|
Tensions along the
Indo-Pak border and the Line of Control in Kashmir have reached the peak since
the times of 1971 war between the two countries. Both have moved combat forces
to the frontlines, deployed missiles (probably ready with nuclear war heads) at
strategic locations and geared up all their resources to meet the eventuality of
a full-fledged war. People living on both sides of the dangerous borderline have
been evacuated, crops allowed to wilt, houses stand abandoned and the land has
been lined with mines. Indian government is telling the world that India stands
united in this hour of shock and rage that has erupted in the wake of "terrorist
attack on the temple of Indian democracy" and that it is ready to settle scores
with Pakistan for once and all. The Indian Prime Minister AB Vajpayee threatened
that no weapon would be spared in the war against Pakistan. He meant that India
was ready for a nuclear war. That to stop Pakistan from indulging in,
"cross-border terrorism" India was ready to risk any adventure. World was told
that attack on the Indian Parliament was an attack right at the heart of India.
The Indian leaders blamed the whole of freedom struggle in Kashmir as terrorism
and declared that Kashmir was "an integral part of India constitutionally and
legally."
The Saffron Brigade
allied with the BJP is more brazen. It openly called for the "destruction of
Pakistan", "wresting back of the Kashmir territory illegally occupied by it" and
asking the Muslims either to embrace Hinduism or leave the country for their own
good.
The bellicosity and
jingoism of the BJP led govt. and the Saffron Brigade could not have been more
threatening. Apart from the usual fascistic communal rhetoric of Hindutva forces
the latest addition of "any weapon can be used" has brought asunder the veil of
civility and moderateness of the ‘poet Prime Minister’. All the parliamentary
opposition forces except the ‘left’ have declared that they stand by the Prime
Minister in the hour of this national crisis and war. The ruling classes and
their parties have shown that when it comes to defend the Indian reactionary
state vis-a-vis its neighbours, they are one even if it means to launch a
nuclear war.
The Prime Minister
has lied to the world that India stands united in this hour of crisis. It does
not. There are numerous forces who are opposed to the viewpoint of the
reactionary Indian leaders. Foremost among them are the revolutionary communists
who champion the cause of the proletariat, the working masses, the peasants, the
petty bourgeois, the nationalities and other oppressed sections and minorities.
The Prime Minister lies because legions of democrats, bourgeois intellectuals,
the left intellectuals, the peace lovers and numerous others have not only
dissociated themselves from the war moves of the rulers but are also raising
their voice against it. It is a white lie because people do not want war, much
less the nuclear war, because they do not think that the attack on parliament is
really some attack on a temple, some sanctum sanctorum. The people have
long been witnessing that the Parliament, and the "honoured" men running it,
have been instrument where the game of the great sellout to WTO, IMF and WB was
played; that it has enacted laws which has given the employers the right to hire
and fire the workers and trampled over the trade union rights of the people;
that it is imstitution which has been making draconian laws like TADA/POTO; that
it has sold out one after the other public sector undertaking and threatened the
livlihood of thousands of people; that it is the meeting place of those who
indulge in corruption, graft, intrigue and hateful political opportunism, that
it has failed to fulfil the aspirations of the people and is worthless as an
institution as far as the defence of the rights and well-being of the people are
concerned. The Prime Minister has lied because there is no widespread
indignation among the people for the December 13 attack on the Parliament. They
are more concerned with the growing hardships of day-to-day life. The
"indignation’, "shock" and "seriousness of the crime" are the words concocted by
the rulers to describe the event of December 13. Even they know that they are
blowing the whole thing out of praportions and are falsefully trying to justify
their aggressivness and bellicosity towards Pakistan.
The people only
wondered but they didn’t feel hurt or injured. There is no question of
indignation or shock at all. Barring the Saffron Brigade, the rulers,
particularly those who belong to the B.J.P., some paid up scribes and vested
interests are for war. There must be some reasons behind this drummed up
indignation and war jingoism.
As far as war is
concerned almost same is the situation among the majority of the people in
Pakistan. They too don’t want war. Even the rulers there, do not want it for the
present. Every statement of the Pakistani rulers clearly reflects that they are
being pushed to the brink by the Indian bullies. Already under intense pressure
from the US and discredited among their own people the rulers there are more
humiliated that at any time since the creation of the state. in 1947. Even the
loss of East Pakistan (Bangladesh) in 1971 was not that humiliating. But if the
war is forced on them by the Indian side right at this time the quite opposite
may become true. The ferocity of a humiliated people may create such a situation
that may prove difficult to control, pushing the whole of the sub-continent into
unforeseen upheavals.
