Boycott the sham parliament & assembly elections! COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST) CENTRAL COMMITTEE

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST)

CENTRAL COMMITTEE

Press Release

March24, 2014

Boycott the sham parliament & assembly elections!

Make the New Democratic Revolution successful!

The building of an Indian people’s democratic federal republic based on genuine democracy and self-reliance is the only alternative

The elections for the 16m Loksabha and for the assemblies of Telangana, Seemandhra, Odisha, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh are to be held from April 7 to May l2, 2014. The exploiting ruling classes of our country are readying to impose another huge financial burden on the people by spending thousands of crores of rupees on this. On this occasion the major parliamentary parties Congress and BJP are vying extremely with each other for power and are tying to deceive the people one more time by claiming that only they would develop our country. Defections from top to bottom from the opportunistic alliances of the UPA led by Congress and the NDA led by the BJP to other parties and vice versa had begun long before and they are assuming rapidity as the elections approached.

Recently the Third Front came to the fore with much fanfare with eleven parties. As everybody expected, it is still immersed in fist fights regarding sharing of seats. The agreement between the Left Front and the AIADMK in the Third Front became invalid even before the ink had dried due to differences in sharing seats. The left parties including CPI (M) had not yet recovered from the insulting defeat they had suffered in the West Bengal elections. Parties like the SP, BSP, DMK, AIADMK, Biju Janata Dal, Janata Dal (U), Trinamool, AGP, TDP, TRS, YSRCP etc are fearing defeat to join either the UPA or the NDA and so have either joined the Third Front or going it alone with so-called slogans of social justice, emancipation of Dalits and Bahujans and regional development etc. Both the Third Front parties and those parties contesting on their own are following a ‘wait and see’ policy to join whichever alliance comes to power after the election results. As Lok Jansakti Dal joined the NDA as it felt defeat was certain if it remains in UPA, the RJD is continuing in the UPA to somehow keep its lantern burning. The politicians belonging to various parties who came to the fore overnight with new flags and new agendas after leaving their parties fearing defeat due to people’s wrath or because they did not get a seat in their parties are flinging as much mud as possible over each other in this fight for seats. As they had come to power leaving all morals and rules aside with the sole aim of power through money - money through power and again power through money and had exploited, oppressed and tortured the people without respite and lost the confidence of the people, they are resorting to such blatant opportunist methods having lost any hope of winning in these elections.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) entered the electoral arena with the aim of benefiting from submerging the people in illusions one more time. lt is trying to catch the attention of the people with revolutionary rhetoric sheltered in ideological eclecticism consisting of Gandhian ‘Ahimsa’ and ‘Swaraj’ and ‘socialist’ politics of Jayaprakash Narain and its NGO ‘direct participatory democracy’ stands.

Though elections have been held several times and several goveniments had changed in the past 65 years of ‘independent’ rule, it is a fact that even to this day the basic needs of the people like food, clothing, shelter, education and health care remained out of reach. The oppressed masses who constitute 95% of the population are confronting poverty, illiteracy. Unemployment, price rises, diseases, starvation deaths, corruption etc on a daily basis. 77% of the population is living on less than 20 rupees per day. On the other hand the big bourgeoisie and the big landlords are enjoying enormous amounts of wealth. Hundred corporations belonging to vultures like Ambani, Tata, Birla, Mittal, Jindal etc account for 25% of the GDP of our country. The chasm between the rich and the poor increased beyond imagination. Corruption and scams increased in leaps and bounds. The laws formulated to hamper these social differences and to prevent them had never been used on the moneyed classes. As a result, social unrest is swelling. The Hindutva Sangh Parivar religious chauvinist oppression on the religious minorities and the Hindutva Brahminical upper caste oppression on the Dalits in our country have increased. The repression on national liberation struggles like Kashmir, Asom and Manipur is increasing day by day. As a result of the long drawn struggles of the Telangana people for decades together the parliament had to inevitably give its approval for the formation of a separate state for Telangana. However, they are still suppressing cruelly aspirations for separate statehoods for Bodoland, Gorkhaland etc. The Adivasis are continuously denied their rights over Jal-Jung!e-Zameen-/ldhikar. The women are getting crushed under imperialist and feudal vicious culture.

