6^th AIARLA All India Conference

The All India Agricultural and Rural Labour Association held its 6^th All India Conference in Jehanabad on 19-20 November. The conference began with a massive ‘Oust BJP, Save the Poor’ rally attended by thousands of agrarian and rural workers from Bihar.

The conference was attended by more that a thousand delegates from all over the country who elected a 263-member National Council, 83-member Executive, with Comrade Rameshwar Prasad as Honorary President, Comrade Sriram Choudhury as President and Dhirendra Jha as General Secretary and other office bearers.

Jehanabad was called Shah Chand Nagar, the hall was termed Virendra Vidrohi Sabhagar, and the dias was named after Comrade Manju. The town was decorated with banners and flags and gates were erected in honour of martyrs and departed leaders including the late AIARLA Odisha President Satyabadi Behera and late AIARLA Tamilnadu President PK Janardanan.

Oust BJP, Save the Poor Rally

Tens of thousands of agrarian and ruaral workers and the poor gathered at the historic Gandhi Maidan in Jehanabad on 19 November 2018 for the Oust BJP, Save the Poor rally prior to the 6^th AIARLA National Conference. Earlier, the statues of Dr Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar and Swami Sahajananda were garlanded and tributes were paid by leaders including CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPI(ML) Politburo member Swadesh Bhattacharya, AIARLA General Secretary Dhirendra Jha, former MP Rameshwar Prasad, CPI(ML) State Secretary Kunal, senior leader Ramjatan Sharma, AIARLA State Secretary Gopal Ravidas, Mahanand, Shrinivas Sharma, and Ramadhar Singh. Well-known economist Jean Dreze was also present on the occasion.

Addressing the rally in Jehanabad, Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya said that Jehanabad has been the soil for many historic and indomitable struggles of dalits and the poor. This is the soil that has seen the martyrdom of hundreds of comrades including Shah Chand, Manju Devi, and Virendra Vidrohi. The communal-fascist forces had assumed that they could oppress the poor and suppress their voice, but this huge presence of tens of thousands at the Gandhi Maidan today tells us that the struggle of the poor is unstoppable.

Comrade Dipankar said that the country’s villages are today resounding with the slogan of ‘Oust BJP, Save the Poor’ because the country has never before seen such an anti-poor government. After for and a half years, the country is reeling under terrible distress and tragedy. The Modi government has proved to be a disaster for the country. They have snatched away the rights of the poor. Acts like MNREGA are being totally made ineffective. Adivasis and rural poor are being evicted from the land. The Food Security Act has been reduced to a joke. Ration is being linked to Aadhaar cards, leading to the poor starving to death. About 60-70 starvation deaths have already taken place in the country.

He said that the Modi government talks of 2022; why do they not talk of today? Failing on all fronts and lacking any other issue, they are resorting to their old communal tune of Ram Mandir. This government has become entirely devoid of humanity. Therefore, we have decided that the country must be saved from this national disaster. The disaster that has struck our freedom and our Constitution today is no ordinary occurrence. This government wants to destroy everything; so, the first thing to do is to oust this government from seat of power by building an unprecedented unity among workers, farmers, Scheme workers, sanitation workers, and all working people.

The ML General Secretary said that the Constitution was passed on 26 November; all the people in the country got equality and freedom, albeit on paper only. Today our fight is for equality and freedom, on the strength of which we want to realize the dreams of Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh. We had dreamt of a country without hatred, communalism and casteism, but today the Modi government is bent on destroying the very fabric of this country. Today Modi has no answers to our questions, so the BJP is once again fanning communal flames in the name of Ram Mandir, and has given the call to march to Ayodhya on 25 November to build the Ram Mandir.

Comrade Dipankar said that if we all take up the responsibility of every village, their unholy intentions can be defeated and we can totally defeat the BJP. We shall not allow this crop of hatred and lies to be sown and harvested.

Addressing the meeting, Kisan Mahasabha General Secretary Comrade Rajaram Singh stressed the need for unity among agrarian workers and farmers and said that on 29-30 November we are marching to Delhi and will force the government to bow to our demands. The meeting was also addressed by CPI(ML) MLAs in the Bihar Assembly Mahboob Alam, Sudama Prasad and Satyadev Ram, AIPWA General Secretary Meena Tiwari, State Secretary Shashi Yadav, AIARLA leader Kunti Devi, Mahanand, and other leaders. Shriram Chaudhary, Tirupati Gemango were also present on the dais. The meeting was presided over by former MP Rameshwar Prasad and conducted by Gopal Ravidas.

Earlier, veteran leader Pratap Das hoisted the flag at the Gandhi Maidan and tributes were paid to all the martyrs. Comrade Nirmohi sang a song in memory and honour of the martyrs.

Sessions of the Conference

The open session of the 2^nd day of the conference was addressed by well-known economist Prof Jean Dreze, Aifa Begum, a people’s movement activist from Assam, former JNUSU GS Chintu Kumari, AIPWA GS Meena Tiwari and Bihar AIPWA Secretary Shashi Yadav, Tarari MLA Sudama Prasad and others.

CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, Swadesh Bhattacharya, Rameshwar Ram, Kunal, Mahboob Alam and many senior leaders were present at the open session. After the open session, the conference proceeded under a 13-member Presidium comprising Shriram Chaudhary (Uttar Pradesh), S Balasundaram (TN), Asha Devi, Shanichari Devi (Bihar), AIARLA Bihar State President Virendra Prasad Gupta, Dev Janaki (W Bengal), Pratima (Karbi), Meena Das (Jharkhand), Harvinder Singh (Punjab), Satyadev Ram, Tirupati Gomango (Odisha), Arjun Rao (AP), Laxman Bhai and Chhagan Bhai (Gujarat). A team comprising comrades Sajal Adhikari, Arup Mohanty, Ajay Kumar, Basava Prasad, Anil Paswan, Pankaj Singh, Dilip Singh, Kalyan Bharti, Parmeshwar Bharti, Rashida Khatoon, and Upendra Paswan was also elected to assist the Presidium.

Addressing the open session, Prof Jean Dreze said that MNREGA, Food Security, Public Distribution System (PDS) etc are in the clutches of large scale corruption. The commitment of those in power is not to the common people but to corporate houses. These schemes have gone from bad to worse in the Modi regime, which is why starvation deaths are occurring across the country today. The poor, dalits, and adivasis need food but there are no food grains in their homes. There should be a guarantee of provision at least for two square meals a day. Food security is the most important issue, which is why the Food Security Act was passed. But this Act has been made a joke today. We can and should mobilize the poor on this issue. We need to work seriously among the poor on this question.

Jean Dreze further said that the large scale corruption in the PDS needs to be ended. The food grains meant for the poor are being stolen by a chain of people from the dealer to the powers at the top. Therefore, these middlemen must be removed from these schemes. PDS must be run entirely through people’s participation and autonomy. We must fight for people’s-management not only in PDS but also in the economy. That is the only way to stop theft and loot. But we are being told not to think for ourselves, as that is a very dangerous thing to do.

He said that there had been much discussion about the Employment Guarantee Act at the AIARLA Rajamundhry conference. This Act gave workers an opportunity to organize themselves. Today after 12 years, we see that some employment has been generated, but the Act has not been implemented as it should have been. People have to struggle for work today and minimum wages are not paid generally. The people who are supposed to implement the Act are extremely anti-worker. We must break the contractor-politician nexus. Wherever workers have tried to organize themselves in MNREGA, they have been brutally repressed. Therefore, we must carry forward the class struggle and fight an extensive battle against corruption. We must strive for revolutionary social change as well as employment and livelihood guarantee. Jean Dreze expressed happiness that AIARLA is moving forward strongly on both these issues.

After the open session, AIARLA General Secretary Dhirendra Jha presented the organizational report on the current political situation. The report condemned the Modi regime, and raised many issues including livelihoods of dalits and workers, homestead land, education, health, attacks on migrant workers, eviction of poor settled for decades on small pockets of lands, attacks on the rights of adivasis and forest-dwellers. The report also reviewed the organizational work of the past 3 years and emphasized the need to strengthen the organization and struggles in all States. The report also raised the issues of demonetization and its destructive effect on agriculture, the unorganized sector where crores of jobs were lost, the economic ruin of farmers and workers, employment under MNREGA and the conspiracy to fix MNREGA minimum wages far below the minimum wage in the market, unemployment allowance, etc.

Many delegates participated in the discussion on the General Secretary’s report and enhanced it by sharing their experiences. A 10-point resolution was passed by the conference and the need to strengthen struggles in the coming days was stressed.

AIARLA has expressed solidarity with and support to the farmers’ protest in Delhi to be held on 29-30 November. The Conference also resolved to participate strongly in the countrywide workers’ strike on 8-9 January 2019 and resolved to throw out the fascist BJP government.

CPI(ML) Bihar Secretary Kunal said that the AIARLA national conference is being held in Jehanabad which has been home to the revolutionary struggle of agrarian workers and poor farmers. This conference will lend further strength to their struggle. The condition of the poor has gone from bad to worse under the Modi regime. Demonetization has adversely affected agrarian workers, poor farmers, and the rural economy. Unemployment is at its peak. We have the example of several starvation deaths in neighbouring Jharkhand. Those who loot the country are fleeing abroad and are being helped and protected by the government. The burden of these crises is being put on the shoulders of the villages, the poor, workers, and farmers. The JD(U)-BJP government in Bihar is evicting the poor from lands they have been long settled in, instead of giving entitlement of land to the landless poor.

Apart from these, the conference also raised the issues of a central law for the safety and dignity of workers in the country as well as migrant workers, guarantee of ration, livelihood and pension for all, and equal and quality education for children.

The Conference declared a decisive battle against the Modi government at the Centre and the BJP-JD(U) government in Bihar. The people are against communal frenzy, and for the protection of the Constitution, democracy, and people’s rights.

This 6^th national conference of the AIARLA was held on the basis of a countrywide membership of more than two million. The Conference also demanded land reforms, government acquisition of Betiya Raj zamindari lands, passing of a new Sharecroppers Act, Constitutional status for the right to housing, and a law for a maximum limit of 2 plots or houses at 2 places in order to confiscate black money and ‘black’ property.