People's Democracy

AUGUST 9, the Quit India anniversary day, saw a militant protest in Orissa’s capital, Bhubaneswar. If the call given in 1942 was against the direct British imperialist rule in the country, this year the protest was against an organisation that has been and is acting as a vehicle of neo-colonialism in the country. The organisation in question is Department for International Development (DFID), the agency at whose dictates the successive state government of Orissa have been carrying out ruinous fiscal ‘reforms’ in active connivance with the BJP-led NDA government at the centre.

On that day, thousands of workers, peasants, youth, students and women marched the streets of Bhubaneswar and stormed the office of the DFID, the British agency. The call for the action was given by the Campaign Against Ruinous Fiscal Reforms (CARFIR), and the two demands that rented the air were "DFID, Go Back!" and "Scrap Runious Fiscal Reforms!"

Braving heavy and continuous downpour and the heavy police bandobust by a shameless state government, the protesters cried loud slogans and marched in tune with the sound of a bugle and the rhythms of a folk dance troupe. The procession comprised CITU-led mines workers, tribal men and women from Sundargarh, as also the AIKS-led peasants from Ganjam, Balasore, Puri and Bhadrak districts. There were bustee dwellers and unorganised workers from Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, and there were the middle class employees of the state and central governments, of non-government sectors and the public sector units. In a sense, the march represented a mini Orissa --- indicating the onset of a united protest against the ruinous fiscal ‘reforms.’

As the police did not allow the procession to move beyond a certain point, a protest meeting was held a few yards before the DFID office. It was under the chairmanship of Balasahib Patnaik, a nonagenarian freedom fighter and Prajamandal leader from Dhenkanal. The meeting was addressed by former Lok Sabha speaker Rabi Roy, former CPI(M) member of parliament Sivaji Patnaik, teachers’ leader Abani Baral (CPI), Santosh Das and Pradipta Fanda (both CPI-M), Sarat Mansingh (FB), Baisnab Parida (SP), Bishnu Mohanty (CITU), Jagnnath Mishra (AIKS), Puspa Panda (AIDWA), Dushmanta Das (OSKEM), Nirmal Das (state government employees), R K Parija (state PSUs), Mohan Jena, Sanatan Patra and Rajendra Sarangi (NGOs).

Now, after the successful protest march to the DFID office, the CARFIR has called for observance of the coming October 10 as Black Day. Last year, it was on this very day that the second memorandum of understanding was signed between the state and the centre, to accelerate the implementation of the disastrous ‘reform’ measures in Orissa, causing havoc for the state and its people.