The parallels between the Iranian Revolution and Modi.

 With India in its 3^rd year under the jackboots of a Hindu Right-Wing, Nationalist and Proto-fascist Govt, as well as under severe Neoliberal and Imperialist assault, an Indian cannot help but wonder where the country went wrong and why. This is especially the case for those who have always been warning of the dangers of a genocidal leader like Modi, backed by the Hindu Terrorist NGO RSS. But there are also those who are newly disillusioned by what can only be described as prime rib incompetence at managing the economy. However, few people really look at the rise of the Hindu version of Religious Nationalism - which is otherwise manifest in the Muslim brotherhood in MENA, Buddhist Nationalism of Burma and Sri Lanka, and Tea Bagger Libertarians of the US – as a reaction to the economic assault of Global imperialist Capitalism.

This is not the first time that this has happened either. Back in the 1970s there was a movement in the midst of the spread of Communism all over the world that was different from the prevailing anti-imperialist trend and that was Iran. The Iranian Revolution unlike the Communist upsurges in various countries was a rising of a non-Secular movement against American Colonialism of the time. Of course, this was a threat of a new kind to American imperialism because it was anti-imperialism that didn’t need the “Godless Communists” that America was focused on. Few Liberal commentators at the time were equipped to understand that the primary goal of America was global domination and not just the dismantling of Worker’s Movements and Socialism.

A little note on the series of events that led to the Iranian Revolution. Iran was always a fiercely independent country. Through the course of World War 2, however, it did become an important outpost for resources for the war effort with the British and French having a presence there. As the post-war decades rolled on, the influence of America became more pronounced much to the chagrin of the local population. The election of Mossadek ushered in the blowback, where the Govt of Iran decided to Nationalise the oil industry. This resulted in the American sponsored overthrow of Mossadek and the reinstating of the Shah of Iran as a dictator. Such a blatant act of imperialism is what resulted in the Revolution. More importantly, it never waned or reduced in fervor precisely because Iranians remember exactly what the US tried to do.

Coming back to India, you see some similarities. Though India was never really a Socialist state, it had controlled, if nothing else, the Imperialist moves of the US. The ideological grounding of this resistance was that Globally, the USSR still existed, and the ideology of the Freedom struggle still prevailed. With the collapse of the USSR, the tide had turned and the calls for the Liberalisation of the Indian Economy grew. The rich and middle classes wanted to be the new bourgeoisie, the bourgeoisie wanted to control the state like it does in the US, and the State was now ideologically committed to its fate as a puppet of the US – and to nurturing jingoism and national pride to fuel popular support for a neoliberal agenda.

On the cultural side, Indian society cleaved even further than its traditional Feudalistic hangover of Caste. There was now the Urban elites and middle classes, the English Speakers, the Armchair intellectuals and progressives, and on the other side – the uneducated, rural, conservatives. Now in all fairness, due to the absolute size of India, neoliberalism was able to send some wealth down the food chain to the rural populations. But as is seen worldwide, the trickle down is always miniscule, skewed, and doesn’t accompany in progressive thought.

A side note here is needed to reinforce what the Indian state should have done. Post-Independence, under the Nehruvian socialists, the focus was on Nation Building. This was in the form of infrastructure and building facilities for modernity, food security, etc. It did not correspondingly focus on destroying the Old – the conservatism that prevailed through religion, feudalism, and ending the Fascist cult of the Hindu Terrorist RSS. A fatal flaw. This is exactly why of all the post war countries in Asia, India remains one of the most socially backward countries prevailing out to the 21^st century.

As we look into this background and analyse today – in the 21^st century where Capitalism is breathing its last and People’s movements in the Left and Right are now pushing Liberal Capitalism out – we see the shadows of the Iranian Revolution rearing its head again in India in Hindu Nationalism. This can be seen in the rejection of a Secular agenda primarily. What was the evil of American for Iran is the evil of Muslims and Communists in India. What was the rejection of American cultural hegemony is the rejection of intellectualism, English and a revival of pre-dark ages philosophy in India. Of course, in India, all this is mostly rhetoric for the masses because the economic model has not changed nor is it any less imperialistic. This phase of Hindutva is also underscored as being the rise of the Conservative and Rural – Rural from the perspective of the mind more than the physical or geographical.

What the future holds for India thus is more subject to the vagaries of electoral rhetoric and economic realities. The growing radicalization of the majority Hindu population is thus destroyed by the nature of Capitalism pushing a progressive agenda where Nationalism and Insularity cannot sustain itself. Also, it would take decades if not impossible to turn the Indian population away from the lure of migration or of aspiring to ape and be as Western as possible. We must also remember that Capitalism itself is disdainful of insularity of the Indian Market and that corporations that worked so hard to breach the defenses of the erstwhile Indian state will not give up its victory ever.

What is more likely is that under the rule of the BJP, there will be more and more assaults upon Working Class consciousness. This is the real danger and most likely the inevitable death of Hindutva is simply the installation of a Corporate fascist state – something that is not even antagonistic to Hinduism as it is to Islam.

The other more likely assaults by Hindutva would be colonialist in nature upon the rest of India – especially the South. This will be a failed endeavor and any attempt to push the agenda aggressively would end up in a civil war. Thus Political Entropy is achieved yet again. 

"Companies are not employing now because they are waiting for unemployment to get worse!"

As the Indian economy is looking at its worst crisis since its independence, the big media is silent and largely ignoring the plight of the common office worker and labourer on the street. But media ignoring something doesn’t mean it is not happening. We every now and then have access to a few news outlets that do give us the true figure of over 9 million jobs lost just in this year. But the other side of this is the Corporations. Are they really in a fix businesswise or are they just holding their positions right now? An interview with an insider in the corporate human resources scene reveals the best laid plans of the Corporates.

Welcome and thank you for speaking to me. Could you state who you are and what you do for our readers?

You can call me Shyam. I am the Head of HR at a Media House and it is one of the bigger Channels out there. I have been in HR all my life and I started my career back in 2000 when liberalisation was at its peak. I would say that I have had a good career and a fruitful one.

So, it’s all good then? You don’t have any complaints against the Corporate dream?

Oh, I have many complaints about it and I despise what the work environment has rapidly deteriorated to but for people like me there is no real alternative but to slave away in these conditions. The funny thing is that we make light of the plight of farmers when they say, “if we cannot do farming, what else do we do?” that is pretty relevant for us Cubicle slaves as well. What choice but sitting in cubicles and pressing buttons do we have for a living? That aside, work since the 2008 crisis has been steadily on a downturn. When I joined the media world, hiring was what we did! We were building teams and teams built products and products sold etc etc. Now, being in HR is about firing people in the least amount of time possible – down to mere minutes in fact.

You mentioned 2008. What was that like?

