Note: The advancement of RSS-BJP fascist forces all over the country causes so much confusion among almost all the M-L groups in our country, particularly on the question of electoral participation and boycott. Instead of treating this question in Marxist perspective, Marxist-Leninist (M-L) groups are slipped into the position – electoral boycott cannot be and should not be the form of struggle of our present time. If we employ boycott, according to them, that would prove advantageous to the fascist forces. Although the opposition INDIA bloc has its defects, we must support them, any attempts to weaken the INDIA bloc would pave the way to rapid fascist advancement. This is the predominant trend among M-L groups in our country. Even though some groups are stating and practicing this position genuinely, many of them are stating this merely to screen their nakedness, to obscure their shameless, utter surrender to the ruling class and to deceive the people. Since Mr Maruthaiyan, who renounced Marxism completely and is backing the ruling DMK party shamelessly, is the typical example of the latter, dwelling on his ideas would be instructive for us to genuinely advance the anti-fascist struggle.
Here’s a quick introduction for those who unfamiliar with our struggle against his revisionism. Maruthaiyan, renegaded Marxism and ran away from our organisation in early 2020s. Now he has turned into a strategist for Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK party. At first, in 2020s, immediately after ran away from Marxism, he still pretended as a Marxist and advocated for participation tactics in order to ‘prevent’ the further advancement of fascism.
On March 9, 2021 (i.e. just before the assembly elections), through an article, he proclaimed “Elections also can be a sphere to fight fascism, let us vote for the DMK alliance.”[1] Like many other Indian renegades’, he too, in a distortional manner, cited Lenin’s Left Wing Communism to attack and ridicule the boycott notion as “dogma.” “Of course, we cannot defeat the Brahmanical fascism only by elections, even the electoral parties’ also admitted this truth” he said. In that article and several other following interviews, he argued: “In the four pillars of Indian democracy, i.e. legislature, judiciary, bureaucracy and media, all the three were already taken over by the fascist forces. We only have the legislature and therefore we must put all our efforts to prevent the fascist-takeover of that institution. The DMK is the only viable alternative at this (during 2021 assembly elections) time. The anti-BJP parties’ electoral victory can be a barrier to the fascist advancement and we could get a “breathing space” to consolidate the masses from below against fascism.” Seems prudent, right? Yes! He brilliantly pretended to treat the participation question in a prudent and Marxist manner, as if he was in favour of the notion that fascism can be defeated only beyond the electoral sphere, only the people can lead that struggle etc.
At first, he had to pretend as a Marxist to confuse our cadres and liquidate the party as much as possible. After successful completion of this mission, he striped the veils and showed his real face. Exactly after two years, in May 2023, he ridiculed the notion of the proletariat leadership of the anti-fascist struggle as a “clownish notion” and whoever advocates that notion as “clowns.”
All these were explained and exposed long ago and in minute details in our pamphlet.[2] Beyond exposing Maruthaiyan’s absurd and treacherous arguments, this pamphlet explained why the proletariat and the revolutionary people alone can and must take the leadership of the anti-fascist struggle. Moreover, it classified the INDIA bloc apt to vacillate and come to terms with fascism and explained what should be our attitude towards them. In order for the proletariat to take the leadership in this struggle and to carry on this struggle to the extent of real victory over fascism, we must energetically expose the vacillation, inconsistency and treachery of INDIA bloc as widely as possible instead of falling into the bogey, i.e., ‘any attempts to expose or weaken INDIA bloc would pave the way to fascist advancement’.
We are not romanticizing boycott, of course boycott and participation both can be a tactic in the anti-fascist movement, but unprincipled aversion and ridiculing the boycott tactic and spreading naïve optimism to the opposition parties and constitutional institutions needs to be exposed.
“Events have forced even those Social-Democrats …. actually to go over, or begin to go over, to their opponents’ side.”(LCW 9, p.g.17), Lenin wrote in 1905, exposing the opportunistic new-Iskra (Menshevik) group. This is exactly what’s happening right now in our country, except the fact that the Mensheviks were unconscious about their decision at that time, but our renegade Mr Maruthaiyan has consciously surrendered to the ruling class. Yes! Mr Maruthaiyan who vehemently opposed and ridiculed electoral boycott and advocated that all the M-L groups should actively support the INDIA bloc in elections, has now begin to speak about electoral boycott.
