People's Democracy

Forward to Mightier Struggles

IN stark contrast to the debate being forced upon the country by the communal forces on cow slaughter; beef eating; temple construction; trishul distributions; pseudo-nationalism etc was the  march to Parliament by lakhs of industrial workers protesting against the reckless privatisation (read loot) of public assets and the mortgaging of our economic sovereignty. 

These are the true Indian patriots who have taken to streets to safeguard  the economic sovereignty and independence of our country.  The enthusiastic  participation of such large numbers clearly displayed the immense growing discontent against the economic policies being pursued by this Vajpayee government. 

It also shows very emphatically that the vast majority of our people whose daily livelihood is getting constantly eroded by these policies are not going to  fall into a trap of the RSS led saffron octopus which seeks to divert the popular discontent  into communal polarisation.

The call given at this massive rally for an all-India industrial strike has been met with spontaneous enthusiasm.  The struggles being waged by all other sections of our people -- peasants, agricultural labourers, student, youth, women, employees etc -- will now need to converge with the action of the working class to build a mighty people's movement against the disastrous pro-imperialist, pro-big business economic policies being pursued by this Vajpayee government. On that specific  day, during the current budget session of the Parliament, crores of Indian people will take to the streets to seek the reversal of these  policies. If this government continues to remain obdurate, then this will turn into  a movement that will seek the ouster of this government itself in order to protect the economic sovereignty of the country and the livelihood of the people. 

The coming months, therefore, will see such rising protests that are now taking place amongst various sections separately and independently converging into a mighty people's movement.  True Indian patriotism today demands that India be protected and safeguarded  from being mortgaged by this RSS/BJP government.  This is the only way to safeguard India as we know of it today.