Let us Learn our Lessons from the Electoral Setback, Rectify our Mistakes and Prepare the Whole Party for a New Breakthrough in the Field of Mass Struggles!

July 28 is the martyrdom day of Comrade Charu Mazumder, founder General Secretary of the CPI(ML). The ruling classes had hoped that the martyrdom of Comrade CM on July 28, 1972 would mark the end of the CPI(ML), but within two years of his martyrdom, the Party was reorganized on 28 July 1974 and soon the reorganized CPI(ML) had begun making its mark in Bihar riding on waves of powerful peasant struggles. As the entire Party observes the 40th anniversary year of Party foundation, this July 28 we pay our warm tributes to Comrades Charu Mazumder, Saroj Dutta, Jauhar, Vinod Mishra and all other great martyrs and departed leaders of our Party including Comrades Nagbhushan Patnaik, Jayanta Ganguly, Anil Baruah and Mahendra Singh and renew our resolve to carry forward the unfinished task of revolutionary social transformation to victory.

The country has recently passed through the 15th Lok Sabha elections. In its second avatar, the UPA government at the Centre has already launched a major policy push towards faster privatization and globalization of the economy while mounting a major assault on democracy in the name of national security. Various state governments are also collaborating with the Centre in this direction. Lalgarh in West Bengal is a clear case in point, where protesting adivasis are bearing the brunt of a concerted paramilitary campaign sponsored jointly by the State and central governments.

As we resist this move and intensify the battle on the key democratic agenda of land, wages, dignity and people-oriented development, we are faced with heightened state repression in almost all places. In Punjab, almost all our leading cadres have been in jail since May 20 for leading land struggle. In Bihar, Nitish government is trying to put some of our most veteran leaders including Comrades Ramnaresh Ram and Rameshwar Prasad in jail by leveling false charges and branding them as ‘extremists’. In Orissa, Comrade Tirupati Gomango, one of our popular tribal leaders spearheading land struggle in the Rayagada-Koraput region, has been convicted by a lower court on false charges.
This repressive campaign of the ruling classes will have to be defeated by further expanding and intensifying the struggles of the people on basic issues and by building larger democratic solidarity in support of the people’s movement and against state repression and assault on democracy.

In this context we must draw some hard lessons from the experience and result of our latest election campaign. In the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections we contested 80 seats and ran a spirited campaign, but in terms of votes we experienced quite a serious decline, particularly in many of our long-standing areas of struggle in Bihar. Against a combined countrywide mass organization membership strength of three millions, we could poll only a little above one million votes. In other words only one out of every three or four members associated with our mass organizations have voted for the Party in the elections. Instead of realizing the prospect of reaching out to larger sections of the masses and attracting more and more people to the fold of our movement we have thus been brought face to face with our failure to win the political support of large sections of our existing mass base.

To overcome this serious problem of political isolation from the masses, the CC had called upon the entire Party to revisit the basics and review our work in terms of our political ties with the mass base and implementation of our Party line. The CC also made it clear that the review should go beyond various election-related immediate practical aspects into more basic aspects of our work like the agenda of our movement and political campaign, the style of our work, our role and performance in panchayats, municipalities and State Assemblies, the actual conditions and capacity of lower-level Party structures and how we nurture the ties between the Party and the masses.

A serious introspective review campaign has since been initiated down to area committees and several village-level meetings have also been held in some key districts. The entire Party must now comprehend the big picture that has begun to emerge out of the review process and take determined steps to resolve the problems in our practice.

Our central election campaign revolved around the slogan of a consistent and committed Left opposition. For a revolutionary Communist Party this can be the only direction in parliamentary struggles. Indeed, the opportunist Left which experimented with indirect participation in the UPA government and gave a call for formation of a government of the “Third Front” in the elections has now had to admit that it was a mistake to stretch the notion of “Third Front” to the call for government formation.

On a policy plane, our national political campaigns are directed against the pro-corporate pro-imperialist policies of the ruling classes. This constituted the thrust of our national election campaign along with our opposition to various state governments in their respective domains. But simultaneously the ruling classes have also gone on a massive reform offensive in the rural areas, and with perhaps the sole exception of Jharkhand, the panchayat system with its plethora of schemes has emerged as the most visible platform of local power. This is the immediate political reality confronting the masses and the sternest test of the implementation of our tactical line lies here. How far have we succeeded in implementing our tactical line in this arena?

Our Party line enjoins us to use victories in panchayat/municipal elections to further local struggles and raise the level of popular mobilization and assertion against the state and corrupt and dominant forces that harass and deprive the masses. Our central slogan in this regard has been: “Turn panchayats into platforms of mass struggles and people’s assertion.”

