People's Democracy

                        'Restore Democracy in Jangal Mahal'

                        20000 March across Goaltore

THAT Goaltore in Midnapore West district has been the scene of grisly murders of leaders and cadres of the CPI(M), and of innocent rural folk, who would not act as the agents of the left sectarians and their right reactionary links, saw several long marches starting from April 21.  The marches were held at the aegis of the CPI(M)�s local units. 

We note that for the past weeks, PCAPA, a front of the �Maoist� killer brigade, has called for a bandh in protest against the so-called �State terror.�  Even a month back, joint forces ops, or no joint forces ops, any call for such a bandh by the killers would have witnessed the rural poor tremble in their bare feet, and down shutters for days and months together. So much was the terror that the villagers would not even be allowed to draw water from the wells, nor to go to their cabbage-brinjal-potato-rice patches to collect the basic necessities of life.

The scenario no longer applies, much to the chagrin of the closet �Maoists� and their Trinamuli agent provocateurs. The large turnout of the people under the vanguard leadership of the CPI(M) has also disappointed the Patrika group, which had the temerity to chortle in recent issue when a CPI(M) cadre was killed, and noted how the �Maoists� were �never in retreat� but were waiting for an opportunity to strike back.  We may merely assure them that one grisly targeted murder of a CPI(M) worker would not prevent the people from being organised against gangs of criminals and hired assassins called the �Maoists.�

The Goaltore marches were ample proof of the steel-willed desire of the masses to restore democracy in the jangal mahal.  At Goaltore the marchers included the rural poor, the fishing folk, the bargadars, the small-plot-owners, the khet mazdoors, the small shop owners, the roadside stall-owners�and the women, thousands of them, many carrying their young on their backs, or across their waist, and every one of them carried a Red flag with the hammer-and-sickle sun-lit bright in emblazon against a hazy blue sky as temperatures soared beyond 48⁰ C.  Nobody minded the heat as the procession we walked in with the midday sun pouring down heat, traversed close to 15 km of so-called �Maoist� �terrain,� if we are to believe (difficult) the Patrika reporters.

This is the Goaltore where places like Mali, and Patharpara have witnessed �Maoist�-Trinamuli terror-tactics. As we file this report, we hear that similar marches were held the same day away from Goaltore in remote rural stretches of Pingboni, Adalia, Nischindapur, Dhamcha, Nagdana, and Peruabad.  Ten Gram Panchayats of the area then brought out ten long lines of marchers in the afternoon.  Slogans rang out with call to isolate the killers and to drive them off and away.

(B P)