‘Folks have mentioned: we wish our republic’: Dipankar

On June 4, the 2024 Lok Sabha election outcomes confirmed that the Communist Celebration of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation had gained two out of the three seats allotted to it in Bihar. Whereas Sudama Prasad defeated BJP heavyweight R.Okay. Singh in Arrah, Raja Ram Singh prevailed in Karakat in a three-cornered combat in opposition to Upendra Kushwaha and well-liked Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh.

Dipankar, the final secretary of the occasion, spoke to senior journalist Saba Naqvi concerning the common election outcomes, how totally different events fared, the elements that decided the outcomes, and extra. Excerpts:

You fought three in Bihar, and your occasion gained two.

Sure. Each time individuals speak concerning the strike charge, we simply arrive within the slog overs and we get only a few balls to play. I believe the strike charge could possibly be higher used if we had a number of extra overs to play. So we acquired solely three seats and gained two and I believe that’s okay within the given scenario.

WATCH:

CPI(M-L) Liberation chief Dipankar says that cash energy can solely be fought with human energy and a cooperative mannequin can counter the company one.
| Video Credit score:
Interview by Saba Naqvi; Digital camera by Dipesh Arora; Manufacturing Assistants: Vitasta Kaul & Vedaant Lakhera; Enhancing by Samson Ronald Okay.; Supervising Producer: Jinoy Jose P.

However there’s a sample to it. Even within the final Meeting election, you really had top-of-the-line.

Sure, we acquired 19 seats, and we gained 12. After the election, individuals mentioned that if CPI(M-L) had 30 seats, they’d have gained 20 to 22 seats and Tejashwi Yadav would have develop into the Chief Minister. However we acquired solely three seats.

In terms of seat allocation, we had the worst strike charge. We had 12 MLAs and acquired three candidates. Congress with 19 MLAs, left with 17 MLAs after two having defected, they acquired 19. So the ratio was two is to at least one for the Congress and 4 is to at least one for CPI(M-L). So, that’s dialectics for you. 

Who was the boss who took all the choices there? Was it Lalu Yadav and Tejashwi? Who was the ultimate name in Bihar?

I believe it will need to have been Lalu Yadav. He was round and particularly this time he was out. We didn’t make any subject out of it as a result of the necessary factor was to combat unitedly and combat effectively. And I’m glad that we have now executed it.

In 2020, we had 48 per cent they usually had 52 per cent MLAs. So, I used to be actually hoping that we are going to cross the 20 mark in Bihar. And that manner, Bihar and Jharkhand acquired solely 10 and 5. I simply hope that Bihar may have additionally been like UP which didn’t occur. However I’m glad that UP occurred and took care of every thing.

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However Jharkhand had nonetheless a greater efficiency than Bihar at the very least within the tribal areas.

Precisely. The tribal scene may be very numerous in Jharkhand they usually used to say that Hemant Soren is a Santhal chief. I hoped that after his arrest, we’d have a pan-Jharkhand expression with the slogan Jharkhand jhukega nahi (Jharkhand won’t bend). However sadly, that didn’t occur and that must be studied. However so far as all of the 5 ST seats are involved, I believe between Congress and JMM, they gained all which is nice.

How do you acquire the cash to combat a Lok Sabha election and an Meeting election? 

You must combat cash energy with human energy. To combat in opposition to a company mannequin, you must have a cooperative mannequin. It was a technique to inform folks that if you would like your points to develop into central to politics, if you would like insurance policies in your favour, it is advisable personal your politics and it is advisable fund your politics. It’s so simple as that. So long as the entire political course of will probably be funded by Adanis and Ambanis, every thing will probably be of their favour. So in our occasion, individuals personal our occasion.

Individuals are so resilient in Bihar they usually have a way of occasion possession. They know that if we have to win the election, we have to pool our assets. So I believe it’s a implausible mannequin (Rs.20 mannequin). Additionally, now that we’re in a coalition, there are middle-class {and professional} individuals who have contributed extra. However completely, no company funding and no electoral bonds. I’m hopeful that we will proceed with this mannequin.

