Several Lakh People March In Kolkata

Brigade Rally Calls For Ouster of BJP Govt

ADDRESSING one of the most massive rallies that the historic Brigade Parade grounds in Kolkata has witnessed, the state CPI(M) leadership called for the ouster of the BJP-led NDA government for the good of the nation.  They also condemned the imperialist conspiracies against Iraq, and underlined the need to further augment the developmental programmes of the Left Front government.

Once the wintry fog lifted from the grounds on January 12, the huge proportions of the assemblage came into view.  Conservative estimates would put the number of the rallyists at over six lakh of people.  As the rally was about to end, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Biman Basu (who presided over the meeting) was heard announcing over the public address system that several lakh more were yet unable to reach the venue having been held up in traffic snarls.  Even as the procession of the south 24 Parganas unit of the CPI(M) entered the grounds, its tail yet remained at the Gariahat crossing in the south of the metropolis.

The various units of the CPI(M) conducted a month long intense campaign amongst the people on the following issues on which the rally was organised.

• against the nationwide policy of privatisation
• for strengthening national integrity, unity, and communal harmony
• against communalisation of education
• against imperialist war conspiracies
• to protest against the appeasement of imperialism by the BJP government
• against terrorist activities
• for the wider implementation of the pro-people and developmental policies of the Bengal Left front government

The speakers, whose ranks included Polit Bureau members of the CPI(M), Jyoti Basu, Anil Biswas, and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and central committee member, Mohd Amin, addressed themselves to these issues while they spoke from a raised dais that was decorated in red and had nine Red Flags fluttering in the afternoon breeze from the backdrop of the podium.  The flags represented the political parties that constitute the Bengal Left Front.  The leaders of the Left Front were seated on the dais.

After Biman Basu had summarised in some detail the political content of each of the issues, Anil Biswas, who has been ailing for some time, spoke briefly. Over the past one month, big rallies, said the state secretary of the CPI(M), could be organised in the districts and several of these had attendance of more than two lakh of people.  Congratulating the various Party units for mobilising the people to attend the district-level rallies and the Brigade meeting, Biswas said that in the days to come, the popular support must be further consolidated.

Biswas served a warning to say that the violence currently unleashed in the rural areas on the CPI(M) and the Left Front workers under the aegis of the forces of reaction would increase as the Panchayat polls drew nearer.  The Party organisation must withstand and resist the assaults and also engage itself in the task of orienting the Party organisation to face the elections.  In the process, the Left unity must be strengthened further and the Left Front made stronger than ever before.

The reactionary and anti-people BJP government must be ousted if the people were to live in a healthy political, economic, and social environment, was how Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee commenced his speech.  The country faced a crisis-like situation, said Bhattacharjee and he went on to mention how the public sector was being dismantled while the union government maintained a studied silence on the crucial issue of land reforms.

The economic policies of the BJP government were being dictated by the IMF and the World Bank, even as it did its best to allow the welfare state to wither away to please the corporate sector, both national and multi-national. The assault on the rationing system was one important example of the innately anti-people outlook of the Vajpayee régime, said Bhattacharjee.

Spelling out the progress achieved by the Bengal Left Front government, the CPI(M) leader stated that the fact of the Bengal LF government having to operate within a national scenario that was marked with dysfunction must not be lost sight of while passing value judgements.

In Bengal, the land belonged to the rural poor just as the panchayats remained with the rural populace as vibrant institutions of local self-government.  The dignity of the rural folk that the Left Front has succeeded in establishing must not be allowed to impinge upon in any circumstances.

The agricultural success of the Bengal Left Front government, continued Bhattacharjee, must be further improved upon with emphasis on agro-based industries and on diversification of the produce.

The industrial scene in Bengal had become bleak what with the union government closing down public sector units and allowing the tea industry to face stiff competition from cheap imports. The liquidation of the packaging materials act affected the jute industry severely.  In the circumstances, the Bengal LF government has gone in for such ‘sunrise’ industries as petro-chem, info-tech, and food processing.

Setting the goals for the days to come Bhattacharjee said that the literacy made must be made to touch 100 per cent of the populace. The LF government must cast a wider economic network to protect the poor. The Left Front must be politically strengthened further. The political opposition of the Trinamul Congress, the BJP, and the Pradesh Congress must be isolated from the people.

Also speaking briefly was former Bengal chief minister, Jyoti Basu who reminded the assemblage at the beginning of his speech that the vast Brigade rally was the first being organised by the CPI(M) following the victory rally held after the electoral triumph of the Left Front in 2001.  That electoral win, said Jyoti Basu, “has increased our responsibilities manifold as the people look to us to ameliorate the problems they face in their everyday struggle.”  The people resided their faith in the CPI(M), said Basu, because “they have seen us while we were in the opposition for 26 years and how we had functioned.” 

The BJP-run union government, said Basu, was causing immense harm to the nation, and must be ousted.  The prime minister who could not “show his face” in the aftermath of the Gujarat killings was suddenly praising the Gujarat chief minister sky-high right after BJP had managed to win there.  The BJP were engaged in comprehensively ruining the environment of harmony and amity in the country even as they went about devastating the nation’s economy. The Left democratic, and secular forces must lead the battle to oust the BJP government, said Basu.

Turning to the panchayat polls, Basu said that despite difference of opinion during the last panchayat polls among the Left Front partners in over 2000 seats, the Left Front could win more than 70 per cent of the votes polled in the rural areas.  This time around, Basu declared, “we all of us must ensure that there are no such differences of views amongst the Left Front.”

Basu also enumerated the progress achieved by the Left Front government in various spheres, its pro-people activities even as it has gone strengthening the democratic process itself in the state.

Labour minister of the Left Front government, Mohd Amin, too, addressed the rally where he flayed the various anti-worker initiatives of the BJP-run union government.

Units of the IPTA presented mass songs at the rally.

(B Prasant)