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Regular
readers of the Blanket may remember an
article I wrote about a journey I made last winter
in India, in it I mentioned the political situation
there, which for me was somewhat depressing, so it
is with great joy I bring you this postscript. In
the article I commented upon the stifling influence
of the then Governing Party, the Bharatiya Janata
Party, (BJP) led by the then Indian Prime Minister
Mr Vajpayee and its Paramilitary militia the RSS.
I wrote, "The BJP is part of the Hindu fundamentalist
family of groups, which are broadly called the Sangha
Parivar, the family of the Rashtriya Syamsevak Sangh,
or national volunteer group. This is an ideological
group formed in the late 1920s, deriving its inspiration
and much of its practice, including having a Brown
Shirt type Paramilitary group (the RSS) from the life
and work of Adolf Hitler. Like Hitler, they believe
in racial supremacy, in treating the Semitic races
and all non-Hindu races as second-class subjugate
people with no rights to citizenship. They believe
in a brand of cultural nationalism, which brooks absolutely
no variety, no breadth of culture, no range of religion,
a very monolithic mono-colour Hindu culture. Thus
their slogan is, "one nation, one culture, one
people, one language". Something that the Indian
States founders understood only too well hardly fits
the diverse nature of the Indian population."
The Indian middle classes have flocked in great numbers
to the BJP's banner since it was elected to National
office in 1997 (There are echoes of the third Reich
here also, as the German middle classes became the
main support base of Hitler once he attained office
in 1933). The brutal implementation of economic liberalism
that the BJP led Government has practised since 1997,
has allowed the middle and upper classes to enrich
themselves at the expense of the economically poorest
sections of the Christians, Muslim, Sikh communities
along with the poorest amongst the rest of India's
many ethnic minorities. However it should not be over
looked that Vajpayee’s economic policies, due
to the rigid Hindu caste system being brought back
into every day life with the encouragement of his
Government, has also led to those at the bottom end
of the Hindu caste system being plunged into poverty.
Laws that had been in place for decades banning discrimination
against the lowest Hindu caste, the Dalits, known
in the west as the untouchables, were on the instructions
of Vajpayee’s Central Government no longer to
be enforced by local authorities and the police and
judiciary under their control. Plunging hundreds of
millions of the untouchables into abject poverty,
especially in the countryside, in which the overwhelming
majority of the Indian population still reside (Note--An
ethnic minority in India, can consist of millions
of people, for example India's Muslims community consists
of over 100 million souls).
Briefly that was the situation leading up to the recent
Election in India to the Lok Sabha, India's Parliament.
Politically the BJP were confident of returning to
office, the masses were cowering in their hunger and
misery, whilst the Indian middle classes were solidly
on board the BJP's bandwagon. Happy as pigs in S---
with the materialist riches the government of Mr Vajpayee
had brought them, many of them now even having a Servant
girl to kick around much as their former masters the
British once did. The opposition they faced, The Congress
Party appeared to be a shadow of its former self and
was led by not only a foreigner, but also a women
too boot, Sonia Gandhi. Even if the Indian masses
were not as weary with hunger and cow-tailed by unemployment
as the BJP leadership thought, Mr Vajpayee and his
senior advisers were confident that they would not
cast their vote for a foreigner. This anti foreigner
stance was the handle on which the BJP were to hang
their campaign strategy. As far as the masses were
concerned it was to be bigotry and prejudice propaganda
directed at them from the BJP and Mr Vajpayee. The
educated middle classes were by and large on board,
in the bank. All they needed the BJP leadership concluded
was a touch of flattery and praise about how it was
they, the middle classes who had brought about India‘s
latest economic miracle, plus a sophisticated bit
of Red baiting would do no harm. The BJP campaign
managers assumed, that Congress having formed a loose
coalition to fight the election with the Communist
Party of India (M), CPI, Revolutionary Socialist Party
and the India Forward bloc, a bit of good old fashioned
red baiting on their part could only help ensure the
middle class were securely on board, tied neatly with
a bow. Such Anti Red propaganda might go down well
in the countryside with the peasantry too.
