GIST OF LIFE

Sufi Master : : : Junnaid
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One of the great Sufi Masters, Junnaid, was asked when he was dying... his chief disciple came close to him and asked, ″Master, you are leaving us. One question has always been in our minds but we could never gather courage enough to ask you. Who was your Master? This has been a great curiosity among your disciples because we have never heard you talk about your Master.″
Junnaid opened his eyes and said, ″It will be very difficult for me to answer because I have learned from almost everybody. The whole existence has been my Master. I have learned from every event that has happened in my life. And I am grateful to all that has happened, because out of all that learning I have arrived.″
Junnaid said, ″Just to satisfy your curiosity I will give you three instances. One: I was very thirsty and I was going towards the river carrying my begging bowl, the only possession I had. When I reached the river a dog rushed, jumped into the river, started drinking.
″I watched for a moment and threw away my begging bowl--because it is useless. A dog can do without it. I also jumped into the river, drank as much water as I wanted. My whole body was cool because I had jumped into the river. I sat in the river for a few moments, thanked the dog, touched his feet with deep reverence because he had taught me a lesson.
″I had dropped everything, all possessions, but there was a certain clinging to my begging bowl. It was a beautiful bowl, very beautifully carved, and I was always aware that somebody might steal it. Even in the night I used to put it under my head as a pillow so nobody could snatch it away. That was my last clinging--the dog helped. It was so clear: if a dog can manage without a begging bowl... I am a man, why can′t I manage? That dog was one of my Masters.
″Secondly,″ he said, ″I lost my way in a forest and by the time I reached the nearest village that I could find, it was midnight. Everybody was fast asleep. I wandered all over the town to see if I could find somebody awake to give me shelter for the night, until finally I found one man. I asked him, ′It seems only two persons are awake in the town, you and I. Can you give me shelter for the night?′
″The man said, ′I can see from your gown that you are a Sufi monk....′″
The word Sufi comes from suf; suf means wool, a woolen garment. The Sufis have used the woolen garment for centuries; hence they are called Sufis because of their garment. The man said, ″I can see you are a Sufi and I feel a little embarrassed to take you to my home. I am perfectly willing, but I must tell you who I am. I am a thief--would you like to be a guest of a thief?″
For a moment Junnaid hesitated. The thief said, ″Look, it is better I told you. You seem hesitant. The thief is willing but the mystic seems to be hesitant to enter into the house of a thief, as if the mystic is weaker than the thief. In fact, I should be afraid of you--you may change me, you may transform my whole life! Inviting you means danger, but I am not afraid. You are welcome. Come to my home. Eat, drink, go to sleep, and stay as long as you want, because I live alone and my earning is enough. I can manage for two persons. And it will be really beautiful to chit-chat with you of great things. But you seem to be hesitant.″
And Junnaid became aware that it was true. He asked to be forgiven. He touched the feet of the thief and he said, ″Yes, my rootedness in my own being is yet very weak. You are really a strong man and I would like to come to your home. And I would like to stay a little longer, not only for this night. I want to be stronger myself!″
The thief said, ″Come on!″ He fed the Sufi, gave him something to drink, helped him to prepare for sleep and he said, ″Now I will go. I have to do my own thing. I will come back early in the morning.″ Early in the morning the thief came back. Junnaid asked, ″Have you been successful?″
The thief said, ″No, not today, but I will see tomorrow.″
And this happened continuously, for thirty days: every night the thief went out, and every morning he came back empty-handed. But he was never sad, never frustrated--no sign of failure on his face, always happy --and he would say, ″It doesn′t matter. I tried my best. I could not find anything today again, but tomorrow I will try. And, God willing, it can happen tomorrow if it has not happened today.″
After one month Junnaid left, and for years he tried to realize the ultimate, and it was always a failure. But each time he decided to drop the whole project he remembered the thief, his smiling face and his saying ″God willing, what has not happened today may happen tomorrow.″
Junnaid said, ″I remembered the thief as one of my greatest Masters. Without him I would not be what I am.
