No to the criminalisation of dissent!
It is the rulers who are acting against unity and solidarity of our people!
Statement of the Central Committee of Communist Ghadar Party of India, 23rd February, 2016
Recent w
No to the criminalisation of dissent!
It is the rulers who are acting against unity and solidarity of our people!
Statement of the Central Committee of Communist Ghadar Party of India, 23rd February, 2016
Recent weeks have witnessed a climate of terror being created in several university campuses in the country, including Hyderabad Central University, IIT Chennai, Jadavpur University and Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Following the circulation of a doctored video of alleged “anti-national” slogans being raised in JNU, the Home Minister publicly alleged that a group of JNU students were Pakistani agents out to break up India. Several TV channels carried out constant propaganda painting these students and all their supporters as desh drohis. Eight students were rusticated by the University authorities, while arrest warrants were issued against six of them — Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash Narayan — on the charge of sedition. The elected President of the student union was brutally assaulted in the Patiala House Sessions Court, with the Delhi Police refusing to act in his defence and against those who assaulted him.
Student protests are growing and have spread to numerous campuses all over the country. Mass demonstrations are taking place every day, demanding that the false charges against JNU students be dropped and that police persecution of university students be immediately ended. They are demanding an end to institutionalised persecution of dalit students in higher educational institutions. They are fighting for their right to organise and participate in politics on campus. These are entirely just demands which are being supported wholeheartedly by all justice loving people.
Truth is being turned on its head by those who are hurling the accusation of desh drohi against students who uphold the rights of workers, peasants, women, youth, dalits, adivasis and oppressed nationalities. Counter rallies are being organised demanding that the accused students be hanged. No action is being taken against such dangerous activities, showing the complicity of those in power.
The ruling capitalist class, headed by the monopoly houses, is pursuing a course that is against the economic wellbeing of the toiling majority and against the general interests of Indian society. In the narrow interests of global expansion of Indian corporate houses, successive governments headed by the Congress and BJP have been opening up the country to the biggest multinational corporations of the world. The livelihood and rights of workers, peasants and adivasis are repeatedly attacked for the sake of guaranteeing maximum profits for Indian and global capitalist corporations. The division between a super-rich minority and the vast majority of people has been widening rapidly.
It is the ruling class, wielding the state machinery, which has repeatedly unleashed communal violence and state terrorism to divert and divide the people’s opposition to the anti-social program of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation. We cannot forget the army assault on the Golden Temple and genocide of Sikhs in 1984, the destruction of Babri Masjid and unleashing of communal violence against Muslims and Hindus in 1992-93, the Gujarat genocide of 2002 or the Muzaffarnagar massacre of 2013. Painting particular communities as posing a threat to India and using that to justify committing monstrous crimes has been perfected as a tool to perpetuate the existing order and prevent people from uniting and fighting to change these conditions. Divide and rule remains the motto of the State in independent India.
Irrespective of which party has been in charge, state terrorism has been steadily escalated in the name of fighting terrorism. Thousands of innocent persons have been tortured in prison or murdered in fake encounters. The intelligence agencies have covertly sponsored terrorist acts, which are then used as justification for imposing fascist laws. Persons falsely charged with terrorist crimes have been hanged without credible evidence.
Life experience in Kashmir, Punjab and the Northeast shows that army rule and fascist laws have made the political and economic problems of these regions ever more intractable. By treating political movements as a “law and order” problem, the State has created a situation of permanent strife.
While claiming to be defending the unity and integrity of India, the rulers of the country are deepening all kinds of sectarian divisions to destroy the unity and solidarity among the people. The situation of sectarian strife and all-round terror provides a fertile ground for external powers to exploit. It is precisely by accentuating and exploiting internal strife that US imperialism has carried out regime changes in its favour, broken up states and redrawn the political map of entire regions in Europe and Asia.
We cannot forget that it was the Anglo-American imperialists who engineered the Partition of undivided India in 1947. It was part of the exit strategy of British imperialism with full support of the US, to keep South Asia divided and part of the imperialist camp.
At the present time, the US is on an aggressive drive to conquer Asia. Part of its Asia Pivot Policy is to keep the states of India and Pakistan at loggerheads so as to weaken both, and to draw India into its orbit and away from Russia and China. With these aims, the US intelligence agencies deliberately spread false information, including about alleged Pakistan inspired terror networks in India. The CIA organises terrorist acts and pins the blame on others.
Instead of fighting for South Asian unity and opposing the plots of Anglo-American imperialism, the Indian State is strengthening its military and intelligence collaboration with the US, Britain and Israel. The rulers of our country regard these warmongering powers as trusted allies while harping on the danger allegedly posed by Pakistan. They are participating in various nefarious schemes hatched by US imperialism, with the aim of strengthening their own position and weakening Pakistan. This is detrimental to the interests of the country and to the cause of peace in South Asia.
The situation calls for building and strengthening the unity and solidarity of people in defence of human rights, democratic and national rights, irrespective of ideological differences. We need to recognise that the source of growing fascist attacks on rights lies in the nature of the class in power, and not merely in the particular party that is running the government.
Every individual has the right to his or her beliefs. Everyone has the right to seek the truth and express his or her views on the path forward for our society. One may agree or disagree with the official position, be it on the way to solve the Kashmir problem or on any other question. One may be critical of the Constitution. To brand any view that is opposed to the official position of the Indian State as being “anti-national” or “seditious” means to criminalise dissent. It means to block the path to the progress of society.
It is essential to encourage students to engage in discussing the solution to the economic, political and social problems facing our country. Suppression of the democratic right of youth and students to engage in politics is completely against the interests of the country and its future. A society that suppresses freedom of expression among its educated youth cannot flourish.
Let us all work to strengthen the unity and solidarity among our people in defence of these principles. Let us work to strengthen the unity and solidarity of all the peoples of South Asia against all kinds of imperialist machinations.
Let us go widely among the people, expose the lies being spread and oppose the unjust and divisive policies of the State. Let us demand that those responsible for physical attacks on students and for spreading slanderous propaganda against them be severely punished. Let us unite and advance the struggle in defence of our rights with the perspective of ushering in the India of our dreams, a State and economic system that ensures prosperity and protection for all members of society, with no discrimination, oppression or exploitation on the basis of class, caste, gender, nationality or tribal identity .