The UCCRI(ML) supports the call for the two-day General Strike given by the Central Trade Unions to protest against the anti-people, anti- worker and pro-big business policies of the Modi government like rampant taxation leading to unending price rise and privatization of huge profit making PSUs to confer windfall favours on the big-business groups.

The working class, which is embarking on nationwide General Strike, must not limit itself to its day to day demands. It should be aware of the national, international and local political storms that are raging all around and rise to fulfill its responsibilities as a revolutionary working class. In this connection, it should take note of the following issues before the people of our country.

The Central Trade Unions speak of supporting the demands of the farmers’ agitation. But the basic demands of the poor and landless peasantry and agricultural labour like the abolition of landlordism and distribution of the land to the tiller don’t find a place among these demands. Vast section of the rural poor of our country are seething with anger at the oppression they are facing and have taken to the path of struggle for land all over the country. The working class must support this demand of the agrarian revolution in the country.

The ruling classes of our country never tire of claiming that India is the world’s largest democracy. In fact, the Prime Minister Mr. Modi recently addressed the summit meeting of the ‘alliance of democracies’ put together by the US superpower to serve as a mask for its agenda of world domination. It is obvious that the Prime Minister wanted to please the leader of the US superpower whose policy of achieving global hegemony is realized by means which are the anti-thesis of democracy i.e. the attitude that Might is Right.

Though Mr. Modi laid out his own vision of democracy during this summit, it is better to take note of the practice of his government in the last seven years as deeds and not words are what constitute the real substance of a regime’s policies. But it is a fact that a rule of military and para-military forces is in force for decades on end in various parts of our country. Various States are reeling under a rule of armed police which is being beefed up by various black laws and other reactionary, anti-people legislation. The Modi government is using various repressive tools at its disposal to threaten and subjugate its opponents. Though the BJP leaders claim that they had once upon a time opposed the emergency (of 1975-‘76), in practice the Modi government is running a regime of undeclared emergency all over the country. The working class must demand the dismantling of this autocratic rule and the provision of democratic rights to the people.

The Modi government openly favours governments in those States where the BJP is in power by running the so-called ‘double-engine Sarkar’. As opposed to this, it runs its own parallel governments in States where the opposition parties are in power through its hand-picked Governors and local BJP Party branches. It spares no effort to put spokes in the wheels of these State governments using the autocratic powers of the Centre. Destabilizing these governments and even overthrowing them to form BJP governments through defection has become the order of the day in these States. Working class should oppose this policy of Central autocracy and support the demand for States’ autonomy which is being raised in various parts of the country.

The Modi regime claims that it stands for peace in Ukraine where a war is raging. But it is silent about the role of the US, which through relentless expansion of NATO is the chief cause of war there. At the same time, it is hobnobbing with the US superpower and its local allies which are stoking the flames of war in the entire Asia-Pacific region through the Indo-Pacific strategy of the US and the Quad grouping formed by it. The sole aim of all this is the realization of US-hegemony in this vast region which includes South-East Asia and South Asia by isolating and encircling socialist China. It is totally opposed to the real national interests of the Indian people.

The working class must oppose this two-faced policy of the Modi regime to seemingly oppose war, but in practice, to enable stoking of the flames of war. It must demand that the Modi regime end all its hobnobbing with US superpower, quit the Quad and establish healthy relations with all countries of the world by pursuing a really independent foreign policy which fosters peace and development not only in our country and region but all over the world.

The Modi regime has troubled relations with almost all its neighbors in spite of its proclaimed neighborhood first policy. This is the result of clinging to its agenda of expansionism and regional hegemony as the basis of its neighborhood foreign policy. The working class should demand that the government give up its expansionist, hegemonic and chauvinist foreign policy towards all neighbors and pursue a friendly neighborhood policy which aims to achieve peace, development and solidarity.

The working class should realize on the occasion of this General Strike that only the struggle for land, democracy and independence which we have outlined above, can pave the way for the Peoples Democratic Revolution in the country. Only such a revolution can usher in a New India which can only be a Peoples Democratic India.

We call upon all democratic, anti-imperialist and peace-loving forces to support the call for an All India General Strike on March 28, 29, 2022 and make it a success.

- Vinod, Secretary, UCCRI(ML)

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