Maharashtra
The Farce that is Indian Democracy
The post-election happenings
in Maharashtra demonstrated that
to what low level the Indian
parliamentary politics can stoop
down. President’s rule was imposed
in Maharashtra stating that there is
hung Assembly. It is revoked by the
President at the behest of Prime
Minister in the night on the plea that
the BJP claimed the right to form a
government depending upon
defectors. Immediately at the dawn
Devendra Phadnavis was sworn in
as the Chief Minister with NCP’s Ajit
Pawar as his deputy. Next move
came from Sharad Pawar who put
his MLAs in hotel to avoid any more
defections. Then Congress and
Shiv Sena went to the Supreme
Court which ordered the Phadnavis
to prove his majority on the floor of
Assembly within 24 hours. Sensing
defeat as there was very little time
for horse trading Phadnavis resigned
within three days of his sworn in as
the CM.
Even the hard opponent of BJP
had nothing to elate at its failure to
insyall its government in Maharashtra.
Shiv Sena and BJP jointly contested
in the elections. Their split after the
announcement of results was not
based on any principle. Instead the
split came on the question of who
should and to what extent of term
occupy the chair of CM. The Shiv
Sena has the notorious record of
inciting the communal and regional
hatreds targeting the Muslims and
people from other states and
organized physical attacks on
Muslims and Biharis other people.
It was the Shiv Sena that first incited
anti-Muslim riots in Bombay in the
wake of demolition of Babri Masjid
and again on Biharis and Bengali
Muslims who came in search of
jobs. The shiv Sena came into
existence bashing South Indians for
22
their alleged stealing of job from the
locals. Once established it gradually
changed its stand conveniently and
selectively focusing on other non-
Maharashtrians one at a time along
with anti-Muslim attack. One cannot
expect the shiv Sena broke from its
communal and regional hatred
agenda once for all and it may raise
its ugly head of communalism to
protect its narrow interests of power.
The common minimum
programme rolled out by the alliance
of Shiv Sena, National Congress
Party and the Congress did not
contain any explicit hindutwa
agenda, and also did not mention
any anti-hindutwa programme. As
usual it contains hollow and verbose
proclamation and popular schemes
as vote catchers.
The most important question at
this juncture is CAA and NRC which
are part of the BJP agenda. By this
exercise the BJP wants to deprive
millions of Indians of their rights as citizens. No neighbouring country
accepts them and they swell the
ranks of reserve army of labour.
They will be forced to work on less
than subsistence wages under the
wretched of the wretched conditions.
This agenda of BJP is being
implemented at the behest of Indian
big bourgeoisie and its master
foreign finance capital. Could the
alliance of Shiv Senam NCP and
Congress, who has to exercise their
power from the finance capital and
bastion of Big bourgeoisie and
imperialist capital? It is obvious that
without serving the interests of
ruling classes, the alliance cannot
survive for long in the political power.
It is up to the democratic and
revolutionary forces to expose the
real exploitation and oppression
behind the communal agenda of
BJP along with same concealed
agenda of Congress and its allies
and prepare the people for struggle
for a better democratic society.
contd from page 23
per cent more cash had been in
circulation, Yet there was no
improvement in employment that
fell sharply and the manufacturing
sector continued to limp and the
investment further declined. The
situation in these fronts deteriorated
further with the implementation of
Goods and Service Tax in 2017.
The medium, small and micro units
could not recover because they
had to spend their working capital
for survival and meeting the GST
rules. According to one estimate the
present working capital needs of
these millions of units is about
Rs.10 lakh crore. With mounting
NPAs and NBFC crisis in 2018 credit
avenues had dried up.
The growth in agricultural sector
has fallen below 2 per cent and has never recovered. Both net sown
area and yields had fallen. Further
those who lost their jobs in
unorganized sector had returned to
villages. The government sensing
the unrest allocated another
Rs.9000 crore to MNREGA. Yet
according to RBI it could create
only 45 days of work instead of 100
days they are entitled for.
The crisis of Indian economy
that is being continued since the last
seven decades started getting
exacerbated in the form of recession,
though they call it as slow down,
since the demonetization and GST.
This by the beginning of the 2019
impacted the lives of people who
are going through the harrowing
experience of unemployment,
misery and hunger.
Class Struggle