Unite against the reign of terror being unleashed on the residents of Delhi!

Statement of the Delhi Regional Committee of CGPI, 23 September, 2006

With deep anger, the Delhi Regional Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India condemns the reign of terror unleashed by the authorities on the residents of Delhi, including the police firing on protesting traders, workers and youth at Seelampur on 20 th September. We extend heartfelt condolences to the families of the four persons killed in police firing, including three boys barely into their teens. .

We congratulate the traders and workers in small shops of Delhi for organizing the successful bandh, a political action that completely paralysed all commercial activity in the city on 20 th September. The traders’ association had called for the bandh after the Supreme Court once again called for the resumption and intensification of the demolition and sealing drive executed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

We condemn the misinformation campaign launched by the Congress Party, and the central and state governments it heads. Rumors have been planted that there was firing on the police from the people in Seelampur, with no real evidence to back it up. The aim of this propaganda campaign is to blame the victims for the killings and to divide the people’s opposition to the demolition and sealing drive.

The fact is that the police fired several rounds at protestors and those who happened to be on the roads, with the aim of killing some and terrorizing the rest. This is being covered up by the typical method of hatching up conspiracy theories. Instead of the guilty being charged with murder, hundreds of daily wage workers have been rounded up and arrested! The fact that three of the four who died were not traders, but children of workers, is being used to spread the lie that some mysterious forces are instigating violence.

The attempt to turn workers and traders against each other, as well as different sections among traders against one another, is a typical method of the ruling class to break the unity of the people and smash their resistance. The Communist Ghadar Party of India calls upon people to reject such lies. We demand immediate release of all the arrested people, and severe punishment for the officers and political leaders guilty of murdering people in cold blood.

The sealing and demolition drive is a full scale attack on the working class and middle strata by the ruling class, headed by the big bourgeoisie. It is a violent assault on the right to shelter and right to life, of the working people who constitute the majority of residents of Delhi. It is a program to further enrich and empower a minority of Indian big capitalists and foreign multinational companies, by converting the land of Delhi into an arena for monopoly companies to reap maximum profits.

Slums in which nearly 35% of Delhi's population resides are being brutally razed to the ground, without even pretence of providing alternate accommodation. From May to August, thousands of families in a slum cluster in Jehangirpuri have been brutally evicted in order for roads to be built through their homes, in which they have lived for as long as 20 years. Many of the men, women and children have been brutally beaten up and their properties destroyed. Similarly, slum dwellers in Nangla Maachi along the Jamuna have been evicted, to beautify the city for the Commonwealth games.

The ruling class is pursuing extremely self serving aims and trying to cover this up with words like "National Urban Renewal Mission". What is hidden behind these words is the ruthless onslaught on the rights of the majority of people who keep Delhi alive. The victims of this Mission include slum dwellers, shop keepers and traders, hawkers and street vendors, house hold labourers, roadside mechanics — literally everyone who lives and works in Delhi and contributes to the economy and life of the bustling metropolis.

The ‘mission’ of the big bourgeoisie is to open up prime land in the cities for speculation and profiteering, to bring retail trade under the domination of Indian and foreign capitalist corporations, replace family shops by shopping malls, and throw lakhs of workers and petty bourgeois families from the city, forcing them to far away areas.

The sealing and demolition drive is being carried out by the MCD at the orders of the Delhi High Court and Supreme Court of India. This method of operation, with the Judiciary playing the role of the executive government, is very convenient for the Congress Party and the BJP. It allows them to pretend as if they have nothing to do with the attacks taking place.

People must not believe the claims and promises of either the Congress Party or the BJP, or any other electoral party in the service of bourgeois rule. The experience of the past one year’s struggle has shown that only the fighting unity of the people can succeed in restraining the bourgeois offensive. This is the lesson from the traders’ struggles so far. This is the lesson from the struggle against demolition of slums, such as the heroic struggle of residents of Transit Camp in Kalkaji, which forced the rulers to call a temporary halt to the offensive.

The Communist Ghadar Party of India calls upon all wage and salaried workers, the trading community, small shopkeepers and street vendors, and all those concerned with the rights of the people, to resist the fascistic drive of the big bourgeoisie in the name of urban renewal.

Delhi belongs to the people who work all day to keep this city running!

Secure livelihood and shelter for all the working people takes priority over maximum profits for private profiteers!