[In brief]

Two Indias stand face to face in the present elections. Their India and our India.

They orchestrate a genocide in Gujarat and bask in its ‘glory’. They squander our money to celebrate a grand ‘feel good’ festival when we count starvation deaths. When we demand jobs, they talk about the share market and dollar reserves. When we call for a central legislation for agricultural labourers, they talk about making laws to make temples. When we complain about the sheer lack of potable water, they slash prices of foreign liquor.

When we ask them to stop Bush and Blair from ravaging Iraq, they discuss American proposals to set up military bases in India. They want us to forget Bhagat Singh and worship Savarkar who had surrendered before the British and called for militarising Hinduism and Hinduising India.

It is nothing short of a total war on us. They want to take away all our rights and loot all our resources. And they want us to applaud them as they reduce us to rightless citizens in their India.

This design must be foiled. This audacity has to be punished.

The forthcoming election is all about meting out an exemplary punishment to the enemies of the people. It is all about saving our India from their clutches. India that our martyrs dreamt of and died for cannot be allowed to be hijacked and vandalised by the demolition squads of the RSS.

CPI(ML)’s Commitment:
For a Powerful People’s Movement on an Alternative Agenda

The Sangh Parivar and the BJP and the NDA are certainly not operating in a vacuum. The biggest facilitator for the BJP has of course been the Congress, with its long and continuing record of bankruptcy and betrayal. From Bhagalpur to Bhopal and Ayodhya to Ahmedabad, the Congress credential on the crucial question of secularism has been increasingly suspect and shameful. And in terms of economic and foreign policies, it is of course futile to expect the Congress to reverse the pro-imperialist direction which was initiated by the party itself.

In fact, in terms of economic policies, all state governments in the country today, including the CPI(M)-led ones in West Bengal and Tripura, are more or less following the same direction and pattern. Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Karnataka are ruled by three different parties and all the three governments advertise themselves to be hi-tech regimes, but the hi-tech gloss cannot suppress the stark reality of farmers’ suicides and starvation deaths.

Corruption is another big leveller for most parties in power. Parties like the SP in UP and the RJD in Bihar which claim to be champions of secularism and social justice excel in competitive criminalisation and anti-poor anti-women violence in their respective domains. A party like the BSP which secured a significant following in UP with a strong rhetoric against Brahminism sells tickets to feudal-mafia elements to win seats and repeatedly allies with the BJP to come to power. In Tamil Nadu, the DMK and AIADMK and their smaller allies take their turns to collaborate with the BJP at the Centre.

CPI(ML) Stands for a Bold and Comprehensive Popular Resistance

This all-pervasive political opportunism has generated an environment of public cynicism and the BJP has been the biggest beneficiary of this sordid state of affairs. To deliver a real blow to the BJP it is imperative to wage a ruthless battle against opportunism and hold high the revolutionary banner of communist ideology. The CPI(ML) has always been firm on this score and it has been working with great ideological vigour for a rejuvenation and expansion of the communist movement which alone can ensure a real crushing defeat for the forces of fascism and imperialism.

The new economic policies have trapped the working people and the small producers in a state of acute insecurity and crisis. The Sangh Parivar is working overtime to channelise the resultant frustration and anger of the masses in favour of its communal, divisive and obscurantist agenda and jingoistic outcries. The task before all sincere anti-fascist anti-imperialist forces is to direct this anger against the real enemies of the people and transform it into a formidable force for social transformation. ...

In the parliamentary arena the lone CPI(ML) MP from Assam and the Party MLAs in Bihar and Jharkhand have always been highly alert and active in defending people’s rights and opposing fascist and imperialist designs. They have also been playing an outstanding role on the development front, in terms of utilisation of MP/MLA development funds and implementation of local area development schemes as well as leading popular struggles against bureaucratic lethargy and corruption.

Combining all forms of struggle and utilising every forum of mass intervention, the CPI(ML) has always taken prompt political initiative on every important issue facing the people and the country. ...

