Revolutionary Marxist Party of India Current Political Situation and our Tasks

Document

(Report adopted in the Central Committee meeting, held at Mumbai on 27-28 March 2017.)

The main features of the political situation, at present, in the world and in our country can be summed up, in brief, as under :
 

International Situation 

1. The over all global slump, started nearly nine years ago, is still continuing unabated. It is casting its mortal impacts upon the living conditions of the working people all over the world. No country, including China as well as the other smaller socialist countries, who have their comparatively independent economies, have remained uneffected from this global crisis. Being an outcome of the mad drive of imperialist monsters for profit maximisation, this crisis cannot be controlled effectively without a radical change in the present mode of production. That is why all the remedies suggested by the imperialist ideologues to overcome this global meltdown, have not brought any worthwhile results so far. Rather those have resulted in further aggravating this crisis and further widening apart the economic gap between the rich and the poor, all over the world. According to the Oxfam report released on the eve of Davos summit of World Economic Forum, on Jan 17, 2017 : top 8 monopolists of the world own as much combined wealth as 50% of the total population. And, since 2015, the richest 1% has amassed more then the bottom 50% combined. That is why this summit had to discuss the dangers posed by this economic inequality as the top most danger before the humanity today. This inequality is even more glaring in our country.
 

2.  Unfortunately, this adversity for the people in general has further compounded in its political effect; as this continued recession has given birth to rightward political shift all over the world. The victory of Donald Trump in USA, the Brexit decision by UK, rise of ultra-rightist forces in several of the European countries, such as France, Holland, Hungry, etc. brazenly demonstrate this shift towards reactionary dispensations, opposed to pluralism, secularism and democracy. These ultra-right forces are openly advocating dastardly chauvanistic moves under the cloak of nationalism, and are wildly threatening the ethnic and religious minorities as well as immigrants in their countries.
 

3. In addition to this, an omnious setback to the progressive forces in Latin America is also visible. The earlier upsurge against imperialism in this continent and amongest the forces of Arab Spring, is no more moving ahead. The mass upsurge in all these countries had encouraged the forces fighting against the military moves and hegemonic attacks of imperialist  mauraders. But now the American imperialists have destablised several of these positive struggles and are tightening their grip over their economies. From the very begining, the Marxists have been making a correct assesment of this Latin American upsurge, as a nationalist positive development against the neo-colonial hold of American imperialists, which had its class limitations also. But some of the post-modernist ideologues were terming these developments as a new type of socialism, free from Leninist organisational rigours. And now their faulty assesments stand no where. The strife torn Middle East countries especially Iraq, Yeman, Palestine, Syria are still burning in the fire of animosties ignited due to unwarranted imperialist intervention in this area and the right reactionary extremism evolved as a reaction to these illegal and unjustified interventions.
With an aim to harras and isolate China, the imperialist forces are again joining hands to stoke fresh fires in South East Asia. There is no doubt that the Chinese Party has made to-date some grave and meaningful departures from the Marxist-Leninist theory and practices. But the Peoples’ Republic of China, commanding the 2nd biggest economy in the world has become a big eye-sore for the imperialist marauders of the world. That is why the imperialist forces are daily weaving various types of dirty moves to defame and encircle China. There is a big hue and cry against North Korea, whereas that country have every right to develope her defense capabilities. Unfortunately, the Indian rulers, too, are in league with the maneovers of imperialists in this region.
 

4. American President Donald Trump, who is at present commanding the richest economy and the biggest military might in the world, is adopting more aggressive postures, both in the realms of economic as well as socio-political fields. His American protectionism is patently reactionary and is against the interests of developing countries. His open threats to forcibly push out the immigrants, especially the Muslims, is fraught with dangers of further aggravation of the ongoing international conflicts and tensions. Orders issued by him to ban the entry from 6 Muslim majority countries and inserting adverse changes in H1-B visa rules are the indications towards making more stringent rules regarding immigration. Such an arbitrary approach of Trump is detrimental for the economic interests of countries like India, Mexico, Brazil and even for the China. The recent ethnic attacks on Indian workers are definitely the natural results of the vicious propaganda against immigrants, unleased by the Trump dispensation. There is no doubt that mass resentment against such nasty pronouncements of Trump is coming to the roads all over the world, but it also needs to be noted that for the time being, this issue has undermined the earlier wave of resentment, against austerity measures advocated by the imperialists.
 

5. The mutual relations between the governments of Pakistan and India have been deteriorating since long. Such an enimical situation portends a very dangerous future for the Indian sub-continent as a whole. The ruling dispensations in the both the countries never display the sincerity and initiative required for the maintenance of peace and brotherhood. Therefore the strengthening of trade ties between these two big neighbours and development of the people to people relations on various  fronts are badly needed to resolve the ongoing tensions.
 