″And third,″ he said, ″I entered into a small village. A little boy was carrying a lit candle, obviously going to the small temple of the town to put the candle there for the night.″
And Junnaid asked, ″Can you tell me from where the light comes? You have lighted the candle yourself so you must have seen. What is the source of light?″
The boy laughed and he said, ″Wait!″ And he blew out the candle in front of Junnaid. And he said, ″You have seen the light go. Can you tell me where it has gone? If you can tell me where it has gone I will tell you from where it has come, because it has gone to the same place. It has returned to the source.″
And Junnaid said, ″I had met great philosophers but nobody had made such a beautiful statement: ′It has gone to its very source.′ Everything returns to its source finally. Moreover, the child made me aware of my own ignorance. I was trying to joke with the child, but the joke was on me. He showed me that asking foolish questions--′From where has the light come?′--is not intelligent. It comes from nowhere, from nothingness--and it goes back to nowhere, to nothingness.″
Junnaid said, ″I touched the feet of the child. The child was puzzled. He said, ′Why you are touching my feet?′ And I told him, ′You are my Master--you have shown me something. You have given me a great lesson, a great insight.′
″Since that time,″ Junnaid said, ″I have been meditating on nothingness and slowly, slowly I have entered into nothingness. And now the final moment has come when the candle will go out, the light will go out. And I know where I am going--to the same source.
″I remember that child with gratefulness. I can still see him standing before me, blowing out the candle.″
No situation is without a lesson, no situation at all.
All situations are pregnant, but you have to discover; it may not be available on the surface.
You have to be watchful, you have to look at all the aspects of the situation.
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DEMONETIZATION

 

End this Unrelenting Attack on People
The withdrawal of 500 and 1000 rupee notes is unfolding as a war on the common people instead of a war on black money.The media has been focusing on the long queues of people outside banks, ATMs and post offices waiting to exchange the withdrawn notes for fresh notes up to a paltry amount of Rs 4,000 (now Rs 4,500). But this is only one feature of the problems faced by the people.
What is worse is the monetary shock leading to the loss of livelihoods and incomes for crores of workers, farmers, fishermen, small traders, shopkeepers and all those who are dependent on cash transactions.
The picture, 12 days after the prime minister’s announcement on November 8, is of an economic standstill. The rural economy has ground to a halt with incalculable consequences for agricultural production and consumption demand.
Farmers are unable to get payments for the crops they have harvested. Where rabi sowing operations have started, they have no money to pay for seeds and fertilisers. There is no money to pay agricultural workers. Vegetables brought to the markets are not being taken by traders and are left to rot. So also is the fish in the fish markets.
All the small enterprises, from brick-kilns to factories, which have to pay cash wages to workers have stopped working or are not making full payments for wages. They were allowed to withdraw only Rs 25,000 per week. This has been increased to Rs 50,000 a week but it is still insufficient in most cases as wage payments amount to Rs 2 to 3 lakhs per week.
As per the RBI directive, district and primary co-operative banks which cater to millions of farmers are not allowed to exchange notes. This has paralysed the banking operations causing hardships to farmers and the rural population. This has had a particularly adverse effect in Kerala which has a wide network of primary cooperative banks.
For the lakhs of people working in markets and running shops in both urban and rural areas, for transport workers and casual labourers, their incomes have dried up. They cannot buy rations or other essential commodities. The scale of human suffering for the working people is magnified with the inability to pay for treatment in private hospitals or buy medicines.
The informal economy which predominates in India is widely dependent on cash transactions. When 86 percent of the money circulation is withdrawn (500 and 1000 rupee notes), the brunt has fallen on the unorganised sector workers, the agricultural workers, the farmers and the urban and rural poor.
