24th Party Congress of the CPI(M) Resolutions
Stop Communal Polarisation and Restore Peace in Manipur
THE 24th Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expresses serious concern about the developments in Manipur since the eruption of the ethnic violence on May 3, 2023, the imposition of President’s Rule in Manipur on February 13, 2025 and the confirmation of President’s Rule by Parliament on April 4, 2025. This pressing development necessitates immediate attention, collective action, and concrete solutions.
President’s Rule in Manipur underlines the utter bankruptcy of the BJP-led NDA government under whose rule the state has been in violent turmoil for two years. President’s Rule has been imposed not in the interests of Manipur but to buy time to settle the internal conflicts within the ruling party. The chief minister, the main culprit, who was backed all along by the BJP-RSS, was eventually forced to resign on February 8, 2025 because his role was being examined by a court where evidence was presented of his sectarian partisan role which left him with no choice but to quit.
In all these developments, the central leadership of the ruling party and the central government refused to take the required action to alleviate the deep suffering inflicted on the people of Manipur symbolised by the prime minister’s callous refusal to even visit the troubled state. This exposes the sectarian approach of the ruling party and the state and central government it heads, which put its own political interests above that of the state and its people. Now the central government cannot escape its responsibility.
The 24th Congress of the CPI(M) urges the Government of India to take immediate and sustained action to heal the deep divisions through dialogue with representatives of different communities, taking all political parties into confidence to arrive at a just solution to bring normalcy, peace and harmony, while protecting the democratic rights of the people of the state, including the holding of all elections from panchayats to assembly within a time framework.
Counter the Diabolical Communal Attacks Of the RSS-BJP and Sangh Parivar
THE 24th Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) condemns the intensified series of communal attacks by the RSS-BJP and the Sangh Parivar in different parts of the country, which are part of its relentless campaign to polarise society on the basis of communal hatred. The Sangh Parivar knows that this is the only way to retain and strengthen support for its Hindutva agenda among the majority community, and of overcoming the growing discontent that the failures of the BJP government at the centre as well as BJP governments in the states are fuelling.
We are, therefore, witnessing a rash of polarising communal campaigns raising new issues along with those used before. The use of Hindu festivals like Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti to culminate in attacks on Muslims in their localities and near mosques has escalated. Holi falling on a Friday in Ramzan saw a spike in the threats and punitive measures targeting Muslims.
A very disturbing feature of the recent attacks has been the fact that even children are not being spared. Recently a month-old female child in Alwar, Rajasthan was trampled to death by policemen while in Malwan, Maharashtra a 15-year-old boy was jailed on the specious and unproven charge that he was shouting pro-Pakistan slogans.
Films designed to distort history and aggravate anti-Muslim prejudice and hatred are being promoted by BJP governments. The most recent one was "Chhaavaa" that demonised Aurangzeb and by association, all members of his community. BJP ministers in Maharashtra have used it to encourage the exclusion of Muslims from fairs and yatras that were always very inclusive in nature. The clashes that occurred in Nagpur were the result of this campaign which saw many arrests of Muslims being made and the home of a Muslim leader being bulldozed.
The recent period has also seen repeated attempts by RSS members and their followers to push courts into supporting their attempts to attack mosques because, allegedly, they were built over demolished temples. Most unfortunately, many lower courts and even the former CJI, D Y Chandrachud himself added fuel to the fire with their comments and orders. This has resulted in communal polarisation in many places and in the tragic events of Sambhal in which five young Muslims were shot dead. Now even a fair in Sambhal in which lakhs of people, more Hindus than Muslims, have participated for centuries has been banned in the name of not allowing the celebration of an anti-national figure. This is a significant attack on syncretic celebrations that have brought many communities together.
New laws like the UCC in Uttarakhand which, while it attacks the rights of women and young couples, does away completely with Muslim Personal laws, and increasingly stringent anti-conversion laws which attack inter-faith marriages where the woman is a Hindu and the man a Muslim have been passed by the governments of UP, Gujarat, MP etc. It is even being proposed that the death penalty be imposed on men entering into such marriages.
