People's Democracy

THE Bihar unit of the CPI(M) recently concluded its 17th state conference at Sugauli in East Champaran district. Sugauli has its own place in history because of the "Sagauli treaty" imposed by the British on Nepal. But it is also a base of the militant peasants’ and agricultural workers’ agitation that is going on in the state for the last three decades.

The venue of the conference was named after popular CPI(M) and Kisan Sabha leader Comrade Ajit Sarkar of Purnea, who was killed by the landlord-criminal nexus for his determined fight against these elements.

The state conference started on January 27 with an open rally when the town wore a colorful look. There were banners, flags and festoons all around, and so were red volunteers. Processions of workers and peasants, women, youth and students came from several districts --- on bicycles, motorcycles, bullock carts, tractors and other vehicles; several hundreds came on foot. The big ground of the local high school, the campus of the nearby middle school and the adjacent roads were full of people much before the meeting was to commence.

The rally was presided by CPI(M) district secretary and Kisan leader Ramashray Singh who has represented the area in state assembly several times. After artists of the Prerna troupe presented revolutionary songs, the rally was addressed by CPI(M) state secretary Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, CC member Subodh Roy, PB member Sitaram Yechury and others.

In his address Yechury detailed in a lucid style the current international and national situation, the US drive for global hegemony and the BJP government’s surrender to it. He expressed hope that the militant kisan movement and democratic movement in Bihar would, independently as well as in cooperation with other Left and secular forces, contribute to overthrowing the BJP regime that is not only imposing heavy burdens on the people but also communalising the whole society and thereby playing havoc with the future of the country.

The inaugural session of the conference started after Yechury hoisted the party flag, followed by floral tributes to the martyrs by more than ten thousand people.

After the election of a presidium and the passage of the condolence resolution, Yechury addressed the inaugural session, detailing the situation today. He said the capitalist world is facing an unprecedented crisis today; even the US and Japan are going through a severe recession. It is certain that the developed capitalist countries will try to shift the burden of this crisis on to the developing countries. This is what they are trying to do through the World Bank-IMF-WTO trio and their LPG policies. But resistance is also growing. Food riots have taken place in Argentina. Progressive forces have won in Venezuela. Communist parties from 148 countries met in Vienna and reiterated the resolve to fight US imperialism. Communist parties have also gained strength in former socialist countries like Russia, Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic. The US has faced a defeat several times in the UNO on the issue of Cuba, Iraq and Libya. Yet the US is still the biggest economic and military power and we are duty bound to forge resistance against its hegemonic drive.

Yechury also detailed the threat being posed by the BJP-led government and the communal offensive launched by the RSS-led outfits. He said we will have to involve all the Left and secular forces against this threat, but this requires that we also develop our independent strength. In the context of Bihar, he said many people who join us on class and economic issues, cross over to the bourgeois-landlord parties at the time of elections because of their wrong understanding that the Left parties do not fight on social issues. He said we have to forge struggles against social oppression also in order to built a strong party. At the same time we have to internally fight against whatever non-class and other wrong tendencies appear in the party.

The political-organisational report presented by state secretary Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi took stock of activities in the last four years since the Darbhanga conference, concluding that the economic and social situation in Bihar has gone from bad to worse in this period. In the 1991 census, Bihar accounted for 10.2 per cent of Indian population but it covered only 5.29 per cent of the total area. After division, dependence upon agriculture in the state has grown. Anarchy and corruption are rampant in education, health and other social sectors. Atrocities against women, Dalits and the poor have increased. The RJD-Congress government of Bihar has failed to solve the deepening crisis. Though Laloo Yadav declared that Bihar could be divided only on his body, he preferred to save his government and joined the BJP-NDA conspiracy to divide the state.

Detailing the land struggle and other activities of the party, the report put forward tasks for future. It reviewed the state of party organisation, of political-ideological education, mass organisations, collective functioning, party membership, democratic centralism, rectification campaign, sale of party literature, party fund, and the position of other political parties.

On January 28, 69 delegates discussed the report in depth, for 9 hours. Some of the main points to emerge from this discussion were as below.

1) To streamline and give a direction to the land struggle that started in 1994, and to preserve its achievement.

2) To learn from the experiences of joint and independent struggles, and to remove the weaknesses.

3) To find out how far the rectification campaign has been carried out, and how it can be taken forward.

4) To review the state of alien, non-class and parliamentary tendencies, and to fight them.

5) To assess the tendency of postponing the implementation of concrete organisational decisions, and to rectify the weaknesses.

6) To assess the extent of implementation of party norms about collective decision making, individual responsibility with collective review, democratic centralism, the party’s relationship with mass organisations, cadre policy, arrangement of wage for wholetimers, etc.

7) To assess the extent of success in fighting factionalism.

8) To assess the extent of correct interpretation and implementation of party line on various issues, including elections.

The delegates also came out with several concrete and important suggestions in streamlining the party organisation, sale of party papers and literature, the role of literacy, science, cultural and other movements, etc.

Replying to the discussion, Vidyarthi congratulated the delegates for their healthy criticism, self-criticism and constructive suggestions, promising that they will be incorporated in the final report. He asked them to be prepared for struggles on economic and social issues in the coming days. He said the new state committee would seriously consider the following issues and come out with concrete tasks:

1) Outlining a one year-programme regarding agitation and organisation. An extended meeting of the state committee will review such programmes every year.

2) A plan to strictly implement the party rules regarding membership renewal and levy.

3) Concrete steps within six months to rectify the situation in the districts where the party organisation is weak.

4) Fixing of annual targets for party members regarding their work on mass organisations, to be followed by periodic reviews.

5) Fixing of annual targets for the sale of party literature and papers, and members’ responsibilities in this regard, to be followed by reviews.

6) Annual plans for party classes, fund collection, etc.

The report was adopted by a big majority.

The credentials committee report, given separately, also made a number of concrete suggestions regarding various aspects of party functioning, so that party conferences in future may have a better picture of the state of party organisation, class and social composition of the party members, their work in mass organisations, their level of consciousness, and so on. The committee was based on Arun Kumar Mishra (convenor), Sarvodaya Sharma and Umesh Prasad. Its report was unanimously adopted.

The conference also adopted resolutions against atrocities on agricultural workers and women, on retrenchment of government employees, on agriculture in Bihar, on deterioration in educational and cultural fields, on the POTO and the bureaucrats’ attacks on people’s representatives, and on the need to save the Barauni fertiliser plant. The resolutions committee comprised Ramdeo Verma (convenor), Lallan Chowdhury and Avadhesh Kumar. The presidium was based on Chandi Prasad, Umakant Shukla, Sudhabindu Mitra, Sarangdhar Paswan and Balram Yadav. The outgoing state committee acted as the steering committee.

The conference elected a 65-member state committee that, in its first meeting, re-elected Vidyarthi as state secretary. The state secretariat will be elected in April, after the party congress. Till then, Vidyarthi and Subodh Roy will look after party work with the help of state committee members. The state committee was authorised to co-opt three members later. The conference also elected a state control commission with Umakant Shukla (convenor) and Radha Raman, apart from 18 delegates and 2 observers for the party congress.

The concluding address at the conference was made by Sitaram Yechury who outlined how the party could grow in Bihar by taking advantage of the intensifying contradictions and by overcoming its ideological and organisational weaknesses. The delegates dispersed with renewed determination, after singing the Internationale in chorus.

The reception committee, headed by Ramashray Singh as chairman and Akhtar Hussain as secretary, had made all-out efforts towards the success of the conference. It also gave the state committee a fund of Rs 10,000.