September 14, 2014
Array

On Forthcoming Haryana Assembly Elections

Inderjit Singh

THE upcoming assembly polls in four states namely Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir should also be seen in the overall context of the political situation at the national level with the Modi-led NDA assuming power at the centre in the last Lok Sabha elections. Not surprisingly, this government has begun with pursuing even more vigorously the same neo-liberal policies for which the people had ousted the UPA government from power. Those who voted for the BJP hoped that it would control inflation, create jobs, control corruption etc as propagated by the corporate media which has also created an unprecedented Modi euphoria with the dreams of achche din. The BJP was able to win seven of the total ten Lok Sabha seats and over 34 percent vote share which has been the highest performance achieved by this party in Haryana. These results gave rise to a general impression that the BJP will come to power in the forthcoming assembly elections though the overconfidence exuberating in BJP leaders proved too short as the developments later began to unfold. People have started feeling the real impact of the fall-out of the contradiction between the results of the disastrous policy regime still in vogue and the hopes of major relief generated among the BJP voters. Prime minister Modi desisted from making even a mention of the price rise, corruption, unemployment etc in his speech during his first visit as PM in an official rally he came to address at Kaithal on August 22. He was actually seen relishing the hooting of the chief minister Hooda by a managed section in the crowd rather than expressing any concern for the people of Haryana reeling under severe drought conditions. With absolutely no achievements to be claimed of the hundred days rule and inviting widespread criticism for opening the floodgates of FDI in several sectors including defence and insurance, the BJP has brought its true agenda sooner this time around. With disappointing results of the by-elections held only recently in some states including Bihar, the BJP is finding it hard to bank purely on Modi cult which is no more catchy enough to attract popular support and actually losing its sheen now. Another development adding to the BJP’S desperation is the formal break up of its alliance with the Haryana Janhit Congress of Kuldeep Bishnoi. HJC had actually become suspicious of the BJP as it failed to gain electoral dividends in Lok Sabha elections. It lost both the seats it contested in alliance with the BJP. Moreover, the only common factor of this alliance was nothing but pure mutual opportunism forged for grabbing power two years ago. Even now the HJC has not learnt any lesson and has not introspected the reasons for its plight and is again seeking to strike an alliance without any basis of issues and policies. MASS DEFECTIONS In this situation the BJP has taken recourse to encouraging mass defections from other parties among whom the Congress leaders are maximum in number to desert the party after enjoying power for ten years. Several former ministers, MPs, MLAs and others have thronged to BJP bandwagon in a most shameful display of dirty politicking. In most of the seats, new defectors have actually out-numbered the original ticket seekers of the BJP and open quarrels have erupted on the streets within warring BJP factions. A section of this party has openly levelled allegations against state party president Ram Bilas Sharma of selling off the party tickets. Apart from mission defections, the BJP and the RSS and other communal outfits are resorting to communal polarisation by spreading all sorts of filthy propaganda against the minority communities even masquerading as cow worshippers and tactics like love Jihad etc. They succeeded in orchestrating full flagged communal violence in Taoru town of Mewat district in June last. The Modi government is behaving as if people have given them a mandate to do whatever they like in spite of the fact that the BJP has got only 31 percent vote share in the last Lok Sabha elections. It is this dangerous game the BJP is indulging in inciting communal violence as a strategy of polarisation at national level that is posing a serious threat to our social fabric. Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has succeeded in winning two Lok Sabha seats but instead of countering the BJP, it also declared an unconditional support to Narendra Modi as the prime minister. This party too is facing tough time now for its opportunist stand of not opposing anti- people decisions of the NDA government. It is instead keeping a tactical silence on its relation with the BJP. INLD is keeping its options open for sharing power with the BJP in case the latter fails to get a majority on its own. Similarly certain other parties like the BSP too refuse to respond to the vital interests of those oppressed sections in whose name this party has been seeking political power. This party has appointed a defeated Congress MP Arvind Sharma as its state president overnight and is projecting him as the CM candidate. Now there is a general feeling among the voters of the BSP that they were being abused. Congress chief minister Bhupender Hooda is depending on massive media publicity proclaiming Haryana to be number one state in India. His ten