Amidst pandemic situation, assembly elections in four states of West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Union territory of Puducherry are going to commence from end of this month and continue throughout April. The moment the poll bugle has been blown, all vote-oriented parties, counting their political existence in the number of seats they might grab by any means, have begun their customary campaign of giving fake promises, vending spurious dreams and self-certifying themselves as helmsmen of ‘development’. While the parties in power are providing lists of their ‘achievements’ in the bygone years and seeking a fresh term for ‘devotedly serving the people’, particularly the downtrodden and underprivileged, those in opposition are brushing aside all such claims as bogus and instead projecting themselves as superior candidates for being in service for the people. What is being seen is that hardly any people’s issue is featuring in the campaign. Instead, the parliamentarian rivals are calling each other each by names often in filthy languages, giving personal attack and character assassination precedence over desired political debates and behaving as if they are at loggerheads with each other. As usual, the mainstream media is busy in giving widest coverage to such semantic quibbling and generally ensuring that only those who have unenviable record of duping the common people and duly buttressing the class interest of the ruling monopolists alone come to the fore as choices for the people in the hustings. So, with the all hustle-bustle of election, it is poised to be another defrauding exercise with the interest of the increasingly pauperized toiling millions thrown to the winds.
Prevailing socio-economic-political scenario
It beggars description as to how devastating is the socio-economic-political life of the misery and penury-stricken countrymen in the last few years of the BJP rule at the Centre and some of the states including Assam which is also going to the polls. On the economic front, all fiscal and monetary policies are so framed that the rich becomes richer and the poor poorer and there is growing economic centralization. Prices of essential commodities are soaring beyond limit. Cost of petrol-diesel-LPG-kerosene have become unaffordable with progressive rise in excise duties and cess. While prices are spiralling, income of the people is rapidly dwindling giving rise to market crisis–endemic of the capitalist system. One after another industries are closing down throwing lakhs out of jobs. Cost of agricultural inputs have gone up tremendously. Poor peasants are not receiving remunerative price. Hoarding and black-marketing are rampant. Demonetization and GST have worsened the situation further. Increased privatization and commercialization of key sectors including railways, banks, education, healthcare and other service industries as well as savage fiscal and monetary policies are wreaking havoc in people’s life. More is the privatization, more is the exploitation entailing escalated peril of the people. Unemployment has ascended to a new height. Already over 3.5 lakh peasants have committed suicide, officially. Even the number of suicides by retrenched workers or unemployed youth are not short in number. And the toiling pauperized millions are bearing the brunt of this capitalist crisis by bleeding white. While 83 crore Indians survive on less than Rs20 a day, Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest industrialist, earned Rs 90 crore per hour even during pandemic. Though India ranks 94 out of 107 countries in Global Hunger Index and 23 crore Indians go hungry every day, just two industrialists -Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani have doubled their wealth during the BJP rule. This glaring inequality is the hallmark of Indian capitalist economy which the BJP as well as other ruling parties are wedded to defend and work as custodians of.
But lest the people should raise their voice against such perennial oppression and repression, the government has been taking one after another notorious political steps. All legitimate democratic movements are being brutally crushed. Draconian black acts have been brought to muzzle the voice of protest. Anyone daring to show dissent against any government policy or measure is being squarely accused of sedition and of being anti-national. Even any upload on the social media criticizing the government is viewed as treason. The instances of human right violations by the government-administration are growing at such an alarming proportion that not only domestic onlookers but even international observers and some jurists are expressing serious concern. Also there is a concerted attempt to create a committed judiciary and the judges are often accused of delivering judgments ‘in favour of the government’ by violating due juridical process so as to get some plum posting after retirement. More and more power is concentrated in the hands of the bourgeois state to undertake political coercion at will.
