People's Democracy

AFTER the formation of the new state through bifurcation of Madhya Pradesh, the CPI(M) held its first Chhattisgarh state conference in Bhilai industrial township in Durg district, from January 20 to 22. The venue was named Shailendra Shaily Nagar after the name of the late MP state secretary who had played a leading role in developing the party in the undivided state.

Inaugurating the conference, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Dr M K Pandhe said the February assembly polls in four states might lead to a political crisis at the centre, but one could not say what shape this crisis would take. The people are full of anger against the BJP, and whosoever joined hands with the BJP badly suffered. In 15 out of 19 by-elections held since the last parliamentary polls, the BJP and its allies faced a severe defeat. The BJP is not only torn with internal dissension but also has problems with its allies in Punjab and UP. Therefore, these elections are going to prove decisive.

Detailing the anti-people steps taken by the BJP-led government at the centre in the last four-odd years, the CPI(M) leader said resistance to these steps is also growing. It is thus that all the major trade union organisations of the country have decided to organise joint demonstrations throughout the country on March 14.

The CPI(M) leader also dwelt upon the international situation and the US drive to impose its hegemony upon the whole world. Another major point of his speech was the Kashmir issue and he warned against its communalisation. He said the problem could be solved only by granting maximum possible autonomy to the state under article 370 of the constitution.

Coming to Chhattisgarh, Pandhe said the people’s aspirations remain unfulfilled even after the formation of a separate state. The reason is that the Jogi government is following the same policies as those of the Digvijay government. Being in favour of the bourgeois-landlord classes, these policies are not going to do any good to the common mass. The tribals are still losing their land. Atrocities against women and Dalits have increased. Organising the poor for a protracted struggle against these policies is necessary, and he asked the CPI(M) state conference to devise ways to find out how this obligation could be met.

Earlier, state secretariat member S Sudevan hoisted the party flag, following which the delegates paid floral tributes to the martyrs.

This session elected a three-member presidium based on S Sudevan, B Sanyal and Mrs Ranga Bharati. A three-member minutes committee and a three-member credentials committee were also elected. The inaugural session then paid homage to the Polit Bureau and Central Committee members who passed away since the last state conference in the united state. It also paid homage to Comrade Shailendra Shaily and other departed leaders of the party, mass organisations and the democratic movement.

The conference was greeted, among others, by CPI state secretariat member Murari Lal Banafar who stressed the need of forging Left unity and joint struggles. The MP state committee of the CPI(M) also sent a message of greetings which was read out.

The report presented by CPI(M) state secretary S Kumar in the morning session on January 21 was divided into three parts --- political report, organisational report, and report on mass organisations. Dealing with the problem of forging the CPI(M) as a political force in the state, the report said this requires breaking the present polarisation of state politics between the Congress and the BJP, and this cannot be done without launching a vigorous land struggle in rural areas and forging the working class struggles in the industrial and mining areas. Detailing the problems facing the Dalits and tribals in the state, the report warned against the dangers casteism and communalism are posing to the people’s struggles.

About the state government’s policies, the report said they have landed the state’s whole economy into a crisis. Starvation and emigration of the toiling people are the order of the day. Corruption is rampant and unemployment is growing. Rural poverty and landlessness are also growing while the rate of industrial growth has come down. But terming the BJP as the B team of the Congress in the state, the report said the BJP is unable to conduct any serious agitation against the Congress policies. It is only the Left parties that can and have to organise a struggle.

Presenting the achievements as well as weaknesses of the party, the report put forward a number of suggestions to strengthen its organisation. It self-critically reviewed the functioning of the state centre as well as various committees and also the party’ work on ideological front. It said every party member has to be active in some mass organisation and strive to raise the level of political consciousness of his own as well as other members. It reiterated the priorities of the party’s work in mass organisations and said that these priorities have to be met in a determined way.

The state secretary also called for raising a Rs 10 lakh building fund for the construction of a permanent state committee office.

The report was discussed by 35 delegates from various districts. Presenting their experiences about the possibilities of growth, the persisting weaknesses and the objective hurdles in the way, these delegates underlined how the party’s growth in Chhattisgarh is indeed possible. The report was adopted after the incorporation of various positive suggestions.

On this occasion, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member P Ramchandran dwelt upon certain wrong conceptions of the relationship between the party and mass organisations. He said the CPI(M) is the party of the working class and has to strive to improve its composition by inducting more and more members of the working class. At the same time, we cannot develop the working class as a political force without strengthening the party. He said organising the workers, peasants, women, youth and students and giving them political and ideological training is a primary task of the party, and not of the mass organisations. Referring to the stagnation in the party in Bhilai, he said there may be differences of opinion between any two members of an organisation, but these differences cannot be allowed to develop into personal enmity and to harm the party. Factionalism is cancerous for the party’s growth.

This first state conference of the CPI(M) in Chhattisgarh was joined by 129 delegates and 10 observers. But only 131 delegates, including 9 women, gave the relevant information to the credentials committee. The latter’s report makes it clear that the CPI(M) is a developing youthful party of workers and peasants in the state.

According to the report, 45 delegates came from the peasantry, 42 from the working class and 42 from the middle classes. They included 16 workers, 59 employees, 23 agriculturists, 6 lawyers and 9 professionals, while 13 delegates were wholetimers.

According to social backgrounds, 12 came from scheduled castes, 19 from scheduled tribes, 35 from backward classes and 11 from religious minorities.