Why is this so? What happened to his famous “breathing space” theory? The ruling BJP party, through its agent Election Commission, has thrown its “Bramhasthra” in the name of SIR to disenfranchise the anti-BJP voters, particularly Muslims and included fake voters in electoral rolls in order to conspiratorially deter the INDIA bloc’s electoral victory. Amid this SIR row, Rahul Gandhi ‘drops an atom bomb’ of “vote theft” allegations during 2019, 2024 general elections and as well as some other assembly elections. Meanwhile, two important bourgeois intellectuals, a retired IAS Avay Shukla and a well-known journalist and author Debashish Roy Chowdhry, came up with the idea of “nation-wide electoral boycott.” ‘By participating in the rigged and fixed election’ they said ‘you (the INDIA bloc) are not only legitimising the whole electoral process but also the winning regime. Therefore, the fraudulence of electoral process can be exposed only through boycott.’[3] Not only them, even the RJD and Congress parties have verbally admitted that “all options are open” while commenting on the question of boycott in Bihar elections.
After all these i.e. after the bourgeois intellectuals and parties, our ‘left-wing activist’ Maruthaiyan opened his mouth and advices the INDIA bloc to boycott the Bihar election. Here’s what he said:
“What is to be done in such a situation? [i.e., when the BJP illegally, deliberately and conspiratorially attempting to deter the INDIA bloc’s electoral victory] … Tejasvi Yadav of RJD and Congress party both have already talked about the possibility of electoral boycott in Bihar. … Electoral democracy of our country now is almost vanished. [note, without openly discarding his “breathing space” theory, Maruthaiyan ‘admitting’ this fact long after Rahul Gandhi’s remarks “Indian election system is dead”] … Rahul Gandhi has asked the EC to release the digital data and CCTV footages. I would say if the demands are not met, then the opposition parties must proclaim electoral boycott in Bihar. Electoral democracy in India is dead. Just like in Latin American countries and Philippines, where people took to the street by realising the fact that there is no electoral democracy in their countries, the opposition parties must boycott the election altogether. Of course, we do not bother about the fact that some one or two insignificant parties may participate. This is a separate topic. I am not advocating in favour of electoral boycott in all other states, but only in Bihar. By participating in the election you (INDIA bloc) are actually giving a merit certificate to the Election Commission which accompanied with the BJP in the electoral process. Through a boycott a greater enlightenment will be brought to the Indian people. Through a boycott this notion –there is no democracy in India, the result of the 2024 general elections is a stolen on, would spread not only throughout the country but also throughout the world. … As I already said [after the general elections] in 2024, Sheik Hasina had conducted fraudulent elections in Bangladesh for almost 15 years. … But what happened there after 15 years? A great riot erupted there. As a result of that riot Sheik Hasina flew from her own country to India. … We do not desire such a riot here [in India] as well. … Therefore, if the above mentioned Rahul Gandhi’s demands are not met, INDIA bloc must proclaim electoral boycott in Bihar. ….”[4]
Is that all? Yes, that is all. If you notice, our ‘left-wing’ activist Mr Maruthaiyan speaks in a bureaucratic language, calling 2024 “people uprising” against dictator Sheik Hasina as a “riot” and harbouring a bureaucratic desire “we do not desire such a riot here as well”! Just listen how a former bureaucrat, Avay Shukla, desires this: “Country-wide boycotts may lead to civil unrest — which is not necessarily a bad thing, as Jayaprakash Narayan’s Sampurna Kranti movement against Mrs Gandhi had shown. It finally led to her being ousted from power. A boycott could be a curtain raiser to something similar.” Avay Shukla says country-wide civil unrest, as a result of boycott, is a good thing, but our renegade Maruthaiyan says that it is “undesirable.” Yes! A bureaucrat speaks in a ‘left-wing’ activist’s language but a ‘left-wing’ activist speaks in a bureaucrat’s language, what an irony is this, isn’t it!
This is neither hair-splitting criticism nor playing with words, since an anti-fascist struggle will and must end up with an armed civil war between the fascist and anti-fascist forces, since the “movement from below against fascism” will inevitably and necessarily end up with “people uprising” or “nation-wide civil unrest” as Avay Shukla says, since the very meaning of “defeating fascism beyond the electoral sphere” is “such an armed uprising”, whoever calls such an “uprising” as “riot” and “undesirable” is, needless to say, betraying the cause of anti-fascist struggle in the interest of the ruling class. Once again we may thank him for revealing his real face!
