Call of the Republic

Secondly, the trajectory of economic reforms has left the country in a piquant situation. The outstanding debt of the government has mounted to over Rs 17 lakh crore this year, with an annual interest payment of nearly one and a half lakh crore. The living conditions of the vast majority of Indians, notwithstanding the ‘India Shining’ cacophony, has sharply deteriorated. The mortgaging of India and the heaping of burdens on people has been the final outcome of the policies of the Vajpayee government. That India is ‘shining’ only for a minority is more than corroborated by a wealth of official data. This is true for all sections, including corporate India, where only 10 per cent have registered phenomenal gains at the expense of the rest. Such a trajectory will surely reduce the Indian economy into one of the peripheral satellites of metropolitan capital.

Thirdly, India’s foreign policy has been reduced to being mainly Pakistan centric. In the process, currying favour of US imperialism has become its hallmark. From being a leader of the Third World in resisting the imperialist political, economic and military hegemonic drive, India seeks to replace Pakistan as a US surrogate in South Asia. Through a 14-part media exposure of the claims made by this government titled, ‘Lies, damned lies and statistics’, the CPI(M) has established the above conclusions. Due to constraints of space, these are not being repeated here.

These elements of the directional shift are, by no means, accidental. It is a part of the ongoing battle between three distinct visions that sought to define the character of the Indian Republic during the freedom struggle. The Congress vision sought to establish a secular democratic Republic. Pointing out the limitations of halting the transformation of India with these objectives alone, the Left vision argued for the transformation of the political independence into the economic independence of its people, ie, socialism. In complete contradistinction, emerged the third vision which argued for defining the character of the Republic on the basis of the religious affiliation of its people. This vision had a twin expression: the “Hindu Rashtra” and the Islamic republic. Savarkar predates Jinnah in advancing the two-nation theory. Jinnah’s vision divided the country, harmed the community that he led and, with the break up of Pakistan in 1971, completely exposed the falsity of the two-nation theory. Hindu communal fanaticism claimed the life of Mahatma Gandhi after Partition.

The battle between these visions continues. The rightward directional shift that we have seen in the last five years is the motion of this metamorphosis of the secular democratic republic into the RSS vision of a communal fascistic “Hindu Rashtra”. Unless halted, this process may well lead to the Saudi Arabianisation of India. Saudi Arabia is a religiously fundamentalist medieval monarchy, an anachronism in modern democracy. Yet, it is one of the firmest allies of US imperialism as long as it protects the imperialist interests — economic, military and geo-political. Given this, any amount of retrograde, anti-democratic content domestically will be tolerated, if not, patronised, by imperialism. India is in the danger of being converted into a modern Hindu variant of such a dispensation. It is this process that needs to be halted. Simply put, this means that the BJP-led NDA must be defeated.

A question often asked is whether an alternative dispensation can emerge, that is capable of halting this metamorphosis. The CPI(M) has consistently worked to ensure that the division in the secular opposition votes be reduced to the minimum. It is such a division that had often permitted the communal forces to assume office. In major states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Jharkhand, that account for 244 MPs, seat adjustments have been arrived at among the major forces. In another 64 seats in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, the communal forces have not been able to get a single MLA elected to a parliamentary constituency. Barring UP and a few smaller states — like Punjab, Haryana, J&K — in the rest of India the contest is mainly between the BJP and Congress. There is thus a strong possibility of an alternative secular government emerging in the post-election situation.

One is again asked as to who would be the leader of such an alternative? This is an issue that will be decided after the elections. In a democracy, the leader of a future government can only be decided once the people exercise their sovereign right by electing their MPs. Seeking to decide on the leader before the people decide whether to elect him/her is actually showing disrespect to the people’s right. Remember, even the mighty Indira Gandhi was defeated. Vajpayee has so far lost six Lok Sabha elections, forfeiting his deposit twice. There will be no dearth of competent leaders nor would there be any problems in forging an alternative secular arrangement in the post-election situation.

The need of the hour is to halt this dangerous metamorphosis of the Republic that is in motion. India, whose character is enshrined in our Constitution, today needs to be saved so that it is changed for the better in the future.

The writer is a politbureau member of the CPM and party spokesperson