THE year 2024, which has ended, has been a tumultuous one both nationally and internationally. In India, the year began with the State-sponsored installation of the idol at the newly-built but incomplete Ram temple at Ayodhya, a signal from the BJP rulers that the era of Hindutva raj has begun. This was followed by various attacks on opposition leaders through the central agencies, including the arrest of two chief ministers.
The stage was set for the pivotal 18th Lok Sabha election, where the lines were drawn between the BJP-RSS and their camp followers and, on the other side, the INDIA bloc of parties. The results were a setback for the BJP, after claiming that there will be 400 plus, they ended up below the majority mark with 240 seats.
The political situation, with the advent of the third term of Narendra Modi, can be summed up as follows: The Modi government is determined to go ahead with the Hindutva-corporate agenda; the continuing pursuit of neoliberal policies is inflicting more burdens on the people – whether it be price rise, unemployment and continuing distress for the rural and urban poor; with the strengthened opposition, the space had opened up for stronger and wider resistance to the Hindutva-authoritarian forces.
A weakened BJP in Parliament does not mean a less dangerous government exercising power. The drive to capture State institutions and inscribe the Hindutva ideology in all spheres – educational, social and cultural – continues. Among the people and society, insidious Muslim-baiting to create a permanent communal divide carries on relentlessly. The demand to survey and identifying temples beneath mosques in Sambhal and Ajmer Sharif is part of this game-plan. This is a threat, which must be met with greater resolve and an ideological struggle by the Left-democratic forces.
2024 was the year which saw the furthering of the communal-corporate nexus. The favourite big capitalists of the Modi regime accumulated much wealth and reaped greater profits. Five of these big corporates – Ambani, Adani, Tata, Birla and Bharti Mittal – own 20 per cent of the total assets of the non-financial corporate sector. The third term of the Modi government has seen a renewed push for privatisation. In the electricity distribution sector, discoms are being privatised. This is leading to big struggles as in Chandigarh, where a profitable discom of the union territory is sought to be sold off. Other profitable PSUs like the Ferro Scrap Nigam Ltd is in the cross-hairs.
These policies and their impact on people’s lives have not gone unchallenged. The year saw numerous struggles of different sections of the working people. The most widespread has been the strikes and struggles of scheme workers – anganwadi, ASHA and mid-day meal workers. The longer struggle against privatisation of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant continues. There have been sectoral strikes of electricity workers, coal workers, postal, bank and insurance employees. The most significant workers’ strike was the 37-day strike by the workers of Samsung India, at its plant in Kanchipuram, Tamilnadu. The workers conducted a successful struggle for their right to form a union and get recognition from this multinational giant.
There have been big actions organised jointly by the Central Trade Unions (CTUs) and the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM). There have been countrywide protests against increasing crimes and violence against women. Youth have been coming out in large numbers in certain states protesting against the faulty system of competitive examinations and leakage of question papers. Students have been conducting struggles against fee hikes and the National Education Policy. The new year will usher in many more struggles and sites of resistance.
Internationally, the year 2024 will be remembered first and foremost for the worst genocidal war of the 21st century – Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The brutal attack, which began in October 2023, continued throughout 2024. As the new year begins, there is no respite. The extermination of the people of Gaza is being conducted through air strikes, drone attacks and artillery shellings targeting civilians. Hospitals and schools are deliberately targeted. Starvation has become a weapon for genocide with food supplies into Gaza being stopped. There is despair worldwide at the failure to intervene and stop the US-backed Israeli aggression, but this is accompanied by admiration and solidarity for the Palestinian people, who have displayed incredible courage and resilience in the face of this awful carnage.
The advance of the far-right in Europe in 2024 marked the culmination of the social-democratic centre’s shift to the right after embracing neoliberal policies. In the absence of a viable Left force in these countries, the opposition space is being occupied by the far-right. But where the Left is able to project an effective alternative, it came into contention against the far-right. In France, the Left alliance – New Popular Front – was able to emerge as the largest bloc in the Parliament election, checking the advance of the far-right. In Belgium, the Workers Party made significant gains in the European, national and local elections in the past year.
In India too, the potential of the Left has to unfold in the coming days. The new year should see the emergence of a united and effective Left force, which can rally all the democratic forces. This will strengthen the fight being put up by the secular-democratic forces to defeat the Hindutva-corporate regime.
The CPI(M) is heading for its 24th Congress in April 2025. It will bend all its energies towards building up the independent strength and mass base of the Party which, in turn, will strengthen the efforts for a Left and democratic alternative.
(January 1, 2025)