To be completely honest, I know about it anecdotally and academically. Since the company I work in relies on the Indian market we weren’t hammered by the world downturn that happened in 2008. But all my peers who were working in IT were finished and I think the Liberalisation dream run was reaching its finishing line then. I look at India now and look back at that crisis and I can only thank the then Govt for steadying the ship.

So what has gone wrong now?

Well I would love to say GST and Demonetisation and stuff but those are just the straws that broke a camel’s back. Things like GST are badly implemented but cannot sink business and I refuse to believe it can. Demonetisation, yes. But it has been a year since it happened and even if it killed the economy it cannot be stopping its revival – and when I say revival, I am talking about employee strengths returning back to sane levels.

I will be more specific, what has gone wrong in Corporations from a Human Resource perspective?

Well we are all told that business is down and there is a recession. That has reduced budgets and therefore we have to fire you and you and you. And then five days later we hire for the same positions at 50% of the previous cost, usually some newbie or so. We are of course automating to such a level that we literally have no developers on the floor anymore. I can’t remember the time that development happened at the “factory floor” so to speak. Nothing is made in India even. All the software and hardware used are in a SaaS model. The hardware otherwise can be fixed and maintained by some Ukrainian coder paid $10 an hour when we pay $100. The only people that seem to be having it good are the Marketing, Strategy and Innovation teams. I guess that would be the case of course but if we are struggling on low sales, how come Sales and Marketing never pay that price?

So you are saying that India the “outsourcing capital” is being Bangalored?

It is true. For a long time since the call center boom what have we essentially been? A center for cheap labour and that is it. All these damn IT companies that we see like Wipro, Infy, etc that got their 20 year tax holidays and profited, where are the “Word, PowerPoint and Excels” that are made in India? That is essentially the problem. India was either a Call Center or a Coding Center. We never made the product itself so we lost the labour the minute the rest of the developing nations could speak English and code. And honestly, India got lucky. We have the worst work practices and worst quality of products. It had to collapse someday.

We hear that 9 million jobs have been lost in the Indian market, what is your take on that?

I can’t say I am surprised! I am no fan of Modi or BJP, I have seen both at work but I keep that aside when it comes to matters of economics. It has been three years of every other nonsense but serious work with this Govt, really. Let me save you time by saying that folks like Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha have it bang on with their critique of this Govt. That aside, I can definitely say that there have been massive layoffs in the IT and Media. But it is not very straightforward as firing because business is down.

What do you mean?

Well, none of these companies are close to sinking or even to a major hit on their bottom line revenues. Most of the firing of the lower level staff happened with a huge bang but all those positions have been quietly filled up again. Now, if business was really down that wouldn’t be the case, so this is a case of companies burning their budgets somewhere else and the factory floor taking the hit.

But hasn’t that always been the case?

Well yes. It has always been the entire point of being in business to increase profits but there is a difference. When you start out in business you make money by expanding, producing more and selling more. After that you peak out and then comes the cut backs and cutting costs to keep the rate of profit continuously going up. This is the problem. It is not that profit is lacking, it is that the Company wants more of it. So, instead of starting and chasing new lines of business and wanting to expand, the company wants to ride the wave.

How does that make sense in the current Indian context?

Well, take the case of the IT majors that did their layoffs. Most of those positions have been filled again with temps or contractual workers. Additionally, projects that don’t align with the overall company NPV are being dumped – which would be fine if this was 10 years ago when you could refuse business, not now. Also, a more nefarious tactic is being seen in the media world were the cost of Content Acquisition is a major component of the Retail price. What happened is that companies buy Content, which comes with a Price that is literally pulled out of the Content owner’s ass. And the cost of content is constantly increasing year after year, quality is increasingly bullshit, and audiences don’t watch it. So, instead of kicking the Content Owners out of their “Asset Bubble” broadcasters are cutting labour costs instead and the net result is that India now has some of the worst broadcast quality in the world! This at a time when the internet TV players with the big bucks are already ripping Indian distributors a new asshole!

So that means that the Work is there to be done but Companies can’t afford manpower for whatever reasons?

Not entirely. They can indeed afford to fill these positions but they have realised something. With three years of Modi’s disastrous economics, unemployment has increased to such levels that the labor cost has come down drastically. Worse, the trend is set to continue so Corporations are waiting for the pool of unemployed to increase to such a level that wages come down further. It is basically Wage speculation on right now.

But that affects business as well, doesn’t it?

This is India. Indians will lap up any nonsense that is shown on TV. So even if the quality dips in content or technology by 50%, people will still watch it. This is the endemic “Baniya” mentality that Indian companies have always had – that instead of investing in quality, find the market for bad quality.

So, the future is bleak is it?

Well, if you are just joining the job market, this is going to be the new normal. For older generations like me, yes… this is the end of the line. Best to leave India altogether.

It is time to kill the Poor and the Working Class!

This title sounds like a dystopian vision of the future, something straight out of Hollywood where the rich, living in their Elysium, have gained the ultimate upper hand over the majority, deprived masses. But dramatical pronouncements, if nothing else, are also the signs of something coming our way, the size and danger of which we will only realise when it is too late anyway. The danger here is the evolution of Capitalism, from Industrial Capitalism, to Finance Capitalism to Neoliberalism, and to the coming End Stage Capitalism, a phase I will call Capitalist Equilibrium.

Why Equilibrium? Because, it is in this stage of Capitalism that it will have to resolve its contradictions (Fallacies) that Marx had pointed out. I specifically speak here of the Monopolistic tendency peaking, the falling rate of profit being internalised and most importantly the Class contradictions being resolved along with Automation displacing workers. There are no resolute timescales to the Capitalist Equilibrium but it is safe to say that humanity is at its crossroads at this time to decide how it will survive on this planet.

Let us understand the nature of some of Capitalism’s contradictions first.

Tendency to Monopoly and the falling rate of profit.

All businesses and enterprises that are run are done for one sole motive: profit maximisation. This of course leads to competition and in the course of that competition, the strongest survive. This can be through the adoption of technology or through sheer weight of Capital and money power at the disposal of bigger Corporations. Our modern corporations like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Pepsi, Coke, epitomise this trend, where they are able to destroy competition through the sheer weight of their resources, buyouts, or even through political clout. This has been the case for so many decades now that the dream of many a startup is to grow big enough to be acquired; what a laughable ambition…. To grow big enough to be nourishment for another. This very trend is indicative of how Capitalism has resolved its contradiction by changing society to believe in the power of the Corporation – that is the benevolent dictator, the employer, that which sprinkles its goodness though charity, and that if you cross will crush you no matter how, through money and political clout. Thus, we also see how the Bourgeois Liberal Democratic framework post World War 2 has aided and lubricated this transition by being a Politics of the Rich and resourceful. Marx had put forth the absolutely brilliant critique in Das Kapital of the Falling rate of Profit. Again, something that we see in action today but never mentioned by the Bourgeois Economists. The Falling Rate of Profit is largely mathematical but in layman language it is the tendency of businesses to compete to the point of collectively reducing prices and thus profit per unit. This leads to the tendency to monopoly but the side effects of the falling rate of profit in the interim are catastrophic, as the drive to keep gross margins intact cause labour retrenchment and subsequently increasing the mass of the reserve army of unemployed labour. A majority of the people of the world living under the doom of Recessions that is caused by such a state is now being touted as the norm and inevitable – as if economic recession is like that inhalation and exhalation of a living organism. In any case, those who suffer in a Capitalist economic meltdown are not those who have caused it.

