The Hollowness of Today’s Anti-Fascist Alliance
Basudev Nag Chowdhury
[This article was first published in Bengali in 'Jabardakhal' on 18th November, 2020.
Link to original article: http://jabardakhal.in/bengali/inane-mahagatbandhan-against-bjp-india-fascism/]
The entire political
spectra has already identified the activities of the Modi government in India
as the rise of Fascism. Naturally, the question of forming an anti-fascist alliance
has come up with great importance in the political realm. In the meantime, the
BJP-JDU alliance has won again in the recent Bihar Assembly elections, but the
tough fight given by the "Maha Gatbandhan" has put a seal of
acceptance on this immensely discussed anti-fascist alliance. While in the
context of the next Assembly elections in West Bengal, CPI(M) has already
tightened its hands with the Congress with conviction, a large section of the
Naxalites are advocating for an alliance of the Left with the TMC. Whether Aan
alliance regardless of such Left-Right Communist-Bourgeois ideology can
presently stall the rise of fascism in the whole country (and in our state
too), and to say more clearly, whether these are anti-fascist alliances at all,
is the main impetus behind the incarnation of this article. We want to make it
clear from the beginning, that we will judge the question here from the
perspective of the Communist movement. There might be a notion of opposing fascism
even among a section of the bourgeoisie, and the strategy of allying themselves
with the communists and the Left is therefore based on this. For example,
during World War II, the purpose behind the necessary to form an alliance
against the Axis powers under Hitler's leadership was different from the angle
of the Soviet Union with respect to that of USA and UK. The unleashing of the
atom bomb as a declaration of the end of the war made it crystal clear. So, we
will concentrate our discussion on the basis of communist ideology; not from sly neutrality.
Extreme Reactionary
Measures
Among the major
reactionary implementations of the Narendra Modi led BJP government of are
Demonetisation, GST, Abrogation of Article 370, UAPA, Labor Code and Farmer’s
Bill etc.
1.
That the demonetisation was not intended
to recover any black money or counterfeit notes, rather, it was used to impose the
entire burden on the common working people to temporarily address the financial
crisis created from the stock markets of USA and China, has been unanimously
side-lined all such parties. Rather, all of them had welcomed demonetisation;
and by restricting their opposition to the methods of implementation, they
turned the public eye away from reality. That the Modi government has falsified
data in the press release did not slip from any of their mouths. However, the
government took this huge amount of money from the common people and deposited
in the 'Market Stabilization Scheme', as clearly observed from the RBI's data.
Only BJP leader Yashwant Singh later reported that Modi had to make this
decision overnight under the massive pressure from the United States. That is,
all these parties have practically remained limping amidst such a major attack
of US imperialism on the people of our country. To mention specifically, this
‘market stabilization scheme’ was first created during the tenure of the first
UPA government.
2.
They have the same role in the question
of GST; rather more than before. The Congress government had taken it one step
further since the Vajpayee government started the process of modelling GST. The
then Finance Minister Chidambaram proposed to introduce GST by 2010. From the
time of Vajpayee, Asim Dasgupta of CPI(M) was the head of the GST-committee.
After 2011, Amit Mitra of TMC was the chairman of the committee. Naturally, can
the opposition of GST by these parties be anything else other than a circus?
3.
On the issue of abrogation of Article
370 in Kashmir, all of the NDA except JD(U) (including Shiv Sena and Akali Dal,
and also, AAP, TDP & BSP voted in favour. In the name of opposition, the
TMC resorted to walk-out to help the BJP gain votes and remain in an
advantageous position; their Rajya Sabha ‘Chief Whip’ Sukhendu Shekhar Roy made
a public statement in support of the abrogation of Article 370. The Congress
was practically divided into two groups on this question; Bhubaneswar Kalita,
the Rajya Sabha ‘Chief Whip’ of the Congress, stood up for the abrogation of
Article 370 and resigned. Two MPs of the Samajwadi party also resigned.
4.