You’ll have two MPs after a interval of 20 years now. How did your individuals do it?

In 1989, we had an MP for the primary time from Arrah in Bihar. At the moment, the MP was agricultural labour chief Rameshwar Prasad. And it was unthinkable as a result of we’re not in a coalition and that was our first parliamentary election. A lot of the voters have been additionally voting for the primary time and it was unimaginable again then for a Dalit to vote on their very own alternative. The individuals needed to pay a heavy worth as there was a bloodbath proper after polling. Nearly 22 individuals have been butchered within the Danwar-Bihta bloodbath. Though individuals voted for the primary time, they managed to ship a consultant to the Parliament however that was solely from 1989 to 1991. Since then, we have now been ending second twice in Arrah, as soon as in Siwan, and twice in Jharkhand’s Koderma. The seat that we used to win was from Assam from 1991 to 2004.

And sure, it’s vital that we have now two MPs at a really essential time who’re farmer leaders they usually have been very a lot lively within the ongoing historic farmers’ motion. One is Raja Ram Singh who’s a member of the politburo and he was an MLA for 10 years. He’s the chief of Kisan Mahasabha as effectively. The opposite is Sudama Prasad, once more a Kisan chief,  who comes from the caste referred to as Halwai, whose conventional occupation is to make sweets.

Normally, one associates the Halwai caste group with the BJP. Is that an inaccurate mind-set?

Sudama comes from a particularly marginalised caste. So if you’re speaking about Banias, the Agarwals, and many others., they’re upwardly cellular and are believed to be a core financial institution of the BJP. However issues are altering.

Within the final 10 years, he has been an MLA and has been very vocal about not simply farmers but additionally small merchants who’re a giant group in India. I believe they’ve taken the brunt of the entire GST, demonetisation assault which individuals hardly discuss. We focus on loads concerning the MSME sectors however not concerning the neighbourhood retailers. He represents them and I hope that it’s going to ring a bell.

“…They [the BJP] have been making an attempt to scare individuals: in the event you don’t vote for BJP, you’ll not get free ration. All the pieces is Aadhaar linked and the large brother is watching you. Individuals are compelled into submission.”

Each the candidates have been big killers?

Yeah, each the candidates defeated heavy candidates like Cupboard Minister R.Okay. Singh and likewise Pawan Singh. When our candidate requested R.Okay. Singh, Minister of Energy, for a 10-year report card, he refused to present and mentioned who’s Sudama Prasad. When Sudama Prasad is asking one thing, he’s not asking as a person however because the Bhojpur farmers and Bhojpur poor. Additionally, in a Parliamentary election, you might be duty-bound to put your report card earlier than the individuals. He was so smug and I’m glad that such individuals have been defeated.

I do know that Pawan Singh was initially declared because the BJP candidate from Asansol in West Bengal. The day his identify was introduced, there was a variety of opposition to his candidature from the Trinamool Congress and Bengal civil society particularly as a result of there may be a variety of misogyny in his songs, majorly in opposition to Bengali girls. I believe the BJP panicked and requested him to resign. If he actually wished to contest, he ought to have executed it from Arrah as he’s from there. However he didn’t as a result of Arrah already had a heavyweight Rajput candidate. He selected Karakat as an alternative, the place Upendra Kushwaha was the NDA candidate. So I believe, in some methods, Pawan Singh got here within the final over and he helped us to win Karakat and likewise consolidate our possibilities in Arrah.

You misplaced an necessary occasion particular person to the heatwave. Please inform us about that.

On Could 30, the final day of campaigning, 62 individuals died resulting from heatwave in Bihar. We had a younger comrade from Motihari in Champaran who was working as a celebration organiser within the election interval on a motorbike. He fainted that day within the afternoon and was taken to Arrah hospital however couldn’t save him. Lots of people died together with the polling officers. In spite of everything this, the Chief Election Commissioner didn’t have a phrase of remorse or apology whereas addressing a press convention and he simply mentioned it was a studying curve. This was a fully mismanaged and ill-timed election this summer season. That is cruelty and no person may care much less about human lives than the Election Fee.

