ON October 10, 2021, Martyrs' Day and the 25th death anniversary of the legendary leader of the CPI(M) and the Warli Adivasi Revolt, and the only woman president of the AIKS in its history, Comrade Godavari Parulekar, was observed in a large meeting of over 3000 comrades organised by the CPI(M) and AIKS Thane-Palghar district committees at the Comrade Godavari Shamrao Parulekar Bhawan at Talasari in Palghar district. The event also marked the culmination of the 75th platinum jubilee year of the formation of the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha in 1945 and of the Warli Adivasi Revolt from 1945 to 1947. 

The first five martyrs of the Adivasi Revolt were gunned down by the police of the British regime at Talwada on October 10, 1945. There have been 61 adivasi martyrs of the Red Flag in this district, killed by subsequent Congress and BJP regimes. Comrade Godavari was cremated at Talasari 25 years ago on October 10, 1996, in the presence of thousands of people. October 10 is therefore observed every year in the district through various programmes.

This meeting denounced the inhuman and brutal killing of four farmers and a journalist at Lakhimpur Kheri by BJP goons led by the union minister of home Ajay Mishra and his son Ashish Mishra. It resolved to make the Maharashtra bandh on October 11 to condemn the BJP for these killings, and the SKM calls on this issue from October 12 onwards, a great success. There have been constant mobilisations of thousands of peasants, workers and others in Maharashtra in support of the historic farmers’ struggle over the last 11 months.  

The meeting also decided to prepare for the coming gram panchayat elections in the district by taking up consistent struggles on local issues, to make the area, tehsil and district Party conferences a success (unit conferences are already completed), and to give a boost to the membership drives of all the mass fronts. 

The programme began with the flag-hoisting by 94-year old veteran CPI(M) and AIKS leader L B Dhangar, and floral tributes to 61 martyrs of the district by another veteran CPI(M) and AIKS leader, 84-year old Lahanu Kom, ex-MP and ex-MLA.

The meeting was presided over by CPI(M) state secretariat member, district secretary and AIKS state vice president Barkya Mangat, and it was addressed by CPI(M) Central Committee member and AIKS president Ashok Dhawale, CPI(M) state secretariat member and AIKS state president Kisan Gujar, CPI(M) state committee member and CITU state secretary Vinod Nikole, MLA, and by Party veterans L B Dhangar, Lahanu Kom and Hemlata Kom. 

The second edition of the Marathi translation of the rare and historic book 'Revolt of the Warlis', written by Comrade Shamrao Parulekar and first published 75 years ago in 1947, was released in this meeting and sold widely. Shamrao Parulekar was a freedom fighter, an MLA in 1937 with the support of the Independent Labour Party founded by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the founder general secretary of the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha, the leader along with Godavari Parulekar of the famed Warli Adivasi Revolt, Maharashtra state secretary of the undivided CPI, Lok Sabha MP from Thane district, and a member of the first Central Committee of the CPI(M) in 1964. Unfortunately, he died soon after that while in detention, along with Comrade B T Ranadive and many other Communists, on August 3, 1965.  

In a similar programme last year, six other books were released. A stall with Party and progressive literature was set up by AIDWA activists. This stall sold literature worth Rs 21,195 that day. 

Akshay Dawanekar of the CPI(M), who last week won the zilla parishad by-election from Talasari tehsil, was felicitated. The function concluded with revolutionary slogans and with hope and inspiration for the future.