December 16-31, 2006

The concept that it is the praja (the people) who select the raja (ruler) has been handed down to us from ancient times. So is the concept that a ruler who does not carry out his duty of protecting and providing for the people deserves to be beheaded. The revolutionaries of 1857declared that “We, the people, are the masters of Hindostan!” But today, almost 150 years after that revolt was crushed by the British colonizers, it is a small class of exploiters who are the masters of India. The ‘right’ of big capitalists to grow super-rich is trampling in the mud all human rights belonging to the people. Neither the Constitution of India nor the Parliament and other institutions based on it defend human rights. On the contrary, they are instruments for suppressing the people for the sake of preserving the rule of the exploiters.

Thus spoke Comrade Prakash Rao, spokesperson of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, on 10 th December at Giri Nagar, Kalkaji, New Delhi. He was speaking at an event organised jointly by Lok Raj Sangathan and Hind Naujawan Ekta Sabha on the occasion of International Human Rights Day. It was organised on the topic: What kind of democracy can guarantee human rights?

The nature of the existing Indian democracy was exposed at this meeting through a powerful film depicting the brutal army rule in Manipur and the continuing heroic struggle of the people there. Young boys and girls participated actively in the discussion that followed the film. They picked up the points that Comrade Prakash Rao had made and further elaborated them during the discussion. They enthusiastically debated the alternative to the existing capitalist democracy and its party dominated political process.

Birju Nayak, speaking on behalf of Lok Raj Sangathan, pointed out that the elected representatives do not represent the people’s interests in this system. They do the bidding of their party high command, in the interests of the exploiters and to fill their own pockets. The people, far from being the masters, are reduced to vote banks of one or another party of big moneyed interests. He called on the people to select their own candidates from among their midst, as the first step in fighting to make the people the masters of India. “Let us use the coming municipal elections in Delhi to put this into practice. Let us select our own people’s representatives and fight to break the stranglehold of the party representatives”, he declared.

The event concluded with a powerful street play enacted by the youthful members of Hind Naujawan Ekta Sabha. The play depicted the plight of the rural poor who migrate to cities in search of work, their efforts to build their homes in the city, only to face the threat of being uprooted and displaced for the sake of making the city beautiful for the capitalist class. It depicted the people’s resolve to fight for their right to live in the city, and concluded with militant slogans that lifted the spirits of the entire audience.

The celebration of Human Rights Day in Giri Nagar filled the participants with hope for the future, in spite of the dark clouds that threaten the present. At its conclusion, one was left with the feeling that the day is not far off when the people will rise to assert that they are the masters of India. They will establish a new political process where the people are the decision makers, and only then will human rights be guaranteed for all.