SACW | 18 May 2004 [India Elections 2004: Reactions]

[sacw at sacw.net]

South Asia Citizens Wire | 18 May, 2004 [India Elections 2004: Reactions]
via: www.sacw.net

[1]Impact of Indian Elections(Pakistan Peace Coalition)
[2]India's Moment (Vinay Lal)
[3]India: Defeat of NDA, Victory of Secularism (Asghar Ali Engineer)
[4]India: National versus Foreigner debate Is Sonia Gandhi Eligible to become
the Prime Minister? (Ram Puniyani)
[5]India: History is inviting the left to share the responsibility of ruling
India (Rudrangshu Mukherjee)
[6] India: Salute to the Unknown voter in the villages (V.B.Rawat)


--------------


[1]

IMPACT OF INDIAN ELECTIONS
May  15, 2004

Joint Press statement

Pakistan Peace Coalition (PPC) congratulates the people of India -
especially the poor and marginalized millions in the villages and
townships of India - for rejecting the pro-imperialist National
Democratic Alliance NDA, dominated by the religious fundamentalist BJP,
in favour of the forces of secularism, peace, democracy and religious
tolerance, represented by the progressive political formation of the
leftist parties and the Indian National Congress.

PPC has strived from its very inception to foster friendly relations
between our two countries through promoting close people-to-people
interaction at various levels. The historic Peace Conference PPC
organized in Karachi in February 1999, attended by more than 500
delegates representing all the politically active sections of Pakistani
society as well as a sizeable group of their counterparts from India and
other South Asian countries, and Europe, was a milestone in the people's
struggle for peace and prosperity in the region. PPC is glad that the
forces of religious fundamentalism and reaction have been defeated in
India. Despite being mutually hostile, BJP government's peace moves
towards Pakistan notwithstanding, some sort of an opportunistic link has
existed between the religious fundamentalists of India and Pakistan in
terms of their efforts to re-write the history of the subcontinent to
fit into their bigoted religious notions.

PPC fondly hopes that the unexpected outcome of the elections in India
will not only open the way for lasting peace between our two countries
but will also help to promote the development of a truly secular,
democratic polity, free from the scourge of criminalization of politics.
PPC is of the considered opinion that the triumph of the secular
democratic political forces in India will surely have its positive
impact on Pakistan and further strengthen and accelerate the peace
process between our two countries, in the interest of the billion plus
poverty-stricken peoples of the subcontinent.

Time has come to do away with the present obnoxious anti-people visa
system, facilitate free exchange of information - newspapers, books,
journals and the electronic media - and cultural exchange, re-open
Khokhropar-Munabao rail and road links and the sea route, initiate an
open dialogue on all contentious issues including Kashmir with the
sincere intention of resolving them, take positive steps towards the
creation of a close-knit economic cooperation network in South Asia
capable of countering the onslaught of World Bank, IMF, WTO and other
international funding agencies and transnational corporations and work
together to put an end to militarization, nuclearisation and all other
forms of weaponisation, and eradicate sectarianism, religious extremism
and intolerance.


Released by:


B.M. Kutty
General Secretary PPC
Dr. A.H. Nayyar, President PPC
M.B. Naqvi, Former President PPC
Dr. Zaki Hassan
Karamat Ali
Sheema Kirmani
Sarah Siddiqui
Safina Javed
Rahat Saeed
Ghulam Kibria
Dr. Aly Ercelan
Dr. Iftikhar Ahmed
Sharafat Ali
Aijaz Ahmed
Mir Zulfiqar Ali

____


[2]

INDIA'S MOMENT
By Vinay Lal

(South Asia Citizens Wire, May 18, 2004)

This is India's moment.  The much ridiculed illiterates and uneducated masses
who still predominate in India's vast rural countryside have shown the wisdom,
intelligence, and integrity that the much trumpeted educated and business
elites of India could not muster.  They have voted the National Democratic
Alliance, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, out of power. At
least for the moment, if only a faltering moment, India is the world's
exemplary democracy.

Less than three months ago, when the BJP announced that general elections would
be held in late April and May, its electoral triumph was taken for granted.  In
assembly elections held across several states in December 2003, the BJP
trounced the Congress, the main opposition party led by the Italian-born
inheritor of the Nehru family fortunes, Sonia Gandhi.  Last month, the Indian
cricket team returned from a month-long tour to Pakistan after registering
spectacular triumphs in both one-day and test cricket, and though the BJP
wisely took no explicit credit for this achievement, it surely hoped to have
benefited by this success.  Many observers are inclined to describe cricketing
relations as a reliable barometer of political relations between India and
Pakistan, and Prime Minister Vajpayee often declared that he sought peace
between the two nations as the enduring legacy of his tenure in office.
Relations between the two countries have, doubtless, improved considerably over
the last six months -- though, unless the BJP endeavor to have everyone succumb
to amnesia is to succeed, it is also necessary to recall that war hysteria was
pitch high through much of late 2001 and 2002.