Attack on the socio-cultural front is also mounting in various forms. In order to blunt rational thinking process, all kinds of old obsolete thoughts, religious backwardness, obscurantist ideas and bigotry are being fostered in every possible way. The whole education system is being so revamped that no scientific bent of mind and spirit of enquiry develops among the students. Myth and history are being synonymized. Coupled with it is the concerted effort on the part of the ruling quarters to divide people along religious-casteist lines by fanning up communal-fundamentalist-chauvinist-parochial fanaticism. Persecution of religious minorities and so-called lower caste people is a common phenomenon. Even riots and murderous attacks against religious minorities are engineered frequently to keep the atmosphere surcharged with tension and terror. The RSS-BJP are known for using their infamous IT Cell to circulate fake news and morphed pictures to whip up communal passion and orchestrate fratricidal bloodbaths. Secondly, there is harrowing spurt in crime rate particularly crime against women. Rape, gang-rape, murder, dowry deaths, honour killings, female foeticide and infanticide, domestic violence, eve-teasing etc. have become the order of the day. Widespread obscenity, growing objectification of women, rapid proliferation of pornographic material, sex-perversion and intoxicants like liquor, drugs etc. are polluting the social atmosphere and breaking the moral backbone of the nation, particularly the youth.
NRC, Black Farm Laws and killing Labour codes
That is not all. To widen social divide based on religion, exacerbate torture and harassment of religious minorities and polarize people along communal line, the BJP government floated an idea of creating a National Register of Citizens (NRC) and initiated the exercise in Assam. The whole purpose was to fraudulently brand bona fide Indian citizens belonging to religious minority community as “illegal foreigners” and thereby rob their citizenship through a slew of manipulative exercise. In course of that, the oppressed toiling people would be divided into two parts-the “citizens” and the “stateless” which would come handy for the oppressive rulers to resort to the infamous ‘divide and rule’ tactics and divert attention from the burning problems of life bred by this decrepit capitalist system. The initial exercise finally located 19 lakh names to be people excluded from the final NRC. But contrary to the expectation of the ruling quarters, 12 out of these19 lakh people were the Hindus. This proved to be a spoilsport for the ruling RSS-BJP who then brought a new most uncalled for Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) saying that all non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan would be granted citizenship under this Act. Naturally, there was countrywide protest against NRC as well as CAA and a historic Shaheen Bagh movement in Delhi epitomized the wrath and rejection of such heinous ploys by the right-thinking conscientious countrymen. When such movements were surging forth in almost all parts of the country, the RSS-BJP engaged armed storm-troopers to break the Shaheen Bagh movement.
Then the country was gripped by Covid 19. Though the first case was detected in India on 27 January 2020 and the World Health Organization (WHO) who declared the disease to be a pandemic on 6 March 2020, the ruling BJP leaders did not take any measure to prevent spread of this deadly virus as they were busy greeting the then American President Donald Trump and toppling Congress-led Madhya Pradesh State Government by engineering defection. Once these two assignments were accomplished, the BJP Prime Minister declared total lockdown in the country without any preparation or notice. By one stroke, normal life came to standstill and around 12 crore people lost jobs. The whole country was moved by the tragic spectacle of millions of migrant workers rendered jobless shelterless overnight, trudging alongside highways at night with barrows, bundles and children in their arms and some dying midway without food and water and because of fatigue.
When it was incumbent on any civilized government to come to the rescue of the suffering countrymen with appropriate relief and rescue measures, the BJP rulers gave a big bluff by announcing a so called economy revival package which was in fact a prescription of granting loans to big enterprises and their smaller ancillaries and did not care to give any cash assistance to the misery and penury-stricken citizens to buy items of bare necessities. Not just that. It was during the pandemic that the government went on increasing tax on petrol-diesel heftily to mop up additional revenue of over Rs 2.3 lakh crores. Even there was steep rise in the prices of LPG and Kerosene to imperil the pandemic-hit poor people.
