"STOP this shadow boxing! Use powers to bring an ordinance to defend the poor! Unity of the poor, zindabad!" These slogans rent the air in Delhi on January 22 morning when thousands of workers, women and men, who earn their livelihood through honest labour, organised a Garib Bachao, Delhi Bachao (Save the Poor, Save Delhi) rally at the call of the CPI(M) and the CITU. Carrying a two-headed effigy representing the BJP and the Congress, both of whom are pursuing anti-poor policies, the procession started from Shivaji Park and, moving through Minto Road and Asaf Ali Road, ended at the Ajmeri Gate Chowk where it culminated in a rally.

In this huge rally, the workers of closed factories, rehri and khomcha vendors and residents of the jhuggi-jhopri colonies came together in a Triveni of struggle. There were vegetable sellers from Connaught Place who have been evicted by the police; there were jhuggi-jhopri residents from Wazirpur and Naraina Vihar who have been given notices to leave; and there were factory workers who have been forcibly retrenched with no compensation. They came from all over Delhi and there was one common denominator – they were all part of this city’s poor and exploited population. The rally demanded:

1. Immediate promulgation of an ordinance, valid till the next session of parliament, to save the livelihood of all the three aforementioned sections against the deadlines arbitrarily set by the court.
2. Withdrawal of lieutenant governor’s orders to remove the rehris and khomchas, and immediate starting of the process to give them required permission to carry on their livelihood.
3. Stop to removal of jhuggi-jhopris (slum hutments) without proper alternative arrangements, and arrangements for transport to and from their places of work in case of relocation.

The rally was presided over by state CITU president Suraj Bhan Bharadwaj who urged the workers to unitedly meet any offensive of the ruling classes in the name of liberalisation and globalisation.

Speaking on behalf of the CPI(M), Brinda Karat said the struggle was for the very existence of the working class in Delhi, for its right to work and live with dignity, as the ruling classes have launched a war against the poor’s right to live. Workers were being thrown out of the city as though they were flies in the milk. As the new agricultural policies are intensifying the crisis in the countryside and thus ruining crores of the rural poor, small and middle peasants, people’s migration to cities has increased. But, on the other hand, they are being driven out of the cities. Then, she asked, where are India’s poor to go? Does the government expect them to go to Pakistan? Calling on all the three affected sections to build up a big united movement, she listed the demands of the Garib Bachao, Delhi Bachao movement.

Brinda Karat said that while small scale and even home based industries are being closed down, many of those who have paid the initial deposits for relocation of industries have found their names arbitrarily struck off the list of relocated industries by the concerned department. She demanded that these units be given the original plots allotted to them. At the same time, it is shocking that in the entire process the interests of the workforce have been totally ignored both by the Supreme Court and by the central and state governments. At the CPI(M)’s and the CITU’s insistence, the industries minister of Delhi had agreed for registration of workers by name, in the industries which are being closed. This was to ensure that they would be given first preference for jobs in the relocated industries or for compensation in case they wish to make a full and final settlement. However, there is no evidence that this assurance is being implemented.

On the issue of street vendors, Brinda Karat said that even while the government has admitted non-availability of data on the number of people involved (the estimate is that two to three lakh people are involved), under instructions from the lieutenant governor (LG) the police have started forcibly removing even those vendors who have been carrying out their trade for decades. The MCD has been refusing to give them either hawking or tehbazari licenses. Workers who have been thrown out of their jobs have been forced to take to petty trade. Thousands of women are engaged in vegetable-selling. Making no alternative arrangements for these people, like authoritarian monarchs, the authorities are forcibly removing them and stopping their trade. This is to condemn a large population to starvation and destitution. She demanded that the LG’s orders be rescinded and that selling and hawking be allowed. Where stalls are to be removed due to blockage of pavements, alternative sites have to be provided before their removal. She demanded that the earlier estimates made by the Chopra committee in the MCD area and the Jhareja committee in the NDMC area be scrapped, and new licenses issued in line with the increase in the trade due to closure of industries.

On the jhuggi-jhopri (JJ) issue, Brinda Karat said it was unfortunate that, under pressure of the movement against arbitrary slum demolitions, the urban development ministry has issued a GO for alternative sites to those with proof of residence till 1998. However, there are still no facilities where these people have been relocated. Their livelihood has been badly affected as there are no transport arrangements to take the workers to their earlier workplaces, located at great distances. In the 1970s, workers of resettlement colonies were given cheap bus passes; this is the least that can be done as part of the rehabilitation scheme of JJ colonies which have already been shifted. In future, no relocation must made without schools, transport, electricity and water facilities.

The CITU’s secretary, Tapan Sen, said all over India the CITU was organising rallies of the affected people in defence of their right to live. He said resistance against the policies of globalisation is growing, and more and more sections are joining the struggle. State CITU general secretary Mohan Lal said the workers are invisible to the rulers, and they become visible to the latter only when they fight for their rights. At stake is the life of 60 lakh people, majority of the population of Delhi, and no force can stop them if they unite.

The rally declared that the struggle would continue.

According to a press release issued earlier by the CPI(M)’s Delhi state committee, the issues at stake in its Garib Bachao, Delhi Bachao campaign are the following: 1) closure of industries in the name of pollution or due to their existence in non-conforming areas of the Master Plan, 2) the attack on rehriwallas, small stall owners and street vendors, and 3) the removal of jhuggi-jhopris and their so-called relocation against the interests of their residents. The assault is part of the drive to turn the nation’s capital into a haven for the rich and to use the available land to set up services to cater to these sections.

The CPI(M) statement described as shameful the game being played by both the BJP and the Congress. While both of them profess commitment to protecting the poor in Delhi and blame each other for the attacks, their respective governments at the centre and in the state have been implementing policies which violate the fundamental right of lakhs of people in the capital to live. Even worse is the case of the rehriwallas. The LG has ordered the police to remove them as though they are criminals.

Both the BJP and the Congress are taking cover of the Supreme Court judgement on these issues. While the concerned Supreme Court judgements have displayed insensitivity towards the huge majority of working people in the capital, the central and state governments have refused to make new laws to protect the poor, or change the Master Plan, and are thus pursuing together anti-poor policies in Delhi.

Prior to the January 22 rally, the CPI(M) and the CITU ran a campaign through distribution of leaflets, street corner meetings, registration of workers of closed industries, and other steps.