13. Resolution on Increasing Contractorisation of Workers
The 20th Congress of the CPI (M) expresses its deep concern and strongly protests, against the increasing contractorisation of workers in various sectors of the economy which has resulted in a manifold increase in the exploitation of workers, by keeping wage costs down and denying workers their minimum rights.
Shamefully, it is the Central and many State Governments in pursuit of neo-liberal policies which have taken the lead in imposing contractorisation of the workforce. In the name of making industries competitive and attracting investments, the Central Government has permitted the gross violation of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970 by the private and public sector. The Act prohibits employment of contract workers in jobs of a perennial nature, but in practice this is what is happening and has become wide spread, not only in the manufacturing and service sectors but also in Government services. In the unorganized sector, the practice is rampant.
In Public Sector units, the contractor workers share in the total workforce is more than 50% and in the Private Sector it is more than 80%. As per a recent survey by a Government organization, there are more than 3.6 crores of contract workers under licensed contractors. Keeping in view the mushrooming growth of unlicensed contractors the total number of contract workers will be more than 5 crores.
Contract workers are denied even the legal minimum wages and other statutory social security benefits like ESI, PF. While contract workers are deployed along with regular workers in regular activities of the establishment, their wages are always paltry. In some cases, the contract worker gets one-tenth of the wages of a regular worker, for doing similar work.
The majority of these workers are denied the right to organize. The immediate threat of losing their jobs and income if they unionise ensures that they remain vulnerable to intense exploitation. In particular women contract workers often become victims to harassment and sexual abuse.
Trade Unions in the country have been demanding amendments to the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act to ensure regularization of contract workers in perennial nature of jobs, and to end the collusion of employers and enforcement authorities, so as to ensure proper implementation of the law. Pending the legal changes required, trade unions have demanded that contract workers should be paid wages equal to that of a regular worker with other social security benefits so as to end the cruel exploitation prevalent now.
The 20th Congress of CPI(M) extends full support to the struggles of Contractor Workers and Trade Unions on their just demands of ending this exploitative contractor system in regular jobs. The fight against capitalism in its neo liberal phase requires an understanding of how the widespread nature of the contract worker system is functioning as an instrument to intensify the exploitation of labour and further push down the subsistence wage to maximise profits.
As a party of the working class, the CPIM calls upon it's units to launch a widespread campaign against contractualisation of the labour force as part of the party's political platform and to help to mobilize contract workers for their rights and for justice.
Shamefully, it is the Central and many State Governments in pursuit of neo-liberal policies which have taken the lead in imposing contractorisation of the workforce. In the name of making industries competitive and attracting investments, the Central Government has permitted the gross violation of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act 1970 by the private and public sector. The Act prohibits employment of contract workers in jobs of a perennial nature, but in practice this is what is happening and has become wide spread, not only in the manufacturing and service sectors but also in Government services. In the unorganized sector, the practice is rampant.
In Public Sector units, the contractor workers share in the total workforce is more than 50% and in the Private Sector it is more than 80%. As per a recent survey by a Government organization, there are more than 3.6 crores of contract workers under licensed contractors. Keeping in view the mushrooming growth of unlicensed contractors the total number of contract workers will be more than 5 crores.
Contract workers are denied even the legal minimum wages and other statutory social security benefits like ESI, PF. While contract workers are deployed along with regular workers in regular activities of the establishment, their wages are always paltry. In some cases, the contract worker gets one-tenth of the wages of a regular worker, for doing similar work.
The majority of these workers are denied the right to organize. The immediate threat of losing their jobs and income if they unionise ensures that they remain vulnerable to intense exploitation. In particular women contract workers often become victims to harassment and sexual abuse.
Trade Unions in the country have been demanding amendments to the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act to ensure regularization of contract workers in perennial nature of jobs, and to end the collusion of employers and enforcement authorities, so as to ensure proper implementation of the law. Pending the legal changes required, trade unions have demanded that contract workers should be paid wages equal to that of a regular worker with other social security benefits so as to end the cruel exploitation prevalent now.
The 20th Congress of CPI(M) extends full support to the struggles of Contractor Workers and Trade Unions on their just demands of ending this exploitative contractor system in regular jobs. The fight against capitalism in its neo liberal phase requires an understanding of how the widespread nature of the contract worker system is functioning as an instrument to intensify the exploitation of labour and further push down the subsistence wage to maximise profits.
As a party of the working class, the CPIM calls upon it's units to launch a widespread campaign against contractualisation of the labour force as part of the party's political platform and to help to mobilize contract workers for their rights and for justice.
14. On the Demand for Land Reform
The 20th Party Congress of the CPI(M) expresses its strong opposition to the present policies of reverse land reform, that is, the dispossession of the peasantry from their land, and the efforts to facilitate corporate takeover of land, including fertile agricultural land. This is reflected in the Approach document of the 12th Five Year Plan which encourages reverse leasing for consolidation of the landholdings and encourages corporate farming. In many States land ceiling laws have been changed to permit this.
There is extreme concentration of ownership of agricultural holdings in India As the NSSO report on landholdings shows, just 3.5 per cent of landowners own 37.72 per cent of the land. On the other hand, there is a shocking increase in the number of landless peasant households, from 22 per cent in 1992 to 41 per cent today. Clearly, agrarian distress, mainly for the small and marginal peasants, aggravated by neo-liberal economic policies, has forced the rural poor sections to sell their assets, including land and livestock and join the army of migrants in search of livelihoods, while the richer landed classes have benefited.
Although the UPA Government, under pressure from the Left parties, had included a commitment for land reform and distribution in its programme in 2004, it has refused to act even on the recommendations of the official committee report titled "An Unfinished Agenda of Land Reforms."
It has been estimated that the potential of surplus land over the ceilings is 21 million hectares. Of this, only a fraction has been declared surplus, and even less actually distributed.
In contrast, the Left-led Governments in Tripura at present and in West Bengal and Kerala, when they were in office still hold the record for the best and most effective programmes of land reform. In West Bengal, over 11 lakh acres of land were distributed to landless families. Over 10 lakh families were given homestead land. Over 15 lakh sharecroppers were recorded and given inalienable rights. Women benefited through joint pattas and also land titles for single women.The total number of families who benefited from land reform in West Bengal alone will exceed 45 lakh two-thirs of whome were SC ST or from minority communities, which accounts for 48 percent of total land reform beneficiaries in the country. In Kerala, due to land reforms, 26 lakh tenants got land and 5.5 lakh families got 10 cents of land each and homestead rights. The last LDF Government launched a campaign to provide homestead land and houses to all homeless families in the State under the EMS Housing Scheme and set the construction of 5 lakh houses as a policy target. It undertook to distribute a minimum of one acre of land to all landless tribal families, to distribute surplus and waste land to the landless poor, and to provide land possession documents and title deeds (patta) to peasants in hilly regions. Tripura has the best record in the country in distribution of land to tribals and in making these lands economically viable. The Central Government itself has had to admit that the implementation of rights guaranteed to tribals under the Forest Rights Act has been best implemented in Tripura by the Left led Government.
On the one hand the redistributive agenda of Land Reforms is not being taken up in most States despite the concentration of land in few hands and increasing landlessness. On the other hand, large scale forcible acquisitions and the conversion of agricultural and forest land into land for SEZs, mining, for corporates and the real estate promoters is taking place. Tribal communities are particularly badly affected. Several States have amended land ceiling laws and land use rules to facilitate this. In some States even where dalits have been given pattas they have not been given possession of the land, while in other cases like in Tamilnadu, they are being evicted.
The proposed Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act to replace the draconian 1894 Land Acquisition Act, is totally inadequate and does not afford sufficient protection to the peasantry against forcible land acquisition and in fact gives exemptions to as many as 16 laws related to acquisition in areas like mining, SEZs, railways, national highways etc. where compensation provisions will not apply.
This Party Congress opposes the Bill in its present form and demands that it be redrafted according to the suggestions made by democratic organization of the kisans and tribals.
This Congress asserts that no redressal of the problems of the vast majority is possible without altering the correlation of forces in the rural countryside. The inequitous agrarian structure has been an obstacle to unleashing the productive forces, to enhanced productivity, to the modernization of agriculture and to rural development in general. The concentration of land in few hands and the hierarchical power relations revolving around caste, which are reinforced by inequality in land holdings, has also led to widening disparities in income and wealth.
The 20th Congress of the CPI(M) considers that resolving the land question and implementing thoroughgoing land reforms by breaking the land monopoly is central to the emancipation of the rural poor. Carrying out land reform is important to break the continuing caste, gender and other types of social oppression in rural areas.
The 20th Congress of the CPI(M) calls for mobilizing the landless and the rural poor to organize struggles for land distribution and for breaking land monopolies.
There is extreme concentration of ownership of agricultural holdings in India As the NSSO report on landholdings shows, just 3.5 per cent of landowners own 37.72 per cent of the land. On the other hand, there is a shocking increase in the number of landless peasant households, from 22 per cent in 1992 to 41 per cent today. Clearly, agrarian distress, mainly for the small and marginal peasants, aggravated by neo-liberal economic policies, has forced the rural poor sections to sell their assets, including land and livestock and join the army of migrants in search of livelihoods, while the richer landed classes have benefited.
Although the UPA Government, under pressure from the Left parties, had included a commitment for land reform and distribution in its programme in 2004, it has refused to act even on the recommendations of the official committee report titled "An Unfinished Agenda of Land Reforms."
It has been estimated that the potential of surplus land over the ceilings is 21 million hectares. Of this, only a fraction has been declared surplus, and even less actually distributed.
In contrast, the Left-led Governments in Tripura at present and in West Bengal and Kerala, when they were in office still hold the record for the best and most effective programmes of land reform. In West Bengal, over 11 lakh acres of land were distributed to landless families. Over 10 lakh families were given homestead land. Over 15 lakh sharecroppers were recorded and given inalienable rights. Women benefited through joint pattas and also land titles for single women.The total number of families who benefited from land reform in West Bengal alone will exceed 45 lakh two-thirs of whome were SC ST or from minority communities, which accounts for 48 percent of total land reform beneficiaries in the country. In Kerala, due to land reforms, 26 lakh tenants got land and 5.5 lakh families got 10 cents of land each and homestead rights. The last LDF Government launched a campaign to provide homestead land and houses to all homeless families in the State under the EMS Housing Scheme and set the construction of 5 lakh houses as a policy target. It undertook to distribute a minimum of one acre of land to all landless tribal families, to distribute surplus and waste land to the landless poor, and to provide land possession documents and title deeds (patta) to peasants in hilly regions. Tripura has the best record in the country in distribution of land to tribals and in making these lands economically viable. The Central Government itself has had to admit that the implementation of rights guaranteed to tribals under the Forest Rights Act has been best implemented in Tripura by the Left led Government.
On the one hand the redistributive agenda of Land Reforms is not being taken up in most States despite the concentration of land in few hands and increasing landlessness. On the other hand, large scale forcible acquisitions and the conversion of agricultural and forest land into land for SEZs, mining, for corporates and the real estate promoters is taking place. Tribal communities are particularly badly affected. Several States have amended land ceiling laws and land use rules to facilitate this. In some States even where dalits have been given pattas they have not been given possession of the land, while in other cases like in Tamilnadu, they are being evicted.
The proposed Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act to replace the draconian 1894 Land Acquisition Act, is totally inadequate and does not afford sufficient protection to the peasantry against forcible land acquisition and in fact gives exemptions to as many as 16 laws related to acquisition in areas like mining, SEZs, railways, national highways etc. where compensation provisions will not apply.
This Party Congress opposes the Bill in its present form and demands that it be redrafted according to the suggestions made by democratic organization of the kisans and tribals.
This Congress asserts that no redressal of the problems of the vast majority is possible without altering the correlation of forces in the rural countryside. The inequitous agrarian structure has been an obstacle to unleashing the productive forces, to enhanced productivity, to the modernization of agriculture and to rural development in general. The concentration of land in few hands and the hierarchical power relations revolving around caste, which are reinforced by inequality in land holdings, has also led to widening disparities in income and wealth.
The 20th Congress of the CPI(M) considers that resolving the land question and implementing thoroughgoing land reforms by breaking the land monopoly is central to the emancipation of the rural poor. Carrying out land reform is important to break the continuing caste, gender and other types of social oppression in rural areas.
The 20th Congress of the CPI(M) calls for mobilizing the landless and the rural poor to organize struggles for land distribution and for breaking land monopolies.
15. Demand for Legal Mechanism to Implement Sub-Plan and Employment Quotas
The 20th Party Congress of the CPI (M) notes with concern that the 1980 Planning Commission guidelines for allocation of budgetary resources for the development of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in proportion to their population has remained only on paper. Whereas the allocations for STs should be at least 8.2 per cent of the budgetary allocation for the central plan and the allocations for SCs should be at least 16.2 per cent, in this budget as previous ones also, the allocations are roughly half of what it should be. The shortfall for the three years since 2010 for the TSP is over 30,000 crores rupees, while for the SCSP it is at least 72751 crores rupees.
The special component sub-plan for SCs and STs is to make up the huge gaps that exist between dalits and tribals on the one hand and the general population on the other. Residential areas and villages of tribals and dalits reflect a most shocking deprivation of minimum civic rights and facilities with no infrastructure or social development. Thus the wanton violation of these guidelines has a direct impact of intensifying the grave injustices perpetrated on dalit and tribal communities. It is shameful that lakhs of crores of rupees have been either cut or diverted in the last decade from the funds accruing for ST and SC development. It is a similar situation with shortfalls in most State budget.
The 20th Party Congress also notes with concern that the constitutional mandate for reservation of jobs in the Government sector is not being implemented with a huge backlog in ST and SC quotas. With the drastic cutback in employment in Government and public sector recruitment, the opportunities for employment in the organised sector for SCs and STs are shrinking. At the same time, in spite of assurances the Government has failed to ensure employment of SCs and STs in the private sector. At present they are employed only in menial jobs and as contract or casual workers.
Thus while the private sector takes full advantage of Government largesse, it refuses to shoulder any social responsibilities. 80 per cent of investments in private sector industries are from public sector banks, they are provided land, electricity, water, transport, infrastructure, tax concessions etc by the governments. As per Union Budget 2012-13, the central government has bestowed Rs 5, 28,000 crores on corporates in the form of taxes foregone. Despite drawing so much of public money and profiteering from it, these private corporate want to escape from the constitutional mandate of reserved quotas for SCs and STs.
In view of these realities,
The 20th Party Congress demands:
The special component sub-plan for SCs and STs is to make up the huge gaps that exist between dalits and tribals on the one hand and the general population on the other. Residential areas and villages of tribals and dalits reflect a most shocking deprivation of minimum civic rights and facilities with no infrastructure or social development. Thus the wanton violation of these guidelines has a direct impact of intensifying the grave injustices perpetrated on dalit and tribal communities. It is shameful that lakhs of crores of rupees have been either cut or diverted in the last decade from the funds accruing for ST and SC development. It is a similar situation with shortfalls in most State budget.
The 20th Party Congress also notes with concern that the constitutional mandate for reservation of jobs in the Government sector is not being implemented with a huge backlog in ST and SC quotas. With the drastic cutback in employment in Government and public sector recruitment, the opportunities for employment in the organised sector for SCs and STs are shrinking. At the same time, in spite of assurances the Government has failed to ensure employment of SCs and STs in the private sector. At present they are employed only in menial jobs and as contract or casual workers.
Thus while the private sector takes full advantage of Government largesse, it refuses to shoulder any social responsibilities. 80 per cent of investments in private sector industries are from public sector banks, they are provided land, electricity, water, transport, infrastructure, tax concessions etc by the governments. As per Union Budget 2012-13, the central government has bestowed Rs 5, 28,000 crores on corporates in the form of taxes foregone. Despite drawing so much of public money and profiteering from it, these private corporate want to escape from the constitutional mandate of reserved quotas for SCs and STs.
In view of these realities,
The 20th Party Congress demands:
- A legal mechanism to ensure mandatory implementation of the Planning Commission guidelines for implementation of sub-plan and special component plan for STs and SCs respectively.
- A legal mechanism to ensure that backlog in jobs in Government and public sector are filled within a timeframe to be specified
- A new legislation to ensure reservations in the private sector.
It calls on the Party at all levels to build united struggles for these just demands of the STs and SCs.
16. On Central Government's Mineral Policies and for Tribal Rights
The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expresses it strong opposition to the mineral mining policies being followed by the Central Government which have led to the loot and plunder of the country's natural resources. Instead of holding the mineral wealth in Public Trust for the long term benefit of the country and her people, the Government has misused its absolute and arbitrary powers to provide huge profits and windfall gains to private mining companies, global and national, while exploiting and dispossessing the masses dependent on these lands. While the Central and State Governments legally maintain ownership of the mineral resources they have in fact virtually handed over all prospecting as well as extraction rights to private companies.
The Central Government while granting mining leases has fixed extremely low royalty rates. The mining companies have made huge profits. For example the Central Government has recently fixed the royalty for iron ore at just 10 per cent of the value of the mined iron ore, whereas even in a country like Australia, the royalty is a minimum of 30 per cent. Royalty in India is equally low for other major minerals.
Much of the mineral wealth is under land occupied either collectively or individually by tribal communities or under common property resources like forests and in Fifth Schedule areas. International conventions adopted by the United Nations as well as the International Labour Organization have recognized the rights of tribal communities on land and surface and sub-surface resources. Many countries including Canada, Brazil, South Africa and Australia have been forced to at least acknowledge in different ways the rights of indigenous communities on mineral wealth in their respective countries.
But in India, where an overwhelming majority of mines are located in adivasi areas, the tribal's have not only been denied these rights but have been driven out of their lands through forcible acquisition or denied access. The spirit of the Samatha judgment of the Supreme Court to recognize tribal ownership rights has been ignored. The legal requirement under PESAA (Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act 1996) and the Forest Rights Act for consent of the gram sabha is blatantly violated. On the contrary even where the gram sabha has opposed a particular project, the land is forcibly acquired as for example in the bauxite rich tribal areas in Vishakhapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh and Kalahandi in Orissa.
In the face of growing resistance by tribal communities, the Central Government is proposing an amendment to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation Act) 2011, to make it mandatory for companies to give funds for tribal development in districts where they have mining leases. The funds are to be put in a District Mineral Foundation Fund which will be under the administration. Coal companies are to give 26 per cent of their profits to the Fund. Companies mining other major minerals are to pay only the equivalent of annual royalty, which is a pittance. The earlier proposal to ensure profit sharing for all mining was shelved under pressure from the mining magnates. Now, in the name of "sharing" the benefits, the amendment could become the gateway for further liberalization to for companies to enter tribal areas and loot the wealth.
The 20th Party Congress holds that this proposal is nothing but tokenism which does not address the basic issue of the rights of tribal's to be recognized as stakeholders in the mineral wealth. The control of the use of the fund in the hands of the bureaucracy also makes a mockery of the process of consultation and consent.
The 20th Party Congress demands a complete reversal of the present policies of the Government on mineral mining.
It demands that the Government must not hand over mineral wealth of the country to private companies through leases or user rights or any other mechanism. Prospecting and mining should be undertaken only by the Government through the public sector or fully state owned enterprises after securing prior informed consent from the Gram Sabhas of communities who use these lands. The Government must also legally recognize the ownership as well as usufructuary rights of tribal's through an appropriate mechanism. It demands suitable amendments in the pending Bill to include these rights.
It calls upon party units, particularly in affected States where tribals are being displaced from land in the name of mining, to launch resistance struggles for these demands and for tribal rights.
The Central Government while granting mining leases has fixed extremely low royalty rates. The mining companies have made huge profits. For example the Central Government has recently fixed the royalty for iron ore at just 10 per cent of the value of the mined iron ore, whereas even in a country like Australia, the royalty is a minimum of 30 per cent. Royalty in India is equally low for other major minerals.
Much of the mineral wealth is under land occupied either collectively or individually by tribal communities or under common property resources like forests and in Fifth Schedule areas. International conventions adopted by the United Nations as well as the International Labour Organization have recognized the rights of tribal communities on land and surface and sub-surface resources. Many countries including Canada, Brazil, South Africa and Australia have been forced to at least acknowledge in different ways the rights of indigenous communities on mineral wealth in their respective countries.
But in India, where an overwhelming majority of mines are located in adivasi areas, the tribal's have not only been denied these rights but have been driven out of their lands through forcible acquisition or denied access. The spirit of the Samatha judgment of the Supreme Court to recognize tribal ownership rights has been ignored. The legal requirement under PESAA (Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act 1996) and the Forest Rights Act for consent of the gram sabha is blatantly violated. On the contrary even where the gram sabha has opposed a particular project, the land is forcibly acquired as for example in the bauxite rich tribal areas in Vishakhapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh and Kalahandi in Orissa.
