Presidential Address to the 35th Conference
ALL INDIA KISAN SABHA (AIKS)
35TH ALL INDIA CONFERENCE
Thrissur, Kerala – 13-16 December 2022
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
Dr Ashok Dhawale
National President, All India Kisan Sabha
Former President of the AIKS Comrade Amra Ram, General Secretary of the AIKS Comrade Hannan Mollah, Reception Committee Chairman Comrade K Radhakrishnan, Reception Committee General Convenor Comrade A C Moideen, AIKS Office Bearers, CKC and AIKC Members, fraternal delegates, our guests, and my dear comrades and friends,
I extend warm revolutionary greetings to all of you who have assembled at Thrissur, the cultural capital of Kerala, for the 35th National Conference of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), which is the oldest, the largest, and the most powerful peasant organisation in India, with a membership of 1 crore 37 lakh spread across 25 states of our country today.
Our National Conference is being held in Kerala after 23 years, in a state which has the distinction of having the strongest unit of the AIKS, built through intense struggles and untold sacrifices over many decades. We pay deep homage to the thousands of martyrs of Kerala, and from all over the country, both before and after independence, who have made the supreme sacrifice of their lives, to keep the red flag flying high. We pay our tribute to the memory of our legendary Kisan leaders of Kerala – Comrades P Krishna Pillai, A K Gopalan, E M S Namboodiripad– and many others.
A HISTORIC STRUGGLE
We are meeting five years after our last Hisar conference in Haryana in October 2017. Thesefive years have seen an unprecedented period in the history of peasant struggles in India. It was crowned by the historic one year fifteen day long united struggle of lakhs of farmers at the borders of Delhi from 26 November 2020 to 11 December 2021. The struggle received massive solidarity from farmers, agricultural workers and the working class from all over the country. It forced the anti-people, pro-corporate, communal, and authoritarian BJP-RSS government of Narendra Modi to repeal the three black Farm Laws in Parliament. That was indeed a magnificent victory.
Since this is the first National Conference of the AIKS after that victory, I take this opportunity to warmly congratulate the farmers of India led by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the workers and employees of India led by the Central Trade Unions (CTUs), and the agricultural workers, women, youth,students, small traders, professionals and all other sections in India and our diaspora abroad, who played a valuable role in fully supporting this extraordinary farmers’ struggle. We deeply appreciate the efforts made by all of them.
As is our general practice, our General Secretary’s Report will take stock of the agrarian situation, our movement and our organisation. In this Presidential Address, we will briefly focus on the political challenges that we have to face and combat in the days ahead.
INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGES
Deadly Covid Pandemic
The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in December 2019 was an extremely serious issue globally and continues to play havoc even three years later. According to official figures in the second week of December 2022, over65 crore people have been infected by Covid the world over and over66.6 lakh have lost their lives. The WHO says that these official figures are gross underestimates, because many countries have deliberately fudged the casualty figures.
Unless the vaccination drive intensifies through a universal global programme, the pandemic will continue to wreak havoc. But global vaccine inequality prevents this from happening. Over80 per cent of the population in high income countries is fully vaccinated whereas only 5 per cent of people in lowincome countries are similarly vaccinated.Some rich countries have refused to remove the patent rights over vaccines. This refusal, primarily to protect the big pharma companies, is leading to high prices that prevent poorer countries from purchasingvaccines and prohibit their domestic production.
The pandemic exposed the inadequate public health care system under capitalism. This was stark in the developing countries.Neo-liberal policies of profit maximisation have led to large-scale privatisation of health facilities. The inability to afford private health care has worsened the chances of survival of lakhs of people. Along with vaccine inequality, this continues to have a disastrous impact on people’s lives, especially in poor and developing countries. The so-called stimulus packages announced by capitalist countries provided very limited direct benefit to the working people, while it was big business that got a bonanza, furthering neo-liberalism’s profit maximisation agenda.
In sharp contrast is the manner in which socialist countries have dealt with the pandemic,with their people-centric policies and public health care systems. They were able to meet the challenge much more effectively than capitalism and once again demonstrated the superiority of socialism. This was seen in the examples of China, Cuba and Vietnam. China was able to contain Covid,and also revived its economy quickly. It supplied vaccines to more than a hundred countries. Cuba, despite the severe economic hardships due to the cruel US blockade, unable to access medicines and equipment from abroad, developed its own domestic vaccines and sent medical missions including supply of vaccines to over 50 countries. Vietnam also effectively controlled the spread of the pandemic.
Aggravating Global Capitalist Crisis
Following the 2008 global financial meltdown generated systemic economic crisis, global capitalism has not been able to recover to the earlier levels. According to the IMF, global GDP growth continuously declined from 5.4 per cent in 2009 to 2.8 per cent in 2019 before the pandemic struck. The pandemic associated lockdowns and production closures saw the global economy contracting by 4.4 per cent in 2020.
The IMF World Economic Outlook, October 2022 says: “Global growth is forecast to slow down from 6.0 percent in 2021 to 3.2 percent in 2022 and 2.7 percent in 2023. This is the weakest growth profile since 2001 except for the global financial crisis and the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic periods.” On October 3, the UN issued a warning that the world is headed for a recession that would inflict more harm than the Covid-19 pandemic because of the behaviour of wealthy nations.Global inflation is forecast to almost double from 4.7 per cent in 2021 to 8.8 per cent in 2022.
Growing Miseries, Rising Inequalities
The combined effect of the Covid pandemic and the global economic recession is having a disastrous impact on the vast majority of the people due to intensified capitalist economic exploitation, which is leading to growing levels of global hunger, rising poverty levels, galloping unemployment, and intense educational and medical deprivation for the vast majority of the world’s children.
The Oxfam Inequality Report 2021 estimates that 11 people are now dying of hunger each minute. The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) estimates that a tenth of the global population, around 81.1 crore, are undernourished, 15 crore children were stunted; and 4.5 crore wasted in 2020. With around 18 crore more facing chronic hunger last year, it is estimated that 30 per cent of the global population, 237 crore, lacked adequate access to food in 2020 – increase of 32 crore in one year.
The global economic crisis and the impact of the Ukraine war are imposing severe burdens on people’s livelihoods. Domestic food price inflation has risen around the world to very high levels. World Bank data between May to September 2022 shows high inflation in almost all countries; 88.9 percent of low-income countries, 91.1 percent of lower-middle-income countries, and 96 percent of upper-middle-income countries have seen inflation levels above 5 percent.
High food prices have triggered a global crisis that is driving millions of people into extreme poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Average wheat, maize, and rice prices in October 2022 are 18 percent, 27 percent, and 10 percent higher, respectively, than in October 2021. The number of people who are experiencing acute food insecurity and will need urgent assistance is likely to climb to 222 million people in 53 countries and territories, according to a FAO report.
People living in extreme poverty were projected to reach 74.5 crore by the end of 2021, an increase of 10 crore. Loss of employment among women around the world cost at least $80,000 crore in lost income in 2020. An additional 4.7 crore more women worldwide are expected to fall into extreme poverty in 2021.