The UAPA Bill, through which any person
can be arrested in the name of terrorist suspicion, i.e., the most sharp weapon
of fascist aggression at the moment, got full support from the Congress party
while the Modi government was trying to pass it in the Rajya Sabha. It was this
Congress that walked out from the Lok Sabha on this question. To note, it was opposed
the TMC whose government in West Bengal has attained professionalism in
imposing UAPA on members of mass movements!
5.
In the name of fighting against the new
Farmer’s Bill, which has actually been presented to dedicate the lives of
farmers in the hands of big corporate owners and open market, all these parties
have been seen to resort to an interesting drama. Despite the majority of the
opposition in the Rajya Sabha, the bill was passed in a through voice vote! And
none of them seeked to file a judicial complain against this! After the roar of
the mass movements across throughout the country on this issue, it was observed
that it didn’t rain as much as the preceding thunder.
6.
The drama culminated to an end when all
these opposition parties sat outside the parliament in the name of protesting
against the Farmer’s Bill and the extremely anti-labour ‘Labor Code’ was passed
without hindrance by the Modi government in the Rajya Sabha.
Extreme chauvinist
initiatives
The chauvinism of BJP
(whose real source is the RSS) can be defined singularly the Upper Caste Hindu
Patriarchal National Chauvinism. But currently, they have adopted another strategy.
Islamic terrorism, borne out of the reaction of the neoliberal political
economy of the last thirty years, which is not the enemy of imperialism but its
twin brother, has been projected to the forefront, and a global anti-Muslim
campaign has been created as a part of the fascist political propaganda of
finance capital. In line with this, the BJP-RSS is bringing the so-called lower
caste people and Muslim women around the centre formed of the upper caste-Hindus
by child luring baits, and spreading widespread Muslim hatred; something which
is more important than the Hindutva campaign. As a result, the so-called lower
caste people and women are being championed in favour of the higher caste-Hindu
patriarchal chauvinism.
Few of the things they
have done in this context in recent times includes the Citizenship Ammendment
Act (CAA), reservation of upper caste Hindus, Teen-Talak Bill; and even converted
the Supreme Court and the CBI into toothed and nailed pets to build the Ram
Temple and defend the Babri Masjid demolition with the acquittal of the guilty.
1.
In 2003, when the Citizenship Law was amended,
Dr. Manmohan Singh proposed, on behalf of the Congress, the acceptance of
citizenship of all resident religious minority (naturally, non-Muslim) from Bangladesh,
which all parliamentary political parties supported at that time (all those,
who are opposing it today or playing an opposition drama). When Dr. Manmohan
Singh was the Prime Minister of the second UPA-government, the then CPI(M) leader
Prakash Karat reminded him of this in his letter while mentioning about the religious
minority residents from Bangladesh (naturally, non-Muslims), and also even of special
groups of Hinduism with reference to people, such as Namashudras,
Pondra-Shatriyas etc. Currently, this letter has disappeared from the archive
of their mouthpiece ‘People’s Demcracy’ due to ‘maybe, any mechanical
disturbance’). Of course, many like us still have a copy of it. Mamata Banerjee
who had cited Bangladeshi infiltration a 'disaster' in 2005 and threw papers in
the face of the then Deputy Speaker of the parliament claiming in favour of NRC,
had her party get outraged against the recent Citizenship Bill all but drama).
Meanwhile, in the absence of several of their MPs, the Citizenship Bill was
passed peacefully in the Rajya Sabha.
2.
In the name of saving the financially
weak, the Modi government introduced the reservation of the upper caste-Hindus.
Although there is mention of the 'financially weak' in this reservation, those
with an annual income upto 8 lakh rupees (monthly greater than 65 thousand
rupees) will get its benefits; and on the other hand, ST, SC, OBC people will
not come under its fold, i.e., it is nothing more than shamelessly reserving
the high caste-hindus. Another important point is, in private educational
institutions not reserving seats for SC, ST, OBC, the reservation of the upper
caste-hindus is applicable. The Lok Sabha has passed such an extreme ‘chauvinist’
bill at 323:3 and the Rajya Sabha at 165:7. Needless to say, almost all parties
of the "anti-fascist grand alliance" (including the Congress-TMC)
voted in favour of this bill. Only AIADMK staged a walk-out. Although the DMK
brought amendments and were support by AAP and Left, they were dismissed with
huge numbers; so, the AAP and CPI staged a walk-out but strangely CPI(M) voted
for the bill (even at the Lok Sabha). To note, although the Reservation Bill
was introduced by the Central Government, soon after the bill was passed, it
has been introduced by several state governments, following the primary example
of TMC in West Bengal.
