People's Democracy

The Asli Bharat Has Risen

Historic Victory In 14th Lok Sabha Elections

The Asli Bharat has risen. The Indian people have decisively rejected the RSS/BJP-led NDA in these elections. What was at stake in these elections was the very character of the Indian Republic. The Indian people have unequivocally asserted that the secular democratic character of modern India is simply non-negotiable. The Indian people have also rejected with utter contempt the orchestrated euphoria that the RSS/BJP-led NDA sought to create through the State-funded “India Shining” and “feel good” campaigns.  The Vajpayee government paid the price for virtually mocking at the growing misery of the Indian people reflected in the acute agrarian distress that their policies had caused. The rejection of this government is in a large measure due to this monumental dissatisfaction amongst the people caused by the ruinous anti-people economic policies. 

The CPI(M) had entered these elections with a three-fold objective:

• Defeat the communal forces

• Install an alternative secular government at the centre

• Increase the representation of the CPI(M) and the Left  in the Parliament.

With a degree of satisfaction, we can claim to have achieved these objectives. The fine print of the electoral details are still coming in as we go to press. The CPI(M) has already won 43 plus one independent  supported by it. The four Left parties together have won 60 seats as we go to press. This is the highest ever-Left representation in the Indian Parliament since independence. 

Clearly, the Indian people have seen the CPI(M) and the Left as the most consistent and uncompromising fighters for the cause of India and its people.  The Left’s track record in upholding secularism and combating the communal forces is absolutely unequivocable. The Left has been the consistent defender of the people’s rights and has been in the forefront of the struggles against the ruinous economic policies of the government. Equally importantly, the Left’s impeccable credentials in upholding political morality and  in conducting its politics  with highest standards of integrity have found favour  with the people.  It is for these reasons that wherever the communal forces did not exist and the Left was in contest with the Congress, the people preferred the Left unambiguously. The  results in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura indicate this. 

The message of these elections is clear. The people now desire the rolling back of the communal agenda, which has been put in place by the RSS/BJP government during these years. This rolling back needs to be done comprehensively. Gujarat has left deep impact on the psyche of the Indian voter who has decisively rejected such politics of communal polarisation and genocide.

Equally, the Indian people have emphatically asserted that the focus of economic policies and reforms will have to be people’s welfare and not       unscrupulous capitalist profits. The people, therefore, desire the restoration and improvement of the public distribution system that was virtually decimated by the Vajpayee government. The people also desire that the loot of India’s public assets be stopped by abandoning the sale of profitable public sector units. The economic policies will now have to be oriented towards generating employment and  improving the living standards of the vast majority of the Indian people.  India must truly be made to shine for this vast majority — Asli Bharat, and not merely for a miniscule minority. 

These are the immediate priorities that the new secular government must address.  There are, of course, many important areas where the      diversions and distortions committed by the Vajpayee government need to be corrected.  Of crucial importance is to restore India’s foreign policy on the lines of what it used to be till this government assumed office, i.e., as a leader of the developing countries in resisting imperialist offensives.

It shall be the endeavour of the Left to continue to champion people’s interests and the unity and integrity of India by pressurising and compelling the new government into adopting a pro-people orientation.

Indeed, a new phase of India’s modern history begins. All of us will have to unitedly work in the defence of India’s secular democratic character and to advance the people’s  interests.