ABOUT 10,000 men and women from several districts of Maharashtra, leaders and activists of various Left, democratic and secular political parties and mass organisations, marched nearly seven kilometres from the Veer Jijamata Udyan (Rani Baug) at Byculla to the historic Azad Maidan at Fort in Mumbai, on March 11, 2015, to denounce the dastardly assassination of Comrade Govind Pansare, senior CPI leader and Marxist intellectual. The march also condemned the failure of the BJP-Shiv Sena state government in identifying and nabbing the assassins and the masterminds behind it. The earlier Congress-NCP state government had similarly failed to trace the assassins and masterminds behind the killing of the renowned rationalist and socialist Dr Narendra Dabholkar for over a year. The massive march was organised jointly by the CPI, CPI(M), Peasants and Workers Party (PWP), Bharatiya Republican Party-Bahujan Mahasangh (BRP-BM), SUCI(C), Lal Nishan Party-Leninist (LNP-L), Lal Nishan Party (LNP), Satyashodhak Communist Party (SCP), Janata Dal (S), Forward Bloc (FB), RPI(S), Shramik Mukti Dal (SMD) and so on. The mass organisations included CITU, AITUC, Sarva Shramik Sangh, AICCTU, AIKS, AIAWU, SFI, AISF, DYFI, AIYF, AIDWA, NFIW and others. At the head of the rally was a large banner denouncing the assassination of Comrade Govind Pansare and demanding the arrest of his assassins and their masterminds and deterrent punishment to them. Participants held flags of their parties and organisations and also a large number of placards displaying the demands of the rally. Throughout the rally route, the marchers uninterruptedly gave vociferous slogans with deep anger and determination. The impressive rally during its seven kilometre route attracted the attention of lakhs of people on the streets and the residents of buildings on both sides. There were reverberations of the rally in both houses of the state legistature which were in session that day and the government was put on the defensive. The background of the assassination of Pansare has already been detailed in the March 02-08, 2015 issue of People’s Democracy/Loklahar. It is as clear as daylight that the assassins of Pansare and Dabholkar are rabid communal elements. These elements seek to spread communal hatred, disturb social peace and attack progressive forces. Cowards as they are, they are afraid of ideological debate. They resort to physical violence to terrorise the upholders of progressive ideology and values. This background of the assassination of Pansare and Dabholkar was emphasised by a Left and democratic parties’ delegation which met chief minister Devendra Phadanavis on February 16, the day Pansare and his wife Uma were shot at in Kolhapur. The chief minister, who had received information of the spontaneous and angry protest demonstrations in many parts of the state that day, had then assured the delegation that no aspect will be ignored during the investigation. However, the chief minister has not kept his word. A show of investigating is being made; but the direction of the investigation is defective. Although many persons have been interrogated, none including the person who posted threats on Facebook to Pansare, has been taken into police custody. Exactly the same thing happened in the case of the investigation of the assassination of Dabholkar. Whenever there is an incident of bomb blasts or terrorist attacks, many youth of the minority community are immediately picked up and a number of them are put behind bars without even proper preliminary investigation. It is thus clear that the real culprits are being protected. However, the Left, democratic and secular forces are determined to continue to agitate till the assassins and masterminds are identified, arrested and punished. Leaders of political parties who marched in this rally included Dr Ashok Dhawale, Mahendra Singh, Mariam Dhawale, Dr Kishore Theckedath, Dr S K Rege, M H Shaikh, Chandrakant Yadav, Shailendra Kamble (CPI-M), Dr Bhalchandra Kango, Tukaram Bhasme, Prakash Reddy, Sukumar Damle, Tanaji Thombre, Megha Pansare (CPI), S V Jadhav, Raju Korde (PWP), Prakash Ambedkar, J V Pawar (BRP-BM), Anil Tyagi (SUCI-C), Milind Ranade (LNP), Uday Bhat (LNP-L), Kishore Dhamale (SCP), Prabhakar Narkar (JD-S), Bharat Patankar (SMD) and others. The rally culminated in a public meeting at Azad Maidan, presided over by CPI state secretary Dr Bhalchandra Kango. Introductory remarks were made by CPI leader Prakash Reddy. Among those who addressed the massive public meeting were Dr Ashok Dhawale (CPI-M), Ganpatrao Deshmukh MLA (PWP), Prakash Ambedkar (BRP-BM), Kapil Patil MLC (Lok Bharati), Bhimrao Bansode (LNP-L), Milind Ranade (LNP), Kishore Dhamale (SCP), Anil Tyagi (SUCI-C), Prabhakar Narkar (JD-S), Bharat Patankar (SMD), Arun Bankar (FB), Shyam Gaikwad (RPI-S), Avinash Patil (Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti), Ulka Mahajan (NAPM) and Megha Pansare (daughter-in-law of Govind Pansare). Dr Ashok Dhawale in his speech, analysing the new situation in the country after the communal BJP-RSS with full corporate support had come to power, emphasised that the assassinations of Pansare and Dabholkar were manifestations of the fact that the reactionary and communal forces in the state have become more aggressive. He came down heavily on the way the investigations have been conducted by the state government. He recalled the heinous assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by Nathuram Godse and his other RSS-Hindu Mahasabha conspirators, and also the assassination of CPI MLA Krishna Desai and Dalit Panther activist Bhagwat Jadhav by Shiv Sena hoodlums in the 1970s. He denounced the communal attempt to glorify Nathuram Godse by its perverted call to build statues and temples of this killer. At such a time of grave danger to the country, he appealed to all Left, democratic, secular and progressive parties and groups to close ranks to fight this onslaught of reactionary, communal and semi-fascistic forces. All other speakers also flayed the state government and emphasised the broader and stronger unity of all progressive, democratic and secular forces to rebuff these forces of darkness. The rally ended with a firm resolve to continue the agitation for the arrest of, and deterrent punishment to, the assassins and masterminds behind these two killings.