Several documents were discussed and deliberated upon during the five days of CPI(Ml)’s 9th congress, touching on national and international situation, movements of women, working class and student-youth, as well as the agrarian situation.
The party has decided to set up a ‘control commission,’ which will look into complaints — especially matters involving women as victims — against party members, specifically people’s representatives. Such complaints will go directly to the control commissioner.
The control commissioner will be a member of the central committee of the CPI-Ml. The party expressed concern over power cuts and water shortage, which have become a common feature in Ranchi and other parts of Jharkhand. It decided to build up campaigns on these issues.
Touching on conviction of cultural activist Jeeten Marandi and such people elsewhere in the country, the party noted, “Organised attacks on freedom of expression and dissenting voices by the State often passed off as a defence of ‘Indian culture’ and ‘nationalism’.”
The CPI(Ml) criticised slum demolition drives in Ranchi and repealing of the Urban land Ceiling Act, 1979, to avail of Central assistance under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), with an aim of providing basic services and facilities by promoting public-private partnership.
The Act was repealed in 2010. Earlier in the day, the CPI(Ml) passed a resolution for putting into practice the “culture of creation, culture of resistance and culture of the people”.
General secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said, “The hallmark of a revolutionary party is not mere presence within the Parliament or the legislature; rather, it is in its assertion of people’s voices and struggles.”
Mentioning CPI(Ml)’s Parivartan Rally in Bihar and other major political initiatives, he added, “At a time when the country was facing neo-liberal assaults, and left parties were facing electoral setbacks, CPI (Ml) took on the challenge with commitment, by intensifying struggles and asserting the left presence against the ruling parties’ anti-people discourse. The past few years have thus been an era of development with expansion for the party.”
Taking a serious note of growing environmental degradation and damage to ecosystems, CPI (Ml) passed a detailed resolution on “environmental protection and people-centric development”. Noting the fact that the most deprived and vulnerable sections of society, and especially women, bear the brunt of environmental protection, CPI (Ml) stated, “We have to articulate a vision of development that does not destroy the source of people’s livelihoods”.