CPI (M)’s Draft Political Resolution for its 24th Party Congress that refrains from evaluating Modi regime as fascist, and its ‘clarification note’ to cadres explaining why the Indian regime is not “fascist or neo-fascist” has triggered an intense debate among the Left political spectrum in India, especially in Kerala, the only state where CPM is in power. Of course, this is not at all a new position of CPM; ever since the ascendance of Modi regime in 2014, and contrary to the evaluation of many left parties in India, the CPM has been of the consistent view that the Indian regime has not yet qualified to be labelled as fascist. However, instead of going into the ideological-political basis of CPM’s formulation as such, the mainstream media is often interested to divert the issue as part of the inner-party debate or a personal battle between its two former general secretaries, viz., Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury. In fact, in spite of the personal preferences among its leaders, as noted at the outset, the CPM’s consistent party position has been not to categorise Modi regime as “fascist” or “neofascist”.
For, in continuation of its 2016 characterisation of Modi.1 as “right-wing authoritarian”, today at the time of its 24th Party Congress too, CPM evaluates Modi.3 as “Hindutva corporate authoritarianism”. This formulation is based on CPM’s own evaluation of the conditions and characteristics of today’s fascism/neofascism. According to CPM, fascism of Mussolini and Hitler’s era is classified as “classical fascism” and its later manifestations as “neo-fascism”. In CPM’s perspective, while classical fascism emerged from inter-imperialist contradictions, neo-fascism is a product of the crisis of neo-liberalism. Accordingly, Indian state has not yet ripened enough to become fascist, though it can evolve into neofascism if the “BJP-RSS” were not “fought back and halted”. To be precise, even as “neo-fascist tendencies” are there, according to CPM, Modi government has not fully evolved into a neo-fascist regime.
Depoliticised CPM’s Mechanical Approach to Fascism
The core issue here is connected with CPM’s mechanical approach to the evaluation of social phenomena. For instance, the CPM-like parties still evaluate Caste as a superstructural or cultural phenomenon. This emanates from its mechanical and Eurocentric approach to class analysis in gross disregard of the integral and inseparable link between caste and class in India. For instance, in the specific case of India, ownership of land and other means of production, occupational division of labour, wage structure and hence surplus value extraction, and so on, are intertwined with caste system. Therefore, without taking caste into consideration, it is impossible to have a concrete study of the Indian society including that of analysing various social classes. However, many self-professed communist parties, are still pursuing the mechanical copying of European class analysis and pasting it on the Indian context. No doubt, this has already done immense damage to the Indian communist movement.
The same mechanical approach is again reflected in CPM’s evaluation of fascism or neo fascism (i.e., fascism under neoliberalism) in India. This is against the scientific approach that every social phenomenon is constantly transforming itself adapting to the changed situation and concrete political context, and thereby assuming newer characteristics according to space and time. For instance, during the pre-war colonial period, when fascism originated in the leading imperialist countries of Europe, especially Italy and Germany, capital, which is the material basis of fascism, was primarily nation-centred. Today, in the 21st century neoliberal context, both corporate capital and production and hence extraction of surplus value from labour have become internationalised. Therefore, rather than being a text copy from imperialist countries, neofascism can emerge in any country in the world in conformity with the logic of corporate capital today. And, unlike the colonial period, now Indian corporates like Adani and Ambani are integrally linked up with globalised capital as junior partners of MNCs. Hence, there is no barrier on the part of Indian regime, which is merged itself with or in unholy nexus with the most reactionary corporate capital, to emerge as a fascist regime.
