People's Democracy

2005: New Challenges, More Opportunities

Harkishan Singh Surjeet 

THE year 2004, that is now to pass out into history soon, will be remembered for one major achievement, if nothing else. This was the year when the coalition called the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), headed by the RSS controlled BJP, effected an ignominious exit from the corridors of power.

IGNOMINIOUS ROUT AND HUMILIATION

HERE we are not going to comment on what were the factors that led to the rout of the BJP and its spineless allies, and what was the significance of this combine’s utter humiliation at the hustings. These are the aspects that we have dealt with in these columns several times. Suffice it to say that the BJP led combine had not even thought that it would face its Waterloo in the year 2004. One would recall that only in the beginning of this year had the Vajpayee government presented a mini-budget of sorts, providing sweeping duty cuts on a wide range of products and services. As these cuts came after a whole series of burdens imposed upon the people in the preceding five years, the measure did indicate that the government was thinking in terms of having early polls and that these duty cuts were a sort of bonanza to placate the voters.

And, soon, these cuts were followed by a high voltage propaganda campaign of India Shining, seeking to tell the people that the country had never had it so good. The period witnessed the blatant misuse of media with the help of the crores which the BJP has in its coffers, and the large-scale use of electronic gadgetry to reach the people and bombard their ears with the hype that India had taken long strides under Vajpayee. Nay, they even claimed that India would emerge as a giant by the year 2020, thereby implying that for their own benefit the people of this country don’t have any other option but to keep electing the BJP and allies --- till at least 2020. The then ruling combine appeared to be brimming with confidence to the highest degree.

In the end, however, it appeared that the ruling NDA’s and more so the BJP’s confidence of the highest degree was in fact conceit of the highest degree, self-deception of the highest degree and arrogance of the highest degree. As they say, you cannot fool all the people all the time, but it was this very truth the BJP had forgotten --- to its utter dismay. In the end, its feel good campaign and its pre-poll bonanzas failed to deceive the masses who had seen the communal combine in action in all walks of life --- economy, education and other social sectors, corruption scams, foreign policy, etc --- during the preceding six years, from 1998 to 2004.

And it was not surprising in the least. Utterly cut-off from the people’s real life and popular mood, it was only natural for the BJP to think that it could go on doing whatever it liked and then, come the polls, it could hoodwink the masses through a few bonanzas plus a high-voltage campaign. It was the BJP led combine’s this very record which this country’s people rejected lock, stock and barrel.

The BJP and its ally, the Shiv Sena, suffered yet another rout in the Maharashtra assembly polls only a few months after the Lok Sabha polls. It is yet another thing, though, that they have not yet realised that the people of this country cannot be swayed any more by communal appeals.

Another BJP ally, the TDP led by computer savvy Chandrababu Naidu, met a similar fate in Andhra Pradesh, not only in Lok Sabha polls but also in the simultaneously held assembly polls. Poor Naidu must have realised at a very heavy cost that all talk of taking the state to the cyber age had no meaning unless the basic problems facing the people were met.

THE CAUSE OF ANXIETY TODAY

IT was thus gratifying for the secular and democratic forces of the country that the Lok Sabha polls led to the installation of a secular combine at the centre under the leadership of the Congress party. And to be sure, though we do not have any illusion about the class character of the present combine, the fact remains that the rout of the communal combine has opened a wider space for the democratic forces to wage struggles for the cause of the people. This is the reason the Left parties did not hesitate for a moment in extending support to the new combine called the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

However, we would be failing in our duty if we do not tell the UPA leaders that they must steer clear of the discredited World Bank-IMF policies. These were the policies the Rao government initiated, the United Front governments followed, and the BJP led government followed even more stridently, and all of them only invited the people’s wrath in the end. The utter rout of the BJP led combine should serve as a valuable lesson for them.

This is important in view of the fact that in the last six months the UPA regime has taken some steps that are in violation of its promises in its Common Minimum Programme (CMP). The recent hike in the prices of petro-products is a case in point. Though the Left has succeeded in making the government withdrew the LPG price hike by Rs 5 every month till the whole so-called subsidy on it were eliminated, certain other steps taken by the UPA government are enough to cause anxiety to the people. 

For example, despite the CMP’s explicit promise, the government began to dither on the issue of employment guarantee scheme. After pressure from the Left parties and certain other elements, it has now indeed introduced a bill in parliament; yet it is only a much diluted version of the draft Jean Dreze of the National Advisory Committee had prepared. It is also apprehended that the UPA government is going to make retrograde changes in the patent act 1970, which will seriously affect the domestic seeds, pharmaceuticals and food processing industries, and thereby the life of the common mass of our country. There is also a rumour that, in view of opposition in parliament, the government may issue an ordinance to effect such changes and meet the WTO’s December 31 deadline for the purpose.

