The CPI(ML) took out a Vidhan Sabha march in Ranchi on 21 November 2016 with the slogan “Raghuvar Hatao Jharkhand Bachao” (Oust CM Raghuvar Das, Save Jharkhand). The march passed through the main roads of the city and culminated in a meeting at Birsa Chowk.
The march was in the backdrop of attacks on people’s movements against land grab, amendments in SPT and CNT Acts and targeting of minorities in the state. The bandh call was given after the Barkagaon firing on 1 October. A series of statewide agitations were initiated by the CPI(ML) as well as other left forces which in turn compelled other opposition parties to join the agitation, thus leading to a emergence of a united political movement. Earlier, on 22 October thousands of adivasis took out a huge rally under the aegis of 40 people’s organizations against the Jharkhand government’s wrong domicile policy and amendments in the CNT-SPT Act. During the rally there was brutal police repression and one adivasi was killed in police firing in Khunti.
The march to Assembly was a culmination of the statewide mass campaign by the CPI(ML) from 1 November to 15 November. People’s padyatra and village sabhas as well as mobilisations at district headquarters were organized at various places. Mass meetings were held at Giridih, Koderma, Ramgarh, Hazaribagh and Barkagaon, where the firing took place. In Giridih district, groups of 100 to 150 activists from each of 11 blocks held padyatra of 10 km daily and did a person to person campaign among tens of thousands of people. A motorcycle march was held with hundreds of bikes at Barkagaon where a rally and mass convention was held on 15 November, this was followed by the Vidhan Sabha march on 21 November.
Slogans raised at the march called for rolling back of amendments to the CNT-SPT Act, trial of the guilty police personnel in the Barkagaon, Sayko (Khunti) firings and Latehar, Bundu, and Narayanpur (Jamatand) killings in police lock-up under under murder charges, rollback of the killer demonetization, and putting a stop to giving away Jharkhand’s resources to Adani-Ambani. Despite it being harvest time, large number of people from all the districts participated in the march.
The Vidhan Sabha march was addressed at the barricades by CPI(ML) MLA Rajkumar Yadav, former MLA Vinod Singh, and several other leaders. All the speakers emphasized that CM Raghuvar Das has unleashed attacks on the people of the state with his anti-people policies. This is the need of the time for all the Left and democracy-loving forces of Jharkhand to get united for the ensuing political battle. The speakers strongly condemned Modi’s demonetization which is a step not for curbing black money but for snatching away the earnings of the workers and the poor and pushing them into starvation and unemployment so that banks can get more money to favour the corporates while the owners of black money have no problem in converting their black income into white money. The meeting was conducted by Nadeem Khan.
Jharkhand Bandh: While the protests in opposition to the amendments in CNT and SPT Acts continue for several months throughout the state, the BJP government in a shameless move formally passed those amendments in the Vidhan Sabha on 23 November amid heavy protests. This led to spontaneous protests all over the state followed by a statewide Jharkhand Bandh on 25 November. The bandh paralysed almost all parts of Jharkhand exhibiting a historic peoples unity and resolve against pro-corporate BJP regime. The bandh, initially called by Left parties and JVM, was jointly observed by all opposition parties and tribal organisations in the state. Thousands of CPI(ML) and other parties’ activists got arrested while lakhs of people took out to streets amid police batons, tear-gas shells and lathi-charges.