3.
Due to absence of MPs of the grand
alliance, the Teen-Talak Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha even after NDA
members JD(U) and AIADMK walked out. Needless to say, all these parties have
not championed their ideology in favour of Muslim women but have shaken hands
with Muslim Fundamentalism, themselves being singularly motivated by the appeasement
of the Muslim vote bank. Although the Modi government spoke of the equality of
Muslim women through this bill, they actually kept the patriarchy of the Muslim
society intact. Because, even though Teen-Talak is declared a 'criminal offence'
in this law, the question of the division and maintenance of the property of
divorced Muslim women, which is an important point in all forms, has not been
addressed at all. This is exactly what the Congress government led by Rajiv
Gandhi did after the Supreme Court verdict in Shah Banu's case and his politics
are still rife with this heinous opportunist and patriarchal view. Naturally,
pro-grand alliance parties like the Congress and TMC did not open their mouths
on this question and their opportunism, in turn, remained unquestioned by the
Left.
4.
Despite the Supreme Court's utterly
shameless Hindutva oriented and ugly decision on Ram Mandir provoking religious
sectarianism, the CPI(M) and almost all pro-alliance parties, including the TMC
remained mum; on the contrary, they all welcomed the scandalous verdict. Even
during the lock-down, the Prime Minister's unconstitutional presence at the Ram-Mandir
Bhumi Pujan (actually inauguration) was met with silence from all these parties.
The Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi, has directly voted for the creation of the
Ram-Mandir in Ayodhya in the last election, and that's what Priyanka Gandhi
also did in her Bhumi Puja. And soon after, the CBI's Special Court acquitted
the perpetrators of the demolition of the Babri Mosque, declaring it to be
unplanned, when several times before and even on the day of the judgement,
several accused leaders of the RSS-VHP proudly made open statements in the
media stating that they had done that heinous act consciously.
Extreme imperialist
initiative
The position of the
right-wing parties on the question of imperialism is not an unknown or new
issue. That is why the main axis of opposition to imperialism in the question
of fighting against fascism is mainly the united struggle for peace against war
and the creation of war-mongering. In that case, on the question of war with
Pakistan, the position of the Congress and other state governments/opposition
parties, even the CPI, is crystal clear but what is their position on the recent
Modi government’s creation of war situation along the Chinese border at the
behest of the US? Why the BJP government has not yet waged a war is a matter of
major aggression by all the right-wing parties, including Congress. So, they
did not even stop from shouting about it. And these are the ones who will
create the anti-fascist grand alliance! And the leftists are still hoping for
this alliance! Note that the main debate behind the formation of the CPI(M)
from the CPI was regarding the position on the war on the Chinese-Indian border
conflict and the formation of the political front with Congress; those who took
the stand against this front, formed the CPI (M). The CPI was identified as a
right-wing revisionist party based on this question. And today? In both of
these questions, the CPI(M) has shamelessly taken a ‘in-favour’ position. Also,
what is their position on the recent US-Japan-Australia-India military alliance
that has created ‘quads’? When the anti-fascist grand alliance is being placed
openly with strength, this week, the foreign ministers of the four countries
met to announce the decision to open up the Indo-Pacific oceanic region for the
imperialist war-mongering activities of NATO through this quad!
To Note
A significant trend
needs to be noticed in these whole timetable of events. With the rise of
BJP-RSS in India, the rise of the Islamic fundamentalist force ‘AIMIM’ in its
response. Most importantly, ‘AIMIM’ has taken the same strategy that has been taken
over by the RSS. Although their main centre is Islamic fundamentalism, they do
not rely solely on the Muslim population, but also on the lower castes, and are
allying with the lower caste Hindus and trying to gain strength by creating a gathering
of people deprived through religion and caste, in this country. To note, AIMIM
is allying with the BSP which has supported the passage of all the extreme
reactionary bills brought by the recent BJP government to the Rajya Sabha.
