People's Democracy

Youth, Collect School Kits For Gujarat Children

THE depredations of communal fascism, as witnessed in Gujarat, has tolled the bell for all the democratic, secular, rational and peace-loving citizens of the country. The cold-blooded murder of thousands of innocent people, the cunning misuse and abuse of the state apparatus to kill, loot and terrorise the people, and utter contempt for the highest law of the land, the country’s constitution --- these have been the key elements of the RSS-BJP drive for a Hindu Rashtra. According to media reports, lakhs of victims are still living in camps in miserable conditions. School-going children are still unable to join their classes for reasons varying from fear to a lack of basic necessities.

It was in such a background that the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) gave the call for a nationwide School Kit Collection campaign. The campaign elicited a high degree of enthusiasm throughout the country. Exposing the real face of the Gujarat pogrom, it encouraged the common youth and students to participate in the collection process. Comprising school bags, notebooks, pencils, rubber erasers, sharpeners, geometry boxes and even umbrellas (as in Kerala), etc, thousands of school kits were collected during this month-long campaign.

West Bengal and Kerala extensively carried out the campaign. Bengal not only carried out a planned campaign, but also sent a team of students and youth for the distribution process. Materials were collected from other states as well, including Karnataka, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and so on.

The DYFI thus collected more than 15,000 kits in the country. In West Bengal, the Students Federation of India (SFI) also participated in the campaign.

Two joint teams of youth and students carried out the work of distributing the kits on August 9 and 10. One of these teams was given the name of Baroda Team and another the name of Sabarkantha-Himmatnagar-Modasa Team.

Of these, the first team was led by Tapas Sinha (general secretary, DYFI), and comprised of Asitanga Ganguly (secretary, West Bengal DYFI), Abdul Rouf (DYFI leader from West Bengal) and Arindam Mukherjee, Soumitra Mondal and Malay Dutta (all from SFI). From Gujarat, state DYFI secretary Arun Mehta and Ashok Sompura were present in this team. It visited areas like Bapunagar, Gomtipur Post Office hall, Maniyarwad, Ambalal Chali, Vateva and Sunflower School.

Samik Lahiri (general secretary, SFI) led the second team that comprised Pradip Ray (DYFI leader from West Bengal), Kishor Das and Jay Chakraborty (DYFI), Deb Shankar Rai Chaudhary and Santinu Mishra (SFI) and Ibrahim Pathan from Gujarat. They visited areas like Serespur, Sabarkantha, Himmatnagar, Modasa and some other places.

On the DYFI’s invitation, West Bengal Left Front chairman Biman Basu and Lok Sabha member Basudev Acharya distributed the kits. The meetings held for the distribution purpose drew sizeable sections of the people, apart from youth and students. Everyone appeared critical about the shameless behaviour of the state government led by Narendra Modi. The faces of those in the crowd still betrayed the fear born out of the carnage that their native places were subjected to.

One of the teams also visited the Shah Alam camp where 4,700 affected people are still residing. The first team also went to the tomb of Ustad Faiyaz Khan, a renowned musician, which the perpetrators of the carnage totally burnt down. Efforts are on to rebuild this tomb.

CONVENTION AGAINST

COMMUNAL FASCISM

On August 10, in Ambedkar Auditorium in Ahmedabad city, the DYFI and SFI organised a convention of youth and students against the bloody carnage in Gujarat. More than 600 young women and men, including intellectuals, attended the convention that Biman Basu inaugurated. He laid stress upon the people to come together to see that communal forces led by Narendra Modi are thrown out in the state. Laying bare the essence of the saffron brigade’s Hindu Rashtra concept, he drew the people’s attention to Guru Golwalkar’s satanic verses that categorically state that Muslims would have no rights in the Hindu Rashtra, and added that the formula was aptly tested in Gujarat. He said the forces of communalism represent the elements of fascism in our country and hence they have to be fought head on. He further stated that the forces of communalism have nothing to do with the concepts of a modern nation and never fought for the nation’s independence. Biman Basu called upon the youth to link their day to day problems and struggles with the people’s struggle against communalism.

Basudev Acharya was equally categorical in condemning the attack sponsored by the state government. He said the most dangerous thing about the whole episode was that there has been a total collapse of constitutional machinery in the state. He said, "If a crime is committed, the constitution has given the right to the victim to lodge a complaint with a police station and the police is bound to register the complaint. But exactly the opposite happened in Gujarat." He bluntly stated that the chief minister was fully responsible for the pogrom that was carried out in the state.

The other speakers to speak on the occasion included Tapas Sinha and Arun Mehta. They urged upon the youth of the country to rise in unison and defeat the ominous move of the RSS-led Parivar. Sinha emphatically stated that the RSS and BJP are striving to divert the attention of the common people from the real issues, so that the failure of their governance may be pushed under the carpet and they could carry on their rule for some more time. A very old tactic of the RSS is to occupy both the spaces --- of pro-establishment as well as of anti-establishment. The government intends to divert the common people’s attention from problems like soaring unemployment and LPG policies that are spelling misery and poverty for the masses and making them restless. The youth will have to face the challenge, as they are one of the prime targets of communal fascism.

Sanat Kumar Vyas (president, Progressive Writers Association) presided over the convention that ended with a slogan calling for defeating the communal forces and guarding the rights and interests of the common people.