General Elections 2024 – What should the masses do?

The General Elections are approaching. The question that comes to people’s minds is: “Whom should we vote for?”

With two terms in power, the BJP government, led by Narendra Modi, has failed to keep its promises. The BJP’s promises were nothing but demagogy. Narendra Modi, who once shouted, “Ye desh nahi bikne doonga” (“I won’t let my country be sold.”), has sold out many of the country’s public sector industries to the bourgeoisie, who had helped him come to power. Throughout its tenures, the government has implemented a number of anti-people policies. It has ruined the livelihoods of workers, farmers, and the youth.

In 2014, Narendra Modi had promised the masses to create 2 crore jobs each year. But it did not happen. He had promised the masses that he would reduce the prices of petrol, diesel, LPG and many other essential things that people rely on regularly but failed to fulfil his promises.

So that the toiling masses cannot unite against the government’s anti-people policies, the BJP, along with its parent organisation RSS, has immensely worked to keep the people divided in the name of religion, ethnicity, language, caste, etc. The government’s attempts to draw lines between various groups, such as Hindus and Muslims, Meiteis and Kukis, Hindi and Non-Hindi speakers, and upper- and lower-caste people, imply its divisive policies. It is because of these lines that the working class is losing its consciousness. With their so-called milestones like the Uniform Civil Code and the Citizenship Amendment Act, the government has shown how biassed it can be towards or against any particular religion. Whoever opposed these policies of the government, have been put behind the bars.

The BJP government has always used the police and the military to crack down on protesting students, youth, farmers, workers, minorities, etc. Although we cannot say that India was always a secular state, the shameless implementation of its Hindutva agenda by the BJP government is evident.

The Narendra Modi government has tried to suppress its opponents by charging them with corruption cases. However, ironically, many of the politicians previously declared corrupt are now in the BJP.

With the introduction of the National Education Policy 2020, the government has put the country’s education system in the laps of the national and international bourgeoisie. The BJP is attempting to radicalise the youth with fundamentalist ideas by presenting them with a false narrative of history and concealing truths.

The BJP must be defeated! Nevertheless, we never say that the bourgeois opposition is the alternative. The Indian National Congress, which has always worked for the bourgeoisie, should not be trusted by the people. It has served the bourgeoisie for several decades. Even if Rahul Gandhi says that Narendra Modi is friends with the Indian capitalists, he cannot deny the fact that the INC also did the same when it was in power. Likewise, neither of the bourgeois parties that are part of the alliance known as I.N.D.I.A. can be trusted.

Thinking that nationally based political parties should not be trusted, people may think that regional parties should be empowered. These parties should also not be taken into confidence. These parties often come up with identity politics, which is an obstacle to class struggle.

Sadly, most of the mainstream left parties in India have diverted from the teachings of Marx, Engels, and Lenin long ago. Because of their pro-capitalist policies, they have lost ground to a great extent. Now, when the Congress is dying, these parties have been tailing and trying to save it. Was it not the Congress that made our capitalists rich? Was it not the Congress that brought Foreign Direct Investment to the Indian market? Were there no price-hikes during the times of the Congress? Did the police crack down on our comrades and workers when we opposed capitalism? Now the left parties are talking about saving democracy. But are they not advocating the same democracy that paved the way for the BJP to come to power? These parties have forgotten what class politics is and are now allying with bourgeois parties. They should call for establishing a socialist democracy instead of preserving bourgeois democracy.

The people of India must understand that it is always the bourgeoisie that is represented by the BJP and INC. If they choose one party over the other, they actually choose which party is going to represent the bourgeoisie for the next five years. The toiling masses of India must be able to identify its enemies. They should unite and strike the bourgeois government from every side. They should organise strikes and demonstrate what they can do. They must go as far as possible.

Considering the presence of our party in limited regions in the country and understanding the dilemma of the voters of this country, we, the Revolutionary Communist Party of India, appeal to the masses to strengthen the workers’ parties in the Parliament. Although most of these parties have often collaborated with bourgeois parties, substituting class struggle with class collaboration, we also ask the pro-working class members in those parties to question their leadership. We expect that the workers’ parties in India will soon realise that class struggle is the only solution to what is going on in the country. The working class must unite actively to defeat the BJP and capitalism as a whole.

Long Live the Revolution!