CPI(ML) Liberation Calls for Broadest Coalition to Resist Hindutva Right | Arun Srivastava

by Arun Srivastava

Philosophy of Hindutva acquiring a toxic dimension and politics of divisiveness getting deeply anchored in the body politick of the country, it has become imperative for the revolutionary communists to bring about some minor but significant changes in its policy and programme.

Taking forward its task adopted at the 10th Congress of the CPI (ML- Liberation) to defeat of the supremacist RSS through effective intervention in the electoral arena to challenge and defeat the fascist forces wherever possible, the 11th Congress held in Patna from February 15 for five days has called upon the revolutionary communists to save the country from the fascist disaster and destruction and to accomplish this it is imperative that all democratic forces and ideological streams should come together to form a broadest unity and cooperation.

This tactical shift from its earlier political ideology provides an insight into the fascist danger India is faced with. Notwithstanding claims of Modi and his government that the crores of people have, come above the line of poverty, the fact cannot be denied that it has on increase. If one subscribes to the so called solemn assertion of Modi that he was giving 5 kg grain to 81 crores people, it obviously implies that 81 crore people are below the poverty line. Why else, Modi would be so generous to help them. In this backdrop when both the objective and subjective conditions are in favour of a sustained struggle, Liberation has preferred to fight fascist RSS. The party is aware that the fight against fascism should get priority.

The Liberation holds that with India facing a diabolical fascist threat from the RSS and BJP Left should make a distinction between the fascist and non-fascist forces within the non-Left camp and work for the defeat of the fascist forces. The Draft Resolution on Perspective, Orientation and Tasks of Anti-Fascist Resistance underlines a major departure from its previous stand of dedicating itself to the maximum programme of bringing about socialist transformation and communism, to the ultimate aim of the abolition of all kinds of exploitation of man by man.

Faced with the onslaught of the fascist forces the Liberation calls for the broadest possible unity and cooperation among all democratic forces and ideological streams. In India this unity has come to be popularly expressed as defence of the Constitution and the legacy of the freedom movement and saving the country and its resources and infrastructure from outright corporate takeover. Powerful movements have emerged in defence of the Constitution and against privatisation which reflect an unprecedented scale of unity and resolve as witnessed in the movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act and most strikingly in the historic farmers’ movement against the Modi government’s bid to promote corporate takeover of India’s agrarian economy.

Nevertheless some groups of the CPI(ML) describe this stand of the Liberation as deviation from revolutionary path. They even allege that Liberation in the name of fighting fascism is trailing behind ruling class parties. Their main grievance is Liberation denying the existence of nearly half dozen Communist Revolutionary forces.

The groups in their own perception may be right, but the fact cannot be ignored that in the existing situation, countering the onslaught of fascism is the biggest challenge. The politics of hatred and divisiveness is pushing the democratic institution and functioning off the track. Institution of secularism and the secular ethos are being derided and made dysfunctional. The RSS and BJP have steadily moving towards turning into a Hindu Rashtra. The RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has systematic been projecting India as the Hindu Rashtra.

The RSS thrust on winning the 2024 Lok Sabha election is testimony to it. RSS is confronted with the situation of do or die. If RSS and BJP fail to convert the 2024 election as the launching pad, their mission will ultimately become a distant dream. This is the reason that Modi government has turned belligerent; out to destroy democratic institutions, finish the civil rights and victimise the rights activists, coerce the judiciary, throttle the voice of protest and smash the economy.

CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya holds; “Revolutionary communists will have to combine the courage with which civil society activists have been braving the persecution of the fascist regime with the unity and tenacity displayed by the ongoing movements to energise the opposition and intensify resistance on all fronts. In contrast to the civil society and people’s movements, the bourgeois opposition has generally speaking proven to be vulnerable to the fascist onslaught, especially to the lure of money and fear of blackmail and vendetta. The diversity and complexity of India’s political landscape, the continuing decline of the Congress and the absence of any other powerful party with all-India presence has made the current juncture rather tailor made for the BJP at the all-India plane.”

Unfortunately a vast mass of the urban middle class which got empowered due the economic policies of the former prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh nurses the illusion that Narendra Modi, is the benefactor who can really usher the present India into a New India. In fact RSS and BJP get their political sustenance from this section of the electorates. They have the ability and skill to influence others.

Dipankar points out; “We must however remember that when India voted the autocratic Indira regime out of power in 1977, the Emergency had already been lifted, while elections are now being held in conditions of an undeclared Emergency which makes 2024 a much bigger challenge than 1977.” He sounds a word of caution too; “We must also note that the opposition unity currently building up in India is not yet informed by a common anti-fascist consciousness or commitment. While the regime draws its core strength from the RSS network, many opposition parties are not ready to oppose the RSS and challenge its vicious campaign of hate, lies and terror.”

The Draft also points out that fascism cannot be decisively defeated by just voting out the Modi government. The Sangh brigade has accumulated enough strength to withstand a defeat or two. What is needed is an emphatic rejection of its ideology and politics that can relegate it back to the margins of Indian politics and society. While Narendra Modi clearly plays a central role in spearheading this fascist offensive and securing the kind of vote share the BJP currently enjoys on the all-India plane”.

The Liberation holds that in the existing situation the communists must be ready to wage a protracted and thorough-going resistance to give a fitting rebuff to the fascist offensive. If fascism is seen as a huge disaster to have befallen India, the goal of anti-fascist resistance has to be both rescuing and rebuilding India to overcome the disaster and the damage and devastation in its trail.

Obviously the revolutionary communists must get ready for a protracted, comprehensive and determined resistance to rescue India from the clutches of fascism and rebuild India. The Draft also mentions that with Amit Shah as the Union Home Minister and Ajit Doval as the National Security Advisor, the state has become unprecedentedly repressive and vindictive. In India, this fascism projects itself as nationalism defined on the basis of Brahminical patriarchal Hindu supremacy or Hindutva. The RSS has all along been ideologically fascist.

Draft resolution also underlines that Fascism is once again on the rise as an international trend. Today once again global capitalism is mired in deep crisis and uncertainty and it is seeking a way out of this crisis through war and fascist consolidation and thorough undermining of bourgeois democracy. Fascism in other countries exhibits its national particularities. The Indian case becomes particularly unique because of the central role of RSS which has been nurturing the fascist project for nearly a century now.