Election Commission of India has announced the election schedule for the five Assemblies of Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Puducherry. Normally, this would be a routine exercise. But the extraordinary backdrop makes it unprecedented. The announcement was made when the two houses of Parliament are going to discuss the impeachment motion against the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar. Perhaps, for the first time, an impeachment motion against the incumbent CEC is being discussed by the Parliament. The development underlines a breakdown of the trust for the independent constitutional body which is tasked with ensuring free and fair election based on the cardinal principle of a level playing field.

This casts a shadow on the universal acceptance of the outcome. Starting with the process of Special Intensive Revision of the Electoral Rolls in Bihar, tensions had been brewing. But now, with the wider exercise spanning twelve more states including those which are going to polls, the trust deficit has assumed grave intensity. The attempt by the ECI to inject the question of citizenship and its determination as a component for drawing up the final rolls, has subjected the process not only to subjectivism, but also partisanship. The squeezed timeline to accommodate such a major exercise has created a condition where even after the finalisation of the final Electoral Rolls for assembly elections to West Bengal, the fate of 60 lakh voters hangs in the balance, being classified as ‘under adjudication’. This is a consequence of introducing a hitherto unknown criterion of ‘logical discrepancy’. But potent implications of the possibility of en masse deletion have assumed distinct economic and identity dimension, particularly the deletion of those belonging to minority communities. Such a consequence with some certitude implies the role of the ECI to be favouring, if not at the behest of, the BJP. Therefore, it is widely perceived that the ECI has abdicated the responsibility to act as a neutral umpire, echoing the Hindutva line of the union government and its Home Minister.

Such subversion of the independent constitutional entity is the crux of the neo-fascism features that the present corporate communal nexus which governs India. In the recent past, a similar impeachment motion was debated in the Lok Sabha on the Speaker. Regardless of the outcome, it once again highlighted that custodian of the independence of the legislature is deeply suspect. This underpins the growing threat of ‘electoral authoritarianism’. The proceedings in the Parliament were marked by the tearing hurry with which some severe anti-people and more specifically anti-worker and anti-peasant laws have been either enacted or are underway. As detailed out in various articles published in People’s Democracy, such a development is neither surprising, nor can it be wished off. The Labour Codes snatch away significant rights achieved through struggles over the years - unionisation, right to bargain, hours of workday and so on - largely to benefit the corporate ownership.

Next in the line was the dismantling of the demand driven statutory framework for rural employment empowerment in the form of MGNREGA. With its replacement through VB-GRAMG Act, the demand driven nature of rural employment for the poor is being replaced by a central scheme which faces the challenge of financial inadequacy with 40 per cent of the funding to come from the cash-strapped state governments. Add to this the privatisation of distribution of power and the complete removal of subsidies for both the vulnerable sections of the individual consumer and the agricultural sector. The certainty of ensuring increased revenue from these sections is further consolidated through the introduction of pre-paid smart meters, adding to the cost shelled out by consumers. The list of such out and out anti-people legislations without a thorough due diligence in Parliament is long. All these are taking place at a time when the country is going through a process of deep economic slowdown and disproportionate levels of unemployment and under-employment. The situation made it very clear that such a threat to the livelihood of the working people could only be met by uniting the broadest sections of the working people and to collectively articulate their anguish – the Jan Aakrosh.

It is in this background that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) decided to organise the Jan Aakrosh Jatha in the north Indian states, which will culminate in a massive assembly of distressed and angry working people. However, along with these domestic policy questions, the Indo-US Trade Deal was virtually unilaterally thrust upon India with an unconcealed capitulation by the Modi government. Obviously, the framework of this trade deal will severely undermine livelihoods, particularly with the first time opening up of the agricultural sector.

This adverse development has been subsequently accompanied and accentuated by India’s abject surrender to US pressure to give up the purchase of discounted oil and gas from Russia and opt for much higher priced US oil. But even before that debate about the fallout could be taken forward, another disastrous aspect of India’s pro-US and pro-Israel foreign policy has come to stare us in our face.

With Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Israel and completely giving up the semblance of an independent foreign policy and strategic autonomy and support for the freedom of the Palestinian people, a long-term friend and strategic partner, Iran was attacked by Israel and US. For the last fortnight, it has become abundantly clear that the outcome of that aggression has not been able to achieve the objective with which this illegal and unjust war was initiated. Iran’s resistance which has ensured growing support and particularly isolated the US-Israel axis, is very much on display. India’s inclination to support US-Israel is proving to be an obstacle in having a free flow of fuel, particularly LPG and LNG. This has added further burden on the life and livelihood of our people.

It is these issues which makes the process of articulation of Jan Aakrosh all the more vital. This is the crux of more intensive and more widespread mobilisation of people on the ground, who are affected by these processes which has been embarked upon by the Modi government. In the ensuing assembly elections, the question of strengthening the position of the Left is directly related to the collective decibel level of the Jan Aakrosh. Therefore, come March 24, and a louder outburst of the aakrosh! Forward to broader unity and mightier struggles!