PM is only making a cruel joke of the sufferings of the people by declaring that the “Poor are sleeping well while the restless rich are searching for sleeping pills”. The demonetisation episode has glaringly exposed the reactionary class outlook of the government. The savage attack on the livelihood of the working people is termed as a temporary inconvenience. The way the whole exercise has been conducted has revealed the utter inefficiency and bungling by the government. There were no preparations to ensure adequate supply of the new currency notes. The ATMs were not calibrated for the new size of the notes. The finance minister has himself admitted that it will take weeks to recalibrate the ATMs.
The prime minister and the government are trying to portray the demonetisation of 500 and 1000 rupee notes as a big step to unearth black money. By this, they spread the fallacious idea that black money is the hoarding of huge amounts of cash in currency notes. The bulk of the black money is converted into real estate, gold, jewellery and foreign currency kept abroad. Black money exists as a parallel economy. It is generated by economic activities which are either illegal or undertaken in excess of what is legally permitted. The incomes generated from these activities are not declared to evade taxes. For instance, in the real estate sector, most of the transactions undertaken are not fully declared to evade taxes and many are benami properties. Another source of generation of black money is the under-invoicing or over-invoicing of exports and imports and much of this money is stashed abroad. Hawala transactions take place to transfer the black money and to “white-wash” it.
The government has done nothing to plug the loopholes which generate the flow of black money in the economy. It has not taken any action against the big business houses which have evaded taxes or defaulted on the loans they have taken to the tune of thousands of crores from the nationalised banks.
The claim that this is a step to fight corruption is a hollow one. As long as the nexus between big business-ruling politicians and bureaucrats is not broken, corruption will thrive. The new 2000 rupee note will only facilitate bribes being paid.
The real intention of the cancellation of the 500 and 1000 rupee notes is something else. It is meant to divert attention from the abject failure of the government to bring back the illegal money stashed abroad and the election promise to create millions of jobs. It is also intended to disarm the opposition parties in the run-up to the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab where their use of monetary resources is sought to be crippled. The chicanery of the move is brought out by the fact that despite the claim of absolute secrecy surrounding the demonetisation, in Kolkata, on the eve of the announcement, the BJP state unit deposited Rs 3 crore in 1000 and 500 rupee notes in four installments into its bank account.

Till alternative supply of currency is fully available, the use of the 500 and 1000 rupee notes are to be allowed for all transactions till December 30.

NEED TO OVER COME SOMEDAY !!!!!!!!!!!!

Capitalism as a system, operates spontaneously, drive force is to extract maximum profit, by any means, to satisfy the instincts of greed and possession.
Sound footstep of United States of Soviet Russia and subsequently of the East European Counties and other socialist countries once forced capitalism to restrain their greed from expropriation i.e. by loot and plunder to appropriation i.e. making profit by keeping alive the subject at least in the sustainable form.
Well, today capitalism asserts once again with drive of garnering huge profit through expropriation.
But, devoid of nurturing the subject exposes them to the greatest problem i.e huge productions vis-a-vis fast squeezing market strength, out of paucity of able buyers.
To come out from this impasse, the present capitalist states, that way most of the countries, are lowering their interest rates of money lending from their central banks to make their produced products cheaper in order to occupy the others market. The cruel policy of "Beggars my neighbour."
By this, at the end, only the countries having good capital strength will sustain and others become the mere appendage of the rich countries, in the form of disguise colonialism.
Today, only a minuscule number of state powers are traversing through a reverse trajectory.
At this juncture, onus lies on the populace at large, of all strata, being engaged in some form and others in some crafts, jobless youths and other sections of have-nots, small producers, farmers, owners of small land holdings and others to take cudgel in their hands vociferously in order to create a globe for all.
Let vast populace sings and murmurs "We need to overcome and we shall overcome to save our human civilization."

SECRET OF LIFE

Life is a sophisticated Chemistry?
There are 20 Amino Acids in our body which are the basic building blocks of life. Amino Acids attach to each other and form different kinds of proteins which are found in millions in our body. These proteins and certain chemicals combine to form living cells. Living cells make up tissues which form organs. A configuration of organs makes up living creatures.