As the UPA government led by Congress is rapidly implementing the second phase of economic reforms in its five year rule as a continuation of the Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG) policies due to the pressure of the imperialists and the big capitalists of our country who are bogged down in the world economic crisis, the conditions worsened in all the sectors in our country. It signed countless MoUs with MNCs and big corporations of our country and opened the doors widely for indiscriminate exploitation by handing over the natural riches of our country to them. Blatantly violating the 5m Schedule, PESA etc of the constitution in Adivasi areas it is holding gram sabhas at the point of the gun in several areas in our country with peasantry and the Adivasis, forcefully taking their consent for land acquisition and is implementing policies that would displace them on a gigantic scale. Due to the bankrupt policies of this government, the industrial production in our country suffered and lakhs of workers were thrown on the roads. Work burden on workers increased. Their real wages plunged. The number of unorganized workers outside the purview of labor laws increased. It took up policies that would hand over retail trade to the imperialist companies. It gradually handed over the agriculture sector to the corporations and pushed agriculture into severe crisis. Increase in production costs. lack of government support in the form of loans etc and lack of minimum support prices led to large scale suicides of farmers. The lives of the people became intolerable with the skyrocketing of daily consumer goods with the time to time increase in petrol and diesel prices. The privatization of education and health sector turned them into a rarity for the common people. Corruption reached the skies and with great scams like 2G spectrum, Commonwealth Games, Coal gate etc the various ruling class politicians, cliques, government-military higher ups gulped down lakhs of crores of rupees of peop1e’s exchequer. These brazen bandits and traitors stashed away billions of dollars in Swiss banks.

The schemes taken up by the UPA government and hyped to the skies as the dream of Indira Gandhi’s ‘Garibi Hata0’ realized by Sonia Gandhi have all turned ridiculous with reeking corruption. ln fact, the yesteryear slogan of land reforms disappeared completely. Due to its ecology-damaging policies natural disasters like in Uttarakhand, untimely rains and cyclones are occurring and people are suffering heavy losses. Its newly legislated acts relating to ‘land acquisition’, ‘food security’ and ‘Nirbhaya’ are aimed at either sewing the interests of the imperialists and the exploiting ruling classes or as an eye-wash.

The UPA government depended on military, paramilitary, special police and commando forces and on intelligence agencies like IB, NIA and SIB to suppress the masses who are rebelling against their anti-people policies and to consolidate its rule and carrying on offensives in fascist methods. It is curbing civil rights and even the right to live. The enemy forces are carrying on massacres of hundreds of Adivasis, Dalits, other oppressed masses revolutionary activists and in revolutionary movement areas led by our party. As part of carpet security all the movement areas in the various states have been turned into military camps of enemy forces. Thousands of innocent people, revolutionary activists and leaders were put in jails. On the one hand they are shouting that ‘the Maoist guerillas who are resorting to violence in the forests do not have any ideology’ and on the other they are trying to control the intellectuals by stating that ‘the Maoist ideologues in the cities who are continuously stoking the Maoist ideology are more dangerous than the guerillasf They are trying to isolate the progressive intellectuals, writers, youth and the students from the revolutionary movement and stand them in opposition to it. The BJP, left front and other state governments are also collaborating with the UPA government in this. The BJP had supported the UPA government in the past ten years on all the major policies it implemented. The only difference being where they sat - whether in ruling or in opposition. All their accusations and counter-accusations were done with the intention of deceiving the people. There is not much difference between the central and state governments too in this matter despite any party being in power. Similarly this suppression is not confined only to the Maoist movement areas. The anti-POSCO, anti-nuclear Kudamkulam struggles are the fresh examples of this. The hegemony of the US imperialists in the economic, polity, military and cultural spheres and the intervention of its intelligence agency FBI increased during UPA rule. The Wikileaks revelations made it clear that nearly one lakh US soldiers and officers are staying clandestinely in our country and are conveying all kinds of support and help directly and indirectly in imposing fascism on the people.