This 24th Congress of the CPI(M) calls upon all Party units to organise effective campaigns against the diabolical attempt at communal polarisation by the Sangh Parivar, and also against the increasing attacks on Muslims and other minorities which expose the real Hindutvavadi agenda of the RSS. It calls upon the Party to make all efforts to draw in wide sections of people and secular, democratic organisations into the campaigns to strongly counter these attacks.
Ensure Equitable and Just Delimitation
THE 24th Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) firmly opposes any delimitation process that diminishes or reduces the proportional share of representation of any state in Parliament. The Congress urges the central government to engage in extensive consultations with political parties and state governments to build a broad consensus on this crucial issue.
With the freeze on the number of seats in Parliament and legislative assemblies set to end next year, a fresh round of delimitation will be required following the first census conducted after 2026. The 42nd Constitutional Amendment, enacted during the Emergency in 1976, initially froze seat allocations to promote population control measures. This freeze was later extended until 2026 by the Vajpayee government.
Historically, delimitation exercises were conducted in 1952, 1963, and 1973. However, following the 1976 freeze, subsequent adjustments were postponed to address concerns over population-based redistribution. Despite the 2001 Census, the freeze remained in place due to strong opposition from southern states, which feared an unfair reduction in their representation.
As the freeze is set to expire, a new delimitation process could significantly reshape political representation, disproportionately affecting states such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Odisha, West Bengal, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Many of these states, which have successfully implemented population control measures, risk losing representation, while states with higher population growth rates may gain an undue advantage. Even if the overall number of seats is increased, a purely population-based approach would still result in disproportionate allocations favouring states like Uttar Pradesh.
The 24th Congress of the CPI(M) is committed to an equitable and just federal framework that respects the rights of all states while maintaining national unity and cohesion, and resolves that:
1. Any delimitation framework must prevent the disproportionate advantage to any particular region or state, and the interests of states that have successfully controlled population growth must be protected.
2. A pro-rata seat increase should be adopted to expand parliamentary representation while maintaining the existing proportional seat distribution among states, ensuring fair and balanced representation.
3. The proportion of SC/ST seats, at present, in different states must be protected.
4. The Government of India must conduct comprehensive consultations with all states to ensure that the delimitation process upholds the principles of equity, federalism, secularism and national unity.
5. In the absence of a broad consensus on the delimitation process, the freeze on seat allocation should be extended further to safeguard federal integrity.
Extend Reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs to the Private Sector
THE 24th Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) reiterates that the marginalised sections of society - Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) - continue to face social discrimination and exclusion. Economic exclusion and discrimination are at the core of the caste system, and an important outcome of social organisation based on castes. Restrictions and exclusion are faced by persons belonging to these castes in various economic domains including in ownership of land and property and in the ability to enter into various occupations. Exclusion in access to various services, including education, contributes to their economic exclusion in a major way.
Reservations in jobs emerged as the most important policy instrument against widespread economic exclusion of, and discrimination against these castes and tribes. Articles 15(4), 16(4), 46 and 335 of the Constitution provide the basis for reservations of jobs for SCs, STs and OBCs. However, these provisions have been used for reservations only in government jobs.
Historically, reservations even in government jobs have been marred by poor implementation. A large number of reserved posts remain vacant. In 2023, over 10 lakh central government posts were vacant. A vast majority of these are reserved posts. A large number of reserved posts also remain vacant in public sector enterprises and in state government posts.
Under the neoliberal economic regime, there has been a sharp contraction of public sector employment that is covered by reservation policies.
In the 1990s, about 2 crore persons were employed in all government jobs (including central government, state government, quasi government and local bodies). By 2012, this had fallen to 1.7 crores. In other words, there was a reduction of about 30 lakh government jobs during that period. The fall has been even more steep since the Modi government came to power.
However, the Modi government has stopped publication of comprehensive data on government employment. But a steep fall in employment is seen in different types of government employment. Total employment in public sector banks has fallen from over 10 lakh in the mid-1990s to just 7.5 lakh in 2024. The total number of employees in Central Public Sector Enterprises has fallen by over 4.5 lakh – a fall of 35 per cent – since 2014. Since 2014, the number of employees has fallen by about 80,000 in Railways and by about 40,000 in Department of Posts, and by about 90,000 in public sector banks.
