From: "aiaif" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 18:51:45 +0530 Published in Preletarian Era Vol. 35 No. 10 January 1, 2002 Organ of Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) Terrorist Attack on Parliament - Some Questions The Indian Parliament was attacked on 13 December last, shortly before noon time. This has naturally caused countrywide commotion. Amidst the din and bustle following the grave incident, rulers of both India and Pakistan have launched diplomatic moves and counter-moves and engaged in war of words. They have resorted to fresh military build-up along the Indo-Pak border and the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir. Frequent skirmishes and heavy artillery shelling along the borders go on. In order to destroy the amity between the two peoples, the Indian and Pakistani rulers are trying to whip up war psychosis. Some strange features raise questions The developments have had wide coverage in the media and we need not go into their details. But the situation, grave as it is, cannot but raise some important questions. Nearly one and a half month back, home minister Advani expressed apprehension about a possible terrorist attack on Parliament and that was reported in the media. Despite such premonition, the central government did not adopt adequate preventive measures against such an occurrence. We observed a similar situation during the Kargil clash two years back. At that time, it was revealed that Pak infiltration had been going on for a considerable length of time and the situation had come to a pass before the Indian government grew wise about it. Leaving aside the other intelligence organizations, what had the military intelligence been doing about that? We had raised and analyzed such points then. What sort of criminal negligence on the part of the government does this reflect ? Is the country safe under such rule ? The present incident shows some strange features. It has come out in the media that the terrorists attacking Parliament came in a white Ambassador car that had a red beacon to make it resemble a VVIP vehicle and a union home ministry sticker, and were dressed in army and Black Cat commando uniforms. Such camouflage is a common ruse employed in such attacks and the terrorists had adopted similar tactics during the recent attack on the Kashmir Assembly. How is it that a similar thing has been allowed to recur, this time in the heart of the capital? It has been reported that the guards at Parliament gate did not have even metal detectors with them. If this be true, then the question cannot but arise as to what sort of a security checking system was there for Parliament ? Would it be wrong to call this callous negligence? Again, subsequent photograph taken after 13 December published in newspapers shows a stringent security cordon of armed guards at the Parliament gate reserved for ministers. Why was not such strict security system enforced earlier ? All these come under the jurisdiction of the home ministry. That ministry has not answered the charges being levelled against it. Rather, the minister of state for defence Harin Pathak asserted on 16 December that there had been no security lapses ! Another point cannot but strike the people. This dastardly terrorist attack, which cannot but be condemned strongly enough, whoever might have organized it, came just at a time when the BJP-led NDA government, at the brief winter session of Parliament, was about to face a barrage of criticism by the Opposition parties on the floor on POTO, on corrupt defence ministry deals about coffins, military dress and other defence purchases contracted at the time of Kargil conflict. Has not the terrorist attack on Parliament provided the govern-ment with an excellent opportunity to get over extreme discomfiture and tide over a tight situation. So, there is the necessity for a full, thorough enquiry into the attack on Parliament to reveal the whole truth before the people, and to bring to book the culprits. Democratic norms demand that the government cannot avoid this commitment to the people. No lapse in this task is permissible. It may be recalled that after the 11 September terrorist strikes on the USA, the US rulers at once asserted that the attacks were the handiwork of Osama bin Laden, sheltered by the Taliban in Afghanistan, through his Al Quaeda terrorist network. They said they had the requisite proof of this. Acting on this basis during the three months that have followed, they marshalled forces, went on a military build up, attacked Afghanistan devastating it and laying it waste and are now ruling that country through proxy by installing a puppet government. But they have not yet placed before the people of the world any credible proof of Laden's complicity ! Centring round the 13 December attack on the Indian Parliament, a somewhat similar pattern is emerging. The government was unable to prevent the attack on Parliament although it had expressed apprehension beforehand, but was ready, within just a few days, with complete "proof" of the complicity of terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Tayiaba and Jaish-e-Mahammed based in Pakistan in the incident. The people of the country do not know what evidence has been collected by the government, although the government has reportedly furnished the "proof" to governments of some foreign countries, at first to the USA and then to Britain, France and Germany. Besides, the recognized political parties of the country, too, have reportedly been provided with the "evidence" collected. First, the government says that the terrorists, killed inside Parliament precincts are all citizens of Pakistan and the terrorist organizations connected with the attack are all Pakistan-based. But to hold Pakistan responsible, the government will have to show along with this that it is the Pakistani government that planned and organized the attack. Secondly, the "proof" has been furnished to so many imperialist countries as well as to the recognized