The BJP had, as it allowed itself to believe, other grounds to be confident,
even complacent.  Monsoon rains over the last few years have largely been very
good, and agricultural production and food stocks have never been higher.  For
decades, economists spoke mockingly of the "Hindu rate of growth":  the
economy, much like everything else in the country, slumbered on at an
agonizingly slow pace.   As late as the early 1980s, it would have been
something of a stretch to speak of the consuming classes as anything other than
a microscopic minority. Now the economy is, in a word, booming.  Annual growth
last year hit 8 percent, and affluent and middle-class urban Indians, who
recall the fair price shops and shortages of milk and butter of yesteryears,
now point with evident pride to the rapid proliferation of glitzy shopping
malls.  The markets are bursting with goods, the demand for luxury items has
risen sharply, and consumer spending has risen to an all-time high. Even the
outsourcing boom and the mushrooming of call centers, which arguably point to
the emergence of new forms of coolitude, were cited as instances of India's
rising stock in the world.  The BJP attempted to sum up its achievements in a
succinct yet bloated phrase, "India Shining".

Evidently, and wisely, the electorate in India did not find the country as
resplendent as the BJP and its allies have been inclined to imagine.  A fierce
pogrom was launched against Muslims in Gujarat two years ago, with no adverse
consequence for its perpetrators and their patrons.  Over 2,000 lives were
lost, and 100,000 people were rendered homeless, but the BJP sought to convey
the impression that this was a mere unfortunate occurrence against the backdrop
of increasing prosperity.  Further south, Chandrababu Naidu, the Chief Minister
of Andhra who fancied himself a CEO, and dedicated himself to turning Hyderabad
into a glass fortress of technology, has now received a rude reminder that the
rural masses cannot be taken for a ride.  Now that Naidu's Telugu Desam Party
has unceremoniously been booted out of office, he may be more attentive to
those whose needs in the real world cannot be met by specialists in virtual
reality.  His compatriot in the neighboring state of Karnataka, whose capital
Bangalore spawned India's so-called internet revolution, has at least had the
decency to admit that his neglect of the rural countryside cost him his job.
Though the government boasts of record grain stocks, and charity has been
extended to countries such as North Korea and Russia, nearly half of India's
own population still suffers from malnutrition.  Growing rural indebtedness and
the rapid privatization of agriculture led thousands of farmers over the last
ten years to commit suicide.  Inequalities in India have never been greater.

India's elite, and its chattering classes, clearly did not take stock of all
that has transpired in an India that they barely know.  A campaign call with a
recorded message from Vajpayee was made to nearly every household with a
telephone or internet connection, but down to the present day there are much
fewer than 50 million land and cell phones in a country of over one billion.
But however much this election points to the immense disconnect between India's
elites and consuming classes on the one hand, and its poor and working classes
on the other hand, its significance is even wider.  The academic specialists,
veteran journalists, political commentators, and psephologists who were nearly
unanimous in projecting a victory for the BJP must perforce also recognize that
their conception of leaders and followers is wholly inadequate.  The electoral
results not only vindicate the masses, but are an extraordinary instantiation
of practice trumping theory.  The masses have led the country, and commentators
and politicians will now have to scramble to understand the power of genuine
democratic forces.

There is, in these elections, an object lesson for others besides the BJP, Hindu
nationalists, and those who dwell in the urban areas of India.  The United
States, which has been peddling itself ad nauseam to the world as a bastion of
democracy even while its two parties have become indistinguishable and an
oligarchic mob presides in the White House, might learn something about both
the power of the poor and the working class and the plurality of political
positions. Nearly 40 parties will be represented in the new Lok Sabha.  While
the trend towards regional parties has become even more pronounced, the
communists have done very well for themselves.  Though Indian leftists have
been staunchly committed to secularism and have every reason to feel satisfied
by the outcome of their principled opposition to religious extremism, their
worldview cannot be reconciled so easily with the worldview of India's rural
masses.  A strong predisposition towards technology, the regime of science, and
the ideology of development have long characterized the Indian left, and the
dream that India should become a proper and modern nation-state is one that the
Indian left shares with the Hindu right.  It is, however, the non-modern sector
of the population -- the much-derided and allegedly backward people of what is
jeeringly called the "cow belt" or "saffron belt" of north India -- which dealt
Hindu nationalists and technocrats a decisive defeat in this election.  The
people of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh derive their values not from the
Enlightenment, or from the world of modern science, but from what might be
described as "customs in common" shared between adherents of different
languages, religions, castes, and the like.

An anecdote from the life of Mohandas Gandhi furnishes the perfect template for
gauging the profound significance of this election's outcome.  Sometime in
1927, Gandhi was visited by a clergyman by the name of Reverend Mott.  In the
course of the conversation, the Reverend remarked, "There must be many ups and
downs in your work; events of hope and disappointment.  In such circumstances,
what gives you the most comfort?  Gandhi replied, "The fact that the Indian
masses, despite the grave provocation, do not abandon non-violence."  And what
is it, Mott asked, "that worries you the most and makes you restless all day
and night?"  Gandhi paused, and then said:  "The hard-heartedness of the
educated is a matter of constant concern and sorrow to me."   Had the Cyber
Czar of Andhra Pradesh taken note, he might have not have to puzzle over the
crushing defeat of his party.  It is often remarked that India is a country of
extremes:  nearly 50% of the country remains illiterate, and yet its hundreds
of thousands of scientists, engineers, and computer specialists are winning it
accolades in India and abroad when they are not pretending to be Sam rather
than Satwinder and Matt rather than Mahesh.  On the UN Human Development Index,
India still ranks nearly towards the bottom.  But what this election has done
is to make palpably evident that we can no longer be unthinkingly invested in
categories such as "education" and "literacy".  Education has done evidently
little to make American politics a hospitable space for humane and thinking
people, and we have to be thankful to the illiterates of India for expelling
those who rested their hopes on transforming all our realities into "virtual"
and "Hindu" realities from the seats of power.  The world, and the Congress
party whose fractious, opportunist, and nakedly self-aggrandizing politics
allowed the BJP to flourish, should take heed.  This is India's moment.