Unlike the BJP-RSS, this reactionary alliance has also gained great strength in
the context of the Bihar elections.
On the other hand, far
from taking a stand against the most recent reactionary, chauvinist and
imperialist actions of the BJP government led by Narendra Modi, instead of
opposing them, almost all right-wing parties, including the Congress-TMC, and
in some cases, the leftist and communist parties have played the role of
helping such policies to enter the realm of parliamentary democracy. It can be
said that despite the absolute majority in the Lok Sabha, the BJP could not
have passed all the extreme reactionary, chauvinist and imperialist bills
without the support of these pro-alliance parties. Fascism itself is the
political form of the "most reactionary, the most chauvinist and the most
imperialist element of finance capital". In all the activities of the
fascist power through which it is establishing its dominance in the whole country,
can all those who stood up and helped it to champion itself build an
anti-fascist front at all? It is better to say, can any of their fronts or
alliances be the force of the anti-fascist struggle? In addition, after the
success (?) of the Maha Gatbandhan in the recent election of Bihar, CPI(M)
leader Com. Arun Mishra wrote an article in the newspaper "Gnashakti"
where he never once called the coalition an "anti-fascist alliance"
and identified the BJP and its central government as "communal
authoritarian force", not "fascist". The word fascism has not
once come up in his writing. In that case, the purpose of this alliance is
merely parliamentary power division.
Dmitrov thesis and
today's grand alliance in light of the strategy of the anti-fascist front
Of course, we cannot
put an end to the question of the struggle against fascism just here. Because through
the extreme reactionary, chauvinist and imperialist initiatives that the BJP
government led by Narendra Modi has taken, it is exercising its governance
throughout the country as a fascist force. Now, we shall uphold the key points
of the Dimitrov thesis adopted in Comintern about the strategy of forming an
anti-fascist front in the context of the communist movement.
Dimitrov shows in his
thesis that the three main precepts of the rise of fascism are:
1.
The imperialist clique tries to put the
whole burden of the economic crisis on the shoulders of the working people;
2.
The bourgeoisie is no longer able to carry
out their ‘dictatorship’ in the old way (i.e., what they call ‘democracy’);
3.
The Social Democrats (i.e., the
opportunists, the compromisers, chauvinists and the highly paid working class
representatives of the communist movement) have crippled the revolutionary
struggle of the working class.
It is this situation
that forms the basis for the rise of fascist power. That is why Dimitrov
proposes, which is universally recognized in the Comintern of 1935, that the
strategy for forming the "United Front" for the struggle against
fascism must have three main contents:
1.
The collective struggle to impose the
burden of the economic crisis on the ruling class and the rich;
2.
A joint struggle against all forms of
fascist aggression, for the protection of the acquired rights of the working
people, and against the abolition of bourgeois-democratic freedoms; and
3.
A joint struggle to overcome the dangers
of the impending imperialist war, a struggle that makes it difficult to prepare
for such a war.
Obviously, no leftist or
communist claimant of ‘grand alliance’ has even tried to go through the edge of
all these contents. They did not try to impose any such conditions on the side
of the bourgeois right-wing parties during the formation of such alliances. On
the opposite, the BJP government has taken all possible steps to take away the
acquired rights of the working people and to undermine the minimum
bourgeois-democratic freedoms on their way towards acquisition of fascist
power. This has been possible through support of the pro-alliance parties. At
the same time, all these groups have signed in favour of war and in the
creation of war fanaticism. These leftist and communist parties have not forced
the right wing parties to take an anti-war stance. On the contrary, they have
taken a stand in favour of the war. As a result, the "Maha Gatbandhan"
has become a very opportunistic alliance, not an anti-fascist unity such that
the BJP-RSS-led fascism is gaining grounds each day through the cooperation of
the opposition.
Basudev Nag Chowdhury
is the convenor of People’s Brigade.
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