The proposed rally to Delhi on April 5 under the banner of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and the All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) will start the process of the coming together of workers, farmers and agricultural workers on a single platform, said eminent economist Prabhat Patnaik.
Professor Patnaik, also the chairperson of the rally’s reception committee, said the rally is to fight against the assault on working people, defend democracy and the right to resist, to preserve India as a secular republic, and to defend the Constitution upon which modern India is founded.
The organisers of the rally said an extensive campaign on the demands of the people is being carried out across the country. “After holding joint State-level conventions in January, district-level joint conventions were held in over 400 districts to plan the campaign and mobilise for the rally,” CITU general secretary Tapan Sen said. He said protests, including strikes, were being planned by trade unions.
Senior farmers’ leader Hannan Mollah said the Centre was turning a blind eye towards the issues of farmers and workers. “Most of the promises given to the farmers by the Centre have not been fulfilled. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha has also decided to step up its agitations,” Mr. Mollah said.
AIAWU general secretary B. Venkat said attacks against Dalits and marginalised people were on the rise, and schemes such as ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ were paralysing the Public Distribution System (PDS) in many States.
Prof. Patnaik said the “neo-liberal regime” had unleashed an aggravated assault on workers, peasants and the agricultural labourers in the country, which had resulted in the suicides of over three lakh peasants and labourers over the last two decades.
“This assault has become even more severe under the current BJP government,” Prof. Patnaik added. “The entire country is being pushed into an abyss — farmers are being discouraged from food grain cultivation, which would undermine food security and make the country dependent on imperialism; the accelerating inflation is being sought to be controlled by squeezing the money incomes of the working people through the generation of additional unemployment via a rise in interest rates and the imposition of ‘austerity’; and speculators’ taking out money without any hindrance from the country is resulting in a depreciation of the rupee and an aggravation of inflation which even the running down of foreign exchange reserves cannot stop.”
