1. The last five years have been a period of hectic political activities. In 1998 after the NDA government came to power we responded with a powerful “Kesariya Hataao, Desh Bachaao” (Oust Saffron, Save the Nation) campaign from 25 August to 25
November, 1998. At a time when the BJP was trying to whip up a jingoistic frenzy around the Pokhran blasts and the liberal opinion was misled by this so-called ‘great scientific achievement’ and the secular pretensions of the NDA’s National Agenda of Governance (as distinguished from the RSS agenda which was dubbed the ‘hidden agenda’ by the liberal media), ours was the first major exposure campaign against the NDA’s mischievous agenda and disastrous policies. This was the last political campaign led by Comrade VM.
After the Tehelka revelations we again launched a nationwide campaign against the Vajpayee government in 2001. The campaign culminated with a militant “Rasta Roko, Rail Roko” agitation on August 9. In Mailani Junction station of Terai region of UP, the police let loose barbaric attacks on Party activists who were squatting on the tracks. But the protesters resisted the police attacks in an organised manner. Seven comrades were injured and arrested while serious criminal cases were registered against 700 protesters including a member of the Party Central Committee.
This year again, we conducted a countrywide ‘Azaadi Bachao, Loktantra Bachaao Abhiyan’ (Save Independence, Save Democracy Campaign) from June 26 to August 9. On August 9, nearly 50,000 people courted arrest in a countrywide “Jail Bharo” agitation.
2. This year in the wake of the Gujarat genocide we took a series of national initiatives. However, we must admit that our initiatives have not been of a scale demanded by a severe situation like that in Gujarat. On 4-5 March a central team of the Party comprising Party General Secretary, our Member of Parliament, and the comrade in charge of Gujarat and some Ahmedabad-based comrades visited the riot-ravaged areas and some of the relief camps to gather a first-hand impression of the situation. Subsequently three other delegations visited the state including a human rights delegation from UP, a central delegation of AIPWA and a central team which handed over Rs. 1,00,000 to the Ahmedabad-based Citizens’ Initiative as a token contribution for carrying out relief work.
On 14 March we held a massive “Loktantra Bachaao” rally at Patna demanding dismissal of the Narendra Modi government and opposing any ‘Shila Pujan’ around the place where Babri Masjid was demolished on 6 December 1992. Even though it was a state-level rally, in the given situation it addressed itself primarily to the fascist threat exemplified by the Gujarat genocide and the renewed Ayodhya campaign. On 28 September, three days after the Akshardham incident, together with other like-minded forces we organised a joint convention and march in Ahmedabad demanding dismissal of the Modi government and imposition of President’s rule.
3. During the Kargil war in 1999 and more recently when a war-like situation was being built up early this year, we ran a sustained campaign against jingoism and for peace and friendship between the two neighbours. On 13 June this year there were concerted demonstrations for peace in both Pakistan and India. In Pakistan the demonstrations were held by the Labour Party of Pakistan and three other Left parties while in India we were joined by the SUCI and two ML groups.
We also used every opportunity to raise the anti-imperialist voice of the Indian people and build a strong anti-imperialist movement in the country. The visit of US President Bill Clinton in February 2000 evoked an angry response from the people even as Indian MPs jostled among themselves to grab the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shake hands with an American President. Powerful demonstrations greeted the US President in all major Indian cities. Intriguingly while in Andhra Pradesh all Left parties including the CPI(M) staged massive protests, the LF government of West Bengal proved ultra sensitive on this issue even though Kolkata was not part of Clinton’s itinerary. Comrades protesting outside the American Centre in Kolkata were brutally beaten up by the police and sent to jail (Months later, lathis were rained even on students of the SFI when they staged an anti-Bush protest in Kolkata). In the wake of September 11 and America’s Afghan war, we organised a sustained anti-war campaign. The November 9 “Anti-War, Anti-WTO Rally” in Delhi was the biggest anti-war demonstration in the country. On the same day a powerful protest march was also taken out in Vijayawada on the same theme. This year on November 14 we joined other Left parties in a demonstration against the US war threat to Iraq.
