The Political Bureau of Communist party of India (Marxist) noted
that all the apprehensions about the BJP, an avowedly right wing
communal party coming to power in New Delhi, as the political arm
of the RSS, have come true in the past one year.

The Polit Bureau noted the three trends, being pursued by the BJP
government, that the Party had noted at its 21st Congress — the aggressive
pursuit of the neo-liberal policies of economic reforms; the relentless
onslaughts on the secular democratic foundations of the Indian Republic by
the sharpening of communal polarization and the movement towards an
authoritarian rule through the erosion of democratic institutions – are all
getting aggravated.

Communal Polarisation: The BJP government has sought to systematically
implement the RSS agenda. It has infiltrated known RSS men into higher
educational institutions; commuanlise curriculum etc. The latest incident is
the so-called overhauling of the Indian Council of Historical Research
(ICHR) where internationally reputed Indian historians have been forced to
quit. The government has refused to take action against its ministers and
MPS who have through hate speeches sought to incite people and communally
polarize them. Growing incidents of communal clashes and riots are being
reported from various parts of the country.

Growing People’s Economic Burdens: During the last one year massive economic
burdens have been imposed on the people. Two massive hikes have been made in
petrol and diesel prices within a span of two weeks. Apart from adding to
the overall inflationary spiral, this constitutes a criminal attack on rural
India particularly farmers who are battling a series of bad weather
conditions during the last one year. Unseasonal rains have ruined standing
crops and it is estimated that 180 million hectares of agricultural crops
has been affected. Consequently, incidence of distress suicides by farmers
is growing.

The Polit Bureau condemns the utterly callous attitude displayed by the BJP
government in addressing the concerns of the farmers who have suffered heavy
losses. CPI(M) units throughout the country have held protests against this
attitude of the government. The Party will join with other Left and
democratic forces to intensify the protest in the coming days.

The BJP government is aggressively pursuing the neo-liberal economic
policies of the erstwhile Manmohan Singh led UPA government. During the last
one year the Modi government has been pursuing nakedly pro-big business
policies and enticing foreign capital with massive concessions. This will
further deepen social inequalities and intensify the exploitation of the
working people. It is backtracking on many issues that it had opposed during
the UPA government period like FDI in retail trade. Its backtracking on the
Land Acquisition Bill is a classic case. It is only due to the combined
opposition in the Rajya Sabha that the government was forced to send this
Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee. The way the Modi government is
undermining parliamentary democracy is unprecedented. It has passed nearly
50 legislations (over 90 per cent) in the Lok Sabha without allowing a
parliamentary scrutiny by referring them to the respective parliamentary
Standing Committees, during the course its first year in office. It is only
due to the strength of the combined opposition parties that it was forced to
refer seven Bills it passed in the Lok Sabha using its ‘tyranny of
majority’, to Select Committees in the Rajya Sabha.

The Modi government is contemplating major changes in the labour laws of the
country. All the central trade unions are discussing the manner in which
protests would be organized nationwide against this anti-labour move. The
CPI(M) extends its support to such protests.

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) calls upon all its units to strengthen
popular protests against such policies of this BJP government that are
imposing unprecedented economic burdens.

Deteriorating Centre-State Relations

Contrary to the declared repeated statements by PM Modi that his government
promotes “cooperative federalism” the rights of the states are being
continuously eroded. Clearly, this Modi government is moving towards a
unitary form of government that is completely violative of the federal
structure in our Constitutional scheme of things. A case in point is the
erosion of the special category status that has traditionally been granted
for all the North Eastern states. All the CMs of the North Eastern states
have written to the Prime Minister expressing their concerns on this score.

The BJP Central Government is unilaterally appointing its known political
workers as Governors to the states. The recently appointed Governor of the
Left-ruled state of Tripura has publicly spoken of his support to the
hardcore Hindutva agenda being pursued by this Modi government. Such
comments do not behove persons occupying such constitutional positions.

Another affront to Centre-State relations has now surfaced between the
central government appointed Lt. Governor of Delhi and the democratically
elected Delhi state government.

The Political Bureau of the CPI(M) denounces such anti-democratic acts of this
BJP central government and calls upon the opposition parties to raise
protest against the further erosion of the States’ rights and deteriorating
Centre-State relations.