People's Democracy

ORGANISED at Ambedkar College, Hyderabad, the Vignana Mela attracted and inspired a large number of visitors with its exhibition of photographs. The reason was that these were no ordinary photographs; they were the vital documents of the heroic Telangana armed struggle, taken during the period of that very glorious struggle (1946-51).

These photos and other pictures depicted the inhuman exploitation perpetrated by the Nizam (the Nawab of Hyderabad princely state) and the landlords he patronised.

The heroic struggle of the peasants and other toiling people against the landlords’ goondas and the Nizam’s razakars and police was displayed by the play Maabhoomi, for instance, that was staged by the Praja Natya Mandali in those days to raise the consciousness of the people.

Another stall contained the photographs of 56 communist leaders of West Bengal and other revolutionaries who fought for the country’s freedom. These photographs, depicting these leaders’ struggles and sacrifices, equally inspired the visitors.

An exhibition on 25 years of the Left Front government in West Bengal was an added attraction, conveying to the visitors the alternative path charted out and progress achieved by that CPI(M)-led government.

The exhibition of cartoons was not only hilarious but also thought-provoking. About 170 cartoons drawn by 120 cartoonists and other artists were on display here. They depicted the disastrous consequences of globalisation; exploitation of the world by imperialism; the role of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the WTO as the agents of imperialism; and the ongoing struggles against globalisation and privatisation in several countries. These cartoons also lampooned the pro-imperialist, anti-people policies being followed by the BJP-led NDA government and ridiculed the war hysteria of the BJP. Some of them also depicted the determined struggles conducted by the CPI(M) against these policies. Some of the cartoons also exposed link-up between the Chandrababu Naidu government of Andhra Pradesh and the World Bank, while some of them highlighted the struggles of the state’s people including the three months long determined struggle against the power tariff hike in 2000.

Thousands of people visited the Vignana Mela and attended the folk arts festival over a week.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury inaugurated the Vignana Mela on March 16. Speaking on the occasion, he lambasted the Sangh Parivar’s moves to whip up communal animosity. He made it clear that the mayhem in Gujarat was no communal riot between two communities but state-sponsored terrorism against a particular community. Forces like the Sangh Parivar are trying to fulfil their nefarious designs by misusing religion.

Yechury also added that while the World Bank, IMF and WTO are seeking to ensure the US-led imperialist bloc’s domination over the world, the BJP is abjectly following them by imposing unbearable burdens on the people. He stressed the necessity of organising similar melas and exhibitions, in addition to our struggles in the economic and political fields against these forces, so as to raise the consciousness of the people and rouse the masses to defend our country. (MVR)