People's Democracy

ON February 19 afternoon, Kerala witnessed a veritable flow of human beings who all came in torrents to the highways. The flow had the warmth of human love for and empathy with the people who are suffering due to the communal, reactionary and pro-imperialist central government’s anti-people policies. With these policies the central government is destroying the agricultural sector all over the country, nay the whole Indian economy.

However, undoubtedly, these policies have affected Kerala more than any other state. It was therefore not surprising that Kerala has been protesting these policies as one man. Neither the Sangh Parivar’s communal drive nor the compliance with these policies by the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), which is crazy for people’s votes without caring for their fate, has been able to mislead the people.

The Human Chain of February 19, organised at the call of the CPI(M)’s Kerala state committee, was a part of the struggle against these very suicidal policies of the central government. The Human Chain was preceded by Constituency Marches organised by the CPI(M), followed by two People’s Marches crisscrossing the state. These marches were given warm reception by people of all sections and classes who assembled at the reception centres in large numbers.

The statewide Human Chain covered a distance of more than 700 km from Parassala in the south to Kasargod in the north. Men and women joined their hands to form a very, very long chain throughout the length of Kerala. From 3 in the afternoon, buses, jeeps, cars, auto rickshaws, lorries, pick-up vans and other vehicles began moving to the highways, carrying hundreds of thousands of workers, peasants, middle class people, students, youth, intellectuals, cultural activists --- in sum, those belonging to all walks of life. Even housewives, in large numbers, were part of the Human Chain.

Kerala chief Minister E K Nayanar, LDF convenor V S Achuthanandan and CPI(M)’s state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan joined the chain at Pazhavangadi in Trivandrum. CPI(M) Central Committee member M A Baby and Kerala’s industries minister Suseela Gopalan participated in the chain at Palayam in the state headquarters. Finance minister T Sivadasa Menon joined at Kazhakkoottam and CITU state secretary Gurudasan at Quilon. Power minister S Sharma joined the chain at Vytila in Ernakulam. Kisan Sabha state secretary C K P Padmanabhan joined the chain at Kannur. Kodiyeri Balakrishnan joined at Kozhikode along with district leaders of the CPI(M) and of various class and mass organisations. Ministers Paloli Muhammed Kutty and T K Ramakrishnan were parts of the chain at Alappuzha. At the northernmost end of the chain stood the CPI(M)’s Kasargod district secretary K Kunhiraman.

By 4 p m, all the highways were flooded with people. The Human Chain was broken nowhere in the state. In fact, the chain became a virtual human wall in all parts of the state. It was estimated that eight lakh people would participate in the chain, but the actual participation was about double the number. People poured in even after the chain had been perfectly enacted without any loopholes. The event took place at 4.45 p m sharp. At many places three to four lines had to be formed even though spaces had been earmarked for each local committee of the party.

The formation of the chain involved careful planning and organisation. Every local area formed organising committees and conducted family and group meetings. Squads were organised to visit homes and each squad did its duty fruitfully well and with great awareness. Various class and mass organisations conducted proclamation marches throughout the state to propagate the message of the Human Chain. They explained to the people how the policies initiated by the Congress government and continued by the BJP government were causing for the people untold sufferings, and how Kerala suffers most as it depends mostly on cash crops. The cultivators are being unable to get remunerative prices for their products such as coconut, copra, arecanut, coffee and rubber. The support price to copra, which should have been declared in November, is not yet ascertained. The prime minister had promised a special Kerala package with eight items, but the package remains only on paper; not a single step has been taken in this regard.

The Human Chain forcefully brought these issues to the forefront. It took place at about the same time when the opposition UDF in the state brought a so-called "liberation march" under the vain leadership of A K Antony. But this march proved a non-event, with people showing no interest in it. It seemed even the anti-communist media had forgotten that such a march was going on under Antony’s leadership. This apathy of the people was just because the "liberation march" had nothing to do with the burning issues facing the people; it was organised to please "the rich and prosaic" --- to borrow a phrase from Oscar Wilde. It was a march of romance in which the Congress party’s illicit alliance with communal BJP was to be legitimised.

The Human Chain has posed a clear question before the reactionaries of Kerala: how will they survive this people’s power of formidable magnitude? They are trying to answer this question in different ways. Antony has already demanded that paramilitary forces be mobilised for the conduct of the elections! Thus a so-called democrat demands the deployment of armed forces against the people when the latter go to elect their representatives in the state assembly! Antony has time and again demanded the presence of armed forces in the state even though Kerala has a fine record of strictly maintaining law and order. In company with his beloved partners E Ahmed (IUML) and C K Padmanabhan (BJP), what in fact Antony wants is to repeat in Kerala the despised 1972 West Bengal experiment of poll rigging.

But the Human Chain once again proves that such misleading campaigns are going to be in vain. People of Kerala have known the CPI(M) for a pretty long time. As CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan has said, the party is the repository of the people’s confidence. The party knows the people and the people know the party. This is the mutual understanding between the people and the party, which no other party in the state can claim. That is why the party is marching forward with its programme of struggle against the anti-people communal policies of the central government while trying at the same time to alleviate the problems of the people.