Stir against ‘vote theft’ will be integrated with concerns of farmers, working class: Dipankar Bhattacharya

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation [CPI(ML) Liberation] general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya has said that the ongoing protests by the INDIA bloc against alleged vote theft will be integrated with the concerns of the farmers and the working class.

He was addressing the media here on Saturday (October 31). Answering a question, Mr. Bhattacharya said there would be greater coordination between the ongoing struggles on the ground and INDIA bloc, which was initially launched as an electoral alliance.

“We, the Left parties, always pay very close attention to the farmers’ issues. The biggest challenge before the Indian farmers now is the proposed India-U.S. trade deal, which, if it is finalised, will sound a death knell for Indian agriculture. The farmers will suffer enormously because they cannot compete with the American farmers who are backed by the U.S. state and its economy. We are with the farmers on the issue,” he said.

Likewise, the workers had been fighting against the Labour Codes. “Earlier, whatever basic labour rights were promised, many of them were never really kept. Now with the Labour Codes, there is absolutely no concern for the labour welfare or any security of Indian workers. So we are with the working class,” Mr. Bhattacharya said.

He said that all INDIA bloc constituents would be participating in the protest rally planned on the Ram Lila grounds in New Delhi on November 1. Mr. Bhattacharya pointed out that the protest would take the ongoing movement against alleged vote theft to a new stage because there was absolutely no other way out. “If the government won’t listen and the Election Commission of India will not answer, then a powerful, peaceful, popular movement is the only way out,” he said.

The CPI(ML) leader also ridiculed the concept of “Special Executive Magistrate” in Delhi, where a police officer in the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police becomes a magistrate. “There is absolutely no separation of powers. A police officer is getting a report from his own police constable and is issuing orders. I think it is a complete denial of any kind of fair judicial process... And the other thing is, of course, this idea of a peace bond. The very cause for any peaceful protest is being actually considered a breach of peace,” he added.