Unique Case of RSS Neofascism in India
Thus, while the material basis of fascism/neofascism is reactionary corporate capital everywhere, it’s ideological basis may vary according to the concrete context of countries. For instance, the ideological basis of neofascism in the Americas in general happens to be Evangelism, it may be varying forms of xenophobia and ethnonationalism in Europe, Zionism in Israel, political Islam in the Middle East and even neo-Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Myanmar. On the other hand, in the concrete case of India, corporate capital has endorsed Manuvadi Hindutva propped up by RSS as the ideological basis of fascism. The RSS, with its ideological roots in caste-based Hindutva or political Hinduism that originated almost at the same time as that of European fascism, even had proposed Manusmriti, the ideological guide of RSS that treats Dalits and women as subhuman, as Indian Constitution during 1949-50. At the same time anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism being anathema to RSS from its very inception, it was never part of the Indian Independence Struggle. RSS’ “cultural nationalism”, together with its extreme hostility towards Muslims from the very beginning (the anti-Muslim orientation of RSS is several decades older than the Islamophobic prognosis of “war on terror” conceptualised by US in the post-Cold War neoliberal period), was a cover to divert people’s attention from its ignominious servility to Britain during the colonial days and to US imperialism, the supreme arbiter of neocolonialism during the postwar period.
As such, RSS that generally remained outside the political mainstream for almost a quarter century of Power Transfer, however, succeeded to come to the political limelight leading the struggle against Emergency imposed by the crisis-ridden Indira Gandhi government during the mid-1970s. Obviously, as fascists everywhere, RSS also has been capable to transform crisis into opportunities. On account of Indira Gandhi’s affinity to social-imperialist Soviet Union at that time, while CPM became an apologist of Emergency (P Sudarayya, its then General Secretary resigned protesting against this), the pro-American RSS came to the forefront as champion of the anti-Emergency campaign. And effectively utilising the post-Emergency political scenario, RSS floated its new political tool BJP that became world’s biggest political party within a relatively short span of time. And utilising the facilitating role of the soft-Hindutva Congress, and leading the ‘Sangh Parivar’ composed of innumerable open, secret and militant organisations, and with its far-right and pro-corporate economic philosophy and unwavering allegiance to US imperialism, the RSS has grown into the biggest and longest-running fascist organisation in the world with a number of overseas extensions and affiliates.
With BJP as its principal political tool and traversing a series of Hindutva milestones such as Ram Janmabhoomi movement, Shilanyas of 1989, demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992, BJP government led by Vajpayee, 2002 Gujarat Pogrom, and innumerable riots targeted against minorities, especially, Muslims, RSS finally became successful in installing a fascist regime led by Modi in 2014. Now, India is a Republic only in the formal sense, while more than a decade of corporate-Hindutva rule under Modi.1, Modi.2 and Modi.3, in essence, has already undermined the character of the Constitution, transforming it into a full-fledged corporate-Hindutva fascist State. Along with its tentacles over the entire micro and macro spheres of Indian society, and with both State power and Street power under its control, RSS is having full hold over all the constitutional, administrative (including both civil and military administration) and judicial structures of India. Even Election Commission is also made an extension of the fascist regime. In brief, backed by such moves, RSS today is in a maddening pace towards transforming India into a majoritarian, theocratic and fascist Hindurashtra.
Of course, as already noted, fascist Hindutva together with no holds barred far-right, pro-corporate shift in economy beginning with the abolition of Planning Commission, Demonetisation, GST, etc., a situation has also come into being whereby policy decisions are taken in corporate board-rooms under unholy nexus between the most corrupt corporate capital and the fascist political leadership keeping the parliament a spectator. Unlike Mussolini and Hitler, today’s neofascists has become capable to maintain the parliament and elections as mere edifices or in their apparent forms to hoodwink and depoliticise the broad masses of working class and oppressed people while unleashing hitherto unknown levels of exploitation, plunder and oppression on them. Coupled with the biggest-ever offensive against workers, Dalits, minorities and all oppressed including women, to facilitate the transformation towards an anti-federal unitary regime, a number of legal and administrative moves are also super-imposed to destroy the ‘multi-national’, multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural character of India.
