By TwoCircles.net news desk,
New Delhi: The Popular Front of India (PFI) is organizing National Political Conference at Calicut in Kerala from 13-15 February 2009 to create awareness about the right of people to have political power and mobilise the marginlised classes to achieve their total empowerment.
When we look back after six decades of our experiment with democracy, we find there has developed a ruling class which is controlled by the big business class and the traditional land-owning upper castes. They serve their class and caste interests, at the cost of the genuine aspirations of the people below, said E. M. Abdul Rahiman, general secretary of PFI.
“They have misused the different arms of our democratic system, namely legislature, and executive and even judiciary. The poor, the villagers, the farmers, the tribals, the dalits, the minorities and the backward castes have been denied justice in this political game,” said PFI general secretary.
The very preamble of Indian constitution declares justice, liberty, equality and fraternity as the core values of our republic. But capitalism is coming back under the garb of development. The government and the mainstream parties stand to protect the interests of the elite. The basic developmental issues like increasing agricultural production, poverty eradication, equity in distribution are being neglected by the ruling class.
Politics is power. The state of political deprivation results in denial of due share in power. In India the tribals, dalits, other lower castes and minorities especially Muslims, remain backward, marginalized and victimized as they are kept away from various branches of administration.
“Muslims as a community face greater political deprivation than any other socio-religious category in India. In recent years when a few other backward classes have increased their representation in state assemblies and parliament, the Muslim share has been on the decline. The 13.4% strength of Muslim is never reflected in the India parliament. In 1952 it was just 4.4% and in 2004 it could show only 6.5%,” he said.
Under these circumstances, the marginalized classes have to rethink about of their traditional strategy of shifting support to various political parties during elections with the sole aim of defeating their immediate enemies. This single point agenda has not helped establish their rights in the country’s policy setting and resource distribution. Steps should be initiated to politically consolidate the deprived sections as a political force for their rightful share in political power.
“We hope that the forthcoming National Political Conference will be a mile stone in the process of building an alternate approach of positive politics for total empowerment,” Rahiman said.
About 10,000 delegates to be drawn from all over the country will attend the various sessions during the three days of the conference. Separate national conventions of political activists, human rights defenders, scholars, women, students and media persons will be held. The last day of the conference will witness a youth parade, procession and grand public meeting in which more than 2 lakh people will take part, claim the organization.
PFI is launching a nationwide campaign to introduce the theme of the National Political Conference. The national publicity programme also includes a series of public meetings and seminars in major towns in different states. Public programmes are scheduled during the coming days in cities like Lilong (Manipur), Behrampur (West Bengal), Kota (Rajasthan), Lucknow, Mumbai and Delhi. State-wide campaigning is in full swing in four southern states.