Orissa Kranti Mancha held a State level symposium on the need of an alternative to India’s present chaos in the Lohia Academy auditorium on September 8 with Dr. Laxmi Narayan Raysingh on the chair.
Inaugurating the symposium, former Speaker of Loksabha Sri Rabi Ray opined that frequent meeting of people in every sphere of society to discuss how the state is running, with reliance on non-violence, would open up avenues for a change of the prevalent social order from bad to better. Progressive persons should take the lead in this respect he said.
In his keynote address, the Mancha Convener Prafulla Kumar Mishra dwelt on how post-independence India has drifted away from the mission of economic emancipation of the common man. Exposing the factors of evolution and consolidation of imperialism, he pointed out that replacement of a government by another government of the same economic creed will not be the alternative which people are searching for. Only a change based on political economy of socialism can save the country. Hence how to build up a campaign for such a change should be the issue, he said.
Initiating the debate on the keynote, journalist Subhas Chandra Pattanayak observed that even as democracy was giving way to plutocracy in Nehru era, the division of the Communist Party of India helped consolidation of anti-people forces, as a result of which, the country is now a grazing ground of corporate horses. And, economy of the people is in such dire straits that according to a finding of Citizen’s Alliance against Hunger and Malnutrition, 43% of children below the age of five in India are malnourished, when the UNICEF says, “malnutrition is more common in India than in Sub-Saharan Africa”. It is a shame that “around 46 % of all children below the age of 3 are too small for their age in India, and 47 % are underweight and at least 16 % are wasted”. To save the country from this debacle, going back to the CPI should be seriously considered by all the communist fractions and then only, the country can get the alternative it so urgently needs, he said. He suggested that till then, there should be built up movements for ceiling on properties and delinking of candidates from constituencies in order to curb corruption and to stop the growth of mafia raj that plutocracy has been promoting.
Senior journalist Rabi Das emphasized on mass awareness on how the economic policy clamped by Dr. Manmohan Singh has ruined the purposes for which the freedom fighters had made so much sacrifices. He stressed on elimination of inequality in standard of education and removal of charity in the name of serving the socially disadvantaged.
Prof. Bishwaranjan criticized the differences the Government is creating amongst the people. Even government employees of the same rank and salary are divided by various cadres. He regretted that the society is braking down into compartments. Dependents on lands are being displaced in the name of development that only a few enjoy. He stressed that instead of considering the society in the yardstick individual, priority should shift to considering the individual in the yardstick of society.
Husain Rabi Gandhi regretted that with advent of Manmohan Singh’s economic policy, members of the crorepati club have increased phenomenally in strength, but the masses of India have been weakened. The country must extricate itself from this trap, which can be possible only if progressive people unite to defeat the design of world imperialism, he said.
Prof. Abani Kumar Baral elaborated on causes of growing gap between the rich and the poor and lack of concern of the government for the common man. He gave a thought provoking insight on decadence of democracy in a government induced environment of discrepancies and stressed on left unity to build up an alternative to the present pattern of government priority.
Prafulla Samantra, Tusar Kant and Mayadhar Nayak also gave their views. Sudhir Kumar Mansingh proposed the vote of thanks.