Gujarat Has Posed the Question,
India Must Find the Answer

Last week, commenting on Vajpayee's belated Ahmedabad visit we had described it as adding an insult to injury. The proceedings of the BJP national leadership's Goa session and Vajpayee's public speech have only added more insults in a language that even the most liberal admirers of Vajpayee should be able to understand. While Vajpayee vilified and demonised Islam in a manner that one has come to associate more readily with President Bush and his ilk, the BJP not only refused to touch Modi, but also asked him to go ahead with his idea of holding a snap poll in Gujarat. There could not possibly be a more macabre method of manipulating an electoral win.

Meanwhile, the call for removal of Narendra Modi is being echoed from all corners of the country and from almost all quarters of the non-BJP political spectrum. The more the BJP tries to brush aside the whole demand as an internal affair of the party and the parivar, the more it threatens to upset the NDA's apple cart. For the first time since the 1999 elections, the TDP has struck a discordant note. The Trinamul Congress has joined the TDP while rumblings can be heard in sections of parties like the Lok Janshakti and even Samta Party. Whether or not Chandrababu Naidu really chooses to pull the trigger now, the BJP cannot count for long on the TDP's support. Devoid of the TDP's backing, the BJP's only hope for survival lies in buying support from Mayawati's BSP and Jayalalitha's AIADMK. And the BJP knows it only too well that it is not exactly an easy and enjoyable proposition! By all accounts, therefore, what we are seeing now is the beginning of the end of Vajpayee III. The countdown is on.

In Goa, the BJP called upon its ranks to get ready to face the challenge from the Congress. But what has the Congress done so far except winning the elections in Punjab, Uttaranchal and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, and refusing to play ball with the BJP on the issue of POTA? On Gujarat, the party has merely raised the demand for removal of Narendra Modi, but within the state the party is mortally afraid of hitting the streets on this issue. Restoration of law and order, and not justice, security and equal status for the minority Muslim and Christian communities, remains the central plank of the Congress. Historically, it is this opportunist, defensive response of the Congress to the Sangh parivar's aggressive brand of majoritarianism that has enabled the BJP to grow through the late 1980s and 1990s to its present position of strength.

Gujarat has clinically unmasked the fascist agenda of the BJP. The press and the electronic media played a key role in conveying the horror of the holocaust in Gujarat and almost all institutions of the nation-state have censured and condemned the Gujarat developments. It clearly shows that there are still pockets of resistance left within the system and the ruling classes remain divided on the BJP's communal fascist agenda. The BJP will also have to face some amount of international criticism and isolation on this issue. An internal report of the British High Commission is said to have stressed the pre-meditated nature of the ongoing anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat. But democracy in India cannot survive merely on the basis of some half-hearted resistance from within the system or on the indignation of some international institutions.

Fascism can only be vanquished through popular resistance. However much, the BJP may try and whip up communal frenzy in Gujarat, peace remains the foremost concern of the people in the state. And all over the country, there is a growing popular mood for change, for freeing India from the fascist prison of the saffron brigade. Left and democratic forces must harness this growing sense of disillusionment into a resolute resistance against fascism. Gujarat has posed the question in a most compelling manner. India must find a firm and convincing answer. Over to the people of India.

Nationwide Protest Demanding Modi's Dismissal and PM's Resignation

CPI(ML) held nationwide protests on 15 April to reiterate its demand for an immediate dismissal of Narendra Modi in Gujarat and resignation of PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee against continuing violence and deteriorating communal situation in Gujarat, and Central Govt's connivance with the Narendra Modi govt.

In Delhi, Party held a 'March to Parliament' from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar led by Party General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya along with CC member Swapan Mukherjee, Delhi State Secretary Rajendra Pratholi and AISA National President Kavita Krishnan. Com. Prem Singh, Party Incharge of Haryana, Delhi University teachers' front leader Tapas Ranjan Saha, Md. Salim, Vice President, RYA and Party leader from Punjab, Jita Kaur were also present. At Parliament Street the effigies of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi were burnt and a mass meeting was held.

Addressing the meeting Com. Dipankar said that the Narendra Modi government has proved itself to be the most destructive regime since independence. The people of this country cannot be fooled for long and such a terrorising government cannot and will not be allowed to last long. He also said that a desperate BJP is now going ahead with its fascist agenda and as Vajpayee has become a spokesperson of the RSS hurting sentiments of millions of countrymen and further aggravating the sense of insecurity among minority community, now has no right to stay as Prime Minister. By enacting the thoroughly repressive and draconian POTA through a joint session of Parliament, the BJP has made it clear that it is prepared to go to any extent to subvert the Constitution and 'legalise' its fascist project. Merely handing out a few electoral defeats to the BJP is not enough; the fascist project needs to be buried forever. A vibrant people's democracy, which is marked by consistent secularism, a bold, anti-imperialist foreign policy, and a socialist, pro-people economic orientation, can really smash this fascist offensive.

