A POLITICAL earthquake has rocked south Asia following
India’s general election. Millions of workers, the dispossessed and rural
poor decisively rejected the ‘neo-liberal’ policies of the ruling Hindu
nationalist coalition government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and
its prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee.
The BJP and its allies (who, historically, have
practised a virulent form of Hindu chauvinism combined with a Thatcherite
economic programme which has enriched India’s urban elite but impoverished
millions), was swept from power. Allies of the BJP like Chandrababu Naidu,
chief minister of Andhra Pradesh in southern India, an advocate of
neo-liberalism and globalisation, was dumped from office.
The ‘boom’ in India has by-passed the workers and rural
poor. According to the United Nations, 35% live on less than a dollar a day.
In Bihar, the poorest state in India, only one household in ten have
electricity. Less than 5% have access to a telephone. One child in five
receives no education.
Capitalists’ response
THE MAIN beneficiaries of the collapse in support for
the government parties was the opposition Congress and also the Left Front
parties, who in Kerala state won almost every seat.
The victorious Congress party led by Sonia Gandhi is now
forming a minority government with the support of smaller parties. The
‘business-friendly’ Communist Party of India (CPI-M), which with its 43
seats is the largest left-wing party in the four party Left Front bloc, has
finally decided not to join the government but to ‘support it from the
outside’. This position emerged only after sharp divisions within its
leadership.
Nonetheless, India’s capitalists showed their disdain
both for the electorate and their fear of the CPI-M blocking further
privatisations of state assets by pulling their money out of the country’s
stock markets. Foreign capitalists also pulled the plug on their
investments, selling an eighth of their stock holdings. The most heavily
affected stocks were those of state enterprises next in line to be
privatised. This led to near riots by middle class shareholders outside
Mumbai’s stock exchange.
However, the decision of Sonia Gandhi to turn down the
position of Prime Minister has coincided with a sharp rise in share prices.
Congress, the unexpected winners of the election, is
generally committed to continuing the economic programme of the former BJP-led
government. This was reiterated by Congress leader Manmohan Singh who said:
"We believe that profit-making enterprises… should be given all
possible opportunities to grow." Adding, "We welcome foreign
direct investment."
Track record
Moreover, the track record of the CPI-M especially in
West Bengal, which it has ruled for 24 years, shows that it will support the
interests of big business and foreign multinational companies. For example,
in the free trade economic zones, established to attract multinationals, the
West Bengal Left Front government has introduced no-strike agreements.
Even at this early stage in the new administration very
little is likely to change for the better as far as India’s majority are
concerned. Their verdict on the BJPs capitalist policies is likely to be
ignored by Congress and its ‘left’ allies.
Continued capitalist globalisation and new attacks from
the state, including privatisations, will lead to new struggles. The Indian
working class has not silently accepted capitalist globalisation. 50 million
workers participated in one-day general strikes, in May last year and on 24
February 2004.
There is a crying need for a genuine socialist party to
give an alternative to the impoverished masses who are being crushed by
neo-liberal policies and the drive for profits. This was the main demand
raised by the New Socialist Alternative, the Indian affiliate of the
Committee for a Workers’ International, during the election campaign.
