New Delhi, March 1: Disapproving of the CPI(M) note clarifying that it does not consider the Modi government or the Indian State as “neo-fascist”, CPI(ML) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said on Saturday that any “downplaying of the fascist danger” at this juncture can only erode the electoral strength and moral authority of the communists.
His remarks came days after the CPI(M) issued the note to its state units on the draft political resolution for the upcoming party congress and stressed that the stand is different from that of the CPI and CPI(ML).
In an article published on the website of the Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) Liberation, Bhattacharya questioned if the CPI(M)’s stand is due to the immediate electoral circumstances faced by the party in West Bengal and Kerala and if any communist party can “increase its strength and role by obfuscating the central political question of the day”.
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The draft political resolution of the CPI(M), which will be discussed at the party congress in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai in April, said that the push to impose a reactionary Hindutva agenda and the authoritarian drive to suppress the opposition and democracy display neo-fascist characteristics .
In the note, the CPI(M) has clarified that talking about the political setup showing neo-fascist characteristics does not mean that the party is calling the Modi government fascist or neo-fascist.
Commenting on it, Bhattacharya said, “Perhaps the expression ‘neo-fascism’ had confused the CPI(M) ranks that the main difference between the CPI(M) and CPI(ML) in the current context revolved only around the epithet ‘neo’”.
He said the note had to take the trouble of “clarifying” that as of now fascism in India is only a tendency, the characteristics on display are only emerging and not entrenched or decisive enough to define the nature of the regime.
“The note wants to make sure that the party cadres do not read much into the word neo-fascist which appears for the first time in a CPI(M) document,” he said.
He said that the CPI(M) is in agreement with the wider progressive opinion in India and internationally which considers the RSS fascist.
Calling the demolition of the Babri mosque the first “unmistakable glimpse of the Sangh brigade’s brazen fascist design”, he said the CPI(ML) identified this moment as a communal fascist threat to India’s composite culture and constitutional republic, and Vinod Mishra and Sitaram Yechury both wrote extensively about the RSS design.
“After eleven years of unchecked consolidation of fascist forces at the helm of power, should Indian communists still wait longer to call the growing disaster by its historically known name?” Bhattacharya said.
He said the CPI(M) resolution recognises certain neo-fascist characteristics and says that if unchecked the characteristics may grow into full-scale ‘neo-fascism’.
“If the direction is set and the question is only one of assessing the degree or intensity of the fascist danger, can communists have the luxury of ignoring what has already happened and is happening every day right in front of our eyes and taking comfort from the degree of democracy that still survives in India in comparison with Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany?” he said.
“Any downplaying of the fascist danger at this juncture, any ambiguity in distinguishing the fascist danger from the general categories of neoliberalism and authoritarianism, can only erode the electoral strength and moral authority of the communists,” Bhattacharya said.
He said if communists can take up the challenge of resisting fascism by championing the radical legacy of the freedom movement and the radical contribution of Ambedkar, the communist movement can turn the tables and push the fascists back.
Taking a jibe at the CPI(M), Bhattacharya hoped that the party’s “dilemma in identifying and naming the advent of fascism” is not due to immediate electoral circumstances faced by the party.
“One can understand the political and electoral complexities of Kerala and West Bengal, historically the strongest bastions of the CPI(M), and can only hope that the CPI(M)’s dilemma in identifying and naming the advent of fascism is not informed by the immediate electoral circumstances faced by the party in these two states,” he said.
He added that the repeated failure of the CPI(M) in the Lok Sabha elections in Kerala in spite of being in power in the state is surely as much a matter of concern as its continuing decline in West Bengal.
“What is more disturbing is the continuing migration of sections of CPI(M) voters and perhaps also of some erstwhile organisers and leaders to the BJP fold,” he said.
He said the CPI(M) should prioritise its independent growth and role, “but must that be pitted against the equally important task of forging a broad anti-fascist unity?”
He also pointed out that of the four seats currently held by the CPI(M) in Lok Sabha, three have come from Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan as part of the INDIA coalition. “And can any communist party really increase its strength and role by obfuscating the central political question of the day?” he said.
The CPI(M) is the largest communist party in the country.
“We still hope that no section of the communist movement will falter at this crucial juncture of modern India and together we will be able to strengthen the communist stream of anti-fascist resistance to save India from the growing calamity of fascism before the latter unleashes its fullest fury,” Bhattacharya said. (PTI)
