TO MARK the 125TH birth anniversary of B R Ambedkar, a seminar was organised in Coimbatore by the Coimbatore District Committee of Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF). CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat delivered the special address. She congratulated TNUEF and all its constituents, particularly the Arunthathiar community, for the historic victory to get three per cent internal reservation within the SC quota. She said that it really was a very significant and inspiring victory for similar demands and struggles of Dalits across India. She also congratulated TNUEF for its militant struggles to bring down the walls that segregated Dalits from the rest of the community. She mentioned that today the teachings of Ambedkar are equally relevant as they were when he was alive. And in India, the capitalist force of development, big businesses and neo-liberal policies have not only co-opted casteism, but in many ways have strengthened casteist practices and untouchability, to get more surplus from the exploitation of Dalit workers. Hence, she emphasised that to fight untouchability and casteism, one has to fight against capitalism and the neo-liberal policies which today support the worst casteist forces in India. She recalled Dr Ambedkar’s saying that untouchability and casteist practises against Scheduled Castes are not mere division of labour, but it is the division of labourers. That is what we see today, these Hindutva forces say there is no casteism before and that it was only division of labour. From the beginning, the Hindutva forces want to conceal the reality that India had existed on the exploitation of the labour of Dalits through the centuries by dividing the labourers. Ambedkar always believed in economic equality. And one of the instruments he developed for that was reservation for SCs and STs. But in the context of the present economic policies, the number of jobs available is shrinking in the government and public sector. These economic policies have spelt the virtual end of the reservation policies because there are fewer and fewer jobs to reserve for Dalits and adivasis. When we demanded for reservation in private sector during the UPA government, they said there was no need for any law. Instead the government would ask the private sector to voluntarily agree to a code in which they will give certain posts to SCs and STs. It is shocking to note from a survey that out of the numerous companies that are affiliated to the CII, the premier organisation of the industrialists, only 11 companies agreed for self regulation in promoting SCs and STs. All the other companies have said that we do not want to do it. When the corporate India and the private sector get so many concessions from the government, why should they be outside the framework of the Constitution of India. Hence, she demanded that reservation be extended to the private sector. According to the Scheduled Castes Special Component Plan, money is to be given by the government according to the proportion of the Dalit and Adivasis population to the total population of the country. In India, at least 16-17 per cent of total allocation of the budget has to be given directly for Dalit development. This year, the calculation is that in plan outlay, at least Rs 77,000 crore should have been given for the sub-plan. But, only Rs 30,850 crore has been allotted and that is only 40 per cent of what the Dalits should have got. Hence, she demanded a law to make it mandatory that according to our population the minimum allocation should be made directly for the advance of Dalits and Adivasis in this country. Today all over India, Hindutva forces are committing atrocities against young couples who marry outside their caste. They call it against their honour - in fact it is the greatest dishonor. In Tamil Nadu today, it is a matter of deep shame and regret that parties who claim to represent those castes who themselves have been oppressed now trying mimicking Hindutva forces by killing young couples who dare to marry outside their caste. She said today the dravidian parties have buried their principles deep in the opportunist politics of the elections. She was proud to say that it is only the Red Flag that comes to their rescue. It is the TNUEF which stands by the Dalits. It is all because we believe in justice, in equality and in the elimination of the caste system. In the seminar, presided over by TNUEF assistant general secretary U K Sivagnanam, Front president P Sampath and former Coimbatore MP P R Natarajan addressed the audience. CPI(M) Coimbatore District Committee secretary V Ramamurthy and CITU district president C Padmanabhan also attended the seminar. (END)