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On the indian elections

The question of free and fair elections is deeply tied to the question of social production relations, premised on the basic thought that if consent is not given freely (without coercion and compulsion), it cannot be said to be consent. Free consent is a basic democratic value. The question of consent needs to be further penetrated- one needs to ask how did this democratic value historically develop? Historical analysis shows the parliament’s role as a progressive body in countries which completed their democratic revolution with the slogans of freedom, equality, and sovereignty in the era of capitalism. However, the era of imperialism under the phase of monopoly capitalism sees the Parliament differently, with the Second Congress of Comintern remarking, “it turned out to be an instrument of untruth, deception, violence and powerless gossip”. 

In the phase of neocolonialism (a method of imperialism; indirect control over a country by a foreign state), imperialists have created fake parliaments in oppressed countries to deceive the masses, extract their resources and exploit their cheap labour. The declaration of independence as adopted on 15th August 1947 is fake – neither the Indian economy is independent nor is India free from indirect control over its policies and decisions. All electoral parties in India are manifestations of the ruling class interests. They are anti-people parties meant to serve the ruling classes in India i.e. the comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie (people who rely on foreign funds and governmental policies in support of corporatisation to produce capital) and the big landlords who serve their imperial masters. 

In the name of developing an independent nation, the ruling classes have made India dependent on imperialist powers for capital and technology. This is seen in the fact that the services sector accounts for 54.86% of India’s GVA of 266.78 lakh crore Indian rupees. At the same time, at a GVA of Rs. 73.50 lakh crore, the industry sector contributes 27.55%. 

A study of the Lok Sabha voting patterns based on the relationship between caste and class reveals “the limitations of the democratic upsurge of the 1990s and the difficulties in concretizing politics of the poor and underprivileged.” This implies that the parliamentary system is not a place to gain democratic rights and development, thereby showing the futility of elections in India. This caste-class nature of voting and democracy in India is explained further in our article Indian Parliament- The Nursery of Fascism.

Even in urban areas, voting for parties is not a question of politics, but a question of money, liquor and religious and casteist sentiments. 

Parliament as a Space to Breed the Hindu Rashtra 

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Boycotted Indian elections - what it means what it entails

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Indian tea production has been in severe crisis since the mid nineties largely due to neo-liberal structural adjustments in the Indian economy. The size of the tea industry, which is second only to China and accounts for 25 percent of global tea production, has made this a huge blow to the country’s agrarian economy. The industry employs 1.26 million people on tea plantations and two million additional people indirectly. As such, the economic crisis has had an enormous impact on the lives of local residents. In Kerala where I have been conducting research, there have been eight cases of suicide and twelve deaths due to starvation on tea plantations since 2001. Along with utter poverty and famine, tea plantation workers have faced increasingly unhygienic work environments, shattered social life/community relations, and withdrawal of the welfare measures previously enjoyed. The crisis punctured the isolated environments of the plantations and precipitated neoliberal reforms that closed down production in many areas either partially or completely. While many families remained on the plantations, large numbers of workers who had lived there for more than five generations were now compelled to seek work outside. Some went with their families to either their ancestral villages or regional industrial townships such as Coimbatore and Tirupur in Tamil Nadu. These plantation workers have now joined the ranks of the massive Dalit workforce powering India’s unorganised and informal sectors. In joining that pool of workers, Tamil Dalit labourers are exposed to aspects of a caste-ridden society from which they had previously been shielded. The situation of Saraswathi, a female retired worker in her early sixties, illustrates the dilemma and struggles of the workers who moved out the plantations.

The hidden injuries of caste: south Indian tea workers and economic crisis by Jayaseelan Raj

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I saw something on Twitter about how vegetarian (and specifically UC I think) condemning non-vegetarians for eating meat is casteist but I don't see how? I'm genuinely confused, please explain if possible 😭

because the upper caste elites have attached moral purity to consuming only vegetarian food and shaming dalit communities for eating meat (especially beef) cause it makes them impure/dirty. dalits and muslims (who also eat beef) are regularly lynched on the mere SUSPICION of eating or handling beef

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The Incarcerations - Sudha Bharadwaj

“Take for instance, Gado Ram Potavi. ‘I was in my office in Bilaspur, must have been 2011–2012, when a barefoot man by the name of Gado Ram Potavi, who spoke only the tribal language Gondi, turned up. He had come with a young man who could translate into Hindi. The young man had got my phone number and address from the PUCL website and brought Gado Ram to meet me,’ Sudha told me. ‘Gado Ram said his son had been picked up in a bazaar in south Chhattisgarh by the security forces. He wanted my help to find his child.’ Overnight, Sudha prepared a ‘habeas corpus petition’, to demand the ‘corpse’ is produced. The next morning, Sudha, Gado Ram and the young man went to court. Sudha told me, ‘I will never forget that morning. I tried to make him wear a pair of slippers, but he wasn’t able to walk in them. In the end I told him, “It’s okay, you want to go barefoot? Go barefoot.”’ It was only several weeks later that they heard back. The police response was, ‘No, no, he is a very dangerous Naxalite. We have eleven cases on him.’ Sudha said[…]”

Excerpt From The Incarcerations Alpa Shah This material may be protected by copyright.

