Assembly Election Results Call for Most Cautious Disaster Preparedness on the Part of Indian People !
The results of the Assembly Elections, resulting in another step forward by corporate-saffron fascism in its ultimate goal of establishing a Hindurashtra, call for serious introspection and urgent and resolute action on the part of all anti-fascist democratic forces. At a time when vast majority of the Indian people comprising the working class, Dalits, minorities, women and all oppressed are facing unmanageable and unprecedented social, economic, and cultural deprivation and devastation on all fronts on account of the far-right, pro-corporate, neofascist policies of the BJP regime, the principal reason for the opposition’s tragic failure in the three Hindi-speaking States, viz, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh was the narrow-mindedness of the power-hungry Congress including the Hindutva cards wantonly used by its State Chieftains in these States that divided the anti-fascist votes in favour of BJP.
Though the fascists are not apparently in power in any of the Southern States now, the decisive victory, even with a small margin has imparted added vigour to RSS-BJP. No doubt, the onus of conceding defeat in the above mentioned three States by the ‘India Alliance’ to the BJP, the present political tool of RSS, mainly goes to India’s ‘Grand Old Party’ which, in spite of its anti-BJP rhetoric and populist posture, does not have any basic difference from the ideological or political-economic bases of the fascists, as exposed in its campaign and positions. The self-professed “soft-Hindutva” Congress leaders, of course with a few exceptions, including die-hard Hindutva fans like Kamal Nath have once again failed to comprehend India’s political history of the last forty years that proved why there is no line of demarcation between “soft Hindutva” and “hard-Hindutva” and how the former eventually merge with the latter. This enabled BJP to consolidate it’s Hindutva vote-banks amidst people’s simmering discontent against BJP regime both at the Centre and in the State. In the process, the fascist forces succeeded in deconstructing the OBC vote banks in North India, even though there are strong sentiments among the oppressed lower castes for a nation-wide Caste Census, on which the within Congress itself there are differences.
To be more precise, with the backing of ‘brand Modi’ and other avenues including corporate money power, while the RSS-BJP succeeded in consolidating it’s Hindutva banwagon, the India Alliance miserably failed to put forward even the minimum perspective to divide the anti-fascist votes. The India Alliance remained only in Paper and all its constituents were engaging in suicidal contests among each other, mainly because of the shot-sighted big-brotherly approach of the Congress, which also was beset with many inner-party differences over power-sharing. The only exception was Telengana, where it could make an ‘appreciable’ victory.
No doubt, the further consolidation made by BJP in the Hindi-speaking States relegating the India Alliance altogether to the bacground, will prompt the fascist forces to go for an all-out offensive towards the 2024 General Election with its multi-dimensional impact beginning with the winter session of the Parliament. At a time when far-right, neofascist forces are on the ascendance in many parts of the world, it is high time on the part of all anti-fascist democratic forces to rally around for avoiding the repetition of a similar situation in India in the coming days.
Based on a concrete analysis of the election results which being acclaimed by many as ‘semi-final’ for the forthcoming Indian General Election, the non-fascist parties have to take appropriate steps to move towards the ‘final’ in 2024. An analysis of the election results amply prove that the difference in percentage vote share between BJP and opposition is not at all substantial. And, if India Alliance and all anti-BJP parties genuinely learn lessons from the Assembly elections and succeed in coming to an understanding based on a minimum program of removing the fascist regime from power and consolidate their forces accordingly, then the ‘semifinal’ results can be reversed in the ‘final’. With this understanding, the progressive democratic-forces, while uncompromisingly upholding their independent ideological-political position against neoliberalism and neofascism, should come forward to compel all anti-BJP parties to most cautiously work and consolidate their efforts in the days ahead with this decisive objective, so as to avoid the plausible catastrophe.
P J James
General Secretary
CPI (ML) Red Star
New Delhi
5th December 2023
