Andalib Akhter / New Delhi
COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA, CPI has appealed the people to exercise their right to vote for a secular, democratic, pro-people alternative and which strengthen the Left parties in the 17th Lok Sabha.
The CPI urged the voters to cast their vote to Save Nation, Save the Constitution, Save Democracy and Secularism which according to the party are under peril in the present dispensation.
Releasing the party manifesto National Secretary of CPI D. Raja, M.P said that situation in the country calls for a change of government at Centre. “CPI has been consistently fighting against communal, fascist, sectarian, divisive, pro-corporate, anti-people forces to save the Nation, the Constitution, Democracy and to secure education, health, housing and decent livelihood for all, for strengthening the Secular Democratic fabric of our society. CPI has been fighting for Federalism, inclusive economic development and social justice”, he said.
Party manifesto for the 2019 GENERAL ELECTIONS said that these elections are going to be very crucial and critical for secular democratic republic, its future and to our constitutional ethos. The experience of the BJP led NDA government with Mr. Narendra Modi as Prime Minister has been one of misrule and misgovernance of national resources resulting in despair for the people. The very Constitution and the founding principles of the republic such as Secularism, Socialism, Federalism, Equality, Liberty, Fraternity and Justice to all sections of society are under a sustained attack. The Constitution of the country is being undermined, questioned and subverted. Democracy is in peril.
The RSS and its other allied right-wing extremist organisations have come to the fore of our polity and have become aggressive in pushing their ideology and agenda which are divisive, sectarian, communal and fascist. They continue to try to redefine Indian Nationhood and our Republic. They try to impose and perpetuate a monolithic, illiberal socio-political order in the name of Hindutva and Hindu Rashtra.
There is a systematic attack on our Constitutional bodies and institutions. Authoritarianism and demagogy are the characteristics of Prime Minister Modi and the Government being controlled by the RSS. Those who question the government, criticise its policies and ask for accountability are being branded as anti-nationals and urban Naxalites. Draconian colonial Laws such as sedition are being slapped on to suppress dissenting activists, students and intellectuals. Mob lynching of Dalits, Tribals and Minorities particularly Muslims continues unabated in the name of cow protection, love Jihad etc.
The tenure of the Modi government has presided over a steep rise on the attacks over SCs, STs and other vulnerable groups on the pretext of cow vigilantism and inter-caste marriages etc. Guided by the RSS’s Manuwadi ideology, attempts are on to deprive the downtrodden of their constitutional claims of reservations and protection under the SC/STs Prevention of Atrocities Act. Similarly, the Forest Rights Act is not being implemented properly depriving Tribals of their rights and livelihood. The Sangh Parivar’s anti-Dalit attitude also manifested itself on many occasions.
The RSS ideology always played the politics of polarisation and alienation of the Muslims and their efforts intensified in the last five years. Several of brutal attacks took place on poor Muslims. They were constantly the targets of mob-lynchings with the perpetrators becoming assertive by the impunity shown by the government. The controversy surrounding the Ayodhya dispute and Triple Talaq bill was also used to stigmatize the entire Muslim population and mobilise the Hindu population against them. Recently, the controversy and violence after the proposed amendments in the Citizenship Act also reflects the antipathy of the rulers towards the minority.
The plight of the women and children continues to be miserable. These vulnerable groups continue to live in insecurity. Framing pro-women and pro-children policies should have been a priority but the government’s allocation for these remains meagre and insufficient. Crimes against women have increased manifold in the preceding years and they include heinous crimes like rape and trafficking. India is suffering from a gender pay gap of 27% with men earning more than women in every sector making inequality a gendered phenomenon and restricting women from exercising their agency effectively. Despite the presence of many legislation protecting child rights like Right to Education, the will to effectively implement them is thoroughly absent in the present regime resulting in children being employed in hazardous industries like mining and chemicals.
The problems of the elders in our country are quite serious. There are about 24 crore persons above 55 years of age in our country. As per NSSO survey, 30% of the elderly males and a staggering 72% of elderly females depend on others without any income of their own. The government’s draft National Policy on Senior Citizens can be described only as wishful thinking without the will the implement it.
The BJP came to power with a promise of “Achche Din” (Good Days) and “Sab ka Sath Sab ka Vikas” (Development for all). These are nothing but rhetoric and hollow promises. The government is brazenly serving the interest of corporate and monopoly houses. This has led to unprecedented inequality evident from the ever increasing gulf between the rich and the poor with the top 1% of the population amassing 53% wealth of the country.