But the reality has turned out to be quite different. There are widespread complaints that panchayats run by our comrades are hardly distinguishable from those run by other forces. Many leaders of mass struggles who function as elected people’s representatives are now seen more as cogs in the wheel of local power and their comradely relationship with the masses have started turning into patron-client relations. Complaints of various irregularities and hobnobbing with undesirable elements have also begun to surface. In short, in relation to the panchayats and other institutions of local power, our revolutionary Left identity stands rather blurred and blunted.

The problem has also seriously affected the role of the Party committees. Many block- and panchayat-level Party committees have actually been reduced to panchayat managing agencies. Instead of paying due attention to redressing the grievances of the masses and uniting them in struggles, such lower-level Party structures remain heavily preoccupied with panchayat-related complexities. This in turn deepens the resentment and contradictions among the masses and enables various parties of the ruling classes to make inroads in the Party’s mass base.

With panchayats dominating local Party affairs, the crucial task of unleashing and advancing local struggles on basic issues like land, wages (NREGA has created great potential for wage struggles – cases of non-payment or delayed and partial payment of wages for work done under NREGA are quite rampant), social dignity and development (i.e., for fulfillment of people’s basic developmental needs and aspirations) has also been relegated to the back seat in many areas.

The failure to treat panchayats as platforms of struggle and weakening of local mass initiative and struggles have blunted the edge of the Party’s distinct identity and eroded the fighting unity and spirit of the Party base. Lines of demarcation with contending class and political forces have got blurred. This state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue. The Party must be freed from its current preoccupation with panchayat-related activities and its focus must be restored on the neglected task of building struggles and developing close political ties with the broad masses. The Party’s job should be to ensure a functional and vibrant mechanism of popular participation and supervision of panchayat affairs and to lead the people in their struggles for securing their due benefits. We must make it mandatory for all our elected representatives to periodically face the people and submit the balance sheet of funds received and spent and work done and pending.

The problems have been compounded by the growth of a superficial, managerial style of work. Such a style of work reinforces the Party organisation’s isolation or rather insulation from the masses and is clearly antithetical to our revolutionary Party line. We must discard this flawed style of work and adopt the rigorous thorough-going approach that alone can enable us to build a protracted people’s movement. Study and investigation; proper planning and prompt initiative, mutual consultation and coordination; time-bound implementation; close monitoring and regular check-up; critical review of outcome and summing up of experiences must be integral features of the style of work of a revolutionary Communist Party. Leading cadres on all fronts must lead this campaign by setting examples. As Party cadres, each of us must uphold the Party’s fine traditions. Bold initiative and hard work, modesty and readiness to learn are some basic qualities that should become the defining characteristic of every cadre of this great Party.

The decline in votes in our major areas of work indeed marks a major electoral setback. But our Party has faced and overcome much bigger setbacks in its journey of 40 years. By strengthening the mass orientation of the Party and changing the style of work we can surely overcome the present setback and unleash a fresh high tide of militant mass struggles on the basic demands of the people. The question of developing a new batch of Party cadres on every front and at every level and boldly promoting new cadres to various positions of responsibility has also assumed a real urgency and we must pay particular attention to the task of building cadres from among women and student-youth comrades.

As already noted by the CC, the ruling classes are trying to use the present juncture to malign and marginalize the entire Left camp. The electoral drubbing received by the CPI(M) in West Bengal and Kerala which essentially reflects a powerful popular backlash against the political opportunism and growing bureaucratic degeneration of the CPI(M) establishment in these states, has given a powerful handle to the ruling classes and their parties. The self-styled Maoists with their isolated military actions and irresponsible amateurish phrase-mongering are also playing a negative role, not only by supplying pretexts to the state to seek legitimacy for its repressive strategy but more significantly by pushing large sections of common people away into the rightwing political trap.

At this juncture, the CPI(ML) must boldly and confidently come forward to defeat this ruling class campaign by rejuvenating the Left movement and establishing stronger bridges of unity with broader democratic forces. This is the best tribute we can pay to our great martyrs in the 40th anniversary year of the Party’s foundation.

Strengthen the mass orientation of the Party and boldly implement the Party’s revolutionary mass line in every sphere!

Champion the aspirations and resentment of the masses through militant struggles on basic issues!

Reject superficial, managerial style of work and adopt the thorough-going rigorous approach befitting professional revolutionaries!

Combat all non-revolutionary ideas and practices and firmly uphold the revolutionary spirit and legacy of CPI(ML)!