The CPM seems to have found a replacement for the 'world war'-era term fascism: Neo-fascist. But some serious ideological confusion has been created because the CPM Draft Political Resolution, adopted at the Central Committee Meeting held in Kolkota in January, stops short of calling the BJP government neo-fascist. The CPM political resolutions had unmistakably called the BJP regime fascist. So this 'not yet neo-fascist' line came as a shock.

Here's what the 2022 resolution says: "The BJP is no ordinary bourgeois party as the fascistic Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh guides and dominates it. When the BJP is in power, the RSS gets access to the instruments of State power and the State machinery."

If the geometric principle of 'transitive property of equality' is applied to the CPM logic, then the BJP is clearly fascist; if the BJP is equal to the RSS and the RSS is equal to fascism, then BJP is equal to fascism.

Now, three years later, the political resolution unveils a subtle but radical shift in the way the party sees the BJP. "The push to impose a reactionary Hindutva agenda and the authoritarian drive to suppress the opposition and democracy displays neo-fascist characteristics," the 2025 resolution says.

Meaning, there are signs of the regime developing into a neo-fascist one but has still not become one. Till 2022, the BJP regime was a winged fascist, and the latest CPM resolution seems to suggest that the BJP government is still in an indeterminate pupa stage. It is as if the word neo-fascism popped up and it suddenly dawned on the CPM that it had all this while wrongfully branded Modi a fascist.

Sensing that the wording in the resolution could be interpreted to mean that the CPM has gone soft on the Modi regime, the party has come out with a 'Sandesham' style 'Vikhadana vadikalum prathikriya vaadikalum'-like obscure bombast on 'neo-fascism'.

The CPM, basically, wants to differentiate neo-fascism from the classical fascism that existed during the interwar period, the kind exemplified by Mussolini and Hitler. "The prefix 'neo' means either new or a contemporary version of an old concept," the CPM clarificatory note says.

It essentially states that original fascist forces like Hitler and Mussolini had dumped democracy the moment they captured power. Not so with the neo-fascists. "They don't abandon elections once in power, they use it to carry forward their political project. But at the same time they use authoritarian power to stifle the opposition and to achieve their ends. They work within the democratic system and gradually attempt to change the very framework of power," the note says. Fundamentally, the CPM is trying to say that fascists of the old type no longer exists.

Nonetheless, certain characteristics are common to both. Like hyper nationalism, for instance, which is based on perceived historical wrongs. Or the othering of religious or caste or tribal minorities. Also the massive support given by monopoly capitalists.

The note then says that the RSS and their Hindutva agenda are shaping neo-fascism in India. "Our party programmes say that the RSS is fascistic," the note says. "The Hindutva ideology, the neo-liberal crisis and the excessive use of powers in the service of big corporates are the initial stirrings of neo-fascism," it adds.

The note recalls that the latest draft political resolution states that the power mechanism under the BJP-RSS combine "displays neo-fascist characteristics". "However, we have not said that the Modi government is a fascistic or neo-fascistic," it says.

The note further recalls that the resolution has also stated that "eleven years of the Modi government’s rule have resulted in the consolidation of the rightwing, communal, authoritarian forces with neo-fascist characteristics". "By 'characteristics' we mean tendencies or symptoms. It (the Modi dispensation) has not yet become a fascist government. We were only warning that if the BJP-RSS combine was not stopped in its tracks, the excessive powers in the hands of Hindutva-corporate elements could lead to neo-fascism," it says.

In short, the CPM's primary goal is not to fight a fascist regime but to prevent Modi from becoming a Hitler or Mussolini. As it stands, Modi is not a fascist.