The foreign policy of the BJP government is even a larger mess of failures even after the much hyped and publicised foreign tours of the PM. The one-man show led by Mr. Modi has consistently encroached upon the office of the Foreign and Defence Minister and has failed to yield much for the benefit of the commoners. The main theme of his foreign policy has been a pro US-Israel tilt and its failure to pursue independent positions keeping in view our relationships with the developing countries and taking a reasonable proactive role in multilateral forums. The BJP government has not taken meaningful initiative to engage with our neighbouring countries. Fight against terrorism needs to be a collective one with all peace-loving forces on board but the policy of aligning with US interests are leaving not much space for that.
The recent terror attack on CRPF in Pulwama and the post-Pulwama developments are being brazenly politicalised by BJP and RSS rather than maintaining the unity of the people. The use of armed forces for political mileage is condemnable and detrimental to morale of the forces.
The massive drive for privatization of our national wealth through disinvestment, outright and strategic sale of the public sector is rampant. Even strategic and key sectors like defence, railways, banks, insurance, BHEL and others are gradually being handed over to the foreign and domestic corporate undermining the national interest. This is also evident from the way government is dealing with Air India.
In the name of “Make in India” and “Ease of doing Business”, domestic and foreign corporates are allowed to exploit the country’s resources including oil, gas and forests. Laws to protect the environment are being diluted and violated openly.
Right after the BJP-led NDA government came to power, one of the first acts of the Government was to announce the unceremonious shutting down of the Planning Commission. In a country where as many as 79% of the population lives in poverty and hunger, planning is necessary to alleviate the problems of the common masses. By scrapping away the Planning Commission and with NITI Aayog assuming the role of recommending disinvestment and strategic sale of public sector units, the market forces led by International Finance Capital are effectively controlling the economy bringing more misery to the people.
The agricultural sector is in deep crisis. A glaring and reneged promise of the BJP was of doubling the farmers’ income and ensuring to the peasantry the Minimum Support Price at 50% above cost of production for all crops. The government betrayed farmers on the comprehensive loan waivers. The government is not ready to ensure minimum wage and social security to agricultural workers and instead has curtailed the allocation to MGNREGA. The biggest betrayal and deceit is by the flagship scheme of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, which has been made an instrument of loot, aiding private insurance companies. The NDA government has allowed 100% FDI in agriculture and announced contract farming that will facilitate large scale takeover of cultivation by Multinational Agro Business companies thus making farmers mere agricultural labourers on their own land.
The neo-liberal policies and the apathy of the centre towards farmers have further deepened the agricultural crisis and alarming increase in farmers’ suicide. The foodgrain production has declined in 2015-16 from the preceding 5 years, threatening the survival of the vast peasantry in countryside and nation’s food security while exposing the government’s pro-farmer mask.
Labour laws are being amended brazenly favouring employers, snatching away the hard-earned rights of the workers including eight hours work, minimum wages, social security and the right to organize and collective bargaining. Contract system is being encouraged everywhere and yet another attack is the fixed-term employment allowed in all sectors.
India now has the highest number of unemployed people in the world! This government came to power on the promise of creating 2 crore jobs every year but barely succeeded in creating 2 lakh jobs each year. The unemployment rate has nearly doubled in the 4 years under Modi and about to reach 7%. India’s youth population is the largest in the world at nearly 600 million but lack of decent employment is making them frustrated. This young nation needs government that can create employment opportunities for but the Modi government and its decisions like demonetisation and the hasty implementation of GST have further crushed the employment prospects. Demonetisation alone had resulted huge loss of employment. GST regime has not only worsened the unemployment situation, it has taken away many essential commodities including medicine and healthcare from the reach of the people. Unemployment and underemployment are the most burning problems before our youth and their future remains bleak and uncertain.
The government is bent on promoting privatization of education and health sectors and thus allowing commercialization of these sectors taking away both education and healthcare away from the reach of people. Evident from its efforts for privatising higher education like giving institute of eminence tag to Mukesh Ambani’s yet to be founded JIO institute overlooking well-performing public sector universities. Similarly, health sector schemes like Ayushman Bharat will channel the benefits to the private-insurers, private healthcare lobby. One example of how serious the government about health care benefits reaching all, is its reversal of an order capping the price of 108 life saving drugs in 2014 under pressure of US-based multinationals.