Class contradictions

Class contradictions basically mean the inability of there to be consonance and peace between classes. In today’s world, to most folks, this might seem to already be resolved but that is only the case if you go by what you are being told to believe. Class contradictions inherently stem from Economic power, and who holds the power of Resources in society, which further decides the way Production and Consumption is organised, which finally decides political power. Capitalism places the Class that rules as that class that has the most wealth in society and those that must be ruled as the working class.  This inherently creates a contradiction that we see today of the 1% ruling over the 99%. To maintain this form of dictatorship of a minority, the 1% via the media they own, ensure that the 99% are never made aware of their ability to rise up, are made to believe that their position in this world is decided by how much they consume (of the product made by the 1%), are told that they are constantly unskilled and must upgrade their skills (again, by buying the education sold by the 1%), and finally that the essential problem is that working class are just too numerous and must contain their propensity to procreate. History has shown that this inevitably leads to class conflict and the 99% do rise up and occasionally take power. Thus, there are two states in which the working class, or Proletariat live in – A Bourgeois Democracy or a Proletarian Democracy.

But back to the present and we see that the three decade long Neoliberal project has largely ensured that the Proletarian class looks at uprising and mass organised revolt as something their masters do not appreciate. One cannot blame them, considering that the State – that is owned and commanded by the Rich Capitalist class – comes down heavily upon them, to the point of even censoring Free Speech the minute it threatens the power of the Bourgeois State. An entire two generations have now been born in the world since the collapse of the USSR and this means that no one knows what the alternatives to Bourgeois Hegemony are. This will continue as well – even despite the rise of Reactionary forces and Right Wing Populism – which ultimately does not contradict the rule of Capitalism anyway, just of democracy itself.

Therefore, we see that the working class have submitted to the rule of the Bourgeoisie and be it in the first world or the third, there is almost no revolutionary potential left. Class contradictions have therefore come to a stage of resolution where the working class is satisfied being just the working class that is servile to the Capitalist 1%.

Here we come back to Capitalist Equilibrium. The masses who should rise up to prevent this final stage of Capitalism are now docile, servile and supine. In this environment, the last project of Capitalism can be evoked and that is the slow genocidal elimination of the Poor and subsequently of the Working Class itself.

The destruction and killing of the Poor is a conscious project in nearly every country now except those that still claim to profess Socialism. This is done through insidious ways like cutting welfare, using the Police to clear out the poorest of the poor – making some citizens legally entitled to the country but only if they are wealthy enough to be so, ensuring that hygiene and healthcare is not something that exists for those who cannot afford it, and finally through high food prices and dumping food. In the third world, we see this project in more obvious forms like forced and incentivised sterilisation, evictions from ancestral lands, the use of the army and police to clear out those deemed to not support ruling governments and then there the use of Reactionary Ideology to orchestrate genocides to clear people from land as is the case in the Rohingyas.

As far as the Working Class that have some rights to exist in their societies because of what wealth they do possess, they are made to live in polluted environments, to suffer the cutbacks of govt expenditure on clean water, reduced regulation of industrial waste treatments, etc etc. This the Working Class might occasionally fight back against but cannot ultimately do anything about – take the examples of Fracking in the US, the Pollution in Indian cities, the potholed roads, the lack of Public infrastructure in cities.

Automation and Technology

The final blow that will end the existence of the Working Class is the advent of Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning. These technologies are being touted today as those that will free the Working Class from doing menial tasks – though Machine Learning has already blown the cover of the nefarious plans of the Bourgeoisie. Marx had predicted that Automation will be the single most potent weapon that will be used against the Working Class. Where automation and technology should have been used to reduce the costs in Capital and to ensure that more and more jobs are created, Privatisation of technological innovation has ensured that Technology innovation is only for driving Profit making.

Today, that project has reached the point where masses of people losing their job is seen as some sort of evolution of business, where in actual fact, it is simply the distortion of evolution by the Capitalist class. We today see this now where masses of IT developers are being made redundant and ironically, the most profitable IT developer jobs are in those that make the very damned software that will make them redundant! Why the Working Class, like mules, follow this nefarious genocide of their own without protest is a testament to the success of media, the alienation brought about by Capitalism, and Liberalism as the preferred ideology.

The Dystopia that stands before us.

From the above analysis, we can see that Equilibrium will be reached – not by the synthesis from a dialectical perspective but from the destruction of the antithetical thought itself. But what is the alternative to such a dystopia. It is the very the project that was initiated a 100 years ago in Russia – the creation of the worker’s state and the establishment of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. The challenge here is one of confusion whether the Working Class gets Revolutionary potential first or the Communist movements stir the Working Class to Revolutionary potential. Yet another problem is the question of “What is Revolution?” Is it violent or democratic? This is the needless banter that promotes indolence – an indolence that is a result of Bourgeois academics endlessly ruminating in the realm of academia instead of taking to the streets. Revolution is the seizure of power – simple, where the state allows for it through democracy - good, where it must be seized through the violent overthrow of the Bourgeoisie, the better.

There is no alternative to the very existence of the Working Class than Socialism and there is no alternative to sustainable elimination of Class than Communism. The only other way is murder. 

The October Revolution and a middle-aged Communist

For many a 40 something year old, born in the Soviet century and raised in a Capitalist world, the October Revolution isn’t top of the mind recall per se. In fact, for the few who do venture into understanding what Communism, Socialism, Anarchism is it is an arduous task of sifting through now debunked propaganda by Robert Conquest, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, George Orwell and, especially if you are an Indian, oodles of complaints about how Communism is the same as trade unionism. Once you get through that fog of misinformation, comes the real journey. But like all journeys, Communism and Marxism was never just about the textbooks but about real life itself. Thus, my journey….

I was a kid of the late 70s. The word was rife with revolutions, the Iranian Communist party the Tudeh had just been banned by the Shah of Iran at America’s orders and the Revolution there was coming to a head but with a theocrat as a leader. Vietnam was still on everyone’s minds and people were still talking about the puny Chinaman who brought down the might of American imperialism, though at great cost. Pol Pot was deposed and consigned to History by Communist Vietnam while the US refused to intervene in that crisis in Cambodia. South America….a pot that was always boiling since the Cuban revolution. The 70s in India (though I was diaspora at the time) were a time when every Indian youth was clamouring for Revolution and Revolt; Naxals were not the bad guys yet; Sitaram Yechury was firebrand orator! Though there was also the counter narrative by bourgeois cinema that always showed the Communists as either jungle fighters or trade unionists who just ruined the lives of those who went to work. All this hadn’t damped the spirit yet though. These were the times of the Cold War. Angola, Mozambique were all turning red. The world was poised to be a worker’s state!

