Volume 5, No. 6, June 2004

Arvind

The Sangh Parivar and BJP chiefs are in a glum mood. No stylish press conferences; none of the earlier fork-tongued glib-talk; no arrogant Hindutva haranguing yet; only a morose silence. This is not surprising as not only did their monitored pollsters prove totally wrong; many of their big-wigs have been kicked out. Their chief electoral mascot, ex-Prime Minister Vajpayee, garnered a mere 20% of the total vote — with him getting 58% of the voter turnout, which was a mere 35%. This too, when the Congress barely campaigned for Ram Jetmalani — the independent candidate that they backed. And, inspite of the fact that most top BJP leaders campaigned in Lucknow and over a hundred RSS workers worked full time on a door-to-door campaign. The much hyped popular rating of Vajpayee turned out to be a damp squib. The chief promoter of Hindutva fanaticism, Advani’s, rating for PM was a mere 0.4%, and voter turnout in his constituency was also only 48%. The BJP lost their key seats of Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura. In Mathura the BJP candidate who had won three consecutive times, now came fourth. Many of the major Hindutva scum lost, including Vinay Katiayar (who came third), Murali Manohar Joshi, Swami Chinmyanand, Manohar Joshi (Speaker of the Lok Sabha), ID Swami, Ram Nayak etc. Ex-Finance/Foreign Minister, Yeshwant Sinha lost to a CPI candidate from Hazaribagh (Jharkhand) by one lakh votes. Also to lose were 28 Central Ministers of the NDA, including Nitish Kumar, Jagmohan, Sharad Yadav. In UP, in spite of Kalyan Singh re-joining, the BJP tally dropped from 25 seats to a mere10. In Hindutva’s homeland, Gujarat, the BJP lost nearly 50% of the seats to the Congress — and that too many were in the riot strongholds. In total, the BJP could muster just 138 seats; roughly 13% of the total votes.

And this is in spite of the fact that the moneybags pumped large funds into the BJP’s coffers. After the first exit polls the Economic Times (April 22) reported that the stock brokers in Mumbai had raised Rs.150 crores in just the previous 3 days — they said that the bulk of this went to the BJP. So did the funds of the diamond merchants, metal, chemical and other big traders. On the same day the World Bank granted an additional $500 million for Vajpayee’s pet education project — the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Two days later another $ 1 billion was granted from the World Bank, European Commission and the Department of International Development (UK). But all this was to no avail. And as Exit Poll results began to come in, a handful of these powerful stockbrokers and big business houses, most of whom support the Hindutva brigade, sought to create panic by forcing a crash in the stock market prices, played up by the media in banner headlines.

The losses faced by the BJP in their main bastions indicate that their Hindutva/Ayodhya campaign has run out of steam and the devastations caused by their imperialist-dictated ‘economic reforms’ programme on the masses has created a growing anger amongst them. In fact its major gains were only due to the anti-incumbency factor, in States where the Congress was in power who also implemented the same ‘economic reforms’ and so got discredited.

In fact even the BJP’s earlier victory in 1999 had come in the backdrop of the Kargill war and the ‘nation-in-danger’ atmosphere thereby generated. This time they had no such issue to whip up a frenzy.

Having lost, the Sangh Parivar still recovering from the shock and seeking scapegoats for their defeat, tried a last-ditch campaign through a hysterical attack on the Prime Minister’s foreign origin issue (they of course have no problem with foreigners — imperialists — dictating to them on all policy matters). When this too failed, they have temporarily retreated into a shell with internal rivalry and infighting reaching peak levels. No doubt once they recover from their shock and stabalise their infighting, their Hindutva will turn even more venomous. Their game plan will be to lie low for a while until discontent begins to brew against the Congress and infighting gathers steam amongst the alliance partners of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) and even within the Congress. Then they will whip up Hindutva or national chauvinist frenzy on an even bigger scale than what happened in Gujarat. And basically with an appeasement approach of all the UPA elements (and the ‘Left’) to Hindutava a new revival is only a matter of time unless they are smashed by mass mobilization in the streets.

