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Monday, Mar 03, 2008
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Yechury: free farmers from money-lenders

Correspondent

“Left parties forced the government to take pro-people actions”

More public sector banks needed in the countryside
Caution against re-emergence of communal forces

Rampur (Shimla): Thousands of Communist Party of India (Marxist) cadres on Saturday evening changed the complexion of this hill town — once a fiefdom of the former Chief Minister, Virbhadra Singh — into a sea of red flags to announce the opening of 13th State party conference.

Addressing a rally at Brow in Rampur before the formal opening of the conference, Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury, said that the Left forces were gaining ground everywhere. He said that because of the intervention of the Left, the UPA government was forced to take pro-people actions and policies such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme.

For the first time the government had been influenced to give rights to a large number of Scheduled Tribes in the forests they were living in. In an oblique reference to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said that the champion of liberalisation and privatisation was forced to announce from the Red Fort that the public sector would not be privatised as was being done earlier. It was all because of positive and pro-people intervention of the Left, said Mr. Yechury.

Only struggle by the Left and progressive forces would lead to emancipation of the working class, he said. Only 15 per cent of the population was getting benefited by liberalisation. As much as 78 per cent of the population was earning less than Rs.20 a day and every 30 minutes a debt-stressed farmer was committing suicide.

Mr. Yechury stressed on the need to liberate the farmers from the clutches of private money-lenders. More public sector banks should be established in the countryside. The CPI(M) leader, while appreciating the budget on certain points, said that the main problem of price rise and inflation had not been addressed by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.

He dwelt at length about the pro-American nuclear deal and succumbing of the Centre on this account.

He emphasised the need to harness sources such as water and coal which were in abundance in States such as Himachal Pradesh, instead of pressing ahead with the nuclear energy which was much costlier.

The CPI(M) Central Committee members, Hananmullah and W.R. Vardarajan, were among those present. Lok Sabha MP Hananmullah, in his address, cautioned the gathering against the re-emergence of communal forces. He said over 6,000 Muslims were killed in Gujarat and the community was still badly treated there. However, in West Bengal a regular curriculum had been introduced in the ‘madrassas’ to bring them into the mainstream.

Himachal CPI(M) secretary Rakesh Singha paid rich tributes to the workers killed during struggles in the hydro-electric projects and to apple growers for their agitations.

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