The decision of demonetisation yielded nothing but misery with 99% of the currency that was demonetised coming back to RBI. Demonetization, it turns out, was a futile exercise that brought to the RBI cost of Rs 21,000 crores in the printing of new notes. It has had no impact on terror funding as was claimed by the government. The bubble of unearthing black money is burst with the miseries met by the poorer sections of the people, workers in the unorganised sector and small traders. In short, demonetization accomplished nothing other than traumatizing crores of Indians. Demonetisation has been used to whiten black money.
Prices of essential commodities have skyrocketed under current regime. The Public Distribution System which is the support system for the downtrodden has virtually collapsed due to lack of funds and mismanagement. During the last five years, the prices of eight essential commodities have gone up nearly 72% while the per capita income of average Indian in the metros has gone up by only 38%. The deregulation of petroleum prices has resulted in unprecedented rise in the price of petroleum products despite the drastic fall in international price of crude oil. Petrol and Diesel prices have hit an all-time high in 2018! In the years when the price of crude oil was low around the world, the BJP government kept on rising petrol and diesel prices.
The promise of elimination of corruption and bringing back black money has become a mockery. According to Forbes, India is today the most corrupt country in Asia! The nexus between present government and corrupt cronies stands thoroughly established by the Nirav Modi episode. A total of 31 scam-tainted billionaires have fled the country, right under the nose of the present government. The PM’s proximity with absconding defaulters like Nirav Modi is well known. Money of public sector banks is being looted by such corporates and all the enforcement agencies could not take effective action against people like Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya who are patronised from the highest quarters. About 500 Indian are named in the Panama paper but the government has taken no action against them. In 2014 Bank Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) were worth Rs. 2.4 lakh crores. By March, 2018, they shot up to Rs. 9 lakh crores. The great majority of defaulters are corporates. Since 2014, there have been 12,787 bank frauds amounting to Rs. 17,789 crores!
The Rafael deal has completely deprived the Prime Minister of using anti-corruption rhetoric. His betrayal of HAL – a public sector undertaking in order to support a corporate business house is tantamount to the betrayal of the nation. This move has undermined national security and the PM has a lot to answer. Refusal to accept a JPC probe on this issue itself has established the guilt and complicity of the PM corroborated by multiple sources. The murderous Vyapam Scam in Madhya Pradesh continues to haunt and cast a dark shadow of impropriety over the BJP government. To top it all, the government’s newly introduced electoral bonds have now made it possible for donors to donate anonymously to political parties and have made campaign funding more opaque than ever. It is an open invitation to foreign capital to meddle in the conduct of elections and consequently our democracy.
Income inequality has been a persistent problem in India. With the BJP government at the helm, inequality has increased to unsustainable levels. Almost half of India’s wealth is in the hands of the richest 1% citizens of the country and the richest 10% of the population controls 74% of the wealth of the nation.
The country’s economy as a whole is in virtual shambles as the Government shamelessly pursues the anti-people and pro-Corporate economic policies under the dictates of International Finance Capital to complete the implementation of the remaining agenda of neo-liberalism, the prescription that has been mistakenly declared as the only path of development but which actually aims at imposing the political and economic hegemony of the finance capital the world over. Pursuance of this and tying Indian interests with those of the finance capital resulted in increasing national debt, a desolate job market and worsening of agricultural crisis.
Against this background of monumental failures of BJP government, the General Elections to elect the 17th Lok Sabha are being held. The CPI places before the people its positions on various vital issues.
The CPI commits itself to fight for the people in and outside the parliament on the basis of the following charter of demands –
Farmers’ distress and agrarian sector:
• Implement Swaminathan Committee recommendations.
• Statutory assurance of remunerative prices (at least 50% on C2 Cost of Cultivation) for all farm produce through expanded and decentralised procurement.
• One-time comprehensive loan-waiver, along with a National Debt Relief Commission and timely and effective relief from disaster related distress.
• Reduce the cost of inputs for farmers either by regulating industry price or offering subsidy directly to farmers;
• Ensure timely, effective and adequate compensation for crop loss due to natural disasters; implement a comprehensive crop insurance that benefits farmers and covers all types of risks for all crops and for all farmers.
• Summon regular special dedicated sessions the Parliament to discuss about agrarian sector and its problems.
• Provide comprehensive social security for all farm households including pension for farmers agriculture workers and artisans above the age of 60
• Enactment of a central legislation for agricultural workers. Separate budget for agriculture in states and centre.