______


[3]


DEFEAT OF NDA, VICTORY OF SECULARISM

by Asghar Ali Engineer

(Secular Perspective May 16-31, 2004)

Crushing defeat of NDA led by the BJP in the recent general elections is
certainly victory of secular forces. The BJP-led NDA had won in 1999 not so
much as for its ability to deliver and provide better governance but because
the BJP understood the significance of coalition politics and the Congress did
not. When the Congress realised the importance of coalition it entered into
electoral arrangement with different secular parties in different regions and
inflicted crushing defeat on NDA. The NDA defeat was so massive that its
leaders were totally stunned by it.

One can say that this was liberation of the country from communal forces who had
bared their fascist fangs in Gujarat in 2002. It would be wrong to say that
only Narendra Modi was guilty of the Gujarat carnage of 2002; the BJP-led NDA
at the Centre was equally responsible for it. Despite hue and cry from all over
the country the central leadership of the BJP and NDA not only kept quiet but
extended full support to Narendra Modi in his fascist-like pogrom of Muslims in
Gujarat. Mr. Fernandese even said in Parliament debate on women being raped and
their wombs split that there is nothing new in this and that it has happened in
this country for years.

The TDP leaders may not have lent active support like Mr. Fernandese but kept
silent and never insisted on removal of Narendra Modi. Mr. Chandrababu Naidu
allegedly settled for few hundred crores for his state and continued to support
the NDA Government despite blood bath in Gujarat. His conscience was also not
shaken. He also paid heavily and was swept out of power in Andhra Pradesh as
Muslims refused to vote for him. Though this was not the only reason, it was
one of the important factors for his being voted out.

The BJP leaders of course less said the better. They supported Narendra Modi to
the hilt. When the BJP won Gujarat elections after the carnage with two-third
majority all BJP leaders not only praised Narendra Modi but maintained that we
would repeat the Gujarat model throughout the country i.e. that we would like
to win elections in other states by organising blood bath of innocent members
of minorities. What a shame? These were public statements made in full glare of
T.V. cameras. Even Mr. Vajpayee when asked whether BJP would repeat the Gujarat
Model averred "Will you repeat Godhra?" rather than firmly discounting such
possibility. "Can then Mr.Vajpayee be described as statesman?" Will a statesman
ever lend moral and political support to such carnage? He would rather resign
than lead such a party which thrives on blood bath of innocents.

There is no doubt that BJP is a Hindu nationalist party and is firmly aligned to
the RSS ideology. Mr. Vajpayee himself said at Straiten Island in USA among his
VHP supporters that he has RSS soul. Who does not know that in 1978 also the
Bharatiya Jan Sangh preferred to resign from the Janata Party rather than
severe its relations with the RSS when Raj Narain, Madhu Limaye and George
Fernandese raised dual membership controversy. Thus its loyalty to the RSS is
unquestionable and its commitment to what Vajpayee used to call 'coalition
dharma' was very superficial. It is nothing but a political arm of RSS.

One must not forget that in these five years it never tired of implementing the
RSS agenda. In this respect its so-called 'coalition dharma' never came in its
way. And its coalition partners who styled themselves as secular also became
party in implementing this RSS agenda. The whole education system was
communalised. That is the first priority of all communal and fascist forces to
control education. Mr. Murli Manohar Joshi was a hard core RSS man and he was
put at the helm of Human Resources Ministry. He successfully implemented RSS
agenda by communalising our education system. The RSS schools teach textbooks
openly preaching hatred against minorities, especially in Sishu Vihars.
Thousands of students study in these schools.

The premier social and historical research organisations like the Indian Social
Science Research Organisation and Indian Historical Research Organisation were
handed over to hardcore RSS and VHP persons. All this will have to be wrested
back from their control. It was a systematic conspiracy. Similarly key
personnel were appointed from RSS supporters in premier educational research
body like the NCERT which prepares text books which form the minds of lakhs of
students every year. Mr. Joshi got these textbooks changed in keeping with his
RSS commitment. Many eminent historians protested but to no avail. The damage
was done and Mr.Joshi was to prepared to undo his RSS agenda. It was to
implement this agenda that he was given this ministry.

Now the new coalition government led by the Congress and supported by the left
(or may be the Left also joins the Government) will take over and it should be
its top priority to undo the damage done to the education system. As pointed
out before education system plays very crucial role in shaping the minds of its
future citizens particularly in a multi-religious, multilingual and
multi-cultural country like India who, of necessity, should have a secular
polity to build a integrated healthy nation. The RSS tried to lay the
foundation of Hindu Rashtra dividing and polarising the country on religious
lines.

The Secular coalition will have to give top priority to this agenda of secular
education and an education system, which would inculcate equal respect for all
religions and eliminate the traces of hatred from our text -books. The earlier
Congress Governments also never sowed firm commitment to promote secular
education. The history text books in particular, have never been seriously
overhauled. It was because of this that it became very easy for the BJP to
consolidate its position on issue like Babri Masjid-Ramjanambhoomi controversy.
Those who had read these text-books during fifties and sixties grew up to be
full citizens of this country and uncritically swallowed the Sangh Parivar
propaganda about Ramjanambhoomi and captured power easily.

