Lok Raj Sangathan
All India People’s Resistance Forum (AIPRF)
Jan Pratirodh Manch
All India Federation of Trade Unions (AIFTU)
General Kamgaar Union
Pragatisheel Mazdoor Trade Union
Nepali Jan Adhikaar Suraksha Sangathan (India)
Indian Council of Trade Unions
Bharatiya Kisan Union (Haryana)
Sandhaan
Samajwadi Jan Parishad
National Alliance of Peoples Movements (NAPM) (Delhi)
Yuva Bharat
People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)
Ankur
Purogami Mahila Sangathana
Hind Naujawan Ekta Sabha
Mazdoor Ekta Committee
Bhagat Singh Disha Manch
Chelmsford Club Employees Union
Fruit Juice Bottling Plant (Rasika) Employees Union
Modern Food Industries Employees Union
We, the People of India – consisting of workers, peasants, working intellectuals, women and youth – gathered here in front of Parliament on this 6th day of July, 2004,
Note that
- About half the electorate did not vote in the 14th Lok Sabha elections, and more than half of those who voted rejected both the BJP and the Congress Party;
- The majority of Indian people are opposed to the anti-worker, anti-peasant, anti-national and anti-social course of enriching the big business houses and finance capitalists, both Indian and foreign;
- There is a growing organised movement against state terrorism, in defence of human rights and against communal violence unleashed by parties that champion the capitalist ‘reform program’;
- While the majority of people are opposed to the course of economic reforms being pursued by both the BJP and the Congress Party, the elections have resulted only in a change of places between these two parties;
- In the system and process of parliamentary democracy, the majority have no power, no say in who can and cannot stand for elections or who forms the government;
- The Congress led UPA Government has assured the big business houses, international bankers and foreign investors that it will not stray from the path of market reforms;
- Those who coined the slogan ‘garibi hatao’ and later replaced it with globalisation, through liberalisation and privatisation, are back at the helm of affairs, with promises to wipe the tears of the people;
- The Common Minimum Programme (CMP) unveiled by this regime is a program to continue on the same course as the previous NDA regime, but with apparent concessions and crumbs to pacify the workers and peasants, in the name of a “human face”;
- While the CMP promises to follow a path of ‘selective privatisation’ focusing on ‘loss making’ units, in actual fact the privatisation program is carrying on unabated, including the most profitable airports;
- While the CMP promises remunerative prices for all the tillers, trade liberalisation has neither been halted nor reversed;
- The domination of multinational companies and monopoly corporations over agricultural trade continues to grow;
- While the people have been demanding secure livelihood to every human being, as a matter of right, the CMP promises only 100 days of employment to one member of every family, and that too only at minimum wages and only when the government has the money to implement it;
- Just as the BJP promised that the tragedy of Gujarat won’t happen again, but retained Modi as Chief Minister, the Congress Party is promising that the genocide of November 1984 won’t happen again, while giving ministerial portfolios to some of the organizers of that crime;
- The UPA Government promises to repeal POTA, while retaining other fascist laws such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Essential Services Maintenance Act, etc.;
- While the majority of people have expressed their outright opposition to the US led “coalition against terror”, the Anglo-American aggression and occupation of Iraq, and the US backed Israeli aggression against the Palestinian and other Arab peoples, the UPA government’s silence on these issues amounts to condoning these acts; and
- The UPA Government has declared that it will seek to strengthen its strategic alliance with the US, and is stepping up Indo-US military collaboration and interference in Nepal, Bhutan and other countries in the region, in the name of fighting terrorism.
Having noted the above facts,
We, the People, DECLARE that
- India, her land, rivers, lakes, forests and mountains, factories and minerals, all belong to us, and are not for sale;
- We are determined to escalate our struggle against the anti-worker, anti-peasant, anti-national and anti-social ‘reform’ agenda;
- We are determined to establish people’s rule– a political power whose central concern would be the wellbeing of workers, peasants, women andyouth, and whose immediate task would be to eradicate poverty and ensure human conditions of life for all;
And towards this aim, we shall continue and step up the struggle to
- Ensure that the State fulfills its duty of guaranteeing adequate food and shelter, safe drinking water, electric supply, education and health services for all members of society, as a matter of right;
- Ensure a universal and efficient public distribution system, which is transparent and accountable to the people and provides adequate quantity and quality of all essential consumption articles at affordable prices for all members of society;
- Establish mechanisms for people’s control over the sphere of foreign and domestic wholesale trade — without which it is not possible to ensure food for all or to ensure input supply, remunerative prices and secure livelihood to the tillers;
- Replace the existing WTO with a global trade body which will ensure that trade amongst countries is always for mutual benefit, in the interest of fulfilling the people’s needs and for weakening the domination of the imperialist powers and their trading blocs;
- Enforce a moratorium on interest payments on central and state government debt to the financial institutions including the World Bank and IMF, so that this wasteful drain can be halted and resources redeployed to eradicate poverty;
- Completely halt the privatisation program and take back assets sold to private capitalists, including Modern Foods and BALCO, so as to manage them in the general interests of society while protecting the rights of the workers;
- Establish the right to work and to secure livelihood as justiciable rights, with an effective enforcement mechanism;
- Enshrine the right to strike as a fundamental and inviolable right of every wage worker and salaried employee in every sector, without exception ;
- Provide constitutional guarantee for individual and collective rights, including women’s rights, minority rights and national rights;
- Ensure exemplary punishment for those guilty of communal crimes, including the massacre of November 1984, December 1992 and its aftermath, as well as the Gujarat genocide of February 2002;
- Ensure that not only POTA but all black laws that violate human rights are repealed, and all prisoners held under such laws are released;
- Ensure that the violation of human rights in the name of “internal security” is prevented, the right to life is defended and the apparatus of state terrorism is dismantled;
- Ensure that India breaks ranks with US imperialism and Israel, and stops its own interference and domination over Nepal;
- Halt the militarisation of India and the armaments expansion program, and redeploy the resources saved towards the well-being of the people;
- Build India as a civilised member of the global family of nations, relating with other states on the basis of mutual benefit and non-interference, and in solidarity with all the anti-imperialist forces; and
- Establish a new system of democracy with institutions and mechanisms that enable the toiling majority to retain power in their hands, to make all the vital decisions that affect their lives and the future of Indian society.
For further information on this initiative, contact Lok Raj Sangathan at E-392, Sanjay Colony, Okhla Phase 2, New Delhi 110020, or email to lokrajsangathan@yahoo.com, or phone 91-11-2638-9610
