We are Humans !
We Demand the Right to Dignity!!

The following leaflet was brought out by New Socialist Alternative (CWI-India) on the occasion of International Human Rights Day.

We the Socialists and International Marxists under the banner of the New Socialist Alternative affiliated to the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) stand in solidarity with the efforts of various Social Groupings and Civil Society in general to bring the focus on the gross human rights violation and abuses that are so rampant in this so called ‘World’s largest Democracy’.

Indian ruling classes claim and swear by non-violence, and try to score a moralistic high note. While they are signatories to the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, yet with impunity they disregard its statutes, day in and day out.

Here are a few of the most glaring instances of Indian DEAMONOCRACY at work…..

Caste Oppression

It would be a grave injustice indeed, if we first of all gloss over the fact that India today is the parent of all human right violations in the form of the grotesque and the age old Caste system.

For instance, every 18 minutes a crime is committed against a Dalith, every day 3 Dalith women are raped, 2 Daliths are murdered and 2 houses are burnt, 11 Daliths are beaten.

Strict punitive action against the perpetrators of caste and gender violence and adequate socio economic compensation to the victims for rehabilitation

Rich-Poor Divide

Daliths and other marginalised, the dispossessed and the working poor both in urban and rural areas suffer a torturous life under a system which oppresses them both through Caste and Class. The economic discrimination is as severe as the caste oppression in this country and the downtrodden castes-classes suffer the most. The victimization & jailing of the Maruthi Suzuki workers in Gurgaon on fabricated charges, for example, is just one glaring instance of the govt. acting on the behest of the corparates.

The obscene rich and poor gap is so wide that the ruling classes and the parties representing them merely accept them as an ipso-facto phenomenon. This only underlines the failure of capitalism in India to develop society from the abyss of abject poverty and the brutal feudal/ medieval values such as the caste system.

The least of the demand that we can put forward to partially correct this blatant violation of the rights of humans to live a decent and dignified life is to force the governments of the day to immediately fix a minimum living wage of Rs. 600 a day.

Repeal APSPA Now!

It is indeed ironic that this so called “democracy” has enforced one of the most draconian laws in the form of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Kashmir and the states of the North East. The apathy with which the 13 year long fast unto death struggle by Human rights activist Sharmila Irom Chanu is ignored by the powers that be, exposes the fact that for the Indian ruling classes concepts such as Democracy, Constitution etc., is merely ornamental.

We demand the immediate repeal of AFSPA and the restoration of democracy in these areas by initiating tripartite (Government, Local people and the Peoples Organisations) dialogue with the dissident forces.

Stop Death Penalty

Death Penalty is a medieval method of punitive action; more than two third countries of the world have stopped this barbaric law. Yet “Democratic” India wants to retain this draconian and inhuman practice in its penal dispensation, with an average of 132.27 persons being awarded death
penalty in India every year.

Death Penalty is no deterrent to the crimes that are perpetrated on a regular basis, it has to be replaced with a more humane democratic mechanism of justice system against outlaws. It is fundamentally a question and challenge before us to create a society and system which ends all forms of systemic violence, practised both by the state and non-state actors.

Death Penalty is not only unjust, but is against all human values and a blot on democratic principles of justice. It must be done away with altogether.

Stop Nuclearisation of India!

It is in the interests of the Indian corporates and the MNC’s that Nuclear power projects be aggressively pursued, there is nothing in it for the ordinary people. The tall talk of growth and industrial development can be achieved by sustainable and environmentally friendly energy generation.

The government of India in utter disregard to the concerns and wishes of the struggling people, is brutally putting down the movements against Nuclearisation of India. People of Kudankulam, Jaithapur and various other heroic and heroinic fighters are not only fighting against the dangers of nuclear proliferation, but are striving to safeguard the planet for future generations from Nuclear Holocausts.

Stop all Nuclear Projects. Stop the incrimination of Kudankulam fighters. Stop this Goonda raj. Stop fabricating cases against Peoples’ Movements.

Democracy Deficit

Democracy is not merely about the conduct of electoral exercises, which in India today has become synonymous with money, muscle and other murky practices. It has to be participatory and responsive to the needs and aspirations of the people. The present dictum of the money bags, corporate and big business interests is diametrically opposite to the interests of the vast majority of people and the fragile environment.

This is not DEMOCRACY, this is DEAMONOCRACY at play.

it is high time that we reclaim what is rightfully ours and free democracy from the stranglehold of millionaires and billionaires and allow the ordinary citizens of this nation to exercise not merely voting rights, but right for a society that is free of corruption, unemployment, low wages, price rises, destructive ‘development’, Special Exploitation Zones- SEZs, landlessness, illiteracy, global warming and climate change, casteism and communalism, undemocratic laws, against police and army atrocities, and above all against all forms of oppression and exploitation.