STUDENT LEADER PRITHIPAL SINGH RANDHAWA WAS MARTYRED

By Harsh Thakor

DIP OUR BLOOD IN MEMORY OF IMMORTAL STUDENT LEADER PRITHIPAL SINGH RANDHAWA WHO WAS CRUSADER OF THE MASS LINE AND ASSASSINATED 40 YEARS AGO. NO STUDENT ORGANISATION IN INDIA PRACTICED MASS LINE SO DIALECTICALLY OR CREATIVELY AS PUNJAB STUDENTS UNION LED BY PRITHIPAL SINGH RANDHAWA. LET US RESSURECT HIS SPIRIT TO RE ORGANISE A REVOLUTIONARY STUDENT MOVEMENT IN THE DARK HOUR WHEN FASCISM IS AT THE DOORSTEP AND IMPERIALISM PENETRATED EVERY REGION OF SOCIETY AT ITS HIGHEST WATERMARK OR ZENITH.MAY ANOTHER PRITHIPAL SINGH RANDHAWA BE BORN AGAIN.

Forty years ago on Juy 18th Student leader Prithipal Singh Randhawa sucumbed to an attack by goonda elements of the Akali Dal who stage managed a political murder.It was a perfect illustration of the pro-Sikh fundamentalist anti-secular nature of the ruling govt.in Punjab and thus of the social order as a whole.

Randhawa wrote a new epoch in the history of not only the revolutionary student movement in Punjab but of India as a whole practicing mass line at a depth no student leader ever did in Punjab or India in the post-independence or post-naxalbari era.No mass leader did so much to give life to the mass line of Comrade T. Nagi Reddy. Above all even though he was an important member of the Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India he did not display the slightest dint of arrogance exhibiting deep humilty at every stage.

He gave a new shape to the revolutionary democratic movement developing forms of political struggle in college institutions defying the authorities which created shivers in the spine of the ruling classes and struck fundamentalism or communalism in its very backbone. A new light now shimmered on the campuses of educational institutions in Punjab which bestowed anti-feudal, anti- imperialist and pro-secular politics and sowed the seeds for a broad revolutionary movement as a whole.Conservative or orthodox culture got a jolt in its very backbone with tradition vanishing like never before. Randhawa's example was reminiscent of how the heart connected to various organs of the body by pumping blood to all of them just like how the Student movement connected to that of all spheres of society be it peasantry,industrial workers ,govt.employees or intellectuals.There could not be a better example or more appropriate situation than today in using his methodology with proto- fascism at it's helm of the Hindu saffron variety.His politics is very relevant to confronting the socio-economic and political repression of the state as a whole, and projecting the democratic revolutionary alternative.

Under the leadership of Prithipal the Punjab Students Union evolved to take up a huge range of issues from opposing fee hikes, democratizing educational culture and building secular forums, for proper facilities for college and school students, opposing eave -teasing on girl students, supporting strike of policeman, supporting movement of unemployed teachers,giving solidarity to the anti-feudal struggles of the landless and landed peasantry and supporting the anti-imperialist struggles like in Vietnam. Of historic significance was the protests opposing the U.S.intervention in Vietnam,being the 1st ever student organization in India to do so, the linking of the student movement to that of the peasant struggles in the villages and the defeating of factions within the student movement.Emphasis was laid on combating casteism and communalism and identifying with opressed sections like dalits. Never since 1947 in India had such a cultural metamorphosis taken place within the student community. He also revived the youth front Naujwan Bharat Sabha which was orginally founded by Shaheed Bhagat Singh.

Randhawa confronted the 'left' adventurist trend which rejected mass struggles and the rightist line influenced by Jayaprakash Narayan which advocated class collaboration and support for bourgeois opposition parties.He played a major leadership role in the Moga Sangram rally on October 26th 1974,the underground revolutionary straggle in the emergency period and the democratic rights rally in 1977 in Moga.All these were classic examples of massline practice which made the correct demarcation of the mass organization with the party.The revolutionary democratic alternative was illustrated with perfect precision in the Moga Sangram rally.With meticulous skill and innovation he led PSU during the emergency refuting the bourgeois methods of opposition parties who never countered the essence of the anti-people social order and virtually danced to the tunes of feudalism and imperialism.Prithipal raised the popular slogan of 'Jage raho or Zinda raho which means 'Stay awake and stay alive."Pro-Akali forces thronged to the Gurudawaras promoting the Sikh communal politics of Akali Dal.Within jail for one and half years Prithipal mobilised forces with the skill of a surgeon. In the Moga Sangram rally students, Youth, peasantry and Industrial workers were united which was of historic significance. In the 1977 Moga rally a major boost was given to the democratic rights movement to the country as a whole.

