People's Democracy

50 Years Of Ganashakti Printers

B Prasant

 GANASHAKTI Printers celebrated its golden jubilee on December 22, 2002.  Set up back in 1952, the first Communist press could never be effectively shut down despite the repeated banning of the Communist Party in post-independence India.

Addressing a meeting held at the Promode Dasgupta Bhavan in Kolkata to commemorate the occasion, Polit Bureau member of the CPI (M), Jyoti Basu emphasised the crucial importance of a Party press in the development and growth of the Communist Party. 

Basu said that it was important to nail and rebut the lies and the false allegations about the Communist Party that would appear from time in the corporate press.  In this task, said Basu, the Party press had a leading role to play.  Jyoti Basu recalled the role played by comrades Muzaffar Ahmad, comrade Promode Dasgupta, and comrade Saroj Mukherjee in building up the Ganashakti Printers over the years through painstaking efforts.

However, said Basu, mere rebuttals were not enough.  The workers of the Communist Party needed to go deep amongst the masses and expose the lies, which were being bandied about in the corporate media.  Small group meetings must be organised to carry out this important task, noted the former Bengal chief minister.  Arguing for further strengthening of the Left Front, Basu said that a strong Left Front would make for a stronger Party in Bengal and outside of it.

Speaking on the Gujarat election results, Basu said the BJP had succeeded in misleading the people belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in Gujarat in swinging the vote in its favour. Trenchantly criticising the ‘soft Hindutva’ line adhered to by the Congress in Gujarat, Basu hoped that the Congress would heed the lessons emanating from the poll outcome. 

The so-called Gujarat line, said Basu, would never succeed in Bengal.  If the elements of reaction were encouraged by what had transpired in Gujarat of late, concluded the CPI (M) leader, the progressive forces continued to draw inspiration from the example set by Bengal.

Addressing the gathering, secretary of the Bengal unit of the CPI (M), Anil Biswas said that the Party press was an important means through which the Communist Party could define and explain before the people its aims, its outlook, and its programme.  The part played by such early Party publications as Majoor Chaashi (workers-peasants), Langal (ploughshare), Naba Yug (new age), and Ganashakti (power of the people) was crucial for the growth of the Communist Party, said Biswas.

Anil Biswas noted that in the fifteen months of 1948-49, the Party publications were banned no less than 33 times.  However, the Party press could not be shut down.  Biswas recalled the role played by the late comrades Bankim Mukherjee, Saroj Mukherjee, and Sushil Chaudhury in building up and strengthening the Ganashakti Printers.  Biswas also noted, in this connection, the laudable role of Jyoti Basu, of former mayor of Kolkata, Kamal Basu, and of Madan Saha who continues to work in the Ganashakti Printers in developing the Party press.

Turning to the Gujarat poll aftermath, Biswas said that the blatant communal ploy of the BJP in Gujarat had certainly increased the quantum of responsibility of the communists in the country.  Criticising the irresponsible way the Bengal BJP leaders kept harping on putting to use the ‘Gujarat line’ in Bengal, Biswas said that such attempts would be appropriately countered by the politically-conscious people of Bengal.  The Gujarat line would prove as much of a failure as the anti-Communist line of Gulzarilal Nanda in 1964-65, the ‘new possibilities’ line of the Y B Chavan-led Congress in 1972-77, and the more recent ‘Panskura line’ of the Trinamul Congress. 

Among other speakers were Kamal Basu, and Samir Dasgupta, the former manager of the Ganashakti Printers.  Jyoti Basu and Kamal Basu, members of the first committee of management of the Ganashakti Printers, were felicitated on the occasion.