Red Level Hindutva

indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time - Fifty FOUR

Palash Biswas

http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/


Left Front patriarch Jyoti Basu Friday admitted that the image of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led state government has been affected by the Nandigram violence that killed 14 people earlier this month. On the other hand,Six top Jamaatul Mujaheedin Bangladesh militants, convicted of carrying out a string of bombings in 2005 that left two judges dead, were hanged early on Friday. The six militants - Shaikh Abdur Rahman, Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai, Abdul Awal and Khaled Saifullah, Ataur Rahman Sunny and Iftekhar Hasan Al-Mamun - were executed in four separate prisons in Bangladesh, a private TV channel reported.

Will the time come when all the US agent criminals waging war against Rural India and Dalit India may be hanged?

It is Entertainment and Cricket which engage us most. It was not a conqueror's homecoming, but former cricket captain Sourav Ganguly was on Friday accorded a surprisingly warm welcome at the airport here with fans loudly cheering him. The scene at Kolkata's Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) Airport on Friday morning was in sharp contrast to the homecoming of the other members of Team India who returned empty handed from the World Cup. Most team members, who crashed out in the first stage and lost to minnows Bangladesh, reached their hometown in scattered groupings, trying to melt into the darkness.

However, Sourav's return was public and greeted with cheers.

Singur: Ashok Mitra Unearths Rs. 850 Cr. Gift to the Tatas from a Debt-ridden Government

http://www.telegrap hindia.com/ 1070330/asp/ opinion/story_ 7580979.asp#


Santa Claus visits the Tatas - Freebies from a debt-ridden government Cutting Corners - Ashok Mitra The uproar over Nandigram - and Singur - in West Bengal will not die away soon. Competitive democracy has its own laws; those opposed to the party ruling in the state will try to squeeze the maximum advantage from the discomfiture it has brought upon itself. Speculation continues on the riddle as to why, despite repeated assurances to the contrary, the state administration fell back on a colonial-type police offensive to re-assert its authority in Nandigram. The underlying reason, informed sources suggest, was a strong message from the Salim group, who were promised vast stretches of land in the area for their chemical hub project; they might move away elsewhere,

The message said, if the land was not handed over to them within the next few weeks. That set the panic bell ringing; the sequel has been horrifying. Nothing illustrates more glaringly the spell globalization has cast on the country, even on those whose ideology and praxis should have prepared them to cope with it in a better manner. Industrialization, the rationale of which few will dispute, is being taken to be synonymous with industrialization under private auspices. To talk of industrial growth in the state sector is assumed to be heresy. Questions such as whether a particular private project will actually lead to a net increase in employment or output are discouraged too. Fables are having a field day: the private sector means efficiency to the nth degree, public enterprise is the other name for sloth, incompetence and wastage. The stunning achievements of the National Thermal Corporation, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Nalco, the Oil and

The Left Front in West Bengal is the product of a historical movement which had as its

credo the expansion of public goods and industrial growth through the deus ex machina of the public sector. Those currently in charge of the Front government in the state have apparently convinced themselves that, in the era of globalization, ideological shibboleths are poison, development ipso facto is development sponsored by the private sector, the government has only the residuary obligations to acquire land, on behalf of private tycoons, on which industry is supposed to be set up..

Supreme court Ruling

The Supreme Court ruling staying reservations in higher educational institutes like IITs and IIMs is 'unfortunate, unconstitutional and absurd', Janata Dal-United (JD-U) president Sharad Pawar said Friday. Yadav joined his Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) colleague and Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh in criticising the Supreme Court order Thursday that stayed till August the 27 percent quota for other backward classes (OBCs) in centrally run educational institutions.A furious Yadav also called for setting up a 'judicial council' to go into the selection of judges.

Marxist cries are more vocal. What happens to be the Reality and Illusion of a Marxist dalit Agenda.