The Congress that was in power continuously for ten years followed pro-imperialist, pro-CBB and pro- big landlord policies and was responsible for the agonizing living conditions of the people and the disastrous economy of our country and for the massacres of thousands of activists of various democratic and revolutionary movements and people, persecution of religious minorities in the name of ‘terrorists.’ It won the dubious distinction of being the originator of the biggest and highest number of corruption scams in the parliamentary history of our country. As a result it won the severe hatred of the people. To escape this and hoodwink the people the Congress is bringing to the fore its main slogan of ‘Bhamt Nirman’ pointing towards the ‘development’ it achieved in its ten-year rule and towards the anti-corruption, land acquisition, food security and Nirbhaya acts and welfare schemes that it formulated. The Congress has been in power at the centre and in most of the states for the maximum time after 1947. It was mainly responsible by being in power for such a long period of time for the anti-people policies that were formulated and implemented. The massacres of religious minorities, particularly the massacre of Sikhs in 1984 took place under its rule. Though Sangh Parivar was directly responsible for the destruction of Babri Masjid it was the Congress that was behind the high drama from the centre. It was mainly responsible for suppressing the just national liberation struggles of the Kashmir and the present North East by massacring tens of thousand of youth through its military brute force. It implemented all these anti-people policies by taking the help of other parliamentary parties when in power and also by colluding with the ruling alliances when not in power. Who else would be mainly responsible than the Congress for the insufferable conditions of the workers, peasants, petty bourgeois sections, oppressed nationalities, Dalits, Adivasis, religious minorities, women, small and medium capitalists in our country? The people are not so gullible as to believe its ‘Bhamt Nirman ’, so-called welfare schemes, deceptive anti-cormption pose.

BJP’s main attack is on the corrupt rule of the Congress. It is clear that it does not have any basically different policies than Congress on any of the main issues confronting the people and the country and has the same corrupt, treacherous and dictatorial policies in any sphere. With the directive of the RSS, BJP announced the Hindu bigot and mass murderer Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate. It is hiding its Hindu chauvinist agenda behind the ‘Gujarat Vikas’ model and is concentrating its entire machinery around Modi to capture power at the centre one more time. ‘Gujarat Vikas’ model means terrorizing the Muslim and Christian minorities, seizing their properties, chasing them away from their abodes or making them servile through massacres of Muslim religious minorities and subjecting them to innumerable atrocities along with atrocities on Christian religious minorities; making the entire state as the hub for the investments of MNCs, big bourgeoisie and opening doors to their endless exploitation and oppression. The Sangh Parivar and the BJP are aiming to establish this Hitlerite model in the guise of ‘Vikas’ in the entire country by coming to power in these elections. Congress came to power the previous two terms and won the severe wrath of the people. So the ruling classes and the US imperialists are openly supporting the candidature of Modi for the PM post as he would implement their agenda ruthlessly. Accordingly the corporate media is propagating Modi on a huge scale. Its attempt to win in the Delhi elections by bringing a religious divide through religious riots in Muzaffamagar indicates only its fascist face. Rajnath Singh’s statement a few days before the election dates were announced that he was apologizing to the Muslims ‘if at any place any wrong was done to them’ is nothing but a ploy to hide the massacre of Muslims carried on by Modi in Gujarat and gain their votes. But how would the Muslim and Christian religious minorities forget the massacres, discrimination, suppression and chauvinism that they suffered in the hands of the Sangh Parivar right from 1947 to the recent Muzaffamagar killings? The pogrom and persecution of religious minorities in Gujarat under Modi met with unprecedented opposition and protest not only in Gujarat but all over our country. Even if they come to power, the Hindu fascists will have to face the countrywide active resistance of the Muslim and Christian minorities, revolutionary and democratic forces. This would be the foremost task of these forces then.

The AAP that was bom and brought up with a NGO background and on imperialist and NRI funds and support, is not going into the roots of this system and into the basic problems of the people and is resorting Gandhian feats for solving people’s problems. They do not have any solution for the basic problems of the oppressed classes, people and sections that are being suppressed under exploitation and oppression. It is serving as a safety valve to divert the erupting people’s anger into peaceful and parliamentary solutions and trying to cash in on it.