And it is DNA (De-oxy-ribonucleic Acid), a complex molecule which carries genetic instructions used in the growth, development, functioning and reproduction of all known living organisms.It is the molecular blueprint which tells the Amino Acids how to line up and form proteins; at what time and in what shape.It acts as a recipe for a living thing and carries all the chemical programming which can lead to the formation of an ant, a tree or a human being.
DNA lives in the nucleus of a living cell whereas the amino acids are based outside the nucleus in the cytoplasm(the fluid outside the nucleus and inside the cell membrane). Inside the nucleus of a living cell the DNA is coiled up. It is here that special chemicals make partial copies of DNA code called RNA, much shorter in size, which are then transported outside the nucleus to the cytoplasm where these are sucked up by ribosomes which are tiny protein building machines.
The ribosome reads the RNA code, sucks relevant amino acids out of its surroundings, and then churns out proteins as per the specifications contained in the RNA code. The protein thus formed then performs a number of functions like for example formation of a new living cell. Hence DNA, the molecular blueprint creates RNA-RNA creates proteins and proteins create life. And the entire process is based in Chemistry.
DNA molecules are made up of Nucleotides which in turn comprise Nitrogenous bases,Sugar and Phosphate. The Nitrogenous bases are namely,Adenine,Thyamine,Guanine and Cytocine. Adenine always bonds with Thyamine(AT) and Guanine always locks up with Cuanine (GC) through Hydrogen atoms.
it appears that life is just a product of chemicals in a particular order i.e. Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Hydrogen and Phosphorus and nothing more?

OUT-OF-THE-BOX

TOWARDS THIRD WORLD WAR !!!!!!!!!!!!!

After World War II people around the world thought that it was last major war on Earth.
This does not look appearing now.
In 1944 major countries of world sat in New Hampshire(Bretton wood conference) to declare Dollar as a world currency backed by gold(Gold Standard).
US had reserve gold to print paper money. US started printing money and was enjoying From 1945 to 1965 everything was fine but in 1965 US had war with Vietnam and in the effect of war the US economy started to tumble.
Until 1970 US was printing more and more dollar to overcome financial crisis. This made countries to start disbelieving in dollar and ask for gold in return of dollar.US had printed more dollar than gold it had. Redeem of gold would have destroy US economy.
Therefore, US president Nixon ended gold back dollar and started printing more and more dollar to strengthen the economy.
Dollar value in international market was gradually plunging as it was only paper money not backed by gold.
Nixon took a very smart move, went to Arabs and asked to take dollar in exchange of oil. US also promised to give protection and weapons (This is called Petro-Dollar system).
This was the first seed sown for the current war.
Other OPEC members (Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar,United Arab Emirates and Venezuela) also followed Saudi Arabia exchange policy.
US economy started to emerge but other countries(China and Japan etc) had to make export oriented policies to get dollar to purchase oil.US economy is like a vehicle which can not run without oil.
In 1999 enemy of Dollar had come into the picture "Euro".
In 2000 Iraqi president(pro Russia-China) Saddam Hussain decided to sell oil in Euro. This assured his death warrant . US economy(dollar) might derail if Iraq and other OPEC members follow it.
Therefore in 2003 Bush invaded Iraq on the pretext of chemical weapons to save the dollar and destroy the entire country. After Saddam , Iraq again started selling oil in dollar.
Libya's Gaddafi declared using gold Dinar in exchange for oil in 2010. He also tried to form an African union and was planning to launch a satellite which was going to serve African nations. Gaddafi's step was against US and European nations who have been sucking the entire Africa continent for years. So US and EU invaded Libya and killed Gaddafi.
Syria moved away from the dollar in 06 and Iran in 08.
Now US has to keep Russia and China away from natural resources(oil and natural gas) and has to compete Euro/Yuan/Rubel as well.
