Speech on the 43rd anniversary of the founding of the Communist Ghadar Party of India:
Let us advance the struggle for a modern democracy in which workers and peasants will set the agenda!

Comrades,

On behalf of the Central Committee, I have great pleasure in welcoming all of you to this celebration of the 43rd anniversary of our Party.

On every birth anniversary, we take stock of the situation facing the working class and people of the country.  We discuss how to advance the class struggle against the ruling bourgeois class.

The rulers of our country are painting a rosy picture of the future. They are calling it Amrit Kaal. They claim that by the year 2047, the centenary year of Indian independence, we would have become a highly developed country. They have entrusted Niti Aayog with the task of preparing a long-term growth strategy to achieve this goal, which is being promoted as “Viksit Bharat 2047”.

The entire propaganda about Viksit Bharat hides the reality that our society is divided into classes with opposing interests. On one side is the bourgeoisie, the class which owns the means of large-scale production and exchange. It is headed by monopoly capitalist groups. On the other side are the workers, peasants and other toiling and oppressed people.

The economic system is oriented towards maximizing the profits of the bourgeoisie, by intensifying the exploitation of the working class and robbery of the peasants and other small producers.  As the economy grows, the bourgeoisie grows richer, while workers and peasants remain poor, and many of them become even poorer than before.

Karl Marx pointed out that under the capitalist system, the accumulation of wealth at one pole is at the same time the accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality and mental degradation at the other pole. He called it the general law of capitalist accumulation. The rulers of our country are hiding the nature of the capitalist system when they claim that capitalist growth will deliver prosperity for all. They are hiding the fact that our society is divided into classes with opposing interests. They are hiding the fact that capitalist growth leads to wealth at one pole and poverty at the other pole.

Available data show that the wages of industrial workers, adjusted for the cost of living, have fallen over the past two decades. On the other hand, monopoly capitalists have been posting massive profits year after year in this same period. Many of them are now counted amongst the richest capitalists of the world.

In their greed for maximum profits, the capitalists have been demanding that various state-owned companies and public services be handed over to them. Successive governments headed by Congress Party and BJP have been fulfilling this demand. Under the banner of privatisation, disinvestment and public-private partnership, precious national assets and public services have been sold cheaply to private companies for reaping maximum profits. This program has covered numerous sectors including telecom, coal, electricity, railways, banking, insurance, education and health care.

Various anti-worker laws have been enacted in the name of ensuring “ease of doing business”.  The four labour codes enacted recently have been under preparation for a long time, both under Congress and BJP led governments. Capitalists will now self-certify whether they are following labour laws or not. Closure, retrenchment, layoffs have been made easier. Strikes by workers have been made extremely difficult. Carrying out work on contract basis, without any need to ensure social security for workers, is becoming the norm.

In order to attract foreign capitalists to invest in our country, the bourgeoisie is demanding the lengthening of the working day to 12 hours. They want to end all restrictions on women workers working in night shifts. State governments have begun implementing these demands.

The capitalists have initiated a debate on the idea that Indian workers must be prepared to work for 70 hours every week, in order to make India a high-income country over the next 25 years.

In other words, the bourgeoisie considers the intensification of the exploitation of workers as the key to accelerate capitalist growth and achieve their aim of so-called Viksit Bharat.

Successive governments have been taking various measures to bring agricultural trade completely under the domination of capitalist trading monopolies, leading to widespread ruination among the peasants. While the three farm laws enacted in 2020 were withdrawn following the prolonged struggle of the kisans, the agenda of agricultural trade liberalisation continues to be pursued in various other ways. The youth from crores of peasant families are seeking jobs in industry or services, seeing no future in agriculture.

The bourgeoisie has no solution to the problem of unemployment. As before, the construction sector remains the biggest employer, with men, women and children toiling for long hours for miserably low wages in the most dangerous conditions.

One section of college educated youth is being overworked and exploited to the bone in the growing IT industry. Many educated persons are forced into lowly paid jobs in the gig delivery sector.

The youth of our country are being asked to believe that India will become a “developed country” by achieving rapid capitalist growth over the next 25 years. The truth is that as long as the bourgeoisie rules India, the economic system will remain oriented towards generating maximum profits for a wealthy minority, through maximum possible intensity of exploitation of workers and robbery of peasants. A wealthy minority will keep growing richer, while the majority of working people will remain poor and become more and more miserable over time.

The vision of Viksit Bharat is the vision of the bourgeoisie, which cares only about its own narrow interest and not at all about the wellbeing of the working people.  The real aim is for more and more capitalists of our country to join the ranks of the richest people in the world, at the expense of the masses of working people. It is for India to join the club of most powerful imperialist states.

