CPI-M launched Sangharsh Sandesh Jatha from Himachal

Shimla: The State unit of Communist Party of India- Marxist on Sunday launched the Sangharsh Sandesh Jatha from the hill State to educate people on the impact and brunt of neo-liberal policies in last two decades.

The Himachal Jatha would join the main North India Jatha at Amritsar and would march to Delhi on Tuesday. The State Jatha that begun from the capital town of Shimla led by the party secretary Rakesh Singha and secretariat members Kuldeep Tanwar and Tikender Panwar culminated in a rally at the industrial township of Darlaghat in Solan district.

Addressing the gathering of industrial workers and farmers the left leaders exposed the anti-poor neo-liberal policies pursued by the ruling parties and their effects on the working classes from past more than two decades. They raised the issues of increasing gulf between the rich and poor, super enrichment of big business houses, increasing malnutrition amongst children, burgeoning ranks of unemployed and shocking figures of 2.9 lakh farmers committing suicides during this time in the country.  They also attacked the government on adopting policies which fuel price rise and inflation and policies that are helping the MNCs, Corporates, real estate speculators and powerful groups to loot the resources of the country. The Congress and BJP are both advocates of neo-liberal policies and pandering to imperialist interests headed by the United States of America, they maintained.

While exposing the crony alliance of big business-politician-bureaucratic nexus even in small States like Himachal, the CPI-M said the big cement and hydro power industry here is given massive chunks of land and small and marginal peasants have been deprived of even the “nau-tor” land being given earlier to the landless farmers. The big companies like the Jaypees and Ambujas and other real estate developers have encroached acres of government and forest lands at various places but the court cases are being made against the small farmers who have encroached just a few bighas for developing fields and orchards for their livings in the small hill State.

The CPI-M gave a call for struggle for encouraging pro-people alternative policies and appealed for a broader unity amongst the working classes including farmers, workers, women, dalit and tribals.

The Jathas are starting from Kanyakumari, Mumbai, Kolkatta and Amritsar and would culminate in Delhi. The mass central rally would be held on March 19 in Ramlila Ground in Delhi.

Kanwar Yogendra Singh

KY Singh is a political observer and a senior journalist with an interest in a diverse set of issues related to Himachal Pradesh and other mountain states. He lives in Shimla.