Please go through all the references as quted in this writeup.Cast Hindus have stolen everything related to India. They made true indians slaves. by calling them harijans. The literature and pratice of Yoga and Ayurveda belong to Dravidians and Dalit Indias but cast Hindus destroyed Dalit heritage and occupaid and forcefully adopted the legacy.

Look at another example, Tamil and Malayalam are two dravidian languages which are older than Sanskrit but these Brahmincial ideologues falsely propogateSanskrit as the oldest language!

Encounter Killings, Torture and State Violations in India

C.R .Shridhar

The Ruling elite of our nation is in the grip of delusions of grandeur. The GDP growth rate of 8% is trotted out as a sign that India is on the threshold of becoming an economic superpower. A bright future awaits India with its revitalized economic policy of liberalization, privatization and an open door policy of attracting foreign capital. A new animal energy is infusing corporate India, which is headed for gigantic growth propelled by innovation and its ability to create anything from nanoparticles to giant rockets. It appears that India's tryst with destiny is unstoppable.

http://india.rsfblog.org/tag/Untouchables



Nandigram Resistance continues well and Nandigram has come out of RED LEVEL FOLD.

Nandigram should be the launching pad for international dalit movement to destroy Brahminical Zionist World order?

Women of Adhikaripara in Nandigram refused to cooperate with the inspection team led by Mr Balbir Ram, divisional commissioner, Burdwan division and organised a demonstration before them protesting the massacre and atrocities of police on 14 March.

Mr Ram visited the places of mayhem at Bhangabera, Gokulnagar and Adhikaripara today to look over the present situation. At about 12 p.m. Mr Balbir Ram came to Bhangabhera via Khejuri along with Mr Sankar Halder, SDO, Haldia and Mr Swapan Sarkar, SDPO, Haldia.

Mr Ram asked the local people for an account of the incident of police attack on the protesters. Mr Subhasis Paik, and Mrs Dipti Patra said: "On 14 March more than three thousands 3,000 people gathered near Bhangabhera bridge to stop police advancement into the trouble torn areas. Women and children were leading the protesters while a worship ceremony was in progress at Bhangabhera. Police asked the mob to disperse from the area and fired tear gas shells. After that the police started to fire indiscriminately and beat the protesters."



Red is the colour of blood Rajat Roy Nandigram

There is clear evidence after the massacre that ‘Operation Nandigram’ was jointly conducted by the police and armed cadre of the ruling CPI(M).

There was a time when Nandigram was merely a plot of land in a backward agricultural area of West Bengal. It's now another word for carnage. Nandigram also means conspiracy and political isolation. One day, perhaps, it will be a term for harmony.

March 14, 2007, has opened up a new chapter in the contemporary history of West Bengal. It was the day a 2,000-strong police force fired at the villagers of Nandigram in coastal Midnapore, killing at least 15 people, and injuring another 70. The unofficial account puts the death toll at around 72, for several people are still missing. The state administration wanted to take control of the area where thousands of peasants have been opposing government efforts at acquiring 15,000-20,000 acres of agricultural land to set up a chemical hub — or a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) — with investment coming from the Salim group of Indonesia.

Read Full story:http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/portal/2007/03/867

THE chief minister of West Bengal and the CPI(M) have expressed their deep distress and regret at the police firings and violence in Nandigram on March 14. Sympathisers, friends of the Left, democratic minded citizens have expressed their strong feelings on the issue. The matter is before the Kolkata High Court which has asked for more details. Once the investigation is over, action will no doubt be taken against those responsible for the excesses. The authorities have also registered FIRs on complaints of rape, made by four women several days after the reported incident. Urgent investigations are required and if found true, exemplary punishment must be meted out to those guilty. Till now two cases of rape have been confirmed by medical reports and both these are prior to the March 14 police action, the victims being CPI(M) supporters. The guilty must be brought to book and punished in these two cases also.

