People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 45
November 10, 2013
|
Vol. XXXVII
No. 45 November 10, 2013 |
Massive
Martyrs Day Actions in Thane Nearly
Half a Lakh Tribals
Mobilised Mariam
Dhawale EVERY
year for the
past several decades,
thousands of adivasis
march on the roads in Thane district with red flags
on Martyrs Day, October
10, reasserting their
determination to continue the struggle for
emancipation against exploitation and injustice,
to
build a world free of poverty and hunger – a struggle that was begun by
their forefathers nearly 70 years ago,
in 1945. This year, on
October 10,
over 47,500 people came to the roads at
seven tehsil centres in Thane district, under the
banner of the CPI(M).
October
10, 1945 was the day when the first five martyrs
of the renowned Adivasi
Revolt, including Comrade Jethya
Gangad, were killed in wanton firing
by the British police who were in collusion with
the landlords. The firing took
place
at Talwada, a village which is now just
across the border in The last
martyr of the tribal movement in October 10 is also observed as
the death anniversary of the legendary
CPI(M) and AIKS leader, Comrade Godavari
Parulekar. She actually passed away on
October 8, 1996, but was
cremated at Talasari in Thane district on
October 10. MASSIVE RALLIES Last year, on October 10, 2012, the CPI(M)’s Maharashtra state
committee meeting concluded at Talasari
with a massive districtwide rally of 50,000
people; it was addressed by CPI(M) Polit Bureau
member Sitaram Yechury, Central Secretariat member
Nilotpal Basu, Central Committee member and
The foundation stone for this
office had been laid by Tripura chief
minister Manik Sarkar on Martyrs Day, October 10, in 2010, followed
by another huge
mass rally. Two years before that in
2008, the massive Martyrs Day rally
in Thane district had been addressed by CPI(M)
general secretary Prakash Karat. With the Lok Sabha and Vidhan
Sabha elections due in 2014, the party this
year decided to replace the central districtwide
rally with large rallies at
the tehsil level on burning issues of the people.
Over 47,500 people, an overwhelming
majority of them adivasi men and women,
participated in these rallies in strength.
Mass organisations like the AIKS, CITU, AIDWA,
DYFI, SFI and the
newly-restarted AIAWU worked hard for the success
of all these rallies. The
massive participation of women --- over 23,000 ---
was a distinctive feature. State leaders of the party
addressed the various tehsil level rallies. The
largest 12,000-strong rally at Dahanu was
addressed by CPI(M) state secretary and
Central Committee member Dr Ashok Dhawale, state
secretariat member Dr Kishore
Theckedath and state committee member Edward
Vartha. The 10,000-strong Talasari rally
was addressed by CPI(M) Central Committee
member K L Bajaj, state secretariat members
Mahendra Singh, Rajaram Ozare (MLA)
and Mariam Dhawale, and state committee member
Barkya Mangat. The 9,000-strong Vikramgad rally
was addressed by CPI(M) state committee
members Lahanu Kom (former MP and former MLA) and
Kisan Gujar. The 7,000-strong Jawhar rally was
addressed by state secretariat member J P
Gavit (former MLA) and state committee member
Ratan Budhar. The 3,500-strong Shahapur rally
was addressed by CPI(M) district
secretariat member Sanjay Bhole; the 3,000-strong
Wada rally by state committee
members L B Dhangar and Sanjay Thakur; and the
3,000-strong Palghar rally on
October 11 by Mariam Dhawale and Edward Vartha. These rallies were well covered
by the media. Peasants, agricultural labourers,
workers, women, youth and students participated in
them in large numbers. BURNING ISSUES BEING TAKEN UP There has been a total neglect of
the tribal areas with hardly any
development. Poverty
and backwardness are major issues in the tribal
areas. Basic
needs like adequate food, drinking
water, land, homes,
education, healthcare, etc are beyond
the reach of a large number of people. There are
few sources of employment in
the region. This results in thousands of families
migrating for six to nine months
a year in search of livelihood. “We migrate just to keep alive” ---
this statement is often heard in the tribal
areas. There
are regular
reports of severe malnutrition and
starvation-related deaths of small children. The
Party and the mass organisations
took up some of these major
issues in these rallies. The AIKS has been constantly
waging a battle for stringent implementation
of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and against the
land sharks who have been trying
to grab the land that is in the occupation of the
tribals for generations. Due
