People's Democracy

THINKING TOGETHER

So long, we were taught that a political party is qualified by the ideology it follows and preaches, which is why the CPI(M) is known as a Marxist Party as it follows Marxism, the Congress is known as a bourgeois party as it adheres to the bourgeois ideology and so on.  Accordingly, the BJP should have been termed as a communal fascist party as it follows the fascistic principles in its day-to-day functioning.  But instead, it is being termed as an "avowedly communal party" led by the fascistic RSS in the Political Resolution of the Party Congress of the  CPI(M).  Why the Party Congress maintains this nuance in case of BJP?  Does it mean that the BJP is communal by itself and it follows fascism at the diktat of the RSS and the RSS is not communal but only fascist?

Sunil Baran Chakraborty, Kolkata

A POLITICAL party is basically characterised by the classes that it represents.  Political parties may have some variations in their ideological positions but in the final analysis, their characterisation depends on which class interests they espouse.

The CPI(M) is the Party representing the interests of the working class and other toiling exploited classes of our society based on the scientific and revolutionary ideology of Marxism-Leninism. 

Both the BJP and the Congress, as also many of the other secular democratic parties, are basically ruling class parties representing the interests of the ruling bourgeois-landlord classes. The BJP, however, while championing the interests of the ruling classes, adopts a communal ideology. Political parties are used as agents by the ruling classes to protect  and advance their class rule.  A political party that musters the confidence of the people, while supporting and advancing  the class interests of the  ruling classes, will, naturally, be preferred by them.  That is why we see that a section of the bourgeois-landlord classes who earlier supported the Congress party, now support  the BJP, as it gained in its popular support. 

The BJP, however, is not merely a political party espousing brazen communalism. It is the political arm of the RSS.  The RSS has clearly stated its  ideological positions and political objective of seeking to transform the character of the secular democratic Indian Republic into a rabidly intolerant fascist "Hindu Rashtra".  It is this RSS's agenda that the BJP advances in politics.   That is the reason why the CPI(M) Party Congress Resolution characterises the BJP as an avowedly communal party led by the fascistic RSS.  The RSS, of course, is  communal.  However, its agenda remains the  establishment of its conception of "Hindu Rashtra" through the spread of communal poison and hatred. 

It needs to be recollected, once again, that following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, the RSS was banned by the then Nehru government, whose Home  Minister was Sardar Patel.  The RSS entered into a series of deceitful compromises to have the  ban lifted. Amongst these was the assurance given by the then RSS supremo, M.S. Golwalkar, to Sardar Patel that it shall not participate in politics.  Hence came the term that the RSS is a "cultural organisation". 

Since then, the RSS was looking for a political outfit to advance  its political agenda. In 1951, when Shyama Prasad Mukherjee resigned from the Nehru Cabinet, he was seeking to form a political party.  The RSS chief then sent pracharaks to assist Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in this task.  Amongst those sent were the late Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, L.K. Advani, Atal Behari Vajpayee and Syam Sundar Bhandari.  Thus emerged the Jana Sangh, the earlier incarnate of the BJP.  Amongst those alive of these pracharaks, one is the Prime Minister, another is the Deputy Prime Minister and the third is the Governor of Gujarat. 

Since then, till now, the Jan Sangh earlier and the BJP later, function as the political arm of the RSS.

The CPI(M) has pursued a strong line against Hindu fundamentalism for as long as one can remember.  But Muslim fundamentalist parties have been partners in successive Leftist governments in Kerala.  What then is the CPI(M) stand on religious fundamentalism?

D Dasgupta (through e-mail)

THE CPI(M) has consistently maintained that Hindu communalism and Muslim fundamentalism  feed on each other and both are antithetical to secular democracy.  The CPI(M), therefore, is opposed not only to these forces but is against all expressions of religious  fundamentalism.

There was a time, when for certain specific reasons, the Muslim League  was part  of the Left Democratic Front government in Kerala.  But in the CPI(M)'s 12th Congress in Kolkata in 1985, the Party categorically ruled out any ties with the Muslim League.  For the last two decades, the CPI(M) in Kerala has been consistently opposing all shades of religious fundamentalism and building the unity  of the toiling people.