Subinoy Moulik
PUTTING all apprehensions of the mainstream media to rest, the Brigade Parade Ground rally organised by DYFI West Bengal state committee on January 7, recorded an outstanding turnout with the presence of thousands and thousands of vibrant students and youth who had come from different parts of the state adding a special dimension. At about noon, marches from various corners of the city gathered together and the vast ground was filled to the brim in no time. The marches were punctuated by thousands of young DYFI supporters enthusiastically chanting slogans such as “We shall fight, we shall win, DYFI Zindabad.” The stage was adorned with the Indian national flag just behind the speaker’s podium surrounded by an array of DYFI’s red star-marked white flags.
Sunday’s grand rally was the culminating event of the 50-day Insaf Yatra that covered 2910 km from Cooch Behar to Kolkata. The DYFI leaders said from the rally stage that the youth has taken over the maidan; likewise the Left will also take over the politics of the state. We will not let the future of Bengal be plundered; we will fight to the last to save Bengal. There shall again be a “Leftist renaissance and resurgence” in West Bengal. On this occasion a book titled “Diary of Insaf Yatra” was published by DYFI, West Bengal. Apart from this, the marchers who were there from beginning to end in the 50-day march were felicitated. The family members of the youth martyrs were also felicitated.
CRY FOR JUSTICE
Delivering his inaugural presidential address, DYFI state president Dhrubajyoti Saha began with a verse from poet Sukanta Bhattacharya’s poem ' The Age of Eighteen '. He declared that in Bengal divisive politics can never have the last word. He said during the 50-days of Insaf Yatra we had seen helplessness, malnutrition, hunger and despondency in the sunken eyes of the people. This is not the glorious Bengal that we once knew, Saha said. It is now the Bengal of corruption, criminalisation and exploitation. We have to reclaim the lost prestige of our state. We have seen in the hills how children of female tea workers have to spend time in a suffocating cage-like room while their mothers go for work in the plantations. Regular ration is unavailable. Many have been deprived of their rightful Awas Yojana homes. They have not been given pattas (land rights). While there are connoisseurs who sip tea worth a few thousand rupees per kg, these working people languish in indescribable living conditions.
In Bengal the daily wages are so low and the support price of crops so below the subsistence level that they are unable to feed their families by staying at home. The wife of a deceased mason told us when her husband's dead body returned home from another state she was horrified to find that both of his eyes were missing. How can a government which cannot protect the eyes of a labourer protect the safety and comfort of the people of the country? That helpless woman wants us to answer this question.
We have seen that those who terrorised the western part of our state earlier as Maoists have now become TMC leaders and have established a reign of terror. So we want justice. So many young lives like Sholku Soren, Maidul Islam Midda. Anis Khan and Sudipta Gupta have been killed. We want justice for every murdered comrade.
A section of the media blacked out our Insaaf Yatra. Others said that the program is a copy from Abhishek Banerjee's statewide tour. We told them that it is not good to pretend to be blind even when the eyes are healthy. Abhishek Banerjee toured the state in an AC luxury van. Thousands of police accompanied him to guard him. The PWD department of the government cleared the roads by cutting trees for his entourage to move smoothly. He stayed in luxurious tents. We have come walking from the mountains to the plains. Common people have guarded us. We stayed in working class homes and common people's houses sharing everyone's daily food. So we find that while CBI and ED sent invitation letters daily to Abhishek Banerjee's palace, our path is filled with the blessings of ordinary people. And we shall move along this path of struggle, come what may.
Dhrubajyoti also pointed out that at the end of Buddhadev Bhattacharya's term as chief minister, the salary of the administrative head of West Bengal was 7540 rupees. Today the Trinamool government has increased that salary to 2 lakh 10 thousand rupees. Similarly, the salary of MLAs has increased manifold. On the other hand, government employees have not been getting their dues for many years. Salary has not increased for para teachers, gig workers, civic volunteers. Old age allowance, widow allowance is not increasing. Years are passing and people are not getting MNREGA dues. Meritorious would-be teachers are sitting on the streets waiting for appointment letters. Recruitment scam has robbed them of their jobs. This government has given licenses to 21 thousand liquor shops and is going to close 8300 schools. We demand that students and teachers should be returned to school. We are not just protesting but coming to the brigade to give a message of resistance. We will take this resistance down to the booth level.
RALLY OF CONVICTION
DYFI all India president A A Rahim congratulated the state unit for this remarkable gathering. He said youth today all over India and particularly in West Bengal are driven by the fire ignited by unemployment and corruption and by the betrayal of the people in power. India holds the world's largest youth population. Still disillusionment and unfulfilled dreams of the youth find expression in the unrest all over India. Irrespective of caste creed and religion the Indian youth is over burdened by the crisis of joblessness. Our friends, neighbours and siblings suffer equally due to the anti-youth policies of the government. Terming Mamata Banerjee's government as the ‘brand ambassador of corruption in India’ Rahim said West Bengal was once known to be the land of cultural excellence, the land of dream-makers. Now it has come to be known as the heartland of corruption and nepotism.
He hoped that this rally would be a wake-up call for those high and mighty who are determined to 'plunder our present and mortgage our future,' sending a clear message to all that Bengal’s youth cannot be silenced and their dreams cannot be crushed. The youth shall stand united—Hindus, Muslims, Christians, dalits and adivasis shall fight hand in hand against the evils of unemployment and corruption. They shall always be on the warpath against the communal venom that aims at eliminating the spirit of united resistance. Finally he said this was the rally of political conviction against crony capitalists and their political puppets. This was the rally to reclaim our future. We are the future and the future belongs to us, he concluded.
