People's Democracy

TO save the country from the clutches of casteist, communal and fascist forces, it is necessary to oust the BJP-led Vajpayee government from the centre. So said the former prime minister D Deve Gowda in Mumbai on May 31, while addressing a packed meeting organised by five Left parties in Patkar Hall at Marine Lines, South Mumbai, on the subject of "Danger of Communal Forces and Onslaught of Gloablisation." Deve Gowda, who is also the president of Janata Dal (Secular), was the chief guest at the meeting. CPI(M) Maharashtra state secretary Prabhakar Sanzgiri presided.

The five parties who organised this public meeting in Mumbai were the CPI(M), CPI, Peasants and Workers Party (PWP), Samajwadi Party and the Janata Dal (Secular).

Continuing his speech, Deve Gowda warned the countrymen, "If Narendra Modi is not ousted from the chief ministership of Gujarat, there is the danger of every other state in India giving birth to similar Narendra Modis and that will be the end of secularism in India."

Ridiculing the Congress stand on the national situation, Gowda said that "in the name of instability at the centre, the Congress president Sonia Gandhi is hesitating to forge an effective morcha against the Vajpayee government." He appealed to the Left, secular and democratic forces to build up and strengthen the Lok Morcha (People’s Front) in the country.

Other speakers to address the meeting were Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Amar Singh (SP), N D Patil (PWP), Mahendra Singh (CPI-M), and Narayan Ghegre (CPI). CPI general secretary A B Bardhan was scheduled to address the meeting but could not reach Mumbai, as he fell ill at Nagpur. Seated on the dais amongst others were CPI(M) Central Committee member Dr Ashok Dhawale, CITU leader K L Bajaj, Kisan Sabha leader Krishna Khookar, Janata Dal (Secular) leaders Mrinal Gore and Smt Vidya Chavan, and AITUC leader Sukumar Damle.

In his speech, Sitaram Yechury lucidly exposed the different facets of the Hindu Rashtra ideology of the RSS-BJP, its servile attitude to American imperialism, the Kashmir issue, the ongoing war preparations, the state sponsored atrocities against Muslims in Gujarat and the disastrous effects of the Vajpayee government’s policy of globalisation. He also referred to the role of the Congress and said that "though it is a secular party, its actions on many occasions have been just opposite." In this regard, he pointed to the example of the Congress-led state government’s move to prohibit public meetings and rallies organised by secular forces against Gujarat atrocities. Banning of the two-day convention on June 1 and 2, organised by secular groups and intellectuals at Goregaon in Mumbai against the communal carnage in Gujarat, was the latest example of the double-speak the Congress, Yechury said.

In his presidential address, Prabhakar Sanzgiri said "Insofar as the economic and industrial policies are concerned, there is no difference between the BJP-led government at the centre and the Congress-NCP coalition government in Maharashtra. While the Congress is blaming the BJP and Sangh Parivar about the developments in Gujarat, the Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra is refusing permission for holding meetings and conventions organised by the secular forces," said Sanzgiri.