SPEAKING at a seminar on “  challenges  facing India” at Chennai  organized by the Tamil Nadu Platform for People’s Unity on July 29, the leaders of the CPI(M), Congress, DMK and CPI  said that Modi government has failed on all fronts and called for ending the BJP rule.

CPI(M)  General Secretary  Sitaram Yechury said that India is facing multiple challenges. The four pillars of the Indian constitution are severely attacked by the BJP government. It has failed on four major fronts ; economy, democracy, social justice and ensuring the state government rights. In the name of protecting cows they have established private goondas and lynching people especially dalits and muslims. In the last year itself there were 46 such incidents. On false complaints innocent people were killed under the guise of Desh Bakti (patriotism). These incidents were not spontaneous but were preplanned. “Whether we want to preserve the secular credentials of our democracy or to change it for the worst”, he questioned.

We fought for democratic values of our country over more than hundred years. There is a real threat to our Indian democracy. Only through our journey to socialism we shall achieve economic independence and political independence.

The US President Barack Obama after the civic reception awarded to him in India wrote in the book that the oldest democratic country wishes the largest democratic country. Sitaram told the fact that the so called senior most democratic country in the world “America” has given the right to franchise to African-Americans  only in 1960 while in India we gave franchise to every Indian during 1950 itself.

The RSS through its fascist policies is trying to dismantle the secular democratic republic of our country. Modi is tweeting daily on so many issues but not mentioned a single word on the killing of dalits and muslims in India.

When a reporter met the film director Manmohan Desai during his last days and asked, how all his films got success?  He replied that we should not allow the people to think from the beginning to the end of the film. That was the secret. Like that Modi government is also not allowing the people to think about the performance of its government. Modi is raising the slogan of clean India, skill India and so on to divert attention.

The ruling BJP government has got the mandate of only one fifth of the eligible voters. What kind of democracy is this? Hence we are demanding ‘proportionate representation system’ to the assembly and parliament.

Explaining elaborately various failures of the BJP government he appealed to the public to overthrow the BJP government to ensure the safety and security of India. If we unitedly fight together; we shall win, he said.

P Chidambaram former finance inister of India said that the BJP government came to power four years back. The growth rate of our economy is sliding down from 7.5 percent  to 6.7 percent .In the last two years it has slide down 1.5 percent  i.e.,  a loss of 2.5 lakh crores rupees to our economy.

The government does know neither history nor economy. The result was economic loss, tax terrorism etc., for a country to grow, investment is needed. The reinvestment was 34 percent  of our GDP in India in the year 2007-08. But now it is only 28.5 percent. There was a fall of 6 percent. There is no growth at all. They are juggling with the connivance of statistical department to show as if there was some growth.

Because of demonetization the small and micro industries were to close down their industries. In Tamil Nadu alone more than 50000 industries were closed down because of demonetization, thus leading to a loss of 5 lakh jobs. Even the industry minister of Tamil Nadu accepted this fact in the assembly. All over India the loss of jobs was several millions. The demonetization has caused heavy loss to the construction industry. Next to agriculture, this industry was producing more jobs in our country. But this industry was severely affected due to demonetization.

The minimum support price given to agricultural products is not the full solution to the suffering of farmers. In most of the states there is no procurement machinery to buy the agricultural products from the farmers. More over most of the farmers do not have surplus to sell their products in the market. Hence the government should implement the recommendation of the Swaminathan commission to redress the grievances of the farmers.

The value of rupee compared to dollar has rolled down from 64.50 to 69.05 in a single month. This will increase the price of imported goods; lead to price rise;  hike in the interest rates etc., The BJP government is totally ruining the economy of the country. Instead of uplifting the economy of the country and providing relief to the people, it is dividing the people on communal and caste lines. Hence the BJP government should be over thrown- he appealed.

D.Raja – M P (Rajya Sabha) and national secretary of CPI, spoke in the seminar. He said that the BJP government want to tear out the present constitution and impose a constitution based on Manuwad. It has replaced the planning commission with Niti  Aayog. In order to deny reservations, they (the BJP government) want to close down all public sector enterprises and privatize them.

Niti Aayog abolished the special status provided to SC/STs. The supreme court (SC) ruling diluted the SC/ST act but the central government is refusing to bring in emergency bill to annul the present crisis created by the SC.

The PM and ministers are disrespecting the constitution. The present constitution is preserving the unity of India. If we protect our constitution we can preserve our unity. We should remove the BJP government to protect the unity of country.

Trichy Siva –member of parliament, and propaganda secretary of DMK while addressing the seminar said that BJP government wants to destroy the diverse character of our country and in its place establish a unitary government .If the present motor vehicle bill is passed in the parliament then the powers of the state governments will go to the hands of the central government. The governor’s in the states are trespassing the powers of the state government.

The present education system is based on the situation prevailing in the states. What is the need for central entrance exam? The Tamil Nadu state government has passed two bills in the assembly but the president is not giving assent to them. Though 43000 students from Tamil Nadu have passed the NEET test, just 2600 students from Tamil Nadu got admissions. The rest went to other states. Hence Tamil Nadu students suffered a lot due to NEET exams. The UGC is dismantled and in its place higher education authority is being formed. It will create immense hardship to state governments.

In the introductory speech of the seminar, Peter Alphonse senior leader of the congress said that the BJP was practicing hate politics. It is killing innocent people on the false complaints of transporting cows. In the UPA regime it was decided to buy an aircraft (rafael) for Rs 500 crores and the same is now purchased for Rs 1700 crores each. He called upon his party men to hold palcrads of rafael aircraft wherever Defence Minister  Nirmala Sitharaman went as a mark of protest against the mother of corruption.

The hall was overflowed with the leaders of different political parties, organizations, and their cadres in addition to a large number of intellectuals and eminent people from all walks of life.

The seminar was presided over by Gopal Krishna Gandhi, former Governor of West Bengal.

The programmme was compared by Professor Arunan; coordinator of the platform. Abdul Samad welcomed the gathering. Dawood Miakhan, Vanniarasu and Deepa felicitated the speakers. G Udayakumar coordinator of the platform gave vote of thanks.