People's Democracy

VARANASI  

Rally, Convention Against BJP Policies, US Imperialism

JUNE 26, the 28th anniversary of the Emergency promulgated by Mrs Indira Gandhi in 1975, saw a mass mobilisation of the peasantry, many of them women, from over 40 villages around Varanasi. Intellectuals, writers, activists of some three dozen NGOs, political parties and mass organisations also came in large numbers. The function was organised by the Vanchit Adhikar Manch.

A 2,000 strong rally marched from the Bharat Mata Mandir to the Gandhian Study Institute of Kashi Vidyapith, where a convention was held, presided over by Suneet Chopra, joint secretary, All India Agricultural Workers Union. The convention began with a jugalbandi featuring Pandit Vikas Maharaj on sarod and Mumtaz Khan on shehnai, with Prabhash Maharaj accompanying on tabla.

Representatives of some 35 NGOs, mass organisations and political parties attended the convention. It was addressed, among others, by CPI(M) state secretariat member Dr Hira Lal, Vanchit Adhikar Manch convenor Dr Lenin, Magsaysay Award winning social activist Sandip Pandey who returned the award money, legal NGO activists Colin Gonsalves and Ambrish Rai from Delhi, Chittaranjan Singh (PUCL), Prashant Shukla (CPI-ML Liberation), Dalit writer and activist Kanwal Bharati, senior journalist and activist Mani Mala, Hasina Khan (Awaz-e-Niswan), Dhirendra Pratap, Ashok Bharati, Pawan Rana, Mamata Das, Ashok Anand and V B Rawat.

The convention passed a demands charter opposing the unipolar US-dominated world and asked the Indian government not to send troops to Iraq. It urged for a stiff fight to defend India’s composite culture against the forces of communal fascists who are attempting to impose a unitary Hindutva in its place. It urged for day-to-day struggles against casteism and communalism dividing our society and diverting people from fighting for their just demands. It urged for a bitter struggle against the central government’s attempts to side with US imperialism for a few crumbs from its table, which the USA would not give it. It condemned the failure of the central government and bourgeois-landlord state governments to implement land reforms, for the destruction of the PDS and for their failure to provide immediate relief to millions of starving people in the country. It urged for an employment guarantee scheme and free and compulsory education. It condemned the failure to provide house-sites and shelters for the homeless. It also demanded an end to atrocities against the scheduled castes and tribes, and to such evil practices like sati, child labour and bondage. It condemned the murder of innocent people through fake encounters and harassment of people under POTA. It called for a comprehensive central legislation for agricultural labourers and a similar one for domestic workers.

The convention urged for a powerful movement to defeat the anti-people policies of the BJP-led government and its attempt to invite US imperialism into our country.

Putting this Banaras charter to vote before hundreds of people from different walks of life, Suneet Chopra in his presidential address said that authoritarian forces are still active in the country. Only the masks they wear are different at various times and places. He said the government at the centre is an authoritarian and pro-imperialist one, and is using divisive tactics to divert the people from united resistance. Chopra called for a broadbased unity in struggle to defeat the BJP’s divisive, communal and fascist designs and to rally the masses against the global offensive US imperialism has launched to control the whole world. He demanded that the Indian government give up its abhorrent plan to send Indian troops to Iraq and end its collaboration with the US armed forces that is threatening our national security. He urged for a powerful struggle against the central government’s policy of looting the farmers, agricultural labourers, workers and middle classes under the WTO’s LPG prescriptions. Such policies are in favour of the big bourgeoisie, landlords and their imperialist collaborators, and need to be defeated.

The charter was voted for unanimously. It called for a boycott of Pepsi Cola, Coca Cola and of goods from multinationals of the USA and its allies. This powerful response from people after the BSP’s narrow victory in the Chiraigaon assembly byelection because of the failure of the Congress(I) and SP to unite to defeat the BJP-BSP combine, brought new hope to the people of Varanasi that consistent forces are there to take up the struggle for democratic rights as well as to fight communalism, authoritarianism and imperialist penetration. (INN)