Convention in Bihar
The CPI(ML) Bihar State committee organized a People’s Convention in Patna on 3 December to discuss the implications of the recent Bihar election results and the role of the Left parties in terms of the challenges and responsibilities that lie ahead. Other Left parties as well as progressive individuals were also invited to the convention.
CPI(ML) General Secretary Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya saluted the people of Bihar for shattering the BJP’s dream of furthering their agenda of destroying the country’s democratic and multicultural fabric. He pointed out that this result is not the outcome of one single day. Over the last 10 years Nitish has been instrumental in encouraging the growth of the BJP in Bihar. The poor, dalit, working class, students, women, and minorities in Bihar were not happy with this and had always protested, creating the climate for the present mandate. There was anger against the undeclared emergency in the country, earlier expressed by intellectuals returning awards, and now expressed by the people of Bihar. He said that the ‘Mandal-2’ and ‘development’ promises of the Mahagathbandhan government are false promises. Culprits in carnages have been acquitted in spite of overwhelming evidence, activists have been jailed with false cases slapped on them, education and land reforms have been put in cold storage, industries are shutting down, and privatization is rampant in education, health and other sectors. The Left must unite and fight strongly on all these issues.
CPI(M) State Secretariat member Arun Kumar Mishra and CPI State Secretariat member Akhilesh Kumar spoke at the convention. They said that the Bihar elections have brought the Left as a viable third force in India. Nitish and Lalu cannot be relied upon to stop fascist forces; this can be accomplished only by a concerted effort of the united Left.
CPI(ML) MLAs from Tarari and Balrampur, Sudama Prasad and Mahboob Alam vowed to raise the issues of irrigation, sharecroppers’ rights, agrarian reforms, false cases on activists, and other important issues inside the Assembly as well as outside on the streets. They said that victory of left candidates amidst an extreme polarization reflects the earnest urge of people of Bihar for intensification of struggles on various basic issues.
AIARLA President Rameshwar Prasad said that those fighting for dalit rights are being slapped with false cases and thrown into jail, which is why Comrades Satyadev Ram, Amarjeet Kushwaha, and Manoj Manzil had to fight the elections from inside jail. RYA Bihar President Raju Yadav and AISA State Secretary Ajit Kushwaha spoke of the need for a pervasive agitation on student issues such as the dismal condition of education, scarcity of jobs, lack of campus democracy, and exorbitant fees due to privatization of education. AICCTU leader Ranvijay Kumar said that the Nitish government has always suppressed workers’s legitimate demands of ending the contractual labour, equal pay for equal work, and regularization of jobs; these issues remain unresolved and we must unite and agitate to force the Mahagathbandhan government to address them. AIPWA State Secretary Shashi Yadav said that women workers on contractual and honorarium basis would be further organized and their struggle carried forward.
Retd. Lt. Gen USP Sinha explained how government’s policy of minimum support prices (MSP) is exploitative and designed to serve the interests of land-owners, middlemen and dealers, while actual producers – sharecroppers and agrarian labourers – are forced to sell their produce at much lower prices in open market. He said that the poor and the peasantry demand their rights (Haq) not charity (Bheekh). The government procurement centers purchase agricultural produce only on the basis of land entitlements irrespective of who is actually producing the foodgrains. Hence sharecroppers cannot directly sell their produce at MSP. Similarly many agricultural workers receive wages in kind, a part of the grains they harvest, and they too sell their earned wages in market to acquire hard cash. Sharecroppers and labourers are left with the only option of selling their foodgrain in open markets to the middlemen or bania at almost two-third or half of MSP rates. This is a huge source of exploitation inbuilt in policy framework and can be corrected only when sharecroppers, tenants and labourers are given proper entitlements. With existing MSP of paddy at around Rs. 1420 per quintal, prevailing rates in open markets revolve around Rs. 800 only. This is done by deliberately and artificially balancing the open market rates by banias and brokers who most of the time sell the same product at MSP or higher rates to either the same govt. procurement centre, or to the procurement chain of big corporate agri. companies.
Kisan Mahasabha General Secretary Rajaram Singh said that the people of Bihar have shown a high level of consciousness and have thrown out the fascist BJP; the poor and marginalized have put their trust in the Left. The basic questions of justice are still unresolved and we cannot pin our hopes on this new government. It is for the united Left to fight and get justice for the poor, dalits, and minorities.
Public health activist Dr. PNP Pal highlighted the need to further widen the reach and scope of AIPF in Bihar to address the intense urge for struggles on a wide range of important issues among different sections in society.
The convention was attended, among others, by Swadesh Bhattacharya, CPI(ML) Politburo member, BB Pandey, Editor of Samkaleen Lokyudh, Shyam Nandan Singh, former President of the BESA (Bihar Engineers Service Association), Amarendra Singh, current BESA President, Professor Jamil Ansari, Professor Bharati S Kumar, AIPWA Vice President and former Dean, Department of History, Patna University, retired Professor Engineer Santosh Kumar, Pradeep Jha, All India General Secretary of AISA Sandeep Saurav and AIARLA General Secretary Dhirendra Jha. The convention started with a commemorative song by Hirawal paying tribute to the martyrs and departed comrades.
The convention came to a conclusion after the CPI(ML) State committee passed a 5-point pledge and political resolutions.
CPI(ML)’s Five-point Pledge for Bihar
1. CPI(ML) pledges to take forward people’s resistance against attacks on democracy, academics and culture, and the constitution of India to newer heights.
2. CPI(ML) pledges to fight for withdrawing false cases imposed on leaders of peoples’ movements, release of all political prisoners, and for justice on every front for the dalits, poor, and women. Comrade Satydeo Ram, MLA from Darauli, comrade Amarjeet Kushwaha, RYA National President who was candidate from Jiradei in Siwan, and comrade Manoj Manzil, candidate from Agiaon in Bhojpur are in various jails in Bihar under concocted false charges. 10 activists are languishing in Gaya jail under TADA even after 13 long years. These are glaring examples of political persecution and victimisation. The justice has not been done to the victims of dalits’ massacres like Laxmanpur-Bathe, Bathanitola and Miapur after so many years and now cases are pending in the Supreme Court which must give justice to the victims and ensure that the perpetrators are deservingly punished. The victims of communal riots kept loosing hopes for justice after years of trauma and deprivation. Recently a court has set free the main perpetrator of Bhagalpur riots, while the administration has utterly failed to secure the Kabristan land back to the Muslim community after so many years. Such incidents further inculcates sense of alienation among minority community. CPI(ML) is conducting a state-wide massive Signature Campaign on these issues in Bihar.
3. CPI(ML) pledges to intensify struggle for complete land reforms to pave the way for true pro-people development, development of agriculture and rights of share-croppers.
4. CPI(ML) pledges for expanding the movement for Right to Housing and Right to Food for every poor and dalit in every village and panchayat.
5. CPI(ML) reiterates its pledge to intensify struggles for qualitative improvement in education and health, dignified employment, to increase employment opportunities, to restart the closed industries and to expand the network of agro based and other industries in the state.