People's Democracy

CALL OF THE BIGGEST EVER BRIGADE RALLY

Ensure Seventh Left Front Government

An aerial view of the massive rally in Brigade Parade Grounds, Kolkata on January 8

B Prasant

THE Brigade Parade ground right in the heart of Kolkata has been witness to a series of massive assemblages that had been called by the CPI(M) and the Left Front during the past five decades.

The rally that was held in the early afternoon of a pleasant winter day on January 8 shall be remembered as the by far the biggest meeting held in the historic venue. A determined cry went up from the rally that a seventh Left Front government would be set up after the assembly polls in the wake of a massive victory of the Left Front at the polls.

Popular estimates put the figure beyond 15 lakh and even then, a substantial part of the three-lakh-strong march from north 24 Parganas and of a lakh-strong procession from Howrah had to remain outside of even hearing distance of the grounds.

State secretary of the Bengal unit of the CPI(M), Anil Biswas later said amidst cheers that even as the CPI(M) leadership addressed the rally at the Brigade Parade ground, the ‘landscape of greater Kolkata was populated with processions and more processions.’  

The historic rallies held in the same venue in 1967-69, and throughout the period of the coming to office in 1977 of a Left Front government, were massive in terms of popular participation.

However, the January 8 rally surpassed them all with all of the grounds fully packed to capacity and the adjoining open grounds, excluding the inside of the race course, completely filled up much before the rally got off to a start exactly at one in the afternoon.

The venue had indeed started to fill up right from early dawn as the first marchers trooped in, cold but cheerful, waving large Red flags, and shouting slogans. As the morning progressed, the entire northern half of the ground was but a sea of heads.  

The singers and performing artistes took to the stage by early afternoon — the ground by then had filled up and the marchers who came in late found themselves diverted to the adjoining grounds.

The rally had the ambience of a cheerful and triumphant celebration right from the start. It was certainly very well organised, with district committees and zonal committees slotting in the processions from the different districts and zones into pre-allotted spaces. Well-meaning volunteers sporting red caps with a short visor shepherded the latecomers into vacant spaces. Thousands of Red flags fluttered gaily in the cool breeze amidst the soft winter sunshine.

The lofty dais erected on a raised platform of fifteen-foot height at the Victoria Memorial Hall-end of the maidan, reflected the struggle and movements through which the Left Front government had developed. All the senior leaders of the Left Front constituents were present on the dais during the rally.

By the time Biman Basu formally declared the rally open, the entire Chowringhee Road-Dharamtolla area was a sea of humanity with people from all lifestyles milling around in happy formation. Families with children in tow mingled with the elderly generation and the youth. The waves of rousing slogans that emanated from the mass of the people all around the magnificent grounds and the large Red flags that were waved around spoke of the spirited nature of the rally itself.

Mounting the dais to speak first, veteran communist leader and former chief minister of Bengal Jyoti Basu said that the people of Bengal would not allow the history they had created back in 1977 to be tarnished in any manner. He narrated the series of electoral triumphs of the Left Front over the years at every level of political functioning. “We,” said Basu “had taken the mass of the people along in the great task of restoring democracy here in Bengal, democracy that had been trodden mercilessly underfoot by the successive Congress regimes.”

Lambasting the disjointed opposition in Bengal, Jyoti Basu declared that the people would not vote in any large numbers for parties that had little in the way of principles and less in the way of morality. The one-point programme of the opposition, “whether fractured in unison or unified in disarray,” was to oust the Left Front, said Basu who pointed out that these worthies would not think about the welfare of the people of Bengal and would not come with any programme.

The confidence and trust that the people reposed in the Bengal Left Front, said the CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, was not born in a day but was the outcome of a long process of struggle and sacrifice. “What is the record of the opposition parties and groups on these accounts,” asked Basu.

Jyoti Basu narrated the successes of the Left front governance in Bengal and told the assemblage about the manner in which successive union governments run by the Congress had tried their best or worst to either block or at least delay development of the state. The tactical conspiracy against Haldia Petrochemicals was a case in point. The policy of industrialisation adopted by the Bengal Left Front, too, was derided and lack of cooperation put on display by these regimes over the years.

Ending his speech Basu said two things that swayed the rally into a spontaneous and cheerful response. Basu said that “my ninety-year old frame feels better than ever on getting to witness such a massive rally.” He also said: “Be on the alert, comrades, and ensure that no one is able to create a chink in the red fortress of Bengal.”