Comrades,

If we look back at recent developments, we can see the intensification of the main class contradiction in our society. We see this in the growing struggles of workers and peasants, who are demanding their right to livelihood and opposing privatisation and liberalisation.  We see it in the struggles of women against their oppression, demanding their rights as women and as human beings.  We see it in the protests of youth against the growing unemployment. We see it in the protests of all progressive forces against state terrorism and violation of democratic rights.

The ruling class keeps on inciting all kinds of sectarian divisions among the people, to divert them from the class struggle and break their unity. The periodic elections which are held at state and central levels are used by the bourgeoisie and its parties for this purpose.

In the campaign for the recent elections in five states, for instance, we saw how both BJP and Congress Party appealed to the caste and religious identity of the people. Their leaders resorted to the lowest level of lies and slanders against each other. They raked up divisive issues, diverting attention from the real issues such as unemployment and inflation.

The lying propaganda of the bourgeoisie and its parties does not end with the election campaign. Once the results are announced, various psephologists and so-called experts spread all kinds of spurious theories to explain why one party won and another lost. They create the impression that people voted along religious and caste lines, or that the results show the people’s faith in such and such a party or leader.  All such propaganda is aimed at hiding the truth that people do not decide the outcome of elections in the existing system.

It is the bourgeoisie, headed by the monopoly capitalists, who determine the outcome of elections. They do so by using their enormous money power, their control over the news and social media, and through various methods of rigging, including hacking of the Electronic Voting Machines.  The bourgeoisie uses the electoral process to entrust executive power to the party of their choice, while creating the false impression that the people have given that party the mandate.

The illusion that elections are an expression of the people’s will serves to legitimize bourgeois rule.  It serves to keep workers and peasants chained to the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. It is precisely for this reason that our Party has taken up the task of explaining who rules India and how they rule. Behind the party running the government is the bourgeois class, headed by the monopoly houses.  It is they who are setting the agenda.  They are the real rulers of the country.

The bourgeoisie, by its very nature, is split into competing factions and rival political parties. There are several bourgeois parties at the central and state levels in our country. While they engage in cutthroat competition with each other for occupying the seats of power, all these parties are committed to implement the agenda set by the bourgeoisie. When they are not in charge of the government, they pretend to be fighting for the interests of the exploited and oppressed people. However, when they get to form the government, they implement the agenda set by the bourgeoisie.

The methods and slogans used by one bourgeois party differs from those used by another bourgeois party.  But their agenda is the same. The experience of the past three decades has clearly exposed this truth.

Comrades,

The increasing concentration of economic power in fewer and fewer hands is accompanied by increasing concentration of political power and more and more blatant attacks on democratic rights.

As workers, peasants, women and youth have stepped up their struggle, successive governments have introduced one draconian law after another to justify unleashing brutal repression. These include the National Security Act, TADA, POTA and the amended UAPA.

People who protest the growing exploitation and injustice are routinely arrested. They are kept in jail for years on end, without even being tried and convicted of any crime. On the other hand, those who spread hatred and incite conflicts based on religion, caste or ethnicity are given full encouragement to carry on their activities.

Blatant attacks on democratic rights, state-organised communal violence, arbitrary arrests and other anti-social tendencies have been growing for the past several decades. It has been the trend under governments managed by different political parties.  It shows that the bourgeoisie is less and less able to rule in the old way.

Neither the problem of increasing economic hardship nor that of growing attacks on people’s rights is going to be solved if the BJP-led government at the center is replaced by a Congress-led government next year. The solution lies in changing the class in power.  The rule of the bourgeoisie must be replaced by the rule of the working class, in alliance with the peasants and other working people. We must fight for a qualitative change in the political system and electoral process.

Comrades,

In the existing parliamentary system, decision-making power is in the hands of the bourgeois class and its political representatives. The working class and toiling masses are completely marginalized from political power.

Elections within this system are a contest amongst two or more parties of the bourgeoisie to decide who can most effectively fool the toiling masses. The bourgeoisie finances these parties, spending thousands of crores of rupees on their election campaigns. The government that is formed after elections implements the agenda of the bourgeoisie class. Those capitalists who invested their monies in the victorious party get various favours in return for their investment, in the form of lucrative contracts and policies that increase their profits.

The political parties of the bourgeoisie select the candidates for election. Working people have no say in this. Those elected are not accountable to the electorate. The electorate cannot recall them, if they fail to fulfill their responsibility.

People have no say in the laws that are passed by parliament. They can neither propose laws, nor demand the annulment of laws that are against their interest.

In sum, the existing system of representative democracy legitimises the rule of the bourgeoisie. It is a system of bourgeois democracy, that is, democracy for the bourgeoisie. It is a brutal dictatorship over the workers, peasants and other toiling people.

This system has become completely outdated. It is not in tune with the desire and aspiration of the people in modern times, that they must have a say in the decisions about how society is governed. People want to have a role in setting the agenda.