But that was not all. Since during lockdown and even on rolling out of unlocking process, it was not possible to convene parliamentary session or organize any protest movement, the government in a crafty manner brought three black Farm Laws through the ordinance route. The Essential Commodities Act was amended to remove the existing restrictions on stocking food produce. And the other two laws have paved the way of eventual corporate takeover of agriculture to the total detriment to the peasants’ interest. Hence lakhs of peasants including women from the neighbouring states of Delhi congregated at different places and began a march to the capital. But the government arrayed its entire arsenal to prevent them from entering Delhi by creating barricades through boulders, trenches, spike beds and wired barbs. So the peasants have camped at three border points and have been continuing their demonstration with every passing day weathering chilly cold followed by scorching sun and batons-bullets-water cannons of the police. This movement has sprouted spontaneously with no specific leader at the helm. But it has already shaken the BJP government. Had it been steered along a true leftist line, it could have sent chill down the spine of the government.
Just like the way these out and out anti-peasant black Farm Laws have been pushed through, three downright anti-labour bills were also hurriedly passed in the midst of rising Covid-19 pandemic and at a time when the opposition had boycotted the parliament to register protest against the said Farm Bills. These new legislations would give a free hand for hiring and firing workers snatching away existing labour protections and infringing upon their right to strike. Fixed term employment has been introduced under which the employers are given the absolute right to hire workers for a fixed term by denying them continued service even when the job is perennial in nature. Further under this act the managements are not mandated to provide any social security benefits to the workers. This is typical hallmark of a fascist autocracy in power.
Planned privatization of Education and Healthcare
And the BJP government has already rolled out the process of establishing corporate takeover of both education and healthcare through the provisions of National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) and National Health Policy (NHP) respectively. NEP is also designed to strip education of its essence and wipe out whatever little of secular, scientific and democratic education is still existing in the country. Similarly, without caring for improving Primary and Secondary Healthcare infrastructure under the aegis of the government as well as the facilities in government hospitals for extending necessary medical assistance to the common people, the government has been creating much hype centered around health insurance as if ‘Boost to Universal Insurance’ is guarantee of ‘Universal Healthcare’. And during the pandemic, the mutilated skeleton of government healthcare system has tumbled out of the cupboard.
People’s issues are relegated to the back
But if one carefully looks at the electoral campaign of the BJP, Congress, TMC, AGP, DMK. AIADMK as well as the CPI (M), CPI, one would find that due emphasis on the people’s issues, pressing problems of people’s life is strikingly absent. Instead, the contending parliamentary parties in their desperate vying for seats are oriented towards mudslinging, personal attacks, mutual bickering, character assassination, vulgar comments and surfeit of lies and deceits. While the authorities are trying to pose compliances with various procedural paraphernalia as summum bonnum of election, ideological-political campaign, which is supposed to be the very quintessence of adult franchise even in bourgeois parliamentary democracy, has been made the worst casualty. In fact, ideological-political campaign and debates have been reduced to redundancy because floor-crossing, horse trading, shifting allegiance, internal squabbles, factional feuds etc. have been dominating the election market. So, there is no commitment to any ideology or principle. Only consideration is lure of lucre and power.
On the other hand, as our Party has been pointing out for long, the bourgeois media is also compelled to admit that election is now controlled by money-muscle-media power. Our Party has also added administrative power as the fourth controlling tool. People have also been seeing how by bending the rules of elections and manipulating the results with the help of money-muscle-media power, a bunch of self-seekers, notorious elements, arch criminals and rank opportunists have been entering the House with the backing of the ruling bourgeoisie. And not just entry, they are also forming governments, enjoying pelf and power and chronicling the tale of escalating misery and penury of the people. For example, in the current parliament, nearly 50 per cent MPs in the current Lok Sabha cutting across parties have criminal records . It is an increase of 44 per cent in the number of MPs with declared criminal cases since 2009. 116 of the 303 lawmakers from the BJP have criminal charges, including one for terrorism. Twenty-nine of the 52 Congress MPs also have criminal charges. As many as 440 of the 536 MPs in the Lok Sabha are crorepatis, including .265 from BJP and 43 from Congress. Similarly, in present West Bengal assembly, 90 MLAs have serious criminal charges against them. 35% of the MLAs are crorepatis. 33% sitting Tamil Nadu MLAs have criminal cases against them.
