We have collected short quotes from various
speakers at the Jan Sansad today. The speakers at the Jan Sansad today include:
Baba Adhav, Ashok Chowdhury, Kamla Bhasin, Vrinda Grover, Praveen Jha, Harsh
Mander, Medha Patkar, Annie Raja, PV Rajagopal, Aruna Roy, Shantha Sinha, Binayak
Sen, Bezwada Wilson
Baba Adhav
The country has conveniently forgotten the
constitutional promise that India is a secular, socialist republic. The
Government is so obsessed with increasing the GDP that it overlooks the fact
that all the wealth is going into the coffers of less than a hundred wealthy
families while 37% of the population lives below the poverty line.
Ashok Chowdhury
Peoples' movements are presently passing through
a very important and critical
period. While people are demanding constitutional& civil rights to ensure livelihood & labour rights, the
state is continuously denying these
demands & thus undermining the very basis of our national struggle for independence from colonial raj.
This is a multi-dimensional crisis situation:
political, social & cultural. So, one-dimensional
issue based strategy will not be effective in resolving this crisis. Holistic approach is necessary for the movements to face this challenge. This critical issue
of Rights also came up very strongly
during our freedom struggle which were raised by Shaheed Bhagat Singh & Dr Ambedkar
Kamla Bhasin
“Desh me aurat agar beaabroo
nashaad hai
Dil pe rakh kar haath
kahiye desh kya azaad hai”
Even after 63 years of the Indian Constitution, the country does
not seem to FREE or Equal for women and girls. There is 800 plus percentage
increase in rape cases, sex ratio for the under six continues to decline,
number of women in the Parliament is below 10%. From a gender perspective a lot
of CLAIMING and RECLAIMING of the constitution has to be done.
Vrinda Grover
Every time the Indian State or any of its
functionaries, orders lathi charge on unarmed protestors; commits a caste
atrocity; tortures; in the name of national security kills people in so called
encounters in Kashmir, Manipur and almost in every other part of India; sells
land and rivers inhabited by adivasis; allows for mass crimes against Muslims,
Christians; fails to protect women from sexual assault; refuses to pay minimum
wage to toiling workers, the Indian State is guilty of contempt of the
Constitution. Each time a citizen protests,
demands her rights, challenges abuse of state power, she breathes fresh life
into the Constitution.
Article 21, the right to Life is a human right
that we all have. It was not granted to us by the Constitution. No government
or state can deprive us of our right to life. Any law or policy that diminishes
the right to life, is unconstitutional and illegal. It must be challenged and
defied.
Praveen Jha
The 'social compact' that the post-Independence
Indian State had with its citizens with respect to public provisioning of
'primary goods' for a decent existence was unfortunately never taken seriously.
Nonetheless, the compact itself was based on the philosophical position
enshrined in our Constitution. What we are witnessing at the current juncture
is an attack on such a position and by inference on the compact itself, which
must be challenge and resisted
Harsh Mander
The idea of India is contained in the Indian
Constitution. Today it stands deeply threatened by the retreat of the state from its responsibilities
to ensure a better life for disadvantaged
populations, by growing concentration of
wealth in a few hands, and by the resurgence globally of religious prejudice. A regime of legally enforceable
socio-economic rights must establish a
floor of human dignity below which no one would be allowed to fall, and public officials should be held criminally
accountable for permitting targeted mass
violence.
Medha Patkar
This is high time that all people's movements
raise various issues in the framework of both human and constitutional rights. This is because
the state which is corporatized and privatized
is throwing the framework of equity and
justice and socialism in the dustbin. They must
rise up and fight to save the constitution and get the development planned in the same framework without
which no welfarism should be acceptable
to Dalits, adivasis, farmers, fish workers and toiling masses. If not now, when?
Annie Raja
Despite patriarchy and neoliberal economic policy, denying women
the constitutional right to equality and life with dignity, women will always
remain united to carry on their struggle to attain economic independence,
political empowerment and social emancipation
Aruna Roy
Every nation begins with hope.
The preamble, the chapter on fundamental rights and the Directive principles of
state policy of the Indian Constitution read together, is a statement of faith.
But the nation that became free and dreamt of a country without fear, hunger,
want, illiteracy, with equality, equity and justice has often faced a hostile
State. Despite these travails, the spirit and structure of democracy still
inspire faith in the most neglected group in India, the poor and marginalized.
We are here together to re assert that faith and pledge our support to
strengthen and re-build the architecture which will have to work to make that
nascent hope a reality.
Binayak Sen
The Indian Constitution does
provide an ideological infrastructure for a decorative polity, with its
commitment to democratic rights and the directives to social and economic
equality. Much of this promise remains unrealised, however, and it will take
all our collective, creative energies to bring about the changes that will
enable us as a people to face the challenges of the future
Shantha Sinha
'Ensuring justice and equity for all children in
the country and protecting their rights to education, survival and dignity is
indispensable for India’s democracy and development. This obligation remains
unfulfilled. It is urged that children are at the centre-stage of a national
consciousness energising the State to act in consonance with
constitutional values.'
Bezwada Wilson
We the people are the first words of the Constitution.
However the privileged deny that others are
people too. Article 17, 14 and 21 are the
most important articles of the constitution yet they are violated daily. An example is the continued prevalence of
manual scavenging.
