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India under ‘threat of bigotry and religious hegemony’, Stalin writes to 37 national leaders

Stalin asked the leaders to nominate representatives for the platform called Social Justice which he had formed to create a roadmap to take forward the battle for social justice in India.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has written to leaders cutting across regional and political lines inviting them to nominate their party representatives to the All India Federation for Social Justice, a platform he formed on Republic Day. Stating that the country is “under threat of bigotry and religious hegemony”, Stalin mentioned in the letter that “these forces can only be fought if all who believe in equality, self-respect and social justice unite together”.

The platform, Social Justice, had been formed to create a roadmap to take forward the battle for social justice in India and to identify the areas to bring about a common minimum programme to be uniformly adopted by all states.

The letter has been sent to 37 leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Farook Abdullah, Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee, D Raja, Sitaram Yechury, N Chandrababu Naidu, Arvind Kejriwal, Memboobha Mufti, Chandrasekara Rao, Udhav Thackeray and Akhilesh Yadav. Tamil leaders who got the letter were AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam, PMK founder S Ramadoss, VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan and Vaiko.

Stalin said the federation has been essentially formed forge a common platform for all leaders, members of civil society, like-minded individuals and organisations to strive towards achieving the principles of federalism and social justice at national level. “Social Justice as an ideology is simple – ‘everything for everyone’. It is the belief that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities. Only by ensuring this equality of opportunity can we build the egalitarian society visualised by the framers of our Constitution,” said Stalin on Wednesday.

Referring to rationalist Thanthai Periyar and his “indomitable philosophy that has formed the bedrock of Tamil society and shaped the politics during the last eight decades,” Stalin said it is because of Tamil Nadu’s emphasis on social justice that helped the state to eradicate inequality to a larger extent and develop the State in all spheres.
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“As I write this, our unique, diverse, multi-cultural federation is under threat of bigotry and religious hegemony. These forces can only be fought if all who believe in equality, self-respect and social justice unite together. It is not a question of political gain but re-establishing the pluralistic identity of our Republic, as visualised by our founding fathers,” he wrote.

“The DMK has re-affirmed its commitment to battle for social justice at every turn, as exemplified by our recent politico-legal battle to obtain 27% OBC reservations in state contributed seats to All India Quota in medical and dental courses across the country. However, reservations are not sufficient to ensure social justice,” Stalin wrote.

“At every step, the oppressed must be accorded positive affirmation to enable them to unshackle centuries of oppression and exclusion from mainstream society. We must take extraordinary steps to eradicate gender discrimination along with caste discrimination, and also enable the differently abled to compete in the mainstream,” he further stated, adding that he firmly believes that “the time has finally arrived to stand together as a true Union of States to achieve the aforesaid 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 wrote.