The eighties perhaps marked the real fight back by the imperialist powers in the media. Everyone suddenly was told to stop romanticising Revolution, get to work and make money. A fair point considering that this was the start of the Neoliberal project and Globalisation was just beginning as a start up. And then came the mid-eighties… the time of Indira Gandhis death, economic turmoil, the initiation globally of trade agreements by the Western world through the World Bank and IMF. The end of Socialism began with these stabs.

Thus, the nineties of Gorbachev and Yeltsin… the miserable end of the Soviet dream began. It was at this time that my first tryst with Communism began in my early teens in Africa. Nelson Mandela had just been released from Robben Island and F. W De Klerk had declared that the end of White Rule in South Africa was imminent. This was a victory of the colored races but also the time of great reactionary sentiment and the first time that I had heard from the mouths of Indians…. “Why are you celebrating with the Blacks? Why are you touching them? Don’t you know that they are cannibals?” To which, I asked my mother with my feeble knowledge at the time…. “Amma, What is Communism?” She of course only knew of Communism superficially from her growing years in Kerala. Communism was liberation, fighting against discrimination, destroying the might of the rich, equality for all, building a new society, a soviet of Kerala even, and the how the evil American imperialist empire was all pervasive.

The latter part of the nineties put my initial Communist fervor to rest. India had taken the World Bank loan and shipped planeloads of its sovereign gold to the Bank of England as surety – the biggest insult to a country that threw English Imperial rule out of its soil. But in exchange, the Neoliberal project had begun! The USSR was no more, and Liberal Democracy was touted as the entropic state of the world – World history it seemed had come to an end as Francis Fukuyama was to later say.  But this was a time of opportunity… We graduated from college and there were loads of jobs if you could string together a sentence in English. We all targeted doubling our salaries every year by changing jobs….the dream run had begun! And as for that little churn in society called Babri Masjid and the communal riots – it was a warning sign that India and Bharat were not going to develop in economic harmony.

In came the 21^st century! The Neoliberal project was at its peak! Equality was unnatural! Welfare to poor a State Sin! The Poor had to be starved into oblivion! Until the eve of 2008, when the world suddenly crashed around us. Economic and financial terms were bandied about and we didn’t know what it meant! How can Neoliberalism and the Rich fail us? It was then that we all realised that there was something called Economics and we had to understand it – it was not trade, not industry but something far more dark, mysterious and sexy seeing how countries and their wealth would exist and disappear.

It was at these times, I suddenly became a manager and started handling big teams at work. I learnt about Production, Time, Materials, Productivity, etc. And when 2008 crash had struck I also saw how disposable people were to the modern Corporate machine. In the words of the man who gave me my first Pink Slip… “People come and go, there are a 100 to take the place of a Worker who doesn’t fall in line, is too old or is too costly. The Corporation is the new God and God must survive” Needless to say, he had no idea how true his words were when his Pink Slip came after he dutifully rendered 100 people jobless thinking he was sacrificing to his “God.” I promised myself that I would never be the guy who hired too much or too little, that no matter how high I climbed or believed I was higher than my crew, I was and always was a worker, and I finally realised that Work success was built by my Team not by Managers. The seeds of Worker Class consciousness were thus sown – not by a textbook or the Communist Manifesto but by Cold, Hard Capitalism.

The journey ends in Capitalist Dubai, a land where the Neoliberal project is at its most vulgar. Construction workers bussed from their quarters to work sites well before the more well-heeled citizens could catch a glimpse and be upset by the sight of them, a world where people could be told to leave the work in 10 minutes flat and escorted out by security, where no one fought back against injustice at work or in life but rather cooled their frustrations and insecurities in consumerism. A world that was make believe and fake. But more importantly, what was stark was that nobody was really Producing anymore. Work was outsourced, the “factory” was dead. Project managers were merely Executive Assistants to Directors.

The questions plagued me: If the population keeps rising and there is no more Production where will everyone be hired? Not everyone has access to expensive education like an MBA – which in itself was just a monetary roadblock to ensure that the lower classes would never be managers. And most importantly, if there is no job security, how the hell will I survive to old age when my bones don’t allow me to work anymore. Another system must exist! And that is when I remembered that it did… it was Called Socialism. My frequent meetings with a Kazak revealed a Soviet Union where, as he was growing up, you always had a job, you never were poor, you never had to worry about your healthcare, you never had to worry about being taken care of once you couldn’t work anymore. The State ensured all that. This was an anathema to the Indian experience! To everything I knew! But it was just the perfect solution! And thus I picked up Das Kapital and the Communist Manifesto for the second time in my life. This time it all made more sense and the world Capitalist crisis, as foretold by Marx, had already come to pass and that made Marxism the most obvious solution in the world.

This is perhaps the greatest legacy of the October Revolution to my generation who are Communists. We never lived in Communism and only experienced its demise in the Soviet Union but through its demise and the impending demise of Neoliberalism, we learnt that a better world was not something Utopian and in the future, but was also a Reality in our past. Something that put us the Working Masses who sell our labour for sustenance at the seat of power, A form of Politics where wealth did not decide politics, where we would not be looked down upon for the color of our skin and that was the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

Lal Salaam, Red Salutes, Jai Bhim, Hul Johar!

Iquilaab Zindabaad! 

On the intellectual bankruptcy of subaltern politics of Feminism and Reactionary Ambedkarism

There has been a flurry of activity in the feminist camps as well as much churn over sexual harassment lists. The churn of course has caused a generational chasm between the young and old guard of feminists as well as calling out Savarna vs Dalit feminism. This in the end is a good churn as well. The fact of it all being that the victims of sexual harassment at the hands of male oppressors have done what they should have done – called out the Rapist and the young feminists have promoted and given voice to it. Of course, everything has a legal framework so if there is an end to the story it must end up as a legal one. But what is noteworthy is the allegation by the younger generation that the inertia of the older generation in showing concrete action is what has made the young guns take matters into their own hands. Why is this so and why as a corollary is the allegation of Dalit vs Savarna creeping in over here? This problem goes into the very root of two streams of subaltern politics – Feminism and Ambedkarism. 

Feminism and Ambedkarism seek a common objective for the people it represents – absolute and unequivocal equality. You can define the two streams in any which way you like but the objective is plain and simple at the highest level. If the end objective of these two streams of subaltern politics sounds a lot like Communism then you would not be completely inaccurate because these two streams of the subaltern realm stemmed from Communism and Fabian Socialism. So then, the obvious question that does arise is why did they all become separate or why they are not a combined force? Some historical context is required here on both the streams.

