Bihar State CPI (ML) Conference:

Held between May 25 and 27 at the Mahesh Thakur Sabhaghar (Nagar Nigam Hall) in Muzaffarpur, the fifth Bihar state conference was attended by 352 delegates (33 of them being women) and 26 guests and observers. The inaugu-ral speech at the conference was delivered by comrade Vinod Mishra. As he pointed out, the special significance of holding the conference in Muzaf-farpur lay in the fact that it was in this district that the peasant move-ment of Mushahari had emerged as a major milestone in our movement and marked a new beginning in the 1980s. Today, when we are embarking on a new beginning in a new perspective, the lessons and achievements of that great movement are of real value for us.

In his speech the General Secretary said that our party shall continue to oppose sham secularism and the hypocrisy of social justice peddled by Laloo-Rabri government which works against the interests of the common people. At the same time, we shall also oppose all illegal attempts by the Centre to dislodge it. On the one hand we must fight against communal forces and on the other, we must consistently oppose the anti-people po-licies and corruption of Laloo-Rabri government. Referring to the right reactionaries’ claim that the 21st century belonged to them, Comrade VM asserted that it would be the century of left upsurge as well. Urging the party cadres to conduct deeper social investigations, he counselled them to adopt a popular style of work.

Certain Important Resolutions

The conference vowed to liquidate the Ranvir Sena through protracted class struggle, rather than opting for any anarchic solution. The state committee was charged with the responsibility of evolving an effective mechanism for conducting the required investigation and guiding the combat directly.

An Agrarian Labour Association will soon be launched, while the existing peasant association would concentrate on peasant demands so as to ensure the broadest possible mobilisation of the peasantry.

The conference demanded the immediate arrest of Shahabuddin, the main accused in the Chandrashekhar murder case, and strongly criticised the CBI for dilly-dallying under the pressure of the state government.

The conference demanded unconditional release of the thousands of left agitators indiscriminately arrested over the last few years, and withdrawal of false cases against them.

The state government must immediately expel VHP chief Ashok Singhal from Bihar for series of mass meetings.

The conference witnessed a lively discussion on the draft political-organisational report presented by comrade Ram Jatan Sharma, secretary of the outgoing state committee. Among the five points of debate, two deserve special mention. First, what should be our relation with the RJD in the context of the menacing growth of communal fascism? A set of opinions ruled out any political understanding or adjustment with the RJD under any cir-cumstances, since it is the ruling party and our arch-enemy. The other set of views favoured all-out cooperation against the BJP. After as many as 56 comrades expressed their views, the house concluded that at certain rare junctures, the situation may demand some kind of partial and temporary adjustment with the RJD also. So we cannot foreclose the option.

Second, should we categorise our target in the peasant movement as savarn samanti forces (i.e., feudal forces belonging to forward castes) or as feudal-kulak forces? The implication of the debate was that the former characterisation leaves out landlords and kulaks belonging to backward castes from the range of enemies. It had emerged in the particular context of Bhojpur struggle, where the overwhelming majority of our enemy classes actually belong to upper castes. But gradually and inadvertently it came to be generalised for Bihar as a whole, where enemy classes often belong to non-savarn castes too, such as yadavs who generally support the RJD. Such usage therefore does not accord with reality. More harmfully, it provides the ground for befriending alien class forces belonging to the RJD. So we should drop this usuage and reemphasise the class aspect, the more so because our complex relationship with the RJD’s social base demands greater ideological clarity and sharpness.

The conference elected a 29-member state committee and a 5-member con-sultative committee. Corade RJ Sharma was reelected secretary of the state committee.