Comrade Dipankar said that Thoothukudi inherits the great legacy of VOC, a great freedom fighter, who challenged the domination of the British imperialism by launching India's first indigenous Swadeshi Navigation Service. At the same time, he fought for workers' rights too. The people who fought against colonial rule, who fought for independence of India, most of them, also fought against feudalism, for the rights of the depressed classes and against capitalism, for the rights of India's workers. Before 1947, India's national liberation went along with the call for nationalization. When Ambedkar wrote 'States and Minorities', he indicated the kind of constitution that he actually wanted to draft for India, but couldn't do it in the given situation. He wanted complete nationalization, nationalization of all the productive forces and land resources. Before 1947, nationalism and nationalization went hand-in-hand. Today Narendra Modi wants to impose a model of nationalism which actually is denationalization and privatization. Everything for Adani, Ambani, a concentration of wealth in ever fewer hands. That is what is the nationalism, hyper-nationalism, hidden nationalism of the BJP.
Speaking about the unconstitutional SIR, he said the SIR is a denial of our universal voting right. India's electoral democracy rests on two pillars. One is Universal Adult Suffrage, Universal Adult Franchise which is being destroyed by SIR. The other one is a free and fair elections which needs an impartial election commission which is transparent and which works according to the Constitution. But we have an election commission which is aligned to the government and it doesn't care for the Constitution, transparency and accountability. The elections are becoming more and more uncertain, more and more unfair and more and more difficult for the people of India. But I'm sure the people of Tamil Nadu, with the experience of Maharashtra and Bihar, will be able to resist the BJP, defeat the BJP, give it a resounding kind of defeat.
DMK minister Geetha Jeevan expressed her best wishes for the conference of and called upon people to fight against the BJP’s conspiracy to convert secular Tamil Nadu into a land of communal strife like UP. She emphasised on the BJP led union government denying funds for the welfare schemes in Tamil Nadu.
Comrade Thirumavalavan came down heavily on the SIR 2.0 saying that the Election Commission is disenfranchising the people and violating the constitution. Universal adult franchise is the fundamental proposition of the constitution which is being taken away now. Another most important basic tenet is secularism. But, the BJP want to convert the country into a Hindu Rashtra by replacing the existing secular constitution with Manu Smriti. Ambedkar’s statues are being erected while the soul of Ambedkar’s contribution to the country, the constitution, is being destroyed. Unlike communists, Dr Ambedkar believed in a revolution and change through parliamentary path and parliamentary democracy. He was never against socialism. There is a need for a much closer interaction between communist movement and the dalit movement in the country. Communists, instead of branding dalit movement as an identity based one, should work towards Left orientation of the dalit movement, he said.
Comrade Shanmugam, the state secretary of CPI(M), emphasised on the organic unity of the left, democratic and progressive forces of the country. He placed utmost emphasis on the unity of the left that is the need of the times. He called upon the people and left forces to unitedly fight against neoliberal policies, communal forces and for a progressive democracy.
Comrade M Veerapandian, the state secretary of CPI, explained in detail the Hindutva design of converting individual religious belief into politics of hate. Whatever be the design of communal forces, ultimately the socialism, the humanism, the science, the unity of the Indian people will emerge victorious.
Comrade Chezhian, the state secretary of Makkal Adhikaram, said that the SIR 2.0 is nothing but a mass disenfranchisement. The BJP is ruling the country in favour of the corporates and particularly in favour of Adanis and Ambanis and against the workers, toilers, agricultural labourers and poor farmers. He said that there is a need to form a democratic coalition with alternative perspective on everything, including economy, politics and culture.
The open session was named after VOC (VO Chidambaranar), who was a freedom fighter and jailed for more than four years. He was the first Indian to operate the first Indian Navigation company against the British by raising funds from among the people. The session was also dedicated to the memory of Sterlite Martyrs, 13 of whom lost their life in the struggle against pollution by Vedanta’s Sterlite company in the city.