CPM’s Approach towards Neoliberal Corporatism, Caste-based Reservation and Islamophobia
While CPM’s Party Program and other basic documents including its Draft Political Resolution for the forthcoming Madurai Congress abstain from characterising the RSS/BJP regime as fascist, it is inseparably linked up with the ideological-political bankruptcy of that Party, more specifically regarding its strategic approach to Modi regime’s corporate-fascist policies. Since this is a much-discussed issue (see for instance: CPI(M) and BJP Become “Twin Brothers” in Kerala in Their Ignominious Servility to Adani by PJ James 05/12/2022, and Depoliticised CPI (M)’s Transition to a Political Tool of RSS in Kerala in India by PJ James 05/10/2024 in countercurrents.org), only a few instances are mentioned here.
Firstly, for instance, Kerala is the only state that is ruled by a CPM-led government in India today. Under Pinarayi Vijayan, the chief minister of CPM, Kerala has already become a typical show-case of far-right neoliberal-corporatisation, being emulated by even the so called fascist ‘double engine’ state governments ruled by BJP. Following the footsteps of the corporate-Hindutva regime at the centre, ever since its coming to power in 2016, the Pinarayi government has been working overtime to fully integrate itself with the most corrupt crony capitalists like Adani. To facilitate this, as everybody knows, immediately after coming to power, Pinarayi appointed the Harvard economist Gita Gopinath, who later became the chief economist of IMF, the neocolonial tool under US imperialism, as his economic advisor. For transforming Kerala into an investor-friendly state, KPMG, one of the “masterminds of international tax avoidance” was entrusted with the task of suggesting measures for strengthening “ease of doing business” in Kerala.
Very revealingly, the CPM-led Kerala government was the first Indian state that wholeheartedly supported the Modi government’s GST, the most regressive postwar indirect tax reform that demolished Indian federal structure by taking away two-thirds of the revenue-raising powers of the states. Further, following Modi government’s adoption of speculative “Masala Bonds” issued by International Finance Corporation, the largest private sector-oriented institution in the World Bank Group, CPM government in Kerala was the first Indian state to embrace it. And, the CPM chief minister Pinarayi went to London Stock Exchange, the embodiment of global financial speculation, to inaugurate the issuing ceremony of Kerala’s “Masala Bonds”. And for the first time in the history of Kerala, the alleged involvement of blacklisted multinational consultancies like PwC even in the chief minister’s office became hottest topics of discussion at one time. To be precise, the neoliberal transformation of CPM-led West Bengal under Basu and Buddhadeb is now repeating with intensified vigour in Kerala. And, in every respect, the CPM-led rule in Kerala is merging itself with the reactionary corporate capital on the same pattern as that of the fascist Modi regime at the centre. This is the material basis that makes CPM an apologist of Indian fascism.
Secondly, CPM’s stature as twin-brother of BJP in its role as a ’facilitator’ of most corrupt corporate crony capital has its complex ideological dimensions too. Obviously, under Modi.3, the series of anti-Muslim and Islamophobic offensives and majoritarian homogenizing drive have intensified further. Meanwhile, though 18th Lok Sabha election did not give BJP a majority-mark in parliament, for the first time, the BJP could win a parliamentary seat from Kerala, and even raised its vote-share by 4 percent in the state together its first position in 11 Assembly constituencies for the first time. This is attributed to CPM’s adoption of BJP’s slogan “Congress-mukht Bharat” in the specific case of Kerala, where both Congress and CPM are contending parties. Of course, this is not overnight development. In fact, CPM’s Hindutva orientation or anti-Muslim/Islamophobic inclination had become conspicuous with its depoliticization and degeneration to ruling class positions in the 1980s when EMS was the general secretary. His tirade against ‘Shariat’ and Muslim Personal Law and support for Uniform Civil Code was much discussed at that time. Even in 2010, when V S Achuthanandan was the chief minister, CPM’s inherent Islamophobia had come out in the open through his notorious statement that Muslim fundamentalists were using “money and marriages to make Kerala a Muslim majority state”. Of course, this did immense damage to the Kerala social fabric by providing fertile ground for arousing Hindutva consciousness and “love jihad” campaign by fascist forces.
