Nineteenth Lok Sabha Election and Thereafter
The working class is now totally disorganised and disintegrated. They don?t have their own party. Hence, no class struggle in true sense. The party-less condition of working class is continuing for about 50 years. The condition has been made further worse since the final stroke of defeat in eighties of past centuries of the first offensive of the world socialist movement. There was, therefore, no question of proletariat participating in the last Lok Sabha election in true sense. With no class struggle at the backdrop and therefore, having no independent and separate revolutionary platform, working class and the people cannot but use their voting right remaining under bourgeois influence and control. Class issues in general were naturally absent throughout the election, barring some insignificant attempt by few Communist Revolutionaries organisations. In our country, caste, religion and regionalism play none the less, a decisive role. Over and above, money power, unprincipled manoeuver by the parties, conspiracies, personal factor, lot of freebies etc. have their big role in the results of the election. There is, therefore, no scope to understand the mood and position of the working class in relation to class struggle; particularly, when there is no organised presence of working class with revolutionary programme and a separate platform in the electoral struggle. Truly speaking, from the point of view of revolutionary proletariat, any attempt to study and analyse the nitty-gritty of the election result, is nothing but a futile exercise.
Yet, it cannot be denied that it is due to the very same reason ofabsence of class party and extra-parliamentary class struggle, people ingeneral, would have no other way but to voice their resentment andanguish over their distressed condition of daily life through voting inthe electoral field. It is a fact that the betrayal of old communistparties, failure of CPI (ML) movement which had raised the flag ofrevolution and finally the defeat of the world Socialist movementvirtually erased from the minds of worker-peasants the objective andgoal of revolution. And in this period of retreat and frustration, whilecommunists became disintegrated, the working class and the toilingpeople, on the other hand, are left with no other major way than theelectoral platform, to reflect their real issues of life, albeitunconsciously which don?t have real solution in the present bourgeoisiesystem, and which obviously warrants thorough-going change in the saidsocial and political system. The people are thus passing through abitter and futile experience of changing government repeatedly both inthe State and Central plane for the last 40 years, remaining underparliamentary illusion. Hence, in so far as election is concerned, thetask of the revolutionary proletariat is to sum up the bitterexperiences of the masses and take it to the working class, preciselyspeaking, to the relatively advanced workers in the present party-lesscondition. In this regard, the lesson of the result of the last LokSabha election has some significance in the backdrop of RSS-BJP has beenheading towards establishing a fascist Hindu state.
Before the election campaign started, Modiji had set the target of400 seats for NDA and 370 for BJP itself. It was not simply adeclaration or an inflated call for energising the party electionmachinery. In fact, from the gestures of Modiji and BJP leaders and theway they moved, it was apparent that they were confident that they wouldachieve the target. Probably they were confident that Ram Mandir wouldwork the way Pulwama-Balakot worked in 2019 election. Further, Modijiseemed to have been so overzealous about his roadmap of development ofIndia under the banner of ?Vikshit Bharat?, so as to sway the wholenation, particularly, the down-trodden people along with him. And here,in all, lied their confidence for 400 seats.
But finally BJP got restricted at 240 seats only, far off from theirexpected number and even quite less than the magic number of 272 seats ?no doubt a great setback for Modiji and his party. One may stretchoneself to call it a defeat, not a simple setback, in consideration ofnot only the final result in terms of seats but mainly the fact thatModiji and his party had to suffer beyond their imagination, a sharpdecline in the people?s support in the very Hindi heartland which had solong been a strong base of RSS-BJP. It can be recalled that BJP came topower in 2014 and subsequently could rise to the height of power in thelast term, riding on the overwhelming mass support from this so-calledHindi heartland. One can also remember that it is from these statesarose those slogans like, ?Modi Jaisa Neta?, ?Modi Hai Toh Mumkin Hai?and such others. There was a time when the workers coming of thesestates refused to accept slightest criticism of Modi and his government,whereas on the other hand, ever-increasing onslaught of the capitalistscontinued unabated. They refused to see how the Modi government wasblatantly continuing financial aid and other supports one after anotherto the big capitalists. Such was the hopeless and distressed conditionthat the people believed the slogan of ?Achchhe Din?. They believed,rather they wanted to believe that Modi was the messiah who only couldbring change in their life. A faith eventually turned into blind faith ?complimented by the pride and passion of Hindutva amongst Hindu people ?as engineered by RSS-BJP by their relentless campaign of hatred againstMuslims.
Setback or defeat, whatever it is as such from the perspective ofparties, the most significant aspect, we will find in the result of thelast election, as from the people?s perspective, is that the workingmasses have started coming out of the grip of blind faith. It would notbe superfluous to conclude that this change has not been just by theeffect of election campaign of contending parties, i.e., the parties ofI.N.D.I.A. block, rather the process of erosion of faith must havestarted quite early ? from when, no need to speculate on that at themoment. No doubt, the process was spontaneous, arising out of practicalexperience of life, which we know ultimately guides the thinking inoneself. It would not probably be wrong to further conclude that theascending curve of general mass reposing faith and confidence on Modihas started moving in reverse direction. Where it will lead to, dependson how fast the proletariat will be able to organise themselves as aclass.