The conference resolved to carry forward the legacy of anti-colonial struggle of the city represented by VOC and other freedom fighters and the spirit of 13 Sterlite martyrs. Criticised the SIR 2.0 that was being implemented to favour the BJP and aimed at denying voting rights to the minorities, dalits, poor and the downtrodden. The conference decided to undertake a mass struggle independently and jointly with other likeminded forces. The open session resolved to wage an uncompromising struggle to withdraw the Labour Codes of slavery. The conference decided to defeat the RSS conspiracy to convert Madurai (Thiruparangunram hills of Lord Muruga) into an Ayodhya of South India by inciting communal passions. It also welcomed the Impeachment motion advanced by INDIA bloc in the Parliament against the judge Swaminathan of Madurai Bench of Madras High Court who misused his offices to favour communal forces. Passed resolutions against the anti-farmer Seed Bill and Electricity Amendment Bill and demanded implementation of Swaminathan Committee report. The conference also demanded installation of a Sterlite Martyrs Memorial, withdrawal of all false cases and stringent actions recommended by Aruna Jagadeesan Commission against officials responsible for the police firing in favour of Vedanta. The conference appealed to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Mr MK Stalin to personally intervene to amicably resolve the issues of sanitation workers of Chennai. It also expressed its solidarity with the campaign demanding minimum wages and extension of meal scheme to sanitation workers across the state and also liberation from debt trap and Rs 25,000 to each family with a ration card. The open session also demanded immediate closure of three fish waste factories that destroy the environment, agriculture and the ground water. The conference also resolved to undertake a campaign for the release of Pricol workers, comrades Manivannan and Ramamurthy who are languishing in jail for more than ten years under fabricated cases.
The delegates session inaugurated by comrade Dipankar began in the evening of 12th Dec. Comrade Asaithambi, the secretary of the outgoing state committee presented the draft report of the conference. The 13 member presidium led by the veteran comrade Simpson invited delegates to share their opinions on the draft.
In the context of the state politics, the delegates cautioned about the growing influence of communal forces that invoke Hindutva in the name of Tamil God Murugan and noted the politics of social engineering being played by the BJP. The conference resolved to focus on uprooting BJP and its communal Hindutva ideology from the soil of Tamil Nadu. The political tactics of defeating communal forces as the central task was consented by most of the delegates and suggested various actions consistent to the anti-fascist political line.
The conference also noted the emergence of the TVK led by actor Vijay that exhibits an overwhelming tendency of anti-DMK than anti-BJP in spite of claims against the politics of the BJP. The conference also cautioned the potential of opportunism in proclamations of equi-distance with DMK and BJP alliances, without identifying BJP alliance as the main danger to the people, constitution and the democracy. The conference suggested an approach of wait and watch as the TVK is in its infancy now, yet to come up with a comprehensive political framework.
The conference duely acknowledged the DMK alliance’s contributions in the struggle for state’s rights, social justice, interests of Tamils and against the politics of Hindutva represented by the BJP. At the same time, it also criticised the DMK government for its pro-corporate approach against workers, agricultural labourers and farmers in the name of transforming Tamil Nadu into a state of a Trillion dollar economy. It also noted the growing atrocities against dalits, against women and the increasing number of honour killings. Resolved to carry forward the uncompromising class struggle into the arena of politics.
More than 70 delegates out of 369 participated in the deliberations. Comrade Asaithambi summed up the debates and the draft was unanimously adopted by the house with some amendments.
Comrade Shankar, the Incharge of Tamil Nadu party affairs delivered the concluding address of the conference.
The Central Observer comrade Maitreyi Krishnan, conducted the election of the new state committee in a most democratic atmosphere adhering to the principles of the party constitution. 65 member state committee was elected by the conference and comrade Asaithambi was re-elected as the state secretary.
Comrades Kumarasami, advisor to AICCTU, Barathi, state president of AICCTU, Bhuvana, editor of the workers magazine, Solidarity, in Tamil, Kerala state secretary Johnson Ambatt, Puducherry state secretary Purushottaman and CC member Balasubramanian addressed the delegates session of the conference. CCM Balasundaram clarified basic political positions of the draft while Chandramohan read out the resolutions.
***
Tamil Nadu People Will Defeat the BJP Alliance!
[An abridged version
of the speech of comrade Dipankar, the General Secretary of CPIML in the
open session of the 12th state conference of CPIML at Thoothukudi on 12
Dec 2025.]