The CPI(ML) has appealed to all left, democratic, progressive and peace loving individuals and organisations to come forward and join hands in efforts to secure confidence among people, particularly minorities, and to frustrate the fascist designs of the BJP and Sangh destroying the secular fabric of the country.

In Jaipur, Party held a mass meeting to oppose the communal fascist agenda of BJP and its governments in Gujarat and Jharkhand. It was addressed by CC member Srilata Swaminathan and Rajasthan Party Secy. Mahender Chaudhary.

Earlier, a convention was held on 9 April at Karandighi in North Dinajpur of W.B. to demand Modi's resignation and to oppose POTO. It was addressed by Com. Iliyas, Sujit Datta, Mohanlal Singh, Mandhilal, Anil Saha and Pravesh Mahato.

Movement to Get Mahendra Singh Released Intensifies

The movement to get Mahendra Singh and other comrades has intensified. Since 8 April mass dharna is going on in Giridih town and on 12 April a 5,000 strong procession was taken out there by Giridih district Party Committee. On the same day statewide 'Jail Bharo' movement was launched in which tens of thousand activists and sympathisers courted arrest. On 13 April, Coal Mines Workers Union stopped coal despatch throughout Jharkhand to protest arrest of its president. Jharkhand State Committee has given a call to observe Jharkhand Bandh to press this demand on 16 April.

Party Rally in Rayagada, Orissa

In Rayagada of Orissa, more than 2,000 people, mostly tribals, staged a militant march on 15 April under the banner of CPI(ML) through the streets of the town demanding resignation of Modi and Vajpayee and opposing POTO. They also held a mass meeting at the end of the procession, which was addressed by Central Committee member Com. Maleshwar Rao, Incharge of Orissa, Com. N Murthy, Secy. of Andhra Party organisation, Khitish Biswal, Secy. of Orissa state unit, and Orissa Party leaders Dandapani Mohanty and Tirupati Gomango.

Party Team Visits Ahmedabad

A four-member probe and relief team comprising Com. Swapan Mukherjee, GS of AICCTU, Haryana incharge Prem Singh, RYA Vice President Md. Salim, and DU Academic Council member Tapas Ranjan Saha, visited Ahmedabad on 11-12 April. The team was assisted by Gujarat Party incharge Com. Ranjan Ganguli, trade union leaders Laxmanbhai Patanwadia, Kantilal Dabhi and HD Pagare. The team visited relief camps and met leaders/intellectuals from minority community and donated Rs. 90,000 to the relief agencies.

Resolve of April 22, 2002:
Defeat Communal Fascism! Intensify the Battle for Secularism and Democracy! Strengthen the Party as the Developing Centre of Communist Resurgence in India!

(A slightly abridged version of the call issued by Party General Secretary Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya on the eve of Party Foundation Day this year)

THIS APRIL 22 we observe the thirty-third anniversary of the foundation of our beloved and glorious Party. As we reaffirm our supreme revolutionary commitment, we must take a close look not only at the unfolding national and international situation but also at our own state of affairs. And we must make all-out efforts to bridge the gap between the demands of the developing situation and our own state of preparedness.

Internationally, we find ourselves in the midst of a US-led global war. The US imperialists have defined it as the first war of the new century. It is a war without any definite territorial border or time frame; in fact, it is a war without any fixed enemy. But the strategic goal of the war is crystal clear: to translate the military superiority of the US into durable politico-economic domination over the entire world.

A war of this kind is, however, easier begun than won. Ousting the tottering Taliban regime in a war-worn Afghanistan and imposing an imported cosmetic order on Kabul was the easier part of the war for the Bush administration. The more difficult parts are only beginning now. The longer the US forces stay in Afghanistan, the more inhospitable conditions will they have to face. The proposed extension of the war along and around what President Bush has termed the 'axis of evil' has invited strong opposition from among his own allies. Similarly, in the face of worldwide opposition, US-backed Israeli aggressors will now be under increasing pressure to withdraw troops from the soil of Palestine.

Most significantly, the aftermath of September 11 has failed to derail the fledgling anti-globalisation movement or dampen its spirit. If anything, the so-called global war on terrorism has only served to further politicise the movement and raise the average general level of anti-globalisation consciousness to a more determined opposition to imperialism in general and war and racism in particular. With millions losing their jobs even in the first world and the spectre of synchronised recession and acute uncertainty continuing to haunt almost all major sectors and centres of world capitalism, there is a new worldwide surge in working class struggles and anti-capitalist movement.