Today the US-backed wars in Ukraine and in Syria are but two fronts in the same strategic war to cripple Russia and China and to rupture any Eurasian counter-pole. Natural gas has become the favored “clean energy” source for the 21st Century and the EU is the world’s largest growth market for gas, a major reason US wants to break the Russia-EU supply dependency to weaken Russia and keep control over the EU via loyal proxies like Qatar.
The world’s largest known natural gas reservoir sits in the middle of the Persian Gulf straddling part in the territorial waters of Qatar and part in Iran.
China signed an agreement with Iran to develop gas pipeline infrastructure to bring the gas to China.
In July 2011, the governments of Syria, Iran and Iraq signed a historic gas pipeline energy agreement and this triggered US-Saudi-Qatari war to remove Syrian president Assad.
This pipeline would run from the Persian Gulf(in Iran), to Damascus in Syria via Iraq territory. The agreement would make Syria the center of assembly and production in conjunction with the reserves of Lebanon.
This is a geopolitically strategic space that geographically opens for the first time, extending from Iran to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Shortly after signing with Iran and Iraq, on August 16, 2011, Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian Ministry of Oil announced the discovery of a gas well in the Area of Qarah in the Central Region of Syria near Homs.
Russia, with Assad in power, would be a major investor or operator of the new gas fields in Syria.
Iran ultimately plans to extend the pipeline from Damascus(Syria) to Lebanon’s Mediterranean port where it would be delivered to the huge EU market.
Syria would buy Iranian gas along with a current Iraqi agreement to buy Iranian gas from Iran’s part of South Pars field.
Qatar, today the world’s largest exporter of LNG, largely to Asia, wants the same EU market that Iran and Syria eye.
For that, they would build pipelines to the Mediterranean. Here is where getting rid of the pro Russian-Iranian-Chinese Assad is essential.
In 2009 Qatar approached Bashar al-Assad to propose construction of a gas pipeline from Qatar’s north Field through Syria on to Turkey and to the EU.
Assad refused, citing Syria’s long friendly relations with Russia.
That refusal combined with the Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline agreement in 2011 ignited the full-scale Saudi and Qatari along with US assault on Syria and cause of rise of ISIS.
ISIS is now war army of US+Israel+Saudi Arabia+Qatar and many other countries. US announced attack on ISIS but wanted to capture Syria. Now in counter attack Syrian president called his alliance Russia and China.
Now world is on the verge of polarization, Russia+China+Iran+Syria+Iraq... and US+Israel+Saudi Arabia+Qatar+UK...
US is trying to rapture EU economy to down euro using IMF by weaken its member countries economies. Greece is one of the recent victim (Spain, Italy, Portugal are in queue).
Saudi Arabia is manipulating oil price to weaken Iran indirectly. Russia. China is in currency war with US. China did de-value its currency to compete with dollar(China market crash in Aug-Sept).
France voted against Israel for Palestine recognition as a State in UN in Sept-Oct 2015, and hurt Israel by looking for 2 states solution theory.
France had to pay for this by the recent attacks
China is capturing African countries and making lot of investments. Mali has been recently attacked because its President went to China's door to ask help and get rid of US occupied gold mines.

INDIA'S WORKERS STRIKE, 2ND SEPT.2015

The General Strike called by the ten largest central trade unions CTU’s on Tuesday, September 2 was a tumultuous success. The trade union and communist leaders who had anticipated a maximum of one hundred million workers participating in the strike were flabbergasted at the sight of more than 150 million coming out on a total one-day general strike that paralyzed India
india-general-strikeCPI General secretary S Sudhakar Reddy said, “Great success I should say. [The response] was more than expected. It is one of the biggest actions of working class and manifestation of their unity against anti-labour policies of Government". The response of the biggest left party, the CPI (M), was a bit muted. “The strike was 'successful' despite Centre trying to 'dissuade' workers from proceeding with the agitation at the eleventh minute. Apart from dissuading RSS-affiliated Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, they could not succeed in dissuading any other CTU from proceeding with the strike”, the party said in a statement. Union leaders claimed that the strike had affected the functioning of essential services like banking, transport and supply of power, gas and oil. The CP-affiliated AITUC (All India Trade Union Congress) secretary Gurudas Dasgupta termed the mobilisation as “magnificent”.