Feminism as movement has seen many names be it Women’s Liberation or the Suffrages Movement, etc. At the highest point of the movement for equality of women came the Soviet Revolution of 1917 that accorded absolute equality to women on par with men. This was followed by women getting the vote elsewhere and World War 2 completely changing the paradigm in the Western Liberal world. Fast forward to the fall of the USSR where the Soviet Revolutionary Worker’s state collapses but Women’s rights cannot be wished away any more anywhere in the world. Thus, Feminism is born out of the Reforming of the Radical line of Women’s Liberation – the Reform being that Women’s Rights and Capitalism are compatible.

Ambedkarism on the other hand can be seen in two prisms – as an attack on Religious Hegemony of the Hindu Orthodoxy and as a Civil Rights movement. As a challenge to religious orthodoxy, there has been no weapon as potent or as destructive as Ambedkarism to Hinduism – understandable because no genius like Ambedkar was able to articulate the need to end Hinduism to the masses. As a Civil Rights movement, politics in the Indian subcontinent as the petty minded nature of Hindus prevented the Dalits rights movement aligning completely with the Communist movement, as was the case in Apartheid South Africa. After the death of Ambedkar however, the dialectic of the movement came to an end – not politically but ideologically. Leaders like Kanshi Ram took the caste discourse forward albeit with a fragile and deft use of reactionary rhetoric to ensure mass uptake. At the current time, Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram are both long gone and there are new ideologues trying to frame Ambedkarism in the current Political Economy. However, as with feminism, the Revolutionary path has been abandoned to talk of Capitalism and Ambedkarism being friends.

 

If we are to look at things dispassionately. The subaltern movements have survived the so-called “death of Communism” that Liberal Imperialism so gleefully propagandises. So, the subaltern movements to stay alive had to talk to power to progress, for if the Left is dead, the subaltern becomes the mainstream left.  Therefore, if we calculate that the much-vaunted death of the Left happened in the 1990s, it would have been 30 years… in these 30 years, which of these subaltern movements have managed to capture power at the level where they could have changed Law, Constitution and Political Economy itself? None. Feminism has capitulated, and Dalit Capitalism is the new paradigm – despite the fact that women are no more equal and Dalits are not richer and Capitalism itself is on its last legs. 

So, what is to be done? 

The first step is that the subaltern movements have to recognise and accept its mistakes, which are as follows.

1. Equality is not an appeal to the conscience but rather a collective socio-economic edifice.
2. Abandon First-worldism, Bourgeois intellectualism, and armchair Progressive Liberalism.
3. Abandon compartmentalisation and name calling. It is infantile, reactionary, and a strawman argumentation
4. Feminism and Ambedkarism do not challenge authority – they work alongside it. Women’s Liberation and a Dalit Revolution destroy the Hegemon. 
5. Capitalism is fundamentally based on and promotes inequality. Capitalism is not just an economic method, it is method of organising production, society and class based on wealth and capital. This is an anachronism and a contradiction to the end objective to any subaltern politics.
6. Particularly to the Feminist movement. There cannot be something called Savarna Feminism and Dalit Feminism; there are no separate objectives for the Savarna or the Dalit woman. The end goal is one and the same – or at least it should be. So that means any attempt at factionalising the movement is pandering to reactionary name calling without an ideological basis. 
7. To the Ambedkarite movement. Brahminism and Hinduism is not a primary contradiction. If Brahmins and Hindus didn’t exist tomorrow, Caste would not exist but then Class would be the new Caste. For example, a Dalit in the US is still a subaltern class due to ethnicity and access to the means of production. 
8. The objective is not to formulate an ideological discourse for the sake of an ideology. Rather, the material conditions of the oppressed should formulate the ideology itself. Thus, there must be a Combat Liberalism and purging of top-down, trickle down ideology. 
9. Recognise that the most oppressed group in the world is the working class. Every subaltern movement must eventually accept that it is part of the working-class movement and thus address the question of Communism.
10. Combat Factionalism. Learn from history. The working class movement was divided by Capitalism by creating a class called the Middle Class as a false consciousness. 

 

The next point to be addressed is what is the solution and can a coming together of all subaltern classes to form a Working Class hegemony solve very specific problems. To be specific, do the issues of Women and Dalits get subsumed under the shadow of the Class struggle? The answer is a categorical, No. Feminism and Ambedkarism is not looking at Women’s supremacy or Dalit supremacy, it is aimed at equality of gender and the Annihilation of Caste. Therefore, what is that construct under which 99% of humanity can aggregate under? Class. 

However, that Class does have an identity that is a historical handed down reality. Being an advocate of Internationalist Class struggle does not negate ethnicity for example – that is impossible on any count. In the same vein, there will always Class and Identity but that identity cannot be one that becomes a contradiction to Class. Let us look at Identity from a different context – Nationhood – no matter how small or large the National group. You can be an Indian, Chinese or Russian Communist but neither nationality conflicts with being a Communist. Similarly, one can be a Dalit and a Communist – and in this case, the Dalit question is not antagonistic to Communism or vice versa. Here, in fact the true reactionary nature of the Present day Ambedkarite discourse is revealed in the fact that Ambedkarites, uncomfortably shun the alignment of Dalits with the Communists in Kerala, with the Communists who together attacked Landlords, who joined the People’s War, etc. A common refrain of Ambedkarites has been that “Where are Dalits in the Politbureau?” It is a very good question and a valid one that the existent Communist Parties must address but on the flipside the equally troubling question for Ambedkarites is “Where is the Dalit Communist party?” Note that Ambedkar was not against Communism but the Indian Communist Party, he was against violent Revolution but not against a Democratic Communism. This is something the Reactionary factions of Ambedkarites cannot wish away.

A note here might be in order to chart a course for the Annihilation of Caste under a Communist banner. The two edifices that Caste discrimination sits on is Brahmin hegemony and Economics. Smashing Brahmin Hegemony is a lengthy affair of re-education of society to ensure that the Brahminical narratives are removed from curriculums and media. Additionally, the mixing and mingling of the population is another step to prevent ghettoization of communities – to this end the abolishing of private property while at the same time making Housing a Fundamental Right will ensure no discrimination in housing. A push to secularism in the European sense would also be required to purge religious consciousness to the fringes of private life. It cannot be stressed enough here that the Ambedkarite strain that does not push for a complete exit of Dalits from Hinduism is a failed narrative.

In summation, the Feminist and Ambedkarite movements in their current form are a reactionary form of identity politics. It is also beholden to promoting Capitalism and thus holds its foundations in conservatism and inequality - talking about equality within an unequal construct. The solution is a return to Dalit Revolution and Women’s Liberation.

What is the Dictatorship of the Proletariat?

