People's Democracy

'Pro-People Govt At The Centre Is The Need Of The Hour'

B Prasant

NEITHER the Congress, nor the BJP can provide the country with good, pro-people, especially pro-poor governance. The need of the hour is a pro-people secular alternative government at the centre.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said this while addressing two very large and very crowded rallies in Hooghly and Howrah in the afternoon and evening of May 3, 2009.

Sitaram Yechury said that the people had rebuffed the late Rajiv Gandhi for calling Kolkata a �dying city,� by handing the Congress a sound electoral defeat. The affront that the commentaries of Pranab Mukherjee and also of Dr Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi contained vis-�-vis Bengal of late would surely meet with a similar fate when the people would exercise their franchise in Bengal.

The fact that the people of Bengal had made the Left Front victorious for seven successive times showed up the insincere character of the Congress leaders� attack on the alleged �misrule in Bengal from 1977.� Does the Congress leadership think that the electorate of Bengal do not posses intelligence or perception as to what is good for them and what is not. The Congress leaders� remarks have insulted the masses of Bengal, and the insults would not go unanswered, he asserted.

Sitaram Yechury also said that the Congress and the BJP, however, could be faulted on one count. They have left no stone unturned to ensure that the electoral consequences flow in the direction of their stakes. First, the security personnel were brought in from outside of Bengal. Then, the polling personnel were similarly �imported.� Nothing that they did or did not do, could move away the popular verdict of the people in favour of the Left Front each time, much to the two bourgeois formations� chagrin and political discomfiture.

The sudden volte face of the prime minister, and his singing paeans of praise for the Left after having lambasted the LF government at election meetings contains no significance for the CPI(M) and the Left, said Yechury.

The general conclusion that the people would draw from such U-turns is this: the Congress is now afraid that they would lose the elections in Bengal, and elsewhere as well. The CPI(M) leader pointed out in this context that neither the BJP nor the Congress union governments would even try with any seriousness the Bofors howitzer scam accused � and two decades have been allowed to pass by.

Sitaram Yechury also took part in two face-to-face sessions in the morning of May 3, one organised by the Rajasthan-Bengal Maitri Parishad, the other by the Terapanth Yuva Samity. Sisir Bajoria presided over the former occasion, Kuldip Manoth, the latter.

LEFT�S SECULAR CREDENTIALS

The last Lok Sabha elections of 2004 saw 54 of the 61 Left MPs win their seats by defeating Congress candidates. Yet, to keep away the communal BJP from office, the Left chose to provide support to the Congress-led UPA government from outside based on a Common Minimum Programme. Sitaram Yechury said this in a public meeting on May 2 at Beldanga in Murshidabad.

Critical of prime minister Manmohan Singh who had said earlier that the Left had put up a Third Front to facilitate the chances of the BJP, he said that it had always been the Left that had consistently fought the BJP-RSS combine throughout the country. That the Left supported the UPA government is a strong proof of the Left�s secular credentials.

Sitaram Yechury said that the Left has pressurised the UPA government into enacting the NREGA scheme guaranteeing 100 days of work for the poor. The Left had also compelled the UPA government to pass a legislation securing the rights of the adivasis. The Congress had not taken these steps for the 50 years they had been in power at the centre. This is an example of the kind of political perspective the Congress possesses.

In fact, the Congress has never initiated any steps that would benefit the masses, the poorest of the poor. The amount of pro-people measures that the Congress would undertake during the time the UPA was in office was solely due to pressure from the Left. The Congress subsequently entered into a nuclear treaty with the US despite the Left having warned against such dangerous step. By toying with the sovereignty of the nation, the Congress had affronted the masses who would surely reject it through the electoral process throughout the country.

NEED FOR THIRD FRONT GOVT

�We need new governance for a new India,� said CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury at Ranigunj right amidst the coal belt of Bengal. He was addressing a mass rally in the afternoon of May 1, 2009.

The entire country is now poised to throw out the �gaddi hasil� brand of politics in favour of popular governance. The new government shall have people�s welfare as the locus of its policies. The certainty of the Third Front assuming power in Delhi, post election, was becoming clearer every day.

Held at the large Sihrasole grounds, the rally saw participation in their thousands of both coal mine workers and workers in the unorganised sectors, in particular. There was also a large number of adivasis who came in their traditional dresses and raised a storm of kettle drum beats.

Sitaram Yechury said that at present a �Chamakta hua Bharat� was confronted by a �Tadapta hua Bharat.� In the former, �shining,� India, a few people and families monopolise massive amount of wealth. More billionaires exist in that India than even in the rich and developed nation of Japan.

In the suffering India, 75 per cent of Indians do not have Rs 20 per day as income. One crore of Indians have been thrown out of employment as a consequence of the ongoing economic recession worldwide. The jobs of five crore more are under serious threat. In Surat, in Gujarat, 71 workers have taken their own lives due to this crisis. The textile workers sell their kidneys to survive. �We want a change of this India,� said the speaker.

Sitaram Yechury said that there would be a realignment of secular formations after the elections. On the eastern coast of the country, the alliance partners have left the BJP. Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan have created a separate morcha. The Third force will become stronger after the elections are over. He recalled to the mind of the politically conscious Bengali the words of Gopal Krishna Gokhale: what Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow.

The Left Front government is established in Bengal after winning seven consecutive elections. Bengal shows the way to the future for the rest of the country. Sitaram Yechury called for a massive electoral triumph of the LF-nominated CPI(M) candidate from the constituency, and a sitting MP, Bangsa Gopal Chaudhuri. Other who addressed the rally besides Bangsa Gopal was CPI leader R C Singh.