Later in his career Prithipal was one of the fore-runners in the formation of the Association for democratic rights in 1977 which gave the correct perspective to the democratic rights movement.

The example set by Punjab Students Union led by Shaheed Randhawa was a model not only for Punjab but for India as a whole. In the 1970's, morally guiding the movement to path of New Democratic Revolution. Randhawa had to refute the rightist trend of the Punjab Students Union led by the Satya Narayan Singh-Chandra Pulla Reddy faction based in Jalandhar, Gurdaspur and Amritsar regions which to k the student movement to economism by preamaturely attaching themselves in struggles with ruling class or revisionist parties. With dialectical clarity it refuted the left sectarian trend of attaching the student organization prematurely as a mass organization to the party and imposing politics of 'Mao thought.'Even in other regions of India deviations of left and right variety took place unable to emulate the politics of Shaheed Randhawa. Significant that he adressed the conferences of Democratic Students Organization in Andhra Pradesh in 1974 and 1978.

After his assassination over 20,000 people participated from all over the state in 1979 like a huge torrent or deluge erupting extinguishing the flame of liberation exuded by martyr Prithipal.

Sadly after his assasination Sikh extremist or Khalistani politics did great damage to the student movement and several cadres of Punjab Students Union and Naujwan Bharat Sabha sold themselves to the Sikh fundamentalist camp.The murder of Randhawa and collapse of Punjab Students Union played major role in the revival of Sikh Extremist politics in Punjab.Ironically major forces within the Communist revolutionary camp flirted or gave tacit support to Sikh extremism or Akali Dal line. However the cadres or leaders nurtured in the era of organization of Randhawa played a major role in leading the democratic revolutionary movement of mas line orientation that gave protracted resistance to Khalistani and State repression. In Khalistan movement era they were instrumental in shaping the struggles of the democratic revolutionary peasant movement, particularly in the Malwa region.

Today the Punjab Students Union(Shaheed Randahawa) although a small and scattered force functioning only at district level is trying to ressurect the energy of Shaheed Randhawa and re-organize the student movement. It is mainly active in Bathinda and pockets of Malwa region. It held rallies and seminars in Alisher, Butala Kalan and Khudala kalan village in Sangrur and Teachers home in Bathinda narrating the great role or history of the life of Prithipal Singh Randhawa and his relevance today.Around 1,500 students attended the march in Sangrur. The organization summed up how today in the hour of fascism tightening its noose. Prithipal's organizational methods had great importance in mobilizing broad masses. They connected the semi-feudal socio-economic picture today with economic disparity increasing day by day. It propagated the need of the student community to integrate with the struggles of the peasantry and workers and how their problems were connected to those sections. It also spoke about the struggle it is leading struggles for rights for scholarship of post-metric students and for ST and SC students. Small but qualitative preparatory meetings were held in villages for the seminars.

Today the most sizable or notable faction of the Punjab Students Union is led by the C.P.I. (M.L.) New democracy group whose contribution is praiseworthy. It has waged strong struggles against fee hikes,for post metric scholarships for dalit students,against repression of state in Kashmir and Chattisgarh and integrated with the movement for emancipation and rights of dalit agricultural labour having a most dedicated cadre. However it prematurely attaches itself to activities of revolutionary groups or political parties displaying tendencies of working as a front organization of a revolutionary group. The Punjab Radical Students which supports the Maoist trend has a most dedicated cadre and functionsin pockets of Punjab but is vitiated with the the trend of soft-pedalling with Sikh extremist ideology. Earlier it displayed a defective trend of openly using the mass student organization platform to progate politics of Dandakaraya-Naxalbari. The Punjab Students Union(lLalkar) is limited to mass propganda work in the Ludhiana- region. Thus the Punjab Students Union (Shaheed Randhawa) has to dedicate itself to steer the movement towards the correct direction or path chalked out by legendary Prithipal Singh Randhawa and thus its task has the most qualitative significance of the student groups in Punjab.Toady with its brother organization Naujwan Bhrat Sabha it is the breeding ground for new cadres of the organization sof the poor peasantry and landless agricultural labourers and galvanised its forces in solidarity for major mass revolutionary programmes in the state.

Progressive that all factions of the Punjab Students Union joined hands to save the Ranbir college in Sangrur from being auctioned for land profiteering.Also joint protest were staged against Operation Greenhunt, repression in Kashmir etc.where even democratic Students Organization and Students for Democracy participated. Notable that a sizable cadre of the Punjab Students Union and Naujwan Bharat Sabha participate in the revolutionary democratic movements of people as a whole.Still the infection of Khalistani ideology or Sikh extremism has to be fought within the revolutionary student movement.