THE Karnataka state units of Left parties – CPI(M), CPI, SUCI(C) AIFB, CPI(ML)-Liberation – had jointly organised a rally protesting against the misrule of the two-year old NDA government at the centre and three-year old Congress government in the state. The rally was held at Freedom Park in Bangalore on June 6.

This rally was a culmination of the month-long campaign by five Left Parties – CPI, CPI(M), Forward Block, SUCI(C), CPI(M)-Liberation – across Karnataka. Before the rally, a massive procession of about ten thousand people was held from City Railway Station to Freedom Park. In the last one month, over 20 district and taluk level joint conventions by the Left parties were held. In several districts, district-level jathas were held to press for seven-point charter of demands that include demands of workers, peasants, poor, women, students, youth and dalits.

Addressing the rally, CPI(M) general secretary, Sitaram Yechury said that the BJP was targeting the Left, considering it the biggest impediment in pursuing its capitalist, communal agenda and hence the BJP cadres are attacking Left party activists. In West Bengal, Left cadre and offices are being attacked by the TMC party workers, in an attempt to finish off the Left. But that will never happen. As long as blood is red, no one can destroy Red Flag and Left, said Yechury.

He called for building a strong Left alternative in the state, and strengthen unity of Left parties. Lashing out at the ‘anti-people’ policies of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government headed by the BJP at the centre, he said the Left Front could be the only credible alternative to save the country and protect the secular and democratic values. The present situation, he said, was similar to the Emergency imposed by the Congress in 1975. The Congress and the BJP are two sides of same coin as far as economic issues are concerned, but the BJP also has a communal agenda aimed at creating a communal polarisation in the country. He added that Bengaluru and Karnataka hold the potential to provide an alternative political platform.

Earlier, GV Sreerama Reddy, secretary, CPI(M) Karnataka state committee, explaining the objectives of the rally said the rally was for projecting an alternative politics and alternative policy framework in the state.

Sudhakar Reddy, general secretary of CPI addressing the massive rally said that the BJP rule had brought Achhe Din for 300 corporate families and Bure Din for the 120-plus crore people. He also attacked the state government for suppressing the police protest on June 4, using ESMA. 

Krishna Chakravarthy, SUCI(C) Polit Bureau member, recalling Lenin’s teachings said that spontaneous people's uprisings alone will not be able to bring about revolutionary transformation in the society. It has to be led by a revolutionary party with a revolutionary theory.

Swapan Mukherjee, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(ML)- Liberation saluted women garment workers of Bangalore. He declared that the Modi government will be forced to take back its anti-worker policies after the upcoming September 2 general strike by the Indian working class, just as they had to backtrack in the wake of  the struggle by the women garment workers of Bengaluru on the PF issue.

Siddanagowda Patil from the Karnataka unit of CPI, attacking Modi government’s policies, said that its rule is ‘not Vikasa Parva, but Vinasha Parva’. 

All the speakers highlighted the failures of the two-year old BJP government at the centre, thre-year old Congress government in the state, and stressed the  importance of developing a Left alternative.