year tenure in office has surpassed previous governments in several sectors especially in privatisation of education and the scale of land acquisitions. Real estate sharks have flourished in a big way. Several dubious land deals have been struck down by higher judiciary, contrary to the repeated claims of the CM. He has groomed the state bureaucracy by handsomely rewarding the pliant ones with lavish post-retirement appointments on the one side while penalising those who are upright and sincere. The development model he is over-glorifying is nothing but typically a classic neo-liberal example which has institutionalised socio-economic disparities and further perpetuated regional imbalances. This lopsided development of the past few decades has actually rendered large sections of toiling masses deprived of basic necessities of life. The socially disadvantaged sections like women and dalits have been rendered more vulnerable in the face of aggressive caste hostilities and the reactionary forces of patriarchy perpetrating medieval type violence like honour killings under the patronage of ruling class politics. Alcoholism, drug addiction, spurt in general crime and against women has become rampant. Agrarian crisis remains unrelenting, peasantry is finding farming an unviable profession, educated youth has no more attractive job opportunities which were shown, students and their parents were being fleeced of their hard earnings by the education mafia and their anger against such cheatings can be well seen in the most common spontaneous protests blocking roads against excessive fee and plethora of other charges. Landless labourers and artisans are desperately struggling to have house sites, BPL cards, widow pensions, PDS food grains etc. Thousands of employees remain non regular for the past fifteen years. It is the CPI(M) who has been in the forefront to lead the campaigns and agitations for the rights of deprived people and for defending the dignity of the oppressed. It has always extended active support and solidarity to all legitimate struggles launched by mass fronts and unions from time to time. Through such struggles there are important successes and achievements in the form of allotment of house sites, implementation of MGNREGA, getting compensation for crop destruction, ration distribution, transport facility for girl students, enhancement of allowances for scheme workers, increase and implementation of minimum wages, arrest of offenders of dalits and women etc. The CPI(M) has been actively mobilising people against reactionary forces of caste and communalism and exposing their hidden nefarious agenda. It stood firm in the matter of social justice and siding for social reform. MOUNTING MISERIES All these problems continue to mount the miseries of the common people unabated. While the CPI(M) and the mass fronts led by its leaders have been in the thickest of struggles for the redressal of burning problems of these toiling masses as well as mobilising them towards bigger struggles for change in policies that were responsible for compounding the socio-economic burdens, the ruling class parties remain totally indifferent to this worsening of situation. The opposition parties rather remain in the waiting to exploit the mass discontent in the elections. These parties and all varieties of the so-called independents were investing huge amount of ill gotten wealth to buy the votes. Caste panchayats were being held to create narrow and parochial feelings only to ultimately cash it for votes. They are offering grants for temples, dhramshalas, gaushalas, offering kanya-daan for the marriage of poor families’ daughters, distributing ration etc. The ruling Congress party has no intention of reviewing those policies which led this party to the worst ever defeat. Even other opposition parties are ready to promise moon to all but they are strikingly silent in the matter of altering the neo- liberal policies which can go a long way in providing some significant relief. The CPI(M) and the CPI have called upon the people to draw lessons from their own experience of supporting several parties and persons only to be deceived at the end of the day. The same politicians whom they defeat and feel relieved are found contesting on other party symbols. Power brokers have been groomed at all levels who have made the voters virtual captives. Struggle for reversing the anti-people bankrupt path is the need of the hour. It is the overwhelming poor peasants, discriminated and oppressed dalits, the women, the youth and students, lakhs of unorganised sector workers who have no social security cover, progressive sections as well as secular individuals who must see the assembly elections as an important opportunity to strengthen the Left forces by asserting in an organised way and see that the communal BJP is defeated. The Congress party is neither capable of fighting communalism as it paves the way for the BJP being the harbingers of the same policy framework committed to corporate profits and imperialist interests. In the above situation, the CPI(M) is contesting in those places where it has been consistently mobilising and organising the people. The party has identified some 17 seats to be contested in alliance with the CPI and both parties have decided to extend support to some independents with clean public image and pro-people agenda.