Despite its promise, the government has not given up its intention to privatise certain profit making public sector units. It also tried to have IMF-World Bank nominees on planning bodies and thus facilitate these institutions’ penetration into our economy. It was only after an uproar that these so-called “advisors” were told to leave; though the government got stung by this uproar and dissolved all committees attached with the Planning Commission.

These and some other acts by the regime strengthen the apprehension that there is a lobby in the Congress party and government that is out to sabotage the CMP, while seeking to rush benefits to the indigenous and foreign capital.

BASIC QUESTION

THE question is: why are these issues so important to us? Not to go very far in the past, we may well recall what happened in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in November 2003. The Congress governments in these states callously neglected the genuine concerns of the people, and the Ajit Jogi government of Chhattisgarh went so far as to privatise the Shivnath river water --- something unheard of in this country or the world. And the result? The Congress badly lost its governments in these states. Moreover, in the absence of an effective secular and democratic alternative in these states, it was the communal combine that benefited from the Congress follies.

Yet, oblivious of such experiences, the Congress government of Delhi is currently treading the same discredited path. During its last term, it privatised power distribution in the capital and the consumers are facing problems due to the greed of the distcoms, in the form of more erratic power supply and highly inflated electricity bills. And of late this government has effected a steep hike in water tariff without sparing even the poorest consumers. It is no wonder that the people of the national capital are seething with anger over the move. Further hikes in DTC bus fares are in the offing, to make the people pay for the bureaucrats’ follies that are causing losses to the DTC while private bus operators are making merry.

To be matter of fact, if the communal forces are unable to cash in upon such follies, it is only because they are highly demoralised at the moment and are also facing internal squabbles of the worst order. Moreover, it was only recently that our people rid themselves of the communal forces’ misrule and they are not likely to fall into the trap of these forces in near future. Their revulsion against the communal forces is so great that nothing seems to be clicking for these forces. The more the BJP and VHP shout in the name of Hindutva, the more the people are getting alienated from them. As we said in an earlier article, their attempt to rouse passions on the Shankaracharya’s arrest issue has simply misfired. Their attempt to disrupt the parliament’s proceedings in its last session further alienated the people and their behaviour in parliament in the latest session has miserably failed to bring kudos to them as a responsible opposition.

But this does not mean that the present dispensation can take the people for granted and go on pursuing policies that are sure to bring calamities to the toiling mass of our country. To put it in black and white, to steer clear of the World Bank-IMF policies is imperative if the UPA leaders want to keep the communal forces at bay and not give them a new lease of life.

INTERVENTION BY LEFT NEEDED

IT is in such a situation that the Left parties have to follow a two-pronged tactics insofar as the current national situation is concerned. On the one hand, the Left parties cannot remain mute spectators if our rulers follow anti-people policies. At the same time, they cannot take any such step as may facilitate the return of the BJP which, though at present thoroughly demoralised, is trying to regroup on a strident communal platform.

And both these tasks have their own problems. On the question of economic policies, for example, most of the parties are not averse to following the IMF-World Bank line to one extent or another. This means that the Left parties have to fight the battle in this field virtually single-handedly, so that the common people’s life standard is not eroded. Similarly, on the issue of defending secularism, it is true that the people of this country are secular to the core but the secular parties are not putting up a united fight against the BJP and RSS. This has its own perils, and perseveringly the Left parties have to bring these parties together on the issue of secularism and national unity.

It is in such a situation and for such purposes that the Left parties have to multiply their intervention manifold. A word of caution is necessary here. The increased Left presence in Lok Sabha following the May 2004 polls has definitely given the Left parties a greater scope of intervention on people’s issues, and this opportunity must be made full use of. Though our work in this area suffers from certain limitations, our intervention on certain crucial issues has indeed produced valuable results and defended the people’s interests; that is indeed the reason of the abuses the bourgeois media are showering upon us day in and day out. Such parliamentary interventions on our part need to be further intensified.

At the same time, it is also true that parliamentary struggle can be only a small part of our work. Outside the precincts of parliament, far bigger issues await our intervention. Moreover, if the UPA regime is crucially dependent on out support today, it won’t do good to harbour the illusion that this situation would happily continue ever after. Nor can we sustain our recent successes without determined struggles involving broad sections of the toiling people outside.

It is here that we need to emphasise, once again, the point that we have to launch united struggles with other parties and forces wherever possible; in other situations we may have to go in for independent struggles. This approach becomes all the more relevant today when our recent parliamentary gains have further enhanced the people’s expectations from the CPI(M) and other Left parties. This rise in expectations is very natural. Yet, we have to see that the people do not fall prey to parliamentary illusions, and we have to patiently explain to them that it is only their united and determined struggle that can and will fetch relief for them from the unwilling hands of the ruling classes.

Thus, while the situation is not an easy one for the Left parties, it is definitely full of opportunities for further growth. This we have to utilise in order to forge struggles on people’s issues, while failure in this regard may push us many miles back. This means that we have to welcome the year 2005 with the pledge that we have to make it a year of still more determined fight.