Hoax of ‘development’
And what is the most sickening is that all the vote-based parties are harping on ‘development’. While the ruling parties are dishing out a tall list of developmental work they have undertaken like laying roads, constructing flyovers, illumining the streets with LED lights, giving doles, supplying tarpaulins to cover hutments, giving cheap rice and wheat through public distribution system etc., the opposition is claiming that it is only they who can usher in the desired development if voted to power. The BJP is also highlighting GDP growth figures to claim how the country is surpassing many other countries in development. But are these real indicators of development? Surely not. Development means fast decrease of unemployment, rising income of the common people, dipping price line, availability of all basic necessities from food to shelter, education and healthcare to everyone without any hassle or constraint, alleviation of poverty and reducing inequality. In other words, the sole yardstick is to see if the standard of life of common people is improving or not. When judged in this yardstick, can it be said that there has been any semblance of development? Does pushing the have-nots and underprivileged, destitute peasants, workers and jobless millions to the precipice of ruination symbolize development? Some cosmetic facelifts here and there is no testimony of development.
Rather, on all counts, there is fast degeneration in every sphere of life, and the wails of the deprived multitudes are renting the air. So, bypassing these issues, the showcasing of achievements by the ruling parties is a hoax. Equally farcical are the tall promises of the bourgeois opposition many of whom have similar track-record of sham development while in power.
Mischievous slogan of double-engine growth
Now the BJP has raised another bogey of “double-engine” meaning that if the same party rules at the Centre and in the states, development would be faster. But while saying so, the BJP leaders are not referring to the “development” of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh-the states under their rule. For example, the UP chief minister himself admitted in the assembly on 14 February 2020, that number of unemployed educated youth in Uttar Pradesh, has grown by over 12.5 lakh in last two years to 34 lakh. In December last, 62% of households reported incomes lower than pre-lockdown period. In just four years, crimes against women increased in Uttar Pradesh by over 66%. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) which works under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has marked Uttar Pradesh as the most unsafe state for women. In regard to Dalits, the number of harassment cases registered by NHRC in Uttar Pradesh saw an increase of nearly 41 per cent. Same is with Gujarat. More than 2000 industrial units have closed down, the state government admitted in the assembly. The Gujarat government in February last told the state Assembly that 4.58 lakh educated youth are registered with various state employment exchanges. The highest spike in the urban unemployment rate was seen in Gujarat. 20.6 per cent households sometimes skipped meals due to lack of food while 21.8 per cent said they sometimes slept without a single meal, as per Hunger Watch survey. Data on crime tabled by the state home ministry in the assembly stated that a total of 14,702 cases of suicide were registered in Gujarat in the last two years, suggesting that on an average nearly 20 persons took their lives every day. Gujarat reported nearly four rapes every day in the two years beginning 1 January 2018. The list is endless. So, if the BJP ‘double engine’ runs in other states, one can imagine where the country would head to.