Revolutionary vigour and consistency, powerful mass assertion and bold initiatives have been the three cardinal characteristics of the CPI(ML) in Indian politics. We are determined to strengthen this identity of the Party. We are aware of the challenges ahead and we need all your support and participation to meet them successfully.

For an Uncompromising People’s Movement on a Basic Democratic Agenda

While political coalitions have been made and unmade over the issues of corruption, social justice and secularism, the last fifteen years or so have witnessed a massive market-oriented shift in economoic policies leading to increased social inequality and regional disparity in the country. Time and again, trade unions and other mass organisations have gone on strikes and other major agitations against the policies imposed in the name of IMF, World Bank and WTO. Yet these concerns have often been brushed aside as mere ‘economic issues’ and never given any real political priority by any of these coalitions.

We are of the firm opinion that all these basic concerns of the people and the country cannot be compartmentalised. Nor can the people’s agenda be reduced to a single concern to the exclusion of all other basic concerns of the people. Democrcay is indivisible and non-negotiable, and all the basic concerns of the people and the burning issues of a period must be addressed as integral parts of a democratic agenda.

For the 14th Lok Sabha elections, we hereby declare our firm commitment to the following core agenda:

1.      Bringing the perpetrators of Gujarat genocide and Babri Masjid demolition to book, opposing attempts to impose a temple in place of the demolished mosque, disbanding all Sangh Parivar outfits which have a history of spearheading violent campaigns and misusing foreign funds to foment communal violence, and resisting attacks on the rights and dignity of minority communities;

2.                 Formation of a special tribunal to identify and punish the guilty who are responsible for driving thousnds of farmers and agricultural labourers to death through suicide and starvation, holding the central and state governments and the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies accountable on this issue of national shame;

3.                 Scrapping of POTA and other black laws and release of all activists of democrtic movements, disbanding of all private armies and meting out of exemplary punishment to perpetrators of feudal violence;

4.                 Resisting atrocities on dalits, adivasis and other oppressed sections and securing equal rights, dignity and rapid advance for all deprived sections of the society;

5.                 Resisting the growing incidence of crimes against women, and thwarting attempts by fundamentalist and other anti-women forces to deny women their freedom and equal rights;

6.      Building people’s resistance to criminalisation of politics and defeating the criminal-politician-police nexus;

7.                 Stopping the loot of public funds, establishing popular supervision over the functioning of bureaucracy and implementation of development projects, enforcing the people’s right to information and participation in all matters of public interest;

8.      Political settlement of the demands of all autonomy movements including honouring of Article 370 for providing maximum autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir and Article 244A for creation of an autonomous state comprising the two hill districts of Assam (Karbi Anglong and N.C. Hills), formation of a Second States Reorganistion Commission to look into all pending statehood demands;

9.                 Withdrawal of Anglo-American forces from Iraq and cancellation of all arrangements of military cooperation between India and the US and India and Israel, withdrawal of US military bases and all other forms of strategic intervention from South Asia;

10.                 Rejection of regional hegemonist trappings of Indian ruling classes and promotion of closer and friendly ties with all neighbouring countries, development of South-South cooperation and pursuit of a bold anti-imperialist foreign policy to resist US hegemonism and imperialist domination in all spheres of international relations;

11.    Cut in Indo-Pak defence spending, easing of visa restrictions between India and Pakistan and resolution of all outstanding disputes between the two countries through bilateral dialogue without American mediation in any manner;

12.                Complete reshaping of economic policies giving top priority to eradication of hunger and acute poverty, massive creation of job opportunities, revival and reopening of sick and closed industries, strengthening of the public sector and enhanced resource mobilisation through strict enforcement of economic discipline by penalising all corporate defaulters who do not repay loans or pay taxes or electricity bills;