The secularity of the country is most essential ideological asset of our nation.
The Sangh Parivar has seriously damaged it already and all Efforts should be
made to restore its secular character. The Human Resource ministry should be
headed by someone strongly committed to secularism and his/her priority should
be to restore secular character of our education and necessary changes in
history text-books. Nothing can be of greater importance than this. Also, ICSSR
and ICHR should be liberated from the clutches of communal forces. These are
premiere social and historical research organisations.

It should also be remembered that the BJP would like to revert to its original
communal agenda. In order to win secular and minority votes it was trying to
project itself as non-communal organisation. In the last days of campaigning
the BJP also tried to convince the Muslims that it is not against them and Mr.
Vajpayee even promised Muslims in Kishanganj, Bihar that if elected to power
again NDA Government would like to appoint 2 crore (perhaps it was slip of
tongue and meant two lakhs) Urdu teachers. But Muslims refused to be persuaded
as how could they forget Gujarat after all and vote for a party that idolised
Narendra Modi as Hindutva hero.

The Muslims voted very cleverly to defeat BJP candidates all over India and
particularly in U.P. where BJP had maximum stake. Therefore, there is every
chance that the BJP might go back to its communal agenda to win back a section
of upper caste Hindu votes and since it is already being reprimanded by its
ideological masters like the RSS and VHP that it lost because it diluted the
Hindutva agenda. Thus the new secular government will have to be very cautious
in its approach towards communal problem.

The Home Ministry also has been stuffed with those closed to the RSS ideology in
various positions. Mr. Advani too is known to be RSS man and it is not
imaginable that he would defy it in placing people in key positions. Also,
there is great need to strengthen the intelligence machinery. Intelligence
failure is very common phenomenon in any major communal violence. Also,
communalisation of police particularly during last twenty five years of
communal hype by the Sangh Parivar, is something to be taken very seriously. I
have conducted more than 150 police workshops and have seen raw prejudices
among the police personnel. It is highly necessary to have re-orientation
courses for the police.

These things should not be taken lightly. All our developmental efforts will
succeed only if there is peace and harmony in the country. And for this the
secular government should do everything possible to restore secular values and
confidence of the minorities. It would also raise the status of India in the
comity of nations. Gujarat has considerably damaged it. Muslims and Christians
have greatly suffered under the BJP-led NDA rule.

The Congress should also reflect seriously on its past mistakes. It often
allowed free play to communal forces. Now it should not repeat those mistakes.
Since the Left will be supporting or joining the government it is hoped that it
would continue to put pressure on the Congress to contain communal forces with
great determination. It is not easy to cleanse the whole system but it is
highly necessary to restore sanity and integrity.

The minorities should also have full faith in the Indian democratic system. It
was free and fair elections, which could bring about complete change in the
situation. Many Muslims had despaired that no change is possible. Some even
joined BJP out of this desperation. All of them have been belied.  Indian
democracy has great resilience. Long live Indian democracy. And the masses also
defy all caste and communal barriers on such crucial junctions and vote to
restore social and national health.

[Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
Website:- www.csss-isla.com  ]


_____

[4]

>From Milli Gazete

National versus Foreigner debate Is Sonia Gandhi Eligible to become the Prime
Minister?

By Ram Puniyani

As the election campaign is drawing to its close (April-May 2004) the issue of
Sonia Gandhi being suitable or not for Prime Minsitership due to her being a
foreigner are coming to fore once again. Here one is not talking of her
suitability for holding the top position in Indian administration but is
restricting to the point whether Indian Citizens, whose place of birth does not
happen to be in India are eligible for such a post or not? Needless to say this
issue is being raked up since Sonia Gandhi first joined the Congress and has
been contender for the top job in the country. Needless to say this also
reflects the bankruptcy of the electoral campaign in a country, which is
riddled with infinite problems for the poor masses irrespective of its being
shining for a miniscule section of the society. It also hides the fact that
those raising it can twist the logic the other way around when it suits their
own electoral needs.

The latest argument being put forward is that giving the sensitive posts to such
people may be a security risk. In between the same argument has been extended
to other posts apart from the one of Prime minister. In between the argument
was also put forward that the children of such citizens also are not eligible
for the top jobs.

For those raising this issue, it is not much of their concern as to what does
constitution says on this. It is not of much concern here that people have
accepted whole-heartedly, such people through the electoral system. Lately,
Amma (Jayalalitha) has come forward to ask that is there not a single Indian
capable for such a post, that we have to look at a foreigner to lead the
country? It must be pointed out that two words are used interchangeably here,
the word foreigner and the word person of foreign origin. Talking of Sonia
Gandhi, she has been the main target of such snipes. Initially it was also said
that the work of conversion being carried on is also drawing support from her.
Her connections with Italy are ridiculed by posing the alternative between Ram
Rajya and Rome Rajya.

The mudslinging has no end and bucket full of muck can be located on this issue.
How does a country decide this point in a globalising world? One recalls that
there is a great joy and celebration whenever we hear about the person of
Indian origin holding top jobs in other countries. There are small countries
where the people of Indian origin are and have been holding the top job. Bobby
Jindal's surge for the medium level job was a matter of three or four cheers in
Indian media and psyche.

