A massive rally on 16 January 2015 at Bagodar marked ten years of Comrade Mahendra Singh’s martyrdom. The entire Central Committee of the CPI(ML), as well as people’s movement activists including Dayamani Barla attended the rally. Comrade Mahendra was assassinated in 2004.
In the morning, Central Committee members of the party went to pay respects at Comrade Mahendra Singh’s ancestral village Khambra. Party General Secretary Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya, people’s movements leader Dayamani Barla, CPI(ML) MLA Rajkumar Yadav and former MLA Vinod Singh as well as other central leaders of the party were among those who joined the village people in offering flowers at the bust of Comrade Mahendra Singh. Schoolchildren lined the road to Khambra, with flowers and red flags in their hands, in memory of the man who had pioneered the setting up of schools in the village.
Back at Bagodar, the CPI(ML) leaders and people’s movement activists paid tributes at the bust of Comrade Mahendra outside the CPI(ML) office. Speaking here, Politburo member Comrade Ramji Rai said that Comrade Mahendra was a true people’s representative, in a much more profound sense than just an elected member of the Legislative Assembly. Falsely accused of violating Assembly norms, he had made history by resigning in the House itself; it was the Assembly which had to expunge the accusations and take him back. He was the one fearless voice of people’s movements inside the Assembly.
Speaking at the Rally, the newly elected CPI(ML) MLA from Dhanwar, Rajkumar Yadav said that Amit Shah and Modi failed in their bid for a ‘CPIML-free Jharkhand’ because they can never succeed in creating a ‘struggle-free Jharkhand’.
Comrade Vinod Singh addressed the Rally, underlining the many issues that face the youth and people of Jharkhand. AIPWA GS Meena Tiwari and AIKM GS Rajaram Singh also addressed the Rally. Dayamani Barla spoke of the great pillar of support that Comrade Mahendra Singh was to people’s movements, and how the CPI(ML) continued that legacy.
CPI(ML) GS Comrade Dipankar said that the CPI(ML) was a party of struggle on streets, fields, factories – when given a chance, the party would also represent those struggles inside the Assembly, but even when we fail to win the seat, the struggles would continue undaunted. He saluted the coal workers for their historic strike against the Coal Ordinance and farmers’ struggles against the Land Grab Ordinance. He said that the people of Bagodar had proven wrong those who imagined that they could wipe out the CPI(ML) by killing Comrade Mahendra Singh. He said that the BJP Government wanted to hand over the country and Jharkhand over to ‘company Raj’ and foment hatred between communities. The JVM had proved to be the B-Team of the BJP. It is the time of the hour to raise high the red flag and join hands with people’s movements to defend democracy and people’s rights.
Several resolutions were also passed, condemning the anti-democratic manner in which Ordinances are being promulgated by the Modi government by bypassing all forums of debate, condemning the Land Acquisition Ordinance which seeks to facilitate corporate land grab by doing away with the need for social impact assessment and peoples’ consent in several projects and expressing solidarity with the coal miners’ ongoing struggles against the recent Coal Ordinance. Resolutions were also passed against the growing saffronization of education and institutions of the State and against growing communal fascist assaults and threats and intimidation of religious minorities. The Rally also condemned the brutal assault on Krishnadev Verma in Birni, and demanded a CBI enquiry in the matter as well as justice and compensation for the victim’s family. The Rally demanded that the state government take active steps to increase employment opportunities in the state, and also ensure unemployment allowance for the unemployed youth.
