A change of managers to implement the same anti-worker,
anti-peasant program

The results of Assembly elections to the three states of Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur are in.

The ruling Congress Party has been defeated, as expected, in the elections to the Punjab and Uttarakhand Assemblies. In Punjab, a coalition of Akali Dal and BJP has come to power, while in Uttarakhand, the BJP has managed to come to power by a narrow margin. On the other hand, in the multi-phased elections to the Manipur Assembly, the Congress Party has managed to return to power.

These elections took place at a time when the policies of the UPA government at the Center and the Congress Party in the states have evoked widespread opposition from workers, peasants and the middle strata. The "human face" of the UPA government’s program has been revealed as merely a cover-up for the reality of widespread destruction of livelihood and assault on rights. The UPA government at the Center has been identified as a government that vigorously defends and advances the interests of multinationals, Indian and foreign, and brutally crushes the aspirations of workers, peasants and working people.

The bourgeoisie has fine tuned its system of rule in our country so that it offers two or more parties and coalitions as "choices" to the people. These parties and coalitions all have the same common program, but they demagogically pretend to be different. When one party or coalition gets discredited, the bourgeoisie brings forward its rival to power, to carry on the same program. This is what can be seen once again in these state assembly elections.

The crucial issue confronting people has been political power — how people will have power to change the conditions in their own favour. These elections were notable for the widespread disgust amongst workers, peasants and working people, for a political system in which people are deprived of power. The Communist Ghadar Party of India and other organizations of the people carried out a vigorous campaign, exposing the present political system and process and calling upon the people to select their own candidates from amongst themselves, in order to challenge the domination of the big political parties of the establishment through the party-nominated candidates. This campaign drew very enthusiastic response from the people.

The elections in Punjab took place in a situation of grave agricultural crisis. The last few years have witnessed massive struggles of peasants and workers and working people against privatization, and the assault on their livelihood. In Uttarakhand, the extreme poverty and lack of development, which have forced its best sons and daughters to seek education and livelihood in different parts of the country, far away from home, have continued to be major issues of concern for its people. There have been many agitations on these concerns. The issue in these elections was how far and to what extent the peasants and workers organizations and other organizations of the people would come together to challenge the domination of the political parties of the bourgeoisie.

There are many forces, including communists of different groups, which claim to defend the interests of the working masses and oppose the present system. However, the hesitation amongst such forces to unite and put forward a new political process that will bring workers and peasants to power, is assisting the bourgeoisie to maintain the status quo. Both, those sections of the communists who have merged completely with the present political process and those who advocate boycott of elections on a strategic basis, are objectively acting as a roadblock to opening the path to political power in the hands of workers and peasants.

The media has once again touted the “anti-incumbency factor” to explain the defeat of the Congress in Punjab and Uttarakhand. What is not explained is why, if a government is carrying out a program in the interests of the people, should it be voted out of power. The point is that the system only permits parties of the bourgeoisie to replace one another in power and carry on the same program in the interests of the bourgeoisie. The entire electoral process is loaded in favour of this. This system enables the capitalist class to maintain its rule, through parties whose program is to facilitate capitalist-imperialist plunder — a class rule that cannot and will not provide security and prosperity to the people. Within this situation, the bourgeoisie uses the elections to choose one of its trusted parties that is best capable of fooling the people and carrying out its bidding at this time.

In Manipur, the entire state has been in the grip of a prolonged agitation for the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Literally every political party in Manipur, including the Congress Chief Minister Ibobi Singh and his Party, the BJP, the CPI, and others had publicly proclaimed their commitment to the immediate repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Simultaneously, efforts were made by the Indian state and its intelligence agencies to provoke Naga-Meitei hostilities and to divide the electorate on communal lines. In the end, what came through was that every single MLA who was elected was elected on the plank of opposing AFSPA!

The Central Government and its apologists in the media are making out that the victory of the Congress in Manipur is a signal that the people of Manipur are not opposed to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act! A more cynical analysis of elections cannot be found! The fact that all the candidates and parties that stood in the polls including the Congress openly campaigned for repeal of AFSPA is deliberately ignored by such apologists. The people of Manipur had little choice in these elections, except to ensure that the MLAs who were elected would oppose the AFSPA and call for its repeal. What is ignored is that the relations between the Centre and the state is such that the AFSPA has been imposed on the people of Manipur violating their will, and violating the will of the elected representatives of Manipur. Even if the Manipur Assembly passes a resolution calling for the repeal of AFSPA, the Central Government can overrule it. This is revealing the flaw in the existing political system, whereby the nations and peoples constituting the Indian Union have been deprived of all power. It is pointing to the urgent need for reconstitution of the Indian Union, so that sovereignty vests in the constituent peoples like the Manipuri people.

The times are calling for a thorough-going renewal of the political process. If the concerns of the workers, peasants, adivasis, nationalities and all the toiling people of India are to be addressed, if our rights over our land and natural resources are to be asserted and defended, if we are to be able to make the crucial decisions that affect our lives, then political power must belong to us, the toiling masses, who constitute the overwhelming majority of the population in the towns and villages. It is no longer possible to continue with this political process which merely allows one set of plunderers to replace another while making out that the people “have a choice”. The Communist Ghadar Party of India calls upon all political forces interested in the well-being and future of our people to unite and actively organize and agitate for a new political process, that will ensure political power in the hands of the working masses and the mechanisms to control our own destiny.