Welcome Address of K. Balakrishnan
Chairman of Reception Committee of 24th Congress of CPI(M)
Respected Chairman, delegates and observers to the historic 24th Party Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Members of the Polit Bureau! Members of the Central Committee!
Respected Left Party leaders who have come to greet the congress!
Our dear Special guests, Media friends, comrades, brothers and sisters who are here to attend the Inaugural Session of the Party Congress!
We convey Our revolutionary greetings to you all on behalf of the reception committee. We deem it an honour to welcome you all on behalf of the Reception Committee and the toiling masses of Tamil Nadu. We convey our hearty greetings and thanks to the Central Committee of the party for giving us the golden opportunity to hold the 24th Congress of our party in Tamil Nadu.
We welcome you all, showering on you the internationally renowned Madurai malligai (jasmine) petals. We welcome you all to Tamil Nadu and the city of Madurai wherein the ancient Tamil poet Kaniyan Poongundranaar sang about the unity of the world and universal brotherhood by saying ‘யாதும் ஊரே; யாவரும் ரேளிர்.’
Tamil Nadu is proud of its savants like the great poet Thiruvalluvar and the pioneers of progressive social reforms Ramanujar, Vallalar Ramalinga Adigal, Vaigunda Swamigal, Pandithar Ayothi Daasar, Mahakavi Subramanya Bharathi and Swami Sahajanandar. Thandhai Periyar waged a relentless struggle against casteism and superstitions. Tamil Nadu continues to champion the cause of secularism and pluralistic nature of our culture and society.
Tamil Nadu has been putting up a brave fight against the RSS and its political outfit BJP. BJP has not won even a single Parliament seat from Tamil Nadu since the 2019 parliamentary elections. Even in the recent election to the parliament, the secular front in Tamilnadu and Pudhucherry won all the forty seats and scored a centum. The left movement in Tamil Nadu continues to be an important political force. The unity of the secular, democratic and left parties contributed to the defeat of BJP continuously in Tamil Nadu.
Madurai, one of the ancient cities in the world, is called the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu. The excavation works carried out by the department of Archaeology in Keezhadi, on the banks of the river Vaigai have proved that the Vaigai civilisation was an unique one as it was a living evidence of an “urban culture” developed in and around Madurai, during the ancient times itself.
Tamil Nadu has the privilege of hosting five All India Congresses of our party including the present one at Madurai. Of the five congresses held in Tamil Nadu, Madurai has the honour of hosting three of them.
Madurai hosted the third Congress of the undivided Communist Party of India in 1953 in a grand manner and Comrade Harry Pollitt, the leader of the Communist Party of Britain attended the congress.
The Ninth Congress of the Party was held at Madurai in 1972 and it rightly warned the growing trend towards authoritarianism in the country. As predicted by our party congress, ’emergency’ was declared in 1975.
The Communist Party of India was founded at Tashkent, in the Soviet Union on 17th, October, 1920. Com. M.B.T.Achaarya of Tamil Nadu was one among the delegates of that proud meet. Com M. Singaravelar of Tamilnadu was the first to celebrate the ‘May Day’ in India. He had the privilege of presiding over the Party Conference at Kanpur held in 1925.
In order to prevent the growth of the Communist Party in Tamil Nadu since its inception conspiracy cases were foisted against the party workers in Chennai, Trichy, Madurai, Kovai, Thanjavur, Thirunelveli and Ramanathapuram.
Under the leadership of Com. B. Srinivasa Rao and others, the peasants in East Thanjavur fought against the tyranny of the feudal lords and cruel casteism. This heroic struggle of the peasants is recorded in the annals of history. At the peak of the struggle against the inhuman feudalism and horrible casteism, 44 precious lives of agricultural workers were burnt alive in Keezh Venmani village in 1968. From a three years old child to a 70 years old man were killed mercilessly. Among those killed were 20 women. The fire set by our class enemies in Venmani is still burning.
Tamil Nadu communist movement has lost hundreds of party members like the martyrs killed in Salem Jail and Chinniyam Palayam. The communist movement in Tamil Nadu has grown facing all sorts of police atrocities like firings, death sentences, torture at the police stations and many other forms of oppressions.
When the Tamil Nadu government recently introduced a bill to increase the working hours of the employees and workers, our party played a major role by fighting within and outside the state assembly to thwart this attempt.
‘Land for the tillers’ is the slogan of our party. The party in Tamil Nadu had been successful in getting hundreds of acres of lands for the landless labourers through our sustained struggles. We have also helped the tenant farmers and those living in temple lands to get their land rights.
Our party in Tamil Nadu is working spiritedly in the human rights front as well. We have been opposing custodial torture, encounter killing and police violence in any form. In a village called Vaachathi, the departments of police, forest and revenue combined together had indulged in a horrible atrocity in 1992. They ransacked the whole village Vaachathi and raped 18 women. We were able to get punishment for all the accused in the case by fighting in the court and in the streets. We are glad to inform you that the red brigade rally of this conference is going to be inaugurated by the heroines of the great Vaachathi village struggle.
