People's Democracy

HARYANA

CPI(M) Holds Successful Election Rallies

ON October 5, while addressing a well attended election rally held in the Model Town grounds opposite Papiha Park in Fatehabad, Sita Ram Yechuri lambasted the Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for ignoring the interest of the farmers and the working class of the state. He said Hooda claims to have made Haryana the number one state of the country, but actually the style of his governance is comparable with that of Gujarat chief minister Narender Modi, as atrocities on women and dalits have increased manifold in the last five years. He also came down heavily on the central government to have very badly failed in checking the prices of essential commodities like dals (pulses), vegetables and sugar. He added further that as a result of the pro-capitalist and pro-corporate economic policies, five lakh people have lost their jobs in recent times in the country. For example, the union government has doled out Rs 5,000 crore to the private airways companies in order to help them come out of the present economic crises, but nothing like this has been done for the people at large. He reminded the people of Haryana of the Left parties� positive interventions in the past for nationalisation of banks In 1969, their opposition to foreign investment in the insurance sector and to the investment of the employees� pension money in the share market. In fact, it was this Left intervention that enabled the UPA government to fight the worldwide recession. Yechury appealed to the people to vote for the Left parties in order to have a set of alternative policies in the state and for their own welfare.

CPI(M) state secretary Inderjit Singh criticised the state government for not being accountable to the common people in any manner. He said the Left parties, despite being in opposition, feel a responsibility towards the people of the state. When the Congress party came to power last time, it had promised to create five lakh more jobs. He then asked, �Where has this promise gone?� The chief minister had promised to ensure the safety and security of the common citizens and had declared that even a women bedecked with golden jewellery could walk past midnight in any part of the state. But every day serious crimes are being committed against women and the state government remains a mute spectator to them. He told the audience that in Haryana alone, 50,000 acres of land had been acquired for developing the SEZs but not a single industrial unit has come up so far on the allotted land. He flayed the state government for allotting to the MLAs and MPs plots worth crores of rupees, without caring for the common people. He said the poor and the dalits still remained very badly neglected and uncared for in Haryana. He further said that the common people in Haryana had turned against the Congress ministers; they were being pelted with stones and dung cakes were being hurled to them in villages. He also appealed to the people present in the rally to vote for the Left parties� candidates --- Ramsawroop Dhani Gopal and Bira Ram Ratta Kheda of the CPI(M) and Sampuran Singh Puri of the CPI. Ohers who addressed the rally included Krishan Sawroop, Harpal Singh (former MLA), Rajkumari Sharma, and Chattarpal Singh Nathvan. Ram Kumar Bahbalpuria conducted the proceedings.

Two days later, on October 7, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat was in Rohtak to address a rally organised at Baliana (Kalanaur) in support of  the Left supported CPI(M) candidate, Bijender Singh.

She said the poor people would get a strong footing if the Left candidate is sent to the legislative assembly. Satirising on the vainglorious speech of chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda regarding the rout of the opposition, she said that using such language means an insult to the norms of democracy itself. She wondered how the Congress president Ms Sonia Gandhi could claim that the Haryana government was No. 1 in the country while 86 per cent of children in state are malnourished, 56 per cent women are anaemic, and a women is raped in every 36 hours. Agricultural growth rate in the state is less than one per cent. Out of Rs 97 crore allotted for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), only Rs 7 crore have been spent. Detailing the failures of Congress government of Haryana, Brinda Karat appealed to the people of Haryana to support the Left candidate Bijender Singh Baliyana.

Later, she addressed a press conference at the CPI(M) state committee office in Rohtak.

On this occasion, CPI(M) state secretary Inderjit Singh expressed concern over the rising unemployment and rising prices which are adversely affecting the life of the common man. He reiterated that the state government has reneged on its promises and shirked from its responsibility to spread education and the health services. Crime is on the rise in the state. Economically and socially deprived sections of the society are suffering oppression in their day to day life. The self-styled khap panchayats are challenging the rule of law. Singh said development cannot be measured only in the terms of flyovers, roads and buildings, as is being boasted in media by the state government. He said the Left aims to realise the

people�s aspiration through continuous struggle.

On this occasion, Bijender Singh Baliyana (candidate from Kalanaur), Ram Chander Yadav, Naresh Kumar and Attar Singh Hooda were also present. (INN)