youth in the elections of 2019 had
grandly announced that the state
would enact a law to make it
mandatory to provide 80% jobs to
locals and to reserve 25% hires for
residents from the location of the
companies. Thus basically the
unemployed are incited with hate
against the migrant workers in the
state by the ruling party BJP in
governmental power in Gujarat
state.
Then it is the Congress party
leader Alpesh Thakor who fanned
the hatred and violence against
migrant workers using the alleged
incident of rape, through the
kshatria Thakor sena led by him.
Thus both the ruling parties B.J.P
and Congress, used the incident
of rape to gain their mean political
benefits instead of developing
amity between people. Instead of
diffusing the violence of hatred
against migrant workers both those
ruling parties started the game of
pointing finger at each other and
blaming each other. The violence
spread to 7 districts of north-
Gujarat, and made the migrant
workers flee, fearing violent attacks
on them amidst unabated incident
of targeting migrants. As with other
such incidents of violence against
migrant workers in other states and
cities, the crisis in Gujarat too will
be “settled.” The settlement will
not, however, make the living and
working conditions of the migrant
workers any better. Rather the
poor migrant workers face even
more precarious work and living
conditions than their local
counterparts.
In our semi-feudal and semi
colonial inequitable system of
exploitation ruled by anti-people
ruling classes, peace and well
being of people proves to be a
mirage. Neither the pretentions of
a parliamentary democracy nor of
a notion of integrated one Indian
nation protect and provide safety
to working people and particularly
22
to those who were forced to
migrate to other states searching
for a living. Thus they are
vulnerable targets for attacks.
This phenomenon of hate
against migrant workers is not
limited to our country India alone.
With the intensification of
imperialist globalization, migrants
(immigrants) are being made
targets of attacks by locals
throughout the world. We have
witnessed such brutal attacks
against migrants in Europe, U.S.A
and elsewhere by locals with the
connivance of their ruling
governments.
Racism,tribalism, provincialism
of hatred against migrant-workers
is rampantly increasing throughout
the world intensifying attacks on
migrants. Far-right groups and
reactionary political parties are
gaining more and more ground
around the world. This is a bitter
consequence of imperialist
globalization to the detriment of the
very human-kind of the world.
The working-class throughout
the world and particularly the
working class in India shall
understand the reactionary
developments perilous to the
human kind and shall make all
possible efforts and struggles to call
the bluff of imperialist-capitalism
and expose its failure, inability and
futility in bringing about well-being
and affluence and peace to the
people of the world.
The unemployed youth shall
be made to understand the root
cause of unemployment viz. the
inequitable system of exploitation
and rouse them to fight against that
system towards the objective of
establishing a socialist system of
no unemployment, no inequality,
no hatred and no exploitation.
Land Acquisition Law
Dilution through Bypass Tactics
The Narendra Modi govern-
ment amended the Land
Acquisition and Rehabilitation Act
2013 to make it easier for the
government and big bourgeoisie to
forcefully grab lands owned by
peasants. It issued and reissued
ordinance to this effect. There was
a nation-wide protest from the
various sections of people. Unable
to get the approval of the
Parliament, the central government
withdrew the ordinance. It devised
tactics to bypass the peoples
protest and dissuade it by
transferring the amendments to
state level/
Modi government asked the
state governments to amend their
existing land laws that would remove
the rigidities in acquiring lands for
the so-called development projects.
It assured the states that the
President’s assent would be
granted to such state level laws
without any delay or problem.
Following the cue many state
governments have amended their
land acquisition laws and framed
rules that effectively dilute the L A
& R Act 2013 enacted by the
central government.
For instance, Gujarat has
exempted land acquisition from
social impact assessment (SIA) and
consent of the land owner for
several types of projects. In
Maharashtra, the SIA and consent
requirements are now imposed
only on private projects excluding
Public-Private Participation (PPP)
projects. Tamil Nadu has exempted
SIA and consent for land
acquisition for industrial purpose
and highways. Telangana too has
exempted several kinds of projects
including PPP from SIA and
consent requirements.
contd. on page 19
Class Struggle