While talking about the people who were born in other parts of the world but
adopted this country for their major commitment one recalls the likes of
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Annie Beasant and Mother Teresa to be the shining
examples in this category. Even the worst of communalist would not have
objected to Maulana Azad holding the post of Indian National Congress or than
becoming the education minister just because he was not born in this part of
the land. Where does one draw the cut off date? A person of Indian origin in
the proper sense of the word is the current dictator of Pakistan, and had been
the most hated name just prior to the cricket series. A person of Pakistani
origin happens to hold the post of Deputy Prime minister in India currently.
Today there are some countries where their constitution says that only person
who has been born in that country can be Prime minister or President. There are
also countries where such a norm does not prevail.

Our constitution does not hold any prescription about he place of birth of the
citizen. Citizenship is the criterion for holding the top posts. To begin with
those saying that being born in this land is a must, are saying something,
which violates the Indian constitution. Any way the people of Sangh combine,
who began it all, have no respect for this constitution, as this constitution
has emerged from the freedom struggle, due to India becoming a modern nation
state through the anti British struggle, with which they had nothing whatsoever
to do. They are itching with all their might to do away with this and are
waiting in the wings to do so.

None other than RSS supreomo K.Sudarshan went on to say the same. Other
politicos, like Sharad Pawar and Amma, those who have picked up the cue
initially thrown in the circuit by RSS progeny, are doing so in a purely
opportunistic way. Sharad Pawar who broke away from the Congress on this ground
did come back to ally with the same party for electoral reasons. Amma and
others again are playing the role of holier than thou, lacking other political
issues they are trying to make an issue out of it. It can whip up emotions in
section of society, that's for sure. This politics like the one of Ram temple
movement is a sort of one based on emotional pitch. Is being a citizen not good
enough for holding any post of the people find you fit enough for that? The
transnational movement of people across the countries is on the rise. Many of
those who are of Indian origin are active in the politics in other countries.
Sonia Gandhi or no Sonia Gandhi the guidelines should be derived from the
constitution. We have multitude of examples of Islamic countries, where
fundamentalism prevails, where the concept of citizenship is modulated
according to the whims of the ruling coterie. Taliban in Afhganistan during
their brief tenure did dictate about how people of different religions should
wear and behave. In our own country books of Golwalkar and Savarkar have given
the guidelines about the status and ranking of citizenship according to their
religion. Savarkar defines the citizen on the ground of one's Holy land and
Father land. Golwalkar calls Christians and Muslims as Foreign races. If we
keep going back in time the results will be disastrous. Mahatma Jotiba Phule
calls the Arya Bhats as the invaders, and thereby foreigners. In Shrilanka, the
dominant Buddhists called themselves as the first comers and so having a bigger
ownership of the country. Golwalkar also says that the county is in possession
of the Hindu race, and the Muslims and Christians, who as they are foreigners,
should have no citizenship rights. When this was being written large section of
Muslims and Christians were participating in the process of building of India
as a nation state through the struggle for freedom, along with the Hindus and
people of all the religions of the country. Where will the logic of all this
takes us is any body's guess. The politics should operate within the
constitutional limits, it should be purged of the emotive content so that the
real issues of the people are to the fore and there by headway can be made for
a more egalitarian society, a society where the concept of human rights is the
final arbiter of social and political norms.


_____


[5]

The Telegraph [India]
May 18, 2004

NO FULLSTOPS TO BLUNDER -
History is inviting the left to share the responsibility of ruling India
by Rudrangshu Mukherjee

[History] Gives too late
What’s not believed in, or if still
believed,
In memory only, reconsidered passion.
— T.S.Eliot, “Gerontion”

