‘Capitalists got India Independence in 1947 only to exploit the poor’

SUCI(C) criticises governments for pro-corporate and anti-people policies

Pointing to the huge gap between the income of the toiling masses and that of the top business houses in the country, K. Uma, State secretary of Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), (SUCI-C), said that only the capitalist class and not the people of the country got Independence in 1947.

“On the one hand, businessmen like Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani earn hundreds of crores of rupees daily. Their wealth is growing phenomenally to put them on the list of the world’s richest individuals. On the other, large sections of the toiling masses are still struggling to arrange for their basic needs. In a real sense, what happened in 1947 was not Independence for people but the transfer of power from British imperialists to the local capitalist class. Capitalists got [India] Independence [only] to exploit and oppress the working people,” Ms. Uma said.

She was addressing a public meeting organised as part of SUCI(C)’s founder Shibdas Ghosh’s birth centenary celebrations, at Kannada Bhavan in Kalaburagi on Monday.

Attacking the Union and State governments for their pro-capitalist and anti-people governance, Ms. Uma said that every government policy is designed to help the big business houses and facilitate them to plunder the country’s riches.

“The Union government waived around ₹10 lakh crore corporate loans. However, it is not ready to waive farm loans. It has significantly reduced budgetary allocations for welfare programmes. It doesn’t have enough money to spend on education and health. Yet, it is ready to offer tax concessions to big business houses,” Ms. Uma said.

She also cautioned against the designs of the BJP and other right wing organisations to trigger communal violence to polarise majority Hindu votes in favour of the BJP in the next Assembly elections in the State and Lok Sabha elections in the country.

“The BJP is gearing up for the next Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Spreading communal hate, dividing communities along religious lines and instigating violence among them have been its time-tested tactics to polarise majority Hindu votes in its favour. It is going to repeat these same things in the next elections. Opposition to hijab in schools and communalisation of school textbooks are part of the larger design. People must be aware of these designs and see that they do not fall prey to them,” she said.