bjp – COMMUNIST PARTY OF MAINE

_^LINKS

_{First published at}_{CPI(ML) Liberation}_.

Reposted from Links – International Journal of Socialist Renewal

_{^{[Editor’s note: Clifton D’Rozario, from the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, will be speaking at Ecosocialism 2024, June 28–30, Boorloo/Perth, Australia. For more information on the conference visit ecosocialism.org.au.]}}

Democracy in India received a powerful and much-needed shot in the arm in the 2024 elections. It was an election in which no Modi jumla worked, and the BJP found itself almost clueless in the face of a massive assertion of the people’s core agenda of livelihood and liberties and determination to save the Constitution and the rich diversity of India. It was the most unequal of India’s elections till date, conducted by an Election Commission that couldn’t care less for its constitutional responsibilities and accountability and behaved as an extension of the executive. The opposition did belatedly come together but admittedly lacked the kind of cohesion, clarity and dynamism demanded by the situation, yet the people made it work and used it as a vehicle to channelise their energy against the rampaging fascist bulldozer. Beyond the architecture of the INDIA coalition, the election truly became a people’s movement on the ground, supported by the committed involvement of civil society activists and the highly effective and dedicated community of digital warriors.

2024 could not possibly be a repeat of 1977. A key reason is that while the 1977 election took place after the withdrawal of the Emergency, 2024 was happening in the middle of a relentless reign of terror and repression that did not need a formal declaration. 2024 was not 2004 either. The BJP in 2004 was not as powerful as the Modi era BJP and the opposition, especially the Congress, Left and the regional and social justice camp parties not as weakened as they have been rendered over the decade-long Modi rule. Yet in the history of India’s parliamentary democracy, 2024 elections will be remembered for producing a truly historic verdict at a very critical juncture of modern India.

What made it especially effective was the emphatic nature of the verdict in India’s three biggest states in terms of parliamentary strength – Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal. The great showing of the SP-Congress combine in Uttar Pradesh in spite of the RLD joining the NDA and the BSP playing a highly dubious role at the behest of the BJP has been the high point of the popular assertion against the Modi-Shah-Yogi regime. The victory of the INDIA bloc right in Ayodhya, and the election of a senior Dalit leader in this general seat, powerfully symbolises the outright popular rejection of the Sangh’s agenda. Particularly sweet too have been the downsizing of Modi himself in Varanasi, and the defeat of some of the most arrogant faces of the Modi regime like Ajai Mishra Teni from Lakhimpur and Smriti Irani from Amethi. The combination of the energy of the farmers’ movement, the anger of the youth against massive unemployment and the Agniveer scheme in particular, and the determination of the Dalit-Bahujan communities and freedom-loving citizens to defend the Constitution turned the election into a mass upheaval in many parts of the country.

In spite of the apparently disparate and variegated nature of the election outcome, it will be wrong to see the mandate just as a sum of multiple state elections. True, the BJP has managed to tap into the political vacuum and ride on the popular yearning for change in states like Odisha and Andhra Pradesh where elections were held simultaneously to the state assemblies, but the poll outcome clearly conveys an all-India message against the Modi regime. And if anyone needed a proof, let us just look at the emphatic nature of the results from West Bengal where the TMC government had a lot of anti-incumbency, the INDIA bloc remained divided and it was believed by many that the Lok Sabha elections would be reduced to a referendum on the performance of the state government. In fact, the BJP has lost votes and seats across India with the exception of a few states like Odisha and Andhra where the incumbent state governments were voted out and the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Telangana where the BJP continues to grow in terms of vote share which has now also begun to translate into seats. The fact that the BJP received its biggest blow in Uttar Pradesh, the state that has been so central to the rise and consolidation of fascism in India, underlines the core content of the 2024 mandate.

Even though the INDIA coalition has underperformed in Bihar, the best performance has once again come from the south Bihar region of Shahabad and Magadh. Of the eight seats that went to the polls in this region on the last day, INDIA has won six and put up a great fight in the other two. The CPI(ML) played an anchor role in shaping this unity and assertion of the forces fighting for democracy and social justice, contested three of these eight seats and won two. In addition, the party also had to face an Assembly by-poll in Agiaon(SC) seat in Bhojpur caused by the disqualification of party MLA Manoj Manzil due to conviction in a politically motivated false case, which the party won with a comfortable margin. Jharkhand was the other state where the CPI(ML) fielded a candidate with the backing of the INDIA bloc but finished a rather distant second. It remains to be analysed why the anti-BJP thrust of the popular vote in Jharkhand remained confined only to the five ST reserved seats. While campaigning vigorously against the BJP across the country, the party paid special attention to the seats allotted to it in Bihar and Jharkhand.