• Public sector storage and distribution system be promoted.
• Ban speculative trading in essential commodities.
• Increase the number of guaranteed employment days under MGNREGS to 200 days per family, and ensure wage payment within the period guaranteed by statute and at par with legal minimum wages for unskilled farm labour;
• Address the menace of stray animals by removing all legal and vigilante-imposed restrictions on cattle trade, compensating farmers for destruction of crops by wild and stray animals and supporting animal shelters;
• Stop land acquisition or land pooling without informed consent of the farmers; no acquisition or diversion of agricultural land for commercial land development or for creation of land banks; prevent the bypassing or dilution of The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 at the state level; and evolve land use and agricultural land protection policy.
• Provide land and livelihood rights to the landless, including agricultural and homestead land, water for fishing, mining of minor minerals.
• Ensure remunerative guaranteed prices for milk and its procurement for dairies and to supplement nutritional security through Mid Day Meal Scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme etc.
• Protect the farmers from corporate plunder in the name of contract farming by reviewing the Contract Farming Act 2018.
• Remove the control of trade lobby and anti-farmer bias of agricultural produce trade policy and remove agriculture related deals from Free Trade Agreements like RCEP.
• Ensure implementation of land ceiling laws, transfer of surplus land and other available land to landless poor and Dalits and provide land rights and pattas to women and mutation of land in the name of women successors.
• Considering the depletion of cultivable land at alarming speed, exclusive agricultural zones be notified and protected.
Youth and Unemployment:
• Right to work as a fundamental right by amending the constitution.
• Enactment of Bhagat Singh National Employment Guarantee Act (BNEGA) for all.
• Unemployment allowance as part of social security to the unemployed.
• Check unemployment through encouraging labour intensive industries.
• Filling up all vacancies across sectors.
• Formulation of a comprehensive ‘National Youth Policy’ for the overall development of the youth of the country.
• Ensuring equal access to all sections of the youth in sports and games. Development of infrastructure for sports in educational institutes.
• The government’s duty is resource mobilisation and revenue generation. Taking view of increasing economic inequality ceiling on urban property and wealth be looked into.
Workers’ Demands:
• Fix national minimum wages as per the recommendation of 15th Indian Labour Conference.
• Assure minimum pension of Rs. 9,000 per month and indexed pension to all.
• Scrap New Pension Scheme and restore the Old Pension Scheme.
• Abolish Contract Labour system in perennial nature of job pending which strictly implement equal wages and benefits to contract workers doing the same job as permanent workers.
• Stop outsourcing and contractorisation of jobs of permanent and perennial nature.
• Strict implementation of equal pay and equal work for men and women as per Indian constitution.
• Recognise workers employed in the NHM, MDM, Para-teachers, teaching and non-teaching staff of NCLP, Gramin chowkidars etc. as workers and pay minimum wages, social security benefits including pension etc. to all of them.
• Immediately revoke “Fixed-Term Employment”.
• Labour laws be strictly implemented in Special Economic Zones (SEZs).
• Periodical wage revision to all CPSU Workers without insisting any affordability condition.
• A dedicated central legislation to protect and give social security to Domestic Workers.
• Ensuring strict and strong implementation of regulatory and punitive measures based on Labour Laws, towards gainful employment and protection of vulnerable worker-force. Ensuring the enforcement and implementation of the Bonded Labour System Abolition Act 1976 and time-bound rehabilitation will ensure protection and access to justice for vulnerable children, women and families in the brick kiln sector.
• The issues regarding the security and protection of Street Vendors, Migrant Labourer etc. be resolved. A central law be enacted to that effect.
• Stop anti-worker and pro-employer amendments to the labour laws and codifications.
• A large programme for poverty alleviation be initiated to guarantee a minimum stipend ensuring a decent living for poor families while strengthening the existing social sector schemes also giving thrust to generation of jobs for the disadvantaged.
Women and Gender Justice:
• To prevent crime against women adequate budgetary allocation for strengthening institutions and strict implementation and monitoring of women friendly legislations.
• Increasing number of courts and fast tracking all cases of crimes against women in a time bound manner.
• Strengthening laws to prevent honour killings, derogatory comments against women and curbing the unconstitutional activities of parallel structures like Khaap Panchayats.
• Legislation for the empowerment of Trans community and adequate economic and social support for the LGBTQ community.
• Legal and financial assistance to single women, destitute women, widows, and half-widows.
• Legislation to give 33% reservation to women in jobs.