political parties. The Opposition leader Sonia Gandhi has said that there is no reason to disbelieve the evidence provided by the government. Then why such "proof" is not revealed to the public, placed before the people? It will be argued that to do so would mean divulging information to the enemy and that would go against national security interest. Does it not follow from this that the broad masses of the country have no role to play in upholding national security? Is it not the same as saying that to keep the people ignorant and in the dark is necessary for safeguarding the country's freedom and sovereignty? Can a country be conceived minus its people? Then it becomes the country of the Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis and Goenkas and not of the people. The character of the government is once more revealed through such attitude. If the central ministers argue like this from the apprehension that divulging the "proof" will mean that the Pakistani military rulers will come to know about the secret, then the question cannot but arise : are they such fools that they cannot get the information even after the USA has it? Such questions do crop up in people's mind and make them ponder. Why US did what it did after 11 September ? For some time past and particularly after the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, it is mainly the USA that has been raising worldwide the hue and cry that terrorism is the greatest danger facing mankind. The irony is that in reality, it is the USA, the champion of terrorist activity which is raising this bogey of terrorism with the object of confusing and misleading the public opinion in the USA and the world. In order to eradicate terrorism, one has to understand first what is the source of terrorism, terrorist activity and who are its protagonists. Unless these are correctly identified, one cannot fight terrorism just by talking about fighting terrorism. Who does not know that the USA is the number one terrorist state on the globe? The Taliban, Osama bin Laden himself, are US creations. Almost all the terrorist organizations of the world have had US backing. And to engage in terrorist activity and intensifying it means that it would be directed against the people's interest. Everybody remembers that after the September 11 incidents, the US administration obtained the sanction of the US Congress to launch attacks anywhere on the globe to combat "terrorism". The objective of this is that in the name of fighting terrorism, the USA would further step up its long practised terrorist activities while concealing its own terrorist character. Terrorism now-a-days has reached the stage of state terrorism. And who does not know that the USA is the chief protagonist of state terrorism too. Then why the same USA is today raising the war cry that terrorism will be destroyed ? To find the answer, one has to understand the present condition of the USA. A little examination shows that the US economy is under the grip of unprecedented crisis. Despite its military strength and political dominance, the USA is now plagued by all-out crisis. After fall of the socialist Soviet Union, the USA has been lording it over an unipolar world. But that has not lessened the crisis a bit. The globalization launched with so much fanfare at the behest of the advanced imperialist-capitalist countries to pass on more of the burden of crisis in world capitalist economy on to the developing countries and to dominate over them more, has failed to achieve its purpose. The crisis in USA and the other advanced imperialist-capitalist countries has not mitigated. The euphoria about globalization has burst like a bubble. In reality, despite globalization, all capitalist-imperialist countries without exception are suffering from extreme crisis never experienced before. These countries are in the grip of all-out intense crisis - economic, political, social, educational, moral, ethical, cultural. In this connection, it is to be noted that India, too, is an inseparable part of this crisis-ridden capitalist world. Ministers in this country have no headache about the distress in people's life. In reality, by raising the bogey of terrorism, the USA is trying to mitigate its internal crisis as far as possible, keep in tact its dominating position in the world and further consolidate its hold on the oil resource of the Middle east and Central Asia. It has in the past interfered in the internal affairs of many a country, set up puppet governments wherever it could and engaged in international brigandage at will. The USA has employed agencies like FBI and CIA in furtherance of its nefarious designs. Today, in the background of the present unprecedented all-out crisis, such wicked machinations have increased manifold. All the 8 major imperialist countries (G-8) are engaged in such heinous deeds but it is the USA that heads the pack. The present situation and Indo-US relation It is with this US imperialism, the most hated in the world, that the BJP-led Indian government has been developing not only close but intimate relationship. Just as Indian monopoly capital is trying to maximize profit operating as junior partner to international, particularly US monopoly capital from country to country under globalization, so also is the Indian government, serving Indian monopoly capital, trying more and more to take the role of junior partner to the major imperialist powers and developing closeness with them, particularly with the US imperialism. Joint Indo-US naval exercise off the western coast of India, permitting US warship not just to refuel but to halt for a few days in Indian port thus offering it wide scope for conducting intelligence activities, allowing a US helicopter to violate Indian airspace brushing aside the protest uproar it caused and allowing the USA to meddle into Kashmir affairs are all part of the policy of closeness with the US imperialism being pursued by the government in Delhi. All these go against the glorious