This is not the only violence that the people of Nandigram have faced. Less known, their stories and tragedies ignored by the national media, around three thousand men, women and children of 12 villages of Nandigram, have been forcibly driven out of their homes and have been living in camps outside Nandigram since January 3 because they are known members or sympathisers of the CPI(M). Those killed or beaten by the police, those injured in hospital, those thousands displaced in camps are almost all poor, agricultural workers, marginal peasants or artisans, a substantial number of them are dalits. The CPI(M)’s opponents speak in terms of "their poor" and "our poor". When representatives of the displaced sat on dharna in Kolkata, they were mocked at by Mamta Banerjee leader of the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) who contemptuously brushed aside their suffering as ‘ CPI(M) drama." The NGO activists and fact-finding teams who have been to Nandigram have not included the trauma of these families even as a footnote in their reports. This is not our understanding or approach. We stand in solidarity with the families of those killed and the injured in hospital just as we do with the displaced.

http://pd.cpim.org/2007/0401/04012007_brinda.htm

Let CPI(M) prove its worth contesting alone in W.Bengal : RSP, a constituent of the Left Front government in West Bengal challenged

http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/16280.asp

Nobody has right to question Singur decision: Tata Motors

Kolkata, March 30: Dismissing criticism on the decision to set up its car plant at Singur, Tata Motors yesterday said it selected the site at the invitation of West Bengal government and nobody should question the company's decision.

"Tata Motors was not compelled to set up the plant in West Bengal. It had various options as a number of state governments had approached us and since West Bengal government also approached us for locating the plant here, Tata Motors is here today," company managing director Ravi Kant said here.

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=362920&ssid=53&sid=BUS

"T. Jayaraman wrote:

Dear Friends, Pls. find attached an article by

Brinda Karat from today's Hindu (30th March). I hope

you find it useful.

With regards,

Jayaraman

Date:30/03/2007 URL:

http://www.thehindu .com/2007/ 03/30/stories/ 2007033002001000 .htm

‘The task before India’s SCs, STs, OBCs, women and minorities in the third millennium is to end Brahmin hegemony’

KANCHA ILAIAH

Ever since India achieved freedom, the discourse on religious communalism has dominated the Indian intellectual sphere. Some intel-lectuals certainly seem to have realised that Hindu religion was mainly responsible for the cont-inuing communal tension. But today, as we stand at the verge of entering the third millennium, we must look at the real roots of the Hindu communalism.

Because of its Brahminical bigotry, Hindu religion has preached and practised communalism since the construction of caste system in India. Many intellectuals who wrote on communalism in India failed to understand that the real roots of communalism lie in the caste system that Brahminical Hinduism constructed from the days of Vedic ritualism. Brahminical communalism destroyed the ethical and moral strength of the sudra–chandals for the last two millennia. At least now, in the first century of the third millennium, the caste communalism itself needs to be destroyed.

http://www.sabrang.com/cc/comold/dec99/kancha.htm

Red star over India: Danger of manuvadi marxists further enslaving starving Dalits

COMRADE AYYANKALI, ADDRESS WITHHELD

http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/may_a2006/editorial.htm

Communists Conspiracy in India

By Kishen Lal 12/02/2003 At 02:26

http://india.indymedia.org/en/2003/02/3292.shtml

CHAPTER 6 - The Role of Leftist Language

The language of Communist imperialism continued to lambast the Congress leadership, particularly Mahatma Gandhi for the latter's "failure to mobilize the toiling masses towards an immediate overthrow of the British rule in India." But when the Congress launched a mass movement in March, 1930, the spokesmen of this language kept strictly aloof from it. Instead they published a Draft Plam of Action in December, 1930 characterising the Congress as a "class organisation of the capitalists working against the fundamental interests of the toiling masses." And they tried to sabotage the freedom struggle by splitting the trade union movement over which they had acquired some hold with the help of finances flowing from the Soviet Union.

http://voiceofdharma.com/books/pipp/ch6.htm

India in the politics of the 20th century

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1805/18050800.htm

Tanika Sarkar and Sumit Sarkar On Politics in India

[ Originally published in Left Hook - March 30, 2005 ]

