AT the call of the Central Committee of the CPI(M), a week-long campaign from August 20-26, followed by protests, was held throughout the country on 16-point demand charter. Below we publish reports from the states:
KERALA
As per the call of the Central Committee the protest satyagraha against the anti-people policies of the central government was held on August 23 evening from 4 pm to 4.30 pm and it was a thundering success in Kerala. The satyagraha was conducted fully complying Covid-19 protocol. The protests were conducted in 9,70,629 centres and attended by 33,20,003 people. The participation was overwhelming. The Party offices and residences were venues of the protest satyagraha. Wide strata of people from PB members to Party sympathisers and young and aged people participated with vigour. Converting homes into centres of agitation was a novel chapter in the history of struggles in Kerala.
These protests also mark the beginning of a long struggle against the privatisation of Thiruvananthapuram international airport.
CPI(M) offices and offices of other class and mass organizations were also turned to be centres of struggle. Women, youth and students participated in this satyagraha. Artists, singers and other cultural leaders were also present. Activists from other like-minded parties also supported the satyagraha. CPI(M) state secretary, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan participated along with his family members at his home in Maruthamkuzhi in the Capital city. CPI(M) PB member, S Ramachandran Pillai and CC member M V Govindan participated at AKG Centre, state headquarters of CPI(M). Families of martyrs like Comrade Abhimanyu also became part of the satyagraha.
Aseema Beevi, 105 years old Covid19 survivor from Anchal, Kollam district along with her family members was also a participant in the satyagraha.
Participation of two BJP councillors from Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation and Pala Municipality attracted media attention. Vijayakumari, a corporator from Palkulangara ward of Thiruvananthapuram MC has snapped her ties with BJP and participated in the satyagraha with family members. After the satyagraha, she told that she will cooperate with CPI(M). State committee member V Sivankutti handed over a red flag to Vijayakumari. Binu Pulikkakandath, a councillor of Pala Municipality who quit BJP last week with hundreds of BJP workers, participated in the satyagraha along with his family.
WEST BENGAL
Thousands of people participated in the protest week programmes in West Bengal. The form of protests took different shapes. Roadside demonstrations, street corner meetings, processions, rallies took place throughout the state. Apart from the 16 points central charter of demands, local and district level demands of the people were added. A major cry was a more planned intervention to tackle Coronavirus pandemic in the state, which is suffering from lack of tests, lack of hospital beds, non-availability of treatment, administrative chaos. The demands of the peasants and agricultural workers were also raised. Acute crisis of jobs in the rural areas has created a situation of another reverse migration. Demands for MNREGA work were raised.
On August 25, large meetings were organised in different parts of the state, maintaining health directives. In Howrah, a large public meeting was held in Howrah Maidan area, addressed by Biman Basu and others. Basu alleged that the BJP government at the centre is deliberately assimilating religion with the functioning of the state. They are out to destroy the secular character of the Indian Republic. At the same time, the livelihoods of the people are under serious attack.
Surjya Misra addressed meeting in Dum Dum. Misra said the polarisation and division among people is another dangerous virus creeping into our Republic. It has to be fought despite the pandemic situation. In this critical time, neither the centre nor the state governments have stood by the people. Their callousness has accentuated the misery of the people. The Left have continuously proposed concrete measures and alternative steps that should be taken. Left activists have stood by the people in this hour of crisis and provided relief and help as much as possible.
In many districts, rallies and processions witnessed massive participation despite rains. In West Burdwan, protests took place in 41 places with 10 thousand people participating in a single day. Tribals and rural poor, organised working class of Durgapur participated in these meetings. In Nandigram, motorcycle rally took place. In Jalpaiguri, tea garden workers participated in protests at garden gates. In Coochbehar, long padayatras were held thorough the villages.
TRIPURA
In compliance with the all India call of protest demonstrations by the CPI(M), Tripura state committee of the Party decided to hold them on August 26.
Accordingly, all the sub-divisional committees were directed to take well-knit preparation for the protest demonstrations. Throughout the state, 290 spots were selected to organise this programme. A leaflet explaining the demands were printed and was distributed by the Party workers door to door. While distributing this leaflet in some places, the BJP miscreants violently tried to oppose the distribution of leaflets and prevented the Party workers.
On August 26, the police took a position in front of most of the Party offices. In some places, the organisers instantly diverted the scheduled place of the programme to avoid arrest and clash with the police. BJP workers acquired the scheduled place of programme beforehand at least in 10 places. Being frustrated to foil the protest demonstrations in the state, BJP workers in many places assaulted the demonstrators while going back from the programme. In Fatikroy of Unakoti districts, the protesters were arrested and detained at a school. Then the BJP workers mobilised outside the school in a larger number and led a massive attack on the protesters after their release. But for the alertness on behalf of Party leaders and the police, nefarious plan for attacking the protesters could be averted. In Bishalgarh, the police were accompanied by BJP miscreants to stall this protest demonstration. In the intervening night of August 25, the BJP goons hurled bombs in some of the houses of Party leaders in Bishalgarh.
Preliminary report says that out of 290, at 281 places protest demonstrations could be organised where a total of about 24,000 people participated. At least in 40 places, the police arrested the demonstrators. In some places, the police declared the gathering as token arrested on the spot. In some places the BJP workers joined the protests; In Panisagar and Karbook sub-divisions 107 BJP and IPFT followers of 31 families joined in this protest movement and vowed to work for the CPI(M).
