By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Promising to give a new hope to the hopeless, a helping hand to the marginalized and a better alternative to those fed up with the Congress and BJP regimes, a national level Muslim political party with strong bases in South India was launched today in New Delhi.
“The Social Democratic Party of India will focus on the realization of a social order political system based on the ideals of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity enshrined in the Indian Constitution,” said E Abubacker, president of the party. He was accompanied by other leaders of the new political party. They were addressing media at Press Club of India.
L-R: Muhammad Umar Khan, A Sayeed (General Secretaries), E Abubacker, President, Adv Sajid Siddiqi, Vice President, Prof. P Koya, national working committee member, C R Imthiaz, Secretary
“Other focus areas of the SDPI will be: mobilization of the people to enjoy civil rights through democratic struggles including elections, establishment of governance in the Union and states, capable of fulfilling equal rights to all citizens and all classes in India and unity of all depressed classes in a national political movement, said Abubacker who is former president of Popular Front of India, many of the newly elected officials of SDPI had held positions in PFI.
However, the leaders of SDPI distanced themselves from the PFI saying the new party is independent. When TCN asked Abubacker if PFI’s role for SDPI will be that of RSS for BJP, he denied there will be any such relations. We are independent, he said.
To give the new party a national look the present officials include persons from southern states as well as Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Haryana.
Detailing the context in which the new party was launched, SDPI leaders said: “The basic principles of the Indian Republic face grave threats from both inside and outside. In the past two decades predatory capitalism has vandalized the country. New forces have appeared, but the feudal, upper caste ruling class still exercises great control on the republic. The political camps led by the Congress and the BJP have in fact become midwives to the birth of a new class unbridled in their pursuit of capital accumulation. The regional political parties are also cooperating with this new class.”
Time has come for “a different political strategy in which the Muslims have a very crucial role to play. Muslims hoped against hope that the secular parties would help them. So it is time that they take their fate into their own hands and painstakingly build up a secular political party committed to the cause of achieving adequate representation and equal justice to all classes of people in India. It should be an endeavour covering different states and include all other marginalized classes who remain in the outskirts of our society and polity,” they said.
Talking to TCN after the press conference, E Abubacker said that they will have no alliance with every party whose policies are against the interests of the Muslim community. He said discrimination, security and equity are the major issues concerning Muslims which the party will raise.
The SDPI has launched recruitment of party cadres in 16 states. It plans to constitute state working committee in different states before the National Convention scheduled to be held on October 18 this year in New Delhi. The party has opened its headquarters in the National Capital.