Yet the Congress really won by default, not on the wave of any popular tide. Anti-NDA anger had reached such levels in some parts of the country that the UPA and ‘Left’ were able to capitalize on it, due to the lack of any real revolutionary alternative before the people. What the Congress got in these elections was a negative vote — an outburst against the BJP and their hangers-on. The people are in no way enamoured by the Congress. This is clearly seen by the heavy losses it faced where they are in power or were recently in power.

Their total rout in Kerala, winning a mere 2 seats in Punjab, suffering heavy losses in Karnataka, winning just one seat in Uttranchal; and continuing its losses in states recently lost like Chattisgarh (where it got only one seat), Madhya Pradesh (a mere 4 seats) and Rajasthan (also 4 seats) — was indicative of a negative vote in most places. Even in UP, in spite of the massive efforts put in by the entire Sonia family and top leaders of the Congress they got a mere 9 seats out of the total of 80 (i.e. equal to that achieved in 1999). Also, in the entire country the Congress garnered a mere 26.7% of the total votes cast to 24% for the BJP/ Shiv Sena. Not a huge lead.

The other major factor for UPA victory against the NDA was the performance of alliance partners. The total rout of the AIADMK and TDP on the one hand and the landslide victories of the DMK (and allies) in TamilNadu, RJD in Bihar together with the major gains of the ‘Left’ gave the arithmetics of victory to the Congress and its allies. The Congress too gained significantly in those areas where the NDA and allies were in power as in Andhra Pradesh (except Orissa). Yet, the Congress’s total tally of 145 seats was, in fact, less than that of the BJP/Shiv Sena of 150. But, the Congress and allies total was 219 compared to the NDA total of 189. Together with the ‘Left’ bloc of 61 seats, the Congress was able to near a majority while the NDA was nowhere near it. With pollsters giving the NDA anything from 250 to 300 seats it amounted to a rout of the ruling alliance. Even till the very end exit polls were giving the NDA at least 240 seats.

Though people have a short memory and generally vote against whom they think to be immediately responsible for their increased suffering, or choose the ‘better of two evils’, or stay passive without voting, there was no Congress wave. The euphoria generated by the Congress victory was only because it was unexpected. There was also much anger against the fake slogans of the ruling alliance of "India Shining" and the so-called "feel good factor". These slogans were so obviously elitist that the masses brought out their disgust through their negative vote.

In fact there has been an all-round deterioration in people’s living standards, notwithstanding the BJP’s slogans. The situation is so bad that only 1.7% of villages measure up to Harrappan standards when it comes to covered drains. But for Vajpayee and his clan India is going towards superpower status comparing it with the developed countries of the world. According to the NSSO’s (58th round in 2002): only 18.5% villages get drinking water through taps and 55% relied on tubewells; in more than 54% of the villages the nearest PHC (health centre) was at least 5kms away; only a third of the villages had a telegraph office or PCO within 2 kms and more than 78% of villages did not have a Post Office. More than 80% of Indians earn less than $2 per day and 700 million have no sanitation facilities. According to the FAO the number of hungry in India increased by 19 million between 1997 and 2001. At that rate the rise in the number of hungry during BJP-led NDA rule would be nearly 30 million or 3 crores.

Quite naturally the masses of the country saw the "India shining" and the "feel good factor" slogans as a joke and a fraud on the people. Advertisements blasted from the media day-in-and-day-out could not fool the masses, where their living reality is far more potent than hyped slogans catering to the elite class. Nor could the Hindutva fanaticism divert their attention any further — Advani’s Rath turning into a non-event.

But, what did the Congress have as an alternative? The same economic reforms in the States that they ruled, which is the main cause for people’s impoverisation today. Instead of hard-core Hindutva they pushed a brand of soft Hindutva in the name of ‘secularism’. They promised free electricity and some other reforms locally which were the main reason to garner votes as in AP (though one of the first tasks of the Congress government in Punjab was to raise the price of electricity charges to farmers, which was till then free). And, though they have as notorious a record of state repression, due to severe contradictions within the ruling classes they may allow some temporary reprieve.

Actually the Congress had nothing really to offer the masses. Their victory was by default and a negative vote resulting from the pent-up anger against the BJP and its partners. This perpetual anti-incumbency factor of voting against the party in power during recent elections is what is the most necessary factor of this fake democracy to preserve the system, as it acts as a safety valve to let out steam. Assume this electoral process was not there, the pent up anger of the masses would have broken into revolt against the governments in power. Now it has been diffused with a hope for change. This, of course happens every five years, successfully diverting the masses from the real path to change.