BJP’s self-arrogated credential of nationalism and patriotism
Another point needs to be discussed in brief. The BJP and its mentor RSS have been arrogating to themselves the credential of being true nationalist and patriotic. So, anyone who dares to criticize the RSS-BJP or show dissent against any of its policies, preachings or acts is squarely branded as anti-national. Similarly, by patriotism the RSS-BJP means occasional fulminations against Pakistan or China and undertaking so called surgical strikes against the neighbouring countries. But what they try to suppress is that they never supported Indian freedom movement and the concept of Indian nationalism born of it. Rather they opposed it as reactionary and co-operated with the British imperialist rulers. It was V D Savarkar of Hindu Mahasabha, now an idol of the RSS-BJP, who first mooted the idea of religion-based nation -an unhistorical flawed proposition which the Muslim League endorsed later as a result of which, the country was vivisected after a shameful communal riot. When the countrymen were aroused in demand for ouster of the alien rulers and Netaji Subhas declared war against the British rulers with his Indian National Army, the Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League based on Savarkar’s theory of “responsive cooperation”, had formed coalition governments in Bengal, Sind and North-West Frontier provinces of undivided India. Savarkar gave an undertaking of helping the British rulers with all servility and in fact, exhorted the Indian youths to join British Army. Similarly, M S Golwalkar, another ideologue of the RSS-BJP, who was effusive in praise for Hitler and opposed Indian Renaissance and freedom struggle because it was not a Hindu national struggle and directed only against the British rulers. He also denounced ‘territorial nationalism’ and mooted the proposition of ‘Hindu Rashtra’. He further held that equating Indian freedom movement with anti-Britishism was a reactionary idea and thus branded the revered leaders of freedom movement as reactionary. This was the kind of ‘patriotism’ and ‘nationalism’ they stood for which was going against the aspiration of freedom-seeking Indians. As inheritor of this sinister doctrine, the RSS-BJP is now promoting Hindu jingoism, ancient traditionalism and inculcating blind faith among people so that truth remains ever elusive. Alongside, they are pretending to be overwhelmed by patriotic feelings presuming that this past history would not be unfolded before the people.
Corruption and crime
Further, corruption and crime have become commonplace concept in capitalist societies. The entire capitalist world is virtually suffocating from the fuming fire of corruption and crime; the human society from top to bottom is turning blue from the poison of the two. Like any other party in servitude of the ruling bourgeoisie and anchored in bourgeois parliamentarism as main plank of politics, the BJP, notwithstanding all tall talks of its leaders, is also mired in corruption, criminal activities and afflicted by all kinds of filths and rots bred by the outdated stinking capitalism. For example, it is not yet known who were behind the mega VYAPAM scam in Madhya Pradesh involving as high as Rs 36,000 crores and 48 unnatural deaths of accused persons, witnesses, government approvers, probing officials- professors- deans or investigating journalists, media persons and whistle-blowers. Even the BJP chief minister and his wife’s names featured in the list of the suspects. Likewise, the alleged scam over acquiring Rafael warplanes from French company Dassault at exorbitant price ignoring objections from CAG and placing offset contracts to a non-existent Anil Ambani-owned company instead of experienced Government-owned HAL is now quietly shifted under the carpet. And finally the BJP government informed the Supreme Court that documents related to the Rafale deal were stolen from the Defence Ministry. Crimes like undertaking fake encounters, secret assassination, lynching over cow vigilantism, open provocation to perpetrate violence on the minority people, letting armed storm-troopers on peaceful democratic movements etc. are also not in short supply.
Election reduced to farce
When the election time comes, To capture power by any means, they do not hesitate to resort to anything starting from limitless manipulations in the voters’ lists to terrorization, intimidation and forcible capture of polling booths. The ruling parties of the capitalist class have been doing these year after year undeterred right under the nose of the law, using the bureaucracy and the police for the purpose. In this way, the whole election system, having lost its democratic dignity, its tradition as a medium to reflect and exchange opinion, has been reduced to a mere trade circle for crass ‘give and take’, a vile business and a farce. In this way, money of the capitalist class is flowing in a flood in the election. As if, it has become a competition as to who can purchase whom. And to implement this, they are destroying the moral backbone of the students and the youth, trying to destroy their conscience. At the same time, it is also seen that if a ruling party, even after resorting to all these, is ultimately dislodged from power in the face of intense mass wrath, another party of the capitalist class replaces it and comes to power. This two-party parliamentary system of politics is also another ploy of the capitalist class to preserve the exploitative capitalist system by confusing the people. So, though many parties take part in the poll, the monopoly-controlled media at the behest of the ruling bourgeoisie cunningly pitchfork two parties or combinations as contenders and try to influence the electorates in such a way that they are forced to restrict their choice between those two. So it is TMC-BJP in West Bengal, CPI (M)-Congress in Kerala, DMK–AIADMK in Tamilnadu and BJP-AGP alliance vs Congress-AIUDF-CPI(M) combination in Assam.
