People's Democracy

TRIPURA CITU 11TH STATE CONFERENCE CALL

Resist Anti-People Policies Of UPA Government

Haripada Das 

IT is essential to broaden our circle of allies in the intensified struggle ahead to put a halt to the anti-people policies pursued by the UPA government as well as to attain self-sufficiency of the state. This was the call of the CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar to the people of the state at a mammoth open rally held on the occasion of the 11th state conference of the CITU at KBI ground in Udaipur, South Tripura on January 5, 2007. 

Defying the chilling cold, thousands of workers, peasants, employees, teachers, youth and women of both tribals and non-tribal communities, enthusiastically marched to the rally ground with festoons and banners of their respective units and organisations. On the occasion, the lake city Udaipur was befittingly decorated with arches and gates conveying warm reception to the delegates. 

The open rally was presided over by the CITU state president and minister Manik Dey. Among those who addressed the rally included CITU state general secretary Pijush Nag and chairman of the preparatory committee and minister Keshab Majumder. 

In his speech, Manik Sarkar lambasted the Congress party for failing to learn from its past mistakes. He recalled how the Congress central government most arbitrarily toppled the first ever communist government led by EMS Namboodripad in Kerala, how it unleashed semi-fascist terror in West Bengal in 1972 and in Tripura in 1988, and annihilated hundreds of communist leaders and workers. Today that party is forced to depend on the outside support of the Left for its government’s survival at the centre, he said. Reflecting their class nature, the Congress was taking forward the policies of liberalization, privatization and globalisation, deviating from the CMP, on which basis the Left is lending its outside support. Sarkar called for waging bigger struggles to prevent the UPA government from pursuing this anti-people path. He explained the adverse effect of these policies on the toiling people. Even after 60 years of independence, finding no way to get rid of the debt-trap, the peasantry are compelled to resort to suicides or sell their kidneys, he lamented. Sensing the resentment of the peasants and workers, the government was trying to curtail trade union rights, the right to protest and the right to strike. That such efforts would not be tolerated was made clear by the six crore aggrieved workers, peasants and agricultural workers who went on an unprecedented nationwide strike on December 14, said Manik Sarkar. 

Warning the people about the communal danger posed by the BJP, particularly in the imminence of UP elections, Manik Sarkar criticized the Congress for not vigorously opposing BJP’s communalism and instead taking a soft Hindutva line. He said this would be nothing but narrow opportunism with an eye on electoral benefit. He called upon the people to beware of the communal danger which still looms large in the country. 

Referring to the judicial assassination of Saddam Hussein, Manik Sarkar said it was unfortunate that while the episode was unequivocally condemned world over, the government of India failed to condemn it forthrightly with a view not to displease the US. 

As regards the state’s development, the chief minister said state’s growth rate at present is higher than the national average. A new pace has been set up in infrastructure development. Entrepreneurs are showing interest in setting up industries in the state. “We would have advanced far more had there been no hindrance from the extremists. At present they are down, not doomed. For all these achievements, credit goes to the unity of the democratic people of all sections”, said Manik Sarkar. Saying there was no room for complacency, he called upon the people to be vigilant as the discredited and alienated opposition parties were trying to renew their links with the outlawed extremists who have committed incalculable loss to the lives and properties of the state. They are holding secret parleys with the extremists in several places outside the state. 

DELEGATE SESSION

Prior to the rally, the 11th state conference of the CITU was inaugurated through hoisting of the Red flag and paying homage to the martyrs column by the leaders and delegates and fraternal delegates present at Udaipur Town Hall, which was named after Comrade Abarna Jamatia, a dedicated working class leader who passed away last year. 

In the delegate session after the rally, CITU state general secretary Pijush Nag presented the general secretary report, which was adopted with amendments in the light of the deliberations by 42 comrades. 

The next evening, Pijush Nag, while briefing the press informed that out of 3.6 lakhs workers as recorded in the state by the government, 1.34 lakhs are organised in the fold of CITU. The conference targeted 2.25 lakh membership by the time it meets for the next conference. A total of 494 delegates, including 79 women, attended the conference. Apart from condolence resolution, the other resolutions passed by the conference were: on unemployment; against capitalist globalisation; against anti-people policies of the central government; for all round development of the state and in favour of empowerment of women. 

The conference decided to intensify the anti-imperialist struggle, create a broad-based unity in the movement for protecting the hard-won working class rights and to educate and make the working people more conscious to cope with the changed political situation in the state as well as in the national sphere in the days to come. 

The CITU state conference unanimously elected an 81-member state committee wherein 7 members were newly included. From the first ever meeting of the newly elected state committee a 23-member state secretariat was constituted. Pijush Nag and Manik Dey were re-elected as general secretary and president respectively.