CALL OF THE 17TH CPI(M) ORISSA STATE CONFERENCE

Turn Marginal Growth Into Rapid Advance

Santosh Das

THE 17th state conference of the CPI(M) Orissa state committee, held at Yasser Arafat Nagar (Balasore) identified the completion of the unfinished task of removing the BJP and its senior partner the BJD from power in the state and its replacement by secular forces as the key political task in the coming period. It also resolved to strengthen the Left in general and the CPI(M) in particular by turning the marginal growth of the Party so far into a rapid advance.

This conference was held at Balasore on January 17-19, 2005. The conference also called for further advancing the struggle against imperialism, the ruinous policies of liberalisation and privatisation, the communalism, casteism & social evils.

STRUGGLE FOR ALTERNATIVE POLICIES

While addressing both the open session held at Ananta Kar Manch on January 17 and the delegates inaugural session at Prasanna Panigrahi Manch on January 18, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat asserted that the people of the country responded positively to the three slogans given by the party – to defeat BJP and its allies; to install a secular government at the centre; and to increase the representation of the Party and the Left – for the general election.  He warned that if the new UPA government deviates from the pro-people promises made in the CMP and resorts to anti-people measures, the Left would not sit silent. He called for continuation of the efforts to build a third alternative based on people’s struggles on policy issues. At the same time he criticised those who in the name of third alternative were making attempts to weaken the anti-communal forces and ending up helping the BJP. He expressed the hope that the BJP & its allies would face another round of setback in elections due in Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana. Karat called upon the people and the Party to advance the struggle for alternative policies and strengthen the Left forces in the state.

BENGAL EXPERIENCE        

CPI(M) central committee member and minister of health, panchayat raj and rural development in the Left Front government of West Bengal, Surya Kanta Mishra explained as to how the Left oriented alternative policies centred around people’s welfare provided stability to the Left Front rule in West Bengal. He also called for strengthening of Left forces in Orissa.

Janardan Pati, CPI(M) state secretary, Sivaji Patnaik, ex-MP, Santosh Das, state secretariat member and Nirmal Nayak, Balasore district committee secretary also addressed the rally, which was chaired by Pradipta Panda, ex-MLA.

MARGINAL GROWTH

The political organisational report adopted unanimously by the conference after discussion underlined the growth of the Party and most of the mass organsiations in terms of membership, expansion and activities. The Party membership increased from 3596 to 3929; the TU membership from 26,044 to 37,781; student membership from 810 to 4256; kisans from 46,200 to 47759; agricultural workers from 3655 to 6622; women membership from 12,444 to 20,080.

The youth membership has declined from 32,541 to 29,918. The expansion that took place in the southern tribal districts of Malkanagiri, Raygada, Kandhamal, in the Bonei constituency of Sundergarh district, Nilgiri and Jaleswar of Balasore district, newer areas in Mayerbhanj, Cuttack and Bhadrak district provided inspiration to the Party. The concept of priority area and the functioning of border committee on the bordering districts of West Bengal have proved to be beneficial for this growth and expansion, highlighted the report.

The campaign and agitation movements conducted by the Party and mass organisations against imperialist war drive, communalism, anti-national & anti-people economic policies of central and state governments including the fiscal reform programme and on various local issues helped the Party to register this marginal advance, noted the report.

IMPROVEMENTS & WEAKNESSES

The report also self-critically examined the improvements that had taken place in respect of functioning of Party committees at various levels. It also identified the weaknesses. The adopted report underlined the task to further strengthen the state centre, improving the secretariat functioning and promoting the efficiency of the state headquarters. In order to bring about a change in the functioning of the district and local committees, the task has been laid down to convert all the district organising committees into district committees and similarly all local organising committees (LOC) into local committees (LC). At present out of the total 30 districts there are 8 districts committees and 7 district organising committees of the Party. There are 21 LCs, & 32 LOCs. Where the Party membership is less than 50 members and Party branches are less than five, those are designated as LOCs.

BRANCH FUNCTIONING

The system of appointing district committee members in charge of branches has been proved to be beneficial in improving the functioning of branches in respect of holding regular meetings and ensuring their involvement in Party and mass organisation activities. The task has been set down that every rural branch must chalk out a plan to make the Party a dominant force in a gram-panchayat, the urban branch in a municipal ward and other branches in their respective mass organistions. The task of every Party member enrolling minimum of 20 mass organistion members, each branch paying a party fund of minimum of Rs 500 per annum to the higher committee has achieved partial success. The conference called for further improvements in the functioning of branches.

CLASS & SOCIAL COMPOSITION

The class and  social composition of the Party was found to be satisfactory with agricultural workers, poor peasants & working class comprising more than 60 per cent while tribals and dalits comprised nearly 30 per cent. Weaknesses however remain in respect of recruitment of women members, which presently stands at an average of 8 per cent. Recruitment from among the minorities is negligible. The report directs the Party to overcome these weaknesses of class and social composition of the Party. The major weakness is located in the class and social composition of Party committees where the presence of all these above mentioned sections is just symbolic. This warrants special training and upliftment activity for the cadre from these sections, emphasized the report.