Come polling days (India is a big place) the aforementioned
is about how the BJP leadership and it's rank and
file saw things panning out, they were in a triumphalist
mood with seemingly six more years of power before
them. The local and international Media and it's analysts,
International Governments, Capital, both local and
international and if truth were told the majority
of Congress leaders also saw things in much the same
way. It was however not to be, something was stirring
in the minds of those who lived along the alley ways
and back streets of the working class neighbourhoods
of India's town's and cities. The same was going on
amongst the peasantry and day labourers out in the
villages and countryside. India's poor, downtrodden,
wretched of the earth had experienced enough of the
economic neo liberalism that the worlds economic gurus
and the World Bank had said would bring salvation
and prosperity to the worlds poor. No economic miracle
had passed their way, more of a monsoon of pestilence
raining down upon them had occurred, with unemployment
and ever increasing poverty being their daily lot.
The BJP's policy of privatising India's massive State
sector of the economy, at knock down prices often
to their own financial supporters, without a thought
as to what would become of the people who worked within
these industries and thus whose families depended
upon them for their daily bread, would make Thatcher's
decimation of the British Mining Industry, 'almost'
look like a benevolent act. At least British miners
had the dole to fall back on; ten's of millions of
Indian public sector workers were thrown out without
a penny, nor any future prospects of earning one.
When the masses stacked up before them their BJP campaign
chips, Sonia being a foreigner, a woman, her being
in bed with the Communists. None of it mattered much,
as the Americans say, it did not add up to a row of
beans in their daily lives. It was the record of the
BJP whilst in Central Government Office that mattered;
this was what and who had placed them in their current
dreadful economic predicament. Sonia Gandhi may not
have been born in India, but so what, she had live
there for decades, has brought honour and dignity
to the name of her dead husband by the manner in which
she conducts herself. Incidentally this was confirmed
to them when she declined Office after the election
result. As to her being a woman, it means nothing
they may have mused; India has had a woman leader
before, as too has Britain and many other democracies.
As to the Red baiting, it went down amongst the masses
like water off a ducks back for have not communists
governed successfully Indian States such as Kerela
and West Punjab the latter with a larger population
than Ireland and Britain put together, with levels
of corruption lower and literacy much higher than
any other Indian States?
And so the Indian wretched of the earth voted, a quite
revolution via the ballot box was taking place. Monetarism,
economic liberalism was being rejected at the ballot
box. The victims were saying no! This is not for us;
we not only have seen it in practice but also suffered
the consequences of it. There has to be another way.
We are uneducated it is up to the politicians and
intellectuals to come up with it. So the Congress
Party entered office not as was first proposed under
Sonia Gandhi as Prime Minister but Mr Marmohan Singh
the first person of his faith to hold that office.
Thus by so doing keeping the hopes of the founders
of the modern Indian State alive, that it should be
above all else a secular and democratic State.
In case any reader feels I have left out the history
and weaknesses of the Congress Party. That is not
what the article is about, it is about the verdict
of the people against the communal platform, assiduously
propagated by the BJP-RSS combine, its brazen pursuit
of pro-rich, pro-big business economic policies and
its abject capitulation to the USA and World Bank.
It was the educated; zoot suited Indian middle classes
who by voting for the BJP, were prepared to consign
their fellow countrymen and women into the misery
of abject poverty and hopelessness whilst enriching
themselves. The down trodden, often uneducated masses
were having none of it and by voting Congress/Left
Bloc were prepared to defend the heritage of their
States founding fathers and demand something better
for all the people of India. Not for the first time,
the masses were right and by being so far ahead of
their political leaders thinking, many of whom are
still clinging to neo liberal economics. One can only
live in hope that Congress and its allies, unlike
in the past, do not betray the trust that the wretched
of the earth has placed in them.
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