Statement of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, 19 September 2001
In his public address on television on 14 September, Prime Minister Vajpayee chose to declare his government's "full support" to the new imperialist war being pushed by the U.S. Government in the name of fighting terrorism..
Statement of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, 19 September 2001
In his public address on television on 14 September, Prime Minister Vajpayee chose to declare his government's "full support" to the new imperialist war being pushed by the U.S. Government in the name of fighting terrorism..
The Communist Ghadar Party unreservedly condemns the plan of the Vajpayee government to hitch India to the war-chariot of the biggest imperialist and war-mongering power the world has ever known, the greatest enemy of freedom and peace—U.S. imperialism.
Taking the cue from US President George Bush, India's rulers are using the tragedy of September 11 to declare war. They are trying to seize the opportunity to take our country along a thoroughly anti-national course fraught with gravest dangers for the Indian people, for all the peoples of the neighbouring countries, in fact for the whole of humankind.
Both through the Prime Minister’s address to the nation, and through subsequent statements of his close colleagues, the Vajpayee government has made it clear that it not only wants to support "America's new war" but also wants India to be part of it. The NDA Government not only wants to offer Indian armed personnel as cannon fodder, it also wants to offer Indian territory as a base to launch attacks against Islamic countries in the neighbourhood of South Asia, especially Afghanistan. This means that India will be at war with any country that the US identifies as an enemy. This is a total and most shameless surrender of the sovereignty of India in international relations! Not only this, the BJP led government is calling for widening and deepening the scope of the "war against terrorism", promoting the jingoist, racist and communal propaganda of the most monstrous warmongers of imperialism.
The U.S. war plans, its interventions, threats and pressures on the states of South Asia and the enthusiastic response of the Indian state to the US pose very grave dangers to all the peoples of this region. The peoples of the region have expressed great anger and anxiety about these developments. The mood of the broad masses in India found its reflection also in the all-party meeting called on September 15, 2001.
At the all-party meeting, many political parties including the CPI, CPI(M), BSP and RJD, expressed their opposition to the government offering military bases to the U.S. to launch operations from Indian soil against our neighbours. Even some from within the ruling coalition, expressed their reservations about using Indian territory for the U.S. led war. According to news reports, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad is also opposed to India's participation in America's imperialist war plans. Many political forces have condemned the communalisation of international politics and the Indian state's collaboration in this offensive.
The Communist Ghadar Party of India declares that it will leave no stone unturned to rouse the Indian people, our workers and peasants, women and youth, our soldiers, airmen and sailors, against this anti-national course. We call on all the political forces interested in the fate and future of the peoples of South Asia to come out openly against the collaboration of India with the biggest imperialist and terrorist power on this earth, the greatest enemy of the world’s peoples, US imperialism.
Prime Minister Vajpayee did not consult the people of India about the decision to become charioteers and foot soldiers of the U.S. Moreover, he refused to share information with representatives of political parties having representation in the country's parliament, in the name of national security! He asked them to come to him separately for the specifics. Herewe have the spectacle of an Indian government, which kneels when it is not even asked to bend. The Prime Minister of India and his Cabinet members are willing to share all information, however sensitive, with the U.S. imperialists. They are saying 'this is our intelligence agency, this is our information, these are our army bases, this is our country, please take over'! It is clear that diabolical plans are being hatched behind the backs of the people by those who are screaming about the danger of "Islamic terrorism"!
The situation facing India, the region and the whole world is extremely grave. The imperialists and reactionaries have deliberately created a situation of war. The plan to redivide and reconquer Asia is being put into operation using the pretext of the massacres in the USA. The Indian big bourgeoisie itself nurtures imperialist ambitions. Today, it is dovetailing its own imperialist strategy with that of the US.
The Communist Ghadar Party of India calls upon India’s communists to unite the working and oppressed masses in the struggle against US imperialism and its unjust war, in the struggle for peace and for defence of national sovereignty. We must rouse all the people to demand a policy of non-interference of any outside power—militarily, politically, economically or in terms of intelligence—in the internal affairs of any country.
We, the Indian working class and people have known US imperialism over the decades as our sworn enemy and enemy of all the anti-imperialist, revolutionary and liberation struggles of the world's peoples. Those who are ruling us today want us to forget the lessons of our history. The times are calling on all thinking Indians to pick up the gauntlet and arouse all of Indian and world public opinion, against the treacherous, anti-national, war mongering military and political Indo-US alliance that is being scripted.