In Agartala, it was a huge gathering. Obviously the participants were adhering to the Covid restriction-maintaining physical distancing and wearing mask etc. Party state secretariat members, district and sub-divisional leaders including PB Member and leader of opposition in Tripura assembly, Manik Sarkar participated in the demonstration.
Addressing the gathering, Manik Sarkar explained the disastrous effect of Covid-19 in the country. The working class, peasantry, small and middle traders, SC, ST and dalits are the worst sufferers of Covid pandemic. We demanded, Manik Sarkar continued, some relief measures including cash dole and food for six months for those downtrodden people of APL ration card holders, provision of 200 days MGNREGA and TUEP works to every worker with enhanced wage etc. These were very much necessary for their existence in Covid pandemic and lockdown situation. But the government did not pay heed to our demands. On the other hand, taking the opportunity of Covid restriction imposing a ban on the protest movement, the government is hastily selling out the public sectors to the private corporates, enacting one after other draconian laws snatching away democratic rights, TU rights etc.
What would be the purpose of struggling against Covid pandemic, if the working people are pushed through hunger, half-fed and mal-fed and ultimately die of starvation, Manik Sarkar asked? He warned the government that, the people whose back is stuck to the wall, may go any extent for their existence. He thanked the participants for joining in this important struggle defying threats from the ruling party miscreants and obstructions by the police administration.
DELHI
The Delhi state committee of the CPI(M), at the call of the Central Committee, organised a protest demonstration at Vithal Bhai Patel House on August 26, amongst which a large section was women. The protest was a culmination of the all India protest week from August 20-26, adhering to the required restrictions and precautions. The major demands of the protest include:
1. Cash transfer of Rs 7500 per month to people outside the income tax-paying bracket for the next six months.
2. Provide 10kg food grains to every individual for six months.
3. Scarp anti-worker ordinances.
4. The scrapping of privatization of PSUs
5. Stop the attacks on the secular fabric of the society and on the livelihoods of the people.
CPI(M) general secretary, Sitaram Yechury addressed the meeting at VP House. He lambasted the duality of the government and the police. He said, ‘while the government allows the corporates to loot natural resources, destroy labour laws, and privatize PSUs, the opposition parties are stopped to register their democratic protest. It is a clear depiction of the undemocratic way in which the government seeks to run the country’.
CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat highlighted the investigative incompetence and the dubious role played by the Delhi police in the Delhi riot case and said while rioters and instigators roam free, activists are being arrested and questioned by the police. She pointed out the government is single-mindedly invested in the service of corporates by furthering the agenda of disinvestment of PSUs and dilution of labour laws.
While addressing the demonstration, CPI(M) Delhi state secretary, K M Tiwari said, “The government has failed to address the genuine concerns of the youth and the working class. While the government has failed to arrest unemployment, the rights of the workers are continuously curtailed.”
MAHARASHTRA
The CPI(M) Central Committee call from August 20-26 for nationwide demonstrations against the disastrous policies of the Modi regime was observed in Maharashtra on August 20. The state committee had decided on August 20 due to the Ganesh festival that began on August 22.
August 20 was also the seventh anniversary of the martyrdom of Dr Narendra Dabholkar, who was gunned down in Pune that day in 2013. After that, during 2015-17, Comrade Govind Pansare, Professor M M Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh were similarly assassinated. All the evidence points to the involvement of the extreme right-wing communal organisation called the Sanatan Sanstha in all four killings. In spite of the case being with the CBI for the last few years, there is no action against the killers and their ringleaders. Hence this issue was also highlighted in the CPI(M) demonstrations that day, along with the condemnation of the BJP-RSS central government and taking up the burning demands of the people during this Covid pandemic.
August 20 was marked all over Maharashtra by literally torrential rain. But surmounting even this, demonstrations under the red flag of the CPI(M) were held at 203 centres in 62 tehsils of 22 districts in which nearly 12,617 people participated. Almost all these actions took place in drenching rain, with umbrellas in hand. On August 26, another large 2,000-strong demonstration was held in Solapur, in which a bonfire was made of over 25,000 astronomically high electricity bills during the lockdown period. This is now a major issue all over the state.
The first three districts in terms of mobilization were Thane-Palghar, Solapur and Jalna. In Thane-Palghar district, 5,135 people took part in 57 centres in 8 tehsils. Here tribal issues like FRA implementation, opposition to the bullet train etc., were predominant issues. In Solapur district, on August 20 and 26, 4,257 people took part in three centres in two tehsils. This included a 250-strong AIDWA-led women’s demonstration led by AIDWA state president Naseema Shaikh, on the electricity board office. In Jalna district, 1,350 people took part in 68 centres in eight tehsils. Here the burning local issue was the abusive treatment meted out by the district collector on Independence Day itself to AIKS/CITU leader Govind Ardad. Peasants, Asha workers and construction workers took part in the protests here in large numbers.
The demonstrations were led at various places by CPI(M) state secretary and CC member Narasayya Adam, CC ember Dr Ashok Dhawale, state secretariat members Barkya Mangat, M H Shaikh, Sunil Malusare, CPI(M) MLA Vinod Nikole and others.
