People's Democracy

ON the evening of December 26, an impressive rally of several thousand people was held which culminated in a public meeting outside the Bhandup railway station. Apart from the good mobilisation of the party from different parts of Mumbai city, adjoining districts like Thane, Nasik, Raigad and Pune had also put in their strength to make the rally a success. Such a large party rally was being held in Mumbai after several years. The rally was led by 100 motor-cyclists with red shirts and red flags, making it a remarkable sight.

The public meeting was presided over by Prabhakar Sanzgiri and it was addressed by S Ramachandran Pillai, Sitaram Yechury, Ahilya Rangnekar, Ashok Dhawale, Kumar Shiralkar, Mahendra Singh, J P Gavit MLA,

Dr. Karad and Madan Naik, while Hemkant Samant proposed the vote of thanks.

Addressing the rally, S Ramachandran Pillai underlined the democratic nature of the CPI(M) conferences, now going on throughout the country at all levels. Not only was the party’s policy and tactics decided after free and thorough discussion at these conferences, but the party leadership was also democratically elected at all levels. This was in sharp contrast to the practice prevailing in the bourgeois parties, where policies are decided by a coterie and leadership is imposed from the top.

The country, said Pillai, is going through an all-round crisis situation which has been brought on by the disastrous policies of the BJP-led central government. The CPI(M) stands for an alternative economic policy free of imperialist dictates and which keeps the interests of the common people at heart. It stands for the staunch defence of secularism and national unity, for which thousands of party cadre have laid down their lives in Punjab, Kashmir, Assam, Tripura, West Bengal and Kerala. It stands for a radical change in the present system itself, to ensure social, economic and political justice to the millions whose lives are being devastated by successive bourgeois-landlord regimes.

To achieve this, concluded Pillai, the need of the hour is to launch big mass struggles around burning issues and concrete demands of the people and to lead sustained and effective political campaigns against the disastrous policies and dangerous ideology of the communal and semi-fascist forces who, moreover, are hand in glove with imperialism. The alternative that has been forged in the Left-led states must be replicated elsewhere in the country and towards this end, a strong and credible unity of Left, democratic and secular forces must be cemented.