Today, 23rd March, marks the martyrdom of great patriotic revolutionaries- Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru who offered the supreme sacrifice to free the country from the yoke of colonial exploitation. They did so for the people of the country and not to bring the servitors of imperialism to power. Bhagat Singh had explicitly said that it would not matter if White British were to be replaced by what he called “Kale Angrez” meaning those subservient to colonial rulers. What happened in 1947 through transfer of power was not the fulfillment of the dreams of these martyrs. India became a semi colony from a colony, free from direct rule of foreign colonial power, while the imperialist exploitation and oppression of domestic reactionaries continued.
Today India is ruled by the forces which had kept themselves aloof from the great struggle of Indian people from the British colonial rule. Far from sympathizing with these great revolutionary patriots, the then RSS leaders called them “misguided youth”. They shared not a single aspect of the struggle for which these martyrs laid down their lives. They neither opposed the colonial exploitation nor the oppression of reactionary forces, rather they were their supporters. Moreover, RSS stoutly opposed the unity of the people, intent on dividing them on pariochial lines, particularly religious lines. Their Hindu Rashtra was an antithesis of what Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru and other revolutionary patriots worked and died for.
India is today facing unprecedented crisis. Lot of the people is worsening due to the policies of the rulers. Unemployment is increasing while peasants and workers are groaning under the increasing burden to increase the profits of foreign and domestic corporate and sway of the reactionary forces. To divert and crush the struggle of the people and convert the country into a vast prison house, RSS-BJP Govt. has intensified the fascist drive and launched an all round attack on the people, even taking away the rights secured by the people through their struggle. RSS-BJP are systematically doing away with these rights, changing and/or undermining even the constitutional provisions which allow for these rights. Their amendment to Citizenship Act is enshrining Hindu Rashtra in the Constitution, in echo of religious nation theory which people of India had rejected during the freedom movement. Their attempts at preparing National Register of Citizens (NRC) and preparing National Population Register (NPR) for that are taken from guide book of fascists- their sole purpose being to deprive a section of Indians of their rights including voting rights, reducing them to mere subjects. People of the country have come forth in a mass struggle against CAA-NRC-NPR which is posing a challenge to these fascist rulers.
RSS-BJP project of Hindu Rashtra is in service of imperialism and domestic reactionaries against whom the great patriots including 23rd March martyrs had laid down their lives. The service of foreign powers and domestic reactionaries and their conspiracies of dividing the people are the sides of the same coin. The Great martyrs had therefore worked for an India for India belonging to its working people. Their vision was of an India of shared aspiration of all its people. Their vision was of an India free of all exploitation, oppression and discrimination.
Today we are observing Day of their Martyrdom in the conditions of unprecedented crisis in the life of our people and country. We should have called for large scale mobilization on this day to intensify struggle for the realization of India of these martyrs’ dreams. But the country is also facing the danger of spread of deadly corona virus. It is vital to take all measures to prevent its spread as the health delivery system of the country is too ill equipped to cope up if this were to spread. The present day rulers are absolutely callous towards people’s concerns. They failed to do a simple thing i.e. to check its entry and spread in India which has been solely from abroad. While their failures are glaring, they are trying to use even this dangerous situation to suppress the people’s struggles. They are wantonly invoking this danger to crush the resistance to their rule rather than involving all sections in this effort. People are willing, but the Govt. is neither willing nor able to face this danger.
On this Martyrdom Day, we should take the message of the Great Martyrs to the people. We may not organize large meetings but we should adopt other forms to rally the people to advance towards realizing India of the dream of great martyrs- Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru.
CPI(ML)-New Democracy
March 23, 2020