Editorial
The
Changing Face of Indian Politics
July witnessed
what could turn out to be a fundamental shift in Indian politics. The
Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh faced a non-confidence vote after four
leftist parties (Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist),
Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party) withdrew from the coalition
government. The immediate reason for the withdrawal was Singh’s insistence on
pushing through the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal which would give India access to
U.S. nuclear technology in return for India’s agreement to oversight by the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The left bloc
objected to the deal on the basis that it would tie India hand and foot to the
global agenda of U.S. imperialism. However, these parties have also come under
intense pressure from their constituents over the increasingly blatant embrace
by the UPA government of neo-liberal policies. These policies have seen the
Indian working class and poor not only shut out of the fruits of India’s
current economic boom, but under increasing attack, including current attempts
to privatize workers’ pension funds. The left bloc forged an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the
main party of the dalit (“untouchable”) caste. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the
main opposition party also promised to vote against the government, although
the nuclear deal was initiated under a BJP government.
In the end, the
Singh government survived the July 21 and 22 non-confidence vote, but only
through the open bribing of opposition MPs, who were paid US$6.5 million each
for their votes. While the Congress
Party managed to hang onto power in the short term, its blatant display of
corruption and contempt for parliament has seriously undermined public
confidence in the institution. This, in the longer term, weakens the mainstream
parliamentary parties – the Congress and BJP – while strengthening the
communist-socialist bloc and their BSP allies. If the various communist parties
can put aside their differences and build a broad movement against imperialism
and neo-liberalism, the political situation in India could undergo a
fundamental transformation over the coming months and years.
Recent events,
not only in India, but also in Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and elsewhere, indicate
that the people of the Indian subcontinent are in a mood for change. The Indian communist and revolutionary
movement, the largest of its kind in the world, is ideally placed to lead the
Indian working class and people to achieve real change. However, while it is the largest communist
movement, it is also one of the most fragmented and, until recently, the two largest
communist parties – CPI and CPI(M) – supported the
Congress Party’s “middle way”, capitalism with a human face. With that “middle
way” now increasingly discredited, those parties now face intense internal and
external pressures to abandon their traditional stance of supporting the
Congress Party as the “left wing of the bourgeoisie” and adopt a program of
revolution and socialism instead.
V.I. Lenin wrote
that three great revolutions – Russia, China and India – would transform world
politics and ensure the future of socialism. The Russian and Chinese
revolutions did have a major impact on the twentieth century and the
degeneration of those revolutions had an equally negative impact on the
communist and revolutionary movement all over the world. If the Indian
communist movement can rise to the challenge and take advantage of the
opportunities now presenting themselves, it may well fulfill Lenin’s prediction
and put an end to the current period of retreat of revolution.