The article, “Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Elections: Elections in this system serve to maintain the rule of capitalist monopoly houses”, in the December 16-31 issue of MEL, has correctly pointed out that both the Congress and BJP when in command have implemented the program of the big capitalist monopoly houses and have pushed the program of capitalist globalisation at the expense of the working people.
I
Dear Editor,
The article, “Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Elections: Elections in this system serve to maintain the rule of capitalist monopoly houses”, in the December 16-31 issue of MEL, has correctly pointed out that both the Congress and BJP when in command have implemented the program of the big capitalist monopoly houses and have pushed the program of capitalist globalisation at the expense of the working people. Facts clearly show that the capitalist monopoly houses and foreign investors are clearly for reaping enormous profits through the systematic rape and plunder of the land and labour of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Both parties have in their time marketed dreams and spread illusions among the people that their party will allegedly look after everyone’s interest better than the other.
While the Congress was responsible for the first wave of so-called economic reforms under the banner of globalization and liberalization in 1991, the BJP did the same by bringing in and providing support to the second generation of policy reforms in 1999. Both did not have even an iota of concern for the workers, toilers and the common man. The privatization and further liberalization only served the interest of the global expansionist aims of the monopoly houses, who bring in these parties to power turn by turn.
The second important feature that the article brings out is that both the Congress and BJP are guilty of inciting numerous communal disputes since 1947 and continue to mobilise votes on the basis of religion and caste. It cannot be forgotten that they both collaborated in the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
The article has correctly concluded that when either party is discredited, the capitalist class organises for replacing it with the other. That is replacing the Congress with the BJP and vice versa, be it at the centre or in a state. And when both are discredited, then the capitalist class has relied on a coalition of regional parties to manage the central Government. All these parties are merely managers for the capitalist class.
What this article has further done that is of importance and deserves appreciation is to explain the Marxist theory on the nature of political power. That ours is a class divided society and that in such a society, the State is an organ of dictatorship by one class over another. And that in Indian society, the State is an organ of dictatorship by the capitalist class, headed by about 150 monopoly houses which have concentrated lakhs of crores of rupees of capital in their hands.
The Communist Ghadar Party, I think, is fulfilling its role of educating the working class and people about the nature of political power. It has explained clearly that revolutionary change can and must be brought about. This is of great political importance, and our education can indeed go further by going through all the references that have been provided. When we sharpen our theoretical understanding, then we will be armed with a clear political goal and revolutionary program to organise and advance.
Yours,
Sunita.
II
Dear editor,
The discussion on the sham of the Indian electoral process in the article “Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Elections: Elections in this system serve to maintain the rule of capitalist monopoly houses” in the Dec 16-31, 2017 issue of MEL is hard-hitting and exposes the pro-capitalist, anti-people and therefore anti-democratic nature of elections in our country. The current election results in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh show that the Congress and BJP and their mainstream allies take turns to play the role of the ‘people’s saviour’ while in fact, protecting the interests of the capitalist class. People are actually powerless to influence election results through voting as the election results are decided by which party and candidate is tactically chosen by the capitalists to manage the State in that particular context. Any candidate who is put up by the people is forced to either lose to the mainstream parties funded by capitalists or fall in line with the agenda of the capitalists if he wants to win, thus becoming a victim of bourgeois parliamentary “democracy”.
The article presents the way forward for communists in India to develop the Indian theory of revolution which was begun in 1857. The electoral process is to be used by communists as an arena of class struggle against the bourgeoisie to expose their anti-people nature and empower people to take political power into their own hands and build a new system in which they are not oppressed by a handful of capitalists but instead are able to realize all their rights.
Anita