A Nation In A Battle
Student Struggle Editorial Team
What do we call a country with disproportions extreme in terms of unequal income distribution to dissimilar levels of social security? Anything but the “largest democracy of the world”. This has been the fate of this country. On the one side, we experience the worst levels of living & working conditions and on the other, we’ve been labelled citizens of the largest democracy. So what is this ‘democracy’ all about, if the lives of its people are not of primary importance to it?
The latest Oxfam report reveals that the top ten percent of India’s population holds 77.4% of its total national wealth, while the bottom 60% owns just 4.8% of it. Ambedkar dreamt of a democracy wherein its socio-economic structure would be guided by the ‘one man-one value’ principle. Where have we buried that dream?
Come see the streets! They’re filled with disquiet and fury out of feeling utterly betrayed, but most importantly, these streets are also filled with a will to fight back. Beyond any classification, these are the people of this country. A country which has been betrayed. If a nation is made of its people, here we have a nation fighting its own government that’s trying to attack its every step to progress.
From farmers, workers, teachers, students, youth, the jawans. Writers, civil rights activists, journalists, artists. Dalits, Adivasis, women, and other minorities — all sections of the oppressed, have been registering their anger, and raising their fists for a better democracy to live in. Hatred can no longer be allowed to be the language of this nation. The people of India in unison are seeking answers from the ruling classes.
Students, one of the worst affected groups under this saffron regime, are also seeking solutions to the catastrophes we are subjected to as a country. After massive rallies of the country’s farmers and workers, we will witness its students hitting the streets of the national capital on February 18th & 19th with a slogan to ‘Save Education, Save Democracy, Save Nation‘. Students from all over the country would march to the Parliament with a charge sheet against the Modi Government which goes on to launch fresh attacks on the country’s future generation, its students.
We cherish the idea of India, but an India defined by ‘We, the People’, and declare our resolution to keep up the fight for it.