People's Democracy

12TH HARYANA STATE CONFERENCE

Inderjit Singh and Sahiram

ADDRESSING a largely attended rally held at HUDA grounds, Jind on the occasion of 12th state conference of the CPI(M) Haryana unit, Polit Bureau member and MP Sitaram Yechury called upon the people of the state to build powerful mass movement which would help in formation of the third alternative against communal and anti-people forces. The rally held on the opening day of the state conference on December 25, was attended by thousands from all over the state.

Yechury began his speech saying that in this land of ‘Lals’ there is only one real Lal and that is the Red Flag and he emphasised that it is the only alternative. He said that at present 54 per cent of the total  kpoo0pulation is below 25 years of age and there is dire need to provide education, health and employment to this vast section of the society. The country’s future rests on their shoulders and they are to build a new India. However an alternative based on alternative policies is needed for doing this. Saying that the CPI(M) has taken the responsibility to build this third alternative, he called upon the people to help this effort by participating in the struggles conducted by the Party.

On the role being played by the Left parties at the centre, he said  that today no government can either be formed or run without the support of the Left forces. He underlined that it was only because of the Left support to the UPA government that what was not done in sixty years of Independent India, has been done in the past three years. He cited enactment of Rural Employment Guarantee Act and Tribal Forest Rights Act etc. Reminding that the Left is supporting the UPA government only in order to keep communal forces away from power, Yechury said that the Left is trying to make the government implement the CMP, on the basis of which the Left is extending its support.

Yechury explained how the Left parties could prevent the India-US nuclear deal, which seriously compromises our sovereignty and independent foreign policy. “We don’t want Manmohan Singh to meet the same fate as that of Tony Blair  in England, John Howard in Australia, Berlusconi in Italy or Aznar in Spain – all of whom lost power mainly due to their friendship with George Bush and approval of his policies.

About Nandigram, he highlighted the gang up of all kinds of reactionary forces – from American imperialism to Islamic fundamentalists, to BJP-RSS combine, Trinamul and Maoists – against the CPI(M). He expressed confidence that like in the past the Left will face these vicious attacks and come out strong with the support of the people.

Yechury lambasted the BJP for its politics of creating rift among the citizens of the country using religion. He emphasised the need of saving the country from such divisive politics. He called for intensifying mass movements which would help in formation of a viable third alternative to the communal and anti-people forces.

Hannan Mollah, central secretariat member of the CPI(M) and senior parliamentarian, while addressing the rally said that the huge attendance at the rally was indicative of the mass movement going forward. He strongly condemned the act of burning of effigy of Yechury in Jind by RSS workers and said that communal forces feel threatened by the increasing strength of the Left.

Nilotpal Basu, central secretariat member of the Party and former  MP, in his address drew the attention of the audience towards the importance of this year saying that it is the 60th year of Independence, 150th year of 1857 revolt and birth centenary year of Shaheed Bhagat Singh. He said that the Left is the true inheritor of the legacy of anti-imperialist struggle. Calling for unity of workers, peasants and the poor of country, Basu felt that this unity can be the basis for building a viable political alternative.

Inderjit Singh, state secretary of the Party, in his speech said that even after 60 years of Independence the condition of the poor in Haryana, as in the rest of the country, is dismal. The poor are on the streets demanding to be recognised as poor! They want to be included in the BPL category of ration cards as no government help is otherwise available to them. The farmers of the state are largely debt-ridden. He dwelt on the serious social situation in the state – the increasing attacks on dalits, female foeticide, honour killings etc. and called for a movement against these conditions.

Surender Singh, state secretariat member of the Party, Harpal Singh, AIKS state secretary, Krishan Swaroop, KMU state secretary, Ram Kumar, CITU leader and AIDWA state president Jagmati Sangwan were among those who addressed the gathering. The rally was presided over by Parkash Chander, state secretariat member of the Party.

INAUGURAL
SESSION

Following this impressive Jan Vikalp rally, the 12th state conference of the Party was inaugurated by Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury. Senior leader of the state unit, Prithvi Singh, earlier hoisted the Red flag at the conference venue, christened as Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar. The delegate session hall was named after Comrade Anil Biswas. A total of 229 delegates, including 27 women delegates, attended the conference.

Yechury began his inaugural address by throwing light on the character of today’s imperialism and its strategy. He exhorted upon the delegates to correctly understand the dynamics of contradictions in order to concretely use them for effectively resisting the imperialist onslaught led by USA.

Yechury explained with glaring statistics the disparities that have increased between countries and within countries as a result of ruthless exploitation of natural resources in its desperate bid to overcome the classical crisis which is afflicting the world capitalism today. This increasing offensive of imperialism is posing a real threat to national sovereignties of various countries especially those of the developing countries. At this juncture he underlined two main trends taking place simultaneously. On the one hand we are witnessing growing mass anger of the people while on the other the dominating monopoly section of the ruling classes are increasingly surrendering to imperialism. It is in this context that the move towards strategic alliance of the Indian ruling classes with US has to be seen when it is sought to be pursued through Indo US Nuclear deal that the Left led by CPI(M) has strongly objected to, he told.

