These polls are going to take place in the background of the 16-month long rule, better to say misrule, of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies, including the last three months in a caretaker capacity, following the combine's defeat on the floor of Lok Sabha in April. These 16 months have been very educative for our people who have come to know, from their own first hand experience, the real worth of all the bombastic slogans of the BJP, of all its tall claims about solving the people's problems in a whiff, of all its propaganda about being a party of principles, a party with a difference, and what not. The people have come to realise that the BJP has not been able to deliver the goods, and that consequently a secular alternative at the centre is the need of the day.

PILLARS OF UNITY THREATENED

As a matter of fact, even though the country has been having a regime of the same bourgeois-landlord classes ever since independence, the fact remains that the last 16 months have been different, in fact worse, in many respects. This period saw the rise of a grave threat to national unity with the RSS led combine's communal drive, greatly aided, patronised and abetted by the BJP government at the centre. The BJP ruled states, more particularly Gujarat, acquired notoriety in this matter.

And then came a culmination of the drive in the form of the Manoharpur crime in Orissa when Dr Graham Staines and his two minor sons were burnt alive on January 22 night. Despite all the attempts at whitewashing the crime and all the certificates of innocence given by BJP luminaries to the criminals, the culpability of the communal combine in this heinous crime has been documented beyond doubt, for instance by the Wadhwa commission's report and CBI probes.

And now come the Ahmedabad riots which demonstrate the ruling BJP's desperation regarding its prospects in the coming polls in Gujarat. The method adopted by the RSS-BJP lacks novelty. The Ahmedabad riots were engineered in the name of aarti ceremonies but all the slogans advanced during the ceremonies were blatantly anti-Muslim in nature. This is precisely what was witnessed in the Mumbai riots following the Babri Masjid demolition. The communal attempt to question the patriotism of thespian Dilip Kumar, the move against veteran theologian Ali Mian in UP, the earlier attacks against artists and art galleries, etc, all go to show to what extent the communal combine can go in its drive to poison the atmosphere in the country.

Apart from these attacks on secularism, the BJP led government also made calculated attacks on the other pillar of Indian unity, namely federalism. Its moves to dismiss the elected state government of Bihar are too well known to need repetition. Its myopic vision was evident in case of Tripura from where most of the central paramilitary forces were withdrawn and the state was left virtually alone to fight the menace of anti-national forces. This fact well demonstrates the threat to the nation's integrity posed by the BJP regime.

TALK OF PATRIOTISM NOTWITHSTANDING

In the economic spheres too the government has failed miserably, to say the least. It has pursued with a vengeance the policy of liberalisation and globalisation that were initiated in 1991. But despite all its professions of patriotism, the BJP simply does not want to accept that these policies were formulated by the World Bank-IMF duo and are calculated to favour the US and other countries of the imperialist block at the cost of the developing countries, including India.

It is therefore not accidental that, as documented by several eminent economists, India has witnessed a certain degree of deindustrialisation, more so in the last 16 months. This is a reversal of the process of industrial development that forged ahead in the first 50 years of independence, even though its main beneficiaries were the ruling classes and their cronies. But what the BJP led regime has sought to do is to encourage crony capitalism in the country. Tall talks of Swadeshi notwithstanding, the unprecedented enlargement of open general license was meant mainly to help the recession hit industries of the developed capitalist countries at the cost of indigenous industry.

Not surprisingly, the overall result of the BJP-presided has been a fall in industrial production, a big increase in closures and retrenchments, skyrocketing prices amid general recession, and a quantum jump in unemployment and poverty. Then, all this has been coupled with massive cuts in public expenditures, pruning of subsidies instead of wasteful expenditures, erosion in the purchasing capacity and life standard of the people, decreasing allocations in real terms for education and literacy, health care and nutrition, housing and potable water schemes, and the like.

As for the real worth of moralistic postures donned by the BJP leaders, the latest telecom episode shows how they have been neck deep in the pool of corruption. The centre pages of this issue of our paper carry ample proof of how the BJP led government has perpetrated one of the biggest scams of the millennium. And this scam was perpetrated at a time when the government is lamenting lack of resources and thinking of taxing people to recover the expenses of Kargil operations.

