Orissa To Witness Human Chain On Independence Day

Rabinarayan Mallick

ALL over Orissa, independence day will be observed this year as the Day for National Unity and Communal Harmony. Human chains, meetings and seminars, etc, will be organised all over the state.

The decision was unanimously by a state-level anti-communal convention, organised by the Orissa state unit on the National Platform of Mass Organisations (NPMO). The convention took place in Soochana Bhawan, Bhubaneswar, on July 13.

Presenting the base paper of the convention, Jogendra Tripathy (HMS) condemned the state-sponsored anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat and the ill designs of the Sangh Parivar to establish a rabidly intolerant, fascistic regime. The base paper raised five demands. These were --- dismissal of mass murderer Narendra Modi from the chief ministership of Gujarat; ban on the VHP-Bajrang Dal combine for openly inciting violence and for their contempt of judiciary; ban on fundamentalist organisations of all hues; evolution of a peaceful solution to the J&K problems by restoring to the state maximum autonomy; and conduct of a campaign for communal harmony countrywide.

After a wide-ranging discussion in which 17 speakers took part, the base paper was adopted unanimously. These speakers were from various NPMO constituents and included Duti Krushna Panda (AITUC, and a former MP), Bishnu Mohanty (CITU), Bishnupada Das (UTUC-IS), Yadhisthir Mohapatra (AICCTU), Ramesh Swain and Krishna Patra (HMS), Jagannath Mishra (AIKS), Banalata Jena (Utkal Mahila Samiti), Yudhisthir Behera (DYFI), Dushmanta Das, Rabi Mallick, Souribandhu Kar (middle class employees), among others.

The convention had a presidium comprising Sivaji Patnaik (CITU, and a former MP), Basudev Samal (AITUC), Jogendra Tripathy (HMS), Khitish Biswal (AICCTU) and Raghunath Das (UTUC-LS).

The convention also adopted three resolutions. One condemned the attack on Captain Lakshmi Sahgal by the saffron goons at Mumbai while another condemned the highhanded behaviour of the BJP government’s police against some Delhi journalists. The third resolution condemned the government’s decision to privatise the National Aluminium Company (NALCO).