The loss of jobs has been highest in Group C and Group D where the degree of contractualisation has been the greatest. Of all the central government jobs lost between 2014-15 and 2022-23, 86 per cent were of Group C and Group D employees.
Outsourcing of work, sourcing of staff through private contractors and companies, and deployment of contractual staff has become rampant in public institutions.
Privatisation of education has meant that there has been no increase in employment of teachers in government educational institutions. As a result, the proportion of teachers from these marginalised sections has fallen sharply. In 2023-24, only 7.7 per cent of school teachers were from STs and 12.6 per cent belong to SCs. The record of private schools in employing SC/ST teachers has been very poor. Only 13 per cent of teachers in private schools were SC/ST.
Reservation policies are not extended to many areas where employment is created using public money. This includes scheme workers, government-aided private educational institutions, and employees recruited through contractors and private agencies. In the 2024 budget the central government proposed a set of employment-linked schemes which gives public money to corporates, including 500 big companies for various schemes of employment for 20 lakh interns. About Rs 1.73 lakh crore of public money is estimated to be spent on this scheme, but there is no reservation for SCs, STs or OBCs in this scheme.
Privatisation and contractualisation are at the core of neoliberal policies. These have resulted in informalisation of employment and have eroded the reach of reservations as a tool for affirmative action against caste-based exclusion and discrimination. The 24th Congress of the CPI(M) demands that the reservation policy be extended to the entire organised private sector, and all registered institutions including private companies be required to implement reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs.
Oppose ‘One Nation, One Election’ Drive of the Modi Government
THE 24th Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) strongly opposes the `One Nation, One Election’ drive of the RSS-BJP, which wants to create a centralised unitarian State. It is an extension of their slogan of ‘One Nation, One Religion, One Language, One Culture, One Leader’. They have lifted and modified this slogan from Hitler’s fascist era.
BJP leaders are using their hackneyed arguments that simultaneous elections will save a lot of money, and they will prevent the frequent disruption of developmental work. For the 2024 parliamentary elections, the total allocation made by Parliament to the Election Commission of India (ECI) was Rs 466 crore. Some more amount is spent by the states for logistical requirements. But all this is not a very huge amount. For other years the expense is much less. As regards development, periodic and frequent elections have been held in India since 1967 till today. There is no evidence to prove that they have stopped the developmental momentum.
The `One Nation, One Election’ (ONOE) model undermines two basic features of the Constitution – democracy and federalism. The Supreme Court decision in the Kesavananda Bharati case, says that Parliament does not have the power to alter the basic structure of the Constitution. And yet Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pushed this idea ever since he came to power, declaring in 2020 that ONOE “is not a matter of debate but a necessity for India”.
Actually, the ONOE proposal amounts to truncating the life of some legislative assemblies to align them with the Lok Sabha election. Further, if a state government falls and the assembly is to be dissolved, then the mid-term election held will be only for the remaining term of the assembly. All this violates the right of the people to elect their representatives for a term of five years as envisaged in the Constitution.
The attack on federalism is all the more evident with the move to hold simultaneous election to all panchayats and municipal bodies. This is centralisation with a vengeance and goes against the very purpose of decentralised decision-making local bodies under the state governments.
To hold the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections together would require a major overhaul of the Constitution. There will have to be amendments to the Constitution in Article 83 (duration of House), Article 85 (dissolution of the Lok Sabha), Article 172 (duration of state legislatures), Article 174 (dissolution of state legislatures), Article 356 (failure of Constitutional machinery), apart from amendments to the Representation of the People Act and other Rules.
The 24th Congress of the CPI(M) is totally opposed to any artificial attempt to bring about simultaneous elections, and it strongly opposes any move to amend the Constitution for this purpose. All political parties and organisations who value democracy, pluralism and federalism, should come out firmly in opposition and unitedly thwart this pernicious move. The CPI(M) calls upon the people of India to oppose this anti-democratic and anti-federal drive.
or reload the browser
\
