All India Peoples Front (AIPF) believes that defeating BJP and its allies in this Lok Sabha election should be the first political agenda of the people. The reason is very clear. Bharatiya Janata Party is not an ordinary party. This is a political organization of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh which wants to make many groups and communities of the society cultural slaves. The political goal of the Bharatiya Janata Party is to establish dictatorial fascist rule in the country. It is true that even the governments of political parties other than BJP have not resolved the basic political needs of the people like food, clothing, shelter and above all the question of employment. People have been oppressed under their rule too. But The opposition parties have not advocated giving of a such government which believes in openly knocking, bulldozing, etc., talking about changing the Constitution for autocratic rule, attacking peaceful movements, not allowing general meetings and meetings, depriving even the right to speak, terrorizing citizens with black laws like UAPA and PMLA, the entire country. The work of converting it into a jail has been done by the Bharatiya Janata Party government. If the citizens of the country cannot speak and protest against injustice, then what kind of democracy will there be in the country? Elections will remain just a ritual as is happening in countries like Russia and Turkey. Democracy is essential for the development and empowerment of deprived communities and to fight against exploitation and injustice.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hindutva has no connection with Hindu religion either. Hindutva is a political ideology that works for autocratic rule. This is against the heritage, pluralism, and spirit of friendship of Indian culture. Its concept of nationalism is foreign. It has been against anti-colonial Indian nationalism. Even today its attitude is to kneel before foreign capital. Indiscriminate privatization and looting of public property and assets are taking place for the profit of corporate houses. The corporates have their vulture eye on the farmers’ land also. Due to jobless economy, agriculture and unorganized sector industries have been ruined. Independent India’s goals of independence and economic democracy have been sidelined.
Corporate and Godi media are engaged with full force in creating the image of Modi government. There is no significant achievement of the Modi government in the eyes of the public during its 10-year tenure. Unemployment, inflation, and helplessness have increased. Food consumption has also decreased. It is another matter that the number of billionaires and upper middle class has increased rapidly in India and 40 percent of the country’s wealth has come into the hands of one percent of the rich. By making the country’s tax structure increasingly regressive, the Narendra Modi government has played a role in transferring money from the pockets of the common man to the hands of the corporate sector. By relaxing Forest Rights Act and environmental protection laws, it has created favourable conditions for exploitation of natural resources. In the name of capital investment, lakhs of crores of rupees have been made available for the profits of corporate houses. Their bank loans worth about Rs 17 lakh crores have been waived off by the Modi government. Hence, it is clear that this empire of wealth has been built on the plunder of people’s labour and resources.
As far as corruption is concerned, the Electoral Bond scam has happened during Modi rule itself. This is being said to be the biggest scam of independent India, in which there is talk of a scam worth Rs 4 lakh crores. Modi government has always tried to cover up this. The Electoral Bonds revelations have proved that institutions like Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax and CBI have been used to extort money from companies. It is also an illusion that India’s name has increased in the world because of Modi. All this is nothing but empty gossip. India is already known in the world for its labour, skills, resources, and markets. There has never been any dearth of scientists and scholars here. Today the truth is that the citizens of our country fall in the category of citizens of poor countries of the world and their income is very less as compared to the citizens of developed countries. As far as removal of Article 370 and construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya is concerned, here we should not forget that the foundation of India and nation building has been cooperation, respect, and friendship. The people here, irrespective of their faith and beliefs, left no room for violence and hatred among themselves. The country has become weak only when mutual trust among people has decreased, distance between people has increased and the feeling of friendship has decreased. We can learn from the incident of Manipur, which is currently going through a tragic phase, that caste and community violence is not in the interest of the country.
Before we come to the main issues of the elections, it is important to say a few words about the opposition political parties. Many regional opposition parties keep bargaining with BJP and Congress and keep changing their stance from time to time. Even in this political era of fascism, there is no visible change in their behaviour. Public issues like livelihood, clothing etc started disappearing from the politics of social justice and identity and the entire debate started focusing on the question of sharing of power. The politics of power also became limited to a few families and many social groups became isolated. Today BJP is taking advantage of their corruption and isolation from other social groups. On the other hand, a political party has emerged in the opposition politics which generally calls all the political parties and their leaders corrupt. He considers good governance sufficient for education, health and civil facilities. Generally, maintains distance from ideology-based politics. Ironically, big leaders of this party are in jail for alleged corruption in the excise liquor policy. There is no doubt that the Bharatiya Janata Party is putting opposition leaders in jail for political reasons. But it must be kept in mind that the governments of opposition parties should make their administrative conduct accountable, transparent and honest. Electoral success is not synonymous with politics. Resultant politics cannot work today in the era of fascist politics.
