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The Peoples Alliance for Democracy & Secularism, comprising activist groups and individuals from across the country, held a one day national convention in New Delhi on Feb 27, 2014. After due discussions, reports and debates, the convention resolved as follows:
1. The national convention of the Peoples Alliance for Democracy & Secularism calls upon members of the public to uphold communal harmony at all costs; oppose communal propaganda and violence; defend democratic liberties and practices; and resist communal forces of all hues in the coming elections. It also notes that democratic freedoms are a life and death issue for workers, the poor and dispossessed.
2. The convention asserts the need and requirement for state institutions to be divested of religious symbolism and display of any variety.
3. The convention notes that public peace depends upon the proper functioning and accountability of the police and criminal justice system. It calls upon public officials at all levels and in all branches of administration to discharge their constitutional duties without fear, favour or bias.
4. The convention notes that women and children are often the worst affected by communal violence and communal ideas; it resolves to support women’s movements in their struggle against the politics of patriarchal domination.
5. The convention asks the Union government and governments of states to produce a White Paper on action taken after all Commissions of Inquiry into communal incidents since Independence; and provide justice to all victims of communal violence. It calls upon both Houses of Parliament to offer condolences to all victims of communal violence; and apologise on behalf of the Union of India for its failure to uphold Article 21 of the Constitution that assures all citizens of their right to life and liberty unless deprived of it by due process of law.
6. The convention calls upon members of the public to oppose the criminalisation of the Indian polity and tyrannical practices in the name of religion. It notes that such tendencies are at work in other countries in South Asia & offers solidarity with secular democratic forces in the entire region. It considers these to be symptoms of a fascist assault upon democracy and resolves to resist these tendencies by all peaceful means possible.
Peoples Alliance for Democracy & Secularism
Links related to the Convention:
Battinni Rao, Noor Zaheer, Shabnam Hashmi, Jairus Banaji, Rahul Pandita, Purushottam Agrawal, Irfan Engineer, Adhiraj Bose, Himanshu Kumar, Asad Ashraf, Bonojit Hussain, Manisha Sethi and Subhash Gatade.
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