6. In such an adverse international situation, the most worrisome scenario for us is that the govt. led by Mr. Narinder Modi is increasingly colluding with the US imperialists, even at the cost of compromising our national interests. The ministers and other authorised spokesmen of this govt. are trying to suppress and shield the hegemonic high handedness of the Trump regime and are generally kowtowing their line in the international fora. Such a situation fervently calls   for intensification of our campaign against imperialism and also to launch vigorous mass struggles against the ill- effects of neo-libral policies as well as against dictates of imperialist agencies. We will also have to strive hard for blocking merciless exploitation of our natural resources by foreign corporates.
 

National Situation 

7. The Modi government, since its inception, has been implementing the anti-people neo-libral policies more aggressively. It has continued to open more and more sectors of our economy for the exploitation by monopolists and by the imperialist finance capital, popularly known as FDI. The public sector is being dismantelled speedily and almost all the public-utility-services now stand privatised to a big extent. The new tax-regime, GST, is being evolved to further fleece the people. Thus all the moves undertaken by this govt. so far, on the economic front have further speeded up the process of pauperisation of the working masses. They are being openly looted both as producers (Kisan and Labourers) as well as consumers through sky-rocketing prices of essential commodities. On the other hand, corporate sector is amassing huge wealth and they have massively increased their count amongest the Billioneers of the world. This government of the BJP, too, has misrably failed in ameliorating the ecomomic distress of the people. But it is still carrying the day through empty and misleading pharase mongering and hollow promises. It is least concerned with the most pressing task of job creation, there being more than 25% of our workforce either totally unemployed or under-employed, living on horribly meagre incomes. The demonatisation has further reduced job opportunities, especially in MSME’s. The agriculture crisis in our country is deepening unabated. This crisis is exposing itself in the shape of increased suicide rate amongest indebted farmers and pauperised agriculture workers.
 

8. The demonatisation move of the Modi govt. has proved to be a big farce. It has miserably failed in achieving any of the four pronounced objectives i.e. unearthing the huge black-money in the country, ending the corruption, controlling cross border and internal terrorism and stopping the circulation of fake currency. Rather, because of this ill planned move, the innocent people had to face innumerable hardships. They had to stand in queues for hours togather to get their hard earned currency exchanged or to withdraw their savings from the banks. More than a 100 people had to lose their precious lives in the face of these inhuman ordeals. However, this mischievious move has brought huge deposits for the banks which were under stress due to rising NPAs. Now it is likely that this forcibly, collected money will be advanced to these black money generating machines, i.e. big bussiness houses. And that will again adversely impact the living conditions of working people. Therefore it is imperative for us to earnestly strive for awakening the massess against such frauds of this govt., especially against the pharase-mongering of the PM and his co-horts, who are adept in creating post-truths, and thus befooling the mases.
 

9. Alongwith the anti-people, imperialists dictated economic policies, the Modi Govt. is hell bent upon creating a theocratic Hindutva State in India. To achieve this obnoxious objective, this govt. is encourging rabid communal-fascist forces led by R.S.S.. Various types of organisations affiliated with Sangh Parivar such as Vishav Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, ABVP etc. are vehemently creating an atmosphere of intolerence in the country. Democratic rights of the people, such as freedom of thought and expression, are being attacked by them with impunity. Anybody who dares to disagree with the communal thinking of Sangh Parivar is promptly branded as anti-national and tortured even to death. The RSS is working hard to not only controlling all the constitutional authorites in the country but also to communalise the educational curriculae and cultural heritage of the Indian Society. Its diversity is being undermined under the garb of uniform Civil Code. The ABVP is resorting to naked attacks in colleges and universities, on those students who dare to uphold scientific outlook. Precious life of Rohit Vemula of Hydrabad University came to a very sad end because of the highhandedness of these hooligans. Recent happenings in JNU and Ramjas College in Delhi, where Gurmehar Kaur, daughter of a martyr in Kashmir was humiliated simply for not agreeing with the decadent philosophy of Sangh Parivar, patently expose the anti-democratic and anti-secularist designs of the RSS and its cohorts. The universities are known as cradles for the development of new ideas. But the BJP govt. is bent upon safforanising the education, history and culture and is opposing free thinking. The RSS is openly interfering in almost all the socio-political and administrative decisions of the govt. and is dictating all types of appointments at the higher levels, including in the security sensitive institutions. Such an open communal approach of this govt. portends disastrous consequences for the social harmony as well as for the unity and integrity of the country. And it needs to be thwarted both ideologically as well as politically.
 

