INDIA: PEOPLE´S MARCH

 Putting the iron heel of Brahmanic Hindutva Fascism 

On the people of the country 

The Indian ruling classes go for one more farce of elections 

India is going for elections to the 18th Lok Sabha in 7 phases starting from April 19th to June 1st 2024. The Brahmanic Hindutva Fascist BJP is well prepared with nearly all what it wants to transform the country into a Hindu state. After all its wands to woo the voters have been used up, it recently came out with the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). The Act has been in its agenda for a long time along with the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and the present decision to implement CAA just before the announcement of the election schedule is undoubtedly meant to gain the numerically majority Hindu votes. The Act will trample the minimum rights of the people of all other religions. BJP is now up to creating havoc through its saffron forces in non-BJP ruled states and trying to make the people believe that it is the only champion to rule the country. While the electoral parties are busy trying to make alliances to defeat BJP, their disunity in seat sharing only helps BJP. The NDA and the UPA are competing for power. BJP is in the forefront with the strength of its power and the Hindutva forces. It is indulging in all sorts of hook and crook methods to woo the members of the opposition parties and split those. ED and NIA are two weapons in the hands of the ruling BJP to control the opposition parties and one who questions or criticises its policies. 

Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS), the Hindutva organisation that is going to complete a centenary of its formation established BJP in 1980 to implement its agenda in the political sphere. It has around forty crore members together in its affiliated organisations spread among various classes and sections of the people all over the country. This is where BJP is grounded with its age-old, regressive ideology. These are the saffron forces that constitute above one-third of voters of the country fed with the sentiment of Hinduism, that do not hesitate to indulge in any level of brutal deeds on the people. With this given base and absolute support from the imperialists and big corporate houses, the BJP government is violating the Indian Constitution in its attempts to build ‘Vikasit Bharat’ (Hindu rashtr) by 2047. This election is very crucial for it to fulfil its agenda. 

The literal meaning of ‘democracy’ is lost in the modern world. While the ruling classes of India yet claim it to be the biggest democracy in the world, it can now be said an autocratic country ruled by the age-old Brahmanic Hindutva. Parliamentary democracy of the country proved to be fake in the past 75 years. Parliamentary elections are held with the only objective to legalise and further strengthen comprador bureaucracy. Election is nothing but one more means to stabilise the exploitation and oppression by the imperialists of the world, domestic comprador bureaucratic bourgeois and feudal classes on the oppressed people of the country. The reactionary ruling classes always unleash violence and deceit on the people in the service of the imperialists and domestic comprador bourgeoisie. In spite of the abundant natural resources the government is making the country more and more dependent on imperialist aid and technology. ‘Vikasit Bharat-2047’ road map, Make in India, Digital India, Smart cities, Start-up India, Skill India and Fasal Bima schemes and all such things are in favour of domestic and foreign corporate companies. 

When BJP came to power for the second consecutive term in 2019, it brought forth several antiMuslim, anti-nationality, anti-tribal traitorous Acts such as Triple talaq, CAA etc. It prepared ground to bring UCC and other such Acts that transforms the country into a Hindutva fascist autocratic state if it comes to power for the third time. 

The issue of electoral bonds exposed BJP government to the core. The bonds were money donated to the electoral parties in lieu of expenditure on elections. The Supreme Court directed the State Bank of India 2 (SBI) to give all details. It must convey to the Election Commission the names of bond-buyers, the dates and amounts of purchase, and the names of those benefited. The Election Commission should communicate the data on its website to the people. Bonds already bought but not deposited were ‘directed’ to be returned. 

When the SBI finally submitted the details of the 18,871 purchases and 20,421 encashments of the electoral bonds worth Rs. 12,551.1 crores, out of which BJP owns Rs. 6,060 crores, it lacked details of the alphanumeric numbers and the serial numbers that reveal accurate details. The unique number that matches the purchaser and the encashment was not provided. However, SBI is a public sector bank under the central government and the ruling BJP is totally aware of the details. Neither BJP nor SBI revealed the details in spite of such a noise about the issue from various quarters. The issue obviously involves corporate companies. This is clearly a scam by the government. It is not surprising that India is in the 93rd place among 180 countries as per the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) maintained by Transparency International (TI). 

BJP is collecting funds in a big way to spend it in elections. It is ‘buying’ the elected candidates, creating crisis in the state governments and bringing them into its fold. It is seizing the funds of the opposition parties in the name of silly matters only to help BJP come to power. So, this is not at all a true democracy as it claims to be. 

The facts about the expenditure of BJP on advertisements additionally shows the extent of its corruption. BJP spent Rs. 30 crores in 30 days starting from the end of January this year on streaming ads, mostly videos according to Google Ads Transparency Centre data. The ads boost the Prime Minister and the Union government. This is double that of the amount it spent in 2019 elections. More than half of these ads were removed by Google for violation of platform policy. BJP spent Rs. 33 crores from 2019 February to 2023 February on Facebook advertisements. These facts clearly show that the present fascist rule of the BJP in India is no more a ‘democracy’. 