Global unemployment is expected to reach 20.5 crore in 2022, leaping from 18.7 crore in 2019. Global working hours declined by 8.8 per cent in 2020, equivalent to loss of 25.5 crore full time jobs. Women’s employment declined by 5 per cent in 2020 compared to 3.9 per cent in 2019. Youth employment fell 8.7 per cent in 2020 compared to 3.7 per cent for adults.
Labour productivity (21.8 per cent) increased more rapidly than real wages (14.3 per cent) in the first two decades of this century due to the austerity measures implemented post 2008. In terms of social security, 70 per cent or 400 crore people, are either not protected at all, or at best partially protected. Between 2019 and 2020 with growing job losses there was a 10.7 per cent decline in global labour income, equivalent to $3.5 trillion. This further worsened in 2021.
According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 90 per cent of the world’s children’s education was disrupted during the pandemic. As of May 2021, schools in 26 countries were totally closed and in 55 others were partially opened. Children have begun working, grown disillusioned with education, edged out of free or subsidised education as per their country’s laws, thus ensuring that for crores of students this is not a temporary disruption in their education but an abrupt end to it. During the pandemic, online education further exposed the ‘digital divide’ in education.
But on the other hand, inequalities have risen in an obscene manner during this period. The total wealth of the world’s billionaires reached a new peak of $10,20,000 crore in July 2020. The wealth of the 10 richest people increased by $41,300 crore in the last year. Nine new global billionaires were created by big pharma monopolies producing Covid vaccines. Such obscene levels of wealth concentration are inherent in the very character of capitalist exploitation.
Growing Worldwide Protests
The last five years have seen the growth of resistance against the pre-pandemic economic crisis, the consequent austerity measures, the intensification of exploitation and against the miseries imposed during the pandemic, lockdowns and inadequate provisions for people’s welfare. Despite the pandemic, strikes and protest demonstrations have occurred in many parts of the world.
In USA and in several countries of Europe, like UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Serbia, Moldova, working class strikes took place in a substantial manner. In Europe, a cross section of industrial workers and those working in service sectors like doctors, nurses, health workers, teachers and others went on strike. Such protests were more pronounced in Latin America where working people in many countries like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Uruguay organised strike actions and big demonstrations. In Africa, struggles took place in Guinea, Kenya, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia, and other countries.
Struggles intensified across the world against the phenomenal rise in the costs of living, increase in tax burdens, cuts in wages, labour laws ‘reform’, and demanding better working conditions, higher wages, social welfare measures, pensions, cheap electricity, fuel and food, and cancellation of debts.A significant feature is that these struggles by the working people were actively supported and joined by the farmers, women, green activists, students and youth. In many countries the strength of such protest actions impacted on elections favouring progressive and non-right wing forces.
Big protests by farmers also took place in many countries of Europe. Dutch farmershit the streets against the new emission rules which laid down reduced targets for nitrous oxide and ammonia emissions produced by their livestock. The shift to greener technologies is expensive and many farmers fear that without state subsidy they will be forced out of farming. Farmers from Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland have also taken to the streets, widening the agenda of protest against inflation, cheap imports, high interest rates and soaring fuel prices.
Iran witnessed massive protests on a different issue. This was against the attacks on women’s rights. Many burdened by the worsening economic situation also joined in these protests. These protests were brutally suppressed with reports suggesting many deaths. However, after a prolonged struggle by women, the Iranian government had to climb down and relax the laws about hijab and others, leading to a great victory.
Rightward Political Shift, Countervailing Trends
Right-wing forces seek to disrupt the strengthening of organised united protests of the working people by whipping up emotional passions, fostering divisive appeals and promoting racism, xenophobia, religious sectarianism, fundamentalism, parochialism etc. in order to disrupt and divide people’s unity against intensifying exploitation. This was clearly shown in the recent elections in France and Italy.
In the 2022 French presidential elections, since no candidate won a majority in the first round, a runoff was held, in which Emmanuel Macron defeated far-right Marine Le Pen and was re-elected as President of France. Left candidate Melenchon lost in the first round. In the parliamentary elections, held two months after the Presidential election, left-wing parties more than doubled their number of MPs, numbering 142 (32.64 per cent), denying Emmanuel Macron a majority – 246 (38.63 per cent) out of 577. But Marie Le Pen’s far-right National Rally won a record 89 seats (17.30 per cent) which marks a more than tenfold increase from the party’s eight current seats. It thus emerged as the largest single opposition party.
In Italy, the far-right led by arch-conservative GiorgiaMeloni, president of the Brothers of Italy, won the elections to the Italian parliament by winning 44 percent of the vote. Her party is part of a coalition that included Forza Italia, led by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and Matteo Salvini’s Anti-Immigrant League. This is Italy’s first far-right government since fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Meloni is fiercely opposed to immigration, is staunchly pro-US and advocates repressive national security policies.
The UK has seen three Conservative Party Prime Ministers in the last few months, indicative of its continuing economic and political crisis. Rishi Sunak has become the new PM. Much is being made of his Indian origins, but he is clearly the choice of global finance capital. The Conservative Party has become quite discredited in the country, but the Labour Party is as yet unable to project a clear policy alternative.
However, countervailing trends to combat this rightward political shift are also growing. These can be clearly seen particularly in Latin American countries like Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Peru and Chile. The presidential electoral victories of Lula da Silva in Brazil, Gabriel Boric in Chile, Luis Arce in Bolivia, Gustavo Petro in Columbia, and also the electoral victories in Venezuela, Argentina, Peru and Honduras, are very significant and welcome events. In all these countries progressive candidates and forces defeated reactionary candidates and forces that were fully supported by imperialism.
`The Black Lives Matter’ widespread protests were among the many factors that contributed to Donald Trump’s welcome defeat in the US presidential elections. For the first time after 1959, all governments in the five Scandinavian countries – Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland – were either Social Democratic or Centre-Left. However, the Swedish elections have recently shown some disturbing right-wing trends with the rise of the Sweden Democrats and their entry into power.
US Imperialism’s Aggressiveness being Challenged
In various parts of the world, US imperialism continues to aggressively intervene in order to maintain its global hegemony. In 2020, US military expenditure reached an estimated $77,800 crore which is an increase of 4.4 per cent over 2019; this was the third consecutive year of growth of US military expenditure. But in many parts, the resistance against imperialist-backed governments is also growing and US imperialism’s hegemony is being challenged.
The strategic partnership between China and Russia has deepened and strengthened in recent years. The virtual meeting of the two leaders in December 2021 came in the wake of the increased tensions between the US-NATO and Russia over Ukraine and the US thrust in the Asia-Pacific region to isolate China. In November 2021, the Defence Ministers of Russia and China signed a roadmap for closer military cooperation for the period 2021-25. The strengthening of the strategic ties between China and Russia will serve as a strategic counter-weight to the US-led hegemonic alliance.
NATO-Triggered War in Ukraine
Ukraine has become a flashpoint between Russia and the western alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The west has been pushing for the eastward expansion of NATO since the fall of the Soviet Union. All the East European countries are now part of the EU and NATO. Russia is strongly opposed to Ukraine, a former republic of the Soviet Union, being brought into the NATO orbit. The annexation of Crimea and the conflict in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine was an outcome of this tussle. Russia’s military action is a result of the renewed efforts to strengthen NATO ties with Ukraine.
