People's Democracy

Agitators Protest Ruinous Policies, Pro-US Stance

MASS ARREST, RAIL ROKO IN HIMACHAL

IMPRESSIVE mass arrests and rail roko actions were resorted to, at the call of the DYFI and SFI, in Shimla on September 27 and throughout Himachal Pradesh on October 1. The call was given to highlight the failure of the BJP-led central and state governments on various fronts, affecting the youth, students and the public in general. The youth and students also campaigned against the ruinous policies that include the extraction of "user charges" in health and now in education. Various sections of society have been crying against the effect of these policies indirectly, without making a frontal attack on the policies, because of various reasons, one being the ignorance about their impact. It was this area of work that the DYFI-SFI campaign took up.

The campaign received an unprecedented response from the people from various streams of life. Successful actions were held in Kangra, Mandi, Solan, Sirmour, Hamirpur and Shimla.

In Shimla, fearing a large-scale shift in the mood of the people, the state government asked the police to see that the most crowded place of the town was not used for the court arrest. In other words, the police force was told to ensure that the arrests were not made on the Mall Road and, instead, the SFI-DYFI activists are arrested beforehand. The Mall Road is currently not allowed for any sorts of protests and activities.

But moving a step ahead of the state government machinery, the youth, students and CITU activists planned to court arrest in four different corners of the town. One team of girl activists was left to call for arrests in the central part of the town. Exactly when the clock struck 5.15, state SFI vice president Falma Chauhan gave the first slogan for court arrest and by the time the police could round up about 20 girl activists, hundreds came forth from four different corners of the Mall. The police was thus caught in a surprise.

The police faced another embarrassment when the CID report failed to assess the total number of youth and student volunteers. The CID had flashed a report that nearly 150 to 200 activists would come to court arrest. But, to their great astonishment, more than 500 activists rounded the Mall road and it took more than 90 minutes for the police to arrest all the activists. The number of buses required for the arrests fell short. This gave the activists an opportunity to address a large gathering of thousands of people in the heart of the city.

The gathering was initially addressed by former Shimla MLA, Rakesh Singha, who spoke at length about the cause of the action. He said the historic day of Bhagat Singh's birthday should not go in vain and the people and the youth must realise the ideals of that greatest revolutionary for a powerful and prosperous India that does not bow to the imperialist dictates. Others to address the gathering included state DYFI vice president Daleep Kaisth, state CITU treasurer Jagat Ram, various SFI leaders and state DYFI general secretary Tikender Singh Panwar. All the speakers, in a belligerent voice, demanded the immediate resignation of the government, and were well supported by the general crowd who joined in condemning the policies and decisions of the government.

Equally impressive and encouraging was the action at the Summer Hill railway station where the train was stopped for an hour at the joint call of the SFI and DYFI. Learning from the debacle of the October 27 mass arrests, the police had made thorough planning this time and the police force almost equalled the number of youth and student activists. Exactly at 10.30 a m, hundreds of activists marched through the streets of Summer Hill and blocked the movement of a train at the railway station. Despite the heavy police bandobast, the action was not only successful; it further raised the confidence of the activists. Besides the withdrawal of the hiked rail fare, the demands of the agitation included: (1) Introduction of a local train from Shimla to Taradevi after every one hour; (2) Building of a railway track from Nangal across the Sutlej river to Rampur. It will not only improve the transport of apple crop from the hilly district of Shimla; it will also prove beneficial for the transport of Kinnaur’s apples, most delicious variety of the region; (3) Building and linking the railway track from Dehradun to Poanta and from Kalka via Baddi and Barotiwala through Nalagarh to Nangal; and (4) Extending the track from Jogindernagar to Mandi.

The blockade at the station was followed by a mass meeting on the spot, and even the passengers appreciated the efforts of the two organisations in giving voice to the grievances of the country’s people.

PICKETING  IN GUJARAT

AS the BJP state government of Gujarat sought to underplay the number of the people who would participate in the CPI(M)’s picketing and court arrest programme on September 25, 26 and 27, its police arrested only a lesser number of people everywhere. For example, in Bhavnagar on September 27, more than 7,000 CPI(M) activists came forward for picketing and court arrest at the main post office and the number included more than 3,000 women, but the police arrested only 4,763 persons including around 2,000 women on the plea that they had no vehicles to pick up all those who had come to court arrest.

In Bhavnagar district, 303 offered satyagraha at Sihor but only 267 were arrested. At Palitana, more than 100 offered satyagraha but 51 were arrested. Thus, the official number of those arrested came to 5,080 in Bhavnagar district alone.

