People's Democracy

Denouncing Anti-National Policies of Vajpayee Govt

Lakhs Of Workers Court Arrest Nationwide

CHANTING slogans against the BJP-led NDA government’s anti-labour and anti-people policies, several lakhs of workers courted arrest throughout the country on January 8. They also resolved to hold a massive march to Parliament on February 26, and prepare for a countrywide strike thereafter as part of a phased agitation against these policies.

By late evening of January 8, leaders of the central trade unions claimed an unprecedented response to this jail bharo programme, the call for which was given jointly by the central trade unions, CITU, AITUC, HMS, INTUC, UTUC, UTUC-LS, AICCTU, TUCC and many employees federations of bank, insurance, state government, central government, telecom and other sectors.

In many district-headquarters and state capitals, this programme of mass satyagraha and court arrest was observed with enthusiasm and spontaneity.

In Delhi, a massive demonstration of several thousand workers was held at the Connaught Place-Shivaji Stadium area. The rally and the demonstration was addressed by leaders of central trade unions, viz M K Pandhe (CITU), Gurudas Dasgupta (AITUC), R A Mittal (HMS), M M Thomas (AICCTU), A K Mazumder (UTUC-LS), among others. After the rally, the demonstrators along with the leaders courted arrest, and were taken to Mandir Marg police station.

M K Pandhe, general secretary of CITU, while addressing the demonstration called upon the working class to mobilise in several lakhs for the march to Parliament on February 26 and prepare for a countrywide general strike soon thereafter. Though not participating in this joint agitation, the BMS leader, R K Bhakt, came to the meeting to convey his support to the struggle against the government policies.

As per reports received from various states, most of the major cities viz Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Mysore, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kanpur, Jaipur, Bhopal, Guwahati, Patna, Hyderabad, Chandigarh etc witnessed massive demonstrations of workers, irrespective of affiliations. They expressed their determined NO to the anti-national, anti-people policies of the BJP-led NDA government, which has virtually put the entire country on auction under the close supervision of the imperialist powers Similarly in the coal mining belt in  MP alone 500 workers courted arrest.

In Kolkata, more than 30,000 workers rallied in the central part of the city and several thousands courted arrest. Thousands more held rallies and courted arrest in all the districts and industrial centres of the state. Similar district wise demonstrations and courting arrest was reported from Kerala, Tripura, Haryana, Rajasthan.  In the industrial centre of Vishakapatnam, around 800 workers were arrested after a road-blockade demonstration. In Mysore, the workers of Kolar Gold Field, along with others, staged a militant demonstration before being arrested enmasse.

In Mangalore, Chikmagalure, Belgaum Davangiri, Sakleshpur and other areas of Karnataka around 10,000 workers courted arrested from the mobilisation of few lakhs of workers.

Road-blockade by several thousands of workers was reported from Sriganganagar, Hanumanagarh, Sikar, Ajmer, Kankrouli, Khetri, Chitorgarh and other places of Rajasthan. From Madhya Pradesh, around 1200 workers were arrested in Bhopal following a road-blockade and a massive rail-roko was organised in Gwalior.  Demonstration and road blockade was also reported from Jabalpur.

At Guwahati, in Assam, more than 3,000 workers were arrested following a huge demonstration and dharna by nearly 10000 workers.  In almost all the district of Assam the programme was organised and in Tinsukia, police lathicharged the demonstrators and also fired in the air to disperse the huge crowd. The police resorted to lathicharge in Chandigarh also, in which many workers were injured.

Reports of rail-roko, road blockade and mass arrest were received from Kanpur, Jhansi, Varansasi and Bareilly.  In Uttaranchal, demonstration and road blockade was held in Dehradun, Haldwani, Hardwar and few other places. In Maharashtra, reports of road blockade and mass arrest were received from Mumbai, Pune Nasik, Ichhalkaranji, Jaina, Nagpur, Sholapur, Kolapur, Aurangabad and Thane involving more then 50,000 workers.

 (INN)