Why Telangana civil society
steps in Bharat Jodo Yatra
Kanneganti Ravi,
(Rythu Swarajya Vedika, Phone: 99129 28422)
Bharat Jodo Yatra, which started in Kanyakumari on September 7, will enter Telangana on October 23 and continue till November 7. Hundreds of representatives of civil society organizations and social activists who are working with people at the field level in various states are actively participating in this yatra, which is being held on the call of the Congress party.
The only one reason for civil society of Telangana expressed solidarity is because of the spirit of this yatra and various people’s collectives and organisations confirmed to participate in the yatra in various forms.
The present BJP government that came to power at the center in 2014 and again in 2019 has been ever since giving life to dictatorial tendencies, cutting the powers of states and concentrating powers in its own hands for the past eight years.
There is a huge burden of prices imposed on the people of the country in the name of GST on essential goods. A few big corporates are looting all the wealth including public sector institutions, roads, ports, airports, power companies in the name of development.
This government has written off over rupees 10 lakh crore dues that these corporates have collected from the banks. The entire country has experienced the disastrous results of indiscriminate demonetisation and sudden lockdown in the name of Corona. Rising unpemployment along with failure to create jobs, fill in vacancies has pushed youth into despair.
Added to this poor and middle class families are drowning in debts owing to the loss of income, jobs and rising prices.
The central government brought forth four Labor Codes, removing even the minimum rights which were enjoyed by the working class for decades. After bringing three laws to hand over the entire agricultural sector to corporates, and temporarily retreating due to the heat of the farmers’ movement, Modi government is gearing up for another attack in the form of allowing private companies to procure crops blatantly violating farmers’ rights.
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By amending the forest conservation rules, central government seeks to vest rights over entire forests in corporate bodies. The government has already issued a gazette notification taking over the entire river waters including Krishna and Godavari and irrigation water projects superseding states’ autonomy. The implementation of the National Education Policy and the forcing of Hindi language on the people of the country is also a part of the centre’s anti-people policies.
Writers, poets, journalists, intellectuals, students, adivasis, Muslim minority people, civil society and rights activists are being silenced by the UAPA by implicating them in false cases like sedition and sending them to jails with utmost autocratic authority.
The central government, which has passed the Citizenship Amendment Act amid strong opposition from the people of the country, is once again preparing to attack the people with the NRC despite the resistance of people.
Rampant horsetrading of opposition parties MPs and MLAs like commodities in the market to bring down the state governments and erasing any existing opposition parties has become a norm for Modi government. The centre has established a new trend of blackmailing by using organizations like CBI, ED, IT, NIA to incriminate any opposition and launched a witchhunt against dissenters. Using bulldozers on the houses of people who turned against it to question, especially Muslims, without any relation to the cases and court proceedings has become a new norm with the centre.
The Sangh Parivar, which has acted against the aspirations of the people since independence, has been providing an ideological role to the BJP regime with its monopoly. Through its affiliates, it is creating rift among the people. People’s minds are being poisoned by spreading misinformation and fake news through hundreds of WhatsApp groups daily. Worshiping the Fascist ideology of Hitler and Mussolini, inciting hatred and violence among the common people, especially targeted hatred against the Muslim people of the country and preaching Manu Dharma Shastra against the constitutional values is the order of the day as established by Modi government.
A complete distortion of history has also seeped into the educational curriculum of the children and youngsters to further nurture this hatred towards Muslims.
As a result, today the whole country is experiencing claustrophobia and sense of loss. There is an atmosphere of restraint and terror set in, where people are not even in a position to fight against the daily problems they face. Civil society organizations feel that participation in this yatra is the one of the way for people to get out of this iron trap, to rid of restrictions and fears.
When the civil society organizations (CSOs) of Telangana started discussions about this yatra for a month, there were several questions that were raised. The questions like whether joining the yatra meant supporting Congress party, or to subscribe to the Congress party’s earlier anti-people policicies and whether extending solidarity to yatra is synonymous to supporting Congress party which is organising the yatra, all these questions and apprehensions were valid.
