VIBGYOR festival today witnessed an amazing feat of determination as G. C. Jagdish reached Thrissur covering 600 kms of distance from Bangalore.
Jagdish is part of the New Socialist Alternative, Karnataka which is the Indian section of the Committee for Workers International. He runs bi-monthly newspapers called, ‘Dudiyora Horaata’ (Kannada) and ‘Socialism.in’ (English). On a very rhetorical interview with him, Jagdish who introduced himself as a Trotskiist shared his stories of conflicts with mainstream Communist parties and Maoists in India, his views on socialism and criticism on contemporary model of socio-economic growth. He has been associated with VIBGYOR for the last 4 years and is part of the larger family of social activists who fight for and stand with people’s movements. Along with his active involvement in the anti-nuclear movement, he was also campaigning against the genocide of Sri Lankan Tamils. He started a movement called, ‘Stop the Slaughter of Tamils in Sri Lanka’ whose seed was sown during the VIBGYOR film festival, this later transformed into the ‘Tamil Solidarity’ which is now an international movement.
He remembered activist film-maker Sarat Chandran’s death, in whose memory and spirit he embarked on this heroic trip. He succeeded on this trip conquering a poor heart condition while the rest of his younger colleagues failed to make it.
In VIBGYOR today he interacted with young school children and talked of the current development model which promotes, ‘more cars on the streets and less air in the lungs’.
By rejecting capitalist agendas and ‘bureaucratic’ communist establishments, Jagdish is trying to find his space in grass root movements and gather worldwide solidarity in addressing issues of the oppressed.