Yechury also pointed towards growing anti-imperialist trends towards a multipolar world and said that giving anti imperialist direction to all mass movements is most patriotic duty of all of us. He called upon Party members in Haryana to intensity the mass movements and strengthen the Party so that CPI(M) can advance towards evolving a policy based third alternative opposed to both the BJP and the Congress. This can be achieved through forging of unity among the poor people which communalism is seeking to disrupt.

GEN-SEC
REPORT

Party state secretary Inderjit Singh placed the general secretary report to the conference after the election of presidium and various committees for conducting the proceedings. The report comprised of present situation, review of main activities and campaigns held in the last three years, state of Party organisation and conclusions for the future as visualised by the state committee. The report dealt on the deepening overall crisis i.e. economic and social as a result of the neoliberal policies pursued both by the central and state governments and how the crisis is impacting various sections of the people.

The report criticises the distorted and skewed development model which is neither creating employment opportunities nor is based on the development needs of the state’s economy. The often glorified growth rate of 8.2 per cent is projected while totally ignoring the fact that all important agriculture sector is griped with perpetual crisis with a 2.5 per cent negative growth rate. Loss of employment in agriculture is throwing more and more labour force into the unorganised sector which is already too crowded with the inflow of migrant labourers thus resulting in undervaluation of the labour power of both migrant and local workers.

The experiences of livelihood struggles undertaken during recent years by the Party and mass organisations show that there is ever more wider response from the masses including peasantry and other sections. In social sphere as well there have been effective interventions leading to more acceptance towards our Party among dalits, women and other deprived sections. The report has underlined the significance of some partial but important successes achieved during local struggles and successful observance of the calls by trade union and employees front in the state. The indifference among other political parties towards people's issues is creating a political void which needs to be filled up through intensified activities. A two pronged tactical approach has been suggested for the future i.e. independent and joint struggles of mass fronts on the one hand and Party’s independent activities as well as addressing other political parties on the issues concerning masses and sustainable equitable development of Haryana on the other.

The section of the report on Party organisation apart from other things has pinpointed the weaknesses that continue to persist and needs to be addressed if the Party strength has to be increased in accordance with the political tasks the Party has to discharge in the present conducive period. The continuing stagnation in Party membership is one indication of the neglect of work in the area of party building. Total involvement of masses in activities is not reflected in the membership of mass organisations and the Party membership is also not in consonance with the existing size of the mass organisations membership. Another aspect causing concern is the low percentage of women Party members despite their increasing participation in Party actions. Stagnation in the youth movement also is a serious cause for concern. Two rounds of group discussions took place to discuss the report in various delegations. Intervening during the discussion on report Hannan Mollah made a brief speech in which he underlined some concrete tasks. While endorsing the main thrust of the report he Hannan exhorted the delegates to fight feudal practices which still continue to dominate the socio-cultural milieu of Haryana society in the form of patriarchy and male dominance. He called upon the conference to simultaneously undertake the task of mass organisation and party building.

In all 38 delegates spoke on the report which was unanimously adopted by the conference. The  conference also adopted resolutions on SEZ policy, rule of law and civil liberties, education and health, BPL issue etc.

The credential committee report in respect of 224 delegates was presented. 197 men and 27 women attended the conference of whom 9 delegates were below 25 years of age, 34 were 26 to 35 years, 17 were between 36 and 45 years, 41 delegates were between 56 and 65 age group and only 6 were above 65 years of age. As for the education status, 3 delegates were illiterate, 18 upto primary, 60 upto matric, 26 upto plus two, 56 graduates and 56 postgraduate.

NEW LEADERSHIP
A 25 member new state committee was elected by the conference which re-elected Inderjit Singh as state secretary and a 6 member secretariat -- Surender Singh, Parkash Chander, Balbir Dahiya, Parbhat Singh and Satbir Singh. Prithvi Singh was made a permanent invitee to the secretariat.

Nilotpal Basu concluded the conference by summing up the main conclusions. He congratulated the Party members for a successful conference and for the large public meeting. While clarifying Party’s stand on nuclear issue and other current matters he deliberated why CPI(M) is being made target of attack by the forces ranging from ultra left and ultra right in collusion with the corporate media. West Bengal Left Front government is being specially targeted because it remains the main source of strength on the basis of which we envisage a third alternative.

Nilotpal Basu reiterated the thrust of the report that through local intervention on burning issues we have to expand the mass organisations and build the Party. For this task we must make the primary units and Party branches active. He emphasised the need for collective decision making through collective discussion and discharging individual responsibility. He expressed confidence that the Party would meet its targets of expansion in Haryana in the immediate future.