This Adhikaar Rally [rally for rights], held on 11 March 1996 at the historic Red Fort in Delhi, filled the streets of Delhi with rural and urban poor and youth from across the country. For an entire month before this rally, an intense campaign had been launched against the ruling class politics of scams, crime and subservience to imperialist dictates.
“Roji roti laal nishaan, maang raha hai Hindustan” proclaimed the participants of the rally who had braved long and difficult journeys from across the country to come and reclaim the Red Fort for the struggling working class. It was a time when the era of economic liberalisation and globalisation had been launched by the ruling forces – and this rally presented a strong voice of resistance to the forces of privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation.
A reporting of this rally by Sujatha Fernandes has been published in the Green Left Weekly