There is nothing wrong with the people who expressed these doubts, but the civil society groups who have declared solidarity for this trip have clarity about historical events, current political developments and the impending danger that the nation is hoing to face that threatens the democratic future of India. It is the collective decision of civil society organisations to join the yatra in hope to keep the spirit of Indian unity alive.
All the civil society activists who have expressed their solidarity with this yatra are those who have been working with common people on social, political and economic issues in Telangana for the last three to four decades and are immersed in constant conflict while resisting the anti-democratic policies. That’s the reason, regardless of who called for the yatra, they preferred to focus on the goals of the yatra, the solidarity message it sends to the people.
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In the last 75 years, the Congress party has been in power for the longest time in the country, it has a history of imposing emergency by pushing the people into darkness, and at imposed atrocious rules in Kashmir, North East India, Dandakaranyam, including various races and people’s movements. This party has a history of using state violence as a weapon against people.
Their dark history of creating institutions like UAPA and NIA, sending people’s activists and intellectuals to jails and shooting hundreds of activists in fake encounters is not to be forgotten by the civil society organizations. Civil society organizations do not have any intention to overlook the past atrocities of Congress policies that affected the people in a detrimental manner.
During the Congress rule, all these very organizations stood up and fought against these policies. These organizations have clearly said that the Congress should always apologize to the public for its past history and self-criticism and ensure that these mistakes must not be repeated wherever they are in power. Civil society organizations have also blamed the Congress government’s refusal to allow the CPI march in Chhattisgarh in the past.
The mission of civil society organizations is to question authority anytime, anywhere whether it is congress or BJP or any other party on what has been done in the past, what is being done in the present and what will be done in the future.
The nature of the ruling BJP party is not just that of a ruling class political party. The ideology of this party is against people, democracy, secular values, civil rights and scientific outlook. This party is characterized by inciting hatred among the people of the country on the one hand and ruling in favor of corporatization on the other. Systemic attacks on Dalits and opposition to reservations are the routine work of this party.
The continuation of these forces in power at the centre and their attempts to come to power in states like Telangana are extremely dangerous. That is why there is an urgent need to stop these forces that have become a danger to people.
If Bharat Jodo Yatra contributes to this process in any way, we will be happy to join then them and participate in the yatra. Another important aspect is that the civil society organizations do not believe that this one yatra is going to miraculously change everything. We as CSOs recignise that this is a long-term struggle. However nstead of remaining silent in solidarity with this yatra, the organizations want to voice the problems of the people along its route from Mahbubnagar to Nizamabad district.
Legal rights for unorganized workers, repeal of anti-labor labor codes, miserable lives of municipal and sanitation workers, distress of unrecognized tenant farmers, agony of families of farmers’ suicide victims without compensation, legal minimum support prices for farmers’ crops, aggrieved people of Mallanna Sagar illegal land acquisition , NIMZ, search for pharmaceutics affected people, Kaleswaram-like projects will be discussed in the yatra to unveil the hidden corruption expedition.
The problems of domestic workers, gig and platform workers in Hyderabad city, their rights and the daily sufferings of the defenseless slum dwellers will be discussed in this yatra. Children’s rights, the plight of education and medical sectors will also be brought to attention.
The practical and strategic gender issues experienced by women and transgender people along with the caste based atrocities happening in the name of honour killings will be highlighted. Discrimination and attacks faced by Muslim minorities and attacks on Dalits will be brought forward The Civil Society Organizations feel that the increasing number of UAPA cases in the state and the attacks by NIA on peoples organizations and rights activities should also be discussed in the yatra.
The participation of Civil Society Organisations in this yatra is a reminder that central government and the state government are the cause of all these problems faced by the people of Telangana state. Moreover, there is no major difference between these two governments in the nature of governance. That is why calling out the anti-people rule of these two governments is also a goal of the civil society organizations in this yatra.
(Translated from Telugu by
Varsha Bhargavi)