Snehal Shinghavi of UC Berkley recently interviewed Tanika Sarkar and Sumit Sarkar on a broad range of Indian political issues, including the rise of the Hindu Right, weaknesses of leftist parties, role in Iraq, and relations with Pakistan. Until his recent retirement, Sumit Sarkar was Professor of History at Delhi University, India, where he began teaching in 1976. His most recent publication is Beyond Nationalist Frames. Tanika Sarkar is Professor at the Department of Modern History at Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

http://www.sacw.net/left/SarkarsInterview01042005.html

Millions face early death from hunger, thirst


Author: Fidel Castro


More than 3 million people in the world are condemned to premature death from hunger and thirst.

That is not an exaggerated figure, but rather a cautious one. I have meditated a lot on that in the wake of President Bush’s meeting with U.S. automobile manufacturers.

The sinister idea of converting food into fuel was definitively established as an economic line in U.S. foreign policy last Monday, March 26.

Read More:http://www.pww.org/article/view/10817/

http://www.hansmonthly.com/details.asp?id=3583&title=caxky+esa+iksaxkiaFk&sec=chp+cgl+esa&wr=iyk%27k+fo%27okl

http://in.hindi.yahoo.com/News/International/0703/29/1070329035_1.htm

http://in.hindi.yahoo.com/News/Regional/0703/29/1070329024_1.htm

http://www.marxists.org/history/cuba/archive/castro/2003/05/01.htm

http://www.marxists.org/history/cuba/archive/castro/1992/06/03.htm

http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&doc_id=14767&start=1&control=227&page_start=1&page_nr=101&pg=1

http://www.cubastudygroup.org/index.cfm?FuseAction=Home.Home&gclid=CNKIy5jXnIsCFQu2bgodUG2CVw



Rupee sees biggest fall in 11 years

March 30, 2007 02:58 IST

The rupee had its biggest single-day fall in 11 years against the dollar on Thursday, amid buying of dollars by importers following the greenback's sharp falls over the last few days and also on suspected intervention by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Read More: http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/mar/30rupee.htm

About 300 activists for justice gathered at City Hall in

downtown Houston on March 24 to demand full funding for human needs programs and an end to the war in Iraq. During a march through downtown Houston, the diverse group of participants chanted, "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it?

Right now!"

The Coalition of Working People and the Poor called the action. It was supported by a broad coalition of labor, civil rights, religious and peace organizations, including the NAACP, AFL-CIO, Justice for Janitors, Children’s Defense Fund and Houston Peace and Justice Center. The coalition is led by Bishop James Dixon II of the Community of Faith Church.

Read More:

http://www.pww.org/article/view/10831/

That is a logical question as state legislatures across the country weigh resolutions apologizing for their states’ role in perpetuating slavery, abolished in the United States 140 years ago. Maryland’s General Assembly, voting March 26, became only the second state after Virginia to officially express "profound regret for Maryland’s role in instituting and maintaining slavery."

Read more:http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/10819/1/365

Would anyone in the Ruling Class from India is ready to apollogize for Untouchability and slavery of the masses for thosands and thousands years?

Dr N Bhashyam opines,`Affirmative action is needed to enable the disadvantaged section of our

society to get adequate opportunity to advancement in their social and

economic status but tying with caste ,religion or province will only

create social unrest and disharmony. Empowering the socially disadvantaged

section through mix of education,employmen t, housing and health may be

more productive and more acceptable by all.As our country is posed to play

a leading role in the emerging knowledge era let us embark on a policy to

encourage talent bank irrespective of any sectorial preference.’

Monopoly on Knowledge is the base of Hindutva Raj in this subcontinent. Supreme Court Stay ON OBC QUTA, thus, has sent PLEASURE wave in Brahminical circles and it has turned a fresh Sunami for underprevileged underclasses in India!

