People's Democracy

Thinking Together

During the era of general crisis, in certain conditions of extreme decay, fascism is the most complete and consistent strategy worked out in the most typical tendencies and policies of modern capitalism.

But it is allowed to come to power only where and when the working class is in the mood of revolt but fails due to the betrayal of its party leadership.

It is whose betrayal that has led the BJP to the power centre?

Sunil Baran Chakraborty, Kolkata

IN this column earlier, we had discussed the fascistic tendencies and methods  adopted by the BJP (see Thinking Together, People's Democracy, November 9, 2003) In the strict scientific sense, fascism, as defined by Georgi Dimitrov, informs us that  fascism is resorted to at times  of  crisis in the class rule of monopoly capital and simultaneously, in fact, as a result of this crisis, when there is an imminent threat of the takeover of State power by the working class.  Fascism, therefore, is not the mere  replacement of the rule by one ruling class party by another.  Fascism is the replacement of parliamentary democracy by an open terroristic dictatorship. 

In India's conditions today, while the RSS pursues its fascist project of converting the secular  democratic India into a rabidly intolerant "Hindu Rashtra", the present NDA government led by the BJP, while relying on fascistic methods, both ideological and in propaganda techniques, is not, at the moment, seeking the jettisoning of parliamentary democracy. For sure, when it manages to secure a majority on its own, the RSS's unfulfilled fascist agenda may well be put into practice.

It is incorrect to say that the betrayal of the working class party leadership is the reason that allows fascism to come to power.   In the classic example of Germany, the working class led revolutionary struggle had reached a  critical pitch which, however, could not succeed in completing the socialist revolution for a variety of reasons, the least of which was the betrayal of its party leadership. 

Remember, Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebnecht were both brutally murdered by the fascist forces alongwith thousands of German revolutionaries. It is the fascist murderous offensive against the revolutionary movement that could not be withstood at that time. 

Therefore, it is not somebody's betrayal that led to the BJP coming to power in our country as you suggest.    We have, repeatedly through these columns, analysed that the RSS led BJP etc have exploited the popular discontent against the policies imposed by the bourgeois-landlord ruling classes  into communal channels. In the bargain, like Hitler used Race hatred against the Jews as his modus operandi, the RSS/BJP are using Religious hatred against Muslims and Christians as their modus operandi.