People's Democracy

KERALA

Massive Rally in Solidarity

With West Bengal

K K Ragesh

THE countrywide campaign call given by the CPI(M) and the Left Parties in solidarity with the Left in West Bengal and against the heinous brutality perpetrated on the Party and the Left, evoked tremendous response in Kerala. The LDF in Kerala had given a call to observe a weak-long solidarity programme to express Kerala people’s solidarity with the people of West Bengal against the Maoist terror. Thousands of activists participated in the solidarity march organised in all the district headquarters and various mandalams and area centers. The demonstrators voiced their wrath against the ongoing violence unleashed by the TMC-Maoist nexus in West Bengal. The CPI(M) and the Left in West Bengal have a glorious  tradition of resisting and fighting back the semi-fascist terror unleashed in the past in the state. Such a force cannot be eliminated with violence and terror, the solidarity march cautioned.

In Alappuzha and Calicut, CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the solidarity meetings. The CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan inaugurated the solidarity meetings in Kannur and Eranakulam districts and the leader of the opposition in the assembly, V S Achuthanandan inaugurated the solidarity meeting organised at Palayam Martyrs’ Column in Thiruvananthapuram. The LDF convener Vaikom Viswan inaugurated the rally organised in Idukki and Kottayam districts. Central Secretariat member A Vijayaraghavan inaugurated the Palakkad rally. Party Central Committee members P Karunakaran, E  P Jayarajan and Thomas Isaac inaugurated the solidarity meetings in Kasaragod, Thrissur and Pathanamthitta respectively. CPI leader Pannian Raveendran inaugurated the Kollam rally. T Sinadasa Menon and VV Dakshinamurthy inaugurated the Malappuram and Wayanad rallies respectively. 

While inaugurating the rally in Kozhikkode and Alappuzha, Pinarayi Vijayan said that the people of West Bengal will surmount the TMC-Maoist terror backed by the US imperialist forces. The Left in West Bengal is being attacked by a combine ranging from the rightist forces to the extreme Left. It is a mere delusion to devastate the Left in the state and those who dream so do not know the history of West Bengal. The Left position on the Indo-US nuclear deal made such forces to target the Left and hence are trying to annihilate the Left. The imperialist forces incite ideas and grant immense fund for its fraudulent game plan, Pinarayi Vijayan said.

After the electoral defeat, such forces intensified the attack against the Left aimed to wipe it out, and certainly they will be proved wrong. The Left cannot be wiped out by attacking and killing its cadres and supporters. Even today, amid all such attacks, the Left in West Bengal has a support of 41 per cent of the people in the state. During the semi-fascist regime headed by Siddhartha Shankar Ray, 1500 activists were killed in the terror during the 1970s. The Left in West Bengal fought back and came back to power in 1977. The present terror cannot be seen as an attack against the Left alone rather it is an onslaught against the democracy itself. Recently, 24 CPI(M) activists and supporters were brutally killed, 40,000 activists have become refugees, and numerous Party offices were destroyed. Activists of the CPI(M) and Left parties are threatened with dire consequences if they continue with the Party activities and even the Congress trade union, the INTUC is not spared.  The TMC leader Mamata Banerjee’s efforts to curb the activities of the Left are anti-democratic. Pinarayi Vijayan called upon all the democratic and progressive sections to support the people of West Bengal to resist the politics of butchery.

In solidarity with the struggling people of West Bengal, the CPI(M) state committee also gave a call for a massive fund mobilisation through bucket collection. All the Party members including the state and district committee members will directly participate in the bucket collection being organised on August 7-8.