Election Results of 5 States 

10. Recent Assembly elections in Punjab, UP, Uttrakhand, Goa and Manipur have further bolstred up the Hindutva drive of the BJP and its mentor Sangh Parivar. Although in Punjab the ruling Akali-BJP combine had to face crushing defeat at the hands of Congress, but in U.P. and in its adjoining state Uttrakhand, BJP had scored a big victory. In the house of 403 in UP, it alone got 312 seats, and alongwith its two allies this count goes upto 325. Similarly in Uttrakhand, BJP has captured 57 out of 70 seats. In Goa and Manipur also, Modi’s Party, despite being in minority and lagging behind Congress in numbers, has manoeuvered to cobble up its majority by all types of foul means. Through heavy pre-poll and post-poll defections, shameful purchase ups and misutilising the constitutional powers of governors, the BJP has succeeded in installing its undemocratic governments in both these states. In fact, the unexpected achivement in UP has further encouraged the leadership of BJP to speed up their communal fascist agenda by all means. The selection of Adityanath Yogi, a rabid communalist Mahant of a Math, as CM of this biggest State, is a clear cut pointer towards their sinister designs. During the election campaign also, the BJP leadership, especially Prime Minister Modi left no stone unturned to polarise the voters on communal lines, so as to gain full control of this crucial state. The BJP also fully utilised the rampant aversions amongest the masses against Mulayam Parivar because of the 5 years misrule of SP, its corruption, nepotism and goonda raj. Another factor was : there was complete absence of any progressive pro-people alternative before the voters. The BJP, however, is attributing this victory to the so-called Modi Magic, which is nothing but weaving shameful misleading stories to befool the masses. The whole of the govt. machinery especially electronic media is working day in and day out to present half truths and post-truths to the masses. These victories, naturally, may help the BJP in improving its position in the Rajya Sabha also. Consequently this rabid reactionary dispensation will feel encouraged to put up more and more fiscal burden on the backs of the people, under the excuse of strengthening internal and external security, and also to further decimate the secular and democratic values ensharined in Indian Constitution. In fact, it seems that BJP now has set on to win the next election in 2019, by resorting to all types of fair and foul tactics and to establish here a unitary type theocratic state.
 

11. Unfortunately the Left forces in the country, as a whole, are not coming forward to checkmate this big challange. These forces, which have a theoratical vision for placing a pro-people socio-economic and political alternative to the neo-libral set of policies, are geting more and more marginalised in the Indian polity. In these elections also these forces could not unitedly intervened  except in Punjab. Other secular-democratic forces, too, generally try to join hands only during elections; Whereas the need of the hour is to unitedly rouse the people on all issues pertaining to workers, peasants, Adivasis, women, social oppression, job creation, price rise, democratic rights, strengthening of secular values, ecology, cultural degeneration etc.; and to develope a forceful mass upsurge in the country, especially on an  alternative economic agenda.
 

12. In Punjab, the 10 year old  mafia rule of the Akali-BJP combine has been defeated by the voters. They got on 15+3 = 18 seats in the house of 117. Congress Party gained heavily from the wide spread anguish against the ruling combine and secured 77 seats. The Aam Admi Party (AAP), a new entrant in these elections too had ignited very high hopes in their followers. But, this party, alongwith a local ally (LIP) could only win 22 seats. The Congress Party has formed its government led by Maharaja Amrinder Singh. This government is likely not to fullfil the promises made with the people. Moreover the all the big wigs constituents in this new government are also staunch votaries of new-liberal policies. Therefore the mass resentment against this govt. may not take a very long time to re-emerge.
 

13. On our part, we tried to develop an alternative in the form of a Left Front comprising four Left Parties i.e. CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML) Libration and our party RMPI to contest this election. All these four parties had already been jointly launching mass actions since August 2014. Due to a minor dispute, over a seat, between CPI and CPI (ML) Libration. the latter cannot be carried alongwith. Thus three components of this Left Front unitedly contested 49 seats whereas Liberation, on its own, put up candidates on 8 seats. Our Party contested 13 constituencies, wherein one of our candidates-Com. Lal Chand at Bhoa polled 13,353 votes was placed 3rd. In the adjoining constituency of Sujanpur, our candidate Com. Natha Singh secured 10,581 votes and was placed 4th. In all, our 13 candidates polled 37,243 votes. 12 candidates of CPI(M) jointly polled 10,901 votes whereas 24 candidates put up by CPI secured 34,713 votes. The 8 candidates put up by Libration also got 9,616 votes. Thus all these 57 candidates of The Left got only 92,473 votes. In other constituencies, our comrades, in general, opted for NOTA. Although our party organised an impressive election campaign in the above mentioned two constituencies, where it got an encourging response from our basic classes, but as a whole the performance of the Left forces is not at all encouraging. Any how, we will have to consolidate this left unity and jointly initiate mass movements for the redresal of several burning problems of the working masses. We will also have to intensify our ideological political struggle against communal and disruptive forces of all shades.
 

