Paper Presented at the National Workshop, Ranchi, Jharkhand on 30 June 2026 by Akhilendra Pratap Singh,

Paper Presented at the National Workshop, Ranchi, Jharkhand on 30 June 2026 by Akhilendra Pratap Singh,Founding Member, All India Peoples Front

Two days ago, a colleague wrote that the All India Peoples Front (AIPF) has no future. His observation was not motivated by ill will but by a widely held assumption that, instead of a platform such as the All India Peoples Front, a united front of Left parties would be more necessary, relevant, and effective. It is commonly believed that only a political party based on a coherent ideological doctrine can successfully build a political front, whether that doctrine is liberalism, Marxism, or the ideas of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar or Mahatma Gandhi. According to this view, one must first build a party and only then create a front. Political parties are regarded as the primary units from which successful fronts emerge.

In fact, this understanding became influential in India only after Independence, particularly after the party led by Acharya Narendra Dev had to leave the Indian National Congress. Before Independence, however, the Congress itself was not founded upon a single ideology or doctrine. At different times it accommodated liberals, socialists, radicals, and even conservative tendencies. It was only at the Avadi Session of 1955 that the Congress formally resolved to reorganise itself around a defined ideological framework.

Since its inception in 2012, the All India Peoples Front has been guided by a different understanding. It proceeds from the premise that society and the political order are passing through a profound historical transition, while the system of production itself is undergoing major transformations. Political parties based primarily on the assumptions and contradictions of industrial society are therefore no longer adequate. 

The growing dominance of finance capital must be understood afresh, and a corresponding new political organisation must be built. Such an organisation should learn from the ideological traditions of the twentieth century while developing new political responses to the contradictions of the contemporary era.

This is what the All India Peoples Front describes as a multi-class, multi-ethnic people's political party. It does not accept the linear proposition that one must first build a disciplined ideological party and only thereafter construct a programme-based front of several parties. In the Indian context, several political fronts have indeed been formed by mainstream parties. However, none has been organised on the basis of equality among its constituent forces. The former United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and its present successor, the INDIA Bloc, are living examples. Even today, the Congress remains the dominant force within the INDIA Bloc, just as the Bharatiya Janata Party dominates the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

In the contemporary era, global finance capital and corporate monopolies have produced an unprecedented concentration of economic power. At the same time, new democratic challenges have emerged: growing social inequality, caste-based discrimination, erosion of political and economic sovereignty, weakening democratic institutions, pressures on federalism, communal polarisation, authoritarian tendencies, gender inequality, digital monopolies, ecological crises, and the erosion of workers' rights. None of these challenges can be adequately addressed through any single historical ideological tradition.

The real question today is therefore not one historical thinker against another. The real task is to identify the democratic challenges of our time and develop a political programme capable of confronting them comprehensively.

It is from this understanding that the All India Peoples Front advances. It is neither a temporary coalition of people belonging to different ideological traditions nor a party that makes adherence to any one historical ideology a condition for membership.

Rather, it is a radical democratic political organisation whose unity is based upon a shared democratic programme. It seeks not only to defend India's existing political democracy but also to deepen economic, social, and cultural democracy.

For the AIPF, Marx, Gandhi, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Periyar, Ram Manohar Lohia, Bhagat Singh, and other democratic traditions constitute sources of inspiration and intellectual resources. Yet none of them is regarded as the final or exclusive source of ideological authority. The identity of the organisation is defined not by allegiance to any single historical doctrine but by its democratic programme and its commitment to addressing India's contemporary challenges.

It would therefore be incorrect to describe this as an eclectic mixture of ideologies. Rather, it represents an attempt to build a new radical democratic current appropriate to the historical conditions of the twenty-first century.

The Constitution of the All India Peoples Front states that its political orientation is rooted in People's Democracy, Livelihood, and Inclusive Nationalism. Within the Marxist tradition, the concepts of People's Democracy and the Democratic Revolution have generally been understood as stages leading towards socialism. Consequently, many ask why the All India Peoples Front speaks of People's Democracy without declaring socialism as its predetermined objective.

The AIPF uses the concept of People's Democracy as a broad political principle and programme rather than within the framework of a two-stage theory of revolution.

The All India Peoples Front does not proceed from the assumption that history has only one predetermined final destination, even if that destination is socialism. History is shaped by democratic struggles, social experience, scientific and technological progress, changing historical circumstances, and the collective democratic consciousness of the people.

If, in the future, Indian society democratically concludes that the objectives of justice, equality, freedom, and human dignity require greater public ownership, cooperative ownership, democratic socialism, or socialism itself, that path should remain open. This is not a rejection of socialism. Rather, it means that socialism remains one possible democratic future, but it cannot be declared in advance as the only legitimate future.