Taking forward its task adopted at the 10th Congress of the CPI (ML- Liberation) to defeat the supremacist RSS through effective intervention in the electoral arena and to challenge and defeat the fascist forces wherever possible, has received the major thrust in the prevailing political and economic backdrop to the CPI(ML) Liberation.

The Draft Resolution on Perspective, Orientation and Tasks of Anti-Fascist Resistance, to be placed by the Communist Party of India (ML-Liberation) at its 11 th party Congress to be held in Patna from February 15 for five days, is a major departure from its previous stand of dedicating itself to the maximum programme of bringing about socialist transformation and communism, to the ultimate aim of abolition of all kinds of exploitation of man by man. It also pledged to work for bringing together the revolutionary communists to fight for liberation from feudal fetters and the plunder and domination of big capital and imperialism and for securing equal rights and rapid progress as free citizens irrespective of gender, caste, creed, language or nationality.

But with the ruling establishment resorting to fascist mechanism, the CPI(ML) has modified its stand and holds that fascism is the most urgent challenge before revolutionary communists today. This calls for the broadest possible unity and cooperation among all democratic forces and ideological streams. In India this unity has come to be popularly expressed as defence of the Constitution and the legacy of the freedom movement and saving the country and its resources and infrastructure from outright corporate takeover. Powerful movements have emerged in defence of the Constitution and against privatisation which reflect an unprecedented scale of unity and resolve as witnessed in the movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act and most strikingly in the historic farmers' movement against the Modi government's bid to promote corporate takeover of India's agrarian economy.

Nevertheless some factions of the CPI(ML) describe this stand of the Liberation as deviation from revolutionary path. They even allege that Liberation in the name of fighting fascism is trailing behind ruling class parties. Their main grievance is Liberation is denying the existence of nearly half dozen Communist Revolutionary forces. Nevertheless the fact cannot be ignored that in the existing situation, countering the onslaught of fascism is the biggest challenge. The politics of hatred and divisiveness is turning the democratic institution irrelevant. Secularism and the secular ethos are being derided and made dysfunctional. The RSS and BJP have steadily moving towards turning into a Hindu Rashtra. The RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in his systematic rhetoric has been projecting India as the Hindu Rashtra.

An insight into the political and economic strategies of the RSS and BJP would unravel the truth that their every move aims at taking India closer to their mission of turning India into a Hindu Rashtra. Their thrust on winning the 2024 Lok Sabha election is testimony to it. RSS is confronted with the situation of do or die. If they fail to convert the 2024 election as the launching pad their mission will ultimately become a distant dream. This is the reason that Modi government has turned belligerent; out to destroy democratic institutions, finish the civil rights and victimise the rights activists, coerce the judiciary, throttle the voice of protest and smash the economy. The Adani episode must not be seen as a separate event. In fact it is the part of the machination which aims at completely destroying the autonomy and fundamentals of self-governance.

CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya holds; “Revolutionary communists will have to combine the courage with which civil society activists have been braving the persecution of the fascist regime with the unity and tenacity displayed by the ongoing movements to energise the opposition and intensify resistance on all fronts. In contrast to the civil society and people's movements, the bourgeois opposition has generally speaking proven to be vulnerable to the fascist onslaught, especially to the lure of money and fear of blackmail and vendetta. The diversity and complexity of India's political landscape, the continuing decline of the Congress and the absence of any other powerful party with all-India presence has made the current juncture rather tailor made for the BJP at the all-India plane.”

Unfortunately a vast mass of the urban middle class which got empowered due the economic policies of the former prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh nurses the illusion that Narendra Modi, is the benefactor who can really usher the present India into a New India. In fact RSS and BJP get their political sustenance from this section of the electorates. They have the ability and skill to influence others, especially the creamy layer of OBCs, EBC and Dalit, even to some extent the liberal Muslims, who have joined the rank of the middle class.

The primary task before the people is to undo the myth of electoral victory. No doubt BJP is the most predominant party in the present phase, it is certainly not electorally invincible, as is manifest in its defeat in many states. The forging of a dynamic and determined united opposition on all-India level and in major states will be crucial to weaken the BJP and oust the Modi regime in the coming electoral battle. Dipankar points out; “We must however remember that when India voted the autocratic Indira regime out of power in 1977, the Emergency had already been lifted, while elections are now being held in conditions of an undeclared Emergency which makes 2024 a much bigger challenge than 1977.”

According to Bhattacharya; “We must also note that the opposition unity currently building up in India is not yet informed by a common anti-fascist consciousness or commitment. While the regime draws its core strength from the RSS network, many opposition parties are not ready to oppose the RSS and challenge its vicious campaign of hate, lies and terror. While welcoming, facilitating and joining the broadest possible unity of opposition parties and forces, communists must therefore retain and exercise their full political and ideological independence to wage a comprehensive and effective resistance against fascism."

The Draft also points out that fascism cannot be decisively defeated by just voting out the Modi government. The Sangh brigade has accumulated enough strength to withstand a defeat or two. What is needed is an emphatic rejection of its ideology and politics that can relegate it back to the margins of Indian politics and society. While Narendra Modi clearly plays a central role in spearheading this fascist offensive and securing the kind of vote share the BJP currently enjoys on the all-India plane”.

CPI(ML) Liberation draft holds that in the existing situation the communists must be ready to wage a protracted and thorough-going resistance to give a fitting rebuff to the fascist offensive. If fascism is seen as a huge disaster to have befallen India, the goal of anti-fascist resistance has to be both rescuing and rebuilding India to overcome the disaster and the damage and devastation in its trail.

The Draft also mentions that with Amit Shah as the Union Home Minister and AjitDoval as the National Security Advisor, the state has become unprecedentedly repressive and vindictive. Constitutional democracy in India today is reeling under the combination of a rampaging state and a host of private armies and vigilante squads emboldened by the patronage and impunity granted by the regime. In India, this fascism projects itself as nationalism defined on the basis of Brahminical patriarchal Hindu supremacy or Hindutva. The RSS has all along been ideologically fascist. Its ability to enforce its fascist agenda depends on the power it can wield, both state power and street power.

Fascism is once again on the rise as an international trend. Today once again global capitalism is mired in deep crisis and uncertainty and it is seeking a way out of this crisis through war and fascist consolidation and thorough undermining of bourgeois democracy. But as with the twentieth century phase of fascism, fascism in different countries is bound to exhibit its national particularities in the current phase as well. The Indian case becomes particularly unique because of the central role of RSS which has been nurturing the fascist project for nearly a century now. While the rise of fascism in India has been propelled primarily by India's own internal developments, the current international climate favours it by giving it considerable strategic support and legitimacy. (IPA Service)