1. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown declared by the Modi government to slow it down, we are facing a major health and food and livelihood crisis in the country. The poor people and the toiling masses, especially the migrant workers are the hardest hit. We pledge to live up to the clarion call of Comrade Charu Mazumdar, "The people's interest is the party's interest", and stand firmly with the affected people. Feed India, Defeat Covid.
2. While the people are paying a heavy price for the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown, the RSS and BJP are busy with their hate-filled disinformation campaign blaming China and the Muslim community for the coronavirus epidemic and misleading the people by spreading fake news, superstitious beliefs and obscurantist ideas. We strongly condemn this communal campaign, which is rapidly taking the form of social and economic boycott and blockade of the Muslim community, and reject the intensified untouchability and stigma being created around the Coronavirus. We shall do all we can to strengthen the unity and solidarity of the people, extend concern and empathy for victims of Covid-19, support frontline healthcare and sanitation workers, spread rational and progressive ideas, and defeat the communal virus.
3. The crisis has clearly shown that the state in India and the Modi government which is ruling at the Centre and most governments ruling in the states have no concern for the people. They have announced a lockdown without making any arrangement for the poor and toiling people. For the poor the state has only coercion and contempt, reserving all democracy and comfort for the rich. We shall pool all our energy and strength to expand and strengthen the CPI(ML) and intensify the people's movement to secure greater political say and power for the people.
4. The Modi government is treating the Covid-19 pandemic as a grand excuse to hide all its failures and betrayals. The state is using the lockdown as an opportunity to snatch the hard won democratic rights of the people and impose police raj. The corporate lobbies and feudal communal and criminal forces are using this opportunity to increase their loot and domination and tighten their control. We will not allow the lockdown to become a licence for these forces and their ugly designs. By all indications, the Covid-19 pandemic is pushing India deeper into recession and the Modi government is planning to shift the entire burden onto the people. We will use all our strength to fight back and to hold the government accountable. We will struggle to ensure that India comes out of the Covid-19 crisis as a more egalitarian country, in which every citizen has the right to free, quality healthcare.
5. The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the extreme vulnerability of global capitalism. The US state not only failed to protect its own people, it also attacked the WHO efforts, armtwisted India, and is weaponising the pandemic by trying to prevent ventilator companies from selling to Cuba and Venezuela. The advanced capitalist countries have been the worst victims of the epidemic. Of course within these countries, it is the working people and oppressed and marginalised communities who are paying the highest price. The capitalist health system and health policy which treats health as a commodity and profitable business and not as a fundamental human right, has failed to provide any relief and care to the people. By contrast people-oriented healthcare policies and approaches have worked much better whether in Cuba or within India in the state of Kerala. We rededicate ourselves to the mission of overcoming the destructive capitalist system and march towards a more just and equal socialist world with the needs of labouring people and the environment at its centre. Today is also the 150th birth anniversary of Comrade Lenin, the great leader of the world's first socialist revolution and initiator of the first major exercise in building socialism. We pay our highest tributes to him and renew our pledge to fulfil his dream of defeating imperialism and building a socialist world.
Long live CPI(ML)!
Red Salute to all our departed leaders and great martyrs.
Inquilab Zindabad.
-- CPI(ML) Central Committee
