The latest issue of People’s Democracy is dedicated to 1857: ‘Understanding 1857, The Left perspective’. The lead editorial, however, indulges in Sangh Parivar bashing. One of the highlights of the 1857 rebellion was unity, it says, and accuses the RSS and the BJP of deciding to participate in the official parliamentary function only last week. The editorial says, “This is only natural, for the secular unity displayed by the Indian people during 1857 is anathema to them, given their venomous communal agenda. Having stayed away from the freedom struggle, the RSS obviously cannot take part in any celebrations of that glorious history of Indian people’s struggle.”

People’s war

In ‘1857: In the hearts and minds of people’, CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat describes the rebellion as truly the first war of independence because it covered a huge area, stretching from Bengal to the Punjab, involving lakhs of people. It was national in character “because of the way classes came together, from the feudals to the peasants and the artisans, all of whom experienced the rapacity of the colonial rule.” The CPM chief believes that the need to discuss the revolt stems from the fact that the “ruling classes and the official ideologues” want to observe 1857 by draining it of its anti-imperialist content. That, in his opinion, reduces the significance of the revolt. He believes that at a time when “the Indian ruling classes are espousing collaboration and surrender to the descendents of the marauding colonial powers”, ordinary Indians still carried the essence of 1857.

Demand for industry

Back to Nandigram, which has found an echo in Parliament in recent days, the CPM believes it is once again becoming a target for assaults by the “reactionary alliance” comprising the Trinamool Congress, Naxalites and SUCI. The reference is to a meeting of the CPM’s state unit, at which Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, State Party Secretary Biman Basu and Central Committee Member Benoy Konar were present. The report on the meeting in the latest issue of People’s Democracy ignores the points raised by the Opposition in Bengal and says that the Bengal CPM’s assessment is that the “largest bulk of the people” of the state, among them the farmers, had taken a stand for industrial development.

According to the the CPM weekly, they decided to implement all schemes for the development of panchayat and municipal areas, and supervision of the REGA scheme. While agricultural development will be given more stress, a “surge of demand appears to be forthcoming from the people of the districts for industrial growth,” the report says.

Compiled by Ananda Majumdar