Statement of the Central Committee of Communist Ghadar Party of India, 24th January, 2017
The Indian Republic is in reality the opposite of what it claims to be, in every respect.
The Preamble of the Constitution declares that “WE, THE PEOPLE of INDIA” have solemnly resolved “to constitute India into a sovereign, socialist, secular democratic Republic“. The reality is that it is not the people of India who adopted this Constitution but an unrepresentative communally constituted Assembly which was formed under British colonial supervision.
According to constitutional experts, the expression socialist republic means “a republic in which there is freedom from all forms of exploitation, social, political and economic“.
The reality is that the majority of Indian people are victims of capitalist exploitation, imperialist plunder and the remnants of feudalism. They face multiple layers of social discrimination and exclusion on the basis of caste, gender, religion, race and nationality.
The Directive Principles of State Policy declare that “the State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing —
- that the citizens, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood;
- that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good;
- that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment.
The reality is that less than 1 percent of Indians own more than half the wealth of the country. The means of production have become more and more concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. This shows that it is not socialism but capitalism that has been developing over the past 67 years since this Republic came into being.
Far from preventing the concentration of wealth and the means of production, this Republic has facilitated such concentration in the hands of the capitalist monopolies who call themselves India Incorporated. As the monopolies expand, they drive many smaller producers out of the market. As a result, old jobs are getting destroyed as rapidly as new jobs get created. Most of the new jobs are on temporary contract, with workers made to toil for extremely long hours for meagre wages, with no legal protection for their rights. In the construction sites of our country, crores of men, women and children work virtually as bonded labour.
Almost three-fourths of all peasant families hold less than 2 acres of land. Unable to survive on these small plots, they are forced to rent their lands to the bigger landowners and to work for wages on their farms, or migrate to the cities in search of livelihood.
The army of the unemployed and under employed has been growing rapidly year after year. Crores have been added to this army as a result of the recent Note Ban.
The Directive Principles also declare that the State will ensure
- that there is equal pay for equal work for both men and women;
- that the health and strength of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age and strength;
- that children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and moral and material abandonment”.
The reality is that women face super-exploitation, discrimination and oppression. Not only are they paid less than men for the same work in many fields, but they also face constant attacks on their dignity in the work place and in society.
The youth are staring at a bleak and uncertain future. Over 4 crore children are forced to work at a tender age in extremely hazardous conditions. Young girls from different parts of rural India are routinely bought and sold into prostitution, or forced to work as household labour. Crores of children have been deprived of their childhood.
The construction of socialism requires the conversion of private property in the means of production into social property. The Indian Republic facilitates the opposite – namely, the conversion of public into private property under the banner of privatisation and disinvestment. The mineral wealth, rivers and lakes, forests and the sea coasts are all being handed over to the monopolies to make maximum profit. The Supreme Court has upheld the right of the government to hand over public assets into private hands, arguing that it is a “policy matter” which cannot be challenged.
Throughout the past 67 years, the agenda of monopoly capitalists has been presented by this Republic as being allegedly for the benefit of all. The Tata-Birla Plan was presented by Nehru as a plan to build a “socialistic pattern of society”. Successive prime ministers have marketed the self-serving agenda of big capitalists under numerous deceptive slogans such as “garibi hatao”, “inclusive growth” and “sab ka saath, sab ka vikaas”.
While it is called the most populous democracy in the world, the reality is that about 150 capitalist monopoly houses are dictating the course of India and determining the fate of 130 crore people. All the institutions of the Republic — the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary — work to implement the program of the big bourgeoisie.
Using their money power and domination of the media, the monopoly houses manipulate the outcome of elections. Different sections of capitalists and landlords form themselves into political parties and compete to form the government. They claim to be fighting for the interests of all but once in power, they strictly implement the agenda set by the big capitalists. One party replaces another through elections while the Republic remains an instrument of the dictatorship of the big capitalists headed by the monopolies.
This Republic defends the exorbitant claims of capitalist monopolies while trampling the rights of workers and peasants in the mud. Workers fighting for their right to form unions of their choice are being arrested and tortured as “anti-nationals” and “extremists”. Indian and foreign monopolies are forcibly seizing the lands of the peasantry and tribal people. The security forces are deployed to defend the exploiters and criminalise the struggles of the exploited masses.
The proclamation that this is a secular Republic flies in the face of the repeated occurrence of communal violence in which numerous arms of the State reveal their communal character. Security forces have repeatedly refused to protect the victims of communal violence. The judiciary has refused to punish those guilty of organising communal massacres. Every citizen is not guaranteed that his or her right to conscience will be protected by the existing State. On the contrary, those whose views are contrary to those of the ruling clique are deemed to be “anti-national”. They are thrown into prison or killed in fake encounters.
Even the claim that this Republic defends the sovereignty of India from foreign threats stands exposed by the red carpet treatment being offered to foreign capitalist investors. Driven by their own imperialist ambitions, the Indian big bourgeoisie is building a strategic alliance, including close military and intelligence cooperation, with the most dangerous foreign power in the world. The increasing interference of US imperialism in South Asia is a grave threat to the sovereignty of India and other states in this region.
What is the reason that the reality is so diametrically opposed to all the tall claims made in the Constitution?
Numerous parties and so-called experts claim that the Constitution is excellent but it has been misused by corrupt individuals and parties. This is a fraud perpetrated on the people of India. The truth is that the Constitution reflects the decision of the big capitalists and big landlords to preserve the institutions and methods of rule which had been established by the British. The majority of articles and clauses in the 1950 Constitution were reproduced from the Government of India Act of 1936, enacted by the British colonialists. All the institutions of plunder and suppression were retained, as also the mechanisms and methods of ruling through communal division and caste oppression.
In order to placate the masses of workers and peasants who had fought with the vision of an independent India which would guarantee prosperity and protection for all, the makers of the Constitution added the Directive Principles of State Policy. These were to remain lofty policy objectives, forever kept dangling in front of people.
The existing Republic and its Constitution represent a betrayal of the aspirations of countless patriots and revolutionary martyrs of the anti-colonial struggle. They fought and gave their lives to establish a liberated India on a new foundation, making a clean and complete break with all the political and economic institutions and theories of British rule. Such a clean break was not made in 1947 or in 1950. It is crying out to be made today.
No reform of any institution of the existing State will change its character of being a legacy of colonial rule, an organ of rule by an exploiting minority. As long as this Republic continues to exist, prosperity and protection for all will remain a dream. We will never achieve a society free from all forms of exploitation, economic, political and social.
The Communist Ghadar Party of India calls upon the people to take up the challenge of replacing the existing Republic with a new one, based on an entirely new foundation. The Constitution of the new Republic must ensure that sovereignty vests in the people; the State is duty bound to ensure prosperity and protection for all; and that the human rights, democratic and national rights of all are guaranteed.