Another major weakness the report identified is the generation gap. It resolved to attach more importance to the work of the Party among students and youth. At all levels the non-availability of adequate number of young cadres was hindering the growth and expansion of the Party. The report therefore, asks the local committees to prepare the cadre list and organise special training programmes for them.

NEW STATE COMMITTEE

The conference elected a new state committee comprising 31 members with the induction of four new members. Iswar Das, the veteran comrade retired due to failing health. The new committee re-elected Janardan Pati as the secretary and Sivaji Patnaik, Jagannath Mishra, Santosh Das, Alikishore Patnaik, Lambodar Nayak, Bishnu Mohantiy, Sisir Iiui and Subash Singh as secretariat members. The conference also elected seven delegates and three alternative delegates to the 18th  Party Congress to be held in New Delhi in April 2005.

The conference felicitated four veteran comrades – Iswar Das, Banamali Das, Bhubaneswar Moharana and Nakula Choudhury. They were felicitated by Prakash Karat and Surya Kanta Mishra.

CREDENTIAL REPORT

The conference was attended by 184 delegates out of the 193 elected in party conferences, including 33 ex-officio delegates who were state committee members. The number of observers was 19. The number of women delegates and observers was 17 and 4 respectively. A total of 41 delegates participated in the discussion on the draft political organisational report presented on behalf of the state committee by Janardan Pati.

GROWTH IS POSSIBLE

In his conluding remarks, central committee member K Varadarajan expressed his confidence that there is vast scope for growth of the Party, mass organisations and the mass movements in Orissa. He advised the leaders and the cadre to stay among the masses as the fish stays in water. He made an appeal to learn from the experience that is mentioned in the adopted report drawing the inference that tribal people, anganwadi wokers, dalit masses have responded enthusiastically to the Party activities. He asked the Party committees to choose definite issues and areas, at least 50 out of the 314 blocks and carry out sustained activity. He called upon them to cultivate communist style of work. He advised to reach a target of enrolling a million members in mass organisations and for that the present ratio of one Party member mobilising 30 persons should be increased to 100. He expressed confidence that it is not impossible for the Party to emerge as an alternative in the state. The question is only about the time.

The report noted that the ideological struggle and social reform activities of the Party was much below the requirement. It advocated promotion of circulation of the Party papers must be undertaken. All Party members who can read and who have purchasing capacity must enroll themselves as subscribers.

The conference called for reorienting the work of elected representatives who need to change the style of work.

The report directed the party to expand its independent mass base by organising class and mass movements. Along with independent activities, the Party must also organise joint activities. The lessons of the united movement organised to stall the privatisation of NALCO and to defeat the Chilika Bill that sought to ruin the livelihood of traditional fishermen was taken note of.

The major development during the past three years was the aggressive invasion of policy of liberalisation and privatisation in all sectors of economy and governance in the state. It was institutionalised through the Fiscal & Administrative Reform Programme based upon the conditionalities of the World Bank and DFID and the MoU signed between the union government and the state government. The recommendations of Eleventh Finance Commission and the terms of reference made to the Twelfth Finance commission and the linking of both the plan & non-plan transfer to resources with that of the fiscal reform, enhancing user charges and privatisation were the instruments used by the centre to undermine the federal structure and thrust World Bank agenda on the states. The eagerness of the BJD-BJP government to adopt these policies has adversely affected the livelihood of the common people in Orissa by ruining agriculture, bringing about de-industrialisation and increasing poverty, unemployment, starvation and malnutrition. The conference called upon the Party to advance both independent and united struggles against these ruinous policies. Corruption was seen as a companion of these reforms. The recent judgement of the Orissa High Court dismissing the deal of choosing Jindal strips as the major partner in exploration of Tangarpada Chromite mines and the adverse remarks of the environmental committee appointed by the Supreme Court against allowing Sterlite-Vedanla company to destroy forest land exposed the corruption of the state government.

CALL FOR JOINT RALLY               

The conference adopted a resolution to unleash campaign and makes success the proposed joint rally during the ensuing budget session of the assembly. It also adopted resolutions against communalism; on education; on forest, land, mines & water; against unemployment, closure and lay-offs; demanding 100 days minimum work; on equal rights of women, on social justice for tribals & dalits; and against the distress sale of agricultural produce.

The presidium comprising Sivaji Patnaik, Harihar Das, Tapasi Praharaj, Laxman Munda and Seikh Abdulla presided over the conference. The welcome address was given by Pradipta Panda, the chairman of the reception committee while vote of thanks was given by the presidium to the reception committee. Abhay Sahoo, state secretariat member of the CPI greeted the conference.

The conference began with the unfurling of the red flag by veteran leader of state peoples movement and Party state committee member Iswar Das and ended with the recitation of the International.