People's Democracy

HISTORIC RALLY OF WOMEN IN AGARTALA

‘Seventh LF Govt Essential

For an Alternative at the Centre’

                                                                                                  Rahul Sinha

“Foil all the conspiracies and write a new page in the history by forming seventh Left Front government in Tripura. The Congress is dreaming of a poribartan in the state. But the empowered and conscious womenfolk of the state shall never allow the dark days of Congress-TUJS era to make a comeback. The people of the country are preparing for a change at the centre by overthrowing the anti-people Congress-led UPA government and are searching for an alternative. Formation of seventh Left Front government in Tripura is an essential part of this quest for an alternative.”

Thus said Tripura chief minister and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Manik Sarkar, while addressing a historic mass meeting organised by AIDWA at the Vivekananda stadium of Agartala on December 16. CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat, AIDWA all india vice president Rama Das and state secretary Krishna Rakshit  also addressed the meeting. while AIDWA state president Sabitri Debbarma presided over it.

After the historic mass meetings of the tribal, dalit, youth and workers, it was the women’s turn to show their preparedness to form seventh Left Front government in the ensuing assembly elections. Just a day earlier, on December 15, the Youth Congress had organised a mass meeting at the same venue bringing in people from all over the state. The meeting, though called at the behest of Youth Congress, was in reality a show of strength by the PCC itself. That is why in a rally of the ‘youth’, there was a fairly good presence of those who cannot be termed as youth  by any yardstick.

On December 16, only the women from 12 of the 23 sub divisions of the state gathered in Agartala to attend the mass meeting of AIDWA and far outnumbered the so-called historic gathering of the Youth Congress. From noon itself, women took over the streets of Agartala in their march towards the Vivekananda stadium. Dressed beautifully in their traditional attires, the Bengali, tribal and Manipuri women from the minority communities walked past the streets of Agartala chanting slogans pledging to re-elect seventh Left Front government to ensure rights of the women, development of the state and peace and harmony in the state. The colourful rallies with masks, tableaux, posters and flags entered the stadium, with women dancing to the tunes of popular mass songs.

Addressing the rally, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat said the Left Front government of Tripura is the only government in the entire country that places the welfare of poor, women, tribal, minorities and dalits at the centre of its policies. The women of Tripura shall make no mistake in re-electing their own government. In Tripura, those who commit offences against women are put behind the bars while in the Congress-ruled Haryana and Rajasthan such criminals happen to be the cabinet ministers themselves and state governments try their best to save them.

Karat congratulated the women of Tripura as they have given the Congress a befitting reply by gathering in the meeting in such huge numbers. She said a woman wants a peaceful atmosphere, a friendly government that takes care of the needs of the poor and provides good facilities of road, power, food, water and education in her locality so that she and her family can lead a life of dignity. But the central government led by Manmohan Singh is following a policy just opposite to these aspirations of a woman. These neo-liberal policies are responsible for the skyrocketing of prices and rise in unemployment, hitting the poor women the most. She charged the rulers of being insensitive towards the plight of the common women. They won’t give BPL card to a woman who works all day to earn a measly Rs 26. They can gift the corporates a tax relief of over Rs 5 lakh crores, but will not increase the wages of anganwadi workers or Ashas, citing the reason of curtailing the fiscal deficit. There is no dearth of resources but what is lacking is a correct outlook. The central government’s policies are pro-corporate, making the rich super rich and the poor more poorer.

Criticising the Direct Cash Transfer system being put in place by the UPA government, the CPI(M) leader said the hidden aim behind this is to curtail the subsidies being given to the poor.  The amount of subsidy on foodgrains, if given in cash, shall be delinked from the market prices, limiting the access of the poor to required quantity of foodgrains. “We will oppose it tooth and nail. They don’t have the guts to take action against Reliance but have burdened the common man with the increased price of LPG cylinders.” Opposing entry of FDI in retail sector, she said it would create havoc. Rejecting arguments that it will create employment, Karat said that the reality is that for  creating 40 lakh jobs, it will destroy the livelihood of over 20 crore Indians. “In the parliament, 14 of the 18 parties opposed this measure but the government still managed to win. Do they have a magic wand? Is it the magic wand of CBI or the magic wand of the Rs 125 crore spent by Walmart on lobbying? They may manipulate the majority in parliament, but they will not succeed in manipulating the masses.”

Brinda Karat spoke about mounting attacks on tribals by the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh in connivance with the timber mafia or by the BJP government in Gujrat where barbed wire fencing has been erected to prohibit the tribals from entering the forest area. In this context we feel proud that the LF government in Tripura has issued joint pattas to the tribal women under the Forest Rights Act and the fact that Tripura tops in implementation of the Act in the entire country. She concluded by stating that the record of Tripura Left Front government shows that this is the alternative that the country needs. Women of this state know that this is their own government and they will make it victorious in the coming elections.

Addressing this mammoth gathering, Manik Sarkar said that the Left Front government has ensured security of the women in the state. The police have standing instructions to take prompt and strict action against the perpetrators of violence against women. “We have set up a women PS at Agartala, there is a women desk at each PS and family courts for speedy disposal of cases of violence against women. How many states of the country have done this? Tripura is the first state where the state has brought the BPL unmarried women above the age of 45 and the two girl children from each BPL family under social social security net. To ensure economic security of the women 50,000 self help groups have been formed and a lion’s share of them are run by the women members.”

What kind of a change the Congress is asking for, he asked. Their slogan of poribartan is aimed at bringing back the jungle rule of Congress-TUJS alliance when the security of woman in the state had plunged to an all time low. Reminding about the spate of assaults against women during that regime, Sarkar listed the gang rape of tribal women in Ujaan Maydan of Khowai by a section of the CPMFs and shameless support to the accused by the then CM; the rape of a newly wed bride on her nupital night in Belonia; kidnapping and molestation of two young girls Soma Bhattacharya and Kakoli Ray by Congress hoodlums and the police inaction; rape and murder of Sabita Debnath by Congress goons; and killing of Chimte Halam, a pregnant tribal lady, by the police for demanding food. Manik Sarkar said the women of Tripura will never let those days return. Ridiculing the claims of Congress that they would, if voted to power, give allowances to all the unemployed youth, Manik Sarkar asked does the UPA or any of the Congress government in different states have such a scheme? “Let them first ask the centre to fill up the 40 lakh vacant posts in different departments of the central government. Their record during the 1988-92 coalition regime was one of selling offers of job to highest bidders. The youth of the state won’t believe them. Their slogan of change means bringing back the era of semi-fascist terror when more than 300 comrades were murdered, all the elected bodies were dissolved unlawfully.”

Manik Sarkar said the conscious, empowered women of Tripura will never let that jungle rule to return in the state. The Congress talks of a regime change in Tripura, while the people all over the country are preparing  to throw  the Congress-led UPA out of power. They are in search of an alternative. He concluded by giving a call to the women in Tripura to write a new page of history by forming the seventh LF government in the state which is necessary for strengthening the struggle for an alternative at the centre.

On December 17, Brinda Karat addressed a massive women’s rally of the North and  Unakoti districts in Kumarghat while the next day she addressed another huge rally of women in Ambassa, the district headquarters of Dhalai.