AISA’s Anti-corruption Campaign in Maharashtra…

As part of AISA’s nation-wide students-youth campaign against corruption, AISA along with the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Brigade organised a three day-long workshop against corruption and corporate loot in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, from 23^rd to 25th May 2011. 50 delegates from different districts of Maharashtra participated in the workshop.

During the workshop, the delegates pointed out that corruption and corporate loot of our national resources had reached unprecedented levels. From land and water, to minerals and airwaves, all natural resources that belong collectively to the people of the country are being handed out on a platter to a few companies. And in order to gain access to these profitable recources and to ensure skyrocketing profits, corporations are indulging in massive corruption. The growing rate of privatisation in the education sector and in other sectors like health and infrastructure was also discussed at length. It was pointed put that in Maharashtra, the contractor-corporate lobby is essentially running the government and dictating state policy; common people’s real needs figure nowhere in the policies of the government. The participants also pointed out how the entire state machinery is being employed to brutally muzzle any dissenting voice against this open corporate loot.

All the delegates in the workshop participted in the process of planning the implementaiton of the anti-corruption campaign in Maharashtra. It was decided that conferences and conventions could also be held in other parts of the state. Conventions have been planned at Nagpur, Nasik, Kolhapur, Shrirampur, Dhulia, Aurangabad, Kopargaon and Pune.

Convention in Shrirampur

AISA and the Students-Youth Against Corruption organized a day-long ‘Convention Against Corruption and Corporate Loot’ at Shrirampur, Maharashtra, on June 1, 2011. More than 100 students as well as people from many walks of life participated and shared their views at the convention. Professor Santosh Pawar, renowned Marathi poet, Professor Balasaheb Bowke, senior journalist Ashok Thupe, and AISA leaders from JNU, New Delhi spoke at the convention. After the convention, a procession against corruption and corporate loot was carried out in the city.

In Maharashtra, the campaign against corruption has gained a good momentum at various centers. This campaign is evoking very good response from every section of the society – particularly from peasants, rural workers and intelligentsia, apart from students and youth. Several small shop keepers and street vendors have also extended their full support wherever AISA campaigned amongst them. Our volunteer teams are also getting very good public support on the ongoing signature campaign on the pledge against corruption.