In this exploitative system it is these big moneybags who call the shots. So, not surprisingly the biggest of them all, Ambani, met Sonia on the very day the counting of votes began, on seeing how the tide was blowing. Soon after the results were declared he once again met her. He further did the rounds of most of the UPA potentials including the ‘Marxist’ Chanakya, Harkishan Singh Surjeet — who has proved to be more loyal to the Sonia Congress than many Congressmen themselves. The imperialists too pull their strings from the back. So it is not surprising that a clause in the Draft CMP (Common Minimum Programme) speaks of the new government "maintaining the independence of India’s foreign policy stance ……. even as it pursues closer strategic and economic engagement with the USA". Though this has been slightly toned down in the final draft, their intentions seen clear.

Let us not forget that it was the Congress that was the main initiator of not only ‘economic reforms’ but also Hindutva. It was the current Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, who as Finance Minister in the PVN government in the early 1990s who was the first to initiate ‘economic reforms’ in the country. And it was Rajiv Gandhi who in fact was the first to sponsor the new breed of Hindutva, not only by igniting the Babri Masjid issue by opening the locks, but also by numerous other steps, like directly involving in the promotion of the Ramanaya on the TV. It was the Congress who introduced the Emergency in the mid-Seventies and it was they who unleashed the massive pogrom against Sikhs in 1984 (the main perpetrators have now got elected as MPs from Delhi). They have a history of brutal repression on the people and the nationality movements.

So the euphoria and hopes generated by Congress victory is misplaced. Manmohan Singh has already said that ‘economic reforms’ will continue, albeit with a "human face". He has appointed a Finance Minister, Chidambaram, who is a top favourite of big business and the TNCs. After his appointment stock prices rose again and the business community was nostalgically remembering his last "Dream Budget" when he was FM of the earlier UF government. With Manmohan as PM and Chidambaram as FM the big business community and TNCs could not be happier. Except for a few temporary welfare measures, ‘economic reforms’ are bound to continue at the same devastating pace set by the BJP. And as for Hindutva, though some of the blatant communal changes brought by them in education, etc. may be reversed, the Sangh Parivar can become even more vicious and venomous when in the opposition. Neither soft Hindutva nor appeasement can help counter them; it can only help lend it greater legitimacy.

Never before in any election has there been such a high profile media blitz to "cast your vote". Yet the turnout was one of the worst lost in the past three decades even according to the official figure of 58%. That means out of the 670 million voters only 350 million cast their vote — a drop of 2% compared to 1999. In other words a minimum of 320 million people did not vote. This is a huge figure, indicating apathy on a gigantic scale. And talk to any man in the street (of even those who did vote), there was only one refrain "sab chor hai" (all are crooks) "they only serve themselves and could not bother about the people". The actual figure would be much lower given large bogus voting in places like Kashmir, North East, Bengal parts of the Hindi belt and probably most other places.

But, even these official figures were excessively low in many parts of the country. So for example the official figure of polling in UP was 46%, in Gujarat 45% (compared to 62% in the 2002 Assembly elections), Madhya Pradesh 48%, Uttaranchal 48%, Rajasthan 50%, Chattisgarh 52%, J & K 35% and Maharashtra 54%. Mumbai had a 45% turnout, Delhi 50%, and Nagpur 48%. In Gujarat the Muslims did not vote for fear of the repercussions from the Hindutva hoodlums.

This low voting is inspite of the massive campaign conducted by the government, media and big business calling on the people to "cast their vote". Never before have all the newspapers devoted two to three pages daily for months to election news coverage. The TV was full of it. This all acted to create the ‘right’ atmosphere to get involved in the process. Then there were direct advertisements on the radio and TV to cast ones vote. The BJP went on a massive advertisement campaign to build up the Vajpayee cult. In just the two months of December and January (after announcement of the plan to hold early elections) "India Shining" was advertised 9,472 times — nearly equivalent to the advertising of the "All Out" mosquito repellent.

