapsing—pensioners, immigrants, the poor, dismissed as ‘lazy’,
‘work shy’ and ‘freeloaders’ reminiscent of Victorian terminology, are
to be hit hard. The students’ protests have galvanized trade unions to
mobilize and plan strike actions; efforts are on to weld a broad
student-working class alliance, not only in England, but across
Europe, the site of militant protests, especially in France and
Greece. Across the continent, American students have also taken to the
streets protesting state policy which spends more on prisons than
universities.

UNITED STATES: In the US, students all over the country have been
protesting against the massive fund cuts and fee hikes. Militant
protests and sit-ins have been witnessed in many major US campuses;
students have even blockaded important highways in protest; and
October 7, 2010 was observed all over the US as a “National Day of
Action to Defend Public Education.” The American Association of
University Professors (AAUP) also participated in the Day of Action as
part of its “Higher Education is a Public Good” week, which its
members described as - “a week of action to demonstrate the importance
of not-for-profit higher education.” Against between November 11-20
this year, there have been massive student occupations and protest
demonstrations against fee hikes in the prestigious University of
California campuses at Los Angeles (UCLA) and Berkeley. In Britain on
November 10, 50,000 students held a militant protest at the Tory
Headquarters to protest fund cuts and fee hikes. Subsequently, many
British campuses have witnessed sit-ins and occupations in protest
against fee hikes.