The actual issues of the people never come up for discussion in the parliament and the assemblies. They are under the control of the imperialists, CBB and the big landlords. Where is the place for democracy in this system where votes could be bought with money, liquor, religious and casteist sentiments? It is ridiculous to call this a democracy when criminals, bandits and notoriously corrupt politicians win in elections. In fact, when we look into history we find that people’s problems have always been solved through people’s struggles, class struggles and PPW and not through parliamentary forums.

As elections are being conducted like a farce each time, the Election Commission of India vowed to strengthen democracy during these elections and is trying to bring in several reforms along with including guidelines according to the Supreme Court order. As part of strengthening democracy, the SC had issued orders to give the voters the right to ‘reject.’ As a result, the NOTA button was introduced in the EVMs for the first time during the assembly elections in five states in 2013. Now during these Loksabha elections this is being introduced all over the country. In fact, this NOTA right suppresses the ‘right to recall’ the elected representatives that the people should rightfully have. If they really intend to give the ‘right to reject’, then why are they deploying lakhs of government armed forces in areas where our party had given the call to boycott the polls in the name of conducting ‘free and fair` elections and carrying on attacks, search operations, arrests, fake encounters and massacres?

The great Marxist teacher Lenin stated in his ‘State and Revolution - "Elections are held to decide once every few years which member ofthe ruling class is to repress and crush the people through parliament-such is the real essence of bourgeois parliamentarism, not only in parliamentary-constitutional monarchies, but also in the most democratic republics? This is more applicable to our semi-colonial, semi-feudal country that claims itself to be the ‘biggest democracy in the world.’ That is why, none of the oppressed masses believe that their lives would change or that there would be a fundamental change in this system through these elections. In all the elections held our country so far, considerable number of voters are distancing themselves from polling. The stronger parties occupy the polling booths with their goon force and conduct rigging. Even those who vote are not doing so with the belief that these elections would benefit them. They are voting just for local needs or other pressures or lures such as caste, religion, regionalism, money, liquor, goondaism etc. There is no alternative for the people in this sham parliamentary system.

All the major parties coming to the fore in the elections are subservient to the imperialists and represent the Indian exploiting ruling classes. All these parties are anti-people, treacherous corrupt, oppressive, reactionary and fascist in nature. Serving the interests of imperialism, CBB and the big landlord classes, keeping intact the Indian semi-colonial semi-feudal system and crushing all democratic and revolutionary movements is the aim of these parties. They are coming together to suppress our party, the CPI (Maoist) that is coming to the fore as an alternative to this, the NDR led by it and the embryonic new organs of political power that represent the Indian people’s democratic federal republic based on genuine democracy and self-reliance. Though these comprador parties loll in the pig-sty of the parliament for power and engage in dog-fights with each other for their share in the loot, when it comes to crushing the revolutionary movement by labeling it the ‘gravest threat to internal security’ of our country they are all unanimous. They are resorting to a severe multi-pronged offensive according to the US dictated LIC strategy and tactics. Their deceptive proposals for Peace Talks and reform schemes are aimed at diverting the people and the democrats and to carry on a further heavy offensive on the revolutionary movement. The countrywide multi-pronged offensive carried on in the name War on People - OGH since mid- 2009 by the central government by colluding with BJP and along with various state governments is a part of this. They are trying without success through repression to preserve this rotten exploiting system. But in a backdrop where the revolutionary conditions are maturing day by day, they are doomed to be swept away by the people.

The present exploitative system cannot be transformed with elections. The basic problems of the people would not be solved. Even their basic needs would not be fulfilled. All the electoral parties are dead against genuine democracy, self-reliance and sovereignty of our country. None of them is morally qualified to ask our people to vote for them. That is why our party is giving a call to the entire people of India to boycott these sham parliamentary and assembly elections and to march forward in the path of PPW for the victory of the NDR that is waged with agrarian revolution as the axis on the basis of ‘land to the tiller’ for building an Indian people’s democratic federal republic. This new democratic state will be the people’s democratic dictatorship exercised by the united front comprising the proletariat, peasantry, petty-bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie class under the leadership of the proletariat based upon the worker-peasant alliance and liberate our country from the clutches of the imperialists, the CBB and the big landlords.

(Abhay)

Spokesperson,

Central Committee, CPI (Maoist)