In his brief but analytical address, state secretary of the CPI(M), Anil Biswas said that the forces of reaction are ever active in their malafide attempts at ousting the Left Front government. Democracy was always safe with the Left Front governance and this was what was proving to be gall-and-wormwood to the opposition and their sponsors.

Castigating the attempts by the Trinamul Congress to bring in Advani and Siddhartha Shankar Ray to bolster the forces of tyranny, terror, and mayhem, Anil Biswas said that these forces would have little success in a state where no less than 70 per cent exercise their franchise — something that is rare in the world over.

Dismissing the Trinamul Congress as not a political party but a platform to gratify the chief, Mamata Banerjee, Anil Biswas said that the people of Bengal had often paid a heavy price for the mad goings on of that platform. He cited the comments of the chairman of the delimitation commission who after getting to face a dose of Trinamul Congress’s brand of indecency during hearing said that the show put up by that party was unique in his experience.

Calling for the ouster, and a complete ouster at that, of the Trinamul Congress and the BJP, Anil Biswas said that a party that dealt easily enough and without compunction with the forces of separatism, secessionism, and religious fundamentalism had no right to ask for electoral support from amongst the people.

Biswas said that the Left Front would proceed for the assembly elections with a set of slogans and these were:

• Consolidate the unity of the poor and the middle class

• Ensure that those who do not support the Left Front join the struggle for progress

• Ensure that all LF candidates win by a minimum of 50 per cent votes

•  Build up a strong booth-level organisation involving the mass of people

Biswas said that to make certain that democracy was secure in Bengal and to ensure that the pace of the work of development is accelerated in the days to come, it was imperative to make the Left front government come back to office for the seventh time in a row and with increased strength.

Development was the principal theme of chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s incisive speech. He said that the struggle was on to assure the mass of the people that a drive had been put in place for the generation of further progress for the state as a whole, never letting slip from the list of priorities, the emancipation of people from poverty and misery.

Describing the Left Front as a battling front always involved in struggles and movements and developing in the midst of struggles and movements, Buddhadeb was clear in declaring that the Left Front government was a product of struggles and movements as well. He called upon those who yet remained spectators to the progress chalked up by the state LF government to join in and participate in the progress being registered in Bengal.

Buddhadeb said that the Left Front, a force that represented the mass of the people, was confronted by a dispirited and disjointed opposition, desperately seeking a pre-election conglomerate of whatever kind they could cobble together. Buddhadeb said that the Congress party was familiar enough to the Left and the CPI(M) what with the routine way a succession of Congress administration in the states and at the centre was ruining the nation with the wrong economic policies, proving active also in subverting democratic norms.

Stringently criticising the pro-liberalisation economic outlook and the pro-US foreign policy determinants of the Congress, Buddhadeb declared that the UPA government must not take for granted the support of the Left and the Left would not lie low before a policy that embraced imperial globalisation and a trend to make the country the strategic partner of the US. Buddhadeb described the US president Bush as the leader of the most organised pack of killers in the world.

Buddhadeb narrated the undoubted successes of the LF government in realms of education, health, food production, agriculture, and industrialisation. The perspective of the Left Front remained pro-poor, said Buddhadeb and he pointed to the fact unlike in other metro cities, urbanisation here in Bengal never meant dispensing with the people living in the slums.

Buddhadeb reminded the rally that there was a 75 per cent literacy rate in Bengal, which also was proud of the fact nearly 70 per cent of the land belonged to the poor in the villages. Deriding the opposition for their opportunistic ploys, Buddhadeb concluded by saying that there was no alternative to the Left Front, a front that had grown and consolidated though a great deal of blood, tears, and sweat, struggling for the mass of the people all the while, and battling the forces of reaction. He exhorted upon the rally to ensure that a seventh Left Front government was set up come the assembly polls.

The rally was also addressed by Mohd Salim, central committee member of the CPI(M). Salim spoke in Hindi (with a generous dose of Urdu literary flourishes) and drew great bouts of applause as he derided the opposition in Bengal for their moribund choice of inviting two ‘rejected and spent horses,’ Advani and S S Ray to bolster their rapidly sinking chances at the polls.

The rally dispersed and rousing slogans were heard all around that spoke of the certainty of the return to office of a seventh Left Front government in Bengal. The rally participants had grit and determination writ all over their faces as they marched off and away from the ground in a most orderly manner.