[The following resolution, entitled "The Assembly Election and Our Tasks," was adopted March 26 by the Communist League, Indian section of the Fourth International.]
The recent sweeping victory of the Congress, the traditional party of the Indian bourgeoisie, in the sixteen state assembly elections has to be explained in terms of certain political and economic factors and a new cor- 500
relation of class forces.
These factors include the military victory over Pakistan, the "liberation" of Bangladesh by the Indian army, the radical stance adopted by the Congress leadership, and certain reforms like bank nationalisation introduced by the centre. The Bengali "patriotism" aroused in a state like West Bengal by the Indian army's action in Bangladesh has worked in favour of the Congress at the cost of its leftist opponents. Another factor that helped the Congress is the erosion of the traditional bases of the lett parties among the urban working class and agricultural workers thanks to the disruption of the trade union movement and the absence of militant class struggles, which the left parties have failed to build.
It must be conceded that the people have voted decisively for a programme of social change. To that extent the poll results show that politically the situation has changed in favour of the bourgeoisie and the ruling class. It also poses a serious challenge to the Congress as the ruling party of the bourgeoisie.
The outcome has also exposed the bankruptey of the traditional parties, both of the right and the left. It has introduced a process of regroupment of political forces in the country, which will lead to a new process of class po- • larisation in national politics.
Since the mid-term Lok Sabha [lower house of parliament] poll last year, which gave a clear mandate to the Congress to implement its election promises without any challenge from other parties, the impressive electoral victory has reinforced the trend towards reintegration and reconsolidation of the political leadership of the bourgeoisie, which suffered a serious debacle in 1967.
In the eyes of the vast majority of the electorate, the Congress has emerged as the new and radical alternative to all other parties. In reality, in terms of programme as well as the organisational composition of the party, it is only a continuation of the old united Congress despite the exit of certain old-guard leaders and the influx of the younger elements of the ruling class.
Having "captured" states like West Bengal, Bihar, Punjab, and Delhi, and having secured a majority of more than two-thirds in most of the state legislatures, the Congress is placed in a situation where it has no excuse to delay implementation of its electoral promises, which are at best aimed at fulfilling the limited objective of completing the unfinished tasks of a bourgeois-democratic revolution and introducing certain reforms within the capitalist framework, and certainly not that of ushering in a socialist transformation of Indian society, as the party claims.
The Congress, as a party of the bourgeoisie of an underdeveloped country, cannot and will not be in a position to overcome the present crisis, which is of a structural nature within the matrix of capitalist property relations. Only a socialist revolution, led by the working class and liquidating the capitalist system, can complete the unfulfilled tasks of bourgeois democracy.
If the ruling party fails to solve the basic problems of the masses in the immediate future, as Indira Gandhi herself has said, the popular upsurge that swept it into office can turn against it in an equally spectacular May 1, 1912
manner. In the absence of a militant mass movement led by the working class, the frustration generated could be exploited by the conservative elements of the ruling class to install a dictatorial regime that would seek to suppress democratic liberties and all forms of class resistance of the masses. That is the dialectic of the present situation in a country like India, where a popular upsurge in the absence of a revolutionary leadership can swing from extreme left to extreme right.
The Congress victory in West Bengal, hitherto considered a citadel of leftist forces, and the rout of the CPI (M) [Communist party of India (Marxist)] and its allies of the left front is perhaps the most significant outcome. It is difficult to believe that the rigging of the elections in West Bengal and other states, as alleged by the CPI(M), was the decisive factor in the debacle of the left. The main reasons were the failure of the CPI(M)- led coalitions to fulfill their own electoral promises within the capitalist framework and the class-collaborationist politics pursued by the left parties.
But the general trend in almost all states is clear. It had been a nearly total rout for the opposition parties. The Jana Sangh, which is potentially the most organised party of the bourgeoisie's conservative trend, made a serious bid to become the main opposition party on a national scale but secured fewer seats than it did in 1967.
It suffered severe setbacks in its strongholds of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi. The Jana Sangh has lost its communal appeal among the urban upper-caste intelligentsia, especially after the dismemberment of Pakistan and the emergence of an independent Bangladesh. Nevertheless, it is the only opposition party that has sizable organisational bases in different states and therefore may serve as an alternative party of the bourgeoisie.
The Congress (O) [Organisation Congress] has been practically wiped out in its strong bases of Gujarat and Mysore. The same was the fate of the Swatantra party and other regional bourgeois parties like the Akali Dal, Bangla Congress, BKD [Bhatatiya Kranti Dal- Indian Revolutionary partyl, etc.
As for the traditional left parties, the CPI [Communist party of India] has slightly improved its position, that, too, as an electoral ally of the Congress in some states. But the performance of the CPI(M) was disastrous on a national scale. The fundamental reason for the debacle of the traditional left parties like the SP and CPI is that there was hardly anything to distinguish them from the Congress in their election manifestoes. The Congress has made serious inroads into the traditional base of the SP among the intelligentsia, and therefore the SP has entered a phase of rapid disintegration. The CPI on the other hand, because of its tail-ending and class-collaborationist policies in relation to the so-called national bourgeoisie, cannot be expected to play the role of revolutionary opposition.
The CPI(M) had pursued a line of militant opposition to the Congress, although the former's immediate perspective is one of achieving a "people's democratic revolution" in which the working class seeks an alliance with the "antimonopoly national bourgeoisie." A socialist revolution is not placed immediately on the agenda.
There are some petty-bourgeois radicals who have joined the Congress and who believe that the ruling party is accomplishing the tasks of a bourgeois-democratic revolution, fighting imperialism and feudalism more effectively than the left parties by introducing partial reforms like bank naabolition of privy tionalisation, purses, etc. They contend that these tasks can be completed by imposing ceilings on landholdings and urban properties and by amending the constitution to restrict or abolish private property. The compulsions of reality in the coming period will demonstrate to such elements that no radical reforms can be achieved within the existing capitalist framework.
The revolutionary Marxists in India should not be swept away by the seemingly spectacular sweep of the Congress at the polls. They should not nurture any illusions regarding the ability of the bourgeois state to overcome the present economic crisis, which is going to deepen and be aggravated in the future, leading to a new phase of political instability and crisis. Therefore the revolutionary Marxists must resist all attempts to subordinate independent class struggle of the masses to the exigencies of the ruling class and must incessantly strive to build up an independent class organisation and the struggles of the proletariat and the rural poor against the bourgeois state. They must mobilise united struggles of working-class parties and organisations against any attempts to impose restrictive antidemocratic measures like moratoriums on strikes, wage freezes, etc.
There is every reason to believe that repression by the bourgeois state will be unleashed against mass organisations, despite the massive victory of the Congress, wherever the bourgeoisie feels threatened. Therefore it is necessary to build up united actions of working-class and other mass organisations to resist such repression. It is imperative to forge a united front of working-class parties, especially in states like West Bengal, with the above objective in view. Steps must be taken to create workers' defense corps, to prevent disruption of meetings and demonstrations, to launch a campaign against political murders and clashes between left political parties, to fight for the unconditional release of political prisoners, including the Naxalites, etc. A united front of the workingclass parties that stand for mass struggles against the bourgeois state and its repressive policies must be built up in the immediate future.