The representation of the Left in Parliament got an encouraging boost with the victory of three MPs from the Hindi belt – two CPI(ML) MPs from Bihar and a CPI(M) MP from Rajasthan – in addition to the existing strength of six from the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The rise of a more assertive and united opposition within Parliament and beyond is the biggest gain of the 2024 elections apart from the resounding rebuff to the Modi regime that marginally fell short of the numbers needed to vote the NDA out of office. With the support of parties like TDP and JDU, the NDA may have the numbers to form the government, but leaders like Modi, Shah and Yogi who have lost the mandate have no moral right to remain at the helm of the new government. The previous Speaker had disgraced the Speaker’s office by his partisan conduct which condoned hate speech against fellow parliamentarians while stifling democratic debate and dissent and the new Parliament must have a non-BJP Speaker to restore healthy environment and respect for democracy and parliamentary decorum. India has heaved a huge sigh of relief with the BJP’s loss of outright majority and the battle to deliver a more crushing defeat to fascism must now be carried on with greater unity, courage and determination to rein in the executive, restore the constitutional rule of law and undo the damages done to India’s social fabric and federal framework.

_{^{Dipsita Dhar on the campaign trail. Photo: Dipsita Dhar}}

In West Bengal, where left parties were elected to rule for over three decades until 2011, over a half dozen young leaders are waging a battle to defeat sectarian, anti-people politics of the right-wing parties

_{Reposted from People’s Dispatch}

Student leaders are waging a difficult but determined battle to revive the electoral prospect of the left in the ongoing national elections in India. These young politicians have taken up the challenge to put the people’s agenda in front in their electoral campaigns and defeat the right-wing parties.

In West Bengal, the fourth most populous state in India, Dipsita Dhar (30), Srijan Bhattacharya (31) and Pratikur Rahman (33) are three representatives of this young brigade which is putting a spirited fight against both the Trinamool Congress (TMC) ruling the state and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governing at the center.

All of these candidates have been or still are leaders of the student movement and members of left-wing student organizations. They represent the changing expectations of India’s youth and appear to strike a chord with the people. They wish to restore the sanity in politics of the state and defeat the politics of religious and sectarian divide which has been the strategy of the rightward parties.

The essence of their platform is what Mohammad Salim, the state secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), calls Haq, Rozi-Roti (Rights, Employment and food). With Haq, Rozi-Roti they seek to combat rising unemployment, lack of basic and adequate public services, and the failure of the state to provide a decent living standard to the majority and curb rising prices and stand for the policies which will bring peace for all.

These young candidates in West Bengal are also pointing out how both right-wing parties are primarily protecting the interest of the few at the cost of many by dividing the majority in the name of caste and religion. They emphasize the need for working class unity in the state which they allege has seen a complete failure of governance in the last decade. So far, their campaign has managed to generate enthusiasm and optimism, with many suggesting that the Left may see a significant comeback, not seen since its 2011 upset in West Bengal.

Reviving the Left in Bengal

West Bengal is one of the largest provinces in India with a population of over 90 million as per the 2011 census. It has 42 seats in the Lok Sabha, the popularly elected lower house of the Indian parliament. This has been one of the strongest bastions of the Left in India, both as a popular movement and in electoral terms.

The Left governed the state for over 34 years, winning six consecutive elections, until 2011.

Following the defeat in 2011, Left has faced a series of challenges in terms of electoral defeats and targeted violence against its cadres by both the TMC and the BJP. The Left has lost hundreds of its cadres in the right-wing violence unleashed in the last decade.

In these elections, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is contesting 22 seats and other left parties are contesting eight. Congress, a centrist party, is part of the nationwide INDIA alliance against the right-wing Narendra Modi led BJP government, is contesting the remaining 12 seats.

Out of these 22 seats, CPI (M) has fielded eight candidates who are below 40 years in age including Dhar, Bhattacharya and Rahman. All three of them are affiliated to the Student Federation of India (SFI), the student wing of the party and India’s largest left-wing student organization.

Dhar is currently getting her PhD at the Center for the Study of Regional Development at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Since starting her studies, she has been an active student leader and is currently the All India Joint Secretary of SFI.

Dhar is contesting the Srirampur Lok Sabha constituency where polling is scheduled to be held on May 20 during the fifth phase of India’s seven-phase national election. She is pitted against two-time sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Kalyan Banarjee from the TMC.

During her campaign Dhar has emphasized that her fight is a part of the larger struggle of the left. This includes the struggle to create democratic space, especially in West Bengal where this space has been compromised due to violence unleashed by the TMC. Dhar has also highlighted the need for the revival of the industrial base in the state so that more jobs are created and people do not have to migrate to find jobs. There is a need to fight against the sectarian divide as well which is created by the TMC and BJP for their electoral purposes, she says.

Dipsita, like most of the other young candidates in the state, participated in mass canvassing in the 2021 state assembly elections. Thus, this year’s candidates are already familiar with the people in their respective constituencies and have an established rapport with them.

Srijan Bhattacharya is contesting from Jadavpur which will vote on June 1. He is the former West Bengal secretary of the SFI.

Prateekur Rahman, the candidate for Diamond Harbour, is the present national vice president of the SFI. Rahaman is contesting against the heavyweight TMC leader Abhishek Banarjee. Diamond Harbour also votes on June 1 in the last phase of the elections.

In his campaign, Rahman has focused on the issues related to farmers, pointing out that the TMC and BJP have implemented anti-farmers policies and have not provided them relief amidst the rising costs of food production and lack of adequate prices of their produce in the market. Rahman himself has faced numerous violent attacks from the ruling TMC cadres.