Elections have been used to manufacture a “mandate” for the big bourgeoisie’s agenda

Statement of the Central Committee of Communist Ghadar Party of India, 13th March, 2017

Results of elections to the five state assemblies of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa have been announced. The BJP has won the vast majority of seats in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and will be manufacturing a majority in Manipur and Goa. The Congress has won an absolute majority in Punjab. Overall, these results pave the way for BJP to strengthen its position in the central Parliament by enhancing its share of seats in the Rajya Sabha, in addition to increasing the number of state governments it leads.

These elections were held at a time when there was growing mass resistance by workers’ unions to the escalated attacks on labour rights during the past two years by the BJP government in New Delhi. There was growing unrest among the peasantry all across the country. The land acquisition bill was stuck in the face of mass opposition. There was growing opposition among university students, women’s organisations and others to the brazen attacks on democratic, human and national rights, justified in the name of nationalism. There were signs of impatience and discontent even within sections of the capitalist class.

The recent round of elections has been used by the monopoly capitalists of India and abroad to manufacture a “people’s mandate” for stepping up the pace of implementation of the program of globalisation through liberalisation and privatisation. The elections have served to consolidate and legitimize the brutal dictatorship of monopoly capitalists over the vast majority of the population.

It is a minority class of exploiters, headed by about 150 capitalist monopoly houses, which sets the agenda and decides the outcome of elections in our country. What is called the most populous democracy in the world is a system in which a tiny minority of influential monopoly capitalists set the agenda. They select that particular party which will best serve their interest and most effectively deceive the people for the next five years.

Once they pick their preferred winner, the monopoly capitalists employ their immense wealth and a variety of methods to ensure the result they want. Corruption charges are leveled to weaken particular political parties at particular times. Splits are engineered in some selected parties to pave the way for the victory of the preferred party of the big bourgeoisie.

In addition to communal and caste based mobilization, use of money power, media control and a variety of divisive tactics, the Electronic Voting Machines provide the big bourgeoisie an easy way to manipulate election results and manufacture a “sweeping majority” for the party of its choice.

The election results of 11th March show that the wealthiest and most influential capitalists want BJP to consolidate its position at the all-India level, so as to more effectively push ahead with the anti-worker, anti-peasant, anti-social and anti-national agenda of globalisation of Indian capital through fascist suppression of all dissent by declaring it as anti-national and through militarization and participation in inter-imperialist wars.

The chieftains of the big bourgeoisie are openly celebrating the election results and glorifying Modi as being the new “king” of India. Prime Minister Modi claims that the path has been cleared for ushering in a “New India” by 2022, the 75th year since political independence.

Under the signboard of a New India, the big bourgeoisie is planning to push ahead with its plan of joining the league of leading imperialist powers of the world, at the expense of the rights and wellbeing of the toiling majority of Indians. It is a program of rapid capitalist accumulation of wealth in extremely few hands, based on super-exploitation of the relatively cheap but highly productive and youthful labour force of our country. It is a program of more intensive and extensive robbery of the peasantry, plunder of natural resources, militarisation and loot of the State treasury.

The bourgeoisie is hurtling along on an extremely dangerous course.

The claim that the people have given the Modi government a “mandate” to step up the anti-worker, anti peasant program of the bourgeoisie is a total fraud. It is a monstrous lie that must be challenged. The need is to defend and further strengthen the fighting unity of the working class and step up the struggle against the offensive of the big bourgeoisie.

The solution to our problems, including communalism, class exploitation and caste oppression, lies in ending the rule of the big capitalists and establishing workers’ and peasants’ rule in its place. What is needed is a change in the entire political system and orientation of the economy.

With political power in our hands, we workers and peasants can reorient the economy to put an end to exploitation and fulfil the requirements for a dignified human existence for all.

Let us escalate the struggle against the program of the bourgeoisie with the perspective of establishing a new State that would guarantee all our rights. Let us build and strengthen our fighting unity and foil the divisive plots of the ruling class.

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