K.N. RAMACHANDRAN
This article reached us sometime ago but could not be used earlier for unavoidable reasons.
Kuldip Nayar had concluded his article “Where is the Vision?”(Mainstream, June 30) with these words: “The people's dilemma is that both the national parties, the Congress and the BJP, riven as they are with groupism and ambitions, do not qualify to lead the nation. How I wish there were some party, even though small, that had the vision to retrieve the country and take it forward!” Expanding this idea, Bharat Dogra has also explained his vision of a party “which will never sacrifice its basic principles” for immediate electoral gains. “It will prefer to sit in the Opposition rather than sacrifice its principles.” He has concluded by saying that the lead can be taken by “some eminent persons in this direction” and that “the country really needs such an initiative”. (Mainstream, July 14) Few months back Mainstream (November 12, 2011) had published an appeal by S.G. Vombatkere: “Urgent Need for Left Unity and Coordinated Progressive Action”.
In response to Vombatkere's appeal we had sent a response in which it was pointed out that as the so-called Left parties are themselves having basic differences on the vision to lead the country forward, it is better to go for a unity of Left and democratic forces based on a programme for People's Alternative to the present ruling system. As we had apprehended, nothing happened after that in spite of some efforts by him to contact those parties in his list. Recently some of the members of Team Anna also had expressed the view that neither the Congress, nor BJP, nor any of the present ruling parties can put forward a people's alternative, and efforts should be made to build a genuine alternative so that systemic changes can be materialised by effectively intervening in the 2014 general elections. When asked whether it will take the initiative for this, the reply was an emphatic ‘no'. They hoped that some new force will emerge to satisfy the need for a People's Alternative.
So, even though a large number of politically active individuals and groups, besides the vast majority of the masses, who are suffering from acute pauperisation and ever increasing miseries after six decades of so-called independence, are seeking a people's alternative, no such efforts have materialised or possibilities for such an alternative with countrywide influence have emerged so far. During the last decades when CPI-M-led Left Front came to power for continuous 34 years in Bengal, for many years in Kerala and for long periods in Tripura, there was expectation among many that this opportunity will be utilised by it for putting into practice an alternative to the reactionary ruling system. But as it refused to go for alternate policies and instead basically pursued the very same policies of the Central Government, the Left Front Government soon got degenerated and became corrupt like any other State Government pursuing neo-liberal policies with disastrous effects on the people. The pity is that in spite of the electoral debacle in the 2011 elections, its leadership does not see anything wrong in what they were doing. If it returns to power it is going to repeat what it was doing. Its government is justifying the deployment of the Army and imposition of the AFSPA still in Tripura! Its two sections are quarrelling in Kerala, not for an alternative policy perspective, but it is merely a quarrel for leadership.
If the CPI-M has degenerated into opportunism in this manner, on the other side, the Maoists, pursuing anarchist practice through the few squads they have in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha, are in effect used as a cover by the Central and State forces to shoot down the adivasis indiscriminately and to put down all mass movements coming up in different States. Again, if one goes in search of individuals as an alternative, it will only lead us to benevolent dictators. What is required is a People's Alter-native, a platform of like-minded Left, demo-cratic, Dalit and adivasi forces, based on a prog-ramme of systemic change and social justice; a programme which rejects the imperialist dictated development policy which pauperises vast masses and devastates the country, and instead puts forward a people-oriented and sustainable development policy, rejecting consumerism and capitalist lust.
It is in this context that the efforts made by the CPI-ML in this direction should be seen. At a time when almost all the so-called Left parties and groups, who adopt the line of utilising all forms of struggle including participation in the elections, have either become apologists of neo-liberal policies, or are seeking electoral under-standing with parties representing the interests of the elite classes, or refuse to go for any electoral fronts, the CPI-ML has succeeded to launch a Democratic People's Forum based on a ten-point programme in which a number of organisations, mostly having State level presence, are already brought together. A countrywide initiative has been launched to bring together Dalit, adivasi, peasant organisations active in different States also on this platform.
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THE ten-point programme put forward by the DPF includes:
1. Reject imperialist globalisation and neo-liberal policies. Oppose imperialist domination through IMF-World Bank-WTO and MNCs.
2. Defend existing constitutional, democratic and secular rights and fight for their expansion. Judiciary should function within the constitu-tional framework, not under a neo-liberal frame-work.
3. Make all-out efforts to end corruption in all fields. Confiscate black money deposited in foreign banks.
4. Fight against all displacements for neo-liberal projects. Confiscate all land from mafias, big landlords etc. Implement land reforms based on land to the tiller.
5. Fight price rise. Struggle for universal public distribution system. Ensure education, health-care, housing and employment for all.
6. Struggle for need-based wages, job security and democratic rights of the working class. Stop contract and casual, contract labour system.
7. Ensure adivasis' right over their land and natural resources. Ensure Sixth Schedule in adivasi areas. Organise Dalits, adivasis and minorities to resist casteist and communal oppression. Struggle for a casteless and secular society.
8. Fight all forms of gender discrimination. Ensure women's equality in all fields.
9. Scrap AFSPA, UAPA and all other black laws. Withdraw military from the J&K and North-East. Fight state terror.
10. Fight imperialist promoted ‘development' policies which devastate nature and pauperise the masses; implement people oriented and sustainable development policy.
This DPF programme can be taken as a basis for further discussions and expansion of the programme including the foreign policy percep-tive also. In the present situation, the imperialist forces, especially US imperialism, are engaged in all forms of neo-colonial policies to transfer the burden of the ever intensifying crisis faced by the international finance capitalist system onto the backs of the people of the vast number of undeveloped countries. For this purpose they use the IMF-World Bank-WTO trio and other imperialist agencies and MNCs. These countries are prevented from pursuing an independent self-reliant development policy. These countries are attacked and controlled to loot their natural resources, especially petroleum, as in the case of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya under various pretexts or are threatened with aggression as in the case of Iran and Syria under various pretexts. In this situation, we are of the view that instead of going for so-called strategic agreements with the US, the Indian Government should ceaselessly try for uniting the under-developed countries for their independence and sovereignty. India should try for transforming the United Nations into a platform for struggle against hegemonic forces and for disarmament and world peace. As a part of this internatio-nalist perspective, India should strive for peaceful political settlement of all disputes with neighbouring countries and based on the principle of equality try for a confederation of the South Asian countries.
Today, the UPA Government is pursuing a nuclear policy which will have dangerous consequences. Already the so-called development policy imposed under imperialist dictates has devastated the environment to a great extent creating violent changes in the climate including ‘global warming'. Instead of struggling against this, the UPA Government is going for a number of nuclear plants in different parts of the country, when after the Fukushima meltdown all the developed countries, including Japan, France, Germany etc., are de-commissioning their nuclear plants. This is in spite of the fact that nuclear technology, including the question of nuclear waste disposal, is still in an infant stage and nuclear power is the costliest. So we should call for an end to nuclear arms, to nuclear plants and to Uranium mining. We should call for developing renewable energy and for the rational use of energy.
The author is the General Secretary, CPI-ML.