True, some fence-sitters, bourgeois liberals as well as reformist socialists, have once again wavered and fallen on the wrong side of the fence, but for every wavering and retreating step of these renegades we can see the anti-war movement press ahead in determined and advancing strides. From Buenos Aires and Porto Alegre to Barcelona and Rome, the message of the movement is getting unquestionably louder and clearer.

The Indian ruling classes and especially their current representatives in power, the communal fascist BJP and its NDA allies, have however chosen this occasion to strike a stronger strategic partnership with the US imperialists. Ironically, the same turn of events has also rendered Pakistan into an even more sought-after ally of the US. Thus the traditional rivalry between India and Pakistan has reached a new plane of contention for securing a greater share of American approval and blessings. In the process, the fascists have unmasked themselves as the worst collaborators of US imperialism in a country that had been a British colony for so long. From being traitors to the struggle for national independence in the colonial era to becoming the most trusted agents of US imperialism in the twenty-first century, new chapters of crime are daily being added to the ignominious history of the RSS.

It is of course encouraging to note that even as the Indian ruling classes have sided most shamelessly with the US imperialist war-machine, the popular democratic opinion in the country has refused to fall in line. The pro-imperialist pro-war agenda of the communal fascists received a major drubbing in the February elections to four State Assemblies. Even the issue of Ayodhya failed to generate any electoral enthusiasm in the shrinking and demoralised saffron camp. And whatever ambitious assessments the BJP may make about the possible electoral benefits of the ongoing anti-Muslim violence and communal polarisation in Gujarat, in the rest of the country popular resentment against the saffron regime continues to run high. Witness the results of the municipal corporation polls in Delhi held in late March, in which the BJP could only secure dozen-odd seats.

A desperate BJP is of course going ahead with its fascist agenda. The RSS has openly sought to justify the Gujarat developments in its recent Bangalore resolution by asking Muslims in India to secure their existence by earning the goodwill of the majority Hindu community. And by enacting the thoroughly repressive and draconian POTA through a joint session of Parliament, the BJP has made it clear that it is prepared to go to any extent to subvert the Constitution and 'legalise' its fascist project.

As revolutionary communists, we have to rise to the occasion and take the fascist bull by its horns. It is said that when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. The hour of crisis is the hour of reckoning. History teaches us that there can be no compromise with fascism, no middle-of-the-road solution. Merely handing out a few electoral defeats to the BJP is not enough; the fascist project needs to be buried for good. And only a vibrant people's democracy, which is marked by consistent secularism, a bold, anti-imperialist foreign policy, and a socialist, pro-people economic orientation, can really smash the fascist offensive.

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The Indian communist movement, in the broader sense of the term, is passing through a critical juncture. The CPI(M) and CPI recently held their Party Congresses. The CPI held its congress in Congress-ruled Kerala and the focus, for all practical purposes, was on facilitating an expected revival of the Congress to hold the BJP at bay! The CPI(M) held its Congress in TDP-ruled Andhra Pradesh and the star attraction (albeit 'absentee') of the entire show was Chandrababu Naidu who had a 'courtesy meeting' with his West Bengal counterpart! The land of Telengana is one state where the communist movement has not only a glorious past but also a vibrant present, its apparent electoral 'marginalisation' notwithstanding. This is one state that has been particularly notorious for a most comprehensive implementation of the neo-liberal economic policies designed and dictated by the Fund-Bank establishment. And this is also the one state where as many as nine Left parties have a history of waging powerful united struggles. Yet an occasion like the highest assembly of the biggest communist party in the state was not used to address vital questions concerning the revival of the party and the future of Left unity. The illusion of weaning away the 'prodigal' TDP from the fold of the NDA got the better of the real interests of ongoing struggles in the state.

This systematic dilution of the independence and identity of the Left has now become the hallmark of the tactical line of both CPI and CPI(M) and this is how they have effectively sealed their own future in the Hindi belt and increasingly also in states like Punjab and Andhra where the communist movement used to have a major presence till recently. Any temporary shift from this otherwise permanent policy is made only on pragmatic grounds of electoral survival. For example, the CPI(M) in Kerala and Tripura is still wary of the Congress much as the CPI is of the RJD in Bihar. And this paralysing politics of uncritical alliances, this pragmatic culture of cooption and dependence, thrives on and also reinforces, a more fundamental sacrifice or neglect of the interests and struggles of the oppressed poor and working people. In sharp contrast, we must continue to lay the greatest of emphases on promoting the independent mobilisation of the rural poor and on safeguarding and asserting the independent identity of the communist party even as we join hands with a wide range of democratic forces in a whole array of anti-fascist struggles. The reaction of the progressive intelligentsia to the happenings in Gujarat and Ayodhya is notably sharp and we should fully explore the possibilities of integrating their protests with the assertion of the basic masses.

