SDPI gives clarion call to fight for freedom from hunger & fear

Monday, October 19, 2009 10:43:52 AM, Pervez bari

New Delh: The newly launched Social Democratic Party of India, (SDPI), has put forth the slogan of “Freedom from Hunger, Freedom from Fear” in its manifesto which was released in National Delegates Meet held in FICCI auditorium here on Sunday.

The manifesto highlights that two fears obstruct the organic development of the citizens which are: Fear of hunger and fear of violence. The party will work for absolute removal of these two fears from the mind of common man. The manifesto was released by SDPI president E. Abubacker, who made the formal declaration of the party. The general secretary A. Sayeed threw light on the manifesto’s highlights.

The manifesto has called for the empowerment of all marginalised sections of the society by mobilizing themselves into a political force, instead of remaining as mere vote banks of different political parties in elections. It has demanded balanced representation of all social groups in legislatures and all administrative bodies nominated by government, in proportion to their population.

About 650 delegates from all over India converged for the first National Delegate Meet of SDPI. The SDPI has its presence in 16 states with about 1,50,000 party cadres.  The State Committees have been formed in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Manipur, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Bihar and Goa.

Abubacker handed over the party flag to party presidents of ten states where state units of SDPI have been constituted. Thereafter, he administered oath to the delegates with right hand fist held up near the head. After the oath ceremony the auditorium witnessed a charged atmosphere as the venue reverberated with slogans of “Zindabad Zindabad SDPI Zindabad” raised by the delegates on the occasion.

For SDPI social democracy is the belief that it is the basic duty of any administration worth its salt to ensure equitable distribution of the nation's resources through state intervention without stifling private entrepreneurship and initiative.

So, the SDPI has proposed short- term and long- term measures which will ensure protection of rights, equity and justice and called upon the political establishment to revise policies, plans and programmes in order to stop accentuation of economic disparities and to foster economic growth with justice.

The manifesto underlined that SDPI has been launched to mobilize people to work for alternative socio-political and economic model that is sustainable, pro-people and democratic in its core –principles. Such a model alone will take India to greater heights of prosperity and justice. “We seek the support of all people irrespective of their caste or creed”, it added.

As such SDPI has been launched to empower Muslims and other deprived communities. It is time to bid goodbye to tactical voting and go for strategic plans designed to achieve adequate representation in legislative bodies, the manifesto said.

It may be mentioned here that SDPI was formed to realize a social order and political system based on the Constitutional ideals of justice, equality, liberty and fraternity. The SDPI was officially constituted on June 21, 2009 in New Delhi and was formally launched a month later on July 29.

Meanwhile, Abubacker in his presidential address said SDPI wants to unite Muslims to make them a force to reckon with so that its importance is recognized and is granted its constitutional rights. If Muslims want to get their constitutional rights then they should strengthen the hands of SDPI, he stressed.

The meet has resolved to demand both the Central and State Governments to re-investigate all encounter killings  which took place after 1992 and enact legislations for reservations for the Dalits and the minorities,

The SDPI demanded enactment of comprehensive reservation act for the strict implementation of the system of reservation in education and public employment in all states, in central services and institutions and also in private sector enterprises that take benefit of the state largess; It also called for the implementation of the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission's recommendations on reservation for minorities and extension S.C. benefits to those social groups among Christians and Muslims engaged in similar occupations. It desired extension of Special Recruitment now applicable to SC/ST to other under-represented castes and communities and demanded increase in the representation of all under-represented groups, specially the Dalits and the minorities,

It has also demanded the Union government to strengthen the policy of Non-Alignment and take immediate steps to prevent the US lobby from interfering in our affairs. The Indo-US Nuclear Deal which is a symbol of our surrender to the US hegemony should be immediately scrapped. India must break off all its diplomatic ties with the Zionist State of Israel and re-establish its commitment towards the Palestinian cause.

The National Delegates Meet of the SDPI expressed solidarity with the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy victims. Passing a resolution about this tragedy the delegates called upon the lawyers, human rights defenders  and environmental activists  to constitute a people’s commission  to find out the socio-economic impact of the tragedy. It also called upon  Madhya Pradesh Govt. to ensure that all compensation money is distributed among the victims of the tragedy. The Meet also called upon the central government to put pressure on the US administration for the extradition and subsequent trial of Warren Anderson and his Indian counter parts who roam free without guilt or remorse.

The above demands were made among the  eight resolutions which were passed unanimously at the National Delegates Meet of the SDPI.

Meanwhile, the SDPI through its manifesto, amongst other things, also demanded (i) the protection of status quo of all places of worship as on August 15, 1947, rebuilding of the structures demolished later and their transfer to the concerned communities; (ii) full implementation of the recommendations of the Justice Sachchar Committee and also to take additional steps that are necessary to alleviate the relative backwardness of Muslims in all fields which has been established in Sachchar Report; (iii) Cancellation of the new criteria for defining families living below the poverty line (BPL) in ration card for public distribution system, which has been motivated to reduce the access of the people to essential articles of mass consumption at affordable prices; (iv) to increase in the representation of all underrepresented groups, specially the Dalits and the minorities, in the police force, the armed forces and the intelligence set-up to match their proportion in the population;

While, SDPI has given a clarion call to extricate the masses from quagmire of poverty, hunger, fear and illiteracy and bring about a sea change in their lives with a complete revamp of the system. The grass root level democracy and enfranchisement of people are fundamental to this change.

Mohammed Omer Khan, General Secretary SDPI, presented a report on the party’s activities. Maulana Usman Baig Rshadi, National Working Committee member of the party, gave introduction of the Theme Paper on “Freedom from hunger; Freedom from fear”

Five leading guest personalities also expressed their views on the occasion. They were  Syed Shahabuddin, the ex-Member of Parliament; E.M Abdurrahman, chairman Popular Front of India, (PFI); Dr. Suresh Khairnar, Convener Dharm Nirpeksh Nagarik Munch; Dr Zafarul Islam Khan, president All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, and K.M Shareef, General Secretary PFI.

At the outset Adv. Sajid Siddiqui, vice president SDPI, welcomed the delegates. The vote of thanks was proposed by Abdul Rasheed Agwan, president organizing committee of the Meet.

pervezbari@eth.net

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