 Today we have with us Supreme State Secretary Mohamed Selim. Congratulations Mohamed Selim and we extend our welcome wish to you. Impending for the Panchayat elections was starting in the state in a couple of days. What is the importance of the three-tiered Panchayat system in the lives of the rural people? Once left-front government came into being in 1977, then Jyothi Vasu himself, other than Jyothi Vasu, said that the government will be run not only from the writer's building, that is the state secretaryate, but there will be many secretaries in the districts and the poor people, the marginal section, the far-flung areas, they will have their own government. That is Panchayat. Later on it has become a Panchayat-era institution. It's a three-tiered Panchayat system because from the beginning the left was working for and asking for more power to the states to prevent over-centralization, real kind of federalism. So whatever the power is there, some power will be given from centre to the state. But the state will not accept that. The state power will be then further devaluated. So it's a devolution of power, both financial and personal, to Panchayat-era system, to the local bodies in urban areas, municipalities, corporations. And in Panchayat, the three-tiered system, the district, they will have their own government, that is Jilaparishad, then at the block level is Panchayat Samiti, and then at the village level there is Gram Panchayat or Ganga Sabha. It's not only elected representatives of Panchayat, but not only Pradhan and Vice Chairman. It's more than that. It's a council in Jilaparishad. And members, individual members have rights in various committees. Say for example, the local needs, local planning, local developments, education, health, environment, connectivity, roads, waters, residents, all these will be covered by Panchayat. And over the years, more than 50% of the state resources were allocated to the Panchayat system. And Panchayat will have at least twice, it's a statutory, twice general body meeting of all the electorates. So it's a Ganga Sabha. So Na Lok Sabha, Na Vidhan Sabha, Sabsebara, Ganga Sabha. That's the real empowerment of the people and power to the people. In Bengal, this was successful because of the land reform also. So whatever land was concentrated in the hands of the landlords, it was redistributed. So the land was taken without compensation and through Operation Berga and distribution of small plots for cultivators. This is how the real empowerment, financial and economic and social, cultural, as well as political, administrative, that restructuring. Then electorate also, particularly the voting age brought down to 18 years instead of 21. Later on it was, for all India, the assembly and parliament was accepted. But first it's introduced women's reservations, CST, obesity reservations. So now more than 50% are women folks. This is how the people got their own governments at their own steps. And that's why the stake is so high. So people want to control that local bodies through that. So instead of governance, instead of ensuring participatory democracy, now it has become a tool for controlling the rural masses. What role has the left played in establishing and successfully running the system? From the beginning, if you see, in 77 the government came, left-wing government, 78 panchayat was formed and within months there was a devastating flood. Now you see what is happening in Assam. So the newly elected panchayat bodies together with the people and the government at the top, they all just started serving to the people, rescuing, rehabilitation, rebuilding. So people have seen how the government can work successfully with the involvement of the local self-government and with the people's initiative. Then the land reform also could not have been possible without this panchayat system. Other government institutions also started working through that panchayat level. So as I told you already, then after constitution amendment throughout the country, it was made compulsory that devolution of power to the lower tier. In that case, throughout the country we see the tendency in post-independence India was over-concentration of power in the hands of few. Now this greatest challenge in democracy is that over-concentration of power in the hands of a few. In the name of party, in the name of family, in the name of coterie, in the name of some undisclosed organizations. So from behind they pulled the strings. So here it's a real empowering the people. So after the entire period of 34 years of left rule, every five years we had this election regularly. Now you have to go to the court to have this election. You have to go to the streets. On the streets you have to demand for election. Because be it the central government or the state government, they want this concentration of power. So that's the difference between the left kind of politics and the rightist politics. The rightist means over-concentration of power, resources, money or land, whatever it may be. And left means be it education, be it the political administrative power, be it cultural capital or financial capital or land, it has to be redistributive. And you have to distribute to those who don't have. What are the issues in this round of election? What are the teams and BJP? They are also pitching in this election. So what are the main issues? For the left, the main