Sankaraiah calls upon people to protect hard-won freedom

CHENNAI: Freedom fighter and veteran CPM leader N Sankaraiah on Saturday urged all sections of the people to set aside their religious, caste and language identities to make the country prosperous.

"We must protect the hard-won freedom. The purpose of freedom is to bring about economic and social progress in people's lives. We have got political freedom and through it, we have to make personal improvements in people's lives. India should be transformed into a people's democracy, " he said in a video post.

Stating that crores of people participated in India’s freedom struggle, he said the martyrs of the country’s freedom struggle belonged to various religions, languages and castes. “I offer my heroic salute to the comrades who lost their lives in India's freedom struggle,” he said.

The 101-year-old leader insisted on the need for ensuring democratic rights. “Poverty, unemployment, female slavery and illiteracy should be eradicated. We have to build a prosperous India. It is my desire that all people should strive for it regardless of religion, caste, language and State,” he appealed.

CPI state secretary R Mutharasan urged his party cadres to take a pledge to protect the Constitution and work for building a socialist society on the 75th Independence Day celebration. “The Constitution and its empowered institutions are being undermined by the political forces that came to power in 2014. Secularism which is a fundamental feature of the Constitution has been undermined with the RSS trying to implement its agenda. The unity of the country has been threatened by the communal and bigoted corporate forces who are trying to destroy the multi-ethnicity and culture of the people, ” he said in a statement.