Kolkata March Condemns Trinamul-BJP Terror Tactics

B Prasant

THOUSANDS of people marched along the streets of Kolkata on January 19 evening to register their protest against the continued attempts being made by the Trinamul Congress-BJP nexus to create an atmosphere of terror and violence in West Bengal. The march took off from the Esplanade area and finished near the stretch close to the five-point traffic crossing at Shyambazar in north Kolkata.

Slogans emanated from the procession all through its advance across large parts of Kolkata’s central and northern localities. Attempts to impose article 356 on the state prior to the election were loudly condemned. People were urged to maintain peace and amity against all provocative moves by the goons of the Trinamul-BJP combine in the state. The people were told about the necessity of sharp look-out to foil every plot being hatched against the democratically elected Left Front government of the state.

The long and winding procession was embellished with banners, festoons, placards, billboards and a multitude of the red flags. A noteworthy feature of the march was the manner in which passers-by joined in as the marchers entered the crowded stretch between Lenin Sarani and College Street.

In his address to the marchers on the eve of commencement of the procession, CPI(M) leader and convener of the Calcutta district unit of the Left Front, Prasanta Kumar Sur said forces like the Trinamul Congress, the BJP and certain left-sectarian elements were out to destabilise the political situation in Bengal. These nefarious forces had the blessings of both the union government and imperialist powers.

Sur noted how over 200 workers of the CPI(M) were killed over the past two years in parts of south Bengal, in their attempt to prevent democracy from being throttled by reactionary forces. "The goons are out to bring back the goonda raj of the 1970s, and in this they must not be allowed to succeed," declared Sur.

The procession that started at around 6:30 in the evening ended in the north Kolkata suburb when it was nine o’clock, having taken three hours to cross the 10-kilometre stretch.

A big rally was held in the stretch of ground near Howrah station where people from Midnapore and other south Bengal districts assembled to condemn the vile attempts being made to destabilise the political ambience of Bengal. Dipak Dasgupta (CPI-M), Chiranjeeb Chandra (CPI), Sudhangsu Ghosh (Forward Bloc), and Mihir Byne (Revolutionary Communist Party of India) addressed the rally, among others.

INN learns that a rally will be organised at Kasba in south east Kolkata on January 24 to condemn the politics of murder and terror being unleashed in Bengal by the Trinamul Congress and BJP. Jyoti Basu will be the principal speaker at this meeting. The meeting will take place in memory of the martyred CPI(M) leader, Comrade Gurupada Bagchi, who was brutally done to death by thugs in the pay of the Trinamul Congress one year back on January 24. (INN)