anti-imperialist tradition of the Indian people. The USA has been posing as a great friend of India but has been instigating Pakistan against India from behind at the same time. Pak President General Musharraf has called for a joint Indo-Pak probe into the attack on Parliament in Delhi. It is noteworthy that the US leaders are saying that India has the right to defend itself! Who has given the USA the authority to proffer such advice gratis? We strongly condemn this. Again, at the same time, the USA is counselling the Indian government to have patience and to proceed with caution! The Indian government rejected the Pak offer of joint probe. But the US spokesmen and leaders too are advising India to jointly work with Pakistan. They have even offered FBI assistance for this. It is to be remembered that the FBI has an office in New Delhi and has already been carrying on its shady activities in the country. This has put India government leaders in some discomfiture. They are now somewhat non-plussed and not so decisive about what to say or do. This dependence on and submission to the USA in deciding their own policy shows what love they have for the country ! Meanwhile, the situation along the borders remains tense. Both the Indian and Pakistani governments are utilizing the situa-0tion to pacify the strong disaffection of the two peoples by diverting their attention away from the burning problems in their life. The hawks within the BJP are advocating that India should adopt a strong militant anti-Pak policy to destroy the military bases inside Pak occupied Kashmir, if necessary. But it appears that Vajpayee is not inclined to proceed that far right now. According to newspaper reports, the military chiefs also have advised the government not to embark upon such adventure. It would be wrong to presume that the government is merely following the US advice for restraint. Advice and suggestions of past and present military chiefs, too, have influenced the policy adopted by Vajpayee so far. However close the Indo-US rela-tion may be, it should be remembered that the government in Delhi is no stooge of the USA. It serves the interest of Indian ruling class which has it own class aspirations. Attack on Parliament provides golden opportunity to Vajpayee government The Indian government is, in reality, trying to take full advantage of the 13 December incident just as the USA took full advantage of the terrorist strikes on USA on 11 September. At a time when Indian capitalism too is plagued with intense, all-out crisis - economic, political, social, educational, moral, ethical, cultural, the terrorist attack on Parliament has provided a golden opportunity, so to say, to the Indian government. It is well-known that ministers and leaders of all past governments pocketed huge sums of public money through theft, fraud, bribe, manipulations, etc., from government transactions and defence purchases. But the present BJP-led central government has surpassed all past records of corruption even while the BJP vaunts its "value-based politics"! The CAG has levelled charges of corruption against the defence ministry in the defence purchase deals contracted at the time of Kargil conflict covering war materials, dress and shoes for military personnel and coffins. When the Tehelka unearthed huge corruption in the matter of defence purchases, the government was forced to remove the defence minister George Fernandez to pacify the public uproar and promised a full enquiry on a time-bound programme. The Enquiry Commission was formed. Many a month has passed since then, but nobody hears now about what the commission is doing and what happened about its time bound programme! Meanwhile, George Fernandez has been re-inducted in the ministry as the defence minister! A fine example of observance of democratic norms provided by the shameless government! It has also come to light that some weapons ordered to meet the emergency at the time of Kargil conflict were delivered long after the hostilities ceased and were of lower standard than specified. Besides, weapons which are manufactured in India and are easily procurable, were ordered on foreign suppliers at higher prices. In this way, while the military expenditure is increased by thousands of crores of rupees from budget to budget through fleecing the hungry people by ever increasing tax burden, the ministers and politicians mis-appropriate huge sums from the money collected at the cost of the people in the name of national defence and make merry ! Do they have any semblance of patriotism ? It is not enough to understand that present day capitalism is just reactionary and crisis-ridden. It is also corrupt to the bones and the corruption level is ever rising with passage of time. Even the remnants of bourgeois democratic norms and values that had been there earlier, have been dispensed with in all capitalist-imperialist countries in the context of the present day deep seated crisis and all round degeneration that has reached an abysmal depth. Moreover, it cannot be denied that the BJP's bright image that the ruling class-controlled media had built up assiduously and in an orchestrated manner by covering up even a rabid communal party like BJP with a democratic veneer in order to artificially stabilize the bourgeois parliamentary system, is evaporating fast. It is the same with the ruling parties and government leaders in all capitalist-imperialist countries. They are isolated from the people. So they all need draconian acts, repressive measures of all sorts to subdue mass discontent and keep the people cowed down. That is why the Indian government is not only trying to enact the POTO on the pretext of combating terrorism, its aim is to concentrate more and more power in the hands of police and administration. Countries like the USA and Britain have enacted various repressive measures. POTO, the BJP Government and the Opposition The BJP government is determined to anyhow enact the POTO. The real purpose of such a repressive measure is to use it