Sitaram Yechury

In the face of a certain defeat in the forthcoming assembly elections, the BJP’s desperation has reached a state of panic. Absurd and shrill allegations against the Communists, particularly against the CPI(M), have become the common stock of congenital anti-Communists in their ranks led by L.K. Advani. This has now been joined by the Prime Minister himself. In an obviously panic reaction, the Prime Minister issued a two-page written statement, during his campaign in Madhya Pra¬desh, decrying the so-called coming together of the Congress and the Left. He mounted baseless allegations against the Communists by stating that their “record in betraying national interests was well-known”.

Simultaneously, as a part of a planned move, L.K. Advani also launched a similar vitriolic attack against Com¬munists. There is nothing new in this, however. One of Mr. Advani’s pre-occupations appears to be to heap unsubstantiated allegations through a litany of abuses against the CPI(M).

To return to the Prime Minister’s uncharacteristic outburst. It is indeed ironic that a person who, by his own admission, gave a written signed statement before a Magistrate in the 1942 Quit India Movement and on that basis was released from jail after 23 days should be making such allegations against the Communists. Initial¬ly, the RSS and the BJP had not only denied that Vaj¬payee ever signed a statement, but went on to portray him as a hero of the Quit India Movement. Battered by investigative journalism, he finally admitted in an interview with N. Ram (Frontline, February 20, 1998) that he had actually signed a statement. That statement had named two people both of whom were arrested and one of them let off after a while, while the other had to undergo three years of rigorous imprisonment. Given the charges of the IPC, under which he was arrested, it was clear that he would have also had to be imprisoned but for the signed statement that he had given. Such is the record of his “heroism”. It, in fact, was a case of rank opportunism and cowardice at a time when thousands of people all over the country withstood the repressive British authorities and went to jail with an uncompro¬mising patriotic zeal.

Vajpayee was then 16 years old and already a member of the RSS. Many much younger than him were sentenced and imprisoned. Yet, he chose to work is way through the British authorities for both personal and political reasons. Apart from personal cowardice, politically the RSS was never a part of the freedom struggle. In fact, it scrupulously kept itself away from the most all encompassing Indian national movement that the freedom struggle represented. The Bombay Home Department during the 1942 Quit India Movement, observed, “The Sangh has scrupulously kept itself within the law, and in particu-lar, has refrained from taking part in the disturbances that broke out in August 1942”.

With such a shameful record, the RSS casts aspersions on the role of the Communists. It would suffice to quote from the speech delivered by former President Shankar Dayal Sharma to the special midnight session of Parlia¬ment on August 9, 1992, commemorating the 50th anniver¬sary of the Quit India Movement. He said, “After large scale strikes in mills in Kanpur, Jamshedpur and Ahmeda¬bad, a despatch from Delhi dated 5 September, 1942, to the Secretary of State, in London, reported about the Communist Party of India: `the behaviour of many of its members proves what has always been clear, namely, that it is composed of anti-British revolutionaries.”

The boot, Mr. Vajpayee, is on the other foot.

So complete is the BJP’s frustration at the rapid loss of people’s support due to the utterly incompetent governance that they have provided during these eight months that they find conspiracies against them around every corner. The fact that Comrade Jyoti Basu was invited by the Nehru Memorial Fund to deliver the 31st Nehru memorial lecture is being portrayed as an “unholy alliance” to topple the Vajpayee government. Strangely, this is being aired at a time when the government is crumbling under its own weight. This is a classic case of paranoia. The Nehru memorial lecture is an annual feature that has continued for over three decades. The CPI(M) decided to accept the invitation, since only people of high eminence, both international and nation¬al, are invited to deliver this lecture. And, the lecture (full text is published elsewhere in this issue) clearly states the Communist perspective of the chal¬lenges before India on the eve of the new millennium.

However, both these RSS leaders conclude that the Con¬gress and the CPI(M) have come together in an alliance! Since naivettee cannot be ascribed to these politicians, one can only conclude that they are being deliberately mischievous and diabolic in drawing such a conclusion. And, this is purely on considerations of misleading the voters and hoping against hope to get some support for the BJP in these elections.

With regard to the deliberately distorted interpretation of the CPI(M)’s position, the record needs to be set right. The CPI(M) has decided that in the eventuality of this BJP-led government collapsing after the November assembly elections (which is more than likely, given the rout the BJP is likely to face), the country and the people have only two options before them.

The first is to go in for another general elections eight months after the last one. Apart from the expen¬diture that the country can least afford, another elec¬tion at this juncture will only add to the worsening political and economic instability. The only other option then is to look for an alternative secular gov¬ernment within the 12th Lok Sabha itself. Given the arithmetic of the 12th Lok Sabha, such an alternative government has to include and in all probability be led by the Congress.

Under these circumstances, the CPI(M) has decided that if the Congress comes forward to form an alternative government, it would support such a government from the outside and its support would be on an issue to issue basis.

And this, we would like to tell Mr. Vajpayee and Advani is being done in supreme national interest of not want¬ing to compound the near anarchic situation that this BJP-led government has brought about.

The BJP, however, would like to have a third option in case this present government falls. And, that is to have an alternative government within the 12th Lok Sabha which will, once again, be led by them! The CPI(M) and the Left are not going to oblige the BJP and the commu¬nal forces on this score. They are not going to oblige precisely because of the supreme need to protect our national interests. As stated in these columns earlier on the occasion of the six months of this government’s rule, their style of governance has been one of unmiti¬gated disaster for the country and the people. There has not been a single area of national policy where the interests of the country and the people have sharply deteriorated. From foreign policy to the management of the economy, this government has shown itself as utter¬ly incompetent. Worse in the sphere of social policy, the relentless pursuit of the communal agenda by the Saffron Brigade has led to a sharp rise in insecurity amongst the minorities. And, this time, it is not only the Muslims but also the Christians who have been vic¬tims of some gory attacks on their religious places and educational institutions, including rape of nuns in Jhabua. In the sphere of educational policy, the naked attempts to saffronise education and the packing of research bodies with RSS associates of dubious academic distinction is clearly an attempt to re-write Indian history and poison the minds of the younger generation to further the pernicious RSS design of establishing a rapidly intolerant “Hindu Rashtra”. If these are not enough, the open and outrageous support and patronage that the government provides to the middlemen has resulted in a criminal price rise that is eating into the vitals of the vast majority of our population. Worsening the situation, this government, instead of taking measures to redress the people’s woes, has shrugged off its responsibility by blaming it on the weather Gods and, more importantly, on the previous government’s policies. This is akin to the bramanical traditions, to which the RSS completely subscribes, where the mother of all explanations for present day woes of the people is put at the door step of the sins committed by a person in his previous birth! Converse¬ly, this suggests that the benefits of the illusory good work by this BJP-led government can only be enjoyed by the people in their next birth!

Unfortunately, the people don’t seem to be in a mood to wait for such an opportunity. The next birth is someth¬ing that shall never come. They seek liberation from this government and its policies that are imposing common ruin on the country. And, precisely for this reason, the BJP must and will be given a drubbing in this assembly election.

The BJP, by its own admission, is regarding the verdict of these elections as a referendum on its rule at the Centre. It is for this reason that they have chosen to release a `National Appeal’ to the people in these states urging them to vote on the balancesheet of this government’s track record at the Centre. And, this is precisely what the people will do. In supreme national interest, they shall inflict a crushing defeat on the BJP and its allies. And, once this verdict comes, this Central government will have to accept it and graciously quit office. However, given their lust for power, the BJP would resort to all the tricks in its bag to some¬how cling on to power. Unfortunately, for them, their current allies may not oblige.