Besides all this, not only did the Election Commission (EC) help the build up but a host of NGOs and even the big business house actively participated in the "cast vote" campaign. In a bid to give legitimacy to the candidates, many of whom are nothing but mafia and criminals, the EC, NGOs and one Jayprakash Narayan made much noise as being the moral watchdogs of the whole process. Yet, hardly a single candidate was disqualified.

The EC regularly made a show of checking on candidate’s expenditure, asset declaration, etc. which all knew to be false. Then about 600 NGOs came together to scan the affidavits filed by candidates and publicise through the media and through street plays, etc. According the IIM Professor (Bangalore), Shastry, "several hundred NGOs are involved in facilitating political reforms and increased voter awareness in India".

Then Jayprakash Narayan (who pretended to be independent, but was a Telugu Desam supporter), the national coordinator of the so-called Loksatta Movement(LM), had 30,000 volunteers all over India to bring out a report on the criminal charges of candidates. Besides building up legitimacy for the increasingly discredited electoral process the EC, NGOs and LM did little else.

But, the biggest "cast vote" campaign was taken up for the first time by big business through the CII (Confederation of Indian Industries) in association with the Election Commission. They launched special multimedia public service campaigns for more voters to participate in the election process, specifically targeting young voters. The CII made colourful and attractive posters and had them put up in factories, establishments, dealers and retail outlets, show rooms and even in the NIITs, McDonalds, Dominoes, Nirulas, PVRs, etc. etc. The poster said that "Voting is both a right and a responsibility".

The CII also worked with the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (CoAI) to send the "Please Vote" SMS message. On polling day SMS messages were sent to all cell phone users urging them to participate in the "democratic process by casting their vote". The CII sent 35 million SMS messages to people to exercise their franchise.

Besides all this on actual voting day much was made of the President, Priyanka, Sourouv Ganguly and other big-wigs casting their vote. For example most May 12 dailies displayed a large photo of the President on the front page, displaying the black mark on his finger, making the clownish statement "I feel beautiful after having exercised my vote".

Yet, in spite of this massive campaign voter percentage was down 2% from 1999 levels. If the Congress got about 15% of the total vote and the BJP/Shiv Sena 14%, the "NO VOTE" people got officially 42%; and probably, unofficially, nearly half the vote. So, who then is the real winner?

This obsession to get people to vote at any cost was particularly to be seen when sections of the people began to campaign for the boycott. If the parliamentary crowd have a genuine feeling for democracy people should be allowed to freely campaign for candidates/parties as for boycott. But wherever the call for boycott was given the State turned into a frenzy forcing people to vote at gun-point, with the police and military themselves campaigning for the people to cast their vote. This was particularly to be seen in Kashmir, the North East and the vast areas under Naxalite influence.

In the Bastar area of Chittasgarh, where the PW holds sway, a PUCL report showed that hardly a single vote was cast in most of the villages visited. In many distant villages even the booths were not set up — yet the results showed a sizable vote in many of these areas. In vast parts of Andhra Pradesh, as is normally the case the police themselves have been on a big campaign for the people to cast their vote. In Telengana the police are known to visit houses after the voting to check the fingers of the youth for the black vote mark. If it is not there they are picked up as Naxalites. So also has been the case in Bihar and Jarkhand. In West Bengal too, in the Naxalite affected areas of Midnapore and other areas it was the CPM hoodlums who forced people to vote though even media reports said that in these areas voter apathy was high.

In Kashmir the anti-election feelings are so strong that even the faction of the Hurriyat that capitulated to the Centre and held talks with Advani, called for a boycott. Top Hurriyat leaders were not allowed to address meetings when they tried to propagate the boycott call. To prevent their anti-election campaign the police placed JKLF chairman, Yasin Malik, Hurriyat Chairman, Sayed Geelani, and PDF chief, Shabbir Shah under house arrest on April 23rd. Again during the second round of polling the police opened fire to disperse an anti-election rally in Anantnag and arrested four top leaders and eight others. Immediately as the meeting began police fired teargas shells and resorted to a lathi charge. 150 companies of the para-military forces were deployed in just this one constituency.

Yet amidst all this terror, in Srinagar, amidst a near-total boycott, a general strike, road blocks and numerous incidents there was 21% polling — most of it taken at gun-point.