JD(U) asks Govt not to implement SC order on OBC quota

The JD(U) on Friday asked the government not to implement the Supreme Court`s order on OBC quota in educational institutions and sought an all-party meeting to discuss the "socially negative" judgement of the courts.


Govt should consult all on SC ruling on quota: Karat

The UPA government should consult all political parties to overcome the Supreme Court stay on OBC quota in institutions of higher learning so that access to education does not remain with the privileged few, the CPI(M) said on Friday.


It is the CPIM which has not implemented reservation in Bengal and Kerala! For this will they apologize first?

Has Narendra Modi apologized for Gujrat Genocide?

Is sfron Hindutva represented by BJP- RSS led sangh parivar is ready to apologisize for Babari Demolition, nationwide riots against Muslims and dalits? Guru is determined to be Number One Company in thios world and shareholders are overjoyed, such is Super Power to be the Sfron India which has also RED sheds and levels at least in Bengal, Tripura and Kerala! Red level betrayal during Freedom Struggles, Peasants movements, Telangana, dhimri Block, Naxalbari and Marichjahapi are well known! Will the Safron communists with their Red Level apologize for all these betrayals?

Are the Prime Minister of India and the state governments of india are ready to apologise for the annihilation of Indegineous production system and rural India, for the death procession in tea gardens, AFPSA, POTA, Citizenship amendment Act, MISA, Land Aquisition act, SEZ Act?

No!

Budhadev and Jyotibasu, the RED LEVEL HINDUTVA represented by Capitalist Marxist party of India are not little bit repentent on Nandigarm genocide as they were not on Marichjhapi Genocide.As siddharth shankar Ray or Ranjit Guha or Subrata Mukherjee have never shown any symptom of repentance for their Anti Naxal Drive Massacres!

Cotrarily they justify their action and policies citing Ideology, national integrity, freedom and sovereignity, which they have mortgaged to US corporate Zionist Imperialism!

The True Nandigram


Written by

Nilotpal Basu

Nandigram was in the news for the last one week. The firing that took place on the 14 th of March leading to the death of 14 evoked a major emotional response. Deaths in police firings always evoke to emotional responses, but even more so, when that takes place under a Left administration. Undoubtedly, the death of people in such an incident is regrettable and tragic. But the question is, why did it happen ?

Reads Full Story:

http://indiainteracts.com/columnist/2007/03/30/The-True-Nandigram/

'The overall image of the Left Front government is definitely affected after the police firing in Nandigram. The government should now reach out to more number of people and communicate with them about the necessity of industrialisation in the state,' Basu said at a party meet at the state secretariat here.Emphasising on better rehabilitation and compensation packages for the farmers, he said the state government would definitely advance in industrialisation with the support of the common people.

Read:http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:zZvixzB16HoJ:indianeconomy.org/2007/03/19/nandigram/+Nandigram&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=in

'We need cooperation from the local people. After all, if we want to move on with industrialisation, we have to ensure the support of common people,' said Basu, adding that the Left Front has already started campaigning for industrialisation at local levels across the state.

NANDIGRAM/KOLKATA: A woman dragged herself to Tamluk police station on Sunday morning, barely conscious, and claimed she had been gangraped by five people, one of whom is an alleged Congress supporter.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Now_political_war_over_Nandigram_rape/articleshow/1722896.cms

'I know that after the Nandigram firing, an adverse image has been created against communists across the country. We are now going to different districts and trying to make people understand about the necessity of industrialisation,' the communist leader told reporters at the party's state headquarters at Alimuddin Street here.

Karat: What really happened in Nandigram


Prakash Karat

The events in Nandigram, starting from the January 3 incident have been the subject of a heated controversy. A feature of this political tussle has been the concerted attempt to attack the Communist Party of India-Marxist on the grounds that it is taking an anti-peasant stance in favour of big companies. It is accused of using the police for this purpose.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/mar/23karat.htm

On the solidarity of the Left Front partners, Basu said: 'The Left partners must be careful to strengthen their unity in future.'

