Naseeruddin Shah, Irfan Habib, Harsh Mander, Others Call to Join April 5 Mazdoor-Kisan Rally

Delhi: A group of distinguished citizens and intellectuals have released a statement calling for people to join the mega rally of workers, peasants, and agricultural workers as they make their way to Delhi to take part in the Mazdoor-Kisan Sangharsh Rally on April 5, 2023. The rally has been called by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), and All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU).

The statement draws attention to the sharp decline in the lives and livelihoods of working people in both urban and rural areas, saying that the current government's policies are aimed solely at benefiting the corporate sector while ignoring the needs of the working class.

“The condition of the working people has deteriorated to an unprecedented level due to the notorious economic onslaught unleashed by the current government. Declining wages, rising prices of essential commodities, raging unemployment, falling returns for farm produce, abysmal agricultural wages, ever-deepening agrarian distress resulting in precarious migration of millions, and floundering welfare schemes systematically curtailed by the government are pushing marginal families into severe poverty,” the statement said.

The statement has been signed by eminent academics, poets, writers,  lawyers, scientists, actors, and journalists among others. Some of the signatories include Prabhat Patnaik, Irfan

Habib, Sumit Sarkar, Manoranjan Mohanty, K.M. Shrimali, Utsa Patnaik, K. Satchidanandan, P. Sainath, Jayati Ghosh, C.P. Chandrasekhar, Harsh Mander, John Dayal, N. Ram, Admiral L. Ramdas, Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Teesta Setalvad, Badri Raina, Nandita Narain, Anand Patwardhan, Saeed Mirza, Shaji N. Karun, Syeda Hameed, Tanika Sarkar, Achin Vanaik, Rajeev Bhargava, Sashi Kumar, and others.

Furthermore, the government is using toxic hate campaigns and misusing government institutions to distract people from the ill effects policies, the statement claimed. “In order to divert attention from these policies, the ruling BJP, and its mentor the RSS and its affiliates, have launched toxic hate campaigns targeting minorities and threatening our basic social fabric. The government has provided shameful protection to these barbaric forces while at the same time selectively exercising the authority of its agencies to arrest, harass, and even bulldoze the properties of, those opposing its policies,” it said.

The statement also highlights the importance of the working class and the peasantry's resistance. “We firmly believe that this historic march to Delhi by the workers, peasants and agricultural workers, raising the basic issues and demands of all sections of the people, on 5 April 2023 will further advance the people’s resistance and give notice to this government that its anti-people policies will no longer be tolerated,” the signatories said.

Commenting on the statement, the organisers of the joint rally said, “The appeal highlights the significance of the resistance by the working class and the peasantry to this corporate-communal agenda and their successes as seen in the yearlong Kisan struggle or the recent victory of the Maharashtra electricity workers. exemplified by the year-long Kisan struggle and the recent victory of the Maharashtra electricity workers.”

Read the full statement below: