The national executive meeting held on 21-22 December 2013 in Delhi was presided over by Bhai Vaidya and attended by delegates from 15 states. After passing the minutes of the last national executive meeting and presentation of progress reports of various states, results of 5 state assembly elections were discussed and analysed. Making an elaborate and in-depth review the party opined that the neo-liberal-communal nexus, emerging in its new avatars, is pushing away the socialist and secular forces from the political space. This challenge can only be fought by opposing and uprooting this neo-liberal-communal nexus, and not by making alliance with it. The Socialist Party has been firm in this regard and will continue its stand in future as well.
The party will contest Lok Sabha elections on limited seats in the states where it has formed units. Constituencies and names of candidates will be finalised in the meeting of the parliamentary board and national office bearers to be held in Pune on 16 Feb. 2014. The party will make alliance only with those political parties who are totally opposed to the neo-liberal policies. A decision was made to apply for an election symbol for the Lok Sabha election, out of the list of free symbols, in the following order : Torch, Whistle, Blackboard and Table.
Brief summery of the resolutions passed in the meeting : A resolution demanding guarantee for full employment and right on natural resources, particularly on water, was presented by Tarkeshwar Singh and supported by Jai Singh Verma. In the resolution demand was made to enact a law to guarantee full employment to every able bodied male and female. With a view to implement Directive Principles of the Constitution, the policy makers should formulate economic policies to meet this long pending goal. For this, in particular, western capitalist model of development must be discarded and agro-industry-cooperative based model be adopted. Natural resources, mainly water, should not be allowed to be traded as a marketable commodity. Human beings and other species have their natural right on water therefore it should be used primarily for drinking and irrigation.
A resolution on namely ‘Pay Commission should narrow down disparities’ was presented by Jayanti Panchal and supported by Dr. Ashwani Kumar. The 5th and 6th pay commissions had bestowed many privileges on small minority of class 1 and class 2 officers and increased disparity with class 3 and class 4 employees. The Socialist Party demands that the terms of reference in the 7th Pay Commission should include : (1) reduction of disparity in pay scales (2) reduction of public holidays (3) reduction of financial burden on the central, state and panchayati raj administration (4) vacancies for 3 and 4 class employees should be filled immediately and there should be no contractual appointments on such vacancies. In a resolution on education, presented by Onkar Singh and supported by Ranjit Mandal, the party reiterated its long pending demand of free, common and quality education from KG to PG to all by the state and opposition to commercialisation of education. A resolution, demanding that political parties should be brought under the RTI to ensure transparency in their accounts, was presented by Balwant Singh Kheda and supported by Nazir Khilzi.
An urgent need to hold study camps to provide ideological training to the party cadres was emphasised. Tentative dates to hold such camps in the coming 3 months were decided. All comrades are requested to follow the schedule in this regard. Party’s senior most member Justice Rajindar Sachar was congratulated and wished a healthy life on his 90th birth i.e. 22 December 2013. The party has decided to hold seminars in honour of Justice Sachar for the next one year in various towns on the theme of socialist movement and ideology. A committee consisting of Anil Nauriya, Onkar Singh, George Jacob, Dr. Abhijit Vaidya, Niraj and Dr. Prem Singh has been constituted for this purpose.