After Nandigram, what happens, see, an empowered Group of Ministers, headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, will meet next week to discuss issues on special economic zones and relaxation norms for such SEZs, Union IT and Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran said on Friday!

Maran, also a part of the eGOM, was talking to reporters on the sidelines of the inauguration of the joint venture between Reliable Freight Forwarders Pvt Ltd with Hong Kong based Kerry Logistics.

Maran was hopeful that the SEZs, which have been approved in Tamil Nadu but were put on hold due to the controversy over land acquisition for the SEZS in various states, would be given the go-ahead as most of the SEZs in the state were being set up on Small Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu land.

Read more:http://www.rediff.com/money/sez.html?zcc=rl



Trinamool Congress legislators staged a walkout from the assembly Friday as speaker Hasim Abdul Halim didn't come out with a ruling against Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for the Nandigram carnage.



The legislators had moved a privilege motion against Bhattacharya on the Nandigram issue.



West Bengal Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy Friday said that an all-party meeting would be called in Nandigram Monday to restore peace in the trouble-torn region.

Exploration major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) leads 34 Indian corporates in the Forbes 2000 list of elite companies across the world.

The Forbes' 2000 rankings for this year, which are based on sales, profits, assets and market valuation, feature eleven banks, five oil and gas companies, four IT giants, two utilities, and one telecom major.



ONGC occupies the 239th spot, followed by Reliance Industries (258), State Bank of India (326) and Indian Oil (399).



Tata Consultancy Services is at the 1,047th spot but tops the Indian IT companies, followed by Infosys (1,130), Wipro (1,233) and Satyam (1,874).



Two other Tata group companies - Tata Steel and Tata Motors - also figure in the list.



The following are the 34 Indian companies:



Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (239), Reliance Industries (258), State Bank of India (326), Indian Oil Corporation (399), National Thermal Power Corporation (494), ICICI Bank (536), Steel Authority of India (800), Tata Consultancy Services (1,047), Tata Steel (1,128), Infosys (1,130), Bharti Airtel (1,149), Housing Development and Finance Corporation (1,197), Wipro (1,233), Tata Motors (1,235), ITC (1,256), GAIL (1,278).



Punjab National Bank (1,308), Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (1,313), Canara Bank (1,360), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (1,372), HDFC Bank (1,376), Larsen & Toubro (1,380), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (1,460), Bank of Baroda (1,585), Bank of India (1,691), Hindustan Zinc (1,700), IDBI (1,767), Union Bank of India (1,772), Satyam (1,874), Bajaj Auto (1,916), UCO Bank (1,931), Syndicate Bank (1,943), Indian Overseas Bank (1,946), and Oriental Bank of Commerce (1,974).



The top seven spots have gone to US companies, with two firms from the Netherlands and one from Switzerland making up the top 10.



Citigroup has claimed the top spot in the rankings, followed by Bank of America, HSBC Holdings, General Electric, JP Morgan Chase, American Intl Group, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell (Holland), UBS (Switzerland) and ING Group (Holland).



Overall, however, the US has 34 fewer companies in the list, which also features 16 Chinese entities.

India's external debt at $142.7 billion

According to Forbes, the 2007 rankings indicate that globalisation is the essential element for business to prosper.India's external debt has risen by $6.2 billion to $142.7 billion at the end of December 2006 on account of the surge in corporate borrowings in foreign countries and deposits by non-resident Indians.

According to the figures released by the finance ministry on Friday, the country's debt increased from $136.5 billion (Rs 627,112 crore) at the end of September 2006 to $142.7 billion (Rs 632,051 crore) as on December 31, 2006.

Despite appreciation of rupee, commercial borrowings by India Inc have gone up by 11 per cent from Rs 32,421 crore in September-end 2006 to Rs 35,980 crore by December-end 2006.

