Promotion of industrialisation is likely to encourage capitalists to take up destructive industrialisation, crushing underfoot basic rights of employees and others in society, secretary of the Organisation for the Protection of Democratic Rights C. Bhaskara Rao has said.
“Industrialisation is an integral part of economic development, but that should not become an excuse for large-scale destruction of environment and existing ecologies,” he said, addressing the media here on Friday.
The 16 State-level conference of the OPDR scheduled to be organised in Vijayawada on June 29 would focus on reorienting the fight for human rights, taking into consideration the evolving scenarios.
Noted Buddhist scholar M.N. Bhushi is scheduled to talk on ‘Buddhism and Human Rights’, professor of anthropology in Andhra University Satyapal is expected to give a comparative study on ‘Ambedkar and Dalit Rights’ and ‘Martin Luther King Jr. and rights of Negroes’.
The 250 delegates expected to attend from 10 districts in Andhra Pradesh and five districts in Telangana would deliberate on such issues before drawing up a more relevant framework for carrying on the struggle to protect people’s basic rights in a democracy.
The OPDR expressed apprehensions that the BJP-led political authority at the Centre and the State government would push through agenda like common civil code, which were sure to antagonise a large section of the population.
They demanded that the Centre avoid such confrontationist moves.
T. Sriramamurty of the APCLC, S. Venkataramana of Dalit Vimukti, and convener anti-privatisation committee P.V. Ramana were present.