4. Another major national initiative was taken recently by our student-youth comrades and women activists in May this year on the issue of Ayodhya. On May 10-11 a “Shaheed Mela” was organised at Faizabad to commemorate the martyrs of the glorious 1857 rebellion. History tells us that nearly one lakh people were slaughtered by the British colonial rulers in Uttar Pradesh and the Ayodhya-Faizabad area was a major storm centre of this glorious rebellion. The Mela denounced the saffron brigade’s projection of Ayodhya as a symbol of communal division and hatred and instead called for construction of a martyrs’ memorial to champion the glorious alternative legacy of people’s harmony and militant anti-imperialist resistance.
Under pressure from the BJP and the VHP, the Mela was banned at the last moment by the Mayawati government and on the 10th of May on the occasion of the one hundred and forty-fifth anniversary of the great rebellion, nearly one thousand participants were remanded to different jails for 14 days for the crime of commemorating the martyrs. Many of the arrested activists had come from outside Uttar Pradesh, from Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Delhi to Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The next day a convention was organised defying the ban and six more participants including three women activists were arrested by the police. The whole initiative was warmly welcomed by a good section of the local people of Ayodhya-Faizabad and their representatives also participated in the convention. The knee-jerk reaction of the Mayawati government exposed the BSP’s collusion with the BJP on this crucial issue and also the mortal fear that still shakes the RSS when its disgraceful history of treachery to the national cause is confronted with the glorious legacy of the martyrs who laid down their lives to liberate the country from the imperialist yoke. This unprecedented police crackdown also evoked widespread protests from broad sections of secular democratic forces and all the arrested comrades had to be released unconditionally after a week.
5. Most of the national campaigns called either by the Party Central Committee or the national bodies of all-India mass organisations have generally been implemented in all states, including the ones where the Party is still at a very primary stage of development. National campaigns apart, powerful political and agitational initiatives have been unleashed by various state and district units of the party on a host of issues.
Bihar witnessed a series of rallies and agitations on the question of democracy, development and the rights and dignity of the oppressed rural poor. On 4 August 1998, a successful Bihar Bandh was organised on the issue of price rise and this was preceded by an extensive political campaign. On 18 December 1999, the first death anniversary of Comrade Vinod Mishra, an impressive rally was held on Patna’s Gandhi Maidan with the slogan “Badlo Bihar” (Transform Bihar). With a view to advancing the cause of Left unity in the state we also invited the CPI state secretary to address this rally. This was preceded by an intensive “Badlo Gaon, Badlo Bihar” (Transform the Village, Transform Bihar) campaign.
When the bifurcation of Bihar was formalised in 2000, we organised a massive march to Parliament on August 21 demanding special central package for Bihar’s development. We also organised an intensive campaign inside Bihar on the subject, exposing the organic causes behind Bihar’s backwardness and stressing the need for radical reforms and a militant people’s movement to defeat the forces and factors responsible for Bihar’s all-round economic backwardness. In the course of this campaign, a series of conventions and a successful regional strike were organised in the flood-stricken districts of Mithilanchal region in north Bihar to press the demand for a permanent solution to the recurring problem of flood and reopening of closed sugar, paper and spinning mills in the region. On 18 December 2000, on the second death anniversary of Comrade VM, a worker-peasant Assembly was held in Patna again on the issue of Bihar’s development which was addressed by leaders of all Left parties in the state.