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The important thing to take away from the JDA [Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism] is the claim that criticism of Israel or Zionism is not, “on the face of it”, antisemitic. The JDA uses this phrase in order to affirm that the context of statements must be considered when making these judgements. Furthermore, the JDA asserts that It is not antisemitic to support arrangements that accord full equality to all inhabitants “between the river and the sea,” whether in two states, a binational state, unitary democratic state, federal state, or in whatever form. In other words, there is nothing inherently antisemitic about questioning the “right of Israel to exist” as a Jewish majority state which discriminates against the Palestinian people.

Ohad Kozminsky, “The Oldest Disease”: the charge of antisemitism as a weapon

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global islamophobia is a very real and dangerous threat, it is institutionalised in the world's largest and richest nations, in the first and the third world and it is currently deployed in the defense of a genocide. i don't think people are taking it seriously – almost no lessons were learned from the war on terror, no restitution made and now as it takes on new forms i expect we will see it begin to be normalised in spaces where it was previously carefully talked around.

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i feel actually crazy watching mainstream western media describe this as an israeli ceasefire proposal when israel is the only party in disagreement with it and its almost identical to the proposal presented by hamas weeks ago

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More areas and populations have been affected in Assam, which is the most populous state in the country’s northeast. So far, 11 people have lost their lives and 600,000 people including over 78,000 children across 11 districts have been affected. An estimated 68,600 people have sought refuge in 187 relief camps.

The southern districts of the state, including the Barak Valley, have suffered more than the other regions. Landslides, floods and erosion have been reported from here and nearly 250,000 people are affected. Several trains have been canceled due to the rising water level in the rivers across the state. Additional personnel from the NDRF have been airlifted to the Barak Valley region to bolster the rescue and rehabilitation operation.

Mizoram has been affected more by landslides and storms than flooding. At least 29 people have been killed there with the highest toll reported from the capital city of Aizawl. Local NGOs such as the Melthum Local Council and Young Mizo Association have joined hands with the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) for rescue and rehabilitation measures.

Chief Minister Lalduhoma has announced an allocation of 150 million Indian rupees ($1.8 million approximately) to the SDRF. Families that have lost kin in the disaster are being paid $4,792 each.

Meghalaya and Tripura have suffered less devastation compared to the other states in the northeastern region. Meghalaya reported five deaths and close to 5,000 people have been affected by storms and landslides.  A portion of National Highway-6 that connects the state to Assam has collapsed near Lumshnong as storms and rains caused landslides. Transportation in the region has been severely disrupted.  Vehicles were seen stranded in videos on social media.

In Tripura, around 2,500 people were rendered homeless and more than 550 houses were damaged due to the incessant rainfall, flooding and thunderstorms. Those rendered homeless have been lodged at 30 relief camps in different districts of the state. Sepahijala, Gomati, Dhalai and Khowai districts were affected the most by the cyclone.   According to an official estimate, about 397 hectares of cultivable land belonging to 1,764 farmers were submerged by the flood in different districts.

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Exclusive footage obtained by Al-Jazeera showed Israeli special forces using an aid truck and a civilian car to carry out the operation. A US special “hostage cell” played a crucial role in the rescue of four Israeli captives, the American news website Axios reported on Saturday, citing a US administration official. Meanwhile, exclusive footage obtained by Al-Jazeera showed Israeli special forces using an aid truck and a civilian car to carry out the operation. The images depict civilian cars escorted by Israeli military tanks penetrating the western areas of the Nuseirat camp, amid a series of unprecedented air raids targeting the camp and various central Gaza Strip areas, resulting in over 200 Palestinian deaths and dozens of injuries so far. The Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza issued a statement, condemning the “horrific massacre committed by the zionist enemy through its planes, warships, tanks, and special forces in the Nuseirat camp”. “The massacre in the Nusseirat camp clearly and unequivocally reveals and confirms the participation of American enemy forces stationed on the floating dock in killing and slaughtering our people,” the statement continued adding that this happened “despite the criminal American administration’s assertion that this dock’s purpose is solely to pump humanitarian aid”.

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More such actions please. If Maldives can do it, why can't others.

2 Jun 24

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nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of sacrifice

Dobzhansky once said nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. However the more we learn we understand living species have been sacrificed to achieve greatness.

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oh my god the smug westerners are back to saying you can vote out fascism and democracy is thriving in india are you guys fucking stupid? like do you even know how "undemocratic" these elections were?

muslim voters were beaten up on their way to polls? my own parents were kicked off voter rolls 'accidentally' two months before elections? two chief ministers from opposing parties are in jail on trumped up charges? the bank accounts of congress were frozen requiring candidates to fundraise personally last minute? opposition poll watchers were harassed? in several seats candidates were intimidated into dropping out? surat was uncontested! in indore, a day before the election the opposition candidate switched parties. do you genuinely think the lesson bjp is learning here is to be more democratic or to rig elections harder come on be for real.

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May 10, 2024 - Hundreds of radical environmentalists and anticapitalists have broken through police lines and fences and stormed the terrain of the Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg. They are attempting to stop the planned expansion of the factory, which would mean the destruction of surrounding forest and farmland. The factory also uses immense amounts of water, and all to sell shitty electric cars to give people the idea that personal consumption choices can save the environment from destruction, and make fascist Elon Musk even richer than he already is. The actions in the past days have forced Tesla to temporarily shut down production at the factory. [video]

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April 26, 2024 - Protesters in Sana'a, Yemen, show their solidarity with US pro-Palestine student occupations during another enormous protest in solidarity with Palestine. [link]