The Dictatorship of the Proletariat, Proletarian Democracy, or a Worker’s State are the terms used to describe the form of the post-revolutionary Government. This paradigm is one of the most misused terms by Bourgeois Liberals o undermine worker revolutions because of the use of “Dictatorship”. Understandable of course considering that Liberals are at ideological war with the Left and Karl Marx did in a sense no anticipate the more rudimentary ways in which counter-revolutionaries would attack the concept of the worker’s state. But nevertheless, in more intellectual circles across the ideological divides, there is a very accurate understanding of what the Dictatorship of the Proletariat is. Now to simplify it for everyone else.

Who are the Proletariat?

The proletariat are the working class. Who are the working class? Those who sell labour for a wage and own no means of production or capital. In the very simplest of terms, if you must work for a salary for sustenance, then you are the working class. This basically makes 95% of the world or more the Proletarian Class.

But… What About the Middle Class!?

The Middle Class, so to speak, is an artificial class as per pure Marxian postulates. This is not to say that they do not exist in the frame of Leftist thought. It means that newer theories address the concept of the Middle Class. However, it is important to understand why this class exists. The Middle Class didn’t exist as a class until after World War 2. There was literally only what we call the Labour Class and the Bourgeoisie till then – the bourgeoisie being the class that owns capital and hires the Labour class. 

The Middle Class is actually a creation of Social Democratic and Liberalist economic policies of the West. This is a simple matter of creating a divide in the Working Class. Worker Revolutions all over the world had forced Western Governments to raise wages in a graded fashion. Thus, some members of the Working Class prospered for their “intellectual labour”. This newly prosperous class became a walking advertisement for the Bourgeoisie to the Working Class of what rewards can accrue to those who are willing to remain under wage slavery – albeit by working harder. So, in summation, you may call yourself Middle Class but sadly, you are nothing more than a wage slave. You are in fact the more vulnerable one because you are neither protected by the labour movement nor by the Bourgeoisie.

But the Middle Classes are also a social class apart, aren’t they?

Social Class is a product of economic realities. Middle Classes are an expansive group in that sense who can comprise those with a conservative to progressive, an erudite to a luddite, and a religious to atheistic sensibility. If there is any differentiation that can be observed here, it is the differentiation of the Intellect – Knowledge. This is how Bourgeoisie play this game to divide the Classes further.

Knowledge is not a traditional “commodity.” Once created it passes from person to person and doesn’t diminish in value and in that sense completely antagonises Capitalism and the Free market. Thus, the Bourgeoisie and their hands in Government Commodify Knowledge. They ensure that the fundamental right to an equal and infinite education is price-restricted, thus class restricted and sometimes race-restricted. This is the reason why the Labour Class and Middle Class have become socially separate classes.

So that means the Dictatorship of the Proletariat as actually a Dictatorship of …. Us?

Exactly! Right now, every Non-Socialist country in the world is the opposite of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat…It is the Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie. And why is that? Because the way Parliamentary Democracy in Liberal Democracies and Social Democracies are structured, Democracy tends to allow the Bourgeoisie into power. Once they are in power, they make policies and subvert Government for their means and ends. This can be seen plainly and simply as this: Elections are fought by parties for the votes of the population, they theory being one man-one vote. However, parties need money to contest elections and spread and advertise themselves – the point where the advertisement is more of a personality contest than a statement of merit. This advertisement and propagation requires money and this lies with the Bourgeoisie. The Bourgeoisie thus will extract their pound of flesh in terms of policies once their party is elected.

But coming back to the basics, does this mean Socialist countries are not Democracies?

This is false and is Western anti-communist propaganda. The edifice of any Socialist country is a Democracy. The difference between Socialism and Parliamentary democracy is that the Bourgeoisie has been eliminated from Government and Economic power so it becomes truly one person one vote. It is thus the people who decide their fate ultimately and not the Bourgeoisie. The electoral process exists just as in any other democracy; however, there are multiple safeguards in place to ensure that power is never in the hands of one person, there is the right to recall, there State funding of electoral messages from candidates, etc. The electoral structures are different for different Socialist countries but the best would be the Cuban model to analyse.

So that is why the Dictatorship of the Proletariat is the same as Proletarian Democracy?

Exactly, it is in fact the purest form of democracy.

But why are there only dictatorial figures in Socialist countries like Fidel, Stalin, Mao, Xi, Kim Jung Un?

There are multiple reasons for this. In the USSR, Stalin was unchallenged as an elected leader of the Soviets. This is mostly due to the fact that Stalin was an awe-inspiring figure in Russia and the father of the modern Russian state. In Cuba, the country has since its inception, been under a state of distress and constant threat from the US and counter-revolutionaries; therefore, the constant rallying behind its revolutionary leaders. North Korea, has a cult of personality around its leaders. China, post Mao, has subverted its own Revolution and undermined its own democratic principles. However, all said, internal party democracy is fundamental to the party of electing the leader to a full term. 

But let us also note here the various elected Communist Govts in the world as well. It is important to note here that whenever there has been a Socialist Revolution, the local and international Bourgeoisie do everything in their power from sanctions to all-out war to ensure that the Revolution is crushed. For that matter, they do this even when Communist Governments are democratically elected like in Chile, Kerala, Venezuela, etc.

So, a Proletarian Democracy sounds like the best model but if the Bourgeoisie are going to keep undermining it, what is the way forward?

This is exactly the problem that countries like Venezuela are grappling with, how to implement socialism without revolution? Or is social democracy the only sustainable model? But social democracy is not Socialism, it is still Capitalism and allowing the Bourgeoisie to exist and have a method to get into power. Countries like Venezuela should have switched to Revolutionary mode and oppressed their Capitalist class out of existence like the USSR and China did. At the end of the day, these two countries and Cuba present the best models. Revolution is the only way to bring in a Proletarian Democracy because the Bourgeoisie will not give up power unless it is staring at the barrel of a gun. Don’t think that that is brutal, the fact is that the Bourgeoisie do that every day to the Working Classes in a Bourgeois Democracy – that is what the Army and Police are for….to oppress the Working Classes and to protect the property of the rich. 

On the destruction of Hindutva (Political Hinduism)….

Of all the Right Wing ideologies that the world has put forth to date from Hitlerite Fascism, Italian Fascism, Libertarianism, Capitalism, Neoliberalism, Nationalisms in its various flavours, Islamism, none perhaps is more Tragically Comical, and yet extremely resurgent, as Hindutva. From a dialectical perspective, Hindutva is in a constant state of the negation of the negation.

Hindutva’s roots go back to an age of colonialism and the end of the age of Imperialism, ironically which was trigged by the Russian Revolution and Socialism’s spread in the world. Hindutva then tried to carve out a Hindustan but failed due to its own Internal contradictions, not to mention its inability to reconcile primary and secondary contradictions and thus join the bigger anti-Imperialist movement for Independence. One could opine that the ideological l’air de temps meant that the World was done with Right Wing ideology as well post WW2. However, the military dictatorships and the rise of theocratic states, render this argument redundant. The elimination of reactionary potential requires a prolonged period of Socialism and inculcating Social Consciousness.

