The recently concluded Assembly elections in five states – Assam, Kerala, Pondichery, Tamilnadu and West Bengal – have once again laid bare the utter bankruptcy of ruling class politics, and exposed the sheer opportunistic alliances forged by the ruling class parties in order to gain or retain power. These elections, held amidst large-scale electoral malpractices and misuse of money, muscle and media, have further deepened the political crisis of the ruling classes in India, and have increased the political instability at the Centre.

The results of these elections have given a rude jolt to the ruling BJP and its allies at the Centre. In Tamilnadu, the NDA led by DMK was trounced, while in Assam AGP–BJP alliance was defeated. Though in West Bengal and Kerala, BJP did not have big base, still it is significant that its vote share came down when compared to last elections. In West Bengal, it lost even the solitary seat it had won last time. The ruling alliance has indeed been shaken by these results.

These elections also saw expression of the people’s widespread anger against the ruling parties. In all these states, except in West Bengal, the ruling parties or alliances were defeated. While in West Bengal CPM led Left Front returned to power with ease, in Kerala the ruling LDF led by the CPM suffered its most humiliating defeat. Over all, the results show the growing disillusionment of the people from the ruling class parties.

It is indicative of the bankruptcy of the ruling class politics that the parties and leaders who were thrown out in the last elections due to malfeasance and corruption, have returned to power in these elections. In Tamil Nadu, Ms. Jaylalitha, convicted of corruption by a Court, has returned to power with good majority. In fact all the ruling class parties contending for power are so thoroughly corrupt that corruption has ceased to be an issue in elections. Today, persons accused of different types of crimes are adorning the chairs in the corridors of power at the Centre and in the states. The accused of demolition of Babri Masjid are in power at the Centre. There are a large number of leaders in power at the Centre and in the states against whom corruption cases are registered. There are a good number of ministers too who are accused of serious crimes.

However, the biggest symptom of the utter bankruptcy of the present system and the ruling class parties is the total lack of any connection between this electoral exercise and the growing hardships of the people. Disastrous ‘New’ Economic Policies and the policies dictated by the World Trade Organization (WTO) are worsening the conditions of the people. Workers are being rendered jobless on a large scale due to increasing industrial closures and unemployment has assumed gigantic proportions. Rather than reviving these industries, Govt. is removing restrictions on import of foreign goods, which has further deepened the industrial and agrarian crisis in the country. Agriculture is coming under increasing sway of MNCs, while landlords rule the roost in the villages. Land reforms are being reversed, and wages of the rural poor are meagre and are even declining in some areas. What to talk of getting remunerative prices, peasants in large parts of the country can not even sell their produce. The rural poor are facing a crisis of existence and can’t hope to even migrate to cities, where closures are leading to gross joblessness.

Economic hardships and indebtedness of the people have increased to the extent that they are forced to commit suicides, finding no means of continuing to live. Peasants in AP, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and other states and weavers in AP and Tamil Nadu have resorted to suicides, which are in reality nothing but the murders by the rulers. The forced sale of children by the poor in AP shows the real picture of the dispensation of the present ruling elite.

Such are the conditions of the people, while indebtedness of the country and the crisis of the economy continues to deepen. The ruling elite wants to make a fast buck for themselves through privatization (read plunder) of the public sector, in which MNCs and the comprador big business houses are reaping the bonanza. Sale of Balco and agreement with Enron are clear examples of the utter disregard of the ruling class parties for the interests of the country and its people. They have become absolutely shameless in their service to the imperialist powers and in subservience to them. BJP-RSS lead the pack in that. Going ahead of even the long time allies of US imperialism, they have even supported the National Missile Defense Programme of the Bush Admn.

And yet these have not been the issues in the last elections. Despite such widespread opposition to these policies among the people, all ruling class parties including CPM and CPI, swear allegiance to the same ‘New’ Economic Policies, faulting each other only here and there. They all see a positive role being played by imperialist capital in the ‘development’ of production in India, they all swear by privatization in the present ruling creed of the neo-liberal imperialist rulers, reducing the issue of privatization to mere kickbacks and protection of jobs of the existing employees in these enterprises. And that too they all accuse each other of the same, but do nothing to get the guilty punished, fearing reciprocations. None of them talk of land reforms or increase in facilities for the rural poor. They all rail against each other, but adhere to the same policies which are responsible for the present state of affairs. ‘New’ Economic Policies have become new holy cow for them.

They have converted the question of secularism to a convenient hand maiden for their power games. The ease with which the ruling class parties have been jumping from the secular to communal bandwagon and vice versa has reduced the struggle for secularism to mere caricature. They have shown their utter lack of seriousness even on this question, proving that this issue is subservient to their power games. Ms. Jayalalitha, who had supported the demolition of Babri Masjid, was not even made to retrace her past stand and still coronated as a secularist!

The elections saw utter opportunistic alliances only meant for securing power. Elections over, there are rumblings of PMK going back to NDA with AIADMK waiting in the wings, with corresponding possible migration of DMK to ‘secular’ front. Congress and Trinamool are now both blaming each other and their alliance for their poor performance in West Bengal.

West Bengal elections saw a comfortable victory for the Left Front, with LF scoring gains even in urban areas which had become strong bastions of Mamata. Though there is widespread resentment against the Left Front misrule in West Bengal particularly among the urban and rural poor, Congress–Trinamool alliance held no promise of any better change. Further, consolidation of most reactionary landlords under the umbrella of Trinamool scared the rural poor away despite their anger with CPM. Fielding of notorious leaders like Sidhartha Shankar Roy for campaigning only alienated the people further. On top of it, alliance with Congress was forged by Mamata with such overtly opportunistic calculations that it could not fool those it was meant to. The bickering between Congress and Trinamool and also within these parties eroded its credibility to provide ‘stable’ administration in the state.

Given lack of any popular upsurge in favour of their opponents, the organizational machinery of the CPM led Left Front and their control over the state machinery cemented during the last two and a half decades long rule, ensured easy victory for them.

CPM leaders have claimed that their victory in West Bengal is due to their policies. But they are hard put to explain how they fared so badly in Kerala. Should then their defeat in Kerala be taken as defeat of their policies! Or are their policies in Kerala and West Bengal different?

While these elections were held disregarding the real issues of the people and on the basis of unprincipled alliances, people’s struggles against attacks on their livelihood and rights are intensifying. These intensifying struggles are the key to the solution of the people’s problems. All energies must be directed to intensify people’s struggles in the time to come.

While struggles on immediate issues of the people have to be intensified, challenge has to be advanced against the very policy framework of the ruling classes to take these struggles forward. Today anger and resentment of the people are increasing and they are coming out in struggles. Though these struggles today are mostly concentrated on immediate issues, they have to be developed under the leadership of the communist revolutionaries into a powerful struggle against the decadent system.

Today the international and national situation is growing increasingly favourable to the development of people’s movements and revolutionary struggles. Workers’ struggles and anti-globalization movement in the imperialist countries and the growing struggles of the people against imperialists and reactionaries in third world countries are building up the challenge to the imperialist system. The growing struggles of the peasants and workers in our country will definitely play a significant role in this process.