India: Progressives and Muslim Right SDPI co-orgnising the founding conference of All India People's Forum (14-15 March 2015)

Founding Conference of the

All India People's Forum

14-15 March, 2015

Ambedkar Bhawan, Delhi (near RK Ashram Metro Station)

Followed by

Jan Sansad (People's Parliament)

16 March, 2015 (11 AM onwards)

Parliament Street

Dear Friends,

Ten months ago Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India promising to reduce prices, check corruption, bring back black money and usher in good times for the country. 2014 is over and we are now in 2015. Do we see the Modi government moving towards fulfilment of those wonderful poll promises? The answer is a big NO.

Oil prices are going down globally, but we don’t really feel it in India. Even if petrol and diesel prices have been reduced a bit, fares and transportation charges and prices of every essential commodity continue to go up. There is no sign of black money being recovered and BJP President Amit Shah has now said the talk of every family getting Rs 15 lakh through repatriation of black money was just empty poll rhetoric. In contrast, we see that I billion dollar loan from jan-dhan of our public bank is being doled out to favoured corporates like Adani !

While the government is not implementing the poll promises made to the common people, it is working overtime to pass on favours to big companies of Indian and foreign origin. Ordinance has been issued to expedite land grab in corporate interest. Coal and other mines are being opened up for commercial private mining. Foreign investment is being favoured in every sector of the economy. And during US President Obama’s recent visit to India, Modi has virtually freed US companies supplying nuclear reactors to India from any liability, compensation and legal action, in the case of any accident. To pander to the greed of US drug companies, the Modi Government is systematically undermining India's patent policy; which will stall domestic production of several life-saving drugs and escalate their prices for common people in India and across the world.

The Planning Commission has been wound up and funds allocated for welfare programmes are being squeezed systematically. In the latest budget, the government has slashed expenditure on welfare and social spending, the worst hit being the health, women and child welfare, and education sectors. A drastic reduction in food security coverage from 75% to 40% is planned. In the name of the 'Make in India' campaign, the government is inviting foreign capital to come and exploit India’s labour cheaply while labour laws are being systematically subverted to deny Indian workers any legal safeguard against wage-theft, unsafe workplaces and oppressive working conditions.

Commercialisation and saffronization of education are being given a fresh push. Public-funded education is being weakened through huge budget cuts, autonomy of education institutions are being trampled upon, and obscurantism and communal poison are being promoted both through syllabus changes and appointments.

And accompanying this economic attack on the common people is the mischievous communal agenda of the Sangh Parivar which has the backing of the Modi government. Every small local dispute is being blown up or sheer rumours are being spread to whip up communal frenzy and target the Muslim community. The RSS chief has declared India a Hindu Rashtra, BJP MPs, ministers and so-called sadhus and sadhvis are asking Hindu women to produce four children and more, churches are being vandalised right in the national capital and the Modi government remains a silent spectator.

The time has surely come to rise in powerful protest against these mischievous anti-people anti-democratic moves of the Modi government. And to be sure the protests have very much begun. In sector after sector workers and employees are opposing the government’s policies, peasants are up in arms against the land-grab order and the rural poor are insisting on their right to employment guarantee and food security. And now in the elections to Delhi Assembly, the people of Delhi have given a resounding rebuff to the BJP and an emphatic mandate to the AAP to fulfil its promises to the poor and working people and deprived areas of Delhi.

To resist the Modi government’s assault on the common people and the communal and divisive agenda of the Sangh Parivar and strengthen the Indian people’s battle for comprehensive democracy, dignity and justice, a whole range of democratic organisations and individuals have decided to come together and launch a national platform called the All India People’s Forum. The founding conference of the AIPF is being held in Delhi at Ambedkar Bhawan on 14-15 March and this will be followed by a massive Jan Sansad at Parliament Street on 16 March to call upon the government to withdraw the land-grab ordinance and other anti-people measures, fulfil its electoral promises of reducing prices, eliminating corruption and bringing back black money and firmly stop the communal and divisive forces.

We appeal to all of you to participate in the AIPF founding conference and the Jan Sansad, contributing with your support, your ideas and suggestions for sustained campaigns.

Stop the government from looting land and snatching livelihood !

Save the country from corruption and corporate raj !

Stop the communal and divisive agenda of the Sangh brigade !

Fight for Dignity, Justice and Well-being of the Indian People !

All India People’s Forum Preparatory Committee

Including

ND Pancholi, Citizens for Democracy and PUCL, John Dayal, Binayak Sen (PUCL/MFC), Anil Sadgopal, Mehr Engineer, SP Udayakumar, PMANE, Gautam Mody, NTUI, Akhil Gogoi (KMSS), Kavita Krishnan, AIPWA, Sundaram, CNDP, Dipankar Bhattacharya (CPIML Liberation), Vijay Pratap (Samajwadi Samagam), Dr Prem Singh, Socialist Party (India), Mangat Ram Pasla (CPM Punjab), Govind Chhetri (CPRM, Darjeeling), Rohit, Left Collective, KS Hariharan, Revolutionary Marxist Party (Kerala), Bhimrao Bansode, Lal Nishan Party Leninist (Maharashtra), Father T K John, Rafiq Mulla, SDPI, Harminder Singh Ahluwalia, Sikh Youth Forum, Md Iftiqar Alam and Suraj Kumar Singh (Insaf Manch, Bihar), Purushottam Roybarman, Secretary, Tripura Human Rights Organisation.

Contact: allindiapeoplesforum@gmail.com
Phones: 9811099532, 9868890346, 9899555979, 7838383758, 9910770263, 9560756628.

Conference Schedule

14th March

11 am- 1 pm : Welcome Session

Lunch : 1.00 pm - 2.00 pm

2.00 pm – 4 pm : Asserting Right to Land, Livelihood and Food Security: Resisting Land Loot, Food Loot

Tea : 4.00 pm – 4.30 pm

4.30 pm – 6.00 pm: Right to Health and Education: Resisting Privatisation, Patents, Saffronization

6 pm – 7 pm: Sustainable Safe Energy : Resisting Nuclearisation and Militarization

7.00 pm - 8.30 : Rights and Dignity of Women, Dalits and Adivasis

15th March

10.00-11.30: Defending Secularism, Plurality, Democracy: Combating the Communal Challenge

11.30-1.00 : Defending Democratic Rights: Resisting State Repression and Draconian Laws

Lunch : 1.00 pm - 2.00 pm

2.00 pm - 4.00 pm : Corporate Takeover of Resources, Attacks on Workers' Rights

Tea : 4.00 pm – 4.30 pm

4.30 pm - 7.00 pm: Concluding Session