In Lieu of Editorial
The Unfolding of the Political Obscenities of Twenty-first Century Fascism
What we are witnessing these days in Indian bourgeois politics is confirming our analysis of Fascism in the Twenty-first century. Fascism in its new avatar has no necessity to give up the shell of the bourgeois parliamentary democracy. The bourgeois parliamentary system, especially in the relatively backward post-colonial capitalist countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, has become so moribund and meaningless that it has lost its remaining claim to represent the people, though it never truly represented the working masses. Within bourgeois parliamentary system, the opposition has lost all credibility, which only shows the nature of capitalist class in the age of Imperialist globalization. It is not a late-Eighteenth century or mid-Nineteenth century European bourgeoisie, which had a progressive section and which rallied for some progressive reforms within the ambits of capitalist system. All progressive potential of capitalism has been exhausted and so has the progressive potential of any section of bourgeoisie. Even during the first round of Fascist rise in Germany and Italy, there was a part of bourgeoisie, howsoever small, that resisted this rise, though in an impotent fashion. However, the picture has changed now. That is why, Fascism in the Twenty-first century, in the final phase of the stage of Imperialism, that is, Globalization, does not need to do away with the sheath of bourgeois democracy. The reason is that the institutions of bourgeois democracy from parliament, judiciary, election commission, etc. have become almost meaningless and reduced to mere pawns in the hands of Fascists. Is it not the truth of current Indian bourgeois political scenario? Isn’t the autonomy of election commission of India destroyed? Isn’t the celebrated and cherished impartiality of the judiciary undermined? What remains is only the shell.
First, the recent behavior of Indian judiciary should be analyzed as it is one of the most hegemonic institutions of bourgeois democracy and carries kind of an aura. It has held people, especially petty-bourgeois masses in awe. Anything that the judiciary says is held in esteem and invokes conformism on part of the people. However, the recent judgements, statements and general response of the judiciary has undermined this image to great extent. From the case of the alleged murder of Judge Loya, who had ruled against the BJP president Amit Shah, the arbitrary and dictatorial behavior of the Chief Justice of India, against which four other judges of the Supreme Court openly protested, to CJI’s presiding over the hearing of petition in a corruption and bribery case against CJI himself, to Supreme Court’s dismissal of impeachment motion against CJI and the conduct of the Collegium; all these incidents have shown beyond doubt that the iconized independence of the judiciary is a thing of the past, though even in the past it was a mere appearance. With the Fascists in power, such independence becomes stuff of films like Kundan Shah’s Jaane bhi do yaaron or Costa Gavras’ Z. This also vindicates our analysis of the redemptive activity of Fascism, as presented in the paper on Fascism published in the first issue of our journal.
We have argued in the paper that the Twenty-first century Fascism is not characterized by cataclysmic rise and cataclysmic fall, but a long gestation period and repeated paroxysmic activity. This has allowed the Fascists in India to infiltrate the state apparatus including the army, the police, the bureaucracy and the judiciary and also to perform a ‘molecular permeation’. The present paroxysm of Fascism in India shows how effectively the Hindutva Fascists have infiltrated all the institutions of bourgeois state and bourgeois democracy. It is not simply the cunning of people like Amit Shah, who can rightly be compared to Brecht’s character from The Three Penny Novel, McHeath; many political commentators ascribe the success of the BJP to the master-mind of Amit Shah; however, it is the protracted infiltration of the state apparatus by the RSS and patient construction of a communal consensus and ‘molecular permeation’ through grass-root work by the Sangh Parivaar that has enabled someone like Amit Shah to openly make a mockery of bourgeois democratic institutions.
Another institution of Indian parliamentary bourgeois democracy that has fallen into disrepute is the Election Commission. It is hardly a secret now that the BJP has systematically undermined this institution. It has been infiltrated from bottom to top and instead of being an impartial body to oversee the electoral process, it has been turned into an instrument by the Fascists. The way in which the Election Commission delayed declaring the dates of Gujarat legislative assembly elections in order to give the BJP the chance to consolidate its chances is well-known.