6. Political mobilisation and agitations have also been unleashed repeatedly on issues like massacres by private armies, criminalisation of politics and state repression. There have been a number of Bihar bandh agitations to protest massacres perpetrated by the Ranvir Sena. The powerful gherao of Bihar Assembly after the Miyanpur massacre by Ranvir Sena left a major impact and pushed the government into defensive on the issue of the government’s failure and even refusal to enforce the ban on the Sena and provide a modicum of security to the peasants and agricultural labourers in the state. In Sheikhpura district, following the killing of 9 supporters and activists of the RJD by the henchmen of the local Congress MP and kingpin of feudal-mafia reaction, the local Party unit took the lead in organising a powerful protest campaign including a district level strike. Following the mass upsurge in Muzaffarpur against the kidnapping and killing of a small five-year-old boy, a padyatra was held from Muzaffarpur to Patna which culminated in a massive mobilisation against the criminal-police-administration nexus in Bihar. The padyatra evoked considerable response even though our Party’s influence in this region is still quite limited. Earlier, the Party organised a week-long campaign organising mass demonstrations outside scores of police stations denouncing the police-criminal nexus and demanding expeditious action against powerful and notorious local criminals. Again in April this year a 72-hour Patna Bandh was organised against abduction and murder of traders in Patna. Powerful mass initiatives were unleashed in protest against instances of police firing on students and youths in Darbhanga, Imamganj (at Patna-Jehanabad border) and Bhagalpur.
A popular movement started from West Champaran district on the issue of large-scale irregularities in the Red Card scheme meant for subsidised supply of essential commodities to people living below the poverty line. Our comrades took both legal and political initiative against these irregularities and launched a campaign demanding removal of the minister in charge of civil supplies. The enraged minister retaliated by launching physical attacks against our comrades and getting them implicated and arrested in false cases. This triggered a powerful movement which soon spread to other districts and block level assemblies of agricultural labourers and Red Card holders were held all over the state.
In Siwan district, tension within the RJD’s own social base has led to a number of recent clashes and killings. There was also a case of sections of the District Police rebelling against Shahabuddin and the district administration after Shahabuddin had openly humiliated and beaten up a police official. This was the only occasion when the police tried to arrest the mafia don, but the state government was quick to intervene and the SP was shunted out of the district. Interestingly, the BJP too joined the RJD to come to the rescue of Shahabuddin. Ours was the only Party which intervened in this situation on behalf of the common people of Siwan and raised a bold voice against the state-backed reign of terror.
Contrary to the RJD’s calculations, the renegacy of former District Secretary and CCM Ramesh Singh who surrendered to Shahabuddin and became the RJD District President with his blessings has failed to demoralise the masses and the Party ranks or weaken their resistance. The arrest and torture of Party activist Naimuddin Ansari and the conspiracy hatched by the Shahabuddin-Ramesh duo against the entire Party leadership in the district evoked a spirited campaign of mass resistance. Militant gherao of the local police station by hundreds of people and a powerful and well-attended rally held right in Siwan town made it clear that the betrayal of a few leaders of whatever stature could not deter a revolutionary party from carrying forward the unfinished struggle of its martyrs.
The political initiatives and day-to-day agrarian struggles about which we will discuss separately have to withstand all-round attacks from the Ranvir Sena and other criminal gangs as well as anarchist outfits like the MCC and the PWG and of course the state machinery. The biggest incident of police firing on Party activists and supporters happened at Arrah on 30 August 2002 when following the cold-blooded murder of Comrade Viswanath Ram in police custody, thousands of people had laid siege to the district headquarter. The police opened indiscriminate fire on the peaceful protesters and killed four comrades. The popular movement of agricultural labourers in West Champaran has also been subjected to barbaric police repression. In one incident, combined police forces of several police stations and armed henchmen of a local landlord attacked a small hamlet of agricultural labourers. In recent months, more than five comrades have been killed by the police-criminal-landlord nexus in separate incidents.
