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We simply witnessed two election outcomes. One was the defeat of the blatantly anti-people, racist, right-wing, authoritarian Donald Trump within the US presidential elections by Democrat Joe Biden. This ought to ship a message to all right-wing events and leaders who attempt to divide folks primarily based on race, faith and neighborhood to seize energy.
In Bihar, a coalition of secular, democratic forces virtually defeated the communal, venom-spewing Hindutva equipment of the RSS-BJP mix and their alliance accomplice, the Janata Dal (United). The NDA has managed to kind the federal government utilizing all of the assets at its command, making Nitish Kumar — who had introduced that he would dangle up his boots after the 2020 elections — the chief minister. Both these elections have taught many classes, opened alternatives and posed challenges for left-progressive and secular forces everywhere in the world, particularly in India. These two elections uncovered the views expressed by many ideologues concerning the finish of ideology and ideology-based politics.
What was exceptional concerning the US election was the mobilisation of left-progressive voters by Bernie Sanders, which helped Biden seize the presidency by victories in key states like Michigan and Georgia. In India, the left proved its mettle by profitable 16 out of the 29 seats it was allotted as part of the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar. As many observers have identified, the seat share of the left was a lot lower than its energy on the bottom. Still, the CPI, CPM and CPI (ML) joined the Mahagathbandhan due to the grave hazard of the RSS-BJP claiming energy. The left stood firmly with secular-democratic forces.
Trump’s presidency created a lot havoc domestically and internationally and divided the US alongside racial and sophistication strains. Biden and his programmes shall be carefully monitored by the leftists like Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez inside the Democratic Party. The world hopes now for a US that works in the direction of a extra steady worldwide order for the frequent good of all nations and a pro-people administration domestically.
The left’s programme in India has been to be the voice of the unvoiced. It is for certain that ever for the reason that RSS-BJP mix captured the excessive workplace in India, the left has been uncompromisingly opposing all their divisive, anti-people insurance policies and strikes and has supplied management to common actions. Be it the discrimination in opposition to the Dalits and ladies, presenting one neighborhood as anti-national or the anti-farmers, anti-worker, anti-student insurance policies of the federal government, the left has tried to galvanise common protests in opposition to the right-wing communal forces. It was these actions that resulted within the spectacular electoral efficiency of the left in Bihar.
These victories have enhanced the folks’s expectations from the left. Biden’s victory and the spectacular efficiency of the Mahagathbandhan have proven that the rise of right-wing forces all through the globe for the reason that monetary meltdown of 2008 might be halted if progressive forces come collectively. However, with Trump giving a troublesome combat to Biden and the BJP rising as a serious pressure in Bihar, there’s a lot work to be accomplished by progressive forces to undo the polarisation on communal, caste and racial strains.
In India, the pro-corporate BJP, by getting many extra seats than its alliance companions, will now declare to be a pan-Indian celebration. However, it’s clear that the BJP intends to transform the Indian republic right into a Hindutva Rashtra. It has already created divides between religions, castes, states and areas.
The left, after gaining vital seats and vote share in Bihar, ought to deal with creating a bigger unity of secular-democratic forces. Not solely in Bihar however throughout the nation, regional and national-level secular and democratic events should introspect severely regarding their ideological, political positions. They can not afford to take proper or right-of-centre positions. Even if they don’t take left-of-centre positions, they need to stay centrist at the least. They additionally ought to introspect on their positions on the neo-liberal financial insurance policies which have introduced the nation to the current disastrous place and have pushed the economic system right into a recession.
The left, independently and together with different secular-democratic forces, ought to intensify the struggles in opposition to the destitution introduced on by these ruling with a disastrous agenda. The left should deliver collectively and galvanise common actions in opposition to the anti-people and polarising insurance policies of the BJP. The left must be the binding factor of what’s democratic, secular and pro-people within the Indian political and social area by rising in opposition to class, caste and gender-based discrimination with extra vigour and sensitivity.
The author is basic secretary, CPI
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