I specially thank comrades of Tamil Nadu for organizing
this conference in this historic port city of Tuticorin. This is my
first opportunity to visit this place and to gain a first-hand feel of
the history of this place and its great anti-colonial legacy.
This
morning before coming to this place, we had been to the Tuticorin
Municipal Corporation office to pay our respects to the statue of VOC.
We met our sanitation workers, comrades there, who are waging a great
struggle across Tamil Nadu, and especially in this city of Tuticorin. I
thank you all for organizing this conference in this great venue.
I
salute the memory of the Sterlite martyrs. Just seven years ago, in
2018, 13 people were killed in this city for demanding clean air, better
habitable environment and for demanding an end to hazardous polluting
industries. This tells us a lot about the new India that the BJP wants
to impose on us. Here people are killed for their protest against
pollution, and in Delhi, students are being charged under UAPA for
demanding clean air. Apart from fighting for all other issues, like
land, wages and rights, we need to fight for better environment, for
conservation of the environment and for climate justice. This has to
become an important agenda for the Communist movement, for the
progressive movement worldwide more than ever before. I salute the
Sterlite martyrs for their great sacrifice and the agenda that the
people have to carry forward in this city.
Now this place inherits
the great legacy of VOC. So he was a great freedom fighter. A great
freedom fighter who challenged the domination of the British imperialism
by launching India's first indigenous Swadeshi Navigation Service. At
the same time, he fought for workers' rights too. The people who fought
against colonial rule, who fought for independence of India, most of
them, also fought against feudalism, for the rights of the depressed
classes and against capitalism, for the rights of India's workers.
Before
1947, India's national liberation went along with the call for
nationalization. When Ambedkar wrote 'States and Minorities', he
indicated the kind of constitution that he actually wanted to draft for
India, but couldn't do it in the given situation. He wanted complete
nationalization, nationalization of all the productive forces and land
resources. Before 1947, nationalism and nationalization went
hand-in-hand. Today Narendra Modi wants to impose a model of nationalism
where nationalism is all about privatization. No nationalization but
denationalization and privatization. Everything for Adani, Ambani, a
never greater concentration of wealth in ever fewer hands. That is what
is the nationalism, hyper-nationalism, hidden nationalism of the BJP.
You
all know that the Bihar Assembly elections were declared on 14th
November. The NDA swept the elections in Bihar, a repeat of Maharashtra
in Bihar. And on 21st November they said all the four Labour Codes which
were passed in Parliament without any discussion, without any debate in
2019 and 2020 but had not been implemented till now will now be coming
into force. That was the government's declaration on 21st November, just
seven days after the Bihar election results were declared.
This is
the real agenda of the government. The real agenda is that they have
already got the policies of privatization, liberalization,
globalization, They already have those policies of corporate rule,
corporate plunder. Now they want to change India's labour policies and
India's education policies to suit the corporate interest. The BJP is
also considering to bring another bill on Higher Education Commission of
India in this Parliament session. The entire structure of India's
higher education will be changed, and it will be centralized. It will be
brought under one single commission which will be completely dominated
by corporate interests and the ideological agenda of the RSS. This is
what they are trying to do in the wake of Bihar election results.
The
government is saying that the Indian workers will benefit a lot from
these new Labour Codes. We need to have an extensive awareness campaign
about these four Labour Codes. In very simple terms, the four Labour
Codes say four things. Number one, work more. Longer working hours, more
work. Number two, more work for less pay, less wages, lower wages.
Number three, more work, less wages, and less security. Your workplace,
your work environment will be more hazardous, more hostile and you have
less security. Number four, you have less freedom. While the corporates
will have free hand to hire and fire people, to fix your wage rates, the
workers will have less freedom to organize and fight for their rights.
In short, these are the four Labour Codes, and it goes without saying
that we need to have a sustained, broad united struggle for repealing
these four Labour Codes.
We have a model. The farmers of India, they
gave us a model in their fight against the three Farm Laws. India’s
farmers succeeded in repealing those pro-corporate, anti-farmer farm
laws through sustained, united movement and determined movement. In
order to get these four Labour Codes repealed and to restore the rights
of India's workers, there has to be a similar kind of a broad-based and
sustained struggle. And just as the workers stood with the farmers, the
citizens stood with the farmers, today it is the turn of India's farmers
to stand with India's workers. It is the time for India's students,
young people, and citizens at large to stand with India's workers in
this fight for nationalization, in this fight for workers' rights.