Another most disquieting fact is that with the election turning into a farce, frustration of the common people assailed day in and day out by deception and deprivation has been soaring. So when the power-monger parliamentarian parties appear with a bagful of money, offer one or two square meals and massively distribute liquors, the hapless destitute people feel that since nothing tangible is going to happen in their life no matter which party wins, time is ripe to grab whatever is thrown to them as crumbs. So, they rally behind this or that vote-based parties which give them more doles. This feature is very pronounced in the elections nowadays indicating how people are being defrauded and dehumanized by the power-brokers.
Responsibility of genuine leftists in such murky situation
What is most distressing that when it was necessary to build up a powerful moment against the misdeeds and oppressive measures of the RSS-BJP and simultaneously launch an intense ideological struggle against communalism-fundamentalism, all other bourgeois petty bourgeois parties are busy calculating electoral arithmetic and forming unprincipled opportunistic alliances to reap benefits in the hustings. So, the pre-poll scenario is dominated by opportunistic power-greedy vote-oriented parties whose whole and sole job is to betray people’s cause, mislead the wretched populace and stage a mockfight in public as well as media glare to capture seats. The obvious question is what then is the task enjoining the genuine Marxists-leftists who represent the alternate pro-people politics, embody higher ideology and culture, never compromise with principled stand and ethical standard and bear the urges and aspiration of the oppressed millions? Can they allow the toiling masses to become innocent victim of the nasty immoral power-politics and be led astray? Or they need to discharge the crucial revolutionary responsibility to place before the people the genuine leftist alternative upholding the teachings of great Lenin that the real strength of a genuine Marxist-Leninist party, the torchbearer of true leftism, does not lie in the number of members in assembly or parliament but in the warmth and fervour of class and mass struggles which would finally lead to bring about cherished emancipation of the suffering humanity from the tentacles of ruthless capitalist oppression and herald the dawn of a new era? Guided by Marxism-Leninism as well as Shibdas Ghosh Thought which is most developed and enriched understanding of Marxism-Leninism of the time, our Party, the SUCI(C), had been trying hard to forge a unity of the left parties to build up and intensify the class and mass movements. SUCI(C) knows that in the cultural milieu of legitimate democratic movement, all artificially precipitated divides would vanish and a strong fraternity among the people from various segments and various communities would develop in course of a strong united struggle for common cause and against common enemy. The ongoing historic peasants’ movement is a classic example of that.
The SUCI(C), as is known to all discerning persons in the country, has been developing such class and mass struggles based on higher proletarian culture over various burning problems of life. SUCI(C) activists are always amidst the vortex of any legitimate democratic movement with an objective of channelizing those in the right direction to reach logical culmination. In the process, many SUCI(C) leaders and workers have embraced martyrdom. Many are serving life terms being slapped with false cases by the quarters of reaction. The SUCI(C) is always calling upon the exploited countrymen to acquire necessary political consciousness to decide between right and wrong, distinguish between friends and foes. To the SUCI(C) workers, revolutionary politics, as taught by Comrade Shibdas Ghosh, the Founder General Secretary of the Party and one of the outstanding Marxist thinkers of the era, is perceived as nobler feeling of heart which steel them in their resolve to enable people to get rid of the grime of the rotten capitalist society and make proletarian revolution a reality.
As per the teachings of great Lenin, communists cannot shy away from taking part in election till the time the people are positively disillusioned about bourgeois parliamentary democracy and mentally prepared for revolution. While the lone objective of all bourgeois and petty-bourgeois parties is securing maximum seats by hook or by crook, a true revolutionary party fights election based on definite principles with the principle aim of imparting necessary political education to the people. It also tries to win as many seats as possible to reflect the voice of extra-parliamentary movements inside the House but not by sacrificing ideology and principle, moral and scruple. So, in course of its relentless effort to build up class and mass struggles, if an election comes by, it takes part in that with its distinct revolutionary line and views the electoral battle a part of the ongoing democratic movements.
