[L-I] [ INDIA ] National Convention against Communal Fascism & Imperialist Intervetion

Resolutions adopted at the
National Convention against
Communal Fascism and Imperialist Intervention
(Mavalankar Auditorium, New Delhi, 26 June, 2002)

[On the 27th anniversary of the infamous Emergency that was imposed on the
country on 26th. June 1975, a National Convention against Communal Fascism
and Imperialist Intervention was held at Mavalankar Auditorium, New Delhi on
the initiative of the CPI-ML. This convention witnessed broad-based
participation of Left parties, social movements and democratic organisations
including the CPI, RSP, All India Forward Bloc, SUCI, CPI-ML 'Red Flag',
CPI(ML) 'Unity Initiative' and the break-away Punjab unit of CPI(M)
(Chandrashekhar) and Narmada Bachao Andolan. Veteran communist revolutionary
Com. Kanu Sanyal and General Secretary of Lal Nishan Party (Leninist)
Maharastra, Com. Ashok Manohar sent their messages of support and
solidarity. The Convention was chaired by Com. P.K. Murthy. Among those who
addressed the convention were Left leaders Dipankar Bhattacharya and
Akhilendra Pratap Singh (CPIML-Liberation), Atul Anjan (CPI), Abani Roy
(RSP), Shyam Charan Gaud (AIFB), Ashutosh Banerjee (SUCI), K.N. Ramchandran
(Red Flag), Arvind Sinha (Unity Initiative), Chandrashekhar (CPM-Punjab),
and prominent citizens and activists including Kuldip Nayar, Rajinder
Sachchar, Medha Patkar, Nirmala Deshpande, Surendra Mohan, Javed Naqvi, John
Dayal, Achyut Yagnik, Chittaranjan Singh (PUCL)  and renowned freedom
fighter and Presidential nominee of the Left, Com. Lakshmi Sahgal.
Nearly a thousand people from the working class and peasantry to youth,
students and women, mainly from Delhi, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan,
Haryana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh took part in the
Convention. The Convention began by observing a two-minute silence in memory
of those killed in the state-sponsored genocide in Gujarat. It adopted the
following twelve resolutions.]

