BJP back to divisive politics

The editorial in the latest issue of People’s Democracy called ‘BJP: Posturing cannot hide misdeeds...

The editorial in the latest issue of People’s Democracy called ‘BJP: Posturing cannot hide misdeeds,’ says the BJP is making a concerted effort to project the Karnataka outcome as an inevitable step towards success in the Lok Sabha elections to be held next year.

“Despite the celebratory mood, the hard facts and the divisive nature of the BJP’s platform could not be concealed,” it says. Rajnath Singh concluded his speech declaring the party’s commitment to cultural nationalism, removal of Article 370 and the Uniform Civil Code. The only difference was that the issue of the Ram temple was subsumed under the garb of cultural nationalism. The quibbling about the Hindi version of secularism being dharmanirpekshta or panthnirpekshta shows how the BJP, in line with the RSS, cannot digest secularism as enshrined in the Constitution, it adds. According to the article, what the party’s national executive appears to have done is to resurrect the dismal record of the six years of the BJP-led NDA government. “This being the most vulnerable aspect, all the speeches and resolutions laboured to whitewash the NDA government’s record,” it says and lists out the “misdeeds” of the NDA Government. “The posturing and rhetoric in the national executive only confirm that the BJP is a party unfit to rule India… All the democratic and secular forces in the country have to accept the challenge of checkmating the BJP,” the editorial concludes.

Right to campaign

CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat, in an article, has come down heavily on Chief Election Commissioner N.Gopalaswami for not allowing people to campaign by putting up posters, banners and writing on walls.

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Karat says the issue is not about “spice and colour”, it’s about the right of political campaigning, which is the essence of a democratic system. “What he (Gopalaswami) does not realise is that the Election Commission wittingly, or, unwittingly has struck a blow at the right of every political party and the citizens to participate in the democratic process,” says Karat. According to him, parties like the CPI (M) consider elections not just as an opportunity to get its candidates elected but also as an occasion for a party to campaign politically to put across its views and policies. Karat says he is not opposed to the EC stopping lavish hoardings, big cut-outs and long car processions as all these require large amounts of money and resources. But by prohibiting ordinary political campaigning and canvassing, he says, the EC has facilitated more expensive forms of campaigning as a poor man’s party would use wall writing and in villages even handwritten posters to put across its message. He alleges that the directions of the Election Commission have led to officials on election duty transgressing the fundamental rights of citizens. “How can the EC prevent a citizen from flying a flag in his own house? This is a violation of the fundamental right of a citizen,” he points. “The truth is the CEC is blinded by class prejudice. This makes him go after the poor activist who paints a satirical political cartoon on the walls of Kolkata while merely bemoaning the shameful and gross use of ill-gotten money,” Karat alleges.

Crisis of inequality

Based on the deliberations of a seminar held in Delhi, an article called ‘Political will required to provide relief to people’, explores the issue of food crisis and inflation. One of the speakers Arjun Sengupta, argued that one of the reasons behind the global upsurge in food prices was the diversion of land from foodgrain cultivation to bio-fuel production, which has been facilitated by high subsidies in countries like the US.

According to him, the nature of the growth process in India has not been inclusive and large sections of the population remain poor and vulnerable and inflation only worsens their condition. The challenge before the government, says Sengupta, is to ensure food to people, provide gainful employment and increase their incomes.

Sitaram Yechury, who also spoke at the seminar, argued that rather than taking global inflation as a fait accompli, as the government seems to be doing, there is a need to analyse the causes behind it before arriving at policy prescriptions. His contention was that the surge in global inflation is an outcome of neo-liberal policies . A direct result of this has been the rise in income inequalities both within and between the nations, Yechury said.