GUJARAT

 Bhavnagar Holds Sadbhavana Sammelan

EVERY time Vajpayee speaks a little louder against the terrorists, Bush hushes him up and he calms down. Thus it is evident that the BJP rulers and the VHP’s shackled circus lions cannot and will not be able to do anything in this regard. This was how Gujarat.com columnist Digant Oza and renowned journalist and literary figure Batuk Vora characterised the present situation. They were addressing a well-attended Sadbhavana Sammelan (harmony convention) in Bhavnagar.

The convention was sponsored by several organisations of workers, women, youth, students and intellectuals. Those who addressed it included M P Rajyaguru (All India Postal Employees Unions), L R Patel (Western Railway Employees Union), Joku Sheth (Shiv Prasad Lukai) and Professor Mehboob  Desai (textile workers), Ganshyambhai Parekh (Mazdoor Kalyan Sangh), D R Rana (HMS), Gangadhar  Raval  (municipal employees), Hemu Bhagvan (Zila Mazdoor Sangh), Pathoobhai Gandabhai and Chandubhai  Master (AITUC), Mitesh Desai, Ramesh Vaja and Ashok Sompura (DYFI), Ivaben Mehta, Naliniben Jadeja, Vahidaben Padhiyar and Manguben  Parchhamiya (AIDWA), Lilaben Bhatt (Mahila Mandal), Manekben  Makvana and Hardevsinh Gohel (corporators), Ibrahim Pathan (municipal corporation), Naresh Gohel (SFI), Munikumar Mehta and Chandrakant A Shukla (AIBEA), Ashit Chandrana and Shirish Shukla (LIC), and Arun Mehta (CITU).

State CITU president Subodh Mehta quoted several stanzas from Bashir Bhadra and recalled several experiences to rouse the audience.

According to Digant Oza, chief minister Narendra Modi was rousing passions during his so-called Gaurav Yatra, showing that he is not interested in establishing peace or giving protection to the sufferers. On the contrary, he is proud of having created the surcharged situation. Thus the onus of defeating this threat falls upon the secular forces.

Oza also pointed out how communal forces were trying to rouse passions in order to divert the people’s attention from their real issues. In the state at present, about 3,000 villages are thirsty and lack drinking waters, rural electricity supply has been dismal, even cities are facing one day power cut every weak. In fact, riots are organised to silence the voices rising against such a state of affairs.

In his popular style, former MLA and journalist Batuk Vora ridiculed the BJP government’s self-righteous postures. He said he had travelled around the world but nowhere had he witnessed such an exercise of the state itself encouraging strife. In Gujarat, peace endeavours were being threatened and those who work for peace and harmony are considered enemies of the state. Quoting a series of figures, he said the Gujarat government’s indebtedness had risen to more than Rs 47,000 crore. There is no money even to pay to the staff’s salaries. The state resorted to taking as many as 21 overdrafts.

Vora appealed for a total unity against communalism, a huge mobilisation and absolute concord between secular forces, and congratulated the organisers of the Sadbhavana Sammelan in Bhavnagar.

Arun Mehta said the self-appointed patriots of the Hindutva brigade are out to foment communal polarisation and build their vote banks by posing as the Hindus’ saviours, at the same time making attacks on the innocent minority people. So we have to run a relentless drive and launch an all-out offensive against them at the state as well as national level.

 Subodh Mehta asked the people of Bhavnagar to present a model of resistance to the communal forces and hold high the banner of concord and cooperation throughout the state, to cry halt to the fascist reactionary project and conspiracies. The dark forces of the Sangh Parivar are out to mar our future development and are behaving as the paid agents of imperialism, he said, adding that there won’t be any peace till these forces are totally wiped out.