We are also tirelessly working to establish gender equality and protection of women and children from sexual abuse.
Our party has waged thousands of struggles against caste violence. Our party has established a strong and vibrant ‘Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Movement’. This powerful movement is there in the field almost every day and is putting up a brave fight against caste violence.
Our party has succeeded in getting 3% reservation for the Arunthathiyar community which is in the bottom most layer of the scheduled class communities in Tamil Nadu. Within the reservation quota for the Dalits this community now enjoys 3% reservation because of the initiatives taken by our party.
Even during the independent struggle communists were the first to give the call for the formation of linguistic states in India. During the British Raj the Madras Presidency consisted parts of the present Kerala, Andhra and Karnataka states. In the erstwhile Madras assembly, the communists raised the demand for the formation of the linguistic states. Our members in the assembly used to speak in their respective mother tongue.
Com. P.Ramamoorthy brought in the resolution to rename the Madras State as Tamil Nadu in the Rajya Sabha. In his absence on that day, comrade Bupesh Gupta moved the resolution and made a passionate speech in support of the resolution.
The policy of the CPI(M) is for the growth of the regional languages. All the languages in the 8th schedule of our constitution should be made the official languages of India. In all the states of India the administration should be held in the respective state languages. Tamil Nadu is in forefront in the struggle against imposition of any languages.
The city of Madurai wherein our party is holding the Congress for the third time has a strong base of the communist movement. Even during the freedom struggle communist movement was strong and had the support of the people of Madurai. That tradition continues even today in Madurai.
A record number of women courted arrest in Tamil Nadu during the freedom struggle. K.P. Janaki Ammal who belonged to the communist movement was the first woman in India to be arrested under the Defence of India Act.
Captain Lakshmi, who had led the Janshi Rani Regiment of Netaji’s Indian National Army, was also from Tamil Nadu.
Martyrs like Pothumbu Ponnaiah, Veerayee, the twin martyrs Mari-Manavalan, Thillaivanam, Martyr Balu who was hanged in Madurai Jail, Poonthottam Subbaiah, I.V.Subbaiah, Railway Ramasamy, student martyrs Somu and Sembu, Kutti Jayaprakash, heroine Leelavathi, and Madakkulam Karuppu, Kochadai Balamurugan laid their precious lives for the sake of our party in Madurai.
The first general election in free India was conducted in 1952. Com.P. Ramamoorthy contested the election to the state assembly from Madurai North Constituency from the jail and got a remarkable victory. In that elections, Communist Party had come as largest party in the assembly. The Congress Party was not able to garner majority. So, the Communist Party staked claim to form the government. However, the Congress Party managed fraudulently formed the government.
BJP that has come to the power for the third time is implementing vehemently the agenda of the RSS. It is pursuing the ruinous policy of one nation, one language, one election, one religion and one culture. It acts as a servant of the corporates and divides the country in the name of religion. It destroys the values enshrined in the Constitution of India framed under the leadership of Dr.Ambedkar. All constitutionally established institutions are destroyed by this BJP government and it is taking the country towards a neo-fascist rule.
The minority communities in the country are under constant threat. The State Governors in many states including Tamil Nadu are acting like the agents of the union government and strangulating the elected governments of the states. All powers of the state governments including that of education are taken away. The union government has usurped all the powers of the states and the country has lost its federal character. In the name of redrafting the constituencies the union government plans to do injustice to many states.
As part of the this 24th party congress, fifty seminars on various topics have been conducted all over Tamil Nadu. Thousands of people have participated in these conferences. The message of the 24th Congress has been taken to the people all over Tamil Nadu.
As part of this congress, a special seminar on ‘Protection of the Rights of States’ is being organized in which Chief Ministers of states are participating.
Artists from TamilNadu and other states will be presenting a variety of cultural programmes during this congress. Renowned artistes from various parts of our country are honouring us by their august presence here, in Madurai.
Our party cadres went around the state and held house to house campaign, explaining the salient features of this congress. People of Tamil Nadu came forward to donate liberally. I am proud to say that all our party members have contributed their mite for the success of this congress.
We have done our humble part for the success of this congress. We request you to put up with any inconvenience caused during the time of your stay in Madurai.
The 24th party Congress of our party is being held in Madurai wherein the fight for India’s freedom was vehemently waged. And the fight against imperialism was passionately held.
We are sure, this 24th congress of our party will evolve the right strategies to isolate the forces that indulge in the politics of hatred and to push back the pro-corporate, neo-liberal economic policies. We hope that this congress will show us the ways to strengthen secular and democratic forces and to unite the left forces much more strongly. This party congress will say aloud that the policy of the left parties will be the saviour of this country. With these words, I welcome you all once again to this historic 24th congress in Madurai.