REPORTS

Jan Sankalp Rally in Patna:

People Pledged to give a decisive blow to the forces of crime, repression, plunder and communalism

The people of Bihar made Nov 30 a historic and memorable day when they thronged the huge grounds of Gandhi Maidan in Patna leaving no space empty and took a pledge to overthrow the crime-rule of Laloo-Rabri government whose criminal insensitivity has left thousands of poor to starve in a situation of acute famine while criminals are moving freely under government protection. People from every corner of Bihar, especially rural poor, agrarian labourers, dalits and other oppressed and marginalised sections of Bihari society, started to pour into the state capital a day earlier on trains, buses and every possible mode of transport they could get, to give a befitting reply to the Rabri government of Bihar as well as Centre’s UPA govt. of which Laloo Yadav is an important constituent.

The streets of Patna, flooded with red banners, flags and placards, reverberated whole day with militant chanting of slogans in tune with beating of drums and nagadas telling Laloo regime that its days are numbered. Many teams sang revolutionary songs while on the way to Gandhi Maidan. The traffic of all the main roads of the town, including station road, Chiraiyyatand, IT Golamber, Frazer Road, Exhibition Road, Dak Bangla Chowk, Danapur Road, Nala Road, etc. came to a stand still when rallyists passed through them.

The venue of the rally was beautifully decorated with huge banners on both sides of the dais with the main slogan “Dangayi raj mitaya hai, apradhi raj mita denge, Garibon se gaddari ka ab badla chuka denge”. A big cartoon installed before the dais attracted everybody’s attention. This showed a running train with Laloo Yadav as the engine and Shahabuddin, Pappu Yadav, Brahmeshwar Singh, Nithish Kumar and Sushil Modi as the bogies, while Ram Vilas Paswan was shown running behind to board it.

Speakers in the rally said that the false pretences of ‘social justice’, state repression, nexus with gangs like Ranvir Sena and Shahabuddin have taken a naked form under the criminal-mafia raj of Laloo-Rabri Government. The situation of perennial floods and drought, starvation, epidemics, intense agrarian crisis and migration of agricultural labourers will have to be resisted by ousting this govt. in the coming elections. An intensive mass movement which will give Bihar’s politics a left turn and march ahead towards a New People’s Bihar can be the only answer.

The People’s Pledge

(Taken at the Jan Sankalp Rally at Gandhi Maidan, Patna on 30 November 2004)

While the severity of immense floods and drought and anti-poor-anti-peasant policies of central and state governments have thrown Bihar into a situation of acute famine and starvation, the web of crime directly protected by the government has taken whole of state as hostage. The government has become insensitive and autocratic to such an extent that it only showers bullets and batons and imposes ESMA and TADA on the people desperately trying to escape the situation of famine and network of criminals. Now the militant unity of the people and intense mass movement is the only way to break this vicious cycle of famine, crime and repression.

We take a pledge on behalf of crores of citizens of this land of revolutions, i.e., Bihar, to uproot the corrupt, criminal and anti-poor regime and to carry forward the struggle for a new Bihar and a new India, no matter what cost we would have to pay. We pledge to put every effort to give a decisive blow to the forces of crime, repression, plunder and communalism in the coming Assembly elections in Bihar. Come: let us transform this people’s pledge into a mandate.

Party General Secretary, Dipankar Bhattacharya, called upon the Left and other democratic parties to form a third alternative keeping equidistance from both the BJP and the Congress and appealed to the people to vote the RJD out of power to end its 15-year old misrule.

The rally was presided over by CPI(ML) Polit Bureau member and leader of Bihar Legislative group of the Party Comrade Ramnaresh Ram, while Rajaram Singh, MLA, conducted the proceedings. Party General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya addressed the rally as the main speaker. AIALA General Secretary Rameshwar Prasad, Central Committee members KD Yadav and Dhirendra Jha, Party MLAs Mahboob Alam and Arun Singh, UP State Secretary Akhilendra Pratap Singh and AIPWA leader Shashi Yadav also addressed the rally. CPI(ML) Polit Bureau members Swadesh Bhattacharya, D. P. Buxi and Nand Kishor Prasad and veteran leader Yogeshwar Gope were present on the dais.