Re: [Marxism] The 2009 Indian Elections

[Bhaskar Sunkara <bhaskar.sunkara@xxxxxxxxx>]

Congress will easily be able to form the most stable government in two
decades.  They outmaneuvered the CPI-M along with the formerly rightist
Trinamuls by offering
promises of more inclusive growth, and new forms while joining in the
affirmation of secular politics.

India from the 1940s-1980s was doing what lots of developing countries do at
first, band behind the party that lead the independence movement and support
it due to a
complex web of patronage and corporatism.  The void for an opposition that
emerged around the same time these antiquated structures were being
liberalized
came not from the left, but rather from the far right in the late 1980s when
the BJP arrived on the national scene.

With a few exceptions the BJP has now been marginalized to a few states and
this is the news I most welcome from this election.  Even with a CPI-M led
government,
we would see very similar policies to the Congress government, perhaps with
*less *inclusive growth, the only difference would be in the realm of
U.S.-Indian relations.

It's worth nothing that in opposing the US-India nuclear deal the Left Front
took the same stance as the reactionaries in the BJP-coalition, they opposed
it on nationalistic
grounds, instead of on an anti-nuclear, solidarity with China platform.

I hate to say this, especially given my distaste for Congress, but I'm not
too disheartened by the results of this election.  Everyone saw the CPI-M
collapse in West Bengal coming,
and my main concern was that the BJP was going to be able to be able to lead
a government.
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