M.K. Stalin, Chief Minister of Indian state of Tamil Nadu has written to leaders of 37 political parties across India to nominate representatives to his re-cently launched All India Federation for Social Jus-tice to protect the interests of the oppressed people.
He has approached senior leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Lalu Prasad, Farooq Abdullah, Jagan Mohan Reddy, Chandrasekara Rao, Uddhav Thack-eray, Mayavati, OPS, Vaiko, Chandrababu Naidu, Thol Thirumavalavan, S. Ramadoss besides others.
Writing to all key parties barring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Stalin said, “Our unique, di-verse, multi-cultural federation is under threat of bigotry and religious hegemony.” These forces could only be fought if all those who believe in equality, self-respect, and social justice came to-gether. It is hence not a question of political gain but “re-establishing the pluralistic identity of our repub-lic, as visualised by our founding fathers,” he said, reports PTI.
While addressing a webinar on Republic Day, Stalin had announced that he would soon be launch-ing an All India Federation for Social Justice and that those who are concerned about social justice will be part of it to establish a ‘common platform’ of all leaders, members of civil society, and like-minded individuals and organisations to strive to-wards achieving the principles of federalism and social justice at the national level.
Stalin had then said: “Everything for everyone will be the basis of this federation, which will work to achieve the principles of federalism and social justice.”
According to the report, Stalin said social justice as an ideology is simple, ‘everything for everyone’. It is the belief that everyone deserves equal eco-nomic, political, and social rights and opportunities. Only by ensuring this equality of opportunity, we can build the egalitarian society visualized by the framers of the constitution, he said.
Citing the ‘threat of bigotry and religious he-gemony,’ he said his party re-affirmed its commit-ment to battle for social justice ‘at every turn’. It was exemplified by the DMK’s recent ‘politico-legal battle’ to obtain 27 per cent OBC reservations in the state contributed seats to All India Quota in medical and dental courses across the country. However, reservations are not sufficient to ensure social justice, he said.
At every step, the oppressed people must be ‘accorded positive affirmation’ to enable them to unshackle centuries of oppression and exclusion from mainstream society. Extraordinary steps should be taken to eradicate gender and caste dis-crimination and also enable the differently-abled to compete in the mainstream.
Stalin said he firmly believed that the time has finally arrived to ‘stand together as a true Union of States’ to achieve such objectives.
“We must unite with the same conviction and purpose as we did in order to establish the Mandal Commission. In each state, the oppressed classes are yearning to have the doors of opportunity opened to them,” he said.—INP