Under US imperialist leadership, NATO continues to heavily arm the Ukrainian forces with modern weapons, equipment and logistics. This war is between US/NATO and Russia, whose theatre is Ukraine. Since the start of the war, the US has provided Ukraine with $18.3 billion in military support so far. Additionally, the US secured extra aid to Ukraine from its NATO allies and friends. The threats of using nuclear arms and ‘dirty bombs’ are creating a dangerous situation.Already there is the tremendous loss of life, limb and property due to the war, which has now entered its tenth month.
The USA, the G-7 and the European Union have imposed severe sanctions against Russia. The US imposed sanctions against Russia have triggered a global economic crisis with disruption of global supply chains contributing to severe food and fuel shortages and rampant inflation. Europe is the worst hit. Russia has retaliated by delinking from the US dollar and selling energy to various countries on rouble payment. This has serious ramifications for international financial transactions. The impact of oil sanctions on Russia is, so far, limited, while the impact on the global economy and energy security of many countries is severe.
In the light of all this, Russia’s war against Ukraine must immediately end, and all contentious issues must be settled through talks and negotiations.
Israeli and US Aggressiveness in West Asia
The main feature in West Asia is the continuing aggressive posture of Israel vis-à-vis the Palestinians and towards Iran. Emboldened by the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and its approval of the illegal settlements in the West Bank, Israel under Netanyahu embarked on fresh provocations in East Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa mosque. There was another record of aggression against the Gaza strip. The US facilitated another diplomatic success for Israel by getting four Arab countries – UAE, Morocco, Bahrain and Sudan – to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.
Thousands of Israeli settlers, under the protection of the Israeli army and police, set up new illegal settlements in six locations across the illegally occupied West Bank. The expansion of illegal settlements on Palestinian lands continues under the patronage of Israeli authorities.There has been a brutal suppression of Palestinians in the West Bank and occupied territories. This year so far, 184 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces. Israeli authorities escalated their assault on Palestinian Human Rights defenders and civil society organisations in occupied West Bank on the heels of the most recent round of assaults in Gaza.The illegal occupation of Palestinian territories and the establishment of Jewish settlements continue to enlarge.
Iran saw renewed sanctions imposed by the US after Trump unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear agreement. After Biden assuming the Presidency, talks are on to revive the nuclear pact, but no progress has been made so far, given the reluctance of the US to first withdraw sanctions. Iran, under a new President, Ebrahim Raisi, is facing severe economic difficulties. It has signed a 25-year strategic pact with China to deepen strategic and economic relations.
West Asia has been the region which saw the worst forms of US imperialist aggression and occupation in the last three decades. First it was Iraq, followed by Libya and Syria. After the US troops’ withdrawal, Iraq is still struggling to stabilize amidst sectarian strife and the long struggle against Al Qaeda and ISIS. Libya, after years of civil war, is engaged in a precarious effort to establish peace and create a unified State where rival armed factions hold sway. In Syria, after the failure of the effort to effect regime change and seven years of destructive civil war, the Assad government has consolidated its hold with only one province, bordering Turkey, still with the extremist rebels.
Termed as I2U2, USA, Israel, UAE and India have formed an alliance ostensibly aimed to “strengthen the economic partnership, trade and investment in respective regions and beyond”. It seeks to anchor a joint investment process in areas such as water, energy, transportation, space, health and food security.The political significance of this alliance referred to as the West Asian QUAD is to boost US efforts to contain Chinese influence in West Asia. However, apart from USA, the other three – Israel, UAE and India – have not followed US-led imposition of sanctions against Russia.
In the name of fighting the armed Islamist extremist groups operating in parts of Africa and to counter the wide Chinese influence in the African continent, the United States has increased its military footprint through Africom. There are military bases and special forces stationed in 29 locations in 15 countries concentrated in the Sahelian region in the west and the Horn of Africa in the east.
Hostile US Moves against Socialist Countries
Using the pandemic crisis as an opportunity, US imperialism sought to destabilise socialist Cuba. It tightened the six-decade old economic blockade. Threatening imposition of sanctions on any country maintaining economic relations with Cuba, the US instigated sections of Cuban people to revolt against the Communist Party and Socialism. Economic hardships faced by Cuba due to the US imposed blockade were sought to be exploited by USA using counter revolutionary forces. However, these efforts failed. Cuba and DPRK have once again been falsely categorised by USA as states sponsoring terrorism. USA carries out provocative military exercises in the nuclearized Korean peninsula. US-DPRK talks have failed as the US refuses to lift economic sanctions on DPRK.
Afghanistan Imbroglio
An important development during this period was the ignominious withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, ending the 20 year long war. This was a big setback for US imperialism. The withdrawal of the US-NATO troops led promptly to the collapse of the Ashraf Ghani government and the takeover by the Taliban in August 2021. The formation of the Taliban government, given the experience of its earlier regime, has raised serious concerns. Russia, China, Iran and the Central Asian countries sharing borders with Afghanistan have had different levels of interaction with the Taliban. Pakistan, having been a consistent supporter of the Taliban, is now playing a key role in facilitating the Taliban regime’s international relations. India, which was isolated over these developments in Afghanistan, is now seeking ways to re-connect with the country by providing humanitarian assistance.
Afghanistan is plunged in a serious food crisis. The UN Aid office has launched its biggest ever funding drive for a single country saying that it needs $ 440 crore to feed the Afghan people. The UNDP estimates that 97 per cent of Afghans could fall under the poverty line plunging the country into a major humanitarian crisis.
Our Neighbouring Countries
A marked feature during this period is the rise of authoritarianism and further growth of communalism and fundamentalism in some of our South Asian neighbouring countries. In most of these countries, religious and ethnic minorities are under attack from majoritarian forces.
Sri Lanka: The people’s upsurge against the economic ruin of Sri Lanka under the Rajapaksas, the takeover of the Presidential palace by the people, the burning down of the Prime Minister’s house, all led to a situation where President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country to Maldives first and finally entered Singapore on a short term visit pass. He resigned after fleeing from Sri Lanka in a military plane utilising the immunity and official privileges of the President. The President fled after appointing the ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the acting President, who addressed the nation amid crisis saying “fascists are trying to take over government” and ordered the military and the police to do whatever is necessary to restore order. An indefinite curfew was then imposed across the western province including Colombo.
Ranil Wickremesinghe won the presidential election on July 20, 2022. Members of parliament elect the interim president in Sri Lanka. In the three-cornered contest Wickremesinghe, widely perceived as the candidate of the ousted Gotabaya Rajapaksa regime, got 134 out of 225 votes. President Wickremesinghe will have to confront serious challenges, the first of the major ones being anti-incumbency. The recent people’s upsurge had forcefully demanded his resignation both as the PM and subsequently as acting President. He is seen as being close to the previous dispensation responsible for the current crisis. Attacks and repression against popular protests are likely to intensify.
Protests against his ascendency as president have the potential to continue. Sri Lanka’s economic crisis is staggering with a near $ 51 billion external debt, crippling fuel shortages, dwindling foreign exchange reserves and a virtual collapse of tourism. The President will have to convince the IMF to provide ahandsome bailout package. But this would come with strict conditionalities that have to be met, which could well impose more burdens on the people.
