People's Democracy

 Big Public Meeting At Junagadh

ORGANISED by the CPI(M) on September 14 evening, the public meeting at big Kalva Chowk in Junagadh turned out to be a well attended event, unparalleled in the recent past. Prior to the meeting, a big procession started from Junagadh district committee office at Sejno OTO. Carrying red flags, banners and placards, several groups from villages around came for the procession and the meeting. Big chunks of women, industrial and agricultural workers, peasants, students and youth inundated the crowd.

Thousands of people witnessed the procession from their houses or clustered by the roadside. When the procession reached the Kalva Chowk, several hundreds had already gathered there.

Presided over by veteran CPI(M) leader in Gujarat, Subodh Mehta, the public meeting started with revolutionary songs by a Mahila Sangh team, led by Gujarat AIDWA general secretary Iva Ben Mehta.

CPI(M) Central Committee member Sukomal Sen was the first to address. In a very simple style, he elaborated the anti-people stance of BJP regime and castigated its corruption and scams. He said such is the situation in the state and the country that every section of society is rising against the BJP with the slogan “BJP Hatao, Desh Bachao!” Sen congratulated the Gujarat party leaders for such a successful programme.

Speaking in colloquial Gujarati, Subodh Mehta lightened the audience by ridiculing the BJP leaders’ stupidities and lust for corruption and their itching for money and power. He castigated the disinvestment of public sector undertakings as a great sin as it meant selling out public property at throwaway prices to foreigners. Vajpayee is the main culprit here, Mehta said. He also exposed the central government’s tricks to subvert the present secular character of the constitution as well as Vajpayee’s subservience to Bush. He described why it was necessary to immediately remove the BJP from power in the state and at the centre.

State CPI(M) secretary Arun Mehta described how the BJP was pushing the younger generations into the darkness of illiteracy by commercialising education and how it was corrupting the youth, forging casteist divisions and misusing religion for polarising the masses on communal lines. There is large-scale capitulation to American imperialists that may turn this country into an American adjunct. Hence he said the earlier the BJP is driven out, the better for the country and its people.