People's Democracy

ANDHRA PRADESH

'Defeat Communal BJP And Its Allies’ CPI(M) Leaders Call

M Venugopala Rao 

TOP leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) gave a clarion call to the people to work together to achieve the objective of defeating the communal BJP, its NDA partners and other political parties supporting it in the coming elections to save the nation’s unity and integrity, and also to reverse the anti-people policies of the government. 

They were addressing a largely attended meeting organised by the Hyderabad city committee of the CPI(M) on “Current Political Developments” on January 28 on the occasion of the meetings of the Polit Bureau and Central Committee of the Party in Hyderabad. 

Jyoti Basu, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M) and former Chief Minister of West Bengal, conveyed greetings on behalf of the CPI(M), the Left Front and politically conscious people of West Bengal who enabled formation of the sixth LF government in succession and also ensured its victory with more votes in the Panchayat Raj elections held in that state for the sixth time around three months back. In his brief speech, Jyoti Basu, recollected his relation and of the Party’s West Bengal unit with many glorious struggles conducted in Andhra Pradesh, especially the Telangana peasants’ armed struggle, which laid foundation for Communist movement in India and brought many important agrarian issues on to the country’s agenda.

“With elections approaching, all of us have a very important task to undertake to save India.  We have to together defeat the communal forces. Unless this is done, unity and integrity of the country will be dangerously jeopardised.  From our side, we are making all sincere efforts to achieve this objective.  I appeal to all of you to join us in this effort”, Jyoti Basu said.

Harkishan Singh Surjeet, general secretary of the CPI(M), said Andhra Pradesh, with its  glorious history of waging the Telangana class struggle, was in the forefront of the Communist movement since many years, always showing the way to the whole country. He paid homage to thousands of martyrs of the Telangana struggle and P Sundarayya, M Basavapunniah and other comrades.

Surjeet charged the BJP-led NDA government at the centre of kowtowing to American imperialism. Referring to prime minister Vajpayee’s claim that his government was trying to improve relations between India and Pakistan, Surjeet pointed out that it was the BJP itself which was opposing such moves in the past, while the Left always sought good relations between both the countries of the sub-continent.

Surjeet said that in the socio-economic spheres, the Vajpayee government had no answers to the issues of the working class, government employees, peasantry, prices, etc. He warned that if the BJP remained in power for long, it would endanger our country’s unity. “Time has come now when people are looking to you to come forward and show the way to the country, just as was done in the 1950’s, by defeating the BJP-TDP combine in the state in the coming polls”, said Surjeet. Recollecting his experience in the election campaign in Andhra Pradesh in 1954, when he brought 12 jeeps with drivers for campaign purpose, Surjeet said thousands of people used to stay the whole night to hear the speeches of Comrades P Sundarayya, M Basavapunniah, C Rajeswara Rao and others. He said he never saw such gatherings of people, lakhs of them in all corners of the state.   “We can march forward to put an end to exploitation and for ushering in socialism and a society free of starvation, hunger and unemployment where everybody gets benefits of freedom”, Surjeet asserted with unflinching faith.

Buddhadev Bhattacharya, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M) and chief minister of West Bengal, said the peasant movement in West Bengal was inspired by the Telangana peasants’ struggle. He explained the pro-people measures taken by the successive Left Front governments in West Bengal since 1977.  As a result of land reforms, 94 per cent of the peasants, who are poor and marginal, own 70 per cent of cultivable land in West Bengal. The LF government gave legal rights to 17 lakh sharecroppers.  West Bengal  is the first state in the country to set up Panchayat Raj bodies in 1978 as units of rural administration. As a result of the policies being followed by the LF government, West Bengal has emerged as the state with highest production of rice, vegetables, potato and fish in the entire country. “We are trying our best to perform, trying to defend the rights of the peasants, workers and others, within the limitations of the present constitutional set up where the Government of India is following anti-people policies”, said Buddhadev. 

Referring to the BJP’s dangerous policy of dividing the people on religious basis, he said it was trying to do so in West Bengal also, but he believed the people of the state would rebuff them.

Manik Sarkar, Polit Bureau member of the Party and chief minister of Tripura, said the Telangana armed struggle attracted the youth towards the Communist movement and he was one of them.  He said the numerous struggles waged by the CPI(M) in Andhra Pradesh were a source of inspiration to the people of Tripura.  Sarkar explained the policies being implemented by the Left Front government in Tripura to improve the quality of life of common people, who were largely mobilising behind the Party.

Explaining the danger posed by the extremist outfits, which were getting training in Bangladesh and by the ISI, Manik Sarkar said in Tripura these forces have killed 450 comrades during the last five years, out of whom 50 per cent were tribal comrades.  Pointing out that the help coming from the government of India was not up to the mark to face the problem of extremism, Sarkar reiterated that they would fight the extremists and continue their efforts for unity between tribals and non-tribals in order to strengthen national unity.

Sitaram Yechury, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M), said that it was a conspiracy that  the Chandrababu government in the state and the Vajpayee government at the centre  opted for advance elections, as they wanted to avoid economic review on last year’s programmes, and taking decisions on that basis if budgets were to be presented. Announcing sops to the tune of Rs 12,000 crore to some sections of the people, without budgetary allocation, was nothing less than a political scandal of the Vajpayee government to purchase votes as a kind of advance booking, commented Sitaram.  Point by point, he rebutted the feel good propaganda campaign of the Vajpayee government and made it clear that with a public debt of about Rs 16 lakh crores and payment of interest thereon of Rs 1.5 lakh crore per annum, it was reducing allocations intended for providing services to the people like education and health and increasing financial burdens on them. 

Giving state-wise picture of  electoral prospects, Sitaram made it clear that the BJP was trying to create illusions among the people that there was no alternative to the NDA led by it.  The BJP and its communal outfits want to turn secular and democratic India into a fascistic Hindu Rashtra.  To defeat the BJP and its allies, said Sitaram, the Left parties should continue to strengthen the combine of secular parties on the one hand, and try to see that votes between them and the Congress and its allies were not split, on the other.  However, he made it clear that it was not possible to have an alliance and joint campaign with the Congress, because it was a party with ruling class policies. 

B V Raghavulu, state secretary of the CPI(M), stressed that in order to defeat the TDP-BJP combine, it would be better to see that the pro-opposition votes were not split, instead of opposition parties with different ideologies and understanding trying to forge alliances. He hoped that other opposition parties also would come to such an understanding. Raghavulu accused the TDP of trying to come to power again through backdoor means of enrolling bogus voters and purchasing votes on the polling day.  He also lashed out at the Telangana Rashtra Samithi for its attempts to try to help the TDP to emerge victorious in the elections by creating quarrels among the opposition parties. Raghavulu appealed to the people of the state to extend their support to the Left parties. He also appealed to them to render financial support for fighting the forthcoming polls.

Koratala Satyanarayana, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M), who presided over the meeting, said there was no justification for the moves of the central and state governments in opting for  advance elections.  They were trying to hoodwink the people with lies and false propaganda, making use of the media and announcing pre-poll sops to the rich.  The coming crucial elections are a great opportunity to defeat the communal BJP, a party which did not participate in India’s freedom struggle, and the NDA and the TDP which were supporting  it, said Koratala. 

Polit Bureau members of the CPI(M), Prakash Karat, S Ramachandran Pillai, Anil Biswas, Biman Basu, P Vijayan, P  Ramachandran  and M K Pandhe were also on the dias.