INCAPABLE OF DEFENDING NATION

But now the BJP has shown what big threat its rule can pose even to national security. The government was found in deep slumber when the Pak-backed intrusion in Kargil was taking place; since September last it had had no inkling whatsoever of the mercenaries penetrating into the Indian side of the line of control and occupying strategic heights with impunity.

But, more than any intelligence failure, it was pure and simple callouness of the ruling combine vis a vis the nation's security and territorial integrity. All their energies were concentrated on placating this or that alliance partner or causing disruption in this or that party, with the ministers sparing no time to attend to the grievous threats to national security. Today they are trying to pose as if Kargil represents a big victory for the ruling combine, particularly the BJP, but the people are definitely not going to be duped by such antics. The snub some ministers received from martyr Captain Anuj Nayyar's relatives can well be a pointer of the people's mood on this score.

There is no doubt that India has won an important victory in Kargil, but there is in it no credit for the ruling combine. The India Army jawans displayed a high degree of valour and patriotism, and fought a very tough battle in a very rough terrain to rebuff the Pakistani designs. Their kins also bore their grievous losses with rarest courage and patience. The nation also rallied behind our armed forces, and contributed huge sums for the slain jawans' families. The victory was a result of all these factors combined together. But the people are certainly going to ask the rulers: Was it inevitable that so many valuable lives were lost? Couldn't the nation be spared of so heavy costs in men and materials that it had had to bear because of the ruling combine's myopic vision and sheer ineptitude? Why was not the incoming information processed and preparations accordingly made so that the Kargil type intrusion could be prevented, or nipped in the bud when it had started taking place?

But here too, instead of frankly admitting its lapses, the BJP government is busy resorting to duplicity and eyewash. What to talk of mobilising the people with the help of their representatives, e g by calling a session of the Rajya Sabha, the government is today seeking to postpone the day of its reckoning via a powerless and worthless probe committee, so that its abject failure fails to become an issue in the coming Lok Sabha polls. At the same time, the government has manifold intensified its misuse of electronic media to pose as warriors par excellence. True the misuse of media is no new phenomenon, but the BJP has surpassed all records in this area, so much so that Doordarshan has now become BJP-darshan. And to cap it all, on the eve of the polls, it is trying to convert the Prasar Bharti into its pocket borough.

FOREIGN POLICY REVERSALS

The Kargil conflict also highlighted what was already going on since March 1998 in the field of foreign policy. Ever since the Bandung conference in 1954 if not earlier, the country has been pursuing a consensual foreign policy that has been based on support to national liberation movements, opposition to imperialist attempts and pressure to blackmail the developing countries, non-alignment vis a vis military blocs, non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, advocacy of peace and disarmament, etc. This was the policy that stood India in good stead and helped her not only withstand imperialist pressure but also play a leading role in the NAM and on other fora. But the BJP government has reversed precisely this very consensual foreign policy in favour of a clear pro-US tilt.

The BJP government's misdemeanour in Pokhran not only intensified the tensions in the sub-continent and worsened our relations with Pakistan, it also provided the USA a good opportunity to bring pressure on the country which was already becoming vulnerable to imperialist diktat because of liberalisation and globalisation. Then the home minister sought to link Kashmir with atom bomb which was a move to internationalise the Kashmir issue -- something which India had always opposed.

Pokhran II had in fact wider implications. It was followed by several rounds of Jaswant Singh-Strobe Talbott secret parleys about which the country is still in dark. However, one thing has become patently clear -- that the Vajpayee government has promised, in one language or another, to sign the CTBT as per the US diktat. This is one more aspect of the US drive to impose its hegemony on other countries in the framework of a unipolar world, to which the Vajpayee government seems to have acquiesced. At a time when Iraq and Yugoslavia have given ample proof of the US intentions which is not only maintaining but expanding the NATO war machine even after the demise of the Warsaw Pact, the BJP government is simply refusing to accept what immense harm its pro-US stance and its surrender can bring to the country.

In fact what the BJP leaders wish is to have the Clintons and Albrights on their side and are posing it as their achievement, just what Advani said on July 27. They are seeking the blessings of the US to remain in power exactly the way the tin-pot dictators of the third world had always been seeking it. Foreign minister Jaswant Singh had no compunction about rushing to Singapore to meet Madeline Albright, just as in the medieval period a servile noble used to rush to greet the emperor. But the fact of US design about Kashmir can by no means be wished away, and the people will certainly ask their rulers to account for their misdeeds on this score.

