Protest Demonstration

CITIZENS held a candle march at Kargil Chowk in Patna on 25 June 2019 for justice for the hundreds of children who died in the encephalopathy (chamki fever) epidemic in Muzaffarpur. Many eminent citizens of Patna participated in this program. The meeting held after the candle march was addressed by All India Kisan Mahasabha General Secretary Rajaram Singh, AIPWA Patna City Secretary Anita Sinha, Reshma, Rupam Jha, Shashank Mukut Shekhar, Asma Khan, Anjum Bari, Mrinal, and others. The program was conducted by Samta Rai of CHORUS.

DESPITE High Court orders that shopkeepers cannot be evicted without alternative arrangements, the BJP-JD(U) government is illegally evicting shopkeepers between the Station Complex and GPO Golambar in Bihar’s capital city Patna. Around 1 lakh families are dependent for jobs on the thousands of shops that have been running for about 70 years on Khas Mahal land. The Bihar government is bent on throwing out these shopkeepers without making any alternative arrangements for them. During a demolition drive, two traders died of shock.

AFTER the conspiracy to hush up the death of 18-year-old tractor driver Mantosh Yadav by BJP leader Rinku Singh and the sand mafia, the CPI(ML) led a protest on 12 June 2019 on the Chandi-Sahar main road near Repura village. Hundreds of people joined the protest and blocked the road for 14 hours. After a round of failed talks with the BDO and 4 Thana in-charges, the SDO Arun Kumar and DSP Pankaj Kumar came to the dharna spot and talks with ML leaders were held for 45 minutes after which they conceded the following demands:

CPI(ML) organized a protest march at Bengabad, Giridih district of Jharkhand, against the jailing of a poor worker Mahendra Yadav after a false case was slapped on him at the behest of the Bengabad BDO. Mahendra Yadav had earlier refused when he was asked to give a bribe in return for having Aadhar cards made for his daughters; an argument resulted as a result, after which the BDO caused the false case to be registered against Mahendra Yadav. The protest march was held from the Forest Range Office to the Block HQ where a dharna was organised.

THE CPI(ML) organised a one-day dharna (sit-in) at Ambedkar Park in Haldwani on 7 June 2019 against the role of the dominant caste feudal forces in the Gram Panchayat, the Health Department, the police, administration, and the State government in the aftermath of the rape of a 9 year old minor Dalit girl in Tihri Janpad, Jaunpur, Uttarakhand.

THE suicide of Dr Payal Tadvi, a promising young doctor from the Adivasi Muslim Tadvi Bhil Scheduled Tribe community, following casteist harassment by three of her seniors at the BYL Nair Hospital in Mumbai, is an institutional murder like that of Rohith Vemula. Dr Payal Tadvi was subjected to taunts about reservations, and her seniors reportedly wiped their feet on bed after visiting the toilet and publicly humiliated her repeatedly.

THE DTC Workers Unity Centre (affiliated to AICCTU) organised a protest on 21 May 2019 in front of the Delhi Transport Corporation Headquarters at IP Estate, Delhi and submitted a memorandum to the DTC management.

THE CPI (ML) MLAs took some notable initiatives in the Bihar Assembly during the recently concluded Assembly session. They held the government accountable in many burning issues and also achieved a concrete victory on the issue of honorarium for Rasoiyas. The legislative team repeatedly raised the issues of Rasoiyas agitating since 7 January, built pressure on the Chief Minister, and finally succeeded in having the honorarium raised by Rs 250. The siege of the government was kept up through starred questions, adjournment motions and zero hour.

ON 5 February 2019, a Punjab District Court in District Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (Nawa Shahr) sentenced 3 28-29 year-old Sikh youths to life imprisonment and Rs 1 lakh fine each for ‘sedition’ or ‘waging war against the country’. They had committed no crime, nor had any weapons or explosives been found on them. According to the police charge sheet, they were allegedly in possession of some “objectionable books and pictures” and it was on the charge of keeping these “dangerous materials” that they were convicted.

CPIML organised a road blockade on 12 February in protest after two youngsters were killed in an accident when they went to the Sone river at Mehadichak village in Agiaon block of Bhojpur on 11 February after a Puja. Due to illegal mining with heavy earth-movers the river which used to be shallow in this season has got innumerable deep holes inside which can be prove fatal to anybody. The CPIML holds Bihar government and Bhojpur administration solely responsible for these deaths and has demanded action against mining nexus and compensation to the aggrieved families.