Srijan Bhattacharya, state secretary of SFI, said that schools are closing one after another in the state, the problem of tribal hostels is dire, scholarships are not being provided, mid-day meals are being stolen, while fees are increasing. In a word, there is a terrible anarchy going on in the education sector. Where will the students go by riding free bicycles? The schools are being closed down one after the other. The list of thefts and scams shows that old vs. young conflict in the Trinamool Congress is a myth. Young and old Trinamool leaders have equally patronised scams to dupe the masses. The students and youth of Bengal will fight against this.
CPI (M) Central Committee member and former DYFI state secretary Abhas Ray ChaudhurI said, Bengal was not supposed to suffer such a disaster. The Left Front government had created employment opportunities in industry based on agricultural development. Today the farmers have no price for their crops, the agricultural workers have no work, the working people have no wages, and the unemployed have no work. An unemployed reserve force is being created to pave the way for the super profits of the Ambanis and Adanis. It was not supposed to happen this way. Who killed the dream of the youth? Be it today or tomorrow, the perpetrators will be judged in the arena of history.
Highlighting the BJP's fake fight against the corruption of the Trinamool, the ruling party of the state, he said, scanning leaders of the BJP will reveal the rotten smell of the same corruption. Why didn't the BJP government at the Centre file FIRs seeking punishment for corruption in REGA? On the other hand, the Trinamool government of the state can file case after case to escape from the corruption case, why did it not file a single case to recover the money from the job scam? Neither of the two thieves is going to judge the other, both of them will be judged in the people's court.
All India general secretary of DYFI, Himghnaraj Bhattacharya said that the Modi government promised Rs 2 crore jobs a year and is now busy cutting jobs. State-owned factories are being handed over to private hands. Mamata Banerjee came to the government promising 2 lakh jobs a year. After assuming power it was Mamata Banerjee's government which blasted the factory at Singur with dynamite whose 80 per cent construction work was complete. With this the dreams of the youth of Bengal have also been crushed. Modi is asking the unemployed youth to sell pakora, and Mamata Banerjee is advising them to sell tea-biscuits, ghugni. Did Kalighat's property increase by selling these items? These two fraudulent parties must be defeated in the next election.
SYSTEM NEEDS CHANGE
DYFI state secretary Meenakshi Mukherjee clearly said, we have come to fight, we will not yield even an inch of land without a fight. BJP has neither the inclination nor the initiative to stop the reign of robbery and hypocrisy in Bengal, in return Trinamool will not fight to oust Modi. There is an old adage in Hindi that says no matter how big the dog is, it doesn't become a tiger, though it may pretend to be one in its own territory.
We have walked for fifty days from Cooch Behar to Calcutta demanding justice. But we were not alone. Many people have been with us and given us strength. All of us take an oath to unite the state and the country, restore the lost honour of Bengal and the dignity of this national flag. The martyrs who have always stood up against oppression and tyranny will forever remain in our hearts. Their struggle for justice shall never be betrayed
Giving the call for challenging the political narrative manufactured by Trinamool and BJP and bringing in the alternative people’s counter-narrative, she said, "We are not fighting a gang war. Our fight is to reclaim our nation. This fight cannot be divided by religion, language, or caste because the fight is for work, for food, for transparency of governance free from theft and corruption. That is why they fear the fight of the Left. Because we do not believe in stage fighting and speak about real issues. To strengthen this struggle, the youth must send representatives to the Lok Sabha who will speak for the downtrodden. We have reached out to the people of our state to support us and they have responded enthusiastically.”
The last speaker of the meeting was CPI(M) West Bengal state secretary and former DYFI all India secretary Md Salim. He urged the youth to take this fight for justice to the booth level in village towns. The strong spirit of people's resistance which was seen in the panchayat elections has to be given its final form this time in the Lok Sabha elections, he said. He said, to get our rights realised in every field of work, to get fair wages and crop prices, to have better roads, quality education, proper healthcare facilities; we have to seek justice in every booth.
Apart from the call to spread the struggle of Insaf from booth to booth, Muhammad Salim also warned the state police administration officials and Trinamool workers. He said, now the chief minister has no desire to save anyone except her very own nephew. She preaches that he does not speak to the Prime Minister. But desperate to save her nephew, Mamata Banerjee went to have a face to face meeting with PM Modi on the pretence of going to the G20 summit dinner. A few days later she went to Delhi again in the name of bringing pending money for REGA workers and had another round of talks with the PM. But no tangible outcome emerged for the REGA workers. There is a grave doubt that she has mortgaged the future of the state to save her nephew in the corruption case.
Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee has been denied protection in court after court. The pressure of the court is increasing on the investigating agency. Referring to this situation, Salim said that minister Partha Chatterjee called the chief minister after his arrest but the chief minister did not pick up the call. But her team is so active to protect her nephew that for six months CBI was not able to do the voice sampling test of Sujoy Bhadra aka Kalighat-er Kaku, a close associate of MP Abhishek Banerjee. The chief minister does not think of anyone except herself and her family. Will she come forward to protect the police who are preparing false cases, the officers who are throwing the panchayat poll ballot boxes into the pond, Salim asked.
Autocracy alone has become the defining feature of this government. This Chief Minister had once asked leftists to apply leucoplast on their lips to silence their voices. To restore democracy, more people need to be reached. Those who are being misled by hijab politics or the Gita recital should be made to see their mistakes. To save Bengal, we should rise above religion, caste and unite all people.
Calling upon all people to come forward to fulfill the dream of building a new Bengal, Salim said, we the Left want Bengalis to live with their heads held high. Why do our youth have to go to take up a hazardous job in another state and return as a corpse ? Only the Left can stop those who have bulldozed job prospects, those who are bulldozing people's homes in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Assam. We shall never let Bengal become Manipur.
At the end of the meeting, the preamble of the constitution was read out at Brigade Parade Ground, as the oath to save the country.