Skip to the close of the 20^th century and we observe the first political rise of Hindutva into the seat of power via the NDA Govt of Vajpayee. This was a Govt that is barely remembered for anything beyond its corruption, policy gaffes, the comical nature of Vajpayee himself, economic suicide and a brief war. The Hindutva of this Govt was a more liberalised form of the parent fascism. NDA 1 was a “Hindutva Lite” of sorts…. A center-rightist formation. It is worth noting however that from a sociological perspective, this was the first Political expression of the Hindus. This is not to say that Hindus weren’t in power before but rather that another class of Hindus found their political expression finally. The lower castes and classes of Hindus – the more illiterate, backward, village mentality, newly enriched with liberalisation North Indian Hindus found their leader in power. Thus giving credibility to the position that “being a backward villager was a good thing and not a stigma anymore.” It is worth noting that in contrast to most civilised societies in the world, India is the only country in the world that did not destroy its backward, vile, paganism; it rather institutionalised it and promoted it further. It in fact fought back any attempts to improve itself and society more strongly. Hindutva must thus be understood ideologically with the similarity to Islamism – As a Movement against progressiveness, equality, modernism, Western Civilisation, and Modern-People’s Democracy.

Cut to the present day where we see Hindutva having negated its old Center-Right image for a more fluid Rightward stand. Fluid because it has no moorings within an Economic Rightist program and Hindutva is still not Political Economy in the ideological sense – a weakness and an internal contradiction. However, this phase of Hindutva has learned more from Islamism in that it is even more insular, conservative, and even harks back to a medieval period of south Asia. However, it is important to understand some edifices that it is built upon: Hinduism as a monocultural hegemony, North Indianism, Brahminism, Economically to the Right, Anti-intellectualism, Classism and Stateism. Thus, what are antithetical constructs that can destroy this phase of Hindutva?

DravidaNadu and National Liberationism

Dravidanadu is a Liberationist paradigm for the 5 states of South India and those who hail from Dravidian racial identity. Hindu Nationalism is the imposition of a cultural hegemony upon the people. Liberationism is the antithesis to this construct. Dravidanadu as a construct was first envisioned by Periyar as a separate Tamil Nation. The basis of Periyar’s philosophy lies in being Anti-Hindi, Anti-Hindu, and Anti-Brahmin. Dravidanadu thus is one of the most mature ideologies that is a threat and danger to Hindutva. When contrasted with Periyar’s philosophy, Hindutva is just imposing Colonialism again upon the Dravidian races of the South. It calls for the South States to be subservient Economically, Culturally, Linguistically, and Politically to the rule of Delhi. This blatant expression finds a natural revulsion in the South of India, that never integrated into the post-independent monoculture that India was envisioned as. Hindutva thus crumbles horribly in the face of the DravidaNadu Liberation movement. The only response becomes a call for violence, racism, and invoking fake Hindu mythology to bolster arguments. The strength of Dravidanadu is however the very same Liberation and Anti-colonialism that set India free of the British imperial yoke – A people calling for political independence from a foreign power – in this case India.

Caste

Caste is a primary contradiction that Hindutva’s second phase has not been able to resolve. Ideally, as with other Right Wing philosophies, there should only be two ways of resolving this contradiction i.e to integrate the lower castes in the monocultural hegemony or to treat them as the other to be eliminated. The former solution of integration cannot happen because of the vile, individual Hindu’s mindset that has been raised on a cocktail of exclusionism from birth. The latter cannot be done because of the numbers stacked against the upper castes and to a certain extent, the relevance and economic arguments against it. One the other hand, there are the lower castes and the Dalits. The lower castes in Hinduism are like guard dogs of its feudal system – Always guarding it despite being considered nothing more than guard dogs and getting the occasional kick from the masters – the inbred Brahmins. Dalits, in almost similar way, have been taught to be the lowest subhumans of the village paganism called Hinduism. The large mass of Dalits accept that they are nothing more than animals in the Hindu fold and stick to it not knowing why. However, this has constantly been changing since independence and over generations, indoctrination among Dalits to not revolt has died out. Dalits now have nascent Revolutionary potential but the material conditions don’t exist for full scale revolt. This of course is a gift of Liberal politics where a few concessions and freedoms are given to the Dalits to appease them and diffuse the pressure of Revolt.

However, Dalit politics dogmatically and ideologically is a direct attack on the very core of Hinduism itself. It is akin to the Enlightenment and end of the hegemonic power of the Catholic church upon the flock. Additionally, Hinduism requires the ritual torture, rape, mutilation of the weakest Dalit to assuage the blood lust of the middle warrior servant castes of the Brahmins. To thus destroy Hindutva, it is imperative that Dalit, Ambedkarite politics, Dalit Revolutionary zeal, and Dalit Vigilantism must be fostered. The last point holds special significance as history has shown that the servant castes of Brahmins only understand the language of brute force to come to a civilised dialog or to come under the heels of Dalits.

But this is not to assume that all is well among the servant castes either. The pursuit of a Neoliberal economic program has also ensured that Class also cuts into the Caste equations. Thus relegating members of the upper castes to economic misery. This is where it is important to understand the next point – economics.

Economics

Economically, Hindutva has no moorings and will flit and float between any economic paradigm that will keep them afloat for an election. The Hindutva Fountainhead fundamentally believes in a Capitalist paradigm and that the means of production should be in the hands of the few. And the few being decided by the feudal hierarchy. However, where circumstances mandate them to follow a populist paradigm the will veer in that direction as well. All that this proves is that Hindutva hasn’t spent any intellectual capital on economics. This is evident whenever there is a BJP govt in power. Fundamentally, both phases of Hindutva carried on the Neoliberal program of the erstwhile govt without realising the material conditions prevalent – that Neoliberalism is and will always tend to fail.

When the economics thus inevitably fail, the Social program is all that comes to the forefront and this sinks Hindutva into a hole even further because the social program is one that doesn’t not sit well with the business community. There can after all be no business in the middle of a riot – nor a salary for that matter.

One can actually opine that a Keynesian or a Marxist economic approach and polemic is more than enough to present a working model against Hindutva’s economic models.

In terms of soundbytes, the paradigm is simple… “Hindutva cannot survive on an empty stomach”

Feminism and Women’s issues

Hindutva is feudal conservatism towards women. Logically, thus it relies a lot on economic and physical oppression of women. However, in a post-ideological prism and perspective, to not see the role of women in facilitating their own oppression would be remiss. Women have always been fed the narrative under Hindutva, as in all right wing ideologies, that “the other will come to violate you, that is raison d’etre of the other”. Thus you must be protected by a Hindu man and these feminists are part of the conspiracy of the other to violate you. The thread presents itself as its own slippery slope fallacy.

Here we are faced with another problem of the solution itself, which is Liberal Feminism. The current Feminist paradigm today is not the erstwhile Female Liberation movements that sprung forth from Socialist revolutions. Thus the feminism of today is highly susceptible to Reform instead of Revolution. It is therefore important to Radicalise women – to understand that it is time for them to seize power itself and not just to fight for a few allowances and piecemeal reforms.