7. In Jharkhand our initiative started right with the creation of the new state. The massive “Navnirman Rally” held two weeks after the state came into existence broke all previous records of mass mobilisation in the region. The call given from the rally for Jharkhand bandh on December 6, 2000 demanding recall of the Jharkhand Governor Mr. Prabhat Kumar, an accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case, met with overwhelming public response. Mr. Kumar had indeed to be recalled when his name surfaced in an economic scam embroiling the NDA government at the Centre. The Party took prompt and powerful initiatives against cases of police firing at Doranda and Topkara in Ranchi in which innocent Muslims and adivasis were gunned down in unprovoked police firing. In Bokaro district Party took impressive initiatives against attack on a Christian school and the rape of a Nun, the killing of a dalit in police firing and the rape of several adivasi women by CISF jawans in Lewatand village. On the last issue our Party MLA sat on indefinite hunger strike which was withdrawn only after one of the main culprits was arrested and compensation paid to the affected people. On 1 March 2001, there was a major police crackdown on Party activists when they organised a gherao of Jharkhand Assembly demanding action against police officials involved in the Doranda and Topkara firings. Several comrades including Party General Secretary were arrested and implicated in false cases while many comrades sustained injuries. This was condemned widely by many organisations and individuals. A “Save Democracy, Save Jharkhand” march was organised in Ranchi on 14 March after the comrades were released.
Giridih district and the rural areas of Bokaro have emerged as storm centres of sustained popular agitation on a host of issues. Huge mobilisations of tens of thousands of people have taken place in Giridih district and the Party’s influence and organisation has spread widely all over the district. Under the impact of this massive agitation virtually the entire district unit of the CPI has joined the Party. The Marandi government is trying to suppress the movement by unleashing brutal repression on our Party. On 4 April Comrade Laldhan Mahato, a local Party organiser of Bagodar, was killed by the police. The killing took place in the early hours of April 4 when a daylong bandh was being observed in Giridih in protest against the arrest of the Party district secretary, who is also a popular mass leader of the district. Several comrades including the Party MLA were then arrested in false cases. The arrests evoked strong protests all over the state and under tremendous agitational pressure the government was forced to drop the idea of invoking the notorious Crime Control Act or POTA on the comrades and subsequently after months of imprisonment all the arrested comrades have had to be released on bail.
8. In Uttar Pradesh, communal violence apart, state repression too has assumed major proportions. Rajnath singh’s tenure as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh was particularly notorious for systematic suppression of human rights. While the Muslim youth and the madrasas were targeted all over the state, in the eastern districts bordering Bihar Naxalism was identified as the biggest threat. The cold-blooded massacre of a dozen young people at Bhavanipur village of Mirzapur district in March 2001 signalled the beginning of a virtual reign of state terror for the rural poor and communist revolutionary activists working among them. It was only our Party which organised protests against the Bhavanipur massacre and the repressive regime of Rajnath Singh. Many of our comrades were subjected to physical torture and leading comrades including the State Secretary and a member of the State Standing Committee were kept under illegal detention. We also exposed the role of the administration and the police and paramilitary forces behind the so-called Kanpur riots in which innocent Muslim citizens were targeted by the state. Incidentally, on both these issues the main opposition parties in the state like the SP and the BSP remained conspicuously silent. Following the installation of the BSP-BJP government, a fresh campaign has been launched on the demand for punishing the perpetrators of Bhavanipur massacre along with other pressing issues like drought relief and land reforms.
In Pilibhit district, a popular agitation was launched in 1999 against corrupt practices of the BJP-led district council and to stop the construction of a commercial toilet in a park associated with the history of the freedom movement in Pilibhit town. The agitation evoked considerable social support and the district administration had to stop the construction and order an inquiry into allegations of corruption against the BJP chief of the District Council. The agitation helped spread the Party’s work and influence in the district.
