RE: Punjab: a shrine and a struggle

[Anon Anon <inprekorr@xxxxxxxxx>]

To correct one statement about the BJP made below, to
call "some" in the BJP "tied-in" with the RSS, Shiv
Sena, VHP or whatever, is to miss the point of the
BJP--it is a front, it was created to house those
groups and gives a legitimate face to the extremism
therein.

More generally, to write that the "left remains
silent" is to misunderstand the position of the left
in India today.  As a good a way as any to do this is
to briefly look at organised labour.

Whether one wishes to consider the BJP classically
fascist, what is of note, when considering those
forces that might be best poised to defeat the Hindu
nationalists, is that the largest trade union national
centre in India is affiliated to the BJP, the Bhartiya
Majdoor Sangh (BMS), and this is probably twice as
large as the largest left trade union centre, Centre
for Indian Trade Unions (CITU)--affiliated to CPI-M.
There are three other major national centres, AITUC,
INTUC and HMS.  The second and thrid would be
difficult to view as left.  HMS was at left at one
stage, but given that George Fernandes (of the famous
railways strike of 1974), former HMS leader, is
currently Minister for Defence in the NDA government,
that should be indicative enough. The INTUC is
affiliated to the Congress Party, which after its
election campaign in Gujarat also provides an
indication as to how effective it is in combating the
safron tide.

The AITUC, affiliated to CPI, is a shadow of its
former self, and aside from pockets cannot muster a
serious industrial challenge (which is why it has been
talking of merging with CITU for a number of years)
let alone a political challenge to the BJP.

The point here is the organised working class in India
is heavily divided, has over the last twenty years
*decreased* its support for the left as most of the
secular political parties have moved their politics to
the right or into accomodationist positions with the
BJP, hence the NDA.

Finally, the BJP has membership which are dalits.  It
has dalit front organsiations, the last pary president
of the BJP, Laxman, is a dalit.  As for the mantle the
BJP lays claim to, here is what current party
presidet, Naidu, said on 26 December 2002: "our
nationalism is what was preached by the likes of
Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru in the
pre-Independence days. The post-Independence Congress
does not have it. We have inherited it."  That is, we
are the party of the downtrodden!

I'm not trying to say people should not fight the BJP
and all its components, (be they in India, the USA or
the UK--the latter two countries sources of important
foreign support for the BJP) nor would I argue they
are not a threat (Gujarat proves they are), but the
point is that to understand what makes up the BJP, and
who can and will fight it, requires one not to
romanticise dalits, to understand that dalit is a
category of caste *not* class, which means dalits are
not necessarily, but of course tend to be, in
positions of oppression, and to understand that the
left and, more importantly perhaps, those that make up
thw working class in india are historically weak and
splintered.

A good useful article:
THE NEW INDIAN RIGHT (originally published in New Left
Review)
By Achin Vanaik
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/achin_NewIndianRight.html


Christopher Carrico wrote:

So the Dalit cause is being championed by the BJP
while the Punjabi left remains silent?

Does anyone have more information on this?


Response (Jim C):
Any "support" of the Dalit or Nagas by the BJP can
only be nominal, superficial, token and for narrow and
short-term political advantages. Some of the ruling
elements of the BJP are heavily tied-in with
RSS, Shiv Sena and Aryaa Samajjyem all of which are
fascist, racist, pro-caste, elitist, anti-"scheduled
caste", anti-Indigenous, anti-communist, terrorists,
and pro-monopoly capitalism.

Jim C.



__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
http://sbc.yahoo.com