Reading to a report of the J & K Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), dated April 21, one gets an idea of the kind of terror unleashed on the people of Kashmir during elections. Come elections, people say it is a nightmare. This first report (of the four planned) was based on nine teams that covered 15 assembly constituencies in the Baramulla region. The report says: All the nine teams report that they came across and/or themselves were witness to the Rashtriya Rifles (RR) forcing people to go out and vote. This was noticed less in the towns and more in the rural or internal areas. Some parts of the constituency such as Gurez, Karnah, etc., the extent of the use of coercion is not known but the ubiquitous presence of RR vehicles in villages patrolling, and jawans going from house-to-house were fairly common. In Gujjarpatty in Bandipora in the presence of the team the RR were observed ‘escorting’ people to the polling booth. Villagers were angry and feeling helpless. The village numberdar was told that if the turnout was less than 60% he would "face the consequences". In Uri, which is virtually a garrison town, and said to be free of militancy an officer of the Indian Army was monitoring the progress of polling. In the presence of our CSS team he was heard replying to his superior on the phone "27% sir" and explained the reason for the low turnout to be "rain and some problem at the polling station". ….That people had been herded to the polling stations in many parts of the apple town of Sopore, was even admitted by the presiding officers and the polling agents of several parties. The troopers RR (22 battalion) had entered several houses at Dooru, Latishat, etc asking the people to cast their vote. Their I-Cards were snatched away and asked to get it back after they had the ink mark on their fingers…….. There was a three-tier security cover: RR in the villages patrolling on foot or in their huge armoured carriers through the narrow village lanes. The BSF was in charge of the polling stations and the JK police was looking after the polling booths. Everyone was frisked and asked to remove the ‘pheran’.

All parliamentary parties in the valley who contest the elections, including the CPM, are silent to this terror that takes place in Kashmir in the name of elections. The polling for the six seats is spread out over many days to permit the maximum concentration of para-military/police in every constituency during the voting. The Indian ruling classes are desperate to get some legitimacy in Kashmir by giving an impression to the world that ‘free and fair’ elections are taking place. It is a hoax of gigantic proportions.

In Manipur the elections for the two MPs took place amid a general strike, snatching of EVMs (electronic voting machines) and heavy exchange of fire between security guards of a minister and militants. Polling was said to be 30%. In many polling booths not even a single voter turned up.

In Punjab the MASR (The Movement Against State Repression) and the PHRO (Punjab Human Rights Organisation) asked farmers to greet candidates and political leaders of different parties by wearing black badges and hoisting black flags atop houses — due to the apathy towards the farmers resulting in high rates of suicides. MASR has recorded as many as 1000 suicides in the Lohra and Andana blocks alone, at the southern most tip of Sangrur district. High rates of suicides have also been reported from Mansa, Bhatinda, Ferozpur and Barnalla, and also some from Amritsar and Hoshiarpur districts.

The State’s paranoia against the boycott call, which should be a genuine democratic right (to vote or not to vote), indicates the importance set by the establishment on the electoral process to continue this exploitative system. And when, on this occasion we see the massive propaganda by various forces calling on people to vote, one can further understand the importance attached to this process for the ruling class. Yet, it is inconceivable how certain M-L organisations partake in elections year-in-and-year-out, lending legitimacy to a process that the enemy is desperate to sustain. No doubt, the lack of a real political revolutionary alternative retards the development of the boycott campaign as many finally choose what they feel is the better of two evils or vote according to caste, communal or local factors. But once the real revolutionary alternative is effectively posed before the masses they will, no doubt, totally reject this parliamentary farce. Till then the electoral farce needs be consistently exposed, while at the same time the revolutionary alternative step-by-step built up. Participation serves no purpose whatsoever.

So it is apparent from, the poor turnout, that more and more people are getting disgusted with this fake electoral system, while the ruling classes are desperately trying to maintain its legitimacy. Inspite of the thousands and thousands of monitors (both government and private, as also international) and restrictions on expenditure, money flowed like water. The Economic Times reported that this election saw the maximum expenditure ever, estimated at some Rs.10,000 crores. A large amount of this came from the government’s coffers (i.e. people’s money) for the ruling parties, the balance comes from the big business houses, imperialists and their TNCs, the big NRIs, and also the big traders and professionals. All of them have a major stake in the ‘stability’ of the existing system in order to smoothly continue their exploitation of the masses and the accumulation of huge profits and privileges.

