People's Democracy

 EDITORIAL

Spin Doctors All The Way

WE ARE indeed increasingly being made to live in a world of make believe. Spin doctors at various levels keep weaving surrealistic images to create make believe worlds to advance their agendas. The common thread that runs through at various levels from the global to the local, is the unscrupulous adherence to Goebbels, the Nazi (Hitler’s) propaganda minister’s infamous dictum: “Tell a big enough lie frequently enough to make it appear as the truth”. At the international level the imagery of Saddam Hussein’s capture are being projected to herald a new victory of sorts for US imperialism.

This obfuscates the reality that it took US imperialism more than eight months of brutal military occupation of the country to dig out, literally, Saddam Hussein. It also obfuscates the fact that Saddam Hussein, beleaguered and tired, as he was shown on TV screens across the world, could have been the last person organising or directing any of the guerrilla operations that have claimed the lives of more US and British soldiers since the war officially ended. The reality therefore, suggests that the Iraqi people are responding in every manner possible against their colonial occupation. The big lie however remains that even after such a barbaric invasion and occupation US imperialism and its drumbeaters like Britain have not been able to find those weapons of mass destruction which was used, in the first place, as the pretext for the invasion. All they could find with Saddam were two AK 47s and a pistol! (elsewhere in the issue a detailed analysis of this will be found)

Back home the spin-doctors appear more macabre. This morning’s (December 17) Economic Times carries a coloured graphic as its front-page banner describing the so-called “feel good” factor that is growing under this Vajpayee government in India. We are told that a booming sensex, a shining India and now the historic victory of our cricket team in Australia are all pointers towards this. They in fact seek us to believe that India won a cricket match after 22 years in Australia because of the Vajpayee government!

As always, here as well, the grim reality is sought to be deliberately obfuscated. As we go to press according to official figures nearly 50 people have been killed in a devastating cyclone that hit south eastern India damaging most in Andhra Pradesh. Thousands of homes have been uprooted displacing many more people. Adding to the misery of destruction of property is the death of cattle and livestock. None of this news features on the front page headlines in any of our national papers. Instead, one of the main front page news is made out of Chandrababu Naidu’s visit to Pramod Mahajan’s office ostensibly to learn how the latter won the elections for the BJP in the recent state assembly elections!

Chandrababu Naidu, more eager to be described as the CEO of Andhra Pradesh rather than its chief minister, has found natural allies in the BJP to reduce politics and elections in India to a management problem. And, to that extent the corporatisation of Indian politics seems following close to the heels of the corporatisation of the Indian economy.

Wild charges are often thrown against the CPI(M) in an effort to understand as to how in West Bengal it manages to roundly defeat the incumbency factor to win six successive elections to the state assembly. These proponents of the make believe world seek to obfuscate the reality that anti-incumbency works with such governments whose priorities are not the needs and concerns of the people but the fattening of their own purses and the manipulations of management to return to office.

At the expense of repetition it needs to be mentioned that in West Bengal over these years of Left Front government more than 13 lakh acres of land hitherto held illegally by the landlords and vested interests was distributed to over 25 lakh landless people. Even at a nominal cost of Rs 1 lakh per acre, this means the redistribution of resources from the rich to the poor to the tune of a whopping Rs 13,000 crores! In every elections, those who seek to repossess this land distributed to the poor i.e. the former landlords and vested interests rally alongwith those parties which work for the defeat of the CPI(M). The consequent polarisation between the poor who have for the first time in their lives benefited because of the Left Front government and the rich who seek to reimpose its cruel exploitative agrarian order is what motivates the bulk of the Bengal rural voters to continuously repose faith in the CPI(M). Thus, the anti-incumbency factor does not work in Bengal because the ruling Left Front not only takes up the people’s issues and concerns but continuously defends them against the counter attacks by the vested interests. Therefore, in the final analysis the issue is not that of management. It is one of straightforward politics. On whose side is the government? On the side of the mass of the people or on the side of the vested interests?

In the recently concluded elections as well this was the main issue before the people. The former Congress governments were seen as no different in terms of the economic policies that they pursue from that of the central government or the BJP. Further, in some states particularly like in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress engaged in competitive communalism which once again blurred the distinction between the two contending parties. As always pale saffron proved no match to saffron. Instead of realising this truth that is staring at all of us there is once again an effort to obfuscate it. Hindutva was not an issue we are being told. People have voted on issues of development and governance we are being told. All along the attempt is to once again obfuscate the fact that it is because of the consistent work of the RSS in the tribal belt in sharpening the communal polarisation that the BJP benefits. It is sought to be concealed that the RSS/BJP indulged in brazen caste mobilisations under its “respectable” slogan of “social engineering”. In addition to all this, the BJP has displayed its money power as never seen before in any Indian elections. This naturally does not augur well for Indian democracy particularly on the eve of a general election.

The icing on the cake of such obfuscation has come with Vajpayee’s harangue on political morality in the parliament on December 16.  Concluding the debate on the Jogi and Judev cases, the PM bemoaned such political corruption by stating “what is happening in the country, in which direction are we going?” This is the height of hypocrisy.  The PMO under him has been described by an RSS affiliated journalist as being RH+ (like the blood’s RH factor). R here stands for Reliance and H for the Hindujas. In this context consider Vajpayee’s moans in the parliament, “how long will the country depend on capitalists to fight the elections?”

At one level the hypocrisy expresses itself by the moral high-platform that the prime minister adopts. At another level the hypocrisy can be seen when the prime minister says that the two cases of Jogi and Judev are “totally different”. He exonerates Judev while indicting Jogi. A person seen on camera accepting wads of notes for favours in return is a case which is according to the PM “not clear”! This is not strange. The PM did not find anything objectionable to the Tehelka tapes to begin with. In an open expression of condoning the Tehelka scam Vajpayee brought back the defamed defence minister into the cabinet. We can only anticipate that in his annual exercise of theorising hypocrisy contained in his year end “musings” the theme for 2004 will be one of raj dharma or political morality. Never matter that in practice it is adharma and immorality that is being perfected under his stewardship.

Such obfuscation of the reality, so necessary for the ruling classes and vested interests has a motive apart from that of concealing the truth from the people as well as from institutionalising hypocrisy and immorality as the foundations of ruling class politics. Such an effort is directed at relegating the main issues concerning the people’s livelihood to the background. This is absolutely required for both imperialist globalisation and communalism. The more they can divert the people’s attention from their fundamental concerns, the greater the opportunities to advance their agendas. Yet another expression of imperialist trimurti (IMF-WB-WTO) acting in concert with communal trishul to create make believe worlds to divert peoples’ attention.

It is therefore essential that in order to bring back on to the agenda the basic issues concerning the people and the country the web of fabrications created by the spin doctors of a make believe world must be exposed. This can only be done when the actual issues that agitate the minds of the people and the sharply deteriorating living conditions of the mass of the Indian people are brought into sharp focus through a series of mass mobilisations and protest actions. The announced decision of the CPI(M) Polit Bureau to conduct a fortnight long national campaign beginning February 1, 2004 is to precisely meet this urgent necessity.