9. In 1999 we ran a major political campaign in West Bengal on the issue of democratic rights, particularly around the demand for setting up of a judicial inquiry to bring the villains of the state-sponsored white terror of the 1970s to justice. A padyatra from Siliguiri to Kolkata was followed by a successful Bangla Bandh on 26 February. The campaign was welcomed not only by M-L sympathisers and the progressive intelligentsia but also by sections of CPM ranks, who too had been victims of this white terror and are critical of the Left Front Government’s historic betrayal on this crucial issue. The issue of democratic rights including the question of unpunished white terror of the 1970s remains an Achilles heel of the Left Front Government. The issue has come up once again following the recent spate of illegal detention and torture in police custody and police firing on unarmed workers in various places of the state. Despite large-scale protests in the state, including protests from within the Left Front and sections of CPI(M) ranks, the government is however busy intensifying and legitimising repression in the name of combating ISI-sponsored terrorism and leftwing extremism. Attempts to have a West Bengal version of POTA in the form of POCA and irresponsible remarks made by Buddhadev Bhattacharya about madrasas serving as a den of terrorism and anti-national activities, remarks which have been highlighted in the Organiser, were quoted extensively by BJP leaders in the UP elections and have led to his having an excellent equation with Advani, have only emboldened the police.
Another area where the Left Front Government has to face considerable opposition is the gamut of new economic policies. The state governement had already introduced the Bengal version of new industrial policy in 1994. Now it is trying to design the state’s own version of new agriculture policy and labour law reforms. After twenty-five years of boasting about Operation Barga, land redistribution and Panchayati Raj it is now time for the Left Front Government to turn to American consultancy firms for tips on the second phase of agrarian reforms! In the field of industry and services, closures of sick industrial units and commercialisation of essential services with hikes in electricity rates, higher education fees and hospital charges are also becoming the order of the day. All these anti-people neo-liberal measures are creating mass resentment and protests are being heard from different quarters. On 10 January this year a successful Bangla bandh was held at the call of SUCI and our Party to protest hikes in rates of electricity, education and healthcare.
10. In Tripura, a powerful protest campaign was launched against the killing of two of our tribal comrades by pro-CPI(M) militants in October 1998. The question of more powers to the autonomous district council in Tripura was also taken up as a sustained political campaign and this evoked a good response among the indigenous people. Currently, a mass political campaign is on around a 9-point charter of demands including enforcement of the Tripura Agricultural Labourers Act, 1986, revision of the below poverty line (BPL) list, and provision of basic rights and amenities like employment, education and drinking water.
In neighbouring Assam, a 340 km long padayatra was organised in Karbi Anglong for a fortnight in October 2000 to revive the Autonomous State movement and expose the political conspiracy of the renegades who had betrayed the movment and joined hands with the BJP and other enemies of the autonomous state movement and the toiling masses of the hill districts. In the rest of Assam, the Party and trade union conducted several agitations on various basic demands of tea garden workers and the community of ex-tea garden workers in Sonitpur, Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts and also at the state capital.
11. In Orissa, the Party played a major role in the Chilika fishermen’s movement especially in organising mass protests including Orissa bandh following the death of fishermen in police firing. The Party also led powerful agitations in the coastal region on the question of distribution of relief among cyclone victims. An impressive tribal rally was held jointly with another tribal-based organisation at Berhampore in Ganjam district in which thousands of tribals including women asserted their inalienable right to land. Significant mobilisations have taken place in Rayagada and Koraput districts on questions of land alienation, police repression and starvation deaths.
12. In the newly created state of Uttaranchal (the popular name of the region is Uttarakhand and the name Uttarnchal has been imposed by the NDA government in utter disregard of the popular opinion), the Party and mass organisations like AISA, RYA and AIPWA took a series of initiatives demanding adoption of pro-people policies on employment generation, environmental protection and meting out of exemplary punishment to the culprits of the infamous Muzaffarnagar rape case in which a bus load of Delhi-bound women supporters of the Uttarakhand agitation were assaulted and raped by criminals and the UP police. Similarly, in the other new state of Chhattisgarh, the Party and the trade union and peasant association have been campaigning actively against police repression, social injustice and denial of land and employment to the rural poor and unorganised workers.