india-general-strike2All those ex-lefts, liberal analysts and the so-called ‘socialists’ and ‘communists’—those merchants of doom and gloom — have been refuted not just by the massive turnout of the workers but by the intensity of the strike. Their analysis and dismissive cynicism towards the role of the Indian proletariat has been proved terribly wrong and absurd. A wave of enthusiasm and courage swept across India on this fateful Tuesday. Even the most right-wing bourgeois television channels and newspapers had to admit the thumping success of this day of action by the Indian working class and the youth. In reality this general strike stunned the anchors of the corporate media and the analysts of the ‘left' who had virtually written off the Indian proletariat as a force to reckon with.
India’s most prominent liberal paper, The Hindu, reported: “Normal life was affected in various parts of the country, including West Bengal, Tripura, Kerala and Karnataka, as 10 CTUs today went on day-long nationwide strike to protest against changes in labour laws and privatisation of PSUs. The strike affected transport, banking operations and other services in various parts of the country".
india-general-strike3The media house that is most representative of the liberal Indian bourgeois, NDTV, reported: “About 15 crore workers are on a nationwide strike and essential services like banking and public transport have been hit in many places… In Kolkata, women activists from the Left were seen being dragged by the police. Banks, shops, and many schools are closed and all public transport is off roads. The bandh [closure] has also impacted southern states. Around 3,500 government-run buses are not running in Hyderabad [Deccan] and public transport has also been hit in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. Schools and colleges are closed in Bengaluru. Ten major trade unions have called 'Bharat bandh' over the government's pro-business initiatives, after talks with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley broke down. Many banks have shut their doors for the day all over the country. Long lines of commuters and school children were seen waiting at bus stops in many cities across the country, including national capital Delhi, while passengers were stranded at airports as taxis and rickshaws stayed off the streets.”
Such was the fear struck in the bourgeois by the strike's success that within hours after it ended, news of the strike was removed from the television news bulletins and expunged from the screens of the bourgeois newspaper websites.
Even the Western media could not conceal the huge impact of this strike. The BBC reported in the afternoon: “Workers across India are staging a day-long strike to protest at the economic policies of the government. They say the 'pro-business' policies of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government will put their jobs at risk and hurt ordinary people. The unions are demanding the government drop plans to sell off stakes in state-run companies and change labour laws. Reports say some 150 million workers — mainly in banking, manufacturing, construction and coal mining industries — belonging to 10 major unions are expected to stay away from work on Wednesday. The strike appears to have hit public transport, with long queues of commuters and school children seen at bus stops in many cities, including the capital, Delhi".
2nd Sep JmuThe unions were demanding that the government dump plans to sell off stakes in state-run companies. They are also opposed to the government's proposed labour reforms expected to diminish the influence of trade unions and make the labour market more ‘flexible’. CTU’s 12-point charter of demands also included urgent measures to contain price rises and unemployment, strict enforcement of basic labour laws, withdrawal of the proposed “anti-worker” amendments in labour laws and stopping the disinvestment and privatisation of PSUs. They also demanded universal social security cover all workers and a minimum wage of Rs 15,000 per month. Bank unions were also protesting against the government’s plan to revamp the working of the public sector banks. Several outfits representing informal sector workers also supported the shutdown.