Analysts said with interest rates continuing to rise in the domestic market, companies are still finding it cheaper to borrow from abroad.

During the current financial year, the government has put a ceiling of 22 billion dollars on external commercial borrowings (ECBs), while for cap on an individual company is $500 million.

Long-term debt outstanding increased over the quarter by $6.798 billion to $132.641 billion, while short-term debt declined by $610 million (5.7 per cent) to $10.015 billion as on December-end 2006.

With interest rate in the country firming up, deposits by



And Kamal Nath hails French investment in India's luxury sector

New Delhi, March 30 (IANS) Hailing the growing collaboration between India and France in the luxury sector over the years, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath inaugurated the second luxury conference in the capital Friday. At the conference organised by media house Hindustan Times and its newly launched financial daily Mint, Kamal Nath said: 'We welcome France's investment in India's luxury sector. India has a large potential in raw materials. Leather, handloom and other fabrics are sourced from India and our aim is to increase the trade that will lead to the creation of more jobs here'. Saying the food processing industry needed to be focused upon, he said he would discuss the industry with the French delegation. 'We will also be looking at the French small and medium enterprises and are expecting more French delegations to visit India.'



Terming France and India's trade relations as a 'honeymoon', France's Foreign Trade Minister Christine Lagarde said there has been a 37 percent increase in exports from France to India.



'The overall trade stands at slightly below five billion euros and there are 400 French companies set up in India,' she said.

Lagarde said that India was one of the top five countries that France was targeting for investments and exports.

Over 10 luxury brands, like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Piaget, Salvatore Ferragamo, Hermes, Lancome and Martell, are participating in the two-day conference Friday and Saturday.

Government waging war against farmers: Vandana Shiva

By IANS

Friday March 30, 04:24 PM

New Delhi, March 30 (IANS) The Indian government has declared a kind of war against the poor and marginal farmers who are also up in arms against its regressive policies, environmental scientist Vandana Shiva said Friday.

'The government has declared a war against India's small farmers. And war against farmers means war against 65 percent of the population,' Shiva told a press conference here.



Referring to the recent killings in Nandigram in West Bengal and large-scale farmer suicides in Vidharbha, Maharashtra, she said: 'Our government is encouraging the throw-away policies of the West and pushing them through violence.'



According to her, policies driven by corporate globalisation are pushing farmers off the land and peasants out of agriculture, which is against the natural evolutionary process.



She said: 'The government, by encouraging big business houses like Reliance, Wal-Mart, Monsanto, Cargill is trying to corporatise agriculture.'



'When the world is moving beyond the Wal-Mart model and the Americans are thinking of re-ruralisation, we are being asked to dismantle our mandis (wholesale markets), our haats (rural markets), increase food miles and aggravate climate chaos.'



'A small bio-diverse farm has higher productivity than large industrial farms which contribute to climate change,' Shiva added referring to a recent address by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to an industry body that small landholdings limit the chances to improve agricultural productivity.



On the issue of using genetically modified seeds and chemical fertilisers, she said: 'The soil looses fertility through chemical fertilisers.'



As a solution to the problem, Shiva is planning to create a re-agricultural strategy in Nandigram and Vidharbha and formulate a food security system.



Cautioning the government about the upcoming general elections in 2009, she said: 'If the anti-farmer and pro-corporate policies continue to be pushed by the prime minister the entire government will have to pay a heavy price.'

Andhra assembly passes resolution on reservations

By IANS

Friday March 30, 05:21 PM

Hyderabad, March 30 (IANS) The Andhra Pradesh state legislative assembly Friday unanimously passed a resolution urging the central government to take all necessary measures to ensure 27 percent reservation for other backward classes (OBCs) in central educational institutions.

The Supreme Court Thursday stayed the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's move to reserve 27 percent seats for OBCs in higher educational institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) from the next academic year.



The issue rocked the state assembly on the last day of the budget session with the entire opposition stalling the proceedings to demand a debate on the issue.