HUNDREDS of activists of the Left and Democratic Front in Mumbai belonging to various parties, viz CPI(M), CPI, Lal Nishan Party, CPI(ML) Liberation and Bharip-Bahujan Mahasangh participated in a militant demonstration on March 6 at Dadar Railway Station in Mumbai. The demonstration strongly denounced the inciting declaration of a reward of one crore rupees by Kundan Chandrawat, RSS Head Pracharak of Ujjain city in Madhya Pradesh, for beheading Pinarayi Vijayan, chief minister of Kerala and Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M).

CPI(M) central secretariat member Ashok Dhawale, Central Committee members Mahendra Singh and Sudha Sundararaman, state committee members S K Rege, Shailendra Kamble and Sonya Gill, CPI state secretariat member Sukumar Damle, LNP state secretary Milind Ranade, CPI(ML) leader Shyam Gohil and SFI state secretary Balaji Kaletwad addressed the meeting.

It was pointed out by speakers in the demonstration that several BJP MPs and MLAs attended this meeting of pracharaks of the RSS in Ujjain, but not a single one of them opposed this bizarre announcement of Kundan Chandrawat. It was only when the media flashed and discussed this event extensively and there was a huge uproar all over the country, that the RSS headquarters was forced to condemn this announcement, as a face saving measure. The BJP state government of Madhya Pradesh did nothing to register a criminal case against Chandrawat for several days in spite of him remaining unrepentant for this open call.

The speakers pointed out that the Sangh Parivar is targeting Pinarayi Vijayan because on the one hand, the LDF state government of Kerala is pursuing an alternative path of economic development by implementing several welfare schemes worth hundreds of crores of rupees for the betterment of the working people. This is in stark contrast to the neoliberal economic policies of the central and state governments of the BJP. On the other hand, Pinarayi Vijayan is challenging the Sangh Parivar in its own dens in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka by addressing large gatherings. For the last several years, the RSS has embarked on a vicious campaign of murder and terror against the CPI(M) and the Left in Kerala and, in perfect Goebbels style, is falsely propagating that the Left is attacking the RSS-BJP in Kerala.

The speakers pointed out that the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha had never participated in the freedom struggle and, along with the Muslim League, had helped the British rulers in their divide and rule policy. The RSS had declared Muslims, Christians and Communists as its three main foes. The treachery of the RSS was also evident in its activist Nathuram Godse’s dastardly assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, after which RSS activists distributed sweets all over the country. The RSS mouthpiece ‘Organiser’ attacked the constitution of India which was mainly drafted by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, because it did not have the laws of the hated Manusmriti!

The same Sangh Parivar brazenly destroyed the Babri Masjid, resulting in the loss of thousands of lives in the subsequent riots. The present prime minister Narendra Modi and current BJP president Amit Shah – both RSS men - when they were chief minister and home minister of Gujarat, unleashed the horrendous Gujarat communal holocaust that killed, raped and burnt thousands of men, women and children. It was the RSS and BJP bigwigs who were responsible for the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula and for the atrocities on dalits in Una. And it is now such people who are shamelessly trying to distribute certificates of patriotism!

Ashok Dhawale, while summing up, said that the Sangh Parivar is trying its best to incite violence against activists of the CPI(M) and the Left as part of its diabolical conspiracy of dismissing the LDF state government of Kerala. The RSS is painting this as a struggle between the Left and the Right. But in fact, the struggle today is between fascistic forces like the RSS-BJP who are bent on destroying democracy and secularism, and those who are bent on defending democracy and secularism. This battle must be joined across the country and all democratic, secular and progressive forces must come together. The demonstration then ended with militant slogans to safeguard democracy, secularism and the unity and integrity of the country.