People's Democracy

HARYANA

Rally Appeals People for Policy Alternative

THE toiling masses of Haryana and the country have to strengthen the red flag to strengthen their position in politics, and this is also important for raising our issues in parliament for which we have been fighting in the streets everyday. This was the idea conveyed by several speakers who addressed the Vikalpa (Alternative) Rally organised on February 23, in Hissar.

Attended by thousands of Haryana people, the rally was organised by the Communist party of India (Marxist) and the Communist party of India jointly.

While addressing the rally, Sitaram Yechury, a member of the CPI(M) Polit Bureau and of Rajya Sabha, said that people today need a better future, better education and health. The condition of agriculture needs to be improved while the youth want employment. He said that Haryana today has become a model of loot by the corporate houses and of repression of workers and other toiling people. The savage repression of workers of the Maruti car plant is a living example of this situation. Yechury said India is a country of young people and our youth are in the forefront the world over. But in India only 12 percent of the youth reach a college today. He said that natural resources of our country are being ruthlessly looted today. Only 51 persons of our country today own about one third of the GDP while over 80 crore people live at only Rs 20 per day. 

Today, there are in fact two countries here. We have to change this situation where everyday three children die of hunger, 73 percent of women are anaemic, peasants are resorting to suicide and the youth are forced to remain unemployed. Yechury said once there used to be three ‘Lals’ in Haryana but the condition of the toiling masses did not improve a bit. That is why there is the need to strengthen the red flag.

Today there is much hue and cry on corruption. The fight of the Left parties against corruption and their own honesty need no certificate. Their have been eight chief ministers of the Left parties in India and not even a single one was ever charged of corruption. Today, Manik Sarkar, the chief minister of Tripura, is the poorest chief minister as per the records of the Election Commission of India. Yechury said that India today needs an alternative to the Congress as well as BJP who are serving the interests of the corporate capital. He said the tunes of “Namo” and “Raga” need to be rejected.    

Addressing the rally, CPI leader Amarjit Kaur said that communists made great sacrifices during the freedom struggle. After independence too, the communists have been fighting for the rights of the toiling masses and have been successful in making policies for them in the Left ruled states.

CPI(M) state secretary Inderjit Singh said there is a need of rejection of the policies being pursued in the state of Haryana and the country today. The major political parties in Haryana are not taking up the issues of the common masses like peasants, agricultural workers, contract and casual workers, industrial workers, scheme workers and women etc. There is rampant corruption in recruitment and transfers. A large number of posts are lying vacant in government departments. Singh said time has come that the people who have been raising these issues in the streets are sent to the parliament and the state assembly. In this context, he also quoted the words of late Comrade Prithvi Singh Gorakhpuria to the effect that the people have changed many things for others; it is now high time we change the situation for themselves.

Singh also declared that the CPI(M) and CPI would be jointly contesting five parliament seats in Haryana. The candidates are Phool Singh Sheokand from Hissar, Ram Kumar Bahbalpuria from Sirsa, Master Sher Singh from Bhiwani, Mam Chand Saini from Karnal and Arun Kumar Advocate from Ambala. Both the parties have appealed to the public of the state to send to the parliament these candidates of the Left parties who are the real vanguard of the toiling masses.

The rally was also addressed by CPI(M) Central Secretariat member Nilotpal Basu, Surender Malik, Pardeep Singh, Dayanand Poonia, Jagmati Sangwan, CPI state secretary Daryav Singh Kashyap and others.

One of the main highlights of the rally was that people had started coming for the rally from 6 a m onward and continued coming till the end. The sitting arrangement in the rally ground became insufficient for the crowd. People had to stand on the sides to listen to their leaders. There were a big number of women in the rally. Volunteers with red caps and badges maintained order at the rally where there was pin-drop silence.

Before the rally proceedings began, a team from Samlakha in Panipat performed the snake dance and played on the been and flute.

At the rally, people gave their assurance that they would donate their one day wages for the election campaign fund of the two parties.

On this occasion, Sitaram Yechury released a book on the inspiring life of late Comrade Prithvi Singh.

The rally passed a resolution demanding compensation to the farmers of five villages in Hissar for their crops destroyed by the hailstorm just one day before. Another resolution extended support to the demands of brick kiln workers who are on strike.

The rally also paid homage to the farmer who grievously died while sitting on a dharna at Uchana in Jind

The Haryana state secretariat of the CPI(M) has thanked the people for making the February 23 Vikalp rally of the Left parties a grand success. In a press statement, CPI(M) state secretary Inderjit Singh said the toiling masses and downtrodden sections had responded to the call of the Left parties with spectacular enthusiasm and determination for a policy based electoral alternative.

He also informed that it is the participants who had contributed towards the expenses of the rally vehicles. The event was a unique show of struggling unity, and the CPI(M) state committee’s call for contribution of one day’s wages for the election fund was accepted with a thunderous applause.

Women, dalits and other weaker sections turned up in the rally in a big way, besides the peasants, agricultural workers and workers of the unorganised sector.

DISHONEST INTENTION OF MEDIA

On February 23, a big number of men and women from working class, peasantry and other sections of society, holding red flags, gathered at the old Government Collage ground in Hissar for the Vikalp rally of the Left parties. Though there was a rally of the Aam Admi Party (AAP) at Rohtak on the same day, the number of people attending it was far less than that in the Vikalp Rally of the Left parties at Hissar.

However, the so-called mainstream media given far more coverage to the AAP rally and did not take note of the Left rally. Some newspapers took it very causally and relegated the news to inside pages. This makes clear the intentional discrimination being practiced by the corporate media and how they seek to marginalise the real issues of the working masses like food, education, health and social justice.