THE State Level Plenum of CPI(M) in Jharkhand has called for building a strong revolutionary party organisation to counter the communal and right-wing forces and to take up the people’s issues. The plenum began with a huge rally by workers, peasants, youths and women. The procession marched through main thoroughfares of Dhanbad, a city preserving the memories of innumerable movements of coal workers, and reached the venue, Chandi Prasad Nagar where plenum proceedings began with hoisting of Party flag by veteran trade union leader S K Baksi and garlanding of the Martyrs’ Column by Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat and other leaders. Addressing the delegates in the inaugural session, Karat lashed out at the BJP governments in the state and at the Centre for its pro-corporate, anti-worker, anti-peasant and anti-people policies. She spoke about the anti-worker amendments in labour laws initiated by the current regime, which would severely curtail the hard earned rights of the working class. She also shed light of the agrarian policy of the country which is forcing our farmers to commit suicides. At the same time, the saffron brigade actively aided by BJP is spreading communal tension throughout the country, including Jharkhand, to divert the attention from the key issues of price rise, unemployment, food security, etc and to polarise the people on communal lines. The delegate session, presided over by a presidium comprising Md Ekbal, Rajendra Singh Munda and Geeta Jha, began with passing of the condolence resolution by Prakash Viplav. Thereafter, CPI(M) state secretary G K Baksi placed the report of the plenum, which was based on the decisions and resolutions of the all-India plenum held in Kolkata. The report said that since the formation of the state, Jharkhand has always been ruled by opportunistic alliances led by BJP and Congress alternately. Political instability coupled by visionless governance and anti-people neo-liberal policies have led to poverty of the masses and people from the state are forced to migrate in search of job, despite the fact that Jharkhand is richly bestowed with natural resources. The current BJP government in the state has accelerated the implementation of neo-liberal policies. The regime has been marked by disinvestment of public sector, leasing out of land to private firms at nominal costs, privatisation of health sector and anti-farmer agrarian policies. But our party and its mass organisations have been organising movements against these policies. To make matters worse, communal forces have unleashed frenzy under the patronage of the present regime. Issues of ‘love Jihad’, ‘beef trade’, ‘cow slaughter’ and ‘cattle trafficking’ have dominated our political arena and have had disruptive political implications. The Left forces in the state have unitedly fought the reactionary elements but with limited success. Due to organisational weaknesses of our party and the mass organisations, successive elections in the state have been characterised by identity politics and rampant use of money. Historically, culturally and politically, Jharkhand is a state with distinct tribal identity. It has been the cradle of anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggles of the tribal community under the leadership of Birsa Munda, Sidho and Kanho. But the inheritors of the legacy of these struggles are facing exploitation from all ends in today’s Jharkhand. The only solution to these problems lies in building a strong revolutionary party organisation. The plenum chalked out a specific and scheduled action plan to sort out organisational weaknesses. Stress was laid on forming independent state centres of different mass organisations, regularising the activities of the district level fraction committees, setting up of district centres, regularising meetings and other activities at local and branch committees, political education of all Party members, especially branch secretaries, regularising the payment of levy as per specifications, regular collection of funds, identification of whole-timers and intensification of our struggles and movements by organising the masses. The district committees were advised to organise meetings for proper implementation of the directives of the state plenum and their progress would be reviewed after six months. Central Committee member Madan Ghosh also addressed the plenum. (END)