kashmir2Marxist MP Yousaf Tarigami, member of CC of CPI(M) and elected member of Jammu and Kashmir Parliament led thousands of people on 2nd of September.However, the most important aspect of this strike was the molecular pressure that was building up amongst the workers for a long time. Not very long ago, under the previous Congress-led coalition government, there was a similar general strike with the participation of 100 million workers. When the ‘business friendly’ Hindu chauvinist demagogue Narendra Modi won a landslide victory in the elections in May last year and came to power in a BJP government with almost absolute majority in the parliament, the Indian and world corporate bosses were jubilant. The Modi regime started off with an array of ‘reforms’ to boost rates of profits for their clientele. But even with such euphoria of the Hindu right and the reactionary Indian ruling classes, these got stuck in their inception. The seething pressure from below was palpable and even Modi’s regime along with India’s bourgeois opposition parties could neither ignore nor defy it. Paradoxically there was also a mounting pressure from the corporate world on Modi and his government to bulldoze through those ‘reforms’ of cuts, austerity measures and anti-labour policies. His imperialist bosses scolded Modi for not carrying out these ‘reforms’ fast enough. Less than a week ago, The Economist, Modi’s ardent supporter, wrote in its August 29 issue, “The prime minister is a forceful communicator. But he postpones the arduous job of getting things done… Mr Modi cares more for the theatre of politics than the hard grind of passing laws or accomplishing reforms through compromise. A former cabinet minister complains that Mr Modi’s rhetoric is way ahead of his plans... Investors grumble that promises to simplify tax laws, cut corporation tax and privatise state firms have come to little.”
kashmirPerhaps after witnessing this massive general strike The Economist will understand what was actually stopping Modi and of whom he was afraid. Despite these pressures, Modi has carried out unprecedented measures to please corporate capitalism. In their first annual budget, Modi and his finance minister Arun Jaitley slashed an astronomical 25 percent in taxes on corporate incomes. In the meantime, to continue his socio-economic onslaught against the Indian masses, Modi tried to divert attention by churning up the religious sectarianism and whipped up anti-Pakistan chauvinism by his nationalist/Hindutva rhetoric. The military elite and the Islamic fundamentalists were more than happy with Modi across the Radcliff line in Pakistan. The venomous hate speeches of the various groups of the Hindutva from the RSS to VHP [Vishva Hindu Parishad] relentlessly smeared Muslims and Pakistan. This fed directly into the vicious religiosity of the monsters of Islamic fundamentalism whose social base was rapidly eroding. The military skirmishes along the LoC in Kashmir and the international Indo-Pak borders have been increasing with rising casualties, strengthening the reactionary forces on both sides of the divide.
Congress, the main opposition party in India was not only decimated in the May 2014 elections but it is difficult to see how their fortunes will recover. Most other bourgeois parties are regionally limited and are based on caste, creed, ethnic, linguistic, narrow nationalistic, communal and religious prejudices. The Communist parties got the highest seats in the 2005 elections. In the states of Bengal, Tripura and Kerala that were ruled for thirty five years by this Left Front, comprising of the two main communist parties, the CPI and the CPI (M), along with other smaller parties, they carried through policies of neoliberal economics leading to demoralisation and revulsion amongst their mass support base. The land they distributed in West Bengal in 1978 was forcibly extorted from the peasants by the same left government after the 2002 elections. The CPs not only abandoned the programme of socialist revolution a long, long time ago, but their neoliberal economic doctrines were not much different from the social democratic parties of Europe in the last decade, and other bourgeois parties ruling in different states of India, including the BJP.
This led to their disastrous defeats in the subsequent elections. In last year’s election these communist party leaders were campaigning for ‘secularism’, ‘democracy’ and Keynesian capitalist economics. While Modi demagogically called himself a ‘tea vendor’ fighting a Prince born with a golden spoon, referring to Rahul Ghandi, the leader of Congress. This rhetoric only worked because the left parties had abandoned class politics and refused to reject Indian capitalism, which has devastated the lives of India’s oppressed masses, 860 million of whom live in absolute poverty in the notorious filthy and crime-infested slums of India's cities. This led to the historic defeat of the left with the lowest-ever seats in the parliament. This was the ultimate fate of the policy of ‘parliamentary cretinism’ adopted by the CP’s leadership.