to its proximity to Mumbai, the land mafia has
been eyeing the tribal areas of
Thane district. False land records are prepared in
connivance with the revenue
officers to evict the tribals. Courageously facing
police repression and the
goons of this land mafia, thousands of tribal men
and women with red flags in
hand, in various villages in the above tehsils,
are unitedly saying, “We will
not give up even an inch of our land.” Hundreds
of CPI(M) leaders and cadres are
being implicated in false cases since they are
vehemently opposing the land
mafia. Work under the Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)
with fair wages; urgent issues of irrigation and
power; water for drinking and
agriculture from the various dams in Thane
district to be given to tribal areas
on a priority basis --- these demands were also
raised in these rallies. Many
of the dams in Thane district have been
constructed with tribal sub-plan funds,
and yet the tribals have been consistently denied
access to water for drinking as
well as for irrigation. Large-scale displacement
with poor rehabilitation has
led to increased impoverishment of tribals in the
dam areas. The Centre of Indian Trade Unions
(CITU) has been taking up the issues of
the Anganwadi, ASHA and other sections of
unorganised workers. Keeping their factories
closed, all the workers led by the CITU in Thane
district participated in these
rallies in large numbers. The AIDWA has been taking up the
issue of inclusion of the poor in the
below-poverty-line
(BPL) lists; universalisation and strengthening of
the public distribution
system (PDS); starting of the doorstep ration
scheme; demands related to water,
education, employment and health; and the question
of roads, infrastructure and
other issues of development. A month-long programme of
village-level women’s meetings in Thane district
was independently organised by the AIDWA in
September as preparation for the
October 10 rallies. A total of 63 village meetings
in seven tehsils were held,
with 4,107 women activists present. Many local
problems of supply of ration
grains, issuance of caste certificate,
ill-treatment of patients in primary
health centres (PHCs) and rural hospitals,
implementation of the Indira Awaas Yojana,
repairing of wells and bore-wells, issues of
atrocities on women etc were taken
up in these meetings. This enthused the women,
resulting in their massive
turnout in the rallies. Due to this campaign,
AIDWA membership in Thane
district has crossed the 20,000 mark. The Democratic Youth Federation
of India (DYFI) has been in the forefront of
the struggle against corruption and
black-marketing of ration grain and
kerosene. Keeping a day and night vigil on the
movement of trucks transporting these items,
DYFI
activists caught them red-handed when they
were going to the black-market. Thousands of
quintals of grain and lakhs of litres of
kerosene were confiscated. Leaders of the BJP and
NCP who were involved in
these scams were arrested. The Students Federation
of India (SFI) has been
fighting on the various problems of students
concerning education. On all the above issues,
memorandums were submitted to the subdivision
officers (SDOs) and tehsildars. Due to mass
pressure of the rallies, the
authorities were forced to concede and to begin
the implementation of many of
the local demands. The speeches of the party
leadership combined the burning issues of the
people with the political challenges of the day,
like the neo-liberal policies
of the UPA regime at the centre and the
Congress-NCP regime in the state, the
stench of the massive corruption scandals in the
country and their dire impact
on the lives of the people, the anti-national
conspiracies of communal forces
led by the RSS-BJP-VHP combine, their shameless
projection of the ace rioter
Narendra Modi as a future prime minister, the
threat of imperialism to our
country, the defence of the Left in Bengal, the
big struggles led by the Left
in Kerala and the sterling work for tribals
carried out by the Left Front government
of Tripura. DISTRICT WORKSHOP FOR POLL PREPARATIONS The CPI(M) has decided to hold a
workshop for Thane district at Talasari on
November 14-15, 2013 to prepare for the Lok Sabha
and Vidhan Sabha elections.
This workshop will be attended by around 300
leading activists of the party and
mass organisations. It will be attended by
Nilotpal Basu and Dr Ashok Dhawale. The
workshop will also seriously take up the
implementation of the party state
committee’s call to collect a Struggle Fund from
party members as well as
common people --- on the lines of the inspiring
Kerala fund drive in September.