Besides, the much talked-about “dignity” of constitutional posts like the president and the governors of the states also became a laughing stock when all of the above was happening. This was especially apparent after the elections of Goa, Manipur and now after the elections in Karnataka. The president has displayed this reality with his body language itself, whenever he is surrounded by the likes of Modi, Yogi or Shah.
In fact, the elections in Karnataka have not only demonstrated the meaning of rise of Fascism in present times, but also has shown what happens in bourgeois elections in general. There are multiple reports citing the obscene amount of money which the BJP spent on buying votes; the number of candidates with criminal records among the BJP candidates was around 40 percent whereas the same for the Congress was around 30 percent. The way in which Yeddyurappa was chosen by the BJP as its chief ministerial candidate and the Reddy brothers were given the tickets also showed the reality of the ‘chaal-chehra-charitra’ of the Hindutva Fascists. And when all of this could not secure even a simple majority, there was the governor Vajubhai Vala, a guy with a history of saffron politics. Vala gave the BJP 15 days to prove majority and invited it to form government as the single largest party. The governors of Goa and Manipur did just the opposite and the governor of Bihar is now doing just the opposite of inviting the single largest party to form the government! When the opposition moved to the SC against this move of Vala, the SC by saving some grace ordered the Yeddyurappa government to prove majority in 24 hours. However, the BJP was confident that he has a true MacHeath in the shape of Amit Shah. On TV channels, when asked how would they pass the floor test, BJP leader Ram Madhav just said, “We have Amit Shah!” The Congress and the JD (U) took their MLAs to a resort in Hyderabad in order to save them from Shah’s horse-trading! This itself shows the character of other bourgeois parties of Indian politics. In the end, the Congress, playing a smart game, denied Amit Shah the opportunity to do what he does best: bribe, buy, broker and intimidate. Even the mention of ‘principles’, ‘ideals’ or ‘commitment to a politics’ in this whole context might inaugurate a burst of uncontrollable laughter. The Karnataka election and the subsequent events show the depths to which the somewhat vulgarly comic obscenity of Indian bourgeois politics has sunk.
All these developments show the characteristic features of Fascist rise in the Twenty-first century. They do not need to pass exceptional laws and then do away with the shell of the bourgeois democracy. Now, they do everything the Nazis did (though in a new way) without giving up this shell. The sheath is maintained but the essence changes. This is how Hindutva Fascism in India has been, and xenophobic, racist and other variants of Fascism in some countries of Europe are, bringing a ‘hurricane from below’ in a protracted process, allowing themselves a ‘molecular permeation’ into the pores of society, a deep infiltration into the state apparatus and thus effecting the Fascist rise without giving up the form of bourgeois parliamentary democracy.
This particularity of Twenty-first century Fascism is related to the particularity of the form that economic crisis has taken since the 1970s. Rather than a sudden and cataclysmic event the crisis itself has assumed a protracted and apparently permanent character. This has given rise to a much deeper, protracted and structural reaction among the petty-bourgeois classes, whose ‘romantic upsurge’ or ‘mystical upheaval’ Fascism is. The unprecedented monopolization, financialization and increasing dominance of speculative finance capital globally has given rise to a much more reactionary monopoly finance capitalist class ready to go to any length in order to secure its barbaric dictatorship. Fascism as a political movement welds the interests of big monopoly capital and the blind reaction of a threatened or upward mobile petty bourgeoisie. This is what the Hindutva Fascism has done in India too. The entire process and the forms of Fascist rise has changed significantly from the early-Twentieth century. However, the class essence of this rabidly reactionary, anti-working class and anti-people political and social movement is the same. However, since the modus operandi of Fascists has changed, the strategies to counter and resist them must also change.