The masses have no such necessity for the stability of a system that anyhow destroys them step-by-step. Their lives itself are highly unstable. Their interest is in a change of the system. So, invariably now-a-days the masses tend to vote out the party in power, which they see as the immediate cause of their suffering. As all parties are introducing economic reforms the masses tend to suffer whichever party is in power — no matter whether it is the BJP and allies or the Congress and allies or even the ‘Left’. West Bengal has been the only exception to witnesing an anti-incumbency factor even though they too implement ‘economic reforms’. The reason for this is because the ruling classes are not able to put up any viable alternative, and after Naxalbari it was the CPM that brought stability to the State, and so it is quite acceptable to the ruling classes. Since then the CPM has proved its ruling class credentials and has built a mass base of terror, particularly in the rural areas, like that which existed in the East European countries before their collapse in the late 1980s.

So greater the instability of the system the greater it is in the interests of the masses as they get greater maneuverability in the face of an increasingly fascist rule. Destablisation of existing governments is the only positive aspect of an electoral system where different factions of the ruling classes are invariable at loggerheads. And as the crisis in the economic system deepens such instability is bound to grow which creates a highly favourable condition for the masses to grow and develop their organisation and struggles. The liberal is invariable ecstatic over such victories calling it ‘liberation’, etc. but they are the ones to equally fast go into the depths of despondency when the Congress does not live up to their expectations — which it can never. The reason for this is that their approach is superficial and are unable to understand the underlying causes for changes in governments. They even forget the Congress’s recent past. The reason is that, for their utopia, they seek quick clinical solutions to deep-seated problem that require protracted struggles and violent ‘messy’ upheavals for real change and not cosmetic solutions.

This precisely is the thinking behind the 200 intellectuals that issued a joint appeal to the ‘Left’ parties to join the government. They call the present alliance secular and democratic forgetting all the unsecular and anti-democratic deeds of these parties even in the recent past. What they desire is nothing but the Kumaramangalam effect to turn the communist party into an even more servile tail of the Congress. This was taken by the CPI to its extreme with its support to the Emergency. Ofcourse what they say is nothing but the logical conclusion of the Surjeet effect, where he has acted as the prime broker for the Sonia Congress to cobble up the present coalition, that too under Sonia’s leadership. With the horrors of the Sangh Parivar fascists before them and the lack of a viable alternative, the liberal hopes for some sanity from the Congress. That is wishful thinking.

Due to the play of power politics the Congress may indulge in some gimmicks, they may also give some temporary relief to score some points against their political opponents, they may also give some relief from the state terror of the earlier rulers, and ofcourse they will not be as aggressive about the Hindutva agenda (but they will not also discard it altogether) — such steps are normally taken by any party which gains power, as the Janata party did in 1977. But this never lasts long. Of course such instability can and must be utilized to push forward the revolutionary and democratic movement, where a more conducive atmosphere, however short-lived, can bring major gains to the revolutionaries and other democratic organisations if utilized effectively.

The draft CMP says nothing new and merely reasserts the pace of economic reform, talking of doubling FDIs into India and even stepping up FIIs (speculative capital which destroys the economy). It also talks of promoting "e-governance on a massive scale", the same stuff that the rejected Naidu was made of — and a bonanza for the imperialist IT industries. Even on disinvestments it is vague saying it will do so on a case-to-case basis. It has the standard rhetoric of providing all sorts of welfare measures but gives no indication from where the funds for these are going to come from. Such welfare programmes are only possible if the massive subsidies and tax benefits to big business and foreign capital are drastically curtailed and those vast funds re-directed towards welfare. Without elaborating on these, such talk, of which the CMP is full of, is nothing but propagandist rhetoric to dupe the people.

