Farmers, women and workers do not have representatives in parliament or legislature: Justice V. Gopala Gowda

Retired Supreme Court judge criticizes lack of representation for farmers, women, and workers in parliament, highlighting exploitation by capitalists.

Justice V. Gopala Gowda, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, has lamented that parliament and State legislature houses were filled with representatives of real estate investors, industrialists, and capitalists. “There are no representatives of farmers, women, and workers in parliament,” he said in a talk on the Indian Constitution and Integration in Shivamogga on April 7.

The seminar was jointly organized by the People’s Lawyers Guild, Shivamogga District Kannada Sahitya Parishat and Shivamogga Multipurpose Social Service Society.

Midday meal workers, who provide food for schoolchildren, do not get even ₹10,000 a month. “Even after many protests, the ladies have not been able to get justice. The courts, too, have not responded to their pleas. The cooks who work in star hotels get payments in lakhs as the hotels make good business” he said.

The working class is being exploited by capitalists. Multi-national companies look for countries where unemployment rate is high, and they set up their companies so they can get work done by paying meagre salaries. “This is our situation because we do not have true people’s representatives in parliament or the State legislature. They all represent the capitalists. They act in a manner that helps the capitalists,” he said.

He also appealed to the deprived sections of society to be prepared for the second round of the freedom struggle. The first freedom struggle did not yield the desired results.

M. Gurumurthy, state convener of Dalit Sangharsha Samiti, K.P. Sripal of the People’s Lawyers’ Guild, D.Manjunath of Kannada Sahitya Parishat, Clifford Roshan Pinto of Shivamogga Multipurpose Social Service Society, and others were present in the seminar.