The anarchists too lie trapped in a labyrinth largely of their own making. Around this time last year, the PWG held a 'protracted' Party Congress lasting for nearly a month. It was a commendable move considering that this was the first time in its history that the PWG bothered to have an exercise of this nature. But instead of trying to analyse the changes that have occurred over the three decades since the May 1970 Congress of the united CPI(ML), the PWG adopted an ideological resolution calling for elevating Mao Ze Dong Thought to the level of Maoism, a term which the CPI(ML) movement has never used since its inception. Even the Chinese party has all along, including at the time of Mao, claimed that Mao Ze Dong Thought was nothing more than an extension of Marxism-Leninism in certain respects through its concrete application to the specific conditions of China. The CPI(ML) of course included and continues to include Mao Ze Dong Thought as a guiding principle of the party precisely because of its wider relevance to the third world and especially India. But the PWG detaches Mao Thought from Marxism-Leninism so as to make it an independent theoretical system and thereby seeks to fit Mao into its petty-bourgeois strait-jacket.

While in their theory, India today is presumably becoming increasingly similar to pre-1949 China, in practice they have no choice but to operate in a different world. This increasing hiatus between theory and practice is causing serious confusion and debates in the group. In Andhra, they have made an unconditional offer to hold talks with the Naidu government, and the incidence of surrender and retreat is already on the increase. Some leaders of the group's West Bengal unit have recently left it after they apparently failed to have a satisfactory internal debate or discussion on some major questions. The debates concern the group's isolation from the organised working class and negation of conscious political work even as it practises economism and worships spontaneity. As on the one hand, the line of demarcation between the CPI(ML)(PWG) and anti-CPI(ML) MCC gets more and more blurred, and more and more cadre 'stray' pragmatically into the institutions of panchayati raj, if not higher levels of parliamentary democracy, it would be interesting to see how the PWG negotiates this juncture. For us at CPI(ML), the line of demarcation between Marxism and anarchism remains clear and consistent, and we firmly believe that a revolutionary negation of social-democracy provides the best answer to anarchism as well.

Strengthen the CPI(ML) as the core of communist resurgence in India!
Long live CPI(ML)!
Red Salute to our great martyrs!

Popular Rebellion Defeats Right-wing Coup in Venezuela

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez returned triumphantly on 14 April as the military coup of 11 April collapsed in the face of a rebellion by loyalist troops and massive protests. He had been held under arrest by military top brass in favor of US backed oil baron Pedro Carmona.

Following a firing on a demonstration masterminded by trade union bureaucracy in alliance with the oil baron, calling for Chavez's resignation, Carmona's staged a coup with the help of military top brass and formed an interim government and blamed Chavez for the deaths. It hurriedly abolished Venezuela's constitution, dismissed Congress, the Supreme Court, the attorney general's office and the comptroller's office, saying that general elections would be held within a year. No Latin American government recognized the junta, only US was quick to recognise it. Revolutionary "Chavistas" staged an uprising, they seized the state-run TV station on 13 April. Following this "peaceful" insurrection, Pedro Carmona Estanga, the military terrorist-dictator escaped and took refuge at the US Embassy after the popular uprising. Millions of people demonstrated on the streets of Caracas and throughout Venezuela against the US-sponsored coup. 14 generals commanding 20 battalions declared they are against the coup. Tens of thousands of people surrounded the presidential palace on 14 April after the news of interim president Carmona's resignation.

What has happened in Venezuela is truly unprecedented in the world. The Venezuelan people and majority of its armed forces have written a new page for Venezuelan, Latin American, and perhaps world history. And it is a crushing defeat of USA in her own backyard, because he could not make an Allende out of Chavez.

Iraq hailed the return to power of fiery Venezuelan populist Hugo Chavez as a "victory against American conspiracy." Argentina's Communist Party (PCA) said that the coup in Venezuela is another chapter of the Latin American drama of coups, violations of democracy, invasions, and genocide encouraged by the US. "The government of President Hugo Chavez sought the unity of oil producing countries, fostered a relationship of solidarity and respect with Cuba, and did not allow foreign planes to use its air space to bomb Colombian territories." So Chávez did not fit in with President Bush's vision. But the uprising made it clear that Chávez continued to enjoy vast popular support, particularly that of the poorest sections of the city that helped propel him back to power.