It’s one year since We20: A Peoples’ Summit was held just before the G20 Summit in New Delhi, where over 700 people representing many trade unions, people’s movements and CSOs from 18 states came together. The Government used the G20 Summit to seek political and electoral mileage, conducting over 200 meetings in 60 towns and cities, making a spectacle out of it. 

The picture that was presented and the show put on, reeked of a vulgar display at a time when India’s performance on every social barometer was abysmally poor. While India’s position on several rankings related to electoral democracy, freedom of speech, press freedom index were falling, and attacks on religious minorities were on the rise, India projected herself as the ‘Mother of Democracy’ and ‘Vishwaguru’ in its publicity blitz towards the build-up to the Summit, using public money.

The context in which this publicity blitz happened was noteworthy. The economy was (and continues to be) in shambles. Cronyism, corruption, fraud and vulgar accumulation of wealth were/are legally sanctioned, valorised and made into a virtue in itself. Unemployment rate was the highest in 45 years. Retail inflation rates are still high. Rising household debt, wealth inequality, rampant accumulation of wealth and power, jobless growth, and the crisis of livelihoods were/are the realities.

Demonetisation and the goods and services tax regime have broken the backbone of the informal sector, which employs nearly 90% of the workforce, and small traders, something which they never recovered from. The GST regime has also seriously crippled the fiscal federalism.

This is in addition to the crackdown on civil society, criminalizing dissent and engineering communal polarisation in a massive and planned manner. Or the compromising of all key institutions of this country which could have and which played a role in the past, to speak truth to the powers and hold them accountable. All of these were essential to this regime to promote and sustain the dream of ‘Amrit Kaal’, currently renamed as Viksit Bharat!

Massive demolitions of slums were done to make India ‘beautiful’. In Delhi alone, over 300,000 houses were demolished. A public hearing held in May 2023 brought details of it in many cities across the country. 

The legitimacy of G20 has been challenged by progressive forces for the past many years. Firstly, G20 is reflective of a self-appointed elite body, which has no legitimacy,  functioning in a top-down manner because they make up 80% of global economic output. Secondly, the G20 is a major obstacle in the process of democratization of economic governance. The fact is that the presidency has come to the southern (Global South) leadership by no measure means that it would be progressive because a lot of governments in the Global South have embraced neoliberalism.

The namesake spaces for civil society to engage like C20 have been co-opted by appointing groups aligned with government ideology.

We20: Peoples’ Summit was one of the people’s responses to India’s G20 presidency.  The We20: Peoples’ Summit was intended to serve as a counterpoint, addressing the shortcomings and concerns that many argue are inadequately tackled by the G20’s policies and decisions. Police stopped the We20 on the 3rd day. Before the police disrupted the We20, 6 out of the 9 workshops took place. The remaining 3 workshops were held online.

The resolution titled ‘People and Nature over Profits for a Just, Inclusive, Transparent and Equitable Future’ adopted at the disrupted We20 said, “We call for solidarity and unity among all democratic forces, peoples’ movements, civil society organizations, human rights defenders and progressive individuals to demand robust South-South cooperation, and a just, inclusive, transparent and equitable future for people all over the world.” It further said, “We stress that there are thousands of grounded, community-led initiatives towards genuine, just, equitable and ecologically wise ways of meeting human needs available across the G20 countries, which governments and others can learn from and help expand to communities.”