As many as 57 delegates were below 40 years of age, 47 in the 41-50 age group and 25 were above 50. Mohan Singh Vij, 74, was the oldest among the delegates. He was also the oldest party member (since 1995), and he was also one with longest jail experience (2.5 years) and the longest experience of underground life (4 years). Prashant Jha, 20, was the youngest delegate.

One delegate was illiterate and 3 were only literate. 5 had got primary education, 18 were middle passed, 22 were high school, 26 higher secondary, 31 graduates and 18 post-graduates. There was one engineer, 2 journalists, 1 Ayurvedic physician, 2 MBAs, 1 B Ed, 1 PhD and 6 LLBs among the delegates.

As many as 71 delegates had come to a state conference for the first time. S Sudevan had taken part in all the ten CPI(M) state conferences since the foundation conference of its MP state unit.

Of the delegates, 77 had attended a state-level education camp of the party or mass organisations, and 79 were members of a party committee at one or another level. Their distribution was as below: CITU 49, Kisan Sabha/Adivasi Ekta Mahasabha 42, DYFI 6, SFI 4, AIDWA 4, non-CITU unions 12, science and literature fronts 3.

Only 3 delegates had joined the party before 1964. The distribution of others was as below --- 1964-75 – 9, 1976-95 – 72, 1995-2000 – 36. Three delegates had joined in 2001. Most of the delegates (97) were reading party literature and papers.

While 79 delegates had suffered repression during agitations, 58 had been to jail and 5 had lived underground.

To guide its work in the next three-odd years, the conference passed resolutions on issues facing the tribals, women and agriculture in the state, on the new economic policy, on the labour policy of the state government, on communalism, social oppression, terrorism and jingoism, and on the situation of education and employment in the state.

The conference elected a new 21-member state committee. During the voting, only 2 delegates opposed the panel presented by the outgoing state committee while no new name was proposed. In its first meeting, the new state committee elected a 7-member state secretariat, to be led by S Kumar as secretary. The conference also elected 4 delegates, 2 observers and 3 alternate delegates to the coming 17th congress of the party.

Addressing the concluding session, P Ramachandran said revolutionary transformation requires revolutionary struggle. But merely leading the mass organisations does not automatically lead to the building of a revolutionary party; that task requires conscious and sustained work.

Underlining the possibilities of growth in Chhattisgarh, he enumerated the main tasks in this direction, the most important being the sustained work among the tribals who constitute a big chunk of the state’s population. Referring to the rectification campaign of the party, he said conscious struggle has to be conducted against casteism, obscurantism, superstitions and feudal evils not only outside but also inside the party. No quarter can be given in this regard. He here underlined the need of conducting social reform movements in the state.

The CPI(M) leader said the party is the third biggest group in Indian parliament; moreover, it initiates a discussion on all the burning issues and gives it a direction. It has also played a leading role in Bengal, Tripura and Kerala --- as a party and through the Left-led governments. He expressed hope that the situation in Chhattisgarh too would change in the days to come, and asked the delegates to go to their respective areas with a renewed resolve about fulfilling the tasks delineated by the conference.

At the end of the concluding session, the CPI(M) leader also honoured Rajesh Kaushik, Sukhranjan Nandi, and Sapooran Kuldip who had worked day and night, tirelessly, in Bhilai for the preceding one month, in order to ensure the success of the conference.

On January 21 evening, a poets gathering was organised, where a number of poets recited their poems. State secretariat member Sanjay Parate honoured the poets and gave them a pen each. Reception committee secretary Vakil Bharati proposed the vote of thanks.

On the sidelines of the conference, CPI(M) MP state committee’s Hindi organ Lok Jatan interviewed Dr M K Pandhe about the union government’s policy towards the SAIL (Steel Authority of India Ltd). The issue is particularly relevant for the workers of the Bhilai steel plant and the local people in general.

Focussing on the move to sell the SAIL to private hands, Pandhe told the Committee of Public Sector Trade Unions would discuss the issue of sale of public sector units in its meeting in New Delhi on February 15 and may call for a nationwide strike against such anti-national moves. He said the government did not talk to the trade unions while formulating its new SAIL policy. It is also planning to sell the Selam steel plant and the RMD and to divide the Bokaro and Rourkela steel plants into several units. All this has created big discontent among steelworkers. Pandhe further said the SAIL has no right to deprive its workers of their due bonus, LTC, etc, or to impose taxes on these. He also demanded appointment of plant attendants.

Earlier, on the first day of the conference, more than two thousand people took out a colourful procession through the streets of Bhilai. Though the procession was not very big, the militant slogans raised by its participants gave an idea of the party’s resolve to break the present Congress-BJP polarisation through mass struggles. Folk dancers from tribal-dominated Bastar formed the head and tail of the procession, and attracted the attention of the passers-by with their lively performance all along the route. These tribal dancers were honoured at the public meeting that followed the procession. This was to honour the mass struggles that are taking shape in Chhattisgarh below the surface. Nay, the CPI(M) itself felt honoured while honouring these toiling men and women tribals.

This open session was addressed by P Ramachandran, M K Pandhe, S Kumar, Sanjay Parate and B Sanyal, and chaired by reception committee chairman P K Mukherjee. Here the speakers detailed the US drive for world hegemony and the Vajpayee government’s surrender to it in various fields. The BJP government’s communal drive, its attempts to beat the minorities into submission through the POTO and other means, its moves to saffronise our education system, its record in corruption, and the state government’s policies also came under severe attack. The speakers also underlined the need of forging a Left, secular and democratic alternative in the state and the country, and delineated the main requirements of this process. They urged the people of the state to come forward, unite and rise to forge struggles against the anti-people policies of the union and state governments and thus contribute to changing the whole country’s face.