Another major problem faced by the people under BJP rule, especially tribal and Muslim people was evacuation. According to a report “Forced Evictions in India: 2022 & 2023” of The Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN), 58.7 percent of the evictions were in the name of ‘slum clearance’, ‘removal of encroachment’ or ‘beautification of city’. 35 percent were for infrastructure projects, 4.7 for environmental projects and 0.7 percent for disaster management. One and a half lakh houses were demolished by the government in which 7.4 lakh people were forcefully evicted. In 2023 alone, above 5 lakh people were evicted Delhi being in the first place. Courts always were in favour of the evictions. Eviction is not simply eviction. This is nothing but marginalisation of tribal and Muslim communities from the society. The elections would only increase riots on these communities in a bid of the BJP to instigate Hindu sentiments and gain votes. 

The inauguration of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on 22nd January was one issue that BJP greatly used for its political propaganda. Crores of people’s money was spent for the purpose. The construction of Ram Mandir, also a part of the agenda of Brahmanic Hindutva was done at the time before elections to cash on the sentiments of the majority Hindu people of the country. It also exposed the Supreme Court’s anti-people outlook that gave judgment in favour of the construction in 2019. Interestingly, four Shankaracharyas criticised Modi for inaugurating the temple stating he violated the rules of Hindu religion in performing the ceremony. 

Modi government set a unique record in its propaganda against the ongoing people’s movements through feature films. After the infamous ‘Kashmir files’ and Kerala story’ that Modi personally also promoted in his public speeches, ‘Bastar, the Naxal story’ and ‘Joram’ in the background of the revolutionary movement in Bihar-Jharkhand were released in March. ‘Kashmir files’ was severely criticised not only in the country but also by foreign film directors for its ‘vulgarity’. The untruth in ‘Kerala story’ was exposed by film critics and media. And now, the film on Bastar where a woman police officer is in the lead role fiercely speaking about ‘crushing’ Naxalites is being widely propagated by the saffron media. This kind of movies instigate anti-Muslim, anti-revolution ideas among the people and try to strengthen reactionary ideas in the society. If BJP comes to power, it will pollute the social milieu through education, culture and other such means. 

In the past decade of BJP’s rule in the leadership of Modi, the government proved itself anti-worker, anti-peasant, anti-middle class, anti-Dalit, women, tribal and religious (Muslim, Christian) minorities. Lakhs of workers and employees lost employment in favour of modernisation of corporate enterprises. Casualisation and outsourcing of labour increased. Lakhs of small and medium scale industries were closed to facilitate big corporate tycoons. 26 crores of agricultural labour are living miserable lives. 2.7 lakh central government 3 permanent employees were removed in the name of lay off and VRS. 15 lakh workers were removed from 7 big public sector organisations. Employees, small traders, students, unemployed, women and all the oppressed sections are facing the wrath of Brahmanic Hindutva Fascism. The Hindutva forces in power are making these oppressed classes a scape goat in favour of the corporate houses. Such policies gain validity through winning the elections. 

Coming to the boast of the BJP Modi government about India becoming the third biggest economy, the everyday developments of various sectors only prove that whatever is spoken of development, it only concerns that of domestic and foreign corporate companies. As per the fresh assessment of IMF the GDP of US is 26.8 trillion dollars and per capita income is 80.41 thousand dollars. India is in the 5th place with a GDP of 3.7 trillion dollars and per capita income of 2.6 thousand dollars. As per the statistics of per capita income, our country is the poorest among the G-20 alliance. 

The loan on the people of the country is estimated to reach Rs. 169 lakh crores by 2024 March. In addition to this, the state governments made a loan of another Rs. 76,09,926 crores. The government collected more than Rs. 26,51,919 crores from the people in the name of fuel taxes on petrol, diesel and cooking gas. An amount of Rs. 1,70,000 crores are being collected per month in the name of GST. In addition to all the taxes paid by the people, the central government is collecting cess (special taxes) in education, health, agriculture, Railway, coal mines, roads, infrastructure, exports and other sectors. 6,68,400 hectares of forests were destructed in our country in 2015-2020 in Modi’s rule. India is in the 155th place among 188 countries in World Environment Protection Index in 2021. 

These facts and figures bring out the stark reality that the governments elected through elections only help imperialists, comprador bureaucratic capitalists and big landlords. These also show that people are burdened with ever increasing loan. If ever India becomes the third or even the first biggest economy of the world, the people of the country will not gain anything. 

Parliamentary democracy in India is fake. These elections that go totally against democracy and only bring the enemy classes of the people to power should be boycotted. In fact, the percentage of polling in any General election is just 60 percent. Voluntary and conscious voting is very meagre in semi-colonial, semi-feudal India. Another reality, mainly in the recent decades is that no party is gains absolute majority in elections and can form government only through an alliance. Real democracy is not possible in the existing semi-feudal conditions where money power, caste power and religious frenzy dominate. Real democracy can be achieved only through New Democratic Revolution. CPI (Maoist) is leading the people of India in accomplishing New Democratic Revolution with the axle of Agrarian Revolution in the path of Protracted People’s War amidst intense state repression. 