As far as Congress is concerned, it is going through a phase of transition. There is still stability to be achieved in its policies, only time will tell how much they will change. People have appreciated the stand taken by Rahul Gandhi against RSS and Adani. But it should be noted that when the neo-liberal economy is proving unsuccessful all over the world, then how effective will its demand-driven model be in India? Congress has talked about good things in its manifesto like filling 30 lakh vacant posts at the Centre, employment generation and social security, autonomy of constitutional institutions. But the bigger question is to protect the sovereignty of the Republic of India from the onslaught of Global Finance Capital, on which the Congress is silent. If a republic cannot regulate and control big capital, then it cannot solve questions like employment, education, health, environment, agriculture and cannot stop black money and corruption. To protect democracy, this big capital will have to be brought under the control of the Republic of India. This is the biggest political truth of this era in India. AIPF does not believe in the principle that in this era, the Indian Republic cannot be saved from the pressure of foreign capital and only corporate-centric development is possible. If in 1947, when the country became independent, despite the pressure of so much foreign capital, India could move ahead with economic independence and protect its sovereignty, then even today we can do the same provided there is political will to do so. There are still countries in the world which are developing and modernizing with economic freedom.
Therefore, to defeat BJP and make the opposition win, some of the burning issues given below will have to be raised strongly in the election campaign. BJP’s resolve to guarantee Modi in 2024 has patted itself on the back and has talked big on future plans but it is silent on these basic and important issues of the public.
Public Issues
1. Making employment a fundamental right and providing a government job to one member of every family and prompt and transparent recruitment on 1 crore vacant posts in government and public sectors across the country. Unemployment allowance in proportion to national per capita income. Interest free loans for youth businesses.
2. Provision of residential land and 1 acre land for livelihood, promoting cooperative farming among Dalit, tribal, extremely backward landless poor families. Lease on land under Forest Rights Act.
3. Allocation of adequate budget for education and health.
4. Protecting civil rights and abolishing black laws like UAPA and PMLA. To punish officials who send innocent citizens to jail. It is the responsibility of the state to punish the forces of hatred and social violence.
5. Increasing budget in agricultural production, research and irrigation and minimum support price law for farmers as per the recommendations of Swaminathan Commission, and encouragement to cooperative farming, complete loan waiver of farmers. Legal status to Agricultural Costs and Prices Commission. Guarantee of minimum support price and government procurement of all production for public use in industry and service sector including agriculture.
6. Abolition of Labour Code and restoration of Old Pension Scheme and end of contract system in jobs. Guarantee of pension of Rs 6000 to old, disabled and widows. Social security for unorganized workers and permanent employment for contract and scheme workers. 200 days’ work in MNREGA and employment law for urban areas.
7. Ban on privatization of important basic sectors like education, health, defence, electricity, banks, insurance, coal. Stop the plunder of natural resources and protect the environment at all costs.
8. Immediate provision of women’s reservation in Lok Sabha and Assemblies, 50 percent women’s reservation in government services, adequate interest-free loans to women’s self-help groups.
9. Conducting caste census. Reservation in private sector for Dalits, Tribals, extremely backward people and disabled people. Inclusion of Kol and Dhangar of Uttar Pradesh in the list of ST. Separate quota for extremely backward people in OBC reservation.
10. Wealth and inheritance taxes on the super-rich. To formulate a sovereign financial regulation policy to prevent the dominance of foreign finance capital over the state and people.
11. Support to the infrastructure of micro, small and medium industries and loans at cheap rates from banks.
12. Matching every vote cast by EVM with the VVPAT slip.
(Issued on 16.04.2024 by S.R. Darapuri, National President, on behalf of the National Working Committee of All India People’s Front (Radical). Address – 4 Mall Avenue, Near Satsang Bhawan, Lucknow 226001)