ACTS OF DESPERATION

This is the overall record of misgovernance with which the BJP and allies will be going to the electorate. But they also know that all their high voltage propaganda will not be able to mislead the people, and that is why they have begun to use nefarious methods of disrupting other parties. The way Sharad Pawar and Mulayam Singh Yadav have fallen to their line, are raising the so called foreigner issue without any demarcation, and have thereby weakened the opposition, has only made the BJP leaders happy. Of course, Pawar and Mulayam are now raising the slogan of "equidistance," but that slogan can only go to help the BJP by dividing the secular votes.

And now a section of the Janata Dal has also fallen prey to the BJP designs. It is these very people who had played, along with others, a role in defeating the BJP government in April. Now they are not prepared to tell as to what happened in these three months that they have capitulated to the same BJP. If the Janata Dal played a leading role in keeping the BJP out of power in the past, why have they suddenly developed fondness for the same party?

However, despite all the media hype, the fact remains that the majority of the Janata Dal, which has elected Deve Gowda as its president, is still opposed to the line of joining the BJP led NDA and they still command a big mass base in several states.

The BJP's moral fall is still more evident in case of Haryana where it tried to have both the worlds in its hands. First it enjoyed the fruits of power in company with Bansilal and when the latter got discredited, it parted company and began to abuse its former ally. Then it helped Chautala form a government and is now asking for a price for this support. The BJP is currently eyeing six Lok Sabha seats in the state which has a total of ten seats. On the other hand, it knows that the Chautala government is based on the same Aya Rams Gaya Rams for which Haryana had become notorious. Hence the BJP does not want to be in the same boat before the elections and has postponed a decision about joining the state government till after the polls.

But the question is: will these antics help the BJP get out of its predicament? Dissensions in its ranks are already exacerbating. Its Karnataka unit has refused to have any truck with the chief minister J H Patel who is among the Janata Dal's defectors. Severe infighting is on in its Delhi, UP, Himachal and several other state units. In Gujarat, the RJP's merger with the Congress is giving the BJP sleepless nights; the Ahmedabad riots were but a means to try come out of this very harrowing situation.

So how far these antics will help the BJP? Their real nature has been exposed before the people who are not going to spare them. The people have suffered a lot under the BJP led regime and are waiting for the election time to teach the ruling combine a lesson of their life.

CRUCIAL QUESTION

It is here that the crucial question comes: How to defeat the BJP and its allies? If the Left and democratic forces had been strong in a major part of the country, there wouldn't have been any problem at all. But unfortunately this is not the case except in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. It is true that right now, given the present correlation of class forces, no real alternative to the bourgeois-landlord rule can emerge. The immediate objective is to secure the very unity of the nation, its secular-federal edifice, so that the ground for forging the struggle for a real alternative by changing the correlation of class forces in favour of the working class and other toiling masses could be prepared. The paramount immediate concern is to defeat the BJP and its allies who have brought nothing but disaster to the country and her people.

It must be made clear that the CPI(M) and the Left cannot subscribe to the theory of "equidistance." No doubt the Congress has compromised its secular character several times in the past, but yet that character remains. This is why we cannot equate it with a rabidly communal party like the fascistic RSS controlled BJP which has to be defeated at all cost.

It is this very objective, laid down by the Central Committee in May and reiterated by it in its recent meeting, that the CPI(M) will be going to the masses. As per the CC guidelines, the Party has finalised the tactics to be adopted in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Assam, Tamil Nadu and some other states. In the three states where the CPI(M) and the Left are strong, they will fight the Congress. But in other states where the Left is not so strong, we will contest some of the seats and, as for other seats, we will evaluate the situation seat by seat and extend support to such effective secular parties as are able to defeat the BJP led combine. In states like UP and Maharashtra where secular votes are feared to be divided, we will support any secular candidate who is able to defeat the BJP in the seat concerned. What role the Left will play in the post-poll scenario, will of course depend on the concrete poll results about which nothing can be said.

The CPI(M)'s objective in the present situation is:

1) to enhance the strength of the CPI(M) and the Left in Lok Sabha so that the struggle for a real alternative could be forged;

2) to rally all the secular and democratic forces as far as possible; this will not only be for the coming elections but also for forging Left and democratic unity that alone can create a real alternative;

3) to extend support to other effective secular parties wherever necessary so that the BJP led combine could be defeated.