On
the fourth day after flag off, the Western Jatha entered Madhya Pradesh
state on the afternoon of Monday, March 11 through Bharwani district
bordering Maharashtra. The jatha was received at the border point by
Party comrades from Madhya Pradesh state committee. Maharashtra state
secretary Ashok Dhawale and AIKS state secretary Kisan Gujar accompanied
the jatha till the border, from where they returned back.
After the first meeting in Rajnagar in Bharwani district of Madhya
Pradesh, again a tribal region, the jatha moved on to Mhow, the
birthplace of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. After paying tributes to Ambedkar
at the statue erected near his ancestral home, Yechury addressed the
public meeting. He started by saying that one of the main intentions of
the jatha is to underline the need for struggles to resolve the basic
contradiction pointed out by Babasaheb Ambedkar when he presented the
draft of Indian Constitution to the Constituent Assembly. Ambedkar had
warned that unless socio-economic inequalities, where one man does not
possess one value, are not removed, our political structure, where one
man has one vote, will be blown asunder. Yechury said today
socio-economic inequalities are growing at a fast pace in the country.
He called for intensifying struggles against the neo-liberal economic
policies that are the root cause of such growing inequality.
Earlier in the morning, the jatha's Maharashtra leg of the journey
concluded with an impressive public meeting in Prakasha village in the
tribal dominated Nandurbar district with over 4000 tribals attending it.
As was recurrent through out this leg, tribal women dominated in
numbers. The jatha was received few kilometres from Prakasha by a
contingent of around 100 red volunteer motorcyclists.
As the convoy reached the venue, it was greeted by a large group of
tribal men and women with traditional music and dance. The rhythmic beat
from two huge drums, accompanied with howling sounds of the youth and
the gracious steps of women, both old and young, charged the atmosphere.
Yechury, Nilotpal Basu, Mohd Salim, Mariam Dhawale and Ashol Dhawale
walked with the sloganeering crowd for around a kilometre to reach the
venue. The leaders were given traditional tribal headgear before the
start of the meeting. Yechury called upon the gathering to come and join
the March 19 public meeting in Delhi which would give a clarion call
for struggles to better the lives of common masses. Others also
addressed the gathering.
At a press conference at the government rest house in Nandurbar town,
Yechury said there is growing pressure from below within political
parties that were pursuing neo-liberal economic policies to change
course. He cited the case of Samajwadi party that had protested on the
streets against FDI in retail but supported the government in parliament
on the same issue. He said the struggles outside would help in forcing
such parties leadership to change course.
The fourth day of jatha concludes with a public meeting in the night in Indore city.
Nagpur
welcomed the Southern Sangharsh Sandesh Jatha with receptions at
different points in the city on March 10. The first reception was at
Khapri where the workers from Central Institute of Cotton Research,
students, youth and women welcomed the Jatha. There were two other
receptions in the city and comrades led the way in bikes. The Jatha
vehicle was taken through the crowded streets of Nagpur to a hall
meeting at the Shikshak Sahakari Bhavan. The meeting was addressed by
the Jatha leaders. Over 500 people from all sections of society attended
the hall meeting. Notably leaders of other Left and Democratic Parties
like CPI, Forward Bloc, All India Bolshevik Party and the Republican
Party of India also attended the meeting.
On 11th March the Jatha left early for Madhya Pradesh and travelled
over 350 kilometres. The Jatha was received at Sosar on the
Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border by comrades. There were meetings at 3
places today, at Chhindwara, Kareli and Ghadwara in Narasinghpur
District. At Kareli, the Jatha members marched for about a kilometre
through the market place with slogan shouting comrades accompanying
them. A press conference was held at Kareli. At Ghadarwara comrades were
waiting despite the 4 hour delay in the arrival of the Jatha. M.A.Baby
and Ramnarayan Kuraria Secretary, Madhya Pradesh Kisan Sabha addressed
the gathering.
On the 12th of March the day began with a reception and meeting at
Saalichowka in Narassinghpur District. Comrades received the Jatha with
slogans and the beating of the “Dhol”. A meeting was held which was
addressed by S.Ramachandran Pillai, Ramnarayan Kuraria and Salil Shukla
CITU leader.