Yet BJP is still the single largest party in the parliament. Theyhave formed the government with the help of other NDA partners,particularly one led by Nitish Kumar and the other by Chandrababu Naidu.Although important ministries are in the hands of BJP, coalitiongovernment itself is likely to take away the freedom of Modi which heenjoyed in both the previous terms, for moving ahead with the samespeed, but it would be unwise to believe that he and his party, that toobacked by RSS, would refrain from or even postpone their move towardsthe twin goal of ?Vikshit Bharat? and of establishing Hindu Rashtra. Atbest they can change their tactics for the time being. Firstly, weshould not miss the point that RSS in this condition will not sit idle.They will rather speed up their usual extra-parliamentary activities, atleast to regain the lost ground. Besides, Modiji and his associates willalso not remain idle. They would carry on, as usual all cunning andunscrupulous methods, including coercion, allowing the greedy lots ofopposition MPs, engineering split in I.N.D.I.A. bloc, horse-tradingetc., as they have done in the past in different states such asKarnataka, Maharashtra ? thereby to attain the position of their firmgrip over the government. Even, in spite of being in minoritygovernment, BJP would hardly face difficulty, in main, continuing theirpolicy of globalisation-liberalisation along with their allies such asJDU &TDP, given their track record. Besides, it is unlikely thatgovernment would have much trouble in this regard from the opposition,particularly Congress. Thirdly, Hindutva and religious polarisation,which although did not work in this election as they expected, but hasbeen so ingrained in the minds of Hindu population, thanks to RSS-BJP,that possibility of their coming into prominence at any time, or at anystroke of event/events is always there. So remains the danger offascism, as it can only be combatted by working class and people?sstruggle under its leadership.
Another point. Notwithstanding this setback in Hindi heartland, i.e.,getting lesser vote roughly by 5.8% in comparison to what was in 2019election, nation-wise vote of BJP this time is lesser only by 1.14%. Itis due to the fact that, they have, in the face of it, improvedthemselves and fared well in other states, in terms of electoral vote.Visibly they have swept past the regional party in Orissa, both in LokSabha and State election, where they had marginal presence. In Southernstates like Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra, even Telengana they gotrelatively more votes this time. However, we are not sure, how far thisslogan of ?Modi Ki Guarantee?, ?Vikshit Bharat? or Hindutva worked inthese places, or it is simply the force of anti-incumbency that has beenoperating since 40-50 years in both State or Central election, wherebywe would find frequent interchangeability of government withinbourgeoisie parties of different shades. Anyway, considering the patternof voting in ?24 elections, it is once again proven that people ofIndia, divided in States, do not think and act in the same way,particularly in electoral arena, nonetheless as in the field of strugglealso.The peasant struggle that thwarted three central farm laws wasfound to remain confined in the Punjab, Haryana & part of UP. Infact, workers-peasants and other sections of the toiling masses of thedifferent states of this country can only be united with a single voiceunder the single banner of revolutionary class struggle and in no otherway. However, coming back to the result we are to take note that withrelatively increased strength, BJP shall definitely speed up theireffort to infuse Hindutva amongst the masses of these states.
Few communist revolutionary groups have been found to participate inthe election with candidates. What they gained is best known to them.But this much can be said that proletariat did not gain. Did they enterinto the constitutional parliamentary struggle between the bourgeoisieparties with an independent separate plank of revolutionary classstruggle? They did not. This is obvious and inevitable because it canonly be done, if working class is organised and there existsrevolutionary class struggle, or in short if there is at least a partyof the proletariat. Further, almost all of them called upon the people,at large, to defeat BJP. It is true that if one considers that it is thecentral task to defeat or even weaken the fascistization of State, beingthe main danger, what else can he think other than to prescribe to themasses at the present condition, to defeat or weaken BJP in theelectoral field and for that to rely on the bourgeoisie oppositionparties. In consequence, if one takes the result of the last election asthe weakening of march of fascism, he is to take at the same time thaton the other hand, emancipation of the working class and toiling peopleis also delayed, in so far as it would go to deepen further theparliamentary illusion already entrenched in the minds of the masses.Most importantly, delayed will be the preparation of the working classwhich along with toiling people and democratic masses, can only combatand defeat the fascist march in reality through extra-parliamentarystruggle.
Summing up, we are to take into consideration two inter-relatedfeatures from the election result. One is, BJP having been so reduced instrength in parliament that they had to go for a coalition governmentwith relatively strong regional parties, like JDU & TDP who havetheir own priorities and aspiration, mainly in relation to theirrequirements of their own states. On the other hand, with the oppositionparties under I.N.D.I.A. having their considerably increased strength inboth the wings of parliament, BJP led govt is likely to face oppositionin parliament. And as such BJP will not be able to unilaterally andeasily pass away law, particularly regarding their policies on Hindutvathis time as per their will as they did in the last two terms. It istherefore expected that people may get some respite at least for sometime from the ongoing speedy march of fascistization of State and fromthe onslaught on democratic institutions and democracy at large. This isone, but the other one is more important to revolutionary proletariat.The election result showed that the people have started coming out ofblind faith on Modi and his Party. This is to be seen in historicalperspective. At the end of long journey of anti-incumbency, people, outof desperation and hopelessness, had virtually opted for a singleleader, single Party, ostensibly as a last resort, however, withinbourgeois constitutional framework.
It is failing, if not failed. Hence, the question is what next? Therecould be two trends. One is for the people to go back to the oldpractice of changing this and that Party in the government, or to moveahead towards determining their own fate by themselves by taking thepath of struggle. It goes without saying, the latter trend, now dormantand unexpressed, is to be developed and carried forward.
For that, we are to first understand that the respite, so expected,is not simply to be enjoyed, it is to be utilised. It depends on howquick the relatively advanced sections of workers get themselves united,or at least move in that direction so as to stand on their own feet;presumably for that they would need requisite help. It should thereforebe the bounden duty of the communists, worthy of its name, to help themget organised and achieve the mission of forming their own Party, i.e.,the Party of the working class. Further, they are to consistently carryon revolutionary propaganda among the masses, connecting the experienceof the practical lives of the workers and other sections of the toilingpeople. Better, if the task is taken up jointly by the aforesaidcommunists. But how? At all possible? The questions are stillunanswered.
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