This strategy then equips the woman to battle her foe from Hindutva. This battle also call upon men to be androgenous and be led by the women destroying the stables and cowsheds of Hindutva.

The Communist Manifesto as it should be applied in India...

The Communist Manifesto was one of the first documents that was released that outlined what a Socialist program would look like Politically and Economically, post - revolution. 

In whichever country that has had a Socialist Revolution, this has been a guiding doctrine and has also been a resounding success until it's implementation was stopped or sabotaged. 

Today, for many of you, this document may seem dated and its application may not make sense. Thus, here is a point by point guide to help you envision what the Communist Manifesto will look like in India.

On assuming office through either Parliamentary democracy or through Revolution, the tasks will be as follows and in no specific order:

The Army and National Security.

1. Secure the Indian Army by removing all reactionary heads of command and replacing them with those of neutral political dispensation.
2. Initiate the process of converting this Colonial legacy of an Army into a People's Army by dissolving all the regiments that are based on Region, Caste, and also removing the Upper Classes from Officer Rank.
3. Add new divisions and responsibilities for the Army. The People's Army will no longer just sit in the barracks and shoot people on command but rather be involved in Infrastructure building, Relief and Restoration operations, and most importantly to de-politicise the Police Forces as well as to train the new Police recruits.
4. Increase the size of the Army and recruit from the mass of unemployed of the country to start these activities that include more soldiers it the Engineering corps and Disaster Relief corps.
5. Military budgets increase and new impetus on local ordinance manufacture and delivery to secure Ammunition and Supply Chains.
6. Immediate withdrawal of the Military from Civilian Policing operations and an end to the use of AFSPA. The Indian Army will NOT fire on Indian Civilians!

Agriculture and Food Security

1. Immediate Collectivisation of Agriculture and the creation of Farming Co-ops. The Revolutionary Party cadre will be essential in administering these co-ops.
2. All arable land will be brought under cultivation of these Co-Ops
3. All Rural peasantry will be employees of these Co-Ops and will have a State Salary with Bonuses that will be given on achievement of the yearly targets of food production.
4. The creation of a Rural Peasant Army that will be trained for engineering works to bring Water, Electricity and Housing to the Rural Populations. One House for every family and dignity for all.
5. No one will be allowed to Own the Land or Purchase land. Land will be allocated equally to every farmer along with Housing and all facilities. Land is the Collective property of the Working Class of India.
6. All Agricultural produce will be bought by the Govt and the Five year plans will mandate an immediate end to Starvation and Malnourishment. Any surplus agricultural produce beyond this can be traded with external countries.
7. Subsequent agricultural plans will also include the cultivation and mass expansion of cash crops that will supplement National Income.

Urban Development

1. Works to begin at every Coastal area to set up desalination plants to ensure 24x7 water supply to all citizens living in Urban clusters.
2. Creation of an Urban Development Works department so that Municipalities carry out works without outsourcing to Private entities. All Urban development works to be carried out by this body only. 
3. Modernise Urban Transport infrastructure in all cities to ensure last mile connectivity for Freight and Passenger traffic. Port and Supply Chain facilities to be upgraded to international quality.
4. Immediate Urban housing projects to ensure that all Urban City Dwellers with proof of address to be given Housing. No more living in Slums, Everyone to live a life of dignity. 
5. Clean cities and Urban Dwellings to be made a fundamental right. No more living in filth and garbage ever again. 
6. Ensure that employment centers are well spread out in the city and not aggregated in one area. Offices and industries to be made closer to areas of living and vice versa.

Revenue and Economics

1. Immediate Collection of all taxes forgone by Industries and Corporations with retrospective effect. Those who do not comply or cannot comply will be nationalised. Private owners' assets to be seized for this if necessary.
2. Progressive Taxation to be applied to all citizens. Anyone earning more than 3-4 lakhs a month to be taxed at 90%. Anyone earning upto 1 lakh a month to pay 5% tax. 
3. Rural income will be taxed like Industrial worker tax.
4. Indirect taxation to be the mainstay of National Income generation much like the single tax regime. 
5. Nationalise all transportation, energy creation and supply, infrastructure building industries. National Security will not be in Private hands.
6. Abolishment of the Stock Market.
7. Institution of Labour reforms to Guarantee a Job for every Indian and minimum wages.

Foreign Policy

1. Formation of a combined trading block that includes all of South Asia, China and Russia.
2. Renegotiate better trade terms with the WTO.
3. Ensure security from American Imperialist wars with the creation of a Warsaw Pact like alliance against America and the West.
4. Renew ties with Iran and the Middle East to ensure energy security.
5. Promote Socialism and Communist party vanguards throughout the South Asian region to ensure stability of rule.

Domestic Policy and Law

1. Constitutional amendments to abolish the first past the post system and opt for Representative democracy of States. State Councils to further ensure representative systems for all marginalised sections to ensure no majoritarian rule.
2. No member of the Bourgeoisie, Religious Groups, or the Military will be allowed to hold political office.
3. No member with a criminal record will be allowed to hold any political office.
4. All members of the Judiciary to be chosen by Judicial College and a Revolutionary People's Law Board. Both are constitutional bodies and not connected with Govt.
5. The Communist Party itself will not be the Revolutionary Govt and no member of the Communist Party can be part of the Govt unless after resignation. Govt is for the People not for Parties.
6. All religious and right wing organisations based on Ideology or Religion to be banned and all their members to be treated as Counter-Revolutionaries. Members with a criminal record will be imprisoned to death. Members without a criminal record to serve in Labour Camps.
7. Religion will be prohibited from Govt and Public space. A new uniform civil code that is secular - Anti-Religion and Atheistic - will be instituted. All religious laws to be immediately terminated and all contracts done under erstwhile religious laws to be diluted.
8.  Places of worship will not be allowed to collect donations. Their upkeep will be supervised by the state, if deemed an important monument.
9. Caste discrimination to be punishable with Labour Camp terms. 
10. Constitutional Amendments to make Employment, Health, Nutrition, Housing and a Right to a life of dignity to be made a fundamental right.
11. Mandatory Unionisation of every member of the Working Class.

Social Changes

1. Abolishing all identity and community specific housing to ensure that all Indians mix, live, eat and die together. 
2. Reinvigorate the Public broadcasting space to ensure that Public broadcasting takes precedence over Private broadcasts. Agenda based media dissemination to end.
3. Education to be made a fundamental right to the highest level possible. All educational infrastructure to be upgraded to soak up every single student.
4. Arts and Culture to be realigned to further the goals of the Revolution and not to pander to Capitalist alienation.
5. Secularise society by the creation of a ministry of Rationalism. This ministry will be tasked with spreading Atheism, destroying old feudal orders, and removing reactionary sentiment from public consciousness.