Speaking after the conclusion of INDIA alliance meeting in Mumbai on September 01, CPIML General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that in the days to come, the country will be facing much bigger disaster orchestrated by BJP-RSS. They are on the path to totally destroy the Ambedkar’s constitution and the democracy in the country. So, it is crucial that we do everything possible to stop the BJP from coming back to power in 2024 and undo the damages and build a stronger democracy in India.
He added that, Mumbai meeting was crucial milestone in the opposition unity as it was first meeting to be held in a BJP ruled state and where the BJP is doing all possible ugly tricks to disrupt the opposition unity and to vitiate the political atmosphere. But in the face of this onslaught, the meeting happened quite successfully with a lot of enthusiasm and the number of parties participating in this alliance has now gone up from 26 to 28 and there is every possibility that more parties will be joining in the days to come. The meeting has formed a set of five committees for the purpose of political coordination, designing and running the campaign, social media campaign, media campaign and for research work so that we can have a powerful content and manifesto and political campaign in the coming days.
Comrade Ravi Rai, Politburo Member and CPIML Delhi State Secretary is part of the Working group on Campaigns and Comrade Sucheta De, CPIML Central Committee Member and Comrade V Arun Kumar, Member of CPIML Central Headquarters are part of the Working group on Media and Working group on Social Media respectively.
Regarding the seat sharing, Com. Dipankar added that the idea is now that seat sharing talks will proceed on a state level basis because, the situation varies in state to state but the process needs to be expedited so that by the end of September or by early October we are ready with our campaign schedule.
For the INDIA alliance time has come to hit the streets and organize decentralized, concerted, panchayat and block level mobilization on various issues like price rise or unemployment, the question of wages, the question of rights of the workers, the question of MSP and the old pension scheme among others. The question of caste census and the women's reservation, two major demands of the social justice movement also needs urgent attention.
“And then there are issues, overarching most important issues of defending the constitution because the BJP now has unleashed its total agenda. If the BJP comes back in 2024, nothing will be left of what we know as democracy or constitution or the modern India founded on the basis of the constitution,” noted Com. Dipankar.
So that is why we need a powerful campaign in terms of building up social solidarity and the class unity, like the recent joint convention of the farmers movement and the trade union movement. And the whole idea is that while consolidating our electoral efforts, while trying for maximum possible electoral unity wherever possible, we should also carry out a very extensive campaign and mass awakening on all possible issues.
The BJP-Corporate Corruption Nexus
On the new evidences emerging on the Adani scam and Modi government’s patronage, the Comrade Dipankar added that this government has exposed itself as India's probably most corrupt government till date. The CAG report has exposed a lot of scams in almost every department and on top of it we now have more extensive reports about the Adani scam. The new reports point towards how the Adani group manipulated the share prices and how they violated the norms of conducting business - the 75% is the maximum limit for the promoter's shareholding, at least 25% share should be in the hands of the public, but it is now very clear that the Adani group has violated all these norms. According to reports, the Adani group secretly invested in offshore companies to buy their own shares. In fact, if a company is exposed to have crossed the 75% limit, it should be delisted from the share market. But the SEBI which was supposed to probe into all these irregularities, instead of taking necessary measures to control the Adani group, we find that the SEBI director who gave Adani group a clean sheet has now become the director of NDTV, after it’s acquisition by Adani. So, it is very clear how the Adani group has been promoted by the Modi government and how it symbolizes the ugliest and most alarming face of institutional corruption and corporate nexus between the government and the corporate sector in India.
The government has called a special parliament session and the agenda of the session has been kept secret till date, but certainly the Modi government has lot of ugly tricks in plan in the days to come. There may even be early elections. So whatever unfolds in the coming days, India should be prepared and the message from this Mumbai meeting is that we should be battle ready to fight the elections, we should be ready to intensify the battle to defeat the Modi government in the upcoming General Elections. The defeating of this government is crucial and if this government comes back for a third term, then Indian democracy, the constitution, the very idea of modern India, everything will be at stake and there will be a much bigger disaster in the country.
Prior to the alliance meeting, Com. Dipankar interacted and held discussions with several civil society members and people’s movements in Mumbai. Speaking at the Samarthan Sankalp Jan Sabha, a civil society convention in solidarity with INDIA alliance at Patuck college hall, Mumbai on August 30, he termed the INDIA alliance as the Rescue operation, and said that this rescue operation of saving constitution and democracy from Manuvadi and BJP-RSS corporate-fascist forces is a crucial step towards building a stronger democracy and people’s republic. We need to make the 2024 General Elections a people’s movement, that will ensure the complete uprooting of fascist forces and their ideology from the country and the society.