Pakistan: In a significant development Pakistan Prime Minster Imran Khan lost the vote of no-confidence and resigned as PM following the intervention of the Supreme Court. The opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif has taken over as the new PM. The pandemic has only deepened the crisis with rising popular discontent against the economic situation. High food prices and unemployment are the source of people’s disenchantment. The close liaison between the Prime Minister and the Army Chief also came under strain.
The country is plagued by terrorist attacks launched by the Pakistani Taliban in the frontier tribal areas. The extremist Islamist Tehreek-e-Labbaik, is able to mount virulent protests and force the government to accede to its demands. The activities of extremist groups are directed against India. Though Pakistan itself suffers from the vicious cycle of fundamentalism and terrorism, the authorities continue to shelter those extremist outfits who are conducting attacks against India. The overbearing role of the army continues to limit the democratic system and fosters authoritarianism.
In the by-elections held in Pakistan, the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party led by Imran Khan won the majority of the seats in parliament. This is a huge blow to the ruling party coalition. The results also show that the people of Pakistan are concerned about their economic hardships and are supporting the demand for fresh general elections.
Nepal: The two Communist parties – Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) – united to form a merged party, the Nepal Communist Party (NCP). The NCP won a landslide victory in the Parliament elections held in 2019 and formed the government. However, the government was soon affected by the factional struggles within the party. The faction led by Prime Minister K P Oli was reduced to a minority and when a section of the NCP MPs withdrew support, he was forced to resign after the Supreme Court decreeing the dissolution of the Parliament as unconstitutional. Another government headed by the Nepali Congress Party leader Sher Bahadur Deuba was formed with the support of a section of members belonging to the CPN-UML faction.
The split in the NCP and the fall of the Oli government is a setback for the Left movement in Nepal. This has opened the way for the right-wing forces to intervene. There is a growing tendency to mix religion and politics which bodes ill for the secular principles enshrined in the democratic Constitution of Nepal. Recently, the parliamentary elections in Nepal have underlined the uncertainty and the division in, and setback to the Left.
Bangladesh: In recent years, Bangladesh’s economic performance and GDP growth rate has been higher than all other South Asian countries. Its Human Development Indicators have improved substantially and it stands ahead of India. The recent attacks on the Hindu minorities during the Durga Puja celebrations indicate how the fundamentalist forces are continuing to create trouble there.
Myanmar: The Myanmar military junta has recently executed four political prisoners, sending a clear message both domestically and to the world that it entertains no plans for any political rapprochement. This puts at rest, at least for now, all illusions of any return to democracy. Seizing power in February 2021 through a coup, the junta had arrested Aung San Suu Kyi after unseating the elected government, convicted her on half a dozen trumped up charges in secret trials and sentenced her to 11 years in prison. Over 14,000 political prisoners were arrested of whom over 11,000 are still in prison. More than 2,000 civilians have been killed and thousands of houses of pro-democracy activists were burned, rendering millions homeless.
However, the resistance to this has begun through a violent underground movement which has caused significant losses to the military through ambushes and sniper attacks. The resistance has formed an alternative National Unity Government and claims to control half the country. A grave crisis and a period of prolonged conflict with a high loss of human lives appear on the cards. This will have a bearing on all neighbouring countries with a flow of refugees.Following the coup, the Myanmar economy has severely contracted by 18 per cent last year and GDP growth this year is expected to be 13 per cent lower than in 2019.
India’s isolation in the developments in South Asia found another expression when 5 out of the 8 South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) members joined the China-initiated South Asia Forum – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. No summit meeting of the SAARC has been held since 2014. India refused to participate in the SAARC summit in 2016. There is an impression that India is not keen on reviving the SAARC.
China’s Global Rise, Futile US Resistance
The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was successfully held from 16 to 22 October 2022. China waseffective in containing the pandemic and reviving its economy, although it is currently facing a resurgence of new strains of Covid. China has consolidated its global position of being the second largest economic power house in the world. During the centenary of the founding of the CPCon 1 July 2021, it was announced that it has reached one of its two centennial goals: that of establishing a moderately prosperous society by 2020 with a healthy GDP growth rate, improvement in people’s income, education, health and living standards.
A few months before that, in February 2021, China officially announced the elimination of absolute poverty in the country. According to the World Bank’s international poverty rankings, China is responsible for reduction of over 70 per cent of global poverty. In the first three quarters of 2021, China witnessed 9.89 per cent of GDP growth while its annual target is 6 per cent. China has seen over 30 per cent of the world’s economic growth, on average, every year since 2006.
The Chinese government was able to lead the country’s economy in the background of the global economic crisis. In 2021, China’s GDP reached 17.7 trillion US dollars, accounting for 18.5 percent of the world’s total. From 2013 to 2021, it grew at an average annual rate of 6.6 percent, beating the global average of 2.6 percent. During the 2013-2021 period, its contribution to global economic growth averaged 38.6 percent, higher than that of the G-7 countries combined. In 2020, China surpassed the USA to become the world’s largest trading country for the first time. In 2021, it retained this place with a foreign trade volume that expanded to 6.9 trillion dollars.China’s per capita gross national income reached $11,890 in 2021, doubling from the figure recorded in 2012. Thanks to the income growth and improvements in education and health care, the average life expectancy of Chinese people reached 77.9 years in 2020, 5.2 years above the global average.
The steady growth of China as an economic powerhouse, its effective combating of the pandemic and the advance of its economy are being seen by US imperialism as a threat that challenges US global dominance. The US has initiated a series of measures in order to not merely contain but also to isolate China, categorising China as a strategic rival. It has undertaken economic and trade measures to weaken China’s economy; raising issues of democracy with reference to the Hong Kong protests; raising issues of violation of human rights in Xinjiang autonomous region; militarily arming Taiwan to foil the ‘One China policy’; seeking unfettered access to the South China Sea and hurling allegations of cyber warfare by China.
Following the formation of the QUAD (USA, Japan, Australia and India) as a military and strategic alliance, the US has now initiated a new security partnership called AUKUS (Australia-UK-US) aimed at reducing China’s influence and presence in the Indo-Pacific seas particularly in the Indian Ocean. With joint military presence of these countries, joint military exercises and a wide range of war games, US imperialism is seeking to isolate China, but without any success.
The US, under the Biden administration, is continuing the sanctions imposed on China by the Trump administration. Consequently, US goods imports from China and bilateral services trade have fallen between 2018 and 2020. However, in 2020, China was still the largest US trading partner with trade worth $ 65,950 crore. Given the intertwining of investments and debt, the US cannot do away with trade from China. In order to maintain its supremacy on scientific and technological innovations, the US is striving hard to limit China’s expansion with steps like excluding China’s involvement in 5G networks.
