J&K Committee of the Socialist Party Formed

Report  

A meeting of the Socialist Party was held in Nagrota on 22 April 2012. Party’s national General Secretary Dr. Prem Singh attended the meeting as the chief guest and Balwant Singh Kheda, member, national executive committee, as the special guest. Rakesh Kumar Dubey of Socialist Yuvjan Sabha (SYS), Delhi, was also present in the meeting.  Dr. Prem Singh, in his inaugural address, threw light on the history, ideology, programs and relevance of the Socialist Party. He reminded the cadres present in the meeting that socialism, democracy and secularism are the basic values enshrined in the Constitution of the country. However, the main stream political parties and its leaders are more eager to facilitate the corporate capitalism dictated by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organisation and profit hungry MNCs against the spirit of the Constitution. The Socialist Party has been revived to check this onslaught going on for the last 25 years in the name of new economic policies, economic reforms, liberalisation and globalisation. The so called shining India which emerged out of these policies is not only anti-poor but anti-national. 

He urged the audience to join the Socialist Party in order to establish a socialist, secular and democratic India by following the legacy of JP, Dr. Lohia, Acharya Narendra Dev, Yusuf Maherally and S. M. Joshi and strengthen the same in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Regarding the Kashmir issue, Dr. Singh said that problem became complicated because the media (including world media) and the political elite focused on the plight and fate of Kashmiri Pandits or on the excesses of the security forces. Should they have given due focus on the killings of the Kashmiri Muslim leadership at the hands of militants the terms of discourse on the Kashmir problem would have been different. The traditional Kashmiri Muslim leaders, mainly in National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), killed as pigeons by the militants, were not only opposed to the separatist line but were rooted and nurtured in the composite, secular and pluralistic ethos of Kashmir. This tendency of ignoring their killings has benefitted the terrorists and hardliners only in their goal. 

Dr. Prem Singh expressed concern on the the plight of the common people, including Kashmiri Pandits, in and out of the valley. He suggested that there should be a people to people dialogue to reestablish the mutual trust and the composite, secular and pluralist culture.   

Balwant Kheda deliniated the international aspect of the socialist movement and emphsised the need to relate Socialist Party's programs and activities with various socialist parties in the world. He made an earnest appeal to every body present to subscribe 'Janata', a pioneer magazine of socialist ideas. 

After due deliberations, an ad-hoc committee comprising 8 members was formed to do the spade work for the formation of a state unit of the party and the SYS. Tarsem Pal was nominated as the convener and Mohammad Faooq, Vijay Kumar, Surendra Kumar, Shyam Singh, Pooja Devi, Chaudhary Devraj and Devender Kumar as members of the committee. The convener of the committee has been authorised to include more members in the committee as the work speeds up. It was further decided that the committee will start work with immediate effect to enroll members from all districts and hold programs of public interest. 

Newly nominated convener Tarsem Pal announced that the next meeting of the party will be held in Sri Nagar in the month of May. He also assured the central leadership to work hard in the direction of forming the state unit of the party and would be able to form the same in the coming four months. The meeting was chaired by the Rashtra Seva Dal activist Kuldeep Singh. Vijay Kumar presented the vote of thanks at the end of the meeting.

P.S.