Situation in Other States 

14. The continuing of violence in Kashmir valley and its aggravation off and on are sources of great worry for the country as a whole. The situation, there is very grave and is becoming more and more complex. It demands an urgent and sincere attention of the government high ups. It can be resolved fruitfully only through thorough and patient discussions with all the stake-holders, especially with the estranged residents in the valley as well as with the Pandits who had to leave their homes and hearths under duress.   
 

15. In Tamil Nadu, the political situation after the sudden demise of Jailalitha has become more unstable. The ruling party, AIADMK, is likely to suffer many more organisational jolts. BJP is trying its level best to cash in the troubled waters. The main opposition party, DMK too is so far  not out of the corruption charges. Some new bourgeoise combinations may emerge in such an unstable situation. But the basic problems of the people especially of the peasants, dalits and industrial workers will certainly remain unresolved. Therefore we will have to consistently make efforts for Joint struggles on all mass fronts as well as on political issues.
 

16. In Kerala, performance of the LDF government on the socio-economic issues still needs to be analysed properly. However on the administration front, this govt. is badly embroiled with the RSS because of occasional violent clashes between RSS workers and CPI(M) cadres. Forces of Sangh Parivar and BJP govt. at the Centre are striving to make this issue an all India offensive against the Left, as a whole. Therefore while criticising the lapses of the State govt. and their political deviations, we must have to remain vigilant against and demarcate ourselves from the slandrous propaganda of these communal hooligans.
 

17. In Maharashtra, the local body elections have exposed to some extent the ongoing race for more and more grabs between communal contingents of Shiv Sena and RSS. Although, in the end they have joined hands in Mumbai, but this rift will continue to widen further. The BJP, no doubt is gaining ground all over the state. The Left and progressive forces are too weak to exploit such differences between the bourgeoise parties and to make some solid advancements. United mass struggles, especially on local level burning demands can provide the neccessary key in this direction. In political struggles we will always have to remain equi-distant from all the bourgeoise and petty-bourgeoise formations.
 

18. In Haryana, the BJP govt. do not possess the necessary vision for the redressal of the basic and burning demands of the working masses, especially peasants, unemployed and under-employed youth and industrial workers. Because of the ever increasing frustration amongest the rural as well as urban educated youth, the Jat movement for reservation has acquired a noticable base in the State. It is likely to expand in the adjoining areas of UP and Rajasthan. Our Comrades do have good pockets of influence in some districts and they are striving hard to organise the youth and agriculture workers on their immediate issues. They have also made some in-roads in Ganga Nagar, the adjoining distt. of Rajasthan. We will have to identify more and more pressing issues of the people, solid demands emerging from their aspirations and strive for organising mass activties at the Party level, as well as on the mass fronts. United struggles alongwith other left forces must also be explored diligently. On SYL canal dispute with Punjab we should remain guarded against chauvinistic propaganda and press for solution based on principles.
 

19.  In Himachal Pardesh, the Assembly elections are scheduled in the  last quarter of  this Year. BJP will spare no efforts to dislodge the present Congress  government, as the govt. has no worthwhile achievement to its credit. In this scenario,CPI(M) , which has some good pockets  of mass base such as in Shimla (Mayor and dy. Mayor both are from C.P.I.(M), will certainly  strive to make its presence in Vidhan Sabha. Although we have, so for, no organisational structure in this state, yet we should explore the possibilites for unified left intervention  in the coming elections. . On the peoples issues, organised resistance must be carried forword.
 

20.  In  Chandigarh  U.T., our Party Committee is taking up the problems of the working people on a regular basis.Our comrades also participated in a mass protests organised by the Litratteurs and  Intellectuals against the discriminatory approach of the authorities with Punjabi language.
 

21.  As a whole, in such a situation our Party should continue its efforts at all places for the United left  and democratic intervention in the ongoing mass movements against ill effects of the neo-liberal policies of both, the Centre and State Govts. as well as against the communal  onslaught of Sangh Parivar on our economic independence, secularism and democracy. We must also strive for evolving a pro-people, equitable model for inclusive development as an alternative to the present pro-corporate, jobless growth model being advocated by Modi government with full force at its command.