The BJP’s victory in 2019 had generated a sense of pessimism within the politically conscious masses. But still the government’s fascist measures were met with intense resistance, from the Anti-CAA movement to the Farmers’ Movement. The success of the Farmers’ Movement had stirred a sense of revolutionary vigour within the Working Masses of India which, unfortunately, is being channeled into a mainstream brand of ‘resistance'(if one could call it that) to Hindutva politics.
The Congress, in 2019, was declared to be a politically irrelevant and dead force but in recent times it has been able to overcome that narrative through the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the Karnataka Elections of 2023. These two events have changed the image of the Congress party drastically; during the Yatra and the Karnataka Campaign, the Congress leadership promised a radical shift in their political program. Rahul Gandhi had been talking about the favouritism of the BJP government towards Ambani and Adani, the need for a “social welfarist” state and social justice issues like representation.
The program was further consolidated through the Karnataka elections where the Congress raised issues like unemployment, Caste Census and Social Welfare. This program resulted in a victory in Karnataka which has made Congress relevant again. We all know that Rahul Gandhi is not the voice of resistance against fascism, but this new program will attract many well-meaning progressive activists and people towards and waste their political energies on elections. Thus we, as Marxists and as concerned citizens, must thoroughly investigate the nature of this new program that the Congress has generated and the effect it will hold on the country to expose the real nature of the Congress.
Bharat Jodo Yatra or a Corporate Event:
In the age of Imperialism, if one is to understand the nature of any political phenomenon, then one must investigate the Capital behind it. Although it is difficult to exactly point out who was funding the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the sheer volume of the Yatra certainly suggests that it was funded by the Comprador Bourgeoisie of India that serves Imperialist-Finance Capital. The Bharat Jodo Yatra was not organised through efforts and contributions from party workers(the Congress doesn’t have the organisational strength or numbers to pull that off). The Yatra was like a cozy corporate event with facilities like: portable tents, containers, vehicles, electricity, sewerage, drinking water, a luxurious vanity van for Rahul Gandhi etc.
What we should also consider is the logistical support that was required for the Yatra:
- A total of 6 teams were employed to prepare food for nearly 2000 people.
- The participants were carried in a cavalcade of nearly 60 container-rooms.
- Nearly 100 full-time managers were employed.
- The Yatra’s PR was managed by employing professional agencies, who employed techniques from drones to modern cameras and publishing content every-day.
- Custom-built containers, which served as night shelters, were required to be fitted with heaters once the Yatra reached Delhi.
- A total of 60 containers were required for the Yatra. These containers were mounted on trucks that had bathing facilities attached to them.
Well while I don’t have the exact numbers but I do have some estimates to give the reader an idea of how much the Yatra cost the Congress:
- Hindustan Times reported that a company owned by a relative of a senior Congress leader was contracted to build, install, operate and maintain the containers at ₹26 crore inclusive of the fuel cost.
- Feeding the participants alone cost between ₹1-1.5 crore a day. That included overheads on mobilising water tankers, portable toilets and make-shift overnight accommodation. Some state Congress units spent as much as ₹2 crore a day on food and lodging for the participants.
- Thus we can estimate a combined ₹150-200 crore tab for the state units for the whole stretch of the yatra.
- So we can positively say that the total cost of the Yatra would at least have to be a grand total of 300 crore rupees.
Now such an enormous amount can only be provided by the comprador class of the country. But that raises a question as to why would the compradors fund the Congress when they have a very efficient political dog in the form of the BJP? Well the answer is somewhat simple— to maintain an illusion of democracy by keeping the Congress and other parties alive through occasional concessions. This allows the compradors to fool the masses into believing the fact Indian “Democracy” is indeed a functional being that can protect their rights while in reality the ruling and opposition parties serve the Imperialist order. Thus we can conclude that the Yatra was nothing but a Corporate event and not a movement that was built from the grass root levels. Why does that matter? Well firstly a movement built by the people themselves has a very strong connection with the masses; it understands their demands and is also much more dependable for the masses. Secondly, as we know, Capital represents only the interest of its masters; if the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the Congress are funded by Capital then it will represent the interests of that Capital. How? For that we must analyse the ideological and political standing of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the Congress Party.