In the face of growing resistance by tribal communities, the Central Government is proposing an amendment to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation Act) 2011, to make it mandatory for companies to give funds for tribal development in districts where they have mining leases. The funds are to be put in a District Mineral Foundation Fund which will be under the administration. Coal companies are to give 26 per cent of their profits to the Fund. Companies mining other major minerals are to pay only the equivalent of annual royalty, which is a pittance. The earlier proposal to ensure profit sharing for all mining was shelved under pressure from the mining magnates. Now, in the name of "sharing" the benefits, the amendment could become the gateway for further liberalization to for companies to enter tribal areas and loot the wealth.
The 20th Party Congress holds that this proposal is nothing but tokenism which does not address the basic issue of the rights of tribal's to be recognized as stakeholders in the mineral wealth. The control of the use of the fund in the hands of the bureaucracy also makes a mockery of the process of consultation and consent.
The 20th Party Congress demands a complete reversal of the present policies of the Government on mineral mining.
It demands that the Government must not hand over mineral wealth of the country to private companies through leases or user rights or any other mechanism. Prospecting and mining should be undertaken only by the Government through the public sector or fully state owned enterprises after securing prior informed consent from the Gram Sabhas of communities who use these lands. The Government must also legally recognize the ownership as well as usufructuary rights of tribal's through an appropriate mechanism. It demands suitable amendments in the pending Bill to include these rights.
It calls upon party units, particularly in affected States where tribals are being displaced from land in the name of mining, to launch resistance struggles for these demands and for tribal rights.
17. On Sri Lankan Tamil Issue
he 20th Congress of the CPI(M) expresses deep concern at the plight of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. The Tamil people living in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka suffered heavy losses and casualties during the last phase of the armed conflict with LTTE. Thousands of civilians, men, women and children died during the hostilities. Lakhs of people were displaced from their homes.
Even three years after the armed conflict has come to an end, the Sri Lankan government has not undertaken fully the resettlement and rehabilitation of the people in their areas and providing them with the means of livelihood.
Despite the evidence of atrocities against the people and serious human rights violations, the Sri Lankan government has not taken any serious measures to investigate such crimes and to fix responsibility. Even the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission set up by the government have not been implemented.
The Tamil people can live with dignity and equal rights within a united Sri Lanka only when there is a political settlement based on the provision of autonomy and devolution of powers for the Tamil-speaking areas. Here again, despite assurances given by the Rajapakse government, so far, no meaningful steps have been taken. Instead of arriving at a settlement through direct talks, the matter has been referred to a Parliamentary Select Committee.
The CPI (M) stands for a united Sri Lanka in which the Tamil minorities can live in peace and harmony with the majority Sinhala community. The Party appeals to all democratic forces in Sri Lanka to ensure a political solution to the Tamil question.
The Congress urges the Indian government to make all necessary political and diplomatic efforts to see that:
Even three years after the armed conflict has come to an end, the Sri Lankan government has not undertaken fully the resettlement and rehabilitation of the people in their areas and providing them with the means of livelihood.
Despite the evidence of atrocities against the people and serious human rights violations, the Sri Lankan government has not taken any serious measures to investigate such crimes and to fix responsibility. Even the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission set up by the government have not been implemented.
The Tamil people can live with dignity and equal rights within a united Sri Lanka only when there is a political settlement based on the provision of autonomy and devolution of powers for the Tamil-speaking areas. Here again, despite assurances given by the Rajapakse government, so far, no meaningful steps have been taken. Instead of arriving at a settlement through direct talks, the matter has been referred to a Parliamentary Select Committee.
The CPI (M) stands for a united Sri Lanka in which the Tamil minorities can live in peace and harmony with the majority Sinhala community. The Party appeals to all democratic forces in Sri Lanka to ensure a political solution to the Tamil question.
The Congress urges the Indian government to make all necessary political and diplomatic efforts to see that:
- The full rehabilitation and resettlement of the Tamil people is expeditiously undertaken
- The Sri Lankan government conducts an independent and credible enquiry into the human rights violations and to establish accountability
- A political settlement is reached based on devolution of powers to the Northern and Eastern Provinces
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