People's Democracy

We will Defeat this Murderous Politics

with People's Support: Prakash Karat

N S Arjun

from Nellore (AP)

CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat has asserted that the ongoing murderous politics and repression against the CPI(M) in Bengal will not deter the Party from continuing to champion the people's cause. Saying that the Party is already fighting back this repression with the help of the people, he expressed confidence that this onslaught will be successfully resisted.

Karat was addressing a public meeting at V R College grounds on September 22, 2009 marking the inauguration of the 25th state conference of the Andhra Pradesh Agricultural Workers Union (APAWU) here today. It was also the 75th annniversary of the formation of first agricultural workers unit by Comrade P Sundarayya in his native village, Alaganipadu in Nellore district.

Karat traced these attacks against the CPI(M) to the fact that it was the only party which has been consistently fighting against the ruling classes' neo-liberal policies and the strategic alliance with United States. He cited that post-Lok Sabha polls, a total of 112 comrades have been killed in Bengal, 64 of whom by the 'Maoists'. �These so-called revolutionaries believe that it is only by killing CPI(M) workers/leaders that revolution is possible. Whose game are they actually playing? By joining hands with Trinamul and Congress, which champion the cause of the landlords, and attacking the CPI(M), which distributed land to the poor landless,  it is clear whose interests these 'revolutionaries' are serving�, he said.

Recalling the terror unleashed against the Party in the seventies, Karat asserted that the present murderous politics would also be fought back with the support of the people. He underlined that the bulk of the rural poor in these areas are still with the Party as was seen even during the recent Lok Sabha polls where the Party won with a huge margin.

Karat said that agricultural workers, who constitute around 25 crore of our population, are the most exploited lot despite their important role in production. They have also been the worst sufferers of the imperialist globalisation policies being pursued in the country for the last two decades. The government has cut down expenditure in agriculture and rural development leading to shrinking employment in agriculture. On top of this comes inflation which is hitting this section the hardest by reduction in their actual wages. With the sky-rocketing prices of essential commodities due to speculation, they are not in a position to even buy food. On the other hand, big capitalists, traders, contractors etc have benefited hugely from these neo-liberal policies. Karat charged the central government of being hand in glove with the speculators in driving the prices up. Its blatant refusal to ban forward trading in essential commodities is a pointer.

Given the drought situation prevailing in half of the country, Karat called upon the central government to immediately lift the limit of 100 days work under NREGA, at least in the drought-affected areas. He said the government should provide 150 days or 200 days of work in these areas as per the requirement of providing relief to the people who are reeling under the impact of drought and rising prices of food. The centre must also provide adequate food supplies through public distribution system for all people, not just BPL and APL. He attacked this targeted PDS and called for waging struggles to ensure universalition of PDS. The government must provide common ration cards to all except the rich. The government which often cites lack of resources for doing this must divert the nearly 4 lakh crore rupees it doled out to corporates in the form of tax concessions in the latest budget. At a time when the the income of top corporates has gone up from Rs 3,54,000 crore in 2006 to around Rs 10,00,000 crore in 2008, the government is keen to give them more tax concessions. This actually showed the class character of the Congress government, he said. If this foregone money is diverted to people's welfare, not only the PDS, there can also be significant expansion of health, education, housing etc for the poor. And this can be made possible only by waging consistent struggles,  he stressed.

Land distribution is still a vital issue for ensuring higher productivity and improvement in the lives of the poor. Praising the vigorous struggle waged in Andhra Pradesh last year for house-sites for the poor, Karat called for continuation of that land struggle in the coming period.

Karat paid tribute to Comrade P Sundarayya for being the first leader to see the importance of organising the agricultural workers in the fight against feudalism and imperialism. He believed that without fighting for the emancipation of the rural poor, we cannot achieve independence and freedom for the people. What began as perhaps the first organised unit of agricultural workers in the entire country here 75 years ago is today a powerful organisation in the state championing their cause. Karat called upon AIAWU to launch further struggles, in association with trade unions and other democratic forces, to see that the comprehensive central legislation for agricultural workers is made a reality overcoming the vested interests of buorgeoisie-landlord sections. He also called for intensifying the fight for alternative economic policies in conjunction with the struggle against imperialism.

Karat criticised the UPA government for agreeing to end user monitoring agreement with US for the weapons being bought. �How can a self-respecting, sovereign government accept such conditions regarding weapons usage being imposed under the agreement�, questioned Karat. He also found fault with the conditions related to nuclear reactors procured from the US. The US is not liable to pay any compensation in case of accidents in the reactors supplied by them. He felt that such agreements are harmful to the interests of our people and called for waging a fight against this deepening relationship with the US.

Commenting on the recent developments in BJP, Karat said the crisis in that party is leading to a clamour for takeover by RSS. This, he said, would only mean more vigorous pursuit of communal agenda and ideology resulting in increased communal violence and division of people on communal lines. While continuing our fight for alternative policies, we have to be vigilant and foil the designs of RSS to break the unity of the working people on communal grounds by waging simultaneous struggle against communalism.

Earlier, Karat honoured the family members of the seven martyrs of Mudigonda who fell to police bullets while participating in the land struggle on July 28, 2007. The family members were seated on the dais. Karat also received a flaming torch brought from Aliganipadu, the native village of Comrade P Sundarayya marking the 75th anniversary of formation of agricultural workers unit.

The public meeting was presided over by P Somaiah, president of APAWU and was addressed by AIAWU all India president P Ramayya, Telangana armed struggle veteran Mallu Swarajyam, APAWU general secretary B Venkat, veteran CPI(M) leader Jakka Venkaiah, AIAWU Kerala unit secretary C T Krishnan and others.