People's Democracy

BENGAL AIKS 

Kisan Rally on March 11 Demanding Industrialisation

B Prasant

THE Bengal unit of the AIKS has decided to hold a big rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds in downtown Kolkata on March 11. The rally will be preceded by a month-long campaign on the issue of industrial development. The AIKS has already called for a rapid and coordinated industrial development of Bengal. Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will be the main speaker at the rally.

Describing the progress of industrialisation in the state as a development based on a further strengthening of the strong agricultural base that Bengal could achieve and build up during the 30 years’ of Left Front governments in succession, Bengal AIKS secretary Samar Baora said that the cogent and correct slogan of the day would be ‘industrialisation and augmentation of the agricultural base.’

The month-long preparation in the run up to the rally includes distribution of 20 lakh handbills and posters along with graffiti. Every kisan family in the state will be approached on the subject of industrialisation and all the concerned issues would be explained carefully and with patience. The last state conference of the Bengal unit of the AIKS has already established that there was no conflict as such between industry and agriculture. The conference has welcomed the move to go ahead with an industrial drive based on the success in agriculture.

At a time when certain forces of disruption, revision, and reaction were active in impeding the progress of industrialisation, the AIKS cannot remain a mute spectator. AIKS is campaigning to clear the fog of confusion from amongst the minds of a small section of the kisans. The brigade rally will depict to the country the manner in which the AIKS stands by the industrialisation drive that Bengal presently has started to witness.

The path breaking achievements of the kisan movement in Bengal in terms of land reforms remain an icon before the mass of the people of the country. In the days to come, another icon established by Bengal would be the rapid drive of industrialisation based on agricultural achievements. Spurred on by the Bengal model, the people in the rest of the states, too, would raise the cry for industrialisation. 

The AIKS has strongly condemned the vicious and violent opposition to the process of industrialisation in Bengal conspired by a group of opportunists whose ranks include the Trinamul Congress, the BJP, the Naxalites, the SUCI, and the elements of religious fundamentalism.