With that aim in view, when the fascist autocracy is frantically trying to take its root deeper into the country and right-wing reactionaries are virtually ruling the roost, when communal-fundamentalist-chauvinist-parochial-casteist-racist wolves are howling, the SUCI(C) made an utmost effort to unite all left forces to spearhead democratic movements in leftist direction and place before people a struggling alternative to opportunistic deceitful right reactionary vote-oriented politics. With that clear leftist line and outlook, the united left forces could contest election also. The SUCI(C) wanted a left unity for movement and not just an electoral pact. In fact, some progress could be made by forging an alliance of six left parties. But once the bell tolled for election, the CPI (M) and its associates preferred to shun the line of movement and instead hold the hands of the Congress for petty electoral gains. So, they quietly broke the unity with the SUCI(C).
Since then, the SUCI(C) has been waging struggle singlehandedly throughout the country to uphold the prestige and glory of genuine leftism and organizing people on the platform of movement. In this election also, the SUCI(C) has fielded tried and tested soldiers of democratic movement as its candidates to fight the battle based on true leftism. In course of a discussion, our great leader, teacher and guide, Comrade Shibdas Ghosh had said: ” Although outwardly there appear to be many opposing forces in politics, and the press projects so many contending forces, but viewing the situation from the context of ultimate struggle, I hold, only two contending forces are there in politics – one for revolution, the other opposing revolution – in whatever nomenclature might it be posed. One is the politics of countering revolution…And the other is the politics of organizing revolution.” (SW Vol III p 532) This is being clearer with every passing day. We fervently appeal to the suffering people to imbibe the truth, identify who is a power-broker and who is their spokesmen and make the SUCI(C) candidates victorious.
“…deciding once in three or six years which member of the ruling class was to misrepresent the people in Parliament, …individual suffrage serves every other employer in the search for the workmen and managers in his business. And it is well-known that companies, like individuals, in matters of real business generally know how to put the right man in the right place, and, if they for once make a mistake, to redress it promptly.” —Marx (Civil War in France)
“A democratic republic is the best possible political shell for capitalism, and, therefore, once capital has gained possession of this very best shell it establishes its power so securely, so firmly, that no change, either of persons, of institutions, or of parties in the bourgeois-democratic republic, can shake it….To decide once every few years which member of the ruling class is to repress and crush the people through parliament — such is the real essence of bourgeois parliamentarism, not only in parliamentary-constitutional monarchies, but also in the most democratic republics.”
-Lenin (State and Revolution)
“Only scoundrels or simpletons can think that the proletariat must win a majority in elections carried out under the yoke of the bourgeoisie, under the yoke of wage slavery and must then win power. This is the height of stupidity or hypocrisy; it is the substitution of elections, under the old system and with the old power for class struggle and revolution.”—Lenin (‘Greetings to Italian, French and German Communists, ‘Against Revisionism’)
“When people get disgusted and resentful against the government, another government steps in through elections. The common people hold some persons to be dishonest, they think that it will bring them good if only the dishonest were removed and in their place honest men were installed. Bourgeois parliamentary politicians resort to this type of propaganda with the object of confusing the people under cover of a ‘principle’ or ‘ideology’. So, I would caution the workers, peasants and the common people not to be swayed by this type of deception. Because, only through a change of government the basic problems of the common people had never been resolved, will never be resolved…..the emancipation of the people from the capitalist yoke and the oppressive capitalist system will be impossible to achieve through change of government a thousand times, through elections, or through attempts to rewrite the letters of the laws. The only way to achieve emancipation is to gradually build up the invincible revolutionary united strength of the people through conduct of democratic movements on the correct base political line and to accomplish socialist revolution under the leadership of the revolutionary working class party.”-Shibdas Ghosh– Independence on 15th August and Problems of Emancipation of People, SW Vol III)]
Election is bourgeois politics. If the masses lack political consciousness, if the working class is not in the midst of struggle and does not have its own class organization, if there is no mass movement and if the people are not armed with the strength of a conscious organization, the big industrialists, businessmen and the reactionary forces create such a hype with the help of money and media power that the common masses get swayed by that just like the way a sheaf of thatch-grass gets swamped by rush of water.’’
