SUCI (Communist) —
Contest 119 Seats in 20 States and 3 Union Territories
in the Coming Parliamentary Election
[Press handout distributed at the Press Conference convened on 13th March 2019 in Kolkata by Provash Ghosh General Secretary, SUCI(Communist), on ensuing Parliamentary Election]
Dates of election to constitute 17th Lok Sabha have been announced. For months before this announcement, both national and regional bourgeois parties, have been customarily busy in showering plethora of promises a number of pre-poll sops to deceive voters. Alongside they were engaged as usual in mud-singling at each other.
During the days of its advent in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries by overthrowing autocratic feudal-monarchical order, capitalism had upheld the flag of scientific thought, democracy, democratic values, concept of secular humanism free from religion, lofty ideals of equality-liberty-fraternity and accomplished bourgeois democratic revolution. At that time, multi-party parliamentary democracy as the political system of capitalism was established. Relative autonomy of and separation of power among the legislature, judiciary and executive—the three wings of state— was stipulated. In the initial days of rising capitalism, the emerging progressive bourgeoisie had implemented all these principles to a considerable extent. But once following inexorable law of history capitalism entered the stage of monopoly and imperialism, its decadence and reactionary character was manifested glaringly. Obviously, capitalist rulers in all capitalist-imperialist countries began to trample underfoot all democratic rights, values, practices and codes whichonce they championed. The very concept of democratic right was reduced to the unfettered right of the monopolists to ruthlessly exploit and plunder people as raw material. The slogan of democracy “of the people, by the people and for the people” was replaced by operation of an utterly oppressive system “of the monopolists, by the monopolists and for the monopolists”. Compromise with religious blindness and encouragement to religious fanaticism were resorted to for blunting rational thought process. Freedom of press, freedom of expression, philosophical tolerance and all such other erstwhile democratic concepts began to be flouted at will. Voice of opposition was muzzled and all legitimate protests brutally suppressed. Alongside, parliamentary democracy was reduced to parliamentary fascist autocracy. Democracy is replaced by fascism in different forms and degrees in different countries. ‘Multi party democracy’ is been virtually reduced to ‘Two party democracy’.
India as a capitalist-imperialist country has been no exception. It is also marked by all these evils of rotten reactionary capitalism. What is happening on the electoral front? The ruling bourgeoisie is selecting this or that party of its trust as its political manger and then brings it to power by using money, muscle, media and administrative power. When the incumbent ruling party gets discredited before people because of its avid pursuit of anti-people pro-capitalist policies and grievances begin to accumulate against it, the ruling bourgeoisie brings to the fore another chosen political manager of its own and ensures replacement of the former manager by the latter. What has been the fallout of this game of periodic change of government and ritualistic election? The rich is getting richer and poor poorer. 1% of super-rich owns 73% of country’s wealth. India has become home to 1/3rdof global poor. 20 crore 30 Lacks people go hungry every day. Over 4000 people die daily in absence of minimal healthcare. Closures, lock out, of factories, retrenchment of workers going on in increasing numbers. Temporary contract jobs have replaced permanency of jobs. Monopolists and multinationals are killing the middle and small traders. Unemployment is soaring menacingly. More than 70 crores are unemployed and semi-employed, receipt of over 23 lakh applications including a good number of post graduates and doctorates for just 368 posts of peons in UP bear eloquent testimony to that. Unable to get remunerative price of the produced crops, poor peasants are committing suicide. So far, over 3 Lacks 50 thousands peasants have committed suicide.In the name of unearthing black money, what is done is to increase black money even more speedily. Only a few petty offenders are taken into custody for playing to the gallery while the big fishes with the backing of the ruling class and its subservient governments are piling up huge black wealth with impunity. Severe economic onslaught, fiscal savagery, spiralling of price line, beggary, prostitution, rape, gang rape, trafficking, honour killing, lynching, migrant labourers, breaking of families—everything is going up at an alarming rate. Rudimentary healthcare and education continue to elude common people on an escalating scale. The list of growing misery and penury, deceptions and deprivations of the oppressed countrymen might go on longer and longer.
Election too has become farcical and a big deception today. Defying the codes and rules of the Election Commission, the power-greedy bourgeois parties spend huge sum of money to capture votes. They exploit the wretchedness and political ignorance of the masses to lure them with money and other petty benefits. The hapless unorganized people also easily fall into their trap, feel that whatever little is coming should be taken. After election, they find how have they been deceived, lock, stock and barrel, and their life having worsened further.
All the national and regional bourgeois parties now in electoral fray have tested power, either at the centre or in the state. And as corruption has become a hallmark of decaying capitalism and virtually the law of the land, none of these parties remained free from it. They say that their MPs and MLAs are people’s representatives. But in the last Lok Sabha, 442 MPs out of 545 were crorepatis (i.e. 82%), the richest being worth of Rs 683 crores. Did they then represent poor oppressed people or the handful of rich? Earlier people used to respect the political leaders. Now, out of bitter experience, they hate the politicians. Why is it so? Because, when religion was progressive, it gave birth to higher characters. But afterwards when religion in its service to feudal monarchies became reactionary it failed to provide morality. Then at the time of democratic revolution, bourgeois humanism in its period of emergence created higher characters. The leaders of our freedom movement also possessed high moral character. But now capitalism itself is corrupt, anti-people and devoid of moral values, naturally leaders subservient to the existing corrupt system become totally corrupt, hypocrites and cheats. They are now busy opening liquor shops, extending scope of lottery trade, promoting all kinds of obscenity, sex-perversion and rotten culture through film, TV and other media so as to destroy human essence, dehumanize people and emasculate them particularly the youth from within. So that they cannot raise voice of protest and can be purchased as the muscle power of these parties.
