People's Democracy

SEVERAL thousand members and supporters of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) courted arrest in ten districts of Jharkhand on September 26, while agitating before the Food Corporation of India godowns and in front of central government offices like post offices, telephone exchanges and income tax offices. The CPI(M) workers were demanding immediate release of foodgrains to the poor and also demanding that either the Atal Behari Vajpayee government at the centre change its anti-people economic policies, end corruption, and stop its communal and pro-imperialist policies, or quit. The court arrest was in response of the party’s all-India movement call in September.

The ten said districts are Dhanbad, Singhbhum, Ranchi, Pakur, Sahebganj, Hazaribagh, Lohardaga, Koderma, Jamatara and Godda.

Those arrested on September 26 included the party’s state secretary J S Majumdar, state committee members Rajendra Singh Munda, S P Tiwari, Sudhir Das, D D Ramanandan, Praful Linda, Sufal Mahato, S K Baksi, G K Baksi, K K Mandal, Mohd Iqbal, Jyotin Soren, Prakash Viplabi and Surjeet Sinha. District level leaders of the party and of mass organisations like president and general secretary of the state Kisan Sabha, DYFI state president and general secretary, general secretary of the Janwadi Mahila Samiti, of SFI and other organisations also courted arrest.

At Jamshedpur, Bokaro and Dumka, day-long dharnas were staged on the day.

Earlier, during the first phase of its campaign in the state of Jharkhand, the CPI(M) organised a number of programmes throughout the state. The details of these programmes were chalked out by the CPI(M) state organising committee, in its meeting held on August 28, following the call of the Central Committee.

In a nutshell, the Jharkhand state organising committee of the party had decided to organise a three-phase movement in the state. A number of district level padayatras, meetings, wall-writings, postering, distribution of leaflets, etc, were planned for the first phase from September 7 to 13. In the second phase, three regional jeep jathas, led by state level leaders of the party, were to be taken out in Santhal Parganas, North Chhotanagpur and South Chhotanagpur regions from September 14 to 21. The third phase was to see picketing in front of FCI godowns or central government offices and institutions, plus court arrest, at the district headquarters on September 26.

The first two phases of the movement were successfully completed in the state. The state organising committee printed and distributed 2000 leaflets and 2000 posters and these were multiplied by the district committees manifold. The Hazaribagh district unit alone printed 10,000 leaflets. Dhanbad brought out 5,000 four-page folders. Other districts also printed leaflets in large numbers. 1000 pamphlets brought out by the Central Committees were distributed among the district units for sale. During the first phase, padayatras, village meetings, street-corner meetings in towns and some mass meetings were held in 13 out of 16 districts. In Hazaribagh, a district level jeep jatha was taken out from September 14 to 21. During the second phase, two regional jeep jathas were taken out in Santhal Parganas and North Chhotanagpur regions. The first one was led by Prakash Viplabi, Jyotin Soren, Surjit Sinha and S P Tiwari, and the second one by G K Bakshi, S K Bakshi and Ramchandra Thakur. The third jatha in South Chhotanagpur could not be taken out due to certain factors peculiar to this area, but meetings at different points in these districts were held. The two jathas covered 10 districts and held a total of 116 meetings, some of which were big meetings. Besides, during the second phase, over 30 meetings were held in East Singhbhum, Ranchi, Sahibganj and Lohardaga districts also.

Important places covered by these jathas included Dumka, Jamtara, Godda, Pakur, Mehrama, Rajmahal project area of ECL (Lalmatia and Mahagama), Fordiyahat, Hansdigha, Baksinath, Narayanpur, Vidyasagar, Maheshpur, Hiranpur, Malpahari stone quarry area and other places in Santhal Parganas, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Hazaribagh, Koderma, Jharia, Maithon, Nirsa, Sindiri, Baliapur, Ramgarh, apart from several places in the coal belts of Dhanbad, Bokaro, Hazaribagh and other districts in the Chhotanagpur region.

Thousands of people were directly approached during the first two phases of the campaign, and they responded positively to the party’s demand that the BJP-led central government should quite because of the disastrous effects of its economic policies, its communalism, its unparalleled corruption, and its abject surrender to imperialism. (INN)