• Legislation to reserve 33% seats to women in Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies.
• 50% reservation in all-three tiers of Panchayati Raj institution.
• Legislation for salary and allowances to elected representatives of Local Self Government.
• Ensure autonomy to National and State Women’s Commissions.
• Provision for equal right on inherited and marital property to women
• Priority to women from SC/ST/OBC communities, Female headed households, widows, homeless, aged, destitute, survivors of sexual violence, acid attacks etc. in government housing schemes
• Comprehensive policy for women from farm suicide affected families to support them.
• Recognising rural women as farmers and ensure all rights to them as farmers.
• Strict implementation of Social Security Act and ensuring minimum wage for all workers including home-based workers
• De-linking of AADHAAR from all social security benefits
• Universalisation of Maternity Entitlement Act
• Setting up of a National Women’s Bank on NABARD model to ensure uninterrupted flow of fund to SHGs and Women led MSMEs.
• 33% representation of women in all National Commissions.
• 8th March (International Women’s Day) beobserved as Gender Budget Review day by Parliament.
• Setting up of an Empowered Commission to monitor and review the implementation of all Rights Based Legislations.
Children:
• Ending all forms of malnutrition and achieving the internationally agreed nutrition targets for children, adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women.
• Ensuring that all schools remain free from violence and abuse.
• Stringent provisions to stop human-trafficking particularly children.
• Strict monitoring and implementation of all Laws related to Children.
Senior Citizens and Differently Abled:
• Ensuring pension to all senior citizens except Income tax payers.
• Building public old age homes in all districts with community kitchens at subsidised prices.
• Effective policies and provisions for inclusion of Persons with Disablities (PwD) to live a dignified life in community.
Retired Defence Personal
• Implementation of one Rank one Pension to all the retired defense personal which is a long standing demand.
Food Security and Public Distribution System:
• Universalize the benefits of the Public Distribution System including cereals and nutri-cereals, pulses, sugar and oils without linking it to Aadhar or biometric identification and without shifting to direct cash transfer.
• Pulses and oils be added to the PDS basket
• Strengthen Consumer Protection Laws to prevent adulteration.
STs, SCs and Other Backward Castes:
• India being a welfare state needs such measures that could cater to the masses. To give effect, dismantle NITI Ayog which is only catering to the demands corporate houses and reinstate the Planning Commission.
• Restoration of SC/ST sub-plan both at the centre and the state.
• Stop uprooting Adivasi farmers in the name of afforestation, ensure strict implementation without dilution of Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act and Forests Rights Act, 2006.
• Ensure proper implementation of the reservation policy for SCs/STs/OBCs in all categories across sectors and include private sector and institutes of PPP model.
• End manual scavenging in all its forms and rehabilitate those engaged in manual scavenging in dignified and non-scavenging professions.
• Marginalised sections and tribal children’s’ education and skill development programme be linked with fund for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
• All major areas of tribal population be brought under the 5th schedule of the constitution and PESA to fully and effectively protect their rights through Gram Sabhas.
• Demand of the left out categories of genuinely tribal communities be reviewed for inclusion in the ST category.
Minority communities:
• Implementation of Justice Rajendra Sachar Committee report and Rangnath Mishra Committee recommendations.
• Amending the constitution to give constitutional status to National Commission for Minorities.
• Bringing in a dedicated law against lynching by creating criminal culpability of public officials with command responsibility.
• Reservation to Dalits from all religious denominations.
Education:
• Free and universal education from primary to secondary level be brought under Right to Education (RTE).
• Increase government expenditure on education to 10% of the GDP.
• End shortage of teachers by filling vacancies through regular recruitment of teachers at all levels following the proper reservation norms.
• Release the money of all pending scholarships and fellowships immediately and establish more fellowships for research scholars from deprived backgrounds.
• Ensuring a radical increase in the number of vocational and industrial training institutes.
• Restoring and protecting the autonomy of the education system and universities.
• Change in syllabus to promote rationalism and scientific temper and resisting communalisation and fundamentalism. Secularism to be implemented in spirit in education as ordained in the constitution.
• Protect the federal character and resist centralisation of education.
Health:
• Ensuring allocation of 6% of GDP to health sector.
• Regulation of the total private healthcare system is an alarming need.
• Stop with commercialisation of medical education by abolishing capitation fees, reducing tuition fees etc.
• Strengthening Primary health care system.
• Improvements in public sector health facilities instead of private insurance based systems.