1.             This convention demands that the killer government headed by
Narendra Modi in Gujarat be dismissed forthwith and Narendra Modi and all
his cohorts from the Sangh Parivar as well as police officials involved in
the killings be arrested and put on public trial. The VHP and Bajrang Dal
must be banned for their role in the state-sponsored genocide in Gujarat.
While violence has not yet ceased in Gujarat, relief camps are being closed
down and Muslim survivors are being forcibly and systematically prevented
from returning to their homes and resuming their occupations. Against this
backdrop, this convention calls for drastic augmentation of relief and
rehabilitation efforts in Gujarat, early reconstruction of all damaged and
destroyed tombs and religious and heritage sites in the state along with
effective regulation of the 12 July rath yatra programme in view of the
communally surcharged situation in Gujarat. There should also be no early
elections to the Gujarat State Assembly in the communally-vitiated
atmosphere where large sections of the electorate are still living in utter
terror and insecurity. This convention condemns the heinous attacks by
Saffron forces on journalists and peace campaigners, lauds the efforts
already made by various organizations and individuals for restoration of
peace and sanity in Gujarat and calls for intensification of countrywide
initiatives to secure justice for the genocide-affected people of Gujarat.
2.             This convention calls for immediate and total demobilisation
of troops along the border to peacetime levels, complete restoration of
full-scale diplomatic ties and resumption of direct and unconditional
bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan. The peace-loving people all
over the country should be vigilant against the Vajpayee government
undertaking only token measures to play to the international gallery.
Instead, sufficient popular pressure for peace should be built up in order
to force the government to withdraw from its present path of planned
escalation of tension and sustained war hysteria.
3.             This convention strongly denounces the Bush-Blair alliance
for trying to fish in the troubled South Asian waters in the name of
"facilitating a dialogue" between India and Pakistan and patrolling the LoC
even as the two imperialist powers promote a disastrous arms race between
India and Pakistan by selling arms to the two neighbours. This convention
also condemns the role of Indian and Pakistani rulers in inviting greater
imperialist intervention in the region even while escalating hostility
against each other. It particularly rejects the Indian foreign and defence
policy of growing strategic integration with the US imperialists.
4.             This convention hails the nascent anti-war campaign in India
and Pakistan and protests by the sub-continental diasporic communities
across the world and calls for further intensification of the same. The
convention notes with satisfaction that the synchronized protests in India
and Pakistan by left parties and other democratic forces on June 13 mark a
positive beginning and calls for all-out efforts to promote peace and
friendship between India and Pakistan.
5.             This convention expresses serious concern about the
prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir and calls for immediate
restoration of peace, normalcy and complete political liberty so as to
ensure free, fair and timely elections to the State Assembly.  Elections to
the J&K Assembly under the present conditions of complete denial of
political liberty would only make a mockery of the democratic process. The
vicious cycle of state repression and terrorism is steadily spiraling in the
state. An atmosphere characterized by political killings, indiscriminate
arrest and detention of political leaders and activists, and continued state
terror against the people of Kashmir, especially the youth, to crush their
democratic aspirations is hardly conducive for the people to fearlessly
exercise their choice. This convention rejects the sinister idea of
fragmentation of Jammu and Kashmir on communal lines echoed most recently by
the VHP. It demands general amnesty for all political prisoners, restoration
of political liberty, revoking of all black acts and withdrawal of Army and
other central paramilitary forces from the state before the elections.
6.             This convention strongly condemns the crackdown at Faizabad
on May 10-11 on activists who had gathered there to observe Shaheed Mela as
a mark of tribute to the legacy of the great martyrs of the 1857 First War
of India's Independence. It also criticizes the curbs imposed by the
Mayawati government on the recent goodwill march from Chitrakoot to Ayodhya
undertaken by secular activists and campaigners for peace and harmony. It
calls upon the people and the Supreme Court of India to take serious note of
the VHP's latest threat of not abiding by the court verdict on the issue of
Ayodhya. Organisations and individuals making such irresponsible and
provocative utterances must be duly punished and prevented from further
vitiating the atmosphere.
7.             This convention calls for an immediate repeal of the
draconian POTA and demands quick release of all detained under it. The
recent spate of arrests in Kashmir and the threat of its use in Gujarat and
elsewhere against members of minority communities and democratic activists
have only confirmed the widespread apprehensions on the fascist use of POTA.
All the assurances advanced by the government against its misuse have turned
out to be patently false and hence there is no justification for this black
act to remain in the statute books.
8.             This convention is highly apprehensive and critical of the
"holy consensus" that has developed around the NDA-sponsored candidature of
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam who symbolizes India's growing military-industrial
complex and dangerous nuclear-missile ambitions. It denounces the BJP's
devious and desperate design to use the Presidential election to whitewash
its crimes in Gujarat and promote its agenda of aggressive militarisation.
9.             This convention denounces, and calls for resistance against,
incessant attempts by the Sangh Parivar forces to saffronise education
curriculum; their takeover of academic institutions and trampling their
autonomy only to promote their right-wing, Saffron agenda; their denial of
artistic freedom and highhanded censorship of documentary films like "War
and Peace" and their browbeating of artistes and, worse still, their attempt
at communalising the administration and police as witnessed in Gujarat.
10.           This convention demands scrapping of the divestment of VSNL to
Tatas, IPCL to Ambanis and Maruti to Suzuki & Co and demands the sacking of
Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie for pushing through such murky deals. It
strongly opposes the decisions taken by the Vajpayee government allowing up
to 74% FDI in print media and 100% FDI in tea plantations. It also demands
withdrawal of proposed labour law reforms that seek to truncate and even
deny basic trade union rights to the Indian working class. It calls for the
enactment of a comprehensive welfare legislation to safeguard the basic
interests of agricultural labourers who constitute the biggest contingent of
the working people of India. This convention demands that the Indian
government immediately abrogate the WTO dictated Agreement on Agriculture in
view of the massive subsidies envisaged under the US Farm Bill, protect our
farmers from unequal trade, and roll back hikes in prices of diesel and
electricity.
11. This convention strongly condemns the increasing incidence of state
repression on the struggles of the working people and other democratic
movements in different parts of the country. From the killing of protesting
farmers in Haryana to the forced eviction and killing of tea garden workers
in Siliguri in North Bengal, from the crackdown on Maan Dam oustees and NBA
activists in Bhopal to relentless attacks against CPI(ML) activists and the
rural poor in Jharkhand, Eastern UP and Bihar, recent weeks have witnessed
intensified police brutalities across the country. As the neo-liberal
economic policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation
threaten the survival of the toiling masses and resentment runs high, the
state is becoming increasingly ruthless and repression and denial of
democracy is becoming the order of the day. This convention calls upon the
civil liberties and other democratic movements and all friends of the
toiling people to heighten their vigilance and ensure effective and timely
intervention to curb the growing incidence of state repression.
12.           This convention appeals to all left, democratic, patriotic and
secular forces to conduct a nationwide "Save Democracy, Save Independence"
campaign from June 26 to August 9. It underlines the need for greater unity
in action among the left and democratic forces. The convention calls for
massive countrywide protests all over the country, in the form of militant
rasta roko/rail roko/jail bharo agitation on August 9, and appeals to all
those concerned to undertake diverse programmes to prepare for this in the
intervening campaign period.
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