"It is becoming more and more evident that Socialism is the alternative" - Statements from India

Image from mass Left Front rally 2019

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation, Revolutionary Socialist Party and the All India Forward Bloc released a joint statement today calling for the government of India to "Attend to People’s Concerns on a War-Footing".

In it they note that the situation for many millions of people in the country is becoming increasingly desperate:

Scores of people have lost their sources of livelihood. The exodus of migrant workers from urban centres has shown the degree of unsettling of people’s livelihood that this sudden lockdown announcement caused. There is an urgent need to stop the growth of widespread hunger and malnutrition. The COVID-19 pandemic feeds on such conditions of the people. The promised Rs. 5000 to all Jandhan, BPL and unorganized workers must be transferred immediately. The central government must provide 35kgs per family to all migrant workers and poor, with or without ration cards, from the 7.5 crore of stock of food-grains, all across the country. Proper health care facilities for the migrant workers and others who have travelled from various parts must be put in place. Effective and hygienic quarantine facilities must be established in all parts of the country. Police brutalities on migrant workers must be put an end to and strict action must be taken against those who gave such orders.  

The statement also calls for immediate provision of food to the needy in urban areas, help for state governments, large scale testing for Covid-19 and for the government to intervene to end the stigmatization and even criminalization of victims of the pandemic as well as fighting fake news and rumours. "The central government should urgently intervene to ensure that this fight against COVID-19 is a fight in which all of us are united and determined to defeat it."

Of major concern are:

During the lockdown increasing reports are now appearing of growing shortages of essential commodities and medicines. There is no clarity on the movement of trucks carrying essential goods across the states. This must be set right immediately and all essential requirements of the people must be met.
There is a growing genuine complaint from the health workers who are courageously discharging their duties, of the lack of personal protective equipment and medicines. They must be provided immediately.  Equipments like Ventilators must be acquired urgently on priority. These must be augmented by the central government urgently.

On Thursday,  March 2  D. Raja, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India, released a statement  that ends:

Humanity in fact is confronting a health disaster of gigantic proportions. The Corona pandemic has been infecting and affecting people of every nation from Asia (China) to America and from Europe to Africa.
The worst hit is the poor and working people in every country. This pandemic has exposed the inherent character and cruelty of the Capitalist social order.
The capitalism at its neo-liberal stage now has led to an unprecedented inequality and injustice. Housing, health care, education and employment are not guaranteed as fundamental rights of the people. Neo- liberalism has been promoting consumerism and individualism ruthlessly.  It has been destroying the social consciousness of human beings to have concern for the fellow human beings. Private property and profit cannot uphold the ideal values such as  ‘we and ‘’ours’.
The corona pandemic has raised many fundamental long term questions about the alternatives before the humanity and immediate issues to tackle the current crisis. Socialization of health care, housing, education and means of production has become a fundamental question in the present context...
...It is becoming more and more evident that Socialism is the alternative. It is the future and hope.

You can read the full statement at: http://www.solidnet.org/article/CP-of-India-FIGHT-AGAINST-CORONA/