• This gathering condemns the cold-blooded genocide by CPI (M) cadres and the Left Front government's police force of peasants protesting against corporate land grab and SEZs in Nandigram. We hold the West Bengal Chief Minister responsible for the massacre and demand that he resign immediately. We demand an impartial enquiry into the massacre to identify the role of the police officials, as well as CPI(M) leaders' complicity' and demand punishment for all those found guilty.
• Burdened by debt and hit by the pro-liberalisation policies of the Central and State Governments of food grains import and refusing to guarantee Minimum Support Prices, farmers are committing suicides in huge numbers especially in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab . While the government are busy cutting agricultural subsidies and refusing to waive debts for suicidal farmers, the same governments are eagerly subsidising corporates and waiving taxes for them under SEZs. SEZs are foreign territory on Indian Soil, where the legal and democratic rights of Indian citizens will be suspended. The colonial Land Acquisition Act 1894 is being used to grab land and evict farmers, and those who resist face batons and bullets— from Kalingagar to Dadri to Nandigram. We demand that the Central and State governments take steps to waive debts, stop imports, ensure Minimum Support Price. We also demand that the SEZ Act 2005 and the Land Acquisition Act 1894 be scrapped immediately.
• We condemn the hanging of Saddam Hussein as an arrogant act of colonial murder by the imperialist occupier USA , and demand immediate withdrawal of all imperialist troops from Iraq . We condemn the UPA government's shameless foreign policy of seeking out the imperialist and genocidal embrace of the USA . We demand that the humiliating and anti-national Indo-US Nuke Deal be scrapped and that India develop warmer and more democratic ties and closer cooperation with the nations of Asia and Latin America.
• This gathering demands an immediate end to the systematic and widespread human rights violations, ‘disappearances' and fake encounters by armed forces and police in Kashmir . We demand the immediate withdrawal of the Army and scrapping of the AFSPA from the region as a necessary precondition for a political solution to the Kashmir issue.
• The AFSPA is an Act that gives the Armed Forces impunity to assault and kill ordinary civilians, and is being deployed against the people of the entire North East region. Despite massive movements against this Act in Manipur and Nagaland, and despite the recommendations of the Jeevan Reddy Committee that the Act be scrapped, the UPA Government has refused to scrap the AFSPA. This gathering demands the immediate repeal of the AFSPA.
• This gathering condemns the abduction and assassination of Comrade Langtuk Phancho, a leading activist in the movement for autonomous statehood in Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills' and in the struggle for rural democracy and rights in these regions. Despite repeated appeals to the highest authorities—President, Prime Minister and Home Minister by concerned citizens, there was shocking apathy and inaction on part of the UPA Government and the Congress Government of Assam. Comrade Langtuk Phancho was left to be killed by the UPDS which is in a ‘ceasefire' agreement with the Government. This gathering demands autonomous statehood for the hill district of Assam—Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills, and punishment for the killers of Comrade Langtuk.
• One year after the NREGA came into existence, it is clear that its implementation on the ground has betrayed the aspirations of the rural poor for employment, and even against the spirit of the Act itself. The fund allocation itself is highly inadequate and insufficient in comparison with the number of job-card holders. No penalty has been meted out for the panchayat and district administration officials who are misappropriating funds and preventing employment from actually reaching the rural labour. Further, instead of cards and jobs, the rural poor agitating for implementation of NREGA have got false cases and severe repression instead. We demand that all false cases on people struggling for NREGA be withdrawn immediately. We demand that the NREGA be amended to ensure that job-card holders are not forced to apply for jobs, rather the onus of intimating job-card holders about available employment be on the district administration. We also demand universal implementation of NREGA in all districts all over India .
• The UPA Government is reviving the old Congress slogan of ‘Garibi Hatao', but in order to project a false picture of liberalisation having reduced poverty, it is removing the poor from the ‘Below Poverty Line' lists. Further, in the BPL lists of various states, the names of the rich are to be found while the poor are excluded. We demand that all poor families be included in the BPL lists, and under XI Five-Year-Plan, the UPA government put a stop to the attempt to artificially reduce poverty by eliminating the poor from BPL lists.
• Starvation deaths and hunger are fast becoming a regular feature of the rural countryside all over the country. At such a time, it is criminal and inhuman that the UPA Government is pursuing policies that encourage hoarding of essential commodities and consequent skyrocketing prices of food grains and other essentials. At the same time, the shrinking of the Public Distribution System (PDS) in the name of ‘targeting' has effectively evicted the poor from the PDS. We demand universalisation of the PDS and immediate steps to check price hike.
• Migrant workers have been the victims of violent regional chauvinism and police harassment— in Assam , in Mumbai, Punjab and elsewhere. In most cities including the capital city of Delhi , they are repeatedly and forcibly evicted from their slums in the name of ‘beautification' of the cities. This gathering condemns the assaults on migrant labour and demands that their safety, security and shelter be guaranteed.
• Despite the repeal of draconian laws like TADA and POTA, prisoners charged under these Acts continue to languish in prisons. 13 comrades of CPI (ML) are in jail (while one comrade died within the jail), convicted under TADA for struggling for the rights of the rural poor. We condemn the use of TADA and POTA against the rural-dalit poor, as well as the discriminatory targeting of minorities and oppressed nationalities under these Acts. We demand that all TADA and POTA detainees be immediately released and the charges against them under these repealed laws be withdrawn.
• Communal violence by the Sangh Parivar has once again raised its ugly head in Gorakhpur and Bangalore , while communal fascist repression of religious minorities continues unabated in Gujarat . The UPA government has repeatedly refused to act to check the communal forces, rather it has on several occasions resorted to ‘soft' Hindutva tactics. Taking advantage of the UPA's soft-pedalling, as well as harnessing the popular resentment against the UPA Government's anti-people policies of price hike, corporate land grab, etc…, the saffron forces and NDA have had a good showing in recent elections—from Mumbai's Corporation polls to the Assembly polls of Punjab and Uttarakhand. We demand that the UPA Government respect the anti-communal mandate by implementing the Srikrishna Commission Report regarding Mumbai 1993 riots and punishing the guilty, and also make public the findings of the Liberhans Commission which has investigated the Babri Masjid Demolition.
• The UPA Government like the NDA Government before it is hell-bent on privatising and commercialising the entire social sector—education, health, social security, power and even basic necessities like water. The ruling establishment's policy of FDI in retail is endangering the livelihood of scores of small entrepreneurs and shop workers. This rally demands an end to these policies of privatisation of social sector and FDI in retail that are devastating the common people.
• We condemn the horrific gang-rape and mass murder of a Dalit family at Kherlanji in Maharashtra, the ongoing social boycott against Dalit agrarian labourers in Punjab and UP, the murderous assault on Bant Singh, the burning of homes in Gohana and Jhajjar, and hail the valiant movements against discrimination and feudal oppression of Dalits. We demand stern action against the perpetrators of such atrocities and ensuring of the rights and dignity of Dalits.
• We condemn the apathy and complicity of the police in the horrific massacre of children in Nithari in Uttar Pradesh and declare that the people of this country will never forgive the killers of Nithari. We condemn the increasing violence against women, be it in the form of rapes, communal violence, state repression, or ‘honour' killings; the continuing discrimination against women in wages and employment; the refusal of the various Governments to pass the Women's Bill for 33% Reservation in Parliament, and demand a guarantee of the dignity and political rights of women. We resolve to intensify the movement for the genuine social, economic and political emancipation of women.