People's Democracy

THE BJP-BSP got the first set-back in UP with a complete bandh held on July 9 that affected even towns in neighbouring districts like Mughalsarai, Chandauli and Bhadohi. The bandh was unprecedented in the history of Varanasi. The popular support for it was evident in how the rural areas and even shops in lanes and by-lanes downed their shutter responding to the bandh call.

It is significant that all political parties united in their opposition to the insecurity of life and property under BSP-BJP rule, and lack of basic amenities like power and water. It resulted in the most effective protest.

A large number of arrests were made, prominent among them were Suneet Chopra, CPI(M) central committee member and Heera Lal Yadav, CPI(M) state secretariat member, A J Lari, Apna Dal, Satish Choubey and Daya Shankar Mishra, Congress, Surendra Yadav, SJP, Nizamuddin, SP, Arvind Singh, former MLC and Kumar Suresh Singh, SJP. The arrests proved futile and gave the people of Varanasi a chance to express their true feelings about the anti-people character of BSP-BJP rule in UP.

The politics of murder has gone unopposed. The head of department of Fine Arts at BHU, the internationally known sculptor, Balbir Singh Katt, has been missing for over two years without a trace after he refused to sign documents to cover up corruption at the university. Now, important trustees like Sutapa Chatterjee, a theatre person and K N Pandy, a teacher who is allegedly a victim because of an RSS infight, as well as lawyers and businessmen have been murdered with impunity.

This led to the formation of an all-party struggle committee whose co-convernos are the district secretary of CPI(M) Heera Lal Yadav and district president of SJP, Kunwar Suresh Singh. It is the success of this committee in bringing together all political parties and giving people's demands for security, water and electricity a voice that ensured the success of this major action against the BSP-BJP regime in UP.