Once upon a time, a man called P.C. Joshi had a dream. Joshi, now a forgotten
name except among a handful of aging admirers, was for a long time the general
secretary of the Communist Party of India. In 1948, he was hounded out of his
own party and worked out of a hideout in Kyd Street in Calcutta. He was driven
out because that year the CPI decided that independence was a betrayal,
Jawaharlal Nehru no more than “a running dog of imperialism’’ and India ripe
for an armed insurrection. The directive, as was usual, came from Moscow and
was ruthlessly implemented in India by B.T. Randive, the new general secretary.
Joshi was not only thrown out but was pilloried and slandered, even by young
comrades he himself had brought into the party. He was later to be
rehabilitated in the CPI but never quite recovered his authority and influence.
Joshi’s dream was that the communists and the Congress working together would be
able to build a just and fair society and polity in India. The communists
should be part of the national mainstream; otherwise they ran the danger of
being marginalized and of being cut off from their national roots. The Joshi
line, as it came to be called within party circles, advanced the thesis that
Nehru should be supported but pressure should be mounted to make reforms in
government and in society. The communists were in a position to mount such
pressure by joining hands with the “progressive’’ elements within the Congress
and thus strengthening Nehru’s hands. Joshi advocated a national front at the
core of which would be Congress-communist unity. He was fond of saying that the
communists should be the mahout of the Congress elephant.
One suspects that Joshi, if there is a paradise for communists, is having a good
laugh there today. The wheel of history, with an irony that is Clio’s second
name, has turned full circle.
It could be said that what Joshi dreamt is finally coming true in a different
time and political context. The left, an umbrella that brings under it
communists and non-communists, has sufficient numbers in the Lok Sabha to make
possible a Congress-led ministry. The left’s support to the Congress is
critical for the Congress to stake claim to government formation. Within or
without the government, the left is the Congress’s most significant supporter.
The spearhead of the left is the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a
formation within the communist movement in India which had always steadfastly
opposed the Joshi line. That is the nub of the irony.
It is important to underline the domestic and the global context of the Joshi
line. It was based, of course, on a particular assessment of the national
movement and of the ideological orientation of Nehru. More than that, it was
moulded by a degree of optimism and hope about the future. The Congress and
politics in general were yet to be completely tainted by greed and scandal.
There were people in politics with unimpeachable credentials, and communists
were the first to be counted in this list. Globally, the Soviet Union was on
the ascendant, as was the ideology of socialism. Stalin’s crimes against
humanity were yet to be widely known and the Soviet record against Nazism had
deflected attention away from the false trials and purges of the Thirties. Even
outside the communist movement, there were people around who still believed in
socialism and the planned economy. Jawaharlal Nehru was one, and the most
relevant one for Joshi and his supporters.
In short, the context was fundamentally different from what prevails now.
Globally, socialism is no more than a vanished dream. The socialist experiment
in Russia stands at the dock of history for having perpetrated horrors that
parallel Nazi atrocities. Only a 21st century Don Quixote believes in the
planned economy, and charges at the market economy. Within India, the Congress
is no longer the force it was under Nehru. Cynicism, rather than hope, is the
prevailing mood. Politics and politicians, including those of the left, no
longer command respect.
Today, the left has sufficient numbers in the Lok Sabha to make a difference.
This is a luxury that communists in Joshi’s time did not enjoy. But communist
rhetoric today is caught in a time warp. It is concerned with issues like
stalling the reform process, which is to hark back to the Fifties when a
planned economy was considered a viable alternative. There are elements of the
absurd and the hypocritical in this because in West Bengal, where the
communists have been in power for over 25 years, the chief minister is busy
wooing foreign business corporations to invest in the state. It is an odd
situation that when the left had the inclination it did not have the numbers.
Now it has the numbers but lacks the inclination to join the government and
play a critical role in national life. It is reluctant to assume the
responsibility that history has offered to it.
Whether the CPI(M) politburo and central committee realize it or not, the left
has a role to play now in Indian politics. The most important item on the
political agenda is very clear. The sangh parivar must be kept away permanently
from political power and its cultural influence must be eroded. The opportunity
to do this has been offered on a platter by the Indian electorate and it cannot
be frittered away through petty bickering and bargaining. Both the Congress and
the communists need each other because they are the only two political
formations that are committed to a secular agenda. To argue now about what will
happen in assembly elections in Kerala and West Bengal where the left and the
Congress are pitted against each other will be akin to seeing the trees and
missing the wood. The challenge before the left is to use the economic reforms
and globalization to remove poverty and deprivation. This is the mandate of the
common people for the left. The left will betray the mandate if it continues to
shirk responsibility.
The CPI(M) has an antipathy towards the Congress. Indeed, that antipathy is its
birthmark. There were other aspects of its making that it has successfully
sloughed off, especially after its experience in West Bengal. It has become
investor-friendly and pro-capital in the state. It needs now to look at the
bigger national picture and abandon its anti-Congressism. It has already taken
a step in that direction by deciding that it will support a Congress
government. It needs also to partake of the responsibility of leading the
country, which it refuses to do. If it does not do so at this important
political juncture, when will it ever do so? It cannot keep to itself the
privilege of saying no and withdrawing support without having shared the
responsibility that comes with power.
PCJ — as Joshi was fondly known — believed that the undivided CPI could command
into its fold the best and the brightest. He thus “lit up the lives’’ of some,
as one of his acolytes once wrote, dedicating a book to him. Of no communist
leader today can this be said. This is not a statement on an individual but a
sad comment on a movement that has lost its moral authority. Its stands
perilously close today to losing its political influence as well. Maybe Joshi
is not laughing in

_____


[6]

(South Asia Citizens Wire, 18 May 2004)

Salute to the Unknown voter in the villages
By V.B.Rawat

As Sonia Gandhi takes over the prime minister of India, the stock market in
Mumbai continue to plunge and show the signs of uncertainty. It reflects the
growing influence of the corporate world in our political life and that it is
disturbed of a mandate which is necessarily against the new economic policies
of globalisation without a human face. In this way, the people’s power not only
defeated National Democratic Alliance but also the powerful corporate backed
media which never raised the issue of people’s discontent with the current
dispensation and most importantly which tried to hijack the people’s issues by
injecting their own issues on their platform, through their vicious campaign,
opinion and exit polls. It is irony that the powerful lobbies are still unable
to accept the people’s verdict gracefully.