USA is mobilising its G7, EU and NATO allies in the global effort to isolate China. To counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a major global infrastructural trade route in which more than 150 countries have joined, US initiated the G7 to declare a counter plan, ‘Build Back Better World’. At the NATO summit, under US influence, a statement was issued mentioning China as a security threat. The EU, while acting in tandem with USA, Canada and Britain on the question of human rights in China and imposing sanctions on Chinese officials, is however not united to completely align with the USA on economic and commercial issues. Germany, France and Italy are not eager to ‘decouple’ with China. China’s retaliation with sanctions against certain persons and institutions in EU in response to human rights sanctions imposed by EU alarmed the EU business council. At the US-Russia summit meeting, US efforts to drive a wedge between Russia and China on their strategic partnership did not succeed.
Perils of Climate Change
These years are characterized by the rapid increase of global warming and climate change. Climate change is a class issue, as it is the uncontrolled plunder of natural resources by capitalism that has led to the present catastrophic situation. The latest (Sixth) Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in August 2021 has for the first time stated that the increased atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations leading to the climate crisis are “unequivocally caused by human activities.” The Report says that global average temperatures are already about 1.1 degrees C higher than in the industrial era. Hence, there is very little margin left to meet the global target of 1.5 degrees C fixed at COP26 in Glasgow. In February 2022 a working group of the IPCC sixth assessment called for peaking of emissions by 2025 and subsequent decline to meet the global target, warning of disastrous consequences otherwise. Thus, the world seems headed for frighteningly higher temperature rises.
Even at the present levels of global warming, severe climate impacts noted for their ferocity and scale have been witnessed all over the world this year, notably in the northern hemisphere, conveying the horrors in store at 1.5 or 2 degree Celsius temperature rise. Extreme weather events in the summer of 2021 came as a rude shock to Europe and North America, who usually view climate impacts as mostly affecting developing nations in tropical regions. India saw every year extreme unseasonal rainfall, triggering landslips, mudslides, floods, urban flooding and great crop destruction.
These sharp reminders of the gravity of the climate crisis, however, did not produce any substantive shift at COP26 in Glasgow. Global emissions which should have come down by 50 per cent by 2030 are estimated to actually increase by 16 per cent. Instead of addressing this, the US shifted the goalposts and aggressively pushed for a commitment by all countries, both developed and developing, to “net zero” emissions by 2050 i.e. emissions being equal to absorption by sinks such as forests and oceans. The US focus on this uncertain longer-term target, adopted by many countries, diverted from the crucial 2030 targets, and once more undermined the equity principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibility (CBDR).
The disappointing outcome of COP26 was ensured by the US and its allies in other ways too. The much-touted 10,000 crore dollars annually, promised at Copenhagen twelve years ago by developed countries to vulnerable nations to assist with climate impacts, was casually postponed by three more years. The US and other developed countries are pushing to move climate finance to the private sector.The crisis of the productive forces that global warming represents must be resolved on the basis of equity if the well-being of crores in the global South is not to be endangered. COP26 marks the intensification of this struggle for global equity that will be a long-drawn out one.
Conclusion
As will be seen from the above brief analysis, in every single aspect of the international situation, it is imperialism which is always the main danger before the peasantry, the working class, the people of every country individually, and the world collectively.
The AIKS was born in 1936 in the crucible of the anti-imperialist freedom struggle of India. Thousands of our activists made the supreme sacrifice against British colonialism in the struggle for independence. 55 years later in 1991, the AIKS was the initiator of the struggle against the imperialist-dictated neoliberal agrarian policies in India. In this 35th National Conference of the AIKS at Thrissur, we resolve to proudly take forward our glorious anti-imperialist legacy, in both thought and action.
NATIONAL CHALLENGES
The Prime Danger before India
The Modi-led BJP-RSS government, which has been in power for the last 8 years since 2014, is without doubt the most reactionary government in the last 75 years of independent India. Corporate authoritarian Manuwadi communalism, as represented by the RSS-BJP, which is today in power at the Centre and in several states, is the prime danger before India, and for its sovereignty,democracy, secularism, federalism, and socio-economic justice, all of which are the most basic features of our Constitution.
The BJP-RSS regime poses a grave threat to the lives and livelihood of crores of our working people. It is unashamedly pro-corporate, pro-landlord, pro-imperialist and fascistic in its class character. It is an assault on the very ‘Idea of India’, which comprises our entire syncretic history and culture. Most important, using religion and caste, it tries to splinter the very class unity that we strive for in order to bring about a radical social transformation on the basis of a worker-peasant alliance.
Persistent Communal Drive
The RSS, Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League were the three communal organisations that scrupulously not only stayed away from the glorious freedom struggle of the Indian people against British imperialist rule, but in facthelped the British in theirnotorious policy of ‘Divide and Rule’, which helped to keep India enslaved, and eventually led to the incredibly violent Partition of the country on communal lines.The RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha were further isolated from the people of India when their men like Nathuram Godse and others conspired to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi.
The RSS came into the national political mainstream for the first time 30 years later during the anti-Emergency struggle of 1975-77, after which two of its leaders Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani first became Union Ministers from 1977-80.Let us just take a quick glance at the persistent communal drive of the RSS-BJP and their Sangh Parivarafter that in the last three decades from 1992 to 2022.
The Ramjanmabhoomi campaign, the Rath Yatras and the demolition of the Babri Masjid by the Sangh Parivar on 6 December 1992; the terrible communal riots in various states that followed, including the Shiv Sena-incited Mumbai riots of 1992-93; the vacillating stands of the Congress central government on various issues, including opening of the lock at Ayodhya, the Shah Bano case, and allowing the destruction of the Babri Masjid; the 13-day short-lived Vajpayee-led central government in 1996; the BJP winning the 1998 and 1999 general elections and staying in central power till 2004 with Atal Behari Vajpayee as prime minister and Lal Krishna Advani as deputy prime minister; the ghastly Gujarat communal carnage of 2002 carried out by the Sangh Parivar with Narendra Modi as chief minister; the protection given by the RSS-BJP to the butcher of Gujarat; the defeat of the Vajpayee government in the 2004 general elections; the terrorist blasts at Malegaon, Ajmer Sharif, Mecca Masjid and the Samjhauta Express carried out by Hindutva elements like Pragya Singh Thakur, Prasad Purohit and Aseemanand, and the protection and promotion given to them; the anti-people policies and gross corruption scandals that beset the UPA-2 government; the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots incited by the RSS that communalized large parts of North India; the assassinations of Dr Narendra Dabholkar, Comrade Govind Pansare, Prof M M Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh by Hindutva elements like the Sanatan Sanstha; the strong backing given to Narendra Modi by the RSS and also by the corporate lobby, which led to him to spearhead the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign for the BJP; the defeat of the Congress and the victory of the Modi-led BJP with a clear majority in 2014.
