During a post-presentation discussion, Harpal Brar gives a few thoughts on the Indian national elections of May 2014, including on Nirendra Modi and his Hindu-fundamentalist BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party / Indian People’s Party), which has its roots in communalist and religious demagogy, and which has links to the semi-fascist RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh / National Volunteer Organisation).
The BJP’s overwhelming victory has come as a result of the party’s sponsorship by Indian and international monopoly capital. It has made great promises to the Indian middle-class and labouring masses, promising to eliminate poverty through the ‘efficient capitalism’ of the ‘Gujarat model’.
The promises of Modi and the BJP – like those of the Congress party before them – are so much hot air. They can only result in profound discontent among those who look to Modi for solutions.
Capitalist development, even with an annual growth rate of 6-8 percent, has totally bypassed the masses of the Indian urban and rural poor, who still account for two thirds of the worlds poorest people.
The Indian political system, held up by imperialism, and the Indian capitalists as the ‘world’s largest democracy’, is profoundly corrupt, and a vehicle for monopoly capital.
The working masses must look to socialism, and the communist movement must return to the teachings of Marx and Lenin, if the lives of the masses are to be transformed.