The social democratic and revisionist parties such as CPI, CPI (M) and CPI (ML) Liberation have showed their true colors in the face of the rise of Fascism. CPI as a party is fast becoming non-consequential and much more loosely-structured than even the Social Democratic parties of Europe. One can expect to find anything and anyone in the CPI in different regions. It has become a motley-crew of different kinds of tolerant Social-Democrats, good-soul reformists, as well as opportunists. The CPI (M), on the other hand, with experience of power in a couple of states is much more disciplined Social Democratic party, though currently facing a complete rout from the country, with Kerala as their last bastion. In the recent panchayat elections, the CPM was pushed to the third spot, with TMC winning the first and the BJP winning the second spot. In Kerala too, the wall will fall sooner or later, as is evident. The third revisionist party, the CPI (ML) Liberation, the most opportunist of all, is busy running campaigns like ‘save democracy, save constitution’! Now, why would a party which believes that India is still ‘semi-feudal semi-colonial’ advance the slogan of saving democracy, when it does not believe that India is a politically independent country with bourgeois democracy? Secondly, why would a communist raise the war-cry of ‘saving constitution’? It is noteworthy that the very process of making of the constitution was undemocratic and our constitution contains all the provisions, methods and devices to suspend whatever democratic and civil rights the people of India have. The reason for this behavior of the CPI (ML) Liberation is that this is one revisionist party which is incorrigibly infatuated with worst kind of opportunist populism. The ideological positions expressed by this party show its despicable opportunism. In nutshell, the entire parliamentary Left is paralyzed right now, in the face of Fascist rise. Secondly, some responsibility of the rise of Fascism lies at their door, just like the Social Democratic and Socialist parties of Europe had contributed to the rise of Fascism by containing the working-class movement within the bounds of economism, trade unionism, reformism. The utopia of ‘socializing democracy within the bounds of capitalism’, without a revolutionary transformation of society, by stubbornly sticking to whatever legal and economic rights the working class has, is the hallmark of revisionists and Social Democrats. This very strategy, which seems to be working during the period of satisfactory economic health, fails miserably in the period of crisis. This is what happened since 2007-8 crisis. The revisionists and their strategy failed to respond to the Fascist rise, which took place in the context of mass scale unemployment, increasing prices, crisis of profitability, ruination of small capital in industry as well as agriculture, trade and commerce and also large-scale scams, which only showed that the unity between the various blocs of ruling class has become fragile and sectional interest rather than organized class interest has become dominant; generally, this happens before every Fascist rise. Such a situation gives impetus to the rise of Fascists. The economic crisis which takes the form of a social crisis and a political crisis of the ruling class and capitalist state leads the big monopoly capital to rally their support behind the Fascist party. This is what happened in 2014 elections. And even a layman knows that, barring some exceptions, the victory and defeat in bourgeois elections is ultimately determined by the power of capital. This is how Modi and Hindutva Fascists rose to power and this is how they are able to continue their political ascendancy. The role of parliamentary Left is unmistakable in this whole process. Therefore, an effective strategy to resist Fascism also requires a program to expose economism, trade unionism and reformism in the working class movement because these alien tendencies disarm the working class from becoming the leader of the working masses, allows Fascism to win over the disgruntled petty bourgeoisie to its side and make it into a nemesis of working class movement.
We are faced with clear choices today: either we prepare to go beyond the existing capitalist system or this capitalist system in its most parasitic, moribund, crisis-ridden state will only give rise to Fascism or other forms of extreme Right-wing reaction. There is no ‘third way’.
The next general elections to be held in 2019 are like a wall that can fall anyway. However, to think that if the BJP loses, then the danger of Fascism is averted, would be sheer political naïveté. Such hysteric celebrations had broken out when the BJP was defeated in 2004 and then in 2009, when some Left commentators argued that it is the final defeat of the BJP and it would not be able to recover from it. The 2014 elections came as a bitter shock to them. The 2019 elections or the 2024 elections might come as an even more bitter shock, rather trauma for them. The reason is that in this moribund, dying stage of capitalism, within capitalism, the only option for the big monopoly bourgeoisie is extreme Right-wing reaction, often taking the form of Fascism. Therefore, either we decide to go beyond capitalism or we prepare ourselves for the punishment of Fascism.
- Published in Anvil-3, May 2018
