People's Democracy

CPI(M)’s Samara Bheri  Meeting In Nalgonda

  M Venugopala Rao

OVER a lakh of people from all over Nalgonda district rallied in streams to culminate at  government junior college ground where Samara Bheri (war cry) public meeting was organised by the district committee of the CPI(M) on January 30.  Holding banners and red falgs, and raising slogans against the misrule of the BJP-led and TDP governments at the centre and in the state, thousands of workers, sympathisers and wellwishers of the Party poured into the venue of the meeting. The poor, dalits, backward classes, workers, peasants, employees, intellectuals, middle class people and others came on foot, by motor vehicles and cycles. Resounding slogans like CPM zindabad, Long Live Red Flag, Lal Salam to martyrs and Hindu-Muslim bhai, bhai rented the air. Artists playing their musical instruments and in fancy dresses portrayed the anti-people policies of the state and central governments. Several people felt the massive turn out reminded them of the public meeting held on December 3, 1997, in connection with the state conference of the CPI(M) in Nalgonda.

Addressing the Samara Bheri meeting, Buddhadev Bhattacharya, Polit Bureau member  of the CPI(M) and chief minister of West Bengal, came down heavily on the anti-people policies and the ‘feel good’ false propaganda unleashed by the BJP-led NDA government.  How could the people feel good under the BJP regime when people were being killed in the name of religion for the sake of gaining power, when farmers were committing suicide and agricultural workers were dying of starvation, he asked.  “Should we feel good for the government of India selling away public sector industries and rendering thousands of workers unemployed?  Should we feel good for the minorities who were living in constant fear without any sense of security?  How could the people feel good in the face of elimination of subsidies and the unemployed youth wandering on the roads? The propaganda of the BJP government that India was shining is an illusion”, said Buddhadev.  He said he was ashamed that a chief minister led the whipping up of communal frenzy which resulted in the inhuman atrocities against minorities in Gujarat, killing them and razing  thousands of their houses to ground. 

The BJP-led government was acting like a junior partner of the US imperialism and mortgaging the country’s interests, criticised Buddhadev. It was the only government which had a minister exclusively for disinvestment.  The NDA government had closed down 17 central public sector units in West Bengal, rendering thousands of workers unemployed.  When he asked the central government at the meeting of the national development council what was it going to do with the 15 crore unemployed in the country, it could not offer any explanation. He said that when he asked chief minister Chandrababu Naidu how could he campaign in the company of leaders of communal outfits like the  RSS and VHP, whom the BJP was going to deploy in the coming elections, Naidu kept quiet. Buddhadev appealed to the people and all secular forces to act unitedly and  rid the nation of the NDA government.

Sitaram Yechury, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M), said Chandrababu’s talk that communism was outdated was indicative of his ignorance. Communism was invincible, and those who propagated that it was outdated themselves faded away into the limbo of history, said Sitaram. If the people who attended the meeting were any indication, it was certain that the TDP-BJP combine would not get even a single seat in Nalgonda district, he commented. Never in the post-independence period the country witnessed so many starvation deaths  in the country as it did  during the five-year regime of the BJP-led NDA government, he said.  Referring to the communal agenda of the sangh parivar, Sitaram said the  Ram bakhts of  Kaliyuga were living for the sake of power, and for the sake of power they are willing to kill people. If we have to live, we have to defeat the governments at the centre and in the state, Sitaram told the people.

B V Raghavulu, state secretary of the CPI(M), said the chief minister, Chandrababu Naidu, who rendered farmers foodless, was insulting them by asking who would take gruel.  He criticised that the CM did not pay any compensation to the families of the farmers who committed suicide, though he had sent MLAs with their spouses on foreign jaunts all in the name of so-called development studies.  Raghavulu asked the people to render the CM insecure, for he was saying that more work would be done only when there was no job security.  He asked the people to defeat the TDP which had neglected construction of projects agreeing to the conditionalties of the World Bank. 

Mallu Swarajyam, member of the central committee of the CPI(M), and Narra Raghava Reddy, former leader of the legislature party of the CPI(M), addressed the meeting.  Member of the central committee of the party, M V Narasimha Reddy, K Krishna Murthy, state committee member of the Party, N Narsimhaiah, former leader of the CPI(M) legislature party and others were on the dias.  While district committee  secretary of the CPI(M), Ch Sitaramulu presided over the meeting, former MLA  Nandyala Narsimha Reddy,  welcomed and former MLA Julakanti Rangareddy proposed a vote of thanks.