The party has been giving calls to boycott elections and placing a people’s alternate manifesto before the people during each election. It has given a call and placed an alternate manifesto now too. According to the strategy of PPW, people’s revolutionary state power is formed area wise in the strategic areas, expands to the plain areas and finally seizes cities of enemy strong hold. These organs of state power are now being formed in the areas of revolutionary movement at the embryonic stage under the name of Revolutionary People’s Committee (RPC). This is the path to future people’s state power all over the country. 

Alternate Manifesto of the CPI (Maoist) 

An alternate manifesto was placed before the people by the CPI (Maoist) for the General elections as a path for liberation from exploitation and oppression of the imperialists, comprador bureaucratic capitalists and landlords and formation of people’s state power. Excerpts from the manifesto – 

“…We believe that it is possible to bring a revolutionary change only through politically mobilising the people suffering from exploitation and oppression in Protracted People’s War. Such a government shall be formed all over the country only after the success of New Democratic Revolution. This new democratic state power will radically change the foundation of the present economy, politics and culture of the rotten ruling classes…”. 

“…Firstly, it is necessary to form a new state machinery and new Constitution for the new social order and its development…”. 

“…The New Democratic state machinery-Constitution shall be a democratic state machineryConstitution of workers, peasants, urban middle class, domestic capitalists, oppressed social sections and oppressed nationalities on the basis of worker-peasant alliance in the leadership of the proletariat. This shall represent the interests of these four classes, oppressed social sections and oppressed nationalities and shall be the main instrument of their development and higher transformation. In order to achieve this, firstly the relations of production that are the basis of the present exploitation and oppression must be disbanded and those relations of production that shall work as basis of New Democratic state must be established. This shall also abolish the politics and institutions that are based on the earlier relations of production that served and represented the exploitive classes. It shall eradicate social oppression and discrimination. 

“It shall take up continuous revolution in the cultural sector. It shall control the remnants of exploitive classes and the forces that represent the depowered exploitive classes and unleashes New Democratic dictatorship on them, on the imperialist agents, counter-revolutionaries and traitors of the country to educate and transform them. It makes efforts to enhance conscious and active participation of the people in economic, political, social, military, cultural, environmental and other such programs and all affairs of the state for the overall development of the people and the country and to preserve the independence and sovereignty of the country. It shall work in a planned manner in the government and with the participation of the people to do away with the differences and discrimination among the various oppressed classes, social sections and nationalities in various sectors and to take forth the society towards a new higher direction-Socialism. 

“It works legally to control bureaucracy, corruption, partiality, discrimination and other such antipeople, counter-development trends in the power machinery in the Party, government, Army and other sectors. It encourages the people and Mass organisations such as Trade Unions, Democratic political parties and cultural organisations and guarantees democratic rights to them. It immediately lifts ban imposed by the exploitive governments on the organisations and associations of movement of the oppressed people, religious minorities and oppressed nationalities…”. 

“…The new state abolishes all the unequal, anti-national agreements of the present reactionary, antipeople government with the imperialist countries that affect the sovereignty of the country. This state arms the people for the defence of the country. It enhances the role of the people in protecting the country. 

“The state establishes fraternal relations with neighbouring countries contrary to the expansionist greed of the present rulers. It makes best efforts to solve the border problems, the problem of water and other problems in a peaceful and just manner. This state never deals with the neighbouring countries in expansionist methods. 

“The New Democratic state implements the below-mentioned five principles regarding relations with countries of various social orders – 1. Regional comprehensiveness 2. Mutual respect towards sovereignty 3. Not indulging in mutual aggression 4. Non-intervention in mutually internal affairs 5. Equality-mutual interestpeaceful co-existence…” 

“…The Revolutionary People’s Committees we propose that are in the embryonic state of the genuine independent, progressive, sovereign, self-reliant, exploitation free people’s democratic federal republic of India…” 

“…We call upon all the workers, peasants, middle class, national bourgeoisie, women, Dalits, Adivasis, religious minorities, oppressed nationalities, patriotic, progressive, democratic individuals and teams to take part in the formation of this New Democratic state, to become part of this just war and to reject the imperialist sponsored state power and boycott elections to its representative assemblies (parliament, assemblies and panchayats) and the coming Lok Sabha elections”. 

This is the program of a people’s government given as an alternative to the existing exploitive government before the people and with the developing revolutionary situation, the oppressed people of the country shall continue in the path of New Democratic Revolution with the axle of Agrarian Revolution, that shall ultimately lead to countrywide state power of the people. But for now, all the revolutionary, democratic, patriotic, progressive organisations have the important task to strengthen efforts to save the country and the people from the danger of Brahmanic Hindutva Fascism.