COMRADE LBG’S FIRST DEATH ANNIVERSARY OBSERVED

‘Defeat Communalism To Strengthen Class Struggles’

M Venugopala Rao

SITARAM Yechury, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M), underlined the imperative of  exposing the real position behind the facade of false and misleading campaign being carried out by the BJP-led NDA in the name of “India Shining” and defeat communalism politically in the ensuing elections to the Lok Sabha.  He was speaking on the issue of “Who is Shining in this ‘India Shining’?” at a meeting organised at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram (SVK) by the SVK Trust  on the March 28, on the occasion of the first death anniversary of Comrade Lavu Bala Gangadhara Rao, former member of the Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) and Managing Trustee of the SVK Trust till his death.  

Recollecting his association with Comrade LBG for almost a decade in the central committee and Polit Bureau of the Party, Yechury said he was benefited by the pieces of advice and the vast experience of Comrade LBG.  He said he had learnt from Comrade LBG how to solve problems being faced by the cadres of the Party. For the last several decades there were no elections in which the Party participated without the guidance of Comrade LBG, said Yechury.  His life as a communist was inspiring not only in his aims but also in facing problems and difficulties one encounters as a communist, Yechury said. He and Koratala Satyanarayana, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M) and Managing Trustee of the SVK Trust, who presided over the meeting, garlanded the portrait of Comrade LBG and paid homage.

Sitaram Yechury recollected that Comrade LBG used to remind that the ruling classes through their class rule grow by creating illusions among the people and by moulding their consciousness in favour of their class rule and that it was the responsibility of the communists to put the actual reality before the people and dispel such illusions.  India was shining only to the 10 per cent people of the ruling class and their cohorts, not for the vast majority of the people, because the five-year rule of the BJP-led NDA government did not allow the potential for development to be fully utilised, explained Yechury.  On the contrary, for the vast majority of the people the situation had become much worse, with imposition of unbearable burdens, he said. Yechury explained how growth rates in different sectors of the economy were deteriorating or stagnating due to the anti-people policies being pursued by the BJP-led government. As a result of deteriorating production in the agricultural sector, per capita availability of food grains and calorie intake has come down, and starvation deaths and suicides by farmers are taking place, nearly 4000 of them in Andhra Pradesh alone. Explaining the reasons and giving statistics, Sitaram pointed out that 8.5 lakh people had lost their jobs in the organised sector during the last five years, about 70 lakh people lost employment in the agricultural sector from January to October last year, five lakh workers lost their jobs in the small scale sector and that not even 50 per cent of the targets, both in terms of expenditure and creation of employment, under the PMRY could be achieved.

The claim of achieving 8 per cent growth rate this year was mainly due to growth in food production because of the mercy of monsoon and rainfall and 10 per cent growth in tourism, transport and communications sector which have picked up after four years of the September 11 incident. Yechury pointed out that good monsoon and the changed international situation were responsible for this “shining” which were not in the hands of the Vajpayee government. Sitaram Yechury lashed out at the Vajpayee government for the spree of scams in disinvestment, privatisation and other areas, rampant political corruption, repeatedly imposing burdens on the people by increasing prices, taxes, etc. and mortgaging the country with indebtedness of more than Rs 17 lakh crores.  

Pointing out that India under Vajpayee government had lost chances to develop friendship with Pakistan during the last five years, Yechury said that from the beginning the CPI(M) has been wanting friendship between the two countries to develop. He reminded that it was the Vajpayee government which rejected any talks with Pakistan unless cross-border terrorism was stopped, which stopped Samjhauta Express and flights to Pakistan and forced closure of Pakistan embassy in New Delhi. After the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament, the Vajpayee government deployed our military on a massive scale at our borders. It was one  of the biggest mobilisations during peace time, noted Yechury.   He pointedly asked whether the situation changed entirely, now that the Vajpayee government was claiming credit for improvement in Indo-Pak relations or whether we had lost the opportunities of achieving  such improvement during the last five years because of the above stance taken by the government.  The Vajpayee government did not want improvement in relations between the two countries, because it could reap political benefit if communalism grew in the country. Advani, who took up the rath yatra with that devious aim, had said if friendship developed between India and Pakistan, communal clashes between the Hindus and the Muslims would come down, thereby impliedly questioning the patriotism of the Indian Muslims, criticised Yechury. Yielding to the pressure of the US imperialism the Vajpayee government had changed our foreign policy during the last five years and with the intensity of its yielding to the US pressure increasing, the latter’s friendship with Pakistan also was increasing, Yechury said.  The US secretary of defence, Powell, claimed that India was a natural friend of the US when he was in India and immediately after going to Pakistan he announced that the latter had a special status in the NATO.  It was a slap on the face to the foreign policy of the Vajpayee government, which could not even react for two days to Powell’s statement granting Pakistan special status, commented Yechury. While terrorism had increased during the last five years, the aim of the campaign of the NDA government was to create an illusion that it had actually decreased, he said.  The five-year record of the Vajpayee government was contrary to the claim made by the NDA five years back that the country would be liberated from hunger, fear and corruption. With increasing attacks on minorities by communal forces, fear and insecurity increased in the country, he said.

The main aim behind the misleading campaign of “India is shining” was to create illusions among the people and to see that their dissatisfaction would not transform into a vote against the BJP-led NDA government, Sitaram said. Underlining the need to mobilise the people against the BJP and its allies, he explained the three aims of the CPI(M) in the present electoral context.  One, to keep communalism away from the government.  Two, to increase the strength of the CPI(M) and the Left in the Parliament, because they were the forces which were consistently fighting against  the anti-people economic policies and burdens and rallying the people for protecting the unity of the country and secularism, explained Yechury.  Three, efforts to ensure formation of a secular alternative after the elections.

Saying that communalism is a very dangerous enemy facing the nation today, Yechury explained that the unity of the working class and agricultural labour was the crucial basis for our people’s democratic revolution and that we could go a step forward only if we can strengthen this unity. The aim of communalism is to disrupt such unity among these class forces by using religion as a means. Therefore, in order to strengthen mass and class struggles, to take people’s democratic revolution forward and to improve welfare of the people, communalism should be defeated politically, emphasised Yechury. Working for such a defeat of communalism was the right homage to Comrade LBG, he said.

Koratala Satyanarayana explained briefly how Comrade LBG, as a first generation leader of the communist movement, worked for building the movement since the days of the heroic Telangana armed struggle, as a direct participant leading the struggle in Amarabad region as its secretary, and later as secretary of Tenali divison and Guntur district committees of the Party, as a member of the state secretariat, as its secretary and as a member of the CC and PB. His life was a saga of sacrifice, trials and tribulations, iron discipline and inspiration. He had spent underground life for eight years and was incarcerated for four years on three occasions.

Koratala explained how the TDP government was imposing increasing burdens on the people of Andhra Pradesh, leading to their growing dissastisfaction, and called upon the people to defeat the reactionary and communal forces in the ensuing elections, which are the most crucial elections for the future of the country. 

C Sambi Reddy, secretary of the SVK, earlier welcoming the gathering, explained the efforts made by Comrade LBG for the development of the Kendram to its present position.  Dr A Murali, member of the SVK Trust, proposed a vote of thanks.