A Dark Watershed
This event marked a dark watershed in Indian history. After this were the several anti-people, pro-corporate, communal and authoritarian steps taken by the Modigovernment; the incarceration of 16 human rights activists and intellectuals in the completely trumped up Bhima Koregaon case in 2018; the BJP winning a clear majority in the 2019 general elections due to the nationalistic jingoism created by the Pulwama attack and the so-called Balakot counter-attack; the shrill Hindutva attacks after 2019; the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A, and withdrawal of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir; the CAA-NRC-NPR issue wreaking vengeance on minorities; the Delhi riots of February 2020 incited by the RSS-BJP to break up the remarkable anti-CAA struggle led by women at Shaheen Bagh; the framing and jailing of innocent students for the Delhi riots while the inciting BJP leaders went scotfree; the opportunistic Supreme Court decision on Ayodhya which gave the green signal for the construction of the Ram Mandir; the recent revival of the Kashi and Mathura Masjid issues and also raising controversies over the Qutub Minar and the Taj Mahal; the notorious Dharam Sansad at Haridwar which gave an open call for genocide of Muslims; raking up the Hijab and Halal issues; the Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti planned attacks on the minorities; the deplorable Supreme Court verdict in the Zakia Jafri case and the immediate subsequent arrest of Teesta Setalvad, R B Sreekumar, plus yet another case lodged against the already incarcerated Sanjiv Bhatt; offensive remarks against Prophet Mohammad by BJP leaders Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal and their ghastly fallout in Udaipur, where also a BJP man was responsible for the killing; the arrest of Alt News co-editor Mohammed Zubair because of his courage in exposing the actions of the Hindutva forces; the arrest of journalist Siddique Kappan who was going to investigate the case of the rape and murder of a Dalit girl at Hathras in Uttar Pradesh; the most shocking and revolting release by the BJP’s Gujarat state government of 11 murderers and gang-rapists of BilkisBano during the Gujarat genocide of 2002, that too on 15 August 2022, the 75th year of Indian Independence; the series of communal steps taken and laws passed by the BJP state governments of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh; and the constant lynchings of hundreds of innocents over issues of cow slaughter, ‘love jihad’ and conversions.
Throwing to the winds the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991, which prohibits conversion of any place of worship and provides for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on 15 August 1947, courts are entertaining pleas to change the status quo of these places. This can only lead to fratricidal strife and communal attacks on a large scale, as happened after the Babri Masjid demolition on 6 December 1992.
The same judiciary that is entertaining such pleas has been silent even at the highest level on long-standing and crucial constitutional petitions against the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A and the dismantling of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), against the draconian clauses in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), and against the corrupt fraud of electoral bonds, which are vitiating the free and fair electoral process. In fact, the role of the Supreme Court and many High Courts in recent years has been extremely disturbing on many counts. The cases of Ranjan Gogoi and a few other retired Supreme Court judges are a clear pointer to the inappropriate linkages between the Judiciary and the Executive.
There have also been serious instances of minority communalism by various Muslim outfits like the Jamaat-e-Islami, SIMI, Muslim League, MIM, PFI, and Pakistan-backed terrorist organizations in Jammu and Kashmir, which also must be strongly condemned. Majority and minority communalism feed on each other and help each other to grow. But majority communalism is the far greater danger, since it masquerades as nationalism and has the capacity to wrest state power, which it has already done in India and in several states.
Upholders of the Manusmriti
The RSS-BJP have always been upholders of the Manusmriti, and this is borne out by the writings of their founders. Today, this reflects in the fact that, along with the Muslim and Christian religious minorities, Dalits, Adivasis, backward communities and women are also at the receiving end of the RSS-BJP. In the last few years, we have seen the terrible instances of atrocities on Dalits, particularly on Dalit women, at Hathras, Unnao, Lakhimpur, and also the tragic case of the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula.
The implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) is being undermined in several states. Adivasis are being driven out of their forest lands to help the corporate lobby acquire their land for mining and other purposes. The recent changes in the Forest Conservation Act (FCA) of 1980 are meant precisely for this purpose.
The BJP central government’s determined opposition to a caste census for the accurate enumeration of OBCs is yet another example of its Manuwadi mindset.
Atrocities on women and girls have shown a sharp increase in the last eight years of the Modi regime. Many of these atrocities are perpetrated by BJP leaders themselves, and there is no punishment meted out to them. All laws giving protection to women against violence are being systematically diluted. The right to freedom of choice is being snatched away and the scourge of ‘honour killings’ is a matter of grave concern. Anti-Conversion laws, Freedom of Religion laws passed recently by BJP governments are a direct attack on freedom of choice and seek to impose even more control on women.
However, along with this, we must also take serious note of the efforts at social engineering of the RSS-BJP, the various ways in which they try to win over different caste groups, and their systematic attempts to reach out to even Dalits and Adivasis. For instance, precisely in order to camouflage its anti-Dalit and anti-Adivasi policies,the BJP has installed Ramnath Kovind (a Dalit) and Draupadi Murmu (an Adivasi woman) as Presidents of India, one after the other. While the RSS has patriarchally always been kept as an organization limited to men, they have long back started the separate Rashtra Sevika Samiti and Durga Vahini, which work among women. These RSS attempts must befought, politically, ideologically and organisationally.
Plethora of Pro-Imperialist, Pro-Corporate, Anti-People Policies
The class character of the RSS-BJP from their inception has always been pro-capitalist-landlord, and therefore anti-working class and anti-peasantry. Before and after independence, they have always supported the feudal landlords, and this support extended to the feudal princes who were oppressing the people in their provinces. Their full support to the big monopoly capitalists in India is there for the whole world to see, in the policies adopted by the Modi government. The role of corporate money and its media in the growth of the RSS-BJP is huge and itmust be underlined.
Combined with this is the pro-imperialist stand of the BJP-RSS regime. The Modi-led central government surrendered before US and European imperialism and foreign finance capital in key matters of economic and trade policy, defence and security policy, and also foreign policy. The examples of this are too numerous to recount here. The Modi regime is now backing Israel to the hilt. The ‘Namaste Trump’ event organized by Modi at Ahmedabad in the midst of the Covid pandemic says it all. In a word, BJP-RSS policies are surrendering the sovereignty of the country to imperialism.
Huge volumes of bad loans taken by large crony corporate groups have been written off and banks recapitalised using tax payers’ money. In the last seven years of the Modi government, loans taken by corporates worth Rs. 10.72 lakh crore have been written off. Further, corporates have been favoured with tax concessions of lakhs of crores of rupees.
With receipts from disinvestment budgeted at Rs 1,75,000 crore in 2021-22, some of the best profit-making public sector firms and financial institutions have been put up for sale to domestic and foreign corporates. Some public sector banks and GIC are to be privatized, along with some shares in LIC through the recent IPO. Added to this, the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) is to sell off Rs 6 lakh crore of land, railway track, stations, airports, ports, fuel pipelines and other public sector assets to the corporate lobby. The entire country – railways, airports, airlines, ports, steel, coal, oil, telecom, banks, insurance, health, education, and even defence production – is being put up for sale to the domestic and foreign corporates for a pittance. Along with the huge loss to the country, this will also attack the workers and employees through massive retrenchment.
Savage Attacks on Working People
On the other hand, the Modi government has sharply attacked the working class, the peasantry and the agricultural workers through the four Labour Codes, the three Farm Laws, and the assault on the MGNREGA. The three Farm Laws had to be repealed as a result of the historic one-year long struggle of the farmers of India. But the BJP government’s repression on the farmers’ struggle was intense, and it led to the martyrdom of 715 farmers. The worst case was the horrifying mowing down of four farmers and a journalist at Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh under the cars of the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Ajay Mishra Teni, who is still shamelessly allowed to remain in office.
