Statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, 8th June, 2024
Results of the elections to the 18th Lok Sabha have been announced. The BJP, which had an absolute majority during the past 10 years, now has 240 seats in the 543 member Lok Sabha. It will head a coalition government with its partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), who have won 53 seats. On the other side, the INDIA alliance led by the Congress Party has won 234 seats.
The results of the elections to the 18th Lok Sabha must be seen in the light of the widespread discontent and disaffection with the past 10 years of the BJP government headed by Prime Minister Modi.
The BJP government has used its majority to ramrod numerous unpopular laws and policies, without even the pretense of debating them in the parliament. The sudden announcements of the Note Ban and the GST were followed by the communal Citizenship Amendment Act. The brutal lockdown in 2020, in response to the Covid pandemic, displayed the callousness of this regime towards the acute suffering of poor working people.
The enactment of anti-kisan farm laws and anti-worker labour codes, the aggressive pursuit of privatisation and attracting foreign capital investments in all sectors are among the many actions which have exposed this government as being in the service of Indian and foreign capitalist billionaires. The announcement of the agniveer program at a time when unemployment is at a record level sparked enormous anger among the youth.
The system of parliamentary democracy has been exposed as the brutal dictatorship of a small number of monopoly capitalists. The blatant communal propaganda and persecution of religious minorities, arbitrary arrests of rights activists and journalists under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, use of central agencies to target political rivals, and the use of corruption cases to extort money through electoral bonds have shaken the credibility of the entire political system.
Over the past few years, workers, peasants, women and youth have repeatedly come out on the streets in militant opposition to the attacks on their livelihood and rights. In addition, there has also been growing disaffection within the bourgeoisie. Prominent personalities have been expressing their concern about the blatantly partisan conduct of state institutions and the declining credibility of the political system. There has been growing disaffection in several states to the increasing centralization of financial powers.
In such a situation of widespread discontent, the INDIA alliance led by the Congress Party presented itself as the champion of the interests of workers, peasants and all the other disaffected sections of the people. The masses of workers, peasants, women and youthwere called upon to line up behind the Congress Party and INDIA alliance, with the aim of bringing them to power.
The bourgeoisie wants workers and peasants to be forever tied to the illusion that their concerns will be addressed when a party or coalition which claims to fight for their interests comes to power through elections. By ensuring that the INDIA alliance has come close to power, the bourgeoisie wants to keep such illusions alive amongst the people.
The Lok Sabha Elections have resulted in BJP getting reduced to a minority in parliament. The parliamentary opposition led by the Congress Party has been greatly strengthened.
The ruling class prefers a strong parliamentary opposition because it helps to strengthen the illusion that the interests of workers, peasants, and other oppressed people are being defended in the parliament.
The election result conveys a key message from the ruling class that the party in charge of the central government must be mindful of the need to maintain the façade of democracy. It must be respectful of parliamentary norms. It must not pursue its own narrow self-serving agenda, in the process destroying the credibility of various state institutions in the eyes of the people.
These election results will not lead to any qualitative change. Power will continue to be wielded by the bourgeoisie. The Government of India will continue to act in the interests of super-rich capitalists, at the expense of workers and peasants.
What we workers and peasants need is a qualitative change. We want the government to act in our best interests, and not in the narrow interests of the bourgeoisie. This will happen only when there is a complete transformation in the political system.
The system of parliamentary democracy is the preferred method of rule of the bourgeoise. Elections in this system serve the bourgeoisie to sort out contradictions within its ranks and legitimise its rule, while perpetuating illusions among the people that it is they who are the rulers.
The results of the 2024 General Elections show that the ruling class has tried to use these elections to shore up the sagging credibility of the political system.
It is not in our interest to shore up the credibility of the existing system of parliamentary democracy, which is a form of dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. We cannot place our faith in the parliamentary opposition, whose role is to pretend to be opposing those in power, while waiting for their turn to manage the same bourgeois dictatorship.
The task facing workers, peasants, women and youth is to strengthen our fighting unity and escalate our struggle against the bourgeois offensive, in defence of our livelihood and rights. We must wage this struggle with the strategic aim of establishing our own rule – that is, the rule of workers and peasants in place of the rule of the bourgeoisie.
We need to replace the existing system of parliamentary democracy with a system in which people exercise decision making power. Working people must be able to select and elect those we trust, hold them accountable and to recall them at any time if they do not act in our best interests. We must be able to initiate, approve or reject laws and policies. With decision making power in our hands, we the working people will be able to change the orientation of the economy. Instead of being geared to maximise capitalist profits, the economic system must be geared to fulfil the growing needs of the whole of society.