DEFEAT OF DISCRIMINATORY BILL IN CEYLON
Colombo
There are 975,000 persons of recent Indian origin in Ceylon, who form part of the permanent population but who are considered by. the government to be noncitizens. In Ceylon only those having citizenship can vote and have the right to social services and to seek employment wherever Jobs are available.
These people were deprived of their citizenship rights by the Ceylon bourgeoisie in 1948. The blow was aimed at the working class and the revolutionary movement as well as the language and religious minorities since a Large majority in this country consist of plantation workers.
At the time, the Lanka Sama Samaja party was unequivocally opposed to depriving these’ people of Indian origin of their citizenship rights. At present the LSSP is in a political alliance with the Sri Lanka Freedom party of the so-called national bourgeoisie and the pro-Moscow Communist party. In this alliance the LSSP succumbed to chauvinism and took a position in favor of the forcible deportation of the so-called stateless persons. to. India. . ; The ‘Lanka’ Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary), in contrast, remains in intransigent opposition to the 1948 Citizenship Acts and is likewise in opposition to the Sirima-Shastri Pact (an agreement reached in 1964 by Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike and the late Indian Prime Minister Shastri) and legislation now | proposed by the UNP [United National party] to implement this bill.
In a statement released to the press February 6, the LSSP(R) reaffirmed ‘its position in favor of the rights of the "stateless" persons of Indian origin as follows:
"The Indo-Ceylon Agreement (Implementation). Bill, far from being a solution or even a partial solution, to the problem of the so-called stateless persons is an attempt on the part of the UNP government to win support of the Sinhalese masses and to sow communalism on the basis of further discrimination and. inhuman treatment of plantation workers of recent Indian origin.
“The bill is an implementation of the Sirima~Shastri Pact of October 1964. which was a conspiracy between the Sirima-led SLFP-LSSP coalition government and the Shastriled Indian government to forcibly remove from Ceylon surplus plantation workers of Indian origin in order to help the imperialists and Ceylonese planters and to help the Ceylon government to create an impression of providing employment opportunities to the Sinhalese people. A further reactionary feature of the bill is that workers of Indian origin who wish to leave Ceylon will not be free to do so, as and when they desire to go. As for the undertaking by the Ceylon government to grant citizenship to a section of these so-called stateless persons it was only a fig leaf to cover their agreement to the forcible transportation of these workers to India.
"According to this bill, the Indian government will at their sole discretion recognize certain persons as Indian citizens whether or not such persons want to become Indian citizens. On such recognition by the government of India, all such persons will become liable to be deported to India by the Ceylon government. In other words, the existing procedure adopted to deport persons suspected as illegal immigrants will apply to the so-called stateless persons. In fact what the bill seeks to achieve is to convert the so-called stateless persons into the category of illegal immigrants and to deport them to India with the consent and connivance of the Indian government.
"While there cannot be an objection to facilitating the voluntary return of persons of recent Indian origin to India and the acquisition of Indian citizenship by such persons, any attempt to frame legislation to force any section of the workers in Ceylon to leave this country and take up residence in India or in any other country must be opposed and resisted.
"As for the grant of citizenship to persons of recent Indian origin, the bill makes it clear that the real intention is to keep up a pretence of taking steps in this regard without in fact doing so. This inference is by no means unwarranted when the bill has made a virtual mockery of procedure by empowering the minister, at his absolute discretion to grant or refuse applications of citizenship.
"In this connection it is a matter of regret, but nevertheless of political sig-. nificance to the Left movement that the LSSP and the Communist party (Moscow) have publicly welcomed this reactionary bill and have offered cooperation to the UNP government for its implementation.
"It is necessary. to categorically oppose this bill as discriminatory, especially in relation to the plantation.workers of Indian origin, without providing any solution to the problem of the so-called stateless persons in Ceylon. ;
ELECTION PLATFORM OF