issue is for the last several years, huge level of corruption from top to bottom. And the highest level of involvement is there. So this apartment in the education, in this Abhash Jyotsana, there's housing projects, then roads connectivity, construction of roads or whatever facilities or schemes are there. Actually, during UP1, we fought for this 100 days work. We wanted it for 200 days, but at least for that time being, 100 days were insured. There is Manrega, Madhav Gandhi National, the National Employment Guantee Act was there. But here there's all round corruption. Those who require to have jobs, they don't have the cards. Those who are having cards, they are not getting the jobs. Those who are doing the jobs, they are not getting paid. And those who, some else are having that. So it's a corruption, cut money, all around. So the fight is against the corruption. And this corruption is not possible without the involvement of this culprits, the goons. So it's an excess between this corruption and the goons. So it's a fight to reoccupy panchayat, regain panchayat. It's a people's angle. So we have given this call for fighting against these corrupt and criminals and regain this panchayat for the people, by the people. So people on the streets, because the state agencies or the central agencies, they fail to check this corruption from Narda, Sardar to Tildade, these high scams everywhere. So in that case, we want people to be aware, people to be active, and people to participate. That's how we have built up this. For the last one year, first we said, Chordhoro, Jailhoro. But who will catch the thieves? Because central security forces guarding those thieves who went to the BJP, the state security forces guarding those thieves who are still with the Tirumal Congress. So there's insecurity, all around insecurity, not only for the minorities, not only for the women, for the tribals, for the SCs, for the OBCs, the children, and for all those well-meaning people who want justice. So in that case, it's now all combined. So then you said, let the village awaken. So Gramjaga, Chordhoro. Once the villagers come out together, this could have happened earlier also. But because of this, Mamta brought BJP and RSS kind of politics here. So both the Hindu and Muslim communalists, they wanted to divide the people. Not only on the basis of religion or mosque or temple or church or Gurdwara, they started dividing people on the basis of language, caste, say, the various subgroups. What's happening in Manipur, you have seen that. So pitching one section of people against another. So utilizing this in the name of identity politics or engineering. So that's why the people could not come together. And left's role is to get them united. So left also got weakened because there was all-round attack. You know, firstly implicated. Our comrades were firstly implicated in thousands. They were jailed. They were ousted from houses. A lot of, you know, imposing fines. Their livelihoods were at stake. So it took some time to rebuild the network. And now the ones they left hit the streets. So people are coming together. And the communal forces also is receding. So that one challenge is against the communal forces. Another challenge is the corrupt people. And third is the criminals of both sides. They come together. So we have to fight against BJP and Thirumal. And it's not only the CPIM or the left. Left front is there intact. More unity is there. But other than those left front partners, there are other left parties. So we have got them all around. And not only the left parties, but there are some other secular forces, democratic forces, including Congress, ISF, and many other small groups, social groups, political groups, they have also got united. And that's how we are able to put up this challenge collectively against this BJP and Thirumal. That's the issue. TMC's role since 2011 in destroying the system, there has been enormous violence in the state in the elections. How do you promise to tackle the violence? Since the inception of TMC, the most corrupt, the reactionary sections within the Congress, they in fact came out of Congress and formed this to go with the BJP. So the help and training of RSS, there's a violent means they took. And it was not enough. So they even inducted Maoist Kissanji's episode. So it's not true from 2013. Even before Mamta Banerjee came to power, they started this violence. That's why the violence started in Pajaiti Elections in 2003, in 2008. And that's the graph of the violence in Bengal elections and the graph of this Thirumal's electoral success. You will see it's almost together. And that's why now the people are against this TMC as well as against this violent kind of politics. So we asked the State Election Commission, and that's the demand, to hold this election peacefully and neutrally so that people can vote. There are villages after villages where villages will be able to cast their vote maybe after 10, 12 years. So it's a huge challenge for us to show the ballot papers to them, to take them to the polling booth. And you see how violence took place even during the first day of filing nominations. So you declare election on the one hand, and on the other hand, you are not prepared, but your goons are prepared. So the bureaucrats are not prepared. The election commission is not prepared. The police force is not prepared. And one day they started