People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 25
June 23, 2013
|
Vol. XXXVII
No. 25 June 23, 2013 |
Editorial
Channelise Political
Churning Into
Alternative Policy
Trajectory
AS we
go to press, the
Janata Dal (United) government in Bihar led by Nitish Kumar
has decisively won
the vote of confidence by securing the support of more than
50 per cent of the
strength of the
Clearly,
these recent
developments have set in motion the process of a new
political churning in the
country. On the
one hand, the UPA-2 has
been reduced to a minority, bereft of all the Congress
party’s major allies
except the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Its survival in government has, for some time now,
been crucially
dependent upon the outside support provided by the Samajwadi
Party (SP) and the
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
On the other
hand, the BJP-led NDA has been left with only two of its
allies – the Shiv Sena
and Akali Dal.
JD(U)’s
exit from the
NDA reflects
the irresolvable
contradiction of the BJP-led NDA. The
BJP, acting as the political arm of the RSS, has chosen to
consolidate its own
social following by projecting Narendra Modi with all its
consequent
implications of aggressively pursuing the hardcore Hindutva
agenda. The
more the BJP seeks to consolidate itself
on these lines, the lesser is its capacity to draw allies in
order to muster
required numbers following the next general elections to
form a
government. This
irresolvable
contradiction itself contributes to the current political
churning
process.
It
is, indeed, the irony
of our times that in this entire episode of the projection
of Narendra Modi, Mr
L K Advani is being projected as the moderate and liberal
face of the BJP. The
BJP of today emerged from the infamous
rath yatra that he launched in September 1990 from Somnath
to Ayodhya under the
slogan mandir wahi
banayenge (we
shall build the temple at the disputed site where the Babri
Masjid
stands). This
rath yatra left behind a
bloody trail of communal riots and sharpened communal
polarisation to dangerous
levels grievously, threatening the secular democratic
foundations of the
While
such developments
will continue to contribute to the political churning in the
run-up to the
general elections in 2014, what is not getting sufficient
attention of these
major political parties and their formations is the
increasing burdens that are
being heaped on the people.
The economic
slowdown continues to worsen and its consequences like
growing unemployment and
unbridled inflation are making the life of the aam admi more miserable. The
fuel prices continue to be hiked periodically.
While the peasantry, in many parts of the country,
has not yet recovered
from the effects of a severe drought, the early monsoon is
playing havoc with
many of the major rivers being in spate causing widespread
damage through
floods.
The
current political
churning, thus, appears completely alienated from the woes
and miseries of the
vast majority of our people.
The people
are looking for relief from the burdens that are
continuously invading their
already low levels of livelihood. As
repeatedly argued in these columns in the past, any relief
for the people is
possible only when the current neo-liberal policy trajectory
is replaced by a
pro-people alternative policy trajectory. It is equally
clear that such an
alternative policy trajectory is beyond both the Congress
and the BJP given the
commitment of both to neo-liberal economic reforms and
proximity to
The
CPI(M), through its
recent Sangharsh
Sandesh Jathas, had
put forward an alternative policy framework that will both
provide people with
the much-needed relief as well as spur economic growth by
enlarging the
aggregate domestic demand on the basis of the economic
empowerment of the vast
mass of our people. In
working towards a
political alternative that is capable of following an
alternative policy
direction, the CPI(M)’s 20th Congress Political Resolution
has defined the
Party’s political line:
“The
CPI(M) has to
politically fight the Congress and the BJP. Both are parties
which represent
the big bourgeois landlord order which perpetuates class
exploitation and is
responsible for the social oppression of various sections of
the people. They
pursue neo-liberal policies and advocate a pro-US foreign
policy. Defeating the
Congress and the UPA government is imperative given the
crushing burden of
price rise, unemployment, suffering of the farmers and
workers on the one hand
and the brazen corruption and big sops to big business and
the wealthy
sections. Isolating the BJP and countering its communal and
rightwing agenda is
necessary and important for the advance of the Left,
democratic and secular
forces.
“As
against the Congress
and the BJP, the CPI(M) puts forth the Left and democratic
alternative. Only a
Left and democratic platform can be the alternative to
bourgeois-landlord rule.
This alternative needs to be built up through a process of
movements and
struggles and the emergence of a political alliance of the
Left and democratic
forces. In the course of these efforts, it may be necessary
to rally those
non-Congress, non-BJP forces which can play a role in
defence of democracy,
national sovereignty, secularism, federalism and defence of
the people’s
livelihood and rights. The emergence of such joint platforms
should help the
process of building the alliance of the Left and democratic
forces.
“In
the present situation
we should strive for joint actions with the non-Congress
secular parties on
issues so that the movements can be widened. On specific
policy matters and people’s
issues, there can be cooperation in parliament with these
parties. As and when
required, there can be electoral understandings with some of
these parties.”
(Paras 2.137 to 2.139)
A
National Political
Convention has been convened by the Left Parties on July 1,
2013 at
(June 20, 2013)
