Hemalata
HUNDREDS of thousands of toiling people of our country thronged the national capital Delhi on April 5, 2023 to participate in the Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally and vent their anger against the policies being pursued by the Modi led BJP government. They represented tens of crores of workers, peasants, agricultural workers, service sector employees and other sections of the common people who face deterioration in their working and living conditions due to the aggressive pursuit of neoliberal policies under the present government. Many of them participated along with their families. The Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally was called by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and All India Agricultural Workers’ Union (AIAWU), these three being organisations of the major sections of our people who produce the wealth of our country.
The rally not only condemned the anti-worker, anti-peasant and anti-national policies of the Modi led BJP government but also the communal divisive agenda of the RSS, the ideological mentor of the BJP and the other members of its parivar. It called upon the people of the entire country to uphold their unity, defeat the divisive and disruptive machinations of the RSS and all communal forces of different hues and strengthen united struggles against the disastrous neoliberal policies being pursued by the corporate communal nexus in power. It condemned the heinous attempts to flare up communal violence in different states during the recent Ram Navami festival.
The Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally reiterated the call of the Mazdoor Kisan Mahadhiveshan held on September 5, 2022, that the struggle today is not only for our immediate demands of livelihood and living and working conditions. It is also to save the country’s economy and to protect its self reliance, which is being compromised by the BJP government despite all its dubious talk of ‘Atmanirbharta’. It is to save the secular democratic character of our society being destroyed by the present regime, controlled by the rabidly communal and fascist RSS. It is to save the nation from the onslaught of the RSS led communal forces masquerading as the saviours of Hindus, while in fact pushing tens of crores of poor toiling people, including large numbers believing in the Hindu faith, into poverty and distress through their policies. The rally endorsed the call of the September 5, 2022 Mahadhiveshan to work tirelessly to defeat the neoliberal, communal and authoritarian regime of the BJP in the ensuing parliament elections. This is a prerequisite to strengthen united struggles for alternative policies and save the country and its people from disaster. The alternative pro-poor policies being pursued by the LDF government in Kerala, despite the difficulties created by the BJP government at the centre were also highlighted by the speakers.
The burning issues of the people – price rise of all essential commodities, unemployment, job losses, wages, attacks on the working and living conditions including the right to organisation and collective actions, the attacks on the basic democratic rights, lack of affordable public health and education, housing, electricity, increasing violence on the dalits, adivasis, women and minorities etc were raised by the rally. The issues of minimum support price for agricultural produce, effective implementation and increasing the number of days of work under MGNREGA and its expansion to urban areas were highlighted. The attempts of the BJP government to hand over the precious natural resources and public wealth to the big corporates, domestic and foreign, through various means including privatisation, National Monetisation Pipeline etc were strongly criticised. The rally asserted that it was not the lack of financial resources but the lack of political will on the part of the government that prevented it from meeting the just demands of the people. The Modi government, which was providing tax exemptions and relief worth lakhs of crores of rupees every year to the big corporates, is cutting down the budget allocations on food security and other welfare measures to the poor.
Large numbers of intellectuals and other progressive sections of the people including employees working in different sectors like insurance, banks, IT/ITes, telecom, state and central government supported the demands raised by the Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally.
Eminent economist Prabhat Patnaik was the chairman of the reception committee that oversaw the arrangements for the rally. Many eminent people in different fields and intellectuals including Irfan Habib, Sumit Sarkar, Utsa Patnaik, Jayati Ghosh, CP Chandrasekhar, N Ram, P Sainath, Admiral L Ramdas, Naseeruddin Shah, Teesta Setalvad, Syeda Hameed, Achin Vanaik and others released a statement in support of the rally.
However, the mainstream media, which has been ignoring burning day-to-day issues of the people, choosing instead to highlight communal divisive issues, has ignored this rally as well.
The public meeting at Ramlila Maidan was conducted by a presidium comprising Hemalata, Ashok Dhawale and A Vijaya Raghavan, presidents of CITU, AIKS and AIAWU respectively. Vijoo Krishnan and B Venkat, general secretaries of AIKS and AIAWU respectively addressed the gathering. Tapan Sen, general secretary of CITU made the concluding remarks. In addition, Srikant Mishra, general secretary of All India Insurance Employees’ Association, Parashar, general secretary of the Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers, P Abhimanyu, general secretary of BSNL Employees’ Union, Subhash Lamba, president of All India State Government Employees’ Federation and Debashis Basu Chowdhury, general secretary of Bank Employees’ Federation of India addressed the rally. Leaders of various sectoral federations of CITU and of different state committees of AIKS and AIAWU also spoke.
The intervening period since the Mazdoor Kisan Mahadhiveshan on September 5, 2022 witnessed unprecedented joint campaigns of the three organisations at various levels. Central and state leadership of CITU, AIKS and AIAWU in almost all the states met several times to plan, monitor and intensify the joint campaign. Joint talking points on certain issues, for the cadres were prepared and sent to the state committees. Joint conventions were held at the state and district levels and in some states at the block, mandal and panchayat levels as well. Crores of joint leaflets were distributed. Joint jathas and padayatras, house to house campaigns were held to meet the people and explain the demands being raised by the rally.
Almost all the industrial federations of CITU and its major state level unions have planned the campaign among their members and workers. Efforts were made to ensure that all the committees of the unions, up to the lowest level, meet to plan the campaign, involving the committee members. It was aimed to take the campaign to at least twice the number of their members. Reports indicate that where this was effectively carried out, there was very good response from the workers with even non members participating in the meetings and rallies held as part of the campaign.
The fact that workers – industrial workers, service sector employees, scheme workers, unorganised sector workers and the peasants and agricultural workers have come together to raise issues that were common to all of them in addition to supporting their separate specific demands has attracted the imagination of the people. Not only were the workers and peasants enthused at this broader unity, but this has inspired the other sections of society as well. This unity, joint campaign and call for action created hope and confidence of taking the struggle against the neoliberal policies to a higher level. It has created confidence that the polarising tactics of the RSS and BJP can be defeated and the secular traditions of our people protected. It has created hope that through such unity and united struggles the people can defeat the neoliberal regime and usher in alternative pro-poor policies.
This unity of the workers and peasants that has been achieved through the campaign for the Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally needs to be further strengthened to develop united struggles at the grassroots level, to achieve this.
