THOUSANDS and thousands of people thronged into Bhubaneswar, capital of Odisha on March 19 to join the rally sponsored by five Left parties – CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML) Liberation, SUCI(Communist) and Forward Bloc. The rally turned out to be an ocean of Red Flags, unprecedented in the recent history of Bhubaneswar and Odisha. Such a united Left Rally was held about a quarter century back.

Thousands of people from the southern most district like Malkangiri to northern most Mayurbhanj and from western Kalahandi to eastern district Jagatsinghpur, marched on the busy roads of Bhubaneswar braving the scorching sun and accompanied heat wave. They were bare foot adivasis fighting against the illegal mining and state aided land grab by corporate houses like Vedanta in Kalahandi and Jindals in Anugul district. They were the landless and house-less people fighting for land and houses. They were the dalits, women, fishermen, slum dwellers and vendors from the urban pockets always under the threat of eviction. Also thousands of mining workers from the districts like Sundergarh and Keonjhar and a sizable section of construction and scheme workers joined the march.  They came with a resolve to further their struggle for the livelihood. The fighting mood of the people from every walk of life like peasants, workers, women, student and youth was clearly visible with chanting of slogans with red flags in their hands. It turned in to an ocean of red flags.

The people resolved to fight against the divisive activities of Hindutva forces to divide the people on communal lines, to weaken the movements for protecting the means of their livelihood so that they can protect the interests of the corporate houses. People of the state have not forgotten the violent communal attacks by these evil forces in Kandhamal district. The mammoth rally was determined to fight back the communal forces.

The call for the rally was given from a joint convention of these five Left parties at Bhubaneswar on February 21, which raised the demands for land, house sites, increase of minimum wages, to stop illegal mining and forcible land acquisition, to fill up the vacancies in all government establishments, for drought relief and compensation to the peasant families who committed suicide due to heavy debt burden and crop failure, ration cards to all the eligible families etc. The Left parties had rejected the small sops by Naveen Patnaik government to appease the people and demanded the due share of the state`s wealth. The call of the rally was to change the policies in favour of the common people and to take up the basic issues of the state like land, house site, employment, health, education etc.

The 16-year rule of the Naveen Patnaik government has failed to address any of the basic issues of the state and as a result every year about 30 lakh youth leave for other states in search of employment.

The CPI(M) in particular is engaged since the last one year in raising these issues at panchayat and district levels independently and also jointly by other Left parties.

Addressing the rally, Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the CPI(M) said that Odisha is rich in resources for which it was invaded by Ashoka. But in spite of its richness, Odisha is now known as the poorest state of the country due to the pursuance of pro-rich and anti-poor policies by the central and state governments. These policies allow the MNCs and corporate houses to plunder the resources and impoverish the common people. Yechury said, since the BJP government came to office, more and more economic burdens are heaped on the common people. Corporate houses were given tax exemptions to the tune of Rs 6.11 lakh crores in the last one year alone. He said the interest cut on small savings of workers and employees is a blow on them. Lynching of two Muslim youth in Jharkhand and BJP`s horse trading of MLAs in Uttarakhand to topple an elected Congress government are ominous signals which should be fought back by peoples struggle. Modi government`s trident attack on peoples livelihood, social harmony and democratic institutions have exposed their ‘Achhe din’  hype.

Turning to Odisha, Sitaram Yechury wondered how the chief minister Naveen Patnaik could remain silent and engage in false propaganda when more than two hundred peasants in the state have committed suicide due to heavy debt and crop failure in more than twenty four districts of the state.  He lamented that Odisha government is doing nothing to book chit fund fraudsters and give justice to the common people who were cheated. This could happen only because of the nexus between the chit fund fraudsters and the ruling political circles. 

He exhorted that we should hold aloft the Red Flag high which cannot be torn by any force till the colour of our blood remains red and called upon the people to intensify the fight to change the policies to build a better India and a better Odisha.

The other speakers included Sudhakar Reddy, general secretary CPI, Dhirendra Jha, Polit Bureau member of CPI(ML) Liberation, Arun Kumar Singh of SUCI (Communist) and Arun Mahankar of Forward Bloc.

The meeting was presided over by a five member presidium with Janardan Pati from CPI(M), Asis Kanungo of CPI, Radhakanta Sethi of CPI (ML) Liberation, Udhav Jena of SUCI (Communist) and Jyotiranjan Mohapatro of FB.         

The state leaders of five Left parties Ali Kishor Patnaik CPI(M) Odisha state secretary, Dibakar Nayak, CPI state secretary, Judhisthira Mohapatro of CPI(ML) Liberation, Dhurjati Das of SUCI (Communist) and Purna Chandra Padhi of FB addressed the gathering and stated that they will continue the movement in the days ahead.