The second shameful episode has just begun with the rightwing elements in the
Sangh Parivar raising the bogey of ‘ foreign born’ being prime minister of the
country. Sushma Swaraj, former Information and Broadcasting Minister and an
articulate middle class leader has threatened to resign from the parliament,
tonsure her head and become a ‘sanyasin’, if Sonia becomes the prime minister.
An upper caste Brahmin Sushma was imposed on Delhi by the BJP High command but
she was rejected mercilessly by the Delhi voters. The party has not yet
recovered in Delhi and continue to be bite dust. Sushma’s over enthusiasm to
take on Sonia was rejected in Bellary where she went to the public against
Sonia Gandhi. Question here is not about who is better but the Sushma is not a
mass leader and talk of the upper class brahmanical values which RSS has always
portrayed as ideal woman hood. For years the women movement in India has been
trying hard for women to get out of the clutches of the patriarchy while Sushma
and her kind reimposes the same values where women worship for their ‘
husbands’, keep karwachuth fast for the long life of their husband, keep
Sankatchauth fast, for the long life of their sons, put full size Sindoor over
their head again for the long life of their husbands and die along with their
husband when he die as Vijaya Raje Scindia, mother of the present chief
minister of Rajasthan wanted, when she supported Sati in Deorala. None of these
‘ideal’ women have ever spoken against violence on women, against dowry system
and continuous assault on women in India. It is irony that the Indian political
establishment impose people of one community over others and then talk about
natural citizen of India. In Tamilnadu most of the nationalist nationalists
came from non Tamil background. MGR belonged to Kerala, Rajnikanth to karnatka
and current Amma from Andhra Pradesh. It is more ironical that Jayalalitha
talking about inborn citizen while leading a Dravidian movement. One can say
that there is no need for a Brahmin to be in the Dravidian movement. And here
come the issue of women’s reservation. All upper caste women’s were opposed to
give separate quota to Dalit, backwards and minority women saying that women
have no caste. Sushma Swaraj herself said it so many time that women are women
and have similar problems. Now Parliament must give representation to women
from different caste groups as upper caste women and particularly the Brahmins
cannot represent the vast majority of Dalits, Adivasi and other womens. They
must represent their communities and reject the brahmanical values being thrust
upon them by the Nagpur born RSS and its stooges who have no interest in India.

 The thing is that these are internal power problems of the BJP which has still
not come out of the shock of the defeat which is the biggest upset in the
history of independent India and definitely pleasant looking for all those who
wanted the communal government get out of the power. That the second rung
leadership in the BJP is not ready and hence politicians are positioning
themselves to take over the leadership from Vajpayee who is over 80. His deputy
Lal Krishna Advani is already 77 and hence younger generation leaders though
most of them are in their sixties are coming up with ridiculous issues which
got defeated in these elections and hence the issue of Sonia’s foreign origin
will be there for a few days and perhaps before the next assembly elections.
And as she become powerful along with her allies and if she gives good
governance these issues will die their own death since people of India have
given their verdict very clearly.

Therefore the surprise return of the Congress Party to power in the South Block
has many lessons for political parties as well as politicians. That the voters
have become wiser as well as too demanding has been reflected in these
elections. Prime Minister Vajpayee had never thought that he would lose these
elections so miserably. But there lies the dangers of depending too much on the
‘electronic channels’, journalists as well as so-called pollsters. There
elections have proved a nightmare for the poll pundits who are bereft of Indian
realities as well as sensitivities. The entire focus of the BJP and its NDA
partners was on ‘India shining’. Even in his public meetings the prime minister
talked of friendship with Pakistan when he spoke to audiences at the Muslim
localities. The problem with the NDA and BJP was that they speak in multi
voices to confuse the voters. The Sangh Parivar in India is an expert in such
double speaks on various issues but voters in India have understood the game
plan.

There are various interpretation of the current verdict. Journalists have become
party hoppers and political elements and hence they failed to report the event
in an unbiased manner. It was not the people but the mediamen, who were
thoroughly impressed by Vajpayee and his NDA government. I traveled over 10
states before we went to polls and found everywhere the disenchantment of the
people towards the government and yet whenever there was a poll survey were
given a fresh doze of ‘ how popular is Atal Bihari Vajpayee’ and that these are
presidential kind of elections. These half read journalists don’t even
understand as what is important in the parliamentary democracy as individuals
are not that important but institutions.

Vajpayee talked about great investment that we were having, our NRIs, teli
revolution as well as his ambitious ‘National Highway Project’. He failed to
address the common concern of the people. In fact, the entire Sangh Parivar is
expert on raising the issues of emotions rather than working for the uplift of
the people. A number of Member of Parliaments of the BJP in the last Lok Sabha
were elected on the rhetoric of Ram Temple but you cannot fool people all the
time. The BJP again focused on the issue of the foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi
as well as promised to build a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. And look what happened in
Ayodhya parliamentary constituency, they were trounced in these elections.
Interestingly, it got defeated in other two constituencies of Varanasi and
Mathura which are high on its agenda. The mascot of Hindutva in Uttar-Pradesh
Mr Vinay Katiyar, who was member of parliament from Faizabad ( Ayodhya)
constituency in earlier Lok Sabha shifted to another constituency and got
defeated.

The BJP’s top brass felt that people would vote to it in large number because of
the non availability of a viable alternative. It ignores the vital factor that
Indian elections have always thrown alternatives itself. In 1989, VP Singh
cobbled together an alternative even when  Rajiv Gandhi was the most popular
person in the country. Before him in 1975, Moraraji Desai and Janata party came
to power and defeated Indira Gandhi. Vajpayee had been witnessed to these
events and yet became pawn in the hands of his ‘electronic’ kids who exposed
his face to the people. Those of us who have seen the mis use of government
channels during Indira and Rajiv’s regime found the poll managers of the BJP
and NDA worst than the earlier governments. Journalists were co-opted in the
Sangh ideology and each day we would found the loudmouth of the BJP appearing
on the TV and trying to demolish others by pretending ‘ very different’ people.
As if all others are corrupt and dishonest except for the NDA, a government
which did monumental mistakes on every front be it Kargil or break up with
Pakistan and then take a U turn of coming back to negotiations.

