THE three day 22nd state conference of CPI(M) was held at Madhubani (Comrade Umesh Chandra Das Nagar) from March 9-11. Madhubani has been a bastion of Left movement for a long time.

The conference started with a big mass meeting in the heart of the town in a school ground which was filled to its capacity. Rural women participated in large members.

Party Polit Bureau members S Ramachandran Pillai, Brinda Karat and Hannan Mollah, addressed the gathering. They mounted scathing attacks against Modi led BJP government at the centre for all-out attacks against working class, peasants, youth, students, dalits, women and particularly against minorities. They said that the divisive agenda of RSS which controls the present dispensation at the centre is a sinister plan to deflect the attention of the common people from the all-round failure of the government in fulfilling the commitments made during the 2014 election and covering up the mega scams of bank loot by the crony capitalists like Mallyas and Modis etc.

By raising the bogey of cow protection and love jihad, an all-out war has been declared against rural economy involving dalits and minorities. Lynching mobs have a field day under the direct patronage of the ruling BJP- RSS clique.

The only option before the people is to fight back this onslaught by mobilising people against neo-liberal economic policies which are playing havoc with the life of the working people. They cited the example of the long march under taken by the peasants of Maharashtra for complete loan waiver and land right for the tribal peasants.

CPI(M) state secretary Awadhesh Kumar lambasted the state government led by Nitish Kumar for its betrayal of the faith of Bihar people as he went against the mandate of keeping BJP out of power in Bihar which represents the most reactionary feudal section of Bihar and the rabid communal fringe of the society.

He exhorted the assembled people to prepare themselves for a long drawn battle to bring about a Left democratic alternative in Bihar by unleashing class and mass movements. He underlined the need to strengthen the Party and build Left unity and wider secular forum to combat the RSS, BJP menace which is bent upon polarising the masses on religions lines.

Secretariat member Rampari, who was overseeing the preparations for the conference and taking part in making the conference a success, praised the effort made by the Party comrades of Madhubani and the generous donations from the common people of Madhubani and hoped that the conference will strengthen the Left forces in general and CPI(M) in particular in Bihar. The entire state leadership was seated on the dais. The public meeting was presided over by Bhogi Yadav, CPI(M) district secretary.

Party flag was hoisted by veteran communist leader and CPI(M) state secretary for 18 years, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi on March 9th evening, which was followed by laying wreaths at the martyrs column.

The conference elected the presidium comprising VK Thakur, Ramashrey Singh, Sarangdhar Paswan, Rampari and Saidullah. After that, the condolence resolution was placed.

The state secretary proposed the names for resolution committee, minutes committee and credential committee, which were unanimously accepted.

Ram Lakhan Yadav, chairman of the reception committee welcomed the central, state leaders and the delegates, participating in the conference.

INAUGURAL SESSION

Inaugurating the conference, S Ramachandran Pillai dwelt at length on the international and national scenario and the tasks before the Party. He spoke about the systemic crisis of capitalism and the growth of far right forces in the world and the resistance of the working class and other marginalised sections of the society.

Describing the national scenario, Pillai elaborated in detail the disastrous policies pursued by the RSS controlled BJP government at the centre. The communal-corporate authoritarian regime at the centre poses the gravest threat to the democratic polity and secular fabric of the society. The regime must change lock, stock and barrel and we must unleash powerful movements for this. Fight against neo-liberal economic policies and against the divisive agenda of RSS and its affiliates must go hand-in-hand. We should mobilise Left democratic secular forces under a forum for joint action. It is not a coalition for fighting elections.

After the inauguration of the conference, state secretary placed the political organisational report of the state. The report analyses the political developments of the last three years and explains in detail the social justice slogan of the regional parties of Bihar and its present state.

The recent opportunistic alliance between JD(U) and the BJP has provided a golden opportunity for the BJP to expand its organisation in Bihar and since then, communal tensions has been reported from 17 districts.

Nitish Kumar who once gave a call for Sangh-free India, has now become the spokesperson of BJP. With deteriorating law and order situation, mounting attacks against dalits and women, minorities, growing agrarian crisis, all-round corruption and wholesale privatisation of education and health sector, the miseries of people have increased manifold.

