Present political situation and general election 2014 – new initiative from peoples movements
9th February 2014, Lucknow, UP
As we are all aware
that the political situation in India
is changing very fast. The whole nation is passing through a decisive phase
affecting all sections of people. As the election date is getting nearer, there
is lot of turmoil in the political scenario where polarization of political
forces has already been started. Alignment and re-alignment of various
political and social forces have been going on simultaneously. As a result
debates on future political scenario have been going on at a wider level. But
still uncertainty about post electoral scenario persists very strongly.
General election is the time when wider political
space is created. This is the time when negotiations among various political parties and at the same time dialogue
between political parties and people also take place. Alignment amongst social
forces also takes place during this period. It is evident that 2014 general
election will play a decisive role in framing the future course of the country
as a whole. At a time when mass movements are getting strengthened almost in
every corner of the country either in protecting the livelihood and
natural resources or against violence on women or against oppression on
Adivasis , Dalits and Minorities, it is very important to see correlations of
such movements ,in the context of people-state conflict. All these important
issues and the struggles are directly related with the incumbent government and
ruling alliances and will be so with the in - coming political powers. No doubt
existing alliances will be replaced by new alliances of political forces. It is
also evident in many struggling areas both in rural and urban areas that there
exists a conflict between state and people. The main reason of this conflict is
because of anti-people economic policies, absence of political will of the
government for peoples’ welfare measures and that of bad governance. The
dominant political forces have remained insensitive to the peoples’ demands for
a radical change in the system. In this situation the common masses have become
very aware about their economic, political and social demands and people want a
fundamental change in the political system and they are not going to be
satisfied with mere promises or packages. They want to see a concrete and
realistic change of affairs in the system and so in the governance. Patch work
or fixing will not work anymore. Political parties also have a sense of this
reality but are not being able to accept their failures directly and to admit
that this system will not work anymore. Even in the presidential address on the
eve of republic Day the President has also admitted that “hypocrisy and show
business” will not work. Interestingly, he himself was in the government for a
long period till some eighteen months back. There is an all round fear among
the leading parties of incoming thrust from the people for total change of the
system, which they are terming as anarchy. There is clear denouncement of the
concept of welfare state (the President referred this as “charitable shop”) and
also of the democratic right to protest. Dominant political forces are trying
to show that this crisis of the system as crisis of individual leadership and a
conscious effort has been going on to redefine the electoral battle
as battle between two leaders eg. Modi vs Rahul or Modi vs Kejriwal, as if existing
leader is changed by another leader, everything will be settled. They are
trying to mislead the people by showing it be a fight of individuals so that
the issues which have come out from peoples’ movements would go in the back stage
and the issues of dominant capitalist forces will become national issues. We
are all aware that capitalist system, both at international and national level,
is facing an irreversible economic and political crisis and they have no way
out to get over this crisis and mainstream political leaders are shaky to face
the common peoples’ assertions and hoping that corporate will help them to tide
over the crisis. This is for the first time in our electoral history a party
that is claiming to replace the present regime is openly advocating
corporatization of the economy and religious nationalism and on the other hand
the ruling party is advocating the continuing of corporate loot of resources in
the name of development for the advancement of the nation. Chief claimants of
power have no regard for the popular demands for sustainable livelihood,
protection of resources, security and dignity of common people. Regional
parties are also following the same track. There is clear conflict of interest
between mainstream political parties and the peoples’ movements.
In this context it
is important to note a new political party has emerged on the premise of social
movements. Although this new political formation has not been able to present
its political and economic and social programs fully before the people but
undoubtedly it has created a new enthusiasm among some sections of our
struggling people. At the same time it is also evident that the new political
formation also is taking away the space created by the social movements.
Independent and sovereign space for the social movements is critically
important for the growth of mass political initiative and so it is equally
important to protect this social space for the strengthening the democratic
process within this diverse social reality. Dynamics of electoral politics and
that of mass movements are different from each other. Movement groups can not
and should not be carried away by the tide, however powerful
it may be. No doubt social and workers' mass movements are getting vulnerable
under continuous attack from the state but still we are primarily accountable
to our constituencies and fraternity.
In fact, a similar
situation is emerging like the situation which emerged in the last phase of
emergency in 1977. In that period also people came out on the streets against
the atrocious policies of the then Indira Gandhi government but no progressive
forces and especially the left forces did not take any initiative to intervene
in the changing political situation. Labour and social movements also could not
make any effective intervention – as a result right-centrist and communal
forces prevailed over the situation and became dominant in the future political
process. Barring one or two exceptions most of the governments which came after
1977 followed the anti people policies. Within some years Congress came back to
power and ultimately in 1991, the then minority government led by Congress
initiated the liberalization process and by marginalizing the labour and weaker
sections, strengthened the capitalist and communal forces.
It is
therefore pertinent that social movements and independent labour movements
should come together to unite the forces of diverse peoples’ movements and to
intervene in the changing political situation positively and decisively. It
should come out openly with the popular demands to engage with political forces
to initiate a process of meaningful changes in the system. But before
initiating any engagement with political parties it is necessary to discuss among
the movement based organizations mutually and collectively so that a collective
and sustainable process of political dialogue can be initiated. Collective
effort is necessary for any such process to be effective. Diversity within the
movement and its demands needs to be combined so that it can become a political
demand from the social and labour movements. Separate initiatives, however
sincere, will not be effective. Recently, a prominent social movement alliance
has decided to join the new political formation on its own which has created a
sort of crisis situation within the social movement. Now it is necessary for
social and labour movements to come together to create an independent political
constituency representing diverse tendencies in the people’s movements. It is
imperative that such action has to be collective and as broad as possible. We
must start this now or never.
Concerning issues for campaign (Suggestions):
·
Protection
of livelihood and resources
·
Community
governance over natural resources instead of state ownership
·
Protection
of traditional producers/artisans
·
Abolishment
of land acquisition act and establishing land rights to actual tillers and
right for homestead land; distribution of surplus land to landless; ensuring
women’s right over land and other natural resources.
·
Power
to gram sabhas and mohallah sabhas (for urban semi- urban areas)
·
Abolishment
of contract labour system in industries
·
Protection
of right to form unions, associations
·
Strengthening
bipartite, tripartite collective negotiation system.
·
Ensuring
living wage for all working people.
·
Ensuring
social security system for all working population including old age population
·
New
industrialization with zero displacement
·
Abolition
of all private public partnership projects
·
Time bound
recovery of corporate debt from public financial institutions
·
Ensuring
social justice for all marginalized sections (political, economic, cultural)
·
Strict
law against communal violence
·
Ensuring
education for all; proper functioning of government schools; control of
privatization of education; facilitating
technical education at block/taluka level
·
Ensuring
proper health service up to village level
·
Ensuring
community participation in health and education services
·
Democracy
in usage of energy
·
Disarmament
and peace with neighboring nations;
·
re-establishment
of non-aligned foreign policy
Long live the victory of Peoples' Struggle! Long Live,
Long Live!
All India
Union of Forest Woring People
