Kanhaiya Kumar
Minutes after Kanhaiya Kumar joined the Congress, CPI general secretary D Raja said the former JNU leader had expelled himself from the party and was not “truthful” with the CPI and not “straight forward” with the demands of the party.

“Kumar expelled himself from the party. He was not truthful to the party. The CPI existed long before Kanhaiya came into the party’s fold and will continue to exist after his exit,” Mr Raja said. He also questioned Mr Kumar's faith in the Left ideology. “He must be having personal as well as political ambitions and aspirations. It shows he has no faith in the Left ideology”, he said.

Mr Kumar reportedly kept denying speculation about his joining the Congress to the CPI leadership. At the same time he refused to attend a press conference to refute the rumours.

“I have been speaking to him and we discussed various issues regarding the party, but he never mentioned anything about his unhappiness or his decision to leave. That is why I am saying he was neither straightforward nor truthful with us. In fact, after the talks of him joining Congress surfaced, I even told him to hold a media conference to deny the news,” Mr Raja said.

For a long time, Mr Kumar had many differences with the working of the party. He wanted more control in the decision-making process and ticket selection in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections last year. In January this year, at the party’s National Council meeting a censure motion was passed against Mr Kumar for alleged unruly behaviour at the party's Patna office in December. Mr Kumar’s supporters had allegedly roughed up the Bihar State secretary for masscommunication about the postponement of the district executive meeting.

Mr Raja said that he was officially informed of Mr Kumar’s departure from the CPI through his resignation letter on Monday, a day before he joined the Congress.

On October 2, the CPI’s national council is scheduled to meet where Mr Kumar's exit and related issues will be discussed.

At the Congress headquarters Mr Kumar said his exit will not impact the Left’s future. “The party is far above an individual. The party will remain long after the individual has left”, he said. He also expressed gratitude towards CPI which he said cradled him and taught him the politics of struggle.

“A mother in a remote Baghu-sarai village must be weeping now, in her heart of hearts. She is none other than Kanhia's mother. She is not a scholar, nor a speaker. But she is an Anganwadi WORKER who knows the greatness of the flag of the toiling masses. I hold her hands! Mothers are great”, CPI Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam tweeted.
A Special Correspondent,
New Delhi

‘Godse Zindabad’
No amount of collective kowtowing before Gandhi statues by some of the most powerful figures in the country could hide the arrow-tipped tail that wiggled and stuck out on social media on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

#NathuramGodseZindabad was one of the top trends on Twitter for several hours on October 2, with some of the tweets lauding the assassin of the Mahatma as “hero and patriot’’.
A Reader

Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan
Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan organised a core group meeting on the 11th of October 2021 regarding the proposed amendments in the Forest Conservation Act 1980. The meeting was chaired by Ashok Choudhary [AIUFWP].

Hannan Mollah opined that the attempt to amend the Act is once again a backdoor ploy by surpassing the Constitution as well as the Parliamentary procedures. The intention of these amendments is fundamentally handing over the natural resources to the hands of the corporates and deny the rights of the natural resource dependent communities on the forests. This amendment has bypassed the Forest Rights Act 2006 entirely which acknowledged the historical injustice rendered to forest dwelling communities.

Ramesh, mentioned that the amendments are fundamentally on lines with the governments agenda to monetise the natural resources and dispossess the communities from their land. Since 1980s when the FCA came into force, the people have been agitating and struggling for their rights which brought in the Forest Rights Act. These amendments once again turn the tide against the peoples’ aspirations and rights opined Ashok Choudhary.

Roma of AIUFWP said that without settling the claims under the FRAs primarily, these amendments are snatching the rights of the Gram Sabhas as well as the federal structure of India is being centralised drastically. This definitely needs to be challenged as it also is against the spirit of the Bio Diversity Act.

Satyavan, said that this must be well disseminated to the various stakeholders before proposing such unilateral amendments. The draft must be translated into Indian languages.

Vijoo Krishnan from AIKS, said that the hidden agenda is to allow corporates to start cultivation of oil-palms and also plantations by giving them access to forest land. It no way can provide any solution to address climate change; rather the people in the forests have their traditions of protecting the forests and technical solutions without vision will only hamper the nature further and displace people.

Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan has resolved to
1.   Issue statements condemning this unilateral move without any thought by the government to the concerned authorities as well as the mass organisations across India.
2.   A Nation-wide protest will be organised on the 12th of November 2021 where thousands of people will gather and register their protest condemning these amendments.
Issued by Vijoo Krishnan and Sanjeev Kumar
On behalf of
Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan

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Frontier
Vol. 54, No. 19, Nov 7 - 13, 2021