People's Democracy

BIHAR

March Decries Bengal attack, Demands Strong Lokpal

Arun Kumar Mishra

THOUSANDS of peasants, workers, youth, women and students, braving the scorching sun, marched through the main thoroughfares of Patna --- from Gandhi Maidan to R Block roundabout --- on August 25, showing solidarity with the party comrades of West Bengal who are being daily attacked and murdered by the TMC-Maoist combine. Since the assembly election in West Bengal, 32 comrades have been murdered there, and thousands have been forced to leave their hearth and home.

Drawn from different districts of Bihar, the participants in the march were seething with anger, which was writ large on their faces, as they raised militant slogans against the semi-fascist attacks on West Bengal comrades with the full backing of the state machinery.

The march, as a part of the India-wide protest actions, was organised at the call of the CPI(M) Central Committee. The march started from Gandhi Maidan at 12 noon sharp and reached the R Block roundabout at 1 p m. CPI(M) state secretary V K Thakur and state secretariat members G S Vidyarthi, Awadhesh Kumar, Ram Pari, Sarvodaya Sharma and Arun Kumar Mishra led the protest march. The protestors also raised the question of a strong Lokpal Bill, a separate commission for the judiciary and an end to the neo-liberal policies which are the source of mega corruptions.

A five-member delegation submitted a charter regarding the attacks on Left Front leaders and cadres in West Bengal, attacks on the democratic rights of the West Bengal people, and regarding the issue of corruption. The delegation comprised CPI(M) state secretary V K Thakur and the four state secretariat members.

The Marchers were addressed at R Block roundabout where they were stopped by the police and were not allowed to proceed further. The meetings was presided over by veteran CPI(M) leader G S Vdiyarthi.

While addressing the marchers, Awadhesh Kumar lashed out at the undemocratic behaviour of Ms Mamata Banerjee who has let loose a reign of terror in West Bengal against the Left Front leaders and cadres. He cautioned her not to play with fire and exhorted the assembled comrades not to show just verbal solidarity with West Bengal comrades but strengthen the party in Bihar which will be the real solidarity with the fighting comrades of West Bengal.

The speaker also narrated the moving story of a dalit family of Aurangabad. All the members of this family took the extreme step of ending their lives by pouring petrol on their bodies and setting themselves on fire. The family had been defrauded of their 20 thousand rupees which they had received to build their home under the Indira Awas Yojana.

He also paid tribute to the first martyr against corruption, Yogendra Shah of village Yadua Patti under Kumar Khand block of Madhepura district. Shah had been carrying on his fight against the corrupt mukhia of his panchayat for a long time and had succeeded in getting back the money of the poor people who had been duped by the local brokers who work at the behest of the mukhia.

Marchers were also addressed by Sarangdhar Paswan, state president of the Khetihar Majdoor Union.

V K Thakur spoke at length about the achievements of erstwhile Left Front government and the Left movement in West Bengal. He explained in detail the contribution of the Left movement in West Bengal and its impact on the national scale. The attack on the Left movement in West Bengal are is an attack on the entire Left movement of the country and would be resisted tooth and nail. He thanked the participants in making the state level march a big success.

While thanking the participants, G S Vidyarthi made them aware of their immense responsibility to face the onslaught of the ruling classes and repulse them with determination in order to usher on the path of a democratic revolution in the country.

In the meantime Awadhesh Kumar, state general secretary of Kisan Sabha, met the family members of Yogendra Shah at village Yadua Patti in Kumar Khand block of Madhepura district. Yogendra Shah was shot dead on August 20 morning by the shooters of the ex-mukhia, Arvind Yadav, who had been defeated by a candidate supported by the CPI(M) in the recently held panchayat elections. Yogendra Shah, a poor labourer but an idealist young worker of the CPI(M), played a big role in defeating Arvind Yadav. He was the hero of the local poor people and used to fight against the corrupt practices of the mukhia and his cohorts. He had become an eyesore to the corrupt gang operating in the panchayat. As Yadav had to be removed, Shah’s his life was snuffed out at the very young age of 32. The party has decided to observe a protest day throughout the state on September 2. The assailants are still at large, and the local administration is hand in glove with the culprits, trying to shield them.

Another horror story is of self-immolation by members of a dalit family of Bhatni Bigha village of Aurangabad district. This is a blot on the so called “Sushasan” of the Nitish government. Party secretariat member Awadhesh Kumar visited the village and met the villagers who narrated the whole story. The dalit family had been given 30 thousand rupees to build their home under the Indira Awas Yojana and it was deposited in their account in a bank. But twenty thousand rupees were taken out by a local broker Binod Rajbanshi in connivance with the bank manager and the local administration. A nexus of the mukhia, BDO, bank manager and the local brokers has been working in tandem to defraud the poorest of the poor in order to make quick buck.

The fight against corruption is a fight against the whole system which perpetuates itself with the might of the state, which is an organ of the bourgeoisie and the landlord class.

The CPI(M) is determined to launch a movement at the grassroots level in the coming days on the issues involved in the martyrdom of Yogendra Shah and the horrible and heart rending story of the dalit family of Aurangabad.