Carpe Minutam!
The BJP lost assembly elections in five states. Should that bring a smile to the face of every progressive and democratic person? Yes. Should we be happy? Yes. The stereotypical arguments peddled out by mechanistic Marxists, namely, that there is no difference between the Congress and the BJP, or, it is the Congress itself whose sins create the fascist monster, so on and so forth, miss the basic point. First of all, there is a clear difference from the Marxist-Leninist perspective itself, between a Hindutva fascist party and a centre-right bourgeois party, like the Congress. Moreover, in the main, the toxic mushroom of fascism sprouts on the sins of social-democracy, rather than the centre-right bourgeois parties, though the latter too contribute to the fascist rise in some ways. Therefore, if one is feeling delighted at the defeat of the BJP, they should let this feeling take over, without having attacks of guilt conscience about political correctness of such a position, from a Marxist perspective! Even the common masses, in general, are happy with the result, not because they believe the Congress to be an alternative. They too, understand, to varying degrees, that such a binary is false. However, in the lack of any alternative, the masses also use bourgeois elections to punish the incumbent. They have punished the BJP, despite all its efforts to rouse communal hatred, manufacture riots, carry out mass lynchings, protecting the murderers of minorities in the name of saving the cow, and what not, failed miserably in its hideous agenda. This, of course, is a positive thing, at least objectively. However, on the other extreme, we have different varieties of left-liberals, liberal-left, Ambedkarite left, left-Ambedkarite, etc., who are immensely overjoyed at the results of the recent assembly elections and are, unabashedly, going to the extent of projecting Rahul Gandhi-led Congress as the viable alternative, at least, in the short run or immediately. Some of them have gone even to the extent of endorsing Rahul Gandhi as the prime-ministerial candidate in the coming elections. Such liberals justify what Lenin said about them almost a century ago, “When a liberal is abused, he says, ‘Thank God they didn’t beat me.’ When he is beaten, he thanks God they didn’t kill him. When he is killed, he will thank God that his immortal soul has been delivered from its mortal clay.” Their logic still works precisely in the same way. They contend that Rahul Gandhi and the Congress are definitely not a progressive or left force, but, in the present scenario, where the menace of fascism is looming large, we should support (or even pray!) that the Congress emerge victorious in the coming Lok Sabha elections. Such left-liberals completely forget about the essential teaching of proletarian politics: constituting an independent political position of the working class in every social and political sphere. Working towards constituting such an independent political position of the working class and constituting the working class as an independent political class, is absent from their agenda. Consequently, they preach the working masses to tail-end this or that bourgeois or petty- bourgeois party, which appears as a way to ensure immediate relief or respite. Such liberals became nostalgic about Atal Bihari Vajpayee, when L.K. Advani came to the fore in communal fascist politics; then they became teary-eyed about Advani, when the fuhrer-cult of Modi emerged, leaving far-behind even the ‘iron man’ of Hindutva politics; we would not be surprised if, with the probable rise of a new rabid fascist figure like Yogi, who openly invokes the yellow-faced sick petty-bourgeoisie to rape corpses of Muslim women, these same left-liberals become slushy about Modi! Such is the reasoning of the liberal-left. The correct communist position is to strive to constitute the independent political position of the working class in each and every sphere, including the bourgeois elections. The cries for the unity of democratic forces against fascism reminds one of what Marx said about such maudlin calls, “Even when there is no prospect whatsoever of their being elected, the workers must put up their own candidates in order to preserve their independence, to count their forces, and to bring before the public their revolutionary attitude and party standpoint. In this connection they must not allow themselves to be seduced by such arguments of the democrats as, for example, that by so doing they are splitting the democratic party and making it possible for the reactionaries to win. The ultimate intention of all such phrases is to dupe the proletariat. The advance which the proletarian party is bound to make by such independent action is indefinitely more important than the disadvantage that might be incurred by the presence of a few reactionaries in the representative body.” The left liberals fail to understand precisely this point,or rather, they feign such stupidity. Consequently, the moot point for the communist revolutionaries is to understand the necessity to work for building an independent political position of the working class. Moreover, they must differentiate between the fascist bourgeois forces and the centre-right, centrist and other bourgeois forces. To equate different forms that the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie assumes disarms us from devising concrete correct strategy and tactics of struggle against fascism. Consequently, the principal target of the revolutionary propaganda must be the fascist forces, namely, the RSS and the BJP. Such propaganda, if carried out in the correct fashion, also exposes the centre-right, centrist and other bourgeois forces. Secondly, the communist revolutionary forces must focus on exposing the social-democracy, since it is these forces that keep the working class within the roundabout of economism and trade-unionism. We know how such a logic proved detrimental for the working-class in Germany and Italy in the early-20th century, and gave impetus to the reactionary social movement of the petty-bourgeoisie, which proved to be the nemesis of trade-unionist and economistic workers’ movement under the leadership of Fascist and Nazi parties. Thirdly, the revolutionary communist forces must strive to build a united front of the working class against fascism. The strategy of ‘popular front’ cannot work today as there are no forces besides the revolutionary communists who could fight against fascism in a meaningful way. Moreover, the strategy of ‘popular front’ even in the 1930s had a number of problems, into which we cannot go here. However, this much seems to be certain that the strategy of Comintern in the mid- 1920s and the late-1920s, namely, that of the united front of the working class is more suited for circumstances of present times, though in a new way. Therefore, it is essential that we understand fascism as a reactionary social movement of the petty-bourgeoisie which serves the interests of big monopoly capital. Fascism is not just any right-wing bourgeois reaction. It is a particular kind of bourgeois reaction which takes the form of an organized reactionary social movement led by a cadre-based fascist party, guided by a fascist ideology. That is why it is an exceptional form of bourgeois dictatorship, along with the other two exceptional forms like military junta and Bonapartism. However, the latter two are not characterized by an organized reactionary social movement led by a cadre-based organization. In this sense, fascism is different even from these two other exceptional forms of bourgeois dictatorship and is particularly dangerous for the working class. Secondly, it is imperative to see that the 21st century avatar of fascism is not the repeat telecast of early-20th century fascism. The 21st century fascists too have learnt from the 20th century fascist experience. That is why, there are certain changes in the modus operandi of fascism today. For instance, now the fascists do not simply do away with the parliamentary form through some exceptional laws, etc. They keep the shell of parliamentary bourgeois democracy intact, while making it as empty as possible. This has become comparatively easier in the age of globalization, the last phase of imperialism, that is, the decaying, moribund and rotting capitalism. Even the centre-right bourgeois parties have least regard for the most basic civil, democratic and labour rights, when in power, even though they do not command an organized reactionary social movement. Fascism today can come to or go out of power through parliamentary elections and yet remain in the society as a force to reckon with. It grows like a repeated paroxysmal activity, as we can see from the rise of Hindutva fascism, especially since 1984. Even Modi can go out of power. However, that would not signal the end of fascism. Hindutva fascism will come to power with renewed ferocity, if the working class fails to build a revolutionary independent political position and create a socialist alternative, which is possible only if there is a revolutionary communist party in India equipped with correct ideological and programmatic understanding. Only the working class under the leadership of such vanguard can stop fascism. Therefore, rejoicing at the defeat of the BJP in four states is natural; however, to extend this celebration to supporting the Congress, or the victory of the Congress, disarms the revolutionary forces striving to constitute the independent political position of the working class and thus disarms the working class from resisting the rise of fascism effectively. Therefore, let us celebrate very briefly and then move on to our work of building a revolutionary working-class alternative without any delay. The right slogan for today would be: Carpe minutam!
