People's Democracy

THE ravages of terrorism, destruction of war and miseries of the global economic slump greet us as we move into the second year of the third millennium of the Gregorian calendar. The third millennium literally began with a bang exposing in many ways the cruel face of global capitalism in its present phase.

These are developments that are going to decisively change the direction and course of world developments. For imperialism the ‘war against terrorism’ has become its latest convenient battle cry. It is seeking to use this as a pretext to mount an aggressive drive to strengthen its overall hegemony. More aggresively than how it used the bogey of ‘war against communism’, during the cold war period, to brazenly interfere with impunity, intervening militarily and embarking on state terrorism against any country it perceived to be against its strategic interests.

At the expense of repetition, it needs to be emphasised that imperialist-sponsored state terrorism and the acts of terrorism as seen on September 11,2001, only feed on each other, the casualty, as always, the loss of innocent lives and destruction of material resources. Another imminent consequence is the attack mounted on Left and progressive forces. All reactionary forces the world over, utilise these circumstances to advance retrograde measures negating many hard won democratic rights and liberties of the people. The USA has already proclaimed for itself the right to intervene militarily anywhere and everywhere in pursuit of its interests. Regressive and repressive domestic laws are being enacted, and rousing nationalistic jingoism has become the order of the day.

The negative shift in the direction of world developments is already becoming manifest - the US’s unilateral withdrawal from the ABM treaty, which for over two decades prevented the escalation of the nuclear arms race, justifying its action on the ground of the ‘need’ to erect its nuclear missile defence (NMD) shield. The elder Bush’ infamous project of ‘Star Wars’, and the consequent nuclear arms race in outer space must necessarily follow.

We, in India, are subjected to these consequences in an acute manner. The Saffron Brigade is leaving no stone unturned to exploit the genuine anger of the Indian people, particularly after the dastardly terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament on December 13,2001. It seeks to misuse the patriotic sentiments of the Indian people, as it misuses their religious sentiments, for its partisan political agenda. With the coming assembly elections, particularly in U P, such brazen efforts have become more pronounced. In the process these organisations consciously and deliberately place the interests of the country secondary to their own pernicious agenda. The urge displayed to push through POTO reflects this.

Despite the fact that the Vajpayee government knows full well that it cannot enact this law because of its hopeless minority in the Rajya Sabha, it has nevertheless taken steps to repromulgate the ordinance. Thus, in the name of fighting terrorism, the hard won democratic rights and civil liberties of the Indian people are sought to be negated. A la Bush, the BJP declares that those who oppose POTO are with the terrorists!

Another important area where significant attacks are being mounted in the international arena, is in the economic sphere. The all round global economic crisis of serious dimensions had erupted much before the September events. All the three major centres of world capitalism remain in the grip of an escalating recession, and the growth rate in the economies of the advanced capitalist countries is predicted to grow by a mere 1 per cent this year. Many of them, including Japan, will even see negative growth rates.

This situation only vindicates the position taken by us and the Left internationally, that the process of globalisation is unsustainable. Through its merciless intensification of exploitation, and impoverishment of the majority of the world’s population, imperialism’s policy of globalisation has drastically reduced the global capacity to consume produced goods. The rapidly growing inequalities that globalisation has produced, coupled with its phenomenon of ‘jobless growth’, has only exacerbated this international depression of demand.

The imperialist response to this crisis is the classical capitalist one - further intensification of the exploitation of the developing countries, seeking to emerge from the crisis by further transferrring its burdens to the third world. What is in store, therefore, as we move into the new year, is further attacks – economic, political and military.

Simultaneously, the past year has seen a major advance in the popular protest against these attacks. From Seattle to Genoa, people’s protests have grown both in numbers and intensity. There is today a greater convergence amongst diverse groups towards coordinated action. The Left is being joined by many social movements and NGOs. This has obviously to be strengthened in the coming year if even the elementary human rights of the vast majority of the world’s peoples are to be protected.

The same trends are also visible in India today. With the almost complete surrender of this Vajpayee government to imperialist economic interests, large sections of our people are coming out in massive protest actions, and the past year has seen major struggles of the working class in all industrial areas. A broader trade union unity has emerged, and, of great significance and importance, the vast masses of the peasantry, facing unprecedented misery and ruin reflected in growing distress suicides and starvation deaths, are coming out in larger numbers in protest.

A third significant feature has been the broader unity that is emerging, as reflected in the November 9^th rally at Delhi against the WTO policies. It must be recollected that, apart from the Left, very few others opposed India’s signing of the WTO accord, on the terms we did in 1994. The coming year will no doubt see the strengthening and consolidation of such unity in struggles.

Such struggles cannot and should not be confined to opposing just these pro-imperialist and anti-Indian economic policies. This Vajpayee government, apart from being the most pro-USA government that India has had, is seriously compromising the country’s unity and integrity. The open patronage it provides to the Hindu communal organisations, and the blatant manner in which it seeks to rewrite Indian history and distort the secular content of our education system, confirm, beyond doubt, that it is in fact acting as the political arm of the RSS,m and that its declared agenda is to transform the secular democratic republic of India into a rabidly intolerant theocratic ‘hindu rashtra’.

Apart from such serious challenges that this government is posing for the country and its people, the incompetence it has displayed in governance has been disastrous. Not only has political morality been completely devalued, and its record of corruption surpassed and brought to shame even previous records, its party, the BJP, and all the NDA allies, have displayed the crassest opportunism in their compromises to cling to power, and in shameless and brazen manner defended the indefensible.

However sickening this unprecedented degeneration, far more dangerous to the country and it people is the thorough incompetence displayed in relation to the country’s security. From Kargil, through Kandahar, the security breach in the Red Fort, the attacks on the J&K assembly, to the attacks on the Parliament, this government has shown itself singularly unable to even use the available intelligence inputs. The manner it went about the Naga cease-fire issue would put even a novice to disgrace.

The New Year therefore poses before us a major question - can we continue to afford to suffer such a government? Today everything associated with a self-reliant and resurgent modern India is at stake. This holds true vis-à-vis both the internal policies and practice of this government, as well, as its external abject servility to US imperialism. The answer clearly is ‘NO!’

It then follows that the challenge to India and its people in the coming year, is to rid ourselves of this government. The immediate opportunity to begin this process comes with the coming assembly elections, particularly in Uttar Pradesh. The Lok Morcha’s ascendency, as predicted by many opinion polls, will powerfully bring to the fore the desired third alternative in contemporary Indian politics.

The results of these elections, clear in many ways by the apprehensions expressed by the rank and file of the BJP and other ruling parties, will usher in a new churning. This should be the beginning of the struggle to save India as we know it today, in order to change it for the better tomorrow.