VICTORIOUS SIEGE OF SEVEN TEHSIL OFFICES BY 30,000 ADIVASIS Prachi Hatiwlekar

From October 10, 2018, over 30,000 Adivasi peasants, workers, women, youth and students from seven tribal tehsils of Thane-Palghar district marched to their respective tehsil headquarters with a resolve not to leave the tehsil office until their just demands were not only met but would start getting implemented. The siege and gherao, which continued from one to three nights and four days in different tehsils, was led by the CPI(M), along with the AIKS, CITU, AIDWA, DYFI and SFI.

October 10 has a special significance for the district. It is observed every year as Martyr’s Day. On this day in 1945, five Adivasi comrades were brutally shot dead by the British government, in alliance with the landlords, in a bid to drown the famous Adivasi Revolt in blood. Subsequently, a total of 61 comrades of the Red Flag have been killed in the district by British, Congress and BJP-Shiv Sena governments and by reactionary forces. October 10 is also observed as the death anniversary of the legendary leader of the CPI(M) and AIKS, Comrade Godavari Parulekar.

The historic Nashik to Mumbai Kisan Long March of the AIKS from March 6-12 this year had forced the BJP-led state government to accept most of the demands of the farmers and it had to give them written assurances. It had promised the peasantry of the state that implementation would be completed within six months. However, many of the assurances remain unfulfilled even after seven months.

The main issues of this October struggle were the stringent and immediate implementation of the Forest Rights Act; abolishing pro-corporate mega projects like the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train, Mumbai-Vadodara Expressway and the river linking project; compensation for crop loss due to the current drought; work and wages under MNREGA, the plight of the public distribution system and health services, educational problems of tribal students, along with several local demands for water supply, roads, transport, old age pensions, housing and electricity.

Adivasi peasants decided to deal a blow to the administration at the local level, where actual implementation is expected. The Thane-Palghar district committee of CPI(M) gave a call for indefinite sit-in and gherao of all tehsil offices. Meticulous preparations began at the unit level for this day-night struggle. Hundreds of village meetings were conducted, thousands of leaflets were distributed following the tehsil level general body meetings from September 29 to October 5. These were all addressed by CPI(M) central committee member and AIKS President Dr. Ashok Dhawale, CPI(M) district secretary Barkya Mangat along with district leaders of AIKS, AIDWA and DYFI. This team moved together in all the seven tehsils, namely Talasari, Dahanu, Palghar, Wada, Vikramgad, Jawhar-Mokhada and Shahapur, boosting the team spirit of all the activists.

On October 10, thousands of Adivasis started gathering with red flags, banners and badges of the mass organizations. They marched towards the tehsil offices with bag and baggage in the scorching sun and painted the town red. The volunteer team was trained to discharge a variety of tasks to make their stay as comfortable as possible.

The Talasari struggle ended in victory on the first night itself, with the tahsildar conceding all the demands in writing. In Talasari tehsil, all the major positions like chairperson and vice-chairperson of the Panchayat Samiti and the Municipal Panchayat have been won by the CPI(M). But in the other six tehsils, no other SDO/Tehsildar made much effort to talk to the leaders for the simple reason that none of them believed that these people have really come prepared not to leave the place for days and nights.

But towards the end of the day, when more people started joining and arrangements for cooking dinner and stay-over began in full swing, the local administration realized the intensity and gravity of the situation. On the second day, one after the other, the delegations were called for talks in the rest of the tehsils.

We insisted on including the entire tehsil committee in the delegation, which came prepared with every minute detail like the list of claimants for forest rights, beneficiaries in all the schemes of the central as well as state government, so called implementation details claimed by the administration and much more.This amazed the SDOs/Tehsildars and concerned government officials. Several rounds of discussions were held.

Finally, the Dahanu, Jawhar-Mokhada and Palghar tehsil administrations succumbed on the evening of October 11 to the pressure of the delegation inside and a belligerent crowd of thousands outside shouting slogans against the callous and insensitive BJP government. The Shahapur gherao continued for two nights and three days till October 12. The Vikramgad and Wada gheraos continued for three nights and four days till October 13 to come to this stage. A call was given for a Vikramgad Bandh and several activists were set for a hunger strike. But the successful Bandh worked and a whole team of officers led by the SDO and Tehsildar invited the delegation for talks. With satisfactory discussion and time-bound written agreement to the majority of local demands, this sit-in struggle was called off after huge victory meetings everywhere.

During and after the strenuous agitation every night, hundreds of men and women still had the energy to sing and dance to the tune of their traditional musical instruments, which is an inseparable part of their lives. Special arrangements were made to cook food for thousands of participants at the place of the struggle itself.

The special feature of this struggle was that actual implementation of certain local demands was executed during the talks itself, e.g. issuing new ration cards and various certificates, provision of ambulances and certain bus services, construction of roads, erection of new electricity poles etc. A time limit was set for the processing of all applications made under the Forest Rights Act.

Dr Ashok Dhawale and Barkya Mangat participated in this struggle at all the seven centres. At each tehsil centre, the struggle was led by different leading comrades, who included veteran Party and AIKS leaders L B Dhangar and Lahanu Kom (ex-MP and ex-MLA), CPI(M) state secretariat member Kisan Gujar, state committee members Ratan Budhar, Radka Kalangda, Sunil Dhanwa, Lahani Dauda, Kiran Gahala, Vinod Nikole and Lakshman Dombre, tehsil secretaries Yashwant Ghatal, Sudam Dhinda and Bharat Valamba, along with many other leaders of AIKS, CITU, AIDWA, DYFI and SFI.

This siege struggle by thousands, with minimum one to maximum three nights, was a great triumph and became the talk of the town, including by print, television and social media. Most of the local demands were agreed to in writing with a time-table for their implementation. Many new activists joined the movement. Over Rs 25,000 worth of literature – latest issues of the Party weekly ‘Jeewan Marg’ and the AIKS journal ‘Kisan Sangharsh’ – was sold in all seven tehsils as part of this struggle.

Politically speaking, the most anti-farmer, anti-people, pro-corporate, communal and corrupt BJP government was exposed once again. And above all, the Party and all mass organisations worked together throughout, exhibiting tremendous unity and team spirit in the face of the ensuing 2019 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections.