WHAT started as a jatha from Singur has turned out to be spectacular mobilisation of people throughout its way. The main jatha has been joined by many streams with more and more people enthusiastically participating, breaking all earlier records.

Thousands of people started the march from Singur on January 16 with the main slogan of industry and employment in West Bengal. The six day march will culminate in a rally in Salboni on January 22.

CPI(M) leader and former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee inaugurated the march in Singur, the place which witnessed anarchic agitation against setting up of a car factory by Tatas. In the TMC regime, the industrial scenario in West Bengal has become darkened with no new worthwhile industry coming up. On the contrary, many units have closed their operation, many have left the state and traditional industries like tea and jute are suffering from deep crisis. This has created serious crisis of employment generation and youths - both rural and urban - are facing bleak future. The march is aimed to highlight these issues.

Bhattacharjee, addressing the inaugural rally, categorically asserted that the state can be revived only through the path of industrialisation. Along with development of agriculture, industries can generate jobs. It is the Left that can rebuild the state and arrest the decline.

The main march is scheduled to cross 191 kms through the districts of Hooghly, Bankura and West Midnapore. The march in Singur was led by Biman Basu and other Left leaders, including CPI(M) Central Committee member Sridip Bhattacharya. Two separate marches from Taldangra in Bankura and Haldia in East Midnapore joined the main jatha after criss-crossing through towns and villages of their respective districts. The jatha from Bankura was led by Basudeb Acharaya and Amiya Patra among others, while Shyamal Chakraborty, Rabin Deb led the jatha from East Midnapore.

The path of the march was at the same time the most terrorised areas of the state. It went through places like Tarakeswar, Arambagh, Goghat, Chandrakona, Keshpur which have been practically declared banned for the opposition political activity by the ruling party. The courageous response from local people created heart-rending scenes. In some places, people joined in a rally of red flag after four years with tears of joy. In many places, women came out of the houses and showered the march with flowers. Thousands gathered on the way and cheered. It was not merely some pre-determined slogans, people responded to calls for ending the TMC regime. The participation of youth and students was particularly remarkable.

In Goghat for example, 52 CPI(M) offices are either closed or seized for the last four years. Hundreds have been chased away from their residences, many have been implicated in false cases. But as the march reached there, it swelled with villagers rushing in to join.

In Keshpur, TMC threatened villagers not to join the rally, not even watch it. Bombs were hurled in the night before the jatha reached there. Threatening posters were exhibited on the road. But nothing prevented the procession to enter Keshpur amid cheerful reception.

In the march from Bankura, many joined whose family members were tortured and jailed. The march went through the villages of martyrs. Hundreds of women participated in public meetings on the way.

RALLIES IN

OTHER DISTRICTS

Meanwhile, rallies and marches took place throughout the state. Three processions from Ketugram in Burdwan, Kirnahar in Birbhum and Baroan in Murshidabad joined in Futishole for a public rally. These jathas crossed through areas where the rule of TMC mafia gangs has created intolerable situation. On the day of rally, processions were attacked, TMC blocked roads, forced the vehicles carrying people to go back. The people rose in revolt and counter action on the road started. CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Md Salim addressed the massive gathering. But his car was attacked while he was returning. He had a close shave when stones were hurled on the car. Four persons were injured.

CPI(M) state secretary Surjyakanta Misra addressed a huge rally in Krishnagar, on the completion of a jatha there. The jatha took up district level demands of Nadia apart from state issues. Misra called upon people of all sections and all affiliations to join in the fight to restore democracy in the state. He said that the Left is in the streets and would continue to fight for peoples’ livelihood. The state will turn from a total “No” to positive “Yes” under the leadership of the Left.

As southern Bengal was reverberating with marches and rallies, Left Front organised march towards the office of North Bengal Development Department in Siliguri with demands of the people of northern Bengal. On January 20, thousands of people from Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and North Dinajpur marched through the streets of Siliguri. The march broke through two layers of police barricades. Left Front leaders Ashok Bhattacharya, Jibesh Sarkar and others demanded immediate punishment of those involved in huge scam in Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority, administrative intervention to stop starvation death in tea gardens.