People's Democracy

Preparations In Full Swing

WITH just a week left for the 18th Party Congress, preparations are on in full swing in Delhi. The venue of the Conference is Talkatora Indoor Stadium renamed E.K.Nayanar Nagar. It is a new experience in a city usually associated with the conferences of bourgeois parties driven by corporate funds. In the case of the CPI (M), it is the working people, men and women in factories, activists in working class residential areas who form the backbone of the preparations. The Party Congress has also seen a tremendous amount of sympathy and solidarity expressed by a wide range of intellectuals and professionals. This has been reflected in the unprecedented participation of different sections of people in the run up programmes to the Party Congress. As reported earlier these programmes include a very successful and well attended seven-day seminar concerning the problems of the Hindi speaking states, the over 18 cultural programmes in as many areas involving over fifteen cultural troupes from different states. Two successful meetings of Keralites living in Delhi was held recently and similar meetings of different groups are being organised.

Over 80 leading artists contributed their art works for the exhibition ‘People in Progress’ organized by the Reception Committee, which included several well-known artists. A three-day seminar on "Imperialism, Sovereignty and Democracy" is scheduled to be held from April 3-5 involving leading intellectuals. Moreover, numerous factory gate meetings and general body meetings of different sections of people are taking place.

The people of Delhi are also witnessing a new kind of slogan writing. A talented group of artists from West Bengal have been camping in Delhi since last month and doing colourful wall writing across Delhi and the neighbouring areas, assisted by the activists of DYFI. Often crowds gather to watch them at work! Another group of artists from West Bengal are working day and night to decorate the venue of the Party Congress. A set of hoardings depicting the role of communists in the freedom struggle and various struggles fought in the post- independence period are also being prepared.

Every day the Reception Committee office is the venue for a series of meetings being held by the various sub-committees formed by the Reception Committee to discharge different responsibilities like accommodation, food arrangements, decoration, venue management, railway reception etc. A medical team of doctors and nurses will also be available both at the venue of the Conference. Seventeen such sub-committees have been formed involving about four hundred volunteers from party branches working among different sections of the people. There is tremendous enthusiasm for the work, shown in the fact that all these comrades, many of them workers, employees have voluntarily taken leave for the entire duration of the Congress so that they may be available whenever required.

Preparations are also being made for the concluding mass rally to be held at Ramlila Maidan on 11th April. Contingents from neighbouring States like Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh are going to participate. At a recent meeting of secretaries of these states organised by the Party Centre, there were reports of the tremendous enthusiasm among different sections of people who will be attending the rally. In all these states also there are different public campaigns being held including street corner meetings, rallies, jathas, padyatras and so on. Similar campaigns for the 11th April rally are also underway in the different areas of Delhi, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Noida.

This Party Congress, the first to be held in the national capital, has certainly helped to mobilize and galvanise a wide section of people in support of the Party. There is no doubt that the 18th Congress of the CPI(M) would be a resounding success.