We
have already experienced SIR in Bihar and we know what it means.
Comrade Thirumavalavan was asking me about our Bihar results. I said in
2020 we had won 12 seats and this time we have won only two seats. He
asked about votes. I said in 2020 we had got 13 lakh votes and 12 seats,
and this time we have got 14 lakh votes and two seats. This is the
magic of SIR. With more votes, we win less seats. The BJP of course
tells us that it is about eliminating infiltrators. In Hindi they use
the word 'ghuspetiya' [intruder]. They say that the SIR is to make sure
that no foreign citizen who is illegally staying in India can vote in
India's elections. This is the BJP's political narrative. Even in
Parliament we heard Amit Shah saying again and again that all those
people who are opposing SIR, are actually trying to protect the
so-called 'ghuspetiyas' or infiltrators, foreign citizens in India. But
the Election Commission says that they want to eliminate dead voters.
Voters who are no more, who have died, who have passed away, their name
should be removed from the electoral roll. It should be done. It should
be done every year. This should be a routine thing. We don't need a
special campaign for this. This should be an annual update, an electoral
verification. Then they say that we want to remove voters who are
permanently moved away from their address. Their new vote should be in
his area of new address, he should be registered. This is also obvious.
Third, they say that we want to remove duplicate voters. One voter
should have only one vote. One voter's name should not be there in
multiple booths, multiple locations. Fair enough. This is
understandable.
But you don't need an SIR for these reasons. You
don't need a Special Electoral Revision. The EC removed 69 lakh voters
in Bihar, which is roughly 10% or less than 10% of Bihar voters and
wherever there will be SIR- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam - in
any state of India, at least 10 to 15% names will be removed. This is
one part of the SIR story. The other part of SIR story is the inclusion
of names. 25 lakh names were included. You don't know whose names are
being included. If you look at the electoral roll today in Bihar, it is
full of inaccuracies. Dead voters, duplicate voters are still there in
the list. There are fictitious voters, whose address, the house number,
is 0000. You will find voters in Bihar whose names appear in Tamil. It
is written in Tamil language in Bihar electoral roll. So you will find
all kinds of inaccuracies. It is not about giving us an accurate voters
list. It is about electoral purge. Purging people from their voting
right and including fictitious names so as to flip the ballot in favor
of NDA candidates.
The SIR is a denial of our universal voting right.
India's electoral democracy rests on two pillars. One is Universal
Adult Suffrage, Universal Adult Franchise which is being destroyed by
SIR. The other one is a free and fair elections which needs an impartial
election commission which is transparent and which works according to
the Constitution. But we have an election commission which is aligned to
the government and it doesn't care for the Constitution, transparency
and accountability. The elections are becoming more and more uncertain,
more and more unfair and more and more difficult for the people of
India. But I'm sure the people of Tamil Nadu, with the experience of
Maharashtra and Bihar, will be able to resist the BJP, defeat the BJP,
give it a resounding kind of defeat.
I know that the people are not
so happy as the state government is in power for last five years. There
are attacks on workers, on farmers and on Dalits. There are atrocities
on women. Such crimes on women cannot be called as honour crimes but
they are hate crimes. Such incidents of hate crimes is increasing in
Tamil Nadu. Obviously, there is a lot of anger, resentment among the
people which the BJP is trying its level best to cash in on the
unhappiness of the people and to divide the people by sharpening
communal polarization.
In Parliament, INDIA bloc MPs are fighting
for the impeachment of a judge in Tamil Nadu, who gave an atrocious
RSS-inspired judgement. It is an obnoxious attempt to divide the people
on communal lines though judicial means.
We'll have to fight hard to
maintain the unity of the people, to uphold the Constitution, uphold
democracy, and to uphold the great anti-colonial, anti-imperialist
legacy of India's freedom which gave us a whole notion of India which is
diverse, secular, and federal. We have to fight more intensely, with
better unity, greater strength, greater courage and greater
determination. Thank you all for today's program on SIR and Labour
Codes.
I wish the party every success in the coming conference and I wish that the anti-BJP forces in Tamil Nadu gained a great victory.
