Election Of 5 States ? What Does It Mean For The Working Class?
BJP has got a jolt. At least in the region of its mainstay, of its communal-fascist politics -the hindi heartland, where its hindutva politics enjoys biggest support-and despite the fact that as all the electoral players knew that this is the penultimate round before the 2019 general elections the cadres of RSS and other hindutva outfits were working overtime for BJP.
At least from this election one important aspect of reality has been reflected. As in case of all elections in bourgeois democracy, in this elections also winning by any means accompanied with rampant use of money, power, distortion of facts to suit each own's needs, use of religious, casteist, community based overtones and promises of goodies to woo voters was the sole aim. On top of it emotive issues of cow slaughter, Ram mandir and nationalist frenzy have been raked up by the hindutva forces. These have dominated the national political scene for quite some time, targeting muslims and even dalits. But in spite of this, it became evident that at least a substantial section of the masses have not endorsed this. The economic issues related to livelihood, unemployment and to an extent the deprivation of the backward sections, castes (SC-ST in Chattisgarh) mattered more for the masses. It must be remembered that the Modi government came to power with big support on the development plank, which even though in actuality means more reforms and liberalization for exploitation by big capital, to the masses it was portrayed as some sort of hope for the unemployed, better work opportunities and livelihood of the masses. But with Modi government coming full circle at the fag-end of its term the same problems and particularly the agrarian crisis and unemployment particularly high among educated youth, seems to have mattered most for the masses and in a way put its imprint on this election. This much.
Otherwise this has been no different from earlier elections that the big bourgeois parties dominated the electoral scene. It has been an election dominated by the two main bourgeois rivals the BJP and the Congress in the 3 important states of the hindi heartland although in the new state of Telengana and the north-eastern state of Mizoram it was the day for the regional players along with their regional equations. Although the issues of peasantry's agrarian crisis, unemployment becoming topics of jibes and counter-mockeries between these and other established bourgeois and petty-bourgeois electoral players, the real victims of these problems or in other words their representatives were virtually absent in the electoral arena. The workers and common toiling masses were divided in their allegiance between these bourgeois parties.
Who are the most affected because of the economic policies and the problems that have resulted from it? The working-class and most oppressed sections among the peasants-the poor and landless peasants. Did their voice put an imprint on this election? Did the issues of these most oppressed and exploited sections of the society cast any shadow? To some extent as an expression of reaction against their long unresolved problems of livelihood, as the results may have revealed that, but not at all distinctly as their class issues, and hence not by any means revealing the real path of resolution through their class politics. That could not be reflected in the electoral struggle because of multiple factors of society that converge into the arena of electoral politics competing with each for winning seats. Reason, one, bourgeois elections has its own dynamics for winning seats by any means-with the use of money, power, local equations and factors, individual leader's charisma. Secondly in a backward petty-bourgeois country like ours there are various divisions and bondages of caste, community, religion, and other playing its part. But the foremost and important point is in this election the voice of workers and toiling peasants-the poor and landless-was completely absent -they do not have their own tribune i.e. their own class representative to protect their interests, because they do not have their class-party, the working-class party and hence the working class is not organized as a class and politically present in society as a social force. Supporting one bourgeois party to topple another by some sections of workers and masses show they are confusing the class nature of the attacks the working class is facing. The fact is whichever bourgeois, reformist, or some other regional party is put in place of another party in government, today in place of BJP say, the reality that the attacks of capitalists will continue as all these parties are in favour of the same globalisation-liberation policies of the capitalists and hence the actual fight is against this policy of capitalists, is being confused, helping in the duping of the masses, in the name of change of government. The workers and toiling masses haven't been able to move ahead into the arena of working class politics in the midst of dominance of crass parliamentarianism. Rather they are entangled in electoral designs of the power-hungry political opponents. Further the issues that are wrecking the lives of peasantry have been raised through some recent kisan rallies, but these are also either dominated or influenced and led by rich peasants organisations or the reformist left, where class politics have remained behind and the rich peasant demands of loan-waiver and rise in MSP have dominated the scenario, along with the demand of their prescribed panacea of change of govt.
So the net result is tweedledo and tweedledum. The growing dissension has been again diverted to bolster the opposition, who follow the same policies of exploitation. The masses even by now after 70 years of parliamentary democracy in this country know it-but they stood for the lesser evil, being in the midst of growing reaction against the mounting attacks on their livelihood and rights. Thus the parliamentary democracy with its change of one ruling party for another is letting out the growing disgruntlement among the masses and continuing with its pro-capitalist policies to exploit and oppress.
The absence of the working-class party and hence their voice in the elections is being starkly felt. The working class organized as a class, participates in elections, but from a completely different angle-to strengthen the class struggle outside, to win over the backward masses, to educate them from their experience, raising and explaining issues from working-class angle, in order to dismantle this oppressive, exploitative system of rule. In its presence it is able to attract even wider workers and working masses in such a struggle where even the backward masses gravitate, becoming a real tribune of the working class as against various opportunist power-hungry bourgeois or petty-bourgeois reformist parties. The poor and landless peasant and agricultural labourers could also find a leader on which to rely for their liberation from the present suppressed but worst situation among different strata of the peasantry. But all these seems to be lost in the background. Even the understanding of a class-party standing on the working-class and its class-struggle and its role, its discussion, necessity seems to be absent. The disenchantment of workers and toiling masses, their urge to stand up against the rampant falsifications of promises of the bourgeois and reformist political parties, their urge to voice their real issues is getting lost within the blind alleys of electoral competition between these same electoral players over and over again. This election once again revealed it.
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