NDA’s focus was on the urban population while it went to rural people on emotive
issues of Ayodhya etc. It might have attracted the media and those paid
journalists who rather then reporting the reality failed to judge the anger of
the masses. Many of these ‘paid’ journalists are now interpreting the verdict
as not in favor of Sonia and never against NDA. Vajapyee depended on these ‘pen
prostitutes’ heavily and lost because they had lost touch with the reality.
They were smuggled to Sangh ideology to justify their position and target all
others who disagree with them.

Media can expose the double speak of the party but it did not do so. It did not
ask questions to NDA as how come BJP allow Narendra Modi to campaign for it
when it want a good relations with the Muslim community. The party failed to
take any action against the Gujarat Chief ministers despite severe strictures
passed against him by the Supreme Court and various other institutions. Former
infamous chief minister of Uttar-Pradesh Kalyan Singh was brought in to the
party who dissociated with Vajpayee some years back. But the Ram Mandir card
has refused to enthuse the voters. It would be better for Kalyan Singh to work
for Bulandshar and rather than trying to become a ‘national’ leader because for
that he need a modern perspective and not an idiotic sloganeering of the Ram
Temple movement. It has been rejected every where.

It will be blasphemous to consider people fool but that is what our political
leaders consider. NDA government did not work for the rural poor. In fact, this
government was seen as a government of the rich and for the rich who talks of
Sensex in Mumbai Stock exchange. Its ministers comes on the vote of rural
population and yet never dare to visit their constituencies. The policy of
disinvestments might go down well with the big industrial houses and their
cronies, as Sonia Gandhi says, but the common man was deeply dissatisfied with
the performance of the government, which work more on propaganda then actual
work at the ground. The entire India shining campaign was meant for the urban
voters and yet in all the four major metropolitan cities Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata
and Chennai, the BJP and its allies lost miserably.

And despite a clear verdict against the party ( it is so because its poll
managers were saying all the time that they would get over 300 seats while it
got 187), the party is still not ready to accept it gracefully. The first
reaction of the party was that they could not believe as why people punished a
government which ‘worked’. I think the party must visit those areas where
people died of hunger, killed in the communal riots as well as farmers
committed suicide because of the failures of their crops.

Even, when the Congress Party was busy cobbling together the coalition, the BJP
and its allies are overworking on the issue of Sonia’s foreign origin. While
the issue has been rejected by the voters on many occasion, the thick skinned
Indian politicians refuses to understand the writing on the walls. Perhaps they
feel that by speaking a lie for many more time they can make it true.

Luckily, for the Congress, the left parties have the biggest block of 64 MPs.
The Congress alliance has 219 which makes them 283, apart from other parties
who have agreed to support congress in their bid to oust the BJP from the
power. The government supported by the left parties would be stable but will
have ideological problems and that could only be sorted out with a common
minimum programme. Definitely, the new government cannot ignore the vast
aspiration of the rural people. Unlike the NDA where its allies from the rural
India kept them busy with power and lost touch with the rural ground in their
hope that a media hype will bring them back, it is important for the new United
Progressive Alliance ( UPA) under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi to march ahead
with a humane face. Nobody is opposed to reforms but that must have a say for
the poor. If the voices of marginalized remain unattended, India may very well
become Argentina or Brazil which paved way for the left leaning governments.
The second important challenge for the new government is to immediately sack
all those saffronised cronies which head the Ministry for  Human Resource
Development and changed the school text books. Under Murali Manohar Joshi, the
education curriculum was changed to suit the ideological perspectives of the
Sangh Parivar and it is now important that our education set up look more
progressive and pluralistic in nature.

For Sonia Gandhi, it is important to get rid of the upper caste coterie around
her and work more for the poor as they have reposed their faith in her. This
mandate is clearly against the policy pursued by the NDA and their agenda of
hatred and hence rather than dilly-dallying on the issue of minority bashing
and Ayodhya Congress need to come out strongly. It must realize that Sangh
became popular because of the faults of the Congress Party and therefore
government must be seen acting. A government which is free from corruption and
cronies will take India to 21st century. If the government falls in between,
Sonia will give a walkover to those, which India has defeated so decisively.
Hence for the cause of the country this government must work and must stay in
power.


Democracy is a great leveler and perhaps here is an example for all the
counterparts in the subcontinent that despite shortcomings, democracy empowers
people. The fifty years of Indian democracy has empowered the Indian voters in
such a way that it comes out with a vengeance against the rulers who have
maltreated him and consider him a fool. The biggest lessons of these elections
are for every one that as a democratic nation, India has matured because it is
the poor in which our faith lies the most, for he has voted against hatred and
s(he) want solution to his basic problems of Bijli-Sadak-Pani and not just big
talks of making India a ‘mahashakti’ or saving us from ‘foreign born’, for
every one us know that in the last six years, it is the Swadeshi champion of
the BJP which invited the foreign companies to India, opened up every sector
including strategic ones for the multi national corporations and that Sushma
Swaraj and her ilk’s kept quite. Unfortunately for them, their targeted people,
the urban voters have equally rejected their rhetoric’s and send them back to
the opposition benches to raise the issue of public importance and not fan
their emotion. If they fail to realize this again, time will never forgive
them. For BJP to become a political party, it is necessary to debunk the Sangh
Parivar and work on the issues of the common man in the street and wage a
political battle without inciting religious hatred and communal passion.


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