You do groundwork with Dalits which the media doesn’t cowl adequately.

Ravish Kumar did a really evocative video and I’m so grateful. He captured an important elements of our marketing campaign, particularly the large function performed by girls and the songs they have been singing about electoral bonds. He mentioned that that is the occasion which is making an attempt to take politics to distant areas the place no mainstream media would ever go.

Do you agree with the entire perception that Modi is now for the wealthy and the poor should combat for themselves?

Completely. I believe the rich-poor divide is rising. Unemployment, worth rise, and many others. usually are not simply points. There are people who find themselves feeling fully excluded, and that feeling is rising. I hope that it more and more kind of interprets into politics. 

What concerning the ration?

Individuals are considering that the 5 kg that they get is free, it isn’t. Anyone is funding it. It isn’t Adani and Ambani however the frequent individuals of India who’re paying GST and all of the taxes. The federal government is trivialising the entire subject of meals safety to free ration. After which, they’re making an attempt to make individuals like bonded labourers of yesteryears, bonded voters right this moment. That is the worst sort of vote financial institution.

Are you saying that free ration is a technique to get votes?

Sure, they have been making an attempt to scare individuals: in the event you don’t vote for BJP, you’ll not get free ration. All the pieces is Aadhaar linked and the large brother is watching you. Individuals are compelled into submission. We’ve so many individuals in jail. The discharge of political prisoners ought to have develop into a a lot larger subject nevertheless it didn’t. There’s the Bhima Koregaon case, the Delhi riots, and plenty of extra.

However the best way the poor have responded, not simply the farmers or unemployed individuals however the Dalit-Bahujans as effectively, is implausible. The individuals have mentioned that we’re not right here for only a 5 kg ration. We would like our full rights. It’s our republic. It’s our nation. Don’t deal with us as topics. Don’t imagine that you’re despatched by Paramatma. That is what Modi is making an attempt to do, he’s a king and on the identical time he’s a priestly king.

Additionally Learn | Nitish Kumar saves the day for NDA in Bihar

Nitish Kumar is just not a Hindutva particular person, however he has been a collaborator with the BJP.

He is a superb survivor. In 2014, he was one one who tried to cease Modi from changing into Prime Minister. He mentioned that he has been with Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee and he can’t cope with Modi and Amit Shah. So he tried to invoke the spirit of Bihari Swabhiman in 2014 however he didn’t succeed. He then stored on going and coming again and so the acrobatics are very troublesome to clarify. However through the Gujarat genocide and communal carnage, when Modi really emerged, he collaborated with BJP.

Within the mid-90s, when socialists in India would in all probability not contact BJP with a barge pole and George Fernandes was additionally in all probability in two minds, I believe Nitish Kumar prevailed. In 1995, after we had a little bit of cooperation, when he was within the Samata Celebration, we tried to cease him. Even in 2005, when there was a hung meeting in Bihar and we had seven MLAs, Nitish Kumar got here to us. I advised him to dissociate with the BJP, we are going to help him and even RJD for that matter. However he selected to go along with the BJP. So, he has been with the BJP for a lot of his political profession.

And even on this election, we felt so sorry about it. He was like a pupil earlier than his headmaster saying, I’ll by no means once more commit this error and I can’t go there.

Do you suppose there’s a image of humiliated Nitish?

There could possibly be. There was this street present in Patna when Nitish was standing subsequent to Modi. He was sort of holding the lotus image that Modi gave him and never his personal arrow image. So it was nearly like a BJP takeover of Bihar. I believe even that didn’t go down effectively in any respect. So there should be some sympathy. There’s a sense that he has, to an extent, addressed the problems of ladies and backward castes. So I believe Nitish Kumar has a selected constituency.

However I nonetheless hope, hoping in opposition to hope, that these two leaders [N. Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar], who’ve been a part of the UPA and anti-BJP coalitions, will perceive and have some respect for the mandate. They’ve chosen Modi because the chief of India, which fits in opposition to the mandate. However I hope that this Parliament will get a brand new Speaker, a non-partisan Speaker, who is just not from the BJP.