At Himmatnagar in Sabarkantha district, the CPI(M) fielded more than 500 satyagrahis but the police arrested only 300. Court arrest and picketing took place at several places in Baroda district. The same story of the police force abstaining from arresting all those who had come to picket the government offices was repeated at Muval, Rajkot, Upleta, Ahmedabad, Junagadh, Surat, Mangrol, Santerampur, Kheda, Nadiad, Morvi and several other places in the state.

MASS CAMPAIGN IN JAMMU

THE mass campaign launched by the Jammu regional committee of the CPI(M) against the anti-people and anti-national policies being pursued by the BJP-led NDA government culminated at Jammu on September 27. The party had started the campaign on September 12 by holding meetings in different blocks and villages spread over Kathua, Udhampur, Jammu and some parts of Rajouri districts.

Despite the terrorist threat, the mobilisation during the campaign was so effective that the gathering was beyond all expectation during the massive dharna staged outside Jammu Radio Station which is coincidentally adjacent to the Raj Bhawan. Students, youth, industrial workers, kisans, teachers and employees participated in the dharana. The gathering was spontaneous and unprecedented. CPI(M) activists from all the four corners of the region marched through the markets around the venue, holding party flags and raising slogans against the NDA government’s total surrender to US imperialism in a drift-away from the policy of non-alignment, its capitulation before the dictates of the World Bank, IMF and WTO in the name of globalisation, its policy of disinvestment that is leading to large-scale joblessness, and so on.

The participants, numbering around 400, were addressed by Bishan Dass, K K Bakshi, Om Prakash, Kishore Kumar, Sardar Singh, Ghanshayam, Pawan Kumar, Om Prakash Khajuria and Hari Chand Jhalmeria. A small section of BJP workers, protesting against the power cuts, tried to disrupt the dharna but were chased away by the police.

Before the gathering dispersed, a militant demonstration was held in front of the Jammu Radio Station. It started at 10.30 a m and culminated in a dharna that ended at 2 p m.

SIEGE TO FCI GODOWNS

THOUSANDS of agricultural workers marched and laid siege to various FCI godowns and civil supplies offices across the country on September 18, demanding rectification of the situation where godowns are overflowing with food stocks and, yet, starvation deaths are occurring in many parts of the country.

These protest actions took place at more than 100 centres in the country in response to the call given by the All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU). The agitators demanded that all agricultural workers should be included in the below-poverty-line (BPL) scheme and given foodgrains at the price declared for the Antyodaya Yojana. They also demanded that the public distribution system (PDS) be extended and strengthened in order to fully cover all the rural areas. They wanted that food-for-work programmes be started in the drought- and calamity-hit areas, and foodgrains distributed freely as immediate relief.

In Kerala, nearly 15,000 volunteers participated in the agitation. AIAWU general secretary A Vijayraghavan led the march to FCI godowns at Trichur. The marchers unearthed the fact that, in the FCI godowns in Trichur, the authorities had buried tonnes of wheat in big pits, which had rotten and become unfit for distribution. Union vice president A Kanaran led the march at Wynad.

In Andhra Pradesh, hundreds of activists were arrested while laying siege to the FCI godowns. AIAWU president Paturi Ramaiah led the agitation in Vijayawada where the police arrested 200 persons. The agitators were demanding in unison "Give us work or food," even as they deplored the state and central governments’ inaction in tackling the drought situation in the state.

In Karnataka, thousands of volunteers participated in the agitation organised at four centres. In Tamil Nadu, state AIAWU president G Veeriyan and state secretary Thirunavukkarasu led the action respectively at Puthukottai and Thanjavur. In Maharashtra, the volunteers gheraoed the food supply centres at six places. In Bihar, thousands of activists courted arrested at 5 centres. Agitations took place in Haryana, Punjab, UP and Tripura also.

It will be noted that while the FCI godowns are overflowing with more than 60 million tones of foodgrains, reports of starvation deaths from states like Orissa, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Kerala are pouring in. The grain offtake from the fair price shops has fallen to half of the previous figure, and all attempts to provide alternate employment through government agencies have failed due to the failure of the central and state governments in formulating a comprehensive programme. Even after repeated appeals from various quarters, the central government was not ready to reduce the issue price of foodgrains distributed through the PDS. However, cruelly enough, the centre has decided to export foodgrains at a much lower price to foreign countries.