The landlord bourgeois opposition in Bihar is not in a position to challenge the present dispensation as they have also embraced the neo-liberal agenda. Only the Left can challenge and fight for the alternative pro-people policies.

In the last three years, CPI(M) has tried to strengthen Left unity and organise many state level joint actions. In Chapra where communal violence broke out, the Party took initiative to bring all the Left and secular forces together. But ultimately, it was only the Left forces, which remained on the street to bring peace.

The last three years have established the correctness of the 21st Party Congress’ decision of strengthening the independent strength of the Party, strengthening the Left unity and unleashing class and mass movements to bring about a change in the correlation of class forces, paving the way for forging Left and democratic front.

The pursuance of this political tactical line has invigorated the Party organisation which got reflected in state level mobilization of 25,000 workers, peasants, women, youth and students on September 19, 2017 in Patna.

The report deals with the organisational steps taken in accordance with the direction of Kolkata organisational plenum. Some improvements from state to branch level are visible but the Party has still to go a long way to implement the correct recruitment policy, collection of levy according to Central Committee’s decision, distribution of Party organs among the Party members, sympathizers, dropping inactive members and unleashing sustained movements on local issues till some results are achieved.

The report has noted certain important land movements, movements on general agrarian crisis, state level interventions against attacks on dalits, women and minorities, movements and agitations of scheme workers, teachers, contract workers, government employees, construction and transport workers etc. But all these movements have local relevance; Party has not been able to mount a direct attack against the government with alternative policies.

Armed with the experiences of 21st Congress, the Party in Bihar will implement the 22^nd Congress political and tactical decisions with unity and determination.

60 delegates from different districts and special branches took part in the discussions in a free and frank manner and expressed their views based on practical experiences during campaigns, movements and agitations.

They were one in identifying BJP and RSS as the most dangerous political outfits and suggested ways and means to counter them.

After eight hours of discussion, the report was put to vote which was adopted.

 The conference adopted several resolutions on communalism, on neo-liberal economy and struggles against it, against atrocities on women and dalits, agrarian crisis, flood and drought, attacks against minorities etc.

The conference elected 50-member state committee with 10 new comrades in the place of eight comrades who were relieved and death of two comrades.

Three women comrades got elected and one woman comrade was inducted among the five permanent invitees.

The state committee elected Awadhesh Kumar as the state secretary for the second term unanimously.

The conference elected 18 members as delegates for the all India conference scheduled to be held in Hyderabad from of April 18-22.

In his concluding speech, Hannan Mollah thanked the delegates for their free and frank views regarding the political and organisational issues confronting the Party in Bihar.

As a keen observer of organisational problems in Bihar, he made some critical remarks about the functioning of different committees and exhorted the entire delegation to build a revolutionary party with strong roots among the people. He emphasised the need for launching a big kisan movement in Bihar as we have recently seen in Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Bihar has a long tradition of militant kisan movement and we should pick up the thread and unleash a powerful movement in the background of growing agrarian crisis.

To make conference a great success, a reception committee had been formed two months before consisting of Party leaders, mass organisations’ leaders, intellectuals, sympathizers, students, youth, women etc.

They worked tirelessly and collected money and materials from rural and urban centres and decked up the entire Madhubani town with gates, arches, billboards, flags and big size photos of Comrades Fidel Castro, Marx, Lenin, P Sundarayya, EMS Namboodiripad, Jyoti Basu, Captain Laxmi Sahgal, Swami Sahjanand Saraswati, Ajeet Sarkar, Ram Nath Mahto and other communist stalwarts.

On the last day of the conference, Polit Bureau and Central Committee members were presented Mithila Paintings and Shawls as mementos. Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi was specially honored with a shawl.

On behalf of the presidium, VK Thakur thanked the reception committee for making excellent arrangement of food and lodging and other facilities for the delegates. He specially thanked the young volunteers for helping the delegates and attending to their needs.

The conference generated enthusiasm and new hope among the participants.