People's Democracy

BRINDA KARAT CAMPAIGNS IN BENGAL

'Bengal Opposition In A Destructive Mode'

A VERY typical feature of CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat�s mass rallies is that on arriving at the spot she does not climb to the dais or go near the podium waving. She makes a quick beeline for the women who usually in Bengal election assemblages sit to the front of the rallyists, plonks down, starts talking to them, and also manages to listen to their emergent as well as day-to-day problems amidst the prattle that inevitably follows.

The women � of all ages � find this very communist gesture comforting in warmth as well as a bit of a thrill. Women rallyists have told us time-and-again after such t�te-�-t�tes with Karat, that she allows them to bask in the reassuringly fresh air of relating themselves directly to the CPI(M) and to whatever the Party stands for -- through a top-level leader, a woman leader at that.

The series of rallies that Brinda Karat has addressed at as far away a place at Cheliyama in Purulia to closer to �home� at places around Kolkata have proved immensely popular among the common people in general for she speaks their language without the frills of political overload, explaining the politics of the evolving situation in simple, clear language.

MASSIVE RALLY

Addressing one such massive rally recently in the industrial zone of Khardaha in North 24 Parganas, she spoke about the election battle assuming, as the days and nights go by, the proportions of a class struggle with the rich and their political formation ranged against the people. The poor are under assault, oftener than not physically, and the mass of the people are put under immensity of grinding load with the runaway prices affecting the householder every day, every month, every year. At the one end of the political spectrum stand the Congress, the BJP, and their corporate minders. At the other end are arrayed the people and their political formation like the Left Front and the CPI(M). The picture in Bengal is a reflection of the all-India scenario said Brinda Karat.

The opposition in Bengal are engaged in a politics of destruction. They would block all the paths to development �� pro-people, pro-poor development. They would not hesitate to augment divisive forces ready to carve up the state again. They would frustrate all social welfare schemes. They have but one aim: to oust the popularly elected Left Front from office. They utilise the Lok Sabha elections not to speak about all-India issues but of issues, and non-issues pertaining to Bengal. They adopt a vow of silence in these terrible times on crucial issues confronting the nation. The stand that the opposition in Bengal adopts clearly marks out their class position.

Defeating all these conspiracies, in Bengal as elsewhere, a government which works for the welfare of workers, the kisans, the middle class, the women, the minorities, and the working masses would come up in Delhi, Brinda Karat had no doubt. Following the election, the Third Front will gain and gather strength across the country with the realignment of forces. The more the reactionaries adopt tactics of violence and deceit, the more determinedly united the masses have become to ensure a victory for the Third Front, concluded Brinda Karat.

(B P)