This December 18 we pay our revolutionary tribute to Comrade Vinod Mishra on his 27th death anniversary. From leading the reorganisation and revival of our beloved party after the setback of the early 1970s to preparing it for the challenging phase of Sangh-BJP aggression in the 1990s, Comrade VM has left behind a glorious communist legacy. Under his leadership the party overcame the obstacles of sectarianism and dogmatism, enriched the party's Marxist understanding about Indian history and society, unleashed wide-ranging mass initiatives, developed a whole set of party policies suited for different fronts and situations, and emerged as a resilient revolutionary organisation daring to learn from mistakes and gain strength from losses.
Our early electoral successes in 1989-90 had proved shortlived and the party soon had to face a whole set of challenges - desertion of elected representatives, a certain shrinking of mass support and heightened feudal backlash. Once again under Comrade VM's leadership, the party tackled these challenges by strengthening the organisation, forging closer ties with the masses and broadening the party's united front approach in opposition politics. We need to demonstrate this basic strength and resilience of the party again in today's critical juncture.
The recent Bihar election has once again pushed us back in the zigzag way of electoral politics. The entire party and all our wellwishers across the country and in the diaspora extended their full support and the party in Bihar ran a spirited campaign. Yet in the face of the Modi government's multidimensional electoral fraud, we could not hold on to the gains we had made in 2020 Assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Our votes more or less remained the same, but our seat tally dropped from 12 to 2. The party has to draw its due lessons from this electoral setback and come back stronger.
Emboldened by its serial victories in state elections from Delhi and Haryana to Maharashtra and now Bihar, the Modi government has now intensified its fascist offensive through countrywide electoral purge in the form of SIR and strengthening of corporate control over the working class and students through new labour codes and privatised education. Attacks on federalism are also intensifying and faultlines of communal polarisation are being sharpened across the country.
As the battle lines sharpen we must summon all our strength to equip ourselves for the coming days of decisive movement. Let us expand the party and energise the entire organisation to take our movement to a new high in the new year. All for making the party organisation more dynamic, resolute and vibrant in the coming year.