The bone of
contention is Kashmir. The ‘paradise land’ has been turned into a hell by the
rivalry of its powerful neighbours both of whom are reluctant to see an
independent Kashmir. They have used every means to control it and bled it white
making its democratic and peace loving people of different nationalities,
religions and regions stand apart after falling victims to the Hindu and Muslim
communalist forces. It all started when immediately after 1947 when
India launched its war horse into princely states in the rest of India while
Pakistan launched its aggression on Kashmir for the purpose of wresting it.
Having secured north eastern, southern and western parts of present day Indian
State into a single entity by force India launched its own military campaign in
Kashmir to stop the advancement of Pakistani armed intruders. Eversince, the
land is occupied by the armed forces of both the countries against the will of
the people of Kashmir. A division in the minds of people belonging to various
religious and nationality groups has been consciously built up since then by the
vested interests on both sides. Erstwhile Jan Sangh and RSS of India and
Jamiat-e-Islami of Pakistan triggered Hindu communalist frenzy in the Jammu
region and Muslim orthodox forces in the Srinagar valley respectively. The two
nation theory based on religion and pursued by the bourgeois lesders of India
and Pakistan has played havoc with the multi-religious society of Kashmir which
had been living in harmony for hundreds of years since the middle ages.
Both the countries
violated the UN resolution for a plebiscite in Kashmir. Both refused to pull out
their armed forces from Kashmir the countries blatantly. A defacto division of
Kashmir between the two was butressed by the then super power rivalry between
the US and the Soviet Union. Their support made these reactionaries bold in
denying the Kashmiri people the right to decide about their own fate. Much water
has flowed down under the bridges since then.
With the dismantling
of Soviet empire and the US and India coming closer the situation went a
fundamental change forcing Pakistan to a disadvantageous position. Not only the
US and Britain changed their position regarding the support of Pakistan, even
the UN Secretary General and the Security Council has backed out from the UN
resolution calling for a referendum in Kashmir. In the present crisis the UN has
taken the position that both the countries should solve the matter "bilaterally"
This means added problem for the Pakistani administration which has always
sought to bring in the world powers as guarantors in any compromise with India
on Kashmir. But this "bilateral" is quite ambiguous and an indication that
Pakistan will have to accept much of the Indian demands that also fit into the
demands of the big powers, especially the US imperialists, in the wake of
September 11 terrorist attacks on the WTC and Pentagon. The US pressures on
Pakistan in the present Indo-Pak war build up has to be seen in the overall
context of the US war in Afghanistan and the changed international situation
where the US is calling the shots.
Pakistani military
dictator Musharraf, who had put the Pakistani army and guerrillas fighting in
Kashmir to an embarrasing situation during the Kargil conflict in 1999 and later
captured the power through a "counter-coup", had to follow the US dictates on
Afghanistan at gunpoint after the US decided to attack it. Eversince he has been
caught in a very precarious situation at home. He had to work against the very
same fundamentalist forces the Pakistani state had so enthusiastically nurtured.
Now with the dangerous Indian threat looming over its head, it has again been
pressurised by the US and Britain to crack-down over the fundamentalist as well
as Kashmiri militant groups, which it had thought of using in some bargain with
India. Had the US and Britain not pressurised Musharraf, the Indian threat would
have been carried out by now and a full fledged war would have ensued. Musharraf,
though not willing to fight a war with India at this juncture due to his
weakened position in the Army, would have answered India appropriately as he is
left with no other choice. But the US stepped in and asked India to recognise
the role Musharraf who was playing in the US’s "global war against terrorism"
and not to launch a war at such a critical juncture. A war between India and
Pakistan, according to the US, will not only hamper the "international
coalition’s war against terrorism but will also force Pakistan to withdraw its
army from the Afghan border which is working as a great check to prevent the
escape of fleeing Taliban and Al Qaeda men into Pakistan. Moreover, the US said
that it had its ground forces and aircraft at various military locations in
Pakistan and they would be endangered. The sounding to India was strong and it
relented.