Political Position of the Post-Yatra Congress:
The Congress has made very significant efforts to project itself as a ‘Social-Welfare’ and ‘Social-Justice’ oriented party; through the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the Karnataka elections, Congress leaders talked about issues like unemployment, poverty, corruption, inflation, inequality and Adani-Ambani favouritism. But with this, the Congress has opened up two possibilities— it will either address and make efforts to solve these issues or these are hollow sentences meant to fool people.
Unemployment, inflation and concentration of wealth in India(and beyond) today are a result of the Neoliberal LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation) policies. These policies were a response to the 1970s crisis of the Keynesian system, which had produced similar problems, and Neoliberalism was projected as a solution. However nothing has changed for the labouring masses of India while compradors like Tata, Adani, Ambani and their imperialist masters have gotten infinitely richer. It was the Congress regime that introduced the LPG policies to India at the command of Western imperialists and their comprador counterparts in India. The BJP has only taken the Congress’s project to its inevitable next level. But has Congress changed its stance on these policies? Recent occurances would suggest otherwise. It is true that Rahul Gandhi has made some statements against Gautam Adani and his connection to the present Government but the Congress party itself is very closely associated with Adani. It was during the Yatra itself that Gautam Adani appeared on a stage with the Congress Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot. Rahul Gandhi also publicly criticised Mr. Gehlot for rejecting an offer of investment of Rs. 60,000 crores. This makes Congress’s position on Adani very clear. The Congress has only attacked the BJP over Cronyism, but then we must ask that since concentration of capital and monopoly formation is a known feature of Capitalism then at what point does Capitalism make a qualitative leap towards Cronyism?
Another important revelation can be found in Rahul Gandhi’s interview with the ex-RBI governor Mr. Raghuram Rajan. In this interview, despite all the attempted jugglery of words, the two can not hide the fact that they wholeheartedly support liberalisation and privatisation policies. Raghuam Rajan tries to sugarcoat his support for the Imperialist and Comprador class by saying “We can’t be against capitalism, but we can be against monopoly”, again the same question arises- if Monopolies are an inherent feature of Capitalism then how can you be against one but in support of the other? And is there any “democratic” country in the world that has been able to avoid or stop the formation of monopolies in a capitalist economy? The answer is no. So what exactly are they proposing? Further Mr. Rajan argues for a ‘second green revolution’; now one must keep in mind that the first Green Revolution benefited only landlords and the agricultural bourgeoisie while practically paralysing the medium and small scale farmers. The Green Revolution helped in increasing the pace of land concentration in hands of big farmers and landlords who had the Capital to afford modern equipment. This is actually a very clever effort to not just pull the landlords and large-scale farmers to their electoral camp but also to provide a concession to the large-scale farmers who recently revolted against landlords, compradors and imperialism during the Farmers’ Movement.
The large-scale farmers might have a temporary revolutionary character when combating imperialism but their class character won’t let them support a movement of peasants.
Mr. Rajan exposes the policy that matters the most to them when he talks about how the small firms in India are stuck at 10-20 employees because after that labour regulations, enter the scenario. I would argue that this promise to weaken Labour Laws is rather an effort to seduce the imperialist-comprador enterprises too by offering them the bait of furthering the Anti-Labour Laws agenda. Rahul Gandhi clearly states that the government cannot provide jobs to everyone, and only the private sector which is given ‘incentives’’ by the government, can really create jobs. This is classic Neoliberal economics where the Government provides incentives like tax-cuts, SEZs, Direct Capital Investment, etc. to the capitalists so that the capitalists expand their enterprises which will create more jobs and cause this wealth to ‘trickle down’. This logic was used in the 1990s too but since then, how many jobs has this policy created? Or how much wealth has trickled down to the masses?. We must also keep in mind that the Congress government in Chattisgarh has been extremely subservient towards Capital and even committed mass murders for Mining Operations.
The Karnataka elections paint a similar image of the Congress but it also shows how the Congress might try to deceive the workers and peasants through their “Welfare” Policies. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his cabinet have approved 5 major schemes namely, Gruha Jyoti, Gruha Lakshmi, Anna Bhagya, Shakti, and Yuvanidhi, which were also part of Congress manifesto. But one must realise, that these benefits will not solve the crises of capitalism that the Congress had a huge hand in accelerating, instead they’re mere temporary grants to weaken the blow of comprador bureaucratic capitalism and subdue the revolutionary energy of the masses of India. It is the opium, much like the BJP’s communal agenda, that is used to murder workers’ political consciousness. If the Congress is serving the same masters that the BJP serves then the threat of Fascism cannot be subdued by the Congress.
