Opinion

Stalin urges political parties to come together to ensure equality and social justice; Is anyone responding?

Leaders of as many as 37 political parties, including Sonia Gandhi, have been urged to be part of Stalin’s initiative

Equality and social justice are the most prominent aspects that need to be held aloft in today’s era. So believes Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister had last week made it public that his government was putting together an All India Federation for Social Justice, and he hopes to have many from the nation’s political spectrum to stand by his side as he rolls out the venture.

Stalin has written to several leaders across the country, and called upon them to come together to make the idea of equality and social justice fruitful. Leaders of as many as 37 political parties, including Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, have been urged to be part of the initiative, and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has called upon each one of them to nominate representatives who would be part of the All India Federation for Social Justice.

In the list of parties to whom Stalin has written to, arch rival and Tamil Nadu’s Opposition party AIADMK has also been included. Besides, he has written to the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Left parties and the Trinamool Congress also. The goal, Stalin wrote, for the Federation would be to create a platform which would draw up a roadmap to take the battle for social justice in India forward.

Stalin calls for re-establishing the pluralistic identity of the Republic

Pointing out that India’s unique, diverse, multicultural federation is under threat of bigotry and religious hegemony, Stalin warned that such forces need to be fought by the coming together of all who believe in equality, self-respect and social justice. Keeping aside all politics aside, the need was to re-establish the pluralistic identity of the Republic, he wrote.

The time has come for all to stand together as a true Union of States so that equality and social justice, Stalin opined saying reservations may not be enough to ensure social justice and that the oppressed need to be convinced that they will get the opportunity to leave behind the centuries of oppression and exclusion.

Calling upon the leaders of the political outfits across India to stand together to achieve noble objectives, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister urged everyone to stand united with the same conviction and purpose was done to ensure the putting in place of the Mandal Commission. He added that the federation should be seen as a platform to further the battle for social justice in the country.

Can we expect parties to respond?

Calling upon the parties to identify the areas in which more could be done and bring about a common minimum programme to be uniformly adopted by all states, Stalin called for extraordinary steps to eradicate gender discrimination along with caste discrimination and also enable the differently abled to compete in the mainstream.

MK Stalin’s letter comes across a new step in furthering the cause of ensuring equality and social justice for all. It remains to be seen whether the parties who have received the letter would also think in the same lines.

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Sanjeev Ramachandran

A journalist with 23 years of experience, Sanjeev has worked with reputed media houses such as Business Standard, The Ne More »
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