If we see the neo-liberal direction of the Modi government’s policies from the Shanta Kumar Committee recommendations of 2015 onwards, it will be clear that the three new Farm Laws were essentially meant to gradually dismantle the MSP regime, end government procurementof, and the storage of food grains in FCI godowns, and thus undermine the entire Public Distribution System (PDS) itself. 81 crore people in India are beneficiaries of the PDS. The Modi government was playing into the hands of imperialism’s game to attack food security. Eventually, this trajectory would also attack and usurp the land of the peasantry in distress.
The entire agricultural sector was sought to be handed over to the domestic and foreign corporate lobby to increase its super profits and its wealth. Within a fortnight of the enactment of the Farm Laws, 29 labour laws that had been won by the working class after decades of bitter struggles were annulled in Parliament and were replaced by four anti-worker Labour Codes. The employment lifeline of agricultural workers, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), was starved of funds.
The very classes that actually produce the wealth of the country through their labour – the workers, the peasants and the agricultural workers – are being viciously attacked. This is the real meaning of corporate communalism, whose symbols today are Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Gautam Adani, and Mukesh Ambani, and also the foreign corporates.
What have been the results of all these policies for the mass of the working people?
The number of poor in India (with income of $2 per day or less in purchasing power parity) has more than doubled from 6 crore to 13.4 crore in just one year due to the pandemic-induced recession. It is estimated that 15 to 19.9 crore additional people have fallen into poverty by the end of 2021. During the pandemic, India accounted for nearly 60 per cent of the global increase in poverty.
Despite the ‘jumlebaaj’ Modi assurance of 2014 of giving 2 crore new jobs per year, the total number of Indians in jobs shrank from 44 crore in 2013 to 38 crore in 2021. However, the working age population grew from 79 crore to 106 crore during the same period. Recession has hit thousands of micro, small and medium factories, which have closed down. Unable to find jobs, 61 percent of people in India just stopped looking for them and headed back to rural India for survival, which was also difficult. In spite of this massive unemployment, instead of starting regular recruitment in the armed forces which was stopped for two years due to Covid, the anti-youth and anti-peasant Agnipath scheme of ‘No Rank, No Pension’ was launched to contractualise the armed forces.
The proportion of women in the work force had fallen from 36 per cent in 2013 to 18 per cent in 2019 even before the pandemic lockdowns. In February 2021, this figure plummeted to only 9.24 per cent, underlining the dire straits that women were in.
The 2022 Global Hunger Index(GHI) ranked India at 107 out of 121 countries. Last year its rank was 101, and the year before that it was 94. Before the Modi regime came to power, India’s GHI rank was 63 in 2013. India is now categorised as a country with a ‘serious level of hunger’. Yet, even the meagre allocation for the mid-day meal scheme was reduced by a staggering 32.3 per cent between 2014 and 2021, the years of the Modi government. India has 25 percent of the world’s malnourished children. And yet, 40 crore of eligible people are left out entirely from the PDS, which is being wilfully destroyed.
All through the Covid period when people’s misery was rising, petrol and diesel prices were hiked almost on a daily basis. The government continuously raised the levels of excise duties, surcharges and cess on petroleum products until both petrol and diesel crossed an unprecedented Rs 100 per litre. The Finance Minister informed Parliament that during the last three years the Centre had through this loot earned a whopping Rs 8.02 lakh crore between 2018 and 2021. Under public pressure, the duties on petrol and diesel were slightly reduced. However, this did not contain the escalating prices.
Prices of cooking gas cylinders have now sky-rocketed to over Rs 1100 per cylinder, from around Rs 400 per cylinder in 2014. The central government has stopped subsidising gas cylinders. The much-touted Ujjwala Gas Scheme has disappeared into darkness. Prices of piped gas and CNG have also increased. All these price hikes of petroleum products have triggered an inflationary spiral due to rise in transportation and other input costs. Food, vegetables, fruits and other essentials saw a massive price hike, scaling a 12-year record. Now, for the first time in 75 years of independence, GST has been imposed on food items. For the poor, even living has now become difficult.
In stark contrast to this has been an engineered transfer of incomes and wealth to a few at the top of the pyramid. According to the well-known British journalThe Economist, Mukesh Ambani’s net worth increased by 350 per cent between 2016 and 2020 and rose to Rs 7.18 lakh crore; Gautam Adani’s net worth increased by 750 per cent during the same period and rose to Rs 5.06 lakh crore. The picture again changed in the last two years. In the Forbes List of the world’s richest people released in November 2022, Gautam Adani for the first time reached World No. 3, with a wealth of $ 141.4 billion; while Mukesh Ambani comes in at World No. 8, with a wealth of $ 93 billion. Other super-rich individuals and families have also seen massive increases in the wealth they hold. According to the Oxfam India report 2021, the top 10 people in India hold 57 per cent of the country’s wealth; while the share of the bottom half is only 13 per cent. It is clear that all this has been greatly helped by the policy ‘aashirwaad’ of the Modi regime.
Fascistic Authoritarianism
The fascistic ideology and inclinations of the RSS since its inception are notorious, and they have been documented in a valuable book called “In the Shade of the Swastika” by the Italian scholar MarziaCasolari. The various writings of Golwalkar and Savarkar also bear testimony to their love and admiration of Fascism and Nazism under Mussolini and Hitler in Italy and Germany respectively.
The Nazi attacks on democracy are reflected in similar attacks on democracy by the RSS-BJP in India. The draconian use of the Sedition Act, National Security Act (NSA) and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) on the one hand, and of the CBI, ED, IT and other central agencies against political opponents has crossed all limits. Hundreds of innocent human rights activists, intellectuals, students and journalists have been thrown into jail for years. They include the Bhima Koregaon detenus and the Delhi riots detenus. As we saw above, the arrest of Sanjiv Bhatt, Teesta Setalvad, R B Sreekumar, Mohammed Zubair and Siddique Kappan are the most recent examples. The mysterious and sensational death of Judge Loya is, of course, a most shocking case.
The destabilisation and ousting of opposition state governments in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Goa through a combination of corrupt money power and ED-CBI threats is another characteristic of the BJP-RSS’ murder of democracy.
Most of the print and electronic media are already owned by the corporate lobby, led by Ambani, Adani and the rest. The recent hostile takeover of NDTV by Adani is nothing but a despicable attempt to smother the freedom of the press. The attacks on independent and fearless news portals like ‘NewsClick’, ‘The Wire’ and many renowned journalists are also authoritarian attempts made in the same direction.
Modi’s invitations to autocratic leaders like President Trump of the USA and President Bolsonaro of Brazil to visit India in 2020, and his support to Israel, which is brutally attacking Palestine, show the ideological affinity that the RSS shares with all of them.
All constitutional bodies– parliament, judiciary, election commission – are being subverted. The V-Dem Institute has called India an ‘electoral autocracy’. Freedom House has described India as ‘partly free’. International IDEA has said that India scores ‘at the level of 1975’, when a formal Emergency was in place. ‘Reporters without Borders’ has placed India at number 150 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index. India is descending into a state of undeclared Emergency today under the RSS-BJP regime.
