DELHI’S ALL SET FOR ‘BUSH GO BACK’ THUNDER

DELHI’S ALL SET FOR ‘BUSH GO BACK’ THUNDER

S K Pande

AS the Bush entourage rolls into India on March 2, 2006, waves of protest would resonate from Delhi to other parts of the country. Preparations for nationwide protests coinciding with the arrival of Bush are on in full swing. Already cities countrywide are flooded with posters, buntings, banners and poetry denouncing Bush’s visit. Theatre, films, photo and cartoon exhibitions are adding to the colour. The drums of protest have started beating and government and the administration is nervous and shaky, right in the capital of India. CPI(M) posters adorn vantage points in the capital. The messages: “Bush Go Back”, “Drive Bush Out” “A Killer in the Town, Drive him out” are prominently seen everywhere.

For the Government the message is clear – Do not surrender our sovereignty and integrity. Spearheading the campaign is the CPI(M), which along with other Left parties, mass organisations, progressive people and various sections of the society is working overtime to ensure that US president and war criminal, George Bush, gets a “proper” welcome when he arrives in India on March 2. Those involved in organising the protests testify to the growing undercurrent of opposition among the people of our country to Bush and his cabal’s attempts to bulldoze the world. US Ambassador to India, David Mulford’s crude attempts to browbeat our government on Iran nuclear issue, his imperial arrogance in writing to Bengal chief minister etc has only contributed to this opposition. So much so that even Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was forced to distance the government from the Ambassador’s actions. The scale of the protests, particularly in terms of the varied forms, is going to be “unprecedented, claim the organisers. Hyderabad will have a massive protest on March 3, the day Bush visits the city.

In Delhi, a massive, colourful rally followed by a sit-in demonstration will be organised on March 2. The rally will start from Ram Lila Maidan and culminate at Parliament Street. As part of preparations, thousands of well-designed posters, cartoons, stickers and T- shirts are being printed and distributed. The response to this material is quite good, with many appreciating the creative efforts. The Delhi state committee of CPI(M) has held over twenty meetings and distributed in various areas 10,000 state and central posters. A conscious effort is on by the Party to reach to remote areas in Delhi the ‘Bush Go Back’ message.

Simultaneously, conventions and seminars are being organised in Delhi University, JNU and other academic centres on the theme of opposing US imperialism. In Delhi University, the seminar “Resisting Recolonisation” was a big success. It was addressed among others by Professors Irfan Habib, Aijaz Ahmed, Prabhat Patnaik and others.

The SFI too has had a burst of ‘Bush Go Back’ activity right from Delhi University to Jawaharlal University to Jamia Millia University. And the DYFI only yesterday kicked off its campaign with a film festival which was inaugurated by the CPI(M) general secretary, Prakash Karat. The theme of the film festival is “India’s Anti-Imperialist Tradition and Bush’s Visit”. The Janasanskriti has is also chipping in with its action on anti-Bush campaign.

The Jan Natya Manch has already held plays in several areas in Delhi named ‘NAHIN KUBOOL’ and the group ‘Act One’ artists are doing a play named ‘HUSH HUSH BUSH. Besides an amalgam of Delhi University groups like the Players are also staging anti-Bush plays. The National School of Drama is all set to organise an event on March 1^st, 2006 titled ‘ANTI BUSH EVENT’. The Indian Ocean Band group’s Rahul Ram took Delhi University by storm with his anti-Bush songs.

Many eminent artists have made drawings and paintings and some made it in poetry. In fact, the progressive intellectual community is fully involved in mobilising support to the protests. In many academic institutions, places of work, a signature campaign has been launched against Bush visit. Simultaneously, a post card movement against Bush is also on, with thousands being sent to the prime minister opposing Bush’s visit. Sahmat organising an exhibition of the works of various artists, cartoonists in this connection.

ENTHUSIASTIC RESPONSE

TO CPI(M) BLOG

It is high tech and its ticking. The CPI(M) has carried the fight against Bush visit on to the realms of Internet, for the first time on such a big scale. It has launched a blog site named:http://gobackglobalterrorist.blogspot.com/ specifically against Bush visit. The response to this blog has been tremendous with hundreds of bloggers pitching in by posting interesting material against US imperialism. The forms they have adopted include cartoons, jokes, morphed photos etc. The vast community of progressive software professionals are keenly involved in spreading this bloggers movement.

EMINENT PERSONALITIES

ISSUE APPEAL

A group of eminent personalities under the aegis of SAHMAT issued an appeal flooding the universities in Delhi and centres of art and culture. Excerpts from the appeal signed by artists, writers, academics and concerned citizens:

“The United States is engaged at present in a dangerous plan for the re-colonisation of the world. Its leaders have made no secret of it. Capturing raw material sources, particularly oil and gas, that had been nationalised by the newly-emerging nation-States; overthrowing third world governments committed to anti-imperialist nationalism; opening up economies all over the world to the depredations of globalised finance and unhindered exploitation by multinational corporations are the policies being pursued towards this goal. Imposing its diktat over independent countries on the pretext of promoting human rights, democracy and counter-terrorism, the US constitutes today the gravest threat to peace and freedom in the world. It has provided the staunchest support to the oppression of the Palestinian people by the Zionist State. In its keenness to control the rich oil resources of Iraq, it has devastated that hapless country, first through sanctions, then through a blatant and totally indefensible war of aggression and now through the promotion of internal strife that could well lead to its trifurcation. It is now eyeing Iran, another oil-rich country with a proud anti-imperialist tradition, as the next target for aggression and is about to start the first stage in that sinister process, the imposition of sanctions.

Bush must be told that the people of India are irreconcilably opposed to this project of recolonisation. We appeal to all sections of our people to join the protest against George Bush in large numbers.”

The signatories include Habib Tanvir, Prof. Irfan Habib, Gita Kapur, Prabhat Patnaik, M.M. P. Singh, Asghar Wajahat, D.N. Jha, Rajendra Prasad, C.P. Chandrashekar, M.K. Raina, Girish Mishra, Teesta Sitalvad, Mahesh Bhatt, Vivan Sundaram, Arjun Dev, Alok Rai, Chanchal Chauhan, G.P. Deshpande, Rahul Bose, Amaya Bagchi, Zoya Hasan and several others.

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