Let us continue. “By participating in the election you (INDIA bloc) are actually giving a merit certificate to the Election Commission which accompanied with the BJP in the electoral process. Through a boycott grater enlightenment will be brought to the Indian people. Through a boycott this notion -there is no democracy in India, the result of the 2024 general elections is a stolen one- would spread not only throughout the country but also throughout the world.” These words were borrowed from Avay Shukla and Debashish Chowdhry but Maruthaiyan has not even mentioned their names, why? Is it because of the lack of intellectual honesty? No. Before this interview we exposed their arguments are against Maruthaiyan’s famous “breathing space” theory and opposition parties as “barrier theory.”[5]
When appraising the opposition INDIA bloc the bourgeois intellectuals are far ahead than Mr Maruthaiyan. Listen to Avay Shukla’s words on INDIA bloc, “The Opposition has failed, thanks to its own ineptitude, avarice, lust for power and out-size egos, and the abject surrender of all our constitutional institutions, including the courts. The Opposition, therefore, is no longer a player in this game-it can at best now be a coach.” Similar observation by Parakala Prabhakar’s, before 2024 general election results: “India may have to brace up for tumultuous weeks following the counting day. Opposition political parties seem ill-prepared to ensure that the will of the people is faithfully reflected in the voting machines.” Compare these appraisals on INDIA bloc “failed, ineptitude, avarice, lust for power, abject surrender of all our institutions, no longer a player in this game, ill-prepared” with those of Mr Maruthaiyan’s “can be a barrier for fascism” “a viable alternative” “we could get a breathing space” etc. Isn’t it clear that how carefully he defends the INDIA bloc’s inconsistency and treachery instead of exposing it! Isn’t it clear that he is spreading naïve optimism about them!
The above mentioned bourgeois intellectuals not only exposed the INDIA bloc’s limitedness and inconsistency in the anti-fascist struggle, but more importantly place their hope upon the people, just listen: “In the event, [i.e. if the RSS-BJP unleashed riots in case of its electoral defeat] it is the civil society that will have to roll up its sleeves and be prepared to rescue our democracy and prevent the current regime from stealing this election”, Parakala Prabhakar. “The actual players have to be the citizens of India, whose right to select a government of their choice is being stolen. They must be persuaded to boycott the elections too; … “As Debasish says: when your house is burgled, you don’t write a letter to the burglar, you go to the police! And the police here are the people of India- We The People. It is time to turn to them”, Avay Shukla. When we argued that the anti-fascist struggle can and must be led by the proletariat and the revolutionary people alone, Maruthaiyan ridiculed that notion as “clownish one” and ridiculed us as “clown.” It would not be a surprise that if he classified these bourgeois intellectuals also as “clowns”!
Listen his meticulous phrasing: “I am not advocating in favour of electoral boycott in all other states, but only in Bihar. … If the above mentioned Rahul Gandhi’s demands are not met, INDIA bloc must proclaim electoral boycott in Bihar.” While Mr Avay Shukla advocationg for a nation-wide active boycott, our renegade Maruthaiyan advices for a boycott only in Bihar and that too only if Rahul Gandhi’s demands were not met. Needless to say, even in this regard Maruthaiyan not only lags far behind the bourgeois intellectuals, but also deliberately pulling the anti-fascist struggle back instead of pushing it forward. Why did he not even verbally advocate for a nation-wide boycott? He may be afraid that even a verbal advocacy for a nation-wide boycott, including Tamil Nadu, would cause antagonism with his fellow strategists of DMK.
So, it is too obvious to require proof that Mr Maruthaiyan is striving to keep the anti-fascist struggle within the boundaries and interest of the ruling class while shamelessly pretending as a revolutionary!
Let Mr Maruthaiyan howl! To our comrades and readers we say, just like in Bangladesh here too such an uprising will definitely be erupt, the fascists will definitely encounter their real enemies, i.e. the proletariat and revolutionary people, in the street. But, here, unlike in Bangladesh, we must put all our efforts to place the proletarian imprint on that uprising, for this must put all our efforts to “build a movement from below” “to propagate that fascism can be defeated only in the streets and only by an armed civil war” from now itself. We must prepare the people by elevating their consciousness to the level of the proletarian party instead of depriving the proletarian party’s consciousness to the level of petty bourgeois philistinism!
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[1] See the article, https://idaiveli.wordpress.com/2021/03/09/elections-also-can-be-a-platform-to-fight-fascism-lets-vote-for-the-dmk-alliance
[2] See our pamphlet, “Want to fight fascism? then surrender to the DMK and Congress” – Preaching Renegade Maruthaiyan, July 2023 (in Tamil)
[3] See the article, Published by the Congress party’s daily National Herald, The casino is rigged; long live the casino! – by Avay Shukla https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/opinion/bihar-sir-the-casino-is-rigged-long-live-the-casino
[4] See his recent interview, from 45 minutes onwards, LoP Rahul Gandhi’s Atom Bomb on Election commission India – Maruthaiyan exposes Modi& ECI Vote Theft https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSgtLr5wosc
[5] See our video (in Tamil), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdG8YFo3TG4&t=22s