–Shibdas Ghosh (from an unpublished speech)
“So long as revolution is not accomplished, whether people want elections or not, like it or not, they get dragged into it, involved in it. Revolution means that people have realized that there is no need for elections, when they are all organized and boycotting elections in an organized manner, not negatively but have positively reached the stage of seizure of power and are saying: ‘No more election; capture power.’ Only at that point does taking part in the election become infructuous, unnecessary. Or else the people do get time and again enmeshed in the election. And in order to stay with the masses, both revolutionaries as well as non-revolutionaries – all have to participate in the election. The genuine revolutionaries too have to do that. Everybody has to participate in the election. Only those who practise sectarian truism, those who do not really practise revolutionary politics may want to fight shy of it and remain out, otherwise everyone has to participate. But does it mean that all those taking part in the election are having the same outlook? So you have seen outwardly everyone takes part in the election, I do, we the revolutionary Marxist-Leninists do, the social democrats, the genuine forces, the sham elements, the bourgeois parties, the pseudo-socialists – outwardly viewed, it all appears to be the same. And everybody would say that he only is right, the opponent parties are wrong. So, any tactics or move to defeat the opponent party is justified, because I am right. If this is your line of argument, then there remains no difference in terms of outlook between you and the bourgeoisie. As a matter of fact, an in depth analysis will prove your approach to be erroneous…. The main objective of the bourgeois parties is to grab maximum number of seats by any means and ride to power. Having captured power, to protect the existing system they undertake some reforms and raise slogans on false pretexts. To take recourse to whatever propaganda helps them to don a progressive cloak, to confuse and befool the people for some time in order to prolong the existing system itself – this is their purpose. Hence, their main objective becomes securing maximum number of seats in the elections by hook or by crook. when the party of the proletariat participates in the election with the object of revolutionary purposiveness, being compelled by the necessity to remain with the people, it does so on the basis of mass revolutionary political line. It also tries utmost to win seats. But the essence of its objective is never to anyhow grab maximum seats. The revolutionary party’s focal point is to educate the people as to how to fight the election on the basis of a mass revolutionary line and in doing so, if we can win maximum seats; all the better. If we cannot, not even a single seat, so be it. If we can retain ten seats, then be it so. But the central, the focal point can never be to anyhow grab some seats… I will take this message to the people: since you are taking part in the election, you should do so from the perspective of people’s interest, based on revolutionary politics… So, the essential task is to politically educate the people to distinguish between those who merely talk and those who actually practise it.” —Shibdas Ghosh-(‘On Preserving Unity and Establishing Revolutionary Leadership in Workers’ Movement’ SW Vol IV)
“In this situation, the fissiparous groups and religious fundamentalist like the Jana Sangh (forerunner of the present day BJP) are waiting in the wings. They are waiting for opportune moment. As soon as whatever attraction the people still have towards left movement destroys, they would come out in the open. The ruling CPI (M) leaders are not conscious of this danger. Throwing to the wind the communist ideology and its quintessence, they are going on misleading the people with tall talks and sweet words, just as the Congress did. Thus they are maligning down the prestige of communism.”
-Shibdas Ghosh (UF Politics and Party Work, SW Vol. III)
[“If we have chosen the position in life in which we can most of all work for mankind, no burdens can bow us down, because they are sacrifices for the benefit of all; then we shall experience no petty, limited, selfish joy, but our happiness will belong to millions, our deeds will live on quietly but perpetually at work, and over our ashes will be shed the hot tears of noble people.” –Marx (On the Choice of a Profession)]
