July 28 is also the day of reorganisation of our party after the setback of the early 1970s. We rededicate ourselves to the task of carrying forward the unfinished mission of Comrade Charu Mazumdar, Comrade Jauhar and Comrade Vinod Mishra, the three General Secretaries who built and led our beloved party through the challenging formative phase in the face of severe state repression and amidst a hostile environment.
Right now we are faced with an unprecedented votebandi drive in Bihar which threatens to unleash mass disenfranchisement and reduce universal adult franchise, the crucial cornerstone of our Constitution to a restricted and selective franchise. As already witnessed in Assam, the process creates a whole category of vulnerable and disempowered people who are dubbed doubtful voters with names removed from the electoral roll and citizenship register, many languishing in detention camps and even getting deported to foreign countries.
In Maharashtra we faced a hugely rigged election where the pattern and scale of rigging became clear only after the elections were over and stolen. In Bihar we can see it all happening in front of our eyes. Saving the voting right and the elections must therefore be taken up as an urgent agenda of mass resistance. The SIR exercise has only begun with Bihar and is all set to be extended to the whole of India. We must therefore take it up on a countrywide scale as the biggest assault on the Constitution, citizenship and the fundamental right to vote.
While Bihar faces the SIR strike, migrant workers from West Bengal are facing a systematic attack in state after BJP-ruled state, being harassed, beaten up and detained as suspected illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. Massive demolition drives are going on targeting Muslims and other marginalised groups and poor people in Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. The potential of worker-peasant unity witnessed in the July 9 all-India strike campaign must now be directed squarely against this fascist offensive.
The party has been strengthened in recent months through two major unification moves in Jharkhand and Maharashtra with the erstwhile Marxist Coordination Committee and Lal Nishan Party organisations merging into the CPI(ML). We must consolidate this unity and channelise the unified energy of the entire party towards more resolute efforts, vibrant initiatives and greater victories in the coming days. The whole country is now looking to Bihar to give a fitting rebuff to the Modi regime and the party must play its fullest role in the process. The entire party must rise to the occasion and help Bihar comrades in every possible way.
