Leaders of various organisations addressing a press conference in Belagavi on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: P.K. Badiger

A federation of 175 organisations will take out the Desha Ulisi Sankalpa Yatre in Belagavi on Monday. The rally is aimed at creating awareness against the rise of communal and fascist forces.

It will be a culmination of three rallies that started in Bengaluru, farmers leader G.M. Veerasangaiah said in Belagavi on Sunday.

The rallies from various places will be received at Ambedkar Park in Belagavi in the afternoon. A procession will be taken from Rani Channamma Circle to Gandhi Bhavan. A conference will be held at Gandhi Bhavan at 3 p.m.

Actor Prakash Raj will be the chief guest. Founder of Dharwad Samaj Parivartan Community S.R. Hiremath will preside over it and deliver the keynote address. The former Minister B.T. Lalitha Nayak and leaders of various organizations will be present.

Several organisations have come together to condemn the BJP-led NDA government’s misrule and anti-people administration and the BJP’s anti-human political ideologies and strategies, he said.

“We have to preserve our multi-cultural heritage and protect the Constitution. Hence, we are calling it Save the Nation rally,” he said.

A co-ordinated campaign, including writers, artists and thinkers, is being organised across the country to see that the Constitutional rights of citizens are protected. “When we speak of rights of citizens, it includes the rights of religious minorities, deprived communities, women and the urban and rural poor,” he said.

Such rallies are expected to create awareness against communal, fascist and capitalist forces, he said.

“The Union government has been trying to crush farmers movements across the country. It has not responded to the farmers protest for legalised universal Minimum Support Price. Despite the year-long protest by farmers, the Union government is still trying to introduce anti-farmer policies like indiscriminate imports, contract farming and regional farm produce import agreements that are likely to crush the domestic dairy industry,” he said.

“Farmers who are protesting for their justified demands have faced tear gas, rubber bullets and nails hammered to the ground and wire fences. We want to save farmers and small business and defeat those who side with the big corporates,” he said.

“The NDA government is also trying to crush dissent among intellectuals and activists by intimidating them and harassing them. The government is also reducing the autonomy of Constitutional bodies and is misusing enforcement agencies. To stop all this, we are carrying out the campaign across the country and Karnataka,” activist Noor Sridhar said.

“The BJP is seeking votes by dividing society on caste and communal lines. It is brazenly spreading its communal agenda. Its leaders are speaking the language of hate and intolerance. The Union government has politicised every institution, weakened Constitutional bodies and taken away the independence of agencies like the Election Commission by amending laws. The Union government is following anti-federal policies. It has not redistributed GST to the States,” he claimed.