Students pledge fight against Fascism, for democracy!

The atmosphere at Nazrul Mancha was revolutionary! Young students in thousands, belonging to SFI, AISF, AISB, PSU filled the air with the promise of a new dawn, when exploitation shall be no more, no one in position to snuff out young lives fighting for the democratic rights for all. They reaffirmed their promise of ‘Freedom, Democracy, Socialism’. The soft but grim voices of students reminded the world of the Marxist promise of a better world, their Red Salutes, their slogans, an ode to the immortality of Sudipta would ring in the ears of the thousands, for years to come, assembled to pay homage to the martyrdom of young Sudipta Gupta on the 2^nd of April, by a brutal police of a fascist government.

History was invoked, Neruda, Spartacus, Ulysses, Comrade KV Sudesh, who was butchered, cut into 21 pieces by the bourgeoisie government of Kerala, Shakti Chattopadhyay, Sunil, et al, giving voice to man’s eternal rebellion against injustice; a symphony of young, trembling voices taking individual anger & rebellion to its crescendo, ’Revolution’.  Auteurs Mrinal Sen & Tarun Mazumdar registered their anger in their blunt expression of solidarity to their cause.

Speaker after speaker, from all the four left student organisations railed against the insensitivity of the Mamata government, decried its attempt at denying the students their political rights, enshrined in India’s constitution. They took an oath of continuing the fight that Sudipta gave his life for. Ritabrata, National Secretary, SFI was solemn throughout his speech but comprehensively denounced the politics of the campaign against politics. He reminded everybody that modern politics has been born out of the modern desire of people to fight for their rights. The royalty or feudal lords did not need ‘Politics’, it is the exploited multitude who need to fight for their rights. The current government’s action in stopping student union elections is a fundamental step against democracy. When its spokesmen & patronised intellectuals build a case against party politics, it is primarily conspiring to weaken the people’s fight, as the target is always the left. In the absence of the left, the default correlation of political forces swings in favour of the ruling class & specifically, ‘Capital’.

Today’s memorial service will remain a milestone in the Bengal’s people’s fight for democracy & justice. It will prove to be a turning point in the imminent fight against the Mamata government which is fast shedding its fig leaf of being democratic & exposing its fascist underpinnings. This government, apart from encouraging the lumpen in Bengali society has taken concrete steps to destroy the democratic structures built over the last 34 yearsof left rule. College & University management bodies, which were represented by all its stakeholders, students, employees, professors, etc were replaced by handpicked individuals. Elections to co-operative societies were stopped. Associations of the policemen were banned only to be replaced by her minions. Student union elections were stopped, using the incident of a policeman’s death during a college election process, by her own leaders. It was against this that the SFI staged a civil disobedience movement & Sudipta was killed in police custody. This was when she crossed the Rubicon of Fascism, with her police taking over the role played so far by her ‘Brownshirts’. Undeterred, she has gone on to inciting her partymen to destroy thousands of party offices of the left & the murder of over 90 of left workers & leaders. Her government has also actively derailed the 3-tier Panchayat elections which have taken place like clock work since it was first instituted by the first Left Front government in 1978. In a bid to reverse the gains of the land distribution done by the left, it has led a hundred farmers to their death.

The people of Bengal are rising in anger against this tyrannical government. Comrade Sudipta Gupta’s death shall not go waste, as the students resoundingly established today.
Long Live Comrade Sudipta!  Long Live the Revolution!