However, in the Indian fascist situation today, the present CPM-led rule in Kerala is strengthening the orientation towards majoritarian ideology in manifold ways. For instance, in 2017 itself, the CPI, the second big ally of CPM government in Kerala, had even accused chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan as ‘Modi in mundu’ (dhoti-clad Modi). Often, the speeches of CPM leaders of Kerala were having an Islamophobic undertones intended to appease the Hindutva consciousness. A best example was the 2020 vicious statement of Kodiyeri, the then state secretary of CPM that the “Hassan-Kunhalikutty-Aziz” axis (i.e., clubbing the Congress, Muslim League and Jamaat Islami leaders together) leads the Congress-led front in Kerala. Strikingly, saffronisation of higher echelons of administration and senior police officials have become so glaring under the CPM led Kerala government, often at par with the so called “double engine” governments. As its manifestation, as government emissaries, senior police officials are reportedly entering into open and secret parleys with RSS leadership.
Thirdly, CPM is still continuing its erstwhile Brahamanical and Manuvadi approach to caste that prompted Ambedkar to characterise the Communist leadership as “Brahmin boys”. As such, since the time of EMS, CPM has been consistently upholding its unwavering support to economic reservation, more or less in tandem with the RSS position on the issue. And even much before the BJP and others taking concrete steps in this regard, it was the CPM Central Committee in its November 1990 Resolution that for the first time demanded 10 percent Economic Reservation for the upper castes in India. And even much before the Modi government prepared the ground for it, it was the CPM that implemented upper caste-oriented Economic Reservation (EWS) in Kerala. Today, when all anti-caste, democratic and progressive forces in India are resolutely demanding an All-India Caste Census, and as RSS is opposing it arguing that a Caste Census will destroy social harmony, in tune with its pro-Hindutva approach, CPM-led government in Kerala is taking a pro-RSS position in this case too.
To be precise, therefore, in spite of its apparent ruling class differences with BJP, from a political-economic and ideological perspective, CPM’s position is that of a political tool of RSS fascism which in essence is dictatorship of reactionary corporate capital according to the concrete Indian situation today. That’s why, CPM is reluctant to categorise Indian regime as fascist. Rather than an inner-party debate among leaders, as outlined above, it is connected with CPM’s depoliticization and consequent degeneration as apologists of neofascism, and thereby becoming its facilitator. This is a corollary of CPM’s approach towards the core issues of neoliberal corporatism, caste question and Islamophobia in general.
From a historical perspective, when fascism was emerging in Europe in the 1920s, there were self-professed communist parties taking a similar position like that of the CPM today. Such parties were called ‘social democrats’. They were colluding with the colonial plunder of their own countries and were satisfied with sharing a part of the colonial loot by the imperialist bourgeoisie, and hence Lenin called them ‘labour aristocracy’ who betrayed the working class. And when the most reactionary elements of finance capital resorted to fascism since the 1920s, the fascist financial oligarchs in Europe even relied on the active support of social democracy. It was at that time that Comintern (Communist International) described fascism and social democracy as “twin brothers”. The social democrats or degenerated communist parties were also called “moderate wing of fascism”. And, when social democratic parties took a position of openly supporting fascists towards the second half of the 1920s, the Sixth Congress of the Comintern held in 1928 even went to the extent of branding them as “Social Fascists”.
Viewed in this perspective, present-day social democratic parties like CPM tacitly allying with corporate-saffron fascism, or whitewashing it by refusing to label it as fascism, is not a totally new phenomenon. It is quite logical on the part of CPM to refrain from characterising the Modi regime as fascist, since it is also implementing the very same far-right neoliberal policies where it is in power together with its ideological orientation towards RSS in many respects. This is a critical situation for Kerala which had a history of many progressive-democratic advancements in the past. Kerala is a state having the largest number of RSS shakhas, while the Congress led opposition is weak. This has made it easy for the depoliticised CPM to pursue corporate-fascist policies by entering into underhand deals with fascists. Hence, it is high time on the part of all genuine left, democratic and struggling forces joining with all working and oppressed sections to take appropriate steps to go for a resolute ideological-political by campaign against RSS fascism and its present implementers, the CPM in Kerala.
(Courtesy: this article was first published in the countercurrents . org portal)