The bourgeoisie is not capable of fulfilling the desire and aspiration of the people to become the decision-makers.  It is up to the proletariat to champion this cause. We communists must lead the struggle to establish a system in which decision-making power is in the hands of the people.

The Constitution of such a modern proletarian democracy would recognize the people as the ultimate decision makers.  It would not vest sovereignty in the Parliament or in the President.  It would vest sovereignty in the entire people.

The executive must be accountable to the legislature, and those elected must render periodic accounts to the electorate. The electorate must have the decisive say in selecting the list of candidates standing for elections in their constituency. They must have the right to recall the person they elected at any time, if his or her work is unsatisfactory. They must have the right to propose legislation, as well as to repeal any existing law.

The most important task we face is to make the activists and organisers of workers and peasants recognise that it is both necessary and possible to establish such a new system in which people govern themselves. This is not just a future prospect.  It is a problem to be taken up for solution.

We must mobilise the workers and peasants to demand and fight for such changes in the political system and electoral process that would serve to bring decision-making power into our hands.

The productive forces in our country have become so developed that it is entirely possible to fulfil the needs of the whole of society for nutritious food, education, health care, proper houses, affordable public transport, electricity supply and other basic needs. It is entirely possible to organise the economy to ensure secure livelihood and prosperity for all. All it needs is that the orientation of the economy be changed from fulfilling capitalist greed to fulfilling the people’s needs

Comrades,

The year 2023 will soon be coming to an end. One of the striking features of life during this year has been the growing strength of mass protests all over the world.

Mass opposition to the inhuman capitalist-imperialist system is growing in strength on the world scale.  Workers are coming onto the streets and opposing the course of their rulers in all capitalist countries. They are opposing the destruction of jobs, intensifying exploitation, the cut back on social services, militarization of the economy and wars of conquest.

The ruling classes in the US and other leading capitalist countries of the world appear to be very powerful, but their position is in fact growing weaker every day.  They are finding it increasingly difficult to rule in the old way. Their system of rule is getting discredited. This is revealed in the political crisis that is engulfing the advanced capitalist countries of North America and Europe.

Since the middle of October, we have witnessed massive street protests in London, Paris, New York, Mexico City, Baghdad and numerous other cities across the world.  Lakhs of people have marched on the streets, raising their voices against the inhuman genocidal war being waged by Israel against the Palestinian people.

More and more states are demanding a halt to the genocide. The US, the main backer of Israel is getting increasingly isolated and discredited. Its claims to be a standard bearer of human rights, democracy, of a rules based world order stands exposed. It has vetoed all resolutions in the UN Security Council calling for an end to Israel’s genocidal campaign.

As many as 153 out of 186 member states of the United Nations voted in favour of a resolution passed by the General Assembly on 12th December, demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Even the Government of India, which abstained from voting on an earlier resolution, voted in favour of this resolution. Only 10 countries, including the US and Israel, opposed this resolution.

Comrades,

The biggest block in front of the working class and peasantry of our country is the illusion that their interests can be met through the existing system of parliamentary democracy.  Our Party’s publication ‘Who Rules India?’ is a decisive contribution to the struggle to shatter this illusion.

The most important immediate task before us is to widely disseminate this book amongst the working class and broad masses of people and organise discussion around it. Understanding how the bourgeoisie rules is necessary in order to innovate a modern democracy in which the people will govern themselves and be the decision makers.

Comrades,

It was in January 1979, 45 years ago, that the first issue of Peoples Voice was published, as part of the preparatory work towards the founding of our party. As you all know, People’s Voice subsequently became the organ of the Central Committee of the Party. It was later renamed Mazdoor Ekta Lehar.

The leading article of the first issue of People’s Voice, published 45 years ago, declared “Hold High the Bright Red Banner of Marxism Leninism and Proletarian Internationalism!”

We can say with pride that our party has always resolutely defended the scientific teachings of Marxism Leninism. We have remained true to the aim of organising the working class and making it conscious of its mission to overthrow capitalism, liberate Indian society from all forms of exploitation and oppression, and open the path to the building of a socialist society.

The working class and toiling masses of our country are very capable of solving all the problems facing Indian society. What is blocking solution to these problems is the system of parliamentary democracy, which is a form of dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.

The times are calling for the replacement of the outdated parliamentary system with a modern system in which decision-making power is in the hands of the working class and masses of other working people. We will then be able to reorient the economy from fulfilling capitalist greed to fulfilling human needs. We will redefine the country’s foreign policy and international relations based on principled opposition to imperialism and in the interests of world peace. This is the program for the Navnirman of India.

Let us build and strengthen our Party and restore the unity of the communist movement, at the head of a politically united working class, rallying the peasants and all the oppressed around the program for the Navnirman of India!

Inquilab Zindabad!

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