Though it promises to repeal POTA it says not a word about the existing POTA cases (which should be dismissed along with the repealing of the act). But not even had the draft CMP been finalized when both the new Home Minister and Law Minister have begun to publicly express doubts as reported in the May 25 issue of The Economic Times. Shivraj Patil (the defeated candidate who is now Home Minister) said immediately on taking over office that the government would not act in haste and examine every issue carefully before deciding on its repeal. Even the Law Minister, H.R.Bharadwaj, did not rule out the option of amending it instead of scrapping it altogether. He said the Law Ministry would submit its views on POTA to the Home ministry. Ofcourse, under people’s pressure, particularly from those who have been affected by it, they may relent and replace it with something milder.

The CMP has all the content of the BJP programme on ‘economic reforms’. On welfare it is mostly rhetorical as there is no talk of reducing PDS prices and widening its net, no enhanced subsidies for village industries which have been devastated, no question of land reforms, and no mention what-so-ever of increased subsidies to farmers — even reduction of electricity and user charges. Even on the question of Ayodhya there is a similar stand to the BJP — to settle it through the court or negotiations.

And as for the revisionist CPI/CPM, as in the mid-1990s they have basically endorsed the programme(CMP) enunciated and will have no problem in endorsing even a fascist regime so long as it is not overtly communal. Particularly, when the CPM and the West Bengal government could have an excellent equation with the megalomaniac Advani, why not with the Congress. In fact to get an insight into their reactionary thinking we can quote from an interview of the West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadedeb Bhattacharjee printed in the April 26 edition of The Hindu. He said: "National security is a subject where all parties come together to foil attempts of terrorist outfits to divide and destabalise the country. The Centre is doing it in its own way, I am doing it in my way. I cannot say that the Centre is not helping us. It is. … Without the Centre’s help it would have been difficult for us to combat the KLO problem in North Bengal. Similarly in South Bengal we are working together to tackle the naxalites. As for the working understanding with Advani, every government should have such an understanding with the Centre". With such cooperation with even the Hindutva fascists it is not surprising that the ruling classes depose full faith in the CPM and appoint Somnath Chatterjee Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

Stability is the name of the game for all those who stand by the status quo. A section of the middle class, who have a comfortable existence, are also drawn into this stability syndrome. It is only when their own lives become unstable, when they loose their jobs and/or for want of jobs to their children, the disappearance of their savings due to scams etc, due to the communal environment whipped up, etc. etc — that they too begin to think of a radical alternative.

Meanwhile, the CMP has been praised by the FICCI (one of the three prime big business associations) as it declares its full support to ‘economic reforms’.

P.Sainath in the April15 issue of The Hindu wrote an article entitled "Voting for your favourite Millionaire". Speaking of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections he said that "It is quite likely that most — if not all — elected could be worth, on an average between Rs.50 lakhs and Rs.1 crores. (A conservative estimate). How representative will they be of voters whose annual average income does not exceed Rs.12,000." In fact a study of the 1999 elections by the Delhi’s Centre for the Study of Developing Studies (CSDS) determined that 95% of the winning candidates were either super rich, owning several industrial establishments, very rich, owning more than one petrol pump, or wealthy landlords. It further revealed that "each winning candidate had on an average spent a minimum of Rs.1 crore on visible items such as transport and posters, an amount that would double if invisible items such as buying votes were added". (Business India April 12-24; 2004)

So, no matter which party they belong to, the poverty stricken masses have to choose between one set of millionaires or another, who in the process of their elected status amass another few millions more. Quite naturally all these people have a deep stake in the existing system and are the most vociferous advocates against the boycott and for maintaining the status quo in whatever form. If the established order is in anyway threatened they will all, no doubt, yell in unison "terrorism", "anarchism", "senseless violence", etc etc. So, no wonder that the West Bengal CM says that all of them must unite against ‘terrorists’, ‘separatists’, etc.

So, that is why any genuine democrat would say that this is a fake democracy and not genuine. So they would not accept it as a democracy and call on people to boycott, in order to build a system where genuine democracy for the masses can thrive.

The answer lies in building and strengthening a genuine democratic countrywide alternative of pro-people forces that is basically anti-imperialist and anti-feudal, fights uncompromisingly against the Hindu fascists for true secularism, opposes all forms of state repression and builds genuine peoples’ democratic structures at the local level in alliance with the revolutionary forces.

May 28, 2004

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