But the Indian rulers
problem stood as it were. The UP elections were round the corner and the
military build up had more to do with the UP elections than with the Dec. 13
attack on the Parliament. So the BJP leadership wanted some concrete actions and
results from the Pakistani side to show to the voters that the Atal led govt.
has done something creditable for the country. The war rhetoric was again pushed
up after some days. Meanwhile the US decided to extend its hunt for Osama to the
Pakistani territory. So, to minimise the possibility of Pakistani fundamentalist
groups attacking the US forces during hunt operations within Pakistan the US too
pressed hard on Musharraf to tight his noose around these forces and show more
"concrete results" to India. It is no wonder that the decision to hunt for Osama
and repeating the Indian demand for showing of more "concrete results" have come
from the US at the same time. So under US pressure, Pakistan banned
Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and some other organisations. Had this
pressure not been there he was ready to confront Indian military adventure by
all means. Musharraf finds himself in a tight corner. He is being forced to
further crack his whip over the militant groups to escape the whip of the US.
Pakistan’s Kashmir
policy is facing a serious set back when a Military General is the head of the
state, and that too a person who was known for his hawkishness. His cringing
before the US that "how far the US will go to support India in equating freedom
struggle with terrorism" has fallen on deaf ears. Practically, the US is
dictating almost all the policy matters of Pakistan in the field of home,
foreign and defence. Many a time Musharraf is seen eating his own words
uneasily. Even the US spokesmen have been announcing what Musharraf will say in
his coming address. The recent such example is that of the address to nation
which Musharraf is to make on Friday, Jan 11, 2002. The US State spokesmen have
said that Musharraf will make a major statement on that day that will change the
whole face of Indo-Pak relations and the question of Kashmir would "acquire a
totally new perspective". The master is at his game. Musharraf has been forced
to speak the words dictated, if not written, by the US masters.
The independence
struggle of the Kashmiri people is in for a major shock at the hands of local
and imperialist reactionaries. Fifty five years old subjugation of Kashmir is
not going to end in anyway. The chains will be further tightened. Only the
Pakistani designs have suffered a great deal while the Indian expansionist are
going to gain more as oppressors and closest allies of the imperialists in the
region. Tony Blair, Israeli foreign ministers Perez, US Secretary of State
Powell and a stream of other diplomats from US and Britain have already visited
India or are coming in an unbroken chain. India has been mooted as a permanent
candidate for the UN Security Council seat. Perez advised India to join NATO.
The new imperialist offensive in the region has already taken over Pakistan
after Afghanistan and Bush’s policy of projecting and strengthening India as a
counter balance to China is also being implemented at the same time. All this
bodes ill for the people of the region as well as all the small countries
neighbouring India. A new US-Israel-India nexus is being created to crush all
anti-imperialist, revolutionary and liberation struggles in the name of
combating "terrorism".
Musharraf’s plea for
differentiating terrorism from liberation struggles has been scornfull rejected
by US, Britain and India in one voice. Indian expansionist monster is fast
emerging on the horizon. Pakistan’s pseudo support for the liberation struggle
in Kashmir is heading towards an unceremonious end. Indian "victory" in this
Indo-Pak power game would further criminalise the body politic in India and will
fan national chauvinism and communalism in the country.
It is the utmost
important duty of the proletariat to vigorously fight against the national
chauvinism and must strive every nerve to counter the propaganda of ruling
classes of the both the countries and bring the people into solidarity with the
struggle of Kashmiries. Kashmir belongs to the Kashmiries and neither India nor
Pakistan, much less the US and Britain has any right whatsoever in deciding the
future of Kashmir.
The vanguard of the
revolution should make vast masses of India realise that they can not be
liberated from the oppression of the three mountains, as long as oppressd
nationalities are also not free from clutches of aIndian rulers. While upholding
the Kashmiri people’s right to form an independent state, we must see into the
manouverings, conspiracies and crimes of the Indian rulers against the peace
loving people of Kashmir. We must oppose every effort of the rulers which seeks
to consolidate its hold over the Kashmiri people and must remember what the
British rulers have been doing for 200 years with the Indian people. Today same
is being repeated by the Indian rulers towards the people of Kashmir. The war
effort is another cruel game of our rulers to expand their evil empire and
consolidate their nefarious hold over ther sub-continent with the help of most
ruthless, criminal and reactionary state of America. It portends danger for all
of us.
Let us oppose every
effort of the Indian rulers to impose their will over other countries through
war.
Let us demand that
the Indian armed forces be pulled back from the international broder.
Let us demand that
India withdraw its armed forces from Kashmir and end its forcible occupation.
Let us demand that
there be no interference by our rulers in the internal affairs of other
countries of the region.
Let us oppose every
effort of the US and British imperialists to impose their will over any country
and peoples of the region.
|