13.                Enactment of a comprehensive central legislation for agricultural labourers with round-the-year employment guarantee, adequate social security entitlements, including universal access to healthcare and housing facilities, for all unorganised workers and workers of sick and closed industries, introduction of job reservations in the private sector;

14.                Imposition of quantitative restrictions to stop unnecessry imports, protection of Indian agriculture and industry from the clutches of WTO, significant augmentation of public investment in agriculture, strengthening of public procurement and distribution systems, cancellation of debts of all marginal farmers;

15.                Lowering of existing land ceiling norms and radical redistribution of land to sweep away every vestige of landlordism and encourage the real productive forces, restoration of land alienated from their original tribal owners and guranteeing of the tribal people’s traditional right to forest land, forest produce and other natural resources;

16.                Lessening of regional disparities through special central plan for speedy development of all economically backward districts with particular emphasis on Assam, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan;

17.    Special central initiative for a permanent solution to the problem of recurring floods in Assam, Bihar and other flood-prone regions and for a just and fair solution of inter-state water disputes, scrapping of the river networking plans, implementation of urgent steps to check river and soil erosion;

18.                Guaranteeing 33% reservation of seats for women in Parliament and State Assemblies, strict enforcement of the Supreme Court guideline to stop sexual harassment of women in workplaces and withdrawal of all attempts to remove existing protective legislation for women workers, revision of the domestic violence bill to plug anti-women loopholes, enforcement of equal wages and joint land pattas for women;

19.                Incorporation of the right to work as a fundamental right and provision of mandatory subsistence allowance of Rs. 1,000 per month for every unemployed individual, introduction and implementation of a progressive national youth policy;

20.    Legal protection of the workers’ right to strike and collective bargaining in its entirety, including recognition of trade unions through secret ballot and appropriate steps to undo the Supreme Court ban on government employees’ right to strike, rejection of the Second Labour Commission recommendations recognising the employers’ so-called ‘right to hire and fire’;

21.                Provision of universal elementary education for all with free mid-day meals and adequate free supply of textbooks and other educational materials, scrapping of the UGC’s proposed Model Act for universities, withdrawal of all measures aimed at commercialisation and saffronisation of education, protection of the autonomy of premier educational and research institutions;

22.                Universalisation of childcare facilities for all children below six years, abolition of child labour and child abuse, effective rehabilitation of children who are victims of such oppression;

23.                Allocation of at least 10% of the annual central budget on public health, strict enforcement of drug control in terms of both quality and prices, subsidised supply of all essential and life-saving drugs, universal sanitation and drinking water facilities, no privatisation of water;

24.                Debarring mafia dons and notorious history sheeters from contesting elections, guaranteeing the voting rights of oppressed sections and minority communities, introduction of comprehensive electoral reforms with provision for the electorate’s right to recall non-performing and anti-people representatives and ban on corporate funding to political parties;

    25. Resisting attacks on the freedom of the press and on the freedom of expression of people associated with diverse streams of art, literature and culture.

Friends,

Countless leaders and activists of the CPI(ML) have braved all kinds of repression and even laid down their lives to carry forward the battle for a modern, democratic and progressive India. Hundreds of our comrades are currently implicated and arrested under false charges whether in BJP-ruled Jharkhand or RJD-ruled Bihar or SP-ruled UP and several of our candidates are in fact forced to fight these elections from inside jails. But we can assure you that repression and enemy attacks shall never deter the inheritors of the great martyrs of India’s freedom movement and the communist movement. The CPI(ML) is determined to stop the marauding march of fascist forces and imperialist agents and win the battle of democracy and radical social trasnformation against all odds.

We appeal to you to strengthen the CPI(ML) with your valuable votes and send more CPI(ML) representatives in the 14th Lok Sabha so that the party can play a stronger and more decisive role at this crucial juncture of our national life.

Vote CPI(ML) !

Save India from Fascist and Imperialist Clutches !

 Intensify the Battle for Democracy and Social Transformation !