violent resistance to those who went for filing nominations. In fact, they lost the 21-year-old young student leader Mansur Alam at Chopra. And in that particular plot, there's a case study, not a single opposition candidates were allowed to file nominations. And it's not only in Chopra, but there are, say, more than a dozen blocks out of 300-plus blocks, where not a single nominations were allowed at the village panchayat level or panchayat-samhiti level. But somehow, left could, were preparing, because since we were preparing for long, so we could manage to submit our nominations, but still at least around 5-7% seats in panchayat-samhiti or Gamsah level, where people were prevented not to come out. Now the cases are coming out when TMC in bulk deposes the nominations, disregarding the provisions. On the other hand, our nominations, which were not allowed to file, once it was filed, it was rejected on flimsy grounds. And sometimes they have tampered the document, that is when the High Court has pointed out, a CVA inquiry nowhere, never before in the local body elections, CVA election has to conduct any inquiry, because the court's argument is the state government necessarily has tampered this, so how can they inquire into it? So it's a total, you know, no confidence on this election machinery or election commission, despite that when we ask for more forces, to ensure the security for the electorates, for the workers, for the voters, and particularly those personnel, poll personnel, they are demanding. But from High Court to Supreme Court, the election commission itself and the state government went to the court to prevent the deployment of forces. We want forces, because to assure the people that they can come and they can freely cast their vote, whoever they like. But here's the government, which is not ensuring. And you can see the drama, they ask for 22 companies when they are instructed by the court, and overnight it came, now became 822. And even when they're demanding 822, the federal government is saying they cannot provide more forces, not even half the number. That means both the BGP and Tenomol first, they never wanted to have this election, they wanted to straight go to the parliament election, because of their success in 19 on 21, they want to carry that flavor, so they don't want to face the electorate in 2023. So that's why we said, we challenged them, that hold this election. Now they went to the court to prevent that, BGP went to the court first in the first round, Supreme Court did not allow that. Now the state government, the governor, and the BGP and Tenomol, all of them are trying their best to prevent the election to take place. But people are in a mood to teach them lesson, and we are gearing up. What are the implications of this in the 2024 election? That's of course because when people get united, and they're able to restore democracy to some extent, at the grassroot level. There are areas where for 10 years the leftists were not allowed to go. For more than 12 years, the students were not allowed to go to have their organizations in the colleges, universities. The workers were not allowed to have the trade unions. The farmers were not allowed to, even those who were having patta, are not allowed to till their land. The fisher folk were not allowed to fish in the ponds. So now once that some rights are restored, so now people of course will unite themselves to snatch this power from these rightist elements. Because Bengal from the tradition, from the freedom struggle, is left oriented. So all rightist forces got together to oust this left. So okay, win or defeat is the part of the game. But once the left front government was defeated, this entire rightist force came down heavily to destroy the leftist network. So now we are building that network. We are mobilizing our people. And people have also now regaining the confidence on left. What are the left promises and the manifesto? So only the left front has issued their manifesto. You will not find any manifesto or that kind of thing from the BJP or Tirumal now. Because whatever left goes to the people, we go with some specific program. And this is not CPIM, but it is left front. And in that case, first is we want to stop these corrupt practices in the Panchayatira system. Second is the democratic rights. It has to be expanded. And then decentralization of power that we did. So more power to the Panchayats is now over-brokertization. So we have to again go back to the electoral representatives so with every six months the Panchayatira will be bound to hold the villagers' meeting and all schemes which are being implemented there, the one factor is that to root out that corruption it has to be more transparency. In that case, everything should be shared with the people. It's not only the electoral representatives that they will do. We have learned from our lessons also. Thirdly, the rural economy is in sample. So we have to rebuild this rural economy. The agriculture community they are not getting the right kind of prices for their producers. Earlier Panchayat used to procure that. Now that system is done. So now the Panchayat system will be on the side of the tillers for their procurement of inputs at the same time for selling their products. Liberals, they will have their rights but they will be migrant liberals. Since there is no industrialization taking place for the last one decade