Go to People, Intensify Result Oriented Struggles’
WE all want a strong and capable Lokpal but that this only can help us get rid of the corruption is a meek possibility. The Lokpal bill put forth by the government does not much inspire because the corporate houses, who are the biggest source of corruption, have been kept out of its purview. So said Prakash Karat at the 13th state conference of the CPI(M) in Madhya Pradesh, also stressing that the policies of the UPA-2 government are responsible for the excruciating price rises. In his address, he also referred to a host of other burning issues including the spate of farmers’ suicides in the country.
Prakash Karat, general secretary of the CPI(M), was in Rewa for inauguration of the three day state conference of the party at Yamuna Prasad Shastri Nagar from December 26 to 28. He was addressing a public meeting at Padmadher Park in the city, which was preceded by a long and disciplined procession of party members and supporters. He said the CPI(M) is against the destructive policies of liberalisation which are leading to widespread corruption, increasing poverty and causing suicides. He said that wherever a government of the BJP exists, it is mired in corruption, as in Karnataka, in Chhattisgarh or MP. In Karnataka, the BJP CM went to jail on charges of corruption. Just like the BJP, corruption is prevalent in Congress governments also. He said the CPI(M) and the Left supported the UPA-1 government in order to prevent the communal forces from staging a comeback to power, but the Left had to withdraw support due to the wrong and anti-people policies of the government which also bowed down before the US diktat and decided to enter a pact on atomic deal.
Prakash Karat also flayed the government’s adamant attitude on allowing FDI in retail trade that would deprive crores of people of their daily bread. Referring to the policies of the central government under the NDA and UPA, he said there is no difference between the Congress and the BJP as both are pro-corporate and pro-imperialist.
CPI(M) state secretary Badal Saroj also addressed the meeting, debunking the prejudiced, bankrupt and communal policies of the present state government and terming it as the most corrupt government ever in Madhya Pradesh. He described the way the lands of farmers from Dambhora to Lilji were being confiscated. Landless farmers and tribals are being displaced. He said the CPI(M) would continue to fight in order to save the land of the people.
The public meeting was also addressed by Ram Narayan Kurariya, Pramod Pradhan, Sandhya Shaily and the CPI(M)’s Rewa district secretary Girijesh Singh Senger. The attendance in public meeting was a subject of discussion in the city where people realised that the Shastri era of struggles is back again.
INAUGURAL SESSION
While inaugurating the 13th state conference of the CPI(M), Prakash Karat explained in detail the present international situation. He said it is clear from the agitation which started in the USA and spread over to 160 countries, that capitalism is unable to overcome its crisis. Those very people who were, at the fall of the USSR 20 years ago, saying that there was no alternative to capitalism, are today feeling the need of a new system which is against globalisation, liberalisation, privatisation policies. In the USA, Wall Street was gheraoed against the loot being perpetrated by the corporate world, while 13 out of 23 countries of Latin America today have governments which chose alternative paths of development other than the capitalist path. On the other hand, the US and other capitalist countries are planning to capture oil and other natural resources of other countries and attacking them for the purpose. After Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, now Iran is their target.
Describing the changed political scenario in India, the CPI(M) general secretary said the ruling classes are now targeting the Left and 417 comrades gave their life in West Bengal alone since Lok Sabha elections. He also made suggestions to develop work in the Hindi speaking states including Madhya Pradesh.
A five member presidium comprising Ashok Tiwari, Budhsen Singh Gond, Ram Vilas Goswami, P N Mahore and Sandhya Shaily conducted the proceedings of the conference.
POLITICAL
REPORT
State secretariat member Jasbinder Singh presented the political report detailing the experience of struggles and its implementation. The 55 page report dealt with the situation in MP in detail, referring to numerous burning issues after having briefed the international and national situation. The report dwelt on the ideological and psychological effects of liberalisation policies on a section of the working class and middle class, evaluated the activities of the NGOs and other political parties in the state and suggested five main tasks. On behalf of their respective delegations, 39 delegates joined in the discussion on this report.
The unanimously accepted report gave a call for result oriented struggles on local issues, a continuous political campaign and retrieval of mass organisations out of the rut of routinism in order to make them pro-struggle.
State secretary Badal Saroj placed a 41 page organisational report. It dealt with class and mass organisations, their membership, the condition of branch functioning, review of functioning of the district and state committees and of the state centre, state of democratic centralism, priority sector and our experiences of education and ideological work, wholetimer and cadre policy, parliamentarism and chunavbaji, functioning of elected representatives and communist life style etc, in the light of the rectification document. The report took stock of work in the direction of progressive values and reform movements. It also discussed the fund collection. As many as 36 delegates took part in the discussion on this report.
Giving the reason behind the tough self-critical reports placed in the conference, the state secretary said it was the part of an attempt to know why we could not use the opportunities that came to us. It was not a small thing if a small party emerged as the leader of the anti-displacement struggle, a leader of tribal agitations, a champion of workers’ unity and of women’s issues, if it took initiatives on the youth front. Many comrades kept the red flag flying high even in conditions of political alienation and heavy suppression, and took the party to so far untouched heights. It is clear that by changing our own functioning qualitatively, we may convert the people’s goodwill into a well organised political base in a short period, which is the need of hour.
Addressing the conference, CPI(M) Central Secretariat member Neelotpal Basu said Maoism has become a misleading noun nowadays. Maoists are working as tools in the hands of the bourgeoisie and imperialists against the organised Left. In Bengal, they are massacring the CPI(M) activists to the glee of the Congress, TMC and other anti-Left groups while home ministries in Delhi and Kolkata are sitting with eyes closed. The Hindi speaking areas and other areas must powerfully protest against this.
The 13th state conference of the CPI(M) concluded with the call to go to the people and intensify result oriented struggles on people’s issues. Re-elected state secretary Badal Saroj reiterated in his concluding speech that today’s conditions of the people’s anger against hunger, poverty and unemployment, their growing animosity towards the Congress, BJP and other bourgeois landlord parties and the worldwide developments which confirmed the continuing relevance of Marxism are favourable factors for the growth of the party and the mass organisations led by it. He said we must use it for development of the struggle on the people’s issues in the state.
The conference elected a 30-member state committee including 6 women. In its turn, the new state committee re-elected Badal Saraj as secretary with 9 other secretariat members. The conference also elected delegates to the all-India party congress.
On behalf of new state committee, Badal Saroj declared that in connection with the February 28 strike of central trade unions, a political campaign against the disastrous policies would be launched. There would also be statewide agitations on issues like displacement, hunger, health, price rise, atrocities against women, dalit, minority and tribal people, and on demands related to electricity, water and roads. He urged the party members and supporters to develop result oriented agitations on local issues as well.
