Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Wednesday wrote to 37 leaders of political parties asking them to nominate members to the All India Federation for Social Justice that he had announced on January 26.

The Tamil Nadu chief minister added that the federation is meant to be a stage for all leaders, members of civil society, like-minded individuals and organisations to strive towards achieving the principles of social justice at the national level.

“The Federation will be a platform for us to create a roadmap to take forward the battle for social justice in India and identify the areas in which we can do more, and bring about a common minimum programme to be uniformly adopted by all states,” Stalin wrote in the letter.

Among those to whom the letter was sent are Congress president Sonia Gandhi, O Panneerselvam of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray.

Stalin also said that India’s diversity is under threat from bigotry and religious hegemony. “These forces can only be fought if all who believe in equality, self-respect and social justice unite together,” Stalin wrote.

He said it was not a question of political gain but re-establishing the “pluralistic identity” of the country as envisioned by its founders.

“Social Justice as an ideology is simple – ‘everything for everyone’,” he wrote. “It is the belief that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities.”

Stalin also pressed for measures to eradicate caste and gender discrimination and help integrate the differently-abled into the mainstream.

“The time has finally arrived to stand together as a true Union of States to achieve the aforesaid objectives,” he wrote.