The British Prime Minister David Cameron came to our country in July to forge a "special relationship" between the rulers of the two countries.
The British Prime Minister David Cameron came to our country in July to forge a "special relationship" between the rulers of the two countries.
The main purpose of the visit was to sign the £700 million (5,100 crore) agreement between BAE-Rolls Royce and Hindustan Aeronautics to purchase 57 more Hawk trainer jets. This is expected to give a huge boost to the crisis ridden British arms manufacturing industry.
The Manmohan Singh government says it has no money to ensure that the people of our country do not go hungry. It is refusing to agree to the demand of our people for a modern universal public distribution system. Is this not a treacherous act to waste money on purchasing these hawk training jets?
India is now the worlds largest purchaser of arms. The international arms merchants from Britain, US, Russia, France, Israel and so on are extremely interested in selling their military hardware at super profits to India. The Presidents and Prime Ministers of these countries settle the deals with the Indian government on behalf of these arms merchants. Who is the Manmohan Singh government representing when it spends tens of thousands of crores on costly military purchases?
Does India face threat from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka or Maldives? No. The Indian armed forces is already the most powerful armed forces in South Asia. As far as China is concerned, even the Armed Forces Chiefs have openly declared that our country is in no position to attack China and defeat it militarily.
Two major interests are served by this purchase of costly military hardware from Britain. One is the fulfillment of British imperialist interests to bail them out of the present crisis. The second is that arms deals are the most lucrative source of profits to politicians and middlemen in our country, as the notorious Bofors case shows. It is known that the kickback on arms purchases is more than 10 % of the deal, which go into the pockets of those in power. Third rate useless military hardware is often bought, later to be junked after a few years. And the companies which sell to India make more money on costly spare parts and maintenance.
The East India Company was established in India with a port in Surat after Emperor Jehangir signed a firman to the effect at the request of Queen Elizabeth I of Britain. This was 400 years ago. Since then, British colonialism established a "special relationship" with various rulers of our country, murdering crores of our patriotic people, and looting the land and labour and wealth of our people. After the Great Ghadar of 1857, the British colonialists established a "special relationship" with the class of capitalists and landlords they gave birth to, who were allowed to share in the loot of the people, in return for defending colonial rule. The Congress Party was a product of this "special relationship".
Manmohan Singh is continuing on the course of this "special relationship" which was retained by Jawaharlal Nehru after independence, so much so that India did not even leave the British Commonwealth —the set of countries and peoples under British colonial rule!
The workers and working people of our country must denounce the treacherous military deal with Britain. We are in complete solidarity with the British working class, which is waging powerful struggles against militarisation and war, against bailouts to the war industry and other corporates, and fighting for their rights.