and no works in the villages so there is a huge internal migration. According to the constitution of India the government of India is mandated to take care of these internal migrations but they are not taking. We have seen this in the Covid period also. So the red volunteer work for them the people that they left all over the country they stood for them. So now this migrant laborers which are in close now so we have to ensure that one their safety their security their family safety and security the education of their children the Panchayat should look after in their absence their interest in the villages at the same time we will build cottages and small scale industries where again revamping the agriculture through better education system crop diversification so that the people may not they will not be required to go out instead that there is some kind of self employment and employment generation program in the rural areas. Then women's safety, children's safety security the police folks is now work only under the instruction of the ruling party so it must be reformed the situation must be changed so the safe we will the rural areas were never under the influence of communalist not even the partition days but now this communal divide is there so we will again unite these people they must come together the environment the physical environment the water bodies the trees, forest that has to be protected at the same time the relationship that we in Bengali say this is a rural community so it's a traditionally they used to there will be no difference between caste and creed and gender and language or religion so that we again and for that we have to promote culture scientific temperament that's what panchayat can play in every rural in fact during left regime chayat was given entrusted the job for basic educations the services mission was there then the SSK MSK these are all stopped now so that we have to again revamp there should not be any out of school children 100% enrollment no illiteracy these are all work program and it's not hoax we did it successfully but now it is undone so whatever has been undone in the rural areas for last 12 years we will again try to bring it to the track again so about welfare schemes left has also promised some welfare schemes why is there promise the whole world knows this welfare schemes came because of this socialist movement the establishment the government the rulers must think of those who cannot survive and for that matter be it the field of education, health women, children disabled elderly people farmers those who are in trouble it's not that government should work government should work the panchayat must work for those who need them so this would be need based there are many welfare schemes which now being sold off in the Mamta scheme or Modi scheme these are government schemes these are panchayati schemes we fought during UVP government that at least these central assisted schemes must be transferred to the panchayat in our system and that's how the schemes under 27 ministries got transferred to the local bodies but there is no monitoring by the central government they say so much of corruption they got this as a you know, lurgis for their own people so we are not against these schemes rather we want to implement those schemes properly and weed out corruption and all these schemes be it midday meal, ICDAs rationing, public distribution system unemployment, you know, assistance elderly people's assistance women's assistance these are all left concept this is the left government started and that time writers used to criticize us but there are section of people with this serious economic crisis unemployment price rise and inflation you have to make people survive so subsistence allows you have to give them and this is what you ask for unnecessarily Modi advertised with his photograph that is a Modi scheme which implies herself with her photographs her schemes people give this tax and the government or panchayat or the municipalities they spend it so it depends on the quality of the politics, the ideology and the honesty of the people involved whether they spend properly or they take this corrupt route what is the resistance in the panchayat elections mind it the letter R the letter R stands for revolution the letter R stands for red that's what red volunteers did during entire corona period even now they are on guard thirdly the R is for resistance R is for reoccupy R is for rapid actions so Mamta is afraid of because it was field day for the goons to snatch the rights of the democratic rights of the people but when people get united they resist now she is saying why resistance is there but why people will allow the thieves to run their reads why the goons will take over the boots why the police officers or the section of bureaucrats they will loot the counting centers that's how for last one year we tried slowly slowly build up the mood of the people the confidence of the people the organization of the people and this combined force who are opposed to the loot of Modi and Didi now they are coming together they will resist all kind of malpractices be it in the government or panchayat as in the form of corruption be it in the form of you know wrong electoral politics using muscle power or money power be it the wrong doings of the bureaucrats of the police Jyoti Boshi used to say it's people who says the last word