The RSS had opposed the federal structure of India from the very beginning, and had advocated a unitary state. This was an offshoot of its authoritarian mindset, which has always stressed on centralization of powers. ‘One Flag, One Leader, One Ideology’ is its motto. It had opposed the linguistic reorganization of states. Its insistence on imposing Hindi all over the country is notorious. It is completely hostile to ‘Unity in Diversity’, which is the only way possible for a huge and diverse country like India to advance.
We see this today in the Modi regime’s constant assault on the rights of the states in the financial and legislative spheres. The refusal of the Centre to transfer their rightful GST dues to the states, forcing the three Farm Laws through Parliament although agriculture is a state subject under the Constitution, setting up a Ministry of Co-operation at the Centre in an area which is a state subject, increasing surcharge/cess on petroleum products to prevent a part of this revenue going to the states, imposing the New Education Policy (NEP) without any consultation with State governments despite education being in the concurrent list, are some among the many examples of this centralizing and authoritarian tendency.
The RSS has always been pro-inequality, both in the economic and social spheres. We have seen examples of this above. It has also been rabidly anti-Communist. In the early 1940s, when asked why the RSS was not part of the freedom struggle against the British, Golwalkar had replied that the RSS has internal enemies. When asked who these enemies were, he had replied that there were three: 1. Muslims, 2. Christians, 3. Communists. This reply has been published in his book ‘Bunch of Thoughts’.
Its pro-inequality stance, anti-scientific attitude and divisive strategy makes the RSS see Communists as its implacable enemy, because they stand for the exact opposite.
This explains theconstant and savage attacks of the RSS on Communists in Kerala for the last five decades and more, and its semi-fascist attacks in Tripura after coming to power five years ago. Our comrades in West Bengal have been facing severe repression from another enemy, the TMC, after it came to power in the state 11 years ago. Many of our comrades have been martyred in the attacks of our class enemies in these three states. We extend our deep solidarity to all our fighting comrades in Kerala, Tripura, and West Bengal, who are bravely fighting repression.
Poisonous Methods of the RSS-BJP
Wemust understand and counter the methods employed by the RSS-BJP to further its communal agenda. Each one of the following can be expanded and explained in detail.
- Abuse, distortion and falsification of history on rabidly communal lines.
- Attack on science, reason, rationality, and spread of obscurantism/superstition.
- Campaign of falsehoods, hate, terror, and violence against Minorities and Dalits.
- Social engineering techniques to win over backward castes, Dalits, Adivasis, etc.
- Big use of sections of the ‘Godi’ mainstream media and a social media blitzkrieg.
- Licking up to crony corporates to ensure unlimited supply of funds for its work.
- Organisation – Systematic countrywide expansion of the RSS ‘shakha’ network, andinnumerable Hydra-headed organisations led and controlled by the RSS.
Isolation and Defeat of BJP-RSS of Paramount Importance
The isolation and defeat of the BJP-RSS central government in 2024 is of paramount importance if our people, our country, and our Constitution are to be saved. Before that are crucial State Assembly elections in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. These electoral challenges will require a vast strengthening of the independent strength of the Left forces (including the AIKS), building the unity of the Left and democratic forces, and also bringing together maximum sections of the Left, democratic and secular forces, to counter the main danger of the BJP-RSS, while also keeping in mind the class and political character and limitations of these forces.
The State Assembly elections in recent years in Kerala, Tamilnadu, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and the Delhi Municipal Corporation elections have seen the resounding defeat of the BJP in these states. In Bihar, there was the welcome development of the JD(U) breaking off relations with the BJP and joining with the Mahagatbandhan led by the RJD and comprising the Left parties.
LDF Government of Kerala: A Beacon of Hope
In this national scenario, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government of Kerala led by Comrade Pinarayi Vijayan is a beacon of hope for the entire country. Its sterling performance in its first term of battling both floods and Covid, along with several other pro-people measures, gave it the distinction of being the only state government in Kerala during the last 44 years since 1977 that was re-elected in 2021. In the last six years of its rule, it has taken a number of excellent initiatives in agriculture, industry, infrastructure, employment, education, health, housing, women’s rights, and social welfare measures, which has won it wide acclaim both inside and outside the state.
The AIKS will do all that it can to defend and strengthen the LDF Government in Kerala, and to propagate its achievements far and wide all over the country.
All of us take this opportunity to warmly congratulate and thank the Organising Committee of the AIKS Thrissur Conference, the Kerala KarshakaSangham, all fraternal class and mass organisations, democratic minded individuals, dedicated volunteers, and all others for the magnificent hosting of this AIKS Conference.
CONCLUSION
My dear comrades and friends,
Taking into account the political challenges at the national level outlined above, we will have to strengthen the AIKS movement and organisation manifold in the days to come. We have done good work in the last five years, but we cannot afford to rest on our laurels.
Our independent and united struggles on local, state and national level peasant issues must be greatly broadened and intensified. The forms of our struggle must be made more imaginative and must attract the attention of the entire country, like the Delhi farmers’ struggle, and our recent struggles in states like Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
These struggles must be combined with constant and effective political and ideological battles against both neoliberalism and communalism and for aradical alternative. Only through such a radical political alternative, will true socio-economic change come about.
Our weakness in mobilising peasant women and promoting them boldly to our leading committees at all levels must be overcome immediately. This will require consciously getting rid of the feudal and patriarchal attitudes that still prevail in our organisation.
Another urgent task is the mobilisation and equally bold promotion of peasant youth in our committees at all levels. In some states, we must realise that ours has become an aged organisation.The enthusiasm of youth and the experience of age must be well combined.
Our membership has increased by over 19 lakh in the last one year. This is welcome. But from the present 1 crore 37 lakh, we must reach the 2 crore mark at the earliest, and then even further. This will require tremendous and consistent efforts from all our states.
It will also require the activisation and streamlining of thousands of our primary units, and our village committees, which are our backbone, and the regularisation and democratisation of all our other committees, from local to district to state to centre.
No organisation is ever built without committed activists. Our activists and cadres all over the country have always been our real treasure, which must be preserved, developed and cherished in every possible way.Our whole-time activists must be given pride of place.
We have three immediate tasks before us. The first is to broaden, intensify and strengthen the SKM struggle for our burning demands against the Modi regime in the year 2023. The second is to make a resounding success of the Worker-Peasant Unity Rally which will jointly be held by CITU-AIKS-AIAWU before Parliament in Delhi on 5 April 2023, preceded by a massive campaign at the grassroots. The third is to mobilise the maximum funds from all over the country to construct our own Central Office in Delhi at the earliest. We are sure that the entire AIKS will rise to the occasion to complete these three tasks.
In our Hisar Conference, we had advanced the slogan which remains valid even today, “Kisan Sabha in Every Village! Every Kisan in Kisan Sabha!” In our Thrissur Conference, we have given the next slogan, “Struggle, Consolidate, Advance for an Alternative!” We are confident that thousands of AIKS activists, units and committees in our country will bend all their efforts to make both these slogans a reality in the coming years!
Long Live AIKS!
Down with Imperialism, Capitalism, Feudalism!
Down with Communalism, Casteism, Women’s Oppression!
Long Live Democracy, Secularism, Socialism!
Long Live the Unity and Struggle of the Peasantry!
Long Live Worker-Peasant Unity!
Long Live Revolution!
