People's Democracy

Sea Of Humanity In Brigade

MORE than a million people took oath of a determined fight against the forces of anarchy and forge ahead towards another victory in the coming Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal, in Brigade Parade Grounds on February 8, 2009. More than a mere political rally, it was a sea of humanity. At the call of Left Front, the rally was clearly one of the biggest ever held in Kolkata.

West Bengal is now witnessing a desperate attempt of destabilisation by the reactionary as well as anarchist Maoist forces. On the one hand, every single programme of industrialisation or infrastructure development is being resisted and on the other, secessionist forces are trying to divide the state. CPI(M) and Left cadres are targets of physical attack and frequent murders.

The Brigade rally was a political response to the conspiracy. Thousands of people began to converge in Kolkata from the night before. In fact , on Saturday midnight ,the city was reverberated with slogans from the incoming processions. By Sunday morning, the city was virtually transformed into an extended Brigade Parade Ground. Tribals from the so-called Maoist dens, peasants from far-flung villages, middle class youth from the urban areas, workers in their recognisable attires marched together holding the red flag high. Finally, thousands were unable to reach even near to the ground and forced to stay kilometers away. The message was crystal clear: the democratic people of West Bengal will give a fitting reply to those forces who are trying to revert the state into the dark days of seventies.

Presiding over the meeting Biman Basu, chairman of the Left Front reminded the people of additional responsibility of strengthening the representation of the Left in parliament. He called for an intensive political campaign to make sure that the Left Front sweeps the elections once again.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharya asserted that the divisive agitation in the hill areas and parts of North Bengal, the Maoist-sponsored anarchy and violence in parts of western districts and the anti-development movements have a common thread. These are the productions of a well planned conspiracy to weaken the Left Front as well as the economy of the state. Bhattacharya declared with conviction that the state government would go ahead with industrialisation programme. Land in Singur will be used for industries and the new petro chemical project in Nayachar will come up. He called for wider unity among the working people and more consolidated unity among Left Front partners.

Speaking about the national political scenario, Bhattacharya said that in 2004, the Left parties extended support to UPA to keep the communal force at bay. But Congress has failed not only to protect the interests of the toiling people, but they even surrendered our independent foreign policy and tried to forge strategic alliance with US imperialism. It was a betrayal. In the coming elections, we have to forge an alternative of a non-Congress, non-BJP secular parties. We will try our best to defeat both Congress and BJP.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Md Amin and other leaders of the constituent parties of the Left Front addressed the gathering.