For a prolonged period, the Congress had ruled the country and foxed people with catchphrases like ‘socialistic pattern of society”, ‘garibi hotao’ etc. When the Congress became thoroughly discredited because of its brazen anti-people pro-monopoly policies coupled with tumbling out of one after another mega scams, the ruling capitalist class backed and projected the BJP as the alternative in parliamentarian politics. The BJP too dished out a host of false promises before election to bring ‘Achhe Din’. But in its 5-year rule, the situation has gone from bad to worse. People’s plight has increased manifold. It is to be recalled mentor of BJP, i.e. RSS had totally opposed Indian freedom struggle. M S Golwalkar, the ideologue of the RSS, categorically stated that the theories of ‘anti British territorial nationalism’ had deprived people of the positive and inspiring content of Hindu Nationhood. Hence, according to him the national independence struggle was reactionary and the revered leaders and martyrs of freedom movements were nothing but reactionary, traitors and un-patriot. In fact, the RSS fully cooperated with the British imperialists. Now the same RSS and the BJP, are claiming as nationalists and patriots.
As Marxist we are atheist but we are also aware that all religion preachers were great men and they all, during the period when religion had a progressive role, fought for social cause, faced wrath of the then rulers and were even persecuted by them. None of them ever preached any hatred against any other religion. But now the RSS-BJP is doing exactly opposite to that. They are inciting communalism-fanaticism in the name of religion. Did Chaitanya, Ramkrishna or Vivekananda give call for demolishing Babri masjid or building Rammandir in its place? Is there any reference in Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas about Babri masjid having been built on Ram’s birthplace? It was Rajiv Gandhi, the former Congress prime minister, who opened the lock of Babri masjid and allowed worship of Ramlala there for electoral benefit. And we know how the arch Hindu communal RSS-BJP took full advantage of that. What followed in the trail was countrywide spread of communal conflagration which took away so many innocent lives, made so many families bereaved and homeless, outraged the modesty of so many women, surcharged the atmosphere with communal tension and passion and helped precipitating hatred and distrust among different religious communities equally oppressed and repressed under capitalism. Is it then any pursuit of religion? Who does not know that all these are cleverly crafted ploy to reap electoral benefits by creating vote banks through polarization and destroy the democratic unity of the oppressed people? Often these rulers foment and ignite religious, caste, parochial tensions and conflicts. Dalits and Tribals are also suppressed and repressed.
Further, they are destroying scientific thought and encouraging religious blind faith to accentuate fascization of the country and to make the people believe, ‘life is governed by divine order’ and causes of their miseries are ‘sins in previous life’ and rich becoming richer due to ‘blessings of almighty god’.
Now when the BJP has become unpopular, there is an endeavour to bring back the Congress as the alternative. But they are two parts of the same coin. The Congress was never secular. During the freedom movement, its leaders played a reformist-oppositional role, encouraged religious thoughts and dominantly patronized Hindu religion. So, as against developing on a true secular humanist plank, Indian nationalism virtually became a Hindu religion-oriented nationalism. Only Netaji Subhas, Bhagat Singh, Rabindranath, Sarat Chandra, Premchand, Subramanium Bharati, Nazrul were exception. Congress also engineered riots in Rourlela, Bhagalpur, Nelli and Delhi. Congress president is competing with BJP leaders in visiting temples and preaching ‘soft hindutya’. The same very Congress clamped emergency on the country, promulgated a number of black acts, like TADA, MISHA, ESMA etc. Ruthlessly suppressed many movements, killed many peasants, workers, students and youths. So the Congress was never secular or democratic. It is a matter of regret that the same Congress is now projected by the CPI (M) and CPI as ‘secular’ and ‘democratic’ to gain some MP seats. Earlier, purely to buttress petty electoral interest, the CPI (M), under the garb of opposing the ‘autocracy’ of the Congress had joined the hands of the Janata Party comprising RSS-Jana Sangha in 1977. Thereafter, the CPI(M) had joined the BJP in anointing V P Singh to prime ministership.And now the CPI ((M) is combining with the Congress in the name of opposing communalism of the BJP. Let alone revolutionary politics, even leftism has no connection with such crass opportunism.
Already there are spontaneous outbursts of people’s discontent in the form of sporadic agitations and protest movements. Our Party is of firm opinion that the task imperative is to provide organized shape and proper direction to such erupting people’s protest. So is the necessity for developing and intensifying the class and mass struggles on the burning problems of life. Moreover, the various bourgeois parties are at loggerheads with each other. Sharp contradiction among the regional and national capitals is manifest. Even the monopoly houses are divided over various economic and political issues. Such a favourable situation demanded a united powerful left movement to surge forth as the alternative to bourgeois power politics. We urged upon them to develop mighty class and mass struggle with our united efforts. But that expectation has been belied. Just for getting a few seats, the CPI (M) and CPI, abandoning the path of struggling leftism, are shamelessly indulging in tailism of Congress and other regional bourgeois outfits and thus further maligning and weakening leftism.
Our Party based on our organizational strength has been building up class and mass struggles on various pressing demands of people in different states. In course and as a part of the ongoing struggles, we shall participate in the election. We shall keep before the people the historical truth that mere change in government would not bring end of misery or sufferings in life. Emancipation from this gruelling oppression can come by only through accomplishment of anti-capitalist socialist revolution. To accelerate the process of revolution, what is needed is to develop and intensify the class and mass struggles along right track and based on proletarian revolutionary ideology and higher culture. If any of our candidate is elected, he or she would fearlessly uphold people’s cause and reflect the voice of extra-parliamentary movements inside the house so as to coordinate parliamentary battle with extra-parliamentary struggles.