13. Coming to the southern states, the Andhra unit of the Party was involved in a sustained campaign jointly with eight other Left parties on a number of issues, especially against power tariff hike and suicide of cotton farmers. In Tamil Nadu, the Party, trade union and agricultural labourer organisation have been active in a protracted struggle over the issue of revival of sick industries and availability of jobs. We have also been involved quite actively with the struggle of transport workers and state government employees. In Karnataka, where organised Party work has just begun, our intervention in the militant struggle of unorganized women garment workers in Peenya Industrial Estate of Bangalore on the question of Provident Fund led to a police raid in our office and the arrest of our leaders. Kerala comrades have been active in the movement of plantation workers and in campaigns against neo-liberal economic policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. Party units have also come up in the Union Teritorries of Pondycherry and Andaman. These units are quite active and apart from trade unions, mass organisations for the youth and women have also started functioning.
14. The Delhi unit of our Party remains most intimately involved in every national campaign and short-notice demonstrations on various national and international questions of immediate importance. The Delhi unit has also been active on the question of closure and relocation of industries in the name of pollution control, against privatisation of the transport and electricity sectors and issues concerning security and civic amenities for slum-dwellers and residents of unauthorised colonies. In Rajasthan, the Party and peasant association organised a massive gherao of the Rajasthan Assembly jointly with four other Left and democratic parties in protest against privatisation of the sector and fragmentation of the state electricity board. In Punjab too the Party has been quite active in the farmers’ movement against indebtedness and for assured procurement of crops at a reasonable support price. In Madhya Pradesh, the Party has started attracting a degree of mass support in certain parts of the Gwalior region. The small Party unit in Gujarat took a series of initiatives after last year’s earthquake and this year’s genocide. Lately, Party work has also begun in Haryana with due implementation of various national calls.
15. Apart from all these political campaigns and agitations, Party units in different states and at various levels have discharged their social responsibilities in hours of natural calamity and major social crisis. Major relief campaigns were organised in the wake of the Orissa cyclone and Gujarat earthquake. Comrades from West Bengal collected relief materials and organised relief campaign in the cyclone-ravaged areas of Orissa. Student comrades of Delhi and comrades of Punjab played an exemplary role after the Gujarat earthquake. Within a short time they collected relief materials and rushed to Bhuj where they spent ten days assisting the Red Cross in adminsitering medical care to the quake victims. Party units in Bihar and workers in Tamil Nadu conducted an exemplary campaign collecting money and medicine for the quake victims of Gujarat. Some districts of Bihar also collected funds for the genocide survivors.
16. Responding to the situation with prompt and effective mass political initiatives has been a hallmark of our Party. While developing this feature we need to pay greater attention to the quality and impact of our initiatives. We must not remain preoccupied with initiatives taken in major cities where our local mobilisation capacity is still quite weak. Many powerful campaigns often originate at the level of districts, blocks or even panchayats. Our initiative on the PDS scam in Bihar is a recent case in point.
It is not possible to back all initiatives with impressive mass participation. We have to develop innovative ways of communicating our political position to our target audience without always going in for a programme involving major mass mobilisation. But when we really decide on a programme involving mass participation, we must go all out to ensure that we have an impressive turnout. Some of our recent initiatives have indeed been poorly attended. The last Party rally in Bihar failed to reach the standards associated with our programmes. In West Bengal, our mobilisation capacity has declined drastically.
In the name of political initiative we must not walk into the trap of tokenism. A handful of people taking out protest marches, burning effigies and staging dharnas may mean a lot in a situation of acute repression or major social tension, but if it becomes the general pattern it will only make a mockery of political initiatives. To avoid this, we must increase our mobilisation capacity in and around Delhi and major state capitals. Except short-notice emergency programmes, all such demonstrations and marches should be preceded by adequate local propaganda and other preparations.
We must develop our mechanism of keeping the media informed about our initiatives. The media too is an arena of class struggle and it is important to contest the undemocratic and anti-people forces in this arena as well. However, for the same reason we must also be prepared to accept the fact that often our programmes would not be adequately covered or covered only in a distorted manner by the media. The dissatisfaction generated by such under-coverage or distorted coverage in bourgeois media is however always to be preferred to complacency generated by sympathetic media reports or worse still to dependence on the media for gaining political visibility. q