Environment, Forests and other natural resources:
• Building a national consensus on the linking of rivers.
• Conservation of the forests, rivers and water bodies.
• All encroachments on forests, riverbeds and water bodies by mining mafia be removed.
• Efforts must be made to mitigate the adverse effects of global warming and climate change considering India is the 6th most vulnerable country in the world as many reports suggests climate related economic losses have increased alarmingly.
Electoral Reforms:
• Amending the Representation of People’s Act to replace the first past the post system with proportional representation system.
• Bringing in comprehensive law for election financing and to stop money and muscle power affecting elections. Implementation of state funding of elections as recommended by Indrajit Gupta Committee.
• Amending relevant laws to provide free air time to all political parties and equitable access to media and information and electoral rolls.
• The system of donating to political parties through electoral bonds and corporate funding must be reviewed to insulate the elections process from the influence of corporate houses and black money.
Judicial and Police Reforms:
• Ensuring adequate representation and maintaining a diverse composition at all levels of judiciary by inclusion of women, SC/STs/OBCs and minority communities.
• Striving to improve access to justice by operationalising local level Nyayalayas. Clearing the backlog of cases and filling all vacancies in judiciary to ensure effective delivery of justice.
• Draconian and suppressive laws like section 124A of IPC (Sedition), Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, National Security Act (NSA), Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), Section 499 of IPC (Criminal Defamation) etc. should be suitably amended or scrapped with as to stop their misuse in suppressing dissent and claiming impunity.
Media Reforms:
• Working Journalist Act be amended to include journalists and workers from all media organisations to ensure decent wages and security.
• Ensuring independence of public service broadcasters.
• Create an independent body free from government influence to supervise and regulate over electronic media without curbing freedom of speech but checking the spread of the menace of fake news, inciting news etc.
Issues concerning the NRIs:
• All issues regarding Non-Resident Indians welfare fund, Insurance, Rehabilitation etc. be resolved.
• Adequate provisions be made for the free transportation of dead bodies of NRIs to India.
Culture:
• Preserving and protecting our plural, composite culture and its values from homogenous, monolithic offensive.
• Promotion and preservation of all languages.
• Develop scripts and dialects of tribal-languages.
• Promotion of Manipuri language to the classical language status.
Federalism:
• Inter-state and Zonal council be made effective.
• For proper devolution of powers and resources between the union and states Planning Commission should be revived.
• Stop the misuse of article 356 and the Office of Governor by the union government.
• Due consideration and initiative to accord full statehood to Puducherry and Delhi.
• The concerned state governments be consulted before the Union government takes any decision on subjects listed in the Concurrent list.
Autonomy of institutions:
• Statutory powers and status to Central Statistical Commission (CSO).
• The publication of NSSO reports be made mandatory to instil transparency and objective analysis of government’s claims.
• The functional autonomy of the EC, CAG, RBI, CBI, CVC and other institutions of oversight must be ensured.
North-East- Issues:
• Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 be withdrawn.
• Special category status be restored and greater autonomy be granted to Manipur.
• Indo-Myanmar boundary be resurveyed and fenced.
• Indo-Naga framework agreement be made transparent and all the stakeholder states be consulted before finalisation.
Kashmir Situation
• The situation in Kashmir continues to be tense because of the muscular-militarist approach of the present government. Kashmir situation is not just security-law and order problem. It has to be addressed politically through engagement with all stakeholders to find a political solution.
Foreign Policy:
• To pursue an independent foreign policy without succumbing to the pressures of imperialist powers.
• To play more proactive role in multilateral forums like United Nations, BRICS, SCO etc.
• To promote good neighbourly relations through meaningful engagement, promote South-South cooperation with the spirit of Non-alignment.
• To continue our support and solidarity to the people of Palestine.
• To take a stand against US interventionist policies in Latin America particularly Venezuela.
Science and Technology:
• Focus on renewable energy instead of fossil fuels or nuclear power.
• No imports of new Nuclear Reactors; cancellation of existing deals with Westinghouse (US) and Areva (France)
• Increase public investment in Research and Development
• Encouragement of serious research into the history of science in India.
• Spread of science education in all languages of our country by means of large scale translation of text books and scientific material.
• Increased autonomy for educational and scientific institutes.
• Intellectual Property Regime to be modified to protect people’s interest, not the interest of large Corporations.
• Safe guards in Public-Private Partnership in technological development to ensure that public funded research is not used for private profit.
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