against legitimate democratic mass movements, particularly those with left orientation. Although the declared aim is to curb terrorism, they are actually about to take away the people's right to organize legitimate democratic movements on the pretext of combating terrorism. People have had such bitter experience regarding the application of TADA in the recent past. This has been pointed out in the editorial columns of the Hindustan Times. Will POTO be ever used against the communal and terrorist activities being conducted by the Sangh Parivar with the BJP at its head? The real object of introducing the POTO is to divert attention from the misdeeds of the government by raising the war cry against terrorism and to gag the voice of the struggling people. The incident of 13 December has provided this opportunity to the government. The parliamentary Opposition parties, in opposing the POTO, have virtually brought the deliberations on the House floor to a standstill to show off how democratic they are, even violating the unanimously adopted parliamentary code of conduct for the purpose. In doing so, the question of the coming UP Assembly election is also in their calculation. And one of the reasons why the BJP seeks to enforce the POTO is to apply it against the Opposition parties and the Muslims in UP to turn the result of the coming poll in its favour. The parliamentary Opposition parties are opposing POTO because of this fear. Otherwise, they are not at all democratic, particularly the past history of Congress does not say no. Also, they are taking this opportunity to utilize the Muslim vote bank in their favour to the maximum through their current "democratic" posture, although the Congress is no longer organizationally strong in UP. And UP is a state which is not only the nerve centre of Hindi heartland, the UP Assembly election results will have an effect on the next Parliamentary poll and may eventually determine which party will have majority in Parliament. It is well known that all parliamentary parties in the country practise terrorism in varying degrees to weaken and even annihilate the opposing parties - those in government in order to continue in power and those in the Opposition in a bid to anyhow come to power. However, there was a significant development on 19 December. The Opposition leader Sonia Gandhi of Congress said that she was ready to accord full support to the government in fighting terrorism. She further said that the attack on the Indian Parliament was, in reality, an attack on Indian democracy and added that the Congress did not want to raise a controversy at such a juncture ; the Congress was ready to rise above politics and fully cooperate with the government in apprehending and punishing the culprits of the 13 December attack ; but if Parliament session were on, the Congress had to oppose the POTO. In reply, Vajpayee said that the message of such unity should reach the world. That is why, the winter session of Parliament was adjourned before the scheduled date. A mutually satisfactory solution indeed ! And vajpayee can rest happy because although not enacted, the POTO is already in operation through an ordinance! Taking advantage of the present opportunity, the Vajpayee government is trying to smother the people's discontent and divert their attention away from the burning problems in their life, to stifle the voices of the Opposition and the people by raising the bogey of terrorism, to whip up war psychosis in order to intoxicate the people with jingoism, chauvinism. Task of the people The question is, do the government and the Opposition parties in Parliament represent the downtrodden masses of India? The tens of millions who are suffering from starvation, lack of education, unemployment and retrenchment, those who daily face death without any medical attention, those whose legitimate movements are being crushed everyday - where are their representatives in Parliament? The question of the Congress does not arise at all in this context. Even the parties who are known as Leftists to the people have accepted globalization as a policy - they merely voice some objections in the matter of its application. They are not only not taking any initiative to build up any legitimate democratic mass movement, any effective movement against communalism and terrorism but on the contrary, are destroying the backbone of mass movements, and crushing them wherever they are in power. In order to play an effective role against terrorism, it is necessary to understand well what is the real source of terrorism and who really are the protagonists of terrorism. The main source of terrorism is the present capitalist-imperialist world order ridden with all-out crisis. This main point, this plain truth has to be understood by all. That is, the question of eradicating terrorism is linked up with the struggle to overthrow the world capitalist-imperialist system. So long as this most difficult but cardinal task is not performed, it is not possible to banish the misery and deprivation from the people's life, nor to put an end to terrorism. But the common people from country to country including India, their life beset with multitude of problems, have got somewhat used to even the unbearable misery and distress in their lives. Many suffer from hopelessness and despondency. To rectify the situation, the first step is to create an environment of democratic movement through restoration, preservation and extension of democratic norms, values and rights. And this can come about only through developing and strengthening legitimate democratic mass movements. And lastly, the task of the hour is to build up worldwide anti-imperialist movement which in its wake would give rise to militant peace movement conducive to emancipation of the people of the whole world from savage oppression, suppression and exploitation of all sorts. This is the only course of action to get rid of terrorism, to achieve emancipation. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
