On 30th March 2019, the Maharashtra Council of Lok Raj Sangathan (LRS) and the Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) organised a program, “Call of the Martyrs”, in Mumbai. The Secretary of the Maharashtra Regional Council of LRS welcomed everyone and explained the relevance of the subject of the meeting.
The highlight of the evening was an inspiring and eye-opening presentation “Ghadariyon ki Pukar”, prepared by the Communist Ghadar Party of India. The presentation talked about the valiant deeds of the martyrs of and fighters of the Ghadar of 1857, of the Hindustan Ghadar Party and later of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, the undivided CPI and others. It revealed how there were two trends in the freedom movement. One was a revolutionary trend that wanted a complete break with the past in order to establish socialism and rid our country of all forms of exploitation, oppression, injustice and equality. The other was the compromising trend of the would be members of the ruling class, the capitalists and zamindars, and their representatives in the Congress, Muslim, RSS, Hindu Mahasabha and so on. These trends persist even today. What happened in 1947 was a mere transfer of power to the hands of the Indians, the kale Angrez. The two mutually opposing trends – the revolutionary one as well as the compromising one — persist today. The presentation concluded with a call to all communists and progressive people to unite and fight for the Navnirman of India.
The spokesperson of the CGPI, Com Sanjeewani, declared that we need to wield the same two swords of Vidya (knowledge) and Veerta (heroism) that the Ghadaris fought with. The British wielded the twin swords of agyaan (lack of knowledge) and krurata (cruelty) to suppress our people. That is what the ruling class does today as well. It spreads ignorance about everything, starting with who is the real ruler of our country and hence our enemy. It is important for us to remember that our enemy is the big bourgeoisie, especially the 150 or so monopoly capitalist houses and the foreign imperialists. Everyone else is in our camp. They may not understand us or agree with us today, but we have to painstakingly explain to them why all of us must together fight for Navnirman of India and why we all will benefit from it.
Girish, speaking on behalf of the Lok Raj Sangathan, explained that the root of the problem we face is that people are totally excluded from political power. Political power is concentrated in the hands of the Cabinet. Decisions like demonetisation were taken without even consulting the entire ministry. Parliament is a talk-shop, a means of deceiving and diverting the people. The accountability of our so-called representatives is not towards us, the electors, but to the bosses of their political parties, who in turn are managers of the richest in the land. He elaborated on the changes that need to be made in the political process in order to empower the people and explained how with political power in our hands, we the people would be able to solve the problems of poverty, unemployment, starvation, and so on.
The Secretary of the KEC dwelt upon how the British ruling class had devastated and ruined our beautiful, prosperous country and rained death on crores of people. He stressed that the behaviour of the British working class was poles apart from that of its rulers and gave several examples to show that after Marx and Engels gave the stirring call, “Workers of the World, Unite!” the working class of all the countries had repeatedly responded by demonstrating its intemationalist spirit. This is very relevant today when the rulers of India are trying to whip up passions against Pakistan, while befriending the greatest terrorist in the world, the US state.
Youth members of LRS put up a skit portraying how the two biggest parties compete in fooling the people as well as in proving to their capitalist maaliks that they would serve them better. The representative of Spark – Voice of Youth, a magazine brought out by the young members of LRS, talked about how necessary it was for youth to combat the great pressure to stay away from politics and focus on their individual careers. She asserted that youth are an invincible force and that they could not be happy when the society itself is beset with so many problems and injustices.
Several members of the audience intervened. A number of inspiring songs and poems were presented at the conclusion of the program, that left a lasting impression on the participants.