A Lok Sunwai Convention (People’s Hearing Convention) was held at Ambedkar Bhavan, Ludhiana (Punjab), on June 7 against the arbitrary Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the growing attacks on democratic and constitutional rights under the Modi government.
The convention, marked by the presence of red and blue flags, brought together Left, Ambedkarite and other democratic forces fighting for social transformation. Despite the intense heat, political activists, workers, peasants, women and youth from Ludhiana and several districts of Punjab participated in large numbers.
The convention was presided over by Comrade Ruldu Singh Mansa and Comrade Rattan Singh Randhawa. It began with tributes to innocent people killed in imperialist, expansionist and racist wars and attacks across the world, as well as those who lost their lives in the Delhi hotel fire tragedy.
CPI(ML) Liberation General Secretary Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya and Revolutionary Marxist Party of India (RMPI) General Secretary Comrade Mangat Ram Pasla were the main speakers.
Addressing the gathering, Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya said that after Bihar and West Bengal, Punjab is likely to be the next state to face the attack of SIR. He said the experience of these states shows that the deletion of names from voter lists is the first step towards depriving citizens of their constitutional rights. He said that along with exclusion from electoral rolls, people are being denied ration and welfare benefits, while bulldozers are being used to demolish homes, shops and livelihood resources. In the most inhuman form of this policy, people are being pushed into detention camps, he said.
Calling upon the people of Punjab to remain alert and organised, Comrade Dipankar said the state’s militant democratic traditions must be upheld to resist arbitrary SIR, bulldozer raj and deceptive slogans such as “One Nation, One Election”. Punjab must stand firmly in defence of democracy, federalism, secularism and unity in diversity, he said.
He also criticised the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab for failing to fulfil its promises to peasants, workers and unemployed youth. He said the Modi government was trying to bring back pro-corporate farm laws through the back door, weaken the Food Corporation of India, and open India’s agriculture and retail sectors to corporate and imperialist interests.
RMPI General Secretary Comrade Mangat Ram Pasla said the Modi government, guided by the RSS agenda, is moving to destroy the Constitution, democracy, secularism and federalism in order to build a hardline Hindutva Rashtra. In the name of strengthening the Centre, it is trying to impose a communal, casteist and authoritarian political order, he said.
Comrade Pasla warned that the BJP’s next major political target is Punjab. He said that in the coming Assembly elections, the BJP would use every method — money power, manipulation, repression and deceit — to capture power in the state. He said the Modi government is imposing foreign trade agreements with the United States and other imperialist countries that will damage Indian agriculture and retail trade and deepen neo-colonial dependence. He called for broad people’s mobilisation against these destructive policies.
The convention declared that Left parties, Ambedkarite organisations and other like-minded democratic forces would work together with full strength to oppose arbitrary SIR, defend voting rights, resist bulldozer raj and build a strong pro-people political alternative in Punjab.
Eminent Ambedkarite thinker Advocate S.L. Virdi, RMPI State Secretary Comrade Pargat Singh Jamarai, senior CPI(ML) state leader Comrade Sukhdarshan Singh Natt, Samajik Sangharsh Party national president Harwinder Kaur and Bharat Mukti Morcha State General Secretary Dalwinder Singh also addressed the convention. The proceedings were conducted by Professor Jai Pal Singh, while Comrade Chittaranjan welcomed the leaders and participants.