In the aftermath of the humiliating defeat in the May 2014 elections most left leaders were in a grim state of hopelessness, cynicism and demoralisation. Some called Modi’s victory the triumph of fascism. Others came up with the perspective of a prolonged period of stark reaction and rejected the possibility of a resurgence class struggle by the Indian proletariat. Some even defected to the BJP and other right-wing parties to continue their perks and privileges of being in government. However, the resounding success of this general strike has not only refuted their perspectives but has brought forward the revolutionary potential of the Indian workers and the youth for the world to see. The trade union leaders had to give way to the rising tide of workers' revolt from below. They were in a way forced to call this general strike. Their credibility and leadership was at stake if they refused to respond to the rising anger of the workers.
However, even with the success of this strike, the onslaught of neoliberal capitalism will stop nor the problems and hardships of the workers be resolved. Negotiations will be protracted and can drag on for months without any positive outcome. The aim of the ruling classes and its Modi regime will be to exhaust the workers and damage their fighting potential and moral. The politicisation of this class struggle is the burning need at this moment in time. There is ferment in the CPs but its degree and intensity is not yet clear. Although they have been decimated in the electoral field no alternative party or tradition of the working classes has emerged as yet. The conflicts in the leadership, especially the CPI (M) are now in the open. Unfortunately, these polemics are not of an ideological or political character but mainly organisational and personal accusations and criticisms. But a whole new generation of youth and activists has emerged in the political arena more than 25 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the capitalist counterrevolution in China. The older generation of the leadership and activists of the CPs were demoralised by these colossal historical events. These left leaders and intellectuals lost faith in ‘socialism’, which was in reality its caricature — Stalinism — which they naively or opportunistically followed. This was reflected in their politics of retreats, compromises and capitulations to capitalism for whole period of time. Several retreated even further from the Stalinist theory of two stages to one stage: i.e., bourgeois democracy.
However, the disastrous rule of capitalism in India is creating immense revulsion towards the system. As most parties subscribe to capitalism there seems to be an aversion amongst the masses and the youth to politics and parties in general. Yet in this turbulent period there will be accidental parties and figures emerging in this vacuum and the sharp process of a new political awakening that opens up now. Aravind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadami Party’s ascent to power in Delhi is just one example. But these will be temporary and superficial phenomenon and ultimately as the class struggle surges ahead these will vanish and the impacts of the struggle on the political consciousness of the youth and the workers will open up new avenues for the growth and development of the forces of revolutionary Marxism. However, this will be a protracted process precisely because of the weakness of the forces of Marxism that will constitute the subjective factor for a successful revolutionary transformation. It remains to be seen whether the communist parties can take the leadership of these new waves of class struggle or whether they have been doomed by their long-time compromises with capitalism in the name of democracy, nationalism and secularism. Their refusal to learn from the mistakes of the past and to adopt a revolutionary path for the overthrow of capitalism can lead to their political extinction.
But one thing is certain. This general strike signifies a turning point in the class struggle in the subcontinent. It is a fact of particular importance that this strike succeeded so triumphantly even when its own leaders did not expect such a massive participation and support for this historic landmark. Capitalism as a historically obsolete and economically redundant system has failed to develop or improve India. Rather, it has intensified the poverty, misery, disease, ignorance and deprivation amongst the peoples of India. Even the slightest respite in the plight of the masses cannot be achieved within the confines of this dreaded system. But now the processes will accelerate in this epoch of sharp turns and sudden changes which India has entered. Sooner rather than later the perspective of a revolutionary change will be put on the agenda. This strike action has glaringly exhibited the potential of the Indian proletariat to unite and fight as a class in this vast and diverse land. A socialist revolution here will not only transform and emancipate the masses in India but it will lead to the revolutionary victories throughout the Indian subcontinent, which hosts more than 40 percent of world’s poverty. In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, there cannot be separate alienated revolutions but a wave of interconnected revolutionary insurrections leading to the creation of a voluntary socialist federation or a USSR of the South Asian subcontinent. That would in reality mean the salvation of about one fourth of the human race. Its impacts on the world stage are unfathomable!